The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 16 - Judge and Jury

I pulled up the truck on the other side of the paddock fence and Dale and I both got out, ducking under the wire to head over to my dad.

"I'm going to help Jimmy and Patricia, good luck with him." I nodded to where my dad stood. "Take these." I handed my car keys over to Dale. "I'll catch a ride back with them, but you'll need the truck when you're finished. Leave her in the shed with the keys on the seat."

"Thank-you." He nodded.

They didn't speak for all that long and when my dad came over and joined us as Dale drove off in Betty I asked him what he had decided.

"I leave it with Rick. I trust his judgement." He answered.

"Randall is Maggie's age." I stated.

"I thought you would side with Rick on this one." He said, surprised by what I thought.

"I do, sort of. We can't let him go and we can't trust him, not completely. It may be the only choice, but I don't like it. I'm just surprised that you're not going to speak up."

"I don't want him near you, Maggie or Beth. The rest doesn't matter, I just want him gone."

There was no point to say anymore and I'm not sure I even wanted to. We finished up with the cattle and the fence and then headed back home for a final meeting about Randall.

We had a bit of time before hand so I went upstairs to change my clothes considering they were now covered in oil and mud. On my way back down I overheard my dad talking to Glenn.

"Our family came from Ireland." My dad was saying.

"Maggie Greene, I kind of figured." Glenn confirmed with a smile.

"My grandfather brought this over from the old country." Dad held his pocket watch in his hand. "He passed it on to my father, who passed it on to me. I pawned it to pay for a night of drinking I no longer remember." Dad explained. I had heard this story before, it had happened before I was even born, though.

"But you bought it back." Glenn said.

"My late wife did, Josephine... my girls' mother. She gave it back years later when I sobered up. She was a good women, my Jo... Maggie's a lot like her. When we were in that bar, and afterwards, I thought about a lot of things. If you become a father someday, you'll understand. No man is good enough for your little girl... until one is." He finished, holding out the stopwatch for Glenn to take. "Go on now, before I change my mind about you."

"Thanks." Glenn replied.

I smiled as I walked away, heading into the living room where Maggie sat reading a book on the couch.

"What?" She asked, noticing my smile.

"Nothing." I shrugged just as Glenn and our dad joined with the others not long behind them. Jimmy took Carl away to Beth's room to keep the kid occupied while the meeting was happening.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asked while everyone else had been remaining silent.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked. Under the circumstances I hadn't said anything about her being in the house, but that didn't mean I was happy about it and she certainly would be leaving right after the meeting.

"How about majority rules?" Lori offered.

"Well, let's... let's just see where everybody stands then we can talk through the options." Rick spoke up.

"Well, the way I see it, there's only one way to move forward." Shane stated.

"Killing him, right?" Dale shot, unimpressed. "I mean why even bother to take a vote. I think it's clear which way the winds blowing."