Newly Revised

Beth sat next to Maggie the next day as her eyes fluttered open, "Dr. Carson!"

"Welcome back," the man said as Maggie rolled onto her back. "Do you remember me? I'm Dr. Carson. You're at Hilltop colony You've been asleep for a while."

"Since we got in the truck," Beth clarified as she hugged her sister. "Yesterday morning. I was so scared!"

"You suffered from a condition called abruptio placentae. It's a separation of the placenta from uterus. It's unusual this early. It's caused by trauma. Possibly the bruises on your abdomen-"

"Did I-I..." Maggie started, breathing sharply as she tried to finish the question, "...lose the..."

"No," Dr. Carson assured her while grabbing the want and jelly to prove to her the baby was safe. "The separation was small. Baby's heart rate is normal. See? There it is," he said as he put the wand to her belly and found the heartbeat, the rhythmic wooshing sound of it filling the room as Maggie cried and held onto Beth's hand. "Now, you need to take it easy for a few days. You don't want to exacerbate the separation anymore. And I really think you need to stay here for the duration of your pregnancy. If anything else happens, I can take care of it. Any questions?" When Maggie moved to sit up, both Beth and Dr. Carson moved to help her, "Whoa, whoa. Easy. Easy, easy, easy."

"Can you say that again?" Maggie asked as she moved.

"What?"

"Everything you just said."

After he repeated himself, he told her he'd give her a few to just let it all sink in as she cried tears of both sorrow and joy, the image of Glenn from that night seared in her eyes along with the sound of their baby's heartbeat overwhelming her. Beth held onto her until she had cried herself out and asked if Glenn had been buried and where. She helped her sister change into clean clothes and carefully stand up, making sure she went slow so that she didn't get hurt. While she was helping her, she told her about how Sasha and Abraham had been helping around the Hilltop, just doing basic tasks that they could for the day that they had been there. Nothing exciting had happened at all and the Saviors were no where to be found and after that night, Rick had given up fighting. Maggie was rightfully upset by everything that had happened and everything she had been reminded of that happened that night. All she had really remembered was the sight of Glenn being killed, which Beth told her was from the shock of everything that had happened. It made sense that she couldn't remember much else from that night other than Negan's face, Glenn's death, and the way Rick had crumpled under the pressure. Maggie couldn't blame Rick after being reminded that Negan had almost made him cut off Carl's arm; she would have done the same if it had been before. Now that the man had killed her husband, though, there was no going back for Maggie, not until Negan was dead.

Sasha hadn't expected the door to the trailer to open so quickly, standing from where she'd been sitting at the picnic table watching Abraham working over at the blacksmith. Really, all he was doing was moving metal from one pile to another or helping move the newly melted scrap into the few molds Hilltop had for spearheads. She had been helping harvest some of the crops, taking them to one place or another for storage between checking in on Maggie and Beth. Beth hadn't left Maggie's side and had relied on her to bring her meals while she waited for her sister to wake up. They had all been more than worried about the woman even though Carson had continuously assured them that everything was going to be fine. Sasha was relieved to see Maggie up and about, helping her down the steps with Beth, the both of them making her sit at the table for a minute.

"You, uh, you okay?" she asked.

"Where is he?" Maggie asked after nodding her head. "Where was he buried?"

Sasha and Beth led her to the unused land behind Barrington house with a few breaks in between to make sure she was able to catch her breath. Glenn's was the only grave back here, Sasha informing Maggie that the people here tended to burn their dead, not bury them. Maggie just stood there, staring at the grave as her hand went to rest on her stomach and she thought about everything she had lost. All she had left of Glenn now was there, in her belly, just like the last bit of her dad that she had was Beth. Beth promised her that she would be by her side the entire time she was pregnant and would help her raise their child as much as she could. Maggie could barely think comprehend it all when she and Glenn had been talking about names only three days ago. They'd joked about so many names that they both knew the other would hate before getting serious and settling on her father's name for a boy and Glenn's mother's name for a girl. It had all felt so real and so wonderful and now all she had was a growing pit of despair with nothing more than a small light at the end of that dark tunnel to guide her way. She began sobbing as she sank to her knees, both Sasha and Beth coming to her side as Sasha handed her the pocket watch her daddy and given her husband when he'd approved of their relationship. That watch had been in the family for so long and Glenn had cherished it almost as much as he'd cherished her. Maggie forced herself to dry her tears as she leaned down and put the watch at the cross marking the grave, leaving it there as a tribute next to the green flowers there.

"It was in his pocket," Sasha told her. "Abraham said all he carried was cigars when he found it. You know, he told us that you'll be alright. The doctor. He just told us that you have to take it easy for the next few days."

"He told me I have to stay," Maggie admitted. "That we...um...He says it's better if we stay close, just in case, 'til the baby is born."

"Then we'll stay," Sasha told her.

"I'm still thinkin' about it."

"Maggie, you gotta stay," Beth told her. "Now more than ever that baby is the most important thing. You gotta protect it. We'll all stay with you, but you've gotta stay."

"Glad to see you up," Jesus said as he walked up with fresh flowers in his hand.

"Flowers?"

"The ones by your bed, too," Sasha informed her.

"I read somewhere that blue flowers inspire strength and calming," he said as he knelt and replaced the wilted flowers with fresh ones.

"What's green?" Beth asked him, intrigued by the thought that the color of flowers could mean something.

"Release," he replied with a small, sad smile in a show of support.

