Ever the Survivor

Update/edit at the end of this authors note since I just added on to what I posted a week ago.

AllyBelly on Mibba: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to do that! :)

DeadGeekGirl on WalkingDeadFanFiction : Thank you for the comment, here's the next chapter!

hideher On FanFiction: Thanks! I love long reviews like this, gives me a chance to talk to the people reading :) And I loooove Merle. I think hes kind of a good and bad guy. Maybe it depends on the day? I have the Walking Dead Survival Instinct game where you play as Daryl with Merle, so got a chance to see a bit more of their relationship before writing this. So before the apocalypse, I feel like that's kind of the relationship they had, Merle would give Daryl a hard time every so often to 'toughen him up', but after not knowing his fate for so long when they were separated between the seasons, I think it would've changed his thinking as we saw in s3. He'd do whatever it took to keep his little brother safe. Even though, like Reedus & Rooker have said in interviews, what he did wasn't meant to be a suicide mission, he still died trying to protect him. Mike Rooker is such a great actor. I can't wait to get to that point and write for him :) Between the fact Merle was killed off and Norman's performance in that episode, killed me. I've never cried over something that happened in a TV show or a movie, but I seriously bawled during the last scene between the two. #noshame.

Now that that is out of the way, I'M SORRY GUYS! Long time in between updates again, I know. Been super duper busy painting. It kind of exploded over the last few weeks. Had to do 2 locally, 1 being the Daryl painting I FINALLY finished, another was a Pokemon painting for a friend and then a third one was another Daryl one that I had to ship to someone in Oregon. And I just got an order for another Pokemon one I needed to ship to Utah when I'm finished.

Also, did anyone catch Reedus in Pawn Shop Chronicles? I wished he was in it a lot longer than he was but I thought it was still an all right movie. Pretty funny. 4 of my favorite actors in one movie? All it needed was Vin Diesel, Sean Flanery and Johnny Depp and it would've been like a movie dream come true!

AND. As I stated above, you guys...I finally finished that stupid (not really) Daryl Dixon painting. Stupid, because I don't know why the hell it took me so long. Link to have a look below. I also have a new BDS piece up if you wanna check that out on my page ;)

Www.Etsy.com/ listing/157855674/norman-reedus-daryl-dixon-the-walking

Oh, I put my twitter handle (krissy_xo) and my other crap on my 'about' page on here as well since someone asked me for it in a pm. So I thought I'd share with all.

NOW. Since I made you guys wait so long, I'm putting this chapter in two different sections, so this is gonna be a short read this time. I only have a little under half of this 'episode' written so I'm just posting what I have done. Don't worry, I won't make you wait forever for the other half. I'll be working on that painting this week and I have several hair appointments on Saturday so I will hopefully have the rest of it done by this coming weekend. But this way you can at least enjoy some of the next chapter :)

DADADADADADADADADADAAAA

UPDATE: All right, instead of posting it in two chapters I deleted the other chapter and combined the whole thing, now. And PrincessPipi on FF, for commenting on the other chapter before I deleted it: thank you :) I'm glad you enjoyed what I had up. There's plenty to come. I've got a lot of catching up to do. I planned on having season 2 already written before the season 3 DVD comes out next week...which I've had preordered since March XD So that I could use that time to write some of my own stories to fill the gap. But life/work intervened haha. So I probably won't add as much in between now since I'm a little behind. But I'll try and work in a couple things. Maybe. Possibly. We'll see.

I finished two paintings I needed to do for a friend over the weekend, shipped that Pokemon painting to Utah, and I just got another order for a Rocco painting a couple hours ago that I need to ship to Ohio when I'm done. But instead of starting it, I sat here and continued proof reading this chapter so I could get it posted for you guys like I said I would! So now that this is done, I'll be off to do that as soon as I post this on everything.

Anyways, now you all can enjoy the chapter in it's entirety. I went back through and edited the first half; added a couple things, changed some sentences, deleted some things, whatever. So give it another read through.

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Daryl woke to the very first bits of light coming in through the window, though it was still mostly dark outside.

Kat was still asleep, tucked up next to him, her back pressed against his front. He had his left arm tightly around her waist and resting against her stomach, holding her close. His right, beneath the pillow her head was laying on, her own right arm flush against his. He quickly pulled his left arm away, leaning slightly on his back, away from her a few inches and held it, hovering over his body for a second, noting the pain in his side, again. Kat settled into the mattress, a sleepy sound of discontent coming from her at the warmth of him pulling away.

Daryl laid flat on the bed as he looked beside him, seeing a glass of water and a pill on the end table. Old man musta been in here. He thought, feeling a little abashed that he'd seen them like this. The two of them cuddled up together like a couple lovebirds..But he'd liked the feel of it. His body pressed against hers. Maybe a little too much, judging by the tent in his boxers that was slowly going down. He reached down and readjusted himself so he wouldn't pop out as he looked back at the window on the other side of the room.

He figured he still had another hour or so before everybody else woke up. Including Kat. He contemplated just laying there as he was and trying to go back to sleep, again, or return to their previous position. He wasn't one for cuddling. Never really had the chance to, before. But now that he was laying there thinking about it, he was kind of starting to miss her warmth, and the way she had felt against him. He decided to ignore the pill and any hints that he'd already been awake, and slowly turned to his side to lean into her again. He let his body relax and slowly put his arm back over her waist, laying his head back down on one of the pillows they were sharing.

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It was as if everyone's internal alarm clocks started being programmed for early morning risings over the last several weeks when this all began. Everybody in camp had things to do as they got ready for the day. Hershel was letting them stay on his land for the time being, so Rick wanted everyone that would be staying in camp to aid with the chores the Greene's would allow them to help with.

That morning, Patricia had given Lori and Carl each a bucket of seed to feed the chickens. Hershel had given the boy the "okay" to get up and move around as long as he was careful, so Lori kept him close.

Carl stood in the small open area in front of the coop, surrounded by the chickens they had let out to feed, a bucket of oats on the ground by his feet. Lori sat several feet away on the rusty hitch of an old trailer, throwing seeds to the chickens by Carl as she watched him and around the camp.

Patricia opened the door to the chicken coop behind them and walked inside to feed the hens that were sitting on their eggs as she listened to Lori and Carl.

"Don't look so worried." Carl said as he looked at his Mom while he bent over to grab more seed from his bucket.

"It's my job." Lori smiled, looking in at Patricia before going back to what she was doing.

"No, it's not. You're a housewife." Carl said, very matter-of-factly.

Lori looked up at him and reached into her bucket for a handful of seeds, tossing them at Carl while she smiled. "Yeah, punk? You see my house around here?" She said as Carl laughed. She stared at him as he went back to the chickens pecking at the ground around him. "Housewife.." Lori scoffed, looking briefly at Patricia, again, who was filling a basket she had with eggs.

Carl grabbed another handful of seed, tossing them to a group of several smaller chicks that were cheeping as they looked around on the ground for food. "They don't have a mother." He said, as he watched them grab for the seeds before the older chickens could come eat them.

Lori leaned over to grab a large feather off the ground by her feet before she looked to the group he was talking about. "Well, she might be somewhere else." Lori said as she looked at the feather in her hands and brushed the dirt, seed, and grass off it.

"Maybe she got eaten." Carl said as he leaned over to the bucket again. Lori looked up at him, not sure what to say. Carl shrugged, looking at her when she didn't speak. "Everything's food for something else."

Lori was at a loss for words, again, as she stared at him for a couple seconds. She looked back down at the feather in her hands.

Patricia turned around, grabbing the bucket of seed she had and walked out of the chicken coop. She was taking the fresh eggs into the house before she would come back out to collect another chicken to put with the rest.

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Daryl had been laying there, awake again, for 10 minutes before he felt Kat start to stir. He closed his eyes, pretending to be asleep. A part of him hoped he would wake up first, again. He wanted to see how she would react with him so close to her if she thought he was still sleeping, to gauge whether or not he should ever try this, ever again. []Who am I kiddin? How often were they going to have opportunities like this? Was he really going to ask her to sleep with him again? He was positive that would come out wrong. If Daryl could shake his head without her noticing, he would've.

Kat slowly woke up and stretched her legs out, feeling Daryl's weight pressed up behind her and an arm over her waist. Another against her arm under the pillow she and Daryl were sharing. She took her arm out from under the pillow and gently turned onto her back to glance at his face, a few inches from hers, letting out a breathy chuckle, seeing he was still asleep. She placed her hand on the arm he now had draped over her stomach and rubbed up to his elbow once before letting her palm rest on his forearm. She ran her thumb back and forth across the skin there, as she turned her face back towards the window on the other side of the room.

Daryl sighed on the inside. She hadn't woken up, thrown his arm off her and got up to leave; she was practically holding him there, rubbing crescent moons gently onto his forearm. He took in a deep breath as he stretched before he opened his eyes to "wake up". She turned to look at him with a smile when he started to pull his arm away.

"Sorry." Daryl mumbled in a sleepy voice as he rubbed at his eyes.

"It's okay." Kat smiled. She sat up in the bed and put her hands on the mattress at either side of her, arching her back to stretch it out. "Oh." She groaned, before placing the hand closest to Daryl on her back.

Daryl looked over at her as he started to sit up, himself. "Ya all right?"

"Is it possible for your back to hurt from bein comfortable?" She laughed. "I think I've been sleeping on the ground or in a car too long. Now that I slept in a bed, my back doesn't know what to do." She said as she stretched again. "Except hurt."

Daryl scoffed a little laugh as he swung his legs off to the side of the bed, giving Kat his back as he reached for the pill and glass of water on the end table. "Maybe..Mine does, too."

Kat glanced over at him before she got out of the bed, pulling her side of the sheets and comforter up, seeing the black and blue colors on him had spread. "You haven't seen the bruises on your back from rolling over your Horton, have you?" She had asked him what all happened in the woods once he'd started talking to her again last night after the confession about his scars.

Daryl stood up and turned towards her, trying to look over his shoulder at his back, but quickly giving up when the stretching his body had to do for the motion pulled at the stitches in his side. "They bad?"

Kat raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Kinda." She smiled.

"Feel like shit." Daryl said before he did the same as Kat and pulled the bedsheets up.

She leaned over and straightened the pillows before she looked at him again. His arms were where the bulk of his muscle was as she quickly looked him up and down. No hard, tight six pack to speak of, his chest was a little more defined, though. He wasn't bad to look at. At all. "I'll go grab some of your clothes." She smiled.

Daryl quickly nodded his head as he sat on the edge of the bed. He told her last night he didn't want to stay in here all day, that he'd rather be in his tent. She walked past him and out the door, greeting Hershel and Beth before she walked to his tent to get him a shirt and pants he could put on before he went back outside.

