So I watched the new Walking Dead episode and was inspired, as usual, to add more to my story. It's going to be really hard to do regular updates after next week's season finale. You guys will just have to review a lot to keep me motivated! Okay? Okay.

Thank you to:

texasbelle91, AnnaBanana314, SwimmingInTheRain,

lexiedixon, Crowgrl13, futuremrs, mrsreedus69,

ElenaBillings, SoFarFromPerfect90, Leymyst,

and kathymoonstone for your great reviews!

Also, thank you SO much to those who took the time to follow and favorite this story. It means so much!

One more thing I would like to say:

I decided to take kathymoonstone's review to heart. You came up with such a GREAT idea that I had to use it, but I wanted to give you the credit for planting the idea into my head. I hope that this chapter lives up to your expectations! If everyone else is confused as to what I'm talking about, go look at her review and you will understand. Thank you so much!

Enjoy!

Chapter Ten (Rick POV)

I handed Daryl the weapons that I collected from Sasha and Tyreese before leading the two newcomers into the living room. It was still early in the morning so everyone was sleeping.

"Carl." I turned to face him. "Could you go wake everyone else up please?" I felt like this issue needed to be addressed now so that no one would be too shocked when they woke up. Carl rolled his eyes but followed my instructions, reluctantly making his way up the stairs to wake everyone. Beth made her way over to the couch and I noticed that she had a little gimp in her step, making my stomach muscles tighten knowing that I caused it. I shook my head to clear those thoughts.

"So…" Tyreese began awkwardly. "how many more people you got?"

Upstairs, I could hear Carl banging on everyone's doors to wake up. I sent Tyreese a smile. "You're about to find out."

One by one the rest of the group made their way down the stairs. Each one would narrow their eyes at Tyreese and Sasha in suspicion but they wouldn't say a word, silently taking a seat either on the couch or floor. When everyone was assembled, I rubbed my hands together in anticipation and cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. "As you can see, we have two new people in the room." I paused for a moment before speaking again. "This is Tyreese and Sasha," I said, motioning over to the two, who both gave a tentative wave in politeness. No one waved back. "They happened to come across our house about a half hour ago and surrendered their weapons in exchange for food and shelter." I paused once more to give anyone a chance to say anything, but no one did. "Daryl and I decided on this together," I continued, "and I just wanted to introduce you to them now so that it wouldn't cause a panic later on."

"How do we know we can trust them?" Maggie finally spoke up.

I nodded. "S'why we took away their weapons. They are on a 'trial run', so to speak, until we can decide whether they are trustworthy or not. Keep one thing in mind though," I cast a glance over at Sasha and Tyreese, "they came knowing nothing about us and surrendered their weapons. They put their lives in our hands. That should count for something."

Hershel nodded understandingly. "I agree. Where did you folks come from?"

All of us turned our gazes to the pair expectantly.

Tyreese cleared his throat and stepped forward. "We were…we were with a group before, but we ended up leaving."

"Why?" Hershel pressed.

"They…" Tyreese glanced nervously at his sister, "they weren't a good bunch."

"What does that mean?" Glenn asked harshly.

Sasha placed a hand on Tyreese's shoulder. "There was this town called Woodbury, and-"

"Woodbury?" Glenn stood up and pointed a finger at me accusingly. "You brought Woodbury people into this group? Are you insane?"

Soon the rest of my group was in a panic, and frankly, I was too. This information was all new to me. "Hey!" I yelled, but not lout enough. "Listen up!" Everyone fell silent and looked at me. "This is all news to me to. So I understand-"

"You didn't bother to ask where they came from before you brought them in?" Carol asked angrily.

"I asked them the three questions," I growled. "I didn't think to ask them about their whole fuckin' life story, alright? My mistake!" I was angry now, and everyone knew it. No one dared to speak up so I took a deep breath and went on. "Let them finish. They said they left. Let them tell us why before we all freak the fuck out, alright?" I motioned to Sasha to continue and walked over to the window and leaned on it with my back facing everyone.

"Sorry, but you guys know about Woodbury?" Sasha asked tentatively.

"Tell us your story and we'll tell you ours," I said harshly, keeping my back to everyone.

"Alright," she whispered. "Anyways, there we were with two other people when we came across this…Woodbury. This was about 3 months ago." Sasha paused a moment. "It seemed great at first…but something just wasn't right about it. The leader of the town was this guy who called himself the Governor. Something just wasn't right with him."

"Yeah," Tyreese chimed in. "He just seemed a little off his rocker. Just a little too pleasant and perfect for my taste…that whole town was."

I turned around to look at them with my hands on my hips.

"Tyreese and I wanted to leave," Sasha cut in, "but the other two guys we were with didn't want to. We told them how we were feeling but they thought we were the crazy ones, said that we wouldn't know a real safe-haven even if it slapped us in the face."

Tyreese shook his head. "Sasha and I decided to leave them behind. We went to the Governor saying how we needed to leave, making up some bull-shit story about how we had family in fuckin' Texas that we needed to find. The guy wouldn't let us leave!"

"What do you mean?" I took a couple steps forward.

Tyreese turned his attention to me. "He said that we had to stay because it wasn't safe out there. Well, Sasha and I saw right through that dickhead's façade. He was crazy."

"So we snuck out," Sasha said quickly. "That night we waited until really late and then we just…we snuck out. It wasn't easy. That guy had guards everywhere." She shrugged. "We found a small gap between the fence and we were able to sneak out. That place wasn't right."

