season one, episode four.
"vatos"

006. problem.

LYDIA NOTICES that jim has been acting strangely lately. everybody has noticed, but nobody knows what he is doing. everyday he goes up the hill and digs for hours on end. lydia decides she wanted to find out.

she finds him digging multiple graves and she frowns slightly, looking around the place. "jim, are you okay?" she asks quietly. no reply.

"jim?" she calls out again, only for him to ignore her. "hey, asshole. i'm talking to you." she snaps as he glances up at her, noticing the bottle of water in her hand which she holds out for him.

"go back to camp." he mumbles as she rolls her eyes.

"loose the attitude." she says before turning around to leave to find eden who is with dale on top of the r.v as andrea and amy came back with a dozen fish they have caught in the lake.

"oh, will you look at that?" morales grins in excitement as lori claps and carol smiles. "ladies, because of you, my children will eat tonight." he grins. "thank you!"  

"thank dale." andrea replies, shrugging. "it's his canoe and gear." she tells them as carl gushes about all the fish.

lydia absolutely hates fish food, but in this world she will eat anything. lydia glances at everyone and stood up with a sigh, "i—uh," she says quietly, catching everyone's attention. "i don't wanna alarm anyone...but we may have a bit of a problem."

they all look at her in confusion as she turns around and points at jim who was still digging and digging with no breaks in between. shane frowns at him and everyone slowly walks over to him.

"hey, jim." shane calls out, "why don't you hold up, alright? just give me a second here, please." he says as jim finally stops with a sigh.

"what do you want? you get all these up here on me, lydia?" jim scoffs as lydia raises her hands in surrender.

"no, we're all just a little concerned, man, that's all." shane explains, backing lydia.

"lydia said—" andrea begins as morales sends her a look.

"we noticed you've been out here for hours." shane corrects. lydia can't help but wonder why he was defending her so often lately. jim faces him, panting. "so?"

"so...why are you digging?" lydia speaks up in annoyance.

"are you heading to china, jim?" shane jokes as jim weakly laughs bitterly.

"what does it matter? i'm not hurting anyone." jim defends, before going back to digging. "yeah, except maybe yourself, it's a hundred degrees today. you can't keep this up." dale replies with a sigh.

"sure i can! watch me!" jim yells as lydia shares a look with lori when eden begins to cry in lydia's arms so the girl sighs quietly, trying to rock her back to sleep.

"you made the child cry." shane points at jim unseriously.

"jim, they're not gonna say it, so i will. you're scaring people. you're scaring my son and carols daughter." lori explains kindly.

"they got nothing to be scared of. sorry lil eden." jim ruffles eden's baby hairs as lydia sighs.

"i mean, what the hell, people? i'm out here by myself. why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?" he almost scoffs.

"we think that you need to take a break, okay?" shane says slowly, walking over to him. "why don't you go and get yourself in the shade? some food maybe. i'll tell you what, maybe in a little bit i'll come out here. i'll help you myself. you just tell me what it's about, why don't you just give me the shovel?"

"or what?" jim raises a brow as he slammed the shovel into the grass.

"there is no 'or what'. i'm asking you. i'm coming to you and i'm asking you, please. i don't want to have to take it from you." shane tells him seriously, growing annoyed.

"and if i don't, then what? then you're gonna best my face in like ed peletier, aren't you?" he raises a brow as shane looks down. "y'all seen his face, huh? what's left of it." jim calls out.

andrea speaks up. "he deserved it."

"now that's what happens when someone crosses you." jim spits in anger.

"that was different jim." shane replies.

"you weren't there! ed was out of control. he was hurting his wife and lydia and even grabbed eden from her." amy calls out.

"that is there marriage not his. and lydia shouldn't of tested him." jim shrugs as lydia scoffs, growing annoyed. she contemplates walking away.

"jim i'm not here to argue with you, all right? just give me the shovel." shane walks over.

"no no no!" jim exclaims in a panic before trying to hit shane, who grabs him and pushes him down to calm him.

"you've got no right!" jim yells as shane hushes him. "stop it! hey, hey hey. jim. nobody's gonna hurt you!" he reassures.

"that's a lie. that's the biggest lie there is." jim whimpers as shane frowns. "i told that to my wife and my two boys. i said it a hundred times, it didn't  matter. they came out of nowhere. there were dozens of 'em. just pulled 'em right out of my hands." he whispers as everyone widens their eyes. "the only reason i got away was cause the dead were too busy eating my family." jim sighs as they all look shocked.

shane randomly decides to sit jim by a tree and tie him up to it so he doesn't go anywhere. he gave him food and water whilst everyone went back to doing whatever they need to do.

"i'm sorry if i scared your kids." jim speaks up as lori smiles.

"you had sunstroke. nobody's blaming you."

"you're not scared now are you?" jim asks sophia and carl who blink, "no sir." sophia replies quietly.

"your mamas right. the sun just cooked my head is all." jim tells carl who nods and went back to reading.

shane takes the kids and carol to clean the fish, whilst lori and lydia stay. sitting in awkward silence. staring at anything other than each other.

"how come you and rick got so close so soon? y'all seem like best friends already." lori says, raising a brow as lydia almost chokes on air.

"i saved him." the blonde says simply, bouncing eden gently on her knee.

