"This place looks pretty abandoned. I don't think we'll find much stuff here." Luke said as he watched the fishing spot, running his eyes around the dusty, abandoned interior of the small wooden building in search of something.

"I see some fish. Is there a net in there?" Lee asked, standing at the edge of the deck and watching the light current of the river.

"Wait a minute." Luke said, returning to scanning the scene.

Lee sighed slightly and looked at Aj on his arm, smoothing the boy against his chest so that he could see some of the fish swimming in the river ahead.

It was somewhat comforting to have a baby in his arm, something different than holding dead, frozen bodies.

But, at the same time, it was a little worrisome. For he was too fragile, and any mistake he made, that baby could pay dearly.

And, even without wanting to admit it, Lee found it comforting to know that he has people who will help him take care of Alvin. Luke and Sarah were slowly gaining his trust.

Luke was a good man, with good principles and seemed to faithfully follow what he believed in. This was rare in those days.

Sarah was a sweet girl. Innocent, and even... ahm... stupid at times because of how she had been raised. But little by little those walls were crumbling and both he and Luke were building new principles and opening the girl's eyes.

Not to mention that he enjoyed their company. It was good to have someone to talk to. He himself had said this to Clementine a long time ago, that the most important thing of all was to have people around you.

And he himself had spent a long time without following his own principle. Hm, ironic.

"Ahm... Lee?" Sarah's low voice brought him out of his thoughts and he looked at her with an arched eyebrow.

"What... what did you do? Before all this?" She asked, still a little afraid of him, but something that was almost completely covered up by curiosity.

Lee let out a nasal laugh and looked up with a certain nostalgia.

"I was a teacher. I taught literature, but the main thing really was history." He replied. There were few times he remembered that time when he had been working as a teacher since the apocalypse began.

And now that he was thinking more deeply, he realized that all he thought about after he woke up after thinking he had died was Clementine and the group at that motel. Of course, Molly too.

But there were very few times when he thought about his life before. And most of the time when he really did, he thought about his parents and his brother.

He still remembered when he had to kill his turned brother.

"Heh, really? I never would have guessed." Luke said further back, and Lee laughed lightly. He had to agree.

"Yeah, I've changed a lot. Everyone has. What about you?" Lee asked, turning slightly toward Luke, who was approaching him with slow steps.

"Oh, I finished college. Art history, but I spent a lot of time working in a coffee shop." Luke said, smiling slightly in nostalgia.

"How old are you?" Sarah asked, still looking at Lee.

"I... I don't really know. When all this started I was 37. I think about 39, 40 now. I lost count." He replied, calmly turning away from the river and walking at a slow pace along the bank.

"Hm, geez. If I'm right, I'm 27." Luke said, walking right beside Lee. "But it certainly feels a lot older."

"Oh, tell me about it. I feel like I'm 50." Lee said, observing a lone walker just ahead.

He watched Luke approach the walker, but took a step in front of him, stopping him.

"Sarah... I think this is a good time for you to get used to it." Lee said, turning to the girl, who had her eyes wide in his direction.

"What?! I... I don't..." She stammered, moving a few steps away in fear.

"Sarah, remember what we said. Don't let fear overwhelm you. Okay? They're easy to deal with. Remember the knee trick, all right? Lee and I will be right next to you, you'll be fine." Luke said, placing a hand gently on the girl's shoulder, who was still afraid about it, but nodded.

She took the knife that was at her waist and with short, fearful steps, she approached the walker. Lee and Luke walked a few steps beside her, each on one side and ready to act if anything. Luke already had his machete in hand.

Sarah began to breathe harder as the walker approached and her hand began to shake.

However, the girl realized that she was panicking and began to take deep breaths, trying to calm her body and remembering what Luke and Lee had said. All the tips they gave her, and especially when she hit that walker in the head the day before.

She could do it. She could.

She just had to stay calm.

As soon as the walker got close enough, Sarah grunted as she threw her body to the side and kicked the side of the walker's knee, knocking him to the ground and quickly, killing him by stabbing her knife into the side of what had once been a woman.

Sarah watched with incredulous eyes the body below her. Various sensations coursed through her body.

