XXXI.

"Rick, stop glaring—" Amanda warned, kneeling down in front of the tiger as she unfastened the leash, "You're spooking her." He couldn't help, his gaze stuck at the wild animal, Rick continued to stare. With a contained, little smile, Amanda lifted her head up, her hand still on the leash, "You promised me, baby."

Damn him!

He really stopped making promises to her in the bed.

His father had once told him a man should've never made promises in the bed, and Rick had begun to understand what his father had meant better now. Last night she'd implored to him to unleash Shiva between their…festivities, giving him that look, her eyes wide open, moist, and so earnest as much as the expression on her face, deciphered.

Then of course, somehow Rick had said okay. Okay, baby, okay…won't stop you. I promise.

God, he really stopped making promises to her in the bed.

But Shiva—the tiger as if she had also understood what was happening had moved to Amanda closer, almost urging Amanda to be faster, rubbing her nose against Amanda's neck the way Amanda had picked up too—waiting to be free.

Amanda laughed merrily, and it flashed through his wariness, and momentarily Rick thought what he could do to make her laugh that daily—just like he wanted her to be—Everything. He could do everything.

"You can't wait, either, huh?" she asked to the wild beast, laughing, "Yeah…I know…" she lifted her head again and this time smiled at him, "C'mon—pat her, too."

Slowly, Rick knelt down beside her, and started stroking the big cat's fur, "Ezekiel really trained her good. She listens to my word—" Amanda continued, "She's a good girl—" she turned to the tigress and unleashed her, "Aren't you, sweetheart, my good girl."

Free, Shiva gave them back a roar, craning her enormous, regal head upward, and Rick pulled back an inch on reflex, but Amanda stayed where she was. She stood up and snapped her fingers, "Come on, let's take a walk."

A walk in the woods with a tiger….

Rick sighed, bowing his head, but turned on his heels to follow them. Shiva was prowling calmly a few feet away in front of them, really listening to Amanda's commands, Rick observed with half of astonishment. He flicked his eyes at Amanda again, walking beside him with a satisfied expression at her face, "How did this happen?" he inquired, "How she listens to you?"

Amanda shrugged, "Frankly I don't know—" she answered, "She just does. She knows I want her to—be happy. We—talked when I found her in the cage. Told her she needed to eat. Told her that wasn't her. It couldn't be. I think she understood me." Her eyes found him too, "She trusts me, Rick, so she listens to me." She laughed, shaking her head, and took his hand. She brought it up to her lips and turning his palm, gave a brief kiss at the healing wound in his palm, "Sounds familiar, huh?" she asked, moving her eyes up to look at him.

The urge to drop her on the ground and climb on her was so strong again, a sharp breath escaped from him, his eyes growing heated, and catching him, Amanda shook her head. "Nope. Don't do it—don't seduce me. We need to talk."

"I am seducing you?" Rick asked with a chuckle, pulling her closer to his side, "Woman, since the time we met, you did nothing but tried to seduce me."

Her mouth half open, she faltered her steps, looking at him. Sensing her, Shiva stopped too a few feet away at the front, and twisted her head back to look at them, waiting. "I did not!" Amanda cried out in protest lowly, keeping herself as quiet as possible in the deep woods.

But it was too late. A crunch of the branches told Rick they weren't alone. Rick took out his hatchet, alert as Amanda whispered at Shiva, moving toward the wild beast, "Shiva, down."

Rick saw two walkers coming toward them from the left side and moved quickly. He turned to Amanda, "Stay here. I got 'em."

"Be my guest."

Rick rolled his eyes half as he struck at the first walker directly at the brain, telling her in the meanwhile, "You were trying to seduce me—" he told her, breathing out deeply as his palm throbbed with pain, and he used his good leg to kick off the walker's torso to take off his hatchet, blood sputtering at his jacket's collar and his chin, "Popping those berries into your mouth—staring at me—telling me—" he continued, turning to the second one.

Standing beside Shiva, her arms crossed over her chest, she cut him off, "You know I just washed that jacket—" she said, her eyes narrowing, "You don't have to make such a mess every time you kill a walker, sweetheart—" she sneered dryly, and flashed at him a smile, one of the ones that used to make his teeth grit in annoyance, "We all already know how badass you are. And I wasn't trying to seduce you. I was testing you, remember?"

