A/N Hey y'all, I don't know if anyone will find this, if this is anyone's cup of tea, or if I'm screaming into the void because my brain got taken over by plot bunnies. I've only binged the 2020 version of The Stand, and seen like half of the Walking Dead (but not recently) and this is what I've got. It's an AU mess probably, but let's be honest, I'm not here for continuity, I'm here for trauma, drama, and Stu Redman to be sweet.

Basically here's my warning if you proceed. This might be good, might be entertaining even, but please don't come here for me to know what I'm talking about with continuity. Previously anything I'd written was piecemeal and self indulgent and that's the train we're on now, except there's like plot now. I went looking for Walking Dead/Stand crossovers and they don't exist. I went looking for Stu Redman fic and it doesn't exist really.

So here's my half assed contribution while I should be writing literally any other story I've got posted. Sorry Indy.

Aragorn.

Bruce.

I'll be back I promise!

Also things get pretty trauma spicy so warnings of graphic depictions of violence, rape/noncon, vomiting, Carl being threatened with death and injury, and basically anything else you might see within these two pieces of media. Some of these things may be written out in full scenes, or may just be eluded to or flashed back to in chunks. When I say I have next to no plan I mean we're gonna throw this out and see where it leads us. IF I do write any of the rape/noncon out explicitly I will try to work it out where I make it a stand alone chapter that can be skipped by anyone who wants to avoid it.

And who knows, there may be some spicyness later, maybe I'll finally try my hand at it. Or not. Literally do not know how this is gonna go.

So with that said, proceed with caution (And with some grace, maybe, please?) and enjoy some stuff that basically exists for hurt/comfort/romance/angst/whump bitches like me.


June and Carl had lost track by then, they could tell the season but not much beyond that. It was cold, at least. Cold enough she'd been able to hide a growing belly despite how the rest of her seemed to be shrinking from a lack of food and leaving her with bouts of dizziness.

She was pretty sure they'd gone far enough to have made it out of Georgia, but after that she couldn't say. North, yes, but which state? Not that it mattered that much anymore, except to let her know when to turn East. They'd just been wandering the woods for too many days and miles to know.

Walkers up there, luckily, took the easier paths like roads, or cut their own in lighter brush like game. It had been making them easier to avoid in the thick Appalachian backcountry since their one rifle had been out of ammo for weeks. Of course that also made it harder for the two of them to get anywhere either.

Carl was determined though, plowing a few feet ahead of her through the brush with a knife with thoughts of his dad up north on his mind. They'd all agreed to meet in Virginia, at her folk's old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere if shit went down, and down it went.

But even if they were avoiding walkers, that didn't mean a possibly more dangerous animal hadn't had the same idea, and he popped out of the trees ahead of them.

June pulled the rifle from her shoulder and aimed it at him while he held his own, the muzzle pointed back at them. Her and Carl didn't look like much of a threat to her, and apparently not to him either because he game them a tight smile and a short nod. "Afternoon, don't mean to spook ya, I was just passin' through."

"Passin' through?" She scoffed.

"Yeah, not real sure where I'm headin' to be honest. I'm comin' from my last ditch effort to find somethin' left of civilization."

"People have made plenty of their own by now, sure you could find one." And the fact that he hadn't was what was making her worry.

"Well, to be frank ma'am, I haven't found any that are more than roving gangs and cult leaders."

"Well then what are you looking for?" She snapped.

"Wouldn't mind a place to call home, safe from the dead as I can make it, people around to depend on. Don't suppose you've heard of anything along those lines?"

Dare she say, he actually looked hopeful. "It's happened, but those gangs and cult leaders tend to make it hard to hold together. Might still be something' worthwhile in Georgia if you head south." Probably not much, but it got him well past them and going in the opposite direction.

"Already been, tried for the CDC but when I got there it looked like it'd been-"

"Blown up?" She finished for him.

"You saw it too, huh? I'm surprised you made it in and out of there in one piece, Atlanta was a shit show while I was there." He gave her another tight smile and let go of his rifle, letting it hang from its strap over his shoulder. "You know that gun's not gonna do you much good without a round in it?"

"How do you-"

"Lucky guess. Don't worry, I wasn't gonna shoot you either. I uh, prefer makin' friends in this nightmare than enemies."

At least with the ruse blown she was able to lower the gun and sling it back over her shoulder. "Then why are you alone?"

"When I left Texas there were five of us. By the time I got to Atlanta it was just me." His eyes seemed to redden with the memory and his emotion over their loss comforted her and he went on. "Stu Redman." He added with a nod, waiting for the two of them to follow up.

"What do you want?" Carl snapped.

Stu shrugged. "I've been alone since Alabama, everyone else I've run into has either tried to eat me, kill me, or recruit me. To tell you the truth you two are about the first normal people I've seemed to run into. Not sayin' we've gotta join forces, but seein' as it's gettin' late I wouldn't say no to campin' together for the night. Some company would do me good."

Carl bristled, taking a step forwarded with his knife still clenched in he fist. "We don't need your company-"

He moved so fiercely June grabbed him by the shoulder. "Carl, I don't think he meant it that way."

