Time passes by and AJ grows older and older, sprouting like a weed in the safe walls of Wellington. Clementine grows, too, though she thought she had stopped growing after all the trauma that had happened to her. She and AJ live in their own little shack, and it's not much but it keeps them warm and dry and alive. There are other little toddlers AJ's age, and it's actually safe enough for the both of them to go out and for him to play amongst them while she either keeps to herself or makes reluctant talk with anyone who approaches her. But eventually she opens up, and suddenly this place becomes a home.
(but it's not a home without him. not really.)
She puts the hat in a box and stores it up on top of their shabby little wardrobe, unable to bring herself to remember the tears streaming down both of their faces as she gripped the cap in her hand and watched him walk away, his footsteps leaving indents in the snow that were soon covered up by a new layer of snowflakes.
(we don't leave friends behind.)
(and yet she had. but it was what he had wanted. and he deserved to get what he wanted, at least once in his life.)
It takes her until AJ is nearly 4 and she is halfway through her teenage years to lean up on her tiptoes - because she will always be way too short, unfortunately, and everyone loves to make fun of her for it, even when they know she's the best damn shot out of everyone in camp - and take the box from off the wardrobe. Opens up the flaps, takes out the hat, dusts it off with the back of her hand and just stares at it for a long while, trying not to cry, trying not to relive that moment again. Four years should have been enough time for her to heal, to forget and just get over it, but hell, it's been six years since Lee entered her life and she still wakes up with a scream lodged in her throat from nightmares of Lee's corpse coming back to life and ripping the skin from off of her face with teeth as sharp as knives.
A little hand tugs at the bottom of her jacket (the one Bonnie had given her had long been gone from her wardrobe, now belonging to another little girl in camp - though this one is far too young to know just how ugly it really is) but Clementine doesn't tilt her head down to look at little AJ, not yet.
"Clemmy? What is it?" The boy asks, tugging at her coat even more as he tries to catch a glimpse of the mystery object.
Clementine laughs and wipes at her eyes as discreetly as possible. She glances down at AJ and smiles. "You want a hat, AJ?"
AJ gasps and his eyes fly towards the top of her head. "Yours?!"
Clementine shifts her eyes uncomfortably and tugs at the bill of her cap. Her father had given it to her years ago, with the promise that she keep it clean and safe until he returned from vacation. He must be pissed off at me for how dirty it is now, she thinks. "Uhhhh, no. But this one's even better."
She squats down onto her knees in front of the boy and puts her free hand on one of his shoulders to stop him from jumping up and down in excitement. With the other, she pulls the hat from behind her back and waves it in front of AJ's face with a dramatic twirl. "Ta-da!"
AJ's smile dims as he eyes the cap. "Brown? I hate brown."
"It's more of an orange-brown, I think."
"I hate orange, too." He insists, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. "I want your hat!"
Clementine sighs and shakes her head. "AJ, come on. This hat...it's great!" She insists. "It'll keep your head nice and warm, keep the sun out of your eyes..."
"What sun?" he asks, and Clementine pauses. Wellington rarely ever had a sunny day.
"Good point." She concedes. AJ continues to look at her ball cap in longing. "Listen, AJ... This hat, it's very special to me."
"I know." AJ says. "Your dad's."
"No, I meant this hat." She says, holding up the orange-brownish cap. AJ glances down at the hat and then back at her in confusion.
"Then... Why don't you wear it?"
"Because..." She begins, the smile on her face growing pained. "Because the man who owned this hat before, he wanted someone else to wear it when he gave it to me. You."
"Me?" AJ asks, awed.
"Yeah! He told me it was just for you, AJ." She pokes a finger against his chest to emphasize her point.
"Who...who was he?" AJ was finally at that age where memories were finally beginning to stick, so he had never heard of this capped man before. Clementine was his favorite storyteller. She told him a lot about his parents, the mom and dad he never remembered having. She told him about his parent's friends, Luke and Nick and Doctor Carlos and Sarah. A lot of people who had changed his life without him even old enough to know.
"When you were a little baby, we were part of a group. It was small, and it didn't last long, but we did everything to keep you safe." She glances out of the window, out into the streets of Wellington to avoid AJ's gaze. "This man, Kenny, he cared about you the most. After me, of course." She grins. "He lost so much...but in the end, he just wanted you to be safe. Wanted us both to be safe."
"But what happened?" asks AJ. He figures that Kenny is like the other figures in pretty much all of Clem's stories. Just...gone. In ways that Clementine never specifies on.
Clementine sighs. "The three of us, we made it to Wellington. But four years ago, Wellington wasn't as big as it is today. They didn't have enough space for all of us. So Kenny..." She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head. "He told me to take you inside the camp without him. And I did."
AJ's mouth hung open in shock. "You left him?"
"It's what he wanted!" She snaps back before she can stop herself. She cringes at the hurt look on AJ's face and pats his shoulder in apology. "Sorry. I just... he wanted you to have this. To remember him." She lets out a shaky laugh. "To keep the sun out of your eyes."
The little boy examines the hat again, more closely this time. Orange-brown isn't his favorite color, and the hat looks extremely worn and still a little dusty, but suddenly, it's perfect. even better than Clem's dirty old hat. "Can I...?" He asks, holding out his hands expectantly.
Rather than dropping the cap in his hands, she plops the hat onto his head of messy curls (she'd have to cut it soon - Lee would have been disappointed it took her so long to do so) and chuckles when the bottom falls over his eyes. "It's still a little big on you, but you'll grow into it."
AJ's grin is wide as he gives her a hug, his skinny arms tight around her neck. She slips the hat further up his head so his vision isn't blocked just before he runs out of the room, yelling for his friends to come out and see his new hat.
Clementine stands back up and grins to herself. It took her a while, but she had finally done what Kenny had asked of her. And the weight on her shoulders lifted, just a tiny bit.
(Author's note: Leaving Kenny and entering Wellington with AJ was my original ending, and it was damn beautiful. There's going to be a part two of this released soon! Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoyed the finale!)