Rosie liked staying at this new camp better than the Sanctuary- or at least on most days. What she liked about it was that it was a lot like the beginning, when she shared a tent with Daryl and everyone had set up camp at Hershel's farm. The only thing that sucked about this camp, though, was that other people were there. Other assholes were there. Like Justin. They all had their jobs. Most of the adults were working on fixing the bridge, while Rosie and Henry's job was to give out water and help with whatever anyone needed help with. Rosie was very happy to have a job. She hated sitting around, doing nothing, and feeling useless. Having a job gave her a real reason to be there, aside from Daryl's there.
What Rosie was pretty sure of was that Daryl was getting really damn fed up with some of the ex-Saviors. Ever more fed-up than he had already been feeling. It was like every single day was one more thread being snapped, one more thread closer to the whole thing falling apart. Rosie just hoped he could hold on until the bridge was finished before finally snapping and beating the shit out of one or more of the ex-Saviors. Rosie hated them just as much as he did, but the bridge needed to be finished, and if Daryl snapped before it was finished, some of the ex-Saviors might just quit. And the bridge was so close to being finished.
However, Justin had been getting progressively more irritating, so Rosie wouldn't mind if Daryl beat the shit out of him- even before the bridge was finished. Honestly, she wouldn't have minded if Justin just disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again. Or even died. Maybe that was a bad thought, but she couldn't not think it. It was like he was always trying to piss Rosie off, but he did it without anyone else ever noticing the fact that he was doing what he was doing intentionally. Rosie wasn't even sure if it was intentional, but that didn't change the fact that Justin was far past getting on her nerves.
Henry worked at the bridge, too, which gave Rosie some more time to hang out with him. She wished that Ian would come, but he wanted to stay back at Hilltop with Maggie, Hershel, and Rodney. Rosie still wasn't sure how she felt about Rodney. She hadn't spent much time with him. Henry was cool, too, but Ian was pretty much her best friend.
Now, Rosie was helping Henry with doling out the water. They only had one water cooler, which meant that each person only got one cup full, so that there'd be enough for everyone. Henry was carrying the water while Rosie carried the cup and a rag. She had to wipe the cup between each person per Siddiq's orders. Apparently, there was a bug going around in Alexandria and they didn't want one to spread around here.
"Thanks, guys," Arat said as she handed the cup back to Rosie. Rosie wasn't quite sure how she felt about Arat just yet. Out of the Saviors that had been tasked with feeding her and escorting her to the bathroom while she was stuck in that cell, Arat was the meaner one. Laura was the nicer one. But they were keeping her locked in the cell, anyway, so didn't that make both of them mean? Rosie wasn't sure how to feel about it, so she pretended that she wasn't thinking about it whenever she saw Arat or Laura.
As she wiped off the cup, Rosie followed behind Henry, not really paying attention to where they were walking. When Henry stopped, Rosie stopped. She looked up and Henry nodded his head forward. Of course. There he was. Justin. Rosie took a deep breath, willing herself not to be an asshole to the man, before tapping his arm with the cup. He turned to look at the two kids, then put a nail down before taking the cup from Rosie's hands.
"Thanks," Justin murmured as he filled up the cup.
"Yeah," Henry replied. Rosie didn't say anything because she really hated Justin and didn't want to interact with him at all.
When Justin was done with the cup, he brought it back down to the water cooler. Rosie tried taking it from him, like she was supposed to, but he wouldn't let go. "Easy there, Dixon. I'm still thirsty," he said. Rosie wouldn't let go of the cup, but Justin wouldn't, either.
"No. No. There's not enough," Henry spoke for Rosie. He was aware of just how much Rosie hated Justin, because she didn't shy away from complaining about it. "You can't," he said.
"Give it a rest, kid," Justin said, shoving Henry back and taking the water cooler from him. Henry fell back onto the ground.
