Aaron told us to explore, which Rick wanted us to do, to scope out the area or to see what the place was like. I was the one who wanted to scope out the area, so I took a perimeter around the inside of the walls.

On my walk, I realised that I hadn't seen any supports for the walls until I remembered seeing them on the outside when we pulled up to the community yesterday. Why were they on the outside? What good was that going to do? It might not be easy, but if that were the case they could be tampered with, broken down and we wouldn't be able to stop it. Watch might see it happening, but another obvious flaw with the tower is that it had blind spots directly behind the walls it wasn't adjacent to and there weren't places to watch anywhere else.

I avoided most people I saw around. Some women stopped and waved, but I just kept my distance and didn't necessarily wave back. If I were going to be a builder then I'd have to inspect the walls, see how they were built, and if there were any improvements (not that I was in the place to be making decisions when I couldn't keep the fences up at the prison.)

I made a loop of the community, which barely took any time at all. As I made it around to a point where I could see a pond in the middle, I passed Noah who was standing around by a gazebo. He waved and began to walk over to me—not the interaction I could avoid when he was in my group. Me and Noah had never spoken, so honestly, it was strange that he wanted something now.

"Hey, uh . . . Noah," he introduced as he got closer, a hand on his neck as I could see he immediately regretted his choice of words.

I frowned. "I know."

"I know, but we haven't done the introductions, I guess," he said. "Just felt weird seeing as I speak to Isaac so much."

He speaks to Isaac so much which means that he feels obligated to get to know me, or he speaks to Isaac so much and he's said that something is wrong between us (maybe he can just tell). Still, none of this meant that he had to try and get to know me. "And?"

"And nothing, I guess." Rightfully so. "Just seemed like you two were close."

Were, as in, not anymore. Again, none of this told me whether he could just tell that something was off or whether Isaac told him. As far as I could tell, I had been acting the same since he joined the group, so there was nothing different about my behaviour.

"Doesn't matter," I told him. There was no obligation because if there was then I'd just feel worse about not speaking to him all this time.

"I don't know, I feel like I never would have spoken to you if you weren't close," he said. Maybe that was one of the reasons because I thought they weren't so close. I had been so nonchalant about needing to speak to Noah, that I wasn't too keen on the people we brought into the group before him, maybe I just had low expectations. "And we're going on that run tomorrow, I guess I want you to know that I got your back."

I forgot that Noah said he would be on the run tomorrow. Who else was going? Me, Glenn, Noah, Tara and Martinez, I think. I guess it wasn't a run more than a patrol, which was what Deanna said. Still, it was something I worried about.

"You have to admit, it might've started getting a little awkward after a while," he said.

"This is awkward."

"Yeah, but this is just getting past it. Imagine how it would have been in a year when we're forced together into some run or something," he said.

That something was happening tomorrow, but while any future job and Noah might have been awkward, that didn't mean he still couldn't trust me to do the right thing. I get why he'd think that, why he'd be looking for confirmation, after the stuff he'd seen me do to members of my group.

"It wouldn't have been on you," I said after a while of silence. "It's my mood, my problem."

"Doesn't mean your feelings aren't valid," he said. "I know I was quiet after we went back to my place. My family. Tyreese."

God, it had been a little while since anyone said that name. All this moving around meant that I, at least, often lost the memory of the people we'd left behind. Whether consciously or not, I pushed what happened at Shirewilt aside.

There could have been something to it. I read once that in stressful situations, men will remember the details behind what happened while women tend to remember how they were feeling instead. Something to do with different areas of the brain being used between them.

"Is this what your place was like?" I asked.

"A little," he shrugged. "Everything's more . . . peaceful, here."

I could tell in his eyes that he felt the same way as me. "I don't like it either. It's not fair that this place has been standing here with nothing wrong when we—" I stopped myself because I was going to talk about what I had done. "I don't know. I'd kind of prefer that there turns out to be something wrong here, otherwise, it just feels like everything that happened, everything I did, was for nothing."

Noah nodded and continued. "I get it, things could have been better for us if they'd been here untouched."

I hummed.

I knew realistically that Alexandria was an anomaly, that it was strange that they were safe because we had dealt with so many bad people, who affected more groups than just us. The Governor killed the National Guard, Randall's group hurt so many more people than just us. Alexandria was the anomaly for having so little happen to them.

