Chapter 98-Homecoming

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl was sitting in the infirmary with Alicia when the door opened, and Morgan came in. "Daryl, Carl's on the radio!" Morgan tells Daryl, who nods. He kissed Alicia before he followed Morgan out of the infirmary. He follows him to the big cabin and sees Rick in the radio room. Daryl sits down and grabs the radio. "Carl? Everything go ok?" Daryl asks.

"I'm still here," Carl says over the radio. "It's over. Joan's dead. Richmond is on our side."

"Who did we lose?" Daryl asks Carl.

"A few in the initial gunfight, but then we got hit by a herd and got trapped inside the apartment buildings. David was bit," Carl tells them.

"How did you deal with the herd?" Morgan asks him.

"We sent a group out before the fight. John, Negan, Beth, Tara, Clementine, and Alden. Negan drove a truck inside and blew it up."

"Is he alive?" Rick asks, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"Yeah, he's alive. His ankle is sprained, but he's alive. A lot more people would have died if he didn't do that. We will be at the campgrounds soon, and we can tell you everything. Ezekiel and Reilly are going to be going back to the Sanctuary and Kingdom. Are you okay with the residents of Hilltop staying there until we fix it?" Carl asks.

"Yeah, that's fine," Daryl tells them.

"What about Maggie?"

"She's fine with it. As long as she can see Hershel, she'll be good," Carl says. "We'll see you guys soon."

Negan's P.O.V.

The campground gate opens, and Shane drives the truck inside and stops it. "Home sweet home, finally," Negan says as he climbs out of the car. He watches as Rick and Michonne go up to Carl and hug him. Charlie runs up to Daryl and hugs him. Arya goes over to Enid and Carl and hugs them.

"You are one stupid son of a bitch!" Morgan chastised with relief as he goes up to Negan and hugs him.

"So Rick can blow himself up, but I can't?" Negan asks with a smirk.

"I think you both have a death wish," Morgan says. "We should go inside. Carl's telling everybody about the agreement."

"No, I already know about it. I gotta go see someone," Negan tells Morgan, who nods as Negan goes towards the infirmary using the crutches that Paul had given him. He slowly gets himself up the stairs and pushes the door open. He goes inside, goes over to the cot besides Alicia's bed, and sits down.

"You look like shit," Alicia grinned at him, looking at the crutches then back.

"So do you, least I'm in good company," Negan tells her as he puts the crutches against the wall.

"What happened?"

"I decided to play the hero and drove a truck that I was blowing up into a herd in Richmond. Jumped out before it blew up and fucked up my ankle." Negan tells her.

"So you pulled a Rick."

"Yes," Negan answers. "I even got his injury, lucky me. I'll be able to walk again, though. Just give it a few days," He saw her look, and rolled his eyes "Oh come on, it's not like I planned to die. I jumped out and everything!"

Staring as he layed down...Alicia then broke the silence. "You know you don't need to prove anything, right?"

"Laura said the same thing." Negan quietly told her, looking up at the ceiling from his cot.

"Negan, you're one of us. You are a part of this family regardless of what Maggie or anybody else has to say about it. We trust you, and even though he won't say cause my husband is a stubborn ass at times, Daryl does too. You've made up for what you've done." Alicia tells him softly as she lays her hand on his.

Negan kept looking then just asked "So you wanna tell me what has been going on here?"

She noticed he didn't agree with her, but she decided not to press it.

For Now.

Daryl's P.O.V.

Everybody stood inside the big cabin and listened to Carl, Jesus, and John. Daryl speaks after they are done. "I don't know if we have enough supplies left in the warehouse to fix both Richmond and Hilltop," Daryl tells them, his brow tight in worry..

"We don't," Daniel confirmed to the point. "We will need to find more if we want to repair both."

"I might know somewhere," Kate says. "Before we ran into Badger and you guys, me and Javi saw a construction site a couple of hours from here. Not far from Richmond. Only about two hours away. We couldn't stop there cause it was full of muertos, but by now they probably moved on."

"Can you find it on a map?" John asks Kate, who nods. John leaves the room and returns with a map that he sets down in front of Kate and hands her a pencil. Kate marks the town that it was in. "Lousia, a couple of hours from him but only about an hour from Richmond."

"We will send a group out there tomorrow and radio Javi. He can send some trucks to get the supplies," Jesus offers.

"You guys staying for the night?" Daryl asks Rick, who nods.

"We will head back to Alexandria tomorrow."

"Everybody from Hilltop is welcomed to stay here until we finish repairing Hilltop," Daryl says. "Tomorrow, we'll get what we can from the warehouse and start the repairs. Relax today. I think we all deserve a day of peace."

Rick's P.O.V

Rick walks up to Carl and sits down beside him as he watches Enid play with Arya and the other kids, all of them oblivious to the last few weeks. "You did good, son."

"I made mistakes Dad. People died."

"We all make mistakes, Carl. I've made my fair share. Not killing Andrew, telling Merle about the Governor's offer. Stashing that gun outside Alexandria, the outpost. A lot more, making mistakes is part of being a leader. Ask Daryl, Maggie, or Ezekiel. They have all made mistakes. You can't save everybody. I wish we could. I wish I could go back and kill Andrew and save your Mom and T-dog. Never even consider the Governor's offer. You learn from your mistakes, And you did a great job. Those people in Richmond are alive because of you. Because you didn't give up on them, you took the group back there, and because of that, you were able to kill the herd and save the people living there. I am so proud of you, Carl. More than you will ever know."

