(Violet's Pov)
I woke up to the sound of shuffling and I look to see no one. I groan a bit as I tried to get up but I fell back down and hissed a bit in pain. I see the sun setting and I tried once more to get back up but I couldn't.
"Oh fuck, Violet." I hear and turn my head a bit to the side to see someone.
"Lou?" I asked before I blacked out again. I know that I was in and out of it, I hear small parts of people panicking and arguing as I feel pressure on my wound.
"Fuck." I mutter.
"I-it's ok Violet, you're ok, we got you." I hear and look to see Louis looking at me scared.
"Lou?" I asked again.
"Y-Yea... RUBY HELP!" I hear him yell and I groan.
"Stop... being loud... idiot." I mutter and I hear him chuckle.
"Still the same Violet I know." He laughed and I passed out once more. I felt some movement but I didn't wake up fully as I feel more pressure.
"It went through thank God but I can't... I can't see the damage." I hear and opened my eyes to see Ruby as she looked at me.
"Vi." She says and I shake my head.
"Hurts." I mutter.
"I know, I know, we're trying." She says.
"It... ok." I mutter and close my eyes one more time. As I slept, I had nightmares. Nightmares of Joan, nightmares of AJ getting hurt, nightmares of Clementine too. But I couldn't wake up, I just couldn't.
"How is she?" I hear but keep my eyes closed.
"She's been in and out of it for a while now, it's only been a few hours and I don't know the extent of the damage from the wound." I hear and I tried to open my eyes, I wanted to tell them I was ok but I couldn't open my eyes god damn it. I want to wake up, I don't want these nightmares anymore God damn it I just want to wake up.
"It's all fucked... good thing AJ came to us." I hear.
"Yea, she looked fucking out of it." I hear and I tried again to open my eyes.
"I think we should let her rest up." I hear and I was able to open my eyes.
"Oh god she's awake." I hear and turn to see Clementine coming over to me. She grabbed my hand and I take a few breaths and groan.
"We need more medicine but most the stuff is expired." I hear Ruby say and I look at her.
"It... ok." I mutter as she looked to me.
"It's not.... What happened? Can you talk more or?" Ruby asked and I shake my head and looked to the wall.
"Violet." I hear Clementine say and I look at her as she looked back to me. I take a breath and looked to Ruby then to Clementine.
"W... water?" I asked and Ruby leaves the room.
"Ruby will get it for you." She tells me and I look back to the wall.
"I'm sorry... I'll let you rest up." She tells me. I feel her move her hands but I gripped them a bit in my hand.
"Don't.... stay." I mutter as I look back to her.
"Stay." I tell her and she nods as she goes and takes a seat on the bed with me and I look at her and smile a bit.
"We really need to get you some pain medicine." She says and I chuckle a bit but it hurt so I stopped, and took a breath.
"Hurts, don't it?" She asked and I nod a bit.
"Don't make... me laugh." I say and smile to her as she smiled back at me sadly.
"That's going to be hard, you love my jokes." She says and I smiled and patted her hand gently and let it go as I tried to sit up.
"No, none of that." She tells me as she put her hands on me gently and I look at her.
"It hurts... laying down." I tell her and she looked to the door as Ruby walked in.
"Can you help me sit her up?" Clem asked her and Ruby looks at me and nods as she sets the cup on the nightstand. They help me get up and I help as best as I could and once, I was up right I looked to see that I was in the spare bedroom in my trailer. I sighed as I looked to both of them and then I see AJ over by the side.
"He, ok?" I asked them quietly.
"I think you should ask him." Ruby tells me and I sigh but nod in agreement at this. I look around some more and then at Clementine.
"Was... was Louis here?" I asked her and she nods.
"Yea, he found you in the woods, he helped Ruby and then he brought you here... do you remember what happened?" She asked me and I take the time to think.
"Guy named Nate... we found a fully stocked gun shop and this guy comes behind us." I tell them and then took a drink of the water.
"Said he knew Russell from a few years back." I mutter.
"Really?" She asked and I nod.
"Could have been a different Russell but I could be wrong." I explained.
