chapter 05; we're all together now .ﾟ･*☆¸¸.•*¨*•*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: •*¨*•.¸¸☆*･ﾟ
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❀ LUCY ❀
"FEAR. DISILLUSION. ALL THOSE THINGS COME CLOSE BUT DISORIENTED COMES CLOSEST," rick told the crowd in a low raspy voice. Most of the camp had gathered around the campfire early in the evening. With everyone back home safe, and the return of Rick. The Grimes family weren't the only ones in the mood for celebration.
"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short," Dale agreed from where he sat in a lawn chair, next to Andrea and Amy. In a rare occasion, he was without his hat. The white speckles of his hair, most pronounced against the orange glow of the fire.
Lucy's dad bit his lip, trying to draw the words as someone else would draw blood. He stared at his two children, plastered to either side of him. His cheeks carrying a glow most magnificently. His skin born anew along with his spirit after finding his family.
"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life. And put somewhere else." His face twisted in pain from recent wounds. "For a while, I thought I'd been placed in some coma dream... something I might not wake up from, ever."
Lucy couldn't imagine what he'd gone through. What it felt like to wake in that hospital and find the whole world different . . . find Lucy, Carl, and their mom gone not knowing if they even made it.
"I'm sorry that you had to go through that alone Dad. If I was there-" she felt her voice crack.
Rick pulled his daughter closer to him, brushing his hands through her hair. "No, don't say that sweetheart. It wasn't your fault," he said, eyes a reflection of her own. Eyes she never thought she'd see again.
"Mom said you died," Carl said, his voice becoming sleepy from all of the activity of the day.
"She had every reason to believe so," Rick reasoned.
Lori's eyes widened, making contact with her husband's for the first time since they all gathered at the campfire. The two of them walked on eggshells all day; afraid of what the other might say if left to their own devices for longer than a moment.
The only thing they'd always been able to agree upon was the love and well-being of their children; in that respect, Lori and Rick were a perfect match. In every other, not so much.
"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta. And it never happened," Lori said, holding back tears.