Pride in herself for having succeeded.

Fear that she would have to do things like that again and again.

Disgust at feeling that cold blood and the rubbery skin of the walker against the skin of her hand.

Realization that she really could kill them.

She always could, she just didn't know it.

"See, congratulations." Luke said with a small smile, genuinely happy to see Sarah making progress, even if only little by little.

At some point, she would be fine in case they died. She would be fine if she ended up alone.

It was certain that Clementine would survive all that, perhaps Sarah could accompany her in the future.

Sarah was still breathing heavily, but in excitement.

She took the knife from the walker's skull and straightened her posture, looking at the little blood that stained her blade and the red that dripped down the side of her hand.

"Not so scary now, are they?" Lee asked, also smiling at the girl, who just looked at him with a certain twinkle in her eyes.

"Thank you... both of you." She said, alternating her gaze between the two of them.

"No need to thank us. We just want the best for you." Luke said.

"I know, I just... I just wish I had learned this sooner... maybe things would have been different." She said with her head down.

"Well... look, Carlos just wanted the best for you too, only in his own way. We can't blame him for thinking that way. I'm sure that wherever he is now, he's happy for you." Luke said, nodding slightly to the girl when she looked at him.

"Well... let's continue on our way." Lee said, looking around to see if there were any other walkers around, before continuing to walk towards the forest.

"It will be nice to walk near the river. I didn't find anything back there, but we can try to catch some fish later." Luke said, looking at the wide river nearby.

After walking for some time following the river, they decide to set up camp in a slightly more open area of the forest, which could see the surroundings and had a view of both the river and the road beside it.

"I'm going to stay here and take care of this little guy. Sarah, how about accompanying Luke? Make sure the surroundings are safe enough for us to stay here for a while." Lee said, looking at the girl, who nodded and stood beside Luke.

"Ahm, are you sure? I mean, if someone shows up, you'll be here alone with Aj." Luke said, and Lee nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Nothing will come near me without me noticing, I'm used to it. Not to mention that Sarah still needs to learn a few things. You can teach her in the meantime." Lee said, laying Aj down on the back of his backpack and placing some things on the ground right next to him.

"Well... okay. Holler if you need anything. We won't get very far." Luke said, turning around and walking into the forest towards the river.

"Okay, Sarah, in those cases where we have to make the rounds when we go to set up camp, if we find walkers, we kill. If we find people, we check to see if they are worth interacting with, or go back and warn the rest of the group." Luke said, running his eyes around the forest, but finding nothing.

Not a single walker.

"If it's only a few people, we usually just wait for them to pass. If it's too many, we go back to the group and get out of there immediately." Luke said.

"What if they're good people?" Sarah asked, and Luke sighed. That was the hard part.

"Most people these days are not good, Sarah. It's rare to find anyone decent, unfortunately. But in order to prevent deaths from happening and not take that risk, it's best to simply avoid strangers. Of course, there are exceptions, but you'll learn that in time." Luke said.

They walked for a while until they reached the riverbank, where Luke ran his eyes around one more time before turning and starting to walk back.

However, his eyes fell on some bloodstains that were on the sand. He quickly signaled to Sarah who took her pistol and stood behind him.

Luke walked slowly and cautiously along the shore, following the bloodstains.

They weren't very big stains, not much blood had been spilled, whatever it was from. But it was too fresh, surely there was something or someone nearby.

After walking a while longer following the trail of blood, Luke is surprised by a figure that knocks him to the ground and grunts in pain as he feels a blow on his cheek.

His gun is taken from his hand, causing him to accidentally pull the trigger, but he acts quickly, headbutting whoever attacked him and rolling to the side. Luke takes the small arm of the person who attacked him and puts his leg over it, preventing him from using his arm.

Grabbing his machete, he stands over the person and puts his blade against whoever's neck, until his eyes go wide in surprise.

"Duck?!" He exclaimed the name of the boy, who soon also widened his eyes and calmed down.

"Argh... Luke?!" Duck stood up quickly after the man got off of him, and the boy's eyes soon stopped on the person behind Luke. "Sarah?! Ah... aha... haha, what... where have you guys been?!" Duck asked, not really being able to control the smile that was born on his lips and giggling in a mixture of surprise and relief.

