Once they arrived back both were fully dried off thanks to the suns heat. Although Cassie's hair was still a bit damp it wouldn't be too noticeable too anyone. Their hands dropped from each others still not wanting to tell the group about their relationship once they got back Daryl going to find Carol to apologise and Cassie going to find Glenn.
On the walk back she had asked Daryl if he was okay with Glenn knowing and he agreed knowing how close Cassie and Glenn were. The pair told each other everything and seeing as Glenn told her about Maggie it was only fair she told him about about Daryl.
She found him on top of the rv stood in Dales bucket hat holding a sniper on watch. As she approached she saw Shane storm away towards the woods angrily rubbing his bald head.
"Hey pizza boy" she called up grabbing his attention.
"Nuggets! Where you been?" He called down to her as she made her way up the ladder on the side of the rv.
"In the woods. How's things with Maggie? You know cause you told everyone about the barn when she told you not to"
"Thanks for the reminder Cass. Well she cracked an egg in my good hat so I'm gonna take a stab and say she's still pretty pissed" he explained.
"So that's why your rocking the bucket hat" Cassie realised.
"You like it. Think I looks amazingly handsome" he joked making different poses causing Cassie to burst out laughing.
"Yes you do"
"So what's up with you?" He asked seeing the Cassie clearly wanted to tell him something.
"Me and Daryl may have-"
"You had sex!" Glenn cut her off getting excited as her eyes widened and her cheeks went red.
"No no! God no we've just kissed a few times" she told him and Glenn's smile grew even wider.
"Finally. So are you guys like boyfriend and girlfriend now? You are right? Cause if not I will go over to him myself and tell him to get his head out his ass cause you are per-"
"It's fine Glenn we are" Cassie reassure him "Well at least I think we are cause he called me his girl soo"
"Good. Cause if I'm being honest I'm kinda scared of him" Glenn admitted causing Cassie to laugh.
Glenn then pulled her in for a hug dropping his rifle to hold her close. "I'm so happy for you Cass"
Unknown to the pair from afar Carol and Daryl saw the interaction between the two as Daryl led her towards the Cherokee rose bush to try and apologise. What Daryl knew but Carol didn't was that this was Glenn's reaction to the news of his best friends relationship.
Daryl saw the huge grin on Cassie face as the two pulled away before they both turned to face him. When he realised he was caught staring at her he ducked his head and continued to lead Carol away.
"Wow you've got him wrapped around your finger Cass. Did you see him staring! He's in looove!" Glenn cheered.
"Calm down let's not talk about love just yet" Cassie said trying to calm the excited man beside her down.
"Yeah. You two need to hurry up and have sex then say you love each other" Glenn told her.
"Glenn!" Cassie's eyes widened at Glenn's words who simply shrugged at her.
"What Cassie? We've only got so long in this world before we could end up dead. You gotta take your chances. Live a little"
"Thanks Glenn" Cassie thanked him before Maggie came past the rv.
She saw Glenn longingly look at Maggie before the blonde nudged him with her shoulder "Go after her"
Instantly Glenn hurried down the ladder throwing his bucket hat to Cassie and handing off his rifle before he ran after Maggie.m
She watched from the rv as heated words were shared between the two hoping for Glenn's sake he managed to make things right.
When she saw Maggie begin to walk away from Glenn and he just stood there she wanted to scream at him to go after her but before she could Maggie turned around and walked back over.
She then saw the two kiss and was instantly joyed for the two. Once the two where finished she couldn't help the cheer that came out causing them both to turn to her. She dropped the rifle and ran over to the pair.
"So you forgave the pizza boy?" she asked linking her arm with Maggie's who nodded as they started walking towards the farm house Glenn running up to them.
"You know Maggie, Cassie finally kissed her dreamy redneck" Glenn said trying to draw attention away from himself causing Maggie to stop both her and Cassie walking so she could turn to face the blonde.
"You did! And you didn't tell me!" Maggie gasped before Cassie turned to Glenn.
"Yeah because it was meant to be a secret" she told him with causing his eyes to widen.
"Sorry Cass" he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
Maggie laughed as she looked between the two stopping her gaze on Cassie "Really? You trusted Glenn with the secret?"
"My own bad" Cassie admitted before they started walking again Maggie linking their arms again.
"We'll don't worry I wont say anything but you should be careful about blabber mouth over there" she told Cassie causing both of them to laugh.
