A.N: Hey guys!

I know most of you had given up on this story but the beta was crazy busy he is going to be a father and all. This story will be in hiatus for a little while but I promise we are not forgetting it.

Thanks for the reviews and support

Steffy.

Chapter 8:

"Hey Carl? Mr. Meyer would like to see you."

I looked up from the schedule I was working on, to see Veronica, the assistant of the boss. She was probably the nicest woman ever with a smile that could light up a whole room. All in all she was way too nice for me to even look at her as something other than a friend.

"Oh I noticed you moved." She said as we were walking back to the main building. "How do you like the new place?"

"The house was nice for sure, but the apartment is fine, it's big enough for Jude and I."

"Jude? Is she your girlfriend?"

I snorted. "Jude is a pain in my ass, that's what she is."

"I...Okay." She said, sitting back behind her desk after telling Mr. Meyer I had arrived.

I saw her face fall ever so slightly. I should have let her assume that Jude was my girlfriend, kill the hope before it got too high, she was too nice a girl to be with someone like me, yet even if I knew it was for the best I couldn't help but say. "Jude is not my girlfriend, she is my pigheaded little sister...I don't have a girlfriend actually"

She blushed faintly, and I couldn't help but smile at that, it was cute. "Oh okay because I was thinking that maybe we could-"

"Ah Carl I'm glad you could make it, please come in."

It was a saved by the bell moment, I knew she liked me and I knew I would have to tell her no... Not because I didn't like her but because she had the potential to make me like her too much.

"Carl, it has now been over a month since you started working here, and I wanted to know how you are handling things, is it too much or just enough? Could you handle more responsibility?"

"Things are going well... I think the team is pretty happy with me, not that they would tell me otherwise if it was not the case."

He chuckled. "Probably not. I was wondering if you minded taking care of a second team."

I was surprised, not even here a month and he wanted to give me more responsibility. The world population had probably dropped dramatically which reduced my direct competition but I still couldn't believe it.

"It won't be permanent but one of the other supervisors lost someone and he needs some time."

I nodded. "Natural causes?"

Mr. Meyer shook his head and sighed. "No, we seem to forget sometimes that the world outside is lethal. His nephew and his girlfriend paid the price for that."

I couldn't help the shiver that ran down my spine. Soon enough it would be my sister going out in that same lethal world...in rescue or scavenger or other types of stupid missions.

"One thing is sure I will not forget what is outside these walls."

"Because of your sister isn't it? My son told me about her, he is in the army too."

I froze ever so slightly. Jude had taken a lot of bullshit over the past few weeks and I did too for supporting her choice. There were two kinds of people, people who approved of a girl joining the army and the people against it. To be fair, the people against it were a minority but they were the most vocal. I didn't know what I would do if my boss was one of those...well maybe I did, I will probably be looking for a new job before the end of the day. "Yes Jude is in the army," I replied warily.

"To be honest I was not sure of what to think about a woman joining the army... I have to admit I have never been keen at the idea of a woman fighting but my son made me change my mind."

"Did He?"

He nodded. "Yes, he has been in the army for a few years now, He is a part of the elite, under the command of the general himself. They took the new unit out last week for a gas mission and it seems that your sister can hold herself pretty well, better than most men. My son even told me she risked herself to save someone from his unit. He was pretty impressed with her."

I forced a smile. "Yea that's just so Jude." The stupid girl with no instinct of self-preservation I want to kick in the butt I added to myself.

"So we're good for the team?"

I nodded. "Yes perfect thanks." I was trying to hide my anger, she promised me to be careful and yet I had to find out, by a complete stranger, that she was just as reckless as I suspected her to be.

"So Carl I was thinking maybe we could go grab a coffee sometimes" Veronica said when I exited the office.

I didn't know what got into me, was it the lack of sleep, my anger toward Jude or just my irritation toward myself but I just lost it, and I lost it on the nicest person in the world. "You know what Veronica; no I don't think we should. You are a nice girl and all but I'm not looking for someone and if it is to be friends I don't want that either so please don't waste your time on me okay?"

Her face was filled with hurt and I couldn't believe I said all these things when I didn't even mean half of it.

"No Veronica I'm-"

She raised her hand. "No it's okay, you made it clear thanks. I won't bother you again I promise." She was looking straight ahead, but I could hear the slight shiver in her voice leading me to think she was close to tears.

I sighed, right at this instant I hated myself. She was the only good thing I found here and I just hurt her. "Please..."

