Chapter 29

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Chapter 29

Carls POV

I was on a run for some clothes when I bumped into someone.

I pointed my gun at the boy.

"The hell you doin' out here by yourself, short stuff?" He asked.

"My name's Carl. And I'm not by myself." I said.

"Well I beg to differ, Carl. Unless you got an invisible friend I don't know about." He said.

"I'm way too old for that stuff. What's your name, anyway?" I asked

"Sawyer. And what are ya, six? Seven? How d'you figure that's too old? " he asked.

"Hey! I'm not six, I'm eighteen!" I yelled.

"Gosh, I didn't mean to offend you, Grandpa. You gonna tell me why you're out here, or not? I got better things to do than babysit." He said.

I scowled and crossed my arms, looking up as defiantly as I dared. "My camp's nearby. There's a bunch of us, and just one of you, so you better not try anything. And I don't need a babysitter, I can take care of myself." I said.

I brung the boy back to terminus. They let him stay. I sighed softly.

I went and found Lilian with the babies and Judith. I smiled to myself.

I leaned in the doorway watching them. Lilian looked up smiling. "How was the run?"

"Fine but I found someone." I said.

"Who?" She asked.

"Some kid named sawyer. He's an asshole to be honest." I said.

She nodded and got up. She put Riley in the playpen along with Dylan.

She went over and kissed my cheek. "I'm going to help Carol with laundry." She said walking off.

I nodded and went over to the twins. I kissed their cheeks softly.

___________________________

Lilian's POV

I went and helped aunt Carol with laundry. I started to hear yelling.

I walked to the yelling and saw sawyer and Carl fighting.

More people staring at them like he'd gotten something obscene tattooed across his forehead. Sawyer shook his head slightly as he walked, keeping his head straight and looking where he was being led too.

Just anything to try and ignore the staring that was getting on his nerves. His eyes dropped to Carl who'd started talking, keeping his voice low to avoid getting peoples attention, nodding quietly in understanding.

"'M sur' ya're righ', jus' li'l nervous 'bout som'one new is all" carl murmured, keeping his voice low just as he walked outside.

Rick went over to sawyer and talked to him.

"Sawyer Mason , pleas'd t'meet ya' Rick" Sawyer answered, shaking the offered hand firmly before taking his hand back, nodding once. "Yea', its' true, 'm jus' here t'help an' there ain't anyone else tha' I kno' of out there. It's al'igh', ya' boy tol' me 'bout the las' person ya'll let stay wit'cha. I got no prob'em wit' yo' questions, was expectin' 'em to be honest" he added, hooking his thumb against the string of his bow pressed against his shoulder, eyes glancing from the hard expression on my face to the look on Rick's.

He could just imagine the looks he was getting from the others he'd past.

Carl came back inside and stood beside me.

Rick's eyes flickered to Carl for a second, as if trying to gauge exactly how much his son had revealed about Terminus. Carl just said, "Sawyer's good at killing walkers. I bet he could help a lot, with patrols and stuff."

He somehow managed to sound earnest, defensive, and slightly protective all at the same time, and he did a diligent job of holding his ground. Rick almost smiled before his attention went back to Sawyer.

He took another few long moments to silently assess the man in that way he did when it looked like he was trying to read somebody's mind.

Being on the receiving end of those assessments made Carl nervous sometimes; it was so hard to know what was going through his father's head. But then Rick nodded.

They started to talk about more runs and other stuff.

"That's very kind of you, offering to lend us a hand. I won't deny that some extra help isn't something any of us can afford to turn down, not anymore. Let's take a walk, give you the lay of the land. Carl - " he started to say, and, anticipating that the next words would be something along the lines of stay in the house, Carl interjected.

"I wanna come too. Please, Dad?" Carl asked.

Rick hesitated, then nodded once more before he started to lead the way around the farmhouse, the Python at his hip catching sunlight as he walked.

So far so good, Carl thought, and smiled a little as he looked up at Sawyer.

Sawyer kept his mouth shut as Rick looked him over, as if trying to judge what he knew about the situation (Which was just about nothing since all Carl had said was that the last person they'd let into the group had brought trouble. As to what kind, that had been left to imagination) before Carl spoke up.

It took him a second to keep from letting a slight smile twitch onto his lips at the kid's conviction on why he should stay.

The silent look in Rick's eyes was enough to keep the former soldier in line, he recognized the look.

The assessment he'd seen before from COs and older officers and had long since learned to wait and keep straight faced.

"Okay let's go on a run. Everyone stay safe." Rick said with half the boys going to the cars.

(A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update but here's a long chapter.)

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