"Oh, man," Glenn stared out of the window at a row of houses, each of which had been burnt to the ground. It was a secluded area with no sign of walkers. "That would have been perfect."

Ace made no effort to see what he was talking about, not willing to look at another dead end. They had been on the road for weeks, and she was becoming numb to the idea of finding them a forever home. Her head fell against her window, but her gaze remained distant as she stared at the treeline.

"Don't fret," Hershel said. "We'll find something."

She wanted to believe him; she really did. It was shocking that Hershel could keep his hopes up; the same man that wanted to be left alone said, if I die, so be it. It was understandable, though. He did get both of his daughters back, safe and alive, while Ace had been alone since the beginning. She only wished he had that kind of hope when she was getting him to leave the farm.

There was movement at Ace's side as Beth shifted next to her, sitting up in her seat. She had been lying against her dad's chest so still that Ace thought she might have been asleep for the entire ride.

Ace wished she could sleep. She needed it; her head was pounding, and her face was still hurting from the bruises that had been left on her face over a week ago. They had started to fade now, a much lighter purple was under her skin. Every time she tried to get shut eye, the car would jerk her back awake. Eventually, she gave up trying and knew her body would make her sleep when it wanted to.

For days, Ace had been growing silent.

It was becoming too difficult to pretend to have any kind of hope, to even force a smile at Carl. She even avoided him a bit more, knowing it wasn't fair or good for him to see her this way. She couldn't pretend for him, just as she couldn't pretend for herself.

Not anymore.

Ace barely noticed when someone spoke to her, zoned out with a blank mind, watching the distance. When she did, it took all of her energy to just make a sound of acknowledgement, or even a nod of the head. Talking was too much, even one word answered made her sick and tired.

"Do you need anything? Painkillers, maybe?" Glenn was asking.

Ace shook her head, not bothering to look in his direction. She silently begged him to leave her, to stop the talking. But that just wasn't Glenn.

"How about when we stop driving, I sit in the back with you guys and we play some cards? We could teach Beth to play Rummy?"

Another shake of the head. Silence followed. Glenn was getting it.

"Well, if you need anything, just say."

Guilt and relief filled Ace. She hated it, feeling like a jerk. She couldn't help it, it was like her system was against everyone and anything. It was better to just be alone.

When they had stopped the car around half an hour later, Glenn told Ace to stay in the car while they got out to search around. Ace didn't argue or even reply. Glenn shot a concerned glance in the rearview mirror to see her eyes open, forehead against the window and staring wordless into nothing.

"How is she?" Maggie asked.

Her and Glenn were searching a mini van that was abandoned on the side of the road, some others searching the house not far from them. They could still see Ace from where they were.

"Quiet," Glenn answered with a frown, reaching into the passenger side to unlock the back door.

Maggie slid the door open noisily, they both glanced around, checking for walkers, "I'm sure she'll come around, she just needs time. It was awful what happened to her, and she's been having a rough time as it was."

Glenn didn't know what to say, he was sure Maggie was right, but it didn't make him feel better. "When we're done here, do you need me to take over driving? It's been a while."

Maggie shook her head, "I'm good for now."

Glenn watched her climb into the back, then turned, alert for any threats as Maggie searched the van for any supplies.

Glenn got out of the car first, followed quickly by Ace. She needed to stretch her legs, and with everyone leaving the vehicle in front of them, she assumed they would be there for a while.

"Why are we stopping?" Glenn asked as he neared the first car.

Daryl pointed out quickly before speaking, "Look."

Ace followed his stare, her eyes landing first on a metal gate. Above the gate, written in metal letters, were the words Wiltshire Estates. Then she saw the town, large houses confined within the fences and walls.

It was empty: no walkers outside, none inside.

"I think we've hit the jackpot," Rick said, his fists coming to sit on his hips as he scanned the town.

"How far are we from the city?" Carol asked, reminding everyone of all the issues they had living too close to Atlanta.

"Twenty miles or so," Rick answered. "We should be relatively safe here."

T-Dog peered around before saying, "Man, if the snow didn't have us going ten miles an hour, we would've missed this place."

"It looks perfect," Lori took a step forward. "We could make a new life here."

"It does look promising," Rick agreed.

