𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

          "𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐅𝐈𝐃𝐆𝐄𝐓, the longer it takes. So don't, okay?"

"I'm trying," Carl grumbled, Casey put her head on her kneecaps.

"Well, try harder."

"How come Casey doesn't need a haircut?" Carl whined, the younger sister looked up at him, glaring.

"She's getting one next," Lori told him, pointing the scissors in her hand at her daughter. Casey shrugged her shoulders.

"Unlike Carl, I like having my hair look nice. So I don't care." She sassed, Shane ruffled her hair up again, and she slapped his hand away.

"If you think this is bad, wait till you start shaving. That stings." Shane interjected, cleaning his rifle off. Casey looked at it closely, and he showed it to her. "The day comes, you'll be wishin' for one of your mama's haircuts," Shane told him with a grin.

Carl looked up, not believing him. "I'll believe that when I see it." He let out, making him chuckle.

"I'll tell you what just get through this with some manly dignity and tomorrow I'll teach you and your sister somethin' special." He proposed to him, pausing in between what he was about to say next as he grabbed another took to clean his gun. "I will teach you to catch frogs." He told him, Carl thought of it as nothing.

"I've caught a frog before. So has Casey." He told him, Casey nodded her head.

"I caught more than Carl." She grinned, looking up at him. She was always very competitive, especially when it came to being better than her brother at anything.

"Liar,"

"I'm not lying, ask-" She quickly stopped herself, then huffing out a breath of air. She was frustrated, knowing she couldn't ask her Dad anymore. Nobody could.

Shane finished what he had to say before Casey and Carl bickered with each other. "I said frogs plural. And it is an art, my friend. It is not to be taken lightly. There are ways and means. Few people know about it. I'm willin' to share my secrets." Carl looked at Lori, stopping his haircut. She looked down, an eyebrow slightly raised.

"Oh, I'm a girl. You talk to him." She spoke, turning his head back forward.

"I'm a girl and I catch frogs! I catch lots of them!" Casey commented, standing up. "One time I got one with April, we named it Gerald." She told Lori, standing up on the log she was leaning against.

"I remember, you tried to keep it as a pet."

She started pacing across it, keeping her arms out to be balanced. Shane chuckled before continuing to clean his gun. "It's a one-time offer, bud-not to be repeated." He said, scrubbing the sides off.

"I'll go!" Casey volunteered as he grabbed her hand so she wouldn't fall over.

"Why do we need frogs, plural?"

"You ever eat frog legs?" He asked, Casey shook her head no.

Carl's face went to a face of disgust. "Eww!"

"-No, yum! Right, Casey?" He asked, she shrugged her shoulders. She never had frog legs!

"Never had them!"

"No, he's right, ew."

"When you get down to that last can of beans, you're gonna be loving those frog legs, ladies. I can see it now- 'Shane, u-um, do you think I could have a second helping, please? Please? Just one?'" Shane mimicked Lori, his hand still holding Casey's so she wouldn't topple onto the ground.

"Yeah, I doubt that." She denied, making him chuckle once again.

"Don't listen to her, kids. You two and me will be heroes. We'll feed these folks. Cajun style kermit legs."

"I would rather eat Ms. Piggy." Lori tried to joke, but Carl and Casey didn't understand, mainly Casey. Shane laughed, and Carl just laughed because Shane did."Yes, that came out wrong." She laughed out.

"Heroes, spoken of in song and legend. You and me, Shane, Carl, and Casey."

Casey hopped off the log, letting go of her Godfather's hand. "I don't wanna eat the frogs." She told him, and he laughed tickling at her sides.

"You ought to eat the frogs, girlie." He joked, and she laughed quickly getting his hands off, well, she tried to.

Then it came to a stop, she was relieved up until everyone was worried. Then she got anxious along with them. A loud alarm went off and she furrowed her eyebrows. "What's that noise?" She asked, standing up.

"Sounds like you complaining." Carl quipped, Casey lightly kicked him in the foot then running up to Lori.

"Talk to me, Dale!" Shane exclaimed, walking over to the RV with everyone behind him.

"I can't tell yet." He said as the sirens started getting closer.

A red car came into sight, a Dodge Challenger. It was fast, and surely a nice car. It caught the attention of everyone. "Is that them, are they back?" Amy asked, hoping for the best.

"I'll be damned."

"What is it?!"

"Stolen car is my guess."

The red expensive car pulled up to camp and then stopped. Shane stormed over there, angrily. Casey wanted to look at the car, but, she stayed back, not knowing who was in it. She guessed it was one of the people who went on the run, but you could never be too safe.

Much to everyone's relief, Glenn stepped out of the car. Casey smiled slightly, waving at him. "Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale shouted, Glenn put his hand hands up, shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't know how!" He exclaimed, the siren did get very annoying. It was even worse when chaos started going on. Amy started asking about Andrea, and Shane was yelling at him to pop the hood.

"Glenn, pop the damn hood, please!" He shouted, Glenn did as he was told, and quickly scampered to the car.

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Okay!"