"Anyway, uh... Nate said for us to put our hands up, things get out of hand and we end up running. I told AJ to run and he did... and... I got shot at some point." I say and pinched the bridge of my nose and looked to Clementine and Ruby.
"That's all I can remember." I tell them both, honest to God that was all I could remember.
"Ok... well we need to be on the look out for this guy and we need to find some medicine at least." Ruby says and I look at her.
"I agree with the looking out part but the medication is fine, I don't need any." I tell her.
"You think that now but what if the pain gets worse? I have no clue how badly your insides are damaged and I sure as hell won't be opening you up unless you have something to numb the pain." She says and I look to Clementine as she looked to me.
"She has a point, Violet; we just want you to get better." She says and I sigh in defeat and nod.
"Ok, but I doubt we can find any medicine that isn't expired." I tell them.
"Now I ain't the type to suggest this but what if we find some weed?" Ruby says and I laughed. It began to hurt so I grabbed my stomach and felt hands on me. I waved them off and leaned my back into the headboard.
"And what will that do?" I asked.
"Could help you loosen up, it's different with others but it might even help you sleep." She says and I shake my head.
"Wish we had that but I think I am fine, I can deal with this, ok? trust me." I tell her and she nods.
"It was a suggestion... if we ever found any that is." She says and I nod and leaned my head back.
"Could go for a cigarette though." I mutter.
"Like hell you'll be smoking, none of that or drinking you understand me?" I look to Clementine as she told me this. I looked to my lap and sighed just a bit and nod at this.
"Ok... yea you are right, I shouldn't." I tell her and she nods.
"Damn right." She says and I chuckled at this. We sat for a bit and I finished drinking the water.
"Minerva will be in here, in a bit, I have to go check on the kids." Ruby tells me and I nod at this. She leaves the room and Clementine shifted in the bed a bit and I make her lay down.
"You need to rest." She tells me and I nod.
"I will, but you rest up first." I tell her.
"But-."
"No, no buts about it, you rest up too." I tell her and she sighs but doesn't go to sleep. I look over to AJ as he looked to Clem and I and I smiled at him.
"You did good." I tell him.
"You got shot." He says and I wave my hand a bit.
"It's fine... didn't grab ammo for the gun I grabbed... my own stupidity." I tell him.
"I should have stayed." He says.
"I told you to listen to me and you did, so you did good AJ." I tell him as he get's up and comes over to us with the chair. He sets it next to the bed and I look at him and smile a bit.
"Hey everything is ok, I'm ok and you're ok." I tell him and he looks at me. I sighed when he didn't speak and I look to see that Clementine had passed out and I look at AJ.
"Hey help me up." I tell him.
"But your wound." He says and I shake my head.
"Come on I need to get up, I'll take blame." I tell him and he doesn't move. I think as I moved a bit and felt the pinch in my stomach and I feel AJ put his hands on me and I look at him.
"I don't want to be laying down or sitting." I say and slowly move and he stopped me.
"It's been a few hours; you need at least a few days." He tells me and I move back into the bed and I look at him.
"Well... could you get me a beer?" I whispered.
"Clementine said no." He says and I sighed.
"Yea... yea you are right." I mutter and look to the wall in front of me as I take a breath and look back to him.
"Want to talk?" I asked and he nods.
"Alright, what do you want to talk about?" I asked.
"... Why did you not come with me? I get it you said that it had to be, because you didn't want him to follow but you could have gone in another direction after tricking him." He says and I look at him.
"Yea I should have, but I wasn't thinking at the time... it's honestly my fault for not thinking about it." I tell him and he looked down.
"You aren't blaming yourself, are you?" I asked.
"I am." He says to me.
"Don't... AJ whatever happens to me is my own fault, not yours, never yours... I just didn't want him to know at least the direction near the home." I explain to him.
"But I could have helped, I could have shot the fucker." He says and I look at him.
"I know... but we don't know if he had a group or if he was alone, and that's dangerous these days... even keeping him alive is dangerous, now if I see him again I'll take the shot." I tell him.
"No, I'm going to... he hurt you, I was supposed to keep you safe and I fucked it up." He says.
