Staying Alive//TWDFanFic

Thirty Five

-Flashback (About 8 months after Rick disappeared)-

Daryl and I are helping Michonne look for Rick, like we did almost everyday. I decided to come along this time in case something happened to her while she was out here, she was so pregnant at this point it looked like she was about to pop. I'm walking along the river bank with her as Daryl does his thing in the woods, she bent down and picked up a gun from the water. Once I got closer, I noticed it was Rick's gun, I studied the look on her face as Daryl approached. "Soon you aren't gonna be able to be out here looking." He says as he looks at her belly. "You guys don't have to do this, you know." Michonne glances at me as Daryl says, "No, I won't stop looking for him, ever." Michonne glances between us as she puts her hand on her belly, "You know, Judith asks about you two a lot, you should come back to Alexandria." Daryl glances at me before saying, "We'll get Beth from Hilltop when we're finished up here and bring her by." Michonne nods as we make our way back into the woods.

After a few days of going back and forth with the idea of being so close to Negan, we finally decide to pack up and take Beth to Alexandria. We were welcomed warmly by everyone, I was surprised when I saw Debbie from the sanctuary was there, she was more than ecstatic to see Beth. Judith was even more excited to see Daryl and I, she hugged us both tightly and told us she loved us a thousand times that day. Michonne showed us where we'd be staying, "This house is yours. Theres 4 bedrooms so you have more than enough room to expand your family if you want." Daryl tried to plead with her to give us something smaller but she wasn't having it, "You two have just as much of a place here as anyone. This is your house, whether you like it or not." Beth starts crying and Michonne gives me a 'I'm sorry' look before closing the front door behind her. Debbie quickly takes her and brings her upstairs as I head over to Daryl, "You okay?" He exhales deeply, "I don't think we should've came here, we should've just stayed with Maggie." I nod, "Yeah but we're here now." He sighs, "You're right, might as well make the best out of it." He heads upstairs and I looked around in the kitchen, it was stocked with canned goods and a few ziplock bags of meat. I saw a couple baby food jars and some of Aaron's applesauce with a note attached to it, "Welcome Home." I smirked as I set it back down and closed the cabinet.

I saw a stroller in the hallway closet so I pulled it out and set it up before making my way upstairs. Daryl was sitting in the rocking chair in the nursery cooing at Beth as Debbie set up the dresser for her, she was excitedly folding up baby onesies and putting them away, I leaned against the door frame and Debbie looked up at me, "You know, I never said this before but you bounced back incredibly quick. You can't even tell you were ever pregnant, when I had my boys I was never able to come back from it. Consider yourself blessed." We both chuckled before I glanced over at Daryl, "I found a stroller, we should take her for a walk." He nods as he stood up, "Let's do it." We made our way downstairs and got her in the stroller before making our way outside, we decided to walk away from where we saw everyone else, for a little time to ourselves. After a few blocks Daryl asked, "So you think if we stayed here, Debbie would stay with us?" I shook my head, "She has her own place here. However, she would be babysitting a lot against our will though." We both laughed, I watched he looked around, "You think Carl would be proud of all this?" I breathed in deeply, "I think so, Rick would be too." He nodded, "Yeah, he would be proud that we all stuck together." I sigh, "Yeah but have we actually? We're all scattered everywhere now. Michonne is here, Maggie is leading Hilltop, Carol's at the Kingdom full-time now. We're in between Hilltop and The Kingdom most of the time. We're not really together anymore, you know?" He glanced at me, "Yeah, you're right. Still, at least we're civil and trying to work together." He took over pushing Beth as I walked beside him, "It is kinda cool to see how much they've been able to rebuild in such a short time though, I mean it looks better than it did before we got here even after... everything." He nodded as he looked around, I noticed he was squinting so I grabbed the sunglasses that we hanging from my shirt and put them on him. He just smiled as we kept walking.

