❛ I wanna be your vacuum cleaner, breathin' in your dust. I wanna be your Ford Cortina, I will never rust. I just wanna be yours. ❜

SEASON 3, EPISODE 11
i ain't a judas

━━━━━━ day 312.

CAL HELPED BIANCA into the prison after tying his shirt over her wound to stop the bleeding. Hershel ushered Bianca over to him as soon as they came in, setting up to see what could be done about her injuries.

⠀⠀⠀Thankfully, Hershel told them that there had been an exit wound which meant no digging around for a bullet. All he needed to do was stitch her leg, and she should be okay after that.

⠀⠀⠀Cal took Bianca's hand as he watched Hershel stitch Bianca's leg. His heart was racing, thinking about how close they had been to one of them dying. He couldn't bear to think about living without her or leaving her behind. The guilt of it all started to chip at his heart, his mind telling him that it was his fault the Governor was hounding them because of him. However, in the back of his mind, Cal knew this would have gone the same even if Cal had stayed behind.

⠀⠀⠀Cal noticed Bianca's eyes raise, and her face flashed with happiness before falling again. He frowned and turned to see what she was looking at.

⠀⠀⠀Rick entered the room with Merle and Daryl trailing behind him. Daryl left his brother's side when he noticed Bianca and beelined it to her. His hand rested on Bianca's shoulder, but her frown stayed.

⠀⠀⠀"I'm sorry, kid," Daryl muttered, the words rough as he formed them like he'd never apologized before.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca looked away, staring at the needle entering her thigh and then tugging out. Each time her hand squeezed tighter around Cal's hand before relaxing again.

⠀⠀⠀"You were right. I should've seen it," Daryl continued.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca's lips thinned, and she raised her head. Where Cal believed she would be angry, red-faced, and snarling, she was calm. Her expression relinquished the hurt she felt, but it seemed to fade, knowing Daryl had returned.

⠀⠀⠀"You came back, right?" Bianca asked with a shrug.

⠀⠀⠀"Right," Daryl agreed, nodding his head and holding her gaze. "And I won't leave you. Not again."

⠀⠀⠀Bianca nodded, turning her gaze away again. Then Daryl squeezed her shoulder and returned to the others.

⠀⠀⠀When Hershel finished, he told the two that they would discuss their plan in the morning after everyone rested. Especially Bianca, who needed it the most. The couple agreed and headed toward Bianca's cell.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca laid down on the bottom mattress. Cal stood by the cell door, the room pitch black until Bianca struck a match and lit the lantern on her beside. Cal smiled warmly under the lamplight, and Bianca smiled back despite looking exhausted.

⠀⠀⠀They had been reunited for a little over a day, but it felt like everything else took up the space for them to be together again. Cal wanted to talk until the morning as Bianca told him every day that she had been without him until it felt like he had been there with her. He wanted to hear everything, understand the shift in who she was, and love her just the same as he did now. Yet, all he could muster was to cross the room and kiss her.

⠀⠀⠀Cal had started off soft, worried about the bullet wound in her leg, but it had been so long since they had touched. Her skin was warm, her lips were soft and taunting, and her nimble fingers danced like talons across his throat. He missed her. He missed everything about her, even the bits he didn't know.

⠀⠀⠀Then, someone rustled in the cell next to them, and Bianca stiffened. Suddenly, the air turned awkward. It wasn't just having sex in semi-public. There was also the stirring fear of every heavy thing coming out to haunt them. It didn't feel right to have a second of being happy when the Governor was trying to kill them.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca settled back into her pillow, frowning. Then, her eyes seemed to light up, and she glanced over the side of the bed.

⠀⠀⠀"There's a box under the bed. Would you grab it?" she whispered, keeping her words faint so that only Cal could hear.

⠀⠀⠀He nodded, bending down, and dragged the box out. Bianca smiled as Cal took the box and crawled over her, sitting side by side in bed. He rested it in his lap, and Bianca opened the lid. She pulled out the photo Daryl had shown him when he first arrived. There were other things he recognized, too. Pillars of the Earth, his notebook, his ring, a broken watch, and a few other things he didn't recognize.

⠀⠀⠀"Where'd you get all this?" Cal asked, picking up the book—his favorite book—and thumbing the pages curiously.

⠀⠀⠀"Well, there's a lot I haven't had a chance to tell you. But, I found that book at the CDC," Bianca explained. She tapped the cover with her nail and then rolled her eyes.

