I could see the car pull up to the prison from the courtyard, relieved that it meant Rick and Daryl were back and safe. There hadn't really been a run where I hadn't gone, and this was the first time I'd been left here waiting in a long time.

Michonne opened the gate for them and moved out of the way as they drove the car through, leaving Michonne there to finish her watch, time that she partly used to kill walkers through the fence. She closed it quickly before any walkers could get inside.

Running over to the second gate, I pulled it backwards as quickly as I could so the car didn't have to stop, and they rolled up next to me. I pushed the gate closed again, and walked to the front of the car without looking inside. Rick got out as I passed his door, placing a hand on my shoulder. I saw Daryl get out the other side as well and was going to greet them until I heard a third door open. The unexpected sound made me do a double-take.

A boy my age stepped out from the car, maybe a year or two older. He had a brown flannel shirt under a blue jumper which I noticed when I saw one of his hands was holding the opposite shoulder as if he struggled to keep it up. His Ivy League haircut was messily swept back to the side, slightly overgrown and curly, but held back out of his eyes. His face had no expression as he looked around, eyes landing on me for a second, but he just moved on.

After a few seconds, he seemed content and closed the car door, which was when I saw it. The Python. He had the Python in his hand, with it aimed at the ground beside him. I didn't understand, Daryl still had his weapons but Rick's gun was in the hands of someone we didn't know.

Rick seemed to notice my look, because he held out a hand, "Ace—"

"—Why does he have your gun?"

My hand rested on my weapon, hand wrapped around the handle, which the person noticed. He stared at me, his eyes flicking down to my gun and then back to my face. His grip tightened, but he didn't raise the gun or make a move to shoot first.

Rick stepped in front of me, his hands up to prevent me from raising my own weapon. "I gave it to him."

I clenched my teeth, met Rick's eyes and asked, "Why?"

"He's hurt," Rick said. "We wanted to bring him to see Hershel, but he wanted to check the place out. I gave him my gun and said if I was lying about what we had here, then he could shoot me."

"That's the stupidest thing you've ever done," I muttered, my hand coming off my gun.

Rick gave a nod and stepped to the side so I could see the new person again. He was still staring at me, his eyes landing back on my weapon, seeing me not holding it anymore, so the grip loosened on the Python and his chest lowered as he released a long breath.

"Are we good?" Rick asked.

I frowned as I looked at him. "No."

"Okay," Rick nodded, taking the answer as the opposite of what I'd said.

"I'll get Hershel," Daryl muttered as he walked past.

As Daryl left, the stranger took a few steps towards us, before joining me and Rick at the front of the car. He didn't introduce himself, make any move to hand the gun back, and just remained silent. I stared at him expectantly, but it seemed like he had nothing to say about what was going on. My tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth to keep myself quiet and I just waited.

"Ace, this is Isaac," Rick introduced.

"Ace?" Isaac almost scoffed.

Despite my disinterest that already harboured a small dislike of the person in front of me, I held a hand out to him. "Nice to meet you."

Isaac just stared at me, glancing at my hand in dismay. After a moment of his blank stare, I realised that he would not return the gesture, so I awkwardly pulled my hand back and glanced at Rick, hoping he could in some way save this situation.

"Come on," Rick just nodded for Isaac to follow him. "I'll take you to see Hershel."

I considered leaving them, letting him take Isaac to Hershel while I went back to work, building new gates for the front of the prison. But with the way Rick had spoken about bringing him here, it seemed like there was something he hadn't said yet. I wanted to know what it was, just because of the way Rick was acting.

So I followed.

Daryl with Hershel, Sasha and Maggie were at one of the tables in the common room, with a few of the Woodbury people sitting around and talking amongst themself. They all perked at the presence of a new person, but promptly went back to what they were doing.

Rick walked Isaac down the stairs and instructed that he sit down at the table next to Hershel. "Nice to meet you, son," Hershel introduced. "I'm Hershel."

"Maggie," she gave a small wave and smiled at him.

"My daughter," Hershel clarified.

Sasha also raised a hand. "I'm Sasha."

Isaac just gave a nod at the information, but didn't return the gesture and introduce himself which made me quietly scoff and Daryl audibly rolled his eyes. Rick had to do it for him, "This is Isaac."

Isaac, who realised he still had Rick's gun in his hand, turned and handed it back to him. He probably realised by now that Rick's word was to be trusted, but the amount of elderly and kids around the common room that he didn't need to check the place out anymore.

"Well, Isaac," Hershel started. "I heard you had some issues out there. What seems to be the problem?"

