A Marauder's World

Part 8

Rick felt more under-dressed than any animal as he found himself walking through an actual town again. Though a bit derelict even in its hay-day, the place had a post office across the street from a police station that gave him an old, familiar twang of longing in his heart. He'd missed a lot of things about his past, his job hadn't been one he'd thought of in quite some time.

They passed no signs of habitation once more, until they reached the center of town, where an enormous field for their garden finally gave away their stability. Half of the soil had been recently turned, the other half had rows of tomatoes ready to be picked, and a bushel of flowers that Rick recognized as potatoes and carrots from Hershel's teachings with even more he didn't recognize from so far away as a promise of variety.

His group paused in fascination at the sight as the shade of an old park bench was the only marking of what had once been here. To the naked eye, it all seemed to have sprouted from nowhere. They'd struggled with rats and rabbits in their own, did the werewolf even keep those away?

"Lils got herself a bit of a green thumb," Sirius answered the unspoken, the first true, tentative smile proudly creeping up his face. "Never touched a hoe before all of this, can you believe it?" His British accent seemed to come and go with little sense, Rick's ears pricked and puddled over in confusion. Sirius kept exaggerating and tipping his tongue on his vowels but the longer he talked the more it dulled off.

The werewolf- no- Remus reached over and swatted him lightly on the neck, muttering something under his breath. Sirius' smile widened unrepentant and he gestured them on.

The town hall was a low slung building that had a tattered and pitifully clinging american flag on its front somebody had taken the time to lower and spray paint some odd black shape over it before raising it again. The windows weren't even busted out of this one, and Sirius had to tug and use quite a bit of strength it seemed to get this door open before he managed it. "I told you we need to check all of these doors more, they're going to rust shut!"

"Frankly it's a miracle we haven't had need of it before now between you two idiots," Remus muttered so quietly under his breath, if Rick hadn't been just a few feet behind him he wouldn't have heard. Daryl might not have right behind him. The others were still lingering even farther back. Remus had no accent at all, his tongue could have blended in with any crowd they'd met. Whatever story had driven all of this together seemed more strange by the moment.

The two went in still snipping quietly with each other about adding the rest of the doors in town to an ever growing to-do list while the door got stuck open behind them and neither seemed to notice, or care. Rick glanced inside at the dark building, shadows and few windows made it seem dim and ripe for their death.

Rick caught sight of his reflection in the grimy, dusty glass to see his bandage was already leaking blood again, his hand was trembling as he pressed it against the warm bricks for support. Sirius poked his head back out, shaggy hair clean if unevenly cut, there was a new blood patch on the leather jacket he wore over clothes that didn't have a single stain in them. "You coming?" He rolled his eyes and glanced beyond them. "Don't tell me you're vampires and need an invitation into every building?" His accent wavered so much it was giving him a headache to keep track.

"That joke was old before you were born," Remus's voice echoed from inside, they could hear the smile in his tone and Harry made some noise as if he'd just been tickled. Judith gurgled in his arms, her skin was already starting to look pink from being out in the sun all day.

Rick trudged inside.

It was an open floor with rows of chairs, clearly once a waiting room with a desk in the far corner, long dead monitors hanging from ominously creaking brackets in the walls, and tiled floors that showed every footprint from the fresh dust they stirred in the air. Remus was in the nearest seat, a low, uncomfortable looking plastic one and bouncing Harry, eyes only on him as they filed uneasily inside. Sirius was trying to tug a table off a wall before he realized it was bolted in place, before throwing his hands up and going to move some chairs around it instead.

Carol took a tentative step towards them, now between the two strangers and only looking back once at Daryl, before helping him move more into reach. Sirius smiled so brightly at her, it was hard to remember for a moment the dangerous edge Rick had first gotten from him. Once there were ten, rather squashed together but they'd make do, around the table, Sirius even gave her a flirty smile and winked at her.

"Well aren't you the charmer," Carol spoke in a tone Rick hadn't quite heard from her before. Something close to the way she spoke to Ed so long ago. Cautious, overtly pleasant.

"You came back!"

Rick whirled around too fast at the loud voice, stumbling for it as he saw double and staggering towards Remus.

The werewolf sprung to his feet and moved towards him, all his mind's eye saw were two grisly hands reaching to tear him apart, pull his daughter away-

Daryl caught him before he could fall, a familiar stench as his partner supported his weight. The unsheathing of steel from its scabbard had gone unnoticed until his tunnel vision righted and he saw Michonne standing guard in front of him while Sirius had knocked several chairs flying as he moved to pull the werewolf back and now stood like a weapon himself in front of Remus and Harry, gun held steady on Carol.

"Sirius!" James was definitely on drugs, Rick decided. He sounded like an exhausted school teacher. "That is not how you play nice."

"He-"

"Won't change overnight, we didn't," James patiently interrupted. "Put the gun down Padfoot, he won't say it again, will you mate?"

Rick had no idea who had said what, the dark room was the only reason his eyes had stopped watering from stress and he could still only barely make out James now standing in the doorway. He looked similar to how Rick felt, but his wife looked worse, his arm around her seemed to be the only thing keeping her upright. Yet her face was pinched from stubborness, she'd clearly demanded to be brought along to whatever this was as she held herself stiff and the shirt she wore didn't quite cover the thick white bandages on her shoulder.

He almost overlooked the last man standing in James's shadow, squinty eyes twitching over every single person here without stopping on any for long, like some odd bodyguard. It was the rat faced one, and Rick now felt more vulnerable having him here than the werewolf at his back.

Sirius slowly let the gun fall back to his side and Michonne let her sword do the same, but the tension still hovered in the room like a spark ready to break fire. Sirius's hostility tried to rifle exactly that as he gestured with his other hand, "let's be clear then. You lot stay here, you treat him as a goddamn person, he's as much a right to walk around without glancing over his shoulder as any of you!"

"I can speak for myself Sirius," Remus put his hand on Sirius's shoulder, and then stepped beside him to look at them all. In the low lighting, he could almost pass as normal. The idea of a werewolf being shy had never crossed Rick's mind, but even that fleeting thought passed as he spoke firmly without hesitation. Quiet then, he spoke when he had something on his mind. How strange, to finally think of one of them with a personality. "Are you planning on staying, or do you just need help again?"

"Staying," Rick said confidently as he straightened himself back and looked from him, to James, trying his hardest not to let it show Daryl was still supporting him from falling over. "I, reconsidered," he added.

James smiled and waved at the assembled seats. "Let's have a chat then."