*Author's Note*

So, after binge watching TWD while waiting for IT to fix a system at work (working from home's great isn't it) I had this story idea pop up in my head. I tried to ignore it, but that didn't happen.

I have a few OC's for the story already. Only two are going to be main characters and the rest are in pre-apocalypse flashbacks. The OC face claims are:

Jenny Lacy: Deborah Ann Woll

Sadie Lacy (Jenny's older sister): Candice King

Axel Dixon (Daryl's twin and Merle's brother): Norman Reedus (Of course, lol)

Trevor Dixon (Jenny's Nephew): Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Dean Lacy (Jenny's dad): Jeff Bridges

This story's going to have a lot of flashbacks in it. The flashbacks will be in italicized front.


Lil Bird Flew Away

"Ya ain't goin' to that damn dance, Sadie, and that's final!" Dean screamed at his eldest daughter as she stood in the living room- scowl on her face. The young blonde was dressed in a pretty pink dress that she got at the local thrift store, special for the school dance she was fighting with her dad about.

"It's a Valentine's Day dance and all of my friends are goin', daddy. I'm goin' with my friends, not a boy."

"Ya might not be goin' wit' a boy, but boys'll be there. I don't want ya goin' to no dance where some boy can corrupt ya."

Stomping her foot and clenching her fists by her side, she yelled out in frustration, "Damn it, daddy! You're being so unreasonable!"

"Don't curse at me, young lady! I said no, ya ain't goin' to no dance where ya'd act like a whore!"

"It's a dance." Sadie sighed. She shook her head before narrowing her blue eyes and screaming at the top of her lungs,"A dance at the damn high school, daddy! It's not like I'm trying to sneak out to some bar to go line dancin' like mama used t'do!"

"A dance is a dance; I forbid ya to go!"

Dean and Sadie were screaming and yelling so loud that their carried up the way upstairs. Jenny, Sadie's sister, was in her room trying to do homework while her dad and sister fought like cats and dogs over the Valentine's Day Dance being held at Kings County High, where her older sister was a freshman. She bit the end of her pencil, making bits of her eraser crumble on her tongue, as she stared at the problems in her 6th grade Algebra book. The numbers and formulas written on the page just look like a jumbled-up mess to her at the moment. Her brain just couldn't compute them, had stopped working and it was all because of the commotion downstairs, right below her room.

She twitched at every sound of raised voices she heard, making her look like a skittish cat. The strawberry blonde girl just couldn't handle it anymore. All the screaming and yelling was too much for her; was making her into a nervous wreck. Over the last few months, the fights between her sister and dad got worse. Especially since her sister wanted to do the same things that 'normal' girls in high school did, such as try out for cheerleading and go to dances, but couldn't since her father was a very overprotective and strict drunk.

Unfortunately, this evening Jenny was overhearing one of the worst fights as to date. She was over it too. At only 11-years-old, she was accustomed to overhearing fights, but the current one was the worse. Was a real doozy.

'I gotta go next door.' Jenny slammed her math book closed. The paper she was writing the problems on was tucked in the book, acting like a makeshift bookmark. She tossed both the book and her gnawed on pencil onto the bed before quickly jumping up and rushing over to her closet to grab her jacket. Once she put on her jacket, she slipped on her shoes, left her room, and went downstairs.

She didn't announce that she was leaving, just turned left after she reached the bottom of the stairs- but not before taking a quick look at her sister and daddy going at each other's throats- and rushed into the kitchen. Jenny heard a loud slap sharply echo in the air (she knew that her daddy smacked Sadie for smart mouthing him) as she flung the back door open and ran out of it. Her mind was working on autopilot as she ran across her backyard and over to the white 3ft fence the separated her and the neighbor's yards.

