The Walking Dead Final Season- 'Safe and Sound'

Safe and Sound

"I think it's only juggling if you have more than two things."
Louis looked down to see Clementine staring at him from over the top of the piano.
He stopped passing the two tennis balls between his hands and gave her a look of mock confusion.
"Don't get me wrong, it's impressive, but I don't think it's juggling." She was resting her head on her knuckles and was giving that half smile of hers; the one that was more in her eyes than anywhere else on her face.
He had been passing two tennis balls between his hands for the past few fifteen minutes while she had been pressing keys on the piano.
Louis dropped the balls on the chair behind him and grabbed a notebook and pencil that had been sitting there before scribbling on it.
With an overly theatrical flick he turned the page to her.

Find me another ball then!

"I can't. I'm practicing. Somebody said this would be good for me."
Louis playfully rolled his eyes and grabbed a piece of paper lying on top of the piano; it had already been written on.

Play a chord!

Clementine took her hands and hovered them over the keys. Louis had written the notes in marker pen a few days prior when he noticed she wasn't that eager to learn all the individual keys.
She wasn't bothered about learning theory or music, and she could tell he knew that, but for the past few days he'd seen how relaxed and calm she had been, hitting keys and just enjoying the moment and surreal nature of it all.
Clementine, the girl with stories written in blood and loss.
He'd seen her as something else entire, something she'd never think about in this new world; a teenage girl playing the piano.
"Ok, this one."
She pressed down on four keys and birthed a bright, sweet sound and then played the notes individually for a couple of seconds.
She looked at the paper on the music stand in front of her.
"I think that's a C. That's my favourite so far."
The smile again. She found it had been coming more and more frequently the past week.
Louis threw both his thumbs up and was about to grab notebook when a shrill voice from outside bled through the windows.
"They back! Guys, they're back!"
Willy, to quote Aasim, was a great warning system because he was 'Too fucking loud'.

Clementine went to grab the crutches leaning on the piano but Louis beat her to it, placing them under her arms and helping her stand.
"Ok, lesson's over. Let's go see what we've got" her tone changed; calm but with more significance and weight to it.
She'd been using it less the past week, but Louis didn't hold out hope that she'd ever lose it.

Clementine made her way to the courtyard to find everybody else gathered outside, the family that made up 'Texas Two'.
Violet had joked in private to Clem that she actually wasn't sure about the name, but once the flag went up it was official.
"No takebacks" Clementine would playfully mock whenever she caught Violet smiling at the flag.

It was a beautiful day, with the soothing warmth of a midday sun and a cloudless vista above them, yet Clementine found her eyes wandering to the scars and wounds of the courtyard. The blackened veins of scorch marks that ran across the front walls, glass and splinters spread along the entrance, and dried blood that had been been tattooed into the stones on the ground.
Nobody had talked about cleaning it up. What was the point?
She forced herself back to the task at hand, there'd be time for those thoughts later; whether she wanted to or not.

"Clementine, look what they've got!" Ruby caught her by surprise, grabbing her by the arm gently and gesturing towards the front gate.
She looked at the entrance and took a moment to catch her breath.
Violet, A.J and Aasim were at the front gate, along with the horse and cart they had taken with them to meet the Caravan group.
The cart was full of what appeared to be canned goods and a few boxes.
"Oh my God" she exhaled.
She made her way over as A.J ran to meet her, his face elated.
"Clem look at all this stuff!" He wrapped his arms around her waist before pulling her arm slightly in the direction of the cart.
"You got so much. How?" She bent down to face him, beaming.
"Guess they like fish" Violet said, walking towards the two of them before kissing Clementine on the cheek.
"There's so much here, how do they have so much?" Clementine gave Violet a look of delight and confusion, one she'd never seen.
"There's a big group of them. They said they travel on the highway, going through abandoned cars, transport trucks, RVs and stuff. All the fun little hidey-holes."
Clementines eyes narrowed slightly.
"How big?"
Violet grabbed her by the wrist and gently squeezed. It was something she'd started doing the past couple of days.
"About a dozen, but they said they were part of a bigger group. No guns, a couple of them seemed pretty old as well."
"It's Ok Clem." A.J piped up, "They were nice! They said they really liked the fish and the stuff from the greenhouse. They gave us some seeds, and said if we bring some books tomorrow they've got loads of other cool things they could give us! Also look!"
He ran over to the cart, grabbed a can and waved it in her face excitedly. On the label was a picture of some cartoon oranges and above them, 'Canned Clementines in Juice'
"It's you!"
She laughed and turned to Violet who smiled and pre-empted Clementine's response.
"Yeah, as if I wasn't going to tell him what it said" she squeezed her wrist again, before walking back to the cart to help unload.
Clementine's sighed slightly, aware of how everybody but her was taking supplies from the cart inside.
A quiet voice spoke up, A.J was still by her side.
"It's Ok Clem. You do other stuff really, really good."
She smiled at him.
"Thanks Kiddo."
She nodded at him and he ran back to the cart, grabbing a handful of cans, nearly bumping into Omar who had nearly a dozen in his arms.
"Louis! Stop that!" Ruby yelled nearby.
Louis had three small cans and was juggling them. He winked at Clementine, who shook her head and laughed.
"That's more like it"
Violet came back out and stood silent for a moment, trying to gather the right words.
"Thank you. For talking us into this. We probably would have avoided them you know, like usual."
Clementine smiled and took Violet by the hand.
"It's Ok. Although, A.J's never gonna shut up about those canned oranges, so I'm starting to have my doubts."
Violet squeezed her hand.
"He did really well today."
Clementine looked at the small boy, who was now sat enthralled as Louis juggled some canned peas and peaches.
He couldn't see Clementine as she beamed in his direction.
"I don't doubt it" She softly responded to Violet.
"Hey, so we're gonna have to do inventory on all this later and that's obviously going to be the best part of everybody's day, so how about we sit down outside for a bit? If we've got time."
Clementine squeezed her hand back.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we do."