Chapter 28
The Holy Grail
When they found me again I was nearly hysterical. Carl came around the corner jus then and jumped when he saw the tears on my face. His mind leapt to the worst, thinking that maybe I had been attacked but I only shook my head, trembling with sobs. He tried to put a hand on my shoulder to calm me but it was the exact opposite of what I wanted and I overreacted immediately. Soon enough Maggie came round, attracted by the commotion. She stayed with me while Carl left to get Dad. I didn't know why I couldn't gain control of myself but I just couldn't calm down for some reason.

My head was aching, my chest heaved with gasps, a massive lump was lodged in the back of my throat, and water seemed to drip freely out of all the orifices in my face. Even while my hand tried to mop up most of what came out of my nose and mouth with my sleeves, in time more and more replaced what I tried to remove.

It was too much to bear. Too much to believe and I couldn't contain it anymore.

I gagged and sobbed and hiccupped repeatedly where I stood while Maggie and several passersby stared at me in confusion and concern. She tried to offer me a reassuring hand but being touched was the one thing I did NOT want from anyone. The idea of physical contact felt claustrophobic and invasive and I just couldn't handle that right now.

Even through my meltdown I felt bad for her and the lost expression on her face as she waited for people who knew what to do about such a situation.

Doctor Carson and my dad came around the corner five minutes later and stared back at me with the same expressions as everyone else.

"Judy, what's wrong?"

I leaned against the chicken wire as I struggled to talk through the sobs. "I can't stop—I-I can't stop—,"

"—Crying. She can't stop crying." Carl finished for me.

"I can see that. What did you guys do to her?"

"Nothing!" They answered defensively.

"Well what did you say to her?" Carson suggested.

"Nothing!" They answered again.

Instinctively my dad reached out to calm me but both Maggie and Carl stopped him.

"NO DON'T!"

"I already tried that," Carl announced. "It only made things worse."

"She's going to dehydrate." Maggie interjected studying the streams of salt water running down my cheeks. She spoke loudly to me, as if she were talking to someone through glass. "Judith, do you want some water?"

My throat was indeed dry and I was dizzy but I shook my head with her offer, afraid I wouldn't be able to get it down over the lump even if I tried. "N-no, no."

"What happened?" Dad demanded.

"You tell us." Carl said, throwing and arm towards me exasperatedly. "She left for a moment to go pee only she was taking a while so I went to knock on the door to, you know, just to check on her but she wasn't in the bathroom. I went out to see where she could have gone and I found her over here like-this."

Just as he was telling them I pointed to Doctor Carson, trying to talk through my tears and hiccups and that painful lump that was suffocating me. "I didn't kn-know—I-I d-didn't kno-oh!"

"She says that every few minutes." Maggie informed. "Do you have any idea what that means?"

My father and Doctor Carson exchanged looks of worry. "Oh god, she was probably eavesdropping and the shock of it gave her a severe nervous breakdown."

"No kidding!"

"Wait eavesdropping on what?" Maggie asked, but both my father and the doctor ignored her.

"Judith…?"

"Make it stop! M-make it s-stop!" I begged clenching my hand tight against the wire. But everyone seemed to be at a loss for what to do so I suggested something.

"SOMEBODY SEDATE ME!" I screamed making everyone in the yard jump at the force while simultaneously causing Carl to lose hold of the handkerchief he had been cautiously trying to offer me.

My yell seemed to jar Doctor Carson to run and get his med kit while my brother picked up the handkerchief and offered it once more to me. This time I took it without thought, balling it in my hand as I sobbed and sobbed, working myself into more hysteria.

It took over an hour of coaxing and a few heavy cups of a special medicinal concoction to finally, finally settle my nerves and calm me down enough to speak in coherent sentences. I couldn't really walk so Doctor Carson suggested I take a seat right where I was. It felt too crowded with so many people staring at me so Carl and Maggie busied themselves to clear the area so I wouldn't get worked up again with the unnecessary audience.

I felt better speaking with just Dad and Doctor Carson anyways since they knew what had made me so upset in the first place. After a while though, Dad asked if it would be alright if we could be alone for a moment and the other man got up without question to give us a moment.

"I—I didn't know…" I attempted once I was able to form whole sentences again. "I didn't know that's why they never… came near me. I didn't know I was the cure all along. If I had then… Deanna and Tyreese and… Noah…" I began to sob more, bringing my knees up as I curled into a ball.

