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"Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here!" Daryl shouted out, "I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."
Shane followed quickly behind the Dixon man, the others not too far behind them, "Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."
"About what?"
"About Merle. There was a... There was a problem in Atlanta."
Daryl stood still for a second, "He dead?"
"We're not sure." Shane sighed.
"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl snapped, his eyes jerking to the newer man that stepped forward,
"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."
Daryl's face screwed up, "Who are you?"
"Rick grimes."
"Rick Grimes. You got something you want to tell me?"
James watched with narrowed eyes as his father took slow and cautious steps towards the other man.
"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
Remi let out a breath of air at Daryl's unreadable expression. She placed her hands on Rudy's shoulders, the girl standing in front of her.
"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"
"Yeah." Rick nodded.
Daryl went quiet before he chucked his squirrels at the man and went to attack him only for Rick to shove him off.
James subconsciously placed a protective arm in front of Carl as he noticed Daryl pull out a knife. It seemed like he wasn't the only one to pick up on it,
"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog shouted out.
Daryl pulls his knife out, but Shane is able to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold.
"Okay. Okay."
"You'd best let me go!"
Rudy's brows furrowed as she noticed Shane's grip tighten,
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."
"Choke hold's illegal."
"You can file a complaint." Shane told him, "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."
As entertaining as it was to see grown men roll around in dirt, Remington had absolutely zero desire to watch this happen all day.
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asked him, Shane following along with a short hum.
"Mmm. Yeah." Daryl grunted out.
Shane let him go, stepping back as the Dixon man jumped up, glaring at Rick as he spoke,
"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."
"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog stepped up.
Daryl eyed him, "You couldn't pick it up?"
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." He scoffed.
"Well, maybe this will." T-Dog started, "Look, I chained the door to the roof... So the geeks couldn't get at him... With a padlock. It's gotta count for something."
Daryl's lips quivered as he looked around to see only a few people with looks of pity, wiping his eyes as he turned around, "Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him."
"He'll show you. Isn't that right?"
James frowned as he listened to his mother offer his father's services.
"I'm going back."
"I'm coming with you."
"What?"
All eyes snapped to Jameson at his words, Lori instantly shaking her head,
"Absolutely not."
He didn't want to seem like he was disrespecting his mother, but it came off that way as he hadn't bothered to glance in her direction, simply staring his father down until the man nodded along,
Although reluctant, Rick agreed, "Okay. Get what you need."
James hid the shock in his face as he walked away from the group to grab his knives and a gun he had stolen from the safe in his previous home.
"Hey." His head snapped towards the tent entrance, sighing as he noticed Remington standing there.
"You can't convince me not to go."
"I wasn't going to." She shrugged, "I don't know you enough to tell you what to do. Hell, we only just had a first conversation a few hours ago. Who the hell am I to tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing?"
He stepped out the tent, putting his gun in the waist of his pants as he looked down at her, "So what are you doing?"
"Wishing you luck? Telling you to be careful? Whatever you want to take this as..."
"You don't do that for any of the other guys." He pointed out.
"That's because I don't care much for the other guys." Remi smiled, "You've only just became my unofficial best friend, I can't let you leave without you knowing that if you die, I won't hesitate to move on from this friendship quickly."
James chuckled, "I wouldn't expect anything less."
She nodded along.
"But you do know that the chances of you finding another friend are pretty low, right?" He continued,
"Doesn't matter. I'll figure something out."
"You do that." He spoke softly, glancing back to see the other men loading up the car, "I'll be back."
"And you'll be careful?" She asked, looking into his eyes, her own darting back and forth as she struggled to decide which one to focus on,
His last fluttered as he grew red under her stare, "I'll be careful."
Just as he went to step back, he ran into a shorter figure. He let out a sigh as Carl looked up at him,
"Don't go."
"Carl..."
"Don't go, James." The youngest huffed, "It's already bad enough that dad's leaving again. I don't want to be stuck with just Shane and Mom if things go wrong."
James could see the sadness and worry swarming in his little brother's eyes, and as he looked up, he noticed Shane's stare on them.
He puffed out the air that filled his cheeks before brushing past Remington to toss his weapons back into the tent,
"Alright, I'll stay."
Carl perked up before he ran off to inform the elders of the news. As he did this, James turned back to a smirking Remington,
"So next time then?"
He could help the short laugh that fell from his lips, "Yeah, whatever."
