A/N: Thank you for the follows and the favorites!

And a thank you to Ririrozu, GraceTM86, and brandibuckeye for the reviews.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead or "I'll Fly Away"

Chapter Twenty-eight

Marianne couldn't decide which books to take. She scanned the spines, reading the titles. She grabbed one flipped through it, put it back, and grabbed another, flipped through it, put it back. She repeated this until she had a small stack of books she was satisfied with. Marianne thought the first time she went through this section, she hadn't done it justice. It bugged her too much to just leave it.

The others would be waiting. She and Glenn had been down there long enough. The ten minutes were almost up.

"Glenn. We can go," Marianne said. When Glenn didn't answer she turned on the spot and looked around, trying to find the beam from his flashlight between the shelves. He said he wasn't going far. Then she recalled she had heard a noise while she was concentrating on the books and thought Glenn had dropped one. How could she be so stupid?

With a knife now in her hand, Marianne crept to the end of the aisle. She looked left and right but didn't know which way to choose. A faint groan came from her right. It didn't sound like a walker. It was too human. Too alive.

She followed the sound and even though she didn't expect one, she acted like there was going to be a walker. The groan happened again which helped her pinpoint where it was coming from. There was an open door ahead of her and that's where she would hopefully find Glenn, but why was he in there and why was he groaning?

Marianne could think of several reasons but quickly ruled out all but one. They weren't alone down there.

She cautiously approached the door, constantly looking at the area around her. She reached the doorway and shined her flashlight inside. It was an office and Glenn was laying on the ground inside. She couldn't tell if he was conscious and he hadn't groaned again.

Her back hadn't been turned away from the rest of the library for more than thirty seconds but that had been too long. Marianne sensed someone behind her. She gripped the handle of her knife tighter and quickly turned around with her arm outstretched. Her knife connected with someone.

It all happened so fast.

"Fuck," a man said while it sounded like someone else had begun choking. She thought she saw three shadowy figures before a light blinded her and hands pushed her hard enough for her to fall backwards into the room. The door closed and she heard a key being put into the lock.

Bright balls of light danced around the dark. She closed her eyes but could still see them and only opened them again when they had subsided. Marianne sat up and looked around the room. Her flashlight had rolled beneath a desk. She checked if her gun was still with her and it was.

"Glenn? You okay?" Marianne asked in a whisper as she retrieved her flashlight.

"Marianne?"

"Don't talk so loud. One of 'em might be listening. Hold on, don't speak," Marianne said before going to the door and pressing her ear against it. She heard feverish whispering but could only make out a few words when the people on the other side raised their voices. There was 'Do it' and an angry 'No'. There was also 'Dead' and 'Shoot' and another 'No'.

Then the whispering stopped and it sounded like they were dragging something away. She had only heard two voices, a man and a woman, but she was sure there was a third person out there.

Marianne turned her attention back to Glenn. "What happened?"

"Someone came up from behind me and hit my head with something."

"Did you pass out? Or were you just dazed?" Marianne asked.

"I don't know. I might have but it's so dark down here," Glenn said.

Marianne nodded. "You wouldn't have noticed. How much does your head hurt and where?"

"The right side. And on a scale of 1-10, a five."

Marianne's brow furrowed and she sighed. "Let me check your eyes. I'm gonna shine my flashlight in them," Marianne said. She stood in front of Glenn and briefly shined light in one eye and then the other, looking at them closely. "Well, your pupils reacted so that's a good sign. Do you feel like you're gonna throw up?"

"No."

"Are you dizzy?"

"No."

"Are you sleepy?"

"No."

"As far as I can tell you don't have a concussion but I'm not a doctor," Marianne said.

"How do you know what to look for?" Glenn asked.

"Daryl's had at least one, years and years ago, and Merle's had a few but each time he refused to go to the hospital. Where's your gun?"

"They took it."

"Damn it." Marianne let out a harsh sigh. Their attackers had at least one gun and hopefully that was all. "Was the safety on?"

