Glenn had put Bell in the back of the car to let her rest, it was clear she had taken a beating, they needed to get her back to the prison so Hershel could tend to her.
As he leaned up against the car, along with the new comer Michonne, he wondered what was taking the others so long. Then he heard footsteps up ahead and looked up to see Rick and the others had returned, along with someone else he didn't want there.
"What the hell is he doing here?!" He yelled as he pointed his gun to the man, Michonne next to him with her katana lifted in attack mode.
"He tried to kill me!" The woman yelled, as Rick tried to get her to put the weapon down.
Everyone was yelling, Maggie, Rick and Daryl trying to get the other two to calm down. Daryl in particular as he was defending his brother. Merle wasn't helping with the situation. "Damn brother, you've gone native."
Daryl turned to him. "No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there!"
He leaned up against the tree behind him. "Oh yeah man he is a charmer, I'll tell you that. Been puttin' down the wood to your girlfriend Andrea." He directed to Michonne who had a deadly look in her eye.
"What? Andreas in Woodbury?" Glenn asked looking between Rick and Michonne.
"Yeah, right next to The Governor." Daryl replied.
"You know Andrea?" Rick asked looking to Michonne.
When she didn't reply, Merle spoke up again. "Yep, she does. Her, blondie, and ginger spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mhmm, my Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kinda ironic now that I think about it." He chuckled.
"Shut up bro!" Daryl yelled, knowing his brother wasn't helping with the tense situation.
Merle put up his hands defensively. "Hey, man, we snagged 'em outta the woods. Andrea was close to dying."
Maggie spoke up next, addressing Michonne. "Is that why she's with him?" The dark haired woman remained silent.
Then something popped in Glenn's head, remembering that a certain someone was in the car. "Wait, so is that how you know Bell?"
When Michonne arrived to the car she had asked Glenn if a red head had made it. He confirmed this but didn't push for question's at the time, figuring maybe they were both former residents of Woodbury. Now it made sense.
Everyone turned to Glenn in confusion, but Daryl spoke up first. "Bell? What the hell are you talkin about?"
Glenn looked to the man. "I found Bell, she was being held by The Governor, saw her stumbling out of the woods while I was waiting for y'all. She looks bad, we need to get her back, she's passed out in the car right now."
Daryl couldn't believe what he was hearing. Bell was in the car-alive, after all this time. He certainly didn't think this would be how their reunion would go.
He turned to his brother. "What the hell did that psycho do to her? What happened?" He could feel his anger rising once again.
"Hey don't look at me, I didn't do anything, I warned your girlfriend what would happen if she tried to leave." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Daryl got a sick feeling in his stomach, the thought of what that man may have done to her made him want to march right back into that town and stick an arrow in his face.
Merle spoke up again. "So, what ya gonna do now sheriff? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards."
Rick was fed up with the man. "Shut up!"
Merle just chuckled and kept going. "Oh man, look at this, pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in 'em."
"Merle, shut up!" Daryl yelled to the man.
Merle stood up off the tree and started to yell. "Shut up yourself! You bunch of pussies, you roll—"
Rick knocked him out on the head with the butt of his gun. Everyone was silent for a moment, glad to have the man finally quiet. "Asshole."
Glenn, Maggie, Daryl and Rick walked to the road and talked among themselves on what to do about Merle. "It won't work." Rick said to Daryl's idea of bringing Merle back.
"It's gotta." He responded.
"It'll stir things up." Rick replied with a shake of his head.
Daryl was frustrated. "Look, The Governor is probably on his way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."
Glenn spoke up next. "You really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol, Truck, and Beth?"
Daryl just scrunch up his face. "He ain't a rapist."
Glenn scoffed. "Yeah, well his buddy is."
"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night." He tried to defend.
Rick shook his head again. "There's no way Merles gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats."
"So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" He said, indicating to Michonne who stood by the car.
"She's not coming back." Rick replied.
"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie chimed in.
"She did bring you guys to us, and she knows Bell." Glenn agreed.
"And then ditched us." The man replied.
"At least let my dad stitch her up." Maggie said crossing her arms.
Rick looked to the woman. "She's too unpredictable."
"That's right, we don't know who she is." Daryl agreed. "But Merle, Merle's blood."
