A/N: Whiny, anonymous reviews that only complain about my rare pairing for Lori without giving any other input on the story just mean you're going to get MORE of that pairing... just forewarning y'all. I've got four other stories sketched out for future Daryl/Lori. So if you don't like the pairing, don't read... or at least don't review, because I can spite-ship with the best of them. Plus I really, really like the pairing. It's an OTP for me. ;)
As October's back and forth weather reminds everyone, northern Florida still has some interesting low temperatures, a fact that will only be reinforced when winter fully arrives. The downside of a community where a considerable number of the homes were vacation rentals is that they all relied on central heating for when the temperature dips below sixty. Most of the houses that do have some sort of fireplace have a gas fireplace.
It's how Shane ends up spending the last two weeks of October on a steady installation of wood burning stoves into occupied quarters. Layering up and bundling up on the rare colder night is fine now, but it won't work out as well later, especially when there are several households with small children. It's why he's actually glad all the kids from his group are still staying in one house, since it gets them on the upper echelons of the installation list.
"That one will keep the whole floor warm?" Sophia asks, looking curious as she hands Shane tools. The woodstove is positioned near the top of the staircase, and the girls' room will get the best benefit from it, since it's oriented toward their doorway. The hallway on the upper floor is pretty small, so he doesn't doubt the other two bedrooms will be warm enough either.
"Yeah. Long as we build up a good little fire on cold nights, it'll be fine."
"What about downstairs?" Since there is already a gas fireplace downstairs, that area isn't a priority yet. During the day, they're mobile enough right now there shouldn't be an issue.
"It depends on whether or not we can get propane in." That's the one good thing about their little safe haven not having natural gas access before everything turned. What fireplaces they do have here are all propane. "It hasn't been a priority yet for heating purposes. The Commander is having it stockpiled, but right now, it's a backup for the emergency generators for the community storage and the infirmary."
"So if the other power systems fail, we don't lose everything in the freezers, right? Or not have power when someone's sick?"
"Exactly." Shane finishes up, while Sophia neatly packs his tools away. She's out of school, but instead of roaming the beaches with the other older kids and teens, she's been tagging along with Shane and the older man he's been partnered with for the project. "Plus we can always cut and season more firewood, but once the propane stocks run out, they're gone. Just like fuel for the vehicles."
He's overheard some of the plans that eventually, they'll work on converting to biodiesel and ethanol, once priorities shift from finding survivors and shoring up the community. But he figures they're at least a year or two off those plans. Overhearing him just reassures him that he made the right decision in bringing the kids here, since the Commander isn't just about survival at bare minimums.
Once they've put away the toolbox and both cleaned up, Shane nudges Sophia. "Not that I mind you tagging along and learning, but is there a reason you haven't been hanging out with the other kids?"
He'd thought once it wasn't just the three musketeers, Sophia wouldn't feel so much like a third wheel, but with easily a dozen kids near her age around, she's stayed reserved. It's concerned him a little, considering her background. A lifetime of keeping to herself because of Ed is hard to undo, he suspects.
"I like spending time with you, and learning useful things." Sophia squirms a little but meets his gaze evenly. "And they all talk about things and people they miss all the time." She sighs softly. "Am I a bad person that I'm glad my dad's gone?"
"No, sweetheart, you aren't." There are times that Shane wishes he'd beaten Ed sooner than he did. "But that's probably hard to explain to the other kids, isn't it?"
She nods, blonde hair bobbing around her face. It's starting to get long enough to braid, which she often asks Beth to do for her. "Yeah. Beth still cries at night sometimes, missing her mom and dad and brother."
Ah, hell. Shane hadn't realized that. He'll have to talk to the girl, and maybe see what Maggie thinks, or Rick when he gets back from his current search trip. "One day, we'll get lucky and find Beth's dad and yours and Carl's moms, Sophia."
"You keep saying she's alive," the girl responds. "How can you be so sure?"
"Because I think your mother is a lot stronger than anyone gives her credit for." He still remembers how cool Carol was under pressure at the CDC, remembering that grenade in her purse. "And I doubt she's alone. We're still missing a lot of people, remember?"
"Yeah." Voices outside draw Sophia's attention for a minute. "Are you and Princess gonna get married?"
It's the sort of question only a teenager who hasn't lost all her hope in people can ask, he thinks. "I think it's a bit early to be thinking on that," he replies, honestly.
