ONLY TIME WILL TELL

III: Meeting Rick

They finally arrive at Rick’s house, an even larger colonial than hers that had to easily have five bedrooms. They walk up the porch and Daryl opens the door again for Jolene, inviting her in. She must be expected already. She gets goosebumps as she brushes by Daryl.

Inside Jo sees who she assumes to be Rick, sitting on the couch with a baby in his lap. Holy s**t, a baby? she thinks to herself. Rick is rugged, classically handsome with curly brown hair and scruff. He looked like a cowboy in his boots and fitted plaid shirt. Jo felt a little intimidated by the look he gave her, but she wasn’t going to show any weakness now. She was sized up everyday in the army. Across from him on another couch is a boy with a bandage over his eye and a Deputy hat and sitting next to him a thin, dark-skinned woman with dreadlocks.

They all stand when she walks in the room. “Hi, I’m Rick Grimes” he says reaching his free hand out to her, while holding the baby in his left. She takes it and they shake hands. She notices a colt .45 strapped to his side. “This here’s Judith, my daughter” he says gesturing to the baby. “Carl, my son.” he says gesturing to the boy in the hat, who tips it upon hearing his name. “And Michonne” who nods her head to Jolene in greeting.

“Drill Sergeant Jolene Baker. Please call me Jo.” she responds stoically. “Nice to meet you all.” While she is outwardly polite, she is inwardly terrified of this meeting. She doesn’t trust these people yet so doesn’t want to expose too much of herself. She tries to be as polite as she can, without being too disingenuous. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears and hopes to God that they couldn’t.

Daryl notices the strain when she responds to Rick so continues to stand. She takes a seat with her back to Daryl and across from Rick, in a floral patterned armchair with a high cushioned back, while Rick hands Judith to Carl and they go into the other room with Michonne. Jo twists her body around as another woman walks through the front door behind Daryl, who is leaning against the partition between the front hallway and the living room. Jo feels very aware of his presence behind her, all her senses on edge.

“This is Maggie.” says Rick, gesturing to the young woman with short brown hair. “She’ll take notes on our conversation if that’s ok Drill Sergeant.” Maggie gives a small wave and a nod, coming to sit next to him on the loveseat as Jolene adjusts herself back to face them. She’s pretty, Jo thinks. She has big brown doe eyes and soft features, and a very curvy figure. She wonders if she might be the baby’s mother. 

Jo just nods her head in agreement, trying not to cause problems.

“Aaron told me the information you shared with him” says Rick sitting across from her on the sofa, leaning his body towards her with his elbows leaning on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him. “I’d just like to get to know you a little bit more.” His voice was gruff and he spoke in almost a hushed tone. Jolene nods her head in acknowledgement, furrowing her brow and squinting her eyes in concentration, so Rick continues. “So yer from Georgia? Where were you when the infection hit?”

“Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where I was stationed at the time.” she replies curtly crossing her arms in front of her.

“Why did you leave?” he asks her.

“I was trying to get to Georgia to find my Mother, but my assumption is that she died.” she answered, not wanting to go into detail.

“Why do you assume that?” he asks her. 

“Well I was at the base for over a year, underground with my platoon. I just think that a year alone would be too long for her to survive.” she replies curtly. 

“Fair enough...so you never made it?” he asks.

“No.” she responds.

“How long have you been a Drill Sergeant?” Rick asks her.

“Well I proved myself in Afghanistan and graduated from the academy right before the outbreak. I was just assigned to Carlisle when it happened.” 

Rick takes a moment to consider this as Maggie scribbles down the information. “So you have combat and military training?” he asks her curiously. 

“Yes, and quite a bit of survival training.” she tells him. He pauses again, considering this new information.

“What happened with the other group you were with?” asks Rick.

This man does not seem to be somebody to cross, thinks Jo. He interrogates her like her Sergeant or a cop. She considers how to answer, looking down while she thinks so she doesn’t have to look into his steely blue eyes. “What happens to everything else in this world. Somebody didn’t like the rules so they tried to change them. I left before I could become another casualty.” She looks back up at him, furrowing her brow in thought. “It has been a tough few years.” 

“Did you run into any other groups or people?” he asks.

“Rarely. Since leaving them I haven’t seen any other groups. I mostly encountered people travelling solo, like myself.” she says biting her lip compulsively.

“And these people did not bother you or you didn’t think to travel with them?” he asks squinting his eyes apprehensively.

