Clementine jerked awake with a start, breathing heavily and looking around. It was just a nightmare, she thought ruefully. They'd started coming back a week ago, but that didn't make them any less bearable. She turned to her left and almost jumped out of her bed when she saw him: Duck was kneeling beside her bed, staring at her with concern written on his hard features.

"God, Duck, you scared the shit out of me," she exclaimed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and sitting up, "How long have you been there?"

"Not long," he informed her, his gruff voice serenading her. It always had that soothing effect on her whenever she had nightmares, "I heard you thrashing in your sleep, and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Well, thanks," she said, nodding and smiling at him. "I'm just shaky, that's all."

She studied his features as she slowly woke from her slumber. He had been trying to grow a beard for the past month, though unsuccessfully. The only thing he'd managed to grow was a tiny patch on his chin, and Clem had teased him mercilessly about it. Kenny's hat was still on his head, a token of respect for his late father. He was still wearing the same jacket he'd had since arriving at the school, and his trusty rifle was safely strapped to his back.

"You need to clean that shirt, Duck," she suggested, inspecting the blood stains on his chest.

"Yeah, I know mom," he said, rolling his eyes and standing up with a smile. "And my name is Kenny, Clem." Their dynamic over the years had been quite interesting, Clem would always think.

Ever since Katjaa's Lee's deaths, Duck started breaking out of his childish self, and started maturing. He realized the effect Lee's death had been having on Clementine, and he switched into the Big Brother role immediately. He became very protective of her over time, especially after Omid's death and Christa's disappearance.

His reunion with Kenny had been one of the most beautiful things Clementine had seen, and it had broken her heart when, barely four weeks later, he'd been forced to shoot him. Kenny was too far gone; the deaths of Katjaa and Sarita looming over him, and Duck always regretted not seeing it sooner. Despite their disagreements, they'd become quite close during their short time back together, to the point where Kenny even taught him to shoot a rifle; the same one he carried around everywhere he went.

He'd become quite hardened after that, deep set on keeping on the move as much as they could, much to AJ's dismay. Ever since Kenny's death, they've never had a place to call home for more than two weeks, but Duck would always argue that 'a static group is a dead group'.

Clementine followed him out of their room and immediately ran into AJ, who was waiting outside the door. She smiled at the boy and kissed his forehead tenderly, "Hey there, goofball," she said.

"Hey Clem," he greeted, sparing a smile for his older brother, "You know I don't like goofball."

"Don't try to fight her, little man, she likes to stick to nicknames," he warned, earning a punch on the shoulder from Clem.

"Can't I be motherly?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure you can, just not with your big brother," he told her, "remember I'm older than you," he reminded her.

As they walked out into the courtyard, they spotted Marlon, Violet and Louis chatting absently on one of the benches. "You're only a year older, Duck," she argued, crossing her arms.

"Remind me again what year you were born in?" he teased, tipping her hat upwards. So far, he was the only person she had ever let touch her hat without permission, and he always took advantage of that fact.

"1994," she muttered, looking away.

"Exactly, and as someone born in 1993, I am much older than you; your elder, even," he puffed out his chest, making AJ chuckle and Clem roll her eyes. That was his argument for most discussions, she thought ruefully.

"Whatever, Duck," she teased, flicking her finger and making Duck's hat fall off his head.

"You're a piece of work, you know that?" he lowered his voice, trying to sound menacing, but Clementine saw right through him. Her features contorted in laughter while Duck was left awkwardly looking at her.

Before Duck could come up with another response, they were interrupted by Louis and Violet sliding into view. Though Louis was pretty tall himself, Duck still towered over him, and the rifle he held on his back made him look older than he was.

"What are we laughing about?" asked Louis innocently, looking between Clem and Duck.

Duck took his opportunity to embarrass her back and said, "Oh nothing, we were just remembering when Clem and I visited this dairy farm and found this amazing salt lick," he told them, stopping Clem in her tracks and causing her to glare at him with squinted eyes.

