Eventually, everybody reached Carver's base of operations. It was a big store called Howe's Hardware and a few of the surrounding buildings. Carver and Clementine exited his car first. "Now Clementine, the only Luxury I'm able to give you right now is the right to keep all of your things. You will still have to go in the pen with everybody else, alright Sweet Cheeks?"

Carver asked as he cupped Clementine's cheek. "Fine by me." Clementine responded, doing her very best to not react at all to the touch of the creepy man.

Carver chuckled and patted her shoulder. "You'll come around." He said before walking inside, signaling Troy to go into the garage, and told Clementine to follow him. Troy opened the truck's door and aimed his gun inside.

"Everybody out." He said. Everybody hopped outside of the truck, all still with bindings on their wrists, except Kenny.

"Son of a bitch, how did you get your restraints off? C'mere." Troy said before tying him up again. Clementine joined up with the group, they made sure she was all right, which she assured she was, despite how she felt about Carver.

There was a squeal as Carver turned on the speakers inside the facility.

"We've got some familiar faces back with us tonight." Carver's voice sounded through the P.A system as Troy closed the truck door behind them. There were a few guards all armed with automatic guns to make sure there weren't any problems.

"Now, I understand some of you are confused as to why we'd bring these people back when they left us as they did."

"Tch, I can think of a few reasons why." The black lady at the back of the group said.

"It might not come all at once... but time will heal these wounds... so be patient with them until it does... and take solace in knowing that they're here to help us make our home a better place." Carver's voice rang around the place as the group walked through.

"All these feelings you have of anger... betrayal... hate... they're all valid. No one needs to forget what they did... but we do have to find it in our hearts to forgive them."

Clementine glared at Carver who was in his office before looking away. She took note of all the food there was stocking all of the shelves.

"Damn. They have a lot of food and supplies." Clementine whistled.

Kenny glared at the tall eleven year old. "Don't go kissing their asses, Clem." Kenny said angrily.

"Tch, I'm gonna comment on how well they have their shit together if I feel like it." Clementine huffed.

"As many of you already know... a large herd of lurkers gathers just south of us... we've kept an..."

As Carver kept talking, Troy looked over at Carlos.

"Come on. We need ya for somethin'." He said, gesturing for the Hispanic man to follow him.

"Can it wait until morning? We're all exhausted." Carlos asked hopefully.

Troy glared at him. "Just come the fuck on." He sighed before leading Carlos away from the rest of the group.

Sarah looked at her dad longingly but kept quiet, in case something bad happened.

Soon, they reached the pen. Bonnie unlocked it. "Make sure ya'll stay off the fence. Bill can see if ye're messing with it." She said.

Clementine flipped her off as they all walked inside the pen.

Nick looked at Bonnie. "Thanks Bonnie."

"Eeyup." She said as she looked at the ground sadly.

Carver kept going on about one thing or another as everybody got settled into the pen. Troy took off everyone's bindings.

"Ya'll best get some rest, cause tomorrow, there ain't gonna be much for ya. Cause tomorrow, you're gonna be workin' hard." Troy said with a smirk.

"That's fer you." Bonnie said to Rebecca, pointing at a cot out in the open.

"Of course it is. Fucking Bill. Keeps me out in the cold but at least I'll be warm." Rebecca scoffed.

A guy walked up to everybody. "Hey guys." He greeted with a wave from his only arm. Clementine knew what had most likely happened and walked over to everyone to join in on the conversation.

"Reggie!" Rebecca exclaimed before walking up to him and hugging him, apologizing.

"What did they do to you?"

"This could've been worse. Trust me. I'm lucky to be alive."

"It's my fault." Nick said, blaming himself.

"No, it's really not. I would tell you if it was. This happened well after you guys left." Reggie said.

"You got bit, didn't you?" Clementine asked him.

Reggie looked at the tall eleven year old. "Uh...yes. Yes I did." Reggie answered.

Kenny and Clementine looked down at the ground.

"Fuck. So I coulda saved him after all..." Kenny said to himself. He and Clementine were thinking along the same lines right about now.

"Uh, guys? Is something wrong?" Reggie asked them.

"Nothing. We were just thinking about a friend." Clementine answered, trying her best to drive away that train of thought.

Reggie took that as a sign to continue on with his story.

As he continued on, Sarah decided to tell Clementine about Reggie a bit.

"Reggie helped us, when were running away. He was going to come with us, but he fell. And we kept running." Sarah informed her.

Clementine nodded in understanding.

Soon, the black lady, Tavia, Clementine thought her name was, told Alvin that Carver wanted him in his office. Rebecca got worried for a second, but Alvin assured her that he would be fine and left to go see what Carver wanted.

"Hey, Reggie!" Troy called as he stepped up to Reggie.

"Oh...hey Troy." Reggie said nervously.

"Don't go fuckin' up now. Bill's real close to lettin ya outta here. You make sure things stay nice and quiet out here tonight and I'll be sure to tell Bill how helpful you've were." He warned the Indian man.

"Yeah you can count on me, thanks Troy." Reggie said with a nervous smile.

"Don't mention it." Troy said before he and Bonnie left.

Clementine flipped Bonnie off when she walked past her.

"Clem, don't hate Bonnie fer what happened. She's notta bad gal." Luke told Clementine.

Clementine glared at him heatedly. "She could be a fucking saint for all I care. I don't give a shit. She got Omid killed. I should have shot her when I had the chance." Clementine said angrily before breathing deeply to calm herself down.

