A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the late updates. Life has been literally hectic. With balancing my full-time job, part-time job, family and writing my original story there hardly has been time for anything. Anyhoo, sorry it took so long to get this out. I'm really hoping to finish this story before the new season of the Walking Dead begins.

Things are finally gonna pick up and I'm excited about the next chapter. (Which is almost complete)

Don't forget to drop a comment. Makes my day so much more awesome. Thanks to Katarzyna88gb, angelicedg and tatyasdias for reviewing. Also thanks to those who favorite/followed Restoration.

Here is the next installment of Restoration. :)

Rated M for mature.

Restoration: Chapter 14

"Rick Grimes," Victor chuckled. "I would inquire as to why a dead man has come to slaughter my lackey, but I think I already know the answer."

Scanning the open area, Rick looked for any signs of movement, but everything was still.

Where was Victor?

Rick brought the radio up toward his mouth and used his index finger to push the black button that ran up the side of the radio. "Your employer got what he deserved," He growled into the front of the two-way radio, his voice low and dangerous like a wild animal. "And you'll be next."

Even though Rick couldn't see him, Victor's smirk stayed in place, amused by Rick's confidence.

"Big talk coming from someone who's got a gun pointed at his chest." Victor said.

Rick slowly lowered his head and noticed a red dot over his chest.

"I could easily put an end to your pathetic life. All I have to do is give the word. But what fun would that be?" Victor said. "Unless perhaps you want me to end it of course, would you like that, Rick? Times sure are tough. This world can take a toll on the living, the weak."

His voice was pleasant, gentlemanly, even as he spoke threatening words.

"What do you want, Victor?" Rick growled.

Victor chuckled. "Still the same ol' Rick Grimes I see. You really do take fun out of everything." He said. "Alright, fine. Let's cut to the chase. You have something that belongs to me. I want it back."

Rick clenched his jaw. "Alexis doesn't belong to you, Victor. She isn't leaving here. She's one of us. She stays."

"You caaan't always get what you want—" He broke off and hummed the last few bars of the Rolling Stones song.

"This conversation is over, Victor." Rick said. "Leave and don't ever come back."

"Now you listen here you sonofabitch," Victor growled. "That little cunt is mine. I own her and you will hand her over or I swear to God I will drive you down and you'll wish you never fucked with me, do you hear?"

"You took her against her will." Rick said. "You took everything away from her; passed her around to those men like she was a piece of meat. What more could you possibly take away from her?"

There was a long silence, then Victor said, "Everything she ever cared for. The only thing that gave her the will to survive in the first place. Would you like to hear what I intend to do with her?"

"I'm sure I know."

"Yes, some of it. Sex, that obvious." He said. "Maybe...what I want from you, is to be with me when I finally make Alexis snap. Instead of killing you in front of her to drive her over the edge, I'll drive her some other way. And you can watch."

~THE WALKING DEAD~

Her swollen eyes opened and she groaned at the sight of morning spilling into the room. Her body hurt, fatigue and a general achiness that she couldn't quite pinpoint. She groaned again and turned her face into the pillow as memories from last night flooded her brain. Jesus. What a night. A content smile spread across her face.

She quickly dressed and strapped on her weapons before heading out, only to find Rick standing in the middle of the prison courtyard; two-way in hand.

Who was he talking to?

She stopped abruptly at the sound of a man's voice. "Alexis will definitely seek me...it's only a matter of time before she does."

She knew that voice. She knew it, and she feared it.

Victor.

She took a step back, her heart racing in anticipation of seeing Victor in the flesh.

~THE WALKING DEAD~

All this talking and the bastard's calm demeanor unnerved Rick even further. He expected him to shoot him, barge through the gates or something, but he didn't expect to have to chat with him, for God's sake, as if what they had been through was only a pleasant little road trip, a shared vacation that had taken a couple of interesting twists.

"Lexi..."

Rick spun around.

She was nothing short of terrified now. Her eyes were wide, her heartbeat skipping out of control.

Before she could even say a word, the air was filled with gunfire. Rick covered Alexis's body with his as bullets rained down around them, mostly hitting the crops, but some whizzed into the dirt right beside them.

