YAY! You guys are awesome and I'm so glad that some of my older readers are back and that y'all are liking this little reboot so far. I've gotten a couple of comments on Bobby and I'm super excited because y'all don't even know what I've got planned for that guy!

Two: The Great Divide

The river was cold

And the river was wide

She flowed from the mountain

Straight across the great divide

"This is Linzie Lawrence and Merle and Daryl Dixon. Y'all, this is Amy and Andrea." There was a sour look on Shane's face, like he was offended that he had been chosen as the grand delegate of a raggedy pack of survivors that included them. "They are hunters, though as of yet, we've seen nothing but squirrel."

The younger blonds blanched. "Squirrel?"

Linzie rolled her eyes, skinning a squirrel with quick efficient movements. "Better than nothing."

Daryl shot Shane a dirty look, skinning another of his catch. "We're still too close to the city fer deer. Might git better eventually."

Merle shook his head, fiddling with his knife. "We'll git one or two ever' so often, but the city's just as dangerous fer deer as it's always been."

Linzie nodded and smiled at the girls. "Squirrel'll hafta do. Nice ta meet ya." She ran the blade of her hunting knife under the skin of the squirrel and gave a violent tug.

The girls shared a look of disgust and followed a glowering Shane away.

"Uppity bitches, the both of 'em."

Linzie chuckled and cast a glance at Merle. "Just spoiled sorority girl types. Ain't used to this, is all. They'll grow out of it." She cut a line of connective tissue and stripped the last bit of skin and fur off of the squirrel. "Never did get along with 'em, though. Won't be pleasant."

Merle chuckled. "I still find it hard to believe that you're a college educated women, Sweet Cheeks."

Linzie shrugged. "Believe it. I spent eight years getting educated."

"Eight years! Whoo-ee. What the fuck for?"

Linzie laughed. "Granted doesn't make much difference now, but I found out real quick that I didn't want to do field or plant work. I wanted to teach. In order to teach engineering, you need a master's degree. Got my master's an' figured might as well get my doctorate, makes it easier to get a university job at any rate."

"Dr. Lawrence! My, ain't she high-and-mighty, brother?"

Daryl snorted. "And how much did daddy pay for all this, I wonder?"

Linzie shot him a look and reached for another squirrel. "Nothing. My daddy died when I was high school. Side's wouldn't have been able to pay much, he was a mechanic. No… I got a scholarship for my bachelor's and had a mix of financial aid and loans for my master's and doctorate. Worked at a body shop in Opelika for spending money." She grinned. "Least I'm not in debt anymore." She winked.

Merle snickered.

Daryl and Linzie finished off the last of the squirrels quickly and Linzie gathered them up, taking them across camp to the women preparing dinner. Cooper followed her, tail going a mile a minute, begging for scraps. Daryl whistled shrilly from his tent and waved a piece of squirrel meat. Cooper went running and Linzie chuckled.

One, a pretty black lady, Jackie if she remembered correctly, looked up and shot her a wary look. "What do you want?"

Linzie stopped short and held her hands up, lines of squirrels dangling from her open palms. "Meat for dinner. If you want…"

She looked vaguely guilty and took the squirrel from Linzie, offering a reluctant, "Thank you."

Linzie nodded. "Jus' make sure you cook them all the way before you stew them."

She nodded and Linzie walked away, shaking her head slightly as she made her way across camp.

"Linzie!"

Sighing, Linzie turned toward Bobby, who was approaching from where he had set up his tent. "What's up? You need help with something?"

Bobby frowned, hurt in his dark eyes. "No, thank you. I think I've got everything." He paused and wrung his hands. "I wanted to a… to apologise. I was unnecessarily harsh to you.. when we… when we were ah-"

"I know what you're talking about."

He bobbed his head. "Sorry. I just wasn't prepared for all that happened. You were and you saved my life multiple times and I just wanted to apologize."

She nodded. "Apology accepted. No worries." She nodded and moved to leave, stopping when Bobby wrapped a hand around her bicep.

"Can I ask you a question?"

She huffed and turned back. "Yeah, sure. I've got stuff to do, but it can hold."

"Why… I'm mean… those two guys, they look like bad news."

"Daryl and Merle?" She made a face and shook her head. "Bad news? Nah… Jus' different. Different like me, matter of fact."

He frowned. "They aren't like you, Linzie. You're-"

"This again." Linzie smirked. "Look, I can play nice when I need to, I can be professional at work and be sociable and all that when I need to. But you gotta realize that jus' 'cause someone ain't you proximation of a good and decent person, doesn't mean they aren't."

He huffed. "I'm not trying to be rude-"

"No, you are rude. You are judgmental. You are also being divisive and in a time like this, we can't afford that." She turned away.

"Do you have to set your tent so close to theirs?"

She stopped again. "That's the best spot. Shade in the morning, sun in the evening. Nothin' gonna shit on the tent. They jus' happen to know that, too."

She strode the rest of the way across camp, not catching anyone's eyes and stomped over to her tent.

