As they finish the last mile of the trek back to Oceanside, several of the scouting party limping its way because of the lingering pain in their stone-struck knees, Daryl rubs the wrist Connie stamped down on. Connie signs something to Kelly, who tells him, "My sister says she's sorry for kneecapping you."

Daryl grunts.

"We didn't know if you were with those skin freaks," Kelly says. "We thought…better safe than sorry."

Daryl glances across Kelly to Connie. "Yeah, well, tell her I ain't got no hard feelings." He says no hard feelings, but the scowl, Carol notices, has not yet fully left his face.

Lt. Alvarado seems to have no hard feelings, however. For ten minutes, he walked alongside Connie and seemed engaged in a friendly sign language conversation as they hiked. Now he leaves Connie's side and limps back beside Michonne, who is walking just ahead of Daryl and Carol.

"I didn't know you knew sign language," says Michonne, glancing back at Connie.

"That daughter I told you about?" Lt. Alvardo says. "Carmela? She was deaf."

"Teach me?" Daryl asks.

Lt. Alvarado glances back at him. "Sign language?"

"Mhmhm."

"Why? Just so you can talk with Connie? I mean, she's pretty, but you're pretty married."

Daryl glowers. "M'godson's deaf in one ear. Might go deaf in the other one day."

Alvarado looks forward again. "Oh, VanDaryl. Of course, sure, I'd be happy to."

"Me too," Carol says. "And Garland and Shannon. Maybe you could hold a class for us. Even if VanDaryl doesn't go deaf, it wouldn't be bad to know." It could be a good way to communicate when creeping up on walkers, Carol thinks, or at a time of war.

"Buy me a drink for my troubles?" the lieutenant asks. "One drink per one-hour session?"

"I suppose we could," Carol agrees.

"You think she's pretty?" Michonne asks now that the lieutenant has turned fully forward again.

"It's merely an observation of fact."

"There are no facts when it comes to physical attraction."

"You sound almost bothered," says Lt. Alvarado, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Not at all," Michonne insists. "You're free to pursue any woman you like. Just be honest with me if you ever find a serious girlfriend. I don't screw around with other women's men."

Carol slows her pace, so she can stay with Daryl, who is limping more than Alvarado, perhaps because the lieutenant is younger and more flexible, or perhaps because Kelly had poorer aim than Connie and hit Alvarado in a less vulnerable spot. "How you feeling?" she asks.

Daryl grunts and glances at Connie, who is now ahead of them. They've ended up in a line of their own. "A goddamn slingshot," he mutters. "A kid's toy. Shouldn't hurt so damn much."

Carol smiles. "I think your pride's more wounded than your knee."

They walk silently beside one another for a while. Because of their slowed pace, Captain McBride and a limping Cyndie have drawn closer from the row behind them. Carol can overhear their conversation.

"Why did you throw yourself over me like that?" Cyndie asks.

"Because I thought whoever was firing might fire again," McBride answers. "I thought someone was shooting a gun."

"But why would you try to take a bullet for me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" he asks.

"We broke up."

"What do you imagine goes through my mind, Cyndie? Dear God, man, if you aren't getting a blowjob out of it, don't take a bullet for her? Just because we've broken up doesn't mean we aren't allies."

"It's just…I didn't see you throwing yourself over Mitch. Or Daryl. And both of them went down before I did. And both of them are more than just allies. They're your Jamestown people."

The captain sighs. "What do you want me to say? You want me to admit I still care for you? Of course I do. But that's neither here nor there, is it? Because you aren't interested in seeing me more than six to seven times a year."

"Do you think it's fair to Mallory," Cyndie asks quietly, "to ask her to move to Jamestown with you if you still have feelings for me?"

"I didn't ask her to move. I asked her to come for a month and give it a whirl. She may or may not decide to stay. You know what? You sound like a child who wants to have her cake and eat it too. Maybe Mallory and I won't have some passionate romance. But maybe we'll make adequate companions to one another. And maybe, in this world, that's about as much as most men can hope for." Captain McBride marches forward, walks around Daryl, and moves somewhere to the front of the pack, leaving a limping Cyndie behind. He falls in place beside Seaman Reedus and Ensign Lincoln, and soon there's joshing and laughter coming from their line.

Henry catches up somewhere from the back of the pack and falls into place on the other side of Carol. "Are you coming on the first spring speed boat?" he asks. "To see the baby?"

"Of course I am. I just wish I could be here when it's born. Are you going to have help?"

"Are you kidding? That kid will have a gaggle of aunties." He puts an arm around her – he's taller than her – and hugs her to his side. "But only one grandmother."

When Henry drops his arm, she says, "I'm still not ready to be called that just yet."

"All right, Granny."

[*]

Sweetheart acknowledges her parents when they return, with a mere glance, and then immediately toddles after the gaggle of kids – including Jerry's – she's been playing with. "Didn't even run to me," Daryl mutters jealously.

Carol pats the small of his back. "She's having fun, Pookie. You're still the apple of her eye, though."

Daryl trails sullenly after his little girl.

[*]

The representatives of the four communities have assemble at Henry's pub to discuss the refugees. "Hilltop's taking in Lydia," Tara insists. "And we barely have resources for her, especially with Raul around a third of the year now. We're not taking these refugees in."

"Alexandria's got Candy now," Michonne says.

"And we've had some migration from Oceanside," Rosita adds. "I don't think this should fall to us, either."

