At All Costs

Confession

Gabe awoke the next morning to an empty tent. He had offered to sleep on the floor so that AJ and Clem would be comfortable, and so had a very stiff shoulder and generally numb side on which he'd slept on. He sat up, rubbed his eyes and poked his head out of the tent entrance. The rain had stopped, thankfully, and he saw Clementine sat on the log a little way off to the side, messing around with AJ and her fire. She looked over, and waved to him. He returned the gesture, then crawled out and sauntered over to the main campfire. He didn't look at Javi, who was still annoyed at him for giving Clem food out of their supplies.

Conrad called over. 'Javi, come take a look at this for a second?' The required man stood up and went over to where his friend was standing by the gate, peering at the fortification closely. Kate watched him go.

'What happened with you and Clem last night, eh?' she asked, completely catching her stepson off guard.

'I don't know wha-.'

'Gabe. I saw her go into your tent, and she didn't come out. What went on, what happened?'

Gabe sighed. 'She was freezing, and soaked wet through. So was AJ. I just had to let them into my tent, theyd have frozen to death if I didn't,' he explained, mentally debating whether to spill the entire truth.

'And...?' Kate gave him an expression that said she knew that he wasn't telling her the complete story.

Gabe pondered for a moment, then lowered his voice, as to prevent other people from hearing what he was about to say. 'Some stuff happened and we... we nearly kissed. We didn't though, nothing actually happened,' he said quickly.

Kates' eyes widened with surprise, then she chuckled. 'Good on you Gabe - go for her. I won't stop you, or tell the others,' she winked, as Javi came back from talking to Conrad.

'We'll need to go on another supply run tomorrow,' he stated. 'Just to stock up on supplies. Tripp and Conrad are going to be fixing up the walls and gate for the next 2 days at least, so it'll be us two,' he motioned to himself and Gabe, 'and Clementine. Kate, can you help take care of the kid? Eleanors' going to be doing other "stuff". Kate nodded. 'Good, I'd get Clem to do it but I'm still not sold on her.'

'Jesus Javi, come on for Gods' sake! It's been well over a week since she arrived and nothing's happened. I think it's safe to say she's alright,' argued Kate.

'Still. Better to be safe than sorry.'

'Whatever,' Gabe shrugged, and poked at the fire, before wandering off to the make - shift wall (the part that Conrad and Tripp weren't working on) for a browse on what was happening. He couldn't understand why his Uncle didn't like Clem. Gabe had seen a side to her that nobody else in the camp had been shown, and he couldn't fathom how it would make people dislike her.