A dangerous mission to Hilltop to create an alliance with new arrival Jesus means the group is split, with those remaining in Alexandria facing the preparation of the walled city's defenses for the imminent arrival of Negan and the Saviors.

A Devastating Place

"The world is a devastating place. You must learn to protect your emotions if you wish to prevent matters both of law and of love from devastating you." –Lord Mansfield, Belle (2013)

"I don't like it." Daryl said stubbornly from his place leaning on the wall behind Carol, who was seated on the couch in the living room of their house.

"Then come up with an alternative." Rick said, growing impatient, pacing across the room.

"We have to get this done as soon as possible." Carol said, "Negan gave us one week to have his tribute ready. He'll be here in five days."

"With the roads the way they are, it's a day's drive to Hilltop." Jesus said from his place in the doorway, "Stay one night for the negotiations, come back the next day—that's the best I can do."

"You have to have enough people on the run to be safe, but leave enough behind to protect home." Maggie said, sitting next to Carol, looking around the room.

"I ain't goin' no where." Daryl said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'll stay." Abraham echoed.

"I'll go." Michonne volunteered and Morgan nodded as well.

"That should be enough." Rick said, turning to Jesus. "We'll take the minivan so we're not in separate vehicles—"

"I'm going." Maggie announced, making Carol turn to her and lay her hand on the younger woman's knee with concern.

"Maggie, no." Carol said, worried that the young widow's emotions were still too raw to let her think clearly.

"If it's a chance to stop the bastard that killed Glenn I have to." Maggie told them. "I can't just sit back behind these walls and do nothing."

"Protecting our family isn't doing nothing." Rick said with a deferential nod to Abe and Daryl.

"That isn't what I meant... I know that... I just... I just need to get out of here for awhile... please?" Maggie asked, fighting her tears. "I need to feel like I'm taking some action."

Rick studied her face and then finally nodded in assent.

"All right, we have enough people here to hold down the fort." Rick said. "Keep someone in the tower at all times and make sure Eugene double checks the power and surveillance grids at least twice a day—we can't afford something like the Wolves happening again."

"Nobody's getting in." Abe said, "You go do what you gotta do to work that alliance so we can kick that mother dick's balls up into his ass."

Rick grinned, Jesus laughed, Maggie rolled her eyes and Carol turned to Daryl and made the same face she had on the road out of Atlanta two years ago when Daryl explained why Merle had a stash of extra strength antibiotics.

There was a knock on the door and Morgan went to see who was there. A minute or two later he came back in with Grayson.

"Boy has something to ask." Morgan announced and then stepped back to let him speak.

"You saved me and my sister—gave us a home here—and you didn't have to do that. I want to do my part to protect this place." Grayson said.

"We need good lookouts at the gate, Gray." Rick told him.

"I want to go with you—on the run to Hilltop." Grayson said quickly. "I've been out there, I'm good with weapons. I can back you up."

Rick gave him a narrow eyed look and then looked around the table for a consensus on the request. The reluctant Wolf had been a good addition to the community. He had useful skills and his sense of loyalty and love for his sister gave him ties here.

"Any reason you want to go on this particular run?" Morgan asked, curious.

"I just want to do my part." Gray said, but Carol noticed that his gaze darted to Maggie quickly before landing back on Morgan.

"The more the merrier." Jesus said with a grin, looking the handsome young man up and down with open interest, making Daryl snort out a disparaging grunt.

"You got him then—just make sure you stay out of his little sister's way when she finds out." Abe said with a wry smirk. They all knew Enid would be less than pleased to see her brother head out on a run.

"Do you think it's such a good idea to take Maggie?" Carol asked Rick, standing in the doorway of his room as he packed a backpack for the trip.

"I think it'll help her to have something else to think about, something to keep her busy, keep her moving forward." Rick replied.

"She'd on a thin edge, Rick. You know what that's like..." Carol said carefully, needing him to remember but not get caught up in those memories.

"I know what falling over the edge is like." Rick said, pausing for his work to look up at her. "I lost myself after Lori... and again after the prison fell... when I thought I'd lost Judith. Only thing I had left was Carl. That kept me moving, keeping my son alive. Maggie doesn't have that. In the last six months she saw her father brutally murdered, saw Daryl carry her sister's body out of that hospital and she just buried her husband a couple of days ago."