Maggie sniffled again as she stood back up, having been doing it the whole time to try to keep from beginning to cry again, her despair settling into anger. Beth and Jesus both stepped up to offer support, Jesus putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing it as Beth gave her a hug. Everything about the entire situation felt as wrong as it could, but the only thing she could do was wait for Rick to come to his senses. She knew there were more Saviors than they had fighters and knew that the Saviors would be taking all the guns from Alexandria; it would be stupid if they didn't. There was no guarantee that they would be able to find more weapons let alone whether or not they would be able to hide them. She knew that the Saviors were also a problem here in the Hilltop, as well, and that sooner or later they would have to face that. Until then, though, Maggie was determined to wake the people of Hilltop up and make them realize that they needed to fight. She dried her eyes and turned to Sasha as Abraham came around a corner with Gregory, a frown firmly planted on his face as the older gentleman started talking.

"Thank God you're finally awake," Gregory said as Abraham walked over to Sasha and put his arm around her for a moment. "You people said you got 'em all," he accused.

"We thought we did," Maggie admitted while she walked over the man. "It was just an outpost."

"Well, how many of them were there?" he asked quietly as Sasha watched the wheels turning in his head.

Maybe it was all that time with Ani, maybe it was her time as a firefighter, maybe it was just her instincts that decided they wanted to kick in, but Sasha knew there was something wrong with the man. It wasn't just that his ego was so inflated simply by the fact that he was the leader of this place, either, or the fact that he thought he actually had control. He literally had no care about anyone but himself and that had come to light in the thirty-six or so hours they'd been there. Gregory hardly knew anyone's names unless they interacted with him personally, so only a few people were treated to that 'honor.' He spent the better part of his day in his office sitting at his desk doing hardly anything important while expecting to get the best of everything and drinking away at high spirits. Abraham had even pilfered some of the stuff from a closet in the hallway and smiled before laughing after he showed it to her. He'd told her that as soon as they could, they were going to have a righteous, swinging time in the sack drinking it down. Sasha had been carefully watching everything that happened in the Hilltop and, honestly, there was nothing that the place needed from the man that was supposed to be in charge. Most of the people looked to Jesus, not Gregory, when they had an issue they needed to address, the four Alexandrians glancing between each other. Maggie looked Gregory in the eye and owned up to the mistakes their group had made by making the deal with Gregory to begin with, though she firmly also put the blame of that deal on him as well.

"There were a lot. Maybe hundreds," Maggie informed him.

"Do they know the deal you made us take, Marsha?"

"It's Maggie," Beth told him harshly.

"No," Maggie said before telling him in a tone that Beth knew all too well; one that was meant to be reprimanding and demeaning. "And we didn't make you take the deal, Gregory."

Before she could say anything else, though, Gregory held up his hands and said, "I-I-I'm happy we could patch you up. You need to go. Make sure you let Rich know what we did for you."

"Dr. Carson said I should stay," Maggie called to him as he started walking away.

"If he thinks he has the authority to make that decision, he's mistaken," the man said as he rounded on Maggie, putting his hands on his hips only for Abraham to step in his way.

"If you think you can over-rule a doc's judgment, friend," he told Gregory while rounding his shoulders as he towered over the elderly man, "you're mistaken. Or I can march over to that satellite station and tell 'em about our deal right here, right now. You really wanna make this place have to squeal like a piggy 'cause you kicked a pregnant lady out?"

"This is my house, son," Gregory told him, the look on his face close to constipation with a bit of aggravation to it. "I make the rules here. Not you." Sasha and Beth were giving him dirty gazes when he looked around, commenting, "Don't look at me like that. She'll be safer with her own people. And we'll be safer without her," he told Jesus quietly. "You need to keep your distance from Maggie and stay focused on your work here at Hilltop. Did you do this?" he asked Maggie when he noticed the grave. "We don't bury our dead. We burn them!"

"I did it," Sasha told him before motioning to her and Beth. "We don't live here."

"This is Sasha, Abraham, and Beth. They got Maggie here. They're all from Alexandria."

"I-I can't-" Gregory said as he looked over at Jesus after taking in the looks both Sasha and Beth gave him, looks that pretty much called him an idiot. "I-I don't have time to keep track of everybody."

"Good," Abraham told him. "Then you don't got time tellin' us what we can do. Giddy up out of here on that high horse of yours."

"Look, I've been recuperating, too, Mister. From a stab wound."

"That we saved you from bein' deader than your brains."

"Gregory-" Jesus started but was cut off by the man.

"Look, Maggie said that her people could take care of the Saviors. So far, all they've done is put our community at risk."

"Seems to me, we're the ones that took the risk. All you're doin' is puttin' on airs and makin' excuses for your own shortfalls. Ani was right. You're no leader," Beth said with a scoff, ending with a bit of a chuckle. "Seriously, why do you listen to him?" she asked Jesus.

"If they see you here, they'll think we colluded!" Gregory said hotly.

"We did," Sasha told him.

"I did not agree to this," he said, motioning to the grave. "If they think we helped attack their outpost, they'll do that to us. Jesus, do you have any idea what plausible deniability means?"

"If it means your head's about to go up your ass, sure," Abraham told him as Jesus answered with a simple, "Yes."

"Then you know it's our way out. If they leave, we have plausible deniability," Gregory told him, ignoring the tall redhead completely.

"Except you don't," Beth told him as realization came to her. "The Saviors, they took Ani, right?" she asked her people, a smile beginning to form on her face. "Ani can't lie to save her life. She can bluff in the moment but if she's asked a question, she answers honestly. You don't have plausible deniability because all they have to do is ask her, and she'll tell them the truth."

