(Normal POV)
The last couple of weeks seemed to go by faster than expected, after Brents ankle properly healed he was put up to help with building the barriers around the place.
Apparently he was more capable of helping out than Laura, she wasn't quite happy with being cooped up in her room for most of the time.
She sat on her bed staring blankly at the cell phone, the screen was cracked a bit but still worked to her surprise.
Ever since Negan gave it back she hasn't looked at it, not that she didn't want to, but it was because she couldn't.
Just the idea of looking through her photos and looking at their faces brought back that awful memory of what happened to them, the horrifying metal image of it being played over and over again.
The blood dripping from her dads mouth and chin while his hands were digging inside of her mothers stomach burned into her mind, knowing what he had done made Laura almost gag in mouth.
Tears started pooling from her eyes at not being able to stop replaying the event over in the back of her eyes.
Clasping her hands over her ears she tried muttering words over and over to make it stop.
"Go away go away go away..make it stop make it stop" she kept repeating desperately, covering her eyes she continued to cry out through it all.
About ten minutes passed till a loud knock came from the door, Laura looked over from the bed and wiped at the left over tears from her face.
"Who is it?" she called out, the deep voice on the other end called out.
"Its Simon sweetheart,Negan told me to check up on you." He said, sighing Laura got up from her bed and made it over to the door.
Unlocking it she opened it to reveal Simon tall stature on the other end, he was wearing a black shirt and a pair of light pants.
He looked down at Laura with a smile and a tray of food in his hand.
"Figured that you were hungry so I brought you lunch also...hey you alright?" he asked when noticing how red and swollen her eyes appeared to be.
Shaking her head Laura rubbed at her eyes and smiled softly, "No its just my allergies acting up again, thanks for the food." she said while trying to grab the tray but when she grabbed it his grasp on it didn't cease.
"I wasn't born yesterday kid, sit and tell me what's wrong." he said while making his why passed her and into the room.
Watching him take the chair from the corner of the room and pull it close to the bed he sat and waited for Laura to sit across from him, taking a seat she couldn't look him directly in the eyes yet.
"Now tell me what's wrong Angel, whatever you tell me doesn't leave from this room." he said in promise, Lauras hands started shaking so she clasped them together.
"I...Im afraid...everything that's happened..it doesn't seem realat all but I keep waking up in the same place and not in my own room back at home.." she began saying, Simon listened and saw how her body was trembling.
"How did you and brother end up at that abandoned camp?" he asked her, she hesitated to answer him but worked up the words to leave her mouth.
"We left our home to seek safety there, figured that the army would protect us
...but they were all gone. Then we ran into you guys." she said, hoping that was all he would ask.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents since they're not with you guys here." he asked, Lauras face went pale when he mentioned their parents.
Griping her hands tighter together Lauras looled down at attempting to hide the tears, she couldn't bring up what had happened to them, it still made her sick just thinking about pulling that trigger.
Seeing how much the question affected Laura Simon stepped out of the chair and took a seat next to her on the bed, her small body shaking beside him.
Slowly he reached his arm around her and pulled her for a sideways hug for comfort, he body jerked a bit against him but settled into it.
Laura didn't know whether to push him away or hug him close, so she just settled with the comfort of this.
Her tears still fell from her chin and onto the fabric of her jeans getting them wet, using the sleeve of her sweater she wiped at her eyes.
"It hurts..it hurts so much not having them here with us. Brent doesn't want to dwell and grieve about it but I can't.. How can I be ok with what we done?" she asked him but more likely asked herself, looking up at him she saw Simon looking into her eyes and then look down at the ground.
"I'm not going to sugar coat shit and say things will never get better, there's no way that life will go back to how it was before. But you shouldn't dwell and give up, keep fighting and become stronger for the ones you still have here in your life because they to can be taken away." he said while holding her tighter against himself.
His words really sunk in for Laura, wiping the rest of her tears away and looked over at her phone. Grabbing it she put it in her side pocket and looked up at Simon with a smile on her face.
"Thanks...I really needed to hear that..." she said , earning a smile in return Simon patted Laura on the head.
"Don't mention it kiddo" he teased, she swatted his hand away.
"Hey I'm not a kid Pornstache." Laura shot back then realized what she called him, he looked down at her with a raised brow and smirk.
"That's a new one... Pornstache.. Ha I like it.. Good one Angel!" he laughed , Laura couldn't help but also laugh along with him.
(Lauras POV)
After I finished the tray of food Simon brought I asked if he can take me to where Brent was working at, agreeing to doing so I quickly put on my work boots and waited for him to lead the way out the room.
