Hello faithful readers! I'd like to introduce you to my new story Interventions I'm writing this simply because it is an idea that popped into my mind a while after the finale. I am not abandoning Eye for an Eye. Also I'd like to note that this is set in the Tv Shows continuity, not the alternate continuity that my other stories take place in. I'm just having some writers block so I figured that perhaps writing another story might help clear my mind. Also I'd like to note that this is set in the Tv Shows continuity, not the alternate continuity that my other stories take place in. Without further ado here is Interventions
(Carl P.O.V.)
It had been five days since the Governor's attack. Five days since my dad and I had started fighting. I haven't been talking to him ever since he brought those people from Woodbury back to the prison. I've been really angry with him ever since he did that. It was like he'd ignored all that Woodbury had done to us over the past couple of weeks. The fact that they'd tortured Glenn, nearly raped Maggie, and killed Axel, Oscar, and Merle! And my dad just brought these people in like nothing had happened. That wasn't the thing that bothered me the most, the people from Woodbury were mostly old people and kids who were younger than me.
The thing that bothered me the most was the way people were looking at me. While the Governor's army had attacked the prison Hershel, Beth, Judith, and I were out in the woods. My dad wanted to keep us safe. While we were out there we came across this kid from the Governor's army. Hershel and I had held him up and told him to drop his shotgun. When we told him that he started to come towards me, and I shot him. I was worried, what if when I went to take the gun from him he shot me? What if he'd tried to shoot Hershel or Beth? What if he'd killed Judith?! I wasn't happy that I'd killed him but I wasn't going to risk my baby sister's life on the chance that this guy would hand over his weapon.
Hershel told my dad that the boy had been surrendering and my dad got mad at me when I'd tried to justify my actions. Now everyone knew and they were all giving me the same look. They all looked at me with worry in their eyes. Like I was some kind of psychopath or something! The only people who didn't look at me that way were Daryl, who was too upset with Merle's death to really care about the rest of us, and Michonne who instead of caution looked at me with pity. I wasn't sure which I liked less. The worst of it came from the old people that had come over from Woodbury. Anytime I walked into a room and a group of them were there they'd just stop whatever it was they were talking about and start saying things about me.
"Do you see that boy? I heard he killed Jody." One old lady would whisper to her friend.
"I heard that he didn't even need to, he just killed him for the sake of killing." Another would whisper back.
One time I heard an old man say "That kids a monster! They should lock him in one of these cells and let him rot." He probably wanted me to hear him, that wasn't all they would do though. If one of the kids was outside with their grandparent the grandparent would grab the kid and start pulling them away from me. I'd killed one person! I wasn't a monster, I wasn't a psychopath! I was scared; my baby sister could have died, would they have done anything different?!
Another really annoying thing was that any time my dad and I were in the same room you could feel everyone else tense up. Like they were expecting me to explode at him. I don't get it, I haven't talked to my dad since he brought those people over, and he'd given up talking to me. I was fine with that.
Today was the day that Daryl was going on a run to Woodbury, and I'd managed to convince him to let me go. We were going to Woodbury because we had to wait for crops to grow in the prison yard and we had a lot more people to feed. Anyway that morning Daryl and I met outside by his motorcycle. Before we left my dad had taken Daryl aside and talked to him for a minute while a waited by his motorcycle. He was probably telling Daryl to try and talk to me since he'd given up on doing it himself.
When we arrived outside the walls Daryl turned to me, "Rick wants me to talk to you about whatever is going on between you two," Here it comes I thought, "but I figure that if you ain't willing to talk to him about it I don't see why you'd want to talk to me." I just nodded and went to open the gate. We went searching from house to house looking for any kind of food that could be preserved for a long period of time while we waited for the crops to grow. It took us about two hours to go each of the houses and find all the food. We got a pretty good load, enough for us to feed everyone for a month, maybe more.
When we were walking back to the motorcycle I stopped and sighed, "Daryl…" I paused not sure what I wanted to say, "Thank you."
Daryl looked at me sort of confusedly, "Don't thank me. I think that if your dad thinks you need to be talked to then he should be the one to do it."
I sighed, "That's not what I mean, ever since my dad and I started fighting everyone's been looking at me differently. Like I'm dangerous, like I'm gonna hurt someone. But you haven't been looking at me that way; you've been looking at me like you always have. Thanks for that. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry about Merle." Daryl stood there for a moment looking at me before nodding and starting to walk back to the bike.
We didn't say another thing the entire ride back; I don't think it would have mattered either way we wouldn't have been able to hear each other over the motorcycle's engine. When we arrived back at the prison everyone from my group helped take the food into the cellblock we lived in. My dad said that he'd divide the food up as evenly as he could between all the cellblocks. After we took the food in I decided to take a nap in my cell. I knew no one would bother me since they thought I was a psychopath.
