digging graves// rick grimes x OC//

Tell it to the Frogs Part 2

   Later on at night, the group is sitting around a small campfire, the sound of crickets chirping engulfed them. Another family of a middle-aged male, woman, and a little girl are sitting at a different fire. The question everyone in the group was thinking came up. So Rick started to explain, "...Disoriented. I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion— all those things but... disoriented comes closest."
   Dale, the older man speaks, "Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short."
   "You've got that right, Pops." Winona mumbles, rubbing her head. Throughout the day, Shane barely said a word to her, he kept making excuses and leaving her. She wanted to say something to him, but she didn't know what.
   Rick continued describing his memories, "I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For awhile I thought I was trapped, in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever. The only sense of normalcy I had was Winona, she was the one to keep me sane and grounded."
   She smiled, Carl then spoke up, "Mom said you and Nona died."
   "She had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it," Rick replied.
   Winona caught a glance between Lori and Shane, and Lori started to talk, "When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna med-evac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Winona was confused at this, she heard nothing about a med-evac for Rick or any patients, so who the hell would tell her that. And then Winona realized, the only other person would've been Shane, her stomach dropped and she felt like throwing up.
   "𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞? 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐢?" Winona's thoughts were racing, she needed to calm down.
   "Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell," Rick calmly states, Lori nodding, Winona didn't understand but somehow Rick's voice pulled her out of her head. "And from the looks of that hospital, it got overran. I had no clue how Winona was able to stay strong and continue to take care of me, just so I could see my family again."
   Shane started to speak, "Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?"
   "I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. And you too, Winona. I can't begin to express it." Shane just gulps and stares at him, Winona knows he's hiding something.
   "There goes those words falling short again. Paltry things," Dale cuts in.
   Suddenly, the middle-aged man starts to make his fire bigger. Shane speaks to him, "Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Winona lifts her head from her fiancé's shoulder to look.
   "It's cold, man," he replies.
   "𝐇𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞," Winona thinks, rolling her eyes, putting her head back on his shoulder.
   "The cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" She knows Shane's getting increasingly upset.
   "I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Shane gets up abruptly, making Winona's head fall off his shoulder, it's like he hadn't even noticed she had her head on him.
   He walks over to Ed, everyone watching him, "Hey Ed..." he says patting the man's shoulder, "Are you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" he whispers, Winona barely able to hear.
   "Go on. Put the damn thing out. Go on!" His wife flinched when he rose his voice, Winona started to detest him more. His wife stood up and walked away. "Christ..." He mutters. Shane stomps out the fire, the woman sitting back down.
   He squats down to the wife and daughter, "Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"
   "Fine. We're just fine," Carol, the wife states.
   "Okay." Ed is practically glaring at the woman.
   "I'm sorry about the fire," she apologizes to Shane.
   "No no no. No apology needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?"
   "Thank you," she whispers, nodding her head.
   "I appreciate the cooperation," he mutters to Ed. He walks back to the other fire, Lori watching him, Winona watching Lori.
   He sighs sitting down and Dale begins to speak,"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind."
   T-Dog speaks up, "I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me."
   "I cuffed him. That makes it mine," Rick says.
   "What is this? The blame game? It's none of our faults, he was out of hand. He threatened the group," Winona justifies.
   Glenn nods, "She's right, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."
   "I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him," T-Dog says.
   "We could lie " Andrea's sister, Amy, offers.
   Andrea disagrees, "Or tell the truth. Winona is right. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed." She looks towards Lori, "Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."
   "And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asks, "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Andrea puts her head down, shaking it. "Word to the wise— we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."
   "I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it," T-Dog voices.
   "We we're all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea questions.
   "I stopped long enough to chain that door." Everyone looks at T-Dog. "Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that— not that chain, not that padlock. My point— Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us," T-Dog walks away, finishing his speech.
