Don't look back

Fourteen

"No!" Mary sobbed in her sleep, "No, no, no! No!"
"Hey. Hey, hey, princess, wake up," Rick soothed, walking over to her in the dimly lit tent, her cries waking him up, and her eyes jolting open at the sound of his voice, "it's okay, wake up, it's just a bad dream."
"Daddy." She wailed, fully awake, sitting up and grabbing onto the man.
"It's okay. It's okay, sweetie. I got you. I've got you. It's okay." Rick whispered gently, taking her into his arms and rocking her.
"Monsters." She cried, clinging onto his bare chest, her hands grabbing onto one of his shoulders, right enough to leave marks.
"It's alright now. It's just a dream, Mary. Just a dream."
"No. It's a dream then I wake up and it's still real!" Mary replied in a sob.
"It's okay. You're safe with me. It's okay." Rick promised, holding her even tighter.
"What's the little clock on?" Mary asked shakily.
Rick realised she meant his watch, and he looked down at it, seeing it was half past four. "It's early. Let's go back to sleep, yeah?"
"No." Mary whispered tearfully.
"Yeah, come on, back to sleep. You'll be tired all day if not.
"I feel asleep in the house. Why am I here?" Mary mumbled, disoriented.
"I carried you over. You was asleep. Come on, let's go back to sleep." Rick explained gently.
"No."
"Yeah, come on honey. You didn't get to sleep till eleven. And yesterday was a very long day. Come on."
"Stay here."
"I will."
"No, sleep next to me. Please, daddy Rick. Don't go."
"Okay, I will." Rick promised gently. Mary nodded slowly, and Rick put her back in her sleeping bag, then took one of the blankets from her bed, and laid next to her. She clung onto his hand as she fell back to sleep, crying the whole time.

"When daddy finds Sophia, all three of us will be friends." Mary said firmly to Maggie as she sat with her at mid morning that day.
"Yep. We will." Maggie smiled back. The white sundress Mary had been wearing was filthy, so it was being washed alongside the other clothes, and Mary was now wearing her dungarees and shirt again, with Maggie putting her hair in two sweet braids.
"Can we play with Glenn?" Mary asked Maggie softly.
"Let's go find him." Maggie smiled back, picking up the child, and walking onto the porch, where he was sat playing the guitar.
"Nice guitar." Maggie commented, as Mary got down and sat by Glenn.
"Dale found it on the highway." Glenn replied softly. Mary took it, and strummed the strings, the guitar out of tune. While Glenn and Maggie talked, she played them a "song", but it's was really just a recipe for ear ache. Suddenly, Maggie walked away, and Mary jumped up to follow her, until she went away to talk to Dale, about guns, and Mary hung back.
"Mary, your face, you're getting sunburned. Why's Lori not put a hat on you?" Shane sighed, coming over.
"I don't have one." Mary mumbled anxiously.
"Do I need to find that Rick of yours and make him lend you his sheriff hat again? You love that hat, don't ya?" Shane teased.
Mary hung her head slightly. "It's Carl's now."
"Ah. I see. Well, you and Carl are big brother and little sister. So he's a bit more in charge than you. And Rick is more in charge than me. So the boss wears the sheriff hat, and the second boss wears the sheriff cap." Shane smiled, taking off his cap, and putting it on Mary head, adjusting the strap to the back to make it fit.
"I love it." Mary grinned.
"New sheriff in town!" Shame teased, and Mary smiled broadly in pride. "Go on now, should you be practicing your reading or something?"
"Yeah." Mary nodded, and she gave Shane a quick hug, before running into her tent.
"Lori, time to do books." Mary announced, as Lori sat in the tent, one of her hands shaking. "Look what Shane gave me!"
"Very nice." Lori nodded, barely looking. "Have you had lunch?"
"Yeah." Mary nodded.
"Good. Come on, we're going to go start preparing dinner. It's half two. Takes time to make a nice dinner." Lori sighed. Mary nodded, and got up, following Lori out of the tent, and into the house.
"It's nice to cook in a real kitchen again!" Carol smiled, already in there.
"Oh yeah?" Lori asked, lifting Mary up and sitting her on the counter.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to see a potato." Carol joked back.
"I'm just glad we're not roaring squirrels over a fire in the woods."
"Thank you Patricia, so much for just letting us into your house." Carol grinned and Patricia smiled slightly back.
Mary saw Maggie go into the dining room, and jumped off the counter, and ran over.
"What's this?" Hershel asked sharply, coming in as Maggie span Mary around playfully.
"Lori and Carol are cooking dinner for us all tonight." Maggie smiled.
"That's the first I've heard of it." Hershel challenged.
"Well, I didn't think it was that big a deal. They want to thank us for helping them." Maggie replied, a smile still on her face.
"We need to be setting clear boundaries with these people. They're getting a little too comfortable." Hershel sighed, forgetting about Mary.
"It's just dinner." Maggie shrugged.
"For you!" Mary grinned back.
Hershel ignored her. "What's going on with you and the Asian boy?"
"Glenn," Maggie corrected, "he's a friend. Mary, go to your mommy." Maggie sighed, putting Mary down. The girl walked away, aware of the sudden atmosphere change.
"I'd rather he wasn't. Bad enough I have to chase Beth and Jimmy around."
"Well, you don't have to chase me around. I'm not sixteen."
"I know you're not. That's why I'm counting on you to be the mature one. You know how I feel. Please don't make things harder than they need to be."
"I'm a little old for us to be having this conversation." Maggie snapped, walking away.
"Don't get close to them. They're not going to be around forever." Hershel pointed out, looking towards Mary.
"She's four and decided she likes me. What should I do? Ignore her?"
"Don't get attached." Hershel shrugged. Maggie glared at him, and left.