An Odd First Impression ¦ Carl Grimes

Chapter Three: Nightmare

Carl's POV

It's been a couple of hours since I found Maxi and I haven't left her yet. Hershel's still working on her foot while she's still asleep.

"Carl?" I hear a low, raspy voice from behind me.

"Yeah," I say standing up and walking out of the cell, still not taking my eyes off her.

God, she looks so helpless. I wish I could fix that. I sigh and move my eyes to the front of me and continue walking out.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I realize that it's Daryl asking. He doesn't normally seem this calm; or concerned for that matter.

We walk outside and head to the watch tower, but stop half way there, so we're standing in the middle of the yard.

"What's up?" I ask getting kind of worried by the way he's acting right now.

Normally, he acts all tough and stuff, but now, he's acting like a girl asking a guy's friend if that guy like her or not. In other words: concerned, curious, and scared.

"Um, I was just wondering how much you know about that girl."

"Not much. All I know is her name is Maxi, and she's been running from something and broke her ankle." He was looking down at the ground in between us while listening.

"Or maybe it was someone," he pondered to himself.

"What?" I asked, getting really, really concerned.

"Uh, nothing. Just, thinking out loud." After that, he walked away towards the prison, leaving me there wondering who she could've been running from

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I walked into the cell Maxi was in after Hershel walked out, to see her still sleeping. So peaceful and so vulnerable.

As I start out the door, I hear her humming. Not humming like a song. Humming like she's having a wordless conversation.

After only about ten seconds of watching her, she starts to move more around, squirming like she's trying to get away from someone's grasp.

I slowly walk to her when she starts talking, then yelling, then screaming.

"Stop! Please!" she yells, then screams as tears roll down her face, and she shakes her head and swings her arms away.

I run over to her side and start shaking her to wake up. "Maxi! Wake up!" I yell as I shake her shoulders until her eyes quickly open and she stops screaming and crying. Her eyes meet mine and get stuck there. All I can see in them is fear and sadness.

I loosen my grasp on her shoulders as she relaxes herself. Just then, a flow if tears quickly flood her face, more rapidly now than before.

I pulled her into my arms and whispered comforting words to her as she sobs. It doesn't help as much as I wish it would, but her breathing and heartbeat slowly become more normal.

The salty tears that streamed down her face slowed as she became less tense in my hold. I hesitantly started to rock her back and forth in my arms as she kept sniffling and fluttered her eyes, which was a sign that she was still tired.

"Do you mind my asking what the dream was about?" I asked looking down, trying to see her face that was buried in my chest. She stayed silent. I went back to rocking her, until she eventually fell asleep in my arms again.

I gently layed her head down on her pillow and got on the other side of her, so that I was closest to the wall, and covered us using a large green Celtics blanket.

I snaked my arms around her waist and pulled her closer. By doing that, it brought up her shirt just a tad, making my forearm rest on her stomach, as it moved up and down with her breathing. She softly layed her arm on top of mine, making my lips curve into a tiny smile.

Not too quickly, I shut my eyes, and relaxed my head on the pillow beside hers, never wanting to get up.