Reflections - TWD

92. Screw.

"What's seven times five?" Isabella asked Daryl. The whole school thing had started up again and Isabella just hated it.

"I dropped out'a school," Daryl chuckled, sitting up in his sleeping bag.

"Can I drop out of school?" Isabella asked again, turning her head towards him. "I mean, it would be more useful for me to learn how to use more weapons or something. Walkers aren't just gonna not kill me 'cause I know my seven times tables."

Daryl gave a real laugh to that. "You never know."

"I do," Isabella jumped up and placed the work on the floor. "I'll do it later."

"Okay," Daryl smiled. He never had a problem with Isabella not doing her work, he didn't see the point in it either. Freddie had to do all of his work though, Carol wouldn't let him do anything fun until he did it. "I've gotta work on the bridge today."

"I'll save you a seat next to me at the campfire," Isabella said, making Daryl smile. Before her, he'd never known what it was like to have a family member care about him. Neither had Isabella.

She exited the tent and joined where Eugene was walking with Rick, getting on the other side of Rick.

"In regards to our makeshift levee upstream, given the current rate of spring runoff, I'd put its expiration date at another six to nine days. After that it's slam, blam, sayonara cofferdam," Eugene ranted. He was wearing a hat that was kind of like a cowboys hat with a smaller rim.

"How fast can we have those supports ready?" Rick asked, waving his hand and then looking down at Isabella who had joined them. "Hi, sweetheart."

"Hi," she smiled back.

"Well, ditto on six to nine, but if we boost of juice and shed the lead, I think we can beat it."

"Good," Rick nodded. "I'll talk to the foreman, make sure we do."

"Scouts got back," Rosita walked up behind Isabella, who was easily distracted by her hair. "Horatio's gonna pass us by, but it'll be close."

"I like your hair," she smiled brightly.

"Thank you," Rosita smiled back. "You want me to do yours later?"

"Yeah," Isabella nodded quickly.

"We got a head count?" Rick continued his conversation with Rosita.

"A hundred and change," she replied and Rick sighed, putting his hands on his hips. "What, you think we should push the blasting?"

"Nah," Rick turned to her. "If we wait, we'll wind up drawing that other herd."

"Isabella!" the girl heard Henry yell. She turned around and looked over at the boy, who was stood holding a container full of water. She instinctively moved her hair to cover up her ear and started walking towards him. "Can you hear me?" He yelled and then gave a slight grin. Freddie, who was stood next to him, nudged him in the arm and said something to him.

"We're handing out water on the bridge, wanna help?" Freddie asked Isabella. "If you don't wanna because of Henry being a-"

"It's fine," Isabella dismissed. "I'll help."

•

They went around the first few people who were working on the bridge. They were mostly Saviors. It was all going fine and Henry hadn't made anymore comments about her ear. Isabella was convinced that he was just being mean because of his age, and he'd grow out of it.

It was all good until they approached Justin. He put down his tools and took a cup, filling it with water. "Thanks," he went to refill it, but Henry grabbed his wrist to stop him. "Easy there, buddy. I'm still thirsty."

"No. No. There's not enough. You can't," Henry kept on insisting.

"Henry, it's fine. Just let him. I'll get a refill," Isabella hated the fact that she had just given into Justin, but it was better than him doing something mean to her or Daryl again.

"Yeah, listen to your little bitch friend," Justin snarled.

"We said no-" Freddie began, but Justin put a hand to both his and Henry's chests and pushed them to the floor.

Justin being mean to Henry? Isabella could brush that off. But him hurting Freddie? Isabella wouldn't take that. It took her right back to when she found out Pete was hurting him.

Justin was drinking all of the water from the container, just pouring it into his mouth. Isabella kneeled down to the floor and picked up a screw he had dropped, reaching her arm up and jabbing it into his upper arm, making him cry out in pain. Freddie and Henry both got up while Justin held onto his bleeding arm, Isabella grabbed both of their arms and started to drag them away.

One of the Saviors was laughing at the scene. "Ahh. Hey, man, it's cool. I got my ass handed to me by a kid one time, too. Of course, I was six at the time."

Isabella, Freddie and Henry all got over to the next person. He was nice, so they didn't have anything to worry about.

"Hey," Isabella heard Daryl's voice, so she turned around and took a step back when she saw that Justin was towering over her. "Kids are just doin' their job. The hell did I say I would do if you went near my daughter again? Huh?!"

"I don't need your people telling me what to do," Justin spat. "You're not my babysitter anymore. You're not even her dad," he started to walk away.

Daryl grabbed Justin's arm and spun him back around. Isabella's breath caught in her throat when Justin took a swing for Daryl, but he dodged it and gave Justin a firm punch in the nose, making him fall into a pile of wood shavings. He picked up a handful of it and threw it right into Daryl's eyes. He tackled him to the ground but Daryl quickly got up and they were both just delivering punches to each others noses and cheeks.

"Hey! Hey! Break it up! Get back!" Rick's voice could be heard and then he was pushing through the crowd of people with Eugene as his side. He got around the back of Justin, grabbing him, but Justin wriggled and arm free and, with a yell of pain, pulled out the screw Isabella had jabbed into his arm. Before she could even step back, he had pressed it firmly into her shoulder.

"Enough! Enough!" Rick yelled as Daryl attempted to lunge at Justin again. Daryl spat out a bit of blood and then started to walk back to camp, taking his daughter with him, who's eyes were full of tears. Not just from the pain in her shoulder, that didn't even compare to the fear she felt for Daryl.

•

"Ow! Enid!" Isabella cursed as she tried to pry the screw out of her shoulder. Luckily, it hadn't hit the bone.

"I'm sorry," Enid mumbled and continued to pull on it. Isabella just gripped onto Daryl's hand even tighter than before.

"You're doin' great, baby," Daryl reassured her, holding a tissue to his own bleeding nose.

"It hurts like a mother- ow!" She yelped as Enid finally pulled out the screw.

"Got it," she said, quickly pressing down a towel onto Isabella's shoulder as some blood started to escape.

"I don't like Justin," Isabella sighed.

"Me neither," Enid and Daryl both replied in unison.

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I'm gonna try and write some more chapters today because I have some scenes in mind

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