Newly Revised

Tea was getting ready for her birthday celebration tonight that Jesse had insisted on making her go out to do something rather than stay in. A couple other coworkers were going, too, with the intent of taking her to a bar and she really didn't want to have to come home and change after work. While Jesse claimed it was a woman's tradition to take hours getting ready when they went out, Tea preferred to get things done in a timely manner. Throwing on a pair of black skinny jeans and a black crop top with neon green claw marks on it, she tossed on one of her Dropkick Murphy t-shirts over top and headed to the bathroom. While her clothes hugged her body, she didn't need much make-up to look good; only eyeliner, mascara, and a deep red lipstick. She added her leather bracelets, black steel chocker, obsidian dragon pendant, her snake rings, and her four long, angel wing earrings to it, making the number of things added outweigh the number of clothes she wore. After deciding to just brush out her hair instead of put it in a braid or a bun, she deemed herself ready for the day and to go out. All she needed to do was take off the t-shirt and the crop top would be perfect for a night at the bar after work.

She grabbed her mid-calf combat boots and headed into the living room before placing them by the chair by the door. Even after all these years, she couldn't bring herself to break the habit of taking her shoes off as soon as she entered the house and carrying them to her room, nor of putting them on right by the door before she left. Tea supposed it was because she actually agreed with that rule from back home even if it had been a bane of her existence thanks to her sister's refusal to follow it. As much of a nuisance as it was, though, it did keep the floors from being mucked up too bad. Jesse's boyfriend was always teasing her for it and would purposely walk around the house with his shoes on. He knew how much of a rise it would get out of the autistic girl who liked things to be just her way and found it hilarious to watch her slowly shut down. He never could quite understand how Jesse could tolerate such a controlling person as a roommate, even when Jesse told him Tea helped keep her head on straight. Jesse, for how lovely a person she was, was a raging tornado if her time wasn't controlled, so for everything she did for Tea, Tea returned the favor through helping manage her life.

It was gratifying to Tea, because it helped Jesse save money, helped her to feel accomplished at something other than just work, and made it feel like her mental deficiencies weren't as much of a hindrance as she once thought. She knocked on Jesse's door as she passed by it and into the kitchen for a cup of tea before having her single morning coffee. The tea was to help her finish waking up after another night of tossing and turning while the coffee was for focus. Caffeine had never really been her friend until she discovered this system; it had always made her tired instead of awake. The tea helped her wake up without caffeine and then she could drink her coffee without wanting to go back to sleep afterwards. Of course, she knew it might not having anything to do with either the coffee nor the tea did anything and it was just her routine that got her up and moving in the morning. Placebo affects could be quite strong if a person believed in the thing enough.

Practically moaning at the feel of the heat of the mug on her skin, Tea took a long draw off her tea as she heard Jesse's shower turn on. Smiling to herself, she sat at her desk and turned the TV on, switching it over to the Discovery channel. It was airing a fascinating piece on the cosmos that she listened to as she worked, one of her CDs playing quietly from the stereo behind her. After about half an hour, and half a report later, Jesse finally emerged from her room, hair still wrapped in a towel with nothing but her dressing gown on.

"Coffee," she groaned out while walking like a zombie.

Tea smirked and shook her head, "Cowboy style."

"Ugh, why do you do this to me? We have a perfectly good coffee pot right there on the counter! Why do you insist on makin' it in that metal piece of crap on the stove?" Jesse complained.

"'Cause it tastes betta," she laughed, watching as her friend nevertheless grabbed a mug and poured out the 'sludge' as she called it, even though it was the only coffee she ever drank black. "Why ya always bitch and moan and groan and then drink it anyway, ya skank?"

"'Cause it tastes betta," Jesse mocked. "Slut." They shared a laughed as Jesse sat at her desk, "So you're really not comin' back here to change after work?"

"I got somethin' I can wear ta the bar unda this. Lucky the station don' care what I wear so long as I'm not expected in court."

"So, what's on your agenda today while I'm off at campus? What's goin' on at work?"

