top story: It's not gonna end up happening, I promise that.

Queen21: I do, too. It's fun and sweet writing them.

Luvs2Read: It's definitely going to change a few things going forward, especially with the Whisperers coming up.

"It's startin' ta get warm out again," Ani told Daryl as she snuggled into his chest. "Goin' ta be able ta start plantin' more soon. Won' got ta keep livin' on corn and scraps."

"We still got plenty of meat after those elk. We ain't livin' on scraps," he countered.

"Yeah, I know we've got plenty a meat, but I want fruit! I miss fruit! Ya know how long it's been since I had an orange?! Ain' fair that we can' jus' have it all the damn time! I miss those days," she complained.

"You and your fuckin' cravings."

"Ain' my fault! I can' control 'em!"

"I know," Daryl said, pulling his arm from around her and sitting up as Lou started fussing. "Only got a couple months before his birthday."

"I know. What're we goin' ta do?"

"We'll figure it out."

"I meant for 'is birthday, ya dork," Ani chuckled. "Are we goin' ta throw a party or go somewhere? We goin' ta invite all our friends ova ta rub 'im in their faces 'bout how big 'e's gettin'?"

"Stop," he told her, smacking her hip before getting up. "You think they got the time?"

"I don' know. It's a couple months away. We can always talk ta 'em when we go ta DC next week."

They'd sent Merle and Sophia to Alexandria, Jerry to the Kingdom, and DJ and Laura to the Hilltop to make sure the plans were in motion for their trip. DJ and Laura had the added bonus of making a fuel delivery now that they had been able to make enough with the grain from the Kingdom. Carol and Ezekiel had come just after the hunt the Dixons had gone on, trading one of the elk they'd managed to get for a good chunk of canned goods and dried grains. They'd also come with a cage for Bobby after she had attacked and seriously injured Catty over some of the guts when Merle and Daryl were dressing their game. Merle had gotten a decent chunk taken out of his leg from a bite from Catty and Ani was still apologizing for the claw marks on Daryl's arms. Ani and Daryl had already stopped letting Lou crawl around when the cat was close by and had been keeping an eye on her for a long time, so that attack had made it clear. The cat wasn't doing well living at the Sanctuary and had always been more aggressive than Catty, who had always acted more like a housecat than a wildcat. Even though they had been raised together, Ani suspected that Catty was more docile because she had always been with Judith and Sophia when she wasn't in her arms. Daryl said it was probably the reason the cat had acted more like a dog than a cat and why she wasn't as good of a hunter, let alone a climber, as Bobby. Ezekiel had agreed with that and said that there was a good chance that Bobby would have killed Catty had they been in the wild simply to establish her territory. While Ani had done an admirable job in raising them and training them, Bobby would most likely always be a feral cat. Much like dogs and horses, some were simply not meant for the docile life that Ani had envisioned for them. It was a sad time and Ani had cried her eyes out for the entire night when Bobby had left, but it was better that she be taken by someone who knew how to handle her than have Catty lose another limb or, worse, her life.

That had been a month ago and Catty had adjusted well to life without her sister and without a hind leg relatively easily. Daryl wasn't worried about her at all and didn't even care that the thing regularly would jump into the crib with Lou and curl around him. It was adorable when they'd catch her trying to clean him and making his dark hair stick up like a punk rocker. Ani admitted that she wished she still had the polaroid camera from the prison so that she could catch some of those moments, but Daryl was happy she didn't because she couldn't take any more pictures of him. He hated getting his picture taken and would have been happy to go the entirety of the rest of his life without seeing another camera. She had countered that it'd be nice to have a few pictures of him and Lou together, maybe even a few family photos only for him to scoff at her. She'd decided to paint a pretty picture for them both while they were having dinner about them finding a photo album and filling it with pictures of the three of them and Merle and Sophia. Going to stupid touristy places after Lou was old enough, like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, taking a trip to the county fair and riding the rides. Lou winning his first match in a sparring competition and a big family picture of the five Dixons and however many were yet to come. It had been an entertaining thought, to say the least, though Merle had to poop on her party by saying that most of those places she had spoken of were gone.

