Kayla watched from across the room as Johnathan read a storybook to Judith while she reloaded some of the empty clips of their firearms at a table. They were in Virginia and only about ten miles outside of the Richmond community Noah told the group about following the event at Grady Memorial. The teenager along with Rick, Tyreese, Michonne, and Glenn were heading to the area to see if the walls still stood while the rest of the group hung back in a small house just off of the main roads. Daryl was out in the woods trying to track down a source of protein for dinner along with a creek since their food and water was at an all-time low. The other group members were busying themselves with other tasks, leaving Kayla to herself. Well that was until Abraham came in from watch.
"Hey girlie." he greeted as he took a seat at the table.
"Hi." she replied, not taking her eyes from the clips she was reloading. Kayla liked Abraham, he was loyal to the group as well as a valuable asset, but ever since the truth came out about Eugene's lie for a cure he hasn't been the most stable individual. She opted to keep her distance from him, but at the same time didn't want to cause problems by acting like he was a lunatic.
"Need a hand with these?" he asked, looking at the several empty clips Kayla had yet to reload.
"Aren't you supposed to be on watch?"
"Sasha went out to takeover with Rosita and Carol. Thought I could be useful in here."
Kayla looked up at Abraham and saw he was being sincere. She smiled and nodded. The two of them worked on reloading the clips together in silence for a while before Kayla spoke when she noticed Abraham was reloading at a much faster pace than her. "You're not too shabby at this." she commented.
"Owe that one to being in the military before shit hit the fan." Abraham retorted. "Besides I may be able to reload clips fast but I don't think anyone else here can throw a stitch as fast as you can."
Kayla couldn't help but smile at the comment. A few days prior to this one Abraham's arm lost a battle with some barb wire that needed a few small stitches. It took her less than five minutes to clean, stitch, and bandage the wound. "Years of practice." she told Abraham as she loaded the last clip.
"When can you take them out, Doc?" Abraham asked.
"Do you feel the need to scratch them?"
"They itch more than jock itch."
"Thanks for that mental image, but I can take them out now. It wasn't that bad a cut anyway so it should be fine by now."
Kayla stood up and led Abraham into the kitchen where her bag was that had the medical kit in it. Abraham set up at the counter while Kayla pulled out what she needed to remove the stitches. She pulled out a pair of scissors and tweezers, wiping them off before going to Abraham's forearm and beginning the stitch removal.
"Don't even think you'll have a scar." she told Abraham as she removed the stitches.
"You think scars would bug me, Doc?"
"No. Just saying."
Abraham watched as she removed the stitches as if it was one of the more simple tasks on the planet. "Did you like it?" he asked. "Being an ER doctor?"
"I loved it." Kayla replied. "Never a dull moment. That's why I'm so good at suturing. I probably stitched up someone every other day."
Kayla pulled out the last stitch and then cleaned the skin before putting a bandage over it to keep it covered. "Keep that on for a couple more days and you'll be good." she told the veteran. "You are officially no longer my patient."
Abraham chuckled as Kayla put her tools away. "Do you know where Maggie is by chance?" she asked. The eldest as well as the only Greene left was still grieving over the death of her sister. Kayla's attempts to restore the light in Maggie have failed, the poor girl always just disappearing into a puddle of tears again. She's been much quieter these days, not even Glenn managing to make the girl spare a smile.
"Upstairs." Abraham told her. "I'm gonna go walk the perimeter. Thanks for taking the stitches, Doc."
"Not a problem."
Kayla walked to the upstairs to find Maggie sitting on the bed in the only bedroom of the house. Her back was to the door, making Kayla tread lightly as she entered. "Maggie?" she said cautiously.
"I don't even have a picture of her." Maggie sounded, her voice cracking.
Kayla immediately rushed to her friend's side and sat down next to her. She put an arm across Maggie's shoulders and gave her a hug, causing more tears to fall. "My sister is gone and I don't even have a picture to remember her by." Maggie continued. "I just keep wondering that if I looked for her harder or…or…" Turning in Kayla's arms, Maggie cried into Kayla's shoulder as her friend consoled her. It broke Kayla's heart to see Maggie so sad, but she knew there was nothing she could do to make the pain of losing a sister go away with a magic word. The only thing that could make the pain subside was time. Even though some days were better than others, days where Maggie didn't cry and spoke some words and others where she didn't utter a single syllable and had tears welled up in her eyes all day.
