Angel was going over books with Enid, Daryl hadn't allowed her to go to the lumber yard to help saw, she was sore bending over. She had just rolled her eyes at him but let him have his way today, because her muscles were sore, and Enid did ask for help. They were going over suture procedure again, since that's what Enid seemed to be running into the most when she heard yelling.

"ANGEL!" Daryl yelled coming into camp. "ENID!"

Both of them went running from the tent and Angel saw him supporting Aaron and she gasped, "Shit! Aaron."

She went to help Daryl as Enid got the bed ready and pulled out a book. Enid looked at the arm, "We have to amputate."

"What?" Aaron asked.

"She's right." Angel looked at it.

"The only way to stop the bleeding is to cauterize and amputate the wound." Enid continued.

"There ain't no other way?" Daryl asked Angel.

"No, she's top of the class." Angel told him, prepping Aarons arm, "The blood vessels are crushed, this is the only way." Angel handed Daryl the rope and he started wrapping it above Aarons elbow. Enid grabbed all the tools and looked down at Angel, who was now straddling Aaron, her hand on his shoulder. Angel gave her a nod, the girl had to learn some time, "You got this."

"Sorry man." Daryl told him.

"Just look at me, brother." Angel told him, "Concentrate on me."

Enid paused holding the bone saw and Aaron looked at Angel, giving her a nod, then looked to Enid, "You can do this."

He looked back to Angel as Enid put the blade to his arm. Angel put all her weight on him, keeping him down. This was worse than delivering a baby. Daryl held the rope in place as Angel held him still, all while Enid worked. She spoke in her friends' ear as he cried out, "It's okay. You can pass out, as long as you wake up."

"I will." He grunted back, knowing that he was going to do exactly what she said soon, and as the saw hit his bone, he was out.

Now that he wasn't struggling against her she paid attention to what Enid was doing, coaching her when the girl asked for help, but she was doing wonderful considering it was her first time. Once they didn't need Daryl anymore, he was out of the tent, searching for whoever was supposed to turn the herd. Angel wasn't far behind him when Enid gave her the okay.

She found Daryl hitting Justin with a pot as Carol yelled, "Daryl, stop it!"

"Why the hell should he?! My brother just lost his damn arm!" Angel shoved Justin back to the ground as he tried to get up, keeping him down for Daryl to get on top of him.

Carol finally stopped him, and Daryl stalked off after she said that she would deal with Justin. Carol looked at her, "You normally try to stop him."

"Normally people do their jobs at their damn post." Angel looked back at her, "He's been putting up with this asshole longer than you have. This isn't out of the norm for him. Today it just happened to cost Aaron his arm."

Carol sighed, giving her a sad smile as she watched Angel go back to the tent Aaron was in.


She was sitting on Aarons cot, holding the hand he had left with Daryl sitting on the chair beside them when Rick came into the tent. He asked Enid if Aaron was going to be alright and she said he would as long as it didn't get infected. Daryl turned to look at Rick, "He's holdin on though."

"Damn right I am." Aaron murmured out.

"That's my boy." Angel smiled at him, feeling him squeeze her hand.

"Sucks it took this for you to spend some decent time with me." He told her.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up and rest." She laughed.

Daryl moved so Rick could come and sit down by Aaron and Rick started apologizing to him, "I'm so sorry this happened to you. We were all supposed to be working together, I thought we were."

"You couldn't have known." Aaron said and squeezed Angels hand. She knew this meant to keep quiet.

"I've been pushing everyone hard." Rick looked around the tent, "I know I have. I put this project first and you paid the price."

"It's worth it." Aaron told him, "When the dead started to rise, I thought I was seeing the end of everything. But you changed all of that Rick. It's not the end of the world anymore. It's the start of a whole new one." He lifted his hand from Angels, running his finger down her cheek, "I'll always be glad I was here to be a part of that."

She gave him a soft smile, "Softy."

"Yeah." He smiled, "More like stubby now."

Angel let out a laugh and Aaron joined in too, before wincing in pain, "Don't hurt yourself with your own bad dad joke."

"Alright." He smiled. Rick watched the two of them, feeling guilty for the fact they had been kept apart for so long.

"Angel, can I have a word?" Rick asked.

Aaron patted her on the hand, and she sighed, "Yeah."

Getting up she followed Rick out of the tent and down aways so no one inside could hear them. He pointed, "When he's good enough to move, you should take him back to Alexandria." She raised an eyebrow at the man, "Enid's good but you two are close, you're able to carry him, and Saddiq should take a look at him.

She crossed her arms, "I thought I wasn't allowed inside the walls?"

"I was wrong." He looked down at the ground, "I was wrong to kick you out of your home. Our home."

"Daryl's my home. He always has been. That's why I didn't stay in Alexandria when you first sent him to Sanctuary." She crossed her arms.