"You said you'd stop doing that," she reminded him, tapping her foot while the other two teens looked on in confusion.

"I'm sorry, am I missing something here?" said Louis, clearly trying to insert himself into the conversation while Violet stood silently studying Clementine's reactions.

Duck started walking towards the benches, and the group followed him, AJ sticking to Duck like glue. After they'd sat down and gotten comfortable, he explained, "See, when they told us what it was, we were curious. Why is it called a salt lick?" he said it like he was wondering about the existence of alien life.

"Okay, enough," exclaimed Clem, shushing Duck immediately with her powerful glare. No matter how much taller or older Duck was than Clem, she always had a way to command a great amount of respect into Kenneth Jr.

"I wondered what it tasted like, so I licked it, okay?" she admitted, watching Louis's and Violet's expressions carefully. They tried to remain nonchalant about it, "It was gross, and now Duck will never let me forget it," she said, gesturing to a very smug looking Duck.

At that point, Louis and Violet could hold it in no longer, and burst out laughing. Duck shrugged at Clementine, who looked down, defeated. Instead of sulking, she decided to do what she and Duck had agreed upon when they got here. She waited for the laughter to die down before asking,

"So," she started, getting their attention, "Are we the first people that have come by this place?" she directed the question at Violet, since Louis seemed to still be wrapped in the whole saltlick fiasco.

"More or less," said Violet, "We've had some stragglers come close and sometimes trade with us, but you're the first we've ever brought back from outside."

"Well that makes me feel so fuzzy inside," said Duck sarcastically, "You've seriously not met with anyone else from the outside?"

"Why would we?" this time Louis spoke up, "we've got everything we need here, and we use the woods and the stream as our food source."

"And this 'safe zone' you guys have, Marlon showed it to me," he informed them, "isn't it a little small?"

"I've been trying to convince Marlon to expand it, but he keeps pulling it back," Violet scoffed, making Louis frown.

"He's just looking out for us, Vi," he tried to argue, but Duck wasn't convinced. He looked at Clem, and they had one of their mental conversations. Duck nodded, and Clem was the one to speak next.

"What Duck here means," she explained, making Duck flinch at the use of the nickname, "is that we want to make sure you guys know what you're doing."

"And that shitbird in the admin building isn't doing the best job on the food department, now is he?" he said bluntly, jabbing a finger over his shoulder to the building in question.

Louis and Violet were taken aback by the sudden outburst, but didn't correct him. They knew their food situation was deplorable, and they couldn't deny it. Since Clem and Duck had arrived, they'd been able to gather some more supplies than usual, although their going out of the safe zone hadn't sat well with Marlon.

Duck sighed and turned to his sister, in all ways but one, "Clem, do you mind if I talk to you in private?" he said.

Clementine nodded and instructed AJ to stay with Violet and Louis while she followed Duck to a secluded part of the courtyard. He made sure no one could eavesdrop on them before saying, "Clem, what the hell are we doing here? We should get the fuck out of here!" he said it a little louder than he meant to, but luckily no one was within earshot.

Clementine sighed, weighing their options. There was only one thing that mattered more than everything else: AJ. In the past months, they'd been running on fumes in regards to food, and the little kid was not eating well, even when Clem or Duck shared their rations with him.

"I think we should try to give it a chance," she started, and was almost cut off by the older boy before she held up a hand, "before you say anything, think about AJ. We've barely enough to feed him as it is, and I don't think you've been eating well lately," she said, looking him up and down in a motherly fashion.

"I've – AJ is more important," he muttered, looking down at his feet with tired eyes.

"You can't keep giving up food, Duck," he still didn't meet her eyes, "Kenny," she said finally.

At that moment, he looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. "I know you're right, Clem. I just have a bad feeling about this place," he told her, looking around the courtyard.

"Let's just give it time," she suggested, "we can help these kids. They probably don't even know how good they have it here."

"I'm guessing they think this is a fucking picnic, right?" he snapped, frustrated. That was something else he'd gotten from his dad: his short temper. "Sorry, I shouldn't yell at you," he apologized, running his hands over his face.

