The next day, the temperature rises above 30 degrees for the first time in weeks. The day after that, it hits 35. The sun shines brightly. The ice begins to melt.
Michonne orders everyone onto the salted, now slushy porch for a group photo.
"But you won't be in it," Jerry says.
"It's for me. I don't need to be in it."
There's a lot of moving around and repositioning until Daryl, who is holding Judith on his hip so she can be seen above the rail, mutters, "Hell is this gonna be over?"
"Smile on three!" Michonne says. "One…"
"Unca D smiles!" Judith orders and half turns in his arms.
"Two…"
The little girl reaches out and puts a finger at each of the corners of Daryl's lips and pushes them up.
"Three!"
Snap.
[*]
"It's not looking good," Maggie says that night as she pushes the account book to the center of the kitchen table where the Council is meeting.
"Rosita says Javier is coming tomorrow," Rick tells them, "that he thinks the ice is slushy enough now that he can get here with chains on the tires. He's bringing everything they promised for trade, as well as some extra rice, oatmeal, and peanut butter. And that goat."
"Praise the heavens," Ezekiel says. "Not a moment too soon."
[*]
That evening, there's a light vegetarian dinner with more vegetables than beans. The sun sets in brilliant hues behind the blue ridge of the mountains, and Carol watches it with Daryl, standing on the front porch, bundled up as the ice continues to fade into slush.
His stomach growls, because he gave half his beans to Henry tonight. He wraps an arm around her, and she settles her head on his shoulder.
[*]
"I should be there in forty minutes," Javier tells Rosita early in the morning. "It usually only takes fifteen, but I'll probably slide off the road a few times…"
"Is Mason coming too?" Rosita asks.
"Why do you care?"
"Dianne asked."
Javier laughs. "Did she really? I can't wait to tell him that…"
[*]
An hour and a half later, Rosita paces the front porch, her boots squishing in the slush. She looks at the radio that sits on the railing. Carol emerges onto the porch, and her breath makes a faint cloud in the air. "No word from Javier?"
"He was supposed to be here to trade an hour ago," Rosita says. "God, I hope nothing happened to him After I asked him to risk the roads."
"He's survived an apocalypse. He can survive the slush," Carol assures her.
"Maybe we should go check on them?" Rosita says.
But then the radio crackles. "Hermosa?"
"Are you okay?"
"Our radio died. I didn't notice. We just dug up some batteries from the truck. Sorry for the delay. We got a late start. Then we slipped into a ditch once. Anyway, we're almost there."
"Dianne's on lower watch," Rosita tells him. "She'll let you in."
"Is she indeed?" comes Mason's voice from a slight distance. "She must be anxious to see me."
"In your dreams, old man," Javier replies, and then the radio grows silent again.
[*]
A jacked-up pick-up truck Dianne hasn't seen before pulls to the gate. It's huge, and flood lights run all across the top. There's a cage in the massive cab, with a braying goat inside, and surrounding that, several boxes, three coolers, and bundled up with the hood of his winter coat up over his head - Carson. She can make out Mason and Javier in the front. Dolly, the midwife, is wedged between them. There are three more people she's never met sitting shoulder to shoulder in the backseat.
Mason comes out of the truck to greet her. "When do you get off work?" he asks.
She smiles. "Morgan's on his way down now to relieve me, and then I'll head up. Why?"
"Just thought you might like to go out for a drink." He pats the front pocket of his light brown suede jacket, where he must have single-shot bottles of something. "I swear it won't give me any ideas if you say yes."
"Hmmm…Well, I'll think about it." She nods to the truck. "Who are they?"
[*]
The entire Hillcrest Council spills out onto the porch to wait the arrival of the visitors, along with Rosita, who is anxious to see Javier.
Carol watches as the pick-up truck pulls to a stop. Carson vaults out of the bed. Javier, Mason, and Dolly exit next, casually. The other two men and one woman follow more cautiously, their hands on the butts of the handguns holstered at their hips – even the priest.