"Sorry, just a little emotional." She said as she began twirling Leeya idly.

Reggie took notice of that and walked up to Clementine.

"Are you sure you should have that?" He asked as he reached for Leeya.

Clementine grabbed his hand and gripped it tightly.

"Listen, Reggie. You seem like a nice guy, and I'm a little on edge right now, so I'll give you one warning before I rip off your last arm: Don't. Touch. Leeya." Clementine said coldly.

Reggie nodded fearfully. "Noted." He said.

Clementine let go of his arm and he walked back to the group.

"Hey, listen man. Clementine has been through a lotta shit. Don't blame her for how she acts, all right?" Pete said as he placed a hand on Reggie's shoulder.

Reggie nodded. "I understand."

"Can you guys save it for the morning?! I'm tryin to sleep!" A black guy said from the floor.

"Sorry about that!" Reggie shouted over to him before turning back to the group.

"Okay that's Mike, he's kind of a dick when he's tired, but he saved my life. So I put up with that shit." Reggie informed everybody.

While the group and Reggie talked to each other, Clementine noticed a woman sitting at a table by herself. They both caught each other's eye, and looked each other over.

"Who's she?" Clementine asked as she stopped twirling Leeya and clipped her back onto her belt.

"Hmm? Who?" Reggie said before turning around to look at where Clementine was looking.

"Oh her. Okay so she's fucking weird. They found her poking around outside covered in blood and guts." Reggie told Clementine.

The woman, overhearing the conversation, wanted to see what Clementine's reaction was to that information.

"Oh! So she's smart!" Clementine said in realization.

The woman's eyes widened when she heard that. Clementine walked over to the bench where the woman was sitting and sat across from her.

"Wha-?" Reggie started, before Pete put a hand on his shoulder.

"Let her go, Reg." Pete said before they all resumed their conversations, Clementine and the woman out of thought for now.

Clementine extended her hand to the woman, who now that she got a better look at, was really pretty.

'Hm. I think I like girls.' Clementine thought to herself, realizing she never felt attracted to a boy before.

"Hey there, I'm Clementine. Clementine Everett." Clementine greeted with a smile, deciding to use Lee's surname as she actually forgot her own.

The woman took Clementine's hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Clementine. My name is Jane. Jane Lawrence." Jane greeted back with her own smile.

Jane rested her head on her palm and looked at Clementine, smile never leaving her face. "So, I heard you call me smart there. Why do you say that?" She asked the eleven year old.

"Because, covering yourself in walker guts is something only smart people do for some reason. I tried telling somebody awhile ago about it, they didn't believe me. That got them killed." Clementine told her.

Jane looked at Clementine with a curious nervous look. "Was that person close?"

Clementine shook her head. "Nope, just some guy that I found out was afterwards was trying to steal my stuff."

Jane winced at that. "Oof. Good riddance then, it sounds like."

"Yup." Clementine said with a smirk.

'I like her.' The two of them thought at the same time.

Clementine pulled out Leeya to show off to Jane.

Jane perked up curiously when the eleven year old unclipped her pickaxe. "What do you have there?" She asked curiously.

Clementine pulled out a cloth and started polishing Leeya.

"A very helpful, very sharp, very versatile climbing pickaxe. Her name is Leeya. We've been through a lot together." Clementine explained.

Leeya twinkled in the moonlight as if to greet the woman in front of her.

"Leeya?" Jane asked her.

Clementine nodded. "Yeah, don't judge." Clementine said with a grin.

Jane shook her head. "No no, I wouldn't judge. After all..." Jane trailed off as she pulled out a very well cared for hunting knife. "I'm not a hypocrite. Her name is Karen." Jane told Clementine.

They looked at each other before nodding together, they both traded their weapons, much to the shock of anyone who was paying attention. Clementine swung Karen through the air, liking the how it ripped through it.

Jane twirled Leeya and swung her around a bit, nodding at how she felt. They smile at each other again before trading back their weapons. They put them away for now after that.

"So how old are you, Clem?" Jane asked Clementine.

"I'm eleven years old." Clementine answered.

Jane's eyes widened. "You look like you're thirteen." Jane told her.

Clementine smiled at Jane when she said that. "Thank you~." She said. "How old are you?" Clementine asked.

"I'm 19." Jane told Clementine.

Clementine smiled at the answer before stretching her arms and yawning.

Jane smirked at her. "Yeah, I could use some shuteye myself. We'll continue this tomorrow. You can take the bed, though it's just a plank of wood." Jane said before walking over to her spot on the floor and laid down.

Clementine stood up and yawned again before walking over towards the empty floor space next to Jane and laying down. Kenny looked at her in shock.

"Clem! Shouldn't we-"

"Tomorrow! Sleep now!" Clementine said before taking a pillow from one of the beds.

Jane smiled at Clementine, happy that she chose to sleep next to her.

Eventually, everybody decided to follow Jane and Clementine's lead and went to sleep.

Sometime with in the night, Clementine and Jane had shuffled into a cuddling position together in their sleep.

Author's Note: Boom! We've officially entered the Janentine stages baby! This is where the Don't Like Don't Read stuff comes into play. I may extend the Howe's arc more than just one day, to make Lee and Molly catching up to them more realistic, and to give time fore Jane and Clem's relationship to develop so that it doesn't just shatter as soon as Lee and Molly re enter the scene.