AN: Hi there! Welp, had to have my hard drive replaced, but (LUCKILY) I got a chance to save my writing before my computer got wiped, so I do apologize for the crazy long wait between chapters. Now that I have some distance from some of the first few chapters, I realized there were a lot of edits I wanted to make to the chapters I had already posted, so if you notice differences, it's because I did go through and change things up a bit. Also, I will tell you without shame that if you leave me a review, I will dance around like a drunk monkey, so...yeah. Do it up, please. Back to the story-this is the first time we see Shane and Emily in a real fight, and I really hope I've gotten the characters right - I've gone through their dialogue and edited it about a hundred times, so please, let me know what you think.

A huge thanks to all who've helped me: my pre-readers, Minorshan and Resounding, and my lovely betas The Prophet Lemonade,doctorkaitlyn, and Bitch Goddess. I'm not dead, you guys! :D

Girl, Interrupted

Day 67

Emily

"As soon as I get the chance, I'm leaving," Shane said, staring at the wall of the RV bathroom.

"What?" Emily asked in shock, too surprised to finish closing the little bathroom door.

"I'm takin' off. I can't be here anymore. I work better on my own."

Emily gaped at him. "Wh-what? I'm sorry, what?" She stared at him, waiting for an answer that did not seem to be forthcoming. "What did you expect, that I'd just be fine with this? That any of us would be?"

Shane gave her a hard look. "Doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter?" she whispered incredulously.

"No! I mean…" he sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair. "What the hell did you think? We were gonna hold hands and ride off into the sunset together?"

Emily's face got suddenly hot as she weighed his accusation. "No," she defended.

"I was thinking - I mean, I don't know. You're a cop. You were literally trained to protect people! And Travis was…" she skipped right over that in her head, refusing, for the moment, to think about the night their camp was ransacked by walkers. "I freaked out, and I went where I thought I'd be safest, that's all it was," she justified. She took a deep breath.

"It's just… nice knowing that… I don't know, someone's got your back. I wasn't-" she paused again, considering her words. "It doesn't have to be more complicated than that, except I, well… I guess I thought we were friends or something. I just thought, you know… we could trust each other," she finished, somewhat lamely.

"You shouldn't be so trusting," he replied, crossing his arms.

"Well maybe…you…shouldn't be such an jerk!"

They glared at each other.

"You're not the only one who's angry, you know," she said, working to keep herself at a whisper. "You don't get to just…to just…the rest of us have things to deal with too, I just…" Her anger was breaking. He could see the hurt in her eyes.

"Everything okay back there?" asked Andrea, her voice closer than Emily expected it to be.

"Yeah, all fine," Emily said. She turned back to Shane. "And speaking of not being able protect yourself…" she said, crossing her arms.

"Don't even ask. She's not getting that gun back," he whispered.

"It's hers!"

"She doesn't know how to use it safely."

"Then teach her!"

"I don't think she needs a gun so soon after she tried to kill herself."

Emily's eyes blazed. "Then teach me."

Shane laughed.

"Don't you dare laugh at me," she snapped, taken aback. "You think I don't know who the weakest link here is? I would be dead if not for this group! And hey, it's not like I can depend on anyone else to have my back," she said, a bit more accusatory than she perhaps meant to.

"Don't be so naïve," he whispered roughly. "The group loves you. And Rick, he would never let anything happen to you."

"We loved Amy, too," Emily reminded him, tears pricking at her eyes. "And sure, Rick's great but he- well I mean, I've known him for about a week," Emily countered, fishing for an excuse.

"He just saved your life-

"-And you've saved it about a hundred times before he even-"

"What else does he have to do? He's a good guy-"

"And you're a bad guy, yeah, I remember," she said bitterly. "You don't want to have anything to do with me? Fine. That's fine. But you can't deny me the chance to defend myself."

The RV slowed, and rolled to a stop.

Shane breathed heavily through his nose. "I'm not giving you a gun just because you're scared. That's how accidents happen."

"I'm not scared," she said stubbornly.

Shane

Of course she was scared, and Shane knew it, too. Fuck this, he thought. You want to call me out? Fine. That works both ways. He took a step closer and angled his head down so he was right in her face. "Bullshit," he said.

Emily glared at him, looking hot and uncomfortable. Good, he thought. I guess we'll do this now.

"You heard me. There are dead people walking around outside, any of us could die at any moment, and you're not scared?" he scoffed.

"Is this a joke?" she spluttered, outraged. "Did you…what is this, I don't have time for-"

"Don't act like you're a tough guy," he said, his smirk growing wider with each passing second. "You're not. You're freaked out, and you're letting it dictate your actions."

