Still Here: Wish You Would Appear

The gun in Clem's hand goes off and he's glad he chose to close his eyes, to not watch her sob, to not have to see the bullet racing through the air before embedding itself into his forehead. A perfect shot, he muses with pride just before he feels himself being tugged out of his body.

Clementine collapses onto her knees and cries, letting the gun tumble out of her shaking hands. He aches with the urge to comfort her, to give her a hug and tell her that she needs to keep moving, needs to take the keys and the gun and find her way over to wherever Christa and Omid could be. But instead he hears a voice coming from god knows where, a familiar one, too. "Come on, man. Don't you wanna see everyone else?"

His brother. Lee has a feeling about what he means by everyone else: their parents. Their old customers and neighbors. Maybe even his ex-wife or those from his group that had fallen.

But all he does is shake his head. "Nah, bud. I gotta make sure she's okay."

His brother goes silent and Lee can almost feel him shrug despite not being able to see him. "Alright, but come up when she's good."

Clementine makes it out of Savannah, just like he knew she would. She and Christa and Omid reunite on the countryside, in an empty field of grassy hills. They all hug and keep making their way wherever they're going, but Clementine doesn't smile, doesn't laugh, doesn't even cry anymore, not since she left the jewelry store. She keeps to herself and wraps her arms around herself tightly as they continue walking.

Lee tells her to be strong and for a second, it's like she hears him, her head tilting in the direction of where he technically would be, if he were alive. And then everything around him goes black.

He finds himself in his family's old pharmacy, but it's not how it was the last time he was there, on the supply run with Kenny. It's back to its old glory - everything put back in place, no helicopter lodged through the ceiling, his father's cane back in its rightful spot - his dad's hand, of course. His parents hug him tight, his brother bumps his fist, he makes awkward talk with his old neighbors - all of them probably still thinking about the senator he killed months ago.

Clementine's parents seek him out later. Diana and Ed, two of the smartest people Lee had ever met. He remembers what Clem told him, that her mom was a doctor and her dad was an engineer, and decides that cleverness just runs in their family. Ed shakes his hand but Diana pulls him into a full-on hug, thanking him profusely and letting a few tears slip through. He just pats her back and says that he misses her, too.

Some members of his group pop in to see him sometimes as well. He pulls Carley into his arms and wonders why it took both of them dying to make it official. Katjaa thanks him for watching out for Kenny after everything while Duck runs around the shop, touching everything he finds interesting. Lee asks where Kenny is right now, still unable to believe that he got out of that alleyway alive, and Katjaa just frowns and tells him to think of her husband.

He does and suddenly he sees the man holed up in some dark place as walkers pound at the boarded up windows and doors. Kenny drinks straight from a bottle of whiskey and stares up at the ceiling, muttering something to himself before chucking the bottle right at the wall.

Katjaa pulls him back with a hand to his shoulder and shakes her head, wishing that she and Duck could be down there with him. Lee wishes the same.

He checks in on Clem a lot. Honestly, he doesn't really have anyone else to watch over; his ex-wife could be up here, or wherever they are, with him, or she could still be down in the real world, but he knows better than to cause any trouble. The last time he had seen Katjaa, she had been ecstatic, telling him about a woman who had found the restaurant Kenny had locked himself in, a nice lady named Sarita. With Katjaa and Duck looking out for Kenny, he takes it upon himself to look after Clem, Christa, and Omid.

The three of them get through the first winter since everything started fine, but with Christa's pregnancy advancing, they struggle to find supplies and a possible safe area to have the baby.

Lee feels iffy about Christa and Omid leaving Clementine alone in the bathroom, knowing that splitting up is an awful idea but unable to do anything as another girl walks in and picks up Clem's gun from the sink. He holds his breath - even though none of the dead have to breathe, it's just an instinct by now - as the girl shoos Clem out of the stall she was hiding in and searches through her backpack. He stops breathing altogether when Omid walks in and inches toward the gun, hand outstretched and just centimeters away-

The door slams closed and the girl fires without any warning. Omid clutches his chest and falls to the floor, breathing one final time just as Christa runs in.

Omid tries to stay, tries to fight it as he is forced out of his own body. The girl who shot him is down, Christa having shot her without even a second glance. Christa holds him in her arms, begs for him to come back, to not leave her, Omid, no, and Omid reaches out to grab her shoulders but ends up only grasping at air.

"Christa, fuck, fuck, I'm sorry, I don't know what to do-"

"Omid." Lee says, hoping to catch his attention. Omid whirls around and stares at him, first in shock, then confusion, then realization.

"No…"

"I'm sorry, man." He clasps the man's shoulder in sympathy. Omid shakes his head and buries his face in his hands.

Lee looks over Omid's shoulder, just in time to see Christa look up from her boyfriend's corpse and catch sight of the gun lying on the floor. When she looks up at Clementine, he winces at the look of complete betrayal on her face.

Clementine whimpers and looks away, and he hears her think, not for the first time: I wish Lee was here. And as always, he wishes the same.

Omid cries when the baby joins them.

Christa cries as she scrubs the blood off, hard enough to rub off skin.

Clementine helps her through all of it, her face carefully devoid of any emotion as she thinks all my fault all my fault. But she cries when Christa passes out later, desperately trying to choke down her sobs as she tries to keep watch.

Lee reaches out to grab her hand despite knowing that it's impossible, and though he only feels air, he swears that Clementine squeezes his hand back.

Clementine talks to him sometimes. A lot of times, actually.

It's only her and Christa now, with Omid and the baby gone in one short, painful swoop. And with Christa giving her the cold shoulder, her every moment is filled with silence, the only sounds being their footsteps as they walk from one place to the next.

She always waits until Christa is asleep and it's her turn to look out for any walkers or, god forbid, people, to speak. Clementine looks up at the sky, or at the ceiling if they managed to find a good place to spend the night, and begins whispering.

"I turned ten today, Lee. My parents would have given me a cupcake when I woke, made me a cake later and invited all my friends over to eat it in my backyard. But now they're gone. You're gone." She covers her eyes with one of her hands and sniffs. "I didn't tell you about my last birthday because…because I thought it wasn't important anymore. No one would care enough to throw me a party or make a cake or sing happy birthday. But I-I wish I told you. I wish I told Christa."

Lee clears his throat, clogged from emotion, and begins humming happy birthday.

Clementine sings along quietly, her voice cracking halfway through and dying out shortly after.

Time doesn't seem to exist wherever they all are. There's no reason for it to exist, either. They're all just stuck there for eternity, wandering around with old friends and old enemies and old celebrities and even old presidents. He only keeps track of how much time has gone by when he checks in on Clementine.

He spends more time than most up here do checking on the living, but he can't help it. He's afraid that if he doesn't check on Clementine often, he'll look up one day and see her right in front of him, even though this the last place he wants her to be. Clementine doesn't deserve to die like all the others with him did, doesn't deserve to die at all. She's the only good thing left in her world, his old world.

Clementine grows up fast, sprouting up a couple of inches so she's not as tiny as she used to be and even gaining some muscle on her skinny - skinnier than ever - frame. But mostly he can't help but focus on the bad - Clementine's thin face, the ever-present bags under her eyes, the constant frown that had become her neutral expression.

She and Christa still don't speak often, but Lee thanks Christa every day for taking the time to teach Clementine some survival tips. Clementine cherishes these moments, still believing that Christa hates her, but not enough to leave her completely defenseless against this world. But Lee knows the truth: Christa blames Clementine, but she mostly blames herself.

They're headed to a place up north, somewhere near Michigan. Wellington, or something like that. Katjaa tells him that Kenny and Sarita are actually headed the same way. They share a smile and desperately hope for the four to meet up and try to make it together.

And then Clementine and Christa get separated.

It's only their luck that the last domesticated dog left in the world tries to kill Clementine.

Lee knows that there's probably other dogs out there, but did this one have to bite Clem? Sam, Clem had called him after checking his collar, had been starving for a long while…but he had softened up to Clementine quickly in their short time together. And then she had offered him only a handful of her food and he had snapped.

Clementine slashes the dog's throat, whispering a sorry that breaks Lee's heart in two, before walking back into the forest. She clutches her bloody arm and begins to cry, and Lee smells the loneliness that consumes her entire being - because apparently, afterlife vision is an all-senses sort of thing.

Walkers come close to killing her, but she's saved right in the nick of time by two guys - Luke and Pete, they introduce themselves later when the three of them are safe. Nice enough guys, Lee thinks, just as Luke notices the bite on Clem's arm and drops her on the hard forest floor.

Lee finds himself disliking Luke at that moment. But Pete, on the other hand, is a good guy and believes her, leading her back to their cabin a few minutes away.

At the cabin, Clementine meets a few more new faces and nearly gets shot by some kid with a rifle. Lee lunges at the boy before he can stop himself, and ends up reaching through him, sending a small chill through the kid's body for reasons that the boy - Nick, apparently - doesn't understand.

A big black guy, well-meaning and even-tempered. His wife…not so much. She's pregnant, though, so maybe that's a good enough excuse for the way she treats Clementine like she's a threat, like she's just a danger they have to get rid of. Carlos, the doctor who can't differentiate between a dog bite and a walker bite and suggests locking Clementine in the shed.

