𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗧𝗬 𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗘, 𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗖𝗘𝗔𝗡 𝗪𝗔𝗦 always one of Ivy's favorite thing. Honestly— anything to do with water. She loved lakes, ponds, oceans, any body of water worked for her. Seeing her reflection in the water reminds her of her childhood. Her parents always would bring her and Aaliyah to the beach to just... get away.

As Ivy looked into the water of Oceanside, everything came flooding back to her.

"I think a crab just bit me!" Aaliyah yelled. The 16 year old girl held her finger in pain as she watched the crab crawl away. "Mom! Look! Dad!"

6 year old Ivy ran over quickly, her rubber duckies in her sand bucket. She dropped her bucket and looked at her sisters finger. "That's so cool!" Ivy beamed. Paul and Rosalie walked over to their two daughters, inspecting Aaliyah's finger.

"She'll be fine." Paul shrugged. Rosalie furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her husband. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Ivy crossed her arms and looked up at her father. "You crazy, daddy!" Ivy sassed, making her family laugh. "Aaliyahs dying! Help her!" The girls lisp was extremely obvious due to her two front teeth being missing.

"I'm not dying." Aaliyah groaned. Aaliyah's eyes widened as she looked up to her parents. "Am I dying?"

The sound of children playing, and waves crashing were heard all around. It was Ivy's favorite sound.

"No, hermosa, you're not dying." Paul sighed as he sat down besides his eldest daughter. "Love, you bring V to the water, she's been dying to go." Rose nodded and ushered over to the water.

Ivy smiled widely as she ran to the water. She giggled and jumped up and down, stomping her feet in the wet sand.

"Look at all the waves!" Ivy beamed as tipped herself in the water. Ivy shivered as she felt the coldness of the water. Rosalie smiled widely at her daughter. Ivy was growing up so fast, and it hurt Rosalie.

Aaliyah was sixteen, and Ivy was 6. You never want your babies to grow up, it hurts really bad.

Rosalie giggled as a wave hit Ivy in the face. Rosalie lifted her daughter up onto her hip. They went deeper into the water and laughed the whole time.

Ivy loved her family more than anything. They were her whole word, and she thanked god everyday for giving her a good family.

She was lucky that her life was easy.

❝𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧, 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗢𝗞𝗔𝗬?" Carl asked, coming up from behind Ivy. Ivy turned around with teary eyes and nodded. Ivy inspected her boyfriend, inspecting the gun in his hand. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Ivy shook her head no and smiled. "Nothings wrong." Ivy lied. Carl gave her a look, and Ivy sighed, giving in. "The water always reminds me of my parents. What life used to be like." Carl nodded understandably. "I'm never gonna have a real family of my own, Carl." A tear fell from her face.

Carl looked around, seeing they were alone due to the rest of the group setting up all around Oceanside. Carl inched closer, basically towering over the girl.

"You will have a family of your own." Carl assured. "I promise. Me and you will have a family one day." Ivy scoffed and laughed.

"How can you even say that?" Ivy asked. Carl sighed and placed his gun on the ground. "I just don't—" Ivy was cut off by Carls lips on hers. Carl bit her bottom lip, making her gasped slightly. Carl smirked against her lips, but she quickly pushed him back.

Ivy shot Carl a scolding look, and he just shrugged. "Carl, there's been a lot of talk about kids recently." Ivy stated. Carl smiled and nodded. "We haven't even... done anything. And, we're only like 16."

"Well, I don't mean now, but one day we're gonna have kids." Carl explained. "I used to not want kids after my mom, but... I know now. I know that I want you to have my babies. I know that I want to be able to call you my wife. I know that I want you."

Ivy blushed before laughing. "What?" Carl asked as he furrowed his eyebrows. "What's so funny?"

"Can you believe we're like 16 and we haven't done anything." Ivy giggled. Carl chuckled lightly and ducked his head. "Like, our lives are on the line 24/7 and we just... never touched each other."

"Why do you think that's so funny?" Carl asked through laughs. Ivy stopped laughing and shrugged. "Cause we could totally change that."

"Change what?" The familiar voice of Rick was heard from behind them. Ivy's eyes widened as she looked at Carl. Rick handed a gun to Ivy.

Rick pursed his lips. "You know, what? I don't wanna know." Rick shook his head. Carl tried not to laugh, biting his cheek, trying to stop. "But, we gotta go, c'mon."

Carl chuckled. "Yes, dad." Carl groaned. Rick began walking, Carl and Ivy following in pursuit. Carl grabbed the girls hand, keeping her close.

Ivy always wondered how she got so lucky with him.

𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 in life was freedom. Being able to do what you pleased whenever you wanted was one of the best feelings. Being able to live was the best feeling. No one could do that as they were stuck under Negans thumb. You could only live so much in an apocalypse, but Negan cut off all ties and stopped everyone for even having a minute to breathe.

But, that was unacceptable. Nobody could live like that. Hilltop, Alexandria, and The Kingdom wanted lives. They craved and longed for the hole to be filled. The hole that was created when the dead started walking.

