Author's Note: OMG! That sneak peak for the season 7 premiere, am I right?! Negan needs to take his damn hands of my baby! Despite feeling like I was getting ripped apart inside yesterday, I was able to bang this chapter out last night and this afternoon. It encompasses all of "East", if you're curious. Enjoy! And, as always, please R&R!

xoxo - Holly

"Don't wait to say goodbye

You're running out of time

Whatever you believe

It's easy to see"

— Aloe Blacc

It was the start of another day in Alexandria; another morning being able to wake up from a restful sleep. Some sunlight was shining in through Rick and Georgie's bedroom, with the occasional cloud crossing over the sun to give some reprieve from the brightness.

Not that either was paying much attention to the sunlight.

Georgie was lying on her back, holding their bed sheet up over her chest while her head of ginger curls splayed out around her on her pillow. Her eyes closed shut, her brow knitted in concentration and her teeth biting her bottom lip, Georgie clenched the sheet tightly in her hands as she tried her damnedest to keep quiet. Underneath the sheet, also oblivious to the sunlight, was Rick. From Georgie's point of view, were her eyes open, all she would see was the outline of her legs bent at the knees and Rick's head between them.

When a lightning flash of fire spread out from the base of her spine, Georgie's eyes popped open and her voice became caught in her throat for half a moment while her body shuddered and her breath shook. With the beating of her heart slowly returning to a normal pace, Georgie lifted her head and looked down as Rick crawled up her body. She felt his kisses all over her thighs and her stomach before his head appeared out from underneath the sheet. He smiled up at her, wiping his stubbly chin with one hand before leaning back down to kiss her chest, licking circles around and biting gently onto her taut nipples. Slithering further up her body, Rick buried his face into her neck and suckled upon her skin while she brought her hands up to run her fingers languidly through the soft curls at the back of his head as she urged him to look up at her. When he took the hint and locked eyes with her, they were both smiling impishly at each other.

With a content sigh, Rick finally brought his lips to hers; kissing her for a few lovely moments before rolling off her and slumping back onto his side of the bed.

"You wake me up like that more often and I might never get out of this bed," Georgie muttered lazily, closing her eyes again as she let the afterglow of her orgasm continue to wash over her.

"My tongue might go permanently numb."

"Well, we can't have that."

Rick smirked. Leaning back, he glanced over his shoulder at the baby monitor to see that Judith was still asleep in her playard. "Judith isn't even up yet," he informed. Rolling back over, he draped an arm over Georgie's waist and pulled her body closer to his. "We got time for other things, if you're so inclined."

Rolling onto her side as well so she could face Rick, Georgie leaned in and brushed her nose against his before giving him a chaste kiss. "Time is a valuable commodity, isn't it?" Holding his gaze, she brought her hand up to push some errant curls from off his temple and forehead. When leaned contentedly into the gesture, Georgie smiled. "We have all the time in the world, and yet it's fleeting. We have to make the most of it because we never know when it's gonna be up."

Rick frowned. "It's too early for being deep and poetic." He leaned forward and buried his face into her neck again, kissing his way up to her jaw, then to her lips once more. "Less talking, more fucking, I say."

"Do you now?"

"I do."

The sound of Judith suddenly beginning to jabber over the monitor caused them both to fall silent. Lifting their heads, they looked toward the small screen and sighed.

"It's okay," Rick insisted, turning back to Georgie and crawling back over her body. "She's talking to herself, not crying. That's a good thing." Bracing his hands on either side of her chest, he positioned himself between her legs while grinning down at her. "We still got plenty of that valuable time."

"I like how you're trying to convince me of something I'm already willing to do," Georgie chuckled, resting her hands onto his shoulders.

"You really that easy?" he teased, pressing himself against her entrance.

"For you?" Georgie nodded. "Fuck yeah."

Rick smiled. Biting his lip, he thrust into her; enjoying the sharp intake of breath she made.

Within the hour, Rick and Georgie had dragged themselves out of bed and got dressed for the day. Georgie, having taken over primary Judith duty given that she had openly been Rick's significant other for a while now and that Carol—the usual babysitter—had been distant these days, had already changed Judith's diaper, and seen to getting her fed. Since no one else in the house had seemed to have made coffee, despite everyone having already left the house for the day, Rick took it upon himself to make enough for at least him and Georgie to enjoy a cup or two to help them wake up a bit more.

