Eyes wide and shining, she looked over at Rick. He didn't look bothered. Why was that?
She carefully went to take the bottle, drinking down half its contents before stopping herself and screwing the top back on. "I'm sorry," she said anyway, now weak in the face shame.
%20pngg.png)
"There's nothin' to be sorry about, honest." Rick offered her a slight smile. "Just do me a favor and ask somebody for help before things get that bad again, okay? It ain't a crime to be weak sometimes, y'know."
She frowned and shook her head, running a hand through her flyaway hair. "That's what not I grew up with," she told Rick. She was still in a vulnerable state of mind; it made her nervous, and she almost automatically switched to her protective autopilot… But she didn't have the heart. Not right now.
Rick's brow furrowed in concern. "What do you mean? Who taught you otherwise?"
She shut her eyes, wrapping her arms around herself. "Careful," she told him with a bitter laugh. "Or you'll set me off again."
Rick looked down. "Right. I won't pry." He sighed. "I'm sorry you had to grow up with that lesson…I know it's not an easy mindset to shake."
Ask again. Please ask again.
"No, it isn't."
Rick hesitated, then decided to take the risk. "Are you sure you don't wanna talk about it? That's what you said about how much you miss the kids, but you seem like you're feelin' a bit better now that you've faced it some….."
"I'm a coward. I want to but…" She trailed off, wringing her hands together.
Rick shook his head. "You're not a coward, Charlotte….I think you're just not sure what'll happen if you talk. I promise nothin' bad will happen, okay? If you need to cry again after, I don't mind sitting with you. All night, if that's what it takes."
She looked over at Rick, anger flickering in her eyes. "My father was in the military. You know how that is, I imagine. My mother was passive expect when it came to my sister."
Rick nodded in understanding and stayed silent, listening.
"Lot of dead people in my direct family now. Dad died fighting, Mom died chasing down my sister after she ran away. I was caught in between it all."
Rick still kept silent, not wanting to interrupt such a rare burst of openness. He merely nodded again to show he had heard.
She looked over at Rick, uneasy at his silence.
"I don't know what else to tell you."
"Well…I guess they taught you, somewhere along the line, that you can never show weakness. I've been there, my dad was a veteran too and he didn't tolerate us showin' our feelings very often. But he had it all wrong, and I think your folks did too–no disrespect to them, acourse."
Charlotte snorted. "Disrespect all you want. Both my parents were idiots," she told Rick bitterly.
The words, however, felt acrid on her tongue— she knew it wasn't true. She just wanted to end the conversation.
Rick sighed. "I'll have to take your word for that. Either way–"
But just then there was a rustle from the darkness nearby. A minute later, Slash reappeared, a smallish deer hanging limply from his mouth. He dropped it and turned back into a human, looking tired and dirt-smudged and triumphant.
"I did it," he said. "I hunted. Bet you didn't expect me to find anything, huh?"
Charlotte looked down at the deer, then back up at Slash. "You are the king of my world," Charlotte deadpanned, then stood up to get to work on the deer.
Slash looked genuinely unsure whether to take her seriously or not. Rick sighed and went back to stoke up the fire. "Thank-you, Slash, that's just what we needed. How much of that is actually ours, though? I know you growin' boys have to eat a lot of red meat."
Slash eyed the deer critically, as if imagining it cut up into portions. "I'll take…..the head and the legs, I guess. You guys can't hunt for yourselves, so you need the best parts to stay strong." He said all this as if it was obvious.
(WHAT A SWEETHEART)
Charlotte nodded, humouring him. "That's very thoughtful of you."
She pulled her longest knife from her bag. "Are we doing this civilly or not?"
(lol ikr XDD)
Rick shrugged. "I think you're the only one of us that could pass for civilized, to be honest. Whatever's quickest and easiest is fine with me."
She nodded. "I'll cut his head off first, and make sure you get as much of the muscle and nerves as possible. We'll have to keep the pelt and the hoofs, so that has to come off second. I'll have to chop through the bones of its legs though, which might take a minute. You can have most of its organs, humans don't digest them well. Sound okay?"
Slash nodded, staring at the deer hungrily.
Rick finished adding wood to the fire and glanced at Charlotte. "Need any help with all that, or would you rather I start setting up everyone's sleeping arrangements?"
She shook her head. "I've got this," she told him with unintended sharpness. It wasn't him, it was the fact she'd told him so much.
But she was too proud to apologise.