Chapter 13 – The Day Before Last

I groan as I start to stir to someone nudging me.

My right wrist was throbbing, and the bandages felt tight.

"It's time to get up Cat." Shane's voice says with another nudge.

I release another groan as I open my eyes while slowly moving my injured right arm in front of my face to check on it.

Seeing it seemed to be swollen more than I'd expected it to be, I sigh and slowly sit up, situating so my back was resting against the wall, finding Shane crouched in front of me with a face that was a mix of normal and worry and the others up and gathering their things. Though Glenn and Dale did seem to be hovering close by while periodically looking over with worried looks on their face.

"Let me see it." Shane says then in a quiet voice.

I released another sigh and slowly placed it in his already held out hands.

I wonder if I'd ended up releasing sounds of pain as I slept.

"It's swollen." Shane murmurs as he gently starts unwrapping the bandage.

I just hum slightly in confirmation.

"Damn." he hisses when my wrist is revealed; showing an ugly looking bruise around the clearly swollen wrist.
The thing had to be sprained worse than it originally appeared. It would be helpful to have an actual brace, probably some anti-inflammatories, and possibly some blood thinners just to be safe but we'd have to go a Pharmacy for that.

"The cut looks fine." I murmur when I look from my clearly not fine wrist to my hand and found that the cut looked fine; not red or swollen and was scaped over.

"That's something." He murmurs as he gently brushes his fingers over it.

But then he went and slowly and gently touched my wrist, and I instantly sucked in a breath at the pain.

"Sorry." He instantly apologized and took his hand away before Rick's voice sounds "That doesn't look good."

We both looked to see he'd come over and had his eyes glued to my wrist with a concerned look on his face.

"That's because It's not." Shane practically snaps at him.

Rick just flicks his eyes to mine, looking for confirmation.

I nod with a sigh before telling him "It has to be sprained worse than it originally appeared. It would be helpful to have an actual brace, probably some anti-inflammatories, and possibly some blood thinners just to be safe but we'd have to go to a pharmacy for that. I'm sure I'll be fine if I just keep it wrapped and keep an eye on it though."

Neither Rick or Shane says anything as they look at each other, clearly silently communicating something, before Dale's voice suddenly chimes in "We should look for some food and water and get some gas from the nearby cars too before we head out."

Huh, now that I think about it wasn't there a day between them escaping the CDC and the first episode of the second season? Was that what they did after spending the night at the nursing home to make it 'the day before last'? I guess I don't have to worry about this screwing up the original timeline.

Rick and Shane nod at that before Rick says a "Well that settles it." Before announcing "Alright, everyone listen up. Before we head out to Fort Benning we're going to try and gather some supplies. Shane, Cat, Glenn, and Daryl will head out for supplies, Dale and T-Dog will siphon any gas from the nearby cars, and the rest of us will search around here to see if we missed anything last night." While Shane just got to work re-wrapping my wrist, making me clench my jaw at the pain it caused.

There wasn't any complaining though I could have sworn I heard the signature under their breath scoff from Lori, which I just ignored and didn't bother looking over to check and see if she was giving me that look that normally accompanied that scoff.

"You'll never be a professional nurse." I grumbled at Shane when he was done, earning a soft chuckle from Rick.

"I'm not that bad." Shane chuckles holding a hand out to help me up.

"Sure." I hum as I take his hand with my uninjured one.

"Well, that's why I became a cop." Shane says, with a half grin on his face, as he pulls me up.

I release a huff of a laugh before questioning "Sure it wasn't because you couldn't do anything else?"

"Nah, girl's love a man in uniform." Shane says with a stupid grin on his face.

I just roll my eyes and shake my head at him.

Time Skip*

"It looks picked over and trashed." Glenn comments as we slowly make our way through the store to the right aisle following Shane while Daryl is in the back.

I hum in confirmation glancing around at the nearly empty shelves.

We should probably still be able to find a brace, possibly some food and water, and the pharmacy should still be fine unless someone managed to break in.

As we come to a stop in the first aid aisle, I start looking for a brace while Glenn starts grabbing some first aid supplies we might need and Shane speaks up "It looks like we're alone."