"Now who said it was your job to keep me safe?" I asked him. He kept quiet for a bit as I look at him and he rubbed his head a bit and looked somewhere else.
"No one, but... I should have done something." He says.
"You listened to me that's all that matters to me... I'm proud of you AJ." I tell him and he looked to me.
"You shouldn't be." He says.
"Well, I am, and don't try to tell me otherwise, you listened to me, that's all you need to do right now." I tell him and he just sighs and looked to the door as it opened and I see Minerva.
"Hey." She says quietly as I pointed to Clem who was still asleep. I look to Clementine and moved some hair out of her face and smiled then looked up to Minerva.
"Sorry, I was busy talking to Louis." She says and I nod.
"What did piano boy have to say?" I asked.
"He wanted me to check up on you actually... he's worried." She says and I tried not to laugh but it hurt as I did.
"Oh, this is fucking funny, he's worried about me?" I asked and she nods.
"Why? He didn't care before, why does he care now?" I asked and she looked at me.
"When you were in and out of it, you asked Louis how his one song was coming along... you acted as if we were back in the school but your eyes were closed when you asked it... you scared the hell out of us but you were being so nice to him we thought you were basically dead too." She says to me and I chuckled and held my wound a bit.
"Oh, don't make me laugh." I say as I take a breath.
"Look we can talk again once you get better, just... try and get better." She tells me and I nod. I began to feel tired and I look to AJ who nods and I nod a bit then fall asleep at this point. As days passed on I felt good some days and I felt like my body was on fire the next. And today seemed to be one of those days.
"Fucking... fuck." I mutter as I try to get up but I was held back down and I feel a cool rag on my head and I look to see Clementine as she looked at me worried.
"Fuck AJ get Ruby please." She tells him and I hear AJ run out the door.
"You're running a damn fever." I hear her say and I chuckled.
"Damn cold is going to get me." I say and took a few breaths and looked at her.
"Don't joke like that... please." She says and I grabbed her hand with the rag and I smiled just a small smile.
"I'm sorry... humor me is all." I tell her and she looked at me then to the door as it opened. I took a few breaths and felt the pain again and I gripped the blanket a bit.
"Fucking... hell." I mutter and look at her as she looked to me worried.
"What's going on?" I hear Ruby ask and I look at her.
"Fucking... burns again." I mutter and she comes over to me and removed the blanket and lifts up my shirt and it freaked me out a bit.
"DON'T!" I yelled and she backed off. I took a few breaths and looked to Ruby as she looked to me then to where my wound was.
"I need to check your wound Violet, please it's important." She tells me.
"No, no, no, I don't want you to... don't." I tell her and she looked to Clementine worried and then back to me.
"I won't hurt you I swear Violet, I just need to look at your wound, I need to make sure it's not infected." She tells me and I think and look to Clementine who nods to me.
"She won't hurt you I swear." Clementine tells me and I look back to Ruby and nod a little bit. she then lifts up my shirt and then bandages. I hiss a bit in pain and look to Ruby who looked at me and mouthed sorry.
"It's... ok... fuck." I mutter and look to the side.
"Fuck." I hear her mutter and I look to my wound and saw that it was irritated as hell and I felt sick.
"I... I need to-." I tried to warn them but I quickly turn to the bedside and threw up on the floor. They both backed up quickly and I threw up again as I tried to tell them I was sorry.
"Ok, get Minerva, Clem I need you out of here." I hear Ruby say and I coughed a bit then spat up whatever was in my mouth.
"Ok... ok." I hear and then Clementine left the room. I feel the rag back on my head and I lay back and Ruby cleaned my face a bit and I look to her.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry." I tell her.
"It's ok... you haven't had medicine; it's making you sick." She says and I take a few breaths and close my eyes. I hear the door open again and then some shuffling as they clean up the mess I made. I felt horrible, I hated this, all of this.
"Ok... um... fuck didn't Violet have Alcohol in the fridge?" Ruby asked.
"Fucking... we threw the stuff out so she wouldn't drink." Minerva said.
"FUCK!" Ruby yelled and I opened my eyes and looked to her scared.
"Look we need someone to go into the town and get... medicine, for fuck sake we can try to see if it'll work." I hear her mutter and I look to the side.
