A/N: here's the first chapter of my TWD fic. Enjoy. xoxo.

"I'm so glad you decided on comin' to Augusta wit us.", A lanky brunette girl said from the other side of the store, southern twang evident in her voice.

Sarafina Deckhardt stood five foot six in an olive prom dress that was in the process of being altered, her lower-back length hair tied up for the time-being. "We went to school and grew up here, it's not a big deal. Besides, someone needed to wear the dress for you, what with that full leg cast you're wearing"

"Thank fuck we're 'bout the same size.", Maggie forced a small laugh, her face turning red from embarrassment as Lydia, Sara's best friend, glanced her way while they both browsed through racks of clothes that people didn't usually look through.

They were at Ms. Delaine's thrift shop, it was a place where both Sarafina and Lydia worked in high school. Though they really didn't enjoy the long hours, they always thought it beat working at the bar just across the street. The town drunkards usually found many ways to disturb the peace of their much less wasted co-existing residents. Sarafina glanced down at the old lady who was taking her measurements, she was Ms. Delaine's mother. Cynthia Delaine wasn't much older than Sarafina, now that she thought about it. She herself was only twenty-five, and she was sure Cynthia was in her late-thirties.

Sara looked to her lanky cousin, Maggie Greene. Maggie was smiling and observing all of the steps the older Delaine went through to prepare her dress before she started having light conversation with Lydia, both of them now sitting in the chairs a ways away from the elevated floor Sara was standing on to perfect the accuracy of measurement. She noticed the old woman's hands shaking and wondered if their movement made the old woman as nervous of pricking her as she was of getting pricked. Soon enough, it was all over and time for her to take the dress off, the old woman pre-occupied with re-measuring Maggie to make up for the few extra inches that she needed to lose when re-pinning the dress. Sara felt almost guilty that her child-bearing hips and more shapely bust was causing poor old Mrs. Delaine a headache.

"When did they say you'd be all healed up?", Sara asked Maggie from the other side of the dressing room curtain, finally speaking again once the old lady had taken the dress off and left her to the task of putting her own clothes back on.

"Two weeks 'fore prom, they guessed. Dad gave a second opinion and he thinks the doctors are right. I don't understand why he just doesn't become my primary physician. ", Maggie said, fiddling at the dressing room curtain absent-mindedly.

"What I don't understand is how you can ride those damned creatures.", Sarafina couldn't help give a muffled laugh at Lydia's outburst, knowing for a fact that Lydia had been afraid of horses for as long as she'd known her.

"They're not that gawd awful.", Maggie argued back in a playful tone. "Aye, are you almost done in there?"

Sara just stuck her hand out of the curtain and gave a thumbs up, as to say almost, before she lifted her shirt over her head. She threw the curtain aside, eyes narrowed upon seeing Lydia and Maggie wearing cowboy hats on the other side of the threshold. "Seriously? You guys are insane.", She brushed past them, only to be pulled back to Lydia's side.

"Speaking of insane", Lydia 's eyes were about to bulge from her head and she had no control over the matter. It was decided. That was the only reason for her to be wearing such an expression, Sara was sure of it. "You'll never guess who I saw with your cousin, Sebastian."

Sara gave in to the game after she was sure she couldn't get away with straight-facing her best friend any longer, "Nope. Who?"

"Merle Dixon."

Sara gave her with a disbelieving expression before Maggie blurted, "Who?"

"His brother went to school with Sara and I. Even dated Sara. Merle is much older than us though, Around Sebastian's age, actually.", Lydia filled Maggie in before receiving a squint toward the hind part of her conversation. "Sebastian is not that old.", Sara amended.

"Doesn't really matter much, Maggie never paid attention to our friends, she was so young. And she sure as hell didn't pay any attention to Sebastian's friend's either. To be quite honest, Daryl wasn't even our friend, He was Charlotte's. They're the same age. You, Lindy, and I were the ones who hung like wet clothes.", Lydia's eyes were clouding over with the past and Sara would much rather not talk about any of it. She didn't want to reminisce…especially not about Daryl.

"Alright. Alright.", She finally said, pulling Lydia out of her glory day fantasies. "Why the hell were you telling me anyhow?"

