AN: In response to the question, no I did not intentionally make Merle and Earl's names rhyme. I honestly didn't even think about it until this morning when I was doing some planning in my head over coffee. It's kind of funny. I actually am very bad at coming up with names. Much like Daryl I could go with "Dog" as a name for a pet. That makes naming characters a very random thing in my situation. Earl is no exception.
P.S. It's my birthday! Yay!
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111
Maggie and Beth were finally asleep, but Glenn couldn't sleep. The pressure of one of them on one side and one of them on the other was making both of his arms go to sleep, but he didn't want to move them and risk waking them up.
No one really knew what life had become in their house. They told stories over breakfast of fun games they enjoyed, having collected as many toys as they could find in their looting of the houses. They did enjoy themselves a lot. The playing was distracting and the laughter was surely a type of medicine. Glenn was sure that he played more now than he had as a kid. That was the thing. The playing kept you busy, it kept you occupied. It made it seem like everything could be a game and everything had the potential to be funny and exciting. It kept out the reality.
It was after they played that things got bad. It was when they finally admitted that the game should be over because they needed to sleep. Then things got bad.
Sometimes it was just Maggie, and sometimes it was just Beth, but sometimes it was both of them. It was unpredictable. They would start thinking about Hershel, start missing their family, and from there it was a slippery slope to thinking about the fact that they could lose each other or that they could be killed. Glenn tried not to think about those things, even when he was comforting them, because he didn't want to not be able to help them. Sometimes it was tears, other times it was anger, but not anger at him, just anger at the world and anger at not being able to control that world.
Many nights he'd spent like this, his arms aching and going numb because he had finally gotten them both calm enough to sleep. These weren't the stories they would talk about over breakfast. He didn't want the group to get the wrong impression if they found out that Beth spent just as many nights in their bed as she spent in her own. He also knew that the group didn't need to know what was going on in his house and how much the girls were going through. It was better to tell them about nerf gun wars and lively games of Twister. Those were the good moments of life right now. Those were the moments that you shared.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111
Hope woke Michonne up demanding food and demanding it urgently. Michonne got up and went to the nursery. Judith was stirring, and Hope was screaming.
"Don't be so angry about." Michonne said, picking up the baby. "Take a lesson from Judith. It's coming, just be patient."
Michonne laughed a little at Hope. She always looked furious when she was demanding food. It was like she hadn't eaten in weeks, which was clearly not the case. Michonne sat down in the rocking chair and moved Hope under nightgown. Feeling her latch, Michonne started rocking a little, watching Judith. Judith had pulled herself up and was watching Michonne over the bar of the crib.
"Ma!" Judith called. Michonne smiled at her. Judith had very rudimentary names for everyone, usually consisting of one syllable and containing only some element of their name. The names for Michonne and Maggie were pretty much the same, as were the names for Carol and Carl. A few others could only be distinguished by who she was looking at when she made them.
"Yes, it's Michonne." Michonne said, sounding her name out very slowly. "Carol will be coming soon with your breakfast, I'm sure."
Judith continued to babble loudly at her, and whatever she said must have been funny because she laughed at herself at intervals.
Carol came in and sleepily greeted Michonne. She was carrying a bottle for Judith and Judith let go of the railing, falling back on her bottom. Carol scooped her up and offered her the bottle.
"Did you sleep well?" Michonne asked Carol. Hope protested as she changed sides.
"I slept alright." Carol said. "You?"
"Can't complain." Michonne said.
"It's raining buckets out there." Carol said. "I went out earlier and put everything I could find out to catch water. I saw Josh and Brenda. They said there are a lot of Walkers outside the fences."
"Probably the rain." Michonne said.
They had started to learn more and more about the Walkers. They didn't hibernate, like Daryl had once thought, but they were more sluggish in the winter. They barely bothered with you unless you came directly into their path. The bad thing about Walkers in winter is that for some reason they seemed to form herds more often, and larger herds at that. If you encountered one alone, you really had no worries, but if you caught a herd you were probably going to get more than you bargained for.
