Newly Revised
Daryl, Oscar, Sophia, and Carl were combing through the tombs both for walkers and any sign of Carol as per Tea's instructions before she'd left to help Rick. Daryl was worried she was stretching herself with everything she was doing and how little sleep she had been getting due to the baby and he wished she was with them so he could keep an eye on her. She had been bound and determined to bring Carol back to the group for both Sophia and damn if Daryl wasn't going to try himself to find her for the two of them. The little girl was stronger than he thought she'd be but, then again, she had spent the winter up Tea's ass and trying to act more like her and be brave, so it shouldn't have been all that surprising to him. While she definitely was no Tea, Sophia had managed to learn to put away her fear and weakness and at least wear a brave face even if she hardly spoke a word. She had that part in common with Tea, though, not wanting to speak unless she had something she felt she should say; Tea said it was a direct result of what she'd gone through with Ed. He was thinking about how the little girl had been spending more and more time with Tea as the days passed as the four of them rounded another corner, a little thump putting them all on high alert.
"Check it out, man," Oscar said, using his flashlight to point at a door. "Must have missed it last night."
"It's prolly just one or two of 'em," Daryl said quietly as he went to the door and pushed on it gently. "Don't look like they got much fight. They ain't goin' nowhere. We'll take care of 'em on the way back."
He whistled to Carl and Sophia, who had walked off a little as the two kids kept gravitating around each other in a completely innocent and platonic way that had made Tea joke with him quietly about what the future would hold. Daryl wondered if the kids even knew what they were doing or if it was the adults' fault for always lumping the two kids together when out on runs or on watch and even when it came to having them stay put. Either way, they were helping comfort each other through their grief and Daryl couldn't help but be happy about that since he had never gotten that kind of comfort as a kid. It was only over the past several months that he had been given any kind of comfort and it had been Tea who had given it to him as much as he gave it to her. Tea had suggested before she left that it might help Carl to hear about what happened with his own mom and seeing the boy's dejected and broken face made him decide to actually open up. It was hard to share stories of his past but he could see how she had been right about the boy needing to know that he wasn't alone in his grief nor in what he had experienced. He had to gather his strength and take a couple breaths as he walked up to the two and shone his light down the corridor rather than looking at the kids as he spoke, something Tea would have cringed at is she saw.
"You know, my mom," Daryl started, clearing his throat lightly "She liked her wine. She liked to smoke in bed. Virginia Slims. I was playin' out with the kids in the neighborhood. I could do that with Merle gone. They had bikes, I didn't. We heard sirens gettin' louder. They jumped on their bikes to go after it, you know, hoping to see somethin' worth seein'. I ran after 'em, but I couldn't keep up. I ran around a corner and saw my friends lookin' at me. Hell, I saw everyone lookin' at me. Fire trucks everywhere. People from the neighborhood. It was my house they were there for. It was my mom in bed burnt down to nothin'. That was the hard part," he said as he risked a glance at Carl, who was looking down. "You know, she was just gone. Erased. Nothin' left of her. People said it was better that way," he said with a chuckle. "Huh. I don't know. Just made it seem like it wasn't real, you know?"
"I shot my mom," Carl's voice rang out, Daryl looking at him as Carl himself astutely looked down. "She was out. Hadn't turned yet. I ended it. It was real. Sorry about your mom," he said after a moment of silence, looking back down.
Daryl waited until Carl looked back up at him, "I'm sorry 'bout yours."
Placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, Daryl gave him what he hoped was a comforting squeeze even if the kid had had a better life before the world went to hell than he ever had. It had been hard on him as a kid growing up with the Dixon name, especially after his mom had died, since everyone knew who his father was and just what a thug he had been. His dad had already been taking the belt to him when Merle wasn't around any time his mother wasn't enough to get rid of his anger, especially since he couldn't fight back. His mom would clock the son of the bitch in the face half the time he started his shit with her and after her death Will had only gotten worse and treated him worse than before. Daryl wasn't Merle as a kid; his mother had always told him that he had a heart of gold and that's why he seemed soft to his father and brother. She always insisted that he was stronger than both of them because while he was growing up in a violent environment, he still had a heart that held onto hope and was able to see the good in people. It was only now that he was realizing she might have been right as he took a breath and ushered the kids onward, ever checking for walkers. He kept the kids between himself and Oscar while he was checking the cells, his crossbow ever at the ready until Oscar suddenly shouted happily behind him, startling him and the kids both. He scowled as he watched the man enter a cell and bend down for something he couldn't quite see but had Sophia sighing and crossing her arms, the action making him smirk for a second since it was Tea's signature stance when she was annoyed.
