-Rhys-

They got word from Alexandria about Negan's escape— that Daryl, Mikey, and Siddiq had gone out looking. Rhys hadn't felt a gut punch like that since Maggie left— that desperate tug against the urge to say I told you so... but it had been so long, and Hilltop had its own issues to worry about right now.

Michonne and Sasha left yesterday, right after the meeting in the foyer. The two would have preferred that it had been a quiet affair, but Luke forced a big ordeal out of the event, hugging Connie and Kelly before lifting Magna off her feet and into his arms and finally blowing a kiss to Yumiko after climbing into the wagon for departure. Rhys had to quiet literally dodge an actual kiss from the man when he said goodbye.

Thankfully, nothing so dramatic had happened since, but still, Hilltop had its share of problems.

With the threat of the skin freaks ever looming, a tree through Hilltop's wall, and the community's leader seeming to change with the wind, morale had been low.

Arguments seemed to break out all the time now. Even some food and medicine had gone missing from the root cellar over the last few months— Rhys had signed off on a hunting party leaving just after the leaders meeting had concluded because of it.

Walking through Barrington House, Rhys looked in on the injured Kingdomers that had now spilt from the ever-too-small infirmary into the atrium and dining room. He checked if anyone needed anything; a few people asked for extra pillows or water, and Rhys did his best to find it for them.

By mid-afternoon, he was speaking with Alden, Earl, and Eugene about the fallen tree. He had a clipboard that Yumiko had thrust into his arms at some point this morning that he hadn't managed to put back down yet.

Always something, he figured.

"Well, we've made good progress since yesterday," Earl grumbled, hands on his hips as he chewed at a piece of straw clenched between his teeth. "Still, if we wanna use every branch off this blasted tree, we gotta pick up the pace."

Rhys nodded. "And I'm with you on that, but people are working hard as is."

"Rift and quarter sawing might be our best bet," Alden added. "Wood won't be as nice cut, but it'll get the job done quicker."

Earl folded his arms. "Normally, my chief concern would be the hidden beauty of the grain, but with quantity being of the essence, rift and quarter sawing it'll be."

Eugene nodded in agreement, so Rhys quickly made a couple of ticks on his list.

Yumiko called to them then, jogging down from the stables where she'd just been helping out with a few stray walkers popping up at the breach. Her vest was stained with quite a bit of blood.

"All good?" Rhys asked her.

"Yeah," she sighed, patting his arm.

"Your bow not working?" he asked with a carefully planted hint of sarcasm.

"Oh, it is," she said. "Just needed to blow off some bloody steam."

"Noted."

Rhys did, in fact, make a note of that, clicking his pen after to save the ink from drying.

"I'm happy to recapitulate," Eugene offered.

"Oh, no," Yumiko said with a tight smile. "Just checking in. You all good?"

"Eugene's come up with a zero waste plan," Alden told her, leaning against the tree currently being sawn apart from top to bottom by a dozen people. "Claims we can use every cubic inch... even the bark."

Eugene tipped the end of his stetson at him. "Seems as good a time as any to master the Pueblo art of basket weaving."

"Yumi, can I grab you for a sec..." Rhys gestured away from the others.

"Before y'all head off," Alden quickly piped up. "Earl and I were talkin. Instead of using the extra wood for the addition... what if we made some weapons? Y'know, big ones, defensive, couple of catapults for the north wall."

Yumiko frowned. "Yeah, no, look, I think it's a good idea, honestly, just not right now... not with half the Kingdom still in tents."

Earl scoffed.

Yumiko glared at him. "Something to add?"

"So, the Whisperers smash a giant hole in our wall..."

"Yeah, well, we don't know if it was them for sure—"

"...and now they're throwin' walkers at us every couple of hours, and we're just gonna sit here, twiddlin' our damn thumbs?"

Yumiko opened her mouth to jab back, but Rhys cut in.