"No, Merle is your blood." Glenn said to the man. "My blood, my family, is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison."
"And you're part of that family." Rick added on. "But he's not."
Daryl knew there was no convincing them, and he couldn't leave his brother, not again. "Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."
Glenn shook his head. "No, that's not what I was saying."
"No him, no me."
Maggie looked at him with knit eyebrows. "Daryl you don't have to do that."
He just shrugged. "It was always Merle and I before this."
"You're just gonna leave like that?" Glenn asked, not believing what he was hearing.
"You'd do the same thing." He replied.
"What do you want us to tell Carol-or Bell, we just got her back, after all this time. You're just gonna leave her with no explanation?" Glenn asked hoping that the red head would convince him to stay.
Daryl didn't want to leave, especially getting Bell back, all he wanted since he got separated from her was to find her. But he couldn't leave his brother again, he thought he'd never see him again either and there he was, alive.
"She'll understand. They both will." He replied before walking off.
The others called after him, Rick close behind. "Hey, hey! There's gotta be another way."
"Don't ask me to leave him, I already did that once."
And with that, Daryl started to grab his belongings from the car. He thought about waking up Bell, just to talk to her one more time, but it would be easier this way. He knew if he saw her he may actually go back to the prison. So with one last look to the others, he headed off into the woods with his brother.
Bell started to finally wake up, she stirred in the bed she lay on, slowly opening her eyes. She opened them to see a bunk above her and looked at the side to see she was in a cell. She quickly sat up and looked around, there wasn't much in the room except for a toilet and a desk in the corner, she looked to the left to see the cell door was open.
For a moment she thought maybe The Governor and his men had gotten her again but she knew this wasn't Woodbury. She looked down to see her left wrist was wrapped up, she lifted her hand to the left side of her face where The Governor had cut her to find stitches.
She slowly got up out of her bed, carful not to make noise, she saw her swords on the table and went to grab one and made her way slowly and silently out of the cell.
She heard voices so she walked toward them, hoping wherever she was wasn't another trap like Woodbury. When she entered the room, she dropped her weapon in shock.
All the heads in the room turned to her, it was the group, Ricks group. They had made it, they were the ones that patched her up and brought her here. She couldn't believe her eyes.
Before she had time to fully register everything, someone had run up to her and threw their arms around her. "I can't believe you're here." She recognized the voice, when the person pulled back she saw it was Carol, tears in her eyes.
Bell just smiled. "You and me both."
She looked around the room to see just about everyone from the farm was there, along with two new bodies. A man with long blonde hair in a prison jumpsuit, and a baby being held by Beth.
"Hey Truck." She turned to see Glenn standing not far from her. She walked over to him and they embraced each other. "You ready for that beer yet?" He asked.
She pulled back and knit her eyebrows together before she realized what he was talking about.
"Oh my god, you were the person I was talking to, in the other room." She examined as she saw he looked just as bad as her, with the right side his face slightly swollen and a busted lip.
"Man, you look like shit." She said with a smirk.
He playfully shoved her. "You're one to talk, almost mistook you for a Walker yesterday."
"Yesterday? I've been asleep for a whole day?" She asked, not realizing how long she had been out.
"It was needed, your injuries were pretty severe, and I'm pretty sure you haven't eaten in a while." A voice spoke up and she looked to see that it was Hershel.
She gave the man a smile. "Thank you, for fixing me up." She then looked to the group and addressed them. "Y'all saved me, thank you."
Maggie approached her with a plate of food and led her to a table to sit. "You don't need to thank us, you're family, we wouldn't have thought twice about it."
Bells heart warmed at this, she had missed the group but she didn't realize how much till she was actually back. Bell gave the girl a side hug and began to dig in.
"So where is everyone? What happened after the farm? Have y'all been here the whole time?" She asked as she continued to shovel food in her mouth, she had a lot of questions, but man was she hungry.
"We were on the road pretty much the whole time, moving from place to place, we found the prison recently." Glenn replied as he sat down on the other side of Maggie.
Hershel spoke next. "We lost Lori and T-dog not too long ago."
Bells heart sank at this. "And...the baby, it's Loris right?" The man nodded in response.
Bell looked around. "Where's Carl? Rick?" She felt worried for the two, she couldn't imagine how they were handling this.
