Bloodlines.

Chapter Thirty one: Alyssa and Rick meet Jadis.

Back at Alexandria, Alyssa was doing her best to stay busy, throwing herself into preparations for the inevitable war with Negan. Every step, every task was an effort to keep her mind from spiraling. What Simon had done to her haunted her every waking moment, a constant weight pressing down on her. She felt undeniably broken, but she knew she couldn't let that show. She had to channel those feelings into something useful—into rage, into action. Too many of her people had already died, and she couldn't let more lives be lost.

As she stepped off the porch, lost in her thoughts, Tara came running up to her, her face filled with urgency.

"Gabriel's missing," Tara said, slightly out of breath.

Alyssa stopped, raising an eyebrow but otherwise looking unimpressed. "And?"

Tara stared at her, clearly taken aback by Alyssa's dismissive tone. "Alyssa! This is serious."

Alyssa shrugged, folding her arms. "Fine. What do you want me to do about it?"

Tara frowned, her frustration growing. "We need to find him," she said, her voice firm. "What if the Saviors took him? Gabriel is weak—he'll crack under pressure. He might tell them everything he knows so far."

That gave Alyssa pause. As much as she found Gabriel annoying, even useless at times, Tara wasn't wrong. If the Saviors had taken him, he'd be a liability. She couldn't afford that—not with the precarious alliances they were building and the war looming ahead.

Alyssa sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Yeah, actually... you're right," she said reluctantly, her voice softening just slightly. "If he's with the Saviors, that's a problem."

Tara nodded, relieved that Alyssa was on board. "We need to start looking now. He didn't leave any clues, but a car is gone."

Alyssa clenched her jaw, her mind shifting to problem-solving mode. "Fine. Let's round up a group and start searching. If he's out there, we'll find him."

Alyssa walked back up the porch steps, her boots thudding against the wood, and pushed the door open. Stepping into the house, she raised her voice.

"Rick!" she shouted, her tone sharp and urgent.

Upstairs, Rick flinched at the sound of her voice. It wasn't just the tone—it was the name. She hadn't called him Dad in so long, and it cut deeper than he cared to admit. He paused for a moment, the weight of it hitting him before he responded.

"Yeah?!" he called down, his voice carrying an edge of hesitance.

"We got a problem!" Alyssa shouted back.

Rick's heart sank as he raced down the stairs, his mind already spinning with worst-case scenarios. When he reached the bottom, his eyes locked on her, searching for answers. "What kind of problem?" he asked, his tone serious.

"Gabriel's missing," Alyssa said flatly, crossing her arms. "Took a car."

Rick let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his hair as he processed the information. Gabriel wasn't exactly the strongest or most reliable person in the group, and the thought of him out there alone—or worse, in the hands of the Saviors—was troubling.

"Alright," Rick said after a moment, his voice calm but firm. "Get Michonne, Aaron, Tara, and Rosita. We'll go out and look for him."

Alyssa nodded. "On it," she said curtly before turning to leave.

As she walked off to gather the group, Rick lingered for a moment, his eyes following her. He wanted to say something—anything—to bridge the growing distance between them—but the words never came. Instead, he sighed again, the weight of their strained relationship adding to the long list of problems he had to deal with.