Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. All rights reserved to their respective owners.
I do not own Anne Marshall. She belongs to AquaDestinysEmbrace.
Kenny sat down with Christa and Clementine sitting across from him. He smiled happily to see them both still alive and okay, but saddened by the fact that Omid didn't make it. Clementine reflected his saddened expression as she recalled the last time that she saw Kenny. "Still wearing this dirty old thing." Kenny remarked as he tapped the brim of her hat. "You know, I half expected Lee to walk up next to you." Clementine flinched sadly at the mention of her deceased guardian's name as Kenny continued, not noticing that he had hit a sore spot for Clementine. "You two were like two peas in a pod."
His eyes widened when he looked back to her and he said, "Ah, shit. I didn't mean… it's just hard to not think about him."
"He saved me." Clementine said somewhat sadly.
"I knew it." Kenny said proudly. "I knew he would. That guy had a fire in him, sure as shit." Kenny then looked down sadly remembering everything Lee did for him as a friend. "Hell… Lee and I might not have gotten along, but he… he helped me with my son… when I couldn't." Kenny brightened up as he remembered how Lee always cared for Katjaa and Duck. "I'll never forget that." He frowned again and said, "All I seem to remember doing was giving him shit, but he was just trying to keep the group together. I'll never forgive myself for giving him so much shit."
"We've both done things that we regret." Christa said sadly.
Kenny looked to her with a confused expression and said, "You always seemed straight with Lee. What did you do that you regret?"
"It wasn't towards Lee." Christa said. "It was towards Clementine." Both looked to her sympathetically as she continued, "After Omid died, I blamed Clementine for the longest time for what happened to him. I will never forgive myself for doing that. Clementine needed me at that time more than ever and I left her out on a limb."
Clementine looked sadly to Christa and said, "Christa…"
Christa ignored her as Kenny spoke up, "Christa take it from an old fool's mouth." Christa looked up to Kenny who wore a saddened look on his face. "At least you had the chance to make up for your mistakes, I'll never have the chance to apologize to Lee." Kenny said as he looked down sadly.
Christa placed a reassuring hand on his and waited for him to look up at her. "Lee said that he missed you after he thought that you were dead."
"Really?" Kenny asked surprised and happy by the new information.
"He cared about you Kenny, just like he cared about everyone else." Clementine added.
Kenny smiled and said, "I reckon you both want to know what happened and how I got here." They both nodded and waited for Kenny's story as he hummed in thought. "For some reason, I went back to try and save that shit bird, Ben. Then it turned into a damn cluster." Kenny looked off toward the fire distantly by the memory of struggling through several walkers and then turned back to Clementine and Christa, "Couldn't help the kid, but I made it out. Long story short, I got lucky, real lucky. Kept clawing my way out of Savannah until I got cornered by a pack of walkers. I was sure that my luck had finally worn out, when out of nowhere, little Anne came in and shot up all of the walkers. Without her, I would have died in Savannah. After we got out of that deathtrap city, I found a bar and…" Kenny then spaced out. He obviously went through some nightmare after Savannah, and he tried to fix the problem with alcohol. "Anne had to knock some common sense into me and well… I'd say that would have been the second time she saved me. After that, I promised myself that I would look after her. Then we found Sarita, thank goodness! Gosh, it's great to have you back!" Kenny exclaimed.
The said woman approached the three and asked, "You three catching up?"
"Clem, Christa, this is my girl, Sarita. Ain't she beautiful?" Kenny asked.
Sarita rolled her eyes at the antics of her boyfriend and said, "It's nice to meet you both."
"It's good to meet you too." Christa replied.
Walter then walked back into the living room after letting the pot boil in the makeshift kitchen. Kenny noticed him coming in and asked, "Hey Walt, where's Matthew? He still out there rootin around?"
"Of course he is." Walter replied. "Well I'll start dinner." Walter said and continued his walk to the makeshift kitchen.