"Oh, I got ta go ta the nursin' home, check on the old ones who got hurt. Let 'em know we got a good case and they'll get what they're due. Then I got ta go ta the precinct, drop off these case files and I get ta end the day at the campus droppin' off my paypa. Finally got the damn thing done."

"That mean you're finally turnin' in your dissertation?"

"Yeah, can' be puttin' it off any longa."

"Why have you been?"

"Ya know why. This dissertation, it's 'bout the likelihood a bein' abused and committin' crimes and drug abuse and how the severity a abuse causes the severity a the crimes and addiction. I've spent the past year talkin' ta inmates, detainees, scourin' ova case files and studies involvin' abuse and criminality. I've gone ova a hundred different studies involvin' addiction and abuse. This..." Tea spent a minute trying to gather herself. "This hits close ta home. If my mind wasn'...I could jus' as easily be a part a this study as I am the one writin' it. It explains all the stupid shite I love doin'."

"Like stealin' Mark's keys?" Jesse asked, her arms folding over her chest from drying her hair. "Yeah, I know what you did to his car."

"He was bein' a jackass ta ya," Tea said petulantly, crossing her own arms and looking very much like a child defending her favorite toy.

"Tea, you can't be actin' out like that with my boyfriend. I know you only took his car to his brother's house, but you can't steal a car because someone's bein' a jackass."

"What 'bout 'cause said jackass was wasted and high as fuck and wanted ta get behind the wheel with my sista, huh?" Tea challenged.

Jesse sighed and gave up the fight, knowing that Tea hadn't actually done anything wrong aside from not telling anyone she'd taken the car, "You don't even have your license. You shouldn't be drivin'. Give them to Tony next time. You know he never drinks more than two and sticks to weed, like you since the barn."

"Yeah? Who's fuckin' fault is that, ya bitch?! Ya were the one who got me up and dancin'! And who the fuck is Tony?" Tea asked confused.

"Seriously?! Don't you guys smoke together?!"

"Ya know I don' share my bowl! Neva have and neva will! It's my bowl!"

"You gotta learn how to share, Tea," Jesse chuckled.

"Yeah, tell me that without the smile and I'll start. Bitch."

"Jerk."

They looked at each other before bursting out giggling, the phrase coming from their favorite show and favorite characters. Almost as soon as they heard the phrase said by Sam and Dean on Supernatural, they'd adopted it as their inside joke as well. The joke being that Jesse was in love with Sam and Tea was absolutely enamored by Dean. Or at least she had been; Castiel had begun to confuse her which had made watching the show difficult over the last season. Tea really hated change, but she related so much to Castiel's stunted emotional abilities that she found herself drawn to that character more than Dean. Nonetheless, Jesse made her sit and watch it every Sunday night as a way to get over her emotional turmoil. She both hated and loved Jesse for everything she did, whether the other woman knew it or not. She was always forcing Tea to do things or go places she wasn't entirely comfortable with for no real reason other than it wasn't home or she'd never been. Tea hated every second she was out but she also loved Jesse for at least trying to get her out of her comfort zone; that was the whole reason they were going to a bar.

"How can you focus on that report when you're watchin' TV and listenin' to music?" Jesse mused for the thousandth time in the six years they'd lived together. "I mean, seriously, is this how you've gotten four degrees while I'm still workin' on my second?"

"Nah, I'm jus' smarta than ya. And my brain works fasta than yas. How can I have all this goin' on and still work? 'Cause I can' fuckin' work unless my brain is fully engaged, and it ain' fully engaged without all the distractions keepin' me focused on this."

"How the hell does that work?" Jesse mused once again.

"Ya ask me damn near every few days, Jess. Jus' fuckin' stop already."

"Well, I can't help it! I wanna know how my beautiful friend's freaky mind works! I mean, that's why we both went into psychology, isn't it? It's just that you ended up lovin' that show back when you were plannin' on goin' the same route as me and into clinical psychology focusin' on young abuse victims. Still don' get why you changed it all of a sudden. You were brilliant with the kids," Jesse said.

