Rio just watched as everything happened. Rick was still on the floor, Daryl trying to coax him up, Maggie was still in Glenn's embrace although calmer now and Lori was still dead. So was T-dog and so was Carol.
He tried not to think about it. About Lori, who welcomed him straight away, about T-dog, who always cracked jokes for his sake, and about Carol.
He didn't even know where to begin with Carol. She'd grown closer with Daryl over the past seven month, ultimately meaning she'd grown closer to the boy too.
Maggie broke away from Glenn's embrace for a second, handing the baby to Carl. Her crying brought Rio from his thoughts. He looked down at the baby as Carl gently cradled it in his arms.
"Let me see the baby." Hershel asked, making his way towards them.
"What are we gonna feed it?" Daryl asked, walking alongside Carl as he walked towards Hershel. Rio stood besides him, peering over at the infant. "We got anything a baby can eat?"
Hershel inspected the baby. It was a girl. "The good news is that she looks healthy, but she needs formula. And soon or she won't survive."
"Nope, no way. not her." Daryl muttered, slinging his crossbow upon his back. "We ain't losing anyone else in going for a run."
"I'll back you up." Maggie said
"I'll go, too."
"And me." Rio said to him.
He sighed, a long drawn out sigh before saying "Okay." He pulled Beth aside to speak to her. Rio watched as he spoke to her, waiting for him to be done.
"You two get the fence." Daryl said to the prisoners, taking charge. "Too many pile up, we got ourselves a problem."
"Glenn, Maggie," He turned to Rio, pulling him along. "you. Vámonos."
Rick suddenly got up, picking his axe off of the floor and heading away. Maggie called out after him but he ignored her.
"Get the gate!" Daryl instructed. "Come on we're gonna lose the light." Rio ran with him down the path, turning back to watch Maggie and Glenn catch up.
"There's a piggly wiggly on 85." Daryl said as they walked.
"No, the baby section's been cleared. Lori asked me to keep an eye out. I still haven't had much luck." Maggie shut down the suggestion quickly.
"Is there any place that hasn't been completely looted?" Daryl asked.
"We saw signs for a shopping centre just north of here."
"Yeah, but there's too much debris on the road. A car will never get through there."
"I can take one of you." Daryl offered.
"I'll go." Maggie volunteered.
"No, Maggie. After everything that you've been through today. I'll go."
"I want to go. For Lori. I have to."
"Okay." Glenn sighed, pulling a rucksack off the back of the car seat.
He leant in. "I love you, be safe." Then he kissed her. "I will."
Daryl revved up his motorbike and Maggie sat on the back.
"She gets a ride before I do." Rio complained quietly. He tried to joke, to not feel sad.
"I don't trust you not the fall off." Daryl replied, pulling him in for a side-hug.
"See you soon." The boy said.
"See you soon."
And then they left, Glenn and Rio watching them as they drove away.
***
Rio sat besides the older boy as he took to digging a grave. He didn't talk much about it and neither did Glenn.
"Are you alright?" The older boy asked between shovels. He leant against his shovel, looking at Rio who sat cross legged at the edge of the grave he was digging.
"Yeah." Rio replied, pulling on his sleeves. "Are you?"
"You do that when you're not alright." Glenn replied nonchalantly, making a gesture at the boy.
"Do what?" Rio asked defensively.
"Pull your sleeves or tap on your leg. I don't know, something with your hands." He explained, wiggling his fingers. Rio sat on his hands.
"I am okay. I think I'm going to go check on—." Trailing off when Glenn looked straight past him.
He stuck his shovel into the dirt, looking behind the younger boy. Rio turned around to see the two prisoners stood behind him, he glanced up at the blond one who waved down at him cautiously. He still sat on his hands.
"How's the perimeter look?" Glenn asked, stepping out of the hole he'd dug.
"We got the walkers spread out." The blond prisoner replied. The other man didn't say anything, he just stood with his hands upon his hips. "Need help?" He gestured to the shovel.
Glenn turned away, jumping down.
"Your friends, they... they were good folks."
"They were family." Glenn corrected sternly, turning away from him again.
"I think I had one friend like that my whole life." The second prisoner spoke. "You got a whole group. Sorry you lost 'em."
"Thanks." Rio squeaked out, with complete lack of anything else to say, and Glenn wasn't answering.
"What's your name?" The blonde prisoner asked.
"Rio."
"I'm Axel." He introduced himself. "And this is Oscar."
Rio smiled up at him. "You have the same name as my brother."
