Down by the water • TWD

What If's.

"Do you think Jackson's dead?" Avery and Carl sat in what seemed to be a kid's room. Carl had a comic open, grazing through the pictures. While Avery sat down, petting Ranger as he slept next to her.

"Probably." Carl answered, swallowing hard. "But he's tough." Tension started to build over the boys' bluntness. It's something Avery has almost forgotten about him.

"Do you think anyone else is?" She asked, staring at the comics he held in his hand.

He looked up at her this time around. "I haven't thought about it much, and you shouldn't either." It almost came out cold; he didn't mean it to be. He just didn't know how to tell her.

Avery only nodded, not wanting to push him any further. She didn't know why he was acting so hostile. They haven't seen each other since they were quarantined together. Hershel told her—Hershel. She swallowed the guilt and paid her attention back to Ranger resting his head on her lap, stopping her thought completely.

She watched Carl play with stray pieces of string that stuck out of the bracelet on his right wrist. It was the bracelet she had given him on the road after the farm. That felt so long ago. A comment about it threatened to leave her mouth, but she knew better than to touch on it. So she just smiled to herself, knowing he had kept it.

"Why didn't you tell me you were feeling sick?" Carl broke the tension, eyes still hanging low on his comic. That whole time spent in the office wing was sort of a blur to her. She didn't quite remember what she was feeling, or even how.

"I didn't want to worry anyone. I thought I was fine." She only shrugged, speaking coolly.

"It was selfish," Carl shot back, but his voice wasn't laced with anger; it was more of a desperate rage.

"I'm sorry." She finally looked over to him, guilt washing over her entirely.

"I thought you were dead when I found you lying there." His voice was low, almost like he didn't want her to hear it. "When I left to get my dad, I didn't know if you'd be a walker when I got back." He continued, now meeting her gaze. "I just wish you would've told someone; we could've helped."

"I'm sorry, Carl." Avery's face had sorrow plastered all over it. She didn't know the whole story of how she got to quarantine, and hearing it made her feel more guilty than ever.

They fell into silence after the girl's apology. There wasn't much to say anymore, not without Avery giving details about what happened the first night she was in quarantine. But she wouldn't tell him that.

"I hope Jackson's alive." The boy broke the silence, closing his comic book. "I hope they all are."

"Me too," Avery responded, a smile threatening to appear at the boys' change in demeanor.

"I want breakfast." The two of them got up, almost mirroring each other. The movement surprisingly didn't wake the dog that was lying down peacefully. She smiled, walking lightly, trying not to wake him as they traveled downstairs to the kitchen.

Avery and Michonne had reunited with the two yesterday evening. The emotion that radiated from all four was noticeable the moment the hugs were shared. Being able to find the people you care so much about after losing them felt like she finally came to terms with this page in her book.

The two teenagers walked down the steps in a comfortable silence, hearing Rick and Michonne talking downstairs. Avery reached the dining room table first, pushing past Carl with a smile. She grabbed the two bowls that already sat there and handed one to the boy. The chairs sliding made the two adults' eyes fall to them, a faint smile appearing on Rick's lips.

Michonne came into the room, a bag of dry cereal in her right hand and three water bottles she was holding against her chest with her left. Dry cereal was just the faint, stale sweetness of something that used to belong in a normal life. She placed down one water bottle in front of each kid and one down in front of her.