THE REASON

chapter three : another grimes reunion
[ season five - episode one ]

   "I NEED TO tell her," Kloe whispered, loud enough for only Reina to hear as everyone in the group walked to the small cabin that Carol was leading them to. "I need to tell Brianna about Vick."

Reina twisted her head to the side to face the Rhee woman. "Have you told anyone what happened?" she quietly asked in the same volume.

Kloe stayed emotionless for a moment before shaking her head, biting down onto her bottom lip as she tried to suppress the tears that were threatening to show. She still couldn't get the image of the Parson woman lying dead in her arms.

"Only Maggie knows that Vickie is gone. She doesn't know the full story, though," Reina added, eyeing the group that were ahead of them. "Maybe you should tell someone soon, you know? Get it off your shoulders. You know it's not your fault."

Kloe silently scoffed at herself. "No matter how many times you tell me it's not my fault, it's not gonna change my mind, Rei," she told her.

Reina sighed, "I know. But someone needs to tell you directly in the face that it is not your fault, okay? None of it was your fault."

Glenn, being a few meters in front of the two women –– who were at the back –– peered over his shoulder, locking eyes with his wife. His brows then slightly frowned as both women looked ahead at him. "What's not your fault?" he asked innocently, confused with what Reina was telling Kloe.

Kloe and Reina both shared a glance with each other before Kloe turned back to face her husband. "I'll tell you later," she somewhat smiled, pushing herself forward so she was standing by his side.

"What does Carol wanna show us?" Glenn wondered as he stared at the woman he loved more than anything beside him with adoration. "Judging by the huge smile on her face, I'm guessing it's something good?"

"Good is an understatement," Kloe quietly chuckled. "Might not be a huge surprise for us, but it definitely will be for Rick and Carl." Glenn nodded his head and smiled. "Also, I didn't break my promise," she added with a grin.

He raised a brow and tilted his head to the side, unable to hold back his wife's contagious smile. His grin then turned into a wide smile, one that Kloe had rarely seen for a while. "Yeah, you found me. And I found you."

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, making her rest the side of her head against his shoulder as they continued to walk to the group's destination.

"You have absolutely no idea how much I'm fighting back the urge to just hug you and never let go, you know?" Kloe chuckled, lifting her head off his shoulder to look at him. "Now I know, that more or less a whole week without you is the exact same as torture."

"Once we find a place safe, I'm sure you can hug me for as long as you want," he said, watching the woman who was like a goddess with love-filled eyes. "And yeah, I know that too. I actually got punched a few times."

"Wait, what?" Kloe's jaw fell open. "By who?" Glenn chuckled and raised his index finger over to one of the newest members of the group. The one with red hair and mustache. "Abraham punched you? Why?"

"Well, I mean, I did kinda punch him first," he countered. "He drove me, Tara and Brianna three hours away from here while I was unconscious. Then I woke up, and I– I had to find you before anything. He kept trying to persuade me with Eugene having a cure and stuff. But–– you come first. Always."

Kloe couldn't help but smile. She bit down onto her bottom lip and looked down to the ground briefly before glancing back up with him with teasing eyes. "So you threw a punch at Abraham because he wouldn't let you go back to find me?"

"Well, that did piss me off. A lot, actually. But the thing that made me punch him was that he said you were most likely... I don't even wanna say it. But thanks to Eugene's poor aiming skills, we all walked back here. I saw your signs everywhere. Then we bumped into Maggie, Sasha, Bob and Zayn and went to Terminus."

Kloe listened to his explanation on what had happened while they were separated, and if she was honest –– she would've much preferred if her story was that simple.

How could she tell him that she completely lost her mind for a day and got Vickie Parson killed. How could she tell him that after Vickie died, she sprinted so fast that she collapsed onto the ground and dreamt about everyone she loved being either dead or disappointed in her, then staying unconscious for three whole days?

Just the thought made her smile fade away. "My story's pretty morbid," she stated, barely above a whisper. Glenn noticed his wife's bright smile fall into sadness, which made him rub her arm comfortingly.

"Why? What happened?" he questioned, concerned.

"First off... I didn't punch someone... I––" she cut herself off, staring down at the floor for a moment. "I wish I punched someone... would be much greater than shoving a knife and shooting an arrow into two people's heads..."

