Lila rode on the back of Daryl's bike for what seemed like a long time, they continued down the highway until the traffic got too thick. There were cars littered everywhere, making it impassable for all of them except Daryl. He brought the bike to a halt and let the others catch up. The RV stopped right behind him and all of a sudden smoke started coming out from under the hood. "Dammit," Dale cursed from inside. Daryl shut off the bike, kicked down the kick stand and let Lila stand first before he did. They both started towards the RV, where everyone else gravitated. Shane stepped out after Dale and then came Andrea and Glenn as well.
"What's your diagnosis?" Lila questioned once he popped the hood and started looking under it. Shane stood beside her, hands on his hips, seeming to be thinking.
"It's that damn radiator hose."
"There's gotta be somethin' 'round here we could use," Shane pointed out.
"There's a lot of somethings we could use in all this shit. More fuel...clothes...anything," Lila said.
"We can't do that," Lori said.
"And why not?" Shane rose an eyebrow. He didn't really want to talk to the brunette, but there was no sense in her protesting.
"This is a graveyard," she said.
"Well, the way I see it, life if for the living and if we don't take it, somebody else will. Might as well make use of what we have," she walked off to the other side of the highway―alone―and started searching there. Shane was hot on her heels, not wanting her to have nobody to watch her back. She saw him as soon as she stopped―she had figured he would follow anyway. She gave him a small smirk. "I'm willing to guess you don't usually go for girls like me," she gave him a knowing smile.
"I'd say you'd win that bet," he said walking around a large truck that would conceal the two pretty well.
"And what do you think of your change here?" she asked, her arms coming to rest on his shoulders and link around his neck. His own arms wrapped around her waist and kissed her cheeks first.
"I think it's working out pretty well. I don' feel like I'm on babysittin' duty," he kissed the corners of her mouth before finally her lips. "I feel like ya could have my back if I needed it."
"Certainly," she said. "We should get back to scavenging," she bit her lip and he smiled, before nodding. But he didn't release his arms just yet.
"So how long we gotta be secretive."
"We're just being respectful," she stated. "I don't want to flaunt the kissing and stuff in front of the group."
"So if I wanna just kiss ya, I can?"
"I'm not going to stop you. I'd say it's safe to say that three people know."
"Three? Daryl and your brother. Who's the third?"
"Dean. Sam probably does to."
"Why do they know?"
"Why do you care? I figured you would want this public, since you're the one who wanted to be more than just FWBs anyway. You can tell Lori, make her hate me more."
"She doesn't hate you."
"She will. She's a southern housewife. I'm a mouthy hunter from the back woods of BFE, we're not meant to be friends." He just laughed and gave her a kiss once more before they got to looking for stuff.
Ryan watched his sister from the other side of the highway, taking glances to find that she was simply looking through stuff. After not looking up for a few moments, he heard a sound from that side, a loud yell and turned to see Shane, covered in water, hugging her.
"You ass," she told him, pushing him back.
"C'mon Darlin', you like when I make you wet," he whispered and she groaned in annoyance.
"Shane, I'm going to kick your ass," she tried not to grin. He was cute when he was trying to be dirty.
The two of them looked up to see Ryan walking over, looking annoyed. "You're going to draw walkers. If you want to sound like teenagers, be my guest, but if we get attacked, it's on your heads," Ryan stated blatantly.
"Sorry," Lila said.
"It's my fault," Shane didn't like the disappointed look she had on her face. He wanted to take the heat from her.
"Don't do it again," he said, walking away.
"Are you afraid to disappoint your brother?" Shane asked. She nodded slowly.
"Yeah, he's always been there for me, and honestly, without my brother, I'd be lost. He's always protected me, even if I thought it was annoying at the time. You would think after almost ten years of being a legal adult, I'd feel like one."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-seven. How about you?"
"Makin' me feel old! Thirty-four."
"That's not that bad. What? Seven years?"
"How old did you think I was?"
"Guess I hadn't thought of it," he said with a shrug. She gave him a suspicious look before going though some more of the clothes. All of a sudden, she felt an arm from behind her and a hand over her mouth.