My dad looked pained by those words as he realized what they implied and how much guilt was pinning me where I stood because of all that. Without a thought, he attempted to console me. "Oh honey, that's not your fault. You couldn't have known. None of us knew."

But I barely heard him as I went on. "If I had known th—that's why they didn't come near me I would have come forward sooner. I really would have! We could have helped so many people. Maybe we could have even ended all of it by now. I was just… afraid."

"Why?"

"For a lot of reasons." I blurted to him. "You were… you were different. You lost your fight. You let those people come in and take whatever they wanted. They already took Daryl. We couldn't hide anything from them and… and Negan told you to have something interesting for him the next week."

Realization dawned on him. "You thought I would let them take you."

I didn't say anything and my father breathed out sadly. His arms slowly pulled me into him and I rested my ear against his chest, feeling alright with touch once more. I listened to his heart and his voice as it rumbled from his chest. "I would never let anyone take you away from me, Judith. You and Carl are the most precious things in the world to me. They'd have to kill me first before they'd take you."

"I know you would die for me, Dad." I sniffed in defeat. "But what if they were going to kill Carl instead? Or Michonne or Aaron or Enid? What if they were going to just keep killing everyone in town?"

He went quiet by that. We both knew the answer to the question and I couldn't tell who was hurt worse by the thought of it.

There was no way to avoid it. It wasn't Dad's life that would be in danger when they day came that the secret would be discovered by the Saviors; it was everyone else's. Plans needed to be made; possibilities had to be considered.

"Dad, if something ever does happen to me; if I get taken away, I… I promise to be strong. I promise not to be afraid."

He looked like he was in pain again and his voice shook slightly at the idea. "Judith…"

"Just promise you won't stop taking care of our people." I said desperately. "I can be strong if I know you're being strong, too."

I wondered if the leverage I had would work. Dad's first and foremost concern was our wellbeing. He'd do anything for the people he loved and if I could convince him that the only way I'd be able to get through such a nightmare was if he was strong in addition, then he'd do it for me. Even so, it was a long time before he finally answered.

"Alright… I promise."

"I'd do anything for you dad." I told him.

His grip on me tightened and I could tell my words didn't have the effect on him as I intended. I knew he didn't want me to do anything for him (particularly if it involved risking my life) but that wasn't his choice, and he couldn't stop me even if he tried. All he could do was accept my words grudgingly.


Sometime after I was calmed, we went to the infirmary to see the man who had survived the walker attack thanks to my donation. Just as Doctor Carson said, there was a bite over his shoulder blade but it'd been stitched up, bandaged, and there was no sign of fever from the man that anyone could see.

A woman was embracing him, sobbing over his chest when we looked inside.

The sight of it made me feel a little better—actually, it made me feel a lot better. No one else could give this to him. I had helped save his life from an infection they predicted would destroy everything—would kill everyone exposed. And I helped save him from that. He should have been dead and he wasn't. The insaneness of that was unbelievable.

He was alive and that was a miracle. A freaking miracle!

I might not have been able to save those other people that we cared about, but I knew now that I could start helping more and start contributing the way it had been planned for me.

Was this what Jenner had wanted? Was this how he thought the cure would be created?

I didn't know and no one else could really say either.

But the next time we saw David, Doctor Carson was speaking with him and his wife.

"I'd like to keep you under observation for one more day, just to see how this pans out. And I'm going to have to ask you to keep this as secret as possible. We need this to stay on the lowdown."

"Why?" The man asked through tears of happiness. "You've done it! You've found the cure! We need to tell everyone about this!"

"We're still trying to figure this out and until then, we need to keep this classified."

"So, you cured me and you don't even know how?"

"You better start figuring it out." His wife said.

"I'm working on that."

Just then his eyes burst with tears and he sobbed with pure joy. "I can't thank you enough, Doctor." David said. "How on earth is this even possible?"

"I wish I knew."

"Thank you," the woman said, reaching out and taking his hand. "Thank you so much."

"You should be thanking your husband; he's very strong to be the only person to ever live through a roamer bite."

The man blushed a little by those words and the woman curled closer to him on the bed hugging him tightly.