She shook her head. "I rather you be mean, I rather hear the truth and have to say goodbye, I rather take a blow at least now I know. Just go please."

"Veronica, could you come in my office?" Mr Meyer called in the interphone.

She took a notebook from the desk and walked away without another look for me.

I growled pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to calm myself; I couldn't be in a fool mood all day. I already managed to hurt the sweetest person on the planet.

When I got home that night I was not feeling any better and I didn't even know how I could approach things with Jude anymore. I thought that getting our own place, that me, more or less accepting her idiotic desire to be in the Army, would mend what had been broken but she seemed on edge since she joined, like if she was keeping a secret. I had thought it might be because they treated her unfairly but after what Meyer had said it didn't seem to be the case.

I was not even surprised to find her rummaging into Uncle Daryl's stuff again.

"Seriously Jude what the hell are you looking for in these boxes?"

"Nothing special" she replied looking up at me.

"Really? You have been buried in these boxes every chance you got for the past three weeks and yet you are not looking for nothing special well... little sis I sure hope you fight better than you lie because you suck."

"I just want to know about Uncle Daryl's life before."

"Before what? Seriously Jude, I've been living with the man for almost twenty years...What is there to know that you don't already know?"

"You know who he was before the dead raised, who was he then?"

"Why does it matter? What are you hiding from me?"

"I'm not hiding anything." She started to play with her hair...a dead giveaway of her guilty conscience.

"You're just on edge all the time, I thought it was because of your training, I tried to be understanding but I found out today that you risked your life to save a stupid soldier and—"

"Are you spying on me?!"

I snorted. "Hardly and that's not the point okay! You are hiding something from me and believe me, I will find out what it is."

"I can't talk to you, I want to but I can't"

I sighed, sitting heavily on the sofa. She changed so much since Daryl died, it was like I was losing her and the more I tried to hold on to her, the more she was slipping through my fingers.

"Just try me."

She shook her head and sat across from me. "I just... I don't know for the past few weeks I keep wondering about Uncle Daryl before it all happened. Had he been married? Did he have kids? Did they die? You know" she shrugged. "I'm just curious."

Her little shrugged didn't fool me; I knew it was much more important to her than what she led me to think. "Jude-"

"And I want to tell you that I didn't risk my life...not really, I knew I could make it. Whoever told you otherwise is a dickhead. You should find a better spy...or better yet, just leave it alone."

"I didn't spy on you, my boss's son is in one of the units you worked with last week and he just told me they had been pretty impressed with you. I trusted you when you said you would not take stupid risks, I never thought I shouldn't have trusted you but I guess I was wrong... again."

I saw her wince ever so slightly and I knew I touched where it hurt, you could tell her a lot of things but it was always painful for her when it came to trust.

"It was not a risk Carl, you know how fast I move, and you know how quiet I am...I could get to that walker before anybody else so quietly he didn't even notice. Seriously what should I have done? Let him die because there was a minimal chance I would get hurt? If we think like that then I shouldn't go outside as there is a chance I get run over by a car. She sighed. Seriously Carl people have been seeing much more into what I did than they should, it was probably because the rest of my team stayed frozen like dummies...and don't worry my Corporal gave me shit about it already, god it was like I tore him a second asshole."

I smiled, I liked that Corporal already. Jude has never dealt with authority very well. Only Daryl managed to keep her in line but now that he was gone I hoped this Corporal would give her that structure and if he couldn't either way I'll be fine. Because if she reacted with him the way I expected she might with a nice punch, she would end up kicked out of the army and she would be safe here with me or if by some kind of miracle he managed to get her in line, then she will get back the structure she desperately needed.

"I'd like to meet the man that managed to throw a fit without you punching him."

Jude paled ever so slightly but I pretended to not notice. She didn't want me to meet her Corporal which made me want to meet him even more. I knew she was hiding something from me, something big...I hated the distance it was causing between us, of everything I was pretty sure it couldn't be worse than every option that were going through my mind...from a fight club, to a human trafficking business.

"Yea...let's just wait a while okay? I don't think it's a good idea to introduce the overprotective big brother to my team yet, it's already so hard for them to see me as an actual member of their team."

I nodded. "Yea it makes sense I understand... but you know I am here for you right? No matter what."

I kissed her forehead before going to my bedroom, she hadn't noticed I didn't promise because I would meet this guy and see why she seemed so dead against me meeting him. She was stubborn but she was not the only one...I was not letting a secret create a gap between us, I was going to know what she was hiding with or without her help.