(Brents POV)
I just helped finish off the last piece of the fencing around the Sanctuary, we would probably add more later on but Negan had told us it was alright for now.
Wiping off the sweat from my face I made my way over to the truck were the water was, the thought of Laura being out there was bothering me.
Of course she not a child anymore, but after everything that happened to our parents made me even more over protective of her and our safety.
No matter how strong I try to be for us, deep down the depression and emotional build up was bubbling up inside me.
I can't afford to loose Laura, she's all that I have left and if something were to happen I couldn't go on with myself.
It was as if God had answered my prayers cause one of the guys from the gates yelled out that the scanavgers are back, gulping down my cup of water I threw it down and rushed over to the opening gates to allow the trucks to come in.
When I saw the exterior of how the truck looked my stomach turned in anxiety, there were bullet holes on the truck. Panic came over me as I tried looking into the trucks as they passed to see if Laura was in there.
When the last truck came in I noticed that Simon was the one driving, remembering that Negan had placed Laura with him I rushed over to him.
He stopped the truck and then got out of the driver side, he was about to go towards the back passenger door till he saw me coming his way.
"Where the hell is Laura?" I asked him, he didn't answer me and went to the back door and opened it.
"Don't fucking ignore me. Where's my sister!?" I said, I watched and noticed that a girl came out from the other side of the back seat and another one from the passanver side.
"Who the hell are you guys?" I questioned, when Simon began pulling out something from the back I realised with widened eyes that it was Laura.
"Oh my God Laura!" I yelled and ran over to grab her from Simon, when I tried grabbing her from his arms he pulled away from me.
"You're gonna wake her up, she's in a lot of pain." he said then tried walking passed me, but I pulled him back by the collar and made him look at me.
"What the he'll did you do to my Laura?!" I asked demandingly, when I said that there was immediate anger in his eyes.
"I didn't fucking do shit you little punk!" he barked in my face, despite him being a few inches taller than me I wasn't intimidated by him one bit.
"The hell is going on out here, Simon I thought you guys would be gone longer than expected. Who the hell are our new guests?" Negan asked while walking up towards us and gesturing to the two new girls, Simon pulled away from my grasp and went over to Negan with Laura still in his arms.
"We ran into some fucking trouble during the search, got it taken care of but she was shot." he told Negan while looking down at Laura's knocked out form, Negan noticed the bloody cloth that was tied around her stomach and groaned in displeasure.
"Jesus kid.. Alright inform me more about it later, luckily we had a doc to get that cleaned and healed up." he said to Simon, nodding in agreement I watched as he walked away and I to the building.
I began to follow begins Simon, not once falling slow on his long stride walk down the halls.
"What happened out there, I have the right to know who hurt my sister." I demanded , when he didn't answer I rushed over and stopped right I front of him.
"Fucking answer me damn it!" I yelled at him, when I looked at Laura I felt my gut almost tighten in disgust at the wounds of her stomach.
My hands clenched into balls of fists at knowing someone had hurt her, Simon must've noticed my anger because he looked me right in the eyes.
" Don't worry, the guy got what he deserved. Come one before she gets even worse." he said then walked passed be and continued down the hall towards the infirmary.
(Laura's POV)
It felt like someone hit me on the head with a hammer, when I began waking up the after taste of the vodka invaded my throat. Cringing in disgust I tried sitting my self up but then stopped at the painful discomfort from my abdomen.
"Jesus Laura you shouldn't be moving yet." hearing Brent s voice from beside me, looking over I saw him rushing up from the chair he was sitting and setting me back to lay down.
My arms wrapped around him and hugged him close, feeling so happy to see him but knowing that I'm going to get an ear full from him right now.
Pulling away from me and sitting down on the side of the bed Brent looked down at the bandage around my stomach and shook his head at me.
"I told you that I didn't want you going out there, now look what happened." he said through gritted teeth, I looked at him in disbelief .
"Are you saying that its my fault that this happened, well fuck you fro sounding so concerned" I yelled while throwing the pillow at his face, he caught and chucked at the ground while getting up off his feet to look at me.
"I am concerned, I didn't want you going out there because I know you're not ready for that type of shit yet!" he yelled trying sound louder than me, whenever we'd argue this was always a thing we would do.
"The hell makes you think that I'm not ready to handle shit, I held my own pretty damn well today. Of course something like this was going to happen just be glad that I'm not dead!" I said trying to make him see how not much being of a deal he was making.
"Yeah but next time you could be dead, what then huh. What if you were shot in the chest or somewhere else important. Better yet, what if you wondered off on your own and those assholes cornered you, what then Laura?!" he asked me, I didn't actually think about that.
