"Who the hell are you?" Maggie asked. Evidently Rick was still not with it, or those would have been his words. My dad smiled and I scowled.
"Come on, guys. I would have thought that was obvious." I muttered, lowering my bow. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill my own dad. And I knew it would bite me in the butt.
"You're Jedidiah Jameson?" Rick said, rather incredulously. I shook my head. Sure, it was gloomy in the room, but still. It was easy to make out how similar we looked. He smiled.
"That's me. I see my daughter helped you to get out."
"Why wouldn't she?" Michonne asked, frowning slightly, though half the time I could swear that was the usual expression on her face. I shook my head again and took a step forward.
"Jedidiah wants me to stay here with him. Move here. With Eric. Live as one happy family again." I explained. I could feel everyone looking at me, knew that they didn't want to believe what they were hearing. I shook my head and looked at the ground. This was a dumb idea. Why did I have to agree to this? Why didn't I argue against it more?
"What?" That was Carl. I didn't look at him, just shook my head.
"If you think that I would just drop everything here and now, then you evidently don't know me too well. Been through too much to just trust him."
"Now that's just sad. Not trust your own dear daddy? Whatever happened to my little girl? The one who told me that no matter what, she would always love me."
"Now, I'm not much of one to swear, but ah..." I looked him in the eye, "Her fuck wit dad left her and her brother to fend for themselves. Oh, and he sliced her back open on multiple occasions. You know, that kind of thing. Kinda makes one rethink one's priorities. Especially when one's dad goes and uses one's friends against one."
"That is a lot of 'one's."
"For once in your life take things seriously, Jedidiah." I spat. He tutted.
"My own daughter calling me by my first name? Would it really kill you to call me 'Dad'?"
"You haven't earned it." I hissed.
"Let me put it this way... call me Jedidiah again and your friends will all be killed." He smiled innocently and I scowled. All this because I wasn't calling him 'Dad'? Man, I hoped I wasn't that insane.
"Look here, Dad, you want to have build a relationship with me and Eric? Like I said earlier, letting them go would be a good place to start. Pitty you seem a little too insane to realise that. What happened to you? You used to be a man who I could respect at the very least. Now I just feel sorry for you, I can't understand you anymore." He stepped forward, towering above me, and the next thing I knew his hand was clenched around my throat. I dropped the bow and started scratching at his hand, trying to make him let go. I couldn't breathe and I felt the asthma starting to kick in. Of all the goddamned times for me to have an attack!
"Stop! Let her go, can't you see you're strangling her?" Carl yelled. Go Carl. Tell this son of a bitch. Not that he'll listen to you, I was smart enough to piss him off, smart enough to insult him. I stopped scratching his hand and slowly dropped my arm to my side, concentrating as much as I could on trying to force air into my lungs, past my dad's hand and my asthma. I felt my hand clutching around a knife. My dad just smiled and took it off me.
"Don't interfere with my teaching methods, boy. This has nothing to do with you. It is just a small family matter."
"No parent should teach their child like that." Maggie scolded. I closed my eyes. The world around me had started fading out, and I didn't want to see that. Jedidiah, as far as I knew, took no notice of what she had said. I screwed up my face and used what little strength I had left to kick out at him, making him double over in pain. Obvious weakness is obvious. I stumbled backwards, forcing what air I could into my lungs. I felt hands pulling backwards and opened my eyes, Carl and Rick standing in front of me. Woo! Go the Grimes family! I struggled to my feet, Michonne helping me up. I rubbed my neck gingerly. Man, I was going to have an impressive bruise. Maggie handed me the bow I had dropped and I nodded in thanks.
"Where's your inhaler?" Michonne asked. I pointed to my bag on the floor. Where else would I have put my inhaler? But I was getting the feeling that my inhaler was actually empty. She handed me the inhaler and I shook it, silently cursing as I shook my head.
"Empty." I wheezed.
"Shit." Michonne said. Maggie stepped forward.
"Your daughter has asthma. Surely you know that?"
"What kind of parent doesn't know when their child has asthma?" He asked.
"Her inhaler is empty. We're in the middle of the goddamned apocalypse, and you go and strangle her?!"
"How would strangulation set of asthma?"