But the fact that there are people who had to do so little to survive, in comparison, at least, made me feel like shit.

"Gonna go look at the cars," I muttered, "see if anything's wrong with them."

"I thought—" he stopped himself. "I thought you didn't do that, anymore, I mean."

"Guess I do now."

He raised a brow. "Do you want to?"

"Doesn't matter as long as people let me do my job," I began to walk away.

The cars were down at the front of the community, and I passed a lot of people who I could tell wanted to come over and speak to me but kept their distance. At least that was the case, but in all honesty, everything felt better today. I was frustrated, sure, but not nearly as much as yesterday.

That was until I saw who was waiting for me down at the cars. Aaron stood up, a small metal lockbox in his hands, and began walking towards me. I rolled my eyes and walked past him towards the RV to take a look at the engine.

"I guessed you'd be down here today," His footsteps followed me to the RV. "Deanna asked me to give you these. We were keeping all the keys in storage, but seeing as people only use them for runs or recruiting. She thought it'd be better if you had them because you'll probably need them more. Though, if I were you I'd just keep them in storage anyway, save you the trouble of having everyone come to you when they want to use a car."

"They should be in the cars in case anything happens," I said, pointing at the ground near me so he'd just put the box down and leave. "Need to escape, no point in them being in storage."

Aaron placed the box down on the ground where I pointed. "Well, like I said, they're yours. I was just doing my job."

"Fine," I snapped.

He understood that time because, after a few seconds of just looking at me, he began to walk away. I checked the keys, opened the RV and then looked under the bonnet so I could check inside. Aaron got maybe five steps away before he turned back around.

"You know, I uh—" Aaron began again, and I groaned, leaning against the opening of the engine. "It's just, we didn't know you were a mechanic before we gave out the houses, so you don't have a garage. But if you want, you can use the one in my house. It saves you working out in the heat or the sun or whatever, and you know, if it rains," he said but began to slow down when he saw the bored look on my face. "I can tell you're thrilled about the idea."

I didn't move my head away, "I'll work here."

"Up to you," he shrugged. "The garage is full at the moment but as soon as I get it cleared out then the space is yours, whether you use it or not. Neither me or Eric know what to do there so it's always going to be there for you."

Great.

What I wanted was my office to be in the house of someone that I tried to shoot. We were that close that's why. Aaron didn't seem to notice this in my face, seeing as it was still resting on the RV. I pushed myself up before leaning further into the RV to look around.

"I am glad that you're trying," Aaron said.

(What I am trying is not to lose my shit because so many people can see if I blow up on you. I am trying not to show what I feel or the things that bother me because it will get me and my group kicked out of a place they want to be in.)

"Go away," I said slowly in a low voice.

Aaron nodded.

The RV probably had a lot wrong with it, but it didn't seem like there were any rooks or parts here for me to replace some of the stuff that looked like it needed replacing. As Aaron walked away I realised that I'd have to look at some of the parts I needed.

I made a list in my head that I would have to write down if I did want to replace some of these parts before looking through all of the cars. They were all empty, with no supplies, nothing there in case of emergencies. Another stupid decision.

I rolled my eyes, throwing the keys in the cars and making my way back towards the house. I was done exploring and if I wanted to make repairs then I'd have to snag some tools from Aaron's house. As I passed some of the houses, I heard someone calling after me.

"Hold on!" Carol yelled. I stopped and turned around to wait for her as she loudly called with a weird smile. "Are you in for later?"

I frowned. "What?"

"I was asking you to help me cook for us tonight, you could try to act like you want to spend time with the people in your group,"

"You haven't asked me shit," I said.

She nodded her head back to a group of women she had been talking to. "That's what they think, okay? Just play along."

"What kid wants to help cook?"

"Sophia used to like it," Carol said. "But she was just there to lick the bowl clean."

I clenched my teeth, turning my eyes away. Carol's smile had gone for a moment as she reminisced, telling me she dropped the act for that moment and I felt so terrible. I covered my eyes, shaking my head before letting out a long breath. "Sorry."

"It's fine," she promised.

The smile returned as she waved at a woman who walked past us when I realised exactly how many people Carol had introduced herself to in the short time that we'd been there. She was getting involved, making it seem like she wanted to be doing all of this. I knew better, but seeing how easily she switched roles was a little terrifying.

