Chapter 7 – What a Day

"Holy Crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale yells at Glenn as soon as he got out after we sped up the dirt path and came to a stop next to the other cars. Practically everyone running to us.

"I don't know how." Glenn answers laughing earning the "Pop the hood, please. Pop the damn hood, please." From Shane.

I reach over and pop the hood and Shane and Jim instantly was there trying to disconnect the battery as Amy bombards Glenn with her questions about her sister.

I get out as Glenn tells her "She's okay! She's okay!"

"Is she coming back? Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?" Amy asks more distraught as I look away from them to work on untying the shirt from my arm.

Shane hadn't noticed me yet so if I could get away with removing most of the blood and gut covered clothes without him noticing I may get away with sneaking off on my own. The others probably won't say anything since he told them to make sure I didn't do just that. Not only that but I was alone with Glenn and with Merle for a bit, something else he told them to make sure didn't happen. Yeah, nothing he told them happened. They're screwed too if they spill the beans.

"Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much." Glenn answers as Shane or Jim finally gets the battery disconnected and I drop the shirt on the ground and get to work untying the pants from my other arm.

"Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here? Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?" Shane scolds Glenn as I drop the pants on the ground.

"I think we're okay." Dale says then as I take my sling bag off and set it on the roof of the car.

"You call being stupid okay?" Shane asks then as I unzip my gut and blood covered jacket and just drop it on the ground too.

"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing. I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think a little more carefully next time, would it?" Dale explains as I put my bag back on.

Looking back at the group, I see I wasn't noticed by anyone. They were too busy scolding or interrogating Glenn. And though I still had bloody pants Shane probably wouldn't notice.

"Sorry. Got a cool car." Glenn says causing Dale to nod reluctantly and Shane to sigh.

That's when the cube van pulls up. Right on time.

I watch as Andrea jumps out and runs to Amy both crying out the other's name, and Morales goes to his wife and kids saying "I told you I'd be back, didn't I?"

I then release a quiet sigh, noticing that Merle didn't come out with the others, there would be no way he was still in the van with Rick. Like the original T-Dog probably dropped the key and chained the door so he was probably still fine. That probably didn't change either. Didn't mean I wasn't a little worried about him though. He had helped me out after all. The least I could do was be concerned for his safety. And with him still there I'd get that earful from Rick. Right. That's all it was.

"Wh-" Shane starts to ask but stops and sighs out "You've been there the whole time haven't you?"

"Yeah." I answer, looking at him knowing he was talking to me.

"You had me worried." Shane says then while pushing past Jim and pulling me into a tight bear hug. Practically crushing me into him.

I try pushing him off saying "Can't breathe." As Dale tells Morales "You are a welcome sight. I thought we had lost you folks for sure."

"How'd y'all get out of there anyway?" Shane asks then releasing the bear hug but keeping an arm around me, a hand holding my arm; allowing me to turn to see what's happening again but not escape from his hold.

And this is all before he knows I snuck off on my own and that Rick is here. Guess he was really worried about me. Probably since the others probably did manage to radio back that they had gotten trapped in the department store like in the original.

"New guy…he got us out." Glenn answers motioning in the direction of the cube van, where Rick still was.

Good going Glenn. Say nothing about me sneaking off on my own.

"New guy?" Shane questions.

"Yeah, crazy Vato just got into town." Morales answers before calling to Rick "Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello."

The van door slams shut, meaning Rick got out then, so I turn my attention there and Morales adds "The guy's a cop like you."

"No way." Shane breathes out, his hand on my arm tightening slightly, as soon as Rick comes into view.

The hand tightens painfully as he pulls me closer to him when Carl and Lori start running at Rick with Carl yelling "Dad!" causing me to wince and look at him.

It was almost like he was being possessive of me. Like he didn't want me to run to Rick too. But there's no way. He thought I already knew it was Rick and knew I wouldn't run to him in the first place even if I somehow didn't.

He had that conflicted look on his face for a second before it quickly changes to realization as he releases me and looks at me with a slightly panicked "Shit. Did I hurt you?" and hands raised and hovering over me.

Guess I took precedence over Lori and Carl being with Rick again. That was kind of reassuring. Maybe he wouldn't be so obsessive over them this time.

"I'm fine." I tell Shane smacking a hand to the side.

"Sorry." Shane apologizes in a chuckle and cheeky brother grin before looking back at the reunion scene; his face faulters then for a split second before he says a quiet, not quite whisper, "It's Rick."

I look back at the reunion seen then to see that Rick was now looking in our direction with a smile.

"It's our Rick." I say then in that quiet, not quite a whisper voice too, a small smile coming on my face.

It really was him. He was alive. I guess I still felt that it could've been someone else when Glenn told me his name.

