under the willow tree - glenn rhee

part 7

"okay. okay i'm going." shane was scared, that was for sure.

once he slowly walked out marcella dropped her arms, shoving the gun back into her waistband before running over to an understandably frantic lori.

"shhh, shhh. it's gonna be okay, i got you." doctor carter hushed lori whilst the older woman cried into her arm.

the two ended up sitting on the floor in each other's arms as lori cried.

"thankyou carter, thankyou." she cried.

"come on, let's get you back to your room okay?" marcella was weary to say this because from what she heard of the conversation, shane and lori had a situation that rick definitely didn't know about.

lori nodded.

"my husband, he can't know, no one can." lori's eyes pleaded marcella to keep the whole situation that just occurred a secret and she simply nodded in agreement.

***
after taking lori back to her family without braking down, marcella walked back to her room crying softly at what she had just witnessed.

as she entered her room doctor carter slid down her door until she was crying into her knees that were pulled up towards her.

"doctor carter? are you okay." marcella had practically forgotten that in her tipsy and rather lonely state she had asked the boy to stay in her room.

"i told you, call me marcella." she laughed slightly as she looked up at him.

although as the doctor met the korean man's eyes he showed an emotion that hadn't been directed towards marcella in a very long time: concern.

"don't look at me like that glenn." she smiled sadly, refusing to meet glenn's eyes.

"like what?"

"like you care." carter finished.

"of course i care." glenn moved to sit by the smaller woman, wrapping his arm around her shoulder slowly.

"i had to- it doesn't matter. im not allowed to say." glenn stayed quiet after marcella said this, simply holding her as she let herself cry into his chest.

as much as marcella knew it was a dumb idea to let herself get attached to the stupidly smart, attractive and optimistic man that sat so close to her, she also knew that it was too late.