THE GROUP LEFT MICHONNE BY THE CAR AND MERLE IN THE WOODS WHILE THEY DISCUSSED WHAT THEY WERE GOING TO DO WITH THEM.
Personally, Vivian didn't want Merle near Liam, Carl, or the baby. He wasn't predictable. And he was capable of a lot of dangerous things. She remembered what he was like back in Atlanta. He was crude, and there was a reason why everyone avoided him.
But Michonne? She was clearly a threat, too. Dragging around walkers on chains, her sword. But she also helped Andrea and Marcie during the winter. She also brought the formula they dropped to the prison. She helped them break into Woodbury to get them back.
Michonne had redeeming properties. Merle... not so much.
"It won't work." Rick told Daryl ask they all stood in the road,
"It's gotta."
"It'll stir things up." Rick argued,
"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now." Daryl defended, "Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."
"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie stated,
"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?" Glenn asked the archer,
"He ain't a rapist."
"Well, his buddy is." Glenn shot back.
Vivian crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed at Glenn before walking towards the car, and leaning up against it next to Michonne.
Rick watched her walk away as Daryl continued fighting for his brother, "They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night."
"There's no way Merle's 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?" Daryl sneered,
"She's not coming back." Rick stated,
"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie defended the stranger,
"She did bring you guys to us." Glenn added,
Michonne sighed, and the two watched as the group kept glancing over at them, "Not looking good for me, does it?"
Vivian shrugged, "You have more of a chance than Merle." She looked over at the dark skinned woman, "Thanks for bringing the formula to the prison. And for bringing them to us."
"You don't have to thank me."
"Yes, I do. You could've kept going. Walked away from the prison and from Woodbury without a second thought. But you wanted to help. And that means a lot. It gives you a chance." Vivian explained,
Michonne glanced over at her, "If it weren't for me, Merle wouldn't have kidnapped you. You wouldn't have been beaten and tortured."
Vivian hummed, "There's no telling whether the Governor would've found us further down the road. And if he had, worse things could've happened to us."
"We don't know who she is." Daryl proclaimed, his voice getting louder as he got more frustrated, "But Merle, Merle's blood."
"No, Merle is your blood." Glenn argued, "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, "But he's not. He's not."
They all grew silent, waiting for Daryl to respond. He glanced back at his brother before nodding, "Man, y'all don't know. Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."
"That's not what I was saying." Glenn hissed, trying to deescalate the situation,
"No him, no me."
"Daryl, you don't have to do that." Maggie stated,
"It was always Merle and I before this." He replied,
"Don't."
"You serious?" Glenn scoffed, "You're just gonna leave like that? What about Marcie? I thought you wanted to go back for her."
Daryl shook his head, "She'd get it. She gets blood. And you don't abandon blood. That's exactly what she's doin' right now. She'd do the same thing I am."
It was a tough argument. Because he was right. She chose not to abandon her blood, leaving behind her other family.
Daryl turned to look at Rick, who was silent. He knew there was nothing they could say to convince Daryl to go back to the prison. Well, except for 'Merle can come with'. But that wasn't going to happen.
"Say good-bye to your pop for me." Daryl told Maggie as he walked past them.
Vivian sat up straight as Daryl walked past the group, "Daryl, are you serious? Daryl!"
"What's going on?" The brunette asked as Daryl and Rick came back towards the car,
"Hey. Hey. There's got to be another way." She heard as the two men came to a stop,
"Don' ask me to leave him. I already did that once." Daryl stated before going to open the trunk of the car,
"We started something last night. You realize that, huh?" Rick asked him,
"No him, no me. Tha's all I can say."
Vivian raised an eyebrow, "You're leaving? Are you serious? After everything that's happened?" She questioned him as he went through his pack, "And leave Marcie behind again?"
Daryl paused and looked over at her, "She gave me my brother back. I ain't wastin' what she gave me." He took the strap of his pack and placed it on his shoulder, "You take care of that boy. And the rest of them, alrigh'?" Daryl gave her a grim smile, "They need ya."
"They need you, Daryl. Especially now."
He couldn't just leave. Not like that. Not with the Governor ready to attack.
Daryl paused, biting his fingernail, "If she ever shows up... tell her 'm sorry."
Vivian nodded and stood by Rick, watching Daryl walked away from them, and towards his brother. The hunter gave them one last look before disappearing off into the woods.
"Hope you're happy." Vivian commented as Rick put his rifle in the trunk of the car and put Maggie's inside as well,
He slammed the trunk shut and Vivian flinched. Rick turned to her, "It was my decision to make. If you're not happy, tell it to someone who gives a shit."
Rick walked over to Michonne, "We patch you up and then you are gone."
It was a long night for Marcie. Her parents weren't in the mood to speak, so she immediately went to bed. But she didn't sleep.
She had found Daryl. She truly didn't think she'd ever see him again. It was a big world, and so much can happen in an instant.
But he was alive. And if he was alive, so were the others. She remembered hearing someone call out for Rick. The group was near.
But she couldn't leave yet. She had her parents to think about.