"They have Ani?" Jesus asked, looking at the others.

"And Daryl," Sasha confirmed. "Took them both. Ani to take back to her parents. Daryl for some other reason. I don't know."

"Talkin' with their assholes, that's for sure," Abraham agreed. "Can't talk with their mouths since they're so full of shit. You hear what that prick said to him?" When Beth and Sasha both shook their heads no, Abraham told them, "Said Daryl stole Tiny from her parents and raped her. Threatened to take the baby outta her, too. That's why Daryl snapped."

"Glenn did too," Maggie said while nodding her head in understanding as Gregory's face got darker and darker. "When they threatened me, he did too."

"Look, I don't care who they have or what they did or where they went," Gregory told them, his eyebrows going as high as they could while he shook his head at them and spread his hands out in front of him. "The four of you need to be gone."

"Gr-Gregory, it'll be night soon," Jesus tried reasoning, only for the man to scoff in his face.

Looking down and sighing, he looked back up at the group in front of him and said, "Look, I'm a good guy. You can stay the night. But leave in the morning."

"We'll talk about it more in the morning," Jesus told him.

"No, I've made my decision," Gregory said, stopping as he walked away to turn back to him.

"Well, we haven't," Abraham said, standing at his full height, his arms still crossed over his chest. "And if Carson says she's gotta stay," he said gesturing to Maggie, "she's stayin'. You don't got the guts to take us out yourself and your people ain't fighters. We are. Put simply, needle dick, we ain't goin' anywhere."

"Maggie is pregnant," Sasha added.

"Well...that's her mistake," Gregory said as he held his hands up and shrugged.

Beth was the one that walked up to him and sucker punched him right in the face, putting her full force behind it. It wasn't often that she got righteously pissed off, but if she hadn't have punched him, Abraham would've anyway. To say something so callous to Maggie after she lost Glenn was absolutely not something she could tolerate, not as a sister, not as a person. Her dad was supposed to be there to be a grandfather and Glenn was supposed to be alive to have a family with Maggie. They'd lost both of them, and now the man dared to say that her niece or nephew was a mistake her sister had made? That was completely unforgivable and Beth could understand why Ani hadn't liked the man from the get go. He had never once shown them any respect, not when they came with Rick, not during the last couple of days, and not even now in the presence of their dead. She wanted to take another swing, wanting to connect to his temple to knock him out, but Sasha held her back while Abraham chuckled away. Even though the man didn't go down, he did stumble a few steps and his lip was busted as he held his face in his hand looking at her incredulously.

"How dare you say that, asshole! It ain't a mistake havin' a baby! It ain't a mistake makin' a life worth livin' in this world! You're the mistake! How the hell did a coward like you make it this far? You're nothin'!" she spat at him before storming off, Maggie, Sasha, Abraham, and Jesus all following her.

Later that night, Jesus started settling the four Alexandrians into his trailer with extra blankets and a couple more changes of clothing for the women. Unfortunately, they didn't have anyone quite as tall or large as Abraham, so they didn't have any clean clothes for him to change into. Abraham being the idiot he was made a comment about not minding walking around in the buff, everyone sharing a small laugh. There was a bed and a couch that pulled out, so they would all be able to sleep comfortably enough even if the beds were tiny. Space would be tight and the sisters would have to sleep together just like the couple, but it wasn't the worst possible setup. In all honesty, Beth had been sleeping next to Maggie the entire time she had been in the medical trailer and Sasha and Abraham had been sleeping in a small room in the house. That was the room Jesus was planning on going to rather than staying in the trailer even though he wasn't fond of staying in the house. He wasn't fond of Gregory and was becoming less and less fond of the man's ability to lead the more he watched the people from Alexandria. Still, he felt bad about taking the room that Sasha and Abraham had been sleeping in the last couple of nights and making them sleep in such a tightly packed space.

"You sure I can't talk you into taking the extra room at Barrington house?" he asked them, though no one answered, simply continued to work on setting up the beds. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here."

"Then make Gregory change his mind," Sasha told him bluntly.

"I'm gonna try."

"You know as well as I do that that is one load of shit wrapped in a taco," Abraham told him.

"I know," Jesus said with a sigh, setting the basket of his things down as he was going to stay with Cal in the house. "But the people need me here. If it was just Gregory, it would be worse."

"Then why aren't you in charge?" Sasha asked him, genuinely curious as to why they weren't just talking to Jesus about all this instead of putting up with that Gregory prick.

"It's not me. I'm not a leader."

Both Abraham and Sasha gave him twin looks of disbelief as they sat down on the couch considering the fact that he was the only leader worth calling a leader that the Hilltop had. The disappointment that shown through their eyes was honestly mirrored in Jesus's own as he looked at them. They could tell he knew that Gregory wasn't fit to lead and that he wasn't doing the Hilltop any good. They could tell that Jesus really did want this place to be something better and Gregory was somewhat thwarting his efforts at every turn if it didn't go just his way. Jesus really did have the best interest of this place at heart, and they couldn't fault him for being resistant to change, but, at the same time, they couldn't understand his reasoning. There was simply no meaning behind his words after what they had seen the last few days with him helping everyone with almost everything. He was just like Rick, Maggie, and Ani in how he treated the people in the community and seemed to lead by example. It was rather infuriating to hear how he thought he wasn't a leader when that was exactly what he was to the people here. No one actually looked to Gregory for anything at all aside from telling him about inventory and preparations for the Saviors; it was always Jesus.

"What if we leave?" Abraham asked.

