6:35 PM
Carol eased the truck around a slowly ambling walker and then a blown tire and back onto the double yellow line of the highway. She liked to straddle that line. There always seemed to be less debris to navigate around if she stayed in the middle of the road.
"How long until we reach Alexandria?" Sophia asked. She sat in the middle of the bench seat with Patrick on the passenger's side.
"We should be there in half an hour now," Carol told her. "Then your father and the others should be home to Alexandria the day after tomorrow, by sunset."
Sophia eased the baby off her breast, pulled up her top, and lay him on a blanket on her shoulder and rubbed his back. Carol drove a lot more slowly than she usually would, with that precious cargo in the center seat. She thought of how, in the Old World, she never would have driven Sophia anywhere at that age without a five-point harness in a back-facing infant carrier in the rear seat.
"You think anyone will recognize me?" asked Patrick, daring to glance at Sophia now that she was done nursing. "I mean…I'm twenty-three now."
"Do you think we'll recognize them?" she returned. "I mean the kids? Luke must have practically gone from boy to man by now. Mika was only eleven when we got separated. Judith was a baby! I'm sure we won't recognize her."
"Will we be able to see everyone?" Patrick asked. "Duane and the others? They don't all live in Alexandria, do they?"
"Someone has to deliver everyone's share of the meat," Carol said. "I figure we'll rest up a few days in Alexandria, get you both settled, and then do the rounds. You can see everyone."
When they arrived in Alexandria, the sun had not yet set, but it was shifting in the sky enough to almost blind Carol through the windshield as she pulled through the gate Michonne rolled opened. Alexandrians immediately descend upon the truck and began taking the meat to the deep freezers and the camping supplies back to storage. When Carol stepped out of the driver's side and saw Heath grabbing Patrick's pack, she said, "That one goes to my house. All four packs do." He nodded, threw the pack on his shoulder, and grabbed another.
Patrick slid out of the truck and hobbled onto his crutches. Sophia followed, careful not to wake Koo, who had fallen asleep on her shoulder.
Aaron, with a cooler in each hand, was just rounding the back of the truck. He froze and stared. "Who are these people?" he asked Carol over the bed of the truck.
"Aaron," Carol said with an enormous smile as she came around to stand beside Sophia, "allow me the honor of introducing my daughter Sophia, my grandson Koo, and our dear friend from Fun Kingdom, Patrick."
Aaron blinked three times. Then he laughed. "That must have been quite the hunting trip."
"We found them in West Virginia," Carol explained, "living with a Cherokee tribe. Well, Daryl and Dixon found Patrick injured in a creek, and then…it's a long story. But I'm going to bring them by your house later to see Mika and Luke. We'll talk then."
Aaron nodded, shifted the weight in his hands, and headed on.
Meanwhile, Michonne, who had just rolled the gate shut, strode quickly toward them. "Sophia?" "Is that really you? Patrick?"
"Michonne!" Sophia cried. She stepped forward and made a move to hug the woman who had taught her swordsmanship, forgetting Koo on her hip, and the baby squealed when he was caught in the crosshairs of the embrace.
Michonne stepped back in wonderment and looked down at the baby. "Is this little one yours?" She looked at Patrick. "And Patrick's?"
Patrick flushed. "No. No he's Carl's."
Michonne looked at Koo again. "Of course he's Carl's. Those eyes. That nose." Michonne bent down to smile at the baby. "Hey, Koo." Koo reached out and grabbed her nose and she chuckled and pulled away. "So where's Carl?"
Sophia swallowed heavily and looked to her mother for intervention. She didn't seem to want to be the one to say.
"I'm so sorry." Carol put a hand on Michonne's arm. She explained what had happened, as succinctly as possible.
"Oh God," Michonne groaned. She gritted her teeth until she had bitten back whatever tears threatened to rise. "How did Rick handle the news? I mean, he'd come to grips with it, but then when he saw these two, he must have gotten his hopes up all over again."