Rosie's stomach churned with anxiety, but her face burned with anger. She snatched the water cooler out of his hand, and just as she did, Henry got himself back up and swept his stick behind Justin's knees, knocking him on his ass. "Back off," Henry snapped at the man.
Several of the surrounding workers began laughing at him. "Hey, man, it's cool. I got my ass handed to me by a kid one time, too. Of course, I was six at the time," one of them joked.
While Henry grabbed the cooler from Rosie and began moving on to the next person, Rosie followed a few steps behind him, glancing back at Justin to see if he was going to do something else stupid. A few moments later, Justin got up and started marching angrily toward Rosie and Henry. When Rosie saw that he was focused on Henry, she shoved Justin backward. "Fuck off! It's just the rules," she said, trying to look more fierce than scared.
Justin grabbed Rosie by the arm, jerking her towards himself. "Hey! What did I tell you about respect, kid?!" he asked.
"I don't gotta respect no one, 'less they deserve it," Rosie spat, tugging her arm away.
"You think I gotta listen to you just because your daddy runs the Sanctuary?" Justin asked in a mockingly questioning voice. Rosie just narrowed her eyes at him, pretending that she was angry rather than afraid. Justin's hand lashed out, and for a second, Rosie was scared he was gonna hit her, but he didn't. He grabbed onto her by the back of her neck, his thumb on one side and his pointer and middle fingers on the other, squeezing. He pulled her face closer to his and Rosie was sure that her heart rate was through the roof. "You're a little girl. I don't have to listen to y-" Justin's sentence was interrupted by Rosie punching him in the face as hard as she could manage.
Before Justin could try anything else, his shoulder was grabbed and he was spun around. Daryl sent a punch to his jaw that was so hard it knocked Justin back onto the ground, into a pile of sand and sawdust. When Rosie saw Justin grabbing a handful of the sand, she shouted out in warning and grabbed onto his arm. Acting out of pure rage, Justin swung his arm back to get Rosie off of him, and his elbow slammed right up against Rosie's nose. As blood began to fall from Rosie's nose, Justin tossed the sand into Daryl's eyes. That's when the fight got really bad. They each began throwing punches and knocking each other back. Rosie was backed up, away from the two men, watching with wide eyes as they fought. She had her hands over her nose, trying to catch the blood and ease the pain, but it didn't work. More and more people began to gather around, watching the show.
It went on for about a minute before Rick showed up and started shouting, Break it up! Break it up right now! I said enough! Rick inserted himself between the two men, shoving them back and away from each other. While some of the other workers restrained Justin, Rick kept his hand on Daryl's chest, stopping him from getting to Justin.
"You put your hands on my daughter or any other kid again, I swear to God, I'll kill you. I'll cut your heart right outta your chest," Daryl growled, still glaring daggers at Justin as Rick held him off. "You hear me?!"
"Enough," Rick said, giving Daryl a stern look. Daryl still glared at Justin, but spat out some blood and began to walk away. Rosie looked up at Daryl with wide eyes as he walked past everyone. When he got to her, he put his hand on her back and began leading her away. Rosie's heart was still beating erratically, but she was taking deep breaths and trying to calm it down.
Daryl spat out a bit more blood as they walked, but by the time they got to the tent they'd been staying in, he was all done with spitting out blood, apparently, because he didn't do it again. He pointed to a log that was set outside their tent. "Sit," he said. Rosie could tell by the sound of his voice that he was still beyond angry. She knew this would happen. She knew he was going to snap. She was just glad it was Justin. As Rosie sat herself down on the log, Daryl disappeared into the tent and returned with a water bottle. He knelt next to Rosie and pulled a red cloth out of his pocket, handing it to her. Rosie held the cloth to her nose and tipped her head back a bit, but Daryl tilted her head forward. "Forward, or you're gonna throw up," he explained.
"How?" Rosie asked. Her voice was a bit shaky, she noticed. Maybe that was the anxiety.
