((Carl's P.o.V.))
Déjà vu.
A full day has passed since Tanner and I had our date on the outskirts of the Zone. Together with Dad, Bob, Sasha, and Tyreese, I am on the wall of Alexandria, picking off any walkers that wander too close to the camp. The déjà vu comes from fact that I've done this before. At the prison. After the Governor destroyed the place, I didn't think we'd ever find somewhere truly safe again. Yet, here we are, and the familiar routine is oddly comforting. Since the walls are so large, everyone on the team uses large metal poles with sharp ends attached, allow us to reach down and stab the walkers in the head; swiftly putting an end to the problem. Douglas had explained to use earlier that, by doing this, the community prevents too many walkers from gathering together to form a herd. And, as I've learned from months spent out on the road, herd formation can happen quickly and is extraordinarily dangerous, even to a larger community, such as this one. Next to me, Dad jabs his "pike", as they're called, down on an oncoming walker, ending its reanimated state.
"You see Tanner at lunch?" he asks me causally as we patrol further down the wall.
"Yeah," I reply simply, a smile coming to my face as I remember our break together earlier.
"How's he liking the infirmary?"
I stop moving for a moment to think back to Tanner and I's conversation over lunch.
"He says its interesting, working with the doctor... I think her name is Denise." I reply.
Tanner and I, per our previous agreement, had met for lunch in the same place we'd had our date last night. He and Tara had both volunteered to offer their talents to the infirmary and learn from the local doctor, a woman by the name of Denise Cloyd, to become medics. When I'd spoken to him, Tanner had seemed really enthusiastic about his new role in this community. It makes me happy that he's enjoying himself here. Enough so that the memory of his enthusiasm brings another small smirk to my face. He and Tara, who have become good friends since we all met up in Terminus, had bust into the house loudly and been joking rather vibrantly with one another. It was the first time I'd seen Tanner get so rambunctious and loud.
It was nice to see him like that.
"Carl?" Dad snaps me from the warm memories.
I chuckle lightly, "Sorry." I reply. "Just thinking about some things."
"I was asking how you are adjusting." Dad continues, studying me carefully as we continue to move down the wall. "To this place?"
My smile fades.
Truth is, I'm not adjusting nearly as quickly as everyone else. The Zone is growing on me, but slowly. I still remember the prison too vividly. Hershel's farm. The camp outside of Atlanta. All three were said to be "safe". All three fell and each time I lost someone important to me. I can't quite shake the feeling that the same might happen to this place, even though, by far, this place seems to have its system together.
"I'm gettin' there." I reply.
Dad rests his free hand on my shoulder, drawing my eyes to him. Its been awhile since we had a good father-son moment. I've been spending all my time with Tanner, so its not really his fault.
"I know you are." he says, in a very fatherly manner. "Keep tryin'. Why don't you go out with Tanner again tonight? That seems to cheer you up."
This brings my smile back.
I don't know why it always happens, but whenever someone else, particularly Dad, notes the positive effects Tanner has on me, it makes me feel warm and toasty inside. Just the image of him in my head makes me smile and even though we have our little tiffs from time to time, I wouldn't want to be with anyone else. He's everything I've ever wanted in a friend or more.
"Yeah," I reply with a smile. "I'd like that."
"Rick! Carl!" its the voice of Sasha.
"What is it?" Dad turns his attention to her, voice more serious.
"New shift is coming into replace us for the evening." she informs us, stopping briefly to catch her breath. "We can go home."
Dad nods and I relax. The way Sasha had come running up on us like that made me think there was something wrong. I am relieved to here that it is nothing. Dad turns back to me, expression softening back to the way it was moments before.
"You go on back to the house." he instructs me. "I'll go find Carol and pick up Judith, then meet you back there."
I nod, hand my pike off to the approaching replacement shift, and then take off towards the house.
####
My mind is racing as I head back towards the house.
