༻❁༺

Shrieks shook the walls of the small grove's cottage.

Within seconds Nadia Grimes was already out of bed. Hair everywhere as she scrambled to her feet and clutching her weapon; running out of the nursery and towards the sound. Her axe was up before she even made it into the room, preparing to take down whatever walker or person had come after her group. Nothing however could have prepare her for what she saw instead.

In the middle of the den two messy blonde girls shrieked in complete delight as they were playfully thrown around the room. Watching as a familiar brown haired boy picked up both Lizzie and Mica, swinging them back and forth before gently tossing them onto the couch.

Lincoln made noises similar to one of a lion. Once they tried to run away, he'd run up from behind and scoop them up once more.

Nadia's axe almost slipped from her grasp when she scanned the area over, watching in complete shock as the girls jumped all over her friend. Then seeing Tyreese bouncing a giggling Judith while Carol seemed to be cooking not too far away.

"What the fuck?" Nadia muttered under her breath.

The Den Mother turned away from the stove, seeing the confused teen with a smile, "Good morning, Nadia."

And with that everyone quickly turned their attention toward the woman still holding her axe. Staying frozen as the kids seemed to smile, "Good morning," Lizzie smiled from the couch she was just thrown onto.

"Naida!" The younger one, Mica, gasped. Squirming out of Lincoln's arms and running up to the girl with something in her hand, "Check out what Lincoln found me!" The ten-year-old waved a plush doll in the air.

She looked to her friend, still in shock, "He did?"

The boy chuckled off a blush, fixing his clothing, "Seemed a bit too big for Judy, so I thought Mica'd like it," Lincoln smiled. "Took us all morning coming up with a name."

"Griselda Gunderson," Mica proudly proclaimed before Lincoln appeared behind her, picking up the small blonde and propping her on his shoulders.

As the children continued to giggle, basically attacking the new boy, Nadia noticed her younger sister. Seeing the wide awake infant begin to squirm in Tyreese's grasp.

The moment Nadia saw Judith's arms reaching for her, she placed the axe aside and went deeper into the room. Quickly taking the smallest blonde and held her close. Overly cautious about the rather cheerful moment.

To an outsider many would think it was strange how uncomfortable a person would be by the domestic situation. Thinking they were the strange one, considering how cheerful everything was. But that was the thing. Cheerful wasn't a normal thing.

Not to Nadia Grimes that was. "What the hell is going on?" She whispered to herself as Judith's fingers started to attack her nose.

"Well... Mica was a little sad for you and Judy this morning," Lizzie admitted. "About Mr. Grimes and Carl-"

Mica, who was still on Lincoln's shoulders, gasped, "Hey you were sad too!"

The elder sister rolled her eyes, "Was not."

"Oh yes you were!"

"Oh I was not-"

"Anyways!" Lincoln grabbed Lizzie and threw her on the couch before doing the same to Mica, "The two girls were being a little too grumpy for my taste. So I thought I'd give them a little one-two," he explained. "Did it with my brother all the time as kids."

Nadia just gave a small nod as her younger sister continued to grab her face. Something Carol quickly took notice of, as she gently took Judith in her grasp, "Thought we'd let you sleep in. You were on watch pretty late last night."

"More like all night," Mica proclaimed dramatically.

Though Nadia only shrugged as someone needed to watch over the base at all times. No matter how many times Tyresse had tried to convince her they were secured, Nadia didn't care. The last time the Grimes girl didn't thoroughly check her perimeter almost cost her not just her own life, but her friend and sister's as well.

She could still feel her victim's nose between her teeth whenever she ate a chewy portion of food.

"I don't mind," the teen trailed off as her group continued to enjoy their morning.

Her friend maneuvered away from the small blondes and appeared at Nadia's side. Placing an arm around her, "Hungry?"

The girl, still very monotone, shrugged, "You know we never are supposed to deny a chance to eat. We don't know if we will have another chance-"

"Okay! Naddie, let's not scare the kids," he kept his smile bright as he tried to keep the younger girls calm. Not wanting to scare anyone just yet.

Carol stared at the girl, "Naddie?"

She started to blush as Lincoln laughed, "Come on, Carol made pancakes," and with that, the very confused Nadia Grimes was led into the kitchen where a decent portion of food was awaiting for her to digest.

Needless to say, Nadia Grimes was not used to large groups anymore.

༻❁༺

With the addition of four new mouths to feed, the need for nutrition was more than a want. It was a necessity. The food Nadia was able to hunt days ago was now not as sustainable as she hoped.

