Hello all!

It's me back again with a new chapter, enjoy!

Fair bit of talking in this one, I was going to make it longer but it felt like I threw a lot of chatter in here to be honest. Bit of bonding between characters here as well :)

Oh! and before I forget, Patricia is Hershel's brother and Otis is her husband and there son is Jimmy. So there isn't a JimmyxBeth romance here, they're cousins.

"Not one step closer" Shane growled

"Brother, put the gun down" another voice said and Harry had to blink and shake his head a little, this man was in a full sheriff's uniform, what? Did he honestly think that mattered anymore?

"Not a chance Rick! We don't know this guy! He could be anyone, willing to do anything! What I want to know about him is why he had Sophia! And why is he passing that boy in that house as his, it's obvious they're not related! They look nothing alike! God knows why he has him but I'm willing to bet it's nothing good, we have to protect the kids and the group from him!" Shane spat

"Shane!" Carol admonished "He saved Sophia, why are you acting like this?"

"Because I want to know how! And why! A grown ass man like this wandering the woods with a young boy is not right! Also, all that woodland and he managed to find us? I'm telling ya, there's something wrong with him, we need to protect our people"

Harry, who had been growing steadily angrier during Shane's tirade, especially at the insinuation of having Teddy for nefarious purposes, finally snapped at the end of Shane's 'Speech'

"You need to keep your people safe from me?" Harry exclaimed incredulously "What about you?! You're the ones who lost a 12-year-old girl in the forest for two nights and a day! A girl who when I found her was hanging from a branch with four Undead underneath her seconds away from dragging her out of the tree, she was too weak to fight them properly from lack of food and water and was about to lose her grip, she was about to die and your angry that I saved her? Are we also talking about the same people who stood by and let a man beat his wife? Did nothing about it? Are we talking about the group that actually disabled a perimeter ring around SOMEONE ELSES CAMP, and then just decided to stay there? Just sit and let an influx of Walkers trample in, killing nearly a dozen people? Also, not to mention the group who couldn't quite remember just how dangerous it was to take an 11-year-old into the woods in the normal world, never mind the fucking apocalypse! Are we talking about the group that literally have 3 people to properly defend them? Who sends a young 20-year-old kid on dangerous solo runs to fucking Atlanta?! And then sticks him with four other people and expects the best? The group, who three separate people, have told me lie, cheat and steal to and from each other without giving a fuck about any of the consequences? Yeah, some fucking group. You assholes just shot my son, he might have brain damage now, and you!" Harry snarled whirling around to glare at Shane again, "Have the audacity to say I'm the one your group needs protecting from? Seems to me like you're all doing a pretty damn good job of killing yourselves without my involvement. Carol, Sophia, I will speak with you later, for now, I'm going make sure the idiot who shot my son in the head didn't manage to kill him" he shot a significant look at Andrea, and didn't feel the slightest bit guilty when she paled and tried to duck behind the older man standing next to her.

As the group watched Harry storm off, silence reigned for the first time since the CDC explosion and expressions were varied. Shane was furious at Harry's comments; Lori couldn't believe a stranger had so easily picked apart all the failures the groups decisions had turned out to be lately. Andrea (once she recovered), T-Dog and Dale were thinking about Harry's comments about their only being three people who could properly help defend the group and vowed to do something to change it, they had lost too many people to lose more now. Glenn was thinking about how true the comments about him running to Atlanta were. He had argued vehemently again the decision for more people than himself to go, but he had, in the end, been overruled, the prospect of more supplies being brought back this time winning the argument. No matter how much he had protested, knowing taking five other people with him would be a risk, never mind who those five people were! And when he'd run across Rick, he'd been in more trouble having yet someone else to save and get out of the city. He had hated the position he had been in and was still feeling guilty for the loss of Merle.

Rick had a look of despair on his face, Harry was entirely right. He had made the decision to take Carl into the woods, a decision he would never have made back home because he knew there would be hunters about, and he couldn't, he WOULDN'T risk his son like that. So why had he thought it was okay to do now? When the world was one thousand times shittier. And even the group, Harry was right, really only himself, Shane and Daryl were fully capable to defend the rest. They needed to start the training…NOW.

Daryl was amazed, standing at the edge of the group quietly taking everything in, he more than agreed with the newcomer. He was entirely right about every member of the group, they were completely inept at protecting themselves, and right now, it was lucky they were because otherwise Andrea would have killed that boy, but one of these days, the ineptitude of these people would get all of them killed. He was grateful that Harry had managed to save Sophia, he was very fond of the little girl and her mother, rather like an aunt and a niece. Carol had not deserved to watch her little girl run from Walkers less than a week after the death of her husband. So maybe, just maybe, Harry could be good for most of the group.

Harry was fuming as he stormed back into the Greene's house to check on his son. He couldn't believe the audacity of Shane, to even suggest that the group needed to be saved from a doctor, to suggest that his son wasn't his. The man was unstable, that was obvious. And he couldn't believe that someone like that was practically leading a group of survivors.

"Harry?" Hershel questioned as he watched the younger man storm through the lounge on the way to the dining room, "What's wrong?"

Somewhere through the fog Hershel's question did manage to catch Harry's attention.

