A/N: GUYS I HAVE A LEGITIMATE EXCUSE AS TO WHY IT'S TAKEN A BUTTLOAD OF A LONG TIME TO UPDATE; I HAVE NO COMPUTER. I HAVE TWO AND THEY'RE BOTH BROKEN LORD HELP ME UGH. I HAVE TO EDIT THIS INTO MY AUTHORS NOTE VIA PHONE. There's no way I can finish writing the chapter on phone, and I'm so sorry that you guys had to wait.

ANYWAY

I just realized now that we're starting Episode 2, so ending the last chapter with that fluffy bit was kind of a treat for you guys, right? (That wasn't even planned, really. I just threw that in at the end of chapter because I thought we'd been waiting too long for something to happen). With that said, let's get onto the chapter! And don't forget to review! Nothing is more important to me than your guys' opinion on the story!

With that, enjoy the new chapter!

The morning was peaceful as the sun gleamed orange through the window, glaring right into Kirsten's eyes as she squinted. She raised her hand towards the beam in an attempted to block it, but she decided to sit up from her bed anyway. An hour before, she heard Pete, Nick and Clementine head out. She knew Nick wasn't the type to be a morning person, but he was slowly adjusting to waking up early to check the fish traps.

His depression, however, didn't seem to find its way out.

Kirsten saw the seams cracking when he went into complete rage mode about Clementine's bite. Last night, when Kirsten went inside after Luke finally convincing her to get some well earned rest, she saw Nick sitting down at the table alone. She asked what was wrong, but he just shrugged her off with his head buried into his hands. After the routine convincing, he told her that he'd been having random thoughts of what happened to his Mom. He couldn't get them out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. She tried telling him that although the way she went out was terrible, she doesn't have to deal with Carver or the bullshit world they live in now, but he just sort of shrugged her off. She felt terrible for leaving him, but she headed off to bed. Now, there she was, waking up to a peaceful morning, just as if it never happened.

Kirsten grasps the bed sheets and folds them over, swinging her legs out of the bed, she stands up. She'd gotten to a stage where she was comfortable with wearing the clothes of the people who formerly lived in the cabin, but she tried to neglect the fact that they could have died. The place was almost untouched when they found it, and she'd only found one biter. But, the furthest she went was a pair of bed shorts and a white t-shirt, she just felt too weird to be wearing other people's clothes.

Swapping into her normal clothes, she tied her hair into the usual ponytail and left the bedroom with her boots in her hand. Once she got downstairs, she fell back onto the couch and began putting on her boots. As she was, she saw Sarah curiously coming out of the kitchen with her book in her hand, flashing a smile to the older woman.

"Hey, Sarah." Kirsten greets, "How was the book?" She asks, pushing her foot into the boot with a bite of her lip.

Sarah nods, "It's great. I was going to read it again, but I was wondering if maybe Clementine would want to read it." She gleams down at Kirsten with a bright smile. Even after being scolded by Carlos and told to stay away from Clementine, Sarah was still confident in being this girl's friend. Usually once her father scolded her, Sarah wouldn't want to talk to anyone for a day or two, and if she did soon after, she'd get much more panicky until it soon wore off. But who would blame her? She's been the youngest girl in the group with nothing to do for the past few weeks, of course she'd want to meet new friends after having to abandon Anne and Becca.

Kirsten raises an eyebrow as she finishes typing up her shoe laces, "Don't you think that's a little too advanced for her? After all, she's only eleven." She tells her.

The younger girl shrugs, looking off to the side as she re-adjusts her red framed glasses, "Yeah, I guess... I just want her to like me. I mean, she said we could be friends, but she also said that we just met. My Dad also said not to speak to her... but I'm so alone sometimes. You're always really busy on runs or sleeping, Nick got tired of playing chess, Luke said he had other things on his mind, my Dad's usually too tired to do anything now, Rebecca's pregnant, Pete's almost never here and Alvin's always making sure Rebecca's okay." She pouts, inhaling and giving out a big exhale as she slumps her shoulders.

Kirsten stands up from the couch and furrows her eyebrows, "Hey, look. I'll talk to your Dad about Clem, I'm sure I can get him to cool it for a bit. In the mean time, why don't you go off and find a book that she can read?" She smiles, resulting in Sarah perking up and nodding her head.

"Okay, here, you can have this one." She says, handing the book over to Kirsten with a bright smile. Kirsten nods her head, half smiling as Sarah turns around and bolts upstairs.