In answer, tossing at her a look, Rick swung the hatchet at the second walker, cutting off the head—blood squirting once again so much with pressure, it splashed over even at Amanda, making a few red specks at her cheek. She rolled her eyes exaggerated, snorting out, wiping her cheek, "Show off."

Rick grinned at her, and walked to her, hanging his hatchet back at his belt, "You were seducing me," he told her.

"Maybe." She shrugged then, giving him a grin back, "A little."

He walked even closer to her, "Then you started avoiding me after I bit you—" He shook his head, smiling at her further, "Mixed signals…"

She raised her hand, and pointed a finger at him, "Okay, I wasn't avoiding you," she said back firmly, but her smile still on her lips, "I was regrouping."

"Regrouping?"

"Yeah…" she said as they started walking again, "You caught me unawares. So, naturally, I called a tactical retreat—trying to see how my sums were adding up—where I was standing—"

He gave her a curious look, "Where were you standing?"

"Pfft—I don't know. I might've figured it out if you would've just leave me alone."

He laughed at that, and took her hand this time, "Figure out you were falling in love with me?" he asked innocently.

She gave him a look back, "Rick—" she sighed out in exasperation.

He laughed again, low in his chest, and yanked her closer at his side, "I'm just messing up with you, baby."

"I know." She shook her head as his arm wrapped around her shoulder, "Okay. You had your fun, let's talk about work now," she stated, tossing at him a glance, "We need to move, Rick. It's almost a month now."

His expression getting stiffened, Rick nodded, but didn't say anything. He knew she had a point, almost a week had passed since they had come back from the Junkyard and brought the materials they'd taken from there to the Kingdom. They had started making body armors and Rick was beginning to think they needed to armor also the vehicles, but Amanda also had a point. The month was finishing, and in the following weeks Simon would return for next tribute. The time for real planting had come too, they were at the beginning of the spring and they needed to start planting now if they wanted to harvest in the summer. The Saviors had demolished all their crops and greens when they'd attacked the gates the last time, Rick had seen the burned, scorched earth. They'd started healing the soil, but they couldn't take another chance with that.

No. They needed to start rolling the ball. He had no idea what Simon was up to, what he was doing, was also preparing or was dealing with his own problems in the house. They had no intel from inside, they were completely blind. They'd been careful, though, always watching out scouts or spies—each time they set out at the road, they screened the roads before to make sure they weren't spied on.

His main fear that Simon would've somehow learned—seen Amanda with him. They really started this, but—but—"We need to go back to Junkyard for the last time, get the materials for the vehicles, and start," Amanda continued as they walked in the woods, "We need to get all who can't fight here, and you need to move your base to Hilltop."

They'd decided that Hilltop had a better tactical advantage given its location, at the top of the hill, having a clear view at every direction. Holding the heights was such a strong strategic point that it would give them a better advantage if things turned out worse and they ended up with a siege again. That time was going to be the last time they'd caught unprepared. Rick wasn't going to make the same mistake again. Leaving Alexandria was hard, but it was the surest way to keep it safe. If it was abandoned, there would be no need to threaten it, to destroy it. No. They would return later, when this was all done, they were going to go back. Until they needed to play smart and safe. "Then we need to go find this Laura," Amanda said for the last.

His face souring, Rick stayed in silence. "Rick—" Amanda started then again, "We talked about it before. We need someone inside," she continued, and she was right. They needed someone to tell them what was going on the Sanctuary, Rick just didn't like it, "and you need to reach to the people there. If we just carry a big stick without the soft words, we'd be just another Negan."

Speak softly and carry a big stick… Two days ago, Amanda had summed up the strategy that they needed to follow quoting the words, pointing out that if it'd worked for the President, then it'd surely work for them, too. Of course, she had been right again. Rick knew he could never convince those people to peace—to surrender if they didn't carry a big stick. Amanda had called it simply realpolitik, for Rick it was just the way of the things, and for that the world hadn't changed all that perhaps, but only gotten worse. And that was what he'd been trying to do, gathering up his forces, forging a big stick that would get everyone enough motivated to sit down and start talking for a truce.

For peace.

"I've been thinking," Amanda continued then as he turned her around to get them back to the camp, "Frankie said they got an intercom system. You can make a…tape," she mused out, spinning an idea as Rick flickered his eyes at her, "And if we somehow convince this Laura to transmit it through the intercom, then everyone at the factory might listen it."

