Disclaimer: AMC owns the story and characters of The Walking Dead, but out of Negan, they aren't around much.
Author's note: and the final installment, this is a happy moment.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
After
Lexington, VA
Ben was depressed after they lost Ross to an infection, and surprisingly, Lucas had taken over their little squad's leadership.
That was how they found themselves going the wrong way, west instead of east. It was how they found an old man who used to be a baker and took him in.
It was how they found the fence adorned with dead ones that clawed at empty air, while people bustled behind the mesh fence.
It was how they were brought to 'the boss'.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
After
The Sanctuary, VA
They had been at The Sanctuary for a couple years when the satellite outpost was finished.
"What?" Vera exclaimed.
Lucas winced and left the room and Chase made a mental note to remember that later.
"Simon wants us there, what can I say, Vee?" he asked his soulmate. Vera was truly fuming.
"So, change places with Lucas." She suggested.
"I tried already, honey." Chase pleaded. "Simon won't hear of it. Tyson and Lucas offered to take my place, but he won't have it and Negan is too busy right now."
"Yeah, I know, the school and the mall..." Vera crossed her arms over her chest. "Can I go?"
"I would prefer if you didn't just yet."
Their gazes met and Chase saw the telling shine in Vera's eyes.
"We haven't been apart in years, Chase." Vera's voice broke halfway through her sentence and he crumbled to her feet on his knees.
Vera held in her sobs.
"I know, honey, but I can't just say no." he reasoned.
Lucas promised Chase he would take care of Vera and so had Tyson. He had been too much a coward to tell his girl that her adopted brother was the one who insisted in Chase leaving the Sanctuary in favor of the outpost. And he couldn't be mad at Ben; because no matter how misguided the attempt, he was trying to protect Vera, something that Chase himself strived to do.
"I know that." She admitted.
He thought that, once at the outpost, it would be a lot easier not to miss her.
"Everything's going to be okay." Chase promised.
Damn, was he wrong.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
The Sanctuary, VA
Vera was sitting on the steps of the emergency staircase of the Sanctuary, her gaze unseeing as she simply existed.
She didn't hear the steps approaching behind her or noticed the warm body surrounding her. However, Vera felt the comforting touch Lucas was offering her when he put his arm around her shoulders.
It broke her.
It broke her resolve and crumbled her spirit, and she cried, cried, cried.
Lucas cradled her in his arms and cried with her. They stayed outside until it was too cold for comfort.
Vera was too weak to even stand and so, Lucas carried her to the room she used to share with Ben. He desisted in trying to leave her there when she raged, cried and begged Lucas to take her to his room.
He wasn't sure if that was reasonable, he used to share is room with Chase, but he had no option. Lucas feared that, left alone, Vera would harm herself.
Lucas let her sleep in his bed, but they didn't really sleep as much as they passed out, too wary and hurt to even think about the next day.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Satellite Station, VA
It was a quiet night.
Rationally, nothing should have gone wrong, they were having a night like any other, playing cards a bit before they went to bed or to their watching-shift.
Naomi and Ben were sharing a bottle of beer while Chase and Eric prepared the next poker game.
Chase was happy listening to Eric's never-ending talk about his baby girl.
"Elle says she is doing well, you know, growing strong." The proud parent in Eric showed in the slight glint of his eyes, it shone through the ever-present sadness of having lost his soulmate. "She looks so much like my Amy."
Damn.
Chase clapped Eric's back with a sympathetic smile and opened his mouth to speak when the alarms went off.
The laugh stopped and everyone took their weapons.
"What the fuck? What the fuck?!" Ben hissed, as soon as the shots started.
Naomi closed the door to the area they were guarding and put a finger over her lips while Eric and Chase grabbed their weapons as well.
The shooting continued for a while, short screams reached the area they were in, the deafening shots silenced the screaming.
There was a short silence and then the shooting came closer.
Naomi prepared her gun, ready to use it as she guarded the door and they tried to scrambled for their own guns. The deafening bang of the shot caught them by surprise as Naomi's body dropped to the floor, creating a crimson stain on the floor the longer she didn't move.
Ben pushed Chase and Eric to move to the exit on the back of the room.
A rain of bullets hit them all.
Ben cried out, but Chase couldn't hear it as he pushed Eric down, trying to protect him using his body as a shield. Eric was gasping in pain, making the effort to breathe. His lips were moving, but Chase's ears were ringing.
A pair of boots came into Chase's field of vision and his eyes looked up involuntarily. A big, redheaded man was pointing his gun at Eric's head.
He saw the spark and felt the blood hit his face.
Chase could hear screaming, he was sure, only it was all inside his head.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
After
The Sanctuary, VA
"Why Lucas?!" Vera raged, turning the heads of the working people in the garden.
"I don't know, Vera, but you have to accept it." Her friend said, placing his warm hands on her shoulders. It felt wrong, his hands felt light and soft, unlike the steady strength Chase provided.
"Until his marks show in me, I won't believe he's gone!"
"Yeah? And what if he didn't even have a chance to speak?!"
It was too horrible to imagine, but everyone sort of knew.
The people of the outpost had been attacked in the middle of the night, killed in their sleep. Shot, suffocated or stabbed. There had been a scuffle, that was sure. The accounts of the scouting team delivered as much. There had been blood, spent casings and lots of bodies.
Vera felt pain so acute, she lost her breath. "Who dare you?" she wheezed.
"I don't want you to waste away, okay?! You're the only family I have left, Vee!"
Hearing the nickname Chase had given her when they first met, Vera crumbled again.
