MAISIE STOOD FURTHER away from everyone as she possibly could. She couldn't take her eyes away from Shane, he was wearing Otis's clothes. He was wearing the clothes of someone he murdered. Maisie didn't know if he actually killed Otis, but it was the most obvious thing ever. She didn't know how anyone else believed his shit story.

She certainly didn't, and she saw how Daryl and Dale's faces looked when Shane was telling the story, so she wasn't the only one, and that made her a bit more happier.

Maisie had tear stains on her cheeks, her nose was red, and her hair was pushed behind her ears. She was sitting on the couch, trying to think of something to do but there was nothing. Reaper has already been fed and now he's on the bed with Carl who still hasn't woken up, she did the chores Hershel asked her to do, she washed her clothes, she showered. She had nothing left to do.

Just as she was about to sit back, Maggie walked into the house. Maggie still had chores, but Maisie didn't like Maggie's chores. As kids, Maggie used to make Maisie do chores with her so they could continue playing with the horses and Maisie absolutely hated her chores. But she helped Maggie anyway.

"Hey, Mase," Maggie calls so Maisie looks up from her feet, "Daddy asked if you could check on Carl? He should be wakin' up soon."

"Mhm." Maisie nods, standing up and opening the door to the room Carl was in and walking inside.

She walked over to the unconscious kid, he looked peaceful. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed and his skin was paler than it was when Maisie first saw him. His head was tilted to the side from the position of the pillow and she could see his eyes moving around even though they were closed.

She softly grabbed the boy's warm arm and pressed her index and middle finger onto his pulse, it was beating normally. She softly put his arm back and quietly sat on the chair that Hershel dragged from the living room to here. The boy's breathing got louder, and then his eyes fluttered open. He looked around in confusion before his eyes met Maisie's.

"I'll go get your parents."

Carl nodded his head and swallowed, "Thank you."

"I'll get you some water, too," Maisie adds, noticing how dry his voice was due to the lack of water everyone had. Maisie admired how strong that kid was at a time like this, even him getting shot was tough. He reminded her of her brother. Not just because he got shot, but from what Maisie has seen, his personality.

Maisie stopped in her tracks and turned around, she decided to tell him what she thought about him, "You're a strong kid. Let's keep it that way, yeah?"

"Yeah." Carl's smile got bigger as he looked down at the blood-covered bandage that would need a change soon. She nodded at him then walked out of the room and walked into the kitchen.

Maisie grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, her body immediately became cold. The hot weather outside made Maisie uncomfortable, feeling the icy cold breeze hit her arm felt good. She closed the fridge, turned around, and bumped into someone. And just as Maisie was about to apologize, she met eyes with Shane.

He had a smirk on his face, he looked weird and bald. He didn't feel good to be around. He carried this negative aura that Maisie despised.

"Almost apologized, good thing I didn't." Maisie tried to push Shane out of the way, but he was stronger than her so he didn't budge. Maisie looked up at him and glared, he still had that same creepy smirk across his lips.

"Maisie Cooper." Shane finally speaks, his words made Maisie furrow her eyebrows. She hasn't told anyone here her last name, not like it was a secret, but no one knew but the Greene's. And her family didn't have a reason to tell Shane her last name.

"I remember getting a call from a bar sayin' how two people got into a physical argument." Maisie dropped her expression, he couldn't be. "Me and my partner pulled up, and it was you and Clay Cooper."

All the memories of that night started to fill her mind, God did she hate this guy. "Fuck you." She tried to push him away, but Shane still didn't budge.

Clay Cooper was Maisie's dad. He was pretty popular with the police department, always getting the police called on him and his family. Going to jail ran in her family. She's been there at least twice.

"Still got that scar from that night." Shane grabbed Maisie's chin and moved her head to the side which revealed the scar on the side of her nose that was fading away.

Maisie slapped his hand off of her, "Touch me again and I'll break your fingers."

"Bet you will."

That smirk on his face made her stomach twist with anger. She couldn't look away from his eyes, it was like they were hypnotizing her. Don't look away, they said. Their faces were inches apart, Maisie couldn't help but think to close the gap, but she didn't, she couldn't. She was holding back everything to not let him win. Every thought, every word, every action, every bone. But he still won.

The water bottle in Maisie's hand dropped to the floor when Shane closed the gap. Their lips met, and Maisie kissed back for some reason. She couldn't help herself. He killed my uncle is what kept repeating in her mind, but she couldn't pull away.