Rick could hear Alexis scream as they kept up a steady barrage of gunfire, pausing only to slam in new clips.

The prison was chaos. The blur of frightened faces running from the danger. The noise. Screams and more shots.

After what felt like an eternity, but was only minute's, the gunfire ceased.

"This is the end result of hope and ideals. This is reality." Victor said. "Alexis, what is there for you in this reality? If you keep standing against me, you'll lose your friends one by one. This shall become a world where no one who acknowledges you will exist. The only thing that awaits you is your worst nightmare, which you know quite well! Pain and solitude."

The two-way went dead.

"Are you alright?" Rick said gently.

She shook her head.

"Breathe, Alexis."

She inhaled on command, her eyes unable to shift from the two-way radio that rested in the grass. She couldn't think. She could barely breathe.

"Alexis, honey, look at me."

She swallowed over the tight prickle in her throat. Tears burned her eyes as she met his gaze. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "Because of me-"

"Stop," Rick said. "None of this is on you."

She shook her head in disbelief, tears falling.

She searched for words, but none came. He brushed away the wetness on her cheeks and helped her to her feet, steadying her with his hand at her elbow.

"Y'all alright?" Daryl rushed up to them, Tyreese and Sasha on his heels.

"We're fine," Rick replied. "What about the others?"

"Just minor injuries. Hershel and Carol are tending to them now." Tyreese said.

"We can't wait anymore. We need to take out Victor." Sasha said quickly.

"That might be difficult." Rick said. "He's surrounded at all times by his men."

"I think we should start with the others first." Sasha suggested.

"How on earth would we do that, we don't even know where the hell they are?" Alexis slapped her hands down to her sides.

"You're right. We don't." Rick said. "But we can start off by where we first found you."

Alexis shook her head in disbelief. "No. No way." She said. "I want Victor dead just as much as any of you, but he's banking on you reacting just as you all have. You'll be slaughtered before you could even land a finger on him. It's suicide."

"Alexis-"

'No. We're done here."

"Stop."

"Stop what?" She snapped.

"What do you want me to do? Wait around for him to attack us again?" Rick said.

"You're smart, Rick. I think you can figure it out."

"Why are you running from this?"

"I'm not running. I just don't want to lose any more people I care about."

"Alexis, we really don't have a choice here." Rick said. "You heard what he said."

"We always have a choice. But the choice you're about to make is going to cost Carl and Judith their father. They just lost their mother; they don't need to lose their father too."

She turned back to leave.

He rubbed his face and sighed. "He said something to me."

Alexis rolled her eyes. "I'm not in the least bit interested in anything that maniac had to say."

"He has something of yours, Alexis."

She took a deep breath and turned slowly to face him. "What?"

He's adamant that you'll return to him on your own free will, why?"

Alexis let out a short laugh. "Rick, there is nothing and I mean nothing that could convince me to go back to him or to that torture chamber."

"I had asked Victor what more he could possibly take away from you and he said everything you ever cared for. The only thing that gave you the will to survive in the first place."

Her palms prickled with heat and became damp. She rubbed them nervously on her jeans as the silence grew between them.

"Could he have your family?" Concern painted Tyreese's features.

"Don't you think if he had my family I'd know? They either got away when the outbreak occurred or their dead." She said. "He's just trying to get into my head now. It's how he plays his twisted little games."

She turned and left them without another word.

She walked inside the prison until her feet wouldn't take her any further.

Dirty fucking liar.

She'd taken the half empty wine bottle out of the cupboard in the library and decided to empty it all at once. To hell with Victor. To hell with this terrible fucking day.

~THE WALKING DEAD~

Two weeks later...

Something had changed between Rick and Alexis over the past couple of weeks. Over all the push and pull, the snags in the road, they were learning to move forward together. Sometimes they were out of step and stumbled, but they were finding a new kind of rhythm. Every time they trusted each other, they moved with a little more grace.

Rick dropped the bags inside the door and turned to her. He pressed against her as she wove her arms around his neck.

"I missed the hell out of you today," he said, his grip tightening on her hip.

Being with Rick made every moment just a little sweeter. A lot sweeter. He gave everything a kind of wonder that made her question how she'd ever survived the tedious existence she called life before he walked in and turned everything upside down.

