Once Montserrat's leadership realize just how large a population exists in Virginia, the original plan of sailing people back in smaller sailboats doesn't seem as feasible anymore. The new plan is a bit more intimidating for Beth, who is still enough of a novice sailor to take one look at the honest-to-god clipper ship now anchored near the mouth of the Patuxent River and feel like she's stepped two hundred years back in time. She knows once that Baltimore built such ships, although much less luxurious than the Star Flyer.
"There are really enough people who know how to sail that thing?" Sophia asks, staring in awe at the Star Flyer.
"There's enough of us to piece it together, yeah," Beth explains. "And it's got engines, so if we have a problem with the sails, they've tested those, too."
The Star Flyer is essentially a sail-powered cruise ship, although with a much more limited capacity than the big ocean behemoths. It's good to run on a skeleton crew of twenty sailors, a fraction of the seventy-five or so the brochures say it needed to run a passenger cruise. No one on this trip will expect to be waited on or their laundry done by staff, after all. The extra crew quarters just mean they can take everyone in one trip.
"How long will it take?" Daryl is already looking seasick just from the idea of stepping foot on the boat, which reminds Beth to check her supply of medications. "It took you two weeks to sail up here, right?"
"It did. Going back will be about the same, although we'll have to keep a close eye on the weather. It's already hurricane season."
It's the end of June now, and although the remnants of the Saviors that were finally found don't seem to be dangerous, Beth is just anxious. She wants the children she loves most safe on Montserrat, where she isn't constantly looking over her shoulder for another round of monsters.
Daryl sighs and squares his shoulders, looking uneasy as hell. "I'd best get everyone loading supplies on board, then. Sooner we get on the damn thing, sooner we can be back on dry land. You got Andre, too, right?"
Beth nods, patting the youngster on the shoulder where Andre has his eyes glued on the immense sailboat in the harbor. Judith yawns broadly, tucking her head to Beth's shoulder, and the older kids stay with them. They're the first group to be ferried over to the Star Flyer, with other groups of children to follow with a parent or guardian.
There are heartachingly few children to be taken aboard, but at least now they'll have a better chance than they have here.
The thought makes Beth think about the secret she's still keeping from most of her rediscovered family. Carol and Daryl know, as well as Sophia and Carl, but none of them have spilled the beans to anyone else. It feels a little bad, having Carol and Daryl keep it from their partners, but neither seems bothered. She supposes neither Rick nor Michonne is the type to really be offended.
Besides, it lets Maggie bask in the pampering of those who haven't seen a baby since the disaster began. The pregnancy gives the people of Alexandria and Hilltop hope. Beth simply would rather not have the attention, especially from people she doesn't know. There's enough time for that at Montserrat.
As part of the sailing crew, Beth gets one of the upper cabins to share with Shane. Rick and Carol are next door for the same reason, since Rick's lapsed sailing skills are about to get a refresher course. Since none of the cabins are set up to be family friendly, Carl and Sophia lay claim to a lower level cabin with bunks next door to Daryl and Michonne's regular cabin. Judith and Andre are still small enough to share cabins with their parents for the voyage.
"They are way too damn excited to be on this thing," Daryl grumbles as he settles into the chair next to Beth. The kids are splashing in the miniature pool on deck. "Going down in the hold is worse than the prison."
"Are you going to manage to sleep down there?" Beth asks, remembering how Daryl slept on the catwalk rather than in a cell. At the time, she figured it was avoiding the cells themselves, but over time, she thinks he's claustrophobic. The cabins aren't cells, but they are best described as cozy even with their luxurious decor.
He shrugs, eyes skimming the deck before settling on the empty land beyond. By this time next year, she thinks the shoreline won't look anything like it does today. It's already being reclaimed by nature, and the walkers won't last forever, especially as wildlife populations recover from having to share their homes with humans.
