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SlumberingVoid — I always wanted to do a christmas themed episode when I started out, but imagine I won't get a spot for it at this point in the story. Real shame, but you never know. Fuck the Commonwealth, dude. I've got half a mind to let Carol break cannon and just burn the place to the ground. …I obviously won't do that, but it's still tempting.

-Now-

Mikey

-A few hours after his meeting with Rhys under the oak-

Red Polo got them home just before sundown. Mikey left his horse with one of the stablehands at the gate and headed straight for the Brownstone apartments. They had maybe changed the least over the years. He knocked on the door that used to be his.

Judith opened it.

"Hey, Mikey," she sighed, looking down at his muddy boots. "You've been somewhere?"

"Just a quick patrol," Mikey told her. "Why do you sound down in the dumps?"

"Mom's angry we brought those people back."

"Ah."

Judith rolled her eyes. "I know. And now she's all upset over nothing, and it's awkward."

Mikey chuckled at how worked up she was. "Your brother inside?"

She huffed and shrugged her shoulders. "Which one?"

"The bigger one."

"Then no," Judith hummed. "In the courtyard. They both are, actually."

"Thanks, Jude," Mikey said, waiting for her to close the door before he wandered around the side of the house and into the cobbled garden out back.

Carl was out here like Judith said he would be. Sat at the table doodling in an art book that looked old. The youngest Grimes, RJ, was sitting on Carl's lap. He had only just turned five last month but already seemed taken with Carl's art.

They looked so similar despite only being half brothers. RJ had the same pointed chin and sharp eyebrows as his older brother. They also seemed to share the same attentive stares — like everything was always interesting all of the time to them. They were both staring at the art book like that now.

"Why are you out here?" Mikey asked.

Carl cleared his throat, looking up from his drawing. "...It's a nice day."

Mikey realised at that moment that Michonne must be just as pissed with Carl for some reason or another, and he was hiding out here. He had rebandaged his eye.

Mikey pointed to it. "It was strange to see you with that off."

"Felt strange," Carl smirked.

"You know, on our last scouting mission... Aaron and I rode past that pirate exhibition at the Reston town hall again..."

Mikey looked hopeful.

Carl snickered at him, shaking his head. "Eyepatches don't sit right with me."

"But you'd look dope as heck," Mikey laughed.

"Don't think so, M."

Mikey blew air out his cheeks and laughed in his defeat.

"Hi, Mikey," RJ suddenly squeaked in a voice so feathery Mikey almost didn't hear him with his head pointed to his and Carl's knees. RJ had yet to inherit the Grimes family's confidence, still nervous around most everyone not living under the same roof as him.

"Hey, RJ," Mikey chirped, sitting when Carl gestured to the chair across the table from them. "How's the drawing going?"

RJ shrugged. "We're not drawing. We're editing."

"Oh," Mikey said, nodding wildly and full of enthusiasm but with no clue as to what that means.

"We were just going through some of my old sketchbooks..." Carl said. "RJ thought we should add a top hat to this one."

Mikey craned his neck and snorted at the illustration of Daryl Dixon sporting his waistcoat and now also a rather extravagant top hat.

"Oh, editing," Mikey said.

RJ and Carl both nodded at the same time.

"So," Mikey said, choosing to change the subject rather flawlessly after RJ went back to flicking through the sketchbook, "Aaron wants me to nudge you. With the new people."

Carl shook his head. "I already tried talking about it with Michonne."

Mikey tried to look just a little bit hopeful. "And?"

"I made the grave mistake of taking Judith's side."

Mikey sighed. "And now you're hiding out here?"

Carl nodded. "And now I'm hiding out here."

"Jude's not hiding," Mikey pointed out.

"Yeah, because she's the bravest Grimes," Carl laughed, suddenly attacking RJ's ribs with his fingers and making the boy howl with giggles.

"Will you take our side tomorrow, at least?"

Carl smirked knowingly. "Man, if you think that will matter..."

"It might."

"Michonne is pissed that you guys broke the rules. She'll get her way. She always gets her way."

Mikey slumped back in his chair, exhausted and defeated.

"You've been on patrol?" Carl asked then, leaning to look under the table.

"Erm, yeah," Mikey said, realising he really needed to start changing his boots around the Grimes siblings and their father's passed down detective vision. "Aaron wanted me to make sure we didn't leave any tracks on our way home."

"Michonne's not wrong, you know," Carl said, leaning back, arms supporting RJ around his middle when he wobbled off balance.

Mikey scratched a finger against his cheek, smiling weakly. "Nor are we."

The next morning was a blur for the residents of 101.

A blur of groggy showers, breakfast and getting Gracie ready for school.

A blur Mikey was sure the Grimes household was having, too.

But they all ended up in the same place.