She accepts the answer, going to check the menu stuck to the fridge with magnets. With food plentiful but rationed, Princess had made a game of menu planning with the kids with each week's issued food. They do end up with a surplus at times because Rick cycles into the household for an equal number of days that he spends out. He's due back tomorrow, if plans don't change.
"It's not your turn for supper duty tonight," he reminds her. How much of Sophia's need to be useful is innate and inherited from her mother, and how much is from living under Ed's rule, Shane doesn't know. He does know that she needs regular reminders not to do the other kids' chores. "Why don't you go help wrangle the puppies? They'll be grubby after playing in the water."
As much as he likes the little fluff balls, far more than he ever expected to, they're definitely high maintenance critters. He's honestly a little grateful that Nugget's mostly abandoned him for Princess these days, and not just because she seems to really enjoy the little dog's companionship. Sophia's question about the future sticks with him past the kids' bedtimes.
With Rick gone, it's just him and Princess, and she's snuggled close, settled into the vee of his legs with her back to his chest. The temperature is definitely dropping tonight, with enough of a chill creeping in that they've got a fleece blanket thrown across their legs. He's far more content with the glacially slow pace they've been taking things than he would have ever thought himself capable of being.
Brushing aside her hair, he leans in to press a kiss in the tender spot behind her ear, enjoying the intake of breath it causes. She likes being kissed, especially something soft and unexpected, and she has such a delight in it that he keeps looking for ways to ease those little happy gasps out of her.
"We could go upstairs," she offers, voice husky. "I think we're well past the third date stage." With spending every day together, she's technically right. Old world dating can't really apply, and even if it did, living together sort of negates all of that anyway.
Shane knows that offer's been open since the beginning. She's also been a little puzzled, he thinks, as to why he hasn't ventured into her bed. Considering he's not entirely sure how to explain the concept of wanting the slow romance he's never bothered with before, he hasn't tried. The other half of the issue is that she's never broached the subject that she's obviously survived violence of some sort, and he fears that's going to be a minefield in its own right.
He's needed to prove to himself that he has the patience for it, especially considering this isn't like it used to be, where his reputation as a ladies' man generally kept any woman who already knew him from expecting anything more than a week or two of fun. The man capable of that sort of shallow connection to others died in the hospital room when he thought his brother was gone forever. He can't admit pride in what he became after, though.
After what he did at the CDC, crossing any boundary of decency with Lori, he had to learn to trust himself and his self control. He did tell Princess in detail what happened back then, the day after he first kissed her. She deserved to know the darkness he might be capable of, especially with how wary of men she was when she first met him, although he never intends to be that bastard again.
"Alright." His soft agreement, spoken against her skin, has her twisting to study him.
"You sure?" Dark eyes meet his, and he smiles, tugging her in for a kiss instead of a verbal answer.
The master bedroom isn't a surprise to him, not even after Princess took up residence. With just two bathrooms upstairs, he shares it with her and leaves the smaller jack-and-jill bathroom for the kids. Rick typically uses the downstairs bathroom for his showers when he's home.
But the room has changed from bland rental decor to slowly reflecting the personality of the woman who lives there now. Mosaics of shells grace the walls, and another wall has been turned into a half-finished mural that's the project of Princess and all three kids. It's surprisingly realistic for a quartet that loves comic book characters so much, a sailboat amongst dolphins at sunset.
It's her cozy safe haven, and kissing her here changes things between them. It's no longer sweet and tender, confined by the knowledge that they're in an area where any of their family can walk in at any minute. With her door closed, Shane knows nothing short of imminent disaster will get them interrupted.
Peeling away her layers of shirts, he makes sure to trail kisses along each scar he finds, because everything he suspected about her reluctance to show bare skin is true. Her skin is a testament to a hard life, one that prepared her to survive in this world. He pushes away the anger that it sparks in him, because there's no place for that in this room.
"I know they aren't pretty," she mumbles, but she seems fascinated with the attention he pays to the imperfections on her skin.
Shane runs a thumb along one that's an obvious burn mark before following it with his lips. "They aren't ugly, either."
It's the right thing to say, because the shy tension in her body relaxes at that. "I didn't grow up around good people." Sighing, she shakes her head. "Not after my father was gone, anyway. My mother thought being alone was the worst thing that could ever happen to her. My stepfather and stepbrother hated me, and I never understood why."
He supposes that explains why Princess was willing to be completely alone in the world even with the dead walking rather than risk being with the wrong people. "Some people are just born assholes, I suppose. Having been one most of my life, I still can't imagine hurting a child just for existing."