"He must've been a fine man then." Axel answered, he seemed to do the talking for them both. The boy smiled again, he didn't mind.
"He was."
Glenn looked at him then sighed, handing the prisoners the shovel and saying: "We need two more."
He grabbed Rio by the hand and pulled him back to the prison. He looked back, watching as the two men began to dig.
"I thought your brothers name was Jesse?" Glenn said, stopping him from walking away. He crouched down by Rio's side, still holding his arm.
"I had two." The boy replied.
"You've never mentioned him before." Glenn said sadly. Then he backtracked. "I mean, I don't think you have. I'm sure I would've remembered."
"There's not much I could say about him. He died before the outbreak, some sickness. I cant remember, I was little."
"How little?" He asked, placing his hands on rios shoulders.
"I was eight. I think... I think he'd be about your age if he were here." Rio did the math in his head. He hadn't thought about it for so long, it felt almost alien to him and he hated himself for that. He rubbed his eyes casually before Glenn noticed. "Yeah, he was... fourteen. Jesse was twelve. I was eight."
"Oh."
"Yeah." Rio agreed, kicking at the dirt. They walked up to the gate where Hershel stood, Rio rushing over when he saw the man.
"Rick?" Glenn asked.
"Still inside."
"Okay, I'll get him." Glenn sighed. He looked back at the graves, watching for a second before speaking again, his voice wobbling. "We've lost a third of our group in one day."
"'Cause of one asshole."
"Part of me wishes we killed all the prisoners on sight." Glenn murmured.
"Axel and Oscar seen like good guys." Hershel disagreed.
"When the evacuations started, T-Dog drove his church van to the home of every senior he knew just in case they needed a ride. He saved my ass a thousand times. He wasn't just a good guy. He was the best."
"He got bit closing the gate. If he hadn't done that..." Hershel began.
"It could've been Maggie, or you," he looked down to Rio giving him half a smile. "It's wrong, but I'd trade any number of people for one of ours any day."
Hershel clasped Glenn's hand in his through the gate, giving it an encouraging squeeze.
"This ain't a conversation for a kid, I think." Hershel finished, nodding to them both. The older boy took off to the left Rio following him close behind.
"I need you to go." He said as Rio caught up to him. They walked inside, heading through Cell Block C. They reached the room where all the storage was kept.
"What?"
"You have to go." He repeated sterner than before, placing a hand on Rios shoulder. He stepped back.
"Where are you going?" The younger boy asked anxiously.
"To find Rick." He grabbed a flashlight and a gun from off of the table.
"I can help."
"No!" Glenn snapped. "Why... why can't you get it? You can't come."
"Why not?" Rio asked, his voice raising.
"You're a kid. You don't... you don't need to..." He squeezed his eyes shut and just walked off, turning once to make sure Rio wasn't following him as he headed into the tunnels.
The boy let out a frustrated shout before walking out, heading towards his cell.
***
It was late when Daryl and Maggie came back. The sky was dark and it'd gotten cold in the prison. Rio has spent the rest of his day with Carl and Beth, coddling over the baby.
Beth held the baby in her arms as she cried, she tried to shush her but it was no use.
"I think she's hungry." Carl suggested, as Beth placed the baby in his hands. She poked a finger at it, trying to make her laugh from over Carl's shoulder.
"We have no food for her." Rio reminded, coming off a bit more snide than he would've liked. He sat besides Carl, watching as the baby cried. It was weird. He'd never seen a baby up close before.
"I think he's right, though." Beth said. "I think she is hungry. Daryl and Maggie... they needa come back soon."
And they did. Almost half an hour later Maggie came bursting though the door, calling for Beth as Daryl trailed behind her. The baby cried harder at the noise.
"How's she doing?" Daryl asked.
"Okay, I think." Carl replied, still trying to calm her. Daryl came over and scooped the baby up in his arms, picking her gently and shushing her as Maggie prepared the formula. Beth handed it to him.
Daryl held the baby, whispering "come on, come on," as he tried feeding her. The baby's crying stopped.
He chuckled, facing Rio. "See, I'm a natural."
He then turned to Carl, asking "Has she got a name yet?"
"Not yet." The boy replied, shaking his head. "But I was thinking maybe Sophia. But then there's Carol, too. And... Andrea. Amy. Jacqui. Patricia. Or... Lori." He let out a long sigh. "I don't know."
