Rick listened to his son and his mouth dropped open.  Hell his jaw practically hit the floor! Part of Rick was proud of Carl...after all it was Rick that told Carl no more kid stuff when Dale was killed. But another part of Rick inwardly panicked.  Carl was going to get himself killed.....Carl had always been Rick's first and only priority at times. Now there was Judith although Rick had to admit at first he didn't do right by Judith.  Rick hadn't even held the girl until weeks after she was born.  There was times Rick still didn't do right by Judith and would hand her off to Carl to take care of.  Rick had no one to blame but himself after all as to why or how Carl was the way he was.  Rick looked over at Maggie before taking a deep breath.  He wanted to help Maggie get settled in...and now with James.....Rick was right. It took a village to raise a kid...and Carl was old enough to be a man.  Rick had even called Carl a man.  But the father in Rick refused to see him as such.  He still needed protection. Still needed him. That's what Rick kept telling himself.  Perhaps he was deluding himself to the truth.  Or perhaps he didn't want to see the truth entirely. Whatever the case was....Rick wasn't going to get through how dangerous Negan was to Carl tonight. It had been a long day and Carl was just as stubborn if not more stubborn than his mother. Rick knew that one all too well. But if Rick was truly honest Carl had both the best and worst of his mother and of himself. Which made for a hell of a combination. Rick placed a hand on Maggie's shoulder before nodding to her as if silently telling her to go get some rest that he would stay up a little longer and watch James for her.<br/><br/>===============Several Days Later================<br/><br/>It was a process getting to the Kingdom to talk to the King. But once Rick and Maggie had done that they were able to put in place a trading system through Alexandria.  The King was more sympathetic to Hilltop than Rick personally expected him to be.  But that of course left Rick and Maggie away from Alexandria for a few days.  Gas was scarce and for a trip like this meant they would have to conserve gas.  Traveling around at night was not an option not only because of the walkers around but because the Saviors around as well. But since Rick and Maggie were both gone from Alexandria that left no one to watch Carl to make sure he "Stayed in the house".<br/><br/>Eugene at first was unnerved by the 18 year old coming to see him...watching him make bullets.  Eugene was never quite a people person and so Carl asking to watch and learn how he made bullets was....less than ideal.  But Eugene tolerated it because well someone needed to learn how to make bullets so they could get production of ammo up.  A gun without bullets was just about worthless in any world. Much less one where the dead was walking.  Eugene had made a clip of bullets for Carl himself after internally battling with himself if he should or should not in fact make bullets for Carl.<br/><br/>Eugene was working on a radio near the gate. He wasn't working on bullets today he wanted to take a break from that.  So he was putting together a radio to see if he could get it to work.  He looked up though when he seen Carl drive up in one of the cars.  He looked inside the car and seen Carl had a backpack in the passenger side.  The man with a mullet arched an eyebrow before he walked over to Carl's side of the car putting his arms on the rolled down window as he investigated the car.<br/><br/>"One might think that that the son of Rick has finally lost his mind I too have thought that many times but I must ask if you are planning on taking this car somewhere and where exactly you plan on taking this car to.  We are low on fuel substances and frankly unless I come up with a breakthrough on how to make an alternative fuel we are running out of places to siphon fuel from. I strongly recommend you conserve our fuel. Do not doubt my intelligence I am smarter than anyone here in Alexandria and I will come up with an alternate fuel source but until then I recommend caution and not running off with a wild fire up the seat of your pants." Eugene said in that.....Eugene way of his.