𝗧𝗪𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗬, 𝗮𝗮𝗿𝗼𝗻

𝗜𝗩𝗬 𝗗𝗜𝗗𝗡'𝗧 sleep that night. It was almost like she was on guard duty. Watching the barn door every second, waiting for someone to bust in and kill them all. It was like she was programmed to protect, like that's what Ivy was built for.

Ivy watched as Sasha and Maggie made their way outside. She watched as Daryl shifted around, his body aching for sleep, but he couldn't give in. She watched as people started to wake up, but she didn't once look at the boy next to her.

Ivy turned her head to look at Carl. He was still sleeping and he looked so peaceful. Ivy almost smiled as she studied his features, but she physically couldn't.

Once everyone was awake, including Carl, they began preparing their weapons. Ivy knew they were going to move sooner or later because they can't stay in one place for too long.

As Ivy sharpened her knife and put more ammo into her gun, she felt eyes on her. She knew they were Carls because his gaze didn't make her uncomfortable, it made her feel safe.

"Hey." Ivy snapped her head up to see Maggie walking in, and an unfamiliar man walking in behind her. "Everyone... this is Aaron."

Ivy quickly stood up and cocked her gun. Ivy was protective over her family, so there was no way in hell this man would come into the doors without some form of weapon pointed at him.

Daryl ran outside to check if there was anyone else with him. Daryl ran back inside and patted Aaron down.

Carl had already made his way to Ivy's side.

"We met him outside. He's by himself." Maggie told the group. Ivy kept her gun high. She wasn't going to let anything happen to her group. "We took his weapons and we took his gear."

Most of the group circled him with guns— and in Daryl's case, a crossbow. Ivy stood beside Carl towards the back of the barn.

"Hi." Aaron spoke awkwardly. Judith began to cry in Ricks arms, and Carl gladly took his little sister. Aaron stepped forward to shake Ricks hand. "It's nice to meet you."

All Aaron could hear around him was guns cocking and safety's coming off. He stepped back to where he first stood.

"You said he had a weapon?" Rick asked Maggie. Maggie handed Rick the gun and she returned to her spot by Aaron.

"There something you need?" Rick asked. Ivy had already shifted her attention to Judith and Carl. She looked at them, but no emotion was on her face.

"He has a camp nearby." Sasha answered. That was enough for the whole group to look at them. Ivy's mouth gaped, and her gaze softened slightly. Carl took notice of that. "He wants us to audition for a membership."

Ivy's face went back to her stone cold stare. Audition? Is this bitch for real?

"I wish there was another word. Audition makes it sound like we're some kind of dance troupe." Aaron laughed slightly.

Ivy raised her middle finger for a quick second and Aaron apologized quietly.

"That's only on Friday nights." Ivy put a hand to her mouth, her face was almost covered in terror. She turned away from the group and mentally screamed before turning back around.

"Um, and it's not a camp." The group looked at Aaron with confused looks. "It's a community."

"I think you all would make valuable additions. But, it's not my call. My job is to convince you all to follow me back home."

The group waited for one of Ivy's snarky comebacks. They thought maybe this one would be about him trying to kidnap them, or something like that.

But nothing.

"I know." Aaron spoke. "If I were you, I wouldn't go either. Not until I knew exactly what I was getting into."

Aaron turned to Sasha. "Sasha, can you hand Rick my pack?" Sasha handed Rick the bag.

"Front pocket, there's an envelope." Rick bent down so he could go through the bag. "There's no way I could convince you to come with me just by talking about our community."

For some reason, Ivy's gaydar went off the second Aaron stepped in the room.

"That's why I brought those." Aaron pointed to the pictures that were being removed from the envelope. "I apologize in advance for the picture quality. We just found an old camera store last—"

"Nobody gives a shit." Daryl spoke. Aaron turned around in shame.

"You're absolutely 100% right." Aaron responded. Rick looked closely at one of the pictures. "That's the first picture I wanted to show you because nothing I say about our community will matter unless you know you'll be safe."

Ivy looked over at the picture for a quick second. She saw walls, and she silently prayed this man was legit.

"If you join us, you will be." Aaron sounded like a robot. He sounded like he was programmed to say all these things, but she hoped it was due to the fact that he had saved a lot of people and knew this shit off of memory.

"Each panel in that wall is a 15-foot-high, 12-foot-wide slab of solid steel framed by cold-rolled steel beams and square tubing."

Literal gay robot, Ivy thought.

"Nothing alive or dead gets through that without our say-so." Aaron stated. "Like I said, security is obviously important. In fact, there's only one resource more critical to our community's survival."

"The people."

