I don't own anything to do with Rick or any character from the Walking Dead. I own the OC character, Ruby, however, and I adore her.
Summary: Shane's been killed by Rick and the group doesn't trust him anymore. So what does Rick do? Snap. He finds a girl in the woods and takes out his aggression.
Yes, I know if you've read my other stuff you know that I am a Shane girl, but Rick is awesome, too. So I decided to play with him a little.
Rate and comment if you like! Thanks, and please, no flames. They are... unhelpful.
**** Yet more delightful reviews and followers, and I can't thank you enough. I hope the last couple chapters haven't been too slow. This one was a lot of fun to write, going a bit more into Ruby's affection for the others in the house. I want to make sure you know that the thing she does for Lori is NOT in anyway an attempt to get the woman to like her. Quite the contrary, she stays out of it. It is only in the hope that life will be a little more bearable for Rick. (I know that should come across in the writing itself, but you never know how someone will read into it, you know?) Oh, BTW, you may notice a slight shift in POV. I was just doing this from Rick's, but Ruby needs a little too, now, I thought. Hope it doesn't screw everything up, fingers crossed...
I adore you guys! You rock!
When he woke, the house was moving quietly around him, and he could hear the sounds of doors opening and closing, low voices drifting in from the kitchen. Glancing at his watch he saw he'd slept late, it was nearly 11. He sat up on the cot and stretched his arms over his head, working the knots out slowly. Ruby's door was uncharacteristically left open, and he got up, peering around the corner to see if she was there. The room was empty, the bed made and a pair of jeans was folded neatly and sat on the end. He let out a deep breath, remembering the feel of her in his arms right on that very bed the night before and a small smile started to spread over his face.
"You wake up happy, don't you?" He heard her from behind him and she swept past him quickly into the room. He went to the doorway and leaned against the frame, watching her. She'd just showered and her damp hair fell in tendrils around her face, a clean pair of jeans and a cut off tee that said Empire Records showed off her curves perfectly.
"Not always." He answered with a small smile.
She looked back at him, excited. "Guess what?"
"What?" He played along.
"Daryl went out really early this morning, found the next farm over. They have a big garden still, grown over but he said there's a lot still growing. Can we go get it?" Her eyes glowed with anticipation, and her cheeks were still a little flushed from the cold water. She could have asked him if they could go on a picnic in the middle of Atlanta right now and he'd have said yes. He nodded and she grinned widely, showing all her perfect white teeth.
"Maggie and Glen wanna go too, I'll get the baskets from the laundry and some bags while you get some breakfast." She chattered happily as she drug a hairbrush through her wet hair and tied it up into a ponytail. "Carol set yours aside in the kitchen."
"Alright, I'll just be a few minutes." He said and went quickly to the bathroom, then headed for the kitchen. Carol was wiping the table with an old towel and he talked to her for a few minutes as he wolfed down the fruit she'd left out for him.
"Daryl, where is this garden?" Rick asked when the man walked in a few moments later.
"Next farm down, less than a mile." Daryl let out a small groan as he sat down in the chair across from him, and Carol handed him a bottle of water, patting his shoulder as she went back to the sink. Rick saw Daryl glance at her back before focusing back on him, and he chuckled to himself. The two of them never would say how they felt about each other, even if everyone else could see it. "You want me to take you down?"
Rick shook his head, taking a drink of his own water and standing up. "I can find it, stay here and keep a lookout while we're gone."
Daryl nodded and Rick thanked Carol as he left. Maggie and Glen were standing with Ruby in the dining room, looking over the bags and baskets she had gathered. All three looked at him with smiling faces as he drew near, and he returned it.
"Ready to go?"
"Hell yeah." Maggie said, her eyes twinkling as she grabbed the bags and stuffed them in the basket. Glen took it from her and they left for the kitchen. He fell into step beside Ruby and grabbed the keys to the blue truck off the wall as they stepped out the back door. Dark clouds were on the horizon, a storm coming, he could see. They'd need to be back before it broke, but he figured they'd have a little time.
Maggie and Glen hopped up into the bed of the truck and Glen put the new rifle they'd gotten in his lap. Rick and Ruby slid into the cab at the same time, and he backed the truck up and headed down the small road toward the highway. He felt a little knot in his stomach when he realized there would be walkers, and they could follow them to the new farm. But the road was deserted, a few rotting bodies evident where Daryl had obviously been.
