Grace
The next morning Carl woke me up. "Come on, let's go see what we can do to help."
"Alright, give me a minute to wake up, idiot." I teased as I threw my pillow at him.
"Oh you're not getting away from a fight that easy!" He yelled as he pulled me off of the bed.
I let out a small shriek as he threw the pillow back at me. We fought like that for a few minutes, until we grew tired.
"Okay, now I'm awake." I laughed as I left the room with Carl following close behind me.
We walked outside to see Rick, Michonne, and Hershel dragging the walker bodies out of the prison yard.
"Dad, why didn't you come get me? I would have helped." Carl called out.
"I figured you two needed the sleep after last night." Rick answered.
I shrugged, knowing that he was right. I walked up to Hershel and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey Hersh, remember how you invited me to become an honorary member of the Greene family?" I asked him.
"I sure do, but it was more than just honorary. You're family, I want you to be a Greene." He said as he looked at me.
"Well, last night I told Beth that I accept the offer. I should've done it a long time ago, but I'm Grace Greene now, and that's all that matters." I reached in for a hug from him, not caring that he's been around the sick.
"Well it's nice to see you again, Grace Greene." He hugged me back.
"You wanna go out for a ride?" Michonne called out to me and Hershel.
"Hell yes!" Hershel quickly responded.
Michonne looked at me, waiting for a reply. I looked back over at Carl who smiled and waved at me.
"Nah, I'll sit this one out. Hershel deserves a break." I answered.
"Alright, suit yourself." Michonne said as she hopped into the vehicle.
"If Maggie or Beth asks, tell them I've gone out on a ride with Michonne and that I'll be back shortly. Bye Grace Greene!" He waved.
"Bye Hersh, I love you!" I yelled out, feeling so happy to be a part of his family.
"Love you too." He answered as he blew a kiss my direction.
***
After Hershel and Michonne left, I joined Carl and Rick in the field. I didn't know what to do with my time as Maggie was taking care of Glenn and I couldn't be around the sick people. And Beth was busy watching over Judith.
So I decided that my best bet would be to hang out with and help out my best friend and his dad.
I walked up and asked, "need a helping hand?"
"Hey Grace." Carl smiled, and blushed a little bit.
"Yeah, we'd like that. Thanks for comin' out here, Grace. I hear you're a Greene now." Rick said warmly.
I hadn't seen Rick smile since the sickness broke out. It's been such a terrible week, I felt like everything was becoming alright again.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm a Greene now. Carl says that 'Grace Greene' has a nice ring to it. What do you think?" I asked Rick as I picked up a shovel.
"I think it sounds great. We'd be happy to have you as a Grimes too, just so ya know." Rick chuckled.
I was slightly taken aback by Rick's comment. Me? A Grimes? Grace Grimes?
"Grace Greene Grimes." I said, laughing as the name sounded so weird coming out. "That doesn't sound right. It's like a tongue twister." I laughed really hard this time.
"Grace Grimes Greene?" Carl added, laughing still.
"See that one sounds better. But I do agree, it's a bit of a tongue twister." Rick chuckled at us.
We stood out in the field working under the sun enjoying our time together. We recounted old memories, and for the first time in a while I felt good.
Hershel
• A few hours later •
There I was, sitting next to Michonne tied up in an RV. The man who took us? The governer. Or I suppose that isn't his name anymore.
He says he wants to take the prison. But I can't sit by and let that happen. Not after all that we've done to make it our home, to make it a safe place to be.
"Governer-" I started.
"Don't call me that." The one eyed man snapped.
"If you know what it's like to have a daughter, why would you threaten to kill someone else's? My girls.. Beth, Maggie... and Grace. There's three of them. Would you let someone feel the loss you did times three?" I asked, hoping to get through to him.
"No. Cause they aren't mine." He said coldly as he stepped out of the vehicle.
I've always been a calm and understanding man. I understand that this man is doing what he is doing out of pain. But the thought of anything bad happening to my girls was too much for me to bare.
Grace
After we worked on our crops for a little while, Carl and I went inside. We were finding something to have for lunch when I bumped into Maggie.
"Maggie! Oh my, there you are! Are you okay? What happened in D last night?" I asked, worried.
"Grace, I hear you're one of us now. I'm happy you decided to accept our offer." She smiled at me, "things got pretty bad in D last night, I won't lie. I thought I was gonna lose my daddy, I thought I was gonna lose Glenn. But they're both still here." She teared up, but smiled through the pain of almost losing her loved ones.
"What were all those shots outside last night?" Maggie asked before I could respond to the news about Glenn being okay.
"That- that was us." I said, pointing to myself and Carl.
"Yeah, the walkers took the fences down. It was just us and my dad out there. But we got them all." Carl said happily.
"You two were using those big crazy guns?" Maggie practically screamed.
"Yeah, it was kinda scary Maggie. But we did it. And everyone is okay. Can you believe it?" I smiled, feeling so happy that everything was falling back into place after so much had fallen apart.
Right as we were having a reunion and hugging Maggie, Beth walked in.
"My girls! We're all here!" Maggie beamed as she saw the third Greene girl walk in.
"My sisters, and Carl!" Beth laughed.
I grouped in for a hug with my new sisters, while Carl stood behind us awkwardly. I turned around and motioned for him to join us and he did.
It was such a beautiful moment.
Until we heard the explosion.
Shorter chapter yall... I'm procrastinating because I don't wanna have Hershel die. I feel like it was such an important piece in the plot of TWD and will be really important to Grace's character growth too 😭 but I'm literally gonna bawl, I can't take this.
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