Don't look back

Forty one

Mary was drawing flowers on her cell floor when Carl ran into the cell block with a smile. "Andrea. Andrea is here! In the prison." He announced, and immediately everyone grabbed their guns, and ran out to the front of the building.
"Why does she have a Walker?" Mary asked shakily, seeing Andrea walking behind a Walker on a stick. Glenn was stood beside her, and he put a protective hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know. Just... Do what we say, and don't be naughty. Okay?"
"Okay." Mary nodded solemnly, staring at the woman in a mixture of fear and confusion.
"Go." Rick ordered, and Merle ran forwards a little.
"Clear."
Rick ran forwards again, then shouted, "Are you alone!?"
"Open the gate!" Andrea pleaded.
"Are you alone?!" Rick repeated.
"Rick!" The woman pleaded. Rick nodded to Daryl, and the man opened the gate, as Andrea ran in, leaving the Walker outside.
"Hands up! Turn around now!" Rick ordered, pinning the woman against a fence. "Have you got weapons?" He asked, as a Walker cane over to the fence, and both Andrea and Mary screamed. "Get down. On the floor!" Rick screamed.
Andrea got on her knees, her arms up, as if in surrender. Mary began to cry, and Glenn picked her up, holding her tightly. "I asked if you were alone!"
"I am!" Andrea insisted, and Rick ripped off her bag, and threw it away from her. Glenn and Carl walked over, and Andrea seemed taken back and scared.
"Welcome back." Rick nodded, helping her up. They went into the prison, Mary now in Rick's arms, and as soon as they got there, Andrea ran over to Carol and hugged her.
"After you saved me and Mary we thought you were dead." Carol explained.
"Hershel, my God." Andrea gasped, seeing his missing leg, and pulling away from the hug. She looked around the room, then stared at Rick and Mary. "I can't believe this!" She exclaimed, then her face fell. "Where's Shane?" She asked. She got silence as a reply. "And Lori?"
Rick hung his head, and kissed Mary's forehead as she began to cry.
"She had a girl. Lori didn't survive." Hershel explained sadly.
"Neither did T-Dog."
"I'm so sorry. Oh, Carl. Mary." Andrea whispered, her voice cracking. Carl stared at her, his face seeming emotionless.
"Rick, I.... You all live here?"
"Here and the cell block."
"There? Well, can I go in?" She asked, beginning to walk over.
"I won't allow that." Rick replied firmly, standing in her way.
"I'm not an enemy Rick." The woman insisted.
"We had that field, courtyard, until you boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up!" Rick snapped angrily, making Mary flinch slightly.
"He said you fired first."
"He's lying." Rick spat.
"He killed an inmate who survived in here." Hershel added.
"We liked him. He was one of us!" Daryl explained, his voice angry.
"I didn't know anything about that! As soon as I found out, I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot out."
"That was days ago!" Glenn snapped.
"I told you, I came as soon as I could." Andrea insisted, then she turned to Michonne and glared at her. "What have you told them?!"
"Nothing." Michonne shrugged.
"I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?"
"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us." Glenn glared at her.
"With his finder on the trigger!" Andre argued, pointing to Merle. "Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you? Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done, but I am here trying to bring you all together. We have to work this out!"
"Mary still won't talk properly about what happened to her," Carl growled, "but Maggie said that he threatened her. Was going to kill her."
Maggie took a deep breath in. "He made me and Mary stand in the doorway, as we looked at Glenn, so beaten he could barely walk. Andrea, you wouldn't go near that man if you knew what he did to me. And as we stood there, he held his gun on top of Mary's head, his finger on the trigger. The safety was off. He would have killed her."
"We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when but we will. He hurt my little girl. He's not getting away with that." Rick growled.
Andrea looked at Mary's face, half buried into Rick's shirt. "He'd have never hurt her. I'm sure of it. Listen, we can settle this. I'm sure it was a misunderstanding. There is room at Woodbury for for all of you."
"Misunderstanding!" Carl yelled angrily, and Carol put a comforting yet firm hand on his shoulder.
Merle scoffed, and looked straight at Andrea. "You know better than that."
"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate? Did he say that?" Hershel asked.
"No." Andrea sighed.
"Then why did you come here?" Rick snapped, holding Mary tighter. He wasn't sure if she was shaking from crying so much, or simply from fear.
"Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack!"
