Tomorrow Will Come

Twenty seven

I'm back! Please show some love on this chapter for me 💞meaning a lot right now.

"What's that?" Mary asked loudly, as a rustling came from the bushes, and the two carts stopped, but to her surprise, Daryl, Connie, Henry, and Lydia came out of the woods.
"Uncle Darry!" RJ screamed in joy, jumping out of the back of Michonne's cart where he was playing with his action men.
"Hey, kid." Daryl chuckled, lifting RJ up and kissing the side of his head, then throwing him into the air and catching him, the duo smiling broadly, as Connie smiled, onlooking.
"Anyone headed to Kingdom?" Judith asked with a smile, and Henry chuckled, jumping into the back of Michonne's cart, helping Lydia in after him.
"Didn't know yer was bringin' Junior." Daryl smiles fondly, as him, Connie, and RJ followed Henry and Lydia.
"Well, he just broke the toilet, teaching Superman how to swim, so he's not staying to break anymore pipes." Mary teased, as Daryl laughed, his eyes rolling.
"For real?" Toby chuckled, and Mary nodded.
"Flushed the thing. Cameron's taking the pipes apart."
"Do you remember that time... When Sammy filled the bathtub in a house we were staying in? He filled it with the gutter water from outside, from that massive heater butt?"
"And he tried to teach his stuffed panda how to swim. But the water was rancid and that panda was never the same. But he had fun while it happened." Jennie finished, laughing at the memory.
"I used to do shit like that with my bunny." Mary chuckled, and the trio grinned, the carts on the move again.
"For me it was that bear, d'you remember, Tobs?"
"Yeah, I remember when our camp got overrun and you was literally almost ten, but you still cried for hours because it was left behind."
"Hey, I once got Carl to go back into a swarmed building for my bunny. Priorities." Mary corrected seriously, and Toby chuckled.
"Anyway, Toby, you cant really say anything, can you? 'Cos you still keep your little mouse stuffed toy with you, even now."
"Okay, I need to see this mouse." Mary chuckled, and Toby dug into his jacket pocket, and pulled out a tiny felt mouse, with a fraying rope tail, tatty ears, and a missing leg.
"He's called Matt." Toby said seriously, and Mary laughed.
"That's mega cute."
"You're all weirdos." Nira scoffed, as the carts moved, the three teenagers chuckling as they disappeared into the distance.