"Problem, Sweetness?"

She sighed, halfway in her tent. "Look, Merle. Let's be clear. I am not your Baby, your Sweetness, your Sugartits or your Sweet Cheeks. Show me some respect and call me by my name."

"What crawled up your ass?"

She grabbed her bathing stuff. "Nothing jus' tired of holdin' my tongue."

Daryl ducked his head, like he was expecting Merle to blow up. "Where you goin'?"

"To bathe."

Merle grinned. "You want company?"

She paused and grabbed her pistol of the cooler by her camp chair. Checking the chamber, she shook her head. "Nah, I think I'm good."

"Holler, if ya change ya mind!"

"I won't!"

"She flirts with them."

"Those two are trouble… Did she come in with them?"

"No… I think she drove in with the guy from up north… Bobby."

Linzie took one last drag on her cigarette and stubbed it out on the rock she was sitting on, deliberately knocking a few rocks off the outcropping she was perched on. They clattered to the ground below a spare foot from the gossiping women. They jumped, looking up at her. She gave them a jaunty little wave and walked down off the outcropping.

They stared at her as she walked past, red in the face and mortified they had been caught.

Linzie stopping to watch a car come up the quarry road. A young Asian man got out, shaken and wide-eyed, followed by a Hispanic family of four. They locked eyes with her and smiled. "Is it safe here?"

She nodded and shrugged. "'Bout as safe as possible nowadays. Ain't seen any walkers, leastways."

They nodded and the Asian man smiled broadly. "Can we… Can we stay?"

Linzie smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we got room." She turned over her shoulder. "Shane!" Shane looked up and she jerked her chin at the new-comers. He put down the gun he was cleaning and strode across camp. Linzie cast a quick look around and pointed at a clear spot away from the trees. "Mosta the good camp spaces are gone. I'd put your tents there, a couple feet from the trees."

"Away from the trees?"

Linzie nodded as Shane walked up behind her. "Keep 'em out of the way of the squirrels and the birds. That way they can't...poop on the tent."

The kids made faces and she mimicked them. "Gross right." She held her hand out to the woman. "Linzie Lawrence."

She grasped her hand briefly. "Miranda Morales. This is my husband and our children, Louis and Eliza."

Linzie nodded and held her hand out to the young man.

"Glenn."

Linzie smiled and reached out to ruffled the two kids' hair. "I let Shane take it from here. He's kinda the unofficial boss 'round here."

Shane eyed her and nodded stiffly. "Hey y'all."

Linzie walked away and made towards her tent.

"You a fan of those taco-benders and chings?"

She rolled her eyes. "Merle, do you have any empirical evidence that white people are any better than any other race?"

His brows drew down over his eyes. "Wha'?"

She smiled. "I'm an engineer. I don't take things on faith. I need evidence. Do you have any? Can you prove that you are better than they are?" She started rifling through her tent. "If you, I'll jump right on the bandwagon with you. If not…" She held her hands out.

Merle went red. "They come into this country and take-"

She shrugged. "Does that really matter now? Does it really matter that they were taking jobs Americans didn't want?" Merle's mouth worked noiselessly and Linzie smiled. "Whatever was true before, I'm not sure it really matters anymore. I can't imagine Asian or Hispanic people taste any better or worse than white meat. What matters now is what you can contribute, what you're skilled at. We don't have the luxury of prejudice anymore. Sorry."

She pulled a laundry basket out of her tent and set it on her camp chair and grabbed a bottle of detergent. She stood straight and looked down at the Dixons, who were still staring at her a little bewildered. "Look, we all got a right to our opinions and I won't judge you none for them, ain't like I'm exactly surprised. I'm from backwoods Alabama, after all. But these days, it don't help ya done to stick in the mud that way." She sighed and pulled a face. "I'm sure I live to regret this, but y'all have clothes need washin'? I'm about to do mine."

Merle smirked. "You gonna do my laundry, like m'pretty little wife?"

Linzie chuckled. "Nope, not anymore. I'll do Daryl's cause he can keep his mouth shut, but you're on your own."

Daryl smirked at Merle. "I'll git the laundry for ya."

Linzie nodded and held out the basket. Daryl chuckled as he dropped the laundry in basket. "Off ya go, Ladybird."

She made a face. "Ladybird?"

Daryl colored faintly. "Better than Sugartits, right? Now off wit' ya."

She shook her head and picked up the detergent with her free hand. "Whatever."

She whistled and Cooper moved to her side. Casting one last look at the Dixons with a rueful smile, she marched off.

Halfway across the yard, the tall brunette's son, Carl, stopped her. "Ms. Lawrence?"

She smiled, Cooper moving to sit placidly at her feet. "Linzie's fine, kid. What's up?"

He shied away from her, his eyes on Cooper. "Can I play with your dog, Ms. Linzie?"

Linzie winced. "Uh… I'm not sure your mom is going to be okay with that, bud…"

"Why?" He paused for a bare second. "Does he not like kids?"

