New Meanings to Old Words: Safe

Hello and welcome to chapter 3. If you haven't guessed yet each chapter has its own little soundtrack. I suggest listening to some of the songs if you're interested in that sort of thing. Though not a song-fic, I think in terms of setting the scene, and nothing does that better for me than a well placed song.

Enjoy!

SWW

TwilightEclps: Thanks so much for the review. I agree with you on kicking a little Dixon ass (at least Merle's …)however I'm not so sure on Shane just yet. I'm gonna let Callie decide.

AutumnKrystal: Happy to hear you're liking the story. I hope Callie being as cool as she seems to be in my head.

Chapter 3: Rest My Head Against The Wall

It hadn't taken long to reach Glenn's camp. And after waiting an excruciating two whole minutes watching as Glenn tried his best to explain the two new vehicles Danny had grown a bit restless and exited the Hummer. The eyes of the entire camp had fallen to him as soon as he set foot on their grounds. Callie opened her door standing on the seat to watch as her friend leaned his ass along the Hummer's front bumper smiling at the locals.

They arrived to a crowd of exactly what Glenn had said, twenty-some survivors. Men, women and children of all ages stared at the new comers with that oh-so-familiar mix of anxiety and awe. Callie closed the door and tapped the Hummer twice giving Miles the signal to keep the kids in the car for now. She spotted Dale, Andrea and Amy getting slowly out of the RV and she nodded in the old man's direction. Silently thankful that he kept Jenna waiting inside the RV for the all-clear. It wasn't that she didn't trust Glenn, the guy seemed like the type that didn't even think about a lie as a possible answer to a question. The truth was, as she looked around at all the male faces staring back at them, she was still edgy around men.

One bad experience, and boom…fucked up for life.

"Hey there, officer!" Danny smiled as he grabbed a hold of Callie's arm taking her off guard. Callie smacked at Danny's hand as he passed a now stammering Glenn and walked right up to a dark haired man in his thirties, wearing a ball cap with the word POLICE on it in big bold letters.

"What the fuck?" Callie hissed at her friend, her eyes shifting to the growing crowd as they made their way closer to the man. The guy was built like a fucking brick shit-house, as Callie's Uncle Tug would have said. And still, lanky-ass Danny was waltzing up to the man, whose hand rested idly on a very nice gun, with a smile. A smile that Callie should have known from months of experience meant nothing but trouble.

"Hey there Officer, name's Danny," Danny smiled wider and pulled Callie in front of him moving the sleeves of her shirt up. "You wouldn't happen to have any keys that might get these off would you?"

Callie had never heard such silence in a wooded area before. The phrase 'you could hear a pin drop' didn't even begin to explain it. Callie stared wide-eyed at the officer before her, his brows drawing close as he inspected the silver handcuff halves dangling from her red welted wrists. The silence was broken by a loud whooping laugh that for some reason made Danny's body lax and at ease. The officer's eyes met hers for a brief moment before he bit at the inside of his mouth and turned his attention to Glenn. Poor Glenn looked just about ready to die when the officer crooked a finger at him.

"Glenn, a word." The police officer didn't even wait for Glenn to say anything, merely grabbed him by the collar and dragged him off a little ways.

"Shane, they saved my life." Glenn began as the officer, Shane, settled him close to a Jeep parked a bit off the road. The harsh whispers the two men shared were hard to decipher, most likely because the blood rushing around in Callie's head was way too loud.

"What the fuck?" Callie said again smacking Danny in the shoulder as she turned on a heel and made her way back to the Hummer.

"Your mom never explained the art of subtlety did she?" Andrea asked eyeing and shaking her head at Danny. Her eyes then moved to the assembled crowd that was now quite a bit more weary of the new comers.

"It's the apocalypse, honey," Danny said not caring how well his voice carried in the open area of the campsite. "Fuck subtlety. It's too damn hot to be going around wearing long sleeves all the time, and honestly just looking at you is making me sweat."

Callie leaned her back against the rear driver's side door, and crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes on the animated discussion going on between Glenn and Shane. The duo had been joined by a few others and Glenn was shaking his head as he tried to explain something. Callie caught only a few snippets, but found herself smiling when Shane mentioned that Glenn had to stop bringing people back to camp. It wasn't surprising to think that the kid was a bleeding-heart, he looked the part.

