As Cassie exited her tent in new clothes for the day, ricks hat on her head when she saw Daryl, Glenn, Morales,T-dog,Jim and Jaqui moving dead bodies about burning them and driving stuff into their heads so they definitely didn't come back to life.
As Cassie was about to go over to them her nephew ran over to her. "Aunt Cassie!" He yelled causing everyone's attention to turn to the pair. She wrapped him up in a huge hug having not seen him since the attack.
"Good to see you to kiddo" she grinned. Once she lowered him down to the ground he held his pinky out to her.
"We have to promise each other that we'll always rescue each other" he determined in a serious voice, well as serious as he could be.
"Okay" Cassie agreed smiling down at the boy linking their pinky's together before he ran off back to his mother. Cassie was about to head over to the group dealing with walkers when she heard a small voice behind her.
"Cassie?"
She turned around to see Sophia standing there nervously staring down at her shoes like Carl did when he was nervous.
"Hey you okay?" Was all Cassie got out before the little girl began to cry. It wasn't a sad cry just more of a cry of relief. The woman instantly kneeled down beside her pulling the young girl in for a hug brushing her hair with her fingers in an attempt to calm her down.
"Hey hey it's okay. I'm okay" she reassured her pulling her back a bit so their eyes met. "I'm okay"
"Thank you Cassie. You saved me. Your like my big sister" Sophia confessed unsure wether the woman would be okay with what she had admitted.
"Well your like my sister too so it's okay" she told her before placing a small kiss to the top of her forehead. "Now go see your mom I gotta go help the others okay?"
"Okay" and with that the two parted ways before Sophia called Cassie's name again louder than before. When Cassie turned around she ran over gesturing for her to kneel down so she could whisper in her ear.
"Mr Daryl keeps looking at you. I think he likes you in a way that's more than friends. Maybe he even loves you" she girl before skipping away happily.
Cassie felt her cheeks warm up but the blush quickly disappeared or she hoped it did as she made her way over to the group.
"Hey Cassie here to help?" Glenn asked as he ran over to her taking off his hat to wipe hit brow.
"Yeah if that's alright"
"Yeah you can help Daryl with smashing the skulls. I know it sound weird but trust me it works just grab a pickaxe"
"Okay pizza boy" she smiled giving him a small salute before picking up a pickaxe and starting to smash the skulls of walkers.She placed her hat on the hood of a blue truck before she began.They all continued to work only stopping when they heard the cock of a gun.
Cassie looked up and saw rick with his hands up as Andrea pointed a gun at him yet again. She felt her anger bubbling up inside of her as she got ready to run over and intervene when she felt a hand gently on her shoulder. She didn't have to turn around to know it what was Daryl she wasn't sure how but she just knew it was him.
Once Rick had backed away most of the Atlanta group gathered around on a circle to discuss what to do next.
"Y'all can't be serious. Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girls a time bomb" Daryl said making his opinion on the matter very clear.
"What do you suggest?" Rick asked him although Cassie already knew he wasn't going to like the rednecks response.
"Take the shot. Clean in the brain from here he'll I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance"
"No for gods sake let her be" Lori spoke coldly shutting the redneck down.
"How long she got. An hour, two? The longer you wait the harder on Andrea this is going to be." Cassie said Rick giving her a confused look as to why she would argue back.
Silence surrounded the group before Daryl scoffed and began to walk away. "Cass cmon! Get up Jimbo we got work to do"
Daryl and Morales began dragging a dead body towards the fire pit where they were burning walker bodies.
"Wait w-what are you doing. Our people go over there" Glenn demanded holding back tears. Cassie could see the distressed look on his face and walked over to him wrapping an arm round his shoulder to try and comfort him. "We Don't Burn Them!" He shouted making it clear to the two men who reluctantly started to drag the body to a different pile to be buried later on.
"Reap what you sow" Daryl muttered out.
"You know what shut the hell up man" morales yelled fed up of the rednecks attitude.
"Y'all left my brother for dead. You had this coming" he shouted at everybody before furiously waking away. Cassie was about to get back to work when she felt Glenn's presence beside her.
"What Glenn?"
"Go after him!" He demanded grabbing the women by her shoulders so they were face to face.
"No way I don't need him pissed of at me" she replied turning to walk away.
"Fine" Glenn called after her "but this better not effect Casyl in any way!"
This made Cassie turn around quickly with a questioning look. "Casyl?"
"Cassie and Daryl. A match made in heaven" he explained which made Cassie just chuckle and shake her head as she began to walk away whilst shouting "Never call us that ever again". She heard him laughing to himself as she walked.
