[Finished] Living Among the Dead

44. The King, The Widow, and Rick

"Aaron! Where's Daryl and Mason, did you see them? Are they okay?" Aaron looks at me with sad eyes, holding a baby. "Mason... he... he said you'd take her. They're okay. Their alive." I breathe a sigh of relief, then look at the baby, then look down at my own Hope.
"Aaron, I.... Daryl and I already have enough on our plates... I can- does he know about this? About Mason trying to-"
"Yes, he knows. Said you'd be okay with it, too. He wrote you a note," he hands me a dirty piece of paper with Daryl's scribbled handwriting on it.
Boy and I are fine, Rick killed his dad. We knew him at the beginning. She can grow up with ours. Names Gracie. Love ya.
I look up at Aaron, wiping a tear from my eye that I didn't even realize I'd shed. My boys, they're alright.
I place Hope in my right arm, and reach out for the little girl who's probably Hope's age.
"Thank you," I mumble. He nods once, and I notice the look in his eyes. He's in mourning. And it clicks, "Eric...?" I whisper, and the little bit of composure he has cracks right before my eyes, and I feel my own grief breaking itself to the surface, "Oh Aaron, I'm so -"
"Don't. Just don't apologize." He spits out as he walks past me, anger and sadness mixing on his face as he walks away.

"Daryl and Mason should be back by now, right?" I ask Jesus, as I approach him while he waits with the prisoners while we build their cell.
He glances at me, "I don't know. Maybe they went to Alexandria first."
I shake my head, "Daryl told me they'd come back. That he'd be back to help me with Hope, and now Grace as well."
He gives me a small smile, "Congratulations, it's twins."
I push him a little, unable to help my own small smile, "Yeah, thank god I only had to give birth to only one of them... I started with three kids, y'know... now I have three again and am pregnant with the fourth..." I shake my head, "What was he thinking?" I ask.
"His note said he knew her father, maybe he thought he'd raise Grace right. Make sure she doesn't end up like him."
I shrug, "I have twins... one's adopted, sure... but I have twins..."
"The names go well together, Gabriel would love it."
I snort, "Shut up." I look down the road, my stomach swirling. They should be back...
As our silence drags on I listen to the sounds of the cell being built, allowing me to be lulled.
"What are they building?" The Savior who reminds me way too much of a good guy for me to be comfortable with him talking.
"Shut up," I snap.
"Did you sign up for this? Either of you? When you joined your group?"
I glance at Jesus who's obviously listening.
"I was... I was by myself for a while. Then I found a safe place. Buncha survivors, buncha tough guys, too. Eventually, one of them took over, and another one took over, but I wasn't really paying much attention 'cause, you know, I was gettin' fed. I'm good with my hands. They sent me over to the satellite place to put up a fence. Now here we are. Now my life depends on the lady in charge in there.
"You can stop now," Jesus cuts him off. "Don't pretend that any of us are innocent."
"What do they call you? Jesus? Well, Jesus, I'm, uh... I'm no angel. Never said I was. Ain't no such thing."
"Shut up," I snap again.
"I've got this, if you need to go b with your girls," Jesus tells me, giving me a pointed look.
I sigh heavily, "I've been on your side. I don't agree with this, not by a long shot. I think you should have shot them all in the head as soon as you saw them. But I've been on your side. I've had your back. Just because Maggie is up your ass for this, don't try to make it like I am, too."
"Your daughters are probably missing their mom, I've got this." Jesus repeats, and so I roll my eyes, and go back within the walls. Back to the daughters I might now be raising alone.

