Past and Present

Forever and Always

"It's alright. We'll always be there for each other. Forever and always."... His hands rested on my butt as he smirked, "They'll have to try and make me keep my hands off of you."... "I promised. Forever and Always."

The thoughts of Carl and my conversations rushed through my head as I watched Beth come back with the supplies that we left at the camp and try to save him.

He had promised me forever and always and it was soon to be the end.

I sat with Carl's head in my lap and my forehead pressed against his as I tried so hard to keep my cool and be there for him.

After a long while had passed, I felt something against my nose.

II lifted me had to see those beautiful blue eyes that I had fallen in love with, staring at me.

"Carl!"

He tried to sit up, but he didn't know that he was just too injured and fell back down after a huge grunt of pain.

Beth pushed his shoulders down as she tried to stitch his wound back up. She must have already taken the bullet out.

"I cant have you movin'," Beth said to Carl as she pushed the hair out of his face, "Unless you want to bleed to death. This might hurt because we don't have any anesthetics."

Carl nodded and Beth continued to push the needle in and through his skin. He didn't even flinch.

"What happened?" Carl asked me, making sure not to move.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, "You got shot and I thought you were going to die."

He gave me a small smile and broke Beth's rule by lifting his hand to my face and pushing my hair back.

"I promised that I wasn't going anywhere."

"Hey," Beth snapped, "If you don't stop moving, I might just send you somewhere myself."

I laughed and Carl looked at Beth and smiled.

"Oh Bethy, don't pretend that you wouldn't miss me if I died."

She tried to keep a straight as she finished up his stitches.

"Don't try to sit up for a while. We going to have to set up ca-"

Beth was interrupted by a sound in the distance. We both looked around to see where the sound originated.

I hadn't seen anything, but Beth jumped up and ran. I looked up to see her collide with Daryl.

He wrapped his hands around her tiny waist and held on. When they separated, Beth kept one hand around his waist and brought him over to me and an already sleeping Carl.

I placed Carl's head back on the ground and got up to greet the archer.

"Wassup Joce," he said as I jumped into his awaiting arms. He kissed my forehead and I gave a small laugh.

"Everything."

He looked down and saw Carl. Without saying a word about him, Daryl bent down and gently lifted the sleeping boy onto his back.

"We found a house not too far from here," Daryl said,"After you guys disappeared, we sent search parties everyday. We didn't find nuttin' until this morning when this stray girl came to the house and ended up saying that she had a group until she did something that she shouldn't have, so she left. We asked her how many were in the group and she described y'all perfectly. Lori figured out it was you three after the 'a small girl with blonde hair and a boy with shaggy hair.' We got names and she sent us in this direction."

Beth and I looked at each other and then nodded. We both knew that it was Lily, and knowing our family, she was still at the house.

He started walking and we grabbed our bags and followed.

Eventually, we came to a tan house with red shutters. I saw the door open the whole family fell out in one big jumble.

In a flash, I saw my mother run the length of the lawn and wrap her arms around me. Maggie and Glenn had Beth in the middle of a three way hug. Lori was running her hands through Carl's hair and Rick was standing and watching.

My mother was fussing over whether or not I was okay, and I assured her that I was before playfully pushing her away and walking over to Daryl, who was still carrying Carl.

My mother finally saw them and almost shrieked,"Carl! Are you okay?"

He responded, "Yes ma'am." and I realized that he was awake.

My mother and Lori followed Daryl as he brought Carl inside and Rick, Glenn, and Maggie came over to me to check in on me.

When everyone was convinced that Beth and I were okay, we all went inside. Beth was then attacked by my mother and I sent her a look of pity.

Carl was now sitting in a huge arm chair with food in his lap. He tried to lift his hand to his mouth, but the look on his face expressed a huge amount of pain.

I went over to the chair and plopped into the small space between him and armrest.

"Need help?"

He nodded and handed me his fork. I started to feed him the chicken and rice that was on the plate.

Lori and Daryl walked into the living room and Lori smirked as she placed a plate of food on the table next to me.

"Thank you." I said as she turned to leave.

Daryl grunted, "Are you really turning into one of those couples?"

I waited for Carl to chew and asked Daryl what he meant.

He laughed, "One of those couples that don't have any problems and feed each other and use the word we to describe what they like. 'We like apples. We the rush of air that we get in the car.'"

Carl and I laughed and I spoke, "No, we won't. We definitely have problems and this is only because its hurting him to do it himself."

At the mention of problems, Lily walked into the room.

Daryl looked at the expression on my face when I saw her and the look of fear that flashed in her eyes as she saw me.

I passed the plate to Daryl and walked over to her. I took in a deep breath and looked her directly in her eyes. I spoke.

"I forgive you."