early the following morning. It was still a bit cold outside and Carol had kindly washed her blue zip-up jumper.

"Miss Carol? Have you got my jumper?" Addy asked politely as she walked over to Carol where she was doing some laundry.

"Yes I do sweetie, might still be a bit damp." Carol smiled, she was always good to the Dixon girl, mainly because she got along well with her own daughter.

"Thank you, miss." Addy smiled, gently taking her jumper from Carol's hands and skipping away just in time for Rick to approach the woman,

"She's sweet, handling it well." Rick said as he reached Carol, nodding behind him gesturing to the young girl who was where he was just a moment ago,

"Yeah, she's always been a good girl." Carol replied, looking down and smiling,

"They're still a little damp. The sun will have them dry in no time." The woman changed the subject.

"You washed my clothes?"

"Well, the best we could. Scrubbing on a washboard ain't half as good as my old Maytag back home."

"That's very kind, thank you." He nodded at the woman in front of him and walked off to find Glenn.

A few minutes later, Shane drove into the camp with the water, making Addy realise just how thirsty she was.

"Waters here y'all. Just a reminder to boil before use."

Glenn and Andrea grabbed the big jugs of water and put them aside when a scream ripped through the camp.

Adelaide was reading in her tent when she heard it. She put the book down and peeked outside, seeing everyone running towards the source of the noise, so the Dixon girl tried to do the same, but she was stopped by Glenn who pulled her back and ran after the others without a word.

She huffed and sat down at a nearby camping chair as the shouts eventually ceased.

After what felt like hours of waiting there was a familiar voice that sounded through the camp. She smiled and rushed over to her father, embracing him in a half hug when she reached him.

He accepted his daughters hug and wrapped his arm around her shoulder protectively, only letting go when she pulled away.

"Go get your uncle Merle, tell 'im I got some squirrels."

Addy was going to nod and then remembered her uncle Merle wasn't here, so she swallowed thickly and looked down, the dirt below suddenly becoming very interesting.

Daryl frowned at his daughter's strange behaviour before there was another shout behind the pair,

"Daryl, slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Shane said as he approached them from behind.

"'Bout what?"

"About Merle. There's a, uh, there was a problem in Atlanta."

Lori waved her hand slightly, gesturing for Addy to come stand by her and the blonde sisters. Addy complied and jogged over to the brunette woman, her low ponytail swinging behind her.

Daryl frowned, why's everyone acting so weird?

"He dead?"

"We're not sure." Rick replied calmly.

"He either is or he ain't." Daryl said, raising his voice slightly.

"No easy way to say this so I'll just say it." Rick walked towards Adelaide's father.

"Who're you?"

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes. You got something you want 'ta tell me?" Daryl mocked the man in front of him.

"Your brother was a danger to us all so I handcuffed him of a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

"Hold on," Daryl wiped the sweat from his forehead, "Let me process this. You're sayin' you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?!" Daryl shouted, seething with anger, however Rick remained calm.

Addy couldn't blame her dad, Rick saying what happened made it sound ten times more crazy and if she was Daryl she would probably freak out too.

"Yeah."

Daryl threw the bunch of squirrels at Rick, but he dodged them and Shane tackled Daryl to the ground. Addy gasped quietly and Lori wrapped an arm around her upper chest softly, restraining her from doing anything she would regret.

"Hey!" T-Dog stepped in.

Daryl unsheathed his knife and stood in a defensive position.

"Watch the knife!"

Daryl swung at Rick in rage, only to be grabbed by both men and put in a chokehold by Shane.

"You'd best let me go!" He shouted, infuriated.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane replied as the two men struggled with each other.

"Chokeholds illegal, asshole."

"You can file a complaint."

"Come on now, we can keep this up all day." Shane said as Addy's father continued to struggle.

Rick crouched down in front of Daryl,

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic, do you think we can manage that? Do you think we can manage that?"

Rick nodded at Shane and the other man released Daryl from the chokehold as he grunted.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog spoke up.

"You couldn't pick it up?"

"Well, I dropped it in a drain."

Daryl grunted and stood up, all three men watching his every move closely.

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."

"Maybe this will," T-Dog replied, "Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him with a padlock."

"It's gotta count for something." Rick agreed.

Daryl wiped his eye and swung his arm out, "Hell with all y'all!"

"Just tell me where he is so that I can go get 'im."

"He'll show you. Isn't that right?" Lori said, looking at her husband expectingly. Addy could feel her father's matching blue eyes burning into her skull.

"I'm going' back." Was all Rick said before Lori released her gentle grip of Addy as Daryl gestured to her to come with him. He touched the back of her head when she reached him, ushering her forward and shooting Rick a dirty look then following after his daughter.

........................................................

"- Could you just tell me why? Why you would risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon?" Addy caught the last of Rick and Shane's conversation as they approached the small campfire. Addy scrunched her nose at Shane.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Her father said, his eyes flicking from Rick to Shane.

"Oh no, I did. Douchebag is what I meant." Shane raised his eyebrows.

He's really starting to get on my nerves.

"Merle Dixon," he muttered as if his name was poison on his tongue, " Wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst. Me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap, that's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being."

Thank you, Rick.

"So you and Daryl? That's your big plan?" Lori questioned from her spot by the campfire. Rick looked at Glenn.

"Oh, come on." Glenn whined.

"You know the way, you've been there before, in and out, no problem, you said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask, I know that but I'd feel a lot better with you along, I know she would too." Rick looked at Lori for the last part of his answer.

"Now you're going to risk three men, huh?" Shane asked incredulously.

"Four." T-Dog volunteered.

Daryl scoffed, "My day just gets better and better, don't it?"

"Yeah, You see anyone else stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog replied.

"Why you?"

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language."

"That's four."

"It's not just four. You're putting every single one of us at risk, just know that Rick. Come on, you saw that Walker, it was here, it was in camp. They're moving out of the cities, they come back, we need every able body we got, we need 'em here we need 'em to protect camp."

"Seems to me what you really need the most here are more guns."

"Right," Glenn agreed, "Guns."

"Wait, what guns?"

"Six shotguns, two high-power rifles, over a dozen hand guns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left, I dropped a bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed, it's just sitting there on the street waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?" Shane asked.

"Seven hundred rounds, assorted."

"You went through hell to find us. You - you just got here and you're going to turn around and leave?" Lori said, isn't she the one who told him to go?

"Dad I - I don't want you to go." Carl agreed.

"And I'm sure Addy don't want Daryl 'goin either." Shane waved his hand at the young girl.

"You leave her 'outta this." Daryl shot back quickly standing up from his crouching position and starting to pace, causing Shane to shake his head.

"To hell with the guns, Shane is right. Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in." Lori stood up, "Tell me, make me understand."

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy. Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all. They said they'd follow me to Atlanta, they'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn 'em."

"What's stopping you?" His wife asked.

"The walkie-talkie, the one in the bag I dropped. He's got the other one, our plan was to connect when they got closer." Rick answered.

"Is it our walkies?" Shane asked.

"Yeah."

"So use the CB, what's wrong with that?" Andrea spoke up.

"The CB's fine, it's the walkies that suck to crap. They date back to the '70s, don't match any other bandwidth, not even the scanners in our cars."

"I need that bag." Rick told his wife, hoping she would just agree.

Lori shook her head, giving up and Rick crouched down in front of his son.

"Okay?" He asked, to which Carl nodded. Rick ruffled his dark brown hair and stood up.