"Yeah," Glenn said.

"Then let's hope they're idiots that know jack shit about guns." Marianne frowned. "How many did you see?"

"More like felt." Glenn rubbed his head. "At least two."

Marianne nodded. "I think there's three. I hope that's all there is. We can take 'em."

"But we're locked in here."

"I know a way we can get out but they'd hear it."

Realization dawned on Glenn's face. "You're going to shoot the door handle? But doesn't that only work in movies and video games?"

"Then let's pretend we're in a video game for a minute or two."

"We need a plan," Glenn said.

"I've got one. We're..." Marianne had to picture it in her head. "One, two, three aisles away from where we were. So we go three aisles down to the right and can you remember how to get out from there?"

"I think so. Why?"

"Because you're gonna make a run for the stairs. You don't have a gun and I don't want to have'ta worry about you."

"I can't just leave you," Glenn said.

"Here, take my flashlight."

"But what about you?"

"I've got an extra one," Marianne said as she pulled a small flashlight out of her jacket pocket.

"Not that. What are you going to do?"

"You follow behind me about six or seven feet. I'll have my flashlight on so that'll give you some light. When I turn my flashlight off and back on, that means we're gonna separate. I'll try to stay on the path we took to the shelves. You go for the stairs and get help 'cause I don't know if they'll hear the gunshots up there. I'll cover you. Don't turn your flashlight on until you have to. It'll make you a target," Marianne said.

"But that means you're a target. I don't like this. We should both go." Glenn paused. "And Daryl will kill me if I leave you behind."

"I'm not giving you a choice and I'll handle Daryl. Anyways, they'll probably have bad aim," Marianne said to try to make Glenn feel better. It didn't seem to work.

"I still don't like it," he said.

"We're wastin' time. Do it or I'll be the one that's pissed off."

Glenn seemed to weigh the pros and cons of having which Dixon mad at him. "Fine. I'll do it."

As soon as he said that, Marianne wasted no time getting close to the door, pulling out her gun and shooting the handle once and then twice for good measure.

She quickly opened the door and left the room. Glenn followed behind like she told him to and both of them were crouched down but moving fast. They reached the aisle they had originally been in, the small stack of books still there on the ground. It was when Marianne left the cover of the shelves that the shooting started.

"Run," she said to Glenn, who hesitated for only a second before he took off.

Marianne headed in a different direction, further away from the stairs. She succeeded in drawing the gunfire away from Glenn and noticed two guns were being fired. Their aim was terrible.

She took cover behind a table and began shooting back. Now that she was stationary the bullets were getting closer to her. Marianne turned her flashlight off and a few more shots were fired before they stopped. Glenn should've made it to the stairs by now.

Rick knew the two shots could mean any number of things. There might have been one walker or more they had missed but he knew the two of them would only use their guns if they were desperate. Even worse was the thought that Glenn and Marianne had run into people. He really hoped it was only walkers and that the two of them hadn't been bit.

They were only a quarter of the way down the stairs when they heard more shots from multiple guns. This wasn't about a walker. There were people down there with Marianne and Glenn. He pushed himself harder and half way down the stairs the three men nearly collided with Glenn.

"Marianne. Help," Glenn said between breaths. Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog had only slowed down for a second but kept going. Marianne might not have the time it would take to get more information out of Glenn.

The gunfire had stopped by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs. Rick had to forcibly pull Daryl away from the door that led to the rest of the basement. The silence could either mean the attackers were dead or too injured to fight back, or Marianne was dead or too injured to shoot her gun, or there was a break in the fighting for some unknown reason. Whichever reason it was, they needed to be smart and not go in guns blazing.

Praying to God that Marianne wasn't hurt or worse, Rick formed a plan.

Marianne crawled to a different spot so the strangers would no longer know where she was hiding. She no longer knew exactly where she was in relation to the exit but she made a guess and began moving closer to where it hopefully was. The other people had also turned their flashlights off so it was pitch black. She had to feel around in front of her and go slow so she didn't bump into anything and make noise.

