Hello my friends! So I ended up having to split this update when it reached a staggering 7,000 words. I hope you enjoy this one! Things are picking up!!!

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Daryl

It was almost an hour before I had the heart to gently change Jo's path so she was heading towards Hilltop instead of away from it. I could have told her outright and it wasn't that I wouldn't have enjoyed seeing her scowl at me and get all flustered. Truthfully I loved that. She was adorable when she was scowling at me. She would be pissed if I ever told her. 

It took the hour for me to convince myself heading back towards one of the communities was the right answer. Once the two of us were deep enough in the trees that we couldn't see or hear anyone else I started to feel better than I had since I got back. I would never admit it, but that knot of fear and worry over Jo was gone too. Out here we were safe. Communities were supposed to be safer for us, but all I wanted to do was leave. I didn't want to go back to Hilltop. I didn't want to face what was back there waiting for us. 

It would be so easy for Jo and I to just keep walking and never look back. We were headed west, a weeks time and we would be deep in the Appalachian mountains.  Winter was coming but we were strong enough to survive winter in the mountains. 

It was the most selfish hour of my life as I trailed quietly behind her, using the crossbow to kill any walkers we came across. After I shot the last one Jo stopped and glanced back at me frowning. 

"We should have come across the road by now..." she said thoughtfully. 

I nodded, ripping the bolt from the walkers skull. I sucked in a breath as the words to ask her to run with me caught in my throat. Selfish and cowardly. Jo wasn't a coward, she wouldn't leave our family and honestly neither could I. 

I glanced up at the treetops. "Think we turned a little west," I said casually not wanting to outright lie to her. 

Jo groaned and leaned back against a tree. She was limping on that bad leg and it made me feel bad for making her go further on it than she needed to. I reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle of water. She took it from me with a grateful smile. I could tell she was still hurting and tired, but she was putting on a brave face. 

"Ya wanna stop for a bit?" I asked, trying to sound casual, knowing she would see it as a weakness and wouldn't want to admit she needed the break after being on the move for so short a time. 

Like I thought she snorted and turned back more south so we would get to Hilltop. 

"Ya know, ya shouldn't push it," I said thoughtfully after moving for another half hour in silence. 

She glared at me over her shoulder. "I'm fine," she growled at me. 

In that moment a growling came from in front of us. I hefted my crossbow and aimed at the first walker to appear. There were more behind it however and after I dropped the first one Jo pulled her knives. She threw two knives from a distance but there were still four more walkers shambling towards us. 

She pulled two more knives to fight with. I fired another bolt and the walker dropped. I was just reloading when Jo ran at the walkers. 

"Jo! Goddamnit!"I shouted after her. This was exactly the shit I was talking about. 

She jumped forward kicking at the first like she normally would have. Whatever she was thinking about, she wasn't thinking she was still hurt. As soon as she landed the kick in the walkers chest she cried out and fell back. She hit the ground, clutching at her ribs while the next on came at her. Swearing, I ran towards her. I smashed the walkers skull in with the butt of the crossbow and ripped a new bolt out to stab the last one. 

I swung back around once the last one fell to look at Jo. She was laying in the leaves, her arm looped around her middle with her eyes closed. I crouched down next to her but when I reached out to touch her she held her hand up to stop me. 

"I'm fine," she growled through clenched teeth. "I just need a second." 

I stepped back and sighed. I collected my bolts and her knives and when I carried her knives back to her she had shoved herself up onto all fours. 

"How bad are they?" I asked. When she didn't respond right away I nodded towards her chest. "Your ribs," I said. "They're worse than ya told the doc," I scowled at her accusingly.  

She scowled back for a moment but then after a second she sighed and nodded her head. "Worse," she admitted. 

I nodded and reached down to pull her to her feet. "We need to get ya to Hilltop and have their doc wrap 'em for ya." 

She looked ready to argue but then agreed. I laced my fingers with hers and pulled her to her feet. I led the rest of the way to Hilltop. As badly as I didn't want to go to Hilltop and didn't want to face Maggie I knew it was the right place for Jo. I was torn. The closer we got to Hilltop the better I felt about Jo, but more anxious I started to feel. Last time I had been here I managed to avoid Maggie, it had only been a couple hours, but now, I didn't know what I was going to say to her. 

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Jo

I thought going Hilltop was going to make things better. I truly believed most of Daryl's anxiety was because I was injured and we were out on our own, but the closer we got the more agitated he seemed to grow. 