That made him turned to her fully, "You want me to make a tape?" Rick asked.

She nodded, "You can hardly go at their doors and make a speech with a megaphone, Rick," she said, sighing out, "and if we tape it, it'd get circled around, people listening with their own stereos. Frankie said they got devices to listen music." She nodded again, "This's how we get your words spread out in secret, Rick. Once it starts, they won't be able to stop it."

"How we know this Laura would do that for us?" Rick questioned then the weakest point of her plan.

Amanda gave out a sigh at that, and shrugged, "Well, there's only one way to find out." She then paused a for second, and gave him a smile, "Besides, your birthday's coming. I really need to be at home by then." She smiled further, walking closer to him, and coiled her arms around his neck, "I promised you a cake, remember?"

Smiling back at her, Rick rested his forehead at hers, "Chocolate cake—" he reminded her.

"Hmm mm… I'm picking up berries from the forest," she said back, "Chocolate and berries. Sounds good?"

"Sounds so good I want to bite you again—" Rick whispered at her, and as his lips found hers, he caught with the corner of eyes Shiva watching them, her massive head lifted up, her tail flickering over Amanda's legs.

# # #

The next morning, they were gathered up at Hilltop again, after Rick had sent Daryl to call the leaders and lieutenants of each community, expect Jadis. Today after the meeting they would go back to the Junkyard to get more materials to reinforce the cars and tell her the rest of the plan.

Rick hadn't wanted the woman to know anything other than the fighting, so they were excluded, a fact Amanda felt rather glad. If they were an army, those Junkyard people would've only made…foot soldiers. No need to get them up in the command.

Even in the communities, there weren't all of people had come. From Alexandria, their council had come together with Michonne as she was still charged with its security, and from Kingdom, only Richard, Dianne and Jerry, the former guards of Ezekiel. From Oceanside, Cyndie and Beatrice had come, Natania opting not to take any partition in the fight. Frankie and Tanya had come with them, too, as they needed their intel. Maggie, Abraham and Sasha were already at Hilltop, helping the community to get back at its feet, and Ethan and another two from his own team were with them too.

The first outpost they needed to hit was the Satellite outpost, Rick know, before things turned to ugly, they needed to get Ethan's brother out of there.

"We need to start rolling the ball now—" Rick told them when everyone had been gathered inside the old mansion, "First we need to get everyone who can't fight to Oceanside, so we know they'll stay safe. Then everyone else will move to Hilltop. If anything happens, Hilltop's gonna be our standing point."

"We leave our compounds?" Richard asked.

"For a little while," Rick said, "We need to make sure we won't suffer any retaliation after we start hitting outposts. The Saviors are after the resources, and the towns are resources as well. If we aren't there, there'd be no reasons to harm our homes."

"They might start their own outposts," Spencer said back, and Rick held back a grimace. But this time he could hardly get angered with the last Monroe as the man had a fair point, too, "So we're not just supposed to leave our homes like this."

"It's to protect them," Rick snapped, turning to the younger man, "If they start an outpost or anything, we could take it back after the peace."

"Peace?" Spencer shook his head, "Now you talk about peace."

"Spencer—" Amanda cut in, "This isn't a time for that—" She then turned to all of them, "What we're doing here isn't preparing for war," she told them, "This isn't a zero-sum game, where only one side could win and the other lose—" She shook her head, "No. We have to convince both sides could win."

"How?" Richard said flatly.

"Well, we'll speak softly and will carry a big stick," Rick summarized the strategy for them, too, "And will convince them for a truce. So, everyone wins."

"And Simon?" Cyndie asked with a frown, "We said say to fight because of him. If you want to make truce with him, you'll make it without Oceanside. We make no truce with that monster."

Here they started— "And his lieutenants—" Jerry said, too, when Cyndie had finished, "They—they caused us too many hurts over the years. We can't make truce."

Maggie nodded as well, "They're right. We need to fight. We need to kill—"

Rick cut them off, "Three hundred and fifty-four people!" he said in a rasped hiss, "You want us to kill of them—" he asked back, echoing the same question Amanda had asked him before, "We'll give them an option. Simon—yes, you're right," he continued, "There can be no truce with him, too much water under bridge, and he knows that, too, but others—but if others decide to surrender, we need to accept it. We can't make peace if we keep killing them."

"So, we'll accept Arat into our folds?" Richard asked coldly, "Share meals and drinks with her?"

