Rick's POV
Shane and I were taking Randall out and leaving him with some supplies, and out of our hair. I couldn't have him stay with us, he could've been a threat to our safety. I wanted to talk to Shane about Lori, maybe even the Madison situation if he didn't freak out on me. I pulled over and Shane looked at me confused, "I thought we were going further." I nod, "We are, 18 miles out." "So why are we stopping?" He looked at me still confused. I sigh, "I wanted to talk. Been waiting a week till we were gonna do this. I just wanna talk." He shakes his head, "We don't need to." I sigh again, "We do." He scoffs, "No man, we don't. We're doing this. I get it. He was passed out when y'all brought him here, doesn't know where the farm is." I shake my head, "That isn't what I need to talk to you about. I heard what really happened at the school.." Shane looks out the window. I sigh, "Was it to survive?" He nods, "Yeah. One of us wasn't gonna make it out. It couldn't be Mads, and I wasn't going to die. It had to be him. One shot to the leg, Carl lives. My wife lives. Reality is he had no business being here--there. Whatever." "You don't think I would've done it?" I question him. He took a deep breath before shaking his head, "No, man, I know you wouldn't have." I scoff, "You don't think I can keep Lori or Carl safe?"
He shakes his head, "I didn't say that." "Or my baby? Is it gonna have to be me too?" I question him. He sighs rubbing his head, "Rick, you can't just be the good guy and expect to live. Okay? Not anymore." I laugh, "I'm not the good guy anymore. To save Carl's life, I would've done anything. Anything. Now Lori and Mads say your dangerous, but you're not gonna be dangerous. Not to us, not to me, not to your wife and child, not anymore." I pause noticing he's looking at the ground, "How about you look at me? You and Lori--I get what happened. When I figured it out--and I figured it out pretty quickly--I wanted to break your jaw, let you choke on your teeth. But I didn't. That wasn't weakness. It took everything. That is my wife. That is my son. That is my unborn child. I will stay alive to keep them alive. You don't love her. You think you do, but you don't. Now the only way you and me keep on is that you accept everything I just said right here, right now, and we move forward with that understanding." Shane looks up, "When it started it was just--it was a couple of weird stories on the news. Then--then it was so quick. Everything--it just happened. Two weeks later I'm in the hospital and there were soldiers shooting people in the halls. They were shooting people, man, not walkers. Then the walkers came through. You know, I tried to get you out, I tried, but we weren't gonna make it. Man, there was no way and I knew it. But I couldn't live with it. I couldn't live,knowing.."He pauses looking away, "but I had to. I didn't keep Lori and Carl, and Madison and Joey alive, man. They kept me alive. I want you to know that I didn't look at her before that. Brother, if I could take it all back, I would." I look him dead in the eyes and see that he's lying. "How could you do that to Madison? Betray her like that?" I ask him and steps forward looking me up, "That is the woman I love Rick. I messed up one time, but if you think I did it with the intent of hurting Madison, you're wrong. The one time Lori and I happened was it, and I regret it. I just hope one day Madison can forgive me and I can get my family back." I can see it in his face that he's lying, he doesn't deserve Madison's forgiveness. I shake my head, "I wanna check the ropes."
Mads POV
Lori and I were in the house making lunch for Beth when Maggie came in, "Rick say anything to you about Glenn when they got back from town? Or did Glenn say something to you." She finished looking at me. "Just that it had gotten pretty bad." Lori answered. "That's cause it was really bad." I said cutting up the cucumbers. "He's not the same," Maggie pauses as her breath shakes, "Says he froze. Blames me. Says I got inside his head." I freeze up slightly, Glenn told her it was her fault, and now she's crying. Great I feel like the world's biggest POS now, it's not like I did anything with Glenn post Maggie, but I can't help but feel like I'm partially the cause to their fighting. Lori sighed, "He came back--that's what matters. Men have to do certain things--you know that--and they're either gonna blame the little woman as the reason they do 'em or the reason they don't. I'll tell you something--what happens out there, happens out there. And we--we're just trying to keep it together till they get back." "Thing's were good. Maybe I-" Maggie starts before Lori cuts her off, "Glenn's a big boy. He makes his own choices, right Mads? And then you--do you have anything to apologize for? Tell him to man up and pull himself together. Just don't say "man up."" She laughs, "It never goes well." I nod, "She's right Maggie, Glenn loves you too, in his own way." She looked at me shocked, "How did you know that I said that? Did you talk to him?" Lori grabs the tray, "I'm gonna take this to Beth." Maggie looks at me, "Glenn hasn't said much about the two of you, yet you guys are close. Is there something you need to tell me?" I roll my eyes, "Is this some kind of interrogation?" She shakes her head, "No, I was just hoping to get some answers." I look up at her, "Promise not to get pissy?" She nods and I sigh, "Maggie, Glenn and I were together for a while after Shane and I separated." Her eyes look sad and betrayed. "Did you..." She trailed off. I ran my fingers through my hair before nodding, "Maggie, we don't feel like that about each other anymore. We broke things off the night Carl was shot." She looked shocked, "It was that recent and he didn't tell me?" I had no idea she'd react like this, I mean I get somewhat being upset that your boyfriend's 'ex-sex buddy?' was under your nose the whole time, but it was before her. At least he didn't marry you, have a child with you, then sleep with his best friend's wife WHILE married to you and got her pregnant. I felt bad for her though, I thought she knew, "Maggie, I-" Maggie storms out of the house. Great, it's about 11am and it's been a shit day.