⠀⠀⠀"The CDC? You went there?" Cal asked, furrowing his brows, then turned to look at her, unsure whether he should believe it.

⠀⠀⠀"Yeah," she sighed, waving her hand dismissively. "It burned down."

⠀⠀⠀"What? Do you know how?"

⠀⠀⠀"Oh, yeah, the scientist there was tired of everything turning to shit, so he blew the place up. Nearly killed all of us, but we got him to listen after a lot of screaming and threatening," Bianca explained dismissively, which made Cal's head spin.

⠀⠀⠀Cal hardly did anything in Woodbury compared to her. He was stuck behind walls while she was running through danger. He wasn't sure if he was more concerned for what she'd been through or wished he had been there alongside her.

⠀⠀⠀He didn't think it sounded fun or better than anything he had experienced, but the way she talked flippantly like it didn't matter...

⠀⠀⠀Then, he worried that it did. More than she said had happened there than she wanted to let on. Cal had to remind himself that death was right there at every turn, and the CDC was exactly the same. Especially as she explained almost being killed by a scientist that wanted it all to end.

⠀⠀⠀"I found your car on the highway," Bianca continued, holding up his notebook. "That's how I have this."

⠀⠀⠀Cal chuckled, shaking his head. Every time they found each other, just at the wrong time until it finally straightened itself out. First, Cal had gone to her house, then she had found his car, then they passed directly into the small town, and now they were finally here.

⠀⠀⠀"That's insane," Cal muttered.

⠀⠀⠀"I know," Bianca sighed, her head falling on his shoulder. "It was a coincidence, too... or a sign. We'd stopped on the highway because of the traffic jam, then stopped for supplies. I knew you were alive, but your car reinforced that thought."

⠀⠀⠀Cal smiled, his hand finding Bianca's and playing with her fingers softly.

⠀⠀⠀"I always believed you were still alive, but it was hard," Cal admitted, feeling guilty forever having the thought in his head she might be dead. "I went to your house a month or so after our last call. By the looks of it... I didn't know if you were dead, too," Cal whispered hoarsely.

⠀⠀⠀The image of his best friend rotting away with a puncture wound in his head. Her mother spilled out on the couch, and her dad with a bite on his shoulder and a shot in his head. It was too much for him at times. He couldn't even imagine how Bianca felt.

⠀⠀⠀"I would've been if not for Daryl," Bianca said, shrugging her shoulders. "He's had my back since then."

⠀⠀⠀"I'm glad he found you," Cal admitted, his frown turning down his face. "That you found a family out here."

⠀⠀⠀"We're your family now, too," Bianca assured him, knowing what he wanted to say but didn't in fear of invalidating her.

⠀⠀⠀In the past day, Cal worried he didn't know Bianca with how different she held herself. She wasn't as angry or reactive as she once had been, but then she said that, and it told him that this was the same girl. The anger wasn't what defined her but the love she reserved for special people. These people were special.

⠀⠀⠀"Some of the others are hard to warm up to," Bianca continued. "Especially now after—we lost a lot of people hardly a week ago. They're still coping, but they'll come around, I promise. If they could accept me, they'll accept you without even thinking."

⠀⠀⠀Cal looked down at Bianca, a thin smile pulling at his lips. He wanted to correct her, tell her that anyone would accept her, but he understood what she meant. That angry girl he'd know, so reactive and destructive, was hard to come to accept. Especially if she was alone out there trying to survive. He pressed his lips to her forehead, and she relaxed further into him.

⠀⠀⠀Cal packed the box back and set the box on the floor. He slunk into the bed, and Bianca followed. His arm wrapped around her waist and lay facing her. She stayed on her back to not put pressure on her leg.

⠀⠀⠀"Wake me up if your leg is hurting, alright?" Cal asked her.

⠀⠀⠀"I will," Bianca assured him, leaning over to peck his lips, and the two fell asleep.

━━━━━━ day 313.

"WE'RE NOT LEAVIN'," Rick growled, picking up a gun and loading it.

⠀⠀⠀They'd been at it for half an hour, deciding what was next. Cal stood beside Maggie on the bottom floor of the cellblock, and Bianca sat beside Hershel on the stairs. Merle was in behind a cell door behind them, Carl stood in the corner, Michonne stood outside of her cell, and Glenn paced back and forth. Upstairs on the catwalk, Carol stood at the top of the stairs, Beth stood beside her with Judith's bassinet between them, and Daryl leaned on the railing.

