Torn Apart • TWD

Chapter 19 - travesty of a bed

Tessa could not tear her eyes away from the stitches, grimacing at the frayed ends sticking out looking unnatural in the girl's mind, her fingers itching to tug it out and return her skin to normal.

The second Hershel had declared he was finished, she had instantly retracted her hand from Maggie's knee and wiped it on her shirt as if the woman had a disease, amusing the Rhee at her melodrama.

Tessa is still sitting on the metal table, unsure of what to do with herself. The old man has left to put his medical supplies away while Rick and Maggie are keeping their distance from the girl to give her space as they also stand close enough to keep an eye on her.

She's regretting saying that she would stay, but the man had made a pretty convincing argument. It's the middle of the night, it'll take hours of walking just to get close to any nearby houses and her leg isn't in the best condition. She's hungry, she's thirsty, and the blood loss has messed with her head.

As the girl is subtly checking the prison out for ways to escape in an emergency, Rick and Maggie are huddled in the corner and planning on what the next few hours will look like with the child, how they will keep her from leaving, how to make sure she doesn't steal something in revenge for the kidnapping, how to keep Daryl away from her.

So far with the two's hushed whispering, they have decided to let her sleep in the last cell on the second floor, the one they stuffed her belongings into, and if she tries to leave, she would have to get past a lot of sleeping people with her steps echoing with every move. They don't want to force her to stay, they just need to keep her here long enough to discover that this is better than being alone and fending for herself.

With a final nod, Maggie leaves to tell the group what has been determined and Rick takes slow steps to the girl, giving her time to notice he's coming before getting too close. The child becomes uneasy in his presence, her muscles instinctively tense in preparation for any danger he's bringing with him.

The leader comes to a standstill when he sees how antsy she turned with him close, taking a step back to ease her, he thrusts his thumb over his shoulder to her cell, "Your stuff's up there, you can sleep there tonight," the man says with his hands on his hips, and the girl's eyes narrow at the location of where they've picked for her to sleep, not trusting how far it is from the exit.

"I wanna sleep in one of these," Tessa motions to the multiple cells on the ground floor and cautiously jumps off the table to face the man, heedful of her throbbing calf.

"All taken," he lies with ease, hoping she doesn't glance at the one bare of any personal touches. He wants to keep the girl safe, but he also has to keep his family safe, his son, he knows she won't hurt his daughter but he can't be sure about the others in the group, she needs to be placed where she can be heard.

"My bow and knife?" The child questions with crossed arms, wanting her weapons on hand before she can even think of going up into an unknown room.

"Glenn already put them up there," he mimics her pose, crossing his arms with the addition of a small smile, prepared for all the questions and suspicion she could throw at him, "And the arrows."

That's not enough for her, so she nods to where he had previously pointed with a glare and demands, "Go get them."

With a breathy laugh at the child's unchanging attitude towards him, Rick gets to his knee and unclips his revolver from the holster and holds it out to the girl wearing a wary expression, "How 'bout I give you this instead?"

Tessa stares at the man and the gun, trying to understand what his angle is, and takes it out of his palm quickly in case he tries to turn it on her when her guard is down.