Sarita then walked over to Clementine and asked, "Clementine, do you think you could help me with the decorations."
Clementine smiled in delight as she had fond memories of helping her mom place decoration on the Christmas tree. "Of course!" Clementine exclaimed happily. With that the two went to the tree and started to decorate it.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Luke asked as he and Nick walked up to Kenny.
"Yeah, actually, there's still a few supplies outside. We need to bring them in before the storm hits." Kenny replied. "Mind giving me a hand with that?"
"Sure." Luke said and he and Nick headed for the door with Kenny.
Christa smiled as she watched Clementine helping decorate the tree with Sarita.
Danielle and Anne sat across from one another looking at each other. It had been too long for the both of them. They haven't seen one another for at least a year.
"So, how do you know these people, Dani?" Anne asked.
"They saved me. The leader, Luke, found me while I was suffering from mild starvation. From there, they took care of me and I befriended a girl named Sarah." Danielle explained.
"Wait a minute." Anne said as she tried to connect the pieces. "The girl you were with was Clementine."
"Yeah, Sarah didn't make it. The guys who is after us, Carver, came to the cabin while everyone was out looking for me and... he beat her nearly to death. By the time we got back, it was too late."
"F*****!" Anne hissed. "I'm going to kick his ass." Her eyes then grew sympathetic and said, "I'm sorry, Dani. I wish I could have found you sooner."
"What about you Anne?" Danielle asked. "How'd you end up with that Kenny guy?"
"Well, after I got separated from the rest of you guys, I went to the nearest city, which was Savannah. And that's when I found Kenny. He was cornered by a herd on the outskirts of Savannah. After I saved his ass, he and I stayed together, but he was completely depressed and went to a nearby bar." Anne said. She then scoffed and said, "I had no idea how much alcohol one man can drink. I think he spent three days just getting wasted. Finally I got sick of it and started smacking him around a bit, you know to get some common sense back in his head."
Danielle chuckled at the mention of Kenny getting a smack down by Anne and said, "Anyway, I'm glad to see you again."
"Me too, Dani." Anne replied with a grin. "Now, let's go and do what we do best." Anne said as she got up from the bed and headed for the stairs.
"Which would be?" Danielle asked from the bed.
Anne turned around with a smirk and said, "Cause mayhem and destruction, as always." Anne joked.
"Right, so you want to destroy something or ruin someone's day?" Danielle asked playing along with the joke.
"Let's do both. Multitasking is more fun." Anne said. "How about we go ruin Walter's day and then destroy his work."
"Deal." Danielle chuckled and she jumped off the bed to join her friend. They descended down the stair and walked up to Walter who was cooking something that was unfamiliar to Danielle but it smelled delicious.
Walter looked up to see the two children approaching him and he asked, "Hello Danielle, settling in well enough?"
"Yeah, I'm doing alright." Danielle replied.
"Good." Walter said. He then added a pinch of salt to the concoction as he looked up and spotted Anne with a playful smirk. "Hello Anne, come to ruin my day or destroy my work?" Walter asked.
"Since I got my friend with me today, I was thinking of doing both." Anne said with a smirk.
"Oh lovely." Walter said sarcastically. Both girls couldn't help but giggle as the man continued, "Anyway, I'm afraid that the main course is already done. So there isn't much you can do. However, I could use someone to taste test it." Walter turned to Danielle and asked, "Mind tasting the first bowl, madam?"
Danielle looked into the mixing bowl and looked to it weirdly. It didn't look as good as it smelled. "What is it?" Danielle asked.
"Le Walter surprise. An autumnal legume salad with a peach roux." Walter replied.
"Wait, what?" Danielle asked.
"In other words, it's peaches and beans. It's all we have." Anne said.
Walter then looked to the can and said, "Huh, striking resemblance." He then showed the can to Anne and Danielle and gestured over to Clementine.
