When Clara woke up that morning, everything seemed so normal. The sunlight was bright as it filtered through their bedroom window, the fan working hard to dispel the Georgia heat. Although, Shane's heavy form draped across her negated all that effort- the man was a walking radiator. She sighed, turning to face her husband, her eyes tracing his face lovingly. He always looked so peaceful in his sleep, the stress of his job having finally melted off his face.
Clara grinned wolfishly and rolled on top of him, straddling his waist and caging his head between her arms, hair forming a curtain that shielded them both from the harsh reality of the world. She pressed slow, tender kisses to his eyelids, her lips skimming across the bridge of his nose before skipping to his left cheekbone followed by his right.
"Baby." His eyes fluttered slightly at her coo but still didn't open. "Baby." She dragged out the vowels of the word, hoping to rouse him. Her lips finally landed on Shane's and his eyes snapped open before drifting closed once more. He hummed happily, hands moving to grip her hips tightly and fingers flexing as his lips parted beneath hers. His tongue traced the seam of her mouth and the next thing she knew she was underneath him, knees gripping his hips and fingers knotted tightly in his curls. He pulled back, breathing heavily, finger tracing her lips sensually.
"Well isn't this a nice way to be woken up."
"Hmmm, well, I try." Her hands moved to his chest, gliding down to his abs and spreading her fingers across them. "Besides, who could resist all of this?"
Shane shuddered lightly. Her big chocolate eyes were looking up at him through her lashes and her voice was thick with her north British accent. Her accent always got thicker when she got angry or turned on, excited in any way, actually. She knew she was playing dirty, between those eyes and that voice he was putty in her hands. "You play dirty, Mrs. Walsh." She bit her lip seductively, lashes fluttering enticingly.
"It wouldn't be any fun if I didn't."
He let out a growl, moving to pin her hands above her head, and Clara let out a squeak. "You minx."
"You love it."
"I love you."
"You big softie." With another growl Shane attached his mouth to her arched throat, nipping and kissing his way to her clavicle, harshly sucking the skin there and leaving a prominent mark.
"Say that again."
"Yo-you big- ah!" Shane had reached her nipple, sucking it into his mouth and swirling his tongue around it, biting lightly. "Cheater." The word was more a gasp than a word. His lips curled into a smirk around her nipple, hands brushing down her arms and over the sides of her breasts, one splaying across her lower abdomen while the other gripped the underside of her thigh.
"It wouldn't be any fun if I wasn't."
Clara let out a guttural groan, her fingers flying to grip his shoulder blades, nails digging into his flesh. "I hate you." He chuckled, releasing her breast with a pop.
"No you don't." She quickly flipped them, pulling her hair over one shoulder.
"Cocky."
He tightened his grip on her waist and thrusted up into her. "I'll show you cocky."
She couldn't help it, she burst into laughter, collapsing on his chest. "'I'll show you cocky?' Really? That's what you're going with?"
His words were playful as he started tickling her ruthlessly. "I thought it was good, you don't like it? Huh?"
"No! No, okay please stop!"
"Nope, not until you say you like my line."
"It was awful!"
"Mhm. Say it."
"Fine! Fine, best line ever used, very sexy."
"That's what I thought." He growled out, turning them over once more, crushing his lips to hers.
His fingers had just brushed her clit when his phone began to ring, him grumbling annoyedly when Clara made him answer it in case it was work or about Rick. "What." His wife shot him an amused look at the way he bit out the word before slipping out from underneath him and pulling on a pair of black panties and one of his T-shirt's. She pressed a kiss to his head and started towards the kitchen to make some eggs and soldiers- one of the only traditionally British meals she could get Shane to eat- before he snatched her back into his chest. He held her tightly in his lap as Lori's frantic voice drifted over the line, Clara furrowing her eyebrows when it reached her ears.
"Shane? Is Lori alright?"
