There was a gentleness to the calloused hand that brushed against hers, prying the bag away from her with restrained control.
"Victoria?" It sounded like Rick was shouting at her from the long end of a tunnel. Victoria could barely hear him through the noise.
"She's in shock." Hershel wasn't looking at her, instead, his attention was drawn over her shoulder. "Otis?"
Shane gravitated closer to her side, shaking his head at the older man.
Victoria heard a poorly stifled sob behind Hershel as the doctor glared stoically at the Deputy.
"We say nothing to Patricia." Hershel decided. "Not until after. I need her." He rushed back into the farmhouse, the screen door rattling loudly behind him.
Almost immediately, Rick pulled his best friend into a hug with a relieved sigh. Victoria wanted to move away but the world was still spinning like a carnival ride.
"They kept blocking us at every turn." Shane spluttered as he parted from Rick. "We had nothing left, he said he'd cover us and we should keep going so that's what we did. I just... kept going but I looked back and he... I tried."
Rick dropped his hand on Shane's shoulder with a placating nod. "He wanted to make it right."
Victoria moved without realizing it, stumbling back until she was hunched over, holding the passengers door of the blue monstrosity as she struggled to breath.
The fresh air almost masked the metallic scent lingering around her - almost.
"Whoa, hey." Shane was at her side at an instant despite his limp. He steadied her with a hand on her uninjured arm. "You okay?"
She looked at him and didn't care for the way his eyes racked over her, like he was certain she was already infected. Victoria slipped away from him, albeit sluggishly and caught his eyes with her own unflinching stare.
"I'm fine."
She wasn't all too impressed by the croak in her voice. Neither was Shane.
Victoria straightened, shaking the apprehension from her bones. It was over. They were alive and Carl had his chance - she needed to calm down before she completely unraveled.
With another deep sigh. Victoria turned back around. Maggie was consoling herself on the porch while the couple lingered on the lawn. Sheriff Grimes looked exhausted, his face was drained of any color and his cheeks were deathly gaunt. With his wife clinging to him, Rick looked nothing like the pillar of hope and strength the survivors saw him as.
Unsure of what she could say to offer them any comfort, Victoria tentatively approached. Lori met her halfway but before Victoria could say anything, the woman threw her arms around the Detective.
Victoria would've appreciated the gratitude - and the human contact - but a shocking jolt of pain gripped her instead. She pulled away from the embrace, reeling Lori back into her husband with a gasp.
"Oh. Fuck me, that hurts."
"It looks dislocated." Maggie hiccupped.
Victoria vibrated with agony. She could only imagine what popping the bone back would feel like after her evening. "No." She said, surprised by the steel in her own voice. "No one touches me until Hershel is finished with Carl."
"You can't stay like that." Shane warned.
"I can wait for the doctor." She saw the calculating expression Rick shared with Shane above her head. "Stop." She barked. "Whatever you're thinking, I can wait a little longer."
Maggie stood, backing up into the house. "I'll get you a sling." She disappeared into the house too.
A heavy silence fell over the remaining survivors. Once again, that heavy feeling of loneliness settled over Victoria like a weighted blanket.
She could offer them nothing but a sharp nod before retreating back to the idling truck for sanctuary.
"I don't know how we'll repay you."
Victoria paused before she turned around, surprised to see Rick a step behind. "You don't need to." She replied without hesitation. "It was the right thing to do."
His lip quirked into a grateful smile but he shook his head anyway. "Not many people would say that anymore."
Victoria was overwhelmed with a sense of realisation that came so suddenly, it nearly knocked her on her ass. She didn't help save Carl because she owed it to Lori or Rick but because helping people was still who she was - whether or not she had the fancy title or badge hanging from her hip.
She must have looked pathetic because Rick furthered softened before he pulled her into a gentle hug. "Thank you."
Drenched in blood, barely holding herself up and exhausted unlike ever before, Victoria's eyes burned with tears as she rested her head against his chest. His deceptively strong arms kept her tethered down as her consciousness fluttered in and out.
She gave him the tightest squeeze her body would allow before she murmured, "Man, this wasn't how I expected my week to go."
Rick rumbled with a chuckle. "Yeah."
Victoria pulled away from him, rubbing the tears away with the back of her hand. "Okay. Go to your wife and focus on your son. I'll be okay."
"Were you a doctor too?"
"Daddy was a veterinarian, actually."
"A vet?" Shane repeated, his expression souring as he sat across from Victoria.
Maggie set her armful of supplies on the kitchen counter and whirled on him with a fierce glare. "Daddy's the best damn veterinarian in the county."
Victoria believed her - everyone else within a hundred miles was dead anyway.
