It had been a month since the Project and the Resistance had signed the 'Agreements' and it was working. There were still almost daily squabbles over rules and boundary lines and such but still, it was a very welcome argument for the Deputy.

     For Eden, the past month had been both the most stressful and the calmest month of her time in Hope County. Both sides had pretty quickly worked out who wanted to stay and who wanted to go back home, but the Project was taking the decision particularly hard because of how many people they'd lost.

     Still, Joseph knew that the Voice has told him how the world would end and that he would need to prepare his family for the Collapse. But now he was trying to figure out how to do that more peacefully, for the Agreements' sake.

     The person taking the hardest hit was Jacob. He'd dedicated the past few years of his life to making strong warriors for the Project and now it seemed like it was all for nothing.

     Even if he accepted, or dare he say liked the down time, he would still get antsy and make his soldiers keep up their training and the training of wolves. After the Agreements, his trials and all of his 'brain washing' was shut down to anyone that wasn't already part of the Project.

     He got to keep his bunker and his armoury, all of the Seeds were, but he wasn't allowed to take, cull, or save anyone without them wanting it first. That being said, there were a couple people that wanted to join now that the Seeds were forced to turn it down a bit.

     It wasn't anybody that the Deputy knew very well, but there were a couple random passersby, people she'd seen in the woods in old cabins before.

     But the Resistance had gotten a lot more people back than the Project did. A lot of people were hesitant to leave because they were scared of what the Seed siblings would do to them but once they realized they'd be safe, many of them opted to leave. Pratt was one of them, which didn't surprise Jacob all that much.

     He always knew that Pratt was just doing what he was doing to survive, being his assistant, his right hand man, it was all an act to stay alive. Still, losing so many of his men...it made him even harder on those he kept. Jacob pushes them harder in their training, making sure they knew that they were the Chosen he needed, that the Project depended on.

     In the month that had been considered peaceful times, Jacob had only seen the Deputy, or Eden, at a handful of meetings and she always sat near the back. He could tell she'd been recovering from being shot but something wasn't quite right, it was like she wasn't healing at the right pace. He studied her, her walk, her breathing, her hidden grimaces, it was all indicating something being wrong that she wasn't telling people, probably not even her friends.

     The last meeting she went to, Eden kept covering her mouth with a handkerchief and muffling her coughs. Maybe she had caught something and her weakened immune system was under too much strain to fight it? Regardless, Jacob decided now was a safe time to talk to her. Besides, it wasn't as scandalous now, they weren't technically fighting anymore.

     After the meeting had adjourned, Jacob asked his men to pack up their papers and take them back to the trucks. When they started collecting their papers, Jacob turned around and walked over to where the Deputy was lifting herself out of her chair.

     "Hello Deputy, or sorry, Eden." Jacob remembered that people were starting to use her name more often than saying Deputy now.

     She looked up at him and got herself to her feet. "You can still call me Deputy, Jacob." The Deputy told him and he took a step away from her as she positioned her crutches under her arms.

     "Ok, well Deputy, I think you and I need to talk." He proposed, hoping that he wasn't too loud.

     "Well I'll try to be here at the next meeting then." The Deputy assured him. She pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and turned away from Jacob to cough into it. "I've had this cough that just won't seem to go away." The Deputy tried to chuckle like it was a joke. Jacob wasn't laughing.

     "That's what I want to talk to you about sometime soon, away from the crowd." His tone was steady and he didn't seem to be ready to hear a no.

     The Deputy was hesitant to talk to him now, the meetings always take a lot out of her and she didn't know how long this fake energy was going to last her. She mulled it over for a minute and nodded. "Meet me tomorrow night at the old Fillmore residence, then we can talk ok?" 

     Jacob nodded and turned back to look at his men as they finished bringing the papers to their trucks. "I'll be there." He gave her a final nod and walked back to his men, not turning to look back at her until he was about to get into his truck. Joey Hudson had walked over to the Deputy and was talking to her in a quiet tone, throwing a glance back at Jacob. 

