Everyone was still working hard on the improvements Maggie wanted. People were constantly on watch, day and night, in six-hour increments. Ace would have done the same thing if she hadn't been on top of the improvements around the community, like helping Tobin put spiked cars outside and stabilising the watch towers.

Even now, she had met up with Maggie, Glenn and Michonne to start arming the watch towers with more bullets and guns in case of attack from any direction. They were out early for that, it was just one of the many things she had to do that day.

Michonne had woken her up to remind her to help because Ace would have happily slept in that morning if it wasn't for the incessant knocking. It was weird. Michonne had always lived with them, but she was staying with Rick now. Hearing them talking through the ground sometimes made it feel like they were a real family.

As they were talking, the sound of Daryl's motorbike rang out over the silence, which made Ace wince as she looked back to the front of Alexandria. That sound could bring walkers and people if they were close enough to hear it. There were already people trying to find this place.

"Where are you going?" Rosita's yell caught their attention.

Daryl, who had pushed his bike to the gate, was now rolling it open to leave. "Out."

"No, shit," Abraham said from the watch post. "You got specifics?"

"What the hell is he doing?" Glenn asked.

"Something he shouldn't." Michonne began walking to the three of them, but it was too late.

"We gotta stop him," Glenn told Maggie and followed Michonne to one of the trucks.

Ace glanced at Maggie but chased after them, fully intending to join them. She knew she shouldn't, not with the group preparing for an attack, but they had to ensure everyone was safe. Glenn realised she was following and turned to tell her to stay in Alexandria.

"Glenn," she called.

"Stay here, we need people here in case, alright?" Glenn said, but Ace wasn't convinced as she stared at him. He sighed, turning back around to pull her into a quick hug and kiss on the head. "I love you. We'll be back soon."

Ace clenched her teeth but stepped back to let him get in the truck. Michonne got in the other side, closing the door behind her. The engine started, and just as they were about to drive through the gate, Abraham ran in front of the truck to stop them.

"Whoa! Make room for my freckled ass."

"No," Rosita snapped. "Cover my watch. You stay."

"Hey, we should keep numbers here," Glenn said.

"I know where Daryl's going," she argued.

Maggie stood beside Ace as they started driving away. Abraham closed the gate in front of them, saying there was no need to worry and they would catch up to Daryl in two shakes of a lamb's nut or something. Ace wasn't listening.

"Come on, we still have work to do." She led Ace back over bins with guns inside. "Let's just get the guns out, then I'll take over watch for Rosita."

"I can take watch." Ace was quick to do the math of how bleak their chances at a successful watch were with the number of people who left. "After we put the guns at the towers, I was going to move my stuff to Aaron's garage so it's out of the way and we don't have random bombs and tools lying around when people break in, but I can wait for something like that. It's not that important."

"No, we'll put the guns in place, then you do that," Maggie said. "I'll grab some lunch and cover watch."

"Are you sure? I can ask Isaac to move my things," she offered.

"No, this won't take long, and I should only be covering watch for a few hours," she said. "I'll give Martinez some time to rest up, and then he can take over."

Ace nodded. "Alright, let's get this done."

She took one of the bins of guns and wheeled it behind her to the watchtowers alongside the wall, where they would be kept armed in case of attack.

When Ace returned to the front of the community with the last of the guns, she saw Morgan in conversation with Sasha and Abraham. She frowned. Hadn't Sasha switched watches with Abraham in the morning?

"Carol's MIA," Abraham said.

"What? When?" Ace straightened up. "She go after Daryl or something?"

More so, why was everyone leaving? Her chest tightened as she thought about all the dangers the group had encountered in the last month. It wasn't safe for anyone to be out there anymore. It had been a while since Ace had felt so scared to lose people.

"No, she left a note and got out this morning," Morgan said.

"I don't see how," Sasha was shaking her head. "I was up here since midnight, and I always had my eye out there, even when I was helping Isaac with the rifles and scopes. He left at two."

"We'll find her," Martinez said, trying to make them feel better. "She's tough, can handle herself. She'll be just fine when we catch up to her, alright? No need panicking until we know something is wrong."

Ace straightened up when she saw Rick marching over with Tobin trying to keep up with him.

Sasha noticed the chance and turned to look at him. "Rick, I took over at 12, I was on till six. I never saw anything."

"Front's been quiet since the others left," Abraham said.

Rick frowned. "What? Who?"

