(1) Vita Brevis (D. Dixon)

Chapter One

Marie still embraces Rick. It turns out that seeing a friendly face means a lot more to her than she thought it would. She reaches out and touches Shane's arm behind him. Shane covers her hand and smiles at her. It's been a long time since the three of them were in the same room as one another. The three of them were inseparable in high school. Friendly faces are such a miracle now.

"Marie Shephard" Shane whispers as he squeezes her hand on his arm.

"Shane" She greets warmly when she pulls back from Rick.

"Isn't it Harper now?" Rick reminds him. "You got married" He then pauses. "Is he...." He stops and then takes a breath. He doesn't care about the husband. There is only one person he cares about right now. "Is she here?" Marie motions inside the church and nods softly. Her eyes then find Rick's wife behind him with Carl.

"Lori.." Marie smiles at her and then hugs her. Lori is momentarily surprised by the action, but miracles are hard to come by now.

"Marie" Lori hugs her back. Whilst not the best of friends, or even friends, they knew one another, and they didn't hate one another. Lori understood that whilst Marie and Rick had a daughter, whatever romantic relationship they had ended sometime before she met Rick. She knows that they tried to do the family thing with Catelyn, but it didn't work out for Marie and Rick and she doesn't hold that against him.

"Catelyn" Marie states when she pulls back, calling on her daughter to join them, as much as she knows that she is not going to want to. She's not going to want to spend time with any of these people. Catelyn drops down from her perch to stand behind her mother. Rick lets out a breath as he takes in the adult standing in front of him. The last time he saw her, she was a seven-year-old running around with pigtails and a Barbie doll with a missing leg. This adult is a far cry from that little girl.

"Cate" He whispers. Her features don't let up. She just remains all stoic and firm. Her bow clutched in her hand.

"There's no little girl here" She points out. "Goodbye"

"Catelyn" Marie scolds, giving her a look.

"What?"

"Have a care" Marie tells her, Catelyn clenches her jaw in annoyance and then rolls her eyes a little.

"I had no idea you were in the area," Rick tells Marie. "I thought you and...Jack went out to the coast"

"We moved back a few years back now" Marie admits. "After the accident...."

"Yeah, I'd heard, I'm sorry about Tali" Rick offers. Marie nods and lets out a breath, plastering on a fake smile. Tali is a sore point for her, and for Catelyn.

"This must be your son...Carl" Marie points out as she smiles at Carl. "Jeez, Rick, he looks just like you at that age" Rick smirks and pulls Carl closer to him. She's not wrong. Carl is the spitting image of Rick when they were kids.

"Carl, this is Marie, we've been friends since we were kids....and Cate...well...Catelyn" Rick starts, Catelyn glances at the boy and then clenches her jaw. "She's..."

"My sister" Carl finishes for him. He knows. Rick and Lori haven't kept it from him. He's always known that there was a big sister out there somewhere. Though he's never met her.

"That's right" Rick whispers and nods. "Cate...this is..."

"Yeah, I don't care" Catelyn stops him. "So that girl isn't here and she hasn't been here....so why don't you and your little motley crue.....fuck off," She tells Rick who stares back at her. She's so angry. So bitter and twisted. Hurt. She's hurting. Lori covers Carl's ears.

"Catelyn" Marie pulls her aside, away from Rick, Lori and Carl, keeping hold of her arm. "Look, I know that...." She lets out a breath and nods. "Okay, we're going with them, and we're going to help them find that little girl"

"No, we're not" Catelyn argues. "We're safer staying here"

"And if it were Tali that was out there alone" Marie tries but Catelyn shakes her head. 

"But she's not, and we don't know these people" Catelyn argues, Marie lets go of her arm and Catelyn folds them across her chest.

"That's not true" Marie counters. "I know Shane, and I know Rick, you know Rick, he's..."

"Rick is nothing to me" Catelyn snaps, loud enough for Rick to hear it, he looks across sadly as Lori touches his back. "We stick together, here...where it is safe, just you and me"

"You got us this far, honey" Marie whispers softly. "And I know...I know I made some bad choices that...." Catelyn looks away from her, not wanting her mother to bring it up. "Rick's a good guy, I think going with them, that's going to be our best option here...."

"Going with them means leaving here" Catelyn argues. "This place is safe, we can barricade it up again..."

"Honey" Marie stops her. She is aware that there are many issues with Catelyn, and that some of them revolve around the men in her life. She doesn't trust people, more so men. She is not going to go easily. But Marie feels like sticking with Rick and his group is in their best interest. There is safety in numbers and as much as Catelyn has taken care of them so far, there is going to be a day when she struggles. And they need to be around others that will pick up the slack. And she has lost out with Rick so much already, it is literally the end of the world, if they ever had a chance to fix what broke, this is going to be their last chance. Marie moves back to Rick. "We're going to go with you" Marie offers. "We're going to help you look for that little girl" Catelyn turns and walks away. She doesn't want to go with them. She doesn't want to have to rely on other people. That's what they did with Jack and he ruined their lives.

.....

The church is a mass of activity and Catelyn hates it. Marie is busy packing up their supplies with help from Lori and Andrea. Catelyn doesn't and won't help. She knows she is being petty but right now, she doesn't feel safe so she is lashing out. She's also hiding in her perch, sitting with her back against the wall, her bow set over her knees. She is trying to keep herself calm despite the people in close proximity to her. Her perch is the only place safe to her now. Only it is about to be broken. Rick sits across from her, but she keeps her eyes out the window, her hands tightly clasped around her bow. She looks a lot like Marie in the face. Her mother's eyes, jawline and nose. But he can see himself in there too. The dark hair, the chin. She grew up beautiful. She's probably had boys chasing her for years now. But here she is, alone with her mother. Something went wrong.

"Did you and your mom....has it been the two of you this whole time?" She nods. "No Jack?" She shakes her head. "No boyfriend?" She turns a strange look on him.

"No" She answers, offering nothing more. She has no interest in talking about father-daughter subjects. And definitely does not want to talk about boys. Rick lets out a breath and leans forward.

"I can understand why you are angry at me...." She laughs a little and rests her head back.

"You think I'm angry at you?" She asks. He nods a little. "You think I'm this way because my daddy didn't talk to me for 14 years?" She asks as she tilts her head. "I am this way because the fucking world ended and people started coming back from the dead to eat everyone" Yet, he feels this anger she is holding on to is older than that. It's deeply rooted in her. Starting long before the outbreak. He does feel like he has some of the blame, even if he doesn't fully understand it. She does blame him, but not in the way he thinks. Catelyn blames him for not saving her from Jack. From the first time that he lay his hands on her. She hates Rick because he never came back for her. She is angry because she had to save herself.

"Rick" Shane shouts up for him. Rick glances at Catelyn but she has gone back to staring out the window. Rick nods and then pushes himself up, climbing down from the perch. She is not going to sit and talk with him. That's fine, at least he knows that she and her mother are alive, and right now, with everything going on with Sophia being missing, this is still a win in his eyes, even with her anger. He'll take it.