Dean had put the fence up a couple of months ago whenever Jean Walsh's grandson moved in with her. Nobody in the neighborhood let alone the county knew why the dark haired 12-year-old moved in with his grandma, other then he clearly didn't have anybody else to take care of him. Mr. Lacy decided to build the fence one afternoon when he saw the boy waving over Jenny with one hand while holding a football with another. It only took Dean an hour to drive to the Home Depot to buy lumbar and paint and only a couple more hours after that to build the fence.

He thought that fence would keep Jenny from befriending Shane, but unfortunately for him those whitewashed boards couldn't stop his daughter from seeking refuge at the house to the right of theirs. Jenny would often hoist herself up and over the fence, even though she was very small and scrawny for her age. Once Shane saw her jump the fence and swore she looked like a lil bird, a chickadee flying away from a tree. The nickname stuck, safe to safe.

Like every other time she needed to hide out at the Walsh's, Jenny mustered up all the strength she had and climbed over the white fence separating the property lines. Once she was down flying thru the air and her feet touched the ground she was off running again. She ran faster then the Road Runner himself until she was stomping up the back porch steps.

When she reached the hunter green back door of the Walsh house, she curled her hand into a tiny fist and knocked frantically on the door.

*Knock-knock-knock* *Knock-knock-knock* *Knock-knock-knock*

The February air was a biting and Jenny could see her breath as she waited- impatiently- on her friend to open the back door. Well, either her friend or his sweet grandma- but she knew that one of them would answer and let her in. They always did.

She could hear the shuffling of feet on the other side of the door before it even swung open, revealing an elderly woman with salt and pepper hair with a frilly apron tied tightly around her waist. "Oh, come in dear. Shane's in the front room." Jean ushered the girl into the kitchen with a soft touch on the shoulder. "You're staying for dinner." The old woman told, not asked, Jenny as she shut the door behind the jittery looking thing.

"Thank you, Mrs. Walsh." Jenny thanked her friend's grandma, grateful that she'd be getting a warm meal that night since she doubted her dad would remember to make dinner since he was drunk and fighting with her older sister.

"Oh, nonsense with this Mrs. Walsh hogwash. Now I'll tell you the same thing I told that Grimes boy-Rick, as long as you're a gest in my house you'll call me Grandma Jean. Nothin' else, ya hear me dear?" Grandma Jean told the little strawberry blonde with a tinkle in her eyes and a warm smile on her wrinkled face as she made her way back over to the counter, where she was prepping onions and peppers for her famous meatloaf recipe.

"Yes, ma'am." Jenny shyly nodded before shuffling out of the kitchen and into the front room where her friend was at.

Shane was lounging on the tan burlap couch, legs propped up on the wooden coffee table as he watched tv, sipping on a can of Coke. When he spotted his friends pin straight reddish-blonde hair he sat up straight and placed his feet on the ground, only to ask with concern laced in his scrunched brow, "Your dad?"

"Yea." Jenny nodded, shuffling over to the couch. "Sadie and him're fightin' over her goin' to the dance tonight at the high school." She explained while taking a seat next to her friend. Shane nodded and offered her his can of Coke. Taking the offered drink, Jenny went on to say, "This was their worse fight yet, Shane. I heard him slap her when I was running downstairs and into the kitchen."

"Shit…" The boy sighed, running a hand thru his slightly curly hair. Rubbing the back of his neck, he asked in disbelief, "He hit her?"

"Yea." Jenny nodded; her voice squeaky like a tiny mouse's as she sipped on the half empty can of Coke. "He'd never laid hands on us before, til now. Til Sadie a few minutes 'go."

"Y'know, Grandma Jean'll let ya stay over tonight if ya tell her 'bout Sadie and Dean's fight."

"No, I can't do that. I stayed over a couple weeks ago when daddy caught Sadie tryin' to sneak out and had a bad fight with her." Sadie protested, passing Shane back his soda can.

