The Place That Remains

As soon as she had left from checking up on Beth, she went outside to see what was going on. Tensions were high now that there was a threat on the farm who was actually just a young boy. They had been keeping him in the barn now that it was clear of walkers. Delaney made her way down toward the graves under the patch of trees, but she stopped in her tracks at the sounds coming from the barn. She could hear their prisoner begging and screaming from where she stood a good distance away.

She cautiously walked closer, but just as she reached it, the door swung open and Daryl stormed outside, his knuckles streaming blood. She was concerned for him for about half a second until she realized that he was bleeding because he had been inside the barn beating the kid. He only barely glanced at her, barking a "Don't go in there" at her over his shoulder as he stalked away.

She glared at his back as he retreated to the camp, but as she glanced back at the barn again, it seemed like less of a good idea. She sighed but ended up heeding to his command and she waited until he walked away from the camp before she went over to see if Lori and Carol needed any help with washing clothes or cooking or something. Rick and Dale were a short distance away, having a heated discussion.

"What's that about?" she asked, nodding toward the two in the field.

"The boy," Lori sighed. "Dale doesn't think Rick should kill him."

"Rick's going to kill him?" She tried not to sound too judgy, but Lori gave her a sideways glance and she knew that it had come through in her voice. She knew they had been talking about what to do with the boy, but she didn't think that they would actually kill him. You don't just kill the living like that.

"He's a serious threat. The group he was with is heavily armed and if we let him go and he led them back here, then we'd all die. It's for the good of the group."

Delaney just nodded silently, not responding to her reasoning. She did wonder how Rick was going to explain to his young, impressionable son that he was going to put his gun to a young living boy's head and pull the trigger, while everyone else in the camp watched. "Yeah. I'm gonna go sit with Beth for awhile," she finally said, turning to walk away from them and back to the house. She decided it was probably best for her to just stay in the house from now on.

Her uncle was with Beth when she went into the house, so she sat down in the living room by the window to wait patiently while he spent some time with her. She'd only just sat down when the screen door opened and Glenn stepped inside the house, looking around for someone. He spotted Delaney sitting by the window and gave her a polite smile."Have you seen Hershel?"

"Yeah, he's in there with Bethy," she said, pointing to the open door.

"Thanks." He nodded, then slowly walked into the room, leaning against the door frame. She could hear him speaking with her uncle but the words were muffled. Glenn soon came out of the room, but Hershel was following right behind him. Delaney got up silently and slipped past the two of them as they talked, into her youngest cousin's room.

Beth was lying in her bed, staring up at the white ceilings when she entered the room and shut the door softly. Delaney went over to the empty side of her bed, flopping down next to her and gently grabbing her hand in hers, careful to avoid the bandages on her wrist. "How ya feelin', kid?"

"Okay. You?"

She chuckled as she squeezed the younger girl's hand. "Fine. Did you eat yet?"

"Maggie made me."

"Good."

"Now I'm just tired."

"Well, you should try to get some rest then. I'll leave you in peace," she said, sliding off the bed.

"No, wait," Beth called after her. "Don't leave. At least until I fall asleep." She climbed back onto the bed beside her cousin and leaned her back against the headboard, curling her legs up under her body. "And maybe you could tell me some stories. Like, old family stories. Of Christmases, and birthdays, and your summers here."

Delaney smiled, running her hand gently over the girl's blonde hair. "I can do that."

She spent the next few hours with Beth, telling her stories and letting her ask questions about things that had happened in the past. Beth eventually yawned and her eyes began to get heavy, but Maggie entered the room less than quietly and Beth became fully awake again.

"Come on, De. Everyone's comin' in to talk about Randall," Maggie spoke from the door.

Delaney nodded. "I'll be there in a minute." Maggie went back into the living room while Delaney stayed in the room with Beth, keeping her promise that she wouldn't leave before she fell asleep.

When the girl finally drifted off, Delaney gave her a kiss on the forehead before gently sliding off the bed and quietly walking out into the living room, shutting the door behind her. What she walked into was an already heated discussion about the boy in the barn. She walked fully into the room, past Daryl, and leaned against the wall behind Rick and Glenn, crossing her arms over her chest and listening silently. It was obvious that they weren't agreeing on what to do with him.

"Could you drive him further out?" Hershel suggested. "Leave him like you planned?"

Lori shook her head, looking at Rick. "You barely came back this time. There are walkers. You could break down. You could get lost."

"Or get ambushed," Daryl added.

"They're right," Glenn said. "We should not put our own people at risk."

"If you go through with it," Patricia started, much to everyone's surprise. "How would you do it? Would he suffer?" It was obvious she was worried about the boy as well. She probably had known his parents and family at some point before the world went to shit.

Shane looked at Rick. "We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck."

"I thought about that. But shooting may be more humane."

"Hold on, hold on, youre talking about this like it's already been decided!" Dale interrupted.

