Hello and welcome to my non-walker story! Some of you may be familiar with my writing from my past two TWD stories. If you're not, look them up, you may love them. I also have a Batman and Hakuouki fanfiction as well.

Abigail King stared out of the window of the airplane as it made its approach into Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson international airport. She wished she could enjoy being back in Georgia but her reason for being there was a less than happy one. Two days earlier, she'd received a phone call from her sister-in-law that her brother had been shot and was now in a coma. She'd wanted to fly out that same day but her husband, Martin, had begged her to stay until the weekend and then he'd accompany her back to their hometown. So, she'd waited and every second had been excruciating. Abby was happy to at least be in the same state now, but they still had several hours of driving.

111

A month had passed since Abby had arrived back in her hometown and she spent most of her time in the hospital, watching over her brother. Lori wanted Carl to have as normal of a life as possible, so they only came in for a few hours a day to visit him, so Abby spent most of her time there alone, although Jeremy came by after shift and kept her company. After that first weekend had ended, Martin had flown back to Seattle, where his work was and hadn't once returned, much to Abby's irritation, leaving her alone. Abby on the other hand was "retired", so she had all the time in the world and even if she still had a job, nothing would have pried her from her brother's bedside.

She had once been a master gunnery sergeant for the Marine Corps but she had spent a little too much time in war zones, leaving her emotionally damaged, so she'd been honourably discharged, leaving with a couple medals in her pocket. She had only been state side for a couple of weeks when she'd gotten the call about her brother, not exactly the welcome home she'd expected. In fact, Rick, Lori and Carl were supposed to come and visit her, that weekend; Lori looking for a reason to take a family holiday.

Abby stared at her brothers thinning form, sorrowfully. The doctors didn't know why Rick wasn't waking up, they figured that he must've hit his head when he fell to the ground when he'd been shot but CAT scans didn't show any brain bleed or other damage, so they had no idea when or if he'd ever wake up. Abby sighed as she stood up, patted Rick's hand and stepped out of the room. She walked over to the nurse's station and waited for the nurse to get off the phone and acknowledge her. When he finally did, he smiled up at her kindly.

"What can I do for you Sergeant King?" Nurse Ron asked her.

"I'm gonna step outside for a little bit, I know its unlikely but if anything happens could you just page me?" She asked him.

"Of course, I'll let you know if anything changes with Sheriff Grimes' condition." Nurse Ron replied with a smile.

"Thank you." Abby said then turned and walked to the elevator.

Once she was outside, she sat down on a bench in what passed as the hospitals gardens and watched the activity going on around her for a moment. Abby eventually pulled out her cell phone and activated her face time app and dialed her husband. The phone rang and rang and was just about to go to voice mail when finally, he picked up.

"Ab's? Is every thing okay?" Martin asked.

Abby frowned. "Martin why don't you have your camera activated? That's kind of the point of face time!"

"Uh...s-sorry, I dropped it yesterday…must've broke the darn thing." Martin answered nervously. "Did you need something?"

Abby's frown deepened. "I was just going to ask if you could send me some more of my clothes and my motorcycle. I'm probably going to be here a while longer, it would be nice to not constantly wear the same five outfits and be able to drive myself around."

"Yeah, sure. I'll send your clothing on rush, but I don't know how long it'll take for your bike to get there, though." Martin answered sounding relieved.

"Everything alright, Martin?" Abby asked.

"W-why do you ask?" Suddenly nervous again.

Abby shook her head in frustration. "Never mind. Just send me my clothes and bike, maybe a book or two. I'll talk to you later." Then she hung up without waiting for a reply, annoyed.

Once again, a sense of dread and suspicion settled into her stomach. Martin had long been ignoring her, even when she'd call from overseas, he wouldn't pick up. It had gotten so bad that over the last six months of her last tour, she had ceased trying to contact him and had called her brother instead. When she had arrived at the airport, that was the first time she'd seen or heard her husband in a long time. It had gotten to the point that she was even surprised to see him, expecting her brother to come and pick her up. She also expected him to hand her divorce papers the second she stepped onto American soil, but he had yet too.

Something was definitely not right about her marriage. Her husband barely ever touched her, and it was like pulling teeth just to get him to give her a kiss on the cheek. He said it was because he figured she needed to heal first, like withholding love was going to make her phycological issues go away. Which was stupid, love is what would heal her. Abby looked at her phone again and dialed another number.

