A throat clearing made the group turn and look at the intruder. Deanna Monroe had her eyebrows raised expectantly.
"So, Rick…this is your sister?" She asked with a stern smile.
"And Daryl's wife." Carol mentioned cheerfully, which surprised the others around her.
"I don't think I've seen you this happy before." Reg admitted with a genuine smile.
"We haven't seen Ann for quite a while. Not since escaping the prison a few months ago." Sasha informed the Alexandrians.
"I guess the two of us should talk in my house?" Deanna motioned for Ann to follow her.
A screaming whine of pain suddenly came out from one of the houses. Ann whipped around knowing a pained cry when she heard it. She immediately went rushing towards the scream.
Deanna looked at Rick and his group exasperatedly.
"Does nobody in your group know how to listen?!"
They all hurried after Ann who had finally located the scream of pain.
Ann barreled through the closed door seeing a man trying to fix some poor guy's dislocated shoulder. Boy, was he doing it wrong, the poor guy was all but squirming off the bed.
"If you would stop moving around it wouldn't hurt so damn much!" An angry man scolded the patient. "Dammit Spencer! Geez it's no wonder your little brother died if this is how Monroe rose her kids!"
Finally hearing enough Ann slammed the door shut making both men jolt in surprise.
"Who the fuck are you?" The angry man asked.
"Ann Dixon! Who the hell are you?!" She asked about to spit nails. "And what makes you think you can just try to set somebody's shoulder when you smell like a goddamn brewery!?" She hollered while starting to go purple in the face. The man was opening his mouth to speak and Ann put her hand up. "UPUUPUP! THAT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION DUMBASS!"
A snort of laughter came from the doorway. The group looked over and saw Carl leaning out of the door.
"Pete just met Ann."
"Pete? I thought his name was Paul…" Carol grumbled to herself.
"I thought it was Perry." Sasha snickered slightly.
"I just called him Porch-Dick." Abraham admitted.
Deanna and Reg Monroe were glaring openly at what Pete had said about their boys.
"Whatever his name is, I don't care! Get this boozed up junkard outta here before I beat him into such a pulp that there won't be enough for the Walkers outside to nibble on!" Ann hollered acerbically.
Deanna moved out of the way.
"Pete, I think you should head home and dry out." She ordered with a look on her face that meant hellfire.
Pete glared at everybody in the room before shouldering past Rick and Michonne. When he left Ann had already approached Spencer Monroe on the bed.
"So, what's your story?" She asked checking him over.
"Fell this morning off the ladder to the tower."
"Oh, so that's why you got clash….er Abraham to cover the gate." Deanna cut herself off before she completed her original sentence.
"Let me see here." Ann massaged Spencer's shoulder making sure she had a decent hold on it. She looked over at Abraham. "Hey big guy…I'm going to need you to hold him down while I…"
Her words worked and distracted Spencer into looking over at Abraham and she snapped his shoulder back into place making the younger man let out a sharp scream of pain.
"There we go…all better." Ann smirked and slapped his good shoulder.
"Thanks…" Spencer squeaked out wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Should be sore fore a bit, just put some ice on it. You'll be in fighting shape in no time."
"as I was saying earlier the two of should talk in my house." Deanna mentioned quietly after a beat of silence.
"Lead the way boss lady." Ann smirked and Deanna actually smiled back.
Ann looked questioningly at the video camera in the parlor.
"I like to go back and review the tapes of everybody who 'auditions' for the community."
"That's fair, gotta weed out the weirdos…though you let our gang in." Ann admitted with a wink and Deanna cleared her throat trying not to appear tense. "Something already happen?"
"A few things actually." Deanna admitted somewhat put off. "What were you before the fall?"
"A nurse I worked both in the OR and the ER."
"It shows." Deanna mentioned coyly writing down something.
"Yeah sorry about that…"
"Don't be, my son was in pain and you quickly corrected it." Deanna finished her notes for now. "So you were a nurse?"
"Still am a nurse to be fair. Technically everybody started calling me Doc to annoy me."
"You're a Nurse-Doc." Deanna remarked almost playfully. "okay, I'll level with you right now. There is an issue with your brother's group right now. There was an altercation between Rick and Pete. It got very violent. Pete is our only doctor, but he seems to be hurting his wife Jesse and their kids Ron and Sam."
Ann closed her eyes and facepalmed.
"Let me guess….." Ann started then looked at the other woman. "Rick became the white knight to save them, right?"
"Got it in one." Deanna admitted quietly. "There was a priest with your brother's group, a Father Gabriel Stokes. He came to me to inform me of something that sounded very unsettling about your group. He said that you couldn't be trusted and how he saw the group slaughter a few people…"
"Let me stop you there Mrs. Monroe. The group I was with wouldn't do anything to anybody unless they were absolutely pushed into action. If my brother and the others 'murdered' some people, I can guarantee that there was more to the story."
"Can you guarantee they wouldn't kill anybody from this community?" Deanna asked point blank.