In general Walkers were like bees. Just one wasn't much of a threat. It could be a nuisance at best. You didn't, however, want to do anything to stir up the hive because you'd be surrounded before you knew what was happening.
Rain seemed to stir them up. Whenever it rained it seemed like Walkers came out of the woodworks and they seemed particularly lively. Michonne didn't know why, but everyone agreed that rainy days were certainly not days for going on runs.
"Probably. No hot meals today, though, unless it lets up a little. There's no way to even think of starting a fire with the flood outside." Carol said.
"I haven't been out yet." Michonne said.
"The Walkers are lining up two by two." Carol said. "That's how bad it is."
Michonne snickered at the thought of Walkers lining up to get on some kind of Walker arc to save themselves from the flood.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111111111111111111111
Michonne and Carol had left Daryl with both the babies, despite the fact that he had protested, saying that he was not at all comfortable with that much responsibility. Michonne was going to help Carol get breakfast together, since it seemed like no one was up, and if they were up they weren't venturing out into the storm. By the time they go to the house they used as headquarters, both of them were drenched to the point that they might as well have been swimming.
Breakfast would be simple fare, and Carol wondered really how many people would venture out for it instead of just rely on the little bit of food that they took to their houses in their rations boxes.
"We're not going to open much up." She said to Michonne. "Just enough for us and Daryl and maybe one or two others."
"We can always make more if we need it." Michonne said, digging through boxes.
They were upstairs sorting through some of the supplies that Carol had yet to organize. Both of them heard the footsteps on the stairs, but neither of them expected it to be Earl, they had been expecting Daryl.
Michonne's hand immediately went to the handle of her katana and she didn't miss that Carol reached for the knife she wore almost all the time.
"Easy…man y'all sure are some jumpy bitches." Earl said. He was chewing on what looked like a toothpick.
God he's filthy. Michonne thought. She was pretty sure she had curled her lip up in disgust at him.
"We was just wonderin' if y'all had mornin' chow time around here or if y'all only eat at night." Earl said. He was staring at Michonne, and she stared back at him. She was waiting to see what her nickname for the morning would be. So far, though, Earl hadn't offered her one.
"We are making breakfast now, but if y'all would rather eat at your house, I can give you some food to take down there." Carol offered, though she didn't actually make any movement at all.
"Nah, we'll come down here." Earl said, looking back and forth between the two of them. "Wouldn't wanna miss lookin' at your happy faces over breakfast." He smiled and kissed at Michonne, who had started slowly pulling her katana out. "Calm down, darkie, I ain't no tiger." He said, turning around and leaving the room. Both of them sat frozen while they listened to him going down the stairs.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1
The new group joined them for breakfast, as did Daryl, Maggie and Beth, who were going to take over watch for Josh and Brenda, and Josh and Brenda joined them, viewing the meal as their final meal before bed. Conversation had been limited at best. Daryl had uncomfortably made small talk with Frank, finding out more about the rest of the group that they had been separated from and also about a few other groups that they had encountered. They were definitely not alone out here, but Daryl hoped the other groups wouldn't include such a rare gem as Earl among them if they came calling at the gates.
After breakfast, Daryl had decided it was time for a meeting. They had to figure out what they were going to do about the new group. He walked, in the rain, from door to door, knocking and telling everyone he was calling a meeting immediately in their meeting room.
They had established their own kind of government now that functioned very differently than it had under Rick. Daryl was their "leader" in that he was the one that ultimately made decisions, and he was the one that called meetings when something needed to be discussed, but he by no means made those decisions alone. When he called a meeting it was a rule that at least one person from each household had to be there, with the exception of Josh and Brenda who were the resident night owls of the group and therefore slept through the day having declared that they both trusted whatever judgment the group arrived at on any particular problem and would be filled in at breakfast or dinner.
