Chapter 2

Virginia was gently shaken awake that next morning. Slowly, she opened her tired eyes and yawned as Eric's handsome face came into view. He chuckled before leaning down and placing a kiss on her forehead.

"I'm leaving the tent." He stated, "Didn't want you to panic when you woke up."

She nodded her head, "Thank you. Are you going on watch?"

He nodded, "Just popping down to the creek first…do you want to come?"

She grinned and sat up, "Do you want me to?"

He chuckled, before meeting her hazel eyes with his ocean blue and smirking, "Hurry, before anyone catches us down there."

It was childish - she knew - as they ran down there hand in hand, but they didn't get very far. The Dixon brothers appeared in front of them, and the two of them slowed to a walk. "Everything alright?" Eric asked as nonchalantly as he could manage.

Merle grinned, "As good as it's going to get. Couple of walkers spotted and taken out not too far away from the creek," He looked Virginia up and down, "Didn't think you'd want to be caught unaware when you're busy."

"Merle…" Daryl rolled his eyes.

The older Dixon chuckled, "Knuckle-head decided on anymore damn laws?"

The reference the Dixon used in regards to Shane unfazed Eric, and the Marine replied without blinking an eyelid. "Not that I know of, he said we needed to do a big supply run at some point. But it's not been decided as to when. We shall need volunteers; I know that sounds a lot easier said than done."

"People need to be told to get off their arses." Merle scoffed, "That's the only way it's going to be done."

Virginia shifted a little uncomfortably, resulting in Merle's attention being dragged back towards her, "Keeping you, are we?" He grinned, "The girl has needs, Marine."

As the Dixon brothers passed them swinging squirrels over their shoulders, Virginia blushed before taking her hand out of Eric's. "Sorry," She began. "Kind of lost the mood a little now."

He chuckled, "He's not that bad, Gin. A little leery but-"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, sticking her hands on her hips indignantly. "Have I not told you what he says when you're not around?"

Eric sighed before taking a step closer towards her, placing his hands gently on her upper arms and kissing her forehead softly. "I'll be up in a bit, can you let Dale know I won't be long?"

She nodded and smiled, standing on her tiptoes so that she could place a quick, soft kiss upon his lips. "Don't be too long."

He chuckled before sliding his hands down to her waist and then letting her go, "I'll be back to protect you, don't worry."

Virginia quickly made her way back up the hill, joining Lori beside the campfire as the older woman pulled on a cardigan and turned away from the leering eyes of Merle Dixon. "Good morning." The blonde greeted cheerfully as she took a seat beside the brunette.

"Morning, Ginny." Lori replied, yawning as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Late night?" The blonde asked, smiling slightly as the brunette shook the sleep away.

Lori looked a little flustered, "What makes you ask that?"

Ginny shrugged, "Just asking; you yawned."

Lori smiled softly and nodded, "Didn't get much sleep last night. I was worrying about the food supply we have. Shane thinks people will need to go on a run by tomorrow, we only have enough food for three days, unless we cut everyone's rations down by half; then we could last another week at the most."

Virginia grimaced and looked around the camp, "There's too many mouths to feed. I don't think cutting back is an option really, I know the kids aren't satisfied as it is. I gave some of my last few cereal bars out yesterday, did Sophia give Carl half of hers?"

Lori nodded, "Yes, thank you." She replied. "I know it's not fair on the kids, I've been giving Carl a little more than I give myself – he's a growing boy after all. And Morales and his wife share their own portions with their children too…Ed isn't as selfless as Carol when it comes to Sophia."

Virginia nodded, "Give some of my portion to her tonight. She looks like she's lost a lot of weight in the past few days, I know she was skinny as it was anyways but…" She trailed off and sighed.

Lori nodded, "I'm sure Carol would appreciate it, that's very kind of you."

"No problem." Virginia smiled and ran a hand through her hair, "Now moving onto more important matters…" She began with a light-hearted tone. "I could really do with some conditioner."

The older woman chuckled lightly, "I couldn't agree with you more. I haven't felt so disgusting since childbirth."

"Perhaps we could…" she shrugged, "Ask them if they could look for some, seeing as we're being all domestic around here, why not be domestic goddesses with luscious locks envious to other survivors?"