⠀⠀⠀"We can't stay here," Hershel continued his argument.

⠀⠀⠀"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop another one of those rounds," Maggie stated, reloading her gun.

⠀⠀⠀"We can't even go outside," Beth added, distressed.

⠀⠀⠀"Not in the daylight," Carol said simply.

⠀⠀⠀"Rick says we're not running, we're not running," Glenn stated forcefully.

⠀⠀⠀"No, better to live like rats," Merle agreed sarcastically behind them. His hands lay between the open slots of the door, and he stared like prey at each of them.

⠀⠀⠀"You got a better idea?" Rick asked harshly, turning to him with an expectant brow raised.

⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, we shoulda slid outta here last night and lived to fight another day," Merle suggested. "But we lost that window, didn't we?"

⠀⠀⠀Cal could practically feel Bianca's temperature spike the second he spoke. He turned to see her rolling her eyes, fists clenched to keep herself from reacting too quickly.

⠀⠀⠀"Not much of a suggestion, now," Bianca snapped at him, glaring at Merle, who sent an equally rageful one back at her.

⠀⠀⠀It still made Cal sick that the two knew each other. For one, just because he knew Merle and what he was capable of. But also that since knowing Merle, he had been a piece in the puzzle of finding Bianca again.

⠀⠀⠀"You gotta better idea, Yellow?" Merle asked slowly, clicking his tongue in amusement as he placed the slur in his mouth.

⠀⠀⠀"Shut the fuck up," Cal snapped at him, nearly darting across the room, but Maggie's grip on his shirt stopped him.

⠀⠀⠀"Knock it off, asshole," Daryl added, pacing the catwalk, so he stood over his brother. "She's got a name."

⠀⠀⠀"Right, sorry, sorry," Merle apologized, raising his hands in defense, then rolled his eyes as he turned to look at Bianca. "Bianca. Is that your real name, or is it something more exotic?"

⠀⠀⠀"It's my real name, unlike yours that your mom chose after shitting alphabet soup," Bianca retorted, a smirk coiling at her lips.

⠀⠀⠀Merle opened his mouth to continue, his face turning bright red. Cal remembered Glenn mentioning the screaming matches they used to get into.

⠀⠀⠀"Knock it off!" Rick cut them off, his head looking like it was about to explode. "We don't have time for this."

⠀⠀⠀"You're right. I'm sure the Governor's got scouts on every road out of this place by now," Merle stated, turning his glare to Rick.

⠀⠀⠀"We ain't scared of that prick," Daryl said.

⠀⠀⠀"Y'all should be," Merle told him, raising his brows. "That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to."

⠀⠀⠀"Let's put him in the other cell block," Maggie exclaimed, turning away from Merle as she grew uncomfortable by the truth.

⠀⠀⠀"No, he's right," Cal sighed, hating to admit that Merle did know what he was talking about.

⠀⠀⠀"This is all your fault! You started this!" Maggie screamed at Merle.

⠀⠀⠀"What's the difference whose fault it is?" Beth asked, the level-headed one out of the group. "What do we do?"

⠀⠀⠀"I said we should leave. Now Axel's dead, and Bianca's been shot," Hershel said firmly. "We can't just sit here."

⠀⠀⠀Rick turned away, obviously not wanting to listen to it, but Hershel wasn't about to be dismissed once again. He stood, raising his one leg and adjusting himself onto his crutch as he screamed, "Get back here!"

⠀⠀⠀Rick stopped in his tracks but didn't turn back. Hershel made his way to stand behind Rick and then started to tell him what he thought.

⠀⠀⠀"You're slippin', Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why, but now is not the time," Hershel told him sternly. "You once said this isn't a democracy. Now, you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something."

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

NEW CHAPTER! I really love Bianca and Cal and I hate how much I struggle finding time/conversations for them to have. I forgot that since they're both OCs I would really have to rely on MYSELF to write all of their conversations smh.

Also, I did good guys! I have four episodes written now for season 4. I don't try too hard on the first pass, just to have something down to edit but I'm already excited for it.

SONG: I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you'd like. However, this is an all kind of reader safe space. So even if you ghost read or comment every chapter, I hope you know it means the world to me that you've come into this fic ♡ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until the next one.