Chapter 68-A leader's choice

A week later

Beth's P.O.V

Beth woke up when she felt Tara move. She could tell that it was still dark as she turned her head and saw Tara leave the room with her gun in her hand. Beth gets up. Her curiosity peaked when she heard Tara going down the stairs. She moved to the window and saw Tara going to the back of Hilltop through the secret entrance at the back.

Beth stared at it, not getting any more sleep tonight.

Morning

Beth looks at Marco and Kenneth as they walk into her office. "Hey, Beth. Earl said you needed us." Marco smiled.

"Have we been missing any supplies?" Beth asks Marco and Kenneth bluntly, who stood there for a moment, then lowered their heads. "Talk."

"Tara took a truck a few days ago and said she was using it to build up backup supplies. Since then, we have lost some food." Kenneth says after a moment.

"Does anybody else know?"

"No, she told us to keep it quiet," Marco says.

"Keep doing that, and when Tara does come back, bring her in here," Beth says.

Kenneth looked at her, worried "uh, are we in trouble?"

"No, no, I promise, you were just following orders. Just tell me when Tara comes back, that's all."

The two boys nod as they leave the room.

Jesus's P.O.V

Jesus grabs Aaron's arm as he tries to punch him and kicks Aaron's foot knocking him on his back. He looks at Gracie, who smiles at him. "Daddy is getting his a** kicked," Jesus says with a grin.

"Language!" Aaron groaned from the ground.

"She can't understand me. Relax." Jesus teased with a grin as he helped Aaron up. He walks over to the porch and grabs a bottle of water. He throws it to Aaron and grabs his own.

"You missing, Hilltop yet?" Aaron asks.

"The people at Hilltop could fight," Jesus says as he sits down. He grabs Gracie as she walks over to him.

"I can fight. I'm sorry that I don't know karate like you and Morgan," Aaron says as he sits down beside him.

"It's not karate." Jesus says.

"Whatever." Aaron says.

"Just remember I beat Morgan." Jesus says, making Aaron laugh.

Maggie's P.O.V

Maggie walked into Beth's office and saw her sister staring at the wall in deep thought. "We still going to get lunch?" Maggie asks Beth, who jumps and looks at her.

"Yeah." Beth says.

"What's wrong?" Maggie asks her sister, worried, who sighs.

"Shut the door." Beth tells her sister, who looks at her confused before she shuts the door and sits down in front of Beth. "Al told you about the Oceanside runaway, right?"

"Right..." Maggie says, wondering what this was about.

"Well, I told Tara, and since then, she's been weird. Marco and Kenneth just told me that she took a truck and a little bit of supplies has gone missing." Beth says.

"You think she's helping Oceanside?" Maggie asks Beth, who nods. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." Beth rubbed her face. "I could put her in a cell for a night, but this is Tara. That will p*** her off more than anything. I'll talk to her when she gets back." After a moment, she looked at her big sister. "Do you think she's doing what's right?"

"The non-leader part of me says yes, but the leader part of me says no" At Beth's surprised looks, Maggie explained, "If she's caught by Rick, Daryl, Carol, Carl, anybody, she could get Hilltop kicked out of the alliance. We need this alliance." Maggie says to Beth.

"Kick us- they're our family." Beth looked truly worried.

"They might not have a choice. Being a leader means putting your people ahead of your personal feelings." Maggie said, biting her lip. Beth looked at her in sympathy, knowing that was why Maggie was forced down in the first place.

"You have to stop her before she is caught, Bethy." Maggie tells Beth, changing the subject, who nods as she stands up.

"Well, we have a few hours before she gets back." Beth says as she leaves. Maggie follows her.

Tara's P.O.V

Tara sat on the truck's hood and looked at Cyndie and Kathy as they came out of the woods. "Thank you, Tara," Cyndie says as she looks in the bed.

"I owed you a favor." Tara says as she climbs off the bed.

"Have you heard anything about Rachel?" Kathy asks her in worry.

"She's doing good, she's gaining the trust of everybody, and she's getting close with Charlie every day." Tara reassured them.

"And Maggie?"