There was a soft tap of a chair being pushed against a table and it was far too close her liking. Had she accidently moved closer to them or had they lucked out and chose the right direction to move towards her?

She didn't want to shoot at them. It would only give away her position.

It was plain bad luck that right when she stood up a flashlight turned on and shone on her like a spotlight. Someone shot at her and Marianne could swear that she felt the bullet pass her arm only centimeters away. She fired her gun in the direction of the light and ducked down behind a desk before they could shoot at her again.

She was pinned down by the light but now that she was out of sight they didn't shoot. Different scenarios raced through her mind. Should she make the next move or should she wait for them to? She hoped Glenn had made it out. Help should've been there by now.

Darkness blurred the right edge of the circle of light before whoever was holding the flashlight moved it a little to the left. Someone was trying sneak up on her. Instead of waiting for them to reach her, Marianne holstered her gun, took out her knife, sprung up from behind the desk and tackled a man.

The element of surprise gave her the upper hand at first but the man was larger than she had expected—tall with wide shoulders and beefy arms. The gun he was holding flew out of his hand and disappeared outside the beam of light, the dark making it impossible for him to see it.

She stabbed his shoulder and he let out a grunt of pain. This didn't slow him down but made him angrier. He easily pushed her off and in a split second was on top of her.

Her right hand, which was holding the knife, was pinned down next to her side so Marianne clawed as his face with her left.

He yelled and the man's grip on her right arm loosened.

"Marianne!"

Hearing her name caused her to pause for a second which almost made her lose the opportunity to free her right arm. The left was now pinned down next to her head. The way the man was sitting on her prevented her from kneeing him.

As soon her right arm was free she stabbed the man the first place she could. The knife sunk deep into his side and while it was still in him, she pulled it towards her with all of her strength. The man cried out. She hadn't heard someone in so much pain since Frank and Will but this time she didn't smile.

Blood coated her hand and wrist. Her grip on the knife slipped as she tried to pull it out of him. The man rolled off of her of his own volition, clawing at the knife's handle.

Marianne was shaking and it took her full concentration to sit up. Her hand went to her gun and she noticed the fresh blood on her jacket. She knew the stain would never come out.

Rick and Daryl, as silently as they could, opened the door only as much as they needed to and slipped through. T-Dog was staying in the stairwell to stop anyone from trying to escape. He had momentarily turned his flashlight off so no light would betray that the door had opened and the other two men had also turned off theirs.

Both of them immediately saw the person shining a light on a desk. Rick aimed his gun and Daryl his crossbow at the unknown woman but didn't shoot. She hadn't noticed they were there and they wanted to keep it that way. They knew there was more than one attacker and Rick wanted to find out where they were first.

As soon as Rick had spotted a shadowy figure closing in on the desk, Marianne appeared and tackled it to the ground. There was a grunt and not long after a man yelled in pain.

"Marianne!" Daryl shouted.

Damn it Daryl.

The flashlight's beam wavered towards them but they moved away from it. The woman shot in their general direction and took cover behind a bookshelf before the two men could return fire. An agonized scream made the woman shine the light back on the desk.

Marianne appeared again, standing up and exposing herself. She had her gun pointed at the woman, who miraculously didn't fire. Rick noticed the blood on Marianne and hoped it wasn't hers.

"I don't want to kill you," Marianne said. "We can end this right now. No one else needs to get hurt."

Daryl took off to sneak up on the woman and take her down.

"You killed Mike!" The woman took a step forward, almost leaving the protection of the shelves. Rick moved closer.

"He's still alive," Marianne said in confusion as the man behind her continued to groan.

"You sliced his throat, you bitch," the woman said, her voice steeped in fear and hate.

Realization washed over Marianne's face and then it turned stony. "You hurt my friend. You were gonna attack me. What'd you expect? A tea party?"

"This isn't a joke!" The woman stepped forward again and away from the shelves giving him a clear shot. Rick moved even closer.

