Crossfire

Red.

Red and hot.

Red hot.

No one ever knew who shot the bullet. In the confusion, everything was too distorted to ever know. No one really wanted to know. At the same time, not knowing, constantly wondering, was almost worse.

Andrea fell backwards, her hand reaching out to grasp something to hold her upright, finding no purchase. Her back hit the floor, sending shooting pains through her body which added to the pain from the bullet wound in her chest.

I was just trying to help...

It was ironic, really. In the midst of the Zombie Apocalypse, if someone had told Andrea that she would die by recieving a bullett to the chest, she'd have been pretty surprised and probably a little relieved. Now, as she lay bleeding to death on the battlefield, surrounded by the people of Woodbury and the people she had called friends and family, her heart raced, her palms were sweating and tears began to seep from her eyes.

Does no one notice?

She put a hand to her chest, to her wound and, as she expected, it came away red with blood. Sticky and hot. Yet, at the same time, she was turning incredibly cold. Her fingers and toes had started to numb and her nose was tingling. Everything suddenly seemed in better focus, as if she could see and hear it all better now. The grass beneath her felt silky and soft, caressing her skin, a smooth cloud beneath her form.

"Oh, my god!"

Suddenly, someone was crouching at her side, clutching her hand and telling her too, 'hold on, Andrea, please!'

Maggie.

"Maggie?" She questioned, confused. "But-but you hate me?"

"Hate you? God, Andrea, you can be a little over-bearing but hate you?" Maggie said, a false laugh, which felt so wrong to Maggie, in light of the situation, at the end of her statement.

Maggie clutched one of Andreas hands with both of hers, as if to do so was too hold onto her soul, to keep her from escaping the confines of skin and bone and floating off into nothingness. It sounded so good to Andrea right now. The pain in her chest had faded to a dull aching and the tingling had spread from her nose right across her cheeks and into her ears. She shivvered involuntarily.

"RICK! DARYL!" Maggie called out for them and, with great effort, Andrea turned her head in the direction she had shouted. It looked to Andrea as if it had happened in slow motion. They both turned to look and both shock and pain registered on their faces. As one, they began racing towards them, shoving people out of their way in their attempt to get to their friend. Behind them, Andrea saw Philip turn and look. His jaw slackened, his one good eye widened and, for a moment, Andrea thought she saw a flicker of something.

Then Rick and Daryl were kneeling down beside her and Carol was kneeling behind her, pulling Andreas head up to rest on her knees. It was hardly comfortable but Andrea didn't have either the heart nor the energy to tell Carol this.

"Andrea, stay with us, OK?" Rick said, taking the hand Maggie had held and kissing her fingers. Daryl had stripped his shirt and pressed it to her wound, trying, too late, to staunch the flow of her blood. His hands and shirt were soon covered in her blood and she watched as he painted his face with it, wiping, impatiently and almost angrily, at his eyes.

"Hershel!" Rick yelled and the man limped over to them. "Hershel, do something, please!"

"Rick, I'm a vet, not a doctor!"

"Daddy, you saved Carl!" Beth said, in a sad, weak voice.

"With medical equipment, clean sheets. Andrea," He looked at her with deep regret, "Andrea, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, Hersel. Don't be!" She nodded in understanding and acceptance.

She tried to smile at Rick, who was looking down at her with desperation written on his face, but she knew that it came off as pained and weak.

"I'm sorry, Rick." She said, her voice coming out in almost a whisper.

"What? No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry we didn't wait for you. I'm sorry I didn't stop the car and wait! Dammit I should have come looking for you, then none of this would be happening! Andrea, I'm sorry."

She shook her head, weakly, placing her finger to his lips to shut him up and giving him a smile. "Don't. Please, don't."

"Daryl-"

"Don't start with me, Blondie." He said, refusing to look at her. Andrea used all of her energy to raise her arm, grip his chin and turn his face towards her.

"Daryl. Look after everyone, yeah? Especially that Little Ass-kicker. She's a special little kid." She looked at Rick again. "She has your eyes."

Rick smiled at her, knowing what she as trying to do, and she smiled, weakly, back at him.

"And as for Carl-"

"What about me?" He said, from behind his father. Rick moved and Carl dropped to his knees beside her. His eyes began watering and she smiled.

"You're gonna be a brilliant leader one day, little man." Andrea smiled and he smiled back at her.

"And Beth," She adressed the girl, who was standing near her elder sister, "You keep him," She glanced at Carl, "out of trouble, OK?"

"Andrea..." Glenns choked voice came from the side and Andrea realized that no one was shooting anymore. Everyone was looking at her. The governor was leaning by a tree and Andrea asked Maggie to help her up. The girl pulled her arm around her shoulder and practically dragged Andrea to her feet. Daryl threw down his shirt and gently put one arm under her neck and the other under her legs, carrying her to the Governor and setting on her feet in front of him. She fell into him, immediately and his arms wrapped around her.

"Philip..."

"Don't." He pushed a strand of hair off her forehead and kissed it.

"I understand, Philip. I understand you, I understand loss. But I love these people. If you have any feelings for me-"

"Stop." He said, not looking at her but looking towards the sky. She continued.

"You'll live in harmony. Together. You hear me, Merle?" She addressed the man, who stood behind the Governor. He nodded, sharply. "Good." She smiled.

Philip turned his face to hers, capturing her lips in his and kissed her. She kissed him back, breathlssly, with all of the energy she could muster. When she broke away, she was smiling and with that, her head fell back, the final breath left her body and she went limp in his arms.

Maggie let out a sob and turned to bury her face in Glenns shoulder. Carl hid his face in his fathers shirt and Daryl wiped a bloody, dirty hand over his face, tear tracks streaming through the dirt.

Andrea watched as they mourned her body, as Maggie, Carol and Carl cried and the Governor kissed her hair, lifting her into his arms and carrying her through the crowd and placing her body on the floor between himself and Rick. She knew there was an unspoken debate going on between them and wished that the bullet which had killed her had pierced her brain, not her heart. They both reached for their guns at the same time, paused and looked at eachother, then at her body, then at the floor. Rick looked around at the group and shook his head, walking back a few paces and the Governor crouched down at her side, hands covering his face.

A gunshot sounded.

Everyone turned to see Carol holding the gun, tear-tracks down her face, her hand shaking.

Andrea wanted to comfort her friend but there was no way. She reached out a hand to place it on her shoulder but her hand moved through her friend as if she were the hologram when Andrea knew she was the one without a body, not Carol.

There was a tangible silence, a moment of tension during which Andrea could tell neither party quite knew what to do. She felt as if they were going to once again pull their guns on eachother but both Rick and the Governor looked down at her body, a pillar of loss that they could share. A common denominator which would affect them both from this moment forth. A force which had brought them together.

Suddenly, Andrea wasn't sorry that Rick had left her. She was grateful because when Daryl picked up her body and carried her over to the gravesight, the Governor and the people of Woodbury followed those from the prison and Andrea could see that her death had been a good thing after all. It had brought two bands of people together and made an even stronger force.

"C'mon, Andrea. We ain't gonna wait all day." A familiar voice said and Andrea turned to see Shane, Lori, T-dog, Dale, Jacqui, Sophia and Shawn waiting for her. Sophia walked over nad took Andreas hand in her own, smiling at her.

"We've been waiting."

Andrea looked up and her heart broke when she saw the one person she'd been dying to see again. The one person she would happily die for.

"Amy.

There are quite a few Ships in this one, huh?I'm not usually an Andrea/Governor shipper, but they called out to me in this One-shot and I don't usually write one-shots either so I guess its a day for lots of new things!

Anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, please drop me a review!

Thanks!