AN: Hi y'all and welcome to the sequel of "All Things Must Come to an End". I decided to make it two stories and if I follow it all the way through season four then that'll be the end of this story. I'll do every two seasons so that the stories aren't too long. Please enjoy!
"I think I picked out a name for the baby," Grace informed her mother as they were sitting in the back seat of the large vehicle. Carl, Aidan, and Suri were sitting in front of them, Nora and Shane were in the front seat, and Joey was sitting on Nora's lap as they searched for their safe haven.
"Oh yeah?" Charlotte asked. She decided to ride in the SUV because riding on the bike with Daryl for long times hurt her butt and her back. She loved being able to be so close to him and she liked keeping him company, but he even told her to just ride with Grace and everyone else. She hadn't gotten to spend much time with her daughter anyway.
"Yeah, I was thinking Annissa for a girl and Liam for a boy..."
"Annissa?" Charlotte asked.
"Yeah, I think it sounds unique and I could call her Annie for short."
"I think those are great names," she replied. Lori's baby was set to come any day and it wouldn't be much longer for Grace's. "What about middle names."
"Annissa Charlotte or Liam Shane."
"You would name your baby after me or your dad?" Charlotte asked.
"Yeah, of course I would...You guys were right about everything...and I know that you and dad sacrificed a lot when you got pregnant with me...Dad could've had a baseball career and you could've-"
"Grace, I wouldn't change having you when I did for anything and I know your dad wouldn't either."
"I know..." Grace had leaned to appreciate the whole situation with her mother and father. And, even when the two got divorced, they stayed close and made sure that she and Aidan turned out to be good.
"Hey Shane, when are we stopping?" Charlotte called to the front of the vehicle.
"I don' know," Shane replied. "Soon, I think."
"Okay," Charlotte said.
They drove for another hour before Rick, who was driving the car in front of them, pulled over. Everybody piled out of the vehicles. Charlotte was just happy to stretch her legs. They had been driving for nearly four hours and she didn't like sitting still to begin with. She walked over and stood next to Daryl, bumping his arm with his shoulder. She smiled at him as he nudged her back playfully.
"Wanna go with me to hunt 'round a bit?" Daryl asked her. She nodded. "We'll be back," he told Rick and Shane, who were standing there too. The two men nodded and went back to talking about whatever.
"So are we actually gonna hunt or...?"
"We're gonna hunt," he replied. He wouldn't do what she was suggesting out in the middle of the woods. It was just stupid and it would get them both killed.
"Did Rick tell you anything, as far as where we're supposed to be headed?"
"Jus' headin' west 'til we find a place."
"Lori and Grace aren't going to last too much longer...Lori especially."
"I kno'."
They walked into the woods and Charlotte knew to stay quiet as he looked for tracks. She figured that he just wanted the company. As Daryl was studying the ground, Charlotte looked around them, trying to see something. Up ahead, there was an opening through the trees and she could see some sort of tower...
"Daryl," she whispered. He looked up at her and she began walking towards where she saw the stone tower. She paid attention to their surroundings. They all knew that a walker coud come out of nowhere at any moment. Dale had experienced that about a week ago...It was rough on the group to lose a person after going so long without losing anybody.
"'S a prison," Daryl said, when they got to the point where they could actually see it.
"Wouldn't that be pretty safe?" Charlotte asked.
"Hell yeah. High fences, thick walls, and plenty of places to keep watch..."
"Come on! Let's go tell the others!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him back out of the woods.
"Hey mom, what's up?" Grace asked, seeing her mother run out of the woods. She was standing with Patrick and Beth against a car.
"I think I found an awesome place!" Charlotte hurried over to Rick and Shane were. They hadn't moved since before she and Daryl had gone into the woods. "Hey, what about a prison?"
"What about it?" Rick asked.
"We found a prison out there...Can't we stay there? It will be safe."
"If we clean it out. An' how many able bodies we really got for that?" Shane asked. "We coul' be bittin' off more than we can chew an' we're low on ammo."
"So we do it with knives. Daryl and Aidan have bows," Charlotte said.