"That's jus' it. I didn' want ta work with the kids. I didn' want ta see them as weak and helpless victims, but that's all I could see 'em as, 'cause that's all I was. And then, seein' that show, it was eye openin'. I had all the classes and degrees needed for forensic psychology, so why not? 'Sides, I was already internin' with the fuzz by then. Jus' kinda opened my eyes ta the otha side. Think I can do more for those kids on this side. At least this way, I can stop it from happenin' instead a jus' listenin' ta how it happened."

"You'll be the best damn forensic psychologist this world has ever seen!" Jesse said, pouncing on Tea from behind and wrapping her arms around her front, squishing her breasts in her hand. "And the bounciest!"

"Jezzebelle Mae Scott!" Tea yelled, bringing her head back and butting Jesse's forehead. "How many times I have ta tell ya! I don' fuckin' like that!"

"Oh, come on! I just got to get a cop of those things! How is it you never wear a proper bra, are a fuckin' D cup, and still don't sag or anythin'! It's not fair! You're short and small and got tits galore while I'm stuck with these tiny Bs! Not fair!"

"Quit bein' a petulant baby and go get dressed. Ya only got an hour and a half 'fore ya got ta head ta campus," Tea sighed in exasperation, knowing that her friend didn't actually mean anything by it; the woman would come home and fall face first into her chest on days that were particularly bad and act as if she was a pillow.

"Yes, ma'am."

Shaking her head with a chuckle, Tea couldn't help but smile at her friend's antics when she saluted her and did a perfect about face before marching to her room. She was so much older than her, having celebrated her twenty first in Boston with Tea at a Flogging Molly concert when Tea was only seventeen. Even though she was young, it didn't stop the friendly, mostly Irish-heritage, citizens attending the concert from handing her beers and later shots of whiskey when they learned she didn't like beer. It had become a matter of pride for some of the men as they knocked back shot after shot after the concert had ended, Jesse leaving to have some fun with one of the guys. In the end, she'd impressed the men so much that when they'd gone back to Boston a couple times for other concerts, the same crew welcomed them with open arms and even gave them a place to crash so that the after party could commence.

Truth be told, that was the first time she'd smoked weed, too, and the world had momentarily been righted. That's how she had started smoking, she reminisced as she picked up her bowl and took a hit before taking a draw off her coffee. After doing some research, although it was extremely limited, she'd learned a little about the effect weed could have on people. She realized it could potentially be used as medicine to help her keep her mind calm and her anger at bay. It wasn't always effective, but it was better than any medication she'd been prescribed and she really didn't like taking pills after what Chrystal had made her do. Jesse did her best to help cover Tea's usage up so that Tea could get the best out of life; she'd done that practically since they met. Tea couldn't hear the bees in her head so much when she smoked, the troll wasn't on a rampage, and that made it so much easier to handle life.

"Hey, you want me to give you a ride to the nursing home?" Jesse asked about forty five minutes later while coming out of her room holding her heels.

"Not when ya wearin' those damn things ta drive."

"I can drive in heels just fine," Jesse pouted.

"Jess, ya know I love ya, but ya can' drive for shite with propa footwear. I drive betta than ya, and I can' even pass the test 'cause I can' fuckin' parallel park for the life a me!"

Jesse just laughed at her, "Have it your way then! Don't get killed on the bus!"

"Ya mean don' kill anybody on the bus."

Jesse came over and gave her a one armed hug, wanting to give her a kiss on the cheek but knowing she'd already crossed a line once today and it would be a few days before she could again without serious bodily injury, "Love ya, ya whore."

"Love ya too, cunt. Now git."

As the door closed behind Jesse, Tea took a minute to calm her mind by taking another pull on her bowl. Jesse was a handful she couldn't help but love, but sometimes she felt like a mom taking care of a kid with how the woman behaved. That thought was only strengthened when she pulled the stunts involving Tea's chest even though she wasn't comfortable with it at all. It took everything in her to control her strength enough to just tap the woman to get her off instead of breaking her arms, but Jesse didn't mean anything by it. She's jus' jealous 'cause I got lucky in the curves department, she thought to herself as she finished off her coffee and her bowl before printing off her report. She grabbed it and placed it in the manila folder with all the evidence and witness statements and placed that in her leather work case. Tea grabbed her case and went over to her chair, putting on her boots before opening the door and heading outside.

