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Okay so Carl was still well into his teen years and Judith was just as old as she had been the last time that he saw her so nothing had changed aside from the fact that the apocalypse had disappeared or at least that’s what Rick thought until he walked into the sheriffs office to be greeted by a face he never thought he would see again.
Shane sat at his desk with an enormous rakish grin and waving a pastry in Rick’s direction. “Rick guess who picked up pastries from your favorite bakery? Your boy Shane that’s who!”
If Rick thought seeing Lori again had thrown him for a loop it was nothing compared to seeing Shane again he was happy and angry and sad and a million other emotions he couldn’t give a name to all at once. Rick steadied himself and reminded himself that he needed to focus on the most important task at hand, finding Daryl.
Plastering a smile on he walks over to Shane and takes an apple pastry from the box. “Thanks Shane I really needed this.”
Rick decided to chose to see this as a second chance to make things right with Shane where they had gone so wrong before.
Rick takes a seat at his desk and Shane immediately starts telling him about some girl he met last night. Ignoring Shane’s chatter Rick logs into his computer and types Daryl’s name into the database Only to have the screen flash the words. “No results found.”
Ok so if Daryl wasn’t in the system he would just have to figure out another way to find him. Daryl had never been arrested he had told Rick as much but he knew Merle had so he would be in the system and with Shane alive there was a good chance that Merle was too.
As though the universe could hear his thoughts before he even had to type in anything proof of his concept was dragged through the station door kicking and screaming and cussing up a storm in the form of Merle Dixon.