"Yeah," Sasha agreed. "If Maggie and Beth can stay, we'll scavenge for the Hilltop."

"We'll pay for them girls to stay here. You just keep 'em safe."

"Would Gregory go for that?"

Jesus raised his eyebrow and looked down with a slight shake of his head because it was honestly the perfect solution, "Maybe. But I-I don't want that."

"What do you want, Jesus?" Sasha asked him dubiously. "What do you want this place to be?"

With a sigh and an adjustment of his position, Jesus took on a pained expression as he tried to explain himself, "I-I just...I just try to help."

"Helpin' don't do shit if nothin' gets done," Abraham pointed out. "Might be time to step up your game."

"Come in," he called out after a moment of silence was broken by a knock on the door, Maggie and Beth entering the trailer. "I made the bed for you and laid out some clothes. They're mine, so they're more utility than comfort."

"It's okay," Maggie told him. "We won't be here much longer anyway."

"I'm sorry," Jesus responded. "About all of it. I'm...gonna see what I can do."

"Thank you," Beth said. "And sorry about earlier. He just couldn't get away with what he said!"

"It's okay. I probably would have punched him too," Jesus said with a small smile and laugh.

"Why do you burn your dead?" Maggie asked him.

"Umm...the idea was just to keep going," he told her honestly.

"What do you have to remember them by?"

"Us," was all he said before turning and picking up his basket. "I'll see you in the morning."

Jesus left after that, leaving the four by themselves, Beth helping Maggie sit down on the bed before sitting beside her as Sasha and Abraham moved to the table in front of them. They were all more than a little worse for wear and everything that was happening had them all downtrodden as well. Even if Beth didn't want to admit it, she was on the verge of tears constantly, half from grief, the other half fear. Maggie was grieving the loss of her husband and trying to come to terms with the fact that, although very much wanted and loved already, the baby would come into the world without a father. Sasha was reaching her breaking point with what she could handle, the stress and anger in her bubbling and boiling until she could no longer keep the worried look from shining through her eyes. Abraham, for all his talk and ball busting, was fixated on making sure Maggie stayed safe and the bun in her oven was protected at all times, especially now that they didn't know how Ani and her bun were doing. The fear and stress they were all feeling had them all looking off into space for several minutes before Maggie spoke up.

"Now what?" she asked.

Sasha chuckled and answered, "Maybe we stay."

"Ain't no maybe about it. What can that prick do?" Abraham asked.

"He's in charge," Maggie told them.

"He doesn't have to be," Beth suggested. "We could talk to people. Gregory isn't that great of a leader and doesn't even know everyone's names. I don't think he even knows how to plant or do anythin' productive. Maybe we talk to people and they see it too."

"He's an idiot," Sasha agreed.

"He's a coward," Maggie corrected. "They're more dangerous. We have the night. Let's think about it. Things will be clearer in the morning."

Beth chuckled then, causing the other's eyes to turn to her, "You're already actin' like a leader, Maggie!"

They all shared a laugh before Maggie suggested they turn in for the night; tomorrow was going to be a busy day whether or not they stayed at the Hilltop. The four of them spoke some more simply because they were all having a hard time sleeping. Beth was the first to nod off until they were all sleeping soundly before the screech and squeal from a speaker woke them up right before loud music began to play. All four of them shot up as soon as they heard the noise, Beth looking around frantically for a moment as she tried to make sure Maggie was defended. They gave each other a glance before Abraham shot out of bed and over to the window, as Sasha turned the light on the Maggie and Beth got out of bed. Beth immediately grabbed her gun and the machete she'd been given and went to stand by the man herself, looking out it at the same time as Abraham started cussing. None of the women could blame him considering the noise when he complained quite loudly about where the hell the guards had been. There had been no way that there had been no one who had seen what had happened when the Saviors set whatever trap they had in the center of Hilltop.

"What is that?" Maggie asked.

"The gates are open," Abraham told her. "Some sort of car and speaker set up out there. Got fires goin' everywhere. And, hell, if we ain't got walkers now too! Those God damned Savior shit-heads!" he shouted, Maggie looking through the window when he started trying to force the door open, only to find it locked.

"I have to turn that thing off," Maggie told them as she moved a chair to get through the emergency exit in the roof.

"The hell you do!" Abraham responded, moving over to practically pick her up and move her out of the way. "You're supposed to be sittin' on your ass right now, takin' it easy. So do it."

"I can't let you do this by yourself," she insisted as he disappeared through the roof.

"Sit," Sasha told her.

"Go," Maggie replied.

Abraham pulled Sasha through the roof before they both took in the sight of walkers pouring through the gates, the fires burning just inside them luring in the dead, a car parked well within the safe zone blasting music. He moved over to the side of the trailer, carefully jumping down before helping get Sasha down, as well, the two watching as others from Hilltop finally started catching up with what was happening. There were shouts from the house calling out for what they needed to do to others inside, many coming onto balconies as they were alerted. The pair could hear just how scared the people were even though it had been well over a year since the dead had started eating people. For no one other than Jesus to be able to protect this place from the dead was ridiculous and probably the only reason why the Saviors had been able to come in and trample all over the place. Abraham had a feeling that that was why no one had even heard or seen the Saviors placing the car or setting the fires when someone should have been keeping an eye out. Their little trailer had been exhausted by prior events and had fallen into deeper sleeps than normal because of it, otherwise they wouldn't have missed it at all. Abraham and Sasha shared a look with each other as they moved towards the gate in sync, killing the dead that had made it that far.

