A/N: Thanks to everyone who followed/favorited since the last chapter!
-Micky-Moo: I always liked Merle too, he was an asshole, but life made him that way and when he died I cried like a baby! I agree if Merle had stayed around Daryl would have been stuck following him, or at least going along with him to a certain extent. I always thought Carol and Merle would be a good pair because they show the two sides of abuse, but their lives became better after the world ended.
-galwidanatitud: I agree, if it had been me there would have been a lot more yelling and probably at least one smack across the face!
-SPARKLES77: Thank you! I hope you like this chapter just as much!
-Guest: I'm sorry this was so late, but hopefully it was worth the wait!
-Nihama9492: When you get here, Welcome! I'm glad you are imagining the accents, that's what I do as I write! I am so glad you are enjoying the story so far and I hope you continued reading even though at this point you will have realized that Sophia is in fact dead. I thought that it was too important to Carol's (and Anna's) growth that she died like in the show. Let me know what you think if you're still around!
"After you saved me, we thought you were dead." I watched my mom hug Andrea tightly while she spoke. While Andrea looked around at the common area we had created I moved past her and went to lean against one of the tables. Daryl quickly followed me and stood by my side, so close that our arms were brushing. Andrea zeroed in on Hershel and her mouth dropped.
"Hershel, my God. I can't believe this. Where's Shane?" Andrea looked around, but no one responded. "And Lori?" I watched Rick look at the ground taking a small step back.
"She had a girl. Lori didn't survive." Hershel adjusted his hold on his crutches while he spoke.
"Neither did T-Dog." Maggie spoke quietly and Andrea swallowed before looking at Carl, who kept his gaze on the ground.
"I'm so sorry, Carl. Rick, I-" She trailed off looking around the room once more. "You all live here?"
"Here and the cell block." Glenn gestured over to the door that lead to our cells.
"There?" She pointed where Glenn motioned to. "Well, can I go in?" Andrea started to the door, but Rick quickly blocked her path.
"I won't allow that."
"I'm not an enemy, Rick." Andrea glared at him and I couldn't help the words that fell out of my mouth.
"No, you're just sleeping with him." I felt Daryl's body jerk as he snorted quietly. I almost wish I hadn't said that, I wasn't even sure that it was true.
"We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up." Rick pointed towards the outside of the prison glaring at Andrea.
"He said you fired first." Andrea sounded almost confused.
"Well, he's lying." Rick spat the words out at her.
"He killed an inmate who survived in here." Hershel spoke up from behind her.
"We liked him. He was one of us." Daryl propped a foot up on the bench sitting on top of the table while he spoke.
"I didn't know anything about that. As soon as I found out, I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out."
"That was days ago." Glenn said and Andrea turned to him quickly.
"I told you, I came as soon as I could." Andrea turned around facing Michonne and shook her head. "What have you told them?"
"Nothing." Michonne seemed almost too calm. If I was her I would hate Andrea more than anything.
"I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?" Andrea turned around the room looking at all of us briefly.
"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us." Glenn's voice was filled with emotion. It was obvious that he was nowhere near over what had happened at Woodbury from the way he spoke.
"With his finger on the trigger." Andrea's voice rose as she pointed at Merle. "Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?" She took a deep breath and started again in a softer voice. "Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done. But I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work this out."
"There's nothing to work out. We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will." Rick spoke with the conviction that he had been lacking the last few days and I could see that our old leader was coming back.
"We can settle this. There is room at Woodbury for all of you." Andrea glanced around the room briefly.
"You know better than that." Merle laughed a bit as he spoke.
"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate? Did he say that?" Hershel asked.
"No." Andrea looked down a bit, shaking her head.
"Then why did you come here?" Rick was finally getting to the point.
"Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack." Andrea looked at us like we should cave at those words.
"I'll tell ya what." I looked over my shoulder at Daryl, as he spoke. "Next time ya see Philip, ya tell him I'm gonna take his other eye." His gaze didn't waver from Andrea's until she turned to Glenn when he spoke.
