Work Text:
The moment Violet knew things had gone to shit was on the covered bridge when Minerva’s fire axe cleaved through Clementine’s left leg.
Her girlfriend’s surprised, pained scream was enough to make Violet’s stomach drop to her ragged boots as all hell broke loose once again. Minnie had shoved her against the side of the bridge, knocking the compound bow into the river below. She’d watched helplessly as Clem shot her ex and turned away as the walkers began their feeding frenzy at the smell of fresh blood.
She had just enough time to stop Tenn from joining his mutilated sister in her agonizing death, and urge her wounded lover across the gap. The walkers were closing in as she struggled with the scarred 10-year-old, and all she could hear over her racing heartbeat was AJ yelling to her over the growls of the undead and the pained screaming of the siblings she was struggling to save.
The moment of clarity in the chaos wasn’t lost to her, she’d experienced it before in the school courtyard as Clementine had stared down the barrel of Lilly’s rifle. The background noise of the world was still there, it wasn’t like she remembered in the movies where everything went silent. But the screaming in her brain was the same: the outright ringing, her animal instinct, urging her to act before death caught up.
But this time, she didn’t get the choice to act.
AJ made the decision for her.
And Tennessee paid with his life for her indecision.
…
Shit.
Everything was so fucked, from Louis’ tongue to shooting Minerva on the steamboat, the Raiders fucking up their plans to Clem being maimed.
This whole rescue mission was entirely shot to shit.
Clementine… Clem was bleeding heavily from her leg as she leaned on the same axe that wounded her. Violet had to think fast, and after she scaled the chain-link fence and dropped to the other side, the barrier between herself and her girlfriend and boy was suddenly too much. The walkers were closing in and the absolute fear in Clem’s voice made Violet’s insides clench. She only ran because the rotting corpses grasping out for her got too close.
Mindlessly, she followed the fence, looking for an opening, a broken gap, anywhere she could get through to go help her wounded girl.
This is so fucked.
This whole fucking day was fucked and the sun wasn’t even up yet.
All she could picture was Clem dragging her useless leg, Minnie’s axe her only defense besides a 6-year-old with a gun sure to run out of bullets.
The blonde ran faster, the end of the fence in sight. The old weather-worn and debris-strewn mountain road coming back into view. She cut through, recognizing faintly the route back to Ericson’s. Clem and AJ were taking the longer way, towards the old horse barn they’d mentioned James had used.
Violet struggled, with Clementine’s leg and the herd prowling the woods, would the duo head back to the school or use the barn as cover?
Hearing gunshots in the direction of the barn, Violet’s mind was made up for her.
As she jogged closer to the run-down building, the mass of walkers surrounding it concerned her. But nothing prepared her for the screams of agony that cut through the early morning air.
Clem was in there!
She had to move, had to get to her girlfriend and AJ before the walkers did.
The screaming stopped abruptly and Vi’s heart shattered. Seeing an opening in the mass of undead, Violet took off quickly and quietly kicking walkers’ knees when they got in her way. An old ladder lay up against the backside of the barn and Violet vaulted over the rotten fence and made her way up it before the undead could grab her. Then she dropped carefully into the loft through the hole in the roof; from there she could see smoke rising from below.
Violet lowered herself onto the hay stacked up on the barn floor in time to see AJ, covered in god-knows-what entrails and blood, holding up Clem’s glowing knife from the fire he’d made on the dirt floor.
He promptly dropped the weapon at the sight of the blonde teen.
“Violet!”
The older girl carefully dropped down and assessed the situation. Clementine - her Clem - the love of her life lay propped against the hay bales with her left leg severed mid shin. AJ had made a tourniquet with Clem’s belt and some wood for a windlass, but the floor around the fresh amputation was stained red with blood.
Clem’s skin looked ashy pale and her lips had lost all the color Violet had come to love. She kneeled shakily by her side and placed the back of her hand against a cheek, feeling how clammy the brunette’s skin was and how she was shivering lightly.
After a few close calls, Ruby had taught the remaining teens at Ericson’s the basics of first aid. Violet recognized shock as much as she could remember and removed her hooded vest, laying it over her unconscious girlfriend’s torso, feeling for a pulse in the area below Clem’s jaw. It was weak but still somewhat normal - a good sign.
She turned when AJ started to sniffle quietly, and looked the boy over. His red jacket and Disco Broccoli shirt were stained red with walker guts and Violet shuddered remembering being covered herself the night before.
AJ looked up at the blonde, the knife he’d dropped returned to the fire for the time being. Violet opened her arms for him and he dove in, burying his face in the teen’s ragged t-shirt.
“AJ, we gotta get Clem out of here, but you have to tell me what happened so we can take care of her.”
The boy leaned back and Violet wiped his face with the sleeve of her black long-sleeved shirt.
“W-when we got separated after the bridge, Clem helped me up the rocks but her leg was hurting so bad she couldn’t climb fast a-and the walkers grabbed her hurt leg and…” the boy stopped, fresh tears falling from his eyes.
“AJ - ” Violet looked at Clem, watching to make sure she was still breathing. Good. Still time.
“She got bit! And she said one time that Lee cut his arm off when he got bit and she cut some lady’s arm off-”
Violet almost fucking threw up right there. Her girlfriend was without her leg because she’d been bit – bit- by a fucking walker.
“We have to burn it, like Ruby said, caut- cah-“ he supplied, looking at the knife laying in the dying fire on the floor.
“Cauterize,” the blonde finished. She breathed to steel herself and grabbed the glowing knife, looking at the ragged stump of her girlfriend’s left leg. The bone wasn’t exposed so the risk was lower, but there was a chance Clem would wake from the pain.