"Okay, Lori, everything's going to be alright, okay? You and Carl stay in the house and pack, I'll head to the hospital. Barricade the door, okay?" Clara's eyes widened, there was no way this was good. What was going on? Was someone trying to break into the Grimes' house? Why would Lori need to pack and Shane need to see Rick? Why hadn't she called the cops, and why wasn't Carl at school?
"Shane, what's going on? Are Lori and Carl okay?"
"I'll be there soon, Lori." He hung up and turned back to Clara, kissing her nose and hopping up. "I don't know what's going on, princess. She was talking too fast for me to really understand what she was saying, and what I did hear didn't make much sense."
"Shane! Stop!" She grabbed his elbow as he sped by for the hundredth time, pulling on clothes and snatching things he needed to bring with him, including his gun, the last one only feeding Clara's alarm. "Just, stop, stop for one second and tell me what the fuck is going on."
He sighed, hand carding through his hair. "Lori said that someone was trying to get into her house, the rest didn't make any sense."
"Just tell me!"
"She said that the radio was going on about staying in the house and some disease making the dead walk again, or some bullshit."
"Zombies? She was saying that there are zombies trying to break into her house?" Her voice was incredulous as she leapt to her feet, pulling on black tights, a black suede button down skirt, topping it off with a blue silk shirt spotted with polka dots and flared three quarter sleeves that had scalloped hems.
"Hey, hey, what're you doing?" Shane had stopped moving, head snapping in her direction. "No, you're not coming with me." Clara snorted, slipping on a pair of black heeled ankle boots.
"Yeah? Try and stop me."
"If there are actually dead bodies walking around I need to get Rick and get out."
"I'm coming with and you can't stop me. If there are actual fucking zombies out there you're going to need my help and if we need to get out of town quickly, you having to come pick me up is not going to be conducive, yeah?"
"Constantly worrying about your safety isn't going to help either."
"Then don't, I can take care of myself. Besides, what are the chances that there are dead people wandering around trying to eat our brains?"
Fuck, was she wrong.
Clara looked up at the hospital as she slammed her car door. She didn't think she'd ever get used to the reversed American car setup and road system. "I can't believe I'm here on my day off."
"Yeah well, I gotta check on Rick or Lori is gonna freak."
"I know, love. I've been wanting to visit Rick again soon anyways." She held out her hand with a grin, wiggling her fingers. "Alright, my darling, let's try and avoid any zombies we might come across, yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Oh, how the tables have turned." He laced their fingers and tugged her through the automatic doors.
"Your outfit isn't very appropriate for zombie fighting, sweetheart."
"Yeah, well, I'll believe there are zombies when I see them. Plus, it's adorable and confidence is key when it comes to fighting off hordes of rotting dead people."
"So are pants. And shoes that won't cause you to break your ankles if you need to run."
"For your information, I can run perfectly fine in these, only the weak need trainers to run."
"Whatever you say, babe."
"It's true!"
"Well in the words of the love of my life, I'll believe it when I see it." Clara whacked the back of his shoulder, mouth opened to retort, when she took in the horror movie that was the lobby.
"Holy shit." Bodies littered the floor, nurses with entrails torn from their torsos, doctors with their skulls cracked open and grey matter splattered across the tile. "Holy shit." Shane's hand tightened around her's as he pulled her sharply behind him, keeping her tight against his back.
"Stay behind me, Clara, okay?"
Shane had always been protective and Clara had always been quick to tell him she could take care of herself, but this was different. This wasn't just a dickhead hillbilly in the bar that got a tad too handsy. No, this was real danger and it had the gore to prove it. "Yeah, okay."
"Promise me, promise you'll stay behind me."
"I promise, Shane." Clara pressed a quick kiss to his shoulder, squeezing his hand in reassurance. Shane nodded silently at their agreement, heading to the elevator slowly, with his head constantly sweeping the room for any threats to him and his wife.
The small woman flinched away as they inched by a wall with blood smeared across it. "It's okay, Clara. We're going to be okay." If they were there for any other reason Shane would just throw her over his shoulder and get the hell out of dodge, but this was Rick. Shane couldn't just abandon him if he was in danger, especially not if he was going to have to face Lori and Carl after.
