⌜ chapter sixteen ⌟

"Hershel said that Randall's ready to be taken out of the camp." Rick tells MJ, and she nods.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Shane and I are gonna tie him up, put a sack over his head so he can't see out the window, and then drive him at least eighteen miles out. After that, we'll leave him a knife and head back here." She just nods, and he looks at her. "What?"

"I don't want to be left here with Shane, but I really do think that you should take Daryl with you instead." She tells him, and he sighs.

"We'll be fine."

"Rick—"

"I know what Lori said, I'm the one who told you." He cuts her off. "I can handle it."

"You know, she's not the only one who thinks that? Dale came to me this morning, voicing his concerns about Shane." She says.

"Dale doesn't like Shane."

"Can you blame him?" MJ questions. "He's hot-headed and he's callous. He acts before he thinks, he doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. And — I hate to throw it in your face — but the only people he cares about in this group are Lori and Carl. Andrea's the only one who trusts him." She says, and he sighs as he looks at the ground.

"I can handle Shane." He says as he looks up to meet her eyes again. "Look after the camp?"

"Is that really a question?"

"I'll be back." He says as he turns to walk away from her.

"You better!" She calls after him.

—

"Can I talk to you about somethin'?" Daryl asks as he walks over to MJ.

She and Dean have been with Jack and the kids, they're trying to teach them all how to play poker. Maggie found a deck of playing cards inside, and they've been trying to get Jack to understand a poker face, but he just keeps giving away his hand.

"Yeah." MJ sets her cards down and looks at the teenager. "Don't let him look at my cards." She tells him, and he places his hand over them so that they can't be picked up.

Dean starts laughing as he looks at the kid, the way his face lights up when MJ smiles at him for his actions. He knows his sister was right, there's nothing even remotely evil about Jack. He isn't anything like Lucifer.

"What's up?" MJ asks when she and Daryl are a little ways away from Dean and the four kids.

"I ain't gonna say anything, but I know everyone's thinking it." He starts, and she waits for him to continue. "What do you think happened to Otis?" He asks, and she looks down. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"We don't know what happened exactly, but we all have our suspicions." MJ says as she looks back up at him. "Rick and I talked a little about it... Either way, there's nothing we can do now."

"Shouldn't we know if we're living next to a murderer?" He questions.

"And then what? Throw him out?" She shakes her head. "He's Rick's best friend, and I don't think he's a danger to us."

"You what?"

She shrugs. "Not a threat I can't handle anyway. We'll be alright."

"Right, 'cause you're a badass hunter." He smirks as he looks at her.

"Hey, kid." Dean gets Jack's attention as he watches his sister with Daryl. She's laughing at something that he said. "What can you tell me about him?"

"Daryl?" Jack asks, and he nods. "He was kinda mean at first, but I think he was just mad because of what happened to his brother. He's nicer now. He keeps the group safe from walkers, and he helps MJ a lot."

"What do you mean?"

"She got hurt, some guy beat her up and he cracked her rib. Daryl helped her when she couldn't walk on her own." Jack explains.

"He was helping her look for us when we were missing." Sophia tells him. "Two walkers tried to get me and I ran. I got lost in the woods, but Ellie found me. Then we both got lost. MJ and Daryl did most of the looking."

"They almost died too." Ellie says, and Dean looks at his niece. "Meg was hurting Mom, and Daryl fell down a steep hill into the creek. She saved him, and then he made sure she never fell on the way back here. They saved us both."

Dean looks back over at his sister, more specifically at the man with her. He's never met anyone outside​ their family who's actually helped her with the crazy shit that she gets herself into. Most people try to stop her, though never to any avail.

"You play poker?" MJ motions for Daryl to follow her. "Hey, where are my cards?" She questions when they get over to the others.

"Dean said you snooze, you lose." Jack says, and Dean starts laughing.

"You took too long." Her brother argues, and she shakes her head.

"Deal us in, you damn cheater." MJ says.

"How did I cheat?"

"You knew I was gonna beat you."

He scoffs. "Yeah, right."

Andrea walks over to them then and she looks down at MJ. "I don't want to hear it." The leader says, not looking up at the blonde.

"You're just gonna sit there and play cards all day?" She questions.

"I've got two kids. You and Lori are not them." MJ says as she discards two of what's in her hand to her brother. "I don't care if she wants to revert to when a woman's job was doing laundry, cooking, and making sure her man is happy. If that's how she plans to spend the rest of her life, so be it. You want to stand watch and carry a gun, go ahead. I sure as hell won't stop you. But don't come snitching to me when she pisses you off. I'm your leader, not your babysitter."