"She has this place. She has us." Carol told him.

"When you lost Sophia, is that what kept you going?" Rick asked her, his brow wrinkling into a frown.

Carol stared at him, wondering after all they'd been through together if he could ever really understand her. He'd probably come closest when he'd asked her if there was anything she wouldn't do for their family. Right before he accused her of murder.

"I kept going because there were people who needed me to." Carol said quietly.

"That first winter you took good care of Lori... Carl and Beth needed you too... but I think... I think the one who needed you most was Daryl." Rick said, surprising her.

Carol's expression showed it and Rick gave her a rueful smile.

"When he went with Merle? After Woodbury? He didn't just go off. We tried to convince him to stay—argued with him. You know what Glenn said? What do you want us to tell Carol? Glenn knew. We all knew how much you cared about each other." He looked pointedly at the evidence of it she carried and then met her eyes, his voice softening. "I am happy for you, you know. That you're together...and for the baby."

"We don't need your blessing, Rick." Carol said, her tone measured, not angry, more dismissive than anything.

"Erin said bed rest. This ain't our bed. Let's go." Daryl's exasperated order to Carol cut off any reply Rick might've made. He came up behind her in the hallway and then just scooped her up into his arms.

"Have a safe trip, Rick." Carol said over Daryl's shoulder as he carried her back down the hall.

"I'll watch out for her—for Maggie—I will." Rick promised, hoping he could keep this one.

"I think you're about six weeks." Dr. Cloyd, the Hilltop OBGYN told a weeping Maggie.

She'd gotten sick on the way there and remembering the devastation of the outbreak at the Prison had insisted on isolating herself until the doctor could be brought to examine her.

"I'm sorry... It's early enough... if you don't want..." Denise began, wondering if the pregnancy was a result of rape, something she'd seen all too often since this all started, but Maggie started laughing instead, a bit hysterically.

"My husband...Maggie said, wiping her eyes. "He just... I just lost him."

"I'm sorry..." the doctor said sympathetically, but sounded confused.

"I very much want." Maggie said, placing her hand on her abdomen and smiling wide in bittersweet disbelief. "I want this baby more than anything. He would've been so happy."

The doctor smiled sadly and nodded, placing her hand reassuringly on Maggie's shoulder.

"Well then, let's get you set up with some crackers and tea to start out with—settle your stomach—and we'll talk prenatal care, all right?" she asked gently, "Is there someone you want me to call for you?"

"The woman who came in with me—Michonne?" Maggie asked, knowing that her friend would share in her happiness and understand the pain she felt at this news as well.

"It was for the best—she needed to get away from here for a while and the doctor there is a specialist. That baby means so much to her; to all of us." Michonne said placatingly. Maggie's decision to remain at Hilltop for the time being wasn't sitting well with Rick.

"I suppose you're right...I just don't understand why Grayson felt he needed to stay too." Rick said. "As if I didn't already have a hard enough time keeping Enid from running off after she has a fight with Ron or Carl."

"He promised Glenn." Morgan said quietly.

"What?" Rick asked.

"Before the last run. Glenn took him aside and asked him to watch over Maggie for him. Said he knew the boy had a crush on her so he'd do the right thing and make sure she stayed safe." Morgan shrugged, "Glenn was good at reading people."

"How on earth do you know that?" Rick wondered.

"I listen." Morgan said with a patient small smile.

Rick snorted as the van turned the last corner to the road leading to the main gates of Alexandria.

"Oh my God..." Rick said, his voice as devastated as what remained of the entrance. Someone had moved a school bus in front to block the gap, but the gate itself was lying mangled and twisted to either side of the opening. The rest of the wall seemed intact, whether by luck or design he couldn't be sure. Walkers, about a dozen, milled around the entrance looking for a way in.

He pulled the van up as close as possible to the bus. Jesus, Michonne and Morgan leapt out the side door to take out the walkers there while Rick did the same from the front.

