++++++ I do not own the Walking Dead or any affiliated characters apart from my OC ++++++

Eight

When I woke up the following morning I found that sometime during the middle of the night Rick must have put his jacket over me to keep me warm. Sitting up, I noticed that Rick was still asleep and that the sun had only just risen so there was still a crisp chill to the air. I sat Rick's jacket beside him and sat up to stretch before loading my bow and standing. There was a couple off walker's mulling around the deserted cars. I fired my bow, four times in quick succession to take them out.

I smiled and climbed down to the ground for a stretch before I went to collect my arrows. Rick was up by the time I found my last one and he'd lit a cigarette to offer me. "Thanks, Rick."

"We heading back?" he asked me. "They'll probably send out a search party."

"Or not," I shrugged. "I don't think Shane likes me very much. They probably think that I've killed you and taken off." I laughed seeing the look on Rick's face.

"Don't blame Shane for just trying to look out for the interests of the group," Rick told me. "I'm sure you've done some pretty unusual things-actually I know-Ebony told me everything."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course she did."

"You don't trust people do you?" Rick asked me. "You know you can't get anywhere in the world without trusting people, PJ."

"I'm a marine-well, was a marine," I frowned, my whole life flashing before my eyes. "I come from six generations of marines-by father, brothers, uncle, cousins-all marines. We trusted inside the family-not anything outside our own element. I trust Eb's cause we lived together for five years. It's gonna take a little more than some nice small talk and giving me your jacket in the middle of the night."

Rick looked at me with a frown but he did a pretty good job of keeping what he wanted to say to himself.

I picked up the last two bags we had and tossed it to Rick, keeping my own, then the two of us headed back towards the cars. We ran into another couple of walkers and Rick let me take them out, my way was better-no muss, no fuss, just complete silence. There was nothing around my Jeep or the new truck that Rick had adopted so the two of us spent the next hour navigating our way out of the mess on the highway.

Eventually we made our way back to the farm just in time to see Shane, Glenn and T-Dog loading up an old pale yellow Jeep Cherokee to probably come and look for us. I pulled in behind Rick and got out of my Jeep just in time to hear Jade call out my name. My rabbit came running up to me, clutching her doll, followed by Sophia. "Hey squirts," I grinned, slipping some candy out of my pockets and giving it to them. "Go play," I told them, messing up their hair.

"What the hell happened?" Shane demanded to know.

"Herd came through," Rick answered his friend. "PJ and I got stuck on the roof of a truck but we've got supplies-lots of supplies."

"What did you get?" Shane asked. The pissed off look on his face was replaced by one of happiness. "Where did you find it all?"

"Delivery truck," Rick answered. "We got dried meats, a couple of different cases of tined food, some hygiene products-first aid kits. PJ and I are looking at heading out soon and seeing what else we can find."

Shane stared at me. I could see the cut on his arm which made me wonder exactly what lie he had told the rest of the group about it. "Rick-" he started.

"I'm gonna need some help sorting this out," Rick cut him off. "PJ would you go and see if Herschel needs anything? We have enough to share."

"Sure," I smirked, seeing the look on Shanes face when Rick said share. I grabbed my bow and made my way towards the farm house. I raised my hand knocked on the door. Moments later a young blonde came to the door. "Hi-I'm PJ," I smiled, "I was wondering if I could speak to Mr Greene?" I asked, putting on my polite face.

"You must be Corporal Lucas," she smiled, opening the door. "I'm Beth. DAD!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

The two of us waited for Herschel to come to the front door, when he saw me, he frowned. "What can I do for you, Corporal Lucas?" he asked me.

"Rick and I went on a supply raid," I told him, "we got a couple car loads of stuff-I was wondering if you want anything? Now I'm not offering you the supplies as a bribery to let us stay-I'm just helping another human being. And please, it's PJ."

Herschel hesitated. "Ok. As long as we're offering-how about a game of chess?"

"Sure," I smiled. "Just let me sort this out and then I'll kick your arse."

"Whilst I have you here, PJ," Herschel added, "we'll be having a memorial ceremony for one of our own fallen. Will you come?"

I shrugged. "See what happens. I'm not really one for crashing funerals of people I barely know." I turned and headed back to the cars. By this time Rick and Glenn had just taken everything outside of the truck whereas Shane was heading towards my Jeep. "Touch the Jeep and I will kill you," I warned Shane, hand hovering over a knife in my belt.

"She will," Andrea warned her, coming up behind me. "PJ seems to be just that type of woman." She looked at me, there was a small smile on her face but it vanished. "Need any help?" she asked me.

"Sure," I answered. From behind me I heard the familiar light footsteps of Ebony as she walked over to me. "Sorry I didn't come-" I stopped when Ebony slapped me right across the face. "Mother f-what the hell?" I gasped, rubbing my face.

"You didn't come home last night," Ebony snapped.

I laughed and Ebony stormed off back towards our tent. "So Andrea…" I smirked, digging into the side of the Jeep, "drink?"

Andrea looked at the bottle of whisky in my hand and a grin formed on her face. "Welcome to the group."