⌜ chapter seven ⌟

"What's wrong, Peaches?" Dana asks as she sits next to her cousin in their cell.

"Nothing." Ellie looks up at her. "I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"This." She holds up her ring — a small silver one. It's the one with the anti-possession symbol that MJ used to wear. She gave it to Ellie after they left the farm months ago and told her never to take it off. "Mom said that it's to protect us from the people with the black eyes." She says, and Dana nods.

"I have a charm on my necklace." She shows her one of the two necklaces that she's wearing.

"And Mom has a tattoo, right?"

"Yep. Just like your dad, my parents, Grandpa, Jack, and Uncle Sam." Dana tells her. "You're scared, aren't you?"

"Sometimes." Ellie nods. "What if the people with the black eyes come? We don't have protection for everyone."

"That's why your mom drew the devil's trap outside the door. She, my mom, Jo, and my grandma drew more around the prison too, some of them hidden." She says. "And they have an angel blade to protect us. And we can call Gabriel if we have to."

"But what if they hurt someone?"

"They won't. We're stronger than that, Peaches." Dana says. "We're Winchesters."

—

"Why didn't anyone wake me?" MJ asks as she walks over to Rick, Daryl, T, Addy, Dana, and Carol in the field. "I thought I was helping with everything today."

"We thought you could use a little extra sleep." Rick tells her.

"We all hear you up late at night." Carol says.

"Oh. Sorry." MJ glances between them. "I don't mean to be loud."

"Cellblock echoes." T tells her. "Not your fault."

"Why aren't you sleeping at night?" Rick asks, and she looks down.

"I thought we weren't keeping secrets anymore." Addy says.

"No, I just..." She sighs, shaking her head. "I get nightmares, and they suck. And if it's not the nightmares, then it's Gabriel being annoying. He pops in on my dreams, and... I don't know, tries to be the angel on my shoulder, I guess. Can we move on now, please?"

"Where's Glenn and Maggie? We could use some help." Carol says, changing the subject.

"Up in the guard tower." Daryl tells them.

"Guard tower?" Rick echoes.

"Weren't they just up there last night?" MJ asks.

"Glenn! Maggie!" Daryl calls.

Glenn stumbles out of the tower without a shirt on. "Hey, what's up, guys?" He asks, and they can see Maggie behind him.

Rick and MJ start laughing when they see him fumbling with the button on his pants.

"You coming?" Daryl asks.

"What?"

They're all laughing now.

"You comin'?" He repeats. Glenn looks over at Maggie, who's still getting dressed. "Come on, we could use a hand!"

"Yeah. We— We'll be right down." He calls, and MJ stumbles into Daryl from laughing so hard.

"Sickos." Maggie mutters up in the tower.

"Oh, I needed that." MJ says as Daryl stops her from falling over. "Come on."

"Hey, Rick. MJ." T gets their attention, and they turn back to him.

They all stop laughing when they see Axel and Oscar by one of the gates. "Come with us." Rick tells them, and the others follow behind their leaders.

"That's close enough." MJ says when they make it to the prisoners. "We had an agreement." She looks between the two of them.

"Please, Miss." Axel says as Maggie and Glenn walk out of the tower. "We know that. We made a deal. But you gotta understand... We can't live in that place another minute. You follow me? All the bodies — people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts."

The others look at MJ, and she gives her head a slight shake, saying that there aren't any ghosts in there. If there were, Axel and Oscar would've run out screaming long before now. No, she's certain that Death and the reapers are working overtime these days.

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl asks.

"You should be burning them." T says.

"We tried. We did." Axel tells them.

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison." Oscar tells them. "Every time we drag a body out, those things line up. Dropping a body and just running back inside."

"Look, we had nothing to do with Tomas and Andrew. Nothing." Axel continues. "You trying to prove a point. You proved it. We'll do whatever it takes to be a part of your group. Just please, please...don't make us live in that place."

Rick looks over at MJ, and she shakes her head. "Our deal is not negotiable." He tells the prisoners. "You either live in your cellblock or you leave."

"I told you this was a waste of time. They ain't no different than the pricks who shot up our boys." Oscar tells Axel before looking back to Rick and MJ. "You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw them out, like... These were good guys. Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, guys like Tomas and Andrew. We've all made mistakes to get in here. And I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me... We've paid our due — enough that we would rather hit that road than go back into that shithole."

