As Brooks got out of the red, rusty, creaky old car, she walked towards Carl who was grabbing Judith from her booster seat. "Here, I'll take 'er." Brooks said, holding out her arms.

"Sure." Carl said, handing the toddler to Brooks. Judith cold walk, but in circumstances like this, it was best to carry her - because the last time Judith tried running (from Sophia the tickle monster) she fell on her face and cried so loudly she brought a herd down on them.

"Auntie Books." Judith smiled, settling into Brooks' arms.

Brooks smiled at the toddler, eyeing the way the doors opened, before she looked to Carl. "Go along with what I do, alrigh'?" Brooks handed over Hershel's gun, and Marliya's knife for him to take. He was confused, but he didn't question Brooks. He knew that girl always had something up her sleeve.

As the gates began opening, they watched as Daryl used his crossbow to kill a possum that had run past. He grabbed the dead creature by the tail, and lifted it for the stranger who stood on the other side of the gates, while Aaron helped Eric walk past. "We brought dinner." Daryl said, holding the creature up for display.

A woman ran up towards Eric, and eyed his ankle. "The fuck happened to you?"

"Car fell on it." Eric admitted, grinning. "I'm basically a War hero."

"You mind helping him, Rhea?" Aaron asked, handing over his husband.

Rhea nodded. "Yea, I'll take him to Pete right now. As soon as I track down Enid, I'll get her to help, too."

Eric laughed. "Considering she's your sister, she hates people."

"Oh, I hate people generally, I just love my people." The woman responded, helping Eric wrap his arm around her shoulders. Rhea's eyes lingered on Rick as she looked him up and down, before her eyes trailed around the rest of the group. "You found people, then?"

"I'll tell you on the way." Eric laughed. Rhea nodded at Rick, already being able to tell that he was the group's leader, before she turned and helped take Eric away.

As the two walked away, gossiping like school kids, Aaron turned to the group. "Come on in, guys. It's okay." Rick and the group walked into the walls, and the gate shut behind them. Brooks eyed it, but controlled her body language. She kept a nervous expression on her face, and stood slightly behind Carl. The boy eyed her, Brooks has been known for pushing him behind her, never standing behind him in fear. He wondered what on Earth she was doing, but didn't let the strangers see his confusion. 

"Before we take this any further, I need you all to turn over your weapons." The strange man who had been manning the gate said, looking around the group. "You stay? You hand them over."

"We don't know if we want to stay." Rick said, stepping forward.

Aaron nodded to his friend. "It's- it's fine, Nicholas."

Rick looked around in agreement. "If we were gonna use them, we would've started already."

"Let them talk to Deanna first." Aaron stated.

Abraham was quick to ask. "Who's Deanna?"

"She knows everything you'd wanna know about this place." Aaron responded, looking to Abraham, but letting his eyes travel amongst the group. "Rick, why don't you start?"

/----------\

After a little display of Sasha getting a walker's head shot, first try, from about twenty feet away... The group wandered further into this community. Alexandria. They all took a seat outside of a house that was their leader Deanna's house. Brooks sat with Judith on her lap, as she sat between Carl and Sophia, waiting for Rick to come out. People who passed gave nervous looks, and avoided the new group like the plague. 

Brooks kept her face neutral, looking around like a lost puppy. She never made herself intimidating, or scary. She simply held the gentle little girl in her lap, and offered a kind smile to any scared stranger she made eye contact with. Most the group noticed her strange behaviour, but didn't ruin her angle. Carol smiled to herself, knowing that she was doing the exact same thing.

The underestimated are usually the ones with the biggest kill counts.

484 walkers.
19 people.

Rick came out, and Deanna looked to Brooks. The older woman smiled at the teenage girl, who looked like a lost puppy. She wanted to make sure she talked to every member of the group, but she wanted to ensure she saw every different type of person in this group. Brooks seemed to be the exact opposite of Rick, so Deanna nodded to her. "Why don't you come on in next, honey?"

Brooks' eyebrows pinched together, her voice soft as she spoke. "You wanna talk to me?"

Deanna grinned. "Yes, please."

"O- okay." Brooks nodded, kissing Judith on the head and sitting her on the ground in front of Carl. "Someone give me an Oscar." She whispered to the boy, who had to bow his head so Deanna didn't see his grin. Brooks wiped her hands in her shorts, before she approached the house and walked in alongside Deanna.