Making sure it was locked with the key that was given to me I followed him down the hallway and down the stairs to the main floor, while doing that we across some of the others staying here and new people.
Once getting outside I was met with the cool autumn breeze, thankfully I had on my sweater cause I would've been cold. Looking around I could see people going back and forth from unloading the trucks and putting up wood barriers, I managed to find him in the crowd.
Brent looked sweaty and tuckered out but still put in some work, I was about to call out to him when a loud voice boomed from behind us making me jump.
"Alright ladies take a ten minute break!" Negans yelled, I could see a few people groaning in relief.
Looking back to see Negan wearing the same leather jacket from the other day and dark blue jeans, now that think about he was pretty good looking.
Kind of reminded me of my track coach I had a crush on freshman year, all rugged and darkly charming.
"So how's Simon treating you so far sweet cheeks?" he asked me, looking back I saw Simon stare at Negan with a thumbs up.
"Good so far, just trying to figure out where to put her to work." Simon said, this could be a good chance for me to ask Negan since every time asking Brent he'd turn me down.
"I could work with Brent and the others." I suggested with a smirk, hoping that it would persuade Negan in saying yes.
He looked at me and chuckled at my expression,"I like your attempt Sweet cheeks, but your brother informed me to keep you away from that line of work." he informed, instantly I became angry.
Are you fucking kidding me..no this is bullshit!.
"You got to be... Brent!" I turned around and yelled making my way towards him, he could tell I was pissed by the puzzled look on his face.
"Aye.. Laura what's wrong?" he asked seeming somewhat nervous, my face felt like a hot pepper.
"Why the fuck did you tell Negan to not let me work with you, what makes you think its ok to do that behind my back without telling me?!" I yelled while pointing directly at his face, the other workers were all staring at the both of us brut I didn't care about causing a scene.
"Listen Laura just calm down, I just figured that it'll be to dangerous to be out here working..." before he could finish I grabbed the cup of water in his hand and splashed it right in his face, everyone gasped and laughed at my action.
"I'm not a fucking kid Brent, you don't have the right to make decisions for me!" I sneered then turned around back towards Negan and Simon.
"Negan , give me something to do please." I asked while trying to control my frustration of Brent, smirking Negan wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pointed to me.
" I might have a perfect job for you." he stated, looking at him I remember the comment he made a few weeks ago about what he would've like for me to do.
"Please let it be something age appropriate." I teased with a nervous smile, Negan laughed loudly at that,glancing over I could Simon smirking at me.
"Aww doll at this point age is nothing but a number..but lucky for I have something else that you could be helpful at. Simon and some of the other guys are heading out to search for goods and stuff we'd need."he said, my face lite up in excitement.
Negan was letting me go out with Simon and them to actually be helpful, instead of being cooped up in my fucking room for another three weeks.
"Sure I can do that!" I stated with a determined expression, patting my back Negan motioned for me to go to Simon.
"Alrighty then, Simon get her equipped and settled with the others. You guys will head out in the next few minutes, be sure to stay close with her the whole time." he instructed, Simon saluted him before answering.
"Yes sir." he said with a smile, grinning Negan waved bye to us before making his way back into the building with the others who were carrying bins from the trucks.
Looking back at Simon I couldn't hold back my giggling, he stared down at me with an amused smirk.
"What's so funny there Angel?" he questioned amusingly, raising my brow I was starting to wonder why he kept using that nickname on me.
"What's with the military salute there, and do you have to keep calling me that?" I questioned, Simon shrugged and smiled.
"Figured it suits you, if you want me to stop calling you that I will." he said, shaking my head no.
"No Its fine...just don't go flirting on me and we'll be good." I teased with a grin, earning a smirk back from him.
"I make no promises there Angel." he joked causing both of us laugh, afterwards I began following him down towards the other trucks that were at the half constructed gates.
Simon helped me get introduced with everyone that was joining the search, there were three older women in the group so I didn't entirely feel out of place.
That David guy was coming with us to, I just hope he doesn't try to get social because I get uncomfortable whenever he's near me.
"Alright this is the only gun I can find for you , but you'll probably just be ok with that bat you got." Simon said while handing me a small handgun and extra bullets, placing it in the back of my jeans I got into the passenger side of the truck he'll be driving.
(Normal POV)
Once everyone was set and ready to head out Simon got into the truck with Laura in the passenger seat and David in the back, honking the horn the front gates opened and he turned on the ignition to pull out and onto the dirt road.
