Chapter 8

"Goddamn it," Rook snapped, tossing down the empty crate onto bloodstained wooden floors.

The cabin she was currently looting was supposed to be another Whitetail militia stash of arms and ammo, but this was the second stash she'd come upon that held nothing but containers and the dead bodies of those who'd failed to defend it, and the occasional Peggie who was felled alongside them. She scowled as she waved away the swarm of flies coming through the cracks in the door and grabbed her radio.

"This one's a bust too, Wheaty," she said crossly. "Where's the last one?"

"One more over at the Osprey cabin, but I'm worried that if they've found these ones, they're probably already there," Wheaty replied with equal frustration. "I can't see anything on the cams."

"I'm close, let me see what I can find," Rook answered, before hitching her gun on her shoulder and waving over the giant grizzly currently snuffling at a dead Peggie. "Don't you even think about it," she added in warning, when Cheeseburger darted his tongue out to lick at the corpse's bloody face. "Last time you ate one of those rotten fuckers you spent six hours laying around and puking. Now come on."

Cheeseburger whuffed but followed as she darted towards the trees, skidding on the steep downhill slopes and praying she wouldn't catch on a stone and break her leg. The Osprey cabin was nestled in between the hills of a large mountain range in a way that was fantastic for seeing any potential Peggie thieves from a distance, but horrible for scaling with a bear at her heels. She reached the edge of the cliff face and pulled out her sniper rifle, scanning the cabin with a scope, and made a disgusted noise at the sight of a Peggie and his Judge wolf poking at a corpse strung up on a pole by his wrists, a bag still wrapped around his head. She quickly shot the wolf while the Peggie's back was turned, and then its owner before he could whirl around in search of the source.

Wary that the now dead Peggie had friends somewhere inside, Rook jogged around the cliff face and down the dirt path towards the cabin, crouching in the bushes while motioning for Cheeseburger to wait. The bear, who had no right being as clever as he was, obligingly plopped himself under the cover of some pine trees with a pleased grumble, and Rook made a mental note to catch him a treat later as she skulked towards the cabin. There was no noise inside, and so Rook hurried over and peered through the crack in the open door, finding an unusually neat cabin save for the broken floorboards in the kitchen being scattered across the floor, three Peggies hunched over the plastic bins set into a crevice in the foundation.

Without hesitation, Rook pulled out her handgun and shot three rapid holes in their heads, wincing when their brains painted the wall behind them as they slumped right into the crates.

"Lovely," she muttered, nudging the trio off her stash with the tip of her boot.

She was just walking out of the cabin, her bag weighed down with an extra hundred pounds of militia crap, when her radio sparked up again, this time without Wheaty.

"Um… this is Kim Rye calling out to Nick and the Deputy," came Kim Rye's oddly tentative voice, making Rook freeze in her tracks.

"Kim, hi," Rook exclaimed at once, bemused and a little worried by the sudden call. "Everything okay?"

"Oh yeah," the other woman replied, a fragile smile in her voice over the slight tremble. "You don't need to worry."

"You sound worried," she said, starting up in a jog towards the Wolf's Den in case she had to dart down there.

"No, really, I'm fine! It's just… um… when you get the chance, can you please swing by the house? Please? No emergency or anything… yet."

"Yet?" Rook almost hollered, but was still wary of nearby hunters. "I'm in the Mountains right now but I'll be down in an hour. Sit tight, honey."

"Okay…" was Kim's sign-off, sounding so unsure that Rook broke out into a sprint, ignoring the burning ache in her shoulders from the heavy load.

"I'll see you later, big guy," Rook panted as she reached the bunker, giving Cheeseburger a quick scritch under his chin before darting down the ladder.

Without saying a word, Rook hurriedly dumped the stash onto the couch in front of a bemused-looking Wheaty and waved him goodbye as she sprinted back up the ladder just as quickly. As she jogged towards the main road, the sharp hum of an ATV coming down a nearby dirt path caught her attention, and Rook yanked out her rifle and shot a spray of bullets into the Peggie on top of it. He slumped off into the dirt as Rook chased down the now riderless ATV and commandeered it, slamming on the clutch and barreling onto the pavement so abruptly it made Rook's head jerk back and a sear of pain shoot down her neck.

