Nothing changes (Rick, Daryl and twins)

Rick was sick of all this crap but he knew that he had to go on. He had to come out of his self-imposed exile because, once again, everyone was looking to him. Everyone was looking to him to solve the problems of the entire group... even his own son looked at him like he expected him to take total command again.

It was coming.

He could feel it in the way that the air felt around him even as the others relaxed about everything other than the increased number of Walkers at their gates. Even now they want him to take command again.

He wondered how much they'd cry out for it when the shit hit the fan again.

Sighing a little bit, he reached into the box he had locked his pistol and his knife away in. Strapping the pistol to his waist again, Rick hardened his eyes and nodded to the watching Daryl,

"Alright..." he whispered before finding his resolve and nodding once more, "Right. With me Daryl. We're going down to the fence ourselves while everyone else is eating... thin their numbers. Knives only."

Daryl watched as Rick got his gun and his knife out again and strapped them back onto himself. And he was glad because it meant that Rick was going back to what he had been before. Sure, the guy had deserved a break from it. He had almost gone insane from having to do what he did after all! But he was better now and the group needed him.

He had the same, unnamed, feeling that Rick had about this situation.

Something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon. This was the quiet before the storm and the storm was going to be massive. He didn't know what it was going to be but already he could tell that not everyone was going to survive it.

Nodding at his friend and leader, Daryl followed him silently to the fence-line where all the Walkers were pressing up.

Taking out his knife, he got to work stabbing through the gaps in between the wires as Rick did the same. There was silence between the two as they worked until Daryl decided to speak,

"Ric'... yer've mad' te righ' call." he assured his friend as he stabbed another Walker in the eye, "Yer deserv'd yer brea' from it all... bu' we're gun' nee' yer soo' an' yer kno' it."

He paused at the sound of an engine,

"Who te fuc' is tha'?"

Ally had been one of the most lucky bitches in the world to have a twin who knew her way around a forest, honestly she thought that stuff would have rubbed off on her as well but...maybe she was too busy locked away in the garage learning how to weld and mend motorbikes. She got the time with their dad, and Charity went off in the woods and learnt how to forage and shit with their mother.

Keeping her eyes on the road, Aloysius decided that it was high time they reached the final place that their goddamn brother was leading them to.

All it seemed to be was clue. After clue. After clue. Seriously this shit was getting pretty boring now. She hoped that at the end of it they would find their brother alive and well, and they hadn't skewered him on the front of their ride during the process of getting here.

She had pimped their ride out pretty well she thought, it had extra reinforced sides, it had bars on the windows so that they couldn't break through the glass, she added big spokes of metal that would chop through anything's legs that stood too near.

Eventually they reached the prison, they saw evidence of a settlement there, but also, of a big massive fuckload of walkers. Gritting her teeth she ran the van alongside of the walkers, succeeding in drawing most of them away after the car before she proceeded to run them all over after chopping their legs off. Grinning a little bit to herself, she fist bumped Charity before popping her head out the window.

"Any chance of you opening that gate there mate?" she asked gesturing to the big red metal gate blocking their way "We got family in there, brother name of Ryan with his girls."

Charity was a little more focused on getting to her brother again than Ally seemed to be, also, she seemed more than a little put off by the fact that they were now mowing down zombies like nobodies business. These things used to be people after all. It had taken her a while to come to terms with the fact that they needed to be killed, it was kill or be killed and they had to be the ones to survive.

It seemed as if Ally hadn't struggled with it at all.

Then again it seemed as if Ally never struggled with anything, but Charity knew that she did her worrying deep deep down where nobody could call her on it. She had always been the stronger twin out of the two of them, protecting her throughout this. She didn't know what she would have done without her.

Yet, sometimes. She found herself wanting to face palm, because her people skills were not the best. You couldn't just drive up to someone elses door and ask them to let you in in times like these! They weren't going to believe them! Sighing softly she popped her head out of her window as well and waved to the guys.

"If you'd let us in, give us a chance to introduce ourselves properly we'd be mighty grateful." she stated with a little nervous laugh.

Rick had to resist the urge to pull his gun out immediately when the security van (heavily modified) drove right up close to the fence but he let his hand fall from the grip of his gun when he realised the intention of the driver and the Walkers were drawn away before being slaughtered. He had absolutely no problems with all those Walkers dying like that.

