#OH. the “please take care of my brother!” thing exists but its clem doing it to random people he thinks would be a good match for his siste

[skylardoesthings]

what if i make an XY au but the only difference is that Bonnie and Clemon has been age swapped.

[the-walking-memelords]

A2 - Chapter 3: The Deal

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Series is rated M

Word Count: 4030

Clementine and crew arrive at the Caravan's camp, but their reunion isn't as sweet as originally hoped.

Not when something so bitter lurks beyond the forest.

Read it on Ao3!

Read it on Wattpad!

The fenced-in play area of an old elementary school was brimming with the chatter of a rather large group setting up camp. Faded paint was barely visible on the ground, drawing out hopscotch sets and basketball courts. Rusted poles with off-white boards sticking out of the ground, nets long worn away from the hoops. Guards watched the gate leading to the parking lot while others patrolled the field where horses rested from the long journey.

The sharp sting of the peroxide reminded Clementine of where she was. Lost in her own head for so long, the remainder of the trip was more of a blur. She couldn’t remember the things they talked about on the way, or being escorted to the medical station. 

“It’s shallow, doesn’t need stitches.” The olive-skinned woman said, brushing a lock of her short, sleek black hair behind her ear.

“Just keep it clean and it shouldn’t even scar.”

Scars were never something Clementine ever paid attention to, but some had rather loud memories attached that she tried to ignore. 

She let out a sigh as she shifted on the crate she sat on, nails scratching into the water-stained wood. This woman was a stranger to her. Another new member of Layla’s crew. She acted friendly but there was an air of skepticism around her as if she was evaluating Clementine.

“You the new doctor around here?” Clementine questioned, not seeing the older gentlemen who usually greeted them, eager to help treat any injuries.

“I was... enrolled in a med school at some point, yes, but no.” She chuckled, crow’s feet appearing next to her eyes.

“Doc took Paige inside the second it was secured so she could get some real sleep away from the noise. I swear she’s such a light sleeper a walker could step on a twig a mile away and she would bolt upright.”

“Pretty useful for a traveller.” Clementine commented. She’d met Paige a few times, her and her two younger brothers. Her blond hair and fair skin were quite the contrast with the two younger boys, who were closer to resembling the woman in front of Clem.

“Is she alright?”

The woman paused for a moment, hands hovering over the first-aid kit she had been packing.

“She got bit almost a month ago.” She said quietly.

“The walker took off a few of her fingers, and Doc had to take off the rest of her hand.”

“Shit.” 

“No kidding…” She sighed.

“To make things worse it got infected like a week later. She’ll live but she’s still a little unsteady. Doc feels guilty about it I guess, he cares about her and those boys like his own family. Boss was talkin’ about convincing her and the boys to stay at Alexandria on our next rotation but it’d be hard to get them and Doc to say goodbye.”

Clementine shifted her left leg, her prosthetic feeling like dead weight tied to her body. All this time and she wasn’t quite used to it. There were some days she woke up, pulling back the covers with a shock to realize it was really gone. Even still she had some bad nights spent with her face buried into the crook of Louis’ neck quietly sobbing as he held her, aches and cramps shooting through a part of her that didn’t exist anymore.

“CLEMENTIIINNNEEEE!” An extremely worried voice rushing towards her made Clem look up just in time to catch the young woman who practically flew into her arms. 

“I missed you so much and Louis told me you were in the med bay and I was so worried and ohmygodareyouokay?” 

“Layla please I can’t breathe.” Clementine begged her friend to release the crushing grip on her ribcage.

Layla was a young Persian woman about the same age and height as Clementine, but their personalities were quite opposite. If you hung around her for long enough you wouldn’t think the world had ended. She was bright and cheery not out of naivety but perhaps just to spite the horror of everything else. 

“Oh my god yeah I’m so sorry I just wanted to make sure you were okay and ADDIE!” Layla’s curly black ponytail whipped around as she faced the woman.

“You made sure she isn’t dying, right?”

“Relax, boss, it was just a scratch.” Addie replied exhaustedly as she casually put up her arms defensively.