Carol didn't notice the white collar peeking out of his long, black coat until he got out of the truck. She thinks instantly, with a pang, of Father Gabriel, though this priest looks nothing like him. He's Hispanic, easily six inches taller and fifteen years older, scrawny, and with thick, gray hair.
"Relax," Mason tells them, and they do, or, at least, they take their hands off their guns.
Javier runs up the porch stairs and hugs and kisses Rosita. She laughs at his enthusiasm, and kisses him back, but then she pulls away and gives him a questioning look as she nods to the people now standing on the walkway close to the porch. "That's the priest I told you would marry us," he says. "That and the witnesses makes it legal at Dead End."
Mason gestures to the priest. "This is Father Nicolas. He's been my father's spiritual advisor for twenty years now." Then he points to Dolly. "Y'all know my sister Dolly already."
"I don't," says Tara, who has just walked out onto the porch with Michonne.
"Well I'm Dolly," Dolly says. "It's nice to meet you – "
"- Tara," Tara says.
"And this is my sister Henrietta," Mason continues.
Henrietta looks nothing like Mason. She's a good twenty years younger, probably in her early thirties. Her long, dark hair is contained in a pony tail, and her skin is the color of gingerbread. Her eyes are fierce and dark, but when she smiles and says, "Hello." and lets loose a little wave of her hand, her features are transformed into something sweet and light.
"And my brother Colton."
Colton has a similar skin tone as Henrietta's. His eyes are a striking, swirled burst of browns, yellows, and grays. His almost-black hair is cut short but surrounds his head in thick, unruly curls. He can't be more than thirty. Carol supposes these must be Mason's half-siblings, and their mother was likely dark-skinned, which surprises her because she'd built up in her mind an image of Amos as a prejudiced man, though she really didn't know him at all.
"They've come to serves as witnesses to the wedding," Mason explains. "Three witnesses from our Council are required to sign off on any legal marriage."
"You have a Council?" Carol asks. She thought Amos was the sole, patriarchal ruler of Dead End.
"A family council, with my father at its head," Mason answers. "Henrietta here is on it. Colton, too. Dolly, and my brother Garrett, who's back at Dead End."
"But not you?" Carol asks in surprise. She thought Mason had more power at Dead End.
"Pa wasn't too keen on Mason joining the Council," Colton says. "Since they were estranged before he came back." Colton looks at all the people on the porch. "Why don't you introduce them all, Mason?"
Mason points to Rosita first. "That's Ms. Rosita Espinosa."
"I think we all guessed," Colton says.
"And these are the Hillcrest Council members." Mason points as he introduces them. "Daryl Dixon. Mrs. Carol Dixon." Carol warms a little at the name, and Daryl glances at her sheepishly. "Rick Grimes. Ezekiel - I haven't caught your last name."
"Washington."
"How very boring," Mason says. "And Ms. Maggie Rhee."
"M-I-S-S or M-R-S?" Colton asks with a wiggle of his eyebrow. His eyes flit up and down her form.
Maggie gives him such a stern look that he actually moves backward a step.
"And that's Mrs. Michonne Grimes," Mason continues. "Tara. And…" He smiles as Dianne approaches from the walkway. She mounts the stairs and joins the Hillcresters. "Dianne."
"I guess I could see why you might like her," Colton says. "I bet when she actually lets her hair down -"
"Colton!" Mason hisses sharply.
"What?" Colton asks. "I mean…wow!" His eyes flit from Rosita to Carol to Michonne to Maggie to Tara to Dianne and back again. "You've been holding out on me! You didn't tell me the B&B had become the Playboy Mansion."
"Colton!" Dolly scolds him.
Colton chuckles.
[*]
The wedding takes place on the stone walkway so everyone can crowd around on the porch to watch. It's an abbreviated liturgy that Father Nicolas flies through like he's trying to get everyone out of church in time for Sunday football. There's an exchange of rings – Rosita's is a bit too big.
"Don't worry," Colton tells her. "We'll fatten you up at Dead End. Either that or Javier will knock you up. Either way, it'll fit better soon."