Of course, everyone agrees. Lee sighs and shakes his head, wondering where the hell these people came from.

And of course, Clementine breaks out.

Pride rushes through him as he watches her tear open a hole in the side of the shed and crawl out, muttering to herself about the supplies she needs to find. She talks to the big guy, Alvin, and guilts him into giving her bandages (and a juicebox, in case she gets thirsty), letting her voice crack and her eyes get watery as she describes how tired she is. She's good, Lee thinks, impressed and a little worried at how easily Clementine manipulates others. But then again, she had always had that effect on others. Especially me.

She makes friends with the doctor's daughter and convinces the girl to give her peroxide before heading to the bathroom to find a needle. Lee peeks outside of the door and spots the pregnant woman coming down the hallway, but luckily Clementine manages to hide just as the woman walks in.

Turns out the father of her child isn't exactly who everyone thinks it is. which, well, isn't Lee or Clementine's business at all. Especially Lee's, seeing he's, well, dead.

Clementine sneaks back into the shed, and that's when the really hard part begins. Lee leans against the wall of the shed and closes his eyes, unable to watch as she cries out and begins to cry from the pain coursing through her. But she pulls through, like she always manages to do. He brushes against her shoulder, wishing that he could give her a clap on the back, but she doesn't react, just continues to breathe in and out and in and out.

She begins to bandage her arm up, wrapping it around her stitched-up arm a few times until the rag slips from her hands and falls to the floor.

Lee senses the walker right away.

He shouts as it lunges at her, nearly taking a bite out of her leg and making her hit the floor hard. Lee can feel the adrenaline rushing through Clem's veins as she begins fighting back tougher than ever, despite the bite on her arm and the lack of food in her way-too-empty stomach.

"The rake, Clem, the rake-" he tells her, forgetting for a moment that she can't hear him, not really. But Clementine grabs the rake anyway, uses it to force the walker back onto the anchor hanging up against the wall. She grabs her hammer and smashes it into the walker's forehead, once, twice, three times, and then just once more, silencing it for good.

The door to the shed slams open as Clementine catches her breath to reveal Luke and the rest of his group, shocked and horrified at what they're seeing. Clementine yanks out her hammer and lets it slip from her fingers as they converse around her.

"I'm still. Not. Bitten. I never was. And you left me out here to die." Clem seethes, gazing at the others with fierce eyes.

Lee blinks and then smiles slowly, knowing that Clementine is going to be all right.

Luke isn't that bad. At least, not as bad as Lee thought he was.

Carlos, he understands. His daughter reminds Lee of Clementine, before her entire world turned to hell. Hopeful. Innocent. But Lee knows, Carlos knows, even Clementine knows, that Sarah can't change like Clem did, too fast for her age. "She would…cease to function," Carlos tells Clementine, and she agrees to stay away.

The kid who nearly shot Clementine apologizes, awkwardly and a bit reluctantly. Clementine forgives him, her heart still soft even after all that just happened between them. And Lee knows that Clementine understands this Nick guy, who apparently had to shoot his own mom when she got bitten.

There isn't a day - though Lee's slowly losing track of the days, to be honest - that goes by where he doesn't regret telling Clementine to shoot him before he turned. It was too big of a burden to place on someone so young, still so innocent, now so alone and broken. And he remembers her face after she pulled the trigger, how she completely broke down and had to force herself to stand up on shaky legs and leave him behind. I'm sorry, Clem.

She ends up telling Luke about her past, about him. The man brought her some food and sat across from her at the dinner table, his smile open and a bit guilty from the events of earlier that day. Clementine tells him mostly everything. Everything that really mattered in the end, anyway.

"His name was Lee. He taught me how to survive." The corner of her mouth turns up tightly. "He's the reason I keep my hair short."

He smiles and feels himself begin to pull out from her world, back into his own little afterlife.

"What, uh, happened to him?"

"I killed him."

She speaks to him even after finding this new group. He doesn't have to enter her world to hear her; the words float around him as he lounges around on the couch with Carley, as he asks Omid about Christa's whereabouts, as he reluctantly plays a game of detectives with Duck.

Their relationship is…strange. His and Clem's, that is. It should be impossible, but sometimes, it's almost as if she catches the signs he gives her, feels his presence whenever he visits and visibly appears stronger, more confident. She speaks to him, most often at night when the others are asleep and she's the only one around. They have her on watch right now, four days on the run from their crazed former leader having softened their opinions of her enough to trust her to watch over them at their most defenseless.

Clementine makes sure everyone is unconscious before resting her hammer in her lap and looking up at the starry sky as she begins to whisper.

"Hi, Lee. It's me. I, uh…" She shrugs. "I think I'm part of the group now. I'm not really sure what they all think of me, though. Rebecca apologized and said she was being a jerk because of the baby, which makes sense because Christa-" she cuts herself off and closes her eyes, trying to shake off the painful memories.

"And Nick, well, he saved me. After Pete…after the river, we got trapped in this little shed and he punched a walker in the face for me to get away! He reminds me of Ben a little, you know? Except he's way braver. He just doesn't realize it.

Carlos…he's weird. He told me to stay away from Sarah but now he doesn't really care. I guess I'm not as much of a threat as he thought I was. Sarah's really nice, but she just makes me remember how I'm not really a kid anymore. She always makes me play these little kid games and it sucks that I find them boring now when they should be fun.

And Alvin and Luke are both good guys. Alvin's gonna be a great dad…even though he's probably not even the real dad, but whatever. I'm probably the closest with Luke, though. Maybe it's because…well. Nick had Pete, Rebecca has Alvin, and Sarah has her dad. But Luke and I, we kind of have no one, since his parents died, too.

I just miss everyone in our old group. Christa, Omid, Kenny, Lilly, Carley, Duck, Katjaa, Ben, Chuck… you." Clementine wipes at her eyes and stops speaking as she hears rustling from Luke's sleeping bag. She holds her breath until Luke goes still again. "I don't know. I wish you were here. You and mom and dad and Omid."

I am here, Lee thinks as Clementine clutches at her hammer, pursing her lips and trying to get a hold of her emotions. She shouldn't have to put a mask on, shouldn't have to hide what she feels to survive. But in the world she lives in, the world he left behind, she has to.

Clem and Luke walk through the forest the next day, silent as the leaves crunch beneath their feet. The group had gotten in a brief argument over what their next course of action should be: cross a bridge altogether and risk being spotted by Carver, or send Clem and Luke to scout ahead on the other side before sending everyone else across?

Carlos hadn't been comfortable letting Clem go, and in all honesty, neither was Lee. Clem was a valuable little girl, but for him, that meant she should be protected, not thrown into a dangerous situation that could go completely wrong. Luke had been all for it, though, and in the end Clem put her foot down and made the call to go along with the man.

Finally, Luke speaks up. "Hey, uh, sorry about that. I just could really use your eyes, and right now I don't trust Nick to tie his own shoes. They're just still on edge after the Carver thing."

Clem raises an eyebrow. "It's been five days. Why would Carver still be following us?" Lee himself had been wondering the same thing. Clem's confrontation with Carver in the cabin a few days prior had helped both Lee and Clem realize why the group is so afraid of the man, but no one had been to keen on answering why.

"What's the most important thing in this world?" Taken back by Luke's sudden question, Clem doesn't know how to answer. "What does everyone want? Even the gangs. Now, whaddya think they're all after?"

"Family," Clem and Lee say at the same time. Luke smiles, looking pleased.

"It's a tough world out there without people you can trust." Clem's head tilts down, and Lee can sense her thinking about her "conversation" with him the night before. It hits Lee that Christa had been the only person Clem could really trust nowadays, and even she had been taken away from her by shitty, shitty luck.

"Anyways, you can ask Rebecca, okay? I'm not gonna get in the middle of it." Luke finishes. Lee's eyes widen as he connects the dots – Rebecca seeming to be the most afraid of Carver, her pregnant belly, her constant fighting with Alvin, and then this? Well, shit. This is definitely not good.

"We've all made mistakes. Done things that we regret."

"I know what that's like…" Clem agrees.

Luke blinks, and Lee realizes that he knows exactly what she means – he had been listening to her speak to him yesterday after all. But he wisely decides not to bring any of that up. "Yeah."

They both come to a stop upon spotting two walkers blocking their way to the bridge. Luke hums and observes the situation. "We can't shoot 'em, too much noise. But there're only two…"

Clem sends him a smirk. "Let's take 'em."

Lee chuckles when Luke grins right back at her. "I like your style."

Together, they move in closer and hide behind a boulder. "I'll take the big one. You get shorty."

"I've got the big one." Clem interjects. Lee raises an eyebrow, shocked at her sudden ballsy attitude.

Luke clearly feels the same way. "Hey, kid, look. It's not like I don't know you have guts, but are you crazy?"

Clem shrugs, not backing down. "Maybe I am."

He rolls his eyes. "Just stick with the plan, okay?" Clem purses her lips but decides not to respond.

Luke unsheathes his machete, Clem takes out her hammer, and they begin creeping towards the walkers on light feet. Right before Luke can sink his weapon into the big walker's head, Clem strikes its knee with her hammer and sends it crashing down onto the floor. Another hit and Clem's hammer lodges itself into the walker's skull, successfully silencing its growls.

