Just Keep Walking

Twenty seven

As they drove to Alexandria, Mary sat on Michonne's lap, winding her dreadlocks around her wrist. Slowly Rick stopped the car with a sigh.
"RV is broken down." He sighed to Carl, and they got out, watching Glenn and Abraham look at the engine. "Hey, do your stretches. Help your leg and hip."
"PT." Carl nodded, ruffling his little sister's hair. Michonne put Mary down and helped her stand and stretch, Carl doing it beside her, his and Rick's attempt at physical therapy, neither of them knowing if it actually was helping or not.
"The fights over," Michonne said softly to Rick, looking up at him, "you've got to let it go. I know it's hard. After it's kept you warm and fed and alive. But the fight... It turns on you. You've got to let it go."
"That's what Bob was trying to tell me back at the church. What to risk. When it's safe. When to let someone in. The rules keep changing."
"They did for me." Michonne nodded, as the RV's engine started, surprising Mary so much she fell over, and Michonne picked her back up to her feet.
"Before we get going I gotta, I got to take a moment." Rick mumbled, ruffling Mary's hair and leaving.
"Daddy?" Mary whimpered, but he had gone.
"Come on. Stretches. Daddy'll be back soon." Michonne said firmly. Mary nodded, blinking back tears,  and carried on stretching until Rick returned. When he did get back, Mary rushed over to him and clung around his neck, not even letting go when he sat in the car.
"Mary, I've gotta drive." Rick sighed, trying to pry her off.
"Let me stay. Please. I'm not scared, but I'm a little anxious."
"That's a big word." Rick nodded in approval.
"Thanks," Mary smiled, "Maggie taught it to me. And I gotta stay with you daddy, 'cos I'm a little anxious."
"Why are you anxious, Little Miss I'm-Not-Scared-Of-Anything?"
"It could be like Terminus."
"But it could be like the farm. Remember? We didn't know that place, but they saved Carl, and we met Maggie and... And Hershel and Beth. Isn't that good?"
"Yeah." Mary nodded quietly.
"So we see how it goes. I got you safe. Don't you worry, okay?"
"Okay." Mary nodded, but she still didn't let go.
"Hey. You can sit on my lap, but I need to be able to drive." Rick sighed. Mary nodded, and sat down, then Rick began to drive. They arrived a few minutes later, and Rick stopped at the gates, then rolled down his window. Mary looked out of the window, and her eyes widened, seeing the late fencing. Rick's eyes met Michonne's, and she smiled at him as they heard the sound of children's laughter.
"You ready?" Michonne asked, putting her hand over Rick's.
"Yeah," Rick nodded, "yeah." He turned off the car, and got out, Mary on his hip. Carl got out holding Judith, and he nodded at his father in a silent agreement.
"Even though you were wrong, you're still right." Carol said softly to Rick as she walked over to the fence.
"It looks safe, daddy." Mary smiled gently, and Rick nodded, kissing the top of her head, then walking over to Carl, putting his hand on his shoulder, then on the top of Judith's head.
Just as the gate opened, a bin toppled over, and everyone span towards it, Daryl's crossbow releasing an arrow into the cause's (a possum's) stomach.
"We brought dinner." Daryl grunted to the man who opened the gate.
"It's okay. Come on in guys." Aaron nodded to the group, walking through the gate. Mary's eyes went wide as she saw all of the houses, the grass, the pure perfection of the untouched community.
"Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons. Stay, you hand them over." The man at the gate ordered.
"We don't know if we want to stay." Rick retorted sharply.
"It's fine, Nicolas." Aaron nodded gently.
"If we were gonna use them, we would have started already." Rick rationalised, and Mary looked at him in disapproval, worried his words would get them kicked out of the new community.
"Let them talk to Deanna first." Aaron insisted to Nicolas.
"Who's Deanna?" Abraham asked sharply.
"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place. Rick, why don't you start?"
Rick went to reply to him, but saw a Walker on the other side of the fence. "Sasha." He prompted, and the woman sent a silenced gunshot into it's forehead as the gate shut. "It's a good thing we're here." Ruck muttered, following Nicolas to a house, all of them stood in a large garden, Mary's eyes growing wider by the second.
"Okay, Deanna wants to speak to the leader. I guess that's you?" Nicolas asked Rick.
"It is." Rick nodded. "Mary, you've gotta stay, okay?"
"Can't I come? Please?" She begged, the unfamiliarity of a normal neighbourhood making her nervous.
"No, you've gotta look after Carl for me. Can you look after Carl for me?"
"Mary, I really need you to teach me how to write. Look, we can do letters with these little pebbles." Carl smiled softly to his sister.
"You've gotta show bunny how." Rick nodded persuadingly.
"I don't have bunny!" Mary cried suddenly.
"Hey, hey, I have bunny. Don't worry, I have bunny." Carl soothed, grabbing the teddy from his pocket and passing it to Mary.
"Rick?" Nicolas repeated.
"One minute." The man hissed back, wiping Mary's tears away. His voice returned to his gentle voice reserved only for his children, and occasionally other members of the group, as he asked, "Mary? You wanna go to Carl or Mishy or Maggie or Glenn?"
"I want Glenny." Mary whined, and Rick kissed her forehead, then passed her over to Glenn.
"I'll be back soon." He whispered into his daughters ear, and she nodded, then buried her face into Glenn's shirt.
"Hey, your daddy will be fine," Glenn soothed, "and look at this place, Mary. Look at this place that you can play in. You can have your own bedroom. What colour?"
"I wanna share a bedroom with daddy and Carl and Judith." Mary mumbled into Glenn's shirt.
"I'm sure they'll let you choose the colour." Glenn laughed.