The driver's side door opened a crack and Miles peeked his head out and was about to ask a question when Shane's eyes moved over to her at the sound. Callie put her hand against the boy's head and pushed his head back in shutting the door with her back and standing in front of it. She heard the muffled angry response of the boy through the window and glared the ground.

Dale made his way over to stand beside Danny who was leaning on the front bumper waiting as Officer Shane made his way slowly, cautiously, back over to them. Thumbs resting in the belt loops of his cargo pants, Shane stared at them. Callie could only imagine what was going through the man's mind as his eyes ran over Callie.

Her jeans were ripped, torn and bloody from Mike's fingers. Her borrowed mechanics shirt obviously stifling her in the heat was open, yet still tucked into her jeans. Her hair was what could only be described as a rat's nest, pulled haphazardly into a messy ponytail behind her head. Then of course, there was the gun resting in her pants, and the large hunting knife currently strapped to her right thigh. Callie grimaced at herself as she looked down. She sure did look harmless, didn't she.

Callie spared a glance and a smile at Glenn who was smiling timidly as he talked with a large black man and lanky older man. Danny moved to stand next to Callie as Shane stopped before her.

"You saved Glenn's life, so that's really the only reason I'm giving y'all a chance here." Shane said quietly his eyes still resting on the gun in her pants. The group of campers had moved a bit closer, all of them trying to pretend they weren't listening intently to the conversation going on between their apparent leader and Callie and her crew.

Well, all except one big ass man with a buzzed military-style haircut, a black leather biker's vest and a wide-ass grin on his face as he watched. Callie couldn't help but notice him. He was the type that liked to make his presence known. Beside him a younger man bit at his fingernails and spat at the ground with a bored expression on his face. Both seemed ignorant to the looks that they got from the rest of the campers as they moved closer. As Callie watched the younger man eye the crowd around them with nothing but distain in his perpetually squinted eyes, she realized that it wasn't ignorance, it was numb acceptance. The bigger man sneered at Amy and Andrea, giving them both a wink before again putting his gaze on Callie.

"Want to explain those," Shane said nodding his head to Callie's wrists that were crossed over her chest.

"Oh, you know," Danny began with a nonchalant wave at Shane. "Some girls like dinner, wine and roses, others like bondage."

The whooping laugh sounded again, and Callie wasn't surprised to figure out it came from the big guy who was now slapping his friend on the back. Callie elbowed Danny hard in the ribs, just as Dale and Andrea groaned at Danny's ill-placed humor.

"You are about two-seconds from getting your ass kicked, Danny-boy." Callie remarked as she pushed him backwards. "So shut it." Turning her attention back to Shane she saw a bit of red tint his cheeks. Dear god did he actually believe that.

"You leave her alone," Gracie's tiny voice stalled all movement in the camp as she slid her little body out from behind the Hummer and landed in a heap on the ground. Her tiny boot covered feet stumbled just a bit as she walked angrily towards her and Shane. "You hear me mister, you leave her alone."

"Son of a bitch," Callie said angrily as she moved Shane out of her way and scooped the little girl up into her arms.

"Talk about a cock-block," the taller man said to his still silent companion again slapping him on the arm. "Come on, little brother, I'm done with this shit. Too many fucking women with kids."

The 'little brother' scratched at his head and watched the other man walk off. Instead of leaving, 'little brother' settled himself against a tree a bit off from the scene. Crossing his arms over his chest and his feet at the ankles he continued to watch with a disinterested air.

"Miles I'm gonna beat your ass, boy." Danny said rounding the Hummer to the now open passenger side back door. "What did we say? Your ass stays put until the signal."

"Gracie had to pee," Miles said quickly, and Danny smacked him upside the head before pushing him back into the car.

"Really, son," Dale began trying to take the group's attention away from Danny and back to the problem at hand. He stepped forward and reached a hand out to Shane. "You don't have to be wary of us. We're survivors just like you all. Callie and her kids here saved our lives yesterday, and your boy Glenn's there today. Those cuffs don't change that."

Callie watched as Shane wiped a tired hand down his face. His eyes moved from Dale, over to Danny still standing on the other side of the Hummer, and then back to Callie. His eyes shifted to the angry little face that glared at him from Callie's shoulder. The sight of Gracie, her golden brown curls wildly blown around her little face, wearing a dirty sundress with jeans underneath and boots that looked just a bit too big for her little feet must have unsettled the man. He spared a quick glance back at the group that was now staring wide-eyed at them. Callie saw his eyes linger on a young boy probably no more than ten or eleven. A woman with long dark brown hair shared a glance with Shane, a glance that told him to leave it be.

