Room for Pain (Shane Walsh love story)

Chapter 13: Just Peachy

A/N Guys its been years... like I know... I KNOW! But I've still been receiving masses of comments, so many people asking for updates. Sure I'm not fourteen and writing fanfic anymore but I'm not gonna lie, this story was always so much fun to write. And so we have it... chapter 13... what... three? four? years later? Enjoy amigos!

Chapter 13: Just Peachy

A cool breeze cut through the warm summers air, sending waves of relief and brushing my hair back out of the way of my face as I sat on the dry grass fiddling with my gun out of the way of Hershel and co. The tree above would occasionally startle me by dropping a leaf on my head, leaving the sinking fear of believing a walker is possibly trying to grab me by the hair.

"Peach?" the voice of Glenn surprised me. I whizzed my head around to catch a glimpse of him, looking beyond awkward. He was gingerly holding a basket of peaches, his trademark cap slightly askew on his head.
I raised an eyebrow at the Korean man, "Um yeah, sounds good." I took a peach from the basket before asking, "have you seen Shane around?"
"Uh... no, haven't this morning."
"Easy, I'll grab one for him too if that's okay?"
"Uh-huh, yeah, for sure, take one, yeah."
His visible awkwardness was getting hard to ignore.
"Glenn is everything okay?"
"Yeah of course, why... why wouldn't everything be okay, everything is fine, perfect, I should get going." He stammered, a visible bead of sweat starting to form at his dark hairline.
I leaped from my comfortable place on the ground and latched onto Glenn's arm as he proceeded to leave, "oooohhhh no you don't. What is up?"
He sighed as his eyes fell to his feet, "I can't tell you. It's a secret."
I let out a long deep breath, understanding but not accepting, "is it a secret that can get us all killed? Because that's not something you can ke-"
"Maggie. I gotta keep it for her."
"So it CAN get us killed?" I pressed.
"Fucking hell, why do you gotta do this?" Glenn appeared defeated, lowering the peach basket down next to him so his arms were free, possibly to punch me if I continued pushing.
"Listen, if you can tell me, we can work out a way together to deal with it."
"How on earth are we going to kill those things without making a scene or without anyone knowing?!"
I froze, "those... those things? Glenn... are you talking about the walkers?"
"I've said too much!" he whined, picking up his fruit basket and walking away, leaving me stunned.
"Glenn!" I shouted.
He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face me, before taking a few steps in and looking around to make sure the coast was clear, "you can't tell anyone." He said, raising a finger to his lips, "the barn."
Glenn proceeded to walk off and leave, leaving me stunned. The barn. Surely not.

After collecting myself, I decided to go for a stroll. Shane was gone when I woke up this morning, although to be fair I had quite the sleep in, on my own for once. I spotted the trio of Rick, Shane, and Jimmy huddled around a car, the three of them leaning into the hood, presumably looking at a map.
"....perhaps Sophia dropped her doll there, it got brought down stream." Said Rick.
Of course. Sophia. She was still missing.
"Psshhhttt," I announced myself, walking up behind Shane and leaning down on the hood next to him, handing him the peach from earlier.
"Thanks darl'" he replied, leaving a tender kiss on my forehead which made my insides swirl.
He then took his attention back to the task at hand, "So you think she took this road here and made her way up north?" he pressed his fingers firmly into the map.
"There's housing development there that went in maybe ten years ago." Replied Jimmy.
"It's settled. You can run some gun practise there and I'll hold down the fort," said Rick, "After what went down with Daryl, no one is going out alone, we all go in pairs."
"I got my pair." I said with a wink, giving Shane a cheeky squeeze on the ass.
He flinched as he went to whack my hand away with a chuckle, "I'm afraid that's as close as you're getting to that pair sweetheart."
"That's not what you said last night." I teased.
"Zelda honey, we've got company." Said Rick, insinuating the arrival of more people.
A fragile voice peeped up, "we'd like to join you for gun training today?" it was Beth.
Rick sighed, dropping his head slightly, "Hershel has been very clear that I can't involve any of you in what we do-"
"He doesn't mind." Interrupted Beth, "We've spoken to him. He doesn't like it, but he has consented. Otis was the only one who knew guns... now he's gone."
I peeped at Shane who briefly squeezed his eyes shut with the knowledge I was looking at him. I raised my hand and placed it on his back. He arched his back outwards into my hand and hung his head.
"We gotta learn to protect ourselves." Finished Beth.
"No offence but I'll ask Hershel myself." Replied Rick.
Shane picked himself back up and straightened his spine, "well, ya better hurry up and hop to it, we're leaving this afternoon."
He pushed himself back off the car so as to give him momentum and began walking off, signalling with his hand for me to follow. I hopped a few steps before playfully latching on behind him, tightening my hands over his stomach from behind.
"You gonna teach me how to use a gun?" I smirked, sticking my tongue out.
"Girl if you keep your tongue outta your mouth for much longer, Imma be teaching you something else hm."
I could feel a tingling sensation running up and down my spine, "are you trying to encourage me?"
He paused and stopped walking, coming to a halt in front of the rv letting me walk into his back, "that's it, get in the van!"
I giggled as he swept me up and threw me over his shoulder, mounting the steps of the rv as I hung from him.
"Shane!" I laughed, "there's windows all through this thing, you can't keep people from coming in!"
"You heard of a bathroom before?"
"Oh psshhtt that thing is tiny!"
"We'll make it work, wouldn't be the first time."
I recollected my memory, "fair."