Now, they were trying to get everything set up so that they could go to DC and the National History Museum to raid the vaults. The museum, if Ani remembered correctly, would not only have several exhibits of Native American relics that Oceanside particularly could use, but also heirloom seeds, stone work tools, and other farm equipment from the Pilgrim era. They'd also be able to hit up the Smithsonian and see what that museum had to offer for them, as well as some of the lesser known ones. Some of the more open Saviors had been rather helpful in letting Ani know where they had scavenged and where they had been planning to before the war. After the war, they just hadn't gotten around to it because of the new regime and trying to find an equilibrium with Negan being gone. A lot of plans had fallen through the cracks because they didn't have any weapons beyond knives outside of the bows the Dixons owned. It was a part of the reason that so many people had been upset with Rick's sudden intrusion into their lives. They could've already gone through DC and scavenged everything that they could have if he hadn't been around. One of the soldiers had even implied that Negan himself had been planning on a trip just like the one they were about to make. It just hadn't been high up on his priority list considering the fact that they had enough supplies by raiding the other settlements.

Ani had sent a working list with everyone of the things they would be looking for in DC and where it should go. Knowing Rick, though, most of the things that weren't specific for the other settlements, like plows and canoes, would end up at the Sanctuary. It wouldn't sit well with Maggie and the Hilltop and Ani doubted many in the Kingdom would appreciate how little they'd get out of the trip, either. The difference, however, was that the Kingdom had almost everything they needed because they lived so close to the city. They were far better off than the Hilltop and Alexandria, by far, and all the settlements were doing exponentially better than the Sanctuary. The only reason the Sanctuary had lasted so long was because of the settlements and the fact that they had the best hunters in the Dixons. During the big hunt, they'd come across a small herd of elk and had managed to each take one down with their bows and caught another in a trap. They'd also managed to bring down a bear in a coordinated effort before finding its den. Ani and Sophia both had begged the brothers to let them keep the bear cubs they'd found, but the brothers were ruthless in their opinion. They'd ended up pouting the entire way back to the Sanctuary because Merle and Daryl had killed the cubs. Ani understood she couldn't take in every baby animal they found and that a bear ate a hell of a lot more than a bobcat, but she still wished they hadn't needed to kill the poor creatures.

"What you thinkin' about?" Daryl asked her as he grabbed Lou and brought him over to the bed to lay back down.

"This, that, and anotha thing," Ani told him.

"Like what?"

"Everythin', D," she said, watching him sit their boy on his chest and clap his hands together. "The Sanctuary, the Hilltop, Mags, Rick's strange obsession with makin' everythin' work for the betta. How many things we got ta get from the trip to DC."

"Still don't think you should go," he told her, watching from the corner of his eye as she propped herself up on an elbow and turned to her side to glare at him.

"I'm goin'. Ya already gave me a list a rules I promised ta follow. Don' make me kick ya ass," she threatened, not in the mood for his nerves to get the best of both of them.

"Just wanna make sure you stay safe."

"D," Ani groaned, "ya know last time was unda different circumstances. It's all changed. We don' got so much ta worry 'bout or fight ova. It's goin' ta be different."

"Yeah, well, what if it ain't?" he asked.

"It's goin' ta be."

~x~

"Damn thing thought I was lunch," Merle told Rick and Michonne at dinner while the kids were doing who knew what. "Thought I was gonna lose another appendage, but Catty was the one torn all to hell. Don't think she realized who she was bitin' at."

"Ani must be devastated to lose one of her kittens," Michonne told him.

"She cried quite bit, I'll tell you that. you'd think the bitch had died with how she was wailin'."

"Well, she found them as kittens and has raised them for a couple years now," Rick reasoned.

"Should've just let us kill 'em and eat 'em. That Bobby was good as a kitten and was trained to be even smarter than it should be," Merle complained. "Can't really blame 'er, though. Kid was on 'er own when she found them damn things. Knocked up, too. Got too attached for her own good."

"What happened with Catty?" Michonne asked.

"She lost her leg. Damn thing was just hangin' on by a thread by the time Bobby was done. Got a lot of tears in her coat and had 'er ear ripped to shreds, but she's alive. Gettin' on pretty well the way I see it. It ain't ever gonna be able to hunt good again, but it's keepin' Lou company."