We hung out with Michonne and Judith until it got dark and headed back home. I took a real shower for the first time in a long time as Daryl put Beth to bed, I wrapped myself in a towel and made my way to the dresser in our room. I opened it and was surprised to see some normal looking clothing, I was so tired of always wearing jeans so it was nice to find a pair of sweatpants in all this, who knew I'd ever be relieved to find a pair of sweatpants. I threw them on along with a tank top and climbed into the bed, the sheets and blanket smelled like it was freshly washed and I just let myself melt into the bed as I closed my eyes.

I woke up the next morning to Daryl shaking me awake, "Josie, the kids are gone. They took Judith." I sat up immediately, "What? Who?" He shook his head quickly, "I don't know. Michonne and I are going to go off and look for them, you need to stay here and look after things while we're gone." I nod, "Alright." He kisses me quickly, "I love you." I smirk, "I love you too." He rushes out of view and I wait until I hear the front door close before I got out of bed, I went to check on Beth but Debbie already had her downstairs playing on the living room carpet, I just smiled at the sight before going back upstairs and getting dressed.

A few hours went by and I started to worry, it was already mid afternoon by the time I decided to go after them. I made my way to the porch out front, "Debbie?" She looked back at me with a smile, "Yes?" I glance at Beth and almost decide not to go but something told me to go anyways, "I'm going to go look for Michonne and Daryl, you know, make sure they're okay." She nodded, "Okay, I'll stay here with Beth until you return." I nod, "Thank you." She smiles, "Of course." I bent down and kissed Beth on the head before grabbing my gear from inside and heading out.

I tracked them a few miles away in an old building, I was a bit confused by it but I made my way to the windows, making sure I wasn't seen before looking inside of them. I saw a few of the kids from Alexandria sitting in a room with two teenage looking boys, I didn't see Judith in there so I continued down the building. The last window I looked in, I saw Daryl and Michonne hung up by their wrists in a darkish room. I heard Michonne screaming as I saw an 'X' burned into the lower left side of her back, I saw a little blonde kid branding Daryl right after and immediately made my way inside the building. I listen for Michonne and Daryl, once I heard Michonne scream, I followed the sound and waited around the corner when I saw a few people coming out from the room at the end of the hall. I waited for the sound of the footsteps to fade out before making my way to the door, I opened it slowly and heard a male's voice from the other side of the door, "Jocelyn? I didn't expect you back so soon." I tightened my grip on the doorknob before stepping into the room quickly and attacking him. He was able to get me into a vulnerable position and grab me, I heard Daryl's muffled screams from behind the gag on his mouth, Michonne was screaming too. He's choking me from behind and I finally get my footing and manage to kick his knee before turning around to cover his mouth as he screamed in pain, I straddled him quickly and punched him in the face a few times until the screaming stopped. I moved my hand and saw he was unconscious, I got up quickly and untied Michonne before turning to Daryl and taking the gag off of him. I cut the rope from his hands, he got his footing and grabbed his knives before we quickly and quietly made our way out of the room.

Michonne went a separate way from us, despite us begging her not too. We made our way down another hallway and were swarmed by a few teenage boys, I sighed, "Please, just get out of the way. We don't want to hurt you." The one with long hair smirked at me and tightened the grip on his pistol, "The only ones getting hurt is you guys." I rolled my eyes and glanced at Daryl before we both shrugged and attacked them. We didn't want to kill them so we just choked them out and moved on quickly before they regained consciousness. We finally got out side and I was horrified when I saw Michonne standing in the middle of a bunch of bodies laying on the ground, holding her sword up. I walked past who I assumed was a dead Jocelyn before I noticed the bodies around her were the children and a few of the teenagers. I glanced at Daryl who was just as horrified as I was. Michonne begged the blonde kid to not do whatever he was about to do and he gave in before running away. "Judith? It's me sweetie." She was yelling at the RV near us, we waited a few moments before Judith finally stepped to the door and ran toward Michonne, "Mommy!"