Note: Thanks for all the kind words. The Grove was the most difficult one for me so far in terms of trying to put into words the horror I was feeling for Carol at the time. Melissa McBride really knocked it out of the park.

Part VI

I Forgive You

"You saw Tyreese run off with the girls?"

They were a day into their foray through the woods.

"Yeah. I was so devastated at being exiled. I wanted to come back, ask the Council, but I was afraid of being judged. I was on 24, just over the ridge, when I saw smoke and explosions coming from the direction of the prison. I knew something horrible was going down."

"When I got there, it was chaos. All I saw was walkers everywhere. Then I spotted Tyreese and the girls running into the woods. One adult alone with two children and an infant? I figured he'd need help, so I followed them."

They stopped for a drink from their water bottles.

"But I lost the trail. I found it again, but I'd lost some ground on them."

They continued on. "Right about here, I heard a gunshot and a baby crying, so I went toward it. I came into this clearing, and there were the girls, surrounded by walkers. Mika was the one who fired on them. Lizzie was holding Judith."

She struggled with the words that would accurately convey the scene she had come upon that day.

"She was like catatonic, oblivious to the walkers. She was trying to quiet the baby. The way she was looking at Judith, with her hand tightly over her nose and mouth, that should have been my first clue."

Carol was clearly becoming agitated. "I chalked it up to ignorance. She's just a child, right? She must not realize that if you do that, the baby can't breathe. I should've seen it then."

"Where the hell was Tyreese?" Daryl interrupted.

"He'd heard a woman screaming a little ways off. Thought it might be one of our people. So he went to investigate."

"An' left three kids by 'emselves?!"

"He was in a tough spot. I told Mika to take Judith while I killed the walkers. Then we went to find Tyreese."

They stepped out of the woods onto the railroad track.

"It was a family overcome by walkers. They lost, even with Tyreese's help. That's when we saw the Terminus sign."

"Serious? Me and Beth came through here while the bodies were still warm. She was scared it might have been some of the kids from the prison that the walkers were eatin'."

"Wow," Carol was stunned. "We must have just missed each other."

"Hold up. That clearing back there? We saw that, too. We were tracking some kids' footprints. I knew whatever went south there'd just happened, 'cause the Walker kills were fresh. Beth was so sure it meant that there were others of us still alive, but I didn't believe it. Or maybe I was afraid to believe it."

"Did you guys see the fire, too? There was heavy smoke for at least a day, coming from the south there."

"That was us. We burnt down a house."

"On purpose?" Carol looked puzzled.

"Long story."

They each took a few moments to process the new revelations. If the two groups had found each other, would Mika and Lizzie still be alive? Would Beth be alive? Would Tyreese be alive? Would they all have been killed anyway at Terminus?

They walked on, finally reaching the cozy little house in the pecan grove.

"Hole up here for the night?" Daryl suggested.

"This is it. We're here," she said distantly.

They cleared the house and settled in for the night. Every sight, sound and smell invaded Carol's mind. She wasn't entirely sure if she could do it. They sat at the same table where she and Tyreese had once discussed Lizzie's fate. The same table where she had given Tyreese a pistol to shoot her as she confessed to murdering the love of his life.

"I need to tell you what happened with the girls," she said softly.

"Mmm, Kay," Daryl nodded, his expression partly obscured by the dim candlelight.

"I loved those girls," she said. "When their father asked me to look after them, it was like I'd been given the most wonderful gift, a second chance at motherhood. Then Rick sent me away and ripped it away from me."

"But I found them again. I was so determined not to repeat the same mistakes. Sophia was so sweet—she didn't have a mean bone in her body. And look here it got her."

"I, I wanted to teach these girls to defend themselves, to get tougher," she stammered. She was only just getting started, and reliving this was proving to be very difficult. She had barely survived it the first time. "Lizzie, no problem. But Mika was just like Sophia. She just didn't have it in her to be harsh. She wouldn't even kill a deer when we were hungry."

Agitation again appeared in her mannerisms. Her hands shook and her eyes teared. Daryl wondered if he should stop her, spare her the trauma, but ultimately he knew it needed to come out. He took her trembling hands in his own.

"I'm okay. I need to do this," she insisted as she fought to regain her composure. "Tyreese and I thought we were probably the only ones left. We were gonna go to Terminus. But we decided we could stay here for a while. The girls liked it here. It was peaceful. Maybe we could make a life."

"But Lizzie, she was messed up. I mean really messed up. All the signs were there. She was torturing animals, she was delusional about the walkers—about what they were. No matter how much we tried to explain it, she just didn't get it. She thought they were alive, but different. She thought they were her friends. She fed them. When I killed the one she was playing with, she came unhinged and started screaming, threatening to kill me."

"I loved her. I wanted so much to help her." She wiped away her tears. "One day, Tyreese and I, we just stepped away for a few minutes to talk. And when we came back…"

She broke down again, beginning to hyperventilate.

"You need to stop?"

"No. Let's do this."

He squeezed her hand. "Okay. I'm here."

She made a conscious effort to draw slow, deep breaths to steady herself.

"And when we came back, there was Lizzie standing over her sister's dead body, bloody knife in her hand. She was so proud. She smiled. 'It's okay, I didn't hurt her brain, she can come back. She can change. Judith can change, too.'"