She spent two hours at the old folks' home, sitting with a couple of the patients she had helped the most and reading out in the common room at the request of an elderly man who said her way of talking reminded him of his wife. Tea hadn't been able to say no, because such a bond was special and it helped him feel special, especially when she had passed on a few years ago. Stopping at the station next, she went to the Captain's office and handed him one of the reports that he needed for a specific case he was involved himself. After that, she headed to her department to drop off the rest of the files to her supervisor. Along the way, she was stopped by another colleague who was going with them that evening and chatted for a minute. Tea made sure they were just going to a little dive bar and not one that was crazy busy or had a lot of loud music. Everyone kept warning her that there would undoubtedly be a few of the bad crowd since they were heading out of town and to the next one over. Atlanta didn't have the kind of bar Tea was comfortable with, so they'd had to search farther out just to get her to agree to go.

By the time she was done at the precinct, she had just enough time to pop into her Dean's office to turn in her rough draft. She had already filled out the application for her dissertation presentation, so it was all she had needed to do before he left for the day. The final step was actually presenting her thesis and showing the evidence she'd gathered in front of a panel of experts. If it was accepted, she would graduate with her PhD and would have her study published widely and potentially be further researched, which would earn her even more fame. While she didn't care how popular she was, it felt good to know that those people would see that she was doing great despite them trying to break her. She met up with one of the other guys going with them and waited for a pair of their friends to join them before piling in a car. When she was asked by the girl if she was really wearing a band t-shirt to a bar, Tea simply took it off and tucked it into her bag. She then got told she was going to have to break hands and feet to keep men from touching her and it might be better to put the rock shirt back on. While they were used to Tea's love of comfort, her brazen choice of clothes made others either uncomfortable or a little too casual. Still, they all piled into the car and left to pick up Jesse on the other side of campus before heading out of the city.

They stopped along the way to grab something to eat before they got to the bar on Tea's request because she didn't want to drink on an empty stomach. Keith and Mary started arguing about what drink Tea was going to have first as they got back on the road. Tea simply chuckled at them as she fell into silence, the other three in the car continued chatting away. She leaned her head on the window and closed her eyes in an attempt to mentally prepare herself for being in a bar. She had never even been in one before and every show and movie with a bar in it showed how rowdy they were. It unnerved her to know that they were going someplace like that and she was happy that Johnny had decided to go with them. Johnny didn't drink, so he was going to make sure none of them got into trouble they couldn't get out of, though Jesse teased her about him having a crush on her. Tea didn't see it as she chimed in to the argument to say she was drinking whiskey or vodka, either or, but only one of the two. 'You never mixed clear and amber liquors,' her papa had told her, and she'd only made that mistake once at a bonfire with some other collegians. She had never puked so much in her life and the next day she had to call into class and say she'd gotten the stomach flu. The bar was an hour's drive away from the city, not too far out to celebrate but far enough out for Tea to knock a few back before having a legitimate reason to leave.

"We're here, birthday girl," Mary said before all but pulling her from the car and dragging her inside.

The rest of their little group were already inside drinking much to the dismay of several of the regular customers. Tea could tell why, as her city-folk friends were completely out of place in this backwoods bar with their flashy clothes versus the primarily biker gear the rest of the bar was in. She sighed to herself at the fact that she couldn't believe they'd talked her into this, though it was more Jesse wanting to bring Tea out for a change. While the group already waiting at the bar called themselves her friends, they never talked unless Jesse was around. It was awkward for most of the group to view the youngest of their numbers as one of them when they were, in fact, their professor as well. Tea was only a professor's assistant, but she still taught a number of lower level classes to ease the professor's intake. It was only because of Jesse that they were all in the same bar and trying to get her to open up and have a good time. The night slipped away as they fed her shot after shot, finding out that she loved Boston Sours and ordering them for her over and over again. Making sure to drink water with every shot, she was nowhere near as blitzed as the rest by the time they became too much and she needed to leave.

