leader || book 5 of 'she's a dixon'

chapter 10

today dad was going on his first outing with aaron.

i met him at the front gate when he was on his motorcycle. "please be careful" i said hugging him. he hugged me back. "i always am. i love you" he said kissing my cheek. i released he hug. "i love you too" i said. i then backed away and he drove off.

the next day, carl and i were walking back from hanging out in the woods when we saw a sight that we were afraid of. rick was fighting with pete, one of the alexandrians.

we looked at eachother then both started sprinting over there. i stopped a few feet away from the fight as carl ran over to rick. "dad! get off!" he said trying to pry rick off of pete. rick shoved carl backwards.

i ran over to carl and gave him a hand to help him up. be took it and when he stood up i wrapped my arm around him.

"stop it" deanna yelled. rick stopped them by pulled out a gun. everyone in the direction he was pointing it at stepped back. i look up at carl then started walking towards rick.

i put my arm on his shoulder and he tensed around and put the gun against my head. my eyes widened and i took a deep breath. "rick, put it down. now." i said calmly. he just stood there.

"rick listen to me. put it down, and you and i will go talk" i said looking him in the eye. glenn stepped forward and grabbed hold of my arm. "rick" he said gently tugging at my arm. i slowly took a step back remaining eye contact with rick.

he lowered his gun a little and immediately had a guilty look on his face. "come on, your good now rae" glenn said quietly. i walked a little faster with glenn still by my side and returned to carl. carl immediately wrapped his arms around me. "you ok?" he whispered into my ear. "yeah," i said looking back at rick, "i'm good".

rick was now on his knees yelling at deanna. that's when michonne arrived. she stood behind him and knocked him out.

we put rick on one of the cells so he couldn't do anything. i really didn't want to see him, so when he woke up i let the grownups handle him.

i was sitting on the porch sharpening some knifes when rick started walking over to me. i looked up at him without saying anything. he sighed and sat next to me.

"reagan, i'm so sorry. you were trying to help me and i put a gun against your head...." he said. "rick, it's fine. you didn't know what you were doin'" i said not looking up at him.

"rae, please look at me" he said clearly a little frustrated. i looked at him. "what" i said. "i'm sorry" he said clearly feeling guilty. j then wrapped my arms around him.

he wrapped his arms around me. "it's ok" i said resting my head on his shoulder. "hood" he said kissing my forehead.

i walked back into the house with rick to find carl. "i heard about the meeting" carl said. "yeah. you're staying home. rae, i need you there." he said. "ok" i said.

"when all of this started, rick and i found each other. i knew that i could trust him from the moment we met. we found a group which just so happened to have my dd and his son in it. the odds were definitely in our favor. but all of that happened because i trusted him. as the years went by, he lead our group to safety. we let new people in, but not without making sure they were good people. rick has a code of conduct. and now, we are here. still to this day, i trust him more than anyone else. when my dad isn't around like right now, he turns into a parental figure for me. be's my leader. and you people need someone like him, otherwise this place is going to come crashing down and y'all won't be able to to do anything 'bout it." i said in ricks defense. no one really had any words when i finished my speech.

at this point i was standing next to maggie. this is when deanna started talking again.

"two days ago, one of their own people, father gabriel, came to me and said that these people cannot be trusted" she said. "that son of a bitch" i said loud enough to where the people around me could hear me.

i started to walk off to go find habriel, but abraham grabbed my arm.

i looked at him with a pissed off look. he looked me in the eyes with a straight face. i tried yanking my arm away from his hand, but he refused to let go.

he then bent down to my ear and whispered "i'm not letting you do anything that you'll regret". i then basically growled at him and i was forced stood next to him so i wouldn't do anything.

he released him grip but stayed close to make sure i couldn't go anywhere.

after a few minutes of everyone debating, rick came in carrying a walker.

he explained to the alexandrian's that there was a walker inside the walls because the gate was left open. i made my way over to rick when deanna started talking again.

"is everything ok?" he asked me quietly. "not exactly" i responded quietly.

right before rick could ask what was wrong, pete came in clearly drunk with a sword. rick looked over at him and immediately wrapped his arm around my stomach and gently pushed me behind him.

when I was standing behind rick, he still kept his arm out so pete would have no access to me. some of the alexandrians caught onto this.

i had my bow on me so i pulled it off of me, got an arrow ready, and had it ready to shoot.

i did not have a good feeling about this.

pete ended up slitting deanna's husband's throat. this honestly didn't shock me at all, so I didn't have a response to it along with everyone else in my group.

"rick do it" deanna said crying.

rick then looked back at me and i nodded, and then rick shot pete in the head.