Georgie was sitting at the kitchen island, nursing her cup of coffee, with her gaze upon the toddler playing with a few wooden building blocks on the floor at her feet when a knock came to the front door. Rick, setting down his own cup, stepped around his daughter and sauntered over to greet whoever it was.

Once he pulled the door open, Rick found Tobin on the other side, looking somewhat downcast as he held a piece of paper folded up in his hands. He didn't say anything as he quietly entered in and passed the paper to Rick without a word. Sensing something was up, Rick's good mood began to dissipate as he took the note and opened it up. Curiosity killing the cat within her, Georgie stood up with one arm wrapped around her front to prop up her opposite elbow as she stepped over toward both men while still holding her coffee cup. When she got close enough, she looked curiously over Rick's shoulder to read along with him; knowing that if it was personal he would have turned himself and the note away from her prying eyes, but he didn't. In fact, he turned toward her so she could see the note better.

I wish it didn't have to end. Not this way. It was never my intention to hurt you, but it's how it has to be. We have so much here — people, food, medicine, walls, everything we need to live. But what we have other people want, too — and that will never change. If we survive this threat and it's not over, another one will be back to take its place, to take what we have. I love you all here. I do. And I'd have to kill for you. And I can't. I won't. Rick sent me away and I wasn't ever gonna come back, but everything happened and I wound up staying. But I can't anymore. I can't love anyone because I can't kill for anyone. So I'm going, like I always should have. Don't come after me, please.

Georgie took a step back and felt like she'd just been punched in the chest. Clenching his jaw, Rick looked up from the note, up at Tobin, and then turned to eye Georgie, who seemed just as thrown for a loop as he was.

They'd both known Carol hadn't been very happy as of late, but this is not something they would've ever expected her to do. It was the love they knew she had for their group that they believed kept her with them.

"That's bullshit," Georgie muttered, finally breaking the silence, unfolding the arm from across her chest and prodding the note harshly with her finger. Tears stung her eyes at the thought of the woman who had become her best friend just abandoning ship—on abandoning her. "How can she just leave like that?"

Rick looked back down at the note and then folded it back up. "Because she knew we'd talk her out of it." Gripping the note firmly in his hand, Rick stepped over to the coat rack on the wall and grabbed his jacket. Without another word, he stormed out of the house with Tobin hot on his trails; leaving Georgie behind with Judith.

When the door shut behind them, Georgie let out a huff and turned around to the little girl who seemed confused by the abrupt departure of her father. Frowning, Georgie walked over to the kitchen island where she sat her coffee cup down and then crouched down to hoist Judith onto her hip.

"C'mon, Judy. We're gonna go catch up with Daddy."

Before she could dart out the door after Rick and Tobin, she forgot she didn't have her gun or knife on her. It had become a thing that they all carried at least one weapon on their person at all times when not in the safety of their homes. Remembering she'd left hers upstairs, Georgie scaled the steps with Judith still on her hip and soon slipped into her and Rick's bedroom. She set Judith down on the bed long enough to attach her leg holster and place her gun in it while tucking her father's knife into the knife sheath on the other side. It was a new piece of equipment that Georgie had acquired that Rick had given to her from the stash they'd taken from the Saviors' compound. Squared away with her weaponry, Georgie lifted the wiggly Judith, who thought some big game was being played, up into her arms again.

Smiling at the girl, despite her worry and anger over Carol, Georgie kissed Judith's nose and held her close as the two of them made their way back downstairs and quickly out the front door. Rick and Tobin were already out of sight, so she wasn't one hundred percent sure where they'd gone. Once she reached the intersection, she saw movement out the corner of her eye to the right. Standing around in front of the entrance gate was Rick with Tobin, Morgan, Abraham and Sasha and they all seemed to be tense and talking. Before she could take a step in either direction, Georgie spotted Carl coming up the street from the house behind her with his head tilted to the side like his father, but looking as if he was trying to figure something out. She'd completely forgotten that he had still been asleep up in his room.

"Something wrong?" he called out before her was close enough to her. "I heard the front door opening and closing a few times, and someone rushing up and down the stairs."

