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BabySlothXYaoi- Indeed, Gabe is not the best at being a priest right now. Took a lot of inspiration from the scene in the season 5 finale, where Sasha tries to talk to Gabriel about wanting to die, and he basically tells her she deserves to die. The feast was a whole lot of fun to write, beans and pudding all! I feel like the boys have been playing positivity tennis up until now, one always lifting the other from his pessimism. I definitely took my personal experiences to write the wine description... stuff tastes nasty. Goshhh, do you know how hard it is to write Carol as a 'bad guy' in this?! She's my favourite character! Thank you for all the lovely things you've said about character interaction! I've tried to give something to everyone Rhys is on good terms with... some people, you may have noticed, didn't get Rhys time... but that's because they've got some big stuff coming up. Well... Rhys is definitely going to get some tension release in the next few chapters! I'M SORRY ABOUT THE CLIFF HANGER, aha! I can't wait for spring in general, tired of the cold weather.

Nsc.99- Nothing in absolute stone, but I'm aiming to upload once per week. However, I may upload more frequently, depending on how quickly I can edit/ proofread chapters.


Up until Sasha charges in, Gabriel had been staring at me from across the room, cleaning up the mess left over from the feast as he watches me, judgment staining his glare.

Shitty priest.

His stare only breaks from me when the front door swings open violently, Sasha thundering up the isle with Rick and Ty following behind her.

"Stop," she shouts at Gabriel. "What are you doing?"

Gabriel looks confused, a partially cleaned wine glass in hand.

"What are you doing?" Her words are more poignant the second time around.

Gabriel puts the glass down gently on a nearby pew, giving Sasha a blank look.

Sasha explains herself, her face is hostile. "This is all connected. You show up, we're being watched, and now three of us are gone."

Gabriel looks around to the rest of us with a nervous chuckle, "I- um. I'm not-"

Tired of this, the jokes and the nerves, Sasha pulls out her knife, waving it in front of his face. Tyreese steps forward, but I grab at his arm. Stopping him from intervening.

"Who is out there?" she whispers, the knife inches from one of Gabriel's panicked eyes.

"I- I don't-"

"Where are our people?" Rage boiling in her throat.

Gabriel stutters, "I don't have anything to-"

"WHERE ARE OUR PEOPLE?!" She screams. Rick, grabbing her arm before she accidentally stabs his eye out.

Gabrial looks relieved, even grateful, the look falling away once Rick starts to speak.

"Why did you bring us here?" Rick takes over the interrogation, no knife necessary.

"I- um."

"You'll burn for this..." Rick quotes the markings outside.

"What will you burn for Gabriel?" He demands, grabbing the father by his collared throat, a small gasp coming from Gabriel's mouth as Rick begins to squeeze.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he roars, throwing the priest crashing to the floor.

The whole group is here, watching, scattered around the church as we wait for answers. Then Gabriel confesses, not to God, but to Rick Grimes.

"I always lock the doors at night," he whimpers, "They started coming... my congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before, and they were scared. They were- they were looking for a safe place, a place where they felt safe. And it was so early. It was so early. And, the doors were still locked. You see, it was my choice. There were so many of them, and they were trying to pry the shutters, and banging on the sidings... screaming at me. And so the dead came for them. Women, Children. Entire families, calling my name as they were torn apart. Begging me for mercy. Damning me to hell."

With those last few words, my mind backtracks to the small office. Wondering if that's why Gabriel said what he did before. Trying to share his guilt.

A really shitty priest.

As Gabriel still kneels before Rick, he starts sobbing and hugging himself, trying to hide his shame, a trick I know too well.

"I'm damned. I was damned before."

Sasha puts her knife away, shaking her head at him for being so pathetic.

Carl has moved beside me, holding Judith as she cries at the commotion.

"There's something-" Glenn mumbles.

We all turn to look at him.

"There's someone outside, lying in the grass!"

Desperate for answers, we all run for the door, leaving Carl with Judith and Gabriel. Both of them still crying.

