AN: Here we go, another chapter here.

Very short time jump here. I've gone through and worked out the rest of the timeline for this story, but you should probably grab a drink and relax. We're in this for a while.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

"This is fuckin' uncomfortable," Merle grumbled through the door. "Don't give a damn if...you're my brother's...whatever the hell you are."

Carol bit her lip not to laugh.

"I promise you that you can discuss the idea of being uncomfortable with Sadie after all this is done," Carol said. "Does that mean that you're not...finished?"

"Got my fuckin' dick in my hand and you wantin' to have a damn conversation!" Merle snarled. "The hell you think?"

Alice left the little room where she was prepping Sadie and quickly walked over to the door where Carol was standing. Sadie was ovulating. The time was now. It was a little sooner than Alice had expected, but she wasn't complaining.

Merle, however, was having a hard time of things.

Alice leaned against the door and tapped at it.

"What's the hold up in there, Merle?" Alice asked.

"Holy shit! Would you bitches go the fuck away! I'm in a damn bathroom not big as a fuckin' closet and you tellin' me to jack off in a damn cup that I can't even hold myself while you stand outside the door an' ask me a hundred fuckin' questions about jerkin' myself off!" Merle yelled.

Alice covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her laughter and Carol had to turn her back so she couldn't see the woman to keep things under control. To make matters worse, Alice knocked at the door again.

"You need a hand, Merle?" Alice asked. "I know you're one short."

"Fuckin' bitch!" Merle snarled.

Carol turned around and squeezed Alice's arm, still trying to control her laughter. She shook her head at Alice.

"Don't," she whispered, trying to keep her voice down. "Don't—don't rile him up. If he's like Daryl? His temper stays pretty even until it doesn't."

Alice nodded her head and spoke to the door again.

"All jokes aside, Merle, you've been in there a little while," Alice said. "Is there anything we can do? Anything I can get you?"

"A gun so I can blow my damn brains out an' be done with this shit," Merle said.

"Sadie?" Carol asked.

Alice shrugged her shoulders.

"Do you want Sadie in there, Merle?" Alice asked. "To—help move things along?"

There was absolute silence. It was so quiet that Carol was running inventory in her mind of the contents of the small bathroom to make sure that there was nothing in there that Merle could use to escape the situation in lieu of a gun.

"Are you alive, Merle?" Carol called finally.

"You didn't say Sadie was an option," Merle said.

"She wasn't," Alice said. "But we need this done today and, at the rate you're going? It's not gonna fucking happen if we don't get a move on. Do you want me to get her?"

Carol nodded her head at Alice and Alice disappeared back into the small room where she'd worked to get Sadie set up and ready for the procedure. She came back a moment later with Sadie holding her gown closed as well as she could and padding along with her.

"I'm sorry," Carol mouthed to Sadie, knowing there was no need to actually say the words.

Sadie shook her head at Carol and Carol knocked on the door once more.

"Merle...open up," Carol said. "Sadie's out here."

The door opened just a crack and Sadie pushed it partially open before she closed it behind her.

"You still out there listening?" Merle called.

"Can't hear a thing," Alice responded. "We're...doing something else."

"We're stepping away," Carol said. "Take your time."

"But like—not too much of it," Alice responded. "I was serious about getting this done."

"Fuckin' pressure," Merle commented again through the door.

Carol did pull Alice away from the bathroom door and the two of them stood and waited. It didn't take long before the sounds inside made it clear that there was more going on than had been happening before. Merle had been closed in the little bathroom for a while. This was the first indication that there might be anything coming from it.

"Performance anxiety," Alice mused quietly. "Who would've guessed it? I'd've figured he was the kind of man that would fuck in public."

"Daryl hated this part," Carol said. "It was like torture for him."

"I remember," Alice said. "But still, Merle and Daryl are two different animals." Her eyes went wide as soon as she said it and she shook her head at Carol. "I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean animals, animals."

Carol laughed to herself.

"I know what you meant," Carol said. "And they're different, for sure, but maybe they're not that different. I think Merle might just have a bit more bravado than Daryl."

Both of them turned when the bathroom door opened. Sadie came out first, holding her gown shut again, and she walked directly toward them with the cup in hand. She put the cup in Alice's hand, nodded her head in Carol's direction, and headed back into the exam room that Alice had brought her out of before.

