𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘰𝘮 -> 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘥

𝐴𝑐𝑡 𝑇𝑤𝑜 － 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛

Mercy giggles, watching Edith pour the van of corn into the pot.

"gonna be completely honest, I'm not really the cooking one, that's maggie," She jokes throwing the empty can into the trash can.

"I can tell," Mercy jokes. Edith grabs a small handful of lettuce and tosses it at the teen,

"Oh yeah?" She says, laughter hanging off her words. Mercy picks off the lettuce hanging off her clothes, popping it into her mouth.

The front door swings open with a creak, revealing Shane, rubbing his head and looking around. When he makes eye contact with Mercy, he walks towards the kitchen.

When Edith sees him, she lowers the temperature on the stove and wipes her hands down,

"I'm gonna go check on beth real quick. Can you keep an eye on the food?" She asks with a forced smile, walking off quickly. Mercy nods and continues cutting her vegetables even though she can feel Shane's presence behind her.

"How's Beth?" He asks finally, breaking the silence, "I heard from Lori something happened, she didn't give me too much detail," He added, leaning against the counter.

Mercy continues cutting, her eyes never meeting shanes.

"She's better, probably tired," The teen answers, setting the vegetables aside and grabbing more from the second pile. Shane shifts his weight awkwardly,

"So I've been thinking about what you said a couple of days ago," He admits, "When I told everyone Lori was pregnant," Mercy stops her cutting,

"Sorry," She mutters, "I was pissed and it was late, I didn't mean it," She admits, her eyes still glued on the table in front of her. Shane pushes himself off the counter, taking a step closer.

"No, No, you're right," He responds. Mercy turns to meet his eye, searching for any sign of a joke or lie. "I was just outside with Carl. and he- he tried talking to the guy in the shed. and when I was talking to him, I realized that I do treat Carl and Lori more like family than you, and that's an asshole move on my part," He admits, scratching the back of his head, "And... if it's cool with you, I wanna try to be better. cause I hope someday soon we can be like we used to, yknow?" Mercy sets down her knife, a small smile growing on her face.

"Yeah, that'd be cool," Mercy agrees, hesitantly wrapping her arms around her father's shoulders, giving him a quick hug. He hugs her back lightly. Mercy missed this. Shane pulls away,

"Thanks, Merce," He said, running a hand down her hair. She smiles at him, and with that, he turns around and makes his way out of the Greene house.

A minute later, Edith returns.

"She's doing alright," She reassures, a smile on her face. Mercy nods and the Greene sister moves back to the boiling pot. "I'm not gonna lie, I dunno if you're even supposed to boil corn," She cringes, stirring a wooden spoon in the pot. "But here," She says quietly, placing some cut-up vegetables in a bowl, with a drink, handing both to mercy, "Give those to beth,"

Mercy nods, holding both in her hands carefully as she walks up to Beth's room. She knocks on the door with one of her knuckles. a second later, the door swings open, and beth is standing there, a soft smile on her face.