Lee gapes at the girl, both surprised and amazed at her gutsiness. A little over two years ago, she couldn't bring herself to shoot a walker that had been about to kill him. And now, she had no qualms about killing walkers bigger than her and without a gun at that.

Luke looks less than impressed as he turns around to stab the smaller walker's head with a little more aggression than really necessary. Clem yanks at her hammer, but it's lodged in deep.

The brown-haired man sheathes his machete and approaches her from behind. "Go ahead. Give it a good pull, it should come free."

"I know. I've done this before, remember?" She snarks, eyes narrowed. "In a shed?" A laugh bursts from Lee's throat, especially upon seeing the guilty look on Luke's face.

With some extra force, Clem finally dislodges her hammer from the walker's cranium with a shout. He and Luke stare at the girl, amazed. "Damn," They both say, nearly in unison.

Luke reaches his hand out for a high-five, but Clem just stares at his palm and then her own in confusion. It makes Lee wonder if he had ever high-fived Clem while he had been alive. In fact, did Clem even know how to high-five? She had to, right?

Clem and Luke smile at one another once Luke slaps her hand and walk side-by-side onto the bridge at last.

It's only after Luke pulls himself up from beneath that bridge that Lee is finally able to breathe.

In a series of unfortunate events, Clem and Luke had made it nearly a quarter of the way over when walker after walker began coming at them from both sides. And then the bridge had collapsed beneath Luke's feet, leaving him unable to help as Clementine faced off against the walkers by herself.

If Lee had been impressed by her actions prior to her even stepping a foot on the bridge, his respect for the girl skyrockets when she manages to take down each walker within minutes. She had graduated from shooting bottles on a train to yanking a walker's jaw right from its jacket, pulling herself up after dangling from the bridge, and stabbing walkers with goddamn machetes through the mouth.

Clem had never been a damsel in distress. The first time they had met, back in her house during the early days of this mess, she had saved him rather than the other way around. If it hadn't been for her handing him that hammer, he would have died right on her living room floor.

And even when that stranger back in Savannah had kidnapped her, it had been her that hit him upside the head with that wine battle, and it was her that pulled the trigger and ended his life before he could end Lee's. Clem had never been the type of person to let her small size and young age stop her from being powerful. Hell, she often used her unintimidating demeanor to her advantage.

Lee has a feeling that in a couple of years, Clem could become a much more obvious and much more dangerous threat to anyone who dared to cross her. And he'd be damned if that didn't fill his heart with pride.

Afterwards, Luke and Clem continue making their way across. Luke stops her with an arm across her chest just moments later.

"Ya see him?"

Lee curses once he spots the man in question. Clem simply nods. "Yeah."

"Just play it cool," Luke advises her. "And you do the talkin'."

Clem blinks up at him, bewildered. "What? Why me?"

"'Cause I don't wanna get in a fight. You really think he'd shoot a little girl?"

People nowadays would shoot anybody, even if they weren't a threat, Lee thinks, already knowing that this plan of his is going to backfire somehow.

"I'd shoot me."

"Well that's a hell of a thing to say."

"I'm just saying…" Clem mutters.

Luke sighs. "Well, if it comes to that, I'll shoot him first." He rests his hand on the gun holstered to his hip and Clem, feeling more assured, steps forward.

"Well, who are you?" The man on the bridge asks. Lee moves in closer to get a better look at the guy, who turns out to be an Asian guy underneath the hoodie.

While Clem ponders over what to say, Luke decides to step up for her. "Well, who's askin'?"

"I am."

Luke pauses and looks down at Clem. "Wanna help me out here?"

"I'm Clementine, and this is Luke." She calls out at last. Luke sends her a panicked look, clearly wondering why she chose to give this stranger their names, but Clem pays him no mind.

"Clementine and Luke." The man repeats. Clem and Luke eye the rifle in his hands with unease, but allow him to move in closer. "Huh. You don't look like assholes. Are you assholes? No offense or anything, but you know how it is out here." At their silence, he continues awkwardly. "You run into a lot of assholes."

"I'm not an asshole," She replies, crossing her arms over her chest.

Luke smirks down at her. "Are you calling me an asshole?"

The man chuckles and begins walking towards them again. Luke deflates in relief upon seeing his face, not recognizing him as one of Carver's men. "You folks headed north like everyone else?"

"Everyone else?"

"I see at least one group a day move through here. You all look the same. It's like a great migration of the dazed and confused."

"Have you seen someone named Christa?" Clem asks. Lee's glad she hasn't forgotten about the woman, even after all that had happened since their separation.

"Christa? Maybe."

Her eyes go wide. "Really?!"

"Nah, I mean, a lot of people come through here. I dunno." Clem lowers her eyes, disappointed. The stranger continues, "I gotta say, you two look like shit. If you need food, I've got some canned stuff in that station back there." He tilts his head in the direction of the little house Clem had pointed out earlier with her binoculars.

Luke and Clem eye him suspiciously. "Well, that's, uh…awful nice o' ya." Luke plants his hands on his hips. "What's the catch?"

The man shakes his head and smiles. "No catch. I've got plenty." Lee scans the man, looking for any sign of deceit or malice, but finds none. It's impossible to believe that someone could be so kind to absolute strangers nowadays; but maybe this man was different? Lee could only hope so.

Luke believes him, however. Or maybe it's just the hunger talking. "Well all right, then! Thank you!"

"Hey, no problem. Nice running into friendly faces out here. Like I said, I've got food and supplies back in the station. And if you…want…" The man squints his eyes, looking at something past Luke and Clem. His eyes go wide. "What the fuck, man?"

Luke and Clem turn around in confusion. Upon seeing Nick running torwards them, Luke mutters, "What the hell is he doing?"

Nick stops and raises his rifle. Lee curses and runs a hand over his head once he sees the stranger on the bridge do the same.

"No, no, no, no! He's – he's with us!" Luke tells the man, waving his hands at his friend as a sign for him to put down the weapon. "Nick! No!"

Clem does the same. "Nick, no-!" Luke grabs her shoulders and pulls her down onto the ground, right as a bullet whizzes above their heads.

When they look back up, it's to the sight of the man holding his neck as blood gushes from the wound Nick had caused. He stumbles around, gargles escaping from his throat, and uses the last of his remaining energy to raise his gun and point it at Nick.

He tumbles off the bridge before he can even try and pull the trigger. Lee, Clem, and Luke peer over the edge and watch in horror as the man's body hits the water with a splash.

While Luke turns back around to yell at Nick, Clem hurrying after him a second later, Lee continues to stare down at the water. He can see the man's body as it slowly starts to sink down to the bottom of the lake.

His eyes widen when he sees something – someone – erupt from the waves. He looks back and sees Clem, Nick, and Luke arguing still and decides that he can leave Clem unattended for a few minutes.

When he looks back down, the man on the bridge is out of the water and crawling onto the shore. Lee closes his eyes and wills himself to disappear.

Dying is a strange feeling.

One moment, he's facing off against some asshole with a rifle, the next he's holding his throat together as blood pours out over his hand and body. He dies just as his body makes contact with the water, and it hurts, god it hurts. But the pain goes just as fast as it came.

He doesn't feel himself sinking as his body slowly begins to head towards the bottom of the lake. Before he can even wonder what's happening, he's torn from his physical self and thrust into the air, left to watch helplessly as his body goes out of sight.

Matt ends up sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest on the shore, unsure of what to do next. Being dead was kind of…lonelier than he had expected. It's better than being in hell, though, he thinks. Dad would have had a field day if it turns out he was right about that shit.

He's so busy staring at the waves that he doesn't notice the man standing beside him until he speaks.

"Hey, man. You…good?" The man asks awkwardly. Matthew looks up to see a bearded black man probably a few years younger than Walter staring down at him in concern.

Matthew blinks. "You can see me? I thought…" I thought I was dead. Is this some Ghost Whisperer type shit? My life – afterlife – has become a sitcom.

The other man nods. "Yeah, about that… We're both, y'know-"

"Dead?" He cuts in. The man nods again and Matt's shoulders sink. "Oh. Well, this officially blows."

The guy takes a seat next to him, his long legs spread out in front of him. The jeans he's wearing are bloody. "Listen, my name's Lee."

Matt can't even muster up the energy to smile. "Matthew."

"I know," Lee replies. "I was watching over the girl you met up there on the bridge."

"Oh, her!" He closes his eyes and tries to remember her name. It comes rushing back to him suddenly. "Clementine, right?" The chuckle that escapes from his lips is empty. "She was pretty funny. I'm not an asshole. Nice."

Lee laughs too. "Yeah, she is. I saw you, well, fall off, and I thought I should probably check on you." He shakes his head in sympathy. "No one should have to go through this alone."

Matt stares at him and frowns. "Were you alone? When you died?"

Lee runs a hand down a particularly dark bloodstain on his jeans. "Nah. My brother was there to lead me out. You think anyone's comin' for you?"

