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sourwolf-sterek32 · 2 years

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Broken Trust

Summary: Y/N Walsh meets Daryl Dixon while working as an undercover Police Officer. But, when Daryl finds out the truth about you, you’re forced to move back to King County.

While on duty, a bullet puts you and Rick Grimes in hospital and when you wake up, the whole world has changed.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3.2k

Warnings: Language, violence

Previous chapter

Chapter 17-

"This is perfect. We can finally get this thing organised. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams." Rick explained, looking down at the map that was spread across the hood of the truck.

"Not you. Not today." Hershel called out, walking towards the group of you. "You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out. And your ankle, push it now and you'll be laid up for a month, no good to anybody."

"Guess it's just me. I'm gonna head back to the creek, work my way from there." Daryl spoke up as you looked over at him.

Just him? What were you? Nothing?

"I can still be useful. I'll drive up to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back." Shane added.

"I will search the woods nearby, see what I find. But, tomorrow. That's when we start doing this properly." You declared, looking between the group before glancing back down at the large map.

That was a lot of area to cover. Sophia could be anywhere... if she was even still alive.

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them." Shane responded and you nodded in agreement.

Everyone needed to learn how to protect themselves. Hell, you wouldn't mind if Carl learnt how to use one when he was fit enough. He needed to protect himself too.

"I prefer you not carrying guns on my property. We've managed so far without turning his into an armed camp." Hershel said.

Like hell you were giving up your gun.

"All due respect, you get a herd of those things wandering in here-" Shane began to say before Rick cut him off.

"Look, we're guests here. This is your property and we will respect that." Rick stated, glancing over at you and Shane sternly as he pulled his Colt Python from his holster and placed it on top of the map.

Oh, he was not serious right now? We're really just giving up our guns?

You glanced over at Shane who bit his lip, stopping himself from saying something he'd most likely regret as he pulled his Glock from his belt and placed it on the map beside Ricks.

Rick turned towards you with a questioning look and sighed.

"Whatever, but I'm keeping everything else." You reasoned, gesturing towards you belt where your baton, OC spray and handcuffs were before you pulled your handgun from the holster.

Rick gave you a grateful nod. "First things first, finishing setting up camp and find Sophia."

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we should all be clear on how we handle that." Shane said and although it was a bad thing to say, it did need to be said because as much as you hated to admit it, it was possible.

"We do what has to be done." Rick answered seriously.

"What about her mother? What do you tell her?" Maggie asked and you could tell she did not agree with Rick said.

"The truth." You simply answered looking over at the other woman as she glanced over at her father with uneasy expression.

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons. Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience." Shane suggested, looking over at Hershel who defiantly did not like that idea.

"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Rick said, backing him up.

Hershel thought about it for a moment and to your surprise, he nodded in agreement.

You spent the rest of the day searching the outskirts of the farm, hoping that Sophia may have found one of the paddock fences and followed it, but she hadn't.

By the time you got back to camp, you realised that a lot had happened without you.

Glenn had been lowered down into a water well to get a walker out, which apparently didn't go to plan and now that water well had been blocked off since it walker guts inside.

Glenn and Maggie had done a quick supply run into a nearby town. Maggie had nearly been bit and then Shane and Andrea had taken Carol back to the highway to see if Sophia found her way back, but she hadn't.

You were only gone for a few hours and all of that happened, which shocked you, but at least everyone was okay.

Later that afternoon everyone sat around the small campfire, eating dinner and slowly starting to get ready for bed while you wandered into the Greene house to go check on Carl, who had apparently woken up.

Quietly you walked into the room and you couldn't stop the small smile forming on your face when you spotted Carl sleep on the bed and Rick fast asleep on the chair beside his bed.

You were about to walk back out, not wanting to wake either of them up before Carls small voice broke the silence.

"Hey, Aunt Y/N." He whispered with a big smile.

You grinned, quietly walking over to his bed and leaning over him, placing a gentle kiss to his forehead as you sat down on the edge of his bed.

"Hey, little man. How are you feeling?" You asked quietly, not wanting to wake Rick up.

"Good. It doesn't hurt." He answered, but you knew that was obviously a lie.

You had been shot before and it defiantly fucking hurts, even when you woke up from the coma nearly a month after, it was still sore. Although, Lori had given Carl some of the good painkillers so maybe that was it.

"You're tougher than me, kid." You chuckled as you rubbed your fingers over the bandage covering your knuckles.

It had stopped bleeding a long time ago, but you knew there'd be nasty bruises underneath the bandage and the last thing you wanted was for Shane or Rick to see and fuss about it.

"How'd you hurt yourself?" Carl asked curiously and you looked up to find him staring at your hand.

"I was stupid, that's how. Trees don't make good punching bags." You joked causing Carl to chuckle.

Rick began to stir from his chair and you glanced over at him as his eyes slowly blinked open.

"Hey, dad." Carl said, turning his head towards Rick which caused his face to break out in a smile as he stared down at his son, but a few moments later his smile disappeared causing you to frown as Rick cleared his throat.

"Carl, I told you something earlier today about Sophia-" Rick began to say and suddenly it clicked.

Rick did mention that he had lied to Carl when he asked if Sophia was okay and Rick had said yes.

Oh this was not going to be a good conversation.

"I know. Mom told me." Carl interrupted causing Rick to chuckle shaking his head.

"Here I was getting ready to confess. I didn't mean to lie. I just didn't want to worry you. It's a stupid excuse but it's all I got."

"It's okay. Do you think we'll find her?" The little boy asked glancing between you and Rick and you nodded.

"Yes. I won't stop looking until we find her." You responded and that was the truth.

You might not believe she was alive. It had been three days, she's been out there alone for three days, you knew the chances of her being alive were slim, but you had to find her.

"Hey, I'm like you two now. We've all been shot." Carl suddenly announced.

You couldn't help but laugh as you looked over at the boy who was grinning.

"I think your mother would rather hear we got the same eyes or something. So, lets keep that between us." Rick responded with a chuckle and you nodded in agreement.

"We'll all have matching scars. Join the club." You joked causing Carl to laugh as Rick looked over at you with look that you knew meant 'shut up' causing you to laugh even more before Rick shook his head.

"Well, since you're in the club now, you get to wear the hat." Rick said, picking up his Sheriffs hat from the ground and placing it on Carl's head causing the boy to smile even brighter.

"I can help you pad the rim tomorrow so it sits better. I used to do that with Shane's hat when I couldn't find mine." You explained causing Rick to chuckle as Carl nodded excitedly before he looked over at his father.

"Won't you miss it?"

Now it was you who was laughing because Rick and that damn hat were attached by the hip. There was not one work shift where you didn't see him wearing it.

"Maybe you'll let me borrow it from time to time. Get some sleep, you need to rest." Rick replied and Carl nodded.

"I love you dad. I love you Aunt Y/N." He said glancing over at you before he lowered the hat over his eyes and leant back down on the pillow.

"I love you, Carl." You both replied.

To your relief, Maggie had given the group a few extra tents and sleeping bags which meant you didn't have to share with your brother anymore.

You loved Shane, but he was a very loud sleeper and it drove you crazy. But, of course whoever had set up all the tents had put yours right beside his and you could still hear his snores through the thin material of the tents.

Because of his snoring you were awake before anyone else and decided to go for a walk around the property to wake yourself up and stretch your legs.

You had walked around most the property, checked out their sheds and what equipment they had, but you had never been to the large barn further away from the house.

You walked across the field towards the barn, taking in the beautiful sunrise along the horizon, the sky painted different shades or pink and orange. But, you didn't get much time to appreciate the scenery because as soon as you reached the barn something was wrong.

The large double doors on the front of the barn were chained and padlocked shut, which wouldn't have been weird because farmers tended to keep their heavy machinery and expensive equipment locked up. But, what caught your attention was the soft groaning coming from inside.

Was there a walker trapped inside?

Curiously, you walked up to the front doors and pulled them towards you as far as the chain would allow before you pulled your torch from the holder on your belt and shone it through the tiny gap in the door. But, the second you lit up the inside the barn you immediately jumped backwards as you took in all the walkers that were inside.

"What the fuck?!" You exclaimed staring at the barn in shock.

Why would Hershel keep walkers locked up in his barn? These wooden walls won't hold them forever and if he added anymore inside then they sure as hell would bust out and your camp was literally 100 metres away. You were just bait waiting to be eaten.

You quickly did an external walk of the barn, making sure all the walls were intact and there was no sign of them trying to break out before you made your way to camp, trying to figure out how to tell the group.

What were you meant to say? 'Hey, guys, so the barn is full of walkers?' That was not going to end well.

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse." You heard Shane argue as you walked towards the group of them that were huddled around the map that was spread out over the bonnet of the truck.

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea responded, glancing over at Shane before he spotted you jogging towards them.

You knew he was going to say some smartass comment about you being late, but he must have realised something was wrong by the look on your face because he instantly stood up straighter and stared at you, catching Ricks attention who turned around to see what Shane was looking at.

"Good, you're here. We're just about to go over-" Rick began to say before you cut him off.

"Nope, we got something else we need to worry about. The whole group needs to hear this." You declared, walking away from them as you joined the others by the coals of the campfire eating breakfast.

"Y/N, what is it?" Rick asked, but you didn't miss the hint of worry in his tone.

"The barn is full of walkers."

You watched as everyone's eyes went wide and jaws dropped as they stared at you in disbelief.

"Come see for yourself."

Without waiting for them to respond, you turned and started to walk back to the barn. Everyone hurriedly rushing after you.

Stopping a few metres away from the chained doors, you motioned towards it as Shane and Rick marched over to the doors and looked through the small gap.

You watched as they stared at the walkers inside for a few seconds before one of the walkers banged against the door causing them both to flinch back. Shane shook his head and stormed back to the group.

"You cannot tell me you're alright with this." Shane growled, turning towards Rick and re-joined the rest of you a few metres away from the walker infested barn.

"No I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick responded calmly, but you just shook your head.

This was Hershel's land, but this was crazy. Who keeps walkers locked up like this?

"Okay, we either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now, we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time-" Shane began to reason before Rick cut him off.

"We can't go."

"Why, Rick? Why?"

It was clear your brother was getting very agitated, very quickly and you knew this conversation needed to calm down before someone snapped.

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol spoke up for the first time, but you didn't look at her as you eyed your brother cautiously, watching as he just chuckled and shook his head.

"Okay. Okay, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility-" Your brother began to say before Rick cut him off again.

"We're not leaving Sophia behind."

Great, Rick was getting worked up too. That's just what you needed, the two of them all riled up and arguing.

"I'm close to finding this girl. I just found a farmhouse where she had been staying yesterday." Daryl's voice suddenly said and you sighed taking in the anger and frustration in his tone as well.

Great, now there's three of them. This was perfect.

"You found a house, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a house." Shane responded, glaring at Daryl from across the group as you quickly took a step towards them, not liking where this was going.

"Ya don't know what the hell you're talkin' about!" Daryl yelled, throwing his arm in the air in frustration as you and Rick quickly got between them.

"I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first 24 hours-" Shane started to shout while Rick tried to stop him.

"Shane. Shane. Stop." Rick shouted.

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife and fucking crossbow. She would run in the other direction!" Your brother yelled and that was all it took before Daryl snapped as he charged towards Shane.

"You shut your mouth!" Daryl shouted.

You quickly stepped in front of him, your hands pushing on his chest as you fought to keep him at bay while Rick struggled with Shane behind you as you tried to stop the two of them from reaching each other.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." Rick yelled from behind you, but you didn't miss the breathlessness in his tone and you knew he was struggling to hold Shane back.

The two of them continued shouting at each other, but you were barely listening to what insults they could come up with as you focused on trying to keep Daryl away from your brother, not wanting either of them to get hurt.

"Shane, back off!" Rick shouted from behind.

"Enough! Calm down." You yelled, glaring at Daryl in front of you which seemed to snap him out of it.

He stopped trying to fight and looked down at you for a few seconds before he shook his head and shoved you away from him.

"Don't ya fuckin' touch me!" Daryl growled, glaring at you and you just rolled your eyes.

Well, at least he was back to being angry at you and not your brother.

"Hey! You don't push my baby sister!" Your brother snapped from somewhere behind you as you glanced over your shoulder to find Rick still with hand on Shane's chest, not trusting him by himself yet.

"Shane." You warned, as you stared at him, silently telling him to shut up, but he just shook his head.

"You shouldn't talk to my sister like that, man." Shane began to say and you frowned taking in your brothers now cool and calm tone compared his yelling match only moments earlier. "Hell, if it wasn't for her, you would've died and Merle would've went to prison five years ago. You should be fucking thanking her!"

You froze as he stared at your brother in disbelief before you turned back to Daryl to find him still standing in front of you, but seemed to be frozen to the spot as he stared at your brother, trying to process what he had just said.

"The hell is he talking 'bout?" Daryl questioned, turning his attention back to you, but you just shook your head.

"It doesn't matter, we have bigger problems to figure out. Now, what we going to do about this?" You asked, trying to bring the conversation back to the walkers as you turned back towards the rest of the group and Rick sighed.

"Just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out." Rick answered, which seemed to flip a switch in your brother who shook his head.

"What are you gonna figure out?" Shane snapped, glaring at Rick.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land." Rick tried to explain, but by the look on your brothers face he did not like it.

"Hershel sees those things in there as people. Sick people. His wife, his stepson-" Dale began to say causing you to frown.

"Wait, you knew about this." You asked in shock.

"Last night. I talked to Hershel. I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was going to tell you this morning, but she bet me too it." Dale answered pointing towards you.

"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive-"

She marched towards Rick, but you quickly got in front of him causing Shane to glared down at you, but you just stood up straighter and glared right back at him.

"Enough. All of you! Now, Rick will talk to Hershel. Until then, we have one person on guard duty by the barn to make sure they don't get out while the rest of us continue with our plan to search for Sophia. Any objections?" You questioned sternly, your eyes never leaving your brothers as he sighed and lowered his head. "Good. Glenn, you take first watch. The rest of us, back to the map so we can organise a proper search party."

MASTERLIST | TIP JAR

Next Chapter

A/N- So, as most of you probably noticed, I have made the group find the barn of walkers earlier than what they did in the show. Everything else is still the same, but I just needed the group to find the barn earlier instead of waiting for Glenn and Dale to discover it later on.

Hope this still makes sense.

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon fanfic #daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon x reader #twd #The Walking Dead #the walking dead fanfic #the walking dead fanfiction #Norman Reedus #shane walsh #rick grimes

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daryl-dixon-daydreams · 3 years

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Words: 8714 Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader Reader pronouns: she/her Era: the Greene farm Warnings: Language, violence, gore, blood, severe injuries, fear, anxiety, death of a character A/N: This is the FINAL part of a miniseries! You can find the other chapters on the Masterlist! Summary: Y/N and Shane go missing.

Your name: submit What is this?

Two weeks later

“I can actually do it myself,” you insisted, feeling a blush in your cheeks as Daryl pulled your hand over onto his lap and bent over it, luckily oblivious to the pink glow now filling your cheeks.

He huffed at you. “I’m sure ya can,” he drawled, “but it’s definitely easier for someone with two hands, don’t ya think?”

You watched as he methodically and carefully snipped the stitches in your hand and pulled the sutures away, apologizing if they tugged at all. A lot had happened in the last two weeks. Pretty much everyone had come around to the fact that Shane had hurt himself in an attempt to get the group to abandon you. There had been a massive fight between him and Rick and since then Shane had been confined to his tent while he healed. When Hershel found out what had happened, he told Rick that Shane couldn’t stay, but Rick had already decided that he had go. His best friend seemed to be growing more bitter and more unstable by the day.

But Shane was still around temporarily, and because of that Daryl had refused to leave you to sleep unguarded at night. You’d argued that it would be fine and that you didn’t really think Shane would try to pull anything else, but the archer was insistent. Eventually, you caved. Daryl had hauled your cot and bedding to his tent and set them up along the opposite wall from his, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck at the strange nervousness and yet gratitude he felt knowing you’d be so close.

You both fell into an easy routine together. Your physical closeness may have been borne out of necessity but the other growing closeness developed organically. Spending time with Daryl was easy. He didn’t mind when you were quiet for hours on end, lost in your own head as you aimlessly tossed twigs into the fire. He didn’t mind when you wanted to talk about something specific or nothing at all, and you felt the same way about him. The silences didn’t bother you with Daryl and every time he did open his mouth it was either to make you laugh or to say something you were genuinely interested in hearing. He was constantly checking on you over the smallest things. If you shivered in the evening as you spent time around the fire, he’d insist that you moved closer to the flames or he’d go get a blanket from his tent and toss it down on your lap without a word before he took his place again. He’d make sure you were eating and would refill your canteen whenever he thought about it. You did what you could to return the favors but he usually seemed to beat you to it.

“I guess with these out I can finally start hunting again,” you said. “And going out and gathering stuff.”

“Mhm,” Daryl hummed, his eyes narrowed as he focused on removing the very last stitch. “There.” He straightened up and looked at the slightly raised pink scar down the center of your palm. He wasn’t sure what made him do it, but he ran a finger lightly down the length of it.

You startled at the unfamiliar sensation, a little strange due to the altered sensation along the length of the scar, but even more so because of the way your heart jumped at the touch of Daryl’s fingers so light on your palm. You involuntarily pulled you hand back and your eyes shot up to meet his.

He gave you a sheepish look. “Sorry. Did that hurt?” He regretted it the moment he’d done it, worried about your reaction.

You shook your head. “No, it just—”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing,” you finished quietly, chewing on your bottom lip a little anxiously. He quirked an eyebrow at you but simply stood up.

“Alright. Well, couple more days and that asshole will be outta here,” he growled, glancing over in the direction of Shane’s tent. He wasn’t yet allowing himself to acknowledge that he was worried things would go back to the way they were before once Shane was gone. That is, you’d retreat back to your space and back to yourself. He was really liking his time with you and he didn’t want it to end. The archer shook his head and glanced back at you. Your eyes were now on Shane’s tent, too but your expression was fretful. “S’matter?” he prompted you.

You sighed. “I just feel like it’s my fault he has to leave…”

“Nah. Nah, it ain’t. Y/N, if it weren’t you it’d be somethin’ else. He’s been spiralin’ down since Rick showed up alive and took his family back. It ain’t got nothin’ to do with ya, not really.”

You still looked unsure but the worry lines in your forehead eased a little. “Yeah. I suppose so.”

“Listen, I told Carol I’d go help her with that new tent. Ya gonna be alright over here?” he asked.

You nodded. “Mhm. I’ll be right here. Andrea gave me a new book.” You did glance a little longingly over your shoulder at the far tree line and Daryl was always amazed that even after the traumatic incident in those very same woods that you still wanted to be out there almost every minute of the day.

“Hey,” he said, calling your attention back to him. “We’ll go out and hunt tomorrow, alright?”

You nodded. “Tomorrow.” You watched his broad shoulders fade toward the main camp.

Carol was waiting when Daryl arrived. Her old tent had started to leak and Daryl had promised to help her get the new one they’d found set up. She stood up as he strode over, already flustered by the number of pins and ropes and metal poles. “If I’d known I’d be living out of a tent I definitely would have stuck with the Girl Scouts when I was a kid,” she said, giving Daryl a helpless look.

He let out a gruff laugh. “Ya got that the wrong way around,” he said, pointing to the pole she’d already slipped through the tent. She stared at it and sighed. “S’alright. That’s why I’m here right?” he said. “Gimme that,” he said, grabbing the bundle of poles in her hands and setting to work. In no time they had the tent upright and were going about staking it down. Carol handed Daryl another stake and he pounded it into the ground securing down the corner.

“So… what’s going on with you and Y/N exactly?” she asked him.

The archer froze and shot a look at her before returning his eyes to what he was doing, grateful for a task to focus on even as he felt his ears growing red. “What’d ya mean?”

“Well,” Carol continued, “you’re sharing a tent,” she said with a smile.

Daryl scoffed. “So? I shared a tent with T-dog once. Ya gonna ask me if we held hands?”

Carol laughed and smirked at him. “Well, did you?” Daryl rolled his eyes at her and she laughed harder.

“We’re sharin’ a tent cuz there’s a psycho that probably is blamin’ all his problems on her. And I don’t want shit to go sideways.”

“So, that’s it? You’re just sharing a tent for purely practical reasons,” Carol said. Daryl could hear the skepticism in her voice and he straightened up after tying off the knot to the stake.

“The hell are ya on about?” Daryl growled. But even as he tried to act gruff and brush her off, he felt that heat growing in his chest that was becoming familiar when he thought of you.

“You two just seem to get along,” Carol said. “That’s all.”

“Mmm,” Daryl hummed, moving to the next corner of the tent. Something about that response made Carol laugh again.

“You’re so sensitive,” she murmured, eliciting an eyeroll from him. “Daryl, I just like to see you happy. And lately, since you’ve been spending so much time with Y/N, you’ve been happy,” she pointed out.

He couldn’t deny that. She was right. He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, his hands still on the last length of cord before he tied it off and pounded in the stake. He stood up and stepped back, taking in the structure. “Alright. All done.”

“Thanks,” she said gratefully, surveying it. She gave his shoulder a friendly squeeze and smiled. “Do me a favor?”

“Hmm?” he hummed, chewing on the side of his thumbnail, glancing up at her.

“If you really like her,” she paused and shrugged, “tell her. Life is short these days.” She knew that as well as anyone. A husband, abusive asshole or not, and a precious little girl were gone to this world.

Daryl only ducked his head and lazily twirled a piece of grass between his fingers. “I’ll see ya,” he murmured, turning and heading back toward his tent. He was expecting you to be sitting beside the fire where you’d been when he left, but that spot was empty. He approached the tent and stopped outside the door. “Y/N? Ya in there?” When there was no answer, he unzipped it and peeked inside. No sign of you. The book that had been in your hand was on the tent floor and he bent and picked it up, setting it on the upturned box that was serving as a nightstand next to your cot. That’s when he realized your knife was there. He’d been thinking maybe you had to go use the bathroom, but you never left camp without your knife at your hip, whether it was for two minutes or two hours. And it wasn’t like you to leave a book on the ground. You treated the damn things like they were some sacred tomes. He felt panic start to grow in his chest and left the tent in a hurry, his blue eyes scanning the area where everyone else was set up and the tree line. He didn’t see you anywhere.

Daryl grabbed his crossbow and took off running toward the main camp. He found Lori and Carol preparing some food for dinner and stopped beside them. “Hey—have ya’ll seen Y/N anywhere? She come through here at all?” He directed the question at Lori since Carol had been busy with him getting the tent set up.

She stood up and dusted her hands off on her jeans, shaking her head. Her eyes went a little wide with worry as she registered the deep concern on Daryl’s face. “No, I—I haven’t seen her. You can’t find her?”

Daryl didn’t even stay to answer. He just tore off in the direction of the farmhouse and bounded up onto the front porch. Glenn and Maggie both stood up at the expression on his face. “Ya’ll see Y/N? Did she come up here?”

Maggie shook her head. “No,” Glenn answered, immediately worried. “What’s going on?”

Daryl swore under his breath and paced a restless circle, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “I—I was gone for maybe an hour helpin’ Carol and now I can’t find her anywhere. She wouldn’ta gone off without her knife or nothin’,” he said. His jaw clenched and Glenn watched the muscle twitch. Daryl’s eyes quickly landed on the tent Shane was confined to and he took off at a full sprint toward it. Glenn was on his heels now.

“Daryl! Daryl, take it easy!” Glenn yelled after him. It drew the attention of the rest of the group and soon Rick and Andrea were standing beside Glenn as Daryl ripped back the entrance to Shane’s tent.

Daryl’s stomach twisted. Shane’s tent was empty. He kicked out at a milk crate that had some of Shane’s things on it and it toppled over. “Shane’s gone and Y/N is missin’!” he roared at Rick.

Rick gulped. A hard pit formed in his stomach. “Daryl—Daryl, just calm down,” Rick said.

That had the opposite effect. “Calm down? Calm down?!” he roared. “This ain’t no coincidence! I told ya he didn’t deserve to stay here to heal up, and now look what’s happened!”

“We’ll find them! We’ll find them. We will. Just—”

“Nah. I’m gonna track that fuckin’ prick and if he’s laid so much as a finger on her, he’s a dead man.” Daryl took off without another word, racing back to the last place he’d seen you, his eyes scanning the ground the whole way, hoping for a track, a trail, something.

“Dale, get the guns,” Rick said. “Lori, you and Carol take Carl up to the house and see if you can wait inside with Hershel and the girls.” Lori nodded and gave Carol’s arm a gentle squeeze. Rick rubbed a hand over the stubble on his face.

Andrea was stunned. “What do we do?”

Rick shut his eyes for a moment and pulled in a breath. “We get our guns and we look. We hope Daryl can pick up a trail and we hope we aren’t too late.”

You had been sitting contentedly by the fire reading when you decided you wanted some tea. You knew there were still some dried spicebush leaves in your pack from your last foraging trip and you went in to get them. You were crouched beside your pack, digging in the pocket when you heard a metallic sound that was easily identifiable. It was the slide of a pistol being drawn back and released, a bullet moving into the chamber. You froze with your hands in your pack and slowly turned. You could see Shane outside the window netting and his gun was aimed right at you.

“Get up. Slowly. Leave all your shit.”

You gulped and did so, replacing your pack against the wall and abandoning your book on the floor.

“Come over here. Zip the tent up and don’t even think about trying anything because I will kill you right here,” Shane growled, and you believed him. “Let’s go. Now.”

Again, you complied. You glanced desperately toward the main camp, hoping with every part of you that Daryl would be headed back or somehow happen to look over and see what was happening, but you knew you didn’t have any options except to comply. Comply and hope for an opening to save yourself.

Shane’s gun was still trained on you as you stepped around the outside of the tent. He was gritting his teeth in anger as you stared back at him. You were determined to remain calm and in control.

He nudged the barrel of his gun in the direction of the tree line. “Move. Let’s go.”

You felt sick, knowing that once you went into those trees the chance that you would ever come back out was low. But what choice did you have? He had a fucking gun on you and you had nothing.

You made your way toward the woods. Shane pressed the muzzle into your back. “Faster. And don’t even think about making a fucking sound. I will shoot you right here. I don’t even care. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about you going all psycho-killer. Wouldn’t have to worry about Lori anymore. Or Carl.”

You bit your tongue to stop a retort.

Soon, you were under the dark canopy of trees, cloaked in shade and moving further in with Shane’s gun at your back. He was nervous, on edge, and understandably so, because you knew if Daryl caught him… he’d be dead in an instant. You decided your best course of action was to try to reason with him. You really did believe that he was just fucked up from being in love with a woman he couldn’t have. This was all misplaced blame and aggression. He really wanted to fuck Rick up, but that loyal part of him, that police partner, wouldn’t let him. Some part of him couldn’t bear to do that to Carl and Lori, even while another part of him was desperate to. You were an easy target, the next best thing to blame for his failed attempts to get back into the place he wanted to be, to regain some control, to prove he knew best and was still The Protector. If he had been able to show everyone that you were really a threat and that he and not Rick had taken care of it, he really thought maybe that would win Lori over. But that had all backfired. Now you were just easy to blame for all his problems.

“Shane, I know this isn’t really what you want,” you said quietly.

“Shut the fuck up. You don’t know a goddamn thing about me,” he growled back, nudging you sharply with the muzzle of his gun again.

“I don’t want you to have to leave either. I know it isn’t fair,” you continued. “You took care of everyone for a while before Rick showed up.”

“I said shut up!” he spat again through clenched teeth. “Ya know what? Sit the fuck down. Right there, against that tree.” He shoved you hard and you stumbled, barely catching yourself with your hands on the large oak before your face would have collided with it.

You obeyed and sat with your back against the tree, gulping at the dryness in your throat, and turning to stare directly at the gun pointed in your face.

Something about how calm you were being, how steady, was completely freaking Shane the fuck out. He wanted you to snap. He wanted to be able to say that he was right about you and you were a danger to everyone in camp, like you were some unpredictable monster. But you just sat there looking up at him, now completely silent, your eyes flickering between the muzzle of his gun and his face. Shane swore under his breath and paced back in forth in front of you. Your eyes followed his movements. You bided your time, trying to come up with something that would defuse this whole situation.

“How is this going to fix anything?” you asked him. “This is only going to make everything worse.”

He didn’t stop pacing and occasionally shooting a look at you that made your blood run cold. You were starting to think that maybe there was no reasoning with him…

“You can just let me go. I’ll just tell everyone I needed to get out of camp for a bit. You can wander back in like nothing happened,” you said.