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Patricia had grabbed another stray chicken on her way to the butchering shed where the others were in a large, brown potato sack. Inside the shed, she walked to the back and peered out a hole, where a piece of the wooden board that made up the walls had broken off. She saw Lori and Carl still finishing up their buckets a couple yards away. She turned and walked to the table in the middle of the room where the sack lay on top.

She had the chicken tucked up under her arm against her side, it's face behind her as she readjusted it to get a firmer grip. She tightened her arm over it's body to hold it in place while she took her other hand and grabbed one of it's feet. With a quick motion, she broke it's leg. The sound of the bones cracking was drowned out as it started squawking loudly, trying to get away. Patricia grabbed the other leg and did the same, the chicken struggling even more to get out of her grip.

She opened the bag on the table and put the chicken inside with the others before she picked it up and placed in it the wheel barrel she had waiting outside. Once she was sure no one would notice her, she began the walk to the barn. Luckily, from this angle, Lori and Carl wouldn't see her before she got over there.

She stopped before she got to the gate that separated the house's yard from the field the barn was in the middle of, seeing Nelly, the horse that had thrown Daryl, run across the path in front of her and towards the stables.

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Kat had dug into Daryl's bag for a cleaner pair of jeans and a shirt and was starting to walk back towards the house when she caught a glimpse of Andrea sitting in a camp chair by the fire.

Ah, shit. Kat thought as she looked at the woman; Andrea had her back to her. She glanced at the house before looking down at Daryl's shirt. It was a plain, button up flannel, gray in color, but almost as if it had been a blue once; the color fading from being worn and washed so many times. We gotta find him some new shirts. She thought as she played with the frayed fabric around the sleeves, or where the sleeves had been, rather. She thought about going back into the house and acting like she'd never seen her. She didn't particularly want to do this, but knew it was what needed to be done. She sighed before she started walking towards the fire.

"Andrea.." Kat softly said as she came up behind her.

Andrea was startled for a second at the sound of her voice before she turned to look at the small, young woman behind her. She hadn't expected to be this close to her again for awhile.

Kat gave her a brief smile before letting it fall and bringing her eyebrows together. "I, uh..I came to apologize..for yesterday." Kat shook her head with a small smile, again, as she came to Andrea's side, next to the chair.

Andrea smiled a little and held up her hands to stop her. "No." She said, shaking her head. "You were right. I-I shouldn't have taken the shot. Rick told me not to...I should've listened." Andrea nodded.

Kat looked down, playing with the buttons on Daryl's shirt as she shrugged. "Even so. I lose my temper. My emotions get the better of me sometimes. And I kinda feel like an ass so..Sorry." Kat let out a small laugh.

Andrea shook her head again, with a smile. "You care about him...I understand." She nodded. She admired Kat for coming to apologize. She wasn't sure if she, herself, would have had it in her to do that if she had been as angry as Kat was, only yesterday.

Kat looked at her, a small smile on her lips before she looked down, letting it fall as she returned her eyes to the woman.

"How is he today?" Andrea asked.

"He's fine. He'll be fine..Daryl's uh-" Kat chuckled a little. "He's got a hard head." She shook her head, making Andrea laugh.

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Patricia had made her way up the ladder to the loft in the barn with the bag of chickens over her shoulder. She could already hear the moaning and growling on the ground below her. She walked to the edge of the loft and dumped the bag of live chickens out, sending them flapping their wings to the ground. Once there, they tried to get away, but their broken legs prevented them from doing so.

The Greene's had learned early on that breaking the chicken's legs would make it easier for the "people" in the barn to eat. Before, they would just put the chickens in there and the Sick would follow them around, their food always managing to escape their grasp as they chased them around the barn...It would've seemed comical any other time.

At the sound of the chicken's squawking and the flapping of wings, all of the Sick turned to look at their meal, snarling and growling as they made their way to the injured chickens to feed.

Patricia climbed down the ladder and was walking back from the barn with the wheel barrel, catching Glenn's eyes. He wasn't exactly sure what she had been doing over there. What did she need a wheel barrel for? How could they act so nonchalant about there being over a dozen dead people in their barn?

He had Shane's binoculars in his hands as he held them up to his eyes once Patricia was out of view and looked at the doors of the barn. He knew there were locks on them, but somewhere in his mind, he thought at any second, now, the Walkers would come barging out the big wooden doors of the barn and wreak havoc on their camp like some horror movie he'd seen.

Maggie walked over to him with a basket full of fruit and a brown paper bag on top. She stopped when she got close to him. "Could ya be more obvious?"

Glenn took the binoculars from his eyes and sighed as she sat the basket down between the two of them. He put the strap from the binoculars over his shoulder.

"Here, enjoy." Maggie said as she glanced around behind him, trying to see if anyone in his group had been wondering what he was looking at. None of them seemed to have noticed.

"Are you tryin to buy my silence with fruit?" Glenn asked as he looked down at the basket of peaches before looking at her.

"Of course not." Maggie said as she rested her hands on her hips. "There's also jerky." She added.

"Will you please tell me why your dad has a secret barn full of Walkers? It's creepy." He raised his eyebrows.

"Shh."

"You know that, right?" Glenn looked at her with wide eyes.

"Shhh." Maggie shushed him again. "Just trust me on this, okay?"

Glenn shook his head. "But I suck at lying. I can't even play poker. It's too much like lying." Glenn whispered.

"You have to keep this to yourself. You have to. Please." Maggie said, before looking behind him at the group again, seeing Kat walking with Daryl towards his tent. Maggie turned and walked away, leaving Glenn there. He looked at the barn again before he leaned over, picking up the basket of fruit and the paper bag of jerky to pass the food out to everyone.

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Daryl plopped down on the cot in his tent and took his boots back off, sitting them down next to him. He sat there and undid some of the top buttons on his shirt as Kat threw his dirty clothes in a pile in the other corner. It was hot outside already and he was almost regretting that he'd left the cool insides of the house. Hershel had offered to let him stay in there and rest for the day.

Kat turned around and looked at him. He was sitting there looking around the tent, almost looking for something to do. She smiled. This was going to be torture for him. He seemed like a person that always needed to be doing something. "Hershel said rest." She pointed to his cot.

He looked up at her before he turned and brought his bare feet up onto his cot and laid down. "Yes, ma'am." He said as he reached behind him to fluff his pillow a bit. He wasn't normally one for taking orders, but from her, he'd make an exception.

"I'll come check on you later, okay?" She said, putting her hands in her back pockets while she watched him get comfortable, he was going to be there for awhile. He nodded before she walked away, going to check on her brothers and change her clothes.

"Hey." Glenn quickly stopped where he was and said to her as she walked out of Daryl's tent in front of him, almost colliding.

"Whoa. Hi, sorry." She smiled at him before she walked around him and towards her brother's tents.

Glenn walked over to Dale who was setting up the awning on the RV with T-Dog on the other side. "Dale, here's some peaches for ya." Glenn said, looking down at the fruit as he got to the old man.

Dale leaned over and reached into the basket. "Mm, thank you."

"Morning." Glenn said as Andrea walked out of the door of the RV, passing in front him. What was it with everyone just rushing in front of him today?

"Morning." She said as she walked into camp.

Glenn walked to the other side of the awning and over to T-Dog who took a break to rub the remnants of sleep from his eyes.

"'Sup?" T-Dog said as Glenn stopped in front of him.

"Nothing." Glenn said, wide eyed at the man. Had he seen him looking at the barn? Had he seen or heard him and Maggie talking? "Nothing's up. Why?" Glenn said as he looked between he and Dale. The older man walking closer to the two, seeing Glenn looking a little unnerved.

T-Dog grabbed the paper bag on top of the peaches and grabbed two pieces of jerky while Glenn looked back and forth between them. T handed the other piece to Dale while putting the bag back before Glenn looked down and grabbed the basket, walking away. Dale and T-Dog both looked at each other and shrugged before going back to securing the fold-out awning to the side of the RV.

Daryl had leaned over and grabbed the arrow from his crossbow's quiver before he laid back down. He had both legs bent at the knees, one in the air and the other lying on the cot, legs spread, as he lay there on his back. He'd only been in there for five minutes and was already bored out of his fucking mind. He looked to his side and began poking holes through the screen of his tent's window with the arrow's tip.

"Hey." Andrea said as she looked at him from the tent's doorway, interrupting him from his activity. He looked over at her as she walked inside. Daryl glanced down at the book in her hands before looking at her face again.

"This is not that great, but, um.." She said as she handed him the book. She figured with his injuries, Hershel told him to stay put and he would need something to do. He took it as she sat down on the second cot on the other side of his tent. Merle's.

Daryl sat the arrow down as he looked at the cover of the black book. The Case of the Missing Man. He opened it up, flipping through some of the pages before he looked over at her. "What, no pictures?" He smiled a little.

Andrea grinned. "I'm so sorry. I feel like shit." She shook her head as she looked at him. The mark on the right side of his head where he'd smacked it against the rock was scabbed over with dried blood, but the left side of his head, where she'd shot him was bleeding slightly. She could see a red line of blood that had come down and stopped at his cheek bone.

"Yeah, you and me both." Daryl said as he set the book at his side and reached behind him to adjust his pillow, again.

"I don't expect you to forgive me, but if there's anything I can do..." Andrea trailed off as she shrugged her shoulders.

"You were tryin to protect the group." Daryl said as he grabbed his arrow again. He nodded his head at her. "We're good."

Andrea smiled again before she got up to leave. She walked out of the flap-door of his tent but turned when she heard him.

"But, hey," He stopped her, "shoot me again, you'd best pray I'm dead." He said as he twirled the arrow in his hands. Andrea smiled again before she walked off.

Daryl swung his legs over the cot before he sat up. He leaned over and grabbed his Busse from it's sheath. He started scraping the dirt out from under his finger nails as he laid back down. This was going to be a long ass day.

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Glenn stopped at Daryl's tent, then the Carsen's and Carol's, handing out food before he made his way to Lori, by the fire. He set the basket down by a log as she walked closer. "What did Rick say?" He asked. Lori just looked at him as she knelt down by the flames. "You didn't tell him?" Glenn looked down at her as she stoked the fire. "Okay." Glenn said as he readjusted the binocular's strap on his shoulder. "But you have to." Glenn whispered as he leaned closer to her. "You're pregnant." He raised his eyebrows.

She stopped what she was doing and looked at him before glancing around the camp, making sure no one was within earshot. She leaned over and took the lid off the pot over the fire.

