The Walking Dead Imagines and One Shots

Rick Grimes- Safe (c)

You were fifteen when the whole apocalypse thing occurred. You were far from prepared, although it was clear no one really was prepared for the whole ordeal. Who in their right mind was ready for these creatures walking around and attempting to kill anything and anyone around them?

Within four months both of your parents had been killed along with your siblings and you were left alone. By the twelve month mark you had finally met someone else who was still alive. Somehow you had survived, you had found food and you had learnt how to keep the creatures away from you or kill them if you needed to.

You had stumbled upon a man who was away from his group and he took you in. He basically fathered you and took you in as his own. There wasn't anything you could do to thank him enough for the way he had protected and cared for you.

But due to his fatherly feelings he could never see you as someone who could fight. Rick had been reluctant to let Carl fight but with you it was completely off the books. He simply saw you as a frail girl who couldn't take care of herself.

However you had gotten some of the others in the group to go behind his back to train you, so if you needed the knowledge of how to fight you did.

The more you learned the more you realised you wanted to play a role in your group, you didn't want to just be there and be completely useless.

So that's how it begun. You had to prove yourself and to do that you had to get Rick alone and show him that you could kill walkers.

You got him to go to one of secluded rooms with a couple of walkers in. Ones you knew you could handle.

"What are we doing here Y/N? It is dangerous," he stated.

Without a word you slammed the knife in your hand into the two walker's heads before turning back to the man with a straight expression. He gripped your wrist forcing you to release the knife. His anger overcame him as he violently shook you.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" He growled, "You could be killed. You need to be careful and being completely reckless isn't a way of being safe."

"You are overreacting," you frowned attempting to fight against him.

"I am not overreacting. You cannot survive if you don't care about living. And if you cared you wouldn't be here killing walkers that pose no threat to you or our group."

You thrashed in his grip and pulled away from him, taking a step away.

"I was surviving on my own just fine before you came along," you exclaimed.

His face contorted more showing to the extent of which his anger

"You are a child. You cannot survive on your own. You would have died if you weren't protected by our group," he stated.

"I was a child. I am grateful Rick I really am. I was scared and alone but I survived. I fought. I lived. I don't need protecting Rick. I need to be part of the group. I need to be more than simply a useless child to you. I need to help," you said nearly crying, partially for disappointing the closest thing to a Father you had, but also because the anger you had felt was just expelling in any emotional way that you could.

"I... I can't lose you Y/N. I love you. You are my daughter, not through blood but I could never allow anything to happen to you. You aren't useless because we all love you. We enjoy your company and our group wouldn't be anything without you," he said, his expression and tone softening.

You calmed down also feeling kind of touched by what he said.

"I love you too Rick. And I truly care about you and am appreciative that you too me in even though you didn't need another person to take care of. But I really want to be an asset to this team and you need to understand that. You weren't happy about Carl fighting walkers but you agreed to it. And I am more than capable. I know what to do. I won't pull anything like this again but I want to be trusted to help out and not just be there and watched by everyone to make sure I don't get hurt," you sighed.

He pulled you into a hug.

"All I want is for you to be safe. I can agree to you helping out but only if I am there. I may change my mind later but for now, I need at least that to keep you safe. Is that okay?" He asked.

"Thank you," you whispered hugging him.

"Just so you know I am not happy."

~*~

Written by Charlotte Stemp.