Almost Broken: Carl Grimes fanfic

Chapter 6

Rylie's Pov

I slept great this time, no nightmares... Come to think of it, I don't even remember if I had a dream at all.

I sit up and stretch, and pull out a granola bar I had in my bag....

Wait, is someone making breakfast here? Maybe I should check first, before I eat this. I pull the small broken mirror out of my bag, that I found in my old house. It's just a shard of broken mirror glass, but at least it shows my reflection.

Ugh.

I look at my knotted, greasy, brown hair, and my dirty face. My dark green eyes look tired, probably because I am but I just can't sleep.

I put my hair up into a pony tail and head down the stairs of the cell block.

I turn the corner and find Carol making food, which makes me smile. I decide to talk first, instead of being awkward.

"Good morning Carol." I smile at her.

"Morning Rylie. Do you want some food?" She asks.

I smile at her again and nod. She hands me a plate of eggs and a glass of water. I go to sit down at the table when Rick walks in.

"Good morning you two." He nods towards both of us.

He grabs a plate from carol and sits down at the table with me.

"How'd you sleep?" He asks me.

His sudden kindness takes me by surprise and I hesitate.

"Uhm- it was good. Yours?" I ask trying to be polite.

"Good. Listen, yesterday, I know I was a bit rude but... New people, I have to be on guard, you understand that right?" He takes a bite of eggs and I chuckle a bit.

"Yeah, to be honest, I'm usually guarded myself. Always. I don't like opening up to people that are just going to leave me. I don't want to get attached." I shrug and continue eating.

"Understandable. But one problem." He says.

"And what would that be?" I say as I continue to avoid his gaze.

"We wouldn't leave you Rylie. If we take you in, you're a part of the group." He says and I drop my fork, making a clashing sound, and I look at him.

I press my lips together, pressing them into a thin line.

"I don't want to get attached. I'm NOT going to get attached. You know what I mean by leave. Either we'll be split up, or... The other option." I say and avert my gaze from his.

"I would do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen." He says.

"Why do you want me to stay so badly?!" I blurt, before I can think about it.

I see Carol glance over and I realize how loud I was. Rick opens his mouth like he's about to speak but I cut him off before he can.

"Sorry. I just-- I -- I'm leaving tomorrow. I am." I try to convince myself more than him.

I don't want to leave but I have to.

"Okay." He nods.

"But it is nice here. You have a great set up for your group here." I continue not wanting the rest of this meal to be awkward.

"You- you think a prison is a nice set up." He chuckled in between words, which makes me laugh.

"Yeah," I laugh.

"Better than any in this world, what it is now." I chuckle and take a bite of my eggs.

"Nice?"He shakes his head and laughs, more to himself this time, but I still chuckle at my choice of words.

"Okay so maybe 'nice' wasn't the best way to put it." I laugh, "but safe... It's safe." I nod.

"Well," he squints his eyes and looks around the blood stained walls and bullet holes. "not always."

"What's happened?" I ask, now curious.

"The fences, they're not strong anymore, like they were. A few walkers at a time isn't hard to handle, killing through the fences, but when they're in the larger herds, those fences buckle over." He shakes his head.

"Can we reinforce them somehow?" I say, suddenly realizing my wording of 'we'. I decide let it go, hoping he didn't catch it.

" 'We' can. Maybe. Setting up some thick logs might hold it." He says, emphasizing the 'we' , making me shake my head and laugh.

"Carl usually wakes up around now, I can go wake him up if you want." Rick offers.

"No that's fine, he needs to sleep." I smile at him,

"Who needs to sleep?" Carl walks in and I chuckle to myself.

"Told you." Rick smiles, rolls his eyes and walks outside.

"What was that about huh? You two actually getting along?" Carl laughs as he nudges my elbow with his.

"Yeah yeah." I roll my eyes and continue. "Do you guys have water pressure here?" I ask.

"You mean 'do we have showers?' " He asks and for some reason I blush.

"Yeah."

"Yes Ry, we have showers." He laughs.

Did he just call me Ry?

Only Hallie used to call me Ry.

Why did he?

"I- I'm sorry, it just slipped-" he starts to apologize after he caught what he said too.

"It's okay. Really, it's fine."

I laugh at him and he lets go of a breath I'm sure he didn't realize he was holding.

"So about those showers...." I continue.

"Oh, uhh, yeah. You need a towel?" He asks and I nod.

"And a change of clothes?" I blush at his question and feel embarrassed.

"Uh.. Yeah." I say.

"Okay. Umm... We don't really have any girls your size here, they're all either younger and smaller, or older and bigger.... You can borrow a pair of mine. Carol can wash yours while your showering and then once they're dry you can put them back on..." He trails off.

This just got really awkward...

He does look about my size, maybe a little smidge bigger.

"Yeah,... Sure." I say quietly.

He just stands there staring at me, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"So the towel..." I say.

"Oh, right! Yeah umm." He goes into one of the cells and grabs a towel.

"Here" he hands it to me.

"The showers are down this way, I'll show you how to work it an stuff.." He says and leads me through the dark, dirty, blood stained halls and I get chills at the thought of how they got there.

We finally get to the shower room and he stops.

"Um so this is how they turn on" he turns the nob and the water pours out.

I stick my hand out and feel the warm water flow off my hand.

"So... I'll just.. I just um... Go around this corner. You can toss your clothes over this wall-"

he points to the wall that doesn't quite go all the way up to the ceiling.

"-I'll take them from there and give them to Carol, and on my way back I grab some of my clothes..." He says and looks around.

"Okay." I say dismissing him.

"Listen, I still don't trust these tombs to be free of walkers, and I know you don't have your knife or anything so I'll give the clothes to Carol as quickly as possible and come back here to keep watch." He pauses... "keep watch around the corner that is..." He continues.

"Okay Carl!" I laugh and start to push him to go around the wall.

"Can I take a shower now?" I laugh again and so does he.

"Yeah." He laughs, and then walks around the corner.