Back when life used to be about killing the dead, and protecting yourself from the creatures the world had been crowded by. Now, life was about fighting the living. Fighting the people you used to call your friends, your brothers and sisters, your neighbors.

The world was such a blur nowadays— especially to Ivy. She never knew if she was right, or wrong. It was a cruel world, and Ivy was unlucky enough to get stuck in it.

Ivy held her gun before her face, standing in between Carl and Gabriel as they awaited the presence of the women of Oceanside. Ivy raised her gun higher when she heard quick footsteps running through the woods.

An explosion was heard, the fire and smoke rising above the trees.

The small group of Alexandrians cut off the women of Oceanside, stopping the woman in their tracks. All the women raised their hands in surrender as they saw all the guns pointed at them.

"Everybody down!" Francine yelled. Enid ran to the left side of the women, holding a gun in front of her. Ivy resigned in her spot in between Carl and Gabriel.

"Hands on your heads!" Tobin ordered. The women lowered themselves onto their knees. "Stay calm!"

Carl stepped forward slightly. "We don't want anyone to get hurt. Stay down and listen to what we say." Carl announced.

"We want this to go as simply and as peacefully as possible." Gabriel spoke politely. "All of you can make it that way." Ivy looked to her left, seeing Jesus and Daryl manhandling two women, placing them next to their group. Daryl grumbled something to the woman, and he placed her down.

Rick walked closer to the group, following not to far behind Daryl and Jesus. "Now, we made a lot of noise. We want to wrap this up quick so you can send people to redirect anything coming this way." Rick stated as he stood in front of the group. "Tara said your forests are relatively clear, so we won't take any chance. No one needs to get hurt. This is just about what you have, what we need."

The group whipped their head at the sound of a voice. "Nobody's taking anything!" Ivy quickly raised her gun as she saw an older woman and a younger girl walking towards them. She was holding Tara at gunpoint. "You need to let everyone go and leave right now. Just walk away or this one dies." Ivy moved extremely fast, holding her gun straight to the woman's head.

"You'll be dead before you could even try." Ivy spat.

"V, don't." Tara sighed. Ivy held the gun up high, still. She wasn't going to let anyone else die. "Ivy. Put the goddamn gun down." Ivy hesitated before lowering her gun with a soft sigh.

Ivy knew no one was scared of her. She was 5'1– which, isn't a very scary height— scrawny, and has an extreme baby face. Her clothes were probably the most intimating thing she wore.

Ivy dressed herself nicely in a tight fitted black shirt, army green cargo pants, an army green baggy jacket, and her worn out boots. Her hair was pulled into a low ponytail, a few strands of hair falling down.

Ivy snapped out of her thoughts and looked around at Rick, who was opening his mouth to speak. "Yeah, we'll leave you alone. But we're taking your weapons with us. That's not gonna change." Rick explained. "It's Natania, right? Put the gun down, and let's talk about what we can change." Ivy had her gun lowered, but it wasn't hard to move it up slightly and save Tara, but she knew she'd get her head chewed off by somebody.

"Leave. Right now." Natania demanded. Tara looked up and through to trees, looking where Michonne resided.

"Michonne! Don't!" Tara yelled. Ivy looked over and saw Michonne hesitantly lower her gun.

Natania looked to the people of Alexandria. "We just wanna be left alone." Natania said. Rick nodded.

"Yeah, we'll leave you alone." Rick spoke. "Just let go of her. Now. Or we'll kill you. None of us want that."

The younger woman besides Natania spoke up. "They want us to fight The Saviors." All of the women of Oceanside gasped and looked around at each other.

"We tried that. We lost. Too much." Natania mentioned. Ivy looked to Rick, and the man signaled for her to raise her gun. She pointed the sniper to Natanias head with ease. "We're not gonna lose anymore— not our guns, not our safety, not after everything we've done to get here."

"We're gonna win—" Tara spoke up. "with your guns, with or without your help." Natania pushed the gun harder against Taras head.

Ivy moved closer to the woman, tilting her head slightly. "I wouldn't do that if I was you." Ivy muttered.

"No, seriously, I wouldn't." Tara breathed out. Carl smirked to himself at the sight of Ivy. Who knew a girl could look so pretty while holding a gun to someone's head. "She's fucking crazy." Natania looked over at Ivy who tauntingly widened her eyes

Rick cleared his throat. "Natania, put the gun down." Rick instructed. Natania stayed in her spot, gun against Tara's head and refusing to move.

"You kill me, and you die." Tara reminded Natania. "And my people take the guns and nothing changes." The Alexandrians looked around at the woman of Oceanside.

"Maybe we should try." One of the women said. There was some hushed agreements, and some small disagreements. But, some was better than none.

The young girl besides Natania looked over to her. "Grandma, stop." Natanias granddaughter, makes sense. "It's over. Just talk to them, okay?"

"It's not over!" Natania yelled. "They've forgotten. You've all forgotten. Some of you actually want to fight them? After everything?"