Ivy hoped that was the end of his extremely long speech. Ivy popped her hip and crossed her arms. In many senses, Ivy and Rosita were twins. They both had an attitude, and they both share clothes.

"Together we're strong. You can make us even stronger." Aaron finished. "The next picture, you'll see inside the gates."

Rick began walking up to Aaron. "Our community was first construc—" And with that, Rick knocked him out cold.

Ivy would have to thank Rick for that after.

The whole group stood around Aaron. He was lying their, unconscious. Ivy looked at Rick for a second before turning back to Aaron.

The group scattered away from Aaron, and Rick and Michonne had started to talk.

"We got to secure him. Dump his pack. Lets see what this guy really is." Rick instructed Carl.

"Rick." Michonne spoke.

"Everybody else, we need eyes in every direction. They're coming for us. We might not know how or when! but they are." Rick ordered. Ivy grabbed her gun and began to walk towards the door, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

Ivy turned around to see Rick standing behind her.

"Not you. I want you to stay here." Rick spoke softly. Ivy gave no reaction, she just turned around and began walking towards the door again.

"I need you to stay here." Ivy sighed and turned around. "You aren't well, Ivy." Ivy showed emotion to Rick for the first time. Pure confusion.

"Mentally. We all aren't well, per se, but you are close to going overboard. I need you to rest." Rick whispered. Ivy gave a disgusted look to Rick before going back to where she stood before, near Carl.

Carl tried to saw something to her but she just moved away slightly.

"Sit him up." Rick ordered as he saw Aaron wake up.

"I think it's better if—" Maggie started, but Aaron quickly cut her off.

"It's okay." Aaron groaned in pain as he moved his jaw.

"He's fine. Sit him up." Rick instructed. Michonne and Maggie sat Aaron up. He groaned again in pain.

"You're being cautious. I completely understand." Aaron justified.

"How many of your people are out there?" Rick inquired. "You have a flare gun. You have it to signal your people. How many of them are there?"

"Does it matter?" Aaron asked.

"Yes." Rick quickly answered. "Yes, it does."

"I mean, of course, it matters how many people are actually out there, but does it matter how many people I tell you are out there? Because I'm pretty sure no matter what number I say—"

"Eight, thirty-two, four hundred forty four, zero— no matter what I say, you're not going to trust me."

Why is this white man making sense? Ivy thought.

"Well, it's hard to trust anyone who smiles after getting punched in the face." Rick stated.

"How about a guy who leaves bottles of water for you in the road." Aaron smiles.

Daryl stepped forward. "How long you people being followin' us?" Daryl asked.

"Long enough to see that you practically ignore a pack of roamers on your trail. Long enough to see that despite a lack of food and water, you never turned on each other." Aaron explained.

"You're survivors."

Ivy had her that before. It was engraved in her brain since this all started. 'You're going to survive' or 'survivors is what we are' or like Beth used to say, 'we're the ones who survive. we're the lucky ones'

Well, not anymore.

"And you're people." Aaron breathed out. "Like I said, and I hope you won't punch me for saying it again, that is the most important resource in the world."

The group all looked to Rick. They wanted to go and see if Aaron was legit. Maybe it would be another terminus, but they left a hole in terminus so......

Rick stalked closer to Aaron and looked down at him.

"How many others are out there?" Rick asked.

"One." Aaron answered. Rick looked at him like he was crazy. "I knew you wouldn't believe me. If it's not words, if it's not pictures, what would it take to convince you that this is for real?"

Everyone looked to Rick for an answer.

"What if I drove you to the community?" Aaron put forward. "All of you? We leave now, we'll get there by lunch."

"I'm not sure how the 15 of us are gonna fit in the car you and your one friend drove down here in." Rick stated.

"We drove separately. If we found a group, we wanted to be able to bring them all home. There's enough room for all of us." Aaron explained.

"And you parked just a couple miles away, right?" Carol spoke up.

"East on Ridge Road, just after you hit Route 16. We wanted to get them closer, but then the storm came in, blocked the road, We couldn't clear it." Aaron completed.

"Yeah, you've really thought this through." Rick laughed slightly.

"Rick, if I wanted to ambush you, I'd do it here." Aaron stated. "You know, light the barn on fire while you slept, pick you off as you out."

"You can trust me."

Ivy's heard that one before too.

"I'll check out the cars." Michonne told Rick.

"There aren't any cars."

Ivy wished she could just open her mouth and scream at him, but she didn't have the energy to do so.

"There's only one way to find out." Michonne said.

"We don't need to find out—"

"We do." Michonne stated. "You know what you know and you're sure of it, but i'm not."