"This is probably better anyway, looking out for the troubled kid," I said, crossing my arms.

"They don't think you're troubled, not yet anyway," Carol said. "They're just jealous that you get to walk around in the kinds of clothes you wear without needing a bra. Although I did tell them all the work you do, and they decided the figure wasn't worth it."

I rolled my eyes. "The figure came from gymnastics and dance."

"You do not dance," she grinned in disbelief.

I pursed my lips and tilted my head in a half-shrug. "I used to do competitions and everything. I'd do a cartwheel if I were wearing a bra. Well, I wouldn't, but you get the point."

"You realise I'm telling everyone later," she said.

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes.

"About the people here, I'd recommend acting nice around them if I thought you could drop the attitude," she said. "It makes you invisible."

"I can't be invisible," I said. "I'm a foreign teenage girl who is a mechanic and builder who is going to be leaving the group with the run group. I'm a walking politically correct propaganda, women can do men's jobs and all that crap."

"Crap?" She tilted her head to the side.

"I've been doing men's jobs my entire life and broken zero barriers," I muttered. "I didn't even break the stigma in my group and I certainly don't have the patience or attitude to try doing it here."

Carol shrugged. "I'd say use that to your advantage, if you can't be invisible you can call out all of the shit people around here. Just try to keep a level head."

I shrugged. Didn't seem like something that was going to happen because I had been snapping at people for just trying to be nice to me. I was starting to annoy myself but I didn't see a way for it to stop, but for the most part, I couldn't stop myself from getting as angry as I had been.

As she walked with me halfway back to our house, I stopped. "Why did you want to talk to me so badly that you'd lie to them?"

"Just seeing what you found," she said, "didn't look happy."

I nodded in realisation, recalling all the things I'd seen. "They don't even keep the keys in the cars, or any emergency supplies or anything. The only stuff they had was what they'd take for recruits. It's so fucking stupid. They don't believe that anything is going to happen here and it makes them stupid."

"I've seen that too," she said. "You could always put that stuff there."

"Sure, Olivia is just going to let me take shit to keep in the car," I said. "I'd have to go through Deanna and put the idea with her but she's the worst. I haven't seen anyone as delusional about something lasting forever."

"Keep your head up," she smiled weirdly again, and I glanced around to see a woman smiling back at her as she walked past us. "I know it's hard

I watched the woman leave, waiting until she was gone completely before saying. "I know this is just an act but this is freaking me out."

Carol opened her arms with a big grin. "Come on, bring it in."

I scoffed and turned around. "See you later."

"Don't forget about dinner!" She called after me.

"It's not happening!" I yelled back.

As funny as that interaction was, I was done looking around the community. I was done when I saw Aaron, but still. Everything had seemed much easier until then, and I thought I could put up with people today who had been slowly feigning, and while I understood Carol's weird behaviour, it pushed me over the edge.

Daryl was sitting on the porch, not moved from the spot he was in when I left the house that morning. He'd been messing with an arrow, moving it around between his fingers when I walked up to him, and he glanced up. "Still here?"

He nodded. "Still here."

"Cool." I walked across the porch and sat down beside him. "I'm sick of exploring."

Carol made dinner that night with the help of Carl, not that she didn't tease me into getting me to help. I took my spot back against the wall I had claimed the night before as they began to bring bowls out for us to eat as everyone started talking about what they found.

Once we had almost all finished, I noticed Isaac excuse himself to go to the shower. He'd showered yesterday, but I guess he was happy to be able to do it as much as he wanted without any repercussions. They had clean hot water, and I didn't blame him for taking advantage of that.

"They had video games there," Carl said, forking down a spoonful of stew. "It was kind of strange."

"If that disappears in the night it's me and Ace," Glenn grinned, nudging my foot with his own.

I raised a brow and placed my empty bowl on the table in front of me. "Get Tomb Raider and we have a deal."

"Please, I'm getting Portal first," he scoffed.

"Then Ron's console is safe," I nodded in a fake seriousness, before smiling. (Wait—smiling? How long had it been since I'd done that? Oh, let's not open that can of worms.)

"Well, adorable little Ace couldn't be caught stealing around town when they love her so much," Carol was beaming away from the sofa. "Which I told her in length before I discovered that Ace did gymnastics and dance before this all ended."