"Carol's gone. She left behind a note with Tobin," Georgie explained briefly. "I need you to take your sister for me. I think your dad's gonna go after her. He took his jacket and he had that look in his eye."

Accepting his sister into his arms, Carl nodded. "Okay." Then, "Are you gonna go with him?"

"I have to. Carol's the reason I'm even here. I would've died out there on that road if she hadn't driven by me. I never would've gotten here to find out Tristan was alive."

As Georgie turned and began to walk away without another word, Carl called to her. "Georgie."

She stopped and looked over her shoulder at the teen. "Yeah?"

"Be careful," he spoke, his lone eye imploring her. "Make sure you and my dad come home to us."

Georgie smiled slightly and nodded. "We will." Blowing both children a kiss, she took off at a brisk jog down the road to catch up to the group at the gate who were discussing something as Morgan turned and came walking up the road toward her, heading for one of the cars parked along the wall.

"Where are you going?" Rick called to Morgan.

"I'm gonna go find her!"

Reaching Morgan before he even had the driver's side door open, she placed a hand on the top of the vehicle and cut in front of him. "I'm coming with you," she pointedly declared.

Morgan simply nodded back at her.

"Wait!" Rick shouted over at them. As Morgan climbed into the driver's seat and Georgie was making her way around to the passenger's side, Rick informed the others, "Tell Carl I'll be back soon. No one else leaves. Everyone stays, ready for a fight."

Rushing over to the car, Rick eyed Georgie and gestured for her to get in the backseat. He was riding shotgun. Georgie didn't much care as long as he didn't argue with her going. He wouldn't have, though. Rick understood what Carol meant to Georgie. What he didn't understand was Morgan's need to go after Carol. The two didn't exactly share any of the same ideals or agree on much of anything, to be honest.

Not a second after they were all seated, Morgan had started the car up and immediately drove it forward. The gate was opened quickly for them and the trio were soon outside the walls, leaving Alexandria behind them.

"Carl knows where we're going," Georgie said, leaning forward between both front seats. She had placed a hand on Rick's left shoulder and was looking at him. "He's got Judith with him. I told him what's going on."

Rick nodded and gave her a side glance. "Thank you."

Georgie responded by nodding back at him and squeezing his shoulder. Despite their tense moods, she found some respite in the way Rick reached his right hand up across his chest to cover her hand and just hold it there for a few moments. It all went back to how he found comfort in the gesture; how her holding his hand when he felt like the ground under his feet was crumbling. The touch of her hand focused him. It centered him.

The drive was a silent one for a couple miles until Morgan eventually spoke up.

"You didn't have to come," he muttered softly.

Georgie knitted her brow together and eyed the back of Morgan's head. "Why wouldn't we come? She's our friend."

"We have to try," Rick interrupted. "Even if it's a longshot; even if it's dangerous. The tire tracks pointed east. We go east."

"The Saviors' compound that you and the group…that you went to: that was west," Morgan commented as Rick turned to look at him. "Seems like she went east."

Turning away and glancing out his window, Rick gave a shake of his head. "You don't even know Carol. Not like us."

"Oh, I got to." Morgan looked briefly at Rick. "A little."

"Why are you doing this?" Georgie asked from the backseat, keeping her eyes on the back of Morgan's head.

Glancing up at her reflection in the mirror, Morgan locked eyes with her for a moment before returning his gaze toward the road ahead of them. "What I believe—I'm not right. There is no right. There's just the wrong that doesn't pull you down."

After a moment of silence within the car, Rick replied. "It hasn't pulled me down."

"I think it will. 'Cause I know you."

"You think you know," Georgie remarked, narrowing her gaze. Leaning forward, she gripped the backs of both Morgan's and Rick's seats. "Wrong or right, any of us…it only pulls you don't if you let it. And we won't let it. 'Cause that's who we are. If you know Rick, if you truly knew any of us, you'd know that."

Reaching forward, Rick grabbed the rearview mirror and angled it more toward himself so he could see into the backseat. Georgie sat back, pushing Morgan's staff out of the way when it bumped into her leg when the car followed a considerable curve in the road. When she glanced up, she found Rick's eyes staring back at her from the mirror. He winked at her and then the subtle tapping of his right hand between the side of his seat and the door panel. Following his gaze to the right, she leaned forward again and discreetly linked her fingers with his.