Her heart pounded as she soared down the road, almost tipping as she turned and narrowly avoiding reaping trucks and Peggie cars blaring their shitty music. It was mostly for Kim—the alarm in her voice was barely restrained—but also the prospect of returning to the Valley and being spotted. If her friends' intel was anything to go by, John was barely emerging from the ranch, and his men had scattered to the Gate like cockroaches into a crack in the wall, but something in her still twisted about going towards him, gaining his attention, coaxing him to come to her… and she still wasn't entirely sure whether she feared that or desired it.

As the stones and dirt roads in the Mountains morphed into the rolling green hills of Holland Valley, Rook couldn't help but slow down, a frown on her face, as she noticed a clear thinning of Peggie presence. The packing plant by the apple orchards was absolutely deserted despite the Resistance, herself included, having largely left it alone, considering it too far on the fringes of the region to spare the extra people to assault and defend. There had always been a huge group of Peggies there when Rook scouted it in the early days, when the only concern was of survival and not of sad soulmates. The further into the core of the Valley she went, the fewer Peggies she saw even drive by, until it was nothing but empty rolling hills and the occasional sight of friendlies camped out in the fields talking, singing and laughing.

"Huh," Rook couldn't help but utter in awe as she drove by a couple slow-dancing to a dulcet song being played on an acoustic guitar by another man. Things here seemed almost… happy, in a way.

Her thoughts were pulled back to Kim when she heard the roar of a plane engine somewhere nearby. At first she panicked, thinking it was one of John's Chosen, but instead she spotted the bright yellow paint and shark mouth decal of Carmina zooming just behind her, apparently having also heard the call for aid. At the sight, Rook kicked the ATV into a higher gear and increased her speed with a silent prayer that she wasn't about to break her neck before she got there.

She managed to beat Nick to the airstrip with the sheer foolishness of her speed, the rumble of the plane landing nearby only barely failing to cover up the sounds of a woman screaming.

"Kim!" Rook shouted, gun already off her back and in her hands primed to tear apart whatever Peggie was invading the house.

Instead, she kicked open the door and found Kim hunched over on the couch, clutching at her swollen belly with gritted teeth.

"Where the fuck is Nick?" was the other woman's greeting, as Rook abruptly dropped her gun and hurried over. "Oh, God…"

"Kim, how long has this been going on?" Rook asked incredulously, but the door slammed open a second time as Nick tripped over himself to get in.

"Whoa," he exclaimed upon spotting Rook, but his snarling wife stole his attention. "What the hell is going on, Kim?"

"Where the fuck have you been?" Kim shouted before Nick had even fully finished his sentence. "Give me your hand," she added on a bark as Nick crouched beside her, snatching it off her thigh. "Our little girl has decided it's time."

"No-no-no-no-no," Nick stammered. "Nick Junior's not due for another week—ow, ow, Kim, Kim, you're hurting my hand—"

"How long, Kim?" Rook demanded this time, hurrying over to her side to help her stand.

"Since this morning," Kim hissed as she stood up in a bizarre half-squat. "I thought it was just cramps, or Braxton Hicks or something! We gotta get into the car," the other woman added when it became clear Rook was riling herself up to start scolding.

"Ow—ahh, you're so strong, okay-okay-okay," Nick panicked from Kim's other side as they stepped carefully towards the truck.

He threw her the keys as he ushered Kim into the backseat. The other woman screamed in Rook's ear and Nick shouted half-baked words of encouragement ("The Deputy knows how to drive!") alongside the occasional wince of pain while Rook slammed her boot down on the gas pedal for the second time that day, dodging pigs and other cars and a fucking crash-landing plane of all things, and she was pretty sure she saw Sharky and Hurk setting up the joyride ramp they had no choice but to drive off of, and she was going to murder them for it later. Her neck ached like a bitch from the hours of driving like a lunatic by the time they pulled into the clinic, Nick throwing the door open and all but falling out of the car before she even braked.

"Don't you fucking dare," Kim said in a warning tone as Rook shifted into park, but added, "Damn it, Nick!" and Rook turned around to find Nick had scooped his stubborn wife up in his arms and was jogging toward the clinic. She took a moment to laugh somewhat breathlessly at the ridiculous sight of Kim half-scowling half-swooning up at her husband, before dropping her head onto the steering wheel in an effort to calm down before her heart exploded.