"I'll tell you what, next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye." Daryl spat.
"We've taken too much shit for too long. He wants a war? He's got one." Glenn replied firmly.
"Rick. If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town. Look at you! You've lost so much  already. You can't stand alone anymore!"
"You wanna make this right, you get us inside." Rick replied.
"No."
"Then we got nothing to talk about." Rick shrugged, beginning to walk out.
"There are innocent people!" Andrea pleaded.
Rick stopped in his step. "And my fucking four year old wasn't?" He spat angrily, before leaving.
He walked into Mary's cell with her in his arms, and sat down, her on his lap, facing him. "Princess, it's all going to be okay."
"He's gonna hurt me." Mary cried softly.
"No. That man will never get anywhere near you. I promise. And I don't care what Andrea, or anyone says. I'll kill him."
Mary looked into his eyes, and nodded. "Can you sing the sunshine song?"
Rick laughed softly. "I've not sang that for ages."
"I know. I miss it."
So Rick sang to her.
Afterwards, he looked into her eyes again. "I miss mommy too."
Mary nodded shakily. "I miss mommy. And Sophia. And I miss my bunny I had when I was a baby. Do you remember my bunny?"
Rick sighed shakily, as he remembered her telling him about her bunny teddy. She'd never had it when he'd adopted her. She was forgetting her life before.
"I miss ice cream." Mary cried softly.
"Me too, baby. I miss ice cream." Rick laughed softly. "And I miss... Hot coffee with nice cold milk. And coke with ice in it. And pancakes. And my bed."
"I miss birthday parties in the garden." Mary nodded.
"Your birthday isn't for a little while yet. It's at the end of summer. September."
"Yeah." Mary nodded.
"I think it's maybe June, so you got a little time to wait. But we'll have a little party, if you want."
"Yeah." Mary smiled happily.
"Why don't you go do some drawing. I gotta do some jobs. Yeah?" Rick suggested, getting up, and passing Mary her soft toy.
Mary nodded, then went and walked over to Carol, who was looking after Judith. She kissed her little sister's forehead, then went and began to draw on the floor, messy scribbles, her monkey next to her. The child looked up when she heard someone walking up the stairs, but looked back down when she saw it was Andrea. The woman intimidated her.
"You can't leave without meeting Little Ass Kicker." Carol smiled, picking Judith up.
"May I hold her?" Andrea grinned.
"Of course," Carol smiled, passing Judith over, "got her?"
"I got her. Oh look at you! Let me guess, Daryl named her Ass Kicker." Andrea laughed, as did Carol. "That's not really her name?" The woman half asked, and Mary sighed.
"Judith."
"Judith Chloe!" Mary hissed, and the two women laughed.
"Judith Chloe Grimes. Hi Judith. Oh, how precious are you?" She cooed. The she looked over to Mary, and, after seeing she was busy drawing again, she asked, "What happened to Lori?"
Carol checked on Mary again, then replied, "During the C-scention. Maggie. Carl had to..."
"Oh my God." Andrea whispered. Although she was drawing, Mary was listening slightly, and a tear fell down her cheek.
"T-Dog died leading me to safety."
"And Shane?" Andrea enquired.
"Rick killed him. The night we left the farm, that whole Randall thing was a lie. Shane tried to kill Rick."
"Shane loved Rick." Andrea insisted.
Carol shook her head, looked at Mary, and sighed. "Shane loved Lori."
Mary sat there in confusion. Shane and her mommy weren't in love; her mommy and her daddy were in love. Carol had to be lying.
"Rick's become cold. Unsteady." Andrea nodded shakily.
"He has his reasons. The Governor you, need to do something." Carol whispered, yet again checking on Mary, as she took Judith back.
"I am."
"No. You need to sleep with him, give him the greatest night of his life get him to drop his guard. Then when he's sleeping, you can end this." Carol whispered. Andrea was shook to silence, then walked over to Mary.
"You've grown up so much. How are you, honey?" She asked softly. Mary stared at her with wide eyes, and Andrea smiled sympathetically. "I understand. I still get sad sometimes about Amy."
"Your sister?" Mary questioned, trying to remember the woman: almost a year is a long time for a tiny girl to remember someone she met for a few day.
"Yeah. My sister." Andrea nodded.
"Judith is my sister." Mary replied firmly.
"Yeah. She's very cute, isn't she?" The older woman smiled.
"Yeah."