"It's okay," she said, placing an affectionate hand on his forearm. "Right now, our number one priority is AJ, and if this place can protect him while we get a steady supply of food, it deserves a chance."

"I guess," he muttered, looking over his shoulder at Louis, who was now entertaining AJ by making faces. "He seems to be taking a liking to that guy, Louis was it?" he added warily.

"That's right," she said, nodding and looking behind him to where Louis sat. She studied his features: chocolate brown eyes alight with joy, dirty trench coat hanging loosely like it was still a few sizes too big for him, and a piercing smile that seemed to emanate a light that was not usually found in the apocalypse.

"Hello? Earth to Clementine," Duck was snapping his fingers in front of her, raising an eyebrow. She blinked rapidly and looked back at him, a grin tugging at his lips.

"What are you smiling at, doofus?" she questioned.

"Getting a little crush, are we?" he teased, crossing his arms and imitating her usual posture.

"I am not," she defended herself, looking down in embarrassment.

"I don't like it," he said simply, dropping his grin.

"There's nothing to like, Duck," she reminded him, trying and failing to hide the blush that crept up her cheeks.

"Please, I see the way you've been staring at him for the past week," he said, "and I'd have to be an idiot not to notice that he stares back. Rather blatantly, if I might add," he teased.

"Clem, do you remember the last time you had a crush on someone?" he said slowly, raising his eyebrows.

"You told him to back off or you'd break his legs, yeah I remember it," she scoffed, remembering the face of terror on Gabe's face when an almost six foot tall Duck had threatened him with a hunting rifle in hand. "You do know I can take care of myself, don't you?"

"I know you can," he assured her, raising his hands in defense, "I just don't know if buddy boy over there can."

"What, you think he'll get me killed if I kiss him?" she questioned, her voice dangerously low.

"You know that's not what I mean," he tried to defuse her, "I just don't trust him," he finally said, shrugging.

"Duck, we have trusted no one but each other for how long?"

"A little over eight years," he replied, curious as to where she was going with that.

"And look where that's got us. We totaled our only car, we've been starving ourselves trying to keep AJ alive and we haven't slept well since the incident at the ranch."

"But –," he started.

"No, hear me out," she cut him off, "I'm not saying you should blindly trust them, or even give me your blessing to go after Louis, but at some point we're going to have to open ourselves to certain people who might be able to help us."

"But look what trusting other people has gotten us," he retorted, his deep voice rising in his anger, "Look where it got Luke, Nick, Walter! The safest route is to stay on our own, like it's always been, just you and me and AJ."

Looking around at the courtyard, Clem could tell they were drawing unwanted attention, so he pulled him farther into the bushes and brought him down to her level.

"Look Duck, I love you, but you're being an idiot," she told him bluntly, making him do a double take. "I won't let AJ's blood be on our hands if he starves to death, which is exactly what will happen if we don't trust these people and work together in getting a steady food supply."

"We've dealt with worse hands than this, haven't we?" she questioned, to which he nodded slowly, the fight leaving him steadily, "And we will deal with this situation, which is not as bad as you're making it out to be. Sure, Marlon can be a 'shitbird' but it's a hell of a lot better than out there on the road."

Duck weighed her words carefully before lowering his head in defeat, "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right," she said, grabbing his hat and ruffling his curly hair, "Don't worry, if things go to shit-,"

"When things go to shit," he corrected, making her roll her eyes.

"Alright, when things go to shit, we'll grab AJ and get the hell out of here. Maybe even drive to Florida and get that boat you're always yammering on about," she promised.

Duck seemed to brighten up at the prospect, and let out a sigh. "Okay, I'll play along for now. But don't expect me to get all lovey-dovey with Vanilla Ice over there," he warned, pointing with his thumb in Louis's direction.

"Leave that to me, then," she said nonchalantly, kissing his cheek and leaving him to ponder her last words alone.

"You are a piece of work, Clementine Everett," he called out to her, making her chuckle as she approached the table and rejoined AJ and the rest.