Reunited

  LUCA HAD BEEN THROUGH THE MOST FRUSTRATING few weeks of his entire life. He was devastated when he found a man in a coma instead of finding his brother, devastated to leave another man and their son to find his family in Atlanta, more devastated when him and Rick went to find his family and they were gone.

The devastation just went on, and on, and on.

He couldn't catch a break, and as Dale's RV came to a stop, he realized he wouldn't be catching one anytime soon. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, letting out a slight sigh as the man looked backward toward him. He raised a brow in question, allowing the older man to speak.

"I told them this belt wouldn't hold long." The white haired man shrugged, turning the car off as everyone came to a stop behind them.

As everyone left the RV, Luca swatted away a cloud of smoke from his eyes, slowly making his way down the steps. The highway was long ahead of them, miles of cars piled up together. It looked like a car graveyard.

"Problem, Dale?" Rick asked as he made his way up to the front, patting the Romano man lightly on the back as he made his way through the crowd.

"Just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—" as Dale looked around, he noticed the wave of cars, finally realizing that maybe he could find a better hose for the RV.

"If you can't find a hose, we can find a bunch of other things." Daryl reminded the group as he scavenged through a trunk not far from them.

"I'm sure I can find some ammo out here, when all hell goes loose everyone reaches for their guns first." Luca spoke aloud, looking out onto the long concrete road ahead of him.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars." T-Dog added on, confirming the appeal of the area they had gotten stuck in. "Come on, y'all. Let's just look around."

The whole group dispersed into different areas, each of them careful enough to watch their step. Even though it seemed calm for now, quite literally anything could change that, a sad fact they all knew to be true. They just had to roll with the punches.

Luca paused a few minutes later, rubbing his eyes in confusion as he seen Daryl being help up at.. arrow point. His younger sister stood there, arm extended back and ready for anything. He couldn't believe it, it was really her.

"Rory, Rory! Put the bow down—" just as he was about to finish, T-Dog came from behind the girl, grabbing her as the girl started to kick her legs and trash around. "That's my sister!"

The Romano man carefully walked over as the man set his sister down, the younger girl letting out a sigh. She retaliated by elbowing T-dog in the stomach, and delivering him a kick to what Avery would call "the no no spot", it was probably Aurora's signature move.

"This is your sister?" Daryl asked, staring between the two siblings.

"Unfortunately." Luca mumbled to himself, slightly rolling his eyes. "Wanna apologize to T-Dog and tell me where the hell everyone else is?"

"We're here." Estella spoke up, ushering her daughter from behind a car as everyone came out behind her, the whole group running over to hug him.

"Uncle Lucy!" Avery yelled, jumping up and onto his bag, tears pooling into the mans eyes.

He couldn't believe it, his family alive and intact in front of him.

"I—.. uhm, come on a meet everyone else." Luca motioned toward not too far away where Dale's van was, bringing them up to the older man and Glenn. "This is Glenn, he saved my ass back in Atlanta, and that up there on the roof is Dale, he's given me ways to deal with not finding you guys, i'm glad I don't have to use them anymore."

"This is your family?" The Rhee boys jaw practically dropped open at the sight of all them, secretly not believing all those nights Luca talked about them that they were actually were alive.

"In the flesh." Felix responded dryly.

He didn't really play nice with others.

"You found them." A man with a large rifle commented, he looked happy, yet cautious of the people before him. "Y'all get stuck out here too?"

Luca had told him everything about his family, their crimes, the way they acted yet, he kept them secret out of respect for the man. He had helped save his life so in return, he agreed to not tarnish the fellow officers name. The Romano man was grateful for that.

"Our car got conked out a little ways up there, haven't gotten it to work but we found a bit of food and settled into the van so we could get some rest." Estella explained. "My daughter was tired, I can't have her wandering around for fun."

"I understand." Rick, the man that Luca had helped pointed not too far away where two children about Avery's age stood, both of them with their mothers. "I've got one of my own."

"Mom! Can I go play with them!" Avery asked innocently, the girl not having seen someone her age that was alive since the last day she went to school.

Estella bit her lip in thought, slowly tapping her foot on the ground.

"I'm sure Carl and Sophia would love the company." Rick commented, pointing his head to the children once again, their attention now focused on the girl.

"Can you keep an eye on her, I don't want her running off." The Romano woman said to her ex husband, the man simply nodding his head as Avery hugged her mother, Sal then taking the girls hand to bring her over to the other kids.

"Can I ask what your plan is? Are you trying to get out of Georgia?" Serena asked, cutting in before anyone else could get a word out.

"I'd be happy to tell you once we discuss what exactly finding you all means." Rick placed one hand on his belt. "For you, and us, Luca has proven to be a great part of this team and i'd hate to loose him."

"Spoken like a true cop." Felix mumbled, his wife elbowing him in the stomach.

"We just want somewhere safe for our niece, she's our main focus." Aurora explained, resting her bow comfortably on her back. "I didn't mean any harm back there, hurting your friend."

"We thought he was a Z." Estella added on, looking back toward where her daughter was happily talking to the other children. "But she's right, the only reason any of us have pushed on is because of her."

"Rick, you might want to see this." Dale called out from the roof, pointing his finger forward as he put down his binoculars.

The man raised his gun, looking through the scope to get a better view of what the older man was referring to. Milo curiously walked over, wanting to get the same view and his heart dropped upon seeing multiple zombies coming their way. He slowly backed up, careful not to cause a panic as he stood next to his family.

"Everyone hide." Rick whispered, each and every one of the Romano's scrambling to hide under cars.

All except Estella, she'd be damned if she did it without her daughter. She sped behind Rick, who no doubt had the same exact thought as her, the woman taking out her pistol from the waistband of her pants if need be. She'd take down a million of these things, just for her daughter.

"You should have hid." The Grimes man warned her, obviously frustrated she had opted to follow.

"I'm not leaving my daughter, no chance in hell." The two continued to run at that, the man not able to make a sound argument against what she had just said.

"Lori, get down!" Rick whisper yelled to his wife who was completely unaware of what was going on. "Carl! Sofia! Get down, now."

"Avery, baby. Hide with daddy, please." Estella instructed, watching as her ex husband nodded and placed a soft hand over their daughters face, getting under a car with her in his arms with ease.

"Over here." The Grimes man instructed as the Romano woman looked for a place to hide, both of them sliding under a red SUV together.

The woman placed a finger over her mouth, keeping her eyes locked on her daughter. Although the young girl always seemed fearless, her mother knew better than that. Her mother was her all those years ago.

Rick looked over to her, trying to reassure the woman with a nod but, she wouldn't feel safe until her baby was in her arms.

Safe and sound.

AUTHORS CORNER—
I hope you enjoyed chapter one! I'm seriously in love with this family and i'm excited that these future chapters can now be focused on getting to know them as individuals.

Favorite Romano based on what we've seen? (Y'all are already obsessed with Milo and it shows)

Hope you enjoyed!