It's past supper time, a meal eaten on the beach of fresh caught fish alongside vegetables donated from the two more stable communities. By the time all the supplies needed to keep this many people safely fed until Montserrat were loaded, it was close enough to dark that no one wanted to set sail.
"Could always rig up a hammock, you know. Up here on deck."
"Don't want to bail on Michonne and our boy." He glances her way, smiling that crooked half smile of his. "Won't be bad at all with them there."
She thinks back to how that small cell never felt quite as small as it really was, not with Hershel asleep so close by and Judith tucked to her chest. It was safe, because the people who loved her most in the entire world were right there. Daryl has that now, both a child he loves so much he'd die to protect him, and maybe Michonne is a partner and not a parent, but Beth has no doubt that Michonne would protect Daryl with every ounce of her being.
The thought carries Beth through to bedtime and watching Shane try to convince Judith to sleep. There isn't much room to pace in their cabin, even though it's one of the larger ones, but he's making use of what space there is to rock her in a short sway and pace pattern. The soft rumble of what he's singing has Judith riveted.
"You know, I might not sleep either if you sang to me like that," she tells him.
The look he levels her way makes her wriggle and wish Judith was asleep in the tiny portable playpen already. The fact that he doesn't stop singing makes her want him even more.
It's not just about how he makes her feel once he comes to bed after soothing Judith to sleep. It's hearing the slow, steady sounds of his breathing next to her in the night, with his big hand resting right over her belly, where the tiniest of bumps exists more in her imagination than reality at only fourteen weeks along. It's hearing Judith's baby grumbles as she rolls in her sleep and knowing she'll see Judith grow up in a way she thought she never would.
Daryl isn't the only one who found a new safe haven in the family around him, that's for sure.
It takes them four days to reach Key Largo, which is decent time without using the engines. But the wind is heavy out of the north, so the debate is between waiting and firing up the engines. In the end, even with engines, no one feels comfortable taking the Star Flyer into the Gulf Stream until the wind dies down.
"Keys are actually relatively walker free," Shane tells their reclaimed family over breakfast, after announcing the delay. "Beth and I mosied around a bit."
"We have enough supplies to reach Montserrat, right?" Carol asks, laying down her spoon and looking concerned.
Shane feels a frisson of guilt at the fact that Carol hides a tremor in her hand. He reminds himself that keeping these kids fed and safe brought Carol down even darker paths than he'd traversed. They delayed departure to get the Grady survivors up to Virginia, after all, and those ex-cops follow Carol like she's their personal superhero. The fact that she trusts him and Beth to go to this unknown community is a miracle in itself.
"Plenty of both, yeah, and they can get supplies to us en route if need be. Just a habit to restock what we use by now."
Beth nods as she convinces Judith to eat bites of pancake instead of trying to feed them alternately to the dogs or Andre. "I think we could have sailed six people on what we kept collecting, although the dogs always meant extra."
That's easier now, with the pups back at the island and extra hands to help with Biscuit and Muffin. As soon as they drop anchor for the night, there's a dozen folks casting lines to fish for all the passengers, which includes multiple pets other than Shane's own. Some small livestock, particularly poultry, are making the crossing with the people, but the larger animals were ferried out and left on desolate islands to be brought over later.
Ezekiel's Shiva was one of the delays in moving all the communities south. Shane understands why Ezekiel wouldn't want to leave his longtime companion behind, although Shiva's odds of survival are much higher than most humans even on the mainland. Left on her own island miles from the livestock, she has a retreat from the walkers, yet access across the span of a debris strewn bridge to hunt. In time, they may move her further south than the Carolinas, but she's safe for now.
Considering Daryl's made it this far on a healthy dose of motion sickness meds, Shane isn't surprised when Daryl nods. They gather together a shore party, although only Daryl, Glenn, and Carol are those Shane knows well. Somehow, it doesn't surprise him when they start searching through the half destroyed grocery store that he ends up paired with Glenn.
"I think Carol was an only child."