     Whatever the Deputy told Hudson, it must have satisfied her because she walked her back to her truck without making a fuss. Jacob eyed the Deputy but left before his men could ask him any questions. He was already getting funny looks from her friends, people like Nick Rye and Tracey Lader and he didn't feel like getting more so he drove away after saying a goodbye to Joseph. 

     The Deputy was at the old Fillmore residence, laying on the couch as her whole body throbbed. She'd taken a nap and forgotten to take her medication and now she was waiting for it to kick in again to numb her pain. For the past month she'd been training Boomer to be a medication dog, one that reminds her when to take her painkillers at the request of Kim after the Deputy complained about forgetting to take her meds. Apparently she was so tired today that she accidently left Boomer outside so he couldn't remind her and now she was paying the price. 

     The Deputy was actually worried about getting addicted to the painkillers; she worried that her head would make up the pain as an excuse to keep taking them but after forgetting for only one hour and getting slammed with pain she realized just how hurt she still was. 

     As she laid on the couch, the Deputy tried to stop thinking about the pain. She tried to focus on what happened at the last meeting. The Project wanted to detach themselves from the outside world and they were trying to find a way to do so that wouldn't impact the Resistance. The Deputy had been trying to come up with a solution but it was increasingly difficult with her head pounding so relentlessly. 

     It scared her to be in this much pain alone. She didn't really have a plan, or a way of contacting anyone, but at least she wasn't bothering anyone. The pill bottle next to her was empty, that meant she would have to get up and go get another bottle from the bathroom but that was all the way down the hall, a distance she couldn't even fathom traversing right now. 

     It bugged her, knowing how capable she used to be and knowing how defeated she was now. She was just glad that the Project and the Resistance weren't fighting anymore. And that the painkillers were slowly eating away at the pain, slowly numbing the deep ache in her chest that was stifling her breathing. 

     Boomer barking outside the cabin made the Deputy's eyes creak open. Expecting him to be doing nothing but barking at a car driving by, the Deputy ignored him and closed her eyes again. She kept one arm over her eyes to block any light from her vision and counted her breaths, something she did to ground herself when she was in pain or panicking. 

     But Boomer kept barking and barking and barking and he wouldn't stop, he was sounding the alarm. The Deputy was incredibly weak and her crutches were all the way by the front door but she had to try and see what was happening outside. After assuring (or telling) herself that she wouldn't black out, the Deputy picked herself up off the couch. She stumbled to the front door, where Boomer wasn't stopping barking any time soon, and grabbed the door jam. Her shotgun was sitting next to the door and she grabbed it, making sure it was loaded incase something was wrong. 

     She leaned the shotgun against the wall and used her left hand to open the door, gripping the door frame with her right hand and forearm. She expected to see an animal in the driveway but what she saw instead surprised her. Boomer was standing with his tail in the air and barking directly at a truck and a person standing next to it. As the Deputy's eyes adjusted to the darkness of nighttime, she realized who it was. 

     Jacob Seed was trying to coax Boomer to stop barking at him by establishing dominance and shushing him, both of which were not working. When he saw the Deputy a small swell of relief that he didn't have to keep dealing with Boomer washed over him, until he realized how the Deputy was leaning against the doorframe to keep herself on her feet. 

     "Jacob? What are you doing here?" The Deputy asked and called Boomer back to her, pain evident in her voice. 

     "You told me to come here yesterday, when I told you we needed to talk." Jacob reminded her and approached the front door. 

     The Deputy looked down at the dog that was defensively snarling at Jacob and nodded weakly. "Oh right, yeah come in." She said and stepped out of the way. She couldn't do much more than get out of Jacob's way and lean the shotgun up against the wall. Boomer shuffled right inside and grabbed the shotgun with his mouth, setting it on the rack again for the Deputy. 