"You been talkin' all day. Goin' around in circles," Daryl countered. "You just wanna go around in circles again?" Delaney looked back over her right shoulder to look at him, but he only glanced at her for a second before looking away quickly.

"This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five minute conversation! Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him! And now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people we're so afraid of?"

Carol decided that she didn't want to be a part of the decision about the boy's life and Dale criticized her for it, before Rick finally said enough. "Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance."

Everyone just sort of looked around at each other unsurely but Dale stepped forward, making one last plea for his case. Andrea finally agreed with him that the group should try to find another way to deal with Randall, but the majority ruled in the end, meaning that the boy was going to be executed.

Dale was on the verge of tears as he walked out of the house, refusing to be any part of the boy's death. The rest of the group slowly began to disperse, and Delaney went outside to find the old man. He was sitting on an old dead tree stump just past the tree line, his head in his hands when she approached. She cautiously took a seat on the stump next to him, but she said nothing.

"I can't believe they're going to just kill that boy. Just because they don't want to waste their time trying to find something else to do instead. This is murder we're talking about! We're not supposed to kill the living. There's so few of us left anyway."

"I'm sorry, Dale. I should've said something." Even as she said the words, she knew that if she had, it wouldn't have been appreciated because she hadn't been on the farm as long as everyone else had. Despite the fact that this farm happened to be owned by her family.

"Wouldn't have made a difference," he sighed. "They're determined the boy has to die."

She nodded sadly, placing her hand on the old man's arm in a comforting gesture. "Come on. We should get back to camp. It's dangerous out here once the sun goes down."

"I'll be up in a minute. You go on ahead."

"See ya up there," she said, before turning to go back up to the camp. Andrea looked at her warily as she approached the group, but she said nothing as Delaney walked over to where Glenn and Maggie were sitting. "Dale's pretty upset," she sighed sadly as she sat down in the dirt in front of Maggie's chair, leaning back against her legs.

Maggie ran her fingers through her cousin's long wavy ponytail. "I get why. It's awful knowin' they're out there right now about to shoot him."

Daryl walked by the fire just then, his crossbow thrown over his back as he stalked off past them to his own little campsite. Delaney swiftly stood from the ground, dusting the dirt off her pants as she followed after him. She saw this as the opportunity she was looking for to do whatever needed to be done to get back to normal.

"You don't have to act like this," she called out once they were far enough away from the rest of the group.

He whipped around to look back at her. "Like how?"

"Daryl, you've been avoidin' me like I'm bit or somethin'."

"I ain't been actin' like that," he scoffed.

"Look, I'm sorry I kissed you, okay? But you did kiss me back, you know." He started to say something in return, but then he quickly shut his mouth, looking away from her eyes. "Let's just forget the whole thing even happened. That alright with you?"

He rolled his eyes and turned his back on her, mumbling a "Whatever" as he walked away. She let out a heavy sigh as she headed back up to the house, officially giving up on trying to be friends with the man.

She was curled up in one of the rocking chairs on the porch when suddenly she heard yelling coming from the pasture. The entire group took off running across the pasture and she ran out to meet them, stopping when she saw them all huddled around something on the ground.

She stepped closer to get a better look and her hand flew to her mouth in horror when she saw Dale lying on the ground, a look of shock on his face and his entire stomach ripped open, his vital organs strewn about the ground next to him. A walker lay dead a few feet away, its entire head completely obliterated by the knife that Daryl had used to kill it.

"Hang on, Dale," Andrea said, crouching down next to him. "Hang on."

Delaney leaned down on his other side, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly as the man just looked around at his groups' faces in complete shock, panting heavily. Hershel arrived to help the man, but as soon as he looked at him, he knew there was nothing that could be done. He shook his head at Rick and Rick began yelling at the top of his lungs in anger.

Patricia, Maggie, and Andrea were both sobbing while Delaney did her best to maintain her composure as the older man looked up at her. "I'm so sorry, Dale," she told him, her voice shaking.

"He's suffering," Andrea cried as he started to make painful gasps. "Do something!"

Rick began to prepare himself to take the shot, but it was obvious by the look on his face that he couldn't do it. Tears were pooling in his eyes as he looked down at the man and pointed the gun at him. Andrea quickly got up, unable to watch what was going to happen.

After a few moments, Daryl grabbed Rick's gun, slowly pushing it down as he looked Rick in the eye. He then took a step forward and raised his gun to point it at Dale's head. Delaney backed away a little, but still held onto Dale's hand as Daryl knelt down and Dale stared up at him with wide, pleading eyes. "Sorry, brother," he muttered before pulling the trigger.

Lori quickly ushered Carl away from the body and Daryl took off right after while everyone else just stood around still in shock. A walker had appeared out of nowhere and attacked Dale and now he was gone just like that. Delaney wiped the tears from her cheek and headed back toward the house with Maggie following directly behind her.