Matthew thinks of his father and shakes his head immediately. "I don't think so." He looks back down at his knees to avoid seeing Lee's sympathetic reaction. Part of him is glad that the first face he had to see upon his death wasn't his father's, but the other part of him was the childish part of himself that craved his father's attention and love, no matter how rarely he got to experience either of them.

"Are you ready to head up?" Lee asks. "'Cause I can help, if you need it."

"Nah," Matt replies after a brief pause. "I mean… I need to see Walter, my-my partner. I can't just leave him now."

Nodding his head, Lee stands up and holds out his hand for Matt to grab. "Let's get goin' then."

In a matter of seconds, both of them are back up top, right at the end of the bridge. Matt lowers his hood and runs a hand through his hair. "Holy shit. I didn't expect teleportation to be part of the whole dying shindig."

"Yeah… You'll get used to it." Lee replies, just as he and Matthew spot Clem's group sitting by the little cabin. Rebecca and Alvin are sitting on a log, talking to Clementine about food and Rebecca's wellbeing. Sarah is off to the side by herself, biting at her nails until they're chewed down to the flesh. Carlos and Luke are speaking quietly to each other near the tree line, but Lee can hear bits and pieces of what they're saying easily.

"-he's becoming a danger to the group, Luke. You saw what he did to that man back there."

"He just lost Pete, okay? All we can do is just…cut him some slack."

"We can't afford to 'cut him some slack' with Carver on our tails. Speaking of which…"

"Who's Carver?" Matthew asks, clearly having been listening in as well. "I'm guessing they aren't talking about the peanut guy?"

"You mean George Washington Carver?" Lee says, slipping back into his professor self instantly. He chuckles and shakes his head. "Nah. This Carver…well, they have a good reason to be afraid of him." He thinks back to Clementine and Carver's meeting in the cabin and shivers. She had made a dangerous enemy by staying with these folks.

As Carlos and Luke talk over a plan in the case that Carver finds them, Lee and Matthew step past the duo and spot Nick sitting on a bench outside of the cabin by himself. Lee catches Matt's eyes narrowing and places a warning hand on his shoulder. "Careful."

Matthew sends him a bewildered look. "Uh. That's kind of the asshole who shot me, man."

Lee cringes as he remembers the other man's gory death. Man, that must have hurt. "He's Clem's...friend, I guess. He tried to shoot her once, too."

"Really? Should he even be trusted with a gun at this point?"

"Probably not." Lee sighs. "Listen. It's no excuse, but the kid's uncle just got devoured by walkers in front of him and everyone wants him out of the group now. Maybe...take it easy on him?"

Matthew stares at Nick - his shoulders slumped, his hand covering his face from the others' judging looks - and then shrugs. "Might as well. I'm already dead... What's the point of being angry anyway?" He wasn't going to pull some poltergeist shit on the guy. Mostly he was just worried about...Walter. His own shoulders slump as he thinks of his blissfully unaware partner, resting in the ski lodge and waiting for him to come back.

"I don't hate him... I just wish..." That I didn't have to leave him. That we had had more time. At least time to say goodbye.

Lee places a heavy hand on his shoulder. It grounds him, makes him feel like less of a ghost than he is. "I get it, man. Completely."

"Did you get to say goodbye? To her?" He asks before he can stop himself, staring down at the girl with the baseball cap as she approaches the bench where Nick is seated.

Lee stares at her, too, resisting the urge to release the sigh in his throat. "Yeah. I did."

Nick hears her footsteps grow closer and gives her a scowl as she comes to a stop in front of him.

"Thanks for backing me up back there," he deadpans.

Matthew raises an eyebrow. "Guessing he's an angry griever. When..." He trails off, biting his lip to prevent the rest from spilling out. When Walter's parents had passed away, Walt hadn't been angry. He had organized the funeral by himself and celebrated their lives rather than mourned their deaths. They were good people that had raised an amazing man.

When Matt had heard the news about his father, part of him couldn't help but feel...relieved. And it had been so sick to feel even a tiny smidgen of joy at someone's death, no matter how shitty this particular person treated him at times. Most of the time. He had been mad, but he he had really only been mad at himself. And he had had Walter there to help him.

In front or them, Nick bangs a fist against the bench, curses releasing from his mouth. "Damn... Dammit!"

Clementine eyes him with concern. "What's wrong?"

The man shakes his head and covers his face again, looking much more distressed than before. "I left my watch at the cabin. It was Pete's." Matt stares at him closely, and suddenly it's as though he's looking at him for the first time, all of him. Reading his thoughts, feeling his emotions, smelling the leftover scent of cheap beer and salty tears. He used to pride himself on forming words together, pairing them together so they flow off the tongue at one moment and then burst out of the mouth in short, brief, yet powerful bites. But there was no word, no sentence that could be pieced together to describe this sense of knowing that only the dead knew.

That watch was the last thing he had of this Pete guy, someone who had clearly acted as a father figure when there was no one else to take up that role. Matt feels, for the first time, a twinge of sympathy for his murderer.

Walter had had his father's watch, his mother's books, and their combined spirit and hopefulness. And Matt... Nothing. Nothing but the sting of his father's cruel words seared into his heart.

When he looks back over at Clem and Nick, his eyes widen as he watches Clem hand over a beautiful golden watch. For the first time since he laid eyes on him, Nick smiles.

Both he and Lee continue to watch the group as they continue up the mountain. Along the way, Clementine practices with her new knife - the knife Walt had given Matt when all this first started. His father had put him through boot camp after...he had found out. Thought maybe strenuous exercise while surrounded by other boys his age would force the gay right out of him. It clearly did not work out like he intended.

Instead, his years in boot camp earned him a few secret "boyfriends" and an improved knowledge of physical exercise and self-defense. Learning to handle a knife and a gun was just the next step. But all of that – it had just been a hobby, something he had practiced on the side while working on a novel that refused to be written. Walter had noticed, he always did, and he got him the knife just in time for their tenth anniversary, and just in time for the world to go to hell.

He eyes their initials engraved on the hilt and longs to run his fingers over the letters, to feel their shape one more time.

"So… You said your partner's up there? In the ski resort?" Matt snaps back to attention upon hearing Lee's question.

He blinks and finally looks away from his – Clem's now, he guesses – knife, just as Luke notices it in Clem's hands and questions her about where she got the weapon. "Oh, yeah. Him and a few other members of our group. You don't have to worry, they're good people." Matt smiles to himself as he recalls one specific member of his group, the goddamn most stubborn man he had ever met – besides, well… "Well, Kenny can get a bit… I think it's the Floridan in him, if you-"

"Wait, hold up." Lee interrupts him, his eyes wide and the whites of them bright in the darkening sky. "Kenny? You know Kenny?"

Matt nods hesitantly. "Yes…? Him and his girlfriend, Rita, they've been staying at the lodge for weeks. Did you…" He trails off upon seeing the look on Lee's face, from realization to joy, pure joy.

Katjaa had told him about Kenny and Sarita staying at a ski lodge, and the fact that he hadn't put two and two together astounded him, but all that really mattered right now was that Clem and Kenny were moments from meeting each other again. After two long years of not knowing whether the other was alive, of believing that everyone they had known from the motel had perished, they were going to know that that wasn't the case.

Lee stares at Clementine. She playfully waves her newly acquired weapon at Luke, a rare grin on her face. "I should probably practice using this…but on who? What do you think, Luke?"

Luke decides to play along, lifting his hands up in surrender. "Hey, hey, hey, don't go wavin' that at me! I'm on your side, kid! And besides…" He moves his hands behind his back and then quickly aims two finger guns at the girl. "Ain't a good idea to bring a knife to a gun fight!"

When Clementine laughs, Lee realizes just how much he missed that sound.

When the lodge comes within sight, Lee's face brightens even further upon spotting Katjaa and Duck waiting for him at the top of the hill leading to the resort. He knew that Katjaa wouldn't want to miss the moment both of them had been waiting for since what seemed like ages ago. As he and Katjaa hug, Duck runs over to Clementine's side, looking amazed as he finally sees his friend again after so long.

"Wow! Clementine got tall!" He exclaims, noting that the girl who he used to tease for her tininess had sprouted up to his height in the two years since he had last seen her. Not to mention skinnier… Even skinnier than when Lilly hadn't been able to give them food back at the motel. Good thing Lee gave me that piece of jerky…

After pulling away from Lee, Katjaa notices Matthew hovering behind them, staring at Clem's group as they begin to ascend up the hill towards the ski lodge. Her eyes go wide as she recognizes him. "Oh my god, Matthew?"

He snaps his head back to face her, confusion written over his face. "Uh… Hi?" He throws Lee a panicked look, but before Lee can introduce him to Katjaa, she begins to explain.

"My name is Katjaa. I'm Kenny's wife." She purses her lips. "Well, used to be."

Matthew's eyes go wide as he gazes at Katjaa and then at Duck, still walking alongside Clementine. "Oh. Hi." Kenny hadn't told Matthew and Walter much about his wife and son. When Kenny and Sarita first stumbled upon the ski lodge, Matthew and Walter had asked them a few basic questions, just to make sure they weren't letting in a couple of murderers or thieves. Kenny had gone silent when they had asked about his past, but Sarita had placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear that allowed him to spit out just a few words.

"I had a wife and a boy."

And that was all that had needed to be said.

