Clementine lay in bed, wracked in pain and nearly helpless, just as she had been for the last three days. The initial misery of her injury had only worsened with every passing day. She'd awaken feeling terrible, take a painkiller, then would be stuck waiting in agony for it to take effect. Sarah would bring her meals, which Clem could barely summon the will to eat, then Sarah would always ask if there was anything else she could do. Clem always wanted to ask her for something, but she couldn't think of anything Sarah could actually do that would make things any better.

Clem's stomach would always hurt afterwards and she couldn't help thinking every time she ate she was making things worse. Then Clem would need to take antibiotics Sarah had prescribed her, big pills that were hard for her to swallow. All the rest of the day was spent lying in bed and waiting anxiously for hours on end until it became dark and Sarah would give her a pill for sleeping, providing Clem with the only peace she'd get in a day. The quiet relief of a deep sleep was all she had to look forward to; if only it didn't have to end with a new morning each time.

Sarah would always offer to bring her things during the day, but Clem didn't want them. She didn't want to read any books, whatever few they had on hand. She didn't want to listen to any music. Even seeing Omid did little to raise her spirits. Clem couldn't hide the fact she was hurt from him and all he seemed to know to do was try to feed her and say he loved her, and when those didn't work he started to get upset.

The worst part was anytime the RV was moving. Clem would be alone as Sarah drove and she couldn't see anything from bed, leaving her to only imagine what was beyond the thin walls of their home. The thought of venturing into the unknown again was terrifying enough without Clem being helpless to do anything about it. It plagued her already overwrought mind and anytime Clem heard the brakes squeak she was horrified of what could happen next.

Then there were the times Sarah would have to go outside. Occasionally Sarah would tell Clem that she and Anthony would have to check on something. Sarah would always assure Clem it wasn't anything important and Clem would put on a brave face for her. She'd then listen anxiously as Sarah left with Omid to join Anthony in his camper, then wait in bed in utter silence as she was unable to stop her mind from imaging all the terrible fates the people she loved could encounter.

The waiting was the worse part of Clem's days. Worse than the pain, or even the uncertainty, it was enduring the tortuously slow isolation until what little good she had left in the world returned to her, fully aware it might never return. For nearly a week now, it feels like Clem has just lied in a bed while everyone she cared about was taken from her; Sin, Devlin, Patty, Jet, all gone. And every time Sarah left with Omid and Anthony, Clem had to wonder if that was the last time she'd see them too. It was the wait she dreaded most.

Today had been the longest day yet. Sarah told Clem she and Anthony had to go out for a while to get things they needed, and they'd be gone for longer than usual. And that was the last Clem had heard of her or anyone for what must have been hours now. She couldn't be sure, she didn't have the strength to bother locating her watch, but as she had lied in bed she had watched the light from the window gradually move across the length of the room. It was at least in the afternoon at this point, which was far longer than it took for them to return previously.

The aching in her side had slowly grown worse as the painkiller she had taken this morning wore off. Clem forced herself to sit up and take the bottle of pills from the dresser. She took one and popped it in her mouth, wincing as she had to bend forward to pick up the bottle of water. Looking at the pill bottle sitting on the dresser, Clem found herself considering taking a second one; then she thought about taking all of them.

With every passing hour she had grown more convinced Sarah would never return. They hadn't needed food, not yet anyways, so whatever she went to collect couldn't possibly be taking this long, so something must have happened to her. Sitting alone in this old RV, Clem just wanted the pain to finally stop for good, and enough painkillers could do that. She moved the bottle to her lips, then it dawned on her; she'd come back as a walker. If Sarah did return, or anyone else found the Brave, that could mean their death.

Tears welling up in her eyes, Clem put the cap back on the bottle and tossed it onto the dresser. She curled up in bed, desperately trying to find a position that didn't hurt too bad, but it was useless. In addition to the pain, it wasn't long before she needed to use the bathroom. Climbing out of bed was an ordeal even after using a painkiller, and the simple process of using the toilet was agonizing without Sarah's help. Shuffling out of the bathroom, clutching her throbbing side, Clem found her eyes moving towards the cabinet running along the top of the Brave.

