SKIN AND BONES | THE WALKING DEAD

Chapter One: Thank You

After Rick had turned towards him, towards Morgan, Nate felt numb. It had been easy to forget who they were in Alexandria, but seeing Rick covered in walker blood after killing Pete on Deanna's command..it made him remember who they actually were and he welcomed it like an old friend. They could be themselves here, he didn't have to change who he was to fit their idea of..normal and if they happened to be scared of that..of them, then Nate didn't care.

It was like he had snapped back into reality. The crowd had dispersed, someone had moved Pete and Reg's body, Spencer had helped his mom back into their house, and Rick had left..probably to wash the blood off his face. Morgan had followed Aaron and Eric, and then Nate eventually found himself standing in front of Jasper, who he hadn't noticed in the crowd the first time but of course he had been there and it didn't seem like he was in the greatest of moods either.

"I was gone for two days." They had gone back to the house at some point, Jasper had taken it upon himself to walk Nate all the way back and they had gotten right to his bedroom door when Nate finally had said something. Jasper nodded.

"Yeah." He said shortly, realizing that this is the conversation that he had been dreading the whole time. It definitely wasn't the conversation that they needed to have but this was one that scared him all the same. Jasper shifted on his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. He began to tap his fingers against his arm. He didn't know where Glenn was and it was starting to worry him.

"I took down a walker inside the gates." Nate began, he leaned against the wall next to his door, crossing his own arms over his chest. "The gate was open when we got back and anyone, anyone could've gotten in here. Someone could've gotten hurt." The open gate had made him think about the trap that had been set for them before they met Morgan.  "We almost didn't make it back." Jasper's breath hitched and his gaze finally snapped back to Nate's face. Dammit, it was always something with him.

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked him. Nate shrugged and shook his head, his hair fell in front of his eyes. Jasper just wished that Nate would look at him for once. He wished they would stop avoiding the elephant in the room but he also knew that this wasn't the time for it. They never had time for it.

"We were following a guy but then we lost track of him..we got lead into a walker trap."

"The guy you brought back?" Jasper knew it was stupid to ask, because he knew that they wouldn't have brought him back if he was a threat. He had gotten closer to him, Nate hadn't noticed but when he looked back up, Jasper's face was right in front of his.

"No. Morgan saved us, he even knew Rick at the start. He's good." Nate said firmly. He stood up a bit straighter because he didn't want to talk about Morgan. "Whoever set the trap, they craved w's into the walker's heads. It was planned, like they've done it before. I just hope that they didn't follow us here." Nate brushed his hair back with one hand, the thought that he needed to get it cut crossed his mind again. Jasper could see the fear and uncertainty in Nate's eyes even if he hadn't meant to show it. He also looked like he was dead on his feet which is probably why he had taken to leaning against the door frame.

"Don't blame yourself for it." Jasper suddenly said and Nate couldn't help his automatic eye roll and then let out a sigh.

"Yeah, alright." He replied, relaxing his tense shoulders for the first time. They sat in the dark for a little while, neither of them saying anything else but Jasper couldn't bring himself to leave him there. He still didn't know about Noah.

"Are you going to be okay?" Nate suddenly asked. "You seem..tense." Jasper stared at him for a moment before he shrugged.

"I feel like I'm at my breaking point." He finally admitted and then he unloaded everything he had gone through for the past two days, including Noah, Aiden, Tara and Nicholas.