However the happy moment didn't last too long as Jaque revealed to the group a walker had bit Jim. People started to gather round Jim who had grabbed a shovel to try and defend himself.
"Show it to us" Daryl shouted whilst Jim just stood there tying to convince them it was nothing, that he was fine. T-dog snuck up on him grabbing his arms behind his back causing him to drop the shovel and giving Daryl the opportunity to run in and pull up his shirt to revel a bite.
Everyone sighed and looked down at their feet not wanting to meet the man's eyes as he kept saying he was fine. Everyone knew he wasn't.
So know the group were stood in a circle again this time debating over what to do with Jim.
"I say we put a pick axe in his head and the dead girls and be done with it" Daryl spoke up.
"That's what you want if it were you?" Shane asked.
"Yeah and I'd thank you while ya did it" Daryl responded with zero hesitation.
"I agree with Daryl" Cassie said causing all eyes to turn on her. She got a lot of surprise looks over the fact she was siding with the redneck so decided to explain her point.
"Jim is sick. There's no changing that hes just gonna get worse and worse. Leaving him alive to feel all that pain he'll suffer and then die or we could give him a quick death with no pain"
There was a pause after what she said before Dale broke the silence saying "I hate to say it I never thought I would but maybe Daryl's right"
"Jim's not a monster Dale or some rabid dog."
"I'm not suggesting tha-"
"He's a sick sick man. We start down that road where do we draw the line?" Rick argued with Dale.
"The lines pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers or them to be" Daryl explained.
"What if we can her him help?" Rick suggested. "I heard the cdc was working on a cure"
"I heard that too" Shane said "I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell"
"What if the cdcs still up and running" Rick suggested making his plan clear. He wanted to take him to the cdc for a cure.
"Man that is a stretch right there."
"Why? If there's any government left any structure at all they'd protect the cdc at all costs wouldn't they?"
"Who's to say there is any government left to protect it. You've seen what it's like out there. There is no government" Cassie told her brother who simply put her comment away to the side.
"Shelter,protection rescue-"
"We all want those things Rick I do too ok? Now if they exist they're at the Army base Fort benning"
Cassie rolled her eyes at the mention of fort benning. Shane had want to go there since the beginning but no one else agreed with him. We'll know was his chance to go.
"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction"
"That is right" Shane agreed with Lori "but it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me if that place is operational it will be heavily armed. We be safe there"
"The military were on the front lines of this thing they got over run" Rick pointed out "We've all seen that. The Cdcs are best choice and Jim's only chance"
As Rick spoke Cassie eyes moved over to Daryl who looked back at her. She could see from the look in his eye and the way he was standing that he was about to do something. Something neither Rick nor Shane would agree with.
"You go looking for aspirin do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls and take care of this damm problem" he shouted as he left his place standing next to Cassie charging at Jim swinging his pickaxe. Before he could hit him though Daryl heard the sound of a gun clicking behind his head as Rick held a gun there.
"We don't kill the living"
"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."
"We may disagree on some things. Not on this. You put it down. Go on"
Cassie couldn't help but let out a small laugh the luckily no one heard about how they two men were treating Daryl as if he were a toddler.
Daryl stared at Rick before slamming his pick axe into the ground and walking away. Rick decided to move Jim into the rv after that to try and keep him safe in case Daryl tried another attack.
Cassie walked over and picked up his pickaxe before walking over to him. Not a word was shared as she handed him the pickaxe their fingers brushing against each other.
The pair then went back to smashing walker skulls in silence the only sound was their grunts as the slammed their pickaxes into the heads and the crushing of skulls.
Just then carol walked over to the pair looking down and seeing her husband lying there. She looked down at his body before turning to the pair with tears in her eyes.
"I'll do it. He's my husband" Was all she said reaching for Daryl's pickaxe who handed it to her quite reluctantly.
The two watched as carol began smashing her dead husband's head in over and over again sobs escaping her mouth with every swing. Cassie looked over to Daryl and saw he had the same look on his face as she did. He looked over to her noticing their shared expression before turning back to Carol who handed the pickaxe back over waking away sniffling.
The pair began dragging body's over to the blue truck they were using to transport the dead bodies to the makeshift graveyard Jim had practically dig himself. Once all the bodies were loaded up Cassie and Daryl drove them up the hill where Rick and Shane were finishing the last of the holes.