"Huh? Yeah, that's quite a match." Anne said.
Walter laid the can back down, but Danielle looked questioningly at it as Walter said, "Anyway, I can take it from here." Walter then lift the large mixing pot and left the makeshift kitchen.
Anne looked back over to Danielle who was still staring at the can peaches. "Dani, you alright?" Anne asked.
"I… yeah… I just- I can't help but think that I've seen that can before. I remember seeing it recently, but I can't remember where." Danielle said as she pondered.
"Hey, don't worry about it." Anne said. "I imagine that we're not the only place that has it." Anne then grabbed Danielle's hand and started to tug on her lightly. "Come on. I bet Clementine and Sarita are going to need our help with the tree."
Danielle smiled and said, "Yeah." With that the two friends walked over and hung ornaments and decorations on the tree.
After several minutes of decorating, Sarita walked back and inspected their work. "Perfect." Sarita commented. "Now all we need is the topper."
"My mom and I would always put an angel on top of our tree." Danielle said.
"You know? My family and I never really celebrated Christmas, but we still liked the decorations." Sarita said.
Anne looked to Clementine and said, "Clem, do you think you could grab a topper? It'll be in a box at the top of the stairs."
"Yeah, I'm on it." Clementine replied and she went up the steps. As Clementine walked up the steps, Luke and Nick returned from outside. Nick walked off to see if Kenny needed anything else done. However, Luke had other plans and he walked towards Danielle.
Danielle picked up on the sound of his footsteps and turned to see Luke in front of her with a smirk, which was followed by him putting a supportive hand on her shoulder, "How are we doing, Dani? Are you still dizzy?"
"I'm good." Danielle said. "And thanks for helping me back there on the bridge. I know it was a weird request, but… I'm glad that you're looking out for me."
"Anytime, baby girl." Luke said with a smile and he proceeded to stand up. He left and went to talk to Nick as Clementine placed the topper on the tree.
"It looks beautiful." Sarita said.
"It looks amazing, Clem." Anne added.
Clementine descended from the stairs as Sarita looked over to Danielle. "You know now that your friends are here, this place is starting to feel like a real home." Sarita said. "Matthew and Walter are amazing people. Honestly, it's dangerous to be this kind but they can't help it."
"I'm glad they're so kind, otherwise we would still be on the road." Anne remarked.
"That's true." Sarita replied. She then looked to Clementine and said, "Wait until you meet Matthew. He's a real character."
"When is Matthew coming back?" Danielle asked.
He should be coming back soon." Sarita replied. She then looked over to Kenny who was helping get supplies into the ski lodge before the storm hits and looked to Clementine. "Clem, I wanted to ask you… Does Kenny seem different to you? I don't know him before and well… I'm curious." Sarita explained.
"Yeah, I don't know much about him either." Anne admitted.
"He's regretful for what happened between him and my guardian." Clementine replied somewhat sadly.
"Him and Christa?" Anne asked. "They seem to be getting along alright."
"No, I… Christa wasn't my first guardian." Clementine replied sadly. "When everything happened, this man found me and took care of me. We met up with other survivors, one of them being Kenny and we all tried to make it, but… everything fell apart."
"Aw, sweetie." Sarita said sympathetically. Danielle and Anne both looked to Clementine equally being sympathetic.
The moment was interrupted when Walter announced, "Well everyone dinner is served. Come on, let's eat."
The group looked over to see bowls set up at each table. The sweet aroma from earlier was very much present and it made all of the former cabin survivors drool. Luke, Nick, Alvin, and Rebecca walked over to the left table as Sarita, Walter and Anne sat at the right table. Anne smiled toward Danielle and made a gesture to come sit with her as Luke shouted, "Hey Dani, come on over and sit with us." Anne looked to Luke and then back to Danielle with pleading eyes.
Danielle's attention soon turned to Christa and Kenny as they started to talk. "I hope you don't mind if I sit with Luke and that new group. We need to discuss our current situation."