"I missed you too. I always do."

"How much time do we have?"

"Enough." Alexis smiled. "Beth is watching Judith and Carl is with Patrick."

He growled and closed his mouth over hers. He claimed her with gentle urgency, teasing her with tiny licks of his tongue.

He grabbed her hips and sandwiched her between his body and the wall behind her. She didn't know what it was about him pinning him to hard surfaces, but she fucking loved it. She slid her hands through his hair and kissed him back helplessly, so easily forgetting herself in his embrace.

His thigh found the space between her legs, exerting the perfect amount of pressure so the crease of her jeans rubbed through her panties.

"Oh, God."

She pushed her jeans past her hips to the floor and tugged off her bra and shirt at once and he separated long enough to let it fall. Then he was back, his mouth at her breast, sucking hard. One, and then the next. She whimpered when his teeth came down around the sensitive tip.

She fumbled with his shirt, tugging it over his head. He unzipped his pants, freeing his full erection. She bit her lip hard.

He hooked her leg over his hip and positioned himself at her entrance. He pushed in slow, letting her accommodate him gradually, retreating again only to push deeper. By the time he filled her completely, she'd grown slick around him.

Her head fell back against the door with a small cry.

"Rick."

Her core pulsed around his thick penetration. They stayed that way, breathless, connected, desire shooting through her veins. She dug her fingernails into his side, pulling him closer, deeper.

"Fuck, you feel amazing. I thought about this all day, being buried deep inside you. All fucking day, I haven't been able to think about anything else." He pinned her harder, pushing in deeper as he did.

She gasped. "More."

With the small plea, he cupped his hands under her ass, lifting her so her legs wrapped around him. He leveraged her against the wall. The weight of her body combined with the strength of his had them joined tightly. She was tense with anticipation and just as relieved by the welcome sensation of having him there, their bodies united again. It had only been hours, and the tender flesh between her thighs did nothing to lessen her craving for him.

She held his face in her hands, the stubble from the day rough on her palms. He looked deep into her eyes. Lust, love, and that intense possessiveness swam in those blue depths, taking her breath away all over again.

"You're mine, Alexis."

As the words hit her ears, he pushed upward. She clenched around him instantly, gasping at the bite of discomfort. He was deep, impossibly deep.

"I'm yours," She breathed.

He surged up again. The friction of their bodies and his tension took over her senses. She closed her eyes, the promise of orgasm suddenly close. Muscles tense, she tightened around him helplessly.

Her voice wavered, strangled by the rush of his powerful thrusts, one following the next in rapid succession now. His name filled the air between them, again and again as she begged for more. She clenched down around him, reveling in the friction as it unraveled her, stroke by stroke.

She opened her eyes, desire blurring her vision as she ran a hand through his hair, gripping at the roots. Silenced with their kiss, he groaned. He shoved her hips against the hard steel of the door as he drove into her. In seconds she was drunk on his taste, lost. Lost in him, flying high on this feeling, surrendering to it completely. He took her fiercely, love and desperation passing through every touch. They climbed together, in a rush for the release that would bring them together in the only way that mattered right now.

"Rick... oh, God. Oh, fuck."

The grip of her thighs around him weakened as the climax crept up, taking hold of her mind. She couldn't think of anything but Rick, this love. He was the answer when nothing else in her life seemed right. This made sense. She needed this, him, in a way that made no sense and perfect sense.

"Now," he gritted out.

The simple word pushed her over. Her mouth opened with a soundless cry as the orgasm took its hold. She clung to him, her focus pinpointed on the throb of his cock plunging into her, guiding her over the edge to that perfect place. A few more powerful thrusts and she came with a scream. He dug into her, his grip rough, until every muscle went taut, his body buried deeply within her.

"Alexis!"

His voice was hoarse, sounding as stripped down as she felt. Arms holding her closer, as if she'd disappear if he didn't, he caught his breath, brushing his lips along her neck.

All her strength left with the orgasm, a fact that became evident when he finally loosened his embrace. When her feet found the floor, her legs wobbled. He held her steady, hands at her hips, as he slipped out of her.

He moved away, zipping his pants up as she quickly dressed.

