home; louisentine

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"AJ!" Aj's gun blasted through Marlon's back as Violet tackled Aj to the ground. Louis, who was in front of me, ran over to Marlon and pulled him to his chest hugging and sobbing,

"No, n o you can't die on me yet idiot, remember you promised me we would go on an adventure together."

Marlon smiled up at Louis, "Dont worry about m-"

Marlon fell unconscious against Louis' chest and he screamed out. I ran over to Aj giving him a hug and then looked over to Louis, everyone but us and Violet was crowded around him and Marlon.

"Hey! He still has a pulse!" Ruby cried out, blood was gushing out of his back and onto Louis' shirt. He took his shirt off and pushed it up against the hole in attempts to stop the bleeding.

"Does anyone know how to stitch up a bullet wound!" He cried out desperately, I knew that I could do it, I've watched people do it so many times and I even stitched up the dog bite that was on my arm. My own stitch was horrible but over the years my technique had significantly gotten better.

"I can."

Everyone turned their heads towards me and few looked surprised, Violet nudged me on the arm to go over and I got up and looked at Louis for allowance to go ahead. He nodded and quickly turned away as if looking at me for too long would cause something else bad to happen.

"Alright everyone I need you to go find me a needle and thread, tweezers and something to wrap his wound with." They all stared at me surprised, as they heard the authority in my voice.

"Why are you still standing around? GO!" They scurried away and Violet came over giving my hand a squeeze, I glanced at her for reasurrance but was met with an anxious look instead. I turned back at Louis to see him holding Marlon tightly with tears running down his face.

"Louis." He still wouldn't look at me but gave a grunt in response to let me know that he heard me,

"We need to move Marlon onto one of the bench tables and you need to find me a few candles or lanterns."

He sighed and got up, pulling marlon from his armpits over to a table nearby.

" Violet," He called out with a raspy voice, "I need you to help me pull him up."

She let go of my hand and went over to Louis, grabbing Marlon by the feet and pulling him up onto the table.

"Clem!" I turned around to see Tenn running over to me with all of the supplies. I motioned for him to place it on the table next to Marlon and took the needle and threaded it. Louis came over placing a few candles around the area I would have to work in. As he was placing the candles his bare arm brushed mine and a shiver ran through me, I pushed all the incoming thoughts out of my head and got to work.

I picked the tweezers up and pushed it through the hole in Marlon's back causing him to flinch and wake up, he looked around squinting at everyone and saw me with tweezers in my hands.

"Huh? What's going on? Louis!"

Louis squeezed his hand and attempted to reassure him,

"Hey it's alright, remember when Aj shot you? Clem's just going to take the bullet out."

He nodded at Louis and gripped his hand tighter, "I don't deserve this. I killed Brody and gave Sophie and Minerva away. Just let me die. I deserve it."

"We'll talk about that later Marlon just let Clementine fix you up now." Louis looked at me anxiously and pushed me to continue. I put the tweezers back in and felt around for the bullet. Marlon screamed and squirmed around as I was doing this but everyone held him down. I got the bullet out and placed it on the side, picking up the threaded needle.

"This is the hard part Marlon, are you ready?"

He looked up at me and grimaced, "I thought we just finised the hard part."

I took that as incentive to continue and pushed the needle back and forth through his skin, cringing as he screamed out in pain. I made the last stitch and tied a knot at the end. I went to pick up what Tenn had brought for me to wrap his wound up and was surprised when I saw that it was gauze. The fact that they had this rare medical material must've meant that they hardly had to deal with big injuries like this and guilt ran over me like a truck.

I finished wrapping his wound, securing it with a knot at the end and stepped back to look at my handiwork. Louis looked at me gratefully and whispered a thank you and went to hug Marlon.

Violet came up next to me, "You did a really good job there Clementine." I grimaced,

"I shouldn't have had to in the first place. This is all my fault. I should've taught Aj better."

"You taught him how to survive didn't you?" She looked at me knowingly,

"Yes bu-"

"No buts, this was a kill or be killed situation, if Aj hadn't shot Marlon, he would've shot you."

I appreciated what she said but still couldn't help but feel responsible.

"Yeah...maybe. I'm going to my room with Aj, I'll see you in the morning."

She nodded and went back up to the group which was trying to help Marlon go to his room. I turned around and saw Aj crouched down by the stairs of the building sobbing.

"Aj..."

He looked up at me with tears streaming down his face , "Clem he was going to shoot you, I had to, I had t-" He broke out with a loud sob and ran up to me and hugged me tightly.

"I thought I was going to lose you so I shot him, I didn't know he surrendered I swear." He grabbed onto me even tighter and cried into my shirt. I reassured him while rubbing his head, telling him that it was okay. I eventually got him to let go and we made our way to our bedroom.

"Can I sleep with you tonight Clem?"

"Of course goofball, come here." He hopped up onto my bed and held me tightly.

"I want you to know Aj that it wasn't your fault, Marlon was being scary so I understand why you shot him. Okay?" He nodded into my shirt and quickly fell asleep. I however, was left wide awake and prey to my thoughts.

What would happen tomorrow? Would Louis still be mad at me? Would everyone understand? What would happen to Aj?

I got up slowly, being careful not to wake Aj up and grabbed my bag from the corner packing all of our belongings inside. I put it at the foot of my bed, just in case, and went back to sleeping with Aj.

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once upon a time i told myself i would never fall victim to the art of fanfiction writing, but alas, here i am.