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This is Rosita. I'll hit you back when I can.

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"And I do. I feel safe with you calling those shots." He trusts her to make decisions he balks at.

Her brow furrows for a moment, wanting to evade again like she has been so far - exacerbated, even, by the fact that they're adjusting at such wildly different rates, and that he has surrounded himself with people he can rely on while she has only him and those he's introduced.

But she physically shakes it off, and instead says, "That's what I'm asking. What shots are you hoping to see me call? What would you like to see?"

It's different here, where the leader doesn't have to worry about walls and the dead. "The ones you've been making. How we fix this place up, the sort of bases we fortify. What caches to focus on."

"I'm recreating Alexandria and Hilltop here," she points out.

She's not ashamed of it, she doesn't think she was wrong, but she remembers her conversation with Vrenille.

"That's what you want to do, too?"

"Yeah. I do." Exactly that. Whatever problems they'd had in the communities, he believes in them and the good they did.

She smiles then, but it's sad.

"But I'm the only one that can live here. Unless everything goes to shit."

And she's all for preparing for that likelihood, especially given the things that happened last year, the things that happened last month.

"We're more spread out, but the principle is the same. Broken Hollow is as much a part of the community as Creekside. So is the Manor." He looks down, though. "I like having my own place but I miss having people sometimes. I'd live here more if I could. Or at least closer."

"I know."

It's a problem she doesn't have a solution to - and one she chafes at, after years of being beholden to no one she doesn't care for unless she chooses to be.

"I'm just thinking we might have to adjust. Adapt to this place as it is." A beat. "After the shortest exit tunnel is secure, I want to shift K to something else for a while. Vrenille's working on portals for the rest."

"Where do you need help?" K will do it, Jesus knows. He'll do it without complaint, but Jesus wants it to be something K can enjoy. Something in the daylight, something around the plants.

"I think working on the fields," she answers, because she's been thinking about it. She wants him to enjoy it too, and in this case it's also useful.

"With you. Planting and harvesting, and when to do what."

"He'll probably like it so much I could tell him it's a date," Jesus chuckles.

"How you handle your love life is not up to me," she teases, although she does kind of agree from what she's seen.

Which: "Are you going to invite him to stay here?"

"Yeah. I think he's earned a place with us. I think maybe he needs to know it, though." That he's welcome with them.

"What's that mean?" she asks.

The man puts in work out here. He showed up in the woods. That's enough for her when paired with the way Jesus goes stupid about him from time to time.

"I don't think he knows how much I want him around. Or that he's more than a workhorse around here." It's hard for K to get his head around being more than a machine, he thinks.

"So tell him."

She's not sure which one is the problem at this point, Jesus not saying anything or K not understanding.

"If that doesn't work, use the rooms to show him."

"Does he get a room?" He's not sure how many she's divided up.

She gives him a strange look.

"Of course. I'd suggest the one between yours and Vrenille's, but, you know. He can pick any of the open ones."

Edited Date: 2023-07-22 03:20 am (UTC)

"Where is Carver's?" Because there's no way he doesn't still have one.

She doesn't flinch, but she does just look at him for one beat, for two.

"Right where he left it."

He's not surprised. If she had changed that room into something else he would be.

"Does he know it's still there?"

"He's been here. Twice. Door's still fucking closed."

She doesn't want to talk about this but she's also sick of people using that reticence to try and prove a point she's already well aware of.

"We've already talked about this. Nothing's changed."

"That's all I wanted to know. If anything's changed." He thinks it will, with time.

"He's doing better, I think."

"Yeah," she agrees. She thinks so too.

"Doesn't mean I think the needle should move from where it is any time soon. I don't want to put that on him until he's ready. We can talk about it then."

"I understand." And he thinks it's wise, to be cautious that way without cutting Carver out or pushing him away. "I like how you've handled everything that happened. I'm proud of you. It takes a lot of strength to give someone a second chance."