FIVE CONTINUED
CONTINUED
It was dark when she finally got to the part of the woods that only Shane and Rick stood in currently. All the others were still looking for Randal; she'd stopped when she tripped over something, found the body face down in the dirt.
And she'd thrown up then reminded herself that she'd come out into the woods with the intention to do the same. Someone –most likely Shane, just beat her to it is all. She wasn't sure how to feel about it exactly, either but… By the time she made it to the trees where Shane and Rick stood closest to, she'd come to the decision that she'd deal with how she felt when she got him the hell away from Rick. She knew by now that they'd found Randal's body an hour or two earlier, just as the sun was setting.
She crouched, not wanting to call attention to herself until she saw the gleam of silver in the moonlight and then the scream ripped from her throat and paused Rick's knife wielding hand in mid air. She froze after the scream and Rick called out, "Come out."
Shane grumbled when Jenny stepped out of the treeline, but the distraction gave him enough time to catch Rick off guard and a scuffle for the knife to start. And Shane managed to get the knife from Rick, but Rick managed to get it back, the knife was ge tting closer and closer to his abdomen.
And then more screams and a gunshot from nearby threw everyone off kilter. Rick glared at Shane and snarled, "Get your ass away from the group. If you don't leave tonight, Shane, I will kill you."
"I was fuckin leavin anyway!" Shane growled back as he pulled himself up from the ground, grumbling and swearing, his heart beating like a runaway train, his lip busted and bleeding, the coppery taste filling up his mouth.
Jenny waited and when Rick was gone to see what was going on, she quietly made her way over to Shane. "I told you not to do that."
"And I told ya, Jenny, man didn't deserve to go on livin. Rick wasn't gonna do a fucking thing about it, so I did what needed to get done. If you can't understand that then..." Shane gestured his hand in a waving motion, back towards the farmhouse.
Jenny glared up at him and then said quietly, "It wasn't your decision to make. Or your revenge to get. It was mine. And I'm not sure how to feel about you doing it. But I still feel like I'm better off with you. I mean… we both got blood on our hands."
"You think so, huh?" Shane mused, looking at her for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath from the struggle he'd had with Rick, he'd gotten the damn wind knocked out of him when Rick tackled him and when he'd reversed it and tried to get Rick in a submission they both knew from the police academy.
" I know so."
"Whatever you think, doll." Shane muttered as Jenny asked quietly, "What will we do now?"
"There's a farmhouse close by. I got a weapon, bastard didn't get all of mine. I hid one. We can get that one, head to that farmhouse and sleep. Tomorrow, we'll figure everything else out. But if you come with me, you're gonna have to do everything I tell ya.. I mean it, woman."
"Yeah, whatever you say, Shane Walsh. I'll do what my gut tells me. Just because I feel safest with you doesn't mean I'm gonna become submissive." Jenny argued, hand on her hip as she looked up at him and he grunted, rolling his eyes a little. "We best get our asses moving." Shane muttered after a while, tentatively reaching out for her hand as he prepared to lead them to the farmhouse he was talking about nearby.
The walk through the woods was silent, his hand in hers, a slow and tedious process. Neither of them spoke, both were lost in their own thoughts. Jenny was wondering if trusting her gut was the right thing to do in this case, given what he'd done to Randal and Shane was wondering how the hell to keep his barriers in place, keep her from getting to him.
The farmhouse came into view and the two of them dashed across the yard, Shane breaking the glass in one of the window panes on the French door leading into the back of the house, unlocking the door knob after he discovered that it was locked.
He held a finger to his lips as they stumbled through the darkness. Jenny kept as quiet as she could and after they checked the rooms and found no Walkers, the two of them worked on locating food and clothes and anything else they might be able to use.
"There was an RV outside.."
"We might be needin it, Jenny. We'll find the keys in the morning. Right now, let's just get food in us and get some shut eye." Shane muttered as he poked at a log in the fire they'd built in the fireplace.
"I still say you shoulda went with Rick." he muttered as he looked over at her about thirty minutes of awkward silence later. She stopped eating the canned peaches in her hand and shook her head, explaining quietly, "I don't trust them. They didn't save my life when they had every reason not to, Shane Walsh. You did."
"Don't mean I'm some hero or saint or somethin."
"No, but it does mean that I'm not dead or undead right now and that's all that matters to me. Look, I'm not saying this is gonna have a happy ending or something. I'm not saying we even have to become friends.. But I like my odds of survival one hell of a lot better with you than with them." Jenny stated quietly, fixing her gaze on him.
Deep down, she was starting to see that yes, she was starting to feel something… The problem was, she wasn't sure if it was hero worship because he saved her life, or something more than that, something real.
And given her luck before the apocalypse and now even, she was really afraid to find out.
Oh my god, I love you guys so much right now. 5 reviews. So this chapter was harder for me to write. And for a little bit, I considered going with Jenny saving his life. But, I ultimately went with this, because I wanted to be different (aka I wanted to be an asshole lol) and so here we are. The commotion that made Rick leave was Dale Horvath's death if anyone is wondering. I know the timing's waaay the fuck off, but meh, it's going to be an AU now, so it won't matter much. Sorry if the romance in this is slow and too slow for anyone's liking, I promise it is coming.. I just wanted to have them go slow. I love slow burns.
Now I just have to decide when the group and Shane + Jenny will reunite... Thinking maybe season 4 or 5. Not sure yet. I know it won't be too soon because I already have a few rad ideas..
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR READING THIS. AND THANKS SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING, F/F. YOU ROCK.