Four adults, two children and a baby. A single rabbit couldn't feed that many people. Not well at least.

Of course she had been in a similar situation a year or so ago, during her very first walker winter, but back then she was one of the younger ones. The vulnerable ones. Given one of the larger portions while the hunters themselves got just enough to keep them moving to get more.

God, Nadia could only imagine the change Lincoln must've been going through. While she was used to the never ending fluctuations of incoming food, he hadn't had to worry about sharing; now at least.

It was much easier to get used to eating more than less.

He was alone for years. Scavenging for one, to three, all the way to seven. It was a big change.

And as much as Nadia cared about Lincoln, she could tell that the sudden addition of living people was a hard change. He was acting overly helpful.
Doing everything to try and help Carol and Tyreese. As if he was trying to impress them.

To Nadia she didn't understand why he was so determined to try and make them like him, but then again, unlike her, Lincoln seemed to care about what others thought about him. While she only cared about survival. Making it to the next day.

Judith. Lizzie. Mica. Their survival was all Nadia could think about. She made a promise and planned to carry it out. So that's why she dragged the two girls into the woods.

Now that it was her turn to support the younger ones, Nadia felt herself trembling. Not that she would show it of course, but the thought of not providing scared her more than the walkers roaming the world.

The biggest difference between her and the girls was that they got to learn in a world that was already broken. Unlike Nadia, they wouldn't have to deal with the shames of the old world in the back of their minds; telling them what they were doing was wrong.

No self scoldings over eating squirrels or expired food. Instead they'd eat whatever they could as it meant having the energy to run from their enemies.

No being squeamish over blood or guts. They'd shrug and say it was part of you and as long as it's not your own, you'd be fine.

And no hesitation over taking a life. Be it walker or human. That's what Nadia was most jealous about. She had to personally deprogram herself into understanding why some people had to die. A trait she planned on drilling into the kids she was tasked with molding.

Nadia let out an excited chuckle as she took the girls to the snares, seeing the opossum dead in the trap, "There we go," she smirked.

Both Lizzie and Mica gave very different expressions as they knelt down to join the teen on the ground. Lizzie was all smiles in wonder at the strangled animal corpse, while Mica cringed, "Is it dead...?"

"Yep," Nadia removed the opossum from the stringed noose and stuffed it in her bag. "And it's fat too. Meaning a little extra tonight."

Lizzie let out a small cheer as her younger sister frowned, "Poor opossum."

Mica's frown turned into a yelp when Lizzie elbowed her, "Don't feel bad for the animal. It's food."

"But it didn't have to die..."

"Yes, it did," Nadia firmly told the child.

"See?" Lizzie smirked.

Mica suddenly gave her elder sister a sharp glare, making Nadia snap her fingers in order to stop the oncoming fight, "Hey. No fighting. You'll scare away the food," she swished her finger back and forth so she could point at both siblings.

The younger blonde sulked as her elder sister proudly smirked. Holding her head up high. Nadia had to sigh as helping them understand would be much harder than she anticipated. When Rick had to teach her and Carl it was much different, but then again Carl was not like Lizzie or Mica.

"Hey," Nadia gently tilted Mica's head up to face her. "I know this may seem a little hard, but sometimes things need to die. Their deaths can help others go on."

Sadly her explanation wasn't doing the job as Mica seemed even more upset. Making Nadia cringe at the thought of the child seeing a dead deer or god forbid a rabbit. She needed a better analogy.

As the teen tried to think of something her mind went back to a familiar tune she had been stuck listening to the entire journey with Lincoln. Whenever he was holding Judith he had just loved to sing her old Disney songs, especially Hakuna Matata.

Only Hakuna Matata.

Nadia fucking hated the song after the tenth time he sang it on the tracks. Though she kept her mouth shut as it kept Lincoln from not only bugging her but Judith from crying. A win-win-lose situation honestly.

But maybe it had its use. Especially teaching kids the valuable lessons in the art of survival.

"Have either of you ever seen the Lion King?" She asked.

Both Lizzie and Mica nodded, "Yeah!"

She nodded, "Perfect, so you both remember the circle of life? Well this is just like that," Nadia told the pair. "The animals eat the grass to stay alive, then we eat the animals to stay alive and when we die our bodies become grass for the animals to eat once more."

"Just like the circle of life," Mica started to smile.

Nadia then smiled, "Exactly. Which is why I'm going to show you a simple trap."

