Dreams Gone

Summary: Glenn dies.

Rating: T

A/N I'm writing this to get my head wrapped around the possibility that, by the end of Season 6, Glenn may really die. I would love to see the him and the remaining Atlanta group 'survive' to a truly safe existence in season 14 or 16 or…you get the picture. But I need to, well, accept the possibility.

Dreams Gone

By Althea M

He could image growing old with her, seeing her hair silvered and her face lined but still so beautiful in his eyes. He would be worn as well, gray in hair, like his dad, and clear-eyed, but he knew she would be his comfort. He wanted her face to be the last thing he saw. Children, grandchildren, they were precious too, but she was the center of his life.

He had been smitten the first time he saw her. He had been hers, any way she wanted him, after she'd taken him on the pharmacy floor. He knew he would die to protect her when she made that horrible encounter with the walker, again, in the pharmacy. He bound himself to her completely. And she finally saw the depth of his care for her.

But old age wasn't going to overtake him and seeing her on in golden years wasn't going to be the case. All he could see now was a dirty boot, only inches from his face as he lay beaten into near unconsciousness on the dusty ground. No matter how much he wanted it, how hard he fought to have it, he would not see her face again and her scream was his death knell.

'Good-bye, Maggie', but no sound did he utter. The blow was so swift, so vicious, that there was no thought after that. There was no pain, no longing, no regret. There was only nothing.

Maggie dropped to her knees, screaming his name, the only thing she could do, the heavy hand of the nameless intruder preventing her from going to her husband, her lover, her Glenn. And the blows continued, like the beat of a very large heart, the heart of a monster. She screamed, begged the man to stop, to no avail.

When he did finally stop, he was covered in blood. Glenn's blood. Finally, the monster stepped back, breathing hard. He looked in her direction and gave a brief nod to his cohort and the hand that had a vice-like grip on her arm released her and she fell forward on all fours and crawled to what was left of the life she loved.

Carol started forward to help Maggie, but Maggie, still sobbing, with a vicious swipe of her hand, waved her away and continued to approach the still, bloody form. "Maggie, don't", Carol called, as Maggie reached the body, beseeching her not to roll the body over, but she had to, she had to remember who she loved, and how much she needed to hate. But, ultimately, she realized, there was no reason to roll him over. The attack had been so brutal, so complete, that there was nothing recognizable as human above the shoulders. Those strong, sinewy shoulders that she almost could not remember when she had last desperately clung, in the throes of quickly snatched passion, were the terminus of the remains.

This was no longer her Glenn and, gratefully, this body would not turn. And Maggie sobbed painfully, clutching the dying warmth of his back as his t-shirt soaked up his blood.

Maggie's sobs finally subsided to hitching gasps. The involuntary tremors of what had been Glenn had stopped. Refusing to look beyond the shoulders of the battered corpse, she finally, slowly, levered herself up from what remained of her Glenn. Her hand grazed the knife that was still in the sheath on Glenn's hip. Her hand slowly closed over it and the tension in the air around her became denser. 'I could take out at least one of them.' But just as the thought nearly formed in her mind, a ghosting whisper, a breath of thought came to her.

~No~. Glenn's reasoned voice drifted through her mind. Maggie tilted her head, as though listening to a breeze.

~No, you have another mission~. Maggie paused for a moment to breathe.

Again, the ghost of a voice whispered, ~Our child.~

Maggie licked her lips and resisted the natural, maternal instinct to touch her still flat belly. 'Give nothing away', she thought. Maggie stood and turned away from Glenn's remains, and the monster still holding the vicious bat, and walked over to Carol who took her into a gentle embrace.

"We'll get through this", Carol whispered, and Maggie nodded wordlessly into her shoulder. Maggie loved Glenn, but Maggie was not Glenn. She would cross 'that' line. She would pack her 'humanity' away and one day she would kill this man who had taken her Glenn.

The end.

a/n: Everybody dies. You're told that by some who want to sound 'grounded' or 'centered' or 'practical' when you lament the loss of someone in the real world or otherwise. But that doesn't make the loss any easier to bear. We invest ourselves in these 'make believe' lives, but that's what makes the show what you want to watch, and when a character you care about dies, it's a 'real' loss. So, although probably not well written, I just know there are not enough Glenn-centric stories out there, so I'm submitting this. This is a requiem. I just want to grieve, now. AM