Future Ghosts • TWD

64. Holding On.

There would be no more sleeping on church pews. That was mainly because they were all being destroyed- being used to board up the church. They had taken apart the organ to stick the pipes into the ground outside the front steps. It was smart and resourceful, but Gabriel wasn't too happy about it.

Rosie wasn't too happy, either, but it wasn't because they were destroying the church. Rosie wasn't happy because she wanted to go with to Atlanta. She wanted to help. They needed to get Beth back, and the more people who went with to help, the better. But Rick and Daryl wouldn't budge. Carl and Rosie were being forced to stay back at the church with Michonne, Gabriel, Ian, and Judith.

What Rosie had learned since Daryl got back was that Beth was trapped in some hospital, which is where Noah, the man boy, came from. Noah and Beth had tried to escape together, but Beth got caught. And when Daryl and Carol found Noah, Carol got taken to the hospital, too. So now Rick, Daryl, Sasha, Tyreese, and Noah were all going back to Atlanta in order to get Beth and Carol back.

"We could help," Rosie said, looking up at Daryl with her eyebrows raised.

"You can help by stayin' here and protectin' Judith," Daryl replied, nodding his head towards the church. Rosie wanted to huff and complain some more, but she knew Rick and Daryl wouldn't change their minds, so she just gave up on it. "Be good. Do what Michonne says," Daryl told her.

"I'm always good," Rosie claimed, making Daryl scoff.

"Yeah? What about when you punched Carl? Twice," he said. Rosie furrowed her eyebrows, ducking her head down a little bit. She almost forgot about how much she used to hate Carl. Now he was like a brother to her. It was weird how different things were.

Rosie shrugged bashfully and tried to tuck a piece of hair that fell into her face behind her ear, but her finger got caught in a knot. She sighed, frustrated. "Do you know how to do braids?" Rosie asked.

Daryl scoffed again. "Hell no," he said.

"Beth can. She's real good at 'em. Maybe she can help me when she gets back," Rosie said, scrunching her face up as she continued to pull strands of hair out of her face. Who knew hair could be so frustrating?

"Yeah," Daryl said. He opted out of ruffling her hair before leaving simply because she had just put in so much work to get her hair out of the way, and she'd get all pissy if he messed it up again. So instead, Daryl squeezed her shoulder a little before turning to leave with the others. "We'll be back soon," he said.

After giving a nod to say I know, Rosie climbed back up the few steps to go back into the church. Rick was saying his goodbyes to Carl, and Carl was giving him a smile that said, I understand why you don't want us to go, but it's still annoying, which was exactly how Rosie felt about it, too. After Rick and Carl said goodbye, the doors to the church shut and that was that.

As soon as Rick was out of sight, Judith started bawling her eyes out. Since Michonne and Carl were supposed to start boarding up the door, Rosie decided that she could help by calming Judith. She went over to the basket that Judith was laying in and knelt down beside it. Carefully as ever, Rosie picked Judith up and sat her down on the ground across from her.

"Hi," Rosie said, very unsure of what to say to a baby. Judith didn't say anything back, obviously. She just stared at Rosie, looking completely confused and unaware. After a moment, Judith's face scrunched up and she started crying again. "No, no, no, no, no," Rosie said quickly. She picked Judith up again and sat her in her lap. "It's ok. It's ok," she kept saying.

Then, all of a sudden, Judith stopped crying. She looked up at Rosie sadly for a few moments, and Rosie looked back at her, confused. Then a smile broke out on Judith's face and she started giggling incessantly. Rosie smiled, too, but she was still very confused.