Brother's Keeper ¹ || The walking dead

135.

-

The wind blew softly, and a small shiver of coldness spread through Mercury's body as she sat in front of the grave with a journal in her lap and a colorful pencil in her hand. Oreo laid beside her, her eyes closed - for once, her eyes weren't full of tears. Mercury inhaled deeply, not taking her eyes off of her journal. "I know what you're gonna say.'Mer, go inside, it's cold, and you'll get sick if you stay out any longer,' "

"But it's okay, dad, the house is cold anyway. I tried to keep it warm, but it's still cold anyway, I know how much you hate the cold cause it makes your leg hurt so much." She let out a deep breath, finally lifting her head and looking at the grave in front of her. "Madi hates the cold too 'cause it makes her sick all the time, but she also hates the summer 'cause of her allergies and stuff."

Mercury bit the bottom of her lip in a nervous way. "I wish you were here."

Oreo let out a small whine resting her head on Mercury's lap, now awake, and Mercury rubbed her head. "I know, girl, I miss our dad's too."

She turned her head as she heard the gates opening and commotion. She stood up, abandoning her journal on the ground and her pencil, and she ran towards the gates of Alexandria, Oreo following behind her.

She pushed through the crowd that formed and almost bumped into Rosita and Sasha, but her focus was on her dad, he was back, and so was aunt Melanie, but Dominic wasn't with them - just two strangers - no, that was uncle Riley. She only knew because of her dad, Riven, showing her the drawing he made, he told her, Riley was the older brother of Maggie, and Beth, that he was like a brother to him - he used to take care of her when she was little, but she barely reminded him, she knew her dad, Reagan didn't like him.

The boy next to him holding peanut must be hershel. Her dad told her about him, about how he's Aunt Maggie and uncle Glenn's son, that she would be excited to be friends with him if they ever met, but as much as she used to be excited to be friends with kids her own age, her dad was supposed to be there with her.

Rosita ran forward towards Riley, helping Bronwyn with him - he was hurt, but it looked like he'll be okay.

"Dad!" Mercury just couldn't hold herself back anymore. She ran towards her dad, who crouched down to her height and was ready to catch her - she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Reagan wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Did you get her?"

"I did. She's gone." The words made Mercury sob against his shoulder, and Reagan held her tighter - he saw Madi and Lydia standing a few feet away from them, looking at them, and he held one arm around Mercury and held out the other one, Madi didn't need to be told twice before she running over, throwing herself just like Mercury did.

Lydia hiestated before she joined them. Melanie looked at Michonne, who approached them. "Dom?"

Melanie felt her eyes water, and she shook her head. "He's gone, Michonne, he's dead."

Michonne pulled Melanie into her embrace, hugging her tightly as she broke down all over again. Michonne closed her eyes as tears slid down her face for different reasons. One, because Dominic was dead - he was a good man, he didn't deserve to die - and two, because Alpha was dead. Her boy could rest in peace now with her gone.

They can finally start healing.

☆

Hershel sat in the infirmary next to the bed where his uncle Riley was half laying, half sitting. Peanut lay next to his uncle with a bandage leg. It was the best siddiq could do since he wasn't a vet.

The door to the infirmary opened, and hershel saw it was only Reagan. He wondered if he was here to kill his uncle, but Reagan only stopped beside him, standing next to him - it was awkward.

Reagan crossed his arms over his chest. "He's not dead. You can come in."

Both Riley and hershel looked towards the door and saw two young girls walking inside, followed by a teenage one. Riley instantly recognized Mercury. How couldn't he? He smiled at them. "Mer, look how big you gotten."

Mercury stopped next to her dad and offered Riley a small smile, but Riley could see the sadness in that smile of hers, the pain in her eyes. He felt all of that when he lost his own dad, and Beth. "My dad talked a lot about you,"

"Papa hated it," Mercury gestured towards Reagan, who didn't bother looking at him as he checked on peanut. "I want to thank you for taking care of him."

Riley glanced at Reagan, but he was ignoring him - typical. Riley smiled at Mercury. "No need to thank me -" he cut himself off as Mercury hugged him.

"I do 'cause he's not here to do it. I'm thanking you for him, so take it and shut up." Riley chuckled, wrapping an arm around her - so much like her dad's.

Mercury pulled back and looked at hershel. "You're hershel, right? My dad told me all about you, we can be friends if you want, you can be friends with Madi and Lydia too,"

"Uncle Riley, that's Lydia and Madi," she gestured towards the girls standing near Reagan. Mercury smiled at them. "My sisters."

Riley smiled at them. "Hi, it's nice to meet you." He kept thinking that Riven would just walk through the infirmary door and smile at him, then tease him about how he ended up here in the first place - he could just imagine the way Mercury would light up at the sight of her dad, or the way Reagan would be following behind him like a guard dog with a mini shadow - Madi was trying to look intimidating, but it wasn't working.

Lydia was shy, hiding behind Reagan, who didn't seem bothered by it all. Lydia would get along with him just fine - these girls were in safe hands, and he just wished Riven was here to be with them.

"Are you okay?" Mercury questioned, and Riley looked at her - and Mercury blessed her heart already knew that look in his eyes because she grabbed his hand. "I know. I wished he was here, too."

Riley squeezed her hand back and inhaled deeply, and he forced a smile on his face. "Hey, how about you tell me how Reagan proposed to your dad? It had to be awkward, right? I can't imagine that guy getting on one knee -"

"Wait, tell me you didn't get a ring from a walker?" Riley questioned, and Reagan finally looked at him with a slight mid annoyed look in his eyes.

"No, I didn't." Mercury chuckled and threw a small grin at her dad.

"Actually, it's a really funny story.."

Reagan looked down at his wedding ring, rubbing his thumb over it. He missed him so much, and it hurts just being here in Alexandria, but it was home to his daughters, and he couldn't just take them away from here, and Melanie needed him, she needed him now more than ever, and he wasn't going to run away again - never again.

He can't run away from the memories. He needed to face them, accept the fact that he needed to keep living without the love of his life because his sister and his daughters still needed him.

He was just needed here a bit longer.

☆
1295 words

Final chapter!

This book is officially finished after a long time. It wasn't the best ending, but I enjoyed writing this story, even though my writing isn't that great and I made a lot of mistakes, and I am going to deeply miss writing all of my characters for this book.

Teen Mercury spin-off?

Thoughts?