"One wrong move and you'll get an arrow in the ass, just so you know." Daryl threatened the young man was sat on the floor. Ava shook her head she approached them, Kyle had stayed behind Rick just like she'd told him too and the men looked up at her expectantly.
"G's gonna take that arrow outta my ass and shove it up yours, just so you know." The boy, because he was barely a man, counted and Ava smirked and took the gun from T-Dog.
"I checked around, up near where I'll be theres a broken bit of wall, big even gap for Kyle to squeeze in so I can see him but they can't." She told them and took Kyle's hand in hers.
The boy looked a Kyle, "What kind of idiot brings a child to an exchange?"
Ava opened her mouth to snap at him but Kyle squeezed her hand and countered, "I'm not a child. You're going to get an arrow in your ass."
Ava grinned but quickly got rid of it as she scolded Kyle for his language as he helped him up the building while carrying the bag of guns. Daryl smirked, "Even the kid knows you're gon get it."

Ava watched the men on the yard, her lip reading was bad but she was sure she'd seen Rick asked for a calm discussion. What kind of fairy-tale had he jumped out off? He needed to take off those rose-tinted glasses. She watched them closely, listening for any movement from Kyle or any secret attackers as she watched the surprisingly calm leader berate Daryl.
"I have one of yours, you have one of mine." Rick reasoned.
"My people got attacked, where's the compensation for their pain and suffering? More to the point, where's my bag of guns." G asked. Hidden with Kyle, you asshole.
She saw G turn to look at her through her scope and resisted the urge to smile and wave before pushing it back down inside of her. She always had this problem, she got so consumed in combat that she'd almost take joy in it. Not the killing. The adrenaline, the saving people and stopping the bad guy. She almost felt sorry for lying to them. Almost. In fairness it was only a little white lie. She had guns. She had a few, maybe five but they were her nephews life insurance policy and if this camp turned out to be a bust she couldn't walk away having given them her weapons.

G shouted and she heard a muffled panicked voice but she didn't look. She couldn't, if she took her eyes off this guys for a second then something might go down. It was only when she heard the click that she realised someone was higher up than her and had a gun pointed at her. She watched both sides back away and sighed, glancing a Kyle to make sure he was okay.

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Daryl led the gagged boy back into the building after the guns had been divided. Ava stalked behind them trying to keep her thoughts from Kyle, who'd she'd hidden back in the gap in the building with their bag of modest belonging and hidden guns with the instructions to wait for her.
They moved it and were instantly surrounded, Ava was stood at the back, watching the scene unfold gun raised. A few of the men gave her a mocking looks, a few others leered at her, the only ones she felt threatened by were the men with guns. They were few and far between though and mostly weren't holding them properly.
"They're not yours." Rick stated boldly.
Ava stood solid between Daryl and T-Dog as G threatened to chop Glenn up and feed him to his dogs. Ava glanced around quickly before focusing again, she hated having dogs set on her. Before she'd joined the Army, she used to have a neighbour that would let them chase her. In all honestly it was probably why she was in such good shape when she did decide to join.

Possibly the weirdest thing that could happen at that moment did, an elderly lady out from the back shouting for the bald guy near them.
"Get that old lady out ah the line of fire." Daryl snapped. After saying something about someone's medication the old lady advanced on them, though only Rick lowered his weapon.
"Who are those men?" She shuffled towards them and looked at Ava, "Are these your friends dear?"
Ava blinked twice and looked at the bald man who seemed to encourage with his eyes, "Errm yes?"
She seemed to accept it and moved to stand in front of Rick, "Have you come to take him? He is a good boy! He has his troubles but he'll pull himself together, we need him here."

"Mam," Rick started, "I'm not here to arrest your grandson."
"Then what do you want?"
"He's helping us find a missing person, a fella named Glenn." Rick said after a minute of thinking.
She smiled, "He's with Mr. Gilman, come come I show you."

They followed her outside and before they headed into a different building Daryl was scanning the roofs for any sneak attacked. He caught sight of a small face looking back at him and upon squinting realised it was Kyle, it must have been the far back of where he was hiding. Making sure no one saw him Daryl pressed a finger to his lips and saw the little boys hair move as he guessed he was nodding. Ava turned slightly to make sure Daryl and T-Dog hadn't been caught when she caught Daryl's action and turned back and winked at the man in front of her who had turned to see what they were both looking at. The wink made him pause and watch her as she gave him a soft smile and bit the corner of her lip. At least if he was leering at her, he wasn't going to find her nephew.

