A/n: Sorry for the delay on this chapter, my dog who had been lost for 7 days found his way home and I've been focusing on getting him back to being comfortable at home. Here you go, enjoy Ch2

Always the Quiet Ones

Season 2, Episode 2: Ghosts and Snow

Chapter 2

Nick - Day 950 - 11:18 AM

Dark thoughts flew around Nick's head. It had been several hours since the storm and the death of a baby. He kept thinking about how Rebecca died for nothing. She died bringing AJ into this disgusting, cruel world and her son was taking away with the storm. The whole group, what was left of it were focusing on sleeping but they weren't able to do that anyways due to what happened. The roof was gone, there was debris all over the gas station floor, but it was the safest place for them at the moment.

Nick grew angry when he thought about Christa screaming at Clementine. He knew that the two knew each other longer than anyone left alive, well, besides Kenny who was probably dead the last time Nick saw him. He was going to have a talk with her but he didn't have the strength to even get up from his bed. He liked where he laid perfectly, he almost felt like never getting up but of course the other side of himself told him that wasn't an option. Lilly couldn't sleep, same as the rest of us, but she didn't even try to sleep. She was continuously reloading her gun, unloading it repeatedly. Like she was going to do that the entire rest of the day. Nick decided he was restless, got up off his feet and walked over to Lilly.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked, scratching the long hair that reached to his shoulders. He thought about cutting it for a while but he didn't have the time nor the items to do so. His beard which was pretty lengthy. Lilly quickly jolted her eyes to Nick and then back at her gun, "I, Uh... Passing time, I guess."

"You, uh... you think Clem's doing alright?" Nick asked, every conversation was awkward because everyone was too upset about the baby's death.

"Who knows? Christa feeling her head with guilt sure as hell doesn't help." Nick nodded, "Yeah. I'm gonna have a talk with Christa."

"Nick, no. She's just angry. I know what you want to say to her." Lilly refused, Nick glared at her, "I'm not letting her yell at a fucking twelve-year old girl for a death that wasn't her fault. The fucking storm was the fault."

"I know that. I do. But you can't scream at her, she loved that baby, you heard about how she was pregnant and how she lost it, remember? She thought of that baby as her son!"

"No shit, Lilly! I'm not going to scream at her, just... speak with her and tell her to lay off. Okay?" Nick told her. Lilly sighed, "Fine. I guess I can't stop you." Nick slightly chuckled, "No. You can't." Nick turned away from the airwoman and faced where Christa was laying, she looked like she was staring up at the ceiling, which was pretty much gone in all places except for the part she was staring at. Nick glanced over at Clementine who had distanced herself from Christa and was laying on her side, and her hat was on a counter. Nick kneeled down to the woman and called her up, "Christa."

"What?" She angrily questioned.

"Get the fuck up and talk to me." Nick retorted. Christa rose up and turned to him, "What do you want?"

"I need you to hear what I'm saying to you. You don't speak to Clementine like that ever again, you hear me?"

"You don't get to-" Christa was cut off again by Nick.

"You wanna blame someone, blame the fucking hurricane. This wasn't even your goddamn baby, if anyone should be upset - It's me. His mother was one of the people I survived with months, and I basically learned that she died for NOTHING. You get over to that little girl and you tell her that it wasn't her fault, that you're sorry."

"And what if I don't?" Christa retorted.

"Then you don't wanna know what I'll do to you." Nick threatened, he rose up from his crouching position and walked back over to Lilly. He glanced back at Christa who was rising up and walked over to Clementine.

"What did you do?" Lilly asked.

"I talked to her." Nick told her. Lilly sighed, "Whatever. Sometimes I wonder how we even escaped Wellington, and how we even survived this."

"God's got a strange sense of humor." Nick told him, he didn't really believe in God or anything like that, but his Uncle Pete did and he respected his beliefs. If there was a God, he was either dead or a complete asshole.

"I could've got bitten, tried so hard to stay alive and make it back to whoever I knew, but I ended up dying before I could, make I end up in a fence, have a shitty death. But I didn't. I could've died many times, but I didn't. My whole group, eight. My mom. My Uncle. Luke. Carlos. Sarah. Rebecca. Alvin. I can't forget about them, and why I couldn't save them but I can move on. Maybe the guilt won't stop, but I will move on. I will." Nick wiped his forehead and faced Lilly.

"You will move on. You will. We all will." Lilly smiled and Nick looked at her, and smiled back. He glanced over to Clementine who was still laying down and Christa went back to where she was before. Nick looked over to Wallace who was putting his hand on his bandaged hand, he walked over to him, "Holding up okay?"

"I've been shot twice in the hand in one day. Not really."

"Yeah, but what about everyone else?"

"I guess, I'm alright. This fucking world can't give us a break. You think if we were still in Wellington when the storm arrived, maybe we could've all lived."

"No. I doubt it. It probably would've taken down the walls, and the place would be worthless. But what if everyone in the area is now dead cause of the storm?"

"Then there's nobody left to fuck with us." Nick told him. Wallace sighed, "Even in traumatic moments, you don't change a bit. Still that confident sumbitch."

"I wasn't always like this, I was a fuck-up."

"I find that hard to believe." Wallace chuckled. Nick smiled, "You have no idea... I-I did some bad things, that a normal, competent person wouldn't have ever done."

"We've all done shitty things. That's how the world works now.."

"I suppose you're right." Nick said.

"Well, everyone! I think we should stay here for maybe another day or two and then we can head out and find somewhere else, sound good?" Nick yelled out to his companions. Nobody spoke up until Wallace said, "Yeah. I guess, that's a yes."

"Okay. Get some rest everyone. I think we have enough food to last us the next few days."

"You gonna get some rest?" Wallace asked. Nick nodded, "Gonna try." Wallace nodded as well, "Alright. Night, or morning.. I dunno. See ya." Nick smiled, laying down on the space he spent laying down for a while again earlier.

After about fifteen minutes of shutting his eyes, he had a dream of a man with a scarred face grabbing Clementine by the neck, dragging her along the floor of the gas station. Nick tried to chase after her, but was his over the head with a rifle. Then he woke up, and felt a huge pain on his head. Wait? That wasn't a dream?

Nick looked around to see the gas station empty and saw Clementine's hat on the counter. Nick groaned and saw that Lilly's gun was on the ground as well.

"LILLY! CLEM!"