A/N Hey guys, I finally got the latest chapter out! Sorry for such a long wait and I'm not abandoning this fic any time soon. I would never think of abandoning any of my fics! Thanks for waiting and for all the nice reviews!

Chapter 7

"Here's to finally being off pain meds!" Carley cheered and took a gulp of wine. Both Lilly and Molly followed with their own drinks, smiling at their friend's exuberance.

"I'm so glad I can finally drink again. I swear, I thought I was gonna lose it when they said I couldn't have alcohol and coffee."

"Well I'm just glad you're fully recovered. Sucks that we lost our designated driver though," Molly said as she took a chip from the appetizer they were sharing.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Carley retorted, dripping with sarcasm.

"So how long until you're back in your apartment?" Lilly asked.

"Not for another two to three months. The landlord's lazy at getting it fixed and the damage was pretty ad to begin with."

"Speaking of your living situation..."

"Molly, don't you start!"

"How is that "roommate" of yours?" Carley glared across the table at her and Molly returned it with a cat like grin.

"Shut up, I know what you mean and I'm telling you, he's just a friend."

"That's not what we saw when he was at the hospital with you."

Carley rolled her eyes. "Whatever, he was just visiting."

"Sure, go ahead and act like he wasn't completely fawning over you."

"He wasn't! He just cares about me!"

"So you admit it!"

"I-I uh...y-you..." Carley clenched her fists as she thought of a good comeback but found nothing came to mind. Lilly and Molly laughed at her frustration.

"I have to admit its fun watching her rile you up," Lilly said as she crossed her arms. "It's just kind of weird how you were so willing to live with him, even if he is your friend." Carley grunted and took another sip of wine.

"Seriously though, how is Lee?"

Carley sighed. "I don't know. At first I thought he was fine, but lately I've been noticing that there's been something kind of off about him."

"What do you mean by off?" Lilly asked, her relaxed expression replaced with a tense one.

"You don't think he's dangerous do you?" Molly asked, her face mirroring Lilly's but showing more concern.

Carley looked at them confused. "What's with the looks? It's not like that; he's not suddenly violent or anything."

Lilly and Molly visibly breathed in relief. "Sorry, but we can't help but think the worst. He did kill someone."

"Lilly..." Carley said in a low voice.

Lilly held up her hands in defense. "I know, I know, he did it in self-defense. You can never be too careful though."

"Well it's nothing like that. He just seems off. There have just been things that I've noticed that make me think he's hiding something."

"Well what have you noticed?" Molly asked.

"Just small things. He sleeps on the couch and if I suggest he sleep upstairs, he gets angry. He rarely seems to leave the house, if only to run errands, and he send Clementine to Kenny's house constantly, like he doesn't want to be bothered with her. He says he's looking for a job but whenever the topic comes up he skirts around it. I don't know, it just seems like he's pushing everything in his life away, like he's unmotivated. It's worrying me."

"Have you talked about this t anyone else?"

Carley shook her head. "I was thinking of talking to Kenny about it. He's known Lee for as long as I have, I'm kind of surprised he hasn't noticed it."

"Maybe he has. You don't know what could've possibly happened between them in the past few years."

"You have a point there..." Carley mumbled as she took another sip of her drink before grabbing a wing and putting it on her plate. "Okay, enough about my life. How's your sister Molly?"

"She's good. Still hung up on that band geek from Stone Mountain."

"Still?" Lilly exclaims, rolling her eyes with a look of disgust.

"Yea, she just keeps going on and on about how cute and shy he is, even though he's kind of a klutz," Molly said as she shook her head and grabbed a wing for herself.

"Ugh."

"Hey now Lilly, she's 16 and in love. You know how you were at that age," said Carley.

"I wasn't like that at that age; I was too busy hoping my dad wasn't going to ship me off to Military school!"

"Well I don't know about teen Lilly, since I didn't know you back then, but I remember college Lilly being pretty boy crazy," Carley teased, leaning in towards Lilly across the table.

"You know that's a lie! The only party girl out of all of us was Molly and you know that!"

Molly titled her head slightly sideways and raised her drink. "Can't lie about that," she said with a smile. Carley and Lilly laughed.

"Hey! How'd it go?" Lee called out as Carley entered.

Carley broke out of her thoughts at the sound of Lee's voice and paused before answering. "Oh it was fun. You should come next time. Molly and Lilly only met you once; they would like to see you again."

"No thanks, I'm good." Lee replied before turning back to his book. There was a hint of fake contentment in his voice, something that pushed Carley to keep asking.

"Now that I think about it, we haven't gone out together since I got here. Why don't we all go out and do something. Just you, me, Kenny and Katjaa?" She asked excitedly as she walked over to the couch.

"Uh, no thanks." His tone left no room for discussion but Carley pressed on anyway.

"Oh come on! It'll be fun! I miss doing things with you guys."

"No thanks Carley." There was a bite to his tone and a sense of detachment in his voice, something that deflated Carley's want to keep trying. Deflated, she sighed.

"Okay, okay. But later on we really should do something together."

"Yea maybe another time." Lee waved her off and had already turned back to his book. As Carley walked up the stairs to her room her worry for him grew.

"Hey Carley! 'Bout time you came over. Did Lee finally manage to drive you nuts?" Kenny joked as he greeted Carley and Clem at the door, reaching out to hug both of them.

"Hey Kenny. I'm just here to drop off Clem but I was wondering if I could talk to you and Kat for a minute."

"Sure, we're free to talk. Come on in. Clem, Duck is out back so you can go play there if you want."

Clem sighed and looked down. "Okay."