Luke smiled too and placed a hand gently on Duck's shoulder, just as relieved as the boy.

"Ah, boy. It's good to see you too. It took us longer than we thought to get out of that town." Luke said, looking around shortly afterwards as if searching for something.

"...Where-"

"My father is fine. He... he got hurt, he's weak, but he's okay." Duck said quickly, turning around and walking towards a specific point in the forest with Luke and Sarah walking right behind him.

After some time of walking, they finally came to where Kenny was. Lying with his back propped up against a tree, he was breathing weakly and, like Duck, his clothes were wet.

There was a small fire in front of him, struggling to keep it going.

What caught their attention most, however, was the wound on Kenny's face. A claw-like wound on the side of his left cheek. One of these cuts went to his nose, and another had cut his eye.

There were blood marks all over his face and clothes, but the wounds seemed to have stopped bleeding by now.

"Oh, boy... you're a wreck, old man." Luke's voice caused Kenny to turn his face toward him, slowly, but quickly enough to evince his surprise.

"Oh, hell... and here I thought I had managed to get rid of you." Kenny said, a relieved smile being born on his lips, also causing Luke to smile and crouch down beside him.

"Oh, not so soon. Get used to it." Luke said, noticing Kenny run his one eye around until it stopped at Sarah.

"... Are you okay, girl?" He asked, and although the girl bowed her head slightly, she smiled and nodded. "Good... where's Mike?"

Sarah's smile died, and she squeezed her own wrist. "... Dead... he was bitten. It was my-"

"His leg was screwed up. He had trouble walking, and with those injuries, in the sewer, it wasn't a pretty thing. In the end, he was bitten. There was nothing we could do." Luke said, looking at Sarah for a few moments, before shifting his gaze to Kenny.

"... Argh... damn... poor bastard. Well, it's great to hear that you guys are okay, though." Kenny said weakly.

Luke looked around, and after finding no one else, he started to get a little worried.

"Ahm... where...?"

"Clem is fine. We got separated because of some trouble on the way, but... she's fine." Duck replied, watching Luke tear off part of his shirt and place it over Kenny's injured eye.

It wasn't good to leave a wound like that exposed.

"Jane... unfortunately, Jane is dead." Kenny said, noticing Luke tense up slightly and, for a few moments, a lost look appear on his face.

"She... she died...? How?" Sarah asked.

The woman had survived alone, there was no sense in her dying. Especially being in a group.

"We went to Carver's camp... the place was destroyed. The roof collapsed... we barely made it out." Duck explained, lowering his gaze.

Luke stared at the ground for a while, until he closed his eyes and sighed in regret.

"She liked you, you know?" Kenny said, making Luke look at him.

And making that pain he was trying to ignore in his chest grow a little stronger. He hadn't known Jane for very long, but he had grown attached to the woman.

"She and Clem insisted on waiting a few more days." Duck said.

It didn't exactly serve as comfort to Luke for Jane's death, but it was nice to know that he hadn't been the only one with that on his chest.

As he lifted his head up, he spotted Lee approaching with his gun already in hand, hidden by the forest, and a smile was born on his lips.

He would not have his reunion with the woman. But other people would have in his place.

"Ah Clem will be quite happy to see you again." Kenny said, smiling slightly at that thought.

"Well, she won't be the only one to reunite with a lost friend." Luke said, getting up and amused by the confused expressions of the two around him.

"What? What the hell are you-" Kenny was interrupted when the sound of approaching footsteps alerted him, and both he and Duck stood at attention.

But as soon as the man in front of them came into their line of vision, and they recognized who it was behind that incredulous expression and wide-eyed stare, they both felt their bodies lock up for a few moments.

It was as if time had stopped for both of them.

"... Holy shit..." Duck and Kenny muttered at the same time as Lee alternated his gaze between the two dumbfounded.

"... Kenny... Duck..." Lee's voice, so deep and powerful in times, came out in a thread as he said the two's names.

Choked by the longing he felt so much but never let be exposed.

Duck stood up and Kenny made sure to force himself to do the same, without taking his eyes off his friend who he thought so much was dead.