"I- are you kidding me? I will slap you!" she threatened.

"Nah, you won't," he taunted, still smiling cockily at her furious expression. "You're too scared."

Emily's face registered blank shock, and then her eyes will filled with hurt anger. "Fuck you!" she fumed. "I should hit you!"

"Then do it," he said emphatically, dropping the smirk. Finally, he was reaching her - she was letting go. "I know you're scared. Stop it. Stop being scared and start being ready. They're out there, whether you're afraid of them or not."

Emily stared at him, arms crossed, looking less angry now, but remaining silent.

Shane sighed. "I need to go see why we're stopped. We'll finish this in a minute," he said, stepping out of the small RV bathroom.

"Asshole," she muttered, still in the bathroom. Can't say I didn't earn that one, he thought.

Rick

"Alright, we can get through this, Glenn can you be another pair of eyes? And we need someone outside to help navigate the RV through all these abandoned cars," Rick instructed, slipping into leader mode.

"I'll do it," Daryl offered, who had sidled up next to the RV on his motorcycle.

"Perfect," Rick said.

Dale slowly followed the map Daryl carved through the maze of cars, until the RV stalled with a loud whirring noise.

"Oh no," Dale lamented as he got out and walked around to the front of the RV. "I knew it, I told you we'd need a new radiator hose. I can't keep fixing it, it won't last long, I said it," Dale admonished Rick, as steam billowed out of the front grate on the RV.

"Well luckily for us, we seem to have come across several different parts that might work," Rick said, gesturing to the mass of abandoned cars impeding their way. "Let's get scavenging. While we're stopped, we can always use more gas. Daryl, T-Dog, get on that, please. Will someone grab- Shane, great, there you are. We need replacement parts, and anything else that looks useful," Rick said, thinking ahead to what they might find useful.

"I'll help, too," offered Glenn.

"Let's go, buddy," Shane said to Glenn, and they set off through the maze of abandoned cars.

Emily

"You still in there, sugartits?"

"What?" Emily gave a small, surprised laugh. "What did you call me?" she asked as she exited the bathroom.

"What? I remember the internet," said Andrea with a slight smile. "Now," she said, spreading out the parts of her gun, "Any idea how to do this?" While the group was wandering around the abandoned cars looking for supplies, Andrea had evidently snuck back into the RV to reassemble her gun.

"None at all, sorry. But I can help you try," Emily said with a light smile, sitting down across from Andrea. Andrea was so easy to be with, she always made Emily smile.

"There she is, there's that sweetheart," Andrea said, smiling back at her.

"No way, I wanna be badass."

"Badass," Andrea repeated skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, a badass. Less Zooey Deschanel, more Kate from Lost," Emily asserted.

"What you need is to be less Indian-guy-from-Community," Andrea said with a smirk, surveying the pieces of her gun.

"Abed?" She said excitedly, before realizing she had kind of just proved Andrea's point. "Dammit, you're right."

"You know, like, every pop culture reference ever. It's kind of amazing," she said smiling, fiddling with a small metal spring.

"Weird that none of it exists anymore. I wonder if-"

At the same moment, movement on the periphery caught both her and Andrea's attention.

"Get. Down." Andrea breathed. They slid onto the floor of the RV, horrified.

Walkers. A lot of walkers.

A mangled, bloody arm reached into the RV, groping at the railing for leverage. Andrea grabbed the towel which held the pieces of the gun as Emily slid back jerkily in terror. Seeing no other option than the bathroom, they slid silently into it, closing the door as quietly as possible. Andrea opened the cleaning towel and frantically started fitting the pieces together, trying desperately to assemble her gun. They heard shuffling and ragged breathing approach the door and they froze, holding their breath. It moved toward the back of the RV, and after an age that seemed to last forever, the sound of the shuffling moved away from them. It was on its way out. They were in the clear. They were gonna make it. Emily let out the breath she was holding.

Andrea frantically began trying to reassemble her gun again, when the metal spring fell off the towel, making a small clinking sound as it hit the floor. Andrea's mouth made a perfect O, like a silent scream.

Maybe it didn't hear, Emily thought desperately. Maybe it was too far away.

The shuffling sound moved closer.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck-

As silently as they could, they scooched all the way back against the wall, Emily squishing in next to Andrea, and Emily joined Andrea in bracing her legs against the door.

Oh fuck, oh god, please just go away… Emily thought desperately.

And suddenly, violently, the folding door began to shake and bend inwards, opening from the outside pressure assaulting it. And as it bent, the girls glimpsed an awful white head with sunken eyes, no lips, teeth blackened with blood and dripping with strands of drool, and the rotted leftovers of what had once been a nose. And as it clicked its teeth and snarled at them through the gaping hole in its face, they screamed.