Wife and son? God, were there still actual family units alive in this godforsaken place.

"He shouldn't have been coming at you like that," Gracie was saying. "S'not nice. Police men are supposed to be nice, and help people."

"He was just being cautious, Gracie-baby." Callie said smoothing her hand on the girl's arm as she continued to glare at Shane. "Remember what that means?"

Gracie nodded her head slowly but continued to glare at Shane as he moved a few steps closer to Callie. Dale moved in closer and gave a look to Andrea and Amy to stay near the RV.

"Son," Dale began slowly extending his hand. "Let's start this again shall we?" Dale raised a brow to Callie, who in turn nodded to Danny. Danny slammed his hand against the top of the Hummer three times and waited while Miles opened the door. As soon as the boy poked his head out, Danny had him in a headlock and was leading him around towards Andrea and Amy.

"How many people are in your group?" Shane said watching as Jenna slowly emerged from the RV, her arms circling her stomach as she glanced uneasily around her.

"Callie I stayed put," Ben's jovial voice shouted as he rounded the back of the Hummer and slammed himself into her legs.

"Yeah, but you let Gracie out." Callie said shaking her head. "We'll talk about that later." Ben's face fell and he hid it in Callie's hip as he peeked out at the surrounding strangers.

"My god," the voice of the woman with long brown hair whispered loud enough to catch Callie's attention. "So little."

Callie held Gracie a bit closer, shifting her on her hip as she smiled at the woman as she walked up with the boy in tow. Danny was still holding Miles in a death grip around the neck, and was keeping a watchful eye on Jenna as she slowly sidled closer to him.

"Are they yours?" Shane asked, eyeing all of the kids and looking back to Callie.

"No," Callie said, then shook her head. "Well, I guess they are now." She looked up to Shane, tiredly sighing. "It's a long story."

"Ain't nothing much else to do here but tell stories," Shane offered with a small smile. He turned to Dale and extended his hand earning a smile from the older man, obviously ready to start again. "I'm Shane Walsh, sir. And that is one big-ass vehicle you have there."

"It's got a bathroom in it!" Ben said from Callie's hip. Shane cracked a smile then and Callie heard Amy giggle beside her sister. Callie rubbed a tired hand down her face and gave Glenn a smile as he made his way towards them. God bless the little pizza-man, he actually led them somewhere safe.

I don't know when I lost my nerve

And I started a routine

And I walked across this corner

Pinned my eyes to a shirt

Cos I'm scared of being seen

Locked myself in a stall

Rest my head against the wall


Story time was longer than Callie could stand, and she excused herself at the point where they were explaining Danny and her rescuing Dale and the girls. Lifting the mountain bike from the back rack on the Hummer and settling it to the ground beside her she opened the back hatch of the Hummer. Callie hoisted herself up so that she sat there staring down at her feet. She longed to take off her boots, but for some reason body just didn't want to bend down, and her hands were too tired to actually reach any further than her knees.

She heard Jenna's sobs start up again back where the entire group was congregated listening to their story. Callie cracked her neck and again fiddled with the silver handcuffs digging into her wrists. The group was quiet for a while, Amy had put her arm around the crying Jenna. Danny was saying something now, no doubt trying to break the tension that had built around the group. It had apparently been a while since any of these survivors had to worry about Walkers, let alone what they could do to people. A part of Callie was happy about that, while another part worried.

Absence made the heart grow fonder in the old world. In this new world, absence made you slow, and when you were slow you were dead.

Callie's eyes skimmed over the crowd as they all started talking again. There were far too many people for her to be able to remember their names just yet. She only got Shane's down because he was at her side for the whole story times. His dark eyes staring her down as Danny skimmed over their make believe story about a bar fight. Like Dale, Shane had let his very obvious misgivings go, most likely saving them for another time.

She remembered Lori's name and her boy Carl because Danny had eyed them for so long it had grown uncomfortable at one point.

"Do I know you?" Lori had asked uneasily as she snaked an arm around her boy and stared at Danny.

"No," Danny said shaking his head. "Sorry, it's just-" he took a breath and cleared his throat. "What are you, ten?"

"Eleven," Carl said quietly shifting his glance from Danny to his mother and then back.

