Tomorrow’s promise
Paring: Shane Walsh x reader, Rick Grimes x sister reader
Warnings: Swearing, mentions of blood
Chapter: 2.01
You watch as Shane inspects a gun that belongs to Andrea, occasionally looking away from it to glance at Jace, who is secured to his chest. The thought of Jace so close to a weapon should make you unnerved, but because Shane was on the other end, it didn’t. It helped you sleep at night knowing your son had a dad and an uncle who’d do anything for him.
You bit your bottom lip so you wouldn’t wince when you shifted your leg, which was still painful from cutting it. You were sitting on a chair with your leg resting up on another, and despite your best efforts to hide the pain you were feeling, it hadn’t gone unnoticed. Daryl had given you a few painkillers from his brother's stash.
“Looks complicated,” Andrea says, watching him take the gun apart.
The interest in Shane’s eyes was obvious. “The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way. I could clean yours, show you how. Oh yeah. It's a sweet piece.”
The blonde smiled. “It was a gift from my father. He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves.”
“Your father is a wise man. Soon as Jacey here is old enough, I’m going to teach him how to defend himself, just like I taught his mama,” he says before gently kissing the top of your baby's head.
Andrea looks back at you, just as your eyes roll at the memory. “He taught you to defend yourself, that’s sweet.”
“It was our second date,” you laugh.
She looks back at Shane, who’s trying not to smirk. “You took someone you were trying to impress to a shooting range?”
“Yeah.”
She looks back at you. “I thought you would have known how anyway, since your brother was a sheriff.”
Shane ignores her and continues to talk about the gun. “Look, it's a limited capacity. See? only holds seven rounds.”
Suddenly, the RV comes to a halt. Both Dale and Glenn get out and take a look at the front of the vehicle. You get out of the RV last, and the moment you do, Carl runs to you with a cheeky smile on his face. He leans against you as you playfully ruffle his hair while looking around. The RV had broken down in what looked like a graveyard of abandoned vehicles.
“What’s going on?” You ask as Glenn and Dale look under the popped hood.
“Oh, just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no hope of—” Dale says sarcastically before cutting himself off. “Okay, that was dumb.”
Shane takes a look and says, “I can’t find a radiator hose here.”
Daryl scoffs, “There’s a whole bunch of stuff we can’t find.”
It's been decided that your group will split up to look for supplies in the abandoned cars.
“Come on, y’all. Look around; gather what you can.” Shane says addressing everyone.
“Jace?”
“I’ve got him,” he says softly. He senses your hesitation and sighs, taking your hand in his. “He’s fine, I promise I won’t let anything happen to him. You just concentrate on not catching your limbs on anything sharp. Be safe, baby, and watch out for walkers.”
—
Searching abandoned cars and vans should have been easy, but of course, the process doesn't go as smoothly as you'd all hoped. As T-Dog places his hand on your back, quietly ushering you along as walkers slowly walk in your direction. Your stomach drops, forming a heavy pit as you think of Jace.
“Ahh shit,” he hissed.
You turn to see him slicing his arm on a broken window and bleeding profusely. You rip the bottom of your shirt and wrap it around his arm.
Delirious from the sight of his blood loss, you struggled to hold T-dog upright, but luckily, Daryl appeared beside you. “Quick, get under the car.”
You drop to the ground and roll under a car while Daryl places a dead body on top of T-Dog, then does the same to himself just in time as the dead walk by. You clamp your hand over your mouth to keep yourself quiet. Your body shook with fear as you thought about your son. You internally prayed to God or whoever would listen that he was safe.
—
When the horde has passed, you get up and assist T-Dog to his feet. You put his good arm over your shoulder and said, “Let’s get you back to the others.”
You walked mainly in silence, watching Daryl curiously. His sleek movements while looking for danger made it seem like he’d been living in an apocalypse all his life.
“How does hiding under dead bodies keep walkers from noticing you?” You ask, distracting yourself from the fear of what you might find in a few moments time.
He looks over his shoulder at you, and he almost seems amused by your question. “The rotten bodies hide your scent.”
When you reach the RV, Andrea and Dale rush over to help T-Dog, who’s in bad shape, while Shane rushes to your side. You're relieved to see that he and Jace are both fine. His eyes widen with worry as they trace over you, soaking up the blood. “Y/n,” he says in a low voice. “Are you hurt?”
“No, it's T-Dogs blood,” you say as you look around and notice your brother isn't there. “Where’s Rick?”
Shane clenches his jaw and says, “You should change your shirt.”
