Disclaimer: I do not own anything of the Walking Dead series (both comic book and television), and I do not claim to own any of these characters other than my own original character. This is a story I have written and I am in no way, shape, or form making any sort of profit from it. I am poor. I might even be more so now having written this.

Twenty-Six

Lassie stumbles as Levi pulls her forward. She was tired—with the lightening of morning, her eyes seemed to feel heavier than ever and her muscles only wanted to lie still. Lassie gasps for air as Levi places her arm around his shoulders for support.

"I think they're gone," he rushes out between his own laboured breaths. Lassie winces as her back aches with her new supported walk.

"They'll keep lookin'," she says as she looks out to the field. Joe wouldn't let it be easy for them—not after what Levi did. Suddenly, Lassie blood runs cold. She recognized the field they were in.

"I don't know where to go…" Levi presses his lips together as the rain continues to fall. "I don't see anywhere."

Lassie lets out a breath and lowers her chin slightly as the hollers of Matt scream through her cranium. "I know a place," she nearly whispers in an attempt to silence the memory.

The last time she had been in this field, she had been the one supporting someone on her shoulders. As they make their way, Lassie's eyes stay fixed on the ground before her. Every step they took, terror made her breath a little harder, made her heartbeat quicken, and skin feel like bugs crawled just below the surface.

"Right here," Lassie says with a strong nod as her feet stop.

Levi furrows his brow as they stand before nothing but grass and earth. Lassie takes back her own weight as the man gingerly helps her bend. As she reaches down, she pulls a handle which, in turn, lifts a small door. Lassie swallows hard as blackness stares back at her below.

"What's down there?" Levi asks but Lassie shakes her head as her eyes close for half a second.

"It's a place to hide," she says before using him to help her down the first few steep steps.

Between his hesitation and fear of Joe's group, Levi cautiously follows her down. As his head reaches just below the ground above, he stops abruptly. Moaning sounds further in. Levi shakes his head and grips Lassie's forearm.

"It's okay," she nearly whispers. "It can't hurt us," she adds before reaching up and pulling the door shut.

"It's okay," Daryl says with a nod as Lassie reels her hand back from the animal's fur. "It can't hurt us," he adds with a bounce on his knee making the little girl rise and fall on his lap. "He's muzzled," he says in her ear. "This one can't bite you." Lassie's chin lowers as she watches the dog lazily lower itself to the floor of the kitchen. Daryl places a hand on the eight year old's shoulder as his mouth twists with her discomfort. It had only been a week since Jess' dog bit her. Maybe he was wrong in trying to get her back to loving dogs so soon.

Lassie twists herself towards him and shakes her head hesitantly. "I don't like him," she says softly as if the dog would be offended with her words.

Daryl furrows his brow and purses his lips. "Why not?" His eyes scan the mutt; the floppy ears were harmless, his sad brown eyes were cute enough, and his old age made it almost impossible for him to get away from even a baby's pet.

Lassie shakes her head and slowly pushes herself off of his lap. "I wanna go home," she says before slipping behind him and holding his arm.

Daryl takes a deep breath. Had he been Merle, Lassie wouldn't have left without giving the damn dog a good petting. He nods his head as Lassie looks at the dog with a troubled expression. "Not ready," he says with his nose cringing to the words and the little girl nods. "Okay," he says before rising from the floor. He takes the child's small hand and heads to the door of the humble home. Just as Lassie slips her shoes on, Daryl lowers himself to her height.

"You know, Lass," he says as her dark eyes look back at him. "When I was about six or seven, Merle had a cat." Daryl gives a side smirk as Lassie's eyes widen.

"What was her name?" she asks.

"Cupcake… and she was a he," he says with a stifled chuckle. By the time Merle had found out the cat was male; he had already grown too accustomed to the animal's name. "Anyway, one night before bath time, I decided to bring Cupcake with me." He presses his lips together before raising his eyebrows. "Cats don't like water," he says and Lassie gives a shake of her head. "I didn't know that."

