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Our Father's Son

Summary:

The world fell apart and you're just trying to survive and keep your family alive. With your best friend, Rick Grimes, and some friends made along the way, will you be able to make it?

Notes:

TW with each chapter :) The summary is super bad I'm sorry. There will be two books. Book 1 takes place from season 1- 4 while Book 2 takes place season 5-8.

Sexism
Language
Canon divergence

This chapter is pretty mild. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Couple of Raiders

Chapter Text

"What's the difference between men and women?" Rick pondered, chewing down on the fries in front of him. You were sat in the backseat, between Rick and Shane in the front. Finally taking the chance to get some food and get a break from the Georgia heat while you waited for an update on this pursuit. Had to have gone around King County at least twice by now. Oh well, giving you a break with your brother and Mr Police Brutality at least. But hell, you Shane had plenty to say about that question.

"Shit, here we go," You mumbled, and Shane turned slightly to shoot a glare over his shoulder before turning back to Rick, who watched the small exchange with an amused look.

"Is this a joke?" Shane asked

"No, serious."

"I never met a woman who knew how to turn off a light. They're born thinking in a switch, it only goes one way. On. They're struck blind the second they leave a room. I mean every woman, I ever let have a key. I swear to God. Come home, house all lit up, and my job, apparently because- because my chromosomes happen to be different cause I then gotta walk through that house, turn off every single light this chick left on," Shane explained and you rolled your eyes, opting to stay out of it to avoid breaking Shane's nose. Not that you haven't done it before.

"Is that right?" Rick asked with a small chuckle and Shane nodded, scrunching his trash into the box.

"Yeah, baby. Alright, Reverend Shane's preaching to you now, boy. The same chick, mind ya. She'll bitch about global warming. That's when Reverend Shane wants to quote from the Guy Gospel and say "Um, darling? Maybe you, and every other pair of boobs on this planet just figured out that the light switch see, goes both ways, "maybe we wouldn't have so much global warming," Shane sounded so damn smug. Pair of boobs? Seriously?

"And you wonder why you're single," You huffed, catching Rick's amused smile in the rearview mirror.

"You say that?" Rick egged him on. Bastard. He only wanted to hear more because he knew it riled you up. You were gonna shoot him one of these days.

"Yeah. Anyway, uh, polite version," Shane hesitated slightly upon meeting your glare in the mirror. But in a split second that ever-present ego of his was back and he was smirking again. Asshole "Still man, that… that earns me this. This look and loathing you would not believe. And that's when the exorcist's voice pops out. "You sound just like my damn father. Always, always yelling about the power bill, telling me to turn off the damn lights."

"What do you say to that?"

"You know what I wanna say. I wanna say, "Bitch, you mean to tell me you've been hearing this your entire life and you are still too damn stupid to learn how to turn off a switch? You know… I don't actually say that, though," The pair actually laugh at that and you just scoff. You forgot that Rick and Shane had known each other most of their lives. Rick followed Shane around like some damn lost puppy, laughed at his stupid jokes, agreed with almost everything he said. Pissed you off to no end sometimes, but Rick was sweet. Nicer than Mr Police Brutality. He was your brother even if that meant Shane came with it. Carl more than made up for it. Well, when Rick and Lori weren't fucking him over with their crippling marriage.

"So how's it with Lori, man?" You leant forward, each arm on the back of their seats, to which Shane scowled slightly but didn't say anything. Rick went silent for a minute, looking down into his lap for a second. Shit, not good.

"She's good. She's good at turning off lights. Really good. I'm the one who sometimes forgets," The three of you exchanged a laugh, but you and Shane shared a look. He was avoiding the question. Well, time to team up with the enemy.

"Not what she meant," Shane stated

"We didn't have a great night," Rick responded, and you leaned forward waiting for more. But more didn't come without prompting apparently.

"Look, man, I may have failed to amuse with my sermon, but I did try. The least you could do is speak," Shane reasoned and Rick finally turned to look at you both.

"That's what she always says: "Speak". "Speak". You'd think I was the most closed mouth son of a bitch you'd ever hear her tellin'," Lori was definitely a piece of work. You'd known it the moment you met her. She loved Rick and later Carl, but it seemed that Rick was always having to fight to be in her favour. Huh, reminded you of your son of a bitch brother.

"Do you express your thoughts? Do you share your feelings and that kind of stuff?" You asked, placing a hand on Rick's shoulder. Shane let out a light scoff but backtracked when Rick gave him a warning glare.

"The thing is… lately whenever I try… everything I say makes her impatient like she didn't want to hear it after all. It's like she's… pissed at me all the time, and I don't know why," Hell, you'd never heard him so sad. It wasn't any of your business, not really, so you couldn't give Lori a piece of your mind. Fucking damn it.

"Look, man, that's just shit couples go through. Nah, it's just a phase," Shane's words barely seemed to get through to Rick though as he kept staring out of the window. Now you were starting to worry

"Last thing she said this morning? Sometimes I wonder if you even care about us at all. She said that in front of our kid. Imagine going to school with that in your head. Difference between men and women? I would never say something that cruel to her. Certainly not in front of Carl," How could you even say something like that to a father in front of your child? That was messed up in every way possible. Fight all you need to, but Carl didn't deserve to be in the middle of that. When you went to give your thoughts, however-

"All available units, high-sped pursuit in progress Lincoln county units require high-speed assistance. Highway 18 south GTAAD W217 243. Proceed with extreme caution."

"Well, therapy hour's over boys. Time to get going," You grinned, strapping your seat belt back in as Rick started the car, siren blaring, and Shane leant out the window to throw the trash away.

 

"Aunt (Y/N)!Aunt (Y/N)!"