She dragged a stool in place, then clenched her teeth as she forced herself to climb on top of it. She was practically crying in pain as she stood up on the stool. Clem hastily pulled open the cabinet and looked inside. Lying in the back was her old pistol, and taking it hand Clem instinctively found herself checking to see if the gun was loaded. Seeing it wasn't, Clem started eyeing the magazine lying inside when she heard the door crack open.

Clem stared down at a shocked Sarah, a whimpering Omid cradled in her arms as she looked up from the door. The expression of utter horror and disbelief in her wide eyes paralyzed Clem where she stood. The gun suddenly felt like it weighed a ton and Clem remained speechless as Sarah just stared at her in silence. Finally, tears started rolling down Clem's cheeks as she felt her entire body begin to tremble.

"I'm sorry…" she croaked through her tears.

Sarah immediately set Omid on the carpet and raced over to Clem. She took the gun away, which Clem offered with no resistance. Sarah carefully but quickly grabbed hold of Clem and plucked her off the stool. Sarah then adjusted her grip on Clem and hurriedly carried her back into the bedroom.

"Why?" blurted out Sarah suddenly as she set Clem on the bed. "Why would you do that?"

"I'm sorry," repeated Clem in a weak voice. "It hurts so bad and—"

"What's going on?" asked a confused Anthony as he emerged in the bedroom.

"Nothing, Clem just needs help," insisted Sarah in a harsh tone. "Take Omid back to your camper and keep an eye on him for a while."

"Why? Did—"

"Just do it!" Clem was shocked to hear Sarah bark at him like that.

"For how long?"

"Until I come and get him, that's how long." There was a commanding nature in the way Sarah spoke that Clem didn't recognize.

"Well, all right then," said Anthony, sounding confused. He reached out to place his hand on Sarah's shoulder. "If you need anything—"

"Watch Omid," commanded Sarah as she jerked away from Anthony's touch. "That's what I need from you."

"Okay…" Anthony stood there for a second, then walked out of the bedroom. Clem and Sarah listened briefly as they heard footsteps, then the door to the RV click close.

"Why?" Sarah immediately asked again, less upset and more concerned now. "Did something happen while I was gone?"

"No it… it just hurts, all the time, and it just gets worse every day, and you were gone for so long and—"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think we'd be gone so long. I should have left you the radio so I could check in on you. We've only got the two now and Anthony and I needed them. This is all his fault, if he just had…" Sarah bit her lip as she balled up her fists. "And then when I got back Omid was crying and I couldn't get him to stop even as we drove back and… I… I'm so sorry."

"Man plans and God laughs," mumbled Clem to herself.

"What?"

"It's what Devlin told me, right before he died," lamented Clem. "And I remembered something the other day, that wasn't the first time someone told me that. Deacon, the boy who whipped me, he said his dad told him the exact same thing; man plans and God laughs, right before we went back to Titusville, and everything went wrong."

"So… so what?" dismissed Sarah.

"So, what's the point of anything? It's always the same."

"What is?"

"What happened. Before I met you, or Christa and Omid, I was staying with Lee with a bunch of people at a hotel. We lived there for months, and then one day, these men with guns came, and there was shooting, and we had to leave, and we lost everything, and everyone."

"I'm sorry Clem, but—"

"And we had an RV too. It was exactly the same except…" Clem bit her lip, trying not to cry. "Except I didn't like living at that motel… I liked living on our farm. It felt like a home, and we worked so hard to grow our own food…" Tears started streaming down Clem's face. "And we barely got to taste it. It's all gone… again. And Sin's gone, and Devlin, and Patty, and Jet, and today, I thought you and Omid were gone…" Clem tried to turn onto her side, but the pain was too great, so she simply laid on her back, crying as hard as she could.