Its supposed to be a short walk, but I'm moving slowly today. No matter how much I want to like this place, the bad feeling in my gut just won't go away. It doesn't help that I am currently walking alone and there's no one around me to talk with about it. I really wish Tanner was here, but I'd even settle for Michonne or Dad. But there's also another issue on my mind. Those looks I'd been getting. Tanner had finally noticed it for the first time yesterday. We'd seen the boys, some our age, some a little younger, watching us as we came home from our date. It wasn't the first time I had noticed it, having mentioned to him that they were doing the same thing at dinner the night before. I can't quite put my finger on why its bothering me so much. Back at the prison, I had just ignored the other kids until Patrick and I had become friends. Even then, I generally tuned him out, which, looking back on it, was probably not a very nice thing to do.
I turn the street corner onto our street and am immediately stopped.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear, as they always say. A group of teenage boys blocks my path, standing no more than ten feet in front of me. In all I count about six of them. I'd seen them before. They are the ones I was suspicious of. At first I pass it off as just a coincidence. I try to take the long way around them, thinking that they'll just glare at me, as usual, and leave me be.
They don't.
The entire group purposely moves in front of me, blocking my path yet again.
"Can I help you?" my voice is low, sarcastic.
I'm in no mood to be messed with.
Especially by these guys.
"Where's your little boyfriend, faggot?" the tallest one spits.
Faggot.
That's a new one. Can't say that I've ever heard that term before, but from the tone he's using, I assume its some sort of insult. Whatever the case maybe, its meaning is lost on me. They mentioned Tanner. My eyes narrow. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that this entire situation is about to turn bad really soon. Glancing off to the side at my surroundings its quickly apparent that I'm alone with them in the streets. Everyone else is still helping out in the community and not in their homes. Great.
"Get out of my way." I assert.
I really don't want this to turn bad, but I won't back down if it does.
That's for sure.
"What's wrong, faggot?" one of the boys closer to my height smirks. "Not very sociable?"
No, as a matter of fact.
I'm not.
I don't respond to him, though. I doubt it will matter even if I do. They'll just keep goading me. Instead, I focus my eyes on the one who just spoke and glare back at him harshly. Its an act of defiance that only seems to make them smirk in unison. What do they want, anyways? I've purposely kept my distance from them, so why do they even bother with me? The middle boy, the tallest, shifts slightly and rests his hand on his hip. I suppose its a gesture that's suppose to make him look superior, but, once again, its lost on me.
"I don't like the look in this one's eyes, fellas." he says to his posse.
"Let's teach 'im a lesson, Garret." one of the others chimes in.
I try once again to walk around them and leave them to their childish antics, only this time, things get physical. The shortest one steps out in front of me and shoves me back. Hard. I stumble backwards but manage to catch myself before I fall completely on my ass. When I regain my balance, I look up at them; mad. Very mad, in fact. I feel the creeping heat of anger beginning to web itself through the veins just beneath my skin, heating every pint of blood in my body. The heat travels first through my chest, up into my neck, and then into my cheeks where it practically radiates off of me.
"What the hell was that fo-?!"
I don't even manage to finish.
The big one, Garret's his name, strikes me hard in the nose with his fist. He must be fast, because I barely saw him move. Pain ricochets out from the epicenter of the strike, alerting every nerve ending in my face. Its so painful it actually stuns me. That one move is all the other boys need to join in after their leader. My vision is somewhat blurry from the first attack, so I'm not able to make out who makes the next one. Suddenly there is a sharp pain in my side and then, before I'm even able to get my hands up to fight back, I'm shoved backwards. My feet come out from under me this time and immediately gravity seizes me in its iron grip, crashing me down hard into the concrete. They're relentless, though, and before I can even make an attempt to get back to my feet, one of them is on top of me, pressing me down into the roadside to prevent me from moving.
"I bet you like this, huh, faggot?!" the voice definitely belongs to Garret. "Some guy on top of you! You like that, huh?!"
