Reviews:

Luna de Octubre- Honestly it was hard to decide when to put that moment, I feel like it makes sense now, the first time Rick's had a second to breathe in months. I definitely agree, Rick in the show has always been accepting of other members of his group, like Tara or Aaron, for being the sexualities that they are, I can't imagine him being unaccepting of his son if it had been the case. I'm glad you're excited about that!... honestly writing Rhys and Carl in Alexandria has given so much more freedom for them to explore their relationship, and I'm excited for us to get to it. You're very welcome, and thank you for reading!

BabySlothXYaoi- I think it all depends on how Rick looks at it! Honestly, I'm going to miss Rhys needing to pee, no idea why, but I found it amusing. The conversation with Aaron has weirdly been one of my favourite things to write in a while, I love how foreign they seem to one another. I know!... Noah is more than that I swear!... he's going to get more to do in the future, I really do swear it! The conversation between Carl and Rhys was also really fun to write, all in all, I enjoyed writing that chapter thoroughly... much like this next one.

I wake up to a foot, gently jolting my elbow. I tell Carl to bugger off, but it's not his voice I hear.

"Excuse me?"

I open my eyes to see Rosita staring down at me, her eyes in their usual resting squint, watching me as I wake up.

I look around, seeing that everyone else is asleep, except for Glenn and Abraham, who sit on watch, looking bored.

"Going to make sure the RV's secure. Coming?"

I yawn in response, looking at Carl asleep beside me.

"Come," Rosita rephrases.

I get up with a groan, leaving Tyreese's hammer in my satchel bag, instead, taking my folding knife from the floor and holstering my handgun as I follow Rosita out of the warehouse.

It's a short walk in the early daylight to where we left the RV, through tight alleys and over a rusted chainlink fence. Luckily the streets are free of walkers this time around.

"Glad to see you've knocked it off," Rosita breaks the morning silence, which I happened to be enjoying.

"Knocked it off?"

"The walker killing," She explains, "You stayed behind in the barn, I noticed."

I shrug.

Then Rosita asks me, "Where's your spear?"

"Left it in the barn," I tell her.

"Why?"

"It was broken. Seemed pointless to keep it."

"Okay, but why did you really leave it?"

I cough, clearing my throat of a tightness. "Because it kept reminding me of what happened with Madeline."

Rosita nods, remembering one particularly cold night by the fire, four days after we buried Tyreese. I was crying, she asked me why, so I told her all of it, everything that happened to me at the Cavalcade, more than I even told Carl.

"But you keep that knife," Rosita frowns. "Didn't she give you that to kill Carl?"

"She did."

"Then why get rid of the spear?"

"Because, before Carl came into the RV, Madeline gave me the chance to kill her with that spear. She knew I wouldn't. She knew she'd broken me..." I scrunch my face up for a moment, taking a second to exist here before I let my mind go there. "Then Carl tried. He killed someone else with it- Every time I held that spear, it reminded me that I hesitated, and now Carl has to live with killing that guy. I know how heavily that weighs on him, even if he won't say it- because he won't say it."

We arrive at the RV, Rosita climbing in to start the engine, and I'm beyond relieved when it doesn't splutter like some firetrucks I know. I clamber into the RV after her, shutting the door and sitting in the passenger seat.

"We taking it back?" I ask her.

"Yeah." She thinks for a second, "I get the spear, but why keep the knife?"

"I don't know," I shrug, pulling the knife from my pocket, flicking it open and closed. "I really don't. I guess it doesn't feel tainted."

The early morning creeps further along. Everyone is on board the RV now, as it rattles down a desolate road that Aaron picks, headed for Alexandria.

I'm sitting at the RV's table, playing a confusing game of poker with Tara and Eugene.

"Seven-card stud. Stares and squares. It's aces, cuatros, neeners, and two-eyed jacks."

"So there's fourteen wild cards... are you serious?"