Lori smiled again, "Everyone would come flocking to our group looking for the closest thing to spa treatment."

The two women laughed together for a moment, before settling into a companionable silence. "It's quite nice out here, you know." Lori began. "I feel like we're just camping. How, maybe, in a couple of days we'll all go home to our families. My husband would have loved it out here," She looked over her shoulder towards her son's tent. "He'd be waking Carl up right now, I'd imagine."

Virginia noticed the tense in which the older woman had used in reference to her husband and her voice quietened a little for privacy, "Was it Geeks?" She asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Lori shook her head, "It wasn't the Geeks, no." She cleared her throat, "He was a cop. Shane's partner, in fact. He was shot about a month ago whilst on duty, fell into a coma. He just…didn't wake up."

Virginia's heart clenched for the brunette, "I'm really sorry." She said softly, "It's nice that Shane's there for you and Carl, I'm sure your husband would really appreciate what he's doing for you both."

Lori smiled sadly, "Thank you."

"You're back earlier than expected, blondie." Merle's voice broke through the silence surrounding the two women, and they both looked up warily. "Could your Marine not get it up? If that's the case sweetcheeks, I'm always ready for a morning quickie. But my brother here, for him, morning wood ain't no problem-"

"-Shut up, Merle!" Daryl snapped, gruesomely ripping off the skin from a dead squirrel. "Getting tired of your damn perversion. Just skin the fucking squirrels!"

"Well, Darylena, ain't someone woke up on the wrong fucking side of the damn bed!" Merle teased, "Look's like you need a decent bird to lay, I'm sure Vir-gin-gin here will be happy to lend you a hand…or her mouth-"

"-Jesus, Merle!" Daryl threw a squirrel in his brothers direction, only for the older Dixon to catch it by it's tail and chuckle tauntingly.

"Didn't you know hairdresser give the best blow jobs?" Merle tutted, shaking his head. "What about the twiggy brunette instead?"

"Back off Dixon!" Shane hollered, coming over to stand in front of the two girls. "Ain't nobody want to hear you first thing in the morning."

"Well, if it ain't Officer Nutjob, come to-"

"-That's enough!" Eric stepped in between the two males. "Let's not do this now, alright? Shane, can you cover me at the RV for a sec? Merle, I need you to walk the perimeter with me."

Virginia was so turned on at that moment. Her Marine always swooped in before things got heated between the two men, and she was so thankful that he had done so before anything had physically happened and before the children were there to witness the battle of testosterone.

Lori sighed in relief once Shane climbed onto the top of the RV, and Merle headed into the woods with the Marine, "At least someone knows how to keep the peace." She stated, "That's a good man you've got there, Ginny. How long have you two been together?"

"Not long really." Ginny smiled softly, watching Eric's form until he disappeared into the trees with the redneck, slightly worried for his safety even though she knew he would come back to her in one piece. "We met through his sister, she would always come in to the salon to have her hair done. We became good friends, went out a few times and she introduced us. We hit it off pretty much right away, got engaged after seven months too. We spent another month together before he was deployed for six…he got back three weeks before the world pretty much ended. In fact, we'd just moved in together and were getting our first weeks' worth of groceries when we met everyone on the highway."

"You seem like you've known each other a lot longer that you say."

"Well, technically we've known each other for just over a year, but only seen each other for half because of his deployment."

"You've only been engaged for a month?"

Ginny nodded, "It was really sweet, he took my grandfather out for dinner and asked him if he could marry me." She smiled fondly to herself.

"I remember Rick asking my father," Lori began. "He said 'no', but Rick was a very persuasive man, and my mother loved him herself! Mum told dad to change his mind…that woman was as stubborn as a mule."

Ginny smiled at the woman's story, "It appears as though your mother and my grandfather would have gotten along really well."

Lori smiled and nodded, "Of course, Eric would have gotten along with Rick too."

"I'm sure they would have done."

"Good morning." Both women looked up at the sound of Carol's voice, and prepared a big warm smile for the woman, but both gasped at the sight before them. Carol's eye had swollen, and was almost black and blue!

"Oh my God!" Virginia exclaimed as Lori rushed to their feet.