The girls sat like that for a while, Maggie sobbing and Kayla comforting her until the tears ran out and the exhaustion from crying took its toll on the Greene. Kayla had Maggie lie down and take two aspirin before heading back downstairs where she found Daryl walking in the front door.
"Anything?" she asked hopefully despite knowing the answer.
"Creek beds are drying up, couldn't even find any tracks." Daryl told her as he set his bag down. Kayla's shoulders dropped as she walked back into the kitchen. Daryl walked past the couch, messing up Johnathan's hair as he followed after his wife. He found her in the kitchen pulling away the water containers that were getting lower and lower.
"We'll find some." he reassured her. "Too bad there ain't no weatherman to guarantee sunshine so it'll rain."
Kayla couldn't help but smile, looking up at Daryl who gave her one of his smirks. The front door opened, causing the couple to look over to find Carol entering. She shook her head. "The place is gone."
"Oh Noah…" Kayla said sadly. That was where his whole family was and now he just walked into their grave. She felt for him. He was so young and the rest of his bloodline was gone. He wasn't alone, he had the group now, but that didn't make the pain any worse. First Beth, now this. The boy was just taking hit after hit.
"We'll pack all the shit together. Be ready to go when they get back." Daryl told Carol.
Carol returned to watch after that, Kayla's eyes watching as she went before they landed on Johnathan and Judith in the living room. Even though she knew the community in Richmond was a stretch. She still hoped it was there for Carl, Judith, and Johnathan. They deserved a place to sleep easy at night. Even though they were so young, they had already lost so much.
Leaning on the kitchen chair, she closed her eyes to take a deep breath. Richmond was also the last lead they had on a safe place. Where were the going to go next? They weren't in Georgia anymore which meant they were out of familiar territory. They didn't know any local towns or places that they could turn into a sanctuary.
Daryl's hand on her shoulder brought her back down to Earth. "Hey." he said, making her turn her head. "We'll be okay." She gave him a weak smile and nodded. "Yeah." he pressed a kiss to her hair before heading out to the living room where he told Johnathan to get his things together to leave soon. The boy abided, putting Judith in her crib and packing his backpack. Carl walked in the kitchen door, nearly giving Kayla a heart attack.
"Jesus Carl." she said.
"Sorry." he apologized. "I just checked some of the snares I set when we got here. Nothing."
"Doesn't surprise me."
Kayla flicked the boy's hat. Seeing how much he's grown since the first day she saw him-when Otis shot him- took her back for a second. The farm felt like a lifetime ago. "What?" Carl asked when Kayla kept her eyes on him, but didn't say anything. She shook her head. "I just remembered the first days I joined into this group. You were shot, we were on the farm…" Kayla lost her words as she thought about those days. When Dale was around, her and Andrea getting into a fight, Lori confiding in her with the pregnancy…the day she met who would become her husband. She looked out the front window at Daryl as she remembered the day they met on the highway and the encounters they had before she kissed him on top of Dale's RV. Seeing him with such longer, darker hair and a more muscular physique made him look like a different person than when they were on the farm.
"When I think about those days it makes me feel a lot older than I am." Carl told her.
"Me too partner. Now go get your stuff ready to go. Your dad will be back soon."
"Richmond?"
"It's a no go. We're gonna have to figure something else out."
Carl just nodded before going into the other room.
OOOOO
Kayla and the others had everything ready to go when Carol came through the front door with the walkie talkie in hand and a broken look on her face. "Kids go upstairs." Kayla said. Carol stood by the door as Kayla ushered Jonathan and Carl to the stairs, Judith in her brother's arms. None of them asked questions, doing as they were told and just went up the steps. Daryl, Kayla, Carol, and Maggie were in the living room now, Abraham, Angela, Sasha, and Rosita outside on watch while Gabriel made himself useful by taking inventory of their other supplies.
"What happened?" Kayla asked, knowing someone was either hurt or dead.