"Daryl. He went ICBM after the Saviors from yesterday," he explained, now realising that Rick didn't know about that yet. "Glenn, Michonne, Rosita, they all went to shut that shit down."

"Where's the other car?" Tobin got everyone's attention as he walked over to the gate, with the cloth rolled to the side to see the outside. "We added two more cars yesterday. One of them's missing, the one we put right between those houses."

"You can barely see between the houses from up top, especially at night," Abraham said and turned to Rick.

"The note, can I see it?" Morgan asked.

"You never saw any headlights, taillights?" Rick asked the people on watch. "She's smart enough to cover her tracks."

"She must've left during the shift change," was the only sensible answer Sasha could give. How did no one hear a car leaving? Ace doubted Carol was able to push it out of earshot, so she must have left at the break of dawn.

Morgan turned and started walking back into camp where the cars were. "Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go find her."

"Wait!" He yelled after him, waiting for Morgan to stop. Rick turned to Ace, "Tell Carl I'll be back soon. No one else leaves; everyone else stays ready for a fight."

"No problem," Ace agreed.

Rick chased after Morgan, and the rest of the group stood there quietly for a moment. Did this change much for them? Nobody could do anything about the disappearances, and they had already been waiting for a fight from the Saviours anyway. It put more work on a lot of people who needed rest, which was unfair and something Ace intended to lecture her family on.

But were these cries for help? That was the reason Ace didn't know how to feel because if they were struggling with everything that happened, then it was more understandable—understandable, not reasonable.

"Need help on watch?" Martinez asked after a moment.

"No, everyone who was on last night still needs rest," Ace said. "Maggie said she was going to take the gate for a few hours to give you a chance, so just take the time to get some sleep. I'll take over if the rest of them aren't back by the night."

"Yes, ma'am," Abraham said.

"If anyone needs me I'll be moving shit at Aaron's," she continued. "I'll have my walkie."

Then, she turned to finish the work she had intended.

Isaac didn't hear as Maggie entered the house, reading from the textbook with the headphones over his ears listening to the same cheesy music Aaron had given him. He still hadn't returned it yet and hadn't seen Aaron to be able to give it back to him.

If he'd thought about it, he could have given it to Ace the night before because she had planned to see Aaron that day. She complained that Aaron would be on her case the entire time, offering her food or drinks and making the garage her space so she would feel more welcome there.

It slipped his mind after he tired himself out asking Sasha to help with his shooting.

And now, while he had some downtime away from Maggie, he was studying, not needing to plan reinforcements or contingency plans as he had for the last few days. He grabbed his textbooks and got to work.

But even with Maggie gone, she didn't make the job seem that big when she and Glenn left that morning. He was expecting them back sooner than when Maggie returned to the house with a jar of pickles from storage.

"Hey, what took so long?" Isaac asked, pushing an earphone back.

"Some of the others left, so it took longer than I thought," Maggie said, sitting on the sofa behind where he was leaning forward.

Isaac perked up, his gaze shooting back over his shoulder. This was news to him. "Who left? Nobody was supposed to leave?"

"Carol ran away in the middle of the night, and Rick and Morgan went after her. And Daryl left not long ago; Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita went after him. I was going to take over watch for the people who went after the others," Maggie explained.

She only knew about Carol because she passed Morgan, who was on his way to tell the people at the gate.

"Well, I can do that," Isaac said. "I can do watch."

Maggie waved a hand in dismissal, struggling to open a jar of pickles. "Enid offered. She's on it."

"Really?" Isaac raised a brow as he leant back to take the jar from her, twisting it open with a pop so she could have her snack. Maggie smiled as she took the jar back, taking one out to eat.

"Yeah, she's been helpful lately. Wanting to be helpful, at least," Maggie said, wiping a hand down her chin. Isaac had to look away then. "Either way, it gives me a chance to rest up here. I can keep you company while you do what you're doing."

"I'm just studying," Isaac said. "Trying to, at least."

"Don't forget to take a break."

He rolled his eyes at the overprotection, although he just had to open the jar of pickles for her. "It's not exactly physical."

"You won't learn anythin' if you work yourself too hard."

"I haven't long started," he promised. "I was up late last night and spent the morning training, doing some stuff Michonne taught me."

"Good," she squeezed his shoulder before going back in for another pickle.

Isaac leaned forward again to practise drawing in the way the book had been teaching him as he thought about the people who had run off. He thought about the people who were down there when it happened, and if Glenn and Michonne left, then that meant Ace was still there, right?