"Carol, what happened?" The brunette demanded.

The short haired woman waved a hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it." She reassured them, "I tripped over one of Ed's shoes, he insists on leaving them right by the entrance to our tent in case he needs to get up in the night."

Virginia rolled her eyes, "If that had been Eric, I would have grabbed that shoe and thrown it at him."

"Carl's done it plenty of times." Lori stated, her eyes not leaving Carol's bruising. "Just be careful next time, alright?"

Carol nodded, "Any idea on what we're cooking for breakfast?"

Virginia pointed her thumb over her shoulder, "There are a couple of squirrels that the…Dixon's have skinned." She replied, "And I think there's a can of baked beans left. I think the canned sweetcorn and tinned mushrooms can be saved for dinner."

The women nodded in agreement, and Virginia made her way towards the RV to go and collect the tins for the two women.

She gently knocked on the door to the RV. Andrea, she knew would be awake, but Amy would probably still be asleep. It was very kind of Dale to let the sisters take refuge in his vehicle, the blondes had told her that the old man had saved them from a couple of Geeks and offered them a ride into Atlanta, before they knew the city had been bombed.

"Just collecting the baked beans." She smiled at the older blonde once the door had been opened.

"Someone's chirpy." Andrea commented with a smile, grabbing the can from the shelf and climbing out of the RV. "Amy and I were thinking if you would, perhaps, trim our hair today?"

Virginia gasped, "I was supposed to do Carl's yesterday!" She replied, "I will once I've done his, and Amy asked me to French plait hers the other day as well, but I didn't get round to it."

Andrea nodded, "She understood…you had a different priority on your mind…and a fine priority it was down at the Creek swimming!"

Virginia blushed, and gently elbowed the older blonde as they stepped over the logs beside the fire, handing over the can of beans to Carol and Lori. "Whenever Carl's ready," Virginia stated, causing his mother to look up in question. "I'll cut his hair today."

The brunette smiled, "Thank you, I forgot I'd asked!"

"So did I." Virginia admitted shyly, looking up once Eric and Merle appeared from the edge of the woods.

She breathed a sigh of relief, and made her way towards Eric. "Are you hurt?"

"That's nice, sweetcheeks." Merle commented, sticking his hand on his hips and shooting her a wink. "Were ya worried for me?"

She ignored him, and slipped her hand into Eric's, "Is everything ok?"

"We didn't see any Geeks." He replied, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'll take you down to the creek after dinner and we'll-"

"-Keep me in on the details!" Merle interrupted, thumping the Marine on his back before making his way towards his brother.

Eric rolled his eyes, but smirked in amusement, "And I'll teach you how to defend yourself."

Virginia winced, "I'm kind of hairdressing this afternoon." She replied, but a mischievous glint crossed her face, and she placed a finger on his chest and trailed it in a seductive circle as she looked up at him through her long eyelashes, "But maybe," She sighed dramatically and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I'll be stressed after doing Amy's hair that I'll need to unwind after dinner with a big strong man."

"I'm sure that big strong man would love to help you out with that." Eric whispered back, "But perhaps that big strong man would like to pick up from this morning, right now?"

"I'm not stressed yet." She kissed his cheek, "But later," She promised him. "Later I will need to unwind, and I'm sure that big strong man will want to as well after sitting on that RV in that scorching hot sun."

"I'm sure he will." Eric grinned, stopping her finger from trailing across his chest anymore and pulling it up to his mouth to kiss it softly. "But tomorrow, I'm teaching you some self-defence."

She nodded, and mocked a salute, "Yes, sir!"

A/N: Sorry that I hadn't updated for a long time. My cat got hit by a car and my horses aren't very well :( One has mud fever, one has laminitis and a popped melanoma, one lost a shoe so can't ride until it's been fixed, another is stable bound for a few weeks :( It's so very sad at the moment. So very, very sad. So all my time is spent up at the field tending and feeding (or exercising some of the overweight horses, who - because they are ex-racehorses - get really excited when they're tacked up for a run. God, it's terrifying sometimes.)

Anyways, please let me know what you think of the chapter, the next one I hope will be up by next week - depending on the animals. xx