Laura looked around at the side window as they drove, it was as if its been forever since she's been outside the Sanctuary. It's funny how Negan thought of that name for the place, as if it was the holy place.
Looking over at Simon she couldn't help but feel a bit excited to be hanging out with him, yes he was probably in his thirties but Laura had to admit he was pretty hot older guy.
"So Laura how's the place treating you?" David asked from the back seat, Laura glanced back to see him smiling at her with that unsettling loom in his eyes.
"Fine...thanks for asking." she answered back while looking out the window again.
"It must be nice to be seventeen, I remember those good old days. Getting tale left and right , you know what I'm talking about Simon." David grinned while patting on his shoulder, Laura looked over to see Simon looking a bit uncomfortable to David's probing.
"That would depend on what tale you were chasing there. Cause something tells me you and Simon chase different kind of tales." Laura teasingly joked at David, she could hear Simon trying not to let out a hold back chuckle in his throat.
"Trust me sweetheart, the tale I chase are all just like you." he said with a smirk to her, Laura felt extremely unsettled by his words.
"Alright David that's enough, she's underage so knock it off" Simon said in warning, glancing over she could see Simon got irritated by what David said.
The ride lasted for about almost half an hour till Simon stopped to where there was an abandoned Wal-Mart, surprisingly there didn't seem to be any walkers within the region, at least for now.
Waiting for Simon to get out first Laura followed suit and made way over to the front of the truck, looking around she could see everyone was gathering around where they were.
"Alright listen up, pretty sure this place was everyone's target when the shit hit the fan, but maybe if we're lucky there some useful stuff left behind. Everyone go in pairs and make sure there's no walkers in sight." Simon ordered, seeing how everyone obeyed him made Laura smirk a bit.
"Laura you come with me" she heard Simon say while grabbing his ruffle from the back of the truck, not even noticing him coming up David wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Its ok Simon I can look after her" he said with a suggestive smile, Laura wanted to peel his filthy hand off her waist but felt a bit fearful of doing it.
Before she could even speak Simon yanked him away from him and placed her by his side, the expression in his face didn't seem at all pleasant towards David.
"She goes with me, keep playing this game David and Negan will hear about this." he threatened, David's jaw clenched with the threat of Negan, seeming defeated he walked off to head inside the building.
Laura could feel the heated anger coming off Simon against her body, looking up she saw him taking steady calm breaths and releasing his grip on her arm.
"If he ever and I mean ever does any kind of shit to you, come to me and I'll handle it." he said without even looking at her, Laura felt her face heat up with how masculine and meaningful his words sounded, as if he actually did care about her well being.
"Yes Simon" she said while looking away in hope of him not seeing her pinkish face, taking a moment to get his composure back Simon walked towards the building with Laura following close behind.
Once getting inside both him and Laura had to turn on the flash lights cause the building power was out, it was really dark in there that it was hard to see where to walk cause there was a lot of shit scattered all over the floor.
Simon walked around towards the food section of the place, having Laura help find some canned and boxed items. With some luck they managed to find boxed noodles, hamburger helper, mac and cheese and pancakes.
Rummaging over in the chips aile Laura was very pleased to find some Cheetos puffs, they are her all time favorite chips to munch on. Breaking open a bag she took a few and ate them, the cheesy flavor made her eyes roll in the back of her head.
"Hey Angel , you just gonna hog the whole damn chips to yourself" Simon playfully joked while digging his hand into the bag and grabbing a hand full.
Watching his stuff the whole handful into his mouth Laura noticed that there were a bit of left over Cheetos dust crumbs in his mustache, trying not to laugh she placed her hand against her lips.
"What's so funny over there?" He asked, shaking her head Laura pointed to his face.
"You got a cheetostache." she chuckled, using his hand Simon tried getting off the crumbs, looking at Laura she could see he missed a few.
"Jesus dude they're still in there, here let me get it." Laura laughed while pulled up the end of her sleeve over her hand to use and wipe at Simons face.
She used the tip of her toes to get high enough and reach at his face, using her sleeve to get at the leftover bits and brush them off his stache. Now that Laura was this close to him she could get a good look at Simon, her eyes wander at the structure of his strong chin down to his neck.
Something told her that he used to be in sports when he was younger, probably still kept in shape all these years from how wide and hug his shoulders were. If she had to guess he's ripped underneath this flannel buttoned shirt, realizing that she was getting lost in though Laura pulled away from him.
"There ya go Pornstache." she said teasingly, Simon chuckled at the nickname she gave him and jokingly nudged her arm.