"You need vitamins, medicine, a nice pillow." Glenn said as she tried to ignore him. She turned and grabbed one of the jugs they had water in. Glenn walked to the log he'd set the basket next to and reached into the paper bag for two pieces of jerky. He turned around and walked back to Lori, holding both pieces out to her. "You can have my share." He said.

Lori looked at him. "Honey, I don't what your food, okay? Eat." She glanced down at the jerky before she started pouring water into the pot.

"You need to eat. You're too skinny. And if you're not gonna let Rick take care of you, then someone has to." Glenn said. Lori ignored him. She set the now empty jug, down. "Lori, you have a medical condition." Glenn raised his eyebrows at her. Lori smiled and titled her head at him. She sighed as she glanced at Rick and Shane over by Carol's Cherokee with Jimmy before she knelt down again to put the lid on the pot. Glenn looked over at them before turning back to her. "I'll make another run into town. Just tell me what you need."

"I need you to be quiet about this." Lori stood up. "All right? Please." Glenn just looked at her as he heard someone whistle. This felt wrong.

"Hey! Peach man." Shane shouted at them. Glenn turned around and picked up the basket before he started walking towards the men at the car.

"The creek flows south, past that farmhouse Daryl found. Maybe Sophia dropped the doll there, the current brought it downstream." Rick said as he looked at the map spread out on the Cherokee's hood.

"So what, you think she took this road here and then she went north?" Shane pointed at the map before he looked at Rick.

"Yeah." Rick nodded his head before he looked at Jimmy. "What's up that way?"

Jimmy was leaning against the car with his elbows on the hood, his head resting on one of his hands. He looked at the map. "A housing development. It went in maybe 10 years ago."

Rick looked at Shane. "Take a run up there after gun practice. Me and Kat will hold down the fort here, but take backup. After what went down with Daryl, I don't want anyone goin out alone. We stay in pairs."

"I'll take suggestions on a partner." Shane said as he looked into camp around at the people before Glenn walked up to them. He knew his best bet was going to be Kat or Dylan. But Rick had said this morning that they were staying with him to keep watch while the rest of them were gone.

"See how they do on the range, then take your pick." Rick said as Glenn stopped behind them with his basket of fruit. Shane and Rick both reached into the basket, each grabbing a peach before turning back to the map.

"Thanks." Jimmy said as Glenn walked over to him and he reached into the basket.

Glenn turned to Rick, looking at him for a few seconds. He wanted to tell him, but stopped. Glenn turned around and looked at Lori, still a couple yards away by the fire. She looked back at him with the large stick she had, holding it like a bat in one hand, almost daring him to say something.

He turned back around and saw Shane looking at him. "My binoculars." Shane said.

"Yeah, oh, yeah." Glenn said he would return them when he asked Shane for them, earlier. He set the fruit basket on the ground and took the binoculars from his shoulder. He walked around Rick and handed them to Shane before walking back over to the peaches and picked up the basket. "Okay, bye." Glenn said as he left, Rick and Shane both furrowing their brows at the young man as they watched him hurry away from them.

Shane set his binoculars on the car hood and looked at Rick. Shane chuckled as he looked down at the map again, Rick biting into his peach.

"We'd like to join you for gun trainin today." Beth said as she and Patricia walked up to the men.

"Hershel's been very clear." Rick said as he turned to face the women. "I can't involve any of you in what we do without his okay." Rick pointed at them.

"He doesn't like it, but he consented." Beth nodded.

"Otis was the only one who knew guns." Patricia said with her hands on her hips. "Now that he's gone, we gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that."

Shane heard a noise by the RV and looked over to see Carl in his dad's police hat, leaning against the side of the Winnebago. He had a long stick and was sharpening the end of it with his knife. Shane leaned off the car and started walking over to the boy as Rick and the women continued to talk.

"No offense, but I'll ask Hershel myself." Rick said to them. He didn't want to get in trouble with the old man, again.

"Dude, nice lid, man." Shane said, looking at the hat on his head as he walked over to Carl with a smile. "What's goin on?" Shane asked as he walked around to the front of the RV.

Carl set the stick down and walked behind Shane. "I wanna learn to shoot, too." Carl said as he slid the knife back into it's sheath on his side. "Can you teach me?"

Shane laughed as he sat down on the front bumper of the RV. "Well, man, that's- that's up to your parents." He said as he bit into the peach in his hand.

"Can you talk to them? They'll listen to you."

Shane chuckled as he chewed on the fruit in his mouth. He nodded his head and looked at the ground before looking back at the boy. "We'll see, okay?"

Carl nodded as he turned to walk away, but not before Shane stopped him at the sound of something metal hidden under Carl's shirt, clinking as he walked.

"Hey." Shane said. Carl stopped and looked at him with his eyes wide. If he heard it, he knew Shane had, too. "Lemme see what you got there." Shane looked at him.

Carl turned back to Shane and took a couple steps towards him before he lifted his denim button up t-shirt a few inches above his waistband, uncovering a revolver he had tucked into his pants.

Shane looked from the gun up to the boy. "Come on." He quietly said as he threw the peach he had been eating.

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Carl was sitting on the bench of the picnic table with Lori standing in front of him. She'd taken the gun and was looking it over. She snapped the cylinder back into place after checking to see if there were bullets in it, which there weren't. Shane and Kat made sure to unload most of the guns when they went into the gun bag. Only a select few had bullets in them for emergencies, and the adults knew which ones they were.

"How the hell did this happen?" Lori said as she walked the few feet away back to the small group that was there, tucking the revolving in the back pocket of her pants. She looked at Rick as she came to stand between he and Shane.

"Well, it's my fault. I let him into the RV." Dale said as he held out his hand in Carl's direction. "He said he wanted a walkie, that you sent him for one."

"So on top of everything else, he lied." Lori raised her eyebrows and looked at Carl. He looked away from them and stared at the fire. "What's he thinkin?" Lori whispered to Rick, who shrugged and shook his head.

"He wants to learn how to shoot. He asked me to teach him." Shane said. "Now it's-it's none of my business, but I'm happy to do it. It's your call."

"Well I'm not comfortable with it." Lori raised her eyebrows and let out an exasperated laugh. She looked to Rick, hoping to see the same reaction but he just looked at her before turning to Shane, who sighed. "Oh, don't make me out to be the unreasonable one here. Rick?" She said.

Rick put his hands on his hips before he pointed to himself with one of his hands as he talked. "I know. I have my concerns too, but-"

"There's no but. He was just shot." She interrupted him. "He's just back on his feet and he wants a gun?" Lori looked between her husband and Carl with her eyebrows pulled together.

Rick nodded as she talked. "Better than him bein afraid of em." He said as he looked at her. "There are guns in camp for a reason. He should learn to handle them safely."

Lori couldn't help but glance to the two younger Carsen boys. They knew how to handle guns and Kat didn't care that they walked around with theirs before they got here. The boys weren't far apart in age, she figured Carl must've thought 'They can do it, why can't I?'

"I don't want my kid walkin around with a gun." Lori said when she turned back to Rick.

"How can you defend that?" Rick asked. "You can't let him go around without protection." Rick held his hand out to gesture around at where they were and brought his eyebrows together.

Lori shook her head. "He's as safe as he'll ever be right here."

Rick looked at the ground over her shoulder and nodded his head.

"Look, everything you're sayin makes perfect sense. It feels wrong. I mean, I-I didn't feel good about him following you out into the woods. And I wish I'd said something. I should've gone with my gut."

"He's growin up," Rick raised his brows at her, "thank God. We gotta start- We gotta start treatin him more like an adult."

"Then he needs to act like one." Lori said, frustrated now. "He's not mature enough to handle a gun." She said, loud enough for Carl to hear as she looked at him.

Carl stood up from the picnic table and walked towards them. "I'm not gonna play with it, Mom. It-It's not a toy. I'm sorry I disappointed you, but I wanna look for Sophia. I wanna defend our camp. I can't do that without a gun."

"Shane's the best instructor I know." Rick said. "I've seen him teach kids younger than Carl." He said as he looked at Shane.

Lori looked at Rick for a couple seconds before she let out a small sigh and walked to Carl. She stood in front of him and grabbed his chin to make him look up at her. "You will take this seriously and you will behave responsibly. And if I hear from anyone in this camp that you are not livin up to our expectations-"

"He won't let you down." Rick stopped her. She dropped her hand from Carl as they both looked behind her at him.

"Yeah." Carl nodded as he looked back up to his Mom. Lori turned back to him and put both her hands on either side of his face before she walked back to Rick.

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Everyone set off to get things ready for the group to go to the spot they would use for target practice. Rick had talked to Kat and let her know she and Dylan would watch over everything here with Dale. Since Carl was going with the group to learn to shoot, he was going with them now, instead of staying behind like he originally planned.

Jimmy was driving the blue 1966 Ford F100 they had on the property over to the group and would follow them to the range. Patricia and Beth were in the cab with him.

"Now if we're gonna do this, you listen to Shane." Rick said as he walked with Carl to the cars.

"Okay, Dad."

"All right? You be careful." Rick patted his shoulder.

"You comin?" Shane asked from the back of the Tucson while he loaded the back with the guns and ammunition. He was looking at Glenn who was hanging back in camp.

"I gotta help Dale..clean the spark plugs on the RV. He said he's gonna teach me mechanics. I should probably go look for him." Glenn started pointing around the camp.

Dale, who was a few feet behind Glenn leaning against the porch swing they had out in their camp area, spoke up. "You found me."

Glenn looked behind him, seeing the old man. Oh, God. Please, go with it. Glenn thought. He hadn't thought that through very well. See, I suck at lying.

Dale saw the look on Glenn's face and looked at Shane while he pointed at Glenn. "He's a good learner." He nodded.

Shane shook his head as he shut the back hatch of the Tucson and walked to the driver's side, getting in. Jimmy waited for Lori, who was driving Carol's Cherokee, to pull out before he followed her, Shane bringing up the rear in the Tucson. Glenn and Dale both waved as they started to pull off.

Dale walked over to Glenn with his rifle slung over his shoulder. "Spark plugs, huh?" Dale said. Glenn looked around for a second. "Wanna tell me what's goin on?" Dale asked him.

Glenn looked back into camp. Kat and Dylan were on top of the RV on watch, Sam and Kaleb were in their tent, and Daryl was in his tent, finally knocked out from the pain killer he'd taken earlier. No one would hear them talking. "You're old." Glenn closed his eyes. That came out wrong. "You're-you know things." He corrected himself. He kept looking around as he talked. He couldn't look Dale in the eyes. "S-soo..what if somebody told you something that...somebody else should..know-"

"Glenn, stop being dramatic. Spit it out." Dale cut him off.