"I think that was the moment when the old Carol died—just shattered into a million pieces. I went to put Mika down before she could turn and Lizzie put a gun in my face. 'No, no, you have to wait. Then you'll see. Then you'll understand.'"

Holy fuck! Of all the scenarios Daryl could have imagined, this one wasn't even on the radar. No wonder Carol had such a rough time coping.

"Tyreese talked her into handing over the gun. He and I, we sat here at this table trying to decide what to do with her."

"Seems like there's really only one option," Daryl said softly.

Carol nodded. "The bottom line was that she couldn't be around other people, especially Judith. Before the Turn, she would have been institutionalized. But we didn't have that available to us."

A sickening realization occurred to Daryl. "Tell me Tyreese did it."

"I didn't ask, he didn't offer. He agreed it needed to be done, but he wouldn't have been able to do it."

She met his eyes. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to shoot an unsuspecting twelve year old girl in the back of the head?"

"Tyreese shoulda done it," he said angrily, tears beginning to well for her. "He shouldn't a let you do it. He shoulda stepped up."

What the hell? He hadn't thought twice about putting down the mother and child walkers in the women's center so that she wouldn't have to. He supposed Tyreese may not have known about Sophia, but still….Daryl wished he had been there to spare Carol the pain. Killing the little girl would have been horrible, but it would be better for him to do it than Carol.

"Tyreese was a lot like Mika and Sophia. He had a huge heart—nicest guy you'd ever want to meet," Carol noted. "He just wasn't cut out for the life we have to live now. He couldn't do the dirty work."

"You know it wasn't your fault, right, what happened to them girls?"

"Even after I caught Lizzie trying to smother Judith, I refused to see what was right in front of me. And Mika died. The irony? I taught Lizzie how to use that knife and that gun. I wanted the girls to be strong, to know how to defend themselves so they would have a shot at growing up. And in the end, that's what killed them. Sophia died because she didn't know how to fight. Mika and Lizzie died because I taught Lizzie how to fight."

"You tried. You did the best anyone coulda done. It wasn't your fault."

He cleared away some wax from around the wick of the candle to increase the dying light.

"Anyhow it's a good thing Tyreese ain't here now. He'd be in a body cast."

Carol exhaled slowly.

"He forgave me."

"Huh?"

"After it all happened. We sat here and I told him that I was the one who killed Karen and David. I even slid the gun over to him. I was so broken, so done. I was hoping he'd use it. But he didn't. He said 'I forgive you.'"

Daryl didn't know what to say.

"Please don't be too hard on Tyreese. He was a nice man. Too nice for his own good."

( )

It's our moment in the sun

And its only just begun

"No! No, no. That, oh my, that was a no-no. The whole thing. Not one bit of that shit flies here."

'Cause the world is but a treat when you're on Easy Street

"You bunch of pussies! I'm just getting started!"

'Cause the world is but a treat when you're on Easy Street.

"You can breathe. You can blink. You can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that."

Carol watched him twitch in his sleep. The nightmares troubled her; they'd spent many, many nights together on the road, but she'd never seen this from him. Whatever it was that had happened at Alexandria must be unspeakably awful. She considered bracing herself, and asking him, but she decided to give herself just a little bit longer.

The journey was having he desired effect; as painful as it was to face these things, they were losing much of their venom with the exposure. She reached out and touched his shoulder. In a single fluid move, he grabbed the crossbow next to him, sat up, swung around and pointed it at her.

"It's me!" She up her hands up. "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"You tryin' a get shot?!"

She could see the muscles in his body relax as he lowered the weapon.

"Must have been a hell of a nightmare."

"Mm hmm.. Sorry."

He rose to his feet. "Gonna go find somethin' for breakfast."

"I already did," she told him as she held up an opossum. "Not steak and eggs, but it'll work."

"I'll clean it," he volunteered.

"I'll let you."

"When do you sleep these days?"

Carol shrugged. "I don't."

After breakfast, they headed out the front door with their gear. The graves were right outside.

Carol walked to a patch of vibrant yellow wild flowers.

"Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Everything works out the way it's supposed to."

Falling to her knees, she began yanking them up by the roots. Her anguished cries turned angry and unintelligible. How could this possibly have been the way this was supposed to work out? Why had she been given two more children, just to lose them again? Those beautiful spirits deserved better than what they got. But what could she have done differently?

"She trusted me. She was crying, she was so afraid that I was angry with her for pointing her gun at me." Her voice continued to rise into a shout. "She trusted me. And I shot her dead. I shot her!"

"You didn't have a choice!"

He reached for her, and she shoved him away.

"She trusted me!"

He took her face in his hands, forcing eye contact, and employed a softer tone.

"You didn't have a choice."

She buried her face in his chest, allowing the sobs to escape again. When she finally burned herself out, she looked up at him.

"Sorry," she said.

"No. No sorry. You have to let yourself feel it. A real smart lady told me that."

"You should give her a kiss for me."

He leaned in and gently pressed his lips to her forehead.

"Ready for the ritual?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

Daryl broke out the wine and the glasses.

"To Lizzie," he toasted.

"To Mika."

"To Tyreese."

Carol flashed him an appreciative smile.

"So who do we say goodbye to next?" She asked.

"Beth."

...TBC