Daryl and Henry pissed each other off earlier today. I overheard them arguing from afar, I didn't step in though. Henry ended up telling that girl about the Kingdom and also mentioned that it wasn't far from where we were which ticked Daryl off. Then Henry got upset that Daryl and some others were eavesdropping on their conversations.

I took inventory of our armory this morning, we've been low on guns and ammo for a while but we were stacked with just about everything else. It wasn't enough though, we needed more if we were in possible danger. That's what I did all day, I made weapons. Theo and some others, including a few members of the new group he took in, went out to look for Alden and Luke. He came back without them and a fear of what was out there. Theo was worried that they had been possibly taken and wanted to regroup before any dumb decisions were made.

I looked up from the spiral notebook I was writing in as I heard footsteps coming up to me. Daryl looked to it and back to me, "you start drawin' again?"

I flipped the book over so he could see what I was doing, "I'm just adding to the inventory list." I did get back into drawing occasionally, I stopped for a very long time. But Judith actually got me to draw again when I went back to Alexandria and I was pleased with some of the pieces that I've done since then.

"I was thinkin' that you should go talk to that girl," Daryl said to me.

I shut it down right away, "no."

"No?" His eyebrow raised.

"No," I repeated. "She doesn't know me, she won't talk to me. I put my machete to her throat. You keep trying, you've talked to her the most besides Henry and Henry's a blabber mouth. You don't have to be nice, just try and figure her out."

"She ain't gonna tell me shit," Daryl shook his head.

"Eventually she will if you do this the right way," I urged. "Daryl, we need to know more about her people. She's not telling the whole truth with them and I'm not gonna be caught in a situation where a massacre happens because of it. I can't let that happen here again. Find a weakness and dig. She'll spit something out."

"You a damn cop now?" Daryl teased.

I chuckled a bit at his question, "obviously not, but she's a kid. Kid's are easier to make a connection with than anyone else. Kid's are easier to convince. Let her know she can be on our side of this if she's compliant."

Daryl scratched at his chin for a second, "you've changed."

"Two years is a long time," I shrugged my shoulders. I knew I changed, but I'd like to think it was for the better. I was smarter now and more composed. "You've changed too."

"Hm," Daryl hummed at me saying this. He has changed, I could tell right when I saw him. Daryl was a rock, the toughest guy I knew and while that was more so the case now he still seemed softer in a way.

"I'll stay up tonight, you let me know how things go," I said to him.

"Alright," he nodded, then walked back towards the cell entrance. I started my way to the Barrington house, once I was in there I lit a candle and sat on the small couch near the cracked window by the front door. I would sit here to draw and read without getting bothered, people who walked into the house usually went right past this spot without even noticing I was sitting there. I grabbed the book I've been reading from the small table beside me and flipped it open.

—

I perked up when I heard a conversation happening on the porch of the Barrington house. My hands shut the book in my lap closed and I focused my ears in. I knew Daryl's voice like it was my own so I recognized it immediately, I also knew he was talking to Henry.

"Where are you going?" Henry questioned. It was hard not to go out there and be a part of this conversation, but I wanted this to play out without my input.

"Girl's too messed up. She's a waste of time," Daryl tried to get him off his back. Obviously, Daryl did have any luck with talking to her some more. Maybe he didn't take my advice seriously enough. "She's Theo's problem."

"What's gonna happen to her?" Henry sounded really concerned. There was silence at Henry's question and I sat there waiting for Daryl to just barrel through the front door, but he didn't. "Did someone used to beat you up too?"

My jaw clenched at Henry saying this and my heart fell. It wasn't something Daryl talked about, it took me figuring it out on my own to realize that he was a survivor of abuse. Still, he hardly spoke to me about it. More silence loomed at Henry's second question.

But then Henry spoke up again, "once, I heard my dad ask my mom why she kept her hair so short. She said when it was long her first husband would grab it when she tried to get away. He would pull it and slam her against the wall... so one day, she just cut it all off so he couldn't. And I guess it took her this long to feel safe again."

Daryl was silent at Henry's story about Carol, I didn't know this about her. I felt like I was intruding now, but I couldn't get myself to stop listening. I could hear Henry making his way up the steps as he continued on, "sometimes... you act like the type of guy who slams people against walls, but I don't think that's it. When my mom was trying to get you to come back here, the only thing that made you want to was her bringing up Aspen. You care about people, especially her."

"You shouldn't listen to people talk," Daryl stated back to him. It was hypocritical and he knew it, that's exactly what he did with Henry.

"Look, I know Lydia's people are bad, but that doesn't mean she's bad at all," Henry was making his case in her defense. "She's just scared. You can show her there's nothing to be afraid of. You can do that. And only you."

"No," Daryl denied with a catch. "Not just me."

A second later, the front door opened and my head whipped over to see Daryl's back. "Daryl," I called to get his attention. He turned around and I could tell he was a little surprised that I was sitting right there the whole time, but he walked over to me.

"You heard all that?" He asked with a hushed voice.