Glenn finally looked at him. "There's-there's Walkers in the barn and Lori's pregnant."

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Carol stood behind everyone, looking through a small pair of binoculars into the trees surrounding them. Half looking for Sophia, half on watch for them. She didn't want to learn to shoot yet, but didn't want to stay behind.

The rest of the group was in a line about 30 feet from the fence posts as Shane knelt down in front of it, giving them a speech, while Rick set up the last of the cans and bottles behind him on the fence.

"Gun work is serious business. Even..You do everything right and accidents, they still happen. Ya always think before you pull the trigger. You think fast, but you think. Know the consequences," Shane said as he stood up, taking a few steps closer to everyone, "and never fire a weapon unless you have a very good reason. Now, it's gotta be a reason that you can live with..cause a death..well, that stays with you." Shane said as he looked at Carl, Lori doing the same as she sat next to him on top of the small table they brought with them to set the guns and ammo on. "That's forever." Shane said as he looked at the ground and then down the line of people before looking back. "Carl." He said, and pointed to the ground, several feet ahead of where the boy was already standing.

Carl cautiously stepped forward, standing in the place Shane had pointed at while they met there, Rick walking back to stand behind them. Shane gave him a small smile as he passed him.

"All right." Shane whispered as he came to Carl's side and bent down to be at the boy's level. "Line up the sights just like I told you, okay?" Shane said quietly to Carl.

Carl nodded an okay as he held up the small Bruni Olympic 6 they'd given him and aimed at one of the bottles in front of him on the fence post.

"You just gotta squeeze the trigger, don't jerk it. You'll feel a little kick." Shane said, Carl nodded again, understanding. "You ready?" Shane looked at him.

"Yeah." Carl said quietly, glancing at Shane before lining up the sights again.

Shane smiled and stood up to face everyone else while he took a few steps back from Carl to give him some room. "Okay." Shane raised his voice so everyone would hear him. "Carl's gonna show us how." He said as he and everybody watched the bottle the kid was aiming for.

A couple seconds passed before before Carl pulled the trigger, sending the bullet into the wooden fence post a few inches below the bottle. Not a bad shot for the first time he'd ever handled a gun.

Shane clapped his hands as Rick walked up to Carl from behind him. "That's good. Very good." He patted his son on the back before Shane walked up to him, and they both started walking behind everyone. "All right, three rounds a piece." Rick raised his voice. "Everyone stay alert. We're takin a risk with the noise, but a necessary one." He said as he started walking with a shotgun in his hands.

"Let's make these count." Shane shouted. "The range is hot." At the words, everyone took the guns they had been given and started aiming at the items on the fence.

Rick and Shane were walking behind the line of people that were practicing, Rick with the shotgun ever present at his side, just in case the noise brought on more than broken bottles.

Shane turned to his side and gave a nod to Rick as they passed Patricia, who hit her first bottle with one shot.

They decided they were only using a few weapons, so people were taking turns with the guns. Carl had stood back to watch his mother hit a couple targets, while T-Dog was waiting patiently behind the others for his turn. T-Dog stood behind Jimmy, who was holding the pistol he had, sideways, like in a few movies he'd seen, though not hitting anything when he pulled the trigger. T-Dog shook his head. "Hey, come on, man. Don't give me that gangsta shit."

Jimmy glanced over his shoulder at T, held the gun properly, and took aim at the same bottle he'd been shooting at before, hitting it on the first shot. He turned around and smiled at T-Dog who nodded at him.

"Attaboy." Shane said as he and Rick walked by, patting T-Dog on the shoulder, who reached for the gun from Jimmy.

They continued down the line to Andrea, at the end. She had given her gun to Jimmy after she'd taken a few shots. They both looked at the fence line out in front of her, seeing that none of the bottles in her spot were gone, even though she stood there with a smug look on her face.

"Don't be discouraged." Shane said as he and Rick stopped next to her. "You'll hit the target eventually."

Andrea looked at him, a faux look of offense on her face. "Who says I didn't hit my target?" She looked back at the sign post on the fence she had been aiming at. Rick and Shane both followed her gaze, Shane bringing his binoculars to his eyes for a better look.



The sign read. Right in the middle of the "O" were 3 perfectly placed bullet holes. Shane looked over at Rick who raised his eyebrows at him, impressed.

Shane grabbed the black Beretta 92FS he had tucked in his pants and held it out to her. It was the same gun Kat had as her primary firearm, but her's was flashier with it being silver, the only black on it being the gun grip. "Try this one. It's heavy." He said as she took it from him. "You get better balance, twice the rounds."

She turned the gun over in her hands and looked at Rick. He tilted his head at her, giving her the go ahead as he and Shane took a few steps back to stand behind her. She held the handgun out in front of her and took aim at one of the cans on the fence post. She paused for a few seconds, lining up the shot before she squeezed the trigger, sending the can off the fence.

"I'd say she's got the hang of it." Shane said as he looked on at the fence before turning to Rick.

"I'd say she's ready for the advanced class." Rick chuckled as he and Shane smiled. Rick walked closer to Andrea. "It might be worth your while after the rest of us head back to camp."

Shane came up to her other side as she looked at Rick. "Sure. Why not?" She nodded. Rick left them and walked over to Lori, who was handing the Bruni Olympic 6 back to Carl.

"How's it feelin?" Shane asked Andrea as she looked down at the Beretta in her hands.

"I like the weight." Andrea said as she looked up at him for a second. "So you decided not to leave us." She said as she ejected the gun's clip. "Something change your mind?" She said as she walked away.

Shane stared at the ground for a couple seconds before turning his eyes to the far end of the line, seeing Carl taking another shot, hitting the can he'd been aiming for.

"Got it." He smiled as he turned to his dad, who was kneeling down next to him.

"That's a great shot." Rick said as he patted him on the back and stood up, walking over to Lori who was standing a few feet behind them. Shane looked back at the fence line, watching the cans being knocked over and glass bottles breaking before he walked back down the line.

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Hershel had went out to the barn to feed the horses and stopped to take Nelly's riding gear off when he noticed she was back.

Dale had walked to the stables a few minutes after seeing the other man make his way there. His stood in the doorway and watched as Hershel looked her over. "Nervous Nelly." He said from the entry way before he walked inside. "She find her way home?"

"Found her in her stall this mornin." Hershel answered as he put her right rear foot down and gave her a pat before he bent down to lift her front one.

Dale grabbed some hay out of the feeding basket as he got closer and held it under Nelly's nose, who happily munched on it. He stood in front of the horse as he looked at Hershel, who was on the side of her. "I love your fields." He said. Hershel gave him a brief smile. "Took a long walk this morning. I ended up...by the barn." Dale raised his eyebrows at him. Hershel looked at him for a second before he went back to brushing Nelly. "I heard the moans." Dale said.

"That's unfortunate." Hershel said to him, not meeting his eyes.

"I'm sure you have your reasons for keeping this a secret."

"I saw the broadcasts before they stopped, saw the irrational fear, the atrocities, like the incident at my well." Hershel glanced up at him for a second as he brushed down Nelly's legs.

"We put down a Walker." Dale said.

Hershel raised his eyebrows at him. "You killed a person."

"Well, if you watched the same broadcasts I did, you saw Walkers attack, kill." Dale raised his eyebrows at him again. "They're dangerous." Dale nodded.

"A paranoid schizophrenic is dangerous, too. We don't shoot sick people." Hershel said, trying to get him to understand their way of thinking.

"With all due respect, you are cut off from the outside world here. But I've seen people that I cared about die and come back..and they're not people." Dale said the last three words slowly.

"My wife and stepson..are in that barn." Hershel said as he looked at him again, silent for a couple seconds. "They're people." He looked away from Dale as he continued to brush Nelly.

"I'm sorry." Dale said. And he truly was. He lost his wife before all of this had ever happened. He hadn't needed to live through the pain of seeing a person he loved so dearly, come back, but only as a shell of the person you once knew. "L-Let me help." Dale said as he took a step closer to Hershel, stepping back in front of Nelly's face. "I'll-I'll speak to Rick. He's a- he's a good man..We can make the barn more secure, keep everybody safe." Dale offered.

"The barn is secure." Hershel said, looking at the ground before meeting Dales eyes. "Keep this to yourself if you want to help..Rick is a man of conscience, but are you so sure about everyone in your group?"

Hershel could tell by the look that came over Dale's face, that, no. No, he wasn't.

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The whole group, save for Shane and Andrea, were now back at the farm. Either tucking themselves away in their tents, relaxing in the RV, or getting things around for lunch. Kat and Dylan were still on watch on top of the Winnebago. They'd decided after Dale and Carol fixed up something for lunch that T-Dog and Rick would take over until evening.

Lori noticed Hershel mending the fence that separated the barn from the house and walked over to thank him. "Afternoon." She said when she got closer. She was on the house's side, while he was inside the fence, closest to the barn.

"I take it your boy did well." Hershel said. He had seen that the boy was all smiles when he bounced out of the car and ran to Sam and Kaleb to tell them how he did when they'd all returned.

Lori turned around to look at Carl. He was in the camp with Sam, Kaleb, T-Dog and Glenn. Boasting about how well he'd done for his first time shooting. "Not bad, actually." Lori turned back to Hershel and laughed a bit as she messed with the fencing.

"Be grateful you don't have a daughter." Hershel stood back up for a second and laughed. "If only things were as simple as wantin to shoot."

"Carl's gettin that chance, thanks to you. And I'm eternally grateful..for what you did and your hospitality. We'll earn our keep." Lori nodded.

Hershel stood up again, slightly shaking his head. "I appreciate that, but with Carl gettin better, I imagine you'll be movin on soon." Hershel said as he leaned over to put another nail into the post to hold the wiring down.

Lori just looked at him, not sure what to say. They were leaving?

"Fort Benning, I hear." Hershel said as he stood up to look at her before he reached into his toolbox for another nail. Lori gave him a subtle nod as she backed away, walking back towards their camp.

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Shane had tied a rope from the branch of a tree and had a large log in the noose at the bottom, swaying back and forth. A moving target, for Andrea to try and hit.

Andrea lowered the gun again with a sigh as the log swung back to Shane. He grabbed it, looking it over. "Still a virgin."

"The target's too small." Andrea held her hands out at her sides.

"Come on, that's crap. Half-hour ago I saw you nail a bull's eye at 25 feet." Shane said as he looked at her.

"It wasn't moving." Andrea shook her head at him.