Violet looked at the long lashes of her girlfriend’s closed eyes, how much she loved those hazel-brown eyes… She wanted Clem to wake up and smile at her and tell her everything would be ok.
Steeling herself, the blonde teen pressed the knife to the mess of her girl’s leg and sealed the flesh. The smell was horrible and Violet could hear AJ throwing up behind her. When the wound was closed, she rolled up the pants leg to see if the wound from Minerva’s axe was infected. AJ’s makeshift tourniquet was essentially useless now so the teen loosened it slightly, looking for something to cover the stump.
She settled for her ratty old t-shirt, wrapping the wound before turning to AJ as he cleaned his mouth.
The axe lay beside him in the dirt and hay.
That same fucking fire axe that caused this mess – well, her ex caused this- but the axe was the thing that permanently disabled Clem. Violet knew she needed the damned thing or they’d never get her unconscious girlfriend out of this stupid barn.
“AJ, take the knife and start stabbing the walkers through the bars so we can get Clem out of here.”
The boy nodded, running off to do as she’d asked. Violet kneeled by Clementine’s unconscious body, trying to figure a way to carry her out. AJ grunted behind her and she turned to find him pushing a wheelbarrow full of dirt.
Bingo.
A handgun lay next to Clem’s hand on the barn floor and Violet checked it for ammo. Empty. She pocketed it in the off-chance they found the right ammunition. Better safe than sorry when it came to weapons. AJ was still struggling with the walkers, so the older girl decided she’d better find something to help speed up the process.
A curved farm tool hung on the back of one of the near-rotted posts holding the loft up and she quickly grabbed it and got to work. The dead snarled and drooled a mix of blood, deadly saliva, and rotted flesh as they grasped for her and AJ through the bars. But one by one they all fell, a quick jab to their softened skulls enough to quiet the barn. Outside, the moans of the dead could still be heard as they shuffled about, deciding where to move next only through their primal senses.
Violet strung the hand sickle from her belt and gently hoisted AJ from the top of the wheelbarrow, before dumping its contents onto the barn floor.
“We gonna put Clem in that?” AJ whispered from his spot on the floor, kneeling at the brunette’s side.
Violet nodded, carefully wheeling it over to the duo, praying the stupid old thing didn’t squeak. She knelt on the unconcious girl's other side and brushed a stray curl out of her face, feeling the sweat and grime on her forehead. She was hot to the touch, but nothing like Violet had seen when the first few Ericson’s kids had been bit at the start. But still, she didn’t want to take chances.
If Clem knew people who’d survived a bite, she was the most likely of their group to do the same. Wiggling an arm under Clem’s thighs while being careful of her wounded side, Violet picked up her girl bridal-style and placed her into the wheelbarrow, covering her again with the hooded vest.
AJ piped up then, “We have to do the guts thing again or the monsters will smell us.”
Internally, Violet groaned.
-*****-
A few minutes of gagging later and the trio was prepared for the trek back to the school. AJ carefully opened one of the sliding barn doors near the back and Violet held her breath as a walker shambled by, dragging its rotting intestines along the ground.
The open door went thankfully unnoticed and AJ motioned Violet into action.
The normally 15-minute walk lasted them well into the afternoon, as the blonde’s arms and back ached from not only the stressful night and rough treatment on the steamboat, but the dead weight of Clementine in the wheelbarrow.
It was not as if Clem was that big of a person, but neither was Violet, and running on no sleep and dwindled adrenaline made it all the worse.
As the rusted gates of the school came into view through the trees, AJ picked up speed. Violet watched him get farther and farther ahead but didn’t want to risk yelling after him with the walker herd still near.
AJ threw open the gates ahead of her and Aasim and Willy came running to the entrance. She could see the teens confusedly motioning and whispering to the boy before he pointed to where she was slowly pushing Clem. The teens hurried to her side and took over pushing the rest of the way, assuring her that Ruby was already prepared with medical supplies, having patched up the shoddy job the Delta had done on Omar and Louis.
After everything on the boat and the bridge, Violet had almost forgotten her best friend. Louis had been mutilated and permanently silenced all because he’d been captured instead of her. She never would have figured that Lilly would be willing to harm her “recruits” so harshly to control them, but after hearing Minnie confess to murdering her sister on Lilly’s command it made sense.
Everything was so fucked, and she wanted nothing more than to be there by Clem’s side while Ruby worked on her, but she smelled like death and needed some water before she passed out in the school courtyard.
Willy stood guard on the wall, somehow having scavenged a working bow from the chaos. AJ closed the gate and locked the chain apparatus they’d made the night before the rescue mission. Violet walked over to the boy and kneeled in front of him like she’d seen Clementine do countless time. Getting on his level, making him feel like an equal.
“Let’s get cleaned up and we’ll go check on Clem, ok?” She tried her hardest to sound optimistic, but her voice cracked on the girl’s name and AJ looked up at her with tears in his eyes. The blonde put a hand carefully on his shoulder before he nodded in agreement and followed her to the well out back.
Ericson had been a jerk, an idiot, and a child-abandoning asshole, but he’d been smart enough to make the school ground semi-self-sufficient. An old red hand pump well had been their source of water in the years after the outbreak, especially in the winter when the river froze over and the trek there became too dangerous.
Ruby had set up the horse, wagon detached, with a makeshift trough and hay near the well and Violet warily moved around it to pump water into an aluminum basin. AJ followed her slowly as she filled it and dumped half into a bucket for the boy to wash up with. They had followed a schedule of cleaning themselves and their clothes for a time, until AJ and Clem had crashed into their lives.
The clothesline strung between the building and a pole was empty except for a tattered sheet they’d used for privacy. Violet looked at her gut-strewn clothing and sighed audibly, prompting a reaction from AJ.
“What about clean clothes?”