She unclipped her holster, maneuvering around her injured shoulder with ease before dropping it on the island. The leather was ruined, the dried, infected blood would ever wash out.
"Hey."
Shane and Victoria turned to the doorway, similar expressions of surprise as they saw Glenn in the doorway.
"What are you doing here?" Shane demanded.
"T-dog was hurt pretty bad, he needed stitches." Glenn stepped deeper into the kitchen and circled around the other side of Victoria with a wince. "Oh, that looks like it hurts."
"Like a motherfucker."
With a disapproving glare, Maggie set down a glass of water in front of Victoria. "Take these." She handed her two white pills.
With a healthy dose of skepticism, Victoria glanced up with an eyebrow raised.
"It's Ibuprofen." Maggie answered. "We need to keep the swelling down otherwise it's really going to hurt." Without anymore warning, she wrapped the cloth around Victoria's shoulder and brought her injured arm into a semi-uncomfortable position cradled against her chest. "Sorry." She muttered as the Detective winced - she sounded anything but. "It ain't gonna hurt any less until it's reset."
Victoria watched her secure the sling with a tight knot. "Your dad can do one more."
"Have it your way." Maggie stepped back and appraised her work with a nod. "That should do for now." She looked unsure then, the confidence leaving as she sighed. "Was it fast?"
It was clear that she meant Otis. Victoria shared an uneasy glance with Shane, her guilt reflected by his under the dim yellow lights.
Maggie caught it too. She gulped as tears sprang from the corner of her eyes. "'Scuse me." She hightailed it from the kitchen, disappearing around the corner.
Glenn leaned off the counter with a regretful frown that didn't suit his boyish features. "I'm glad you guys made it back safe." He said before ducking through the front door, closing the screen door quietly behind him.
Victoria chuckled, smothering the humorless noise as she covered her face with her free hand. "What a fucking disaster, man."
"We did what we had to."
"We can still make it." She wrapped her fingers around the oak grip of the Sheriff's weapon and shook her head firmly. "We're going to make it."
She watched Shane speak emphatically but the throb behind her eyes was too distracting to hear whatever he was saying.
Over the grotesque squelching of guts being torn asunder, Otis screamed - his dying breath used on a plea for help that went ignored.
"Don't turn around." Shane threaded his bloody hand through hers, pulling her away from the distracted horde. "Don't turn around."
But Victoria never took demands well - especially from a man.
Victoria rubbed her temples with the same vigor as the throbbing but the headache only worsened as she scrubbed.
She lifted her head. The chair across from her was empty and the home was unnaturally quiet again.
This time, she reveled in the silence that would be the last of its kind.
"He seems to have stabilized."
As Rick and Lori celebrated the good news, Victoria couldn't help but feel the weight of Otis' death pressing heavily against her shoulders.
"I don't have words."
Hershel wringed his hands through a blood-stained tea towel. "I don't either." He said, thinning his lips at Lori. "Wish I did. How do I tell Patricia about Otis?"
Victoria leaned against the doorway. "I'll speak with her."
Hershel made a sound of disagreement. "Seeing you covered in blood won't help the matter." He eyed the sling for the first time, taking in her lopsided stance in the doorway with a frown. "Broken?"
"Dislocated." She said. "Someone with experience should tell her."
"You're right." Rick agreed, "I'll do it."
Before she could stop herself, she was insisting upon it. "As a witness to his death, I should inform his widow."
"You're off duty for the rest of the night, Detective."
Was she? It sure as hell didn't feel like it.
Hershel, Rick and Lori retreated into the farmhouse without further argument, leaving Victoria and Shane staring at each other, overcome with a similar sense of what are we going to do now?
"You don't have to offer yourself up like that." Shane said as he approached the bottom of the stairs.
"I had to." She met him at the bottom. "One of us had to."
"You don't gotta put yourself in situations that make you uncomfortable." He leaned against her as she helped him up the steps. "We don't owe these people anything."
Victoria couldn't find it in her to argue with him.
Shane pushed open the screen door just in time to witness Patricia collapse against Hershel in the kitchen, her loud wails heard throughout the farmhouse.
The Deputy paled and made a slow beeline to the makeshift surgery room, abandoning Victoria in the middle of the entrance way.
She turned to flee back outside but Maggie sped downstairs, blocking her way with an armful of neatly folded clothes.
"I brought you something to wear." She said before thrusting the bundle to Victoria. "They should fit fine, they're mine. The bathroom upstairs."
"Thank you"
Maggie nodded before turning the corner into the kitchen, joining Hershel and the weeping widow.
Victoria ascended deeper into the farmhouse, the smell of blood and flowery detergent following her.