Stu's face flashed with surprise, understanding, then an apology. "No ma'am, I swear the most I'm lookin' for is conversation, plain and simple. And if your answer's still a no, I'll be on my way and leave you be."

June could swear he was one of the most normal people she'd met since it all went down. She was still wary of him, there would be no helping that after everything, but she was also fairly confident she and Carl could take him if it came down to it. And if he was a normal person? A good person? They'd do a helluva lot better getting to Virginia with him and his gun than they'd do on their own. A teenage boy and a pregnant woman pushing through the Appalachian brush was laughable at best.

"You make one wrong move, I'll set him loose on you." She said to Stu warningly, more of a light hearted agreement than anything, and patting Carl's shoulder.

Stu smiled. "I'll stay in line, promise. Carl, was it?"

Carl glared, eyeing him with more venom than she had even at the start.

"I'm June."

Slowly, he held out his hand and she shook it, enjoying the normalcy of the movement.

"Nice to meet you, June. Should we get goin?"


Stu took the lead, breaking through the brush with a heavy hunting knife. He kept his eye on them, but in a wary sort of way that came with the usual distrust people had to have nowadays. After an hour or two they'd made only a little progress and found a sharp overhang of stone to camp under for the night. It was surrounded by bare and prickly blackberry bushes, a good deterrent for any walker that could possibly have found a way that deep into the forest.

They split up within eyeshot to gather firewood and kindling, the temperature already dropping to a sharp chill.

June bent down and grabbed a branch, adding it to the pile in her arms. As she straightened up her vision went spotty and she threw her arm out to brace against the nearest tree. It was getting worse, it seemed like every other time she leaned down it happened now. Taking some deep breaths her sight came back and she looked up to see Stu a few dozen feet away, looking at her with a crease between his eyebrows.

He didn't need any reason to think she wasn't capable of defending them but she wasn't sure how much he'd seen. She waved him off and went back to collecting. They came back to camp and dropped their bundles and Carl got to work on the fire while Stu started breaking everything down.

"How long has it been since y'all've eaten?"

"Depends on what you call eating." She said to brush him off by making light. "We've had enough." If by had enough she meant not eaten since the shared pack of expired jerky that morning.

"Uhuh." He nodded, shaking his head and digging into his pack. "Here." Pulling out a crushed, stale looking granola bar, he broke it in three. He stuffed one piece in his own mouth, the smallest, and handed her and Carl the other two. "I'm not too poor a hunter myself, might be able to bag us a deer if we're lucky. How 'bout y'all get this fire going and I'll see if I can't find us something to cook up." Grabbing his rifle and pack he adjusted the ball cap on his head and slipped back into the brush.

"He's either a unicorn or a psychopath." She grumbled when he was out of earshot.

"I know what you're thinking." Carl answered. "We don't need him. We're doing just fine alone."

"Is that so, bag of bones?" She joked, poking him in the ribs. "If he comes back with food and doesn't kill us tonight then keeping him around might not be such a bad idea."

It was nearly dark when he came back, but he did come back, and not empty handed. It wasn't a deer, but it was a skinned raccoon by the looks of it which was way better than nothing. Hell, June would've taken a snake snatched up by Daryl at that point without a single thought.

"Went ahead and prepped it a ways back, didn't want to attract anything hungry that wasn't us with the leftovers." He'd gutted the thing already, and laid it out on a flat stone by the fire.

"That'll go faster on a spit." She said, staring at the animal with her mouth watering. "Gimme a minute, I'll put one together." As she stood, her eyes did more than go spotty. For a quick second she was aware of being dizzy and then it all went black.

"June, can you open your eyes for me?"

"June! June! Wake up!"

"She'll be fine, Carl, just been too hungry for to long. Come on June, can you look at me?"

Everything was blurry and she couldn't remember where she was, but someone was over her smiling.

"There we go, you're alright."

"June?" Carl asked.

"'M okay." She mumbled.

"Don't try to get up just yet, you were out for over a minute." Stu said, shedding his outer coat and laying it over her chest. "I'm gonna venture a guess and say it's been a while since you two've had a decent meal?"

"What gave it away?" She muttered sarcastically.

He tucked the coat in around her and knelt back on his heels. "You stay put, let me get this raccoon cooked up." Leaving them he went over to the fire and started making his own spit before she could force herself up to offer again.

"The fuck is this guy?" She said under her breath so only Carl could hear.

"Don't ask me, you're the one who wants to keep him." He answered in a whisper.

After resting, taking in less raccoon than she wanted but more than she probably should've and drinking some freshly boiled water, she was feeling a lot better than she had in days. Hell she hadn't even had to bully Carl into sleeping first shift as much as usual with his full belly making him tired.

Just like she knew it would, it was just her and Stu playing the game of would one of them buckle and sleep or would they both stay up till dawn.

"He's a good kid." Stu said, sitting down close enough to have a quiet conversation, but not close enough to get in her space. "You must be proud."

"I am, but he's not mine. His dad pretty much ran our last settlement, before we got run out by one of those cult-y guys. We all got separated and now here we are."

