June 20, 2017
- Olivia -
Olivia chose Hilltop as her home at a time when she didn't think Alexandria could ever change enough under Deanna's leadership for her to be comfortable there. She didn't expect it to be anything more than a community where an abusive, alcoholic male doctor was allowed free reign to harm his family because people trusted the heterosexual male general practice doctor more than the lesbian female psychiatrist. Somewhere along the way, Alexandria had advanced, although she had been correct it wouldn't do so under Deanna's leadership.
Instead, as the visitors pour off the Homestead emblazoned vehicles, there's a single Alexandria Humvee that holds Aaron and Spencer, along with two men she recognizes as probably being along to help Carol's people with any heavy lifting. Carol's interaction with her is brief, asking her to call a community meeting. As Olivia watches the normally warm and motherly woman assess the slowly gathering crowd, she slips back to stand alongside Spencer.
"How is your mother doing?" she asks. It's a ritual between them by now, and the younger man shrugs.
"Still too stubborn to officially resign, but Alexandria seems content enough with the unofficial council we've been running. No sense in denting what pride she has left." Spencer's careful tiptoeing around his mother's stroke and the odds that she'll ever recover enough to lead Alexandria again is a maturity she didn't expect of the spoiled rich boy she met when the military first herded them into Alexandria.
"Are you their official representative for whatever happens tonight?" she asks. Her own decisions have been made, although she understands why Carol's here, making certain that a community doesn't pay the price of their leadership's poorly advised decisions.
Spencer nods. "Aaron and I both are. Mother designed us officially, and the rest of the council will follow suit."
Olivia doesn't think Carol is going to get positive results. Something about the long peace and ease of life here has caused Hilltop in general to grow conceited in their prominence as the largest and most advanced of the Virginia Allies. There's a feeling that they're too essential for any consequences, and she doubts they understand the significance of turning on one of their own.
Most have never read the actual alliance agreements. Homestead has always been so carefully velvet gloved and generous that Olivia actually saw Emmett and Michael relax when it was Carol who arrived and not Merle or Shane, the other two Homestead council members currently in Virginia. It's a mistake, because years of being part of the extended Dixon clan means Olivia knows without a doubt, the two most dangerous are two of the sweetest tempered, and one of them is reading the Hilltoppers like the open books they are. The other will probably never return after the betrayal of the council.
By Olivia's estimate, everyone is here, so she bids Spencer and Aaron goodbye and steps forward to begin her last action as a Hilltop council member.
- Carol -
It's interesting how people can be brave when they don't have to face anyone their choices will impact. Carol makes sure her greetings to the Hilltop council are the sort of cool and polite she reserved for those who looked the other way during her years with Ed. Merle had wanted to come with her, when she selected those of their people to come tonight, but Logan needed a parent, and this? This is the sort of duty she's not passing off to anyone else. The alliances are her speciality, not Merle's and not Shane's.
No one seems to be concerned by the fact that she's sent people to pack up her children's households. She's not entirely sure they understand she's ordered it done. Jazz is firm that his family will not return to Hilltop if Honey is not welcome.
When Olivia calls the community meeting to order, Carol steps up to stand beside her. Olivia lays a bound and printed copy of Hilltop's community regulations on a table next to a voting box and a stack of printed slips of paper. The vote is supposed to be anonymous in a situation like this, so every single Hilltop resident will simply circle the option to support or oppose the council's vote earlier this evening. A radio is set up to make any announcements necessary after today's vote.
Opening the community book to the appropriate page, Olivia gains everyone's attention. "A number of people approached a council member to request the exile of a member of the Hilltop community. Our regulations state the person facing exile can call for a community wide vote. They also state that if any member of the council disagrees with the vote, they can also call for that vote. Since the council took their vote with one council member absent and the person being exiled also absent, I am calling for a vote."
"Where is Jazz?" Kal calls out. "Why did the council vote on an exile issue without him here?"
Carol is impressed that Olivia didn't need to prompt the young man, but he's one of Honey's longtime soldiers. He probably already understands the answer, but he's helping Olivia's cause.
