Carol
Disclaimer: They`re not mine. Not making any profit with them. Just having fun.
He`s lying on the floor. It`s cold. And dark. He`s hurting everywhere.
This whole mission turned out to be one big catastrophe. He had wanted to help his people. His friends, his family. Hoped to find new allies. Instead, they only found more trouble. More pain. More failure.
Everything he did lately was a failure.
No, not everything.
He reached out to her. Made a connection with her.
He wasn`t so delusional to think that things were all good between them again. They were both still broken. But she had opened up to him, allowed him in. For some precious moments they have been themselves again. The way they`ve been before the nightmare started that destroyed their life.
Maybe, when this was all over, they could start anew.
He still loves her. With all his heart. Nothing that she did, nothing that she will ever do could change that. And the other day, when they`ve been together, he`d felt that she still loved him as well. He had seen it in her eyes, lurking behind all the pain and guilt.
His mind floods him with memories of her.
His wife. The love of his life. His everything.
Carol.
Carol looking at him with the most adorable "you-are-shitting-me"-expression he`s ever seen when they first came face to face with each other.
Carol covered in dirt and blood from head to toe, a triumphant smile on her lips, after they got rid of a small herd of walkers that`s been gathering near the Kingdom.
Carol in her wedding dress, sliding his ring on his finger with shaking hands, her eyes shining with love and happiness.
Carol pressed up against him naked in their bed while a thunderstorm was raging outside, as powerful and electrifying as the passion they felt for each other.
Carol throwing herself at him, shaking in fear and relief after he almost fell to his death, whispering "I love you" over and over.
Carol standing in their kitchen next to him, preparing one of the many meals they had as a family, laughing at his silly jokes.
Carol lying next to Henry, holding him, while they both suffered from a severe flu.
Carol practicing with her bow for hours at a time until she was able to land the perfect shot, too stubborn to give up although her hands were hurting.
Carol crying in his arms when she woke up from a terrible nightmare, crushed by memories of her daughter and her horrific marriage.
Carol sitting next to him on a log, asking him to put a ring on her finger like it was absolutely no big deal, making him the happiest man in the world.
Carol and Henry throwing snowballs at him until he was flat on his back, surrendering with a huge grin on his face, seeping wet.
Carol with her hair pulled up in a ponytail, working in their garden.
Carol watching him and Henry train with his stick or some other weapon, a proud look on her face.
Carol on top of him, head thrown back in ecstasy, her gorgeous curls flowing in waves down her back, looking like the Goddess she was.
Carol signing the Charter with the title she always pretended not to like.
Carol sitting on a bed beside him with tousled hair, holding his hand, silently confessing to him what she had done in an attempt to avenge the death of their son.
Carol.
Always.
Since he met her, she has been his world. There were thousands of memories in his head about her. Most of them happy. Some of them sad. The worst so terrible that he can`t allow himself to think about them because his heart would break into a million pieces again.
But it wasn`t enough. She was still out there. Even though he hadn`t seen her after the fire, he is certain that she is still alive somewhere.
He needed to see her again. As long as he was still breathing, he wouldn`t give up on that.
With sudden determination he gets up, wiping away the silent tears that had been streaming down his face.
He wouldn`t let the people outside break him.
He wouldn`t die alone somewhere, apart from the one person that meant more to him than anybody else.
Whatever it would take, he would get back to her.
Taking a deep breath, Ezekiel steels himself for whatever waits for him outside of the wagon he`s being held in.
He is ready to fight. For her. For them.
For their future.