"Well Sebastian was taking Denny fishing today, right?", Sarafina gave an impatient nod, desperately wanting to know where this conversation was heading so it could be over and done with. Pretty sure Maggie wasn't paying attention to anything anymore, what with the dazed expression on her face. "Well… when you were in the dressing room, He got back from fishing, I assume. But on his way back to the shop, he ran into Merle and they all walked off somewhere."

Sara's eye twitched only slightly and she moved her hand to cover it. "You're shitting me, right?" Maggie looked up upon hearing the tone of Sara's voice before she chimed in, "Well…we're all done here. You guys can feel free to go find 'em. I was plannin' on catching up with some school friends anyway. Dad said he'd pick me up after, cause I knew I'd want to stay out late."

Lydia gave her best friend a look of excitement as she heard the ending of Maggie's words. "No.", Sara spoke in an irritated tone, "Absolutely not."

Lydia frowned up and stepped closer to the other woman, hugging her as she gave plea after plea. Maggie could see that was her cue to leave so she left the shop, saying goodbye to the other two, even though they seemed pretty pre-occupied with things as it was. "Why not. C'mon. I know Lindy will be pissed we left her at home when she hears about this, but we have to do this. One dummy mission, please. When was the last time you even saw Daryl? Before Denny was born? C'mon, I know you're the least bit curious as to what he looks like, who he associates with."

"No.", Sara said again, fighting to get out of Lydia's anaconda death grip.

Lydia released her finally, her arms folding. The gesture was quite ridiculous from Sara's perspective, Lydia looked almost child-like. "What in gawd's name are you doing, Lydia Carson?"

"I'm pouting, cause I'm mad at you.", Lydia said, giving a stamp of one of her feet as she turned her head away from Sara. Sara nibbled at the tip of her fingernails before sighing. She was on the verge of giving in completely, she felt it. "Why are you mad at me, Lyd?"

Lydia turned her head only slightly so that she could look at Sara through her peripheral, squinting lightly before exhaling deeply, "Well for starters, you're not being a very good parent. Your six year old son could be god knows where with The Dixon Brothers."

"Sea bass is with him.", She said pointedly before adding, "You know Sebastian wouldn't let anything happen to Denny, and he sure as hell wouldn't take him somewhere I wouldn't approve of. Plus they're probably just at Daryl's place. Sebastian said something about there being a barbeque. However, he was supposed to bring Denny back, first.."

Lydia sighed, as if to surrender on that subject before she was right back to talking again, naming another reason. "Well, then I'm only mad at you because you and I have worked hella hard to get these banging figures- We're almost thirty- and you don't want to show them off to the likes of your ex and my long time crush."

Sara scrunched her nose, still not believing that her best friend had such poor taste in men. Merle fucking Dixon, really? She shook the thought away and then tilted her head to think. "I mean…I could just go get Denny." Lydia lit up within an inch of her life before she started jumping and squealing. "Calm down, woman. I didn't say I'd stay. That's for damn sure."

Lydia moved forward and smacked Sara on the ass, grinning harder than she'd done in a long time. "Shut up and show off that body. You've got a damn good body to be somebody's Momma." Sara rolled her eyes, she was used to getting ass-abused by her best friend's hand. If she had a quarter for every time Lydia smacked her on the ass, she'd be a millionaire. Part of her thinks that Lydia only followed her to Michigan State after High School just so the abuse could continue.

The two made their way out of the shop, Sara bidding a good day to Cynthia Delaine's mother as they did. Lydia had been linking arms with her for almost the whole walk to Washington Avenue, where they were sure Daryl lived. Lydia let go of her arm and started twirling around, face turned to the pinkish hue of the sky. This was totally typical 'nearly thirty' behavior, she thought sarcastically, a smile on her face as she watched her best friend, part of her knowing that once they reached Daryl's house, all of her excitement would fade away and her seducing would begin. Merle Dixon had better start runnin'.

"That's the house." Lydia said, skepticism in Sara's eyes as she straight-faced her best friend for the second time in one day. "How do you know?" Lydia just simply turned Sara's head toward the truck in the driveway, it was Daryl's for sure. Sara remembered the truck a little too well. "Oh.", was all she managed to say at her moment of stupidity. "And, I can smell barbequed squirrel and deer from where we stand..", Lydia added pointedly. Sara only rolled her eyes.

