'Got Your Back' A Gabentine Story?

Chapter Six A Fallen Friend

2077 Words.

Gabe stumbled down the hill towards the lake, his mind hurt, but, for the first time in weeks, crystal clear, like someone had thrown icy water on it.

"What did you do Gabe?" He thought filling the water bottles, "What did I do?....."

He understood now why Clem had rarely spoken about her past, it was a dark place filled with death and horror...."just like mine....but at least she was tough enough to bare it....unlike me...." He turned and began walking back to the clearing slowly. "Now what?" He asked himself. His mind was ready to work again,like he had cleared a loaded table and was ready to be used again.

"I should stay with Clem and get to the ranch. Clem said it was my best bet at helping Richmond." A worrying thought occurred to him, " What if she didn't want to go with him anymore? I'd understand if she did. I hurt her, I hurt her in a way I didn't think I could. I should apologize..."

Clementine tried to pull herself together, "You're all right Clem, you're gonna be fine." But the pain didn't leave, Gabe had dug up a spot in her heart that she had tried so hard to bury... "Lee, Kenny, her friends, all dead....and I couldn't save them..... Lee and Kenny are dead because of me.....You made mistakes yes, but Lee and Kenny died so that I could go on, so pull yourself together!"

"You gotta be strong right now, I need you to be strong." Clem thought of Lee's words so long ago in that meat locker and that helped.

Clem didn't feel too angry at Gabe, she understood what it was like to fail and hurt those you cared about. "I didn't help either," she thought sighing, "Yelling at him about Mariana and saying I didn't trust him is probably the reason he was so upset. She hoped he could get it together and help out. "Wait....what if he doesn't what to go with me anymore? He wanted me to leave him a little while ago....." Clem didn't want Gabe to leave, he was a good guy, he was going through a rough time but she didn't want him to try his luck alone...."it was hard enough for me....". She thought worriedly, getting to her feet.

Suddenly the conversation she had with Javi before she left(was it only a few days? It felt longer.) came back to her.

"You know the dude's got a mondo crush on you?" Javi had said, cutting her hair.

"He does not!" She said.

"Oh my gosh, you have a crush on him too!", He said his tone light and happy.

"I do not!" She replied, feeling the heat starting to come to her face.

"Well, You both have my blessing." He said calmly.

"I'm going to stab you with those scissors!" She said playfully.

Clementine sighed, " Was that just a couple days ago? Javi had thought we were so close, now I don't know if we'll even talk to each other again...."

Gabe slowly walked towards the clearing, his nerves starting what to act up, "What if she yells at me when I try to apologize? What if she's still angry at me?....She should be, I've hurt her....badly.... just tell her you're sorry....that's all I can do." He thought and his nervousness faded.

He saw her with his back to him, standing in the clearing, "I should say something so I don't startle her." He thought, but he had no clue what to say. It didn't help that she faced away from him, "was she angry or sad?" He thought wondering if he should wait until she turned around.

"Where was Gabe? He should be back by now." Clem said looking worriedly over her shoulder where she saw Gabe standing near the edge of the clearing, he was staring at her with an conflicted face, she wasn't sure what emotion he was feeling.