Kenny nodded with an understanding smile and said, "I don't mind at all. I heard about y'all's situation."
"Thanks." Christa replied. She looked down to Clementine and said, "Come on, sweetie. We need to figure out a plan with Luke and them."
"Okay." Clementine said. She and Christa then went to the table to which Luke happily greeted them. However to Luke's sadness, Danielle walked over to the right table to join Anne.
Conversation with Luke's Group
Luke looked down sadly as Danielle made her choice to sit with Kenny and his group. Christa noticed Luke's reaction and said, "Don't worry, Luke. She's just visiting an old friend."
"Yeah, man." Nick said. "I've never seen you like this before. Why do you care so much about her, anyway?"
Luke looked up with a confused expression until he realized that he hadn't told his group that he was now Danielle's guardian. "Guys." Luke said. Everyone looked to him and he continued. "There's something that I haven't told y'all yet.
"Well, what is it?" Christa asked.
"On the way to the bridge, Dani asked me to be her guardian. And I said yes." Luke said with a big smile.
"You said what?" Nick inquired with a glare.
"Hush." Rebecca said as she scowled at Nick. She turned to Luke with a warm smile and said, "Luke congratulations. I bet it feels wonderful to be guardian."
"It is." Christa said as she smiled down to Clementine. "I know for a fact, that it's been one of the best decisions of my life." Clementine in turn hugged Christa affectionately to which Christa returned the hug.
However, Nick was less than enthused about Luke's new status. "I don't know what you were thinking?" Everyone turned to Nick with a scowl wondering why he was being so hostile. "You know that she still doesn't forgive me for what happened at the cabin."
"Well Nick, it's going to take a while until she can forgive you." Alvin said. "You definitely made her feel unwelcomed and you nearly shot her."
"You nearly shot her?" Christa inquired with horror written on her features
"Whatever." Nick snapped and went back to eating, ignoring the glares.
Christa shook her head as she tried to move on to a new conversation. "Look guys, I really hate to say this, but we might have to move on. I think Carver and his men are tracking us."
"Tracking? Who do you think they are, ninjas?" Alvin inquired as he panicked from the thought of Carver's men hunting them down.
"There's no way they're still tracking us." Nick added.
"Bec needs a rest. She can't go through another day out there." Alvin said.
"And you think Clem and Dani can?" Christa said. "Like I said, I don't like that we have to leave, but if we don't then we're going to bring Kenny and his group into this."
"If they stay here, they're going to get wrapped up in this anyway." Rebecca said.
"Why don't we just ask them to come with us?" Clementine asked.
"Are f****** insane? They look like assholes." Nick snapped. "I ain't agreeing to that shit."
"Nick, they're good people. Dani trusts them. One of them is an old friend to Christa and Clementine." Luke said trying to reason with his friend but as always he remained as stubborn as a mule.
"Look, all I'm saying is that we should ask them what their plans are." Christa said.
"I agree, we should see what they're thinking of doing." Luke said. "They might actually have a plan as opposed to us just trying to get rid of Carver by going through the mountains." Everyone nodded to Luke's suggestion, except for Nick who was still stubborn about the idea.
Conversation with Kenny's group
"Here you go." Walter said as he passed an extra bowl to Danielle.
"Thanks." Danielle replied as she accepted the bowl.
"So your name is Danny…?" Kenny asked with a confused stare. "Because last I checked, I thought that was a boy's name."
"My whole name is Danielle, but my friends will usually drop the last part and call me Dani." Danielle replied.
"Ah… okay." Kenny said and he started to smirk. "You'll have to help me with this stuff, old people like me get very confused very easily."
Anne rolled her eyes as Danielle giggled at the joke. Kenny smiled upon succeeding in making someone laughed and continued, "So that group over there. One of your people, Big Al, says that y'all are on the run."
"Yeah… some people are after us." Danielle said as she looked down sadly at the peaches and beans.