—
The last few hours had been tense as you waited for news on Sophia. Carol's daughter had gotten scared by the walker horde; your brother went after her but lost her while luring two walkers away. He came back to get help, and Shane, Glenn, and Daryl left to help him search for her. The only positive was that you managed to clean and cover up T-doggy cuts the best you could with what little medical supplies you had.
“He doesn’t cry much.”
You turn to see Dale standing behind you as you lay Jace down on some blankets inside the RV. “Oh, he does. Jace just likes to pick his moments.”
Dale nods his head, giving you a forced smile. “I know, I’ve heard him cry when he’s hungry, tierd or needing changed.”
“But?” You know by the look on his face that he’s holding back.
“I’ve noticed he doesn’t react much to loud noises.”
You frown and ask, “What are you getting at?”
Dale goes to answer you but closes his mouth again when he sees Glenn and Shane return through the small window. He leaves the vehicle just as Jace wakes up fussing, the noise he makes indicating he is hungry.
Dale doesn’t know what he's talking about.
—
You step out of the RV mid-conversation.
“It can't be soon enough for me,” Andrea says. “I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it.”
Glenn nods in agreement and says, “Yeah, what was that? All of them are just marching along like that.”
Shane steps closer to you and places his hand on your back before addressing the rest of the group. “A herd. That sounds about right. We've seen it. It's like the night camp got attacked. There are a few wandering packs. Okay. Come on, people. We still have a lot of work to do. Let's stay on it. Let's go, come on.”
Once everyone else had walked away, you turned to Shane and whispered. “What’s really going on?”
“You've got to keep them busy and focused on a task. Dale fixes the RV, we start moving these cars and clear a path.”
“You don't think we will find Sophia, do you?”
He shakes his head.
—
“Hey, I know what will make you feel better.”
Your brother sighs while rubbing at his forehead, “Yeah?”
You stretch out your arms, signaling for him to take the baby in your arms. Which he does happily, talking to him in a baby voice. “I remember when Carl was this size. He grew up so fast.”
Rick looked defeated when he returned without Sophia. He’d even cut open a walker to check its insides to see if it had eaten her; he blamed himself for what happened. You look in the opposite direction to see Lori trying to comfort Carl. Poor kid. He looked terrified. It was going to be a long night waiting till morning to resume searching for the young girl.
“I don’t know what’s going on between you and Lori, but I imagine things are going to get worse before they get better, and we are going to need each other.”
Again, you felt your heart harden with rage towards Shane and Lori, because you knew if your brother ever found out, it would tear him apart. With his free hand, Rick pulls a gun from his holster and hands it out to you. “This stays between us. I want to know you're safe at all times.”
You take it from him, nodding in thanks, knowing that if the others saw it, they wouldn’t be happy since Dale was keeping a hold of the guns. “Thank you,” you say as you double-check the safety before slipping it between your waistband and belt and hiding it beneath your long shirt. “Here’s hoping I never need to use it.”
—
You roll your eyes as Andrea argues with Dale about her not having a weapon. Personally, you thought she was far too emotional to handle it, but you remained silent, knowing that all the arguing was wasting time.
“Aunt y/n,” Carl gets your attention as you cross the barrier that heads toward the woods Sophia had run into.
“Yeah?”
“My dad says I can come too, so I need to stay close.”
“Well, I feel much better now that you're beside me, munchkin,” you say as you wrap your arm around his shoulder. “But you gotta stay beside your mom and dad so they don’t panic, okay?”
“I will,” he says, nodding. “Why isn’t Jace staying with T-Dog and Dale?”
“Because he’s safest with me, now let’s go. We don’t want to get left behind.”
Out of the corner of your eye, you notice Daryl staring in your direction, but when you look at him, he quickly marches on ahead.
—
The group walks in single file through the woods, everyone keeping an eye out for any sign of the young girl. You notice Carl walking by you to talk to Shane, who was at the end of the line. “Look, Shane,” Carl says, holding up a pocket knife. “Dad said I could carry it, and mom said as long as I was—”
“Keep it down. We're looking for Sophia. You need to focus on the task,” he snaps, making the young boys' faces fall.
“Carl, go keep up with your mom,” you say as you place a hand on Shane's chest to block his path. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you today, but cut it out. He's just a kid.”
He shakes his head and says, “That kid? He needs to toughen up. I love him like our own, but it’s the truth.”
You shake your head, not wanting to hear whatever he is about to say. You continue to walk in silence until Rick signals to stop when he reaches a tent.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t inside. It was just the remains of a man who killed himself.
You try to comfort Carol as best you can; you've only been a mom for a short time, but you can’t imagine anything worse than losing your kid. “Did you hear that?”
“No, wha-” Glenn shakes his head.
“Shh,” you cut him off. “There it is again. It sounds like bells.”