“Yeah but it’s the Clementine! She’s a hero!” 

“Please stop calling me that.” Clem sighed. Clementine hardly thought anything she did was heroic. It was just… war. Nothing to be glorified.

“Hun, the Delta fell because of you! Maybe not directly… but it was a huge blow.” Layla reassured her.

“Either way, you made our jobs a lot easier. Y’know how hard it is to keep up like five trade deals when people try to rob you every other day? You’re late a lot.”

“Things seem to be settling down now.” Addie said, stretching back in her chair.

“Saviors are gone. Delta’s gone. The Whisperers are gone. Hell, even the Pack seems to have dropped off the face of the Earth. Probably fucked with Hilltop or something and got demolished by the alliance.”

Clementine’s blood ran cold at that last one. She scratched at her hands, trying to pick away the blood that would never truly wash away. 

Two wrongs don’t make a right, Lilly.

We were never the good guys.

“The lesser of two evils.” Was how that vile woman justified it. How everyone justified it. How Clementine tried to justify it to herself as she stood by, watching the people she tricked suffer her fate over and over. 

There was nothing just about any of it.

“Clem?” Layla’s voice called to her a lot softer and calmer than it had been. Her dark brown eyes seemed to see the storm inside of her.

“Are you alright?”

I thought I was.

“I’m fine.” Clementine hoped to convince her.

“It’s just not a time I like to think about.”

The two of them nodded in understanding. Layla pursed her lips as if thinking of a way to change the subject.

“Clem! C’mon, let’s go get Connor to look at that leg of yours.” Layla said as she grabbed Clementine’s hand, tugging her out of her seat and dragging her into the crowd.

“You better have been keeping up maintenance or you’re in for a lecture. That guy is worse than my old dentist when I forgot to floss.”

---

Louis and AJ wrapped the jars of preserved fruits in cloths as he placed them in Louis’ duffle bag, keeping in mind not to jostle it too much on the way home. Across the table from him, a brown-haired man with striking green eyes examined each fish a second time before placing them in an ice-filled cooler.

“Thanks, man.” Eric said.

“God, it feels like forever since we were last at Oceanside. It’s hard to get decent amounts of fish anywhere else.”

“We get lots from the river.” AJ stated with a wide grin.

“I help fish all the time!”

“Well, you’re doing us a favour. This is our farthest stop from Oceanside so we don’t get a lot of fish trades around here.” Eric smiled at AJ, leaning on his elbows on the fold-out table.

“You ever seen the ocean?”

“No.” AJ’s eyes filled with wonder and intrigue.

“It’s a giant body of water so big you can’t see where it ends. Filled with colourful fish big and small, some friendly and some deadly and so deep, even before the dead, we never figured out what lived at the bottom. For all we know, it could have been some great beast from ancient times, hidden forever from our mortal eyes.” Eric dramatized, speaking in a hushed whisper as if sharing the secrets of the universe.

“Woah.” AJ whispered back, his eyes as wide as they could possibly be.

“Louis, will we ever get to go to the ocean?”

“Maybe someday, little dude.” Louis pushed the brim of his hat down over his eyes as he turned to leave.

“Wait! One more thing...” Eric stopped them as he dug through his coat pockets.

“Here it is. Think fast, kid.”

Eric tossed a small pouch in the air towards the boy, who barely caught it. He untied the string, pulling out a marble-sized ball wrapped in wax paper.

“What are these?” AJ questioned as he unwrapped the paper, revealing a sticky dark gold ball that smelled sweeter than anything he’d ever eaten.

“Honey candies Raha cooked up a while ago.” He explained.

“Where the hell did you guys get good honey?”

“That shit never goes bad, dude.” Eric cheered.

“As long as it’s sealed right, that is. Hey, no one’s gotten sick yet! They were a hit with the kids at the last few communities. She asked me to give some to AJ since you’d probably be hiding from her again.”

“Louis!” 

Speak of the devil, and she shall appear.

The bellowing voice of the small woman rang from halfway across the yard. She wore an immaculately white blouse in contrast to her knee-length black skirt, boots, and headscarf. Her brows were knit together in frustration as she approached the freckled man.

