Shane, You're Next

New chapter is live.

Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

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Seeing Evan accept the blanket, Beth smiled, clearly pleased.

"Father said thank you for everything you've done for the farm," she said. "My sister and I are grateful too."

"With you and Daryl here, we can finally sleep at night."

That made Evan feel a little awkward.

"You know this is just a trade," he said. "Hershel is letting us stay on Greene Farm for now. We're the ones who should be saying thanks."

"That's not true."

Beth shook her head seriously.

"We used to think we were better off alone. So when you first came here, everyone pushed back."

"But after you settled in, we understood. Having you here... is a good thing."

Beth was not trying to be dramatic.

She wasn't making a speech. Every word was simple, honest gratitude.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you for what you have done for Greene Farm and for Hershel's family.

Warmth moved through Evan's chest.

He looked at Beth and kept his voice gentle.

"All right. Go back inside before you get cold. You know how fast the farm cools down."

"Okay."

Beth nodded, closed the truck door for him, and returned to the house.

Inside the fire truck, Evan wrapped himself in the blanket and looked through the moonlit glass toward a half-covered window on the second floor of the farmhouse.

For a moment, he thought he saw a shadow move there.

When he looked more carefully, there was no one.

"Didn't think Hershel had that kind of calculation in him," Evan murmured.

Evan suspected Hershel had sent Beth because he hoped a bond with the family, perhaps even a future marriage, would make Evan more invested in protecting them. Maybe that was only Evan's cynical interpretation, but it was the sort of calculation a worried father might make.

"Still," Evan muttered, "can't blame him for thinking I'd make decent son-in-law material."

The smug thought softened his temper.

"Forget it. Sleep. There's a time and place for everything, and these people need to learn what bedtime means."

He had been interrupted too many times already.

Evan shook his head and finally lay back down as sleep rose again.

Unfortunately, the night was not done with him.

Some time later, another knock hit the truck door.

Evan's eyes flew open.

Moonlight spilled through the window. He looked like a corpse rising with a grudge.

Because of what had happened earlier, however, the profanity did not fire immediately.

He narrowed his eyes and opened the door.

This time, Shane stood outside.

A sharp, ugly smile crossed Evan's face.

"Finally," he said. "One I can actually yell at."

He shot upright.

Then he opened fire.

"Shane, are you out of your damn mind?"

"You think this is a motel? You just knock whenever you feel like it?"

"Or did the respected officer finally grow night vision and decide he only works after midnight now?"

The profanity came fast and merciless.

Evan's reaction was not really Shane's fault. Too many people had knocked on the truck tonight, and Evan had finally caught someone with enough patience to absorb the blast.

The man in front of him was not fragile.

Outside the fire truck, Shane's severe expression turned into bewilderment under the barrage.

'When the hell did I piss him off?'

For a moment, he forgot the warning he had come to deliver.

Evan's righteous fury was so convincing that Shane felt strangely guilty.

"I came to talk to you about something," Shane said, squaring his shoulders again.

Thinking of Lori and Carl gave him more courage.

"Talk," Evan snapped.

He was using Shane to vent, not trying to break with him.

"About the Prison," Shane said. "Thank you for what you're doing for everyone."

"But don't use the trust people are putting in you to do anything reckless."

"I'm watching you, Ward."

Shane stared at Evan as if he were staring at a suspect.

When he finished, Evan understood why some people found Shane hard to stand.

Evan had not expected gratitude, but the warning still grated.

And Shane clearly was not joking.

'Look at what Rick did earlier.'

'No wonder he's the sheriff and you're the deputy. Same badge, very different men.'

Still, the flaw was also part of why Evan valued Shane.

Shane might look reckless, coming over in the middle of the night to warn him. But once Shane truly considered Evan one of his own, he would be just as quick to confront anyone who threatened him.

That was Shane Walsh.

He could be ruthless and fiercely protective in equal measure.

In Evan's eyes, Shane was better suited to surviving the apocalypse than even Daryl and Merle.

If Rick had not been the one to stop him, Shane might have outlived almost anyone.

Evan thought that over, but he had no intention of letting Shane scare him.

"You're watching me?" Evan asked, smiling faintly. "On whose authority?"

"I care about everyone in camp."

Shane did not like the way Evan looked at him. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, then forced his face back into a serious expression.

"Do you?"

"Then keep watching. Don't look away."

Evan slammed the door.

Through the window, he glanced at Shane still standing outside and thought about what he planned to do tomorrow.

He could not help smiling.

'Shane Walsh, huh?'

'Wait for it.'

Evan did not intend to answer violence with violence and throw a punch at Shane like an idiot.

He might handle walkers like a brute, but Evan was not only a brute.

With people, he had other methods.

And in his eyes, the easiest kind of man to control was a hard shell with a soft center.

Shane was exactly that.

Evan smiled at the thought.

This time, finally, he fell asleep without anyone else interrupting him.

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