"Ricks outside, hasn't been handling losing Lori too well.." Carol spoke up from across the table. "And Carl-"
Before she could finish, someone walked out of the cell blocks, she turned to see that it was Carl. The boy noticed her and his face lit up. "Bell!" He yelled as he ran to her and threw his arms around her, burying his face in her neck.
"Hey kid." She said as she hugged him back. "Look at you, tall as hell. And that hair, I dig it." As she pulled back to examine the boy who just smiled in response.
Bell didn't think she could be any happier than in this moment, till she realized there was one more person not among them.
"Where's Daryl?" She tried to remain calm but everyone could see the worry on her face.
Carol just gave her a small smile. "He left, yesterday, he found his brother and they left together."
Bell was silent for a minute, too many emotions rushing through her at once. She was glad he found his brother, but she couldn't help but despise the man slightly after everything.
She was glad to hear Daryl was alive but the fact that he left caused a slight pain in her heart. She wondered if he knew they had found her, and if so why didn't he say goodbye to her. She figured it was probably best. If she had to see him after all this time apart, only to say goodbye right after, it would have hurt even more.
Bell just nodded and looked back down to her food. Then she had another thought as she looked back up and scanned the room for a certain katana wielding woman.
Glenn seemed to read her mind. "She's outside, Michonne, she's fine we patched her up."
Bell relaxed at that. "I'm gonna go check on her." She said as she went to stand from the table. She still had a slight limp but she felt much better than the last time she was awake.
As she walked outside the sun blinded her, she hadn't been in the sun in days, before the prison she was locked up in that room The Governor kept her in. It felt good to have the sun on her skin, she breathed in the fresh air as she looked around, admiring the prison. It needed some work but she would take this over Woodbury any day.
She saw Michonne in the distance, standing in a field next to a prison bus that was tilted over onto its side. She hobbled down to the girl who noticed her as she reached.
The dark haired woman smiled to her. "How ya feeling?"
Bell nodded. "A lot better, still hungry, but I'm good." She smiled. "So, what happened? With The Governor?" She was curious if Michonne had killed the man, she hoped she had.
The woman let out a breath and shook her head. "Well we fought, but he's still alive." She said reading Bells mind. "But I shoved some glass in his eye, only seemed fair." She said with a smirk, glancing to the red heads cut that went over her eye.
Bell laughed in response. "Ahh I would've paid to see that, not so pretty anymore I'm sure." She smirked. "And Andrea? Did you see her?" She wondered if the blonde had gotten caught in any of the crossfire.
Michonne's expression changed at the mention of the girl. "Yeah I saw her, pointed a gun on me when she walked in on me and The Governor fighting."
Bell scrunched up her face, she didn't wanna believe it, she knew she was under the mans spell-but to pull a gun on Michonne, her own friend. It felt like a betrayal. She wondered if she knew that what the The Governor had done to her, Michonne, Glenn and Maggie. If she did, it was most definitely betrayal.
Andrea always wanted to help, to prove herself to others, she admired that about the girl. But at this point she was just making excuses for the man.
Bell shook her head and let out a sigh. "Well, I guess she's chosen her side then." It hurt to say it out loud, but at the moment she felt angry at the girl.
Michonne looked to the girl. "I know, by the way, what he did. Your men." Bell looked down at the reminder. "Saw the trucks, I get it now, why you did what you did. I'm sorry."
Bell just continued to look down. "Said he would kill you and Andrea, wanted me to work for him. I knew if I could get y'all out then I would have a better chance at revenge. Looks like it didn't work out that way."
"You didn't have to do that, I can take care of myself, could've helped you." She replied.
Bell nodded. "I know ya can, but like I said, didn't wanna risk it."
Michonne was silent for a second before responding. "Thank you." When Bell looked to her confused she continued. "You risked yourself for us, put us before your need for revenge. I was selfish that night, when I stayed to try and kill him, I should've just left with you. If something had happened to you I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself. I shouldn't have left you in the first place."
Bell placed her hand on her arm. "Hey, I told you to leave and I'm glad you did or you could've ended up just like me." The woman smiled as she continued. "Besides, you're my family, you don't have to thank me. I'd do anything for you."
Michonne nodded smiled and pulled the woman in for a hug. It took Bell slightly by surprise, she knew Michonne wasn't much for hugs and sentiments, she showed she cared by actions. And this was an action she was glad to receive.
