The Sharpest Lives

Ace walked passed some of the group starting to set up camp under some nearby trees as she went to get her bag from the RV. She felt a little bad that she wasn't helping, especially when she made eye contact with Glenn and he sent a grin, but she knew she could be more helpful elsewhere. Like searching with Daryl.

She's not even sure if she has a tent or anywhere to sleep, for that matter.

As she gets closer to the RV, she sees Dale struggling to pull down the awning from the top and she quickly jogs over to help. She grabs onto the other side and levels out the pull, allowing it to slide down easily.

Dale laughs as they stick the screws in to hold it in place. "Thanks, that's the first time I've tried doing that on my own. Used to having my wife on that side telling me I'm doing it wrong," he points to where Ace was, walking over to toss a tool into his bag.

"Your wife?" Ace asks, still holding on to the awning pole, not knowing he had one.

"Irma," he says, smiling, putting his hand on the RV. "She was the only reason we ever got this piece of junk."

Ace sent a small smile. "Did you travel a lot?" She asked, enjoying the simple conversation about normal things.

"We didn't get very far, but she loved riding around in this before she passed. It gave her some peace," he smiled at the RV. "Me, on the other hand, not so much."

Ace watched as he went to go sit on the picnic bench they brought over, letting his hands rest in between his lap. "She died before all this?" Ace asked, hoping it was okay that she did.

Dale nodded. "Kind of a blessing, don't you think?"

Ace nodded just as a reflex, even though she was taken aback by what he said. Death is a blessing? That's how you know the world's gone to shit.

"Are you feeling better?" Dale asks, catching Ace off guard with the new subject.

She looks over to him confused on how he knows. "From earlier? With the walkers?" He clarifies.

Ace remembered that she lied to him about feeling bad from them when he caught her in the RV and she quickly nodded, trying to not get caught in her lies. "Yeah, uh-yeah," she smiled nervously. "It was just a lot."

Dale gave her this look, almost knowing, but just nodded, not saying anything. "Are you going out again with Daryl?"

"Yeah, just came to get my stuff," she signaled to the RV.

"Your bags on the table," Dale smiled. Ace nodded and spun on her feet, hurrying into the RV to escape what could have just been her getting busted by the all-knowing Dale.

She let out a breath and walked over to grab her pack, making sure everything was in it before slinging it over her back. She was about to walk out, but something caught her eye. One of the cabinets on the upper wall was open, showing off the scattered pill bottles inside.

Ace could see Dale still sitting on the picnic table through the window, so she quickly went over and looked inside.

A lot of it was random stuff. Stuff not even in the apocalypse would someone use, or at least know what it is, but she did spot something. She stood up on her toes to reach into the cabinet to grab two bottles. The names were familiar and she quickly recognized them as something on the list Jenner gave her.

She looked one more time and found another bottle of pills she needed, getting her hopes up slightly. She knew the group wouldn't need these for anything and the label read Irma Horvath so she knew Dale wouldn't either.

She quickly shut the cabinet and stuffed the pills in her bag when she heard footsteps outside in the dirt, not having time to think that she was stealing from Dale.

The footsteps shuffled up the steps to the RV and as Ace looked over Daryl spun inside, facing her. "Ready?" He grumbled in his southern drawl. Dale must have told him she was in here.

She nodded and fixed her bag on her back, following after Daryl who was turning to walk back outside. The sun seemed hotter this time, making Ace's pale skin burn in it's heat. What is worse than Georgia in the summer?

Before they could get far, Rick was getting their attention, dragging them over to the hood of Carol's car where Maggie, the farmer's daughter, came and laid out a map.

Ace and Daryl went on opposite sides of the car, Daryl watching her slightly as she did. Rick started rolling out the map, putting stones on the edges to hold it down. "This is perfect, we can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

Ace looked down at the map, recognizing it as one of those the county hands out. It's got the elevation, terrain.. It really was perfect.

She glanced up at the doctor, Hershel, as he told Rick and Shane they weren't allowed to go lookin' today. With Rick haven gave so much blood and Shane's ankle from.. Well, from whatever happened, they had to wait another day. "You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out," he said.

