The Missing Piece [[Glenn's Sister]]

- 10 -

"Hey..."

My eyes fluttered open and I craned my neck to see a blurry figure standing in the doorway.

"Who is it?" I said groggily. The prison was incredibly dark at night, hell, even in the day. I squinted my eyes a little and managed to see the outline of what looked to be a male. I squinted a little harder and recognized the face. "Oh... Hey, Rick. What's up?" I turned myself over and swung my legs around so I was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I... I've been thinking."

"Congratulations."

"I think that you deserve to know something..."

"And why me in particular?"

"You just... seem like one of the few people left with morals. Thought you could help me with mine a little."

"Okay... Are you gonna come in, or...?"

He hesitantly stepped into my cell and sat down on the bed beside me.

"The Governor gave me a choice. Either we fight, or..." He leaned in a little closer to me and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Or we give him Michonne, and he lets us all go."

"Alright..." I said sadly.

"What? No advice?"

"Well, I'm normally the one to talk about the greater amount of good for the greater amount of people or whatever, but I know the Governor. You really think he'll let us go? He'll take Michonne, torture her to the point of martyrdom, then come back and hit us while our guards are down. We have to take the fight to him, its as simple as that."

"But what if he isn't lying? What if giving him one person will save all of us?"

"You came here for my advice. I gave you it. Do what you want with it, but just... Don't make the dumb decision that I have a feeling you will. There's a lot at stake here. All of our lives. And you might think that handing her over will end this, but I can tell you for sure that it won't. It'll just be the spark that ignites an even bigger shit storm."

I pulled my legs back onto the bed and lay back down on my side, signalling that I was done with the discussion. He sighed and stayed for a moment, then finally left.

---

A

fter pulling my grey sweatshirt poncho thing over my head, I walked sleepily out of the cell and down to the commons, where everybody was already eating oatmeal. Glenn looked up from a clearly riveting conversation he was having with Maggie, probably about all of the different shades of blue overalls she had. Hmm... 50 Shades of Blue... Meh, I'd read it. He looked up at me when I closed the gate separating the cells and the commons, and smiled softly at me. I returned the gesture and allowed my eyes to wander around the room, noticing someone I didn't expect to see. I walked slowly over to Rick and whispered in his ear.

"Since when's Merle back in the fold?"

"Carl told me what you said to him the other day, about needing him on our side. You were right."

"When am I not?" I chuckled and walked over to Merle, who was leaned against the wall beside Daryl. "Hey."

"Mornin." They both said simultaneously as they took a large spoonful of oatmeal into their mouths.

"You happy to be back?" I asked directly to Merle.

"Just jumpin for joy." He said dully.

"Okay, somebody's having their time of the month." I scoffed with furrowed brows. Usually, I'd expect him to make some dumb comment, but he stayed silent. I nudged his shoulder slightly in worry. "Hey. What's the matter?"

"Jus' leave him. Been pissy all damn mornin." Daryl muttered.

"I can see that. Well, if you need anything, let me know, alright?" I patted Merle on the shoulder and looked over him to Daryl. "Either of you." He nodded slightly and I walked back over to the tables where I sat beside Carl and Rick, who was eyeing Michonne the entire time.