"Oh, that's what I'm talking about, mm-hmm, yeah baby," Oscar said as he grabbed up a pair of slippers.
Daryl, having walked back over to the cell pulling the kids with him, asked, "What the hell you need slippers for?"
"You know, the end of the day. Relaxing," the man said, causing Daryl to look at him as if he was an alien.
The three of them were so preoccupied by Oscar while the man himself was preoccupied by the slippers that they didn't even realize there was a walker coming up behind them until they heard the growls. Daryl was the first to turn while the kids brought their guns up and Oscar stood, aiming his weapon as well as the damn thing came close to entering the cell. It was the bolt from his bow that went through the walker's head first but the three others in the cell fired several rounds as well, the kids practically pulverizing the thing's face while Oscar still needed some practice with his aim. He had hit the thing three times in the chest, having forgotten that walkers needed a head shot to die considering the walker had gotten a lot closer than any of them had been happy with. Where he had been wishing Tea had been with them instead of Rick turned quickly into a thank the gods, or whatever the hell she called it, that she wasn't there as he steadied himself while raising his flashlight to look at the walker.
"Alright," Daryl said, taking a couple deep breaths to calm himself.
"Must have been in the cell at the end," Oscar said. "We checked everywhere else."
"That's momma's knife!" Sophia said, looking hopeful as Daryl bent down to take a closer look at the walker, pulling out a knife in the process.
Daryl didn't have the heart to tell her what was running through his head because this was Carol's knife and if it was here, lodged in the throat of a walker, how the hell was she going to defend herself? How the hell could she even still be alive if she didn't have a single weapon to protect herself with? The guilt of not being able to find Carol ate at him as he wiped the blood of the knife using the walker's shoulder, angry at everything and everyone at the moment. Sending the others away to keep himself from losing his temper on them, he stayed staring at that walker for far longer than he should have. He knew he needed to get back to the others, back to Tea, to tell them what they had found and the brutal truth behind what it meant but he just couldn't bring himself to move. Tea had told him that Carol was alive, was so sure of it, and now he had to go tell her the news that no, she wasn't and the grave that she had refused to acknowledge aside from destroying it would have to be remade.
He sat on the floor for a while, sighing and trying to figure out how to tell Tea, how to handle Sophia, all while ramming the knife into the concrete floor harder and harder as the anger inside him grew. That damn door kept opening and closing the entire time and which only served to piss him off even more since it couldn't open all the way with a walker in front of it and just kept making noise. As it did it again, he lost his shit and got up, giving it a hard kick and pacing in front of it angrily before grabbing the walker and moving it away. He raised Carol's knife up, ready to kill whatever came out of the room but when the door didn't open on it's own, he swung it open himself, expecting to see walkers coming at him. When he saw nothing, confusion grew until he slowly looked down and saw Carol sitting on the floor looking relatively unharmed minus the few patches of blood on her face and the weak state she seemed to be in. Holy shit, played on repeat in his head as he took in her appearance before he leaned in and picked her up bridal style, carrying her back to the cell block.
"Won't Tea be mad?" she asked him weakly.
"Knows her place. Ain't gonna get jealous a me carryin' you back. Hell, she'd do it herself if she was here."
"Tea and Sophia?"
"Safe."
"She had to run. There were almost three dozen. She's fast and good, but not that good, not with baggage," Carol told him weakly. "I killed three as I ran, hid in the closet when another group came around. Didn't expect to get stuck."
"Everyone thought you were dead," Daryl told her. "Well, not Ania or Phia. Ania wouldn't let Phia give up hope. Me neither 'til I saw your knife. Thought I'd have to break it to 'em."
He was surprised when he came into the commons from the tombs and found it completely empty, the cell block completely vacant as well. He took Carol into the actual cell blocks and put her on her bed in her cell, leaving to get her some water. His chest was swelling with pride that he'd been able to bring Carol back and would be able to make Tea and Sophia the happiest women alive, probably. Making the two of them happy meant more to him than he'd ever admit to anyone as he took the water over to Carol and helped her carefully sip it. After that he went to get some more water and a cloth, taking it back in and washing the woman's face and hands of blood after she finished her glass and put it down.