Ace didn't understand their excitement over this place. Sure, it was protected from the fences, but they had no idea what could be behind the walls. They hadn't even stepped foot inside the gated community, and everyone was already planning their new future here.

"Okay," Rick started, turning back to the others. "Let's all have a look around, but don't spread too far apart. Let's just check these first few houses for today. We don't know just how abandoned this place really is, and it's going to get dark soon, so stay sharp."

"Keep that gate open," Daryl said, waving his hand back at T-Dog. "Keep an eye out. Don' wanna be scrambling to get outta here if shit goes sideways."

"I'll stand guard here, then," T-Dog called back.

Daryl waved a hand at him in acknowledgement, following the rest of the group inside the town.

"Wanna take this one?" Rick turned back to Daryl.

"Le's do it."

They walked up to the front door as Daryl slammed his hand into the wood three times. Rick wondered what he was doing until he heard a bang in return, followed by muffled groaning inside.

"Only sounds like one," Daryl said.

"Let's not take that on faith," Rick told him. "There could be more."

Daryl nodded, pulling his knife out ready and reaching for the handle. He looked back at Rick, who nodded, his hatchet at the ready in his hand as he waited for the door to open. Daryl finally yanked the handle and pushed it open, revealing just one walker behind the door.

Daryl stepped in front of Rick, swinging his knife into the corpse's brain and immediately took it down. It was quick. Rick just stood there, watching him.

"Wanna drag the body out now or later?" Daryl looked back over his shoulder at Rick.

"Later," Rick said. "Let's just make sure there are no more before we try clearing out any bodies."

They entered the passageway of the house, with a few doors leading off to other rooms and stairs at the side. Rick looked around, his eyes wide as he shook his head, taking in the sheer size of the building.

"These houses are massive," he exclaimed.

Daryl grunted in response. They were big, almost too big. Who needed to live in a house with this many rooms?

They moved through the ground floor together, each holding their weapons at the ready. Daryl switched his knife out for the crossbow when he entered the house, so he walked into the rooms first, aiming around until he knew there were no more walkers.

Eventually, they finished their search, "First floor is clear; we should see if there are any supplies before checking upstairs."

"Sounds like a plan," Daryl shrugged.

They went to the kitchen first and started looking around for any food that could have been left behind by the previous owners. Rick dug around in the top cupboards, finding things that were no longer edible at this point, perishables like bread that had long gone mouldy.

He looked back over his shoulder at Daryl, who was pulling tin cans out of the bottom cupboard across the room.

"Hey," Rick called, getting his attention. "I wanted to say, what you did for Ace," Rick spoke up, partly unsure where he was going. "You didn't have to do that."

Daryl was quiet for a second, not looking at Rick, "Yer just mad ya didn' get to do it yerself."

Rick forced down a smile, "You might be right."

It was true, though. Rick had been seconds away from pulling the trigger himself, but when Daryl had finished beating the man, he immediately stood up and put a bullet in his head. Rick would have done it himself, Daryl just got there first. So long as he was dead, Rick didn't care too much.

"It's lucky she was able to use the horn, or we would never have known anything was wrong," Rick acknowledged.

They hadn't had the chance to talk about the attack for the past few days. With Ace always around, he didn't want to bring up the topic again because she was already having a hard enough time as it was. He didn't think they'd ever get the chance to go over what happened again.

"I wonder if she would've done it," Rick's voice was quieter now, as he kept his eyes in the cupboard, still searching for leftover supplies. "If she would've killed him, I mean."

"Maybe," Daryl shrugged.

Rick glanced over his shoulder before turning back and continuing what he was doing, "That's not really an answer."

Daryl squinted at him, turning away from the counter, "What do you wanna hear, Rick? You wanna know if she had the chance, she'd shoot him dead? I dunno, doubt she does either," he said. "If she got her gun, she woulda shot him, yeah. Because what else is there to do? But I can't say if she woulda killed him. I don' got the answers you want, man."

Rick shook his head, "I don't even know what answers I want."

"So stop fishing then," Daryl snapped, turning back to whatever he was doing, yanking open another drawer, making the cutlery inside rattle at the sudden force.

Rick could only stare at him, having not expected him to get so worked up over it. Maybe the past few days had taken more of a toll than Rick realised, now wondering whether Ace was the only one they should be worried about.