The fact that I wasn't alone and didn't get that badly injured wasn't that big of a deal for me.
But what if Simon or them weren't there with me, and I came across guys like Travis?
"I'm not tryingg to treat you like a child Laura I just want you to see that people are not like how they were before, hell even the goodness in people can change once shit hits the fan. Just because we know how to deal with the sick and kill them doesn't mean we know how to deal with the normal people." he said while rubbing his hands through his hair.
"You know you're starting to sound just like dad." I said out loud before thinking about it, Brent looked at me with a stern facial expression.
He hasn't let me talk about dad or what happened ever since we left home, its like he want to forget everything about them.
"Maybe that's a good thing, someone has to be the parent since you're acting like a damn child!" he sneered while looking away from me, I couldn't help but sense that Brent was trying to hold back from me his feelings about our parents and what happened with Lily.
"Brent...why don't you want to talk about them." I asked, he didn't turn to face me but still answered.
"Cause it doesn't matter anymore, they're gone so why talk about them like they're still here." he said harshly, I couldn't help the tears from spilling from my eyes.
"How can you say that about them Brent, hell they're family and its like you want to erase them from me." I said while wiping my eyes, I watched as he went over to the medical cup her and placed his hands onto the top of it.
Brent was never the one to open up about his feelings, it was like he was afraid to show that side of him to anyone especially me.
I've always looked up to him as a strong, tough stone older brother. But at times like this I just wished he'd express his emotions with me and hold me close while letting it out like I have been.
" Brent I know you miss as much as I do, but forgetting about them and acting like they never mattered won't make your pain go away. " I said, within a second Brent brushed his hands across the counter aggressively and chucked off everything onto the floor in anger.
"And you think crying and grieving will make them come back, face it Laura no matter how much you cry and pray for things to go back to normal it won't fucking happen!" he yelled causing me to jump a little, I never seen him his angry and it was as if he didn't want to take it out in me.
"You don't think I fucking miss them, how dad was a pain in my ass all the time about making sure I get into a good school to better myself!" he said while grabbing small metal tray and throwing it at the wall, I watched as he paced back and forth across the room and grabbing the next thing to toss.
"Or how mom was always there at my football games watching me play and yelling at us for getting caught sneaking out." he said causing a stiffle chuckle from his lips, the memory of those days flooded my head and caused more tears to flood my eyes and when I caught a glimpse at Brent s face he was to starting to cry.
"Brent you don't.." before I could say another word he cut me off.
"No no you want me to open up I'll fuck g open up Laura, yes I fucking miss them to death okay, you don't understand how much I don't get enough sleep thinking about what happened to them. I could've seen that dad was getting sick or help prevent what happened to mom and Lily." he said while trying to hold back his sobs, biting down on my lips hard I tried to stiffle back myself from crying.
Brent went back to the chair sitting across from my bed and sat down on it, his head facing down not even wanting to look at me.
"I could've prevented what happened, mom would be alive right now and so would've Lily. Dad should've told me...I don't understand why this happened. And I shouldn't have made you do what I couldn't do, I'm sorry Laura.." he said while placing his hands over his face, I sat there in both amazement and sorrow to the words he spoke to me.
Finally I knew that he was hurting as much inside as I was about everything, but seeing him like this made me feel awful forcing it out of him.
His sobs were muffled from behind his hands, sniffling I began sitting up from the bed.
The wound was hurting like hell and knowing that I shouldn't be moving right now didn't matter to me right now, all that mattered is that for once my brother was the one that needed me to console him.
When I got right infront of Brent he looked up at me in confusion to why I was up from bed, but before he could protest and force me back I wrapped my arms around his head and pulled myself close to him.
He stayed stiff for a moment till he felt my tears hitting on his skin, unable to hold it back anymore I felt his arms wrap around my waist and his face buried into my right shoulder blade.
His sobs vibrated through my body, causing me to hold him tighter and press my fresh bandage onto his body.
I was so angry with Brent for trying to take control of my choices and for starting to treat me like a child that I never stopped and wondered why.
But now I understand why Brent was acting the way he's been all this time, he was trying to protect me and not lose me too, we are all that we have left of each other.
After what seemed like hours that we both finished letting out all the built up emotions inside that I finally went back to he bed to lay down, Brent went to pick up the stuff he threw across the room before or anyone else came back into the room.
After putting back the metal tray was when Negan ,Simon and Carson came into the room.
"Ahh glad to see you're awake sweetheart, are you feeling any better?" Negan asked when noticing the bandage on my stomach and the puffy redness from my eyes, he looked at at Brent to the same thing but didn't bother questioning him.
