TENSION-096
Running towards the lumber site after the second siren didn't go off, Matilda pulled out her hammer swinging it at incoming walkers and kicking them away before hurrying after her husband and Aaron, whom arm was shredded.
Once they were back at camp, the couple help the man into the medic tent, laying Aaron on the bed.
"Where's Saddiq?" Daryl asked as Enid examined his arm.
"He's gone. It's just me." Enid replied, looking down at the man's shredded arm. She had a grim expression. "I have to amputate."
"What?" Aaron asked, his voice breaking.
"There ain't no other way?" Daryl asked as the teenager got the supplies with Matilda's help.
"The only way to stop the bleeding is to amputate and cauterize the wound." Enid explained, handing Matilda a book with the directions. "Here."
She handed Daryl a piece of rope making him tie it tightly around Aaron's arm. Aaron whined as the three got to work, Enid grabbing a knife.
"You got something for the pain?" Daryl asked.
"It wouldn't kick in fast enough. We have to do this now." The teen said, coming back over to the couple.
Matilda kneeled down at Aaron's head, taking off her belt and placed it in his mouth. "Bite, Aaron, bite it."
Aaron bit down, hard, on the belt as Edin told the couple to hold the man down. Matilda pressed her hand down on the man's shoulder, as Daryl placed his free hand on his chest.
"You can do it." Aaron said against the belt, looking at the teen. "Do it!"
He let out a muffled scream as Enid made the incision. After she was gone, Matilda took her husband's place beside the man as the teen started to cauterize the wound. She smoothed her hand over Aaron's sweat covered forehead as he seemed to past out from the pain.
As she wrapped his arm, chaos irrupted from outside making her let Enid take over and step out of the tent. Tilly hurried over to the sound of fighting and saw her husband had hit Justin over the face with a pot before being held back by Carol.
In front of her husband was their son and Henry who had a slightly scared expression on their faces. Daryl turned back towards Carol as she spoke.
"We'll deal with him, but not like this."
"There's only way to deal with these assholes." Daryl said before walking back towards the medic tent.
He brushed past his wife, not sparing her any eye contact before she walked towards Carol.
***
After talking with Carol and made sure her son was safe with her family, Matilda sat at the head of Aaron's cot, her hand softly playing with his curly as her father walked in.
"Well done." Rick said softly to Edin, so he didn't wake up Aaron. "He's gonna be alright?"
Enid nodded. "Yeah. If we can keep the wound from getting infected. But he's still in a lot of pain."
"He's holding on though." Daryl pipped in, he was sitting on the chair next to the man's bed.
"Damn right I am." Aaron spoke, weakly.
Matilda let a small smile spread across her face, running a hand though his hair as her father and husband switched places.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you. We were all supposed to be working together. I thought we were." Rick said with guilt in his eyes.
"You couldn't have known." Aaron replied.
"I've been pushing everyone hard. I know I have. I put this project first. And you paid the piece."
Aaron swallowed. "It was worth it. When the dead started to rise, I thought it was seeing the end of everything. But you changed all that, Rick. It's not the end of the world anymore. It's the start of a whole new one. I'll always be glad I was here to be a part of that."
***
The next day, Matilda decided to go back home for the day to be with her daughter. She had asked her husband if he wanted to come with, but he refused; saying that he wanted to be at camp to watch the Saviors. She was slightly upset with him, due to the fact that he hasn't seen Cassie in a few months, but understood his reason.
Back at Alexandria, Max immediately sprinted towards their house with a large smile in his face as he throw open the door and saw his baby sister playing with Judith and Michonne.
Both Judith and Cassidy's face lit up upon seeing Max, the four year old climbed to her feet and raced towards him. Hugging the toddler, Max looked at his sister, who made grabby hands at him.
Max took his sister from Michonne, he whined as Cassie grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged in excitement. Waiting for their mom, Max sat on the floor with his sister and Judith as they started to play with their toys.