They sat like that, holding each other's hand while the car ride continued in silence for another fifteen minutes, give or take. Morgan had said nothing after Georgie gave her two cents and she figured that if Rick had any issue with how she'd spoken, he'd have given her a polite "down girl" comment. No such comment came, which meant one of two things. Either he agreed with her sentiment and his silence was confirmation, or he just didn't feel like adding his own two cents either way.

When the road reached a slight incline, Morgan announced, "There."

"I see it," Rick replied.

Georgie released her hand from his and scooted closer between both seats again so she could see better out of the windshield. Up the road was a truck parked diagonally across the street with a body strewn over the hood and another body laid out on the ground. When Morgan brought their car to a stop, they could see there and one on the ground. When all three of them got out of the car, they could see the body of the man on the ground was still breathing.

"That's her car," Rick deduced, looking over at the car a couple of yards further up the road. The giveaway was the wooden spikes sticking out of it that they used back outside of Alexandria to impale, and therefore trap, approaching walkers.

"D'you see her?" Georgie asked.

Both men tried peering around the truck to the car without stepping too far away from their own car just yet.

"No," Morgan answered, having removed his staff from the backseat.

Taking out his knife, Rick sauntered up toward the man on the ground while Morgan and Georgie kept lookout for any walkers, unfriendly types or, most importantly, Carol. Crouching down at the man's side, Rick grabbed him by the shirt and jerked him up slightly to get his attention.

"Where is she?" Rick growled out his demand while the man was choking on his own blood.

Taking mere seconds to determine the man would not be able to provide him with an answer, Rick shoved his knife into the man's eye socket to put him out of his misery. And it wasn't a mercy kill, either. Rick was angry because he could tell the man had something to do with whatever happened at this place with Carol. Also, there'd be one more walker added to the world if Rick had just left the man there to die naturally.

Wiping his blade on the man's shirt, Rick stood back up and looked between Georgie and Morgan before joining them as they moved forward around the truck; sparing it a few careful glances just in case a body popped out of nowhere. Beside the truck was a sharpened stick, much like a spear and it looked oddly familiar. Rick knelt down on one knee and picked it up, giving it a onceover.

"The Saviors were getting weapons from the Hilltop's blacksmith. These men were Saviors," Rick gathered.

Dropping the spear down, Rick stood back up again and walked alongside Georgie; the two of them following slowly behind Morgan as all three approached a recently reanimated walker feasting on a third fallen Savior. The likelihood of the walker being a fourth Savior was pretty high.

Morgan stepped up to it when it looked up, snarling, at him. With a swift whack of his staff, the walker received a fatal blow to the head that was strong enough to snap its neck as well. Despite their problems seeing eye to eye with Morgan on certain important things, there was no denying he could do damage with that glorified stick of his when he wanted to.

"There's blood here," Morgan announced, pushing aside the door to Carol's car. "She could've been hit."

"I'm proud of her," Rick said, looking toward the field before them on the side of the road.

"How's that?"

"She took four of them down. That woman, she's a force of nature."

Georgie smirked, agreeing with the sentiment as she recalled how she'd assisted Carol with blowing up that huge propane tank at Terminus.

"She left because she can't anymore," Morgan remarked. "That's what her letter said."

Rick looked at him. "She could because she had to. Sometimes you have to." He kept his eyes on Morgan even as he began walking back toward the truck and bent down to grab a gun underneath it; checking it for rounds.

"There's more blood opposite these men that leads into the field," Morgan stated. "It's a trail. Could be Carol's. She could still be alive. She's not here."

"Most of their guns are gone. She might've taken them."

"Those, too."

Georgie frowned, looking up either side of the road. "Or she could've died here, even if she isn't here." To think that Carol was dead and walking around as the undead wasn't something Georgie necessarily wanted to think about, but it was foolish to not consider that option.

Rick caught her eye and nodded. Georgie got the sense he might've been thinking the same thing, and that he didn't like the thought of it either.

Morgan gestured toward the field with his staff. "Trail goes this way."