She set the laundry detergent down and rubbed a hand over Cooper's head, encouraging him to do so as well. Cooper sniffed excitedly at the boy's outstretched hand, his tail thumping against her leg. "He loves kids… I just think it's better to ask your mom first."

He nodded. "She's down at the pond doing laundry. You were going down there anyways, right? Can I ask her then?"

Linzie smiled and nodded. "Yeah, let's do that."

He smiled broadly and held out his hand. When she hesitated, he sent her a winning smile. "My mom says I have to hold an adults hand when I go down to pond, in case I slip."

She nodded, picking the detergent up and setting it in her basket, and held out her hand. "'Kay, then."

They walked down to the quarry, Carl chattering away, one hand idly petting Cooper's head, and Linzie, silently anxious.

As they neared the pond, the women doing laundry there, all but leapt to their feet. Linzie bit back the 'I told you so' on the tip of her tongue and chewed on her lip as Lori looked her up and down.

"C-Carl… what are you doing down here, baby?"

Carl smiled broadly and told Cooper to sit, giggling happily when the big dog did. "I wanted to play with Cooper, but Ms. Linzie though I should ask you first." Lori nodded and approached her son as Linzie moved to set her hamper on the shore, many feet away from the other women. "So can I?"

Lori sighed. "Honey, Cooper is a hunting dog... Sometimes, hunting dogs don't like kids."

Carl shook his head. "Ms. Linzie said that Cooper loves kids."

Lori turned to her with a slightly suspicious frown. "Ms. Linzie, is this alright with you?"

Linzie shrugged and nodded. "Cooper's well-trained. You don't have to worry about him bitin' Carl or anything like that. Worse that can happen is Carl gets to chasin' him around and Cooper accidentally knocks him over." Linzie sighed. "However, you still uncomfortable with it, I can walk Carl back up to camp."

Lori swallowed and turned to Carl. "You're gonna play with him down here, where me and Ms. Linzie can watch okay?"

Carl nodded and whistled callin' Cooper over. They set to playing and Linzie perched on a rock and started laundry.

The acoustics across the lake were great, so as she scrubbed a particularly stubborn sweat stain out of one of her daddy's old flannels, she listened to what the other women were saying.

"She took her uppity self and sat her ass twenty feet away. Not our problem."

"Uppity? I don't think she's uppity, necessarily. Quiet more like."

"Then why did she sit so far away? Do we have cooties or something?"

The was a short giggle. "Tolerance cooties. She might catch it."

That made Linzie laugh in a sudden crack as she attacked a blood stain on one of Daryl's shirts. "Don't sound so tolerant to me!"

Andrea stood. "What?"

Dropping the clean shirt in her hamper and grabbing the next one, she sucked on her lip and didn't look up. "I said 'Don't sound so tolerant to me.'"

Andrea huffed and turned away.

Ignoring the suddenly quiet women, Linzie rocketed through the rest of her laundry and gathered up her supplies and the little packet of coke she had found in a certain someone's shirt pocket. Pausing at the foot of the path, she turned to the staring women. "If you have a problem with me, if I've done something, anything, to offend you, take it up with me. You know where my tent is."

She started up the path and turned to look at Carl, smiling softly, she called down to him, "Hey, buddy. You keep an eye on Cooper, for me? Bring him up when your mom's done with laundry, 'kay?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. Can Sophia and Louis and Eliza play with him, too?

She nodded. "If their moms are okay with it."

"Yes, ma'am."

She started back up to camp and ran into Daryl on the way up.

"Didn't take ya too long."

She shook her head. "Didn't linger and gossip with the Southern Housewife Committee." He snorted and motioned for the basket. She passed it over and lit a couple of cigarettes, passing one over to Daryl. "What did ya need?"

"Me an' Merle are goin' huntin'." Daryl huffed. "He wanted ta know if ya found-"

"This?" She passed the coke over.

Daryl shook his head and took the coke from her. "He needs to quit this shit. Gonna git us killed." He looked up, caught Shane's eyes on him and shoved the coke in his pocket.

She chuckled and spoke loud enough for Shane to hear, "What is Officer Do-Good gonna do? Lock you up?" She smiled blithely at Shane and continued on past, Daryl following in her wake.

"Ms. Lawrence."

She turned back and looked at Shane. "If you want to be formal, you can call me Dr. Lawrence, seeing as I spent so much time getting that degree." Daryl snorted.

Shane chuckled sarcastically. "Can I talk to you?"

"Yep."

"We can't have drugs floatin' around camp." He held his hand out.

"They aren't. Far as I know, Merle's the only one doin' drugs-" Shane snorted and Linzie glared at him. "-Merle is the only one doin' drugs, far as I know." She turned to Daryl, who bobbed his head. "Don't assume, jackass. Now as far as Merle's drugs, they are Merle's drugs. Long as he don't get me killed, I don't care what he does. If you have a problem with it, you talk to him."

With that, she put a hand on Daryl's shoulder and walked away.

Daryl shook his head and passed her the basket as they neared their tents and the clothes line strung in front of it.