9 AM
The Kingdom
A bluebird alit on the end of the picnic table where Gavin and Frankie were eating breakfast behind the school cafeteria with Amber, Jennifer, Tina, Dwight, and Sherry. The little bird tilted its head as if to request one of the fresh strawberries on Amber's plate.
"Shoo, now," Frankie told it. "You can settle for worms."
The bird flew away, chirping as it went.
After finishing a bite of his scrambled eggs, Gavin asked, "How are you doing, Amber?"
"I'm hanging in there," she replied. "I miss Mark. But people have been very kind. Attentive."
"What she means to say," Tina said, "is that she's been busy beating off the men."
"Haven't we all?" Jennifer asked.
Gavin glanced at Frankie and wondered if she'd been beating off the men.
Tina shrugged. "At least they're charming, most of them. And Benjamin's cute."
"He's seventeen," Jennifer told her.
"I'm nineteen," Tina reminded her. "And I'm not long for this world. When that insulin Dwight stole runs out in a year…"
"Don't say that," Sherry told her. "We'll find more. Derek and Jonathan are on a supply run to that nursing home even as we speak. And Kevin's looking for natural substitutes that will help you produce insulin."
"Come on," Tina replied to her big sister. "We all know there's no substitute. A strict diet can reduce my need for it so we can stretch the medicine longer. That's the best we can do. And I'm just saying. If I've only got one or two years left, maybe I should help a handsome young knight lose his virginity before I shuffle off this mortal coil. Do a good deed to help me plead my case to St. Peter at the pearly gates. Have a little fun while I'm at it."
"Benjamin is cute," Amber told her. "And a sweet kid."
"Tina's a sweet kid," Dwight said. "Just a kid. She shouldn't be thinking about deflowering knights."
"Thanks, Dad," Tina said.
"So, my brother's not coming back?" Jennifer asked Gavin. "Or Alden?"
"DJ and Alden will visit," Gavin said. "I'll bring DJ next time I come. He'll be here for a day, like me. But they're needed at the Sanctuary. And they have good salaries, ninety points a week, and good quarters. They're sharing one of the old lieutenant's quarters there." He pointed his fork at Dwight. "And you and Sherry have a living quarters with your names on it, too. A nice one. Regina's old quarters."
Sherry glanced at Dwight and then back at Gavin. "That's not happening," she said. "We're staying here. I'm helping with the preschool and babysitting, and Dwight is training to be a knight."
Gavin wiped his mouth with a napkin and said, "I'm going to refill my canteen. Walk with me, Dwight?"
Hesitantly, Dwight followed him over to one of the outdoor water coolers, away from the others. As Gavin unscrewed the cap of his canteen, he said, "I need you. The Sanctuary needs you. We're rebuilding that place into something new, but I need more people I can trust besides just DJ and Alden and Laura and J Money." He pulled down on the handle of the cooler and began refilling his canteen. "The Hallowbrant volunteer guards leave this evening for good. I need you to help train new guards and keep watch until things – "
"- I can't, Gavin."
"Not even a little loyalty left for me?" Gavin released the lever as the water bubbled to the top of the canteen's neck. "After all those medicines I got Dr. Carson to leave unlocked for your sister-in-law, the entire supply? After all the times I kept Negan from - "
"- Sherry's pregnant."
Gavin glanced back at the table where Sherry was laughing with Frankie. "Well, congratulations."
"It wasn't exactly planned."
"Hey, the Sanctuary has an excellent doctor." Gavin took a small sip of the water to keep it from spilling over. "Dr. Carson chose to stay, you know. And he's got that ultrasound machine."
"The Kingdom has an excellent doctor, too. And Sherry doesn't want to give birth in the Sanctuary or raise a baby there. We're staying. I'm sorry, but that's the way it's got to be."
Gavin felt sick to his stomach. He'd thought there was at least a sixty percent chance Dwight would say yes out of a sense of loyalty.
"The shit of it is," Dwight half-whispered to him, "I don't know if it's mine. Or that asshole's. I really wish you hadn't asked her to do that."
"There was no other way for someone to get that close when Negan was that relaxed. It was one time, Dwight. No way it's his. Besides, she couldn't know she was pregnant already, if it were his. That was less than ten days ago."
"She took one of those pharmacy tests yesterday, because her period was supposed to start two days ago. She says she's very regular. So, it could have been him."
"Do you know how ovulation works?" Gavin asked him.
"Uh…Well…I mean, sort of."
"If her period was supposed to start two days ago, and she had sex with...look, just trust me on this one. My wife and I did Natural Family Planning for a few years before we had the boys. She was Catholic. That baby is not Negan's. It's yours."
Dwight let out a sigh of relief. "How do you live with it, man? Knowing how many times Frankie was with him?"
"I try not to think about it," Gavin said. "It's all in the past. He's gone."
"Yeah, well, Frankie also wasn't your wife. My wife, Gavin. Why'd you have to ask my wife - "
"- You don't get it, do you? A couple more months and Sherry would have been Negan's wife anyway because she'd be desperate to get those medicines for her sister. He would have made it impossible for you to earn enough, would have cut my budget to pay you, whatever he needed to do. And you'd have gone along with her becoming his wife because you couldn't provide for her. And it wouldn't have been once. It would have been over and over. And you wouldn't have been able to blame me. You would have been blaming yourself. But with the help of your wife – who was very brave - I saw to it that asshole was killed and the rest were overthrown. And now you're both free. Even free to piss away your loyalty to me. So cut me some goddamn slack." Gavin angrily screwed the cap back onto his canteen and returned to the table.