Kenny bent down in front of her. "Don't worry, I talked to him about last time. If he starts throwing mud again, you come get me."

Clem brightened up at his words and made her way to the backyard as Carley and Kenny walked into the kitchen.

"Hello Carley. How are you?" Katjaa greeted as she saw the woman walk into the kitchen.

"I'm just fine Kat, How have you been?"

"We've been doing just fine over on this side of the road." She walked over and gave Carley a quick hug before going over to the counter. "Would you like some coffee or something?"

"You know normally I would grab at that offer," Carley joked before her face turned serious, "but I need to talk to you guys and coffee would only be a distraction."

"What's wrong?" Katjaa asked as both she and Kenny sat down at the table.

"It's nothing big or anything, I just wanted to talk about Lee." She replied and sat down across from them.

"What about him?"

"I'm worried about him. He's been acting weird. Have you noticed anything off about him?"

Kenny put his hand to his chin in thought before answering. "Whaddya mean by weird?"

"I don't know, he's just been acting different lately, aloof even. Has he been like this for a while now or is it just me?"

"By aloof, you mean he doesn't like to talk much, keeps to himself right?"

Carley looked at Kenny in surprise. "Yea, actually."

"He doesn't like goin out and doesn't like doing much of anythin?" Carley noticed the look of knowing in his eyes and could see a hint of sadness in them as well.

"Exactly." She leaned in closer towards them. "So you see it too?"

Kenny sighed and Katjaa looked down sadly. "Yea, it isn't just you. He's been like this for some time now."

"Ken, you should probably tell her the whole story." Katjaa said and grabbed Carley's hand from across the table. "There's a lot that you should know about what happened when you were gone."

Kenny sighed again. "Fine. I was hopin that Lee would tell ya. This is really his business anyway, and it ain't somethin I enjoy recalling." Kenny leaned back slightly, as if bracing himself for the bad memories that would flow through his head once he began. "I assume you know what happened about a year ago right? The whole thing with the trial?"

"Of course, it's one of the reasons why I came back."

"Well, after everything got sorted out and he was released, things were horrible for him. I went up to Athens to stay with him and watch Clem during that time since Sarah had already run off after testifying," there was a bite in his voice when he said Sarah's name and he sighed before continuing. "I had never seen him so, empty and scared even. I was scared he had given up on life."

"What was he scared of?"

"I don't even know, I never really talked to him about it, like hell I knew what to say. He spent most of the time in the house, barely even seeing sunlight, he had nightmares about lord knows what every night, he never dared to step foot into the master bedroom, and in general he was just so lost, like he lost a part of himself. I was at a loss on what to do. Kat needed me back here but I was scared to leave him the way he was, especially with Clem, so I convinced him to move down here for a fresh start." Kenny paused, obviously reliving painful memories.

Katjaa used Kenny's pause to interject. "He has gotten better since then though, it seems the change has done some good for him."

"How much though? He's better but..." Kenny trailed off again and looked up directly at Carley. "We don't mind takin Clem all the time, and even though he's been getting better, I can't even think of how much this could be affecting both of them. Clem doesn't seem different, but you never know."

Katjaa shook her head in agreement. "That little girl is a puzzle."

Carley let all of the information they were telling her sink in. So many thoughts were hitting her at the same time that she didn't know how to respond properly. By what Kenny had described, there was so much that she didn't know, so much that she was kept in the dark about. Could she really say she was kept in the dark though, or did she put herself there? It's not like anyone actively tried to keep this from her. She didn't know because she wasn't there, simple as that. As that last thought entered her mind she couldn't help but feel some guilt for her past absence.

After a long minute of silence, Carley finally spoke. "Thanks for telling me. I think it's best if I go now."

Kenny looked at her, eyes wide in surprise. "You sure? You can stay for a while if you like."

"Thanks but I think I'll just get going. That was a lot to take in, I wasn't expecting so much," Carley said as she lowly stood.

"Heh, you're tellin me," Kenny joked and followed her movements, both him and Katjaa hugging her as she grabbed for her bag. "It was nice seeing you."

Carley returned both of their hugs. "It was nice seeing you too."

"Come in," Carley called as someone knocked on her bedroom door, not bothering to look up from her laptop. It was close to midnight and she needed to finish this report by tomorrow. She knew it didn't really matter if it was fully finished (Danielle would probably have her redo it anyway), but her diligent side refused to let her sleep until it was done.

"Can we talk for a minute?" Carley looked up as she heard Lee's voice and saw him standing in the doorway, a tentative look on his face.

Carley paused, her mouth open before answering. "Uh, yea sure," she said as he pushed her laptop to the side.

Lee walked forward and sat down at the edge of her bed, fumbling with his hands as he thought of what to say. "Look, I know I've been kind of angry lately and I want to apologize for giving you such a harsh tone all the time. I've just been having a hard time lately."

"Its fine, I understand. We've all been having a hard time."

Lee smiled at her words. "So we're cool?"

"We never weren't" Carley said as she forced a smile back at him. Lee stood up and gave her a quick goodnight which she returned before he shut the door leaving her alone again. As soon as he turned away, a troubled look came to Carley's face as she replayed in her head everything Kenny had told her. Even though he was better than he was a year ago, seeing him like this scared her. It felt like he was hiding his true feelings, and that they were eating him from the inside out. At that moment the guilt from before began to creep inside her again.

She had to help him somehow, that much was certain.

A/N As of right now I'm trying to go on a schedule of updating both this and The CarLee Collection, but it's not certain thanks to, you know, school and everything. I also have a new story in my head that's been bouncing around for a while and I'm still debating on whether to put it on paper or not. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you on the next chapter!