Taking back his Coke, Shane tilted his dark-curly hair covered head at his friend (well, she was his only friend that was a girl…) and bluntly told her, "Dean's in a smackin' mood, like hell you ain't stayin' here tonight." Jenny went to open her mouth, but Shane held his soda can up to silence her. "The spare room's set up, just ask Grandma Jean to use it and then sneak back home in the mornin' to get ready for school."

Even though Jenny didn't want to be a burden to the Walsh family, she knew better then to fight Shane about staying the night because her daddy was in a nasty fighting mood. Even though he was only 12 years old, Shane had a protective hero complex and would keep pushing until she gave in and let him help her. So, Jenny let out a sigh of, "Okay, I'll stay."

As soon as those words left her mouth, Shane turned his head towards the kitchen and loudly announced, "Grandma Jean, Jenny's staying the night cause Dean's in a fightin' mood 'gain!"

"Guestroom's all set up, stay as long as ya need, dear." Grandma Jean sweetly told Jenny from her spot making dinner in the kitchen.

"Thank you, Grandma Jean." Jenny politely called out to the old woman that was warm and caring enough to take in her own grandson let alone offer her the use of the spare room upstairs as a refuge from her drunk and fired up daddy.

"Maybe tomorrow will be better." Shane suggested, trying to make his friend feel better, as a Nirvana music video played on MTV.

"Yea." Sadie nodded. With her blue eyes darting between Shane and Kurt Cobain, she softly let out a weak, "Maybe tomorrow."


Present Day…

"Can we have pizza tonight?" Trevor asked his aunt, from his spot on the couch reading Moby Dick for his 5th grade book report, as soon as she walked thru the door of their downtown Atlanta townhouse.

"Pizza? But we had it last night, Trev." Jenny sighed, one of her reddish-blonde brows arched high up, as she closed the door and hung her purse up on the wall hook, right next to her nephew's Ironman backpack.

"So." Trevor shrugged, not seeing why his aunt was showing signs of frustration with him over wanting pizza two nights in a row, before turning the page in his book.

"How about we get Chinese or Mexican; get Pizza tomorrow night?" Jenny suggested, only to toe off her sneakers and kick them into the corner by the door before making her way deeper into the living room.

"You forgot your phone in your bag, Auntie Jenny." Trevor piped up, pointing his copy of Moby Dick towards the designer leather handbag (something that his Uncle Merle got as payment for selling a bag of meth and gifted her last Christmas) hanging near the door.

"Yea…" The strawberry blonde shook her head. "It's been a long day." She sighed, turning and going over to where her bag was. Jenny worked as a nurse and her shift at the hospital was very long and tiring that day. So much so that she felt dead on her feet, but that's just the price she had to pay for taking on an extra day for overtime money. Money that she needed since she had a mortgage, car payment, and pre-teen boy to take care of along with other various bills.

"You're telling me." Her nephew scoffed, causing Jenny to raise her brows in an 'oh really' type of way at him. Since he was a kid, she wasn't buying that his day was that stressful. He did just start school a couple of weeks ago, for God's sakes. The dirty blonde boy took his aunt's raised brow as a challenge, so he decided to let her know how ulcer inducing his day had been. "Uncle Merle showed up at the playground today wanting me to 'hide his shit cause the pigs were after him' again." Trevor told his aunt, setting his book down and making air quotes around the words his uncle had told him; imitating the man as well, while she took her phone out of her bag and made her way over to the sofa he was lounging on.

"Jesus…" Jenny rubbed her left temple. Pointing a finger at her nephew, she ordered, "Don't talk like Uncle Merle, it's not nice and you're too young to sound like some hateful hillbilly drug dealer." Trevor just nodded at her, causing Jenny to flop down on the sofa and ask, "Did you hide his meth stash?"

"Hell no. I'm not stupid, Auntie Jenny. I ain't going to juvy over his dumbass."

"Trevor Axel, watch your mouth." Jenny snapped.

"Yes, Auntie." Trevor sighed, going back to his book. His eyes skimmed over the page as he asked, "So…since my day involved Uncle Merle trying to make me do bad things can we please, please, please order pizza tonight?"