"Me either." Maggie spoke.

Rick hesitated before speaking again. "Your way is dangerous, mine isn't."

"Passing up someplace where we can live? Where Judith can live? That's pretty dangerous." Michonne argued. "We need to find out what this is. We can handle ourselves. So that's what we're gonna do."

"Then I will, too." Glenn spoke up. "I'll go."

Rick sighed and looked to Abraham. "Abraham."

"Yeah. I'll walk with them." Abraham grabbed his gun and walked towards the barn door.

"Rosita."

"Okay."

Rick told Glenn something that was inaudible to Ivy's ears.

"The walkies are out of juice. If you're not back in 60 minutes, we'll come." Rick announced. "Which might be just what they want."

Some of the group walked outside so they could go to the cars. Rick turned to the rest of the group.

"If we're all in here, we're a target." Rick stated.

Daryl picked up his crossbow and signaled people. "I've got the area covered." Daryl walked out the barn.

"All right, groups of two, find somewhere safe within eyeshot." Everyone began to walk out, and Carl waited for Ivy.

"You're staying with me, no matter what." Carl whispered to her. Carl and Ivy walked out of the barn and found a place to stay.

The two sat down on a patch of grass. Ivy placed her hand on the ground, and Carl placed his hand on top of hers.

"I hope this guy is legit. I want to have somewhere safe to stay. I want me and you to grow up somewhere. I want Judith to make friends and stuff." Carl spoke. "I want to make friends too."

"I mean— I have you but, it would be nice to know some boys that aren't my dads age. And I bet you want some friends that are girls." Carl explained. Ivy flipped her hand over so that Carl could interlock their fingers.

This was the first physical touch Ivy had received in a few days.

Carl sighed in happiness. He was getting closer to having his girlfriend back, but then again, she never left. She just need space, and Carl gave her that.

"I know it's kinda early to say this but, I love you Ivy. I really do. With all my heart. Even if we meet a million new girls, I'm always gonna love you. Just you." Ivy felt tears swell up in her eyes. She simply rested her head on Carls shoulder. Carl kissed her forehead and held her hand tight.

Carl Grimes was the only man Ivy could ever picture her self with. She could never love anyone more than Carl.

Carl was her soulmate.

𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗧, the group all made their way back inside. They all sat around, waiting for Ricks next words. Ivy and Carl held hands through it all, considering that was the only thing Ivy would let Carl do.

Some of the group found cans of food in Aaron's trailer. Obviously, the raided the poor man's stash and brought it all back to the barn.

"This is ours now." Rick told Aaron as he pointed to the food.

"There's more than enough." Aaron said, obviously tired of Rick.

"It's ours whether or not we go to your camp." Rick stated.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't we go?" Carl asked his father.

"If he were lying, or if he wanted to hurt us.... but he isn't, and he doesn't. We need this. So we're going, all of us." Carl looked down to Ivy who was almost smiling. Carl smiled widely at the girl.

"Somebody say something if they feel differently." Michonne requested.

Ivy looked over at Rick, and the way he looked at Michonne was similar to the way Carl looked at Ivy. Ivy knew that sooner or later, Michonne and Rick were going to get together.

"I don't know, man." Daryl spoke up. "This barn smells like horse shit."

"Yeah. We're going." Rick said before turning around and facing Aaron. "So where are we going? Where's your camp?"

"Well, every time I've done this, I've been the one behind the wheel driving recruit back." Aaron stated. "I believe you're good people. I've bet my life on it. I'm just not ready to bet my friends lives just yet."

Michonne stepped forward. "You're not driving. So if you want to get home, you'll have to tell us how." Rick pulled out a map and a writing tool.

"Go north on Route 16." Aaron started.

"And then?"

"I'll tell you when we get there." Aaron looked up at Michonne. Ivy sighed and ran a hand over her mouth.

Either this man is going to get bitched out or KNOCKED out— again. Ivy thought.

"We'll take 23 north. You'll give us directions from there." Rick asserted.

"That's— I don't know how else to say it— that's a bad idea." Aaron told. "We've cleared 16. It'll be faster."

"We'll take 23." Rick stared at Aaron. "We leave at sundown."

"We're doing this at night?" Sasha spoke up.

"Look, I know it's dangerous. But it's better than riding up to the gates during the day. If it isn't safe, we need to get gone before they know we're there." Rick remarked.

"No one is going to hurt you." Aaron put his foot down. "You're trying to protect your group but you're putting them in danger."

"Tell me where the camp is, and we'll leave right now." Rick offered. Aaron shook his head no. Rick turned to his group.

"It's gonna be a long night. Eat."