“I’ll get some, little man,” the blonde supplied, tossing him a rag to clean himself with before stepping into the dorms.
Groans of pain and hushed whispers sounded from down the hall. She’d figured Ruby would use the headmaster’s office but it made more sense now to have Clem roomed in a place with two beds so she could be monitored. Violet made her way down the hallway just as a blood-curdling scream came from the room she assumed Ruby was working in. Her aching, exhausted legs carried her to the doorway as she witnessed Louis and Aasim holding down Clementine as Ruby stitched up the un-seared parts of her ragged stump. Violet’s heart dropped through her stomach as her girlfriend screamed again in agony, fighting against the boys’ grip. The blonde made her way to the head of the bed, ignoring Ruby’s annoyed commands to leave. Thankful she’d at least cleaned her hands, Vi took her girl’s face between them and forced her to look at her. She’d never seen Clementine so afraid or in so much pain and her heart felt like it was being ripped out of her chest as the younger girl sobbed openly, her hazel eyes searching the room frantically.
“Shh, Clem it’s me… It’s Violet. I’ve got you…” the older teen stroked her thumb along her girlfriend’s cheek, wiping as many tears away as she could. Clementine’s eyes settled on her face and her eyebrows were knit together upwards as she struggled away from the fresh pain of Ruby suturing her already wounded leg.
“I’m right here, Clem. It’s going to be ok. AJ is just outside… I’m right here.”
She’d never been good at comforting anyone, but seeing their fearless leader – her distraught lover – so panic-stricken and confused called for Violet’s best attempt. Clem still openly sobbed, her fist letting go of Aasim’s jacket from where she’d been grasping it to reach up for her girlfriend.
Violet leaned over, resting her weight half over the side of the bed, allowing Clem to bury her face into her shoulder and quiet her agony in the black undershirt there. Vi let herself cry then, and then only. Into the dark brown curls and the ratty old pillow on the bunkbed.
She cried about Minerva, a twisted shell of the vibrant young woman she’d been before the apocalypse. She cried for Louis, who struggled against Clementine’s grip just a foot away, unable to voice his thoughts or his comfort for their literal hero who’d saved him from those monsters, who’d failed to save him in time in the courtyard. She cried for Clem, who lay weeping under her, mutilated leg and all, her strength and courage in the face of death over and over again. When their friends were dying around her, when she’d been wounded and beat, made a cripple after all the work she’d done.
Violet especially cried for Tenn and Sophie, victims of their sister. Victims of a world that was too harsh for the both of them even though they stood the best chance of beating it. Tenn’s blood was still crusted on the blonde’s clothes.
Ruby finished tying up the clean bandages over Clem’s amputation. Violet didn’t have time to notice or stop crying long enough to thank her or explain Tenn’s absence before being engulfed in a group hug while she still held Clementine.
They held each other and after a time Vi recounted the trip home as Clem fell unconscious after Ruby gave her some pain pills they’d found stashed in Ericson’s office. Ruby shooed the boys out to clean themselves up before it got dark and together, she and Violet removed Clem’s dirty clothes and cleaned her up without too much incident. Of course, Ruby sniggered quietly as Violet blushed and sputtered during the whole process. AJ had waited patiently outside until the girls redressed Clem in some of Brody’s old clothes, seeing as she was the closest fit. Just another friend Violet would cry about after she’d rested.
AJ pushed open the door and came to sit beside the older teen, who held her girl’s hand as she slept.
“Did I do the right thing?” the boy asked, staring openly at Clem’s now bandaged leg.
Ruby was quick to speak and reassure him, “Oh sug, don’t beat yourself up over it. Clem is gonna get better.”
The redhead looked the two over as they watched Clem sleep, “You two did good, Ms. Martin would be proud.”
Violet smiled half-heartedly before Ruby left the two of them to watch over their girl. AJ shifted uncomfortably from his spot on the mattress, not meeting Violet’s gaze.
“I want to sleep here with her,” he whispered. Violet swallowed thickly, she wanted to sleep next to Clem too, but Ruby had tied the unconscious teen’s hands to the bed in case the fever was too much and she turned. It was only after some angry words that she loosened the bonds and allowed the two to stay the night.
Violet knew she smelled even worse now, but watching Clem’s eyes dart around under her lids, consumed in a nightmare or a fever dream, made it hard to move from her side. AJ spoke up once more,
“You should go eat and clean up,” he said quietly, afraid to wake his adopted ‘mom’. Violet released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, before agreeing with him.
As she made her way out through the courtyard, the sun set completely under the horizon of the forest surrounding the school. A quick glance to the gate found it blocked again with pieces of scrap metal and roofing, placed there by the boys from the supplies Willy had taken. Aasim stood watch, having dismissed the younger teen to get some rest. Louis and Omar cleaned up the courtyard as Rosie stood guard.
Maybe they’d have a quiet night. Now that the Raiders were gone and James with them, the herd would converge on the steamboat until some unknown force lead them onward away from the river.
Maybe things would finally go back to being normal.
Well, as normal as they could after the month the Ericson’s kids had. Violet scrubbed at her clothes, having dressed in a clean-ish undershirt and sweats she’d taken from one of the long-gone student’s rooms years ago. Hot tears fell down her face into the browning water as she scrubbed harder.
Frustration at herself and at Tenn, at Minerva’s brainwashed stubbornness came out in the work she put into cleaning her jeans.
They would be ok eventually.
-****-
The next morning she stood guard long enough to be replaced by Omar, who had already finished cooking breakfast with the food they’d scavenged from the train station.
It felt like a year had passed since then when, according to Aasim’s book, it had only been a few weeks.