Rick's POV
Shane and I were back in the car and on the road. "We've gotta start using our knives more. If there's one walker, we use our knives. We keep things quiet. We save ammunition." I tell him and he nods looking out the window, "Yeah." "We need dry goods ahead of the winter--warm clothes. fuel. Maybe we get a break. You gotta think the cold affects them. If it doesn't kill 'em, it's gotta slow 'em down. The second week of January last year, we got all that snow and ice. My cousin got stuck on 85 for 24 hours. Sitting in his car with a birthday cake for his girlfriend at Georgia Tech. He just sat and ate birthday cake and listened to the "Lord Of The Rings" book on tape. Twice. We get lucky, we get the same winter as last year. By December, it's a different world. Safer. Maybe we find some snowmobiles to make runs." I say trying to make conversation and he just nods, "That sounds good." I know he's mad about what I said, but at the end of the day he needs to understand it. He would be angry if he found out about mine and Madison's moment, but I can't be mad about his and Lori's actual affair. "It's more than 18." Shane said to me and I nod, "Yeah, I'm looking for a place." "A place for what?" He asks. "Give him a fair shake. A shot. There." I say pointing to a building with a fence. "This'll do. We'll leave the boy here and scavenge some supplies," I pause seeing two walkers coming towards the fence, "Over there." The walkers growl and Shane steps forward cocking his gun. I put my hand on his arm, "Wait. Like I said. Gun's quick, easy, but other ways to do this." I pull my knife out and stab one of the walker's skull. I motion towards Shane, "One more. Your turn." Shane sighs before stabbing the other walker with his knife. As we're moving the bodies Shane's voice stops me, "Hey, Rick. I don't see any bites." "Gotta be scratches then--this one's hand, other one's cheek. They had walkers here--burned bodies down the hill." I tell him looking around the body. Shane sighs, "I guess it gotta be scratches then, huh?"
We take Randall to the middle of the bus parking lot and throw him to the ground, before taking his eye covering off. Randall looks around, "Oh, come on, don't be stupid. I owe you guys. I can help protect what you've got. Why would you save my life just to kill me by leaving me here? One guy--one guy can't make it alone. That's why I was with those dudes--I was alone." I throw a knife to the ground for him before Shane and I turn on our heels, "Don't be stupid! I'm not like them! I'm just some guy I used to watch football and screw around on the internet. I lived with my mom! I lost her like you lost people. I went to school with Maggie for god's sake! I went to church. I rode the bench on varsity baseball-" I stop dead in my tracks, "You went to school with Maggie?" Shane walks closer to him grabbing him by his shirt, "You go to school with Maggie? Answer the question! Did you go to school with Maggie?" He looks terrified, "I--it--she didn't know me. Didn't even know I existed. I mean I knew her. I knew who her dad was. There is no way I would ever do anything to hurt her or her family." Shane throws him down, "Jesus." "Or you or your people. I'm not like the guys I was with!" Randall pleads.