Four things happened in quick succession. The woman pulled the trigger, Marianne fell, Rick fired, and Daryl tackled the woman.

Marianne dropped to the ground onto her hands and knees. And then she was lying on her back staring at nothing because the light of the woman's flashlight wasn't pointed in her direction anymore.

She was next to the man she had brutally stabbed, because that's what she was now. Brutal. The man had stopped groaning and he was taking shallow, pained breaths.

"Marianne!" Rick shouted her name and then Daryl did too. And they kept shouting. They were getting closer but she couldn't answer. She couldn't do anything. She was frozen in place, the gravity of her actions pressing down on her. The man stopped breathing and she continued to stare at nothing.

She blinked and a light appeared. She could see the ceiling now. Then a shadow. Then Daryl.

"Marianne?" He kneeled next to her and looked at her desperately. His eyes scanned her to see where she was injured but he wouldn't find anything. "You hurt?"

"No," she lied, because where she was hurt didn't make her bleed.

"You okay?" Daryl asked.

"No," she said truthfully. What was the point in lying? Daryl would know. He would see if he looked hard enough, and frankly, at the moment, it wasn't hard to see.

Pull it together.

Daryl helped her sit up. She was shaking again and it wasn't because of the cold.

Rick came up behind Daryl. "Was she shot?"

"No. But I think she's in shock," her brother said.

Marianne ignored them and turned to look at the dead man who was staring at nothing. She took her knife out of his side, more blood spilled out, and stabbed him through the eye.

Rick watched Marianne stab the dead man's head. She didn't have to do that. Someone else could've taken care of it. Him or Daryl. Anyone but her, because she was far from okay.

She began wiping her knife off on the part of the dead man's shirt that was still clean.

"Marianne," Daryl said. She ignored him and kept cleaning. He turned to look at Rick. "The woman?"

"T-Dog's got her tied up," Rick said, glancing over at T-Dog and seeing that Glenn was now with him. They both looked at Rick, waiting for news about Marianne. He nodded, making the two of them visibly relax, and Glenn took off towards the stairs. The woman began crying but Rick would deal with her later.

He moved his focus back onto Marianne, who had stopped trying to clean the knife, which was still smeared with drying blood. She kept staring at it in her hand until Daryl reached for it and she let him take it. "I'll clean it for you," Daryl said.

"I need to get the books," Marianne said, her voice almost robotic.

In his time as an officer, Rick had seen the reactions of people after a traumatic event. Some were hysterical while others were detached. There were people who weren't capable of doing anything at all and some who wanted to keep doing the task that had been interrupted. A few of those people became obsessed with their task, grasping for control in a situation where the world seemed to be falling down around them.

"Don't worry about 'em," Daryl said.

"The books," Marianne said as she stood up, needing to rely heavily on the desk to get on her feet. "I can't leave 'em."

"Someone'll get 'em later," Daryl said, moving cautiously towards Marianne and shooting a worried look at Rick.

Marianne's brow furrowed and she shook her head. "No. I need to get the books."

"Okay, but let's get ya cleaned up first. Get ya a drink of water, somethin' to eat." Daryl reached for her arm but Marianne backed away.

"No. I'm not leavin' without the goddamned books," she said with a raised voice, her cheeks beginning to flush.

"Marianne, how about you get them and we'll carry them upstairs for you?" Rick asked in a reasonable voice, trying to keep her calm. He didn't want her to get any more agitated than she already was.

She looked between the two men. "Fine," Marianne said as she took a small flashlight out of her pocket and turned it on. She shined the light around the library as if orienting herself and then took off, walking right past the crying woman without looking at her.

When she reached the small pile of books Marianne realized she couldn't pick them up. Her hand was still sticky with blood and if she touched them they would be stained forever. Couldn't they have at least one thing in this world unspoiled by blood?

Marianne sat down, suddenly bone weary. She should've listened to Daryl and cleaned up. Maybe then she'd feel better, but she really needed to get the books. That was the whole point of coming to the library. This small pile was the reason she had went back into the basement. Earlier, she couldn't let it go and look what had happened.