"How was your day?" He asked.

"Good. Read to the children for an hour and then assisted Hershel on rebuilding the crops. Yours?"

"Not so good." He picked up the bags laying beside the door. "We didn't find much. We're going to refuel and head back out in the morning."

She stared up at him, concern swimming behind her eyes. "You're leaving again?"

"Yeah," He replied. "We're thinking about hitting Linden County. The drive is a lot farther than I'd like, but there might be something left worth taking."

Alexis eyes widen a fraction, "Oh," She hesitated a moment. "Can I come with you?"

"Alexis." An undercurrent of warning came through as he uttered her name. "If you think I'm taking any chances with your safety, you're crazy."

"It's my home, Rick." She said.

"I realize that," He said. "But-"

"I know my way around Linden more than any of you. I can help." She cut him off short.

"Do I need to remind you what is out there?"

She gave him a hard stare. "Maybe I'm stronger than you give me credit for."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "I have no doubts about your strength, Alexis."

She walked past him into the dim corridor. His footsteps followed behind her.

"Are you going to listen to me?"

"No," She answered brusquely."I can't stand the idea of having all of you hovering around me, waiting for something terrible happen. I want to be trusted to take care of myself, at least a little bit."

"Alexis…" His voice was softer.

She stopped in front of the Cell Block C entrance.

All her life she'd preferred to be outside as much as possible—she went swimming every night in the summer and skied every weekend in the winter. Years ago she saw a bear in a zoo who kept running along the fence, one end to the other. He'd worn a deep groove in the ground. She remember wondering if he'd rather be dead than live a life like that.

"I have to get out of here. I'm going crazy. I feel like I'm being treated like a goddamn prisoner—this is bullshit."

"Look at me," he whispered.

Reluctantly she turned, positioning her body to face his. A smile softened his features as he traced her jaw, running a sensual line over her lips.

"I love you, even when you're marching around all pissed and indignant. But you're safer here at the prison than out there risking your life."

She sighed heavily. "Risking my life and throwing it away are two different things."

He stood in front of her and wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her closer to him. "Are you always this persistent?"

"Only when I want something."

"How did I get so lucky?" He couldn't hide his smile.

~THE WALKING DEAD~

Alexis could hardly believe she was staring at Linden County. It seemed like ages since she had seen her home, and now she was finally here.

Rick's group reached the other side of Linden, where there didn't appear to be any trace of survivors or walkers.

"This is insane," Alexis said quietly as she stared at the ghost town in awe. "This town used to be so lively. Now it looks like something out of a horror movie. It just doesn't seem real."

"Doesn't anyone find it strange that we haven't passed a single walker since we arrived?" Glenn asked.

Glancing away from the two-lane, Rick said, "Take that as a sign of good luck,"

As the group began to approach their destination, they started to find more and more walkers.

Without warning, Rick slammed the brakes hard. The car skidded to a stop. Two dozen walkers were running up the street in full speed pursuit.

The horde was too thick to drive through.

He threw the transmission into reverse and mashed the accelerator to the floor.

"God damn! You drive like shit!" Daryl pushed himself away from the dashboard and back into his seat.

Walkers were swarming up behind them.

"Hurry!" Alexis screamed.

The brakes locked. Tires skidded again. Walkers pounced on the car.

"Shit!" Rick turned the car and maneuvered between the cars on the road leading to their destination.

The walkers above them beat loudly on the roof.

The car bounced as two more walkers slammed into its side. The windshield cracked under the persistent fist of the walker on the hood.

Rick shoved the car into reverse and spun the wheels as he backed out. He ran over a soft bump and counted one walker dead. With the crazy walkers clawing at the glass all around, he backed into a parked pickup he didn't see. He shifted the transmission, punched the accelerator to the floor, and the front-wheel drive pulled the car hard right, into two more walkers. They rolled off the hood as he raced toward the exit.

He swerved hard to make the turn, and the walker on the hood slipped away and skittered across the asphalt. He raced out onto the street and caught another walker with the passenger side bumper, breaking out the headlight.

As he passed, every single head snapped in their direction. Every one of the walker's flowed into the street after them. Good God, there were hundreds.