"It's Tyreese." Carol said sadly. "He got bit, they took off his arm and are on their way back now."
"Okay go get Angela, find Sasha and keep her out of here, I'll set up a table."
Carol rushed back outside while Kayla went over to the bag with all of their medical supplies. "Maggie I need you to clear the table and put a sheet over it." Kayla ordered as she pulled out the sutures again along with the gauze wraps, disinfectant, and assortment of scissors and tweezers. Maggie did as she was told, Daryl asking if what he could do.
"We're gonna have to cauterize the wound just like we did with Hershel so I need you to find the biggest knife we have or something else we can use, clean it, and heat it up so we can do it right when Tyreese gets in the door."
Daryl did as his wife told him, knowing she was in doctor mode right now. When she was like this, she ran the show like a surgeon ran an operating room in a hospital. Angela came in the door, going straight to her best friend. "Alright who's doing what?" she asked as Kayla went over to the table Maggie set up.
"You're going to tie a tourniquet, Daryl will hold him down while I cauterize the wound. Right after the bleeding is under control you're going to clean it and tell me if I have to tie off any blood vessels. Once that's done we'll dress it and wrap it so it doesn't get infected."
Angela and Kayla finished setting up the table with all their equipment as they awaited for the others to arrive. It seemed like hours we in real time it took them less than twenty minutes to get back to the house. Everyone rushed out the front door, Kayla and Angela ready to start the treatment on Tyreese's arm, but outside they only found the other members of their group get out of the car with broken, sad expressions making Kayla's heart drop. Her mind instantly jumped to how they were going to tell Sasha her brother was gone. It was weird how although Tyreese was gone, Kayla's first thoughts were Sasha. Tyreese was gone and not going to come back, but Sasha was still here. She was going to have to live with this pain for the days and weeks to come.
Daryl stormed off the porch in anger and Kayla and Angela returned inside to put away all the medical supplies. Neither of them spoke a word as they packed everything away, the loss of a group member making silence the only thing in the air around the house. Kayla didn't realize she was crying until Angela stopped what she was doing to hug her friend. Dropping what was in her hands, Kayla hugged her friend back as the tears escaped her eyes. She cried for Tyreese and Sasha, the group losing a good man and a sister losing her brother. These days were getting harder and harder and all Kayla could wonder was how things could get any worse.
OOOOO
It was Maggie who told Sasha about Tyreese. It hit Sasha hard, but she didn't cry. She was just in shock that her brother was gone forever, making her eyes fill with a vacant stare as she processed the news. They buried him in a field behind the house, Gabriel saying a prayer as they laid Tyreese to rest. Seeing Tyreese buried broke Kayla's heart at the fact that they would continue on to somewhere else while he remained in a Virginia field. At the end of the service Kayla walked off, finding Daryl standing by himself at the edge of the property.
"Remember that day on the farm," Daryl said as he heard footsteps coming up from behind him, kowing they belonged to his wife. "We were walking the property and you asked what I missed the most about the world."
"I do." Kayla answered as she stood next to him. "You said it was your brother."
"Now he's buried back in Georgia by some mill. The same way Sasha's brother is going to be here. I have a different answer to that question now."
Kayla didn't say anything, waiting for him to speak again.
"I just miss the world before period. The world where people didn't lose siblings to one eyed pieces of shit or walkers or some trigger happy cop bitch."
"Daryl-" Kayla began, but he stormed off in anger making her drop her head in her hands. She just got through to him after he lost Beth and he was right back to where he was before. It took her almost getting bit to break him out of his shell the first time. She didn't know what to do now with him like this, but she knew why he was like this. His entire life he didn't have anyone that cared for him the way this group did and when they died it was losing more than a group member. They were family.
"Hey." a voice said. Turning, Kayla found Rick walking up. "You alright?"
Kayla shook her head. "Daryl's gone again and…Tyreese? Seems like we're just loosing too much these days."
"I know." Rick agreed as he put a hand on her shoulder. "But we'll be alright. We'll figure something out, we always do." Kayla nodded and put a hand on top of Rick's as she thought about what lied ahead. The two returned to the house after that where there was only quiet in the air.