"Never seen you like that before," Rick said quietly.

"What? So I was wrong?" Daryl snapped, getting defensive. "You giving me shit for killing someone that almost killed our own?"

"No, of course not," Rick shook his head. "I've had to do the same," Daryl knew he was referring to the bar, those two men he shot. He heard the story enough to understand why Rick killed those men, and part of the reason was that Ace was there. "Just . . . You don't seem the same."

"The same as what, Rick? I killed a guy . . . another guy," he corrected himself, remembering Dale. "We almost lost her. The hell do you want me to act like?"

Rick sighed, nodding his head, "You're right. I'm sorry."

Daryl went quiet for a moment, moving into the next room to look for supplies and cool off. Rick followed him, knowing that the kitchen had been cleared now, and they should probably keep clearing the houses before it got dark.

They each checked through random cupboards and drawers in silence, ignoring almost everything that had no use to them. There were a few batteries that Rick shoved in his pocket, but other than that, the room was clear.

After a moment of standing around, Daryl exhaled through his nose, shaking his head, "I knew the kid's dad . . . 'fore all this."

Rick's head shot to look at him, his head tilting in confusion. He wanted to ask for more, but Daryl was never very chatty. He knew this may be the best he was getting from him, so he nodded like he understood where this was going.

"Owen, he . . . the man was my best friend," Daryl continued, his eyes trailing down. "If he knew what happened the other day, that she almost died . . ."

Rick nodded, now aware of what he was talking about, "I get it."

Daryl pursed his lips, "I dunno if he's out there. If we're ever gonna see him again, but I'm just tryna keep her alive, for Owen. I owe him that much."

"You knew Ace before?" Rick asked.

"She didn't know me, not really," Daryl shook his head. "Only ever saw her a few times; she wasn't old enough to remember me. Didn't even know it was her till I saw the hoodie she used to wear 'round camp. I was there when he was designing a logo in high school."

Rick tried hard to remember the hoodie he was talking about and the logo, but he never really looked for it. It was a little strange that she was wearing a hoodie with a mechanic workshop badge, and no one realised she was a mechanic.

"Then I heard her talking," Daryl added, making Rick chuckle. "Owen's wife was from somewhere in Britain; he moved there when they married and came back a few years later."

"You two didn't stay in touch?" Rick asked.

"For a while, he let me work in his shop when shit got bad," Daryl said. "Then Merle got outta jail, and I joined him. Wish I didn't."

"Doing what?" Rick asked, but Daryl remained quiet. He decided that Daryl probably wouldn't answer with any amount of pushing, so instead, he asked, "So you haven't told Ace?"

Daryl shook his head, "Nah, haven't told her."

"Maybe you should," he said. "I'm sure Ace would like to know. She was having a hard time as it was on the road. Maybe this will cheer her up a little, make her feel better. "

"I guess," Daryl shrugged.

They each left the room, walking to the stairs to check upstairs. Before Daryl could ascend more than halfway, Rick stopped him.

"I'm glad it never came down to it," he said. "Her killing him."

Daryl nodded, "Me too."

"Let's take this one," Carl walked up to a door.

For a little while, he, Beth and Ace had been walking around and taking in the size of the community. They assumed a place as big as this would have been overrun, or made uninhabitable in some way, but it seemed pretty deserted.

"Shouldn't we wait for someone?" Beth looked to Ace, who just shrugged her shoulders.

"They're all busy," Carl reminded them. "We should help clear this place out."

Beth frowned. She hoped that Ace would say something, tell Carl that it was a bad idea, like she normally would've, but Ace just walked to the window and looked through the glass for any walkers.

Maybe Ace hadn't said anything because they all had cleared houses before, but Carl always went with his dad and Beth rarely went without Maggie. Ace had more experience than either of them, but even she was terrified of the walkers, Beth noticed.

"I don't know," Beth pursed her lips, turning back to Carl.

"Ace?" Carl questioned, looking at the other girl.

Ace hated that he would push for the answer, but Carl didn't really know any better. She didn't want to seem snappy, but she couldn't really be convinced by the idea he was presenting.

"I don't know," Ace copied Beth's answer.

Carl rolled his eyes, joining her at the window and looking through into the house just as she had been. He didn't see any movement from inside, and couldn't really hear anything either.