"You trust her around a baby after all that?" Rick asked incredulously.

"Hell, damn thing was clawed and pawed at by your little girl," Merle told him, pointing his fork at the man. "Damn boy's safer than any of us with Catty around, that's for damn sure."

"How do you know, though? After Bobby..." Michonne said, drifting off and just slowly shaking her head with a confused look.

"Catty's like my baby brother; always been a big softy under all that mean look. Damn thing slept more'n anythin' before all this shit happened. Now, she's got an excuse to be a lazy thing."

"I still don't see how that's safe," Rick told him.

Merle wasn't in any mood to be talked down to about Catty's current role in Lou's life when Carl's role in Sophia's life was a hell of a lot more complicated. The bobcat had been stoned out of its mind after needing its leg amputated and having to be stitched back together. It'd been kept so hopped up on whatever that vet tech gave her, first time they'd even known they had an old veterinarian within their number. They sent him along to Hilltop afterwards to make sure their farm animals were all healthy and to help Maggie with training the horses. Ever since then, Ani hadn't wanted to put her down and only would when she needed to pick up Lou, which ended up with the bobcat being left in the crib half the time. He and Daryl had shared their concerns for the first little bit, but after two weeks and the bobcat just trying to clean Lou, they gave up. They couldn't keep the thing out of the crib if they tried anymore and Catty was certainly no danger to Lou. Everyone else that came at him the wrong way was a different story, but Lou himself was completely safe with that cat around. It was a hell of a lot safer for Catty to be Lou's bodyguard than it was for Carl to be Sophia's boyfriend, in his opinion. Who knew what the hell those kids were getting up to when Rick and Michonne simply told them to have fun and let them waltz out of the house without so much as a passing glance!

"Now you listen here, Officer Friendly, I ain't the one lettin' two teens go on an unsupervised date. That boy ain't ever left alone with that damn murder cat! And the murderous one's gone, so I ain't worried 'bout the damn scaredy cat," Merle said harshly. "You even know where they got off to?"

"Yeah, they went on a picnic up in the tower. Carl's on watch duty tonight. Figured he could kill two birds with one stone," Rick let him know in a rather carefree way. "Come on, their good kids. They aren't dumb and Carl sure as hell ain't gonna pull somethin' with Ani and you threatenin' him."

"Ani might be threatenin' 'im, but she ain't doin' nothin' to stop 'em," he responded. "Don't know which one of ya is worse. Swear those kids are gonna be the death of me."

"I think we're pretty safe," Michonne said. "Carl's already been around to birth two babies and watch three women go through it. If he doesn't know what it means to sleep with a woman by now and what it means for her to be pregnant, he's not as smart a kid as he appears to be."

"Boy's dumb as a sock of rocks," Merle told her blankly. "If it weren't the case, he wouldn't be draggin' my girl all over God's creation and damn near gettin' himself killed every other fuckin' week."

"He's...complicated," Michonne suggested, causing all three of them to start laughing.

"Complicated," he repeated before standing up and heading to the door.

"Where you goin'?" Rick asked.

"To the porch. Still got plenty of smoke even if I ain't allowed a shit ton of liquor no more."

"Sure you're not goin' to check on them?"

"I can kill two birds with one stone just as well as your boy can. Hell, probably better. Don't worry, Officer Friendly, I ain't plannin' on doin' anythin' to them kids, 'sies maybe scare 'em to death if I catch 'em doin' somethin' they shouldn't."

~x~

Sophia had her head on Carl's arm as they laid on the blanket on the balcony of the newly built windmill and stared up at the stars. He had surprised her with a home-cooked meal and a leather bracelet that he had made all by himself, on both counts. It was the most romantic thing he could think of as far as being able to go on a date in this day and age and he hadn't been able to come up with anything else special to do. Sophia told him that she thought it was perfect when she first saw the set up and could hardly believe that he'd made the pasta and sauce from scratch. She let him know that if he ever got in trouble with Ani, all he'd need to do was make the same spaghetti they'd had that night for her and she'd forgive him. The subject of Bobby and Catty's fight had come up for a moment, but Sophia wasn't in the mood to talk about that. It had been scary to see the cats fighting like that when they hadn't before and it was even scarier when she thought about how blood had gone everywhere from both the cats and the Dixon brothers. Ani had been the one to stop it by dropping her body right on top of Bobby with a thick blanket and a tarp to make sure she couldn't get at her with her claws or teeth. That's all she told him before asking about how things had been going in Alexandria since her last visit.