I squirm and try to push back at him, but having spent all day on the wall, I'm physically exhausted. His strength exceeds mine by quite a lot and I'm not able to struggle hard enough to free myself. My attempts, however, only seem to make him want to hurt me more. He shoves his knee into my stomach and I feel myself involuntarily lurch forward, spitting out stomach bile and there is a twinge of the taste of blood as I do. Around us, the other boys are laughing and whooping like its some sort of sporting event they're watching.
Surely someone has heard by now.
Surely someone is coming.
That doesn't keep me from fighting back though. I see a brief opening in his cockiness and aim a sharp jab with my fist at his own nose. The blow connects and causes him to flinch. My plan backfires, though, because I don't hit him hard enough to knock him off of me. When he recovers, blood starting to streak down his nose, he's pissed. Gone is the playful arrogance he's shown up until now; replaced entirely with murderous rage.
"So," he hisses. "The faggot has some fight in him."
"Let him have it, Garret!" one of the other boys shouts.
And let me have it, he does.
The larger boy rears back, knowing I'm fully helpless beneath him, and punches me as hard as he can right in the nose. I see stars. The colors of vision are fading in and out of blackness. How I manage to stay conscious, I don't know, but his punch causes me to hit my head hard against the concrete. I feel the warm trickle of blood drip from my nose to my upper lip and then down my neck, where it veers off to drip onto the sidewalk. I'm in too much of a daze to notice much of anything else. Vision still blurring, I see Garret rear back for another blow, the one that is likely to "knock my lights out", for sure. I wince in anticipation for an attack that never comes.
The weight that's pinning me down is suddenly and violently torn off of me and I feel light again.
Using the opportunity, I immediately push myself up off the ground, coughing up a wad of blood as I do. When I look up, the boys aren't looking at me any longer, nor are they chanting and having a good time with beating me. I can't even see Garret. The're all looking at something else.
And then I see him too.
"T...Tanner?!" I croak past the pain in my head.
"Carl." Tanner's voice is different. Its deeper than usual. There's an edge to it. He's angry and I can feel his anger rippling off him like a sickness in the wind. "Can you move?"
I clutch my stomach, where I'd been kneed moments ago, and attempt to stand. I manage to do so, albeit weakly, and my whole head spins as I do. The pain in my nose, from two powerful blows, is throbbing, causing my eyes to sting, vision to blur. It hurts so bad, but somehow I'm upright. I open my mouth to speak, but am immediately silenced by another wave of pain.
"Y-yeah..." I manage after a moment. "I can move."
"Come over here." he commands. "Beside me."
The other boys don't make a move to stop me. When I finally limp past their chain, I can see Garret getting to his feet. Its only then that it dawns on me what happened. Tanner must've pulled him up off of me and thrown him, causing him to land a good foot or two away, and then roll to the side of the street. He's scraped up, but, otherwise, seems unharmed. More pissed off than ever, if anything. Even so, I manage to limp over to Tanner and stand beside him. Tanner turns his head slowly in my direction, glints of rage and hatred marring his usual happy eyes.
"Point out the one that put you in that position." he says.
I wince and give him an inquisitive look.
He already knows the answer to that. That should've been obvious when he pulled Garret off of me. Even so, he waits for an answer, looking at me expectantly.
"Well, well." Garret mock laughs off in the distance. "If it isn't the other faggot."
Tanner's eyes narrow upon hearing that word.
"Him." I say. "It was him."
"Yeah, it was me." Garret says, shrugging. "Wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been such a-"
BAM!
Tanner isn't one for words in a tense situation. He doesn't give Garret time to finish up his cocky monologue. My boyfriend's fist slams into Garret's face, knocking him right back into the concrete he'd just picked himself up out of, but he doesn't stop there. Tanner cross the street, causing Garret's friends to back away somewhat in fear, as he approaches their older leader. Tanner bends down, seizing the teenager's shirt collar, and jerks him up off the ground before releasing him from one hand and using that hand to hit him again.
And again.
And again.
By the fourth strike, Garret is more bloody than I am.
Sprinkles of that blood are present on Tanner's face and cheeks as well. Tanner doesn't relent either. His knee comes up and catches the defenseless boy in the gut, sending him keeling over just as I had done. At this rate, I can tell that if I don't stop him, Tanner will kill Garret. As much as I really don't care for Garret, or what happens to him, there could be ramifications with Douglas if Tanner kills the boy.