Shane walks over to me whispering, "He knows where the farm is, Rick. Where we are. He knows. Say he finds his way back to his people..." Shane turns around and aims his gun at Randall. "Shane, No!" I yell grabbing his gun as he shoots the ground by Randall, pushing him to the ground. "Not now. Just not now." I tell him out of breath. "Well, when, Rick? When?" He asks me. "When I've had a chance to think about it." I tell him walking over to Randall. "Don't let him kill me. Please don't." Randall cries. "Shut up!" I yell at him, "We're going back. It's a man's life. I need a night to think it through." Shane scoffs, "You're gonna bring this piece of garbage--this piece of garbage who--he shot at you, Rick. He ran with men who tried to kill you. You gonna bring him back to where Lori sleeps? To where Carl sleeps? To where my wife and child sleep?" I look at him, "He'll be locked up in the barn, unless you bust it open." Shane exhaled, "Oh, don't start that shit." "I'm taking the night." I tell him. Shane scoffs again standing up and stepping forward, "Man, you take that--you think on it, Rick. Keep struggling with it. It ain't hard, man. The right choice is the one that keeps us alive. It's always the same with you. It's like the first moment--it's whenever you're put to the test." I shake my head, "Stop acting like you know the way ahead, like you know the rules. There are no rules, man. We're lost." Shane shakes his head laughing a bit, "No no no,man. I know exactly where I am." I scoff, "You don't know shit anymore." "I don't think you can do it, Rick." Shane says boldly. I roll my eyes, "It's my call, man." Shane sighs, "I don't think you can keep them safe." We hold each other's glare for a moment, realizing what he had said. I go to punch him, but he grabs my arm and head butts me. I fall to the ground as he grabs me from behind, I push him off me and against the car before landing two solid punches to his face. He slams me over the car before I push him into a fence punching him in the stomach three times. He pushes me away into a big truck, and I can quickly land a punch to his face before he punches me back. He pulls me off the truck and to the ground. He slams the motorcycle down on me and I grunt out in pain. He walks away going to grab his gun, he points it at Randall before I get up and run and attack him. I try to struggle against him to get the gun away, I get on top of him and punch him three times in the face as he tries to grab at me. I slowly stand up, out of breath, "You're not doing this! You don't get to make these calls anymore. I won't let you." He slowly stands and picks up a wrench before launching it at my head. I duck falling onto some garbage bags as the window behind me breaks open. I look up to see walkers crawling out the window, I stand up as one falls against me. I struggle for a moment before stabbing the walker in the head. I pull the dead walker on top of myself as more barrel through the window, headed for Shane. I push the walker off and see Randall struggling. He turns back seeing me and starts to hobble away faster, "Holy shit!" "Where the hell do you think you're going?" I asked him. "What did you expect me to do? Please, just let me go, man. That's what you came here for. I'm not gonna tell anyone anything." He begged. "Shut up." I said looking for Shane. "You wanna stay here? Help the guy that just bash your head in? There's 10 roamers there. You think you can take them on? They don't see us. We can get out of here. Oh,come on. Fine! But let me have a gun. I'll help you. I'll show you. I can. I know it." Randall says hopefully. I look for Shane to see him trapped. Part of me thinks we're better off, and part of me wants to save his sorry ass. "Let's go," I said to Randall, "He did this. We're going." "Oh,thank you. Thank you." Randall said relieved. I cut the rope off his hands and I thought about it. "You drive. We're saving his sorry ass. Nobody deserves to die like that, and he's got a little girl waiting at home." I tell Randall and he nods. Randall drives over to the bus Shane is trapped in alerting the walkers of our presence. "Shane! Go for the back door!"I yell to him shooting walkers that come too close, "Come on! Come on, get in! Go,man,go! Come on!" I say to Randall as we drive away from there. "Whoo! Yeah! Hell yeah! You see that? You see what we did?" Randall cheers excitedly. I point my gun at him and he quickly stops, "Just keep driving." We pull over and put Randall back into the trunk tied up, and I got into the drivers and Shane got into the passenger. We're driving for a moment before I look to Shane and laugh, "If you wanna kill me, you're gonna have to do better than a wrench." It's silent before I sigh, "Probably gonna have to kill that boy, but I am gonna think about it a night. It can't be that easy, killing someone, killing anyone. You know that. That is my wife. That is my son. That is my unborn child. If you're gonna be with us, and stay with your family, you gotta follow my lead, you gotta trust me. It's time for you to come back."
A/N: Sorry for the big Rick's POV chapter. I was gonna have Madison go, but then I felt like it wasn't really her place to go. Also Madison told Maggie what happened between her and Glenn, that Glenn wouldn't tell her...