"Is she okay? Is she alive? Is she coming back?" Amy asked Glenn nodded his head, knowing he was getting even more stressed by the second.

Amy had the right to be worried. It was her sister! No one was able to exactly see what was going on. "She's okay! She's okay! She's coming back!"

The siren went off after Jim pulled something out of the car. The silence was nice, but, it didn't last before Amy was questioning again. "Is she coming back?" She rapidly asked, Glenn nodded his head.

"Yes!" He yelled over the nonexistent alarm.

"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?"

"Yes! Yeah, fine, everyone is. Well, Merle not so much." Glenn let out, if Merle wasn't back alive, Daryl would throw a tantrum. So, they were in no luck once he got back from his hunting trip.

Shane looked over, leaning on the car. "Are you crazy? Driving this wailing bastard up here? You tryin' to draw every walker for miles?" Shane asked angrily.

"I think we're okay," Dale said, seeing as there were no walkers around.

Shane argued, of course. He looked back at him, an eyebrow raised. "You call bein' stupid okay?" He questioned, Casey looked up at Lori, grabbing onto her finger. She wasn't exactly the most affectionate, well, she was...sometimes. It depended on her mood and what was going on.

"Well, the alarm was echoing all over these hills. Hard to pinpoint the source. I'm not arguing, I'm just saying." Glenn excused himself quickly.

"It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?" He asked Glenn, who quickly apologized."I'm sorry. I got a cool car." He apologized, but before anyone answered, a big white truck pulled up to the campsite.
Andrea came running out, calling Amy's name. Then Morales came out, and his kids came running toward him, as well as his wife.

Casey watched everyone reuniting with their families. She let go of her mother's finger, and crossed one arm over her, grabbing at her arm. She leaned her weight on her right foot, standing alone. Carl had gone up to Lori with tears glistening in his eyes, and she'd crouched down in front of him, trying to comfort him.

Casey preferred being alone, and not having people coddling her like a child. Unlike Carl, who wanted all the love and attention in the world. They were just two completely different kids.

She looked down, knowing she had nobody to run towards. Not one to hug, or call dad. To cry in their arms and hug them closely with smiles and happiness.

Everyone reunited and Casey took a deep breath, still looking down at her light blue sneakers. She got the feeling to cry, but she didn't want to. Her breath was caught in the back of her throat, and her eyes were glistening with tears. One dropped from her eye, and she quickly wiped it away.

"How did y'all even get outta there anyway?" Shane asked curiously, Glenn stood there at the car still.

"New guy, got us out." He said as T-Dog walked out of the car, closing the door.

Morales nodded his head, then called the new guy out. "Yeah, crazy Vato just got into town. Hey, helicopter boy! Come say hello." Morales told the man, Casey looked up, her face a little bit red.

It was a man stepping out of the truck. He had a brown shirt on, and brown pants. It all seemed too familiar, what he was wearing. At first, Casey thought her head was playing tricks on her because she saw her father or someone who looked like him. He made direct eye contact with her, the same eyes looking at each other.

He stopped in his tracks, his hand on his face. "Oh my god," He whispered, walking towards his family.

"DADDY!" Casey screamed, getting her mother and brother's attention.

Maybe she wasn't hearing things wrong...

"Oh, Casey. Oh my god!" He cried as Carl ran over, seeing her father and sister hugging tightly. He cupped her cheeks, looking at her. "Oh my-, baby girl let me look at you." He cried, his hands going onto He dropped to his knees, then saw Carl running over.

"DAD! DAD!" They heard Carl's voice shouting. Daddy pulled them into a bone-crushing hug, then kissed Carl on the cheek like he had done with Casey. Lori walked over, somehow squeezing into the big hug.

"I found you-I found you guys," He sobbed, holding all of them there.

𓅪

         "𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃."

Casey was sitting on her dad's lap, leaning on his chest. Carl was lying on his legs. One of Rick's arms was around Lori, and the other was playing with Carl's hair. Lori was cuddled up on the other side of him, where Carl was. "I guess that comes closest. Disoriented. Fear, confusion-all of those things but...disoriented comes closest." He said honestly, he was talking about what it felt like waking up from the coma.

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short." Said Dale, placing his mug down next to him.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever." Rick explained, Carl looked up at him, his eyes wide.

"Mom said you died," Rick looked down at him, nodding his head.

"No, Shane did." Casey corrected her older brother looking at her uncle with a look. She was pissed off. He said that he died, but he was right there and he had a heartbeat."Did you just come back from the dead or somethin'?" She asked, looking away from Shane and at her father.

"They had every reason to believe that. Don't you ever doubt it?" He told him, petting his head. Casey curled into him, and he rubbed circles on her back.

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that- they were gonna medivac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened," Mom told him, Rick nodded his head up and down, understanding everything.

"Well, I'm not surprised, after Atlanta fell." He said, "And from the look of that hospital, it got overrun."

"Yeah, looks don't deceive. I barely got them out, you know?" Shane asked, Casey looked over at him, and then wiping her tired eyes.

It was a long day.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am to you, Shane. I can't begin to express it." Rick told him, that Shane didn't say anything.