Upon reaching the yard, they continued toward the back yard, where they could hear the low sound of music and obnoxiously loud laughter. At this point, Sara was a bit nervous, she had not signed up for this. She glanced over to check on Lydia as they stalked closer to where the others were sure to be, amazed to find that she was wearing the same look of uncertainty. However, the look on Lydia's face wore away instantly when she heard Merle talking about how hot Sebastian's cousin had been. Sara stopped cold in her tracks and perked up upon then hearing her name. "Ew.", she spat.

Lydia chuckled and Sarafina was shocked that his words hadn't bothered her. As much of a man whore Merle was, it never seemed to fully bother her, she still wanted him. It was really sick. Lydia grabbed hold of Sara's hand and the woman staggered forward, a horrified expression on her face. "Sea bass!", Lydia cooed, both of them appearing in the yard now.

Sebastian swiveled around before anyone else moved, Merle taking attention first, then Daryl, then Karen- a flimsy floozy who worked at the bar O'Toole's across from Cynthia Delaine's shop. Denny was last to notice his Mother and Lydia, his face lighting up as he ran to her. "Mommy!", She tugged away from Lydia harshly, giving her the most unfriendly glare possible before running a hand through her long brown hair. "Hey sweetie.", she said when the boy finally reached her. He jumped into her arms and she hugged and kissed at his head.

Sebastian stood and over Denny's shoulder Sara gave him a smirk. She walked over to him, the boy still clinging to her for dear life. "Why didn't you tell me you had plans", She said in a whispered tone, glancing at Merle who sat closest to Sebastian.

"I'm so sorreh.", he said.

"How often does this happen?", Sara asked, having always wondered why fishing took so long. Merle chuckled just a bit but Sara ignored it long enough that when she found out what he'd been laughing at, she grew more annoyed. She glanced back to see Lydia mocking her. "Lydia. What the hell are you doing?", Lydia shrugged innocently and Sara's face turned red from her slight anger.

"Awh hell woman, you dun got her mad now.", For a moment after hearing his voice, Sara grew startled, she'd completely forgotten he was here. Her back was turned to him this whole time.

Sara placed Denny on the ground and told him to go bother Lydia, who was inching closer to the group of people. Sara turned toward Daryl and gave a faint smile, "Hi Daryl.", Daryl smirked before nodding at her, Karen leaning a little too closely to him afterward. Sara gave a slight chuckle at the discomfort displayed on Daryl's face. Same old Daryl, privy to public displays of affection. But then it occurred to her, this wasn't the same Daryl, he was more toned, more scraggly, if anything he was the opposite of who he used to be in her eyes. Sure, he was always rude to people, hated PDA, smelled like motor oil, and wore sleeveless shirts- but now, he was a turn off, still attractive as ever, but a turn off as he sat there with a woman he normally wouldn't have associated with and a smug look on his face. He wasn't her Daryl anymore, but then again, she wasn't his Sara anymore either. She chuckled again at how much people can change.

"Somethin' funny?", Karen snarled.

Sara raised an eyebrow at the other woman's tone and ran a hand through her hair. Daryl just paused. "Nah. Just laughing." Clearly Daryl was surprised at Sara's reaction, he was used to that fiery high school girl who used to hit people over the head with a beer bottle whenever they managed to get on her bad side, or say the wrong thing.

"Damn, Karen. I was hopin' someone would smack yer ass up. Guess our old Sarafina Greene is gone, huh, girly?", Merle laughed obnoxiously for a moment, words aimed at Sara.

"Guess so", She said in response to his words and as Sebastian sat back down in his foldable chair, he gave Merle a look of annoyance, "It's actually Sarafina Deckhardt now. Too good to be one o'us.", She looked down at her cousin, taking the empty lawn chair next to him, which was presumed to have been Karen's since her ass was basically engulfing the armrest of Daryl's lawn chair.

"That isn't true.", She snapped, slightly surprised when her young son came and sat on her lap. She held him close to her. Lydia was close behind, going and taking a seat on Merle's lap. Merle didn't seem to mind but the whole thing made Sarafina want to lose her lunch . She snapped out of her stupor and focused on what Sebastian was saying to her, trying her hardest to ignore Daryl's hard gaze.

"Is true. You went of to college and forgot all 'bout us. All yer friends. All yer family. Hell, I barely seen Denny since he was born. You gotta beg Chris to bring ya down 'ere. I'm shocked I was even at yer weddin'.", She could tell he was getting absolutely plastered, but one thing was for certain, he always told the truth when he was drunk. And not that flimsy version of the truth that everyone is so used to getting, Sebastian Greene told the ugly truth when he was drunk.

