"I always wished there were more kids in Alexandria. Judith grew up with a lot of adults... not a lot of time spent playing." Which was how Michonne wanted it, he knows. It doesn't mean he agrees.
"With Rick's group? Or period?" It's hard to do the math, especially once they started moving and the seasons weren't the same in every part of the country they traveled through.
"About a year, I think? Maybe? We'd come up from Texas over about two."
"With Rick. When I got there, when I was looking around, it seemed like you'd all been there at least a year. Maybe more." But he has that curious look he gets when she brings up Texas and all those long days spent traveling the country.
"The safe zone was there from the start. Before the virus even. It was like a bomb shelter for the politicians in the area - and one of them opened it up to the overflow from the emergency camps," she explains. They weren't starting from scratch. They couldn't have.
That's why Rosita is looking at the property she is now.
"Rick's group came in and we kind of... Took over. The leader that had been there before was killed in an attack long before you showed up, and they wanted us to step in after she was gone."
"They couldn't have found a better group for it. I'm just lucky it was Rick and the rest of you who stepped in. There were other groups out there that didn't make it, before I met you. I always wondered if maybe they would have if I'd been able to put them in touch with you instead." He's always networking, is the thing. It never stops for him.
Rosita herself has to shrug. She was part of that foundational group - in Alexandria anyway, if not with Rick himself - and even she doesn't know how things might have gone more than generally speaking.
"We tried to be careful about who we took in. You know that. And there were some we didn't trust to let live, so." That happened.
"I didn't take in everyone. There were people who tried to follow me back to Hilltop a couple of times. I couldn't let them see the community." So they had to die. It happens. He tried to avoid it whenever possible, but sometimes it just had to end that way.
"So am I." Just because people don't stay dead here doesn't mean he wouldn't find a way to make it have an impact. "But I like that here we get to have other options."
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"But Alexandria... There was always something about it. Plus Michonne is there, and she needed people. Judith is there."
And especially after Rick died, Michonne and Judith needed people. Sometimes she could be one of those people.
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"But maybe she was always going to be that way. I carried her on the road, you know. We all took turns. She was so small."
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"About a year, I think? Maybe? We'd come up from Texas over about two."
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That's why Rosita is looking at the property she is now.
"Rick's group came in and we kind of... Took over. The leader that had been there before was killed in an attack long before you showed up, and they wanted us to step in after she was gone."
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"We tried to be careful about who we took in. You know that. And there were some we didn't trust to let live, so." That happened.
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It happens. "It's harder to do here, but I'm still willing to do the same this time if it needs to happen."
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