"That's too many!" I tell Eugene after Tara just called him out.

"Oh, I am serious, sister." Eugene shuffles the deck of cards, dealing out to us.

"Okay..." Tara breathes a particularly annoyed breath, looking between her cards and me a few times before finally bursting, "Rhys, how are you beating me? I mean, I get why Eugene's beating us- the power he keeps in his Mullet and all. But how are you coming second? You're fifteen!"

"I guess you must really suck," I tell her, looking out the window of the RV that thirteen of us have somehow squished into on our way to Alexandria.

"Dude, answer the question," she says seriously, glaring at me. All the while trying to discretely peek at my cards.

I laugh, pulling the cards to my chest. "I got my friend to teach it to me. My Dad hated the game, always said, 'Gambling is for men that need luck.'"

Tara snickers at my deep-voiced impression of my father.

Eugene hmms at me disapprovingly. "I would have to disagree on the basis that gambling revolves around a skill set dedicated to six forms of tactical lies... eight forms if you play with fourteen wild cards," he raises an eyebrow at Tara, "which we are."

Tara splits and cracks with her laughter, "Okay, your Dad sounds like a killjoy... and Eugene, stop making up rules!"

"I do not 'make up rules'," he tells her, air quoting. "I would also like to remind you both that when we arrive at this field of Elysian... I have won the right to take the first wash through this game... those are the term we agreed upon. I also called dibs on the first shower anyways... so no takesy-backsies, nor any IOU's."

I snort at him. "You're strange."

"Dibs is dibs."

The poker chips keep bouncing on the RV table as we make our way down route sixteen. Rick, Michonne, and Judith ride behind the RV in an old car Abraham got working. Carl is squeezed onto the sofa seat beside me, watching the poker game closely, confusion flushing his face as he sees me rearrange the hand I was dealt. Carol's silently watching the game too for her spot behind Rosita's passenger seat. Abraham can occasionally be heard disagreeing with Rosita's map directions from behind the wheel. Daryl, Sasha, and Gabriel are sat on the floor, all zoned out, waiting for the journey to end. Maggie and Glenn are both in the RV's bedroom with Eric and Aaron, their conversations muffled by the sounds of the engine.

Noah hobbles up to the front of the RV after giving Aaron some painkillers, he has an immense grin on his face.

"What are you so happy about?" I ask him, slapping Carl's hand away when he tries to re-rearrange my cards for me.

"Aaron says they've got a surgeon at Alexandria, might be able to fix my leg."

"Nice, man!" Tara high fives him with one hand, keeping her cards away from Carl's prying eyes with the other.

"Rhys..."

I look up to the front when I hear Rosita call out to me.

"Rhys, look," she tells me, staring out the windscreen.

I do.

I see it.

Washington Monument, protruding from the trees ahead as we pass a bend in the elevated road, the whole city visible. A beacon in the dark.

So many thoughts flood through my mind. The fake cure, the hope, Sean... Dad.

Rosita lets out a breath, one I think she's been holding for a long time.

"We made it." Abraham looks back at me when I say it. Then he looks to the dashboard, his fingerless leather gloves squeaking as he grips the wheel tighter.

"How much longer we got?" Abraham asks his navigator.

I see in the rearview as Rosita rolls her eyes at his sudden decision to listen to her, checking the map with her index finger, tracing the roads to our destination. "Looks like we're a little over halfway there. Why?"

He nods to her, smiling, "We can make it."

He then looks at me in the rearview, eyes full of something you don't see often from him, optimism. "We can make it."

We're all sat on the road while Abraham curses over the RV's dead battery, Glenn trying to calm him down.

We didn't make it.

But we still did... The hard part, anyway.

Daryl stands on the RV roof above the rest of us in his winged vest, watching the upcoming road for threats.

Carl strolls over to the car behind us to see his sister, leaving me with the rest. He hasn't said any more about what happened with his Dad last night. I'm not sure any of the three of us want to talk about it anyhow, despite all of us knowing that we have to, eventually.