Tucking the gun he'd acquired into the back of his pants, Rick began to follow Morgan as he led the way through the tall grass. Georgie was right behind both men, with her knife unsheathed to use at a moment's notice.

"They were close to Alexandria. There's even more of them," Rick commented, unhappily. "We didn't end it."

"No," Morgan muttered. "You started something."

As both men looked at each other, Georgie took the remark seriously and considered what it would mean for all of Alexandria, for the people they loved.

Having been following the travel for about half a mile, at least, they trio stopped when Morgan spotted a small amount of blood matted down in the tall grass; suggesting that whoever was bleeding had stopped to rest there long enough to bleed upon that spot for a while.

"It's not much. But if it's Carol's, then she's been bleeding for a while," Morgan presumed. As they began to walk on, he asked, "So, you two out here because Carol is your friend?"

"We're out here 'cause she's our family," Rick clarified.

"I've talked to people back there. I found out about what happened at the prison. How you sent her away. She killed two of your people, right? Burned their bodies. What if that had happened today? Would you kill her?"

"If it happened today, I'd thank her. Or I would've killed them myself," Rick answered. She was right to do it. They were sick, spreading a disease. They weren't gonna make it."

"Yeah, but this was back then. And you didn't kill her. You sent her away, Rick, and she came back. And she came back with Georgie and they saved all y'all." Morgan looked over his shoulder at Georgie, making sure she was paying attention to what he was saying, and not just Rick who he was directly speaking to. "People can come back."

Georgie listened, she could understand where Morgan was coming from, or at least what he was trying to explain. But she thought about different people that came back and how it wasn't for the better. Namely, Jake. He came back into her life and it was for the worse. She and so many others would've been better off if he'd never come back. She wished he would've died while after abandoning her and their daughter back in their hometown. Maybe her son wouldn't have become so traumatized and changed by the things he'd seen by the time he made it to Alexandria with Aaron and Eric. Maybe then her son would still be alive.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe Carol wouldn't have stopped that day on the road. Maybe she would've kept going, thinking Georgie was just another walker ambling forward. Georgie had been walking slowly enough and was dirty enough to have been easily mistaken for one.

Maybe Georgie would've died a short time after that, from malnourishment and dehydration, if not from a walker, or one of several times she'd contemplated suicide.

If Carol hadn't stopped, maybe she wouldn't have come back. Maybe she would've kept on going and going, and then she wouldn't have found Tyreese and the girls, who would've might've made their way to Terminus and gotten corralled with Rick and the others. Maybe they would've all died there.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

"You're quiet," Rick remarked after a while, looking over his shoulder at Georgie. He slowed down so that she was walking beside him so that Morgan was leading them instead of Georgie following behind both men. Lowering his voice, he brushed her arm with his hand and asked, "You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just rehashing the same shit I think about every once in a while," she replied. "The shouldas, the couldas, and the wouldas."

Up ahead, movement caught all of their eyes. The figure of a female walker dressed in simple pair of brown slacks and a feminine sweater staggered forward in the tall grass, snarling at nothing. A pang of dread weighed heavily on them as they began to hurry forward. At the sound of them approaching, however, the walker turned, revealing its face.

"It's not her," Rick confirmed, feeling a small wave of relief.

Before he or Georgie could use their knives to end the walker, Morgan whacked it hard enough against the skull to end its un-life. Rick crouched down to properly look the body over.

"She couldn't have been dead more than a day," Morgan figured.

As Rick released a sigh and began to push himself back upright, a very audible creak from the barn up ahead gave rise for alarm. Darting forward through the tall grass, the three of them moved through some wooden fencing with their weapons of choice drawn. They stepped around a few dead bodies scattered here and there. The closer they got to the barn, they were able to see an armored figure step out with a spear to stab a walker up under the chin and into the skull with a spear.

Rick instinctively drew his Colt. "Hey!"

"Whoa, whoa!" the man in armor shouted fearfully. As he retreated back toward the barn, he voice became somewhat muffled. "It's okay. I'm not trouble. I don't want any trouble."

"Come out," Rick called loudly. "Drop your weapons."

"I can't do that. The wasted are too close," the man replied. "I'm just looking for my horse. Have you seen it?"