"Ah, got myself a boy 'bout your age." Danny said as he moved to grab the photo from his back pocket. Lori raised an amused brow at Danny and took the photo he extended. Callie had seen it plenty of times, the small folded photo of Danny's ten-year-old son Jake as he smashed his face into Danny's. It was a fucking cute photo.

"How old are you?" Lori asked returning the photo and smiling at Danny.

"Twenty-seven." Danny chuckled at Lori's opened-mouth silence. "Knocked up Leslie when we were still in high school. Best little mistake we ever made." Lori laughed and ruffled Carl's hair a bit. A mother's knowing smile forming on her lips.

Danny had grown quiet then, and no one wanted to ask the question that was on the tip of everyone's tongue. Andrea surprised Callie and put a hand to Danny's back at one point, and startled him out of his reverie. And that was how she learned Merle's name. The man and his 'little brother' had situated themselves far enough away that you weren't quite sure if they could hear you, but knew they were close enough to make the rest of the group cringe.

"So where's your boy?" Merle had asked as he chucked a bone from what Callie assumed was a squirrel towards their group. "He dead?"

Callie had raised a brow to the man, and watched as 'little brother' grimaced slightly and shook his head.

"Damn Merle, shut the fuck up," 'little brother' had muttered earning him a hard smack in the shoulder.

"Just askin' what everyone wants to know," Merle eyed Callie for a moment before Danny got to his feet and just walked away.

"He okay?" Andrea asked watching as Danny made his way to the RV and stepped inside.

"Yeah," Callie said as she brushed at Gracie's hair. She turned to Merle. "Last he heard they were in Atlanta. Not sure if their dead." Merle nodded his head at her as he slowly licked his fingers clean from what had been his supper. Callie leaned forward a bit to make sure he could hear her. "Look, Merle, I understand you're a dickhead and all, but I'd appreciate you trying to fix the fucking filter that seems to be broken between your brain and your mouth before you open it to him again."

That little statement got everyone's attention, a ripple of unease flowing over the campers. It also earned her a small brow beating from both Gracie and Ben as the reprimanded her bad language. Merle let out another one of his loud whooping laughs and pointed a finger at Callie.

"You know what? I like you, jail-bird." Merle said chuckling. "You got balls."

"Gee, thanks," Callie said rolling her eyes and sparing a glance to the smirking form of 'little brother'.

It had taken Danny about twenty minutes to clear his head and come back to the group. No one had said anything as he sat down and moved the yawning Ben so that the kid was lounging in the crook of his arm. Gracie had fallen asleep near Miles and Callie listening as Andrea was finishing the story of her and Amy's stumbling upon Dale. That story had segued well into Callie and Danny finding the trio, and that was when Callie had finally had enough.

Callie pulled her worn backpack out from the back of the Hummer and began taking inventory of the items inside. A nearly full water bottle, ammo for her gun, and a tiny fucking first aid kit that would do jack shit if she actually got in trouble. Shaking her head, Callie squinted up at the sun overhead. The day was only half over and she was already exhausted. The light crunching of the ground caught her attention and she looked up to see Danny strolling over.

His hands were raised behind his head as he stretched and he cocked his head to the side as he watched Callie pull a couple of water bottles out of the back of the Hummer and place them in her backpack.

"So the talk is they got themselves this lovely little lake down a ways," Danny said as he came to a rest near the back tailgate of the Hummer. "And I figured since you look like shit you'd want to head down with Gracie and the girls to get cleaned up first."

"Sweet of you," Callie said shaking her head. She looked over at the group and saw Jenna give her a small glance before turning her attention to the blond girl about Carl's age sitting beside her. Jenna had pulled quite the scene after disembarking the RV and learning that they had left Nina's Bug behind. It hadn't mattered that Callie had assured her that they were going back for it, and it hadn't mattered that Callie had grabbed the photo. All that mattered was that Callie had killed her brother, left him in the street and then abandoned their car. Callie turned her gaze to Danny, and then back up to the sky.

"Something on your mind there, Cal?" Danny asked shifting his eyes to the sky and then to the bike sitting beside the Hummer.

"How many hours of sun you think we got left?" Callie stated as she hopped tiredly to the ground and ran a hand behind her sweat-drenched neck. "'Bout four, five maybe?"

