"Ehm, hello?"

Melanie looked up from her magazine and seen a man standing in the doorway, "Oh, hey. You the handyman Chuck asked for?"

The man came forward and gave her a polite smile, "Yes ma'am, names Joel."

"Tommy not with you?" Charlene asked, frowning a little as she glanced behind Joel, "I thought it was the two of you comin' round."

"Nope, just me. He's on another job today."

Charlene sighed and grabbed her bag off of the bar, "You're on your own sweetie," she shook her head as she walked out of the door, "can't believe I shaved my legs for this."

Snorting, Melanie tried to compose herself as Joel chuckled to himself, "I'm sorry about her," she said rolling her eyes "she's kinda got a thing for your brother as you could probably tell."

"It was kinda obvious," Joel grinned "so what seems to be the problem here?"

"It's the sink in the kitchen," Melanie replied, pointing through to the other room "damn thing either hardly works or you get soaked all of a sudden."

Joel nodded "Well, I'll get my case out of the truck and be with you in a second, ma'am."

"Oh, call me Melanie," she said quickly, giving him a small smile "makes me feel old when you say 'ma'am'."

His eyes flickered over her face and Melanie found herself wishing her hair was in a better state rather than pulled back in a ponytail and she had put some make-up on this morning. When Chuck had asked her to open up for the handyman, she hadn't expected him to be this good-looking. "Well, then…Melanie. Feel free to call me Joel."

…..

Melanie shook her head, coming out of her thoughts as Maria's walkie-talkie went off. "Maria?"

"Yeah. Go ahead Toby."

"We're in the control room. Steve's about to start it back up. Do you wanna come check it out?"

Maria glanced at Melanie and she made a face, "I think I'll survive if I don't go check it out. I'm good."

"Yeah, me too, I'd rather eat with Ellie," Maria said slowly and looked up at Tommy with a hopeful smile.

Shaking his head, he chuckled at his wife, "It's my turn anyway. I'll go."

"I'll come with you," Joel added in and glanced back at Ellie, "go with Maria and Melanie, put some food in you."

But Ellie seemed incredibly reluctant to be separated from him, "Joel!" she muttered, frowning at him slightly.

Maria glanced between them before putting a hand on Ellie's shoulder, "C'mon Ellie. Let's give the boys some space."

"Yeah, don't worry Ellie," Melanie said as Tommy and Joel went through the door "it's incredibly boring, trust me."

Smirking, Maria turned and headed back to the kitchens, "I'm sending Tommy over, Toby," she said into the walkie-talkie, "Stand by."

"Oh…okay, over."

As they walked, Maria raised an eyebrow at Melanie over Ellie's head, "Seemed Toby was kinda put out you weren't heading over too" she pointed out in a casual voice "maybe you should make it up to him-"

"So, Ellie." Melanie interrupted Maria quickly and smiled down at the younger girl, "How old are you?"

"Fourteen," she replied and raised an eyebrow "would it be rude if I asked you your age?"

Melanie laughed quietly "No, it wouldn't be rude. Let's just say I'm much older than you."

"Yeah, that's what Joel said when I asked him what age he was."

She smiled sadly, "Yeah…that sounds like Joel."

They walked into the kitchens and seen it was empty, "So, Ellie what d'ya fancy?" Maria asked as she looked in the cupboards, "Got some…beans? Biscuits, porridge or some salad? Think there's some fish left too..."

Melanie felt a smile grow on her face at the way Ellie carefully thought it over, "You guys seriously have food other than beans?" she said, her eyes lighting up when Maria tossed her a chocolate bar, "Seriously? Chocolate? Oh man!"

"One of the guys found it on a supply run," Maria said snorting as Ellie immediately devoured the chocolate bar, "want another one?"

"If it's goin', yeah."

Maria prepared a little of everything and put the plate down in front of Ellie, "So, how long you and Joel been travelling together?" she asked sitting down next to Melanie.

"Uhm, for a while now," Ellie said carefully, "kinda lost track of time. Been having so much fun killing infected and stuff."

Shaking her head a little, Melanie looked the small girl over "You've been killing?"

"Not at first…then Joel gave me a gun and I've been helping out more," she stopped as she seen the two women widen their eyes at her, "only in emergencies," she added quickly "he's dead serious on me not fighting."

Maria raised an eyebrow and looked impressed, "Not many kids I know can handle a gun."

"Well, I grew up in a military base…at first it was water guns but I upgraded," Ellie joked and then glanced between them both, "So how do you two know Joel? Besides being his sister-in-law."

"Well, personally I don't know him," Maria admitted popping a small tomato into her mouth, "Tommy and I met each other about ten years ago, Melanie knew him from before," she paused before smiling softly "they were actually dating before all this shit happened."

Ellie's eyes widened in surprise, "No way! You were his girlfriend? Joel had a girlfriend?"