He pointed the gun at you again and his lip curled. “There’s no going back from this. No going back from everything that’s already happened. And I know there is something wrong with you. I know it. If I’m not going to be here to keep an eye on you, I need to end this now so you can’t hurt anyone. Because I know you will snap eventually. I saw what you did to those men.” Shane got right into your face, poking you in the shoulder with the muzzle of his gun.

“I was defending myself,” you said quietly, feeling guilty and horrified at yourself even as you tried to justify it to Shane.

“So you say,” he growled, his pistol now aimed at your forehead.

“If I was going to snap like you’re saying, wouldn’t now be a good time?” you said quietly. “Obviously you’re a threat to me. But I’ve done everything you’ve asked.”

He scoffed and straightened up again, resuming his pacing. “What—what the hell happened to you, huh? What fucked up thing twisted you to the point where you could do what you did to those men? Do you even remember it? Do you even know how many times you stabbed them?” he pressed. He was trying to agitate you, but it didn’t work.

Your stomach was churning with the foggy memory of being covered in their blood, of seeing their corpses on the ground, but you only stared back at Shane. No way in hell you were divulging what you’d been through to Shane, gunpoint or not.

He ran his tongue over his teeth and you watched as the muscle in his jaw clenched. He charged toward you again. “You know what? I’m done with this,” he growled. He pressed the gun to your forehead, aiming at a downward angle. The metal bit into your skin. You stared up at him briefly, eyes wide but surprisingly calm, and Shane watched in some disbelief as you finally just shut them and seemed to resign yourself to the fact that you were about to die.

That hesitation was all you needed.

You shoved Shane’s arm away and the gun with it and snatched the knife at his hip, ripping it free from its sheath and slashing at him, leaving a good gash on his arm. But a knife wouldn’t be any match for Shane with a gun. He was a firearm instructor and you knew his aim was deadly accurate, so before he could entirely recover from his surprise you ran at him full force and the two of fell to the ground hard. The pistol flew from his hands and landed in the leaf little a few feet away. You began to crawl desperately toward it, trying to put distance between you and Shane as quickly as possible, but you let out a yell as you felt him grab hold of you and pull you back.

The next thing you knew he was over you, trying his hardest to get the knife from your hand. You were slashing at him desperately, catching him on the forearms as you struggled beneath him. You caught him with a particularly strong slash but the next moment he had your hands pinned in his and he wrenched the knife from you. The rush of blood was loud in your ears and now you were on the defensive. You shielded yourself with your arms as best you could and continued to struggle beneath him, but his weight was too much.

Shane suddenly managed to push your arms out of the way and you saw the knife coming toward you as if in slow motion. It was heading straight for the center of your chest. You thrust your left arm out and felt the blade pierce it deeply before ripping clean and lodging in your left shoulder. You let out a scream of pain, but as Shane was now leaning over you, you managed to get your knee up underneath him and thrust it as hard as you could into his groin.

He let out an agonized yell and rolled off you, abandoning the knife that was still lodged deeply in your shoulder. You gritted your teeth and were vaguely aware of tears streaming down your face and the fact that you were trembling. But there was no time to stop. You couldn’t stop if you wanted to live. You clutched at the knife in your shoulder, staring briefly with shock at how deeply it was embedded, but didn’t dare to pull it out. Rolling over and holding yourself up on your lacerated forearms, you fixed your eyes on the gun and made a desperate lunge for it. You felt hands on your legs again, dragging you back.

Back toward the edge of the tree line, Daryl had picked up the trail easily and was frantically tracking. Rick and the others were on his heels, glancing around nervously, straining their eyes in the veiled darkness beneath the canopy and their ears in the closeness of the trees. But it wasn’t long that they had to trail behind the archer because soon a strained yell made it to their ears. Daryl felt his blood run cold.

He paused hardly for a moment before he tore off through the trees in the direction he’d heard your voice echo from. “Y/N!” He wanted you to know he was on his way. He needed you to just hang on. He pushed himself to run through the nausea that had risen when that sound, your pained voice, had met his ears. He tore through the foliage, the sound of pounding boots on the soil loud behind him as the others followed.

“Daryl! Daryl, slow down! We can’t just—” Rick paused as he had to bust through some shrubs. “We can’t just barrel in there!” But it was as if the archer hadn’t heard anything. He just continued running, trying to listen over his own gasping breath and pounding pulse but simultaneously afraid of what he would hear.

Crack.

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot.

Daryl skidded to a stop, frozen. His face blanched, almost ashen as Rick caught up and glanced over at him. Sweat was pouring down from their foreheads and running down their necks, soaking the thin cotton of their shirts. A small strangled noise escaped Daryl’s lips as he searched the ground frantically again for the trail, needing to know he was running in the right direction. He spotted it. Direction confirmed, he took off at an even madder pace than before. “Y/N!” There was no answer.

But he couldn’t allow himself to think the worst. He couldn’t. That couldn’t happen to you. After everything you’d already been through… how could he have let this happen? Why had he turned his back on you for even a minute with that prick still around? He felt shaky and weak even as he ran.

The group had just pushed through another thick swath of understory when Daryl saw a bundle ahead, lying motionless on the ground. His breath caught in his throat and his boots rooted into the soil for a moment. But he pushed himself to move forward again.

Behind him he was vaguely aware of a gasp from Andrea and some murmur from Glenn.

As he moved closer, he realized there was a second shape ahead and as his eyes refocused, he saw that it was you. You were leaned up against a big oak tree, propped up against the rough bark, your head lolled toward your chest. Some pained gasp or muted scream, catching mostly in his throat, left his lips before he tore off toward you again. As he fell to his knees beside you, he took in the soaked crimson of your shirt. Your arms were cut up and absolutely covered in blood. Then Daryl’s eyes landed on the hilt of the knife still embedded in your left shoulder. His hands shook as he hesitated before lifting your chin, terrified that your skin would be cold and lifeless. You were bruised and battered, bleeding from a swollen and split lip and a gash near your hairline, but there was some semblance of warmth still in your skin, though you were pale. More miraculously yet, when he gently lifted your chin, you started to stir and Daryl watched in desperation as you struggled to open your eyes, eventually succeeding.

“Hey, hey. S’alright. I’ve got ya. I’ve got ya…” He could hear his own voice shake as he spoke.

You gulped, wanting to clear the taste of iron from your mouth. “I had to,” you managed to croak out. “I had to.”

Daryl knew you were referring to Shane’s lifeless body behind him on the ground. “S’ok. It don’t matter. Don’t talk now, alright? Just rest. I’ve got ya.”

Daryl felt someone behind him and turned to see Glenn just behind him. His face was pale as he took in your condition. “Her shoulder... Oh my God,” Glenn gasped.

“She’s gonna be fine,” Daryl said forcefully. He carefully slid his arm behind your back and another underneath your knees. You were fighting to stay awake. “Daryl…” you murmured. You felt so small in his arms as he lifted you. Daryl was vaguely aware of your fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, gripping it hard before you fell unconscious again, going limp in his arms. He turned and started heading back to the farm, moving as quickly as he dared with you in his arms, conscious of the knife still wedged cruelly into you. The sight of it protruding from you made him sick with rage. Rick was kneeling beside Shane, his face downturned, as Daryl breezed past. Andrea stood just behind him with a hand pressed over her mouth, watching as Daryl carried your bloodied body past her.

As Daryl’s broad shoulders disappeared, Glenn bent and retrieved the pistol lying on the leaf litter among streaks of your blood. It felt like a lead weight in his palm.

_ _ _ _ _ _

Daryl sat slumped in a chair beside your prone form laid out on the bed, covered over in the blankets. He was leaned over forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped so tightly that his knuckles shone white.

After days of agonizing waiting, there was a soft noise from you and his eyes shot up urgently to see you stirring a little on the pillow. He rocketed to his feet so fast that the chair he’d been in clattered backward loudly to the floor. “Doc!” he yelled out. Hershel rushed in a moment later.

You dragged your eyelids open with a great amount of effort and the first thing you saw were Daryl’s piercing blue eyes looking down at you with immense concern. You moistened your lips with your tongue and cleared your throat, which felt dry and scratchy, preparing to speak. He watched as your expression melted into a veil of confusion. “I’m not… not dead?”

Daryl felt a painful pang in his chest as he watched you spinning with disbelief.

Hershel leaned over you with a kindly and somewhat sad expression on his face. “You most definitely are not. Though you surprised all of us after what you went through,” he said putting a gentle hand on your uninjured shoulder.

Your eyes turned back to Daryl’s. “Shane—” His name seemed to strangle and catch in your throat. “I—”

“I know. Ya had to. S’alright,” Daryl drawled, his brow furrowing low over his eyes.

You mouthed wordlessly for a moment, your eyes brimming with tears. “Is he—did he—?”

Daryl nudged his nose up in a nod, his expression full of concern. “He’s gone.”

You felt that you already knew the answer but it still made your stomach churn. You laid more heavily into the pillow and shut your eyes, a pained expression crossing your face. When your eyes finally fluttered open again they were still a little glassy. Daryl wondered at this display of remorse, of regret you had for a man who had clearly taken you into the woods to kill you.

But what Daryl saw next was you clearly struggling against some flashback. You squeezed your eyes shut and your breathing quickened. Beads of sweat broke out on your hairline and your face tensed.

Daryl’s hand shot out to gently grab yours before he even knew what he was doing. “Hey.” He gave it a gentle squeeze. “Y/N. S’alright. You’re safe,” he drawled.

Your eyes opened and you glanced down at your hand in his. Daryl withdrew, suddenly self-conscious. You nodded and seemed to come back to the present.

You reached across yourself to grip your left shoulder, a wave of pain running through you and a grimace tightening your features. You felt thick gauze beneath your fingers. As you moved you became aware that you had many little rows of stitches on your arms and a few gashes wrapped up in bandages as well. Even your hands were cut up from your attempts to defend yourself. You extended your arm in front of yourself and took in the damage done by Shane’s knife.

“I don’t understand,” you said softly. “I thought for sure I was going to die out there.” The way you said it was so matter-of-fact and Daryl felt a rush of anger overwhelm him for a moment. Shane was lucky he was dead when Daryl had gotten there… He’d gotten off easy with a single round to the chest.

Hershel nodded. “You have a lot of strength in you. Rest. Everything is going to be just fine. You’re going to heal up and be back to normal before you know it, though that shoulder may need a little extra TLC.” The doctor took his leave and your eyes found Daryl’s again. He read worry on your face.

“What is it?” he drawled.

You gulped. “I’ll leave as soon as I’m healed up,” you said, now avoiding his eyes.

Daryl’s brow furrowed more deeply. “Why the hell would ya do that?”

His tone was forceful again and drew your eyes back to his. “The others—after what happened, I can’t imagine they want me around anymore.”

Daryl sighed heavily and righted his chair again, sinking down in it close at your bedside. “For once yer wrong about somethin’,” he said. “Nobody wants ya to leave. Ya didn’t do anything more than defend yourself, just like ya did with those men before. Anyone can glance at ya for one second and see that.”

You shifted in bed, trying to make your injured shoulder more comfortable, laying your other hand over it absently, and you chewed on the inside of your cheek. You still looked unsure.

“Y/N, when we found ya you had a damn knife sticking out of your shoulder.” He paused and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck a little anxiously. “I—” his voice seemed to catch in his throat. “I thought we lost ya.”

You peered at him curiously.

He leaned forward. “Listen to me, if anybody even so much as looks at ya like ya shouldn’t be here, they’ll have to deal with me.”

Daryl watched, a little anxiously, as your lips parted softly. “I’m not sure I deserve that from you,” you finally managed quietly. “You’ve already done enough. Daryl, I suspect you saved my life.” You gulped and stared down toward the edge of the blankets. “In more ways than one…”

The archer averted his eyes down toward his boots and chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, nervous and wavering between his insecurity and need to reassure you, not allowing himself to really think on what you’d just said. “Hey. Yer a part of this group, even if ya ain’t always felt like it.”

You studied him for a long moment before you spoke again. “So are you,” you said perceptively. His blue eyes shot up to meet yours and you gave him a weak smile. “Can you do me a favor?”

He nudged his nose up in a nod. “’Course.”

“Can—can you help me take a walk outside? I need some air,” you said quietly.

“Are ya sure yer up for that? Ya had surgery on that shoulder. Ya lost a lot of blood. Ya just woke up after bein’ out of it for three days. I don’t think it’s—” Concern creased his forehead.

You nodded. “I’m sure. You won’t let anything bad happen to me. I’ve at least learned that by now.” You felt a bloom of warmth in your chest as you spoke those words, coupled with the realization of their truth almost at the same time as they left your lips. That burst of heat you felt was reflected in a pink hue in the archer’s face and the tips of his ears.

He looked a little bashful but nodded and acquiesced to your request. “Alright. C’mon,” he said, gently taking your hand, avoiding the injuries carefully, and doing his best to ignore how nervous he felt when his fingers closed around it. He helped you out of bed and steadied you as you got to your feet. You glanced up at him, and your expression was so open and earnest he was frankly shocked by it. Could it really be that you were looking that way at him? His fingers were light under your elbow and his other hand was ghosting behind your back, centimeters away from making contact if needed as you started toward the door. “Ya alright?”

You nodded and gulped at the rush of feelings his hand around yours had brought, trying your hardest to ignore it. All you could do was nod. The two of you emerged onto the porch and Glenn and Maggie stood up immediately from their place nearby in the seating area. Both of them were all smiles to see you on your feet.

“You’re up,” Glenn said, looking at you with a bewildered smile. “This is amazing. It’s so good to see you awake!” His expression was nothing but kindness.

“How are you feelin’?” Maggie asked.

You nodded, glancing back over at Daryl and relaxing some as you saw one corner of his mouth was twitched up. His blue eyes were fixed on your face and he couldn’t look away. Seeing you actually awake and already on your feet was a huge relief after many days of sickening worry. “I feel alright. A little tired,” you admitted. Almost as if one cue you wavered a little on your feet, your knees feeling suddenly weak.

Daryl’s hand landed flush against the small of your back, immediately steadying you. “Easy,” he rumbled. “Ya alright?” You nodded, quite sure your cheeks were pink, and when you glanced back at him and mumbled a small “thanks” you thought maybe his cheeks were pink too. You turned back to Glenn and Maggie and your eyes drifted to all the numerous stitches on your arms. “I’m definitely a little worse for wear. But could have been worse…” you trailed off.

“Definitely,” Glenn said, giving you a sympathetic look. “We’re all just so glad you’re okay.”

Just at that moment you heard boots on the stairs and you looked up to see Rick, thumbs slung into his pockets as usual. Your heart rate increased with anxiety and you gulped at the sudden tightness in your throat. You’d killed his best friend. You’d pulled the trigger and killed Shane. “I’m sorry,” you said to the Sheriff.

But Rick was smiling at you with tears in his eyes, shaking his head slightly. “This is my fault,” he said suddenly, a rasp in his voice from emotion and your eyes widened in surprise. “This is my fault and I am so sorry. Daryl told me—and I should have listened. Shane was way more of a threat than I was willing to admit. This should have never happened to you,” he drawled. “And I hope you can forgive me at some point.”

You stared at him for a long moment, blinking in the sun and breathing in the freshness of the outside air. “It’s already forgiven,” you said softly, nodding at him.

Daryl stared at you in awe of how, despite everything you’d been through, you still could extend that forgiveness so easily.

Daryl sensed some shift in you and his brow drew down low over his eyes. “Let’s get ya back to bed. C’mon.”

You allowed him to help you back through the farmhouse and even into bed as you struggled not to put any weight on your left shoulder, wincing as you moved. Daryl watched you settled in and stood a bit awkwardly at your bedside. He nervously ran a hand back through his hair. “Well, I’ll let ya get some sleep,” he drawled, turning to leave.

“Daryl.”

He turned back to glance at you and your expression was a bit hesitant. “Hmm?”

“Would you stay? …please?”

He didn’t need to hear anything else. He planted himself right back down in the chair at the side of the bed and watched as some of the tension on your face eased.

“Thanks,” you said quietly with a sigh. Daryl watched as you closed your eyes and shifted, trying to make your shoulder more comfortable, but a moment later your eyes fluttered open again and met his. “He put the gun to my forehead,” you suddenly said quietly.

Daryl’s stomach plummeted and then swirled with anger. He stared back at you, incredulous with rage easily readable on his face.

“I made my peace with the fact that he was going to pull the trigger.” Your voice was somewhat disconnected, distant. “But then… he hesitated. And I took the chance and I fought.”

Daryl gulped. “Ya made it. Yer alright.”

You nodded and looked at him for a long moment, seemingly on the edge of saying something else, but you finally just sighed and your eyelids, now heavy with exhaustion, closed again. Soon, you were asleep. And Daryl stayed at your bedside and drifted off himself. _ _ _ _ _ _

Some time later You tossed down the game stringer, loaded with squirrels, in front of Daryl. “Ten,” you said, a wide grin spreading across your face. “What’d ya get?”

He looked up at you and affected an unamused expression. “Nine,” he drawled, pointing to his harvest waiting to be cleaned.

“Ha! I win again,” you said, absolutely brimming with joy. “I thought you said you were good at hunting?” you teased him.

He rolled his eyes at you and looked over as you sank down beside him. “Ya beat me by one. Ain’t exactly a landslide, is it?”

“A win is a win,” you announced with satisfaction.

He rolled his eyes again, but his expression quickly turned to concern as he caught you rubbing your shoulder. “Sore?” he asked you, his brow drawing down. “Maybe ya shouldn’t be hunting with that bow again yet.”

Your face softened as you caught his blue eyes. “I’m fine. It’s just a little tired, that’s all. Hershel says I need to build my strength up again.” Daryl’s eyes caught on the scar where the knife had been lodged into your shoulder. It was matched by many smaller ones on your arms, all with the same pink hue due to their newness. He could also see the brand on your arm, 1048, the remnant from your time under The Copperheads. Before, you would wear long sleeves in the height of the Georgian summer just to avoid anyone seeing that mark. Now there were a lot more scars added to it, but you didn’t seem to care. It was like you finally had a weight lifted off your shoulders and you felt free for the first time in a long time, unencumbered by your past.

“We should get ya a crossbow, like mine. Then ya wouldn’t have to hold the draw with that shoulder.”

“I like my old-fashioned recurve bow,” you said, pulling it over onto your lap and looking down at it fondly. “Especially because I can still beat you with it,” you smiled at him.

Daryl seemed suddenly fidgety and you picked up on it immediately. His eyes turned down and his expression was suddenly serious.

“What? What is it?”

He shrugged, still seemingly avoiding your eyes. “Can I ask ya somethin’?”

“Mhm,” you hummed. “Always.”

He flicked his thumb along the sharp edge of his knife. “How—with everything that ya’ve been through, how come ya ain’t just angry? I’m angry just thinkin’ about it. And it didn’t even happen to me.”

“Mmm,” hummed thoughtfully. Your eyes turned out across the verdant pasture, toward the trees you’d spent the day under. “I am angry sometimes. But,” you shrugged, your right hand shielding over the scar on your left shoulder absently, “being angry doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t fix it. It all still happened.”

Your eyes grew a bit far-off, a bit distant. Daryl took several forced, deep inhales and gathered his courage before reaching over and taking your hand in his, pulling it away from your shoulder.

You looked over at him in surprise. Your hand felt small between his. Your gaze was questioning. Daryl’s heart was pounding so hard in his ears he couldn’t hear anything else. He gulped, trying to clear his throat so he could talk. “‘M gonna make sure nothin’ else bad happens to ya. As best I can,” he murmured.

You nodded almost imperceptibly, your eyes still a little wide from the unexpected action of him taking your hand in his. “Only if I can do the same thing for you.”

You saw him gulp nervously before he nudged his nose up in a nod at you. “Yeh, I think—I think that’d be alright,” he said.

You gave him a half-smile that he found incredibly endearing and his nerves finally got the better of him and he released your hand, clearing his throat and awkwardly rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I’m, uhh, just gonna go grab some more firewood,” he drawled, standing up abruptly and internally cursing at himself as he left you sitting alone by the fire. Fuckin’ coward. Despite all his attempts at denial, Daryl had realized over the last couple weeks that he couldn’t ignore how he felt about you anymore, but now he was stranded in this place between where he was and where he wanted to be with no idea how to bridge the gap. He wandered back with an armload of firewood, internally frustrated and kicking himself, but his frustration vanished almost immediately when he had dumped it next to the fire circle and glanced at you again. You were looking at him with that open expression, this time with a little inquisitive lift in one of your eyebrows.

“Hmm?” he hummed, pulling his bottom lip back in between his teeth and worrying it anxiously.

You tilted your head toward the place he’d previously been sitting and he gulped as he sat down, still feeling your eyes steady on him. He thought that now you looked a little nervous. “Can I ask you something?” you said quietly.

The archer nodded, nervous flutters flitting to life in his stomach.

“Umm… is it just me, or have you slept like shit, too, since I moved out of your tent?”

Once you were no longer staying in the house healing up, Daryl had moved your things out of his tent for you since there was no longer any need to worry about Shane. It wasn’t that you had asked him to, or that he’d even wanted to, it just seemed like he should…Afterwards, you’d actually moved your whole campsite closer to his, directly next to it, but you still found yourself tossing and turning on your cot, unable to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Daryl stared back at you for a moment in disbelief. He’d slept like garbage since you’d moved back, and he hadn’t even had the heart to fill the cleared space you’d once occupied with the stuff he previously had kept there. Now the emptiness loomed, drawing his eyes, the physical manifestation of how he felt something was just missing. When you slept on your cot across from him, he’d wake up in the middle of the night and look over at the shadow of your sleeping form. He always felt some swell of relief and maybe something else he couldn’t quite identify… Something about listening to your calm breathing always relaxed him and he found himself able to shut his eyes and drift off again. Maybe he’d gotten used to it. Maybe he shouldn’t have. But since you’d left, he’d been restless and anxious at night, wishing the material of his tent and yours would vanish so he could check on you.

Your nerves were growing with each moment of silence as you anxiously watched him, waiting for him to say something. “No, I—“ he had to clear his throat, nerves making his voice come out strangely strangled, “I’ve—” he let out a scoff of a laugh, almost incredulous he was about to say it to you, “I’ve slept like shit since ya left.”

“…really?”

He nodded, finally meeting your eyes again. “Mhm. Can’t fall asleep, can’t stay asleep, just feels like I lay there all the time w—”

You grabbed him by his lapel and pulled him toward you, pressing your lips softly to his, your eyes shut tightly, overwhelmed with nerves even while you melted into him. Your fingers cupped his face gently, like he was something fragile and Daryl was reeling.

By the time he reached back for you and got over his surprise you were already withdrawing and he blinked, bewildered, as he took in the wide-eyed expression on your face and your partially parted lips.

“Uhh—was that—okay?” you breathed, anxiety ratcheting up with each passing moment of uncertainty.

“Ya,” he drawled. It spilled from him like warm molasses. He watched as your face broke into a relieved smile and your cheeks burned pink.

“Good,” you murmured, unable to look at him any longer.

“Only I—I wasn’t ready,” he murmured. Your eyes flickered up to his again. He gulped nervously and reached out to move a strand of hair out of your eyes before clasping your face. His blue eyes were flickering between yours and then down to your lips. You could tell he was nervous and it brought a small smile to your face. Your eyes fluttered closed and you leaned toward him, only having to wait a second before you felt his lips crashing against yours.

This time the kiss was heated and urgent and he pulled you into him gently with his hand at the nape of your neck. You happily leaned in, smiling against his lips, your hand pressing flush to his strong chest and the other landing lightly on his side, driving him crazy. Daryl’s hand smoothed over your shoulder and down your bare arm, electricity rising in its wake.

When you broke apart this time, you were both all stunned smiles again, though now you couldn’t look away from each other.

“So, uhh—ya wanna stay with me tonight? Sounds like we both need some real sleep, ya know, and I dunno…” Daryl wasn’t used to asking for what he wanted so blatantly, or making himself vulnerable, but somehow you brought it out of him and he was willing to jump off that ledge if it meant he got to kiss you and touch you and hold you all night… things he had thought about plenty when he was lying on his cot, unable to sleep, but never saw as a reality.

You nodded, that same smile you always gave him glowing on your face. He was constantly amazed by the light you exuded; despite everything you’d been through… everything you’d shared with him.

He needed that. He needed the light. He needed you. You gave him hope.

That night you settled in against him, nervous but melting into the safeness of his arms around you. Daryl worried he was too overwhelmed to sleep, but moment by moment he realized how natural having you against him felt, how safe, how perfect, and before either of you spoke another word you both drifted off in blissful silence.

#daryl dixon fanfiction #daryl dixon twd #the walking dead #twd fanfics #daryl dixon drabbles #daryl imagines #daryl dixon x reader #fanfics #writers of tumblr #twd drabbles

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scapegrace74-blog · 3 years

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New Ways of Turning Into Stone, Chapter 7

A/N For anyone waiting patiently for this chapter, I apologize. Somewhere in the midst of writing this story, I fell out of love with it, making it very hard to find the inspiration to finish. I’m too stubborn to abandon it, though, so here is the final chapter. The good news is the angst fest is over, for the most part. Slight reference to child trafficking in the past. Thanks to everyone who read and interacted with this story! This final chapter is entitled A Dragonfly in Amber.

The whole story can be found on my A03 page.

Eighteen Months Later

The breeze off the firth was picking up, and Claire wished she’d grabbed a jumper before leaving her flat. She spent a lot of time these days looking back at the million decisions that made up a life, aware of their path as though they were footprints visible to the eye. Where once missteps would have inspired judgement or shame, she could now chart their passage with a certain measure of peace.

A rare free Thursday brought her to a seasonal market in what was otherwise a car park overlooking Edinburgh Castle. With no specific objective in mind, she wandered the stalls of fresh produce and locally made crafts, meandering but purposeful. A jar of raw honey and a half-dozen blueberry scones made their way into her tote bag before she stopped at a store selling beautifully woven woolen goods, thinking that she could perhaps invest in a shawl.

Lifting the various offerings from where they were displayed, something caught her eye. Beneath the many-patterned pile of wool stood a beautiful wooden chest, its heft and patina speaking of its craftsmanship. It had been painted in a rusted umber, the shape of a dragonfly elegantly carved into its solid lid.

“Tis lovely, is it no’?” a soft lilt startled her from her trance.

“Yes, very. Is it for sale?” She had no idea why she’d asked. Her flat was crowded enough as it was and frivolous purchases no longer within her budget.

“Alas, no. Twas an anniversary gift from my man.” Perhaps seeing the disappointment register on her face, the woman added, “I can give ye the card o’ the man who made it, at least. Ye’re no’ the first tae have admired his work.”

Claire’s hands shook slightly as the shopkeeper sought out the card, an eerie sense of premonition settling over her. Sure enough, the familiar names leapt into relief as she accepted the woman’s offering:

Lallybroch Furniture Design

James Fraser, Proprietor

***

The afternoon and evening passed in a blur of obligations and routine. It was only as she settled into the peace of her own bedroom that Claire allowed her thoughts to return to the business card tucked safely into her wallet.

She’d known Jamie was still in the city. While she’d resisted the urge to seek him out a thousand times, she couldn’t stop herself from searching his name on the Internet. A harmless indulgence, she rationalized, and one that assured her that he was well, his business going from strength to strength. Despite the capitol’s tight-knit community, however, their paths had never crossed. Until now.

Was it a sign? Long Ago Claire paid no heed to such foolishness, but that was before a chance encounter spun her life one hundred and eighty degrees, sending her down a brand new path. Now she accepted these memos from the universe with humility. Tomorrow, she would go looking for Jamie Fraser.

***

Jamie heard the jingle of the bells above the door, even over the mechanical whirr of his sander. Unbending and blowing a sweaty curl off his forehead, he admired the intricate scrollwork of the custom hutch that was his latest commission. It still amazed him to watch his visions take shape before his eyes. If life hadn’t slapped him hard across the face, knocking him far off course, he might have spent the rest of his days unaware of the gift that resided between his hands.

“Took ye long enough, Geordie,” he called out to the footsteps approaching from the door. “Where’d ye go fer the varnish, Glasgow?”

There was a pause, and an eerie sense of premonition settled over him. Today was going to be the day.

“It’s not Geordie, it’s me. Claire.” He’d thought of her voice each day for the past eighteen months, and yet he hadn’t been able to summon its exact timbre: sonorous, precise, with a smoky finish like well-aged whisky.

“Claire,” he replied to the universe, summoning her by name before he even turned around.

