Sheriff's Lover ||| Rick Grimes

61 ~ Risk

___

How many secrets can you keep?

'Cause there's this tune I found

That makes me think of you somehow an' I play it on repeat

Until I fall asleep

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Elaina stands in the courtyard, listening to the groans of the walkers.

The plan is simple, if they can pull it off. If they can distract the walkers in the field, they can set up traps.

"You ready for this?" Daryl asks as he walks past her towards the truck.

"You know it."

Glenn is in the driver seat, Michonne in the passenger seat.

Daryl and Elaina sit in the truck bed, hopping out occasionally and throwing barbed wire spikes into the grass. They hammer them into the ground before moving on to the next one.

Beth, Maggie, and Carl distract the walkers near the fence. Sasha waits by the gate to let them back in. Tyreese and Rick stand watch with guns.

Once they get back into the courtyard, Glenn hops out the truck.

"They try to drive up to the gate again, maybe some blown tired will stop them."

"That's a good idea." Rick says.

Daryl nods, glancing at Rick. "It was Michonne's."

Rick's mouth closes slightly. Elaina notices and raises her eyebrow at him, but he doesn't meet her gaze.

Michonne wipes her sword clean from walker guts with a small towel. "We don't need to win. We just have to make their getting at us more trouble than it's worth."

___

"Rick. Can we talk?"

The man's shoulders drop slightly. He turns around, running a hand across his forehead.

Elaina clenches her jaw. "What are you planning right now?"

"I'm not planning anything."

"Right. So that's why you keep having secretive conversations with Daryl, and avoiding me?"

"I-"

"Rick, you aren't even looking at my eyes as we're talking."

He sighs, lifting his gaze to hers. "I'm sorry."

"Don't. Just tell me what you're trying to do. We're a team, Rick. All of us."

He nods. "When I spoke with the Governor, he promised peace if I gave him one thing."

Elaina crosses her arms. "What did he want?"

Rick takes a deep breath, glancing at the floor. "Michonne."

She drops her arms. "No."

He nods. "I'm not doing it. There has to be another way."

The sound of crutches on concrete halts the discussion.

A moment later, Hershel walks into the room. "Elaina, could you give us a moment?"

"She knows." Rick says.

Hershel pauses before speaking. "Rick, what you're about to do-"

Rick cuts him off. "I can't. I won't."

"What now?" Elaina asks.

"We need to find Merle before it's too late." Rick says, walking towards the cells.

___

Outside, Elaina and Rick run into Daryl.

"It's off. We'll take our chances." Rick tells him.

Daryl nods. "I'm not saying it was the wrong call, but this is definitely the right one."

He looks over at Elaina's face. "What's wrong?"

"We can't find Merle or Michonne." She says.

"Come on." Daryl says, quickly making his way inside. "He was in here. Said he was looking for drugs. Said a lot of things actually."

"Like what?" Rick asks.

The three of them are searching the room.

"Said you were gonna change your mind."

Daryl spots a rag on the floor. "Here we go. Yeah, he took her here. They mixed it up."

"Damn it!" Elaina exclaims while rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"I'm going after him." Rick says.

"You can't track for shit." Daryl replies.

"Then the both of us."

"No, just me." Daryl stops in front of the door. "I said I'd go, and I'll go. Plus, they're gonna come back here. You need to be ready." He opens the door, glancing back at the two of them. "Your family, too."

___

Outside, at some picnic tables, the group sits.

Rick stands.

He tells the group what he told Elaina.

"I was gonna do that. To keep us safe. I change my mind. But now Merle took Michonne to fulfill the deal, and Daryl went to stop him, and I don't know if it's too late."

He takes another deep breath. Everyone is silent. "I was wrong not to tell you. And I'm sorry. What I said last year, that first night after the farm... it can't be like that.  It can't. What we do, what we're willing to do, who we are, it's not my call. I couldn't sacrifice one of us for the greater good because we are the greater good. We're the reason we're still here, not me. This is life and death. How you live... how you die— it isn't up to me. I'm not your Governor. We choose to go. We choose to stay. We stick together. We vote. We can stay and we can fight, or we can go."

___

Michonne came back. She's alive. Merle let her go and even after the betrayal, she came back to the prison.

Now the group is packing up cars.

Daryl is sitting by his bike. Elaina walks over to him.

She sits down quietly beside him.

He looks over at her, eyes a little red. "He never did nothing like that his whole life." He mutters.

Merle sacrificed himself.

He must've tried taking down the Governor and his soldiers at the meeting spot. He managed to kill a few, but the Governor shot him. When Daryl got there, Merle was a walker.

Elaina nods. "He gave us a chance."

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