All of it was her fault. Her fault that Glenn was hurt. Her fault that the others had risked their lives to save her. Her fault that two men were dead.

She should be dead too. If Daryl hadn't tackled the woman, Marianne knew the bullet wouldn't have missed her. She had seen the intent to kill in the woman's eyes. Marianne saw the moment the woman had decided to pull the trigger and she had had seconds to shoot first but she hadn't because the blood was still warm and slick on her hand and she could still feel the knife entering the man's body and the resistance she had fought against as she cut into him.

In that moment, Marianne wondered if death was what she deserved. But that's not what she wanted. She wanted to live, yet she still couldn't shoot.

Another light appeared at the end of the aisle. Marianne didn't need to look up to know who it was.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone," she said, her voice betraying how drained she felt.

"I know." Daryl walked towards Marianne and sat down next to her, setting his crossbow on his lap. "This ain't like last time."

"Yeah, it's not." Marianne studied the blood caked under her fingernails. "They attacked us and I didn't have a choice." She sighed. "I'm so sick of this. I'm tired of feeling bad. I just couldn't shoot her. I hesitated and we're not supposed to do that anymore, but I did." Marianne opened and closed her right hand, the drying blood making her skin feel tight. "Don't say anything. I already know what you're gonna tell me. Can you get the books?"

Daryl nodded and stood up. "Yeah, I'll get 'em."

Marianne looked away from her red hand and up at her brother. "Thank you for saving me."

Rick and T-Dog were dragging the woman up the stairs to the first floor. She had stopped crying but now she was pleading for her life.

"It wasn't my idea. It was Jared's. He planned the attack. It was all him. I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"Yeah, right," T-Dog said, looking more pissed off than Rick had ever seen him before.

Daryl scoffed behind him but all he heard from Marianne was the sound of her boots on the concrete stairs. He wanted to turn around to see how she was doing. Instead, he tightened his grip on the woman's arm.

"I was scared. We don't know you people. We were just tryin' to protect ourselves." The woman tried to catch Rick's eye but he continued to look straight ahead. "Can you blame us? Jared was right, all of y'all are dangerous. She's covered in his blood," the woman wailed. "She killed them like it was nothin', like she doesn't have a heart."

"Shut yer fucking mouth," Daryl growled before Rick could tell the woman to shut up himself.

The woman stopped talking and Rick glanced at her. She looked terrified and Rick wasn't about to alleviate her fear. Let her suffer. She and her people had attacked his people.

They had almost lost Marianne at this woman's hands. Rick couldn't bear to think about what would've happened if Daryl hadn't reached the woman in time.

When they were on the first floor landing Rick took the woman's scarf off of her and blindfolded her with it. There was no sense in letting her see the rest of the group. The less she knew about them, the better.

This seemed to scare her even more. "Please—"

"Don't start or I'll gag you too," Rick said.

He and T-Dog kept ahold of the woman while Daryl moved past them to open the door. When the five of them were out of the stairwell, Daryl let the door close and rejoined Marianne's side. Rick looked back at her. She was staring at her hand, the blood on it dry and beginning to crack. Marianne lifted her head and looked him right in the eye.

Her face was unreadable. Although, it wasn't blank and her eyes weren't vacant, there just wasn't anything to discern. A mask had settled over her and he didn't know her well enough to know how much this should worry him. Was this a good sign or a bad one?

They rounded the corner of the short hallway the stairwell door was in and all eyes were on them.

"How—" Maggie started.

"Later." Rick signaled everyone to keep quiet but it didn't work when Marianne stepped out from behind him, T-Dog, and the woman.

"Marianne," Beth said as she ran towards the woman and collided with her, wrapping her arms tightly around her. Marianne looked startled and couldn't return the hug even if she wanted to because Beth had her arms pinned down. Maggie soon joined them and gave Marianne a hug as soon as Beth let go.