"Make way, angry lady and her angry baby comin' through!" Nick hooted, the sound muffling as the door closed behind him with a ring of the bell.

"Jesus Christ, Nick…"

Rook could only stomach the sounds of her friend shrieking bloody murder from the waiting room for so long before she had to step outside, lingering near the truck and trying to block out the noise. The prospect of future PTSD suddenly became a very real possibility to Rook, as the sounds of Kim screaming shot her blood pressure up and made her desperate to dart in there and shoot the threat. She briefly wondered if she should lock away her guns in the trunk, but considering they were still in the middle of a war she decided to just stick it out.

And maybe see a counselor or something when she managed to free the county. Or maybe she'd get killed before that. Either way it'd work itself out.

"Hey," came Nick's warm voice from behind her, making Rook almost jump out of her boots and whirl away from the truck. "All right there, Deputy?" he laughed, when Rook settled down.

"Should be asking your wife that, considering she just gave birth to your kid," Rook evaded as she addressed Kim in the wheelchair, scooting closer to see the pink bundle dotted with little white bears in her arms.

Nick grinned with all the pride of a new father, wheeling her closer. "Wanna come meet your goddaughter?"

"Goddau—" Rook choked on the word, throat closing as Kim presented the bundle to her with a careful hand on the back of the baby's head. "Uh," came out unbidden as the baby was promptly deposited into her arms, and Rook tensed up like she was holding a live bomb as panic started to set in.

"Aren't ya happy, Dep?" Nick was saying, but it sounded far away, like he was speaking from the other end of a tunnel. "Kim 'n' I were talkin' and well, we thought there was no better person to take care of Nick Ju—uh, our daughter, y'know, in case the worst happens."

In case the worst happens… But they had no idea the worst was happening—they were handing off their baby girl to quite literally the worst option in Hope County. Never mind all of the people who wanted her dead, or the fact that almost every second of her life was spent trying not to get shot, but their mortal enemy was her God-granted soulmate and they had no idea…

"She don't look happy, does she Kim?" Nick's whisper floated in through the panic.

"No, I think she looks terrified," Kim muttered back, before she reached a hand up to pat Rook's elbow. "Dep, are you all right? I know this is kinda sudden, but—"

"I can't," tumbled out of Rook's mouth on a hollow breath, as she stared down at the sleeping newborn with eyes so wide they burned.

"Huh?" Nick exclaimed, as he and Kim exchanged a look at the corner of Rook's vision.

"I can't," she repeated, in an eerie parallel to the Bliss right before she made what was probably the biggest mistake of her life, maybe, and the baby started to shake—or was that her shaking? "I'm… the worst choice, I'm not…"

"Honey, it's okay, you'll be—" Kim started with a gentle squeeze to her arm.

"No," Rook snapped, but when the baby screwed up her painfully tiny face for a fuss in the making she quieted her panic to a whisper. "You don't get it, you don't know. I have to tell you about him, you need to know that John is—"

"Oh, that's what this is about," Nick interrupted with a sigh of relief, and Kim had a warm smile on her face as she said, "We already know, Dep."

There was a very odd pause, in which Rook stared blankly at them while they beamed at her. The only noise that was uttered was from Baby Rye's sleepy coos and the clatter of someone moving around inside the clinic.

"Um," she replied, blinking at the pair. "Just to confirm we're talking about the same thing here, you're referring to…?"

"John Seed bein' your soulmate?" Nick said with a grimace he almost succeeded in concealing.

Rook's panic dissolved like smoke in the wind and gave way for total confusion, looking between the two as they waited patiently like they hadn't just blurted out her deepest secret as though commenting on the weather.

"How the fu—heck did you guys figure that out?"

"We've kinda known for months," Kim admitted sheepishly, her smile only widened when Rook turned to stare at her incredulously.

"Sharky let it slip at a cookout at the 8-Bit," said Nick. "Remember, when you ran off for a bit to Jacob's region and came back lookin' like the walking dead, talkin' about how he was tryin' some brainwashy shit on you and left you for dead in a hotel basement or somethin'?"

"Lovely, Nick," Kim sighed.

"So—wait, who else knows?" Rook spluttered.