He looked over to Ruby next to him, watching her look at the passing trees beside the road. Reaching over, he couldn't help but reach over and put a large hand on her knee, squeezing it gently. She looked over at him and smiled peacefully, and he felt his heart jump a little in his chest. Her fingers brushed his lightly and he had to force himself to pull the hand away from her and focus on the road. Maggie and Glen caught everything, and this was something for he and Ruby alone right now.
"That's got to be it." She said, pointing to another mailbox ahead on the left side of the road and he pulled the truck in quickly, glad to be off the highway. These trees were denser than the ones in front of their house, a fact that made him wonder if they should have come here instead, but when he saw the house beyond he was glad they hadn't. It was grander, larger, but full of windows, most of them broken. An newer model Ford was crashed into a tree in the front yard, one window busted out and the others streaked with blackened, old blood. The walkers had obviously swept through here pretty heavily. Ruby spoke, catching him off guard.
"Glad we didn't come here." She said, and he almost chuckled with the fact that they were thinking exactly the same thing.
He pulled the truck down into the yard beside the house and when they reached the back they could see a large patch of overgrown field a few yards past the house. He stopped at the edge of it and they all hopped out quickly, their eyes running over every inch of the field for signs of walkers. When there was obviously none, Maggie shot out into the field and grabbed the first red tomato she saw, holding it up victoriously.
"You gotta see this, get in here!" She said in a hushed call and started gathering things into the bag she'd brought with her. Glen followed quickly with his own bag, and Ruby took the basket. Rick followed her as she walked to the opposite end of the field.
"Oh my god, they've got strawberries." Her face lit up as she got to her knees and started pulling bed berries out of the vines that covered the ground.
"You like them?" He asked, loving the excitement on her face as she gathered.
"Who doesn't?" She said, her eyes wide as she glanced up at him briefly. He made sure he kept his gun ready but he squatted next to her and helped her pick through the foliage.
When they had enough they moved a few rows over and found green beans, another favorite apparently of hers.
"We haven't had much rain, I wonder why this garden still looks so good." She wondered aloud and he scanned the edges of the field. Sure enough, there were ditches leading in equal spaces to the formerly tilled ground.
He tapped her shoulder and moved closer, pointing past her at the ditches. "They had an irrigation setup, see?"
She shielding her eyes with her hand as she followed his finger with her gaze. "Pretty smart." She said appreciatively and went back to gathering. Maggie and Glen moved further down the field and he heard her give a surprised but happy laugh as she found something she liked. He grinned and returned his gaze to Ruby. She'd gotten enough beans to fill a section of the basket and she stood, brushing herself off and picked it up. He put a hand on the small of her back to steady her as she stepped over a particularly large tangle of vines, and when they cleared it, he didn't pull away. Instead she pressed slightly backward into him and he smiled down into her face when she looked up at him.
"Oh, look. Cabbage." She said when they came across a new section. She quickly put the basket down and snapped two large heads off and put them in it.
"Carol is gonna have a ball with this." He commented, looking forward to the woman's face when they brought all this in.
"Carol, nothing." She chuckled. "I'm thisclose to eating some of this stuff right here." He laughed and she flicked her eyebrows up at him playfully.
They were almost to the end now, making sure to cover their half, and came across a section of radishes. He only knew they were because she dug a small bundle of leaves out and came up with a tiny bunch of the red vegetables. When she was done, she sat back on her haunches and brushed the dirt from her hands.
She grinned up at him and pointed behind him. He looked and saw several ample apple trees along the edge of the field. "Help me get these together so we can go to the trees." she said and he knelt down next to her, knees touching as they gathered several more bunches. When they were done she looked over to where Maggie and Glen were approaching them, bags bulging full.
"What did you find?" She asked and Maggie grinned.
"Carrots, turnips, potatoes and lettuce."
"Awesome. They've got apples, too." Ruby's enthusiasm matching Maggie's, and the girls handed Rick and Glen their bags as they went swiftly to the trees nearby.
"It's so cool seeing them this happy." Glen remarked as they followed and Rick nodded.
"Don't get to much these days." He agreed.
"Ruby's great, isn't she? Maggie and Beth love her." The young man said casually, and for once, Rick didn't hear an alternate meaning behind it. He felt comfortable enough to chuckle softly at Glen.
"She's somethin all right."
Maggie dropped her empty bag and pointed to it, her eyes on Glen. "You two get to catch."
