They got off the bike in Alexandria and Negan walked up with a smile, "How's my girl doing?"
"I'm fine." Ren laughed giving him a hug back.
"I was talking about Becca actually." Negan gave her a squeeze.
Ren rolled her eyes, "She's fine too. Still hasn't started sleeping all the way through the night but I can barely hear her. The other four are doing good too. How's everyone here?"
"Good. I think Nessa's itching to get out there with you guys. Kara too." He told her as they started walking, "Once the trials over they're going to leave. We found Chantels group, a little community just on the other side of D.C. Her brother's staying here until she's good to go back to them. The rest are still working a lot with Father Gabriel on their trauma, I managed to get them to talk about it, but he's helping them heal."
"That's good." She smiled, "So, what was it that I was needed here for?"
"Well two things actually." Michonne said coming up to her, "One, the trial verdicts will be in tomorrow and we weren't sure if you would want to be there for that."
"As long as he get's the opposite of what he wants, I don't care what happens to him anymore. I spent too long caring about that." She told the woman, "What was the second?"
"We want the dorm to join the charter." She smiled, "Be a part of all of our groups. We want to help you build the dorm up, put in gates, Rick and Daryl just found some supplies we can use to start doing that. We'll all be able to trade with each other, this way it's not payment for your skills, but trading them for things you all can use."
"I...I don't know." Ren was surprised. She'd thought after her comments about the charter that she would just be a guest when they needed something to be fixed.
"You can think about it, talk to the others too if you want." Michonne offered, "But I think you should at least stay the night. Aaron cooked you dinner."
"How can I not stay with that kind of bribery?" Ren smirked. She went to the house and put her over night bag down, she very rarely stayed in Alexandria anymore, so she didn't really have any clothes there. Only half of Daryls things remained, the other half were in her room at the dorm. When she was done the two of them went over to Aarons. He welcomed them in, and he tried to stop Gracie before she made it to Ren, but the little girl was too fast for him. The girl wrapped her arms around Rens leg and smiled up at her. Ren smiled back down, "Well aren't you hyper today?"
"Yeah, she might have had a few cookies while dinner was cooking." Aaron told her.
"And ruin your appetite for your daddys amazing cooking? How could you?" Ren gasped down at the little girl before picking her up, much to both Daryl and Aarons surprise. She'd always shied away from all of the kids, except that one night with Judith. Ren looked at them, "They say it takes a village to raise a baby, and well I'm part of the village with Becca so I had to deal with it at some point."
"And how did it go when you did?" Aaron smirked.
"Well she was crying a lot and Charlotte couldn't handle it and just put her in my arms while she went to get Sera and she calmed down. Seems she likes me." Ren shrugged as Gracie put her head on her shoulder.
"She ain't the only one." Daryl pointed at the little girl.
"It's weird, I haven't really been around kids all that much." Ren smiled down at the little girl and she looked up at her, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before putting her head back on Rens shoulder. The girl stayed there until it was time to eat and she was put in her high chair next to Aaron.
As they ate, he asked, "So what's the hesitation? I know you want to talk to the others, but you guys will sign right?"
"Probably, I don't know." She answered.
"You were already talkin about helpin Oceanside." Daryl looked over at her.
"I know. It's not that, like I have no problem working with the communities and all that." She leaned back in her chair.
"Then what is it?" Aaron asked.
"It's the being a part of something big." She tried to word it, "The last time I was a part of something big, I literally blew it up. And I did that because of what was happening to us and how we were being treated. When it comes to political things like this I have absolutely no experience. I just know that there will be at least nine of us at the dorm. Nine. Compared to how may here, and at Hilltop, the Kingdom?"
"Your worried about your voices not being heard." Aaron said, then admitted with a sigh, "Understandable given our track record."
"You'll be heard." Daryl scooped food into his mouth. He wasn't going to let them ever not be.
"And if it's something you don't agree with us on?" She asked him.
"What'dya mean?" He asked.
"Disagreements happen. We aren't the same person." She couldn't help but smile at him, it was so sweet how loyal he was, "We have two different opinions and if you're saying you're going to make sure that we're represented, is that just on things we agree on, because if we don't agree, you might not want us to be heard."
"Don matter if we agree or not." He told her, "Didn want you going back to the dorm all them times, but you did anyways. We didn agree on it, but I still let you go."
"You couldn't have stopped me if you tried." She chuckled wrapping noodles around her fork.
"I didn stop you because I knew you'd have never come back." He told her, "Just like they know that if you aren't heard, you won't come back."