"I'm not asking you to share meals and drinks—" Rick answered back with the same coldness, "I'm asking to stop trying to kill each other."

"She already killed us!"

Amanda shook her head, "She executed an order," she said, "And the one who gave that order is already dead. I'm sorry—this's a hard pill to swallow, but if we keep going on like this, we'd end up like a snake eating its own tail—we have to break the circle."

Break the wheel, Rick's words echoed in her mind, she looked at them, "I know you all suffered at their hands. I did, too. We all did. But we need to find a way to look over our own—suffering but think about the big picture—" God, she would have never thought she would've uttered those words, the big picture—the greater good, but it was the truth as well. This—this was bigger than their own personal quarrels and vengeance. "As the leaders of our communities, we owe this to our people."

"How?" Father Gabriel who was silently listening to their words spoke then, "How we convince them for truce then?"

"We have a plan," Rick said, and talked to them for half an hour, before he nodded, "Get ready. We start in three days."

# # #

After the meeting was finished, they started to prepare for Junkyard with Richard and his group to get the materials for the cars.

Amanda stood there with Beth beside Shiva as Amanda had brought her little cat to make sure Richard and others see how good she was doing, Rick, even though reluctant, had let her. Beth was still standing a few feet away from her as she held her leash. She fucking hated it, but everyone grew so afraid of the wild animal without the last, she had had to put it when they came to the Hilltop. Shiva didn't look she minded it all that much, as if she also understood, but Amanda really fucking hated it.

"We leave now?" she asked to Rick, tying Shiva's leash at the back of the pick-up Rick drove, as he talked to Tobin and Father Gabriel for the last to organize the evacuation of Alexandria, "It's getting late. We need to turn back before the sunset."

Rick nodded at her, leaving Tobin and the pastor. He opened the driver's door of the pick-up as Amanda slipped into the passenger seat and held her stomach with her hands after she buckled her belt. "They'll bring Judith and others tomorrow," he told her.

Her face beamed, "Really?" she asked breathless.

"Yes, I want them to the camp before we start anything."

Amanda nodded, "Yes. They shouldn't stay there."

Daryl moved out first with his bike, Beth at his back, and Rick followed them out. Shiva, at the back, roared loudly with the motor, and Amanda laughed. "She's getting competitive."

Rick laughed faintly, shaking his head, "I wonder from who she gets it—" She rolled her eyes again, throwing her feet off the dashboard, and opened up a salted cracker's package, still one of her favorite food she could stomach, "You brought her with you just to show her to Jadis, didn't you?" he asked suddenly, skipping his look from the road at her.

Her eyes fixated ahead, Amanda took a cracker and threw it in her mouth, her chin raised up with a smile, "No comment."

Before the sunset, they started going through Junkyard again to gather the last pick-up, Shiva walking around unleashed. Yeah, she'd also left her unleashed. "Amanda—showing off is done," Rick told her when they were alone, "Put her back in leash."

She shook her head, climbing over a heap of the trash at the end of the Junkyard, the last part they hadn't still covered up yet. "No. She's fine," she said, pushing herself to the peak, "Let her wander—she was leashed today a lot. Besides—" She suddenly stopped at the words, her eyes caught a scene at the far end of the Junkyard ground, "Hey—come here—" she called back at Rick, "You gotta see this."

"What's it?" Rick asked quickly, running up towards her at the unbalanced heaps.

She shook her head. He needed to see it. She couldn't explain. He—he needed to see it. Before her, below down her lay a small meadow, the backyard of the Junkyard possible, half brown half green with a few scattered metal stuff rusting off, but they weren't the reason why Amanda had called out Rick.

No. What had caught her attention was that in the middle of the opening there was a circle of flattened grass—a circle that had been made by big stones, and there was a big white H painted down in the middle.

She stared at it—realizing what was it as Rick stood beside her, looking at it. "Well, I guess I got a tiger, and she got a helicopter," Amanda said after a while as they both continue to look at it.

# # #

At the end, they decided not to tell anyone anything, but continued to play dumb. "Do you think we did the right thing?" Amanda asked back in their cabin in the night after they'd returned from the Junkyard, playing with the recorder that Rick was going to record his—tape.

He shook his head, "I don't know," and he confessed, "Better if we keep this simple for now. Whatever it's, it's already happened. She doesn't know where we live."

