The Daily Bleeds

1 - Don't Say I'm Dyin'

Summary: Michonne thought she would start off on this world alone. Andrea thought she wasn't going to last a day. Amy thought they'd last forever. Dale thought that them going with a stranger was suicide. They were all wrong and now they only have each other to rely on. Andrea/Michonne, Andrea centric. Do I even need to say AU?

Andrea started up the car of her old Chevrolet Malibu SS, revving the engine with a joyous laugh at how it hummed nicely under her feet and how she could feel the sensations travel up from her feet to rest at the bottom of her spine. It was beautiful and all hers for the journey of the road trip around America her and Amy were planning, so what else could make this trip any better right?

She glanced at her watch and at realizing the time she turned in her seat to yell up at the house she was parked a few feet from, the smile on her face erasing most of the impatience in her voice. "Amy! Hurry up! At this rate we won't make it to Atlanta before the nights out!"

"Maybe if you got off your ass and helped me with my luggage we wouldn't be falling behind schedule!" A rattled cry came from the house and with a laugh Andrea opened the door of her car to rush on ahead up the pathway to see what the damn hold up was this time.

It was as Amy had said, she had been struggling with her luggage and now her face was all sweaty and red as though she resembled a tomato; it was almost cute to look at if Andrea didn't feel like laughing so much at the pout that had come across her sister's face.

"You look like you need a hand," Andrea teased with her arms crossed against her chest, laughing again when Amy flipped the finger at her without knowing both their parents were behind the girl and giving their youngest daughter two very amused looks behind her back. "It'd be a shame if something happened to your back, carrying all that heavy luggage."

Amy growled at her with a shake of her head, "I think you need to go fuc- hey dad, mom!" Her younger sister cried out in surprised as two pair of hands wrapped around Amy's bag to lift it up from their younger daughter. "I didn't see you there! Hey mom you can put that down honestly, guys its cool, Andrea can carry it."

The lawyer shared a smile with her parents before she turned her back on her family to make her way back down the pathway to her car, hands in her pockets and a sway to her step as she looked back at the people following her. "Can't help I'm afraid," she said with a teasing smile over her shoulder. "My hands are full."

"You're an idiot and nobody likes you," Amy called back to her and Andrea laughed, ignoring the other girl as she got to her car to pull the door open so that she can slip back into her seat with her hands on the wheel, prepped and ready to go.

It took a few more minutes of huffing and muttering until Amy finally joined Andrea in the passenger seat of the car, her blonde mane mussed in tangled knots and her eyes rimmed red due to all the heat. It almost made Andrea feel guilty for not helping but Amy was a big girl; she could certainly look after herself considering the amount of times the younger girl threw that at her whenever Andrea arrived too late for events like family dinners and the like – it was always enough to make the older blonde's mood sour but she had grown used to Amy's anger when it came to everything she had missed out in her younger sister's life by just merely accepting the fact she had more than enough time to make up for it.

Hell, this road trip? This was only the start of twelve year make up of Andrea not being in Amy's life enough that it had caused a wedge between them both, but like she had just said there was time, there would be enough time to resolve it anyway and so Andrea decided not to dwell on it any further as she revved the car's engine again, turning to smile at her smirking sister.

"You ready to start off then?" Andrea asked, looking behind her to see that her father was making her way over to them both, a small, metal suitcase in his hand that Andrea recognized used to be her grandfather's old handgun set that he had promised her when she had been just a little girl and had wanted to grow up like a superhero and not the lawyer she was today.

Her father stopped at her door, the bald spot on his head shining in the sun as he leaned over to settle the case onto his eldest daughter's lap with an unhappy sigh escaping his lips. "I shouldn't have to tell you what this for her girls," their father sighed, his hand coming up to scratch at gristles on his chin. "But this is just in case any trouble happens and you need to use this to get out of it. Can you tell me what's in here?"