"Great," Tara says flatly. "How are you guys doing?"

"Not great. Hopefully, this stuff will help us get to harvest season," Cyndie says to her. After a moment she looked back "No guns?"

"No, I gave you food and medicine. They do inventory on guns every day. If I take a gun, they'll know. I also wouldn't give you guns. I am taking enough of a risk giving you this stuff." Tara tells them. "I'll give you what I can when I can, but I'm not going to steal from my community for it."

"I know, but thank you for this," Cyndie says. "We'll get it unloaded."

Tara nods as she sits down.

Reilly's P.O.V

Reilly, Arat, and Carl stood on the roadside while waiting for Georgie. "Thanks for coming, Carl." Reilly says to Carl, who nods.

"No problem," Carl says as they see a car coming up to them and stop. Georgie comes out of the car and gives them a bright smile as two men get out after her.

"You must be Reilly, and you are Arat." Georgie says as she shakes their hands. "Hi, Carl. What are you doing here?"

"They were a little nervous, asked me to come," Carl tells Georgie, who nods.

"There is no need to be nervous. We are all on the same side." Georgie reassured them kindly. "Did Arthur make it okay?"

"Yeah, he's at Hilltop."

"Good, the poor man's been through alot." Georgie says with a smile, Carl reminding himself to ask next time about how she met the Wolf survivor. "Now, as you know, we trade with Alexandria, The Kingdom, Hilltop, and the Campgrounds. We would like to offer the same deal to the Saviors."

"Why did it take you so long to approach us?" Reilly asks her, clearly a bit suspicious at her open friendliness.

"Well, your people don't exactly have the best reputation. I was talking with the other leaders, Daryl and Rick said it was a good idea, and shortly after, Ezekiel and then finally Maggie followed," Georgie says. Reilly looks at Carl, confused. "What is it?"

"Maggie isn't the leader of Hilltop anymore. Her sister Beth is, and her friend Tara leads Hilltop." Arat tells her, clearly not sympathetic at all, not seeing Carl's annoyed look at her.

"Oh." Georgie looked at Arat, clearly surprised. "hmm, I may need to go to Hilltop soon, well regardless, Hilltop gave us the all-clear and the other communities that you were trustworthy, so I sent you a letter." Georgie tells him. "Now, the way this works is we will meet on this road and trade whatever is agreed upon during that meeting. Each of us will be allowed two people, and the meeting will be set up over radio," Georgie says. Reilly nods. Georgie smiles as she hands him a piece of paper. "That is the frequency you will find us at. We will talk tomorrow."

They watch as she climbs into her car and leaves. "She's...interesting." Arat says.

"Tell me about it," Carl says. "Come on, let's go." Carl says as he climbs into the car.

Al's P.O.V

Al sat in the back of the MRAP looking at a video she had taken of Hilltop when she first came. She turns off her camera when she sees Maggie walking up to her. Maggie climbs in and shuts the door. "hey?" Al says, seeing the look on Maggie's face.

"Did you know that Tara was helping Oceanside?" Maggie asks her quietly after looking around to see no one was

"Yeah, I helped her get some of the supplies." Al relents to her.

"Why, Al? Don't you know how risky that was?!" Maggie hisses to her.

"Because when I looked at Cass in that store, I didn't see a person, she didn't seem real, she wanted to die because of what they were going through there." Al defended. "when I told Tara about it, she said we needed to help them, and I agreed. I thought you would be on our side. Cyndie's your friend."

"Yes she is my Friend, but Daryl, Rick, Carol, their my Family." Maggie corrected. "Look I would be most of the time, but we need this alliance, Hilltop needs this alliance, Hershel needs it."

"Maggie-"

"Most of our metal now comes from Daryl or the warehouse which is run by the Alliance. I wish we could help them, but it isn't worth it if we caught. I know it's in your nature to help others, and I love you for that, but you can't help them without hurting more people. I was lucky enough to get out of the s*** I got into after the bridge. Do you know what kind of position we'd put them in if they found out? Daryl, and the others would be accused of 'playing favorites' if we kept getting off with slaps on the wrist. We'll all be in that s*** if we continue this." Maggie tells Al, who nods.