     "Wow, he's well trained." Jacob marvelled and the Deputy nodded. She pushed away from the wall and stumbled over to the couch. 

     "Are you ok?" Jacob asked, not realizing how bad the Deputy was shaking until he saw her in the odd and dim light of the lamps of the house.  

     The Deputy lowered herself onto the couch and coughed roughly into her hand. "I'm fine, just need to let my painkillers kick in." The Deputy told him and laid back into the couch. "Go ahead and sit down, I should be fine to talk in another ten to fifteen minutes."

     Jacob didn't sit down, he walked over to the couch where the Deputy was laid out and noticed the empty pill bottle sitting next to her. He picked up the bottle and read the label. "This is pretty strong stuff." He remarked.

     The Deputy scoffed, not so much at him, but more at his comment. "It needs to be, the other stuff doesn't even touch my pain anymore." Jacob set the bottle back down on the table. 

     "You're in enough pain to need this prescription?" 

     "I am. Make yourself comfortable, please, as a guest in my home." The Deputy gave him a small wave, motioning to the house. Boomer trotted over to her and grabbed the empty pill bottle with his mouth, turning to drop it on the Deputy's arm and nosed it towards her. The Deputy gave him a small head pat. "Good boy." She told him and Boomer trotted away, hopping up onto a chair opposite of the couch.

     Jacob still didn't sit down, despite the Deputy's urgings. "This is your house?" Jacob asked her and looked around at the place. A barren house with no decoration or anything that made it resemble a house except for the fireplace, couch and chair, and the gun case on the wall next to the door.     

     "I convinced Adelaide to sell it to me so that I had my own place. You know, after I convinced my friends that I don't need a babysitter." The Deputy's words sloshed together as she spoke but Jacob could still understand her. Another ragged cough from the Deputy made Jacob cringe.

     "You shouldn't be alone, not with the kind of pain you're in." Jacob informed her, a little relieved that they managed to touch on the subject he wanted to talk to her about naturally instead of it being forced. 

     "I'm fine." The Deputy waved him off despite never opening her eyes. 

     "You can barely stand." Jacob checked himself before he raised his voice. "Listen, Eden, I think you should come to the Veterans Center with me." The Deputy didn't respond. "I know you think you're getting the care you need here but I know you're not. Look at you, you should be healing faster than this." 

     "I know that." The Deputy sighed and sat up, looking up at Jacob as he stood in front of her. "I know my body isn't recovering but I have to stay here with the Resistance, they need me." 

     Jacob shook his head and stepped away from the couch, turning back around to look at the Deputy on the couch. "I know you think that these people can't exist without you, but they can. They will. Just stop treating yourself like a goddamn tool and treat yourself like a person, for once in your life." 

     The Deputy stayed quiet, Jacob knew that she hasn't responded to anger in the past but he had to let her know how serious he was being. 

     "If they don't need me...then who will?" The Deputy asked and Jacob let out a frustrated sigh. "Just listen to me. Those six weeks that it took me to recover after your men beat me, were the hardest six weeks of my life. I was useless, I couldn't even fucking feed myself in the beginning, my hands shook to much. I couldn't walk, I couldn't fight, I couldn't do shit, and these people needed me. They needed me and I couldn't protect them." The Deputy's voice broke and she looked away from Jacob, down to the floor. In the dim lamplight Jacob could see her cheeks were glistening with tears.

     "I almost gave up, everyday when I woke up I tried to give up. But do you know who didn't let me? Do you know who forced me to get up and learn how to walk again? Learn how to fight again? My friends. Yeah those people who you are convinced are just using me. I can protect them now, even if I have to take those fucking pills just so that I can stand this pain I would do it again and again for these people.

     "These people are the only family I have, and I'll die before I leave them." The Deputy didn't look back up at Jacob, instead keeping her gaze on the floor by her feet.

