When Simon and Illya made it down to the front gate the sound of the deadites on the gate as they hissed and growled but it was drowned out a moment later when TC's beautiful little girl saw the Russian and charged past the Savior guards and bounced into his arms.

"Uncle Illya!"

"Hey, зайчик." (bunny) He said in that smooth Russian accent of his. "And what's the word you really use?"

Noelle thought for but a second. "дяденька." (Uncle)

"Oчень хорошо, зайчик." (Very good, bunny) Illya commended.

The guards all looked to Simon awaiting orders before they'd even let Taron Charles think about moving an inch; trust no one were words they lived by. Simon almost bounced down the cement steps as he headed towards TC with Illya hot on his heels. When Lee had first shown up he'd thought the girl would be the downfall of Negan and The Sanctuary but he'd been wrong, Simon had hated her at first but now he saw how much of an asset she was to them; that and she'd not been so quick to take his head off as Negan would have been.

"They're good. Negan cleared. Dude and his kid are friend not foe."

The guards let the blonde newcomer pass and he quickly slipped past them to his best friend and child. The look of relief that crossed TC's face was second to none, his baby girl was safe and Illya was right there.

"Where have you been?" Illya asked his friend as the door he and Simon had just come through opened and closed for Hal.

"Me and Rabbit went to the cache, you know the one Moran had us hide a month or so ago?" The taller man nodded to his friend. "Thought it would be a nice thank you present for Negan and his wife. Think he'll approve?"

It was Hal who answered which drew all eyes to the broad Secondary Lieutenant in his blue open shirt over a wife beater. Illya's green eyes did a quick up and down of the man.

"Oh, he will. We're a little low on Meds."

TC nodded. "Good job I went then. There were a boat load of the things in that cache."

Hal held out a large hand and the blonde took it as the silent order to hand the gear over that it was. In one smooth motion TC slipped the over-stuffed rucksack off his shoulders and tossed it to Hal. The older man looked inside while Simon peered over his shoulder, inside the bag they found the aforementioned boat load of meds and a shit ton of ammo; o h yeah, new guy done good.

"What you doing out here anyway, Hal?" Simon asked when Hal zipped the bag back up and threw it over his shoulder.

The Secondary Lieutenant shrugged a little. "Just helping. Keeping an eye out." He said but clearly meant 'keeping an eye on you'. "Negan wants them given a room."

Simon grumbled but he knew better than to argue. Hal was Yulia's most trusted second and Negan had made him her bodyguard which meant Negan trusted him as well; Simon was smart enough to know not to cause a fuss around this man.

"Where is Negan?"

TC's question drew everyone's attention away from the awkwardness of the situation. Illya shuffled Noelle in his arms.

"He's with my sister, TC."

TC's head snapped to his friend so fast he almost caused whiplash. "Sister? You found Yulia?"

Illya nodded. "She's Negan's Queen. I always knew my little sister would do well for herself."

Taron Charles looked off down at the ground as the sun beat down on all of them. Simon just stood there looking a little impatient while Hal appeared to be learning all he could about they two new men.

"She's the one who let us out. Negan's wife got me and him out of that place. That was your sister?" TC paused a moment. "He called her Lee, of course she's your bloody sister." He breathed out a laugh. "You did always say she's just show up out of nowhere one day and cause as much damage as she could."

Simon huffed as hands went to rest on his hips. "As lovely as this touching reunion is it's hot as shit out here and we should go inside.

"Yeah," Hal nodded "have them put through intake and fed. I'll take these to Carson." He looked to the blonde. "TC was it?"

The blonde nodded. "That's me."

Without another word everyone headed inside as Simon had wanted and all branched off in different directions. Illya followed Hal while TC and Noelle went with the moustached man; Noelle hadn't wanted Illya to set her down but the lure of food had eventually made her agree. As soon as Simon was out of sight the Russian rounded the ever so slightly taller Lieutenant forcing him to a stop; Illya had a grin on his face.

"You're a dominant bear, aren't you, big boy." It really wasn't a question. "I like it."

The Russian winked at the muscular man cheekily then simply left him stood in the grey hallway in favour of going back to his sister upstairs.

A little over an hour after they'd arrived and Taron Charles and his daughter had finished intake after a medical exam; then they'd gotten something to eat. Simon had apparently grown bored on the way up to their room because he'd grabbed a pretty young Cuban girl and told her to take the man and child the rest of the way.

"You should expect some jealousy for a while." Said the girl as they climbed stairs. "A room is usually reserved for Saviors and their families or those with the points for one, they don't grow on trees. You must have done something important for Negan to give you one without points."

"We were at The Church together." Was all TC said on that particular subject before he cleared his throat and asked something else. "I'm Taron Charles but everyone calls me TC, this is my daughter, Noelle. Say hello for me, Rabbit."