"Just, uh, my wrist," Isaac answered simply, holding the elbow of his bard wrist in his opposite hand, so it rested more comfortably against his chest.

"Well," Hershel patted the table in front of him, "let me take a look at it."

Isaac placed his arm down across the table, hesitantly. I frowned as I watched him, and now his expression as Hershel started to prod at his arm was almost uncomfortable. I expected that it was because of the pain, but he did make a different face when Hershel squeezed a particular part of his wrist that made him wince in pain.

"How did this happen?" Hershel questioned as he continued his investigation.

"Your friend grabbed me," Isaac said, and I didn't miss the look he gave Daryl. "I landed on it."

Daryl just made a pfft sound, sitting on one of the tables behind Maggie and resting his elbows on his knees. Hershel sent a look back Daryl's way, who just turned away and waited for this all to be over, I could see.

"Yeah, he weren't stealin' my bag or nothin'," Daryl muttered sarcastically.

"Stealing?" Sasha questioned.

"I just . . ." Isaac went quiet for a second. "I just needed the stuff. You guys looked well off so I thought you'd be okay without it. You didn't have anything good anyway."

"What would've been good?"

"Food," Isaac said. "Water."

"Well we have those things here," Sasha said. "And you don't have to steal any of it."

Isaac just nodded and watched Hershel's hands as he twisted his arm over and looked at the colouring of his skin. I could see how it was already turning red from where I was standing, and it looked just as painful as my chest had felt a month ago.

"Hopefully this is just a sprain," Hershel said as he prodded at his wrist. "I've sent my son-in-law to bring a few wrist braces over. We've found a few recently and kept them for injuries like this. I always expected the first person to end up in one would be Ace here."

Isaac sent a look over his shoulder, his eyebrows raised and his lips tilted into an amused smirk. Thanks, Hershel. I had to suppress my eye roll and bite the inside of my cheek to keep my mouth shut, and I crossed my arms and leaned back against the railing.

"Funny," I muttered.

"Well, it does look like just a sprain, a very nasty one, but a sprain nonetheless. Which is fortunate, or it would've been his ass on the line," Hershel laughed breathy laughs as he nodded his head back to where Daryl was sitting behind them, and the gesture seemed to make Isaac smile as well.

We didn't have to wait for long for Glenn to arrive with the wrist braces. He held a few wrist braces in his arms and walked over to the table where we were now all gathered. He leaned over and dumped them all down in front of Hershel.

"You meant these, right?" He asked.

"Yeah," Maggie nodded. "You got it."

Glenn moved around the table, taking a seat next to Maggie giving a small wave to Isaac. "Hey, I'm Glenn."

"Isaac," he nodded.

"Hopefully one of these will fit," Hershel agreed, taking a blue brace from the table. "We should get one on before the swelling starts, then we'll give you something to help with the pain."

"Oh, that reminds me," Glenn stood up and reached into his pocket, before pulling out an orange bottle that rattled when he put them on the table. "I brought some pills."

Hershel placed Isaac's hand into the brace and started tightening the velcro straps tightly around his wrist. Isaac winced a little, squeezing his eyes closed until Hershel was done.

"There, all done. That should stop the swelling from getting too bad," Hershel said. "You'll need to wear it for a few weeks. It normally wouldn't be that long, but this sprain is a particularly bad one."

"Thanks," Isaac nodded.

"Take two of these for now," Hershel said, dragging the pill bottle his way.

"You can use my water," Sasha said and pushed a bottle his way.

Isaac's gaze switched between her and the bottle, and he shook his head. "I'm good."

He reached into his bag and pulled out his water bottle. He took two pills from the bottle and put them in his mouth, before then taking a large gulp of the water to swallow the pills down. When he was done he closed the pills and then put his water bottle away.

Isaac then looked over his shoulder to Rick. "Can we leave to get my mom now?"

"Your mom?" Sasha asked.

"He didn't want to bring her here if I was lying about the place," Rick said. "He wanted to check it out, and I said we could go back for her after."

"Where're y'all held up at?" Daryl asked.

"Lone Oak," Isaac said.

"Isn't that like a thirty-minute drive?" Rick questioned.

"I mean, it was," Glenn looked unsure. "There was a huge pile-up of cars on every road we tried to use to get there, and with the storms we've been having, some trees probably came down too. It'd take hours to get a car through there."

"We wouldn' get through 'fore nightfall," Daryl agreed.

Isaac looked between the three of them and clambered out of the seat. "No, no, no. You said we could go there right after."

"We're not talking about leaving her," Sasha said. "We wouldn't do that."