"Lori?" She asked when they picked up. "Can you come pick me up?"

"Is something wrong?" Lori asked.

"Yeah, I think there is. I need to fly home, something's not right with Martin." She replied.

"Okay, I'll drive you to Atlanta. I'll ask Shane to pick Carl up from school." Lori replied and Abby could hear her moving around, grabbing keys and the door slamming shut. "I'll be right there."

"Thanks." She said sincerely, then hung up.

Abby went back inside to her brother's room and sat down beside him, taking his hand. "Hey big brother." She said to his unconscious form. "I'm gonna take off for a day or two, okay? I've got some stuff to deal with at home. It'd be great if you woke up by the time I get back!"

A ten minutes later, Lori showed up in the doorway of Rick's room. "You ready to go?"

Abby nodded as she grabbed her purse then the two ladies headed back to Lori's vehicle. At first Lori didn't say anything, but she finally did when they were half way to Atlanta before she finally spoke.

"Why do you need to go to Seattle today?" Lori asked in concern.

"I think Martin's cheating on me…I think he has been for a while already. I need to know." Abby said staring straight a head.

Lori was silent for many minutes more, then finally spoke up once more. "Are you sure this is wise? Confronting him this way?"

"You agree with me, don't you? That he's probably cheating on me." Abby stated, ignoring the questions.

"I know he hasn't been acting right for years, he doesn't even come home to visit his parents, let a lone us. Rick said that he wasn't answering your calls anymore either, that's all suspicious but it doesn't necessarily mean he's cheating." Lori pointed out.

"I know but it's the most likely scenario. Whether its cheating or if its something else, I wanna know what's goin' on with him! I wanna know why I seem to be the least important thing to him!" Abby said passionately.

Lori remained silent for the rest of journey and Abby watched the familiar scenery roll by as they drove. When they finally pulled to stop in front of the airport, Lori looked at Abby worriedly.

"Please think things through, don't do anything impulsive! Just come back safe and sound, okay? Rick will want to see you when he wakes up!" Lori patted Abby's hand, then waved at her as Abby got out of the vehicle.

Abby bought tickets for the first flight out of Atlanta to Seattle, which happened to be leaving in ten minutes and had to run hard to the gate to catch the flight. Once in the air, Abby fidgeted constantly as she watched the landscape far beneath her slide by. When she landed in Seattle's airport, she headed straight to the taxi terminal and hailed a ride.

When she had left King County, she had originally planned on heading straight home, but as she had stared out of the window of the airplane she realized that Lori was right; she needed to think things through. So, when she climbed into the back of taxi, she instead told him to head to a hotel near the cities oceanfront.

Once she'd checked into the hotel, she decided she needed to get drunk. The last time she'd done that, she was with her unit when they'd all had leave and gone to celebrate Lance Corporal Dan Whitman's twenty-fifth birthday. She'd had a blast and it was a good memory, one of the last ones she had before her problems started. She missed those boys, it was like having nine other brothers that she got along with really well. Even though she was in charge, they treated her like their little sister…except when things got tough, then she was their commanding officer. Some of them even said she was one of the best commanding officers they'd ever served under.

They never thought less of her when she started having problems, they did their best to help her through them but in the end, they probably only made things worse. In reality, when she first started showing signs of PTSD, they should have reported it immediately or she should have sought out help but they were loyal to her and she didn't want to go home yet.

Then, one night, she had a particularly bad nightmare which ended with her trying to beat the crap out of one of her men. He could have fought back, could have hurt her but he understood that it wasn't him she thought she was attacking, but an enemy, so he just tried to deflect and protect himself while the others tried to subdue her without hurting her, she was fortunate to not have her gun or knife on her. In the end, the unit medic had to give her a sedative to knock her out.

They had been in the middle of a surveillance operation when they had sent her back to base for medical evaluation and eventually it was officially determined that she had a severe on set of PTSD. They sent her to a military hospital in Germany to get her head in order before sending her back to US, to make sure she was capable of keeping her many state secrets, to herself. By the time she had landed state side, her PTSD symptoms had receded to a manageable level, to where they felt safe sending her home. And throughout that whole time, Martin didn't take one call from her nor had he enquired about her. It was Rick who had called the Seattle police department, since Martin wasn't taking any of Rick's calls either, and got them to send an officer to their house so that he could be informed of Abby's condition and earlier than expected return.