Sending Clara to the car was out of the question too, not when there was the possibility that whatever the hell did this was still lurking out there. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he sent her away and she was killed because he wasn't there to protect her. He smashed the elevator call button and quickly pushed Clara back against the adjacent wall, shielding her body with his in case a threat waited in the box. Clara leaned around him as the floor indicator decreased slowly.
"Is it safe to take the lift?"
"Nothing can sneak up behind us and it's faster than taking the stairs."
"It's so quiet."
"For now." When the ding sounded Shane tensed, shoulders squaring to shield Clara as much as possible. The doors slid open, revealing a torn apart body smeared across the floor.
"Nope. No way in hell am I standing in the lift with a ripped apart person while creepy music plays, nope nope nope." Shane contemplated for a moment. The elevator really would be safer, but he didn't think he could stand in that either.
"Yeah, okay, me neither. Let's go." He guided her to a door leading to a staircase. Sadly there were bodies here too, but at least they weren't standing in it. Clara held her breath against the stench as they ran up the stairs. "I can't believe you're actually able to run up stairs in those death traps."
"Yeah well," she panted, "I told you so."
"You're a woman of many talents."
"You'd know that better than most."
"I would hope so." He sent her a wink, both of them flirting in a desperate attempt to distract themselves from the massacre painting the walls and steps around them.
"Oh trust me, love. You do. The same better go for me, mister."
"Well, I was very popular with the ladies."
"Shane!"
"Don't worry, sweetheart. You know my skills better than anyone."
"Skills, huh? Would we say skills?"
He growled, turning to bare his teeth at her over his shoulder. "Don't push it, Mrs. Walsh."
"Is that a threat?"
"Oh, sugar. It's a promise." They finally reached Rick's floor, Clara letting out a relieved groan.
"Oh thank God. It's a good thing we have sex so often. Without all that cardio I think I would've died like six floors ago."
"I think I'm offended that that's why you're glad we have lots of sex."
"Don't be so sensitive. Weren't you just bragging about your skills?"
"You know, the way you said the word skills makes me think you might need a demonstration."
"Oh, I definitely think I do." They grinned at each other for a moment before Clara shrieked and dragged the both of them to the floor. She pulled them behind a medicine cart, hands flying to cover her head as the double doors at the end of the hall flew open with an incredibly loud bang. Shane quickly put himself between her and the threat, cursing under his breath when he saw a squadron of armoured men sweeping the hall with rifles.
There were six soldiers and only two of them. He could probably take out a few of them, but not without taking some damage and certainly not while keeping Clara safe.
"Shane." She tugged on his sleeve and he turned to face her again. "Isn't that Rick's room?" He followed her finger and sagged in relief that his best friend was within reach.
"Yeah, that's him." Clara nodded. They needed a distraction. She peeked her head up over the cart.
"Okay. Get him and get out, I'll distract those guys. I've got this."
"What? No way in hell." He laughed sarcastically, shaking his head almost derisively. "It'll be a cold day in hell before I let you run at a bunch of armed men while I run away."
"You're not running away, you're getting a member of our family to safety." He was still shaking his head vehemently as she spoke. "Look, between the two of us, who do you think they're going to see as a threat? The 5'3 woman or the 6'3 man with arms the size of trees? Just let me do this."
"No. We get him together."
She nodded, giving him a sweet kiss. "Yeah, okay." With one last fierce kiss Clara jumped to her feet. "Sorry, baby." She leapt over the cart, a feat in her skirt, and waved her arms over her head. "Please! Please help me!" Her heeled boots clacked loudly as she sprinted their way. "I need help! Please, can you help me!" She ignored their first few shouts for her to stop and put her hands over her head, desperately trying not to look at the guns aggressively pointed her way. "Please. I need to find my husband!"
"STOP!"
"FREEZE! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"
"SHOW US YOUR SKIN, SHOW US YOUR SKIN!"
