I'm still trying to work out how to get to where I want to go so please bear with me, nothing much happens here. Thank you for getting this far and please let me know what you think if you want to, it's always appreciated.

The city was quiet and the east side was shadowed without the street lights, only the privileged were given light. She slipped through the streets, avoiding the patrols. They really needed to change them up occasionally, it was painfully obvious how complacent these people had become.

The dark façade of the warehouse rose up in front of her and she jammed her knife into the lock mechanism and hit the handle with her palm, it sprung open and she slipped inside the pitch-black corridor.

Making her way through the building, silently, Essie strained to hear anything. As she went further in, only the rats skittering their claws over the cracked vinyl could be heard. The air was musty and still, maybe she was mistaken. She tried the doors, most of them were open and lead to dusty, empty rooms until she came to a locked one. She risked turning on her torch and shone it on a new looking handle and lock. Gripping the torch between her teeth, she picked the lock and opened it.

Shit.

The windows had no blinds and her light was still on; she spat it out and it span on the floor, she threw her bag over it and knelt, turning it off. Breathing heavily, she cursed herself, she was too used to blowing through life. The room was lined with filing cabinets, she wrenched one open and began looking through the hundreds of files and reports with only the moonlight to help.

"Hey Dixon, Espinosa we've got a report of a break in over on the east side…Fratelli's Warehouse…Jenkins and Vigo will meet you there."

Daryl and Rosita got to the warehouse street and watched the blind windows of the building they'd been called to.

"Looks quiet," Rosita said and Daryl grunted his agreement.

"Where the hell are the other guys?" Rosita said, looking back the way they'd come.

"Let's go," Daryl said and made his way to the warehouse.

Essie was onto the third drawer, so far, it'd been a total bust, just grimy paper from before the fall. She riffled through the files, sighing and breathing in dust. She closed the drawer and tried open the bottom one but it was stuck, she pulled it more forcefully but it didn't give.

Daryl and Rosita came to the end of the hallway when they heard a faint metallic rattle. They pulled out their batons and slowly made their way past open doors and empty offices.

The damn thing was still stuck; Essie rattled it as violently as she could before noticing the third drawer was slightly open.

"Fuck," she cursed and pushed it closed before yanking the bottom drawer open.

Rosita signalled for Daryl to go to the opposite side of the hall and, with their batons still drawn, they made their way silently towards the noise.

There were lists of names, people and towns some with black crosses next to them, lists of produce and dates, money in and money out. She squinted at the dates, it was from at least 5 years ago. Useful but not what she was looking for.

"Fuck," she said again and sat back on her heels.

"Freeze," Rosita shouted at the dark figure on the floor. Daryl flanked her.

"Jesus Christ," Essie breathed, "you nearly gave me a heart attack."

Rosita did not move.

"Are you armed?" she asked as Essie squinted up at her.

"Nope, I've got a torch and an apple in this bag," she replied.

"Kick it over," ordered Rosita and Essie complied.

"Why are you here?" Rosita demanded.

"Would you believe me if I said I heard a scream and came to check everything was ok?" Essie asked, hoping to raise a smile but none was forthcoming.

"Why are you here?" repeated Rosita.

Essie sighed and tried to tell a believable truth, "I'm looking for evidence," she said.

"Evidence of what?" rumbled Daryl but Essie kept staring at Rosita, thinking frantically.

"That this place is what it seems to be," Essie replied, "If I'm going to settle here, I need to know it's legitimate."

"And you thought you'd find that in this abandoned warehouse at 2.00 in the morning?" asked Rosita but Essie just shrugged.

Daryl's radioed crackled informing them Vigo and Jenkins were entering the building.

"What're you going to do?" asked Essie, still looking only at Rosita.

There was a beat of silence.

"Go," said Rosita and Essie grabbed her bag and the papers, slipping out of the door and disappearing into the shadows. Rosita turned to Daryl but he was looking at the space where Essie had been.

The other guard entered the room and Rosita told them it a false alarm.

Essie walked slowly back to her apartment, not drawing any attention to herself. So, Rosita and Daryl were cops, not just soldiers, they were the enforcement arm of whatever the hell the Commonwealth really was. She'd been right not to trust them.

"But Rosita let you go," said a little voice in her head, she chose to ignore it.

She was sitting on the floor in the furthest stacks looking through the papers from the previous night she had taken when a shadow fell across her. She looked up to see Mercer looming over her.