Heads turned my way and there were beaming faces as they discovered something new about me. I rolled my eyes, standing up and grabbing my bowl to take out to the kitchen as Rick grinned at me and they yelled out to me from their seats.

"No way," Rosita refused with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, I'm on her side," Martinez agreed. "That doesn't have anything to do with engineering."

"Because I'm a one-trick pony?" I raised a brow as I came back into the living room, moving to take my seat on the ground again. "I had hobbies."

"You never mention any," Michonne added.

"Yeah, sorry. Next time we get attacked I'll go ballet on their arse," I scoffed, shaking my head but the smile never left. "I don't bring it up because it doesn't matter. After a while, we couldn't afford it anymore, so I stopped."

"Well, now you have to show us something." Tara exclaimed, "Do a handstand!"

"I'd have to change, but I could," I shrugged.

I tried thinking of some of the easy moves I had to do in dance, before getting an idea. I pushed myself forward and looked around to see whether I had enough room. I didn't, but there we go. Then I began to explain what I used to do.

"There was this move that if I ended up sitting on the ground during a dance, I used to, like . . . cartwheel backwards, I guess, to stand up. I used to go from a position like this, and I'd pull my legs up," I did it, bending my knees to my chest, and putting my arms behind me on the ground, "put my arms me, lift myself," I did so with one leg up, before lowering myself back to the ground with the leg still up, "and kind of push myself over."

I did it as I would have done back before, when I was in dance, and did like a cartwheel with one hand landing the leg that was up on the ground, but as my other leg came down, it buckled under me and I fell back on to the ground, landing on my ass. There were chuckles around me as they laughed at how I messed up.

"And . . . that was totally it," I said, feeling my face going red but slowly laughing along with them.

"Smooth," Glenn laughed.

"Well, like I said. I used to," I grinned."But, uh, that's how I'd stand up in the middle of a dance."

"You know, sometimes I feel like we don't know a thing about you," Michonne grinned.

"Yeah, what about your real name?" Abraham asked.

"It's Ace," Glenn said as though it was obvious.

I frowned. "No."

"What?" His eyebrows shot into his hairline.

"I went by Ace so much that it practically became my real name," I said. "But it isn't Ace."

The look on his face was on a similar level to the day he discovered that I was the person to fix Merle's bike, except instead of terror it was betrayal and I felt bad. I thought he knew, I thought everyone did. Hell, I was surprised Daryl didn't blab my name, seeing as he was the only person here who knew what it was.

"I didn't know that!" He exclaimed.

"Wasn't there a clue?" I tried to lighten up the situation. "I mean, who names their kid Ace?"

"Well, I assumed your parents did!"

"Well," I echoed, "that's not my fault."

Again, this isn't something I ever really mentioned unless anyone asked. When I met Glenn, I didn't know whether to tell him my real name or not, because I didn't know him. There was no real trace of me with the name Ace, so it seemed safe enough.

I hadn't been called my real name since my mother passed away, and at that point, all my friends and my dad's friends had been calling me Ace my entire life. The only one that called me by my real name was my mother. She was the one who took me to gymnastics and dance as I got a little older—part of me didn't want anyone to say it anymore.

But those memories weren't too sad as I watched Glenn slowly get embarrassed as he realised my real name wasn't Ace.

Isaac returned to everyone laughing our way, but he just moved through the room and settled on his makeshift bed.

I met up with the others who were ready to go on the run today, and we walked over to the armoury where we were told to meet up. I had a denim jacket over the yellow top and black shorts I had been wearing the day before, and my holster with my knife and axe ready. A man who must've been Aiden walked towards us with Nicholas and they had weapons ready for the run.

"Glenn, Tara, Noah, Martinez and Ace?" Aiden pointed at each one of us. "Nice to meet you. I'm Aiden, you met Nicholas on gate duty."

"You're Deanna's son?" Glenn asked.

"That's right, I hear you have experience making supply runs," he said.

"I saw your pantry," Glenn told them. "You guys seem to do pretty well."

I had some other opinions, not on the run group because I didn't know anything about what they did. Still, some other things desperately needed changing, like their nothing-can-touch-us attitude they had.

"I have some notes—" I began.

"She doesn't," Martinez cut me off. "Just saw the cars yesterday, some maintenance needed. Gets boring after a while."

"I bet," he smiled at me. "But for the runs, I had some training before this. ROTC. I was near Luitenant when this shit blew in."

