If she hadn't had to protect Glenn, she would have easily fallen asleep at the wall after the group had gone back into the town. Her head was throbbing and she felt dizzy. She almost worried that if a walker did come she would be unable to focus on taking it down. She held a knife in her hand just in case.
They could hear gunfire coming from the town as they began walking to the car, though neither of them felt like turning to try and get a look over the now distant wall. Glenn was black and blue from his beating, clutching at his side and breathing carefully as they trekked slowly through the woods. The two of them kept an awkward, heavy silence. They'd never really spoken much at the farm except when giving a nod in passing, but carried a mutual respect for each other. Lucy didn't really know if she wanted to speak anyway. Between the guilt and the headache she was quite comfortable in the silence, but soon enough it was broken.

'How come you're here?' Glenn asked her. It almost sounded like he was mad at her for something, but she decided it was only his injuries affecting his tone of voice.

'I saw when you got taken. Michonne - that woman - she went to find Rick. I met them halfway,' she explained. She shifted her bag on her back - they'd passed the front gates for her to get it. They became quiet again, listening out for the group coming back, or walkers, or anything to avoid forcing awkward conversation. Lucy wondered if she would have been heading back to the car had it not been for Glenn, or if she'd be in the town or going elsewhere.

'He saw you, you know.' She looked at him, suddenly feeling slightly more awake.

'He told you?' She asked. He shook his head.

'Nah, just makes sense.' She looked at him, confused. 'We'd been on a run, he was acting weird after. Just makes sense now I know you're still around.' He drew in a breath, looking like he was trying to force a nervous laugh. 'We thought you were dead, sort of. Daryl said he saw a walker that looked like you.' She chuckled half-heartedly too, thinking back to when she'd been so worried about the group wanting to find her, when all she wanted was to disappear and survive. Now she'd practically thrown herself into the group again. After eight months alone she felt like she actually wanted them.

'I never planned on still being here. I guess I don't really know what I'm doing anymore,' she admitted to him.

'You were wrong, by the way. We never forgot you'. She wanted to fake a smile, act sweetly and be polite, the way they did in movies when someone said such a thing, but couldn't. She still half-wished they had. She knew being with a group would have its complications, she'd always reminded herself of that, and if they'd just forgotten her she wouldn't have felt the need to be with them. Maybe if Daryl hadn't recognised her and reminded her of her time with the group she wouldn't have been compelled to save Maggie and Glenn. It was too late to bother thinking about that now.

'Would've been easier than wondering if I was dead though, right?' She pointed out.

'Maybe, doesn't really matter.' He replied. 'Its not about how easy it is when you care about someone.' To that she had no good answer. Of course, it was soppy and sounded like a love song but she knew he was right. If they genuinely cared about her, which unfortunately they seemed to, it wouldn't matter whether or not it was the easiest option.
They continued walking in silence again, both of them having found conversation quite tiring given their states, and reached the car soon enough without incident. The sky began to brighten as they sat by the car, listening for the rest of the groups' return. Lucy could've sworn Glenn fell asleep a couple times but didn't mention it. As much as she wanted to herself she refused to let her guard down while they were in the open. She enjoyed the peace of waiting. She was concerned for the safety of the group, but she was able to sit and watch the sun rise, listen to nature and breathe fresh air for a while, something she hadn't done so calmly for a long time. She wondered if it was exhaustion making her feel so relaxed.
An hour or so after sunrise, Rick, Maggie and Michonne returned with Daryl, as well as his brother. Rick called out to Glenn, who immediately got up to greet them but recoiled when he saw who they'd brought back.

'Now we got a problem here, I need you to back up,' Rick announced, holding his hand out to try and steady Glenn.

'What the hell is he doing here?' Glenn yelled back, drawing his gun from his belt. Lucy looked between everyone, not sure how to behave seeing as she had never actually met Merle. Michonne seemed relatively calm, yet deeply pissed off too. Given that she had walked there with him, it was safe to say Rick must have already forced them into a truce. Daryl stood close to Merle, stopping anyone from going straight for him, but almost seemed like he wanted to fight his brother himself.

'Drop the gun,' Rick told Glenn forcefully. Lucy still held her knife and stayed a few paces back, debating whether or not she should get involved.

'If it wasn't for him, Maggie could-'

'No, he helped us out of there!' Daryl interrupted Glenn.

'Right after he beat the shit out of you,' argued Rick. They held their standoff for a moment.

'Hey, we both took out licks, man,' Merle began.

'Jackass.'

'Hey, shut up!'

'Enough!' Rick yelled, looking at the brothers. Merle leant against a tree, Daryl between him and Glenn and Maggie, while Rick stood the other side of Merle to keep Michonne, who held her sword tightly, a safe distance from him. Lucy felt anxious. There was more conflict here than she understood. She had seen Merle kidnap the couple but didn't know what had happened in Woodbury afterwards, and she had little knowledge of Daryl's relationship with him other than the fact that he was an asshole. The was lots of shouting and brandishing of weapons, causing her to hold her own up in case a fight began. She stepped forwards as they got louder, cautious that someone might need holding back.

'Looks like you gone native brother,' Merle joked, grinning at Daryl.

'No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there.' Daryl was certainly right about that - the Governor was nothing but a psycho.

'Oh yeah man, he is a charmer, I gotta tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea big time, baby.' He licked his teeth, smiling and leaning back suggestively. Lucy hadn't realised who was or wasn't still within the group. She remembered briefly seeing Andrea back at the farm, but assumed she would have somehow re-joined everyone else. It seemed crazy how they'd separated and were now on opposite sides of a battle.

