You're Family Now

“So we can stay?” Miranda asked, still unsure.

“That’s not my call,” Rick admitted.

“Then whose is it?” Brooke wondered.

“It’s my father’s,” Maggie, the girl that had saved them replied.

“Does he think that it’s okay for us to stay? Can we speak with him?” Miranda asked.

“I’ll go get him,” Maggie’s younger sister, Beth, offered. She left them in the kitchen to find her father. Not long after a white haired man followed her into the room.

“Hello there,” he greeted with a nod.

“Hello sir,” Miranda said, jumping out of her kitchen chair and shaking the man’s hand.

“Who might you be?” he asked.

“I’m Brooke, and this is my younger sister Miranda. We were being chased by a herd of walkers, and we came across Maggie and Glenn. They brought us here,” Brooke explained.

“I’m Hershel, and this is my farm. You’re welcome to stay, as long as you don’t cause any trouble and help out around the farm,” the man informed them.

“Thank you sir,” Miranda said with a thankful grin.

“Just like that?” Shane demanded from the corner of the kitchen. “You’re going to let them stay? What if they’re dangerous? What if there were others with them? You can’t trust them!”

“Excuse me?” Brooke turned to glare at Shane. “Who the hell are you to judge us? You don’t even know us!”

“Brooke,” Miranda warned in a low voice, but no one seemed to hear her.

“My point exactly.” Shane shot back.

“Alright, listen here, asshat. I can already tell that we’re going to have problems, the two of us. Let’s just agree that you’re an ass and leave it at that.” Brooke growled then promptly walked out of the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” Miranda apologized, “She just doesn’t like being insulted like that. It’s an ego thing. Please excuse me.” She offered an apologetic smile and ran after her sister.

From the doorway Daryl let out a low whistle. “What did you say to her?”

“He suggested that we couldn’t trust the girls. Apparently Brooke doesn’t like to be insulted.” Rick replied.

Daryl smirked then left the room. Then Hershel went to stand next to Rick.

“I’m assuming you’ve already told them about the guns?” he asked Rick.

Rick nodded. “Yeah. They only had one. They had plenty of knives, though. I don’t know how you feel about knives, so I let the girls keep them.”

Hershel nodded. “That’s fine.”

Miranda followed her older sister into the yard. “Brooke!” she protested, taking her sister by the arm. “I know that you were just sticking up for us. And believe me, I wanted to punch that guy in the face too, but we can’t Brooke, or we’ll get kicked off the farm.”

Brooke sighed. “I know. You know my temper and how easily it flares. Now I need to go throw knives at something. Where’s our bag?”

Miranda grinned and slipped a bag off her arm. “Here you go,” and handed it to Brooke.

The other girl took the bag and went over to a tree a safe distance away. Miranda went over to the others in the group. Glenn was the first one she recognized, and went up to him.

“Is there anything I can help with?” She asked.

“No, I’ve got it,” he said, picking up a bucket.

“You sure? Hershel said that we needed to help in order to stay, and I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do,” she admitted.

“Okay, here take this,” he said, handing her the bucket, “We’re going to get eggs.”

“Okay,” she grinned, following him.

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THWACK! Another one of Brooke’s knives embedded itself into the tree. She tilted her head and grinned. She’d hit her target perfectly, and though she’d done it multiple times, she was still proud of herself.

“Not bad,” A voice said from behind her. She turned just in time to see Daryl fire an arrow. She let out a small gasp of surprise as it flew past her, and stuck the tree next to her knife.

Brooke made a face and stuck her tongue out at Daryl. “Don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on people, especially those with knives?”

“Didn’t we already have this conversation?” Daryl asked.

“Well, you should have learned by now!” Brooke exclaimed and threw her arms in the air. Daryl gave her a smirk before walking forward and yanking his arrow out of the tree. Brooke threw another knife, burying it deep into the wood, just missing Daryl’s fingers.

“What was that for? I didn’t even sneak up on ya that time,” Daryl asked, feigning anger.

“Gotta make sure you stay on your toes.” Brooke replied with a smirk.

“Brooke!” Miranda called, waving her arm to get her sister’s attention. Glenn stood by her side, grinning. “We gots eggs!”

Brooke stuck her tongue out at Daryl before turning to her sister. “Really? That’s great, Pamplemousse! Good job!”

Both Daryl and Glenn turned to the girls with very puzzled looks on their faces.

“Pamplemousse? What?” Glenn asked.

Brooke and Miranda laughed. “Yup. She’s my Pamplemousse.” Brooke said.

“Okay… Why?” Daryl asked.

“Long story short, it started when Brooke and I were insulting each other in different languages. Her in French and me in Spanish. She called me Pamplemousse and it just sorta stuck.” Miranda explained.

“And what does that mean?” Glenn asked.

“Grapefruit!” Both girls said at the same time.