She heard a single word into her ear, "Walkers." At that, she willingly went with whoever had her and they slid under a car.
She rolled over to face her saviour and found Shane's brown eyes. She mouthed a thank you and he just nodded, his arms tightening around her. They watched at feet passed them and when they were all gone, she started to move, but he held her to him for a moment longer before letting her go. This was to insure that there weren't any more left straying behind. The two looked to the other side when they heard Sophie yell. Rick took off behind her and the rest of the group stood with baited breaths while Shane and Lila made their way over to the group. "What happened?" she asked Dean.
"Stray walkers went after her...Rick followed, said he could take care of it," the elder Winchester explained.
Lila wasn't sure what to do. Nobody else was doing anything. They were all just standing there. And just because Lila had never wanted kids or even really liked them much didn't mean she didn't feel bad for Sophie or Carol, she just didn't understand it so much. "A'right, y'all. Why don't we start moving some of these cars. Rick will be back with her soon and we need to get ready t'go 'fore 'fore another herd rolls through. Dale, get on fixing that hose. We need to be ready to move."
"We won't be here any longer than we have to," Dale promised. And everyone―except Carol, Lila, and Sam moved.
"He'll bring your little girl back," Sam said to the older woman. Lila could see the compassion and genuine care for the her wellbeing in his eyes.
"I sure hope, she's all I have," Carol hugged Sam and he hugged her back.
Lila moved to help Dean with his task and she looked up at him, smiling a little. "Your brother's very sweet," she stated.
"Sammy's always been the sweet one," he said. "All feelings and cuddles with that one, sweetheart," he winked. She just rolled her eyes.
"You can just tell that he cares about what happens to the kid, you can't fake that."
"Nope. Right Sammy?" Dean said when his brother walked over.
"That sounds like a fat twelve year old," he said with a sigh.
"What, Sammy?" Lila asked.
"Yeah, it's annoying," Sam had dealt with it for so long, but it just always went on.
"I think it's adorable," she reached up and pinched his cheek. "Too bad you don't have an embarrassing nickname," she looked at Dean. "Could call you Deanie."
"Deanie? No," Dean stated.
"Deanie Weenie," she laughed.
"Go away now," he said with a glare. She laughed but still complied, not before telling 'Deanie Weenie' goodbye first, leaving Sam with a good laugh.
XxX
Rick didn't come back with Sophia and they looked for tracks, but couldn't find her. They decided to spend the night on the highway. Shane slyly took Lila's hand and pulled her towards a minivan he had found. It had a couple of blankets in it and he had set up some extra clothes as pillows. "When did you do this?" she asked, crawling in.
"Earlier," he shrugged, kissing her a little. He climbed in too and pulled the hatch closed.
"I've never done it in a minivan," she giggled.
Glenn sat on watch with Andrea and the looked around at the empty of highway and a minivan caught Glenn's eye. He saw the vehicle slightly rocking and tapped Andrea's arm. She looked over and knitted her eyebrows.
"Who's in here?" she asked.
"No idea," he replied.
"It's not Rick and Lori, they're in the RV," she ruled out. Now she was intrigued, mostly because there was nothing else interesting going on.
"Why don't we take bets on who it is," Glenn said.
"Well it has to be Lila and somebody because I'm here, it's not Carol, and Lori is in the RV."
"Okay," he agreed. "She could be with..." he trailed off, thinking. "Shane, maybe?"
"I don't know...she's close with Daryl and was close with Merle...One of the Winchesters?"
"I think it's Shane," Glenn stated.
"I think it's Dean," she offered. She still wasn't a very happy camper, but it was something to do.
"We'll find out in the morning."
Lila lay in the minivan, catching her breath when Shane kissed the top of her head. She reached over and grabbed her clothes, putting it back on.
"Don't tell me you're plainin' on leaving," he said. She looked over her shoulder at him, her dark hair was messy. "I'll feel like a cheap whore if ya do it to me again."
"Aw, does someone want to cuddle?" she asked, grinning a little.
"Actually I do. If not, I'll think you're just usin' me for my body," he smirked.
"Let me get dressed," she grinned. "That way I'm ready to go if we need to," she said.
"I'll do that same, I suppose," he said, realising it was a good idea.