Since the outbreak the only people Maggie had was her family. And it wasn't that she didn't love them but she needed a friend. Someone she could talk to about things she didn't want her family to know and she found that in Cassie.
Once they reached the farmhouse they stood on the porch steps as Carl,Beth and Patricia played chess together. Cassie gave Glenn his bucket hat back thinking he didn't look the same without a hat on his head.
Her and Maggie chuckled at him before Maggie said "You look like you should be in line for the early bird special" She took the hat off his head as Cassie laughed "Go get you cap. I'll wash it for you"
As Glenn got up to grab his hat Andrea and T-dog approached the group together. "Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asked them.
"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked after.
"You haven't seen Rick?" Cassie asked standing up to walk over beside Glenn. She hadn't seen her brother since their talk about Loris pregnancy before she went off with Daryl and he went to talk with Hershel.
"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago" Andrea told her which just confused Cassie even more as to where her brother had gone off to.
"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl asked as him and Carol approached from wherever they'd been.
Cassie assumed she accepted his apology as they had walked back together and Carol wasn't crying.
"Rick told us he was going out" Carol added.
"Dammit is anybody taking this seriously?" He asked clearly pissed he was the only one putting in an actual hard effort to look for Sophia. "We got us a damn trail" he told them swinging his arm about which Cassie found kinda amusing before everyone's eyes went the same way.
Shane was walking over to the group with the gun bag over one shoulder and a shot gun in his hand as Daryl walked over to see what was going on.
"What's all this?" Daryl asked Shane as he approached but Shane never answers the question.
"You with me man?" Shane asked and Cassie noticed his eyes meet her for a brief second before he took the gun from Shane. "Time to grow up" Shane told them. "You got yours?"
"Yeah" Andrea answered confused "Where's Dale?"
"I thought we couldn't carry" T-dog said confused as Shane handed out guns to everyone.
"Yeah well we can and we have to" Shane told them before he turned to Cassie taking a shotgun out the bag to give her. "Take the gun Cassie
When she made no move to take it Shane got closer to her his face up close to hers "Take the damn gun Cassie unless you want the people you care about to die"
"Shane-"
"TAKE THE GUN" Shane yelled taking the hand she had in a fist by her side and pacing the gun in it. "Pathetic" he said loud enough for everyone to hear before he started his speech up again.
It wasn't that Cassie was scared off the gun or that she couldn't use it was that she didn't want to. She knew the fallout of them carrying guns on Hershel's property when he specifically asked them not to would be terrible and she didn't want to be apart of it. Unfortunately for her that choice was taken by Shane storming through like a maniac.
She could feel Daryl's eyes and many others on her but she didn't meet any of them simply looking at the gun in her hands and the trouble it could cause.
"Now it was one thing standing around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But know we know it ain't." Once he finished he walked over to where Glenn and Maggie where stood "How about you man? You gonna protect yours?" He asked Glenn who looked at Maggie before hesitantly taking the gun out of Shane's hands
"Can you shoot?" He then asked Maggie.
"Can you stop? You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight"
"We have to stay Shane" Carl said coming down the steps of the porch as Lori came out of the house towards them.
"What is this?" She asked.
"We ain't going anywhere ok? Now look Hershel he's just got to understand ok? Well he's gonna have to. We have to find Sophia" he said as he approached Carl a small hand gun in hand "Am I right? Huh? Now I want you to take this. You take it carl and you keep your mother and your aunt safe" At the mention of his aunt Carl looked up to face her and all she did was slowly shook her head at him.
"You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on take the gun and do it" When Cassie saw Shane trying to pressure Carl into taking the gun he finally had enough and stormed towards them.
"Leave him alone!" She yelled pushing Shane away from the boy as Lori pulled him back gently "If he don't want a gun he don't have to take one now leave him the hell alone!"
"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make" Lori stepped in as Shane stood up dusting himself off. The two shared a hard stare before T-dog got the groups attention.
"Oh shit"
Everyone turned to where T-dog was facing to see Jimmy,Hershel and Rick coming out from the woods. Rick and Hershel had two walkers caught in litter pickers and they were leading them towards the barn Jimmy coaxing the walkers forwards.
"What is that? What is that?" Shane started to say before he started sprinting in Ricks directions and everyone followed behind him wanting to know what the hell was going on.
Shane bust the gate open running straight over to Rick. "What the hell you doing?"
"Shane just back off" Rick shouted over the moans of the walkers trying to calm him down.
"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked Rick who clearly had no clue either.