"So, what your saying is that they'll make sure to listen to us because they don't want to lose our skills?" She couldn't help but be amused.
"They are really useful ones." Aaron admitted, then joked, "But we like you guys for your personalities too."
"Good to know." She laughed.
They finished their dinner and the two of them went back to their room. He kicked back on the bed and watched as she got ready for bed, "You still ain't sure?"
"Daryl." She sighed, "It's complicated."
"I know." He told her.
"What'll happen if we don't?" She looked at him, "Will a lot change?"
"Nah." He told her, "Just that if somethin happens at the dorm and somethin happens at Oceanside, they would be more important for the others to help."
"The others?" She raised her eyebrow at him.
"You're my top priority." He responded.
"You're too damn good for me Daryl Dixon." Ren moved and sat on the side of the bed next to him. Toying with the dirty shirt in her hands she looked at it, "It took me like six months to talk to a group of people at Hilltop. Longer for here and Kingdom. I've spent so much more time alone than I have with people, the idea of being chained to so many, having obligations to so many, scares me. Even just the few at the dorm. They look at me to make decisions and even the small ones freak me out because they aren't just for me. Those choices don't just affect me. They affect other people now too." She turned to look at him now, "Even when we made the deal with Rick about the rescue, I know that if I had said I was against it, they would have gone with me because for some reason they trust my judgement on things."
"Because they trust you." He rubbed her back.
"I wasn't meant to lead. I was meant to be stuck in a room with a bunch of technology making it all work together, not people." She sighed, "It wasn't until the world ended that I had more than a few friends and we were all locked in cages. The only reason they think that I'm strong is because I had resolved myself into believing that we were going to get out and made it happen in a moment of rage."
"They think you're that strong because you are."
"Says the man that's had to pick me up how many times?" She asked him with a half-smile on her lips.
"Says the man who met you after you'd travelled across the country alone. After you'd killed them while they hunted you. After you'd built a place to keep you safe and survive all by yourself while lookin for your brother. Then watched you help a stranger who was dyin. Help a community that needed you despite not havin a reason to trust any of them. Ren, it wasn't that one thing you did that makes them think that you're strong. It's everything they know you did after that does." He leaned up and pressed his lips to her forehead, holding her there he whispered, "You're strong enough to take care of all of them."
He knew that's what this was about, she was worried about doing the right thing for all of them instead of herself. Sighing and leaning her head on his shoulder she said, "I'll talk to them tomorrow during the verdict."
"You sure you don wanna be there?" He asked.
"Yeah." She cuddled up to him, "I don't even want to think of them anymore."
"Still wanna learn how to hunt?" He wrapped his arms around her.
"Yeah." She answered, "I have a group of people to feed when you aren't around."
"I'll always be around."
"You better."
Sera had come up from the dorm late in the afternoon. Ren greeted her at the gate, and she asked, "So do you know what the verdict was, hermana?"
"I do." She answered.
"And?" Sera looked at her.
"He apparently hated it." Ren smirked, "Now I wish I had been there just to see him get all red in the face and pissy."
"What was it?" Sera said, "Please tell me castration."
"Nah, they didn't know how to make that work, but apparently it was on the table." Ren laughed, then told her, "Life imprisonment. But since he can't manage to keep his hands to himself, they'll be taking them."
"No." Sera held back the smile, "They're going to cut off his hands?"
"Apparently Negan offered it up as an option and Rick liked it since he didn't want those hands being able to get on his daughter if he were to ever escape." Ren told her.
"Smart man." Sera said, "I may want to be there for them cutting them off, just letting you know."
"More power to ya." Ren chuckled, "So are you ready to do this?"
"Yeah." They began walking to the town hall, "They said two of us had to do it?"
"Well Maggie was the only one that signed for Hilltop, but they say two is typical to make sure that it was all agreed too." Ren stopped before they opened the door, "Now we're all sure about this?"
"I know we were just talking over the walkie, but you should have seen the other three, they were all about it." Sera told her, then put her hand on her friends' shoulder, "You realize since I'm signing this too, that means you're sharing responsibility for it too. If it goes tits up, we fucked up together."
Ren laughed, "I doubt it will. Just know that if we're sharing responsibility that if I hunt the food you have to skin it."
"Hell no, I'll take care of the crops." Sera smirked before they opened the doors together. They saw Maggie, Michonne, Rick, Carol, Cyndie, Daryl, and Negan all waiting for them at the desk where the charter had been pulled down and laid with a pen next to it.
"Ready?" Sera asked.
"Yeah." Ren answered.
A/N: Yay! The Dorm is offically part of the communities! Let me know what you guys think!
