They walked through the snow. The crunch beneath their feet being the only sound. The dark above gave the snow an almost magical look.
Hedley kept close to Lydia and Carl. His hands firmly holding his loaded crossbow.
They came across the spikes.
The sticks frozen in place, illuminating the haunting past they hold. Lydia stopped and stared at one of the spikes, flapping her hands as she rocked from left to right. She was whimpering. Hedley went to her and slowly led her away.
Carl and Hedley's gaze met.
Carl signed, 'You okay?'.
Hedley signed back, 'I'm okay. Worried about Lydia. She's struggling'.
'I know. We'll be there for her'.
'Thank you... for trusting me'.
Carl smiled, 'Always'.
As they walked further, the blizzard got worse. It got to the point where it was nearly impossible to see. That was when they encountered the Walkers frozen in the snow. When Michonne used her sword to slice their heads, their skulls disintegrated into the ice below.
They made it to the frozen lake but not without trouble.
Walkers buried in the snow rose up and started to claw at the peoples ankles. Quickly, people stabbed at them and hurried to get across the ice.
"Where's Lydia?" Daryl called.
Hedley looked to where he'd last seen her, "Where did she go? She was right behind me!"
"I'll find her." Carol said, "You get everyone across. I'll be right back."
With that she was gone.
"All right, let's move!" Ezekiel ordered, helping the children of the Kingdom move across the ice. Hedley and Carl helped, lifting the small children and guiding them to where their parents were on the other side of the ice.
Once everyone was across, they waited for Carol and Lydia. Hedley was stimming with nerves, Daryl and Carl beside him as their own worry increased the seconds the girls were not in sight. But just as they began to panic, the two girls came in through the snow and were hand in hand, going across the ice. Daryl hugged Carol while Carl and Hedley looked at Lydia.
"Are you okay?" Carl asked Lydia.
She nodded, obviously not wanting to - or can't - talk.
They made it. That's all that mattered.
****
They made it to Hilltop in the early hours of the morning.
The new guests huddled in an office in the main building. Daryl quickly got the fire going and everyone started to relax.
"It's like our new Kingdom, only it's Hilltop." Jerry's voice sprang out, "Hey, if we call it 'Kingtop', maybe we could make that a thing."
The people around him smiled at his enthusiasm.
Carl was asleep against Hedley, covered in a blanket, all the while Hedley was leaning against the wall, running his fingers through Carl's hair.
"You should try to get some sleep." Daryl said as he went up to Lydia, "We're gonna head to Alexandria in the morning."
"Okay." She whispered, "Seems nice there."
"Yeah, it is."
"Why'd you leave?"
"One day." Daryl didn't like talking about Rick. "Try to get some sleep."
As Daryl went off, Lydia saw Hedley and went over to sit beside him.
"You doing alright?" Hedley asked quietly.
"I don't know." She answered truthfully. "This whole thing feels..."
"Not real?"
"Yeah."
"I understand." And he truly did.
"Can you tell me more about Autism?" She asked in a small voice. She clapped her hands, nervous.
Hedley pointed at her hands, "You're stimming."
"Stimming?"
"Stimming is a form of repetitive movement - either physically or sometimes vocally. It's for self-stimulation. It can link with our feelings." He explained, "Flapping our hands, hitting ourselves, spinning around, bouncing - its all stimming."
"And it's good?"
"It is. It helps us deal with our emotions." Hedley wiggled his bare toes, having taken his shoes and socks off as soon as he was in the building. He hated winter. It made shoes necessary.
"Why do you not wear shoes?" She asked after a pause.
"I find them uncomfortable." He said, "Like my feet are suffocating. It makes me itch and it makes my feet pulse like they can't breathe. It's called sensory overload."
"What's that?"
"Sensory overload happens when your brain is overwhelmed from the input of information from your senses. It's like your brain can't take in the overwhelming world around you and it just explodes. Have you ever been in a room and the lights are too bright and there's three different conversations happening and you can't focus on anything because its all too much? Or you can feel the tag at the back of your shirt and it feels like its cutting into your skin every time you move? Or when it's summertime and you're sweating and it feels like your skin isn't your real skin and you just want to claw it off?"
She nodded.
"That's sensory overload."
"But you wore shoes for days... how did you do it?"
"Masking." Hedley said, pulling the blanket tighter over Carl as he moved in his sleep. "Masking is when you mimic the people around you to fit in. I may have looked like it didn't bother me but inside, in my brain, every single step was a constant reminder that I was wearing shoes."
"I was masking." Lydia whispered, eyes on her fingers as they wiggled, "With my mom- with Alpha. She forced me to wear the skins. But every time I had it on, I felt like I couldn't breathe. My skin itched and sometimes I would scratch at the skin so much that I tore through it. I thought it was just fear. Because I was terrified. But... I didn't like the feeling of it on me. But I pretended to be like mom... so she wouldn't hurt me."
"It's okay, Lydia." Hedley looked at her, reaching to wrap his free arm around her shoulders, "You never have to wear one of those things again."
She leaned her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes, "Promise?"
"I promise."
****
They were back in Alexandria the next day.
Judith welcomed them. She collided with Michonne with the yell of 'Mommy!' and it was adorable seeing the pair embraced. But what was even cuter was how Judith ran up to Carl and Hedley. The two boys held her tightly, spinning her around.
"Judith, there's someone I want you to meet." Said Hedley, holding her on his hip when he walked over to Lydia. "Judith, this is Lydia. She's with us now. Lydia, this little princess is Judith Grimes. Carl's little sister."
"And Hedley's best friend in the whole world!" Judith added.
Lydia smiled. "It's nice to meet you."
That was when Daryl decided to throw a snowball at Hedley. It landed on his shoulder.
That was the beginning of a snowball fight.
Everyone got involved.
It was the fun thing they needed.
A reward for all their misery.
And all it took was a snowball.