Lee clears his throat. "I'm gonna go ahead and check on Clem." He leaves them be, clearly sensing that they needed to talk. He catches up with Duck and ruffles his short hair, asking him what he's been up to and if he's made any friends up there.

Katjaa sighs and crosses her arms over her chest. "I wanted to thank you, and Walter as well. I…watch over him. I know that you two saved him and Sarita." She gives him a shaky smile. "Thank you."

Matthew smiles back. "Kenny's a nice guy. Him and Sarita, they helped Walt and I out a lot." His smile grows dim at the mention of his partner's name, and he glances up at the ski resort, wishing that he could see what Walter was up to right now, that he could tell him what happened before he had to find out on his own, before it broke him completely.

Katjaa senses his mood declining and bites down on her lip. "Would you like to head inside the lodge with us? To check in on them?"

When he nods in response, she continues, "I'll call Ducky over right now. He thinks you're very cool."

"Me? Cool? That would have been nice to hear back in high school." They both chuckle before making their way to the ski lodge, stopping to collect Duck, who cuts himself off halfway through a story about another boy he had met a while earlier to say goodbye.

Clem climbs up a tall, tall ladder while Luke hovers beneath her on the ground and tries to distract her by telling her a story about his past. Lee feels his heart racing in his chest as she continues to climb, gasping as she slips and lifting up off his feet in concern.

She gets both of her feet back on the rungs of the ladder and looks down, raising a judging eyebrow at her friend below. "You look like an idiot."

Luke puts his arms down, embarrassed. "Just climb the thing!"

Clementine does so, and when she finally reaches the top, she peers through her binoculars and spots lights in the distance. Shit, Lee thinks. That man that the group was on the run from must be catching up fast…and now with Kenny in the mix, both he and Clem would be stuck in this mess.

She climbs down the ladder upon seeing Luke run towards the lodge, following behind him at a slower pace. When Lee looks over towards the deck of the lodge, he spots both groups at a standoff. Their shouts echo into the wind, and Matt, hovering closely behind Katjaa and Duck, can't help but focus in on the gun in Nick's hands. His finger is on the trigger. Matt raises a hand up to his own neck as his eyes move from Nick's gun to Walter, to Kenny and back.

Clem pushes through the crowd, freezing as she catches sight of the man from the other group aiming his gun at her new acquaintances.

"Holy shit."

Swear, Lee thinks just as Clementine rushes into Kenny's arms. Both groups around them look shocked as the two old friends hug for a long moment, but Kenny's new group – an Indian woman that Lee presumes to be this Sarita and an older man with a tacky sweater, probably Matt's partner Walter – are quick to welcome the others inside the lodge.

Carlos, Rebecca, and the other men in Clem's group are clearly unsure about trusting these new faces, but Clementine seems to be on friendly terms with the bearded man and Rebecca can't afford to spend another night out in the cold. Everyone hurries inside, Clementine and Kenny exchanging large, uncontrollable smiles along the way.

Inside, the ski lodge is warm from a cozy fireplace, and beautifully decorated for Christmastime – including a large tree in the main room. Duck zips around the lodge, fiddling with everything he comes across and shouting in excitement when he finds something really interesting.

"Mom! Look!" Duck points at a little duck statue sitting on a corner table.

Katjaa eyes the statue for a quick second before turning her eyes back to Kenny, Clementine, and Walter. "Yes, Ducky, it's very cute."

After a brief conflict over weapons settled by Clementine and Walter, the two groups gather around inside the lodge. Luke and his group settle in quickly, craving any type of rest after nearly a week of non-stop travelling and looking over their shoulders. Kenny and Clementine, meanwhile, sit on a couch in front of the fire and begin to talk.

"Still wearin' this dirty old thing, huh?" Kenny asks teasingly, reaching out a hand to tug at Clem's baseball cap. He ignores the death glare she sends him for daring to touch her precious hat. "You know, I half expected to see Lee walk up next to you. You guys were like two peas in a pod."

Clementine lowers her eyes and doesn't speak, but the pain radiates off of her in waves. Lee shakes his head. Good going, Ken.

Luckily, Ken recognizes his mistake and looks regretful as he apologizes. "Oh, shit, I didn't mean to – it's just hard not to think about it, ya know?"

Clementine stares up at him, barely able to keep her voice from shaking. "He saved me."

Kenny grins. "I knew it, I knew he would! That guy had a fire in him, sure as shit." When Clementine continues to look downtrodden, Kenny adds, "He was a helluva guy. When my son, well…he took care of him. I'll never forget that."

"You guys must have been real good pals, huh?" Matthew tells Lee. "He doesn't talk that way about just anyone. As far as I know, I mean. You probably knew him longer than me, so-"

"I get it, man. Thanks."

Tuning back into Kenny and Clem's conversation, Lee realizes they moved on to catching up with what had happened to each other since Savannah. At Clem's mention of Christa and Omid, he can't help but wonder how the two were doing. It had been a while since he had spoken to Omid, so he himself had no idea where the woman was. All he knew so far is that since she isn't here with them, she has to be out there somewhere.

"And there's Rita," Matt informs Lee, interrupting the other man from his thoughts. "Well, Sarita, technically, Rita's just what I call her. She's awesome."

Lee glances over at Katjaa to gage her reaction to Kenny's new lover, but Katjaa doesn't look fazed whatsoever.

"Hey Walt, where's Matthew? He still out there rootin' around?" Kenny asks. Matthew's smile falls in an instant.

The older man with thinning hair, who Lee presumes to be Walter, doesn't appear too worried though. "Of course he is! Well, I'll start dinner." Matt watches him walk away and goes to follow him.

Katjaa sighs and idly pats Duck's head as the boy begins to grow tired from running around all over the place. "I feel bad for him, and for Walter. It was much too soon for Matt to die."

Way too soon for all of us, Lee thinks, but he keeps that comment to himself.

Matt can tell the moment Clem realizes just exactly whom that friend of hers shot on the bridge earlier.

She and Walter had been making simple conversation over the stove when Walter had brought up his name. "Connecting with people is so important. I don't know what I'd do without Matthew."

Matt feels his cheeks heating up from the compliment before comprehending exactly what Walter had just said. He just said he doesn't know what he'd do without me and I'm dead. Well, shit.

That was the first hint, but Clementine doesn't catch it since Matt never had the chance to introduce himself to her seeing as he kind of got shot in the neck and fell off a bridge less than five minutes after meeting her and Luke.

Walter glances down at the counter and smiles. He picks up a can of peaches and waves it in front of Clementine for the girl to see. "Huh. Striking resemblance."

She blinks and looks from the can to Walter, her eyes growing significantly wider as she begins to connect the dots. Walter doesn't notice the troubled look on her face and instead excuses himself to finish preparing the food, leaving Clementine free to explore the lodge.

He jumps when a hand touches his shoulder. It turns out to be Lee. "Hey, man. You…holding up?" Lee doesn't mention how long Matt had been standing there, just staring into space, and Matt's grateful for that.

Matt forces a smile on his face. "Yeah. You're friend is even smarter than I already thought she was, you know."

"Yeah, she is…" Lee agrees, unsure why Matt had decided to bring this up.

With a sigh, Matt nods his head at where Clem is currently talking to Sarita. "-are amazing people. Honestly, it's dangerous to be this kind. But they can't help it."

Well, look where that got me, Matt thinks dryly.

"What does Matthew look like?" Clem asks, glancing around for any sign of Luke.

"Oh, he's a handsome man. A little shorter than Walter." Sarita smiles at the girl, not worried in the least. And at this point, she had no reason to be. "He should be back soon." Clementine nods, trying to hide the worry in her eyes, and allows Sarita to change the subject back to Kenny.

"This can't be good." Lee says, massaging his forehead as if to stave off a migraine. Matthew doesn't respond and they watch in silence as the two groups get ready for dinner.

Dinner, of course, turns out to be a disaster, at least for Clementine.

To her, Lee, and Katjaa's displeasure, Kenny and Luke strike up a rivalry of sorts over where Clem's loyalty should lie.

It starts off with Clementine having to choose which one to sit with. The new group she had grown to mostly like during their five-day trip but who had also locked her in a shed while she was injured, or the man she had thought was dead but had been a raging alcoholic the last time she had seen him?

After a few seconds of just staring at each table back and forth, Clem gives up and ends up taking a seat across from Kenny. She tries to ignore the hurt puppy dog eyes Luke sends her way and instead focuses on the bowl of mush Walter pushes in her direction.

And of course, the first thing Kenny decides to talk to her about is Luke. "So, Clem, we were just talkin'… What's the deal with the kid? What's his name – Luke? He in charge? You trust him?"

Clem gulps down the spoonful of peaches and beans and stares at Luke out of the corner of her eye. "I like him. He's a good guy."

Kenny probes further. "Would you trust him with your life?"

She pauses, suddenly feeling a bit unsure. "I think so…"

Kenny accepts her answer with a nod and the topic shifts to Carver instead.

"Some people are after them."

"Well you don't have to worry about that no more. They'll go tomorrow and you can stay here." Kenny says brightly. Clementine blinks, realizing that he isn't making a suggestion – just a statement.

