(WARNING! A/N – There is some self harm in this chapter, not a lot, but I do go into it a little. If this kind of thing isn't something you want to read you can skip over that paragraph, but just know it does matter to the story and this won't be the last of it. That being said enjoy.)

Chapter ten:

Violet cocked her head to the side as she studied Hershel. "Judith looks pretty comfortable," Hershel said and Violet nodded but didn't take her eyes off of his face. Hershel sighed and gave her a small when he realized there was no point of skirting the reason that he was here. "How are you feeling?" Hershel asked and Violet shrugged her shoulders. "Can I take a look at some of the more serious injuries?" Hershel asked and Violet nodded slowly. She turned as slowly and as carefully as she could so as not to wake up Judith so that Hershel could see her head. She heard him move and then did her best not to cringe away from him as his fingers ran through her hair to find the cut on her head. She winced when his fingers found it and he apologized.

"Still tender?" he asked and Violet nodded, "It might be for another few days, but it looks like it's healing nicely. Beth said you were able to take a shower yesterday? It'll help to keep it clean, just be careful so you don't re open it and it should be alright. I'm going to lift up the back of your shirt now. Ready?" She took a deep breath and nodded before Hershel gently lifted up her shirt. Violet hugged Judith to her a little closer as she tried to think of anything else other than Hershel seeing her beaten body.

His fingers were warm to the touch as the gently worked over the sore spots on her back. Some she could tell were bruises while others she knew were cuts just by the pain from each. Some of her larger injuries were still covered and she felt the tug of her skin as he gently pulled away the tape that held the gauze in place and she didn't realize she wasn't breathing until her chest started to hurt. She took in a shaky breath as Hershel looked at a deeper gash that ran from right above her pant line to the front where it ended on her lower stomach. She flinched more at the memory of one of the men cutting off her underwear then of Hershel prodding the injury. She leaned forward and placed Judith down on her back on the bed not wanting to accidentally squeeze her to hard.

"I'm going to put some medicine on this one," Hershel said moving away from her for a moment, "It shouldn't hurt, but I don't want this cut getting infected." Violet nodded and crossed her arms in front of her chest. When she felt Hershel's gloved hand putting the ointment on her she started digging her nails into the cut on her arm she had given herself earlier.

It had been such a long time since she had last hurt herself like this. She thought about a few of the scars that littered her body that you couldn't see unless you studied her skin very carefully, and finally she thought about the two inch scar on the inside of her left thigh. That had been the last time she had hurt herself, that was the one time where she had accidently pressed too hard. Cut to deep. When the blood didn't stop right away she had used glue and bandages to close it up. She had been so lucky that it didn't get infected, and she was lucky that it hadn't been fatal. After, she had used different ointments to reduce the ugliness of the scar, because she wanted to get rid of the memory, and even though they took away most of the scar, it was still easily seen if you knew it was there. Not that anyone had noticed in her old life.

She hated when she was weak, and in her eyes, that was one of her weakest moments. At that point in her life, when she had sat crying on the bathroom floor praying no one would walk in and see her, she made a promise to herself that she would never do anything to hurt herself like that again. She had even got a tattoo on the spots that had the most scars, her hips and the tops of her thighs. Yet, her she was, she had already broken skin. A tear slipped from her eye and she took a deep breath to stop the rest from falling.

"Doing alright?" Hershel asked and Violet nodded stiffly. "I need you to turn so I can see the rest of it," Hershel said gently. He watched as her shoulders heaved with another breath before her arms relaxed and she slowly turned around. She laid down on the bed on her side so that Hershel would be able to take care of it easier and Hershel watched as her eyes glazed over and her mind went somewhere else.

She thought about the day before as she lay there waiting for Hershel to finish. She hardly felt the bite of her nails in her palms that were clenched in fists at her side anymore as she thought about the deer. Her mind made up different scenarios of how the deer was happy and healthy on its own. She thought about Daryl and how kind he had been that day and how gentle he had been with her the last night.

Slowly she closed her eyes and imagined the forest from yesterday. The only difference was this time everything was greener and life buzzed around her. There was no dead her, no pain. She sighed and listened to the world around her. When she heard the bubbling of water she wandered over to a small river that she hadn't remembered being there before. She stilled once she reached the end because just on the other side of the river, the baby deer watched her. She smiled as the deer lowered it's head to the water to drink and as it did it grew before her eyes. It's antlers grew quickly and very large as it drank, and when it picked its head back up she smiled even more. It was a full grown buck and when it turned its head a tear fell from her eye. She saw a beautiful doe walk out of the forest with two fawns running towards the buck. When she looked back at the deer she felt as if it was smiling at her, then it turned and walked away.

The moment the deer was gone she heard a manly voice calling out to her. "Girl," Daryl called and she turned to find him. She thought he was on the other side of the river so she carefully stepped in and let the water rush over her bare feet. She closed her eyes at the soothing feeling, and when she opened them Daryl was standing in front of her and reaching out for her hand.