Shane had an amused smile on his face. "You think a Walker's gonna hold still for ya? Focus and reload, go again." He said as he pushed the log away from him, sending it swinging back and forth, again. He walked back over and stood a couple feet behind her, off to her side as she tried to aim at the moving log.

She pulled the trigger, missing again. She brought her arms back to her sides as she let out a frustrated sigh.

'Uh-oh, did I piss you off?" Shane said, resting his hands on his belt. "Come on, girl, you've got Walkers all around you. They're in the woods. They're in the RV. You're gonna need more than a damn screwdriver." Shane taunted her as he stepped closer, trying to get her riled up. More than once, it'd proven to give him better aim if he was angry and adrenaline was rushing.

"Stop badgering me." Andrea looked at him, raising her voice, slightly.

Shane laughed. "You're too damn emotional." Shane said. She looked back at the log as he raised his voice. "You need to shut it down. Take all that guilt, take that fear, that bein pissed off, take it out." He made a sweeping motion with his hand.

Andrea turned to him. "Right, cause you're so calm."

Shane quickly unholstered his firearm and aimed at the moving log. He pulled the trigger once, sending bits of wood flying from the spot on the log where the bullet had hit. "See that?" He lowered his gun and looked at her as she watched the swinging log. "See, I can be pissed off. I could be whistlin "Dixie" and I'll always hit the target. But you, God, you shoot like a damn girl." Andrea looked at him, again. "And you stand here and you point your weapon. Point like you point your finger. Do not think about it. I'm talkin about muscle memory, girl- muscle memory." Shane raised his voice and clapped his hands together as he walked back over to the log. He gave it a strong push before he stepped back. "Now go on, shoot that son of a bitch." He said as he walked back over to her.

Andrea aimed and pulled the trigger. "He's comin for you!" Shane shouted. Another gunshot. "He's 10 feet away! He's nine feet!" Another. "Right there, that's the Walker that got Amy. Now you shoot that son of a bitch! Shoot him!" Andrea didn't pull the trigger. She turned to him, a look of horror on her face at what he'd just tried to shake her with. She took a few steps back from him before she turned and walked away, towards the road. Shane ran his hand over his head and turned around. He looked at her over his shoulder while he started walking in the opposite direction and back over to the Tucson.

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Rick was standing at the picnic table in camp with the gun bag on top. He reached in and grabbed the first handgun his fingers found. He pulled it out and ejected the clip as he saw Lori walking over to him.

Lori looked around as she got closer, no one to hear them talking or pay any attention to them. "Hershel expects us to leave?" She whispered as she put her hand on the table and leaned against it. Rick put the gun down and stared at it for a second before he looked at her. "Does anybody else know?" She asked.

"Not yet." Rick said quietly, as they looked behind them, seeing T-Dog walk over to the fire pit. Rick reached into the bag for another gun to unload.

"Were you gonna tell me?" Lori asked as she turned back to him.

"Of course."

"When? How long have you known?"

"Not long. You don't need to worry about this." Rick said as he looked at her, setting the clip he'd just ejected next to the other one.

"How can you expect me not to worry? We have shelter here and food and water and medical care."

Rick set the gun down and turned to face her, fully. "I've been talking with Hershel. It's not carved in stone."

"He thinks it is." Lori said. "We have to fix this." Lori said as Rick looked down, nodding. "People are settling in here. They'll be devastated."

"I know. I'm working on it."

"Maybe I can talk to him, too, and plead our case." Lori raised her eyebrows.

Rick held his hands up to her, that was the last thing they needed. "No, things are uneasy. The best thing right now is to give Hershel his space." Rick said, holding his hand up in the direction Hershel was, still tending to the fence.

Lori just stared at him, wide eyed. What were they going to do if they had to leave this place? She had a baby on the way. It would be a death trap anywhere else.

"Don't look at me like that." Rick said to her, taking a few steps back.

Lori put on a blank expression and looked down at the picnic table. "Like what?"

"Like you're scared. Like you don't trust me. I can take it from everyone else, but not from you." Rick said and looked behind him at T-Dog and Carol by the fire pit. He looked back at Lori.

"I don't understand how you could keep somethin like this from me." Lori shook her head at him. Rick just looked away from her before looking back down at the guns on the table. "Carl's barely on his feet. And Sophia's missing. And Daryl and T-Dog are hurt. How can we leave?" Lori whispered, her emotions starting to get the better of her as she tried not to cry.

"It's not what I want either, but if-if we have to go..I'll do whatever it takes to make sure you and Carl are okay." Rick said, putting his hand on the side of her face. "We will get by. We will." He said as he looked into her eyes. She stared back at him for a second before he nodded his head at her.

"Okay." She shook her head in agreement as he pulled his hand away. She stood there with him while he went back to unloading the guns.

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Andrea was walking down the road that led towards the farm when Shane caught up to her in the Tucson. He slowed down next to her as she kept walking on the passenger side of the vehicle.

"Come on, lemme give you a lift." Shane said out the open window.

"My feet work just fine." Andrea said, looking straight ahead of her, barely acknowledging him, other than to tell him to screw off.

She kept walking as he crept at a snails pace in the car next to her. He stepped on the gas and pulled the car over a few feet in front of her, making her stop before she simply walked around. Shane put the Tucson in park before he opened the door and stood up, leaning onto the door as he watched her walk around the car. He smiled at her, trying to lighten the mood a bit, but she just looked at him with a scowl that might have been Daryl worthy.

"Hey look, I'm just trying to get you rattled, all right, give ya an idea what it's like when the shit starts to fly." He leaned off the car and started walking after her when he saw that she wasn't stopping.

"Is that an apology?" She turned her head towards him as she continued down the road.

Shane took his navy blue Police cap off his head as he neared her. He sighed. "I crossed the line when I brought Amy into it, so. Yeah, it's an apology." He said as he caught up with her.

Andrea stopped and turned to look at him. "You're a real dick sometimes."

"Yeah, I acknowledge that. I'll tell you what: I got a lead on Sophia. I'm gonna go check it out. Why don't you come with me, be my backup?" Shane said as he came to stand in front of her. She looked at him for a second before she nodded. He jerked his head back in the direction of the car. "Come on."

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Daryl had woken up from his Opioid induced nap and had his arrow in his hands again as Kat walked into his tent with two plates.

"Will you stop doing that?" She said as she walked in.

"Why?" Daryl brought his eyebrows together but let the arrow lay on his bare chest as he looked at her. He'd unbuttoned the rest of his shirt and it was just loosely on his shoulders now.

She looked at him then to all of the holes he poked into the screened window next to his cot. "Fine, keep doing it." She shrugged her shoulders. "But don't come cryin to me when you get eaten by mosquitoes from now on, while I sleep in my bug-free tent." She smiled.

Well, shit. Daryl thought as he looked back at the window, the screen full of holes around where his head was. He wasn't going to read. He couldn't do what he wanted to do with all these people around..He had nothing else to do and hadn't been thinking about what the consequences of his boredom would be when he was poking holes in the screen. At least now he knew. Mosquito bites.

"Brought you some lunch." Kat said as she held out a plate to him. A single slab of cooked ham on it. Better than nothin.

Daryl nodded a thank you to her as he got himself in a sitting position and grabbed the plate from her.

She pointed her finger at the side of her own head, where his gunshot wound was on his. "Bleeding a little." She said as she moved her finger in an up and down motion next to her eye.

Daryl took his finger and wiped at his temple, pulling away little flakes of dried blood. It must've been there for awhile. He grabbed his red handkerchief from the floor next to his crossbow and wet it with his tongue before he wiped at his head.

She looked at the empty cot she was standing in front of, next to his. It had been his brother's. "You mind?" She pointed to it.

Daryl looked at her face before he looked at the cot, briefly, before setting the handkerchief back down. The cot still had Merle's pillow and blanket he'd been using on it. He was taken aback that she thought to ask. Andrea had just sat down earlier, paying it no mind. It didn't bother him at the time, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it now, after Kat had indirectly pointed that out. But he was grateful she had enough respect for another person's space to ask for permission.

He shook his head, no, at her before she sat down and handed him a fork. He took it from her as she started cutting her food into pieces with the side of hers. Daryl stuck his fork into the middle of his slice of ham and brought it to his mouth, taking bites off of the whole slab as he watched her pop a cube into her mouth. He put his food back down on the plate while he chewed and watched her. She looked around his tent before she turned her head to look outside the doorway, out into camp and beyond it, over the fields of the Greene's farm.

"Some lunch date, huh?" She looked back at his face with a closed mouth smile as she chewed her food.

Daryl pulled a corner of his mouth up as he turned his eyes back to his plate and nodded.

Outside, Dale was cooking the last two slices of ham for he and Carol, as he had already cooked for everyone else that was hungry. He stood up from the fire and walked over to Carol, who was waiting with her empty plate. He scooped the ham from the frying pan with a spatula and placed it on her plate. He turned and put the frying pan on the table to put the final piece of meat on a plate for himself as Carol walked away, giving Lori a small smile as she passed her to go eat her lunch in the RV with the others.

Lori's stomach started doing flips as the scent of the cooked ham wafted around her as Carol went past. She grabbed some of her long brown locks and held them to her nose, breathing in the scent of her clean hair as she walked away, towards the edge of camp.

Dale, who noticed, took this as the perfect opportunity to act on what Glenn had told him, earlier. He put the spatula down on the table and followed her.

Lori went behind the tents and sat down on a boulder near the fence as she took deep breaths, waiting for the nausea to pass. She looked up, to see Dale a few feet behind her. She gave him a small smile as he came up to her side.

He looked out over the field before looking at the ground in front of him. "My wife was pregnant once." He said. Lori looked at him. He knew. Why else would this be the first thing that came out of his mouth? Not just, 'oh, not feeling well?' "She miscarried," He continued, "and we didn't try again after that."

"I'm so sorry." Lori said as she looked away from him.

"The thing that I remember most is how nauseated she became..at the smell of cooking meat." He said. Lori lightly scoffed, remembering. She was the same way when she was pregnant with Carl. She smiled as she looked out over the field. "And she was a-she was a meat-eating gal- my wife, but with the pregnancy...That Thanksgiving..the turkey-" He raised his eyebrows. Lori laughed a little as she smiled. It had been Christmas when she was early in her pregnancy with Carl. They had a whole cooked ham for Christmas dinner. But Lori was in the bathroom most of the evening. "-she-she couldn't be in the house for two days until it was aired out, poor thing." Dale smiled.

"Glenn told you?" Lori said as she finally looked at him, again.

"What did you expect? The boy has no guile." Dale smiled at her while he shook his head.

"I haven't told Rick." Lori said as she looked up at him. "I can't."

"Because of, uh, Shane?" Dale said as he knelt down next to her.