Sarita is sweeter about it, at least. "Absolutely. Honey, you stay with us as long as you want."

"She's stayin' for good!"

"If that's what she wants!" Lee is suddenly so grateful that a woman as sensible as Sarita winded up with Kenny.

Clem bites her lip and stays silent, suddenly not feeling so hungry anymore. Kenny waits for a response but when he realizes there isn't one coming, he looks confused and hurt.

Matthew raises an eyebrow at Kenny's actions. "Is he always like this? He never pulled this with Walt and I…"

Katjaa chuckles. "Kenny can get a bit…protective at times."

"More than a bit," Lee points out. Katjaa doesn't bother to argue, knowing full well the nature of her husband.

Sarita and Walter finish eating and stand up from the table to start cleaning. Luke and Nick see this as their opportunity to get up from their own table and take their spots.

Lee narrows his eyes at the look Luke throws Clementine, but decides to think about that later when Kenny and Luke begin talking to one another.

"Peaches and beans. Great for nutrition, not too great on the way out, though, I tell ya!" Kenny breaks out into laughter, and everyone at the table – besides Duck, who laughs right alongside him – stares at him in discomfort.

"So it's Luke…and Nick. Luke and Nick. You guys sure do look like a match." Kenny continues, his grin wide.

Luke and Nick aren't nearly as offended as Matthew. "Well that was a dick move," Matt mumbles, shaking his head in disappointment. But then again, he really shouldn't be surprised; when Kenny had first found out about him and Walter, he had been uncomfortable hanging around them for days. It took an intervention with Sarita to convince him that Walter and Matt were still the same survivors that had taken him and his girlfriend in out of the kindness of their hearts.

But it still hurt, especially after many, many years of hearing the same type of shit from family members, peers, and goddamn strangers. Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word. Matt wishes he could remember the book that came from. Walter surely would know.

"What's the deal with these guys, Clem?" Kenny asks, pissed at Nick and Luke for their doubts over the validity of Wellington.

"Hey, fuck you, buddy!"

"It's fine, Nick. We're not stayin'."

"She's stayin'!"

"Wait, what?"

Clementine clenches her eyes shut and Lee can sense the headache she's trying to push back. "Please, don't fight!"

Thankfully, Walter steps in as well. "Gentlemen, please. There's no need for this. Now look, we've all had a long day. Please, eat." After a few tense moments, the three men return to their meals.

Kenny still looks angry when he says to Clem, "Pass me that can, Duck."

Clementine's eyes go wide. Lee and Matt wince. Katjaa's smile falls and her eyes fill with tears. Duck tugs at his mother's coat, asking why his dad called Clem his name when he's not there-there. And Kenny, upon realizing his error, gasps and shuts his eyes to meeting Clem's eyes.

"Duck? Who's Duck?" Luke asks, bewildered.

Quietly, Clem tells him. "Duck was his son."

Luke gapes at her and Kenny before looking down at his bowl, suddenly sympathetic towards the man he had been arguing with just a few moments prior.

"Hey, Clementine. Would you, uh, lend me a hand outside for a moment?" Walter saves the day once more. Clementine spares one last glance at Kenny, her heart aching at the pained look on his face as his eyes stay glued shut, before following Walter outside.

Katjaa rubs Duck's head and sighs. "Maybe it's about time we head back."

"But mooooooooom!" Duck whines, completely forgetting the incident that had just occurred. She shushes her son but finally quiets him down by agreeing to stay, but just until the end of the night. Duck cheers in delight as Matt and Lee follow Walter and Clem past the lodge's front doors.

Outside, Walter gives Clem some words of wisdom that are all too familiar to Matt. Walter had always been the most optimistic person Matt knew; even when his parents passed away, even when Matt's father dropped all contact with his son upon finding out the true nature of his and Walt's relationship, and even when the dead started walking and the world went to shit around them.

It used to comfort Matt, knowing that every day he would wake up next to this man that he loves so much and this man would tell him all the good things that could happen rather than the bad.

"We could find something other than peaches and beans."

"We could write the next great American novel!"

"We could wake up one day and realize that this was aaaalllll a dream. Or a drug-induced hallucination. Which one sounds better?"

Walter stops walking and locks eyes with the shorter girl. "They say the world is over, but I'll tell you a secret: it's not. People are more political now than they ever were before!" Clem appears to be considering his words as he grows more and more impassioned. "In the end, we can't change the world. All we can do is continue to learn from each other, to empathize and use our heads.

All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal. Steinbeck. Have you read him?"

Clementine doesn't respond, clearly having no idea who he's referring to, but Matt more than understands.

Lee hums and nudges Matt's shoulder. "Walter's a smart man."

Matt hides his smile behind his hand and simply nods.

"Do you trust her?" Lee asks Matt as the redheaded woman, Bonnie, walks off with the box full of food Walter had just given her. Lee can tell what Clem and Kenny think of Bonnie by their narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

"Before, yeah. Definitely. I would have given her all that stuff in a heartbeat. But now?" Matt knocks the hood off of his head and runs a hand through his hair in frustration. "Hell if I know."

"I'm starting to think she might be working for Carver."

"Not-Peanut-Guy? How bad is this Carver anyway?"

Lee's face darkens as he thinks back to the way the man had stormed into the cabin and threatened Clem right to her face. How Clem's new group would travel through the woods for nearly a week to avoid going back to his camp. How Rebecca, the pregnant woman Clem was slowly starting to befriend after their rough start, seemed to fear him the most. "Worse than just bad."

Matt groans and rubs his eyes hard enough to see stars behind the lids. "Well, now I definitely don't trust her. Shit. This just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?"

"Clementine! Don't freak out." Lee's ears perk up at the sound of Luke hissing at Clementine from inside the lodge and he begins to head inside. After a moment's hesitation, Matt follows after him, leaving Walter and Kenny arguing outside in the growing cold winter.

"Listen, I gotta tell you somethin'. That guy on the bridge was Walter's friend." The man reaches behind his back and pulls out a framed picture that Matt recognizes all too well.

He and Walt had been coming to this ski lodge for years. For their second anniversary, Walt had surprised him with a pair of free tickets given to him by the parents of one of his favorite students. Matt had never gone skiing before that, so when he first stepped onto those skis, he ended up bringing both him and Walter crashing into the snow.

Matt had turned red and apologized profusely, but Walt had just smiled and promised to make it his mission to make him an expert skier. And while Matt never did make it past proficient, he and Walt had come back each and every year since to practice. The ski lodge workers even began to recognize them every time they came and the pair's dedication earned them a photo in the recreation room.

When Luke begins scheming up ways to hide the truth from Walter, Matt shakes his head and walks away. So lost in his own thoughts, he passes right through Walter, who's finally back inside after his tense talk with Kenny.

"Matt, where the hell are you…" The older man mumbles to himself, his trembling arms wrapped around his stomach.

"I'm here! Look at me!" Matt exclaims before he can stop himself. It's pointless; it's so goddamn pointless.

Walter sets out onto the deck for air, but his eyes catch on to something just a few feet away. He kneels down on the floor in front of the bench and grabs one of the backpacks, a bright purple one, from the pile of supplies and weapons on the floor.

Matt's eyes widen as Walter pulls out his – their – knife. Walter's face doesn't shift as he eyes the weapon in his hand, at least until his fingers begin to trace over the initials engraved on the hilt.

Without a word, Walter stands back up and slips outside.

Lee doesn't know what to think anymore.

Luke wants to hide Matt's death from Walter. The woman outside could be leading Carver to the lodge at this very moment. And now, Clem unzips her backpack to reveal an empty space where Matt's knife had been.

When she steps out onto the deck, she ignores the chill that hits her through her thin long-sleeve shirt and focuses instead on Walter. The man doesn't turn to face her as the door shuts, just releases a puff of smoke from his cigarette and continues to twirl the knife around in his hands.

"Walt used to be a smoker." Lee jolts in surprise and spots Matthew leaning against the railing across from his partner. Matt wrings his hands together and sighs. "He quit a couple years ago." He shuts his eyes. "For me."

"I know he's dead. Who did it? Was it that kid – what's his name, uh, Nick? Heard him talkin' earlier, something about shooting a man." Walter takes a drag from his cigarette and grips the knife even tighter. "I could see it. I could see it on his face. Wasn't sure then, but now…"

Both he and Matt watch in tense silence as Clementine struggles over how to answer, over whether to follow Luke's plan or go with what she knows to be right.

"It was us," she says finally, fearful but not backing down. Lee's heart fills with pride, especially once he notices Matt's tiny smile. "It was our fault."

Her words knock the air out of Walter and leave him nearly speechless. "Jesus. I-I don't feel good."

"Nick shot him." Clem finishes, and then glances at his fist as he tightens his hold on the sharp weapon once more.

"Is…is Nick a good man? Or is he just like everyone else?" Walter asks at last. His voice grows in anger at her silence. "Is he just one of those – those fuckers that don't give a shit about anyone but themselves?"

Matt steps closer, his hand outstretched and just inches away from reaching Walter's shoulder. He pulls back, though, when Clem answers.

"He is. He's a good guy, Walter."