"He's weathering it," Carol replied. "Knowing he has a grandson helps, I think. He should be home in a couple days. He's riding Magnus."
"The horse survived?" Michonne shook her head. "Not Carl, but the damn horse?"
Carol bit her lip.
"Sorry," Michonne muttered. She looked at Sophia and Patrick. "I'm really happy you two are alive. I want to hear everything once I'm off guard duty." She returned her attention to Koo. "Rick really has a grandson?"
Sophia nodded. "Would you like to hold him?"
"I'd love to." Michonne smiled as she took the little one into her arms. He fussed for a moment, and then looked up at her with wide, astonished eyes. "I can't wait to call my husband Grandpa Rick," she told Koo. "Old Man Rick." She chuckled, and Koo giggled. Michonne returned the baby to his mother and resumed her spot on the fence.
As Carol was taking Sophia and Patrick toward the house, Tara came running out of Alexandria's armory, where she'd probably been on duty cleaning guns. She came to a running stop in front of them. "I heard," she said, and looked over the newcomers. "Oh my God. It's true! Oh wow. You and Patrick had a baby?"
Patrick sighed. "He's not mine. He's my nephew."
Sophia smiled at him almost apologetically.
Tara got her turn at holding Carl's son while Carol rush-filled her in. "Well," Tara said, "you and Patrick should come to dinner sometime with me and Denise and Siddiq. And our little boy, David. He's three. We named him for my dad and Denise's twin brother. They both were named David. And Siddiq's grandfather was named Dāwud, which is the Arabic version of David. It just seemed like the stars had aligned. Sorry, I'm rambling."
Sophia smiled uncertainly. "Dinner would be nice sometime."
"We're actually coming over after dinner tonight," Carol told her. "So they can see Mika and Luke." The two families shared a four-bedroom house, with Denise and Tara in one room, Aaron and his husband (an ex-monk from St. Demetrios) in another, Luke and David in the third, Mika in the fourth, Siddiq in the converted study, and Enid, now almost twenty-three and wanting more space than the attic, in the garage apartment.
"Well, I look forward to it. I have to get back to cleaning the guns," Tara told them. "Glad to see you two alive."
When Tara returned to the armory, and they started walking again, Sophia said, "Siddiq lives with them, too? That's not weird at all."
"What's weird about it?" Patrick asked.
"The whole two women, one man and a baby sitcom that must be going on in that house. My dad told me Siddiq was their sperm donor."
"You have the technology for artificial insemination?" Patrick asked Carol excitedly.
"No," Sophia said. "They don't."
"Then how….oh." Patrick flushed. Then he shrugged and smiled. "Maybe I could be a sperm donor one day."
"You'd definitely make smart babies," Sophia told him.
"They wouldn't have the best eyesight."
"How have you managed without your glasses?" Carol asked. His had been pretty thick.
"I squint. And I always carry a telescope I can use to focus on things in the distance when I really need to." He patted the pocket of his jacket. "And I think my eyesight has actually improved. The medicine woman taught me these eye exercises. They reduced my headaches anyway."
"Well, Dr. Carson at the Hilltop can write prescriptions, and there's a glass blower there who can make them. It's kind of primitive…but it's better than nothing. Maybe we can get you a pair of glasses while we're there."
"I don't know. I think I look a lot sexier without them."
Carol chuckled. "You've grown into a handsome young man, Patrick."
When they got into the house, Glenn, Maggie, Beth and the kids were at dinner. The adults didn't recognize Patrick and Sophia at first, with Glenn asking, "And who are our guests?" When Carol told them, and they saw the resemblance, chairs practically toppled over.
After hugs were exchanged, Patrick and Sophia were squished in at the table. "I can't believe how much you've grown!" Sophia exclaimed to Judith. "I used to change your diapers."
Judith looked around at Hershel, Otis, and RJ with confusion.
"Do you remember her?" RJ asked.
"Uh…no. Hello. I was a baby."
"I still remember things form when I was a baby," Otis insisted.
