Puppy Love ~ Beth Greene

2. "You takin requests J.C.?"

The group stopped to take a break and feed judith. Rex is leaning on a tree next to maggie, glenn, and tyler. Glenn goes to grab something but Maggie grabs him and kisses him softly. Tyler looks at Rex, Rex looks at Tyler with an annoyed expression because he already knew what he was about to do.

"Come and gimme a smooch" Tyler says and dramatically puckers his lips and closes his eyes while leaning towards Rex. Rex quickly shoves him away, like he always does when Tyler makes jokes like that. "I'm gonna shoot you in the dick if you even touch me."

-

It's like they had no destination. And that bothered Rex a lot. He always needed a purpose. Like keep his group safe, get to the destination quickly, get food. But Rick was keeping the group safe and Daryl was the one getting the food. Rex had no purpose, and it bothered him a lot.

"Right there is why we are waiting for our moment." Abraham says slowly as he walks by Rex and Rosita, who are watching Michone smash a walker's head in with a rifle.

"Yeah, fair enough."

-

The next night, Rex got up to go for a smoke. Which he hasn't been able to do in a couple of days with the baby being so close. As he tries to walk as far as he could, he accidently walks right in front of a loaded crossbow. "Oh, it's just you" Carol says with a fake smile as Daryl lowers his crossbow. After a couple of awkward seconds and of Daryl and Carol looking at him expectantly Rex finally speaks up.

"Don't worry y'all can go back to banging, i'm just going for a smoke" Daryl pulls a face at rex's words. "How ol' are ya"' He almost mutters.

"19... I think" Rex says in the same tone. It goes back to silence again. Until there's a rustle in the trees. Daryl readies his crossbow, so does Rex, and Carol grabs her knife.

After listening for a couple seconds and hearing nothing, Carol puts her knife back in its holder. Rex and Daryl look at each other, like they were thinking the same thing. They were being watched.

"Probably nothin'" Daryl grumbles as he puts down his crossbow.

"I'm gonna go smoke now" Rex awkwardly says and continues walking.

The more Rex smokes the more he can breathe. Pain and tobacco is like his inhaler and he's a fat kid trying to run a mile.

His mother was an addict, her father was an addict, his father was an addict, and now Rex is an addict. The cycle goes on. And for the longest time Rex was trying to break that cycle, but sometimes you just get too tired.

-

Walking, Walking, and more walking. Hey, what did you do today? Walk. What did you do yesterday? Walk. What are you gonna do tomorrow? Walk.

"We surrender, '' Daryl says, holding up his string of squirrels as everyone points their weapons at him. They lower them and keep walking. "Tighten it up" Rick says, motioning for Rex to walk closer to the group, of course he doesn't. He continues to walk a couple feet behind them.

"Help! Help" Rex hears, which makes him run quickly up to the front of his group with his crossbow raised. Purpose: Keep the group safe.

'Dad, come one. Come on." Carl begs his dad to go try and help the stranger, Rick gives a nod and the group starts running to the voice. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Rex rolls his eyes and jogs after them, obviously not wanting to go help people. By the time Rex waltzes into view, a dark skinned man in a priest costume is puking in front of Rick.

"Sorry," the man sheepishly smiles as he stands up straight. "Yes, thank you. Im gabriel"

"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick asks grumbly. Gabriel just looks at the group and laughs. Rex comes up from behind Rick, his crossbow slung around his shoulder and a hunting knife raised threateningly.