Daryl saw her action and scowled, she'd battered her eyes lashes and the guy had fell for it. He'd have to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't sway Rick or Shane's mind on anything, Everyone only listened to them and no one needed this stranger being in charge.

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Rick was an idiot. There, Ava had made up her mind. It was sweet, the group of men protecting the old and abandoned but he had given away a lot of the guns they'd gone for. But Ava chose not to say anything, she still had hers. She her Army backpack filled with her and Kyle's things as they walked hand in hand to where the men said they had a van but it had gone. Of course it had, what a fucking day.

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They ran, what else could they do? It was getting dark after they'd been running for a while and while she was trained Kyle couldn't keep up. She had smiled at him and told him to hold on and she lifted him put over her shoulder and ran with him and the bag. She was proud he was still able to run this far, even if it was slowly, he was only eight! After a while of this they had to stop. Ava doubled over before straightening herself out and getting ready to start again. Her whole body ached, she was getting too old for this. She knew she looked a mess; a tired, sweaty mess.

Rick stepped in front of them and told Kyle to jump on his back and with their consent they ran like this for a while. Until they heard the screaming.

Kyle sprung off of Rick's back and ran to Ava who quickly turned to him, "You stay next to me." She ordered and his nodded as they ran faster, this time with Kyle on his own feet.

They burst into a camp site and Ava ran ahead of the men, with them shooting at the walkers that approached her and pulled Kyle with her as they moved to a group moving back to an RV with a board man with a gun at the front protecting them. She ran to them and thrust Kyle into the arms on a thin, short haired woman who was holding a screaming girl.
"Hold onto him!" She shouted above the screaming and the death at the women who both looked terrified and nodded as Ava slipped the rifle off of her should and standing shoulder to shoulder with the man protecting the small group began to take down the walkers with military precision. She breathed slowly and blew away all the undead fuckers she good.

And like that it was over. No more walkers, nor more danger. Just Rick holding who Ava assumed were he sobbing wife and screaming child. Ava slowly lowered her gun, ignoring the look the guy beside her gave her and crouched down next to the thin woman to detangle Kyle from her arms. At first she resisted, screaming think Ava was walker until she calmed and looked and let the small boy sob in his aunt's embrace.

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Morning came soon enough and Ava stretched from her seated position on the floor of the RV in the aftermath of last night and old man with wild eyebrows had introduced himself as Dale and told her to put Kyle down with Carl and Sophia in the RV. She'd thanked him and introduced the pair of them and stayed up all night guarding the RV from the inside. As light filtered in through the windows she checked on the kids and stepped out into the hot sun as Daryl swung in pickaxe down into some poor bastards head.
"Sleeping beauty." He sneered at her.
"Hick." She snapped back stepping towards Glenn and slipping a pistol in the back of her waist band.
"Daryl, the young lady was up all night looking after the children." Dale scolded from his position next to Carol and Lori, before turning on her, "Maybe you should try and get some sleep."
"No thank you, I'd rather help out here." She told him politely as she took her hunting knife from her leg holder. Glenn and T-Dog moved the body onto the fire while Daryl moved off to the next one calling for her to hurry her ass up over his shoulder.

She was stopped by the two women who she had thrown Kyle too last night as they beckoned her over to them, the board man she had shot side by side with was also sat with them as Rick approached.
The brunette woman started, "We just wanted to thank you, for everything you did to help last night."
The other woman gave her a small smile and nodded, her eyes tearing up.
Ava looked at the awkwardly, she'd avoided interactions with people when they were all alive now it was even more awkward, "Don't worry about it."
"You a hell of a shot." The board man commented.
Ava nodded, "You're not too bad either."

"So how'd you get here?" the man asked.
Rick stepped in, "She gave us a lot of help in Atlanta."
"Ava Summers. Yeah I was promised security." Ava mumbled bitterly. The other members quickly introduced herself.
"For you and your boy? Anyone else?" Shane asked.
"He's my nephew," Ava corrected looking at her shoes, "There may be someone else yet, I haven't found him yet."
"Your husband?" Lori asked.
"Boyfriend."
"D'ya get separated or something?" Shane asked.
Ava scowled and resisted the urge to snap at them, "He wanted to go set up a safe place, I wanted to go find my nephew. Excuse me." Ava turned on her heel and left to help Daryl.