'Andrea's in Woodbury?' Glenn asked, frowning.

'Right next to the Governor,' Daryl answered scornfully. Michonne stepped towards Merle, clutching her sword with a fire in her eyes.

'Drop that! You know Andrea? Do you know Andrea?' Rick demanded.

'Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest.' Merle chuckles. 'Yeah, my Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws. Kept them in chains. Kind of ironic, now that I think about it.'

'Shut up, bro!' Daryl yelled at him.

'Hey man, we snagged them out of the woods, Andrea was close to dying,' Merle continued, unable to care less about his brother's pleas for him to stop. Everyone else had gone silent, and most of them seemed to have forgotten Lucy was there. Daryl occasionally glanced at her and Rick's eyes were darting between them all.

'There's no way she's with him.' Maggie said quietly.

'Snug as two little bugs. So what you going to do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs and cowards.'

'Shut up.' The tension began to rise again as Merle began to agitate Rick.

'Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in me.' He wouldn't quit, standing tall and taking steps forwards and backwards in clumsy circles.

'Shut up.' Daryl continued trying to shush his brother.

'Shut up yourselves, bunch of pussies.' Before he could say anything else, Rick hit him in the head, hard, with the grip of his gun. Merle dropped to the ground, and everyone enjoyed a moment of quiet. Lucy was glad it had stopped; she felt somewhat useless not being able to intervene and didn't like not understanding what was going on. As everyone began to head back to the car again she wondered if she would go with them or leave. Knowing that they were going against the Governor made her want to join their fight, but whether or not they would accept her back was another matter. They all seemed so different to on the farm, though Lucy wasn't exactly the same person either.
Merle eventually woke up, still next to a tree not far from the road. Lucy had stayed with Michonne by the car while the rest of the group discussed what to do next a little way off. She could only hear snippets of things when voices were raised. Glenn seemed the most mad about everything, and rightfully so considering what Merle had done to his face. While leaning against the car she began to feel lightheaded. She wobbled slightly on her feet, placing a hand on the bonnet for support and breathing deeply.

'You alright?' Michonne asked her, concerned. She ran a hand through her hair and rubbed her eyes.

'Just tired.' Thinking about it, she realised she couldn't remember the last time she had slept. Maybe not since she'd seen Daryl at that house, maybe longer. She hadn't eaten properly either and being hit in the head hadn't helped anything. She grabbed her water bottle from her bag and sipped it slowly as if it would fix something.
Focussing on the group again, Lucy realised they were talking about her and Michonne.

'She's not coming back,' Rick told the others.

'She's not in a state to be on her own,' Maggie replied. Michonne's leg was still injured, and after her fight with the Governor she was suffering more injuries.

'She did bring you guys to us.' Glenn added.

'And then ditched us.' Rick was set against taking her back to the prison with them.

'So did Lucy. But we should take her, we know her,' Maggie responded.

'Do we? How do we know she hasn't changed?'

'The girl who would barely stay with us for dinner? You think she could've joined someone else?'

'Doubt she'd come back with us anyway,' Daryl added, sounding bitter. 'But Merle, he'll need somewhere.' Lucy felt bad, like she'd betrayed some kind of companionship they'd built, but at the end of the day they'd barely known each other for a week. She stopped listening for a while as they began to circle around the topic of Merle again. Not that it wasn't relevant to her, but she didn't want to be eavesdropping on something that wasn't any of her business.
It wasn't until Daryl was heading towards the car with Rick at his heels that she realised something was happening.

'We started something last night. You realise that?' Rick was telling him, trying to get him to turn around. Daryl kept walking with a straight face.

'No him, no me.' So they weren't letting Merle stay. Lucy thought that was fair enough given the circumstances but was surprised Daryl would leave them because of it. She thought he didn't particularly favour Merle, brother or not. She certainly wouldn't have left for her family. She and Michonne stood up straight as they reached the car, watching silently. 'That's all I can say. You take care of yourself. Take care of little Asskicker, and Carl, he's one tough kid.' He opened the boot, grabbing a bag and slamming it shut again. It felt too awkward for them to be parting again without saying anything.

'Bye,' she said plainly, immediately kicking herself afterwards for being weird. Normally people would say more than one word.

'Come with me,' he replied. She froze for a second. 'You don't want a group, you don't need one. Come with me and Merle.' She held her breath, thinking. On one hand, she did want the security of a place like the prison with people around her so she wouldn't have to watch her back. On the other, he was right. She wasn't sure if she would ever get used to a group of people. Maybe a couple companions would be a good idea. But then again, Merle seemed to be a bad guy in the situation, and maybe she didn't trust him after seeing him kidnap Maggie and Glenn. In a way, it felt like choosing between continuing a fight with the Governor or leaving it behind too. There was a lot to think about. She looked at Rick as if needing an answer from him - maybe because he seemed like a leader.

'You're not part of our group. You wanna go, go.' After the amount of pleading she'd had from him, desperate for her to stay with them at the farm, she was shocked to hear him tell the truth so harshly. Hearing it almost confirmed her fears. She looked at Daryl again.

'Just don't ask me to many questions,' she answered, shoving her bottle back in her bag and adjusting it on her shoulder. He smiled slightly, looking pleased. Without another word she followed him into the trees towards Merle, who was grinning ear to ear. She didn't look back at any of them, knowing they had probably expected this.

'Well, hello there,' Merle greeted her, looking about as friendly as a hyena could. He chuckled, wrapping his arm around Daryl roughly, and she wondered if she had made the right choice.