The two girls nodded as Nadia started to reset the trap, "So you tie a knot like this to create a noose. You lay the opening on the ground and cover it with leaves and twigs to keep it hidden."

"Why does it need to be hidden?" Lizzie asked.

"Because your prey are smarter than they appear."

The girls giggled, "Smarter?" Lizzie raised a brow. "It's an animal."

"A lot of animals are smart, Lizzie. There's a reason we used to use animals for different purposes," Nadia explained. "Even something as simple as an ant has more knowledge than you'd believe. You are to never to simply trust appearances."

Lizzie's smile started to brighten, as if she had an epiphany, "Like walkers, right?"

Nadia sighed, "Walkers are very different than animals, Lizzie. They don't think. They kill." Before the girl could get anything else out, Nadia went on about the trap she made. "Now see how I have all these sticks on both sides? It's a funnel shape in order for any prey coming in this direction to directly... into the trap."

The teen used her hand as an example. Her fingers dramatically walked through the trap before her wrist was caught in the noose, "Bingo."

"That's... that's kinda cool," Mica muttered.

"It's very cool," Nadia corrected her.

"Where did you learn that?" She then asked the Grimes. "Did you learn that in school?"

Nadia shook her head, "No. My dad taught me. Part of my punishment for being mean to anyone in the prison was collecting and setting up the snares," she chuckled back at the memory.

How Nadia would grumble and fight with her father continuously as they grabbed their dead prey. Not stopping the back and forth from the second they left the gates until they returned.

Rather strange how she missed those fights.

"So," Nadia quickly wiped her eyes before putting on a smile. "Now that you two are pro trappers... on a scale of one to ten, how hungry are you?"

"Fifteen," Lizzie said.

Naida then glanced at the giggling Mica, "Twenty-two."

The teen only chuckled as she stood up, "Well then I guess we better head back," she put her hands out and helped both stand. Keeping her girls close as they walked back to their campsite with not a care in the world.

༻❁༺

"So the strangest thing happened today..." Lincoln trailed off.

"Hmm?" Nadia asked, half listening as she chopped the opossum meat up.

Her friend gave a small cringe as he sat in the kitchen with her. Grounding up some pecans for Judith's supper as Nadia focused on the meal for those with teeth, "Well, I was talking with Tyreese on our patrol and you came up in conversation..."

Nadia stopped chopping as she had a feeling she knew where the conversation would be going. Even if Lincoln had seen Nadia in a bad place, it was nothing compared to what Carol and Tyreese had seen.

Unlike the boy she occasionally had sex with, whenever the others were fast asleep and they were extremely quiet, the others had watched Bitchy Nadia at her peak. The explosionable outbursts over the stupidest of things, the name calling, the sneers and of course... the nights where she'd be outside with her bow and a target. Repeatedly shooting the same thing until it was nothing but a large singular hole.

She tried to hide her blush as she went on to place the meat into the pot, "And what did you talk about?"

"Well... he asked me if I was your boyfriend," Nadia stopped stirring as her body completely froze. Only having a singular breath come out her lips to prove she was still alive.

She took a moment to respond. The bubbling heat of the opossum stew snapping her back into reality, making her continue stirring, "And... what did you s-say?"

Lincoln shrugged, "I don't know, I just told him it was complicated and he said he understood," he put Judith's meal down and twiddled with his thumbs.

Nadia nodded, "Sounds reasonable, but it must be nice to talk to a guy now, right? I mean it's been what? Two years without any contact with people right?" She tried her hardest to change the subject.

He let out a small sigh, "Yeah, it's cool I guess... he was a pro football player. Was in the NFL."

"Oh yeah, he used to teach some of the other kids how to play in the prison," Nadia chuckled. "Him and Carl would get into arguments over some calls."

"Really? That's cool..." Lincoln trailed off, his voice staying low. Monotoned. Almost sorrowful in a way.

When it went into an awkward silence Nadia thought the conversation had thankfully ended. Happily adding some more water into the pot to make the broth last longer.

Or that was until he said the three words Nadia Grimes dreaded to hear, "What are we?"

She cringed. Her remaining braces whistled as she exhaled. Taking her time to answer the question without hurting his feelings, "Does it... matter?"

The curly-haired boy shrugged once more, "I think it does. Doesn't it?"

"I don't really think it does," Nadia finally faced him. "I mean not anymore."

"What do you mean?"

She crossed her arms, leaning against the countertop, "Well, it's not like we could ever get married. We could literally die tomorrow."