Memories of when Lee showed them the bite years ago came back to their heads, and soon their eyes focused on Lee's amputated arm.

Questions began to pop into their heads. How was he alive? What had happened? Where had he been?

But along with doubt, shock, surprise and disbelief... came the realization.

Lee was alive.

The night came quickly. Almost in the blink of an eye for the group.

Duck was sitting in front of a fire, next to him was Kenny, his wounds already bandaged with the few bandages they had

It turned out that, in the fall, he took the brunt of the damage for protecting Duck, and besides that bear wound, his ribs were broken.

Or cracked, at least. He could no longer move very well, and would have to lie down for a while.

Luke was next to Sarah, who had Aj in her arms, and Lee was between the quartet, next to Kenny on one side, next to Sarah on the other.

"... You know, pal. Every time I close my eyes, I momentarily forget that you are here. A part of me still doesn't believe that this is real. And every time I open my eyes, it's like I'm seeing you again for the first time." Kenny said in a low voice, looking at Lee for a few moments, before shifting his gaze to the sky.

He had dozed off a few times due to his injuries during that afternoon.

'Hm... I missed you too, Ken." Lee said with a smile, looking at Duck. "Jesus, the kid's grown up. Too old to be Robin now?"

The question made Duck grumble softly and laugh in embarrassment, ducking his head.

"Robin?" Kenny asked, looking at the boy next to him.

"Yes. Robin. Duck almost begged me to be Robin when I went to investigate that thing with the supplies at that motel, just before the attack. He said I was the greatest detective in the world, and he was my sidekick." Lee said, getting more and more amused as he watched Duck cringe at every word he said.

"Okay, Lee, it's really you. You can forget about it now." Duck said.

"Oh, he can. But I ain't forgetting it any time soon, Robin." Luke said, sneering at the look on Duck's face that just sent him the middle finger as his face turned red.

Although, to his happiness, the light from the campfire didn't let them see his shame.

"Where have you been? We saw the bite. Clem said you were dead." Duck asked after some time in silence.

"Hell, everywhere after Savannah." Lee replied, and they both felt a slight déjà vu. "After I woke up, still confused, I got out of there and searched the surroundings. The horde seemed to have increased in size. I managed to find some supplies, got the car that that asshole who kidnapped Clem used... it was the owner of that car full of supplies that we found. Right after the St John's." Lee said, noting the surprised looks on both of their faces.

"No shit... how did he...?" Kenny asked.

"He told Clem he was with her parents after he got through to her on the radio she had. She told him, you know? What we went through, what we were going through. That's how he knew." Lee sighed. "Anyway, I ran into Molly before I left... she told me about Katjaa. She saw the body."

Lee said, not needing to look at Kenny and Duck to know their reaction at the mention of the woman's name.

Lee turned around and opened his backpack, after a few moments of looking for something, he turns to Kenny with something in his hand.

"That... is that my hat?" Kenny asked in disbelief, taking the hat in his hand and observing the object in front of his eyes.

"Yes... Molly found it next to Katjaa's body. I've kept it with me ever since because I knew you were alive, somewhere."

"... Thanks, pal..." Kenny said softly in genuine gratitude and even admiration, laying his head back down on the ground as he let that sink into his mind.

"Molly and I traveled for some time, heading north. We stayed together for quite a while, until, while investigating a farm, we bumped into two men who had been attacked before, it seemed. They thought we were part of whoever's group that attacked them... she died." Lee picked up the pickaxe that was in the side of his backpack and ran his fingers along its length for a while, without taking his eyes off the flames ahead.

"After a while, I was chased by some people after accidentally killing some of them." Lee smiled slightly as he received those stares.

"Accidentally? What did they do?" Luke asked, clearly doubting.

"Well, they tried to take me to their camp, but I refused. I had heard their talk about prisoners and forced labor, no way. They didn't accept it and tried to take me by force." Lee explained. "A short time later, I found Aj, and then Luke, Sarah, and now you two."

"Wow... hm, gee, it's wonderful to see that little boy again. It wasn't easy to think that we lost him. We barely had time to grieve." Kenny said, sighing slightly as he relaxed on the floor. "Oh, Clem will be so happy." He mentioned, and Lee bowed his head.