Andrea rolled her eyes at her father, "dad I'm 36, I know what a gun…"

"It's a Mark XIX Desert Eagle handgun!" Amy interrupted, looking at her sister smugly before taking it off the other woman's lap to examine it closely with her eyes shining brightly at the sunlight the glinted off the metal case. "Granddad used to say that if I found out the name before he died I could have it, but you know that never happened because someone claimed it for themselves…"

"And it's staying Andrea's too, I trust her with it more than I trust you Amy," her father said with wide eyes, reaching over to grab at the handle of the suitcase to settle it back on the elder blonde's lap. "From previous experience especially; you almost shot Tamsin in the knee just last weekend."

Andrea smirked at the memory, but eventually loosened that smirk when she realized her father was looking at her with those eyes that meant serious business. It was something Andrea knew not to take lightly, no matter the circumstances.

Her father patted her on the arm and gestured towards the gun in her lap, "I'm giving you that because me and your mother want you to be safe so I expect you to be sensible enough not to go flashing that thing around. The trip you're doing? It's long and you're going to meet people who aren't like the people in Florida but…"

"Dad, stop," she interrupted with a fond smile, reaching up to grab the hand that he had placed on her arm to squeeze it comfortingly. "Dad, me and Amy will be fine – you need to stop worrying. I'll make sure to call you each night wherever we stay and send postcards whenever I can, there's not much else I can do to keep away trouble apart from not going."

"And we're definitely not doing that," Amy huffed, still peeved that Andrea had been the one her father had given responsibility to. "C'mon already, we're going to be late in getting to the motel we booked outside of Atlanta."

Andrea hit at her sister in response to her rudeness but her father just smiled and chuckled softly, leaning in to press a kiss to each of their heads before tapping gently at Andrea's car door, his eyes gesturing towards the beaten road of their street that would be their ticket out of Florida and into the rest of the world stretched out before them.

"Guess you better get going before me and your mom try and convince you to stay," he said in that tender voice that he always used when Amy was staying over at the university for long as hell projects or Andrea was leaving the family home to go on business meetings around the world. It's the voice that Andrea loved and loathed because it has two very opposite effects on her and right now she can't think of which one she's feeling.

Andrea reached up to press a kiss to his cheek, mouthed 'I love you both' to her father before revving the engine one last time and setting off with Amy's music already blaring through the busy streets of their hometown.

They were speeding through the highway to head towards the intersection that would lead them to the motel practically right outside of Atlanta when Amy spoke.

"Can't we stop at a firearms shop? Chucks? There's one just near the city and if we…" Amy's words had made Andrea swerve slightly on the road and her head snapped to the side in irritation at the sound of horns coming her way when she finally managed to get back on the right track of the highway.

"Are you crazy? Dad said no to you having a gun and I'm not lying to him just because your finger's getting itchy," Andrea reprimanded her sister with an annoyed hiss escaping her, glancing over to see that her younger sister's fingers were literally twitching over the cuffs of the metal case, "seriously Amy no way are we stopping, it's nearing dark and I'd really love to get some sleep before we head into Atlanta tomorrow."

Amy rolled her eyes and kicked up her feet to rest on the dash, ignoring Andrea's protests by lazily placing her fingers in her ears for the rest of the journey.

Andrea only smirked widely in reply.

They arrived at the Red Roof Inn just outside of the border of Atlanta with just a few more hours of sunlight to spare, their ticket for their parking stuck firmly in the back pocket of Andrea's jeans and their suitcases locked away in the car's trunk as they took only a change of clothes, their toiletries and of course the metal suitcase containing their only source of protection from the inhabitants of Atlanta.

Once they got to their room Amy had already dibbed the shower and was in there before Andrea could even protest that well, hello, she had been one driving for nearly 6 hours and deserved it more, but that was before and when she saw her sister giggle and rush into the other room she found any sort of protest dying on her lips to be replaced with a fond chuckle.

The trip was planned to be around 6 months before both of them had to return to their sunny home in Florida, Amy to carry on her university studies whilst Andrea had to pack up and leave straight away to head to London where she would be attending a business meeting that would last for three weeks. It was a busy life and Andrea wanted to live all the spare time she had to the fullest, hence why she was here in the first place.