Koo was being passed around the table and, being a friendly baby accustomed to being in different hands around the tribe, didn't seem to mind. He was grabbing a lot of noses and squealing.
"Is this Lilly?" Sophia asked Beth of the baby who was sitting on her lap and trying to grab at her fork as she ate.
"It is. She's our third. I guess you met Patricia Annette?"
"Patty? Yes." Sophia smiled at the baby. "How old?"
"Six months," Beth said. "About the same age as Koo. They'll be great friends someday."
"Or, who knows, maybe more," Maggie said.
"Please don't try to arrange my daughter's marriage from the crib," Beth told her sister.
Maggie chuckled.
"Ewww," Glenn said. "Aren't they cousins or something?" He looked up at the ceiling and seemed to think. "Oh I guess not. There's no genetic material in common."
"Could we not refer to our children as genetic material?" Beth asked.
Glenn got Patrick and Sophia a plate of food and there was a lot of talking and laughing and catching up, until the babies were fussy and tired. Then Glenn went to get a crib from a family whose child had outgrown it, and they settled it in Carol's room for the night, since Daryl wouldn't be back for a couple nights. They would convert the study into a bedroom for Koo and Sophia tomorrow, but tonight she'd share a King bed with her mother.
Once Koo was asleep, with the door open and a promise from Glenn and Maggie that they'd keep an eye on him, Carol took Sophia and Patrick to Aaron's. She still thought of it as Aaron's house, no matter how many people had shuffled in and out of it. The house had, in fact, belonged to Deanna and Reg Monroe at first.
As they were walking there, Patrick turned back to look at a passing young woman and ran smack into Sophia's back.
Sophia stopped walking. "Conco!" she exclaimed.
"Sorry," he murmured.
Sophia laughed. "Hey, Mom," she asked. "Who's that girl who literally just turned Patrick's head?"
Carol turned to see the retreating back of the young woman in question, with her golden brown hair falling in waves halfway down her back. "Mika!" Carol called.
"What?" Patrick asked.
"Oh my God," Sophia said. "Mika just turned your head? Mika?"
"Shh! Shush! Shut up," Patrick insisted.
Sophia chuckled as Mika turned and walked back toward them. But even Sophia said, "That's not Mika."
"It's Mika," Carol assured her. "She's not eleven anymore."
"That's for sure," Patrick murmured beneath his breath. He smiled with slight embarrassment as Mika neared, stopped, and looked them both over curiously. Her eyes dwelled on the moccasin boots.
"Visitors from Mount Vernon?" she asked Carol.
"You don't recognize us?" Sophia asked.
Mika looked at her and studied her face. Her mouth dropped open slightly. "Sophia?" Then she jumped slightly in place. "Oh my God! Sophia! You're alive!" She threw her arms around her one-time big sister and the two laughed and hugged. When Mika pulled away, she was swiping tears form the corner of her eyes. She turned toward Patrick. "Carl?" she asked.
Patrick grimaced. "No. How do I look like Carl to you?"
"The brown hair…I figured it got darker." She looked at the two thick braids that fell across his chest, then looked up at his eyes. "Oh…Carl had blue eyes, didn't he? Wait…Patrick?"
Patrick smiled and nodded. Then his smile faded. "Carl…didn't make it. I mean, he made it out of Fun Kingdom, but he died about fifteen months ago."
Mika shook her head. But then she smiled. "But you two are alive. It's so good to see you." She looked Patrick over once more. "I remember you being a lot taller."
"I'm actually over two inches taller than I was then," he told her. "I think you were just a lot shorter."
"I don't remember you being this muscular either."
Patrick stood a little straighter. "Well, you know…I've been helping to build a lot of cabins this past year. And plowing fields. Digging…been…working out."
Sophia stifled a chuckle.
"We were just headed to your house to see you and Luke," Carol explained.
"Well, I think Luke's home. I was just going to get a couple things ready in the schoolhouse for tomorrow." She looked at Patrick. "I'm a teacher now, for our lower school. That's the three to eight year olds. Murphy's going to have some serious make-up work when he gets back," she told Carol.
