I know. I have a sick mind. That last chapter XD But don't worry. I needed to get those scenes out of my system. I'm not promising it's going to be safe at all, but be warned that I write shit like that lol. lost a few readers because of it lol XD But now lets get on with the story! Gonna be a bit shorter because last chapter was my longest one ever XD
My head's underwater
But I'm breathing fine
You're crazy and I'm out of my mind
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You're my end and my beginning
Even when I lose I'm winning
Cause I give you all of me
And you give me all of you, oh
-All of Me (John Legend)
As soon as the zone came in sight, Annie's heart beat picked up, if that was possible. She was already running on adrenaline at this point. When the people at the gate saw the unrecognized car, they immediately pointed their guns up. But when Nickson opened the window-or rather stuck his head out of it-and screamed "OPEN THE FUCKING GATE" they immediately dropped their weapons and pulled it open. The van drives into the area as quick as it could and stops short, but no one cares as everyone jumps out of the car. The first person by Annie's side when she stepped out was Rachel. Her eyes were wide.
"What the fuck happened there?" she asks, looking at Hallie in her arms. When she sees everyone else step out of the car, her hands go to her mouth as she takes in the sight. All of them were covered in blood, some cuts still bleeding. Of course Annie had Hallie in her arms, who was passed out, but she noticed the bruises and cuts on her. But once she saw Kelly in Daryl's arms and a different girl who was in Jill's arms, she felt like she was going to throw up. "Is she-"
"She's awake, right?" she asks Daryl. He nods.
"Still here, right sweetie?" he says softly to the girl. She gives a weak nod, and Rachel shakes her head.
"Who the hell-"
"It doesn't matter!" Jill snaps, walking over to the infirmary with the little girl in her arms, still fast asleep. "Explaining will be done later! We need to help the kids first!" Rachel begins to protest but Annie just pushes her-with her free hand-towards the place.
"She's gonna pop a molly if you don't go there. And I'll fucking snap your neck if you don't." Rachel raises her hands up and walks into the infirmary with Annie and Daryl hot on her heels. Annie readjusts Hallie in her arms, but doing so causes her to wake up. She moves her body a bit but cringes at the pain she felt. Annie holds her tighter. "Don't worry honey, we'll get you patched up soon," she says to her. Even through her pain, Hallie shakes her head.
"Take care of Kelly first," she mumbles to her. "She needs it more." Annie feels her heart drop. Even if she was hurt she wanted Kelly to be taken care of first.
"She'll get it too," she replies. She sees Jill lay the small girl down on one of the cots and Annie follows by laying Hallie down across from her. Rachel turns to Kelly and cringes a bit. She looks at Daryl at gestures towards the room across, and then places her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"She needs more then just patching up, Daryl. She can't be in here with the other kids," she says softly. Both are silent before he gives a sharp nod and goes into the next room. Annie sees Barbie come in a moment later with her gun, and she gets a good look at the kids. She whistles.
"Jesus, what happened to them?" she asks. Annie simply shakes her head.
"Ba...Nicky can you just stay in here for a minute?" she asks, making sure to use her actual name. She looks shocked at her asking, but nods anyway and takes a chair, plopping down into it. Annie offers her a sad smile. "Thanks," she replies, walking out of the room into the other. When she walks in, she automatically gets a chill up her spine. It wasn't as...nice feeling the other room gave off. Maybe it was just that Kelly was laying there on the bed but it didn't make her feel any better.
Rachel and Daryl were talking discreetly near the door, and she honestly didn't want to hear what was going to go on until she got another look at Kelly. She walks over and leans down to her. Her chest went steadily up and down, very slow. Annie sighs sadly at the little girl's body, and apparently Kelly heard. She weakly turns her head and smiles at her, though it sort of looked like more of a grimace then anything else. She was still awake, even through all the pain.
"Hi mommy," she whispers. Annie smiles at her and reaches out, taking a hold of her small hand in hers.
"Hey, sweetie," she replies. "You're still awake."
"Daddy told me to stay awake so I did." Annie chuckles at this.
"I'm proud of you," she says, squeezing her hand. "Does anything feel better?" Kelly manages a painful shrug. "Baby, don't do that," she counters, placing her hand on her bumpy shoulder.
"It still hurts. A lot. I wanna go to sleep, but I can't. I need to stay up." Annie brushes a stray piece of hair from her eyes that was pasted onto her head. It was still caked in blood. She was getting the bath of a lifetime sooner or later.
"You're such a fighter," she admits to her. "Always facing the pain. You and your sister." Placing it behind her ears, she smiles again. "You know, I've never heard you call me mommy until now," she says to her. Kelly looks down at Annie's hand in hers.
"I...wanted to...call you that...before I can't." Annie's grip on her hand tightens.
