⇞ wrap your arms around me ⇞carl grimes

wrap your arms around me // the epilogue

• the epilogue to wrap your arms around me •
•lower case intended•
•all i want by kodaline to be played while you read•

the war with the saviors ends nearly a month later. ending with many saviors deaths, including negans. ending with many deaths from alexandria, the kingdom, and the hilltop. many of the families that were solely under negan's power do join alexandria, the kingdom, and the hilltop.

the final battle with the saviors ultimately lead with the deaths of tara, rosita, jesus, & unfortunately carl.

carl meets his death while leading many innocent savior families to safety. he's stopped by a walker only to have his right side bitten.

bailey witnesses the whole thing. knowing she has a job to do, she gets the families to safety into vans with carol & daryl.

she runs back to carl & helps him into a car. they drive off & carl asks to be reunited one more time with michonne & rick.

as the three gather around carl. it's obvious, there are no dry eyes.

carl tells bailey one more time before he has to meet his final breath "i'm happy that i was left on this earth with a woman like you. you're everything to me and so is our daughter. i'm sorry i couldn't beat this world with you, bails. just know that you're the only thing that kept me going. i'll love you until forever is done."

bailey doesn't let go of carl until his last breath.

for many hours, she lays with carl's lifeless body with michonne to watch over until carl turns.

many days have passed and carl still doesn't wake up. bailey never leaves his side & doesn't sleep those days. she is lost and can't figure out why carl never undergoes the change from human to walker.

finally,

carl wakes up.

not as a walker, but still as a human.

what seems to have been a miracle, rick and bailey do figure that the reason the bite didn't kill him but completely restarted his brain & memory. all those years ago whenever otis accidentally shot carl in the same spot he was bitten, the tissue had died which never let the infection spread all the way.

he has no memory of anything that happened to him. he functions properly, he just doesn't know the faces of his family or the concept of what happened to the world or walkers.

as the two years' pass, carl can never fully remember anything but struggles to relearn absolutely everything.

carl was never the same and he was never the same to bailey. with his struggles to remember his life, he ended up hating bailey and his daughter sophia. after a night of carl's rage taking over him he isolates himself for four days in his room. leaving rick, bailey, michonne, and sophia distraught.

bailey finds a letter stuffed in her third hunger games book that read

"bailey, if anything were to happen to me today, tomorrow, or any other day. i want you to know that you are my symbol of hope. you're my light in the darkness of this world. as long as i have you, i can always find my way back to reality. no matter how many scars this world leaves us, i can positively say you're worth every one of them to me. i love you more than words would ever be able to express and i love our daughter that i know we will have. i'll always be with you bailey grimes.

- carl"

that day carl was bitten for being heroic, he did die. a new carl that bailey had to help remember the world and their life was born. bailey never stopped being that symbol of hope for carl.

as four years have passed the kingdom, the hilltop, and alexandria do become one. 

they call themselves the fearless.

the fearless recruit day by day and gradually grow stronger. the world can never be the same again, but with hope, the group can try.

"and she threw her arms out to catch her prince. she's saved him at last and they live happily ever after." bailey reads from the children's book.

"come on mommy! just one more book, just one." sophia jumps from her bed. "sophia, it's bed time honey. if you go to sleep like a big girl, i'll ask aunt judith to braid your hair in the morning like hers. deal?" bailey asks her young daughter.

"deal mommy." bailey lowers down to tuck her child in and give her a kiss on the head.

bailey leaves sophia's room and heads back into her own. the door is open to the balcony and she follows over to find carl outside. he is leaned over the balcony, but turns around to see bailey.

"hey." carl says and he reaches his hand out to give to bailey. "hey carl."

"i never asked you, but do you know how any of this happened? how did the world fall to walkers and nothing more?" carl asked bailey, as she wrapped carl's arms around her.

"nobody knows, but it's up to us to take it back from them."

"i love you, bailey." carl says after six years.

 he hadn't said it to her since he died that day from the walker bite. bailey looked up at him in disbelief because she was sure she would never have heard that from him again.

"i love you too, carl." bailey says back and carl pulls her in closer. "thank you for teaching me day by day everything i've lost. you're patient. you said before i died that i loved you, but i have fallen in love with you again. thank you for absolutely everything bailey." carl finally says and that couldn't do anything for bailey but bring her to tears.

she is slowly getting carl grimes back.

"i never stopped loving you, carl grimes." bailey finally says.

they look out over the balcony and see the rest of the community. bailey realizes the integrity and strength that everybody has shown over the years and still do. the community is one and her heart is full. bailey realizes that the world can never be the same but with hope, it could begin a little something like that again.

• • • • •

an author's note and a thank you

thank you, a massive and heartfelt thank you. this was such an amazing journey. i'd stay up many nights to finish chapters of this book and years later i still do not regret it. my love for this book, my previous book, and the walking dead is strong. the walking dead has been and always will be a huge part of my life. i've met so many of the actors and so many cool friends through this show and i've never felt a greater passion for anything else than writing this book. 

i hope you liked the ending of this book. i'm content with it and i hope you are as well.

-kayla