AN: This is in a series of "shorts" that I'm doing for entertainment value as I rewatch some episodes. Some of them are interpretations/rewrites of scenes that are in each episode. Some are scenes that never happened but could have in "imagination land". They aren't meant to be taken seriously and they aren't meant to be mind-blowing fic. They're just for entertainment value and allowing me to stretch my proverbial writing muscles. If you find any enjoyment in them at all, then I'm glad. If you don't, I apologize for wasting your time. They're "shorts" or "drabbles" or whatever you want to call them so I'm not worrying with how long they are. Some will be shorter, some will be longer.

This one is partially from the show and partially of my own creation/embellishment.

I own nothing from the Walking Dead.

I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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"I'm the one who loses here," Shane said.

He and Lori were fighting again. That seemed to be all they did these days. Every chance they got, they snuck off somewhere together—away from the rest of the group. The sneaking off really wasn't much of a novelty. They'd been doing that for as long as Andrea had known them. The difference was that, before, everyone knew that they were sneaking off to have sex somewhere where they thought no one would become aware of what they were up to. They had changed, though, since Rick had joined the group. Now they just fought.

Andrea wouldn't have purposefully listened to their conversation, but she had been out there first, sitting beside the church, and she couldn't help but overhear. She wasn't going to judge them, one way or another. Whatever they had going on had nothing to do with her. The world, as far as Andrea could tell, had pretty much ended. The affairs of those around her wouldn't have really interested her before, but she found them even less interesting now.

The only reason the conversation got her attention at all was because, in lamenting all that he'd lost with Rick's arrival to the group, Shane said that he was leaving. He was moving on, alone and in secret, to go on with whatever life he could find somewhere else, and that was exactly what Andrea wanted. She wanted to go with him. She wanted the new start that he was advertising.

It was no secret. Andrea didn't fit into this group. She didn't have a place. She didn't even really feel like too many people would miss her when she was gone. Most of them wouldn't have cared in the least if she'd stayed behind at the CDC. They might not even notice her absence. Except, maybe, Dale.

Dale's attachment to Andrea was one that was starting to wear on her. She appreciated it, especially in the beginning, but now it was starting to feel controlling and, maybe, even a little manipulative. It was starting to feel like he was trying to undo all the years of growing up that she'd done in her life and return her to an almost child-like state. He could pretend that she needed him but, more than that, Andrea was beginning to suspect that it was really Dale who needed her.

She'd felt like Amy had needed her too. She felt like Amy relied on her and she'd let her down in the all the worst ways possible. Andrea wasn't interested in having someone that needed her too much. Not right now. Maybe not ever. Not in this world. She couldn't forgive herself such failure again.

Shane didn't need Andrea. She didn't suspect that he really needed anyone. That's why he was so confident that he could go off alone now that whatever he'd had with Lori had run its course.

Lori had Rick and Carl. She had attached herself completely to Carol as, at least as Andrea saw it, the fellow mother that could care for Carl when Lori had other things to do. Rick was taking on Carol, too, as the person that Lori seemed to like to have around. Daryl, for his part, seemed content to simply hang where he was in the group—never fully in and never fully out. He stayed with them because he didn't want to be alone, not because he couldn't be alone. Glenn, T-Dog, and Dale all formed an odd sort of trio, all of them bouncing off each other whenever they seemed to need to do so. All three of them were important to the group—and at this point that meant to Rick—because they had something to offer. They had tangible skills, of one sort or another, that Rick seemed to deem valuable. Rick didn't seem to find much value in Andrea.

And without Lori? Shane seemed to have lost his niche. Rick had taken over leadership of the group and had, practically, pushed Shane out of it. Without Amy? Andrea felt like she'd lost her niche, if she ever had one to begin with. Though she may have a great number of skills, nobody was interested in them. Nobody cared to know what she might be capable of or what she might want to become capable of. She just didn't fit. She wasn't important. She didn't matter.

There was no reason for her to stay here, just as there was no reason for Shane to stay. So, it stood to reason, that there was no reason that the two of them shouldn't leave and move on together.

Andrea kept her distance and watched as the conflict between Lori and Shane played out. Drawn away, Lori finally left the man alone and Andrea approached him.

"You're leaving?" She asked.

"I don't know what you heard," Shane said, dismissing her with the words.

"Look," Andrea said, realizing as his eyes trailed in the direction that Lori went that he might feel she was about to judge him for whatever it was that had happened between them, "I don't care about you and Lori. I don't care about whatever—it was. All I care about is getting out of here. As far away as I can, like you."

He laughed to himself and shook his head at her.

"Forget it," he said. "I'm leaving, but it isn't with you. I'm going alone."

He started to walk off, dismissing Andrea and ending the conversation in the process, but Andrea followed after him. She reached and caught his arm to keep him from leaving her standing there. He turned back and laughed to himself.

"You and I?" Andrea said. "We don't fit here, Shane. Neither one of us. I look around and I see—everyone else has their place. Everyone else fits in this group. But you? Me? We're the odd men out. Together? We make a hell of a third wheel."

He shook his head at her.

"What do you want?" He asked. "What do you think's gonna happen? We're gonna sail off into the sunset together? Hold hands?"

He was being, unnecessarily, an asshole about it. Andrea wasn't proposing marriage to him. She wasn't even proposing a romantic relationship. She'd be perfectly happy with nothing more than a business relationship between the two of them—or something dreadfully close.

"I'm not asking you to go steady, Shane. I'm asking for a ride. A chance to start over. Somewhere else," Shane said.

"I'm not looking to babysit," Shane said, shaking his head. "I'm not looking to have someone out there that I've gotta—gotta be watching your back the whole damn time. I don't want to be out there taking care of you."

"Then don't," Andrea said. "I'm not asking you to take care of me. I'm talking about being partners. You watch my back, sure. But I'll do the same for you. You put a gun in my hand? Give me a chance? I'll have your back too. You want to get out of here. So do I. All I'm asking for is a ride."

Shane smirked at her and Andrea ignored it. At the moment, she wasn't going to bust his balls for anything. She wanted him on her side. She wanted him to want her to come along. If he needed to be taken down a notch? She knew she could do it—but now wasn't the time. First she had to sell him on the idea. Then, once he saw that she had more to offer than what he was probably thinking about right now? She could set some more stringent ground rules if they were needed.

He sucked his teeth and looked away from her for a moment. He was clearly thinking about it, though. Andrea had, at least, planted enough of a seed there that he wasn't turning her down straight out.

"What do you say?" Andrea asked. "I could be ready to leave when you are."

Shane looked back at her. He didn't get to answer her, though, because before they could continue the conversation they were interrupted by Rick as he came walking toward Shane—the others not far behind him—to discuss what they were going to do with the rest of the day that they were meant to spend looking for Sophia. The sun would go down before long. They didn't want to be caught out and about when it got dark.

Andrea didn't press Shane, thanks to their new company, but she watched him once she was sorted into the group that would go with Daryl to continue looking for the little girl and head in the direction of the highway. She noticed, too, that Shane was watching her.

Even though it might not be quite the way that Shane described it—or even the way he imagined it now that it was clear he was letting his imagination at least toy with the idea—Andrea thought that they might still pull their own version of riding off into the sunset together.

And she wasn't entirely against holding hands—if that's what Shane really wanted to do.