Rick let out a laugh, "I thought it's 'cause you were mad at me."

"Well there was that too." She admitted.

"And you're still mad." He sighed.

"Yeah." Angel told him. She knew he was trying to make it right, trying to make things better between them, hoping that it would also make things better between him and Daryl again. She let out a breath, "But I'll take Aaron home, when he's stable enough to be moved. I'll make sure that he's seen too and look in on Gracie, then I'll come back. I'm doing this for him, not you though." She made sure that was clear, "Aaron is my brother and I'd do anything for him. Just like Daryl would for you, so make sure you remember that, because it goes both ways."

"I know." He gave her a small smile, "So are we going to be okay?"

"No." She answered, "Not for a while. I still want Negan dead. But I'm willing to try. For Daryls sake."

He nodded as she turned to go back in the tent, he knew that was as good as it was going to get for right now. At least she didn't try to hit him this time and said more than one sentence to him.


Rick decided he would ride back with Angel and Aaron in case they needed any help and he watched as she supported him onto the horse before getting on the animal behind him. He saw how she was with him, and he knew that what'd he'd said to Daryl about her not being well so long ago wasn't true. She was still Angel, she always had been, it was him that changed, and he tried to pile it all on her because she stayed the way she had always been.

As they went Rick listened to them joke around with each other, Angel providing much needed support for Aaron to stay upright. He asked, "So you going to show me how to change a diaper with one hand?"

"Ah, it's not that hard." Angel told him, "Just takes some finger dexterity."

"You've done it before?" Aaron laughed.

"Gracie isn't the first baby I've helped take care of in the end of the world."

Rick couldn't help but smile, "And she's helped out a lot with the other. Some nights Judith refused to go to sleep if she wasn't humming or singing to her."

"Please make that happen with Gracie. Dad's going to need a lot of sleep." Aaron tried to look at her over his shoulder.

"I'll see what I can do while I'm there." Angel smirked.

When they returned to Alexandria, they got Aaron to Saddiq and Rick lead her to where Gracie was staying while he was gone. He watched with a warm smile as Gracie hobbled over to Angel, who scooped the little girl up into her arms and asked, "Goodness! Who is this giant in the place of my niece?"

The girl laughed slightly, her hand in her mouth and Angel asked, "It's been a while, but do you remember me?"

Gracie smiled at her, "Aunt."

"God, you can't be old enough to understand me." Angel groaned and the girl looked at her confused and Angel smiled, "Good. Now, you wanna go see daddy?"

The little girl nodded her head and held onto Angel as they left the house. Angel had to admit it was weird being back in Alexandria after so long, but she spent the day with Gracie while Aaron rested.

The next day while they were playing in the garden Rick gave her a nod as she tossed the girl up in the air, a loud laugh coming from the toddler. Angel nodded back at him, she still wasn't happy with him, but she was glad to spend time with her niece. She also did everything she could to avoid where Negan was being held, she knew she would try to kill him again, but that Aaron and Gracie needed her at the moment.

Aaron was more awake and the three of them sat together in the infirmary, Gracie on her lap coloring as Angel and Aaron talked, "No, I told you, she knocked right out last night."

"How? I have to read her like three stories." Aaron couldn't believe it.

"Easy, an old Irish hymn, worked on my cousins, worked on Judith, worked on Herschel, works on her." Ange smiled, "It's baby sound NyQuil."

"I need you to record it and leave it here with me." Aaron laughed.

Rick came into the room with a serious look on his face and looked at Angel, "We…we need to go back to the work sight, there's been an incident."

"Another one?" Angel sighed, lifting Gracie onto the ground.

"It's Justin…someone killed him." Rick told the two of them. "I need you with me to help calm whatever might be happening down, someone to keep the peace, which you're good at."

"You think I can calm it down?" She stood up, "Because they like me a lot less than they like you."

"You're right." Rick nodded, "But they also saw you put a gun in my face, which means they know you won't hesitate."

"Better to be feared than loved? Alright." She sighed, "Let's get the horses."

"Wait!" Gracie grabbed her hand, "You leaving?"

Angel knelt down and smiled at the girl, "Yeah, but I'll be back. Right?"

She looked up at Rick and he nodded, "She'll be back before you know it."

"O-otay." Gracie had big sad eyes as she looked at her Aunt.

"Oh, none of that." Angel wrapped her arms around the girl kissing her on the head, "You gotta keep dad in a good mood okay? Read him stories while I'm gone, yeah?"

"Yeah, otay." The girl nodded as Angel let her go.

She gave Aaron a nod and he smiled and nodded back as she and Rick left through the door.


A/N: Poor Aaron, he always gets the shit end of the stick haha. Let me know what you guys think :) We're almost to the end then I have to wait for the next half to find out what the hell happened during the six year time jump haha.