Sawdust motes danced in a sunbeam descending from a clerestory window, illuminating the mahogany in her curls. She was everything he remembered, and so much more. The nacre of her skin, now dusted with cinnamon freckles. The topaz of her eyes less fierce, more open, and overwhelmingly anxious. The tight line of her jaw was less defined, her once whippet-thin figure filled out into plush curves. Overall the impression was one of softness, of willing vulnerability.

“The door was open,” she explained needlessly, her eyes drinking him in hungrily. He wondered what changes she read on his surface.

“It’s... uhhh...” his voice wobbled painfully, “it’s good tae see ye, Sassenach. How have ye been?”

He hadn’t trusted himself to seek her out since Maggie’s death, understanding that they both needed time to heal. It didn’t stop him from zeroing in on every glimpse of brown curls, nor from reading wedding announcements with an invisible fist gripping his throat. If it was meant to be, he counselled himself, they would find one another when the time was right. And now she was here, standing in his workshop and more lovely than his zealous imaginings.

“Good,” she replied, eyes meeting and then sheering away from his gaze. “Really good. Busy.” She was gripping the strap of her handbag like a parachute cord, and he couldn’t help glancing at her left hand, selfishly relieved to note it was still bare.

“I, ummm, I saw one of your pieces. At the market yesterday. Not for sale, of course. The woman offered me your card, so I thought, you know, that I might... You’re really very talented, Jamie,” she prattled nervously.

He blushed, delighted by her praise. “I thank ye, Claire.” To taste her name in his mouth, so long forbidden, was intoxicating. He would never tire of saying it.

“And yer work? Tis Friday. Are ye taking a well-deserved day off?”

“Oh, no. I’m not practicing anymore, Jamie.”

He froze, horrified. Of all the scenarios he’d played out in his mind, he’d never imagined her anything but a doctor. It was too much a part of who she was. A familiar sense of oppressive responsibility crept over him. If he’d somehow caused this to happen...

“Sassenach, no...” he whispered.

To his utter confusion, she laughed, merry and bright as the bells that had announced her return to his life.

“It’s alright, truly. I, well, a lot has changed since last year,” she explained, a glimmer of something coy transforming her face. His wame sunk into his feet.

“Ye’ve met someone.” A statement of fact. Punishment for wishing for something that wasn’t meant to be.

Her spritely laugh rang out again, increasing his pain. He felt the old, habitual hardening around his heart, and fought to keep his breath steady. No matter how much it hurt, he owed it to Claire to listen to her joy.

“In a manner of speaking. His name is Fergus, and he’s eight years old.”

Startled, he stared into her upturned face, trying to read the truth in her features. A hand, delicate but strong, took his own. He held onto it like a lifeline as she told her unlikely tale.

Shortly after their last meeting, Claire had been walking through Grassmarket when she’d been jostled by a running figure. It was only upon righting herself that she realized she was without her phone. Giving chase, she eventually cornered the thief down a blind alley, only to realize that it was a young boy, unkempt and malnourished.

Rather than turn the pickpocket in, Claire had negotiated an exchange: her phone for a four-course meal and the story of how a boy of his age, with a heavy French accent no less, had come to live on the streets of Edinburgh.

“He was trafficked, Jamie. A group in Paris were keeping him and other orphans in a brothel. When they came to transport them, Fergus escaped. He hid in a lorry, and this is where it brought him. He had no coat, no money, hardly any English, but he’d been surviving on his wits for six weeks before I found him. I can’t bear to think what might have happened to him had we not crossed paths that winter’s day.”

“Christ,” he swore, thinking of his own nephew, and what he wouldn’t give to protect the lad’s innocence.

Claire went on to describe the painstaking process of reporting Fergus, whose real name was Claudel, to the authorities without allowing him to be deported back to France and into the waiting hands of the very people he had escaped.

“There was no formal steps to follow, no real resources I could rely on. I ended up filing for adoption, because it was the only way to keep him safe. In the beginning, he needed all my attention. He had no formal schooling and had to learn English in a hurry. He suffered from terrible nightmares. I transferred all my patients, shut down the office, but I assumed it was only temporary, until he felt more secure and could go to school with other kids his age. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Fergus isn’t the only trafficked child in Scotland. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do whatever I could to protect every one of them. So I quit. I’d made some contacts at ECPAT in London, trying to sort out the mess with Fergus’ immigration paperwork. I called them up and offered my services on a part-time basis. A former pediatrician with experience in grief counselling. They couldn’t accept fast enough. So now, when I’m not busy being Fergus’ mom, I’m the executive director of ECPAT here in Scotland.”

“Christ,” he repeated. “Sassenach, I’m... God, ye’re an amazing woman.”

It was her turn to blush, glancing down to notice that their hands were still clasped, fingers woven together like thirsty roots. They were standing toe to toe, breathing in harmony. Jamie smelled of pine, a sharp sweetness that seemed to cling to his body. She dared a look upwards and found his gaze locked on her mouth. Oceans stormed in the depths of his eyes.

“You’ve got a little...” she reached for his jaw, “...a little something, right here...” Before she could dislodge the fleck of sawdust trapped in his auburn stubble, Jamie’s whole body surged forward, their noses practically bumping.

“Sassenach...” he beseeched.

“Yes?” Wispy, fluttering wings of hope surrounded her.

“I’ve bided as long as I can. May I please, for the love of all tha’s holy, finally kiss ye?”

A tiny nod, a murmured assent, then their lips took up the conversation that had begun so many months before. There, in a dusty workshop at eleven o’clock on a Friday morning, the last obstacle that stood between them came crashing to the ground. In its place came warmth and certainty, a candleflame of cherished possibility.

#my writing #outlander

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thebookreader12345 · 3 years

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New Doc in Town

Pairing: Jay Halstead x reader

Summary: Y/N is the newest doctor in the ED, and when Jay meets her for the first time, he feels something he hasn’t felt since Erin left

Requested: Yes, by anonymous

Warnings: slight swearing, mention of a minor injury

Word Count: 1,561 Words

Note: Y/FC means your favorite color

I had only been at Chicago Med for a few weeks now. I used to work over at Lakeside Memorial, but transferred due to Med’s lack of ED docs. I was hesitant about it at first, but I’ve come to like my new workplace. Everyone was super welcoming, and after my first week, it already felt like home. I was currently standing at the nurses’ station looking down at my tablet, and that’s when a cute guy I had never seen before walked into the ED and glanced around.

“Uh, Maggie, could you let Natalie know that our patient’s scans are up?” I question.

“Sure thing, Y/N,” Maggie responded as I put my tablet away.

“Great. Thank you,” I tell her before walking over to the man, who seemed to be clutching his side. “Um, excuse me? Can I help you with something?”

“Yeah. Is Will here?” the man asked.

“You mean Dr. Halstead? He’s working today, but he’s currently on his lunch break,” I reply. “Did you need me to get him for you?”

“No,” the man spoke a little too quickly. “I’m trying to avoid him, actually. He’s my brother. I’m Jay.”

“Right. Will has mentioned you a few times. I’m Y/N,” I greet.

“Are you new here? I’ve never seen you around before,” Jay stated.

“Uh, I just started a few weeks ago. Hey, are you okay? You look like you’re in pain,” I point out.

“I hurt my ribs at work, and my boss won’t let me come back until I get checked out by a doctor. I didn’t want Will to worry, so I was hoping to stop by while he was busy,” Jay explained.

“Well, Dr. Manning and Dr. Choi are with patients at the moment, and Will is at lunch, so I guess you’re stuck with me. Come on,” I say and lead him to one of the empty trauma rooms. Before I could even ask, Jay pulled his shirt over his head and sat down on the bed. “So you’ve done this before then?”

Jay laughed. “Many, many times. If Med had a frequent flyer list, I’d be on it. I guess it’s what I get for being a cop.” A small smile played at my lips as I put on some hand sanitizer, and when I turned around, I caught sight of Jay’s abs, and let me just say that they were amazing. I tried not to stare for too long, and thankfully, Jay didn’t notice because he was too busy looking around the room.

“Did you get hit by a bus or something?” I ask jokingly as I examined the fairly large bruise on his side.

“Not exactly. I tackled a guy to the ground and hit my side pretty hard on some concrete,” Jay answered.

“Well, at least you caught the guy. Does this hurt?” I question and press gently against his side, earning a wince from Jay. “Okay. How about this?” I pressed a different spot and earned the exact same response, meaning I was on to something.

“That one hurt way worse,” Jay breathed out.

“I can tell. Do you mind?” I ask and pull my stethoscope from my coat pocket.

“Not at all,” Jay replied. I pressed the end of the stethoscope to Jay’s lungs and listened as he breathed in an out. I didn’t hear anything unusual, which meant I had my diagnosis.

“I’m not hearing any air escaping from your lungs, which means you didn’t puncture a lung, and I didn’t feel any breaks. You’ve just got a couple of bruised ribs. If they are fractured, they’ll heal over time, but it’s nothing too serious,” I inform him. “Did you want me to prescribe some pain medication?”

“I’m good, but thank you. Hey, if you don’t mind, could we keep this between us? I don’t want Will freaking out over nothing,” Jay spoke.

I smiled. “I won’t tell a soul. It was nice meeting you, Jay.”

“Yeah. It was nice meeting you too, Y/N. Maybe I’ll see you around sometime,” Jay said and put his shirt back on.

“Maybe you will,” I counter.

A Few Weeks Later...

My relationship with Jay had only grown since we had met in the ED. I went out to Molly’s with him and Will a lot these days, and I had also been to his apartment to watch hockey games sometimes. I felt some sort of connection with Jay, and I really hoped he felt the same way, which is why I hadn’t made a move yet. Will told me Jay had recently gotten out of a long relationship with a woman named Erin, so I didn’t want to push him, especially if he didn’t like me the way I liked him.

“Oh come on! You’re not giving him a penalty for that? That’s bullshit!” Jay shouted at the TV, where a hockey game was playing. Will, Jay, and I were all hanging out at Jay’s apartment watching the hockey game and eating pizza, and lets just say the Blackhawks were losing.

“It’s getting late. I should get going so I can get some sleep before my shift tomorrow. You staying?” Will asked me.

“I don’t have a shift tomorrow, and the game is still on. Of course I’m staying. Besides, if I don’t stay, I fear that Jay will end up throwing the remote at the TV and busting it so...” I trail off.

“All right. Bye Jay,” Will spoke and gave his brother a pat on the shoulder. “Bye Y/N.”

“Bye, Will,” Jay said and waved to his brother who then left the apartment. “Hey, you want a beer?”

“Sure,” I reply. Jay got off of the couch and walked into the kitchen, coming back seconds later with two beer bottles, one of which he handed to me. “Thanks. So, how’s work been?”

“Oh, you know, catching bad guys, getting bad dope off the street. The usual,” Jay answered. “How about you?”

“It’s been okay I guess. If you’re wondering if I’ve had any patients handsomer than you though, the answer is no,” I state.

Jay laughed and took a sip of beer. “That was actually going to be my next question.”

“Which is why I answered it without you even asking. I know you so well,” I joke.

“Now that I think about it, we know less about each other than we believe. Lets play 20 questions,” Jay suggested.

“Okay,” I agree and turn my body so that I faced him. “You go first.”

“All right. What’s you favorite color?” Jay asked.

“Y/FC,” I commented. “Favorite food?”

“Easy. Steak,” Jay responded. “How many parties did you go to when you were in college and med school?”

I laughed and took a sip of beer. “Too many. Why’d you become a cop?”

Jay hesitated. “I uh, I guess it was because I still wanted to feel like I was helping out the country, you know? Serving in the Rangers was amazing and all, but I didn’t want that to be what defined my life. So, I signed up for the police academy so that I could do a little good for this city. It’s a boring answer, I know.”

“I don’t think it’s boring. It’s actually pretty cool. My answer to why I became a doctor is the boring one. Someone in my family got sick, and there was nothing I could do to help them, so I figured I’d become a doctor so that I could help other people get better,” I tell Jay. “Now, I think it’s your turn to ask a question.”

“Right. Oh. Here’s a good one. Have you ever had a crush on a co-worker?” Jay questioned.

“No, but I have had a crush on a co-worker’s brother. I still do,” I reply. Right after I said that, I could feel my cheeks heat up, because I realized I was talking about Jay, and he was right in front of me. “What about you?”

“I have, obviously, because of Erin and all, but at the moment I don’t. I do, however, have a crush on one of my brother’s co-workers,” Jay disclosed.

“Anyone I know?” I ask. The chances that Jay liked me were slim, but I was really hoping that was the case here.

“I think so, yeah. She was the doctor that helped me out when I injured my ribs, and that was when we first met,” Jay informed me.

I smiled when I registered that Jay was talking about me. “How surprised would you be if I told you that you’re the co-worker’s brother that I have a crush on?”

“Not surprised at all,” Jay murmured and leaned forward, connecting our lips. I was shocked at first, because I didn’t think Jay would kiss me, but after a few seconds, I kissed back, relishing the feeling of Jay’s lips on mine. The kiss wasn’t super long, and when we pulled away from each other, I was wanting more.

“Wow,” I breathe out. “I was not expecting that, but I’m glad it happened.”

“Me too,” Jay grinned. “Hey, how would you like to go out for a date next weekend?”

“Sounds perfect. But right now, I’d really like it if you kissed me again,” I say.

“I won’t argue with that,” Jay spoke before leaning in and kissing me again.

______________________

Tag List:

@prettypyschoinpink @securityfriendly-jay @scarletsoldierrr @lorenakaspersen @virtualreader @carnationworld @caitsymichelle13 @dreamingmanip @campingmonkey @winterberryfox @nevertoofarfromivar @anotherfan07 @giagma @mrspeacem1nusone @i-like-sparkly-things

#one chicago #chicago pd #chicago pd imagine #chicago pd x reader #chicago pd imagines #jay halstead #jay halstead x reader #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead imagines #intelligence unit #district 21 #chicago med #will halstead #halstead brothers

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fanficimagery · 3 years

Text

a field of daisies

Imagine running into a group of survivors that you decide to take a chance on and bring them home with you. Your decision ends up leading to a reunion no one saw coming, not even yourself.

Words: 7.1K Author's Note: TWD AU. This particular universe has a lot of characters and making sure everyone has a line or three is tough work, so I made up my mind to only keep a select few. This will take place after the prison has fallen, but before Terminus so the group is not as harsh because of what happened there. I get why everyone turned ruthless, but damn.. Rick got scary. Haha. Also, just so you know, Y/N is a powered individual (the gif of Wanda is just to show how your powers look/work). SPOILER ALERT! This piece of work is.. slow. There's nothing much to it- it's honestly just Y/N bringing the group into the fold. I've been having a rough few weeks and it really shows in my writing. I'm sorry this sucks, but I really needed to get something out.

It was pure dumb luck that Rick, Daryl, Michonne, Carl, Judith, Glenn, Maggie and Carol ended up together after the fall of the prison. Rick and Carl had fled together, Michonne followed the blood trail Rick had unknowingly left behind, and Daryl had later caught up to them because he was with a new group that was hunting Rick which he didn't know about until it was too late. Daryl, Rick and Michonne took care of things quickly, and it was a relief to Rick that Daryl still had his back.

Glenn and Maggie came a couple days later with Judith snuggled into a makeshift pack hanging off of Glenn's back, and the group stumbled upon Carol who kept them from entering the so-called sanctuary called Terminus. Apparently she had been keeping an eye on the place from afar, and after the horrors she witnessed Rick and the others were glad they just so happened to choose the entrance she was near so that she was able to stop them.

Hershel's death still weighed heavily on everyone's mind and Maggie was sad that she didn't know what had become of her sister Beth. Lots of people's fates were unknown, but the ones that left everyone the most downtrodden were those of the children that the prison had housed.

The group has taken momentary refuge in a barn, their spirits low and dwindling even more as the days pass. Food and water were scarce, and ammunition was pretty much nonexistent. Daryl had a handful of arrows left and everyone was left to depend on blades to protect themselves.

Judith's sudden cry pierces the quiet of the barn and everyone flinches. Rick readily gets to his feet, rushing towards his daughter and lifting her from the bed of hay they designated as her bed. "Shh. I got 'ya. I got 'ya, sweetheart."

Carl joins his father, frowning at his sister's reddening face. "She's hungry, isn't she?"

"We all are," Rick grumbles.

"There's got to be something out there," the young boy sighs. "A place we haven't come across or a house that's not been picked clean."

"Everyone's tired, Carl. We're all running on fumes." Rick continues to rock his baby girl, heart breaking when her wails only get louder and more desperate. "If we go searchin', we're likely to make a mistake and someone will lose their life."

"Well we can't let her starve."

Rick glances around his exhausted group, a look of determination in each of their features. He sighs and glances down at Judith in his arms. "Tomorrow. We'll go lookin' when the sun is up."

Carl nods and brushes his finger along Judith's brow before leaving his father to settle the baby down on his own.

- - - - - - - - - -

You'd been gone for a day and half now, intent on finding some things those in your community have asked for. Unfortunately everything close by had been picked clean which led you to driving further and further out, and right into an oncoming storm.

You tried to drive right on through it, but the rain just came down so hard to the point that you could not see through the windshield. And since it was nighttime, you knew there was a high chance you could wreck. So you pull off to the side, cut the engine and lean back in your seat to wait it out.

Thunder rumbles so loud it actually shakes the truck you're in and lightning strikes a tree not even a hundred yards away. "Oh screw this," you mumble to yourself. You turn the truck back on, carefully inching your way down the road and hope that you don't hit anything. But then lightning strikes again, you swerve on instinct, but are quick to slam on the breaks. "Shit."

There's a split second of reprieve from the rain- just long enough for you to see a building off in the distance. You know it's a dumb idea to even check it out, but you rather be in a barn struck by lightning than be in the truck. So after cutting the engine once more, you reach over to the passenger seat for your pack and beanie. Shoving the gray beanie down atop your head, you brace yourself before opening the door and hopping out.

Slamming the door behind you, you rush through the rain and towards the barn doors. Pushing on said doors, they open far too easily and you rush to close them behind you. Then with your back against the doors, you hold your hands aloft at your sides should you need to protect yourself from a dead skull or three. But surprisingly there are no dead in the barn, instead a group of the living around a small fire stare at you with wide eyes.

Immediately the people are on their feet with their weapons trained on you, a baby is passed off to a preteen, and the group of adults slowly advance on you.

"Whoa," you utter. "I did not know this place was occupied. I don't mean any harm. M'just tryin' to get out of the storm."

"Are you alone?" The man that had passed off the baby asks, a long barreled gun pointed at you.

His companions spread out- a guy with a crossbow hurrying to the wall to peek through the cracks. There's a Korean guy and a woman with hair just barely touching her shoulders standing side by side, blades in hand, and a black woman with a wicked looking katana held at the ready. The last woman with shortly cropped gray hair points a glock right at you without even blinking.

"Um, yeah."

"You don't sound so sure," he grunts.

"Well you're all pointing weapons at me," you say. "It's a little intimidating."

Crossbow guy returns to his friend's side, shaking his head and muttering something too low for your ears to catch. The main guy talking nods meeting your gaze once more. "Weapons?"

"None."

"Mind if we check?"

You shrug. "Have at it."

Spreading your arms out wider, you push off the barn doors and stand with your feet a little spread out as well. The woman standing next to the Korean guy steps forward and cautiously makes her way towards you. You meet her gaze, keeping your expression neutral, but give her a nod to let her know you were good with what was going on. Her hands land on your waist then, patting you down and checking for weapons.

Her hands slide up your sides and under your arms, and you press your lips tighter together when she hits your ticklish spot. A giggle ends up breaking free and you immediately apologize when she freezes. You think you see her faintly grin before she continues on down your legs and around your ankles.

"She's clean," the woman says as she stands back up and then steps back.

"What's in the bag?"

"My snacks," you muse. "I was looking for a few things and had to travel out further than normal. I've been driving for nearly two days now."

"You got a group?"

"I have a community." They seem to blink in surprise at that.

Crossbow guy looks at who you assume is their leader. "Explains the too clean clothes," he grunts. Then looking at you, he says, "But 'ya damn stupid to be out here with no weapons. It's a goddamn miracle 'ya survived this long."

"Mister, I am the weapon." That seems to make the tense all over again, frowning, and you sigh. "Look, I'm not normal. I don't need weapons because I am literally the ultimate weapon. Now if that makes you uncomfortable, I'll stay my butt over here and just wait out the storm. Then I'll be on my way and we never have to see each other again unless we run into each other in the future. That sound good?"

No one voices a complaint against you so you walk over to one of the wooden beams supporting the barn and take a seat on the ground. You get comfortable, stripping your pack off your back and setting it next to you. The group has no idea what to make of you so they continue to stare at you until the baby in the preteen's arms starts to fuss.

Minutes pass as the baby continues to wail, her cries only getting louder. The thunder doesn't seem as loud as before, so you know if there are any dead nearby they'll be drawn towards the barn because of the baby's cries.

"When was the last time she ate?" You ask when you see them shush and rock her in order to calm her. A few of them glance at you and it's then you actually take in their appearances. They're exhausted. They're hungry. They're desperate. "Actually when was the last time any of you ate?"

Crossbow guy grumbles, but it's the preteen boy who answers. "Days. A week or so maybe."

Frowning, you pull your pack into your lap and open it up. Rummaging around the inside, your hand wraps around a small mason jar with a spoon rubber banded around it and you grin triumphantly. "I, uh, I have this if you want it," you say as you hold the jar up. "Mrs. Stevens makes a mean cinnamon applesauce." Your grin slowly falls as you take in their stares. "Or not. I won't be offended."

"No." The gray haired woman steps forward. "We'll take it, but you need to eat a spoonful yourself first."

"Uh, yeah. Sure, but I don't know why.." Your brow furrows as you free the spoon from the rubber band and untwist the top, and then it hits you on why they want you to eat it first. You gasp as you stare up at them. "First off, rude! Do I really look like I'm capable of poisoning a baby?"

No one says a word at first and then, "Well you did say 'ya were different."

You roll your eyes at the crossbow wielding guy. "Not that kind of different." Sticking the spoon into the applesauce, you pull up a spoonful and shove it into your mouth. Swallowing, you place the spoon back in the jar and hold it up. "Happy? It's just cinnamon applesauce."

The leader rushes forward and grabs the applesauce from you, sniffing it as he walks back towards his group and taking a spoonful for himself. When he deems it okay, he then feeds it to the baby girl. Almost immediately, her cries turn to whimpers before ceasing all together.

"You guys are welcome to whatever's in my pack because, no offense, but you look like you need it more than I do."

The Korean guy is the first to crack, rushing towards your pack that you let him freely rummage through. "Is this- is this jerky?"

"Yep. Mr. Mills has a knack for drying out meat and smoking fish."

As he passes out the jerky, water, and a few MRE's, he then looks at you with an astonished expression. "I'm Glenn, by the way. And this is Maggie." The woman who had patted you down gives you a terse smile.

"Michonne," the katana wielding badass says.

"Carol."

The man feeding the baby glances at you. "I'm Rick. These are my kids Carl and Judith."

You look towards the crossbow guy, but he's shoveling an MRE into his mouth and not paying you a lick of attention. "Y/N," you then introduce yourself to them.

You watch them eat for a few seconds before you avert your attention, listening to the sounds outside the barn. The storm seems like it's finally dying down, but the moans and groans of the dead seem to be getting closer and closer now. You get up and walk towards the door, peeking through the cracks and quietly exhaling at the small herd heading straight for the barn.

"You guys have something to prop against the door? We've got incoming."

A scoff comes from crossbow guy. "Thought 'ya were the ultimate weapon?"

"Daryl!" Carol admonishes.

Your eyes narrow at Daryl who shrugs under the stares of his group and you sigh. "Fine. Whatever. All I ask is that whatever you see, you ask questions before you decide to attack."

"Why- why would you say that?" Glenn asks.

"Because like I said, I'm not normal."

With that you turn around, opening the barn doors and stepping back. Staring at the small herd that's coming in, your left arm lifts up and curls around the front of your face as your right arm lifts up underneath. The only difference is that your left hand starts to glow and you swing back briefly before thrusting your left arm out and sending off a red wave of energy that rushes through the heads of the dead ones and instantly drops them in their tracks. You walk forward then and shut the doors, only to turn around and have Daryl aiming his crossbow at you.

"Seriously?" Your arms hang limp at your sides.

"What the hell are 'ya?"

"Human, as far as I know," you say. You mentally sigh as everyone shifts nervously. "Just with a little extra oomph."

"That was some sci-fi bullshit 'ya just pulled there."

"Well whatever it is, it's come in handy since the world fell apart so I'm not complaining about it anymore."

Rick, having passed Judith off to Carl, steps forward. "This community of yours, are there any more people like you?"

You shake your head. "Nah. I'm the only one."

"How many people are you with?" Carol asks.

"Around twenty or so. Me and this little girl I came across a while back are the youngest. Everyone else is sixty-five or above." You huff. "Kid guilt tripped me into saving a few individuals from a retirement home we came across and gave me the idea of a place safe enough to almost be normal."

"Exactly how safe is this place of yours?" Maggie then wonders as she glances at Judith and Carl.

"There's a, uh, shield of sorts around this abandoned housing community. The dead bounce off the invisible walls and the living need permission to enter which I'm smart enough not to give."

"People try gettin' in before?" Daryl asks.

"A group of three about a couple months back. I would have given thought to letting them in, but my powers kind of misfired and I was able to read their minds," you sheepishly admit. "They- they were not good people. Not by a long shot."

"What happened to 'em?"

"I put them to sleep and had a talk with everyone inside the community." You shrug. "I didn't know what to do, so I asked for everyone's advice. It was either kill them or manipulate their memories and send them on their way."

"What did you do?" Carl asks. He's the only one who has a look of awe on his face.

"I kept them asleep and drove them out in a random direction. After about two days driving, I put them up in an abandoned house and let them wake up long after I had left."

"Why are you answering all our questions?" Michonne asks. "Someone like you, it seems like you'd keep your powers a secret."

"Honestly? You're the first kind group I've seen in a long while. You saw what I could do and yet you asked questions first rather than letting Daryl put an arrow in me."

"Would my arrow have even reached 'ya?"

You smile at Daryl's grumpy expression. "Not even close." There's a challenge in his eyes and his arm twitches, but Rick shakes his head at his friend. You quietly chuckle. "If you guys wanna sit and talk, I'll answer what I can. I don't mind so long as you don't plan on attempting to put a bullet in my brain or a blade to my neck."

Everyone looks to Rick and eventually he gives a terse nod. They hesitantly go back to their fire, huddling closer together and you slowly make you way over to sit across from them. The baby seems rather content now so Rick finally takes a moment to eat something himself.

Bending your knees, you pull them in towards your chest and drop your chin on your knee. "So what do you wanna know?"

Glenn immediately leans forward. "First of all, this is something straight out of a comic book." He grins and you can't help but smile in return. Maggie snorts and shakes her head, rather fondly, at him. "So what I wanna know is if you were born like this or if you had a bad visit with the doctors?"

"I was born like this," you say. "I think it started manifesting when I was about eleven or twelve. Mom and dad were obviously terrified, but I was still their daughter and they refused to just let the government have me. It took- it took months of research before they found a legit scientist who was running tests on people like me in order to help. So they met up with him and let him poke and prod to get the answers everyone was seeking."

"Did they find anything out?" Carol asks.

You shake your head. "No. There were no abnormalities in my or my parent's blood, and every other test was coming back completely average. My powers or magic or whatever you wanna call it honestly scared me, so the scientist had concocted some pills that suppressed it. I never got to learn how to control it and only really got to see what I was capable of when the world collapsed and I ran out of suppressors."

"So what, you're just this powerhouse walking around without a care in the world?" Michonne frowns.

"I have many cares," you say, head lifting to stare directly at the woman over the fire. "I have a little girl and a handful of old geezers counting on me back home. I'm just fortunate enough to be this powerhouse, as you say, so the others don't have to come out into this shit show that has become our norm."

Judith starts to fuss again and neither her brother or father can calm her. You can see just how exhausted everyone is, so you take the initiative to help them out when you see Rick cringe after smelling the baby's bottom. Grabbing your pack, you grab the notebook in there and yank out a sheet of paper. Then letting the paper rest in the palms of your hands, you concentrate on the red wisps of energy pooling in your hands and transfigure the sheet of paper into a diaper. More sheets of paper are ripped out and you quickly transfigure those into small rags.

"There's a bucket in the back of my truck," you say as you hold out the diaper and rags. "I'm sure it's full of water by now so you can dip the rags into the water to wipe the baby down."

Rick blinks at you in surprise, walking over to you and grabbing the items. He nods. "Thank you." You flash him a faint smile in return.