When we got there Jesus and Maggie greeted us at the gate. Daryl wouldn't look at either of them. Instead he marched me past them and straight in to see the doctor. The doctor did absolutely nothing the one in The Kingdom hadn't already done except hand me a rolled up bandage, told me to rest and keep my ribs wrapped.

"You can come rest in our trailer," Maggie said, smiling gently at me when she heard the doctors orders. 

"That would be good," I allowed. I didn't like the idea of going and laying down when there was obviously work to be done, but the trek through the woods hadn't done me any favors. I was worn out and even more sore than before. 

Maggie smiled warmly at me and led the way towards her trailer. She held the door for me and I trudged up the stairs. I glanced back over my shoulder when I noticed Daryl wasn't following. When I glanced back I saw he was standing at the bottom of the stairs shifting his weight uneasily. 

"Imma go hunt," he muttered. 

I tried to catch his eye but he wouldn't look at me or Maggie. I stopped and waited, refusing to agree until he made eye contact with me. Something had him tense and glancing around I couldn't see it. I didn't think it was me.  

"Ya good?" he asked and he finally flickered his eyes to me and then away again. 

"Yeah Dare, I'm good," I promised him. 

"Don't worry," Maggie said with a warm smile. "Enid and I will make sure she rests." 

Maggie's words only seemed to make him more nervous and he jerked his chin down roughly in agreement before he clutched at the strap to his crossbow and stalked back towards the gate as quickly as possible. 

Maggie glanced at me in concern and I only shrugged. I was too tired to want to get into what I thought I was going on in Daryl's head with her. He would be fine once he had some time in the woods, I was sure of it and getting more people involved wouldn't help. I followed Maggie and Enid into the trailer and happily collapsed on their couch. I was asleep in moments, stirring only when someone covered me with a blanket. I mumbled a thank you but didn't bother trying to open my eyes. 

I slept for a few hours before a loud crash startled me awake. I shoved myself up, rubbing at my eyes. 

"Sorry," Enid said looking at me sheepishly. 

"It's okay," I promised her. "I should get up anyway." 

I pushed myself to my feet, groaning as I stood. 

"Are you okay?" Enid asked uncertainly. 

I snorted and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay," I promised. "Where is everyone?" 

"Well Daryl isn't back yet if that's what you mean," she said giving me an impish smile and I rolled my eyes. "Maggie and Jesus are out in the gardens."

"What about Sasha?" I asked. Oddly, I hadn't seen Sasha since we arrived. 

Enid pressed her lips into a grim line and seemed hesitant for a moment. "She's...I think she's at the graves," she said looking down at her shoes. 

I nodded and headed towards the door. 

"Wait!" Enid cried coming after me. "You were supposed to be resting!" 

"I did rest," I told her briskly. "And now I'm going to see Sasha." 

Enid gave me an exasperated look and it was one I'm familiar with. I had seen it at one time or another on the face of everyone who cared about me. I flashed her a smirk and slipped out the door. 

I found Sasha crouched beside Abraham's grave. I slowed as I approached. She looked up when I was close. She frowned, looking surprised to see me and it made me wonder how long she had been out here. 

"Jo," she greeted, standing up and brushing her hands off on her pants. 

I nodded to her. 

"What are you doing here?" 

"Daryl and I need a place to hide out," I said. "And I thought I could help train some of the farmers," I said forcing a smile I didn't feel. 

Sasha's eyes widened for a minute and she tripped as she climbed to her feet. "You're here to help me train."

"Yeah, I figured you could use the help whipping the farmers into shape." 

"I want you to train me," she said in a determined voice. 

I frowned at her for a moment, in my defense my brain was still a little fuzzy.  Sasha cut her eyes to the graves sitting behind her and when she looked back at me I recognized the hard, determined look in her eyes and the set of her jaw. 

"I want you to teach me to be as good as you are," Sasha said. 

I just raised an eyebrow. Looking around I could tell she spent most of her time here. 

"Please," she said desperately. 

She needed this. She needed this like I had once needed it. It would give her purpose and a goal. It would give her rage a place to go. That was Rosita's problem, she had no outlet for her rage. 

I nodded slowly. "Got a target set up somewhere?" 

I trained with Sasha until dark. My ribs and shoulders made it so I couldn't demonstrate or spar very well but I did what I could and for the rest I stood over her shoulder and directed her. She worked hard for several hours until her shirt was damp with sweat, her hands were shaking and she could hit the center of the target every time. 