"I know Clem, I know. Maybe… maybe we could…" Sarah's mind went blank as she tried to think of something to say.

"That's just what happens now. It's what always happens. People just come along and ruin everything, no matter what you do."

"No, Clem—"

"Just let me die."

"No!"

"It's gonna happen anyways," mumbled Clem through her tears.

"You're not gonna die!"

"It'll be easier for you and Anthony to take care of Omid without—"

"Shut up!" Clem was shocked as felt Sarah grab the sides of her head. She forced Clem to look her in the eyes, which were overflowing with anger, misery and confusion all at once. "I'm not letting you die! Okay?"

"I… I want to," confessed Clem.

"No, no you don't! You're hurt, and things are terrible, and… you want it to end…" spoke Sarah, choked by sadness. "I… I know what that's like. I almost did the same thing once… it wasn't almost, I did it." Clem watched as Sarah suddenly buried her face in her hands. "You were begging me to stop and I just pulled the trigger… I'd be dead if the safety hadn't been on... and I would have made you watch it."

"I'm sorry Sarah," cried Clem as Sarah moved closer. "I—"

"It's okay," sobbed Sarah as she moved in close to hold Clem. "I know how hard it is, but we can't give up, not yet. Things will get better."

"What if they don't get better? Or what if—"

"I don't know Clem, okay, I don't know. Right now, I'm just trying to get you better, and I think I know how." Sarah took off her backpack and started unloading it, setting out some needles, bandages and a few things Clem didn't recognize.

"What is that? What are you doing?"

"We found a hospital, and I went back through all my old medical books." Sarah set an empty bag with a tube coming out of it on the floor. "I wanted to do this back in Tulsa, but whoever cleaned out the Sam's Club cleaned out the hospital there too. But we found another one today that still had stuff I can use to give you a blood transfusion."

"Transfusion?" repeated Clem as Sarah tore off pieces of white tape that she stuck to the dresser.

"It's when you give someone blood." Clem watched as Sarah sat down on the bed and rolled up her sleeve.

"You're going to give me your blood?" Sarah tied a piece of elastic tubing around her arm using her free hand and teeth. "Will that make me better?"

"I think it'll help." Sarah dabbed a piece of cotton with alcohol. "I read if you lose a lot blood really fast, it messes up your body and makes it harder to create new blood to replace it, and that can lead to people feeling sick and weak." Sarah swabbed her exposed arm with the cotton. "But if you get a blood transfusion, it can help you get better faster." Sarah picked up a large needle attached to a tube.

"But, do you know how to give blood?"

"I read instructions on how to do it three times to make sure I understood everything." Clem watched as Sarah aimed a large needle at a vein on her arm and become very still after breathing out.

"Wait, Sarah, you shouldn't. What if—" Sarah winced slightly as she stuck the needle into her arm. Clem grew more fearful as she saw blood flowing into the tube. Sarah took the tape from the dresser and used one piece to stick the tube to her arm, then took the other to tape a piece of cotton on top of where the needle went in. Clem was terrified something was going to wrong as Sarah slowly fiddled with the various fasteners on the tube with her free hand, struggling to reach them at times.

"It's okay Clem," assured Sarah as she tugged on the elastic tied around her arm, releasing the knot. "Like I said, I made sure we got exactly everything the book said we needed." Sarah sounded sure of herself, but Clem couldn't help finding the sight of a tube with Sarah's blood running out of it disturbing.

"You really think this will help?"

"There hasn't been any blood when you go to the bathroom, which means you're probably not bleeding internally. And you've been taking antibiotics and the wound doesn't look infected. And if one of your major organs was hit… you'd probably already be dead." Sarah took a deep breath. "So the reason you're probably not getting better is because you lost a lot of blood and it's hard for your body to catch up; this should fix that."

