A/N: I felt like it would be more realistic if Clementine felt some anxiety around Kenny after all the violence she's witnessed in his presence. Hopefully it doesn't seem OOC or anything.

Clementine stiffened as a cool breeze swept across her face. She held a wiggling AJ while watching Kenny gingerly touch his face. They'd been standing like this for the past few minutes with her trying to be patient with him on their way to Wellington. Shushing AJ, she began to feel concerned about Kenny. He'd been grunting in pain for quite some time now. She'd watched him repeatedly raise the bandage and poke at his eye while cursing to himself. Clementine winced. The memory of Jane gouging out his eye while Kenny begged her to get the wrathful woman off of him was still fresh in her memory.

"Kenny? Do you want me to take a look at your eye?" She spoke tentatively, not wanting to upset him. She was still reeling from the trauma of the fight that had escalated to murder.

Kenny stopped and lowered his hand, looked at her. He shook his head, voice trembling as he spoke. "I don't know, Clem. I feel like somethin's wrong with it. Maybe...maybe a ripped nerve or worse?" Kenny muttered, massaging his eye a bit too roughly for Clementine's liking.

Despite her anxiety, she felt like she had to do something before he took his eye out right in front of her. Their long trek in the cold had left her feeling exhausted, so she felt they should quickly take care of this issue. "Ripped nerve or not, I think we should stop and take care of it. If that's alright with you," she felt she had to add.

Kenny looked at her oddly for a moment before he nodded. He reached into Clementine's backpack and pulled out a blanket for AJ. They looked for an area on the ground to let the baby rest as comfortably as possible, swaddled in the soft fabric.

With AJ safe and resting, Clementine asked Kenny to sit down so she could get a good look at his eye. He sighed as he found a large rock to sit on. Clementine took off her backpack and pulled out a small towel and some water. She noticed Kenny couldn't stop touching the affected area.

"Kenny, stop. Please. You're going to irritate or infect it," Clementine chided gently, remembering Carlos had said something similar to her after stitching up her arm properly. To her relief, he stopped abruptly and guiltily lowered his hand.

"Sorry Clem. It's just...I think she opened the fuckin' wound. Just the cold air is makin' it sting like a bitch."

He was right. Clementine saw blood smeared around Kenny's eye. Some of it looked caked and old, but most of it was fresh and wet. She felt a bit worried because she had almost no knowledge of how to properly take care of the wound if it did become infected. For now she'd just have to clean it. It was the least she could do to prevent its condition from worsening. They could use a short break anyway.

Clementine cleared her throat. "Kenny, maybe you should lie on your back. I'm gonna put some water on your eye. It looks like it's bleeding, so a rinse might help me see what's going on a bit better. It might also relieve some of the pain."

"Right. Sounds like a plan." Kenny shifted from the rock and sat on the snow-covered ground. He laid down on his back with his hands held over his chest. "Shit it's cold. Let's hurry it up so Alvie doesn't get sick."

"AJ? You're the one lying in the snow," Clementine couldn't help but note.

Kenny chuckled. "I would have thought you knew by now I can take a lot."

Clementine rolled her eyes. If there was one thing he couldn't take it was an opinion different from his own. She didn't dare say it aloud, though. "Close your eye for me, will you?" she said instead, sitting next to him. She poured some of the cold water into her cupped hand, letting it drip onto his eye, rinsing away some of the blood. Kenny hissed at the contact and let loose a string of curses, making her tense and lean back reflexively. It wasn't uncommon for him to swear profusely when even remotely inconvenienced. But for some reason, she'd anticipated him getting physical. Perhaps due to the trauma of what she'd witnessed earlier. To her surprise, he relaxed and didn't lash out like she'd expected he would.

"Don't mind me, Clem. It just stings a bit is all. Feels like the damn thing's bein' stabbed by a needle or somethin'...fuckin' hell. I almost want to tear it outta my skull..."

Clementine exhaled a shuddering breath of relief, wanting to laugh at herself for getting scared. Her eyes softened with sympathy as she saw tears roll down from Kenny's better eye. When Lee was around, she remembered he would wipe tears from her face as she cried.

Clementine plucked a small towel from the backpack and raised it to Kenny's injured eye, then paused. "This is probably gonna hurt. A lot. I'm going to dab your eye to clean the rest of the blood. Some of it looks like it's dried up so I might be a bit rougher than you'd like. You think you can handle it?"

Kenny looked panicked for a moment, making Clementine wonder if perhaps she was only going to inflame Kenny's wound and prolong his pain. But then his healthy eye creased with affection as he raised a hand to rest on Clementine's right cheek. "'Course I can with a nurse like you. You're doin' a great job so far. Just...be nice and slow, alright? No sudden movements. And keep an eye on AJ, will you?"