     "You're not useless. You're strong. But if you don't take care of yourself then you won't live long enough to save them." Jacob told her and she shook her head. The Deputy finally tilted her face up to look at Jacob, a new sense of determination on her face.

     "I can take this. And I will take this, for them. For any and all of them, I will take this pain if it means that I can save them from it. If anything, you should congratulate yourself Jacob. You were the one that showed me just how much pain I can handle." The Deputy locked her jaw as her shaking hands gripped the edge of the couch. Jacob and the Deputy stared at each other, both of them determined to make the other see their side. It seemed to be one of their favourite forms of communicating, right next to arguing. 

     Jacob didn't want to come to talk to the Deputy so that they could argue, but he supposed he should have expected that. Jacob was the first to look away, unlike every other time they've sustained eye contact. 

     "I didn't come here to fight with you, I came here because I know this pattern. You're shouldering the world's problems instead of facing your own." Jacob folded his arms, not wavering in his argument. 

     "How is this not my own problem?" The Deputy asked him. 

     "You know what I'm talking about. Your...feelings. Those thoughts tearing away at your every move? The voices? I know they're there. Maybe you living by yourself is your way of 'dealing' with them but it's dangerous to be alone. What happens if you black out and nobody's there to help you? Just come to stay with me at the Veterans Center until you get better, I'll drive you to the meetings and I'll let you use the phone to talk to anyone you want, but you'd be under my men's protection while you heal." Jacob attempted to bargain with the stubborn Deputy. 

     The Deputy processed his words. "Do you offer that to everyone you're trying to recruit?" She asked, trying to bit back the tone in her voice. 

     "Not to anyone." Jacob replied, his blue eyes boring into the Deputy's. 

     "You know I can't do that, Jacob. We are in a peace treaty but I can't just go and live with you. I'm not alone here, I have Boomer here all the time and you managed to catch me on one of the only nights I actually get to be by myself. I don't know where this sudden urge to care about me is coming from but I can't accept it, I'm sorry." The Deputy refused Jacob's offer and he glanced away. 

     "Don't let your pride get in the way of your safety." He chided and the Deputy shook her head. 

     "I'm not, but I know I have to be smart right now. How am I supposed to explain that to anyone? No matter if they like you or not, they'll think it's weird if I live in the Veterans Center. I don't want anybody getting the idea that I made the Agreements happen because of an ulterior motive." The Deputy explained and Jacob studied her. 

      "Fine, don't leave this place, but when you realize how dangerous you're being to yourself, talk to me." Jacob unfolded his arms and turned to leave. 

     "Jacob wait." 

     Jacob turned back to look at the Deputy. She was perched on the edge of the couch, almost like she wanted to stand up and follow him but she was too weak. 

     "What?" Jacob asked, not angrily.

     "I don't know why you would ask me to live at the Veterans Center. Why would you want me anywhere near there after what I've done?" She asked him earnestly. 

     Jacob glanced down at the floor before tilting his head back up to meet Eden's gaze. "Joseph always preaches about loving your enemies, about forgiveness for those who've wronged you." Jacob said simply and walked to the front door. The Deputy thought that Jacob was just going to leave when he paused, his hand hovering about the doorknob. 

     "You know Eden...I wish you could see things from my eyes, then maybe you'd realize how similar you and I are." He didn't turn to look at the Deputy. Jacob just walked out of the house, closing the door behind him with a loud bang. 

     Jacob didn't sound angry anymore. He actually sounded disappointed. Maybe even worried. 

     Eden looked over at Boomer, who had stayed curled up in his spot on the comfy chair through the whole visit. Boomer tilted his head, sending the Deputy a puzzled look as she shook her head. She wanted to be angry at Jacob, but she wasn't. If anything, she almost agreed with him. Maybe she did treat herself like a tool, maybe she did take on too much, but that was her job. She'd made promises, promises she can't break. If she had to bear the weight of the Resistance by herself, even if it broke her, then that was just what she would have to do.