Clem was stunned by just how thoroughly Sarah seemed to have assessed her predicament. Even now she was carefully watching the blood bag, as if to be ready to collect it at a moment's notice.

"It'll take a while, but once it's full, I'll hang up the bag to circulate the blood into you. And I also read that you lose a lot of iron when you lose a lot of blood, so I got some iron supplements from a pharmacy, along with some other stuff. So, between the blood, and taking iron supplements, and a lot of rest, you should start feeling better."

"I can't believe you're doing all this," spoke a stunned Clem.

"Of course I am."

"I mean, all this stuff about why I'm not getting better, and you learning how to do this, and…" Clem paused. "You're just so smart."

"I… I just hope it works. I'm doing everything the instructions say but… I really don't know what I'm doing."

"I already feel a little better just from having you here, doing this for me."

"Really?" asked a dubious Sarah.

"Yes really," professed Clem. "I… I always feel better when you're around. And whatever happens next, I want you to know how much that means to me." Clem bit her lip and looked away. "I'm so sorry I said I wanted to die Sarah. I'm—"

"It's okay Clem."

"No, I—"

"It's okay," repeated Sarah with utter sincerity. "It's all right. You've been through so much, and it's been so horrible."

"I just feel bad I said that when you were working so hard to make me better."

"I did the same thing once when you were doing everything to keep me alive," reminded Sarah in a shameful whisper. "And I should have just told you what we were doing this morning before we left, but I was worried if we didn't find everything we needed it would just be more bad news and you'd feel even worse. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay Sarah," assured Clem with a smile. "I'm just glad you're here now."

Clem reached out with her hand and Sarah took it with her free one, giving her a reassuring squeeze as she watched the blood bag on the floor.

"It's funny," said Sarah. "I always wanted to give blood."

"You did?"

"Yeah. My dad used to help with a blood drive where we lived one week out of the summer. When I was ten, I got him to take me with him so I could see what he does. I remember it was kinda scary, seeing so much blood, even if it was in tubes and bags. Now I see it all over the place...

"But, I still wanted to know what was happening, and my dad explained people give blood so they can give it to people who are hurt, so they'll live long enough to get better. One of the things we talked about was blood types, and how important it was to get the right kind, because you can kill someone if you don't."

"Wait, is your—"

"He told me my blood type was O negative, and that it was the most valuable one because people with O negative can give their blood to anyone else, and that was the only blood type that can do that. So I asked my dad, shouldn't I give blood too, since mine could help anyone?"

"What did he say?"

"He said I couldn't because you had to be sixteen to donate blood. And when I asked him why, he said it's because it's dangerous to take blood from children because they're smaller, and they have less of it." Sarah looked at Clem. "After that, I told him I wanted to give blood as soon as I'm old enough, because I wanted to help people. Now I'm finally doing it I guess." Clem smiled at Sarah, but Sarah looked away in response.

"If… if I hadn't gone with him that one time, I probably never even would have thought of this, or know that my blood is safe to give to you." Sarah sighed. "These last few days, I keep thinking about my dad, and how smart he was, and how I should have been learning stuff like this from him, instead of all the stupid stuff I used to do."

"Sarah, none of us knew this was going to happen, and you were just a girl. You shouldn't feel bad because you weren't learning to be a doctor when you were ten. That's crazy."

"I could have started learning about it after it happened. All those months I lived at Shaffer's, reading stories about faraway places and heroes and magic…" Sarah shook her head. "I should have been reading the kind of books I used today; learning things that can help keep us alive."

"You were just a kid. Kids shouldn't have to do things like this, but—"

"But we do have to," concluded a dismayed Sarah. "Because there's nowhere we can go to get help."

The pair sat in silence after that as Sarah waited for the bag to be filled. Eventually, she carefully removed the needle and wrapped a bandage around her arm. After that, she changed out the needle attached to the tubing and hung the now nearly full blood bag from one of the cabinet handles running over the bed.