"No, Earl and Alden are right. Split the timber. Just the one catapult. As many long-range weapons as you can make from the rest. The other half goes to the addition for the Kingdom."

Earl smirked, nodding, and when Yumiko didn't argue, he said, "Maggie woulda made the same choice..."

When they left, Yumiko turned to Rhys, hands on hips.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"You can't let them get to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone has opinions, Rhys. Doesn't mean you gotta bend to them for a well done."

"For the record," Rhys sighed at her, "I agree with them. This isn't the first war Hilltop's fought. We don't have the outer defences that Alexandria does to keep fending off these waves. Quite frankly, we don't have the people either. We fix the wall, we defend our home, then we can worry about the damn houses."

Rhys looked out past the breach to the treeline the oak had fallen from. Carl was out there with Jenny and others, hacking away at the fallen tree with a small hatchet he'd gotten from Earl.

Rhys pulled the baseball cap he was wearing off his head to wipe the wave of sweat that was building in his curled fringe. He put it back with care.

"I'm not losing any more of my family to these fucking skin freaks. Not you, not Carl, not anyone."

She nodded, seeming to actually respect what he said this time.

"And Yumiko, the tree, the walkers... it is them."

"Rhys! Yumiko!"

They turned to a woman's shouts as she ran at them from down the hill.

"Everything okay, Brianna?" Rhys asked.

"It happened again," she said breathlessly, sweating perfusing but clearly still adamant about never taking off the puffer vest her dad used to wear when he worked the fields. "Root cellar. Middle of the night."

"Fuck me backwards," Yumiko hissed. "Remember our food thief I told you about?"

"Yeah," Rhys said. "We can't push this back. If we run out of food with all this work needs doin'... we're as good as dead here."

"Who the hell was on watch?" Yumiko asked Brianna.

She looked at her feet. "Magna..."

Rhys saw Yumi's face go from angry to a slow realisation to way more fucking angry than before.

She dismissed Brianna, then turned to Rhys. "Let me handle this?"

He didn't get it. Not all the way. Rhys nodded.

"Oh," Yumiko said, stopping a few paces away and turning back to Rhys, who had already started making his way towards the breach. "What did you want to talk to me about a minute ago?"

"Oh, I'll tell you later. Also I need to speak with Zeke if you see him."

"Copy that."

"Water?"

"Thanks."

Carl gulped the metal canteen to empty that Rhys handed him. His hair was clumped up on his forehead with sweat, sticking up in all different directions when he ran his hand through it after he was done emptying the canteen.

Carl looked guilty after finishing the whole thing.

"How're we doing on water?" he asked, whacking his hatchet in the spot he'd been hacking and turning to Rhys.

Rhys laughed down at his clipboard. "Erm, it's about the only thing we're not running out of. Well is full."

"Well, there's some good news!" Carl snorted, jabbing his arm.

"You're awful."

"You love me."

"You push me."

Carl chuckled, gently brushing his knuckle against Rhys' chin as he stared into his eyes. "Yeah... yeah, you love me."

Rhys blushed, blowing air out his lips.

Carl didn't stop smiling at him lovingly.

"Y'know, I was thinking about when we get everything sorted and safe again," Rhys started, smiling a little as he reached out to flatten the cowlicks of damp hair Carl had at the back of his neck. "When we get a new doctor... maybe we build the infirmary its own actual building instead of it being run out the trailer. Maybe we name the building the Wyatt Infirmary?"

Carl laughed. Not in a funny way. Kinda in the way you do when everything just makes sense.

"After Enid?" he asks. "She would hate that."

"I think she'd pretend to."

"She definitely would."

"There were some others," Rhys went on, flipping to a rough sheet of paper at the back of his clipboard.

Carl grinned at him while he wasn't looking.

"Here we go... Sasha and I were running through these," Rhys said, running his finger down a list. "The Tammy-Rose Nursery. Sutton Stables. The Chambler Mess Hall. Williams' lookout towers east, west, south, and north. Rovia Cropland. And finally, Barrington House has always been way too much of a mouthful... how 'bout Rhee Hall."