Early the next morning, Abby woke with a pounding headache but she wanted things done, so she rolled out of bed and got dressed anyways. She had decided to tell Martin that she wanted a divorce, no matter what she found. She had been so distracted by her duties as a solider, then her condition and finally her brothers condition, that she hadn't really come to realize what an awful husband Martin was. She knew she was far from innocent in the destruction of their marriage but he hadn't even tried to fix things while she had practically thrown herself at him, desperate for him to pay attention to her.

She'd also come to realize that she'd never loved the man to begin with. She'd married him because she thought he was the kind of guy her deceased parents would have approved of and at the age of nineteen, that was all she cared about in that moment. She also had been scared of dying alone, with the recent and suddenly departure of her parents, and her reputation as the town whore, she had thought no one would want her but then in walked Martin.

So, when Abby finished redressing in the clothes she'd worn the day before, she checked out of her hotel room and left the building. Abby told herself she was going to treat this like a mission, she'd go in find the information she needed and then respond however appropriate to the information and leave. She'd take her emotions out of the equation and just use her logic instead. As the taxi pulled to a stop in front of her house, Abby just sat there for a moment and stared at the strange car sitting in the driveway. She sat there so long that the taxi driver eventually turned and looked over her shoulder at her.

"You getting out hun?" The woman asked.

Abby nodded numbly and paid the driver before finally getting out of the car. She slowly walked up the front steps and used her keys to unlock the door, entering to a house that was completely silent. She wandered around the main floor and could see no signs of activity, so she finally walked up the stairs and headed to their bedroom, figuring that Martin must still be asleep.

The bedroom door wasn't even closed, obviously Martin was not expecting anyone to waltz in and what she saw when she entered the room, froze her in her tracks. She thought he'd been cheating on her but, she did not expect it to be with another man. When the strange man saw her he screeched in terror, while Abby just stared uncertain what to say or do.

"Abby!?" Martin said terrified. "Y-you're supposed to be in Georgia!" He stuttered.

Abby started laughing hysterically. "I knew something wasn't right." She in between breathes. "I thought you were sleeping with another woman but it's a man." Abby laughed harder keeling over. "I don't know if its better or worse, that it's a man!"

"Abby, please you're scaring me." Martin said as he slowly got out of bed.

Abby finally stopped laughing. "You're an awful man!" She finally yelled. "You know that? Why didn't you just divorce me? If you don't even love me, love women, why would you stay married to me?"

"I was going to! I was working on it! But you got sick and I didn't think it was the right time. I was trying to do the right thing! Please don't say anything to my folks, they don't know!" Martin pleaded.

"Don't know what? That you're a cheater or you like men?" Martin's parents were very religious and they'd find both things very unacceptable.

Abby turned on her heels, marched down the hall then the stairs and into the kitchen where the keys for their vehicles hung on a peg by the back door. Sure enough, her motorcycle keys still hung from a peg, so she grabbed them and the registration from drawer by the back door. She marched to the front door where her leather jacket hung and put it on as she marched back to the kitchen.

"Abby, wait!" Martin called as he buttoned up his pants. "We need to talk about this!"

Abby turned to face Martin. "What is there to talk about, Martin? We're getting divorced! Most of this shit is yours anyways so just send my shit to my brother's house. Our lawyers can work out the rest." Abby said then turned and headed out the back door.

She walked into the garage and jammed her thumb against the door opener, marched over to grab her helmet, which hung from the handle bars, then climbed on to her bike and fired it up. Her tires squealed as she peeled out of the driveway and headed to the nearest gas station with a restaurant. She then called a service about shipping her bike across country as she ate her breakfast, instantly deleting Martin's messages as he texted her and ignored his calls. Once she'd arranged that, she got back on her bike and drove herself back to the airport, dropped her bike off with the shipping company and bought herself a ticket to fly back to her real home. She technically no longer had a home or at least a house, but Georgia was where she wanted to be and Rick, if he ever woke up, would never let her sleep on the street.