In the meetings whoever wanted to attend could, but they didn't have to as long as someone was there to represent their household. The problem to be discussed was always thrown out by Daryl once they were all comfortable and anyone who had anything to say could throw their two cents worth in. Then, Daryl would consider all things said and go from there with making a decision. At any point someone could raise an issue with Daryl they thought needed to be considered, and he would make sure that, as a group, they took care of it. Everyone had become quite comfortable with the way everything worked. No one felt like they were being ignored.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111
"I don't like him." Michonne said. "He needs to go."
"I agree." Carol said. "He makes me uncomfortable."
"What about the rest of his group?" Tyreese asked. "They really don't seem that bad."
"Well then how did they end up traveling with Earl?" Rick asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question.
"Well we all ended up travelling with a lot of different kinds of people." Daryl said. "Maybe they just
"That's true, but don't you think you'd try to shake a guy like Earl? I mean you wouldn't really want to keep traveling with him." Rick said.
"Well, there's strength in numbers." Glenn said. "Maybe he's a really good Walker killer."
"Personally, I think I'd trip him if we were fighting Walkers together." Maggie said. "He's just gross and I don't like him. He licked his lips at me over breakfast." She visibly shuddered.
"Ok, so we know that Earl's gotta go." Daryl said. "Do we give any of the rest of them the option to stay?"
"I'm all for letting everyone else stay if they want to." Tyreese said.
"Do you really think his whole group would abandon him?" Beth asked. "I mean if it were us, could we just push someone out the door alone?"
"If it were one of us, no, we couldn't just send them out there alone, but none of us are like Earl. Earl was the kind of man that you didn't want to be around before everyone went crazy, now you certainly don't want him around. For the most part we're all relatively harmless." Carol said.
"Not to Walkers." Glenn said with a snort.
"Or to Governors." Maggie added, snickering.
"I'd say give them the option." Rick said. "If they want to abandon Earl and stay, we'll see how it goes. If they feel some kind of dedication and responsibility for Earl, then we let them go with him. Either way, they decide their own fate."
"I think you're right." Daryl said.
"What if he refuses to go?" Beth asked.
Everyone was quiet for a minute. He may put up a fight, not wanting to go back out there, but one way or another they would get him outside of the gates.
"Then we'll handle it." Daryl said. "I'll tell them at dinner that they're leavin' after breakfast if they choose to go with Earl. I won't send them out today because the fences are swarming with Walkers and that would be sending them out into pretty certain death. Hopefully the rain lets up tonight. Everyone just make sure you keep your doors locked tonight in case Earl gets in a little bit of a grumpy mood after he hears we're evictin' him."
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111111
Michonne was only barely woken by the tapping on the door. She mumbled what she had meant to be "Come in," but what had really come out as something completely intelligible.
"Judith is in her crib. I'm leaving her with you." Carol said. Michonne mumbled in response and drifted back off to sleep a little.
She snapped to a minute later. Carol was leaving Judith with her, like she did most mornings when she went to start breakfast. Michonne thought for a minute and then jumped up, fumbling around getting dressed. She snatched her katana from the corner and slung it on as she started down the stairs.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11111111
Carol had been walking through the yard of the main house and had not expected at all to be slammed to the ground with an arm going around her neck and choking off her air supply. She immediately tried to get to her knife, but he'd anticipated that already and threw it somewhere. She struggled against him and tried to scream now that he'd taken his arm from around her neck. He had pinned her with his weight and with one arm he was holding her arms behind her back at a funny angle. With the other he was trying to pull her pants down, clawing at her.
"You'll like this a lot more if you quit fightin'." He said. "Ain't nobody up yet but us. I been waitin' for ya."
He forced himself into her and Carol half screamed again, crying and trying to get her arms loose.
This isn't happening. It couldn't be happening.
Suddenly Earl stopped moving, but he didn't let go of Carol's arms yet.
Michonne had dug the blade just deep enough into his back where it wouldn't do any major damage, but it certainly would take away any interest he had in his current activity.
"Here's what's going to happen." Michonne said calmly. "I'm going to back up just a bit, and you're going to get off of her. Don't think of making any sudden moves, because I swear to you that I will fucking skewer you."