"My dad did ROTC," Noah said.

"Did he make it?" Aiden asked.

Noah was quiet for a second but shook his head. "Nah."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry a lot these days," he said. "Come on, I'll show you the ropes."

"Were going on a run today?" Tara asked as he and Nicholas walked past.

Aiden stopped and turned back to look at us. "Just a dry run, show you the terrain outside the walls, see how you do. Weigh each other's sack a little, you know?"

"No, I don't, but cool," she said.

I rolled my eyes.

"What about weapons?" Glenn asked.

"Oh yeah, we pulled out some sweet ass biscuits for today," Aiden grinned and pulled out the guns.

He handed one to each member of the group, as I asked. "Is one of those my Beretta?"

Aiden held it up. "Do you need it?

"Yes," I said. "It's the only handgun I've used, heavier than most others."

"You should get used to using more, can't always be guaranteed that one," Aiden said as though it was obvious.

"Oh, gee. I never thought about that," I said sarcastically, pressing my hands to my face. This caused Martinez to tap the back of my leg with his foot. Still, I continued, "If we had time to train with new guns on the road, I'd have done it already. But today, I can be guaranteed my gun, and going on a run in an area I don't know is not the time to be changing weapons."

Aiden shrugged his shoulders and gave me my gun. "We can work on shooting others in the future."

"I doubt I'll be doing that with you," I mumbled quietly, rolling my eyes.

Once everyone had checked their weapons, Aiden straightened up. "Okay, are we ready to go?"

We left through the front gate and walked down the side of the community to get to where he was taking us. As we walked into the woods across the road from the community, when Aiden started explaining how the run group works. I rolled my eyes, letting him walk ahead.

"These people don't want you saying everything wrong with this place," Martinez said as Aiden walked out of earshot, "just keep your mouth shut for a while. Nobody's gonna listen, and it's just gonna piss you off."

I clenched my teeth. "These are the first people that seem like they can defend themselves apart from Aaron."

"Eric?" Martinez questioned.

I rolled my eyes, looking over at him. "Come on."

"I'm not saying you're wrong," he said, "just keep it to yourself for a while. Let them get to know you, trust you, and then you can start making changes around here without anyone questioning you. Besides, this guy seems like an ass, no need to be pissing him off yet."

Aiden was waiting as we walked into a clearing over some red sand. "We've been increasing our radius mile by mile, spreading in a semicircle around the town."

I think it was supposed to be how they handled patrols, but then I wondered why they wouldn't just work in a circle around the community. I don't know, something to add to my growing list of things Martinez wouldn't let me say.

"We've made it 55 miles so far," Nicholas said.

Aiden looked back over his shoulder as he continued. "We break into two groups when we step outside our vehicle, if shit hits, we fire a flare. One group gets the other."

"Good system," Noah said.

"It is," Aiden said.

I frowned. "How?"

Aiden stopped. "What do you mean how?"

Martinez nudged the back of my ribs with his elbow, and I bit my tongue. I shrugged, shaking my head and keeping my mouth shut. It was a bad system because the flare would draw every walker for miles around. Radios would be much better, and batteries were easy to come by for now. Flares should be extreme emergencies, which did happen, but shouldn't have been the whole system.

"Never mind," I mumbled.

He seemed to accept that as enough and moved on. "Still, you're standing here because we lost four people last month."

"What happened?" Glenn asked.

"We were on a run, roamers came out, they didn't follow the system." I couldn't believe that the system was good enough that he could blame four people's deaths on not following it. Nothing was perfect, especially not his special system.

"They were good people," Nicholas said.

"They were, they were just scared. Look, I can be a hard-ass, and I know I'm a douchebag, someone's gotta call the ball around here and that someone is me," Aiden turned around to face us. "If you're on this crew, you do exactly as I say."

"Do I have notes yet?" I whispered.

Martinez shook his head. "No, you can deal with someone else being in charge."

"Sorry you lost your people," Tara said.

"Yeah, we got ours," Aiden turned around and began walking away. "Managed to snag one of the deadheads that took them down. Strung it up there."

"What? Why?" Glenn exclaimed with surprise and a little anger.

"How about now?" I asked Martinez again.

"We're getting there," he muttered.

"Now we have a little pregame ritual, get our heads on straight," he said. "Remind us what we're up against."