“Well if it isn’t the fashion police.” Louis teased, sighing as he knew what he was in for.

“That coat of yours looks sadder every time I see it.” Raha frowned, the older woman ignoring his comment in her own disappointment. Thumb on her lips, she squinted at him behind the black frames of her glasses, flicking an old piece of tape stuck to one of his sleeves.

“At this point, I might just give you a new one for free if you’ll let me put that old one out of its misery.”

Louis rolled his eyes and sent AJ to check on Clem as she dragged him over to her collection of textiles and jewelry. She sifted through neatly sorted boxes until she found the one she was looking for.

“I saved this one just for you!” She said excitedly, holding up the jacket.

It was a deep brown leather jacket lined with creamy white fur. It was waist length, a lot shorter than the one he’d been wearing all this time. But winter was coming, and it did look pretty warm, not to mention clean.

“Hmm... I don’t know.” Louis pretended to closely examine it, rubbing his thumb over the material and deciding to ruffle her feathers a bit more as payback for all of her nagging.

“Not sure it really suits my taste.”

“Sorry I don’t have anything as filthy as you prefer.” Raha tsked.

“Ugh! Just take it! In return, it’ll give me a little hope I may be able to save you from dressing like the dead.”

Raha threw the coat at him as she defeatedly closed the lid on her box of jackets. Louis could almost see the lightbulb appearing above her head as she gained a sly smirk, pulling out a wooden jewelry box.

“If you can’t find anything here that fits your style, perhaps you could find something that fits Clementines?” Raha sang as she showed Louis a selection of rings.

Raha’s collection was nothing narrow. Some were simple and cheaper designs while others would’ve fetched a pretty penny. Silver bands to gold ones all with varying gemstones and settings, all evenly displayed in the box’s green velvet interior. 

“Where the hell do you find this stuff?” Louis gave a slightly nervous laugh.

“From a lot of people who weren’t using them anymore.”

“No thanks.” Louis couldn’t bring himself to take a closer look at any of the shining stones. It was as if his hand preferred to retract farther away from the box, his fingers instead tracing a circle near the collar of his shirt, feeling the band of his mother’s ring that hung from a chain around his neck.

I’ve already got one.

“Oh, c’mon.” She groaned.

“I know a lot of people don’t care about that crap anymore but don’t you think it would be romantic? I mean you two and that kid are already a family, don’t you think it would be a romantic way to show your undying devotion.”

And people say I’m dramatic.

“If you’re so much of a love guru then why am I the one with the girlfriend.” Louis teased.

“I-” Raha’s mouth hung open as she tried to think of a retort.

“Listen here you little shit.”

Laughter roared from a few meters away from where Eric had been eavesdropping. Raha immediately followed after him, hurling a string of something in Arabic he couldn’t understand.

The freckled man smiled at the idea. Marry Clementine? He couldn’t picture himself marrying anyone else, but getting married in this world? Would she even want to? 

That’s a thought for a different day.

---

The young woman sat awkwardly in her seat inside the patchwork thin tent. Its purpose more to offer privacy than protection from the weather. Crates of tools and materials scattered the ground is just enough array to be quickly packed if the situation arose. Clementine pulled the hem of her dark teal jeans over the scarred stump of her left leg, hanging over the empty boot she wore over the wooden prosthetic which sat a few feet away laying on Connor’s work table. She rubbed the skin of her thigh over her pants, never realizing how much the straps dug until she took them off.

“Any malfunctions since the last time I looked at it?” The old Nigerian man stroked his salt and pepper goatee as he surveyed its condition.

“No, it’s been steady” Clementine scratched the dirt around her nails nervously. She hated doctor’s appointments when she was a kid and this was… almost the same thing? Kinda similar? Something about it made her uneasy at least.

“It’s cracked.” Connor stated flatly.

“What?” Clem sat up straight with a jolt. How could she have missed something like that? If it were to break in the wrong situation, that could be it. 