It was quick, easy and safe after all.

Shaking his head a little bit in mild amusement, he began to move over to the gate so that he could open it up for their new guests,

"Seems we've got some company Daryl." he commented dryly and, once the van was far enough away he added, "If they show signs of being hostile we don't hesitate... we have a good thing going here. If they threaten it they either leave or they 'leave'."

But he was hoping it wouldn't come to that. He wanted to believe that the people within the van would be useful and non-violent towards them. With a grunt he opened his side of the gate in tandem with Daryl, holding it open long enough for the van to roll on in before closing it quickly. Letting go of the chain he stood a little ways off from the van, his hands resting casually on his hips... within easy reach of his gun and knife,

"Morning." he greeted the two girls from the van, "You mentioned something about Ryan right? Ryan and his boys?"

It was a test.

Ryan had girls after all.

Daryl had to admit that having Rick back in the Fearless-Leader-Mode (as the kids had taken to calling it when it was mentioned in stories) was going to make this little interaction a heck of a lot simpler. Before this Rick would have had the council informed and then there'd be hours of talks and shit... but with Rick assuming the mantle of control again there was none of that.

He cut through the crap and Daryl loved it despite being on the council,

"Seems tha' way Ric'... guess we ough'a be te neighbou'ly typ's tha' we are." he agreed with a little chuckle as he held his crossbow loosely in his hands as they moved over to the gate to prepare opening it, "Yer growin' yer balls bac' Ric'... sui's yer."

Of course neither of them wanted to kill these people so hopefully it went well. He grunted as he opened the gate alongside Rick, letting the van in, before they closed with a resounding thud. Turning to look at the van at the two women climbing out of it, Daryl casually rested his crossbow against his shoulder,

"Swee' rid' yer go' ther." he commented with a little smirk, "Loo's lik' yer go' yer own lil' fortr'ss on wheels righ' ther' girls."

He understood Rick's need for a test and supported it fully.

Charity sighed softly when the gates were opened and finally they were going to be able to be reunited with their brother and their nieces. It had been the reason for this mad goose chase after all and now they could rest and be somewhere safe. Or at least, she could, Ally would probably not be contented to stay here and go wandering as often as she could.

She worried about her carefree twin and how she would fit in now that the world was no longer the place you could just decide to stay out all night and roll into the house at 3am.

Stepping out of the van, now that they were safely inside the fences of the prison, Charity wiped down her jeans and smiled brightly at the two guys that were standing there. Hopefully they would be as nice as they seemed to be. People couldn't be too careful around other people and she understood that.

"Hi, thanks for letting us in there." she smiled brightly "No no, Ryan is our brother and he has two little girls Lizzie and his youngest babba." Charity corrected, no doubt this was some sort of test.

Understanding the reason for the test though she didn't complain, just went along with it. Hopefully Ally would as well, but then again she had never been good with people, so perhaps she should do the talking in this situation.

"It looks like you have a really nice place here. We'd appreciate it if you'd let us stay, we've been tracking our brother across two clear states and we'd love a place to cool off." Charity informed with a little smile "I'm Charity by the way, and that there, is Aloysius." she teased, using the full name her sister was so embarrassed about.

Ally was just glad to be out of that goddamn bus, she had been stuck in there for months now and she was getting fed up of the place. Who knew it would take so long to get from A to B these days, not like there was any traffic on the roads. Truth was they ended up taking a load of backroads and they got lost on the way.

Every big highway they tried was backed up with cars, there was no way their van was getting down any of them! A motorbike maybe but definitely not their big ass modified van, her baby she was so proud of. Saved both of their lives on many occasions and never once broke down in an unfixable manner.

"Yup that's right, our useless big brother and his sprogs." she smirked softly "Could have been a bit clearer in his old directions but I'm sure there were other things going on." Ally grinned cheekily, wondering about exactly what her good old brother had been up to the past few months they had been apart.

As soon as Charity used her full name Ally whacked her playfully on the back of the head;

"Dozy cow, using my full name like that! You know it pisses me off." she stated with a playful grin "Its Ally." she nodded in the two guys direction.

Rick watched the two women and immediately came to the conclusion that they were twins. They were obviously related to each other and were very similar in age to one another. Strangely they didn't appear to be identical twins but that might have had something to do with all the piercings and dye that the punk-rocker sister seemed to be sporting.

