"Talk"

'Thoughts'

Dreams

Chapter One: About Six Months Later

Rick's POV:

It was early in the morning and I had decided to go down to our little farm we had created and work in it. Once I washed my face in the tube outside I put my headphones in and walked over to the farm and got to work. After a while of digging I hit something and knelt to move the dirt of off it and found a gun buried. I picked it up and took a ear piece out and the noise of the world around me rushed back as I stared at the gun.

I looked up then over at the fence at the walkers growling at me and trying to get at me. I smirked at them and took the gun apart and threw it into the barrel and replaced the ear piece then went back to digging.

A few hours later I saw Carl walking down to me and I walked the other half to meet him.

"You didn't wake me up." he said and I smiled at him.

"That's 'cause your father and I knew you were up all night reading comics." I said and he blushed a little before looking at the pig pen.

"What's wrong with Violet?" he asked and I looked over at the pig laying down and sighed.

"Carl I told you not to name them anymore. They're not piglets they're food." I sighed and he got a sad look in his face and looked at the ground.

"Sorry." he said and I looked at him then sighed and looked at the pig again.

"I don't know what's wrong with her. Could be nothing or she could be sick. Feel better... Violet." I said and Carl looked up at me and smiled brightly. I smiled back and ruffled his hair.

"Come on, let's get some food." I said and wrapped an arm around his shoulder and led him back to the others.

Daryl's POV:

"Morning Daryl!" someone yelled and I turned and waved at him.

"Morning Doc. S." I said and kept walking towards Carol, who was making the food, and Justin, who was leaning on the counter.

"Morning Daryl!"

Morning Daryl!" People kept yelling and I turned and just looked at them all before turning to Carol and Justin trying to hide my blush.

"Smells good." I said trying to act normal and they both smirked at me.

"Just to let you know Dar, I liked you first." Justin said smirking and I playfully glared at him before picking up a bowl and eating.

"You know Rick brought a lot here too." I said and they both nodded.

"Not recently though. You've brought people here and food recently and you've got to learn to like the attention." Carol said and I did blush a little then and Justin smiled at me.

"Hope Rick doesn't get to jealous." he said and I hit him on his arm and he laughed.

"Well, I better go and do my chores so I can have the rest of the day to myself." Justin said and Carol and I waved at him as he ran to wherever it was he was going to.

"Come on, I need to show you something." Carol said and looked at a kid that I hadn't seen until now. "Patrick can you cover for me?" she asked and held the knife out to him. He nodded and took the knife from her and we went to leave but he stopped us.

"Uh, Mr. Dixon?" he said and I stopped and looked at him. "I just wanted to thank you for the deer yesterday. It was a real treat and I would be honor to shake your hand." he said and held his hand out.

I inwardly smirked and licked my fingers clean then used the same hand to shake his hand with. I saw Carol smiling in the corner of my eye and the kid's eyes brighten when I shook his hand. I let go and he got to work and I looked at Carol.

"You sure you and Bri aren't twins?" she asked and I glared at her playfully.

"Stop." was all I said and she laughed as she led the way.

She stopped when we had a good view of the fence and I felt my eyes widen at how many walkers there now where. "I don't think we'll be able to spare a lot of people for the run today because of this. More keep coming. There's dozen more at the other towers too. That fence is strong and we have people down there trying to kill enough of them, but it won't last for long." she said and looked back at me. "Sorry Pooky." she said and blinked her lashes fast. I pushed her playfully and we both laughed as we walked back to the others.

Brian's POV:

"Hey Brian!" People yelled as I walked by and I just waved at them and kept walking then stopped and looked back at them hoping they could help me.

"Have any of you seen Justin?" I asked and they all smiled at me and pointed in the direction of watch tower C and I nodded my thanks and walked to it.

I smiled when I saw Justin sitting on the ground surrounded by kids as they looked at him. I walked closer and I could here some of the kids counting.

"-Nine, ten, eleven, twelve! I see twelve on your arm Justin!" one of the little said loudly with excitement and Justin laughed at her. I looked over her and saw she had a hold of Justin's left arm, the arm with the scars on it.

"Thank you for counting them Kristy, but didn't you find fourteen yesterday?" he asked and laughed when she nodded quickly and began to bounce.

"I know! I think they're leaving your arm!" she said and I couldn't hold my laugh in then, it was to damn cute.

My laugh got all their attention on me and Justin smiled, stood up, and walked into my arms and kissed him on his lips and smiled into it as the kids made 'aww' noises in the background.

"What's up Bri?" he asked and I smirked at him and pushed myself a little more into him and he blushed rather bad and hit my chest which made me laugh.

"Daryl asked me to go on the run with him today and I said I'd go." I said and Justin nodded at me.

"So when do we leave?" he asked and smiled at him and shook my head.

"You're not coming, Rick needs you here to help keep watch." I said and he groaned but nodded and kissed me again before letting go and sitting back down with the kids. I felt someone pull on my arm and I looked down to see Kristy looking up at me with big eyes.