"and that's all?" lori pushes, clearly thinking other things as lydia turns to face her, finally having enough.

"i didn't sleep with him if that's what you're implying. i'm not you." lydia says before she could stop herself. she feels guilty as soon as she says it, because it's not been confirmed, but it's clear to see.

she sees lori's face drop and she looks stunned. "i haven't—i don't know what you're t—"

"save it." she cuts her off. "it's clear to see, without you even confirming. listen, i get a girl has needs and all...but really? he had been missing two months so you decided to hop onto his best friend...?" lydia winces, shaking her head as lori glares slightly.

"i don't know where you have gotten that false information—" lori begins calmly as lydia begins to laugh mockingly. although she would never admit it, the quiet laugh reminds lori of the psychos in the scary movies she used to watch.

"it's pretty obvious. plus, i bet you were secretly hoping i had...so then you could bring that up in an argument to back yourself and make yourself feel better. if it ever somehow comes out to rick what you did." lydia hums to herself, adjusting rick's sherri hat on eden's head.

"you gonna tell him?" lori immediately asks, not meeting her gaze as lydia shrugs in response. at her shrug, lori stands up angrily, about to point a finger as lydia grins mockingly. "careful now, jim's looking over."

lori slowly turns to see jim looking at her in confusion. the brunette sighs in frustration and walks away to speak to jim whilst lydia smiles to herself and goes back to reading her book.

LATER THAT evening, lydia has started to grow worried at the fact the others hadn't come back yet. also, the fact lori had basically confirmed she has been having an affair with shane. she wasn't 100% convinced until lori asked if she would tell anyone.

they have cooked the fish and were getting ready to eat together as they chatted about random things. "i missed this." shane chuckles.

"i gotta ask you, man. it's been driving me crazy." morales speaks up, looking over at dale who glances at him.

"what?" he chuckles.

"that watch." morales points as dale grins.

"what's wrong with my watch?" he asks innocently, as if he's got no idea what the next question would be.

"i see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." morales continues as everyone nods in agreement, having seen dale do it too.

"i'm missing the point." dale says with a raised brow.

"well, unless i've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end." lydia says sarcastically as they all chuckle.

"but there's you, every day winding that stupid watch." morales says as dale chuckles.

"time...it's important to keep track isn't it?"

"the days at least. don't you think, andrea? back me up." he says as andrea smiles awkwardly. "i like what a father said to a son when he gave him a watch. that had been handed down through generations. he said, 'i give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me. i give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then. and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it." he explains as everyone smiles in interest, understanding him. lydia was the only one who looks slightly bored, but pretended to understand and agree.

"that's lovely, dale. weird...but lovely." lydia breaks the silence with a smile, ignoring shane staring at lori and lori staring at shane. dale smiles in thanks as everyone laughs. dale continues to defend himself for a few moments until amy gets up suddenly. "where are you going?" andrea asks with a frown.

"i have to pee." amy says awkwardly, "jeez, you try to be discreet around here." she trailes off and walks away as they all chuckle.

she comes back moments later complaining about toilet roll when all of a sudden she screams loudly. everyone jumps up to see a walker bite into her arm. "no!" andrea wails in shock as lydia immediately ties eden to the sling and cradles her with wide eyes, putting on her backpack she carries everywhere.

walkers surrounds them as lydia grabs the machete from the sling and shane shoots at all of them as everyone began to scream loudly. they fight off as many as they could while andrea stays by amy, sobbing  into her chest. "come on! stay close!" shane yells as he grabs onto lori and carl.

"come on y'all! work your way up here!" he yells loudly. "get to the rv!" morales tells his kids in a panic.

"morales come up here!" shane yells loudly as lydia slices a walkers head off. she breaths a sigh of relief, quickly checking over eden.

"lydia!" she hears someone yell loudly. she turns to see glenn running towards her with rick, daryl and t-dog as she sighs in relief. the others help to fight off the walkers as they make their way up the hill. lydia takes notice that merle wasn't with them.

"dad!" carl screams as he ran to hug rick who picks him up, sighing in relief.

the fight stops as everyone looks at the sanctuary in shock, feeling heartbroken that their once safe space had been ruined. eden begins to wail loudly as lydia tries to shush her, tears rolling down her cheeks in stress. glenn comes over with a relieved look in his face and pats eden's back gently as the girl quietens down, and then he wraps an arm around lydia.

she hugs glenn tightly with a small smile, and then turns around to see rick looking for her, having heard eden's crying. he finally sees her and she smiles in relief, the both of them walking towards each other, her bringing him in for a hug. "i'm so glad y'all are okay." she says into his neck, meaning it for t-dog, daryl, glenn and rick as the others nod in agreement.

rick smiles softly, gently tickling eden's cheek and adjusting the sheriff hat on her head. lydia was about to speak, however they heard a loud cry. "oh, amy." andrea sobs as they all turn around to see amy's gnarly, lifeless body in andreas's arms as the older sister cries loudly into her shoulder as everyone either cries or looks at them in shock and sadness.

"i remember my dream now...why i dug the holes." jim speaks up slowly as he looks at everyone in realisation as everyone widen their eyes.

the acting in this show is so good.

also this chapter is for 1-800-AYVILO  because she will not stop nagging about me publishing a chapter 🤍