The last time she stood in the front parking lot of Howes was about a day after Jane had hung herself, and that was the last time she wanted to step foot in there- or any other hardware store for that matter. Howes brought back bad memories. Horrible, bloody memories. Between Jane, Carver, Sarita, Reggie, and Carlos, Howes seemed to be synonymous with death. The parking lot, once overwhelmed with a sea of walkers, was replaced with cars. An endless sea of cars ranging in all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Clementine slowly got out of the SUV and looked around the area, watching the people pull out, park, and walk in and out of the store. Never before had she seen the place so busy. So full of life.

"We'll be in and out. I don't want to stay in there too long…" she can hear her mother say as she notices a man looking eerily like Luke walking hand in hand with a toddler. He's laughing as the little girl, presumably his daughter, is going on about a bird she saw in the store. The little girl is overdramatic- and while she's younger than AJ- she's much more vocal. Her tiny arm waves wildly as she gets more into her story. How something as ordinary as a tiny bird was the most exciting thing she'd ever seen. Clementine frowned and crossed her arms. Maybe if he hadn't of drowned or if he and Jane met in different circumstances, that could have been Luke with his child.

"Clementine?" Diana's nearly across the lot. "Are you coming or what?"

She shakes her head, coming back to reality and sighs. "Y-Yeah," she sprints over, huffing. "Sorry about that. I just zoned out, that's all." Her mother's brows raise, and for a minute Clementine think she's going to be questioned, but Diana shrugs.

"Alright, then," she says, dropping the subject, but Clementine can hear an anxious edge in her voice. Clementine decides it's best at that point to act as normal as possible. But, after everything she experienced, Clementine knew she'd never be normal again. Simply just putting on a facade.

Howes was a mess. Emphasis on was because when they first entered, Clementine thought she was in a different store. Everything was so neat and organized; in fact, it was too organized. They walked down the long hall that separated the aisles that Carver had once stripped when he took over the super store. The boards that were once used to make the fences around the perimeter were neatly stacked in different rows in one aisle based on their measurements. In another, were rows upon rows of tools, including crowbars. Clementine paused when she had first seen them, remembering when Kenny beat Carver to death. That was when things really started to go downhill.

Diana hums to herself and puts a finger to her chin. "Valve… valve… We need a valve…" she muttered, more likely to herself than to Clementine, before turning down one of the aisles. Clementine followed, her hands going into the pockets of her baggy shorts. There were thousands of pipes, valves, and switches contained in hundreds of containers. Carver probably melted all these down to make bullets and then used the racks to make beds. "Damn, there's so many to choose from." Diana frowned and put her hands on her hips. "Your father never told me what size he needed."

Just then, as if they were either sent by the Lord or had surveillance comparable to the fucking New Frontier, a worker made their way over to them. Immediately, Clementine clenched her fist, her whole body becoming tense. His stupid hair, his stupid goatee, and worst of all his stupid fucking face could only belong to Troy. Just her luck this asshole worked here and decided to help them of all people. Diana didn't seem to notice her daughter, thank God, and smiled at the man. He leaned back on the rack and smirked- which Clementine was sure employees weren't supposed to do to paying customers- and she fought with all her power to not grab a pipe and beat his ass right there.

"So," he began, his voice already grating her nerves, "what seems to be the problem here?"

"Oh, I'm looking for a valve here for the pool," Diana replies. "My husband wants to get it opened up this week, and he's too stubborn to call a service, so he's going to do it himself!" She attempted to joke with him, but he doesn't laugh. In fact, he scoffs and rolls his eyes. The apocalypse didn't make him an asshole after all. He always was one! Clementine's eyes narrowed and she bit her lip, taking a deep breath. If there were still walkers all over the place and nobody gave a shit about laws, that would have been the last thing he ever did, because you never disrespect Diana Marsh. Ever. Especially not in front of her daughter, who unknowingly to them, has killed dozens of people and had no qualms in doing so again to scum such as himself. Troy's original death seemed to be mercy as she thought of the various ways she could kill him. Her mother was a saint and deserved to be treated as such, thank you.