“No. These people travelling solo didn’t see me and I had no desire to make any new friends...or enemies.” she replies, sighing, and wondering what he is trying to get from her. He looks down, taking a moment to think while Maggie continues to write her notes. Jo looks from him to other parts of the room, keeping her face emotionless and as unreadable as possible. This house has a big fireplace where she notices a number of pictures on the mantel, none of which are any of the people currently in the house.

Rick asks, “What did you call your leader? In your previous group…?” 

“Our leader? Um, George I believe his name was, but some also called him the Captain.” “Did he die as well?” asks Rick. 

“Yeah. When one of the group, Mike, had a problem with his rules he took a shotgun and blew the Captain’s brains out. He made sure we all saw it and I slipped away that night.” 

Rick takes a moment to think. Finally he asks,“You didn’t have somebody you cared about there?”

“I did. She left with me, but when we were attacked on the road by some bikers I couldn’t save her.” she says. Faith, she thinks and an image of her being stabbed comes unwillingly into her head. She grimaces at the memory, but Rick doesn’t seem to notice as he focuses behind her. 

“I’m sorry for your loss.” he tells her. 

Jolene shrugs in response, “Thanks, but it’s all relative. Just another friendly casualty in the war against the dead hostiles.” 

Rick takes a moment to think about her response. He worries that she may not be as reliable as he thought before. They need more to help them within the walls and to defend them, but they can’t trust somebody who may just be there for themselves, but he brushes off his uncertainty and continues, remembering how some of the Alexandrians are still like that.

“I need to go over some things with you regarding our community.” he says. “There are some rules we all have to follow to survive here.” She nods at him, furrowing her brow, so he continues. “Everybody is assigned a job and you must always report when you go outside the walls and for what….we work together here so we need to make sure that whatever is done is done for the good of the Community and not for our own selfish reasons, no matter how bad it gets. If you put yourself in danger, you put others here in danger. Hopefully this all sounds familiar as the same rules apply in the military.” Jolene considers what he is telling her and wonders if they would make it difficult for her to leave.

Rick continues, “Based on your experience I think it would be a good idea to have you do supply runs with Daryl and some of the others, but until we can fully trust you I want you to work with Abraham on construction. We’re working on improvements and expansions so need as many people as we can get. Would you be okay with some manual labor?”

Shit, supply runs would have made it easy to get away, she thinks and responds: “As long as I have food and enough rest....which doesn’t seem to be a problem here…” she thinks for a moment about what they are offering, but remembers what happened before. Not wanting to fight with them now about leaving she instead says. “I wouldn’t have a problem with anything you need me to do.” She gives him a slight smile, but her eyes remain serious, pensive.

“Good.” says Rick. “Maggie will take you to get some rations and show you around. Do you have any questions?”

Jolene considers not saying anything, but something nags at her mind. She had seen groups fall apart before and had to find out.

“Aaron had mentioned that some of your residents are no longer with you? Is this place really safe?” she asks with as much bravado as she can muster.

Rick looks to Daryl who shakes his head ever so slightly. He explains, “We’ve had problems with other people since being here. As you said, people want what others have and we’re not immune here. We’re working to make it better, but you should know…” he says to her seriously “if you choose to stay here you may have to help fight to protect others. Would that be a problem for you?” Rick and Maggie are both looking at her, awaiting her response. She was sure that Daryl was doing the same thing behind her back. Feeling the pressure Jo furrows her brows in thought and looks away from them to the front window to her left.

She had fought so many battles before. She thinks for a couple of minutes and gives him the only honest answer she could think of: “I don’t know if I could do that. I would like to help, really. You all seem like good people, but I’ve lived because I don’t put myself on the front lines. And if I have to I can be alone as long as I need to.” Rick nods his head in acknowledgement and looks pensive for a moment. The silence is deadly to Jo. Maggie stops writing her notes and looks at Rick. 

“Thank you for your honesty.” Rick finally responds as he stands again. Jolene stands along with him, dropping her arms to her sides, waiting for him to ask her to leave. “Maggie, take Jolene, I mean Jo, to get some food and show her around. We will be around today if you have any other questions.” with that Rick leaves the room with Daryl following behind. Jo notices Daryl glance at her again as he leaves and she feels an aching in her stomach. She couldn’t tell if she was hungry or aroused. Maggie brings her out of her thoughts.

“So let’s get you set up” she says.