Daughter of the Fallen

Conquer

I was sitting on my bed reading a comic that I had stolen from Carl. After everyone started recovering from their shock and Rick was taken away, I immediately went to my room. I had had enough for the day.

There was a knock on my door and I heard a voice say, "Baby?"

I sighed, recognizing the voice as my mom's. "Go away," I mumbled.

The door opened and my mom walked in, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I said go away," I repeated, pushing myself into a sitting position.

She sighed and put her hand on my leg.

"Honey, I'm so sorry," she whispered.

I exhaled and looked at my hands sadly. "Do dad and I really not make you happy?"

"Of course you do," she promised. "The two of you are the greatest things that have ever happened to me."

I looked up at her. "Then why did you say all that stuff to Michonne?"

She hesitated, taking a deep breath. "Before we got to Alexandria...I told Noah that he wasn't gonna make it."

The obvious guilt in her expression made my heart hurt.

She continued. "And I just feel really bad. But I promise that you and your dad are the reasons I'm still alive."

I nodded, feeling my anger melt away. I felt the corners of my lips tug upward.

"There's that smile that I love so much," she whispered, squeezing my leg.

My smile widened and I scooched over to her. She pulled me into a hug and I rested my head on her shoulder.

"I love you so much," she said softly.

"I love you, too, mom," I mumbled.

•••

A little while later, I decided to go visit Rick with my dad, Glenn, and Carol.

When we walked in, he was talking to Michonne.

"Where'd you get the gun?" she asked him.

"You took it, right?" Carol asked. "From the armory?"

Rick didn't answer.

"That was stupid," I commented. "Why'd you do it?"

Rick shrugged. "Just in case."

"Deanna's planning to have a meeting tonight," Glenn said. "For anyone who wants to go."

"To kick Rick out?" my dad asked, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"To try," Carol answered.

"We don't know that," Glenn objected. "Maggie's with Deanna right now. She's gonna find out what it is."

"At the meeting," Carol said. "You say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it. You say you took a gun to make sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say you'll do whatever they want you to. Just tell them a story that they wanna hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because these people are children," she explained. "And children like stories."

"What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" my dad asked.

"They're guarding the armory now," Glenn added.

"We still have knives," Carol also added. "That's all we'll need against them."

"Well, tonight," Rick strategized. "At the meeting, if it looks like it's going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer, Michonne grabs Reg, Glenn, Bree, and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd."

"We can talk to them," Michonne argued.

"Yeah, we will," Rick promised. "If we can't get through, we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats."

"Like at Terminus?" Glenn asked, clearly not in agreement.

"No," Rick denied. "We just tell them. They give us the armory and it's over."

"Did you want this?"

"No. I hit my limit. I screwed up. And here we are."

None of us said anything.

"Now," he continued. "If you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna sleep some more."

He laid down, facing away from us.

Glenn immediately walked out, the rest of us following him.

I quickened my pace to catch up with him.

"What are you thinking?" I asked him.

He sighed. "I don't like it."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Me neither."

•••

An hour later, I was at gate watch when Carl finally showed up.

I rolled my eyes. "You're late. Again."

He sighed. "Sorry. I was..."

"You were with Enid," I finished, leaning on the railing and looking over at him. He seemed surprised that I knew. "I'm not an idiot, Carl."

He took a deep breath. "Bree, I'm sorry-"

"Don't bother," I grunted, cutting him off. "You can make your own choices."

He looked like he was about to respond, but, probably noticing I didn't want to talk anymore, he dropped the subject and started looking for walkers.

I felt bad, but both of us had changed since arriving at Alexandria.

And now, we seemed like we had completely different points of view on everything.