Beat of the Thunder

Rick kept his eyes on the road before him, but his mind was elsewhere. He thought back to the look on Jamie's face, blood staining her skin, fear widening her pupil as they prepared to leave the tank. He kept seeing those eyes every time he blinked, imagining those eyes on the face of Jamie as a walker. He had left her behind, to him that was just the same as pushing her out into the street to die. She had done nothing but help him, and he had done just as the others had said. He rang the dinner bell.

"It's best not to dwell on it," the man in the passenger seat said, whom he had come to know as Morales. "Merle getting left behind," He elaborated when he saw Rick looked over at him quickly.

"It's not Merle," Rick said softly, although, everyone still heard him perfectly. "It's Jamie. I promised her when she was running that I'd find her, that I'd go back for her. I just left her behind," Rick growled out, hitting his hand on the wheel of the truck. Andrea looked up from the back of the truck, meeting Morales's eyes.

"Was she your wife?" he asked carefully.

"No," Rick answered immediately. "She was one of the first people that I met in this…new world. She's done nothing but help me and I left her behind for those things." The look of complete shame that covered Rick's face made Morales truly feel for the man, wondering what it was that guiding him to do all that he did. Not many would feel so bad about leaving someone behind in a city of walkers.

"She'll be alright," Andrea said from the back. "You said that she helped you, so then she really knows what she's doing. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get along just fine." She didn't really know why she was tried to assure a man that she had only just met, and that had nearly gotten them killed, but she felt that she needed to say something.

"And Merle?" Rick asked suddenly.

"Nobody's gunna be sad he didn't come back," Morales answered right away, before he paused and looked forward to the road. "Except maybe Daryl."

"Daryl?" Rick asked, looking over to Morales for an explanation.

"His brother."

Glenn could be heard coming up to them from behind, the car alarm still blaring loudly through the streets of the small town they were passing through. He soon sped passed them, his arm raised out the window as he hooted and hollered in joy of riding the fancy car as full speed down the road. Rick and Morales watched as he darted passed, taking the lead and showing Rick the way to where they were camping outside of the city.

"At least somebody's having a good day."

Rick drove on to the camp that he had been told about, keeping a careful for eye on where Glenn was going in the car a short distance ahead of them, the alarm screaming loud and bouncing off the hills. He couldn't get his mind off the woman that had been left behind, the asshole that he had been forced to leave to his death, and the family that had not been in Atlanta. By the time the camp came into sight, the passengers in the back of the truck had become restless, looking through the front windshield toward the people waiting for them.

Rick sat where he was as the others piled out, knowing that he couldn't stay in the truck forever. Leaning his head back against the headrest on the seat, he tried to push Jamie's eyes from his mind, the sight of her running for her life through all of the walkers to save herself. The look of her with her head on her hands on the roof of the building.

Looking over to where Morales was standing with his family, speaking with others from the camp, he knew that he needed to get out and say something. Morales looked over in his direction from where Glenn had been speaking with someone else, his arms still wrapped around his kids and wife. His heart constricted as he thought of Lori and Carl, how he wished that he could hold them in his arms again as well.

"Hey, helicopter boy, come say hello!"

Slipping out of the driver's door in the large truck, he took a deep breath as he slammed it close behind him, turning to begin to walk up to meet more new survivors. It was great to know that there were so many people that had lived through the epidemic, but he only wanted to find two specific survivors. Now three, technically. He had promised Jamie he'd come back for her, and he was going to stay true to his word.

"He's a cop," Morales was saying, speaking to someone else in the group of survivors, "Like you."

Rick stepped around one of the trucks parked in front of the one he had been driving, looking up to see who else was there. His mind froze as he came face to face with someone very familiar, a close friend of his. His best friend. Shane Walsh stood in front of the red sports car that Glenn had driven up in, a shotgun in hand as he stayed prepared for anything. But the look on his face clearly told him that he had most definitely had not expected to see Rick Grimes step out of that car.

Upon further inspection of the camp, he looked up his wife and son, standing only a few yards behind Shane. Rick's entire body felt suddenly numb, even as his heart began to beat faster. He tried to make sure that he hadn't been killed in the city and was simply dreaming about seeing his wife and son before him. Carl's eyes fell on him, looking surprised and previously upset.

"Oh my god," Rick finally mumbled to himself, stepping toward his family with long strides. Carl was spurred into motion, taking off at a dead run toward his father.

"Dad!" he screamed out, never once slowing his stride. Lori stood and began to run after her son, eyes on her husband. Rick didn't pause as he bent down to take Carl into his arms, not fazed by the force of his son colliding with his chest. Tears burned his eyes as his body trembled, his heart racing a mile a minute inside his chest. He clutched Carl to him, ducking to the ground as he let out a sob of pure joy.

Lori stood frozen a couple of strides away, watching them with wide eyes. Rick lifted Carl up and stepped over to join his wife, watching Lori's eyes follow every move that he made. He couldn't even explain the pure happiness of finding his wife again, holding his son in his arms. He felt whole again. As Lori welcomed him with a hug, he knew that he could survive the new world that he was in.

Hours later, he sat with Carl and Lori clutched to him before a burning fire, Shane sitting across the way as he watched them. He told the others of when he first woke up in the hospital, what he had felt and how things had been. He never once let his loved ones go, keeping his arms tight around Lori and Carl. He watched as Shane had taken control of a situation with another camp member, proving his place as the leader of the group.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale asked suddenly, looking around at the different people that surrounded the fire.