The room was nothing like what Brooks expected, but then she also didn't know what she expected. There were several book shelves, filled with all different types of books - fiction and non fiction. The seating was comfortable, a sofa facing an arm chair. The rug was white, not a stain or mark on it. The wallpaper perfectly contrasted the wood of the skirting boards and the flooring.

"Why don't you take a seat?" Deanna offered the arm chair opposite the sofa.

"Thank you." The girl let out, walking to sit on the chair. She had to try not to laugh at Rick's dirty butt outlined on the clean chair. Brooks sat in it, back straight, arms neatly folded, legs crossed together. "I'm Brooks, Brooks Dixon."

"Deanna Monroe. You don't mind if I film this, do you?"

Shaking her head, Brooks smiled. "Please." 

Clicking on the camera, Deanna moved to sit on the sofa, opposite Brooks. "How old are you, Brooks?"

"I turned fourteen a couple weeks ago, or so." Brooks answered.

"So you were ten when all this broke out, right? That must've been hard."

Humming, Brooks nodded. "I had my family. They're really supportive, they got me through it. The whole group did, they're so kind to me." Brooks grinned, playing with a strand of hair, pushing the years of torment inflicted on her to the back of her mind.

"And, so what's your role in the group, Brooks?" Deanna asked, smiling softly.

"Uhm..." Brooks trailed off. "Role?" A ditzy, confused smile tugged at her lips.

Deanna blinked twice, before clarifying. "What do you do?"

"Oh!" Brooks laughed, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "Well, I'm really good at cookin' the beans over the fire." All the late night/all night watches, and all the people, and all the walkers she's killed in the name of her group flashed before her eyes, but she ignored the brutal murders and smiled.

"That's lovely." Deanna responded. "You know, we have a lovely school programme going here. I've been told you met her, Rhea was a teacher before the fall. Her little sister Enid is in her class, actually. I'm sure she'd love to have you, and the others."

Brooks forced away her smile. Truth is, Deanna's words excited her. Brooks wanted to go to school, she wanted to start learning again. She wanted to gush over Deanna's hundreds of books, and ask to read them all... But, that part of herself, her real self, had to be ignored. Sweet little bookworm Brooks had to die temporarily, because there was a chance Brooks would have to end up killing everyone in Alexandria, and she had to be ready for that. "No, thanks, I don't really like the whole... School thing. I've never been any good at it."

"Ah." Deanna nodded, forcing a look of surprise. "Well, I'm sure I can discuss that with your parents. Would you point them out for me, when we go outside?"

"Mhm." Brooks nodded. "Well, I can my dad... My mom passed away, 'bout a year ago."

A look of sympathy washed over Deanna's face. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Do you mind me asking how it happened?"

"I do, actually, yea." Brooks answered, looking at her nails like she'd seen the popular mean girls doing on movie posters. She never got to see those movies, but she got the general idea.

Looking down, Deanna nodded, understanding that it must be too hard for Brooks to talk about. And, in a way it was. Brooks didn't want to explain that her mother was murdered by her best friend's brother, with her aunt's katana, that her aunt still carries around every day. Brooks understood why Michonne carried around the katana still, because it was the same reason Brooks kept Hershel's gun and Marliya's knife. "I think we're all done here." Deanna smiled. "Thank you for your time, Brooks."

Dropping her hand, and smiling brightly, Brooks stood to her feet. "Thanks, girl. That shirt, by the way? To die for." Deanna blinked a couple times, but nodded, smiling. Neither Deanna nor Brooks knew what she was saying, truthfully. Brooks was just following the memories she had of the mean girls from her elementary school... Was it going great? No. But, did Deanna know she was practically a serial killer? No, therefore, it was totally working!

/----------\

"They're still your guns." Deanna insisted as Brooks watched her group put all of their guns onto a trolley, that a kind woman was standing beside. Her eyes were wide as she watched every single member of the group dispose of their guns, apart from Brooks and Judith. Carol kept up her charade, supposedly struggling to get off her machine gun. "You can check them out whenever you go beyond the walls. But, inside here, we store them for safety."

"Should've brought another bin." The strange but kind woman smiled, making Carol laugh quietly, as everyone watched the lady wheel away their weapons.