Through the open skylight she saw Dale, lying flat, still in his lookout position on the top of the RV. He fidgeted with his pockets, and threw them the only thing he had: a screwdriver. Emily clutched it for dear life, trying to tamp down on the noises of abject terror escaping from her throat while she wondered how the hell she was supposed to stab that thing through the crack in the door without it getting her. Unless…unless the door opened, she thought, horrified. Part of her wanted to wait for the others to come help them, but she knew they weren't coming - surely they were dealing with the walkers outside. She had to kill that walker or be eaten by it. Stop being scared.

"I have to stab it!" she cried to Andrea.

"Then stab it!" Andrea cried back.

"If I don't…if…use the sharp part on the gun, go for its eye," she gasped. Andrea scrambled behind her, and when she was sure she had the pieces in her hand, Emily stood up, bracing herself. She was terrified. You have to do it, you have to do it or it's coming in and there's nowhere to go, stop being scared, STOP IT…

"Now!" she cried, and Andrea let go of the door, letting it fold open. Running on pure adrenaline, Emily pushed the walker back by its chest, backing it against the wall of the RV, and went straight for its eye. It flailed its arms, its hands scrabbling against her, seeking purchase in her skin. She stabbed - again and again she stabbed it in its bloody eye socket, as far in as the screwdriver would go. Part of her noticed that she had fallen to the floor, pinning the walker under her knees, as she continued stabbing it.

Please be dead, please be dead, please be dead, she thought hysterically, stabbing the other eye socket now.

"I think," gasped Andrea, "you got it."

Shaking with sobs, Emily jerked away from the walker, and looked up at Andrea, her face splattered in stolen blood.

"Oh god, oh my god what happened in here? Are you guys okay?" asked Lori concernedly as she climbed onto the RV, taking in the scene. Emily was still sitting on the ground, and Andrea was wiping the blood off Emily's face. Andrea just nodded.

"Boys," Lori said, stepping out of the RV, "We need some help getting a walker out of here. Carl," she said in a quieter tone, "don't look."

"Whoa. Who tackled this fella?" Daryl asked with surprise as he leaned down, inspecting the walker with disgust. He glanced up to see Emily's eyes filled with tears and turned quickly to Andrea, who was finishing wiping blood off Emily's face, for confirmation. Andrea nodded once, her face a mix of quiet anger and concern.

"Well," he said, crouching down next to Emily, "you're a badass now. Welcome to the club, girlie."

Emily choked out something that might have been a laugh.

"You'll be alright," he said, and she sniffed, nodding in response. He leaned in hesitantly, eventually patting her awkwardly on the head before standing up to clear out the walker. "Let's get this fucker out of here."

"What happened?" Shane asked, stepping into the RV.

"Emily killed a walker," Daryl said over his shoulder, hoisting the walker up.

"What? How?" he asked, his eyebrows pulling together with alarm, almost tripping into the RV.

"Well, since we had no gun," Andrea spat, stalking toward Shane, "She stabbed it in the goddamn face," she finished darkly, and left the RV.

Shane looked at Emily, still sitting on the floor, her shoulders hunched practically all the way up to her ears, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Emily-" he rasped through his dry throat, "I…I am so sorry," he said, making a snap decision and closing the distance between them. He dropped to his knees beside her. "I shouldn't have left you in here-"

"It's not like I would have been safer outside," Emily responded tonelessly.

He winced and gripped her shoulders. "I was being a dick, before-"

"No, you were right!" she said, starting to shake. "And if you hadn't pushed me back there, I would probably be dead right now!" she said, breaking down. "I AM scared! I'm terrified! They're EVERYWHERE and at night I DREAM about them! I don't know what will happen to us or how we'll survive or where we'll go, or- or-"

"I know," he said quietly, embracing her from the side and tucking her head underneath his chin, while sobs continued to wrack her body. "Hey…" he said, pulling back to find her eyes. He put one of his rough hands on her soft cheek, wiping away the tears there with his thumb. "But you're not dead. You're right here." His eyes softened, but he pulled his hand away, swallowing thickly.

Emily's breath hitched. "But I'm still scared!" she protested.

"We all are," he said, a smile playing at his lips. "Even me. That's why you can't let it control you."

Emily closed her eyes for a moment and breathed deeply, and Shane squeezed her shoulder.

"You're okay," he said, and then got to his feet. "C'mon, we gotta go, and I can teach you about guns while we walk."

"Walk where?" Emily asked in confusion. Shane didn't answer right away. "What happened?" she asked, dread settling into the pit of her stomach.

"Sophia's missing."

Next time: Searching for Sophia.