"Catch?" Glen said, confused, but when the girls quickly climbed up the trees and a few apples fell to the ground he realized what she meant. They put the bags and basket on the ground and Rick moved under where he saw Ruby disappear. He looked up and found her on a branch above, gathering apples in her arms.
He pulled the bottom of his shirt into a makeshift bag and she started tossing the fruit down to him.
"Hey, no bruising the apples, man." She chided him when two slipped from his grasp and he grinned up at her.
"My apologies." He returned and when his shirt was full he went to Glen and dumped them into the bag the young man held.
"I think that's enough, Maggie." Ruby laughed when climbed down and saw the bag was bulging almost to bursting.
"I love apples." Maggie said with a little grin and dropped to the ground lightly, tugging her cowboy hat further down on her head.
The four of them carried their loot back to the truck, and when they'd secured it all in the bed Rick looked over at the house. "Let's check it before we go. Looks like the rain is holding off a little longer than I thought."
"Sounds good." Ruby said, hopping down of the truck and they followed Rick to the back door of the large house. Rick tried the door, finding it unlocked and he turned to Glen.
"Stay here with them while I clear the first floor. You see anything, you yell for me, got it?"
Glen nodded and Rick pulled his weapon from his hip, taking a quiet step inside. He didn't hear anything. No moans or shuffling, just the tap tap of water in the sink of the kitchen he was in. He moved quickly through the first floor, clearing a large living room with ugly green floral wallpaper, a dining room with a long mahogany table, still shiny even with the pollen and dust that had drifted in through the shattered windows nearby. A sitting room, a bathroom, all were clear and he went swiftly back to the kitchen door.
"Come on, but be quiet. Didn't get the second floor yet." He said, ushering them in. "Glen, stay here and keep watch. You two, start in the kitchen while I go upstairs."
They moved to the cabinets as he went to the staircase in the front hall and jogged up them lightly. Bedrooms, four of them, large in size and easily cleared. Bathrooms too, and he returned to the kitchen.
"We good?" Maggie asked when she saw him.
"Good." He confirmed and stepped up behind Ruby.
"Found salt, pepper, some other stuff." She said, looking back at him. "And flour, and powdered milk, can you believe it?"
"Very nice." He said, picking up a container of baking powder she'd found. He carried it and other things she'd sat on the counter to a basket Maggie had found somewhere and put it on. "Let's go up, get started up there. Maggie, when you're done check the rest of the first floor."
"You got it." The girl said, her head partially in a cabinet, and Rick took Ruby by the elbow and let her to the stairs.
The first bedroom they came to was yellow, pretty, but these windows were broken too, and a long blood streak ran across the floor. The person who left it must have gotten back up and walked away, and he saw Ruby shudder a little as she stepped over it and went to the closet. She pulled a suitcase out of the bottom and took it to the bed, propping it open.
"Maggie is gonna flip for this." She said, grabbing a couple dresses from the hangers and tossing them into the suitcase. He pulled a blue one back out and looked at it.
"You should keep this one." He said, and she looked back at him over her shoulder. "It would look great on you."
"Maybe I will." She grinned. "If you like it."
He chuckled. He knew she wasn't just following orders. They were past that. She threw a few more articles in the case and went to the dresser. She made an excited noise in her throat when she saw the abundance of undergarments, and grabbed great handfuls of them and added them to the case, clicking it closed.
"We totally should have come here first." She said as he picked it up and followed her to the next room. It was, on second look, a little boy's room, with two twin beds on either wall.
"Carl can wear most of that." He said, pulling his attention from the toy chest in the corner, a lump in his throat. It had the name Evan inscribed on the top, and he couldn't help but wonder where Evan was now. Safe somewhere, like Carl, or walking among the dead on the highway nearby.
She seemed to notice his change and she looked at him gently. "Don't think about it." He was startled. That was the second time in under an hour she'd practically read his mind. "Wherever he is, he's not suffering. They got out."
"How do you know?"
"No family pictures, they were all off the wall downstairs. Half the clothes in here are gone."
He gathered himself quickly. "Use the bins in the corner, leave the toys in there. I'll carry them down." He said, and the two of them set about folding the clothes quickly and filling the blue plastic bins against the wall. He sat them in the hallway near the stairs, and she was walking out of the room with a little bag slung over her shoulder.
