Sadie's POV
For a community, that would call itself something like The Hilltop, as if this were some sort of luxury hotel or country club, I'd expected something just a little bit fancier.
I mean, it looked nice enough, still more so than anything had the right to these days, but there were no big fancy mansion-like houses, and the front gate didn't clang shut like that of some high-horse gated community like Alexandria had.
I just shrugged to myself, making my way around the place, til I stumbled on a little isolated area.
One, which would not have struck me as somewhere you'd bury your own, not if there weren't the two obviously freshly placed dirt piles, marked only by a stick and a small pile of rocks by each one.
It took me a minute to piece together that the young woman who sat silently in front of one of them was the same brunette girl from that asshole's group…...Maggie, according to the staged grave marker the priest had set up in Alexandria to throw off Negan.
He's smart, I have to give him that.
As I approached closer, quietly, she didn't seem to be aware of my presence until I was close enough for her to apparently hear my footsteps.
Her eyes, still red and slightly teary from crying, turned to anger as she looked up and recognized who I was.
I put a hand up in front of myself to attempt to indicate that I meant no harm.
"Look, I don't mean to intrude, hell knows you need time, I just- "
"You have a lot of nerve showing your face around here." She nearly growled at me.
I put my hands up, in somewhat of a surrender this time, as I cautiously placed the small bag I'd been carrying on the ground and laid my crossbow down next to it.
"...search me then, look through my shit, if you don't believe me." I offered more gently.
"Because that just did us so much good the last time we took that precaution with you guys."
"Fair enough…." I admitted. "...although this time around, if you decide to take me up on it, you'll find that I have significantly less weapons on me.
Hell, I didn't even bring the machete on me.
"Just the crossbow…..a couple knives…" I carefully picked up the hand gun I did have on me. "...and this."
She looked me up and down, looked at the size of the bag I'd set down, then at my crossbow that laid beside it, then looked back up at me with somewhat curiosity while not completely letting her guard down.
"...like I said.." I sighed. "...I didn't come to intrude…."
She decided to, at the very least, humor my explanation.
"...So, why are you here?" She asked. "...and how'd you know I would be?"
"Just to talk…." I glanced, visibly, towards the grave. "...and to offer my condolences, pay my respects…."
She looked silently back at me, seemingly accepting my explanation.
"How though?" She repeated. "How'd you know?"
"Your friend Gabriel told me." I chuckled, softly, at that. "...so much for confidentiality, right?"
She somewhat chuckled, more humorlessly, at that. "I suppose."
I nodded sympathetically. "...look, if you really want me to fuck out of here, just say the word and I'll go…..intentions wouldn't mean jack shit to me, if that was Gareth buried underneath that grave." I scoffed, jokingly, at the thought. "...now then, I probably would stab you on sight."
"Yeah, you probably would." She chuckled humorlessly at the thought, seeming to consider it for another minute. "...You can stay, Sadie."
I half smiled back at her. "...you sure."
She nodded quietly, glancing briefly back at the grave. "...he would've agreed."
"I appreciate that…" I said gently, sitting down beside her and reaching carefully into my bag, as she watched even more curiously while I pulled out the small jar of pickles I'd gotten from Jessie.
"...especially considering I also come bearing these."
"...pickles?"
"Yeah…" I chuckled at the idea. "...consider it my lousy attempt at a peace offering."
She glanced down, curiously again, down toward her still flat stomach, and then back at me as she seemed to piece together the intent.
"Again…" She somewhat chuckled. "How'd you- "
"...your friend also told me why you're here."
"...Alright, so let me get this straight…..Gabriel just tells you everything that's happened in the past few days, tells you where to find me, and what? You just drive up here with a jar of pickles to make things right?"
"Hey, I went out of my way to get you those pickles." I joked. "I don't even keep pickles in my own house." I chuckled, shaking my head to myself at the thought. "God, that still feels weird to say."
She twisted the lid off the unopened jar, with little effort, and took a singular spear from it. "What still feels weird to say?"
"...All of it…" I shrugged. "The house…..one we have to ourselves, at that…..that Alex has an actual crib, toys…."
"Alex?"
I nodded. "My son. He just turned two."
"Right….." She recalled, her voice a little more quiet again. "...How long have you guys been staying there?"
Before I could answer though, we were interrupted by a new set of footsteps approaching nearby.
We both looked up to see a man, whose hair fell just beneath his shoulders and who appeared to be holding a small bouquet of green flowers.
"It's nice to see you up." He said.
I looked back to Maggie, who was smiling now at the gesture, as she apparently knew him
"Flowers…." She observed. "It was you."
"...The ones on your bed too." He affirmed, glancing briefly towards me, as if just noticing me, with a smile. "...I didn't realize you had company."
"I suppose you could put it like that." I chuckled, reaching my hand out to shake his.
"Sadie."
"Pleased to meet you." He replied. "...you can call me Jesus."