"You know, I never did say sorry," she said after a couple minutes.
"For what?" he simply asked.
"For everything. Tryin' to split you and Tea up," Carol said.
"Oh," Daryl replied before looking at the floor. "Ania always figure it was because you had a thing for me."
"I can't say that I wasn't, but seeing the two of you together and how you balance each other out, I know it would never happen. Besides, my husband had just died back then and the first man who seemed to care was you. I was just doing the same thing Lori did with Shane, except worse. At least Shane wasn't taken and Lori's choice came from thinking Rick was dead. That's not why I was. I was angry because she seemed to have everything I never did and then when Sophia changed...I took everything out on her because I was losin' my little girl to her," she admitted, knowing she needed to get it off her chest if she was going to make it up to Tea for keeping Sophia safe. "I never realized how much she did for her or me until she yelled she'd keep Sophia safe and told me to get out. I never thanked her for anything she did for Sophia. I never even really cared."
"Yeah, well, she'd tell you it's not too late to. Hell, she keeps tellin' Phia she needs to give you another chance. Constantly tryin' to get the girl to see whatever the hell it is that she sees. She ain't trying to replace you."
"I know that now. She put me in my place when we first got here. Told me everything I didn't want to hear but needed to. I shouldn't have judged her. She just wants to protect the kids," Carol said with a nod of her head, waiting another moment before speaking again. "She told me about her home life, why she wants to make sure they're safe. How she just wants to do for them what no one ever did for her. I never thought she had it so rough because of how strong she is."
"She's strong 'cause she went through it," Daryl told her. "Ania ain't like no one else. She don't just think about herself or the group as a whole. Even if she don't like ya, she'll try to make sure you got 'er shoulder to lean on if you want it."
"I know. She's every bit as good a person as you and Rick. It took a while to see it, but she is."
~x~
Andrea was asked to wait outside Philip's office while he dealt with a few other affairs that involved some more of the more intricate parts of the town's development before she was called for. She knocked on his door as she rolled her eyes, feeling like a school kid that had been sent to the principle's office for misbehavior. It was probably the stupidest thing to get in trouble for, too, since all she'd done was take out a walker Halley hadn't seemed capable of doing herself. Andrea wanted to work the wall to keep herself trained and not get rusty or fall behind on what she needed to do out in the wild if she had to leave Woodbury. On top of that, who in their right mind would put someone on the wall who couldn't take out a walker in one hit, let alone got angry when someone else did it their own way? It was ridiculous, in Andrea's mind, that they were taking such an offense to what she had done when Halley was not as good of a shot as everyone else had made her out to be.
"I know why I'm here," she told Philip with a bit of a sigh.
"You were told we don't go over unless we have to," he reprimanded.
"I just wanted a little practice," she told him with no remorse. "Can't afford to get rusty in a world like this."
"Fair enough," Philip told her, appeased by her reasoning but still not liking her current attitude. "We don't need you on the wall."
"Ok," she huffed before turning around. "Is this because of the fights? I get the reasons you have for them, I just don't agree with the walkers. The fights themselves? I liked those. I didn't know Merle could actually move like that."
"I know ya liked them," Philip sat back as he spoke smugly.
"How?"
"Could a walked out," he said with a chuckle. "You started walking out. But you stayed. Just like you stayed right now just to tell me that."
"Are you saying that I like you too?" Andrea asked, her mind thinking about how she had been growing to, but the walkers and his blatant nonchalance at their inappropriate use had begun to make her second guess herself.
"I think I'm growing on you," Philip told her confidently with a smile on his face that just proved how attractive the man could be.
She walked out of his office with a bit of a flirtatious smile, almost running into Chrystal on her way in, exchanging a few pleasantries before Andrea was left on her own. She wandered around Woodbury while getting a feel for the citizens in the new light she saw them in, making it a point to stop and to talk to several citizens and got a lot of their stories. She found out that a lot of them had actually been saved by Merle, whether it was bringing them to Woodbury himself or saving their skins from the walkers while they were on the road alongside the Governor. Andrea had to say she was impressed with both Dixon men and how they had come into the apocalypse belligerent rednecks and druggies and now they were stand-up citizens and people respected them. It made her chuckle to herself at how alike the brothers seemed to be when she looked past the obvious differences in attitude and looks; at their core, they both had the same beliefs about how they treated people.