"No, we wouldn't," Rick agreed. "But we can't spend hours moving debris in the dark. It's too dangerous."

"I don't care!" Isaac shouted, getting the attention of everyone in the common room. "I'm not leaving her alone!"

"Calm down, son," Hershel tried to stop him.

"No! Anything could happen overnight, and you'd just leave her alone?" Isaac questioned. "What if she leaves? What if she gets hurt?"

I swallowed down a lump in my throat because I agreed with him. It shouldn't matter how long it'd take to get there, because whatever the situation, we should be there. Anything could happen in the span of a few hours, I was all too familiar with that concept. Not only that, but his mother was going to be worried about him if he didn't make it back.

"Do you have a way to contact her?" Maggie asked.

"Does it look like I have a way to contact her?" Isaac snapped.

"Hey," Glenn stood. "Ease up."

Isaac's jaw set, and he turned his head to the side. I could see the anger building in his expression, the way his lips moved as he ran his tongue inside his mouth, trying his best to keep himself calm, but it wasn't working. And why should it? It reminded me of how Daryl reacted when they left Merle on the roof, but the difference was they went back for him that day.

Why should he be forced to stay calm when his family could be dead?

"If you aren't going to take me, then let me go," Isaac said and then looked at Rick.

"You're hurt," Rick said calmly. "How are you gonna take out walkers?"

"I'll manage."

I agreed that he probably would, but if we just took him there, he'd have no reason to leave on his own. I didn't understand how we were supposed to keep him here when he was so adamant that he was going there, to find her.

"You wouldn' get a mile before gettin' grabbed," Daryl scoffed.

"You can't keep me here."

"Wanna bet?" Daryl questioned.

"I could go," I suggested, partly trying to diffuse Daryl. The other part of me really wanted to go, make sure this woman was okay and stop her from worrying about the disappearance of her son.

"No," Daryl denied immediately.

I bit my tongue, holding in a sigh as I stared at him. This was stupid, there was no reason not to go tonight. It would be dangerous, but in all fairness, so was everything else we'd done so far. I hated this, but no one was listening to me.

Why should we have a say in whether someone gets to see their family or not? We had not known these people enough to interfere in their lives in such a big way, and all he'd done to us was try to take a bag. I know that I had done much worse, my interference with people I didn't know wound up with people dead. Still, the fact that we were basically holding him hostage felt wrong.

"Why can't we just walk there?" I questioned again.

"Like a six-hour walk," Daryl said with a roll of his eyes. "Still wouldn' get there 'fore it gets dark."

"This is bullshit," Isaac muttered and grabbed his bag. "I'm going."

"I can't let you do that," Rick stopped him.

"I'm not your responsibility," Isaac said after a moment, still staring at Rick. "I'm not your problem. Let me go."

Rick didn't seem to have an answer to that, and I think Isaac may have been getting through to him because Rick didn't want to hold that responsibility anymore. He didn't want to be responsible if Isaac got hurt or injured, but I knew as much as Rick did that no matter what happened here, Isaac was his responsibility. Daryl hurt him, and now he was stuck with us.

"Your mom wouldn't want us to let you go when you're hurt," Maggie said. "How would she feel if something happened to you because we let you wander off in the dark?"

"Don't pretend like you'd know what she wants," Isaac said, holding in a snapping tone as he looked at Maggie, his eyes flicking to Glenn.

"She'd want you safe," Maggie said again.

"Son," Hershel stopped him in an understanding voice that still managed to show that he was in charge. "I get that you're angry, and you have every reason to be, but you won't make it Lone Oak in your condition—"

"—My condition was caused by your man," Isaac corrected. "I didn't ask for this."

"I know," Hershel agreed. "That should've been handled better and because of that you're stuck here, but we aren't going to leave her there. Tomorrow, at dawn, we will send out a group to get your mother and bring her here."

Isaac was still shaking his head, but it seemed like all the fight was beaten out of him. He looked defeated because no matter what he said, there was always something. Shane did the same thing to me to get me to leave the house, suggesting ideas and reasons that wore me down until eventually I just did what he said. I knew how crushing it was, even if he was going to get his mother back the next day.

I wanted him to keep fighting, to walk to the door, climb over the fence, whatever. Sometimes I wished I had done the same, fought more about it with Shane. I wouldn't be here today, but there was a small chance I'd have my dad here, and at this point, I couldn't tell which was better.

"Fine," he muttered.

Before someone could say anything else, tell Isaac what to do next, there was a cry from Judith as Beth carried her into the common room, rocking her gently and just making rounds in the prison so Judith could see everyone. It was something Beth did regularly.