Kirsten glanced down at the book, tracing along a dented scratch with her thumb before bending down and moving some objects on the coffee table to make room for the book. As she places it down, the kitchen door opened once again, the small talk from Alvin and Rebecca grew louder for a brief moment until Carlos stepped out and the door closed.

"Morning, Carlos." Kirsten greets, smiling halfly at the man. If she was going to try and convince Carlos that Clementine isn't a threat to Sarah, then she might as well soften him up before going at it. "Sleep well?" She asks, walking forward and meeting the man half way.

Carlos shrugs, "I'm always tired these days, Kirsten. I slept just as well as you could imagine." She tells her.

Sometimes she felt like she was talking to a brick wall when it came to Carlos, so she really didn't find a point in the 'softening up' speech. These days, now that they were more calm, Carlos still felt so emotionally and physically drained. Everything terrible that happened, just... kind of happened. It left scars, but he just brushed them off. They were a distant yet hurtful memory that he learned to ignore.

He somehow always left Kirsten wondering how much he could hide from his daughter, especially when being taken care of and not being taught anything was basically a death sentence within itself. But by the day, Sarah was growing more eager to learn things. Kirsten never really got around to continuing the small lessons she had with Sarah with using a knife since Carlos was at the cabin regularly, but now with Clementine in the cabin, she hopes that the little girl could help her out.

Kirsten sweeps her fringe behind her ears, knowing quite well that Carlos with hardly any sleep meant a mean Carlos. But she was prepared for that challenge. "Well, I needed to talk to you about Sarah." She tells him, his eyes looking down at her skeptically as he folds his arms and leans to one side. "It looks like Clementine's staying with us, and I don't think Luke would let anyone make her leave, let alone let her leave on her own. I want you to know that no matter what you're going to say to her, Sarah is still going to want to be friends with her."

Carlos narrows his eyes at the smaller woman once he hears his daughter's name, looking away as if he didn't want to talk about it. "I don't have time for this, Kirsten. What I tell my daughter is what she must do. Now if you'll excuse me―"

"No, this isn't something you're going to walk away from." She interrupts the man, stepping in front of him as he tries to walk around her. "Your daughter is alone, Carlos. She needs a friend closer to her age right now and Clementine is the only one she's got."

"She doesn't need a friend, I can keep her company―"

"You can't always fix things with Sarah by yourself. Sarah is only fifteen years old. You shelter her because you think that's the only way she can live a normal life. If you're going to go as far as doing that, then you should at least let her have a friend she can be with all the time." She counters, looking up at him sternly. It wasn't that he didn't understand her, it's just that he didn't want to listen to her. He knew very well that she was right, but he didn't want to admit it or go along with it.

Carlos' eyes firmly narrowed down on Kirsten, his arms unfolded and he stepped closer towards her. His voice was low, but strengthened, "Clementine manipulated Sarah into stealing our own supplies from us. My daughter doesn't need a role model like that and isn't any of your business. I will not have you try and take control of her."

"It is my damn business when your daughter comes to me and tells me she's lonely." She fires back, "I'm not going to just sit back and say "Sorry, kiddo. Your Dad's calling all the shots" when I know that'll just break her heart. Clementine did what she had to do to save her life― A little girl, who's half our size, became the hero she desperately needed. You don't think that's someone Sarah should be hanging around?" She asks, as Carlos backed down. Again, he looks away as Kirsten lets go of breath she didn't know she was holding. They were both silent, Carlos didn't want to give the answer Kirsten was almost demanding, but she had to get it out of him somehow. "Give Clementine a chance, at least. She could do things for you and your daughter, like protect her when we can't."

Carlos's eyes darted up from the ground, her last words struck a big nerve, but it got through to him. He finally lets out a sigh, raising his hand to his forehead as he looked down, "I'll think about, Kirsten." He tells her, removing his hand from his forehead and folding his arms. It was the only answer that he was going to give that was closer to what she wanted. She gave him a small nod before moving out the way and letting the man go through and upstairs.

Kirsten's eyes followed Carlos briefly until he was out of her sight, once he was, she sat down on the armrest of the sofa and hunched over, leaning her elbows on her knees and resting her head in her hands. She had no idea if what she said was going to cause a fallout between her and Carlos, but she deeply hoped not. He was a good guy, she just didn't agree with sheltering Sarah like that. Sarah seemed like she had anxiety by the way she handled things, but she was so willing to learn how to defend herself nowadays, Kirsten hopes the confidence in knowing how to defend herself might just distract her from breaking down. To Kirsten, it was worth a shot to try and help her.

