(Clementine's Pov)
I was looking at the leaves as they started to fall. This time of year, always get to me. The cold air, the falling leaves, the changing of the colors the memories. I looked over to AJ as he was helping Violet with the greenhouse and I go over and help them. I watched as Violet took measurements and she would look to me and I smile at her as she smiled at me. I then see the others come over to the cabin and they opened the gate as they walk in.
"Hey how's the greenhouse coming?" Omar asked.
"Coming along good, just measuring for the glass panels since I lost the other papers but hey." Violet shrugged and I roll my eye at this. She didn't lose them she thought she did the math wrong but I wasn't going to call her out on that. I look over to see Louis as he just kept to himself and I was glad about that. We didn't need any shit today.
"Well, I have to check the fuses to see if they're good once we finish the makeshift watermill." Marlon says and I nod at this. Honestly, he's come a long way from when we first met and I'm glad that he's been improving, hell he's even come to me a few times when he felt like he needed to talk to someone. I look to the side where AJ had gone over to Violet and I stretch a bit.
"Mind if I help?" I asked and he looked to me and nods. We head inside and he looks to the box and we checked the wires and taped some of them that weren't too bad.
"Got to replace some of the wires but all in all they're fine, I might have to go and check up in the attic since it's not so hot out anymore but last I saw they were good." He tells me and I nod a bit.
"We can check on them later… how are you?" I asked him. He was looking at some of the wires and he sighed a bit and I look to him.
"Been fine, but uh… right now… this time… I feel guilt." He says and I look to him and I nod a bit.
"It's going to happen a lot, guilt is… it's never going to go away." I tell him and he nods.
"I felt guilt when I gave up Sophie and Minerva, when I made Brody keep it a secret… but over the year I had just… I still had it but I learned to keep it buried deep down… and when I hurt Brody… I didn't mean to." He tells me and I look to him a bit as he looked to the ground.
"I still haven't picked up a gun since that day…. I don't trust myself." He tells me and I nod a bit.
"And… sometimes I wish AJ had killed me that day… but I think that it would have been a blessing and that Brody and the twins wouldn't have had justice you know." He says as he looked to me and I look back to the fuse box and I think for a while and I sighed.
"I get what you are saying, you having a quick death makes it seem like they wouldn't have gotten justice, and you think suffering is what you deserve in order to feel right on what you did to them… I don't think I ever felt that way, honestly, I felt guilt when I got Lee bitten, it was my fault and he came looking for me… and I had to shoot him… that was my punishment… to shoot the man that took care of me, who saved me from a crazy stranger who kept his wife's head in a bowling bag… I was a stupid kid… I sometimes felt that he should have left me to die." I tell Marlon. We look to each other and he looked back to the ground. I pat his back gently and he nods a bit and then leaves the cabin. I closed the fuse box and then I see Louis as he came in.
"I uh… is it ok if we talk?" He asked and I just look to him and then nod. He stood there and I wait for him to speak. Though it was taking too long I decided it would be ok for me to leave but he stopped me. I take his hand off me and he raised his hands up in a surrender and I glare at him.
"Look I just… can you talk to Violet for me?" He asked.
"No." I tell him and he looked to me a bit.
"I just can't-."
"You can talk to her, I'm not talking to her in your place." I tell him.
"I just-."
"I'm not going to listen to you if you're going to try and guilt me into talking to her for you, you can talk to her." I tell him.
"I just… look she'll listen to you if you-."
"Louis what you said hurt her more than you think… you blamed her for Tenn's death, and not once have you apologized and you haven't really done anything to prove that you actually feel sorry, or that you regret what you said to her." I tell him and he looked to the side a bit.
"I'm not going to talk to her when you can talk to her yourself You need to understand that I'm not going to baby either of you." I tell him and he frowns a bit and I raise a brow at him. He looked like he wanted to say something but he stopped himself and I just shrugged and then I left out the cabin and I head over to Violet. She looked to me and I shake my head and she looked to the house to see Louis walking out. Before she could do anything, I stopped her and we look to each other.
"Did he say something to you? Did he do something to you?" She asked.
"No, it's fine." I tell her and she looked me in the eye and I smile gently at her.
"I promise everything is fine." I tell her and she nods a bit. I decided to ask if everyone wanted to stay for dinner tonight and they all agreed and I nod as I look to Omar who comes over and we get to work on the grill Violet had found a while back.
"Oh, am I grilling?" Violet asked as she came over.