"Leave the shirt off?" she asked with a pout. He grinned and jus nodded.
XxX
The next morning, Glenn watched the minivan and saw Lila climb out first. After her came the dark haired man and he tapped Andrea's arm and pointed.
"Dammit," she said. After that, the group, other than Dale and T-Dog, started out to search for Sophia. Lila lagged behind instead of walking with Rick, Shane, and Daryl. She along with the Winchesters ended up at the back of the group.
"So I take it the sex was better when you weren't both drunk?" Dean smirked at her. She looked at him and grinned a little. "Unless you've got more of a stash than I thought you did."
"Actually, I have quite the little stash, Mr. Dean 'Winchester'," stated. "Look what I found at the CDC," she held up a graphic novel called Supernatural.
"Why the hell was that there?" he questioned.
"How should I know? I've got it now though. Up until the point where you get dragged to hell by the hellhound."
"You've read them all?"
"Yeah, I read pretty quick," she said. "So now I have a question for you."
"What?"
"Did you just make everything up because of this book?"
"No, Lila. That book is written by an angel profit named Chuck," Dean explained.
"What's your real name? I mean I get why you chose Winchester as the last name, the rifle and everything, y'know, since the book didn't give you one. You lied to me."
"No I did not," he stated.
"Okay, maybe you need to be checked into a psych ward because you believe in it or whatever, but look, you need some help," she moved to the front of the group. She felt so stupid for believing his whack job story. Maybe she had just wanted answers for the death of her parents, but some crazy guy just made up whatever he learned from these books. Lila walked along beside Glenn and paid very poor attention to what was going on around her. She just followed the group's lead.
There was a small camp site that ended up being a bust first and then there were church bells. Everyone took off running through the woods―not the brightest idea―but they ended up at a white church. "It ain't the right one. Ain't got a steeple," Shane stated. No sooner than the words had left his mouth did the bells go off again and surly enough, it was from that church. They killed off the walkers inside and turned off the automatic bell. Lila stayed with her arms crossed by the headstones, she felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped.
"Hey, ya a'right?" Shane asked gently.
"Yeah, sorry, just distracted."
"Ya need to stay alert. Don't want nothing happening to ya."
"I know. Sorry..."
"Rick and I are going to look of Sophia a bit more, head out that way before coming back to camp. See if she heard the church bells or something. Everybody else is headed back to the highway," he wrapped an arm around her. "I want ya to be careful, stay focused," he pulled her in for a kiss and when they pulled back, she looked at him carefully.
"Can I come with you guys? I can track, I'll be helpful..." her dark blue eyes looked at his dark brown ones imploringly.
"Sure thing, Darlin," he kissed her once more and his arm stayed around her as they walked over to the rest of the group.
"Lila," Ryan said, walking over to his sister and Shane. He glanced at their entwined fingers before meeting his sister's blue eyes, which matched his own. "You're going with them?" he gave Shane a look.
"Yeah, I am. And Shane and I aren't just friends, if you haven't guessed," she added, daring him to say something rude.
"Good for you," he held his hand out to Shane, who shook it kind of nervously. "Take care of her, otherwise you'll regret being born," he stated before walking away.
"He's intimidating," Shane murmured. "I take it your boyfriends don't last long with him around?"
"Who said you're my boyfriend now?" Lila asked, straight faced. Shane had an 'oh shit' look his his face and she cracked a smile. "I'm just fucking with you," she laughed.
"That was not funny," he laughed nervously.
"It kind of way. But are you planning on running?"
"Where would I run to?" he asked.
"We ready over here?" Rick asked.
"Dad's letting me come too," Carl said excitedly.
"Just be careful, kiddo," Lila ruffled his hair, still not sure how to act around kids.
They walked for a while, Shane stayed at Lila's side, but they didn't touch, mostly because it was distracting. "Carl," Rick said softly as he pointed across the clearing.
"It's so pretty," the little boy said, seeing a deer. Slowly he started walking closer to the deer and the three adults stood watching. Carl held his hand up to pet the deer as he inched nearer to it.
Bang!
AN: I would love some reviews to start off my sequel! Thanks!