She dropped down onto the ground, gasping for breath after I made her run through another of my favorite training sequences. "You did all this?" she asked. 

I looked down at her. "Every day," I confessed, trying to keep my voice light even though I felt anything but as memories ripped through me. 

Sasha frowned up at me in disbelief, spitting on the ground. "For how long?" 

I lifted my eyebrows. "Until I couldn't." I told her, my voice was so careful and calm I wondered if she noticed. "Then I would rest and start again." 

Sasha nodded slowly. "That's what it took," she said in a low voice. "To turn yourself-"

"Into a weapon?" I asked with forced brightness as though it were something I had chosen to do and not something that was done to me. Something he had been responsible for. 

She pressed her lips into a hard line and pushed herself to her feet. "Did you kill him?" she asked, staring at the knife in her hands. 

I shook my head. "I'm not sure who did it in the end, but I never got my chance." 

Sasha gritted her teeth and closed her hand around the knife in her hand. "I want my chance." 

I nodded and pulled the last knife out of my shoulder rig. I held it out to her. 

Sasha looked down at the knife frowning. "That's a steak knife," she said cautiously, clearing her throat. When I continued to hold it out she took it from me. 

"It's-" I started to say and I gnashed my teeth together as my emotions threatened to overwhelm me. 

She looked the knife over frowning. "Is this-" she started to say but then she stopped and her eyes widened. 

I hadn't been sure how observant Sasha had been while we were at the prison. Apparently enough that she noticed. 

"I was going to use it to kill him," I told her simply and I didn't know exactly which him I meant at that moment, but it didn't matter. There was only one him that mattered in Sasha's life. 

She tightened her fist around the knife. "Thank you," she said in a low voice. 

I nodded and while I was happy to hand over the knife I felt strangely naked without it once more. I wanted Sasha to have it however, I wanted her to use it on Negan. We walked together in silence back towards Hilltop. I didn't want to talk anymore, I wasn't sure I could manage keeping my emotions in check and I appreciated that Sasha didn't feel the need to fill the silence with mindless chatter. 

Sasha broke away from me once we were back inside the gate as she headed back towards the graves. I glanced up and saw Daryl standing on the wall. His crossbow was across his back and he held his rifle in his hands. His eyes flickered down to me for only a moment before he went back to keep watch. 

I sighed and headed back to the trailer. Whatever was going on inside his head, being at Hilltop was making things worse. Daryl had stood on the wall until it was too dark to see anything. When he finally came back however, he refused to come inside the trailer. Instead he had sat himself down on a picnic table and fiddled with his crossbow.

Later that night Maggie was out at the grill cooking the squirrels Daryl had brought in. 

I was sitting at the table with Enid and Sasha eating when Maggie came back in with a plate of meat fresh off the grill. "Where's Daryl?" she asked me, glancing around.

My food lodged in my throat for a moment and I jerked my chin towards the door. "He's outside," I told her. 

Maggie nodded and took a plate. I watched from inside as she carried it over to him and set it on the picnic table beside him. She reached out and touched his arm, but he wouldn't look at her. He wouldn't look up at all. He glanced back at her as she walked away and when I met his gaze he looked away again. I didn't understand what was going on in his head. 

I sat up late that night waiting for Daryl to come in. He never did. 

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Jo

I spent the next two days training Sasha. Every day more people showed up. They didn't always stay the whole time but there was a constant flood of people in and out. The constant one was Sasha. I could see how determined she was to get this right. I knew what her plan was, even if she wasn't exactly willing to admit it out loud. 

Daryl kept himself busy either out hunting or on the wall, keeping watch. He checked on me every morning and every night, looking at me sternly and making sure I was resting. I just rolled my eyes at him and fought to make sure he never saw how worried I was about him. 

The next morning I was heading towards Abraham's grave to get Sasha so we could head out for training. I was about to round the side of the building when I slowed. Rosita was standing over Sasha. The tension between them was palpable. I held my place, but I was ready to intervene if necessary. 

Sasha pushed herself to her feet awkwardly. She looked from Rosita down to Abraham's grave. "Are you here to-?" She started to ask.

Rosita stalked up to Sasha, "I'm here because I need your help," she said briskly. 

Sasha went very still for a moment, her eyes hardening. Then a slow smirk crossed her face and it wasn't one I was used to seeing on Sasha, it was something more at home on my face. "Just one condition," Sasha said.