"... Hello." Whispered the young girl.

The Cuban girl flashed a smile over her shoulder. "I'm Jessi. Jessi Perez."

"Nice to meet you, Jessi. And I think me and my girl are counting ourselves very lucky."

Videl's baby sister stopped at a door then and spun around to face the father and daughter.

"This is your room. You ate right?" TC nodded. "Good. Me and my brother are actually just at the end of the hall, the door has this orange spray paint mark on it. Just let me know if I can do anything to help, even if it's just babysit. Schneider has been training me so I'm off general work but not a Savior yet so I've got a lot of free time."

"Thank you, that's very kind."

"I've been helping Victoria too, she's the school teacher around her." Jessi bent a little to look at Noelle who gripped her father's hand tightly. "Would you like to maybe go to school? There will be other kids for you to play with." She promised.

"Yes!" The young girl beamed.

TC chuckled as Jessi straightened up. "The authority has spoken."

"I'll let you two settle in. Maybe in a few days I'll show you down to the classroom."

"Great."

A real education for his child was something TC didn't think would ever happen but there it was being offered up with a smile; this place really lives up to its name.

The Cuban girl headed off down the hall again while Noelle and her father went into their room to start a better life. One thing was for sure, after all that had happened in the last few days Noelle needed some real sleep.

~X~

Hal made his way into the small room off the large garage that he and his fellow Secondary Lieutenants had commandeered as their own private rec room and slumped down into a tattered armchair. The room wasn't very big – certainly no bigger than a stereotypical motel room – but who cared when they had a pool table in there. Dwight had tried to shut it down at first complaining that The Sanctuary wasn't even their outpost but they were Lee's men so Negan let it slide; wasn't like the room had been being used for anything else anyway.

Koby slouched in the other armchair with a book while Connor lounged on the leather couch opposite them as though trying to sleep. Evan – who'd become known as the 'weird' one of their little group – sat Indian style on the floor by the less than impressive coffee table cleaning his gun.

"Boss woken up yet?" Connor asked without opening his eyes.

Hal sighed. "Nah, she's still out and Negan's getting tetchy."

Koby looked away from his book for a moment; it was worn and slightly stained by what appeared to be coffee.

"She will, you know what the boss is like. It'll take more than one cannibalistic asshole to put her down."

"Wasn't Moran who shot her though." Evan pointed out. "It was Negan and if she does die he'll never forgive himself. That and I don't think her brother would just sit around and let that go."

Evan was right of course, Hal had only met the dude twice but he'd already managed to assess just how much damage he could do when angry. As far as the Southerner could tell the only difference between Illya and Yulia was that the elder was a boy and the younger a girl. They'd seen what Lee was capable of... Illya Stravinsky would be no different.

"Both of the Docs did everything they could. She'll be fine." Connor pushed himself up then nap seemingly forgotten. "But... if the boss does die... what-"

Hal cut him off. "Happens to us? We're fucked. Well, I'm fucked, I was supposed to protect her and I didn't. You'll all get funnelled back to where you were and I'll get dead."

Koby shook his head. "Mate, that won't happen. Evan and Connor had those fucking shirts on before, but Lee took them out of that because of their skill, they're Saviors now." He cleared his throat while Hal watched him looking rather unimpressed. "You're Lee's favourite. She tries not to play that card but you are and if Negan even has a shred of respect for his wife he won't lay a fucking finger or a bat on you."

It was true, at the start Yulia had thought Evan would be her favourite of her little band of riff-raff but no, Hal had become her most trusted and yes favourite. The group of Mini-Lieutenants as Lee occasionally called them didn't know why she had been drawn to Hal but they could guess. Evan and Connor assumed Hal reminded her of her father but no, that was wrong. Koby thought maybe he made Lee feel safe and frankly he was half the way there. Hal though, he'd figured it out almost the second he met Illya Stravinsky. Lee favoured Hal because he reminded her of her brother, no they didn't look or sound anything alike, they weren't even close in age but shared many of the same expressions and had the same sense of humour. Lee was a strong and powerful woman but deep down all she'd really wanted was her brother.

It was Evan who settled the tension. "We're all getting ahead of ourselves. Boss is going to be fine so how about we stop acting like she's already in the ground, hmm? Negan had Sobaka sent up right?" There was a round of nods. "Then he's expecting her to wake up and knows the first thing she'll do is worry about that damn dog."

"She does love the pup." Added Connor as he relaxed back against the couch.

"Of course she does, the Boss has a soft spot for lost causes, that's how you and Even got here."

Hal snorted at Koby's attempt to lift the depressing atmosphere. Lee would be fine, of that he was certain... or at least he was telling himself he was certain.