Glenn and I share a look of 'For now.' before we go back to looking.

I soon find a brace that should work well enough, struggling slightly to remove it from the box, and put it on, wincing slightly as I tighten it.

I just look towards Shane and give him a nod then.

He returns it before looking towards Glenn and Daryl while telling them "Glenn, Daryl, you two check the rest of the store for any food and water while I take Cat to the pharmacy."

Glenn says a simple "Okay." While Daryl just releases a grunt before the two of them head off.

Shane looks at me again and tells me a stern "Stay close." Before he turns and starts walking towards the pharmacy.

I roll my eyes, but keep my mouth shut as I follow him.

We're soon in the pharmacy, which was, unfortunately, in the same state as the rest of the store; trashed: bottles scattered everywhere, even some shelves knocked over.

"Fantastic." I grumble staying in the entryway as Shane does a quick check that we were the only things there; living or dead.

"We're clear." He tells me as he comes back.

I hummed before scanning for the control safe, find it busted open, a few empty bottles scattered in front of it, and sigh.

"What am I looking for?" Shane asks then.

I sigh again before looking at him and telling him "Meloxicam, Celecoxib, Naproxen, Xarelto, Eliquis, Brilinta, Warfarin, and more Etodolac, Cymbalta, Duloxetine, Cyclobenzaprine, and Tramadol, or other pain meds if possible."

"Okay." Shane says before gesturing to the area where the ready for pick up prescriptions were, and relatively still in a 'normal' order, and tells me "Why don't you go through them while I look through the mess."

I just nod, head over there, shift my book bag off my shoulder, unzip it, and start going through them, shoving some of the correct meds in it.

Silence falls over us, the only sound in the air the sound of clattering bottles, the slight shake of pills, and the rustling of the plastic hang bags.

But after only a few minutes of this, while I'm halfway through, I hear Shane's voice quietly say "Hey, Stephanie?"

I hum, pausing and looking at him, finding him paused as well, crouched in front of one of the bigger piles of bottles.

"Be honest with me. What do you think about us going off on our own?" Shane asks, his voice quiet and his body tensing up like he was afraid of my answer.

"You're thinking about that again?" I ask, turning to face him fully, moving over slightly to lean on the counter.

He nods before looking at me and telling me "Yeah. I know it's probably a bad idea. But I can't help feeling that it's what we should do. That we might have a better shot if it was just us."

I brush some escaped hair behind an ear before scratching the back of my neck a moment as I look down while I think about it.

He might be right. If we separated from the group where he was planning to in the original, it would probably remove his death flag. But then we'd be in the complete unknown and I couldn't predict what would happen next. I guess I could try and see if I can steer us in the direction of the settings for the coming seasons like Woodbury or even all the way to Virginia and Alexandrea. But that comes with its own set of problems. Let alone that my wrist was currently fucked and the current next events that happened in the original and will probably still happen with or without us; Sophia getting separated and killed and Carl getting shot. I was going to try and save Sophia and without Shane at that point of Carl getting shot he'd probably die. We should probably stay until they bring Randall back with them. Then when I kill him that will give us an excuse to leave. Yeah…that should work.

Slowly I look back up, my eyes meeting Shane's as I start talking "You might be right…But I…I think we should stick with the group for now. You know, until they're in a slightly better situation and…" trailing off a moment before I raise my injured wrist and continue "This is in a little better condition, and we know I won't have any serious complications from it that you might need help with. It wouldn't hurt to have someone else watch our backs until then…you know?"

Shane looks away from me a moment, clearly thinking about what I said, before slowly telling me "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'd feel bad about leaving right now and…" Trailing off a moment before slowly looking at me with a half-hearted smirk as he continues "Having someone else around to tell you to relax isn't a bad idea."

I just roll my eye giving him a fake laugh as I go back to going through the bags.

We fell back into silence again; the sound of clattering bottles, the slight shake of pills, and the rustling of the plastic hang bags filling the air again.

I really hope this doesn't bite me in the ass.