It was silent up until Casey spoke up. "I heard you on the radio, somebody didn't listen that I did." She emphasized somebody as she looked back and forth and Lori, Shane, and Carl.

"You did?" Rick questioned, he wasn't really asking. It was more of that way you talk to kids as young as Casey.

"Mhm, Hello? Can anyone hear my voice?," she quoted him, Rick believed her because he did pass camp, and he did say that...

"Wow, that's..." He trailed off, she leaned back on his chest and looked down at her hands.

"There go those words falling short again. Paltry things." Dale repeated, a cracking was heard from the Peleitiers. Shane looked over, shaking his head. He stood up, walking over.

"Those are the Peletiers, the mom is Ms. Carol, and that's Sophia and the big fat guy-I mean, that's Ed." She told Rick, he didn't seem to be impressed by her description of Ed, but, let it go because he'd rather hear her judging everyone than not hear her at all...

Shane walked up to their view, his hands going into his hips. "Hey, Ed, wanna rethink that log?" He questioned it sounded more like he was telling him to put it out. Ed seemed to be unfazed as he rested back into the log of wood behind him.

"It's cold, man." Shane looked down, and back over at him.

"Cold doesn't change the rules, does it?" He asked, "Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane reviewed with him. Still, Ed still didn't care, not one bit about the rules.

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once." Ed said rudely, Shane stood up, walking over to the fire.

"Ed, you sure you wanna have this conversation?" Shane asked lowly, not wanting to scare Sophia, or any of the kids at that matter. Ed looked over to his wife and then gave a command, not a please or a thank you.

"Go on, pull the log out." He commanded. Carol didn't move at first, but then he said it again. "Go on," He treated her like a dog, and it really, really bothered a few people. Especially Casey.

Casey turned around, her knees hitting her father's lap. "Do it your-" Rick's hand went over her mouth and he quickly swung her back over onto his lap again. Lori was smiling slightly, and Carl let out a small laugh.

There were times where she heard Ed yelling at his wife, and Lori would have to quickly drag her away so she didn't shout obscenities at him like she did within the first two weeks of camp.

"Do it yourself, fat guy!" she thought to herself, very much wanting to say it. But, Rick didn't let her.

He took his hand from her mouth and she leaned back onto his chest again. "Shane's handling it, alright?" She nodded, not thinking he was handling it right, but she just nodded.

After Carol put it out, Shane checked in on them. "Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?"

"Fine. We're just fine." Carol said shaky, everyone knew she was afraid of her husband. Yet nobody did anything about it...

"Okay."

"I'm sorry about the fire." She apologized, Shane cut her off.

"No, no, no. No apology is needed. Y'all have a good night, okay?" He asked, he stood up and started walking over to everyone. "I appreciate the cooperation." He said, he sighed, sitting back down across from the Grimes, and next to everyone.

Dale spoke up, and it was about the two Dixons. "Have you happened to give any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale told everyone. Merle Dixon was being a racist piece of shit, and Rick handcuffed him to the top of a roof. Daryl was his hotheaded brother. So everyone knew after hearing that T-Dog dropped the key down a drain, and now that he was stuck there, Daryl would probably beat the shit out of him.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." T-Dog blamed himself.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine." Rick told everyone.

"Guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but, it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glenn said, it wasn't right how the Dixon brothers thought, and unfortunately what Glenn said was a sad truth.

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from him." T-Dog said, Casey looked up at Rick, who was just staring at the fire.

Amy looked over, bringing up a suggestion. "We could lie." She suggested.

"Or tell the truth. Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Your husband did what was necessary. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's." Andrea told her, Casey closed her eyes, leaning her head up against her father's chest. His hand played with her curls.

She was getting tired.

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale questioned, "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise-we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." Dale said in honestly.

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." By the tone of T-Dog's voice he did sound ashamed that he ran.

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asked curiously.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow. Maybe half a dozen heels can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that. Not that chain, not that padlock." He said, was he saying Merle was possibly alive? That even though he was left behind, he had a chance of living? "My point-Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." T-Dog said, standing up and walking away.

By the time he was gone, Casey was half asleep. She would've gotten up to walk back to camp, but, she kinda wanted her father to carry her. She used to do this all the time, pretend she was asleep in the car, or on the couch so him or Lori would carry her to her room. That's what was happening now.

"She's out," Rick sighed, Carl looked up at his sister and father, and started to push himself up.

When the Grimes stood up, they said goodnight to everyone. They walked back to their tent, and Rick laid Casey down on her blue sleeping bag. He pulled off her converse sneakers, and placed them outside of the tent. By that time, she was dead asleep.

He sat next to her for a moment, pulling the blankets up for her.

She looked so peaceful. She still had a bit of a baby face that was just so adorable. Rick couldn't stop looking at his beautiful family, the one he missed so dearly.

Tucking her in, Rick moved her curls back, and kissed her on the forehead. A small smile grew in his face as he whispered,

"I found you."

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟

a/n:

YAYYYY

RICKY DICKY DOO DA GRIMES IS BACK