season two, episode four.
"cherokee rose"
019. he died as he lived, in grace.
LYDIA GREY was in shock. shock was an understatement, actually. shane walked out of the farm house his morning, and despite everything going on—lydia couldn't help but laugh.
"what the fuck has happened to your hair?" she exclaimed between laughs. he had completely shaved it off.
"to hell with you, lydia." shane waved her off as lydia put a hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles.
they all helped collect large rocks, why? lydia didn't know, but she chose not to question it just as they heard the faint sound of a motercycle.
"eden." a smile broke out onto lydia face as she raced over to the rv and daryl's motorcycle. within seconds, before dale could even park, eden was in lydia's arms, giggling, as the young mother showered her with affection.
the rest of the the greene family watched curiously as she came back over to them, now smiling happily as glenn cheered and rufffled eden's hair which had started to grow.
"the best member of the group has returned!" t-dog beamed, tickling eden's chin as lydia grinned.
"her first word better be glenn." glenn said seriously as t-dog rolled his eyes. "nuh-uh. eden, say t dog!"
"if her first word ain't mama i'm going to riot." lydia said seriously as they all laughed.
rick and lori came out of the house. lydia would be lying if she didn't laugh inside when eden made grabby hands to rick when he walked over. rick smiled, picking her up and lifting her in the air slightly, before bringing her back down and tickling her. "did i tell you? she's crawling now." lydia said proudly.
"no way." rick said between smiles. "that's amazing. she'll be walking tomorrow." he joked.
lydia grinned up at him, ignoring the look lori had on her face as eden babbled.
"we have food for the baby. if you need it." hershel told her politely as lydia turned to him with a relieved smile.
"thank you so much, sir. that would be great." she replied as he nodded with a small smile.
"did you see shane's hair...what happened to it?" lydia muttered to rick who let out a laugh, covering his mouth.
"midlife crisis i'm guessing." he joked as they shared another laugh.
"how is he?" dale asked as he got out of the rv, joining everyone.
"he'll pull through. thanks to hershel and his people. and shane." lori replied with a small smile.
dale smiled back and brought rick in for a hug, the others hugging lori in relief. "we were so worried." carol sighed.
"how'd it happen?" dale asked.
"hunting accident. that's all...just a stupid accident." rick told them.
lydia felt a bit bad when she realised all the rocks there were collecting was to make a gave for otis. they all stood around it together as hershel put on a suit and spoke for them.
"blessed be god. father of our lord jesus christ. praise be to him for the gift of our brother otis. for his span of years, for his abundance of character, otis, who gave his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. we thank you, god, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace. he died as he lived, in grace."
"shane, will you speak for otis?" hershel asked the man who looked slightly guilty.
"i'm not good at it." he replied quietly. "i'm sorry." he whispered.
"you were the last one with him. you shared his final moments. please." patricia sobbed, "i need to hear. i need to know his death had meaning."
"we were about done. almost out of ammo, we were down to pistols by then. i was limping, it was bad. ankle ball swollen up. 'we've gotta save the boy' . that's what he said. he gave me his backpack, he shoved me ahead. 'run' he said...he said 'i'll take the rear, i'll cover for you' and when i look back—he..." shane trailed off, shaking his head.
"if not for otis, i'd have never made it out alive. and that goes for carl, too. it was otis. he saved us both." shane continued again, looking at patricia. "if any death ever had meaning, it was his."
patrica nodded through quiet sobs as shane limped over to put a rock on top of the grave.
"HOW LONG has this girl been lost?" hershel asked them all as they gathered around the police car.
"this'll be day three." shane replied.
"county survey map." maggie walked over, spreading open the map as they glanced at it. "shows terrain and elevations.
"this is perfect. we can finally get this thing organised." rick raised his brows as he scanned the map. "well grid the whole area, start searching in teams."
"not you. not today." hershel replied. "you gave three units of blood."
lydia's eyes widened in shock, "three units?" she echoed, "what's carl's blood type?" she asked curiously.
"a positive."
"man, why didn't you ask me? i'm a positive too. saves you from getting your blood drained." she scoffed as rick sent her a slightly annoyed look.
"you could've mentioned that earlier?" he sent her a look.
"i didn't know you were transferring blood." she argued as hershel eyed the two of them.
"guess it's just me then. i'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there." daryl spoke up, taking the map and looking over it.
"i can still be useful." shane spoke up, referring to his ankle which was probably broken, lydia didn't know or care. "ill drive up to the interstate, see if sophia wandered back."
"alright. tomorrow then." rick began, "we'll start doing this right."
"that means we can't have our people out there with just knives." shane told him, "they need the gun training we've been promising them."
"i'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property." hershel told them, looking at rick. "we have made it this far without turning into an armed camp."
"all due respect. you get a crowd those things wandering in here..." shane trailed off.
"look, we're guests here. this is your property and we will respect that." rick said, giving shane a firm look, before putting his gun on the car boot.
shane rolled his eyes but did the same.
"first things first: set camp, find sophia." rick began, as shane spoke up again.
"what happens if we find her and she's been bit?" he asked in slight annoyance as lydia fought the urge to roll her eyes. "i think we should all be clear on how we handle that."
rick looked down, before coming up with his answer. "you do what has to be done." he told them all.
"and her mother? what'd you tell her?" maggie raised a brow in disbelief as andrea almost scoffed.
"the truth." she replied as lydia sent her a look.
"don't give me that look, lydia. if it was eden what would you want us to say?" andrea said to the blonde woman who turned to her.
"i'd fucking murder you before you had the chance to speak." she said seriously, a sarcastic smile on her face before she turned back to the others.
"i'll gather and secure all the weapons. make sure no one's carrying til we're at a practice range off site. i do request one rifleman on lookout. dale's for experience." shane decided as andrea pulled a face.
hershel looked away with a sigh. "our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." rick tried to convince the man.
slowly, hershel nodded.
"thank you." rick spoke.
"hey, lydia. that stuff you brought, have you got more antibiotics, bandages, anything like that?" maggie asked once everyone started to walk away.
"there's bandages in my backpack. i don't know about antibiotics though." lydia told her as maggie nodded, thanking her when lydia gave her the bandages.
"you running low?" lydia asked as maggie nodded slowly. "why don't we take run into town, see what we can find?" she suggested.
maggie smiled, "cool."
LYDIA WAS glad she had made a new friend. maggie insisted that they go to the pharmacy on horses, and of course, lydia immediately agreed.
rick wouldn't let them go with eden as he believed it was too risky, so he offered to watch her with glenn until they came back.
"i'm glad there's another girl here that's not my little sister." maggie said as they found the pharmacy.
lydia smiled, "me too. edens incredible and all, but the girl don't talk so it's kinda boring." she joked as maggie laughed along with her.
"i've got a list from the group." lydia began, "who do you bet wants the pregnancy test?" she held up the list with a small smirk as maggie raised her brows.
"jeez louise." maggie exclaimed as they enteeed the pharmacy. "in the apocalypse? i mean, no offence. but really?"
"eden was born before the apocalypse, so none taken. i agree though, no way would i be baby making in this world now." lydia scoffed, making maggie raise a brow at her , unconvinced.
"i saw you eyeing glenn earlier." she began, looking over at maggie who immediately walked away, making lydia laugh.
sorry this took so long to update , cancel me