At that exact moment, the door opens again and Nick catches sight of what's going on. But Matt only has ears for Walter, who leans his arms against the railing and looks so defeated he could cry. "He was always going out alone. I told him something like this would happen, but he wouldn't listen. No, Matt always knew best."

Matt's eyes burn and even though his heart beats no longer, it aches enough to nearly burst out of his chest. "I'm sorry… Fuck, I'm sorry…" He whispers, ignoring the hand that Lee places on his shoulder.

"What's going on?" Nick asks, clearly not piecing the puzzle together despite the fact that Clem had told him just a few minutes ago about Matt.

"You have to tell him."

"Tell him what?"

"What happened on the bridge!"

Walter finally turns around, his voice broken by sobs. "Tell me what you did. Just tell me, son. What happened?"

Nick lifts up his arms, eyeing the dagger still clenched in Walter's hand. "From a distance it looked like anyone! I-I thought he was gonna shoot my friends, and I…" When Walter steps closer, Nick steps back and his words increase in speed. "I shot Matthew. But it happened real fast, I didn't – I didn't know if I hit him but I did and… I didn't mean to!"

Walter stares at the man, disbelief and pain etched across his face. "Do you know what you've done to me? Do you have any idea?"

"I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry Walter!"

Everyone on the deck goes silent as Walter stares at Nick and then at Matt's knife. He rubs his fingers against the metal end and doesn't respond to Nick's apology, doesn't show any sign of what his next move will be.

"He-he wouldn't hurt him." Matt stammers, willing Lee to believe him. "Walt wouldn't hurt a fly." But despite how much he knows Walt, despite being the one person on this Earth who could write an entire book based on his knowledge of this amazingly giving and humane man, he still inhales sharply when Walt lifts his knife –

– and then chucks it over to the other side of the railing.

The wind turbine begins spinning out of control, but Walter and Matthew couldn't care less.

Kenny decides to split the group up – Clem and the others go find a way to shut off the wind turbine while he and Luke, still very reluctant allies, head out back to turn the generator back on.

Clem somehow manages to stop the wind turbine in a matter of seconds. He wonders how the hell she could have known what to do but decides not to question it.

"Somethin' ain't right," Nick says, just as they spot walker after walker stumbling from the forest to the lodge.

"We don't have much ammunition," Carlos says, lifting his gun and aiming at a walker up ahead.

"We gotta get back to the lodge!"

In the chaos that follows, more walkers emerge from the trees, having been attracted by the wind turbine and the sound of gunfire. Clementine dodges walkers left and right, trying to avoid using up the bullets still remaining in the gun Nick had given her.

Katjaa rushes over, dragging Duck alongside her by the hand. "Lee, Luke is gone!"

"What? Why?" Lee exclaims, both confused and furious. Luke didn't seem like the type of man to abandon his friends, but before today, he also hadn't seemed like the type of man to lie about the death of a loved one.

"He and Ken were arguing and then they heard the guns going off and he just…took off!" Katjaa crosses her arms and Duck huddles in closer, trying to avoid each walker that stumbled by despite the creatures posing no harm to them. "Lee, what's going on?"

"One of Clem's friends killed Matthew and Walter found out. I dunno where the hell Luke went, but there are walkers all over the place and-" Lee cuts himself upon when he spots Clem about to be cornered by a few walkers. He shouts out a warning but before the walkers are able to grab hold of her, they're taken down by a couple of bullets. He sighs in relief upon spotting Carlos a few feet back and reminds himself to thank Carlos for that later, if he ever gets the chance to.

"Run! Go!" Carlos shouts. Another walker attacks him from behind, but the man dodges its hold and shoots it in the head just in time.

Clem nearly runs into another walker trying to follow Carlos over to the lodge, but this time she's without a weapon. Upon taking a few steps back, her foot meets the corpse of one of the walkers Carlos had just taken out and kneels down to tug the rifle from beneath its body.

Oh, this is not gonna be good, Lee thinks right as Clem stands up and fires. The force of the shot is so strong that it sends Clementine sprawling to the floor. Pete had been right when he had advised her days ago against using bigger guns, because her bullet misses its target by a long shot and the walker is still tumbling after her.

Rather than going for the rifle again, Clementine grabs Matt's knife and jumps beneath a bench table nearby. She stabs the walker right through the mouth and crawls out from beneath the table a second later.

And then she notices Nick.

Her eyes go wide and she stares, unable to offer any sort of help, as Nick wrestles with the walker trying to tear out his throat with its teeth. "Please help me!"

At the entrance to the lodge, Walter raises his gun and narrows his eyes, but neither Lee nor Clem know if he's aiming at the walker or at Nick.

Lee glances around him and catches sight of Matt staring at his knife, still lodged into the brain of the walker Clem had just killed. "Matt!" He shouts, urging the man to hurry over. The Asian man looks back up and assesses Nick's situation for what seems like hours to Lee before shaking his head and breaking into a sprint.

Matthew comes skidding to a halt across from his boyfriend, his lover, his partner, his life for years and years, ever since that nice summer day the two of them spent cooped up inside the library rather than outside enjoying the sunshine. Matthew had worked in the library back then, fresh out of college with a degree that was practically useless according to his ever-so-helpful father. And Walter had walked into the children's section and had seemed surprise to see this new face there, rather than the older woman who normally manned this part of the building.

Walter had walked up to the front desk and given him a smile that automatically made his own lips twitch up. And then they had talked about college, about jobs, about book recommendations for Walter's students, about teaching, about life until Matt's coworker had to come into the room and tell him it was time to close up. Matt had wished Walter a good night, hoping that Walter would come back soon.

He ended up coming back the next day, and the next, and the next. Even if it was for just a few minutes after work, Walt had always found a way to brighten up Matt's day.

And Matthew, he hadn't felt like a child with a pathetic crush on a teacher. For one of the first times in his life, he had felt like an equal as he talked to someone older than him. An equal adult with decisions and stories he didn't have to hide in fear of judgment, in fear of ridicule and pain.

He still remembers the times he and Walt would just stay in bed together and talk over their favorite books, so mutually in love with both each other and the art of literature. Walter had recited by heart a part of one novel that Matthew remembered being forced to read in back in high school, a beautiful book when he hadn't been forced to find some deeper hidden meaning like his teacher had wanted him to.

"She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order."

He hadn't understood the meaning until Walter had said it to him then. He understands it now more than ever.

"Baby. You know what you need to do."

Walter blinks and seems to really notice the walker's grip on Nick's forearms for the first time. His hands tremble and Clementine watches them shake with wide eyes, thinking back to Nick's confession earlier, the blood that spewed from Matthew's neck as he so desperately tried to hold himself together before tumbling off the bridge into the rushing waters below. Her mouth opens and –

The gun goes off with a bang. Matt doesn't have to hear Clem's gasp or watch as Nick pushes the corpse away from him and onto the ground to know what choice Walter had made. He already knew.

The situation goes from bad to worse when Carver and his men emerge from out of the forest – including Bonnie, the young woman Walter had given food too just earlier that night. Matt curses aloud when he sees her, wondering why the hell he's even surprised.

Carver smiles as he approaches Carlos and asks for Rebecca, as if she were an object for him to own rather than a human being. He smiles as he and his followers invade the lodge and tie up Clem's people. He grabs Carlos by the arm, forces him to his knees, and doesn't flinch as he snaps Carlos's finger with a simple flick of his wrist right in front of the doctor's daughter.

"Rebecca! Our baby deserves to be raised in a place of safety!" Upstairs, Alvin clenches his fist and his teeth while Rebecca grows more and more panicked by the second. "I know you're out there. And Alvin. And Luke. And the girl. This is real simple. You want this over quick, you all play nice and show your faces."

Despite Rebecca's protests, she, Alvin, and Clem end up surrendering before Carver can torture Carlos even more. Sarah cries and cries, barely able to breathe through her sobs, but her dad is unable to help her through his own pain.

A bullet glides through the air, sending glass shattering and one of Carver's men to the floor with a hole in his head.

Katjaa hides Duck's face in her stomach and looks up at Lee and Matt. "We need to get out of here. I can't have Duck see this." Before either of them can respond, she and her son are gone.

Carver's face grows dark. He scans the row of prisoners until his eyes land on one specific captive – Walter.

"No, no, no, no!" Matt chants, and Lee has to hold him back as Carver grabs Walt by the neck and walks him closer to the window. Matt is screaming by the time Carver forces Walt down onto his knees, just as Walter spots the picture of him and Matt together strewn on the floor. Walt lifts his head as if to say something, but Carver pulls the trigger before he can even open his mouth.

"Walt! Walt!" Matt screams, finally escaping Lee's grasp to fall besides his partner's body. Carver, meanwhile, hides behind one of the pillars and shouts at Kenny to stop shooting or another one of his friends will be next.

When Kenny fires a few shots a second later, Carver shrugs and picks up Alvin from off the floor.

Matt grabs both sides of Walter's face with his hands and looks into his wide, unseeing eyes. "Walt? Baby, please, please..." Why did I have to watch, why did I have to to die, why wasn't I there, why didn't I try and stop him? Matt couldn't get the image of Walt's blood coursing down the side of his head even if he tried.

