Firstly, I don't own The Walking Dead. All credit for this amazing show goes elsewhere. Sam and Dean are based on Supernatural, and unfortunately I don't own that either. Now I've gone and depressed myself.
This is a long fic only because I fell in love with the characters and I couldn't stop writing. I love feedback, but no pressure. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you do decide to give feedback or rating, please don't be cruel. I'm a big ol softie... Thanks!
Hope you like the beginnings of Shane's feeling developing here, and for the interactions between the group. I enjoyed feeling them out. And yes, I based the characters of Sam and Dean on Supernatural. It just seemed to fit somehow, but there is no storyline based on Supernaturals Sam and Dean's hunter lifestyles...
And since you've gotten this far, a review or two would rock my world! Thanks!
"We could try and move 'em, Betsy." A deep southern accent came from a new male voice and Trouble's shoulders dropped.
"How many fuckin-" She began but Rick clamped a hand over her mouth and came up very closely behind her.
"What for? We just go back down the hill and go the way we were goin' to." The woman, Betsy maybe, said harshly. "There ain't nothin' here. Look at it. Windows all busted out, looted up. Marcus get back here."
The young man that had come into sight stopped looking into the buildings and snapped his head back. "But Betsy, I know their has to be something here." He protested. "Why else would anybody do all that?"
"Well, if there is, they probably watchin' you right now. Where the hell is your gun?" She answered and he pulled a long barrel revolver out of the back of his filthy jeans. "Get back over here."
He started to walk back toward her voice, but he stopped suddenly and they heard a loud slap and a startled cry. Trouble pulled away from Rick's grasp and crawled on her knees to the window to her left. It was covered as well, and she motioned for them to follow her. Shane got to her first, and they put their heads side by side just over the sill, Rick again behind her. They could finally see the intruders, and Trouble pressed her lips together tightly. A burly man with a cigar hanging out of his bearded face stood over a woman on the ground, and she had blood running from her nose. She was large too, flabby and dressed in a flower print sweater that was torn and dirty, and a pair of jeans.
"What did I tell you about bossin' him around? Get up, bitch." He snarled, and took the cigar out of his mouth, looking back at Marcus over the cars. "See what you can find, boy. Allen, go help him."
The woman picked herself up off the ground and wiped at the blood on her face as another man, maybe in his late twenties hopped up on the cars and walked over them, dropping to the ground on the their side. He looked mean, his tiny eyes narrowed and his thin lips curled up into a half moon. They watched the two men start into the buildings on the other side of the street, but turned back when they heard a young girl's voice.
"Stop it!" The child, no older than Carl, came rushing out of the first car, chased by a young man in his early twenties. He was pushing her, tugging at her long, filthy hair, and she was desperately trying to get him off her.
"Betsy, shut that brat up before I do it for ya." The burly man said, and Betsy held her hand to her still bleeding nose, and grabbed the girl by her shoulder and yanked her hard away from the man.
"Shut up, Rose. And leave her alone, Chris." The woman spat out, and the little girl looked at Chris resentfully, rubbing her shoulder where the woman had grabbed her.
"Oh, hell no." Trouble whispered as they started talking loudly amongst themselves, telling the two men who had come over the cars where to go. "What if they come in here?" She looked back at Rick, seeing his mouth set. Abusers set him off, and right now, both the man and the woman, as well as the creep chasing the child had him seeing red.
Shane leaned back, getting low. "If they come in here, we hide. Long as it's just the two of them. If the others come, we fight."
She nodded, feeling Rick press against her back to see.
"Bill, look what I found!" Marcus came back out of the building across the street, waving a pistol. "Don't got no bullets, but it's sure a nice piece." He paused to admire the gun and the burly man, Bill, waved at him impatiently, sticking his cigar back in his mouth.
"Well, put it away, boy! Keep looking. Damn idiot." He said, the last part low but still audible. He turned back to the woman. "Why is that brat still out here, Betsy. Get out of here." He said angrily, stepping past her and shoving the child, who didn't cry, just huddled next to the car, her tiny hands on her legs and her face fearful. The woman actually chuckled, and Trouble felt her vision go almost black. She started to stand, but Rick grabbed her and pulled her back, almost on his lap.
"We'll help her. I promise. Just breath." He whispered in her ear and put his hands on hers, unclenching her fists gently with his fingers. He wrapped his hands around hers and repeated his whisper, and after a moment she took a deep breath and nodded, and he let her up again so they could see. The burly man and his crew drifted around lazily on both sides of the barrier, his obscene language and vile gestures making her cringe against Rick. When she couldn't take it anymore, she leaned forward and whispered to Shane.