"It seems empty," Carl said.

Beth sighed, glancing back around for a grownup or someone to join them, but as Carl said, they were all busy, clearing their own houses, "Okay, but if we can't deal with it ourselves, we go and get someone."

"Deal," Carl smiled.

He pulled his gun from his holster, and waited for the others to get ready. Ace noticed that Beth was holding a crowbar. Not everyone was fortunate enough to have a knife, though Ace decided that she would have preferred the crowbar, because it had more range than her knife did.

She hated going anywhere near the walkers, even to take them down with her knife, and only wished that she had something longer to keep her distance when taking them down. Ace hadn't looked at the other weapons they'd gathered, because she always had what she needed.

She pulled her knife from her holster, nodding to Carl to open the door.

The first room was empty, just a passageway that led to other rooms on the ground floor. Ace moved inside first, turning her head to look through each doorway, but she didn't see anything else at either side.

"Come on," Carl walked past her, through one of the doors and towards the back of the house. Ace had to catch up with him quickly before he entered a room with a walker or did something that would most definitely get himself killed.

"Stay behind me," Ace whispered.

"You sound like my dad," Carl rolled his eyes.

She grabbed his shoulder to stop him from walking ahead, and twisted her body so that she was walking in front of him. "If we're doing this just listen to me."

Carl sighed and dropped back, following Ace around the house. He didn't like how Ace was acting now, any time she spoke she was angry or fed up. Ace poked her head around the corner into the kitchen, but saw nothing, no walkers.

Beth turned to Ace, "Let's try checking upstairs."

Ace nodded, and led the charge. Beth had changed her tune knowing there was really no choice but to go in and help them. If something happened to Carl, she knew that Rick or Lori would never get over it. It would be a big loss for the group, so they couldn't just let him do these things alone. As much as he wanted to.

Ace looked either way down the hallway before turning for an open door. Before she even took a step off the landing, the floorboard squeaked under her foot. Ace looked down at the ground, but her eyes were dragged back up when she heard a noise.

"Walker!" Beth called.

It came out of the doorway, spotting the kids on the top of the stairs. Ace moved quickly, tripping the man over, before grabbing her knife from the holster. She pressed her foot into the middle of his chest, before kneeling down and swinging it down into the walker's skull.

Thankfully, it died after one swing, which made her sigh in relief. When she looked up, her eyes widened when she saw another one stammering his way through the door.

"Got it," Carl raised his gun and shot down the walker, almost instantly, his shot muffled by the silencer.

They waited in silence for a moment.

"Is that all of them?" Beth asked.

"I don't know," Carl said after a beat.

Ace stood up, kicking the body to the side with her foot, making room for the others to squeeze past and head for the open door. Carl peaked his head around, and looked back when he saw that the room was empty.

"That's it, I think."

"Good," Beth said.

They both entered the bedroom together.

The walls were painted a light blue, and there were various posters scattered over the walls. Mainly rock bands and sport teams, some things Ace recognised as she followed into the room behind them, others, not so much. There was a computer on the desk, and a pot of pens and some books.

Carl walked to the window, looking around at the town. From this view, he could see the front walls where they left the cars, T-Dog walking around the vehicles keeping an eye out for any walkers.

"Kids?"

Carl looked down into the street to see his mother standing in the middle of the road, frowning at him, "Yeah?" He called back.

"Come down here!" She told him. "We're setting up for the night."

"Okay, we're coming!" Carl looked back at the girls behind him. "We should go."

Carl left the room first.

Beth and Ace shared one last look before following after him. They hadn't checked every room upstairs, but after all the commotion they caused, they decided that if there were any more around, they would have made their locations clear.

When they finally caught up with him, Carl was talking to his dad, telling him the story of what just happened to them in the house. Ace flinched, knowing that it wasn't going to go down well with Rick.

Beth left her standing there when she saw her dad entering one of the houses, and decided to follow him instead.

"—Ace took down one walker, and I shot the other."

Rick really didn't know how to react, Ace could see. Carl had cleared houses before, killed walkers, and so had Ace and Beth, but this time they were alone. If anything had happened, there would've been no one there to help them.