"Thank you," Maggie said and Marianne looked at her like she was crazy.

Carl was the next one to ambush Marianne with a hug. Rick couldn't help but glance over at Lori, who somehow looked simultaneously relieved and annoyed as she watched their son with Marianne. Rick had an inkling of where her displeasure was coming from. Lately Carl had been rejecting any affection Lori tried to show him and seeing Carl hug Marianne couldn't be pleasant for her.

Rick turned to T-Dog. "Stay with them. Make sure nobody else tries to sneak up on us," he said. "Daryl, you're comin' with me."

Both men nodded at Rick. Daryl, relieved of the books, took T-Dog's place.

Rick and Daryl, with the woman between them, began walking to the hallway to find a room so they could interrogate the woman away from the group. Rick noticed Marianne was following them and he stopped walking.

"Daryl, take her into a room. I'll meet you there," Rick said. Daryl looked between Marianne and Rick before nodding and pulling the woman along with him. Rick turned to Marianne. "You don't have to be there."

"I wanna hear what she has'ta say," Marianne said. It didn't look like anything could change her mind and Rick didn't have it in him at the moment to argue with her.

He nodded and began walking to the room Daryl had taken the woman, Marianne following close behind him.

They entered the room, which turned out to be a classroom, and found the woman sitting at a student desk with Daryl looming over her. When he saw Rick and Marianne he backed away from her.

"What's your name?" Rick asked, standing only a few feet away from the woman. She didn't respond.

"Answer the damn question," Daryl said roughly.

"Sara. Sara Cochran."

"You tried to kill me and my people, Sara. Why?" Rick asked. Sara set her nervous gaze on Marianne. "Don't look at her. Look at me."

Sara's eye flitted around the classroom, looking everywhere except at Rick. "I told you. It was all Jared. He said y'all were dangerous. That we had to protect ourselves."

Rick had a feeling Jared was a hotheaded alpha type, either stupid enough to think he could take on another group for any little reason or too confident in his own abilities. Maybe both but whatever it was, it had led him to his death. He had been no match for Marianne.

"So you were just along for the ride?" Daryl asked and Sara flinched like the man had hit her.

"I didn't have a choice," Sara said, now looking Rick in the eye. "Please, I was just tryin' to survive."

"By attacking people getting books in a library?" Saying that aloud made Rick inclined to think that Jared was, in fact, an idiot. "Where were you hiding?"

"In an office. Mike used to work at the library so he knew where the keys were. We locked ourselves in when we saw y'all's lights," Sara said. She was being compliant, trying to get in their good graces so they wouldn't kill her. Rick hadn't decided yet.

"Is there anyone else in your group?" Rick asked.

"No. I'm alone now." Sara licked her lips.

"You're lying." Rick rested his hand on his holstered Colt, a move that Sara noticed and tears started welling in her eyes again.

"I'm not."

"Like hell you ain't." Daryl took a threatening step towards Sara.

Rick held out his hand to keep Daryl from getting any closer to the woman. It wouldn't take much to break her. There was a long pause where Rick stared at her and Daryl glowered. Sara began to squirm.

"Three. Three more and that's it. I promise." New tears ran down Sara's face but Rick's heart wasn't moved. What did move his heart was Marianne shaking on the floor next to a man she had to kill so she wouldn't be killed.

"Where?" Rick asked.

"Over my dead body," Sara said in a trembling voice that betrayed what little conviction she had in the bold statement.

"That can be arranged." Rick grabbed his Colt, cocked it, and pointed it at Sara's head.

The woman let out a sob. "The dorms! But please don't kill them. They didn't do anything. We only came to the library because Phoebe dislocated her shoulder and we didn't know how to fix it. We thought there'd be a book that could help."

Marianne rested her hand on his right arm and gently pushed it down to tell him to lower his gun. Rick complied and turned to look at her. Her head shook minutely as she silently pleaded with her eyes and he knew Marianne didn't want him to kill Sara.