Waving his hand a little bit to indicate that it wasn't a bother, he smiled faintly at them with his hands now actually casual on his hips as opposed to ready to react with violence,

"Not a problem. We pride ourselves on being a community that tries to help others after all." he told them honestly before nodding, "That's right... Ryan has two little girls. My mistake!"

Of course everyone here was pretty sure it wasn't a mistake.

Chuckling a little bit at the interaction between the two of them, he shook his head a little bit before extending a hand for either one of the sisters to shake,

"Name's Rick Grimes." he told them simply before nodding to them again, "Pleasure to meet you Charity and... Ally."

Now that he was able to see it up close, Daryl had time to appreciate the van and all of it's practical modifications. The girls had done a number on the truck it seemed... there was mild damage all over the bloody thing. But at the same time it still looked strong enough to bash down gates, doors and walls.

Not to mention crash through several waves of Walkers.

And they had passed the test! That meant that he might actually be spending a bit more time around the twins and their kickass van thing. It would certainly kick some ass on supply runs that was for damn sure!

What number of Walkers on the roads would stop this beast after all?

"Wha' he leav' yer a trail'a brea' crum's or som'thin'?" he teased her with a little chuckle before shaking his head, "So whic' on'a yer is te track'r goo' 'nuff te trac' him an' his girls ov'r two stat's?"

It was rather impressive after all.

Seeing that it was introduction time, Daryl nodded to both girls in turn,

"Sup, I'm Daryl." he greeted them before patting Rick on the arm gently, "Yer wan' we shoul' invit' tem te dinn'r?"

Ally smiled lightly at this Rick guy, he seemed to be a pretty stand up guy and she liked that about him, anyone who was willing to give two strangers a chance in this world today was alright in her book. She would be up for doing something to help around this wreck too, maybe she could solder some things together to make the fences more secure.

Those waves of zombies had really done a number on several sections of the fence.

"Nice to meet you too Rick." she stated with a wiggle of her eyebrows and a cheeky grin, taking his hand she shook it firmly, her fingerless leather gloves pressing against his warm palm "I'll be happy to do some repair work on those fences for ya in return for our keep if you're up for it, those bastards really did a number on them."

She stated, waving to the no doubt very obvious leans in certain parts of the fence.

As the other man introduced himself Aloysius gave him a friendly jaunty wave before going back into the van and picking up her two duffle bags worth of items, carrying one in each hand. She was going to make sure her stuff stayed with her at all times.

"Hey dinner sounds great right about now, I'm starved, and my eyes are bloody stinging from driving so long." she stated as she stood waiting for the two of them to get their asses in gear and show them where they needed to go.

Charity was glad that Ally was only being an asshole to her right now, and it was only in the playful way in which they normally talked. Rubbing the back of her head with a fake pout she would have normally gone in for some sort of tackle but decided against it in the presence of their new, attractive friends. Didn't want to seem childlike, she needed to be aloof, sexy and skilful.

There wasn't much chance of that though with Ally around, she would be onto what she was trying to do in a second and make fun of her for it.

"Nice to meet you Rick and Daryl." she smiled brightly "You guys have many people here in your prison? Looks like it can house a good few, and you've got a garden as well how awesome." Charity noticed out of the corner of her eye, her face lighting up slightly.

Her chest swelled up a little in pride when Daryl asked who was the tracker in this situation, of course it was her handiwork that had eventually led the both of them to this little area. Charity made sure that Ally knew that often.

"That was me, I worked on the tracking and the route planning when we hit the backroads." she stated with a bright smile "It was a tough job but we made it eventually."

Rick had to admit that the offer of repair work on the fences was one that he was going to take her up on as soon as possible. The fences needed the repairs badly and before now no one had really had the experience to do it. They had the tools and the materials of course. The prison had a work area for those prisoners who were going through training as part of their rehabilitation. It included several metal work areas,

"Well I would be very happy if you could check out the fences and see what you could do to secure them." he agreed, "And perhaps make a solid fence further in slightly? It's up to you, I'll show you to our workshop area at a later date for that purpose don't worry."

Charity had noticed his garden and he looked at it for a moment before sighing ever so slightly,

"Yes we have done everything we can to make sure we don't need to rely on going on runs for food." he explained, "This way we can sustain our population ourselves."