It wasn't until Hershel was gently pulling her hand out of a fist that she realized he was done and that it wasn't Daryl holding her hand, but Hershel's. "Doing alright darling?" he asked and she relaxed her hand in his before making eye contact and nodding. "Aright," he said, "I need you to undo your pants so I can see your legs and then I'll need to check that one bad cut on your upper stomach."

Violet found it hard to swallow as her hands shook as she attempted to undo her jeans and she hated herself for it. She never saw herself as weak, but after everything that had happened to her she was finding out that she was scared of everything and everyone. And she hated herself for it almost as much as she hated then men that had done this to her. "Let me turn around while you get undressed, you can cover everything with the blanket other then what I need to see, alright?" Hershel asked and Violet slowly nodded. She was thankful that he was being so understanding, but it was still hard for her. She waited for him to turn around before she quickly slid of her jeans and covered herself with the sheet as she tried not to disturb Judith.

"Tap my shoulder when you're done," Hershel said without turning around. When she was able to calm her breathing she reached a trembling hand up and tapped Hershel and then lowered her arm back to her side. Hershel turned slowly back to her and she closed her eyes. She had draped the blanket over her hips to her upper thighs, but she still felt naked and exposed to him. She felt tears prick at her eyes as she pulled her sweater and shirt up so that he would be able to get to that cut. "I'm going to look at your stomach first so you can be more comfortable ok?" Hershel asked and she gave him one nod.

Violet held her breath as his fingers pulled the tape back slowly and applied medicine before he dressed it again and when he was done he pulled the sweater back down over her and she gasped for air. "It's alright," Hershel said as he placed his clean hand on her shoulder, "You can cry Violet. You're safe here. No one here is going to judge you or hurt you." While she didn't look at him she did nod and allowed a few tears to fall silently from her eyes.

Hershel moved the blanket when he needed to, but he moved as quickly as he could to get this over with for her. He was almost done when Beth's voice called out from the door. "Daddy are you still in there?"

"Almost done Beth," Hershel said loud enough for Beth to hear, but hopefully quiet enough that it wouldn't disturb Judith, "I'll let you know when we are ready."

"Ok Dad," she said and then Hershel returned to dressing Violet's wounds.

"I'm turning around now so you can get dressed," Hershel said as he turned away. Violet threw her jeans on faster than she ever had before and when she was fully clothed she sat on the edge of the bed and touched Hershel's shoulder again. When he turned around she was giving him a small thank you smile. "I just have one more question for you before I let you eat your lunch," Hershel said as Violet tugged at her sweater sleeves. She watched him carefully as his eyes moved down to her arm. "Beth said she noticed some blood on your sweater," he pointed to her arm, "Did something open up?"

Violet nodded slowly.

"Is it still bleeding? Can I look at it?"

Violet shook her head no.

"The Band-Aids I left are gone. Did you take care of it yourself?" he tried again.

She nodded and watched as he reached into his bag and pulled out a few more Band-Aids in different sizes. "As long as you are ok," he said placing them on the table for her, "You'll let me know if you need help with any of them?"

She nodded as she hugged herself. Hershel gently placed his hand on her knee, and while she did jump a little, she didn't pull away. "When you're ready to talk, just know I'm ready to listen," Hershel said before standing up. "Ready for lunch?" he asked and when Violet nodded he gave her a parting smile before walking to the door and letting Beth in.

"How you feeling?" Beth asked as she handed Violet a tray. Violet did her best to give her a reassuring smile and Beth returned one. "Pork today," Beth said as she took a bite of her sandwich, "We have a few pigs here, it's nice to have real food again." Violet nodded as she grabbed the sandwich and took a big bite relishing how it tasted. When she finished the pork she looked down to see two of the four of her radishes has been cut into roses. She picked one up and looked at it. "Sorry," Beth said with a small laugh, "I got a little bored." Violet gave her a genuine smile before placing it back down and eating the other two before eating the rose cut ones. "I use to cut strawberries like that too," Beth said as she ate her own radish/rose. The rest of the lunch was in silence as the girls relaxed and ate.

"It's hot in here," Beth let out a little laugh as Judith stirred, "Want to go sit outside for a little while?" Violet shook her head no, she had already had a mini attack and she was still getting over Hershel checking her out, she didn't think she could handle more people. "If you're worried about being around everyone, I know somewhere they won't bother us. Why don't you come with us and if you don't like it you can come back in?"

Violet studied Beth for a moment before sighing and nodding her head. "Good," Beth said and stood up as she picked a now awake and hungry Judith up. When Judith had fallen asleep Beth had put everything back into the bag, so Violet picked it up and followed Beth closely as they left her cell.

(A/N - Thanks for reading! For all the return readers… thanks for sticking around! For the new readers… I hope you're enjoying the story. Special thanks to:

Kaybal3

DanathaKettu

AllieKat21

And my guest reviewer!

Keep reading guys can't wait to hear from you!)