Aaron sat beside Gabriel, who arrived earlier than anyone else to get the town hall ready for today's vote. Gabriel sat in the middle chair at the long table set up before a crowd of seats for an audience of Alexandrians — he had been the leader of the council for a few years now. On the other side of him sat Michonne, somehow stoic and impatient at the same time. Though Gabriel held the title, Michonne wielded a lot of the power that came with it. Mikey sat down quickly beside Aaron on Gabriel's other side, leaning forward to smile and wave down the table at Carl, then to Laura and Kyle past him on the far end of the long table.

"Mornin'," Siddiq sighed as he and Nora, the last two members of the council, sat down beside Mikey.

"Morning, guys," Aaron said over Mikey's shoulder, to which they both responded with the same friendly yet hopeless smiles.

The town hall slowly filled with spectators that bustled in with chatter of the new arrivals. Siddiq asked about Mikey's morning, to which he responded with half his attention — the other half watching Michonne's chiselled expression and Carl's gaze that seemed to be focused on Judith in the front row.

When everyone found their seats, the unknowns were brought to stand before them. Before the council.

Gabriel opened.

"As you can probably tell from our turnout here, it's been a long time since we've seen new faces inside these walls. We're a fair community of decent-minded people... but we are not soft. And that's not going to change today. So let's begin. Which one of you is the leader?"

They all seemed to look to Magna, who rolled her eyes before answering Gabriel.

"What makes you think we have one?"

Gabriel didn't answer that, opting for a different question, having his answer for the last already.

"Did you know each other before?"

Luke answered that one.

"No... it was, uh, Magna and then Yumiko first, and then, um, Connie and Kelly, and then— then me, and then Bernie."

Everyone waited patiently, knowingly, as Luke's voice started to break, and he took a breath to calm himself.

"Sorry," he huffed. "Bernie was the one that we lost yesterday. Umm... there were others, of course. But like Bernie, they just..."

He did start to cry then. Kelly, too.

"They didn't... they didn't make it."

"Who were you before?" Mikey asked.

"Me?" Luke gasped, almost laughing at the question. "Before all this?"

Mikey nodded.

"Why?" Magna chimed in. "Why does that matter?"

The crowd was quiet, leaning in almost for an answer maybe they wondered for also.

"Siddiq here," Mikey said after a moment of thought, gesturing to the man beside him. "He was a resident, and now he's our doctor." Then he pointed to a woman with short blonde hair in the front row who smiled at him. "Lucy was a plumber before, and now she's the reason our water can still run hot after a long day— her husband Tim worked as a contractor for years and is why you see so many new houses in here." Mikey leaned back in his seat, smiling at Magna and her people. "My dad put up those walls that keep us safe, just like how he used to design buildings for companies around the world. And my mom worked hard to ensure everyone we let inside our walls would help us, make us stronger."

Connie signed something that Kelly translated.

"What did your mom do before?"

"She was a politician... and a darn good poker player."

A few people in the crowd chuckled, as did Connie and Luke. Kelly was nodding. Magna's face was tough.

Mikey leaned forward. "Who my parents were before mattered. Who Siddiq, Lucy, and Tim were before... it mattered quite a bit. Everyone at this table and in this room."

"I was a music teacher," Luke said then, nodding and smiling at Mikey. "A music teacher."

Mikey smiled back.

"Waited tables at a truck stop," Magna said, looking forward, over the heads of the council.

Connie look directly at Mikey when she answered. Her hands moved quickly and decisively.

Everyone waited for Kelly to translate, which she did after rolling her eyes at Connie.

"She says she was a journalist, but she's just being modest. She exposed a bunch of sleazeball politicians and put them behind bars."

Mikey nodded. "What about you?"

"I was in high school," Kelly said, shrugging at him like it didn't matter. "Stressing about stupid shit that felt like the end of the world."

"And who are you now?" Gabriel asked them.

"A fighter," Magna told him.

Kelly laughed at Connie's answer. "She says she's my guardian angel, but, really, it's the other way around."

"I guess I'm still a music teacher," Luke mumbled, frowning at his answer. "Um, education never ends... not even in the face of monsters and mayhem."

"What did you do to survive?" Gabriel questioned them again.

They were quiet until Magna made her first eye contact with Gabriel and answered him. "What I had to... anything I had to."

Kelly smiles at Connie's answer. "My sister says she never gave up. But me? I grew up."

Luke almost looks confused by the question. And neither Mikey nor the rest of the council were surprised.

"I don't— I don't— I— I don't think I did anything special. I don't know what I did to deserve it. At first, I was just lucky. I was in the right place at the right time. And then, uh, I met the right people..."

He chuckled nervously at his group.