"T-tanner." I manage. "S-st-Stop!"
He doesn't hear me, landing another strike on the boy.
"Tanner, stop!" I implore of him.
This time his fist stops just short of the boy's nose. He still looks murderous, but he seems to come out of his daze and realize what he's doing. Releasing the boy's shirt collar, Tanner allows Garret to fall backwards into the street. Once glance at the boy's friends causes them to take another frightful step back. About this time, showing up late, as usual, Dad bursts from around the corner.
"What the hell is going on here?!" he barks angrily.
He gets his answer with sight alone.
He looks at me first, then the boy on the ground, and then Tanner. The dots all connect, but before he can do anything about it, Douglas and two other adults arrive with him.
"We heard all the commotion!" the older man announces, coming up on the scene. "What's going...-?"
He too is answered with visuals.
"What happened?!" the Zone leader hisses. "Everyone to their houses. NOW!"
Even Dad flinches at his tone.
"I'll figure this out and deal with it accordingly." Douglas finishes. "Now you all heard me! Go!"
That's as much sensory input as my beaten body can take. I feel lightheaded just as my eyes roll back into my head and I start to fall. I feel myself caught by an unseen force, preventing me from connecting with the ground, and then everything is black...
####
((Tanner's P.o.V.))
Numb.
That's all I can feel is numb.
I'm outside our house in the backyard. The adrenaline in my veins still hasn't decreased. I'm still in fight-or-flight mode, despite almost half an hour passing since the incident. Mentally, I'm still processing everything that happened. I'd left the infirmary in a pretty good mood, parted ways with Tara, and went to see if I could meet up Carl before he got home from his duties on the wall. I'd spotted the fiasco as it unfolded on my way to find him and rushed into help. From that point on, it was almost as if my spirit had been lifted from my body and I was watching myself attack the kid that hurt Carl. I'd heard the names they were calling him, even as they were beating him into the concrete. It had ignited memories I long thought I had buried. Memories of high school and the consequences of being one of the few gay students in your grade. I'm so intensely into my thoughts, I barely hear the back door open behind me. Michonne's voice completely snaps me out of my daze.
"Came to check on you." she says lightly, resting her hand on my shoulder. "You alright?"
I'm silent for a moment.
Am I alright?
Physically, I'm unharmed, other than my sore knuckles from where I'd beaten the living shit out of the kid that was on top of Carl. Mentally? Emotionally, on the other hand? I can't quite say I am.
"How is he?" I ask without adverting my gaze from the grass in the distance.
"Rick is tending to him." Michonne answers. "You'll get to see him soon."
"Is he..." I hesitate. "Is Rick..?"
"Angry with you?" Michonne finishes for me, having detected the meaning of my hesitation. "I don't see why he would be. You came to the rescue of his son."
"I almost killed someone, Mich." I reply bluntly.
"I know," she almost whispers. "Carl told us everything."
"Us?"
"Douglas was here." she elaborates. "Wanted to know our side of things."
I half-snort at that, "There's not much to tell."
She nods understandingly, "Sounded like it. He agreed."
I sigh.
"That's not what's bothering me." I admit. "I know I did the right thing."
"Then what is bothering you?" she looks puzzled.
"I almost didn't stop, Mich." I reply, wincing at the memory. "It was like I was outside myself. If Carl hadn't screamed for me to stop, I don't think I would've. Carl always used to tell me he was some sort of monster, even asked me if he was evil once, and I told him no because he always did what he had to. But what I did..."
"Was something any of us would've done in your position." Michonne interjects.
"Not anyone." I reply. I know she's just trying to comfort me, but there's something she doesn't understand. Not yet. "I was bullied in high school, Mich."
She recoils at this, "For what?"
I regard her with a glance for the first time, "Is it really that hard to figure out?"
