A/N: Thank you to all those who spent time reading this story. As I said in an earlier (like way earlier) a/n I do have an outline for the last installment of this series. Maybe one day I'll get around to finishing it.

Aaron was impressed, more so now, with Rand. She was smart, funny and she had done a lot of things, not just for The Castle, but the other communities.

"I think, if I could love a woman romantically, it would be her," Jesus told him as they checked out their new room.

"No kidding. I'm impressed by this," he told his roommate.

"Tom said they had roll-a-ways," the man offered.

"It's a queen bed. I think we can suffer for a few days."

"We could get two double beds and put them in the corners with a divider," Jesus said as he pointed.

"Yeah. Share a wardrobe or get another one?"

"Look at the medieval scholar," he laughed. "We can share. We need clothes."

"Yeah. Maybe they have some."

Glenn's mouth dropped open when he walked into his and Maggie's new room. "Shit," he breathed out.

"No kiddin', Glenn," Maggie whispered.

"Why are you whispering?"

"I feel like I should," she answered quietly.

He laughed. "I can't wait to see the bathroom."

"Carl said Daryl and Michonne had a big tub."

When they walked in and turned on the light, Glenn didn't think he could be any more impressed. "We're definitely using it."

Abraham wiggled his eyebrows up and down when they saw the tub. "Nice."

She laughed. "We'll be using this, I'm sure."

"Yeah, we will, darlin'."

Sasha walked back into the bedroom. "This is huge."

"Queen bed."

"I'm impressed," she admitted in a low tone. "She's funny."

"She's nothing like Deanna," he responded.

"No. She's nothing like Deanna."

Rick had heard about Daryl and Michonne's room from Carl, but he hadn't appreciated what his son had told him. The bed was huge and so was the bathroom.

"Do you think we could have double beds, Dad?" Carl asked.

"I don't see why not, Carl. I think Tom said they had roll-a-ways. I can ask how to get one and see how we could get different beds."

"I'll sleep on the roll-a-way, Dad. I did before. It wasn't bad. Better than the cots we used to have."

"We need clothes, too, Carl."

"I'm sure they have some."

"Maybe. We'll ask Tom."

"Or Michonne or Daryl or Jenny."

"Come on, Carl. We need to go get a tour."

He watched as his son practically skipped to the door. "Dad? This place is huge. You can see everything from the battlements," Rick heard for the umpteenth time.

When they finally got to the lobby Rick wasn't surprised to see Maggie and Glenn checking out the calendar.

"Well?"

"She wasn't kidding, Rick. They have French classes. Russian classes. German classes. Cherokee classes. Spanish classes." Glenn pointed to them as he read.

"Yoga. Kickboxing. Sewing." Maggie copied him.

"The patrol is on here, the hoedown, jazz nights, matinees," Glenn continued to list.

"What don't they do?" Sasha asked from behind him.

"Nothing I can see." Maggie drooped. "They even have harvests on here," she pointed it out as she flipped a page.

"We need to know what's going on," a young boy's voice came from the front door. "Hi. I'm Mark. Tom's my dad. He asked me to give you a tour. Hi, Carl."

"Hi, Mark. Where's Jenny?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Probably with Rand somewhere."

The question from Carl of, "Is she still in trouble?" had him looking between the two boys in confusion. The woman ran this place, didn't she?

"No, she's been good, my dad said, so Seth, Waya and Adrian lifted the lockdown." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we can start in the keep or outside. You can pick."

"Outside," Carl answered right away.

"Okay. We'll start with the apothecary."

Maggie's mouth fell open when they walked into the apothecary. She wasn't payin' attention to Mark as she walked around and looked at all the clothes and shoes that were there.

"What in the hell?" she heard Sasha yell.

"You can pick up clothes and shoes in here," Mark pointed to the shelves. "'Days of Yore' stuff is The Castle stuff."

"Is that the name of this place?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah. The Castle is Ward's Castle, I think. We just call it The Castle. You need to let my dad know what you take. He keeps track of it all."

"Where did all this come from?" Glenn coughed.

"Bridgewater. Daryl, Michonne, Seth, Waya, Adrian and Tsula cleaned out the town. We had crap all over the bailey. Me and Tsula put most of it away," the boy sighed heavily. "We worked on it for days," he huffed.

"Where was Rand?" Rick questioned as he looked at the jeans.

"Rescuing us," he hooted. "She killed the bad guys. I saw her cut one of their heads off. She said when I turn eighteen she'll teach me how to use a sword." Maggie saw the boy shrug. "I don't get why everyone was mad at her. She can take care of herself."

"Another one who wants to be her when he grows up," Jesus laughed softly.

"No kidding," Aaron laughed just as quietly.

"They cleaned out the town?" Glenn's voice rose.