"We have to stop them. They're not far away from coming in here, and I'm not letting that child out of my sight."
He sat back and leaned into her, frowning. "I know. Call Dean, have him get everybody ready."
"I guarantee he's already done that." She said quickly.
"Fine. Tell him to bring everybody except T-Dog and Glen. We need to have the gate lit up, and we need them to hold down the fort. Come in quiet, ready to fire on sight, got it?"
She nodded and stayed low, turning around. Rick grabbed her hand and they went into a bathroom off the hall. He closed the door quietly and she put the walkie to her lips. "Dean?"
"Thank god, Trouble. What's going on? I can see the car, and the men over the barrier."
"We're ok. We're upstairs hiding. There's two more men, one woman, and one kid past the barrier." She said, and Rick came up beside her, wrapping his arms around her comfortingly. She put her hand and her forehead against his chest as she held the walkie.
"What do you want us to do?" Dean asked.
"If they come up here we're gonna need you. Leave T-Dog and Glen, have one of them set the fence after you come out and be ready to fire if they come back there. The rest of you come but stay hidden. Take out everybody but the girl. She's by a car past the barrier."
"Got it. Stay low, out of the line of fire. I don't want you getting hit, ok?" Dean said and she sighed.
"Just watch for the girl. I love you." She said. She had the worst feeling about this.
"I love you too. See you in a minute."
She put the walkie down and looked up at Rick worriedly. "God, Rick. This is what I was talking about."
He hugged her tighter, and she breathed deeply against his chest. "We'll take care of it."
"Come on." She said, moving around him and staying low as they left the bathroom. "They're coming. What happened?" She whispered to Shane as she got back to him.
"They're heading to this side of the street, and that other guy came over too." Shane said just as the third guy's voice came from very close below.
"Look at this bike, man! This is all mine." He said and Shane felt her head hit his back in frustration.
"Don't fuckin touch her, you douche." She mumbled and he hushed her, listening for any more sounds. Something slammed downstairs and she felt Rick grab her hand and pull her back. He pushed her under the bed that was cocked in the corner and was about to join her when another sound from outside the door made him back up quickly. He ended up behind the door as it swung open, and the second, mean looking man, Allen she remembered, walked into the room. She looked frantically for Shane from under the bed as the man's feet stomped past her and went through an already torn apart dresser in the corner. He shoved something in his pocket and his feet drew closer to the bed. He grabbed the blankets and threw them aside, grunting in disappointment. She pulled her gun and rolled over just as he grabbed the mattress and flipped it against the wall. His widened when he saw her underneath it, and he reached for his gun, but she already had hers aimed at his forehead and he froze. They didn't say anything to each other as she slid out from under the bed and got up on the other side of it.
"I knew somebody was here. Nobody puts up a block like that unless they're tryin' to protect somethin'." He said, watching her with his slit eyes. He smelled horrible, and she put her other arm up to block her nose.
"Dude. It's called a bath. You are seriously foul." She said disgustedly.
"And you are clean as a whistle. Which tells me you got a place here somewhere." He said and she saw Shane come out from around a door behind him and put his gun against the back of the man's head. Allen's eyes widened and he put his hands up on either side of him. "Don't shoot. We're just passin' through."
"Heard that before. Take out your gun and hold it out to your side." Shane said in a low voice, and the man reached to his hip and took the gun out with two fingers and held it out beside him. Shane grabbed it and Trouble raced around the bed to Rick, who had come out from around the door and aimed his gun at the man, pulling Trouble behind him protectively.
"So, you were waiting for your friends, huh, honey?" He asked and she glared at him from behind Rick. He grinned at her, flashing yellow teeth. "Well, so was I."
She'd screwed up. She'd forgotten the first rule of survival. Remember there are others, so don't turn your back. She felt the knife at her throat before she could process his words and she sucked a sharp breath in. She saw Rick turn around and go pale, and Shane went crazy.
"Let her go, you son of a bitch. I'll kill your boy here." Shane blurted out, shoving his gun into Allen's head further.