"Green is my favourite now." Mary nodded seriously.
"Green is my favourite colour too." Glenn replied, winking at Maggie, and, to his surprise, she grinned back.
When Rick finally came back, Mary went straight into his arms. A woman came over with a large push along bin, and Mary looked up at Rick in confusion.
"Alright! Everybody," Rick ordered to his group, "we're gonna hand over our guns. We can keep other weapons, but we hand over our guns." To set an example, Rick put his guns in the bin, then took Mary's tiny gun from her pocket, and dropped it inside. Carl looked at his father, and nodded, putting his gun away, everyone else following his lead.
"They're still your guns," Deanna assured, "you can check them out whenever you go beyond the wall. But inside here, we store them for safety."
Mary watched Carol in confusion as she struggled to take off her gun from around her body, and rolled her eyes when the woman smiled awkwardly, and joked, "Should have brought another bin."
"Okay, I would like to interview everyone," Deanna began, coming over and standing in front of everyone, "so if Aaron could show Rick to the houses we've allocated to you for now."
"Can I see?" Carl asked quietly, but Deanna overheard and smiled at him.
"Of course. Just come back for your interview after."
"Mary'll want to stay with me. Do you need to interview her?" Rick asked rhetorically.
"No," Deanna smiled, walking over to the shy five year old, "I think we can trust you, sweetie. Do I need to know anything about you?" She teased.
Mary looked in her direction with wide eyes, blinking slowly, then spoke up. "I'm a big girl. And I'm not scared of anything." Mary mumbled. Then she met Deanna's eyes. "I'm not."
"No?"
"No. A bad man tried to hurt me. I killed him."
"You killed him?" She asked, her eyes wide.
"Mary." Rick hissed quickly.
"Yeah. He was a bad man. He'd have hurt someone else if I didn't." Mary nodded nonchalantly.
"No," Deanna said softly to Rick, "I understand. Go on."
"Thank you." Rick nodded to her, and Deanna smiled back. Aaron walked them to the houses, Mary's eyes excited yet apprehensive, still not trusting of Alexandria.
Her jaw literally dropped when they reached the two massive houses. "It's a princess castle. Two of them!" She breathed, and Aaron laughed softly.
"Both of 'em?" Rick asked in disbelief, his face just as shocked as his daughter's.
"At your disposal. I'd call dibs on that one. It's got more curb appeal. Listen, I know you're still feeling us out, but I'm glad you came. Anyway, Deanna asked everyone to give you your space so they aren't all coming at you at once. Take your time. Explore. You need anything, call me. I don't - we don't have phones. I meant, I'm four houses down." Aaron babbled.
"Thank you." Carl smiled, speaking up for his father.
"Thank you." Mary repeated, her voice tiny and overwhelmed. Aaron nodded and left, walking to his own house where Eric was waiting for him.
"Okay. Come on." Rick nodded, walking over to the door of the smaller yet taller house.
"It feels like a dream." Mary breathed into Rick's neck.
"Hopefully its a good one." Rick replied shakily. He opened the door, seeing empty frames on the table beside the door.
Mary took a shaky breath in as she saw how clean the house was; there wasn't a single speck of dust anywhere. "Daddy! Clean blankets!" She grinned, her bunny to her mouth as she saw a pile of clean blankets. Rick grabbed it, and wrapped Mary in it, the child inhaling the clean scent.
"I don't remember this smell." She whispered, and Rick's heart broke, but he snapped out of the sadness when he heard the amazing sound of rubbing water, and his heart soared when he saw that it was clear, and saw Carl's grinning face.
"Alright, you go for your interview. Don't wanna upset Deanna." Rick ordered, and Carl nodded.
"I'll see you soon." Carl smiled, walking out of the house.
"Okay, let's clean up, yeah?"
"Yeah." Mary nodded. Rick kicked off his boots, and pried off Mary's converse, showing her bare feet. He found the main bathroom, and Mary gasped in excitement. "Daddy! Look! Look at the paddling pool!" Mary shouted happily from the bathroom. Rick walked over to her and laughed. The child couldn't remember a bath tub, but she could remember the paddling pool they'd seen on a run once.
"That's a bath, baby girl." He laughed, ruffling her hair.
"Oh yeah." Mary nodded slowly.
"Do you wanna bath or shower? Actually, have a shower. You'll just turn the bath water filthy straight away."
Mary nodded back at him, and Rick helped her shower under the water, her first real one in a long time, the water flowing brown and slightly red. After Rick had scrubbed her hair with shampoo, then done so equally as harshly with conditioner, rubbing it in fiercely.
"Mommy didn't do conditioner like that." Mary mumbled.
"Well, I don't use conditioner." Rick laughed.
"You don't scrub it in."
"I won't do it again." Rick smiled softly. Then she got out of the shower, and Rick wrapped her in a fluffy white towel.
"You go wait outside, and I'll have a shower. Yeah?"
"No. I wanna stay with you." May whined.
"No, you wait outside, yeah?"
Mary let a fear fall down her cheek, then she nodded and left. She sat outside the door the whole time, until Rick came out of the shower.
"Your beard is gone." Mary sighed sadly, letting Rick pick her up. She patted his soft cheek, then kissed it. "I don't like it. I like a little beard."
"It'll grow back in a few days." Rick chuckled.
"Good".
"Where are your clothes?" Ruck asked.
"They're dirty and smelly." Mary pouted. Rick laughed, and looked in the drawers where he'd found some clean clothes in various sizes. He grabbed a small men's shirt and put it on Mary, creating a wide dress with a long train. She looked at him and smiled.
It wasn't Terminus.
It was a home.