Just Keep Walking

Seventy two

"Good morning." Mary sang, walking into Rick's room the next morning.
"Hmm? Hello." Rick mumbled, rolling onto his back.
"Daddy!"
"What?" Rick asked with a smile, sitting up. "But be nice and quiet. Let Mishy sleep."
Mary walked over, and covered Michonne with the blankets, then kissed her cheek. "Guess what?" Mary asked happily, skipping to Rick's side of the bed and clambering up onto his lap.
"The sky's blue?" Rick half gasped, his voice teasing yet loving, and Mary rolled her eyes.
"I slept in my own bed all night! And I didn't have a nightmare." Mary announced proudly, and Rick laughed, kissing the top of her head.
"Where did my little baby go?" He laughed, kissing the top of her head.
"Judith is a baby. I'm a big girl." Mary grinned.
"You sure are. Oh, Moo. I'm so proud of you. You're such a grown up. When did you get so old?"
"I'm just that cool." Mary shrugged. Rick couldn't argue.

"Glenny! Maggie!" Mary screamed as she saw the couple later that day, running to them.
"What?" Glenn smiled, scooping her up.
"She has very important news." Carl smiled proudly, walking behind her.
"Hmm, what is it?" Maggie smiled, and Mary grinned even more.
"I slept in my own bed! And I didn't have a nightmare, or an accident!"
"Really? Woah, kid! I'm so proud of you!" Glenn grinned, kissing the top of her head.
"Well done!" Maggie laughed proudly, and Mary glowed.
"I'm such a big girl." Mary nodded happily.
"You're so grown up." Glenn smiled.
"I know." Mary nodded, and Glenn laughed.
"Where are you off to?" Maggie asked Carl with a smile, adjusting his hat.
"Going to see Denise. She needs to take her stitches out. Dad's meeting us there."
"Okay. Okay, we'll see you later."  Maggie smiled, as Glenn passed Mary to Carl. The siblings left, and walked to Denise's house, hand in hand.
"Auntie Denise!" Mary sang as they walked through the door.
"Hi, Mary." Denise laughed. Mary and Carl got into the room, and saw Rick and Denise sat talking.
"Can I go play with Glenn later?" Mary asked, sitting on Rick's lap.
"Maybe. Let Denise do this." Rick nodded. Mary sat and let Denise take out the stitches, wriggling around in discomfort. "Good girl." Rick smiled proudly kissing the top of her head.
"Do I get candy today?" Mary asked, rubbing her forehead, where the stitches once were.
"You've got some at home." Rick nodded, and Mary sighed.
"Okay. But I wanna play with Glenn."
"God, child. You can play with bloody Glenn, just not this second. Calm down." Rick sighed, and Mary laughed, rolling her eyes and nuzzling into his chest. "Okay, big girl, say thank you to Denise."
"Thank you." Mary smiled.
"No problem. Carl, do you have enough bandages?"
"Yeah." The boy nodded.
"Okay, good."
"Can we go? I wanna see Bertie and my chicken. I'm bored. I wanna play with Glenn!" Mary whined. Rick rolled his eyes, but finished off his conversation, and they left a few minutes later, Mary hanging off his back.
"Stop all this whining. You're so mardy lately." Rick sighed, and Mary went quiet and still.
"Sorry."
"It's okay. Do you want to go to Glenn's now?"
"Can I have a sleepover at Glenny's house? Please?" Mary begged suddenly. Rick didn't want to say no - this was a massive step for Mary, especially since she was asking to.
"I'll ask him and Maggie. Come on, we've gotta go home first."
A few hours later, Mary was nestled into Glenn's chest, in his and Maggie's bed, all three of them watching the Little Mermaid.
"Is Grape okay?"
"Grape's fine." Maggie laughed softly.
"I'm really excited to meet it."
"Him."
"Not definitely." Maggie sighed at Glenn.
"What's Grape's name gonna be?" Mary asked the Rhees.
"Well their last name will be Rhee, but we don't know yet." Glenn explained.
"Can it be called... Maggie-Rick?"
"No. We like... I think he needs to be named after someone. Or she." Glenn explained, and Mary nodded.
"When I have a baby, I think I'll call it Tommy. Or if it's a girl, I'll call it Mommy. After mommy." Mary announced.
"Your baby's name would be Mommy?" Maggie chuckled, and Mary nodded.
"I think Lori would be a better choice." Glenn laughed.
"Maybe."
"You don't talk much about Tommy. Do you miss him?" Maggie asked softly, and Mary nodded.
"He was my only kid friend," Mary explained tearfully, "because kids don't really like me. I'm too different. I'm too badass, too cool. But he liked me. He was my best friend. And I said that I'd save him if he ever got in trouble, but I couldn't help him. I don't think I'll ever have another kid friend."
"Oh honey, I'm sure you will." Maggie soothed, but Mary shook her head.
"I don't mind. I have Glenn."
"You need other people too," Glenn said gently, "I'm not gonna be here forever."
"Yes you are. Don't say naughty things like that." Mary hissed, and Glenn laughed.
"You're so silly. And I hope I die before you, because you've gotta live to be an old old woman. And I'm older than you."
"Stop it! Don't wanna talk about this. Stop it." Mary whined, and Glenn nodded.
"Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. Let's just watch the film, yeah?"
"Yeah." Mary nodded emotionally, laying her head on Glenn's shoulder. "I don't wanna watch it now. Can you sing the night night song?"
"Which one's that?" Maggie asked gently, pausing the film.
"Sunshine." Mary answered, as if Maggie should immediately know what song that was.
"It's the "You are my sunshine" one." Glenn pointed out, and Maggie nodded, then sang the song to Mary, until she fell into a dreamless sleep.

"Okay, this is a hard one. I." Carl smiled, testing his sister on the alphabet the next day.
"Erm... I think it's... Easy! That's an I."
"No, easy starts with an E. It just sounds a bit like an I."
"Oh. Maybe... Ice cream!"
"Good one," Carl laughed, "okay, now do... M."
"Mishy!"
Carl felt a pang in his chest. Any other child would say mommy. Mary immediately thought of Michonne. Then he shrugged it off. Michonne was as good as Mary's mother, and Carl liked that. It was better than anyone else. "Well done. You're so clever. Okay, hard one. Y."
"Yogurt!"
"So clever. What about Z?"
"Zoo!"
"And Q?"
Mary thought in silence for a while, then nodded. "Queen. Is that right?"
"That's right. Well done." Carl grinned, ruffling her hair. "What about another Y?"
"Yolk. From an egg." Mary smiled, Rick walking over, a smile on his face.
"When did you get clever?" Carl laughed, grinning at her.
"She's always been clever. She's just a little smarty pants." Rick smiled, lifting Mary up.
"I know," Mary grinned proudly, and Rick laughed, "listen to my two times tables. Glenny taught me. Two, four, six, eight, ten, twenty!"
"So close," Rick chuckled, "but you're still so super smart."
"Rick! Rick!" Daryl shouted, bursting into the house.
"Daryl? What is it?" Rick asked in panic, rushing to the doorway, to see an emotional Daryl stood there.
"They're not gone."
"What? Who's not gone? What do you mean?" Rick questioned.
"We took her on a run with us. Denise. She wanted to come. That son of a bitch killed her."
"Auntie Denise is dead?" Mary whispered shakily.
"Yeah." Rick breathed, holding her even tighter. "Daryl, who killed her. Who's back? Who? God. Tara. Tara." He whispered shakily, the death making his heart twist. It would kill Tara.
"The Saviours. The Saviours killed her. Rick, they're back. They're bigger than we thought. And they're out to get us."