"Lady, what size of the pool is it." Her mother copies her daughter's expression and tilts her head. Thankfully, Diana was never one to be stepped on, and Clementine remembered where she got her 'attitude' (as Javier called it) from. As sweet as she was, Diana had a zero bullshit tolerance; especially from a rude hick like Troy.

She crossed her arms. "About 20x40," her voice is stern and her eyes never leave the man. Tensions were so thick Clementine could cut it with a knife. In fact, they're both still glaring at Troy when he kneels down and grabs a medium sized valve from the bottom container. He hands it to her and returns the cold stares with one of his own. "Thank you." Diana didn't sound thankful.

"There are signs on each of the boxes," Troy says gruffly. "If you had just looked you would have found it."

"Well, sorry," she replies, and Clementine has to fight against every fiber of her being to not act. "But," her mother smiles through gritted teeth, "at least I know now."

The former guard says nothing but turns around and walks away, muttering under his breath about how stupid customers always wasted his 'goddamn time'. Diana waved goodbye to him cheerfully. "A stupid customer like myself is paying your salary!" She cried in a sing-song voice and Troy blew them off. "Have a wonderful day, sir. I hope you find happiness!" She turned to Clementine. "He's clearly a very miserable man. I feel sorry for him."

I don't, Clementine thought to herself, and she flipped him off when the older woman wasn't looking. If she couldn't shoot him in the balls, at least she could get the satisfaction of telling him to fuck off, and he couldn't do a goddamn thing about it. Sadly, he didn't see, but another employee did, and they snorted. Apparently, Troy wasn't very popular in the workplace either. She then went with her mother outside to the garden center- which had been their prison- was vibrant, beautiful, and full of flowers, vegetables, and other essentials. If she wasn't reminded of so much horrible shit, Clementine would've enjoyed it. In a bird bath, pecking at a ladybug, was a tiny robin. Most likely, the same one that little girl had been going on about. She smiled softly and watched it for a few seconds; AJ always liked to watch the animals when they were out. He used to call birds 'teeters' because of their tweets, but his favorite were the 'hoppies', or bunnies. Only she could understand what he was saying, and she prayed the Garcia's would eventually catch on. They were a team and as young as AJ was, he was extremely intelligent. Too many adults underestimated him, and Clementine could relate because they did the same to her. Hell, they still did.

"I hate bird baths. They might as well be motels for mosquitos, you know?" Clementine jumped at the voice behind her and put a hand to her chest. The bird flew away. She turned around to see a worker, probably in her mid-twenties at the most, leaning back on a cart with a grin. She had a pretty face; large hazel eyes, a petite nose, and bow shaped lips. her medium length brown hair was put up in a messy ponytail and she blew some of her side bangs out of the way. Clementine wouldn't have been able to recognize her if it wasn't for her name tag and familiar voice. Jane. She did a double take because no way in hell was that her. Jane's head was nearly shaved! Of course, Kenny had a beard before, and she probably wasn't worried about walkers getting a fistful of her ponytail.

"Shit, were you watching that bird," Jane frowned, "sorry."

"No," Clementine replied, hoping to not sound too rattled. It was just the last time she saw Jane, she was swinging from a noose, and definitely didn't look like the woman she was currently talking too. "I mean, it's fine…"

"Okay," her old friend said, biting her lip. There was silence between the two for a couple seconds, which felt like minutes before the woman began to speak again. "You know what the worst part of working outside is?" She asked. Clementine was taken aback by her extroverted nature. Jane had never been one for conversations before, but here she was trying to chat right away. Then again, the apocalypse had changed so many people- not even Clementine herself was spared. This must have been the real Jane. Who she had been before her life had gone to utter shit and caused her to bottle her emotions up.

"What?"

"The heat," she replied, wiping some sweat from her brow. "It's hot as balls out here."