"Goes down your throat, messes with your stomach," Daryl responded, pushing Rosie's hair back out of her face to avoid getting blood in it. It kept falling back forwards, though. "You gotta hair tie?" he asked. Rosie nodded, holding out her left hand. There was a black hair tie around her wrist and Daryl took it, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "How bad's it hurt?" he asked.
"Only a little," Rosie answered, lying.
"Don't got any ice," Daryl said, watching her, frowning away his anger.
"Don't need any," Rosie murmured, lying again. She took the cloth away from her face, but more blood came, so she put it back. "Sorry," she said.
"For what?" Daryl asked.
"Gettin' in the way," Rosie said.
"It's Justin's fault. Not yours. Don't know why Rick still wants that piece a' shit around," Daryl muttered, glancing over to where Rick was on the bridge, still talking to the workers.
"Yeah. He messed up my notebook. All my drawings bled through to other pages. Got all fucked up," Rosie murmured, furrowing her eyebrows at the thought of it.
"What?" Daryl asked, looking back at Rosie again. "When? That why you left it at the Sanctuary?"
"Yeah. When you went to the museum, he got water all over it. When he was washin' away the chalk drawings I did on the wall," Rosie explained, picking at the bark on the log she was sitting on. It had been a little over a month since that day. Rosie chewed her lip, breathing in and out, in and out, in and out.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't know."
It was quiet then, for a minute or two. Rosie kept her eyes on her shoes and the cloth to her nose while Daryl watched her and kept glancing back, waiting for Rick to walk away from the workers on the bridge. Rosie was thinking about Negan, wondering if he knew Justin. She wondered what he thought about Justin. She knew Negan wouldn't like Justin now, though. Negan wouldn't like anyone who would hurt a kid, Rosie was pretty sure.
Eventually, Rick came walking over to Rosie and Daryl. He stopped in front of Rosie. "I'm sorry this happened to you, Rosie," Rick said, sounding sympathetic. Rosie would've said it's ok, thank you, but she didn't because she knew that Rick wasn't going to do anything about it. Not for a few days, at least. Not until they finished the bridge. The bridge was the priority, and Rosie understood that. She just wished that Rick wouldn't try to pretend that it wasn't, just to make her feel better. She knew how things worked. She didn't need him to pretend that she didn't. "Trust me, it'll be dealt with. We're gonna discuss-"
"I'm not a baby. I know what's goin' on. Ya don't gotta pretend that I don't," Rosie grumbled. She hoped it wouldn't come off as rude, because she really didn't mean to be rude. She just wanted to stop being infantilized. "You're not gonna do nothin' to Justin, 'cause ya want him to help finish buildin' the bridge. Ain't the end of the world. It's fine," she muttered.
"No, it ain't fine. That asshole just gets a free pass? That it?" Daryl snapped, standing up to match Rick's height. "Just gonna pretend like nothin' happened?"
"Daryl, let's talk about this inside, with Carol," Rick said, biting back the frustration he had, which only stemmed from stress.
Daryl's jaw tensed and Rosie could tell that he was holding back another harsh remark. Probably something along the lines of, whether we talk out here or in the damn tent won't change your fuckin' mind! But he was controlling himself. Instead of snapping at Rick, Daryl turned to Rosie and placed the water bottle on the ground next to her. "Use it to wipe your face with you're done bleedin'," he said before marching off toward the tent with Rick following behind him.
"It's just a few more days, Daryl," Rick said as he and Daryl stormed into the tent. Carol was already in there, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't like it, either, but we're in a rush to get that work done. He's strong. The Saviors are over half the workforce, and we've had too many walk off already," Rick explained, his voice tense.
"Yeah. 'Cause that's who they are," Daryl spat, trying hard to keep his voice calm and not yell. He wanted Justin dead or gone. One of the two, preferably the first. "Some of 'em ain't ever gonna fall in line just 'cause you say so."