Shane thought he was going to have a heart attack as he watched his tiny wife put herself between him and numerous weapons. Every instinct in his body was screaming for him to throw himself between the most important person in his life and the deadly situation she had just gotten herself into, but he needed to get Rick out of here and Clara had just given him the opportunity to do so. "Fuck. You are in so much trouble." He closed his eyes and took a breath before speeding in a crouch over to Rick's room, thankful that the door was open. "Rick, c'mon buddy." He finally realised, as he took in the dead hospital equipment strewn around the room, that there was no power. No wonder it was so fucking hot. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" He pressed two fingers to Rick's wrist, his own heart nearly stopping when he didn't feel a pulse. "Fuck." He leant over his friend's face in desperation, pulling up his eyelids before pressing his ear to his chest. Nothing. Shane dropped his forehead onto the edge of the hospital bed. Rick was dead. Shane didn't know how long he would've stayed there, mourning the loss of his brother, if Clara's screams hadn't wrenched him from his thoughts. "Clara!" He stumbled to his feet and sped out into the hall. His heart was torn from his chest when he saw Clara being grabbed at as the soldiers attempted to drag her through the double doors. She fought viscously, kicking and punching and biting at any soldier that tried to touch her.
"Get off me! Don't touch me! Let. Me. Go!" With the final word she swung, decking the soldier closest to her in the nose as hard as she could. Shane couldn't help the grin that seeing her kick the ass of multiple trained men evoked. 'That's my girl,' he thought, and as much as he wanted to break every finger that was touching his wife against her will, he couldn't leave Rick exposed like that, dead or not. He couldn't let his best buddy's body become a snack for dead freaks. 'Give me just a minute, Clara. Hold out for just one more minute.'
After dragging a spare bed in front of the door and adding a medicine cart to his makeshift blockade, he took off, smashing an IV pole into the back of the first soldier's head he came to. The helmet he wore minimised the damage, but the surprise gave Shane an edge. He threw an elbow into his opponent's nose as his heel came down on his knee harshly.
"You're in trouble now." Clara quipped before grabbing the pole Shane had dropped and smashing it into the face of the next man heading for her husband. Blood spurted violently from his nose and contrasted harshly with the white of the tile it landed on. She quickly brought the IV pole back around before shoving the empty end straight through the only man that Shane hadn't taken down's eye. She was nearly sick, a feat for a surgeon, when she saw the large metal pole protruding from his eye, his fingers fumbling at the offending object. "Fuck!"
Shane had taken down four of the six men, and he'd be lying if he didn't say that watching Clara take on the other's with ease was turning him on. When she shouted, hand flying to her mouth, he turned from the men at his feet to see her staring in horror at a soldier collapsed on the floor with a rod through his eye, blood pouring down the sides of his face and pooling under his head.
"Clara? Are you hurt?" He stepped hesitantly towards her, hands held out in surrender so as not to spook his warrior of a wife.
She sniffed, looking up at him with large, watering eyes. "It's on my shoes." He stopped short at that.
"What?"
"The blood. It's on my shoes. His blood. The man I just killed. His blood is on my shoes."
"Okay, baby. It's okay. You're okay."
"I killed him."
"He was going to kill you. You were protecting yourself. We've gotta go though, okay?" It was like approaching a skittish animal, her eyes wild as they darted around. "C'mon, Doc. You know what this is. You're in shock. But we've gotta get out of here. We've gotta go find Lori and Carl."
At the name of Lori and her son, Clara's eyes cleared a bit. "In shock, right, yeah." She took a step back from the dead man at her feet, refusing to look at the corpse. "What about Rick?" Shane sucked in his lips at that, ruffling his hair and looking away before shaking his head. She sucked in a harsh breath. "Oh, baby, I'm so sorry." She flung her arms around his neck, having to stand on the tips of her toes to be able to do so, and buried her face in his neck before pressing a soft kiss there.