"How did you guys know about it?" Tyreese's brow furrowed.

The room went silent.

I cleared my throat. "The Governor attacked our last home and killed a valued member of ours."

Tyreese and Sasha exchanged a glance before Sasha spoke up. "So that's why you guys were all freaking out when we said we came from there? I swear to you, we aren't like-"

I held up a hand to silence her. "That's what this trial period is for."

The room grew very quiet for a while.

"Well," I sighed. "Everyone go on and get some more rest. I'll take watch the rest of the night."

My group reluctantly made their way back upstairs to get more rest while Tyreese and Sasha stood there awkwardly.

"They can 'ave my room," Daryl said. "Not one for closed spaces anyway. I'll take the couch." Daryl motioned for the two to follow him upstairs, leaving Beth to be the last one to leave.

"I'll take watch with you," She said softly.

I shook my head. "No. That's not a good idea."

"Rick, you have to stop pushing me away."

"It needs to be done."

She stared at me for a long moment before she made her way to the stairs and started to walk up. Before she was out of sight, she turned and looked at me. "You're gonna regret that, Rick Grimes."

(Rick POV)

It's been over a week since we brought Tyreese and Sasha into the group, and thankfully, things seemed to be going quite smoothly. Tyreese and Carol clicked almost right away, which was quite a surprise. Maggie and Sasha seemed to be developing a friendship as well which I thought was good for Maggie.

I sat with Hershel on the porch discussing the two newcomers. "Whadya think, Hershel? Should we trust 'em?"

Hershel rubbed his beard in thought for a moment before speaking. "They seem like good people to me. I think it would be safe to start gradually giving them back their weapons."

"Not all at once, though," I said cautiously.

"No, not all at once," he agreed. "They need to be armed just in case anything happens. It would be inhumane to leave them so vulnerable, but only with the basics."

I nodded. "I agree."

We fell into silence for a moment. "Beth and Daryl seem to be spending more time together, I've noticed." Hershel's gaze was glued to the said pair across the yard. It appeared that Daryl had taken to teaching Beth how to shoot the crossbow. He had a simple piece of paper up on a tree as a target, and he was currently standing behind her with his hands on her hips as she took aim with the crossbow.

My jaw clenched in jealousy. I have noticed over the past week that they have been spending more and more time together. I can't help but know that this is of my doing because I pushed her away, but I also can't help but be mad at her for being able to move on more quickly than I have. "I guess you're right."

Hershel nodded. "I can't say I wouldn't approve of them being together. Daryl is more than capable of taking care of my little girl, and that's all it comes down to after all."

At this point, Beth had taken her aim and shot, hitting the flimsy piece of paper smack dab in the middle. She jumped and whirled around in delight throwing her arms around Daryl's neck in a tight hug. Daryl was hesitant at first, but he eventually wrapped his arms around her waist. My hands clenched the arm rests of the chair that I was sitting in until my knuckles turned white.

"Somethin' wrong, Rick?"

My trance was broken and my eyes immediately snapped over to Hershel who was now looking at me with utter confusion. "Yeah." No.

"You look…tense."

"I'm fine." He's touching what's mine.

Hershel shrugged and turned his gaze back over to his daughter. "Frankly, I was afraid that my Bethie wouldn't find anyone to take care of her."

I nodded shortly. "I understand." I can take care of her. Hell, I already have…in a way.

"Never thought Daryl would be the one."

My jaw clenched again and I resumed my vice grip on the helpless arm rests of the chair. "Let's not make any accusations." She was mine first. I had her first.

The old man chuckled. "I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself."

I sighed and rubbed my face in my hands. It's not fair for me to be mad at Beth, considering I pushed her away, but I just couldn't help the insane burning jealousy that raged within me.

"Well," Hershel stood up from his chair. "I'm gonna head inside and get some rest. Looks like you could do the same, Rick. You're wearing yourself out. What's on your mind?"

I shrugged. "Nothing." Your daughter beneath me moaning in ecstasy as I –

"Daddy!" Beth called as her and Daryl came closer to the front porch, snapping me from my thoughts. "I officially know how to shoot crossbow."

Hershel chuckled. "I saw that, sweetheart. You did good."

"Well," Beth smirked at Daryl. "I had a good teacher."

They both walked up on the porch and stood in front of us.

Daryl shrugged. "S'nothin'."

Anger vibrated throughout my body as I gazed up at the two.

"Oh, hey Rick," Beth said dismissively.

I nodded shortly in response, unable to form a coherent sentence at the moment. I suddenly stood up and shoved past everyone to the front door.

"You alright, Officer Friendly?" Beth asked with mock innocence. That girl knew damn well what was going on.

"I'm fine. Just need some rest." I didn't wait for anyone to respond before I made my way inside and up the stairs to my room. Lord knows I wasn't going to be getting any rest tonight.

Because tonight, I was going to show Beth that she was playing these childish games with the wrong man.

AUTHORS NOTE: Well, I bet you all can assume what's going to happen in the next chapter. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter but PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW and let me know what you thought of it! I would really appreciate it. The more you review, the faster I update. Thank you guys so much!

IMPORTANT: The stuff in italics during Rick and Hershel's discussion about Beth and Daryl are things that Rick WANTED to say but obviously couldn't. Just wanted to clear that up.