*Dahlia*

     I grab my 'Sniper Rifle Power Piston' and I remove the clip and I hear rick and dad talking as I assemble the gun and daryl says "we're gonna talk about this when we get back to hilltop you shouldn't have kept it from us dahlia". I scoff and roll my eyes as I stand outside the tree and I say "I was keeping a promise dad" he rolls his eyes and scoffs and he says "it doesn't matter dahlia we're family you don't lie to us". I roll my eyes and rebuttal "oh so you tell me everything about yourself?" his eyes widened and he says "that's different I'm aloud to keep certain things to myself". I snicker sarcastically and I say as I walk away "that's okay daddy I'm aloud to keep certain secrets to myself too tara come help me up into the tree please".

I hear her walk after me and she helped me up into the tree and I see rick doing the same with michonne and tara says "be careful". I flash her a smile and I say "you be careful too your the one doing all the work do not let natania get the drop on you or Cyndie". She lets go of my hand and I load up the sniper rifle and I straddle the branch and I follow tara with my scope and my dad and pop and I take a deep breath. I find dad in my scope and he waves a bandana and we keep an eye out for walkers and then my scope finds natania and Cyndie holding tara at gun point.

I gasp and then tara says "dahlia don't I'm alright" I feel tears start to form I will not lose tara I haven't even told her how much I like her yet. I growl and I have the kill shot and I see rick talking to her back and forth and I see Cyndie put her gun down and my eyes find hers and I hear michonne scream "rick walkers". That was my cue and I scream across the field to Cyndie "Cyndie now" she clocks her grandma in the jaw and tara and we kill every walker in sight and once they were all gone I hop down off the tree.

My feet hit the ground and I take off running through the tree's and when I see tara I drop my gun on the ground and my body collides with hers. I wrap my arms around her neck and she kisses me on the forehead and I whisper "I was so scared" she rubs my back and she says "I'm alright barely even a scratch". I pull away and I say "first thing" I hit her arm and she exclaims "what was that for?" I cross my arms over my chest and I say "for getting caught by natania". She rubs her arm and I say "second thing" I grab her hand and pull her closer to me and I kiss her firmly on the lips and she kisses me back I wrap my arms around her neck and hers go to my waist I was right it was like a time bomb set into motion her kiss was like sunshine in a bottle or a firework in a bottle.

She smirks against the kiss and so do I and then before I know it I was being pulled away by pop and he hugs me from behind and he says "whoa whoa whoa whoa back to your corners make room for Jesus". I hear Chrissy start to laugh and so does everyone else and dad pushes tara back and she says daryl "I like her ok she's a very smart girl". I find myself smiling and daryl says "let's get back to work these guns ain't gonna load themselves tara you with me and dahlia you with pop". Then we were loading everything up into the trucks and pop says as we carry another box "so?".

I smile at him and then enid sends me a raised eyebrow I scoff and shake my head "it was everything I imagined and more it was like fireworks in a bottle or lightning in a bottle". Enid sends me a smile and giggles and pop says "young love is always the deepest it's the one that always hurts the most". I shrug and after Cyndie gets done talking with tara we start to walk away and tara hangs back from beside rick and she interlocks our fingers which I found sweet. I find myself smiling and I hear Rachel asks "you not leaving us any?" before tara could answer I say "nope see ya around Rochelle".

I flip her the middle finger and tara giggles and pulls me in for a hug and pulls my hand down and she says "I bet she's a nice person". I snicker and I say "more like the devils child" she laughs at my joke and we start our drive back to Alexandria and as soon as we get out I follow behind enid and pop when they see rosita at the gate. Pop asks her a question but I couldn't hear him and rosita says to us "there's someone here". We follow her inside the walls and towards the cell and when we stand outside the cell I see a guy with long blonde hair and a burn on his face.

That must be Dwight the one who had my dad captured and out of nowhere my dad runs inside the cell and tries to attack Dwight but rick holds him back and so does my pops. I step inside the cell and I say "calm down dad" he starts to chill out when I tell him to calm down and rosita says "he says he wants to help us". Rick turns around from beside me and he asks "that true? you wanna help?" Dwight nods as I remove my hand from dads shoulder and he answers rick "I do". I stand beside dad and rick says "okay" my eyes widened in surprise and he pulls his colt python out and points it Dwight's head "get on yer knee's".

He gets down on his knee's in front of rick and after rick gets done with his talk with him tara leans down towards his eye sight "that woman you shot". My eyes must had flashed with confusion I bite my lower lip and she says "she had a name her name was a Denise she was a docter and she was gonna help people". My eyes widened in surprise so he is the guy who shot Denise and the next words that tumbled out of his mouth almost had me killing him on the spot "I wasn't aiming for her". My dad runs inside again and tackles him to the wall and holds up the knife to his head and tara tells daryl "do it".

I hate to say this but it doesn't sound like tara is completely over Denise's death and that is completely understandable. But maybe she and I should take a breather it seems like she isn't fully over Denise and that's gonna take a long time to get over. Dwight says a few words to my dad and I step inside and place my hand on his shoulder and I say "dad don't it's not worth it". I hear tara trying to egg my dad on and I turn my gaze to hers and I say "stop it's not gonna bring her back".