"... How is she?" Lee asked.

"She's... I'm not going to say she's fine, I'm not gonna lie. She lost a lot of people, and it really hurt her to think that she lost Luke here." Kenny replied. "But she's a strong little girl, Lee. Hell, she's stronger than most people I've met since all this started. You taught her well. She follows exactly everything you said. She's just like you."

Kenny's words, while not much lessening the worry Lee was feeling, served to at least warm his chest and increase that anxiety to find her that he felt.

He couldn't wait.

God knew how much he wanted to see her again.

"She misses you, you know?" Duck said, drawing Lee out of his thoughts.

"Your death... your supposed death, actually, affected her a lot. Even though she's strong, at the end of the day, she's just a little girl." Kenny said, and Lee gave a sad smile.

At the end of the day, she was just a little girl... and that hurt. So young and already so scarred.

Once he found her, he would make sure she didn't have to make the hard decisions anymore. He would make sure that he gave her a moment's rest and hopefully she could act a little more like the Clementine of years ago.

"... Clem will be fine." Luke said. "It may take a while, but she'll be fine."

They were silent for a while, until Lee smiled faintly.

Of course his little girl will be fine.

"I know she will. But just in case, I'd rather find her as soon as possible." Lee said, and Luke smiled slightly, agreeing.

"Until that happens... so, Robin, do you have any more stories for us?" Luke scoffed, causing Duck to grumble loudly.

"Leave me alone, man. I was a kid!...Besides, why be the sidekick when you can be the world's greatest detective?" They laughed lightly, and Lee shook his head.


Clementine ran and ran and ran some more. Her eyes lost sight of the two bodies she was so desperate to find again, and no matter how hard she looked, she found nothing.

Just more and more walkers in her path.

The first week, she kept herself still close to that river in the hope that she could find them. Kenny and Duck were tough, and she was hopeful that she would see the two of them walking along the bank or near the river before long.

The second week she decided to go back to that farm on the mountain, that being the only place around that they knew, she assumed they would have gone back there and waited for her.

Only to be disappointed when she found no one in the house. Even the horde was gone.

She decided to stay there, they could still go back there looking for her, there was still a chance they would show up.

At all times she stayed strong, focused on surviving long enough for the two of them to finally find her. Hunting, at first, was a challenge with her pistol, but with each passing moment, she was finding it easier to hunt small animals.

Hunting, making fire, setting traps. Although these were not things she was used to, she made it a point to do just to occupy her mind.

She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to think about the people she lost and realize that there was no one left but her.

She couldn't...

She just couldn't...

However, a month passed, she was forced to leave that farm when food had become scarce.

She was lost, her slow and aimless steps were already hard to take.

She had been walking for some time. From late evening to early afternoon.

The girl simply stopped in front of a small lake and bowed her head, looking at her reflection. She looked terrible.

Her eyes were deep and dark all around. She was dirty, her hair was long.

She didn't even look like herself.

That's when, as she stood there watching her reflection, a tear streamed down her face. And soon, she found herself crying hard, as hard as she had cried in a long time.

Heavy tears blurred her vision and her legs weakened, bringing her to her knees on the floor.

She didn't want to, but she could no longer run from her mind.

She was alone.

Everyone she knew was dead.

Only she...

And why? She no longer had anything to protect. She had nothing left to fight for.

For what? There was nothing for her out there. She didn't want to keep walking, to open her heart to strangers, to love again, only to have them taken away from her.

She didn't want to have to meet anyone else.

She didn't want to live with anyone.

Those people would not be replaced, and she knew, it was impossible.

Was it because she was strong? Kenny was strong too. Luke was strong. Lee was strong. She had met the strongest people she had ever seen in her entire life.

But that didn't stop death from coming to them.

Because she was smart? They all were. Some more than others, some with aspects that differed from the others, but smart all the same.

In the end, it all seemed to end the same way. They all ended the exact same way, in the exact same place.

Death always won, it was inevitable.

And as she turned and saw that walker walking towards her with painfully slow steps, she didn't feel like reacting.