Natania tightened her grip on the collar of Tara's jacket. "We can lost our guns, but us leaving this place to fight?" Natania looked around at her group. "After everything? I have to remind you!"

Natania sighed. "Yes. I am gonna do this, and then I'm gonna die." Ivy swallowed harshly and shakily held her gun to Natanias head. She was not going to lose anyone else, right now. Especially not Tara. "But it's that important. This is your life, all of you! Remember what it looks like! Remember what they did to us! You need to see this! Open your eyes!"

"Rick!" Michonne yelled. The group snapped their heads in her direction in panic. "Walkers!" Natanias granddaughter quickly punched Natania in the face, sending her falling down and letting Tara free.

As Natania fell to the ground, Enid was revealed, shakily holding her gun, pure terror on her face.

Ivy's eyes softened at the sight of the terrified girl. "E!" Enid was snapped out of her trance by Ivy. Ivy grabbed the girls hand and pulled her closer.

"Everybody up!" Rick ordered. "Get the children behind us! They're coming!" Ivy and the rest of the group raised their guns, standing in front of the woman.

One of the Oceanside women barked orders to her people, and they all obeyed.

"Everyone, shots within 10 feet of the line! That's it!"

Walkers quickly started piling in, barnacles growing on their peeling, decaying faces. The Alexandrians shot at the walkers once they got close enough, sending bullets— and, arrows through their brains. Ivy shot two walkers in a row, both coming towards her and Enid.

A few walkers slipped past the group, which a young girl, at least 10 or 11 easily killed. It was quite impressive in these circumstances, but sad. Sad that this little girl will never have a childhood and will spend the rest of her life re-killing the dead.

One last walker came towards Tara, which she gladly slammed it to the ground and Natanias granddaughter shot it. The gunfire stopped, meaning that they were clear from walkers.

Oceanside and Alexandria both met in the middle, a few feet away from the pile of walkers. One of the woman handed Rick her knife, and Rick took her hand and shook it.

Natania began to walk away from the groups, a red mark on her head due to the punch. "No. We're not fighting them with you." Natania said with her backs to the group. "So take your damn guns and go."

Ivy understood and didn't understand Natanias reasons. Yes, The Saviors killed the men of Oceanside, but wouldn't Natania want to avenge them? Why would she want The Saviors to walk free without any consequences? Negan could've killed everyone in Alexandria and Ivy still would've tried to fight him and The Saviors.

But, at least the have guns.

𝗜𝗩𝗬 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗗 𝗨𝗣 𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 the box full of guns, Carl holding up the other side. The two walked not far behind Rick, and past the woman of Oceanside. Ivy shot them sympathetic looks, practically apologizing with her face as they walked by. It felt wrong taking all their guns. So many things could happen, and they would be left with just knives, nothing more, nothing less.

Once they were out of hearing range of the woman of Oceanside, Ivy sighed. Carl quickly looked to his girlfriend. "What's wrong?" Carl asked. Ivy shook her head no. Carl looked behind them, seeing Jesus there. Jesus nodded, encouraging Carl to ask again. "V, whats up?"

"That little girl." Ivy muttered. Carl nodded knowingly. "She's killing walkers and she probably doesn't even know how to properly read yet."

Carl sighed. "That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think?" Ivy shrugged. "I know it hurts, and I know it's not fair, but this is the world." The two stopped in front of a truck and placed the box in it.

"It shouldn't be." Ivy spoke. "I'm about to fight against my sister, and my sister in law. If one of them dies in the crossfire, i'm gonna blame myself. But, maybe it will be my fault. Maybe if I didn't stop looking for them, maybe they wouldn't have become Saviors—" Ivy was cut off by Carl kissing her. Ivy looked up at the boy and smiled.

Carl rested his hand on the side of her neck gently. "I love you." Carl whispered to the girl.

"I love you, too."

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗩𝗬 𝗙𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗨𝗧 that Sasha and Rosita went to The Sanctuary, she was terrified. Enid told Ivy that they didn't tell her because they knew Ivy wasn't good at lying to Maggie. But, that's not what Ivy was worried about. She was worried about Sasha and Rosita.

Negan let Carl home because he's a kid. Sasha and Rosita might not be as lucky.

Ivy's knee bounced as they rolled up to the gates of Alexandria. The gates were pushed open by someone who Ivy quickly picked up on. The second all the vehicles came to a halt, everyone hoped out.

Ivy and Enid quickly ran past the crowd, Jesus following. Ivy hugged Rosita tightly. Rosita hugged back, but it was weak.

"Are you okay?" Ivy asked, panic lacing her voice. Ivy looked up at the woman who had an upset look on her face.

"Where's Sasha?" Jesus inquired. Ivy let go of the woman and backed up slightly.

"There's someone here." Rosita spoke, completely dodging Jesus' question. Ivy furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at the girl. Rosita signaled the group to follow her.

"Come on."

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘
i am NOT throwing away my shot
(is it giving Alexander Hamilton yet??)