The guns you'd been cleaning dropped to the floor of the RV and were long forgotten when you heard Carl screaming. You raced outside, seeing Carl sprinting through camp and barreling through camp with Sophia by his side. He was grinning widely and you let out a sigh of relief, dropping your hands to your knees. He finally reached you and you gave him a tiny smile, trying to hide the panic that had just flashed through you.

"Hey, kiddo. You two doin' alright?" You asked, crouching in front of the two kids. Sophia was beaming too, and she leant over to give you a quick hug as a good morning.

"Carl!" Before either of them could answer your question, Shane had come storming over, eyes something fierce and you raised an eyebrow. What the fuck was this asshole mad about now? "Now I know I told you about not shouting unless it was an emergency."

"Lay off Shane, he's just happy," You rolled your eyes, brushing Shane off and turning back to the kids. Sophia mumbled a small sorry to Shane and wandered off, presumably to find her mom. You knew they needed reminding, but hell they were kids. He could at least be nicer about it.

"We just wanted to say goodbye before you went out in the woods," Carl muttered, looking away from Shane. Oh, you were so gonna give Shane hell later. Shouting at a kid, Jesus. You put a hand on Carl's shoulder and he looked back at you. He looked so much like Rick sometimes. The thought alone of your friend made a twinge of pain and anger flare in your chest.

"That's really sweet of you, Carl. I'll be just fine. Back before you know it," Carl launched forward, wrapping his arms around your stomach, and you nearly fell on your ass with the force of it. You hugged him back tightly. Since his dad and the world ending, he'd clung to you and Shane as well as his mom. Poor kid. You couldn't imagine growing up in a world like this. It'd change you. "See you later, trouble."

"You sure you're gonna be okay? One of the fellas could always come with you," Carol questioned, watching you pack your bag of supplies. She was being quiet, with Ed not too far away. That man made your blood boil. Carol and Sophia came out every morning with new bruises, acting meeker and meeker than they had the day before. No one dared say anything though. No one really knew how to approach the subject. Amy and Jacqui had tried once but backed down after a detailed threat that made even Shane grimace when they told him.

"C'mon Carol, I'm good. Don't need the men to protect me. And laying animal traps is hardly a two-person job, "You joked, shooting her a wink as she stifled a giggle. Shouldering the bag onto your back, you gave her a mini salute and took off into the woods.

The traps were all empty, minus one that had caught a tiny little rabbit. In the beginning, you felt bad killing the cute creatures, but after months of scavenging, slowly running out of food and nearly starving a few times, it was just food to you now. Nothing more. You let out a sigh as you set a new trap, closer to the creek you'd found, hoping something would get caught while going for water. Food was getting tight. Wished you'd taken up tracking instead of policing now. Would've been more useful now.Not that you thought about that when you started training all those years ago. A small snap of branches made you shoot up from where you were knelt fixing a trap, gun raised. There were two men stood there. How and when the hell had they gotten so close without you noticing? Damn ninjas.

"Hey, guys. I don't want any trouble. Just trying to get some food," You said softly, but the two men didn't lower their guns. To be fair, you hadn't either. One of them was holding a rifle, hair shaved down and wearing a leather vest that looked like it'd tear any day now. The other was scowling, holding a crossbow and while his hair was much longer than his companion, it was still much too short. The older one smiled, but there was little friendliness. That uncomfortable smile you'd seen a million times from catcallers in the street or some creep you'd been interrogating.

"Well, hell, darlin' we don't want no trouble nither! Just hand us ya stuff and we'll be on our way," He said, moving his rifle away from his eye but not lowering it. You looked between the pair, weighing your options. You were outnumbered, and they'd managed to sneak up to you without making a damn noise until they were right behind you. Running would do you no good. You could lower your gun, give them your supplies and possibly get out there with your life. But your people needed those supplies. No way. Looks like you were gonna have to pull a page from Rick's book and be Officer Friendly. Fun.

"'m afraid I can't do that. Look, why don't we just lower our guns and talk about this," You responded, already starting to lower your own slowly to your holster. The younger one looked to the older one like he was waiting for his instructions.

"Ain't much to talk about," The younger one grumbled, but you caught the discomfort in his eyes. Seen it plenty of times on the field when a one suspect was just following another one around.

"I got people, a camp. They need these supplies. Maybe if you're willing to work with us, you can come back. Then you won't need to take my stuff. Supplies are gettin' really thin these days. Won't do much stealing from each other when we could help each other out," The older one watched you like a hawk. The smile hadn't left his face, but there was an interest there now. Telling them about camp probably wasn't your smartest plan, you'd admit, but they looked like hunters if the string of assorted animals on the older one's bag wasn't sign enough and damn you really needed those now.

"They welcome two raiders just like that?" He raised his eyebrows. It was supposed to be mocking but, there was genuine curiosity in his eyes and the younger ones.

"Well, maybe we can keep that between us. You didn't technically raid me so.." You shrugged and the older one made a small, barely noticeable, hand movement which made the younger one lower his crossbow. You nodded at them, and the younger one's face relaxed from a scowl to just watch. He seemed the quiet one but you couldn't tell if that was because his companion was loud as all hell yet. How had walkers not come storming your way yet? Probably because they were eating the few survivors left in Atlanta.

"You got balls, sugar tits. Name's Merle, this asshole is my worthless baby brother Daryl," You frowned slightly at his brother's introduction, as did Daryl, shaking his head slightly. You gave him a small smile before turning to Merle. You had a feeling that he was gonna be trouble but the camp needed hunters. You grabbed your gun and adjusted your bag before you reluctantly walked towards them to take them back to camp.

"(Y/N), nice to meet you," You went to walk past them, but as you reached Merle's side and stopped "And Merle? Call me sugar tits again and I'll break your nose."