——
   After T-Dog's speech, everyone starts to go to their tents, other than Dale, he was on first watch. Rick goes to his family's tent and Winona goes to Shane's. She steps in, feeling awkward next to her fiancé, not because she hadn't slept in the same bed— or in this case, sleeping bag— for almost two months, but it's the fact she has suspicions he didn't stay faithful.
   Shane starts to change, "You're acting like a high-school girl in her boyfriend's room, what's wrong?"
   "Ah. It's nothing, it's probably just the reality that I finally get to be here with you again," she cringed at the lie.
   "Understandable, it's still crazy for me. Are you gonna get out of those jeans? They don't seem comfortable to sleep in, I could help," he winked as he finished changing, he just wore his boxers.
   She laughs, "Oh for sure, there's no way in hell I'm sleeping in these. When we were stuck in the department store, I decided to raid the clothes, so I have a tank top and some shorts, along with other clothes, and stuff. I also brought my scrubs because those things are literal heaven." Winona starts to change.
   "Oh my, looting? My dear fiancée is a thief! How could a cop be with her?" Shane says, dramatically putting a hand on his forehead. Winona hits him with her shirt, and laughs, letting her doubts slip from her mind. She feels normal again.  Shane looks at the shirt and she gets a glimpse of a bruise right below his collarbone, "Is this Lori's?"
   "𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭... 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐢. 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐰𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐲." Winona thinks, internally rolling her eyes. "Oh yeah, we only stopped at Rick's house, and he said it would be okay for me to borrow some of her clothes. We didn't have time to stop at our house since it was on the other side of town," she informs him, zipping up her hoodie, well technically Rick's hoodie.
   "Oh that makes sense," he says while glancing at the hoodie, "That looks too big to be Lori's, did you raid that from the store? It seems comfortable."
   Winona looks down at the zip-up, "Ah no, I grabbed it when I was looking though Lori and Rick's closet, I thought it was Lori's. Rick informed me, it was in fact his. He let me keep it." She chuckles at that.
   "Oh, well that was awfully nice of him," Shane murmurs. He crawls into the sleeping bag, Winona knows the conversation was over, but she didn't understand why. She slides in next to him.
   "𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐮𝐩𝐬𝐞𝐭? 𝐇𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭," she reflects to herself. Winona decides she wants to ask him about something that had been bothering her for awhile,  "Hey Shane?"
   "Hmm?" he grumbles.
   "When I was looking after Rick, why did you never come back for me? I was gone for little over a month when I told you it would only be a two to three weeks. You didn't even question if I still wanted to stay when you brought me food."
   He rolls over to face her, tucking a loose hair behind her ear, "I had to make sure Lori and Carl were safe. I didn't want to leave them, it killed me knowing you were still out there. When a month passed and you hadn't appeared, I thought you were dead. I'm sorry I didn't ask you if you still wanted to stay, I just assumed because of how stubborn you were the first time around."
   "What about Lori? What did you tell her? Carl thought both of us were dead and Lori thought Rick was getting med-evac to Atlanta."
   "I had to get Lori out someway. She wouldn't have left if she thought Rick was still alive. So I told her the hospital were to evacuate him to Atlanta, but when we came to the outskirts of the city and saw it destroyed, she assumed her husband was dead. She asked where you were, I told her you went with him to be evacuated, so that made her believe you were also gone. I didn't know what to do, Win, I had to get them to safety, I promised you that."
   "I know. Thank you." Winona feels hurt, he seemed to care more about Lori than his own fiancée. He kisses her on her forehead, and she rolls over.
   "Goodnight, I love you. I have second watch soon," he says holding her.
   "Alright. Goodnight, love you too," she mutters back. Even though Shane radiates heat, she feels cold in his grasp. She cried silently, feeling as if her relationship was already gone. She feels completely hollow, her emotions dull around Shane now. Everything he said made her suspect he was lying or hiding something. Sniffling, she inhales the faint scent of Rick's cologne on the hoodie, feeling comforted and warm again. She hopes Rick was having a better reunion than she was.
——
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