"Yeah, but shouldn't they matter more now?" He tilted his head, "I mean titles show connection. Love."

Nadia let out a very awkward laugh, "Okay. A little far. A little far. The L-word is a lot, Link," she saw his frown and tried to redeem herself. "I'm sorry, I just... I don't really believe in relationships anymore. They don't really matter. Life isn't what it used to be and unless there's a reason too, I don't see why we properly need to call each other boyfriend and girlfriend. These titles only existed back in the day because women were property."

"I don't think you're property."

"I know you don't," she grabbed his hand. "And I care about you. I just don't care for labels."

He gave a small nod, his grip held firmly within Nadia's grasp. Relationships weren't a proper thing anymore; or that's what the girl believed.

"How about a compromise? Companions? It's a mixture of words without any long lasting implications," she said.

The Smith boy gave a small nod, doing his best to smile and act like it was a good idea, "Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice." Nadia smiled and kissed his forehead before getting back up and returning her attention to their dinner.

Or that was the plan until the sounds of terrified sheiks echoed from outside.

Without another word the companions bolted out the door. Nadia took her hunting rifle as Lincoln pulled out his Colt, seeing the two girls running from a small cluster of walkers.

Mica screamed for her sister as her foot got caught within the barbed wire fence. Trying desperately to claw her way to safety as the closest walker approached the child.

Even with it's charred skin the undead monster had one thing on it's mind. Though as it prepared to take a bite out of the child's leg, it's dream would never come true as a single bullet from Nadia's gun took it down.

Giving Lizzie enough time to help free her sister before the others showed up to help, "Get behind us!" Carol demanded as Tyreese started to shoot.

The group lined up and took many shots at the cluster of walkers. Turning up their noses as their burning bodies singed their nostrils from the intense smell of charred flesh.

Even after the small herd was slaughtered, Nadia kept her gun up. Scanning back and forth. Waiting for more.

Though after the sun went down and not a walker was in sight she was forced inside. Tyreese taking a turn on watch as Carol forced her to eat. Though the entire time she tried to do so, she couldn't help but notice just how scarred Lizzie looked over the entire situation.

So when her plate was cleaned off and Judith was happily in Carol's arms, Nadia took the opportunity to pull the girl aside.

Once they were inside the washroom Nadia had Lizzie sit on a chair so she could see herself in the mirror. Preparing an old trick Lori used to do whenever she knew something was up with Nadia or Carl, "You know my mother would always give my brother and I haircuts." And it always seemed to work.

"Really?" Lizzie looked up at her as Nadia placed a towel over her shoulder's.

She nodded, "First of every month like clockwork. My mom would have us sit just like you are and we'd just talk. I used to look forward to it."

Lizzie slightly smiled, "My mom loved doing my hair. Said it was liquid gold."

"I'm guessing you never were allowed to dye it then?" Nadia smirked as she started to brush Lizzie's messy locks.

"Nope. Never," she shook her head.

"Sounds like she was protective over you," Nadia started to cut her hair. Feeling a strange sense of familiarity as she cut her hair like Lori once did to her.

The younger girl nodded, "Yeah she was."

Nadia kept her voice gentle as she continued to fix the girl's hair, "You know, you and your sister were very lucky today. It could've ended a lot worse."

"They died..." Lizzie frowned.

Nadia sighed, "Yeah. Yeah those people did die, but we are still here," she tried to explain. "Carol told me about how you were playing with a walker this morning-"

"She was my friend," Lizzie cut herself off. "But... I know better now."

"That's good," Nadia put down her scissors and made sure the girl's hair was correct before kneeling down. "Because you and I have a big responsibility."

Lizzie's brow raised, "We do?"

"Yeah, we do. It's part of being the oldest sibling," Nadia tucked a strand of hair behind Lizzie's ear. "It's our job to protect the family. Look out for them and keep them safe from harm."

She gave a small nod as Nadia took her hand, "It's a lot of work, I know, but it's the reason we're here," she squeezed Lizzie's small hand gently. The calloused fingers holding the child's own. "One day it'll be your job to protect Mica and Judith from not just the walkers, but people too. But for now you have help. I can teach you."

"Really?"

Nadia smiled, "I am going to teach you how to defend yourself against those monsters."

Lizzie took a moment to respond. Her face twisted as she looked Nadia in the eye. Eventually nodding as she mumbled, "Okay."

And with that, Nadia Grimes thought she was helping. She wasn't.

•••