Just Keep Walking

One hundered and eighteen

"Hey. I know I let you come with us, but you gotta do as I say." Michonne said firmly to Mary as the van stopped at the meeting place.
"What's that?" Mary sighed in annoyance.
Michonne pretended Mary's sassiness wasn't present in her question, not wanting to tell her off in her current state. "You stay in the van."
"No! I wanna..."
"No. Mary, you stay in the van." Michonne said firmly, and Mary sighed, but stayed where Michonne had ordered her to. Mary stayed sat in the van, and eventually found sleep. Her dreams were plagued by people; by Carl, by her mother, by Alden, by Negan, by the mysterious man who claimed to be her brother, by Glenn. Especially Carl. Mary's heart was broken, utterly and completely, and the only person she wanted, she needed, was her father. She just wanted her dad back.
When Mary woke up, she was back at Hilltop, laid by Siddiq, who was slowly stitching up a cut in a woman's arm.
"Where's momma?" Mary mumbled, her voice thick with sleep.
"Hey, Mary. She's talking to the new people. Georgie and Hilda and Midge. They're helping us. Making a trade."
Mary sat up, her eyes blinking several times to remove the sleep from them, the back of her hand batting away a wisp of hair from her face. "Is daddy back?"
"Not yet. Soon. I promise."
"I want daddy!" Mary wailed suddenly, her face screwed up angrily.
"Alright, that's done," Siddiq said softly to the woman, and she nodded and left, a sympathetic look on her face as Siddiq went over to Mary.
"I don't want you! I don't want you! You're not Carl and you're not my daddy! I want them! I want Glenn! I want my mom!" Mary screamed, her face a bright red, on the brink of a toddler like tantrum. But this wasn't a toddlers tantrum. This was a grieving little girl.
"So, okay, lets, let's go get your mum." Siddiq sighed, taking her hand and guiding Mary to her feet, the girl still crying.
"Sorry," Siddiq whispered to Michonne when they got to her, "she wanted you. I couldn't calm her."
Michonne, however, wasn't too busy, and was simply watching over the three women - Georgie, Hilda, and Midge - while Maggie loaded a crate into their van. Michonne took her her crying child into her arms, and Mary simply nestled into her chest, seemingly uninterested to the three women and their van whom Enid and Rosita were silently guarding, a slight tension in the air.
"No spoke word?" Georgie asked, confirming the contents of the first crate, and Maggie nodded.
"I'm agreeing to your deal. We'll fill your four crates then you can go. We're gonna want that to be sooner than later."
"I accept, but I am changing the terms. This one, no more. In addition, you can have a sizeable portion of my food stores." Georgie said, her voice firm but kind, her eyes finding their way to Mary's stick thin limbs. "From the looks of things around here you need it far more than we do."
"You're giving us food? In exchange for what?" Maggie questioned, a sharp, suspicious edge to her voice.
"Records. And good faith. To be clear, this isn't a gift, it's barter. I'll be back, maybe not for a while, but I will, and by then I expect great things. Here is the before mentioned key to to a future, inside there are handwritten plans for windmills, watermills, solos, hand drawn schematics, guides to refining grain, creating lumber aquaducts, a book of medical human achievemt. So we may have a future from our past." Georgie explained, handing Maggie a handmade book. This caught Mary's attention, and her head twitched towards the direction of Georgia's voice.
"What's a mill?" Mary mumbled to Michonne, not receiving an answer.
"Yes," Georgie continued, "I know the originals are in my head, but I made photocopies. Still, it's been an evolving document since the copy shop."
"Thank you." Maggie smiled slightly, an image flashing across the back of her mind. An image of Mary, of Judith, of her unborn child, all thriving in a growing society, a society that was self sufficient, that was safe, where they could thrive.
"Build this place up. I want those other crates filled when I get back; cheeses for Hilda, pickles for Midge."
"We'll see what we can do." Maggie nodded.
Georgie's hand found Maggie's arm, and she nodded softly. "You will."
Maggie smiles back at her, the image of the children thriving still in her mind. She wanted that for them. For her and Glenn's child. For Carl's sisters. For the little girl Glenn adored. She needed a bright future for Mary. She loved her, but she also felt some pain when she saw her. She was Glenn's. Even if she couldn't love Mary as deeply as she used to, she had to give her the future Glenn wanted to give her. She had to; for Glenn. Georgie and the others left, and Maggie's mind kept replaying that image. She wanted Mary to be there with her and Glenn's child.
"This could give them a future." Michonne nodded, understanding the look on Maggie's face.
Maggie nodded, and smoothed Mary's hair before returning into the house.
"When's daddy coming home?" Mary whined to Michonne, the attention back on her.
"Soon, my love. Soon. I hope. Why don't we go get Judy, yeah?"
"I don't want Judy. I want Carl! I want Carl!" Mary hissed, her face returning to the angry, red colour.
"I know. I know. Me too." Michonne sighed.
"I want Carl!" Mary roared, and Michonne allowed a lone tear to fall out of her eye, her knees almost buckling.
"My turn for watch. Do you wanna come? She likes sitting on watch." Enid said softly, putting a hand on Michonne's shoulder. The older woman nodded, and kissed the top of Mary's head softly.
"Come on baby. Hop down. We're gonna go on watch. Look for daddy, yeah?" Michonne whispered to Mary, and the girl nodded, and they walked up to the guard post, watching Georgie's van leave, and the sun set in the distance. Mary's damp, angry eyes were replaced with sharp ones, looking for her father
"I killed Natania," Enid said suddenly, her voice almost shaking, "she was out there, trying to kill anyone she came across, and we came across her. So I killed her, and I'm alive, and Carl saved someone, and he's dead. How the hell are we supposed to do this? Are we supposed to just stop fighting?"
Michonne was silent for a moment, pondering her thoughts, then gave Enid a gun, the one she'd taken from the teenager earlier in the day. "I don't think Carl wanted us to stop fighting for our future," she explained gently, "but I think he was telling us that to get to our future, it's gonna take more than just fighting."
"The saviours are coming right now." Enid pointed out, urgency in her voice.
"And we're gonna fight them. But there's gotta be something after." Michonne reassured, and Enid went quiet, pondering Michonne's words.
"I'm gonna go help everyone get ready. It's gonna be tonight, I'm sure. They're gonna come tonight." Enid mumbled, turning to leave, to go back to the house, to Maggie. She ruffled Mary's hair on the way, the girls eyes still fixed on the horizon, waiting for Rick.
"I'm scared." Mary breathed, and Michonne nodded.
"Me too, hun. Me too." The mother whispered, sitting down next to her. They stayed like that for half an hour, Mary's head resting on Michonne's shoulder as they watched and waited for Rick, the pair in gentle harmony as the people around them prepared for the fight that was going to take place that night. For another battle.