"Fine, we'll order pizza." Jenny relented in an exhausted sigh. Truth be told, she was too tired to fight her nephew about pizza. If he wanted pizza, then so be it they'd have pizza despite having it the day before.

"Awesome." Trevor fist-pumped excitedly, a big victorious grin on his face, as his aunt began to pull up the number for their favorite local pizza place.

"Hopefully Merle goes back up in the hills…" Jenny mumbled under her breath before dialing the number for the pizza place.

Honestly, Jenny wasn't too fond of Merle Dixon (the older brother of her late brother-in-law Axel) because of his poor life choices, such as being a drug dealer and leading a very violent biker gang deep in the hills of North Georgia. She put up with him because he was Trevor's uncle, and he did help her out once or twice after she was named their nephew's guardian thru Sadie and Axel's will. Honestly, the Dixon she liked was Axel's twin, Daryl. He wasn't as hard and hateful as Merle; he was also a good uncle to Trevor since he liked to stop by occasionally in his old beat-up pickup truck and take Trevor hunting.

Trevor watched in silent interest as his aunt ordered his favorites from Goodfella's Pizza, making sure that she didn't forget anything. Well, she never did, but he just wanted to make sure. In his opinion she was the best aunt ever and would make a great mom one day, especially since she always had his back and stood up for him when his teacher accused him of being a troublemaker in class. Boy oh boy, did that memory make him chuckle.

"Pizza'll be here in 'bout 30 minutes." Jenny informed her nephew after hanging up and placing her phone on the coffee table. "I'm gonna take a shower, pay and tip the driver if I'm not done when he gets here." She rose from the couch and shuffled towards the stairs.

"Use the money from the jar on the kitchen island, right?" Trevor asked as his aunt started her trek upstairs.

"Yea, Trev. Use the pizza fund jar." The tired nurse confirmed before disappearing upstairs. "And give an extra tip if Glenn's the delivery driver tonight. He always hooks us up with extra sauce, paper plates, and napkins." Jenny loudly added, walking down the hall and into her room.

She didn't get a reply from her nephew, but she assumed that he'd listen to her. Considering everything he's been thru already at such a young age he was easy to get along with; easy to raise and didn't give too much pushback. Sometimes Jenny thought that maybe, just maybe, Trevor listened to her and was easy to get along with because of the shit Justin, her ex, put her through a few months back. That he saw his aunt hurt and vulnerable, in a state that he himself was in after the loss of his parents, and he bonded with her over that. Bonded with her more than if she didn't go through the heartbreaking situation with Justin.


Kings County was a rural area about a couple of hours outside of Atlanta, give or take traffic and what not, and it was the home of Sheriff's Deputy Shane Walsh ever since he was a pre-teen boy. It was where he met his best friends (one of whom was his partner on the force and the other whom he hasn't seen in over a decade), where he got into youthful shenanigans, and where he became a known womanizer. Shane was a very good-looking guy for living in rural Georgia. He had a good head of dark, slightly curly hair and broad shoulders. He was also built too with impressive muscles that always made the ladies swoon. Pair that with his charm and well, he was a natural lady killer.

Unlike his best friend Rick, who settled down with his high school sweetheart and had a family, Shane was a bachelor that had plenty of ladies on speed dial for a good time. He also had a handful of girlfriends that he felt comfortable enough to give a house key too, but usually those relationships didn't last too long. They usually did something that grated on his nerves; he said something that went down the wrong way (cause he had a big mouth and didn't have a filter) and the relationship died. He never really cared though; he had the mindset that he'd just pick up another hot babe at the bar.

Shane had a hard day on the job, he and Rick had to report to a bank robbery that ended up being a stand off that lasted hours. The paperwork he got stuck doing for it too since it was an officer involved shooting bank robbery (Hey, the bank robbers fired so of course he had to use his shotgun while Rick had to unload the Python.) All he wanted to do was go home, eat the food he picked up from the diner, and pass out in his bed.