"I didn't forget about anyone.", Sara fought back, her country accent not as strong as it should have been.

"Don't pull that shit, Sars. Last time you was 'ere, you and Darylina was the best of friends. Then Chris got insecure an' you culn't even talk to 'em no more. All 'cause the two of yers fucked and he's yer ex.", Sebastian scoffed, watching first as Sara flinched at the word fucked, then as Daryl gave him a warning glare about the nickname that Merle and Sebastian had given to him, before continuing his drunken rant., "He din't even know you was a Momma. Til right now. He's spent time wit Denny, e'ry time you come down 'ere, but he din't know Denny was yers.", Her cousin shook his head at her and it made her feel a twinge of guilt.

He was right, she was forced to stop talking to Daryl and it had been so long that soon she just stopped fighting it, stopped caring. She hadn't talked to Daryl in literally six years, and if Chris knew she was even around him right now, he'd be unbelievably pissed. She guessed Chris had a reason for that though, with what happened six Christmas' ago before they had gotten engaged. She cringed just thinking about it, so she shook it from her mind, almost immediately.

"I'm sorry", she mumbled, holding her now sleeping son to her chest.

Sebastian smirked, perking up a bit at the sound of her voice. "Wassdat?" Sara gritted her teeth for a moment, it was always hard for her to apologize, even if she was at fault. "I said. I'm sorry.", She said more sternly, her eyes on Daryl now.

"Thas more like it. Yer a Greene. We dun't take shit, but mos' of all, we dun't give it.", She smirked a bit at his words, mulling them over, wondering just how drunk he was.

Conversation picked up after that, and when Karen passed out from drinking too much, things got much better. It was only eight, and Maggie had texted Sara to inform her that she and some friends were going to a movie and that her father, Sara's uncle Hershel, would pick her up afterward. It was all a bit strange how the Greene's were sort of estranged, yet close all the same. Hershel and his family didn't associate or know the Dixon's or anyone else in Augusta as much as Sara did. It was probably because Sara's father was a professional major leaguer, her dad being the youngest of three boys, and everyone in town knew her and her sister, Lindy. Hershel disowned his youngest brother for some reason and they barely spoke. Sara and her family had resided in town and Hershel and his family lived a few miles outside of Augusta, closer to Atlanta. Sara's dad and Sebastian's dad, her uncle Jack who was also Charlotte's dad, remained close and he lived in Augusta too.

Sara shook the thought almost immediately upon hearing Daryl's voice so close to her ear. "You want to go lay him down in my bed?", he asked, referring to Denny, who was still fast asleep. "Uh, sure.", she answered, a bit hesitant after finding Lydia to be staring at them.

Daryl stood up straighter, chewing on his lip when he said, "C'mon then."

He started trudging toward the house and Sara stood careful of her son in her arms before following after him, hearing what sounded like Merle giving her ass a compliment. She ignored it, of course. Once inside, she looked around, a small smile on her face at the design of it all. This house suited Daryl. It was isolated to every other house on the street, then on the inside there were heads of mostly everything he'd ever hunted. Sara herself was against animal harm, but Daryl didn't just kill 'em to kill 'em. He killed them to eat them and didn't waste one bit of them. "Bedroom is this way", he called to her gruffly as she hesitated in the living room, still looking at all his kill. "Sorry.", She said, snapping out of it and following after him to the staircase. He led her upstairs and his bedroom was the first on the left, the bedroom across from it seeming to be bone empty as she peaked into it from a distance.

He cleared his throat after a few seconds of waiting on her to come all the way through the doorway. Daryl was new to being patient, the only time he ever really had been was when they were together, which was a long time ago, He had gotten unfamiliar with the whole patience thing when she left him. She entered the room and looked around, it was pretty plain- suited Daryl too, she thought. She carefully laid the Denny down in the center of the bed, making sure he wouldn't roll off onto the floor. She looked up at Daryl, catching an expression on his face that she didn't recognize. He looked down at her and then cleared his throat , "He's really…somethin'", Daryl said. She smiled up at Daryl before leaning down again, placing a small kiss on the boy's head. "Thank you."

