Author's Note: I have made a few changes to the chapters (mostly grammatical) and the second story arc has been added onto the back of the first one.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or any affiliated merchandise or profits made from its awesome programming.
On with the show
Chapter 25:
Recovery
Paula stood in stone silence in the hospital parking lot holding the axe given to her, the brisk morning air brushing against her skin, it had been two days since everything had come to a head for the group. Not only had the group been forced from their shelter in the police station but they had also had to cope with the rapid deaths of Fred, Cindy, Lam and Morgan's son Duane, the last one still weighing heavily on Paula's mind.
Then again more shock had been present at the hospital where they had brought Duane. Not only had Hannah managed to restrain two rednecks who had tried to raid their vehicles but Rick had been found in the hospital, still alive.
It was still slightly cold outside… although exact time was a luxury the group couldn't afford. All she knew was that the sun had been up for several hours, she hadn't slept the night before… Again.
"Paula." A voice behind her said, she turned to see Hannah walking through the parking lot, her blonde hair restrained in a bun on the top of her head.
"Time to switch watch?" Paula asked, Hannah nodded and Paula handed over the axe, after the walkers had attacked the police station they weren't taking chances with loud weapons or looking the other way.
"You ok?" she asked but Paula just sighed and shook her head.
"I can't say I am, I go back inside and I'll get dirty stares." She groaned, before Duane had died Paula had told Morgan and everyone else she could save him. Instead of saving him she had simply had a panic attack and nearly passed out as Duane died.
"People aren't judging you Paula, they know you tried your best." Hannah reassured as Paula stood with her, Paula looked up towards a second story window and saw Morgan staring out at her, she waved but received no reply as he simply walked away.
"They may not be but Morgan certainly is… I don't blame him, I gave him so much false hope then I bottomed out." She exclaimed glumly, she saw Hannah look downwards and she knew the blonde woman sympathised with Morgan, after she the loss of Billy Paula could see the bond between them had strengthened.
"He just needs time, Jamie was mad at me until about a week later, besides we have bigger things to worry about. Daryl and Merle are still 'negotiating' with the cops." Hannah said, she was also referring to the two rednecks she restrained whilst Paula was failing to save Duane, they had come to the hospital to find medicine for a wound that Merle had sustained to his leg whilst fighting a walker, although neither was infected the medicine needed for Merle's septic infection and their lack of any other supplies meant they had spent the last two days in company of the group.
"'Negotiating'? What is there to negotiate about? Both made it clear that once they were ready they were going to skip town." Paula asked, she didn't like the brothers, Merle was merely racist pig and Daryl was about as friendly as a rabid dog, at least Merle made efforts to speak to the group, even if it was to try and get a grab at one of the women. Paula, Hannah and even Carol had gotten an earful already.
"Leon told me that Merle mentioned a small group in a quarry outside Atlanta, they fled because they just didn't care but if Shane, Leon and Rick can convince them to take us there that quarry sounds like a godsend." Hannah said, Paula forgot about her watching duty and was more interested in this news.
"Whoa, a camp? How many people?" she asked.
"I can't remember exactly but Leon said it sounded like about 20 or so people." Hannah replied, Paula was slightly shocked by this.
"20 people? Why haven't we been told about this?" Paula asked but Hannah shook her head.
"Shane didn't want us to get our hopes up, I guess after what happened with Duane and Rick coming back his thinking certainly isn't at 100%." Hannah said, Paula chuckled as she felt a thin bubble of irritancy popping within her. She knew that Shane and Lori had something going on, but with the return of Rick that was obviously down the crapper.
A smile played across her face.
"What is it?" Hannah asked, a smile on Paula's faced already felt a bit foreign.
"I just thought about when Lori and Carl saw Rick, I can't help but keep replaying the memory." Paula said, although she had been recovering from a panic attack, tear stained and having been yelled at by Morgan the sight of seeing Lori and Carl running to meet a still recovering Rick and hugging him had made her smile.
