The other Dixon- The walking dead fanfic

XXIX

It had been a few weeks since everything went down.

Deanna had stepped down slightly, letting Rick make most of the big decisions, although he still seem to respect her opinions. A lot of people don't trust Rick, to the point where some people planned to try kill him: they didn't go through with it.

As for me, I've been laying low. Rick found a huge pack of walkers not too far from here and wants to lure them away soon, I'm trying to rest enough so my shoulder will be healed enough to help them, I think it will be.

I haven't really had much to do, I've been looking after Judith quite a bit whilst the others work on building walls for either Alexandria's extension or walls for when we lure the walkers away.

Nicholas is still around, although I tend to just ignore him now, it is hard sometimes after I found out he tried to kill Glenn in the woods. Glenn's a good guy though, he tries to save everyone, even people like Nicholas.

Talk of Glenn, we've gotten a lot closer recently. I realised that it's okay to open up sometimes, to let people close. Sure, having good friends is dangerous, points of weakness. But in times like this, you can't survive without them.

Glenn had been keeping me close, making sure I'm staying out of trouble, making sure I stick to my word and actually let my shoulder heal, I don't mind though, there are worse people I could be stuck with.

Jay had been around too. He had been acting weird the last few days and I couldn't figure out why. He was more awkward around me, everything just felt off. I had tried to convince him to learn how to shoot along with Carol, but he denied. Instead, Michonne is teaching him how to properly handle a blade. He has a pretty big machete, which will do just fine against walkers. I've seen him practicing, he seems a lot more capable than he used to be.

---

It was the night before we left to divert the walkers. I greeted Carl as he opened their door, walking into the house. A couple times a week, me and Jay would go over and eat dinner with the rest of them, it was Carol's idea and I had to admit, it was nice.

We were telling stories about how everyone met each other, how Morgan and Rick came across each other over and over and how Morgan saved Rick,
"What about you two?" Daryl asked, pointing his fork to me and Jay, who were sat next to each other.

I held back a laugh as Jay shook his head,
"It's so embarrassing.." He laughed, covering my mouth with his hand so I couldn't talk. I pushed it off, laughing at him,
"I was on my way to Daryl's, stopping off to get some fuel for my boat," I started, looking around the table, at Glenn who sat next to me,

"And I hear this voice screaming for help, all high pitched and girly," I continued, sending a smile in Jay's direction, "And I find this idiot, hiding in a tree with a few walkers at the bottom." As Jay continued to explain our journey to Atlanta and the cabin, I took a second to just look around.

As I looked around at everyone, laughing, talking, having a good time, I realised something. My whole childhood, I wanted a real family. A family who loved each other, cared for each other. And as I looked around I realised I had finally found my family. These people, they were my family now. Some blood, but most not, either way it didn't matter, because at the end of the day, we would put everything on the line to keep each other safe, and that's what made us family.

word count: 638
total word count: 28, 082