"Okay, this will hurt for a second, then it'll be over," said Sarah as she tied the elastic around Clem's arm. "Make a fist, and then just hold it for a second."

Clem watched as Sarah removed the cap from the new needle. Clem made a fist and turned away. She felt the cotton and alcohol dabbing her arm, then a little while after that there was a painful sting.

"Okay, you can stop making a fist." Clem looked over as Sarah undid the tie around her arm. The needle had been taped in place and Clem could see the tube was full of blood. "Be very careful not to move your arm, you don't want to pull the needle out."

"I will," assured a nervous Clem.

"How do you feel? Anything bothering you right now? You don't need to use the bathroom do you?"

"No, but it's not like I could if I did right now," said Clem as she looked at up at the blood bag.

"When I was at the hospital I found this too." Clem watched as Sarah set out an odd metal bowl. Looking at it, she noticed the top of it was shaped like a toilet lid.

"What is that?" asked Clem, unsure she wanted to know.

"A bedpan." Clem just stared at Sarah in confusion. "A special toilet for sick people to use if they can't leave the bed."

"I'm supposed to go to the bathroom in that?" asked a perplexed Clem as she stared at the tiny metal tub.

"I'll help you with it. It's better than carrying you back and forth and hurting your side over and over again."

"Yeah… I guess so."

"I know, it sucks. But it's only until you get better." Looking over at Sarah, Clem only now noticed how haggard she looked. Her hair was a frayed mess, she was sweaty, and she looked dead tired. There's was also something else, a kind of quiet regret behind her eyes that Clem found troubling.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm just worried about you… about everything," said Sarah as she stood up. "We've been moving around so much I don't even know where we are right now. Just somewhere in Kansas I think. Anthony's afraid if we stop for too long the people who attacked the farm might find us… so am I.

"And we haven't found any food yet. We still got plenty for now but…" Sarah took a deep breath. "I'm gonna go get Omid and give us both a bath, and then I'll come back and bring you dinner. Do you think you'll be okay for a little while?"

"Yeah, because of you." Clem smiled and that seemed to make Sarah feel better. Clem rested a little easier than before as she eagerly awaited Sarah's return. She listened as she heard the shower running and eventually Sarah came in, clean and a little weary looking as she brought Clem dinner. It was just canned fruit with a bit of freeze-dried ice-cream for dessert, but Clem cherished it and her time with Sarah.

"Okay. I want you to take a couple of these." Sarah opened a pair of large pill bottles, removing a capsule from each.

"Are those more painkillers or antibiotics?"

"No, this is the iron supplement I mentioned and a multivitamin." Sarah helped Clem place the capsules in her mouth, then lifted a cup to her lips, allowing the girl a sip of water to swallow the pills.

"When we went to get iron supplements for you, I noticed all these other vitamins and things that nobody took, and I realized, they all had stuff we need in them, and we should be taking them. I even found pediatric vitamins for Omid. We can probably stretch out our food longer if we use these…" Sarah sighed. "We should have been using these the whole time. We'd probably had been better off if I had thought of it sooner."

"Well, you thought of it now, and we will be better off from now on, because of you," complimented Clem.

"If you were with someone smarter than me, they would have thought of it."

"No they wouldn't," stated Clem. "I mean, I was with lots of smart people, and we never took vitamins."

"Probably because they were busy getting food, because we can't live off vitamins alone."

"But they'll help, won't they?"

"They should."

"And that's because you thought of that, because you're smart."

"I don't know…"

"Think about it, did anyone at Shaffer's ever think to use vitamins?"

"We always had plenty to eat at Shaffer's." Clem sighed. "I… I still think about that place sometimes."

"You do?"

"Sometimes I…" Sarah turned away suddenly.

"Go ahead."

"No, I shouldn't say it. You… you wouldn't like it."

"Just tell me Sarah."

"Sometimes I… I wish I was back at Shaffer's," confessed Sarah in a shameful whisper.

