Ada

๋࣭ ⭑⚝

I sat at a table, eating 'breakfast'. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Carl stood close by against a wall, on full alert, and Hershel was wrapping the wound of one of the people we rescued.

"You can take those stitches out in a week or so." He says to the man. 

"Pretty nice having medical training." One of the other men says to Hershel.

"It'll only get you so far," Hershel says.

"You got bit." The same man asked, gesturing towards Hershel's missing leg. Hershel nodded in response.

Beth then walked into the room, holding Judith in her arms, causing the new people to be surprised. 

"How old is the baby?" The woman asked. 

"Barely a week," Hershel answered. 

"To be honest, we never thought we'd see another baby." The woman walked towards Beth, in awe. "Beautiful. How are you feeling?"

Beth looked shocked for a moment before responding. "She's not mine." She says. 

"Where's the mother?" The woman asked.

The group's silence was enough.

"Sorry." The woman apologized.

I looked at Carl, feeling embarrassed for her, and sorry for him. 

Finishing my breakfast, I stood up and walked away from the table, following Beth. Reaching the door, I gestured for Carl to unlock it, and he did so, silently. 

"Thank you, kind sir." I grinned. 

He had a plain look on his face and only glanced at me briefly. He's too on edge to pay any attention to my humor. 

I followed Beth into the cellblock and sat with her on the stairs. She smiled as she fed Judith.

"Did you ever want kids of your own, Beth?" I sparked conversation. 

"Yeah, more than anything." She grinned. "I hope one day, I'll still be able to."

"You will." I don't like to tolerate negative feelings. "And, maybe I will too. You know, if I meet a great guy, in a safe place, maybe then."

"Maybe you already met him." Beth giggled a bit.

"What?" I questioned.

"Nothin'." She smirked at me smugly.

Before I spoke again, the cellblock door opened and Hershel and Carl walked in.

Hm. She couldn't mean..?

"How is she doing?" Hershel asked.

"Amazing, how 'bout yourself?" Ada joked.

Hershel smiled at her, appreciating her humor. 

"I meant the baby, but that's great to know as well."

"She's doing well," Beth answered. "We have enough formula for a while, we'll be alright."

"Good. Good." Hershel says, and then walks away into a cell, to rest I presume.

I stood up from my spot on the stairs and walked into my own cell. As I reached the door to my cell, I noticed Carl following behind me. I turned around to face him. "What's up? Finished your guard duties so soon." I joked.

"No, I'm still on the job. Wanted to make sure you were safe." He answered plainly.

"Ah, yes the 10 steps from the stairs to here was quite dangerous." I smiled and grabbed his hand. "Thank you, my knight in shining armor! I'm so very grateful." Carl began to pull away, annoyed by my jokes. 

"Wait, wait! I'm just messing with you." I pleaded, laughing. "Come sit down, take a breather. You've been on edge all day."

"Well there's reason for that, not everything is a joking matter. This is serious." He snapped a bit.

I grimaced a bit, feeling embarrassed. 

Read the room, Ada.

I mentally face-palmed.

"You're right. I'm sorry, Carl." I grabbed his hand and pulled him to sit down with me on the bed. "I'm just worried about Scott, and everybody who left," I admitted. "I use humor to cope with my anxiety, obviously."

Carl shook his head a bit. "I understand. But, I need to be serious right now. If the group doesn't come back, I need to step up. I can't be distracted." He stood up. "I'm going outside to keep watch with Carol. Do you have your gun?"

I only nodded in response.

"Good." With that, he turned around and walked away.

I watch him walk away, now feeling overcome with my anxiety about the group, thinking of all the worst possibilities once again. I fall back onto my pillow and sigh loudly. 

Maybe if I sleep the day away, they'll be back, and all will be well. Right?

And so I did.

I was awoken by a loud voice echoing through the cellblock. It was muffled, but I definitely recognized it. Jumping up from my bed and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I ran out of the cell.

The door to the cellblock opened as I ran out and I was met with the familiar face of my brother. 

"Scott!" I yelled, running towards him. He ran to meet me, wrapping his arms around me tightly.

"I'm so happy you're okay." I sighed. "I was so worried." The tears began to fall before I had a chance to stop them.

"It's okay. I'm okay, A. We all are." He comforted me. I saw Rick and the others walk in from the other room, and Rick walked straight towards Beth, to hold his daughter. He looked at his baby daughter closely, with an empty feeling in his eyes. He looked deep in thought.

I turned away and looked back towards my brother. It was then that I noticed a black eye, and blood covering his clothing. 

My eyes widen. I went to question him, but I couldn't find the words. Only stutters left my mouth, as I was stunned by his appearance. "What the hell happened, Scott?" I finally managed to say, feeling scared of the answer. 

He grabbed my face, pushing tears out of the way with his fingers. "I'll explain everything, okay."

I nodded, wiping my face with my hands. "Okay, yeah. You should go get cleaned up. Don't let me keep you with my dramatics." I sniffle and rub my eyes more.

He patted my back and led me into our cell. He sat down on the bed immediately and winced. 

I grabbed a rag from one of our bags and wet it with a water bottle to wipe the dirt and blood from his face. Most of it came off easily, but the bruise around his eye only turned a darker purple. 

"The blood isn't mine. Mostly." He winced as I touched his eye.

"Sorry." I put the rag down. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think. My face looks better than the rest of me." He joked. 

Looking at my frightened expression, he sighed before speaking. "The people that took Glenn and Maggie," He began, "are not the most welcoming."