From there, she connects the dots easily. Yes, I was bullied in high school for the fact that I am gay. I wasn't "out" officially, or anything, nor did I care about such formalities at the time, but I suppose it was fairly obvious for one reason or another. The jocks in high school had a field day with that one. Back then, I was a weak person without a spine, and so the bullying was relentless. Downright painful sometimes. That's how I was able to recognize the stares those kids were giving us the previous day. I should've been more proactive. I should've warned Carl. But, I think, part of me didn't want to believe that people like that could still exist. The dead rise to eat the living in this world and people have to fight just to make it to the next sunrise, so I believed, naively, that such prejudice had died out.
Obviously, I was wrong.
"When I heard them calling him those names." I continue on, tears beginning to sting my eyes. "Saw them hurting him. I just snapped. There was no thinking about it, no running to get help, I just moved. I've been through all of that, but I'd hoped he never would have to."
"No one should have to go through that." Michonne agrees.
"Unfortunately, I wasn't able to shield him from that." I reply solemnly.
"You can't put that on yourself." Michonne is quick to correct me. "The world is a terrible place and it was even before the walkers came. Sometimes its humans who are the monsters. Even more than the walkers. Look at the bright side."
"Is there one?" I scoff.
She grins devilishly, "You taught those boys a very valuable lesson in consequences of misjudging someone."
I manage a smile at that thought, which disappears as quickly as it appears.
"Speaking of them," I say picking my words carefully. "What's the damage report?"
Michonne leans against the nearby wall and glances up at the sky in deep thought, "That boy you got, Garret is his name, has a pretty badly broken nose and a fractured cheekbone. He'll recover, but it won't be something he soon forgets. Douglas is going to speak with him, his friends, and their families. They won't be coming near either you or Carl for the foreseeable future."
"Good." I spit. "If they so much as glance at him the wrong way again, I'll make sure they can't come near him again."
Just as I finish saying those words, the back door again swings open, and I glance back behind me to get a glimpse of our new visitor. Now donning his familiar sheriff's hat once again, Carl silently and solemnly steps onto the porch.
####
Michonne senses the sudden urgency in the air.
"I'll give you two some time." she says, laying her hand gently on Carl's shoulder before slipping into the house and closing the door behind herself.
Silence fills the void and, for the longest time, neither Carl and I say anything. Both of us are keenly aware of the other, but neither of us currently have the words the other needs to hear. A warm blast of evening wind gusts over the yard, sweeping my hair to the side and nearly blowing the hat off of Carl's head. He's able to prevent it with his hand and that's when I notice... He has bruises on his arms. Under the shade of his hat is a bruised nose and a black eye. My tense demeanor collapses upon noticing this and I immediately turn around and wrap myself around him. He's completely limp when I do. I'm careful not to harm his injuries. After several minutes, his arms come up around my waist and weakly cling to me. Moving quickly, I sweep the hat off of his head and turn my attention to stroking his soft hair.
Anything to comfort Carl.
My Carl.
"I'm sorry." I finally manage to whisper to him.
"For what?" he replies equally as quiet.
"That I didn't make it sooner." I reply, still softly stroking his hair. "That you got hurt."
"You came," he replies into my chest. "That's all that matters."
We stay wrapped together for some time. Its a soothing embrace that I'm not in any mood to break. However, Carl seems to have something on his mind. He has every right to, after what happened to him. He presses off of my chest just enough to look up at me with his purplish-blue eyes, a result of all the bruising surrounding them.
"Dad saw it." he says cautiously.
My eyebrow instinctively raises, "Saw what?"
"The ring you gave me." he replies.
I freeze.
I mean, it really isn't a secret, but both Carl and I had agreed to keep our future pledges to one another between us until we were certain that announcing it would be well received by the entire group. At the time we made that promise, we were still on the road, and every day was an uncertainty. Now that we are within the confines of Alexandria, telling Rick and the others would've been a good move. Seems that fate found another way to reveal that information to Carl's father.
"How did...?"
"When he was looking over my bruises." Carl is quick to reply. "It was still hanging around my neck."
