THAT ENTIRE NIGHT FELT LIKE SOMEWHAT OF A BLUR, They'd gotten out alive, but Grace didn't know for how long. She'd shot the man's eye out, and escaped, and they now knew where the prison was.
They weren't safe for long, she knew that much. Grace's leg was in so much pain she forgot the entire walk to the car and the entire drive.
She only remembered Merle Dixon joining them for the ride, which she heavily protested against to no avail. In the end, though, she cried when Daryl left for Merle. She worried. Daryl was strong, she knew that, but how long would he last in the woods with Merle? Would he do the same as he did to Glenn to Daryl?
When they arrived back at the prison, Grace was shocked to see new faces, although she never got to introduce herself or anything like that, as Hershel quickly checked out her leg, and by the time they'd made the conclusion it was just a sprain and that she needed to rest for a week or two, they were gone. Rick had lost it and kicked them out.
She felt bad, just sending people who needed help off into the cruel world like that.
Not everyone was bad, Grace knew that, those people probably weren't bad.
A week or two had passed of Grace lying in bed helpless, Grace was sick of it. She just wanted to do something and be useful. But everyone always said she wouldn't be any use at all if her ankle got worse, so she sucked it up, and it paid off in the end, as she was finally allowed to get out of bed and walk a bit.
"Right, now you said you found Tyreese's group here?" Glenn and Carl sat on the ground with chalk, they were trying to find exactly how their group had gotten in since it surely wasn't from the gates.
"Yeah," Carl spoke. "We secured this though?" Glenn doubted, "He thought he came through here" Carl pointed to the chalk drawing. "this means there's another breach. the whole front of the prison is unsecured, if walkers just stroll in, then it's gonna be cake for a group of armed men." Glenn observed, "Why are we even so sure he's going to attack?" Beth questioned.
"I shot his eye out. He's going to attack." Grace spoke from the bench.
"We should hit him now." Glenn thought, Grace thought that was insane. The two of them were barely healed, and he wanted to go back. "What?" Grace furrowed her eyebrows. "He won't be expecting it, we'll sneak back in and put a bullet in his head."
"We're not assassins." Carol quickly shut Glenn down.
"You know where his apartment is, you and I could end this tonight." Glenn stood up as he walked over to Michonne.
Michonne just sighed, clearly conflicted. "I'll do it myself." Glenn continued. The woman hesitated, but nodded in the end, not about to let him go on his own like that. "Okay." Glenn nodded his head, satisfied.
"He didn't know you were coming last time, and look what happened, you were almost killed, Daryl was captured, and you, Grace, and Maggie were almost executed." Hershel stood upon Glenn, he had a point.
"You can't stop me." Glenn peered towards the older man, tension filling the air. "Rick would never allow this," Hershel stated, it was true, in times like this, they needed Rick.
"You really think he's in any position to make that choice?" Glenn spat, "Think this through clearly, T-Dog lost his life here, Lori too. The men that were here, it isn't worth anymore more killing. What are we waiting for? If he's really on his way, we should be out of here by now." Hershel was the next best thing they had with Rick being gone.
"And go where?" Glenn scoffed, stepping closer.
"We lived on the road all winter."
"back when you had two legs, Grace's wasn't sprained and we didn't have a baby crying for walkers every four hours."
he bleated. He was right, living on the road with the two of them barely on their feet and Judith, it was too risky. "We can't stay here."
"We can't run." Glenn was right, they couldn't.
The tension in the room only calmed down with Maggie walking out. "We're staying, we'll just have to defend this place." Grace didn't want to give up on the prison, it had so much potential.
Silence filled the room as Grace spoke before Hershel and Glenn both nodded, agreeing with Grace's words. "We're making a stance." Glenn stepped towards Grace and scruffed her hair.
"We won't give up on this place, it's home now,"
Glenn stated to the group, everyone agreeing.