He looks at Daryl and he hands over his crossbow to Carol. Taking the rags from Rick, he motions for Glenn to follow him should he run into any trouble outside.

The two men return soon enough and Rick readily starts to make his daughter comfortable once more. As she struggles against him and wildly kicks out, you chuckle and decide to let a small orb of red energy pool in your palm. Then flicking your wrist, the small red orb shoots over to hover above Judith and bob up and down. It does it's job, distracting her so her father can easily change her.

"That must come in handy back at your community," Maggie muses.

"I don't really show off like this in front of them," you sheepishly admit. "Everyone knows what I'm capable of, but they don't really ask me to do anything other than to help keep them safe and keep their houses from deteriorating." There are hums and grunts, but everyone is more interested in filling their stomachs. "Well if I'm going to be on my way come sun up, I should get some rest."

No one objects, so you get up and walk back over to the opposite side of the barn. You sit down in a corner, trying to find a comfortable enough position so you can get a bit of shut eye.

When you wake up, the sun has not fully risen yet. It's a little lighter in the barn and you can see without the small fire throwing off light, so it's easy to spot Rick keeping watch by the barn doors. You sit up, stretch, and sleepily climb to feet in order to join him.

"You guys rotated watch?" You mumble. "You should have woken me."

Rick grins. "Nah. We had it under control."

"If you say so."

His grin subtly falters and then he quietly clears his throat before glancing between you and his group. "So before you go on your way, can I have a word?"

"Sure." You yawn. "Lets just go outside so we don't wake anyone." At Rick's nod, you open the barn doors and exit as quietly as you can. He follows you outside and you glance around for any dead before crossing your arms over your chest and turning to face Rick. "What's going on?"

He stares at you, clearly trying to figure out how to voice his thoughts. It takes him a moment to gather himself and then finally he says, "I know we just met each other last night, but is there any chance- any chance you might be willin' to give us a chance? I'm supposed to be this group's leader, but I am runnin' on fumes here. We all are. We're desperate." Your heart goes out to him and you can't help but frown. You understand desperation very well and you figure it must be worse on him because of the two young children he has. "This world, as vulnerable as it is, it's not a place I want to raise my kids."

"Rick, I-" You pause, sigh and then start over. "Of course I'd be willing to give you guys a chance."

"But?" He pushes, seeing the flash of hesitance in your expression.

"No, no buts." You shake your head. "You just- if you guys want to be a part of this community, you have to actually want to be a part of the community. No drama or violence is permitted within the walls. My sole focus is making sure these people live as long as possible and I won't have anyone jeopardizing that."

Rick nods. "We're all for playing fair. All we're askin' for is a chance. A real chance at survivin'."

"Well then I guess today's your lucky day." You hold out a hand for him to shake. He holds your gaze before glancing down at your hand and hesitantly reaching forward to grasp it. "So do you want to tell them the good news or..?"

Rick huffs a laugh of disbelief as he retakes his hand. "Are- are 'ya serious?"

"Yeah. Why not." You shrug. "The community could use a good shake up, so come on. Lets go wake your people up."

You and Rick re-enter the barn, but you let him wake his family and friends on his own. You gather your pack, tossing the trash and rearranging what's left. Rick tells them the good news and you smile when you see them sag in relief. They have no belongings whatsoever, so they pick up what weapons they have and make to exit the barn.

"Um, Carl and one other person can sit up front with me. Three others can squeeze into the backseat with Judith and two can ride in the very back." There are nods of agreement all around before Daryl and Glenn climb into the bed of the truck. Meeting Daryl's gaze, you say, "You and Glenn keep watch. If you see anyone, pound on the roof. I don't want anyone following us."

He gives you a terse nod. "Got it."

"Or if you and Glenn want to switch out with someone from the inside, pound on the roof. I'm gonna drive as long as I can, but if anyone wants to stop during the night we will."

Everyone seems to agree, letting you decide whether or not you drive through the night. You'll make that decision when the time comes, so as everyone else climbs into the cab of the truck you open the driver's side door and get behind the wheel. You bite back a smirk as you grip the steering wheel in hand, red wisps of energy wrapping around the wheel before disappearing into the guts under the hood.

"So that's why we didn't hear the rumble of an engine," Rick muses. "It's runnin' on magic."

"Beats having to find and siphon gas," you say. Everyone chuckles and after making sure Daryl and Glenn are steady, you drive off.

Not even five seconds in and you hear, "What the hell kind of truck is this?"

Daryl's gruff question makes everyone inside the cab laugh, but no one bothers to fill him in.

- - - - - - - - - -

You drive well into the afternoon, only stopping when Glenn and Daryl grow too hot under the sun and switch out with Rick and Michonne. The bit of food you had left in your pack was divided up among the others again and then when the sun set you had stopped to instruct those in the bed of the truck that they could sit or lay down since they wouldn't be able to see anything come nightfall anyway.

Your constant yawning had Maggie concerned, but you assured her you'd done a drive like this numerous times. All you asked was that they talk to you, so to keep things light they told you all about their accomplishments since the world had ended. Carl mentioned being reunited with his dad after being told he was dead, Maggie mentioned finding love with Glenn on her father's farm, and Daryl mentioned finding a prison that they stayed in after clearing it out as much as they could.

You didn't bother asking what had happened to the farm or the prison because you knew full well what happened to places left out in the open. Sooner or later they got taken over, whether it be by the dead or living. So when they ran out of happy tales, you filled them in on your own. You told them all about coming across the retirement home- about how you and Daisy (the young girl you had saved) were allowed to stay with them for a bit while you went out everyday to find a more suitable living situation. You had still been experimenting with your powers, so it was a miracle you managed to fix up an entire housing community and erect walls around it.

Only about half of those in the retirement home chose to go with you and Daisy, and that was even after finding out what you were capable of. The others were grateful for the invite, but they had families they wanted to look for or were too old and didn't want to be a burden on anyone. No amount of pleading from Daisy could sway their decisions.

A new day dawns and the environment around you starts to become familiar. You perk up in your seat and drive just a little faster because after being out for so long all you want is your bed and a shower.

Only you can see the entrance to the community and you know the others can only see what everyone else without permission to enter sees- a run down housing community that was way passed being livable. So stopping right before the barrier, you gesture for everyone to get off with you after letting the truck cut off.

"What's going on?" Rick asks as he hops out of the bed. Michonne follows him.

Facing the group, you grin. "The community is just behind me," you say while gesturing over your shoulder. You see them glance behind you, frowns marring their faces. "You're just seeing what I want everyone who passes by to see- a place not worth investigating. So with your consent," you hold a hand out just at shoulder height, letting a red glow envelop it, "I just need to push a little energy through you so you can see what I see."

Everyone is caught off guard and wary now, but surprisingly it's Carl who says something. "Will it hurt?"

You glance down at him and smile. "Not at all. I promise. Everyone inside has admitted to it feeling like a cold chill running through them and then nothing. Absolutely no pain."

As you guessed, everyone looks to Rick. He takes a moment to think about it before saying, "Do it. But if there's any pain at all-"

"There's not."

"Good." He nods. "So what do we do?"

"Just stand there. I'm the one who has to do all the work." Letting your arms hang down by your sides, you shake yourself out before concentrating on letting your power pool into your hands once more. Then when it feels like you have enough energy to pass through all eight individuals, you face your palms towards them and push out. The energy leaves you and passes through them, and only a couple of them stumble back a step or gasp in surprise. When they finally take notice of what's actually behind you and their jaws drop, you chuckle. "Welcome to your new home."

"How- it looks untouched." Carol mumbles in awe.

"Well it wasn't," you say. "It took me a few days to fix up several blocks of houses. Then about a week to get the solar panels set in with the help of our retired electrician. We were just lucky a water tower was placed close by and the new water lines were set in before the world ended. It's easy to keep the tower operational and our houses supplied with running water."

"This is insane," Glenn mutters in awe. Maggie nods along with his assessment.

"When you reach the barrier, you're going to feel a little resistance. That's normal." you then explain to them. "All you have to do is keep walking through and you'll come out on the other side."

"And if we wanna leave?" Daryl asks. Everyone looks at him as if he's crazy for already thinking about leaving, but he merely huffs and explains further. "To hunt or make runs, not find shelter elsewhere."

You shrug. "Then you leave. You'll feel the resistance again, but that's just so you remember where the barrier is. Now that you've been given permission, you can come and go as you please. But please remember, once you're behind the barrier, anyone who hasn't been given permission to enter will just see you vanish into thin air. So make sure you're never followed or if you are make a beeline for the barrier and come get me. I'll get them outta here." Everyone seems to be in agreement and you smile. "Well come on. Let's go find you a house or two."

Turning around, you readily walk towards the neighborhood. The resistance of entering doesn't faze you as it once did, so you hurriedly turn around to see everyone's reactions. You see when they hesitate and you laugh as they continue on through and seem to all breathe a sigh of relief. Then once they have their wits about them, you gesture for them to follow you.

A few people are sitting out on their porches, some surprised and others (looking at you Gladys) are ecstatic.

A wolf whistle pierces the air and everyone glances in the direction it came from. "'Bout time you brought in some good lookin' fellas! I was getting tired of looking at Tom's ugly mug."

Michonne and Carol snort as Maggie and Carl giggle, and you shake your head at the white haired, seventy-eight year old woman. "Gladys, stop teasin' the men. They literally just got here!" You holler back.

"Any of them single?"

"Oh my god. Go take a cold shower, you cougar!" Gladys cackles and you groan quietly before looking over your shoulder. "Sorry about that. I should have warned you about Gladys and her tendency to hit on any man that isn't her neighbor."

"S'alright." Rick chuckles. "It'll be nice to have some normalcy back in our lives."

"What's with the bars on the doors?" Michonne then wonders.

You look at one house in particular, it's front door having another door of bars attached in front of it as well. "The houses with bars on their doors were requested by those living in the house. These people are at the age where they can easily pass away in their sleep without warning, and after an incident back at their retirement home they requested bars on the doors as a precaution. They lock in a couple of places from the inside."

They seem to agree that that was a good idea as you nod at everyone else coming out to see what Gladys was yelling about. When you spot Mary Alice, a sixty-seven year old ex-nurse, you start to walk towards her house. "Hey Mary Alice, have you seen Daisy around? I want to introduce her to some new people."

Mary Alice stands up and walks over to the top stair of her porch. "Oh. Hello." She beams. "It's nice to see some capable, new faces around here."

"Ma'am," Rick drawls.

You can practically see Mary Alice swoon and you mumble, "You're going to give every goddamn old lady heart palpitations in here," under your breath. Rick chuckles and you clap your hands to garner Mary Alice's attention once more. "Mary! Where's Daisy?"

"Oh, um." She pauses as she fluffs her hair. "Last I saw her, Dave had asked her to help him pick some fruit from the garden."

"Okay. Thanks." Turning around to face the group, you smile sheepishly. "Maybe I'll just show you to your house first. Daisy might be busy for a bit longer." You're about to motion for them to follow you when you see Daisy appear from between two houses, munching on an apple and looking as carefree as a child her age should be. She meets your gaze from across the street, but before you can draw any attention to her you notice her steps falter as the most heartbreaking expression takes over her features when she sees who's with you. For a second you think this group might not be as innocent as they seemed, but then-

"Momma?"

Time seems to slow as Carol, of all people, freezes and then turns around. She stumbles back, hand going to her mouth in shock as she chokes on a sob. "S-Sophia?"

Your eyes widen at what's unfolding before you- Daisy (apparently Sophia) dropping her apple core before sprinting across the street. Carol meets her halfway, the two colliding with one another as their cries pierce the air. The rest of Carol's group looks on in awe before they join in on the reunion and you laugh as your vision suddenly blurs with unshed tears.

You startle when an arm settles across your shoulders and you glance over at Mary Alice smiling as she watches the reunion as well. "Did you know?"

"Not a clue," you say. "This is just an insane coincidence."

As everyone else takes a turn reuniting with the young girl and introducing her to the new faces, Carol glances up at you and starts to make her way over. You smile as she nears. "My Sophia was the kid you mentioned, wasn't she? The girl you saved before you came across the retirement home."

"Yeah. I just didn't know her name was Sophia." You chuckle. "She said something about her name making her sad because it reminded her of her mom, so she chose a new one."

"Why Daisy?"

You shrug. "Because we were walking through a field of daisies and she liked the sound of it."

Carol wetly chuckles and you give a surprised oh when she yanks you into a hug. "Thank you. Thank you for keeping my baby girl safe."

"No thanks needed, Carol. Whether your daughter knows it not, Daisy- er, Sophia- saved me as well. I'm just glad I could reunite the two of you."

The two of you pull out of the hug just to see the rest of the group making their way towards you, and Sophia hurries to wrap her arms around your waist. "Thank you. Thank you for finding my family."

"Don't even mention it, kid." You ruffle her hair, chuckling. "I'm just glad you found each other again." As you look up to meet everyone's house, you say, "So about your house.."

The group chuckle and you finally lead them to a couple empty houses just down the block you currently reside on. You inform them that every house in the neighborhood was built with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Rick tells you they'll take just the one house for now until they're acquainted with their surroundings and you let him know that that was fine, but in a few days you were taking a group out to pick out furniture and appliances for two houses.

Daryl scoffs. "Where exactly does one go shoppin' in the goddamn apocalypse?"

"In the store Y/N hid with her magic. Duh!" Sophia muses. Daryl glances down at the young girl before a smirk pulls at the corner of his lips. She beams at him and he playfully reaches out to ruffle her hair.

"So, uh, yeah," you muse. "You guys can go ahead and wait here while I go round up a few sleeping bags that we can transform into mattresses," you tell them. "The water should be working, but you might want to run the faucets and showers for a minute or so to make sure all the air is out of the pipes." You start to back away down the sidewalk, heading towards your house. "I'll even knock on a few doors and see if there are any shirts and pants anyone is willing to let go of so you guys can shower. You can change into clean clothes while washing those you have on right now."

Before anything can be said, you turn around and make your way towards your house. You're not sure why all of sudden you became nervous- there is nothing to be nervous about- but you felt yourself suddenly getting anxious under all their gazes.

It doesn't take you long to find a few sleeping bags in your garage, so you take those with you while stopping by next door. You ask your neighbors for any sleeping bags or air mattresses, as well as a change of clothes, and they're all too happy to accommodate the newest residents of your sleepy little community. So by the time you make it back to the house where you had left the group, arms laden with bags that are threatening to cut off the circulation in your arms, you aren't surprised to see some of them already holding dishes of food.

"These old ladies sure do work fast." You laugh. Rick and Glenn are quick to pass off the dishes in their hands in favor of helping you bring in the stuff for them. They take the sleeping bags from you, leaving you with large shopping bags full of clothing. "So do you guys want everything set up downstairs or you do want to sleep in separate rooms already?"

"Downstairs is fine," Rick says. "At least for now."

In the living room, the sleeping bags are all rolled out and the air mattress is blown up. Rick settles Judith down on the mattress and Carl is quick to crawl on next to her. You've only enlarged one sleeping bag- the one Glenn and Maggie seemed to have gravitated to- when Rick stops you, telling you that you've done more than for him and his family. You ask him if he's sure and he nods, but you can't help just one last wiggle of your fingers to give the sleeping bags a little extra cushion.

"So I guess I'll leave you to it," you say. "In the bag with the clothes, there are plates and utensils. Everyone's offered up their laundry rooms for you to use, but if you're uncomfortable encroaching in on their houses then just get Sophia to show you to mine."

There's a round of thank yous as you leave so you wave and let them settle in. As you're walking out the front door, before you can shut it behind you, someone's gripping it and opening it wider. You're surprised to see Daryl follow you out.

"Everything good?" You ask.

"Yeah." He nods, hands finding their way into his jean's pockets. He shuffles rather sheepishly and you can't help but grin. "Yeah. All good here." You nod and turn to head down the stairs, only for his gruff voice to stop you in your tracks and make you turn back around once more. "Thanks. You didn't have to bring us in or trust us with your secret, but 'ya did. You gave my group a fightin' chance- 'ya gave those kinds in the house a fightin' chance. So thanks."

You smile at him. "You're welcome." He meets your gaze for a moment, eyes hidden behind a curtain of hair and you chuckle. "Go grab a plate of food and a shower, Daryl. You guys are safe here so relax. All of you look like you can sleep for days."

He shakes his head. "We still got people out there."

"And that sucks, I'm sure, but you need to look after yourself first," you say. "You won't be doing anyone any good if you're falling over your own two feet because you're beyond exhausted." Daryl shifts on his feet, his expression turning rather displeased. "Rest up and I promise that when you and a couple others are ready, I'll be right there with you to find your people."

Daryl holds your gaze before he relaxes a bit and he gives you a terse nod. "Fine. Until then, 'ya gotta learn not to rely on 'ya powers or whatever. Gotta keep that a secret until the last second."

Your nose wrinkles and then you sigh. "And here I thought I was done with physical education."

#the walking dead #twd gen fic x reader #the walking dead imagine #twd imagine #daryl dixon #rick grimes #carol peletier #michonne #maggie greene #glenn rhee #carl grimes #judith grimes #sophia peletier

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officialleehadan · 3 years

Text

Customs Check

Maggie hadn’t expected it to be so easy to scam the Imperial Authority, but then, Imperial Authority had a lot of work and there were nearly a thousand ships waiting to get through Customs. With papers that looked legitimate, presented by someone who looked like money, they were waved through with barely a glance. Maggie made a mental note of it, but since the lax security wasn’t actually hurting anybody, she probably wouldn’t do more than mention it to Luka.

Luka probably wouldn’t do anything about it either, except maybe put an Intelligence agent on the checkpoint to make sure nothing toodangerous was coming through.

“We’re never going through another checkpoint without you riding point,” Zaaba decided on their way back to the ship. Maggie laughed, still in the guise of Young Money with Zaaba and Kady serving as her personal bodyguards. Women, even those with obvious Other heritage, like Kady’s quarter-troll blood, were underestimated. It occasionally infuriated Maggie, but for now, it was useful. Being underestimated meant that no one was looking to closely at them for hidden motives. “That was the smoothest check-through we’ve had in years.”

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Maggie had a great many permissions on the ident card of Maggie Gol, including the authorization to bring whatever she wanted through a checkpoint.

That, however, was a secret she would keep to herself unless they found trouble. Zaaba would have questions if she knew, and Maggie didn’t want to try and explain why the Red Baron’s sister had Imperial Authorization.

“Why would they assume a problem?” Maggie said when they reached the Blackbird. “We have paperwork and don’t look like trouble. Customs only look closer when someone ha paperwork and looks nervous.”

“I expected you to look nervous,” Zaaba told her and raised her voice to their pilot. “Hey, Clunk, we’re clear. Get the hov-sled loaded up so we don’t have to carry everything to Salteyes’s people by hand. You’re cool under pressure, aren’t you, Girlie?”

“Unless there’s big magic, a gun to my head, or my brother in a temper, I assume it’s something I can handle.”

“You were alright with the kidnapping, too.”

“It wasn’t my first. I’m going to go get changed. This getup is pretty, but it’s been months since I wore any makeup and my face itches.”

“Yeah, go ahead, but get down here. I want you on delivery with us. You’re one of our better spell-slingers and I don’t trust Salteyes.”

“Alright. Ten minutes?”

“No hurry. Getting here was the hard part.”

A quick change later, her expensive dress, jewelry, and heels once again hidden in the bottom of her duffle, and Maggie made her way back down to the cargo hold. It was strange to realize that she felt ore like herself in rough canvas pants and a loose cotton shirt than she did in the polished finery she had lived in for most of her life. Maybe it wasn’t so unexpected, though. Luka felt the same, if his fondness for his red leather jacket was any indication.

By the time she was back, the hov-sled was loaded and they were ready to go. Maggie slid down the rail of the cargo hold just in time for Zaaba to pull her up to sit on top of the crates. As soon as they were ready, Clunk, who had no visible Other heritage but was a good pilot and a better sniper, pulled them out of the ship. Kady waved as she closed down the ship. Until they were back, no one would be getting on or off.

“We’re spending a week here,” Zaaba said as Clunk drove the hov-sled towards their drop-off point. “Next job is meeting us, so there’s time for everyone to have some fun once we get paid. Don’t to anything or anyone stupid, and if you get arrested, bail is coming out of your pay. Check in at least once every twenty-four solar hours. Everyone clear?”

“Aye, Captain,” Maggie said with the rest, entirely amused by the speech Zaaba gave every time they went on leave for a few days. Maggie had arranged for most of her own pay to go into a small account tied to her larger, personal accounts. It was pocket money compared to the royal account she shared with Luka, but her finances were her own business. “Are we still doing ship dinners?”

“If someone feels like making something, but frankly, I’m planning to eat out most of the time. We work too hard to eat our own cooking when we’re in port.”

A week. A glorious week of freedom to wander around Seti Base, which was as safe as anywhere, considering it was a newer base, and still had a substantial Imperial presence keeping the peace. There was plenty of fun to be had, too. Maggie had already sent a message to Luka to see if he wanted to meet up. The Rojawas never too far away, and he could usually find some excuse to be wherever he wanted to be. He had replied in minutes, promising to be there the next day.”

And she missed her brother.

“You especially, Girlie,” Zaaba said with a great deal of meaningful eye contact that was probably supposed to be a warning. “Don’t you get kidnapped again.”

“The last time was your fault,” Maggie pointed out dryly, and waved her captain off. “Relax, Zaaba. My brother is flying in tomorrow.”

“Red Baron is gonna be in port?”

“My brother Luka is going to be in port.”

Zaaba still had some trouble with the what of Luka, and his relationship to Maggie. Maggie was just hoping her captain didn’t kill her when she eventually found out who Luka, and Maggie, really were.

“Fine, fine,” Zaaba allowed reluctantly. “Are we gonna meet him?”

“If you want to. I promise he doesn’t bite.”

“Doesn’t have to, if he’s as electrical as you.”

“He’s not. So, what is there to do on this rock? I’m thinking dancing. There’s gotta be somewhere that has decent drinks and decent music.”

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HGE - Blackbird:

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slashingdisneypasta · 3 years

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Human!Freddy Krueger x Fem!Reader || Oneshot

Title: What The Fuck Now, Freddy!?

Notes:

This is not inherently romantic, at all. Or sexual. Just... Freddy being a bastard, and you are caught in the crosshairs- and are forever linked with him because of it.

I've been listening to Lizzie, a lot lately- and this is inspired by 'What The Fuck Now, Lizzie!?'

Also- I'm thinking this will have a part 2. Due to the ending not being quite enough. Maybe a part for the court proceedings!

Plot: Many will know the story of that terrible day Krueger essentially snapped- killing his wife, Loretta Krueger. She saw the basement, they say, and he didn't like that. Their daughter saw the whole thing and suffered a traumatic response to seeing the sight of her mother, strangled to death, by her father- and forgot the whole thing.

But if she were to remember something, one day.

She may remember something no one knows about that day, aside from Freddy himself.

She may remember, that someone else was there.

She may remember you.

Alternatively- you're being blackmailed by Freddy who found out you, another supposedly Plain Jane in Loretta's 'mothers club', is cheating on your husband and calls you up to help deal with the mess he made. Because who else did he have?

Warnings: Okay lemme see, its basically a potluck of triggers. Hm. Murder, swearing, cheating (You, on your husband. Not with Freddy), getting rid of a body, a child gets traumatised (Obviously, Kathy/Maggie), Freddy himself, mention of the basement and all that entails, reader with a very questionable moral compass. Look, I think if you can watch Freddy's Dead, you're good here.

I'm just heading out the door, to go grocery shopping - or, at least, that's the story I tell my husband. When really I don't do the grocery shop until the day after tomorrow. He never notices... - when the phone rings. By very nearly tripping over my feet in my endeavour to catch it before the ringing stops, I manage pick up the phone with very little injury besides an achy, slightly twisted ankle. "Hi! Hi, sorry, I'm here. Hello?"

Pouting, I sit down at the kitchen table; Rubbing my poor ankle to sooth the pain, which would soon diminish anyway. Still- I'm sorry, ankle. I'll try to chill.

When the voice on the other end reveals who it is who's called the house, I lose all need to be pleasant. Damn. I really need to memorise this goddamn number... so I can not answer it. "Whatcha wearin'?"

"Thank god Harrison didn't answer this, you fuck." I deeply roll my eyes. Thank god Har's out. No, this is not my mister, not the man I was going to meet just now- but its bad, enough. In an entirely different way. Its stupid, blackmailing, son of a... hundred maniacs. "What do you want?"

"What a way to answer the phone, Y/N. Gee, seems like every time I we talk, I'm learning how you really aren't in the right place, are you? Cheating on your poor husband, swearing... These aren't really signs of the perfect suburban house wife, is it?" Gritting my teeth, I keep from lashing out. I've learned, if you stay real quiet, Freddy wont have anything to pull from and will get bored quick. "Why so silent, hm?"

"... " Oh, fuck me. I cant help it. "Wondering where you get off judging me on being 'suburban', actually."

"Anywhere I like, thanks."

Oh... oh. Gross?

He doesn't see the disgust tearing my face into two perfect halves right now, but my silence must be enough as he laughs. The sound is directly into the phone, and harsh on my poor eardrums. Ugh... "Oh for gods sake... What are we? Fourteen years old?? Come on- why'd you call?"

"Uhhhh... " Quickly, midway through that drawn out 'um' sound, Freddy's voice transitions, and gets a whole lot darker. Something deep in his chest dislodging, to make it so. Perhaps, his heart. "Well... you might wanna come and see for yourself."

"Uh, I don't think so. I have somewhere to be right now- "

"Oh well you don't, anymore." And its clear what he isn't saying- or else I'll tell Harrison about Carter and set your life on fire. "Tell your boy toy you're takin' a reign check for the day. I think you'll last. In fact... after you come over here, you might be out of the game for a couple a hours at least- maybe days."

Hold on, hold on Freddy what the fuck- "What!?"

"... Believe it or not, I didn't actually mean for that one."

Moron.

Nevertheless, no matter how just... off setting, Freddy is, I had to when he asked. I had to jump when he said so.

Because if not, then he would tear my life apart.

So here I am, about to knock on that big red door he lives behind, wondering what I'm walking into. Where's Loretta? Where's Kathy? How long will the visit be? I told Carter I'd be an hour or two late- any longer and I wont see him at all today. Which would absolutely suck.

Just after my knuckles come down on the wood the first time, a hand comes down on my shoulder and I immediately jump out of my skin... then slowly look around.

There's Freddy, a cheeky grin on his face. It does nothing to set my nerves at ease. "Ugh... Why are you out here?"

"We're going to the backyard. Lets go." Taking me by the shoulders, he marches me around the side of the house, instead of through it for some reason, and into the familiar backyard. I've been here numerous times, as Loretta likes to hold our club meetings here - Barbecue's, tea's... that sort of thing. Just to let the kids play together and so the adults can enjoy some adult conversation. Its a nice yard... but depending on what her horrid husband is about to show me, it may not be considered as such anymore... - , but I'm now starting to develop a sick feeling in my stomach.

Honestly- I don't know much about Freddy at all. Yes, I went to school with him, but that doesn't mean much when he was a freaky loner kid the whole time. I remember he killed the class hamster once- that's about the only splash he ever made in the news pool; But it definitely stuck.

Yes, Loretta cleaned up his image a fair bit since getting married, but now he's blackmailing me, and as far as I know I'm now alone with him.

Suspicious of him suddenly, I slip out of his grip with a dirty look flashed his way. Don't touch me.

He just rolls his eyes, leading me around some hedges.

And then everything stops.

Him, me, the air; The air around me, the breeze, the breath in my throat.

There lays Loretta, on the ground. If I was really really naïve, I could imagine she were sleeping... or passed out, at least, due to the way she's sprawled out. No one would lay down like that willingly.

But... her eyes are open.

For a moment I'm tempted to kneel down; Take a closer look. Find out how, myself. Is she bleeding anywhere that I cant see now? Are her lips turning blue? If I moved some short red hair out of the way- would their be marks on her neck yet?

But then I come to my senses...

And freak. The fuck. O u t.

"What, the fuck, did you do!?" I whip around, looking at Freddy now which entirely new eyes. I mean, before I sure wasn't fond- but now I'm filled with something new, looking at him. Something a lot worse, something that makes me want to run. Run, and hide, and stay there.

And all these, even though he hasn't really changed. He still wears a mischievous smirk, stony blue eyes eating up my reactions... like always. But this time its just so so much worse. "Made some dead weight- now you're gonna help me get rid of it. So!" Finally, though its been only a matter of seconds, he turns his gaze off of me and I'm glad. That gaze is far too heavy. "Ideas?"