"The vote was called by Emmett Carson and Michael Fisher within the hour after Jazz left, despite them admitting to being aware of the petition before he left. It is my opinion that they deliberately excluded one of your elected council members from voting."
"As he should be, since the person being exiled is a direct family member."
Olivia smiles cooly at Emmett. "There are provisions to exclude a council member from voting, yet still allow them to be present. It is an act of cowardice to hide a vote from a council member rather than face them."
Carol is actually a little impressed, her own temper simmering down into something frigid rather than heated the longer she waits and observes. She didn't expect Olivia to level the accusation so openly, not like she would, or like Jazz did toward Harlan at the Kingdom in the middle of most of the evening meal.
"There was no need to involve him in the vote if he couldn't cast his." Emmett's standing, shoulders squared, and Carol narrows her eyes as she watches the man. It makes so little sense, that one of the Carson brothers would go behind their backs like this. She can understand if Emmett had personal losses, or no close relationship with the Dixons. But the man seemed to be Carol's friend, baffling her as to what has changed.
"Or maybe you just thought he wouldn't be too angry to remember he can do exactly what I'm doing?" Olivia turns away from Emmett, facing the gathered crowd. "A petition of two dozen people requested that Hannah Dixon be exiled from Hilltop for failure to fulfill her duties to the community regarding security. Emmett and Michael waited until Jasper left Hilltop to call a vote, and it was settled as three to one to exile Honey from Hilltop."
Watching the crowd, Carol takes note of who seems angry, both supportive of Honey and not. There's a decent amount of confusion as well. It seemed the petitioners didn't seek widespread support within the community.
"Can she be exiled when she isn't present?" someone calls out. "To speak on her own behalf?"
Olivia nods. "Yes, anyone can be exiled by council while they aren't present. They have the option to request a vote once they're informed of their exile."
The woman looks thoughtful, glancing at a few people gathered around her. "And if we vote at your request, can she still make that request herself later?"
"She can. It gives the community an option to hear other information, since some might change their mind about a vote to exile. If Honey requested her own vote later, after presenting her own case to the people of Hilltop, it could be reversed or upheld, depending on the vote's outcome."
"Are we allowed to know who brought the petition to the council?" Kal asks, stepping forward with a cluster of young men and women who serve as Hilltop's security. "Or is that private?"
"Typically, we would try to keep it private," Olivia answers. "If the lead petitioner chooses to reveal themselves to make their case prior to a vote, they are welcome to do so."
Carol has no idea who headed up this idea to eject her daughter from the community she helped build. Olivia obviously knows, but she's held firmly to the privacy clause, as she should. The younger woman is a better diplomat than most probably expected her to be, especially with years of practice in helping run Hilltop under her belt.
"I have no problem saying that I took the petition to the council." Earl Sutton steps forward. The man's still wearing his blacksmith's apron. If he were anyone else, Carol might suspect that he's emphasizing his role within the community. Earl's not that sort of political person, though, so he was simply interrupted in his work. "My son died due to her negligence, yet she survived somehow."
It takes all the control Carol spent years developing not to speak. It's not her place - yet. She can see the divisions forming slowly though. Most of the people near Earl and his wife are those who lost someone on the patrol. Grief is something that can turn ugly so quickly that one part of her understands their anger. However, that part of her is not strong enough to dominate the combination of irate mother and pissed off ally that's brewing behind her calm facade.
Bryce steps forward from the group around the young security team members. Olivia's husband is taller than many around him, lacking the bulk of someone like Jazz or Merle, but he has presence in a way many don't after a past as both a Marine and police officer. "Honey had two brothers traveling with her that day. Anyone who knows her knows she wouldn't risk either Danny or Logan."
"They're adopted." The strained cry comes from Tammy Rose. Motherly grief coats her voice, thickening it with tears. Carol would like to feel empathy for her, because Danny's death and Logan's permanent disability make her want to scream curses at the world. But she's choosing the wrong argument.
When she stands, the woman flinches. Carol knows she looks haggard in a way they've never seen, and she takes a deep breath. "Half the children in this community are living with parents who didn't birth them. Are you saying that those families are somehow less than yours? Do you imply I should grieve for Danny less?"