Her head being hip-level with Daryl, she noticed something. He was blocking her from the bedside table, purposely obstructing her view of it. She squinted before standing again. "Daryl.", he made a humming noise to make her aware the he'd heard her, as he gazed down at the sleeping child, gnawing on his thumb as he did. "What's that?", She pointed around him and he jerked back slightly, knocking whatever it was onto the floor. She couldn't tell if he'd done it on purpose or not, but she leaned down to retrieve the object at the same time as he did, knocking their heads together in the process.

"Fuck", Daryl sputtered, falling back onto his butt, sitting on the floor now as he cupped his head in pain. Sara cupped her hand on her head too, but didn't make much noise about the pain. She was more of a suffer in silence type of person. She managed to look at the cracked picture frame, grabbing it up quickly before Daryl could get to it. She gasped lightly, her other hand still cupping her head while one held the frame up. "Is this…us?" He sighed, taking it from her, chewing at his lip nervously. "Jus' some stupid thing, dun't know why I even keep it."

Her heart fell and she looked away from him, wishing all of this didn't hurt as much as it did. Fact of the matter was that he still had that picture and that mahogany frame, he still had something of hers, and she still had something of his.

"Mom.", The boy with dirty-blonde colored hair said for about the trillionth time and she shook her head, looking over at the ten year old in the passenger seat for just a moment. "What, Denny? What?" The slightly-tanned boy looked out his window, replaying the catastrophic events before his no longer innocent eyes. He hated seeing nothing but wasteland after wasteland, "Are we there yet?".

She sighed, keeping her eyes fixed on the road, "I told you. We passed it already and no one was there. It was just a bunch of smoke. 'member?", Her voice sounded a bit more panicked than she planned it to. She glanced into her rear view mirror momentarily to see her dad's slugger, sitting up in the backseat, covered in dried up blood . She shivered, thanking god her dad had died long before any of this bullshit. Her father died of pneumonia two years earlier after her last visit to Georgia and her mother was out there somewhere, kicking zombie ass and taking names. She was estranged from her mother after her being so unfaithful to her father, so it didn't matter. Then again, it was mostly her father's fault, being a traveling athlete and all.

She then thought about her poor step-mother, Sylvia, who her father had re-married to when Sara was sixteen; her sister, Lindy; and her best friend Lydia. Sylvia and Lindy died right in front of her, being consumed by those damned monsters. Sara had to admit she wasn't so sad to see them gnawing away at her cheating dirt-bag husband, Chris. And Lydia? She'd lost track of Lydia. Though, she was sure she was still out there somewhere, what with their occasional midnight chats on their long range walkie talkie's. They had actually planned to meet up, that's why Sara desperately headed toward Augusta, knowing that she could stop and scavenge the nearby prison for supplies. Lydia was supposed to meet her a few miles past the prison, at Delaine's Thrift Shop. Hopefully they both made it that far.

She and Denny were also leaving the comfort of her safe house in the woodsy areas of Charlotte to search for the remnants of the Greene family; meet up with Lydia at Delaine's; meet up Sebastian, who was driving their grandmother up from Savannah, at the prison; and meet up with Charlotte, who was coming from Montgomery, Alabama, at the prison too. She stayed in contact with them, having hacked her way into what remained of a cell phone company near Myrtle Beach. She and her step-sister Stephanie's husband, Rupert, found a way to link everyone their own Verizon phones and activate them. Sebastian and Charlotte already had the provider so it was easier than one would assume. All Rupert did was gather everyone else in the group their own Verizon's from the abandoned place, programmed them, and then linked everyone's numbers- including Sebastian and Charlotte's which Sara had given to him. It was a piece of cake from then on. He used to work as an I.T. for the phone company's before the world went to shit, now he was just a really good hacker of anything electronic.

Among her group of survivors back at the safe house, there was Stephanie, Rupert, their daughter Isobel, a guy named Carlos, and his little sister Kelly-Rae. She and Denny were the cherry-toppers of their spectacular group. "Denny. Denny? AIDEN." She called to her son who was staring off into space the whole time, still not having answered her question. "Yeah, mom?", he finally said, half startled. "Now would be a good time to get some sleep. We won't arrive at the prison for another hour and I need you to have some form of energy." He nodded at his mother before turning to face her, instead of the window, getting as comfortable as he possibly could with his seatbelt on. He closed his eyes and she knew immediately that he was sleeping when she heard his heavy breathing. She glanced down at her phone as it started to light up in her cup-holder. She picked it up. "Talk to me, Sea bass."