Delayed Pain (TWDG: S2)

Faith

"Hush, just concentrate on stayin' awake, okay? Don't sleep..." Kenny trailed as he circled his hand around the wound. "Can ya... can ya do that for me, darlin'."

Clementine fidgeted in the dry grass, as if the immense distress would disperse from her small being. She glanced worriedly at the tree tops and sky... searching for something...

A reasoning...

Back at Arvo's place, lying just yards from the rust-colored truck, same small form inert in the pebbled driveway. Clementine had went into shock from that pain. All feelings left her body. Her hearing and vision were the earliest risers, fading in the distance of her consciousness. Then touch, as if she was floating in space, no gravitational pull. Her eyes closed as her nervous system shut down. The poor girl hadn't convulsed longer than a second, and the affliction was only mild when she awoke in the backseat.

"I still feel it! Why can I still feel it?!" Clementine expressed rather loudly.

"Clem, I understand yer in a lot of pain right now, but walkers're still a factor. An' we don't need them guys—"

"Why won't it go away?! I just want it to go away!" Clementine panted dryly with choked sobs. The pain quavered through her nerves, heeling over the tsunami-like waves of torment.

"It's okay... you're okay..." Kenny soothed. He traced over the lesion again, causing Clementine to cringe and arch her back slightly. The older man sighed, he knew what had to be done, as did the young girl. "Now, doll. Now is the best time to do this. I'll be gentle and qui—"

"How could you be gentle when you're tearing a bullet from my insides with your barehands?"
Clementine asked breathlessly. Her anguish-induced, graveled voice colored her exasperated, which she was, but not to that extent. She realized Kenny's origin, though, she feigned ignorance. "Please... please don't make me..." A sharp inhale lead to a whimper, the tide congesting the sand.

Kenny's eye rimmed with hot tears. "You can make it through this. I know ya can. I got faith in ya, Clem." Faith, meaning he believed in Clementine. He believed she could and would survive, perhaps more than denying death. Although, embracing life to the fullest and living is damn-near impossible while surviving in the apocalypse.

(A/N, 2019: no new parts, just editing.)