The voices of all those who urged her to move on echoed in her mind.

Kenny warning her to get up.

Luke telling her that it couldn't end that way.

Omid saying that this was not the answer.

And Lee... his voice was the loudest among them. Saying that she was strong, that it would pass, and that she didn't want it to end that way.

But honestly, she was tired. She did what she could, and it wasn't enough. She didn't know what more the world wanted from her.

She didn't know what more she had to prove in order to get any happy ending.

And she was tired of hearing that everything would be okay.

So, even with that walker approaching, she turned to the lake and looked at her reflection again.

The tears now dripping into the water and distorting her image. Strangely, she felt that her reflection had become more realistic with those undulations deforming her.

She felt that way.

But then again, it seemed that fate was against her.

Only this time, she didn't know if it was such a bad thing.

The walker's body fell on her side, but Clementine didn't move.

In fact, she found it uncomfortable. She feared turning around and running into a worried survivor who had saved a little girl and who would try to cheer her up by telling her that there was still hope in people and that she could trust him.

Or, a survivor like Carver who only saved her to make her feel like she owed her life to him and take advantage of it.

"Whoa, Clem, come on. I know you're better than that." Her theories went down the drain as she heard an extremely familiar voice that she had missed so much.

The tears never stopped falling, they just intensified, and as she turned and found herself facing a smiling Luke in her direction, she threw herself into his arms without a second thought, sinking her face into the man's chest.

Luke returned the tight hug and let her cry into his chest for a while, lightly patting her back.

"It's okay, Clem... it's okay." Luke said, undoing the hug and pulling away a little to look at the girl's crying, dirty face. She couldn't even smile, even though he knew she felt like it. "I missed you too."

Luke said, watching her dry her tears with her trembling hands and sob a few times, just before looking him in the eye and smiling genuinely.

A small smile, but one that carried big emotions.

She was confused to see him there, but to hell with it, she was happy.

More than happy, she was relieved to see him again.

"Luke..." The girl tried to say something, her voice broken and embattled by her emotions came out almost on a thread.

"You don't have to say anything, Clem..." Luke said sweetly, taking a step away from the girl and placing his hands on his waist. "I guarantee you'll have plenty to say to the rest of the guys."

Clementine turned to where he was pointing, and soon the tears came back full force as she saw Duck and Kenny approaching quietly, but both with smiles on their faces at seeing her again. Kenny had bandages still covering part of his face and looked like he was walking with difficulty, but she didn't even notice this as she ran up to them and hugged them both.

Clementine put the side of her face on Kenny's chest as she hugged him, becoming somewhat elated as she heard the man's heartbeat.

He really was alive. This was not a dream.

They held each other for some time, until they pulled away.

"Gee, Clem... you look awful." Duck said amused, and even in her condition, Clementine smiled.

Oh, how she missed that idiot.

"Oh, shut up. You guys scared me." She said weakly, her voice still shaky as well as practically her whole body. She was trying to dry those tears with the sleeve of her shirt, but the more she did so, the more she cried.

"I'm so sorry dear. It took a while for these wounds to heal." Kenny said with a low voice and a tender tone. "You scared us too. God, we looked everywhere for you. We even got separated for a few days."

Clementine stared at him, focusing her restless and still shocked eyes on the hat Kenny was wearing.

"... I had nowhere to go... I just walked. I waited for you guys at that farm for a while, but..." Clementine said amid sobs, sniffling a few times in an attempt to calm herself.

Little by little the tears stopped falling, but her body was still shaking and her heart was still beating fast in a relieved way.

She wouldn't stop shaking anytime soon.

"Yes, we considered it. I was pretty injured when Luke found us. I told him where you might be, and that's when we got separated. You have no idea how scared we were when he came back without you." Kenny said, sighing heavily. "But it's gonna be okay now."

"...Where did you get the hat? It looks like the one you used to wear." Clementine asked, a little calmer to the point where she wasn't sobbing, but her voice was still rough and shaky.

"... Well... that's because it's the hat I used to wear." Kenny said, not being able to keep from smiling as he saw the girl's confused expression.

"Oh boy, she's going to freak out." Duck said, crossing his arms and looking forward with a silly expression.