I'm quick behind Sasha as she pulls open the wooden doors leading out. All of us drawing our guns as we step from the sanctum.

Beneath the window Glenn had been peering out, we find him in the grass and leaves, unconscious. His body mutilated. Bob... Alive... His leg...

"His l-leg..."

"Get him inside!"

"Is he dead?"

"Help me!" Sasha begs. Her voice the only one I hear through the tempest of panic.

I rush forward, grabbing Bob's still attached leg. The other is gone, a bandaged stump in its place. Sasha and Tara grab hold of his limp arms, and we lift him from the dry grass together.

Rick goes to kill a walker, but it falls to someone else's gunshot. We all look for the source, ringing out from the shadowy treeline.

"Get inside!" Rick yells to us, firing six rounds into the darkness.

With Bob's motionless body in our arms, we find our way inside the church. Rick follows, slamming the doors behind us.

Bob wakes up violently after we place him by the altar, his eyes widening at his stump, he doesn't look shocked, but his breathing is rapid as he looks around the church.

"It was that guy... Gareth." Bob's gasping is slowly coming to a steady pace as he winces in pain.

Rick was right. We should have finished it.

"They were eating my leg in front of me. Like it was nothing."

We should have killed them.

"All proud like they had it all figured out."

We needed to.

Carl's hand finds me in my thoughts, pulling me back to the room, saving me from drowning in it all.

"Did they have Daryl and Carol? They're missing too."

Shit. I didn't know that.

"Rick," I mumble. No one hears me.

"Gareth said they drove off," Bob tells them.

"Rick!" I get his attention this time. Desperate not to waste it. "Carol left while we ate. I told Daryl, and he went after her. I didn't know they were missing..."

Rick's nodding is becoming frantic.

"He's in pain. Do we have anything?" Sasha brings the tension back to Bob.

Rosita tells me to go and get the first aid kit from her bag. I don't hesitate, jumping to my feet.

"Save 'em." Bob grunts.

"No-"

"Really!"

Then he pulls back his shirt. The church sets alight, fire consuming us all. Nobody can speak. Just stare at the bite on his shoulder.


Everyone's sitting around, clueless about what to do next.

Bob's bitten. Gareth's group has eaten his leg, and now they're coming for the rest. I still can't believe it... They cut it off, put over a campfire, and fucking ate it.

The room can't handle all the thoughts I'm letting out.

Sasha and Tyreese move Bob into Gabriel's office when he offers his sofa to make Bob comfier. Sasha thanks him the best she can through her tears.

"You good?" Carl asks me.

I shake my head.

I can tell Carl wants to comfort me, but his sister's cries take him to put her in the basket by the altar. I stay standing in the middle of the aisle, feeling lightheaded and sick.

"Time for a reality check," Abraham steps forward from the back of the church. "We all need to leave for DC right now."

Rick interjects, "Daryl and Carol are gonna be back. We're not going anywhere without them."

Abraham nods, Rosita moving to stand beside him. "I respect that, but there's a clear threat here to Eugene. I need to extract his ass before things get any uglier. So if y'all won't come, good luck to you, we'll go our separate ways."

He heads for the door. Only stopping at Rick's words.

"You leavin' on foot?"

"We fixed that damn bus ourselves..." Abe turns very slowly to face us.

Rick squaring up to him, "There are a lot more of us."

I find myself stood between them, not out of choice but circumstance. I back up into a row of pews as to not get accidentally hit.

"Your people took off," Abraham growls, moving towards Rick.

Daryl wouldn't just leave us.

"They're coming back."

"To what?" Abraham yells, "Picked-over bones?!"

The two men get closer with each retort, Glenn managing to get between them out of choice, before punches are thrown, "Hey, hey, stop! Now!"

"Do you really think that you're gonna be any safer leaving right now in the middle of the night?" Glenn tries.

"Yeah," Abraham says, chest puffed out, "yeah."

Glenn tries again, "What about tomorrow? We need each other for this. To get to DC! We can get through all of it together!"

Tara steps past Rick, putting more between him and a bright-red-faced Abraham.