"You wanna know the difference between us and those pricks that killed your friends?" MJ asks as she looks between the two of them. "You're still alive even though I had the perfect opportunity to kill you. I could've and I chose not to."

"And I appreciate that."

"Look, I get it. Just because you screwed up and ended up in here doesn't mean that you're anything like Tomas. But see, I trusted someone once, let my guard down... You know how that ended?" She looks between the two of them again. "A man I trusted spent years plotting a way to kill my little brother, and I almost lost him. I don't make a habit of making the same mistake over and over again. So, I'm sorry, but you don't want to be in that cellblock, then hit the road. Like he said, our deal isn't negotiable."

Daryl takes the prisoners and puts them out by the silver car so that they can head out after the group finishes what they're doing. T, on the other hand, is trying to convince Rick and MJ to give Oscar and Axel a chance.

"Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you?" Rick questions. "They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons. You want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?"

"I never stopped." He tells him. "Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves."

"I don't know." Glenn says. "Axel seems a little unstable."

"Well, yeah." Dana mutters. "He's an addict, drugs screw with people's heads." She says, and Addy nudges her. "What? Am I wrong?"

"After all we've been through? We fought so hard for all this, what if they take it?" Carol asks.

"It's just been us for so long. They're strangers." Maggie says. "I don't... It feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around."

"You brought us in." T reminds her.

"Yeah, but you turned up with a shot boy in your arms. Didn't give us a choice."

"They can't even kill walkers." Glenn reasons.

"They're convicts, bottom line." Carol says.

"Those two might actually have less blood on their hands than we do." T says, and MJ looks down, her eyes landing on the ground around their shoes.

"I get guys like this." Daryl says. "Hell, I grew up with them. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could've been in there with them just as easy as I'm out here with you guys."

"So are you with me?" T asks.

"Hell no." He says, and T looks at him. "Let 'em take their chances out on the road just like we did."

"What I'm saying, Daryl—"

"When I was a rookie, I arrested this kid." Rick cuts him off. "Nineteen-years-old, wanted for stabbing his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial — suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence and then, two weeks later, shot another girl. We've been through too much."

"That man you were talking about earlier, the one who tried to kill Sam." Addy looks at MJ. "You were talking about Gordon."

"Yeah. So?" The brunette looks at her.

"I remember Dean telling me about that hunt. It was a nest of vampires, wasn't it?"

"Don't." She shakes her head. "It's not the same thing, and you know it."

"Exactly. These are people." Addy says. "You and the boys tied up Gordon and you let those vampires go. You helped them — monsters."

"Gordon was a friggin' psychopath, and the vampires weren't hurting anyone. They didn't kill people, she resisted the urge to feed on Sam after Gordon cut his arm open trying to prove a point. He failed, and I-I didn't understand it — hell, I still don't." She sighs. "Those vampires were people once and most don't ask to be turned. They got dealt a raw hand and did the best that they could not to be monsters. Those two out there — they did what they did to end up in here all on their own, they made that choice. We don't owe them anything."

"Besides, Dad said that they probably ended up dead anyway." Dana looks at her mom. "Just because they let them walk doesn't mean other hunters didn't get them later."

"Our deal with them stands." Rick says, and the group gets back to work. "Move the cars to the upper yard. Point 'em facing out."

Daryl tosses the keys to Glenn.

"They'll be out of the way, but ready to go if we ever need to bail." MJ says, and then turns to T and Addy. "We'll give the prisoners a week's worth of supplies for the road."

"Might not last a week." T says.

"It was their choice."

"Did they really have one?" He asks. "'Cause it sounds to me like you gave those vampires a better shake than these two."

"Hey." She stops walking in front of him, and he looks down at her. "It's like Dana said — I gave those vampires a head start. There were plenty of other hunters out there, none of which would do the same as me and my brothers did. And I don't need judgment on hunting from a man who wouldn't know a ghoul from a skinwalker. You don't know what it's like.

"As far as here and now, whose blood would you rather have on your hands — someone from our group or theirs?" She asks him.

"Neither." He says and starts for the car.

"Unfortunately, taking the risk of this all playing out perfectly isn't a luxury that I can afford." She tells him and then heads toward the others.

They move all of the vehicles and Glenn takes a box of food to Axel and Oscar. Rick, MJ, Glenn, and Daryl then head outside the fence to get some firewood.