~x~
"You rose to the occasion kid," Merle said as he bent over to retrieve his gun, deciding this hunt was over. "When we get back, I'm gonna get you a beer."
Merle was just going to deal with whatever the repercussions of failing this mission were since they'd lost track of Michonne and she'd managed to snatch her damn sword back up before she left. He sure as hell was not willing to become walker chow just because the Governor had some two bit vendetta against being told no. Michonne had more of a nutsack of than he did when it came to getting on the man's bad side since she was facing it head on and he was just doing what he could to survive. All he wanted to do was keep his head down in Woodbury so he could make his escape relatively easily if he ever actually found Daryl and now with Andrea's help, he had a real chance of doing just that. The least he could do to repay her, even though he would never admit he did, was to let Michonne go; a Dixon didn't leave debts unpaid. Merle was lost in his thoughts before the kid with him started talking bullshit out his ass about keeping the hunt going since it was getting to be lunch time and he was sick of hunting the woman down just for a damn sword.
"Come on, she couldn't have made it that far," Neil said, looking impatient now that he'd gotten a taste of the kill.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no," Merle told him. "We're done. We're gonna grab a car and haul our ass home. This has been a good day's work."
"But she...she killed Tim and Crowley!" he insisted.
"Yep, and you messed her up pretty bad," Merle said, turning around from picking up a second gun. "Anyway, she's heading straight to the red zone. She's as good as dead."
"What do we tell the Governor?"
"What the hell you think we tell him?" Merle said, giving the boy a hard look. "Tell him we killed her. Like I said, man, she's as good as dead."
"I'm gonna keep going," Neil told him, not willing to lie to the Governor and not caring about what Merle said.
"She ain't right in the head. She's gonna die. She ain't worth our time. Definitely not our blood, now let's go," he said, walking away and ending the argument.
"This is some serious shit. That's what you said! I'm not gonna lie to the Governor about it."
"You're right," he said, deciding a little more blood didn't matter if it meant keeping himself alive and not having to spill a woman's. "Can't cut corners. You've come along pretty quick their kid. How do you say your name again, kid?"
Neil fixed him with a hard stare, "Gargulio."
"Gargulio," Merle repeated. "Hear that bird?"
As the boy turned his head, Merle pulled his pistol, aimed, and fired with such precision that there wasn't anything else could have been done to stop him. He repeated the boy's name as he picked up his gun and walked off into the woods knowing there was a place not too far away that had cars. Hopefully at least one of the cars would start so he didn't have to walk all the way back to Woodbury and waste the better part of the day on a fruitless and meaningless hunt. It was fucking hot out and he'd already stripped himself of his top shirt to wipe the blood off his face and get himself cooled off since he didn't have any water with him. He walked out of the woods, finding himself behind the strip mall he'd known about, walking around to the front with every intention of finding a car until he heard voices. Inching closer, he saw a tall, light-haired woman talking to someone he couldn't see or hear about how they could hear the walkers wherever it was they called home.
"And where is it y'all good people callin' home?" he called out, coming into view with his gun raised.
Two guns were raised in return as shock crossed both men's faces, "Merle?"
Merle laughed and put his gun down, raising his arms in surrender, "Wow!"
He tried to take a few steps forward to get a good look at the China-man, but his little girlfriend cocked her gun and raised it higher, "Back the hell up!"
"Okay, okay, honey," he said as he stopped and took a single step back.
"You made it," Glenn said, causing Maggie to look at him.
"Can you tell me, is my brother alive?" Merle asked him. "Huh?"
Glenn looked down and then sighed out, "Yeah."
"Hey, you take me to him and I'll call it even on everything that happened up there in Atlanta, no hard feelings," he told the man. "Huh?" When the man didn't answer him and instead looked at the blade attached to his stump, Merle started laughing, "You like that? Yeah. Well, uh, I found myself a, uh, medical supply warehouse. Fixed it up myself. Pretty cool, huh?"
"We'll tell Daryl you're here, and he'll come out to meet you," Glenn told him.
"Hey, the fact that we found each other is a miracle! Won't see me complainin' on waitin' a little while longer to see my baby brother," Merle said as a shit eating grin grew on his face, it falling off his face when he saw Martinez's truck rolling up from behind them. "Shit, girly, get the fuck outta here," he told Maggie, running back to his gun and picking it up, not sure how the hell he was going to get the three of them out of this situation. "Sorry, China-man, but you're gonna have ta come with me if you want your girl to make it."