"They wouldn't, unless it was for the good of the group. Such as, somebody trying to harm one of the others. At the prison we cleared of Walkers there was a second community called Woodbury. It was led by a man who called himself 'the governor'. He was ….unhinged."
"How so?" Deanne asked curiously.
"He kept his daughter locked up…"
"Well that is slightly creep…."
"His Walker Daughter."
"I beg your pardon?!" Deanne's eyes were wide now.
"He treated her like she was 'alive'."
"Now 'that' is…"
"And the people he didn't like he killed, let them turn, cut their walker heads off and encased them in a fish tank to display in his office. He had at least nine."
Deanna nodded and made more notes.
"Unhinged…got it."
"He had an army of sorts. One of which was Daryl's older brother Merle. When the governor's group learned that we had successfully cleared out the prison he made plans to kill us and take over. His men abducted Maggie and Glenn. We charged in with guns blazing and rescued them. Daryl was taken prisoner. That was when we found Merle was there."
"This is playing out like a soap opera. Please, continue."
"Then we went back in and got Daryl out. This time Merle came with us. The two groups met to try to negotiate and a battle broke out again. The Governor led a bunch of walkers towards us, but Merle drew them off. The Governor killed Merle after he tried to kill the madman."
"Then what happened?" Deanna made even more notes.
"We stormed Woodbury one final time, we managed to force the Governor and his men out of the city. It was now open to Walkers because their walls had been breached. With that we took in the rest of the people of Woodbury. It was good for a couple of months, almost ideal. Then the Governor came back with a vengeance. He now had a new group, a tank, and two hostages."
"Tank?" Deanna asked in surprise.
"Resourceful I know…still don't know how he got that thing." Ann took a drink of tea. "This is really good."
"Thanks." Deanna mentioned with a smile.
"So yeah, the hostages he had was Michonne and Maggie's father Hershel. Rick tried to reason with the others, telling them that they could put down their arms and join us in the prison. We could live together no hard feelings."
"The governor declined I take it?"
"He did decline it…he declined it by taking Michonne's sword and cutting off Hershel's head while we all watched. I was scaling down the watch-tower when a blast from the tank tore it apart making me lose my grip and fall. I managed to survive somehow and tried to see if I could track my family down. I then bumped into a man that Rick knew and we started to travel together. We were trying to catch up to them and I guess that's where the story ended with you and I sitting looking at one another."
"That was a very interesting story Mrs. Dixon."
"It was to tell you that, while my group has down things that most would frown upon, they have only ever did it to protect one another and survive. We are the Weary, Not the Plunderers."
Deanna smiled at the younger woman in front of her.
"Using my own words against me…" She scoffed. "Sure you're not a politician?"
"No just a mediator that can see both sides."
"You are free to go back outside then Ann. I have a lot to think about before tonight's community meeting about your group."
Ann left and Deanna Monroe went to her husband's side.
"You heard that?"
"I did Deanna. She seemed very passionate about her group. Said some incredible things about their resilience, loyalty and skill." Reg looked out the window at how Rick and Carl were playing with Judith when Ann came to them joining in the fun. "I believe her."
"So do I…But what about Pete? He is our only doctor." Deanna was torn with the decision she had to make.
"I've heard that Denise had to go to med school to become a shrink. With how fast Ann set Spencer's shoulder with minimal fuss…maybe the two of them could be the answer against Pete."
"Should we cast out Pete though, when the others wouldn't be sure of her? I mean he hasn't killed anyone….would he pull a 'governor' and come back to attack us?"
"Let's hope everything ends well enough for everybody. Love you." Reg kissed his wife's cheek before leaving the room.
Deanna bit her lip worriedly and went outside.
"Rick? Could I speak with you?"
Rick entered sheepishly and she motioned him to sit as she turned off the camera.
"Gabriel Stokes told me about what your group did to some men inside his church. Could you please explain to me about what happened. I have two conflicting theories about the event. What Gabriel saw, along with what your sister told me. I would now like to know the other side to the story if you wouldn't mind. I know it sounds harrowing but please, it may help me make a decision that benefits everyone here."
Rick sighed and finally spoke about what happened at Terminus. The whole story, nothing was left out. From finally getting there, noticing some of the survivors had items that belonged to people from their group, to getting placed in train cars. From them being Cannibals, to the group fighting their way out. From trying to save other people in the trains to realizing they weren't savable. From having the people from the train station tracking them down and killing a good friend Bob, to taking their vengeance upon the ones that were left. That was when they were in Gabriel's church.
"Thank you Rick….I know that wasn't easy."
"Even if you don't let me stay, please let the others stay. They've been through too much already to be pushed back out into the stuff I just spoke about."
"I will take it all into consideration, you can leave now."
After Deanna Monroe was alone she was left to ponder what Ann's words meant. "We are the weary, Not the Plunderers." She then knew what needed to be said and done, but it was not going to be easy.