Rick had still been in that rank bandage he had been in for a month but he had still moved faster than medically possible in his state to get to them. Lori and Carl had hugged him and the three had hugged until Rick had groaned and Carol had insisted on redressing the wound in her usual fashion, not to mention the fact that Lori was still losing blood.
Luckily Paula at least managed to stitch her hand up, all the while still fighting back tears. The tears had continued up until the night before when they had finally buried Duane in the middle of the park area close by, Morgan was just thankful he could be buried unlike Lam or the Drake's.
"It was a sweet moment. Can you believe the luck, left alone in the hospital for nearly a month with no assistance and he still made it?" Hannah said in wonder, Paula couldn't believe it and judging by Shane's face when he introduced Rick he couldn't either, especially since he had told Lori and Carl that Rick was dead.
Paula knew Shane would have hell to pay when he and Lori got a moment together.
Paula chuckled again at the thought and ran over the future once more in her head, the notion of a camp in Atlanta sounded absurd… she'd seen it go up in flames herself.
Then again even if there was a vague hope that there was somewhere they could go, Paula was game for following it.
Anything else than staying in King County.
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Carl was still ecstatic that his father was alive, he had run and practically jumped him when he's seen him coming out of the hospital, he'd even turned into a baby and started crying… what the hell was wrong with him? Why did he just have to cry every time something small happened?
"Hey Carl, you ok?" Sophia asked as she walked into the visitor's area where Carl was, they had stayed in the hospital for the last few days as Carl's Dad recovered from being in a coma.
"Yeah." Carl answered glumly, he couldn't reveal what was really weighing on his mind, as ecstatic as he was about his father returning from the dead even Carl knew about the complications it would bring with it… his Mom and Shane kissing still found its way into his mind every couple of hours.
"Something's wrong, I know when you're thinking about something you don't like, your eyes always look down and you rest your head on your arms." She described, Carl noticed she listed the things he was doing so he readjusted his pose.
"I'm not thinking about anything." He argued but Sophia raised her eyebrows.
"Everyone's always thinking about something, like I've been thinking that you're angry with me." She stated, Carl was slightly surprised that she thought this, he didn't hate her at all… Even though the last time they talked he did slightly yell at her.
"I don't hate you, you're my best friend." He said, Sophia smiled and gave Carl a hug, he felt his face heat up and tried to hide it when they broke apart. He felt his confession of what was wrong on the tip of his tongue and fought the urge the splurge.
"Aw, you're sweet. But seriously, what's wrong?" Sophia asked with a concerned voice, Carl felt his face grow rather hot and knew he was blushing, he didn't want to admit what he was thinking about whilst acting like a 10 year old schoolgirl.
"I can't tell you, it's not about me." He said, Sophia got a weird look in her eye and shrugged just as Jamie walked into the room, she giggled slightly but sat down at the table with them.
"Lori told me to tell you that we're leaving shortly, they're just waiting for Shane and the others to finish talking to Merle and Daryl. What are you guys 'talking' about?" she asked, going as far as adding air quotes to the word 'talking'.
"Nothing." Carl said simply, his simple answer didn't help as Jamie smirked again, on the bright side she was looking happier than Carl had seen her since Billy died.
"Sure, sure. Do you guys wonder where we are going next?" Jamie asked as the three sat together, with Duane now gone their group was dwindling slowly, now the only 'kids' were Carl, Sophia and Jamie.
"I heard Dad say something to my Mom about a camp in Atlanta." Carl said reliving a conversation his mom and dad had the night before, he was afraid there were going to start… doing things, but he was happy they didn't. He hadn't exactly had the talk yet but being 12 he had a good idea how things went.
"Atlanta? Didn't that blow up?" Sophia asked but Carl shrugged.
"I dunno, Dad said that those men had talked about a camp they were at just outside the city." Carl said, both Sophia and Jamie looked very interested but Carl had given them all he knew.