"Go ahead and take them down. I'll get the other rooms." She said cheerfully and he nodded. When he got the last bin to the truck he went back up and saw she had two more suitcases in the hallway. He passed them, however, and went to the open door at the end of the hall. She was digging through a dresser and looked up when she heard him enter.
"That suitcase is fragile. Be careful with it." She said, pointing to the closed luggage on the bed.
"Fragile?" He joked, stepping in. "You're not bringing little glass figurines now, are you?"
"You are absolutely hilarious, you know that?" She answered flatly and he chuckled, bringing an armful of clothes to a second, open case. "Carol said you were a cop, you should have been a comedian."
"Finally, somebody sees it." He said with false relief and she laughed as she closed the other case.
"That's it, then." She said, picking it up and they brought the last of the bags and luggage downstairs.
"Get anything good?" She asked Maggie, who was tying up a bag in the dining rooms.
"More candles, a lot of them. And Glen found a little grill in the kitchen pantry. We won't have to light that fire for a while for Carol to cook."
"Thank god. It gets so hot."
Maggie laughed lightly. "It gets so hot in here? So hot?"
"So take off all your clothes." Ruby caught on right away, responding in a sing song voice, but Rick and Glen weren't so quick. Their heads whipped around at the her words. She laughed and Ruby gave her a fast little hip bump as she passed and they sang together.
"I am getting so hot, I want to take my clothes off..." They burst out laughing and Glen went bright red as he opened the door for them and went out first. Rick had to put that mental imagery away before he followed.
They loaded up and were back on the road in a few minutes, Maggie and Glen balancing on the now full bed.
"We have to come back, if we stay here a while. We'll need those blankets eventually." She said, looking out at the highway ahead. They quieted down and Rick paused the vehicle, looking for walkers. Again there were none, and Ruby frowned at him.
"Well, maybe they're all gone."
"Keep hope alive." He said lightly, turning down the road and speeding off.
"I, uh... found some baby stuff, wrapped like it was going to a shower or something. It's boy stuff, but I thought you'd like to give it to Lori."
"I'm sure she'll appreciate it, thanks." He gave her a grateful smile.
"I got you something, too." She said after a moment, grinning at him.
"Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "Go on."
She dug in the bag at her feet and pulled out an electric razor, wiggling it in the air at him. "Maybe you'll stop cutting yourself into ribbons."
"We don't have electricity." He said, chuckling.
"It's battery operated."
"Did you happen to find batteries?" He asked, enjoying her growing exasperation with him.
"Better." She pulled a cord out of the bag. "Car charger. Guy must have spent a lot of time on the road. But it's got a full charge now."
"I think we have him beat on mileage." He said, putting his arm over the back of the seat, his fingers brushing her shoulder. She automatically inched closer to him, resting back on his arm and he ran his fingertips lightly over her arm as he looked out over the road ahead.
"Walker." He said suddenly, pulling his arm back and sitting up, slowing the truck a little. The thing shambled slightly toward them from the treeline, aware of the sound of a motor, but just as Rick began to pull his Python the thing jerked and fell, an arrow planted in the back of it's skull. Daryl appeared a second later, ripping the arrow out of the walker and looking up at them approaching. Rick pulled the truck to a stop when they got to him and Ruby rolled the window down.
"Have there been more?" He leaned over Ruby a little as Daryl propped an arm up on the top of the truck and leaned in.
"Not really, bastard just had good timin'."
"Get in, we'll take you back." Rick said and Daryl shook his head.
"I wanna make sure nothin followed ya. I'll be in in a while."
Rick nodded and was putting the car into drive again when Ruby pulled a large bottle of whiskey out of her bag and passed it through the window to Daryl with a smile. He took it, surprised, and ran his eyes over the label before looking up at her.
"Must be one hell of a garden. They're growin' the shit now." He said lightly, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Thought you'd appreciate it." She answered.
"I think we're gonna keep you, girl." Daryl said, reaching in and chucking her in the shoulder. She grinned at him and Rick pulled the truck away and down the short road to the farm house.
"You're full of surprises." He said, sliding his eyes over to her.
She shrugged. "It was in the kitchen. I've known a lot of whiskey drinkers, he looked like one."
He smiled and shook his head, again appreciating her ability to read people. And be kind about it to boot.
Carrying their finds into the house was a little like Christmas morning. He and Glen brought load after load in and the rest of the house gathered around Maggie and Ruby, eyes wide with surprise and excitement. Clothes were dumped in a large pile in the middle of the room, hands pawing at them from all sides as articles were claimed and carried away.
