digging graves// rick grimes x OC//

Tell it to the Frogs Part 3

Winona awakes to an empty tent, she assumes Shane was already up doing whatever he does. She changes into a tank top, jeans, and combat boots. Stepping out of the tent, she spots Glenn, "Ah morning, Glenny!" she says stretching.
He laughs at his nickname, "New nickname for me, huh? And morning to you too."
"Yup, trying it out, seeing if it fits. Anyways, how'd you sleep?"
"Pretty decent, I should be asking you that." He steps closer, lowering his voice, "My tent is right by yours and all I heard was a bunch of talking for a reunion with your fiancé. That conversation— and I know it's none of my business— seemed so tense, and it made you feel unwanted. If you want me to validate your thoughts, I might be able to."
Winona is shocked at this, "Wait so you heard everything, and you have proof?"
"Well it's not concrete evidence, but it's weird coincidences."
"Like what?"
"Like the fact Shane would go in the woods for something and Lori would go in shortly after, they wouldn't come back for awhile and when they did, they'd come back together. Everyone also thought they were married at the beginning." Winona covers her mouth, she feels devastated. At least now she knows she isn't overthinking anything.
"Thanks Glenn, I needed to hear that," she said embracing him.
"Of course, Winona. If you need anything, I'm here, alright?" he informs her, returning the hug.
——
Winona is walking around camp, looking for Rick. Carol, who's doing his laundry, sees this, "Hey, Winona, right?"
"Yeah that's me! What's up?" she says grinning.
"If you're looking for Rick, he's sleeping in. His reunion with Lori went well, if you know what I mean," the older woman says winking. Winona notices she's doing Rick's laundry so Carol begins to explain, "I decided to clean his clothes while he slept in too, Lori gave 'em to me."
"Oh. Oh!! Alright. You know for being in a coma for three months you'd never expect him to sleep any longer than what he has to," she says laughing, deep down her heart twinges with sadness, maybe it was because she was used to how close they were and now she realizes that he has Lori so he won't need to really talk with her.
"That's men for ya," Carol says going back to Rick's laundry.
Not even a moment later, Rick comes out of his tent, glancing around groggily.
"Morning, Cowboy! We were just talking about you. Sleep well??" Winona ends her sentence by winking.
"Hmm? Morning to you, too, Graves. All good things I hope. And, yeah, I slept pretty good," he replies still half asleep. The women just chuckle. He sees Carol is doing his laundry, "You washed my clothes?"
"They're still a little damp. The sun'll have 'em dry in no time. This is the best we could, scrubbing on a washboard; ain't half as good as my old Maytag back home."
"That's very kind. Thank you."
Winona leaves with Rick and they stand near Glenn, he sighs, "Look at 'em. Vultures. Yeah, go on, strip it clean."
Winona rubs his back, "It's okay Glenny. There are more fish in the sea."
Dale cuts in, "Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power with out it. Sorry, Glenn."
"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days."
Rick speaks to Glenn, "Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." He pats the boy's back and turns to walk away.
Winona stays back with Glenn. She hears Lori tell Rick good morning and she gets upset, Glenn picks up on this and pulls her away. Whispering harshly to her, "You know, keep glaring daggers and they're bound to catch on."
"What?! Oh my god I'm not glaring... I was just...observing? Yeah. Observing."
"Okay what ever you say, Doc. But what's really going on in that big brain of yours?"
"I don't know Glenn," Winona says rubbing her forehead, "Sometimes I'll feel all lovey-dovey with Shane, but then I'll remember how he acts towards Lori or how they were back when Rick was in a coma before shit hit the fan. And then Lori goes and acts like I wasn't there to see all that shit, ya know?"
"Oh damn. So you're not jealous, it's more so frustration at Shane and Lori? Well, I'm on your side, I can't even imagine."
"Thanks Glenn, I really appreciate it. Like last night, I mentioned how my zip-up was Rick's and Shane got all pissy. And then I'm pretty sure I saw a hickey on his collarbone, too. I asked him why he never came back for me or checked to make sure I was 100% okay with staying, and all he said was that he thought because I was stubborn the first time, I was okay or that—"
"—that he thought you were already dead," Glenn finishes for her.
"Yeah exactly! Even when he came back to get Rick, when it first went down, it was like he was barely lifting, trying to make him stay back and me with him. Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions but it showed he wasn't trying when I had to lift him with a man that wasn't as in shape as Shane was. We were able to drag him all the way, three houses down!" Winona starts to raise her voice, becoming indignant.
"Hey it's okay. You'll get through this. If anything Shane needs to be the one to talk to you first. You've already tried it multiple times. Start ignoring him, see how long it takes for him to notice. I'll be here for you no matter what, okay?"
"You're right. Again, I can't thank you enough," she says, giving Glenn a tight hug. Rick saw the two and felt an unfamiliar emotion at seeing the both of them like that, he ended up just brushing it off.
——
A scream. That's all that was heard, then a cry out from Carl, "Mom!"