"Is Ace still moving her things to Aaron's place today?" Isaac asked.

"Yeah, she offered to take watch, but I'll feel better if she's inside workin' when Winter comes," Maggie said. "She's probably still there if you want to head over."

"No, I actually want to do some of this." Isaac tapped his pencil on the book to clarify what he meant. "There hasn't been much chance with the Saviours around. I just wanted to know what she was doing, is all."

"Probably having a lot less fun than us," Maggie said, offering Isaac a pickle from the jar, knowing he'd probably not reach inside to grab one from the liquid himself.

He accepted her offering. "You bet."

Isaac went back to work, eating the fruit before he attempted touching the pristine pages of the books he was using. It was a nice change from the typical war and reinforcement planning, just getting to sit down and practise drawing.

Behind him, Maggie grabbed a hand mirror and looked at her reflection for a little while in the moment of silence. He paid her no mind, going back to what he was doing, hoping to learn something before his time was up.

"I want to cut my hair," Maggie said out of nowhere. "Short."

Isaac was nodding in agreement, but he didn't know where her desire came from. Ace had to cut her hair short. Did it have something to do with that? He glanced back over his shoulder to look at her, gauging her length now. "How come?"

"Things are changing, I don't want to get left behind."

He understood despite her vague answer. Maggie would be going through a lot: becoming more of a leading figure, becoming a mother. Having longer hair could hold people back and be more trouble than it's worth in dangerous situations. If someone grabbed her hair in a fight, she wouldn't be the only one in danger.

"Are you going to ask Rosita?" She was the one that cut Ace's hair, and Ace had less manageable texture.

"Enid, I think," Maggie said, looking in the mirror. "Give us a chance to get to know her a little better."

Isaac didn't know a lot about Enid, only what he'd seen with his own eyes and talked about with Carl. They had been sneaking out less, he noticed. He wasn't sure Enid left the walls since they met Hilltop. She was trying to help more, be better than the scared kid who kept running away, to be more like the person who helped save him and Maggie for Glenn.

"Good idea," he agreed.

Ace sighed as she stood outside Aaron's house with some of her tools, ready to move into his garage. She had been with Isaac the day before, telling him exactly what would happen after Aaron had offered to help her move her things. She listed off the scenes telling him that Aaron would say how glad he was that she decided to use his garage, saying that it's her space because they don't know how to use it. He'd give them more work by offering that they move a sofa or something and keep offering drinks.

"Play bingo," were Isaac's encouraging words.

So that was her plan, just to make the day go quicker. She finally made herself step forward and knocked on the front door, leaning down to grab one of the two toolkits she'd brought from the front gate, waiting for Aaron to answer.

"Hey, I didn't know if you were coming," he said.

"Yeah, some people left the walls, and then we had less to help put the guns out," Ace explained on the porch.

Aaron cocked a brow. "Who left?"

"Daryl ran off this morning, and Carol left last night or something," she explained to the best of her memory. "Not related at all. Michonne, Glenn and Rosita went after Daryl when he left and Rick left with Morgan to see if they could catch up to Carol."

"Jesus, that's weird . . . especially now with all the threats in the area," he murmured, his eyes looking past her and down the street.

Ace nodded her head, her arm beginning to ache from holding the tool kit. "I think they're just struggling with what happened lately, the warehouse and Denise. It was a lot."

"Yeah, I guess so," Aaron agreed.

He noticed her struggle with the toolbox, leaning down to take it from her hand so she could carry the lighter one as he nodded his head for her to follow him into the house. She took the other box and traced his steps.

"I've made a start already," Aaron called back as she followed him. "Cleaned out everything that isn't a tool or mechanical to the living room for now so you can fit in everything you need."

"You didn't have to," Ace told him, knowing that she was just saying it to be polite. She was glad not to have started by carrying all the boxes of clutter out.

"Eric made me. He wanted to give you some room to work, so I have to put it all in the attic or something," he shrugged. "We'll find somewhere."

"Yeah, well if you need the help . . ." Ace trailed off her offering.

Aaron understood. "I will let you know."

He moved to open the garage door to make it easier to move Ace's things inside, and Ace dumped her toolbox down on the study's wooden workbench. It was well made, expensive if someone had bought it before. Her dad would have wanted one like this.

"Daryl used most of the bike parts that were left here when we gave him that old motorcycle." Aaron reminded her that Daryl was gone, using that very bike to run away. "There's still some stuff left over, but I don't know what they do, so if they're no good, then you should decide."