She steps out further, because this is why she's here, not as a council member of Homestead, but as the mother who lost as much as anyone here on that Virginia roadside. Tammy Rose backs up a step, but she firms her stance and regains it to face Carol.
"It's not the same as a child you've raised since birth."
"Oh, it most certainly is." Carol looks around, seeking those who are Tammy Rose's supporters. "Every single child of mine would gut me the exact same way losing them. Danny deserved to live a long and happy life. He deserved to see his child born. And the man who took him from us? He will pay."
"How can he pay if he's the Kingdom's ally, and your daughter living among the people who killed Danny and my Kenneth?"
Carol smiles grimly. "The man who led the group that slaughtered our loved ones will be delivered to Hilltop for judgment. He lives, and he's being watched, and his days are as numbered as those of summer."
Although she hasn't had the chance to speak to Honey, Carol knows how her daughter's mind works. She's slipped enough information to Jazz and Ezekiel in fits and spurts, right under the nose of the madman she's undermining. That fact has held strongest, especially since this Derek was the one who personally fired the gun that killed Danny. He'd been aiming for Logan.
"How can you promise that? She's allied with their leader?" It's Earl, who seems to be honestly wanting an answer. He's grieving, but he isn't wearing it as a heavy cloak like his wife.
"Because it's the same reason I'm here today to allow the entire community of Hilltop to take a stance on the issue of Honey's exile. You cannot condemn an entire people for the actions of a few corrupt leaders."
No one asks what she means by why she's here. Carol wishes they had, to make the vote better informed, but at least this way it'll be an honest reflection of everyone's opinion. Small groups form, conversations Carol cannot hear clearly and doesn't attempt to as she retakes her seat. Olivia allows it for a while, before calling for everyone's attention.
"Do we need more time?" It's starting to get dark, so Carol can understand Olivia wanting to get the vote underway. "The vote can be held tomorrow, to allow everyone time to discuss the issue."
A suggestion is made to get the vote started, and no one objects, so Olivia motions for Michael Fisher to sit beside her at the table. They each check off Hilltop's adults, everyone over sixteen, as they tick off boxes on the small slips of paper that will decide Honey's fate. There's a selfish part of Carol that hopes this vote will bring Honey and Jazz and their families back home to Homestead. But this isn't how she ever wanted that to happen.
She doesn't need the count read aloud by Olivia, who counted the scraps of paper with Emmett, to know that the council's vote is upheld. It makes her wonder if similar divisions exist within her own community, where people would turn on someone who's given years of themselves to bettering the community so easily. Olivia's expression is grim, and the brunette exchanges a look with her husband even as she stands with the final tally in her hands. Bryce disappears.
"Of the one hundred and ninety-two residents eligible to vote, all but seventeen are present tonight," Olivia reads. Most of those are those sixteen to eighteen apprenticed elsewhere, since Hilltop allows that sixteen is adulthood. A few are working in other communities, like Jazz and Paul would be under normal circumstances on a visit to the Kingdom. "The seventeen absent voters would not influence the vote's end result. Ninety-two votes are in favor of exiling Hannah Dixon. Eighty-one are against, and two people wrote in to abstain."
Emmett stands as well now, taking a deep breath. "Hannah Dixon is no longer considered a member of the Hilltop community. The other members of the Alliance will be informed of the decision, as well as her remaining right to one final appeal. They can then make their own decisions as to whether she would be allowed to join their communities."
It's political manuevering, this speech, because everyone out there knows there's no way in hell Homestead would uphold an exile like this. They've actually taken in some that were misfits for other communities, sorting out where they best fit, in the same tradition that they took in the few survivors of the prison that Terminus now calls home. In a situation where someone was truly derilect in their duties, they simply wouldn't be allowed any responsibility at that level in Carol's home community.
Carol wonders, briefly, if the fact that everyone here knows Honey will always have a place at Homestead influenced their willingness to vote for her exile. It probably does. She knows, from the two exile votes Homestead took, both council only since the person didn't request a community confirmation with domestic violence as their reason for expulsion, that considering putting someone out on their own in this world is heart wrenching.