Rick smirked a little bit to Ally,

"Well don't worry, Daryl here caught a deer yesterday so we've got lots of meat left over and all the home-grown veg you could ever want." he told her honestly before turning to Charity and adding, "Well done on the tracking Charity... it's certainly worked out well seeing as Ryan and the girls will be at the outside eating area now."

Charity was just happy that she was in a safe place, that she could walk around in, and she was going to see her family again any time now. In a world like this one family was a pretty rare thing and she was just glad that Ryan and his girls had managed to make it this far and stuck together. Although it didn't bode well that the rest of the family was never mentioned in any of her brothers notes to her.

Noting the little sigh that Rick gave when she mentioned the garden, Charity's brow furrowed a little bit in confusion, she didn't know why this was a bad thing. It was a great thing that they had here.

"The garden giving you a little bit of problems or something?" she asked with a little laugh "Well I can always take it off your hands if so, I guess you have more important things to be doing than tending to cucumbers or something like that." she laughed.

As they made their way up the gravel path towards the eating area, Charity could already smell the food and boy did it smell great! She felt her stomach rumbling even now, it was a little bit embarrassing if she had to tell the truth.

"So you're the hunter huh?" she asked Daryl with a grin "I only really hunted mushrooms in a former life but, its kind of the same. Harder if you want to go that far." Charity teased with a grin.

Daryl had to admit that he was liking these two women more and more with each passing comment. Helping to secure the fence? A massive leap up in Daryl's eyes from that offer. Offering to take over the garden so that Rick wouldn't ever have the chance to slip back into the role and neglect being the leader? Now that right there was priceless.

He grinned at Charity and Ally,

"Yea' te probl'n wit' te gard'n is tha' it's bee' turnin' te boss man her' from a badass moth'rfuc'r inte a pansy ass farm'r." he joked a little bit, patting Rick on the back before grinning, "If yer'd tak' it ov'r yer'd ge' te help of all te kids an' som' oth'rs don' worry."

He turned to Charity, the fellow tracker, and nodded when she asked if he was the hunter. No one else here fit that description after all and even if they did he was sure he would still be the better hunter due to his years of experience,

"Yea' tha's me. I hun' fer gam' an' I can fis' if I nee' te." he told her with a smirk, "I'm goo' at all tis kin'a stuff... Nev'r got te han'a gath'rin' tho'. I always kep' bringin' pois'n mushro'ms bac' te cam' an' me pa woul' hit me fer it. So I stop'd tryin'."

Aloysius decided that she liked these two guys a lot, after all they were giving her a shot at getting back to what she used to love doing. Pimping shit up. She would make sure that they had the best possible fences surrounding this place if they provided her with enough material, she was already drawing up ideas in her head.

Sticking spikes to stuff.
Sticking barbed wire to stuff.
Sticking broken glass to stuff.

Just sticking harmful stuff to metal and welding it there basically, it would get the job DONE that was for goddamn sure. Grinning wolfishly at Rick in her happiness, Ally clapped her hand into his own in a massive bro like handshake;

"You're alright by me Rick, givin' me a chance to weld again." she stated with a grin "I'll make some sick ass walls for you have no fear."

Rolling her eyes at the interaction between Daryl and Charity she didn't say much besides that, there needed time to pass to see how this little relationship was going to pan itself out. Smirking softly she stuck her hands in her pockets;

"You been burying your head in the garden for a reason I take it, I'm glad whatever it is ain't bothering you so much any more." she stated with a soft nod "Cause you guys are the first pleasant people we've come across in our journey, some messed up shit out there. I'm sure you know."

Rick could tell by the look in Ally's eyes that she was going to be enjoying her time here if he kept giving her tasks like this. Mechanical tasks and the like. Making this prison into even more of a fortress was going to be her new pet project if she stayed, if only because that would be what Rick was pushing her to do.

And he could be persuasive but he didn't think it would be needed.

The look in her eyes spoke too much of someone who loved to do what they did and it was rather clear that she was the mechanically minded twin since she was the one who seemed most attached to the pimped out death van,

"Well don't you worry, we aren't going to run out of stuff for you to weld." he told her with a grin, "We have some trucks and cars that'll need some... attention too after all."