Lori's eyes widened. "Was it that obvious?" She whispered.

"No, no, I don't think anyone knew. I didn't, not-not for sure." Dale raised his eyebrows as he told her.

"Look, I thought my husband was dead." Lori said, her voice cracking. Dale nodded at her as she looked out over the field. "And I felt like I'd died with him. And I-" Lori shrugged, slightly. "I wanted to feel something- anything...And now I hate myself for it."

"And the baby?" Dale asked as he scooted himself onto the rock next to hers.

"It's Rick's." She nodded, then looked out over camp before turning to him. "None of the rest of it matters."

"Then what's your concern?" Dale smiled at her and shook his head.

"Memories are what keep me goin now. Memories of what life used to be. And I-" She shrugged while she looked at him with a sad smile. "I've got a deep well to draw on. I still remember joy. But I think Carl's well is already runnin dry. And this baby- the baby wont have any good memories at all," Lori shook her head, "only fear and pain." She said as she looked out over the field beyond the fence.

Dale put his hand on her shoulder and held his other hand up to her. "You can't think like that." Lori turned to him with a pained smile and tears in her eyes. "We can still find joy and we can still take strength from each other." Dale said.

"Do you really think this baby has a chance, that it could grow up and live a happy life? Look me in the eye and tell me that my baby will grow up to be your age and-and die happy..Tell me..Tell me you believe that." Lori said to him as he slowly looked away from her. She nodded with a smile and put her hand on his knee as she got up and walked away.

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Glenn had one of their axes and was cutting up fire wood on a stump by the pit when he saw Lori walking up to him. She had went to her tent to think and was taking him up on his offer. He fidgeted as she came closer, looking around them before she stood in front of him.

"I'm sorry. I'm s- it just came out. And it was Dale. I-" Glenn said, waving his hand around.

"It's okay." Lori stopped him. "I never shoulda put you in that position." Lori pulled her brows together and looked down at her hands. "I've been thinkin about what you said about, um, about needin help. And you're right that I do." She looked back up at him.

"Name it. Yeah."

"If you're still willing to make a run into town for me.." Lori nodded.

"I'm your man." Glenn smiled.

"Thank you." Lori sighed and stepped closer, wrapping her arms around him.

Glenn put his arms around her and gently pat her back. "It's okay. It's not a big deal, really."

"Okay." Lori whispered as she pulled away. She gave his arm a squeeze before she turned and walked back to her tent to make a list.

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Kat had went to get the antiseptic from Hershel, extra bandages and surgical tape to change the coverings on Daryl's wounds. She was now kneeling next to his cot while he lay on his side, fidgeting, as she lightly rubbed the antiseptic cream over his stitched up wounds on the front and back of his side.

Daryl watched her screw the cap back on the tube of cream and cut the bandage she had in half. "Know what you're doin?" He asked. He hadn't said a word to her since she came back in and told him to just take his shirt off.

"Not that hard to put a bandage on." Kat looked up from her task and smiled at him. She shrugged. "I remember a few things from the DSO..Just basic medical training in case you or your partner were injured out in the field." She scooted closer to him again after she'd put half of the strip of tape on an edge of the white cloth. She placed it over the wound on his front and gently pressed the rest of the tape to his skin. "I could set a broken leg or give someone stitches if I absolutely needed to." She grabbed the surgical tape and placed another strip on the bottom to hold the bandage in place while she started on the bandage for the wound on the other side.

"Ever need to?"

She laughed a little. "No." She said as she stood up to get better access to the back of him. "Worst that's really happened..Leon got shot on our last job, but it just grazed his arm..We were on our way out and still being shot at so we didn't really have time to do anything." She leaned over to grab the tape to secure the bottom. "So I just tore the bottom of my shirt to tie around it for him on the fly until we got outta there..So none of it's really came into play." She said as she pressed the tape to his skin.

"Sounds lucky." Daryl said. Trying to ignore the goosebumps he felt spreading when her fingers touched him.

She smiled. Their higher-ups always joked about Leon's consistent luck in any shitty situation. "Yeah...Leon's been through worse and always comes up smelling like roses." Kat stood up and grabbed the tape and cream to take back to Hershel, thinking back to Leon. He'd had her back for years. She looked at him like an older brother, a mentor. She hoped he was okay. He'd been through this before in Raccoon City; A land of the dead. He had to be all right. "Hopefully his luck hasn't run out."

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"You didn't have to come." Glenn said as he and Maggie rode the horses through the grass, walking onto the road into town. "You could hate me from a distance...Please say something."

Maggie ignored him as the sound of the horses hooves clapping on the asphalt filled the silence for a few more seconds.

"Maggie, I-"

"I asked for your trust and you betrayed it." Maggie raised her voice as she looked to her side at him. "Now my dad's pissed at me." She looked back ahead of them towards the pharmacy. "Your turn."

Glenn glanced over at her but kept his eyes in front of him for the most past. A few seconds passed before he said anything.

"Soo..your dad thinks they're sick?" Glenn looked at her. "You agree with that, even after what you saw at the well?"

"I'm not sure what I saw at the well." Maggie said.

"Yes, you are." Glenn said, his own mind going back to his near dear experience two days ago. They stopped the horses in front of the pharmacy and got off. "Look, if you'd seen Atlanta, you would not have a barn full of Walkers." Glenn said as they walked to the posts in front of the pharmacy that held up the awning to tie the horses to.

"I wish you'd stop callin them that." Maggie looked at him while she tied a loop around the post.

Glenn looked at the ground for a second. "What do you call em?" He said as he watched her tie the rope in another knot.

"Mom..Shawn..Mr. and Mrs. Fischer, Lacey, Duncan." Maggie said as Glenn tied his horse to the post.

But..they really aren't them anymore. She looked at the ground before she turned around and walked into the pharmacy. Glenn followed her after he secured the rope to the post.

He stepped inside and started looking at the shelves at the front of the store.

"What does she want now?" Maggie asked as she passed him.

"I can't say." Glenn said as he looked down at the paper, glancing at the basic things he could remember.

Maggie stopped her walk to the back of the pharmacy and scoffed. She turned around with an exasperated smile on her face and looked at him, taking a few steps closer. "So one of them asks you to keep your mouth shut-"

Glenn turned and held out Lori's paper to her. "Crawl out of my butt," Glenn said, remembering something similar Daryl said to Dale on the highway when he gave him flak for letting Maggie take Lori when Carl was shot, "..help me look, please."

Maggie took the paper for him and looked through the list. He didn't know what the last item was so he needed her help anyway. Maggie looked up at him after she read through everything. She turned around, walking to the back of the store. "You've got to be kidding me."

Glenn pulled his eyebrows together, a little confused, as he watched her walk to the back to the pills. He turned around with a sigh and started grabbing things off the shelves.

Maggie grabbed one of the small baskets and set it on the counter as she rounded the corner to the shelves that held all of the medical supplies. She started picking up bottles and reading the labels.

Glenn walked back to the front of the store, throwing the couple items he found into the basket he had set next to the door. He turned and walked to the side wall, looking through the items on the shelves there.

Maggie moved onto another shelf, picking up several bottles and putting them back down when she didn't see what she was looking for. The last one she picked up, she recognized. She read down the label for what is was used for and pulled her eyebrows together. She didn't have long to think about it when a cold, gray hand locked around her wrist, grabbing her from the other side of the shelf. The Walker snarled as it yanked at her arm.

"Help!" Maggie yelled as she tried to pull her arm out of the Walker's grip. "Glenn, help! No! Oh, God!" She yelled as the Walker pulled again, shaking the two thin shelves that were between them, sending various bottles to the floor on either side.

Glenn rushed around the shelves he was in the middle of to see the back of the store. He had a frontal view of what was going on ahead of him. Maggie was on one side, with two small, open shelves between them, with the Walker on the other. And it had a vice grip on her wrist, trying to pull her through. "Maggie!"

"Glenn, help me!" Maggie yelled as she tried to pull away. "Get it off me! Help! Glenn!"

Glenn made his way to the back, quickly looking through the isles for anything he could use as a weapon. The Walker was too close to her right now, he couldn't use his machete; He might hit her. With Maggie's screams getting louder and more insistent, he knew he didn't have time to look for a good weapon. He grabbed the wooden shelf of the nearest stand up rack of supplies, throwing the items on top of it, off, and ran to the back of the store.

"Get it off me! Help!" Maggie said as she Walker finally realized it was easier to walk around the shelves separating them. Maggie tried to push it away from her as she backed up.

Glenn hopped up on the pharmacy's counter that was between him and Maggie. He waited for her to push the Walker back again and he took a swing at the thing's head, sending blood spurting out of it's neck where the corner of the wooden shelf had hit it.

The Walker let go of her wrist as it fell back onto the floor. Maggie sobbed as she looked at the dead body on the ground.

Glenn put the board down and jumped from the counter, grabbing her shoulders, looking at her arms. "Did it get you? Did it bite you?" Glenn asked, he was frantic. Maggie sobbed as he pulled her to him, wrapping his arms protectively around her as she cried.

"Glenn!" She yelled when she saw the Walker getting up from her view over his shoulder.

He quickly let go of her and turned around to see the Walker on it's feet, it's head hanging only by a small section of flesh on it's neck. Glenn had hit it with enough force to sever its spinal cord and cut through most of the tissue. But it didn't matter. It's brain was still intact.

Glenn grabbed the Gator Machete Pro from it's sheath on his side. He brought it over his head and swung the point of it into the Walker's temple before pulling it out. The Walker fell back to the floor, blood still spilling from it's neck. It was still making noise, gurgling, as Glenn walked up to it and knelt over it's body. He swung the machete, again and again at it's head, until the only sounds were Glenn's grunting from the force he was using, the sickening sound as the Walker's head was being struck and Maggie's whimpers from behind him. Glenn stood up, panting, when he was sure that Walker wouldn't be getting up again. He turned around and looked at Maggie who threw her arms back around him as she cried.

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Shane pulled the Tuscon into the housing development and put it in park as he and Andrea looked around. The place looked abandoned. There weren't even any Walkers from what they could see. They both got out of the car, Shane putting his Police cap back on and Andrea putting the loaded clip into the Beretta she had. She tucked the gun into the back of her pants while Shane held his binoculars to his eyes, scanning over the houses and cars around them.

"We're gonna have to go house to house." Shane whispered to her as they walked down the street. "We'll start at the far end and we'll work our way back."

"If Sophia got this far, she has a real shot, don't ya think?" Andrea looked over at him as they made their way through the complex.

