Chapter 7

"The wall, is, done!" Rick cheered happily as he finished putting in the last bolt. Everyone around smiling and cheering, happy to have this chapter over with now. "Tonight go home, get some rest, because tomorrow we will be out scavenging again." Rick announced. There were smiles on everyone's faces.

"Are you gonna be one of the ones to go out?" Carl nudged me. I shrugged in response. I'd like to go out, but I'd be no use, my voice still hadn't come back 100%. "Well soon I'm sure." Carl smiled at me.

It always pained me to look at his bandaged eye, even worse I had seen what was under the bandage. I started helping out Denise with some of her patients, I gotta do a few stitches here and there. Turns out I'm not as squeamish as I thought, turns out I'm not at all.

"I'm patrolling.. tonight." I cleared my throat, then smiled proudly.

"Cool, stepping up, I haven't gotten to do that yet, but I'm hoping I'll get to soon." Carl said hopeful. He winced, lightly touching his bandage.

"You okay?" I asked noticing his discomfort.

"I'm fine, just hurts a little." Carl's face was spelling out pain. "I'm just gonna go sleep it off, I'll see ya tomorrow?" He asked as he started to back away, I nodded quickly with a smile on my face.

The crowd finally thinned out and I was able to find Rick. He was holding Judith while he talked to Michonne, they were so happy.

"Just who I wanted to see." Rick said loudly, I pointed to myself. "Yeah, you." Rick laughed a little. "I wanted to tell you that you'll be on watch with Glenn tonight. Daryl will be on the back wall with Sasha." I nodded in response. "For now go take it easy, take a nap if you want." Rick smiled.

I headed home, seeing Daryl on his front porch, sitting on the steps taking a puff from his cigarette.

"How do you still," I cleared my throat quickly," still have cigarettes?" I sat down next to him. I discreetly took in the scent of the burning cigarette, which made me feel nostalgic, but I wasn't sure why.

"I take whatever I can find, broken, half smoked, anything. I know one day I'll have to quit though." Daryl grumbled looking at the burning cigarette holding it between the tips of his fingers.

"Hmm." I said thoughtfully. "Stocked up chapstick." I laughed lightly.

"What?" He smirked at me.

"Still have some." I squeaked, clearing my throat again, slightly embarrassed.

"Don't be embarrassed, Carl just got past that phase." I snapped my head in Daryl's direction who was smiling humorously; I punched him in the arm, also finding it funny.

"Shift with Glenn tonight." I changed the subject, my voice scratchy.

"You'll be okay with him, Glenn just talks a lot." Daryl explained. I hadn't had the chance to get to know everyone like I hoped, I was introduced to some of them, but I was closer with Sasha, Carl, and Daryl, Abraham too I guess.

I wouldn't mind if Glenn did most of the talking tonight. It had been a long time since I had been out in the open at night; night always made me nervous. I had pretty much been alone since the beginning, and now having all these people around me, almost felt unusual, I wasn't sure how to cope with it. I wasn't really quite sure how to converse anymore either, I got so used to keeping all my thoughts internalized that sometimes I forget to say things out loud.

"Hazel." Daryl brought me out of my head. I blinked my eyes a few times as I focused on him. "You okay?" He looked at me with a hint of concern in his eyes. I nodded in response, a smile on my face.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

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"Hey there she is!" Glenn called out from the front gate as I approached; slingshot and ammo in hand. I climbed up the ladder to the little perch looking out over the wall. "Rick wants to set up some spikes outside the gate along the road." Glenn said informatively. "I thought about recruiting you for the job." Glenn smirked looking back through the gap in gate.

Me, why would they want my help? It's not like I can yell out orders. I can't even yell, a medium volume is the best I've got. I mean I guess I could sharpen spikes and set those up, but if Rick wanted those fortified with cars or something, that would be more work." So I thought we could get to know each other better." Glenn started.

"Maggie's pregnant?" I asked immediately. As a quiet person you pick up on a lot of the gossip. I wanted to know so I figured I'd go straight to the source.

"Yeah, yeah she is." Glenn smiled happily at the news. "It's still early though."

"What're you hoping for?" I asked curiously.

"Well I'm fine with either, but I think Maggie wants a boy." Glenn explained glancing up at me, then back through the gate.

"Names?" I asked still staring hard out into the dark.

"Well um, we have a few names on the table. We were considering Beth, after Maggie's little sister. You never got to meet her, she died before we got here." Glenn looked down at the ground, saddened by the thought. "We lost a lot of people before we found this place."

"My family died..." I cleared my throat, staring blankly. "In the same day." I had never told anyone that, except for when I wrote it down for Daryl, but this was the first time I was saying it out loud.

"I'm sorry." Glenn looked at me with sympathy in his eyes.

"It's okay." I blinked back tears. "I wouldn't..want them to live, in this." There was big chunk of memories I didn't remember for some reason, like how things were before, or what happened to me between the hotel and when I got burned. What I did remember was that I did care for my family, my dad, my mom, and sister. Sadly enough though, I couldn't even remember their names, that was more upsetting then losing them.

"I didn't want to have kids in this world." Glenn confessed to me. "But after being with Maggie for so long, and surviving all the things we did, I knew, it would be okay." He smiled hopeful at me. I gave him a light smile back.

It was nice to see hope again, something I hadn't seen in years. It was nice to have so much of it all in one place, but it also made me weary. If there was anything I learned was too much hope in one place soon brought bad luck. The house I almost burned to death in, had all my hopes in it. I hoped that it could be a permanent place for me, and that I could live there for the rest of my life, and no one would come to bother me. It lasted a few days before it was burned to the ground, for a reason I still didn't know. When the man that saved me found me, I had no hopes of surviving, or to be alive another day, but some how the hope he had wore off on to me. When I left him, my hopes were high, I don't really remember what happened after that, I just remember hollowing out a tree, and isolating myself until Daryl found me.

I really wanted to put all my hopes into this place, that this would be it, this would be my forever home, but I couldn't. Something in me was holding back, I mean I would help these people out as much as they needed, but as much as I hated to say it, I didn't have hopes that this place would last. My thoughts remained this way until sunrise when Abraham and Eugene came to take our places.

"Oh hey they had you up there?" Abraham said surprised as I came down the ladder. I nodded in response with a smirk and tired eyes." First night's always the hardest, it'll get easier." Abraham patted my shoulder.

I left back to Daryl's house, the two of us getting there at the same time.

"Hey." Daryl called from a ways behind me. "How'd it go?" He asked curiously as he looked up at me from the bottom step.

"You're right, Glenn talks a lot." I cleared my throat a large smile on my face.

"Told ya." He smirked as the two of us went inside. "Hungry?" Daryl asked heading for the kitchen.

"More tired." I rubbed my eyes. I set my weapons and gun down on the table, heading for the couch.

"I'll still make ya somethin'." Daryl said once I was out of sight.

I plopped down on the couch, kicking my shoes off, rubbing my aching feet that I stood on all night. I pulled the collar of my shirt down my shoulder, looking at the red irritated skin; the strap on that rifle was rough. I pulled my shirt back up, rubbing my shoulders gently for a moment sinking back into the couch. I could hear Daryl opening cupboards, pulling out a pan, looking through the fridge, the noises soothing in a way, putting me to sleep.

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Thank you guys so much for reading this one, I might actually be more excited about writing this one, then the other ones I did, but let me know what you think with a vote or a comment, thanks!