BLACK OUT DAYS | THE WALKING DEAD

Forget

Nate wasn't adjusting to Alexandria like he should. Ever since his freakout at the Andersons, he felt like he was the odd man out. He would wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, ones where he was still with the claimers, without Daryl to protect him or Jasper to save him and other times he would still be at terminus. Carl kept disappearing on him. For some reason he couldn't find his brother anywhere, he hoped that he wasn't avoiding him because he thought that Nate was going crazy too. He'd already checked in with Michonne, who had been watching Judith and left before she was able to think something was up. He finally decide that maybe Carl had gone outside the walls and he went as far as checking his knife and gun out of the armory, but when he walked up to the gates, they were already opening and Glenn, Tara, Jasper, Noah, Nicholas, and Aiden were coming back through it and from the looks on their faces, they all looked irritated. Jasper was shaking his head from over Noah's shoulder. There was blood on his and Aiden's hands but neither of them seemed too bothered by it.

"You four need new gigs, you're not ready for runs yet." Aiden was saying loudly and Nate widened his eyes as he registered the comment. Tara, Jasper, Glenn and Noah weren't ready for runs? Since when?

"Yeah, pretty sure you got that backwards." Glenn replied, he hadn't even stopped walking but Nate could see the look on his face, it was the same look that Jasper had.

"You guys okay?" Nate quietly asked as Jasper stopped to stand next to him, he managed a nod but Nate could tell he was still upset. He noticed other Alexandrians were walking up to the commotion, Aiden had started talking loudly to Glenn and Nate's eyes found Enid in the crowd and he silently cursed as he realized that Carl wasn't with her.

"You tied up walkers." Glenn told Aiden but he just scoffed and Nate threw another questioning look towards Jasper. The vein in his jaw twitched, he held his shoulders high and Nate could only wonder what happened out there.

"It killed our friend!" Aiden exclaimed, rolling his eyes like he wasn't the one in the wrong. "Look, I'm not having this conversation. You obey my orders out there." Jasper opened his mouth to retort but Glenn beat him to it.

"Oh, well we're just as screwed as your last run crew." He said, with just as much spite in his tone.

"Say it again." Aiden told Glenn, getting closer to him.

"Back off, Aiden." Tara warned, Nate grimaced as Glenn didn't back down. Aiden pushed at Glenn's chest, and Jasper tried to take a step forward as Noah and Tara tried to get Aiden to back down but Nate managed to pull Jasper back just in time and Aiden shoved Glenn again.

"No one's impressed man, walk away." Glenn said as a final warning, Jasper had taken a few steps closer, Nate had let him and he was now hovering by Glenn's shoulder, glowering at Aiden, who's gaze shifted to him suddenly. Deanna came up to them then, shouting her son's name and asked what was going on.

"These guys got a problem with the way we do things." Aiden said as he turned to face her. "Why'd you let these people in?"

"Because we actually know what we're doing out there." Jasper said loudly and his words suddenly made Aiden throw a punch, he clearly didn't care who he was aiming for, Glenn slid out of the way and Jasper had to duck, but he swung back up and hit Aiden right in the face. Nate yelled Jasper's name and ran forward, pulling him away from Aiden as he tried to go for him again even though he was already on the ground. He pushed him back and Nate could feel each time Jasper's chest rose with anger.

"Take it easy, he's already down." Nate told him and Jasper's eyes flickered to him, then to his hands still on his chest and took a few steps back and ran a bloodied hand through his hair. Michonne had walked up to them as Aiden stood up again.