"No," Morgan answered back, weaving back and forth with Georgie as they advanced slowly behind Rick.

"We're looking for our friend," Georgie spoke up, having drawn her own gun out of its holster while still hanging onto her knife, the same as Rick. "Have you seen her?"

"Have you seen her?" Rick repeated.

"They're coming! Just go! Just go!" the man shouted back, panicked, as several walkers began to appear and headed in from where he had speared the other one. Without another word, the man used the walkers being distracted with the trio to his advantage, throwing open the door to the barn and making a run for it across the opposite field.

"Stop!" Rick yelled.

Just as he raised his gun and fired after he man, Morgan reached up and shoved him out of the way. As Rick stumbled slightly to his side, Georgie reacted without thinking and gave Morgan a retaliatory shove right back.

"What the fuck!" she bellowed.

Rick immediately glared at Morgan, who glared back, but neither the two of them nor Georgie had the time to focus on an argument at the moment. Not when a handful of walkers were about to rain down on them. While Morgan shoved his staff through the eye socket of the first walker, Rick and Georgie fell back on using their blades, driving them forward into the nearest undead skulls. When one walker clamped its hands onto Morgan's back and was moments from biting him, Rick came up from behind and shoved his knife into the side of the walker's head. Georgie gripped one by the throat to hold it at a safe enough distance so she could shove her knife up under its chin and drive the blade upward into its skull to destroy the brain.

When the last walker dropped lifelessly to the ground, both men resumed glaring at each other, with Morgan pacing somewhat like an angry cat and what right he had to be the angry one was a mystery; at least, that is, to Georgie. Turning away, Rick began to stalk over toward the spear and removed it.

"Rick," Morgan spoke, following after. "We didn't know who he was."

Rick ignored him and brought the blade of the spear up toward his face an inspected it as Georgie sauntered up on the other side of him, looking off in the direction the armored man had run. "Yeah, it's one of the Hilltop's. Like the one on the road. Maybe he's one of them. Maybe he's looking for Carol, too."

"Maybe the man is just looking for a horse," Morgan parried. "Maybe he is from Hilltop. Maybe he's from somewhere else."

Rick emitted a quiet, but frustrated sigh. "I don't take chances anymore." He tossed the spear down and scowled at Morgan.

"Those people—the Wolves; after they attacked, I found one of them. He had attacked me on the road before, when I was trying to find you. And I stopped him. But I let him live. And then he was there in Alexandria after the attack, hiding in one of the brownstones, so I stopped him again. I knocked him out and I could have killed him. But all life is precious," Morgan told them both; the last part of which they were both pretty tired of hearing and it showed on their faces. "I put him in the cell of the brownstone basement. 'Cause I knew he could change. We all can change."

"You had one of them alive in the community?" Rick interrupted; anger seething from his voice.

"Oh, yeah."

"You kept a monster like that in a place where our children live? You potentially risked out children's safety so you could be a Wolf's rehabilitator?" Georgie questioned, stepping around Rick a bit more to eye Morgan with her own justified anger.

Morgan nodded. "And when the walls came down and the walkers broke in, Carol found out. We fought and that man escaped, and Denise…she had come to the cell to try and help him and he took her hostage. And then she and that Wolf, they got swarmed, and that man, that killer, he saved her life. And then Denise was there to save Carl. It—it's all a circle. Everything gets a return." He looked downward, momentarily avoiding Rick's blank gaze and Georgie's livid one.

"That…that's bullshit," Georgie muttered before she had even realized she had spoken. Knitting her brow, she glanced away from him. "If you had just killed that Wolf instead of locking him up, you wouldn't have fought Carol. Denise wouldn't have been in the position to be taken hostage. Denise's life wouldn't have been put at risk in the first place. That Wolf helped slaughter innocent people in Alexandria. In the old world and in this one, murder like that is punishable by death and deservedly so. Monsters like that shouldn't be able to take innocent lives and then be allowed to live, Morgan. That's not how this works. Every life is not precious." Clenching her fist tightly around the handle of her knife, she felt the terrible urge to just stab him, but she had to remember that calmer heads prevailed. Inhaling a steadying sigh, all she would allow herself to do was sneer at him before turning and walking away a few feet.