Glenn felt his heart fall at his wife's words. The love in his eyes was soon replaced with sympathy and sorrow. He swallowed thickly and immediately felt like engulfing his wife into the warmest comforting embrace.

"I'm the reason that Vickie isn't walking with us right now," she choked out in a whisper. Glenn frowned at his wife, as to why she blamed herself, despite not knowing what had happened to the woman. "A walker bit her because I wanted to check the damn prison bus. And–– and I had to do what she wanted me to do..."

"Hey, I'm assuming Reina already knows about this, right?" he inquired, earning a slow nod in return. "And she's probably told you that none of that was your fault. Listen to me, Klo. None of what you just told me was your fault. It's the world we live in now. There's no escaping it."

Unlike the numerous times when Reina told Kloe it wasn't her fault for the death of Vickie, Glenn being the one telling her it wasn't her fault affected her differently.

It comforted her. Being told by the person she cared about most in the entire world telling her that it wasn't her fault was exactly what she had needed.

"The arrow shooting into someone's head was at Terminus. She almost blew my freaking hand off and broke the walkie I was speaking to that asshole with," she added. "After... after she died, I was unconscious for three whole days––"

"What?" Glenn almost gasped, but stayed quiet, not wanting to catch the attention of the others. "Why?"

She shrugged, "Reina said it was the gunshot wound. Said it got infected. But the moment I woke up, I was on my feet and ready to find you. Nothing else mattered to me other than to find my family."

"Oh, shit, yeah, you're arm." He remembered, letting go of her shoulder and reaching down for her left arm. He lifted it up into his view, and examined it. There was a small white bandage wrapped around it.

"Reina managed to disinfect it, inject some shit into me and stitch it. All while I was out cold," she pointed out as she watched Glenn carefully unwrap the fabric.

Kloe watched as Glenn inspected the wound that was healing. It was a black thread that pulled the two pieces of ripped open skin together –– which then he realized that she would once again have another scar.

As if she could read his mind, she said, "My body can't get another scar again, right? I mean, this is what –– the fourth one? How the hell am I still alive? I've been shot, stabbed, strangled etcetera."

"It will stay that way," he replied, lifting his eyes up to hers. "I only have one thing to live for –– and that's making sure you don't get hurt. I feel like I'm failing."

"No, you're not, Glenn," she told him firmly, sliding her arm down his hand until it reached her hand. She held onto it and gave it a small squeeze. "You are not failing. I'm still here."

"Hey, guys," Reina called as she jogged forward, joining the married couple's side. She had a smirk on her lips. "Who the fuck is ready for one of the greatest reunions of all time?"

The edges of Kloe's lips rose as she whipped her head over to the front, where she saw a small cabin, whose door was getting closed after a familiar man and baby walked out of.

Tyreese and Judith. The man had numerous backpacks connected to his shoulders, one that was also Kloe's. Her smile went wide as she watched the Grimes' and Sasha rush forward after their family.

Rick and Carl had thought that the smallest member of their family was gone — after finding her carrier back at the prison smeared with the crimson red blood.

Kloe subconsciously dropped her hand out of her husband's as she took a step forward to join Carol's side. Reina followed her, setting her hand on her hip.

"Man, I love reunions," Reina muttered as she watched two families get together again. The Grimes' and the Williams'.

"Yeah. Me too," Kloe smiled, folding her arms over her chest. She swerved her neck and faced Carol. "You didn't go on another track, did you? You just followed us but went in another direction."

"Yup," Carol replied, her own smile plastering onto her lips as she shared a glance with the younger woman beside her. "We found one of the people that worked with Terminus. He told us what they were doing and I knew that you both were gonna be in trouble. Good thing we didn't arrive in an hour like you said, huh?"

Kloe chuckled, setting her eyes back onto Rick and his family. He was holding Judith closely, tears continuously falling out of his eyes as he kept his hand on the back of her head.

Carl stood beside his father, holding onto his baby sister's hand as he smiled brightly. Everyone in the group would be lying if they said they had seen the boy smile like that in the past half a year.

Tyreese and Sasha swayed side-to-side in each other's arms, both laughing and glad that they had found each other.

"You know..." Kloe started as Glenn set his hand on her shoulder, "this is actually the second time I've watched a heart-warming reunion with the Grimes'."

"Oh yeah? When was the first?" Reina inquired, a smile on her own lips. "This is one of my favorite things — watching people reunite with their families. It just brings me so much happiness..."

