safe

Chapter 41

Ruby's P.O.V~

I sit in the dining room all by myself eating some sort of soup.

I look down to my stomach and see the bump inside of which I am apparently growing a baby.

A cute little baby will, in some months time, come bursting forth into a god forsaken, bastard-ridden hellhole.

I remember that Rick also has a baby, from his dead wife.

I look around the room, looking for the little blond girl who takes care of the baby but instead of seeing people I find myself staring at a plain grey shirt.

I look up to see a friendly looking girl of asian heritage.

"Hey! You must be Ruby!" She says before sitting down next to me.

"Yeah that's me." I say in a friendly tone.

"Wow you're so pretty, my brother is so lucky!" She says grabbing one of my braids and examining my hair.

"Who are you?" I ask, worried and bemused.

"Oh my god! I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Glenn's sister, Clover!" She says before wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a tight hug.

Suddenly a memory comes flooding back to me;

Me and Glenn talking about the baby.

How happy we both were.

What we were going to name our little girl.

As Clover pulls away from me she notices my facial expression.

"What's wrong?" She asks.

"We were going to name our baby after you." I tell her very emotionally.

She is still holding my shoulders as her eyes fill with tears.

"Thank you." She says, wiping? stray tears away from her eyes.

"How's Glenn? Has he been okay since he got moved? I know he can look after Max there." She says happily.

"Yeah, he's doing all right. I think Max really needs him right now. I'm actually headed there after breakfast if you want to help me there, my ankle is kind of fucked." I say as I lift my leg up for her to see the giant purple ankle.

"Yeah sure, i'm just gonna take our bowls up." She says happily.

I turn around and get ready to go see Glenn and Max.

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Glenn's P.O.V~

"Are you feeling better?" Max asks from beside my bed.

"Yeah!" I lie as convincingly as I can.

I look at Max and he already looks healthier.

"So what do you want to do for the rest of today?" I ask him.

"I'm gonna wait for Ruby to come talk to me." He says sweetly.

I grit my teeth and clench my fists as bile runs into my mouth.

Ruby. Rick.

"Alright then buddy." I say uneasily.

Max turns and leaves the room, leaving me by myself to think.

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Ruby's P.O.V~

"Will you take me to Daryl first? I need to talk to him for a second. If you need you can go ahead and talk to Glenn, I'll catch up." I tell Clover as she helps me hobble over to Daryl's cell.

"Sure we can meet up at the infirmary, can Daryl help you over?" She asks cheerily.

"Yeah go talk to Glenn, make sure he's okay!" I encourage enthusiastically.

She helps me shuffle to the cell, gives me a hug and leaves to find her brother.

"Daryl?" I call into the cell before I hop through the doorway.

"What do ya want?" He asks from the bottom bunk as he sharpens the head of one of his arrows.

"I need your help." I admit.

"With what?"

"You're the best fighter I know and I want to get strong again."

Daryl looks at me for a minute in silence, his eyes boring into the grotesque purple lump that is my ankle.

"Alright then, come to the courtyard tomorrow and i'll teach ya how to get stronger and such." He says pitifully before turning back to his arrows.

"Thank you so much!" I say before turning to leave him in peace.

As I get out the door I immediately spot Hershel.

"Hey." I say as I try to walk towards him.

"Watch out!" He says as I slip.

Before I face plant into the floor I feel a familiar pair of arms wrap around me.

"That was a close one." Rick whispers in my ear as he helps me back up.

His deep voice and warm breath sends goose bumps up my arms and I try to clamber out of his grasp.

"I need to talk to Hershel right now Rick." I say breathlessly.

"I'll only let go if you promise to cone talk to me this afternoon, in the wash room." He whispers into my neck.

"Alright." I whisper as he lets me go.

"Hello Miss Ruby, how's your ankle doing?" Hershel greets kindly.

"It's feeling terrible, how long till it's better?"

"Well you've fractured several bones so I'd say a round a month."

"Any quicker?"

"I'm sorry my dear, it's a very hard injury to heal."

"How's Max?"

"He's responding well to the herbs, he'll probably be virus free after two rounds of antibiotics."

"What about Glenn?"

"He seems to be deteriorating..."

I hug Hershel quickly to say goodbye and grab the closest wall to stabilise myself as I try to run on my fractured ankle.

The muscle twinges and throbs and spasms with every move I make.