She nodded—probably for the best.

Any part was useful. If she couldn't use something for its intended purpose, they may be able to scavenge the bolts or other pieces from it until it became scrap metal. Even scrap was more useful to Ace now with the growing need for wartime appliances.

"Is the rest of your stuff down at the front?"

"Yeah, we can probably bring it all up here in one of the trucks, though," Ace admitted, now realising she should have just done that to begin with.

"Come on, we'll be done quicker than expected."

They spent the next thirty minutes or so moving Ace's things at the front wall into one of the cars that was still left there after everyone had gone outside the walls to make the job easier. There wasn't much there anyway, more so some heavy parts that she'd been harvesting when they moved all those cars to lead the curb away.

"Last thing." Aaron grabbed her yellow bag from the ground, and she winced as he went to throw it inside.

"Watch that bag," Ace said, panicked.

He raised a brow. "What's in there?"

"Bombs."

Not just any bombs, Ace had some left over that she made with gunpowder, and since Abraham had given her a worried look, she wasn't sure whether too much jostling would just blow them up. They hadn't so far, but Ace wasn't that good at chemistry to understand what would set them off.

He nodded, like he should have guessed. "Bombs . . . right. Can I get a little more heads up next time?"

"I guess so," she shrugged.

"And we have to store bombs in my garage?" He asked. Ace just stared at him, and he nodded. "Okay, well, let's keep this from Eric, alright?"

"Okay."

Aaron held out the yellow bag to her, gesturing to take it and get in the truck. She climbed into the passenger seat. Aaron drove them up the main road towards where his house sat on the corner and parked at the curb.

Ace put the yellow bag on her back and then walked around the boot to take the boxes in her arms. She put them just inside the garage door before going back for the next lot of boxes. With Aaron's help, it only took a few trips to the car.

"I'm glad you decided to take me up on this offer," Aaron said as he helped carry the tools into his recently cleaned-out garage. "Especially with the sun out and you getting faint, and then when Winter comes, you'll be out of the rain and the snow."

"Yup," she agreed, pulling out the drawers of the toolbox to organise her things.

Whoever owned Aaron's house before he found it had such good tools—the toolbox, it was all better than she'd seen since she worked with her dad. Part of her wondered if there was a car diagnostic machine, but she doubted it. God, she missed that thing.

"We can probably get a couch in here, make this your own space. And this will be your own space. I swear Eric and I won't be in and out of here every five seconds bothering you or anything. This can be your own private room if you want."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Ace muttered to herself, but then looked back over her shoulder. "No, yeah. That sounds good, thanks."

"There's this old sofa bed upstairs that we can try and move down now," Aaron continued as if he wasn't already breaking the promise not to bother her. Though, even as he spoke, Ace found herself enjoying the company, even if he was just nattering for the sake of nattering. "Eric hates it."

"We don't have to do that today," she said.

"We might as well, while we're moving things anyway. Just in case you're working late and you get tired or need a break or something."

"I don't intend to sleep in your garage," she said.

Aaron ignored her. "It'll be good, come on."

Bingo, Ace thought as she followed Aaron into his house and up the stairs to grab the sofa bed he was talking about. It was easy work to lift and move, the sofa weighing a lot less than Ace expected as they clumsily navigated it over the bannister.

They set it down in one of the back corners by the stairs, pushing it into place where it was concealed by one of the large shelves. She didn't want to admit it, but if she ever worked into the night, having it there would help. She often took naps on a sofa in her dad's office.

"Thanks for this," she said.

"No problem." Aaron looked around with hands on his hips. "I think we're done here aside from the organising, which you can do whenever. Just let yourself in whenever you want and help yourself to any food here. I think we have a spare key that I can find for the next time you want to come over, so don't even ask."

"Yeah, thanks," she said again.

As they walked through into the kitchen, Eric had busied himself with starting on dinner. He must have been at the storage place while she and Aaron worked, Ace realised. She gave him a polite smile and stopped to say hello.

"Ace, are you hungry?" Eric asked from the kitchen. "I'm starting dinner now."

"No, I'm gonna go down to the gate and see if anyone's back yet," she denied.

"Oh, yeah. I heard about that," Eric said like he was spreading gossip to Aaron. He seemed to notice Ace's expression and changed his tone quickly. "I'm sure they're fine. If they aren't already back, they should be here soon."

"Yeah, nothing to worry about," Aaron added.

"Yeah, well, I'm going to check," Ace said. "See you."

"See you, Ace."