"What happened?" Lassie asks.

"I tossed him in thinkin' he'd get about as clean as me." Daryl gives a long blink at the memory. "That cat shot out of the tub like bullet. Before he made it past me, he must've ran right up my face 'cause by the time he was gone, there was blood everywhere." Lassie lips part with her heart dropping. "Merle came running in when I started screaming. Found me buck naked crying about how Cupcake scratched me." Daryl cocks his head. "You wanna know what Merle did?" Lassie nods slowly. "He got me dressed, cleaned my face, and then searched the entire trailer for the cat. When he found Cupcake, he made me hold him." He scoffs. "Said that if I didn't do it right then and there, I'd never do it."

"Did you hold Cupcake?"

Daryl gives a nod. "I didn't want to. I yelled at him and told him he was a bad cat and that he needed to have baths to keep clean like everyone else—but I did end up holdin' him." Daryl places his hands one the girl's shoulders. "You like dogs?" Lassie nods—the question needn't asked, Daryl knew his sister better than himself at times. "You afraid of 'em now?"

Lassie hesitated before giving a ginger nod.

"I'll tell you what," Daryl says as his eyes look back over at the lazy dog. "If you go up to Duke and just give him one good pet, you won't be afraid any more."

Lassie looks down at the stitches in her arm. "What if he bites me?" she nearly whispers.

Daryl shakes his head before letting out a laugh. "Lass, if he rolls over, I'd be shocked," he says. "He ain't gonna bite you."

Lassie's eyebrows invert before she takes a timid step back towards the animal. In her head, Duke wasn't some mutt; he was a great a terrible bear ready to finish the job Jess' dog couldn't finish. Her knees buckle as the dog lifts his head at her approach.

"It's okay—," Lassie looks up to see Daryl standing beside her, "—I'm here," he finishes before taking the little girl's hand in his.

As her hand reaches out and touches the fur behind the dog's ear, Duke's tail happily wags and Lassie lets out a giggle. It doesn't take long for the child to pet the dog's belly and with confident, easy strokes. Daryl smirks; she wasn't afraid of dogs.

"I thought you couldn't kill," Lassie says as they stand in the cellar.

"Keep it down," Levi whispers with urgency.

"It's sound proof," Lassie says with a roll of her eyes.

"How do you know?" Levi asks; his voice filled with annoyance.

Lassie furrows her brow and looks up at the familiar ceiling. "Two layers of drywall," she says with a nod. "You can tell by how low the ceiling comes," she adds. Lassie makes her way to a cabinet and crouches down as she looks through the contents. Everything seemed relatively untouched—strange yet comforting to Lassie.

"You could scream and scream all you wanted down here… ain't nobody gonna hear you," she mutters as her hand skims over a scalpel.

"I had to do it," Levi says before a deep breath.

"That wasn't your call," Lassie says as she rises with a bottle of pain killers in her hand.

"Considering the circumstances, I'm pretty sure it was." Levi leans on the wall and furrows his brow as Lassie pulls on the pull string of a light. "I doubt this place has power—," Levi's eyebrows invert as the cellar lights up.

"There's a generator a little further north that hooks up here," Lassie says with a shrug. If the doctor felt particularly trusting, he would have Lassie come with him to fuel the generator.

Levi takes a step and furrows his brow. A gurney sits just before Lassie; dried brown blood stains the mattress as a tray of dirty tools sits on a stand at the side. With little reaction, Lassie makes her way to the opposing wall; cupboards sit above counters with an old rusted sink.

Levi swallows hard as Lassie searches through the cupboards and the moaning continues. "What is this place?" he asks in a careful tone.

"A cellar," Lassie says with a shrug.

The young man shakes his head slowly as Lassie tosses a water bottle his way. "How do you know where everything is?" Levi asks as he examines her carefully.