When the door opened and Matilda and Rick stepped into the living room, Judith stood up, racing over to her father as Cassie with the help of her brother, unsteady climbed to her feet and wobbled half way to meet her mama.
Matilda smiled as she picked up her daughter and planted a kiss on her wet cheek. Cassidy giggled as she tangled her tiny hand in her mother's hair.
The family of six spent the day playing around their home after they had gotten Cassie and Judith a well check from Kelly and Saddiq. Matilda and Cassie had watched Rick, Michonne, Max, and Judith play hide and seek before Michonne and Judith had a sword fight with sticks. Her father, her daughter, and her sister had a crawling race in the house, which her sister had won.
When midday hit they headed back home, Judith and Max walked in front of them, their arms swinging back and forth. Cassie was asleep in her grandfather's arms, her head was resting on his shoulder and her hands clutched the fabric on back of his shirt.
At the house, Rick read his youngest daughter a book with Max listening too. Matilda was leaning against the railing behind them after she had put her daughter in the house.
The three adults exchanged a look as Scott jogging towards them, Michonne went to see what he wanted before the father and daughter followed after.
"It's one of the Saviors. He was missing. Others are getting suspicious. He was found, but he was found. But it doesn't look like an accident. Someone definitely took him out." Scott explained before handing Rick the walkie talkie.
Rick and Matilda hopped on their horses after her father told Michonne to stay with the kids, Max agreed to stay with his sister and Judith.
The father and daughter rode off as fast as they could towards the camp site and when they got there, our people and Saviors were fighting. Matilda pulled out her gun as the pair rode their horses into the middle of the chaos.
"Everyone back off! Right now!" Her father yelled, making the groups back off.
"I'll talk with Rick. I'll try and find a way to make everybody feel safe, alright?" Alden reassured the Saviors.
The remained Saviors turned and walked away as Rick spoke again. "Start the redirect. Pair off to work the grid."
Matilda got off her horse, walked towards her husband and immediately felt the tension between them. She watched as he sat on a log and began sharpening his knife.
"I know you didn't do it." She said, leaning against a tree. "And I agree with you that the majority of the Saviors won't change, but I don't agree with the way you handle it."
"If I'd killed him, I'd have killed him in plain slight." Daryl replied, looking up at her.
"I know." Matilda nodded as her father came over.
Rick took a seat on the other log, glancing between his daughter and son in law. "That wound on Justin...looks like a puncture. I wondered if it could be from a knife, but it's small, round, and clean. Smaller and cleaner than a bullet hole. It kind of looks like an arrow hit him. Or a bolt."
"Is this the kind of shit you used to do?" Daryl asked, looking at his leader.
"When I had to." Rick nodded.
"Daryl didn't kill anyone, dad." Matilda spoke up, defending her husband.
"I know. But others do. So I'm making sure." Her father glanced at her before looking back at her husband.
"Like I told Tilda, if I'd have killed him, I'd have killed him in plain slight." Daryl says, making Rick nod. "I don't who it is, but I know why, and so do you. Bringing all these people together, it was always gonna happen."
Rick shook his head. "No. It's the right thing to do. The future belongs to all of us now."
"Why do they get this future? And Glenn don't? Or Abraham? Or Sasha? Or Lee?" Daryl said, as Tilly winced at her brother's name. "All the people the Kingdom lost...Hilltop...Oceanside? You ever think about what they want? What they'd do, if they could?"
"Yeah, I do. I have. For a long time, I wanted it too, maybe more than anyone. But killing each other when the world already belongs to the dead? It's not the way, not anymore." Rick exclaimed.
The tension between Rick and Daryl raised as the redneck stood, grunting. "We should go work that grid."
"Daryl, I know you don't agree with everything we're doing here. All I ask is that you try. Do it. Let people see it. And maybe everyone moves past what's happened to what could happen and maybe, just maybe, it's be one of the best decisions you ever made. Like not killing a guy who left your brother on a rooftop to die."
With that Rick walked away, leaving his daughter and son in law alone.