"Rick?" the yell came from the top of the wall not the church tower— the building looked like it had taken a mortar hit, shearing off the pointed peak It was Sasha, still on guard.

"Sasha!" Rick yelled back and then heard the bus start up and move ahead so that they could pull the van through.

Standing on the other side was Abraham, Eric, Eugene and Claire, all of them looking haunted and/or damaged. Abe's left arm was in a sling, Eric was half holding up Eugene, who had a ragged cut across his forehead, the left side of his face completely darkened with ugly purpling bruising, and Claire's eyes were pools of sorrow.

"What the hell happened?" Rick asked.

"He came early." Claire said simply.

"How bad?" Jesus asked.

"We were short—so we told him if we gave him what he'd asked we wouldn't have enough to feed ourselves and have seed for next year's crop." Abe explained.

"He said that sounded reasonable so we could make it up to him another way..." Claire said, her voice choked with emotion, and then put her face in her hands. Abe's arm went around her shoulders, pulling her close to comfort her.

"That we had something else of value he wanted." Eric said, angry tears running down his face.

"No..." Jesus said, looking sick, "Oh fuck no."

"What?" Rick asked, the quiet sorrow on all their faces making him start to lose it.

"He took Carol...Tara, Enid, Rosita and Erin..." Eugene said, his eyes reddening as he tried to keep from crying.

"Riley hid with Judith—she's safe." Abe said quickly at the look of panic on Rick's face.

"Carol?" Morgan asked, leaning heavily on his staff.

"She showed herself to distract them from finding Judith and the rest of us," Claire said, her tears spilling over.

"Daryl?" Rick asked, dreading the answer. The Archer would've died before he'd let Carol be taken.

"Hurt but alive; we have him doped up in the Infirmary or he'd have gone after them single-handedly." Claire said.

Before Rick's sigh of relief at that news left him, Abe rendered the last blow.

"I'm sorry, Rick but Carl's missing as well." Abe said, knowing Rick had to be told, but dreading his reaction, "We think he stowed away in one of their trucks."

"Carl?" Rick staggered a bit and Morgan reached out and steadied him.

"You promised." Sam said softly to Daryl's unconscious form, his face pale, eyes burning with sadness, anger and reproach. "You promised you'd keep her safe."

"Sam stop—Daryl did everything he could—he almost died." Aaron said, stopping his examination of Ron to look over at the boy who was sitting at Daryl's bedside.

"But they took her! How're we ever gonna get her back? What if he hurts her and the baby?" the little boy asked, his voice rising in volume and pitch.

"We'll figure it out." Aaron said sharply, "When the others get back—"

"What if they don't come back?" Sam wanted to know. "What if Negan killed them with Lucille like he did Mr. Glenn?"

Daryl had left Erin and Sam inside the basement safe room with Carol, Riley and Judith while he headed out to fight off the intruders.

When Spencer had fired from the church tower, trying to stop the two men who'd set the charges, Negan shot a shoulder launched mortar at him and then blew the gates. Daryl had been standing off to one side and had been hit, knocked off his feet by the blast debris and slammed into one of the parked cars.

The first thing the warlord had done when he'd strolled through the destroyed gates had been to introduce them to his bat, swinging it and bragging about how the blood and dark hair still encrusted Lucille's barbed wire belonged to the young Asian.

"Your friend Rick owes me the rest of my tribute." Negan had said, his voice loud but melodious and warm like a 'man of the streets' politician. His smile was big and warm as well, but his eyes were cold.

When they had been unable to produce the required amount of goods as tribute Negan had said he was also owed for the three men Rick and his group had killed in the ambush of the Bethesda group.

"They were good men—trained, disciplined—so I need something worth more than them." Negan said walking in a circle, swinging his bat, and then he stopped in front of Abraham. "I need an heir. Someone to leave my Empire to after I am gone; someone I can train up from an early age to walk in my footsteps...raise up right. Now you may be thinking, Hey now, son, there is one little step before that you need to have happen—you need a momma for said heir. So I say, bring out your women! Especially any one's already cookin' with a full oven or already has rug rats so's I know they're fertile myrtles. Need some pretty little things too—decorative like—I need to see pretty things around me too."

