Ashes (Clementine X Male Reader Book 2)

Vagabonds-A Bunch

Four years ago...

Clementine threw up whatever she ate for the day, which wasn't much. She ran away from the camp so she didn't wake anyone. This isn't the first time Clementine has had this happen, and she doesn't think it will be the last. She hasn't told anyone, and she's not sure she wants anyone to know.

"Clementine?" Cas speaks quietly as he walks up behind her. "Are you alright?"

"Leave me alone," Clementine tells him before she heaves again. He was on watch and must have seen her.

"I'll go get Emma." He starts to walk away.

"No." Clementine looks at him. "Do not tell anyone."

"Ok." He takes a step away. "I'll just leave you alone."

Clementine throws up again. At least, she tries. She's all out of things to throw up. She just gags and mimics the action.

"Why didn't you want Cas to come get me?" Emma asks.

"Fuck." Clementine mutters. "He told you, didn't he?"

"Doesn't matter. I was going to come out here anyway." Emma sits down next to Clementine. "Found your other piles, asked around, figured it out."

"What are you going to do out here then?" Clementine leans back to sit down too.

"I just want to know what's going on."

"I'm sick." Clementine lies.

"I'm not stupid." Emma shakes her head. "I don't understand why you would hide whatever is going on. If you're sick, which you're not, you could spread to the others, and you wouldn't do that."

"You sound like you already know, so why make me say it?"

Emma takes a moment to respond. She has an idea of what is going on, but she doesn't know for sure. "Is it Y/N's?"

Clementine spits, trying to get rid of the taste in her mouth. "Who else, Emma?"

"I don't know... I just thought I'd ask."

"Yes," Clementine answers the question. "And he's fucking dead." Clementine lowers her head into her arms, propped up on her knees. She's done puking for now. She can feel it.

"So... What do you want to do with it?" Emma asks.

"The fuck you mean, what do I want to do with it?"

"I... I can... Get rid of it. Probably. If you want." Emma presents Clementine with an option. Emma thinks it's the best option, considering the circumstances.

Clementine considers it.

"No." And declines. "I can't." Clementine can't bare the thought of getting rid of it now that Y/N is dead.

"Are you sure? It's pretty likely you won't make it." Emma isn't sure she could deliver a baby. She could try, and even if she could, Clementine might die for it.

"I trust you. You won't let me die." Clementine is scared, but she won't admit it. She's heard it's painful; she knows she might not make it. She saw Rebecca die. Shot her in the head when she turned.

"It's not a matter of me letting you or not. It's just likely you won't make it." Emma is worried for Clementine. "But... I guess if you want to have it. We need a place. I need supplies to keep you alive... And I need you alive. If you die, the baby dies. We can't rely on formula. So you'll have to feed it until we can feed it normal food."

"I understand." Clementine will survive. She always does.

She can't tell if it's a curse or not.

-

"I can't, Emma!" Clementine yells. "I can't do it!"

"You're almost there," Emma tells her. "Just a little longer. A little more." She's panicking. Emma doesn't know what to do. She doesn't know how she's meant to keep Clementine alive while delivering the baby. She's afraid she'll lose them both.

"Ok... Ok." Clementine tries to calm down. She'll look back on this one day and be thankful she's never going to have to go through it again. Just a little longer.

-

The group is sitting outside the room. They don't know what to do. The screaming stopped not long ago, and they haven't heard anything since. Emma hasn't come out. Aj is in tears, Louis is trying to comfort him, and the rest are just waiting.

Emma comes bursting out of the room, a crying baby in her arms, a cord hanging out of its stomach. "Cas, take this." She orders him. He comes over and holds out his arms. Emma drops the baby in them. "Hold it exactly like that, and don't move it." She looks at Violet. "I need you. Now." Violet follows Emma back into the room, the door shuts, and everyone stands there in stunned silence.

"It's a girl if anyone wants to know," Cas breaks the silence. "It's Diana," Clementine told them all the names, just in case. Ed, if it was a boy. Diana, if it was a girl.

Cas isn't sure what he's supposed to do with the baby, so he tries to talk to it, rock it a little. Eventually, it stops crying and goes to sleep. The silence is now unbroken.

-

Clementine wakes up. She looks around. The room is dark, and someone is sitting in a chair beside her. "Emma?" Clementine's voice is weak.

She gets out of the chair and comes to Clementine's bedside. "How are you feeling?" Emma asks.

"Weak."

"Yeah... Um. I barely saved you." Emma says. Clementine can feel the handcuffs around her wrists. "I don't know if you'll even make it, to be honest with you."

"Keep it away from me, then. Until I'm better." Clementine lies her head back and looks at the dark ceiling. "What is it?"

"A girl."

Clementine smiles. "Diana."

"We're feeding her the reserves we made, but that won't last forever," Emma informs her. "So I need you to pull through."

"How much sleep have you gotten?" Clementine asks.

"None. I'll sleep later." Emma sits down in her chair.

"Then, can you tell me about her?" Clementine asks.

"Yeah."

-

Diana is three years old. She looks more like Clementine than Y/N, but the resemblance is still there.

"Look, Mommy." Diana comes into the room. She flashes her bandaged knee.

"What happened?" Clementine crouches next to her.

"Um... I tripped, and Emma fixed it."

"Well, how'd you trip?" Clementine asks.

"I... Just tripped."

"Diana, you need to stop doing that." Clementine knows what she was up to.

"What?" Diana pretends like she's done nothing wrong.

"You were running away from..." Clementine expects Diana to finish the sentence.

"Nothing."

"The wall guards." Clementine finishes it for her.

"No."

"Yes." Clementine picks her up. "Stop doing that. There's nothing good outside."

"But I want to go out there." She says. Clementine sets her down on the counter. "Cas said that he was going outside the walls today. He said that he was going to help people. He wouldn't let me come."

"That's because you're not old enough." Clementine pulls the bandage back a little to look at the scratch. "This isn't even that bad."

"It hurt."

"I'm sure it did." She puts the bandage back on. "How about we go play some games instead of going outside the walls, hm?"

"Ok," Diana says.

Clementine picks her back up and sets her down on the floor. "What game do you want to play?"

"Um... I don't know. A bunch."