"Join us Brian." she said and all the kids voiced their agreements and I sighed and being out numbered and walked around to sit behind Justin and he leaned on me as the kids cheered.

"I can only stay for a few minutes though, Daryl needs my help soon." I said and they nodded and looked at Justin and one of the little boys pointed at his side.

"Don't you have a scar there?" one of the little boys asked. Justin smiled and nodded then lifted his shirt just enough for them to see the mark and the scar.

The little boy gently touched the scar then touched the mark only to pull his hand back quickly when Justin hissed in pain.

I jumped instantly and looked at it to see what was wrong only to see everything looked normal. I looked up at him with a confused look and just just shrugged then looked at the little boy who looked ready to cry.

"It's ok Austin. I just forgot about a bruise I got there this morning, no harm done." Justin said smiling brightly which made the little boy smile brightly as well.

"Alright you kids it's time to go read with Carol. I want some time with Justin too you know." I said and all the little kids giggled as I pulled Justin close to me. As the kids got up Kristy and Austin, the two kids that loved Justin the most, hugged Justin quickly before falling the others up to the prison.

"What the fuck was that Sunshine?" I asked and lifted his shirt to look at the mark.

"I have no idea Bri, honest. It wasn't like that this morning when I woke up." he said with a confused look on. I sighed and pulled him into a hug and stood us both up.

"Well we'll have Hershel look at it later. It's probably nothing and it could very well be a bruise that you didn't realize you got." I said and he looked at me.

"I would definitely remember getting hit on my mark Bri, believe me it hurts like a bitch." he said and I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head in amusement.

"Either way I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I better go find Dar and see if he's ready to leave and if he needs any help." I said and he nodded and leaned up to kiss me. I kissed back and smiled at him then let go and walked towards where Daryl would be.

Before I left though I turned and looked at Justin. "By the way, I thought you had twenty-six scars on your arm?" I asked and he laughed and smiled at me.

"Like I would let them see the scars my sleeve covers." he said and I laughed and shook my head in amusement then went back to finding Daryl.

Rick's POV:

"Dad look!" Carl said excitedly and I turned to see Michonne riding Lucky, which is actually the horse Justin and I freed just outside of Atlanta, and I smiled and we ran to open the new gate we made for her. Once she was in and the gate was closed she hopped off of Lucky and got a couple of comics out of her bag.

"Someone hit the jackpot." she said smiling at Carl as his eyes lit up.

"Awesome! Thank you!" he said and she ruffled his hair.

"I get to read them when you're done." she said and he nodded at her. She got into her bag again and brought out a razor and handed it to me. "I also found this. Your face is losing the war." she said smiling and I laughed at her.

"I find his facial hair to be sexy." Daryl said while parking his motorcycle and the other cars stopped behind him. I smiled at him and walked over to give him a kiss and Carl gave him a hug.

"Look who came home finally." Daryl said looking at Michonne who smirked then shook her head.

"Didn't find them." was all she said and he nodded. "I think we should try Macon, could be worth it." she said and Daryl and I shook our heads.

"Walkers the whole trip and in Macon with all these people, is it worth it?" Daryl asked and she sighed but didn't say anything. "I was thinking we'd go to the Big Spot, you know the one I'm talking about?" he asked and I nodded. "Could be worth it to go and see what's there." he said and I nodded and again.

"Ya it would be. I go to go check on the snares, I don't want to lose whatever we catch to the walkers." I said and Michonne walked around to one of the cars.

"I'll go." she said and we nodded our thanks to her as she hopped into the bed of the truck.

"But, you just got here." Carl said and she turned and leaned on the truck and smiled at him.

"And I'll be back. Save me a comic to read ok." she said and he nodded and smiled at her. I smiled at them both, loving that Carl had become as close to Michonne as he was to Justin, and that's saying something.

I turned to Daryl and leaned down to kiss him again real quick and he hit my stomach lightly as I straightened. He started his motorcycle up again and I ran to open the gate for them then quickly shut it. "Stay safe." I said as I watched them all drive away.

"Can I help with the snares dad?" Carl asked and I shook my head.

"You do your chores, read comes, and hang with Patrick. Maybe go to story time." I said and he gave me a annoyed look.

"That's for kids dad." he said and I nodded.

"Ya." was all I sighed and he huffed. I pulled lucky up to us and kissed her head. "Brush her good." I said and he nodded and went about his chores.

"Rick." someone said behind me. I turned and smiled as Hershel walked up to me. "There's nothing wrong with staying close. I understand what you're doing and soon, with everything you've grown, we won't have to do runs. You need to look the part though, get you some overalls, a straw hat, piece of straw hanging from your mouth, and a bigger ass." he and I laughed at me.

"The counsel- Brian, Justin, Daryl, Maggie, Sasha, Andrea and the rest of the leaders- wanted me to talk to you. None of us like that you always go without something to protect you, we want you to take your gun. We want you safe." he said and I looked at the ground and sighed and looked up smiling at him.

"It's just outside the fences and I have my knife. If I run into trouble six bullets ain't going to do much." I said but he just looked at me.