"Don't worry. I'll be as gentle as I can." She pulled his hand from her cheek and let it rest back on his chest. Glancing quickly in AJ's direction, she saw the baby was fine and thankfully not crying. She raised the towel up to Kenny's eye and prepared to dab at it. "Okay," she muttered. "Easy does it..."

Kenny whimpered as she rubbed at his eye. She could tell he was trying his best to suppress his discomfort, but it was to no avail. She felt him take hold of her left arm, which made her momentarily stiffen. His tight grip was distracting as she continued delicately wiping away the flecks of blood. Her hand shook every now and then as she felt overly aware of her movements. Clementine swallowed hard, trying to avoid meeting Kenny's intense gaze as she cleaned his battered eye.

It was a good thing she'd managed to pull Jane off of him as she'd dug into his eye, otherwise the damage might have been truly grotesque. She couldn't deny the bruised and lumpy mass over his eye was disfiguring, though. Not to mention it was bad enough that Kenny was squeezing her arm with each grunt of pain. And Clementine let him without complaint.

Every now and then she glanced back at AJ, making sure he didn't roll over and end up face-first in the snow. She didn't need two injured people on her watch.

Without any proper antiseptic or new bandages, Clementine did the best she could to clear the area of debris and dried blood. It wasn't a proper patch-up job, but it would have to do. She was at least confident infection would be staved off. For now.

Once she was done, she placed the bloodied towel back into the backpack and helped Kenny to his feet. As they stood up, Kenny replaced his eye bandage and patted his eye gently as though to check if it felt better. Clementine was tempted to tell him to stop out of concern. But she didn't have to as he lowered his hand and smiled tenderly at her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it. "Well, what do you know? It does hurt a bit less now. Or maybe I'm just imaginin' it 'cause of your magic touch." Leaning back, he appreciated her with his good eye. "You know, sometimes I almost feel like I could be your dad. But then you go and take care of me like this and...I swear, it's like we're tradin' places."

Clementine turned away and walked back to AJ. She picked him up and began rocking him in her arms. "Wouldn't be the first time. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not your mom. And that I'm not Russian." The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could consider them fully.

Kenny didn't respond and for a moment, anxiety amplified within her. Perhaps she shouldn't have reminded him of Arvo. But soon enough, he ambled over to her and AJ and graced her with a bitter smile that looked like it bore far too much wisdom. Especially coming from him. It aged him even more than the grays in his beard did. "I'm glad, too," he joked.

She laughed weakly, a bit taken aback by his response. She couldn't help but see a little bit of Lee in Kenny at that moment. Although as she and Kenny spent more and more time together, memories of Lee had begun to fade—only to be replaced with ones that involved Kenny. She couldn't help but savor the feeling that she had gotten to know him better than most others. She'd seen him at his most redemptive and his most despicable. In fact every moment she spent with him was illuminating in one way or another. When he wasn't rash or hostile, he could actually be quite charming. And that sharp contrast hurt her soul.

Clementine nuzzled AJ close to her as she and Kenny began walking back to the road they were traveling on. Kenny suggested he take hold of AJ instead, but Clementine insisted she was fine and he wasn't a bother. He looked unconvinced, but didn't put up a fight for once. Perhaps he was as drained as she was.

Clementine did find Kenny immature at times, especially compared to many other adults she'd encountered in recent years. And especially compared to Lee. Whereas Lee was on the soft-spoken side and a mediator, Kenny was his polar opposite. Kenny was impulsive, aggressive, and emotionally unstable, often provoking even the gentlest of souls to scream psychotically at him.

Which was why she hated that he'd somehow nestled deep inside her heart, making it impossible for her to hate him like everyone else did. And at times like this, when he smiled at her like that, similar to how he'd gazed kindly at her when they'd reunited, she wished others saw in him what she did. A hole burned in her chest as she wished Jane had seen it.

And that it hadn't taken Jane's death for her to see what she'd stubbornly tried to ignore—that Kenny really was breaking down. That hurt worse than anything else because it encouraged her deepest fear. That she may eventually be forced to abandon him as well. The gravity of that possibility made her shudder. She didn't even want to consider such a thing as an option. Not after all they'd endured together.

The laughter and tears. The heartbreak and vindication.

Because, for once in his life, Kenny was actually right. He really was like a father to Clementine. Not the most reliable or pacifying father, but a father, nonetheless. And Clementine enjoyed doting on him as well.

For a moment she was overwhelmed by a rising emotion, and tears welled up in her eyes. She felt she had grown to love him despite his brashness. Or maybe even because of it. And when she saw those rare moments of vulnerability, that feeling only spread like wildfire within her. It all hurt so much she could hardly bear it.

So Clementine pressed a chaste kiss against AJ's cold cheek as though it might warm him up. The baby would keep her occupied from her thoughts soon enough. As always, his survival was what mattered most.