"Why don't we drive up the road a ways an' you show it to me, we can check it out an' decide if we can do it," Rick suggested.
"Okay," Charlotte agreed. "Just me?"
"Yeah, we need somebody to watch over the place. The others are still down at the creek. We can be back before they are."
"Alright," she gave Daryl a quick kiss and followed Rick to the green car. They drove down the road in the direction that she had seen the prison.
Upon seeing the prison, Rick decided that it would be easy enough to clean out. They would take care of the yard today, and wait until tomorrow to do the inside. So, they went back and gathered the other members of the group and drove to the prison. Everyone exited their vehicles and Rick gathered them in a group to hand out jobs.
"Carl, Hershel, I want you two up in that tower; Carol, Aidan-" he looked over to Shane and Charlotte to make sure that they were okay with him sending their son up into the tower, they just nodded. "Lori, Grace, Nora, Patircik, and Beth, I want y'all to make as much noise as you can and draw the walkers to the fence to kill them that way. Maggie, Glenn, Shane, Charlotte, and Daryl, go up and draw the walkers away from the fence over there. Kill as man of them as you can. Nobody shoot until my signal. There's a lot of walkers that we need to get rid of...and I'll run for the gate so that no more can get though."
Having their jobs, everybody went to do them. It was kind of obvious why each person had which job. Being at the fence closer to the cars wasn't as dangerous as being at the other fence, plus, they were going inside part of it where there were already walkers. It wasn't going to be easy, but they would get it done.
"Pay attention, y'all. I don' wanna loose nobody today," Shane warned as they made their way up there. Charlotte took out her knife and was ready.
"If you see any walkers getting too close to Rick, shoot them," Carol instructed Aidan as they stood in the guard tower. He was glad to be up there instead of on the ground. He was a lot better with a gun than he was a knife. He was too short to reach most of the walkers with his knife so the gun-or his crossbow-was essential to keeping him safe.
"Got it," he replied, holding the rifle up. He scanned the area for Rick and quickly found him, preparing himself to run for the other gate.
When Rick bagan running, Carol and Aidan began shooting. They covered him all the way to the gate as he closed it. After that, the four people in the tower shot the rest of the walkers around them. They all worried about the short supply of ammo and what that would mean for when they actually got inside of the prison. What if they were just wasting their time out here and couldn't do anything inside?
That evening, there was a small campfire outside of the prison that mostly everyone was sitting around. Charlotte was sitting next to Grace as they talked a little bit about the baby and whatnot. Grace told her father about the names that she picked out for the baby.
"Ya don' have to name it after me," Shane said, reminding Grace a lot of her mother.
"I know, but I want to...You and mom are great..." Charlotte patted her daughter's shoulder, telling her that she was going to leave the two alone in her own way.
Charlotte walked over to the bus where Daryl was standing keeping guard. She started climbed up to stand beside him. "What do you think?"
"'Bout what?"
"This? All of it...The prison..."
"I think it'll great. Safe too."
"I don't know how I feel about sleeping in a prison cell though..." she added.
"I ain't sleepin' in one," Daryl replied. "We'll find some place else..."
It was the little things that made Charlotte love him, she didn't know why, but that one statement brought a smile to her face taht she couldn't shake.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing...it's just...Do you really think that you can deal with me that much?"
"We've slept in the same bed 'fore," he shrugged.
"That's not what I mean," she replied. He did understand what she was saying, he just wasn't sure what to say to it. He knew that this was a whole different story than the farm. This wasn't the few days at the hotel, it was something more perminent-they hoped anyway. He wouldn't just be sharing a bed with her, he would be sharing living space.
"'M sure we'll manage," he said.
"Mm...I hope that this is what we've been looking for..."
"Ya've said that 'bout everywhere else too," he pointed out.
"Yeah, and I've meant it, just like I do now. But maybe we can catch a break for once."
AN: I need to go back and watch season three. I apologize for the skipping around of this chapter it's nearly midnight on thursday as I'm writing this and I have school in the morning, but I know that I won't update this weekend if I don't do it tomorrow (friday) so I was just trying to hurry a bit. Please review.