Ruby called Carol over and the older woman knelt by her as she dug through a couple cases and the bag she'd kept with her.
"I know it's silly, but I thought you might like these." Ruby said, pulling two bottles of perfume out and handing them to the pleased woman.
"My goodness, I haven't used this in ages. It'll be nice to smell like a woman again." Carol said with a smile.
Ruby grinned back. "You wouldn't believe the veggies we found either, they're in the kitchen. Salt, pepper, flour, and powdered milk, too."
Carol raised her eyebrows and pecked Ruby on the cheek as she left for the kitchen, a dress and a couple shirts in her hands, along with the perfume.
Maggie was getting some things for Glen to wear as Rick brought in the blue bins for Carl. The boy's eyes went wide as saucers as his dad brought them to the floor he sat on, under his mother's place on the couch. Lori hadn't moved, but Maggie had brought her some clothes and they sat next to her in a small pile.
"I think these will fit you fine." Rick said, holding a pair of pants up to the boy, but he was more interested in the toys underneath. "We can put these in your room in a minute."
"Thanks, Dad." Carl beamed at him and dove into the baskets. Rick turned around and looked for the baby clothes Ruby had told him about. She flicked her eyes to a bag near his feet when he looked at her and she could see a flash of gratitude as he picked it up and carried it over to Lori.
"They're for a boy, but they should work." He said, taking a seat on the other end of the couch and laying out the little sleepers and onesies Ruby had found. Lori picked them up and ran her fingers over the tiny articles, looking over again as he pulled a couple rattles and pacifiers in packages and put them down too. There was a little cardboard book with bugs in bright colors over the cover, and a large package of newborn diapers, too, and he had to hide his own surprise at that. Ruby hadn't told him exactly what she'd found.
Lori picked the things up gently, nodding her head. When she looked up, she had a strange, seemingly grateful look on her face. "This is perfect."
He gave her a small smile and nod, and went to help Carl get the bins up to his room. Ruby had kept her attention on the rest of the unpacking of the items, but she was glad Lori had been gracious about the whole thing. She saw the pregnant woman get up and gather the things she'd been given and move slowly up the stairs.
"This is great, huh? They're really happy." Maggie said to her, breaking her train of thought. Ruby grinned at her.
"You guys didn't have much, I knew it would go over well."
"No kidding. I didn't even have a razor before you gave me one. I thought I was gonna start a fire with the stubble on my legs."
Ruby snorted a little at that, tossing a bag over to her. "Don't have to worry about that now. Those people were stocked up. Even got lotion and conditioner."
They all parted, each taking their stuff to their respective rooms, shouts of thanks as they left. Ruby had a smile on her face as she gathered the remaining bags and things she had held over for herself. She put the empty suitcases in a line against the wall, keeping one for her own, and went back to her bedroom.
She hung and folded the clothes, putting them in the dresser, but saving a hanger for the blue dress Rick had seen. She smiled when she put it in the closet, tucking the other articles around it so as not to be seen quite yet. She took the electric razor and put it on the vanity next to the wash basin. If Rick went looking he'd know where to find it.
Rick helped his son put his new clothes away and sat down on the floor with him while he looked over the toys they'd brought. Lori came up shortly after and sat on the side of the bed, looking over the baby things quietly. Rick let her have her space, getting up to line the bins along the wall and out of the walking space.
"I thought we'd have to find a store or something later, this is a relief." She said after a while, looking over at him over Carl's head.
"We will, but this is a start." He said, leaning against the dresser and crossing his arms over his chest.
"What was that farm like? Should we move there?" She asked, holding a sleeper in her hands tightly.
He shook his head. "Too many windows, it would take days to secure. This house is good, easier to manage, and the garden is near enough."
She nodded, pursing her lips a little. The edge was back in her voice when she spoke again. "Well, thanks."
He frowned, but he was surprised the normal things that would come out of his mouth were strangely quiet. Things like 'Why are you thanking me like it was a favor?', or 'We should be doing this together, not you against the world.' Instead, he thought of the girl downstairs with long dark hair and sparkling eyes, a girl that wanted him to laugh again, joked with him, stood by his side when things got hairy. He nodded to Lori and left the room quietly, leaving her misguided silence to her alone. He was over it, and he wasn't angry anymore.