"Still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. That's what we said we'd do. Right. Burn them all.Ain't that the idea"
"At first"
"Chinaman gets all emotional says it's the wrong thing to do and we just follow him along" Daryl said throwing his hands on the air. "These people need to know who the hells in charge here. What the rules are"
Shane and Rick shared a look before Rick said "there are no rules"
"We'll that's a problem" Lori said causing all four to turn to look at her. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do"
Cassie walked over to her placing a hand on her sisters shoulder. "We will" she told her before Lori walked away.
All the bodies were put in the graves by Shane and Daryl before Cassie and Rick covered in dirt leaving them to rest. Before Shane and Daryl could grab Amy Andrea grabbed her sister insisting on putting her in herself. Cassie felt her eyes tear up at the sad picture of one sister burying the other. As Dale went over to help Andrea as she struggled with Amy's body Daryl saw Cassie's eye gloss over tears threatening to fall.
Not wanting anybody to see he discreetly reached his hand out to hers brushing the back of her hand with his fingertips. She felt his touch against her hand and felt the comfort he was trying to give her. When he pulled his fingers away she gently did the same back. When he felt her touch he felt the tips of his ears go red. Once she pulled them away he folded his arms across his chest and she started rubbing the part he had touched missing the comfort his touch gave her.
Little did the pair know none other then Glenn had seen the interaction between the two. If he hadn't been at a funeral he would of started laughing happy for her but instead he waited until everyone was heading down the path back to camp to approach the blonde.
He looked around to make sure Daryl wasn't around and thankfully he noticed the redneck preparing the blue truck to drive back to camp.
"I saw" was all he said startling Cassie when he appeared out of nowhere.
"Jesus Glenn. Saw what?"
"You and Daryl" he said to chick she let out a dry laugh and kept walking.
"Nothing happened"
"Oh cmon you were practically holding hands Cassie. Just admit to me that you like him and I'll leave it."
"Never gonna happen" Cassie said with a smirk as she walked off only turning around when she heard her nephew calling her name.
"Aunt Cassie" the boy panted as he reached her "mom and dad told me to come find you while they talk about something" he explained as Cassie looked up the hill to see Rick and Lori talking about something serious.
"Okay then. How about a piggy back" she suggested leaning down for him to jump on which he did with a giggle as the women stood up straight walking down the hill with Carl her back.
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It was later on in the day and Cassie was sat with an apple in her hand reading a book. She had just taken a bite out of her apple and was waiting for Rick and Shane to come back from their perimeter sweep when she saw Dale walking up to her with a worried look. She closed her book setting it down on the ground before she got up.
"Dale is everything okay?" She asked worried with the way he was looking at her.
"I know it might not be any of my business but keep an eye on Shane" he told her placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Why what's wrong with Shane"
"Don't tell anyone but whilst they were out on their perimeter sweep I saw Shane about to shoot Rick in the back. He might have done it had I not been there"
Cassie felt almost confused at the mans words. Shane? Try to kill Rick? Why on earth would Sha- Lori. Cassie wasn't blind she knew there was something going on between the pair. But would Shane really kill his best friend just to keep Lori? Cassie wasn't sure but she wasn't about to risk it.
"I'll keep an eye out thanks Dale" she said with a smile.
"I think their about to tell everyone the plan. Cmon" Dale told her as he nodded toward the campfire where most of the group where already sat. Cassie walked over with Dale and stood between Glenn and Daryl as they waited for Rick and Shane to come over.
When they did Shane began his speech."I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"
Most people nodded or gave small nod to the man as the group all dispersed. Soon only Cassie and Daryl were left still standing there and to be honest she wasn't sure why neither had made a move to leave. Cassie decided to break that familiar comfortable silence to ask Daryl the question that had been swirling round her head since Shane's speech.
"Are you gonna come with us?" She asked looking over to the man whilst fiddling with the ring in her finger. Daryl didn't have anything to stay for so she wasn't sure wether or not he would be joining them at the cdc.
"What do you care?" He asked her. If he was being completely honest he wasn't sure. He didn't really have any reason to stay with the group but if he was to leave where would he go?
"Because I want you to come." She admitted to him as he looked over to her. He saw the pleading look her emerald eyes held as she looked at him. How could he say no to her.
"Guess I could come with ya"
Daryl saw the way her face lit up with a smile when she realised he was going to come with her. He couldn't help but feel slightly happy himself that he had managed to make her smile like that. He even returned the smile to Cassie's surprise as she hardly ever saw Daryl smile but now here he was smiling back at her making her feel all tingly inside.