"Mr Hornsby wants to see you," he said without preamble.

Essie narrowed her eyes at him, "Why is that?" she asked.

"You need to come with me."

Essie sighed and held out her hand, when Mercer just stood there she waved it at him, "Help me up," she prompted, "I'm an old lady," he grunted and hefted her to her feet. She was careful to leave the papers on the floor, no-one would come this far back, they would be safe.

She followed the orange giant out of the library, marvelling at how uncomfortable his uniform looked. She wasn't nervous; if Hornsby knew of her nightly activities, Essie was pretty sure she could talk her way out of it. If this was about something else then she'd go with the flow and hopefully not have to kill anyone, it was still early.

She was shown into an airy office, Hornsby leapt up from behind his desk and shook her hand.

"It is an honour to meet you again," he said with a grin a little too wide.

"Is it?" Essie asked and waited with a polite smile on her face.

"Of course," he said, "you and your children saved us out on the road."

Essie heard Mercer grunt. Hornsby shot him a look but continued to grin at her and she continued to stare at him.

"So, I had a call from the school principal saying there had been an incident…which has been resolved…but he did mention that you weren't totally honest about your name during processing."

Essie smiled, raised her eyebrows and waited. The silence lengthened into something awkward. Hornsby perched himself on the edge of his desk and stared at her rather like someone appraising a new acquisition.

"You know, I don't think we've ever had a member of the aristocracy in the Commonwealth," he said eventually.

"Well, we are a rare breed indeed," Essie said flatly, "Mr Hornsby I don't wish to be rude but is there something I can help you with? I have to get back to the library or I don't get paid,"

"Governor Milton would love to meet you…" he began but Essie held up her hand.

"Let me stop you there. I am sure Governor Milton has more important things to do than meet me…because that's who she'd be meeting…me…not a minor aristo from a dead age."

Hornsby stared at her for a long time and again the silence grew.

"Ok," he said brightly, "I understand. Well, please don't let me keep you from the library. It was good to meet you again," and sat down at his desk, "Mercer, please show Ms Kirk back to the library."

They walked back in silence. The meeting left Essie with a bad taste in her mouth and confirmed her suspicions about The Commonwealth in general and Hornsby in particular. She was also angry with herself, she should've known better than to draw such attention to herself.

"Sorry."

Mercer broke her out of her reverie.

"What?"

"Sorry," he repeated, "for shooting you."

"Wow," said Essie, "I think that is the worse apology I've ever heard…and I used to be a teacher."

Mercer gave her the side eye and caught her grin.

"You lived in Alexandria?" he asked, looking straight ahead.

"I did, a long time ago," she answered, wondering where this was going.

"Why'd you leave?"

Essie sighed, "that is a very, very long story and I don't know you well enough to tell it."

Mercer nodded and looked almost lost. Essie relented.

"But I can tell you that when I lived with them I witnessed loyalty and sacrifice, love and family, they died for each other."

Staring ahead, Mercer remained silent.

"Are you going to tell me why you want to know?" she asked.

"Nope," he replied and Essie nodded.

They continued to walk in silence, Essie noticed fresh graffiti urging people to resist. This place was rotten to the core, she could feel it leaking into everything. When she'd been finding people, out on the road with Georgie and the twins, it was easy to tell if a place was good or bad. It was often the little things that gave it away, how people worked together, if everyone was dressed the same, if their homes were roughly the same. When there were obvious differences you could be assured they would fail and fall. Those years had taught her you often didn't need to look beyond the obvious…but it had also taught her to be more optimistic; Georgie was an optimist, practical but with a yen for utopia. Maybe some of it had rubbed off on her, then again maybe not. She'd always been the one to trim Georgie's wings and Maggie had been the one to make things happen. She missed those days, for all of the danger and difficulties she'd been close to happy, she'd had a purpose.

Now what did she have? A huge knot in her stomach, the shadow of a plan and a massive complication in the shape of the Alexandrians. She sighed; why was nothing ever simple?

They arrived back at the library and Mercer left her at the door; he hadn't mentioned anything about her night time activities so perhaps Rosita hadn't reported it. She'd have to be more careful…about everything. She sighed again and headed towards the back stacks to collect the papers.

"She can't go around doing that," said Carol, stacking pastries on the counter. She glanced up to see Daryl staring into the middle distance. He'd told her about the call out to the warehouse and finding Essie there.

"What did you say to her?" Carol said.

"Nothin'," he replied.