"Are you kidding me?! You see?" He shouted at the group who where watching the scene unfold "You see what they're holding on to?"
"I see who I'm holding on to!" Hershel yelled back.
"No man you don't"
"Shane just let us do this. Then we can talk" Rick was still trying to reason with Shane for some reason though everyone knew there was no point.
Rick tried to reposition the walker in his hold whilst Daryl held his gun to the back of its head never letting his aim drop.
"What you wanna talk about Rick? These things ain't sick! That ain't people! They're dead! Ain't gotta feel nothing for them because all they do? They kill! These things right here! They're the things that killed Amy! They killed Otis! They're gonna kill all of us"
"Shane shut up!" Cassie yelled being the first one of the group to break the silence they all held as they listened to Shane's rant.
"Hey Hershel man let me ask you something. Could a living,breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane then proceeded to shoot three bullets into the walkers that Hershel was holding.
"Stop it!" Rick yelled knowing that Hershel cared for the walkers even if they were dangerous.
"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that? Why is it still coming?" Shane yelled before he shot the walker again twice. "That's it's heart, it's lungs. Why is it still coming?"
"Shane enough!" Rick shouted.
"Yeah man that is enough" Shane shouted back before he stepped towards Hershel's walker and shooting it in the head causing it to fall limp to the ground.
Everyone stared at Shane slightly shocked he took it so far as to kill the walker. Hershel fell to his knees on the ground next to the walker out of shock and saddness.
"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane yelled.
"Stop it Shane!" Cassie shouted who was stood a few feet in front of Carol before she moved back to place a hand on Carols shoulder. Carol noticed the blonde beside her and placed her hand on top of Cassie grateful for her being there.
"Enough living next to a bran full of things that are tying to kill us! Enough!" Shane had now moved to stand in front of the barn and Cassie had an idea of what was going to happen next. "Rick it ain't like it was before. Now if y'all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here right now!" Shane shouted before he turned and ran to the barn
As Shane started opening the locks of the barn with a pickaxe he found Rick kept yelling at Hershel to talje the snare pole so he could go stop Shane but Hershel was frozen kneeling there not making any motion that he was listening to Rick.
By now everyone was yelling trying to stop Shane from releasing the walkers in the barn onto them. But Shane wouldn't listen taking off all the locks until only one chain remained. He pounded the doors a few times to rile the walkers up even more before stepping back and standing facing the door gun ready.
Andrea, T-Dog and Daryl all joined him as the walkers started to come out the barn only a few at a time. Cassie glanced over to where Maggie was stood beside her father tears streaming down her face.
When she saw Cassie looking with a hesitant look on her face all she had to do was nod for Cassie to know she could go forward and start shooting along with the others. She hadn't gone before as she didn't want to upset Maggie or her family any more. She squeezed Carols shoulder before walking forward and standing by Daryl beginning to shoot the walkers coming out.
The sound of repeated gunshots, walkers groaning and Carl and Maggie's sobs was all that was heard as walker after walker came out the barn and fell to the ground. Once they finished coming Cassie turned and gave Maggie a sorry look. She noticed Dale appear at the back of the group a horrified look on his face at the slaughter in front of them. Beth was crying in Jimmys arms and it was then Cassie remembered what Dale had said that Hershel's wife and son had been in there meaning that Beth's mother and brother had just died in front of her again.
Just then a walkers groans could be heard coming from the barn and everyone raised their gun as slightly again ready to take down what they thought would be the last walker.
But none of them expected to see what came out the barn.
In front of them stood Sophia as a walker. She was on the same clothes as the day she went missing with a huge bite mark bleeding on her shoulder.
Cassie heard the sound of footsteps running toward them and Carols sobs for her dead daughter. As she ran to her daughter Daryl caught her in his arms before she could reach her bringing them both to the ground.
Cassie felt the tears start to fall down her face hearing Lori tell Carl not to watch as Rick stepped forward to shoot Sophia's walker form. Her guilt felt heavy on her heart and she couldn't bare to look at the scene in front of her choosing instead to lion down at the dirt small wet patched appearing on the dort as the tears fell from her face.
'She was there the whole time' the thought kept going through Cassie's mind over and over. All those days they spent looking, Carl getting shot, Daryl getting injured all of it and she was right there. Right under their noses.
As the gunshot ringed through the air Cassie let out a shaky breath Carol sobs now being the only noise to be heard by the barn. No more groans. No more gunshots. Just cries of pain. They had found her.