AFTER I returned home on my own, I saw Carl on his porch, and he waved to me with a smile. I wanted to go and speak to him, ask if he got whatever he had to do done, but he held a sleeping Judith in his arms, and I didn't want to disturb her sleep.

Then, I walked to mine and Daryl's shared home, where I showered, changed into actual sleeping clothes, and laid my head down to rest. I began to think before I could dream.

I thought about all that had happened that day, everything from talking to Carl to arguing with Daryl and Tara over Dwight. I had almost slipped out everything about myself and Dwight, but they would never forgive me. Ever.

It must have been hours that I slept before I felt somebody wake me up. It was so dark in my room, seeing how the sun had finally gone down for the night, and the only light provided was the moon faintly peeking through my white curtains from my windows.

I somewhat twirled around and rubbed my eyes with my balled fists and could paint out a black silhouette of someone lying next to me on my bed. With basically one eye opened, I squeaked out: "Daryl?"

The silhouette moved closer until I saw their face as clear as day, thanks to the moon's light into the room. I couldn't believe who it was, and I breathed out, "Dwight?"

"Tess," he breathed back out at me. He slid his hand underneath my left cheek and placed his somewhat cold hand on my neck. "Were you expecting Daryl?"

"Huh?" I was confused, I'm not going to lie. I had just woken up, after all. Part of me was starting to think that this was all a dream rather than reality. "How did you... How did you get in here?"

"I snuck in," he admitted, and I thought it was either a lie or I was going crazy. "It was easier said than done, to be honest. I wanted to come and see you."

"Why?" I decided to ask, trying not to fall back asleep. I was still trying to wake myself up from my good resting. "You need to get out of here because if Daryl or Tara see you, they may kill you."

"Maybe," he agreed, seeing the harm in him being here. "I'm not leaving until I do something."

"What is it?"

Then, before I knew it, he had leaned in and lightly pressed his lips to mine. He took me by surprise, and that is why I sucked in my breath at first. My eyes hung open until he deepened the kiss, and, slowly and softly, I closed them and laid back as he crawled over me. He placed each of his hands on both sides of my head, lying on top of my flattened hair.

"I missed you," he confessed after his lips let go of mine. "I feel like I haven't seen you in so long."

"How are you here?" I asked, not giving up on my questions. "The Sanctuary is surrounded by Walkers."

"Is it?" He said this, like he already had all the answers. "Have you missed me, too, Tess?"

"Yes," I answered openly and honestly. "I have missed you, but... How the hell did you make it through all those Walkers, D?"

He smirked and shook his head before leaning down and pressing another kiss to my lips. He used his right hand to brush his fingers through my now-dry hair. "I'll see you later, baby."

Again, he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine for the last time while he used his left arm to wrap around my body. I fell right into it... Until I was being shaken, and I opened my eyes to find that Dwight wasn't on top of me anymore and his lips weren't on mine.

I sat up and looked to my left, where Daryl was laid out on my bed. "Hey," he said, and it almost scared me because of that very graphic dream that I just had. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," I claimed and took a deep breath afterward. Now, I believe that this was reality and not that dream that I just had. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he grunted, looking away. I could see somewhat of his face, but more of his silhouette than anything else. "I just wanted to know if you were okay, from earlier."

To be honest, I didn't really expect Daryl to care so much about me, especially after how everything went today after I told him and Tara off. I gulped and shook my head from my current thoughts. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Gotta be," I replied, almost instantly. "Is that why you really came in here for and woke me up?"

"I heard you from my room," he claimed, shaking his head. "When I came in here, you were talking and shaking yourself up."

Now, I was skeptical. Oh, God, what if he heard me mumbling Dwight's name, if I even did? Hopefully, that isn't the case, after all. I just shook my head and apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"I know," he grunted back, and even with the darkness between us, I still felt his eyes on me. "You were saying his name."

Shit, I immediately thought to myself and frantically blinked my eyes. "W-What?" I tried to act dumb, but I already knew that it wouldn't be to no avail.

"You kept saying Dwight's name," he replied, and I felt my heart slide down to the pit of my stomach. "You kept saying, Why, Dwight? Why what, Tess?"

"Nothing," I claimed and nearly choked out all at once. "I don't know. Maybe I was telling him something in my dream."