Since the winter had been really mild and they'd only accumulated a foot or two of snowfall the entire time, they'd been able to travel back and forth when the temperatures weren't too low. The low temperatures had been the worst part of the winter with ice normally being present both on top of and under the snow and making travel tricky. They hadn't been able to risk any of the horses until the snow had started melting and the horses had fast become the common mode of transportation. Ani and Daryl had their ATV and motorcycle, but almost everyone else was horseback now. Walkies had been the main source of communication because of how long walking could take and the possibility of getting trapped out in freezing temperatures making it to where frequently going between the settlements had been difficult, at least with Merle up her butt all the time. She'd caught a cold right after they'd gotten back from their big family hunting trip and Merle hadn't wanted her to spend too much time outside because of it. Ani had agreed to an extent, though it wasn't that she couldn't go outside, just that she shouldn't travel to the other settlements because they didn't know if the cold had reached them or not. She was always treating colds and illnesses that way; if it was something that could spread, she refused to take the chance. It had been over a month since she'd been allowed outside of the Sanctuary's gates and talking over walkie just wasn't the same as hearing Carl speak in person.

She missed the days when she could live in the house next door or just up the road and she could see him every day. She knew that Daryl and Ani were talking about moving to the Hilltop, but she wasn't sure she wanted to go there. While she knew Ani and Merle, especially, would be against her moving to Alexandria, it was the place she felt the most at home. Alexandria had been where she'd found her family, where she'd found her happiness for the longest time; it felt wrong not being there. Negan was the only reason the others refused to come back there and Sophia knew she wouldn't be able to talk them into it. There was nothing that would make Ani come back to Alexandria when she'd had her worst panic attack thanks to Negan and it had started off all the health and pregnancy problems she'd had.

She didn't want to ask the woman she looked up to the most to go through all those issues again just to make her happy. Besides, even if it was to the Hilltop, it didn't take that long to go back and forth and Ani wouldn't care if it was every few days that she went between. It was just easier to do things when they were all living in the same spot and within walking distance of each other. She couldn't even spar with Beth that often anymore because it was always hard to find time to go back and forth between the two communities plus spend time with Carl, and she couldn't spar with Ani at the moment, either.

"Have you thought about movin' to a different settlement?" Sophia asked Carl. "Like, stayin' at Hilltop?"

"I'm actually going to be going to the Hilltop this summer," he told her, looking at her questioning gaze up at him. "Yeah, dad wants me to learn more about masonry and carpentry. With Tobin gone and Abraham staying at Hilltop to help with Hershel and Maggie, we don't have anyone like that permanently here. We used some of the people from Sanctuary to build what we have so far, but the Hilltop's the place that's got those things all the time."

"Yeah."

"Why? What's wrong?" Carl asked, moving to turn on his side in unison with her.

"Ani and Daryl are talkin' about movin' to the Hilltop," she admitted. "They still don't like it over at the Sanctuary."

"My dad won't let them move. Someone from our group has to be in charge over there, someone loyal to my dad. We can't just give up the Sanctuary because they don't like it."

"It's more complicated than that," Sophia sighed. "There's just a lot goin' on and they've been talkin' about tryin' to get out of stayin' there."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"I can't. It's not my place."

"Since when were things like that not your place?"

"It's complicated."

"How is it complicated?" Carl asked her, completely confused.

"It just is. I can't tell you because I don't know everythin'," Sophia told him. "Ani's keepin' somethin' from me and I know it, but she won't tell me what it is and Merle claims he doesn't know either."

"Why not ask Daryl?"

"Because every time I do all he says it 'it's nothin'.'"

