Beauty in the broken (Rick Grimes x OC)

CDC

"Stay behind me." Shane whispered as he pulled Al behind him before they all slowly made their way into the building.
"This place is creepy." Al said once they were all inside, but before she could say anything else they all heard a gun cock from the other end of the room.
"Anybody infected?" said a mystery voice.
"One of our group was. He didn't make it." Rick said.
"Why are you here? What do you want?"
"A chance."
"That's asking an awful lot these days."
"I know."
There was silence as the man eyed up the group and in return the group eyed up the man.
"You all submit to a blood test. That's the price of admission."
"We can do that."
"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now. Once this door closes, it stays closed." The man said.

Twenty minutes later they were all following Dr. Jenner down a long passage way.
"Um...are we underground?" Carol asked, looking around a little nervously.
"Are you claustrophobic?"
"A little."
"Try not to think about it." He told Carol smiling a little.
"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Slowly all the lights started switching on and the group found themselves in what looked like a control room.
"Welcome to zone 5"
"Where is everybody? The other doctors, the staff?" Rick asked as they all made their way to the centre of the room.
"I'm it. It's just me here."
"Well that's just great." Al whispered as she put her backpack on the ground.
"What about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asked, looking around the room.
Dr. Jenner looked around the group a little amused before speaking again, "Vi, say hello to our guests. Tell them...Welcome."
"Hello, guests. Welcome." Came an automated response from the speakers.
"I'm all that's left." Jenner said again.

Ten minutes later they were sitting in what looked to be a lecture room waiting for their turn to give a blood sample. Al made sure she was last. She hated needles, the thought of something sharp going into her skin never appealed to her. When it was finally her turn she slowly and gingerly approached the empty chair in front of Jenner.
"What's the point of this again?"she asked eyeing the needle in Jenner's hand.
"You scared?" He asked smiling.
"Me? Scared? Please...as if."
"My sister ain't too big on needles...never was." Daryl said as he came to stand next to Al and took her hand. She smiled up at him gratefully before tucking her face behind his back so that she didn't have to look. She flinched a little when she felt the needle.
"All done."
Al looked back at her arm and inspected the small drop of blood before standing up, but she got up too fast and had to sit back down again.
"You ok?" Jenner asked a little concerned.
"Oh yeah...I'm good." She said but she was a little light headed.
"She hasn't eaten in days...non of us have." Jacqui said coming to stand next to Al.
Jenner looked around the group again before nodding and motioning for them to follow him.
An hour later everyone was sat around a table laughing.
"You know in Italy, children have a little bit of wine with their dinner." Dale said as he handed Lori a glass of wine.
"Well, when Carl is in Italy he can have some then." Lori said laughing.
"What's it gonna hurt? Come on." Rick said.
Lori looked down at Carl for a moment and gave in, handing him her glass. Carl took a sip and everyone went quiet, watching his reaction.
"EWWW"
"That's my boy." Lori said patting him on the back.
"That tastes nasty." Carl said, still pulling a face.
"I'm with you on that...here, you can join me in the elite soda pop club." Al said laughing as she handed him a can of Dr. Pepper.
"You don't drink?" Rick asked her as he handed her a glass to pour her drink in.
"Nope." She said simply and sat back and let the conversation flow around her.
A few moments later Rick stoop up, clinking his knife against his glass.
"It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."
"He is more than our host." T-Dog said, raising his glass and everyone joined in.
Al looked over it Jenner and noticed how uncomfortable he looked, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something he wasn't telling them. He locked eyes with her as he accepted the toast and took a big sip of his wine.
""So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here doc?" Shane asked as the cheers died down.
"You're such a buzz kill Shane." Al said standing up and making her way over to Glenn, handing him a glass of water.
"I just wanna know where all the other doctor are. They were supposed to be figuring out what happened...where are they?"
The mood had instantly shifted. No one was smiling anymore.
"We're celebrating Shane, we don't need to do this now." Rick said as he sat back down.
"Woah, this is why we're here, right? This was your move. Supposed to find all the answers. Instead we uh...we found him. Found one man. Why?"
Everyone turned to Jenner waiting for him to answer.
"Well, when things got bad, a lot of people just...left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted." Jenner said before going quiet. Al looked over at Shane who had a smug look on his face and in that moment she felt a great dislike for him.
"Every last one?" He asked, before taking another sip of his wine.
"No. Many couldn't face walking out the door. They...opted out. There was a rash of suicides. That was a bad time. Jenner said quietly.
"You didn't leave. Why?" Al asked looking over at him.
"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."
No one spoke after that. They either continued to eat in silence or just stared down at their plates, but no one was in the mood to talk anymore.
"Sooo....do you have anywhere we can crash?" Al asked finally.
"Yeah uh...follow me." Jenner said as he stood up and everyone followed him down a long hallway.
"Most of the facility is powered down, including housing. So you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's a rec room down the hall that you might enjoy. Just don't pug in the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power. If you shower, go easy on the hot water."