I heard him take a deep breath and say, "Yeah, maybe." A moment of brief silence passed by before he leaned up, starting to get off the bed, and he grunted under his breath, "I'll let you get back to bed."

"Okay," I simply said and didn't question it. As he was making his way to the door, I asked aloud, "What did y'all do today after I left?"

He somewhat glanced over his shoulder and grunted, "Nothing. We handled it. Your little buddy didn't die today." I laid my head back down on my pillow when I heard him add, "Goodnight, Tess."

I decided to be kind and call back, "Goodnight, Daryl."

He closed the door behind himself, and so, I turned back around and got comfortable again. I closed my eyes and surrendered to sleep once more.

—

TODAY is the day when we get the final preparations to fight Negan and the Saviors. Soon, it will be the day that we win, according to Rick, and I can only hope that he is right about that.

It is morning, and we are all in Alexandria, preparing for the planned final assault on the Sanctuary. Everyone is doing something, but just as I passed by Michonne, she called to me, "Tess, could I speak to you for a moment?"

I stopped walking, backed up, and approached her. "Yeah, what's up?"

"What you said yesterday," she began to say, referring to my lashing-out on Daryl and Tara, "was very brave of you. For you to stand up for yourself – for what you think, what you believe."

"Thank you," I said, nodding with my hands on my hips. "I just... I don't wanna see anyone else die. Y'know?"

"I know," she agreed, speaking so soft and low. "Nobody else have to, just them. Not us."

"Now, you and I both know, Michonne, that isn't how it is," I countered, and I saw that she gulped. "That's not how it works. We always lose people. We lose each other."

"Maybe today isn't the day that we do that," she tried to say, and, again, it sounded like a flat-out lie rather than an opinion. "We can always hope for that, Tess."

I shook my head and smirked, almost finding humor in what she just said. I had my hands on my hips and deadpanned, "Hoping gets you killed."

Then, I walked away as I felt her eyes burning into my back. I paused when I was far enough away and placed my hands on my hips, looking around until I caught Carl coming down the stairs from his house.

"Carl," I called out his name, and he stopped, then looked up. He looked different, but I couldn't place how he did, though. Maybe he is a little more paler. I can't tell, though.

I walked up to him, but we sort of met in the middle, though. "Hey, baby brother," I joked, but I was serious at the same time, placing my hand on his back. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," he reassured, nodding with a flat-lined smirk, looking up at me through his hat. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing," I breathed out and smirked. "I'll be okay. What about you?"

"I'll be okay," he smiled, which warmed my heart up. "So will you, too, no matter what happens."

"I hope so, kiddo," I sighed and shook my head, wondering who I was trying to convince – him or myself. "Alright, I gotta go. See you soon."

"Okay," he grinned, just as I twisted his hat around on his head and walked away. "Be careful, Tess."

I stopped and glanced over my shoulder and replied, "I will. You do the same, kiddo."

"Always."

—

IT was dark now, and I was sitting on Tara's porch stairs, hoping to speak to her before I went to sleep soon. I heard her door open and came out, immediately coming to sit next to me.

"Hey," she breathed out, and I smiled over my shoulder. "You alright?"

"Just wanted to speak to you about something," I began to say, already scared to do so. This is the night that I will tell her about Dwight. I wanted her to know before our fight against them tomorrow.

"What is it?"

"It's just that I wanted to tell you that what I said about Dwight yesterday is is—"

Something suddenly interrupted what I was saying because I heard metal clanging, as if someone was knocking with a certain baseball bat in hand.

And, then, his voice traveled through the speaker for us all to hear, "You may be wondering why the hell your lookouts didn't sound the alarm. See, we are polite. I mean, I don't know when they're gonna wake up from that kinda shot, but they should wake up. So, let's just cut through the cow shit – you lose. It's over. So, you're gonna line up in front of your little houses, and you're gonna work up some apologies, and then the person with the lamest one is gonna get killed. Then, I kill Rick in front of everybody, and we move on. You have three – count 'em, three minutes to open this gate, or we start bombing the shit out of you!"

"Holy shit," I breathed out as Tara and I stood. "It's Negan." Chills ran up on me everywhere as I began to pant. "Tara, kill the lights. I'll go get our weapons and meet you back here."

"Okay," she breathed out as she raced back inside her house and cut the lights. By that time, I was highway to the armory, where some of our guns were left.