"I can't believe he is gone. It's not fair!"
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Chase gasped in pain.
He knew he was losing entirely too much blood. The edges of his vision were becoming blurrier by the second as he made his stumbling way through the woods.
The notion of being lost wasn't far from his mind, because the moaning of the dead could mean anything, from a closing-in horde to the fence of the Sanctuary.
He hoped it was the later.
Chase wished for one thing and one thing only. He wanted to see Vera's face again, even if it was for his dying moments. He wanted his last words to be for her, her name, how much he loved her. Oh, Chase knew he could still say it, but it was meaningless if he died in the middle of the goddamned woods, in Somewhere, Virginia.
The tears running down his face surprised him, because Chase felt dehydrated and spent. He knew he had soiled himself when he'd been shot, he could smell himself too, in the aftermath.
Death in itself wasn't bad, he came to understand.
A slow death, however? That was hell, through and through.
Chase continued to stumble and pause for a few minutes, until his eyes caught sight of a bright light ahead of him. The child in him remembered Sunday school and how there was supposed to be light at the end of the tunnel, the cynic in him wanted it to be a clearing, preferably somewhere with water.
He got neither.
Loose gravel made him fall on his face when his arms faltered in keeping him from hitting the ground.
Right before losing consciousness, Chase swore he could see the looming silhouette of the place he called home.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
When he woke up, he was in the infirmary. Doctor Carson had remarked how lucky he had been.
"Another inch to the right and you could have bled out before I got the bullet out, son."
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Negan wanted to know what happened.
Chase told him what he could remember. He told him about the man who killed Eric.
Negan nodded.
It wasn't his imagination, Chase reasoned, the rage he had seen in the eyes of his leader when he promised retribution worth the offense.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Tyler had begged forgiveness, and Chase gave it, because he wasn't out of danger yet and if he died, he wanted no burdens on him. Vera was disapproving, but she said nothing, and Chase's heart swelled in his chest, full with pride and love for his soulmate.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Lucas found out because he was good pals with Arat and Laura.
It had been bloody.
Eric had been avenged.
So had Elle.
And then, they were all prohibited to speak about any of them again.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Now
The Sanctuary, VA
Chase knew Vera.
Actually, there were only two people he could pride himself in knowing well now.
Lucas and Vera.
He noticed the new way in which Lucas acted after he came back from Alexandria, talking about how great the place was.
"As if the apocalypse hadn't happened." He said.
But Lucas wasn't thinking of running water, renewable energy and state of the art A/C. No, his friend's mind was on a woman.
Turns out they met said woman before what they anticipated. Vera had taken to Tory Miller with an eager excitement that kept any bad feeling of Chase at bay. Lucas was completely enamoured with the grey eyed girl too, and that was a fight that Chase knew he would lose.
Tory Miller seemed to Chase like a person who knew the value of a secret. She held herself in a secretive and high-strung way that made Chase think of a soldier with PTSD. Ben had been like that too. However, his soulmate's new friend was quick of wit and easy going enough when she felt comfortable, as they came to understand.
Chase could have kissed her as well when she gave them the wedding bands she carried with her anywhere.
No day in his life was as happy as the day he heard the words Mrs. Owens leave Negan's mouth, as he declared him married to Vera.
Things were definitely looking up for them.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Then Tory and Lucas broke up, right after Negan announced they were going to a fucking war.
Chase wanted to scream.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Vera was pacing, worried and withdrawn.
Chase knew it had reached peak worry when Vera hadn't seen Tory in three days and no one had given her a feasible explanation for her friend's absence.
Vera's first choice was to resolve the situation with Lucas, but he had come up with a worse idea than hers.
"Tyler's gone too, Vee. I'm scared." Lucas informed them with a haunted look in his eyes. "What if he did something to California?"
"I don't think so." Vera replied, she turned her eyes to the leader of the Saviors, who was sharing his meal with his many wives at the head table.
He looked calm and composed, either Negan didn't know what was going on, or he knew and wasn't telling anyone.
"You know Negan would have done something about that already." Vera continued.
Lucas grimaced, but Vera rolled her eyes at him; Chase knew she hadn't really forgiven him for his breakup with Tory, even more after such a messy aftermath.
"What if they just left together?" Chase compromised, earning himself a glare from his wife and his best friend. "Justan idea…"
"No." Vera shook her head. "Tory wouldn't go with the man who killed her dad."
• • • • • • • • • • • •
As it turned out, Tory hadn't left the Sanctuary with Tyler.
She'd murdered him.
When Vera told Chase of Martha's crazy plan he laughed. He laughed so hard he thought he'd bruise his cheeks.
"It's not going to work."
Vera had a dead serious look on her face.
"I have to try. Tory did something I wish I had been strong to do."
Chase felt the lick of shame so acutely he shut his mouth.
"Tell me if you need my help."
• • • • • • • • • • • •
The night after they found out about the twins was perhaps the most peaceful night they've ever had. They ignored the risks, the possibilities of something going wrong, the state of the world and the looming threat of the war between communities.
This night belonged to them.
Chase and Vera were laying on their bed quietly, cradling the baby bump that held their babies.
"I'm glad you found me." Vera said quietly, looking at their joined hands.
Chase gave her a watery smile.
"I'm glad I found you too. I'm grateful for very moment, Vee. For everything."
Vera smiled at her husband.
"I know."
Returning her beatific smile Chase finally forgave himself for blurting out that he and Vera were soulmates so long ago. If he was sincere, that was when it all really started for them.
And it was far from over.
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