The doctor came out and looked to both my dad and me before shutting the door quietly. "I'm sorry." He told us. "But I didn't fully disclose to them how he was able to survive the attack. For the moment, I think it might be in everyone's best interest to keep the truth of it discreet."

"Thank you." Dad said looking down at me. "I'd rather not let that information out for Judith's safety."

I looked between the two men. "As long as it keeps helping people then I'm fine with that."

The doctor nodded but looked up to Dad again. "Are you going to be leaving soon then?"

"We're just getting ready, now."

The doctor nodded but shifted as he looked from my dad to me. Finally he blurted. "I think… I think Judith should stay here."

My dad didn't even bat an eye. "No."

But Carson wasn't going to take it for an answer as he began carefully. "Rick, you have to understand, this is the closest we've ever gotten to beating this thing. I need to run more tests, do more experiments. Figure out the extent of this. Maybe I could isolate the properties of her blood to develop a fully active cure."

I looked up towards my dad but he wasn't going to have it. "Dad, maybe we should…"

"Judith, go pack your things." He ordered.

For a long moment, I didn't move.

"Go." He said sharply.

With that, I turned to do as I was told. Whenever Dad got that look in his eye I knew it wasn't up for negotiation. Best to just do as I was told when he got that way.

I rushed first to Maggie's house to stuff the little I had into my knapsack before running out again and spotting Carl as he packed up the cart.

"So… are you alright now?" He asked hesitantly, gauging the state of me and probably wondering if I was going to have another meltdown.

"I'm fine. I guess I was just under a lot of stress is all. The donation took a lot out of me." I shrugged. "But I'm okay, now. Totally fine."

The sounds of shouting stole our attentions and we both looked up to see Carson and Dad arguing still, but now Jesus was talking with them as well. It seemed reasonable that he would know as well, he was the town leader after all.

"I said NO!" Dad yelled over his shoulder as he turned from the men. "And that's my final word about it!"

"What are they talking about?" Carl asked.

"I dunno." I lied, loading into the cart. "Leader stuff."

Carl glared angrily at it all, peeved by the whole situation. "Why do I feel like I'm being deliberately left out of the loop here?"

"Don't feel bad, you're not the only one." Maggie announced coming towards us with little Hershel in her arms. "You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye were you?"

I leaned over the side of the cart and pecked the little guy on the head. "Bye, bye Hershel. I love you and I hope I'll see you again soon."

"Lub you, Joo-by." The little boy responded, grinning at me with a toothy smile. "Come back soon."

"I'll try. Don't miss me too much, okay little man?"

"Oh-tay."

Carl leaned forward and brushed back his black lochs. "Bye, Hershel. I hope we see you again real soon."

We loaded onto the cart while the others swung up on their horses. Dad got in the cart beside me and Carl and we looked up at him.

"What was that all about?" Carl asked curiously.

"Nothing. It's not important anymore." He answered.

"Sounded important." Carl muttered.

"The matter's been settled."

Even if either of us tried to press it, we knew they were his final words on the subject and he would say no more about it. So, with that both of us turned from him and faced forward towards home.


Author's notes: For those of you who don't know, James Harrison from the last chapter is a real person and his blood really does contain a composition to cure Rhesus disease and is known as the Man with the Golden Blood. He holds the record for the most donations of blood plasma in the world. He broke the record during May of 2011 with his 1000th donation of plasma. Meaning, he averaged a donation every three weeks for fifty-seven years. When he achieved it, he said, quote "I could say it's the only record that I hope is broken, because if they do, it means they have donated a thousand donations."

I used to think that cures isolated from so called "special blood" was all in science fiction, like Rick said and I didn't want to make it sound like I was just going along with what other movies, comics, and fictional books have done in the past. It was really refreshing to find out that this wasn't just some cliché solution found in other media but can actually happen in real life.

I'd like to close by saying two chapters today, yay! I wanted to give you them because I think I'm going to take a break from this story for a while. Not sure how long it'll be but it may be a few weeks to a month (hopefully not that long), just so I can work on a few other projects I've got going on at the moment. I might post a bit from the drabbles I keep promising, as well as a few fanart. When I do, they'll be posted on my deviantart and/or my tumblr page.

As always, leave a review telling me what you thought of the latest chapters. Your insight is always appreciated. Luv ya all lots!