She planned to spend the week in Atlanta first, seeing any sights that they had missed before on their other visits (hers more regular than Amy's in particular) with their family before heading back for a brief visit of Macon to see some relatives and then carry on their journey. If Andrea was lucky she'd be able to stop Amy complaining about having a lack of gun by the second day, it would certainly help her with escaping from all the whining and that could be only be a good thing.

"Oh god the shower setting in here is amazing!" Amy called out from the bathroom, startling Andrea from her thoughts as she idly walked to and from each corner of their shared room, her sister's voice enough to make her pause and shake her head with a fond grin. "Yeah let's not go back to Florida, me and you should just travel the world and crash in motels all the time, but only if they have awesome showers, otherwise hell no."

Andrea chuckled and made her way over to the window of their room, "keeping it all in perspective Amy." She cocked her head to the side at the sight of what looked like to be a brawl that was happening outside, two men grabbing at each other with one lunging completely at the other so that they both fell to the ground, limbs thrashing.

The blonde lawyer resisted the urge to open the window and call out to them by remembering that this time was hers and Amy's time together, and if she wanted to even start getting back into Amy's good books then she shouldn't ruin it by allowing her work and what she did there to slip into their road trip. It was difficult to ignore but Andrea cared far more about her relationship with Amy at this moment than two (probably drunk) men fighting outsider her window.

"Yeah well someone has to," Amy's voice filtered into the room, distracting Andrea enough that she glanced back behind her to the source of the noise before she returned in watching the two men brawl. The one that had fallen onto the man was still towering over his companion, his hands looking like they were being brought to his chin as he leant over the still floored man.

Andrea arched a brow at the sight and shook her head with a sigh, moving to close the blinds so she wouldn't feel the need to see anymore of whatever was happening outside and intervene: it was her vacation and thus she could relax, right? Right, of course she could.

She pulled open the suitcase she had laid down on hers and Amy's shared bed, eyes immediately going to the silver holster that had her grandfather's initials carved into them, the small A.H shining dimly in the small, almost faded light which the lamp on the bedside cabinet provided. It was a reminder of simpler times when she had been young and Amy hadn't even been thought of, before a time where Andrea had been far too preoccupied with getting the boy next door to notice her and a time where a scraped knee was the worst thing in the world.

Andrea placed the handgun back in its case before she looked over her shoulder briefly to see to her surprise that Amy had appeared out from her shower with one of the motel's dressing gowns already thrown onto her form, a sight that shouldn't have really surprised her but did so regardless when her sister bounded towards her with an excitement that only barely made her halt next to Andrea's side as she took in the gun laid out on their bed.

"If we got you a sheriff hat and some boots you could totally be a cowboy," Amy murmured with a teasing smirk, bumping her hip into Andrea's and making her sway. "I'm sure you'd lure in some rugged rednecks for us both to have fun with, those assholes dig that sort of crap, right?"

Andrea smiled wryly but the smile didn't reach her eyes as she peered back over her shoulder to watch the window that was now cut off from her by the blinds. She really wished she hadn't seen what she had because now it was getting harder and harder to ignore and it was starting to stress her enough that when she looked back she could see Amy's eyes softening in worry and that hurt more than anything.

Damn it all, it hadn't even been a day and she was already screwing this up for her sister.

She forced a smile on her face, refusing to do anything but smile as she cupped her sister's cheek and patted it gently with eyes roaming towards their door before settling back on her sister's face. "Get dressed," she ordered with her hand opening the suitcase again to place the gun into the back of her jean pockets, pulling her shirt down to cover it up. "We're going out to the bar in the motel and if you want me to lure into some rednecks then you've got to at least look presentable."

Amy looked at her with an almost childlike innocence - something Andrea had missed about the other girl when she had been growing up, her life preoccupied by work, work and more work – before she clapped her hands together in excitement and tugged Andrea into a hug, wet hair pressed against Andrea's face to smother her into silence.

When the girl pulled back Andrea could only give her a small pat on the head before her sister rushed back into the bathroom, already babbling on about how she was going to get 'piss-drunk without having to worry about any creeps groping me' with such joy that Andrea couldn't find it within herself to tell her sister any differently.