"So, Ponch, you think we're making the right decision?" MJ asks as she walks with Daryl — they're a few paces behind others.

"You want my opinion?"

"Don't I usually?"

"I think either decision is a hard decision to make." He tells her. "The one you and Rick made definitely keeps our people the safest."

"But is it the right one?" She looks at him.

"The world ain't that simple anymore."

"Fair enough, I guess." She sighs. "Hey, what happened to your vest? You hardly wear it anymore."

"It's inside. Why?" He glances at her.

She shrugs. "I like it. More specifically, I like the wings on the back." She tells him. "They always remind me of Cas."

"That's the angel that you're looking for?" He asks, and she nods.

"First angel I ever trusted. Hell, he's the only one that I trusted before Gabriel." She says as she looks around the trees for any signs of walkers. "And I'm starting to wonder if that's even the right decision."

"Because of all that talk before? Him not telling you everything?" He asks as they start collecting the firewood.

"Angels aren't too keen on giving the whole story up front." She explains. "Their way of keeping in control or something, I guess. I don't know. It just makes it hard to believe what they're telling you."

"You don't think Gabriel was telling you the truth?" Glenn asks.

"I don't know if what Gabriel's been told is true." She tells them. "Cas believed that the angels were trying to stop the apocalypse from happening, he was told that they were working to prevent Lucifer from getting out of hell. He didn't know that Zachariah and the other angels above him in ranks were lying and manipulating them. That's why he rebelled and tried to help me and the boys."

"So, you think someone's lying to Gabriel?"

"I think it'd be stupid not to consider it a possibility. Especially if Raphael's running the show up there." She chuckles. "He's been pissed at me, my family, and Cas since we left his ass in that abandoned house."

"You what?" Rick looks over at her.

"If you can get an angel inside a ring of holy oil and set it on fire, then you can trap them." She explains. "And that's exactly what we did to Raphael when we were looking for information after Lucifer escaped. Needless to say, he wasn't happy."

"Uh-huh."

"Ain't God in charge of heaven?" Daryl asks.

"You'd think." MJ shakes her head. "He likes to skip out, cut off communication. Leaves the angels to run amok. And that, they do."

"So, you think it was the angels who started the outbreak?"

She shrugs. "Angels, demons — heaven, hell... Not much of a difference to me anymore. Though I'd definitely rather go back to heaven than hell."

"You've been to heaven too?" Glenn looks at her as they start walking back.

"How many times have you died?" Rick asks.

"To my own personal recollection, twice. But there was that Tuesday that Gabriel killed me and Dean about a hundred times. He and I don't remember a thing of that." She shrugs, shaking her head. "And then Ash said we went to heaven a bunch of times, but we only remember once."

"Who's Ash?" Daryl asks.

"He was a friend of the family. Boy was a genius, let me tell you. He set up a rig to tell him if there were demonic omens when we were looking for Azazel. His laptop was nine kinds of weird. Smartest man I ever met, funny as hell too." She laughs. "And his hair — business in the front, party in the back. Or so he said. God, I miss him."

"What happened?" Rick asks.

"Like Crowley said — the people my family get close to end up dead." She sighs. "If you were smart, you'd kick us to the curb and never look back."

"Guess we ain't smart." Daryl says as he opens up the hole in the fence so they can go through.

"Nobody's kicking you guys out." Rick tells her.

MJ gives them a small smile as Glenn starts through the hole in the fence. Daryl's holding it open for them because their arms are full of firewood. "Looky here."

"He is one tough son of a bitch." Glenn says as he drops his firewood. They're all looking over at Hershel, who's outside on his crutches. Rick and MJ drop their firewood too. "Alright, Hershel!"

Daryl shushes him. "Keep your cheers down." He points behind them at the wandering walkers.

"Oh, man, can't we just have one good day?"

"Day doesn't have to be bad just because we see a walker." MJ tells him. "Hershel's out of the cellblock, seems like a damn good day to me." She smiles as she looks at him.

Hershel has Beth, Bela, Lori, Jack, Carl, and Ellie all with him. Maggie, Dana, T-Dog, Addy, and Carol are a few feet away from them. MJ looks at up Daryl, still smiling, and it makes his own expression soften.

"Walkers!" Carl suddenly alerts the others.

"Look out!" Ellie yells.