"The first time was the one camp we were with that I told you about. Back in Atlanta," Kloe answered. "But that first reunion wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for Glenn and I saving the dumbass in a goddamn tank."

"God, I remember that day every-day," Glenn spoke up, rubbing circles on the woman's red flannel covered shoulder. "We said dumbass a lot that day," he snickered.

"Yeah, it was. And why was that, huh?" She turned her neck to face that man beside her, grinning. "It started with you calling Rick a dumbass, then it was I calling you a dumbass for calling Rick a dumbass. Then once we saved him, I called you both a dumbass. And, best saved for last — and totally not in order — you called yourself a dumbass."

"Something must've changed. None of you look or act like dumbasses anymore," Reina commented, darting her eyes between the three dumbasses. "But hey, if anyone wants to refer to you three, they could always say The Dumbass Trio or somethin'."

"Great originality, Rei," Kloe laughed.

"I don't know if the fire's still burning," Rick Grimes spoke, causing the three to whip their heads over to him. They didn't even realize that the Grimes man had even walked away from his family reunion.

Everyone's eyes lifted up to the sky, which was where the dark gray smoke traveled in the air. There was a small baby noise coming from the side from Judith, making most of the group smile.

While looking up at the sky, someone at the bottom of Kloe's view caught her attention. Her heart dropped and she swallowed thickly when her eyes landed on her sister.

The teenage girl couldn't take her eyes off Kloe and the red flannel that belonged to her mother. Kloe could tell that Brianna had numerous confused thoughts.

Kloe promised herself that she would talk to the girl soon. She had to. Vickie was her mother — she deserved to know what had happened. She just dreaded the reaction she would receive from her.

"It is," Carol told Rick as he wiped his hands with a rag to get the dirt and blood off.

"Yeah, we need to go," Rick articulated, shoving the piece of rag into his pocket.

"But where?" Zayn wondered, his own squinted eyes trained on the smoke that Carol and his sister caused.

"Somewhere far away from there," he disclosed, pointing in the direction where Terminus was.

"He won't come after us," Kloe decided to speak up, catching Rick's and some others' attention. They all furrowed their brows with confusion. "I— I uh, spoke with him. Told him not to follow us."

"You spoke with him?" Daryl asked from beside Rick. "What'd you say?"

Kloe felt her heart clench ever so slightly as she remembered what she did to Gareth. She bit down onto her lip and shrugged. "Just— not to follow us."

"By doing what?" Rick then questioned, perplexed on how Kloe just spoke with the man that tried to kill all of them. "He didn't try to kill you?"

"Obviously he did that, Rick. He made it very clear that he wanted me dead, you didn't hear?"

"And what? He just let you go?" Jayce queried, raising his brows with skepticism.

She turned her head to face the man and tilted her head before she said, "I shoved a knife through his fucking hand against the wall and kicked him in the balls a few times."

"Oof, ouch," Zayn winced, shuddering at the thought. "Jesus, definitely not gonna mess with you anytime soon."

Kloe sent her brother a forced, tight-lipped smile. "And after... I just told him that he would regret following us. He listened because he didn't say anything. And that—" she scoffed, "that asshole is a douche that talks back."

"Not wrong there. His personality made me wanna punch him across the face repeatedly," Jayce chuckled, patting his friend on the shoulder. "But yeah, we should all probably go 'cause it's almost sundown. We need to find someplace safe to spend the night."

"You're right," Rick agreed, sharing a glance with everyone in the group. "Let's go."

...

After a ten minute walk, the group decided that it was probably best to stop by some places for food and water. Some of them had gone days without eating or drinking anything.

So they stopped by a creek. One that wasn't exactly clean water, but it was drinkable if they boiled it — which is what they planned on doing the second they found someplace safe.

Kloe had watched her younger sister depart from the group to be by herself and get her water alone. The Rhee woman gulped as she watched her, remembering that she was wearing the girl's mother's flannel.

She turned to her husband, letting him know that he was going to talk with Brianna, to which he just sympathetically smiled and nodded.

Usually she would've told almost everyone by now where the Parson woman had gone — they all just thought that she was another person worth looking for.

That wasn't the case.

Kloe was shocked at herself for not even telling Brianna yet. The only people that knew were herself, Reina, Maggie and Glenn. It was overwhelmingly painful.