"Yeah. The houses, bars, restaurants, stores. Everything. It took us weeks to put it all away," Mark repeated. "We were still working on it when Daryl, Michonne, Seth, Waya and Adrian came back. Once they got the guns finished, and they helped, it went faster."

"What guns?" Abraham stopped.

"They raided Seth and Adrian's base," the kid replied.

"What?" Abraham shouted.

Mark frowned. "What?"

"They raided a base?"

Mark shrugged again. "Yeah. They came back with guns and gas."

"Where was Rand?" he gawked at the kid.

"She got shot so she had to stay here and help."

Rick almost choked. They raided a base. Shit. This woman was so far out of his league.

"Hey, dad, can Michonne or Rand teach me how to use a sword?" Carl's question made him clear his throat.

"Uh, I'll think about it, Carl."

He smiled. "Cool."

"If you want to come back, you know so we can finish this, just tell my dad what you take," Mark reiterated.

"Right," he whispered and followed Mark outside.

Carl was right. The Castle was huge. Walking the battlements took them the better part of two hours. Everyone had to stop and look out the windows carved into the stone. Abraham, Jesus and Aaron would periodically point out how far you could see in every direction. Hell, he wished he'd found this place. Maybe they should have stopped at a hotel. Damn it.

Sasha goggled at the mill when Mark pointed it out. He explained how it worked and how Rand was still trying to automate it. Glen, the old resident, was there and gave a demonstration of how they took wheat and made it into flour. It looked time consuming and hard.

The smithy actually had someone there trying to make horseshoes. It was kind of fun watching the man heat up the metal, pound on it, dip it in water and watch it steam.

"I'm Anton. I'm trying to learn this," he snorted and pointed to the book. "I used to work with metal, on a smaller scale. I made jewelry before," he explained at her look.

"It looks cool," Carl whooped.

"It's hard work."

"I'm Carl Grimes," he introduced himself.

"It's hard, Carl. I've almost got it down. If you want to learn or help ask Janet."

"Okay."

Aaron was impressed by the greenhouses. He was impressed with everything.

"Hemp?" he asked the woman, Megan, who was working in one.

"Yeah. Industrial."

"Why?" Maggie asked.

"Rope, cloth and maybe toilet paper. Rand's still working on it."

"She works on a lot," Glenn muttered.

"She does," Megan responded coolly with narrowed eyes.

"We want to be her when we grow up," Aaron joked.

"Stand in line, buddy," she laughed. "She's a good person. I'm glad Daryl and Michonne found us."

"They recruited you?"

"Yeah. Rand sent them out because they're her advisors so they'd know who to bring back."

"We're glad we're here, too," Glenn returned.

Abraham stared with a grin on his face at the amount of weapons in the guardroom. Mark said this was just one storage area and they had another one next to the icehouse.

"Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. Would you look at the beauty before you?" he cackled maniacally. He was going to like living here. He felt the need to walk around and touch them all. "Hello, honey," he crooned to AR15 on the wall as he pulled it down.

"Did you want to be alone?" Jesus asked semi-seriously.

"You're weird," Mark stated.

"Son, there is nothing more beautiful in the world than a weapon of this caliber. Unless it's a pretty woman holding a weapon of this caliber," Abraham hummed.

He didn't care the rest of his group was laughing at him. Sash just rolled her eyes as he put it back. "I'm going to write my name on one of these bad boys," he promised.

He hadn't paid much attention to the other rooms, except the icehouse, which was stocked with food, and the other weapons storage, where he saw RPG's. "Hell's bells. I would have liked to have done one of these," he muttered as he picked it up and looked it over. He was going to like living here.

Michonne hadn't been lying, Glenn decided, after they'd been here a week. He hardly ever saw her or Daryl or Rand. Between trying to find his way around (it took him a few days), trying to get to know the other residents, watch and helping with the animals, it was a big place and always looked busy. It was busy. He saw people sitting around on the benches or the tables in the bailey, sure, but not all the time. He'd even seen some of the residents playing with swords. He didn't know if it was a class or for fun.

Maggie alternated between being sad Crazy Ass was gone or happy she was here. Glenn didn't like the fact they lost yet another home, but he had a feeling this would be the last one, even if the Fort and Blue Mountain made the town in Bridgewater. He still lived with a group of people but he'd never know it with the large size rooms or the goings on in The Castle. The only time he thought about it was at lunch and dinner.

Maggie liked living at The Castle. She started yoga right away. She knew it probably wouldn't make a difference with the first patrol she'd do, but it would on the others. It was hard. Glenn, Sasha, Aaron and Jesus still played hacky sack together while Carl chose to play with Jenny, Mark, Tsula, Demarcus, Lupe and the other kids.

She understood why those people did patrol. She'd always thought it was a good idea when she found out they did it, but now she found she didn't mind the idea of walking around to make sure no one was in their territory who was an asshole.