Michonne pulled back and looked out to the fence where a man stood, Bell came to realize it was Rick. He was standing outside the fence, looking around like he was trying to find someone.
"I don't think I'm gonna be able to stay here." She said to the red head.
Bell looked to her with knit eyebrows. "Why wouldn't you? You're not trying to leave again are you? These are good people, I promise."
Michonne shook her head. "They don't trust me, mostly him, thinks I'm too unpredictable."
Bell looked back out to the man, a lot had changed since she last saw him, maybe he had changed as well. "I'll talk to him, he'll listen to me. You're not going anywhere, promise." She said with a smile. "Besides, you still owe me five bucks, can't send you off just yet."
Later on in the day everyone, with the exception of Rick, was gathered in the dining hall of the prison discussing plans and seeing where in the building was secure.
"How do we even know he's comin? Maybe you scared him off?" Beth spoke up timidly.
"He had fish tanks full of heads, walkers and humans. Trophies." Michonne spoke up from beside Bell. "He's coming."
Bell's stomached turned slightly, she wouldn't doubt it that her head would've been in that tank right next to Michonne's if he had gotten the better of the two.
"We should hit him now." Glenn replied.
"What?" Beth asked shocked.
"He won't be expecting it." He replied. "We'll sneak in and out a bullet in his head."
"We're not assassins." Carol chimed in.
Glenn stood up and walked to the two girls. "Y'all know where his apartment is. We could all three end this tonight." Michonne nodded in agreement.
Bell just rolled her eyes and stepped in. "Listen I know you want him dead, but this isn't the way, we need to be smart about this."
Glenn looked like he was about to argue but Hershel cut in. "She's right, he didn't know you were coming last time and look what happened. You were almost killed, Daryl was captured, and you and Maggie were almost executed."
Glenn stepped up to the man menacingly. "You can't stop me."
"Rick would never allow this." The man replied, not phased by Glenn's aggressiveness.
"You really think he's in any position to make that choice?"
"Think this through clearly. T-Dog lost his life here-Lori too, the men that were here. It isn't worth anymore killing." He replied, trying to make Glenn see reason. "What are we waiting for? If he's really on his way, we should be out of here by now."
"And go where?" Glenn asked irritated.
"We moved back on the road all winter." He replied simply.
"Back when you had two legs and we didn't have a baby crying for walkers every four hours." He said, not being swayed by Hershel.
Hershel just looked at him with sympathy. "We can't stay here."
"We can't run." And with that, Maggie left the room, clearly bothered with Glenn's attitude.
Bell walked past Glenn and gave him a look as she did. She knew he wanted to help, but being reckless and angry with everyone wasn't helping. Maggie needed him and all he wanted was revenge for whatever it was that happened to Maggie.
Bell followed the woman to the cell that she had seen Maggie enter, she walked in and sat down next to her on the bed. The young woman looked to her and back down to her hands that sat in her lap.
"You okay?" Bell asked the short haired brunette.
She just shrugged. "I guess, as much as I can be. Ever since we got to this prison everything's gone to hell. And now Glenn is...I don't even know what his deal is."
Bell nodded. "Sometimes when we care for someone, and that someone gets hurt, we don't know how to go about it. He means well, he just doesn't know how to talk to you." She said with a smile. "Men aren't the best with communication, I'm sure you know that though."
Maggie gave a small smile and nodded. "I know, I just need him to understand that it's not all about him. I just need time to deal with everything on my own."
Bell nodded in agreement. "I know, and I understand, I'm not excusing him. He's definitely being an idiot right now." Maggie chuckled in response. "If you need to talk at all, I'm just a few cells down." She patted the girl on the back and went to walk out but Maggie stopped her.
"Hey Bell?" The red head turned to look at her. "I'm glad you're back. I'm sorry about the farm, we should've went back for you."
Bell just shook her head. "No, y'all did the right thing, the farm and those woods were overrun, would've just got yourself killed. Besides, we found our way back to each other, if that's not fate I'm not sure what is."
Maggie nodded. "You think Daryl will find his way back?"
Bell could tell Maggie was asking for the sake of the red head, as well as the group.
She gave a small smile. "I sure hope so."