"Not sure," Danny said looking up and watching as Callie stuffed a few power bars into her backpack. She set the straps on the front of the handlebars of the mountain bike and then pulled out the two empty clips for her gun. Idly checking the clean empty chambers before beginning to load bullet after bullet inside."You planning a trip?"

"I'm gonna go get the damned car," Callie said once again letting her eyes fall to the hunched over form of Jenna.

Still drunk I had a dream in the morning

Pin myself to the chore

Looking thru the cracks I saw the shadows on the tile

So I knocked on all the unlocked doors

Locked myself in a stall

Rest my head against the wall


"For the record I think this is a bad fucking idea," Danny muttered as he handed Callie his smaller butterfly knife and watched her tuck it into her boot.

"Noted," Callie said as she finished lacing her boot. Grabbing her last clip she shoved it hard back into the gun. Checking the gun, she put the safety on and shoved it into the front of her tattered pants.

They had assembled a bit of a crowd now, men being manly and not wanting the little lady to go out on her own, and all that shit. Callie rolled her eyes as Dale once again began to shake his head at her. He didn't say anything, just gave her that fatherly look that said 'you're being a brat'.

"So your plan is to what, pedal your way down to the Bug and then what?" Miles was asking as he helped Danny unload some of their gear from the pods on top of the Hummer. "The thing broke down."

"The thing ran out of gas," Callie said sliding her hunting knife into her thigh holster. Turning her gaze to the rest of the assembled onlookers she nodded. "Glenn, your car have any gas in it?"

"Near a half tank," Glenn said in return. The younger man scrunched his face and then started yet again shaking his head. "But that doesn't mean you're going to be able to get it and get back. That place was crawling with Walkers."

"There were like six." Danny muttered shaking his head and Callie smiled. "Not that I'm condoning your idiotic idea, just saying, six ain't exactly crawling with."

"Look, I'm not gonna sit here and discuss it," Callie said as she settled her backpack on her shoulders. "I'm losing daylight."

"No way we're letting you go alone." Shane said shaking his head. His tone had a firm sense of finality to it that Callie respected, but didn't much care for at the moment.

"You wanna ride on my handlebars, Shane?" Callie said with a smirk. Shane rolled his eyes at the stifled whooping laugh of Merle who still sat in his same position cleaning under his fingernails with a large knife. "Look, Shane, not that I don't appreciate the concern but it's a moot point. I don't need to ask permission. I'm a big girl, and I'm going. That's final. Half of our supplies are in that car, not to mention half of our ammo. I'm not going to waste the gas of another vehicle that works fine to get a car that's running on empty. I'll ride down, siphon Glenn's gas, and get the back."

"Fuckin' stupid to think it's gonna be easy. Ain't nothing easy in this world, sweetheart." this was the muttered response of Merle's 'little brother'. Callie ignored his disgusted look as he continued to clean what looked to be arrows.

"Look, consider it this way," Callie said to Shane as she lifted her leg and got on the mountain bike. "If I don't make it back, that's one less new mouth to feed."

"That came out wrong," Shane said shaking his head with an exasperated sigh. "I didn't mean—"

"Apologize when I get back," Callie said reaching down and ruffling Ben's hair. "Take your bath." She said to the upset looking little boy before she gave a nod in Danny's direction. "If I'm not back by sundown, feel free to play hero."

"If I have to come get your ass, you're going to be sorry." Danny muttered waving her off as she began pedaling down the steep slope leading the highway.

Danny and the rest watched her disappear in a cloud of dust, her speed impressive as she maneuvered the bike down the hill. Gracie grabbed on to his shirt and pulled twice indicating she wanted up. Danny lifted the little girl and together they watched as Callie disappeared.

"You should get a better hold on your woman," Merle's voice sounded from behind Danny and he turned with a sneer riding his lips as he regarded the elder man.

"She ain't my woman," Danny said walking past the man and straight up to Jenna. The girl looked at him with wide red-rimmed eyes as he handed Gracie over to her. "You had better get your head straight before she gets back, little girl. You stop blaming her for what needed to be done, and get yourself ready to apologize for the way you've been eyeing her. She's doing this for you."

Jenna stood dumbstruck as Danny stalked off to the back of the Hummer. Her eyes went to the road that Callie had just disappeared down and she couldn't help but bite at her bottom lip.

"Are we gonna get cleaned up?" Gracie's voice sounded breaking Jenna from any thoughts she had about Callie not coming back. "Callie said to get a bath and I wanna be clean when she comes back. She was real mad at me before."