"I'll tell him," T-Dog volunteer immediately, "I dropped the keys, it's on me." He looked over where Rick was shaking his head.

"I cuffed him, that makes him mine," Rick countered.

"Guys, it's not a competition," Glenn quickly threw in, looking over to where T-Dog sat to his right. "I don't want to bring race into this but it might sound better coming from a white guy." T-Dog didn't look happy about it, but he also seemed to understand that it might be true.

Rick listened to the different conversations around the fire, wondering when it was that he was going to meet this man 'Daryl' and how things were going to play out. He knew that it wasn't going to be a good morning when this man made it back to camp; from what he'd heard it was going to be a very ugly confrontation. However, his interest was immediately caught when T-Dog started talking about chaining the door of the roof, preventing any way from walkers getting onto the roof.

"My point," he said carefully, looking over to Rick. "Dixon's alive."

"We go back," Rick said suddenly, causing everyone around the circle to look up at him with wide eyes. Lori looked about to speak, but he shook his head and stopped her from saying anything to try and change his mind. "It's not only Merle that was left behind."

"The woman," Andrea said softly. "You said her name was Jamie?"

Rick nodded his head as he looked down into the flames, "Yea."

"Who's Jamie?" Carl asked curiously, looking up at his father with his head tipped back. Rick smiled down at his boy and gently pushed the hair away from his face.

"She saved my life," Ricks said softly, "She was with the group that I first met when I woke up. We…we got separated in the city, I know that she's alive, but I wasn't able to stop and get her as we were rushing out of the city. When we got separated, I promised her that I would come back for her."

"Did she get hurt?" Dale asked, the meaning behind his words easy to understand. The fire made the shadows on his face dance, his eyes looking into Rick's with sympathy and seriousness.

"I doubt it," Glenn threw in. "You should have seen her! She kicked the head off a walker; clean off!" Glenn's grin was unmatchable, lighting his features in the ring of firelight. "She probably took down about ten of them before they locked themselves in the tank as well. That was walker blood on her face, right?" Glen asked as he looked over at Rick, who nodded.

"Yea, you were kind of making her freak out inside the tank."

"Yea, I got that when she called me a little…" Glenn trailed off as he looked down at Carl, who didn't even seem to be paying attention, but everyone else understood what he meant without the young man actually having to finish his sentence. Rick smiled to himself slightly as he remembered the attitude—the defiance—that had shined through during their moment of panic and fear inside the tank. She'd be alright, he knew she would.

Angel.

Jamie woke with a start, her eyes meeting nothing but darkness. She looked around herself in fear for a moment, disoriented with lack of sleep as she tried to find out where she was. It took her all of two seconds to realize what had woken her up, the cold feel of water streaming down her face as thunder rumbled overhead. She blinked her eyes to stop water from falling into them, dripping down from loosened strands of hair. She shifted where she sat curled up in the corner of the roof, pressing her body back against the metal to try and protect herself from the cold.

Bone chilling shivers shook her entire frame as she wrapped her arms around herself, ducking her head down into her arms to keep the rain out of her eyes. She could tell that she was drenched completely, not a scrap of material still dry on her body. She reached over to the side and picked up the hunting knife that she had placed down before dark, the blade now cleaned of walker blood.

"Either I die from being eaten, or hypothermia," she whispered to herself, holding the knife before her as she kept her ears attuned to anything out of the ordinary around the roof. "I'd rather freeze to death."

Another violent shiver made her entire form quake, the gravel on the rooftop shifting beneath her as she did so. She placed her hands together to try and warm her freezing fingers, curling her toes inside her boots as they began to lose their feeling in the cold night. She wouldn't last another night sitting on that roof, she couldn't wait for Rick to come back. She didn't even know how long it might take before he was able to get back into the city.

A bright flash of light illuminated the rooftop for a moment, showing her how alone she was, before a ground shaking crack made her jump slightly, then tense back up into a taught ball on the ground. She wasn't going to be getting much more sleep that night, she knew.

This chapter's for because your review made me smile! I'll tell you all right now, I've just finished writing the chapter that Daryl and Jamie meet in, so if I got lot and lots and lots of reviews, I might to send it out for you all tonight or tomorrow, depending on how many chapters I can update. It's not in the next chapter, but it's coming real soon, I promise. So, it all depends on just how badly you all want to read about their impending reunion…

Chapter 7 – Bite The Bullet

"Screw all 'a y'all!" he finally yelled, "Just tell me where he is, so's I can go get him."

"I'll show you," Rick said immediately, looking over to where Lori was standing outside the RV with a look of resignation. "I have to go back-"

"Rick," Shane started, but Rick held up his hand, stopping the other man before he could finish his sentence.

"It wasn't only your brother that was left behind. A friend of mine got separated from me and I promised to go back for her," Rick explained simply, looking to Daryl. The man didn't react much but instead stormed over to where his things we located, his entire posture rigid with anger and rage. Rick looked over to Lori, seeing the look on her face and already knowing that she was disappointed in him for leaving again so soon. "Lori, I have to go. I can't just leave Jamie there to die-"

"Who, what'd you say?" Daryl demanded loudly, turning back around so fast that the camp members were surprised he didn't get whiplash. Rick opened his mouth to speak, shocked at the sudden tone in Daryl's voice. Why had it taken this long to react to what Rick had said before? "You said Jamie! Jamie who? Who?"

Oh, the suspense ;)