"Okay, I won't them anymore." Al says softly after a minute, looking down.

"Promise?" Maggie asks her.

"I promise," Al tells Maggie, who nods before she kisses Al.

Tara's P.O.V

Tara drove into Hilltop and climbed out of the truck. She looked at Kenneth and Marco as they walked up to her. "Hey, guys, what's up?" Tara asks them.

"Beth wants to talk to you," Marco says to Tara, who nods as she walks into Barrington house. She smiles as she steps into the office and shuts the door.

"So, why did you want to talk to me? Anything 'notworthy'?" She asked her girlfriend suggestively.

"Are you giving supplies to Oceanside?" Beth shut it down right away. Even though she knew the answer, she needed to hear it from Tara. The smile on Tara's face fell, her face going chalk white as she stared at Beth.

"Beth-"

"Answer the question." Beth growls as she stares back at Tara.

"I've given them one truck full." Tara admits after a gulp to calm her nerves.

"That's one truck full to many. Tara, what the f*** are you thinking?" Beth asks her. "Your putting Hilltop at risk."

"They shouldn't be in this situation in the first place, Beth." Tara said angrily "Arat killed Cyndie's kid brother, a kid Beth and they got punished for wanting revenge. They just wanted Maggie to get revenge on Negan for killing her husband, you know, your Brother in Law?" Beth's eyes remained unmoved "Arat gets to sleep in a warm bed with her boyfriend while they are starving. How is that fair?"

"First off, They didn't just go after Arat, they killed six people for that. The issue isn't that they wanted justice, it's that they went rogue and went behind the other communities backs." Beth explained steadily "they became vigilantes...if they had just open their mouths and talked about what happened at Hallowbrant to Rick, Daryl, and everyone else instead of going off on their own, things would have ended differently and they only lost one, one person, Tara. They got off light for it."

Tara protested "what about all the people at Hallowbrant? Kids?! Don't they deserve justice?!"

Beth said, leaning back in her chair "the Savior commander Simon was the one who ordered it and he's dead now."

Tara said bitterly "oh so they were just following orders, is that it?"

"Just like you were remember?" Beth shot back.

Tara's eyes went wide.

Not wanting to fight, Beth sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Look, I get it, they saved you, Cyndie saved it, but I can't let you endanger Hilltop like this. You are putting people at risk Tara, Maggie, Al, Hershel. We can be kicked out of the alliance because of this and put Daryl and the rest in a very difficult position, just like when the bridge exploded and Rick almost died cause Maggie went rogue herself. This ends now, or you got to pick, you stay here, and you cut off Oceanside completely, stay here with Maggie, Al, Hershel...me or you leave, and go to Oceanside. They dug their hole, and you can either join them in it or stay here, but I will not let you put Hilltop in that hole as well." Beth says firmly.

Tara stares at Beth, who just stared back, before she nods. "I'm staying here." Tara says to Beth, who nods.

"I'm sorry." Beth apologized.

Tara said bitterly "no Cyndie and the others are the ones we should apologize too."

Without another word, Tara turned and stormed off.

Beth's P.O.V

Beth sat in her chair with a glass of whiskey after Tara left. "I never took you for a heavy drinker," Maggie says as she comes in.

"I'm not, but I needed something to release some tension, and right now, my girlfriend is pissed at me, so whiskey it is," Beth says as she lifts the glass and takes a drink.

"You know you did the right thing for Hilltop, right?" Maggie asks Beth, who nods.

"I know, but I might lose Tara because of it." Beth says before taking another drink.

"You won't lose Tara. she'll come around, and she'll understand why you did what you did. Just give her a little bit." Maggie reassured Beth, who nods.

"Thanks, Maggie," Beth says to Maggie, who nods.

"Goodnight, Bethy," Maggie says as she leaves Beth alone.

Thanks for reading. This chapter was almost all Hilltop, that won't be the case next chapter, but I had a lot of fun with this chapter and growing these characters a little more. The next chapter will do the same but with different characters. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.