"Go ahead. I got what I wanted." She felt hot breath on her cheek and she turned her head away quickly. It was the man who had been chasing the girl. Chris, he had been called, and right now he was using her as a human shield and walking backward, his arm painfully tight around her waist and the cold blade of his knife across her throat. He reached down and grabbed the gun from her hand, wrapping his fingers around it tightly and aiming back at Rick and Shane. They looked panicked, and Rick tried desperately to aim for his head past Trouble. "Baby, we're gonna go on a little ride. Maybe on that sweet bike you got downstairs."
"Get the fuck off me." She said, pushing back against him but he fixed his gun on Rick.
"See, sweetheart. They're not gonna shoot and risk hittin' you, but I will. So shut the fuck up." He growled in her ear, and she met Rick's eyes.
"Chris, you asshole. Get me out of here." Allen said angrily, but Chris laughed.
"Sorry, man. You got yourself into it." He said and drug her through the first set of doors and into the hallway. "Get down the stairs, bitch." He said and she heard a gunshot from the apartment. Chris flipped her around again, putting her between him and Rick and Shane, who had rushed to the top of the stairs, guns aimed at them.
"Chris? What the hell was that? Who's she?" Marcus rushed the door and another gunshot came from outside. Marcus fell with a thud in the door way and now Chris didn't know where to aim. He drug her out into the sunlight and she saw Dean and Ian crouched down behind a car left against the buildings across and down the street a little.
"You got nowhere to go, man. Let her go." Shane said from behind them and Chris spun again, going back and forth between Shane and Rick, and Ian and Dean. She could hear the burly man and the woman screaming at them to drop their weapons, and a gunshot went off behind her from their direction. She took the melee as an opportunity to reach in her coat. Chris wasn't paying much attention to her. She slipped a knife out of her coat and met Dean's eyes. He gave her a little nod and she turned the blade around. With a quick thrust she shoved it backward and felt him let a shot go as he let her go and double over behind her. She hit the ground the moment she was free and rolled toward the building they had come from and right into Rick's reach. He grabbed her and pulled her behind him.
With her out of harm's way, the gunshots started flying. It was impossible to tell from who, but she saw Chris fly back into the dirt, blood spattering from his chest and through his back.
"The girl! Watch the girl!" She screamed and the gunfire stopped. She peeked around Rick but couldn't see the child. She did, however, see the burly man's head bob above the car barrier. "Rick." She pointed and Rick stepped forward a little, ducking again when a gunshot came close.
"Don't fire!" He shouted, and Shane looked over at her, frowning. "I'm puttin' my weapon down! Look!" He stood up, holding his gun over his head. She looked back and saw Ian stand a little, his gun aimed at the man, and Sam was coming out from a building he had ducked behind. She looked back and saw the woman pop up over the barrier and let off a shot. Her heart went into her throat as the gunshots resumed and Shane pushed her against the wall with his back, he and Rick firing into the barrier. She worked past Shane a little and looked toward Sam just in time to see him dive behind the car Ian and Dean were at.
They didn't come back up and she looked back in confusion. The burly man grunted as a bullet hit him in the face the next time he came back up, and she saw him slide down the cars and out of sight, the majority of his face gone. The woman screamed in fury and exposed herself, and Trouble saw Shane level his gun and hit her in the neck. She flew back and the air went deathly silent.
For a second.
She heard Sam almost through a haze. "Just hold still, man. It's going to be ok." He was saying and she stood up quickly. No, the thought hit her brain like a bullet itself and she took off running toward the car. She slid to her knees as she got around it, and saw Sam and Dean kneeling over Ian, pushing on his chest. "Just stay still, Ian." Sam was saying and she crawled to Ian's head as he was saying her name.
"Ian, I'm here. Oh my god." She got down on her stomach and held his head against hers, looking into his eyes. She felt the tears pouring over her cheeks and they sprinkled across his forehead as he looked up at her. She looked down and saw Sam trying to put pressure on the wound in his chest, but Ian's blood was pouring through his fingers.
"Just stay with me, Trouble." He mumbled and she put her forehead to his again.
"I'm here, Ian." She said, crying. "I'm not going to leave you."
"Stay with me." He repeated. He was in shock, he didn't know what he was saying, but suddenly his eyes cleared and he looked at her with such clarity she stopped breathing. "I love you. I've always loved you."
"I love you too." She whispered, pressing her lips to his. He kissed her back, but then his lips stopped moving and she pulled back, swallowing hard. His eyes had closed. "Ian? Ian!" She screamed, putting her head back on his, pounding his chest with her fist. Sam moved around behind her and pulled her away, and she saw Dean in front of her, sitting back with his head in his hands. She looked up at Sam frantically. "Not Ian. Please, Sam."