"Fear." I scowled, trying to calm my breathing. Jedidiah frowned, moving to take a step forward. The sound of four guns being prepared to fire made me smile. It felt good, despite not being able to breathe.
"You just stay right there and we won't have any problems." Rick said.
"Anyway more problems." I corrected. Rick turned and looked at me and I shrugged. He wasn't in the best condition and I was currently having an asthma attack after being strangled. Not to mention that I had pretty much undertaken a prison break for them, and we were having a face off with my dad. Things were looking pretty shit. I stood up straight and pointed Daryl's crossbow at my dad. I would have used my bow, but I realised I didn't really know how to shoot it. Sure, shooting a bow isn't rocket science, but you still need technique. At least I had technique and ability to shoot Daryl's crossbow. I attempted to steady my breathing and pulled the trigger. Jedidiah cried out in pain as he collapsed to the ground, clutching his knee. I smirked.
"My dad used to be an explorer. Then he took an arrow to the knee." I said. Sure, there is a time and a place for those kinds of jokes, and this probably wasn't it, but I could hardly resist. It was just begging to be said.
"Let's go!" Rick said, taking control again. Eugene still helped him to walk, but at least it seemed like he could think straight again. Maggie helped me along and Michonne took the front, Carl once again bringing up the rear as we made our way out of the building, me pointing which turns to take. Somehow, by some miracle, we managed to escape without a hitch past the massive one we had already encountered.
"Your dad is a real piece of work." Carl said once we were in the back of the ute once more. I nodded, regaining the ability to breathe properly once more.
"No kidding."
"I can't sit around and do nothing!" Rick raged once we had gotten back and someone had looked at his leg. I smiled, highly amused, laughing quietly to myself. Carl looked just as amused as I was, and Daryl was laughing. Rick almost seemed to be a worse patient than Daryl, and that was saying something.
"You can and you will. That leg needs to heal." The woman said. She actually was a nurse, had arrived while we were out. Maybe my medical career could really kick off, now. Maybe I could be taught some proper stuff. Rick glared at each of us in turn before trying to jump off the bed.
"See? I'm perfectly – shit!" I burst out laughing as he pretty much collapsed on the floor, Carl going to help the new woman get Rick back on the bed. Rick glared at me.
"You think this is funny, do ya? You with the fricken satellite dish."
"At least I'll lose the satellite dish before you can walk again." I quipped, grinning. It didn't look that much like a satellite dish, but I was having to wear a padded neck brace for a little while. Something about wanting to make sure I didn't make things worse. Didn't see how I could, but who was I to argue? At any rate, I loved turtle necks when I was a kid.
"Stop encouraging each other, you two." The nurse said, smiling. I mock saluted with two fingers.
"Yes, ma'am. What's your name, anyway?"
"Kirsty. It's good to meet you." She shook my hand gently. I hated shaking hands with people who had limp handshakes, though I supposed that they didn't realise that it felt like trying to hold onto a fish that was really keen on escaping. Or an eel, slick and slippery... I hated eels. Something about them gave me the creeps.
"When do I get to go back to working?" Daryl asked. By the sounds of things he had been bored stiff waiting around without us. Kirsty shook her head.
"You still need to rest, Mr Dixon." I laughed, not believing what I was hearing. I had never heard someone talk to Daryl so formally, so calmly! So... gently. It was weird as hell. Daryl glared me and I looked at him in amused bewilderment. Carl and Rick looked equally amused. Daryl scowled.
"This... is... amazing." I said, leaning back in my chair, hands behind my head.
"If you don't hold your tongue your dad won't be the only one to strangle you today." He muttered darkly. I shrugged.
"Ha, yeah. Coz it's not like there's a rather attractive woman keeping an eye on you and two blokes, though I suppose you can remove Grimesy from the equation. He is a tad useless at the moment, isn't he?"
"That's right, keep rubbing it in." Rick sighed, not seeming to notice the shade of red Daryl was turning. I laughed. What the hell had that woman given me? I was as loopy as my dad! Carl shook his head. Evidently he was having a hard time keeping up with how my mind was currently working. Completely understandable. I was having trouble keeping on –
"Anyone miss ice cream? Right now I would love ice cream." I said. Daryl snorted.
"I'd hate to see that kid drunk." He said.