Before she can stand, Olivia raises a hand for attention. "I am resigning from the Hilltop council effective immediately, and I have been asked to tender Jasper Dixon's resignation as well. Both our families will be leaving Hilltop along with Hannah Dixon and Eugene Porter."
"We didn't exile Eugene," someone calls out, sounding a little concerned. Carol thinks they should be, because there are only two fully qualified engineers to service the machinery that Hilltop runs for their own little industrial revolution stage of development. One is Eugene, and the other is Sophia. A few others can tinker, like Honey, or even Earl Sutton. But none can create at their level.
"Did you honestly expect that Eugene would remain somewhere his partner is not?" Carol inquires, taking some small delight in the reality of what they'd just done sinking in. "And while there are those here that think only blood ties count, I doubt Honey's sister will allow her services to be easily contracted." Not to mention that Sophia returned to King's Cross once Honey was located. Between the baby due in July and this vote? It'll be at least two or three months before Sophia would consider travelling.
When Carol stands and reaches for the radio's microphone, she swears Emmett flinches. Queuing the mike, she makes the announcement to the Alliance representatives waiting, of both Honey's exile and the resignation of two of the five Hilltop council members. Acknowledgements come back, one by one. Ezekiel at the Kingdom, Camille at Solomons, Gareth at Terminus, Jorge at King's Cross, Mary at Turtle Pointe, Patty at Savannah Farm, Johanna at Jekyll, and Beth at Tybee. With Carol here for Homestead and Spencer for Alexandria, their representatives aren't needed.
Now for the reason she wrote clauses into the Alliances that made Deanna Monroe, with all her time in Congress, cackle softly and say Carol missed her calling. "Homestead formally withdraws from trade and military alliance with Hilltop. All requests for trade or military assistance must go to other allies. Medical requests will continue to be honored. Apprentice agreements will be honored, but no new agreements made going forward."
Emmett sits down heavily, looking at Michael Fisher with trepidation. Bertie seems aware this was a possibility, but then again, in Carol's estimate, the school teacher is probably the only one other than Olivia who read the entire Alliance document. The crowd looks concerned, but they've made their choices.
The radio alerts. Just as before, acknowledgements come in - but this time, some follow Homestead's lead. By the time Beth Greene speaks for Tybee a second time, Hilltop has lost direct alliance with every Georgia community except Jekyll Island. That one isn't surprising, because Johanna and Jack's small community is about as pacifist as they come, and Honey's exile is more symbolic than effective.
Honestly, so is the Alliance military issue. Carol knows damn well that if Hilltop was attacked, Homestead would swarm to their defense the same as anyone else, ally or not. It's the same spirit that has Honey imbedded in the bandit community. This is more of a "make them think about the consequences" moment.
The trade and apprenticeship will hit them harder. Hilltop has a successful agricultural base, in addition to the fledgling manufacturing they've been managing. They won't starve, but they'll lose a lot of luxuries that only come from further south. It's luxury, though, as far as food. Apprenticeships being limited to Virginia and Jekyll will get tricky for the same reason. Certain key fields still have their true masters numbered in twos and threes.
It's temporary, since Carol knows Honey will advocate to restore everything. They've lost her though, because Jazz won't forgive this maneuver, and Honey follows where her brother goes. Maybe that will be Homestead, this time, since Paul's ties to Hilltop are now cut, but Carol knows it's equally likely to be the Kingdom because Jazz spent years there before finally moving to Hilltop.
Either way, conversation is starting, angry debates, even as Olivia slips away to pack up her home. For now, the three households worth of belongings will be packed away in Alexandria. Merle's even negotiated a greenhouse for all of Eugene's exotic plants. She suspects that Alexandria would love to lure Eugene and Honey both to their community. Only time will tell.
No one seems to notice when she walks away. For now, she's dealt the blows that will keep Hilltop inwardly focused until she knows more about what Honey's up to with this Negan. Her daughter is as safe as she can make her.