She waited for Amy to get dressed for a whole two minutes of distracting herself by counting the swirl patterns on the ceiling before Andrea realized there was no way she was going to be able to keep her mind off what was happening outside if she didn't go look one last time, hence why it took only two long strides and a quick swish of her wrist to pull up the blinds and reveal the darkening parking lot to her eyes once again.

There was nobody there but the small splatters of blood that stained the parking lot floor spoke volumes and with a sigh Andrea turned away, gulping down the sickness she felt at not doing anything to prevent that from happening. It was unfair to blame it all on Amy but when had anything even been fair? She just hoped that whoever got hurt would be on the mend soon and that's all she could hope for really, this was her vacation and she would be damned if she would spend most of it filing a case for someone when she could be having the time of her life with her sister.

"You ready to go Amy?" She called out to the young blonde, hands going to the back of her shirt to make sure the handgun was still there before reaching over to grab her jacket from the hook and pulling it on to help cover the obvious bump.

Her sister rushed out of bathroom with a little jump and a laugh, grabbing Andrea's hand and pulling her out of the door with not much room for protest. It looked like tonight would set the standards for the rest of their vacation and for some reason Andrea couldn't find it within her to mind.

"Well, you look lonely."

Andrea turned to acknowledge the voice next to her, her brow arched in curiosity as she took in the sight of a man in a blue velvet suit too fine to be worn at a shoddy bar like this one and how the man himself seemed to be unable to stop smiling at her no matter the growing disinterest on her face. Perhaps once upon a time she would have taken the chance but she didn't know the guy and she didn't appreciate being told she looked lonely when in truth she was waiting for Amy to return from…wherever she had gone.

She wouldn't normally have minded but damn this was her vacation and if she wanted to sip margaritas by herself then she would, alright? Not that she was alone, but the point still stood! The nerve of some people…

Still she supposed it wouldn't exactly be right to chew the guy out for trying; looks like she'd have to play nice for a while or at least pull his strings a little, she might even get a free drink out of it.

"Bet you say that to every girl you see at a bar by herself," Andrea muttered with a playful roll of her eyes that caused the man to snicker loudly as he sat by her, his hand already up in the air to signal a passing bar staff nearby, "before you slowly charm your way into her head."

The man ordered two shots of vodka for them both before he gestured to way over the other end of the room. "And two for my friend's sister and her little snare for the night."

Andrea froze at that and turned her gaze slightly to see that the man had pointed right at her sister who by the looks of it was conversing with a baby-faced looking boy who couldn't be older than nineteen but had the boldness of a man much older, that was if the sight of his hands going down further and further to Amy's ass wasn't some sort of drunken hallucination anyway.

"Wouldn't worry about it too much," the man next to her said with a brief chuckle, hand coming upwards to cup his cheek as he stared intently at her with an almost boyish glint in his eyes as he took in the roundness of her face and how tight her jaw had clenched at the sight of some guy's paws all over her sister. "Terry's a good boy; he won't do anything that'll make you worry. Besides…If he takes after his dad he'll be a right gentleman."

That didn't reassure the blonde whatsoever but at the same time she inwardly cursed herself for being so uptight over something like this, it wasn't as if Amy hadn't flirted around with guys before so why should she worry anyway? This 'Terry' was just having a little bit of fun, and it wasn't as if Amy would see him ever again.

Well, she hoped not.

"As long as he keeps his hands to himself then I'm fine with it," Andrea muttered towards the man next to her, reaching over his long, dark arms to take the vodka shot that had just appeared in front of him. "My name's Andrea by the way if you were thinking of trying to chat me up."

Again that brought a smile on the man's face. "Can't chat you up I'm afraid no matter how pretty you are, got a girlfriend back home who'd kick my ass if I even tried."

"Oh, well that's good, I'm a hard girl to pin down," Andrea said with a shrug of her shoulders, trying to ignore the disappointment that had managed to creep its way up on her. It wasn't as if she had wanted to sleep with the guy but seeing Amy around this guy's friend and flirting around made it hard to ignore how the last relationship she had been in had happened two years ago with her fiancé running out on her the night before the wedding – the asshole. "I still don't know your name."