Almost unconsciously, I reach for the spot on his shirt that conceals the metal ring I'd given him. I feel it, underneath the soft fabric, clinging tightly to Carl's skin. Carl observes me silently and I watch him in return. Seeing him physically injured like this is doing nothing to soothe the anger festering in my heart and, yet, at the same time, my heart is breaking for him. We're supposed to be safe here. It was bad enough on the road, running from walkers all the live-long day, but now we have to worry about prejudice people too? Its infuriating and that is putting it mildly. Still, standing here mere inches away from my boyfriend, running my fingers over the ring I gave him is sending another feeling echoing out into the depths of my soul. Even though its only hung around his neck for a few days, it already has the memories of our love etched into it. All the issues we've overcome. All the enemies we've taken down. All the dangerous situations we've survived. All of that is radiating out of this one focal point.
I want to ask what Rick's reaction was, but, after considering all of this, I suddenly don't care.
I don't care what Rick thinks.
Or "Garret".
Or anybody.
The only person whose feelings about my relationship I care about is standing right in front of me. The one whom, despite everything that's happened today, is still wearing my ring around his neck and holding onto me ever so closely. Its still absurd to me. Two months and this person whom I never knew before the apocalypse rained down on us has become my entire world. That's when the realization strikes me that I never proposed to him properly back then. I had professed that I wasn't scared anymore, but there was still something holding me back. Whatever it was, that lock in my heart was broken now, and all that I want him to know is how much I want to be with him. No matter what this stupid world throws at us. If we're "faggots" to the people of this world, then I want him to know that we'll be so together. If the world thinks we're messed up, then we'll be messed up together as well. I don't care what we are to the world, because I know what we are to each other, and that's all that matters.
"Carl?"
He glances up.
"There's something I have to ask you." I can feel my voice begin to shake.
"What is it?"
"You saw today that I can be a monster too." I say, picking my words carefully. "I can do things that I'm not proud of. I can be dangerous."
He watches and listens carefully. I see those piercing eyes of his studying me with every word that forms on my lips. It only makes me take this more seriously. He doesn't want to hear sugar coated words. He wants to hear what I have to say and what I truly think. So that is exactly what I'll give him. Completely and totally.
"And as much as I want to, I can't always make it there on time to protect you. I try so hard to, but I'm only human. Its a frustrating limitation." I continue, the quiver in my voice getting stronger. "I'll always be there for you, regardless, but I just have to know. Do... Do you still want to be with me?"
His eyes narrow.
I can't tell if its an inquisitive gaze or one that is more out of anger that I'd even ask such a thing. Whichever it is, it is intense.
"Yes," he finally says.
Simple and sweet, as usual.
That's Carl Grimes for you.
"You're not a monster, either." he adds. "Remember what you told me? You were protecting me. Did you go a little overboard? Sure. But we all have at some point."
How ironic is that?
I've spent two months trying to convince Carl that he isn't the monster he makes himself out to be, and now here he is doing that very same thing for me. He is correct though. My mind flashes back to when Rick bit the throat of the man preventing him from protecting Carl, Michonne, and I from being raped by that gang of redneck thugs back before Terminus. Or when I'd lost my mind the first time we'd been attacked after Hershel's farm and went on a rampage of my own. When Nat had nearly crushed my spirit, Carl himself had stepped up to the plate. He'd even been the one to kill her. We've all done some pretty monstrous stuff for each other. Those kids that hurt Carl. They didn't see that. They didn't understand. They've been safe inside these walls for God knows how long, so they had no clue what it was like to have to do things like that just to protect your friends and family.
"Are you sure?" I want to make sure he's certain. "I want to make sure you know what you're getting into."
He chuckles at this statement, for some reason.
Whatever. I'm not even going to wonder why. He smiled, even if it was for a brief moment. In the state he's in, that speaks volumes about how strong of a person he is.
"I've known what I've been getting into for two months, Tanner." he reassures me. "Now what do you need to ask me?"
Oh yeah.
Still gotta do that.