"Open the gate!" Daryl shouted as they arrived at the Kingdom's gates, the wooden barricade lifted immediately. As soon as Kelly came into sight, she and her sister were running at each other and hugging as if they'd never let go, giving Mary's chest a twinge. She thought about when she'd see Carl after being apart for a while, even if it was just a day, and what she'd give to see him then. In that moment, she didn't want to be the award winning big sister. She was jealous of how Kelly still got her older sibling.
She snapped out of it quickly, her whole body shivering slightly, then jumping out of the cart, and grabbing RJ, holding him close. She held him, and inhaled his scent of honey and jam and well rationed coconut oil.
"Are you okay?" RJ asked, looking up at her through his long eyelashes.
"Yeah. Are you?"
"I'm excited to meet new people. Aunt Carol, and the King." RJ grinned, and Mary pointed them out.
"That's then there. Look," she whispered, pointing to the couple hugging Henry, "that's your Aunt Carol, and Uncle Ezekiel."
"Carol is Uncle Daryl's friend. Daddy's friend."
"Yeah. She is."
"Michonne!" Carol exclaimed suddenly, Mary walking over to them as Michonne stepped closer.
"I was in the neighbourhood, so..."
"Judith? RJ?" Carol asked emotionally, looking at the two youngest Grimes children; she hadn't seen Judith for years, nor RJ since he was a baby.
"Do you remember us?" Carol asked gently, and Judith nodded with a grin, as Ezekiel hugged Mary quietly, the girl sinking into his fatherly embrace for a few short seconds.
"I've been drawing pictures of you since I was little. You're Carol, and you're the King. Your hair got really long!"
"It did!" Carol laughed, her and Ezekiel overwhelmed by how much she remembered.
"You have hair like mommy," RJ grinned suddenly to Ezekiel, "and you have pretty skin like me and mommy too!"
"I sure do." Ezekiel chuckled, as RJ beamed at him, loving the attention that was shining on him.
"He has Carl's smile." Carol said quietly, and Michonne nodded sadly, as Mary clung to him, kissing his temple.
"The plan was to bring Henry. Just Henry." Tara said suddenly, approaching them, Jesus following her. Mary rushes over and hugged Jesus, leaving RJ with their mother, the man holding her tightly.
"Missed you." Mary whispered, as Jesus kissed the top of her head.
"I missed you too, you crazy girl. How's your chest? Healing better?"
"A little," Mary nodded quietly, "still hurts a lot. A lot. But getting there."
"Gather up all the leaders," Michonne said suddenly, interrupting the awkwardness between everyone else, and breaking up Mary and Jesus' moment, "we have a lot to talk about."
"Do you want me to have the kids?" Mary asked, presuming she wasn't invited, but Michonne shook her head.
"No. We need you, Mary. Jude, you can come too. Connie... Can you watch RJ?" Michonne asked hesitantly, ready to learn to trust, and Connie nodded with pride, taking RJ, as Mary followed her mother into Ezekiel's audience room, which was soon filled by the mother and her two daughters, Ezekiel, Carol, Henry, Lydia, Jesus, Tara, Gabriel, and Rachel.
"I know I haven't always seen eye to eye with everyone in this room, but I never stopped caring about any of you. Alexandria's future is here, together with you. And we lost sight of that for a while, but I'm here now. We're here now."
"I've taken an informal vote with the other council members at the fair, and we all agree," Gabriel began, ignoring Tara's glare towards Lydia, "Alexandria is willing to grant asylum to Lydia. She's one of us now. We hope the rest of you can join us in doing the same."
"Thank you. I'll do whatever I can to earn my keep and pay you back." Lydia assured them, sat beside Henry and Judith.
"If her mother retaliates, it's gonna be against Hilltop, not Alexandria. We have to do right by our people. I thought we were on the same page." Tara argued, brushing of Jesus.
"We were, and look when she came to my gates I asked her to run away. And when she didn't, I was angry."
"Then you know I'm not okay with this!"
"Tara. It's not your say." Jesus commented, but Michonne decided to reply to Tara, humouring the woman.
"I do. I also know why Rick didn't trust me when I showed up at the gates of the prison. And how people didn't trust you after seeing you in the other side of the Governor's firing line."
"I was gonna kill you on sight when you washed up on our shore." Rachel added with a teasing grin, making Mary chuckle.
"I was ready to kill Toby. Instead I welcomed their whole group. Risks are worth it sometimes." Mary finalised, Jennie's smile passing across her mind, her lips on her own, her beautiful dark hair, and Tara nodded slowly.
"Lydia didn't choose where she came from, but she chose where she wanted to be. Just like everybody in this room."
"Some of our best fighters are still at Hilltop, but if Daryl's right about these skin job numbers, it's not enough people." Jesus pointed out.
"We should take a group, to Hilltop, to protect 'em. Just in case." Daryl nodded.
"It's a good idea. I'll take some from the Kingdom."