"Take your gun, please." he said and I sighed but nodded and watched him smile brightly at me and we walked up together to get my gun.

Daryl's POV:

I hit on the glass loudly a couple of times and turned to the others. "Give it a second." I said and Glenn looked at me.

"We need to move soon, it's too dangerous out here." he said and Brian nodded and looked around. Thinking about it this is probably the first time I've seen Brian and Justin not together. Guess that means he knows Justin's not going anywhere, something that took me a while to acknowledge.

Just then walkers started to hit on the window and we all got up and killed them quickly and dragged them out. "Ok we get and get out and stay in formation. Any questions?" Sasha asked and Tyresse smirked at her.

"Ya, was there ever a time you weren't the boss of me?" he asked and she smiled at him.

"You had a few years before I was born." she said and they laughed together and we all walked in.

We looked in silence for a while just picking up things that looked good and things we needed before there was a big crash and I scream. We all ran that way and saw the new guy that joined us a week ago trapped underneath a shelf. "You ok?" I asked and he nodded.

"Ya my foot's just stuck." he said and we all went to get it off of him when a walker literally fell from the ceiling.

"We should get out of here, like now." Glenn said and right then more started to fall we split up and went about killing walkers completely forgetting the guy trapped.

All around us walkers were falling and we were killing all that we could. I looked up when I heard a noise and saw that a chopper was about to come down on us. I got onto some boxes when I was getting surrounded and shot at walkers while also watching the chopper above me. Glenn came around the corner then and shot the walkers and looked up when we heard the chopper move.

"Daryl get out of there now!" Glenn said and helped me down. A walker was going to the new guy and I stomped on his head and dragged him out with the help of Zach, Beth's boyfriend and the kid that likes to guess what I did before the shit started, and we ran.

Only for another walker to get Zach's ankle and bit into it. He fell and the walker started to climb him and rip his neck open. I wanted to save him but there was nothing else to do. I bowed my head at him for a second and we all turned and ran for the doors and got out of there just as the chopper fell. We stopped just outside and watched the building go into flames and we looked at each other. Glenn came up and patted my shoulder and I nodded at him and we all looked at all the stuff we were able to save while I planned on how to tell Beth.

When we got home Glenn ran straight for Em, who was supposed to go with us but Glenn begged him not to and now I'm glad he won, and they held each other tightly. Brian looked to be in a sort of daze and I patted his shoulder and when he looked at me I nodded towards Justin who had just walked up and he was instantly walking to him and they held each other as well.

I sighed and looked around and saw Beth wasn't there so I went to her cell to tell her the bad news. When I got there she was laying on her stomach writing in a dairy it looked like. She looked up at me and smiled only for it to disappear when she saw my face. "What's wrong?" she asked and I took a deep breath before I answered.

"Zach." was all I said and she got a understanding look on her face.

"Ok." was all she said and walked over and took a "3" from the "30" on a board that said 'Days without accident' on it. I stared at it as the zero mocked us and she turned to me. "What?" she asked and I shrugged. "I don't cry anymore Dar. After we lost Mel, Linds, Sophia, Patrica, Dale, and Oscar I just can't." she said and I smiled sadly at her at being reminded of how we lost Mel and Linds in a run to get more food right at the beginning of bringing people into our group. Brian now watches Gus like a hawk and only let's him out of his sight when he's with the family members. He likes to be with Carol a lot because she reads to him a lot more than to the other kids.

"You ok?" she asked bringing me out of my thoughts. That's also when I noticed I had tears in my eyes.

"Just tired of losing people." I said and she hugged me tightly and I hugged her back.

"I'm glad I got to know him." she said and I nodded.

"Me too." I said.

"I'm glad I didn't say goodbye, I hate goodbyes." she said and I just pulled her closer.

"Let's get back to the others." I said and together we walked back.

Justin's POV:

It was late at night and everyone was asleep. I slowly got out of mine and Brian's bed and walked over to the mirror and looked at my reflection.

'If I had gone today Zach would still be here.' I thought and looked at where my mark is and lifted my shirt up to see it.

Only when I did it looked different.

Around it was now red, like it was starting to swell up and the birds head looked to have moved slightly. Though, that could my eyes playing tricks on me so I just brushed that off. Not really knowing what to make of it I lowered my shirt and made a mental note to talk to Hershel about it tomorrow.

Looking back at my reflection I noticed that I was starting to not feel good. 'Great, just great, that's what we need right now, me getting sick. It could just be a cold or something, I might not even have to worry about telling them. In fact I won't, we have enough going on right now to worry about one of their leaders being sick.' I thought to myself. with that decision in mind I nodded to myself and crawled back into bed and moved Brian's arm to spoon me which he instinctively tightened.

I smiled at him and snuggled into his chest and fell asleep listening to his heart beat and taking in his scent.

Had I not gotten so used to feel a little cold while inside the prison and freezing sometimes outside I would've thought more about suddenly feeling a little colder and realized our group was in a lot of danger.