"Well, I hope we're leaving King County. I'm sick of seeing people I know as walkers." Jamie said glumly, Carl was saddened as he realised he had had the same experience, on the way to the hospital he had seen his soccer coach Mr Stein and once when he was on the station roof he had seen what looked like Hunter Blake's mom through the binoculars.
"I hope there are other people where we're going, and showers." Sophia said.
"And good food." Jamie chipped in.
"And good clothes, I've been wearing these for a week and we don't have anywhere to clean them." Sophia vented, Carl was annoyed when he realised that the two girls were going to start talking about clothes.
"I know, this sweater hasn't been washed in two weeks... it's less purple and more black now." Jamie groaned tugging at the sweater Carl hasn't seen her without for a long time.
"These socks haven't been washed in a week, we don't have any others." Sophia complained.
"Why didn't you say? I have like five pairs, I'll give you one." Jamie said, both girls got up and walked towards the door to where the bags were being taken leaving Carl by himself.
Girls were just weird.
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Hannah didn't like holding the heavy axe, it was her and Paula stood outside on watch. Luckily the walkers hadn't followed them to the hospital but Hannah wasn't letting her guard down.
She had been proud of her and Jamie's restraint of the Dixon brothers. She wasn't thrilled Jamie had gotten her hands on a gun but she was pleased her daughter was showing strength and respect again… even after her friend died at that very same moment.
Hannah was still worried about Leon, he'd given her some attention in the last day or so but it felt forced…
Paula was still upset about what happened with Duane, Hannah didn't blame her… she certainly had faith she could've saved him but she had just crashed when the time came, Morgan hadn't helped by yelling at her shortly afterwards then stormed off into the hospital. Hannah had found him sat in the paediatrics ward crying his eyes out when they had been taken inside, the bubble of pride inside of her for having taken on two Dixon's by herself and winning popped and she had spent at least an hour in there comforting him…
Morgan sat curled on the floor, tears spilling from his eyes as Hannah sat by helplessly. She herself was holding back a flood of tears after hearing that Duane hadn't made it.
"He was so young… he didn't deserve to die like that… so scared…" Morgan was saying in-between restricted breaths, a tear escaped Hannah's eye as she hugged Morgan tightly. She had radioed in that Morgan was safe and she would be back with him later, they had time.
"I know… what you're feeling now, that's what I felt after Billy died." She said whilst breaking the hug, she left a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry… It's my fault… I should've told him to stay with everybody…" Morgan said with more constricted breaths.
"You shouldn't blame yourself, after Billy was killed I blamed myself in every way I could thinking of. I thought I should have locked the door, I should have taken him to his room, I should have dived in front of that walker and taken the bite myself but I realised that I couldn't have done those things… because I could never have predicted what would happen." Hannah reasoned to Morgan, however he just shook his head.
"It was my fault though, I was up there, I was shooting at those bastards that shot him. I saw the bullets go into the station and I saw the ones come out. I don't know which one killed Duane or if you, me, Lam or even Shane killed the man… But all I know is I should have been there for my child." He cried quietly as he said it, Hannah rubbed his shoulder still offering comfort.
"Don't blame yourself… remember what I said after Jenny died? I told you that you were my rock. You were the person who saved me at the start and saved my children… Even after Billy died you were there for me, comforting me when I was doing exactly this. I am here now Morgan, if you don't move past this you'll never forgive yourself." Hannah said starting to cry again herself, Morgan looked at her and they hugged briefly once more.
"I know… I'm sorry… Thank you, you've been such a good friend and I can never repay that." He said as they broke apart once more, Hannah slumped next to him as she wiped her eyes, Morgan fell quiet and Hannah knew he was going to be there for a while.
And she would sit with him as long as he needed.
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Rick was still a bit light headed and felt slightly weak, it had been two days since he had woken up and started wondering the halls of the hospital in a daze, for the next few hours he had been confronted with Shane, Lori, Carl, Paula, Leon and a handful of other people all telling him the different stories of the new world.