Keep calling me that and I'll have to dump this bag all over you kid." he warned with a smirk, Laura raised a brow and decided to test the waters with his threat.
"Pornstache" she said with a smile, within seconds he chased her down the aisle with the bag in his hand, Laura laughed and ran as fast as she could away from him.
Running out the aisle and kept on going in fear of having the cheetos dumped all over her, looking back she didn't see that Simon was following behind.
Damn..I probably lost him, forgot how fast I am.
Looking to my side there was the woman's clothing section, from the looks of it there were a few clothes left dangling off the racks and on the floor.
It would be nice to find some new pair of clothes for Laura since half the clothes she had were getting dirty and teathered up, rummaging around there were at least a few decent looking shirts and sweats that would probably fit.
For some reason Laura could've sworn that someone was whispering from out of nowhere, staying still and silent she waited to see if it would happen again.
After a minute the whispers came again, shining her light partly over to its direction it showed that there was a fitting room in the right corner.
It would've been the smart choice to go look for Simon, but Laura didn't want to feel like a child for having to go running back to someone when instead she can go check it out herself.
Stuffing the clothes into her backpack Laura pulled out the bat hanging from her belt hoop, getting herself prepared for defense she slowly walked over into the fitting room section.
Making sure as to not make much noise when stepping over stuff on the floor,Laura could hear the whispers getting closer and more clear. It sounded like feminine voices, that kind of settled her worries but then they could also be dangerous.
Gripping onto the handle of the bat Laura crept over to the door to where the voices came from and swiftly pushed the door open, she aimed the bat back in case of having to attack and aimed the flashlight inside the stall.
Two girls were both startled and quickly reacted to aiming their guns at Laura, panicked at first of them possibly shooting her but then one of them caught a good glimpse at her through the blinding light.
"Aarat wait.. Its just a kid." the blonde haired girl said while lowering her weapon and pushing the other girls down away from Laura, all three of them looked at each other in suspicion.
"What are you guys doing hiding in here?" Laura questioned, the one named Aarat looked at her with hesitation to answering the question.
"We're being followed by people" she said while looking to to see if anyone was behind Laura.
Using the light to examine their appearance Laura managed to spot the other girls leg was bleeding through her pants, taking a step she pointed to the wound.
"You're injured, if you come with me my friend will help take you somewhere safe with us." she said in assurance, the girl seemed to be pleased by her words but the other girl quickly aimed the gun to Laura.
"That's what the person that found us last time said, we weren't exactly fucking safe where we escaped from." she sneered, Laura could sense that this girl was having a hard time trusting her.
Although she can't blame her, where ever they were taken to or with things didn't seem at all pleasant for up her hand she looked at Aarat, her eyes trying to show how trustworthy she was.
"I know you don't trust what I'm saying, but believe me the people in with are not like the ones you guys are with. Just wait right here and I'll go get my friend to show you I'm telling the truth." Laura said while taking a step back out the room, both of them looked at each other then to her.
"You have about five minutes to get back or we're out of here." Aarat said while putting her gun down, quickly Laura shut the door and began finding her way out of the section and out into the walkway of the aisles.
Aiming her flashlight she tried to see if Simon was around, huffing she made her way back to where he was last seen. To no luck he wasn't in the aisle where they were goofing around in, before she could turn around to head in the other direction something pressed up behind causing her to be startled.
Gasping Laura turned around and was prepared to attack but before swinging the bat a hand caught onto it stopping her.
"Its ok Angel just me, jeez I probably should be careful creeping up behind you." Simon said with a chuckle, feeling relieved now Laura lowered her bat down.
"Probably a good idea, but I need you to come with me to the fitting room." Laura said,he looked at her for a second before raising a brow and smirking.
"Damn Angel aren't you taking things a bit to fast, at least take me out to dinner first." he teased playfully, Laura didn't catch on to what he was saying at first but then began to blush when she did.
"Th..that's not what I was insinuating you, there's two people that need our help from people trying to find them." she stated while tugging at his hand to starting guiding him back over there, Simon looked at her in confusion and stood him ground and causing her to stop.
"What do you mean you found two people?" he asked, she was about to speak before the sound of a gun going off came from the front door entrance of the store.
Both of them jumped up at the unexpected noise, Laura looked at Simon to see what was going on.
"We know there are people in here, there also two girls that we're looking for with you. Just come on out and hand them over so there won't be any trouble!" a voice yelled out causing it to echo through the silent building.