"I'm doing ok now, how is Aarat and Maddie?" I asked him, Simon looked at Negan and then to me.
"They're doing fine, one of the ladies that was with us took them to kitchen and gave the something to eat and refresh themselves." Simon said making me feel relieved to know they're alright now.
"Simon here told me what you did to help those two girls, and I must say form someone small you had some big lady balls doing what you did for them." Negan said causing me to smile at the praise he was giving me, although both Simon and Brent still seemed a bit upset about me getting hurt.
" Although Simon did make a good point, you need to be more properly trained to fight back whenever you go back out with them." he said, Brent looked at Negan dumbfounded at what he said.
"Wait you can't let her go back out there again." he said while pointing to me, I looked at him annoyingly till Simon went over and pulled him off to the side.
I watched as he started talking to Brent and pointing at me and then to him, the expression on Brents face changed when Simon continued on speaking.
When their private conversation ended they came back over to me and Negan, Brent looked over at me and then sighed.
"Negans right, you do need to be more properly trained. And you're right, I can't keep making decisions for you and start treating you like a grownup." he said to me, I couldn't help from smiling to what he was saying.
"However, you're going to have to wait for that wound of yours to heal before beginning the training." Simon added o to Brents words, pouting I couldn't argue with them being right.
"Alright" I agreed , Negan patted Davids shoulders and turned to .
"Alrighty then, Docs gonna check on your wound again and give you some pain medicine to help along with the healing process." Negan said while walking, but before he took a step out the door he turned around in his heel.
"Oh almost forgot, he said while pulling out something from the other end of the door.
When he pulled something up in his hand I saw that it was a woode bat, finally I remember that Brents bat broke in half when I hit Travis across the back with it.
"Found out that you're bat broke, so figured I'd find you a new one. "Negan said while handing it to me, I looked down at it and traced my finger tips along the wooden structure.
"Thank you Negan...you didn't have to do that." I said to him, he shook his head and smiled at me.
"Don't mention it sweetheart, I have a bat already so figured that I give you my extra one to use." he said, looking up I raised my brow at him.
"Why have two bats, were you a baseball player or something?" I asked, earning a chuckle from Negan.
"Well not to brag, but I was a baseball player in college and coach afterwards." he said quite proudly, I looked at Brent and then smiled .
"Maybe once I'm all healed up we can play some ball." I said, looking at Negan I could see his eyes glint up at my challenge.
"Hmm we might just have to do that sweetheart, now if you'll excuse me I have to steal your brother away and talk about some important matters at hand." Negan said while gesturing for Brent to follow him out the room with him.
"Simon make sure Laura gets something to eat after this." Negan said while exiting the room
(Normal POV)
After changed Laura's bandages and gave her some pills to take she was able to leave with Simon, he took his time walking with her as they started heading down to the kitchen and grab something to eat.
With the stuff that everyone was able to find at Wal-Mart, the kitchen lady was able to cook up some Macaroni and cheese with some cornbread for supper.
When we opened the doors to the kitchen the sleep of the food hit Lauras nostrils and made her mouth water, she was so hungry and hadn't had mac and cheese in forever.
Simon saw the look of excitement on her face and chuckled, grabbing Laura and himself a tray he went over to the kitchen lady and had her readied their food.
While he did that Laura looked around to find Maddie and Aarat sitting at one of the empty tables, nervously she walker over towards them.
Maddie saw her and smiled while getting up out of her seat to walk over, she placed a gentle hug on Laura making sure not to touch her bandage.
"Thank thank you so much for what you did." she said while pulling away from me, I could see Aarat looking at us and a soft smile creeping up on her lips.
"It's no problem, I couldn't let you guys go back to that guy." I said, taking Aarat next to Maddie I waited for Simon to bring our food.
"So is that guy you're boyfriend or something?" Aarat asked me unexpectedly, I couldn't help but blush a bit.
"Oh no no, He's just a good friend, I'm only seventeen." I said , Maddie couldn't help but laugh.
"He seems like a good guy, but who was that guy who was yelling at him earlier?" she asked, realising who she was talking about.
"Oh that was my brother Brent, he should be here in a bit." I said, I couldn't help but see Maddie smiling a bit to that statement.
"She wants to know if he's single?" Aarat said, earning an embarased look from Maddie.
All three of us couldn't help but laugh at each other,I was happy that I now have two more people that could become good friends.
And now that I was possibly going to be able to be trained and able to help out more around here, it felt like this was going to be a fresh start of mine and Brents new life.