Status: Sequel will be coming soon. :)

Keep Holding On

Family's Forever

Angela couldn't keep the smile off her face as she walked back to camp. Their relationship just started, but she felt she saw a glimpse of him that no one else did and that just set the butterflies off in her stomach. She really was falling head over heels for the man and though that scared her, she was going to accept it.

Instead of heading straight to get Layla like she was planning, Angela walked to the house. A "come in" rang out after she knocked on the door and she found Patricia in the kitchen.

"What can I do for you Angela?" She asked looking up from her cleaning.

"This is going to sound strange, but you don't happen to have any nail polish do you?" Angela asked a bit sheepishly. A small smile graced Patricia's face as she placed the towel she held on the counter.

"I think Beth or Maggie may have had some when everything happened. Come with me."

Patricia led Angela to one of the bedrooms and found quite a few bottles of nail polish. The two sat down on the bed to begin looking through their find.

"Can I ask why you wanted nail polish?" Patricia questioned as she picked up a bottle of deep red polish.

"Before the world ended Layla and I would sit down together every so often and just have girl time. I'd do her nails for her and we'd just talk about anything that came to mind. Usually it started with school then ventured off to some cartoon or something else she loved. I'm going to talk to her tonight about what all has happened and I figured I'd try to make it seem like it used to, when we didn't have a care in the world." Angela explained as she picked up various shades of pink polish.

"Some normalcy." Patricia said and Angela shook her head as they continued to look. "Is there a certain color you were hoping we'd have?"

"Not really, I mean it would be awesome if y'all had a purple, that's her favorite color." Angela said catching Patricia's attention.

"Wait," se said as she looked through a pile that she already glanced through. "Here it is!" She said with a smile while holding up a bottle of light purple polish.

"That's perfect!" Angela laughed taking the bottle and helping Patricia place everything back neatly. "Thank you so much for this, I'll bring it back as soon as I'm done with it."

"It's no problem. I think it will be good for you and Layla to have some sisterly time like you used to." Patricia said as they walked back to the living room. "Afraid I need to get back to cleaning though. See you at dinner."

"See you then, and thanks again." Angela replied before leaving the house and finding Layla in camp with Lori and Carl doing school work once again."Hey." She said grabbing their attention. "Mind if I steal my sister for a while?"

"No go ahead." Lori replied and Layla jumped up immediately and with quick goodbyes the sisters walked to their tent. Layla went and plopped down on Angela's cot Samantha following until hearing her name.

"Sam go outside and wander, were safe." Angela told the border collie as she pointed outside. After a few moments the dog listened and ran off to search around the farm.

"So what are we doing?" Layla asked looking down at her hands.

"Well, I thought we could talk about what's happened, but I also thought that we could paint our nails while we talked." Angela said pulling the nail polish out of her pocket she had hid it in.

"Where did you get nail polish?!" Layla questioned as a smile broke across her face.

"Patricia let me borrow it." Angela laughed as she joined her sister on the cot.

"We'll I'm glad she did, and it's purple too! It'll be just like it used to, talking and painting our nails." Layla stated her smile softening a bit. Angela shook the bottle and opened it before taking one of Layla's hands in hers.

"That's why I asked Patricia if they had any nail polish, so we could sit down, talk, and make our nails beautiful like old times." Angela replied painting a coat of the light purple on Layla's nails.

"Yeah except it's not like it used to be." Layla said her smile vanishing. "There's no Jamie to pick on us, Mommy's not cooking dinner for us, and Daddy's not coming home from a run or work. They're all gone."

"I know Princess, a lot has changed." Angela said finishing the first coat on one hand and taking Layla's other one.

"Everything has."

"Except us, we can't let this new world tear us apart. We may have lost Mom, Dad, and Jamie, but they'll never truly leave us."

"What do you mean?" Layla questioned

"As long as we keep our memories of them, remember all the good times, and fun times we had with them, they'll never leave us. They will never be truly gone if we constantly remember the good things about them and smile. Family's forever Layla. No matter where we go in life, no matter what happens, we will always be family." Angela explained.

"But it hurts to think of them. I miss them." Layla said as tears stung her eyes.

"I miss them too, but I know they wouldn't want us crying all the time about them. They would want us to stay strong and fight this new world, survive, but never forget where we came from, everyone we loved and cared for. To beat this world for them, not let it take us down. Youre still so young and shouldn't have seen all that you have, but you're strong Layla and I know you can make it and be strong for our family, for me, for dad. I know you can do it."

Tears fell down Layla's face at Angela's words. The youngest Morrison didn't realize how much faith her older sister had in her until now, and even though she was still young, she would stay strong for her sister, her family. Layla wiped the tears off her face carefully so she didn't mess up her freshly painted nails.

"You're right Angela, I've got to stay strong. I've got to survive for Jamie and Mom and Dad, but I can't do it alone."

"And you don't have to, I'm going to be right here beside you. Helping you along the way and keeping you safe. We can make it through this, we've just got to keep holding on to what we have left and take the world on one day at a time."

"It helps we have this group behind is too; Lori, Rick, Glenn, Carl, and everyone. Especially Daryl." Layla said and Angela laughed a little.

"It helps a lot, but why especially Daryl?"

"I like him he's nice and cool, and he knows how to hunt just like Daddy did. Do you not like him?"

"No I do, he's a good man and has the group's back."

"I think you two would make a good couple." Layla stated in a matter of fact tone.

"Why do say that?" Angela chuckled.

"You're both good people who care about this group, about me. Y'all seem to be good friends and would make a great couple. Also he cares about you."

"How do you know he cares about me?"

"Because when Shane opened the barn up, and Sophia came out as a walker. I wanted nothing to do with you. I was afraid that you couldn't protect me and everything you said was a lie. He stopped me when I was walking around with Carl and we talked for a while and he told me that me ignoring you hurt you and that you thought I hated you and that I should talk to you. That's why I wanted to talk."

"Did you hate me?" Angela asked laughing put aside.

"No I was just upset because you told me we'd find Sophia and I got scared. I was afraid you wouldn't be able to save me an that you were lying and I didn't know what to do so I stayed by Carl also afraid I'd lose another friend."

"I can't seem to promise you much of anything anymore, but I promise to do everything I can to keep you safe." Angela said looking straight into her sister's eyes.

"I know you will Angie." Layla replied. Angela hugged her sister tightly.

"Just when something happens come talk to me okay? Don't keep it to yourself until Daryl pretty much makes you talk."

"I won't, I promise." Layla said as they pulled apart.

"Good, now let's finish up these nails." Angela said with a smile that Layla returned.

"Right!" Layla agreed as her sister took her hand again. The two of them sat in their tent for a while just talking with each other in a carefree manner. Angela was relieved by this, happy that she finally had her little sister back.
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I'm so sorry this took me so long to get written and up. I have had horrible writer's block, my English professor believes there's no suh thing, but I would like to disagree. Anyways again I apologize, not only have I not known what to write I've had to study for exams and write a paper for my Engilsh class and all that fun college stuff. So this was just some sister bonding time. Hope y'all enjoyed reading and that y'all don't hate me for taking so long to update. :) okay byes!