the great war (r.g)

eighteen

denise was there, ready at the door. rick carried carl's limp body into the infirmary, placing him on a gurney. cora followed closely behind, still hand in hand with izzy. "what happened?" denise asked, already starting on carl's wound.

rick didnt respond, he was in shock. who wouldnt be? he just witnessed a whole family get eaten by walkers before his son got shot in the eye. "rick," denise tried again.

"he got shot. by ron," cora answered for him. "sam, jessie, and ron...they're gone." a silence fell over the room but denise did not stop tending to carl's wound.

rick walked to the door. michonne and carl tried calling his name to stop him but nothing was working. his hand was on the doorknob, then he was outside. cora went after him, unsheathing her knife from her belt. "rick, wait," cora called out. he stopped in his tracks to turn and look at her. "i'm coming with you."

rick nodded and the two of them continued out to the street filled with walkers. michonne, heath, aaron, and spencer followed them out. there were walkers all around, more spilling in through the hole every second. cora killed five before the door to the infirmary was even shut. "cora," one of them said. she quickly turned around to see a walker right on her back. cora raised her knife to kill it but before she could, michonne sliced its head off. on the come down, michonne's katana sliced cora's arm. it wasn't deep or life threatening, but it hurt. she had to power through.

cora doubted the six of them would be able to kill all these walkers but then she heard a door shut to her right. cora looked to see a group of alexandria residents standing on the porch. "come on!" cora yelled out to them. three of them immediately ran off the porch to help. moments later, three others joined.

"we can beat them!" rick yelled out. as more and more people came out of their homes to help the fight, the more cora's arm started throbbing.

at her first free moment she looked down at her arm, at the blood gushing out of the wound. she looked behind her and saw the trail of blood she was leaving behind. cora looked back up at the walkers, but found rick looking at her arm as well. she tried to speak up, tell him she was okay but he beat her to it.

"go back inside," rick told her. "get stitched up and be with carl." cora couldn't imagine what rick was feeling right now. all she knew was her arm hurt like hell. that and if it was izzy on that gurney, cora would want rick by her side.

"okay," cora told him. "but be safe. please." cora made her way back to the house, killing any walker that was in the way. before stepping back inside, she looked out at alexandria, at all the walkers and all the people fighting.

inside, cora quickly stitched up her wound and bandaged it. the rest of the time waiting, cora stood next to carl's side while denise was tending to the wound. technically, denise was only a med student but she was working flawlessly. izzy was a few feet away sitting on the floor with her head in her hands.

denise continued cleaning, stitching, and bandaging carls wound while cora watched in a trance much like ricks. carl couldn't die, none of them were allowed to die. they've made it this far in the world to be stopped now. cora grabbed carl's hand, hoping he could feel it. hoping he knew she was right here with him.

***

carl was still unconscious the next day. the community rallied outside when the saw rick fighting. now the walkers were gone. rick was at carl's side now, talking to him. izzy was there, too, sleeping with her head on carl's bed.

cora watched the scene from the other side of the room where she was sitting next to daryl while denise stitched up his back. he was attacked by a group called 'negan' while out on the road. "you almost done back there?" he asked, grunting in pain.

"cora," denise said, grabbing cora's attention. "this stitch is being difficult. can you..." denise was trying to tie off the stitch so cora grabbed it from her to help. cora couldn't help but feel the wave of normalcy rush through her any time she helped someone. "thank you. i don't even know why i'm the nurse. you should be," denise said once it was done.

"you need to stop doubting yourself, denise," cora told her. "you have saved countless lives in the past two days. you are a good doctor."

***

a/n
sorry for the short chapter its kinda bad lol