"Yeah, sweetie," Jenna said with a nod at the younger girl. "We're gonna go get cleaned up." Jenna rubbed at Gracie's back and lowered her gaze to the ground as she walked over to where Andrea and Amy were waiting for her.

Amy put an arm around her shoulder and smiled, before giving her a squeeze. The four of them then followed Lori and a slender black woman named Jacqui down to the lake. Jenna spared a glance to Danny who along with Shane and Glenn were talking with Dale about setting up a lookout on top of the RV. His eyes darted to her and he simply shook his head at her before returning to gaze up at the roof of the RV.


Callie pulled the bike to a stop a good safe distance from her destination. Pulling a bottle of water from her backpack she took down nearly half of it as she took in her surroundings. Wiping her forehead with the back of her arm she stared ahead of her. She could see the Bug and a bit further in the distance she spotted Glenn's car. Both hoods were still open, sitting there waiting for her.

The tiny hindrance that stopped her from moving forward were the five Walkers milling about the Bug. Apparently the smell of Mike's blood was beckoning them better than a fucking dinner bell. Dismounting from the bike, Callie pulled her gun, checked her clip and thumbed off the safety. Taking three deep breaths, she chucked the bottle of water to the side.

Checking all around her for the fourth time, she slowly began walking the rest of the way towards the Bug. Her gun up and ready She shook her head.

Five. Only five. You took out more getting out of that damned jail. Now suck it up. Callie took another three deep breaths desperate to settle her nerves before she started firing. Five. Dear God, please let it only be five.


"Hey Danny! Here she comes!" Glenn's voice yelled down from the top of the RV and had Danny dropping his backpack to the ground. Hauling his ass up from the ground he dashed over to the ladder leading up to the top of the massive lookout.

Scrambling up the last few steps he took the binoculars from Glenn's outstretched hands. Placing the warm black plastic to his face he let out a breath and watched the used-to-be-white Bug chug its way up the hill towards them. He felt Dale place a reassuring hand to his shoulder and gave the older man nod as he handed back the binoculars.

Down below Shane stared up at them. His hands settled at his hips as he watched Danny sit down on the edge of the RV's roof and run a tired hand down his face. Now that the guy had cleaned up, he looked every bit as young as the twenty-seven years he claimed to be. His dark hair was sticking up in all directions, and his lanky arms bruised from god knows what were hidden now under the dark blue button-up shirt he had on.

The cooler summer air had finally breezed through the Quarry as the sun began to set. Shane closed his eyes briefly, letting the cooler wind calm his nerves. When he opened his eyes, he caught sight of Lori looking up at Danny sitting tiredly upon the RV's roof. Her eyes met his then and she smiled just a bit before turning away from him. Danny's story had triggered some kind of sadness in Lori. The kind of sadness that he hadn't seen in the past couple months that they had been up there.

Shane looked to lanky little Danny still sitting atop the RV. In the distance, with the setting sun blocking his features from view leaving nothing but a black silhouette, Shane felt that sadness too. The man looked like Rick.

"Looks like the rescue party is off," Shane said to the two men standing near the Hummer. It hadn't really been a question that Danny was going to go after his girl. And Shane didn't feel right about letting him go alone, so he'd been ready to back the man up. What shocked the hell out of him was the Dixon brothers offering to go in his stead. 'Gotta keep all the little kiddies safe here, officer.' Had been Merle's laughing reply as Shane wearily shook his head at the brothers. Danny hadn't objected to the brother's coming along, and merely told them to get their asses in gear if they were actually serious.

Daryl for his part had remained quiet. After two months of living with the Dixon's, and watching how they operated, that hadn't really surprised him. Daryl was more of a watcher, not necessarily a follower, but a watcher. He kept to himself and kept to Merle. A fact which Shane had never really thanked the younger man, but appreciated his actions in strange sort of way.

"Whatever," Daryl said shrugging. He shouldered his crossbow and as always waited for Merle to make a move.

The once white VW Bug chugged to an unhappy halt at the top of the hill near to the Hummer. The dried blood and gore covering entire hood, driver's side door, and roof was a bit of a shock. The amount of gore covering the windshield was just damned impressive. And the arm hanging from the now broken windshield wiper on the driver's side was a bit sickening.