"I'm... sorry." I mutter and she looked to me.
"Don't be, don't say sorry it's not your fault." Minerva says and I look to her.
"I got her a bucket." AJ says and I look at him as he brought it over.
"Thank you." I say softly and coughed up a bit and looked to see blood in the bucket. I looked at Ruby who was talking to Minerva and I try to sit up.
"She's coughing up blood for fuck sake." AJ says and they look at me as I moved up a bit.
"Ok, we will head out now, I'll bring Aasim, Louis, and Willy." Minerva says and I get up.
"I'll come." I mutter and I feel hands on me.
"Like hell you will, for fuck sake you don't need to do anything but get better." Minerva says to my face and I look down a bit and nod. They help me lay back down and I look to them as they leave the room. I could still hear them arguing as they walked out and I see Clementine come to the door as AJ looked at me then back to her. Clementine then came up to me and I look at her as she places a clean but cool rag on my head.
"I... threw up." I tell her.
"I know, it's ok." She says.
"It's on the floor." I mutter and closed my eyes.
"It's cleaned up, don't worry about it." She tells me and I nod slightly.
"Just need medicine." I mutter.
"They're going to get some; they're going to get some." She tells me twice and I open my eyes.
"But it's old." I tell her.
"We're going to try, ok?" She asked and I nod.
"Ok... ok... I can try." I mutter and moved a bit to try and relax in the bed.
"Are you ok?" She asked and I nod.
"Not... hot anymore." I muttered as I closed my eyes. I did feel a bit comfortable how I was laying down. I still felt Clementine put the cool rag on my head after she wetted it again and I open one eye and look at her.
"I'm going to go talk to Ruby see what I can do." AJ says and I nod just a little and I look back to Clementine as he had left the room.
"I don't feel good." I mutter.
"I know, we're going to help." She says and I nod. But I have to think about the worst-case scenario.
"I'm... going to try... not to come back." I mutter and look to her as she gave me a look of shock and I point to her a bit.
"I'm going to try... ok?" I asked her and she looked like she was going to cry.
"Damn it Violet don't talk like that... for fuck sake you had a rod go through you before, you'll be fine... you'll be fucking fine ok?" She asked and I nod just a little.
"Didn't hurt... this bad." I mutter. I look at her and she looked so tired.
"Hey... go sleep." I tell her and she shakes her head at this.
"No I am fine." She tells me.
"You're tired... you need sleep... please... for me." I say to her and she shakes her head at this.
"You need some rest." She tells me. I nod just a little and closed my eyes once more. I don't know how long I was asleep but I do know I woke up to a stinging pain and I opened my eyes quickly and tried to get up but I was pushed back down and held down.
"It's going to burn ok." I hear and I feel more burning on my wound.
"FUCK!" I yelled as I gripped the persons arm tightly. I then saw Ruby as she had a needle and I felt it go in my arm. It hurt like hell for a bit but I relaxed a little and calmed down for just a bit. I look to see some Alcohol bottles on the side and see a bottle of Morphine and I lay my head to the side.
"It might not work... it's to old it might not work." I hear Ruby say and I look to see Clementine as she looked down at me from holding me down.
"It's ok... I just... fucking hell I don't know what to do." I hear her say and I see teers in her eyes as she lets me go and wipes her face a bit.
"Don't cry... please don't cry." I tell her.
"Wort case is, she doesn't make it." I hear.
"Don't fucking say that." Clem says.
"She's right Clem, this stuff only lasts for a short while, not fucking... almost twenty god damn years, the damn things weren't even refrigerated." I hear and look to Minerva as she tells this to Clementine.
"SHUT UP I KNOW GOD DAMN IT!" Clem yells and I groan. It hurt my ears and I take a breath.
"To loud." I mutter.
"Sorry... I'm sorry I didn't... I'm sorry Violet." She tells me and I nod and place my hand on her cheek.
"It's ok... just don't yell." I mutter and hell her nod as I placed my arm over my chest.
"How you feeling?" Ruby asked.
"It's not burning... anymore... but... don't know." I mutter.