God, how desperate did that make her sound? Pretty desperate she guessed.

He stuck out a hand for her to take and shook it profusely when she did, smiling cheerfully at the bewildered look that had come over her face at the power of his shake. "Mike," he told her, his smile wide and contagious that it was a matter of seconds before Andrea found herself smiling back. "Mike Pritchett, my friend over there is Terry Prince. We're just stopping here to book me and my girlfriend a room for a few days to get away from it all back in the city."

And as if she wanted confirmation of that the man dug into his suit pocket for a moment before pulling out a picture to lay out on the bar they both sat at, his fingers turning said picture to reveal a woman with dreads pulled up into a bun that were so thick Andrea found herself feeling somewhat sympathetic. The woman was wearing a casual Falcon's football shirt that nearly went down to her knees and her bare legs were pulled up to rest just below her chin, allowing for the woman to rest it there as she smiled in an almost sulky fashion at whoever was taking the photo.

Andrea said the first thing that came to her mind, not wanting to be impolite. "She's pretty. You always tell strangers your personal life?"

Mike shrugged and Andrea was slightly grateful of the fact he didn't look offended in the least. "I like showing my girlfriend off, like you said, she's damn pretty and I'm proud to say she's mine – besides, didn't want you thinkin' I'm hitting on you."

That made her laugh as she gulped her vodka shot down, shaking her head slightly to try and clear her senses away from everything. Of course a guy wouldn't be hitting on her, it's not like she was pretty or anything, or maybe that was just the drink talking and was making her feel goddamn petty about herself.

Her eyes glanced back over to where her sister and this Terry was still canoodling in a corner, his one hand wrapped around her sister's waist whilst the other stroked her hair lovingly as though she was the most delicate flower he had ever come across; the sight of it made her stomach squirm in discomfort at how it had been so long since anyone had held her like that. She had had flings there and then, but nothing like what she was witnessing right now, just quick fucks and nights where she couldn't remember anything at all apart from how she found it hard to walk later on that day due to the burning of her groin.

She was pleased that this guy had unknowingly kept to his word by not doing anything else Andrea deemed unworthy and she was just about to leave it alone when she noticed something that made her stop and for her heart to jump right in her mouth, horrified, suspicious and curious all at the very same time.

He was wearing a bandage over his left arm, a bandage that looked pretty thick but even so she could still make out the reddening of the blood that was starting to seep through the material; the sight of it was not easy to forget in a hurry and with a gasp Andrea felt the memories of seeing the blood splatters on the parking lot coincide with the scene she was witnessing now.

She got up quickly from her seat, ignoring Mike's expression of surprise and started to make her way over to the pair when Terry seemed to ultimately collapse on her sister, his form weighing Amy down so much that Andrea had to watch as her sister clung onto one of the poles that held the bar up to try and balance them both out.

"Shit! Andrea, help!" Amy called out to her and within seconds Andrea was already there, reaching out to pull the man off her sister and hold him up as best as she could, eyes looking over his face to see if there was anything she could recognize from the man who she had witnessed fighting in the parking lot before.

He was of the same stature as the man who had been taken by surprise by the other guy and his size seemed to fit the picture too, along with the bandage Andrea could be holding up someone who was either a victim or the criminal in the situation.

Those thoughts were wiped from the front of her mind instantly when she felt how hot he had gotten under her touch and how his breath was ragged and wheezy against her cheek as she held him up, using most of her body weight to press him up against the pole in order to wrap one of his arms around her shoulders.

"What the hell happened?" Mike's voice shot through the steady jazz music of the bar, the sound of it making Andrea glare in the man's direction in order to silence him, she was curious to know what had happened too but freaking out on them? Not a good thing to do right now.

Mike freaking out seemed to trigger that in Amy too and Andrea had to watch in horror as her sister's face scrunched up in panic, her body trembling as she shrugged her shoulders at the both of them.

"I don't know!" Amy cried out helplessly, looking at her older sister for some sort of help against this emotional onslaught she was being put under. "We were just talking and he said he was feeling a bit ill so we was just going to sit down and then, and then…Well look at him Andrea! He's in a bad way!"