Louis had shed his sherpa-lined leather coat, wearing a ragged sweater instead as he cleaned his hands at the well pump. Violet made her way over to him, still wearing the undershirt and sweats, hoping to gather her clean dry clothes off the line from where they hung by AJ’s and Clem’s.
Her best friend noticed her approach and gave her a half-smile, wiping his long fingers on an old towel Aasim had hung up on the clothesline earlier.
Violet stood awkwardly, arms crossed in front of herself as Louis looked everywhere but at her. It made her heart ache that he couldn’t break the tension with one of his corny jokes. She couldn't form the words to tell him she wished she had been the one captured by the Delta instead of him. When he finally met her eyes after sighing heavily, she threw herself at him and buried her face in the rough sweater, silently crying as his lanky arms gathered her up. She could feel him shaking as he cried with her.
“Lou, I’m so so sorry… if we’d known… shit,” she gripped the back of his sweater tightly. The taller teen pushed at her shoulders and gave her The Look, the one he was always giving her when she said something stupid.
A small commotion at the entrance to the admin building pulled the duo out of their moment abruptly. AJ was yelling at Ruby and Aasim jogged to join them from where he’d been adding wood to the fire.
Violet released a breath she'd been holding and Louis gave her a weak nod in the direction of the argument, as if to say ‘You’re the leader, do something’.
Reluctantly she wiped her face and walked to the staircase, but the closer she got, the less she wanted to be involved.
“-can’t tell me that was the best call!” The blonde caught the end of what Aasim had said.
“It was either him or Violet and he was going to get her killed!” AJ’s voice cracked and Violet stopped in her tracks.
Well shit.
Noticing her approach, Ruby turned to the lanky teen and asked, “Is that true, Vi? Was it you or Tenn?”
Bile rose in her throat as she looked between AJ and the redheaded medic. The 6-year old couldn’t even look at her, tears running down his face as he gripped the sleeves of his jacket in his fists.
“I-it was too fast, Ruby." Violet sputtered, "There were walkers everywhere… a-and Minnie – she was being eaten alive!"
Ruby’s face fell at that.
“Fuck, that’s… that’s awful,” Aasim filled the silence. But awful wasn’t even close to the truth.
Terrifying? Traumatic? Horrible? Violet had woken herself up screaming last night after she’d gone to sleep in Clem and AJ’s room. Minerva’s face had haunted her nightmares, the same face she’d kissed and loved: the flesh of her cheek hanging in shreds, the muscles exposed and raw. Tenn struggling in her arms as the walkers’ rotten bony fingers dragged their decaying bodies under the old yellow truck towards her.
AJ’s voice broke her out of reliving the dream, “I didn’t want to kill Tenn, but we need Violet. Clem needs Violet, and I couldn’t let another one of our friends die because of Tenn.”
Everyone silently remembered Mitch and how he’d spat blood as Lilly’s knife had pierced his throat.
“AJ…” Ruby started before the boy took off running towards the double doors of the admin building, leaving the teens near the stairwell. Louis joined them then and Aasim sighed.
Ruby cleared her throat, “Lou, how’re you feeling?”
The piano player shrugged his shoulders, wiggling his thumb between up and neutral as if to say 'so-so'. Aasim spoke up then, “I actually brought you something that might help.”
He pulled a notebook and pencil out of his back pocket and pushed them into Louis’ hands, “You can still tell your corny jokes this way, until we can all learn some sign language. Willy said he’d help me find the ASL books in the library after his lookout shift today.”
Violet watched her best friend’s face as his eyes started to water, mouthing ‘thank you’ to Aasim before forcing a smile.
“I hate to ask this, Vi, but Clem wasn’t looking too well this morning and I know some IV fluids might help her bounce back faster, but I can’t reach the shelf Ms. Martin stored them on.” Violet looked between Louis and Aasim, being the second shortest in the group.
“Uh…” she started to argue, before Ruby grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her into the building.
-****-
A few minutes later, standing on a couple of crates in the med closet, the blonde handed down the boxes of normal saline to the redhead.
“Why didn’t you ask one of the boys to help? Ya know – the taller ones?” Violet hissed as the crates shifted precariously under her boots.
Ruby huffed and opened one of the boxes, inspecting the bags of long expired fluids inside, “Because I wanted to ask ya something… personal.”
Making her way safely back to the ground, the blonde defensively crossed her arms in front of herself, picking at the sleeve of her shirt with one hand.
“I-I um, well… since you’ve been in – are in a relationship, maybe you’d know more than the boys.”
Violet’s eyebrows shot up at this, Ruby was asking for love advice from her? The lesbian disaster who somehow managed to score not one, but two girlfriends in the zombie apocalypse?
“Oh?” Violet dropped her guard as the shorter girl fiddled with some IV tubing and supplies on the counter.
“How- how did you and Clem get together? I mean, did you ask her?” Ruby asked in the quietest voice Violet had ever heard the girl use.
The taller teen smiled shyly, remembering how Clem had professed in the sweetest way, ‘Why would I go anywhere else if you’re here?’ How the words had made her heart leap through her stomach, and heat gather in her cheeks. When the girl in the baseball cap had said she’d wanted to be together – 'like you know -girlfriends,' and instead of being smooth Violet had stuttered her way into agreeing.
She could still feel Clementine’s slightly chapped but soft lips on her own after they’d climbed back down the tower before her lookout shift. Sure they’d kissed twice after that, but the first one would forever be her favorite.
“C-Clem asked me actually,” Violet answered, feeling her cheeks grow hot. Ruby turned back to her, a look of surprise on her face.
“Really?!? Clementine made the first move?” Ruby sniggered at that, hiding her smile behind a hand.
Violet huffed and crossed her arms once again, “I said a bunch of romantic stuff first!”
Ruby rolled her eyes, “Violet, you’re about as romantic as a dead fish.”
