TORY was whining, which caused me to wake up with a grumble and shut off the baby-monitor. I walked from my room to her, resembling as a Walker.

"Shh, shh," I tried to hush her, as I hovered over her crib. "You're alright." I picked her up and held her in my arms, trying to soothe her that way. "We need to get you ready for the day. Somebody wants to see you before I have to leave and go back to Oceanside."

Carefully, I changed her dirty diaper, fed him a bottle, and dressed her up in something that wasn't too fancy. Nevertheless, she looked so nice and beautiful.

I started to leave her room when I looked at the back of her door, which was Dwight's last written message to me. I had framed it and put it in here, just in case that, one day, Tory wants to know all about her dad.

Tess, I love you more than my next breath. I'll find you again someday, even if it's in the afterlife. Never, ever give up. I love you. —D

I went down the stairs quietly, not to wake Mollie up. However, as I came down the stairs, she was already sitting on the couch and staring me down. "Where are you going?"

I sighed and faced her. "I'm going to go see someone real quick," I claimed, which was the truth. I sat Tory on the ground in front of the couch, to play with her toys. "Good thing you're up. I need you to watch her while I go get dressed. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes, ma'am," she replied, plainly. I nodded and headed back up the stairs to get dressed for the day, even brushing my teeth and showering.

After I got dressed, I came back downstairs to see that Mollie was now dressed for the day while Tory played on the ground, happily. "Mollie, what are you—"

"I wanna go with you," she pleaded, eyes wide with remorse. "You always go see the same person every week. I want to know who he is, too."

I stepped forward with my hands somewhat up in surrender. "Mollie, y-you can't because—"

"You always take Tory to go see him," she snapped back before I could finish again. "Is it her dad? Is that who it is?"

"Hell no," I spat out, not meaning to curse at her. I shook my head and tried to quickly recover. "No, baby girl. It's... It's a man that knew her dad. He's a very bad man."

"But," she breathed out and walked up to me, looking up, "why do you always take Tory to go see him if he's bad?"

It was very hard to explain to her, especially because she is so young right now. I hope that I get the chance one day to explain it to her when she's older. For now, I tried to sum it up for her with ease. "I really can't give you a straight answer, except that I used to hate this man. I kind of still do, but... No matter how much I hate him, he may never die because of that. He doesn't deserve mercy, but... I just go to talk to someone from time to time."

I watched her eyes change before she nodded. I took that as her backing down, so I went and picked up Tory, heading for the door. Just as I opened it and was about to leave, Mollie called to me: "I'm coming with you. I want to meet him, too."

I didn't have time to argue when she flew out the door with me, as we headed down the stairs and the sidewalk, going straight for Negan's cage. A few people walked by and waved, as we waved back. Trying to keep to ourselves for the most part, we headed down to the door and I unlocked it, before opening the door and going down the stairs.

I closed the door behind us and walked down, hearing the sound of his slippers on the dirty ground before I could see his face with the help of the light from the window. "Well," he began saying in his normal and excited tone. "Who might you be, sweetheart?"

I watched Mollie's reaction to him for a moment, as she didn't know what to make of him just yet. I answered for her, "That's Mollie. She is the little girl that I told you 'bout. Michonne and I saved her months ago out there in the woods."

"Oh," Negan chirped, seemingly excited to meet her. He extended his hand out to her, hoping that she will shake his hand. "I'm Negan, honey."

Mollie gulped before looking up at me, and I nodded that it was okay to shake his hand. She had to step forward to shake his hand, firmly, as his huge hand seemed to swallow hers completely. And, then, Negan released her hand and took his back.

He now looked up at me and smiled. "I'm glad that you came to see me today," he confessed. "I missed y'all."

I returned to the Oceanside campsite, hearing everyone fuss and fight. Just as I walked up and was about to question what in the hell was going on, Jed suddenly pointed his index finger at me and barked out: "Murderer!"

The chatter went down for a moment as everyone now looked straight at me, and I glanced around. "Um, what?"

Jed came straight up to me and growled down to me, "Justin is dead and you killed him."

This was new news to me, as I just came on horseback from Alexandria back here to continue work. "I didn't kill him," I growled back, while he hovered over me like a statue. "I just got back from Alexandria and, the last time that I saw Justin, he was alive. Well... Wounded, but alive."

"Says the one that threatened to kill him yesterday," he spat back, slightly turning away from me. "My money is on you that killed him during the night like some pussy!"

I smirked and nearly circled him, like he was my prey. "I have one, but I ain't the one who did it," I barked back, and he growled under his breath. "Your bet is on the wrong person. Because, trust me, if I had killed Justin, it would've been in front of God and every single one of you. Still, maybe he deserved it."

Abruptly, he shoved me backwards and I stumbled, but didn't fall on my ass, thankfully. "You did it," Jed huffed out, sticking his index finger in my face. "You're nothing more than a murdering whore—!"

That was all that I needed to hear before I pulled back my right fist, knocking him right in the mouth. He stumbled, too, and held his cheek. When he faced me, his eyes were nearly pure red. "Oh, you bitch! You're gonna pay for—!"

"Hey, back off," Alden suddenly swept in, like wind, and shoved Jed out of the way before he could get to me. Alden now stood between us, trying to hold us back from ripping into each other. Jed tried to shove Alden out of the way again, but he held his ground. "Hey, hey, you guys! Come on! No, no, no, no! No!"

Suddenly, Jed and the other Saviors started yelling and pointing their damn fingers right at me. I heard a bunch of name-calling going around, but one was for certain and that was murderer. I was thankful that Alden had came to my defense, but at the same time, I wanted Jed to come at me and see what would happen to his bitch-ass.