He pushed the car to sixty as another one of the infected glanced off the passenger side of the vehicle. He smashed the brakes hard and rubber screamed on the asphalt as the car floated into a left turn.

Alexis's eyes widen at the unexpected wire barrier ahead of them.

"Look out!" Alexis screamed.

"Swing the car to the side!" Glenn yelled.

Rick did as instructed. The steering wheel spun back and forth in his hands, burning his palms as he tried determinedly to hold on to it.

He tapped the brakes, and that seemed to be the absolute wrong thing to do because the vehicle yawned dangerously to the left, but when he let up on the brakes, that also seemed to be wrong because it yawned even more wildly to the right, and Rick knew that they were going to tip over.

Then the vehicle crashed onto its side, sliding three hundred feet from the wire barrier, the flat boom echoing back and forth between the deserted buildings, attracting more surrounding walkers before coming to rest.

Alexis woke face down in the vehicle, aware that she must have been unconscious for a minute of two. Gradually as her eyes focused and the pungent gasoline fumes scathed her throat, causing her to cough.

Glenn clung to the door handle up there to avoid dropping down on top of Alexis. The rear driver's side, where she lay, was no essentially the floor. The window at her side provided a close-up view only of blacktop.

As she shifted, she became aware of a sharp stinging along the left side of her head, and when she put a hand to her scalp, she discovered that she was bleeding.

For a moment she laid perplexed, but realized the car had flipped over; that the four of them were trapped with a horde of walkers approaching them.

Senses aroused, Alexis started to panic and wasted no time being astonished to be alive. Instantly she disengaged her safety harness and then Glenn's.

She struggled out of her seat, turned around, and perched on the back of the driver's seat with her front to the rear window and kicked out the windshield with both feet.

She got to her feet beneath her, pulled the pistol, and squeezed the trigger at a walker who was only steps away.

Bam, bam, bam.

All three shots missed.

She stopped and steadied her gun. The walker was staggering at her with wild eyes and chomping teeth.

Breathe!

She pulled the trigger again, once, twice. She fell. She then reached to Glenn and said, "What about Rick and Daryl?"

Glenn shook his head. "I think they're unconscious."

Alexis took him by the shoulder and pulled. "Hurry," she urged.

Glenn began to make a move to stand, but winced and sat back down as he subconsciously brought a hand down to his ankle.

"Is it broken?" Alexis asked over her shoulder as she took out another incoming walker.

Glenn shook his head, hiding any pain. "No, it's just a sprain. I'm fine." He forced himself to his feet, using the vehicle for support until he could test out how badly sprained his ankle was.

Glenn put pressure on his left leg to walk, biting his lip from the sharp pain.

With a few magazines for the pistol, she knew she couldn't defend them for long if anymore walkers swarmed toward them.

With her voice stressed to the point of betraying her fear for their predicament, she shouted, "We need to get out of here!"

The city was solid with running walkers-the sound of hundreds of running feet and heavy breathing rolled across the city like a swarm of ghostly locusts.

Glenn fired his rifle indiscriminately at the horde, but the hundred-legged anemone absorbed the bullets with no effect. Nevertheless, she followed his example with thirteen more futile bullets. Dozens, maybe hundreds, were distracted by the crack of their guns and altered their direction to run at them.

Five steps behind Alexis, a walker rounded the corner, screaming and grasping. Suddenly, Daryl threw open the passenger side door and aimed his bow.

Pointing his bow at her chest, he yelled, "Duck!"

It took her a moment to comprehend, then chose to trust him. She hit the floor like she was sliding into second base.

As soon as her body fell out of his sights, he fired an arrow at the walker who'd been on her heels. His head threw back and he lurched to the side. Faster than he thought was possible, Alexis was back on her feet and running toward the truck.

"Uh, I could really use some help right about now!" Glenn shouted over his shoulder.

Daryl reached into the vehicle, retrieving a rifle and said to Alexis, "Get Rick, we got this. Go!"

Alexis gave a quick nod and lifted her leg to kick in the windshield and pulled him out.

"Rick...Rick?" She called, slapping his cheek with her hand, "Please wake up."

There were at least a dozen dead or dying in the street and another ten or twelve stumbling over the bodies of the fallen. They were coming around the corner faster than Daryl and Glenn could kill them.