"Oceanside can spare some fighters."
"Alexandria can too." Gabriel nodded.
"Nira will wanna go." Mary added.
"So we head out in the morning?"
"No, they can take advantage if we wait. We should go today."
"Agreed, but sending more people is only a short term solution."
"In order to face this threat, the four communities have to present an united front. Which is why I'm proposing a mutual protection pact. An attack against one community is an attack against all of us." Michonne announced, Mary's chest filling with pride, noticing how much her mother had grown.
"Together we can make these people think twice before moving against the Hilltop."
"It worked with the Saviours," Mary nodded, "all of us working together."
"The leadership of the Kingdom is very amenable to this idea." Ezekiel grinned.
"Oceanside's down."
"We're in." Jesus beamed, winking at Mary.
"Okay so how do you guys seal it? Spit and shake? Blood oath? What?" Tara half teased, and Ezekiel smiled yet again, leaving the room as he spoke.
"I have just the thing," he announced, coming back into the room with a large sheet of parchment. Mary peered at it, and noticed what it was immediately; her mother had spent over a year desperately working on it over the dinner table just before her dad died. It was the treaty - their treaty.
"What? How did you?" Michonne laughed in disbelief.
"Well, he's magic, obviously," Tara laughed, then turning serious, "I may have taken a few things with me when I left. I did what I thought was right. I'm sorry for the way it all went down."
"Me too. And thank you. You were right."
"You were too." Tara nodded.
"I knew this day would come. Never doubted it for a moment," Ezekiel grinned, signing the treaty swiftly, "John Hancock, way your heart out."
Ezekiel passed the treaty to Carol, and she signed her name just below her husbands, Rachel following her lead.
"Paul Rovia, or Jesus?" Jesus asked teasingly, as Rachel passed him the pen, and while Mary chuckled, Ezekiel rolled his eyes softly.
"This, my friend, is going to go down in history. Paul Rovia, please." Ezekiel insisted, his voice authoritative yet kind, his control freak side approaching.
"Paul Rovia." Jesus mumbled slowly, signing it swiftly, then passing the pen to Michonne as everyone else grinned, only Alexandria's space empty.
"It-it should be the head of the council." Michonne explained to Gabriel, a hint of reluctance in her voice. Gabriel took the pen, then stopped as he almost put it to the paper.
"No."
"Yes, we voted you in. You're the head of the council, it's only right." Michonne assured, but Gabriel shook his head yet again.
"No," he insisted gently, "I'm not our leader. I'm just keeping the seat warm."
With a smile, Gabriel passed the pen to Mary, shocking her.
"What?"
"You're it, Mary. Me and your mom talked about it a few months ago, and we both agree on one thing. You're the leader. It's your birthright. Yours and Carl's. And if you would like, we want you to be head of the council, alongside by me, when you're ready."
"Just because Rick's my da..."
"That's not the only reason why. You're our leader, Mary, and when you're a little older, you'll do it all alone. It's you, Mary. You're the head of Alexandria. It was built for you, you and Carl and Judith, and then RJ."
"It was all for you, my sweet girl." Michonne added, "it's yours. The world is yours. It's your birthright. You get to sign it."
"I'm not ready."
"When I first met you," Daryl spoke up, "you was just this annoying little kid. I never thought you'd make it through the week. A year at most. I thought you'd cry and get us all killed. And I watched yer grow. Grow to be you. Grow past all the death, all the loss. Adapted."
"I just grew up in our world." Mary breathed.
"No. Yer saved us all, Mary. This is your right. This is you, and it's yours. It was your dads dream, for yer and Carl. And now it's yours. It's yours. You're our leader, Mary. Yer gonna be. Sign it now." Daryl said strongly, and with Michonnes hand on her shoulder, Mary signed her name in her scrawl, the Grimes larger than anything. She was a Grimes and Daryl was right; Alexandria was her birthright. Keeping it safe was her birthright, as was the treaty.
So her name was there. Their name was there; Rick and Carl and Lori and Judith and RJ's name was there. Grimes, beside all the other leaders.
Her birthright.
And she knew Carl and Rick would be looking at the same stars that night, and beaming down with pride. She had made it. They made it.

Hi! So, here's my massive apology because it's been a month, and I'm so sorry! Life is crazy right now, but I'm hoping (praying) I can try and update back on schedule. I'm on holiday right now, so I've got time to write, then I'm back at work full time for three weeks, then I move for university, and I won't be working so I'll have a little more time - not much more though because of studying!!
I'm so sorry to let you all down, but I'm trying as hard as I can to have a more reliable and regular update schedule, and once I finish my job it should be easier.
Love, always, Emmy