Carl looks at his Dad and smiles. "Thanks, Dad."

Rick nods as he lays his hand on Carl's shoulder, the father and son watching the future play altogether.

Clementine's P.O.V

Clementine looks at Daryl as she walks up to her and stops. "How's Alicia doing?" Clementine asks him.

"She should be fine. After a couple of weeks, she should be able to back out there if needed," Daryl tells her. "You feeling any better?"

"No." Clementine answers. "Badger's dead, but it didn't do anything. Kenny's still dead, and A.J. has lost another father."

"He still has you and Lilly and all of us," Daryl tells her softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know I'm not Kenny or even Lee, but if you ever need anybody to talk to. I'm here."

Clementine nods as she hugs him.

Rick's P.O.V

Rick sits by Negan on his porch after Carl had left to play with the children himself...all of them laughing as they ran in the distance.

"We should start a club. The Cripple Club. We can be the presidents." Negan says to break the silence with a smirk making Rick chuckle.

"Or presidents of the 'Dumbasses club." Rick snarked back.

"Hell that works too."

"Thank you...for what you did." Rick tells him after a moment.

"You or Daryl would do the same thing." Negan tells him. "Don't worry. I don't plan on dying anytime soon. I'll be here to annoy you for the rest of your life."

"Great, I think I would rather another herd come through."

"You love me, and you know it. I make your lives interesting."

"You're the reason my hair will go gray."

Negan turned to him with a grin, clearly enjoying the banter, but suddenly Rick saw his face fall and he stood up, turning and crutching away with haste.

Looking after him, Rick turned to what Negan was looking at and his own face fell soft as he saw that Hershel had run up to the porch beaming innocently "Grandpa, wanna play too!?"

Rick gave a smile and stood, grabbing his cane "Sure little man, I'll be right there."

Hershel grabbed his hand and led him away, looking to where the other man left "Who were you talking to Grandpa?"

For several long moments, Rick stared down at Hershel's curious face...then just said "Just a friend Hershel, nothing to worry about. Now let's head back to the others ok?"

Beaming, Hershel nodded, his young mind immediately forgetting the question and helped his Grandfather to the children.

Negan's P.O.V

That night Negan sat at one of the firepits by himself after everybody went to sleep. Negan just pushed the smoldering embers, unable to sleep, lost in thought.

"Hey."

Blinking, he looked and saw a form sitting on the log across from him, realizing it was Kate, who bundled herself up from the night cold.

"Fuck, what are you doing here?" Negan asked absently. "You head to Alexandria tomorrow?

Shrugging, Kate said, "Eh, still debating my options. Carl said I could look and see what fits for me. He's a strong young man."

Negan grinned. "Fuck, yeah, he is. He took a shot to the head and walked it off. He's probably outliving all of us."

Kate chuckled, then asked, "Couldn't sleep either?"

"Yeah...sorry about your husband."

Shaking her head, Kate said, "I...mourned him a long time ago. And we were having problems long before the Muertos started coming in. Probably why I didn't go to Richmond with Javi and Gabe. I probably wouldn't be able to stay there without thinking of him."

Negan quietly said, "At least you didn't burn your house down to forget them."

At this, Kate looked at him but didn't ask; instead, she said, "...Who were you talking about? When David talked about Joan betraying him, it looked like you understood."

For a long moment, Kate wondered if he was going to speak, then quietly, he started, "I had a friend once. I hate talking about him, but. he saved Laura and me. He helped kill the asshole who murdered her father...he helped me build up my old group; he was someone I thought I could trust. My friend his..." Negan sighed heavily. "His name was Simon. He ended up being a rabid dog who double-crossed me and tried to kill me, tried to pull a coup on me. I had to kill him."

Kate said softly. "We often have a blind spot for the people we care about."

"Should have done something, though." Negan gritted his teeth "it was him...he was the one who ordered Oceanside's men to be killed," Hearing that name, Kate's eye widened hearing about their leader Cyndie kidnapping Maggie. "I was also responsible. I was the one who assigned him there, to those people Anna-"

"Stop," Kate leaned in. "That was not your fault. In the end, Simon was the one who was crazy enough to do it. You're not a mind controller. You didn't force him to kill those groups. That was all his choice. Should you have taken care of him? Maybe, but what's done is done."

Taking a breath, Kate said. "Javi told me once that when your life falls apart like glass, you look at the broken pieces...find out the good pieces from the bad pieces ...he wasn't there for when his father died, he couldn't save his Mom, he couldn't save Mari, but now? What he's going to do for Richmond is important."

Negan smirked a bit as Kate finished, "And what you're doing here is important too." Sighing, she stood, "But right now, we won...now go and get some rest."

Kate turned and stopped. "Kate..."

She turned as Negan looked at her. "Thanks."

Smiling, she nodded back, hiding a faint blush under his handsome grin as she went back to her cabin, the night quiet once more.

Thanks for reading. The next chapter will start the rebuilding process of Hilltop and Richmond. The next few chapters will be just like the other ones in between Arcs. I like those, and they are a good time to build up charchters. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.