"I'm not leaving," the girl stubbornly said.
Merle marched over to her as close as possible not caring about the guns on him, "If you don't leave now, one a the men from my town are gonna see ya. They see ya, they'll take you to the town with 'em. You leave, ya might stand a chance of gettin' outta here."
"What are you talking about?" Glenn asked, but it was too late.
"Shit, here we go," Merle said, raising his retrieved gun at them. "Follow my lead, Glenn, and ya might get outta here with little more'n a busted face, your girl too."
Before he could explain anything else, two of the other scavengers showed up with Martinez, "Everything alright here, Merle?"
"Just tryin' ta convince these fine people to come back to town with us," he said, hoping Glenn would pick up on the lie as easily as he had the psycho bitch's way back when.
It was his woman who said, "We aren't going anywhere with you."
What happened next was completely out of Merle's control as the two were de-armed, blindfolded, and placed into the back of Martinez's pick-up. He could see Michonne hiding behind a car as they drove away, bringing his arm up with his palm out in an attempt to warn her to stay put a while longer, earning him a quizzical glare. Merle rode with the couple all the way back to Woodbury, the only one in the back with them so that he could tell them what they needed to do and what they could expect. He quietly warned them to keep their traps shut and the girl to just go along with whatever the Governor would demand. He assured them that the man wouldn't rape her but he would try to scare her into talking by making it seem like he would. If that tactic didn't work, though, they'd drop it since while they were sick in the head, they weren't quite that depraved just yet. It was all he could do to stop himself from just kicking them out of the truck and jumping out with them to make a run for it but if he did do that they would be gunned down before they made it five feet.
As they rolled through the back gate of Woodbury and into the warehouse section, Merle gave them one final warning to the two to trust him and keep their heads down before turning back into the Merle that Woodbury knew. He couldn't afford to be soft in front of the people who looked to him to either do their dirty work or protect them. The warnings he'd given Glenn and his girl didn't count as being soft, though; they knew where his brother was and he needed to get them out of there so he could see Daryl again. That was all it was, not being soft, and he kept telling himself that as he started looking for Andrea as he soon as he'd taken care of Glenn and Maggie. He locked them in separate rooms and promised he'd be back soon, nodding his head at Glenn and putting a finger to his lips to make sure the man kept his mouth shut. He didn't find Andrea, though, so he headed towards the Governor's apartment and knocked on the door only for the Governor to answer wearing only a robe, even though he still stood aside to let him in.
"Company?" he asked.
"Just Chrystal," came the reply.
"Hey, Merley," said woman said as she sauntered into the room and sat her naked ass on a table. "Saw your girl Andrea earlier. She mentioned a girl named T to Phil, here. She from your group?"
"Yeah, crazy bitch. Put me in my place good a couple times," Merle responded.
"You can talk more on that later," the Governor said, giving her a look before turning his sights back to Merle. "How'd it go?"
"We lost all three guys," Merle told him. "Tim, Crowley, the other one."
"Gargulio," the Governor replied as Merle nodded. "Jesus."
"Yeah, she cut Tim down, put her sword right through him. Then biters got in the middle of it, then I got her," he said as if he hadn't just laid one big old lie out at the end.
"Damn. Well, we'll dress it up, give 'em a heroes funeral. You tell a story. A supply run gone sideways. Do you have 'em?" Merle gave him an odd look. "Her head. The sword."
Merle had seen this coming and gave him the answer he'd rehearsed in his head, "Um, we got caught in a crowd. The kid had the head, Crowley had the sword. They both got all tore up. I got somethin' else for you, though. A guy I used to know from the Atlanta camp and his pretty little girlfriend."
"They know Andrea?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Anyone else?"
"Don't know. Found 'em on the return trip. Martinez helped scoop 'em up. From the looks of 'em, they gotta be set up pretty good. I'll find out where."
"You do that."
~x~
"I loved her," Rick told her once again as they made their way slowly to the cell block. "I couldn't put it back together. I thought it was...I made a deal with myself, I would keep her alive. I'd find a place and fix that and then...I couldn't open that door. I couldn't risk it. I was gonna keep her alive, Carl, the baby, and then...I thought there'd be time. I loved her. I love her. I couldn't put it back together. I should have said it. I should have..."