I sigh in preparation for this and raise my hands to clasp his shoulders firmly, bringing his azure eyes to meet with mine. For added emphasis, I slip my hand down his chest and clutch the ring around his neck, through the fabric of his shirt once ago. Even with this minuscule contact, I can feel his heart pounding. He knows something big is coming.
"Carl," I gulp. Maybe I can make it through this without passing out. "Will you... Will you marry me?"
Carl practically knocks me over, jolting free of my embrace. Even cut and bruised, he looks like a deer in headlights. Whatever he thought I was about to ask, he clearly hadn't expected to hear those words come out of my mouth. To be completely honest, I never expected to hear those words out of my mouth either, but saying them to Carl, officially, seems right. It feels right. The shock on Carl's face is absolutely priceless. He shouldn't be that surprised. I mean, I technically had insinuated this days ago when I gave him that ring and then consummated our union shortly thereafter, but, as they say, hearing it is always better than simply implying it. As quickly as he'd broken away from me, he throws himself into me again and wraps me into the strongest embrace his injured frame will allow him to muster.
"I still think we should wait until you're eighteen, or at least until your dad is okay with it." I elaborate into our hug. "I know age doesn't mean a lot anymore, but it wouldn't hurt."
"I'm still okay with that." he replies, voice suddenly full of joy and excitement.
"Is that a yes?" I prod him jokingly.
I see him grin widely, despite the pain I know that must cause the bruising on his face.
"Yeah," he says, leaning up to deliver a small kiss directly at the center of my lips. "Let's do it."
And so its settled.
Not that there was any question in my mind to begin with.
Carl is the person I'll spend the rest of my life with. Alexandria or no Alexandria. Group or no group. Not a single thing can separate us any longer. And if anyone ever hurts him again?
I'll kill them.
No one is going to take him from me and I do mean no one. Carl is mine and I am his. That's the way its been this entire time and now, from the looks of it, its the way it shall always be.
"C'mon," he eventually says, pulling me towards the door. "Let's go see everyone."
And so we do.
The stage is set.
Despite all of the pain and heartache, a new beginning is just around the corner for us.
A/N: I bet none of you expected that! Countdown to the finale? T-minus three chapters! We're gettin' there folks! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Really been loving focusing more on the romance side of this story more completely. Comment, review, favorite, follow, and all that good jazz!
Now, onto the reviews!
Stuwee: Thank you! Good to hear from you again! :)
Hunter Ark: When I read this comment, I had to go back and re-read that portion of the chapter. Needless to say, I laughed my butt off. Hilarious! xD Thanks for sharing!
Obtained: YOU FEEL MY PAIN! I watched Creepers 1 and 2 all alone at 3 am one night when I was feeling particularly adventurous. Didn't sleep well for days. If walkers could ever do that, I do believe even our group of tough-as-nail-zombie-slayers would shit their pants. And I wouldn't blame them, because I would too! XDDD
NOxONE: Romance, wonderful romance! This chapter is full of it too! Well... somewhat . You get what I mean! xD Thank you for your comment! Definitely going to keep it up in future chapters! :D
tentails: No, Beth will not appear. I wanted her to, but I just couldn't find a convincing way to bring her into the story. All the theories I have on what happened to her are missing key elements that make it make sense. 'tis sad, because before she was kidnapped, I really looked forward to bringing her into the story. She's mentioned a few times though! Thanks for your question!
TwilightEclps: This review. Just. This review. I read this when I started writing the second section of this chapter and I was blown away at how you could follow EXACTLY where I was going with that sub-plot. That's the one "threat" our heroes haven't faced. They've fought crazy people, cannibals, and legions of zombies but they've yet to deal with prejudice about who they are. It really is cool when my readers and I are on the same page! :) Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoy this story so much!
Hellraiser1701: Of course! I always acknowledge my readers! :) You're most welcome~!
Really loving all these comments, questions, and reviews, guys! Keep them up! I love hearing from you all! I hope this chapter was enjoyable! Look forward to the final three! :DDD
See you guys for the next one!
Later!