"You get the car, I got the dead," Abraham told her with a smile and a wink before running straight into the walkers.

"Idiot," Sasha muttered as she took off for the car.

Inside the trailer, Maggie was about to climb onto the table and chair to get to the ceiling hatch when Beth pulled her arm, "Maggie, don't!"

"Stay here," Maggie told her.

"I can fight," she countered. "And I'm not pregnant with a doctor's order to take it easy!"

"I know you can fight," Maggie said with tears in her eyes. "But that don't mean you have to. I can't lose you too, Beth, I just can't."

"And I don't want to lose you, either!"

"You won't. I know how to get rid of the car. Remember Jackson?" Maggie asked, referring to her ex that had cheated on her.

"At least let me help you get on and off the roof," Beth relented, knowing she shouldn't cause her sister any more stress than she was dealing with.

"And then you stay on the roof. You got it?"

"I promise."

Beth climbed up on the roof and helped Maggie up while yelling at Jesus about Sasha and Abraham and that they needed help. Before they went to the area by the door to climb down, Maggie shouted at the other two people who'd been standing with Jesus on a balcony to get to the gate and get it closed. Keeping a hand on Beth as she climbed down, she made sure that the fall was as gentle as it could possibly be, standing with a hiss at the little amount of pain she felt from moving so much. It was minimal at worst and she refused to let it stop her as she made her way around the side of the house to the tractor parked there. The people of Hilltop never bothered to take the keys out of the thing as she climbed in and took the seat, starting it up with a smile. Abraham and Sasha both stopped in their tracks hearing Maggie yelling, both muttering curses before returning to their task of dealing with the dead. Jesus began using his martial arts skills to take out the walkers as Abraham was grunting and shouting with every kill he made. Sasha was working her way towards the car killing walkers in her path only to find that it was locked and grated without any way to break the windows or even get to the door handles. The latch to the back was affixed with a hand that was flipping her off and made her yell even as she continued to pull at it. A hand on her shoulder had her whipping around and grabbing the wrist attached to the hand, her knife up and ready to stab whatever or whoever was touching her.

"Hi," Jesus said, easily blocking her attack.

"Sorry," she shouted over the music.

"It's okay," he shouted back before looking at the car himself and then over to the open gate. "We need to close the gates!"

"Yeah," she agreed, knowing there was no point in continuing trying with the car before warning him of a walker behind him.

He quickly took it out as a revving engine drew both their attentions even as they heard Abraham's flamboyant montage continue to ring out. Maggie was backing the tractor over to where they were, taking out every walker in her way in the process. Jesus pulled Sasha back before she managed to get to Maggie and told her they needed more help with the dead than Maggie did. Tractors were big, heavy machinery whereas the car barely stood half the height of the tractor's back tires and Maggie knew the tractor would crush it, solving their noise problem. While she was doing that, Jesus, Sasha, and Abraham were busy fighting the dead, giving room for others to make it to the gate and close the broken barrier as best they could. It wasn't very easy when the dead were trying to push against it from the outside while bearing down on them from the inside, but they managed to get it closed and blocked to stop the influx. Jesus couldn't understand how Abraham could start chuckling and then full blown laughing was the walkers were all taken care of until he pointed out the flattened vehicle.

"If that ain't the craziest shit I've seen," he said, swiping at his eye.

The rest of the night was spent cleaning up walkers, Maggie being told to go back to the trailer to get some rest. After giving out a few instructions, that's exactly what she did, thanking everyone for their help along the way while being thanked for her own help. As soon as she got into the trailer she was surrounded by Beth's arms as the girl cried while Maggie started breaking down herself now that it was just the two of them. Eventually they made it to the bed and passed out again, waking to the morning sun shining through the window as Sasha and Abraham dozed on the couch. Jesus made his way to Gregory's office early in the morning to talk to him about what was going to happen with Sasha and Maggie. Beth snuck inside the house to listen just outside the man's door as Jesus explained what had happened the night before and how the citizens wouldn't just let them be kicked out after they saved the Hilltop. If it hadn't been for the three newcomers, they would have been overrun; they didn't have plausible deniability when the Saviors were already attacking. It wasn't just a random trap set up, especially when it had all been done so quietly none of them knew what was happening until it was already under way.

"I don't care what they did. The answer is no," Gregory told Jesus flatly.

"I'm not turning away a pregnant woman who helped us," Jesus told him. "I'm not turning away Sasha, Beth, or Abraham either."

"Who the hell are Sasha, Beth, and Abraham?"

"They're staying."

"You're not in charge, Jesus," Gregory told him cockily. "I am. I'm the one that has to look after the safety of this place. What, are you telling you want to call the plays, after all this time, after I set the table here? Say the word. The broken gate, the Saviors, the people—all of this can be yours. Only you'd actually have to stick around for five minutes. You'd actually have to be a part of this place."

"Gregory?" Sasha asked, the others having caught Beth outside the office before all four Alexandrians entered his office.

"Ah, I-I was just telling Ms. Caitlin to bring up some of her famous rhubarb preserves for you all. It's our way of saying 'thank you' for last night."

"It's Ms. Maitlin," Jesus corrected, thoroughly annoyed at the man's cowardice.

"You can take them with you when you go. And you should go now, because the Saviors could get back any minute," Gregory told the others without even bothering to acknowledge Jesus.

"We'll go," Sasha offered, having told Abraham to keep his mouth shut to hopefully make things go smoothly. "But let them stay. We'll call it even on last night."

"No deal," Gregory told her plainly. "But it's been lovely having you here."

