Shambles- The Walking Dead [Alden x Maggie] [1/2]

51- Scrapes and bruises

Carl had Kelly had more luck with saving the people of Meridian than Alden and Daryl. Besides Elijah and Cole they had managed to bring fourteen more survivors safely to the gates of Alexandria. The mood in the group remained grimm, too many lives had been lost.

Alexandria was in dire state. One of the wall panels was down. The whisperers had destroyed everything. Alden looked at the wall a little closer and realized that more than just that one panel were down. The grass was scattered with broken and rusted metal plates.

Carl set all of the new. Alexandria had more inhabitants than ever before and he had to spread the sixteen survivors of Meridian over two houses. Elijah finally dared to take his mask off now that they were in relative safety. And he seemed to stick close to Kelly most of the time.

Alden headed for Maggie right away. She was working on the wall, clearing the debris away. He hadn't taken the time to even clean himself up or even change his clothes. Not that he could because he didn't know where he was supposed to go. He didn't know where they lived now.

"Maggie, we're back," he greeted.

She turned towards him, tossing the piece of scrap aside, and studied his clothes. "That blood... You didn't have that much on you when you left. And it's fresh." Her eyes grew big and she reached for his bandaged up hand. "You ran into trouble. Is everyone alright? Are you?"

"Just the one. Some military looking guy," he replied, holding up his injured hand. "He had a goddamn sniper rifle. Took out a lot of people from that group."

"But you're alright?" She cradled his head.

"Just a couple of scrapes and bruises. Nothing to worry about," he replied and she immediately kissed him.

When they pulled back from each other he looked back at the walls. "I didn't know the damage was this bad."

"Yeah, we have some tough times ahead of us," she sighed.

"Oh, come on." He bumped his elbow into her side. "We've faced worse. You know, like a tank shooting missiles at us by some crazy pirate man. We can deal with a trampled harvest and some broken walls." Even if he didn't fully believe his own words, he had to keep the spirits up for the both of them.

"Let's get you cleaned up," she smiled, wiping some stray locks away from his forehead. "Because you look like an absolute mess. And I want to see those scrapes and bruises you mentioned for myself. The kids are at Aaron's house."

"Oh, okay," he chuckled like a giddy teenager as he followed behind her.

Rose scoured through the trampled plants for any produce they could still use by some minor miracle. They were starting to run low on food and at this point any edible scrap would help them out.

"You know, kid, I didn't recognize you at first," the voice of someone she'd never hoped to be near her again spoke up behind her.

"Negan," she sighed as she turned around to look at him, without getting up from her knees because he wasn't worth it to stand up for.

"Your face... It looks like it was pulled through a meat mincer."

"You're making a joke about a gigantic scar on my face? And you didn't stop to think about who did that to me?" She tilted her head slightly. "I don't think you care because you helped Alpha destroy my home, you ass."

Negan frowned and for once he looked genuinely concerned. "She did that?" he sounded like a whole different person than she had known back at Sanctuary.

Rose still wasn't in the mood to talk to him so she only nodded.

"You know, I never meant any harm to you. Not now. Not back then. Never. You never hurt kids. Carl, you and even that teen at Kingdom that died way back. You were the future once, and you still are now."