Terminus
11:55 AM
The military truck rumbled through the Terminus gate that Rosita was holding open, past the funeral pyre of the skeletal remnants of burnt up bodies and to the side of the eighteen-wheeler that was already inside. The truck was open and already half loaded. T-Dog parked the van next to the military truck as Rosita swung the gate shut.
Daryl hopped down from the military truck. "Well, we did vote to loot," Daryl told Rick. "But looks like y'all already decided."
"Carol radioed on the CB and told us before you got here," Rick replied. "My radio doesn't work, but the Terminus one still does. We got a head start on loading up. But don't worry. There's still plenty of heavy lifting for you to do."
Sasha, emerging from the courtyard, carried a crate of freshly cut vegetables. "Let's put the fresh food in the van," she suggested, and T-Dog opened the back of the vehicle for her. He took the crate from her and pushed it inside.
"First though," T-Dog said, "we should probably break for lunch."
"Break?" Rosita asked him. She'd locked the gate and rejoined the group. "You just got here."
"It's noon. It was a long drive," he reasoned.
They headed for the courtyard for lunch and Daryl peeked in on the rabbits. Someone had cleaned the cage well, and the bottles were all the way full again. The rabbits were looking better. Between the cows and the rabbit farm and the eggs and the chickens and the pigs…in two years, his hunting skills wouldn't really be needed, he thought. He liked the idea of having a settled home for Sophia and all the kids, a steady supply of meat, but the thought of not being necessary anymore panged him.
He brushed the niggling doubt off. It didn't matter so much anymore if he was necessary. For the first time in his life, he was wanted.
The Kingdom
12:05 PM
Sherry had given Gavin one of her professional massages, to show off her "magic fingers" to him. He'd never had one before. She hadn't been a massage therapist in the Sanctuary; Negan wouldn't allow her to touch other men without permission, and that wasn't something she'd offered to do on any of their Police Academy viewing nights. But she was right. She was damn good at it. Gavin was feeling mighty relaxed as he put the keys into the ignition of his pick-up truck, which had been parked outside the gates of the Kingdom.
He jumped, however, when there was the sound of a thud in the bed of his truck. Instinctively, he reached for his gun and then looked up into the rearview mirror. There was the flash of a figure, and then the passenger's side door was being jerked open. He'd almost drawn before he realized it was only Dianne.
She slid into the passenger's seat, rested her bow and quiver between her legs, and shut the door.
"What the hell are you doing?" Gavin asked.
"I just threw my backpack in the bed. Now I'm buckling up." She pulled the seatbelt strap over her shoulder and clicked the tongue into the buckle.
"Why?"
"Because I'm not going to survive a thousand walkers and a hundred Saviors only to die in a vehicle crash." She looked him over. "You should buckle up too. Don't be a fool about. It's better to be safe than to look cool."
Gavin shook his head and then buckled himself in. "I mean why are you in my truck at all?"
"I understand you need help training new guards and keeping an eye on the floor camp at night. I'm coming to help you. For the next eight days anyway. You can bring me back when you come to see Frankie again."
Gavin blinked. He certainly wasn't expecting this. "Ezekiel can spare you?"
"He'll have to."
"But…why?" Not even Dwight had been willing to help him. "Why are you willing to do this?"
"I think it's in the best interest of the collation that the Sanctuary achieve stability. If it does, it could be a useful trading partner. If it doesn't, it could become a threat. Hungry men in unstable camps eventually go raiding." She moved her head back and forth as if musing. "I suppose if the Sanctuary collapsed, the coalition communities might consider assimilating its population, but that would be costly and a strain on our own resources. That would be at least fifteen people per community, and the Kingdom has already taken in six of yours. It would be best for the Kingdom if the Sanctuary found its walking legs."
"Well, I appreciate that your self-interest and mine happen to coincide." Gavin started the engine, put the truck into drive, and crunched over dirt and gravel as he drove down the road. They passed by the gray mailbox outside the iron gate of a quaint little house.
Terminus
2:30 PM
Daryl bent his head under the spray of the hose in the courtyard. He drank some water from it after misting his hair and face. He'd sweat through his shirt. Lugging all those cannisters of propane and 10-gallon water jugs had exhausted him.
"My turn," Rosita insisted.
"Already had a turn."
"Need another turn. It's hot. How can it be this hot in April?"
"It's only 76. Just hot from the loadin'. And ain't you from Texas?"
"I'm from the Rio Grande Valley. It's a tropical heat."
"Pffft. Just ain't used to workin' your ass off like this."
"I've worked my ass off my entire life, thank you very much," she told him. "That's why it's so incredibly well toned." Rosita reached for the hose, and he handed it to her.
As he walked back to the trucks and van, T-Dog was closing up the rear of the van which was full from front seats to door. Rick had just rolled down the back of the truck. "Can I ride back with you?" he asked Daryl. "Being sandwiched between those two women was not as hot as I thought it would be. They argued the whole time about the shortest route."
"Sure, but then you're drivin'." Daryl tossed him them keys to the military truck. Once inside, he put his feet up on the dash.
They rolled through the gate T-Dog opened for him. "How much water is left in that tower, do you think?" Rick asked as he turned on the gravel road.
"Plenty. Can come back if we ever need it. Tom don't think we will."
"But it will be here if we ever do have to settle this place."
"Fuckin' hope not," Daryl said. "Ain't nothin' compared to Fun Kingdom."
"But it's rigged for generators to power it. There's water for a few months anyway. And garden beds already arranged. The fence would need fortification. Just…" He sighed as he turned onto the double-lane roadway. "After losing Woodbury, I like to think ahead. Thanks for taking us all in."
"Yeah, well, Fun Kingdom was your home once. Soph's glad to have Carl back." Daryl leaned back the seat, grabbed a military cap someone left on the console, and put it over his eyes. "Wake me when we're home."