Winona had woken up pretty early to help around the farm, today was the day the Carl started to get up and move more as well and she didn't want to miss it. Standing by the young boy, she helps feed the chickens with him and Lori, "Just be careful, okay Carl? You might be a lot like your dad but that doesn't mean you have to constantly open your wound like he did."
Lori chuckles while Carl rolls his eyes, "Okay Nona..." he glances at her knuckles, "What happened to your hand?"
"Oh uh— I might have beat up Andrea for shooting Daryl," she grimaces.
"Did you win?" the young boy says, his eyes shining.
"Carl!" Lori lectures.
"Let's say it was a tie," Winona compromises.
"Oh so you definitely won," he chuckles. They hear the coop open and Patricia walk in so they pay no mind to her other than a small smile Winona gives. Carl looks over to his mom, "Don't look so worried."
"It's my job," she responds.
"No it's not. It's Nona's— she's the nurse. You're a housewife."
Winona snorts, "Oh he's got you there, Lor."
Lori's eyes widen, and she tosses some feed on to the two, "Yeah, punks? You see my house around here?" Carl smiles trying not to laugh, Lori mumbles with a grin, "A housewife. You teach him this, Winona?"
"No, ma'am," she laughs shaking her head.
Carl goes back to observing the chicks, "They don't have a mother."
"She might be somewhere else," Lori reasons.
"Maybe she got eaten," Carl theorizes.
Lori gives a look of disappointment and Winona branches off of what the boy said, "I mean he has a point, everything is food for something else," she glances around after hearing Patricia leave coop, "Anyways, if you've got something else you need to do, I'm fine with looking after Carl."
The woman shakes her head, "No no, that's alright. He's my boy, I'll keep an eye on him. I'm sure you've got other things to do. I mean, now that Carl's up, you still have to take care of Daryl."
Winona wipes her hands on her pants, "You've got that right. Well, if anything happens you know where to find me." Lori nods and Winona turns to the boy, ruffling his hair, "Be good, ya hear?"
"Aye aye, captain," he salutes back. She grins and starts to head to the house, seeing Patricia heading towards the barn with what she believes was a burlap sack in a wheelbarrow.
——
Glenn watches the barn through the binoculars, still wary after the events of last night. His focus is interrupted when Maggie walks over to whisper in his ear, "Could you be more obvious?" Glenn jumps not expecting the sudden voice. She sets down a basket, "Here, enjoy."
He whispers, "Are you trying to buy my silence with fruit?"
"Of course not. There's also jerky," she jokes.
Glenn doesn't laugh, "Will you please tell me why your dad has a secret barn full of walkers? It's creepy." She shushes him and he lowers his volume, "You know that right?"
She shushes him again, "Just trust me on this, okay?"
"But I suck at lying. I can't even play poker. It's too much like lying. I mean, Winona got me figured out within seconds of seeing us come back from the supply run. She probably figured out where you went off to last night, especially after stifling a laugh at dinner towards me writing in the note. She's too observant! She likes to sit back and just watch. She knows everything! Everything!" his whispers start getting louder as he gets more and more nervous about being questioned by Winona.
"If you think she can keep a secret this big, then by all means. But you have to keep this to yourself. You have to. Please."
Maggie leaves him and goes off to do other chores. Glenn feels stuck between two options. As he's lost in thought, Winona walks over, "That seemed pretty intense. Lovers quarrel?"
He jumps again, "Jesus, Wi, a heads up would do! I thought you were checking up on Daryl?" he changes the subject.
"I did, but he was still asleep, surprisingly. I just changed his bandages and let him be. I had tried telling him not to sleep in his tent but you know how stubborn he is," she then crosses her arms, "I know you're dodging my question. What happened last night? I thought you two were gonna 'talk' things out," the woman ends with a smirk. Glenn nervously looks around, he starts to pull her to a more secluded place, and blocks her with his body, Winona pulls back, "Woah, woah, Glenn. Hold your horses. I don't like you like that, you're too young for me."
Confusion covers his face, processing what he did, his eyes widen and he quickly shakes his head, "Oh my God," he steps away, "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to do that. I've just been caught up in my thoughts, I guess I'm not really thinking straight," his brow furrows as he hesitates, not knowing if he should tell Winona.
"Good God, Glenn. What's got you all worked up? Did you get Maggie pregnant or something?"
"No No," he runs his hand through his hair, "God, how do I say this?"
"Say what?"
"You can't tell anyone. Please, Winona," he begs.
She crosses her arms again, "Rhee, you're scaring me. What the hell is going on?"
He lowers his voice to a whisper the words getting jumbled together with speed, "Therearewalkersinthebarn!"
"What? I can't understand with your mumbling."
He slows it down, "There are," he mouths walkers, "in the barn."