"He knows."
"Anyway, just let me run do this really quickly, and I'll meet you guys back at the house. I want to know everything you've been up to! I just can't believe you're alive." She stepped forward to hug Patrick now, and he did a sort of awkward bend to avoid pressing himself against the breasts that were very much not present the last time he had seen her.
"Good to see you," he said.
Mika smiled and nodded and headed back in the direction from which she had come.
"You have a schoolhouse?" Patrick asked.
"It's the chapel and the council house and the schoolhouse, and, when necessary, the guest house. Come on." She led them on to Aaron's, where they both recognized Luke instantly because of his curly hair.
"You've really grown up. I mean seriously grown up," he told Sophia.
"Cool it cool hand Luke," Enid, who was leaning back against the kitchen counter, told him. "She looks about six years older than you."
"Only five," Luke insisted.
"Luke imagines himself a bit of a Casanova," Enid told them.
"I'm just looking for love," he insisted.
"In all the wrong places," Enid replied. "Well, I'm on guard duty. It was nice meeting you two."
She slipped from the house while Aaron's husband brought them all tea at the table and Mika returned and joined them.
"Vassilis?" Sophia asked him when he sat down after setting a plate of butter cookies on the middle of the table. "Is that what you said your name was?"
"Everyone just calls me Vaz, thanks to your father. He started it."
"It is easier," Aaron assured him and gave his shoulder a squeeze before sitting down next to him. "Try the cookies. Vaz is an excellent baker."
"You really used to be a monk?" Patrick asked.
"A novice, anyway. I never took my full vows. I…uh…" he smiled at Aaron. "Got distracted from what I thought was my calling. But I think I had another one."
"Baking," Aaron told him as he picked up a cookie and took a bite.
Sophia helped herself to one. "They are delicious."
Mika and Luke filled them in on their lives over the past eight years, and Sophia and Patrick did the same. Patrick said he wished he had a more heroic story to explain his injury and the crutches.
"Well," Mika said, "figuring out how to irrigate your entire village going forward is pretty heroic."
Patrick shrugged and smiled.
"Do you all want to play Scrabble?" Mika offered. "I want Patrick to see how I can trounce him now."
"You have Scrabble?" Patrick asked.
"When was the last time you played?" Mika wanted to know.
"A few days ago," Sophia told her. "He and I did, while he was healing up. Patrick made his own board and whittled each of the tiles."
"So you guys don't play D&D anymore?" Luke asked with a grin.
"Not for a while," Sophia admitted. "It's mostly been chess, checkers, and taludza, until Patrick made the Scrabble board."
"What's taludza?" Mika asked.
"It's a dice and basket game," Patrick said. "There's betting, and men play against women."
"Betting?" Luke asked with a raised eyebrow. "What do men and women bet each other?"
"It's not spin the bottle, Lukey," Mika insisted.
"The men usually bet wild game and fish and firewood," Patrick replied.
"Do you play any sports?" Luke asked. "I'm on Alexandria's baseball team. We won the championship at the fall trade fair."
"We play a lot of stickball," Patrick replied. "It's a lot like lacrosse."
"Patrick's actually surprisingly good at it," Sophia said.
"Surprisingly?" Patrick asked.
Sophia smiled. "Sorry."
"My team almost beat Sophia's boyfriend's team in the last match," Patrick boasted.
"You have a boyfriend?" Luke asked with disappointment.
"And she has a baby," Mika reminded him. "Who I can wait to meet when he's awake. Try chasing girls your own age for a while, Lukey."
"But they're so boring. And so far away. Most are at Oceanside. And I think Enid's warming to me."
"Speaking of Enid, Carol, she wants to go to the Hilltop with you to help deliver the meat." Aaron looked directly at Luke. "I think because she wants to see Duane."
Sophia yawned. "Sorry," she apologized. "With a baby I just feel so tired all the time."
Carol suggested they head back to the house, while Patrick lingered to see if he would really get trounced at Scrabble.