She backed up a little. Earl hadn't said anything either, but he responded by getting off of Carol and fastening his pants. Michonne looked at him for minute, thinking how satisfied she'd feel if she cut off his dick right now.
Carol fastened her pants, but she felt so shaky that she handn't gotten to her feet yet.
"Carol. Can you get up?" Michonne asked. She didn't take her eyes off of Earl.
"Yeah." Carol stammered, getting to her feet.
"I need you to go get Daryl, and tell him to bring some rope." Michonne said.
"What the hell do you need rope for?" Earl asked as Carol started walking away.
"You seem like a good ole boy, I'd imagine you could come up with a lot of creative things to do with rope." Michonne said.
Daryl didn't know what had happened. Carol was crying when she got there and woke him. She told him to bring rope. Michonne was missing. Carol didn't tell him what happened, she just told him to go to headquarters and she went into her room.
Daryl didn't have roped, but they did have some old sheets that he was ripping into lengths and as he walked. When he got to where Michonne was standing, her katana pointed at Earl's chest, she told him to tie Earl's hands behind his back. Daryl did.
"Take it easy, man, she done sliced up my back." Earl said.
"You're lucky she didn't slice off your head." Daryl said. He could feel himself growing very angry right now. He had figured out what had happened and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. They had given this man food, they'd given him shelter, and they'd even been nice enough to let him stay an extra night to give him better odds of making it out there and he'd repaid them by being a total dick and by taking advantage of Carol. "I'd love to put an arrow through your damn head right now, so I'd advise you to just keep your fuckin' mouth shut." Daryl said.
Michonne had been watching Daryl grow angrier and angrier as he thought about it. She was furious and had used all of her willpower not to kill Earl, not wanting to be his sole judge and jury. She would gladly be the executioner if they decided to sentence him to death, which was what she was going to recommend.
"Man what you gettin' all worked up for? You been greedy keepin' two of 'em to yourself. It didn't feel like you been takin' care of her no way." Earl said.
"I mean it, shut the fuck up!" Daryl yell. He needed to go get the others, but looking up he could see that Maggie and Glenn were walking toward him, as were Josh and Brenda from another direction.
"What's going on?" Josh called. They'd been on watch on the other side of the community, and had only recently started in the direction of the headquarters to see if breakfast would be ready soon, so they hadn't heard a thing until they heard Daryl yell.
"Calm down, I wasn't gonna touch your nigger." Earl said.
That was the last thing Earl ever said. It was the last thing Earl thought. Without any hesitation Daryl had raised his crossbow and shot him in the face. What had been Earl crumpled to the ground and Daryl stood there, still holding his crossbow.
Everyone had frozen. Michonne wasn't sorry. She could see, however, from the look on Daryl's face that he hadn't meant to do it. It had been an involuntary action. She sheathed her katana and walked over, putting her hand on Daryl's shoulder. He was looking down at Earl.
"The world's a better place without him in it." Michonne said. Daryl didn't respond. "He deserved what he got, Daryl, if it hadn't been you I would have done it."
The other four people that witnessed Earl's execution approached. Maggie had no idea what had happened, but she knew it wasn't good. She hadn't heard much of the conversation. All she had gotten was something about touching Michonne.
"Are you OK?" Maggie asked, walking up and gingerly putting a hand on Michonne's shoulder.
"Carol." Michonne said. It was enough for Maggie to understand. She looked at Glenn, uncomfortably. Glenn was in shock still.
They all just stood there quietly for a moment. Finally, Daryl turned around to face Michonne.
"Well, I reckon' I better go tell that group that they're down one." Daryl said. "We're gonna have to have a long talk with 'em to decide if any of 'em are gonna stay now."
Daryl started off toward the house the new group was staying in and Michonne went back to their house to check on Carol.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 111111111111111111
"Carol?" Michonne called, knocking on Carol's door. There was no response. She opened it, a little. "Carol, it's Michonne. I'm coming in." Michonne could hear Carol crying. As she opened the door she noticed Carol's clothes discarded on the floor. Carol was standing by her dresser, completely naked, scrubbing herself with a washcloth and crying.