"She's going to put all of our positions in jeopardy," Carol said.

"Why?" said Daryl with uncharacteristic sharpness, "she ain't one of us anymore, we ain't got nothin' to do with her."

"But Hornsby knows she was once, if she causes trouble it'll reflect on all of us. I'll speak to her, get her to stop," Carol gave Daryl a tight smile.

Essie looked at the shift rota on the notice board.

"Oh honey, you got stock taking," Sheena patted Essie's arm in sympathy, "that'll be a long night. You gotta check all the books on…" she peered at the list, "the gold sticker list, that's a lot of books."

Essie sighed, she hated having a job again. She went home early to get changed into more comfortable clothes and grab some food, Finn was doing homework at the table.

"You're home early," he said, looking up as she dropped a kiss on his head.

"I'm out again tonight. Not, before you say anything, scouting; I've got to stock take at the library, apparently it'll be a late one."

"I guess it'll keep you out of trouble," he said with a laugh, "Cat's home tonight so we'll eat together."

"Where's Archie?" Essie asked.

"He's in the square with Judith and some friends, he knows to be back for dinner," Finn saw the look on his mother's face, "that's ok isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Essie with a resigned sigh, "it's fine. I can't exactly ban him from talking to…people."

"Mom…do you think you should tell him?" Finn asked hesitantly.

"I don't know. I never thought I would need to but here we are…fuck's sake…why is nothing ever simple? Do you think I should tell him?"

Finn screwed up his nose, "I don't know. Maybe just wait and see what happens?"

"Yeah, I like that plan…put it off until tomorrow."

Finn laughed and then turned back to the paper, "Mom, before you go, can you explain why President Truman wanted to contain the spread of Communism?"

"That's what they're teaching you?" Essie rolled her eyes, "ok so you need to look up The Truman Doctrine from 1947, it should be in that text book you've got."

"Thanks mom, enjoy counting books."

Essie waved goodbye to the other librarians and locked the doors. She went to the break room and opened some cupboards in the hope there was a big bag of cocaine or something equally powerful to give her energy. There was no cocaine but there was a tape deck and stack of cassettes…Essie grinned, that would do nicely.

Carol looked up at the darkened façade of the library with only a few windows glowing. She rattled the door but it was locked, she sighed and got to work.

Daryl stopped at the apartment door, there were sounds of laughter coming from inside. He took a deep breath and knocked.

"I'll get it," said Finn and opened the door. His eyes went wide as he saw Daryl.

"Hi, is your mom home?" he asked.

Carol unlocked the door easily and walked into the library. Essie was sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of books with Nena's 99 Red Balloons in the original German blasting from a tape deck next to her. She looked up and frowned.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked dryly and stopped the music.

"We need to have talk," Carol said.

"Great," said Essie and shoved a pile of books out of the way, indicating for her to sit.

Without thinking, Finn shoved Daryl back and stepped outside the apartment, closing the door behind him.

"What the hell are you doing, coming here?" Finn hissed, looking back to check the door was fully closed.

"I came to speak to your mom," Daryl said.

"Why?" Finn demanded.

"To find out what she's doing?" Daryl said staring at the boy he knew from so long ago.

"Why? She said you were in the police. You here to arrest her?"

"No man, I'm just here to find out why." Daryl hadn't really got a plan, he just knew he had to speak to Essie, he hadn't thought about having to speak to one of her kids.

"So, you just rock up to our door during dinner? How do we know this isn't a trap?" Finn stared Daryl right in the eye, searching for the truth. It almost felt like a physical blow to Daryl, how much this boy reminded him of Essie; he had her mannerisms, her rhythm of speech, her strength. He thought back to the little boy looking at the shark's tooth as if it were treasure, so many years ago.

"I'll go," Daryl rasped.

"Daryl told me about the other night," Carol said, looking at a book's spine and then putting it down.

"Looks like someone didn't get the memo that snitches get stitches," said Essie and instantly regretted her flippancy, Carol didn't deserve that, "sorry," she said and Carol nodded.

"What were you looking for?" Carol asked.

"Evidence this place is safe," said Essie smoothly, "he must've told you."

"Yeah, he did and he didn't believe you either," Carol was still speaking in an easy tone which made Essie even more suspicious.

"So, you're worried my transgressions will reflect badly on you. Well, be reassured I'll be much more careful in future. Now, if you don't mind I've got to change these gold stickers to red which is a complete transgression but worth it," Essie turned away from Carol, picked up 1984 and peeled off the gold sticker, replacing it with a red one.