She had the inkling to drive back to Georgia but she didn't want to be away from her comatose brother longer than necessary, otherwise she would have relished the time she needed on her own. Instead, though, she needed to be back in Georgia sooner than later. The shipping company promised her that her bike would only be an hour behind her so she could at least drive herself back to King county.

As it turned out, though, there was only one flight available that day to get her to Georgia and she wouldn't be getting into Atlanta until late in the evening. Abby sat in the departure area and did everything she could to not think about what had just happened, she refused to cry about it especially not in public. She didn't love him, so she shouldn't be hurt by what she'd just seen but apparently rejection hurt no matter if you cared for the person or not.

When she finally did board the plane, her neighbor asked her if something was wrong as a few tears rolled down her cheek. She forced a smile onto her face and told the kind old lady that she was fine then refused to cry for the rest of the trip, she was the queen of burying her emotions, today shouldn't be any different. When she landed, she collected her motorcycle and checked herself into a cheap hotel near the edge of town. She tried to sleep but ended up only tossing and turning for an hour before giving up and getting up once more.

She decided that drinking was a good idea so she got back onto her bike and drove to the first bar she found and went in side. The bar was the sort that low lives and scum of the earth tend to gather but she didn't care, she could take care of herself. She was after all, a highly trained Marine. When she entered, nearly every man in the bar turned to leer at her and whistled as she passed by but she ignored them as she headed straight to the bar.

"You sure you wanna stay here, honey? This place seems a little beneath you." The bartender said smirking.

"I don't need to be patronized right now, just get me a whiskey." Abby growled back at him.

The bartender shrugged and turned to grab a bottle of whiskey and poured it into a glass he had pulled from underneath the counter. "First one is on the house, sweet heart, you look like you need it."

"You have no idea." She replied than took a sip.

She sat there for near an hour before getting sick of the near constant flow of men coming to hit on her, even rejecting the free drinks they offered to buy her. She finally got up, after she paid her tab and exited the bar, several men booing as she departed. She walked over to her bike than stood and stared at it, wondering if she was sober enough to drive.

"If you have to think 'bout it, you probably ain't suitable to drive." A voice said from the next car over.

When Abby looked up, she saw a man leaning against an old truck smoking a cigarette. His hair was short and he had a short beard, barely more than stubble on his chin and was non-existent on his cheeks, his eyes were the most striking color of blue she had ever seen and he looked every bit the redneck that he probably was.

"Let me guess, you're hopin' to give me a ride?" Abby asked annoyed.

The man smirked. "Naw, saw you havin' none of it with other boys inside, just thought you should call a taxi or somethin'. I can give you a ride though, promise I won't hit on ya."

Abby looked at him. "How do I know you ain't some creep or ax murderer or somethin'?"

The man harrumphed, "Whatever lady, do what you want." He dropped his cigarette butt and stepped on it.

Abby sighed. "What's yer name?" She asked him.

He eyed her suspiciously. "Daryl, Daryl Dixon." He replied.

"Well Daryl, I've had an enormously shitty day and its revolved entirely around men or at least one man in particular. So, no, I'm not in the mood. Sorry if I'm comin' across like a complete psycho bitch, that ain't normally me." Abby sighed and leaned against her bike.

"Everyone's allowed to have a bad day." Daryl replied then indicated her bike with his chin. "Yours?" He asked.

"Yeah, she is, the only bright spot to my day. Haven't had a lot of time to ride 'er lately." She said as looked at it, smiling genuinely for the first time that day.

"Nice bike, looks custom." Daryl said appreciatively. "Had my own bike too until six months ago when my brother totalled it for me. Asshole."

"Insurance didn't give you enough to replace it?" She asked surprised.

"Wasn't insured and my brother would never replace it. Had to scrounge to get enough to buy this thing. Needs a lot of work but she gets me to where I'm goin'." Daryl said.

"Still, I'd be pissed if my brother did that too me." Abby studied him for a moment. "I don't want to leave my bike here, you got a solution for that?"

"Could load it up into the back of my truck. Do it all the time with Merle's but he's a lot stronger than you, don't think you can help me get it up there an' I can't do it on my own." Daryl said looking her up and down.

Abby considered a moment, something about Daryl made her like him, so she decided to trust him. But the booze might've been impairing her judgement a little. "I'm stronger than I look, you know."

Daryl smirked. "That so?"

"How do I know you ain't too drunk to drive yer self?" Abby asked.