"Not happening." Abraham said, pointing his pistol at the leader of the Saviors.

Faster than Abe could react Negan swung Lucille, snapping the bones in the other man's forearm and sending the gun flying to land at Eugene's feet. When Porter bent to pick it up Negan lashed out with a brutal kick to Eugene's head, the heavy steel toed boots cutting into his forehead, a boot print bruise already blooming over his cheek as he lay there, moaning in pain. Abraham sat on the ground next to him, holding his broken and bloody arm, in agony but too proud to make a sound.

"Now boys, there's no call for that." Negan chided.

Rosita and Tara quickly moved to help Abe and Eugene.

"Just so you understand your choices have consequences, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take your women." Negan said, pointing at the women, who were immediately seized by several of Negan's men.

Not the kind who went down without a fight, Rosita and Tara resisted until Negan pulled the gun from his belt and pointed it at Abraham's head and then rested Lucille on Eugene's shoulder.

"Ladies?" Negan admonished them, "Now if you would be so kind as to tell me the names and locations of all of the other women in this lovely little burg? Or does Lucile make a new friend outa the mullet head—and by friend I mean, his brain splattered all over her lovely hide."

"Got one here boss—a young un!" one of the minions called out and dragged Enid into the circle.

"Let her go!" Ron cried, rushing forward to attack the man who held the girl but was backhanded hard, sending him reeling into the pack of Saviors who proceeded to punch and kick him until he passed out, curled inward, trying to protect his underbelly and face from their cruel blows.

"We'll never tell you where they are." Enid sneered up at the ringleader, her tear filled eyes defiant.

"Start the house to house, boys. Bring me all the women and children. Kill any men you find cowering with 'em." Negan ordered.

"Stop this!" the strong voice of command rang out from behind the crowd and they parted for its owner who walked with her head held high despite her slow pace.

"Oh my my my... the silver Madonna speaks!" Negan said, his face beaming. He reholstered his gun and raised his bat to his shoulder as he walked forward to meet Carol.

"I'll go with you." Carol said firmly. "Let the rest stay."

Erin, who had been tending to Daryl who still lay unconscious by the gate, her head covered by a dark hood, looked up and made eye contact with the other woman. Carol's fear for Daryl was clear in her troubled eyes and Erin mouthed, "He's alive."

A slight tightening of Carol's mouth was all the sign she gave Erin that she understood.

"You look about ready to pop there, gorgeous." Negan said approvingly, "I think we'll be needing to bring along your pretty little doctor for the delivery. Grab her on up, now would you, Dwight? She's over there with the other bowman what got hisself blowed up real good."

Erin surrendered, knowing Carol needed her more than she needed to try and fight her way out of the situation.

"So do I need to be worrying about your baby daddy coming to the rescue, blue eyes?" Negan gestured to the crowd. "I'd just as soon take care of that—nip it in the bud while I'm still here."

"I don't know who the father is." Carol said coldly, "I was held by a group that called themselves the Wolves and they all had their turn."

"Now that's truly despicable." Negan said sadly, "There is no reason for rape." he held out his hand to Carol, every bit the imitation of a proper gentleman, "Every one of my wives comes to me willingly. You'll love me once you get to know me." Then he looked at Rosita, Tara, Enid and Erin in turn, "You all will."

"Wait—I said I'll go with you—I'm a proven mother; this is my second child!" Carol protested, "You don't need the others,"

"No offense, darlin'—coz' you are a magnificent woman, but you are a little long in the tooth." Negan said, walking forward with her, heading for the destroyed gates. "I need some others more on the youngish side and I am owed for three men. You understand." and he patted her hand.

When they reached the opening Negan released Carol briefly to shoot several walkers who'd been attracted by all the noise of the explosions and firearms.

Carol's eyes went to Daryl lying so still on the ground, but quickly looked away so not to arouse Negan's curiosity.

His men bound and gagged the other women and pushed them along after he and Carol passed through what had once been the passage to safety and security for the people of Alexandria.

AN: Ever read a story about a big wooden horse and the city of Troy? Negan got more than he bargained for in taking these women, led by Carol, as captives.

Thanks for reading-let me know what you think if you have time!