"Don't go saying crap like that. You'll be fine, Kelly. Everything will be alright," she insists. "And soon you and Hallie will be playing together again. May even have a new friend in that little girl we have." She felt tears at the edge of her eyes again, but she wipes them away. "Everything will be fine."
"Annie," she hears Rachel call softly to her. She lets her head drop to the ground and a sigh escapes her lips. Squeezing Kelly's hand one last time, she stands up and walks over to her and Daryl, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Yeah?" she asks quietly.
"Look, right now, I honestly don't know the impact of these injuries. But from the looks of it, they aren't good. Beth and I will do everything, and we have the supplies, but I...I can't guarantee anything. But I'll try everything I can." Annie stares down at the ground but nods. "You're still bleeding. Don't worry about those kids. I saw some others go in to take care of them. You guys clean up in the back room. Out of everyone who came back you need to most cleaning." Both nod and go out into the hallway, and Jill immediately comes up to Annie.
"Is she ok? What has to happen-"
"Jill, give me a minute!" she snaps. Instead of being shocked at her tone, Jill nods and steps back into the opposite room. She knew Annie would be like this. Annie turns to Daryl and nods towards the back. "I'll meet you back there, okay?" she says softly. He nods without another word and heads back, and she sighs again, leaning against the wall. Jill comes out a minute later.
"Need to talk about it?" she asks. Annie glares at her stupidly, but shakes her head sadly.
"She said she doesn't know if she'll make it through," she states with a monotone voice. "She doesn't fucking know. How am I going to live on with all this on my brain? This is going to kill me from the inside, Jill." Jill comes over and places an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to her.
"Well, there's nothing you can do right now. All you can do is hope. But I've know Rachel longer then you have, and with her, I think she'll be able to pull this through. She's quite the doctor." Annie smiles and looks down at the ground again. Se had taken an interest in that lately.
"I hope," she says quietly. "What's going on in there?" Jill shrugs.
"Well, Hallie passed out, but right now we have some people taking care of her wounds, and that little girl is still fast asleep. But she's being taken care of." Annie nods sharply.
"Did you take care of Blake?" she asks. Jill shrugs again.
"I didn't. Rick did. Fucking slammed his head into the wall."
"Did the same thing to Joel," she says. "But I don't think this is the end of this." Jill's brow furrows.
"What do you mean?" she asks. Annie looks back into the room at the two hurt children and sighs.
"I don't think Daryl killed Joel. I honestly have a bad feeling he's still around. And that we're going to get attacked here. Sooner or later, all of this...I don't know, it's all going to go to shit now. Something bad is going to happen." Jill bites her lip.
"Then we'll be prepared." Annie snorts.
"You said that last time," she retorts. "Look what happened to that brilliant plan."
"If anything like that does happen, we fight until the end. And if this place is taken, then we'll stick together and get out. We're not going to let anything like that happen to the kids again. Only Joel and Blake know where Aasim is. Blake is dead. I know that. Joel, at least right now, can't do anything. The guards don't know shit. We have time." She takes her arm away from her shoulders and her eyes widen when she sees blood on her skin. "Annie, go and get cleaned up. You still have some glass in you." She nods.
"Stay in there for a while, ok? Tell Barbie she can go." Jill smirks at the nickname but nods, going into the room. Annie takes one final look at the room Kelly was in and then makes her way down the hall.
When Annie makes it to the door, she opens it slowly and steps inside. Then, closing it softly behind her, she turns to where she saw a shadow cascade over the floor of the slightly large room. Daryl was sitting on the window seat, staring out into the dark night. Se walks over to the shelves and picks up whatever she could use to fix up the wounds on her. Bandages, some peroxide. She even picked up a stitching set just in case some of them needed that sort of attention.
"Rachel told you everything?" she asks quietly, walking over and sitting across from him on the seat. He hums a yes, and she can only take that as an answer for now. She knew he had a lot of stuff on his mind. She takes out a clothe and pours some peroxide on it, then takes one of his arms in her hands where one of the wounds were. She pulls out a piece of glass, but he doesn't flinch at all. She places the clothe on the wound and begins to wipe off anything. "Are you okay?" she asks. Stupid question, she knew. But she could never stand silence.
"I don't know, Annie," he mumbles, finally taking his eyes off the window and letting his head hang. "I don't know." She wraps a bandage around is arm and moves to a cut on his face.
"I need to see your face, baby," she murmurs to him. He reluctantly brings his head back up and she sees that his eyes were slightly red and puffy, but she said nothing and started to wipe at one of the cuts. "Jill thinks Rachel can fix her."
"Jill ain't always right," he states sadly. Annie takes away her clothe and pours a bit of water from a bottle near her.
"This might sting a little," she says, and she places it on his cut. He flinches slightly but lets her work. "Rachel was a doctor before all of this. I think she can do it," she says, trying to put a little bit of hope in the air.