The blonde playfully punched the medic in the shoulder, who scrunched up her freckled nose and rubbed the affected arm.
“I took her up to the bell tower to look at the stars and hang out; I didn’t expect her to feel the same way...”
Ruby put the supplies she’d been gathering into a bag and shut the med closet, leading the taller teen towards Clem and AJ’s room.
“The rest of us could see it, well maybe except Lou - he was in denial the whole time – trying to get Clem to look at him like she looks at you,” Ruby said over her shoulder. Violet let this fact sink in as they reached the closed door to the injured girl’s room. “It’s just… I want Aasim to look at me like that, ya know?”
Violet chuckled, remembering Clementine’s dare to Aasim before the Delta had attacked, “I think you’d be surprised.”
Ruby stopped with the door cracked, “What?”
Violet pushed past the medic and into her girlfriend’s room, finding AJ curled up on his bunk bed, his jacket thrown on the floor and his back to the door. Ruby stopped in the doorway as Vi stood near Clem’s bed, looking over at the boy, who sniffled, his shoulders shaking.
“Oh sug…” she started, laying her bag on the dresser under the barred and boarded window, before sitting on his bed. Violet stood forgotten for the moment as the medic gathered the boy up into her arms with some fuss. The blonde turned to look at her girl, who lay in clean clothes with a blanket pulled up to her armpits but with her stump uncovered and propped on an extra pillow.
Violet sat in the desk chair AJ had pulled up next to the sleeping brunette’s bed before taking the hand laying nearest to her and brushing a kiss at her knuckles. The younger girl’s fingers were clammy and twitched in her sleep, her eyes darting under eyelids frantically. Vi brushed some of the dark curls off Clementine’s sweaty forehead, her thumb lingering near her brow gently smoothing some of the sweat away.
She could hear Ruby shift behind her and watched as the medic assembled the IV kit on the dresser near the washbasin and clean bandages she’d left that morning. They were running low on medical supplies after this entire fiasco with the Delta and Violet knew a run to the town in the valley below was on everyone’s mind before fall ended and winter brought hard times to the West Virginian landscape.
Ruby gently pried Clementine’s hand from Violet's and laid it flat on the bed again, whispering a quick sorry. Violet moved out of the way as Ruby cleaned the triangular notch in the bend of Clem’s arm and stuck her with a needle catheter before hooking up the IV tubing, hanging the bag from the top bunk with a clip. She tossed the needle into a cup and left some cottonballs and tape before reminding Vi how to disconnect the line when the bag emptied.
Violet caught the medic’s arm before she could leave the room, mouthing a thank you, but then continuing quietly, “You should go for it – for Aasim – just ask if you could look for the books with him instead of Willy.”
The redhead smiled brightly and nodded before the taller girl let her go and the door was once again shut. Violet wiped at her eyes, glancing at AJ’s back still turned away from the center of the room, his shoulders no longer shaking. She sat back in the chair and watched the color slowly return to her lover’s face as the bag dripped methodically into the drip chamber and down the tubing.
Violet twisted a piece of fuzz from the wool blanket between her fingers, watching Clementine’s chest rise and fall with each breath. She traced a line from Clem’s sternum to her collarbones, where a little to her right laid another bandage peeking out from the collar of her shirt, over the cut Minerva had left just under the clavicle.
Clementine’s terrified and pained voice replayed in her head. She kicked herself mentally for not acting faster and letting her ex scar Clem in another way. Violet’s green eyes shifted to the bandaged stump laying propped on a pillow. Watching both scenes play out hadn’t felt real and seeing the results now – it still felt like a nightmare she was waiting to wake from.
The bag emptied quickly since the last time they’d been able to get Clem to drink anything was before she’d passed out following Ruby’s suturing. Violet disconnected the line and pressed a cottonball into the bleeding spot on Clem’s arm before taping over it and tossing the used IV into the trashcan Ruby had left.
Hearing the bed shifting to her right, Violet found AJ sitting with his legs over the side of his bunk watching the older girl as she held his guardian’s hand.
“She looks better,” he said, his throat a little hoarse from yelling and crying earlier. Vi made a noise of agreement and shifted her eyes back to Clementine’s sleeping face. AJ jumped down and grabbed the washbasin from the dresser, tossing the bloodied rags into the already dirty water.
“I’ll go get some more, Ruby said to use wet rags on her forehead to cool her down,” he explained as Violet watched him carry the bowl, careful not to spill its contents.
“AJ,” she started, and the boy turned back towards her mindful of the dirty water, “t-thank you… for saving her.” He set the bowl down on the floor and crossed his little arms over his chest, mimicking a look the teen had seen Clem use before.
“You helped,” he snarked lightly, smiling slightly before his face fell, “she… Clem wanted me to leave her there… in the barn with the monsters. She said to go back to the school, but – I didn’t want that. I knew I needed her still, that you needed her too.” He cleared his throat, stuffing his hands in his front pockets and looking between the sleeping girl and the blonde, “She loves you, she said it in her sleep last night while you were getting cleaned up.”
Violet flushed at this, and turned away from the boy, “O-oh.” She could hear AJ grab the bowl from the floor and make his way out the door. When it clicked Violet took Clem’s hand in her own once again, kissing each knuckle softly while watching her girlfriend sleep more soundly.
“I love you too, Clem,” she whispered into where her fingers were clasped around the sleeping girl’s hand.
-****-
After dinner and her lookout shift, Violet made her way back to the room she now shared with Clem and AJ. Willy had dragged an extra mattress and blankets into the room while she was on watch and Violet reminded herself to catch a few crawdads for the kid when she went fishing in the morning.