"Well, everyone who was there," Nick said thoughtfully. "Grace, Adelaide and her yoga boyfriend, um… that grumpy girl in the hood who says 'fuck' a lot—"

"What about Mary May and Jerome?" Rook demanded. "Dutch? Eli? Does everyone in this goddamn county know I'm soul bonded to this region's leading asshole?"

"Uh, well, I don't know about Whitetail people but Fall's End definitely knows," Nick replied, rubbing the back of his neck and then wincing when he realized he'd used his severely bruised hand (Jesus Christ, Kim). "That was my fault, actually. Can't keep anything in after six beers."

"Eight, Nick," Kim scowled.

"And everybody's just okay with this?" said Rook, the utter absurdity of the thought making her voice shrill.

"Listen, Dep, we're not sayin' he's a good guy or anythin', or that we like him, or don't hate everything about his stupid Peggie face," Nick said with a barely concealed grimace. "But soulmates are, like, destiny or somethin' right? Sure was like that for me and Kim, and look at us now! We were meant for each other, just like God says, and God says so are you two. And, well, whatever you choose to do with or without him, we're all gonna support you." Rook almost choked on the tears that welled up quicker than a flash flood. "Besides, you've already proven you'll do whatever it takes to protect your own, even turn your back on your own soulmate," he added with a smile and a shrug.

"So then, will you reconsider being the baby's godmother?" Kim asked warmly, and Nick placed his hand on her shoulder only to yank it away with a wince when her grip met his bruised fingers.

She looked back down at the baby and took in the tiny thing whose features swam a bit from the tears, her chubby cheeks and her smushed nose that looked a bit like Kim's if she squinted, and nodded wordlessly in case her voice cracked.

As Kim and Nick beamed at her, her radio crackled in her breast pocket loud enough to startle the baby, who immediately screwed up her mouth into the beginnings of a tantrum. Rook hastily lowered the upset infant into Kim's outstretched arms and pulled out her radio.

"…etter get down to Fall's End, Deputy," Jerome's voice was saying, the first bit muffled by her clothes.

"Um," Rook replied shakily over the sounds of wailing, discreetly wiping her eyes. "Sorry, what? Everything okay?"

"Is that a baby?" Jerome asked with confusion.

"That's my new pride 'n' joy, good pastor!" Nick shouted with glee, tripping slightly over the wheel of the chair in an effort to lean over closer to the radio.

"Nick, you're scaring her!" Kim scolded as the baby's cries increased in pitch.

With a chuckle, Jerome remarked, "Congratulations, you two."

"Is everything o—?"

"Deputy's the godmother!"

"Nick, for fuck's sake!"

"Jerome, is everything okay over there?" Rook interrupted, resisting the urge to plug her ears to block them both out.

"I just thought you'd like to come say hello to your friend Hudson," Jerome said, a smile in his voice. "She's just wandered into town. Said John Seed let her go."

"John let—Joey is in Fall's End?" Rook stumbled over her words, fumbling with the radio as her grip went slack with shock. "Fuck me—I'll be right there! No, wait a minute, you guys need that," Rook muttered when she almost made a run for the truck, instead starting up a hasty sprint down the dirt road. "Get home safe you two—uh, three!"

She skidded to a half out of view in the tree line when something occurred to her.

Cupping her hands around her mouth, she shouted into the night, "What's her name?"

"Carmina!" Nick hollered after a pause, the sound echoing in the night, and Kim's absurd reply rang out, "You are not naming her after the plane!"

Rook burst out laughing as she resumed her run.

She stumbled into Fall's End less than an hour later, the joyful high from being named Baby Rye's godmother slowly getting squashed by the nervous, urgent twinge of seeing Joey after so long and the quiet hope that John had really let her go of his own accord. As Rook dodged by the empty, broken school bus and past the church, the din of revelry and happy chatter from the Spread Eagle was already audible. She couldn't help but pause and glance around in awe at how full of life Fall's End was now, the burned-down homes cleared away to make way for dozens of tents and campfire setups, an overwhelming amount of people wandering around chatting and laughing despite it being well after sunset. Although she didn't recognize most of them, the sight of them happy, fed and safe relieved her. Was this what the rest of the county would look like free of the Seed family? They called out greetings and sent her good-natured waves when she passed by, with a few smiles looking slightly strained, and she was reminded that this town knew her secret. Her heart clenched at how they were still being friendly despite being fully justified to act otherwise… or to kill her on sight.