"Just tell me how we can make this work," she pleaded, moving towards him, hoping she could make him see reason.

Gregory quite obviously gave her a once over before say, "I think we'd need to..meet on that one-on-one to talk-"

"Finish that sentence and you'll be eatin' your own scrotum for breakfast," Abraham said at the same time Maggie said, "Go to hell."

Even Jesus was appalled by Gregory's behavior as the man sat back looking offended and said, "Are you actually implying—No. You know what? I'm sorry. I'm going to tell Ms. Caitlin to keep the preserves."

"It's Ms. Maitlin," Beth told him, having been learning how to make some of those preserves herself.

As they moved towards the window, they watched as a convoy of rough looking vehicles, all big pick up trucks or cargo trucks, rolling through the gate. It didn't help when dozens upon dozens of Saviors exited those vehicles and looked around the compound. They all had some kind of weapon, most of which were firearms, all of which were big and burly with menacing expressions. Some fanned out into the other areas of the community while at least two dozen started heading straight towards the house. There were at least fifty Saviors in total at the Hilltop, Abraham bristling at the thought of them getting caught when he only had half a clip left. Beth didn't know what they were going to do, though she was willing to give herself up to make sure Maggie got out alive. Sasha was similarly inclined, although both she and Abraham would go out fighting to make sure that the sisters made it to safety. Maggie couldn't lose any more of her family when all she had left in the world was Beth and the baby in her belly. The three were dead set on making sure that, out of everyone, Maggie was the one that was the most important one to keep safe. That didn't stop Gregory from looking like he was about ready to piss his pants before he rounded on the Alexandrians.

"Do you know what they'll do if they find you here?" he seethed. "Jesus, get them in the closet."

"Gregory," Maggie started, getting cut off by the man.

"Go get in there now," he told her in a hurried fashion, pushing them out of his office and towards a closet in the hallway. "Don't move and don't speak and maybe you'll get out of this alive."

Maggie was confused as Jesus led them up the stairs to a different area entirely, Jesus simply saying, "He said the closet. No reason for the Saviors to come in here, and it's a walk-in closet, so you'll all fit."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Maybe when this is over," he told them before shutting the door.

When Jesus went back down the stairs to find a group of twenty to thirty Saviors standing in the foyer, a gentleman with a balding head talking to Gregory. He was telling him about what had happened at the outpost while Gregory was playing obvious curiosity and denial, and not very well, either. Maybe that was why the leader practically dragged him into his office even as Gregory stayed hunched and frightened while continuing his act. When they came back out, Gregory looked much more contemplative, only mildly irritated, and a bit more confident. Jesus watched perplexed as the man walked over to the closet he'd known Gregory wanted to stash the Alexandrians in and looked over to him. He couldn't believe what he was seeing as the man looked over to him, Jesus shaking his head at Gregory, and grabbed the handle. Gregory took a deep breath before pulling it open, his face dropping from confident to confused as boxes of his liquor greeted him rather than the four outsiders.

"Are you serious?" the leader said as Jesus tried to hide his smirk.

Gregory removed a bottle and turned back to to the man, "This is, uh-"

"Scotch," he finished for him.

"Well, not just-"

"Hate the stuff," he cut him off while pointing to the bottle. "Tastes like, um, ashtrays and window cleaner. I'm a gin man. But this does look like it could harden a connoisseur. Wow. What a gesture."

"You said you hate it?" Gregory asked, holding the bottle to him almost as if it was a child that needed protecting.

"Negan'll love this," the leader clarified. "Now, I'm gonna say it's from me, not mention you, okay? I really want the headline on this one," he said with a smile. "Okay."

"But, um-" Gregory started, but the man was already on the move, grabbing the box out of the closet.

"You wanna slide that one back in?" he asked Gregory after hefting the box out of the closet, Gregory staring at him in confusion. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked. You want to slide that one back in, period," he smiled charmingly as the man did as he was told. "This is big, Gregory. It's huge. And I won't forget. I really, really appreciate this. Thank you." Turning on his heel, he told the rest of the people of Hilltop, "Now, we're gonna go through the place and take half of everything you have. But! Only half. Take this to the Negan truck," he told one of the soldiers after clicking his tongue to get his attention before raising his voice. "Exeunt, gentlemen! Get to work! Oh, and, take the painting," he told another soldier as he walked towards the door, stopping and drawing in a breath through his teeth before turning back to Gregory. "One last thing, Gregory. Can I just get a kneel out of you?" he asked the man, putting his hand on his arm.

"Excuse me?" Gregory asked while Jesus watched on, seeing for himself how much a coward Gregory really was when Simon repeated himself and Gregory actually knelt in front of him with a nod of his head and a quiet chuckle.

If he had thought that the Hilltop colony could survive with Gregory as its leader before, now Jesus could no longer deny the fact. Ani had pointed it out the first time she met him after interacting with him for all of two seconds; respect was nothing to the man unless it was him getting it. He couldn't be bothered to get hardly anyone's names right, mostly just calling other members of the colony 'you' or 'hey' to get their attention. Maggie had taken the reigns during the attack last night while Gregory had hidden in his room doing nothing but cower at the threat. Maggie had been the one to instruct people what to do and do what needed to be done to protect their home. If anything, Jesus was starting to realize that just because Gregory was here at the start, that didn't make him qualified to be a leader. A leader tried to protect the people around them and put themselves in the line of fire first, just like Maggie, Abraham, and Sasha had the minute Hilltop was in danger. They didn't cower or lower themselves to others out of fear like Gregory was doing right now as the leader of the Saviors crouched down to the man's level while he was still kneeling.

