" We were broken. By life. By others. By our own serious dysfunctions. But we finally found each other, after almost two decades of near misses. Of being so close. And when we finally did come together all of the pieces fit together perfectly, as if all that time, we were being broken so we would be perfect for each other. " -J. Warren Welch- In which Aurora Gilmore and Jess Mariano were two young kids with broken hearts. Two people broken by the ones that were meant to love, and care for them. But everything changed the night they met, something in both of them had begun to mend. Something had clicked the moment their eyes met. Something had come alive. A new love had blossomed, they were each other's missing piece.

Adeline Dixon was ten when the world ended, but grief had already carved her hollow. She's no stranger to silence, to bruises hidden under long sleeves, to pretending not to feel. She bleeds quietly, like someone used to being left behind. Daryl never wanted to be anyone's guardian. But something in her - sharp and burning and unbearably alive - calls to something in him he thought was long dead. In the ruins of Georgia, amid blood and ash, the two of them learn what it means to stay - even when you don't know how. ** Disclaimer: The Walking Dead and its characters are not my property. They belong to their respective creators. Only the original characters in this story are my own creation. Part I (Chapters 1-16): Backstory Part II (Chapters 17-32): Apocalypse Part II (Chapters 33-?): Season I