"I have an idea," she says, "I- if you stay just one more day and help, I'll go with you to DC no matter what."

She turns to the group, "Okay?"

"Glenn and Maggie, too," Abraham looks around. "And Rhys."

What?

"No!" Carl jumps forward, his father putting a hand on the shoulder.

Why me?

"No," Rick reiterates his son's words with a snarl.

"Good luck then," Abraham says to Rick, "I'm not interested in breaking up what you have here. Rosita, grab your gear."

"Abraham-" She tries.

"NOW," he barks at her. Turning to the quiet scientist, "Eugene, let's go. Move it."

I try looking to Rosita for help, but she snaps her eyes away guiltily.

Even Eugene tries. "I don't want to-"

"Now." Abraham's voice is dark and scares Eugene to his feet.

"Okay."

"Wait!" Glenn speaks up, looking devastated, "You stay and help us. Tara, Maggie, and I will go with you."

"No," Rick scolds again, more desperate this time.

"Rhys, too," Abraham's voice is low.

"You wanna bring a kid out there?" Rick barks, "A fifteen-year-old boy?"

"He's already out there! There is here," Abraham argues, "And he is more than capable of holding his own."

"It's fine," I step forward, head hung.

"No, it's not," Rick grabs my arm tightly, his pitch jumping.

"Not your call Rick," Glenn tells him.

Then he turns to me, "You sure this is okay?"

I look to Abraham, seeing his face twitch beneath his moustache, "You'll stay and help protect everyone if I go?"

"Half a day," Abe confirms.

"Then, it's okay."


Everyone disperses around the church, trying to avoid the gloom of the situation.

Before I know what's happening, Carl grabs my wrist firmly. Dragging me towards the restroom. I want to instinctively pull back, but something deep inside stops me, letting him pull me. He slams the door behind us.

"What the hell are you doing?" he yells, pushing me into the room.

"I'm sorry, I- I didn't have a choice, Carl," I feel small, with a pang of familiar obedience in my stomach.

"YOU COULD HAVE SAID NO!" he screams into my face, pulling back when he sees how badly I flinch.

"I couldn't have," I try, "I- just-"

"Why?" he cuts me off, his voice lowered, the rage in it still very much alive.

"Because if they leave, Gareth can come in here and kill us all."

"We can handle it."

"I don't want to risk that. Risk you, risk Judith. I can't."

"I can't lose you," Carl's words are a whisper, tears welling in his eyes. "Not again."

My stomach twists. It feels like my insides are trying to stop my words. Trying to catch them before they escape and do their damage, desperately trying to make me change my mind. Make me stay here with my family.

"I'm sorry... I don't want to go."

"Then don't," he pleads, taking my hands.

It feels like there's something Carl wants to say, something he needs to, but won't.

"What is it?" I ask him.

"Nothing," Carl looks away, his voice cracking.

"Did... did something happen?" I murmur, "After the Cavalcade? After we were separated?"

"What?" Carl mumbles, still looking away from me.

"Carl, I've noticed. Ever since we all found each other... something's been eating at you."

Carl doesn't say anything... he looks like he's going to be sick. His mind somewhere else.

"Carl..."

He snaps back to the room. "Nothing... nothing happened."

I can tell something's held back... but I know not to inquire... the same way he hasn't.

I step closer, pressing our foreheads together, his lighter hair tangling in my darker fringe.

"You know I have to, right?"

Tears stream down his cheeks, mine too, as he stares into my eyes, inches apart.

He finally nods into my head, making me nod with him as he lets out a sob.

"Once Daryl and Carol get back," he starts, still nodding both of our heads, "we'll come to DC. We'll catch up. We will."

"You better," I breathe.

"Jus' promise me one thing," he puts his arms over my shoulders, and it feels like we're dancing. Dancing the slowest dance to the saddest song.

He takes a deep breath of the musty church air before continuing, controlling his shaking voice. "Don't die." Despite his best efforts his speech catches in his throat.

"I promise," I tell him in a whisper only for him.

"Ever," he adds with a hiccup.

"Promise."


A/N

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