"Only had one beer before I came out fer a smoke. You were already here when I arrived." Daryl said as he walked over to her bike and started eyeing it up.

"Alright fine but don't do anything funny, like I said I ain't in the mood." Abby finally agreed then held out her hand. "Abby Ki…Grimes, Abby Grimes."

Daryl shook her hand then indicated for her to move aside. She let him walk her motorcycle to the back of his truck, and then drop the tail gate and looked back and forth between the motorcycle and the back of his truck. "You sure you can handle this?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Abby said.

"Fine. Help me get the front end up first, then get up in the back an' support it while I lift the back." Daryl said.

"Okay, works for me." She said.

Daryl counted to three and then they hoisted the front end of the bike into the back of his truck. Once Daryl had a good hold on it, Abby quickly jumped up in the back of his truck while Daryl held it still. Then, when she grabbed the front, Daryl went to the back and with loud grunt he managed to lift the rear and together they rolled it all the way into the truck bed. Abby jumped out of the back but tripped when she landed and fell on her ass, while Daryl closed the tailgate. She laughed as she got up and dusted the dirt off of her pants.

"You alright?" Daryl asked as he smirked.

"I'm fine, maybe I have had too many." Abby said giggling.

"Come on, lets get you home." Daryl said as he walked to his driver side door.

"Well that'll be a long drive but I got a room not far." Abby said as she climbed in the passenger side of his truck.

"You ain't from Atlanta?" Daryl asked looking surprised.

"No, King County. It's a few hours from here, just came from a shitty trip to Seattle. My flight got in late, didn't feel like drivin' so late and I tried to sleep but couldn't so I came here." Abby said as he put his truck into drive then gave him the address.

"You don't really seem the type to ride bike or drink in bars like that place." Daryl commented inspecting her again as they drove.

"Ever heard 'don't just a book by its cover'?" She asked him. "I'm actually a farm girl, picked up my first gun when I was eight, shot my first deer when I was ten. Worked harder than most of the girls my age, then joined the military when I was nineteen."

Daryl looked at her surprised. "You're in the army?"

"Marine corps actually or I was. Retired now. I was a Master Gunnery Sergeant, a sniper." Abby explained as she held out her dog tags.

They were at a red light so he bent over and looked at them carefully. "Says King is yer last name." He said eyeing her suspiciously.

"Legally, it still is. Grimes is my maiden name and I'm planning on takin' it again once I'm divorced." She pulled out the wedding ring from her pocket and showed it to him.

"An' yer husband is the reason for yer shitty day?" He guessed.

"Yeah, found him in bed with another man." Abby said angrily.

Daryl looked at her shocked. "Holy shit."

"Yup I'm such a horrible wife that I drove my husband to the arms of another man." Abby said with a sigh.

"Pretty sure the problem is his not yers. Ya seem alright to me."

Abby chuckled, "You've known me the all of a couple minutes and I'm half drunk, hardly a solid foundation for a friendship."

Daryl grinned. "Some times you get to know someone better when they're drunk. Think you'd have told me about yer dumb ass husband otherwise? Like you said I'm a complete stranger." Daryl pulled to a stop in front of the motel she was staying at and turned off his truck. "Let's get yer bike out of my truck."

Daryl climbed out and went to his tailgate and opened it as she slowly came around. "Same procedure as before, just in reverse." He said.

Abby jumped up into the truck bed, unstrapped the bike and rolled it back to where Daryl waited. After they got it to the ground, Abby held out her hand.

"Thank you, Daryl. You kept to yer word, even made some good conversation. If you're ever in King county, look me up. I'll buy you a beer." She said smiling as he shook her hand. "I owe you."

"No problem." Daryl said smirking, then climbed back into his truck and drove off.

Abby smirked slightly, she had to admit, she had been more than a little tempted to invite the man inside, he seemed more her speed. Martin was a city boy born in the country, he never enjoyed the outdoor stuff she loved, Daryl on the other hand, seemed to totally be the outdoorsy type…if she liked him past the night. Also, it had been a ridiculously long time since she'd been with a man and Daryl looked like a good screw. Either way, she didn't want any regrets in the morning and she was technically still married.

So I hope I didn't disappoint! This definitely will one of my shorter stories, more like ten chapters. So I hope you'll all stick around.

-Shockra