"We gotta go, Alex! We gotta go!" Daryl yelled over to her.

"I'm working on it!" She yelled back over her shoulder before turning her attention back to Rick."

"Rick, wake up!" She slapped his cheek with her hand again. He groaned.

"Hey. What?" Rick mumbled, then focused on the horde that was hurtling toward them. "Shit."

Rick winced and grabbed his shoulder as he struggled to sit up.

"Let me see," Alexis examined his shoulder and realized the head of the humerus was forcibly removed from its socket. "It's dislocated. You're not going to be able to shoot properly in your condition; I won't be able to do anything about it until we get someplace safe."

"I'll be fine."

"Tell me what to do. I can help." She insisted.

"I got it, Alexis," Rick winced from the pain. "Just stay behind me."

She clenched her teeth and breathed through the string of curses that ran through her head.

"Rick, for once in your life, shut up and let me help." She panicked. "Tell me what to do?"

"Fine," He grunted and reached beside him for the assault rifle. "I need you listen to me."

"Okay." She said. She hefted the rifle.

"Magazine goes in there," He then pointed to the release. " Release is there."

"Okay."

"Make sure it latches." He said.

She quickly nodded and latched the magazine as instructed.

"Now you're gonna pull back the operating rod and rounds will feed up. Keep squeezing the trigger for rapid fire."

"Got it."

She raised the rifle and pointed it toward the now solid mass of walkers that were only feet away.

She pulled the trigger and a burst of several bullets ripped toward the horde. Whether she hit anything or whether the mass flowed over her downed targets, she couldn't tell.

The mob surged ahead in blind hungry rage. She fired again.

Her thirty-round magazine emptied. She ejected it, grabbed another from the bag and slapped it into the receiver. She mercilessly sent another thirty rounds into the horde moving in her direction.

She looked behind her.

Gunshots cracked, one right after the other, as fast as Rick could squeeze them off.

He tipped the expended cartridges out of his Colt Python and plucked six more bullets from his breast pocket and loaded them into the speed loader as fast as his injured shoulder would let him and snapped the cylinder shut.

Behind Rick, Alexis shot at the walkers pursuing them. Her anger and disgust blossomed. She turned the M4A1 stock downward, stepped over to the walker and smashed the butt of her gun down between his malevolent eyes.

A jolt went through his body, and he rolled over on his back, arms and legs moving in a random swimming fashion. She smashed his skull again, then again, then again—until it was deformed and bleeding heavily.

He went still.

She stood over the walker with the butt of her gun dripping with blood, breathing heavily from her exertion. She felt no cathartic release. If anything, she was more angry than before she'd beaten him to death. What was happening to her?

Another walker rounded the corner.

"Fuck you too!" she shouted and smashed his head in a similar fashion—again and again—until he lay limp at her feet. She stared down at the bloody mess, lost in the darkness of her anger.

She felt a tug at her shoulder and she turned, ready to for more violence, but it was Rick, wide-eyed and worried.

Daryl took Glenn's arm and wrapped it around his neck and turned.

"We gotta move, now! This place is crawling with fucking walkers."

Alexis grabbed the duffle bags from the truck and made a beeline toward the city. C'mon!" She shouted at the three men. It was going to be a foot race for their lives.

"We need to shake them off. " Rick said.

"Most of the alleyways are sealed off from what I can tell." Alexis panted. "We can draw them into the nearest alley and jump over the barrier. That should hold them off in the mean time."

They turned down the next alley way and weren't met with many walkers. Alexis drew her pistol and machete and took each walker down one by one so they could clear a path for them to run through. They quickly jumped on the steel wire barrier and climbed over landing directly on the other side.

Alexis fell back against the wall, slid down to the floor, and finally breathed. Two breaths later, the wire barrier protruded with the impact of bodies smashing into it.

"Damn! Persistent fuckers!" Daryl growled.

"How much pressure do you think that barrier can withstand?" Glenn breathed heavily as they watched the walkers slipped their hands through the wire trying to break through.

"Let's not wait around to find out." Rick said as he wiped the sweat off his brow.

"C'mon, I know a place where we can lay low for a little while." Alexis said.