I hold Hope and Grace to me as Jesus brings the Prisoners inside the walls to their cells. It wasn't until I saw the look of gratitude on Jesus's face that I realize he didn't know what was being built. He thought we were going to hang them.
"Get them in," Maggie orders Jesus.
"Come on. Two at a time," Jesus orders, as he basically hears them into their giant cell.
"Starting now, we'll keep the prisoners here." Maggie informs everyone. "We'll feed them. We won't mistreat them. But we won't stand for anything less than total cooperation."
"Uh... Uh, Margaret, all-all due respect, uh, I'm just straight-shooting here. You can't let people we don't trust run around inside our walls." Gregory says, approaching Maggie.
"You're right, Gregory. In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about what you told me yesterday. You see, I grew up on a farm. I know all about sheep and wolves." Kal and Edwardo grab Gregory's arms and start leading him to the cell.
"What are you doing? What are you doing?"
"Come on, Gregory." Kal instructs.
"Let go of me. No. Kal, are you serious? Eduardo? Wait! This- This can't- Wait."
"Calm down," Edwardo snaps, as Gregory starts thrashing.
"No, don't tell me to calm down. I am not gonna go in there. You can't! Maggie! Look, just- No, wait, stop! Just for a minute!"
"Calm down!"
"No, please, no! No! God!" He falls and hits his head on the post of the fencing to the cell.
He slumps and starts obnoxiously crying as he's drug into the cell.
I watch on and notice the obnoxious long haired Savior going towards the gate entrance, and call out, "Maggie."
"Got it," she replies, hitting the man with the blunt end of her gun, causing him to plummet to the ground.
He starts chuckling, "Oh, honey you're gonna get these people killed. Well, you already got some people killed, didn't you."
Maggie hits him again and knocks his ass out.
"Hey," the humanly savior says, addressing Maggie. "Thank you."
"Don't make me regret it." She replies, coolly. "Or you will."
She walks off.
I walk over to Jesus, "I didn't know you weren't informed about this," I gesture to the fencing. "I'd have told you if I didn't think you already knew. That's why you were..."
"An asshole?" He suggests, a smile on his face.
I roll my eyes, smiling back, "I was going to go with touchy... but, yeah. You were an asshole."
He looks down at the girls, "Can I hold your newest addition?"
I nod, "She's got to get to know her godfather somehow, right?"
I gently let him take Gracie from my arms, and then adjust Hope so she's more evenly placed in my arms, it's more comfortable this way.

"Anne!" I hear Kal call, and when I turn to look, I see Mason driving a Subaru in through the gates.
No sign of Daryl.
My heart stops, my world comes crashing down around me.
"No..." I breathe out. "No." I feel Jesus up a hand on my back and I jerk it off of me, only barely able to register to keep Hope securely in my arms as I fall to my knees, "No!" I scream. Tears streaming down my face in a flood. There's no way. I refuse to let myself see it. To let reality hit.
He has to be okay, he just sent Mason on his own. Maybe he had to wait it out somewhere... but he's not dead. He can't be. I can't raise four kids on my own. I can't. I can't do it. I start rocking as I watch Mason's fir furs approaching me at a quick pace. I can hear him speaking, but it comes out echoing and sounds as though from under water.
I get brought to the trailer we were given by Maggie. A blanket is thrown over my shoulders, and I can just barely register Jesus's face right in front of my own, I know he's trying to talk to me, know that Mason is also trying to talk to me, but I can't hear what either of them are saying.

It's feels like forever before I blink, and suddenly sound starts coming back. "Mom?" I look up to see Mason eyeing me. "You okay?"
Am I okay...? I look outside and see it's now dark out. Hours must have passed. But I don't remember time moving. "I don't-" I shake my head, looking down and not seeing either Hope or Gracie in my arms. "Where are they?"
"Jesus and Aaron had them, uh Maggie has them now." I nod, my chest feels heavy.
"How'd it happen?"
"What?"
I take a deep breath, "Daryl... how'd he... die." The last word tastes like poison on my tongue.
"He didn't, he's fine. He took me to Alexandria, when we got there, he said to tell you he was had work to do with Tara but he'll be home safely as soon as he can. He got me the car, som rations then told me I had to drive straight here so you weren't worrying."
I let out a breath that bring only more tears, "He's okay?" I ask.
Mason nods, "Yeah. He's okay. You took Gracie in?" He has a smile on his face.
I nod, "Yeah. I couldn't resist her sweet brown eyes."
"Dad said you'd take care of her."

[A.N.] I'm back!!!! It's been... what? A month? But I'm back, I have a few chapters written and ready to post and will hopefully be back to posting once a day. I make no promises, but the goal is to continue until at least the end of Season 9, I don't know if I'll have the time to keep going as long as the show runs, and if I do, I'll only be able to write as the episodes get put on Netflix. Doesn't quite matter at the moment, we'll cross the bridge of season 10 when we get there, which may not be long. I started this story in November of 2019 with Season 4, it's not March of 2020, and in those 4 months I've written four seasons worth of Chapters, 46 chapters so far. I will probably be started Season 9 April and finishing the season that same month. I'm not sure when any part of Season 10 will hit Netflix, but if I decide to continue with this story, it'll have to wait for Netflix to get the new season. Let me know if your interested in this even continuing .