This was intended to be a one-shot but I had an idea for a second part and I wanted to write it down.

…

He follows her inside the house.

She knows he wants to ask her all sorts of things because she has a thousand questions for him, too, but for the moment, they're both quiet. She feels his eyes on her, never taking them off of her, and she knows he still doesn't quite believe that she's there, as she walks to a corner in the living room and drags out a Rubbermaid container for him to see.

"There's clothes in here. I'm not sure who they belonged to," she says. They had all just moved into the farmhouse before that night and all of their things are still there, having run out of here with nothing but the clothes on their backs. "I have running water from the wells but I'm glad you're here. I don't know how to fix the generator," she says and she's aware that she is acting as if both of them being there is the most natural thing in the world but she's not too sure how to otherwise act because she never thought he would be here again with her.

He's standing there, just staring at her and not saying anything, so she stands there and let him look his fill. She knows she looks different. And it's not just because of the scars on her face now. Her hair is longer and she's the skinniest she's ever been.

And as he looks at her, she looks at him. His hair is longer, too, and he's not as skinny as he once was. Still lean but more muscled. Wherever he's been, he's been able to eat, and she hopes wherever he's been, their family has been with him.

"You thirsty?" She finally breaks the silence.

He doesn't say anything. He just gives his head a nod and she heads towards the kitchen, very aware of his presence behind her.

The kitchen table and island counter are covered with the mason jars she has filled with her vegetables in preparation of the winter and the air smells of mint from the plants on the window sill. He stands there and looks at it all and she goes to the sink to get him a glass of water.

"Thanks," he finally speaks in that same gruff voice of his as she hands it to him.

"It's almost time for dinner but I have a couple of things I need to do before that. With the sun setting so early now, it doesn't give me that much time to work outside," she says and he still hasn't taken a sip of water.

He won't stop looking at her.

"What do you need to do?" He asks.

"I was able to fix all of the fences. I do a perimeter check in the morning and another before the sun sets," she tells him and he nods.

He finally gulps the glass of water in just a few gulps. "I'll come with you."

She's not surprised. She's been expecting him to come with her.

They walk side by side, neither talking, and yet, she doesn't feel tense or uncomfortable. She has developed a level of comfort with him in the time together when it was just the two of them and after everything, that is still between them. She wonders if he still feels comfortable around her, too.

His crossbow is in his hands and her fingers are always curled around the hilt of her knife as she pulls on the fences, every few feet, making sure they're still secure.

"'s quiet," he notes.

She nods. "Have only had to kill six or seven walkers since being back here."

And that's the opening he's clearly been waiting for.

"How long you been back here?"

She's quiet, thinking that over. She then shrugs. "A while," she answers and she thinks it might be the wrong answer because if she's been here a while, why the hell didn't she go and try to find them? But he doesn't ask that. He doesn't say anything and she doesn't feel the need to explain. Instead, he needs to explain something. She turns her head to him. "Why did you come back here?" She asks.

She expects him to ignore her and he does for a few minutes.

His eyes go back to scanning their surroundings, always sharp and on the lookout, and she goes back to checking carefully over the fences. Once they check the last of the back fences, they begin walking back towards the house.

"Found ourselves a safe zone," he finally speaks. "But I never felt comfortable there. Never saw myself wantin' to stay for too long but I couldn't think of where else to go." He stops himself after that and she knows there's more to the story but he's not going to tell her and she's not going to ask.

They return to the house and she leads him to the little shed where the generator is.

"There's still gas in it. I just can't get the darn thing to start," she says.

He kneels in front of it and looks over it for a few moments. He tries to start it himself and just as it does with her, it sputters but never catches on. The sun is almost completely gone and they can't see much in front of them anymore.

"Think some of the screws might be rusted through," he decide as they begin walking back the rest of the way to the house. "Might be able to find some more 'round here. You gone to the other farms 'round here yet?"

She shakes her head. "Everything I needed was here."

Except you. It is said silently in her head but she wonders if he can hear it anyway.

…

The first few days he's there, she expects him to leave just as suddenly as he arrived but each morning, she comes downstairs, washed and dressed and ready for another day and he's always still there. Even with the empty bedrooms upstairs, he likes to sleep on the couch down here. She tells him that he doesn't have to, that she's been here for months without doing it, but he insists still on keeping watch.