Walking outside, she sighed to herself as she felt the fresh night air and wished she had a cigarette to help calm her nerves. She was out of energy after dealing with the entire group trying to make her laugh and being rambunctious, earning them a lot of dirty looks from the regular patrons. Tea was sick of dealing with the looks of the rough guys and knew that it was only a matter of time before they got tired of the group of city people. She was worried that they were going to end up having to fight to get out of the bar before the night was over. Everyone in there surely had a gun and the only person who had any weapon other than pepper spray was her. One knife and her lessons in mixed martial arts would be able to get her and Jesse out alive, but the rest would be on their own if it came to that. Tea walked up to the only other person outside, thanking her lucky stars that he was smoking. The man was older than her by a good bit, but still extremely handsome with blue eyes that shown in what little light the bar's porch offered. Her mind was racing with different scenarios involving what Jesse would say abut him, but there was literally only one thing on her mind.

"Hey, can I get a fag?" she asked, completely forgetting where she was.

"The fuck's a fag?" his gruff voice asked, Tea watching as his eyes raked over her.

"A smoke...sorry, fag, smoke, cig, called 'em any a that since I was a kid-kid, not jus' a kid ta ya," she chuckled as she slurred her words, thanking the man as he offered one to her and then lit it. "Figured ya might a known what a fag was as far as a cig goes. Ya look the type ta."

"Fuck you mean by that?"

"Ya know how ta start a sentence with anythin' but fuck?" she asked with a laugh that made him smirk himself. "And ta answa ya question, ya eitha a redneck or a hillbilly, one a the two."

"There's a difference?" he asked, sounding slightly interested.

"Redneck's an asshole with a good heart. Hillbilly's an asshole, racist, sexist prick. Think there's a huge difference 'tween the two," she sighed wistfully as she she exhaled a drag of the cigarette.

"You from around here? Should put a fuckin' shirt on."

"Nope," she said, popping the p. "It's my birthday, and my friend insisted on bringin' me ta a bar 'cause 'that's what twenny one year olds do' apparently. And I have a fuckin' shirt on," she said as she attempted to take a step towards him, only to stumble just slightly, making the man stand just a little straighter in case she fell. "I'm good...jus'...the ground wobbled for a minute..."

"Should head home if the ground's wobblin'," he suggested.

"Yep, ya a redneck. Ya sweet."

"I ain't sweet," he said, his voice starting to sound very familiar.

"Where ya at, Darylina? Or are you bein' a little bitch again?"

"You gonna be alright?" he asked, his short hair coming into view as he took a step away from the post he was leaning on.

"A-okay!" she said while giggling. "Catch ya around...Darylina..."

"Knock it off," he growled, coming closer to her while snarling.

Tea began backing up, something about all of this, the sound of the snarling and the way he was stalking closer, was causing her to panic. This wasn't how this meeting had happened; there was no growling, no snarling. And why was there a baby crying at a bar? What was with the hissing sound that came out of nowhere? What the fuck is going on? she couldn't help but as herself as the man growled at her. She had to bite back the scream that wanted to rip through her, something telling her that screaming right now would be worse than the crying baby. His teeth closed around her neck and a searing pain dragging downwards as her mind began to register what was happening.

Ani's eyes slammed open as a searing pain hit her cheek and neck, Bobby or Catty trying to scratch it's way up her head while crying as the other one was hissing away in the bag. Her brain didn't have time to process what she'd dreamed as she looked out the window of the small train station she'd found. It hadn't been the most secured place, but after running for most of the night before finding the cabin and then running the rest of that day, through the night, and into the next day with barely a rest except for food, she'd needed sleep. Exhausted, she'd passed out here yesterday afternoon only to wake up in the middle of the night to feed the kittens before going back to sleep. They were their very own wake up and warning alarm, fearing the walkers and becoming completely dependent upon Ani the last two days.