“Look.” Connor pointed to around the joint of the ankle. Tiny splinters poked out like lightning bolts from under the screws holding it together. It wasn’t a completely worrying amount of damage, but wear and tear would only make those cracks grow.

“I could fill these with resin now and then have a new one ready for this time next month, or your group could stick around and I could have one ready by tomorrow. Although, one is more pricey than the other.”

Clementine didn’t want to risk her mobility if she didn’t have to.

“How much for an express order?” 

“Bones and antlers are very good materials for making strong joints, and rumour has it your boy shot a deer recently.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Plus Layla is very good at finding work for people to do, surely she’d appreciate the help of you or a few of your friends.”

“Clem?” AJ peaked past the tent flap.

“C’mon in, kiddo.” Connor said in a friendly voice.

“You still got those deer bones?”

“Aasim has them.” He said, eyes glued forward as if he was trying not to stare at Clementine’s stump.

She knew he didn’t like being here, in this tent. A lot of guilt clung to him, and Clem feared it always would. She knows he doesn’t regret it, but sometimes the gravity is enough to weigh him down.

“I saved you, but at the same time now we’ll always be paying for it.” Was how he always described it.

“It still hurts you. You can’t move like before. And you always worry about your fake leg breaking.”

Clementine gave him a small smile when he did glance her way.

“Let’s go find him.” Clem said, cheerfulness slightly exaggerated as Connor helped reattach the prothetic before slipping her boot back on.

---

Clementine found Aasim in what appeared to be a mildly heated conversation between himself and Mitch, with Brody looking exasperated as she tried to referee it while Louis seemed to watch in amusement.

“It’s a stupid idea.”

“One stupid idea is still one more idea than you have, Aasim.”

“Oh thank god.” Brody whispered under her breath and Clementine and AJ approached with puzzled faces.

“What the hell are you up to now?” Clementine raised an eyebrow at them, which Louis shrugged off. “This moron wants to trade the last of the deer skeleton for a goddamn medieval battleaxe.” Aasim huffed in disbelief of his own sentence.

“...Seriously?” Her disbelief mirroring Aasim’s.

“I tried to make him at least pick something more practical.” Brody sighed.

“It sounds stupid but they have a shit ton of badass weapons and they’re not willing to trade most of them!” Mitch pleaded with their leader.

“C’mon Clem, you know it’d be cool.”

Clem stared at the freckled man, his sincerity surprising and unsurprising at the same time, to a very exhausted redhead and finally to Louis, who had been struggling to contain his laughter for a while.

“Sorry Mitch, but I need a new leg.” Clementine said, crushing Mitch’s dreams.

“Aasim, can you drop off what’s left at Connor’s tent?”

Clementine explained the rest of the deal to them, Louis and AJ agreeing to stay behind while the others brought their haul back to the school. 

As the day dragged on, the rock that had formed in Clementine’s stomach only grew and no amount of manual labour seemed to distract her enough. A chill settled on her skin as the sky began to darken. She needed to talk to Layla. And Louis. 

The Pack.

The Delta.

Saying their names was like poison on her tongue.

When will they ever let me go?

Clementine lost time as she sunk into her own thoughts. She jumped when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder, whipping around to see the smiling face of her boyfriend.

“Layla wants to talk to us.” He said as he held out his hand to help her stand and once she reached for it, she didn’t let go as they walked into the school building.

Water-stained papers laid practically cemented to the floor, coloured green and brown not by the gleeful hands of children, but the cruel hands of time and neglect. Lockers caked in chipped blue paint lined each side of the hall, some frozen shut with rust while others hung slightly ajar and some with no doors at all. The contents revealing long-abandoned backpacks of kids who had little time to escape or never made it out at all. The mental image was enough for her to walk a little closer to AJ.

The end of the hallway was heavily sectioned off by neatly stacked piles of desks and chairs from floor to ceiling ensuring nothing got through and if it did, it would certainly cause a scene. 

“Come in.” Layla’s voice called from the last room of the hallway just as they approached.

