Work Text:
After checking to make sure it was safe, Carley let Clementine stay on the other side of the door while she handled Lee. Her body trembled as she watched the girl take small steps into the other room after saying her goodbyes, hesitating for she knew what was to come moments later. At the moment Carley would give anything to change their present situation, even her own life. But what's happened has happened and now they just have to deal with it. There's no fix for something like this, so it's the only thing they can do.
Taking a deep breath and using all of her will power not to cry, she turned back towards Lee. He looked so fragile to her, lying there against the wall, just barely clinging to life. For the first time the sight of him scared her; she was not scared of him though, but scared of what's happened to him. He was always so strong in her eyes, so protective and loving. It shook her to her core to see him like this, to see his eyes cold and his body weak. She truly never thought that it would come to this. Lee had saved her life so many times, the amount of times she had saved his would never seem like enough. Especially now that she must take his life away and leave him here to rot.
She closed the distance between them and went to her knees in front of him. He was still breathing, but it was shallow, and his eyes were closed as his head hung down, his forehead covered in sweat.
"Lee?" Carley quietly called out, her voice slightly cracking. At the sound of his name Lee slowly opened his eyes and brought his head up to look at her. He tried his best to force a smile but it only made Carley's heart hurt a thousand times more.
"I'm still here, don't worry." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. It killed her to look into his eyes. The same deep brown eyes that she had loved to look into, the ones that gave her comfort so many times since she had first saw them, now had a sickly greenish yellow tint to them and only made her want to cry out in anguish.
When Lee had first told her he was bitten and Clementine was missing, she had felt the world start to spin. Even though it was naive, she always thought that nothing could happen to them, that they would always protect each other. But there was no time for crying so she had to suck up her pain and help Lee find Clem. It took the entire day to track Clementine down and kill the son of a bitch who took her, the son of a bitch who caused them to be in this situation now. Once that was taken care of, Lee finally let on just how bad he was feeling and collapsed in the middle of the street, surrounded by walkers. With Clem's help Carley was able to pull him into a building and lock themselves in and there both Carley and Lee made the decision: Carley would leave Lee behind and continue on with Clem to get back to the group.
The little girl was distraught when she heard the news and if it weren't for Carley hugging her and trying to calm her down she would've began hyperventilating. Lee spent some time trying to reassure her that it wasn't her fault while Carley killed the walker strapped to the chair in the next room, giving them a way out. All that was left was to free Lee from this world and even though she was okay with the plan before, Carley truly didn't believe she had it in her now.
She brought her hand up to cup his cheek. "I love you" she said, her voice tight.
"I love you too, so much. I'm sorry this happened. I'm sorry I can't go with you. I'm sorry we didn't have much time together. I'm sorry for everything." He leaned his head back against the wall, breathing heavily as he tried to get out the last words he would ever say to her.
"There's nothing to be sorry for. You did what you could." She wished that she could tell him more, she wished that she could spend as much time as she wanted telling him how much she loved him and how being with him during all of this was what kept her going. She just wished that she could say more than what she was, but she knew that if she did then tears would start spilling out, and she refused to cry in front of him.
"I won't cry, I won't. I want the last image he has of me to be a smiling one." Carley thought as she used all of her energy to curl her lips up into a sad smile. Lee tried to force a smile back at her and it was then when she was sure that she would break into tears in front of him, but she surprisingly held it together. "Don't worry, I'll protect Clementine. She'll be safe with me and Kenny, Ben, Christa and Omid."
"And what about you?"
"I'll be-" Her throat was incredibly tight now as she still held back her tears. "I'll be fine." She couldn't say anymore and she could see he was close to the end, his eyes glazed over as if he was already dead. She leaned forward and kissed his drenched forehead before giving him one last kiss on his lips. Even though his lips were chapped and he could not fully kiss her back, she still enjoyed it all the same. After all, this is the last time she'll ever feel his lips on hers.
A single tear managed to escape as she pulled away and stood up again. Quickly she wiped it away and aimed her gun at his head. She turned her head away before pulling the trigger, and jumped slightly when she heard the loud bang that took the man she loved from the world. Knowing that the deed was done she made a quick glance to make sure she had hit her mark before turning away from the body, never to see it again. Quickly she walked to the next room, her heart pounding and her chest in pain, to find Clementine on the floor sitting with her legs curled up, crying into her knees.
Carley knelt down next to the girl. "Clem, we need to go. Everyone is waiting for us at the house." Clem looked up at Carley, tears streaming down her face with the saddest expression Carley has ever seen. Slowly both girls stood back up and Carley grabbed Clem's hand squeezing it. Clem wrapped both arms around Carley and hugged her waist tightly, the tears still continuing. Carley tried to sooth the girl by rubbing her back until Clem pulled away, showing she was ready to leave. As the walked out of the backdoor Carley had the urge to take one last look back, but in the end decided not to.
When they got back to the house, Carley didn't say much. She answered the question everyone was asking in their heads "Did he make it?" and after seeing their reactions, she simply excused herself and took Clementine upstairs to put her to bed. It had taken a while to lull the little girl to sleep and after she did she quietly left Clem's room and walked across the hallway to her own room, kicking her shoes off and laying down on the bed exhausted.
She smoothed her hand across the comforters remembering all the times she had laid in this same spot with Lee, simply talking or cuddling or just enjoying being near each other. It was there that she finally opened up the tears she had locked away and cried into Lee's pillow, letting out the pain she had held in during the whole day.
She cried through most of the night, and as members of the group walked past her room, no one questioned the muffled sobs they heard.