"What are you, a child?" I snapped, ignoring everything that Martinez told me as his resolve was wearing thin. "Is your memory that fucking short?"

We came into the area where the walker should have been hung up, except it wasn't there. All that was left was a bloody chain that was dangling from a tree. What a fucking shock? Almost like keeping walkers is dangerous.

"Son of a bitch!" Aiden yelled. "Help me find it."

"Look at this shit. Blood's still wet, it's nearby," Nicholas let out a loud whistle that made all of us spin around.

Tara shushed him loudly and Glenn stomped over to him. "Hey, hey! It's gone."

"It took down one of our friends. It's nearby, we're not letting it go," Aiden argued.

"I have some notes," Martinez muttered beside me.

"Didn't you used to keep walker pits?" I raised a brow.

He turned to me, his eyes wide as if to say how-could-I-even-ask that? "Yeah, and I almost fucking died in one."

Nicholas whistled and began clapping his hands, and then the walker came out from around a nearby tree behind Aiden. Nicholas yelled out, getting its attention, so it walked past Aiden and towards him."Hey! Hey, over here. Come on. Come on."

Aiden grabbed the chain and went behind it, so he could grab its arms, so he could tie it back up. Noah pulled out his gun.

"No, don't touch it," Nicholas held up an arm.

"The rest of you, back off!" Nicholas yelled as he pulled the walker's arms behind its back.

"Oh fuck this," I rolled my eyes.

Still, as they were stupid enough to do any of this, Tara pulled out her knife and walked over to them, keeping her eyes on the walker. I didn't plan on getting involved in this and leaned back on a tree near Glenn. If they were stupid enough to get themselves killed then so be it.

As Aiden lost his grip on the arms the walker turned around and lunged at him instead, and he cringed as he pushed the walker back. It fell backwards into Tara who grabbed it, cursing the skin to rip off of its back. It turned and went for Tara, which was when I pushed myself away from the tree. Now this dick got my people in trouble.

Martinez ran forward and grabbed the walker with a hand under its chin, pulling its head away so it couldn't bite Tara. Glenn was the next person to step in, sprinting over to help Tara and Martinez by jamming a knife into the walker's skull.

"What the hell?!" Aiden yelled.

"Yeah, what the hell?" Tara panted.

"You almost got her killed!"

"I told you all to stay back!" He yelled. "I told you to listen to every damn thing I said. I told you that."

"You didn't even give us a damn explanation as to how the hell you run things around here!" I snapped, turning around. "You just expected us to be okay with this stupid, fucking, dangerous game because you're too damn childish to understand that walkers don't give a shit who they kill! You're trying to punish something that doesn't have the capability to learn or even care that it killed someone, which means that you put all of us in danger without a second fucking thought! No wonder your mother wanted people who've lived out there if you're this fucking stupid!"

"Shut the hell up!" He yelled immediately.

"Go fuck yourself you stupid fucking dick!" I stepped forward, pointing at him when an arm crossed in front of me and Glenn stopped me from getting any closer to him.

"That's enough," he said quietly, "leave it alone."

"Just let her at him," Tara said walking behind us.

"Come on," Martinez scoffed, nodding his head for the rest of us to follow. "Not risking my life for this piece of shit."

We were ahead of Aiden and Nicholas on the walk back to the group, all of us in silence. I knew this wasn't the end, Aiden was too pissed, but he was going to wait until he could make it a big scene. He didn't want us here, I could tell from how he told us that we only got this job because he lost four people or his reaction when I said I knew why his mother needed us in the group.

Someone opened the gate for us, leaving it open as I imagined some of the others were returning to Alexandria at the same time as us. Aiden was on our tails, though. "You five need new gigs. You're not ready for runs yet."

"Yeah, pretty sure you got that backwards," Glenn yelled back beside me.

"I have enough fucking gigs, keep your stupid fucking runs," I snapped over my shoulder.

"Hey, Hey," he ran after us and grabbed Glenn's shoulder, pulling him around so he was facing him. I turned around where Martinez was directly behind me, a keen eye on Aiden. My hand hovered over the top of my knife. "Look, we got a way of doing things around here."

"You tied up walkers!" He exclaimed.

"It killed our friend! Look, I'm not having this conversation," Aiden said. "You obey my orders out there."

"Then we're just as screwed as your last run crew," Glenn said.