Only for a moment am I lost for words, struggling to push anything out. "I... I'm sorry??"

His gaze returns to mine, but this time my eyes are hard as his are dark. "Help. Me. Get rid of her. Fucking. Body. Or do you want your dirty laundry aired for the whole community to hear?"

Before I can help myself, I let out a sharp laugh, only succeeding in making Freddy's scowl deeper. "Freddy- this secret's a lot bigger, then mine. Sure, I might get divorced- but you're going to prison!" Does he get that? He's g o i n g to j a i l. Crossing my arms, I try to avoid looking at my ex-friend's body. I cant. "I'm sure as hell not gonna be in there with you, for being an accomplice."

I really cant look at her... I can only focus on Freddy. And that takes a lot of energy- its taking everything in me, in fact. Everything I have. But I have to. If its him or her, there's no choice.

But... then a creepy smile spreads across his face- a vast polarity to the frustrated glower of before. It makes my blood run cold.

"Ohhhh..." He looks almost ferocious, even in his composed state. Like a monster. Like any moment a fanged, inhuman creature is going to burst out of him and I'm going to wake up, and this will have been a nightmare. A horrible nightmare. The kind where that creature haunts me for a long time, after its over. After this over.

He's going to haunt me.

"You must think this is my first time... " My heart turns to ice, mouth hanging a little open... what the fuck have I found myself a part of!? Suddenly all the children's disappearances on the news lately come to the forefront of my brain... "Sweetheart, give a man his dues. I'm a hard working kinda guy... " I watch his gaze flicker to a door - the back door? No... The basement door, - and when a filthy smirk pulls at his mouth, my heart flies up into my throat. God, it makes me feel sick. I want to be violently ill. "My first was my adoptive Dad... pretty sick, huh?"

The fact that he didn't say anything about the basement, makes my imagination go wild. I swallow it down, though.

I just need to get out of here, and never think about this again.

And to do that I need to help Freddy get rid of this goddamn body- and... probably... testify at court... As the panic starts to finally rise up in my, right up to fill my throat, I immediately take in a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Okay... " No time to freak out. Now's the time for action.

Gaze flickering to Loretta again, I try to acclimatise to the sight. I think its a lost cause, though. "How did you get rid of him? Your Dad?"

"No, that's not gonna work. He was a drunk dead beat, and I just had to tell the police some guy's he owed money to came over to the house." Freddy grins happily at the memory, but then just as quickly, scowls at his poor deceased wife's body- that certainly cant fight back. I just tack this onto the long list of reasons I hate him. "Lore's such a goddamn goody goody- we cant do the same thing. You don't think I woulda thought of that??"

"Hey." I snap, hands braced on my hips as I flash a glare his way. "This is not the time to get defensive!"

"Whatever... "

Then- suddenly, something occurs to me. Confused, I look around; A deeply horrified feeling disturbing my stomach. "Hold on... Where's your daughter?" Seeing no sign of her anywhere, I definitely start to panic again- especially when I look to Freddy and just see a pert look in his eyes as he looks back at me, a smile that strikes something horrid inside me. My eyes narrow. "You sick fuck- where the fuck is she!??"

"Under the bed."

"What the fuck does that mean!?" I exclaim, frustrated and freaking out. He did not- he did not! Killing your spouse is one thing, but the kid?? Your own kid??

I don't wait around for him to be cryptic some more, and rush right into the house to look for her. Under the bed, under the bed, under the fucking bed...? Which fucking bed!? Forcing ferocity out of my voice, I carefully call out to Kathy. Hoping to god she answers. I try to sound normal. Maybe a little bit cheerful; Excited.

But my voice wobbles.

"Kathy?? Sweetheart, its Y/N! Are you hiding? I have something for you... " ?? You have something for her, Y/N?? God... now you have to figure out some kind of treat.

You know what? Whatever. We'll figure that out later.

Lets just hope we aren't searching for a corpse. I'd definitely be sick, seeing a child... the way Loretta is...

Shaking my head and clenching my fists, I try to focus on Kathy.

I check under the bed in the guest room because it comes into view first and she isn't there, then her bedroom and she isn't there either... and get a sick feeling as soon as I enter the last bedroom. Freddy's and Loretta's.

God, I've never been in here before but its like a museum peace now. A horrible one. Like if you would walk into the Titanic... or the Borden house.

"Kathy? You in here?" Flicking on the light I kneel down on the ground, and check under the bed.

And something immediately crashes over me, as the sight of her covering her eyes down there. It isn't exactly relief, because this whole situation is still phenomenally fucked up for her, but I am selfishly glad to not have to see her body... crumpled, just like her mother.

"Hey sweetheart," My voice quivers slightly now, but I quickly swallow. No. No. Now, you must be strong Y/N. "Its just me. Your Daddy was looking for you, and couldn't find you! It got him worried!"

"I... I don't wanna see Daddy. He hurt Mommy." Kathy doesn't remove her hands from her face, and stays firmly by the wall- too far away for anyone to grab. My heart sinks.

Slowly straightening up again, I try to take that piece of information in. Turning to the doorway, I see Freddy there. he must have followed me. I didn't even notice. Slowly, and quietly ferociously, I say; "She saw?!"

He has the good sense to look embarrassed, even if it is just to make fun of me. "It was spur of the moment... " He shrugs. "I didn't have time to get a babysitter!"

What a fucking excuse. For gods sake.

I'm definitely dealing with a psycho- if that was even a question before now.

Swiftly, I look down under the bed again, because I'm afraid that if I continue to engage with him- I'll scream, and I'll lose my breath, and I'll scare Kathy even more. She's at the forefront of my mind; That's all I can think about.

But what to do with her after I get her out from under this bed, I don't know. I cant give her back to her father... but I cant hand her over to the police either because that would involve telling them about Loretta, and... Freddy will definitely kill me, for that.

This is a nightmare of a situation.

I'm just opening my mouth to say something - what, I don't know yet, - when she speaks, instead. "Is he there?"

"... Yes." I wont lie to her; That would be treating her with not nearly as much respect as she deserves.

When she takes a deep breath and rubs her eyes, as if just trying to keep herself together, my heart clenches. God... and to think I might not have picks up Freddy's call today. I would have been leaving her with this. For the first time today, I'm morbidly glad I came.

She speaks in that loud, hissy way that kids think is a whisper. "Can he... can you please make him go away?"

Immediately I straighten back up and look to Freddy again, my eyebrows raised halfway up my forehead. Like well? "Get out."

"I don't think you're in a position to make demands here, bi- "

"Do you want Kathy to live down there now!??" I snap, trying not to be scared. Not really feeling scared, actually. Just happy to have a reason to tell him to get the hell away from me.

A deep frown creases his mouth, deeply unhappy about the situation, but steps back. I only hear him step out of the way of the door, but its good enough. Quickly, I get up and close the door - fighting with myself not to slam it, - and lock it.

Then I return to the floor, and see this time Kathy has uncovered her eyes. She looks so small, smaller then she actually is, and she looks like she's shaking. Little red bows and piggy tails in her hair are messy from crawling under the bed. "He's gone, sweetheart. And I locked the door."

She just nods, so I take the silence as a chance to offer my hand to her. "Take my hand, sweetie? Come on out from under the bed. Its cold down there, and no one wants you getting sick." I need to upkeep the family friend bit, I need to sound caring and collected. I need her to trust me.

Her big eyes, not Loretta's colour or Freddy's, look nervous as hell. And she shakes her head.

Taking a deep breath, and I conjure all the sincerity as I can. And mean it. My eyes soften and I try really hard, to resent myself as someone trustworthy- which is hard, seeing as I've never really been that. I mean, I'm cheating on my husband. I told Carter today the same lie I told Harrison when i knew I was going to be late. The only person I think who knows the truth behind all my lies is Freddy. That says something about a person, that the only person who knows them is a psychopath.

But I want to, I need to, be good for this little girl. And there's no time for me turn my life around so it has to start with this. How fucked is that?

"... I promise, I'll take care of you. He wont hurt you."

After a few whole minutes, in which I stay silent because yes she's a child, but she's still thinking, she crawls over and takes my hand, letting me lead her out. Crawling into my lap as I cross my legs under her, she buries her face in my shirt- hiding. "You promise?"

Taking a deep breath, because I've really done it now, I offer my pinky for her to see if she turned her head. I know Freddy's listening to all of this through the wall, but I try not to freak out. "Pinky swear?"

"Pinky swear." She peaks out from my shirt, and curls her little finger around mine. Okay... "Y/N... I'm scared."

"Yeah... Me too, sweetie."

What am I going to do?

#Freddy Krueger x Fem!Reader #Freddy Krueger x Reader #Slashers #Slashers x Reader #Fem Reader #Freddy Krueger #Loretta Krueger #Katherine Krueger #Kathrine Krueger #Maggie Burroughs #Oneshot #Freddy Krueger x Reader Oneshot

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soniaxdixon · 3 years

Text

My Girl

Word count: 1847

Set end of season 3 start of season 4ish

Summary: You and Daryl have an unspoken relationship and when a new girl comes to the prison, you let her know very clearly who Daryl is with.

Warnings: Swearing, TWD gore, reader is a bit hot headed.

Rick bringing the people of Woodbury to the prison was definitely a surprise to you all but in this day and age, strength came in numbers so you were lucky to have this many people now. The governor was still at large and no one had any idea where he could have possibly gone which meant that you all needed to be prepared. Most of the people from Woodbury where either older or didn’t know how to fight which was an issue. You were one of the best fighters among your group along with Daryl, Maggie, Glenn and of course Rick but Rick had other commitments which left the four of you to run lessons. Maggie and Glenn taught the newcomers how to use guns and knives while you and Daryl taught hand to hand classes. Most of your classes involved sparring and it always helped when there were even numbers of people but today Rick had brought in a new person who he had found on the road a few days ago. She was quite small and didn’t know how to fight at all, you wondered how she had survived this far.

Rick brought her over to you and Daryl once she had rested for a few days, she was now ready to learn to defend herself.

“You’re not gonna find better teachers than these two.” Rick led the girl over to you and Daryl, gesturing towards you as he spoke. You both walked up to meet the two of them in the middle of the field. “Mia, this is y/n and Daryl.” Her eyes flicked between the two of you, looking Daryl up and down far too many times for your liking.

You and Daryl had been in love with each other since the day you met, you shared a cell and everything but you still hadn’t technically made things ‘official.’ Your group liked to make jokes about how obvious your feelings were except you seemed to be oblivious to each other for so long.

You noticed Daryl’s breath hitch as her eyes slowly roamed his body, your stomach twisting in knots as you watched her practically undress him with her stare. You broke the silence, drawing her eyes back to you.

“How long you been out there”

“It’s been a while, since I lost my boyfriend I’ve been all alone.”

Her eyes flicked back to Daryl earning an eye roll from you. “Shame.”

Daryl cleared his throat, “Right, we better get started with the rest of em over there. Come on.”

You followed Daryl back over to the group, Mia standing close behind him like a lost puppy.

“Right, today we are working on getting out of someone’s grip. There may be times where someone grabs you, pins you, whatever, you need to be able to get out of it. Watch Daryl and I first, then buddy up and start practicing.”

You walked over to Daryl turning to face the group as he stood behind you, wrapping his arms tightly around your frame, trapping your arms.

“This is where you would kick their shins or slam your head into their face. The shock should be enough to throw them off their game to which you should be able to rip your way out of their hold then turn and kick them until they’re down and keep them down. Your turn, find a partner and get started.”

Everyone had a partner except for Mia, she was walking over towards Daryl before you stepped in.

“Excuse me” She looked passed you her sites still set on Daryl.

“Just practice with me, let’s see what you got.”

“Don’t you think it would be better if I had someone bigger holding me to see if I can really get out of this situation?” She batted her eyelashes towards Daryl as she spoke. Was this girl for real? Couldn’t she take a hint?

“You know what, you’re so right.” Sarcasm dripped from your words.

Her smile grew as she started walking towards Daryl again.

“Hey Tyrese, can you give me a hand here for a second?” Your words stopped her in her tracks, anger taking over her face.

You stood back with Daryl and watched as everyone practiced what you had taught them, all except Mia who just wasn’t getting out of Tyrese’s grip.

Then sun began to set as you wrapped up the classes. “We’ll see you all tomorrow, same time, same place as always.”

You and Daryl began to walk back to the prison as your stomach’s growled.

“Any idea what we’re havin’ for dinner?” Daryl asked you but your mind remained focused on the girl staring at him.

“Hm? Oh um, I think Carol made a stew.”

You ate with the rest of your family before making your way over to the showers, Daryl heading up towards your shared cell. While you were in the shower, Mia took the opportunity to head over to your cell and chat with Daryl.

“Hey Daryl.”

“Hey, Mia right?”

“Yeah, I was wondering if you run one on one classes? I feel like I’ve missed a lot of training here and I thought it might be good to catch up.”

“We usually just run the group classes.”

“Oh. Would you be willing to maybe just help me out a bit then, I promise I’m a fast learner and I’ll do anything you tell me.” She had a devilish look to her when she spoke. Daryl chewed his thumb as he thought about her question. She seemed like she really just wanted to learn and it wouldn’t hurt to have her learn a few extra things.

“M’kay, meet me where we had class today, after breakfast.”

“Thank you!” She squealed as she made her way to her cell.

You got out of the shower, drying off and dressing into your pyjamas before you climbed the stairs up to your cell. By the time you got in there Daryl had changed and climbed under the covers, his arm covering his eyes. You couldn’t help but let your eyes roam over his toned arms.

“I know ya starin’ at me.” You giggled at his comment before climbing over him onto the other side of the bed, rolling over and facing the wall. He rolled onto his side and wrapped his arm around your waist pulling your body flush against his. You traced circles around his arm that was draped over you.

“What do you think about that new girl, Mia?” You asked him, your eyes remaining focused on the wall in front of you.

“She seems harmless.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Goodnight Daryl.”

“Mhm, night.”

You squeezed his arm before letting your arm slide back down onto the pillow under you, drifting to sleep with your archer behind you.

You woke up before Daryl, his arm was still wrapped around you, loose enough that you could slide out of his grip and shuffle off the bed. He stirred slightly as you climbed off the bunk.

“Where ya goin’?”

“I have fence duty, go back to sleep. I’ll see you for lunch.” You bent down and kissed him on the forehead before exiting your cell and making your way down to the fences.

After about an hour of stabbing walkers through the fence you saw Daryl walk out of the prison, you waved at him and he sent a smile your way. You turned back around and continued to take care of the walker issue.

“Hey y/n” The southern drawl you knew so well caught your attention.

“Hey Ricky.” You smiled cheekily, he hated when you called him that but part of him loved it, it showed how close the two of you were.

“How’d that new girl, Mia go at classes yesterday?”

“Not great, she needs a lot of work. Plus, I think she has a thing for Daryl and that’s not on.”

“Well you’re not gonna like this.” Your stomach dropped at his words.

“What?” He gestured over towards the middle of the field where Daryl and Mia were sparring. One on One.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” You glared at the two of them, your stomach twisting repeatedly when you could hear her giggles whenever Daryl would go to grab her.

“Go handle it, I got you covered for a bit.”

You stabbed one more walker through the head violently yanking your knife back out sending blood everywhere as you shook it and shoved it back in its sheath. You could feel your anger rise every time Daryl put his hands on her, you could see her leaning into his touch.

————

“Alright let’s try again.” Mia said, looking at Daryl with a spark in her eyes.

“M’kay one more time.” Daryl went to wrap his arms around her from behind but at the last second she turned and was facing him, her hands pressed up against his chest which caught him off guard as he stepped back. “What the hell?”

“Come on Daryl, we should have a bit of fun while we’re here.” She started leaning up towards him before he took another step back. “Don’t tell me you’re not attracted to me, I know you want me and I’ll give you everything and more. More than y/n can give you.”

“You’re fucking crazy, ya know that?”

She took a step towards him, placing her hands on his shoulder before his eyes met yours, you were now almost standing directly behind Mia and she was oblivious.

“My girl ain’t gonna like this.”

“She doesn’t have to know, I don’t see her anywhere.”

With that, you grabbed her hair and yanked her so hard she hit the floor. “Now you do.”

“y-y/n I-” She struggled to find words before you stood next to Daryl, looking down at her.

“You ever try anything again, you even think about trying anything again, I will personally tie you to a tree and let the walkers finish you off. Do you understand me?”

She gulped, “Yes”

“Good, now go and find someone else to teach you how to fight. I’m sick of seeing your face.”

She pushed herself off the floor and scurried towards the prison building.

Daryl went to grab your hand but you pulled away.

“Nuh uh. Not letting you off that easy asshole. What the hell were you thinking?”

“She asked for a one on one session to help her improve, I thought she was bein’ serious but obviously not.”

“Mhm.” You started to walk away from him before turning back “My girl, huh?” Daryl rubbed the back of his neck. “I like it.” You started to walk back down towards the fence to return to Rick as Daryl’s eyes focused on the swing in your hips.

He smiled sheepishly at the ground before following you like a lovesick teen. He was completely under your spell and would never have done anything with Mia. You knew that but you needed Mia to know who he was with and that he was not fair game.

She understood that now.

#daryl dixon #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixion imagine #daryl dixon x you #daryl dixon x grimes reader #you x daryl dixon #you x daryl #daryl x you #twd #twd fic #twd series #twd fic series #twd fanfiction #the walking dead #the walking dead fic #the walking dead imagine

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anotheronechicagobog · 3 years

Text

Functional Dysfunction - Rheese - Chapter 5 - It Isn’t Salad

written by @anotheronechicagobog

warnings: swearing, mention of abortion, mention of attempting to force abortion, unplanned preganancy, Connor and Robin are still together, Jimmy is still an ass, but now so is Chilli

The next day everyone was acting weird around her. Manning and Maggie were now running away from her, Halstead couldn't meet her eyes, Choi pretended to take a phone call when they were alone in the doctor's lounge, and Doris was completely silent. That never happened. She gossiped about anything and everything, until now Sarah hadn't believed there was a force on earth powerful enough to shut her up.

A distraction came in the form of a mass casualty structural collapse at a construction site. Injured workers flooded in, while Sarah and Choi were tasked with going to the scene and treating people in the field. It was Sarah's first time working like that. So far it had only been fully stocked EDs or ORs with copious amounts of staff ready to jump into action. Here there were limited supplies, limited staff, and unlimited chaos.

So far the building they were constructing was a small five-story apartment building, it didn't have any walls or floors, it was just metal beams and underlying structure. Half of the crossbeams had just... Come off, taking the workers that were on them, towards the concrete foundation, where other workers were. It was a grizzly, awful site. There were going to be so many casualties, no doubt about it. She reached her first patient, a woman no older than twenty, whose arm was being crushed by a beam near the shoulder. It was purple. She had to amputate.

Red tag, red tag, black tag, red tag, black tag, black tag, black tag, red tag, green tag, black tag, red tag.

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She hadn’t eaten in ten hours and there were two more action-packed hours left in her shift. While she was finally back in the hospital, she couldn’t help but feel like she was still at the disaster site. One wrong move, one wrong word, and tragedy would occur. Of course at Gaffney it would be social tragedy, but still, she felt like she was navigating a mine field. She’d been on her feet non-stop since her shift started and she was feeling more mentally drained than physically drained. The other interns looked at her the way she imagined vultures would, beady eyes looking at your dying soul, ready to devour your corpse. Except... She wasn’t dying. She was in perfect health, it was apparent that they thought her career was about to be drop-kicked into an active volcano. Boy were they in for a surprise.

“Dr. Reese, scrub up, I need you in the OR with me.” Chad Dovingly, the resident “legacy” intern, almost yelled at Dr. Abrams, but Sarah watched him stop himself. “Sam-”

“Do not call me by my first name, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that. Call me ‘Dr. Abrams’ or don’t speak to me at all.”

“Right, right, my apologies. Dr. Abrams, are you sure that Dr. Reese is the right choice? I mean, I was literally born to be a surgeon, I was in the top ten at my med school, and Dr. Reese, well... Is this because she’s pregnant-”

“Stop. Talking. You may have been in the top ten of your class, but she was the first in hers. She has shown far more dedication and skill than any of you here, and I will not stand here while you not only accuse me of favouritism, but belittle your colleague and fellow intern because of a matter that is absolutely none of your business. The reason you aren’t scrubbing in as much is that you’re not good enough to yet, so if you want to scrub in more, prove to me that you’re worthy of it, because honestly so far Dr. Reese and Dr. Kim are the only ones who have done so.” He dismissed the other interns with only a head nod, leaving the two of them alone in the hallway. “Dr. Reese, the surgery is in two hours. Read up on the procedure and eat something, then meet me in OR four.” The confusion must have been displayed on her face so he sighed and pulled her to the side away from the other interns. “Dr. Manning cornered me earlier and informed me that you’ve been on your feet all day, and you’re going to be staying late. So eat something and then join me in the OR.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll see you in two hours then.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She had a sandwich in her bag, but she doubted that the cold cut meats would still taste good after all this time. She debated going to the cafeteria but at this time all that would be available was heavy fast food. “Sarah?”

“Hi Dr. Manning, don’t worry Dr. Abrams ordered me to eat something before I join him in the OR.”

“Good. I was actually coming to get you, we ordered pizza down in the ED and I was wondering if you wanted to join us?”

“Something tells me you’re not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“A correct assumption, come on it should be here by now.”

They were almost at the doctor’s lounge when Sarah couldn’t ignore the need to ask anymore. “... You know, don’t you?”

“Yes. We all do. I’m sorry that we’ve been avoiding you all day, we just didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“What sur-”

“SURPRISE!” Sarah jumped out of her skin and then looked around the lounge. There was a shiny blue ‘congratulations’ banner along the back wall, streamers taped to the ceiling and a stack of pizza boxes on the table. “We want you to know that we’re here for you and that we’re happy for you. I know that you don’t have a lot of time, she needs to scrub up at OR four in... one hour and fifty-one minutes, but celebrate with us a little now, we just want to make sure that you feel supported.”

“And that you eat, no one needs you fainting in an OR.”

“Thank you, all of you, so much... I really appreciate this, I was pretty scared at first, I still am, but I’m confident in my decision.”

“Trust me, we know Sarah.” Puzzled, she looked around at her co-workers and found them all snickering in the direction of Connor and Robin. Connor blushed and lowered his head with anawkward smirk while Robin rolled her eyes. “Doris tried to talk smack and I can honestly say that I have never seen someone get verbally eviscerated so viciously. Showed all of us not to mess with Robin.” Everyone around her chuckled and seemed to unanimously agree with Maggie. “Thanks.”

“No problem, Sarah. Besides I think it was about time someone knocked her down a peg. I mean, I know that gossip is just a part of hospital life, but she just takes it to a whole other level.”

Maggie and Nat were the least tense around her since this whole thing started, Choi and Halstead just seemed relieved that there wasn’t anything wrong with her, April and Noah just seemed content to make her laugh as loud as possible, Robin made sassy quips about the two of them sticking together, and Connor just made sure she always had pizza on her plate. They exchanged a smile when he made sure that she was the first one to eat ‘I know that it’s not salad but it’s still pretty good’. Sarah couldn’t have been more delighted to see Connor moving more freely, lighter, with an enormous weight having been removed from his shoulders.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The surgery... Did not go well, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault thankfully. Their patient had the largest tumor she’d ever seen in the centre of their brain and when Dr. Abrams removed it, it looked horrifying to be frank. There was literally a hole in this poor man’s brain which unfortunately resulted in brain damage. It was a serious risk from the beginning, so the patient and family had been informed numerous times in the days leading up to and of the surgery. Delivering that news had been assigned to Sarah and she was not looking forward to it. She left the recovery suite where the patient has just been examined after waking up and went to the waiting room where his husband was waiting along with his twin sister were after Dr. Abrams told them to wait while they examined him. “How is he?”

“He’s okay, right?”

“I am so sorry to tell you this, but he did sustain significant brain damage and it’s very likely that it’s permanent. There’s also a possibility that he could... Pass away due to the severity.” The second that the word ‘sorry’ was out of her mouth they both broke down in tears, holding onto each other for dear life. “You can see him, if you want, and I can explain a few things. Dr. Abrams will check on him again tomorrow at seven am, to give him more time to improve-”

“So, he could get better, my brother could recover.”

“I need to stress that while that is a vague possibility, it is incredibly unlikely, and I don’t want to get your hopes up. I’m so sorry.”

“... Can you take us to him? Or at least me? I totally understand if you can’t see him yet, he’s your twin, but... We- He’s the love of my life. I need to see him.” Sarah nodded and gestured for them to follow her, she wasn’t sure if his sister would at first, but she did, with a far-off, grave look in her eyes. Sarah tried not to think about it, after all, this poor woman was just told her twin brother suffered brain damage and would probably never be the same again, she was allowed to react however she needed to. Still... Sarah couldn’t help but feel like foreshadowing had taken physical form, like her patient’s sister knew more than she was saying.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah had forty minutes left in her shift when alarms started blaring. She knew before she even turned around who it was and what the outcome would be. Despite being in her usual ‘crap someone’s dying’ speed her ankles felt like lead, and her soul had stayed at the computer she was working on. Her mind was still there, still searching her head for the best course of action before conducting it, giving orders to nurses, telling someone to get his loved ones out of the room, and shouting for someone to page the on-call neurosurgeon... But it was no use. And from the way everyone was looking at each other that this was the outcome they expected. “Time of death, 21:37.” Her voice felt so out of place, the vibrations her thoat made were irritating. The late patient’s fiance and sister were in the doorway. He was sobbing so inconsolably, so loud, it made Sarah’s heart clench. She however, looked numb, like a part of her just died. She looked Srah dead in the eyes and Sarah’s heart broke all over again. She’d known. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you Dr. Reese... I know that you and Dr. Abrams did everything you could. Could- could we have a moment with my brother? To say... Goodbye?”

“Of course.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When she finally left the hospital she was in tatters. She wasn’t sure if it was the pregnancy hormones or if it was her patient’s death, but all that she really wanted to do was cry. No, she needed to cry. Sadness and despair was bubbling up inside of her and she just didn’t want to keep it inside her. But of course the universe had other plans. When she finally made it to her car the last two people she wanted to see were standing beside it and sitting on it. She sighed, on the verge of tears and not in any mood to deal with either of them. “Jimmy. Chilli.”

“We need to talk.”

“We don’t actually. We really, really don’t. You don’t want to be involved and that’s fine. When they’re born we’ll do a paternity test because that’s what’s required for you to sign away your rights, and then you’ll do just that, and then you’ll walk away. It’s okay.”

“No it’s not. I’m not okay with you having my baby.”

“And I’m not okay with it either, he’s my... Boyfriend and I don’t want another chick to have his child.”

“Okay, first of all, neither of you get a say and whether or not I have this child. My body, my decision, that’s it. Second, Chilli, you have absolutely no say here in anything. You are not the mother or the father and I’m not even sure if you guys are dating given your hesitation in calling Jimmy your ‘boyfriend’ and you have such a volatile on/off relationship, you get zero say in anything even remotely related to my baby.”

“HEY! DON’T TALK TO HER LIKE THAT-”

“Speak to me like an adult or don’t speak to me at all. You don’t get to yell at me, you don’t get to use that tone with me, it’s not okay.”

“I CAN SPEAK TO YOU HOWEVER I WANT! AND YOU ARE GETTING AN ABORTION EVEN IF I HAVE TO DRAG YOU THERE MYSELF!” In the next three seconds Sarah observed three things:

There were two of them and one of her

They were in a dimly lit, poorly monitored parking garage alone

They had to deal with violent people at their jobs more than she did and would likely overpower her

“The hell she is! She made her choice Borelli and you didn’t get a say in it!” Okay, so #2 was not true apparently, as Connor walked closer to them from the entrance. “This isn’t any of your business doc, so just go, okay?”

“You’re threatening my friend in a dark parking garage. Yes, it is my business. But it isn’t yours, you’ve said that you don’t want to be a dad, so you won’t be, and I don’t even know why Chilli is here, so you two need to get off of Sarah’s car and leave her alone.”

“No. We don’t have to listen to you. I’ll talk to her however I fucking want, I don’t have to move away from her car, and Chilli doesn’t have to get off it. Fuck. Off.”

“Connor, you worked a long shift, you shouldn’t have to stay for this, I’ll figure it out.”

“I appreciate the thought Sarah, but you worked a long day too and I’m seriously worried about your safety around them. Why don’t I just drive you home? It really isn’t a big deal.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I am-”

“HEY! DON’T TALK ABOUT US LIKE WE AREN’T HERE! AND THIS ISN’T ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS!”