Of course, when he turned onto his street and reached his house, he saw his current girlfriend Tina's Chevy Cavalier parked on the grass in front of his house. He also saw that his house was light up like a Christmas tree too. 'God damnit, I would give her a key…' Shane grumbled to himself while turning into his driveway.

Cutting his engine, he grabbed his bag with his work clothes in it and stepped out of his Jeep. He steeled himself for a fight he knew was going to happen as he slammed his door shut and made his way up to his front porch, which had the light shining brightly.

"Honey, is that you?" He heard Tina's voice ask from the kitchen as soon as he walked thru the front door.

"Yea, babe, it's me." Shane replied even though he was thinking, 'Who the fuck would it be? It's my house.' He dropped his bag by the door before making his way into the kitchen. "You got all the lights on in my damn house again." He stated, not asked, as he went over to his fridge.

"I don't like the dark, Shane. What's wrong with that?" Tina told him while stirring hamburger helper in a skillet on the stove.

Placing his takeout container in the fridge and slamming the door, he grumbled, "What's wrong with it is that you're runnin' up my electric bill, woman."

"You act like havin' lights on is so expensive, but it's not. If it was up to you, you'd like in the dark like a bear hibernatin' in a cave." The redhead at the stove flippantly said as she fiddled with a knob, bringing the skillet to a simmer since the hamburger helper was almost done.

"Of course, ya don't think it's expensive, ain't your bill; ain't your money bein' forked out for 100-watt light bulbs on all over the fuckin' house."

"You sound just like my father. He's been tellin' me to stop leavin' lights on ever since I was a girl." Tina roared, sounding like the girl from the exorcist. Clearly, she had some daddy issues going on. Seems like Shane had a type there since every woman he gave a key to seemed to have some kind of daddy issues.

"Well, nice to know that me and your father see eye to eye about the lights." Shane dryly chuckled, causing the redhead to chuck her wooden spoon at him. He ducked right as it whizzed by his head, missing him. "I'm goin' out for a drink. Don't wait up for me." The deputy told his girlfriend before pivoting on his heel and storming out of his house.


Shane pulled up in front of Once In A Blue Saloon, the best dive bar in Kings County. It was known simply as Blue's to its patron's. The parking lot was pretty packed for a Thursday night, but Shane didn't care. He wanted a drink and needed to get away from Tina, the fired-up redhead, back at his house. He'd endure the packed dive bar, just for that reason alone.

After exiting his jeep and locking it up, he made quick strides over to the solid wooden door of the bar. As soon as he opened it and stepped inside of Blue's, the mixed smell of smoke and alcohol wafted up into his nostrils. The smell was welcomed as he took in exactly how crowded the room was. A sardine can had more room in it then the packed bar did at the moment.

Shane's chocolate brown eyes scanned the room for an open seat, only to land on a stool at the bar that was, unfortunately, right next to a man he hadn't seen since he moved out of his Grandma Jean's a few years ago. Dean Lacy, the mean county drunk and father to the best friend he hadn't seen in over a decade. Jenny Lacy.

Deciding that his need for a drink outweighed having to come face to face with a piece of shit, Shane strode over to the open barstool and took a seat. He waved at the bartender and simply called out, "Beer, please." The bartender just nodded before grabbing a glass and filling it up with some tap beer.

Upon hearing the voice next to him, Dean Lacy turned his head; making his greying hair brush up against his shoulders as he scrunched his face. "Walsh, what brings ya in 'ere?" Dean asked, his voice steady as a rock despite being on his 4th beer of the night.

"It's Deputy Walsh to you, douchebag, and I'm in here for a beer. Not that it's any of your business." Shane answered his Grandma Jean's drunk neighbor as the bartender placed a napkin and a glass of beer in front of him.