Lassie narrows her eyes at him before turning back to the cupboard. "I don't think we know each other well enough for me to be comfortable with tellin' you," she says.

"Apparently," Levi says in a tone that makes Lassie snap her face back to him.

"What's that s'posed to mean?"

Levi shakes his head. "I thought you weren't gonna choose sides," he says in an attempt to sway the conversation.

Lassie gives another shrug. "What you did was dumb," she says. "I've done a lot of dumb things in my life—but that stunt you pulled…" She shakes her head. "That was beyond stupid." Lassie hops onto the counter and sits with her back against the low, shallow cupboards. "The way I saw it, I had two choices; let Joe kill you or save your ass."

"I thought Joe was a good guy—,"

"He is… but you killed a part of his family."

"As he did me—,"

"But Joe ain't like you, now is he?" Lassie barks back and Levi nearly tells her to keep her voice down again. "You waited… he wouldn't've." Lassie palms her face and sighs. Adrienne was dead. "Besides… like you said; I ain't got anybody. If you were gone… I'd be completely by myself."

"I'm sorry…" Levi says in a gentle whisper. "I mean… I don't know what the relationship was like between you and…" he thinks for the name, "Adrienne… but I do know you and her had some kind of bond."

Lassie shakes her head and looks back at him. "She was good as dead the moment the walker got her." She chews her lip for a moment. "What you did was a mercy killin'." Lassie shrugs once more. "Not even close to murder."

Levi lets out a breath and his shoulders relax. Lassie smirks at the sight. The only person she had known to be relaxed in this place was the doctor. She presses her lips together and crosses her arms. Levi wanted to be a doctor.

Lassie drops to her feet. "There should be a cot behind that door over there. Go get some sleep," she says. "The moanin' ain't somethin' to worry about… if it bothers you, I'll show you in the mornin'," she adds as her hand rubs the back of her neck.

Levi looks to the door and cocks his head. "Have you been here before?" he asks already knowing that she would have had to been.

The girl gives a shallow nod. "Under different circumstances," she says lowly before heading to the crawl space under the stairs. Levi watches as she pulls some blankets out and shuts the door. "It's a place where nightmares are born," Lassie mutters.

Levi nods and idly stands before he heads off to the door. As he opens it, sure enough, a cot sits along the wall freshly prepared. He turns back to Lassie. "Where are you gonna sleep?"

Lassie's eyebrows rise and she shakes her head. "I'm not gonna sleep," she says. "Someone's gotta keep watch," she adds and Levi heads into the room before shutting the door behind him.

As silence fills the basement, Lassie makes her nest. Even if she had the choice of sleeping, she wouldn't. The walls that surrounded her only echoed screams and villainous acts. However, if she was going to be awake, she might as well be comfortable.

Lassie tosses one blanket on the cold cement floor and then wraps herself in the other like a burrito. She takes a deep breath and lowers herself to her nest. It was almost like camping; it was cold and damp—there were no bugs or wind—but it was almost like camping.

Her eyes fixate on the gurney under the pull light. It felt like it was just the other day she watched Matt lie on that table. She tears herself from the sight and looks to the drain hole in the floor. Countless times that drain was stained red—only to be washed away with a hose. Lassie hoods the blanket over her head and closes her eyes.

This place had burnt the scent of iron into her nose. It made her mouth water with a metallic taste; every ounce of her body felt heavier than it had ever been. If Joe and his fellas were looking for them, this would be the last place they would ever find. Lassie's eyes open as the moaning's volume rises and falls. Nobody would ever want to find this place. It was a cruel joke the universe seemed to want to play on Lassie that this of all places was where she would wind up coming back to.

I'm not sure when the next chapter will be published. I'll be moving in the next little while and it might be difficult between unpacking and getting used to the new place to find time for writing. My apologies in advance!

Please let me know what you think, how I'm doing and what I could do better :)

Reviews are much welcomed and always appreciated!

~MsBBSue