"Nope, not tonight." I tell her and she crossed her arms.
"You like my grill skills." I hear her say and I roll my eye.
"Yeah, and that ridiculous apron you found? I know what turns grills on really?" I asked.
"It's funny and you know it." She says pointing a finger at me and I hear Omar chuckle a bit and I look to him.
"What, it is funny." He says and I roll my eye.
"I swear, she finds the dumbest things to like." I mutter.
"Hey at least I didn't get that one tank top that said suns out guns out." She tells me and I groan.
"With your weak pale arms, I think that shirt should be reserved for me." I tell her and she busts out laughing.
"Yeah… so do I need to get anything from our makeshift meat locker?" She asked.
"Some deer meat would be great actually." I tell her and she nods.
"Deer meat coming right up, any vegetables?" She asked.
"Corn and potatoes." Omar tells her and she nods and goes to get the food. When she came back, she sets the food on the counter and Omar and I get to work. He shows me all the seasoning we could use and I get to work as we make some deer steaks. It wasn't long till we hear some arguing outside and I look to Omar as we recognize Violet and Louis's voices and I sighed a bit.
"Think we should head out there?" He asked and I listen in a bit.
"Probably." I sighed and we head outside to see Louis and Violet yelling.
"DUDE BACK OFF!" Violet yelled and I go up to them.
"Ok what's going on?" I asked.
"I just asked if we could talk." Louis tells me and I look to Violet.
"And I told him no; I don't want to talk to him." She tells me. I place my hand to my face a bit and look to them. I'm dealing with a bunch of kids.
"Ok, am I going to have to mitigate everything?" I asked.
"No, I just want him to leave me alone." Violet tells him more than me.
"I just want to say I'm sorry." Louis tells her.
"I don't care if you are, I don't want to hear it." She tells him.
"Now Violet-."
"No, he should have never told me it was my fault for Tenn's death, he should have never blamed any of us, if that's the fucking case I should blame him for what happened to Brody." She says as she glared at him.
"I didn't kill her you moron." He says.
YOU DID BY NOT DOING SHIT TO TALK TO MARLON!" She yelled.
"ENOUGH!" I yelled and they both look to me and I take a breath and set my hand down as I look to the both of them.
"Both of you, in the house right fucking now." I tell them as calmly as I could. Neither of them moved so I grabbed them both by the back collar of their shirts and basically dragged them up to the cabin.
"Inside now." I tell them and point to the door and they look to me then to the door and they both go inside.
"Holy shit, Mama Clem is full force right now." I hear Ruby say and I look to her as she was trying to hold back a laugh. I sigh as I go in the house and Omar grabbed the food and says he's going to start cooking and I nod and looked to the two as they glare at each other.
"Sit, now." I tell them.
"We aren't dogs." Violet mutters.
"No, you're still basically children and I'm younger than the both of you, having to mitigate this bullshit." I tell them.
"It's not-."
"Stop, no arguing with me." I tell Violet and she looked to the side a bit then goes and takes a seat in her chair and I nod and look to Louis. He looked to me a bit and then he takes a seat on the couch and I go and take a seat in the other chair. I look to the both of them and they still glared at each other.
"Start talking." I tell them.
"I have nothing to say." Violet tells me and I glare at her a bit and she looks to the ground.
"Look I just want to say I am sorry for blaming you, I never should have done that, I was just… upset." Louis tells her but Violet says nothing. I look to them both and Louis looked to her.
"You're an asshole you know that? You take to long to apologize, you always do it when it's too late." Violet says and I look to her a bit.
"You have to understand-."
"Understand what? That you need time? bullshit, you had plenty of time, you still haven't said sorry for the shit you pulled on the cliff, your apologies mean nothing to me at this point." She tells him and he looked to the side.
"You think you were the only one to lose people?" He asked.
"I never fucking said that you-."
"Tenn was my friend too, I felt like shit when he died, and at the time I just… I got mad and had to blame someone." He says.
"So, you blame us? Fuck you, you blamed a literal child." Violet tells him as she gripped the armrests.
"You, Just... look at it from my perspective." Louis tells him and I lean back in the seat a bit.
"Look at it from my perspective you asshole, I lost a little brother basically, I had to be the one to… you have no fucking idea how it feels, you never will, and to be blamed for it, fuck you." She tells him and he looked to the ground a bit.
"I just… look I just want to say I'm sorry, that's it." He says and he gets up and so do I.