"Why would you see Alex drunk?" We all looked at Eric, standing in the doorway. When had he gotten there? He was magic! He could appear out of thin air!
"Now might not be the best time for you to come in here." Carl said, walking over to Eric.
"Why? I want to see Alex."
"I'm a bit crazy at the moment. Kirsty gave me drugs of some description and now I am an utter nutcase." I said.
"She doesn't need to say that twice. What did you give her anyway?" Rick asked. Kirsty shrugged, smiling slightly.
"Just some painkillers. For her neck."
"Why didn't you give Dad any?"
"You want an insane Grimesy around the place? At least I can't walk on my neck." I pointed out. Eric was looking at me, utterly bewildered. He walked past Carl and sat on my lap and Carl just went and leaned against the wall. I watched as Eric gently touched my neck brace.
"Why are you wearing this?" He asked. I thought for a moment.
"Because we're trying to see –"
"Because she got hurt." Daryl cut in, rather gruffly. I rolled my eyes.
"Ruin all my fun, why don't you?"
"The kid should know." He said. I nodded as best I could with my neck as restricted as it was.
"Good point. Should we tell him about the rest of it too?"
"Did you find Dad?" He asked. I indicated to him with a 'yup, should we tell him about that?' kind of look. Daryl sighed. He was such a grumpy guy and at that moment I was finding it really fun to just wind him up. I suspected he knew that, too, which was why he was trying so hard to be more patient with me.
"She going to remember this?" Rick asked Kirsty.
"I hope so. That would be amazing." Carl said, grinning. I snorted.
"For who? I'll probably die of embarrassment. Not literally, no." I added, for Eric's benefit. He gave me a death stare.
"Obviously. If you could die of embarrassment you would have died several times by now." He snarled. I grinned.
"You have a point there."
"Now did you find Dad?"
"Yeah, uh... I might not be the best person to tell you about that right at this moment. Drugs effecting my brain and making me go loopy. Don't think I would give the most accurate explanation of events. Who wants to tell the story? Not Grimesy, because... well, I don't want him to."
"Thanks for that." Rick looked confused and I mock saluted.
"Any time. Now then, Daryl and Kirsty weren't there. Michonne, Eugene and Maggie aren't currently here... Hey, Carl! Guess what! It's story time!"
"Gee, thanks." Carl muttered.
"Have fun."
"How exactly am I supposed to tell a ten year old about what happened?" Carl asked me. I shrugged.
"That's kinda why I passed the job on." I said.
"He's your brother."
"Yep. And I am currently pretty much as high as the sky. Remind me never to say that kind of thing again."
"I really wish I had a video camera right now." Daryl joked. I poked my tongue out at him and looked back at Carl.
"Just tell him what happened."
"But how am I supposed to put it in a way that won't make things worse?"
"They found your dad and he tried to strangle your sister when they tried to leave." Daryl cut in.
"Not like that!" I said. Eric was looking at me in horror.
"Kid needed to know and you lot weren't going to tell him any time soon."
"Alright, point taken." I held my hands up in defeat and looked at Eric. He looked utterly horrified and I expected him to faint at any moment. First his sister kills three men, then his dad is alive, and now his dad is an insane nutcase who tried to kill his sister. Man, his world was being turned upside down right now, wasn't it? On the bright side he was actually talking to me again, actually seemed to care about me. I sighed and took his hand, entwining my fingers in his.
"It's not as bad as it sounds."
"How is it not as bad as it sounds? He strangled you!'
"Ah... yeah, but he didn't want me to leave and I was kinda... um... I was egging him on. I was stirring up trouble."
"But he strangled you!"
"It's not the worst he's ever done to me."
"What?"
"Damn these drugs... um, could we have this conversation later? When I ain't as insane?" I asked. Eric nodded and curled up, leaning against me and looking out at everyone else. I wrapped my arms around him so he wouldn't fall off and sighed, thinking. A dangerous past time for someone whose brain was not working properly.
"Well, that went well." Rick said. I nodded.
"Extremely." Eric and I said at the same time. I grinned. I had the best little brother in the world.
Or was that just the drugs talking?
Author's note: I just had to twist that Skyrim quote to fit it. Hope you enjoyed it. :D