"You should come get us next time," Rick said, which destroyed Carl's excitement in seconds. His head dropped, the hat covering his face as he glared at the ground. It's not what he intended, but he just wished that someone had been there with them. After letting out an audible sigh, Rick placed his hands on his belt and said. "Good job, son."

Carl looked up and smiled.

"Come on, now," Rick said, "inside."

He nodded, "Okay."

Carl ran past Ace and towards the house.

Ace waited for a second for Rick to say something, wondering if he would tell her about not taking his son to clear houses alone. She could tell that he wasn't on board with the idea after hearing the story, so she expected him to say something to her about it.

Instead, he just walked over to her and tapped her shoulder, "C'mon."

He gestured with his head to one of the first houses in the gate. She heard the engines behind them as T-Dog was driving the cars in through the gates. When everyone was inside, and the front gates had been closed, they all gathered around in the front room of the house.

"What's the plan?" Lori asked.

Rick didn't answer her, but instead looked for the group, "Everyone come into this room," Rick called, and waited for everyone to join him in the sitting room. "We're going to stay in this house for tonight, cover more ground tomorrow."

"And it's safe?" Carol asked.

"It's going to be, T-Dog and I are going to check out the rest of the house, everyone stay here until we get back. Daryl, keep an eye outside. We still don't know that all the town is as deserted as it seems."

Rick and T-Dog left the group and the room, turning to clear out the rest of the house. They entered the front room that led upstairs, with multiple doors around the passageway that hadn't been checked.

"I'll take a look around upstairs," T-Dog said.

"Yell if you see anything," Rick told him.

"Depending on what I see, I might not have much of a choice."

Rick moved through the ground floor, opening any doors he could find, mainly to see where they led. He couldn't hear anything and didn't see any walkers, which was a good sign for him.

"Looks like there's a basement!" Rick shouted up. "These houses are bigger than they look!"

When he opened the door, there were two walkers standing at the top of the stairs, blocking the way to the basement.

"Oh, shit!"

Rick tried pushing the door closed, but they blocked the door with their arm, and no amount of pushing would break the walker. He pulled his hatchet out and swung it at the first one, plunging the blade into the first corpse's neck.

When he tried to pull it back to take another swing, it just yanked the walker closer to him, giving it the leverage to lunge for him, falling down on top of Rick. His back slammed hard against the floor with the extra weight on top of him.

"Daryl! Glenn!" He tried calling out.

The two of them ran out from the living room, stopping in the doorway when they saw what had happened to Rick. There was a thudding from the stairs as the T-Dog.

"Lift the head, Rick!" Daryl called. "Can't get a clear shot!"

He tried doing what they said, but couldn't push the two bodies of dead weight off of him. T-Dog rushed forward, grabbing one of the walkers by the shirt and dragging it off of Rick, giving him the room to push the second one up for Daryl to take the shot.

It went off with a bang, and the body fell limp, so Rick rolled it off of him, pushing himself to his feet.

T-Dog had taken the metal pipe he had been using as a weapon and slammed it down into the skull of his own walker, and repeated that action until it had stopped trying to reach up for him.

He looked back at the others, "We good?"

"For now," Rick panted. "We need to clear out that basement," he said, and looked to the stairs. "Glenn, get your flashlight."

"On it," he said with a nod.

Glenn returned a few moments later, holding his flashlight out to Rick, who took it from him and nodded, "Can you two go back with the others, me and T have it from here."

"Sure thing," Daryl said.

"Okay," Glenn nodded.

When they left, Rick turned to T-Dog and nodded towards the door, "Shall we?"

He nodded, twisting the handle and opening the door to the basement. Rick shone the light down and through the door, looking for more signs of walkers downstairs.

"Listen out," Rick told him. "We'll probably hear something before we see it."

They shone the light across the room over the washing machine and dryer, before they finally heard it. Then finally the light reached a woman, dead as the walkers that attacked Rick. She snarled at the light, and walked forwards.

"We got one," Rick said.

"On it," T-Dog called.

He walked down the stairs, looking over both shoulders to check there weren't anymore before going to take down the walker.

"I think that's it down here," Rick said, walking downstairs to help T-Dog with the body. "Was upstairs okay?"

"Yeah, I was doing a final pass when I heard you scream," T-Dog grunted when they started dragging the body upstairs, but continued talking. "Looks like everything but the basement was clean."