Rosita arched a brow, inviting her to continue.

"I get to take the shot."

"Okay," Rosita agreed.

"Did you bring any explosives? From the bridge?" Sasha asked eagerly. 

"I thought about it, but I didn't want anyone finding out and trying to stop me." Rosita swung her backpack around onto the ground between the two of them. "I got something better though," and she pulled out a sniper rifle. She put it together with quick and practiced hands and held it out to Sasha. "So you can take your shot."

Rosita watched as Sasha looked over the rifle. She handled it with the same reverence I handled my knives. "I memorized everything about what Daryl and Carl told Rick about the inside," Rosita said eagerly. 

Sasha nodded. "Jesus made me a map of the outside, but his directions are a little hazy on how to get there. It sounds like it's far away and well defended."

"You changing your mind?" Rosita demanded sharply. 

Sasha glared down at Rosita, letting her determination shine out of her eyes. "I'm ready to kill him, but I need to be sure you know what this means."

"Do you?" Rosita challenged.

"It's a suicide run," I said stepping out between the huts. They both flinched at the sight of me, looking guilty, like I was going to tell on them. "They can't catch you alive. If they do you have given them something, something we got back when Daryl escaped."

Rosita stared me down defiantly. "It's a one-way ticket," she said confidently.

I nodded. "There's a car," I told them both. "One I took from a Savior. It's hidden off of highway seventeen. Take Seventeen east. You'll want to park it and hike in the last couple miles, they have security everywhere." 

Rosita was staring at me like I had gone crazy. She hadn't expected me to help her. It just proved again how little she understood me. With a few exceptions, there was little I wouldn't do to ensure the safety of our group and Negan's death. 

I trained both Rosita and Sasha that day. Rosita wasn't as receptive Sasha, but after a while she let go of her ego and settled in to work. They trained for several hours before they went back towards the community. 

"You coming?" Sasha called back to me. 

I shook my head. I waited until I was alone before I started throwing the knives myself. I still hurt and I grunted with every throw. It was too soon, which is why I wanted to be alone. It had only been four days of rest, but four days was all I could afford. I needed to get back at it.

I looked up when I heard someone moving through the underbrush. Enid popped out. She looked down at my pile of knives and then back at me. 

"Are you supposed to be doing this?" she asked suspiciously. 

I smirked at her and walked over to the target to pull the knives out and walked back to my place. I set the pile down between us. Enid shook her head at me. She picked up one of my knives and threw it at the target. She was getting better. She was actually hitting the target now, but it was no where near the middle. I watched as she threw the whole stack. 

When she threw the last one she turned to face me, sighing heavily. "You aren't are you," she said accusingly. Then her face fell and she suddenly looked worried. I didn't think it had anything to do with her concern over my reaction. She swallowed thickly. "...do you know about Sasha and Rosita?"

I looked up into her face, keeping the surprise off of my face. Sasha and Rosita must have been sloppy. I nodded subtly. 

She sighed again and kicked the dirt. "You have to stop them, they'll listen to you. People listen to you. I-" she started to say but both our heads snapped towards the road when we heard the first rumble of motorcycles.

"Saviors," she gasped, her eyes wide with panic.

"We have to warn everyone," I told her, turning towards the fence. 

Enid surprised me by clamping her hand around my arm and pulling me to a stop. She was by no means stronger than me, but she was taller and had a longer reach. "You have to stay here," she commanded.

We didn't have time to argue about this. I had to get back, I had to make sure Daryl was safe. He couldn't be found here. Panic rose in my chest and I felt like I was choking on it. I had to get to him. 

"Daryl-" I started to say.

"You are just as recognizable as Daryl to Simon. Stay here," she ordered and she tore off through the woods alone without bothering to wait for my reaction. 

Enid wasn't wrong and Jesus had told me that Simon was routinely in charge of their pick ups. I couldn't afford to be spotted any more than Daryl could. So instead of running headlong into danger I stood helplessly in the trees and watched the Saviors come closer and closer. I closed my eyes and hoped with everything in me that Daryl would be safe.

The shortcut through the woods would give Enid at least a five minutes lead on the saviors before they were knocking on the gates. Five minutes should be more than enough time for Maggie and Daryl to hide. I tightened my empty hands at my sides. Five minutes had to be enough.

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Hope you guys enjoyed this update! Thank you so much for all the support!