The Ties that Bond

Chapter 1

Lee could have sworn he was dying. Ever since the walker had decided to interrupt his plans of getting Clem back from the shadow that enveloped her- he could feel the disease slowly working its way up his arm. That was it…he was going to die.

"What if this thing is curable…like with some sort of medication?"

"Like what?"

"…happiness?"

"…Shut up Omid".

Lee couldn't stop the ringing in his ears, or turn his gaze away from the bite mark on his wrist. This was it. His one chance at happiness was gone.

How was he going to tell Clem?

That remembered him why he had to move. It was so simple that he couldn't believe had had wasted so much time in self-pity. Clem was gone, and he was going to get her back.

"Professor Everett?"

"…"

"Professor Everett?"

Lee jumped, shocking not only the student who had been attempting to ask him a question, but the rest of the class who had been waiting patiently for the past ten minutes for the continuation of the lecture.

Slowly, Lee looked around and remembered where he was. The university, his class, the lecture. Everything returned so slowly compared to the stunning reality of his haunting dreams. Every night Lee had the same dream. He was traveling with a group of people, searching desperately for a missing girl that he felt some strange connection to. It always ended up the same way. He could repeat the sequence by heart now. He was looking for this girl, he got "bit" (whatever the hell that meant), and then he blacked out. Always the same.

"Sorry guys" he replied, looking around the room to the forty-five kids that made up his American history class. "Got caught up in a thought….what was I talking about?"

"The Great Depression" answered a voice from the mass.

"Oh…that sounds…" Lee though, trying to get rid of the monster headache (another side effect of his dreams) with pure strength of will alone.

"Depressing?"

"Yeah" he chuckled, "It really does."

Finally giving up any attempt to control the pounding of the beast in his head, Lee decided to cancel class. As he slowly packed up his papers into his brief case, he took an opportunity to distract himself from pain by looking around the room. While this particular room held no sentimental value to him at all, classrooms in general always game him a sort of eerie calm, like a fisherman floating along on a calm day at sea. Just looking at the room helped a little to clear the pounding of his head. As much as he would have liked to stay, he knew that he should be getting home. It was early, way before the time he was expected, but Lee was always a fan of surprises and with a spring in his step and his headache temporarily forgotten, he moved out of the class and towards his car.

The drive home was nothing special, he gazed absentmindedly out the windshield at the passing sidewalk and the happy families that walked by. Despite knowing better, Lee pictured one of those families as his own. His wife, him, a child. The image was so real that Lee tried to forget the fact that he had pictured this scene a thousand times on a thousand other drives home and focused on the pure bliss of it. He wanted a child, someone he could take to the park, laugh with while watching television, and to bore to tears in history museums. This he had pictured a thousand times as well. Him, the child, Lincoln's hat. But it seemed that on this issue, Lee and his wife had drifted. She was gone all the time, away on some business trip and rarely had time to call.

"This wasn't what marriage is supposed to be like" he though to himself as yet another sigh escaped his lips. It was the third one since he had gotten in the car. He had made a habit out of counting.

Ever so slowly his house came into view. Being a professor, Lee made a modest amount of money. Nothing fancy mind you, but enough to help support his wife and enough to pay the rent. As Lee pulled up to the driveway he immediately noticed something was up. The house next door, which had been up for sale for months now had a car sitting in the driveway. The owners had been long gone months ago and being a fellow professor at the university, Lee knew the owners well. Pausing a second to look at the government license plate, Lee shrugged his shoulders and moved towards the front door. As he reached for the knob, a fresh bolt of pain raced through his head. It seemed his headache was getting worse.

Moving quickly into the house and towards the cupboard where he kept the advil, Lee almost missed the moan coming from his bedroom door.

Almost.

Moving faster than his throbbing head would allow, Lee ran to his bedroom and thrust the door open. Taking a second to steady the pounding of his head and to center his vision he found himself unable to move. There, in the middle of the bed he had slept on alone for the past three months, was his wife.

She was certainly not alone. On that Lee had double-checked.

There was no words to describe how he felt standing there seeing his wife and another man (the state senator from his district if he remembered correctly) together in his bed. Anger, sadness, betrayal, rage, pain, all these could be applied to his current situation and for a second everyone just starred at each other. Lee couldn't move- he was paralyzed.

Suddenly, Lee was overcome with a desire to hurt this man. To slam his head against the wall and beat the living hell out of him. Everything Lee had built up to this point, everything he had wanted was gone. There was no marriage, no child, and no feelings. What made this all the more painful for him was the look in his wife's eyes. There was no love there. Instead fear and pity occupied its place.

PITY! It seemed like the only thing she regretted, was having everything end like this!