"I'm sorry, baby." He wrapped her in his arms and buried his head in her neck, but she only felt anger rush through her body and she almost screamed.
"She did it." She hissed, and Sam pulled back as she fought her way out of his arms and took off running toward the car barrier where she could see Rick and Shane standing on the other side. She threw herself up on the car and ran across the tops. Rick and Shane looked back at her as she hit the ground and skidded to a stop in front of them. They knew what had happened, she could see it in their faces, but the woman was still alive and they'd come to disarm her. She laid in front of them, a hole in her neck and gurgling blood from her mouth. Trouble grabbed the gun from Rick's hand and got on her knees, pressing it between the woman's eyes. She looked at Trouble terrified and unable to speak.
"You killed him, you stupid bitch. I should hang you upside down from a tree and let the walkers eat your face." She growled from between her teeth, and Rick got down next to her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Trouble, stop. Stop for a minute." He said softly, and she shook her head.
"She killed Ian."
"I know. But there's a little girl in a car a few feet away and she's terrified. She won't come out for me, but she might for you. Put it away for a minute and remember how much you wanted to help her, ok?" He said calmly, much more calmly than he felt, and he saw he swallow. She turned her head to the car, and looked back down at the woman. Her trigger finger tensed again, but Rick ran his hand down her arm and onto the gun gently. "Trouble, get the girl out of here, and I promise, I'll take care of this one. I swear."
She looked at him, then up at Shane. He nodded at her, his face grim, and she licked her lips. "Bring Ian back. Bring him home."
"We will." Rick said. Slowly she released the tight grip she had on the gun and Rick worked it out of her hands. She looked down at the woman in disgust and grabbed her greasy hair in her bloody hand.
"I hope you rot in hell, you bitch." She hissed and moved back, standing up and walking around the car. She moved with purpose, automatically, but Rick saw her face soften when she looked through the window. They listened as she opened the door slowly.
The child was huddled almost under the seat. She was so thin she could almost fit, and Trouble took a deep breath and got on her knees outside the door.
"Hey Rose." She said softly. The girl peeked around her arms over her face, her terrified eyes looking back at Trouble. "My name is Trouble."
"Are you going to hurt me?" The girl asked in a whisper.
Trouble shook her head hard. "No. I'd like to take you somewhere safe, if that's ok."
The girl licked her lips, swallowing hard. "Are they dead? Betsy and Bill?"
Trouble dropped her head. "Was that your mom?"
Rose shook her head. "No. They killed my momma."
Trouble felt the breath go out of her. Oh God. "Rose, they're gone now. Will you come out, let me take you home?" The girl shifted a little, unwrapping her thin arms around her knees and sitting up. "Good. Good, Rose. I promise, you're going to be safe now, ok? Just come toward me and I'll take you home." She put her arms out and Rose looked down at her hands. She didn't seem to be phased by Ian's blood on her, she put a hand out and took Trouble's.
Trouble helped her inch out of the car slowly. "Ok, now I want you to do me favor, ok, Rose? Can you do that?" The girl nodded and Trouble smiled. "I want you to close your eyes tight, ok? And don't open them again until I tell you, ok? You might hear some more loud bangs, but we're going away from here."
She nodded and Trouble picked her up, feeling the little girl wrap herself around her neck tightly, her legs around Trouble's waist. She looked down and saw the little girl squeeze her eyes shut and bury her face in Trouble's neck. She stood up and turned around to look at Rick and Shane. Rick nodded to her, his face so sad, and she fought back a sob. She held the child tightly and walked to the barrier.
"Rose..." The bleeding woman croaked almost silently, and Shane lifted his foot, kicking her in the head.
"Shut up." He said, looking back at Trouble as she walked away. He took a deep breath and looked at Rick, who was standing, running a hand over his face.
"Rose, we have to climb over the cars, ok, but look down, and when we get over them I want you to close your eyes again, ok?"
"Ok." Rose said, allowing Trouble to help her up onto the cars. They made their way, hand in hand, over the vehicles and Trouble hopped down first, picking the child up again. She held her tightly and Rose put her face back in her neck again. Trouble looked back down at Ian's still body on the ground. Sam and Dean stood as she neared, and the three of them walked away from the bloodbath in the street silently, Trouble and the child leading the way. They were up the road, halfway to the gate when they heard the next gunshots from the street.