Deanna looked to Brooks expectedly. "No weapons with you, Brooks?"

"Oh, no." Brooks laughed, shaking her head. "I'm a pacifist." Her smile nearly faltered when she made eye contact with Sasha. The woman who was no doubt replaying the way Tyreese died in her mind - Brooks certainly wasn't a pacifist on that day.

/----------\

With the interviews complete (Rick insisted they all stay together) Aaron led them to the two large houses which would be theirs. Rick stayed outside with Carl and Aaron for a moment, chatting, while Brooks went inside with everybody else. The house was spacious, lots of room for laughing, memories, and playing with Judith as she grows. It wasn't the biggest house Brooks had seen while spending time on the road, but the fact that she would actually be able to live there just made it all the more perfect.

It had a modern homely style to it, white ceilings, white walls, a light blue wall to add a pop of colour, lots of clean and white surfaces. A fridge that when Cam opened, he was hit with cold air and couldn't help but put his head inside of it. The cream sofa was enticing, but Eugene was quick to flop down onto it. Brooks looked away from him in disgust, still struggling with the knowledge of what he unintentionally did to Sebastian to survive.

"I'm gonna go check out the bedrooms." Carl grinned, looking to Brooks.

She nodded happily, finding her smile as soon as she saw Carl. "Yea, me too." She responded, as the two went upstairs.

"Sophia, go watch them would ya, munchkin?" Merle asked, looking to the the girl who was looking through the DVD collection.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked up to him. "Why?" But when she watched him stuttering, trying to form a response, she simply laughed. "Gotcha." She stood up, and ran upstairs after Brooks and Carl who she found by following the sound of laughter.

She pushed open the door, and watched Brooks and Carl quite literally jumping on a bed, in the master bedroom. "Oh, Sophia!" Brooks laughed, spotting her best friend and waving her over. "Come on, it's so fun!"

"She's never jumped on a bed before." Carl told Sophia, as if this was shocking information... Before, he jumped to high and hit his head. He stopped jumping to rub his bump, but he didn't stop laughing.

Sophia let out a defeated sigh. "Well, if you can't beat them, join them." Kicking off her shoes, she ran over and climbed onto the bed, taking small jumps. Sophia was a tall girl, she stood proud at 5'9, which meant she had to be careful not to bang her head on the clean, white ceiling. Brooks had nothing to worry about, though, struggling at a miserable 5'2. 

"Hell's going on in here?" Rick yelled into the laughter filled room, making all three teenagers jump off the bed and stare at him like soldiers, and he was their General. 

"Nothing." All three of them said messily, talking over each other, not in sync.

Rick grinned, waving his hand towards them. "I'm just kidding, I don't care. I'm gonna go shower now though, because if my four year old calls me smelly one more time-" He cut himself off with a defeated sigh, before he vanished back into the hallway. The teenagers took one look at each other, before they all burst out laughing and crumbled to the ground, laughing until their ribs hurt and their cheeks ached from their smiles.

/----------\

Brooks sat in front of Michonne, as her aunt braided her hair. Brooks had decided to take her braids out (since they really were past their due date) and wash her hair thoroughly. Luckily, there was a nice black lady down the street with the same hair type as Brooks, and had just the products she and Michonne needed, to get her hair nice. Not just tidy, but for the first time in over a year, Brooks' hair would be able to have the proper treatment.

Merle, Rick and Cam were clean shaven, everybody had a shower in warm, running water. It was the best feeling ever, and Brooks didn't want to get out, ever, but she knew it would be selfish to use all the hot water. That didn't stop Eugene taking his sweet time though. Noah was sitting quietly, a couple feet away from Brooks on the ground, before he looked to the girl and spoke. "When I was in forth grade, my mom braided my hair."

"You had long hair?" Brooks grinned.

"Mhm." Noah nodded. "It was the nineties, I got away with it. I thought I was so cool."

Beth smiled, adding in. "I bet you were the coolest ten year old there."

Noah couldn't help but laugh. "I had glasses the size of my face, a backpack bigger than me, and my teeth sticking outta my mouth, but yea, I was totally all that."

Brooks smiled, but sighed sadly. "I miss my glasses."

"I'm sure someone around here is going to have reading glasses." Michonne smiled, continuing the work on Brooks' hair she'd been doing for the past four hours.