Rick could see that Ally was a more straight forward (blunt) person than Charity but they were both interested in his relationship with the garden. Humming a little bit, he decided to give them the honest truth, straight up,

"I was the single leader of my group for a long time and I made a long of tough decisions and led us through a war with another, aggressive, settlement. I lost my wife to pregnancy related complications. And I... went a bit crazy." he admitted with a small smile and a shrug, "I got over it with the help of the gardening but now I'm strong enough to once again shoulder the burdens, with help of course."

Ally was in seventh heaven right about now when she heard that they had lots of stuff for her to get her hands on and believe her she would get her hands on them in time. It was going to be so amazing to pimp up all of their stuff, as long as she got to keep her first creation, her baby. It was like her child and that was sad but it was true.

Although she hadn't gone so far to have given it a name, that was a whole other level of sad beyond just taking care of your machine.

"I guess the walls are the priority at the moment right?" she asked with a little hum "I got some ideas, maybe making one like that ghost town was saw a few miles back." Ally hummed again as she began to think about what kind of materials she would need to even make something that size!

When this Rick guy just came out and told her the truth about what had happened, straight up, Aloysius just blinked. Was he making a joke or was he being serious? If he was being serious well then shit, he had some pretty rough times so far, and probably some more he hadn't even told her about yet.

"Well shit." she stated, still a little shocked "That's enough to make anyone bat crazy. I see you're only half there which is good." Ally joked, before she stalked on ahead of the group, she wasn't really a big interactor.

Rick could see that she knew what she was doing and he was very glad of it. After all, she was going to be given a major part in keeping the prison secure from outside threats and to do that to the best of her ability she was going to need to prioritise and work with anyone and everyone who was willing to help her out.

Rick thought it best not to mention how he was going to almost forcibly draft every single member of the community into helping put up either new walls of helping her prop up the existing ones.

Of course when she mentioned a ghost town he immediately knew where she meant,

"Yes the priority is the outer defences first and foremost." he agreed before humming a little bit, "So you saw Woodbury huh? That's the settlement we went to war with... and most of the residents here are the refugees from Woodbury who fled after their leader went crazy and tried to kill them all. We can strip down their walls for materials no problem."

He smirked a little bit at her reaction to the truth as he had told her it. It surely wasn't that shocking now was it? Okay maybe it was a little bit shocking. He laughed a little bit,

"Yeah I'm just crazy enough to survive in this crazy world now." he continued the joke before winking at her casually, "You'll hear more of my messed up life in the future if you stick around."

Aloysius was just glad that she was going to be doing what she loved again, in somewhere as safe as this, and her job was to make this area more safe. How amazing was that going to be? Everyone was going to love her she was sure of it, and if not well...then they were just assholes who weren't even worth thinking about quite frankly.

Nodding her head a little bit when she heard Rick mentioning Woodbury, Ally frowned when she heard that it was the town that they had gone to war with. The leader had gone crazy huh? Well didn't sound a step too far off what had happened to the leader of this group. Makes sense he had a session to chill.

"I was thinking about trying to recreate something like the structure there, only along the whole side of the prison. Would make it more secure by far. Of course I'll add some pointy bits and stuff like always." she grinned.

Smirking a little bit when he said she would get to hear more of his life story if she stuck around Ally laughed and shook her head;

"I guess I better turn around and leave right now then." she teased "What a great insentive to stay, personally I would think of a better reason than your own personal intrigue." Ally mocked a little bit but, it was all in good jest. It was just how she interacted with people most of the time, if she didn't know or care about them.

Rick had to admit that the idea of his prison being anything like Woodbury did not fill him without any positive emotions at all. It had been far too easy for them to break into Woodbury before after all so why would he want to model his defences after something so flawed? Probably because she would only use it as inspiration and was much more likely to just strip materials from it to create a better prison wall.

As long as it was strong and had a gate he was fine with anything else she decided upon; including the pointy things attached to the wall at angles.

He did want the Walkers near it to be dead after all,

"Yes that sounds like a good idea." he agreed with a nod before humming a little bit, "We've got some razor wire in the storage area... among other things. I'll let you in there when you've seen your workshop area and selected any assistants."

When she teased him about his 'incentive' he laughed a little bit,

"Oh no no... you don't leave that easy." he joked right back before humming slightly, "I'm sure I can think of other reasons for you to stay. Now let's see... beautiful scenery? Eating something NOT from a tin? Comfy beds? Personal rooms? Oh and my favourite... HOT SHOWERS."