The youngest of the trio was on his lookout watch, his Disco Broccoli toys strewn across his bed after he’d fished them from Clem’s things earlier. Louis had wheeled the gramophone to the foot of Clementine’s bed; some of the old music teacher’s records were stacked on the bottom shelf of the bookcase where the brunette had stashed all the weird shit she’d scavenged from the schoolgrounds. AJ told the older teen earlier that Clem liked to collect cool things they’d find, like his weird little vegetable figures.
Violet took off her boots and jacket and laid them on the desk, finally back in her normal clothes after they’d been thoroughly washed. Clem’s clothes lay folded there after Ruby had mended the green cargo pants where Minerva’s axe had cut through the left pantleg, another gruesome reminder.
The moon wasn’t completely risen yet and the light from a candle left in an old dish lit up the area around the bunkbeds, flickering shadows across the still resting girl’s face. Violet quietly shifted the desk chair closer and took her place by Clementine’s bedside - AJ had joked it was her second lookout spot.
Running her fingers over the forearm resting closest to her, they caught on a long, jagged scar there. When she and Ruby had dressed Clem in clean clothes the blonde couldn’t help but stare at all of the scars littering the teen survivor’s body. She’d been shot! Or something it looked like from the entry scar near her shoulder and the exit near the underside of her shoulder blade. There was some sort of weird 76 looking brand on the same arm the scar was, previously hidden under the long sleeves of her henley and jackets. Not to mention all of the little scars Violet guessed had come from past fights or living out on the road for so long. Ruby had voiced her concern afterwards that maybe Clem had more trauma she hadn’t yet shared with the group, judging by the sheer amount or marks to her skin.
Violet had promised she’d be there when Clementine did want to share, to support her and offer what little comfort she could. Tracing her forefinger along the forearm scar absentmindedly, Violet watched the brunette shift in her sleep. Then her long eyelashes fluttered open and her eyes darted around the room, settling on her girl’s face.
Violet held her breath, her finger stilling from its path along the scar.
“V-Vi?” the injured girl’s voice cracked a little from disuse. Tears she didn’t even know had formed trailed down Violet’s cheeks as she let out a shuddering breath.
“Hey there, beautiful,” she whispered, choking out a laugh as Clem smiled weakly.
“What… what happened?” the brunette’s hands reached out for her crying girlfriend, who carefully shifted onto the bed and into her lover’s arms. Violet buried her face into the tan skin at the spot where Clem’s neck met her shoulder. The younger girl’s arms loosely trailed from Violet’s hips to her shoulders, pulling as much as she could towards herself. The blonde sunk carefully into her arms and choked out an answer.
“AJ and I saved you, Clem, in the barn,” she shifted so she could look into her girl’s eyes, which reflected the candlelight, “I found him in there after he’d – he’d cut off your leg.”
Clementine stiffened, and her unfocused eyes went from trailing over her girlfriend’s face to where her left leg lay propped on a pillow.
Violet shifted so the teen couldn’t stare at it anymore, “Hey, hey – look at me. Clem, look at me.” The brunette was shaking in the older teen's arms, her breath coming in ragged gasps, the start of a panic attack. Violet had seen Brody through enough to recognize one immediately.
“I’ve got you, Clem. It’s going to be ok. You’re not bitten anymore,” Violet soothed in her raspy voice as calmly as she could, holding Clementine’s face between her rough hands like she’d done while Ruby had stitched up the axe wound and stump.
“Vi… Violet, I thought I was going to die!” she choked between sobs, having broken as soon as Violet had smiled at her through her own tears. “I promised you, I wasn’t going to leave you…”
The blonde swallowed past a lump in her throat before finding her voice, cry-hoarse, “And I promised you I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you, right?”
Clementine nodded before inhaling and letting out a shaking breath, her eyes coming back to focus on the sea-green ones she loved so much. A genuine full smile on her face, she took a shaking hand and pushed Violet’s bangs out of her eyes.
“I missed you, Vi,” she whispered, her cheeks turning red. Violet kissed her then, the two teens sighing into one another’s lips before reconnecting. It hadn’t been a few days since she’d last kissed her, but in the older girl’s mind it was too long. She pulled away just enough to whisper back.
“I missed you too.”
-****-
AJ found Vi awkwardly asleep, sitting in the chair but her left arm thrown over Clementine’s body and her right curled up where her head was resting on the pillow next to his guardian’s, her face turned so her forehead rested against Clem’s cheek.
When he shut the door quietly and moved to blow out the candle, he heard a voice he had been waiting for.
“AJ?”
He stopped and looked to where Clementine was awake in the dying candlelight, looking over her sleeping girlfriend’s form.
“Clem!” He couldn’t help how loud it came out and Violet awoke roughly from her place draped over the bed. She moved just in time for AJ to take her place and bounce himself up into his adopted mother’s arms and she laughed quietly. Violet watched as tears streamed down the younger girl’s face over the shoulder of the little boy who’d undoubtedly saved both of their lives.
AJ pulled back to look into the brunette’s face, “Y-you’re crying?” he asked, incredulous. He’d never seen his caretaker cry. Of course, he’d heard her in the dark sometimes when they’d slept in the car after McCarroll Ranch, but never like this.
“Goofball, you didn’t listen to me,” she choked out before smiling, her eyebrows knit together but her eyes still kind. AJ reached back and lightly punched her in the shoulder and Clem’s eyebrows raised a little higher on her forehead.
“Dummy, you almost fucking died!”
Violet snorted out a laugh then, knowing how much the two already bickered about swearing. Clementine’s mouth hung open at that, and Vi watched as the motherly side fought with the teenager side of her girlfriend.
“You would’ve left Violet and me, we had to save you,” he quickly finished, his face turning a little red at the unexpected silence between the three.