"Okay, me and Carl will go clear out the tombs, find where that breach is." Glenn stepped back and grabbed his gun off the table, Carl standing up as well.
"Hey, let me come with," Grace knew the answer.
"No way, you stay in bed." It was worth a shot though.
━━━━━━━☆━━━━━━━
"GLENN!" Grace shouted, waving her bat up in the air as Glenn walked towards the car, "Grace, what did I tell you? You need to rest!" He walked towards her, clearly frustrated. "Are you going back there?" Grace asked, her eyes went narrow. "No, I'm just going out there." Glenn sighed, calming down as he spoke to her.
"Let me come with you then." She knew the answer, "What makes you think I'm gonna let you do that? You're supposed to be resting." But she wouldn't take no for an answer this time.
"I'm coming with you, I can't just sit here Glenn! You know that best." The man sighed, she was right. He understood what it felt like to just sit there, doing nothing.
"I'm coming, I don't care what you say. I'm coming." Grace spoke, walking past him over to the car. He tried grabbing onto her arm to stop her, but she shoved it off, walking around the front of the car into the passenger seat, Carl opening the gate as they drove off.
"This is never happening again, Grace." His gaze didn't even meet hers, it stayed on the road.
"Whatever man." She smiled over at him.
The entire ride was silent, it was just a bunch of driving around and a few stops, where Glenn always ordered Grace to stay in the car.
She'd already pushed it by coming at all, so she at least listened to him then. it wasn't a long run, Glenn grabbed a few things and managed to find some food, ammo, etcetera.
"Can we go back now?" Grace peered over the backseat as Glenn filled it up with boxes and whatnot. "You wanted to come so badly and now you wanna leave?" He scoffed,
"No, I just-- I have a bad feeling. What if they hit the prison?"
Grace's face dropped. "Yeah, we're going now." Glenn assured her, packing in the last box before shutting the door and making his way back to the driver's seat.
It was a clear shot back to the prison from then on, just a solid road, Grace had asked to roll down the window, saying it was hot in the car and when she did so, she was met with the faded sounds of bullets,
"Is that-- bullets?" Grace whispered to Glenn, rolling her window down more hear. Glenn didn't say anything, she watched his face through the rear-view mirror drop as he sped up the car, rushing to the prison.
As they pulled in, there were walkers galore and cars, cars that weren't their own, that just barely slid past them.
As Grace watched the others pull the gate open and shoot off walkers nearby, she couldn't fathom what had happened.
Did the governor hit? But where the hell was he? It was just full of walkers, way more than there had been before, plus, they were in the main yard.
Before making their straight shot into the prison, "Glenn! It's Hershel!" Grace shouted, spotting Hershel stumbling in the grass, she couldn't tell if he was injured, but Glenn nonetheless pulled up to him and got him inside the vehicle before they got into the prison.
"You okay?" Maggie swung open the car door, hugging Grace the moment she saw her, "Yeah." she mumbled.
"What the hell happened?" Grace asked as she stepped out of the car, "They came back." Carl spoke as he locked up the gate, it didn't give her much of an answer, if they hit, where the hell were they? did anyone die? get hurt? She couldn't be sure.
━━━━━━━☆━━━━━━━
"WE'RE NOT LEAVING" Rick stated as he cocked his gun, "We can't stay here." Hershel opposed them, staying loyal to his own thoughts, and with them actually coming back to attack, he felt them stronger than ever. "What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds." Maggie chimed in,
"We can't even go outside."
"Not in the daylight."
Beth and Carol added respectively. "Rick says weren't not running, we're not running," Glenn spoke with a direct tone.
"No, better to live like rats." provoked Merle as he stood locked behind the gate inside the main room, there was no way he was trusted in the cell block.
"For the hundredth time, why the hell is he here?!" Grace huffed from where sat on the staircase, she wanted Merle gone, after what he did to Glenn. Who wouldn't?
"Calm down, little girl, I'm just saying, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day, but we lost that window, didn't we?" restated Merle.