Those words kept repeating in her head, so she finally did it. Maisie put her hands on his chest and pushed him away with all of her strength. He stumbled but didn't fall. Then she sent a slap to his cheek. Maisie squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed the water bottle off the floor, walking away like nothing happened as she wiped her lips.

She felt so stupid. She continued to walk back to Carl's room like nothing happened, Shane followed after but instead, he walked outside to tell Rick and Lori that Carl was awake, walking over to the group who were huddled around the well after.

"Sorry that took so long, kid." Maisie opened the water bottle for him and handed it to him. Carl happily took it from her after telling her it was okay. He chugged half of the water bottle before placing it down on the nightstand.

"Thank you for checking on him." Rick walks into the room along with Lori. Maisie nods as she watches them sit down on the bed with their son.

Maisie smiled at the sight, she never had a moment like this with both of her parents. Maisie turned away and decided to go outside to help with the other on some chores. She looked around when she saw no one, so she walked to the side of the house and saw everyone huddled around the well. Reaper followed Maisie outside as the two began walking over to the huddled group. Maggie had a look of disgust on her face as everyone else just had furrowed brows and squinted eyes.

"Why not? It's a good plan." Glenn's voice rang in Maisie's ears as she approached closer to everyone. The only open spot for her to stand was in between Shane and Dale, so she just stood closer to Dale and looked down the well seeing a skin eater with gills sticking out of its body.

"It's a stupid plan." Andrea disagrees, her skin shining with sweat as her blonde hair fell perfectly from her shoulders, "If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finish the job."

Maisie couldn't help but gag at the smell that was filling her nostrils. She bent down to look closer and it smelt horrible. It's not like it was supposed to smell good, because the deceased smelt disgusting, but she thought it would've smelt a little better.

"She's right." Shane licked his lips with a pause, he looked inside the well with disgust, "Can't risk it."

"So it has to come out alive?" T-dog questions, he had no expression on his face, it was blank but he looked disappointed.

"So to speak."

"How do we do that?" Glenn asks with his legs bent and his hands on his knees. His hat shaded his face perfectly, Maisie's hat was hanging somewhere in Maggie's room.

"Y'all got rope lyin' around?" Shane looks at Maisie and then Maggie. Maisie makes eye contact with Maggie who is nodding her head.

Maggie quickly ran back to the farm and came out with a rope, fishing line, and a block of ham. Maisie jerked her head back in confusion when Maggie handed Shane the block of ham.

Maggie tied the fishing line to the block of ham as Shane tied the rope with a big enough circle to fit the skin eater's head. When they finished tying everything, Dale picked up a nearby stick and tied the fishing line to it before lowering it down into the well at the same time Shane lowered the rope.

"He's not going for it," Dale states the obvious.

"It's dead and doesn't have a smart brain, you think it would go for a block of ham?" Maisie sasses, her elbow on Maggie's shoulder as they looked up at Dale in sync.

"She's right." Lori randomly popped up, "There's a reason the dead didn't come back to life and start raiding our cupboards." Lori looks up at Dale as well, the remaining sun shining in her eyes.

"We need live bait," Andrea says, she looked away from the well and turned to Glenn as everyone but Maisie and Maggie copied her actions.

Glenn looked around, his eyes stopped squinting and he dropped his expression. "No, absolutely not."

"Please, Glenn!"

"Just do it, man."

"It'll be quick."

"Nothing'll happen to you!"

Maisie looked at everyone who was begging Glenn to sacrifice his life for a stupid skin eater. "I'll do it." She paused, looking at everyone who turned to her, "Do you guys do this often?"

"Very often." Glenn widens his eyes with a nod and sighs of relief.

"No, you ain't doing it." Shane jumps into the conversation so Maisie turns her head to him and rolls her eyes.

"What are you, my babysitter? As long as you don't kill me I'll be fine." Shane scoffed at Maisie's words as he rubbed his head and gave in, grabbing the rope and signaling Maisie over.

She walked over and turned around as Shane began tying the rope around Maisie's waist, "Sure you wanna do this?"

"You don't have to do this, Maisie." Maggie shakes her head with a scared look on her face. Maisie nods her head and smiles so Maggie frowns and backs away.

"Glenn looks like he's been through enough." Maisie jokes, Glenn chuckles before he hands her a flashlight that Lori gave him.

"You see right through me," Glenn says causing Maisie to smile as Shane tightens the rope around her waist.

Shane tapped Maisie's waist so she sat down on the well and looked at everyone, "If you guys drop me, I'll have my dog kill you."

