Apocalyptic || Rick Grimes Fanfiction

Mercy

Mercy

Katherine

Katherine sits on the roof of a truck while Rick, Maggie and Ezekiel look out to the people of all the different communities. She fiddles anxiously with her fingers, pulling away at the flakey dead skin. Rick had his hand on her shoulder in a comforting way, Daryl sat beside her with an arm around her, as much as he hated to show affection, he missed her more than anything.

"I'm proud of how far you've come, Kathy," he says softly.
Katherine smiles to herself, all she has ever wanted was to make her big brothers proud. "I missed you a lot, D," she leans her head on his shoulder.

"I missed ya too. Not a second went by in that cell where I didn't worry for ya'.. all Dwight kept sayin' was how he was gon' make me watch as he tortured ya'" Katherine looks up to him sadly.
"You think I fought the Governor to be taken out by a bitch who follows orders anytime they're thrown in his direction?" She snorts.
"Shut up," Daryl scoffs and pushes her gently.

"When I first met him... Jesus said that my world was gonna get a whole lot bigger. Well, we found that world. We found each other. That... "bigger world" is ours by right. That we've come together for it, all of us... it's that much more true..It's ours by right. Any person who would live in peace and fairness, who would find common ground... it's their right, too." Rick looks to Ezekiel. "But those who use and take and kill to carve out the world and make it theirs alone... We end them. We don't... celebrate it. We don't have shame about it, either. There's only one person who has to die... and I will kill him myself. I will. I will. But if it's the others... the others who prop him up, stand by his side, even those who just look the other way... So be it." Rick looks to Katherine then," In the beginning I woke up in the hospital to the world gone...I had nobody, no family, nothing. Until I met them, my family, in a small alley in Atlanta after they saved me from being torn apart, they promised to bring me back to my wife and son, and although those people aren't here today, except one," he squeezes her shoulder again," I fight for them. They were good people with families too, and they died just before we found a safe place to hold up in for awhile. We think about those people we've lost and we fight for them!" Rick shouts out for everyone to hear.

Katherine remembers those people everyday; T-Dog, Jackie, Andrea, Morales, Glenn....Merle. All of those people on that rooftop brought her back to her family too, back to Daryl and back to Merle. Katherine thought back to before she met Luke, would she have turned out like Merle? Would she be one of those assholes Rick locked up? She sighed to herself, popping a piece of her apple in her mouth and chewed.

<><><><>

"No daddy, please!" Katherine screams in fear. "I'm sorry," her father storms towards her with his thick, leather belt gripped tightly in his hand.
"Shut your goddamn mouth up, lil' girl ya' here!" He pulls her across the living room by the pigtail. This all started because she accidentally knocked over his beer can while playing with her barbie.

"Give me that," he roughly tugs the doll from her hand. "Ya' wanna see what happens when lil' girls do stupid shit!?" He pulls out his tighter and flicks it on until an orange flame shines up, Katherine screams and pleads with him, her blue eyes red and puffy. "Please daddy!" She sobs.

"Leave that little girl alone, Will. "Her mothers raspy voice comes from the couch, she puffs her cigarette, coughing as the nicotine enters her lungs. It was always the same, her mom would tell him to stop but she never made him stop. He sets the doll alight and throws it in the fire. He wasn't always a bad man, but he had one temper and that temper got worse after her mom passed.

"No!" Katherine watches as her Barbie burns.

Later that night Merle comes back with Daryl to find Katherine sobbing on the floor.
"What happened, Kathy?" Merle asks softly. "How come your not playin' with the dollie I got you?" Katherine's lip quivers. "Daddy set her o- on fire. "She stammers. "B-but is okay. Please don't worry about it. O-okay? You don't need to say nothin' to daddy. "Katherine didn't want more shouting, she hated it.
"You want us to stay in here with ya?" Katherine nods and lets Merle pick her up, placing her on the bed and pulling her covers over her.