"We're taken too much shit for too long. He wants a war? He's got one."
"Rick. If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town. Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore."
"You want to make this right, get us inside." Rick stepped closer to Andrea speaking slowly.
"No." Rick turned suddenly leaving Andrea in the middle of the room.
"Then we got nothing to talk about."
"There are innocent people." Andrea shouted after him, but he ignored her and kept walking.
I stood by our small camping stove heating some water. If I wanted Judith to go down for a nap it worked wonders to give her a warm bottle instead of cold or room temperature. I tapped my leg impatiently. I knew that my mom had taken Andrea to meet our newest group member and even though I knew that Andrea would never do anything to a baby I still didn't like it. I quickly mixed up the formula and started towards the stairs climbing them as quietly as I could, straining to hear their conversation.
"No, you need to sleep with him. Give him the greatest night of his life. You get him to drop his guard. Then when he's sleeping, you can end this." My eyes widened a bit at my mom's words. I really didn't expect that from her at all. I climbed the last few steps and looked at both of them smiling a bit.
"Sorry Judith is probably hungry." Andrea stepped forward, and gently set Judith into my arms. I smiled down at her as she reached up for me, tugging at my hair. "Hi, sweetheart. Do you want to go see what the boys are up to?"
I bounced her slightly as she grasped at the bottle, not latching on quite yet. I walked down the stairs slowly, terrified of falling while I held her. I walked through the prison and stepped out onto the stairs. The sun was bright and I blinked a bit to get used to it. Judith cooed and squirmed in my hands and I shuffled my arms so that I held Judith and her bottle in one hand, using the other to block the sun from her face. I looked out into the yard and I smiled when I saw Daryl walking up to me across the yard. I moved Judith so that she leaned back against my chest in a sitting position. She grasped the bottle with both hands and latched on eating hungrily now. I smiled down at her and held the bottle up a little higher to prevent any air bubbles
"Somebody's hungry." Daryl grabbed at Judith's foot and she looked up at him keeping up her fast paced drinking.
"She's just showing off. Aren't you?" I rearranged her in my arms, si she was laying down again and she looked back at me shifting her hands on the bottle. "You just want Daryl to see how you can practically hold the bottle all by yourself. You're so smart, aren't you?"
I smiled as Judith reached up at me with one hand and I leaned down kissing her hand softly before looking back at Daryl. He was staring at me, his eyes a bit darker than usual. I blushed and looked back down which made some of my hair fallout from behind my ear. I tossed my head a bit, trying to get the strands of hair back out of my face. I smiled as Daryl reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear. We both laughed as Judith reached up towards Daryl's hand. I looked down at her as she continued drinking from the bottle and Daryl rested a hand against her stomach. I swallowed as Judy let her hand fall onto Daryl's and she gripped his finger. I looked back up as Daryl leaned in and kissed me. I sighed as he took a small step closer to me, causing Judith to grunt slightly.
We jumped apart as the sound of clanging metal and looked across the yard Rick was leading out Andrea out of the prison. Daryl turned quickly and started across the yard. I turned Judith to lean against my shoulder, pulling the bottle away from her. I followed Daryl and stood behind him near the fence where we could barely hear anything that was said. Rick opened the door of the car as Andrea tossed her bag into the passenger seat.
"Thanks. Can you spare it?" She turned back to Rick as he gazed at the car.
"Yeah." He tucked his hands into his pockets as he glanced up at her.
"Well, take care." Andrea turned back to the car as Rick spoke up getting her attention
"Andrea. Be careful." Andrea sighed and nodded a bit.
"You, too."
A/N: I wrote most of last chapter on my phone and the autocorrect made some big mistakes in guessing what I was trying to say! I will be going back to edit that chapter soon, but I am going to focus on updating more frequently first. I think everyone would like that more!