Play the Leader

Innocence was fleeting like a season

*A few months later*

Flames. That's all she can see. Burning in crisp of the night, orange and yellow wisps of toxic air. The noise of them crackling starts to get to her - because what exactly is it burning? The buildings on fire, but... is anyone inside?

If so, who?

If so, why?

At the end of the day it made sense. Clementine hadn't heard from Violet since lunch when she texted to say she'd see her tonight. Though it was nearing three in the morning now as the brunette stood staring at the garage where her lover worked, she began to piece it all together. 

"Violet...?"

*Earlier*

"This fucking WRENCH!" Violet screamed as she yanked the heavy piece of metal from under the car, sliding it across the floor before pushing herself out. "Fucking hell. How many times is this gonna happen before we get some oil in this place?" She uttered, wiping her hands on her overalls as she walked over to grab her phone. Sliding it up, she furrowed her brows before sighing.

"It's already two in the morning, fuck I've been here all day." She said, running her fingers through her sweaty blonde locks, dialling Clementine's number.

"Come on, come on," She uttered, putting the phone to her ear. "Fuck." She took her phone down from her ear and slammed it against the desk. Violet groaned, walking towards the car, she bent down to check underneath it.

"Looks good enough, guess I can do it in the morning." She sighed as she stood up, wiping her hands together, she began to unbutton her overalls and pulled them down to her hips, tying her hair up.

As Violet tied her hair up, her phone buzzed, prompting her to quickly pick it up and answer without even checking.

"Clem??"

"Clem? What? No! It's me." Brody said with a sigh. "Your beloved misses you." She said, noting Violet's grunt of frustration. "Vi?"

"I'm sorry, I got caught up working." She said shaking. "A customer brought in this car today and he was pretty, um, you know, aggressive, so I got caught up fixing it because I didn't know you know, I'm, I'm, just,"

"Calm down, tell me what's going on?" She questioned confusedly as the blonde began to speak erratically again.

"I'm fine. Okay. I'm stressed. I was supposed to meet Clem but I got caught up with work and she's not answering my calls and my phone's about to die. I'm. Just. Stressed." 

"Okay..." Brody said, taking a long, inaudible, deep breath before she spoke. "Look, I need to go... Hazel needs a diaper change, but I'll text Clem and explain everything to her. Go home and get some sleep, okay?"

"I'm sorry."

"What? Why?"

"Because it's like two in the morning and you felt the need to call me. I'm sorry."

"Violet, I was awake anyway. It's fine. If you need, I can get Zee to drive down and get you it's really dark, you shouldn't be there alone." Brody said worriedly, she sounded so concerned to the point where Violet could basically see her eyebrows furrowing together.

"No, I'm okay. I'm gonna try call Clem again and go home." She stated. "How's, how's the baby?"

"Yeah, she's good," Brody said, "I really have to go, please go home, Violet. Be safe. If you don't let me know when you're home, I'm going to have a panic attack and not sleep, do you want that?"