"I'll make a note of it." I chuckled, trying not to be too obvious in my amusement at that.
He nodded, redirecting his attention to Maggie, as he placed his flowers down in front of the grave. "I read somewhere that blue flowers inspire strength and calming."
"What's green?" She asked, standing back up when he did.
"Release." He replied gently, placing a hand on her shoulder to comfort her when she started sniffling again.
The moment, however, was cut short by a new voice, as another man abruptly made his way toward us.
"Thank God, you're finally awake!" He declared. "You people said you got them all!"
Well he seems like a delight, right off the bat.
I stood with my arms folded, beside Maggie, shooting him a more suspicious look.
"We thought we did." Maggie explained, despite the clear audacity of this man. "...it was just an outpost."
"Well, how many of them were there?"
"There were a lot.." She answered. "...maybe hundreds."
"Do they know about the deal you made us take, Marsha?"
"IT'S MAGGIE." I corrected.
He jumped back, slightly startled by the outburst.
She gently pulled my arm back for me to stand down.
"No...and we didn't make you take the deal, Gregory- " She continued before he abruptly cut her off.
"Look, I-I-I'm happy we could patch you up. You need to go." He started to storm off, as if this should've been the end of the conversation. "...Make sure you let Rich know what we did for you- "
"Doctor Carson said I should stay!" She insisted, causing him to stop in his tracks and turn around to walk back over to us.
"If he thinks he has the authority to make that decision, he is mistaken." He near shouted, quickly noting my glare at his response. "...don't look at me like that. She'll be safer with her own people! And we'll be safer without her."
"She's pregnant!" I interjected, sternly. "Have some fucking decency!"
He stepped back again, only this time, with such a look as if I were the one with the outrageous audacity.
"..and you need to stay away from Maggie and focus on your work, here at Hilltop." He argued, moving his hand to gesture toward the graves.
"Did you do this?!" He demanded. "We don't bury our dead, we burn them!"
"Sasha did it." Jesus interjected. "...she's the one who got Maggie here, they're both from Alexandria."
"Sadie too." Maggie added.
"Who the hell is Sadie?!" He demanded next, to my amusement.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance." I scoffed.
"Alright, look, I don't have time to keep track of everybody!" His anger redirected toward Jesus now. "...I've been recuperating too, Jesus! From a stab wound! …..You know, Maggie said that her people could take care of the saviors-"
"And like she already told you, Gregory, she thought they did!" I reminded him firmly, take a step in front of her when he moved to get in her face.
He scoffed at the interruption, looking back to Maggie. "You know, if they see you here, they'll think we colluded."
"We did." She corrected.
He scoffed again, gesturing back to the graves.
"I did not agree to this!" He continued to insist. "If they think we attacked their outpost, they'll do that to us! Jesus, do you have any idea what plausible deniability means?"
"Yes." He answered, unamused.
"...well then, you know...it's our way out. If they leave, we have plausible deniability."
"Gregory, it'll be night soon, it's not safe for them to leave now."
"I can take care of myself out there." I interjected, shooting Gregory a smirk. "...real question is, do I want to?"
I coudn't tell if his next scoff was aimed at me or Jesus…..probably both.
"Look, I'm a good guy." He sighed. "You can stay the night…..but leave in the morning!"
"We'll talk more about it tonight." Jesus insisted.
"No, I've made up my mind."
"I'm just saying- " Jesus started to suggest.
"Do you wanna go back with them?" Gregory continued.
"...I'll take them back…."
"That's not what I- " Gregory tried to argue.
"I know what you meant…."
He just nodded, looking back at us, then looking back to Jesus.
"...So, it's settled."
"...so that's really the kind of coward you wanna be, Gregory?!" I called out after him as he started to walk away again, and causing him to, once again, turn back around.
"...I mean, that's the only kind of man I can think of who'd turn away a pregnant woman!" I folded my arms across my chest. "...or is there another term you'd prefer?"
He shook his head, not saying anything else as he turned to continue on his way.
"Fuckin pussy." I scoffed to myself, as Maggie just looked back at Jesus, who had also decided to storm off.
"You okay?" I asked her.
She nodded, clearly more unsure than she'd intended to come off as.
"I will be."
I nodded back to her. "...So Sasha's here too?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah…..she was out here, herself for a while, left just before you showed up." She explained, her tone changing slightly as she seemed to recall why that name stuck out to me. "...is that gonna be a problem for you?"
"Well…." I chuckled at the thought of what I was about to say, glancing back down to the jar of pickles that were still on the ground. "...only because I don't think there's enough pickles left in the world these days that says,
"Hey, sorry I ate your boyfriend about two years ago. Truce?"
She let slip a chuckle, even if only for the shock of it. "No, Sadie. I don't think there is."
We both couldn't help, even on her part, laughing genuinely at the idea of that for a moment.
She then cleared her throat to speak again, more seriously now. "...So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"