“Oh, go suck an egg, Borelli. Lead the way, Connor.”

“Gladly.”

They’d managed to make it to his car before the, quite honestly delusional, couple(?) realized they were seriously leaving, and Connor was pulling away with them shouting expletives and trying to chase the car on foot. “Thanks Connor, I really appreciate this.”

“Anytime Sarah, seriously. I care about you, you’ve become someone I trust and I want you to be safe and happy. I’ll help to make that happen if you ever need it.” Maybe it was the hormones, the encounter with Jimmy and Chilli, or the day just catching up with her, but she just couldn’t keep the exhaustion and gratitude out of her voice. “Thank you.”

21 notes · View notes

madddddy · 3 years

Text

From The Ground Up:

Buck POV:

I don't know what to do. I already apologized to the 118, especially Cap, but they still treat me like shit. It's been 8 months since the lawsuit and I haven't gone out on a call once. I know if I told Maddie or my parents, they would tell me to "go home". I'm starting to think that may be the best thing for me. At least my family knows I'm not on blood thinners anymore. Sitting at home, nursing a beer, I made my decision. I'm going home.

The next day I call up the fire chief and ask if I can get an appointment for that day. They are thankfully able to get me in at 1. I glance at the clock seeing that it's 10am. I text Maddie to have her come over. She lets herself in with her key and I get up to hug her.

"Hey Mads"

"Hey Evan. So why did you want to talk to me?"

"I think I'm going to go home. Its been 8 months and I haven't been out on a call once. I have an appointment with the chief at 1 today. I don't want this to affect your relationship with Chim. He has actually been one of the only ones who has talked to me. Him and Hen have been friends, but Cap and Eddie. They just glare or say things to my face that I just can't take anymore. I'm gonna surprise dad, but I'll call Kelly, Matt, and Boden to let them know. I'll miss you but you know where I'll be."

I look at Maddie to see her with tears in her eyes but she looks understanding. She nods and says,

"I understand Evan. You need a "new" start. I will miss you but I'm glad Chim and Hen have been there for you. I'll help you pack once you get back from the chief since I have today off. I can call Hen and Chim to see if they'll help too, but they probably will anyway."

I nod and get up. She stands up and we hug for what seems like hours, but its only 5 minutes. When we separate, she takes my hand into hers and drags me towards the door.

"Mads what are you doing?" I ask amused.

"We are going out to get breakfast at our favorite diner, then we are picking up Chim and Hen, then coming back here so you can type up your resignation and us three can start packing as you go talk to the chief. After your meeting, you will call Kelly, Matt, and Boden like you said"

I just nod and get my shoes on. We get out to the car and decide on driving my Jeep. Maggie's diner is about 10 minutes away from my loft, so it doesn't take long to get there. The hostess sees us and smiles since we are regulars here and she shows us to "our table". Patti, our favorite waitress comes to our table and smiles when she sees us.

"Well look what the cat dragged in! The Buckley siblings! Y'all want your regular?"

We both nod and Patti winks at us and walks away. Maddie looks at me pointedly so I take that as a point to start thinking of what I should say in my resignation. As if reading my mind, she pulls out a pad of paper and pencil. I start writing and once I do I just keep writing and I don't even realize our food is here until it gets set in front of me. We eat, pay and then head out. Maddie calls Chim and Hen and they agree to head over to the loft, even if they are a bit confused.

"Hey buckaroo!" Hen greets when I open the door for her and Chim. I hug them both and let them in. They already know most about what is going on at the firehouse, so they aren't super surprised when I say I am leaving. I tell them I'm planning on going home to Chicago, as soon as possible. Maddie looks at the time and tells me to get going so I'm not late to the meeting, and that them three will get packing. I thank them and head out.

45 minutes later I'm walking into the fire chief's office.

"Firefighter Buckley" Chief Torres greets and I shake his hand.

"Thank you for seeing me today Chief Torres. I am here because I would like to transfer stations. Specifically to firehouse 51 in Chicago. As for why, things at the 118 have not been good. Captain Nash and Firefighter Diaz have been holding personal vendettas against me because of my lawsuit from 8 months ago. Firefighters Han and Wilson have been the only ones from the firehouse treating me like a human. They don't participate in the jibes towards me and they still talk to me. They don't deserve to be punished, but Nash and Diaz should be. They shouldn't be fired, but maybe suspended. But I will leave that up to you. I came from Chicago and I started at the 51. I made a family there and I would love to return to it."

The chief sits there for a few before nodding and pulling out transfer papers. He signs them and then stands up.

"I hate to lose a good firefighter, but I feel after what you said, I will be looking into Nash and Diaz. Have a good life in Chicago Buckley."

I stand up and shake his hand. I take the papers and walk out to my Jeep. I call Maddie to let her know I'm on my way back. When I get back to my place, I'm surprised at how much they had gotten packed up, but then again, I didn't have much. We call a moving company and book them for the next day. Next I call the men that have become my older brothers in all but blood, Matt Casey and Kelly Severide.

*Ring ring ring*

Matt: "Hey Ev! What's up?"

Buck: "Hey Matty, can you grab Kel and see if Boden is free? If he isn't just go somewhere private. I need to talk to you all."

Matt: "Sure. Is everything alright?"

Buck: "Yeah nothing bad. Just got something to talk to you about."

Matt: "Okay Ev, I have all of us in Boden's office with the door shut."

Buck: "Okay. So I just want to say this all at once so please don't interrupt me and ask questions at the end. Things here have not been good since the lawsuit. Chim and Hen have been good but Diaz and Nash have been cold and distancing me. I am hoping that I can be transfered back home. I have the papers ready, just need a spot. And before you ask, yes Maddie is okay with it. And no I haven't talked to dad, I wanna surprise both my parents. So what do you say Boden, you want another Herrmann on your team?"

Boden: "Okay Buck, I think we can make room here at 51 for you. I told you when you left there would always be a spot for you and I meant it. I would love for you to come back here. What do you think boys?"

Kelly: "Well Cub, I wish you came to us about the 2, I understand why you didn't. I want you to come home too and Matt here is agreeing with me. You want us to pick you up from the airport when you land?"

Buck: "That would be great. Can I stay with you guys? Until I find a place? That or I'll stay with my parents. I should be out there tomorrow late afternoon. I'll text you to let you know for sure"

Matt: "Sounds good Buck. Can't wait to see you. And don't worry, we won't tell your dad."

Buck: "Okay I'll see you guys tomorrow. Love you!"

All three: "Love you!"

*Click*

I want back into the living room where the three are sitting.

"Hey Mads, Chim, Hen. Boden told me I have a spot there and Matty and Kel said they'll pick me up from the airport. You said you booked one right?"

She nods, "yeah I did Evan. I'm glad Matt and Kelly will pick you up. I like that you are surprising mom and dad. Are you gonna stay there or with the boys?"

"I'm not sure yet. The boys said I can stay with them but if mom and dad want me to stay with them, I will"

"Not to interrupt this, but who are Boden, Kelly, and Matt?" Hen asks.

"Oh right! I forgot you guys don't know our friends and family from Chicago! So I was adopted after Evan wasn't able to save our older brother with a bone marrow transplant. He got adopted by Christopher and Cindy Herrmann in Chicago. He grew up there, became a firefighter like our dad and his godfather Mouch. He moved here and worked at the 118, as you know. When I moved here and started dating you Chim, I was able to reconnect with him, since I recognized his birthmark. We talked and cried. I told him how I was disowned by our birth parents because I am bi and he introduced me to our parents. They immediately unofficially adopted me into their family and so I call them mom and dad. Kelly and Matt are other firefighters at 51 and they all went to the academy together and became like brothers. Kelly and Matt are married." Maddie explained. I'm nodding along.

"Yep. Mom and dad treat Maddie like their own and I want to go home to Chicago because personally, it's toxic here for me. You guys are great and I love you but Eddie and Bobby are the worst right now. I know you stand up for me and I appreciate it a lot but I just need my original family. I'll keep in touch of course and I'll miss you but you are always willing to visit me in Chicago." I added on.

Chim and Hen nodded and got up to give me a hug.

The next hours fly by and the next thing I know, I'm landing in O'Hare airport. I see the men who are like my older brothers and run to give them each a hug.

"Hey Ev! How have you been?"

"I've been better but I'm do happy to be here." It's slightly muffled because I'm in the middle of hugging them. I pull back the they see my tears on my face and each wipe them off my face. I smile at them softly and they smile back.

"Hey Cub." Kelly says softly.

"Hi" I reply just as softly.

"Let's get out of here eh?" Matt asks.

I just nod and they each flank one of my sides whole carrying my duffle. The rest of my stuff is in the moving truck. We walk out to Matt's truck. I climb in and we take off to the 51. We stay in comfortable silence with me just watching the city go by. We get there 20 of so minutes later but it seems shorter than that. We get out and the go to each of my sides again. They have always been taller than me and I say I hate it but I secretly love it. I see my dad talking to my uncle Mouch in the break room. Sylvie Brett is the first one to see me and she gasps loudly making everyone turn toward me.

"SURPRISE!" I shout shocking them out of their frozen states.

Next thing I know I am tackled by my dad and godfather. Boden is secretly recording this for everyone.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" My dad and godfather ask at the same time.

"Well it's a long story which I will tell over drinks at Molly's tonight, but pretty much, things got crappy at 118, and I wanted to come home. Don't worry dad, Mads was the one to talk me into it. And only Diaz and Nash were the ones who were bad. Hen and Chim have been good." He just nods and they both step back so everyone else can hug me. The girls are next, Shay, Stella, and Sylvie come running up next hugging me super tight, but I'm hugging back just as tight. I hug everyone else except for 2 people I don't recognize. I turn to my dad questionably.

"Ah right. Evan, these are Darren Ritter and Blake Gallo. They are new to the house." I shake their hands and for some reason I get butterflies shaking Gallo's hand. I think the girls sensed something because they gave me knowing looks. I gave them 'the look' back.

"Hi, I'm Evan Buckley-Herrmann. I used to go by Buck but I think I'm gonna start going by Evan again." I smile at them. They smile back and shake my hand.

"Hi Evan, I'm Darren Ritter. I've been here for about a year."

"Hi, I'm Blake Gallo and I've been here about 5 or so months"

I smile and nod to each of them. When Gallo smiles back all I can think of is damn his smile is cute. Fuck I'm so gone on him and I just met him.

"Oh dad! I didn't tell mom either so I think I'll stay here until shift is done and then we can stop by home, pick her up and we'll all go to Molly's and meet up with the crew from Med and Intelligence?"

"Sounds good Ev. You wanna borrow some turnout gear and go with? If that's okay of course." He asked the last part directed towards Boden. Boden nods and so I agree pretty quickly. Almost as if it knows, the alarm goes off.

*Time skip to end of shift because I cannot write fire scenes for shit*

Dad and I walk out of the firehouse at the end of shift and get in his car. After about 5 minutes he speaks up,

"So what was that with Gallo?"

Shit. Play dumb.

"What do you mean?"

Good, good.

"Look, I know what flirting looks like, son. And I know you are gay since you came out to us in high school. I'm also not dumb, so I'll ask again, what was that with Gallo?"

I sigh. He always knows how to read me.

"He is cute, and I think I might be getting a crush on him, but it's nothing and he is most likely straight anyways."

"Well, I'm glad you told me, and I think you may have a better chance than you think."

And with that we pull into the driveway of my childhood home. We get out of the car and dad goes in first. I hear him say to mom,

"Hey honey, I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes"

After a few seconds he comes out and beckons me inside. I walk up and say,

"Hey mom."

She opens her eyes and shrieks when she sees me. She runs up to me and hugs me as tight as she can and I hug her back just as tight. Dad comes up to us and hugs us too. After a few we reluctantly separated.

"So what are you doing here?" She asks as she wipes the tears off her face. I tell her what I told dad and she nods and goes to get ready to go to Molly's. Dad and I do the same.

We get to Molly's and I'm bombarded by hugs again from my friends from Med and Intelligence. I am friends with Jay and Will Halstead, Mouse Gerwitz, Antonio Dawson, Hailey Upton, Adam Ruzek, Kim Burgess, Alvin Oilinsky, not Voight because of reasons, Kevin Atwater, Trudy Platt, Ethan Choi (he's not a dick here), Crockett Marcel, Natalie Manning, Maggie Lockwood, April Sexton, Connor Rhodes, Daniel Charles and Sharon Goodwin. They are all there and as soon as they heard I was back in town, they all came to Molly's. I also got hugs again from Kel, Matty, Joe, Otis, Sylvie, Stella, Shay, Andy, Boden, Tony, and Capp. I shake Gallo and Ritter's hands again. They all look at me expectantly, waiting for the story. I sigh and start talking.

"Okay so basically, you all remember how I was crushed under the truck? Well at my welcome back party, I had a pulmonary embolism in my ex-captains backyard. I wake up in the hospital and find out I need to go on blood thinners because I worked too hard doing my recertification. I go to dinner at my ex-captains house and find out why I can't go back on calls because of him. He is the one keeping me as a fire marshal. I make a dumb mistake and decide to sue the department and him. The lawyer threatened them all and tried to offer me a payout but I just wanted to go back to the firehouse. When I decided to come home, I hadn't been out on a call in 8 months. I got tired of it so I texted Maddie, my sister, and she came over. We went out to brunch at our favorite diner. On our way back to my loft, she called her boyfriend and his best friend, both of whom are my ex-coworkers but they were very vocal about my treatment and never shut me out. I went to talk to the chief, and he signed the transfer papers. I went back home to find that the three of them had packed all my things and Maddie booked me a flight for the next day, aka today. I called Matty, he got Boden and Kel into the office and I told them my plan. Next thing I know they are picking me up from O'Hare, we went to the firehouse, I surprised you all, went out on a few calls, went home to surprise mom, and came here to tell you my story."

I look around and see many shocked and furious faces.

"Okay I know those faces, you don't need to murder them, I told the chief what happened and recommend he suspend but not fire Diaz and Nash."

They all look more satisfied at that, but still mad. Gallo and Ritter just looked shocked.

"Wait wait wait, you are telling me that YOU WERE THE GUY TRAPPED UNDER THE TRUCK?!" Gallo asked, shocked.

I nod sheepishly.

"Yeah some kid was tryna blow up my captain but I was in his seat for the day. Don't remember why."

He just blew out a breath.

"Okay less sad things, what have I missed with you all?"

Jay speaks up first.

"Well Mouse and I finally got engaged!" He said, showing me his ring.

I jump up and go hug them both.

"I'm so happy for you two!"

They thank me and Connor goes next.

"Will and I finally got our heads out of our asses and got together."

I hug them both too and congratulate them.

"Matt and I are still together obviously" Kelly says. I roll my eyes and smack him on the head.

"I got a new girlfriend." Shay says slyly looking at Sylvie.

"I broke up with my boyfriend." Gallo says shrugging.

I feel both the girls and dads eyes on me but I very clearly ignore them. Everyone else is kinda confused but brushes it off.

"Chole is pregnant with my son!" Joe says excitedly.

"Oh my god dude congrats! I'm so happy for you!"

Everyone else shares something or say nothing new.

Couple hours later, it started to wind down and I'm at a table with the Halstead brothers, their other haves and Shay, Kim, and Hailey.

"So what's that with Gallo?" Mouse asks me pointedly. They all turn to me and I know my face is heating up.

"Nothing! There is nothing going on with Gallo!"

They all give me a 'drop the bullshit' look and I sigh.

"Okay fine, you all can stop giving me that look. I might have a slight crush on him. And it may be a little more now that I know he likes guys. But what if he doesn't like me?"

They all look at me in understanding.

"Evan, I love you, but why the fuck would he not want to go out with you? You are good looking, you are sweet, and anyone who wouldn't date you is dumb. And I'm a fucking lesbian." Shay says to me, everyone nodding along showing they agree with her.

"Yeah Cubby, I may not be a lesbian but you are like my brother, anyone who wouldn't date you is dumb" Kim adds on.

I sigh and nod. They all smile at me and we start talking about Jay and Mouse's wedding. Little did I know there was a very similar conversation at the table with Gallo, Ritter, Stella, Sylvie, Adam, and Andy.

Gallo POV:

"So Gallo, what was that with Evan?" Stella asks me.

"I have no idea what you are talking about"

"Cut the bullshit Blake. We all saw what was going on between you two" Andy says to me.

Fine, guess I'm not getting out of this one.

"Okay, I like him, but he is Herrmann's son! And I don't even know if he likes guys."

They all snort and start laughing then they look at me. I'm confused.

"Gallo, Evan is as gay as a fucking rainbow." Adam says to me in between laughter.

Wait, what?

"He's gay?"

They all nod.

Okay, I have a better chance now. They must've seen me thinking because Sylvie pats my shoulder and gets my attention.

"You should go for it. I've seen the way he's been looking at you all night. Just, maybe wait until tomorrow." She says, then walks over to Shay and grabs her hand. And pulls her up and out of the bar. The rest of them are not far behind and soon it's just Ritter, me, Evan, Cindy, and Herrmann. I go say goodbye to my best friend, the Herrmanns and Evan.

"Hey Evan, I'm gonna head out but it was nice to meet you" I hold my hand out for a shake but he pulls me into a hug shocking me at first before I hug him back. Once we pull apart I realize he is drunk because he plants a kiss on my cheek. My face heats up bright red. Ritter is looking at me amused and so I flip him off before we head out since he drove me and didn't drink tonight.

We get to my place and I wave goodbye. I fall asleep to the thought of Evan Buckley-Herrmann...

Buck POV:

I don't remember much from last night cause I ended up getting more drunk than I wanted too. I do however remember hugging Gallo. My face heats up at the thought of him. Oh god I can't believe I hugged him and kissed his cheek. He is never gonna wanna speak to me again. I'm pulled out if my spiral by dad knocking on my door.

"Come in!" I call

"Hey son, I thought you might have a headache after last night so here's some water and Tylenol. Also because I know you, I saw what you did to Gallo and just know, he doesn't hate you and actually texted me asking for your number, so if you get an unexpected text from a unknown number, that's all me. Love you, I'll see you in a few before we have to head in."

I nod and he closes the door. Well that's good that he doesn't hate me.

*Ding!*

I look over at my phone and see:

+773-675-6554:

Hey Evan! This is Blake Gallo. I hope you don't mind that Herrmann gave me your number. I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner tonight? As a date?

Hey Blake! I would love to! I also wanna apologize for last night, I was super drunk. I didn't mean to get that drunk. I'll see you at work today.

It's okay! I'll pick you up around 7? We get off shift at 6.

Sounds perfect! See you later!

See ya!

I groan and lay back on my bed. I stay there for like 30 seconds before I shoot up and start to freak out. Oh god I have a date. I have a date with Blake Gallo. I HAVE A DATE WITH BLAKE FUCKING GALLO! I lay face down on my bed like a teenager and stay there. I hear my door knock and I just groan. He comes in and chuckles at me.

"What's wrong?"

I just chuck my phone at him. They know my password since I don't ever really have much to hide from them, and if I do, I hide it good.

He reads the texts and laughs.

"Isn't that a good thing?" He asks me, amused.

"Yeah. But I have nothing to weaaar." I say sounding like a child.

"Well how about your mom goes and gets you some new clothes, since she knows your size, and then you are ready for your date. Sound good?"

I nod and get up.

"Okay. Now get dressed! We gotta leave in 5 minutes!"

I scramble to get dressed and we head out. I'm excited to have my first full shift at the 51. We pull in and get out. I smile when I see the "WELCOME HOME MINI HERRMANN" banner hanging up. We get ready and as soon as we are all ready, the alarm rings out. It was a quick one, a car accident. We were pretty busy today so it went by quick. I couldn't help but look at Blake when I thought no one was looking but a certain pair of husband's certainly saw this. They pulled dad off to the side to talk to him when we had a free moment.

"So why does Ev keep looking at Gallo?"

My dad laughs and tells then about the texts from this morning, but makes then promise that they won't let me know they know. (Yes I pulled a friends). They agree and as soon as they are done talking the alarm goes off one last time. Our last call went all the way to the end of our shift so I hurry and make dad leave quick, much to the surprise of those who don't know about the date. Gallo is not far behind them rushing out and a few people have knowing looks.

We get home and I see what clothes mom got me and decide on a maroon button up shirt and black jeans with my black doc martens. I gel my hair and about that time is when I get a text:

Blake:

Hey! I'm outside!

Okay! I'll be right out!

I double check I have everything and head out, saying bye to my parents. I walk out and see him leaning up against his car. He hugs me and I hug back, taking in his scent that seems oddly comforting. We break apart and he goes to open my door. I smile at him as I get in the car and he smiles back. He gets in and starts driving. I tentatively reach across the center console to grab his hand and he holds it. We smile at each other and he pulls into a small hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. We get out and he grabs my hand again as we walk in.

"Reservation for Gallo" he says to the hostess. She nods and grabs 2 menus taking us to our table. We look at them and decide what we want. He gets the chicken enchiladas with a coke and I get fish tacos with a sprite. She takes our orders and walks away. I reach across the table and hold his hand. We start talking about our childhoods. He learns I wasn't born to mom and dad and I learn about how his family died. We talk for so long we don't realize our food is here until it gets set down. We eat, and he pays even though I try to protest. He just says "I asked out on a date. If this goes well, you can pay for the next one." I sigh and realize he wasn't going to give it up so I relent. We head back out to his car and he drives us out to a ledge to look over the city. He has a truck and backed it up so we can lay on his bed to look at the stars. We cuddled there since he brought blankets to lay down. We didn't talk, I just had my head on his chest, watching the stars.

"Evan?" He asks softly.

I look up at him and respond, "yeah?"

He looks down at me and asks, "can I kiss you?"

I nod and meet him halfway. His lips are so soft and sweet. His tongue is asking permission to enter my mouth and I let it. I moan into his mouth and he does the same when I put my tongue in his. We make out for a few minutes before we have to take a breather. We rest our foreheads against each other.

"That was amazing," I breathed out.

He just nods and we sit there. He then leans in to kiss me again, this time much more chaste.

"Do you wanna come back to my place? We don't have to have sex, but I just want to snuggle you" he asks after a few.

I look up at him through my eyelashes and nod. We get out of his truck bed and he grabs the blankets and shuts the tailgate. I climb in and let my dad know I won't be home. He just sends back winky faces and tells me to be safe. I sent him the middle finger emoji and shut my phone off. He climbs in and we head to his place. He turns on the radio and I hear one of my favorite songs, From The Ground Up by Dan+Shay. I start humming along and then when Blake turns it up I start to sing which causes him to sing along too. We both laugh and are so joyful when the song ends that we keep singing along with the radio. We pull into his apartment complex and get out. We get up there and I realize I don't have pajamas. I tell Blake this and he tells me I can borrow a shirt and sweats from him. He hands them to me and I go change. We fall asleep pretty quickly, him spooning me from behind. I feel so comfortable in his arms and it just feels right. I never believed in soulmates, but Blake Gallo is making me believe in them now.

I wake up the next morning to see Blake looking at me lovingly. I smile back up at him and kiss him. We both smile into the kiss.

"I gotta get back to my parents before shift since I don't want to go in my nice clothes" I murmur against his lips.

"Or you could borrow my clothes if you want?" He says with a shrug.

I agree, not really wanting to head back to my parents. I borrow a pair of jeans a t shirt, neither of us looking at it closely.

We head out and go to the firehouse. I hold his hand across the center console again, occasionally pulling out joined hands to kiss them. On the way there he asks me to be his boyfriend and I agree immediately. When we pull in, we smile at each other and get out. We keep our hands joined, not wanting to hide this from our family. We hear wolf whistles and cheers and we just shake our heads with smiles.

"Hey kid! Nice shirt!" I hear Mouch say.

I turn around confused a little bit before Stella takes pity on me,

"Cubby, your shirt says 'Gallo'"

We both blush and walk away. I hear Ritter going to talk to Blake and I see the resident hubby's walking over to me. They pull me into Matt's bunk and push me onto the bed.

"Talk" they both say.

I sigh and say, "okay, so the day before yesterday, I got a text from Blake asking if he wants to go on a date. The night before when it was just Ritter, him, me, and my parents, when he came to say goodbye, I was so drunk I pulled him into a hug and kissed his cheek. I apologized the next morning but he asked me on a date and I said yes. He picked me up from my parents house, opened the car door for me like a gentleman, and we went to a Mexican restaurant, then out to the ledge that looks out over the city. We laid in the bed of his truck just watching the stars when he asked if he could kiss me. I said yes, we kissed a few times then he asked if I wanted to go back to his place. He said we don't need to have sex and that he just wants to snuggle me. I agree, let my dad know, which was a mistake considering he is a kid at heart. We sang along to the radio on the way back since my favorite song came on, we got back to his place and he gave me sweats and a shirt to wear. We laid in bed, with him as the big spoon. We woke up together and I was at first gonna ask him to drop me off at home but then he just said I can borrow clothes from him so we don't have to go back. He hands me what I'm wearing, we don't look at the shirt obviously. On the way here we hold hands across the console, I keep kissing our joined hands. We then walk into the firehouse and you know the rest."

They nod along to the entire rant and finally Matt asks, "Are you happy?"

I nod enthusiastically and say, "Very. I haven't been this happy in a long time"

They both nod and get up to give me a hug. I start to tear up because having their and my parents' approval are very important to me.

"As long as you are happy Cub, we are happy." Kelly says, Matt agreeing. At that, I finally let my tears fall and they hug me again and kiss my forehead. After a few, I finally get it together and head out of the bunk. I see Blake talking to Ritter, Otis, and Cruz in the bunk room, so I go up to him and hug him. He hugs me back, a little confused but not complaining. He kisses my forehead ignoring the other three who are looking at the couple with a fond look. They walk away to give us a little privacy, shutting the door.

"What's wrong baby?" He asks me.

I sniff and then look up at him, "Nothing. I am just glad that they are accepting of our relationship. I know we just had our first date last night, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

He looks down at me with tears in his eyes too, and kisses my forehead again then my lips.

"I can't imagine my life without you too. All I could dream about last night was marrying you someday and adopting kids with you. I genuinely feel like you are my soulmate. I love you."

At that, the tears start flowing, he wipes my tears with his thumbs and kisses me.

"I love you too" I tell him softly. At that, the alarm goes off and then we are off, but not without one more kiss.

When I climb into the truck, dad asks me if I'm okay. I nod and smile at him, telling him I'll talk to him later. He nods and we are off.

When we get back, Blake and I go to talk to Boden to fill out paperwork for our relationship. He tells us he is proud of us and thanks us for filling out the paperwork. We nod and he hugs us both.

We head into the lounge and decide to cude together on the couch, but not in Mouch's spot. I close my eyes and lay my head on his shoulder. I feel him lay his head on mine and then I am asleep. We wake up when the alarm goes off again.

"Rise and shine lovebirds!" Capp yells at us. We flip him off together. The fire goes out pretty quickly and we are headed back to the station. Blake asks me if we can talk when we pull in and I nod and ask Kelly if we can use his bunk to talk. He says sure, so we head there.

"Okay, I know we literally just started dating, but how would you feel about moving in with me? I know you are looking for a place and your stuff will be here soon. If you don't want to, that's fine, but I figured it would be better for you, and we can split the rent. Whatdya say?"

I take that in for a moment before nodding with a bright grin coming across my face.

"Yeah?" He asks, a hopeful look on his face.

"Yeah." I confirm with a bright grin.

"Yay!! I'm so glad you said yes!"

"I am too. I meant what I said when I said I want to grow old with you. I want to get married and have kids with you. I love you."

"I love you too." He then leaned down to kiss me and I kissed back.

We walk out of the bunk holding hands and smiling. As the shift comes to an end I tell him that I'll head back to my parents for the night and let them know what I'm planning on doing. He says okay and we kiss and head off in different directions. Dad and I get to their house and see my Jeep is there finally. I'm glad, because as much as I love my dad driving me, I need my own vehicle. We walk in and mom greets us. We eat and then I tell them I need to talk to them. They look concerned so I reassure them it's nothing bad.

"Mom, dad, as I'm sure you know by now, Blake Gallo and I are dating. And I know we just started dating but I feel as if I've known him my entire life. He is the person I want to grow old with. He is the person I want to marry someday. He is the person I want to adopt kids with. And I know he feels the same cause he told me. I love him and he loves me. So he asked me to move in with him just because he knows I'm looking for a place and the rent would be cheaper. So I said yes. I hope that's okay."

They look at me with proud looks and tears in their eyes.