Andrea glared at the both of them. "Alright, calm down, the both of you," she turned towards the man who had Terry's other arm. "Mike, me and my sister will help you take Terry to a car so you can take him to Atlanta's hospital, it shouldn't be far."

Mike's face became withdrawn and he chewed on his lower lip before answering, eyes drawn to the floor. "Can't do that I'm afraid, me and Terry here got here in a taxi. We ain't got no car to get back to Atlanta."

Andrea resisted the urge to yell at all three of them, she's exhausted from driving for 6 hours and she really didn't want to spend the first night of this vacation in some stupid hospital in Atlanta just because some guy didn't use his brain and think that bringing a car would probably be a more sensible idea than getting a fucking taxi.

"It's okay me and Andrea will give you and Terry a ride," Amy said with a flippant wave of her hand, already moving through the bar to get towards the exit of the inn, practically volunteering her service in a way that made Andrea's jaw clench because god damn it all, can't she get a break around here?

She didn't really get why she was that bothered but these two guys suddenly need helping? It's fishy and she's immediately suspicious.

Still she can't protest even as she lugged the trembling guy forward through the bar, her eyes darting to the side to meet Mike's for a flicker of a second. "You said you were getting away from something that happened in Atlanta? That why you don't have a car?"

Mike in all fairness looked absolutely exhausted at her question and in spite of the suspicion she felt Andrea can actually find herself feeling sorry for him as he staggered slightly towards the exit, his face haggard looking and his steps feeble as though he was trying to get away from something that had given him this haunted look in the first way.

"Some weird shit's happening in Atlanta, told my girl I'd only be up here for a few hours to book us a room," Mike told her, his eyes dropping to the floor to avoid her gaze. "Was true but Terry got distracted and I didn't want to disturb him. Everyone with any sort of illness was being told to go to the hospital and nobody's allowed out after night so I thought maybe if we escaped for a few days until everything went back to normal…"

Andrea can't help but become distracted at that one little titbit of information, she can't help it even though she pretty much knew she should be focusing trying to open the inn's damn door to get to the parking lot but she can't help herself; she needed to know what the hell was going on.

"There's a problem in Atlanta?" She asked before losing her temper and yelling for Amy who's standing by the car not doing much but freaking out which is not helping whatsoever. "Damn it Amy! A little help would be appreciated!"

Her tone is scathing and honestly it made Andrea feel like shit but if this guy expects his friend to be alright then she needed a bit of help, alright? Her anger is understandable, especially with how bone tired she feels.

Why did Amy always have to play the saint and make her look bad anyway? Where the hell was the fairness in that?

"Problem happening in all of the cities," Mike told her just as Amy made her way over to help, gripping at Terry's front in such an awkward fashion that it almost made Andrea snap at how little her sister is actually helping but she can't bring herself to do so even if she really wants to, she had already yelled at her sister enough today. "Only started early this morning in the other cities outside of Atlanta, but with Atlanta? It's been a few days. Nobody's heard anything off anyone in the hospital and the streets are deserted, it's only busy when people are going to work, pretending like nothing's happening."

They manage to make it to the car in a matter of moments after that, all three of them lugging Terry into the back seat with Amy following in straight after, her hand pressed to Terry's forehead to check his temperature. She pulled back almost immediately at the barest of touches. "He's burning up; he said he was feeling ill before but…"

"We need to get him to a hospital," Mike said as he too clambered into the guy, taking the seat next to Andrea with his eyes wide in fear. "I just hope they let us into the city, but they'll have to right? Terry's got a fever; they'll have to let us in."

Andrea could only eye him warily before she started up her car's engine, turning on the radio to calm her nerves as she drove off towards Atlanta.

Good evening America, this is your national radio host Cliff Tyrone and I'm here to announce the following message: stay in your homes, every city is now on lockdown due to an event that is affecting those ill and diseased. We advise those outside of the city to remain out until the situation is under control. Those who attempt to approach the city will be asked to leave immediately. Stay safe and keep out of the cities. I repeat, stay safe and keep out of the cities.

She drove on, eyes attached firmly on the road ahead.