Daryl stayed silent as he fed her. "You like that? Huh? Little ass-kicker." He smiled at the baby then turned to everyone else. "Right? That's a good name, right?"
They laughed, taking in the peace of the moment, all knowing that it wouldn't last very long.
"You like that, little ass-kicker? You like that sweetheart?" Daryl murmured to the baby, still holding her bottle for her.
He caught Rio looking. "You wanna hold?"
"Can I?" He asked, nervously.
"Yeah," Daryl walked over, showing him how he was holding the girl. "Like this." He made Rio position his arms like he had.
He passed her to Rio, adjusting how he held the baby. "There you go." He smiled at him. "Look at that, my big ass-kicker holding little ass-kicker."
Rio flushed and turned away smiling. He rocked the baby back and forth in his arms, laughing to himself as he watched the baby girl. He sought out Carl, he wasn't smiling anymore.
Glenn peered over Rios shoulder as he held the her. The boy smiled up at him then looked back down at the baby fondly. "I'm sorry about earlier."
"It's okay." Rio smiled, he was still looking down at Judith, not paying much attention to Glenn. "I never had a sister before only brothers, and I was the youngest! This is so... I don't know. It's weird."
"I did. Had two younger sisters." The older boy replied. He smiled down at Rio, wrapping an arm over his shoulder and then adjusting his hold of the baby. "They were cool, really, really cool, but they weren't as cool as my brother."
"Your brother?" Rio giggled.
"Yeah," Glenn smirked, "my brother. Think you might've heard of him before, he's about this tall," he waved his hand around Rio's head. "Got a real bad temper, especially when he yells at me from about fifty feet away after I try and leave him for like half an hour, he can be alright sometimes though."
"Well, you my know my annoyingest brother—." Rio began in return.
"That's not even a word." Glenn protested.
"It so is."
"You never finished school, don't even try and tell me what words do or do not exist."
***
Carl went to bed early that night, Rio following soon after. He said goodnight to everyone, handing Judith back to Daryl before heading upstairs, hurrying after the boy.
He lay on the bed facing the wall, back turned to Rio. He sat besides him and waited for Carl to say something, anything. He turned around to face Rio, lying on his side still.
"You're okay." He tried to encourage, rubbing his hand up and down the other boys arm as Carl wiped a tear from his eye.
He sniffled again.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?" Rio answered, brows furrowed.
"You—." Carl sighed, stopping before he got out another word. "Do you miss your mom?" He asked cautiously.
Rio had never spoke about his parents, not to anyone here. He froze for a second at the question, he was about to lie, to say what he thought Carl needed to hear but the thing was, he didn't know. He didn't know what the other boy needed to hear.
"Sometimes." He admitted, biting his cheek nervously. "Not as much as I think I should."
"Why?" Carl asked.
"After Oscar died, her and my dad couldn't stand even being in the same room as each other. I don't know if they were like it before but I can't really remember before it happened. The only thing I really remember of my family is the arguing." He explained carefully, ready to finish. Carl looked up at him and he felt the need to go on, to finish it.
Rio continued. "I think... they were always like it, I remember them fighting with my brothers as well as each other. I was always my brothers' biggest fan, and they didn't like that. My brothers looked after me a lot so she wouldn't have to, but I still miss her. Sometimes."
He let out a sharp breath, shaking his head at himself. "I shouldn't have... I don't know if that makes you feel any better or... worse."
"I'm sorry." Was all Carl said.
"I'm sorry about Lori." Rio replied hastily, wiping a tear from his cheek before turning away. He'd come to the realisation that his family was shit ages ago, why was it getting to him now? He had a new brother now. And a whole new family. All of them.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes about to get into his own room when Carl stopped him.
"You can have a nicer family now." He whispered from where he lay down. Rio puffed his cheeks out, trying not to seem too affected by what he said.
He laughed a little. "I should be comforting you."
"You are."
Rio shook his head. "No I'm not. Do you want me to do anything?"
"Can you just... stay here."
Rio was taken aback, but agreed eagerly anyway. "Yeah, yeah I'll stay." He just lay back down, Carl turned on his side, his back pressed against Rio's arm. God, the beds were not big enough.
"You should just move in."
"Move in? Here?"
"We can be cell mates. You've been here almost every night anyway."
"I guess 'my space' isn't working."
"Definitely not." Carl mumbled. Rio smiled to himself, taking one last look at the boy before rolling over and shutting his eyes.
"Goodnight."
"Night."
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this chapter is very much just Rio sorting out brother issues but it had to be done at some point lmao