"You do?" asked Clem in disbelief.

"Yeah…" Sarah turned away. "I know how awful it was, but I also can't stop thinking about how it had that big wall, and the eggs from Gertrude's chickens, and all the great stuff Dr. Bostwick grew, and there were so many people there."

"A lot of them were bad people," reminded Clem in a bitter voice.

"I know, I know, but not all of them, and I used to live there, with Dad and Pete and Nick," reminded Sarah. "And sometimes I wonder what happened to who was left. Are they still there? Did things get better? Maybe it's okay now. Maybe they got a farm and plenty to eat, and the walls keep them safe—"

"Sarah," spoke Clem.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't be thinking about that stuff," realized Sarah.

"It's okay. I still wish I was back at the crappy motel sometimes," admitted Clem. "Things just seemed… simpler back then, even if they still weren't good."

"I… I actually thought about going back with Adam," confessed Sarah. "When he told me about what happened to him, and how there were worse places than Shaffer's, I believed him…"

"You believed him because he was right," conceded Clem. "Like I said, I've seen worst places, but that didn't make Shaffer's a good place to live."

"I know that's why I... because he wouldn't let you go," said Sarah, trembling now. "And I thought, if he could do those horrible things, then whoever was left at Shaffer's would do worse because of what we did but still…" Sarah took a breath. "I can't stop thinking about what if things had been different."

"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if that man didn't kidnap me," confessed Clem. "Before he took me, the people Lee and I were with had found a boat, and we were going to use it get away from Savannah. They had to come after me though, and someone took the boat, so we never got to use it. Patty said people were going to Cuba, maybe we could have got there if we hadn't lost the boat. Maybe it would have been safe."

"Probably not. I remember Patty also saying if Cuba was actually safe, they wouldn't have left Miami fall apart. It's probably wiped out," suggested a dismayed Sarah. "Just like Shaffer's, and our farm, and everything else out there… it's all gone."

"Sah-rah!" called Omid as he came in through the door. "Ah-wah Kem-men!" he demanded as he climbed up to the bed.

"Hey there Omid," said Clem with a smile as she tried to move closer.

"Hang on, let me take out the needle; the bag's almost empty anyway." Sarah pulled out the needle and bandaged Clem's arm as Omid came over to Clementine.

"Kem-men, ah-mah-duh-pre-bee." Omid laid out a partially crumbled piece of paper in front of Clementine. Picking it up, Clem could see a bunch of colorful splotches smeared across the page, like a rainbow of ink stains.

"Did you make this for me?" asked Clem in a sweet voice.

"Pree-bee," giggled Omid.

"Did he?" asked a surprised Sarah as she looked at the page. "It's not a big brown smear." Sarah looked at Omid's hands. "Did you actually wipe off your hands?"

"He's such a good boy," praised Clem.

"Hopefully he used the paper towels I left him and not the carpet." Sarah smiled at Omid, then looked lovingly at Clementine. "I guess if you had gotten on that boat, and I never left Shaffer's, we never would have met."

"Meeting you was one of the best things to ever happen to me," professed Clem.

"Really?"

"Yeah, like meeting Lee, or Christa and Omid, or taking care of this Omid," said Clem with a smile as she ran her fingers through the boy's thick dark curls. "You're one of the few really good things to happen to me after everything changed." Sarah moved her hand to Clem's and closed her fingers around it.

"I feel the same way," professed Sarah as she tenderly gripped Clem's hand.

"I love you Sarah."

"I love you Clementine." Sarah leaned and kissed Clementine's forehead, and Clem tilted her head and kissed Sarah's cheek, briefly brushing her lips across Sarah's. Looking at the girl she loved and seeing her warm smile, Clem felt some of the despair plaguing her mind finally drift away.

"Lub-yoo," proclaimed Omid as he hugged Clem, who kissed him in response.