And suddenly, something collides with Matt's forehead hard enough to send him bouncing back. He rubs at his head, glad that he can't feel physical pain any longer, and then sees Walter sitting across from him doing the same.

Walt blinks over and over again, unsure if what he's seeing is true. He pats the side of his head, expecting to feel the hole left behind by Carver's bullet but finding that his his skull is smooth and unharmed. "Matt?"

Matthew nods, a choked laugh escaping despite himself. "Walt..."

When they finally embrace, they squeeze each other hard enough to probably choke a living person to death – but luckily (not-so-luckily? Matt honestly isn't sure anymore, and he honestly couldn't care less) they're as far from living as one could be.

As Carver marches Alvin off to his death, Clementine watches with eyes red from both her tears and anger. Walt didn't deserve to die, he didn't deserve to die! And she'd be damned if she was going to let another good man die tonight.

Lee shouts when Clem half-stands and begins to run over in Carver's direction. Before she can even try and stop him, the man hits her in the gut with his gun and sends her crashing to the floor, right besides Walter's corpse. He picks her up easily and holds her in front of his body as if she were nothing more than a shield.

But Lee truly sees red when Carver – that fucking bastard – raises his gun and points it at Clem's head.

Clem whimpers as her feet dangle in the air, too overcome with terror to try and find a way to escape now. "We can do this all night. Is that what you want?"

The door opens just moments later. Kenny walks inside, his arms raised in surrender, and Clem and Lee's shoulders deflate in relief.

When Kenny is all tied up, Carver paces in front of his prisoners and narrows his eyes as he notices the one person missing. "Where's Luke?"

When no one responds, he smiles. "Finally cut and run, huh? Why am I not surprised?" He marches up to Carlos and points at the doctor in victory. "I warned you. I warned you not to follow him. And look where he's led you."

He walks away, but turns back around to smile at Rebecca, standing off to the side with a terrified look on her face. Rebecca's lips tremble and she looks away as he moves closer and closer. "But you're safe now. We're going home. As a family." Alvin glares up at him but wisely decides not to strike back.

"All right. Round 'em up. We're headin' back to camp." With that, Carver marches out the door while Bonnie and his other follower begin to pick the captives up from off the floor and shove them outside.

Clem is the last one to stand, and from the look in her eyes, Lee can tell she knows she's in for trouble at this crazed man's camp. Lee clenches his fists and wishes he could sink both of them into Carver's fucking face, over and over and over again.

Hours later, Matt and Walt finally appear in front of Lee again. Lee is sitting alongside Clem and the others as they ride in the back of Carver's big rig in complete silence.

Lee grins at them, thankful that he can actually talk to some people rather than watch as Clem and her group did nothing for hour upon hour. "Hey. You guys catch up?"

Walter reaches out a hand for Lee to shake, which Lee gladly takes. "Yup. Matt had nothing but good things to say about you, of course. I'm finding that this is the case for a lot of the people who knew you."

"I…highly doubt that, but…thanks." Walter furrows his eyebrows in confusion but doesn't question it. "What brings you two here?"

"I was just, uh… I was thinking that maybe we should…move on," Matt says, squeezing Walter's hand and throwing Lee a lopsided smile.

Walter squeezes back. "I should probably see how my students are doing. My parents, too, in fact."

"And, well…" Matt sighs and rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. "Maybe I can see how my old man is doing. See if he's changed his mind about the whole, y'know, gay thing after being up there." Walter sends him a proud smile.

Lee nods. "I understand. You can always visit, you know."

"We'll definitely make sure to visit Kenny, Sarita, and Clem every once in a while. In fact…" Walter claps a hand on Lee's shoulder and gives him a look Matt is all too familiar with. "Good luck to Clem. It's not easy being a girl her age now, but…she's strong. And I think she owes a lot of that strength to you."

Lee blinks and a slow smile spreads across his face as he shakes his head and replies, "Nah. That's all her."

"Ah," Walter says, nodding as he realizes what Lee means. "That's definitely true. No one can survive in this world without being as smart as she is. But it's clear to me that you meant the world to her, and to Kenny."

"You're a good man, Lee." Matt adds. He had to show some sort of gratitude towards the man who helped him when he was in such a state of confusion, who convinced him to forgive and to help the one person he loves the most make the right decision. When Lee holds out a hand for him to shake, Matt knows that he understands exactly what he's trying to convey.

Once Matthew and Walter leave, Lee turns back to focus on Clementine and the others trapped in the back of Carver's truck with her. None of them say a word, but Lee can sense their mixed emotions: Rebecca's terror, Carlos's pain, Sarah's discomfort, and Kenny's silent fury. Clem's eyes slide shut and then blink open rapidly over and over again as she fights the urge to sleep despite not having had a chance to get some rest in god knows how long.

All of them rock forward and nearly hit the floor as the truck comes to a sudden stop. Clem holds her breath as she locks eyes with Kenny and then stares at the door, unsure of what's to come.

The door opens to reveal Carver's male lackey, the one Kenny hadn't been able to kill back at the lodge. He glares at the occupants of the truck and says, sounding impatient, "Any of y'all need'a piss? You best speak up now cuz we ain't stoppin' again."

Sarah raises her hand after a beat, looking around in fear when no one else volunteers. The man huffs, "All right then, suit yourselves. Come on out here, girl, we ain't got all day!"

"I-I-I don't wanna go by myself." Sarah whispers, but the man just rolls his eyes and shifts the gun around in his arms.

"Either do that or piss yourself." The girl shakes from both anxiety and her growing urge to pee, looking at her father for help. Carlos sighs and gives the other man a pleading look.

He exhales loudly and gives in. "Jesus, fine! You, baseball cap, get the hell outta there."

When Nick and Clementine both begin to stand up, the man groans. "The girl, you idiots! Jesus, why'd we decide to come after y'all?"

Outside, Clementine stares at a tree as Sarah goes further into the words to do her business. On further examination, Lee realizes that she's not staring at the tree but rather the moth resting on it instead, her eyes narrowing as she gets lost in thought. Lee personally doesn't understand the significance of the moth, but then again, he had been a history professor, not an English teacher.

She reaches out a hand to touch the insect but before her fingers can even graze its wings, it takes off into the air and doesn't look back. He and Clementine both smile, but their smiles fade when Carver's guard yells for the girls to hurry up. Lee wishes Clem had the same ability as that moth to fly away from all her problems at the moment.

Sarah emerges from the woods and zips up her pants, sending a grateful smile in Clementine's direction. "Thanks for coming with me! It's scary out here. I know they made you."

"We're friends…friends look out for one another," Clem reminds her kindly, and Lee can't help but be reminded of her constant defense of Ben a few years prior. It's good to know she hasn't lost sight of that part of herself.

Sarah's smile grows. "We are, aren't we? Well, if you need to pee, let me know. I'll keep lookout for you, too."

"Uh, okay…"

Together, they head back towards the truck. Lee's eyes narrow at the guard's smarmy grin when he says, "Everything come out alright, girls?" Neither Clem nor Sarah look very amused at his comment either.

"Troy, get 'em tied up," Carver orders.

Troy's grin disappears and he turns to face the girls with a stern, creepy look Lee assumes is how his face is normally set. "Will do." As Troy yanks Sarah closer to him and ties her arms together, Clem watches Carver talk into his walkie talkie with a steely look in her eyes.

Carver unfortunately notices her staring as well. "It ain't polite to listen to other folk's conversations. Has anyone ever taught you that?" He narrows his eyes at her silence. "Where's your manners?"

When Clementine continues to glare back at him, refusing to rise up and take his bait, his lips quirk up and he takes a few steps forward. Not for the first time, Lee wishes he were more than just an observer to Clem's life.

In the blink of an eye, Carver's hand raises and Clem hits the ground with a cry. And Lee sees red.

Before he can even think of how useless his actions are, Lee goes to tackle the son of a bitch and passes through him instead. Unlike his previous instance with Nick, Carver barely blinks an eye.

"Don't test me girl," Carver warns, his voice low and dangerous. "I'll pass every time."

Clem lifts her head up from off the dirt and rubs her cheek, red from the force of Carver's slap. Surprisingly, Sarah does Lee's job for him when she exclaims, "Leave her alone!"

The girl goes silent when Carver turns his glare at her instead, but Lee is grateful anyway. She's a lot braver than anyone thinks.

Carver shakes his head and walks towards the front of the truck, ordering Bonnie and Troy to finish tying the girls up so they can hit the road again.

"The hell did he do to you?" Kenny asks once Clem is back inside, eyes moving from her trembling hands to her swelling cheek. "Hey! Did he hurt you?" Kenny's fury grows until he's screaming at the guards outside just as the door slams shut once more.

Clem avoids his eyes and all Lee wants is to comfort her like he used to when she was younger and he was still alive. But even his words of comfort, if he were able to give them, would not be enough to save her from all the shit about to go down once they reach the bastard's camp.

(Author's Note: Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I'm going to try and update my fics more often than I did before. In case you didn't know, this is a repost of another fic I made by the same name but I added some stuff I forgot to put in last time (Matthew and Walter in particular) and then wrote all the way until the beginning of episode 3. Part 2 will probably be the last part and that should be out sometime soon. Thank you for sticking with me through my little hiatus and I hope you enjoyed!)