"Nothing we can do about it now. What we can do is get the hell out of here and take care of his family." She nodded, kissing his jaw before pulling away. She laced their fingers together and tried to lead the way out, all while refusing to look at the men littering the floor. "No. Me first." When they were back in position, Shane in front and Clara tight against his back, they headed back down the stairs and out the hospital entrance. The hot air outside was stifling, but it let Clara pretend that the reason her shirt was clinging to her body was because it was wet with sweat, not blood from a speared eyeball. They collapsed into their seats, Shane rushing to turn the car on and get away from the hospital, wondering just how bad their destination itself was going to be.
"Oh my god. We're going to have to tell Lori and Carl."
"I know. You don't need to remind me."
"Oi! This situation is awful but don't take it out on me."
"I'm sorry."
"I know you are, love." She took his free hand and brought it to her lips. "I know you are."
The streets were full of people scrambling to escape town, hysterical mothers herding children into minivans while their husbands piled bags into the back. Police officers in uniform were directing traffic out of town, alarms in stores wailing as looters took advantage of the chaos. Shane's grip tightened on the steering wheel as they turned down their street, watching his neighbours flee their homes and fight over supplies. Their small Georgia town that had prided itself on being neighbourly had turned violent and chaotic, crumbling to its very foundation. He glanced at Clara out of the corner of his eye, taking in her hand pressed to her downturned lips and the tears in her eyes.
"Hey," he called, taking her hand in his without taking his eyes off the road. "It's going to be okay. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. We're gonna pack a couple bags with what we need, pick up Lori and Carl, and get the hell out of dodge. Okay?"
She nodded, wiping away a stray tear that had managed to break free of her lash line and track down her cheek. "Yeah," she whispered. "Yeah, I know, It's just-" she turned to face him with a wobbling bottom lip- "nothing's ever going to be the same."
"Probably not." He sighed, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles soothingly. "But we're survivors, baby. And while our house may be gone, you are my home." She cooed at that, causing him to roll his eyes, and leaned across the centre console to plant kisses all over the side of his face that she could reach.
"You loooooove meeee." She teased, grinning brightly and feeling reassured that everything would be alright as long as she had Shane.
"Well I fucking hope so," he chuckled, gently pushing her away before she caused him to wreck. "I did marry you."
"I know, what were you thinking?" She quipped sarcastically.
"I don't know," he drawled out with a smirk. "I must've lost my goddamn mind."
"Careful, Walsh. You're going to get yourself in trouble," she spat out playfully in her thick northern accent, causing her husband to smirk.
"Only the best kind." The car stopped in their driveway, the couple letting out a relieved breath when they looked it over and saw no signs that looters had gotten to it. Their car doors were closed harder than necessary in their rush to get going as they leapt from the car and dashed up the driveway, Shane being quick to unlock the door and usher her inside. It slammed loudly as he closed it behind them and it caused her to flinch. The sound of their footsteps was thundering as they took the steps two or three at a time, their movements frantic and rushed as they began packing.
Clara pulled her duffel bag from the top shelf of the closet as well as a few of her husband's PD issued bags. She tossed him his and began frantically shoving whatever clothes her hands came into contact with first into her bag. When her side of the closet was practically empty she moved onto the dresser, tossing shorts, tees, bras, and panties into her duffle by the handful. As she finished, Shane moved from the closet to go through his own drawers, making sure to grab any firearms he had tucked around their room and packing much more strategically than she was.
She dashed into the bathroom and grabbed her toiletries, as well as Shane's, before throwing them into one of his emptier bags. She desperately wanted to grab her photo albums, but knew it would be a waste of space and thus opted instead to pack her mobile and charger in hopes that whatever sanctuary they ended up at had power. Shane, finishing before her, rushed back down the stairs and into the kitchen. He stuffed the last empty bag full of canned foods and water bottles just in case they ended up on the road longer than they were expecting. Clara met him at the front door, loaded up with heavy duffles and staring around their house morosely.
"Ready, baby?" His gruff, southern voice cut into her self pitying thoughts and caused her to jump slightly. She nodded and smiled emptily in thanks when he scooped three of the four bags she was carrying out of her arms, hefting them over his shoulders.
"Ready."
"Then let's go."