"Watch her," Rick said to Daryl as he went to the door and opened it, motioning for Marianne to follow him out of the room.

He shut the door and they were alone in the hallway. Rick waited for her to speak.

"You can't kill her," she said and after the look she had given him in the room he wasn't surprised.

"She almost killed you," Rick said.

"She was scared." Marianne looked down at the floor. "I killed her friends. You woulda done the same thing she did."

Rick nodded. She had a point but these people began this fight. "You didn't start this. They did and it's their own fault they're dead."

"I know. But I won't let you do it." She looked up at him and it felt like she was staring straight into him. "You'll kill her for me and I can't have more blood on my hands."

Marianne was right. Rick would kill Sara to protect the group but first and foremost he would be killing the woman as revenge for Marianne.

"Alright. It's your call and I'll respect that. We'll keep her tied up when we leave and let her friends find her."

Marianne took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Thank you."

There was blood on her face and Marianne couldn't figure out exactly how it had got there. When in all of the fighting had blood dripped onto her forehead, splattered on her cheek over her scar, and smeared on her chin?

Marianne looked away from the mirror and around the green and white tiled restroom. There were paper towels she could use but no water. That small detail had slipped her mind when she left to find the restroom, not sure why she needed one and thinking it must be a leftover habit from the old world. Or maybe she needed to be alone.

Maggie came into the restroom with a gallon jug of water and a hand towel. She set the water on the sink and handed Marianne the towel. Marianne was grateful it was dark blue, the blood would hardly show.

"Sorry we couldn't warm it up a little. It's a jug from inside our car so it's not as cold as it could be," Maggie said.

"Is it our drinking water?" Marianne wouldn't use it if it was.

"Nope, it's from the creek. We haven't boiled it yet. And Rick said we're goin' back to Rockwell so we'll pass the creek and fill up again so use as much as you want." Maggie's voice was kind but void of pity. Good. Marianne liked that it wasn't that delicate voice people used to talk to someone they thought was fragile and a little unhinged.

"You need anything else?" Maggie asked as Marianne wet the towel. Marianne shook her head and Maggie left her alone.

She started with her hand and wrist and the few rivulets of blood that had run down her arm at some point. At first, Marianne was wiping the blood off but that was taking too long so she began scrubbing harder and harder until her skin was red and irritated.

The blood wouldn't come out from under her fingernails and she almost screamed in frustration. She rubbed until her fingertips were raw but at least the blood was gone.

Marianne wet the towel and wringed it out to clean it. Pink water went into the sink and down the drain but a few pink drops were leftover which mesmerized her and when she finally broke her gaze away it went the mirror in front of her.

This time her stomach turned when she saw her face and she quickly looked away, taking deep breaths to keep from throwing up her meager breakfast.

She went to the restroom door, opened it, and called out for Maggie. The younger woman appeared in a flash.

"You need something?" Maggie asked.

Marianne held out the damp towel to her. "My face in the mirror. I can't look."

Maggie nodded in understanding and took the towel. "Alright, I can help with that."

They went to the sink where the two-thirds empty jug of water was. Marianne stood with her back to the mirror while Maggie poured more water onto the towel.

Maggie turned towards her with a smile and began to gently rub the blood off of her forehead. Some of the water dripped down her nose and Marianne closed her eyes before any could get into them.

"Why did you thank me?" Marianne asked.

"Glenn told me what you did for him."

Marianne went to shake her head but stopped because Maggie had begun cleaning her cheek. She kept her eyes closed because it was easier to talk that way. "I was bein' practical. He didn't have a gun and I think he's faster than me. We needed help."

"You drew the gunfire away from him. As far as I'm concerned you saved him," Maggie said.

"You don't know that. Maybe he wouldn't even have been shot if they were aiming for him. Or if we waited for y'all to come down because we were takin' too long, we wouldn't've been in the line of fire," Marianne argued. She hadn't saved anyone except maybe herself and that had involved making two men needing to be saved from her.