I could see a new look in Isaac, the questioning stare that we had a baby here that must've been born after the world ended, but he was too angry and disappointed to ask about it. He just stared at Judith as Beth carried her over our way, Hershel beckoning her across the room.

"Bethy," he called as she neared the table.

"Yeah?" She asked, giving a questioning look to Isaac before standing next to her father.

"Isaac, this is my other daughter, Beth," he introduced. "Would you mind showing him to one of the spare cells in this block?"

Beth nodded and smiled, adjusting her grip on Judith. "Yeah, sure. Come with me."

I watched as they left, Isaac muttering something under his breath for a moment as he shot back a frustrated glare to the group—us. I was chewing the inside of my cheek, a feeble attempt to stop myself from cussing everyone out. I hated being included in a decision that wasn't my choice, but the majority had just kicked my ass.

The ache in my chest as I considered leaving told me that I needed to fight this. If they got their way, the same thing that happened to me and my dad would happen to Isaac and his mother. The only difference here was that we knew where she was, and there were very few reasons that we shouldn't already be out there to fetch her.

I couldn't watch someone else go through the same thing I had. Sure, I had been okay after what happened, I found another family, and after a decision like this, Isaac would not see us in the same light. If something happened to her and he was stuck here, he would only blame us, be stuck here with nowhere to go all while he hated us. That was not a way to live.

On the other hand, when he healed he could leave. But again, if something happened to his mother by tomorrow, he probably would leave. Then he would be out there and alone, no family, no group, in a more dangerous situation than just going after her ourselves.

I let out a sigh, knowing this was going to be a hard battle before I said, "I think we should go today."

"It don' matter," Daryl said. "We're leavin' tomorrow."

I bit my tongue and shook my head. "So that's it? We're just leaving her?"

"Just for the night," Sasha said.

"I lost my dad in a night," I reminded them. Sasha's expression changed, having never really heard about what happened to me before the group, but I continued. "A night turned to a week, and then a year. Why are we pretending this stuff doesn't happen anymore? Pretending that there's a one hundred percent chance that when we get there she's going to be perfectly fine."

They all went quiet for a moment because I knew they all got it. I waited on bated breath for someone to argue, give another point or reason why we shouldn't go. Whatever they said I had an argument for, a valid and logical argument, which I knew would be beaten down by the fact that despite my being on the council, they had the last say. They had the majority.

"We're supposed to discuss these things."

"There's nothing to discuss," Daryl said simply, crossing his arms.

"There is," I argued desperately, a tickle in my nose that made me fight back the feelings of frustration that could end up with me yelling or crying. "She might not be there. She's going to be worried about him, what if she goes looking for him? We won't be able to find her."

"We know the path he was taking," Sasha said. "That's the first place she'll look."

"We've been over all of this," Rick said. "We just had the discussion."

"No," I shook my head. "You stood there, came up with a plan and told him what you were going to do. That's not a discussion, that's the equivalent of telling a child why they can't go to the park."

Rick let out a long breath, hands resting on his belt as he turned to the others for help. That was the problem with this democracy, because now it wasn't just arguing with Rick, it was arguing with a whole group of people who disagreed with the plan.

"Do you have another idea?" Hershel asked, seemingly interested if there was another way to go about this.

"Plenty, but you keep shooting them down," I said. "Why can't we drive to the pile-up and walk to the house? We can get there and back before it gets dark, and then we don't have to spend hours clearing the road."

"How long would it take to get past the cars on foot?" Maggie asked, looking at Glenn.

"Thirty minutes, we didn't do it because we wouldn't be able to loot everything without a car," he explained.

"So we can just drive there and walk the thirty minutes," I said, finally feeling like we had gotten somewhere.

"We can't do that," Rick shook his head. "What if she's hurt? We'd need the car to bring her back and it'd be thirty minutes down the road."

"If she's hurt, we can drive there and stay the night with her," I suggested. "Keep her safe, move the cars in the morning so it won't be so dangerous and bring the cars to her."

"No," Daryl shook his head, giving no further attempt to explain. Great discussion, that's how these work.

"So it's okay if she spends the night there but not us? She'll be fine overnight, but we won't?"

Nope. Apparently not.

I just got blank stares in return, people definitely agreeing with my point in their head but none of them were willing to speak up. Maybe they didn't agree with me, but they saw the logic in my questions, enough to make them realise that I had an argument for every ridiculous point they threw out.

"Fine," I gave one last attempt. "Seeing as none of you have any interest in reuniting a woman with her son, I could drive down there and help her. No one has to spend the night but me if she's hurt and I'll be able to keep her safe because I have a gun."