The days are getting colder and he spends his days, chopping wood for the fire and hunting in the woods for any game – and making sure it's clear of walkers. She walks the fences every day and keeps buckets of water in the house that can be warmed over the fire because the water in the wells might freeze up and stop running.

He's like her and just because they have food doesn't mean they have to eat all of it. They eat breakfast and dinner and she rations out their food so they have more than enough to get them through these cold months.

Most days, she goes hunting with him and most days, he walks the fences with her.

They don't say it but they don't like to have the other out of their sight for too long.

…

He tells her one night over a dinner of green beans and rice that Maggie's going to have a baby and she instantly blooms into a smile. Not only is her sister going to have a baby and she's going to be an aunt but because Maggie has found a place safe enough to live where having a baby is possible.

But then her smile fades. She's happy for her sister but she's not going to go find her. She's staying right here. Maggie doesn't need her to be there. Maggie thinks she's dead and she's going to keep thinking that. Maggie has enough in her life with a husband and a baby coming to worry about that shouldn't include the sister she thought was dead with scars all over her face.

Did he tell her that so she would go to whatever safe zone he had come from?

She's frowning now and she doesn't talk to him for the rest of the night.

In the morning, she finds him on the front porch, skinning and cleaning a raccoon. Without a word, she comes and sits down beside him. He glances up at her for a moment but then his eyes go back down to his kill.

"I'm not going with you when you leave," she says and has been thinking about this all night. She's glad their family is safe and alive but she doesn't want to see them. She can't explain it but she thinks that if anyone would understand, it would be him.

He pauses his knife and lifts his eyes again to her. "Wasn' thinkin' I was leavin' anywhere," he says. "You wan' me to go?"

She immediately shakes her head quickly and the word flies from her mouth before she can stop it – not that she would stop it even if she could.

"Never."

…

She finally gathers the courage to go through the other bedrooms. Rooms that used to be Shawn's and Maggie's and her parents'. Shawn was about the same height but he was skinnier but she finds him a few shirts that he's able to fit into. He fits better into her daddy's shirts but once he finds out who they once belonged to, he's not too willing to wear those and she supposes she doesn't blame him.

Maggie was always so much taller than her but that doesn't matter when it's freezing outside and she needs to wear some extra layers.

They never are able to fix the generator but that's okay because they have the fireplace and he's a little nervous anyway about lights being turned on, worried that it will alert to others that someone is living here. She hadn't thought of that but she swiftly agrees and they spend their winter, living by candlelight.

There isn't much to do in the frigid months. Walkers move so much slower or not at all – spending days just standing in one place as if they have no other inclination to do anything else. They still walk the perimeter of the farm every morning and every evening though. She just can't remember the last time she had to kill an intruding walker. They don't relax though. They're not stupid and they've never forgotten what seems to always happen if they do allow themselves to get too comfortable.

One night, after their dinner of roasted rabbit and canned beets – a regular feast he tells her with a little smile and her cheeks blush – they spend their evening as they always do now. In front of the fire. She no longer sleeps upstairs and instead, sleeps on the floor in front of the fire amongst a sea of blankets and pillows and wakes up in the mornings to him sleeping next to her.

He has reached a point where he is able to get himself able to sleep without his shoes on and he stretches his legs out now, feet towards the fire, warming them up, and she sits beside him, her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms hugging them tight. She looks into the flames and she begins to sing softly and one song leads into another and when she falls quiet again, it's only because she's yawning.

"I ran all night," he says suddenly, quietly, and her eyes turn to him but he's staring straight ahead into the flames. "I ran after you and that car all night until I couldn' run anymore."

"I know you did," she tells him softly. She never doubted for a second that he tried to get her back. "When I woke up in that hospital…" she trails off and she feels him tense beside her. "I knew you would come for me," she whispers and he finally turns his head to look at her. He stares at her for a long moment and she can't do anything except stare back. She then gives him a little smile. "I'm really glad you're here," she then tells him and her cheeks are warm and her chest feels tight.

He stares at her for another moment and she leans in a little closer to him as if she's cold and needs his body heat even though she can feel sweat at the base of her spine.

"Me, too," he then says back in a low voice and she smiles at him before leaning in the rest of the way and rests her head on his shoulder. He's not tense anymore.

…

Thank you very much for reading and please comment!