"Jamestown doesn't need anymore people," Carolyn insists. "We're already taking in Dianne." Gunther smiles across the table at his bride-to-be. "And also maybe Mallory?" Carolyn looks across the table at the captain.

"For at least a month," McBride agrees. "Maybe permanently."

"Dianne and Mallory are going to be shacking up with you boys, though," says Michonne, looking from Gunther to McBride. "So it's not as if you'll need extra housing for them."

"We do have Merry's room free now in the dorms," says McBride, and then grits his teeth and looks off in a corner of the pub.

"And my old room," Gunther adds. "Since I moved into Ernesto's old cabin. I suppose the two sisters could stay in one room."

"And the lesbian couple in the other," Tara suggests.

"Those other two are a couple?" Carolyn asks.

"Clearly, although I'm not sure how much longer they'll be together," Tara replies. "Things seemed a little tense between them."

"I think they'll be happy for any room with a roof," Carol suggests. "They've been living in tents. But we need a unanimous vote of all five council members present here before we can come back to Jamestown with refugees."

"Why doesn't Oceanside take them?" Dianne asks. "My cabin will be free now."

"I was going to move that couple who just had the baby out of that crowded boat house," Cyndie replies. "And give them your cabin. And we're probably going to have some migration from Alexandria. It looks like there's been two engagements. And we don't have any farmlands. Just the gardens."

"Do these women have any skills Jamestown needs?" Linda asks.

"Well," Gunther says with a smirk, "I hear Connie can take down the hero of the mutiny of 7 NE with a sling shot. So I imagine she'll make a good guard, supply runner, or deputy."

"They sure would help with the gender imbalance," McBride observes. "Even if two are lesbians, four more women might be a civilizing influence on my men."

"I should hope you'd be a civilizing influence on your men, Captain," Linda says with a sly smile.

"I do try."

As a deputy and a councilmember, it fell to Carol to interview the refugees for Jamestown. Michonne, Cyndie, and Aaron also participated as members of their respective communities. She opens her notebook now. "Yukimo was a defense attorney. We've already got one of those, but Jim would also make a fair judge, and Annette has mentioned felling a bit overwhelmed by the court load, especially now that she's having to train an apprentice. I suppose we could, after she's a citizen and acquainted herself with our laws, make Yukimo an attorney and Jim and Annette co-judges."

"Magna could farm," Gunther says. "She looks strong."

"You don't even know if she can farm!" Linda exclaims.

"Anyone can farm," Gunther says, "with my good instruction and an able body."

"You always want all the workers for yourself," Linda says. "Maybe Magna was a home brewer in the old world and should work in the brew house and distillery. You don't know. What was she, Carol?"

"What she was vague," Carol replies. "And I gather from the prison tattoo she spent some time behind bars in the old world. But I wouldn't necessarily hold that against her. There are lot of pasts best left in the past. She's clearly the leader of her group, so she's kept people alive. I'm sure Gunther could teach her to farm. She's apparently good with a machete already."

"See, she could whack bushes for me," Gunther tells Linda.

"Connie's was a journalist in the old world," Carol continues.

"Jamestown doesn't have a newspaper and doesn't need one," Carolyn insists.

"I don't know," Gunther quips. "Some of our people would truly love a gossip column."

"Does she know shorthand?" Linda asks. "We're going to need a new court reporter eventually. Marjorie is getting on in years. Arthritis is starting to set in."

"She's deaf," Aaron reminds her.

"Oh, yes, I'd forgotten. I guess taking dictation would be a challenge."

"She was a soldier for her old camp," Carol continues. "It was called the Coalition, but it was overrun, and only the five of them got out together. Now four."

"I bet she has heightened eyesight," McBride suggests. "They say when one sense is weaker, the others get stronger. Between that and the shooting skills…I wager she'd make a good guard. What about Kelly?"

"She was just a high school student before it all started," Carol says. "But she was a lookout and guard for her old community. We could rotate Kelly and Connie in the lighthouse. It's been going unmanned for a few hours here and there." It's also a terribly boring job assignment, which means the women would be paying their dues.

After some further discussion, Jamestown votes by a show of hands to take the four women into their community. Sheriff Earl will have to interview them again, and then present his own recommendations to the full council, which will make the final vote. But for now, it's decided they'll sail back to Jamestown and likely find a home there.

The speedboat returns from Jamestown that afternoon, and everyone says their reluctant goodbyes to old friends before boarding the Susan Constant. Sweetheart, turning back to look at Judith and RJ and Jerry's kids and her other new friends waving goodbye on the shore, cries, "No! No! No!" when Daryl plucks her up and carries her up the ramp.

They're two passengers heavier than when they arrived. They've added Dianne, Mallory, Connie, Kelly, Magna, and Yukimo, but Merry has been buried and will be memorialized at Jamestown. Rosita and Enid have returned to their respective communities, for now, though both will see their men again. And the fisherman Marcus, who sped with the news to Jamestown, has decided to settle for the winter at Oceanside with the woman he spent the last two days courting and who accompanied him on the speedboat run. He returned to Oceanside's docks with all of his earhtly belongings.

As the sails catch the November wind, and the Susan Constant cuts through the murky waters of the James River, and Daryl, with Sweetheart on his hip, slings an arm around her shoulders, Carol thinks how deeply their four worlds are now intertwining and of the future the Alliance is forging together.

THE END
of Part IV