Didn't See That Coming | The Walking Dead(1)

Part 8 (Wrath of God)

CJ woke up the next morning feeling pretty good. She had a small headache from drinking but despite that and all the tossing and turning from the first part of the night, she felt well rested for the first time in a long time. 

As she left her room, Daryl was walking past her door. She surprisingly remembered most of what she had said to Daryl and cringed slightly as she recalled some of her words. 

"Hi," she smiled tightly.

"Hey," he replied, avoiding eye contact as they fell into step side by side. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," she said. "You?"

"Yeah, good," he nodded his head.

There was a beat of silence, broken by CJ. "Listen, I'm sorry for rambling on last night. It had been a while since I drank like that."

"S'alright," he replied. "Surprised you even remember it."

"I remember," she responded. They turned a corner and were nearly at the food court when CJ put her hand on Daryl's arm and stopped him from going inside. "I want you to know that I meant all of what I said," she mumbled softly. "You have us now. You're not a nobody, and you are definitely not alone."

She smiled gently at him as she walked ahead again to reach the others for breakfast, leaving Daryl stood in the hallway. Once again, he was thrown off completely by the genuine tone of her words. It may have taken the end of the world, but he thought to himself that maybe he had finally found that family he never got to be a part of in the past.

When CJ entered the foot court, she looked across the room and saw Carl waving over to her with a big smile, she happily waved back. As she went further into the room, she couldn't even try to hide the amused grin on her face when she saw a clearly hungover Glenn sitting with his head resting on his arms on the table in front of him whilst he mumbled to himself.

"Eggs!" T-Dog called out as he emerged from the kitchen area with a large pan. "Powdered but I do 'em good. You won't even know the difference."

"Where'd all this come from?" Rick asked, referencing to the aspirin bottles on the table.

"Jenner. He thought we could use it," Lori answered as she looked over at Glenn. "Some of us anyway."

CJ took a seat across from Glenn and lent forwards on the table, resting her chin on her hands. "Something the matter this morning, Glenn?" she asked, tilting her head to the side with a smirk.

"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, let me drink again," he groaned in response.

CJ sat up as she chuckled at her friend and T-Dog put some food on the plate in front of her. She shot him a smile that said thank you and he smiled back.

Shane walked in and seemed to by trying to avoid eye contact with everyone. "Hey," Rick said. "You feel as bad as I do?"

"Worse," Shane replied, not looking up. He turned his head slightly which revealed three scratches on the side of his neck.

"You okay?" T-Dog asked Shane. "Your neck?"

Shane moved to put his hand over the scratches and replied; "Must've done it in my sleep."

"Never seen you do that before," Rick said, slightly concerned for his best friend.

"Me neither," Shane responded as he looked over to Lori. "Not like me at all," he added.

CJ quickly glanced over to Lori, who looked almost uncomfortable when Shane looked at her. CJ didn't want to get involved, but she was beginning to worry about Lori, who seemed to be in the middle of Shane and Rick's unspoken problems.