When I entered, I grabbed a bag and put the rest of them in there. I heard a noise, and then, Tara appeared, panting from running. "I couldn't wait on you," she said and yanked her bag from my hands. "We need to get going. Now!"

"I know," I replied and huffed with each action that I took with throwing the guns in the bag.

"Hey, you don't think it's Dwight?"

Before she could break out into song, I spun my head towards her, eyebrows together in a mix of worry and anger, and growled out, "No!"

—

"YOU need to make it look like we're escaping out back," Carl announced to everyone as he gathered supplies for our escape. "Get to the woods, halfway to the quarry, and cut the lights. Get enough of a lead on them, hit them, and get away on foot. You know where we'll be. Just have to get the guns, get everyone else here, and we'll meet you there."

"Two minutes, people," Negan raged on his speaker, just after Carl told us the game-plan. "Dig deep. I want these apologies to be memorable. Bonus points for creativity. Work up a poem and sing a song. I love that shit."

"Get going," Carl demanded of us, giving Rosita the bag of supplies. "There's gonna people in the infirmary. They're gonna need your help."

Tobin, Scott, and Bobby took off while Tara, Michonne, Daryl, and myself stood there. "Look, we got guns," Tara claimed, saying this to Carl. "We can fight them."

"I actually agree with her," I stated, standing by my best friend in this. "We can do this, Carl."

"We will, but not now," Rosita stated, as if someone made her leader. "Carl's right."

"Carl," came Michonne's warning tone, mixed with emotion, "we can't just let them have this place."

"We can," Carl countered, which took me by surprise. "All you need to do is survive tonight. This is my show. You said it. This is my plan, and you're gonna do it. You're all gonna do it. So, let's go!"

Carl took off running, and we all scattered, doing exactly what the kid said to do. About this time, Negan exclaimed over the speaker, "One minute! One minute!"

"Carl, wait," I pleaded with him, and he stopped, even if he didn't want to. "Please be careful."

"I will," he reassured, panting. "Now, go, Tess! I will meet y'all later!"

Not long after we left Carl, I heard and seen the first explosion go off in Alexandria. Tara had to catch me from falling from the emotional impact as I held tears in my eyes.

"C'mon, Tess," she whispered in my ear. "Let's go."

"O-Our home, Tara," I cried, tears full in my eyes. Then, it hit me like a train. "Oh, no... Carl! Carl?! No!"

"He's fine," she tried telling me. "You have to believe that. We have to go. C'mon, Tess. Let's go!"

Tara had to practically shove me in the truck with Daryl at the steering wheel. She hopped in after me, as I was sitting in the middle once again, and Daryl rammed on the gas, taking out the metal that surrounded and kept Alexandria safe. We were leading a convoy of trucks, acting as a decoy, smashing the walls at the back of our safe-haven, and through a roadblock of vehicles.

"Daryl," came my warning tone, as I looked through Tara's mirror. "They're right on our ass."

"Can't go any faster," he said, even though he did keep ramming on the gas.

I looked straight at him and said, "Let's smoke them."

With that said, he grinned and did just that as we left them in the dust.

—

EVENTUALLY, we had lost them in the dust and darkness. With the smoke-bombs working on the streets, we exited the truck and hid in the woods, ready to strike the cars that had followed us. It was myself, Michonne, Daryl, Tara, and Rosita, as we tried to camouflage ourselves in the dark trees.

"They didn't get out because of what we did with the truck," Tara said directly to Daryl, who just looked at her through his messy hair.

"Even if they did, it was just a mistake," Rosita claimed, putting her say in it.

"And I made one, too," Michonne added.

"Hey," I breathed out, and they glanced at me. "We've all made mistakes. God knows that I have, too."

"If I hadn't gone to the Sanctuary to kill Negan, maybe Sasha would still be alive," Rosita continued, which it stung when she mentioned Sasha. "Maybe she would've gone herself. Maybe everything would've ended up going exactly the same way. I didn't want you guys to do it, but maybe you needed to. Maybe you needed to play things out to figure shit out."

Although I had my gun up and ready to shoot, I put my head down and closed my eyes, but only for a second to remember Sasha. My heart was broken, as I missed her so much.

"Where the hell are they?" Michonne growled under her breath, impatiently wanting to kill them all right here and now.