Merle came out a second later, still tugging at the elastic banded pants they'd issued him to wear for the time being.

"I'm guessing everything was a success?" Alice asked him.

"We gonna do this, Doc, or we ain't?" Merle asked. "We don't got all day to entertain you bein' an asshole."

Alice laughed to herself.

"Let's get it done," Alice said. "I'm feeling lucky. Let's make some more Dixons. Hey—at the rate we're going? You guys could actually be the largest family in the world soon. At least that we know of."

"Just make us a kid, Doc," Merle grumbled.

Carol followed behind Alice to help her if she needed it. She got Sadie set up again and neither of them said anything when Merle offered his hand to Sadie to hold.

They'd gone through things with Sadie carefully, twice, before she'd even stripped out of her clothes. Alice wanted her to know, completely, what to expect. She seemed unmoved during the whole process, though. She didn't speak to any of them and the only movement that Carol even saw from her was when she squeezed Merle's hand in response to his rubbing his thumb over her skin.

When she was done, Alice walked around to Sadie's side to speak to her.

"You need to stay like this for about a half an hour," Alice said. Sadie nodded her understanding.

"Will it work?" Sadie asked.

"You're the third insemination we've had here," Alice said. "The second done in the clinic. Both of the others took. I'd say your odds are good, but we don't know anything for sure. We have to see what nature has in mind."

Sadie nodded her understanding.

"Thank you," she offered, bringing her hand up to give Alice the sign of thanks. Alice smiled at her.

"Hey," she said. "You're welcome. Fingers and toes crossed. But listen...oh, I'm...sorry," Alice said quickly. "I keep putting my foot in my mouth today."

Sadie laughed and shook her head.

"It's OK," She said. "I'm listening."

"If this takes? I want absolutely no problems from you, OK? Nothing. I don't care—what they say or what's going on? No violence of any sort. Absolutely none. You got me?"

"We gonna be careful," Merle said.

"I need more than careful," Alice said. "I need promises. No violence. Especially from Sadie, but also from you, Merle. You don't want to die and you don't want to go back to max. And right now? You're more likely to die."

"Would prefer that shit over max," Merle said. "But we hear you. Both of us. Loud an' clear. We been real good. Got us some gold stars an' shit some damn where. We ain't done a single damn thing but fuck, eat, and do a shitload of crossword puzzles between us. Got me a vocabulary of at least a thousand new words now."

Alice laughed to herself.

"That's great," she said. "Make it a million. Stay here a half hour. I'll come back for you when it's time to call the guard."

Alice left the two of them to have a little private time together during the time that could, very well, be considered the conception of their child. She walked out the room and closed the door behind her with Carol walking in front of her.

"You seem tired, Al," Carol said.

Alice sighed and sat down in the office chair.

"I'm sorry," Alice said. "Did you want to sit here?"

Carol shook her head.

"I'm fine," Carol said. "Want to tell me why you're so tired?"

"Who the hell isn't tired?" Alice asked. "Who wouldn't be tired? You're tired, aren't you?"

"I am tired," Carol said. "But—I'm not that tired. And I have an excuse. My body's doing all kind of stuff that it's not used to doing. Right now? I don't even know...I could be making some fingers or something."

"Actually," Alice said with a laugh, "you're at...what...eleven weeks? You might be right. You could very well be making some fingers and toes right now. You're sure you don't want to sit down? With all that going on?"

Carol laughed and shook her head.

"I want to know what's bothering you," Carol said.

"Nothing's bothering me," Alice said. "I just—hope it takes. Milton's really advocating for Merle and Sadie to have a chance. They're the only two max security prisoners that I believe are going to get through this. The others are so far gone that—truthfully? They're talking about clearing them out in a couple of weeks if there's no change."

"Clearing them out?" Carol asked. "You mean...taking them back to the prisons?" Alice ran her tongue around inside her mouth. Carol could see the movement even if her mouth was closed. That was most certainly not what Alice meant. "Execution?" Carol asked.

"One bullet to the brain," Alice said, staring a little beyond Carol. "Kills them and stops reanimation in one move. The government decided it's the most humane way." She shook her head. "What they mean is it's the cheapest and easiest for them. There's nothing humane about dying, tied up, on your knees somewhere. They shut down the max prisons about a month ago, Carol."