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

Scott had caught me up on everything that happened at Woodbury. The governor, Oscar's death, Daryl leaving with his brother (and seemingly unpopular opinion, I agree with him leaving. I would have done the same thing). But nobody else wants to admit it. He told me about how Glenn and Maggie were held and basically tortured for information, which scared me more than anything, and also about the fighting rings with walkers. Creepy as all hell. 

After our talk, I walked Scott out of the cell block to get something to eat. Hershel caught us in the other room. 

"I need to take a look at you, Scott, as soon as possible, okay?" Hershel told him.

"Sure," Scott answered, turning back to his food. He eyed the new people, as did everyone else before Rick walked into the room. Rick went straight up to the new people.

"I'm Tyrese." One of the men spoke to him. He held out his hand for Rick to shake, but he ignored it. 

I stood up from my seat, feeling uneasy, and stood behind Scott. 

"Sasha, Allen, Ben." Hershel introduced the rest. 

"How'd you get in?" Rick got straight to the point. 

"Fire damage to the administrative part of the prison. The walls down." Tyrese answered.

"That side is completely overrun, how'd you get this far?" Rick questioned. 

"We didn't. We lost our friend Donna." He answered.

"They were lost in the gyms," Carl spoke up and Rick whirled around, angry at his son's words.

"You brought them here?" He questioned Carl. 

I looked at him, and shook my head, silently begging him not to mention my name. Scott may be a lenient hero himself, but I don't know how he'd feel if he knew I went.

"He had no choice." Hershel defended, leaving me out of it, knowing I helped. 

Rick nodded silently and then spoke, "I'm sorry about your friend. We know what that's like."

"Hershel said you could use some extra hands. We're no stranger to hard work." Tyrese says to Rick, "We'll get our own food, stay out of your hair. If you got a problem with another group, we'll help with that too. Anything to contribute." 

"No," Rick responded almost immediately.

"Please," The woman, Sasha, spoke. "It's like '10 Little Indians out there. It's just us now."

"No," Rick repeated. 

"Let's talk about this." Hershel pleaded for them. "We can't just-"

"We've been through this. With Tomas, Andrew. Look what happened." Rick says.

"Axel and Oscar weren't like them," Carol defended the prisoners. 

"And where's Oscar now?" Rick says in response. 

We all looked around at each other, awaiting Rick's next words. 

"I can't be responsible." He says to Tyrese.

"If you turn us out, you are responsible," Tyrese says.

Hershel then gestured for Rick to come over to him, and the two began to whisper to each other. Rick looked around the room, at us, at the new people, and sighed. He seemed to decide before his gaze went up, towards the balcony. He looked confused and scared. I followed his gaze, finding nothing up there. I looked back at him as he began to mutter, 'No.' Just, no. Multiple times under his breath, before he started to get louder. 

"Why are you here?" He asked though I didn't know who he was speaking to. "What do you want from me?" He walked away from Hershel, beginning to pace back and forth.

"Dad?" Carl spoke. I look at him, confused, only to find him with the same expression on his face. 

"I can't help you. Get out!" Rick continued to stare up at the balcony as he yelled. "Get out!" He yelled towards the new group. They thought he was screaming at them, but it really didn't seem like he was. 

"Hey, come on, it's all good, man." Tyrese began to back away from Rick. 

"Rick, there's no need to-" Maggie began, but Rick quickly interrupted her, causing her to jump back.

"You don't belong here! Get out, please!" He yelled more and then pulled out his gun. We all took multiple steps back, afraid of what he'd do next. He kept yelling 'Get out, get out,' over and over.

"Okay, relax, we'll leave. We're going." Tyrese says beginning to walk away. "Ain't nobody got to get shot here." 

"What are you doing here!" Rick screamed. 

"Just go!" Glenn pushed the group out, not wanting them to get hurt. They scattered away, leaving us all in the room with Rick, who did not look entirely with us. I still stood next to my brother, who had now gotten up from his seat. I looked around the room at the rest of the frightened group before leaving.

I was the first to leave, and my brother followed. I didn't like being around men who acted like this, and neither did Scott. 

I laid down on the bed in our cell, and Scott came to sit by me.

"That was.." Scott began.

"Terrifying." I finished.

"No." Scott shook his head. "Rick isn't like this, something must be wrong."

"Something besides what happened in the last 24 hours?" I asked.

"Maybe." My brother answered.

He turned over and laid down next to me. The bed was small, so he was hanging off the side, and I was squished into the wall, but it was nice. 

"You know, I've yelled at you like that once or twice before." He says to me. "Do you remember that?"

I looked at him, confused. "Vaguely." I lied. His past words and actions hurt to think about.

"Yeah. And I feel embarrassed as fuck every time I think about it." He admitted. "I've never felt worse for anything I've ever done in my life. Because treating you, Jane, and Mom that way, was something I swore never to do. I never wanted to be like Dad. But sometimes, because of his influence, I did." He sighed a bit. "Which didn't make it okay, still doesn't. But it's not me. It never was." 

"What's your point?" I asked, wanting this conversation to be over.

"I want you to know that." He says.

"Know what?"

"That it's not me. Not anymore, not ever. And if I ever treat you like that, or say anything like what I used to again, promise me, you'll shoot me."

"Scott!" I exclaimed. "Be serious."

"I am." He says. "I am dead serious, A."

I nodded, knowing his words were true, and laughed a bit. He pulled me closer into his arms, and we lay like that into the night.

My father haunted me. His words. His face. His actions. Scott had his ups and downs with him, as did the rest of us, but Scott knew how to deal with him. 

My father knew how to manipulate, but so did Scott.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

"Unlearning abuse also means unlearning the abusive behaviors that you inherited as survival tactics."

-Chachi Yaniré