"Tell me about it. She might pass out." Kenny said, also crossing his arms still with that smile on his face.

"What?" Clementine asked, alternating her gaze between the two.

"We found someone, Clem." Luke said, and it was then that more footsteps were heard and Clementine looked to a point behind Kenny and Duck.

That day couldn't get any better. That's what she thought as she saw Sarah walking towards her with a very familiar baby in her arms.

Especially by the bracelet the baby was wearing.

Slowly, she approached the girl with her eyes fixed on the baby. Tears started to fall again, but not as hard as before.

She was running out of strength to cry at that point, and as Kenny said, she might faint from all that relief she felt.

"... Hey, Clem..." Sarah greeted, a small smile on her face.

Clementine smiled broadly at the girl.

It was great to see that Sarah was well. And changed, as the girl had a pistol and a knife around her waist, and bloodstains all over her shirt.

She looked more mature, even though it had only been a month since they had seen each other.

Her hair was short and her expressions a little less childish.

Maybe it's just something in Clementine's head, but... that's how Sarah looked in her eyes.

"...He's alive." She said looking at Aj, lightly caressing his face. Confusion evident in her expression. "But how?" she turned to the two adults.

"Did you go back there to get him? Is that why it took you so long?" she asked Luke, who scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, no. I... I thought he was dead too." Luke said, leaving the girl even more confused.

"What? So...?" She turned to Kenny, who just shook his head in response.

"What? Then how? There's something you guys aren't telling me." She said, alternating her eyes between them.

"Ah... damn. Clem..." Duck called out to her, placing a hand gently on the girl's shoulder and smiling slightly at her. "Whatever it is, don't freak out."

The girl arched an eyebrow in clear confusion.

"Oh, please, come on! What are you waiting for? Bring your lazy ass over here!" Kenny shouted out of nowhere, leaving the girl even more confused than she already was.

But before she could ask what he was doing, she heard footsteps coming from the forest and turned around.

"Argh, next time, I'll leave you in charge of killing the walkers."

A strange but extremely familiar voice made itself present, and soon Clementine felt her body freeze.

How could she not recognize that voice? She literally listened to it every day in her head.

Although huskier, a little more tired, a little different than the one that always echoed through her mind, it was the same voice.

A silhouette came out of the forest, and that's when Clementine felt a cold sensation run through her throat and her vision blurred again.

The man who came out of the forest seemed to be saying something, but as soon as he saw her, he froze. Those wide-open eyes that always appeared in her mind when she remembered the last moments she had spent with him. The beard, a little longer than the last time she had seen it.

Harder expressions, more frowning even, but there was Lee. The man she dreamed about and remembered every day.

Doubt was apparent in her mind. Disbelief ran through her eyes.

How...?

What...?

He was dead... he had to be dead, he...

She vividly remembered the worst day of her life... there was no way...

It seemed like a dream.

The world around her seemed to stop in time and her eyes focused only on him.

"... Clem..." His voice called to her, and her tears fell like stones on the floor, some wetting her clothes.

Only now did she realize how much she missed hearing that voice call her name. And she realized that it was not a dream. Just the mere mention of her name made all the past memories come flooding back into her mind.

Clementine ignored the glances sent her way and ran toward him, leaping into his arms and entwining his neck with her arms and his waist with her legs.

Clementine sank her face into the hollow of his neck and allowed herself to release those sensations trapped so deep in her being for all those years.

The same warmth he had given her before. The same protection she felt in his embrace that she missed so much.

Maybe things really were going to be okay, after all.


Well, I would like to thank all of you who have followed along. It was a short story and very quick to write, but it was good for my beautiful Clem to have her happy ending. I know she got it in season four, I like that ending, but she suffered too much. (although I didn't really like those teenagers, I don't know, I didn't think they were that impactful or that they would match an older Clem who has seen death for three lifetimes but that's just me).

Well, I was going to end here, but I'm considering writing one or two more extras to get to 100,000 words written.

Oh boy, 100,000 words written in a week or so. I am proud.

Well, I'll see about that. But if I don't post any more, know that I thank you for following and until the next story!