There's some kind of hand-written certificate that the priest and the three Council members have to sign.
The Dead Enders leave the Hillcresters a lot of food, not to mention the goat, before Javier prepares to take his bride home to Dead End. Mason is remaining behind, after wheedling an invitation to dinner and to stay the night, and Colton promises to come by and pick him up in the morning, "Now that I know where the place is." He looks at Tara and smiles. "And what lovely ladies are in it."
"I'm gay," she says.
"And I'm married," he replies. "Doesn't mean I don't enjoy gorgeous vistas."
"You're married?" Tara asks in disbelief.
"Sure. Ten years. Got married straight out of high school. Got us a nine-year-old boy. Lost the girl in the Epidemic."
[*]
The wedding over, Carson and Elijah disappear to work on their gadgets, this time in the garage, since it's not quite as cold as it has been. They plug Enid's portable space heater into a power pack to keep things a little warmer, and they heft their projects onto the workbench.
"I can't wait to test the planter in the spring," Elijah says as he grabs a screwdriver from the cork board on the wall. "How are things coming along with your cousins?"
"They aren't my cousins!" Carson insists.
He begins to unscrew the battery compartment. "So how are things coming along?"
"Well…I think Elizabeth likes me."
"Which one is she?" Elijah asks. "The average average one?"
"No, even better. The smart average one. But my Uncle Garrett is pretty protective of her. Not my biological uncle. Just…I still call him uncle. Whenever I come over to their place – they live in the guest house – to have lunch with her or play Scrabble or whatever, he's cleaning his guns. Every time."
Elijah laughs. He takes out the dead batteries. "You kiss her yet?"
"Once. When Garrett went outside to check on some gunshots. It was just the watch shooting a walker. But I seized my chance. And it was kind of…tame. She's never had a boyfriend."
"She's the one who's 17?"
"19. Just…never had a boyfriend. And then the world ended." Carson tinkers for awhile and says. "This is courtship."
"What?" Elijah asks.
"It's courtship. It's not dating. We don't live in the 21st century anymore, you know. In a month or two…I'm going to ask her to marry me. And she'll probably say yes, because…who else is there? Santiago married Javier's niece already. There's a couple of single field hands, but they're way too old – late thirties. It's either me or Dante, and Dante's kind of…unreliable."
"You don't have to get married," Elijah inserts fresh batteries into his machine.
"That's like saying I don't have to have sex. Ever. In my entire life. No insult intended to Father Nicolas, but that's insane. Also…" He shrugs. "She's smart. So she's interesting to talk to. Evenings around the fire won't be bad. Honestly, I wouldn't have done better in the old world."
"But you don't love her?" Elijah screws the battery compartment back into place.
"I will eventually," Carson insists. "So when are you going to propose to Enid?"
Elijah startles, and the screwdriver slips from his hand, scratches across the battery compartment, and thuds to the floor.
[*]
"Did you ever have goats on your farm?" Mason asks Maggie as she examines the goat in the barn. It will be housed in the free stall next to Bullseye, when it's not grazing.
"No, but I milked plenty of cows." Maggie crouches down on one knee – the one that has her prosthetic foot, because she can't stand on it alone, and examines the udder of the goat to make sure there's no sign of mastitis.
"Well, goat's milk is better. More vitamins. But you don't get nearly as much out of them."
"Twice a day you milk them?" she asks.
"Yes, ma'am."
"What's her name?"
"Daisy." He turns because Dianne has just walked into the barn. He tips his cowboy hat to her.
"I was just coming to give Bullseye some exercise," she tells him. "It's finally safe enough, I think, for a slow ride."
"A slow ride is often more enjoyable than a fast one, I find."
She smiles. "Would you like to join me?"
"Well let me check my social calendar." Mason unzips his suede jacket and pulls out a tiny notebook from the front pocket of his blue canvass shirt. He flips a page over. "It seems I'm currently free."
Dianne laughs and begins to saddle the horse.