"Evan, of course it's okay. After hearing that, I firmly believe you two are soulmates. I don't always believe in love at first sight, but I saw you guys the first time you saw each other and something clicked. Your mother and I will always love you and always be proud of you. We will help you move your stuff along with I'm sure the rest of the firehouse. They all saw something there, and I know you two are meant for each other."

At this point, all of had tears down our faces. I nod and don't say anything because I don't trust my voice. They pull me into a hug and we just hug for a long time. Eventually I speak, "I think I'll stay here for the rest of the week, since we have this weekend off, we can move my stuff then"

They nod and we all head off to bed, but not before they both kiss my forehead. I fall asleep that night thinking of the names Evan Gallo and Blake Herrmann.

The weeks goes by quick. Blake and I explain what we are gonna do and they all agree to help us that weekend. Saturday rolls around and we get everything unpacked pretty quickly since Ieft all my furniture and didn't have much. Next thing I know I'm FaceTiming Maddie, Chim, and Hen to introduce them to my Blake as my boyfriend a few weeks later. They are shocked at first but by the end, Maddie and Chim are coming over for Christmas in a few months. We say bye and hang up the phone. I sigh contently and look over at my boyfriend. He looks back at me lovingly. It's been about a month since we got together. I already bought a ring, but I'm gonna wait a little longer.

*Time skip*

It's now December, getting closer to Christmas time. I want to propose on Christmas in front of our family. Since we became more serious, my family accepted him more. They already liked him since they knew him before, but it's different than being a coworker vs your son's boyfriend. Maddie and Chim are coming like they said they would. They'll be here tomorrow. The firehouse tease us about our relationship, but we both know they are happy for us. They do the same thing with Kel and Matty and Shay and Sylvie, but it's all joking. Christmas rolls around and I'm nervous and excited at the same. We show up at my parents and they let us in. Maddie and Chim are there since they are staying there instead of a hotel. We start opening presents and when it gets to my turn for Blake, I get down on one knee and pull out the ring. Behind me I hear mom and Maddie gasp but right now in focused on Blake.

"Blake, ever since I first laid eyes on you in the lounge room, I knew I liked you. That then morphed into love. I can't see myself with anyone else. I want to have children with you. I want to grow grey and wrinkly with you. I want marry you. So Blake James Gallo, will you marry me?"

He nods yes and falls down to me and we hug and kiss each other like our life depended on it. I slip the ring on as our family cheers for us and gives us all hugs. I see Blake reach into his pocket and pull out a velvet box.

"I was gonna ask you later this week, but Evan Buckley-Herrmann, will you marry me?"

I nod and we kiss again. We put our rings on and keep celebrating Christmas with our family.

We also bought the rubber rings for at work. We aren't telling anyone right out, we are gonna see who figures it out first. I bet on Shay, Blake says Matt, dad says Sylvie, mom and Maddie say Otis, and Chim who has gotten to know 51, says Stella. In the end, mom and Maddie were right. He noticed our rings and congratulated us prompting everyone else to do the same. The girls offered to plan it with Maddie. I ask Maddie to be my best woman and Blake asks Ritter to be his best man. We asked Boden to officiate it. My dad will walk me down the aisle. We each took turns deciding who we wanted for our groomsmen/women. We ended up doing a fall wedding because that is our favorite season and we had many people from intelligence, med, and firehouse 51 and a few people from California. Our first dance is the song we sang together on our first date. About a year into our marriage Blake and I decided to adopt twins. We now have two girls named Maeve Gallo and Robin Gallo who are 4. They love all the aunts and uncles they have from everywhere in Chicago and LA. They also love their "Papa Herrmann and Grammy Cindy. But also their grandpa Boden". Everyday I am thankful that I decided to leave LA and I'm thankful that the Herrmanns adopted me because if they didn't I don't know where I would be. But I thank God the Buckleys didn't want me and that captain Nash shut me out.

And we'll build this love from the ground up

Now 'til forever it's all of me, all of you

Just take my hand

And I'll be the man your dad hoped that I'd be

And we'll build this love from the ground up

For worse or for better

And I will be all you need

Beside you I'll stand through the good and the bad

We'll give all that we have

And we'll build this love from the ground up

Dan+Shay

#evan buckley #chicago fire #chicago pd #chicago med #9 1 1 #jay x mouse #rhodestead #sevasey

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finleyfray · 3 years

Text

Bittersweet Memories part 7

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (part 6)

Taglist: @ashadash0904

TW: language,nightmares, think that’s it

Finley looks at the door, waiting patiently for her girlfriends to come in. Earlier today J’onn came along announcing there was a mission and if they wanted to go. Of course, Alex and Maggie said no instantly, but Fin almost ordered them to go and have a bit of fun. After arguing with them for a solid ten minutes, they finally agreed, claiming they will be back before their scheduled therapy session.

The black-haired woman was nervous for the session. She knows they will talk about a lot of stuff that’s troubling them in their relationship. But on the other hand, some things have to be talked about. Maybe if they sit down and list them, it’s going to help. At least now Fin didn’t have to worry about Kelly stealing her girls.

‘She has a wife and a kid on the way. She wouldn’t leave them. There is no danger from her side.’ Finley thinks as she hears a knock on her door.

“Come in.” She looks at the door as they open and Kelly enters the room. “Hi.” Finley smiles politely as she greets the woman.

“Hi, good morning, Finley. How are you doing today?” The older woman sits on a chair ahead of her.

“I’m better, I think so. Nothing hurts actually, which is a pretty nice feeling.”

“That is very good. You know when they’ll let you home?” Kelly asks, looking at the woman in bed.

“Yeah.” Fin sighs. “They took my blood for testing earlier. Will let me know if I can go home tomorrow. I, uh, I kind of don’t want to go home...” She hung her head and looked at her hands.

“And why is that?”

“Well, I’m scared. It went wrong the first time, what if it goes wrong again? What if the pain comes back? And here I’ve had both of them by my side, what if I’m all alone again? I don’t want to stay home any more. I feel like I’m too clingy, because I’ve been practically attached to them for the last week, but I’ve missed them. By now they’re probably sick of me.”

“We’re not sick of you.” Finley turns and sees her redhead girlfriend by the door. “I promise there’s nothing you could do that would make us sick of you.” Alex rushed to the bed and hugged her. Maggie trails behind her and sits on the other side of the bed.

“I’m sorry.” Fin hugs them both.

“It’s okay. We’re here to remind you of how we love you.” Her raven-haired girlfriend kisses her cheek. “We’ll just go day by day. I promise we’re not going to leave you.”

“I’m just... I’m sorry, it’s egoistic, but when we’ll go home, I’m afraid you’ll just go back to work and I don’t want to stay home alone. I’m worried that something will go wrong again.”

“It’s normal that you feel that way when a certain place brings you trauma.”

“Yeah.” Fin cut Kelly off. “But I can’t expect them to constantly miss work because of me! They have taken so many free days, and Maggie even resigned from NCPD because of me. That’s not okay, I’m dragging them down.”

“I didn’t resign because of you. I did resign because of my workload. Of how my boss was treating me.” Maggie looks at her girlfriend.

“Well, she’s not wrong. You are also forgetting that you are in this state because of me.” Alex sighs, dropping her head.

“What do you mean?” Finley looks at her girlfriend tilting her head.

“Fin, you saved me. If I saw that stupid rock coming, you wouldn’t almost die! You just dropped everything and risked your life to save mine!”

“Of course I did. What, did you expect me to just stand over there and watch you being crushed?” The black-haired woman frowns.

“I said all these hurtful words and yet, even when you should be mad at me, hate me, you just dropped everything and saved me.” Alex looks at Finley as she wipes away her tears. Maggie takes the redhead hand squeezing it gently.

“How do you feel about it?” Kelly asks, looking at them.

“I’m... angry? At myself mostly. Because I acted like a total asshole. But also scared, because I realize such a situation can happen again, and I know she wouldn’t even hesitate to risk her life for me. And I don’t want to lose her.”

“Well, of course I would risk my life for both of you. How could I ever look at your mother’s face and tell that her daughter is dead because I did not save her. How do you expect me to just stay there and look at you being in danger and do nothing? That’s not an option, it never was.” Finley huffs. What did Alex even think? Of course, she’s going to risk her life for both of them.

“See, the thing is, and I can’t get why you keep missing it, my mother cares for you too. For her, it’s like she has 5 daughters. You think I ever want to go to her and tell her one of them didn’t make it!?” Alex’s voice broke, she was trying to maintain her tough face, but there were so many emotions inside her that she felt like she would burst.

“Baby...” Finley sighs and hugs her redhead girlfriend as she feels her shaking from a sob. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.” She looks at Maggie who hugged Alex from behind.

“But you almost did! You stopped breathing in my arms!”

“Babe!” Finley retreats and looks her girlfriend in the eyes. “I am here now. I promise you it’s not changing. We have so many plans together, we’re getting a dog, we talked about moving to a larger house, your sister is getting married soon! I don’t plan on missing all these things. I want to spend the rest of my life with both of you, and I’m not dying anytime soon. It’s alright, it’s going to be okay.”

“Promise?” Maggie whispers, her voice trembling from her own tears.

“I promise.”

***

Alex smiles as she enters the room with coffee in her hand. It was a tough week, Finley was ordered to stay for a few days longer in the medical just to make sure there's no change for the worse. That also made them meet up with Kelly daily, and now Alex was feeling a lot better. The redhead was hopeful for their future in a beautiful house with a dog they really want and some kids. Or at least she hopes so, she still didn't talk about the kids part with her girlfriends.

Alex always wanted to be a mother. Even if she had a time in her life where she wasn't sure if she likes men or women, Alex was always sure she wanted to have kids. She doesn't know when to talk about it yet, but she's sure she will.

"Hey. Ready to go home?" She looked at Fin, who's sitting on the bed.

"Yea, but Maggie doesn't let me do anything!" The black-haired woman whines and points at their shorter girlfriend who's packing all their stuff.

"That's because the doctor said you need to take it easy." Maggie rolls her eyes and Alex laughs. Typical Sawyer behaviour. If the kids ever get that trait from her, they're going to be in so much trouble.

"Come on, I'll help." The redhead walks to her and begins helping her girlfriend with packing.

"Alright, I think that's it. We're good to go." Maggie informs, looking at their suitcase. "We'll get you a wheelchair, and we can go to the car."

"No! No, no, I can walk!" Finley huffs. "I don't need a wheelchair, I don't have a cast any more, I'll walk!"

"Babe..." Alex sighs. She gets it, it's so frustrating for Fin that she doesn't have the energy to walk so far as she's used to, she gets tired after a few meters, she won't be able to make it to the car. Yes, the black-haired woman is doing her best at physical therapy, and she makes a lot of progress, but she can't make it that far. "Baby..." Alex begins again, but she doesn't know what words to use to not hurt the younger woman but at the same time convince her to use a wheelchair. She looks at Maggie trying to get some support.

"Finnie… The car is far away. It would really help if we just get you a wheelchair?" The shorter woman says, looking at their girlfriend.

"Oh." Finley hangs her head and looks at the floor. "O...okay."

"Baby…"

"No, just, please go get the wheelchair. Just don't, I get it. I know I'm too slow for you."

"Okay." Maggie exits the room and they stay alone.

"You okay?" Alex asks, looking at her girlfriend.

"Yea. It's just… you know. I want to be able to walk normally. It's so frustrating that I'm getting tired so quickly." Finley sighs looking at the redhead.

"You'll get better soon. Just not so long ago you could only move in a wheelchair, and now you're able to go alone for a bit. You need to give yourself some time, those injuries don't heal overnight." She walks to Fin and envelops her in a hug.

"Here you go." Maggie walks in with the wheelchair and looks at them. "You okay?"

"Yea." Finley stands up, leaning on Alex. She walks 4 steps and embraces Maggie. "Sorry. I overreacted. I just want to finally feel better and get back to our normal life."

"I know baby, I want this too. But, small steps, you know?" Maggie kissed Finley’s forehead and helped her sit on the wheelchair.

***

Maggie smiles as she enters the elevator. After a successful day at the DEO it's finally time to go home. She presses the button and the elevator closes going up. After a few seconds, the door opens again, and she walks out. Putting the key in the door, she opens them.

"I'm home." She announces, but she's met with silence. She furrows her brows and instinctively grabs her gun. While Finley might sleep, Alex never sleeps during the day. She slowly walks to the living room and chokes on air. There, on the couch, lies Alex with a bullet hole in her head. Maggie wants to scream, but she can't get any sound out of her mouth. She wants to go to her girlfriend, check on her, cry, scream, but she can't. Her legs lead her to the bedroom.

There on their bed lies her other girlfriend. She looks at her with dead eyes and a hole in her chest. Next to their bed stands a man. She can't see his face, she can only see the gun in his hands. Once again, Maggie can't move. She looks at the man as he speaks.

"I told you…"

Maggie shoots up with a gasp. She looks around and finds her girlfriend's sleeping in bed next to her. The Latino tries to get her breath together. She grabs the duvet with shaky hands and gets out of the bed. She feels her cheeks getting wet and goes to the kitchen.

"Fucking hell." She closes her eyes, but when she does, she sees her girlfriends dead all over again. She goes to the window and focuses her vision on the sign of the gas station near their home.

Slowly, the raven-haired woman is able to even her breath and stop crying. She goes to the kettle and puts in water to warm it.

For a few days now, Maggie has had this nightmare. She comes home and finds her girlfriends dead. She can't see the face of the man that shot them, it's all blurry. Only words spoken "I told you." but they don't mean anything to her.

She makes herself some coffee. She won't be able to sleep any time soon.

For the past few days, she went to lay with her girlfriends only to get up when they were asleep. She didn't want to alarm them, but she was just so tired. Maggie misses the good sleep.

She tries to occupy her mind at night with everything she can think of. Recently, Maggie discovered podcasts, and she loves the criminal ones. She's always able to identify the murderer before them, and it successfully occupies her mind. She loves coloring adult color books while listening to it. The raven-haired woman would never admit to it, but it really calms her and brings her joy.

Maggie brings her cup of coffee to the table, but before she can power her headphones on, she hears footsteps. She quickly turns and is ready to fight when she sees Finley.

"Hey." She hears her girlfriend's sleepy voice, and it brings a little smile to her face. "It's late, what are you doing here?" The blue-eyed woman hobbles in her direction, and Maggie stands up to pick her. She grabs her and goes to sit on the couch nearby. The Latino snuggles into her girlfriend and sighs. She didn't realize how bad she needed a hug. Fin embraces her and softly scratches the back of her head.

"What's wrong?" She asks, and Maggie can hear a worry in her voice.

"Nothing. I just wanted to snuggle."

"Then why are you here with coffee instead of sleeping?" Her girlfriend asks softly.

"I just can't sleep any more tonight."

"Babe, you look exhausted. What's wrong?"

"I… Nothing is wrong. I just can't sleep." Maggie rolls her eyes. Finley and her stubbornness are going to be the end of her.

"Baby…" Fin stops and yawns. "Talk to me, please."

The raven-haired woman sighs and leans back a bit to look into her girlfriends blue eyes.

"I just keep having this nightmare for a few days." Maggie cups her girlfriend's cheeks to feel her. She needs to know she's really here.

"Can you tell me about it?" Fin's hand softly strokes her hair.

"I don't know…"

"Please?" Her girlfriend made a puppy face, and she was gone. She can never say no to that face, and her girlfriend knows that. Damn her. Maggie sighs.

"It begins normally. I come home from work and open the door. I call out, but it's so quiet, I go to the living room and there on the couch lies Alex with a bullet in her head. And I can't do anything about it." She feels her girlfriend wiping away her tears, she didn't know she was crying. "I can't go to her, I can't scream, I can't cry, nothing! And I'm forced to go away, to go to the bedroom. And you're there, looking at me with dead eyes, hole in your chest. There's this man standing next to the bed. He's holding a gun, but he doesn't have a face, his face is blurred." Maggie sobs. "And he's only words are "I told you…". Like, what does this even mean!" She snuggles into Finley’s chest and sobs even more.

"It's okay, we're okay, you're okay." The black-haired woman embraces her and whispers in her ear. "It's just a nightmare, we're here, and we're safe. Nothing is coming to kill us. We're going to be okay."

Slowly, her sobs become quieter, and she feels herself being maneuvered to lie on Fin. She rests her head on her girlfriend's chest and listens to her heart beat. It's so comfortable, and she feels a duvet on her, giving her more warmth. And right now, as Maggie's fatigue gets the best of her, she really wants to believe that they're going to be okay.

#maggie sawyer x reader #alex danvers x reader #alex danvers x maggie sawyer #Alex Danvers x Original Character #alex danvers x oc #sanvers x reader #sanvers x oc #polamory #maggie sawyer x oc #Maggie Sawyer x Original Character

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barbasbodaciousbeard · 3 years

Text

Delete the Twitter app, Mr. Barba

In which Rafael Barba deletes the Twitter app because of the Householder case, and Carmen babysits him.

Accidental Feminist Icon

The last thing on Rafael Barba’s mind when he was in the hospital room with Maggie Householder was his online reputation. Once he’d turned himself in and been released on his own recognizance, however, he opened his phone to call mami and instead saw hundreds of Twitter notifications, emails from people whose names he didn’t recognize, and missed calls and voicemails from unfamiliar numbers. He didn’t touch Twitter, texting Carmen to ask how bad it was and she advised him to delete the application until at least after the trial. When he went home, mami was there and just as disappointed as he expected. There were tears the minute she saw him, but not any offered comfort.

“You murdered a child, mijo.”

“You don’t understand, mami. No lo viste. El no estaba realmente vivo.”

“Esa fue la decisión de Dios. No es tu decisión. Tu abuela estaría tan decepcionada de ti.”

“No estoy de acuerdo. Si estás aquí para regañarme, vete a casa.”

“Te llevo a la confesión.”

“Vete a casa, mami. Me confesaré cuando esté lista.”

“Rafa-”

“Go home.”

Lucia stormed out, and Rafael went inside his apartment and went straight for the scotch he kept aside. It wasn’t his good scotch. It was the cheap one that burned his throat and left him sicker than he ever was the next day. Before twisting off the cap, he heeded Carmen’s advice, deleting the Twitter app as he dropped to the couch and began to drink. It was only eleven, not even noon, but he didn’t want to remember what had transpired the day before. He should wade through his email, but someone had posted it. He knew because it was referenced time and time again that they’d found his personal email via some Twitter thread or Subreddit or something else he hadn’t yet encountered. He’d had to mute his phone as phone calls rolled in; the only one he answered confirmed it was strangers from the Internet who had seen the news. Carmen called it getting cancelled when it happened to other people. That usually didn’t involve the loss of a life, so the term seemed not quite right for what was happening, especially given the fact this included more than just the people he was used to. People who had never encountered him were hearing about him in the news.

He ignored Olivia’s calls, considering the morning’s interactions enough. As he drank, Rafael was able to filter unknown numbers and messages, tossing the phone aside and quickly finishing the bottle. Olivia came by, and he didn’t answer, choosing to lay back on the couch as the room spun around him. Carmen texted him, and he didn’t look. An hour later, he heard her outside of his door with Olivia and unlocking he apartment for her. He’d given her a key long ago so she could get files or suits or drop off leftovers. Both of them came in, and it suddenly dawned on him that he had his suspenders down and shirt open over his undershirt. He’d spilled the most recent tumbler over himself with the pizza he’d ordered. And now, they could see him like this, eyes rimmed red and mood unstable as he thought more than he could about himself.

“Mr. Barba,” Carmen said softly, kneeling by him. Olivia stayed closer to the door, surveying the room. By the nature of their constant proximity, Carmen had seen the tail end or starts of Rafael getting frustrated, though he always pressed it down with a glass of scotch and good meal. That said, she’d found him too drunk after a trial didn’t go his way. Seen him frustrated as he went through a case he may not be able to do anything about it. Caught him yelling at paperwork as though something would happen. She’d also seen him the next mornings when he came in pretending not to be insanely hungover and was wearing the suit from his office.

“I’m fine.”

“No you aren’t. Is this what happens between an eight o’clock bourbon and the office suit?”

“Shut up, Carmen.”

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m helping you.”

“Sorry,” he said with a huff as his hand ran down his face, and Olivia had to stifle a laugh at how properly embarrassed he looked. “My email and phone are bad. How bad is Twitter?”

“Medium. A lot of people understand. Or they feel that they can’t understand, so they’ll watch the story.”

“People understand murder?” he scoffed.

“No. No one does. But we all understand how impossible your choice was. How badly the parents were hurting.”

“I was too selfish to do it for my dad.”

“I know, Mr. Barba. But people want to know how long until they hear more. Want people to wait. Can see why you did it. It’ll blow over. We can change your number and your email. Twitter has a really handy button. Block.”

“My name’s Rafael.”

“You’re my boss.”

“Not for long,” he chuckled bitterly before his gaze softened. “All I wanted was for people not to hurt.”

“You need to go to bed, Rafa.” It was Olivia now, and his eyes suddenly snapped open. It was different when it was Olivia. They were friends, but they kept things to work. Other than the occasional group event, they’d grab dinner after work. She didn’t hear him debate pocket squares or see him drunk alone in his office or help him think of replies on Twitter. He’d probably lose his friendship with Carmen once he wasn’t in the office, he supposed. She humored her boss a lot more than she probably should.

“I’m fine, Liv.” It came with more of a snort than he liked, and he was suddenly pulling himself up to sit, wrapping his shirt around himself as though it were a cardigan. Carmen watched he was steady, and Olivia was sure she now knew what she’d looked like when Noah was learning to walk on his own with her hand on his back to keep him upright. Once things passed, she wanted to ask if Rafael was always this willing to be relaxed around Carmen, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

“I don’t think I’m helping things,” Olivia said softly, and Carmen gave a gentle nod.

“My son’s with my mom for a visit. I’ll take care of him.”

“You’re sure? I can call Lucia.”

“I’m fine, lieutenant. And mami has already been here.”

“Make sure he meets with an attorney tomorrow.”

“I make his calendar. I know.”

“You two can stop talking about me like I’m not here,” he grumbled, heels pressed against his eyes. “I’m drunk, not deaf.”

“You’re belligerent, counsellor.”

“Call me Rafael,” he said again, flopping onto the couch when Olivia had left again.

“I thought Lieutenant Benson was your best friend, Rafael.”

“She is, I guess. Is that sad? My best friend used to be Alex, but I pursued that case. As if mami needed more reason to hate me.”

“You don’t act like you in front of her. Not all the way.”

“This isn’t me.”

“It’s you without a carefully constructed persona.”

“If that’s the case, I suppose you’re my best friend, Miss Frye.” She’d expected to see a bemused smirk or annoyed scowl, but Carmen was taken aback by how sincere he looked as his hand moved to rest on her forearm and squeeze as well as he could.

“My name’s Carmen,” she teased. “Now come on. You need to go to bed.”

“My suit will get wrinkled.”

“I’ll hang it for you.”

“You can sleep in the guest room. It’s not safe for you to go-” His eyes were suddenly wide. “Carmen, where’s Ollie?”

“With my mom. I told her you needed me for a couple days.”

“You don’t need to disrupt your life.”

“I’ll tell you a secret Mist- Rafael.”

“What?” he asked, flopping into bed where she’d pulled the blanket down once he managed to strip to his boxers.

“You’re my best friend too.” She tugged the blanket over him, pressing a gentle kiss to his temple. He smiled up at her, and she made her way out turning off the lights. It seemed silly to say it to someone like him, but they’d worked together a long time, had a lot of late night talks. She liked him more than a lot of people she knew, and saw him more than anyone outside of her family.

Carefully, she cleaned his living room, dumping his other bottle of cheap scotch out and disposing of both before setting up the coffee to brew at seven, just in time to have him at an attorney’s office by nine. McCoy had approved her to work from wherever she needed to in order to keep Rafael functioning. She’d have been miserable helping Peter Stone with this trial anyway. They both knew about his father, and it seemed he may be a ticking time bomb. She logged into his twitter, going on a blocking spree as she explored his mentions, tweeting from her own account and his that she’d done it and retweeting it from his account.

She also liked all the kind ones. The ones asking for understanding or expressing empathy. The ones that acknowledged he had an impossible choice and neither one would have sat well with their own conscious. Leave a child and his family to suffer without end or expedite the inevitable. Then there were his direct messages. Since getting verified, he had the ability to only see messages from people he followed. As she combed through, there were a couple of hateful messages she ignored, but most who knew him expressed understanding and a couple even included leads if he wanted out of the city. She marked those down in her notes app before falling asleep in the guest bedroom.

The sound that greeted her in the morning was Rafael Barba vomiting as the coffee machine roared to life in the background. Silently, she ordered ginger tea and vitamin b12 for delivery, going to fetch the pedialyte she’d brought from home. When he came out, hair wet from a shower, she’d already brewed him tea, cooked breakfast, and given him an expectant look as she slid a glass of unnaturally purple electrolytes to him. He didn’t know what to say, so he took the proffered glas and took a long sip before wincing.

“Grape,” she said plainly.

“Grapes don’t taste like that.”

“Ollie likes it okay. I make him popsicles though.”

“He’s old enough for popsicles? Isn’t he still on milk?”

“Rafael, he’s two. He drinks milk, but he even eats.”

“Does he like books yet?”

“He does. He really likes being read to.”

“I’ll read to him next time I see him.” He was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was thick. “Do you play him music?”

“Some. Usually my playlists.”

“Play him Bach.”

“You’ll have to tell me what’s best to play him.”

“I’ll send you a playlist.”

“Why Bach?” She watched as his jaw shifted from side to side, lips pressed together, and that told her all she needed to know. “Drew liked Bach?”

“He’d never know if he liked Bach. Maggie was playing one of his cantatas.”

“Maybe we can take him to an orchestra one day.”

“There are some shows. Kid friendly.”

“He’d like that.”

“I’ll send it to you.”

“You’ll come, won’t you?”

“Me?”

“It’s your idea.”

“You’d still let me around your son?”

“My son is a healthy vibrant boy. If he was in the same situation as Drew, it would be hard, but I’d still want you there. You did exactly what I would have done for him, okay?”

“Did you mean what you said last night?”

“Which part?”

“The last part.”

“You probably are my best friend. And that hasn’t changed. I wish you didn’t have to be put in the situation, but I would hope I’d have been strong enough to do the same. And other people agree with me.”

“God, you’re not actually looking at Twitter.”

“I looked at Twitter. I blocked anyone vitriolic. But, I collected all the kind ones in your favorites for when you’re ready. A lot of your attorney friends have job leads for you if you leave the DA’s office.”

“I’m leaving. And I’m probably going to fucking prison. You’ll be down a friend in a few months.”

“Stop it.”

“They’ll end me in there, Carmen. I sent some of them there.” She wasn’t sure what to make at how at peace with the prospect he was.

“And you won’t go to prison. Don’t focus on that. Even if you do, they’ll have to do something to protect you. And I’ll come visit you.”

“You barely know me.”

“We spend more time together than I do with anyone else. I know you’re good, you have a good heart, you send birthday presents to every SVU detective’s kid and think I don’t know you send them coffee gift cards on their birthdays. You’re a total mama’s boy and despite what a snarky prick you are, you have imposter syndrome out the ass. You’re lapsed enough Catholic not to go to church, but you pray when things are really bad. I also know some part of your brain feels like you’ve let down people who think you do good work by this one thing, but one bad doesn’t outweigh an exorbitant amount of good. I hope Ollie has half of the ethical backbone you do. I know there have been occasions in the past you weren’t perfect, but the man I’ve known deserves every ounce of credit he gets. That doesn’t mean you’ve never made a mistake.”

“You’re ridiculous,” he muttered, and much to his chagrin, Carmen wrapped him in a hug that he returned, refusing to look at her. He was suddenly aware he’d cry if he looked at what he knew was a genuine smile. “I’ve got to get dressed to see an attorney.”

“Who are you going with?”

“Randy Dworkin.”

“He’ll be good.”

“I hate to admit that. And I’m sure I’ll hate every second with him.”

“How about you teach me about Bach this afternoon?”

“You have work.”

“McCoy approved me to be remote.”

“So you’re my sitter?” She could almost swear a smile pulled at the corner of his lip, and she felt pride she didn’t expect.

“I suppose. So Bach?”

“Bring Ollie?”

“Deal.”

#rafael barba #rafael barba x reader #law and order #law and order svu #law and order special victims unit #Rafael Barba x Carmen

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msmarvelouswinchester · 4 years

Text

Invisible String

Summary - Dean Winchester was never a man who would freely speak about his feelings and emotions. The reader, is his best friend of many years but some wrong choices and words of Dean's pushes a the reader away.