"That didn't work well the last time—" she muttered out, and snapping his head at her, Rick gave her a look. "I know we—we went to Hilltop first, but a helicopter—" she said, "If—"

Rick cut him off, "It just means they still might have fuel to keep it operational," he said back, and Amanda wondered if he believed the words, or just was trying to placate her, "Even we had a tank of fuel a few weeks before," he reminded her.

She gave a half nod, "I know but—that symbol—like a banner—it means something, Rick." Turning away from her, he stayed in silence, unbolting his holster, and dropped his Colt Python on the chair beside the door. "If—if they got some sort of technology—you know—" she said then, "The babies—" Rick turned and gave her a full look now, and she stopped.

Rick didn't like talking about it, and she understood it was the wrong time, as well. Amanda knew he still had the same fears she had gotten so scared when she had first heard she was expecting twins, and even though she pretended her fears still weren't there each day she aged in her pregnancy, that prospect was growing closer and closer.

During the weeks she'd passed at Oceanside, most of the times she'd pushed back the thoughts whenever her old fears had caught her, never letting them to seize her again. She couldn't deal with them—not yet… And that feeling—the feel of life stirring in her insides…the bursting energy, her libido…her feelings… everything was so heightened, it was…hard to stay focus on them, so much easier snugging in Rick's arms and…be happy, truly…happy. She didn't want to think how things could go bad now, didn't want to over analyze everything, worrying... She wanted to get back at home, make finger painting with Judith and Carl, bake his birthday cake to Rick. She didn't want to think of it. But whether she wanted or not, it was still there, too, the reality…how the Sanctuary was a part of their reality, too, a fact they couldn't run away or close their eyes.

In five months, most probably in less than five months she was going to give birth to twins. And everything might go well without a problem, a miracle itself—but what if…what if…

She took a shaking breath, she shook her head a little, pushing away the thought, and tapped at the record. Not now, she told herself. Not now. They needed to deal with this. They couldn't afford to get distracted.

And everything was going to be fine. They—they had overcome so many things. They could manage this, as well. She—she was going to have her babies. Nothing would happen. They would be fine. Together. Back at their home. The family she'd always wanted…always had dreamed.

She swallowed through her tight throat, and slipping an old-fashioned cassette into the recorder's deck, she pushed it down, and looked at Rick. "It's ready," she told him.

Walking to him, Rick took the mike of the recorder from her, and gestured at her with tilt of his head. As Amanda pushed the two keys together, the tape started recording. Rick brought up the mike closer to his lips and started making his speech.

After he was finished, Amanda rewind the tape, and they started listening it, his voice live and in stereo, still commanding with that timber in his tone, "If you're listening to this, I know you were told that I'm a monster, a man who wants to take what's yours from you—an enemy who wants to kill you," it continued after a brief pause, "But I'm not. My only real enemy is the dead, and only the dead, and those who are worse than the dead. Those who exploit weaknesses, those who use fear, those who use the brute force to make you kneel."

Another brief pause before his voice turned to absolute, having all the strengthen, resolution, and unyielding willpower in him as he announced, "This's Rick Grimes speaking, and I'm here to offer you another path, another world." Another pause, "A world that is ours by right. A better world."


All righty, here Rick making another speech. I'm mixing his speeches from the beginning and end of the season 8, but I need to find to put the whole speech into the narrative. I usually only use Rick or Amanda's point of view, only a few Beth scattered around, and Daryl once, and they aren't in the Sanctuary, either. Pftt. Anyway, I'll think of something. I just like the idea of Rick's giving a speech at all Sanctuary through the intercom, his voice live and in stereo. If you watched 13 Reasons Why, you might understand what I'm saying.

"Speak soft, and carry a big stick" is the famous quote from the President Theodore Roosevelt, which was also his foreign policy, and it still continues to be USA's policy, in my opinion, most of the times. And, again, if I have to be frank, it's usually the best viable option dealing with a conflict for a non-sum zero game solution. As Amanda is also supposed to be a good tactician and strategist, she needs to think like one. As co-leaders, Amanda lays out the strategy, and Rick finds ways to execute it...and they end up with the world domination, LOL. Either way, it's great fun for me to write them like this, Amanda still insisting that she hadn't been avoiding him :)

And, like always, stay safe and stay at home, and don't forget to review! It really motivates me a lot.(I think I finished a month now in the social isolation at home. SUCKS) Love you bunches.