"She lost a friend because of those people." Anne explained.
"Damn, I'm sorry darlin. I didn't mean to make you upset." Kenny said with a remorseful stare.
"You didn't, it's… it was just a bad day for all of us." Danielle replied.
"I bet." Anne said.
Kenny pondered for a couple of seconds and asked, "How long are you all planning to stay?"
"I don't know. You'd have to ask Luke." Danielle said.
"Hm…." Kenny hummed still pondering on a course of action.
"What are you thinking, honey?" Sarita asked.
"We're thinking of moving on from here and heading towards Wellington." Kenny said. Kenny then looked to Danielle and continued, "Maybe it's a good idea to go with y'all when it's time for you to head on out."
Anne smiled and said, "I think that's the best idea I've heard all day."
As if on cue, Christa and Luke got up from their table and switched places with Sarita and Walter.
"Hey." Anne said to get Danielle's attention. "I'm going to go talk to that Clementine girl."
"Okay." Danielle said and Anne left to talk to Clementine. Luke took the seat across Danielle and shot a saddened look towards her for choosing Kenny's table over his own. Danielle looked down sadly in response feeling guilty for her selection, but she wanted to visit Anne.
"I hope you enjoy the food." Kenny said, ruining the tense atmosphere.
"Oh yeah…" Luke said somewhat speechless. "It's-It's great. Thank you."
"It's peaches and beans." Kenny explained. "Great for nutrition. Not too great on the way out though." Kenny then busted up laughing at his own joke.
However, the other three looked disgusted by the inappropriate joke. "So gross." Danielle muttered as Kenny's laugh subsided.
"I have to admit, Christa, you found a good sized group." Kenny said.
"It used to be bigger." Christa said sadly.
"So, I've heard." Kenny said. He then looked to Luke and said, "I'm sorry for your loss. I know that's a tough deal."
"Yeah…" Luke said sadly.
"So what was your plan here Kenny?" Christa asked. "Hold out for the winter?"
"Actually, we were thinking of moving on. Somewhere up north." Kenny said. "Ever heard of a place called Wellington?"
All three of them nodded their heads and Luke said, "Yeah that was where Danielle, Christa, and Clementine were all heading for."
"Good, I think we'll head that way." Kenny said.
"I have to admit, I'm out of ideas." Luke said. "I was hoping to lose Carver and his men through the mountains, but I think they're still on our tail."
"I agree." Christa said. "We're going to Wellington."
"Hey, Dani." Walter said as he approached the table with Anne by his side. "Anne and I were thinking of going outside and getting some fresh air. Would you like to join us?"
"Sure." Danielle replied. They headed for the stairs as Clementine took Danielle's seat to talk to Kenny.
Walter smiled to the two girls as they walked along the pathway. They walked in comfortable silence taking in the fresh air until Walter said, "They say the world is over." Anne and Danielle looked to Walter as he continued, "But I'll tell you a little secret; it's not. People are more political now than they ever were before. In the end, we can't change the world. All we can do is learn from each other; to emphasize the use of our heads. All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."
"What?" Anne asked.
"It's Steinbeck." Walter said. "You ever heard of him?"
"No, not really." Anne replied.
"Don't worry we'll take the time to learn about him." Walter said with delight. "It has been a while since I've had a class to teach."
"No thanks." Anne said. "I think I'll fall asleep during your classes."
"Then I would slam a book on your desk to wake you up." Walter said jokingly.
"Then I would glare at you." Anne joked.
"Then I would ignore you." Walter joked.
"Then I would go back to sleep." Anne said.
"Then the process would repeat itself." Walter said.
Danielle giggled and asked, "Are you two always like that?"
"All the time." Anne and Walter replied unison.
"Hey kids." Kenny said as he approached the three. They turned to him as he asked, "What are you three talking about?"
"Oh, Politics." Walter replied.