She stood up from the sofa and took in a deep and slow breath.

I should go get some food in me.

"Alvin, you find that flashlight?"

"Right here," Alvin threw the flashlight in Luke's direction, quickly turning around and grabbing a pistol out of the box on the counter as Luke catches it.

Kirsten worried intensely, Pete and the others hadn't showed up all day. It took only two hours to go to the stream, get the fish, and come straight back. And that was only on a good day. If there were no fish, they would have been back by the time Kirsten woke up or even before that. Now, all the speculated thoughts scrambled to her head, and it wasn't helping the mood she was in. What if Carver found them? What if they're trapped? ...What if one of them died? Christ, stop thinking like that.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come?" Kirsten nervously asks, pushing herself off the kitchen wall that she leaned on.

Luke immediately shook his head in response as he looked down at her, "I want you to stay here just in case we really are dealing with a Carver situation, keep everyone good and hidden if he decides to march in." He insists, buckling up his machete holder.

Kisten nodded, "Yeah, yeah. Good idea." She agrees, earning a nod from the taller man as he turns around and walks towards the door. "When you guys get down to the stream, make sure you search across the other side of river. And for the last time, be careful out there, alright?"

As a worried Rebecca pleaded with Alvin to not leave, he and Luke finally convinced her that he'd be alright. Alvin hugged his wife, gave her a kiss, and waited for Luke outside.

"You know where to take everybody to hide if he comes, right?" Luke questions Kirsten, placing his hand on the door knob and opening it a few inches.

"Down the hatch and under the cabin. I got it." She replies with a nod of her head, folding her arms as Luke flashes her a smile before exiting the cabin and shutting the door behind him.

"I think we should stay quiet for a while, I'll keep watch from the inside." Carlos states, walking over to the kitchen counter and grabbing the box of firearms. "Kirsten, can you go tell Sarah to difuse the candles in our room? We don't need to attract any other unwanted attention."

Kirsten nods her head, "Sure, don't forget to load up our guns just incase."

"You don't think he'll actually come around, do you?" Rebecca worriedly asks, clutching onto her plump, round stomach in distress.

Kirsten light shrugs her shoulders, "I'm really not sure this time, Bec. We won't let him get us, though, there's no doubt about it."

Kirsten's eyes lazily fluttered open, blurrily setting themselves on the small girl with the baseball cap in front of her, blocking the glaring sunlight from the window. With a groggy sounding throat, the woman spoke up, "C- Clem? Is everyone back yet?" She asks, resting on her elbows as the little girl shook her head.

"No... Carlos and Rebecca just left." She answers, causing Kirsten to immediately and almost robotically sit up fully.

"You're back? The hell do you mean they just left? Left for what?" She curiously asks, swiftly standing up from the couch and bolting into the kitchen.

Clementine followed the older woman as she spoke, "We were at the stream when walkers seperate Nick and Pete. Pete got bit and I ran to Nick, but... Pete got killed." She informs the older woman, letting her words out easily as Kirsten stared blankly at the empty kitchen.

"F- Fuck..." She curses, turning around and looking down at Clementine in shock. "Pete's... dead?" She unsurely asks, earning a reluctant nod from the girl.

Pete was gone. Dead. Kirsten felt robbed of the chance to say goodbye to the man she looked up to and saw as not just a group member, but like family. Not only was she hurt by that, but it was killing her to wonder how Nick took it. She was prepared to help him, but she only wondered how well she'd let herself take it.

"I was with Nick, but..."

Kirsten went into utter panic mode, "He's alive though, right?"

Clementine nodded her head, unknowingly calming Kirsten down. "Carlos wants us to watch Sarah." She informs the woman.

Kirsten took a deep breath in, "We can do that."

A/N: wow okay that was a long wait

I decided to try really hard with this terrible phone to finish the chapter and I finally did. Sorry if the ending is a bit lazy. ;u;

Y'all are welcome. Regular updates (as regular as my updates actually can be) will resume this monday/tuesday when I finally get one of my laptops back! woo

Sorry, can't really do honourable mentions on this phone, so I'll be sure to double it next chapter! 6 reviews being mentioned and it won't matter if I mention 2 of yours. Double the honour? (As honourable as this honour can be)

Anyways, don't forget to review and I hope you a loved the chapter! Things are going to get really heated soon. And I mean heated. Both tension wise and sexual wise. Well, as sexually heated as a T/M rated fic can get, ya know?

Alright, I'm being fucking weird. Bye!