"H-here's the thing, is that... it's funny but, before all this, if you saw us all sittin' at the same table at like a restaurant, a bar, or something... you'd say to yourself, 'well, hey, I don't know maybe these people work together?' ...because we certainly don't have anything in common. Except for the fact that we're breathing. And that's a lot nowadays, right?"

Luke looked worried, like his answer had gone on too long or the rest hadn't spoken long enough.

But then Aaron smiled at him. "Thank you. If that's everything, I'd like to motion for a vote."

"I have a question," Michonne suddenly interjected, sucking the air from the room in the same breath.

Gabriel nodded. "The chair recognises our fellow councilperson and head of security."

Michonne stood up, and the rest suddenly felt like it might be history.

"As a community... we want to be kind. We want to be... generous. We want to be charitable. But, as we know, decisions like the one we are about to make can come with a heavy price."

Mikey knew those decisions; he knew the scars they left. He knew that only three people in the world bared those scars like the rest of them didn't have to.

That's why no one spoke against her.

Why no one argued as she walked around the table to continue speaking.

She went straight to Magna.

"Can you show me your left hand?"

"Michonne, what are you doing?" Aaron tried.

Michonne grabbed Magna's hand when she didn't comply, pulling it out from the pocket it had been hiding in and unwrapping the black cloth tied around her palm. She stared at something on it the rest couldn't see.

"You get that at a truck stop?"

"Screw you," Magna whispered.

Aaron walked around to stand beside Michonne. "What is it?"

"You wanna tell him?" she asked Magna, but she stayed quiet.

Aaron sighed. "Michonne, if you have something to say, then just—"

"It's a prison tattoo," Michonne barked to the crowd letting the gasps and whispers spread like a wildfire lit from her sparks. "The four dots are the walls. The one in the middle is you... the prisoner. Hard time."

Mikey stood up. "Just because she was a prisoner doesn't mean anything..."

Michonne grimaced at him.

"I can explain," Magna told them quickly.

"Oh," Michonne gasped, "so you want to tell the truth?"

"Yes."

"And you have nothing to hide?"

"Nothing."

"Put the knife on the table."

People watched in awe as Magna slowly unbuckled her belt and slid off a knife hidden in the clasp. She tossed it on the table.

"You know..." Michonne announced to the room. "Carl and I... we had a falling out yesterday. He asked me if I had noticed the knife she lied about having... I told him yes. He said he thought we should give these people a chance to be honest with us after we saved them."

She shook her head, looking at him across the table. "There's your chance."

Carl didn't say anything.

"I remember!" Michonne told the crowd. "And I know that you do, too. So go ahead, take your vote... I second the motion."

She stormed to the door.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Magna yelled.

"No."

So they took their vote.

And the newcomers were banished.

Mikey made his way outside after the newcomers were escorted out and most everyone else had left. He was surprised to see Carl talking with Magna and her group just outside, hearing the end of their conversation.

"And why couldn't you just ask us that in there?"

"A few reasons," Carl answered Kelly. "It's just better if I ask these three questions outside of council meetings."

"Will this change anything?" Luke asked.

"You shouldn't have lied," Carl responded coldly. "And the vote is final."

Mikey walked up to Carl after DJ had taken the newcomers away.

"What was that?" Mikey asked.

Carl just patted his shoulder before leaving. "Sorry about the vote."

Mikey jumped when someone poked him in the back intrusively hard. He jumped, spinning around.

"Boo," Rosita said calmly.

"Ow," Mikey replied, rubbing his back.

"Don't be such a wimp," she laughed.

Mikey frowned at her, and she look sorry.

"Shame about the vote," Rosita said.

"They're good people," he told her.

She nodded. "Gabriel thinks so, too."

Mikey looked at the radio parts she was holding.

"Eugene and I," she said, "we're gonna set up a remote amplifier to boost our radio range for Gabriel."

"Well, that's in flagrant and direct disregard for the security protocols."

"I think Gabe's in a fuck Michonne's rules kind of mood after today."

"I feel that."

Rosita bumped his arm. "Want in on it?"

"Pretty sure the Grimes family are already onto me sneaking out earlier, so I best stay under their radar for now."

Rosita looked puzzled. "You snuck out earlier?"

Mikey laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. "Forget I said that."

She squinted him down. "Is this that secret lover of yours? The one you're trading notes with?"

"Lord, no," Mikey hissed. "There is no secret lover."

Rosita hmmed at him. "Don't think I've forgotten about training today. I'll see you when I get back."

A/N

I thought it would be nice for us to see Alexandria and how well our two boys that still live there are doing for themselves. I didn't want to skip over seeing Carl interacting with Jude and RJ either.

Also, I've been slowly making my way through the Dead City spinoff (only on episode 5, so no spoilers please!) and I'm genuinely really enjoying it. I'm not sure why, but it's been so much better then the latest season of Fear TWD has been thus far imo.

Thanks for reading :)