Chapter 8

-Lexi-

She hadn't meant to open it to this page when she'd angrily thrust the photo album at Merle's brother. She just wanted his agreement so they could leave before they were caught, but now she glanced down at the picture she was studying carefully and painful emotion threatened to overtake her.

This was one of the last pictures taken of her and Shane before things between them changed. Eleven years her senior, and uncompromisingly masculine, Shane had desperately wanted a baby brother. Their good for nothing father had come around again just long enough to get their mom pregnant before skipping town again, leaving Shane as the "man of the house" before he was five feet tall. Still, despite her foolishness when it came to their dad, they're mom had been a smart and capable woman, and her childhood had been a comfortable one. Shane had treated her as if she was the the brother he'd always hoped for, and for the first ten years of her life she'd been "Alex" and sports and shooting with her brother had been her life's passion.

But when she was eleven her mother's weakness for men reared its ugly head again. This time, in addition to being a useless sack of shit, he'd been a boozer and a hitter. To this day, she still didn't know if her mom had drunkenly fallen down the stairs and broken her neck, or if that son of a bitch had pushed her. She didn't know which she'd prefer to be the truth either.

Shane had flown off the handle then, beating her mother's boyfriend almost to death. The only thing that kept him out of jail was the intervention of Rick, who'd joined the police force the year before. Although Shane had spent his entire childhood as a benign trouble-maker, at Rick's urging he decided to go to the police academy two months later.

They'd both known that he couldn't take care of her, he was only 22 and immature for his age at that, but to Alex Shane's leaving was tantamount to outright abandonment. She moved in with her aunt who lived in the next town over, and began to transition into adulthood with a heavy heart.

By the time Shane graduated from the Academy, she was already well on her way to becoming a young woman. She was no longer the scrawny athletic kid he pretended to pass off as a kid brother. He saw that she had become womanly and beautiful, and in Shane's mind that made her a potential victim like their mother. Where there had once been mischievous camaraderie now there was only authoritarian protectiveness. So when Laurie and Caitlyn started calling her Lexi in the tenth grade, she adopted the new identity in stride. Alex, and her world, was as dead as their mother.

"Not even sure if that's fuckin you but I guess it'll do."

His words put an end to her reminiscing and Lexi was back in her living room, standing with the brother of a man she hated, yards from where Caitlyn slept, broken and weak. She had no time for a jaunt down memory lane, so she ignored his rude comment and shut the album with a snap.

"So you'll take us?" she said, getting back to the business at hand.

"His eyes narrowed again. "That depends... Who's the 'us'?"

Knowing that she could put it off no longer she returned to the other room without a word.

-Daryl-

he watched her leave wondering what she had been thinking buyout the moment before. The fact that She was kin to Shane made her dangerous, there was no doubt about that but he still felt he that it was Rick's call to make. Plus, she had saved his life, and there was very little chance she'd survive here if he left without her.

"Wake up Caitlyn, come on Caitie get up," he heard her coo softly. 'Oh no,' he thought, 'not another fucking kid.'

He heard a rustling and the sound of someone rising from a bed and walking towards the door.

"CAITIE! No sweetheart not yet. Put this on."

Seconds later his rescuer emerged again, followed by a sleepy looking woman with auburn hair and familiar blue eyes wearing pajamas and an oversized Emory hoodie.

"Caitie, this is Rick's friend from the station. He's gonna bring us to go see Rick." she explained quietly, refusing to meet Daryl's eyes.

Upon hearing the explanation, the older woman beamed at him with understanding in her eyes.

"Thank you so much for your trouble, Officer...?"

"...uh just Daryl ma'am."

"Daryl," she repeated smiling. "Well thank you so much Officer Daryl, for coming to get Lexi and I. It was awful nice of you to give my brother a helping hand."