LITTLE DARK AGE ― twd x tlou

-ZERO

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FOR INDIANA, LOVE WAS HARD TO UNDERSTAND.

At first, Indiana knew Shane as the deputy in town. The one who knocked on the front door during domestic calls and flashed his badge when a boy got too close to her.

But after the fifth call and her father's death, seven-year-old Indiana went to social services for a week and he checked in every morning, charming the system and regulations.

He'd bring her hot breakfast and chocolate milk and tell funny stories until her stomach hurt.

Indiana remembered when he approached her about foster care. She'd been taken into Atlanta for the summer, stayed in three group homes — one shut down during her placement, another she'd been deemed "unstable" after threatening another girl (who stole her stuffed lion and totally deserved the broken nose) — and the instability nearly tore her to shreds.

With a clean record, save one bar fight, Shane sat her down for their weekly standing lunch and asked what she thought about the idea. If she'd be interested in living with him.

Permanently.

Indiana had cried uncontrollably, thinking he was pulling her leg or trying to make her feel bad, but he only pulled her close and calmed her down. Colored on the napkins with her and folded them in his pocket to take home for the fridge.

By September, she was enrolled in King County Elementary and had her own bedroom in their brand new two-bedroom home.

For the first time in her life, Indiana felt safe. Secure. Happy.

Shane was the first stable home she'd ever known; the first safe space she'd ever had.

Indiana knew his best friend, Rick, from brief encounters in her home if the call was too bad, and one breakfast when he and Shane were on-call. But it wasn't until Shane became her legal guardian that she met Rick and his pregnant wife.

Immediately, she was showered in gifts and praises. Lori was the first female Indiana had ever truly looked up to, and the only person she confessed about her mother with. Rick was a second father, ruffling her hair and sneaking her extra slices of cake after dinner.

Indiana had a family.

Just after her tenth birthday, Carl Grimes was born.

And Indiana loved nothing more than Carl.

She'd never held a baby before, but when he opened his blue eyes in her arms in the hospital room, she realized what the strange, warm feeling in her body was.

The buzzing she'd hear when Shane cheered the loudest at her softball games. The strange weight in her chest that stifled her words and threatened to cut off her tongue. The happiness she felt when falling asleep with her head in Lori's lap.

She loved Carl Grimes. And she loved Shane. And Rick. And Lori.

She loved her family more than anything in the world and she would protect them until her final breath.

Years passed quickly, and as Indiana grew, so did her impatience. She spent most of her time at softball practice or archery lessons or horseback riding. Anything to keep her outside and away from the voice in her mind that seemed to mock her.

How long would it be until she became her mother?

Indiana found solace in art.

Despite her self-isolation and loner tendencies, Shane was happy she'd found something to be passionate about. He purchased sketchbooks and easels and hung everything he could on the walls until they were full.

Her favorite days were with Carl. They'd stuck their hands in paint and wrote how much they loved Lori in a card together. They painted his piggy bank and picked out the colors for his swing set.

As Shane was her father, in all but blood, Carl was her brother.

And ten years to the day of Indiana's adoption, Rick was shot. Celebrations were on hold, balloons half-blown. A cake was burnt, and Indiana's fingers stained with charcoal. She sat next to Shane in the hospital room, day in and day out, head on his shoulder, hand in hers.

Promising him that Rick would make it through.

Because Rick was family, she'd said. And their family could do anything.

And a year later, when the apocalypse had nearly destroyed her family. As affairs ruined relationships and created irreparable barriers between a once close-knit group, Indiana still held true to that idea.

The belief that nothing could tear her family apart.

They could get through it. They would get through it.

But then Rick killed Shane and Indiana realized they were never family at all.

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hi i'd die for indiana k thanks bye she is the most babygirl of all my babies