"No sit your ass down, I am fed up with you two arguing, you two are acting like children and you two are going to be treated like god damn kids, and right now you two are going to sit here and fucking talk or I swear to whatever fucked up god there is I will get handcuffs and force you two to work together that way, do you both understand?" I tell them and they look to me a bit shocked and I crossed my arms.
"Do not make me go looking for a pair I'm not joking I will cuff you two this is fucking ridiculous." I tell them and Louis sits down. I look to the both of them and they look to each other. They stayed quiet for a bit and I watch them both.
"Honestly I thought you two would have cuff already." Louis says and I look to him my eyes widening and then I hear Violet stifle a laugh and I look to her as she covered her mouth and she looked to me as she tried to stop laughing.
"I have to admit that was pretty good." She chuckled and I look to them a bit. They don't really talk much but they did start talking. Even if it wasn't what they were supposed to talk about, but at least it was something. It wasn't long till I told them it was ok for them to leave the house and I go and help Violet. It would be about a month later before the fall season was in full swing. I was walking with Violet and AJ as we were heading into town to get some bikes. We all thought it would be great to just get them and ride around, though we would have to see if we could modify one for me or find something to help me due to my leg. We walked to the bike shop and we got to looking. I was looking at one bike and AJ was looking to the one next to me, he moved the bike a bit and Violet was looking over to the tools and extra chains for the bikes as well.
"Hey what about this one?" AJ asked and I go over to him as he was sitting on the bike seat and I smile a bit.
"Looks good, just need to get some air in the tires." I say and he nods.
"Got a bike pump over here." Violet say as she comes over to us with said pump. She then got to work on the bike and AJ was asking him questions on it. Though she didn't know how to answer all his questions she tried her best.
"Well we have to keep the bikes inside because the tires could rot, that's why they aren't as bad." She tells him.
"So should we make a shed to put them in?" AJ asked.
"You know that would actually be a great idea." I say and pat his head a bit and he looked to me.
"Really?" he asked and I nod.
"Yeah, we could store lots of things in the shed, actually we could make it as a workshop so you and I can fix up the bikes or anything really." Violet says and she looked to him and he smiled.
"Awesome." He says excited and I smile at him and Violet looked to be thinking.
"What has those gears turning?" I asked as AJ went to go and get a helmet. I look back to her and she finished getting the bikes tires filled and checked it over to make sure it was good.
"If gas wasn't a problem, we could get one of those premade storage sheds and work with it, plus it's going to be a bitch to get the lumbar to make she shed." She mutters a bit and I smiled and kissed her cheek.
"I know, but hey we can see if we can try getting the cars to work." I tell her and she laughed.
"You going to tell me you're secretly a mechanic?" She asked.
"Hey I know how to work on a car, how do you think I was able to drive a manual?" I asked her and she shrugged.
"Pure luck and spite?" She asked and I couldn't help but giggle. She smiled a bit at me and I look to her.
"Look, for right now we can work with the bikes, if we can find a car before the snow falls, I can work on it." I tell her.
"Mind if I help?" She asked.
"Sure, I can teach you… actually we should get a book for mechanics." I think out loud and look to her and she nods. When we found the bike I wanted she helped me rig it up so that I would be able to pedal it home. She got the bike she wanted and we both made AJ wear knee pads and elbow pads too. He tried to argue with us, and granted he was getting close to being a teenager, we told him it would be best when it comes to Walkers. He thinks and agreed that it was basically like a form of armor. We ride the bikes back to the house; Violet had gotten some bike racks for the house so we could put them on the wall for now. Once home she started to install the wall racks and I helped her as AJ went to go and get some vegetables from the garden.
Violet and I finished getting the mounts on the wall and she was putting the bikes on them. I come up behind her as she got the last bike up and I hugged her gently. We stayed like this for a bit and then she turned around and hugs me back.
"So, what is for dinner?" She asked and I laughed.
"What do we have?" I asked and she thinks.
"Deer, fish, and rabbit." She lists and I think.
"Oh, some rabbit stew sounds good." I suggest and she nods.
"On it." She tells me.
"No tomato." I tell her.
"Is corn good?" She asked.
"That's fine." I tell her and she nods.
"Alright… damn what I would give to have a cow." She says as she heads to the kitchen. I follow her and AJ comes in and we wash the vegetables.
"I told you about the cow I saw as I kid right?" I asked her and she thinks.