Rick still wasn't really confident with it, even after watching Shane show him a stray walker the following day in the parking lot and had watched him killing the small female. He had found out that they weren't human anymore… though clubbing one to death would still be difficult for him, especially since he felt the gunshot wound was only being held together by old stitches and clotted blood.
Now here he was, sat in the office of what was the chief of medicine talking with two of his fellow officers and two rednecks who were talking about some refugee group in Atlanta.
It was a little jarring to say the least.
"So why don't you want to take us to that group?" Shane asked in an irritated voice, still the hothead he always was.
"'Cause… they're a bunch of weak little pussies, I already gave you the rundown of who was in that piss-ass group… bunch of old men, college students, niggers and taco benders." Merle said but Leon cut him off.
"Knock it off man, be serious." He threatened, Rick was rather surprised by Leon, last time he knew him he was still a rookie with an aptitude for clumsiness, now he was as straight-forward and as competent as someone who had been doing the job for a long time.
"Whatever, point is you don't wanna go to them, probably all dead by now." Merle said, Rick knew white-trash when he saw it and he was getting an eye-full now, Merle looked in his 40's or 50's and reeked of stale cigarette smoke and sweat, at least his brother was halfway to clean. Halfway.
"Well you never know, and by the sounds of things this group is in a prime locale, not to mention the fact that I am sure they will take any protection they can get." Shane said, Rick was mainly sitting in on the negotiations since he was a cop, he had learned that Lam had been killed merely an hour before Rick himself met up with the group along with Fred and Cindy Drake and even Rosie, their dispatch officer, all of these people he knew had died before he could see them again.
"Lookie here, the chances of them being alive after the state they were in when we left them… it's not in your favour. You're best off just letting us go and you staying here." Daryl said in a gruff voice speaking up for the first time, Daryl was the quieter version of Merle but seemed much less pig-headed, probably because he was the youngest.
"We'll be the judge of that, judging by the state of you two you aren't doin' so hot either." Rick stated, his voice was still a bit gruff from its lack of use in a long time along with no hydration for what was apparently around 3 weeks.
How he lived he still couldn't fathom.
"We're doin' just fine, don't need no help." Merle said in an arrogant way picking food from his teeth, Rick knew the pair were hunters but the King County woodland area wasn't exactly crawling with prime meat.
"Even so, we still need some help, you will be compensated." Rick said taking charge, he knew how to negotiate with people, offer them something too good to refuse then work on the details later, the first step is keeping them interested.
"How?" Merle asked unfolding his arms in a somewhat friendly gesture.
"You'll have access to our food, ammo and even any shelter we come across." Rick said, he could feel Shane's eyes burning into his skull but he would work out the kinks later.
"That's it? That's your 'compensation' for us two protecting your pansy-ass group?" Merle asked incredulously but Rick wasn't backing down.
"It's a door that swings both ways, we'll help you out and share anything between the group. You would be valued members and something tells me you don't exactly have a game plan past getting out of town." Rick said in a still calm voice, Merle looked at his brother who looked back and just shrugged, still not bothered about how proceedings went.
"If we take you to Atlanta… We won't be staying at that camp, you stay in one place too long and those things get you." Merle stated, Rick nodded and an unspoken word of agreement passed between the two men, Merle stood up without excusing himself and walked out of the office.
"Come on, Darylina." He chuckled, Daryl rolled his eyes and followed the redneck out of the office, it was seconds before Shane rounded on Rick.
"What was that, man? I don't trust these men as far as I can throw them and now you're bartering with them?" he asked irritated, Rick looked to Leon for support but saw the rookie just turned and left Rick and Shane alone.
"We need as much help as we can get Shane, I may not have been awake long but I know that you lost a lot of people prior to this." Rick stated, Shane ran his hand through his hair in a stressed fashion.