When Rook stepped onto the bar's porch, reaching for the door handle, she had to jump back as the door flew open of its own accord and a furry gray blob zoomed at her like a comet, a bark of glee accompanying him. The air was knocked from her lungs as she fell onto her ass, but it was impossible to take another breath as a slobbery tongue began licking all over her face at mach speed, excited whines in her ear.

"Hey buddy!" Rook managed to splutter happily through the lick fest, reaching up to scratch at Boomer's ears. "Aw, I missed you so much!"

Her dog screeched with all-encompassing joy right in her ear, trying to both bounce around her and wriggle his way into her lap at the same time.

"Someone's happy to see you," Jerome's voice quipped, and Rook gently shoved Boomer away to find him smiling at her from the porch, a hand outstretched to help her up. She accepted it gratefully, stumbling when Boomer nearly knocked her over again trying to jump into her arms.

"It's been way too fucking long. This place looks great," she added with a gesture to all that was around them. "Where did all these people come from?"

"Well, the Peggies burned down a lot of people's homes," Jerome said regretfully. "Now that John Seed's all but gone and his men have hightailed it to their doomsday bunker in the north, we thought the safest place for those with nowhere left to go was with us." A look passed between them at the mention of John Seed, and Rook wished she had been here ages ago—the expression on Jerome's face was painfully transparent, and she might have saved herself months of guilt and anxiety if she knew they knew too. "The people he had kidnapped and locked away down there were also let go, so we're housing them too until they can find their families."

"Wait, John—he let all of them go?" Rook said incredulously, a hot flush heating up her skin. "Are they… did he hurt them?"

"They're in one piece, at least," Jerome said with a strained half-smile. "Physically, they're fine. It's gonna take some time to heal from the psychological effects of this war."

She felt a bizarre wave of half-gratitude half-horror for the way Jerome was trying really hard not to lay all the blame at her soulmate's feet. It was clear he was trying his damnedest to show his support, but the sheer strangeness of the idea was still as overwhelming coming from him as it was coming from Nick and Kim.

Shaking it off, she said lowly, "I have to talk to Joey. Where is she, in the bar?"

"Upstairs taking a rest," Jerome said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the bar. "There's a bit of a party brewing right now. A lot of friends are seeing each other after too long."

Her throat closed, and without answering she barreled into the bar with Boomer stubbornly gluing himself to her side. The hair on the back of her neck prickled at the overly loud din and packed bar, unused to so much noise and so many people in a single space compared to silence for survival's sake and half the county dead or kidnapped underground. She kept her head down in case she was recognized and slithered through the crowd towards the stairs, dodging a group of people hauling plates piled with food towards a crowded table in the corner and a teenager who was hollering his delight about some arcade game.

The stairs were empty but hardly quieter, and Rook hurried up them thinking silent apologies to Mary May for trespassing. With a quick order for Boomer to sit and wait in the hall, she carefully cracked open the door.

"Um, hello?" she said hesitantly, peeking her head around.

Rook found Joey sitting at the foot of the guest bed dressed in Mary May's clothes, a knitted shawl around her shoulders and a tray of steaming soup in front of her. What was visible on her skin was unblemished, save for some faint bruising around her wrists and on her knuckles. Mary May was there, and paused mid-sentence in her conversion with Joey, eyes blowing wide at the sight of her.

"Dep, you're here!" she exclaimed, not with animosity but not with joy either, and Hudson whipped her head around so violently her braid almost smacked her in the face.

"Rookie?" said Joey, her voice sounding so much less hoarse than the last time she saw her down in that bunker.

"Hey Joey," she said quietly, sidling in and closing the door to muffle the louds sounds from downstairs.

To her surprise, Hudson pushed the tray aside and stumbled over to the other woman, throwing her arms around her in a tight, very un-Joey-like hug. Despite the shock, Rook squeezed her back like her life depended on it, her regret from being forced to leave her down there last time making tears bite at her eyes. She smelled like Mary May's shampoo, her skin clean and her hair soft and lush like it used to be. She was always jealous of Hudson's hair, Rook remembered with a silent smile.