"Yeah…I was," Melanie said giving Maria an annoyed look, "but…but things ended between us. A long time ago."

Ellie didn't ask why but instead wanted to know more about her guardian. "What was he like? Was he always this serious?"

"No actually, he was…fun," Melanie said honestly, "he'd always be cracking these corny jokes, taking me to the movies…" she snorted suddenly as she remembered her birthday party, "I even got him to sing karaoke once."

The small girl looked at her in disbelief, "I'm sorry are we talking about the same Joel?" she sighed suddenly and shook her head, "I'd love to see that side of him, rather than this depressed and angry one all the time."

"He's…he's been through a lot," Melanie felt a little pang in her chest as she remembered that night when it all started, "lost people that he loved…"

"Like you?"

Maria shook her head and after a quick glance at Melanie and seeing she wasn't going to say anything, the other woman gave Ellie a sad look "Joel…Joel had a daughter. Her name was Sarah and the night they all tried to get out of Travis County…she was killed. Shot by a soldier. It tore him, as well as Tommy and Melanie, up. He's always blamed himself for it."

"Fuck…" Ellie said and then swallowed hard looking at Melanie, "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to bring the mood down."

"Don't worry about it, Ellie…" Melanie replied, rubbing her head a little and hoping there were no tears in her eyes "at least you know why he's…different now."

She kept quiet while Maria changed the subject and began talking about the horses and other things with Ellie. As Melanie glanced out the window at the blue sky, she remembered back when usually she would have been the first one out in the sunshine to try and keep her skin nice and tanned. Before she hated being inside when it was such a gorgeous day…well, there was one day when she didn't mind being inside…..

"Yeah…I can see your problem here," Joel said wiping his hands on an old rag, "don't worry, it'll be easy enough to fix."

Melanie felt relieved, "Thank god, knowing Chuck, it would have taken him forever to get a new sink," she smiled at him as he knelt down to start working, "you want a drink? Tea or coffee…or something?"

"Coffee, thanks."

Filling up the kettle, Melanie got two cups out and paused: she had been ready to make coffee as if it were for her and Chuck, "How do you take it?" she asked.

"Black…just, just black."

"No sugar or anything?" She made a face, "God, I cannot drink coffee without sugar and milk."

Joel accepted the cup off her and gave her a grin, "Don't need sugar when you're as sweet as me."

"Oh you didn't just say that," Melanie said laughing to herself as she leaned against the counter with her own cup, "that's the oldest one in the book."

"Made you laugh," he pointed out and took a drink before turning back to the sink, "so, who was the last person to fix this? They didn't use the right stuff to seal it up."

"Think it was your brother," Melanie said, the phone began to ring and she stood behind Joel as she answered it, "Hello? Chuck…hey, yeah he's here, fixing it as we speak. I don't know, let me check…"

She was about to ask Joel how long he thought he would be, when he suddenly shouted out as water sprayed out from the pipe. Melanie shrieked a little as she became soaked through but was soon laughing at the sight of Joel trying to stop the leak by grabbing it with both hands.

"Damn it, Tommy!" he said through gritted teeth, but laughed when he seen the state of Melanie giggling loudly, "Mind handing me my wrench?"

"I've gotta go, Chuck. I'll call you back," Melanie said quickly, her voice shaking as she tried to control her laughter. Joel quickly got it sorted out and they looked at each other before laughing out loud again.

Melanie looked down to her soaked jeans and white blouse that was now see through, her hair was a mess and she was actually glad she hadn't bothered with make-up. "Well…that was fun," she said, noticing how Joel's t-shirt was now sticking to him, "this happen to you often?"

"No, don't normally give my customers a wet t-shirt show," he said jokingly, standing up and looking around the small kitchen, "sorry about the mess though. I'll help you clean it up."

Waving her hand, Melanie shook her head. "Nah, don't worry about it. It'll take two minutes to mop up," she seen him look her over and hoped she didn't look a right state with the added wetness, "so…sink still easy to fix?"

"I've got the right stuff at home, then this won't happen again," Joel answered and grinned a little, "much to your customer's disappointment."

Melanie smiled back, "Oh they will be very disappointed."

Pausing slightly, Joel glanced down at the sink, "My next job is at six tonight…if you want I can run and get it now, fix the sink in an hour? Or do you have plans?"

"No…no plans," Melanie said quickly and then cleared her throat, "I was just gonna have a lazy day in the sun…but I'll just mop this up while you're away."

"Okay…well," he reached down and got his bag, grabbing the keys out of the front of it, "I'll see you soon. Melanie."

She blushed a little when she realised she had been staring at his chest and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before smiling shyly at him, "See you….Joel."

A loud alarm noise sounded and Melanie got to her feet immediately and got out her gun as did Maria. "What-what's going on?" Ellie asked nervously as she looked around, "What does that noise mean?"

"It's an alarm," Maria said a little worriedly "means we're under attack!"