Inside the car, Callie again took three deep breaths, and set her head back against the headrest. One. Two. Three. She opened the door and instantly found herself berated with the high-pitched squealing of Gracie and Ben from inside the RV. While Miles merely looked up from his card game with Carl and Jenna with a bored, 'Told you she'd be back.'

Callie wiped her grimy hands on her jeans. Closing the driver's side door she grimaced at the sight of the half of an arm dangling from her windshield. Bringing out her knife she slammed down on the hand of the once Walker and watched it fall to the ground at her feet earning a few startled gasps from the assembled survivors.

Absence makes you stupid.

"Well, Halle-fucking-lujah," Merle's distinct snickered greeting reached her ears.

"Nice to see you too, Merle." Callie replied tiredly as she bent down to pick up the arm, looking up at the man her gaze narrowed. Noticing he was decked out in gear and looking like he was ready to go somewhere, she shifted her gaze to Danny descending the ladder from the RV's roof.

"Me, Daryl and Merle were about to come play hero." Danny said grimacing at the sight of the arm laying at her feet.

"Daryl?" Callie questioned, her eyes going to the Merle's little brother. Daryl raised a brow at her but remained otherwise still. "Sounds like a great rescue party you assembled their Captain America."

"Hey, they volunteered." Danny said shrugging. Callie shook her head and grabbed at the towel and clothes that Jenna held out to her.

"I'll show you were you can clean up, Callie." Jenna said timidly. "I'm - I'm glad you're back."

"Thanks, honey." Callie said with a smile. "Me too."

"Not a pleasant trip I take it," Danny said as Callie began to walk past him. The amount of Walker gore covering the side of her face and her shirt caused his stomach to drop. How close had they just been to losing her? Turning back to him, she tossed the arm at him and smiled when he let out a ridiculous yelp.

"Damn it, I just got cleaned up." Danny muttered holding the offending arm out by a his first finger and thumb. Moving it as Ben exited the RV and reached up touch it. "Uh, Uh, Ben don't touch that."

"Get rid of that," Callie said as she started to walk away. "Unpack the Bug, strip it down for good parts, and get it the hell out of here. Damn thing is a Walker magnet." She looked to Jenna and gave the girl a pat on the shoulder. "You good with that?"

Jenna just nodded, sending a sad glance back at what used to be her future sister-in-law's car.

Callie continued on, ignoring Danny's loud cursing as he moved towards the Bug. He yelled for Miles to get off his ass and help, and Callie yet again ran a hand down her face. From the corner of her eye she caught Gracie run out of the RV and towards her. Tilting her head slightly, her eyes caught on Daryl's for a moment as he watched her stop and wait for the four-year-old to catch up with her. She nodded her head at him, and was actually startled when he returned the nod.

A welcome back from 'little brother', will wonders never cease.

He continued to watch her for a moment, before spitting something to the ground and settling his ass on the front bumper of what she assumed was his truck.

"You need a hand washing your back, there, jail-bird?" Merle's raspy yell caused Callie to finally break eye-contact with Daryl and shake her head.

"I wouldn't let you touch me with that Walker's hand, Merle." Callie yelled back, earning yet another whoop of a laugh from Merle as he made his way towards his brother. Daryl for his part smacked his brother on the shoulder as soon as he was within reaching distance and his mouth moved, speaking words Callie couldn't even begin to make out from this distance.

Glancing back at the Bug Callie watched as Miles and Danny began to unload. Glenn, Andrea and Amy had moved to help and their faces were priceless as they tried desperately not to touch the disgusting mess all of over the car.

"So how many Walkers did you have to take out?" Jenna asked quietly eyeing Callie as they made their way down to the lake. The sun had lowered in the sky, but Callie could still make out the slight blush on the girl's cheeks. No doubt she was feeling a bit bad about everything.

"Only five," Callie lied giving the girl a smile as they swung Gracie's arms between them as they walked. "A walk in the park."

And I'm not sure

That I've ever had the nerve

Cos I've always felt like an easy kill

But I'm pretty sure

That I'm never gonna know

If I'm his kind of pill

Unlocked the stall and wandered off

Left my number on the wall.

~Rest My Head Against The Wall, Heatmiser

AN: Well there's Chapter 3 everyone. Now that we've got ourselves established at camp it's time to have a bit of fun. Next up, Callie makes and enemy of Ed, and gets 'saved' by the Dixon brothers. R&R.