** This story is a companion piece to my TWD/Znation crossover story, The Lady Claimers. It takes place before that story begins. Some of the characters also appear in my story Claiming Woodbury. As always read, enjoy and review. **
Katie had her jacket on and her rifle slung across her back. She was standing in the living room, feeding her small son one more time before they left. Six weeks was how long it had been since the televisions stopped broadcasting. The people who ran the stations had finally either run for it or been killed.
Shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other, Katie's husband watched her feeding their son. He felt for the weapons he was carrying. Weapons he really had no idea how to use. Maybe he wouldn't have to use them. Or that's what he kept telling himself at least. He looked at his wife, how her short blonde hair fell forward, blocking one of her blue eyes from his view. In her arms she held their miracle baby. The one that doctor after doctor told her she would never be able to have.
There had to be balance in the world. Or that is what Davis believed. God had given them their baby. But then the end of the world had come and replaced Davis's happiness with fear. In his darker moments, Davis felt like he was paying for all the years of happiness he had with Katie that he had done nothing to deserve. Shaking those thoughts away, he crossed the small space between himself and the two people he loved most in this world.
"Are you sure both of us should go," Davis asked his wife, stroking the fine blonde hairs on his son's head as he watched Katie feed the boy from her breast. "I could stay with him." Katie heard her uncle snort. She flicked her eyes up, giving the big red haired man a look that told him he better mind his own fucking business and stay out of her marriage. Katie had married her husband because he was the most kind and gentle man she had ever known. He was not a fighter. And that had never seemed important to her. Until now.
"We need you with us," Katie reminded him. "Gran can watch over him until we get back." If anyone ought to be staying here with her son, it ought to be her. But she was one of the only people in the group that was halfway decent with a gun. So she was going. Katie had given her husband a quick lesson, but they couldn't spare what little ammo they had on shooting practice.
Her son had finally drifted off to sleep in her arms. So Katie handed him off to her grandmother and adjusted her shirt. The woman said nothing to her. But she touched her reassuringly on the arm and looked into her eyes. Holding her glance for a moment, Katie could feel all the things that passed unsaid between them. Be careful. I will. If anything happens... I will take care of him like he was my own. I love you. I love you too.
"Ready to go?," Katie's sister asked her. Katie leaned down, giving her son one more soft kiss before she forced herself to turn away from him and head for the door. She had never been away from her baby before, and she tried to hold back the hot tears that she felt welling up inside her. Without a word, her sister grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a rough embrace.
"You will be back before he even wakes up," Mandy told her. Katie nodded. She didn't want to think about the alternative. That she might die out there and never see her son again was too horrible an idea to even entertain. Katie swallowed back the lump in her throat. She made herself think about all the people here that were counting on her. People that needed the food and medicine that she was risking her life to go out and get. She hugged her sister back, and then pushed away. Mandy smiled when she saw the determined look on Katie's face.
"Let's get this over with," Katie said, adjusting the large knife on her belt. The two women followed their Uncle outside with Davis trailing reluctantly behind them. Katie could almost smell the fear coming off the man. She was starting to have regrets about bringing him along already. But they needed him. He was the one that knew the names of all the medications that they needed and the alternate types of things that could replace those if they had been cleaned out. No one wanted to waste time reading some garbage they couldn't understand off a list in the middle of the zombie apocolypse.
When she saw her cousin pouting by the truck, Katie smiled. Unlike her husband, the boy was deperate to get out and see some action. They had breifly entertained the idea of bringing him along, but 12 was just to young to be considered for such a dangerous job, even if he was the size of a grown man. Katie's uncle Tom stopped near the truck and pulled his son in for a hug, though lately the boy had been acting like he was far too old for such affections.
"You're not going," Tom told the boy again before he could even start up again with his relentless begging.
"We need you and the twins here in case something goes wrong," Katie reminded him. "We should be back in a few hours. But if we are not back by tomorrow, you, Greg and Gannon need to come looking for us on the place we showed you on the map." The boy nodded, the idea of being given an important task lessening the hurt of being left home while his dad and cousins went out on what he considered to be a big adventure.
Katie tiptoed up to hug the boy and then let go so her sister could do the same. At the rate he was going, he was going to be bigger than even his father, who was the largest man Katie had ever seen. Davis stepped in and gave the boy a pat on the back, wishing he could trade places with him and stay home. They were not even in the truck yet and he could feel the panic rising up inside him. Going out in public had never really been his thing, even before the world was filled with dead cannibals. He had always been more than happy to stay here at the ranch and let Katie go out with her sister. But now he didn't have a choice. As scared as he was, if he let Katie go out there alone and something happened to her, he would never forgive himself.
Before he could lose his nerve, Davis yanked the door to the truck open and jumped inside. Tom gave another snort. When he passed by Katie on his way over to the drivers seat, he leaned close to her.
"If he chickens out and does something stupid out there," he warned Katie, "I am kicking his fucking ass when we get back." Katie rolled her eyes at him and got into the truck, making Davis slide over to sit behind the drivers seat. She reached over to take her husband's hand in hers. The fear was radiating out of him in waves and she could tell he was on the verge of a panic attack.
"I love you," she told him, "You are braver than you know. You can do this, I know you can." She said the words she knew he needed to hear, but even Katie wasn't sure if she believed them.