"That's a solid kneel, Gregory," he told him before patting his shoulder. "Remember that for next time."

As the Saviors left the building, Jesus remained watching Gregory as he moved to sit on the couch after using it to get up from kneeling. All he did was start fixing what little hair he had left as they waited for the Saviors to all leave the house. It didn't take them very long to get what they wanted from the main house taken out to their trucks, though they were still grabbing things from outside. They would take a lot of the supplies from the cellar while also harassing the citizens as they normally did. Jesus could hear them outside yelling at various people as he headed towards the stairs, Gregory hot on his heels. The man was trying to figure out why Jesus had set him up like he had and where the hell he had put the outsiders. It was pretty obvious that Gregory was pissed off by his little stunt, but Jesus simply couldn't find it in his heart to care. After everything the Alexandrians had done for the Hilltop, their supposed leader had been one step away from handing them over to the Saviors. He was beyond ashamed of Gregory's behavior even as the man stormed into his room behind him while he was opening the closet door.

"I told you to hide them in the hallway closet," he accused angrily.

"No," Jesus protested. "You said 'closet.'"

"This is my bedroom," Gregory told him, his accusatory tone still firmly in place. "What if they came in here before I-"

"Before you tried to give us up?" Sasha asked condescendingly.

"They would have killed you first," Maggie informed him.

"Honey, I'm talking to Jesus," he told her.

"Stop!" Jesus told him, Gregory's attitude and childlike behavior finally becoming unbearable even to him.

"Why are you even defending her?" Gregory asked him. "We're here right now because she and-and Rich didn't handle things like they said they would."

"The Saviors tried to kill you," Jesus shot right back.

"That was a misunderstanding," Gregory told him, only for Abraham to stop whatever he was going to say next.

"Misunderstandin' my left ballsack!" he said. "The Saviors want you gone, Papa Smurf. Whether we're here or not."

"They already know you colluded with us," Beth reasoned. "Why do you think they did all that last night? They already know what happened at the outpost had somethin' to do with you. I mean, your head was what was supposed to be delivered, and instead everyone dies? They aren't stupid."

"As soon as the Saviors leave, we get them the hell out of here before something really bad happens," Gregory told Jesus, completely ignoring the Alexandrians and their voices of reason, unlike Jesus who had similar concerns to what Beth had pointed out.

"Stop!" Jesus demanded. "They're staying. Or do you want make it public?" he asked, finally standing up for what he wanted the Hilltop to be, not what Gregory wanted. "You want to make the deal with Alexandria public? Lose whatever plausible deniability you have left? Lose your position?"

"So you're gonna be in charge now?" Gregory asked in disbelief, his cocky look turning irritated as Jesus made his threat.

"No," Jesus told him, looking him straight in the eye with a grimace on his face. "It's just that you won't be. Maggie, Sasha, Abraham, and Beth are staying. I'm staying. We're all gonna be one big happy dysfunctional family."

Gregory scoffed as he looked at the five of them in contempt, "So we will be. And I'll see us through this."

"You'll try," Beth countered.

"I made progress with them today!" Gregory defended looking to Jesus. "You saw it!"

"That's not what I saw," Jesus said with a shake of his head.

"Yeah? Well that's what happened," he said defensively while the others looked on. "We play nice, they play nice," he said as he walked up to them, speaking to Maggie. "See, dear? The Saviors can actually be quite reasonable."

Whatever he had intended to say next was immediately thrown away as Maggie clocked him in the jaw after noticing what was in his pocket. The Greene sisters both knew how to throw their weight into a punch and had the same affect on Gregory. The split in his lip from Beth's own sucker punch reopened as he looked at Maggie in disbelief that she would do that after he'd finally relented. It wasn't until he straightened back out and Maggie walked up to him taking Hershel and Glenn's watch off the man that the others understood her actions. Beth was glaring at him and ready to knock him out for how he had stolen their family's heirloom. Their father had given it to Glenn to show he had been accepted into the family and the man had taken care of it so well that it was still shining and all the gears still worked perfectly. There wasn't a single bit of dirt and grime on the thing because Glenn had been so attentive to it even on the road. Abraham was staring at the man in disbelief before his jaw became set and he gave the man a hard stare, daring Gregory to retaliate against Maggie while Sasha was glaring at him. What that watch represented to their group, while some much longer than others, what it had grown to symbolize, was not something that should have been touched by Gregory's grubby little hands.

"It's a fine watch," he tried to reason. "Doesn't need to be left out in the rain."

"This is our home now," Maggie told him. "So you'll learn to start to call me by my name. Not Marsha. Not 'dear.' Not 'honey.' Maggie. Maggie Rhee."

Gregory just looked at her in disdain before marching out of his room, Maggie and Beth going to stand by one window while Abraham and Sasha took position at the next. Jesus stood in the center of the room watching the four and thinking about how things could be so different with them here. Sasha and Abraham had already been helping where they could and Beth had started working with the few kids they had there to teach them basic self-defense. She'd also been helping out in the kitchens, learning how to cook from scratch from the older women who worked there and helping Carson learn about herbal remedies, which they were in desperate need of. Maggie had been the one to lead the attack on the walkers and to take out the car, making it to where none of their people had been hurt. The four of them being there had started a change in the people of the Hilltop and he had heard nothing of praised about them since they'd been there. The only one who seemed to have a problem with their presence was Gregory, who was only raising a fuss because he felt threatened. Jesus had never wanted to lead and had willingly followed the older man's lead so that he could continue to go out and find what the Hilltop needed. He had been one of the only members of Hilltop that had come into the place with any knowledge of how to fight and hadn't wanted to waste that being confined to an office. Now, he realized that he didn't need to stay in the Hilltop to give it a better leader, someone who would do what was best for the community, not themselves.