"Seems like we're having some good luck for once," Rick nodded.

"The house is clear now," Rick informed them. "We're going to check it for supplies. The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can turn in for the night."

Everyone dispersed to random areas of the house, gathering what supplies they normally would if they had been on the road: blankets, pillows, food, water. Ace didn't understand why, if they were supposed to be staying. They probably just wanted to get everything together so they didn't have to go looking around for everything later on.

Either way she didn't want to help gather things that other people were already searching for, so she decided to go and find her own place to clear out. After wandering through the passageway and then down a hall, Ace opened a door that led into the garage.

She didn't really know what she was looking for; after finding the workshop, she had all the tools she needed. There were always things she could scavenge, whether it be more tools or car parts, so she entered the room.

There was a shelf on the back wall, holding rows of cardboard boxes. Some of them were labelled in black marker. Ace looked for any that said car or tools, but she didn't see anything like that.

She stepped forward and pulled one of the boxes towards her, standing on her tiptoes to look inside. There was a golden, shiny, rope like decoration which she realised was tinsel knotted at the top of the box. After digging a little deeper she found baubles and other Christmas items that would be strung up in the holidays.

Wait, was it the holidays now?

There was snow outside, after how long it had been snowing it felt to her like the middle of Winter. They may have even passed Christmas now, maybe. Ace wouldn't have been able to tell one way or the other.

But seeing the decorations made her chest tighten. This was the first Christmas she was spending without her dad, through no choice of her own. She wished there was some way to see him, to contact him, but this wasn't like when she went to Britain and could phone him. If he was out there, she had no way of knowing.

On Christmas, no matter where they were, her dad would make sure she had presents. The dinner was always so big that they would never fit anything else in their stomach, and every year, he bought dessert just in case they wanted something afterwards, which never happened.

She just wanted her dad back, and the fact that he hadn't been here had really been upsetting for her. She didn't adjust as easily to life on the road, and she just needed him around. And after the attack two days ago, she just felt awful. She had been really struggling trying to keep it together, and she knew it wasn't working.

What a way to spend the holidays, she thought.

Ace shoved the box back on the shelf, and sent the baubles clattering together. She tried pulling out a different box to see what was inside, and this time she found some chains. Tyre chains. She recognised them by the bungee rope that was tied around some of the metal loops.

She dragged the box out from the shelf and dropped it on the ground, kneeling down beside it and pulling out four sets of the chains. They were for the tyres, there was no doubt about that. Ace dug around in the box, but she didn't see many other things relating to cars apart from a manual.

There was a step behind her that made her look over her shoulder, "Hey, whatcha find?"

Daryl was leaning against the doorway behind her, his arms crossed. Ace grabbed the chain from the ground next to her, and lifted them up to show him.

"Nice find," Daryl stepped over some of the boxes to join her inside the garage, kneeling down to take a look at the tyre chains. "A lil late now, considerin' we found this place."

Ace only shrugged. He was right though, it was a late find considering they were staying here now. That's what made her feel more useless than anything.

"Whatcha thinking?" Daryl asked. "Put 'em on the truck?"

Again, Ace shrugged.

If she found enough for all the cars then it would decrease any travel time they had through the snow, but they only had enough for one house here. If they were going to be staying here for a while, then maybe they only needed enough for one car.

Any run they went on, any trip to get more supplies only ever needed one car, in their experience, at least. She could only hope this would be enough for them, right now.

Daryl pursed his lips, unsure of what to do now. He looked around the room, before standing up to check some of the boxes.

She sat up on her knees again, looking through the box but there was nothing else and this was the only one she could see with any car-related items inside.

"Don' see anythin' else," Daryl said.

Ace nodded in agreement.

"C'mon, I think they're getting ready to turn in for the night."

Ace nodded, pushing herself to her feet and following him out of the garage.

Daryl was right, everyone who had been searching through the house had now returned to the sitting room, and were waiting around for Rick's instructions.

Rick was the last to enter the room, clapping his hands together as he did so, "Okay, it's getting late and I'm itching to start searching this place tomorrow," Rick smiled. "I say let's hit the sack. It's be safer if we all slept upstairs tonight; as light as we all sleep now, we'd hear if something was coming up the steps. It'd also slow them down a great deal."