"Ok... ok that's good... do you feel your toes?" She asked and I felt a pinch on my foot and I nod at this.
"Ok, what about your fingers?" She asked and I feel another small pinch and I nod at this.
"Yea... I feel them." I mutter.
"She's tired, we should let her rest up." Ruby tells them. I hear people leave and I look to see Clem taking a seat in the chair next to my bed. I pat the bed a bit for her but she doesn't move and I was a little sad at this but I didn't show it.
"I'll be ok... Ruby is trying." I tell her.
"I know... I'm going to apologize to her and Minerva for yelling it's just... I'm just... stressing out." She tells me and I move my hand to pat her knee a little and she looks at me.
"I know... it's ok." I mutter and then move my hand back a bit and closed my eyes for a bit then open them back up as I get an idea.
"Clem... you need to relax a little bit... how about this." I say and I sit up a little and looked to Clementine. She was looking at me as she helped me up and I smile at her.
"When I get better... you and I go out and do something fun... anything you want to do and we will do it." I tell her and she looked to me then to the floor.
"Come on, I'm supposed to be the morbid one here." I joke and she looks at me.
"How about it?... we go and do what you want to do... want to go to a lake, we will do that, want to head out of state?" I asked her and she looks at me.
"What about... I miss star gazing... we haven't done it in so long." She tells me and I nod.
"We can do that, anything else?" I asked her.
"I don't want to rush you into doing things when you get better... just do that and we can work up to do something bigger." She says to me and I nod a bit. I was finally able to go to sleep and I had some what of a decent dream.
"She seems to be going a little better, but we still need to watch her, I don't know if the medicine actually worked or if it's going to cause more problems." I hear but I still kept my eyes closed.
"As long as she get's better that's all I want... and I am sorry for yelling at you two." I hear.
"It's ok Clementine, we understand." I hear and opened my eyes a bit and smiled at Clem who looked at me and she came over to me.
"Hey, they repatched your wound, seems to look a little better." She says and I looked at her a bit confused.
"You've been in and out of sleep for the past few days... which was good actually." She says and I lift up my shirt a bit to look at the wound. It didn't look as irritated as before but I still wasn't feeling so good. I hope it would pass but that's a bit much to ask for.
"Hmm, I want out of this bed." I tell her and I see her look at Ruby who I also looked at.
"I don't see why not; we just need to be careful... plus you must be hungry." She says and I nod a bit as I get up slowly.
The others leave the room and closed the door and I look to Clementine as she looked back to me.
"Need to change." I tell Clem who nods and gets me a change of clothes. She turned around and I nod as I get to changing. Though it was a bit hard I was able to get my pants on, it was becoming a pain as I tried to get my shirt off.
"Fuck." I mutter and look to Clementine then to the floor and sighed.
"Clem?" I asked.
"Yes?" She asked back and I think and look to the door.
"I need help... with my shirt." I say and she turned a bit and looked to me.
"Alright." She comes over to me and I lift my hand as best as I could and she helped take my shirt off. I look to the bandages I had and even the scars. I sighed as she held the shirt out to me and I shake my head just a little.
"Can I keep it off... for a bit?" I asked her and she looked to me then nods.
"Ok, you sure?" She asked and I nodded as she took a seat and I look at her. It felt good to have my shirt off for a bit.
"Other shirt is sweaty." I joke and look to Clementine.
"Well, that's good, means you sweat away whatever was making you feel bad." She says and I chuckle.
"Hey doesn't hurt to laugh." I tell her and she smiled and I nodded.
"That's good... I'm glad you're getting better." She tells me and I nod again. I look to the door and then back to Clementine as she held the shirt in her hands.
"How have you been?" I asked her.
"Just been going." She tells me and I think for a bit and rubbed my face a bit.
"Ok... we can put the shirt on." I tell her and she nods as she helped me get the shirt on. As she helped me up from the bed, she grabbed the cane and handed it to me and I grabbed it and we headed out to the back yard since it was easier to just walk on the grass than it would be on the gravel. I look to the side to see AJ who waved at me and I smile and wave back. I took a seat on the ground and Clementine sat next to me. I take a breath of fresh air and it felt good, I felt good at this moment.