The End of a New Beginning // Daryl Dixon

Part 53

Meredith

GLENN STOOD BEHIND me as I cleaned up Rick's face and placed medical tape over the cuts he's got all over his face. Deanna wanted him to be place on lockdown, so we've taken him to an unfinished room, set up a cot, left food and water for him. 

I leaned back, taking a look to confirm it was all the scratches he had covered up. One more I missed, right on his nose. I pull a piece of medical tape and lean over him, gently laying the tape over the bridge of his nose. I felt Glenn hand on my back and I turn around to face him. 

"You okay?" He asks me. 

"Yeah." I nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay." I answer him. I wasn't holding anything over Rick. He was angry, out of it, probably holding back something for a while to the point that he blew up and he took his anger out on Pete, and anyone who tried to stop him. I knew I have a cut and a bruise on my eye. There's a huge chance my eye is already black and blue, he got me pretty good. 

"He'll be okay." I reassured Glenn. I gathered everything up and tossed it in a small trash bag. The door opens up and we turn our heads to see Michonne walking in. She stops in the doorway, let's out a sigh and turns to Rick.

"How is he?" She asks. 

"Beaten up, bruised, scratched. Nothing serious. But he'll be fine." I nodded. She nods and walks over to the chair in the corner.

"I'll keep an eye on him. Make sure he's okay." She informs.

"We'll check on him later." Glenn says. He helps me gather some things and we head leave the holding cell. As Glenn and I walk out, we noticed a few people standing around, watching, waiting as if something else would happen.

"Go gawk at each other, will ya?" I frown at them. Everyone utters words and turns away. I glance over to Glenn, seeing him looking at me and nodding his head. Aaron and Daryl are still off on their little trip, looking for people to bring back home. I know it's mostly a girlfriend thing to do, you know, gossip to their boyfriends about shit that went down, but even then, Daryl would still find out by some of the others.

*****

It was the next morning. I pulled myself out of bed, dressed myself and met with Glenn, Abraham and Carol out in the street. We were off to go check on Rick. Michonne will be there. Still, people have us looks. If they think looking at us will make the feel better, they should go look at Pete. He was the one beating on Jessie. He was the one hurting his wife and kids. Maybe I should pay Jessie a visit later, check on her. Woman to woman, victim to victim.

Glenn opens the door and walks in first, the rest of us trailing behind him.

"Where'd you get the gun?" Michonne asks Rick, who was awake and sitting against the wall.

"You took it, right?" Carol asks. "From the armory?" Rick holds a stare with her. "That was stupid. Why did you do it?" Rick waves his hand.

"Just in case." He lightly explains.

"Deanna's planning to have a meeting tonight." Glenn informs. This was news to me, I haven't heard anything about that. "For anyone who wants to..."

"Kick Rick out?" Abraham asks.

"To try." Carol nods.

"We don't know that." I shake my head.

"Maggie's with Deanna right now." Glenn adds. "She's gonna find out what it is."

"At the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it." Carol tells Rick. "You say you took a gun just to be sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you'll do whatever you want them to. Just tell them a story that they wanna hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here." We all seemed to frown at Carol's words.