"You need to start takin' credit for all the good things you do," Maggie said and Marianne couldn't answer because Maggie had moved onto her chin. Even if she could have, she didn't know what to say.

When Marianne's skin was clear of blood, the two women left the restroom and rejoined the group. Marianne could see through the open door that the vehicles had been moved out of their hiding place and parked in the street. She also noticed that the books in the keep pile were gone.

Sara was nowhere to be seen but she didn't care. She trusted that Rick wouldn't kill her so Marianne didn't need proof that the woman was still alive.

They were ready to leave and everyone exited the building except for T-Dog and Daryl. By the time Marianne got into the passenger seat of her truck and buckled her seatbelt, the two men were leaving the building and shut the door behind them

T-Dog got into the truck but it looked like Beth had switched to the hatchback. Marianne silently thanked whoever's idea that was.

"You okay?" T-Dog asked as he started the truck.

"No, not really," Marianne said.

T-Dog didn't speak after that and Marianne tried to keep her mind off of everything by looking out of the window but it didn't work and her mind wandered. She needed to find a different distraction.

"You went to church, right?" Marianne asked.

"Every Sunday."

"Can you sing somethin'?"

There was a silence so long Marianne thought T-Dog wasn't going to but then he started to sing. Marianne didn't recognize the song but she hadn't expected to. T-Dog had a good voice, was in fact a great singer and she would've smiled under different circumstances.

She leaned her head against the cold window and ignored the chill it gave her. Two verses in she closed her eyes, blocking out the world and focusing on T-Dog's low timbre.

When the shadows of this life have gone,

I'll fly away

Like a bird from prison bars has flown,

I'll fly away

Marianne held her breath, trying to fight away the grief that enveloped her. Her eyes burned and her throat was closing up. She couldn't hold it back anymore.

Tears streamed down her face that she didn't bother to wipe away. She hated how much she had cried in the past few months but right now she couldn't stop herself. Marianne had lost control and for a few moments she couldn't make out any of the words T-Dog was singing.

Just a few more weary days and then,

I'll fly away

To a land where joy shall never end,

I'll fly away

Her whole body was heaving and she was gasping for air. She needed something to hold onto so she grasped the seatbelt strap crossing her chest. It barely helped but then she felt a hand on her shoulder. It didn't leave until her breathing steadied. Marianne opened her eyes and straightened in her seat but was too embarrassed to look at T-Dog.

"I didn't think my singing was that bad," he said.

Marianne choked out a laugh and the tension she was feeling eased a little but something darker gripped her tighter.

They were halfway back to Rockwell when a calm washed over her because Marianne had figured it out. She had to accept herself. She was a monster and monsters made it in this world. They survived, so she would too and she'd do anything she could to keep her people alive.

Anything.

A/N: Half of this chapter basically wrote itself in less than four hours but then the other half was playing hide and seek for over a week. Did you enjoy the action? I tried to make it as not confusing as I could. Writing about flashlights without calling them flashlights every single time was an interesting exercise.

What do you think about Marianne's big epiphany? It's something I've had planned for awhile now.

On a different note, because I can't help myself, I have an idea for a Strong Enough AU. I wasn't even thinking about Strong Enough when it came into my head and the next thing I knew I had the first chapter finished. The premise is that when Marianne's mom dies she goes into the foster care system and is eventually adopted by Hershel. The first time she and Daryl meet is when the group comes to the farm. I know it's a little far fetched and coincidental but so was Rick finding Lori and Carl and we all went along with that and I did so happily.

I'll set up a poll and it'd be awesome if you let me know if you're interested or not. I will say that Strong Enough is my first priority and that this AU won't take writing time away from it. In fact, when I was stuck on this chapter I wrote the AU's first chapter and it helped clear my head and get the ball rolling again for chapter 28. With that said, it means that new chapters for it will most likely be slow to come and if I do end up doing it I can't promise that it'll be posted anytime soon. If you have any questions or comments about it just shoot me a message. My inbox is open.