Just as she had finished asking her question, we heard vehicles approaching at a fast speed, so we brought our guns up and got ready to shoot. Daryl threw a smoke grenade, hoping to obscure their vision into the road.

The first truck that was leading the others began to slow down, which made me suspect that Dwight was behind that wheel, leading his fellow Saviors to their deaths.

All I remember is Daryl exclaiming, "Now!" And, then, we began to open fire onto the trucks, the best that we could see in this smokey night. I kept hoping that Dwight, if he was really down there, that he was safe and sound.

I suddenly noticed the gunfire occurring on the road. Someone down there was helping us shoot the Saviors down. It was Dwight! He was okay and definitely on our side! He was taking action, joining us, and gunning down the rest of the remaining Saviors by himself. Then, I heard a gunshot and yelling from a woman, I believe.

I had a bad feeling, so I started to go down there, but not before Daryl grabbed my arm and dragged me back. I faced him with wide eyes and whispered-yelled, "I have to go down there. It's Dwight."

"Doesn't matter," he claimed, still holding my arm back. "We have to wait."

"Wait on what?" I yelled before I took my gun out and began to shoot at the truck, hoping to kill the yelling female. It broke a window, from what I could hear, but I wasn't too sure about the female. Though, I didn't hear her after that.

"It's over," a voice yelled out, and I automatically noticed it to belong to Dwight.

Daryl nodded and gave me the signal that it was okay to go down there now, so I ran as far as my legs could take me as I came up behind the truck with my gun up, just in case the female was still there.

I got there before the rest of them did, as Dwight looked up at me, and I looked down at him. I saw the blood through his fingertips from his left shoulder. He had been shot. My breath caught in my throat as my mouth fell open, and I dropped my gun to the ground, crawling over to him and placing my hands around his injury.

"It's okay, D," I reassured him as he was breathing heavily from being shot. "I got you."

Just about that time, Tara and them showed up on the front of the truck, holding their guns straight down on him, especially Tara. I wanted to tell her to back off already.

"I made sure you guys could get out the back," Dwight began to admit to us. "I drove the convoy right up to the roadblock. I knew what it was." Of course, he did. He knew.

With that said, Daryl lowered his gun, and I thanked the Lord above for that. Dwight, then, looked straight at me, and, speaking to everyone there, he said: "I can't go back." I smiled and nodded, totally overwhelmed by this announcement. He faced Daryl again and said, "One of 'em got away. She's gonna tell them."

"How'd they get out?" Daryl asked, not caring for what Dwight had to say. "Was it what I did?"

"Eugene," Dwight simply answered, throwing his name out like it was a bitter taste rolling off of his tongue. I saw the look on Rosita's face. It crushed her. "I can still help you. I know how they work, how Negan thinks. I want you to win. I want Negan to die. And we can settle up after."

Before I knew it, Daryl placed his hands on Dwight, snatching Daryl's old angel-wings vest right off of Dwight's back. Dwight struggled, especially because he had just gotten shot in the arm, but Daryl wasn't about to show him any mercy.

After taking his vest back, Daryl ran off with Michonne telling us that we needed to go immediately. Even Tara ran off, but not without holding eyes with me. Rosita stayed back, though, and watched as I interacted with Dwight.

I still had my hands around his wound and tried my best to help him up on my own, but that is when I noticed Rosita. Our eyes met, and she whispered, "Let me help you."

I couldn't believe it, but I didn't question it, either. She was on one side, and I was on the other, as we helped him up together. He grunted, and I apologized. Then, he shook his head and said, "It's alright, Tess. You're helping me. That's all that matters."

Rosita walked in front of us while I took over, placing his arm over my shoulders and my right arm around his body to help stretch his arm out some. "You're alright," Dwight said to me, more as a statement than a question. "I knew that you would be."

I blushed, I'm not going to lie and shook my head. "Yeah, and you are, too," I claimed, as I placed him beside the truck and stood in front of him. Since nobody was around, I decided to say to him: "I've missed you, by the way. I'm not sure if you care or not."

He smirked and, dryly chuckling at first, admitted, "I've missed you, too, actually. Sort of got used to having you around."

Our eyes connected, and even with the little moonlight from above that was being provided, I could see how beautiful his blue eyes were. I tried not to get too distracted, so I snatched off my sleeve to my long-sleeve shirt and began to wrap it around his wound.

It was about that time that they came over to us, and Tara held her gun up, holding it up at Dwight, even though he didn't have a weapon on him.