I'm not sure how long I'd slept but it must have been at least a few hours because Michonne woke me up to ask if I wanted anything for lunch. She still looked at me with that pity in her eyes that I hated. I said yes, we had found some macaroni and cheese that could be made by boiling water. I walked out into the outer part of the cell block; everyone was out there, including my dad. And as always the minute I walked into the room everyone started looking between my dad and I. You could literally feel everyone tense up. I went over to Michonne who handed me a bowl and then I went over and sat on the steps. We ate in silence, not a single noise was made except for the sound of a spoon on a bowl.
After lunch I went out to take a voluntary watch, the more I could be alone without everyone looking at me like I was a nutcase the better. I stood outside on the watch tower balcony looking down the scope of my rifle towards each part of the prisons perimeter. There were some walkers here and there but none that were enough of a threat to kill them. Not that it wouldn't have been great stress relief.
After having been on watch for about thirty minutes I heard someone walking up the steps inside the tower. I turned to look at who it was, it was Michonne. I sighed and turned away from her, maybe she would get the hint and go away.
"Carl, can you come in here for a minute?" She asked through and open window, of course I wouldn't be that lucky. I stood with my back turned to her for a moment, trying to think of any excuse not to talk to her. "Carl?" She asked again with a more forceful tone. I groaned and turned, walking inside.
"What is it? My dad ask you to come talk to me?" I asked in an irritated tone.
She frowned at me, "No. I came up here because I want to talk to you." She said seriously. "Why are you acting this way? You barely talk to anyone; you're doing everything you can to be by yourself. Everyone's worried about you."
"Worried I'll go nuts and try to kill them is more like it." I said scornfully. Michonne looked at me confused. "What the hell are you talking about?" She asked seriously.
"I've seen the way everyone here looks at me, they all look at me like they think that any day now I'm going to snap and just start killin' everyone." I answered scornfully. Michonne immediately tried to put a hand on my shoulder, "Carl no one thinks that." She said in an attempt to reassure me. I chuckled darkly, "Like hell they don't. Everyone thinks I'm a monster because I killed that kid. But no one has ever asked for my side of the story, no asks why I did it." As I spoke my tone became meaner and louder. "I'm sick of everyone looking at me like I'm on the brink of insanity! I'm sick of you looking at me with pity in your eyes!" I said turning to Michonne, I was shouting now. She looked hurt by my words, but why should I care? Michonne scowled at me, turned and then went down the watch tower.
Sometime later Tyreese came up to take over the watch from me. The African American man and I exchanged brief glances with each other. I noticed something about him though. He didn't see me and look at me the way others did. I'm not sure how to describe the look he gave me, it wasn't the look you'd give a friend, and it wasn't understanding either. I don't know what to call it but it wasn't a look with negativity attached to it, and for that I was glad.
When night had come there was another awkward dinner, this one was slightly worse though because along with everyone's tenseness about my dad and I being in the same room, I also had to deal with Michonne glaring at me. After dinner my dad came into my cell.
"Michonne says that you yelled at her earlier." He said plainly. I just continued not talking to him. He let out an annoyed breath, "Do you wanna tell me why?" I didn't respond. Again he let out annoyed huff. "Damn it Carl! I'm your father, I can't help you if won't talk to me." I scoffed and got up to leave; when I did he yanked me back and pushed me onto my cot. "Fine, if you're going to act this way then you're grounded. When you are ready to act like an adult then I'll let you out." He then walked out of the cell and closed the door, locking it. Was he really doing this? Really?! He'd locked me up like I was a criminal! I couldn't believe it. I sat there stunned; after I got over that I decided that I might as well go to sleep.
When I'd woken up my dad came over opened the door, handed me a bowl of oatmeal, and locked the door again after leaving. After I ate it I thought about throwing it at the cell bars to release some aggression, but I decided that that wouldn't help me get un-grounded. Most of my group had left to go do whatever jobs they'd been given. I was left with Beth who was holding Judith. She came over to my cell and sat down against the walkway railing. She still had that worried look on her face when she looked at me.
"Can you of all people please not look at me like that?" I asked vehemently. Her worry became even more evident.
"We're all worried about you Carl. You haven't talked to your dad in almost a week; you've barely talked to the rest of us. Yesterday you yelled at Michonne. You aren't acting like yourself." She said carefully, like she didn't want to offend or upset me. She'd done a pretty shitty job.
"Beth shut the hell up!" I snapped, almost immediately I regretted it. She looked really upset, like on the verge of crying upset. She got up and left before I could say anything, I wanted to say that I was sorry and beg her to forgive me. I had just shouted at my crush, she would tell the group, and then my dad, and Hershel, and Maggie and probably even Glenn would all take turns yelling at me. I deserved it.
Maggie came back first, must have been at least two hours since I'd snapped at Beth. I was hoping that maybe she wouldn't say anything, didn't think it was too likely to happen though. I knew I was right when Maggie came into my cell and started shouting at me.
