Lilly Watkins has always been the strong one compared to her twin. That doesn't change when the dead start walking. Taking care of her family during the apocalypse, she never relied on anyone else. When she meets Daryl Dixon, a more temperamental pe...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Daryl comes back later in the day, looking shaken. He's usually an immovable force so for something to bother him in this way isn't usual.
"What's wrong?" I ask, setting down a plate of food in front of him.
"How do you know there's something wrong?" he grumbles, digging in with his fingers. He's never been one for cutlery.
"I know you, Dare. What happened on your run?"
He shakes his head. "Someone is tying up people and carving a 'W' onto their heads. Mostly women. It's not safe for you to go on runs."
"Not like anyone lets me, anyways," I mutter. "Should we bring this to Deanna?"
He shakes his head. "Not yet. Aaron and I are going to keep looking."
"Be safe, please," I say, sitting down with my own plate. Cash is asleep and Tiff disappeared, most likely with Carl.
"I'm always safe," he grins with a mouth full of food.
"If that was true, we wouldn't have Cash."
He chokes a bit. "Why are you so damn blunt, woman?"
I shrug. "I'd blame the apocalypse but I was like this before."
There's the sound of glass breaking and both of us jump up, running outside toward the source.
"Rick, no!" I scream, attempting to drag him off of the man. I knew he wanted to kill him but in broad daylight? Both are completely bloodied and covered in glass. He elbows me hard mid-fight in the abdomen, knocking the wind out of me.
Carl attempts next, shaking off Tiff who tries to stop him. Rick pushes him back, knocking him off of his feet. Tiff helps him up. When Jessie tries to pull her husband off of Rick when the fighting shifts, he punches her in the face, intentionally.
Rick pulls him into a fatal headlock. Deanna arrives. "Rick, stop this right now!" When he doesn't, a few men from Deanna's group step forward. Rick jumps up, pulling out a gun. I take a few steps back myself.
"You're going to kick me out?"
"Rick, you're sounding like a madman right now," I say to him, taking a few steps forward. Daryl makes a move to stop me, but I hold up a hand.
"You still don't get it. None of you do! We know what needs to be done and we do it! We're the ones who live!" He addresses Deanna next. "You, you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend to know when you don't! Your way of doing things is gone. Things don't get better because you want them to. Starting right now, we need to live in the real world. We need to control who lives here."
"That has never been more clear to me than right now," she retorts, anger and disappointment on her face.
"You mean me?" He points to himself in disbelief. "I'm not going to stand by-"
Michonne races past me and knocks the raving Rick out. Glenn and Daryl help carry him to jail while I go up to Deanna.
"Can you believe this?" she asks me, clearly upset.
"Actually, I can. You let a wife beater live in your utopia and got made when it turned dystopian!" I admonish her. She steps back, not expecting me to take his side.
"You think Rick was right?"
"How he went about it, no. Do I think his trying to rid the community of utter trash and protect a wife and mother from getting abused is wrong? No either. He doesn't sit by and watch people get mistreated in the name of community. You all just sat around and knew, too, because if it took me five minutes to understand what he was doing to Jessie. Our group has killed abusers in our group, one being Rick's own best friend who assaulted his wife. You could've done the least and you did less than that. He may be raving mad, but you all are cowards."
"Lilly," Michonne speaks softly. "What do you want done with him?" she asks, looking down at Jessie's husband.
"I think he should be exiled." I look over at Deanna. "But that's not my call."
"You're right, it's not your call," Deanna says, staring me down.
"I know letting him stay will make me lose all respect for you. You keep one moldy fruit, you spoil them all." With that, I walk back home to check on Cash.
A/N: Already writing the next chapter. Sorry for the delay. I started a full time job a few months ago and haven't had any time.