Morgan just stood there for a moment, staring at the spot she had just vacated before slowly bringing his attention over to Rick again. "The fact is the fact. I did what I did. I let him live," he spoke. Humbly, he stepped up to Rick. "You two go home. You take the car. You're needed back there. You shouldn't be out here taking any more chances."

"I'm not leaving," Rick insisted. "Carol's still out here."

"And I will find her. Somehow." He glanced over Rick's shoulder to see that Georgie had turned around then, and was looking at the pair. "You both go."

"You're coming back," Rick said, more as a statement than as a question.

Morgan had already turned around begun to walk away by then, but stopped and looked back at Rick's words. "Yeah," he nodded. "But if I don't, don't come looking."

Rick pulled the Savior's gun he'd found under the truck out from the back of his pants and held it up to Morgan. "Take it."

"No, I—"

"Take it," Rick persisted, and handed the gun successfully over to the reluctant man. As Morgan began to turn away again, Rick stopped him. "Morgan?" When he turned around to look at Rick, there was a pause between them both as the waited for what Rick had to say. "Michonne did steal that protein bar."

Morgan began to smile. "Oh, I know."

Without another word, or even a goodbye, Morgan finally began to walk away, and Rick did the same.

Sauntering several feet over toward Georgie, he placed a hand on her shoulder and brought it up to the back of her head. He didn't say anything at first. He simply pressed his lips to her temple and inhaled her scent for a moment.

"C'mon," he finally spoke. "Let's head home."

Georgie leaned back and looked up at him. "We really just gonna let Morgan go off on his own to find Carol?"

Rick half-shrugged. "He was right. He said we're needed home right now rather than out here," he commented, throwing a brief look over his shoulder at Morgan's retreating form taking out two leftover walkers with his staff. "Now that we know for certain there are more Saviors out there, and closing in on Alexandria, we needed to be there to protect it. To protect what's ours."

Georgie nodded. "Okay."

"I'm sure Carol would understand. She didn't want us coming after her in the first place, but clearly we're a pigheaded bunch."

"That we are," Georgie agreed with a smirk.

Rick holstered his Colt and tucked his knife away. Watching him, Georgie did the same. As the began to walk away from the barn, out through the gap in the wooden fence and back into the tall grass, Rick slipped a hand into Georgie's. Upon giving it a squeeze, he smiled down at her when she looked up at him.

"I love you," he muttered, lifting their hands up so he could kiss her knuckles.

"Te amo."

Rick snickered. "You been hanging around Rosita?"

"No. I live in a country where Spanish was the next widely spoken language. That, and I felt like changing things up a bit," she teased as he dropped their hands back down.

"I think maybe you might just be a little bit of a smartass," Rick quipped. He wasn't outright smiling at her, but the expression on his face suggested he was doing his best to hold it all in. He was still irked by everything with Carol leaving, the Saviors, and Morgan heading off. It didn't seem right to be this jovial about anything that soon after.

"Just a little bit?" Georgie gave a half smile as her mind began to wander when they stepped past the body of the walker they'd initially thought might be Carol.

Neither of them talked much after that on the way back to the car. Too much was settling upon their minds and it was rather distracting given the monotony of walking through what felt like endless tall grass. When they reached the road again, however, conversation came back as well.

"We should take that spear," Georgie suggested, staring around the pavement. "We might be able to use it."

Rick nodded. "Yeah." He sauntered over to the spear and crouched down to pick it up. Rolling it around in his hand, he stood still, just looking around and thinking again. When he glanced over to Georgie, he seemed to be focused on something. "Who do you think that guy in the armor was?"

Georgie shrugged. "I don't think he was a Savior. Saviors seem to have a ride or die attitude. They don't seem to back down from a fight, so I doubt any of them would just run away from us or walkers."

"Yeah, I think you're right. But I don't think they were Hilltop, either. Hilltop knows us; me and you, anyhow. They've seen our faces. That guy would've noticed who we are."

"We didn't recognize him, though. Maybe he was a Hilltopper who had been away from that community when we rolled in."

"Maybe."

"I think it's more likely he's from a completely different community."

Rick frowned. "As much as I'd love to return to the way the world was before, I'm not much liking this world getting bigger." With shrug forward with his left shoulder, he nodded toward their car; waiting as Georgie took the hint and joined him.