"Thank you, Rook," Hudson whispered in her ear, making the warm feelings freeze to ice. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…"

"Joey, what—? Why are you thanking me?" Rook exclaimed in horror, pulling away but keeping her hands on her shoulders. "I didn't do anything. I-I left you down there, with him. I—"

"What?" Hudson frowned, but reached up to wipe away her tears. "Rook, he let me go. Because of you. He said… he said you 'humbled' him. I thought… What did you do?"

Humbled him?

"I didn't…" Rook stammered, unable to help but glance up at Mary May, who was watching with a neutral expression and arms crossed over her chest. Shaking off her nerves, Rook ushered Hudson back over to the bed and sat down beside her before asking her, "What happened?"

"It was weird," Hudson said, still frowning. "The Peggies—all of a sudden they started flooding into the bunker. There were so many of them, I actually thought for a second that the Collapse really did come. But then they started taking other people away, the-the ones they had locked up in those cells… the ones that confessed. And then John showed up." Rook swallowed, but Hudson was too caught up in her own memories. "It'd been so long since he came down to see me… I thought we were all going to be killed, but he just… he just unlocked my cuffs and told me to leave with the rest of them. He said that-that you showed him that he was wrong, and that God would judge us instead," she added with an edge of disdain, but then she got contemplative. "He looked so sad when he said it. I don't know what you did to knock some fucking sense into his head, Rook, but it was like he was a whole different person."

"So-so you left?" Rook evaded, fighting a blush.

A ghost of a smirk took over her face, and for a moment it looked like the old Joey Hudson was back. "I punched him first. Might've broken his nose. He just laughed, with his face all bloody…" Once more Joey looked confused. "Then he asked me to… make sure you were safe?" Her stomach flipped. "It makes no fucking sense. He was so angry when you escaped the first time. I thought he wanted to kill you, but… What the hell did you do to him, Rook?"

Jesus Christ, what had she done to John Seed? With little more than a Bliss-driven confession, a turn of her back and a promise left unfulfilled, she had brought the mighty Baptist down from a warmongering herald to a so-called 'humble' man struggling to right his mistakes. The Valley was empty of battles, the bar downstairs was filled with his victims who were now safe and being hugged by their friends and family, and Joey was here unharmed despite so long in his bunker of horrors, and all he could muster himself to do was plead for Rook's safety?

She had no idea what to make of this. Did she dare begin to think of him as redeemable, after so long of convincing herself he was too twisted to be anything but a monster? Joey was still staring at her, with a lot more confusion than before with Rook's continued silence, but she just clutched at her shirt right above her mark and struggled not to hyperventilate, feeling as though everything she thought she knew was just proven wrong.

"Dep," Mary May, who had done nothing but watch up until this point, said sharply.

Rook looked up at her as her heart pounded, meeting her carefully neutral expression with one of barely concealed terror. Nick had claimed they all supported her despite who her soulmate was, but she knew of no one in the region who had been wronged by him more than Mary May. Shit, she wouldn't blame the woman if she wanted Rook dead, just to spite John.

Apparently spotting Rook's fear, Mary May sighed and her expression softened.

"It's okay," she said, and all the air escaped Rook's lungs in a whoosh.

"No it isn't," Rook replied hollowly, making Mary May snort.

"It really isn't, but you hardly had a choice in the matter, did you?"

Rook's mouth closed in a click as she swallowed, and the two women ignored Joey's sideways glances of confusion.

"Just… look, whatever you choose to do… it's okay. You ain't ever gonna be no Peggie, you already proved that, and the Valley's already a better place now that he's taken down a few pegs or whatever the fuck happened with you two. If you can do that asshole some good, I'm not gonna stop you. But if you need us to come in there and kill him, we'll do it in a heartbeat," she finished with a deadpan look.

Rook laughed without humor, too shocked to do anything else.

"Uh, Rook, what the fuck am I missing here?" Hudson asked, glancing between the two women.

Rook stood in response, her resolve hardening with her friend's blessing. She glanced one more time between the two women before telling her former colleague, "I'm glad you're safe, Joey."

With no other response, Rook strode from the room and out of the bar in search of answers.

A/N: Oh lawd she comin Johnny, look out 3 One more chapter and then we wrap up this angst fest!

Recognizable dialogue belongs to Ubisoft.