"Carl?!" Lori says.
"It's over there! Dad!" Everyone starts running towards the children.
"Rick!" Glenn says tossing him a makeshift weapon. Carl still calling out for his mom. Winona was sprinting to get to the kids.
Carl runs to Lori, who begins to talk, "You're okay! I've got him. I've got him." Lori is holding on to her son. Winona rushes over, the mother frantically begins asking the young boy questions, "Nothing bit you? Nothing scratched you right?"
"No, I'm okay," he replies still holding on to his mother.
Winona goes over to Sophia who was holding on to Carol, "You're okay right? No bites or scratches?"
The young girl shakes her head, "I'm okay, just scared."
"Alright, good." She gets up to see all the men running over to a hill. She follows after, she still has her gun in case anything happens. When she gets there, she sees a walker bent over a deer eating it's neck. There are two arrows in the deer's back. Winona stands next to Glenn and Rick while they watch the walker. Andrea and Amy walk over and see the sight, they gasp, the walker turning around.
It goes towards Rick but he hits it down, the rest of the group starts hitting it, Winona goes to Dale, "Hey, Pops, can I get that axe?" He stands in shock and hands her the weapon. The group was still beating the walker down, not killing it, it was horrific. Winona steps in and ends it by chopping the walker's head off, "My God, that's was going on for way too long." She hands the axe back to Dale, "Thanks."
"It's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain," Dale says, appalled.
"Well, they're running out of food in the city, that's what," the man, Jim, answers. A twig snaps and everyone is defensive, already aiming towards the bushes. A man with a crossbow walks out.
"Oh, Jesus," Dale says.
"Son of a bitch. That's my deer! Look at it. All gnawed on by this..." The man walks over to the corpse and begins to kick it, "Filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!"
"Calm down, son. That's not helping," Dale tries calming the man.
Winona stands beside Glenn, raising an eyebrow at the stranger, Glenn mouths, "Daryl." Her eyes widen at the realization.
"What do you know about it, old man? Why don't you take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'? I've been tracking this deer for miles," he says taking the arrows out, "Gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you think we can cut around this chewed up part here?" he asks pointing at the bite marks around the neck.
Shane steps in, "I would not risk that."
"That's a damn shame," Daryl sighs, "I got some squirrel— about a dozen or so. That'll have to do,"he says glancing around.
The walker's head starts to move, Winona grabs the axe from Dale again, "Dammit."
She's about to finish it for good, but Daryl steps forward, "Come on, people. What the hell?" Daryl says shooting it in the head before she could hit it. "It's gotta be the brain. At least this random chick has some common sense," he says referencing Winona, "Don't y'all know nothing?" he asks while walking away.
——
Winona watches Daryl go up to the camp and hears him start to call for his brother, "Merle! Merle! Get your ugly ass out here!" The group is following behind him, trying to figure out how to tell him, "I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."
Shane begins to speak, "Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you."
"About what?"
"About Merle. There was a— there was a problem in Atlanta," he says glancing at Winona and Rick.
Daryl looks towards the two as well, "He dead?"
"We're not sure."
"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl yells.
Rick steps forward, "No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it."
"Who are you?"
"Rick Grimes."
"Rick Grimes, you got something you wanna tell me?"
"You're brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."
"Hold on. Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"
"Yeah." Daryl throws the squirrels at Rick, and Shane tackles the redneck.
"Woah!" Winona yells.
"Hey," T-Dog drops the logs he was carrying and runs over.
Daryl pulls out a knife. "Watch the knife!" Shane says. Daryl starts slashing towards Rick, Rick gets a hold on Daryl and Shane comes over to help hold him down, "Okay. Okay."
"You'd best let me go!" Daryl threatens.
"Nah, I think it's better if I don't." Shane starts to put Daryl in a chokehold.
"Chokehold's illegal."
"You can file a complaint."
"He's right, Shane, ease up a bit, you're gonna kill him with that amount of force," Winona says stepping in, Shane glares, but obliges.
"Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."
"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asks squatting down to face Daryl. "Do you think we can manage that?" he repeats. Daryl stops fighting and Shane lets go of the chokehold completely. "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."
"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key," T-Dog interjects, "I dropped it."
"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl questions.
"Well, I dropped it in a drain."
Daryl grunts and stands up, "If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't."
"Hey, to make a long story short, T-Dog chained the door so no walkers could get in and chow down on your brother. So what they're saying is that he's still alive."
"And who are you?"
"Winona Graves."
"Why couldn't you guys have been like Winona when telling me the story. The hell?" He wipes his eyes, "Hell with all Y'all! Just tell me where he is so I can go get him."
Lori speaks, "He'll show you. Isn't that right?"
"𝐀𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲. 𝐘𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬," Winona notices, she remembers hearing Shane rant about how Rick would tell him that Lori would try to egg him on and that they were getting into more and more arguments each day.
Everyone looks at Rick, who speaks up, "I'm going back." Lori walks into the RV, upset.
——
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