"Yeah," I told him honestly. "I know you're gonna keep tryin' with Lydia and I really hope it works out, but if it doesn't you can't just throw these things in Theo's lap. He doesn't know what to do about it either, he's scared too. All he wants is our people safe."

Daryl nodded at what I told him, "I know."

I stood up from where I sat and blew out the small candle next to me. I was more than ready to get some sleep. I took a step closer to Daryl, "I'm heading to bed... you can come stay with me."

Daryl looked like he wanted to agree, but he was hesitant, "nah, I got a place to sleep."

I looked up to him to give the most exaggerated puppy eyes, "me and you aren't starting over, remember? Come to bed with me."

I didn't wait for a response from him, I just walked past his figure and towards the stairs. I smiled to myself when I heard his heavy footsteps following behind me.

—

"What are you looking for?" I asked Theo as I climbed up to the lookout platform he was standing on.

"For the guards to get back with Kelly and Connie," Theo told me as he set his binoculars down. I looked out to where his eyes were and saw them coming down the dirt road to Hilltop.

"They left?" I questioned.

"More like snuck out," Theo sighed. "A guard saw them leave last night, I sent them out there to get them back."

"Why? If they want to go and look for their friend and Alden, you coulda just let 'em," I challenged.

"Because I don't need people going behind my back," Theo snapped at me. "We don't know who's out there, but we know they're dangerous. I'm trying my best not to get anyone killed here, including them."

"I'm sorry," I regretted giving my opinion because Theo was right.

"It's fine," Theo was obviously taking on a lot right now. "I just- I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. I don't know if I'm leading this place like it should be."

I rested my hand on top of his so he knew I really meant what I was about to say, "you're doing your best and your best is pretty damn good. Don't beat yourself up as much as you are or your eyes are gonna pop out of your damn head."

"They might," Theo chuckled as I looked back to the outer fields of Hilltop. The gates were opening up for Connie, Kelly and the guards to come back in now.

I squinted my eyes when I saw something odd out in the distance. I slapped Theo's arm, "gimme those binoculars."

"What is it?" He asked as he handed them over.

"Oh, hell," my heart raced as I took in the magnified view. It was a pack of walkers, but not the dead kind. These were Lydia's people.

"Oh, shit," Theo caught on to what we were looking at. Kelly and Connie noticed them too, Kelly tried to turn and get to her sister but the guards caught her. Connie was walking a bit behind them so she was running out of time until the skin people caught up. She ended up booking it into the corn field as the guards and Kelly ran into Hilltop.

"Hey! Shut the gates!" Theo yelled to the guard on gate duty.

I whipped my body around, scanning the entire camp until I found who I needed. "Daryl!" I yelled to get his attention. When he heard me scream his name, he sprinted over to get on the platform with us. Tara came up right behind him, we all stood their staring at what was on the other side of our gates.

There were at least fifteen of them, maybe even more and who knew how many were hidden within the trees. There was a woman standing in the front, she was middle-aged with a bald head and a dirty as hell face.

"I am Alpha," she introduced herself. "And we only want one thing from you. My daughter."

"Our community is fully prepared to defend itself!" Theo yelled back to the woman.

"I show you my face because we mean you no harm," Alpha responded. She didn't look harmless whatsoever. "I just want my daughter. I know you have her."

"You should turn around," Daryl warned from beside me. "Leave now and no one gets hurt."

"Wrong answer," Alpha did not like what he had to say. I watched her closely as she lifted her fist up into the air, seconds later more people wearing walker masks came out from behind the corn field. It wasn't just a few of them, it was more like twenty to to thirty of them. My fingernails started scraping at the skin on my thumbs out of anxiety. This bitch thought she could just walk up here and make demands like she had a leg up on us. I wasn't going to get shoved around again by some other bullshit group who thinks they're better than us.

"We gotta kill all of 'em," I blurted out to Theo, panic setting in.

"Aspen, shut the fuck up," Theo seethed at me. I don't think he knew how serious I was being, killing them right here right now was the best chance we were gonna get. They were all right here out in the open, we could do it. "Don't say another word. Don't even try to say something to that psycho bitch."

"That girl told me what her mom does to her," Daryl spoke to us, his voice calmer than mine was. "We ain't sending her back to that."

"If she has Alden and Luke... we might have to," Theo groaned. "If we piss her off, I don't think she'd have any issue with killing them."

"Did you kill out friends?" Tara asked loud enough for her to hear clearly.

"No," Alpha revealed. "Which one of you leads these people?"

All of us gave no answer to the question. The only thing she got back was a bark from Daryl, "what the hell does it matter?"

"Then I'll just address all of you," Alpha didn't care. "Your people crossed into our land. There will be no conflict. Your people killed our people. There will be no conflict. I'm done talkin'. Bring me my daughter or there will be conflict."

"No one touches the girl," Daryl ordered.

"Daryl..." Theo tried to talk to him, but Daryl already stormed down the platform. Theo cursed under his breath from Daryl ignoring him. My eyes followed Daryl's body as he went towards the front gates, both Enid and Henry swarmed over to him and started asking questions. Daryl kept walking though, he ordered the guards to open up the gates for him.