"Brother, we can't just offer up our supplies in response for them taking us to a campsite we don't even know exists. Besides I don't imagine there would be many quarries in Atlanta to get lost in." Shane argued but Rick countered.
"That's not the point, Merle and Daryl are a good pair of hands, they are both armed and they can both hunt not to mention the fact that I would imagine they would have the ability to at least cooperate."
"If you think that'll work man, then you can do what you like, but you've only been awake for a few days, man. You don't know what people can do, you know it was rednecks like them who stormed the station and killed Fred, Cindy and Duane?" Shane continued, Rick sighed as he realise that Shane had a point, he didn't trust Merle and Daryl and they were both volatile.
"I know Shane, the point is that if you don't offer an olive branch you won't get a helping hand back." Rick stated before a few seconds of silence ensued, Shane just nodded grimly and Rick followed him out. Shane was definitely different now… Not to mention that he was the leader of this group. Rick had spent the first day being filled in on everything that had happened to the group and who everyone was, he had spent the first night in the room he woke up in, it had been a risky manoeuvre to spend the night locked in the rooms since the walkers were restrained somewhere but it had paid off.
Rick followed Shane into the reception area downstairs, he looked out the big window and saw Paula and Hannah stood outside both armed on watch, Paula was Lori's best friend but she had lost her husband Tom and her daughter Freya early on, Tom was a good friend of Rick and his loss was depressing to say the least. But along with everyone's loss… mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters… it had simply faded into the background. Rick still felt the shock inside of him… he was functioning solely on instinct, he knew full well that if he dared stop and think of the grand scale of the disaster he would be overwhelmed.
Rick was lucky to have his wife, son and even several close friends left. It certainly helped. As they walked into the reception area Rick saw the older woman named Carol talking to Lori whilst the kids were all talking nearby, Carl seemed to get along well with both Hannah's kid Jamie and Carol's kid Sophia, both were older than him although Sophia was older only by a month, Jamie was 13 though.
"Hi honey." Lori said breaking off from the conversation with Carol and hugging Rick, they embraced as Rick took in her presence some more, the first night spent in her arms they wanted to 'consummate' their love but they decided, with Rick's wound and Carl being so close in the same room (although sleeping), to postpone it until a better time.
Rick saw that nearly everybody was present except for Paula and Hannah who were on watch, Merle and Daryl were still somewhere else and Morgan was missing until he walked through silently.
Shane stepped forward to tell everyone what was going on.
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After about 10 minutes of talking the plan had been told to everyone, everyone was suspicious but it relied on whether or not Daryl or Merle agreed to it. If they did they would follow Merle and Daryl, if they didn't then they would go towards Atlanta and search for the camp by themselves, the only factor would be that without Merle or Daryl helping them it could take a long time. Regardless everyone was told to gear up and get their things together to travel.
"Everything ready?" Rick said referring to the gathering of supplies however he was distracted as Daryl walked past them boldly and out into the parking lot.
"Where you goin'?" Shane asked rather suddenly, Daryl replied forcefully as well.
"Outside, you wanna leave today I suggest we move." He said, Rick stopped hugging Lori and walked over to Daryl with Shane.
"You're coming with us?" Rick asked and Daryl shrugged.
"Merle said 'if those pigs are gonna give us food and ammo to take them to a hellhole then we might as well do it' so… we probably are. He's upstairs trying to find some good drugs, s'all." Daryl said, Shane sighed with frustration.
"He's not planning on getting high is he?" Shane asked but Daryl just groaned.
"Relax, he won't be driving." He said simply walking outside, however he was stopped by Paula's voice.
"Walker!" she said suddenly, Rick looked over to see a heavy set man stumbling over, his entire right arm pulled off. Without even a second thought Rick watched as Hannah prepared the axe but Daryl walked forward.
"I got it!" he shouted, he walked over to the truck that he and Merle brought around after they were 'released' and reached inside, drawing out a large crossbow. He drew back the drawstring and placed an arrow ready.