When the sun rose, she went downstairs to find her parents sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of coffee between their fingers.
"Morning." Marcie stated, standing in the doorway,
"Mi stellina, sit. We need to talk." Her mother demanded.
The brunette nodded before sitting across the table from them. Her mother grabbed a spare mug and filled it before sliding it over to Marcie. She stared down at it for a moment before grabbing some packets of sugar and mixing it into the bitter liquid.
"About last night..."
"You knew those people." Her father stated, "You claimed to even love one of them."
Her cheeks grew pink, "I love all of them. That was my group. The people I was with before I met Michonne."
"The people who abandoned you when you were shot?" Her mother questioned,
"I told them to go. I thought I was dying, mama. And Daryl, Merle's brother, he wouldn't have left me behind if he was with me at that moment." Marcie defended,
"He left you behind last night."
"Because I wasn't going to leave. Not without you two. And he needed to go before he was killed. But now that I know that he's alive, that they're alive, we can-"
"You want us to leave these walls to go join those murderers?" Her father asked,
His tone told her it was going to be a lot harder than she thought to convince them to go join her group.
"I have a feeling the Governor isn't as innocent as you think." Marcie shot back.
"The Governor has kept us safe. Has given us food, and shelter, and protection. You might trust those other people, but they haven't proven anything to us." Her father stated,
Marcie furrowed her brows, "They kept me safe when I was out there. They made me feel valued. I had a voice and I was important to them. Isn't that proof enough?"
"And then one of them shot you and the others left you behind to die, Marcella." Her mother replied, "Not to mention they came in here and killed our people."
"They must've had a reason to, mama. They wouldn't attack first."
She doesn't know the full story. None of them know. The only ones are her group, and the Governor.
"We are not leaving these walls, Marcella. And that's final." Her father commanded, standing up and leaving the kitchen,
Marcie's eyes turned to her mother, "Mama, please. I know it doesn't look good, but I trust those people."
"And we trust the Governor, mi stellina."
They heard screams and gunshots coming from outside. Marcie stood and grabbed a knife, and her father was at the door with his gun.
The three of them stepped out of the house to see a man getting devoured by two walkers, and a woman screaming down the street with a walker trailing behind her.
Andrea and Martinez were running to help, the blonde taking out two of the walkers with her gun. Martinez took care of the other one. Marcie began walking over to the man on the ground, who was groaning in pain,
The community had gathered around. Karen begged for someone to help him, but no one moved.
There wasn't anything to do but put him down. But no one had the heart to do it.
Marcie glanced up in time to see the Governor, with a clean bandage on his face, approaching quickly. He took out his gun and without hesitation, shot the man in the skull before going back inside.
The brunette turned to her parents, "You think this place is safe?"
Vivian winced in pain coming from her ribs as the Hyundai came to a sudden stop. There was a tree in the road, with the rest of the path blocked off by a red pick up.
Rick, Maggie, and Glenn immediately got out of the car, while Vivian and Michonne stayed in and watched.
Glenn opened the driver's door and a walker pounced at him. The Korean threw the biter to the ground and began smashing his skull, stomping over and over even after the walker had stilled.
Michonne and Vivian shared a look before the brunette climbed out of the car slowly, trying not to aggravate her injuries too much,
Glenn walked away and Rick followed, "You didn't kill him." Glenn spat, holding his side in pain,
"That's not why we went back." Rick defended,
"No. That's right. You went back for Daryl." He glared at their leader, "And now he's gone again and the Governor is still alive."
"Daryl was the priority."
"I should have been there with you." Glenn argued,
"You were in no condition." The sheriff explained,
"But my girlfriend was?!"
"Glenn, this isn't about us." Maggie spoke up,
He scoffed, "I should have been there."
Rick raised his hand, trying to calm him down, "Hey, hey, you didn't come back with us 'cause you could barely walk."
"What about her?" Glenn pointed to his girlfriend,
"What about me?"
"Do you know what he did to her?!" He yelled, "What he did to Vivian?!"
Rick's gaze went to Vivian, who was still standing by the car. His eyes trailed down to the bruises on her neck, to his shirt that she was wearing. Of course he knew what happened, but in that moment, they all needed to be strong.
"Hey!" Vivian stepped forward, "Just leave it alone and let's go!"
Glenn glanced back at her before turning to Rick, "After all that effort, all the risk we took, Daryl just takes off with Merle?"
"Well, he had his reasons." Rick defended,
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Rick. Doesn't change the fact that we're up to our necks in shit." Glenn spat at him,
"You want me to turn the car around, beg him to come back?" Rick snapped at him, taking a step forward, "Throw down a welcome mat for Merle? This is the hand we've been dealt!"
"Let's just get this out of here and get back." Maggie spoke up, "Get some rest. We can talk it out there."
"No, you guys do all the talking you want. I'm done." Glenn stated before going back to the car.
Vivian limped forward and went to help move the truck. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as they pushed it into the ditch.
Maggie walked back to the Hyundai and Rick stopped Vivian before she could walk away, "Viv-"
"I just... can we just get back? Please?" Tears filled her eyes, "I just want to see my kid."