They walked side by side back to their car, where they'd left both the front doors wide open. Shoving the spear into the backseat, Rick looked across the roof of the vehicle at Georgie before sliding into the driver's seat. Once he was seated, and Georgie was beside him, they both closed the doors and Rick turned the keys in the ignition. After he made a three-point turn to turn the car around, they were soon driving back down the road the way they came.

Silence fell over them for the first mile, but it was a comfortable silence. Rick had sought out Georgie's hand again; linking his fingers with hers over the center console.

"Carol was gonna leave sooner or later," Georgie blurted after a few minutes.

Rick glanced briefly at her profile before returning his focus to the road. "What do you mean?"

"Before we got to Terminus, when we were on the tracks with Tyreese and Judith; she was gonna leave then."

"Why didn't she?"

"She had already agreed days before to help me find Tristan and I basically called her out on going back on her word." Georgie smirked somewhat. "Then we found that guy in the woods talking over the radio, referring to Carl and Michonne, and so she stayed to help free all of you."

"You helped, too, don't forget. She wasn't alone in helping us get out of that place."

"Yeah, but I was just the assistant. She was the boss."

"Still."

"And then we got to Gabriel's church and she was gone, and I thought maybe she really did just leave for good, but then we realized Daryl was gone, too, and…well, we both know how that all played out in Atlanta." Georgie sighed. "I just thought after that, even after we got to North Carolina and I thought Tristan had been killed there, that she had decided to stick around permanently. Everyone had known by then what she'd done at the prison, and no one blamed her or was angry at her. Not even Tyreese. He forgave her. He understood why she believed she'd been doing the right thing; that she was just trying to help save so many others. She had no reason to stay away. Everyone wanted her with us, and she had a home with us; a purpose with us. To just leave now…after everything…"

"Yeah, I know," Rick agreed with her unfinished sentiment. Looking up at the rearview mirror, he adjusted it back toward him so he could see anything that might be behind them.

"I don't want to put a label on it, but it almost feels like a betrayal."

"She'll come back."

"Are you so sure she will this time?"

Rick shrugged. "No," he admitted. "It's mostly just wishful thinking."

The drive continued in relative silence again until they made their final approach to Alexandria. Rick wove the car around the truck parked diagonally across the street; done so on purpose to block an immediate view of the main gate from passersby that could be unfriendly. They idled there for a few moments until Abraham rolled the gate open, allowing them to drive on through into the community.

As soon as they were just inside the gate, Rick brought the car to a stop and parked it. He and Georgie climbed out and turned back toward Abraham, who was balancing a cigar between his teeth and rolling the outer gate closed.

"Morgan's still out there looking," Rick informed, glancing back at the other cars parked along the wall. "Are the others back yet?"

"No," Abraham replied. "They're all still out there."

Rick looked forward through the metal bars of the gate and frowned. "What were they all thinking, just going off like that?"

"Daryl's still angry about that Savior getting off with his bow, and using it to kill Denise. He's on a revenge path or something."

"Had he been here, we could've used him to go find Carol," Georgie remarked, folding her arms across her chest. "He's gonna kick himself in the ass when he gets back and realize she's gone."

"And then he'll just head back out again to look for her on his own," Rick muttered. "If Morgan doesn't find and somehow bring her back first instead."

"If Morgan even comes back…"

Abraham looked between the couple. "You two have words with Mr. Miyagi or something?" he questioned.

"Or something," Rick repeated.

"Morgan's out there so we can be here." Georgie looked over at her fellow ginger. "Saviors are getting closer. We didn't get rid of 'em all. There's more."

"Well, shit," the former sergeant grumbled. "That's not good."

"Rick!"

All three at the gate turned around and looked to their left, toward the direction of the solar panels, where they found Rosita flagging them down as she came running up.

Rick furrowed his brow with immediate concern, correctly assuming that something was wrong. "What is it?"

"It's Maggie," Rosita replied, her face flush from her sprint and just general anxiousness. "She was with Enid, and she doubled over in pain." Looking between primarily Rick and Georgie, and avoiding Abraham's gaze, she added, "She might be losing the baby."