"I believe so, with those cannibals?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yep, got to pet her and everything, she was having a baby calf when we met up with them." I tell her and she nods.
"You think there is a possibility of getting a cow?" AJ asked and I think.
"I'm not to sure, not a lot of people think about keeping a farm or hell even a ranch to have cows… though if we do that would be great… could start a farm and everything." I say and I look to Violet as she was cleaning the rabbit meat.
"You know, we'd have to cut down a lot of the trees to get enough land for a farm." She tells me.
"Yeah." I mutter quietly and think.
"I wouldn't mind that though, and AJ here can help, we can raise some pigs, and Cows, and other animals, that would be cool." She suggests.
"I wanna help make a farm." He says and we finished with the corn. I then grabbed the pot and started to cook the corn.
"Have you raised farm animals before?" AJ asked.
"No, but we can learn." I tell him.
"What about you Violet?" He asked.
"Nah, never but I read books… though I need to update on what a pig sounds like." She jokes and I giggle a bit.
"Doofus." I mutter.
"Excuse you but it's goof." She says and I roll my eye at this.
"Bullcrap, I'm goofball." AJ states and I smirk a bit.
"Oh, so you aren't Alvin Junior?" I asked.
"I am." He says.
"So, you aren't goofball anymore." I state and he thinks a bit.
"Besides, I'm just goof, not goofball." Violet tells him as she brings the pot with stew and she sets it by the corn so it could cook. She then takes a seat next to me and she lays her head back.
"Fucking tired as hell." She mutters and I pat her leg a bit. I know the feeling. I look to her as she lays her head to the side and I smiled and then get up and get us something to drink.
"I'm tired as fuck too." AJ says and I poke my head from the kitchen and I look to him and I hear Violet laughing a bit.
"I'm about to make a swear jar." I mutter and Violet laughed more.
"And what do we put in it?" Violet asked.
"Chores, when it fills up the last person has to do all the chores." I tell them and Violet zips her mouth as does AJ. I nod and I bring the drinks over and hand one to AJ and I hand Violet her drink. She grabbed the cup and then she grabbed her side a bit and I look to her worried.
"Are you ok?" AJ asked and she nods a bit.
"Hmm, yeah just a fu-… a pinch… I think." She mutters and I lift her shirt up a bit and see bruising on her side.
"Oh geez, ok I'm going to get Ruby." I say and she tried to wave it off.
"Nah it's fine been like this for a while-."
"A while? How long?" I asked. I here AJ getting up and I look to him.
"I'm going to get Ruby." He says and I nod and I look to Violet.
"Hmm, just… a while." She tells me and I take the glass and set it on the table and I think.
"Look it's cold enough for some water so I can get some cold water." I tried to explain and she looked to me.
"It's fine I promise." She tells me.
"Your side is bruised."
"It-."
"I swear to god if you say it's fine, I will hit you hard on the head." I tell her and she shuts her mouth. It wasn't long till Ruby came and she checked on Violet who kept saying she was fine and I had to refrain from smacking the back of her head.
"Could be a small nick from the knife to cause some bleeding, unless you fell on your side and didn't tell anyone." Ruby says and Violet mutters a bit and I look to her.
"What was that?" I asked and Violet zips her mouth.
"Violet, did you hit your side?" Ruby asked and she looked to Ruby.
"She did fall from the tree two days ago." AJ says and I look to him then to her. She looked away and I cross my arms a bit.
"And you didn't think to tell anyone?" I asked her.
"Wasn't that hard of a fall." She mutters.
"What were you doing in a tree?" Ruby asked.
"I… uh… it's stupid, but anyway am I good? No internal bleeding?" She asked.
"Could cut it to check going to hurt like a bitch though." Ruby says and I look to Violet who hisses a bit.
"Uh… just to not have blood on this lovey… old couch let's not." Violet says and I looked to Ruby who looked to me.
"Just keep an eye out, if you feel any movement in your stomach or in this area, it could possibly be blood." Ruby says and we both nod.
"I'll come over tomorrow to check, so no more tree climbing or overworking yourself." Ruby tells Violet who nods at this.
"Yeah, yeah got it." Violet tells her and Ruby looked to me and I sighed and I nod a bit. She heads out the door and I tell AJ to watch Violet and I follow Ruby back to the school.
"You really believe she fell from a tree?" I asked.
"I don't think AJ would lie about that, why you think it could be from the stab wound?" Ruby asked as we walked.
"I don't know… I mean to be fair she had been acting a little… different?" I asked.