She found him a little way a way swinging his pick axe high. They worked in silence for a while until they destroyed the heads of the bodies around them and they both lay their weapons down and began to lift bodies between them to carry them to either the fire or to the pile to be buried.
"So you ran away to find your nephew?" Daryl asked and Ava gave him a quizzical look before it clicked.
"Were you listening in on my conversation Dixon?"
"Ain't no such thing as privacy no more."
"Whats it to you?"
"Trying to figure out why you're such a bitch."
Daryl paused when Ava laughed loudly and honestly at his comment and found himself smirking at her as she shook her head, "Nah that's just my personality. Yours isn't much better."
Daryl snorted, "Your accent may make you should posh but you aint."
She smirked, "Never said I was and I wouldn't want to be if it meant I shoot as bad as I saw last night."
They threw the last of the bodies into the fire and he stepped towards her, "You ain't that good a shot, don't get cocky or them fuckers'll be on your ass."
Ava smirked at him amused, "Well we both know I am, and my ass is none of your business."
She sauntered off to check on her nephew in the RV.
Daryl shook his head at her retreating form, "Fucking bitch."

Ava was in the RV when she heard shouting about Jim getting bitten, she sighed and gently brushed Kyle's hair behind his ear as he, Sophia and Carl shot her scared looks. She gave them a soft smile, the best she could muster on the spot.
"Is my daddy going to Hell?" Sophia asked out of nowhere and Ava glanced nervously between the children.
"Why would you say that sweetie?" Ava asked as she watched the small girl play with her doll.
"Bad people go to Hell and he got bitten." She mumbled.

Ava gnawed on her lip, she'd heard people discussing the girl's father, a real brute by all accounts but she couldn't say to the child. Kyle spoke before she could gather her thoughts, "My parents aren't in Hell."
Sophia looked nervous, "But –"
"They're not!" Kyle shouted as he jumped up, scaring the little girl. Sophia jumped up like she wanted to run away until Ava stood, hooked one arm around her nephew and another around her and pulled them back into her lap into her arms, feeling both of them being to sob.

"Now both of you listen to me yeah? No one is in Hell. Yes they're gone and we'll miss them dearly but now they get to sleep in peace, okay? You two and Carl," here Carl came to sit beside them and she widened her arms for him to fit, "you've got everyone here looking after you. Okay?" She felt three heads nod against her.

They sat like this for a while, Ava being to feel awkward, she had only been close to her brother, his wife, Kyle and her boyfriend but she would have to deal with it, for their sake. She gently stroked their hair as she listened to Daryl starting a fight outside. She'd been offered safety and given this. The door to the RV swung open and Daryl appeared, snarling, "Gettin' off your ass to help or what?"
She glanced down at the children, Carl and Sophia asleep and Kyle not willing to move, "I'm a little busy."
He sneered at her, "Really fucking looks like it."
Ava turned and gently lowered the children onto the bed as she approached the hunter until they were toe-to-toe and hissed at him, "What the fuck is your problem Dixon? I'm sorry for what happened to your brother but don't come in here and upset those children more than they already are."

He looked back and seemed to notice the slumbering children for the first time before stalking out of the RV. Ava scowled and followed him, checking she had her pistol and her knife she followed him. The pair strode past Dale, Lori, Rick, Shane and Carol, while Daryl carried on to the edge of camp Ava stopped in front of them. They looked at her quizzically when she walked up to them, "Carl and Sophia are with Kyle in the RV having a rest, they were bit upset but they should be okay now."
Ava went to continue walking when Carol's panicked voice stopped her, "Upset, are they okay?"
"I think everything that's happened just caught up with them, they're fine now." Ava assured her and tried to avoid Shane's leering gazes, "I'm going to help Dixon with the bodies."

Carol and Lori left for the RV and Shane stepped forwards and caught Ava's wrist, which she snatched away quickly and raised as a fist before she realised what she was doing and lowered her hand sheepishly.
"You always this jumpy?" Dale asked as he tried to gauge the young woman.
"Couldn't take chances with people that were hidden in the city." She explained simply.
Rick put his hands on his hips, "You saw her last night when we got back, she has no problem with pressure." Rick walked off and Dale followed him but kept an eye on Shane and Ava.
Shane smirked at her, "Why don't you come help me dig the pits?"
Ava scowled, "I told Dixon I'd help him with the bodies, nobody else seems to have the stomach for it."
Shane leant closer to her and Ava narrowed her eyes. He was someone she would usually go for, thick set and a bit dangerous but this wasn't a world where she could be chasing people or being chased. This was survival. Shane's voice was deep, "Dixon can handle himself."

Ava glared at him and turned to walk away, calling over her shoulder, "Keep thinking like that and one day you'll let someone get killed.