The commotion was starting to bring in people around us who were watching them yell at each other. This couldn't end well for us if they saw us fighting with someone as important to this place as Aiden, but I couldn't bring myself to care about that at the time as he stepped forward, squaring up to Glenn as he said in a low voice.

"Say that again."

Tara tried stepping in. "No, back off, Aiden."

"Come on," he pushed Glenn back a step, but he just stood there.

"Come on, man," Noah said. "Just take a step back."

"Come on, tough guy," Aiden pushed him again.

"Put your hand on his again, see what happens," I stepped between them, pushing Aiden back a hand on his chest, but Glenn pushed me out of the way. Martinez placed a hand on my shoulder, pulling me a step back. I looked back and Martinez was shaking his head at me, telling me to let him deal with it.

"No one's impressed, man," Glenn whispered. "Walk away."

Deanna was yelling as she ran over. "Aiden! What is going on?"

"This guy's got a problem with the way we do things," he said, before looking back over his shoulder.

"And I have several," I angrily muttered under my breath, I assumed Martinez heard since he snickered before responding.

"Problems or notes?" It was quiet, only for me, but in all seriousness, I had to look down to keep myself from smiling and snorting at Aiden's ridiculous behaviour.

Aiden looked back over his shoulder to face Deanna. "Why did you let these people in?"

"Because we know what we're doing out there," Aiden swung at Glenn, who ducked under the punch.

"Aiden, no! That's enough!" Deanna yelled.

But it didn't matter, Glenn shoved his fist forward which landed directly into Aiden's face. As Nicholas ran towards us Daryl sprinted past us and tackled him to the ground before Martinez could even have stepped into the fight. It was one of the only reasons my knife wasn't already in my hand. I could see Rick running over from the gate with Carl behind him.

"I said, that is enough!" Deanna was still yelling.

"Whoa, whoa! Hey, hey, hey!" Rick grabbed Daryl by his shoulders and tried pulling him off of Nicholas. "Let's not do this now."

As Aiden went to push himself up, his movements harsh and angry, I reached for my knife, only managing to grip the handle before there was a hand on my wrist, stopping me. I looked down and back to Martinez who kept his hand there.

"Take a step back, don't make this any worse," he told me.

"I told him—"

"I know," he agreed. "Glenn handled it, step away."

Aiden had noticed the words between me and Martinez but didn't say anything as he tried to regain his composure. Martinez was right though, and I wasn't thinking. I don't even think I was capable of higher thought at that moment, but I needed to be, this situation was bad enough already and there was a chance Deanna would kick us out over this. Glenn had already punched her son and Daryl was choking out his friends, pulling out a knife wasn't going to help.

I dropped my hand from my weapon, and Martinez released my wrist.

Aiden pushed himself up, and he was glaring at me when Michonne stepped in his way. "You want to end up on your ass again?"

Aiden's face softened and he stepped back. "Cool, all right?"

Behind me, Rick was finally able to pull Daryl off of Nicholas who began coughing and ran behind Deanna. Daryl was still trying to get to him, but Rick held up a hand to keep him at bay, to stop him from rushing him again.

"I want everyone to hear me, okay?" Deanna began. Here it comes, I thought. "Rick and his people are part of this community now in all ways as equals. Understood?!"

She turned to Aiden who was beside her, but after a while, he just nodded. "Understood."

"All of you, turn in your weapons! Then you two come talk to me," he yelled out and looked between Aiden and Nicholas. As they began to leave, she turned to Rick. "I told you I had a job for you, I'd like you to be our constable. That's what you were. That's what you are," and then she turned to Michonne. "And you, too. Will you accept?"

"Okay," Rick said.

"Yeah, I'm in," Michonne agreed.

Deanna then turned to Glenn, who was watching them walk away, and she smiled at him, "Thank you."

"For what?" Glenn asked, confused.

"For knocking him on his ass."

I stayed sitting down the side of our house that night, facing the wall directly adjacent to our house. After everything, I just needed to be by myself for a little while, and clear my head. I was worried about my behaviour in the fight, that I needed a physical reminder to not kill one of the members of the community.

I needed to be smarter than this. While I had no care about staying here, for whatever reason, the others wanted this. Still, I didn't even think twice before reaching for a weapon in a situation that didn't need one.