Ace seconded that. The heat was really on her today, hell, if Hershel knew about her bein' sick, he'd probably scold her too. Thankfully he doesn't.

Ace glanced over to Daryl as he leaned towards the map. "Guess it's jus' me and Ace then," he sighed with a shrug, pointing at a spot on the map. "Gonna head back over to the creek, make our way from there."

They shared a look before turning their heads to Shane. "We could still be useful. Drive up the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."

Ace gave props to Shane, thankful he wasn't causing a mess about Sophia yet. She could see the way he huffed and puffed when the situation was brought up, she was just waiting for him to cause problems.

"Tomorrow, then," Rick nodded. "We'll start doin this right."

It's not like they were doing it wrong. At least Ace and Daryl know they weren't.

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. We've got to start gun training them like we promised," Shane said, looking over to Rick from under his police cap. Why do they still wear that stuff?

Daryl propped his arm up on the windshield, leaning as he listened to them start to talk about guns. Hershel didn't want them on his land.

Ace understood why Hershel didn't, but at the same time, he doesn't understand why they do.

Things got tense between Rick and Shane, Shane disagreeing with Rick's manners to honor Hershel's wishes. He didn't like it and it started to get him going.

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to," he shifted, testing Rick. "What happens if we find her and she's bit?"

Ace bit back on her tongue, wishing Shane would just keep his mouth shut. It's going to be the death of him if he doesn't.

"I think we have to be clear on how we handle that." Shane looked around, like he was the all knowing survivor. Everyone knew, just no one wanted it to happen. It's like he does.

"We're clear," Ace stated silently, her tone almost snappy as she looked right into Shane's face. He looked back at her, trying to say something with his expression.

Daryl looked at her, then Shane, then back to her, his eyes squinted.

"And her mother?" Hershel's daughter, Maggie, asked. "What do you tell her?"

"The truth," Andrea added from the side, like it was the most obvious thing.

Moving on from that, Ace looking away from Shane, and the rest of them cleared up the situation with the guns and the training, leaving the little meeting pretty much finished.

Daryl tapped on the car in dismissal before pushing away, nodding to himself and walking around. He looked over to Ace and signaled her to follow with his head, for she walked away from the car without another glance at anyone.

She followed him until he let her catch up, taking a glance back at her. "Best 'ta let it be, with them," he nodded back to where they just were. She crunched her eyebrows at him. "Shane's jus' a hot head, got somethin' stuck up his ass about gettin' after Rick," he said, shrugging and looking ahead to the tree line they walked too.

If Shane's the hothead, then what is Daryl, exactly? Rational?

Maybe.

"He's causing problems," Ace said lowly, looking away now, too.

"Yeah.. I know," Daryl mumbled, almost to himself, starting to bite on his thumb. It was a nervous habit Ace was starting to pick up on.

"You're not worried he's gonna try somethin'?" Ace asked him, glancing out of the corner of her eyes at him. Daryl just looked at her for a second before going back to biting his thumb. "Groups broken enough as it is.."

Ace didn't mean to say that aloud, knew she shouldn't have, but she still did anyway. Something about Daryl made her want to, but that probably wasn't a good thing seeing as he cracked faster than any of the other group members did.

Daryl dropped his hand from his mouth and looked over at her, his arm swinging at his side as he came to a small stop. Ace stopped for a moment too, expecting to get her head bit off.

"Ya only been here a week," he stated, like it was his answer, almost questioning how she was saying that.

He was confused, she already thought she had the whole place figured out. What was even more confusing, though, was that Daryl knew she did. She ain't wrong.

Ace didn't say anything back, becoming quiet again, not wanting to push any further. Instead, they both started walking again, heading into the woods and forgetting about what just went on.

"Hey!" Shane called, getting them to stop walking and turn around to see him jog over.

He stopped at Ace, looking at her. "Can I talk to you for a second?" He wasn't harsh, but didn't seem like he wanted to talk about flowers and puppies.

Shane then looked to Daryl, silently asking him to let them be.