Maybe I wasn't thinking about myself or those who surrounded me when I stepped in front of him, shielding him from Tara's gun. "Leave him alone."

She slowly put the gun down, but her face told me a story of confusion, betrayal, and hurt. "What you were going to tell me earlier... About him was..." She was slowly putting the pieces together until her face and gun both fell. "You're in love with him."

Daryl's face was the first one to fall, and his eyes opened like I had never seen them before. He practically jumped in front of Tara, Michonne, and Rosita. "What?"

He didn't want to believe it, and neither did I, for that matter, either. Now, the cat was out of the bag, and it was about to scratch my eyes out for bothering with it.

I remained silent and stood where I had been, which was right in front of Dwight. Though, he lifted himself off the truck and stood behind me, standing the same common ground as me. Thankfully, he wasn't going to let me fight this personal war alone.

When I didn't answer, Daryl practically got in my face and yelled, "Is that true?!"

"Daryl..."

"Well, is it?!" He wasn't taking any short answers or shit tonight, just straight and fast.

I gulped and looked down at my boots before sitting my head up, glancing over my shoulder at Dwight, before taking a deep breath and nodding slowly. Truly, I thought that Daryl was going to pop the top and murder me.

Instead, he swung around before he got in my face again and screaming, "I can't believe you love the man that helped kill Glenn!"

It stung when he mentioned Glenn, but I just closed my eyes and took it from him. Maybe he put the pieces together, too, especially after I was mumbling Dwight's name in my sleep.

"He helped kill Abraham, too," Daryl kept screaming right in my face. I expected this much. "Did you forget that?! Huh?! Did you?!"

"Daryl," came Dwight's warning tone, now getting involved. I didn't want him to, though. "Look, I... I know you're upset, but you can be upset at me, not her. And—"

Before he could finish, all I saw was Daryl's right fist connecting with Dwight's face. Dwight fell to the ground, and I was immediately there, leaning him up on my lap. "What the hell?!" I exclaimed, not caring whatsoever if the rest of the Saviors or the dead show up. "You didn't have to hit him!"

"I-It's alright," Dwight claimed, now having to place his hand over his left cheek as well as his shoulder. "I'm fine. I get it. I won't hold it against him."

I looked up and saw Daryl towering over us until Michonne said, "We need to go. C'mon."

Daryl practically twirled around and walked away while I tried to help Dwight up. I was surprised when Rosita offered to help me.

When I glanced up at Tara, she looked back at me like I was a stranger to her.

—

AS I entered down into the sewer, which smelt worse than the dead – which is saying something, I walked closely behind Daryl and Tara, despite what had just occurred.

I was helping Dwight walk around in here until I placed him off to the side and walked forward. Rosita would make sure he was okay until I was done talking to Carl, while Michonne remained up-ground to wait on Rick's expected return.

Daryl and Tara stood there like double-doors, and when they heard footsteps, they spun around, and their eyes peeled open.

"No, no, Tess," Tara said, as if she was pleading with me. "Let's go back here."

I was completely confused. What were they trying to shield me from? I tried to shrug them off of me, like they were pests, and protested, "No, leave me alone. I need to go see Carl and make sure that he is okay."

"Not right now," Daryl grunted in my ear, having his hand wrapped around my arm. "You need to get back."

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked, pleading for answers at this point. "I need to talk to him. Let me go."

Before they could say or do anything else, I had to shove them off of me and, when I faced forward, I spotted Carl sitting on a cot and a strange man beside him, who held a kind smile. However, my eyes drifted back over to Carl, who tried to smile, but it was very weak.

I noticed how weak, in general, he appeared. His appearance, overall, was almost unrecognizable. I stepped only one tread closer and noticed how sweaty he appeared, even more so with the fire above us. He looks so unnaturally pale, and this immediately made me nervous.

Then, he slowly lifted up his shirt, and a white bandage was laced over a spot on his right side. My eyes slowly peeled open as time slowed down when he pulled the bandage back and a big bite appeared.

I held my breath and truly believed that I would faint, like I might actually die right here and now. Before I knew it, my legs were jelly, and I collapsed underneath them.

I was on my knees now until I felt somebody – most likely being Tara – try to comfort me, wrapping her arms around me. I suddenly heard somebody screaming, but then, I realized something...

It was me.