"The hell?" Kenny asked with a chuckle.
"Being from Florida, I would imagine that you know all about politics, Kenny." Walter replied.
"Man, I know one advantage of living in the apocalypse is not dealing with that shit no more." Kenny said while he looked to Anne and Danielle with a smile. He walked past the three heading for the back of the lodge and explained, "I was just going to check on the windows around back before this storm hits. Give me a hand?"
"Sure." Walter replied as the two girls nodded in confirmation that they would help.
The three went around back only to see a red haired woman peeking through one of the windows of the ski lodge. Kenny was shocked to see her and raised his gun, fearing that she was a bandit and was scoping out the area to attack it. Walter stopped Kenny by placing a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Kenny obliged and lowered the hunting rifle. "Miss?" Walter said to get the woman's attention.
She looked over and jumped upon seeing the four. She raised her hands in surrender as she stared wide eyed at Kenny's hunting rifle. "Please, do you have any food?" The red haired woman asked.
"Are you okay?" Walter asked as he approached the woman.
"I saw the house and… I have a family. We're starving." The woman explained. "We live down there." The woman gestured to the bottom of the mountain.
"Of course." Walter said. "Why don't you come in miss…?"
"Bonnie." The woman replied.
"Walt, I don't know. You're just going to let her in, like that?" Kenny asked with a glare towards the woman.
"It's fine, Kenny." Walter replied.
"We don't know this girl." Kenny said.
"Then we'll just have to get to know her, right Dani? Anne?" Walter asked as he looked to the two girls.
"Walt." Kenny hissed.
"How much damage can this poor woman do?" Walter asked.
"Walter's right, she seems harmless." Anne said.
"I agree, she's not going to hurt us." Danielle added.
"Thank you, really, but that storm'll be on us soon and I have got to get back to my family." Bonnie said.
"Alright, I'll bring something out to you then." Walter said.
"You don't have to do that." Bonnie said.
"No, no, it's fine." Walter said as he raised his hand up. "Just give me a couple of minutes and I'll be right back." Walter headed back towards the front doors of the lodge leaving Bonnie with Kenny, Danielle, and Anne.
Bonnie approached the three nervously as Kenny glared at her with his rifle at the ready. "I have a little girl like you." Bonnie said to Anne. She then placed her hand on her knees and slouched down to Anne's height and gave a warm smile to the girl. "How old are you sweetie?"
"I'm fourteen." Anne replied.
"That's pretty darn close." Bonnie replied. "The little girl that I have is just a year older."
She looked over to Danielle and asked, "How about you sweetie? You don't look too old."
"I'm ten." Danielle said.
"Really? You look like you're eight, no offense." Bonnie said.
"None taken, a lot of people mistake my age because of my height." Danielle replied.
Bonnie stood up straight upon seeing Walter coming around the corner. He carried a box of food which he handed to Bonnie. "Here you go, miss."
Bonnie took the supplies and her eyes widened in surprise. "This is too much." Bonnie said.
"Don't mention it." Walter said.
"I don't know how to thank you all." Bonnie said.
"Just help someone else down the line." Walter said.
"Thank you so much." Bonnie said with a smile. "Well, I'll be going now."
"Hold on." Anne said. She quickly grabbed her hunting knife and offered it to the woman. "Here, you're going to need something to protect yourself."
"No, sweetie. I-I couldn't do that." Bonnie said.
"I have a spare." Anne said. "And you're going to need something to defend yourself with."
Bonnie smiled to Anne and accepted the knife and said, "Thank you, all of you."
"Stay safe." Walter said.
"You too." Bonnie said and she started to head down the mountain.
Kenny was not happy with either of allies and said, "Dani, why don't you go inside. Walt, Anne, and I need to talk."
"Um… okay?" Danielle said and she headed for the entrance of the ski lodge.
…To be continued.
A/N: Heck yeah! This is so much easier to write than Something to Fight For.