Pulling the one off her face and hissing at the claw marks surely left, she picked the other one up and carefully put them in their bag. Grabbing up the other to bags and securing them to a rope, she tossed one end over the rafters and hoisted all three bags high enough for the walkers to not be able to reach them. She'd found the station at the same time as she'd found the tracks, trying to figure out which way she was supposed to go. Deciding to walk in the directions the where there were signs and such facing her, she had hoped there would be a station where she could get a map. She needed to figure out where the hell she was and what there was near her. She needed supplies, needed bullets, needed more weapons or at least something she could use as a weapon. Her bolts had been pretty well used by the time she'd left the prison and she only had three left to use to hunt. Two of her throwing knives had snapped trying to get away from a group of guys she assumed had to do with the first three she'd met. She'd also managed to lose one of them at some point during her wandering when she'd finally broken down about everything that was happening.

If it weren't for the kittens, she would have gone completely insane after finding the cabin burned and momentarily losing hope of finding Daryl. Her mind had gone to a dark place that thought he had abandoned her after the prison; why wouldn't he when she was so much work? It'd taken her a good chunk of the day to come out of that comatose state and shut down that train of thought. The kittens making noise was the only thing that brought her back to the present even as the walker bore down on her. As soon as she came back to her senses, she'd jumped up and brutally killed the walker with her fists alone, Bobby and Catty being quick to jump off of her. She had been surprised when she turned back arounds that the kittens hadn't run when she'd gotten up and left them. They'd jumped back in their bag and hid either trusting her or relying on her to take care of the threat. After that, she just wandered around, following some game trails to make sure she could feed the kittens. It wasn't just the kittens she had to feed; she had to make sure she ate enough to keep up her strength and health herself so that she could keep them safe. She had promised them that she would and she had decided that it couldn't have been Daryl who burned the cabin down. He would have waited for her to get there and wouldn't be so reckless as to destroy the only place they knew to find each other.

She had started being able to tell which of the kittens deserved which name by their attitudes, which seemed to be the complete opposite of each other. Bobby, the one that had been hissing like a madman at the incoming threat, was by far going to be the better hunter and fighter. He was already practicing pouncing on his brother and had caught a grasshopper the last time they stopped to eat. Catty, on the other hand, was a damn scaredy cat that would start crying at his brother when Bobby got too rough. He would mewl and cry every time something bigger than him even came close, once running to her because he got spooked by a crow. Their personalities were as plain as day even if they were identical in looks and she was happy to have them. While she had started the apocolypse only talking when she was spoken to, she'd gotten used to talking during her time at the prison; having the kittens to talk to made it easier to keep dark thoughts at bay. It made Ani smile as she readied her knives, no longer bothering with running when a group of walkers came around as long as it wasn't a horde.

Dancing her way through the ten or so walkers, she took the lot down with twists and thrusts to the skull, base of the neck, or up through the chins. The kittens were crying to her by the time she was done dispatching the group and wiping her blades, hands, and face off. She told them to hold their horses as she went over to the beam she'd tied the rope to and slowly lowered her bags. Ani put them on before leaving the relative safety being in the station had offered her over night. There wasn't much else to do but head down the train tracks and hope she could find a map or sign or something that let her know where she was. Hell, she wasn't even sure she was still in Georgia anymore after being chased by the that group that kept trying to claim her every time they crossed paths. She'd killed more of their number before hiding high in the trees and keeping the kittens in her bag and purring rather than out playing. They'd walked right past her when they 'woke up,' Ani still giving them her own personal punishment. Her mind wandered back to the dream she'd had after thinking about the men she'd made turn and the man she had talked to that night.

"Ya know, I know it happened how it happened, but I don' know if it was D I actually spoke ta. Was dark, didn' really see his face too good. Blue eyed redneck, and that's prolly why I got so smitten with ya daddy. Drew me in with those damn eyes, and lata that ass," she chuckled at the kittens in her arms, remembering how she'd spied him at the quarry. "But I know I heard someone callin' out a really funny name and I teased 'im 'bout it. Got all angry and stormed off. Felt like a bitch the next mornin' 'cause I know betta than anyone what teasin' 'bout a name can do ta ya," she told them. "Was so drunk on whiskey sours I actually fell asleep out there afta the smoke. Don' even know when Johnny found me, but they said someone let 'em know I was out there afta a fight almost broke out. Knew that man was a sweet redneck. Prolly wasn' D, though. I miss 'im." She cuddled the kittens close as she walked and listened to them purr, "I miss 'im so much I'm puttin' 'im in memories 'e ain' got nah business bein' in. Don' even rememba the name a the bar." When Catty looked up at her, Ani got snarky and chastised him, "Don' look at me like that. Seriously, the odds a it bein' Daryl that night is slim ta none, and if 'e was that man, gods I hope 'e don' fuckin' rememba it. I was half tempted ta kiss 'im 'fore I opened my mouth ta tease 'im. He was handsome as fuck and again, damn them fuckin' blue eyes. I miss D's."