"When I got here, Gregory was already in charge. I thought the people chose him for a reason. Looking at it now, I think it just happened. I didn't like how he did things," he sighed. "But I couldn't imagine anyone else in his place. I can now."

"Who?"

"We'll talk about it sometime," he told her, sharing a look with Beth as he spoke, Maggie catching Sasha and Abraham's smiles in her direction before she turned to Jesus. "I should've talked to Gregory sooner. I'm sorry. Hopefully, you'll let me make it up to you."

"We will," Maggie told him as she looked back out the window. "The gates are closed."

When she went to move, Jesus got in the way and said, "Wait, they're still loading up outside."

"I'll see you back at the trailer," Maggie told the others before walking away.

Beth, Sasha, and Abraham stayed in the room, watching out the windows until Sasha asked Beth to check on Maggie, turning to Jesus as soon as the young woman left the room, "You really want to make it up to us?"

"What do you need?"

"Can you find where Negan lives?" Abraham asked him, having discussed the possibilities over with Sasha the previous night after everything had settled down and been taken care of.

"One of the trucks is going back there," Jesus stated. "So...yeah, I can do that."

"Can you keep it between the three of us. Just you, me, and Abraham?" Sasha asked him.

"No Maggie or Beth?"

"I don't like it, but we can't," Sasha told him.

"Beth is a trigger itch away from goin' after Negan herself and Maggie's in no condition to be pullin' a move like this off," Abraham said. "We tell 'em what we're doin', they'll wanna do it too."

"Beth's all the family Maggie has left, and the opposite is true, too," Sasha reasoned. "They shouldn't take the risks."

"I don't like it," Jesus told them.

"None of us do," Abraham assured him.

Outside, Beth caught up to Maggie as she saw her heading around Barrington to where the graves were with the watch still in hand. She couldn't help the smile that graced her face when she saw Enid sitting by Glenn's grave, green balloons hanging from the cross. Maggie and Enid had grown close while Beth was doing her own thing in Alexandria and trying to work through what had happened at Grady. Enid kind of reminded both of them of this little girl they used to babysit down in Georgia for the nearby neighbors during the summers so her parents could work the fields. They both enjoyed the young girl's company and both felt comfortable in her presence. For Beth, it was just nice knowing someone else was there for Maggie, someone outside of their original group, or Jesus, who was still somewhat unknown to her. Beth had also pulled away more and more from Maggie after everything that had happened, wanting to become her own person as well as build her own strength. She had needed to figure out who she wanted to be outside of Maggie's little sister and a stand-in for Ani when someone needed to talk. Maggie needed someone there to help her focus on something other than Glenn's death, and Beth wanted that for her sister. She wasn't sure she was even going to be at the Hilltop for much longer and the one thing she did know was that Enid just made it that much easier for her to leave.

"You're here," Maggie said, causing Enid to look over to her.

She stood up and immediately came to Maggie's side and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm not," Maggie admitted before walking toward the grave holding the watch still in her hand. "But I will be."

They all shared a hug before Maggie and Enid went back to the trailer the Alexandrians had been using and Beth went to the house to let Sasha and Abraham know what was happening. She got back to the trailer just as Maggie was telling Enid about what had happened the night before. Beth and her started working on making sandwiches and soup as Enid began talking about how she had gotten to the Hilltop. She mentioned how Carl had helped her get there only to try to follow Negan's people back to their home, something all three women agreed was stupid. While they needed to fight, they needed to be smart about it and make sure they had the ability to. Maggie was waiting for Rick to pull his head out of his ass and start planning their next move. They needed to make sure their people were out of harm's way, including getting Daryl and Ani out of Negan's grasp. They all fell quiet for a few minutes while the food finished up cooking before Enid's curiosity got the better of her about the night before.

"People told me you killed walkers and a car...with a tractor?"

"I couldn't sit by and watch. Not again. So I guess I sat and did something."

"You're supposed to take it easy," Enid told her.

"You think I haven't been tellin' her that?" Beth asked. "She's stubborn."

"It wasn't that hard," Maggie defended while looking at Beth before looking over to Enid. "It wasn't my first time." Enid looked at her perplexed as Beth started giggling, Maggie telling Enid, "There was this boy in high school."

"You ran over the boy?" Enid asked sounding just a little scared, making Beth full on laugh and Maggie chuckle.

"His car," she told her while nodding her head.

"Oh," Enid said as she laughed along with Beth.

"It was a Camaro. And then it wasn't," Maggie whispered like it was some sort of secret.

The door opened and Sasha and Abraham walked in, Sasha commenting, "Enid."

"Hi," the young girl told her. "I—I came to help."

"You came by yourself?" Abraham asked.

"Yeah," she said after a brief pause, making the man raise an eyebrow but dig no further. "Have some dinner."

"Why are there balloons on Glenn's grave?" Sasha asked as the pair sat down and joined the three women.

"There's nothing marking the grave," Enid commented shyly.

"Nope," Maggie said, holding up the watch. "I was gonna use this for him. It was my dad's. He gave it to him." Getting a nod from Beth, Maggie handed it over to Enid and told her, "Now I'm giving it to you. I don't need anything to remember him by. We have us."