Michonne was right that it was a big place. Maggie and Glenn talked about how they rarely saw Daryl or Michonne. Rand, she saw, was all over, sometimes with them, sometimes not.

Rand still called her 'Ms. Greene'. She always used titles with her group. Always. Except Aaron. He saw how the wind was blowing and never told her his last name. Rick would grimace when she called him 'Deputy Grimes'. Carl started to pout when she continually addressed him as 'Mr. Grimes'. When she heard Rand call Jesus 'Paul' she looked at the woman's back in surprise as she walked away.

"How'd you do that?" Maggie questioned right after she'd heard it.

"I told her my name was 'Paul' but some people called me 'Jesus'." He shrugged. "She started calling me by my name."

"That's it?" she almost screeched.

"Yeah.

She hadn't had a chance to tell the woman to call her by her first name so she was still called 'Ms. Greene'.

Sasha was fucking amazed at everything they did here. She didn't listen when Carl was telling the rest of Crazy Ass what The Castle did when he came back. She didn't care because she wasn't there. They had a good place, too. They had food, fences, weapons and people who knew. She even started playing hacky sack to increase her stamina.

They weren't all fun and games. They'd been given papers by Tom for drills and the backup place. When she and Abraham had reviewed them she realized this woman DID NOT fuck around. No one in their right mind would attack this place, she'd seen the fences the first time she came here for patrol, but it wouldn't make any damn difference even if they did. The woman had planned.

Crazy Ass had been a good place but if she'd had the choice? She would have come here. Rand ran circles around Tony and Ash. She missed them a little. Sometimes she wished her and Ty had tried for the mountains instead.

Rick was settling down nicely at The Castle. Unlike Alexandria, but like Crazy Ass, everyone here was prepared. Better prepared than Crazy Ass. Rand was a good leader. He was sure, like everyone else in his group, he wished they'd found her before Aaron found them. Aaron wouldn't be with them, true, but he wouldn't have had to go through the bullshit of the Wolves or the Saviors.

He kicked his own ass for not following Daryl. Judith could've be here, living, playing and learning languages.

He'd been so busy trying to get used to the place and not get lost he never saw Daryl or Michonne. He'd seen Rand a few times. She seemed to be around, something he'd not been able to do when he took over Alexandria.

Carl still liked living here, the things they had and did, but he hated school. Hannah had been a good teacher, but Helen, Rand, Tom and Jamal were tough teachers. He hated science class with Rand. Hated it. Tom was okay with math but he was still a tough grader. He was getting a report card. He couldn't believe he was getting a report card.

Jenny said she got one and Rand was all over her when she didn't do her best.

"I hate school," he whined to his dad after he flopped on his double bed one night after dinner.

His dad laughed. "Why?"

"Ugh, Dad," he moaned. "It's hard. I hate science. Rand's classes are hard."

Carl didn't mind sharing a room with his dad. The rooms were huge. He knew that from when he stayed with Michonne and Daryl. He'd even talked his dad into a divider like Aaron and Jesus had in their room.

He knew Glenn was kind of irritated he wasn't on the run team to go get their beds, Rand already had one, but he liked this bed better than his other one. Both of them were still better than those sucky cots, though.

He didn't see a lot of Michonne and Daryl and Jasper. He spent a lot of time with Rand. She still called him 'Mr. Grimes'.

"'Mr. Grimes'," he imitated. "'What is the end result of pollination? Mr. Grimes, how many planets in this solar system? Mr. Grimes, what are the characteristics of tomato seeds?' Ugh." Carl sat up. "Does she still call you 'Deputy Grimes'?"

"Yeah."

"She calls Jesus by his name. Why won't she do it for us? What the hell, Dad?" he ended in a shout.

"Carl, watch your language. She calls Jesus by his name because he asked her, too. Ask her to call you 'Carl'."

"Oh," he deflated. "Are you going to?"

"Yeah, when I get a chance. The title doesn't mean anythang anymore."

Carl grinned. "You like it here. Better than Crazy Ass."

"Carl," his dad sighed. "Crazy Ass was a good place."

"Yeah, but this one's better."

"Carl," Rick sighed again. He wouldn't admit The Castle was better than Crazy Ass. Crazy Ass had been a good place after everythang they'd gone through. It had been nicer than the prison, no doubt, but it was the people that had made it. The people at The Castle were the same. Better, if he was honest with himself. They put themselves out there, he'll have to put himself out there, for their protection. The protection of the other communities.

He looked down at his new cowboy boots he'd taken from the apothecary. He wasn't doing a patrol in them so he'd need to get some hiking boots. Walking for that long in his boots was somethang he didn't want to do again. Once was enough.

Later that night, laying in his bed, listening to Carl breathe, he smiled. He missed Hannah and Taylor, Tony and Ash, the others, but him and Carl would do just fine here. Just fine.