So here's the next chapter.
We are now back in the time frame of chapter one, hope you enjoy!
As always, I don't own anything to do with The Walking Dead.
"Here." Blake led Michonne and Carl through to the living room at the back of the house. She could hear Carl hissing in pain as he limped through the house. She could also hear Rick's footsteps as he checked every room in the house, ensuring the group didn't have any unwanted guests.
"Easy, easy." Michonne helped Carl onto the couch then got to work on slicing away his pant leg to expose the wound. His face was pouring sweat and contorted in obvious pain.
"I'll be right back." Blake left the living room, heading for the linen closet she knew was at the base of the staircase. As she was grabbing towels, Rick came back down the stairs, holstering his pistol.
"Where are they?" he asked, obvious concern on his face and in his voice.
"Back through the kitchen," Blake answered, closing the closet, handing Rick the towels and heading upstairs next. "I'll be down in a second." She practically ran up the stairs, grabbing the banister in order to fly around the corner without falling.
The bathroom was at the end of the hall, and Blake immediately took to rummaging under the sink for anything that may help with Carl's condition. "Shit." Blake breathed when she couldn't find any pain meds. The only useful things in the cupboard were a half empty bottle of expired hydrogen peroxide and a roll of gauze. Blake ran back down the stairs, skidding to a halt in the living room where Rick and Michonne were waiting. Concern was on both of their faces as well as Blake's when she saw Carl had passed out again, probably from blood loss this time.
"Is the bullet still in his leg?" Bake rushed to the couch, kneeling before the bloody mess.
"Yeah." It was obvious Rick was fighting tears, seeing his son in so much pain was obviously hard, especially in this world where there were no doctors to take care of injuries like this.
"I can get it out." Blake tore a strip from one of the towels she brought in and drenched it in peroxide, wiping gently at Carl's still slowly bleeding wound to clear away any bits of forest that had made their way into or around the bullet hole.
"You can?" Rick was shocked and horrified at the same time. A teenage girl was about to perform surgery on his son? "Wait, woah woah woah. How do you know?"
"I've done it before." Blake called as she got up, ran to the kitchen and came back with a small, sharp knife. She ripped another strip of towel and wiped the blade down, sterilizing everything as best she could.
"You have?" Rick and Michonne were clearly incredulous to the girl, but she knew what she was doing.
"Yes." Blake made sure the belt tourniquet was tight enough then turned to Michonne. "Upstairs, second door on the right. There's a purple box with needles and thread in the top left drawer of the desk. Get it."
"Okay…?" Michonne got up and went up the stairs to find the requested item.
"When you did this before," Rick's voice was strained and scared, "it went okay?" he definitely didn't want a teenager performing surgery with a kitchen knife and sewing kit, but he had no clue how to help Carl, so if Blake had done this before, Rick guessed he would have to trust her.
"I was close to normal after a few days. Well, I should say I was able to ignore it after a few days." Blake looked at Rick, slightly amused by his shocked expression. "Yes, I took a bullet out of myself. But it was my arm, not my leg so I don't know how soon Carl will be walking. He can take his time if he needs to, the locks are secure and we can install more."
"You… what?" Rick was still hung up on the fact that Blake had had to take a bullet out of her own arm.
"Well when I was by myself I didn't have many options now did I?" Blake poured some peroxide onto her hands and wiped them down, wanting to get everything as clean as possible. She wouldn't be able to get anti-biotics until the next day. Hopefully they wouldn't need any, but knowing everyone's luck in the apocalypse, Carl was almost guaranteed to get at least a mild infection. "I learned by trial and error. Luckily, I didn't make an error during this particular trial." Blake slid her jacket off, not wanting the long sleeves to get in the way of her work.
Just as Blake was about to begin getting the bullet out of Carl's leg, Rick grabbed her arm. She turned, and saw his watery eyes staring into hers. "Thank you."
The phrase was for more than the task she was about to perform. It was for smashing the walker's head in, for killing the man that held Carl at gunpoint in the Walmart, for tackling the man that tried to shoot Carl for revenge on Rick, for holding the heard back while the other three ran for the woods and for bringing them to the house. Blake had only been a part of their group for five days, but Rick was already considering her to be family. She had done so much to protect the people Rick cared about, the people she now cared about, and he cared about her. She was like a daughter to him.
"No problem." she smirked as Michonne came back into the room carrying the purple box.
"How do you know where everything is?" She questioned as she opened the box and began threading a needle.
"This is my house." Blake watched as Michonne finished threading the needle and splashed some peroxide into a glass, setting the threaded needle in the clear liquid to clean it. "Or, it was. The government came and cleared it out pretty early on. Took my family and me to a 'safe zone'. It was far; never thought I'd see this place again."
"What happened to them?" Carl's voice surprised everyone. "What happened to Tegan?" that name sent a pang through Blake's heart, but she chose to ignore it, opting to joke with Carl instead.
"You, my friend, chose the absolute worst time to wake up." Blake sighed, picking up the knife and wiping it down one last time. "I'm doing this now. If I don't you're going to lose too much blood."
"Wait… what?" Carl was clearly disoriented. He had no clue Blake was about to perform surgery on him.
"Rick, Michonne. Hold him down will you? Above the knee and just below the ankle. He can't move."
"What are you doing?" Carl was scared, why was he being held down?
Rick held Carl down above the tourniquet and Michonne grabbed his ankle. "I'm getting the bullet out." Blake announced.
Carl groaned, remembering the last time he went through this with Hershel and gripped onto the couch, preparing himself mentally for the pain to increase a hundred fold as soon as Blake touched his wound.
"I'm sorry, Carl." Blake lined up the knife with the hole in her friend's leg, truly feeling guilty about the pain she was about to cause him. "This is going to hurt."
She pushed the knife in, sliding it around the edge of the bullet, freeing it from the grasp of Carl's muscle. More blood poured out of the wound, obviously due to the knife. Blake was surprised at the lack of noise coming from Carl. He hissed and jerked a few times, but other than that there were only a few actual vocal sounds. He didn't cry out until Blake pushed down on the bottom end of the bullet, forcing it to begin to slide out of Carl's leg.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry." Blake grimaced at the sound coming from Carl-it was almost the sound of a strangled cat-but this had to be done. "Almost…" she grabbed onto the bullet and gave one final tug, pulling it free from her friend's leg, "got it." The chunk of metal clattered to the ground, and Carl's bleeding sped up.
Blake grabbed the needle and thread, getting to work on stitching the wound.
Everyone was relieved that the bullet was out, especially Carl. A huge amount of pressure and pain dissipated after the round had been removed from his flesh. He was already light-headed from the pain, and his remaining consciousness was beginning to slip away as the blood continued to drip out of the wound.
"It's okay." Rick took his son's hand as his eyes began to shut. "Rest. We're safe for now."
I actually think I might introduce the Claimed gang within the next couple of chapters, just for plot thickening and Daryl presence because who doesn't love a good Daryl presence?
Please review and keep watch for another chapter in the next couple of days!