Martinez rounded the corner, finding me sitting on the ground. "Hey, you alright?"

"Just wanted to be by myself for a while," I said.

"Want me to sit?" He asked.

"If you want," I nodded to the spot beside me.

He walked over to where I was sitting on the ground and lowered himself with a groan as he sat on the ground beside me. Martinez remained silent, though, as he too stared out at the scenic view of the large corrugated metal wall.

"I'm not out here to tell you what to do," he began quietly, "I know how hard things have been, but you can't be pulling a knife out in a fight. Not around here at least."

I scoffed, leaning my head back against the wall as my throat began to hurt. Of course, he wanted to talk about it, because what I did was so stupid and wrong, and it should have been more obvious to me than it was.

My hand came up and wiped the corner of my eye away from him. "You must think I'm completely fucking stupid."

"I don't think you're stupid, I know what you've been through," he said.

"They don't know that!" I exclaimed. "I almost whipped out a knife in the middle of a community that doesn't tolerate anyone carrying weapons inside the walls. And it was so easy, I didn't even fucking think about it, I didn't even fucking—I used to be smart."

Honestly, I didn't have to be smart to know that I shouldn't just be threatening to kill anyone that posed a small problem—at least it was small on the scale of what we'd been through. Maybe things would escalate with Aiden, maybe he would try and get us kicked out, and thank God Deanna didn't agree with him at this moment. But if I'd have hurt him, then maybe she would have changed her mind.

"If I get myself kicked out just let me fucking go," I finished.

"It's been a long couple of months, kid," he said. "If Eugene had done any of that shit to me I'd want him dead too. I'd be pissed. Hell, I was pissed that he did it to you, never mind any of the other shit he pulled."

"You stopped me from killing him," I reminded him.

"If I'd let you, you think I'd have been able to stop you from pulling that knife out today?" Martinez asked. "Not every situation needs it, and I'm not lecturing you for not being able to tell the difference anymore. We've spent so long with all these fucking psychopaths that we forget that an actual fight, having someone angry and threatening someone, is scary."

He was right. If someone had tried punching me or my dad before all this happened then I would have been shitting myself, but it wouldn't have required weaponry intervention before the end and in a community like this there was no need for it now.

"I don't blame you," he repeated. "I'm pissed for you, I'm pissed that they didn't grovel when you quit doing work for them. You've been a mediator, but things have been getting worse that it's just escalated. If I knew a way to help you, I would, kid—but I don't. Stopping you from doing stupid shit is the only way I can do that. Okay?"

I nodded, keeping my gaze forward.

"You good?" He leaned forward so he could look me in my eyes.

Again I nodded. "I'm just going to stay out here for a while."

"Okay," he said and pushed himself up. "I have your back, kid. Remember that."

"Yeah," I agreed quietly.

As Martinez left I thought about what he said in silence for a while, but I didn't have to, I already knew he was right. I needed to sort myself out, at least make myself walk away from situations that were going to make me angry if I couldn't control what I was going to do at that moment.

Things here were not as bad as things out there, so it needed a different technique to the way we'd dealt with some of the people we'd come across. I knew that, I was able to rationalise it but at the moment I couldn't follow through—it must've been what it was like to be in a guy's head.

I heard movement through the house, people coming out onto the porch. Daryl was out on the porch when I walked up the stairs, and I met Rick who was leaving the house. He turned to Daryl and asked, "We good?"

He was probably talking about how Rick pulled Daryl away from the fight because I doubted he was jealous that Rick was given a job when he wasn't. Carol walked outside as Daryl answered. "Yeah, you a cop again?"

Rick went quiet for a second, before answering. "I'm trying it on for size."

"So we're staying?" Carol asked.

"I think we can start sleeping in our own homes," Rick turned to her. "Settle in."

Carol didn't seem to like that answer, and honestly, after the day I had, I didn't either. "If we get comfortable here, we let our guard down—this place is gonna make us weak."

Rick turned away from her and began to walk to where I had lifted myself to sit on the railing. "Carl said that. But it's not gonna happen. We won't get weak, that's not in us anymore. We'll make it work. And if they can't make it . . ."

He went quiet, meeting my eyes, and I looked at him expectantly.

"Then we'll just take this place."

Why on earth was nobody prepared for that run? They could have just said before, this is what we do, this is why we capture walkers and they could have been told that they were wrong.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think :)