Shane just looked at her. He didn't say anything as they continued walking. He thought this was a waste of everybody's time. They had far more important things they could be doing. No way that girl is still alive.

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It was late in the afternoon when Maggie and Glenn were walking back to camp from the stables after putting the horses away. Maggie was long past the grief stricken phase of almost being killed. Now she was livid. She slammed the iron gate behind her as she came inside the fence, leaving Glenn to open it back up to let himself inside.

"Hey!" Maggie shouted as she quickly walked towards the Survivors' camp with a paper bag in her hands.

Lori turned around from the table she was standing at with the baskets of clothes, to look at her. After the clothes had been washed, no one had folded them, they would just grab them from the baskets they were in. So she had taken it upon herself to start folding the garments for everyone.

"We got your stuff." Maggie said as she came closer to her. Lori glanced down at Maggie's white shirt, seeing a spot of blood, when she could take her eyes away from the young woman's anger ridden face.

"Maggie, hang on, please." Glenn said as he jogged to catch up to her.

Lori turned to look around the camp. "Come- Come on in here." Lori said and tilted her head to the Grimes' tent a few feet behind her as she turned around and started walking towards it.

"Why? Nothin to hide." Maggie said as she took a few steps closer and came to a stop a few feet from Lori. "We got your special delivery right here." Maggie said as Lori turned around. Maggie reached into the bag, taking out one item at a time and throwing it on the ground in front of her. "We got your lotion, got your conditioner," Maggie dumped the whole bag on the floor, "your 'Soap Opera Digest."

"Maggie." Lori said, a look that was a cross between horrified and confused on her face.

"Next time you want somethin, get it your damn self. We're not your errand boys." Maggie said as bent over and picked up the packet of pills that were on the ground next to her.

"Honey, I-" Lori started.

"And here's your abortion pills." Maggie threw them at Lori's feet. She turned around, pushed past Glenn and stormed off to the far side of the yard.

Glenn looked at Lori for a few seconds but didn't say anything. He turned around and walked after Maggie. Glenn took his cap off his head as he followed her over to the trees they'd built the memorial for Otis under.

"That was not cool." Glenn said as he walked around the trees and came in front of her when she went around the other side.

"Which part? The part where that bitch almost got us killed?" Maggie turned around and looked at the land beyond the fence, taking a few steps towards it as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I shoulda gone alone. If you wanna blame anybody, blame me."

"Right, take the blame." Maggie said as she turned to face him again. "You know, for a smart guy, you're really stupid." She said as she turned back around.

Glenn pulled his eyebrows together. "Okay, I'm..confused," He said as Maggie turned around and started walking to him, "because I think you just paid me a compliment, but you made it s-"

Maggie grabbed either side of his face and kissed him, cutting off any other words he was about to say. She put a hand on his shoulder while she held onto the back of his head with the other. "I've already lost three of the people that I care about most in this world." She said when she pulled back.

"Maggie-"

"Shut up." She took her hand off the back of his head and held her finger up to him. "You're smart. You're brave. You're a leader. But you don't know it. And your friends don't wanna know it. They'd rather have you fetchin peaches. There's a dead guy in the well? Send Glenn down. You're Walker bait. I can't take you becoming one of them." She titled her head to the space outside the fence; Whatever was out there, lurking. She turned to the house and walked away.

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Shane kicked in the door to the fourth house they were going through. He held his gun out in front of him as he took a few steps inside, scanning the room he'd opened up as the light from the sun flooded in through the doorway.

Andrea stepped in behind him, her gun ready. "Sophia?" She called out. "Anyone?"

"Shh, shh, shh, shh." Shane said to her, listening for anything.

Andrea took a few steps to the far side of the room, walking through the kitchen. "Sophia?"

Shane was walking on the other side of the room, making sure it was clear before he took a few steps towards Andrea. They both looked down where the hallway was, seeing a piece of drywall that was blocking it. A hole had been broken through the bottom of it and it was lined with blood.

"They walled off the hallway?" Andrea said as they looked at the drywall and down at the hole.

"They tried to make a stand here." Shane said as he walked closer to it. He bent down and peeked through the hole, making sure there was nothing on the other side. He stood up and nodded at Andrea before he squatted down and ducked through. Andrea followed suit, tiny pieces of drywall falling on them as they squeezed through the hole.

Shane held his gun out in front of him again. He glanced in the rooms on either side as they made their way down the short hallway. A horrible scent hit them the further they walked. They looked into a room off to their left, what had once been a nursery. There were at least 10 bodies of deceased Walkers in a pile on the floor.

"Sophia?" Andrea softly called again as they walked past the room and down a flight of stairs.

Shane titled his head at her to watch their back as they got to the bottom of the blocked stairs. There was an open door off to the side but the doorway at the foot of the stairs had been blocked. Shane put his foot on the barricade; a table, ironing board and a baby-gate, and pushed them out of the way. They stepped through the open door and into the garage of the house.

There were flies buzzing around at the scene of burnt, decaying flesh from the numerous bodies that were on the floor in the garage. Shane and Andrea both lowered their weapons as they stepped further inside the room. The garage's walls and everything inside was blackened with soot.

Shane took off his cap as he looked around at the different bodies, strewn across the room. They were all burnt beyond recognition, no signs if they were people or Walkers when the fire was started.

Andrea held the back of her hand to her mouth as she looked around, trying to ignore the smell. She brought her hand back down. "She was never here...was she?" Shane looked at her out of the corner of his eye while she squatted down. "I don't know how to tell Carol this was another dead end."

A familiar sound turned Shane's attention to the garage door that was pulled up, several feet off the ground. He bent down to look outside, seeing several pairs of shambling feet accompanying the snarls and growls coming from outside. Shane put his cap back on as he stood up.

The first Walker started banging on the outside of the garage door. "Come on, let's move." Shane patted Andrea's shoulder and turned around to head back up the stairs and to the hallway. He and Andrea got up the stairs before the first few Walkers figured out they could crawl under the raised door.

Shane and Andrea went through the hole in the drywall and walked out the front door, seeing more Walkers coming towards the house, and several surrounding the Tucson.

"Cover that street." Shane titled his head down the road to their left before he looked to their right. "I'll clear the car." They walked towards the Tucson while Shane started shooting. Landing head shots on every Walker that was surrounding the vehicle.

Andrea aimed at a Walker down the road behind them that was slowly coming their way. She pulled the trigger, hitting it in the chest. It kept coming. She aimed again, sending another bullet just a few inches above where the last one had hit. Shane watched her, his gun on the Walker, too, before he turned around to watch behind them. Andrea aimed again and pulled the trigger.

Click

"Oh, shit." Andrea said as she looked at the gun.

Shane turned around, seeing her pulling at the slide. He aimed at the Walker, only several feet from them now, hitting it in the head and sending it to the ground. He looked around them, aiming his gun at the nearest Walkers, coming towards them. He looked over his shoulder at Andrea. "Focus now. Clear the jam. Focus."

Andrea ejected the clip from the gun and pulled the slide. Sending the bullet that was causing the jam out of the ejection port. Another Walker was now feet from her as she put the clip back in the Beretta and pulled the slide. She was taking quick breaths as she looked from the Walker to Shane, who lowered his gun. "Are you kidding me?" She shouted at him.

"Come on, I've got your back. Now go." He said, tilting his head at the Walker that was still coming closer to her. Heat of the moment. If there was ever a time where adrenaline was going to give her a marksman's aim, it was going to be now.

She aimed at the Walker as it took a couple more steps towards her, and pulled the trigger. She almost couldn't believe it when it fell to the ground in front of her, the bullet ripping through it's skull. She took a couple quick breaths and stepped forward, aiming at the next Walker and quickly dropping it. She aimed againm at the next. Down. She pulled the trigger again, and another fell to the ground.

"Andrea, Andrea, let's go." Shane said as he started for the car. "Come on." He said as she looked at him and followed.

He stepped behind the open driver's door as Andrea stopped in front of the car and turned around. "Andrea, come on." He said as he started to get inside.

Andrea raised her gun at the group of Walkers coming towards them and pulled the trigger.

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Lori was sitting at the small table in the Grimes' tent, rubbing her temples when she saw Glenn walking towards her from outside. He had a small paper bag in his hand, something he'd picked up on his own. Lori glanced down at it when he stopped outside the door. "The blood on Maggie's shirt-" She started.

"She was attacked." Glenn said as he looked in at her.

"Are you guys all right? How bad was it?"

Glenn ducked in through the open door of the tent and walked inside. "It was pretty close."

"I'm so sorry." Lori shook her head. "I should never have asked you to go."

"I offered."

"I thought the town was safe, but-but if you hadn't' come back-"

"But we did. I always do." Glenn smiled.

Lori covered her mouth with the side of her hand as she smiled up at him. She looked back down at the bag in his hands as he messed with the wrinkled paper

"The morning after pills- will they even work?" He asked.

Lori picked up the 3 packs of the pills she had laying on the table in front of her. "I don't know." She shook her head as she looked at them. "I don't know if I want em to."

"Then, uh, I got these, too, just in case." Glenn set the bag on the table.

Lori looked up at him as she set the pill packets down and reached for the bag. She opened it up, pulling the bottle inside out and read the label. "Prenatal vitamins." She smiled. "That's a hell of a choice."

Glenn nodded as she looked at the bottle. "I'm glad it's not mine." He said as Lori put the bottle next to the pills and looked between the two. Glenn glanced out of the tent, making sure Rick was still on watch with T-Dog. "Lori..we're, uh, we're friends, aren't we?" He asked when he turned back to her.

Lori looked around for a second as if it were obvious. "With everything we've been through, yeah." She laughed a little.

"I can't tell you what to do." Glenn raised his brows at her. "I..could never tell you something like that...But your..choice- maybe you shouldn't make it alone." He nodded at her.

She looked past him at the wall of the tent as he turned and ducked out of the door. She looked back at the table, her eyes flicking back and forth.

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Andrea was looking out the passenger window of the car with a smug look on her face as Shane sped down the road, back towards the Greene's farm. She could almost still feel the adrenaline rushing through her. She didn't think she'd felt this proud of herself in years. Between the adrenaline and giddiness, it was almost a turn on. She looked over at Shane, her eyes traveling down his stomach and landing on his groin before she looked up at his face again. His eyes were on the road ahead of them as he drove. He glanced in the rear view mirror, out of habit, before watching ahead of them again.

What the hell? Andrea thought as she turned her head to the front of the car and reached over, placing her hand right between his legs. She squeezed and rubbed at the bulge her hand was on, biting her bottom lip. Shane looked over at her, licking his lips as she faced him again. He stepped on the brake, slowing the car down. Andrea rubbed at him again, feeling him harden under her palm.