"Shane" Harry sighed "He seems to think I'm a danger to the group. He also thinks that because Teddy doesn't resemble me that I must be doing something horrible with him and that he needs protecting from me"

Hershel frowned, "Whilst I do agree that Teddy does not look like you, there is no doubt in my mind he is your son. Has Shane perhaps never heard of Adoption, or fostering?" He said sarcastically "I'm getting really tired of him being on my property" he sighed

"Why" Harry asked curiously

"Because if that… group really think that they need to be protected from a Doctor, there is something more wrong with them that I first thought"

Harry, sensing the hesitation on the word group, enquired as to what Hershel meant.

"I mean, that Rick is supposed to be the leader, and yet he lets Shane walk all over him, he lets his wife, Lori, talk to him like dirt, and the rest of the people are suffering for it. There is a clear divide in the group, and it's going to get them hurt. Now this isn't a world anymore where you can afford to be alone, outnumbered and undertrained for any situation. This sickness is horrifying, and until they get better people need to be prepared, and that group is not, they've got two kids shot in three days" Hershel spat

Harry was shocked that someone as kind and selfless as Hershel, a man who had opened his home to not only one but two groups of people in need, could be speaking so viscously about one of them. It must have shown on his face, because Hershel started laughing.

"I told you Harry, Rick and his boy came running into my house after my brother in law accidentally shot through a buck and hit his boys stomach. He needed to be operated on, there was no way I could get the bullet out without killing him, he's ten for Christ sakes! Going through the deer must have fractured the bullet much like in your boy, and Carl seized up just from me trying to get out the piece that was closest to the surface. He would have died if I couldn't anesthetise him. So, Shane, and my brother in law Otis, went to the high school about 6 miles away. There was an emergency evacuation there, and they had a few medical trucks, and a Transport unit which was basically like a small surgery room, so they went to get the supplies. Shane came back, Otis didn't. He said they were overrun, that Otis sacrificed himself to save the boy"

"But you don't believe that" Harry surmised

"Come now, look at him" Hershel said gesturing out the window to Shane who had just stormed into view "Otis was an ex-marine, and yes he had put some pounds on, and yes, I do not doubt for a second that he would give his life to save a young child. But are you honestly telling me that an officer of the law like Shane, a deputy, would just have let a civilian die? And ever since he came back, he's just acting crazy, and I know that because I've heard the others talk about it. He had hair missing so he shaved it all off, he had Otis' gun and the pack I know would have been with him at all times, which yes could have been from him giving it over, but why the gun? Wouldn't that be more beneficial to draw them away from Shane? And he just fly's off the handle constantly, everyone and anyone are targets for his anger and suspicion, except for Lori and Carl"

"So, you think he did something to Otis?" Harry confirmed

"Oh, I think he did more than something" Hershel scoffed, "I think he killed him"

And Harry was horrified, after the war against the Dark, five years as an Auror and seven as a Healer, he didn't think much could faze him anymore, that he was over seeing the worst in people, but apparently the Apocalypse was just bringing out the worst in people all over again.

"I think we need to find out, for your own piece of mind" Harry said looking at Hershel.

Hershel looked intently at Harry before agreeing "I would like to know, he may have only been by brother by marriage, but we have been close for many years, he was… he is my best friend"

"I will find him" Harry said resolutely making Hershel look up in surprise, "I will find him, and I will bring him home for you, just don't let on what I'm doing, god only knows what would happen if someone from the other group found out where I was going" Harry sighed "If Shane found out, it might prompt him to follow and kill me too"

"Thank you Harry" Hershel choked out, his eyes were welling with tears and he looked overcome with emotion. Turning away again to look out of the window towards the rising moon, Harry saw Hershel glance at him before speaking.

"Would you mind, if I asked you a question?" Hershel sounded extremely nervous, like he wanted to ask the question but was unsure if he actually wanted the answer.

Harry smiled, "Sure, anything"

"Do you think that these, creatures. For lack of a better word, are still… Human" Hershel eventually asked, still sounding extremely nervous. Like he was scared of Harry's answer.

"I don't think so" Harry replied after a minute "I have family and friends back in England. My sister Hermione, she was a researcher with a special branch of the World Health Organisation and god knows how but she found a way to get me a message, and the message…" Harry stuttered to a stop, before swallowing hard and continuing "She said, that they had managed to get a test subject, and they kept him under 24/7 surveillance right from the moment the bite was found. They monitored everything. When we're alive, our whole brain is constantly keeping to keep us alive, every part has a message to send somewhere that keeps us breathing, feeling pain, knowing when to eat and sleep and piss. Then there's what Hermione called the 'Human Parts' like the neo cortex and the frontal lobe, the things that make you who you are by storing your personality, your memories, your emotions… when we die, everything is shut off, you literally just, stop. These creatures, when they regenerate, or whatever you want to call it, it's literally their brain stems leading them, there the knowledge to move, and to eat, but that's it, there's no, emotion, there's no memories, there isn't anything human coming back with them. Just a shell intent on feeding. She said, the best the world can do right now, is to aim for the head, so that at least the people you love are spared from this new existence. So that they truly can rest in peace" Harry finished talking quietly

Hershel looked floored, "Who…" He trailed off coughing "Who was the test subject?" He asked delicately

Harry smiled bitterly "His name was Saros, he was 5 years old, he got the bite from another child who turned whilst at school. He was amazing and he… he was my godson. He was her son, and she had to watch him die"

I had loads more written for this chapter, but like I said up there ^ theres a lot of talking in this one. Hope you enjoyed! Until we meet again

Crossfire.x