Layla sat at the teacher’s desk, a detailed map of every community on her route laid before her. She chewed on the end of her pen as she scanned the elegantly written notes jotted around each indicated area. Ink of many colours traced streets and pathways between each plotted point, some older routes more faded than others. As Clementine got closer, she could see a dark spot on the map where something had been crossed out with a black marker, all of the newer routes avoiding this area. Just barely, she could make out the name written next to it.

The Kingdom.

“Thanks for helping out today, guys.” Layla said as she folded up her map, sliding it into an inner pocket of her jacket.

“Every set of hands helps, though I heard it was because of Conner driving a rather hard bargain.”

“We owe you guys a lot.” Louis acknowledged, giving Clem’s hand a squeeze.

“Plus, it’s probably fair payback for all the haggling ‘Sim puts your merchants through.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” Layla laughed with a snort.

“Anyways, you guys can sleep in room 303. It should be easy to find, since it’s the only room with a number still on it.”

Louis and Aj began to move towards the door, but Lou’s hand ended up pulling on a non-budging Clementine as she decided there was one more thing she needed to discuss.

“Clem?”

“What ever happened to The Pack?” Her question came out in a flurry of words and suppressed emotions.

“Addie said they ‘Dropped off the face of the Earth.’ but what happened?”

“I wish I could tell you.” Layla’s face softened.

“I’ve asked around and they just… disappeared. If I were to guess they moved on to another area looking for someplace more divided to pick apart.”

Layla scowled at the grain of the wooden desk as Clementine stood with just as many questions as she started with. So much uncertainty in the situation. How does a group that large and malicious just… vanish? At first, it was a relief, knowing they had nothing to fear in the aftermath of the war. But now it was beyond frustrating. Fang-marked walkers appearing after all these years… It left her with an overwhelming beg of “Why?” 

“Why are you bringing this up now all of a sudden?” The caravan leader asked with a tone of deepening worry.

“We’ve been finding his walkers.” 

Clementine watched the colour drain from the young woman’s face. Louis must have seen it too, because he finally spoke up with panic edging into his voice.

“What the hell are you talking about?” His voice begged to be let into the loop.

“What the hell is ‘The Pack?’”

“They’re the reason I was sent to recruit you.” Clementine’s voice fell flat, hand letting go of Louis’ as her fingernails dug into her crossed arms. Her heart raced a mile a minute as the realization sunk into everyone in the room.

“A-Are you sure it was them?” Layla got up from her chair, biting her thumb as she began to pace.

“What if it was just some of their walkers that got loose.”

“Dead walkers don’t disappear on their own.” Clementine looked at AJ.

“I saw the symbol.” AJ spoke up, very confused about what was happening.

“Fangs. But the walkers weren’t there anymore when we went back. I know I killed them I aimed for the head.”

AJ bit his lip before taking a deep breath.

“The Delta tried hurt us, and they lost. If these guys want to hurt us, they’ll lose too.” 

A heavy silence fell over them as Layla appeared to fight an internal battle, trying to cling to any reason to deny what was beginning to look obvious.

“I’ll send a patrol out tomorrow.” She decided, facing away from them and looking through the parts in the boarded-up window.

“Get some sleep, we’ll talk about it in the morning.” 

Feeling defeated physically and emotionally, Clementine turned to leave, loosely tugging on her boys to follow her to the room Layla had mentioned earlier.

Most of the debris had been piled in one corner of the room to make the tiled floor somehow more comfortable. A light-haired woman handed them a few blankets and pillows from the pile before the three of them picked a spot on the floor amongst the other sleeping people. Clementine elected to wear her prosthetic that night, not feeling anywhere safe enough to take it off. Even with the thick faux-wool blanket beneath them, she felt as if the broken tile sapped whatever bit of warmth she had left in her. She cuddled closer, AJ laying between her and Louis. Her boy wasn’t as small as he used to be, but getting to grow up was something Clem was overjoyed about.

Is that something I can still guarantee?

“I love you both.” Clementine said in a choked whisper, attempting to make determination replace her overwhelming sense of dread.

“We love you too.” Louis hugged the both of them close, placing a soft kiss on Clem’s forehead and a ruffle of AJ’s hair as the three of them dozed off.