She trod down a few rocks that led to the teen, who was crouched down with a plastic bottle in hand, collecting water from the stream. She took a deep breath as she slid the flannel off her shoulders, scrunching it up in her hands.

She took a few steps forward, stopping beside her sister. The girl didn't even notice she was there. "Hey, Brianna," Kloe spoke up in a low tone, not wanting to startle the girl.

Brianna looked over her shoulder, a solemn look in her eyes. "Hi," she replied neutrally. She drifted her eyes back down to the running water in front of her, her plastic bottle already filled with water.

"Your— your bottle's full," Kloe pointed out, noticing that Brianna was only trying to fill up an already filled piece of plastic.

"I know," she responded solemnly, her expression as stoic as ever. It was as if she knew — that she knew Kloe knew exactly what had happened to her mother. "Is that my mom's flannel?"

A lump formed in Kloe's throat. "Yes. Yes, it is." She crouched down beside the sixteen-year-old. If the sound of the water running wasn't the only sound filling the air at that moment, it would've definitely been an extremely awkward silence.

"And where is she? You have her flannel, but haven't said a single thing about her," Brianna mentioned as she adjusted the strap of her grubby yale blue tank top with her free hand.

Kloe ripped her eyes away from the side of her sister's face and stared down at the flowing water. Her heart race picked up almost instantly and her ears moderately rang.

"I heard Reina say that she was resting and that she misses me. Said that she was resting," Brianna continued. "I was expecting to see her when we saw Tyreese walk out of that cabin. But no. She wasn't there. So Reina lied."

There was a long silence for a while as Kloe tried to fight down the threatening tears that were about to fall out of her eyes. She avoided any eye contact with the girl as she fidgeted with the hems of the red flannel in her grasp.

Getting impatient with herself for not just saying what had happened to the girl's mother, Kloe extended out her arm with the flannel in her hand. "She wanted you to have this."

Brianna stared at the piece of clothing in Kloe's hand, her eyes not showing any sort of emotion. She glanced up at Kloe, and she immediately felt her throat close up when she saw the single tear that fell down her cheek.

"The last thing she said to me was that she wanted you to have this. And to tell you that she loves you so much," Kloe choked, still waiting for Brianna to take the flannel.

The Schmidt-Parson girl's bottom lip began to tremble as she continued to stare at the clothing. A tear managed to escape her eye socket, and she was no longer solemn.

"I'm sorry, Brianna..." Kloe muttered, trying to swallow down the all-too-familiar lump in her throat. "I'm so sorry. And not just because she was your mother, but because it was mostly my fault."

Brianna broke her glossy eyes away from the flannel and stared into Kloe's eyes. She furrowed her brows as more tears slithered down both of her cheeks. "Wh— what do you mean?"

"She— she wanted to protect me while I searched the prison bus. And she tried— she tried to talk me out of it but I was too stubborn," she stammered as she cried with her sister. "She died because she wanted to protect me, Brianna. I'm the reason she's not here with us right now. I'm the reason she isn't holding you in her arms, glad that you're safe."

Now, they were both a teary mess. "No... No, no, no. Tell me you're lying, Kloe. Tell me you're goddamn lying," Brianna sobbed through gritted teeth. Kloe could only shake her head.

Brianna set her plastic water bottle down beside her before she fell forward, her knees crashing onto the ground. She held her body up with her hands pressed against the ground as she stared at the water — at her reflection.

The moment Brianna realized that she would never see her mother ever again, she couldn't keep her cries in. She tried to cry, but she ran out of breath quickly and began hyperventilating.

Within an instant, Kloe reached forward and wrapped her arms around the teen. Brianna went weak, and she rested her head on Kloe's chest. Kloe rested on the ground as she ran her fingers through her sister's brunette hair.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Kloe whispered while sniffling.

"I'm sorry."

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words: 3514
30th march 2023
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I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATINGGGG
also i can't wait to update more bc I HAVE SO MUCH PLANNED YALL. idk if some of yall will like it, BUT I WILL-- jk. i'm not excited. honestly terrified LMFAO-

anwyway. i spelt that wrong but i cba to fix it. deal w it. 😼 (that emoji is so fkn ugly on pc WHWAT THE FUCJ)

ANYWAY. hope y'all enjoyed this chapter!

p.s. may i also warn you the amount of different emotions all of you (including me) will feel in this book is UNREAL.