Pairing - AU Dean Winchester x Reader

Warnings - Fluff (lots of fluff), angst-ish, swearing, mentions of abusive relationship, mentions of bad parenting, cheating

Square filled - Bestfriend AU ( @spndeanbingo )

Word count - 6150

A/N - This is written for @supernatural-jackles' Bi-weekly challenge. The prompts are in bold. Spn dividers by the amazingly talented @talesmaniac89 (go check her blog out) Beta'd by @mariekoukie6661 (she is a sweetheart for agreeing to take a look at this long fic. Thank you💕)

“So what are we watching?” You asked as you slumped down on the yellow couch. You were dead on your feet after a long week of work but you just couldn't break tradition and not hang out with your best friend like every friday. Pulling the comforter close to your body, you let out a sigh of contentment. Truth be told, no matter how exhausted you were, you always looked forward to movie night.

“I picked the movie last friday, now it's your turn,” Dean handed you a bottle of beer and took a seat beside you. Your eyes sparkled with a glint of mischief, a knowing smile appeared on your face as Dean's lips curled up in disgust. “No chick flicks,” he warned.

“I get to call dibs on the movie tonight so I picked,” you paused for a second to create a dramatic effect, “The Proposal.”

“No!” Dean cried out in horror.

“Oh come on, it is not going to be that bad. Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock are in that movie.” you winked at him, making him groan and he picked up a cushion to cover his face, “Now, now don't be so dramatic.” He removed the cushion from his face and glared at you. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. “Pizza's here!” He exclaimed as he got up to open the door. You turned on the tv, opened Netflix and put on the movie.

“I don't understand how we can be best friends,” Dean grumbled as he came back to the room, “you eat your pizza with pineapple on it.” “It tastes good. You should try it one day.” you said and took the two boxes of food from his hand, setting them down on the table in front.

“Are you kidding me? Even if that becomes the only food available on earth, I still won't eat it. You can't put fruits on pizza,” he said, and took a slice from his own pizza and nestled into the comforter beside you.

“Tomato is a fruit, De,” you said, biting into the slice in your hand. You heard him mutter something under his breath which you ignored and shifted your focus to the movie playing on the screen. Halfway through the movie, you yawned and snuggled into your best friend. He wrapped his warm hands around you, pulling you closer to him. “You want to head back now?” He asked softly, leaning in to kiss your forehead.

“Nuh-uh,” you said, “I want to finish the movie. I need to see if Andrew got Margaret back .” That elicited a chuckle from Dean, the vibrations of his laugh shaking your body a little.

“You're so stubborn and they are gonna find each other, it's a chick flick for God's sake,” he said, “they love each other, clearly.”

“Speaking of love, Cas asked me out,” you said, making Dean sit up straight. “What'd you say?” He asked

“Yes obviously. I need to dive back into the dating life,” you shrugged, “and Cas seems like a good guy.”

“He is but I thought you wanted to wait because of what happened with you know ‘ he who must not be named’,” he said, and you picked up the remote to pause the movie.

“I can't live in the past. I need to move on. It has been two years since I've gone on a date and it's not like I'm getting engaged tomorrow. It's just a date,” you said, messing with the loose end of the comforter.

“As you wish. I'm just looking out for you.”

“I know. You always do,” you said, giving Dean a tight hug, “and I kinda miss doing it.”

“Doing what?” “Sex,” Dean's eyebrows shot up, “oh come on, it's not like I didn't use to have sex with….him.”

“So,” he gulped, “so you m-miss doing….it?”

“Kind of. My fingers are not enough, you know what I mean right?”

“Of course, of course,” Dean cleared his throat, blush crept up his neck.

“And it's not just sex, I miss the physical touch, I miss those things that are part of a relationship,” you said, “I need this and I think I'm ready.”

“If you think you're ready, then it's fine. I just don't want to see my best friend with a broken heart again.” he said, his fingers getting entangled in your hair, as he slowly massaged your scalp.

“That feels good,” you moaned, “after that hell of a meeting with Azazel, I needed this night De. Thank you for always being there.”

“You're my best friend. I'll always be there when you need me even if you make me watch stupid romcoms.” he grinned, “Azazel creating problems again?”

“He never seems to approve of the templates and designs I make no matter how hard I try to make them loveable and on the other hand, the shitty designs made by Abaddon always gets approved.” you groan.

“Why don't you change jobs?”

“I can't. It's not that simple. Life's going good. I don't want to disrupt it by going on a job hunt.” you sighed.

“What if you start working for my company?” You immediately turned your head towards Dean and looked at him with surprise clear in your eyes.

“No.” “Why not?

“I'm a graphic designer, De. I'm not built to work in your company,” you said.

“Be my PA. I really need a personal assistant to help me keep upto date with my schedule and I'm a mess after Charlie left.” Dean said.

“But what is my job criteria? That I'm your best friend? It's like taking advantage of you. I can't do that.”

“What if you work as my PA after being interviewed for the job?” He asked. “Fine, maybe I can give it a shot,” you said.

“Awesome! Meet me in my office on Monday, ten in the morning, sharp. I don't tolerate tardiness.” he said, slipping quickly in the work mode.

“Aye, aye captain.” You giggled, but a deep frown soon appeared on your face.

“What?” “What if it messes up our relationship?”

“It won't. I know how to separate my work life from my personal one,” Dean assured.

“I guess, then it's okay,” you smiled.

“So about your date with Cas. Where's he taking you?”

“I have no idea,” you chuckled, “he said it will be a surprise.”

“That's-that's great but he should know that you hate surprises,” Dean raised an eyebrow.

“He doesn't know me very well. I'll let that pass this one time,” you told Dean.

“Fair enough,” he laughed. You yawned once more, as you tried to fight the drowsiness that was threatening to take over you.

“You want to head back home now or you want to crash here tonight, sleepyhead?” Dean smiled.

“I don't think I can drive all the way in such a state. Do you mind if I crash here?” You grinned, knowing very well he didn't mind because you crashed in his guest rooms on most of the Friday nights. He rolled his eyes as he got up from the couch.

“I'll prepare the guest room.” You sleepily nodded at him. You didn't realise you had fallen asleep but you were soon woken up when you felt your body move.

“Sorry, didn't mean to wake you up. I'm taking you to bed,” you found yourself in Dean's arms as he headed towards the guest room with you, “you looked too peaceful sleeping. Go back to sleep.” He softly murmured. Dean gently placed you in the bed, pulling the cover upto your chest as you snuggled into the warmth of the covers. Within a few minutes, you had dozed off.

“Morning, sunshine. Pancakes for you,” Dean's loud voice woke you up from your deep slumber the next morning. You sat up in your bed, as you rubbed the sleep from your eyes, the smell of pancakes hitting your nose.

“Breakfast in bed for my girl. Listen I gotta run to the office now,” he said as he handed you the plate of freshly cooked pancakes to you.

“It's Saturday!” You exclaimed.

“I know but Benny wanted to sign the deal with our company today. It's an important one, we can't let that go out of our hands,” he made you understand, “I'll be back within a few hours.”

“Sufe fing. I wif ve here,” you spoke with your mouth full, “Sure thing. I will be here.” You repeated your words after swallowing your food.

“Maggie will drop by. If you want to leave the house before I return, give the keys to her.” He said as he went back into his room to put his suit on.

“Hot damn,” you let out a low whistle as Dean stepped out of the room in his black suit, “Go get the deal, cowboy!” Dean did a full body laugh at your words, throwing his head backwards before he bid you goodbye and walked out of the door leaving you alone in his penthouse. Finishing your breakfast, you got up and got freshened up for the day. You picked up your phone and saw three texts from Cas.

“Meet me at 7.” “At the Season's 52.” “I'm looking forward to this.”

A smile crept onto your face, as you read the texts from him. “I need your help,” you shot a text to Ruby, “I've a date tonight. I don't know what to wear.” You waited for her to text back but instead of getting a text, you got a call from her.

“He finally asked you out?” She screamed from the other side of the phone.

“What do you mean “finally”?” You wondered.

“Oh come on, Y/N. How long have you two known each other?” “Uh-two months.”

“Two-wait, two months? You don't have a date with Dean?” She asked.

“No! Why would you think that?” You exclaimed, “Cas asked me out.”

“Cas? As in Castiel Novak? Dean's friend? And Dean's okay with it?”

“What's with the twenty questions, Ruby?” You said, annoyed at her questions, “And yes. Dean's fine with it. Why wouldn't he be? He is dating Lisa, in case you didn't remember. Now will you help me? I need a dress for tonight.”

Ruby agreed to go on a little shopping spree with you to find the perfect dress. Handing over the keys to Maggie, the housekeeper, you shot a text to Dean letting him know you were leaving his house. You waited for some time but he didn't text you back. You shrugged it off thinking he was probably busy with the meeting. Your whole afternoon was spent with Ruby as you tried to find a good dress for the date. She made you try on what seemed like a hundred dresses of different colours and style until a green bottleneck dress finally caught your eyes.

“This is a beautiful dress! You gotta try it on,” Your friend insisted.

“You sure? Look at the price - it's too expensive,” you pouted.

“Do you want to get laid tonight?” Ruby quirked her eyebrow.

“Yeah-I mean no….maybe,” you stutter.

“That dress - Cas won't be able to take his eyes off you tonight,” she smiled.

“Fine, if you insist.” Needless to say, the dress was a perfect fit but it was all for nothing.

Tapping on the hardwood of the table, you let out a frustrating sigh. Tears pricked at your eyes as you took a sip of the drink.

“Ma'am do you-are you going to-”

“Please bring the check. I'm done here,” you said, barely managing to keep your tears at bay. The waitress nodded and walked away from your table. You dialed up your best friend’s number and waited for him to pick up.

“Dean,” you said, sniffling a little as he picked up his phone after the third ring. “Y/N, you okay?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, yeah. Can you,” you cleared your throat, “Can you pick me up? I'm at Season’s 52.”

“Sure,” you heard shuffling on the other side, “I'll be there as soon as possible.”

“Okay,” you replied.

“He just didn't show up,” you sniffled as Dean drove yourselves back to his house.

“Maybe-maybe he had his reasons,” Dean said, throwing a worried glance at your way.

“Reasons?” You scoffed.

“Cas is a good man. This is very unlike him,” Dean said.

“Am I-am I not good enough, Dean?” “Y/N, you know that's not true. You're pretty, smart, a little badass - you are a good person with a kind heart,” Dean smiled.

“Then why? Why didn't he show up? He could have left a message. I'm telling you Dean, I'm so over men now. All men are the same,” you looked at him, “except you.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. That is good to hear.”

“I sure do know how to choose,” you grumbled.

“Y/N, it's just one bad date. So what? Cas is not the only man in the whole world. You'll find someone,” Dean said, pulling into his driveway.

“I don't think so. Maybe he was right,” you opened the door of the car to step out.

“Who?”

“Alistair. Maybe he is right. Maybe the problem is me,” you said, tears pooling in your eyes. Dean grabbed your hands and pulled you back into the car.

“No. He is not right. Alistair will never be right. He was an abusive and manipulative son of a bitch. Listen to me, you are not the problem, sweetheart,” he said, “those men just don't understand you.”

“Is that why no one sticks around?” You turned around to face him with wet eyes.

“I did and I will always be there for you,” he said, his hands cupping your face.

“I know, De,” you leaned into his touch as his thumb gently caressed your cheeks. You opened your mouth to speak but were cut off by three harsh taps on the car window. Dean immediately opened the door and stepped out.

“Lisa.” He said.

“Unbelievable, Dean!” Lisa exclaimed. You couldn't see her face but you knew she was furious.

“It's not what it looks like,” Dean whispered.

“You just up and left me in the morning and now when I get back to talk things out, I find you cozying up to her. I'm done with you!” She yelled back. You shrunk back into your seat when you heard her scream. Dean didn't even tell you that he had broken up with her. You wondered why he hid it from you.

“I already said we were over Lisa, just go back home,” Dean said and brought his hand down his face.

“Three years of relationship meant nothing to you! Why?” Lisa shoved Dean, making him stumble back a little.

“I don't owe you an explanation, okay?”

“You cheating asshole-” “I didn't cheat on you, Lisa. I-I'm just not in love with you anymore,” Dean said, making her scoff.

“Have a nice life, asshole!” Lisa said and you heard her retreating footsteps. You stepped out of the car and saw Dean standing against the car, with his face buried in his hands.

“Hey, you okay?” You rubbed his arm gently.

“Yeah. I'm sorry you had to hear that,” he sighed.

“Why didn't you tell me you broke up with her?” You asked.

“It wasn’t important.” “Not important? You let me ramble all the way from the restaurant to your house but not once did you tell me you broke up with her,” you said.

“Y/N, I'm fine. Can we drop this now?” He snapped at you, “I'm sorry.”

“S’okay,” you gave him a sad smile, “I've an idea.”

“Does this idea include booze?” “What do ya think?” “I'm in.”

“What time is it?” You groaned as bright light hit your eyes. The throbbing pain in your head increased as you opened your eyes, trying to focus on the human figure standing in your doorway.

“You got wasted last night, sweetheart,” Dean grinned.

“Stop talking. Just stop talking,” you groaned and nestled deep into your covers.

“Aspirin. You will need these,” he kept the medicine on the nightstand, and walked away, “Breakfast is ready.”

“Morning, how's the hangover?” He gave you a cheeky smile as you walked into the dining room a few minutes later. Dean had his laptop opened in front of him, a cup of coffee beside the electronic device. “You're enjoying this too much, aren't ya? How come you're not hung-over?” You grumbled, “I'm hungry.”

“Here. I made waffles because my heartbroken, hung-over best friend needs her comfort food. Dig in,” he said and pushed a plate of waffles towards you, “I didn't drink much.”

“I thought we were drinking because you had a breakup.” “I told you already I'm not feeling miserable. See there's this girl I like who is not Lisa. I'm thinkin’ of asking her out so I did what I had to do. I ended things with Lisa,” Dean said.

“How come you never told me about this girl?” You narrowed your eyes at him. “‘Cause I wasn't sure how I felt but two days ago I saw her and I just knew that she is the one I want to be with,” he smiled.

“You're such a sap.” You giggled, “she must be very special.”

“She is very special. I have never met a girl like her,” he said, staring at you, “now, eat up.”

“Mhm,” you moaned, taking a bite of the waffles on your plate, “you know, you should give up your business and open up a coffee shop. You make excellent waffles.”

“Sorry sweetheart, no can do. People at work will miss me too much,” he chuckled, “you do remember you are interviewing for the position of PA tomorrow?”

“Yep but I don't know if I will get it or not. I have heard the CEO of the company is kind of a shithead,” you grinned.

“Oh really?” Dean looked at you with amused eyes, “You're terrible.”

“Yeah, so I've heard.” You laughed.

He shook his head at you, “Listen, I have a favour to ask.” “Shoot.”

“I would like it if you could accompany me to Sam and Jess’ anniversary party tonight,” he said.

“Tonight?” “Yeah. I know it's very sudden but it completely sli-”

“I'll go with you but I thought you told me that after what happened with your Dad last time, you wouldn't be attending another family gathering,” you said.

“Uh-huh. Sam insisted that I attend this party,” he replied.

“Fine I'll be there with you at the party to save you from John Winchester,” you giggled.

“You'll be my knight in shining armour tonight.” He chuckled.

You went back to your apartment to get ready for the party. Dean had told you that he would be picking you up at six that evening. As you touched up on your makeup, you heard three knocks on your door.

“Good evening, Y/N,” Dean smirked, looking dapper in a black two-piece suit.

“Good evening, Dean. I'll be out in a minute,” you blushed when you saw his eyes travel all over your body.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“De-” you snaked placed your hand over his, as you both sat inside the Impala with her engine turned off.

“I can't do this Y/N. I can't face John Winchester again, not after the crap he pulled last time,” he gritted out the words, his knuckles turning white as he held the steering wheel tightly, staring off at the direction of his house.

“Why are you here?” He looked at you in surprise. “I-Sam asked me to be here,” he said.

“Exactly. Your little brother asked you to be here so you will go into that house and attend your brother's party. It's up to you if you want to make any small talk, I'll be there with you but Dean you can't avoid your father forever-”

“I'm not avoiding him,” Dean said.

“Yes, you are. Now go in there, ask him why he did that, demand answers from him,” you said.

��I-okay, let's go. Just don't leave my side tonight or someone might get hurt,” he said.

“You're not going to punch your Dad,” you mumbled, “even though he deserves it.” He chuckled at your words as you two stepped out of the car.

“I'll never get used to the fact that you grew up in a mansion,” you smirked.

“It's not a mansion. It's a….big house,” he smiled.

“Yep, whatever you say.” As soon as you stepped through the door of the mansion, Dean was immediately pulled into a hug. “I thought you wouldn't show up,” Sam said, letting go of his brother, “Hey Y/N.”

“Almost didn't,” the older Winchester replied as you gave the younger one a small wave. “He showed up, didn't he? What about Mom?”

“Mom and Dad are in the living room. Last thing I saw they are not speaking to each other even when they are in the same room. I just want everyone to act civil till the party's over,” Sam said, “Drinks are in the kitchen.”

“So kitchen first, living room later. Keep John out of my sight and everything will be perfect,” Dean patted his brother's shoulder and made his way towards the kitchen, taking you with him. Pouring himself a glass, he handed you one.

“Dean,” a deep voice came from the doorway, making Dean stand up straight. “Sam had one job. Dad.” He looked at John and gave him a curt reply.

There was a moment of awkward silence as no words were exchanged between the father and the son. You could feel Dean trying his level best to keep himself from screaming at his Dad. You put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

“I know you don't want to see me right now-” “You're right and you may leave now,” Dean said and turned his back towards his father.

“Son. You have to understand, it was a long time back and I didn't know what was going through my head. I-” John sighed.

“You what? You had a perfect family here. A wife, two sons. And all this time, you knew about Adam but you said nothing. You kept up with the charade of the perfect husband and father when in reality you were neither of them,” Dean gritted out.

“Dean. Maybe I was not the perfect husband but I did everything for you and Sam,” the older man said in a harsh tone.

“Really? You did everything? You were nothing but an absent father. I was there to take care of Mom and Sammy while you were away on your so-called business trips when actually you were plowing another woman's field,” Dean growled at his father.

“Dean!” His father snapped back.

“Mr. Winchester you should leave now,” you said, trying to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand, “John, please.”

“This is family matter Y/N. You have no right to get involved in this,” John retorted.

“Don't speak to her like that. She is more family to me than you ever were,” Dean said and stalked towards his Dad, “so you can leave now. I'm sure as hell Mom is not talking to you so you can get the hell out of this house now, John.”

“Dean-” “Now,” Dean growled.

“I would do what he says, John,” you said. John scoffed, turning around and got out of the house. Dean plopped down on one of the chairs in the kitchen, gently rubbing his temples.

“You sure you're okay?” “I need a stronger drink,” he murmured.

“I saw Dad leave. What happened?” Sam came into the kitchen and asked as he looked at his brother.

“I told you to keep John away from me. You had one job,” Dean snapped and stormed out of the room, grabbing a glass of drink with him.

“He just needs some time to cool down. John came to talk to Dean and-”

“Yeah I understood. I'm gonna check on Mom. This party was a mistake,” Sam said and left the kitchen leaving you standing there alone.

You squeezed your eyes shut as you finished up your drink. You were angry at John too. He had hurt Dean, your best friend. He was a liar and you hated liars. You needed to go find Dean. You placed the empty glass on the counter and made your towards the door but you stopped dead in your tracks when you saw him.

“Cas,” you said, “I didn't expect you to be here.”

“Yeah well, Sam is a good friend so he invited me over.” Cas gave you a smile.

“Oh.” You nodded.

“We should probably address the elephant in the room,” he gave an awkward laugh.

“Huh? Oh you mean how you stood me up last night?” You glared at him.

“Well you didn't tell me that you were looking for only a one night stand? I would have backed out sooner. I like you Y/N but I don't do one night-”

“Wait, hold on. Who told you I was looking for a one time, no strings attached thing?”

“Dean told me,” your jaw dropped onto the floor at his confession, “I'm sorry Y-”

“S’okay.” You brushed him off, “I need to have a word with Dean, have you seen him?”

“I think he was talking to Kevin over there,” Cas pointed you towards another room.

“Thanks and it's okay, Cas. We're cool.” You said and almost ran your way into the other room.

“I'm telling you man, you deserve someone better than Y/N. She is clingy and she doesn't take no for an answer. I can give you her number but-” Dean turned around and his eyes locked with your wet ones. You shook your head at him, a look of betrayal evident on your face. You heard him call out to you as you turned on your heels and ran towards the door. “Excuse me, Kevin,” Dean said and went after you but by that time you were already out of the house. “Y/N!” He called, as you pulled out your phone to call for an uber.

“Fuck you!” You exclaimed, “I'm clingy, I don't take no for an answer. Is that what you think of me? All this time while you pretended to be my best friend, is this what went through your head?” Tears were running down your face now, “how many times was I there for you when you needed me and this is how you repay me?”

“I didn't mean to say it like that. You are my best friend Y/N-”

“You are a fuckin’ liar! You told Cas that I was looking for a person to keep my bed warm for only one night. Why? You know what, I don't want to talk to you right now. Leave me alone,” you said.

“No, please,” he took a step towards you. “Don't you dare make a move!” You screamed, “You lied to me and I hate liars more than anything. You are no better than your Dad. I hate you! I regret that I ever thought of you as my best friend.” You heard shuffling behind you and turned around to see him leaving. A sob tore from your throat. Standing there alone on the porch of the Winchester mansion, with your smudged makeup, you waited for the uber to show up.

It took you one hour to finally reach your house. Your phone was getting blown up by messages from the Winchester brothers and Ruby. You broke down in tears as soon as you reached your house. You crawled underneath the covers without bothering to get out of your dress or to remove your makeup. Your body shook as you continued to sob loudly into the pillow. The same man, who acted as your rock when you had left Alistair, gave you shelter in his house when you showed up in the middle of the night because your ex-boyfriend was drunk and was on a rampage, was the one who continued to spew lies about you behind your back. Your trust was shattered just like your heart and you didn't know how to piece them back together. The crying had tired you out and in no time you slipped into a deep slumber with Dean's words haunting your dream.

Morning came way too quickly. You woke up to Ruby knocking on your door along with Dean calling your phone. Your eyes were red and swollen as a result of crying all night long.

“What happened? Who's ass do I need to kick?” Ruby barged into your house as soon as you opened the door as saw you had been crying.

“....Dean.” “Dean? Dean Winchester?” Her eyes widened in surprise which later turned to anger when you told her everything that had happened the day before. Ruby was furious and if Dean was there in the room, he would have been a dead man.

“Oh Y/N,” Ruby cooed as she pulled you into a hug, “I didn't know it was this bad. Sam called me to check on you because you left his house in a hurry. I'm gonna kill Dean Winchester.” You held onto her tightly as sobs racked through your body. She gently caressed your head while cursing the green-eyed Winchester.

You were miserable but what you didn't know is that your ex-best friend was also losing his mind over the incident. The guilt was eating him up alive and he didn't know how to fix it. Sam had punched him in the face and kicked him out of his house when he had told him what happened.

“Tell her the truth or don't ever talk to me again,” Sam had threatened his brother. With red eyes and a swollen cheek, Dean went into his office the next morning. He hoped that after the interview he would get a chance to apologise but you never showed up.

“Okay, Mr. Winchester, that was the last interviewee,” Jody poked in her head into the room. “That was the last? What about uh-Y/N L/N?” Dean asked.

“Uh-she dropped out - called us early in the morning to let us know she won't make it to the interview,” Jody smiled, “I need your decision fast.”

“Decision?” “Who we are hiring for the position of the PA,” she said.

“Sure. I'll let you know. You can go now Jody. Close the door on your way out,” Dean said.

He sighed as he dialed your number, “It's Y/N L/N. She can't get to her phone now. Please leave a message.”

“Y/N, sweetheart I'm sorry. You shouldn't have dropped out of the interview. I know you won't ever forgive me but I'm sorry.” You sniffled as you heard his voice message. He had left you exactly fifty-three texts, twenty three missed calls and seventeen voice messages - all had the same words, ‘I'm sorry’ but you couldn't forgive him.

“Stop listening to that asshat,” Ruby grumbled and snatched your phone from you. “I-I just can't understand why he did that? I thought he was my friend,” you sniffled.

“I'm sorry Y/N,” Ruby took a seat beside you and wrapped you in a comforter, “I brought ice cream with me. I heard they work wonders on a broken heart.”

“And you brought my favourite flavour. Thanks!” You hugged but were interrupted by the sound of your doorbell.

“Stay here. Let me check,” Ruby said and went towards the door. Opening it, she stared at a disheveled, sad Dean Winchester.

“Give me one good reason to not kick you out right now,” Ruby glared at Dean.

“I need to talk to her. Please,” Dean’s voice cracked at the end.

“No you won't. She is miserable and I won't let you break her even more,” Ruby challenged, “Now get out.”

“I don't care if I have to fight you but please let me see her,” he pleaded.

“You are one stubborn, lying piece of shit,” Ruby grumbled.

“Why are you here?” the two heads turned immediately towards you.

“I wasn't sure you wanted to see me but I had to see you,” Dean said.

“And why exactly?” Ruby snapped.

“Ruby. It's okay. Let him in. I need to hear him out.” Dean gave Ruby a side eye and let himself in.

“Y/N,” She started. “I'll be fine," you assured her.

“If you need me to kick him out or kick his ass, just call me,” she glared at Dean once more and left your apartment.

“She's scary,” the green-eyed man said. “Well she has to. She just saw her friend with a broken heart,” you threw him his words back.

“I can't tell you how sorry I am,” Dean said, his head hung in shame.

“Why?” He looked up at you, “I don't know,” he replied, making you scoff.

“You don't know? Well maybe because you actually thought of me to be clingy and the girl who doesn't take no for an answer,” you seethed, “and you even lied to Cas about me. You framed me as some whore who doesn't do relationships. Fuck you, Dean! You knew better than anyone how long it took me to get over Alistair. How could you do this to me?”

“I don't know,” he whispered, “It's just I lied to them because I didn't want them to be with you.”

“It's my life! I get to decide who I want to have sex with and who I want to date,” you hissed.

“Well I couldn't let you make those decisions because I didn't want you to choose them. I wanted you to choose me.” he blurted out. You sat there dumbfounded as you heard his confession, "What? Why?"

“Because...I love you,” Dean muttered.

“You love me?” “Yeah.”

“What are you, a kindergartener? Next thing I know you will be pulling my pigtails,” you sassed.

“I'm sorry. You know I'm bad with feelings-” “So you decided to lie?”

“Yeah.” “You're terrible, you know that,” you said.

“So I have heard,” he shrugged. “Come here you idiot,” you beckoned at him. He went towards you and sat down beside you.

“I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I was just-” “What? You were just fending off the boys?”

“Yeah. At first I was scared that I was falling for my best friend and you knew me, you knew all my horrible secrets, the thoughts that are inside my head which keep me up at night and I was scared that you wouldn't feel the same. I broke up with Lisa for you because whenever I closed my eyes at night I wanted it to be you with me, not Lisa.” You were stunned at his confession. Dean never talked about his feelings, he was extremely good at hiding his feelings so hearing him blurt out about how he felt, surprised you.

“Dean,” you said. “No. I need to say this,” he said, stopping you, “I don't know if you feel the same. Even if you did, I don't think I have a chance after the stunt I pulled yesterday. But sweetheart, you mean everything to me, I swear to never hurt you again. I was planning on asking you out after the party but Kevin had asked for your number so I told him all those lies about you but sweetheart I know what I did….said is unforgivable but please I need you. I need my best friend back.” He looked at you, locking his teary eyes with yours.

“I don't know whether to kiss you or hit you,” you said, wiping away the single tear that rolled down your cheek. “K-kiss me?” Dean’s eyes went wide.

“You are the most horrible person I have ever met. I hate you, Dean but I hate me more that I decided to fall for this horrible person that I call my best friend. Kiss me, before I change my mind,” you said and that's all Dean needed before he crashed his lips into yours. It was a harsh kiss but one filled with longing and love. His hands sneaked to the back of your head, his fingers entangled with your hair as your hands held on to his biceps.

“I'm sorry for hurting you,” he said after he let go of your lips. You sat there with his hands cupping your face, your foreheads touching. “Next time, talk to me,” you whispered.

“I will,” he kissed your forehead, “So Y/N L/N, can I take you out for dinner tomorrow night?” “Definitely Dean Winchester, but mind you I'm tough to impress,” you smirked.

“I have plans, special plans for a special girl. I will make you mine,” he said before he leaned in to capture your lips with his once again.

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