"You should go to bed early, get a really good night's sleep tonight," said Sarah. "If you can think of anything you need that'll help, just tell me."

"Well I…" Clem turned away in embarrassment.

"What, you can tell me."

"It's not something you can do."

"Why not?"

"It's not safe."

"What isn't?"

Clem discovered she still had enough blood for it to flow to her cheeks when she felt embarrassed. "I… I was gonna say I sleep better when you're next to me."

"Aww, Clem," spoke Sarah, touched by Clem's admission.

"But it's not safe. If I die in my sleep, I'd turn into a walker and kill you." Sarah approached the bed and sat down next to Clem.

"You're not going to die in your sleep tonight."

"You don't know that for sure. Sin just died after he went to bed."

"Yeah, I know… but it's been a few days now, and I think you're okay. I mean, how do you feel right now?"

"Um, okay," realized Clem. "But, we can't be sure, and—"

"We can never be entirely sure, but I bet you'll probably feel better if you had a good night sleep instead of being tied to the dresser. I'll go tell Anthony I'm sleeping here tonight and—"

"Wait," said Clem.

"What?"

Clem realized she wasn't as anemic as she thought as her face got redder. "I need to go to the bathroom."

Sarah carried Omid out of the room and then returned to help Clem try out the new bedpan, much to Clem's embarrassment. Even after a few days she hadn't gotten over needing help to use the bathroom, and having to adjust to this new bedpan didn't help. Sarah however always made it a little less painful with her discretion, and by now Clem barely had to say anything during the process.

After she took the bedpan away, Sarah let Omid back in and Clem spent some time talking to him. He mostly seemed interested in babbling about the drawing he did, but eventually left the bedroom and came back carrying a worn picture book. It was a 'Where's Waldo' and Clem didn't recognize it as one they had before. She turned the pages and let Omid awe at the pictures for a while until she heard the door to the Brave open.

"I don't know why you're acting like this," she could hear Anthony say from the other room. "I'm just worried about you."

"Worry about Clem," Sarah ordered Anthony.

"You sleeping in here isn't gonna help her."

"What would you know about helping Clem?" retorted Sarah.

"I just mean if something happens, you and Omid could be in danger," insisted Anthony. "You'd be safer in my camper then—"

Clem heard the door slam and then Sarah rapidly approaching. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she asked with a forced sense of cheerfulness.

"Fine," said Clem as Sarah picked up Omid.

"Did you bring Clem your new book?" asked Sarah as she noticed the Where's Waldo. "I'll have to find you something better next time."

"Is everything all right? I heard you arguing with Anthony." Clem noticed Sarah's face sour upon hearing that. "I mean—"

"He's just been really annoying lately," insisted Sarah. "Anytime he mentions you he talks like you're already dead."

"That sounds like him…" Clem mumbled to himself.

"He just thinks he knows everything, and always talks like he knows what's best for me, or what I want, or…"

"Forget it," said Clem as she noticed Sarah growing more upset.

"Give me a few minutes to put Omid to sleep and I'll be right to bed."

Clem watched as Sarah carried Omid away, then waited patiently for Sarah to return. Seeing Sarah undress, Clem felt obligated to look away while fighting the temptation to peek. Feeing Sarah crawl up beside her in bed made Clem's heart race. She hadn't realized how much she missed having Sarah next to her, and feeling Sarah hold her chased away all the gloom from the day.

She then felt Sarah's other hand gently caressing her hair while she planted a soft kiss on Clem's cheek. It was actually a strange sensation since Clem couldn't remember Sarah doing this before, but it was a welcome change that made Clem feel better. Lying there in Sarah's warm embrace, Clem found herself speaking without thinking.

"I love you so much," professed Clem as she squeezed Sarah's hand as hard as she could.

"I love you too and I'd… I'd do anything for you Clem," whispered Sarah in a pained voice.

"Me too," promised Clem as she drifted off to sleep in Sarah's arms.