Michonne unashamedly walked over to her. "Carol, I think you're as clean as you're gonna be." She said softly. Carol just shook her head and kept crying. Michonne took her hand and gently took the washcloth, laying it on the dresser. She hugged Carol and held her to her, letting her cry for a few minutes and wishing she had gotten out there sooner. After Carol had cried for a few minutes, she finally seemed cried out, at least for now. Michonne looked around and found a handkerchief, wiping Carol's face and holding it for her to blow her nose like she used to do when her girls were sick.
"Can we get you dressed?" Michonne asked softly. "We need to go over to headquarters and get some bandages. You're pretty scratched up. And Daryl's going to want to have a conversation with everyone about whether or not any of the others stay." Michonne had started making moves to get Carol dressed, and Carol was silently cooperating.
"I don't want to see…I can't see him." Carol said.
"He's dead." Michonne said.
"What?" Carol asked.
"He is no longer with us. Daryl shot him, point blank, in the face with an arrow." Michonne said. Somehow it felt satisfying to say that. "I think he's going to consider letting the other people stay, or he might not. If you don't want anyone to stay, then they won't. We hesitated too long with Earl and we're not hesitating with anyone else if instinct tells us not to."
Her
Carol didn't respond, but she did help Michonne finish dressing her. When she was dressed, Michonne brought her another washcloth to wash her face with.
"Ready?" Michonne asked. Carol nodded and they went to get the babies to go to headquarters.
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 111111111
"Earl really wasn't our type of person." Dora said. "In fact, no one really liked him. It just so happened that he got separated with us when the herd came through."
"He was a pretty good shot, so we let him follow us around to help out with killing the…what do y'all call them? Walkers? Anyway, we certainly didn't keep Earl around because he had a stellar personality." Frank said.
"I was always scared of him." Jimmy admitted. Junior nodded in agreement.
None of the group had responded negatively over the news of Earl's death. In fact, they'd almost seemed happy about it and had apologized profusely for his actions. Now they were begging to stay, trying to convince Daryl that none of them were like Earl and none of them had any intention of bringing any harm to his family.
"OK, listen." Daryl said. "Y'all gotta go outside for a little while. Take a walk. We gotta talk." Daryl said. The four of them got up, quickly.
"Y'all have a real nice place here." Dora said before she left the room. "I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive us for having brought Earl here, and to consider letting us earn back your trust." She followed behind her husband.
When they were gone, Daryl looked around at the group. Carol was holding Judith and so hugged up on Michonne that she was practically sitting in her lap. Everyone else looked sad, Daryl knew they all felt as bad for Carol as he did.
"What are we gonna do?" He asked. "I don't wanna take no chances."
"I think they're good people." Maggie said finally. No one else wanted to speak. "I haven't gotten any bad vibes from them, like I did from Earl."
"I agree." Carol said. It was the first thing that she had said since she got there, so everyone looked at her. "I don't think they're bad people. I think bad people just happened to them. Daryl saved them from…Daryl saved them."
Daryl hung his head a minute, thinking. "Fine, if no one is opposed to it, then we let them stay. From now on, though, there's a new law. There's no tellin' who we're gonna meet up with in the future. If anyone gets any of the same feelin's 'bout someone else we meet like they got about Earl, we deal with it right then and there. They can either get the hell away from us or we kill 'em if we fuckin' have to, but we don't sit 'round on it waitin' to see if our instincts were right."
Everyone nodded. Glenn kept looking at Carol. It was hard to think that the world had come to that. They could be meeting people that they had to kill just to get them before they got to anyone in the group. That saddened Glenn a lot, but he didn't blame Daryl at all. He thought he might have done the same thing in Daryl's position. Actually, he wished that he could go back to the first night they'd arrived, when Michonne had her katana near Earl's head, and tell her to do it then, but they couldn't turn back time, they could only learn from their mistakes and realize that this was a world where action had to be taken and it had to be taken quickly.