"Back off!" Alden yelled again at Jed, shoving him back. "Hey! Hey! Stop this shit! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! We're gonna find out who did this, and we're gonna make sure it never happens to us again, alright?"

"Us?" Jed breathes out, amused by Alden's idea of the word. "You're not one of us anymore."

Nevertheless, Alden didn't let it affect him when he turned away from Jed and continued, "Us means all of us." However, Jed immediately swung him back around and punched him directly in the face, totally unprovoked.

Alden was caught by Beatrice from Oceanside, as Jed yelled back: "Go shovel that horse shit to whoever killed Justin!"

I ran up and shoved Jed back, and barked: "Fuck off!"

Jed went to hit me when Carol came up, placing her left hand on his chest and her right hand down on her gun around her belt. "I thought you were supposed to be our leader," Jed teased, now facing her.

"Enough," she warned, now taking her hand away while I sat back and watched. I kept my hand on my own gun, ready to put a bullet in him if he dare tries to harm her. "Turn around, all of you."

Immediately, Jed barked back; as if, they were friends: "No can do, C." He took a brave step forward and continued, "Why don't you go ahead and yank that Roscoe, pop me right here? It's better than worrying about getting it in the back."

With that said, Carol now took out her small gun and the rest of us followed her by example. I was beyond ready to put this son-of-a-bitch in his rightful place, and it isn't on the top. It's in the ground, below us.

Jed smirked, seeing that we would defend our home and each other against him and the rest of these worthless used-to-be Saviors. Suddenly, Laura emerged and held her arms out, trying to keep everyone back and calm.

"We don't want this," she claimed, and everyone looked to her while she spoke. "Hey, we just need to protect ourselves."

I didn't know what she was getting at, but didn't have to think about it when Daryl called out from above: "No guns!" He was far behind us, up high from standing on something, and looking over us.

"That 'cause you're the one took out Justin?" DJ, another fellow Savior, called back to Daryl. He didn't seem necessarily rude about it, just more curious than anything else.

"Nah," another Savior chirped our, standing next to DJ. "My money's on garbage lady."

"Revenge for Simon's play, sure," Regina, another former Savior, agreed with a nod.

"No. It's him," DJ quickly claimed, nodding up towards where Daryl was standing. Now, he was being straight-up rude. "Finishing what he started."

With that said, DJ left the flock of people and headed towards a nearby tree, which had an axe beside it. He grabbed ahold of it and turned, getting ready to start killing people. The very least, Daryl, himself. The other Savior came with DJ and grabbed his own axe, too.

However, before DJ and his friend could do anything, Arat ran up and got in his face. "Hey, stop," she begged, almost too quiet to hear. "It's gonna go too far."

"Nah," Daryl called out, now readjusting his crossbow to strike down the Saviors if necessary. "It won't."

DJ smirked before saying, "Maybe it's all three of them." I assumed he meant that Anne, Daryl, and I all got together and killed Justin last night. "Come on."

DJ and his pals headed towards us, and I was beyond ready to go at this point. I was tired of all the fingers in my face and their whiny crap every day. If they wanted a fight, they were about to get one.

Just as they came forward, Gabriel took a brave step forward and was getting ready to fight them with his machete. However, nobody had time to do anything when a horse came squealing towards us with Rick on it, signature gun in hand.

"Everyone back off! Right now!" Rick warned, yelling above everyone. I stepped back, but I wouldn't hesitate, despite Rick's wishes.

With that said, Arat and Laura start to take the axes from the reckless Saviors. They didn't want war and I didn't blame them. Then again, I knew that we would win over them.

"I'll talk to Rick," Alden called out to his old friends, mostly Jed. "I'll try and find a way to make everybody feel safe, alright?"

Jed appeared like he was going to step forward, but just shook his head and turned his back. The rest of the Saviors followed him, but all I could hear was Rick announcing: "Start the redirect. Pair off to work the grid." I was about to leave, after I slid my gun back through my belt, when I heard Rick call to me: "Tess. I need to speak to you real quick."

I nodded and stood back, sighing while I waited for Rick. He jumped off of his horse and headed directly up to me. Now, with nobody else around us, he looked me up and down before asking: "Mind telling me where you were last night?"

My mouth nearly fell to the ground, but I kept it together. "Rick," came my own warning tone. "You know where I was. I was at home — Alexandria — with my girls."

Rick gulped and quizzed, "All night?"

"All night," I promised, staring straight into his deep blue eyes. "I didn't care for the guy, but I didn't kill him, either. You know that, right?"

Eventually, Rick nodded before he placed his hands on his belt, dipping his head down before looking back up at me. "Yeah, I know. But, everyone else seems to think you, Daryl, and Anne all did it. Keep an eye out because, even if you didn't do it, everyone else seems to think that you did."

I nodded and whispered, "Yeah, okay."

Rick peered forward and saw Gabriel, before smirking and starting to walk away. Before he left, he hit my shoulder and held onto it for a moment longer. "Stay safe."

"Always," I smiled back before he started to leave to talk to Gabriel. "Um, Rick?" He stopped, just as I had blurted his name out. "Thank you."

He grinned and questioned, "For?"

I innocently shrugged and simply replied, "For, uh... Everything. Thank you."

He furrowed his cowboy hat before turning his back on me again, and walked away. For only a moment longer, I stood there and watched Rick. He was my leader, one of the only men that I would turn to in a time of need. He was Carl's father and, yet, he always will be.

• Hi! So... Did I seriously just write Tess and Rick's last scene together? I don't even know 😭 Just in case that it was, I tried to make it memorable; although, it does seem a little basic and dry. Nevertheless, my heart hurts cuz I miss Rick... TO THIS DAY! If you know the gif, then you said "to this day" in a different tone 💀 Ugh, I miss him and I'm sad 💔 All the love .xx •