"Then maybe it really is just nothing, you know? If they aren't telling you, then it's probably not something that's worth worrying about too much."

"Yeah, I guess. I still hate being kept out of the loop. It's like they still think I'm just a kid."

"My dad's not much better. He's got Abraham babysitting me over the summer like I can't do anything on my own. Like we didn't defend this place against the Saviors."

Sophia chuckled at him and leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek, "You make it seem like it doesn't bother you, but you hate it, too."

"Why wouldn't I?! It's like, everything we've done just didn't happen!" he complained, laying back down on his back. "We were a part of the war with the Saviors! We were there! but my dad and Michonne act like nothing ever happened, like we were just witnesses!" Carl sighed before he continued, "I know they think they're just protecting us, but it feels more like we're being punished than anything."

"At least they're not trying to keep us in one place anymore," Sophia told him. "Well, at least not if we're healthy. All the doctors agree it's better to isolate and quarantine if there's someone sick."

"It's actually smart, if you think about it. We haven't had another outbreak like we had at the prison since we started doing that."

"True. Two years without a major outbreak. I wonder how long we can keep it up."

"Well, now you jinxed it!" Carl laughed. "With Siddiq and all the doctors learning the herbal medicine, we should have enough medical knowledge to keep from having too bad of one for a long time."

"Seems that way."

"It's nice, though," he told her. "Not having to worry about Judith getting sick like that. How's Lou been?"

"He's startin' to walk, only a step or two right now, but he's tryin'. He's startin' to talk more, too. It's mostly just callin' for Daryl and Ani, but it's cute," she said. "He's a bit weird, though. He'll play with a toy for a few seconds and then just sit and stare at whoever's in the room. Ani said it's normal and he's just curious, but I don't remember Judith doin' that! And Hershel doesn't do it, either."

"Maybe he really is just curious," Carl suggested with a shrug. "Maybe he just picked it up from Ani and Daryl. I mean, they kinda do that, too."

"I didn't think of that."

"Yeah, I mean, Daryl's always just watching what's going on around him and Ani will stare you down like a vulture or a hawk. I think it'd be weirder if Lou didn't stare all the time."

"That's true, I guess. It's still freaky when you're doin' somethin' and you look over and you've just got a baby starin' at you."

"What color are his eyes? He's always been sleeping or Ani and Daryl have been busy with him in hand, so I haven't really been able to tell yet."

"They're green. He's got Daryl's hair and Ani's eyes. Everythin' else, he's startin' to look more like Daryl than just a baby. It's kinda funny to tease him about having a mini him runnin' around, broodin' when he gets older."

Both teens laughed at that and then quieted down, Carl moving to sit up and freezing, "Look, my dad told him I was on guard duty over in the tower."

"You do have guard duty over there, you just switched it with Wade so we could have the center post and he wouldn't have such an easy time. Wanna make a bet on how long it takes him to figure it out?" Sophia asked him with a smirk on her face.

"Winner picks the next date?"

"How about, winner picks the next game?"

They watched, hunched down so that they weren't easily seen, as Merle headed down the street with a scowl on his face. It had become a tradition for them to say they were going to be in one place and find somewhere else to go. Merle was always trying to find where they went so that they couldn't spend any time alone. He'd found them within fifteen minutes at first when they started because they weren't confident enough that they could avoid him. As time went on, however, they'd gotten creative with where they would go and would only stay within the boundaries of the territories so that he didn't send out search parties. They wanted privacy and alone time, not to put someone else's life at risk. Merle just wouldn't trust that they weren't planning on doing anything that would result in an accidental pregnancy when they already had babies to look after. Carl was looking after Judith more and more while Sophia had been babysitting Lou a couple nights a week so that Ani and Daryl could spar and hunt. The only time Merle didn't come after them spending time together was when they were with the babies. Because of that, they had started trying to send Merle on a wild goose chase every time they were spending time together just so he would learn to leave them alone.

"Is that what we're calling all this now? A game?"

"He did it to himself, and you know it. If he wasn't so stupid and annoyin', we wouldn't avoid him like the plague. Not like we can do anythin' right now anyway. Might as well have a little fun messin' with him."