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Maggie whipped around as she heard the sound of a twig snapping behind her, gun up, ready to shoot whatever-
“It’s just me, it’s just me.”
“Carl?” Maggie said confusedly as she lowered her weapon at the sight of the boy.
“Yeah.” Carl replied, coming to sit next to her on the front steps of the church. “Sorry if I scared you.”
“It’s alright.” Maggie assured him. “Why’re you out here though? Couldn’t sleep?”
Carl shrugged, Maggie had a weird feeling about this. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for Carl to have trouble sleeping- for any of them to, really- but he usually wanted to stay with his dad when he did. Whatever made Carl want to come sit out here at the crack of dawn must have really shaken him up.
“I actually wanted to talk to you about something.” Carl admitted. “You know, alone.”
“What is it?” Maggie asked, now extremely confused. Carl and her were fairly close, sure, but he’d never come to her with any problems before.
“It’s, um, it’s kinda personal.” Carl began speaking quickly. “So you totally don’t have to answer or anything if you don’t-”
“Carl.” Maggie put a hand on the boy’s shoulder for a moment. “Just tell me, it’s alright.”
Carl nodded, taking a deep breath. “Back when we were at the prison, I, uh, overheard the adults talking about what the governor, um… did to you. That he… touched… you and was doing things he, uh, shouldn’t have been. How’d you get over it?”
Maggie sat there in stunned silence for a moment. Of all the things she’d been expecting Carl to ask, this definitely hadn’t been one of them. She wasn’t quite sure how to respond.
Honestly, she didn’t like thinking about that day, let alone speaking about it. However, that wasn’t exactly what Maggie was concerned about right now. No, she was much more worried about why Carl would even be asking her such a question. After all, the possible reasons that her mind was supplying her with weren’t ones that eased her anxiety.
“Carl,” Maggie said gently. “Did something happen?”
Carl looked down at his feet for a moment before slowly nodding. “The night before we got to Terminus, these men attacked us. One of them, he grabbed me… tried to do the same thing to me that- that the Governor tried to do to you.”
Oh god.
“It didn’t happen,” Carl continued in a hushed voice. “My dad killed him before he could… you know, but it’s still bothering me. I mean, I didn’t even think that something like that could- could happen to me before, and now… I just- I keep having these nightmares about it. I’m always worried that it’s gonna happen again. Does that ever stop?”
Carl looked up at her with tears in his eyes, and Maggie felt her heart break a little. Carl had been through too much too young, it wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t have to deal with any of this, but to go through something like that at his age? To have his last bit of innocence ripped away in such a brutal, violent way? Maggie shuddered, she couldn’t even imagine how horrible that must’ve been.
“It does, eventually.” Maggie assured him. “The nightmares, the paranoia, it lessens, but it’s still there sometimes. Certain situations, certain words… it’ll bring you back. I’m sorry, I wish I could tell you something more comforting, but I want you to be prepared.”
“No, it’s- it’s good.” Carl confirmed, though he didn’t look like he believed his own words. “I need to know.”
Maggie sighed, she knew that Carl had wanted to hear something else. That he already had enough things to be scared of and didn’t need another to add to the list. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how this worked. Things like what she and Carl had went through have a way of sticking with you, no matter how much you want to leave them behind.
“The new people…” Carl said hesitantly, breaking Maggie out of her thoughts. “Do you trust them?”
Maggie knew what Carl was really asking. That he didn’t actually want to know about the new people, just the new men. She hated that he had been forced to start thinking like this.
“I’m still a bit on the fence about Gabriel,” Maggie admitted. “But I don’t think he’s bad like the man that hurt you, just a coward.”
Carl chuckled a bit. “Gabriel isn’t exactly a threat, he doesn’t even know how to hold a knife properly.”
Maggie smiled at that as well. She was confident that Carl could best Gabriel in a fight any day, and Carl knew it too. He wasn’t worried about some priest who couldn’t even take out one walker on his own, he was worried about the scary army vet drinking and barking around orders. Possibly Eugene as well, who, while not anything of a fighter, was easily twice Carl’s size.
“The others, they’re good people.” Maggie reassured Carl. “They helped Glenn find me, and they’ve kept helping us even though they want to get to D.C.”
Carl nodded, but looked back down at the floor. He still didn’t seem all that convinced, and Maggie couldn’t blame him, not after all that he’d been through. It had only been a few days since he’d been attacked, since he’d almost been raped. He had every right to be suspicious.
“Hey,” Maggie gently placed a hand on Carl’s cheek so he’d look at her. She could still see the fading scratches along his face and neck in this light. “No one in our group would ever let you be around someone we thought would hurt you, especially like that. Anyone who’d be stupid enough to try something with you would be dead in a heartbeat.”
“Thanks, Maggie.” Carl smiled faintly.
“ ‘Course, kid.” Maggie responded easily.
Carl sighed and leaned his head against her shoulder, his eyelids beginning to flutter closed. Maggie wrapped her own arm around his shoulder, just glad that he was going back to sleep. He was still a kid, no matter how hard this awful world tried to take that away from him.