"You're not going to tell me the real reason?" Carol asked, picking up On the Road and peeling off the red sticker.

"Nope," said Essie.

"They know you're a Lady," said Carol, after a beat of silence, Essie nodded and continued working.

"You're not doing a very good job of keeping a low profile," she said, getting another book, Essie sighed but said nothing.

"Lance has you in his sights and Governor Milton wants to meet you," she said and felt Essie tense.

"How long have you been working for Lance?" Essie asked, emphasising the last word.

"A little while, I like to be useful," Carol said.

"Yeah, I remember. Are you sure you're helping the right side?" Essie picked up the next book.

"Why'd you ask that?" Carol turned to see Essie watching her.

Daryl turned to walk down the hall, Finn felt a strong memory wash over him; he was standing in the doorway of the half house in Alexandria, it was hot and he was in shorts. He saw something…a coloured paper aeroplane…blow down the street and he ran after it but tripped and skinned his knee, blood welled up and he started to cry and then a figure picked him up and set him on his feet.

"Up you get lil' man, let's get that cleaned."

Finn remembered how safe he'd felt as Daryl had carried him back to Essie.

"Wait," he called and Daryl stopped.

"Just a question," Essie said, "have you asked yourself that question?" and continued to watch Carol who shifted slightly.

"Ezekiel told me…what happened. I'm sorry." She hated poking at Carol's wound but she needed to see where this woman stood.

"Don't change the subject," said Carol.

"I'm not. I know you and you'd blame yourself. You went after this Alpha didn't you," Carol nodded, "and people got hurt?" again Carol nodded.

"You've begun to doubt yourself and your decisions, you now question every move you make ten times over."

"Yeah," said Carol and wiped away a tear but Essie continued.

"So, you'll have questioned your decision to ally with Hornsby and the Commonwealth…are you sure you're on the right side?"

Carol sighed.

"It doesn't matter if the side is right or wrong, the Commonwealth has 50,000 people, walls, food, clean water, resources…come on Cookie you're not so naïve as to think there is right side." Carol sniffed and sat up again. Essie took a deep breath and considered.

"No, I'm not naïve, but I'm also not going to blindly lay my head and those of my kids on a chopping block because of status or wealth or blind acceptance that society is unfair. Pragmatism is fine until it becomes expedient to get rid of you. You must've noticed this place isn't all that it seems…" Carol interrupted her.

"And you're going to bring down the system?"

"Mom is…she's looking for evidence," said Finn, glancing back at the door.

"Of what?" Daryl asked.

"We met a group…they said some of their people had gone missing…after they'd come to The Commonwealth and…"

"Finn, what the fuck are you doing?"

Caitlin shut their front door and grabbed her brother's arm.

"I'm just telling Daryl about…"

"Shut up, we don't know him," Caitlin voice was like a slap in the quiet hallway.

"Sorry, I just wanted to speak to your mom," said Daryl but Caitlin turned on him.

"She doesn't want to speak to you or any other bastard from Alexandria."

Daryl stared at the woman in front of him. She might have blonde hair and blue eyes but she was Essie's daughter just as much as Finn was her son, she would never back down from a fight and she would never run.

"So, turn around and walk away," Caitlin continued and pushed her brother towards their front door. She wrenched it open and walked through but Finn hesitated.

"My bike's in one of the police garages, could you check and make sure it's in one piece please?" he asked.

"Finn," came Caitlin's voice from inside the apartment.

"Sure," said Daryl and walked away.

"No, I'm not going to burn it down, I just want to know how the system works that's all," said Essie.

"Maybe you need to be on the inside then?" said Carol as Essie narrowed her eyes and then gave a smile.

"Maybe," she replied.

They sat in silence again, changing the gold stickers to red.

"Who's Archie?" Carol asked after a while and found herself on her back with Essie's knife millimetres from her eyeball.

"That's the wrong question," Essie whispered, straddling the woman whose voice often rang through her head.

"Ok," said Carol as lightly as she could with her hands up, "it's not my business."

"No, it's not," Essie said and held the knife there for a moment before standing and pulling Carol up in one move, "You need to go now before someone sees you here, lock the door behind you."

She sat back down and didn't watch Carol go.

Once outside, Carol leant against the wall and drew in a shaky breath, she'd forgotten how dangerous Essie could be.