I'm sorry about my gigantic break. Schools a bitch. Life drama. Stuff like that. XD Anyways, this chapter is mostly just a filler because you guys are asking me to update. This chapter is shorter than I planned it to be, but I decided that I'd update sooner. Next chapter, I PROMISE, there will be some very cute CarLee moments and some Carley and Clementine bonding! Hope you guys enjoy!

Anyways, I don't own The Walking Dead :'c

In some ways, it did both. Saved from another death, if that makes sense. But that didn't make it any less terrible. After Lee pulled the trigger...for a few moments, just for a few moments, Lee's mind shut itself down. The only difference between how Duck had looked before and after Lee pulled the trigger was the neat, circular hole that the bullet left behind. Blood trickled lazily from the wound, darker than Lee would've expected.

Lee guessed that's just how close to his other deadly fate Duck had been, before.

The time after that passed in a haze. Now he was in the train, which felt so empty despite the four inhabitants.

Clementine sat with her legs dangling outside of the train car door, watching as the landscape slid by her. Her expression mirrored the bleak landscape.

Lee silently sat beside Clementine, studying her face before asking gently, "You want to talk?"

Clementine's attention remained on her surroundings as she responded with a simple, "Uh uh."

Clementine's misery was contagious, as Lee felt it swamping in his mind, "You understand what happened?"

"Yes."

Clementine's answer prompted even more guilt to gnaw at Lee's gut. It felt as if it were trying to eat Lee alive from the inside, like some sort of walker that had decided it'd much rather chomp down on soul instead of flesh.

What Clementine was feeling, though, was probably much worse. She had just lost a close friend. That was the thought that shook Lee. "Okay," he said softly, "What are you thinking about?"

Clementine looked sideways at him meekly, "What Chuck said."

Well, that was a surprise. A switch of curiosity flipped in Lee's mind.

"What'd Chuck say?" he inquired, suspicion bubbling in his head. If something Chuck said was even more upsetting than what had happened less than an hour ago, then he wanted to know about it.

Clem sniffed, "That what happened to Duck, would happen to me."

Lee's anger was immediate and almost frightening. There was no way in hell that Lee would ever let that happen to Clementine, and for Chuck to scare her like that was a low blow that deserved an ass-kicking.

"What?! The fuck he did!" Lee exclaimed, eyes widened and scowling.

Clementine flinched and cast her gaze back to her feet, "Swear."

Lee realized what he said, "Sorry. I'm gonna go talk some sense into him," he tried to make his voice calm, but he was still bitter and couldn't completely contain that. He stood up and started to walk across the room.

"Don't be mad," Clementine insisted quietly, but Lee was already out the door leading to the front of the train.

Lee crossed his arms roughly and glared at Chuck, who was leaning on the rail at the very front of the train. The wind blew around him, but he didn't care. He was too pissed off to care.

"How ya' doin?" Chuck asked, misinterpreting the situation.

Lee uncrossed his arms and clenched his fists in an act of self-restraint, "I don't care what reasons you had for doing it, no reason to go and tell my girl she's gonna end up dead!"

Chuck shifted his shoulder's slightly on the rail, and looked at Lee, "'Cause she is."

He paused a moment to let that settle uncomfortably into Lee's bones.

"I don't know much about you folks, but I can tell you, sure as the son gon' come up tomorrow, that y'all keep going on like this and that girl ain't gonna make it."

There was no way in hell Lee was going to let Chuck say that. Who is he to judge their group and how they were working?

"What do you know?" Lee replied rudely.

Chuck dismissed his tone without so much as an angry word, "I know that you don't have a goddamn plan. We get to Savannah, and then what?" Chuck insisted firmly, although it was apparent that he was not upset.

The answer was so obvious that Lee didn't even hesitate, "We do what's best for Clementine."

"Oh! Well, then! You do have it all figured out! Nevermind," Chuck said sarcastically, his eyes narrowing a bit.

"Look," Chuck continued, "sit down with the girl and hash it out. Find a map, for Christ's sake - I'd give you one, if I had it. And if something were to happen to you-"

No way. Chuck didn't have the right to say what Lee dreaded most.

"It won't," Lee interrupted quickly.

Chuck tipped his head slightly in thought, "If it were," he continued, "you gotta prepare the girl. Teach her to use a weapon and for criminy, cut that hair."

Clementine? With a weapon? She was smart and willing to help out, yes, but guns could kill.

Murderer, Lee's gut twisted as his mind whispered in the back of his head repeatedly, Murderer.

"She's just a little girl," Lee settled for the argument that didn't paint him so much as a bad person to a man who could be helpful.

"She'll die a little girl if you treat her like one," Chuck countered seriously, "You gotta consider her a living person. You're either living or you're not. You ain't little, you ain't a girl, you ain't a boy, you ain't strong, or smart. You're alive."

That's when Lee realized that, in this new world, he couldn't help Clementine grasp onto the past and keep her innocent, child-like demeanor.

But that didn't mean he couldn't try.

After a few moments, Chuck started, more quietly, "Look at her hair. You got her running around with a mop that's gonna act like velcro to any hands swinging it's way. I have some scissors in my pack; use those and take care of her hair before a walker does it for you."

Lee was instantly reminded of the incident with Andy St. John. He had grabbed her hair, and she was unable to get away. Those cannibalistic bastards. If Lee hadn't had a rifle pointed at his face, he would have killed Andy there and then.

Murderer.

Lee flinched at his own thought. Andy deserved what he got, for ever even being on the same earth as Clem; but killing a person haunts you.

You were a murderer before, Lee. It's who you are.

Lee ignored the voice in his head. He was not what he had done. A person is not just a sum of their actions.

Lee noticed that Chuck had started speaking again.

"And then show her how to use a gun because, like it or not, that's what saves your life from here on out. I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but too many people have died already..."

Duck's image swarmed Lee's mind, "They have," he agreed, any anger he had held reduced to a fierce determination to protect Clem.

Chuck returned his worn gaze to the rails that flashed by in front of the train, "And seein' another little girl die might just do me in," he admitted, sighing sadly.

"I hear you. A plan, a haircut, and a gun. It's good advice," Lee commented approvingly.

Chuck nodded, "It's something."

Lee was suddenly curious about Chuck himself. He knew next to nothing about this man who had given him advice that might just save Clementine's life.

"You have any family?" he asked curiously.

"Out there, somewhere. Been sorta on my own for the past fourteen years now," Chuck's reply filled Lee with guilt for bringing it up.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lee sympathized.

Chuck just shook his head in the slightest, "No one to blame."

Not wanting to reopen any more wounds, Lee decided to leave.

"Be safe up here," Lee warned as he walked away and towards the cab door of the train.

"You betcha," Chuck replied simply and turned away.

As Lee closed the steel door behind him, he noticed Kenny slumped in his chair.

He just really needs to be alone right now. With his thoughts, and no one else giving him sympathies that would make him feel even worse.

Lee stepped lightly around the chair and out the back door.

I know you guys are probably like "WTF that chapter ending?!"

I just stopped it because I wanted to. So there's your explanation. XD And I just noticed we have 7,946 views?! LET ME HUG ALL OF YOU! *hugs* C':