"Glenn, you know I can't read lips that well, this isn't funny."
He gets frustrated and raises his voice to a normal level, "There are walkers in the barn!"
Winona's eyes widen and she covers her mouth, "Oh fuck."
Glenn sighs as she finally understood him, "Yeah."
"So I'm guessing Hershel's whole group knows but they don't want us to know?"
"From what I understand, yes."
"How did you find out?"
"Last night, I told Maggie to meet me in the hayloft, for uh... you know," he clears his throat, "Anyways. I went in and I was hit with the stench of decomposing bodies, I went further in and all I saw were at least a dozen of walkers before I ran back to the exit. Maggie came in and told me I wasn't supposed to see that. She's been trying to keep me quiet but you know how I am with secrets and lying."
Winona nods, "Yeah, you suck at keeping your mouth shut. You wouldn't be able to lie if your life depended on it."
He lowers his head, "Just please don't tell anyone."
"As long as it doesn't lead to our downfall, I'll keep it as long as I can. But if it starts getting out of hand, I will be telling Rick. Okay?"
He grabs her hands, "Oh God, thanks, Wi."
"No promises, Rhee. One weird occurrence by the barn and I'm telling."
"Yes ma'am," he nods.
They start to head back towards the camp, they see Maggie shake her head at him. He leans in to whisper, "I told her it would be impossible for me to lie to you, you'd figure it out eventually. But I also told her you can keep a secret."
Winona nods, "Thanks for that. This is a secret I really don't want to keep."
"I know I'm sorry."
She pats his back, "I'm doing this for the sake of your potential relationship."
He blushes and he elbows her, he grabs the basket Maggie gave and walks over to the group, "Dale, here's some peaches for you."
"Mmm, thank you."
Andrea comes out of the RV and Glenn greets her, "Mornin'"
"Mornin'" she replies. Winona just gives her a slight nod, the blonde returning it.
T-Dog rubs his eye, walking over to Glenn, "'Sup?"
"Nothing," Glenn replies nervously, "Nothing's up. Why?"
Winona nudges him as the group grows suspicious at his behavior, "Jesus, Glenn relax. You have a bad dream or something?"
"Or something," he mumbles grabbing the basket after the others had grabbed peaches. They watch as he walks away.
"He okay?" T-Dog asks.
"Yeah," she tears her attention off Glenn and back to T-Dog, "I think he had a nightmare last night, he would stop tossin' and turnin' all night. Perks of being his tent-mate, I guess," she shrugs, biting into her peach.
——
Daryl pokes holes through the mesh of his tent, he had woken up right after Winona left, she was not the stealthiest. He rolls over, hearing someone step inside. "Hey," Andrea says, her cheek had a pretty nasty bruise decorating it, Daryl let out a quiet chuckle at that. She doesn't hear it so she continues, "This is not that great, but..." she sits handing him a book.
He skims through the pages, "What, no pictures?" he jokes.
"I'm so sorry. I feel like shit."
"Yeah you and me both. You look like shit, Winona fucked you up good," he replies, referencing the shiner Winona gave her.
She sighs, "Yeah... Look I don't expect you to forgive me, but if there's anything I can do..."
"You were trying to protect the group. We're good." She gives a small smiles and leaves the tent, "But hey," she stops looking back at the redneck, "Shoot me again, and you'd best pray Wi and I'm dead." The blonde nods with a smile as she leaves.
——
Glenn places the basket down, seeing Lori, "What did Rick say?" she gives him a look, "You didn't tell him? Okay. But you have to. You're pregnant," Lori glances to make sure no one hears Glenn, he presses on, "You need vitamins, medicine, a nice pillow," he walks over grabbing some food, "Here. You can have my share."
"Honey, I don't want your food, okay? Eat."
"You need to eat. You're too skinny. And if you're not gonna let Rick take care of you, then someone has to," she continues to ignore him, Glenn places his face in front of her's, "Lori, you have a medical condition," she scoffs, "I'll make another run into town, I'll even bring Winona, she'll know what to get, she is a nurse, you know? Just tell me what you need."
Lori straightens, "I need you to be quiet about this. Alright? Please. It's bad enough, you and Winona know."
Suddenly, Shane whistles, "Hey! Peach Man." Glenn sighs, picking up the basket to continue handing out the delectable fruits.
——
Hovering around the car that stood as base of operations, Rick begins strategizing, "The creek flows South, past that farmhouse Daryl found. Maybe Sophia dropped the doll there, the current brought it downstream."
Shane runs his hands over his head, "So what, you think she took this road here and the she went North?"
Rick nods, "Yeah. What's up that way?" he looks towards Jimmy.
"A housing development. It went in maybe ten years ago," the teen answers.
