I've been wanting a scene between Rick and Carol, about the events in "The Grove", since 5.01. I'm still hoping we'll get one. I've set this scene in 5.09, after the group buries Tyreese.
Everyone except Sasha and Daryl has moved off from the gravesite. Carol is standing by herself, crying silently. Rick comes up to her and places a hand on her shoulder.
Rick: "Are you alright?"
Carol: (after a pause) "It broke him."
Rick: "This new world?"
Carol: (bends her head slightly) "The choices it forces on us."
Rick: "Are you talking about Karen and David? You said he forgave you. You told him, offered him the chance to kill you, and he forgave you."
Carol: "I'm not talking about that."
Rick: "What then?"
Carol: "Tyreese didn't want to talk about it. Didn't want anyone else to know, so I honored that. Now I'm wondering if I should have. I think it ate him up inside."
Rick furrows his brow, appears confused. Carol looks up at him.
Carol: "You know I got back to the prison in time to see Tyreese and the girls escaping. I followed them, caught up to them eventually. We saw the Terminus signs like everybody else, decided to head that way."
Rick: "Lucky for us."
Carol: "I noticed something along the way. Something about Lizzie. She'd smile and wave to the walkers. She didn't seem to understand that they were dead. She thought they were just different."
Rick: "Cause any trouble?"
Carol pulls her arms in tightly.
Carol: "We found a cottage. In a pecan grove. It had water, heat, no people, only one or two walkers in sight. We decided to stay there, for a while, anyway. After we'd settled in, I saw Lizzie running around a walker, like she was playing tag or something. I killed it, and she became furious with me. I tried to explain the danger, but she just screamed at me. But then, a little later, Lizzie and Mika both came running, screaming, terrified. They were running from walkers. Tyreese and I started to pick them off while the girls ran. Then Lizzie,
she started to kill the walkers.
Kill them, with head shots. I was so relieved, so happy. I thought Lizzie seeing her sister in danger, crying, had finally made her realize what they were."
Rick: "You and Tyreese arrived with Judith. Lizzie and Mika, did they get swarmed? Because you can't blame yourself if-"
Carol: (quietly) "No. They didn't get swarmed."
Rick: (after a pause) "What happened?"
Carol: (long pause) "Tyreese and I went a little ways into the woods to hunt for deer. Mika and I had seen one, but she couldn't kill it. She could kill walkers, though. Took one down when we first got to the cottage. So Tyreese and I went. When we got back..." (stares off in horror)
Rick: "What? What happened?"
Carol: "We saw Mika, lying on the ground...dead."
Rick: "Walkers?"
Carol: "No. Lizzie. She wanted Mika to come back as a walker. So she stabbed her sister in the chest."
Rick staggers back a little, shocked.
Carol: "She wanted us all to come back as walkers, even Judith."
Rick's horror intensifies.
Carol: "She...pulled a gun on us. Wanted us to let Mika turn. She said we'd
see then."
Rick: "What...how did you..."
Carol: "I told her we could wait. We'd have lunch and wait. She gave me the gun and went with Tyreese. He locked her in her room. She told him she was the one who had been feeding the walkers at the prison fence. We tried to figure out what to do. If one of us left with Lizzie, we'd both end up dead. If one of us left with Judith, same thing. We couldn't trust her under the same roof with Judith. If we sent her off, she'd become a walker at best, make a few more at worst. She couldn't be around people..."
Realization begins to dawn on Rick.
Rick: (gently) "Carol..."
Carol begins sobbing again.
Rick: "You saved my daughter's life."
Carol: "Tyreese forgave me. I don't think he could forgive himself. I know I can't forgive myself."
Rick: "What if it had been somebody else in your place? What would you tell them to do?"
Carol: (pauses) "I...I don't know."
Rick: "Yeah, you do. There's no good answer, just the one that saves the most innocent lives."
Carol: "Lizzie was innocent. She was a child."
Rick: "Yes, she was. And she would have killed herself and all of you, including my daughter. Judith would be dead now."
Carol looks up at Rick, struggling.
Rick: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for this world. I'm sorry for you and Tyreese. I'm even sorry for Lizzie."
Carol: "No good answer."
Rick: "Except what saves the most lives."