“What kinda nickname is grapefruit? It almost sounds like a name for a dog, or somethin’. Like ‘c’mere, Grapefruit.’ Weird.” Daryl said and rolled his eyes.

Miranda smiled and wrinkled her nose asking, “Who would name their dog Grapefruit?”

“I don’t know. Who names their sister Grapefruit?” Glenn asked back.

“Point taken,” Miranda nodded.

“What about a Grapefruit?” Carl asked, coming up to them.

“Nothin’. Whataya need kid?” Daryl asked.

“Dad want’s some help gathering wood for the fire tonight,” Carl replied. Then he made a face and said, “And I’m not a kid anymore.”

“Sure you ain’t,” Daryl replied with an eye roll. The small group followed Daryl to where Rick and the others were gathering wood. Everyone pitched in to help, and they eventually made a large enough pile to keep a good sized fire going.

“Can I light it?” Brooke asked eagerly.

“Uh, sure,” Rick said, handing the girl a lighter and some starter fluid.

“Just the pile of wood, Brooke, not the whole farm,” Miranda teasingly reminded her sister.

“That’s enough outta you.” Brooke said and stuck her tongue out at her sister. Miranda giggled and stuck out her tongue in return.

Carl turned to Daryl and said, “And you called me ‘kid’.”

“Just ‘cause I named one doesn’t mean that there ain’t any more,” Daryl smirked.

“Brooke started it,” Miranda pretended to pout.

“Did not!” Brooke declared.

“How old are you two again?” Glen chuckled.

“I’m 19 and Brooke is 21,” Miranda replied.

“Really?” Maggie asked in shock.

“Yup!” the girls replied in unison.

“So girls, tell us a little about yourselves?” Hershel asked from where he sat between Beth and Maggie.

“Well, Brooke and I were with our Mom and Dad on vacation when it happened. When we realized what was happening, we just went back to camping in the woods. For a while, that was alright, but then there was a huge herd of walkers,” Miranda shuddered. “There were just so many! Like nothing I’d ever seen! Brooke and I made it out, but mom and dad...” She trailed off uncomfortably, but everyone understood.

After a long pause, Brooke suddenly clapped her hands. “Alright! Enough with the sad bullshit. Time for a happy story!”

Miranda slapped Brooke on the arm playfully. “Watch your damn language!”

Lori let out a small gasp and covered Carl’s ears. “Mom!” He whined in protest.

“It’s not like he’s never heard it before,” Rick sighed, looking over at Daryl.

“I’m just kidding!” Lori insisted, taking her hands away and ruffling the boy’s hair. He quickly ran his hands over it, trying to smooth it down while casting a nervous glance at Beth.

Brooke saw Carl glance at Beth and quickly put two and two together. “Awww! Does someone have a wittle crush, Carl?” Both he and Beth got red in the face. Lori looked over at her son, noticing this for the first time.

“Brooke! Don’t embarrass them!” Miranda scolded.

Brooke just let out a cackle and stood up. “Where ya going?” Rick asked.

“Just grabbing something. Be right back.” Brooke said and walked to where their bag was kept. She pulled out a bottle of whiskey and made her way back to the group.

She sat back down next to Miranda and took a long sip from the bottle. She offered it to Miranda who shook her head.

“I’ll have some of that.” Daryl said from his spot just outside the circle. He grabbed the bottle and took a long sip before handing it back to Brooke.

“I’d prefer if you didn’t have that out around the others, if you don’t mind.” Hershel said.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend or upset anyone.” Brooke replied.

“It’s fine,” Hershel told her as she slipped it back into her bag.

Brooke looked up at Daryl. “You and I can share it some other time.”
“I’ll try not to drink it all,” he promised with a grin.

“Go ahead,” Miranda spoke up, “That stuff is ishy and makes Brooke act funny.”

“Does it?” Daryl asked, arching an eyebrow at Brooke.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” Brooke replied with a smirk on her face.

“Or you could just leave,” Shane said from a distance away. He leaned against a tree, the firelight flickering dangerously in his cold glare. “I don’t care what you call me, I still don’t trust you.”

“Trust is a two way street,” Miranda reminded him. “How can you expect us to trust you when all you do is shove us away and insult us?”

“Somebody needs to,” Shane grumbled. “Frankly, I don’t like you. I think you’re a danger to the rest of us. The others might be too blind to see it, but I’m not so easily fooled. And when you and your sister get us into trouble, it’ll be me having to get us all out.”

Brooke looked over to Carl. “Cover your ears for a moment, hun.”

Then she turned to glare at Shane. “Go fuck yourself,” she snarled.

And with that Brooke got up and went to her and Miranda’s tent for the night.

“I should probably go after her,” Miranda mumbled, standing up. She brushed some dirt off her pants before turning to Shane. “There were a lot of ‘I’s and ‘me’s in that sentence. You might have your own opinion, but in the end, it’s the group that should decide.” She walked over to the tent, looked back at the others and called, “Goodnight!” before jumping into the tent and zipping the door closed.