The Girl Next Door • Carl Grimes

Chapter 40: Violet

Grace

I woke up still curled up with Carl. I shook him awake gently and whispered to him.

"I'm going back to my cell block with Beth so she doesn't get suspicious, okay?" I told him.

"Okay, bye Grace." He said rubbing his eyes and yawning.

I quietly crept out of the room to find Beth still sleeping in our cell. I gently crept back into the bed and fell back asleep for a little bit.

"Grace wake up." Beth prodded at me.

"Hmmmph." I groaned, not wanting to leave the bed.

"Cmon. I mean it." She continued.

I sat up and stretched my arms over my head.

We left our cell to see everyone sitting around the table discussing the sickness outbreak.

"We need to seperate those exposed to the flu and those who haven't been exposed. It's really dangerous." Hershel said as he put a cloth around his face.

"Rick, Glenn, Carol, Beth, and I have been exposed to it. Has anyone else?" Hershel asked.

I shook my head, "No, I seperated the sick yesterday but I kept my distance. And as you know... I was on walker duty." I said sadly.

"But you shared a bed with Beth last night." Hershel added.

My eyes darted over to Carl as his face got really red. I didn't answer the question but everyone started to look at me expecting a head nod or something.

"Welllll..." I trailed off.

"Well what?" Hershel asked, now more confused than he was before.

"Well not exactly," my voice went up in pitch, "I couldn't sleep much so I slept somewhere else." I added, hoping for that to be the end of it.

"And where was that?" Maggie interjected.

My eyes darted over to Carl again, hoping he could read my body language and help me out.

"In here." I tried to steer the conversation in another direction.

"Grace, just tell the truth damnit." Maggie was getting annoyed.

"She slept in my room okay?" Carl stood up.

I threw my hands into my face, hiding behind them.

"She what?!" Hershel, Beth, and Maggie all called out.

"Guys! I literally just slept in there. Everyone else went back to sleep after I had my nightmares but he helped calm me down." I explained.

The anger and confused looks upon everyone's faces seemed to drain a bit. Michonne was in the corner of the room giggling a bit so I shot her a quit that! type of look.

"Well.. uh.. anyways, we need to seperate from the rest of you. I'm going to go over to D and take care of the sick people. I know a lot of you don't care too much for me doing this, but I must." Hershel continued.

"Hershel..." I cried a little.

"I'm going with you, you're not doing it alone daddy." Beth bravely said.

"Well then I'm going too." Maggie added.

"No. No you aren't. You haven't even been exposed, I don't want to risk it!" Hershel yelled.

His argument was backed up by Beth's nodding and even some approval from Glenn.

"Great, so now my father, husband, and sister are gonna be seperated from me?" Maggie scoffed, "At least I still got you Grace." Maggie smiled, changing her outlook as she walked over to me and put her arm around my shoulder.