A finger pokes me in the spine, and I turn to a greeting smile from Maggie. She points to the RV we all evacuated. "Mind if we chat?"

I nod, following her in. There are soft whispers that we can hear from Eric and Aaron, who are still in the RV's bedroom. Maggie and I sit in the driver and passenger seats, our knees touch as we face each other. The view out the front is obscured by the popped hood.

Maggie touches my knee for a second, looking fully loaded with emotions. "I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for trying to bring me back in that parking lot... for trying."

I smile at her, not knowing how to respond, the event feeling so far away from the right now that we've both made it to.

Maggie goes on. "Bethy really liked you, you know that? You two had the same real' positive outlook... not to mention you're just as good with Judith as she was."

I'm feeling overwhelmed by the conversation, responding like an idiot. "Thank you..."

Maggie smiles, seeming almost excited. "You know, after you and Carl went to sleep last night, I was takin' another look at Eric's ankle, and he told me that he and Aaron have their own house at Alexandria- everyone does apparently... no cell blocks to speak of."

That makes me snicker.

"Now," Maggie goes on. "I'm sure when we first get there, Rick's gonna want us all stayin' together, just to be safe. But after that-" Maggie nudges my leg with hers, expecting me to catch on to something.

"What?" I ask, confused about what she's getting at.

"Once we all start spreading out, settling down. I talked to Glenn, and, if you like, you can stay with us. Live with us."

"W-with you?" I stutter in my hesitation to repeat what she said.

"Yeah, I mean you could stay with Rick and Carl, but let me tell you from experience... moving in with your boyfriend can get pretty tiring."

I don't know what to say, the idea of our own houses and settling down still feeling so far away.

"So?" Maggie brings me back to the RV.

"So?" I repeat in a hum, the conversation getting away from me.

"Would you want to stay with us? It's your call, and we might not even get that many houses... I mean, there are a lot of us so-"

"Yes." I cut her off.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Maggie beams at me, pulling me in for an awkward hug across the seats, planting a kiss in my wild hair.

"You'll definitely need a haircut when we get there," Maggie chuckles.

The RV engine roars to life, cheers erupting from outside.

"Hot damn!" Abraham calls out front of the windscreen, slamming the hood down and nodding to Maggie and me through the glass. Glenn smiles at me, knowing how much Maggie just offered.

I meet Carl outside, and he tells me he's riding with his Dad. He asks me if I want to ride with them. I look back at the RV. Someone, in particular, catches my eye.

"I'm gonna stick with the RV."

"Okay," he smiles, looking ever so slightly relieved, his father likely on his mind. "See you there."

"Drive safe."

We're back on the move. Rosita tells us we have another fifteen minutes ahead of us, Abraham grumbling in disagreement, to which she orders him to shut up.

I find Sasha sitting alone on the RV floor, her back to a cabinet as she looks over her rifle. I place myself beside her.

"I'm scared," I tell her.

"Why?" She's cleaning her suppressor as we speak.

"Same reason I think you are."

She glares at me. "I'm not scared."

I nod. "I'm worried that I won't be able to be normal when we get there. I'm worried."

Sasha sucks her teeth, and I know I'm right.

"Worried isn't the same as scared," she tells me.

"Yeah, true," I answer, "but you are worried, right?" There's hesitation on my lips. I'm not sure this is the way to approach the situation, my only clue being that Tyreese used to do this with his sister.

She puts down the suppressor and looks at me. Her eyes are wide. One might even call them sad.

"I don't know how I'm going to make it," she tells me, her voice trembling ever so slightly.

It takes me a moment to force a smile across my face. The smile itself isn't forced... it isn't fake. It just takes me a while to find it. To find a warm and familiar feeling when I think about what I'm going to say.

"Want to know my trick?" I ask her.

She doesn't nod. She just keeps watching me.