Princess smiles warmly, slipping her hand under his shirts to trace along his spine. "Considering you trekked around Georgia with three children, two with no real relation to you at all, I believe you. It's one of the things that caught my attention, especially when you didn't dump them off on someone else at first opportunity."
Although Shane starts to deny he did anything special once he arrived here to safety with the kids, he does know he could have easily asked the Commander to find a foster family for all three kids. "I couldn't just abandon them. They trust me to look after them."
The knowing smile on her face makes him arch a brow, and her free hand takes one of his to trace the worst scar she has across her ribs. It's a surgical scar, from having rib fractures repaired, and he honestly hopes that her 'family' was alive and well when the world ended, just so they could be eaten. It would be a fitting end for them.
"I trust you to look after me, too," she tells him, and he smiles, taking the reassurance as he presses kisses along her throat.
Fingers tangle in his curls as he eases her back onto the bed so he can start on her belt buckle. He laughs and nips gently at the swell of one of her breasts above her bra line, enjoying the sting when she involuntarily tugs at his hair. "Gotta let me go for a minute, darlin'."
Princess laughs, complying reluctantly. She pushes up on her elbows to watch as he sheds his shirt and undershirt. "It is a crime to make you wear clothes," she mutters, eyeing him with open attraction.
She drops back to the bed, hands making quick work of her belt and jeans, unzipping her sports bra and dropping it in the floor as well. It leaves her in nothing but a pair of constellation themed boy shorts that accentuate strong thighs. There's less scarring on the front of her legs, but he can see the edges of scars that likely decorate the back of her thighs that are more visible because of her darker skin.
"Leave those," he requests, kicking his own jeans aside. She drops her hands back from her waistband, watching as he steps back close in only his boxer briefs. Running his hands along her legs to brush against the fabric of her underwear, he smiles slyly. "I think it's more of a crime to keep you all covered up, but I won't complain."
"Possessive much?" she teases, arching as he reaches sensitive flesh through thin cloth.
"Funny enough, I never used to be." He kisses her, enjoying the sweet taste of her mouth before lifting her to move her further onto the bed. She shows no hesitation over him hovering over her, which makes him feel a sense of relief he didn't expect, but he hasn't forgotten her careful wariness around him when she first came here. Her trust is a precious gift, one he doesn't intend to squander.
When he presses himself against her, full contact still barred by two layers of cloth, she whimpers, arching her back just a little. They've been waiting a while for this, so he's in no hurry. Instead he explores, fingers and lips and tongue covering soft skin until she's begging, her fingers back in his hair and urging him along.
-Edited version -
By the time he can breathe normally again, he doesn't really want to give up the warm weight of her on top of him, but they can't sleep quite like this.
Reluctantly, Shane goes to find a warm washcloth, cleaning them both up enough for sleep. With three teenagers in the house, they don just enough clothing not to be indecent, and reopen their door. The room got a bit cold while cut off from the woodstove's heat in the hallway, so they're both chilled when they cuddle under the blankets, Shane spooned around Princess.
Yawning, she eyes the door. "Will Carl be worried if he wakes up and you aren't there?"
"Nah," Shane answers, nuzzling the soft spot behind her ear that started tonight's escalation of their relationship. "He'll know where I am."
Content with his explanation, Princess is drowsy and sated enough to fall asleep quickly. Shane just enjoys the sensation of her tucked against him. It's not something he ever thought to cherish in his old life, when a woman did stick around long enough for overnight visits. Now? He's just grateful he's no longer so shallow he can't appreciate the woman in his arms. Maybe he confused lust and a need for family with love where Lori was concerned, but he knows better.
This is love, and if the first declaration is whispered into a sleeping woman's ear, Shane promises himself that the next time will be when she can hear him.
A/N: Part 2 will be out in the next day or so. No waiting 2-3 weeks for it, I promise. Shane's POV just ran too long to share with the others.
Lori's POV may not be a full chapter, but if it does become one, there may be a part 3, where I revisit Hershel's group for a small update, plus Rick and Merle will each get a POV.
I do have a quandary with the story as currently planned. Without Carl there to name Judith, she wouldn't be named Judith. I know I've gotten a whiny review about Lori's pairing by an anti-Lori reader, but for those who do actually like my version of Lori, is it really essential that Lil Asskicker actually be named Judith? I mean, I could make something up for that name to happen anyway... I was actually considering acknowledging her paternity and giving her some variant of 'Jean' after Shane's grandmother. An alternate would be that in my fics about Shane, his mother is typically named Sybil.
