'𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺. - 𝘱𝘢𝘶𝘭 "𝘫𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴" 𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘢.

'𝘰𝘯𝘦.

"come on, i'll take you back to hilltop. we'll get you fixed up, and then you can talk to maggie and jesus- they run this place." she held her hand out, and the younger girl immediately took her hand, and was pulled up. "lucky you, we're not very far.

dianne draped genevieve's arm over her shoulders to help her walk.

-

in about ten minutes time, since they had to slow down, they were at the large, wooden gates. the person at the watchpost capled out a welcome to dianne, and was soon down, pulling the heavy gates open.

"where's jesus?" dianne immediately asked, pausing for a moment once she was inside to give the ginger a moment to relax. she was grateful. dianne saw a young girl with long brown hair, tied up in a ponytail. she was gorgeous. "enid, will you take her to the infirmary trailer while i go find jesus?" the girl whose name was called quickly trotted over, and swapped places, and the blonde was immediately towards the main building.

the shorter girl led genevieve to the trailer, and helped her inside. she set her on a bed, and pushed her own sleeves up.

"i'm enid, i'm learning how to do all of this stuff, so if you aren't comfortable with me helping you out i can go get saddiq—" she mentioned, facing the girl on the bed.

"no, it's okay. i'm genevieve." she nervously smiled, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants. enid gave her a reassuring smile and immediately got to work, cleaning up the wound on her knee. she taped a piece of gauze over it, before wrapping her swollen ankle with ace bandage.

"you're ankle is definitely sprained.. i sprained mine once before this all happened. i was playing outside at recess, and someone accidentally tripped me." she explained, tossing away the trash that was left over. "are you hungry? i can give you an apple for now, and once you talk to maggie, i can get you something else." she reached in a bin, and pulled out a beautiful green apple, and turned back to face genevieve. she did not hesitate to take it, sinking her teeth into it's sweetness as soon as it was in her possession.

enid busied herself with something to give the poor girl a moment of silence to eat. once she finished everything off the apple she could, the door opened, and dianne sauntered in with a woman, who was very pretty, and.. a familiar face.

genevieve assumed they were jesus and maggie. dianne had mentioned the both, and enid mentioned maggie. she kept her eyes on jesus, before a sweet southern accent pulled her from her trance.

"i'm maggie rhee. dianne told me that you are genevieve stewart." she stood with her hands nonchalantly resting on her hips. she wasn't menacing or intimidating at all- just serious. genevieve could tell she just wished to protect her people. and she knew that she didn't oppose a threat to their community at all.

"yes, that's correct." she glanced between the four people in front of her, lip getting caight between her teeth.

"do you work for the saviors?" maggie asked, wanting to hear the story for herself.

"no." she simply stated, eyes falling back on the bearded, beautiful man. he gave her a nod, and she felt confident enough to tell her story. "at first, i started as a worker at the sanctuary- but simon requested i be moved to his outpost. the satellite outpost." genevieve paused, sucking in a short breath. "they kept me locked in a cold room- with only a bed. no blankets. whenever i was in there by myself, i'd be tied to the bedframe. i was used for their pleasure— beaten for crying. they tortured me for no fucking reason." she rubbed at her scarred wrists, before pulling her sleeves up to show the small group. "but then- we were attacked. and uh.. someone cut me free- told me which way was clear, gave me a knife— i got out. been on my own ever since." she could feel the man's smile, and she wasn't even looking.

"it was me." the guy stepped forwards, and maggie's sad face turned into a sad smile. "my name is paul rovia- but everyone calls me jesus." he placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "i'm glad i did what i did, and i'm glad you made it out." he stated, before stepping back beside maggie.

"you're welcome to stay here. i'm sorry that happened to you." maggie's smile grew bigger, and she let her arms fall.

"i've got an extra room in my trailer." paul said, "if you're up for staying with me."

"yes, thank you so much— both of you. all of you." genevieve felt her lips stretch as she mustered up the brightest smile she had smiled in ages.

"i'll get you some clean clothes, and jesus will take your dirty ones to the wash station." she patted his shoulder before heading out. dianne followed, as well as enid.

paul helped the girl up, and let her use him as a crutch, as they walked to his little place.

-

after showering, and changing into a pair of leggings, and a sweater, paul helped rewrap her ankle. she had dug her favorite book from her bag, and requested to sit outside. jesus helped her out, and to a chair near the garden. he gave her a bucket to prop her foot up on, and she endlessly thanked him.

he went off to do whatever it is that he does, and left the girl by her lonesome so she could relax. genevieve opened the book up to the first page, and got lost in the literature that sat in her hands.

she was in her own little world for what felt like forever, until she heard someone call; "saviors are here! negan's with 'em!"

she shut her book, and nervously looked around, before taking in a deep breath to calm herself down.

jesus sped over, crouching beside her chair. "genevieve— you need to get inside the—"

"jesus- it's fine.. i'm fine." she clutched her book. "i need to talk to negan. he.. he's against everything they did- it's one of his rules. he's killed over it, paul." she let a solemn look take over her face, and she carefully stood from her chair, but was quickly assisted by him. "i need to get to the gate, please."

he looked into her coffee colored eyes, and gave a stiff nod. 

by the time they got to the gates, the saviors, simon, had all bled into camp, and the heavy doors were pulled shut. genevieve leaned into paul, feeling his eyes bore into skin. she shook it off, and looked up at negan. he was already looking at her.

"forgive me if my eyes are playing tricks on me- but honey, you look god damn familiar." he poked his tongue between his teeth, resting lucille on his shoulder as he took agonizingly slow steps forwards.

------------------------------

a/n.

first chap.