"Mary... If Philip hurt you... Did he hit you?" Andrea asked shakily.
Mary began to cry softly, then whispered, "He hurt my arm. And said nasty things. And held the gun at me."
"Okay. Okay. Thank you. I've got to go now, but just remember that he's a nice man. He's a nice man, who bad things has happened to." Andrea rationalised, her hand shaking a little.
"Isn't everyone?" Mary mumbled, and Andrea sighed. "I want my daddy."
Then Mary ran downstairs, and into her father's arms.
"I'm going now." Andrea announced, and Rick nodded.
"Glenn is getting you a car now." Rick replied, walking out into the fields, holding Mary and Mr Cuddles. Andrea walked over to the car, but even after Glenn got out she didn't get back in.
"Can you spare it?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yeah." Rick shrugged.
Andrea looked around, her eyes falling on the small family of Rick holding Mary, Carl by his side, Judith in the prison still. "Well, take care." She sighed, getting in the car.
"Andrea," Rick said softly, walking over and giving Andrea a knife and a gun, "be careful."
"You too." Andrea nodded, then she drove away.

"Is she asleep yet?" Mary whispered to Rick, looking up at her baby sister. Rick was holding the sleeping baby, but Mary was half asleep too, laid on the floor, her head on his leg.
"Yep. Fast asleep."
"Daddy? Now you're happy again, promise you'll never ever leave me." Mary said shakily.
"I won't. I promise. Unless I have to, I won't." Rick nodded. "Come on. Let's go see Daryl."
Mary got up, and followed him down the stairs. "Pick me up." Mary whined sleepily, and Carol happily took Judith, allowing Rick to carry Mary. Suddenly, Beth began to sing, and Mary listened to her, half asleep in Rick's arms.
"Some reunion, huh?" Daryl sighed to Rick as he walked over to him and Hershel.
"She's in a jam." Rick nodded.
"We all are. Andrea's persuasive. This fellas armed to the teeth bent on destruction." Hershel replied.
"So what do you wanna do?"
"We match it. I'm going on a run." Rick said, making Mary jerk her head up.
"I'll head out tomorrow." Daryl nodded.
"No you stay here. Keep an eye on your brother. I'm glad you're back, really, but if he causes a problem, it's on you."
"I got him." Daryl assured.
"I'll take Michonne." Rick half sighed, looking at the woman, sat in her cell.
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"I'll find out. And Carl. He's ready. You hold it down here." Rick decided.
"You got it." Daryl nodded.
"Me too." Mary whispered.
"You want to?" Rick asked, and Mary nodded. "Okay. I'd sooner you be with me anyways. As long as you do as I say, that's fine."
Mary smiled at him, then closed her eyes. Slowly she fell asleep, and Rick walked over to Maggie and Glenn, who were sat on the steps.
"Hey. She okay?" Glenn asked, and Rick nodded, sitting on the step below them.
"I got something to ask you."
"Sure." Maggie nodded, and Rick kissed the top of Mary's head, holding her closer.
"She trusts you both. Feels safe around you. Loves you. She doesn't feel that way about many people. Only me, Carl, you two, and maybe Daryl. She doesn't really talk to anyone else, especially if she upset. She's such a fragile child, so dainty, so broken already. If anything happens to me, tomorrow, next week, in five years, whenever, will you raise Mary?"
Maggie smiled suddenly. "Of course we would. We'd be honoured to."
"Yeah, man, you don't even need to ask."
"It's just... Carl... He's old enough now to mostly look after himself. And anyone would take in Judith, and at the age she is, she wouldn't know the difference. I know she'd be fine, if not better off, if something happened to me. But Mary needs someone she can trust. I mean, it took her ages to talk to me for the first time. Even longer with Lori."
"Wait, Mary isn't yours?" Maggie asked quietly in shock.
"In every way apart from DNA. Kinda weird now I think of it. The only ones alive who know that is me, Carl, you two, Andrea. Even she forgets sometimes. I found her when I woke up from my coma. Parents were dead."
"Oh my God. I never even realised. I always thought her and Carl looked alike! Looked like you. With Lori's eyes." Maggie said in surprise.
"Yeah. I mean, no reason to bring it up and all, but yeah." Rick nodded, holding her close.
"I'd say she got lucky." Glenn smiled gently.
Rick smiled back. "No. I'm definitely the lucky one. Definitely."