Daryl, looked between the two, squinting, trying to figure out if he was going to try something.

"Be by the house," he huffed, giving in but not excited about it, spinning on his feet to continue walking away.

Ace watched his back get further away as he walked, swinging his arm at his side. She was trying to avoid acknowledging Shane for she didn't know what he could want after she snapped at him by the car.

"Look," Shane shifted on his feet, using a hand to pull off his hat so he could run his hand over his head. Ace now looked at him, crossing her arms. "I didn't mean to get you upset back there, just trying to say what needs to be said-"

"It didn't need to be said," Ace looked in his eyes, getting him to stop. She wasn't trying to have an argument, but Shane needs to see that people actually know what they have to do. And for once, she actually wanted to speak to tell him.

Shane looked at her, squeezing his hat in his hands before sighing and leaning back on his feet. "It does-"

"Ya just putting people on edge," she mumbled. "These people may not be the smartest, but they still ain't dumb. They know what they're doin."

Shane sighed, just looking at her. His face didn't seem to leave it's angry-worked up look, but it hasn't since what happened with Otis. There was something about talking with Ace though that made him cool it down.

"You still planing on leavin?" Ace asked, holding on to her arm, noticing a change in his expression.

Shane nodded. "Now more than ever. Have you given it any thought?"

Ace looked down away from his eyes. She has, she definitely has thought about it. Even with all that is going on she has, but for some reason she wasn't ready to say yes. She knew she would have to wait to find Sophia before leaving, but something else was holding her back. Even if staying could be a dangerous decision, there was something selfish inside her craving to stay with these people.

She wasn't being smart.

She shook her head and there was a silence that followed for a bit after.

"If we don't find that little girl-"

"We will," Ace said, looking into his eyes, stopping him from going on.

"And how do you know that? How do you know she isn't long gone by now?" He shifted his feet, putting a hand on his belt as his eyebrow raised for an answer. It was almost a cocky move, but Ace saw through him.

"Because I know about Otis," Ace almost snapped, her eyes going through Shane's easily. He was caught off guard, but was aware all along Ace could have figured it out. "Sophia's close."

With that Ace ended the conversation, turning and following in the direction Daryl had gone.

Ace knows she probably should have thought what she said through, but she wasn't afraid of Shane. He wouldn't hurt her, at least not yet. She believes he trusts her, or at least knows she won't go running to Rick. It's crazy, but it's even more crazy that Ace is starting to actually talk to these people.

She walked up to the house, catching Daryl leaning on the railing to the stairs, cleaning off his arrows while he waited. When he heard her coming, he pushed himself up and met her half way. They both exchanged a look before immediately starting on their way, not saying a word.

But, yet again, they didn't get very far without Rick calling for their attention. Daryl sighed in annoyance. Can't anybody just let him be?

"Daryl," his voice carried, getting them both to turn around. "You okay on your own?"

Daryl squinted his eyes at him in front of the sun, one hand holding onto the strap of his crossbow. "Better on my own. Anyway, what ya think she's here for, huh?"

Ace felt like Rick either was ignoring her presence, or just had forgotten about it. He glanced to her and they shared a split moment of eye contact.

"Don't worry, we'll be back before dark," Daryl said, a little sarcasm in his voice as he started to turn back around.

"Hey," Rick called again, taking a few steps closer. He held his sheriffs hat by his knees. "We've got a base.. We can get this search properly organized now."

Ace squinted her eyes at him, Daryl probably doing the same.

"You gotta point? Or are we just chattin?" Daryl snapped. He was tired of being annoyed and just wanted to get on already.

"My point.." Rick looked to Ace. "It lets you off the hook. You don't owe us anything. Neither of you."

Daryl's almost rolled his eyes as he re-gripped his crossbow, turning around to end the ridiculous conversation. "My other plans fell through."

Ace and Rick held eye contact for a moment longer before she, too, turned and went to catch up with Daryl who seemed to be storming off.

It was wrong for Rick to think that they are doing this for him, or really for anyone else besides Sophia's mother...as awful as she is to Ace. And saying that to Daryl obviously didn't show Rick's good intentions.