"Move." He said simply as Hannah and Paula moved behind him, the walker didn't even slow down as, in one fluid movement, Daryl raised the crossbow and fired, the arrow pierced the centre of the walker's forehead and he came crashing down.
"More walkers are coming man, we better get ready to move." Shane said before turning around, as he did Rick fought back some bile in his throat.
He would never get used to this.
"Rick!" Paula got his attention walking over to him, Rick had remembered this woman as slightly frail, he remembered her baking cookies for her daughter and Carl whenever Rick and Lori came over, he remembered her once getting emotional when she saw the movie Wall-E.
Paula was not that woman anymore, she was way stronger than anytime Rick had seen her before.
"Yeah?" he asked simply, he was pleased to be in his uniform, Shane had packed it as a spare pair for himself.
"I got something for you." She said, she lifted her shirt slightly and took a gun from her waistband, she held it out to Rick whose heart skipped slightly when he saw it.
"My gun." He said taking it from her outstretched hand, it was clean and everything, no damage, didn't even looked like it had been fired.
"Yeah, found it at your old house. I've been meaning to give you that but I kept forgetting." She said, Rick smiled at her and a smile broke out on her face as well. Rick hugged her and she hugged back, Rick and Paula were never really close but were good friends since she spent so much time with Lori.
"Thanks, guess the force gave it to Lori after I was shot. It's technically mine, not the stations." Rick said remembering how mad Lori was when Rick had first brought it home. It had been a present from Rick's dad after Rick got into the academy, he and Lori were already planning to get married by then.
"Well now it's back with you, the bullets are still in my bag but there are only about 10 or something." She said, Rick smiled again and moved back inside as he saw more movement inside, Leon and Merle both walked outside carrying bags, Leon nodded to Rick as he passed.
"We setting off?" Rick asked from the door, Lori answered.
"Yeah, Carl go with Sophia and Carol to the RV, I'll catch up." She said, Carol walked outside carrying several bags followed by Sophia and Carl, also carrying bags. Lori walked up to Rick and hugged him again.
"I still can't believe you're here." She said as they broke apart, Rick kissed her gently on the lips and she responded, however they were broken apart by Carl's voice.
"Ew!" he exclaimed loudly having waited by the door, both Lori and Rick laughed as Lori told him to 'go' whilst pointing to the large RV they had commandeered at the start of the event. Rick smiled as Lori followed carrying both her's and Rick's bags, Rick turned to see Shane and Morgan walking through.
"That's everyone outside. Hand these walkies to everyone, tell them we are on Channel 40." Shane said giving two walkies to Rick and 1 to Morgan. The convoy would be split into several groups; the RV would take the Grimes and the Peletier's as well as Jamie. A cruiser from the station would have Leon, Hannah and Morgan in it, a Riot Squad Van also from the station would have Shane and Paula in it whilst the Dixon's would both be in their truck with the Harley strapped on the back leading the group to this quarry.
"Right." Rick said, he took one walkie over to the Dixon's and told them about Channel 40, Daryl took it with a muted 'thanks' as Rick walked to the RV, they had decided to put the kids in the RV since they would probably become bored easily and could talk to each other.
"We're second in the convoy behind the Dixon's… the van and the cruiser will be behind us." Rick told Carol who nodded, Carol had decided to drive since she had spent the most time behind the wheel of the RV apart from Lori, but with Lori's hand they weren't taking any chances.
"Do you think we can trust them?" Lori asked, Rick shrugged as he sat in the passenger seat next to Carol as she started the engine.
"I think we can, they don't have a lot of supplies and they don't have any other plans." Rick said simply, it had been a very quick decision but Shane had made the point the day before that they shouldn't take too long.
"Well… you do what you think you gotta do." Lori said before turning to check on the kids who were seated up the back.
Rick looked out the front window as Carol let the handbrake off and they began to follow the Dixon's pickup out of the parking lot.
That was Rick Grimes' introduction to the world of the apocalypse.