"What the hell is your problem!? You think you can just snap at people for no reason when they're trying to help you!" She kept yelling things like this at me for a good five minutes before Judith started crying and she stopped. After a couple seconds she looks at me seriously, "Go out there and apologized." I nodded and walked out of my cell, walking over to Beth who was calming down Judith.
"Beth. I am really sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to snap at you the way I did." I said as sincerely as I could, meaning every word of what I said. Beth nodded as she rocked the now sleeping infant in her arms. Maggie came over, seeming satisfied by my apology.
"Alright then, now if you wanted to stay out here with us I won't tell your daddy." She said kindly. I smiled and nodded in thanks. I then sat down at the table next to Beth. A few minutes passed without anyone speaking, it was actually a sort of nice.
"Why did you snap at me?" Beth asked, breaking the silence. I sighed, I didn't want to answer this question but I knew that if I didn't then they'd just keep asking.
"I did it because of what you were saying, and because of how everyone else has been treating me." Beth and Maggie both looked at me, confused. "Ever since the group found out about me shooting that kid you've all had this look in your eyes, like I'm a threat or something. Like I'm gonna just go crazy and kill you all. I can't stand it, it's horrible."
"Carl, none of us think that you'll hurt us, but we are worried about you." Maggie said kneeling in front of me, looking me in the eyes. "You killed someone, someone who was surrendering their weapon, why'd you do that?" I was surprised, this was the first time someone had brought up that boy and asked me why I'd done it. Not including my dad.
"Because I was scared, Hershel told him to drop the gun, and instead he started to come towards me with the gun still in his hands. My mind starting racing, what if he shot me, or Hershel or Beth, or Judith?" I asked. "Every time we've let a threat go in the past it's come back and bit us in the ass. I didn't want that to happen again. I didn't want more people I care about to die." I said somberly. I felt a hand on each of my shoulders. "I'm not happy that I had to kill him, and I didn't want to, but I couldn't risk that something would happen." I said starting to get a bit choked up. I don't know why.
"Carl, I'm so sorry." I heard Beth say quietly, I just nodded. I felt sort of good, talking to someone about this.
"Is that why you've been so mad at your dad lately, because he didn't ask you why you did it?" Maggie asked gently, I nodded, "That's part of why I'm mad but," I paused, "I.. I don't want to talk about it." I decided on. Maggie nodded and I stood up. I walked back to my cell and laid down, when my dad got back I wanted to talk to him.
I had fallen asleep, I was woken up by the sound of my cell door opening, I turned my head and saw my dad with a bowl of noodles in his hands. He laid it next to my bed and turned to walk away.
"Dad? I'm…. I'm ready to talk." I said meekly. He turned around and looked at me, he looked a little surprised. I guess he didn't think I'd be ready to talk so soon. He came over and sat on the bunk across from mine. "Alright, what do you want to say?" He asked calmly.
"The reason I've been acting the way I have is because I'm mad at you, really mad. And I've been taking it out on everyone else." I looked up at him; he was looking straight at me, not saying a word. "The reason I'm mad though isn't just because of you bringing those people from Woodbury here, and it's not because of the kid I shot. It's because you haven't been here." I said, choosing my words carefully.
"What do you mean I haven't been here?" He asked patiently, I took a deep breath before I continued.
"I mean after Mom died, you just weren't here. You weren't here to talk to about it or to comfort me, I needed you and you weren't there." I responded, sounding more sad than angry. "Carl, I'm sor..." "I had to watch Mom die while I couldn't do anything and you weren't there!" I nearly shouted, cutting him off in the process. "And then you just ran off on your own to kill walkers! You left everyone else to take care of me, but you didn't even ask if I was alright. You didn't say a thing to me!" I could feel tears forming in my eyes at the memory of my mom's death. "I understand that you were upset about it Dad, but you didn't say a word to me till before you went to Woodbury." My voice faltered as tears started making their way down my face. I was letting out shaky breaths, trying to compose myself. A second later I felt my dad wrap his arms around me in a hug.
"I'm so sorry. I am so sorry Carl." He whispered, I could tell from his voice that he was crying too. "You're right; I was upset by Mom's death. I made the entire situation about me, and I am so sorry for that. You have to believe me Carl." I nodded against him, still weeping into his shoulder. "I love you." He affirmed quietly.
"I love you too Dad, I'm sorry for how I've been acting." I replied. He pulled away and shook his head. "I deserved it." He assured me. After taking a minute to compose ourselves we went out to the common area to eat with the others.
After dinner I moved my stuff back into the cell I used to share with my dad before I got mad. I was actually kind of glad to move back in. The other cell was sort of lonely. Not long after I moved back in everyone went to sleep. As I climbed onto the top bunk my dad looked up at me.
"Carl?"
"Yeah Dad?"
"I love you."
I smiled, "Love you too." Then we laid down and let sleep drift over us.
Bit of a sappy ending but I liked it. So what did everyone think? I enjoyed writing it, and it was a welcome break from Eye for an Eye. Sorry for taking so long to update, writers block can be a pain. I'll try to have a new chapter up in two weeks max.