The brunette cleared her throat, swallowing down the motherly chastisement poised on her tongue, instead, “I know, AJ. I-I’m sorry… to both of you.”
The duo opted instead to gingerly gather up the girl they both loved into a little family hug of sorts. Violet still had an open wound in her heart where Tennessee had occupied, the trauma of watching him bleed out from a gunshot wound to the neck still fresh. The surprised look on his face cemented into her memory forever, the scene of Minerva and Tenn being eaten by walkers seared behind her eyes. But despite the horror of the rescue mission and fight on the bridge, she was immensely grateful she still had Louis and Clementine, and maybe almost as much that she still had AJ. Omar would heal, Ruby and Aasim had already stepped up to help lead, and Willy had taken his place as one of the more competent of the group.
Their little rag-tag group would survive, and with the supplies they’d stolen from the Delta, their home would be even safer and warmer this winter.
Despite the lives it cost them, they were going to finally be ok.
-****-
Days went by as their savior and co-leader healed, and everyone eagerly waited for when she’d be out of bed so they could show her the improvements to the school they’d made and get her up onto the crutches they’d fixed.
Ruby and Violet traded off in taking care of the injured teen, carrying her to the bathroom and helping her get dressed. The first time Violet had helped Clem change her clothes and bandages; the two teenagers had almost burst into flames from blushing so much. It was different when she was awake, Violet had supplied, making Clementine ask what about the times she'd been asleep!
Omar added the herbs from the greenhouse to their food with Ruby’s help and luckily some of the supplies they’d taken from Delta included canned goods. He and Willy had taken inventory of their food for the coming winter and started cleaning up the kitchen after Violet had mentioned Clem wanting pancakes on a Saturday or something.
Louis had taught everyone a few helpful signs and they practiced daily with him, relying on the notebook Aasim gave him for tougher stuff and puns. He was adjusting as much as anyone could to being silenced forever, and after Violet caught him crying at the piano, she’d made it a routine to sing with him while he played when she could spare the time.
Everyone stepped up, patrolling the woods as the herd moved on. They’d made a scavenging run to what was left of the train station and taken the rest of the hidden food, since the walkers had all converged on the wreckage of the steamboat. AJ had shown everyone how to distract the walkers when they were in big groups, like James had taught Clementine.
The group grew even more tightly knit, the shared trauma of what the Delta had done to their school and friends giving them a new perspective on their lives in relative isolation. Windows and rooms long in disarray were either patched up or scavenged to make their living spaces cleaner and more comfortable. Holes in their defenses were patched and the main gate was completely sealed. Aasim and Louis had dragged Abel’s decaying corpse out of the basement and it was made into a macabre warning along the path to the school.
Violet had cleaned up Tennessee’s room and things, storing his clothes for when AJ grew into them, away from moths and mildew. AJ had opted to leave his friend’s toys and art where it lay, a kind of memorial to who they’d lost. Violet chose to not go back in after she’d taken the clothes out, the painful memory still fairly fresh.
She was on watch duty now as Willy rigged up a tire swing from the only branch that hung out into the schoolyard, near the cemetery. Clementine had mentioned AJ wanting to swing on the one at the train station but without her leg, the journey was too far and risky now. Violet loved that even while she was recovering, her girl was still thinking about others. Louis made a point to hold his sign language practice in Clem and AJ’s room, so she wouldn’t feel left out once she was up on her feet again.
It was early afternoon already and Ruby and Aasim were already headed back from the game traps, and in the distance Violet could see AJ and Rosie making their way back from the fishing spot. She waved, smiling to herself, knowing that Clementine had been up and around earlier while AJ was gone, practicing on her crutches. It was a secret little surprise for the kid, between Clem and the rest of the teens and AJ.
Seeing the delight and excitement on the 6-year-old’s face made everyone a little happier, as well as finally having their friend up and around after being so worried about her recovery. They’d fallen back into letting her be the “co-leader” so quickly, even though Clementine had insisted that everyone had a say in how their little community was run.
After an early dinner, Violet joined Louis for a card game, keeping an eye on Clem and AJ as they talked on the staircase. She’d promised Clem they’d spend some time together alone once she was up and around. Of course, it seemed as if AJ could sense when the girls wanted to be romantic and always butted in at the most inopportune time. Thankfully, she’d roped Louis and Aasim into teaching AJ some “dude stuff” or whatever it was they were doing with the weights they’d dragged out of the decrepit school gym. Omar had already cleared the entire kitchen and they fell back into a normal-ish routine of dishes and keeping inventory. Ruby also had cleaned the entire Nurse’s office up and turned it into a clinic with medical books she and Aasim had found in the library.
Only half paying attention to the game in front of her, Violet’s mind wandered to the bell tower. Without a leg, Clementine would never be able to climb to the top with her again, but there were still other stargazing spots around the school safe from everyone else’s prying eyes and laughter.
As the sun started to set, painting the schoolyard in oranges and pinks, Willy took his spot on the lookout post and Omar set the clean pot upside down over a chair near the cooking fire. Louis and Aasim dragged AJ from his spot by Clementine to the room off the dorms where they’d set up their little “bro-gym”. Ruby tended to the horse that had pulled the cart of teens out of the disaster of the river shore and back to the school.
Violet stretched from her spot at the picnic table and turned to find hazel eyes trained on her, and a soft smile. The blonde felt her heart skip a bit as she made her way to her girlfriend, who watched intently as she walked.
“So…” the brunette almost purred, making Violet blush.
The older teen helped her girl up from her spot on the steps and took her crutches, leaning them against the pillars holding the admin building’s roof up.
“Vi, what are you-” Clementine started before being scooped up into lanky, but strong arms. The teenager choked on a noise of surprise before reaching out to loop her arms around her girlfriend’s neck.