"Rick, ya got ta realize somethin'. Ya not alone. Ya got Carl, the baby, the othas, me. We're all here for ya and we're all goin' ta keep each otha safe, ya hear? Lori loved ya 'til the end. Ya know damn well she'd want ya ta keep goin', keep the kids safe."
"I know. I know," he said as he cried.
"Should a seen Daryl holdin' 'Little Ass-kicker,' as he calls her," Tea told him, trying to alleviate the sadness just a little.
"He's held her?" Rick said, sounding shocked.
"Yeah, he's actually really good with 'er. So's Carl."
"God, Carl," Rick said as he realized he'd left his son to himself in his grief.
"Daryl and I got 'im, don' worry," Tea told him, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I talked ta him last night, well, more like was a sponge for 'is tears like I was ya's, though he was infinitely quieta," she laughed. "Seriously, Grimes men aren' fuckin' faucets, I swear! Little Lady don' even cry as much as the two a ya when she's fussin'!" she joked, earning a good chuckle from Rick who looked grateful. "It's good the two a ya get it out. Not healthy ta keep it in."
"Like Daryl?" Rick asked.
"Ya don' see him when we're alone," Tea retorted.
"Can't say I'd want to," he quipped back as they turned the corner into the corridor leading to the commons.
"Yeah, my lily white ass is prolly the last thing ya want ta see," she said, earning a crooked grin from Rick as he walked into the room.
Almost as soon as he entered, Tea could see the change in his demeanor as he saw Hershel holding Little Lady in his arms. Rick was simply in awe of his daughter while a genuine smile graced his face as he took her into his arms and held her up to look at her before tucking her head under his chin. He gave the babe a kiss while looking around the room like a proud father should, though he still looked a little off due to being mentally drained and his emotions wildly swinging in his grief. It would take a while for him to get his head on straight again, but Tea considered it a win that he was at least centered back in reality. Tea smiled softly at the sight of him with his baby, warmth spreading through her chest before the pain touching family moments always brought set in. It was so easy putting everyone else back together, but it was hard to contend with her own inner turmoil let alone for her to truly move past how her parents had treated her.
Neither of her parents, for as long as she remembered, had ever cared about her outside of when they wanted to look good in front of others before quickly reminding her of her place as soon as company left. Her earliest memory was of when she was two and basically left in her room all day every day because even then preferring her planned-for older sister than her accidental self. The memories of love shown to the public tainted by the abuse done in the home and the way she was thrown into the basement room, her birthdays celebrated with beatings and cuts to her back after the party they threw for appearances was over. She had never once felt a genuine kind touch until Jesse had hugged her when she caught her slicing her arm up for the first time and it had been so unexpected that Tea hadn't had time to get her arm away, covering them both in her blood even as she tried to pull out of the woman's arms. Watching Rick with Little Lady was difficult and made her bit the inside of her cheek, hard, as she stifled back the emotions. She and many of the others followed Rick and the others up the stairs and out to the courtyard, walking out and watching the horizon as Rick held his daughter in his arms for the first time. Tea looked out over the fence-line and saw the walkers that had started piling there, but something about one of them made her do a double take as Rick handed Little Lady over to Carl, who passed her off to Beth.
"Ya seein' this?" she said, pointing out to what she had seen.
"Yeah," Rick replied, pulling out his gun.
Along the fence line, among the walkers, someone was walking up with a what looked to be a shopping basket although none of them could tell at this distance what was in it. The dark skinned woman they saw seemed to be having some trouble with her leg as she stood holding the fence while more walkers came up. She and Rick shared a look before they left the field to go into the dog walk, Sophia running up behind them before Tea turned back and told her to go back and keep Little Lady safe. As the walkers began to notice the woman, who fought them with swords, Rick and Tea managed to get out of the fence-line and help the woman while Carl came down to help. Rick went for the woman while Carl grabbed the shopping basket, Tea aiding in making sure the walkers couldn't get to them. They made their way back into the safety of the fence and Rick laid the woman down to assess her injuries and make sure she hadn't been bitten. Tea took a close look at her face before gasping in shock as she recognized the woman from where she had trained back in Atlanta.
"Holy shit!" she told Rick, pointing at the woman. "It's Ms. Hawthorne!"