“It’s church bells,” Andrea says, in agreement “It could be Sophia or someone who’s found her.”
—
Shane shakes his head as you walk out of the church. “I'm telling you, it's the wrong church. It's got no steeple, Rick. There's no steeple.”
There was no sign of Sophia inside the church, which only had walkers inside. Feeling the heat, you walk around to the other side of the church to stand in the shade. You stand observing your surroundings for a few moments before unintentionally listening in on a conversation. You slowly look around the edge of the church to see Lori following Shane.
“Are you really leaving?” she asks.
“Don't you think it's best for all of us?”
“I think it is. What made you decide?”
You blink a few times to make sure you aren’t hallucinating the sight in front of you. But it’s real, and you feel sick watching your fiancé talk to a woman who now makes your skin crawl.
“I'm just trying to be the good guy here, Lori, and I just want to do what’s best for my family. What happened between us was a mistake and never should have happened.”
She walks towards him, pointing her arm in the direction of the church. “You're just gonna disappear? You're not even gonna tell Rick?”
“He'd only try to stop me. No, that's on you. You tell him what you want. Or tell him nothing at all. You're his wife.”
“And y/n? She’s happy to go along with this idea.”
He rubs his chin and says, “She doesn’t know we’re leaving yet.”
“Are you insane?” She hisses. “You really think she’ll just take the baby and go with you? And what about Carl?”
“Don’t, I love Carl. I'm trying to put this behind me. I'm attempting to make our lives easier. This ain't easy on any of us, least of all me. I'm the one who loses his family when Rick finds out.”
“This isn’t just about you. Rick would-”
“Rick would forgive you!” He yells. Fortunately for him, no one else was outside to hear him. “Rick would forgive you, he’d do anything to keep you, Carl, and him together. But y/n? If Rick found out what we did, he wouldn’t be able to be around me, so she’d need to choose. And I doubt she'd choose me... which is why we need to leave before things get out of hand.”
Not wanting to hear anymore, you storm forward and grab Shane by the wrist, pulling him behind you and away from Lori. “Let me make one thing clear,we’re not leaving. I am not leaving my brother or nephew, and you are not leaving either.”
“Wait just a minute—”
“One of the reasons I fell in love with you is because of how protective you are, so I know you think you're doing what’s right.” You cup his face in your hands, “but you're wrong. I'm not leaving them, so if you really want to go, then it’s going to be on your own.”
He looks hurt by your words. “I’d never leave without you and Jace.”
Your conversation is cut short when the others join you. You watch nervously as Rick and Shane walk off to have a conversation in private. You assumed they would be talking about Sophia where her mom couldn’t hear.
—
Reluctantly, the group split into two. Shane and Rick kept searching for Sophia, and Carl went with them while the rest of you headed back to the RV.
The walk back was filled with uncomfortable sighs and glances, mainly from Andrea, who was walking ahead but kept glaring back at you and Lori. Finally you have enough and snap, “Whatever you want to say, just say it.”
Her response is immediate. “I think it’s bullshit that we can’t defend ourselves properly, especially since we’ve now got a ticking time bomb with us.”
You follow her line of sight to the baby strapped to your chest, and anger boils inside you. “Excuse me?”
“Keeping the kid with you is selfish. You should have left-”
“Knock it off!” Daryl barks at her. “Unlike you, the kid causes no problems and makes a helluva lot less noise. So I suggest you shut the hell up and keep walking.”
Andrea scoffs and walks on ahead. You supposed you could chalk all the dirty looks and comments down to the blonde having a genuine fear that a crying baby could possibly bring a horde, but you had a feeling there was more to her sudden issue with you.
“So this is it?" This is the whole plan?” Carol asks, sitting down on a fallen tree.
Daryl shrugs. “I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups.”
Andrea directs her gaze at Lori, “carrying knives and pointy sticks. I see you have a gun.”
“Why, you want it? Here, take it. I'm sick of the looks you're giving me.” She hands Andrea the gun before facing Carol. “Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through. and I would do anything to stop it. But you have got to stop blaming Rick. It is in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran, he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way he did or made the hard decisions that he had to make, or that anybody could have done it any differently.” She takes a sip of her water before looking at the rest of the small group. “Anybody? Y'all look to him, and then you blame him when he's not perfect. If you think you can do this without him, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you.”
Andrea hands the gun back to Lori and says, “We should keep moving.”
You walk at the back of the group alone until Daryl slows his pace and walks beside you, talking low enough that only you can hear him. “It’s probably best if you keep the fact that you have a gun to yourself.”
You look down to see your gun is still hidden by your clothing. “How did you know I have one?”
Daryl raises his brows and chews on what looks like a bug, then walks ahead without saying a word.