"Need a refill, Dean?" The man asked Mr. Lacy, who just shook his head. Shrugging, the bartender walked off to go check on other patrons at the packed dive bar.

"Y'know, if it weren't for ya runnin' after my daughter 'n' makin' gossip give her a bad rep'tation she would've never left. She'd be 'ere in Kings County, married 'n' raisin' up a nice family."

'He seriously blames me for Jenny taking off to LA? Really? Fuckin' asshole's fault she left, not mine.' Shane thought while sipping his beer and knitting his brows at the man next to him. Setting his glass down on the napkin, careful not to spill any, he simply told Dean, "Whatever reputation Jenny had she earned on her own, I wasn't to blame for it." As Dean's eyes turned into deadly daggers, Shane barreled on with, "You're to blame, Dean, for Jenny runnin' 'way to LA for medical school and never comin' back, not me." Leaning in close enough so nobody, but Dean could hear, Shane revealed in a deep toned whisper, "I know the shit she saw and endured while under your roof. I know 'bout the time ya shoved her down a flight of steps for comin' home late after the homecomin' football game senior year and 'bout every other hell she endured."

Dean's eyes went wide since he never knew that his youngest daughter confided in the neighbor boy turned Sheriff's Deputy. Dean's mouth gaped, much like a fish out of water's does. He didn't know what to say to Shane's remark.

Leaning back and picking up his glass, Shane simply said, "Chickadee did what lil birds do, she spread her wings and flew away to live somewhere else." Sipping on his beer, he told the man that he loathed, "She always could hold her own; I'm glad she got 'way from you and never looked back. You're a piece of shit and a drunken sorry excuse of a father." Pointing his glass towards Dean, who was draining the last of his own beer glass, Shane said, "If she was still 'round here when I became a deputy, I would've locked your sorry drunk ass up and threw away the god damn key." Taking another sip of his beer, he added in, "You're lucky she never came back, or you'd be rottin' in jail right now."

Tapping his thumb against the rim of his empty glass, Dean narrowed his eyes at Shane and concluded, "Ya care 'bout my daughter; her leavin' ya didn't settle well wit'cha even tho y'jump from woman t'woman, huh?"

"Ya a shrink now, Dean?" Shane sarcastically retorted, dodging Mr. Lacy's loaded question. A question that he'd never answer or let himself dwell on. He'd just tell himself that Jenny was a friend, one of his best friends, and even though it hurt that she just dropped him along with Rick and Lori when she moved, he was happy for her that she fulfilled her dream of getting out of Kings County and away from her overprotective drunk of a daddy.

Dean just shook his head before setting his glass down on the bar with a loud clank. Standing up, he pulled out his wallet only to pull out some bills to cover his tab with. "Will, money's under my glass." Dean informed the bartender, who was on the other side of the bar dealing with some young college age girls, after tucking the cash under his glass. Without another word, the county drunk walked away from the bar and out the exit.

Shane was glad that Dean had left, especially when a hot blonde with mile long legs and big boobs sauntered up to the empty stool next to him. He knew that he should probably pay for his drink and go home; smooth things over with Tina, but the pretty blonde next to him was smiling and batting her full lashes at him and he decided that Tina could wait. No harm in enjoying the company of a pretty lady, especially if it led to him getting a number or even getting lucky and going home with her.

He decided that maybe he'd deal with Tina tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow was always a slogan that he used, one that was a thing between him and his Lil Bird. Maybe tomorrow had never worked out positively for either of them growing up, but maybe, just maybe, it would work out for him. Just once.

Maybe tomorrow.


AN:

I hope you guys liked this first chapter. This is my first TWD story. I'm hoping to get the second chapter out in a week or so. The next chapter will have the start of the virus in it, so it will mostly focus on Jenny and Atlanta. It'll probably have another flashback in it too. Maybe I'll show some of what Shane's doing in Kings County too, I dunno yet though.