"Daryl's right," Carol chimed in. She hadn't seen the whole situation, but Henry had already filled her in on it. "These people have never had to live together. And we can't expect them to just forget what's happened," she said, shaking her head.
"It hasn't been easy. I know. It won't be, not for a while, but it's not about forgetting. It's about moving ahead, all of us, together. We keep doing that, they'll see we're all on the same side," Rick tried to reason. He was wrong, though. Some people were just bad people. They wouldn't change, and even if they could, it was too much of a risk to keep them around. They could hurt people- that was already made clear. Any part of that little fight on the bridge could have turned fatal. Someone could have fallen, hit their head on a nail, fallen of the bridge- anything. Every part of it was dangerous.
Daryl was working his jaw, debating on whether or not to say what he was about to say. "Are we, though?" he asked, making both Carol and Rick go quiet. Rick stood up straighter. "Are we on the same side, Rick?"
"Well, you tell me," Rick said, somehow angry, threatening, and calm all at once.
"Thing is, man, I've been tryin' to. But you don't seem to wanna hear it," Daryl said, his voice tense and his tone harsh. Rick stayed quiet, unsure of what to say. Daryl was right. He didn't want to hear about how some of the ex-Saviors had been acting. He just wanted them to be moving on, going on, and working together. But that couldn't happen until all of the problems that they had were addressed. "I don't give a shit if that bridge is finished or not. He touches her again, I'm puttin' a bolt through his chest," Daryl said before storming back out of the tent. Rick tried calling after him, but Daryl ignored it.
While Daryl was talking to Rick and Carol, Rosie was still sitting on her log, breathing in and out, in and out, in and out. She was angry, but she was trying not to be. She didn't want to be angry anymore. She felt angry too often for her liking.
Rosie had to hold the red cloth up to her nose for about five minutes before the bleeding came to a stop. Once that was done, she wiped whatever specks of blood had been stuck to her nostrils away with the water. With the water that was left over, she rinsed as much of the blood out of the towel as she could. She felt like she might've been wasting the water, but she knew it wasn't drinking water. It hadn't been filtered. It was from the river, which meant that it had all the gross fish feces and germs in it. That was the type of stuff that got people sick. She made sure to think about that as she was cleaning the rag, so that way she wouldn't feel like she was wasting anything.
When she was done with the rag, she laid it out across the log for it to dry. Then she picked up a twig and began drawing in the dirt. After a minute or two, Henry came and sat down next to her. "Does it hurt bad?" he asked, gesturing to her nose.
"No," Rosie lied again, wanting to seem tough. She signed her name in the dirt. Rosie Dixon. She liked writing that a lot better than she liked writing Rosie Banks. "That was cool. When you knocked him on his ass," she said to Henry.
"Thanks. It was cool when you punched him, too," Henry said. Rosie gave him a fake, tight-lipped smile, because she wanted to give him a real smile, but it was hard to when her nose and hand hurt. Henry looked down at her name in the dirt. "Can I ask you something?" he said.
"Yeah," Rosie said.
"But you have to promise not to get mad or... or be offended or something," Henry added on.
"Ok..." Rosie murmured, now a little bit nervous to hear his question. She didn't want to not hear it, though.
"Is Daryl your real dad?" Henry asked, unsure of how to phrase it. He wasn't sure if asking that way was polite or not, but he had been wondering ever since he met Rosie.
Rosie didn't answer for a moment, thinking about it. "Yes," she lied.
"Then why do you call h-"
"I was lyin'. Sorry. Don't know why," Rosie blurted out, correcting herself. That was weird.
"Oh. Ok..." Henry murmured.
"My actual dad is dead. And he was an asshole, so I don't wanna talk about him. Sorry," Rosie said, frustrated with herself. Maybe it was because of what Daryl said. My daughter. Rosie got up and brushed her name and drawing away in the dirt. "Bye," she said before disappearing into her and Daryl's tent.
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I hate Justin but I'm so glad he's here because he just made Daryl call Rosie his daughter 😝😝