I Saw The Lights Go Out - Carl Grimes

To my surprise Carl hadn't visited his father in the makeshift jailhouse like I thought he would. Once we were told he wasn't being cast out of Alexandria, we all relaxed knowing it would buy us some time to get Rick and the situation under control. Pete was put into a house not far from Jessie or us. It was no surprise he didn't take the change lightly once he woke up somewhere new, and he made it known with a screaming matching with Deanna.

Now knowing Pete's anger issues I was happy to not have interacted with him much in the past. As disappointed as I was to find out he wouldn't help Tara with her head injury, I was thankful for it now seeing his true colours. I was even more thankful to hear from Rosita that Tara was now awake since her injury at the warehouse.

"Hey, beautiful." I greeted Tara in the infirmary with Carl in tow. She looked up toward the door before a smile broke her pale face.

"I was wondering when you'd visit me." Tara laughed holding out her hand for me to grab.

I took a seat next to her with a squeeze of her hand. She laid back against the pillows with a smirk and a bandage wrapped around her black hair. A comfortable silence hung in the air as we stared at each other. It felt surreal that she was staring right back. Before I could realized, my heart crawled up and my eyes welled with tears at the sight of her alive and smiling.

"I was so scared." The words left my mouth in a whisper knowing my voice would crack at any second.

Tara's head shook despite her injury. "No. No, were not doing this sad shit." Tara laughed again pulling her hand from me. "Avery, look at me. I'm fine, really!" Her brows were raised trying to convince me.

Then my bottom lip pulled out into a pout before I cracked a smile too, my face red and my heart in my throat.

"I know, but you're not allowed to do that to me again." I pointed a finger at her and forcibly grabbed her hand back for me to hold.

A cheerful voice interrupted our laughs. "Woah, I didn't know there would be a party in here." Glenn called from the door, a large smile spread across his face.

Tara's eyes lit up at the sight of him. "You're alive!" She cheered as he walked over to the other side of the bed. Glenn bent down and planted a kiss on top of her head to which she swatted and recoiled as we all laughed. "Okay, I'm not that excited to see you, calm down." She joked.

"Hey, I did that every night that you were unconscious. How else do you think you recovered so well?" Glenn poked her side before taking a seat.

I sighed blissfully as Tara radiated joy. She laid back against the soft pillow behind her taking a moment to regain her energy and take in the love from the company surrounding her.

"So, what did I miss?" Tara asked looking between the two of us.

I swallowed hard and turned to Glenn to take the reins on the tough question, and he did so without hesitation.

"What do you remember?" Glenn asked first but she already sensed our discomfort and sighed.

"Rosita told me what happened to Aiden." Her gaze was cast down to her blankets tucked around her waist.

The tightness in my throat returned as I thought back. Glenn's determination to save him, the cry that barely escaped Aiden's voice, all of it.

Glenn cleared his throat. "Rick sort of snapped, yesterday. Pete's been putting hands on Jessie and the kids, and Deanna wouldn't do anything about it. They beat the crap out of each other and then, Rick pulled a gun. Was spouting off nonsense about how they do things here." Glenn rubbed his chin in thought.