We've been driving for about 15 minutes toward sanctuary, Rick singing along to Conway Twiddy's 'slow hand'. I smile and roll my eyes as I turn and look out the window.

Light and dark greens from the humid Virginia summer mix with degraded cars and people alike. Whispers of the past going by before our eyes. I don't even bother rolling down the window anymore. It's not the same sweet mountain smell that it used to be. Now it's a cacophony of metallic oily smells from broken down compounds, cars, and factories, and the smell of the dead.

I turn back to the front and Rick now has his arm resting on the back of my seat, fingers tapping lightly to the old country sounds of Conway. Head bobbing and whistling along, as if nothing in the world is the matter. That's why I like him, even in the darkest of times, around me, he lights up the world. 'There's too much hate in the world for me to join in on it. Not around you.' He said to me sitting on my porch one afternoon.

I look at his face. He quietly masks his frustrations and anger with a calm and coolness. His greying beard growing long, and his hair combed back per usual. My smirk is bittersweet, knowing that this momentary peace is just that: momentary.

I lean my arm on the center console and shake my head side to side to the beat along with him. He looks to me and smiles, bringing his arm down and intertwining his fingers with mine.

This is gonna end. You will never be happy again. You don't deserve it...

My smile fades and I shake my head of the thought.

'We're gonna win.' I tell myself confidently. One way or another, Negan's gonna get what's coming to him. Oh I'll get mine.

"We're gonna get em' this time. I promise." I hear Rick say.

I look over and he now carries a worried expression, "I sure hope so. The bastards reign ends today." I tell him.

He nods confidently, "I will. I promise you, if I've got any say in it, I will take him down. We'll have peace." He says laying his eyes back on the road.

"Peace." I repeat back. I scoff and smirk thinking of the word, "what do you suppose that even looks like anymore?" I ask.

He smirks, "well, it looks like growth and happiness. It looks like Judith running around Alexandria, picking flowers and gathering fruit from just fields upon fields of plants. Carl growing up, findin' a pretty girl, and havin' kids of his own. It looks like a long grey beard and luscious locks that I'll grow out." He says with a smile.

I laugh at the last bit.

"It looks like waking up to you in my arms every morning." He says squeezing my hand and looking to me almost nervously.

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise. A half-smile grows on my face and I look to him. His eyes gone hopeful and his face has grown serious.

"I really like you Sam. And I want to give you the world. I want to make it safe so that maybe one day, this can be our future, If you want it." He says.

I nod, now fully smiling, "I do. I want it more than anything." I say.

He smirks and brings our hands up placing a gentle kiss on my hand.

"Then lets take our world back." He says confidently.

I nod, "let's fuckin' do it."

—————

"When I first met Sam and Jesus, they said my world would get a whole lot bigger." Rick says beginning his speech, "well, we found that world. We found each other." He says gesturing around. "That 'bigger world' is ours by right!" He says looking to me and nodding.

I smirk and nod back at his comment.

"Any person who would live in peace and fairness, who would find common ground it's their right, too. But those who use, and take, and kill to carve out the world and make it theirs alone — we end them. We don't celebrate it. We don't have shame about it either. There's only one person who has to die, and I will kill him myself. I will." He says looking around finally settling on my eyes, "I will." He says almost promising to only me.

"But if it's the others that prop him up, stand by his side, even those who look the other way, so be it. Then we keep making the world bigger, together." Rick says.

"Together," King Ezekiel says standing next to Rick, "bound forever! To quote the Bard, 'for he today that she his blood with shall be my brother. For she today, my sister." He says with a smile.

Shiva roars almost as if she agrees with him.

I smile, "fuck yea." I say to myself.

"We've practiced. We've been through it over and over again. We all know the plan doesn't end this morning. That we may have to live in uncertainty for days, maybe more. That we have to keep our faith in each other. If we can hold on to that with everything we have, the future is ours. The world is ours!" Maggie says.

Everyone screams and hollers motivated by the speech.

We all break off and continue with the final touches and rundowns before we reach Sanctuary. I walk over to the car and see Paul doing the same. We both lean against the trunk and just watch everyone prepare for the battle to come. He looks over at me and shoves me with one arm.

"Hey! What was that for?" I ask.

"Lighten up sis, the world is changing today. Think about it, a world without Negan." He says with a smile to his face.

I smirk and nod my head, "yea, the world'll be a lot different from now on." I say.

"How do you feel?" He asks.

"I don't know," I admit, "excited, nervous, anxious. I've been his dog for so long that living in a world without him and his orders is going to be...weird." I say looking to him.

Just then, Rick emerges from the crowd and walks toward us, determination showing through.

"Something tells me that you'll enjoy that world." He says winking at me.

I smile and punch him in the arm. He laughs and gets up to walk away just as Rick reaches us.

"Rick." Paul says.

"Jesus." Rick answers.

Paul walks away and Rick takes his place beside me throwing his arm around my shoulders and pulling me in close.

"This is it. We're almost there." He says looking around.

"Yea, but it's not over yet." I say.

He nods and grunts in agreement, "we've got a long road ahead of us, but I intend to keep my promise. I will kill him. We will take back our home." He says.

"It's ours by right" I say as we look to our people, seeing determined and motivated looks in their faces.