Looking up at the sun, she looked back down before turning around and walking backwards for a while, "Don' fuckin' know what way I'm goin' anymore. Know my direction, but don' know where I'm goin' or headin' towards. Hope I can find somethin' soon ta tell me where the fuck we are. Not goin' ta find nah one if we can' figure out where the fuck we are. What do y'all think? Abandon the tracks? Go back ta the woods?" Bobby and Catty both looked at her with their twin looks and made her sigh, "Fine. Ya right. Was dumb ta leave the tracks the first time, though if I hadn', I wouldn' a found ya, now would I? So don' look at me like I'm an idiot jus' 'cause I suggest they ain' helpin' us get anywhere. Got ta go ta the woods ta hunt, too. The two a ya can' hunt and ya can' survive off a what I forage, so what do I do? Goin' ta have ta leave the tracks from time ta time and come back ta 'em."

As night fell, she climbed a tree and tied herself to it, holding onto the bag with Bobby and Catty after hoisting the other bags up. She allowed them to play on the branches so they could continue practicing climbing the tree. Even if she had claimed them as hers, she wanted them to be as feline as possible so that they didn't forget that they were wild. How could she expect them to hunt if they didn't retain their natural instincts to do so? She wanted them used to being around humans and maybe to learn some commands, but she still wanted them to be the wild animals they were born to be. Sure, they were a bit spoiled and had already put on a couple pounds it seemed from how much she fed them, but she couldn't help but make sure their little tummies never went empty! After she started training them, they'd have to go hungry a little bit, but getting them to that point would be easier if she kept them fed now. That and they'd grow bigger and stronger being fed so well like this so long as she kept them active. She smiled as they played around until the sun had fully set, Bobby attacking Catty who just rolled onto his back.

Before the moon breached the overhead branches of the trees, the kittens settled down in their sack, purring away as she hummed to them. She fell asleep, once again dreaming of Daryl and startling awake to the nightmare of finding him turned and tearing at her flesh. This time, she kept the knowledge of where the tracks were as she hunted, not bothering to cook the squirrels she caught this time and just chewing some of the meat for the kittens and eating some raw herself. It wasn't the smartest thing to do, but she didn't feel like stopping if she didn't have to. With the group that somehow managed to keep on her trail, she didn't want to keep having to stop unless she needed sleep. She made her way back to the train tracks as they opened up and splintered off, signs finally showing where she was.

She cried out a laugh as she found not only a map that showed where she was, but also two different notes, both of which giving her hope. One informed anyone who saw the sign that there was a place called Terminus where all the tracks met that was a sanctuary for all. The other was to Glenn from Maggie, telling him that she would meet him there making Tea smile to herself; So they are still alive. She'd spent a week without human contact aside from running from that stupid group of disgusting men that was following her. And even then, as soon as they had passed and she could no longer hear or see them, she started tree-hopping in the opposite direction. That was how she ended up finding the train station and the tracks once again to begin with. She didn't know if they were the same tracks she had originally found, but they were tracks that lead to her people. Now she had a proper heading, and if she was where she was on the map, it meant she was only maybe a day away. She'd only have to spend another night out in the open before hopefully she'd be able to reunite with everyone she'd lost. With a pep in her step, she kissed the heads of both Bobby and Catty before she began down the tracks. There were so many tracks that lead to the same place and if her people were actually alive, they had to be heading there. Ani might not know where Daryl, Merle, or Sophia were, but if they had seen these signs like she had, she was certain she would see them at Terminus.