"How could they just shut them down?" Carol asked. Alice looked at her. She didn't have to say anything. She just looked at her and Carol heard her loud and clear. Carol's stomach turned a little. "All of them?" Carol asked, realizing that it was very possible that Merle and Sadie could have been among them. Alice nodded her head.

"If they clear out that corner? Take them all out in a bus and tear down the fences?" Alice said. "You can rest assured that Merle and Sadie are the last two remaining Wilds in captivity that were stamped too far gone for rehabilitation." She sucked her teeth. "That's why it's so important that Sadie not do anything. I mean—it's important that none of you act violently, especially while you're pregnant—but it's really important for her."

Carol shook her head.

"I don't understand," Carol said. "I mean—I get it. Don't act violently or they'll kill you for being a Wild but—why does it matter if we're pregnant or not."

"Kreegan," Alice said, leaning back as far as the office chair would allow her to do before it tipped.

"What?" Carol asked.

"The scientist," Alice said. "He's the one who—told the whole world what they should believe about Wilds? Studied them like lab rats? Kreegan said that his finding suggested that pregnancy was a way to tame wilds. He suggested that—it made women more docile. There's a catch, though. He also said that, sometimes, it didn't make them more docile. And if a woman wasn't docile while she was pregnant? She'd never be docile again."

Carol swallowed.

"So violence during pregnancy is like...proof," Carol said. Alice nodded her head.

"Proof that you're a Wild," Alice said. "And not just any Wild—a Wild that's beyond rehabilitation. A Wild that can never be tamed."

"So that means..." Carol said.

"One bullet to the brain," Alice said. "It's the most humane way, after all."

"But what about the babies?" Carol asked. "If they're killing pregnant mothers for some act of violence—then the population isn't going to grow."

"Do you really think they want babies that come from mothers that absolutely can't be tamed?" Alice asked.

"How long have you known about this?" Carol asked.

"Which part?" Alice asked. Carol just raised her eyebrows at her. "I just found out about the prisons. I reported that Sadie was about to ovulate again. That's all. That there was a chance there'd be a baby coming out of the household. Milton told me about the prisons. About the clearing out of them. About the plan to shut down that portion of Woodbury since nothing even remotely productive is happening there without Merle and Sadie in their reports. Kreegan? I've known enough about his studies. I've been a doctor through all of this. I know enough about Kreegan. Too much, maybe."

"You didn't tell me," Carol said.

"Yeah, well, I'm not supposed to tell you anything," Alice said. "And I'm telling you now. So you'll just have to take that as enough. It's all the hell I've got right now, Carol."

"You need to pass this around," Carol said. "The warnings about violence? Andrea needs to know."

"She knows now," Alice said. "I stopped in to give her a quick check after I talked to Milton. I told her—she's a docile little mouse and that's all the hell she better be. I'm telling the same to you. I'll tell the others, but I can't tell them why. If they don't take my word for it?"

"Is there anything else you're not telling me?" Carol said.

Alice laughed to herself.

"Nothing else that I know is important," Alice said. "The chain is long these days and it's pretty winding. I don't get information until it hits Milton or Sam. And they don't get information until those above them want them to have it."

"How worried should I be?" Carol asked.

"Not at all," Alice said. "Worrying makes you edgy. Being edgy makes you more given to extreme reactions. Extreme reactions have a chance of looking like violence. So don't worry about anything. Just—play nice. Enjoy your life. Enjoy Daryl. Enjoy everything that Woodbury has to offer you. The rules haven't changed. The game, really, hasn't changed. The idea was always to avoid violence. We just know, now, that they weren't playing around when they said that people who didn't follow the rules were going to be punished." She sucked in a breath and let it out with a sigh. "You think Merle and Sadie are going to behave? I like them. Both of them. I don't—Carol, I really don't want to see them die. I'm rooting for them as hard as I'm rooting for anyone else."

Carol swallowed and nodded her head. They'd behave. Alice wasn't supposed to tell Carol anything, and Carol wouldn't spread it around that she did, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to warn those she cared about—and Merle was practically family even if she could count on one hand the number of time she'd been in the room with him. She felt, though, that Merle and Sadie could both keep their mouths shut—just like Andrea and Michonne—because they knew and understood what the government was really capable of doing.

All of them, if they'd ever been tagged Wild, understood what the government was capable of doing.

"You call a guard," Carol said. "I'll go check on them and...let them know it's almost time to go."