“I’ve got you,” the blonde whispered, smiling as Clem blushed hotly, glancing at her crutches. “I’ll get those too, don’t worry.” The older girl shifted a hand from under Clem’s knees to struggle with the wood. After a few tries, Clementine grabbed the crutches herself and rolled her eyes.
“Alright, all aboard for the sweetheart express,” Violet chuckled, shifting Clem’s weight in her arms before carrying her up the staircase past the headmaster’s office to the staff suites near the back of the building. The doors had been locked until recently, after the kids cleaned and scavenged the rooms the adults had left behind in their haste to abandon the school.
Violet had claimed one with a small balcony and mostly intact furniture. She reached the door a little out of breath from carrying Clem all that way and had to gently place her girl back on her foot, crutches back in place, before slowly opening the door.
Clementine gasped in shock at the room, the balcony doors were open, giving the girls a perfect night sky view and spread around the floor near the entrance to the balcony were cushions from the couch and the mattress, blankets and pillows and all. Violet lit the candles from their party before the rescue mission, giving the room an even more romantic glow.
Her girlfriend gaped in the open doorway, not having moved from where Violet had left her. The blonde teen fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt, unsure of her next words.
“I-I wanted to look at the stars with you again – but we can’t get up the bell tower anymore – and this seemed like a better idea,” the older teen stopped herself, knowing her tendency to talk a lot when she was nervous around Clem, whose eyes were wide in surprise and her tan cheeks colored red noticeable even in the dim light from the stars and the candles.
Clementine moved then, coming inside the room and shutting the door behind her, shifting her weight to her right leg and reaching out for her flustered girlfriend’s hand.
Violet took it and the crutches quickly and helped her lover down onto the mattress as the golden-brown eyes she loved so much watched her in silence. She made the two of them as comfortable as possible on the cushions and pillows she’d gathered and shifted so the two of them could lay side-by-side propped up enough to look at the night sky from the balcony entrance.
The younger girl shifted onto her right side and laid her head on Violet’s shoulder as they both looked up at the stars.
“We can’t see our constellations from here,” Clementine lamented quietly, the fingers of her left hand fiddling with the buttons on Violet’s jean vest.
Violet turned and pressed a kiss to her forehead then and murmured, “We can make up new ones.”
She felt rather than heard the soft chuckle from her girl as Clem shifted to look at the stars with her. Violet traced an abstract shape into the sky and snorted, “There. A chicken nugget.”
“Oh my goddd,” Clementine mimicked her voice flicking the topmost button of Vi’s jacket before focusing on the stars and pointing out another shape.
“There’s a bow,” she supplied, tracing in the air. “Brave, quick, and deadly. Someone you’d trust with your life in a jam.” Violet swallowed past a lump in her throat.
“That’s you, Clem,” she whispered.
“I was thinking you,” the younger girl answered, kissing her chin before smiling up at her.
Violet blushed bright red before shifting to find another shape, “I found a mouse… quiet, keeps to themselves, smart. Someone who surprises everyone.” She could feel her girlfriend’s eyes on her as she finished.
“Vi…”
They both silently knew who fit that description.
Tennessee.
The older girl bit back her tears and reached her free hand up to scrub at her face, “Shit, I didn’t mean to ruin the mood.”
Clementine shifted so she could look into her face better, propped up on her right arm, her left hand brushing the hair out of Violet’s eyes so she could look into the sea-green eyes that were filled with so much pain they hadn’t dealt with together yet.
“You can’t blame yourself for what happened on the bridge, Vi,” the younger teen said, her voice filled with love and care.
“I know, Clem… I just miss him. He wasn’t made to survive like you and me and I’d protected him from… god, so much after the twins were taken. I know that AJ didn’t want to shoot him, but maybe if I’d just tossed Tenn over before Minnie appeared, if we’d just got across the gap before she showed up…”
Clementine placed her fingers over Violet’s mouth, shushing her racing mouth and mind.
“You can’t think like that,” Clem kissed the very edge of her girl’s lips before removing her hand, “we can’t change the past, and we’re here right now.”
Violet sniffed and struggled to nod her agreement before the two teens settled back into their previous positions and searched the night sky.
Clementine cleared her throat before grabbing Violet’s free hand and tracing a geometric shape in the stars.
“A diamond: beautiful, forever, priceless. Someone who is tough as nails and doesn’t know how much they’re worth,” she explained, her voice shaking a bit before she gently let go of her girlfriend’s hand.
Violet shifted onto her left side and grabbed Clem’s face, kissing the hell out of her. The younger girl made a noise of surprise into their joined lips before humming contentedly. The blonde parted to dive back in at a different angle, feeling Clementine’s hands shift around to her shoulders and grip the jean jacket in her fists, pulling her closer.
“I love you so much, Clem,” she breathed between kisses as she peppered them around the now giggling girl’s face.
The brunette halted the sweet assault on her person with a finger to the older girl’s full lips and a warm smile.
“I love you back.”
-**Fin**-
The Ericson’s kids went through way too much in only 4 episodes, and yeah it was sad to see them go, but it was a satisfying end to Clementine’s story. It would have been nice to have 5 episodes like season 3, but with Skybound taking over it was obvious they’d be ending short no matter what.
Personally, this and AC: Odyssey helped me come to terms with my own sexuality after struggling for so long and Violentine was definitely relationship goals this season for me.
When they introduced Violet, I already loved her character, but after losing both my grandfather and an estranged sibling to suicide in the same week this year, episode 3 became a lot more meaningful. So thanks to Telltale for writing realistic characters with abnormal responses to trauma and relatable struggles.
This started as a response to the lack of unfinished post- “Take Us Back” violentine fics, so forgive the length and occasional rambling.