"It is." Shane says in the same way as Rick comes over, still carrying Carl, who was still hugging Rick like his life depended on it, and Lori following, looking like she wanted to do anything but come over.

"I can't believe it. Am I dreaming?" Rick says as soon as they joined us, looking as if everything was a dream.

"We could say the same thing brother." Shane says clasping a hand on Rick's shoulder causing me to look at him from the corner of my eye, his tone neither his face had conveyed none of his jealously that Carl and Lori ran to him.

Before anything with Lori and Carl, Rick was his best friend. His brother. His precious baby sister's friend. That part of him was happy to see him alive again.

"Uh…what happened to Merle?" Glenn questions then, finally noticing that he wasn't there.

"I dropped the damn key down a drain." T-Dog answers, guilt in his tone.

"Oh man." Glenn breathes out.

"Daryl's gonna be pissed when he gets back." Shane sighs, his arm dropping to his side, before saying "Anyway, I'm sure you all've been through a lot and dinner's 'bout done. Let's go sit down and take a break. Besides it's about to be dark so nothing we can do about Merle right now."

****Time Skip****

"So, what was it like waking up from a coma to all this?" Glenn suddenly asks when our silent dinner was over causing me to roll my eyes at him.

Of course, he was the one who asked Rick that.

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closet. Disoriented. Fear, confusion…all those things but…Disoriented comes closest." Rick answers looking around at everyone, as Lori just looks at him and plays with Carl's hair.

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Dale says then.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." Rick adds.

"Mom and Aunty Cat said you died." Carl says then looking up at him.

"They had every reason to believe that. Don't ever doubt it." Rick tells him looking down at him, while Lori looks at Shane.

Shane shifts slightly and places his arm around my shoulders so Lori just looks back at Rick and tells him "When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened."

No mention of them thinking he was dead before we headed to Atlanta in the first place.

I just lean into him then, happy to accept his body heat, as Rick says "Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell."

"Yeah." Lori whispers.

"And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun." Rick adds.

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane tells him while tightening his hold around me, holding me to him almost like I'd fly away if he didn't.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it. You too Cat." Rick tells us, causing Lori to look down, a guilty look in her eyes.

"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale says with a fatherly smile looking around at us all.

Then, right on cue, Ed plops another log into their fire and simply sits back down.

Everyone's attention goes to Ed as Shane says "Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?"

"It's cold, man." Ed says simply earning that "The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" from Shane.

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once. Keep an eye on that damn sister of yours." Ed responds and instantly Shane was up and stalking over to him.

Shit, I hope that statement doesn't just set Shane off.

But luckily like the original, Shane keeps his composure and he just whispers at Ed, an obvious warning, like in the original, though we couldn't hear it.

"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" Ed orders Carol then.

She gets up and does so as Shane sends me a look so I quickly motion for him to stay calm.

He doesn't say anything just turns and stomps out the log before going and crouching down in front of Carol and Sophia.

"Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?" Shane questions them then.

"Fine. Just fine." Carol quickly answers before apologizing "I'm sorry about the fire."

"No, no, no. No apology needed." Shane tells her quickly before telling just them "Y'all have a good night, okay?"

"Thank you." Carol says nodding.

"I appreciate the cooperation." Shane tells them as he stands before he comes back, plops himself next to me, and pulls me back into the position we were in before.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale questions Shane.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog says then.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick jumps in.

"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a while guy." Glenn tells them

"I did what I did. Hell, if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog says solemnly.

"We could lie." Amy offers.

"Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." Andrea says in an almost sigh before looking right at the Grimes and adding "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asks skeptically looking at her before looking at everyone adding "I don't' see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise…We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog says.

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea questions.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door." T-Dog answers causing everyone to look at him as he continues "Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that…Not that chain, not that padlock. My point…Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us."

T-Dog then simply gets up and leaves as I release a sigh of relief that it was the same situation as the original.

Merle would be okay…right?

"It's not your fault, Cat." Shane says then squeezing me into him a little and rubbing my arm.

"I know. I also know I should go lay down." I yawn pulling away from him.

What the hell is he getting at? I didn't care if Merle wasn't okay. I was just worried about what it'd do to the story if he wasn't…right?

"Everything okay? Want me-" Shane starts to say, worried, so I cut him off with a hand raised in his direction as I slowly stand up, knees cracking, with a snapped "No I don't need ya to walk me to my tent. I'm fine."

"Tell that to yer rice crispy knees." Shane teases.

"Eat shit." I snap at him as the others laugh.

"No thanks." Shane chuckles so I just huff and start heading to my tent.

I was just going to accept my win of my loot, no one bringing up my Houdini act to Shane, Rick actually being alive like in the original, and these scenes proceeding generally like the originals and call it a day. I was exhausted, my knees hurt, and I really felt the need to get out of these disgusting pants now.