"You can't rename a historical monument!"

"Pfft, who's gonna stop us?"

Carl smirked. "They all sound great... but no Washburne?"

"Okayyy, let's make sure I don't burn the place down first?"

"Good idea. Though so many people seem to call you Mr Rhee now, they'll still think you named it because of your massive ego."

"Okay, Carl Grimes... you got the slightest idea how many times I've heard people suggest renaming this thing or that thing back in Alexandria to the Grimes blank?"

Carl grimaced, nodding. "My dad kinda being a celebrity is really weird sometimes."

Rhys found Ezekiel leaning against the riding school up by the stables. He tugged at his hat against before walking up to him, making sure it sat right.

"Hey, Zeke!"

Ezekiel was watching nothing happen in the school. With no time to focus on running out any of the stable's antsy stallions, the former king was left watching the sand sit still.

He glanced over his shoulder at Rhys, tugging at the neckerchief he was wearing before looking away. "Hi, Rhys."

Rhys walked over, leaning against the wooden fence alongside him, joining him in watching the empty school. He watched Ezekiel playing with his wedding ring.

"I heard about what happened with Michonne," Rhys said.

Ezekiel dipped his head. "Carl told you? She told Carl?"

Rhys nodded.

He sighed. "I shouldn't have kissed her."

Rhys frowned, very confused all of a sudden. "Erm... you shouldn't have what now?"

Ezekiel looked back at him, equally confused. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about why you were up on that cliff edge... wait, you kissed Michonne?"

"Oh, no, we are not talking about that."

"The kiss or the cliff?"

"The kiss!"

"Okay, okay," Rhys said, holding his hand up in surrender before returning to the post and looking sad. "Wanna talk about the other thing then?"

"Not particularly."

"Everyone cares about you here—"

"I lost my son, Rhys." Ezekiel's face was grey and sunken. Rhys thought that look was something a face as kind as his should never know. "I lost my Kingdom. I lost my wife."

"The reasons that put you up on that cliff," Rhys said. "I get that. I mean, I don't understand it fully. But I get it. I'm not the right person to talk about it, I suppose. But if you ever do need it, Zeke... I've still got one good ear."

He nodded. "Then what did you want to talk about?"

"Right. Maggie ran this place on her own. She had help, but she still managed it. The job killed Jesus and Tara." Rhys shook his head, playing with the same finger Ezekiel was playing with, only his was bare. "Kingdom is Hilltop now. That's how it is..."

Ezekiel looked at him.

Rhys looked back.

Rhys sighed, frustrated. "I made a choice today to build weapons to defend our walls over houses for the refugees from Kingdom."

"Leaders do what they must," Ezekiel said stoically. "For the good of their people, man." He finished less stoically.

"They're your people, too."

"What are you saying, Rhys?"

"I'm stuck, Ezekiel. Stuck in a paradox. The people have apparently chosen me to lead them... but I don't think I know enough to do it. Some of them seem to think I do... but I'm not Maggie."

"You learn," Ezekiel chuckled. "That kinda job."

"I learn from people every day. Just earlier, I found out that Puebloans were good at weaving baskets."

Ezekiel looked confused again.

"I could learn from you," Rhys said finally.

"What are you asking?"

"Nothing yet," Rhys admitted, scratching his head. "But I think I'm putting together a council. Haven't run it past Sasha. It'll take time."

Ezekiel took a heavy breath, looking away. "Not sure how much more I've got."

"You'll make it, Zeke. The man that tamed a tiger and built a Kingdom in the apocalypse is the kinda man that does."

Ezekiel couldn't help but laugh.

Rhys handed him something then.

"I know you didn't take much from Henry's room... but when I got back after the fair, I found this. Never seemed the right time to give it to you."

Ezekiel took the small metal tiger between his fingers, smiling at it, little black ridges scarred into its back to make the stripes.

