Ch. 10 I’ve got news…

Julius arrives back the next morning, with an urn in hand, most were sleeping but Dale was keeping watch on top of the RV and Clem in the lawn chair beside him was dozing in and out beside him. A familiar voice beside them wakes them from stupor.

"Good morning," Julius says which startles them awake but he did not look the slightest bit drained. "You guys look like hell."

"Julius, you're ok?" Dale is nearly speechless to see him unharmed, though it should have been expected.

"Because we were...we were up all night waiting for you dummy," A heavy eyed Clementine says trying to hit him, but she misses. "Even that sha...shane guy got back before you..." she yawns.

"I know, I know. Now get some rest little one," Julius lays her back in her chair and pulls up her blanket, she falls asleep with very little resistance. He watches her sleep peacefully for a moment before Dale got his attention.

"What's in the urn?" he asks solemnly. No one would waste their time or risk their safety in a crematorium, but this was Julius we were talking about.

"I found Otis..." Julius answers with a hint of sadness. Whatever he saw last night upset him a little. "He didn't go peacefully. Hey Dale," Julius quickly scans the area and when he is sure no one can hear them he asks, "do you think Shane would have killed Otis to escape?"

"In a heartbeat," he answers without a second thought. Dale has no issue sharing his opinion of Shane. "He'd do anything to save his own hide, and if you ask me he might have a few screws loose. You be careful around him...wait why are you asking me this?" Dale asks.

Julius doesn't answer but produces the bullet that was lodged into Otis's leg just a few hours ago. "I think you know where this came from," he says handing it to the speechless and wide-eyed old man. "Don't say anything about this yet."

"But they all deserve to know, especially Patricia." Dale says even more surprised Julius wants to sit on the information.

"Just trust me on this Dale, it would only breed more problems. As it stands now, we don't have enough evidence for such a wild accusation, and I'm still new here I don't want to just look like I'm trying to stir the pot. Shane still holds a lot of their trust..."

Dale thought long and hard about it, but Julius has a point. It wasn't a secret that he doesn't like Shane either, but there isn't any evidence to be had against Shane. Especially with the victim in question's body now being ash. You've got a point..."

"I'll keep an eye on him for now and we'll go from there." Julius assures Dale, bringing a little color back to his face.

"Alright, you be careful. Every dog has his day," Dale warns.

"I'll keep that in mind. Can you watch her while I go speak with Patricia?"

"Go on Julius, I'll look after her." He shoes Julius away while sitting in another chair next to Clem. The bullet rolls back in forth in Dale's palm as he thought about what had happened.

Up at the farmhouse Julius silently approaches the building not trying to wake anyone. He walks inside to see Patricia crying about Otis. She can only wonder what his final moments were like, she had heard how Otis sacrificed his life so that Shane could make it back to save the boy. She couldn't say she wasn't bitter, it was an accident. Still, Otis didn't have to be the one to stay behind. These thoughts plagued her and she began to sob more and pray ashamed of herself for thinking that way.

"Sorry Patricia. If I had gotten there sooner, I might have been able to help him." Julius says producing a handkerchief and wallet from his pocket.

When she saw the handkerchief, Otis's wife Patricia nearly broke down all over again. She takes the piece of cloth and clutches it tightly before taking a few deep breaths.

"This, this… how did you get this? My mama made it for us when we got married. See the O and P that's us. Did you make it too Otis? How was it when you got there? Did he say anything?" the woman wails as she bombards Julius with questions waking everyone else. The crowd gathers and starts to figure out what is going on. Shane is peeved. He never saw this boy out there, he was just making shit up.

"Boy! This woman just lost her husband! Now it's nice of you to try to comfort her, but lying ain't the way! I saw them thangs on Otis." Shane says spewing spittle. This gets others thinking and they begin to chime in.

"Julius, it's okay to mess up but you can't do this man." Rick says.

"Yeah, this is not funny." Maggie chimes in.

"Not cool bro." Glenn says almost simultaneously with Maggie.

"I really did meet Otis, held his hand and everything." Julius defends himself calmly.

"Now Julius, Clem told me you had a twin brother. How would you feel if someone said this abo…" Lori stops talking when everybody in the house feels as if they are under the threat of death. Then as suddenly as it came it was gone.

"DO NOT speak of my brother casually, especially not of his death. I don't need a childish lesson in morality. I DID meet Otis." Julius says angrily.

"You can't have!" Shane yells.

"SHUT UP! He had to have! I stuffed this in Otis's back pocket when he left. It's supposed to be lucky, so I figured I'd put it on him since he didn't too much believe in luck." Patricia explains looking deranged to all the people in the room. "Now Julius, please tell me about his last moments." She continues almost begging and squeezing his arms tightly.

"I cleared the walkers in the area, but he was already in bad shape. So I just held his hand and talked. I asked him to squeeze if he agreed with my questions. Such as did he have anything he wanted to take back? He responded when I said wallet, now I know why he was so adamant on this handkerchief too. He says he loves you Patricia, when I asked what he wanted me to tell you he almost broke my hand on that one." Julius says as the woman throws herself into Maggie and Hershel bawling her eyes out.

She blinked back her tears and smiled at Julius, "Thank you, this means a lot. I appreciate you bringing me this. Helps to know he didn't just die alone and scared. I appreciate you letting him tell me he loves me one last time. Just like little Sophia said you're a hero." She says trying to come to terms with it all.

"Otis was a hero he did something most people would pretend they didn't see, he didn't look away. You're the wife of a hero, don't forget. Oh, and he didn't want to be brought back here like that, probably scared he would turn into one of those things. So, I stopped by the funeral home, his ashes are in the urn in there." He points to the room behind him. She rushes past him to grab it, Julius stepped back to give her space. Then he turns to Hershel to inquire about Carl.

"Everything went smoothly, thanks to you boy. That was top of the line medical equipment. I won't ask you how you got hold of it, I'm sure you have your secrets you want to keep. Nevertheless, thank you. Carl will make a full recovery. Also, you seem good at consoling grieving people what did you do learn that kid?"

"It's the sad part of running a Mercenary group." He shrugs and walks away. Hershel wanted to stop and ask more, but he noticed the way his mood fluctuated and decides to not question it to much. The boy'll talk when he's ready, he knows that handkerchief he saw her put it in his pocket. Maybe only he did, but he knows what he saw, and he isn't lying the boy is a good kid.

Walking outside Julius was happy to hear the kid would be alright. However, his relief is immediately replaced with an equal amount of anger when Shane walks up to thank him for helping Carl. His blood running wildly he twitched reaching for his sword aiming to put it straight through Shane's chest. Then he heard Machiavelli's voice in his head. He something Mac had told him over five years ago, on their twelfth birthday. They were late for their own party because Julius stopped to help someone who turned out to be a scammer.

'Jules don't always be a busybody. I know you can't look away, but justice delayed is still justice served. Sometimes you need to look at the bigger picture, like you do the company.'

He analyzes the situation and determines it would be better for now, to leave that alone until Mac gets here, the boys are indeed twins as this internal monologue happened so fast Shane could not even perceive anything was amiss. He simply accepts the thanks before excusing himself to go see Clementine.