I go on, "I'm just going to act normal- I'm going to pretend. If I pretend long enough, it'll become me. I'll become it."

"How can you just pretend?" She asks me, almost sounding angry at the idea.

"For Carl," I admit. "Carl wants this for his sister for everyone. I want it for him. I'll pretend to be normal for him."

"And if it never happens?" She leans back into the cabinet, the wood creaking. She says it with such hopelessness. "What If it never becomes normal?"

"Then we just keep pretending."

Sasha sits on this the same way I did... the first time around.

The RV grinds to a halt, and I start to worry that the battery died again, or we're out of gas, or maybe another horde. I peek out the window and find something far scarier beyond the glass.

Rick's car had gotten in front of us at some point, and in front of them lies something new. A towering iron gate stands before us. Tall steel walls on either side lead off in both directions, nothing on the other side visible, not until we decide to go in.

I grab Ty's hammer from my satchel bag, keeping it in my belt loop now, hanging ready for what comes next.

We all file out of the RV. Carl's already out here. He looks at me nervously, moving to stand beside me. We wait for Rick to get Judith. The sound of children laughing comes from beyond the walls, putting me slightly at ease.

Rick and Carol exchange quiet words before joining the rest of us outside the monstrous gate.

I study the wall, finding it strange.

"Who puts their supports on the outside?" I whisper to Carl, pointing to all the metal columns holding it up.

He just shrugs, "Guess we're about to find out."

The gate pangs and groans as it's dragged open by someone inside, metal in pain as it slides aside. Aaron helps Eric inside, both disappearing behind the still opening gate.

I notice Carl stop, staring at a burnt house outside the walls. I tug on his sleeve, and he follows, shaking his head dismissively. I don't ask.

Aaron reappears without Eric.

An abrupt sound crashes to our left.

We all have our guns ready in seconds, Daryl putting an arrow through the possum that made the noise.

The gate slides further, revealing the person opening it. Curly hair on his head, a gun over his shoulder. He gives Daryl a strange look, who just grunt in response holding the skewered possum up, "We brought dinner."

"It's okay," Aaron tells the new guy.

I guess we're the new guys.

"Come on in, guys," Aaron beckons.

Glenn leads us in, Abraham the last to enter the community. The gate screeching closed behind him.

No turning back.

The streets we can see are exceptionally clean compared to the ones outside. Whitewashed houses stand tall against the blue sky. I think I even spot a lake through some trees.

"Before we take this any further," the new guy starts, "I need you all to turn over your weapons."

I reach behind me, my finger grazing over my holstered gun. Carl reaches out, taking my hand instead.

The stranger continues, "You stay... you hand them over."

Rick steps to the front of our group, his gun already out, Judith propped up on his hip. "We don't know if we want to stay."

Aaron raises a hand between them, "It's fine, Nicholas."

Nicholas.

I decide I don't like Nicholas. But I like Aaron and Eric, so it's two for three so far.

Rick states the obviously not-so-obvious to these people. "If we were gonna use them, we would have started already."

"Let them talk to Deanna first," Aaron fights our corner.

"Who's Deanna?" Abraham calls from beside me, his rifle resting on his shoulder.

"She knows everything you'd want to know about this place," Aaron tells him.

"She's the leader?" I croak, pretty sure no one heard me except for Rosita, who repeats the question for me.

Aaron nods. Then he says, "Rick, why don't you start?"

I hear snarls coming from back past the gate. Rick must too, because he turns to the approaching walker, shuffling its way down the road we came from, its shoulder knocking against the RV as it does.

"Sasha," Rick points.

She nods, turning on the spot and raising her rifle. The walker's head explodes as a quiet 'shook' escapes her gun.

Rick turns back to Aaron, walking past him into the community. Judith in one arm, his gleaming revolver in the other.

"It's a good thing we're here."

And so, Karen's advice finally comes full circle. Kinda.