"Scott said you were looking for me?" Isaac heard Enid ask at the door. "What's up?"

It was true; when the shift was coming to an end, Maggie yelled to a passing Scott that she wanted to see Enid at their home, wanting her to be the one to help Maggie cut her hair. That was probably for the best; Isaac knew nothing about cutting hair. His own was becoming longer and unruly.

"I need some more help," Maggie said.

Their footsteps came back into the main room where Isaac was still working on his architectural drawing. Enid spotted him on the ground and gave a small smile, "Hey."

"Hey."

Isaac kept working at the coffee table, giving a small glance as she was led to the table not so far away from where Maggie had gathered what she needed for Enid to cut her hair. He pulled his knees to his chest to take a small break and leaned back on the sofa as he watched Enid grow more and more confused.

"I need someone to cut my hair. I wanted you to help me," she explained to the confused teen.

Enid gave a nod, understanding. "I mean, I can. But I only really know how to cut boy haircuts."

"I want it short, don't care what it looks like," she smiled. "I trust you."

"Okay, you want to take a seat then?" Enid pulled one of the chairs out from under the table. The poor girl looked scared as she picked up the scissors and brought it to Maggie's hair. "How . . . how short did you want to go?"

"Short enough not to get grabbed," she answered.

Not descriptive enough, Isaac could see on Enid's face. Instead, she handed Maggie the mirror and pulled one of the pieces behind Maggie's ear and laid the scissors against it at the base of her head. "Is that good?"

"Perfect," Maggie smiled.

"Okay . . . don't watch while I do it," she pleaded. "I don't want to have you staring at me through the mirror while I'm waving scissors around your head."

"Alright," Maggie put the mirror back down on the table. "How do you know how to cut hair?"

"I had to do my dad's trims at the beginning; he didn't trust my mom to do it in case she cut his ear or something," she joked. "Things got a little hectic after that, and . . . then I found this place." Her eyes drifted over to where Isaac was still sitting at the coffee table. "You could probably use a cut, too."

Isaac looked back over his shoulder, feigning hurt. "What's wrong with it?"

Enid smiled, her eyes jumping back to Maggie's hair. "Nothing. But I could cut it . . . if you want."

"I might take you up on that," Isaac agreed with a smile that she couldn't see because he had his back to her as he worked. "My mom used to cut my hair too. I mean, it's been a good few months since then, so my hair is getting a little long."

"Gonna wait for Ace to point it out?" Maggie asked with a smirk.

Isaac shrugged. "I don't know what hair Ace likes on me."

"Oh, she won't tell you that."

"Nope," Enid agreed.

"What do you mean?" Isaac raised a brow.

"No, that's a story you share with girlfriends," Maggie said. "You know, you'll never guess what my boyfriend's done with his hair this time."

He snorted. "She'll talk about my hair with her girlfriends, Glenn and Rick? Martinez, maybe?"

"I guess not." She grinned. "Especially not after your little sleepover."

Isaac shot a look over his shoulder.

"What sleepover?" Enid asked.

"Nothin' you have to worry about." Maggie gave him a wink.

He glared at Maggie for a moment before they finished the haircut in a nice quiet. It was a group of people Isaac never considered being in the company of, but now that they were all there, it was nice. Enid finished cutting the hair, handing Maggie the mirror from the table.

"I like it," Enid said as Maggie looked at her hair in the mirror. "But why?

Maggie sighed. "I have to keep going." She turned the mirror to look at Enid in the reflection." And I don't want anything getting in my way."

They sat in silence for a moment, when Isaac heard Enid ask worriedly, "Man, did I go too short? I—I only used to cut my dad's.

He looked over his shoulder, a concerned expression working its way onto his face. Now that he was looking, Maggie looked almost in pain, her eyes on the ground in front of her as she tried to steady her breathing.

"No, it's not that," she said quietly, panting.

"Maggie?" Enid glanced to Isaac for help.

Before he could say anything, Maggie slammed the mirror onto the table and yelled out loud, keeling over like she was going to fall off of the chair. Isaac was on his feet in an instant, rounding the coffee table to rush over.

"Maggie," Enid said when she stopped.

"Are you okay? What is it?" Isaac asked, coming to kneel in front of her.

But Maggie continued groaning, coming out of the kitchen chair and lowering herself to the ground. Isaac took one of her hands in his, letting her squeeze it as tight as she could as she continued to cry out, leaning her head back on the rim of the kitchen table.

"Maggie!"