"You think she hit her head?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe… I mean granted she acts the same but it's different." I tell her and we stopped walking and Ruby looked to be thinking.
"We can keep some tabs on her, she hasn't slurred her words or anything… wonder why she didn't say anything though." Ruby says and I nod a bit.
"Look she seems fine, but keep an eye on her, and make sure she doesn't do any work for a week." Ruby tells me and I nod and we start walking again. When she gets to the school, I take a breath and I head back to the cabin and I kept an eye out for Walkers. There was maybe one or two but they didn't hear me and I was glad. When I finally get to the cabin and I head inside and I see Violet and AJ as he sat next to her showing his drawings. He was working on something new and Violet was asking what he was drawing.
"Well, there was this one farm we had passed and I never got to draw it." AJ tells her and I take a seat next to them.
"Oh, hey Clem." Violet says and I nod.
"So, this farm was it big?" Violet asked.
"Oh yeah, it was huge, and the fencing was just wood." He says and I nod as Violet looked to me and I smiled. We watched as AJ continued to draw and we got dinner and ate for a bit. It was a good meal in all honesty, when done we cleaned our plates and I look to the flames a bit and AJ said he was going to head to bed for the night. I look over to Violet as she placed her hand to her side and I raise a brow at her and she looked to me.
"Why were you in a tree?" I asked her and she groaned a bit.
"No reason, just in a tree." She says and I watch her a bit and she looked away a bit.
"You're lying." I state and she looked to me.
"I'm not." She says a bit defensive and I watch her as she tried to avoid eye contact and I point to her.
"You are, you're trying to look away, why were you in a tree?" I asked.
"It was stupid." She tells me and I raise a brow at her.
"Just tell me I doubt it's stupid." I lean back a bit so my back was against the couch and she rubbed her head a bit and then looked to me.
"You told me you had a tree house." She says and I look to her a bit.
"Yeah?" I asked as I watched her.
"I thought that… well I thought that it would be cool to build one." She says and I smile a bit.
"Seriously?" I asked.
"What? I mean the trees are big enough, we could make a huge one." She tells me and I rubbed my head a bit.
"Well, because of that you can't be doing a lot, you should have said something." I tell her.
"Well… AJ and I thought it would be a surprise." She tells me.
"So, he knew and said nothing till now?" I asked.
"I did tell him not to tell, so don't be mad at him." She tells me and I look to her. She looks at me for a bit and then to the side and I sighed.
"I'm… a little upset, with the both of you but what's done is done, you should have said something earlier though, what if you hit your head? What if you broke a leg or arm?" I asked.
"Hey falling off the cliff and only hurting my ankle was the worst I got." She says and I look to her and motion to her eye and she thinks a bit.
"Ok second worse but I meant broken bone wise." She tells me and I look to her as she looked back to me. I take a breath and looked to the side a bit and looked at the flames.
"What am I going to do with you?" I asked.
"Uh… keep me?" She asked and I laughed.
"Yeah, guess I have no choice." I joked and she laughed a bit.
"Look… I am sorry for not saying anything, I thought that it would go away didn't think it was really that bad, and it was just a small pinch really." She tells me and I sighed a bit.
"Yes, but… we have to be more careful you understand?" I asked her. She nods at this and then lays her head on my lap and I look down at her.
"Comfy?" I asked and she nods.
"Yeah, you know you have a comfortable lap." She tells me and I look down at her and she looked to me and smiled a bit. I smiled a bit at her and placed my hand on top of her head and rubbed it gently and she closed her eyes a bit. I kissed the top of her head and when I moved back, she looked to me and I looked back to her. She smiled at me and placed her hands on her chest and she closed her eyes again and she seems to have fallen asleep. I look to the flames in the fireplace and I take a breath and I scratch the back of my neck and then back to her. I look back to her and kept rubbing her head. AJ comes in the living room and I look to him as he looked to me. I nod to him and he nods back as he grabbed some extra food.
I was glad we had enough so he could have extra. I was honestly glad that he could have extras, with how we use to live we had to ration what little food we did have and water as well. He heads back to his room and I watch him a bit and I look back to Violet as she slept. She looked so peaceful, well when she's not snoring, but it's a quality that I love about her. I rubbed her head a little more and she moves a little closer to me and I smile a little and think for a bit. I watch her more and I lay my head back and I closed my eyes a bit. I felt myself getting tired at this point and I fall asleep myself.