"No," Daryl repeated sternly.

"I can't let you go alone," Glenn said.

"So vote my way and come with me," I said.

"No one is going alone," Rick said. "We're not doing that."

I closed my eyes for a second, my head shaking automatically. I imagined this was how Dale felt when he wanted to keep Randall alive, and everybody argued against it, but even then more people were suggesting ideas to help him out. There was nothing here.

"What if she dies?" I asked my very last attempt to get any of them to help me. "We could be there to help her and we're choosing to sit here and wait it out."

"I's one night," Daryl said. "She's lasted this long."

"They've been on the road all this time, it's not like she's not capable," Glenn agreed.

I bit the inside of my cheek because if I didn't, I'd start yelling. What did it matter how capable she was? He and Maggie were capable, but that didn't stop them from getting taken by Merle. There's always going to be someone stronger, unexpected situations, and ways to throw people off guard that don't depend on someone's strengths. And it was worse for women.

I stared at them, looking at each of them to see if they were even contemplating the idea, but the person who seemed even remotely to be considering the words I said was Rick, and if he didn't agree with me, there would be no chance that the others would. I could guarantee if Rick had said any of these ideas, they would've bowed at his feet and jumped in the cars.

The joys of being a girl.

It was too hard, something I had no experience with because there weren't many things the council disagreed on, and even if we had different ideas, no decision was ever as big as this one. I couldn't fight them anymore, something me and Isaac had in common.

"What's the fucking point?" I whispered to myself and turned to leave the cell block.

I didn't come inside until it went dark, and everyone had resided in their rooms. Part of the reason was because I didn't want another argument on the way to my cell. The prison was eerily quiet, but there was a short ringing in my ears from the amount of noise I listened to outside, ranging from the tools I was using to the walkers at the fence.

And I wasn't done working.

I sat down at my desk, opening a battered notebook that lay on the surface. There were already some rough, terrible drawings for the system I needed for the gate, a way to get it open and closed without actively pushing or pulling it. When welding the first doors together to make one side of the gate, I realised that the idea I'd come up with would only work to get it closed, but not open, so I had to scrap the idea.

With no other plans, I used this as a desperate attempt to keep my eyes open, avoiding sleep for as long as I could. Rick would wake me up, the movement of him getting up and dressed in the morning was often enough sound, and even if it wasn't, Judith waking up with him definitely was. She more than often had a fuss in the morning.

But still, my attempt was growing weaker and weaker, and I was no closer to fixing my mistake with the door. I leaned my head in my hands as I stared at the notebook in front of me, wracking my mind around a workable pulley system for the new gate. It would not be near the prison fences, wooden spikes making a safe area outside the existing gate, but without ropes, there would be no way to open it. I needed to work this out before the gates went up because otherwise we'd be trapped inside.

A shuffling distracted me from my thoughts, and I looked up to the side. I stood up and waited by my curtain for the noise to pass the room before I peeked my head around the doorway. I could see a figure, but they weren't revealed until they passed through the light that came through the large windows at the top of the room.

Isaac.

His body was leant forward as he crept through the cell block, barely even visible at the other end of the long room. I could just see the shadow of his bag and the colour of his jumper in the dim moonlight, and he made his way towards the common room. The exit. At the end of the room, next to the gate, he stopped and looked back, just giving me enough time to pull my head behind the doorway without being seen.

His sneaking out of the prison seemed inevitable, and I wondered how I didn't think of it as a possibility. I know for a fact that if I had more confidence back at the Atlanta camp, I probably would have tried running away too. And why shouldn't he? We didn't have the rights or the cause to hold him here, we weren't wardens.

Biting the inside of my lip, I felt a nagging ache in my chest. He was hurt and soon to be alone, for six hours he would have to either fight or avoid walkers on his own, which was doable, but dangerous even in the day. And then if his mother wasn't there, he'd still be alone. He wouldn't come back, he'd keep searching for her, and in my experience, there was a chance that he wouldn't be able to find her.

I poked my head around the doorway again, silently cursing when I saw that he was gone. It was now or never, and I needed to make a decision fast. So I grabbed my holster, knife, gun and axe and took off after him.

Ace is back! That is all.

Let me know what you thought, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

Oh, wait. PS: I have been asked about Ace's appearance before which I have been a little vague about because it was always in her POV, so I thought I'd bring up the actors we use.

So, Ace we've casted as Haley Lu Richardson, Isaac is Tom Holland (a little cliche, but he fitd the characters really well and they have a lot of clips for the little edits we make ourselves). So if you wanted to know what they looked like a little more then we have that :)