Glenn's statement startles Shane into laughing and looking over from where he's packing boxes and bags of dry pasta into a duffel. Halfway down the aisle, Glenn is inspecting canned sauce before packing those away. There's plenty of flour, eggs, and the necessaries for sauce back at Montserrat, but easily stored things that last a long time are always welcomed into stores if they have more than they can use on the voyage.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because Maggie and Beth not having a relationship is driving her bananas. She doesn't realize that sometimes siblings don't get along, and it's not the end of the world."
Shane thinks about how Carol subtly arranged it so that he was Glenn's partner and sighs. "She thinks we can fix what's wrong between them somehow?"
It does seem like Carol's sort of delicate maneuvering to have them influence the Greene sisters instead of attempting it herself. From what Shane knows, Maggie and Beth haven't spoken a single word since the confrontation in the infirmary.
"Pretty much."
"Fastest way for either of us to be sleeping in the doghouse is trying to put in our two cents between sisters."
"No fucking kidding," Glenn mutters. "We're just the husbands. Every time I tried to negotiate a truce between any of my sisters, I was public enemy number one. They teamed up, turned on me, made me regret every life choice I ever made, and then right back to their feud when they were done. If that's a brother's fate, a husband's will be much worse."
The wistful and mournful look on Glenn's face makes Shane feel for the guy. He never asked where Glenn was originally from, not back at the quarry, although Glenn's accent says not anywhere in the South. Since Glenn never went looking, his family must be too far away for him to consider traveling home safe.
In reality, between Judith and the unborn babies, Glenn is a brother in a way Rick will never be. Shane should know more about his new family.
"How many sisters?"
"Four. Two older, two younger, back in Michigan. All who would have been better sons for my parents if not for the pesky fact they were female."
Ah. Well, maybe there's more than distance that kept Glenn from trying to go home. Estrangement is a powerful deterrent. Shane spending a year alone is proof of that. Before Shane can respond, Glenn speaks again.
"It'll be different for my kid. Boy, girl, I don't care. I don't know how to be a good dad, but I'll figure it out."
The vehemence in Glenn's tone makes Shane shift his weight, pausing in his packing. "Maggie and Beth had a good dad. I'm sure they'll keep us in line. And you did spend a lot of time with him, according to Beth."
"Yeah, I did." Glenn cinches his duffel and shakes out another. "You're already a natural with Judith. Must have had someone like Hershel."
"Not at all, unless you count watching Rick's family." Rick's father hadn't been the warm and fuzzy sort of parent, although he'd done better than Shane's father simply by sticking around. "Raised by my mother and grandmother."
"Guess that'll make having a daughter easier, yeah?"
After Shane nods, they finish salvaging their aisle and haul the duffels to the front. They're the first pair back, and he can hear the other three duos still talking quietly in their assigned aisles. Outside, Sasha and one of Ezekiel's people are standing guard, each facing a different direction and just out of earshot.
They're out of sight of the Star Flyer right now, and Shane feels that familiar uneasy crawl under his skin. It's always there these days when he's out of sight of those most important to him. He knows that even back at Montserrat, his mind will retain a portion of the hypervigilance as he does his daily work. That may never go back to normal.
"I don't know that Maggie will ever come around," Glenn admits softly.
"To thinking I should be married to Beth?"
"Yeah." Glenn sighs, running a hand through his hair. He looks much older than the youth Shane met back at the quarry, but this world ages them all much faster than the old.
"And what's your opinion on that?"
"I knew you before the farm, Shane. I know you're a good man. We've all made those decisions we shouldn't. So long as you treat Beth right, we're good. If you don't…"
"That's not an issue." If Shane thought it was, that he might snap again like he did at the CDC and farm, he wouldn't have risked this relationship with Beth at all. "But thanks for the shovel talk anyway."
That makes Glenn laugh, and the amusing part to Shane is that even now, many wouldn't be wary of just what Glenn might dish out in defense of Beth. But Shane learned early on not to underestimate Glenn. He'd never see the sneaky bastard coming, he knows.