Dad stops and pushes his knife down and he says "she just saved your life" Dwight nodded at me and I say "don't thank me I didn't do it for you". He nods in agreement and dad backs away and Dwight says to rick "negan's coming soon three trucks maybe I'll bring some tree's down into the road to buy you guys some time to get ready and kill everyone that's here and then we take the trucks and go back to the sanctuary and then we get the workers on our side and build our numbers up and then we go from outpost to outpost and end this". I nodd in agreement and after he leaves in the truck he came in and I help pop load up his truck and I say "can I come with ya'll?". He sends me a soft smile and he says "you okay doll face?" I shake my head at him and I say "I'm fine hilltop is my home".

He pulls me into a hug and so does Chrissy and enid hug carl's neck and Chrissy stands beside me and she says softly "sorry love". I shrug and I bump her arm and I say "I'm fine Chrissy she's not over Denise and that's ok it's gonna take time before she moves on from her and it's okay I'll be there waiting when she's ready". I walk over to dad and I say "I'm going with pop I will see you tomorrow when we bring the calvary". He chuckles and gives me a hug I wrap my arms around his torso and I say softly "don't worry so much about me daddy"

He chuckles and pulls back and he says "sorry that is one thing that will not change" I giggle and I whisper "it's not gonna happen dad I'm not ready to date anybody". Rick walks down the steps and he says "do you mind if Jude goes to hilltop with you? so she's not here for the war tomorrow". I nodd at him and I say "sure yeah she can come with us" he goes back inside his house and tara walks over to me from the porch steps after dad leaves and I ask softly "if I ask you something will you promise not to get mad?". She nodded at me and I ask "did you love Denise?" she avoids my gaze and then her gaze is all the answer I needed and I say "maybe we should take a break and when I'm what you need you come find me".

Her eyes have so much guilt in them and I say "I'm not going anywhere lets just be friends for now" she nodded and I walk over to rick and grab a sleeping Judith and he grabs her car seat to put inside our car. She buries her head into my neck I rub her back and then her arms wrap around my neck and pop starts to rub her back and he says "she's so cute". I nodd at him and when rick gets her car seat inside the old landrover and I get her strapped in carl gives her a kiss on the forehead and rick does the same thing. I find myself smiling and I get in the back seat in case Judith wakes up enid gets in beside me and Chrissy gets up front and pop was driving.

When we got back to hilltop maggie was waiting up for us which I thought was nice and I tell her as I get Judith out of her car seat and her diaper bag. Maggie's face softens when she sees Judith and I whisper in maggie's ear "she's sleeping in my trailer". She nodded at me and I get inside the trailer and place her on my bed in the corner of the living room and maggie, pop, enid and I stand in the kitchen and I ask maggie "do you think you can give me a haircut tomorrow?". She smiles at me softly and nods at me and kisses me on the forehead and that night when I fell asleep next to Judith in the bed and Chrissy and dad took the other rooms I found it very hard to get sleep.

*The Next Day*

      When I woke up to the sound of giggling in the kitchen as I smell dad cooking breakfast no doubt I open my eyes and see my pop dancing with Judith on his hip. I find myself smiling at the sight I swear he's the best dad in the world I get up and make my way to the kitchen and Jude says "dolly". I smile at her and she holds out her arms and I grab her and she gives me a hug which was the best feeling in the world. I kiss her cheek and forehead and I say "I swear you give the best hugs in the world Jude" she giggles and kisses me on the cheek as she hugs me again and her cheek meets mine.

I see pop smile at us and I see he's making cinnamon bun waffles those are my favorite in the whole world and then Chrissy walks out of her room and she says "it smells like cinnawaffles pop". He chuckles and he says "your nose is right baby" he fixes mine and then his and Chrissy's and then jude's and I was feeding her and then after breakfast, I was getting Judith in her bright purple dress. I kiss her on the cheek and Chrissy and maggie both help me with my new haircut and I say to maggie "I want it the same length of yours mags". I smile at maggie when she started cutting my hair the lighter my head became it started getting heavier and heavier and I just got tired of dealing with it.

Once she was done she holds up a mirror for me and I find myself smiling at the change in hairstyle and it was styled where it was longer up top and it looked like a quiff. I see the back of my head my hair was completely gone and to be honest I look good with short hair I have never seen myself with this short of hair. I see Chrissy smiling at me through the mirror and I say to maggie "thank you I love it". I get up and kiss her cheek and then Chrissy's and it was short on the sides too and it looks like maggie gave me a mohawk too.

Maggie smiles at me and she says "I wanted to give you a mohawk" I giggle and I go inside the trailer and change my clothes. I wash my neck of the hair after my cut and when I stopped itching and change clothes and I find my old black corset shirt and then I grab my black tank top with my leather jacket with black skinny jeans. I get a shower because I was still itchy and then make sure I don't get my hair wet. Then I get dressed into my outfit and then I slide on my leather jacket I swear negan is gonna regret the day he ever crossed a Dixon.