"You think he's still alive, don't you?"

"His dad? Absolutely. And I'm gonna get Carl back to him."

"I'd be willin' to help ya get there, maybe. Been a while since I met good people."

She hadn't expected him to have the same thought she did, and tried to hide her interest under distrust. "We haven't seen one of those since we started running. Still not sure if we have now."

He nodded understandingly and looked into the fire. "Yeah, I can't blame ya for that one. I wouldn't trust anyone if I were in your situation either. And I'm not tryin' to strongarm you, if you don't want my help I'm not gonna force you to accept it. I'm just-" He sucked in a breath and nodded to Carl. "Seems like y'all have had some trouble along the way. I haven't spent long in these mountains but I know they're not forgiving and you two aren't prepared for winter."

"Thanks for the reminder." She grumbled, tossing a stick into the flames.

"We'll all three have a better chance if we stick together."

June had more than enough reason to be cautious, so did Carl, but despite the barometer for a good person being a lot different from what it used to be, it was tempting. He didn't give her the creeps like a lot of people did, not even the hint of an edge of violence that she got from Daryl even though he was a teddy bear who'd never hurt her. Stu was just…as benign seeming as his name. A country boy raised right. Or at least, that's what she wanted him to be.

"We're goin' all the way to Virginia, further if our group isn't there."

"I've got nowhere else to be. You want my help, you've got it."

June turned to look at him and their eyes met, hers no doubt empty and exhausted, his holding a promise she was afraid to accept. But maybe that promise was true enough to see them through the mountains, through winter. Besides, she and Carl could take him if they really had to, right?

"If you turn out to be some kind of cannibalistic rapist I reserve the right to kill you."

He smiled and nodded. "If I do, my mother, may she rest in peace, would tell you to go ahead." They paused for a second, enjoying the uncommon mirth. "Don't suppose you'll get any sleep tonight?"

"Yeah right. I'm not letting you keep watch alone just yet." She couldn't help but smirk at his joke and shake her head. She couldn't help it, she liked him.


Carl woke up a few hours later and she went to sleep for the last couple hours before dawn. Stu sat back against the rocks to get a few winks himself, they had enough of the walking dead to deal with without them all being so sleep deprived they might as well be too.

They were up before dawn, taking down camp and rolling up their blankets. June slunk off to pee and get through her daily bout of increasingly annoying morning sickness away from the others before coming back and slinging her pack onto her back.

"We ready to go?" She asked them.

Carl kicked one last mound of dirt over the fire and Stu nodded, looking at her with a strange expression.

They kept north for the next several days. As north as they could anyway. The terrain didn't let up, but they didn't run into any walkers either, which June could barely believe. They'd been non stop since Atlanta and that was almost a year ago now. Maybe there were secluded enough places to go where you could live a semi normal life? Hell, maybe they should bring the group back to Appalachia once they found each other again. No hoard could make it through the terrain, and they likely wouldn't even try. The mountains might cut through the dead like a boat through water, or it might capsize and sink like everywhere else given enough time.

On day five of traveling together, Stu handed her a few rounds of ammo as they walked.

"That rifle doesn't do you much good if there's nothing in it. I get the feeling you won't go off and shoot me for no good reason by now. I don't have much ammo myself, but if we run into trouble at least you'll have something."

She popped one into the chamber and slipped the others into the pocket of her jacket. "Thanks. I spent the last of ours on some ill fated hunting attempts. I'm a better shot with walkers than deer."

"Well, they are slower that's for sure." He agreed.

"Carl's not a bad shot himself." She said, drawing his attention and trying to include him in conversation. He'd been especially quiet since they'd left Georgia behind and she was trying to keep his spirits up.

"Oh yeah? Your dad teach ya?" Stu said lightheartedly. "My dad taught me when I was a bit younger than you.

Carl nodded and kept walking so June answered for him. "His dad taught me too. I'd barely touched a gun before this whole mess happened."

"Doesn't sound like you're from the south originally then. Shootin' is a right of passage where I'm from."

She chuckled. "West coast suburbia. Not a big thing unless you were some doomsday conservative type. In hindsight…"

He laughed with her. "You seem to know your way around it now, that's what matters. How'd you end up out here when it all went down?"

"Flight layover in Atlanta on my way to visit my parents. Shit went south enough to shut down air travel and I was out on the streets with a hotel voucher. I was in the city until October before I ran into Rick, Carl's dad. Been with that group ever since."

"Damn, Atlanta was…" He'd already said it once so let the comment hang. I'm surprised you lasted that long. Didn't think anyone could've gotten out when I was there."

Chuckling, she tried to downgrade the severity. "I'm an introvert, I'm good at laying low and staying entertained." Nevermind how terrifying those two months had been, hearing walkers shuffle around outside and in other rooms of the hotel, killing her first one in the kitchen when she'd finally had to leave for food. If not for Rick… "I owe his dad my life, a dozen times over. Not to mention owing him, I'd be dead if not for him."

"Suppose that's the way the world works now. You're either saving a life or taking it."

"Or becoming the cult leader you always wanted to be."