"Henry forged it for you during his apprenticeship from a handful of nails he brought from with him from the Kingdom."

"I never should have let him go," Ezekiel whispered with a pained whine, staring at the little tiger.

"He thought the Kingdom could be saved... it was his dream. Then he wanted this place to be safe because that's just who he was."

"Was," Ezekiel murmured. "I hate that. People keep saying it. He was kind. He was honest. He was good."

Rhys reached along the fence and gripped Ezekiel's wrist. "Because he was."

"You're right," Ezekiel told him. "Henry was a dreamer... I was always so proud that part of me found its way into him. Turned out that's the part that killed him."

"Alpha killed him."

Ezekiel cleared his throat, slowly standing up straight and tapping the tiger against the fence. "Thank you, Rhys. Thanks for... you know."

"Open the gate!"

They both looked, and watched as Daryl rode in on his motorcycle, Siddiq and Mikey following in on horseback.

They walked down to meet them, Ezekiel shaking Daryl's hand while Rhys embraced Mikey and then Siddiq.

"No sign of Negan?" Ezekiel asked.

"Searched all day and night, but no sign of him," Siddiq sighed, shaking Ezekiel's hand, too.

Ezekiel spat at the floor, pissed and sporting a grimace. "Keep thinkin' about what he took from us, what we didn't take from him..."

He coughed.

"...Alexandria deserved better."

"He'll turn up," Mikey said. "He did before."

"And, hey," Siddiq said gently. "You've had your trouble, too."

"Actually, we could use a hand in the infirmary," Ezekiel told him. "Much of the Kingdom's still in recovery after the tree fall."

Siddiq looked exhausted. "We were planning on leaving tomorrow, but, yeah, of course. Whatever you need."

Siddiq headed off to the medical trailer. Daryl looked at Rhys watching him. He poked his shoulder.

"Yeah?" Rhys hummed, trying to just enjoy seeing their faces for a second.

"How many people have told ya you're doin' good here?"

"Enough that I've stopped listening."

"You're doing good, man." "You're doing great."

Daryl and Mikey said it together, like they'd rehearsed it on their way here.

"Ha ha... thanks, guys." Rhys rolled his eyes.

Daryl turned to Ezekiel. "You wanna ask about Carol?"

Ezekiel took a moment to breathe in.

"Nah."

Then he walked away.

The gate opened for the second time, the hunting party Rhys had sent out finally returning.

He frowned as he watched them walk in.

Connie clearly noticed first because she was down there right away, scribbling in her notebook and shoving it in one of the hunter's faces.

It was Jacob.

"She's not here?" he asked, stepping back.

"Where's Kelly?" Rhys asked, rushing down, seeing that he'd just asked exactly what she'd written.

"She was tracking something," Jacob told them. "Said she'd meet up back here."

"You let her go alone?" Rhys hissed.

"She shoulda been back before us..."

"Fuck sake," Rhys said. "Where did you see her last?"

Daryl walked over. Carl, too.

"What is it?" Carl asked, still coated in sweat from the day's work.

"Kelly's missing," Rhys told him. "I'll take a group out."

"No way," Carl said, keeping his voice cool. "You're needed here."

Rhys grimaced. "I know these woods better than anyone... I'd be back before—"

"I'll go," Carl said. "You're a shit tracker anyway."

Rhys considered arguing, but Carl gave him a funny look. Like he was trying to say he understood.

"Trust me," Carl said.

Rhys huffed, but nodded.

Connie pointed at herself, then to Carl.

"Yeah, of course," he told her.

"I'll come, too," Daryl added.

A/N

Sorry for the extra week of waiting, where I haven't been bogged down in work I've super sick this week. All fun stuff! But anyways, I really enjoyed coming up with the new names for Hilltop's best places. Plus, Zeke and Rhys getting some time to chat has been a long time coming. Next time will be a Carl chapter and he's gonna get his mean face on, which is pretty special for ol' Saint Grimes.