Slowly, Lee reached his hands towards the baseball bat that he had leaned up against the wall beside the door, and held it in his hands. Weighing it.

This was it. His opportunity to get back at his wife for all the hurt and heartache she had put him through for the past fifteen years. He was ready to do it. He WANTED to do it. But before he could take the next step into the room- something stopped him. It felt like a small hand. A small hand that laid itself against the death grip his hand had on the bat. It was stopping him. Warning him. Lee recognized in that instant the life that would be waiting for him if he stepped into the room. He understood, as clear as the dreams he had been having for the past couple of days, that he would regret the decision for the rest of his life. All he had to do was step into the room and life as he knew it would be over forever.

For the fourth time that day, Lee Everett sighed…

And walked out of the house.

That didn't mean the senator's car was safe though, Lee thought to himself as he slammed the bat into the passenger window. Even though the damage couldn't make up for all that she had put him through, it certainly helped.

Taking one final swing at the car (and remembering a certain university budget cut the senator had approved in the process) he left the glass, the bumper, and the bat on the ground and walked away. Away from the house that now seemed surrounded in false happiness and supported by lies. Away from what could have been.

There was no direction in which Lee planned on going. No final destination. He passed a couple of neighborhoods and a few more streets; he ignored the sights of families (especially the sight of happy couples) and just continued walking. His headache was gone now, at least something good happened. But eventually his legs began to burn and he was suddenly reminded of the many times he had passed up going to the gym in favor of the newest history book. Slowly he came to stop and raised his head to survey his surroundings.

He was in an abandoned part of town, that was for sure, but he wasn't alone.

Lee saw the group approach him before they had time to announce their presence. There were four guys, dressed in all black clothing, and had covered their faces with ski masks.

"Fuck".

"You know how this works pops. Money and cell phone, we don't want to hurt you."

In ordinary circumstances, Lee would have just forked over his wallet and cell phone. He would have made some smart-ass comment and probably would have had to run to get away from them. But today was a really bad day and Lee the goon that had been talking was starting to look more and more like the senator.

Moving quickly to throw off the other three, Lee punched the one on the left in the face while moving to do the same to the one in the middle. Suddenly, a realization struck him faster than the punch that followed.

These were four twenty-year-old kids, and he was a thirty five year old history professor. There were certainly no fight clubs in graduate school.

Moving at what Lee considered to be incredibly unrealistic speed, the goon in the middle grabbed Lee's fist and used his other hand to land a nice punch to Lee's side, bringing him down pretty quickly. The rest of the goons didn't take to kindly to the first punch and surrounded him, kicking, punching, and stomping on the older man until he could barely move. Satisfied at the condition of their victim, the goon who had taken Lee's first punch grabbed both wallet and cell phone from his victims bloodied pants and made off with the rest of his gang.

Lee was a mess. His nose was bloodied and had he had various cuts and bruises along his entire body. He knew he should get up and move, get out of the sidewalk and take shelter somewhere but he couldn't. Every command his mind gave his body rejected. So he lay there for what seemed like an eternity, going in and out of consciousness.

Eventually, a movement in the nearby bushes jolted his mind to attention. It was getting late, the sun had long past set and moon had almost taken its position centrally in the night sky.

A part of Lee wanted it to be the muggers again. Wanted them to come back and continue beating him. To make his being so numb that he could no longer feel. That's what he desired more than anything else. Something to get his mind off of his wife's face.

"Are you ok?" Asked a small, childlike voice from the bushes.

"No" Lee replied truthfully "Not really".

No response.

Just when Lee was starting to question if he had really just had a brief exchange with the lawn, the bush moved again. Slowly, a small child emerged from its branches and inched towards him. In the moonlight, Lee could make out some of the features of this mysterious girl. She was young, possibly eight or nine, with curly black hair and a thin (too thin) frame. She seemed extremely cautious as she approached him and jumped when Lee suddenly coughed up some blood.

"It's ok," he said, wiping the blood off on his shirt. "I won't hurt you".

"You promise?" she asked. Her eyes wide, both her body and voice shook slightly.

"Promise" Lee replied, extending his pinky and moving his hand towards her.

Slowly, ever cautiously, the girl moved her hand towards his. When they were close enough, she extended her pinky and wrapped it around his.

"What's your name?" she asked, removing her hand and finally reaching his prone frame.

"Lee" he said. "Lee Everett"

"I'm Clementine".

Author's Note: Wow, I must say that it is good to be back. I started on FanFiction 7 years ago when I was thirteen. After a few years break I am excited to say that I am back! That being said this first chapter may be a little rough to get through but I hope you will stay with me! Also, please feel free to leave your comments in that cool box at the bottom of the page! Thanks for reading!