Rick turns back to Shane, "Take a run up there after gun practice. I'll hold down the fort here, but take backup. After what went down with Daryl, I don't want anyone going out alone. We stay in pairs."
"I'll take suggestions on a partner. Win's a good shot."
"Winona's been pretty busy around camp. See how they do on the range, then take your pick," Rick answers. Glenn walks over holding the basket of fruit, the group grabs some, "Thanks." Glenn doesn't answer as he looks towards Lori.
Shane furrows his brows, "My binoculars."
"Yeah yeah," Glenn quickly sets the fruit down and hands over the binoculars. He grabs the fruit, "Okay, bye."
Shane chuckles. Patricia and Beth walk over, "We'd like to join you for gun training today."
"Hershel's been very clear. I can't involve anyone of you in what we do without his okay," Rick says.
Beth looks over to Patricia quickly, "He doesn't like it, but he consented."
"Otis was the only one who knew guns," Patricia mentions, "Now that he's gone, we gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that."
"No offense, but I'll ask Hershel myself," Rick responds.
Shane walks over to Carl, "Dude, nice lid, man," he flicks the cowboy hat the boy was wearing, "What's going on?"
"I want to learn to shoot too. Can you teach me, like you taught Nona?"
Shane gives an awkward chuckle, "Well, man, that's— that's up to your parents."
"Can you talk to them? They'll listen to you."
He scoffs with a nod, "We'll see, okay?" Carl nods as he starts to walk away. "Hey," Shane stops him, "Let me see what you've got there." Carl lifts his shirt to reveal a revolver in his waistband. Shane angrily throws the fruit.
——
Lori checks over the gun, "How the hell did this happen?"
"Well, it's my fault. I let him into the RV," Dale says, "He said he wanted a walkie, that you sent him for one."
"So on top of everything else, he lied," Lori huffs. She whispers over to Rick, "What's he thinking?"
Shane speaks up, "He wants to learn how to shoot. He asked me to teach him. Now it's none of my business, but I'm happy to do it. It's your call."
Lori shakes her head, "I'm not comfortable with it," Shane nods with a sigh, "Oh, don't make me out to be the unreasonable one here. Rick?"
"I know. I have my concerns too, but—"
"There's no but. He was just shot. He's just back on his feet and he wants a gun?"
"Better than him being afraid of 'em. There are guns in camp for a reason," Rick counters, "He should learn to handle them safely."
"I don't want my kid walking around with a gun."
"But how can you defend that? You can't let him go around without protection."
"He's as safe as he'll ever be right here," Rick nods in silence, "Look, everything you're saying makes perfect sense. It feels wrong. I mean I didn't feel good about him following you out into the woods. And I wish I'd said something. I should've gone with my gut."
"He's growing up, thank God. We've got to start treating him more like an adult."
"Then he needs to act like one," Lori throws back, "He's not mature enough to handle a gun."
Carl gets up and walks over, "I'm not gonna play with it, Mom. It's not a toy. I'm sorry I disappointed you, but I want to look for Sophia and I want to defend our camp. I can't do that without a gun."
"Shane's the best instructor I know. He's taught Winona. I've seen him teach kids younger than Carl."
Lori looks at Rick, walking over to Carl she grabs his face, "You will take this seriously and you will behave responsibly. And if I hear from anyone in this camp that you're not living up to our expectations—"
Rick interrupts, "He won't let you down."
"Yeah," Carl nods.
Rick talks to Carl, "Now if you're gonna do this, you listen to Shane."
"Okay, Dad."
"Alright? You be careful."
"You coming?" Shane asks to Glenn and Winona.
"I gotta help Dale clean the spark plugs on the RV. He said he's gonna teach us mechanics. I should probably go look for him."
"You found me," Dale says pausing as he sees Glenn's worried expression, he proceeds to cover for him, "He's a good learner."
"Win?"
"I'm staying back, I like the sharper weapons. I've learned all I needed with guns."
Shane nods and hops in the car. They all wave goodbye.
Dale walks over to the duo, "Spark plugs, huh? Want to tell me what's going on?"
"You're old. You're— You know things," he corrects, "So... what if somebody told you something that somebody else should know—"
"Glenn, stop being dramatic. Spit it out," Dale interrupts.
"There's— there's walkers in the barn. And Lori's pregnant," he gets out.
Dale looks over to Winona where she nods confirming the stories. His eyes are wide with shock and his jaw is practically on the floor.
——
2710 words
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digging graves// rick grimes x OC//
RomanceA nurse with the last name of Graves, ironic isn't it? Winona Graves, Shane Walsh's fiancée, works at the King's County Hospital in the coma ward. Being his fiancée, Winona became close with the Grimes' family. Therefore, when Rick got shot, she ma...