"She looked dead, Annie," he replies. "She looked like she was about to die." Annie moves her hand down and grabs a bandage, moving to his shoulder.
"But she's not. She's still breathing, and Rachel is working on her right now. So is Beth." He suddenly turns is head away and gets up from his seat, knocking over a shelf next to them in the process. "Daryl!"
"Ya don't get it Annie!" he snaps at her. Instead of fighting back, she sits back and lets him have his do. "I could have stopped this! Back at that god damn farm that asshole had a fucking ax, and I could have just fucking ended his life right there. But my fucking mind said to let 'im go and to get to ya. I could have all stopped this. I could have fucking prevented all of this shit! Kelly, Hallie...even that fucking little girl...all their injuries is because I didn't fucking end his life right there!"
Further letting out his rage, he punches the wall right next to him, creating a huge hole. She raises an eyebrow at the hole but looks back at him, then at his hand. It was now bleeding. She rolls her eyes.
"Well, now look what you did, you dummy," she mumbles, taking his arm and pulling him back down to the seat. He sits down with ease. She pulls him closer and takes his hand in hers, then begins to dab the clothe on his fingers. "You want to know why you didn't kill him? Because at the time, we didn't know what he was capable of. We thought he was just an accomplice in all this shit, harmless. But turns out we were very wrong."
She takes a bandage and wraps it around his hand.
"And what happened to Kelly and Hallie was not your fault either. They snuck in while we were sleeping. There was nothing we could do about it." She moves to his shoulder again and begins to wrap it in a bandage. She looks at him when she finishes up and tilts his head up, making sure that she had complete eye contact. "You always think the worst of you just because this stuff happens. Truth is, we can't avoid it in this world. Kelly and Hallie? They can't have a normal life. They never can. Even if for some miracle all these fuckers died out, they would still never have a normal life. They have to deal with it. And this is just part of it." He stares at her, letting her words sink in.
"Yer takin' this well," he says softly. She smiles and shakes her head.
"I'm not. I know Kelly could die. I know she can. I know that they'll be back, but I just keep thinking of one thing, and that one thing is keeping me going, and not completely losing my mind." He raises an eyebrow.
"And what is that?" She smiles wider.
"The day we get to nuke their asses," she states, and that gets a snicker out of him.
"I'm pretty sure that we can't do that," he counters, and she shrugs.
"Oh well." She leans in and places a kiss on his lips, nice and sweet. When she pulls back, she smiles. "She'll be fine. I know she will. Have a feeling."
He stares at her for a second before nodding. He takes his hand back from hers and gestures to turn around. She raises an eyebrow questionably.
"Ya still got cuts on your back," he says softly, and she nods and turns around. He takes the clothe and places his hands at the hem of her shirt. "Gotta take off the shirt." She shrugs.
"Not like you haven't seen anything," she teases, and he actually smiles a bit at that remark. He pulls it up over her head and takes the clothe again, placing it on a gas that was right under her shoulder blade. She flinches a bit.
"Sorry," he mumbles, now taking the bandage. He wraps it around her and secures it tightly. "That looked like the only serious one here. Fucking glass still cut some areas. They ain't bleeding anymore though." She nods and decides to slump against him at that moment.
"I'm tired," she finally says. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her closer to him.
"I think all of us are," he replies. She nods, but still keeps her head on his chest. She feels his fingers trace the skin that ran up her spine and she smiles. She leans up and pecks his lips again.
"I love you," she quietly says when she pulls back. "Don't ever forget that." He offers her a crooked smile.
"Love ya, too." She looks down and grabs her shirt.
"We should see Hallie. See if she's up."
When they get back to the main room, Annie is surprised to see that Hallie was up and looking at the little girl sleeping across from her. She wasn't expecting her to be awake, only walks over and sits on the bed, causing Hallie to look up. She smiles.
"Hi," she whispers. "The little girl is sleeping," she adds on. Annie smiles.
"I know. How you feeling, Hallie?" she asks. Hallie looks down at the bandages that cover her and then back at Annie.
"It still hurts, but I feel a little better." Annie nods, but Daryl shakes his head at this.
"Ya are one tough kid, Hallie," he states. She smiles.
"I am, but Kelly's tougher." She looks around the room. Her brow furrows. "Where is she?" Annie bites her lip. How would she tell her this?
"Kelly needs a bit more then...bandages, sweetie." Even if she was young, the little girl seemed to understand this and looks down at her bed, fingering the sheets with her small fingers.
"Oh," she says quietly. "Well," she starts, looking back up at the two. "I think she'll be fine. Even if she can be annoying she'll kick butt." Annie feels a smile cross her face while Daryl laughs at the little girls use of words. Annie holds her close to her while she giggles.
"I hope, Hallie. I really do." Her little ray of hope.
Review? :)