Everyone smiled before they started to slowly lower her into the well. Maggie was guiding them since she didn't want to join. If Maisie got dropped and didn't come back up, she didn't want to feel guilty about it.

Maisie's feet were dangling as she held the rope lowering her down and the rope to wrap around the skin eater's neck. Maisie would be lying if she said she wasn't a little nervous right now. Fighting in small spaces like this was always the worst, there was no escape if she lost the fight, too.

The rope rubbing on the rocks of the well was all Maisie could hear at the moment. She was making sure the rope wouldn't snap, but she was too late to process it. She did not have time to scream or anything because the rope snapped and Maisie fell into the dirty water with the skin eater. Everyone above was shouting but it was muffled due to Maisie being underwater. She quickly tied the rope around the skin eater's stomach and neck while it tried to grab at her.

Maisie jumped up, breathing the disgusting air as she jumped onto the skin eater's back and stepped on its head for a boost. She had her hands and legs on each side of the well and started climbing up it, Maggie screaming at everyone was echoing through her mind. She grabbed the rod that was in the middle of the well and pulled herself up as she coughed the water in her mouth out causing everyone to turn to her in shock.

"I said don't kill me you fucking asshole." Maisie looked at Shane who had a smirk on his face. He knew Maisie was strong, but he didn't think she was strong enough to get past a swimming skin eater trapped in a small well.

"Looks like you're pretty alive to me," Shane says as he walks over to the woman to make sure she didn't get bit. Maisie felt a harsh look on her while Shane checked her, she looked around and made eye contact with Lori who immediately softened her look. She softened it a little too quickly.

"You fell in the water?" Dale had worry scribbled all over his face, he had his hat in his hands before he placed it back on his head with a sigh of relief. Maisie almost scoffed at the dumb question the wise man asked.

"No, I meditated above it." Maisie sarcastically replied.

"Are you okay?" Andrea asked.

"Perfect." Maisie panted, ringing out her hair while Shane slightly grazed the scrape on her cheek causing Maisie to slap his hand away at the slight sting.

"Back to the drawing board." Dale's tone sounded disappointed. It wasn't the fact Maisie didn't get the rope around the walker, it was the fact they even thought of putting a human being down the well just to fail.

"Have a little faith in me next time, jeez." Maisie shakes her head before placing the rope in Dale's hands, walking away back to the farm to take a shower while her dog walks right beside her.

Hours passed and Maisie's shower felt amazing. The other women were making dinner, Maisie was going to offer to help but she got distracted by the archer cleaning his motorcycle. She didn't want to admit that he was attractive, but he was. She sat on the rocking chair which was on the porch, she was pretending to fix one of Hershel's broken watches, but she was watching him.

But she was in the dining room, sitting in between Daryl and Shane. The tension between Maisie and Shane was driving her crazy, she couldn't think straight. He kept giving her glances every two seconds which was making her uncomfortable.

Maisie looked at the archer to see he was already looking at her. They both looked away in unison as Maisie took a bite of her food and leaned back in her chair.

The dining room was silent. The only thing heard was silverware hitting the plates which made a scrapping noise and hurt Maisie's ears. She hated the noise with her life, it was so squeaky and annoying.

Maisie watched as Glenn and Maggie passed notes under the table with a smile, it was cute seeing stuff like this. Especially with Maggie.

"Does anyone know how to play guitar? Dale found a cool one." Glenn breaks the silence while the Greene family turns tense. "Somebody's gotta know how to play."

Maisie looked at Patricia who was anxiously looking down at her almost empty plate, "Otis did." Patrica's words were so quiet as she spun her fork around in her hand nervously.

Maisie looked at Shane who had a small glimpse of guilt in his eyes, but it was covered by the darkness of his careless mood. He tried to play it off, but Maisie could feel what he was. She could feel his guilt.

"Yes, and he was very good too," Hershel says, then the silenced returned.

Maisie knew how to play, she was debating on whether or not she should play the guitar for these random people she had known for only a couple of days.

"I know how." Maisie finally confesses, "Otis taught me a few things." Glenn smiled brightly as Maisie moved her chair beside Glenn who happily handed her the guitar.

---
sorry for the lack of daryl and maisie scenes, but i promise when the farm era is over maisie and daryl will have more scenes
ALSO MAISIE AND SHANE ARENT DATING OR ANYTHING I PROMISE THAT WAS A ONE TIME THING AND MAISIE HATES HIS GUTS