Safe haven | Rick Grimes

004. SUNSTROKES A DANGEROUS THING

Chapter four

"Sunstrokes a dangerous thing."

Up in the quiet sanctuary of the RV, Scarlett sat frozen on the bench. Shane crouched directly in front of her. He gently cupped her face in his hands, turning her head side to side to inspect the damage. She hadn't uttered a single word since leaving the quarry.

"Scarlett? Scar?" Shane asked, forcing her to focus on him. "You've got a bruise on your cheek, but that's..that's it. You're okay."

"Than I call myself lucky," Scarlett murmured. She reached up and gently pulled his hands away from her face.

She looked down at his knuckles, noticing how cut up and bruised they were from the brutal beating he had delivered to Ed. A hollow ache bloomed in her chest. She wondered why no one had ever fought that hard to protect her from her own monsters. Without realizing it, she drifted back into the dark spaces of her mind again.

"Scarlett, what is going on with you?" Shane asked, his brow furrowing as he studied her distant stare. "I mean, you were defending Carol out there, but you went totally rigid. I.."

"No, no, I wasn't defending Carol like everyone else," Scarlett cut in, her voice trembling as she took a deep, shaky breath. She had never spoken about this reality while sober. "I..I was Carol. I was Sophia."

Shane's expression softened into deep confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Growing up, my mom died early. It was just me and my dad," she told him, closing her eyes as the old dread surfaced. "He was a mean, violent man. I thought going to medical school would be my ticket out, you know? But I just fell for a guy who was exactly like him. My husband. He told me if I ever tried to leave him, he would kill me. And he meant it." Her voice broke on the final word.

Shane stayed completely still, listening intensely.

"So, the day I went to take my residency exam to become an attending, I made a choice," Scarlett whispered, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. "The test was at a hotel. I packed a single bag and hid it in my car. The second I finished that exam, I did what I always do: I ran away. I drove until I hit King County. It was a small enough town to disappear in. I got the hospital job and only planned to stay a year. But my very first night there, I met Rick at the bar. I was terrified and drunk, and I told him everything. He looked me in the eye and told me I'd be safe in his town."

She looked up, meeting Shane's gaze directly. "And I was."

Shane ran his hand down his face, the weight of her confession settling in heavily in the cramped RV.

"The way you're looking at me right now is exactly why I didn't want to tell you," Scarlett shared, shaking her head as a bitter smile touched her lips. "You..you wouldn't have treated me the same way. I mean, you flirted with me before all this, and I liked it. But I always turned you down because I was too terrified to trust anyone."

She looked out the door toward the camp. "Since I've been here and seen Ed—the way he talks to them, the way his wife sits there trembling with their daughter—it's just been an awful, constant reminder of the life I tried to escape. I couldn't just sit there and let him drag her off to beat her. I couldn't let him take it out on that little girl. Because that was me. That is me."

Shane didn't pull away. Instead, he brought his hands back up to her face, gently leaning his forehead against her's.

"I'm glad you told me, Scar. Okay? I see you," he murmured, his breath warm against her skin. Scarlett gave a small, fragile nod. "Even more now than I did before. And yeah, I might look at you differently, but it's not in the way you think, alright? I am here for you, just like I've always been."