Simon hastly shut off his and Lauras flashlight so they woudlnt be spotted, looking around he noticed that the others did the same exact thing across the building.
"We're gonna get the upper hand of these assholes." Simon whispered to Laura, she looked at him and then back behind them.
"Wait we have to go back to the girls they're waiting for us." she whispered anxiously while trying to pull him to walk with her.
Simon was going to protest when the sound of heavy footsteps came towards them, quickly he pulled them back into the heavily darkened aisle and pressed Laura against him protectivly.
"What are we gonna.." she was halfway with her sentence when he pressed his hand over her mouth silencing her.
She couldn't see what was going on but Simons quietly shushed her while trying to hear the footsteps getting close to their direction, Laura could feel how hard Simons body was against her small frame.
Realising that how close they were together she couldn't stop the heat forming in her face, for some reason Laura couldn't help but not getting flustered with Simon being this close.
"We need to keep quiet till these people walk past and get to the others." Simon whispered close to Laura's ear, the sensation of his warm breath hitting her skin caused Laura to have deep flutters in her stomach.
Biting her lip from behind his hand Laura placed her hands over his in order to distract her from the heated sensation inside her.
From how serious he sounded Laura guessed that Simon hasn't noticed how nervous she was with him pressed up against her, when she finally heard the footsteps reaching the end if he side of them she gripped into his hands in fright of being seen.
They both stood their in dead silence as the sound of two people talking to each other , they had one flashlight with them and were facing away from them. Laura could feel Simon begin to pull away from her slowly with his hand slipping off her mouth, she stood there quietly not realizing what he was going to do.
Trying to see where he was she looked over to the two men just standing a few feet away from that could turn around and spot her at any moment, the one with the flash light started walking off ahead of the other one.
With very little light to see Laura managed to spot Simon was behind the other one and pulled him back into the aisle in a death gripped head lock, the guy struggled for a second till the sound of something snapped caught her ears.
Not bothering to take a chance of having the other one notice them Simon quickly rushed over to the other guy and pulled out his pocket knife, using his hand arm he wrapped it around the guy and stabbed him in the side of his neck. It took a few more stabs to get the guy down, Laura watched while covering her mouth in astonishment to how stealthy he was able to do that.
Getting back on his feet Simon made his way back over to Laura and turned off his flashlight but placed his hand over it so it wouldn't flash that bright, finally being able to see Laura saw the blood splattered on his shirt and hand.
"You ok there Angel?"he asked concernly, Laura shook her head yes, smiling at the answering Simon grabbed at her hand to pull them both out the aisle into the darkened open.
It was then that he noticed that there were other flashlights shining in the other direction of them, from his best guess they were from his group.
"We need to run the others fast" he whispered, Laura looked at Simon and remembered what she needed to do.
"Wait we have to go get the girls first." she stated while trying to pull away from his grip, Simon tugged on her hand and looked back at her.
"There's no time for that, they're not our concern to deal with." he said sounding harsh, Laura shook her hand and yanked her hand away from him.
"I'm going back for them." Laura said not caring if he protested, turning on her heel she rushed down the digestion she could make out of where the fitting room was.
Simon quietly yelled out to her but she kept on going, it didn't matter that this was probably dangerous and stupid she couldn't just leave these two behind and let them get hurt.
Laura managed to find herself back to the fitting room section, although she ran I to a few racks here and there but that didn't matter. Quickly she pushed open the door with the girls inside, Aarat right away had her gun aimed at the door but then realized it was her.
"Where the fuck is your friend, those guys are in here?" she whispered in a nervous tone, Laura looked behind and then back to her.
"He's waiting for us at the back end of the building, just come with me and we'll get out of here." Laura lied in hopes of getting them out, Aarat stared at her in suspicion.
"Aarat we don't have enough time to argue about this we gotta get out before he finds us." the other girl said in fright, seeing how conflicted Aarat was with not having any other choice she groaned.
"Alright alright, lead the way and we'll follow behind" she said while grabbing onto the other girl and helping her walk out the room.
"You're not gonna make it far enough,let me help."Laura said while grabbing onto the other side of the girl and began walking out with them.
They didn't even make it halfway the fitting room when a sound of a clock clicking back, a bright light flash over blinding them for a moment.
"Lookey what we got here, finally found you two little trouble makers. And seems like you made a new friend." a gravely voice said causing Laura to form goosebumps on her skin, she could sense the girls body stiffen at knowing who was talking.
"Fucking shit." Aarat hissed silently, Laura secretly wished she woudlve listen to Simon.
Simon where are you?