"Woah." Ivy breathed, her eyes wide in shock as the colour drained from her face. Ali had updated her on the full story from finding the prison to the large fight between them and the Governor with his men.
Ivy's eyes wandered over Ali, Rick, Carl, Judith and Shane, seeing them in a new light. "You've all been through so much. I...I mean, are you all okay now?"
"Yeah." Rick assured. "It's all over now. After-"
"After I killed the Governor." Ali interrupted, seeing the reluctance in her partner's voice to spill the truth.
Ivy's eyes grew even wider as she stared at Ali in shock. Suddenly, a small smile grew on her face as her voice was laced with entertainment. "How did you kill him?"
Rick placed a hand on Ali's shoulder as if to say, 'you don't have to'. However, Ali had reached the point in her life where she had learnt to not let anything bother her anymore. She had to kill - both human and walker - to survive. Taking a deep breath, she turned back to Ivy.
"During the fight, The Governor tried to kill Rick. Obviously, I sprinted towards them both and shoved the Governor away, getting on top of him. I then sliced his throat."
"Holy-" Ivy trailed off, not quite knowing what to say. However, without warning she engulfed her older cousin in a hug as a smile grew on her face. "That took real courage! I'm proud of you."
Ali pulled away as she chuckled. Standing up, she turned to Rick. "I'm gonna head outside for a bit."
As she began to walk towards the exit, she could hear Rick's footsteps following her. She smiled slightly at that.
The wind ghosted over her as she stepped outside, her boots crunching on the gravel. She pulled the black shirt she had 'borrowed' from Rick, tighter around her form to try and contain as much heat as possible. Her blue eyes glanced over the surrounding trees as memories of running flooded back to her.
"Why did you stop?" Rick questioned, appearing by her side as he too, looked around at the trees.
Ali shrugged slightly. Her hair fluttered behind her in the breeze. "I guess it reminds me of everything bad. When I'm running, I'm trying to escape something: walkers, The Governor, people."
Rick nodded in understanding. "Hopefully one day, you can run again but just for pure enjoyment?"
Ali turned to meet his eye. "One day."
After that, the two just stood in silence. The only sound being the murmuring from back inside the prison and the rustling of the trees. A walker wandered out of the woods before disappearing from sight once again, reminding them that there was still danger nearby.
"Do you think this is it?" Ali questioned, breaking the silence.
"Honestly?"
She nodded her head as she watched Rick's eyes meet hers. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his side.
"Maybe. But, that's not a bad thing. Out there is danger. At least in here we have safety, shelter and family. We've built something for ourselves. We've brought back a little bit of society...But, then again, someone somewhere might find a cure for this thing."
"Say they do, where will we all go? Back home? I don't think I could deal with that! I've grown so used to having everyone around 24/7. I don't think I could ever go back to having a normal life."
"I know. I don't think any of us could."
"Do you think we could just live in one big house together?"
"Oh sure!" Rick played along, a smile on his face. "Everyone can have their own bedroom. We can have movie nights and pool parties."
"I could definitely see Daryl and Selena in matching jumpers at christmas."
The couple began giggling at the thought but soon turned to silence once again as Rick pressed a gentle kiss to her hair. "So long as we have each other, I'm pretty sure we'll be okay."