Shane put his hands behind his head and glanced down at himself, Andrea still working at him. "Come on, then." He said as he smirked at her, bringing the car to a complete stop and putting it in park. Andrea leaned over as Shane grabbed her hair. "Get over here. Get over here." He said as he pulled her onto his lap.

She locked her hands around the back of his neck as they started kissing, Shane lifting her shirt up over her breasts to pull her bra down as she grinded herself against him. Andrea leaned back against the steering wheel as he kissed down her neck, the motion causing the horn to honk. She giggled as she sat up straight again and reached for his belt.

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Lori sat in the same place Glenn had left her. She had her hands on the back of her neck as she cried, going through the pros and cons of keeping the baby. Right now, the cons list was winning. By a long shot. She glanced at the table, looking at the prenatal vitamins before her eyes fell on the morning-after pill packets. She picked the 3 packets up and looked at them. She pulled the packets out of the cardboard box they were in and punched the pills out of their casings, of all three packets, giving herself 6 pills. She fiddled with them in her hand for a second before popping all 6 into her mouth and grabbing her bottled water, washing them down.

She sat there and squeezed the empty packet in her hand as tears fell down her cheeks. She bent over and sobbed before she sat up straight again. No. She put the water bottle and empty packets down on the table and ran out of the tent.

Lori ran from their camp, to the edge of the fence, surrounded by several trees as she knelt down on the ground, holding herself up with her hands. She stuck two fingers in her mouth and down her throat. With a gag, she expelled the only things that were in her stomach. The pills, and the water she'd swallowed them with. She took her hand and wiped at her mouth, before she spread the pills out on the ground, counting to make sure they were all there. 6. She sat back up on her knees while she took deep breaths.

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A little over an hour later, the light green Tucson came barreling down the Greene's dirt driveway and skid to a stop next to Carol's Cherokee. Shane couldn't help himself. He was feeling a little revived. Andrea smiled and shook her head at him as she reached for the door to let herself out. Carol stepped out of the RV as she watched the two get out of their vehicle. Dale walked up to the swing in front of Carol's car while Shane and Andrea walked towards them.

"Anything?" Carol asked from her spot next to Dale.

Shane shook his head at her, "Not today." He said as she took a few more steps towards Andrea.

"I'm so sorry." Andrea said as she looked at Carol. "We'll cover more ground tomorrow." She nodded.

Dale looked between Andrea and Shane. They both looked a little too smug for his liking. Andrea was practically glowing as Shane rested his hands on his hips. "What happened out there?" Dale asked.

"Um, I-" Andrea stammered, adjusting the strap of the bag she had on her shoulder.

"The place was overrun." Shane said with raised eyebrows, answering Dale's question before he looked at Andrea with the slightest smirk.

"Yeah." Andrea smiled as she sighed.

"Let's go get ya cleaned up." Carol said as she put her hand on Andrea's shoulder and started walking the woman to the RV, she looked like she'd been sweating. She had no idea..

But Dale, Dale knew something had went on between them. They were both acting strange, and it had nothing to do with the Walkers.

Shane watched Andrea walk away before he caught Dale looking at him. Shane took his hands off his hips and started walking into camp, bringing his hand up to his mouth and making a fist. He laughed a bit before he let his hand fall back to his side.

Dale started walking after him. "Shane..Shane." Dale said as he came up behind him.

"Hmm?" Shane turned around.

"I was thinkin, you got that nice new ride of yours, plenty of fuel, more than enough for you to get far from here."

"What, you tellin me to leave?"

"I know you've been plannin to. Maybe now is a good time." Dale said.

Shane laughed as he looked away. "Is this about Andrea?" Shane smiled as he looked back at him.

Dale stared at him for a second. "I'm lookin out for the group."

"You think the group would be better off without me, Dale? Why don't you tell that to Rick or Lori? Their boy would be dead if I hadn't put my ass on the line." Shane said as he looked down him.

"And Otis's." Dale corrected him. Shane just looked at him before he turned to walk away. "You've been vague about that night, about what happened." Dale said and followed.

Shane turned around after he'd taken a few steps, but kept his eyes to the ground. "Otis died a hero." He said, finding the dirt in front of him easier to look at.

"So you've said."

"A little boy lived because of what went down that night. I think you ought to show some gratitude." Shane said as he turned to face Dale.

"I wasn't there." Dale shook his head.

"No, man, you weren't." Shane raised his eyebrows.

"But I was the time that you raised your gun on Rick." Dale thought back to the day after their camp outside of Atlanta was overrun, when he'd come to get Rick and Shane from their perimeter walk. It was barely two weeks ago but it felt so much longer. The days just blurred together, anymore.

"Come on, Jesus." Shane whispered.

"You had him in your sights and you held him there." Dale said as Shane ran a hand over his head and sighed before he looked at the ground again. "I know what kind of man you are." Dale looked him up and down.

Shane kept his head down, but brought his eyes back to Dale's face, making him look more menacing than Dale had ever seen him. He slightly shook his head. "You think I'd shoot Rick?" Shane whispered as he brought his head back up. He stepped closer to Dale. "That is my best friend. That's the man that I love. I love him like he's my brother. You think that's the kinda man I am?" Shane nodded, his face only inches from Dale's.

"That's right." Dale nodded, a slight smile on his face. He knew Shane was trying to intimidate him.

"Well, maybe we oughtta just think that through..Say I'm the kinda man who'd gun down his own best friend." Shane said in a low voice, looking Dale right in the eyes. "Whatcha think I'd do to some guy that I don't even like when he starts throwin accusations my way? Whatcha think?" Shane got closer to him, scanning his face. Dale's eyes widened before Shane backed away from him and started walking to his tent, throwing a scoff over his shoulder.

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Shane and Glenn had taken over Rick and T-Dog's place on watch, so the former Sheriff was on his way to the Grimes' tent as the sun was setting. He ducked inside, not seeing Lori or Carl. He walked further in and stood next to the table as he unbuckled his holster and set it on the chair that was in front of it. As he set the holster on the chair he looked at the packets that were laying, opened and empty, on the table. He knelt down next to it as he picked up one of the packets, reading the label.



Rick picked up one of the other packets and read the label, almost thinking he was seeing it wrong. He looked down at the ground as it all hit him.

After he'd pulled himself together he walked out of the tent, looking out over the land before seeing her figure off in the distance, in between the fences that were on either side of the Greene's private, dirt drive way.

Lori was sitting in the grass looking out over the field with a couple dandelions in her hands as Rick made his way out the gate and walked over to her. She could hear the footsteps on the hard dirt coming from behind her and stood up. She turned towards him though he was still a few feet away. She sniffled as she stood and stared at his face. They were silent as they looked at each other. Rick was the first to break it.

"Is there somethin you need to tell me?" He took a few steps towards her.

"We can't leave. I'm pregnant." She said.

Rick held up the empty pill packs he had in his hand. "Are you?" He asked, walking closer.

"I threw em up."

Rick turned around and walked a few steps, throwing his arms out to his sides in frustration. He took a deep breath and looked back at her.

"You can yell if you want." She said as she watched him. "You can scream if you have to..but talk to me." Lori almost pleaded with him. This was the problem they were having before in their marriage. He would always take things so coolly, things she knew bothered him. He never talked about it and always played things off like everything was fine.

Rick walked up to her, leaving only a foot between them as he looked at her face. He lowered his voice. "How long have you known?"

"Does it matter?" Lori asked as he looked away.

"Days? Weeks? And you didn't tell me." He said as he looked at her face again.

"I'm tellin you now."

"No." Rick raised his voice. He turned away from her, taking a step back before looking at her again. She hadn't come and told him by herself, he caught her in a lie. He held up the packets. "I found these. S-So-So Glenn knows, right?" He nodded at her. "Instead of comin to me, y-you-you-you sent him to get pills?"

"I panicked." Lori said, looking at the ground around them as she tried to explain herself. "I-I-Y-You tell me we have no roof and no walls-"

"Oh, do not put this on me!" Rick yelled. Lori took a step back from him. It had been the first time he ever raised his voice at her. "You tear into me for keepin secrets when you're- when you're holdin onto this?" He swung his arm that held that pill packets out to his side.

"You want me to bring a baby into this?" Lori yelled. "To live a short, cruel life?"

Rick brought his hands to his temples in frustration. "How can you think like that?!"

Lori held her arm out in the direction of camp, where Carl was playing with Sam and Kaleb. "We can't protect the son we already have."

"So this is the solution?" Rick said, throwing the packs on the ground as he took a few steps back from her.

"Rick, I threw them up." She said each word slowly as he paced in front of her. "I screwed up..I don't know how we do this." She said as she started to sob. She turned and walked to the fence as Rick rubbed at his eyes. He put his hands on his hips as Lori put her hands on the wiring between the fence posts.

Rick took a couple breaths before he turned his face towards her. "We can make it work."

"How? Tell me..how." She said as she looked at him. He stepped closer to her.

"We'll figure it out. Shouldn't we try to figure it out? You threw-you threw up the pills." He said as he stepped even closer. She stifled a sob as she looked away from him and out onto the field. "You want this baby. I know you do."

"Not like this." She said as she looked at him. "Not givin birth in a ditch. Not-not when its life will hang by a thread from the second it's born." She shook her head and looked back in the direction of camp. "Not when every cry will-will put it, an-and Carl, and everyone we care about, into danger. That's not right."

Rick wiped at his eyes. "Not givin it a chance isn't right either."

Lori brought her hand to her forehead as she leaned off the fence. "Maybe this is why I didn't wanna tell you."

"I still- I still don't understand why...You-you really think I'd make you have a baby you don't want?"

"No, no, so-so that if I went through with it, it would be on my conscience and not yours." Lori shook her head.

"Maybe that's true, but...I can't live like this anymore, Lori...We can't live like this...Is there anything else..I should know about?"

Lori looked at him for a few seconds before looking at his shoulder. She couldn't look him in the eyes and tell him. "Shane and I." She said, catching his eyes after she'd spoken.

Rick just nodded. He shifted his weight to his other foot as he looked back at camp before turning back to her and looking at the ground. "I know. Of course I know." He said quietly. Lori just looked at him as he turned and faced the field. He rested his arms over the fence. He stayed quiet for a few seconds before he spoke again. "You thought I was dead." He looked at her. "The world went to shit and you thought I was dead..Right?"

Lori nodded her head as she tried to suppress another sob. "Yeah."

Rick looked down at the wiring that was holding the fence posts together and out at the field before he nodded his head again, turning back to her. He had another secret he was holding onto, but he wasn't going to tell just yet.