Now that she mentioned it, Clementine was sweating. Of course, she was wearing a white t-shirt and shorts. Jane had the displeasure of wearing a black shirt with jeans over top of a dark red apron. She was practically sucking up the sun's rays. "That sounds awful," Clementine said, noting that her mother was checking out seeds at the other side of the garden.

"I know right, but my shift is almost up, thank God." She smiled and pointed at her shirt. "Is that Jason Blades?"

Clementine paused and stared down at her shirt. "Oh, yeah," she said, looking up. Shit, she didn't know anything about this guy- just that his first name was Jason! Act natural, Clementine. "Yeah, it's Jason Blades."

"My sister loves him."

Oh God, why was Clementine surprised that it was coming to this? It seemed like every other conversation the two had was about Jaime. Wait a minute, Jaime was alive! Maybe that was why Jane was so… different. "That's cool," Clementine replied, hoping that the other didn't question her any further. She had just picked this shirt because it looked cool.

"She dragged me to his concert last summer," Jane continued, "and as much as I shit on him in front of her, he's not that bad. Like, I listen to his music as a guilty pleasure when no one's looking. I'm more of an alternative rock person myself."

"Yeah, he's… he's pretty good."

"I have As Long As You Hold Me on one of my playlists and the day I die is when Jaime, my sister, finds out." Yes, Clementine was quite aware that her sister was named Jaime, but she grinned and nodded along. "So, what's your favorite song?"

Oh, shit. "All his songs!" Clementine cried. "I love all his songs!"

She sighed in relief when Jane decided that was a suitable answer. "You know who's actually shit? Three Dimensions. Fuck, those guys are awful."

Clementine didn't have a clue who they were, so she continued to nod. Yeah, they were the worst band in the world. Fuck those guys. Jane's brows raised on that one. "Wow, I thought a girl like you would be into them."

"Nope."

"You know," Jane began, "you remind me a lot of my sister." Oh God, there it was. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen," Clementine replied, praying she was right about her age. She hadn't kept track of time for years and it was that moment she realized how pathetic she was. Who doesn't know their age? "I'm going into the eighth grade."

"My sister's a senior. I was never popular in high school, but she's on the cheer team and shit. I wouldn't be surprised if she was voted homecoming queen."

"That's cool."

Jane shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I could care less about that shit, but she's super into her popularity. She's even dating the star quarterback." She leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Word of advice, don't date quarterbacks. They're assholes." Clementine didn't want to date anyone anyway, but she kept that in the back of her mind. Sounded like Jaime was dating the 'cream of the crop'. Of course, Jane didn't really like most people, so maybe she was biased. This conversation was getting very personal and very awkward, and Clementine wanted to leave.

"Clementine!" Her mother calls. "Clementine, let's go!"

The teenager waved goodbye and ran off, joining Diana. Immediately afterward, Troy came out and started yelling at Jane to get back to work. It was probably the best that Diana had called when she did because Clementine didn't have the patience to deal with him a second time. Balls would be bashed. And judging from the look on Jane's face before she got out of view, she was ready to do it herself. This was probably the only time Clementine wanted history to repeat. Fuck that guy.

As uncomfortable as their conversation was. She couldn't help but be fascinated that Jane was so open and friendly. Even her appearance was different. If the apocalypse made her and others into cold loners, who else was changed? Was she really the only one who remembered what happened?


A/N: Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter! I was nervous how Jane and Clementine's conversation was going and it if was too awkward, but then I realized Jane laughs at jokes about people fucking sheep and spills her feelings to Clementine almost immediately, so she's awkward. Jaime is alive and the opposite of Jane, so I imagined her as one of the popular girls who gets on the honor roll and is in the student council. Clementine and the other characters (Sarah, Becca, Duck, Gabe, etc) will have interactions with her because she's pretty important as a whole.

Sorry, Troy will always be an asshole to me.

To those that asked if the Garcia family are in this, don't worry. They are! I'm not going to spoil about Gabe, but he's pretty important to the story as well and Clementine has some great moments with him. Until next time!