"You don't care that I'm not on laundry duty or making dinner?"

"Do you see me washing clothes or cutting vegetables?" She asks, lifting her gaze to look at the blonde for the first time. "Speaking of watch duty, isn't it your turn?"

"Yeah." Andrea starts to walk toward the trailer.

"How's Beth?" She asks, and the blonde stops and turns back to her.

"Hershel's stitching her wrist right now." She tells her.

MJ nods. "Good, I'm glad she's gonna be okay. But leaving her alone to hurt herself — that was not your call. Just like it wasn't our decision what to do after Amy died. Next time they have an issue, let them handle it however they see fit." She tells her.

"So, I get scolded, but Lori can do whatever the hell she wants?" Andrea questions.

"I'll talk to Rick, ask him to talk to Lori about the way she treated you over the divide in group duties. I'm not stepping over that line." She says. "For what it's worth..." MJ looks at her again. "I couldn't have handled the situation​ any better, but that's why I didn't get involved."

"Fair enough." She nods and then walks away from their group.

John and Mary are watching their daughter, both surprised by what they see. Everyone in camp knows that MJ and Andrea don't exactly like each other, but they work together when necessary nonetheless. It's just odd to them that she could stay so calm while Andrea was questioning her leadership like that.

Dean, however, is proud. Daryl's amused by the whole thing. Jack's just confused. He has no idea what's been going on with Beth — that she tried to kill herself today. And the other three are blissfully ignorant, for the time being anyway.

Later in the day, as it's nearing sunset, MJ's sitting with Jess. They're talking and laughing as they sit by the fire pit. Ellie and Jack are sitting a little ways away from them and she's teaching him how to play Go Fish. Poker wasn't a real success.

"Hey, I never got the chance to ask before, what made you decide to dye your hair?"

MJ picks up a lock and looks at the blonde end of her hair. "I always wanted to when I was younger. I saw the pictures of my mom that my dad had and I wanted to look more like her. But taking the time to do it always seemed pointless, like I had more important things to be doing than changing my hair. Eventually​, I got to the point where I didn't care if I had other things. I wanted to do it, so I just did." She tells her.

"You know what I noticed when I saw your mom the other day?" Jess asks, and MJ nods her head once, asking what she's talking about. "The men in your family all have a thing for blonde women — Mary, Addy, me." She says.

"And now I need my hair to grow out." She says, and Jess starts laughing at her. "That's just weird. Why'd you have to go and ruin it?"

"It's not like you can redo the blonde anyway." She says, and MJ nods.

"Very true."

Shane and Rick are walking toward the camp from the shed, and the girls look at them, seeing that they're both covered in blood. They both looked pissed off too.

"The hell happened to you two?" MJ asks.

"We got attacked." Rick tells her. "You and I need to talk." He says, and she stands up.

"Mama, stay in Jess' sight. Don't go back to the house without telling her first."

"Okay." The twelve-year-old agrees as her mom bends down and kisses the top of her head.

"What's going on?" MJ asks once she and Rick are a few feet away from the camp.

"We couldn't leave Randall." He says, and her eyebrows furrow as she looks up at him.

"Why not?"

"He knew Maggie, they went to school together." He tells her, and she sighs as she looks down.

"So, it's likely that he knows exactly where the farm is." She says, and he nods.

"We couldn't risk it."

"No, yeah, you made the right call." She agrees as she looks up again. "So, what do we do now?"

"Shane thinks that we should kill him." He tells her, and she sighs.

"'Course he does."

"I'm not so sure he's wrong."

She nods, knowing that he has a point. Randall's a threat, and that's not something that they can afford to take lightly. They've already lost enough, and Randall's people have already tried to kill them once. Who's to say that they won't try for a second time? Maybe even succeed if they bring more people with them the second time around?

"Alright." MJ takes a deep breath. "Daryl and I can try to get some information out of him in the morning. We'll figure this all out with more certainty then."

"Yeah." Rick nods.

"Seriously, what the hell happened to you, man?" She asks as she looks at him. "No way this is all from some walkers."

"Let's just say... You were right." He tells her and then starts to walk away.

"When am I not?" She calls after him, and he turns to look at her. She smiles at him, and he shakes his head before continuing over to his tent to talk to his wife.