Ace assumed this meant that they weren't having anyone on watch, which she didn't like the idea of. No one argued, which she decided to take as a good sign. The alternative was that no one wanted to step to or argue with Rick.

"There's four bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs," he told them. "I know we were all wanting our own places to stay, but we have to bunk for one more night. Tomorrow we'll try and clear out some more homes and get everyone their own place to stay. Could even have all our own houses if that's what we wanted."

Ace felt herself frown. Would she end up in her own house alone? None of them were her family, so they weren't obligated to live with her anymore, especially if they had all this room, they wouldn't want her staying with them if she didn't have to.

"We could make a real shot of this," Rick said.

It relieved her that they finally found their place where they could stay. If this was going to be her forever home, she was going to try and make the most of it. This could finally be their chance.

"Grab your things, let's go get some sleep."

The bedroom door opened and closed behind Maggie, who was sitting on the landing, looking downstairs through the bannister. Even though Rick said they could all get some sleep, she still decided she wanted to keep watch anyway. Daryl had also been wandering around the upstairs hallway, but she soon lost track of him and didn't really see where he went.

The ground creaked as Glenn sat down beside her, his legs crossed and his knees pressed against the wooden slats of the railing.

"She's asleep," was the first thing he said.

"That's good," she nodded.

He had only been in the room for a few seconds, checking to see if Ace was awake or not. Beth and Hershel were also asleep in the same room, as Maggie and Glenn should have been, but they decided to stay awake and keep watch at least for an hour.

Glenn hummed out a response, earning a head tilt from Maggie, "What's wrong?"

"It's just . . ." Glenn huffed, shaking his head. "Nothing."

"No," Maggie said. "What is it?"

Glenn wasn't getting out of it, so after a beat he spoke up. "I just feel like . . ." He didn't know how to word what we meant, which made him pause for a second to think about it. "I'm the reason she's even here right now, with us."

Maggie frowned, "Ace?"

"Yeah."

"What do you mean?" She questioned.

Ace has been with this group since before Maggie even knew Glenn, so him saying that felt strange to her. She didn't know a lot about how any of them came to know each other, so she didn't really understand what he was talking about.

"Ace wasn't in the group to begin with," Glenn said. "Not like me, or Lori, or Carol. I went on this run, and Ace was just waiting around in this house for her dad to come back."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know," he shook his head. "She had this radio, she said she was talking to him the day he went on a run, and it broke. I don't know how long she was alone after that, but when I found her, she didn't have the parts to fix it. I tried getting her to come with us so she didn't have to be on her own, but she wouldn't."

Maggie listened quietly. She just assumed that Ace had been one of the survivors on the highway that Glenn told her about, that's how he met the group. Maggie assumed Ace was one of those people, she never expected that she would have been alone before that.

"I just feel like . . . If I hadn't found her that day, then she would still be there," he said. "She could have her dad back right now. None of this would have happened to her: the bar, Randall, the attack . . ."

Glenn trailed off for a second, shaking his head. He glanced at Maggie for a second, who was staring intently at him. His gaze moved back through the slats in the bannister.

"She'd be with him and safe."

"Or she could just as easily be alone right now," Maggie reminded him. "You know that."

Glenn sighed, "Maybe."

Maggie knew she'd have to say a lot more to convince him, from the look on his face, he had been thinking this for a while.

"Why did she decide to join you?" Maggie asked.

Glenn frowned, "She didn't, not really. Every time I drove down there, I kept seeing more and more walkers just wandering around. The town had been pretty deserted, but then it was different. I told the group and Shane said that we should bring her back to camp because we didn't know how long it'd be before the walkers got to her."

"And did they?"

"Ace said she saw one in a house once, but she didn't say much beyond that," Glenn tilted his head, seemingly unsure. He continued his story, "Well I brought Shane down, and he said that we could leave her dad a note and directions to the camp. She wasn't happy about it, but she decided to join us."

"But you aren't at the camp anymore," Maggie nodded, finally understanding.

"Yeah," Glenn nodded.

"I'm sure Ace doesn't blame you for any of that, Glenn. She may be upset that she had to leave her dad, but now she has people here to make sure she's safe."

"We're doing a good job at that," Glenn muttered.

"I know it's not ideal, but she's alive."

"Yeah," Glenn nodded. For now.