"I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now." Merle speculated, "We ain't scared of the prick." Daryl protested, walking to the top floor.
"Well, ya'll should be, that truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some think walls to hide behind, but he's got guns, and the numbers and if he takes the high ground on this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to." Merle taunted the group.
"Can we please put him in another cell block?" Grace pled with Rick, who just gave a sympathetic look to the young girl.
"No, he's got a point." Daryl shut Grace's idea down. "This is all you, you started this!" Maggie fumed, her eyes laid on Merle's. "What's the difference whose fault it is? What do we do?" Grumbled Beth as she stepped down the stairs.
"I said we should leave, we can't just sit here." Hershel echoed for the second time, to zero avails as rick simply began walking away.
"Get back here!" Hershel yelled out to the man, a yell Grace had never seen out of Hershel in her life.
"You're slipping, Rick." Hershel caught up with him as he stopped in his tracks. "We've all seen it, and we understand why, but I put my family's life in your hands, you once said this isn't a democracy, and now you have to own up to it. You need to do something."
He'd lost his wife, Grace understood, they all did, but he was a leader, it was his role and he had to fulfill it.
Grace watched as Rick walked out of the room without saying a word, Carl following after his father a moment or two later. Everyone was lost, no one knew what the hell to do, it was Rick's job to tell them what to do, and he wasn't, he didn't know himself even.
Quickly enough, Rick came back with a little more thought in his mind, eventually giving out orders. He ordered Maggie, Carl, and Grace to stay on watch, Maggie being the shooter and Grace and Carl using binoculars to keep an eye out on every corner of the prison.
Grace still couldn't get used to a gun, and after she shot the governors eye out, she was sure she never wanted to use one.
"You see something?" Grace noticed Carl focused heavily on something, he looked focused and confused, "Yeah, something weird out there." Carl replied, catching the attention of Maggie.
Grace quickly lifted her binoculars, trying to see whatever Carl saw.
"Is that-- Is that Andrea?" Sputtered Grace as she cranked up her binoculars.
"It's her." She mumbled. "Carl, go get your dad and the others." Maggie spotted her too, ordering Carl to get the others on board.
Grace and Maggie stayed up at the watch tower, Carl quickly arriving as he made sure his gun was out and ready.
Grace didn't get why she had a walker until she realized none of the walkers noticed her with it. "Open the gate, Rick!" Andrea shouted, just loud enough for the three of them to hear from up there.
As Andrea stepped through the gate, grace was shouted. She'd been sure Andrea died the night she'd saved Grace and Carol, but there she was.
As Grace watched Rick pull Andrea up, she could only assume he was gonna take her inside, Grace quickly placed her binoculars on the ground and ran back inside the prison.
"Andrea!" Grace squealed, running down the stairs, straight into Andrea's arms. "Grace, hey, how you been holdin' up?" Andrea hugged the girl back, "Been better." She shrugged as she smiled at the woman, letting go to give Carol a chance to see her again.
Andrea coming back was full of mixed emotions. Grace had missed her, she almost owed her life to her, but she was a part of the enemies. She was one of them,
Grace didn't totally see it like that, Andrea was one of them first. But the others sure didn't see it like that.
Sending Andrea off was probably the worst part.
"I'm sorry." Grace mumbled as she hugged the woman, "For what, Grace?" The woman pulled away, caressing her cheek as she weakly smiled. "For everything, for this," Grace answered. "No need to be sorry." Andrea smiled one last time before she stepped in the car and drove away,
Grace watched her drive away as tears formed in her eyes. it just wasn't fair. What happened wasn't fair, her being one of them wasn't fair, none of it was.
━━━━━━━☆━━━━━━━
☆ ENIDLOVE-BOT NOTE,
uhhhh this chapter is mad short and i couldn't really tell u why i truly just had nothing to go off of.. looking back couldn't done some improv scenes but honestly not rlly with grace's ankle and everyone completely ybusy in this episode