{14th Gunshot; Text}

[littlesurvivor]

Lee's stuff is gone. I can't find him. I just figured I should let people know in case they had any plans with him.

[It's not that she wants pity. She just wants to let people know so they are aware in case they had any arrangements with him. Though of course Clementine isn't taking this well. Knowing what he has to go home to. It hurts. More than when Jack or any of the others she has known went home. Because he was the one familiar thing in all of this. Still, all she can do is keep going. Which is what she tells herself as she stands at the doorway of what was supposed to be his room. It doesn't help the guilt and pain of losing him once again, doesn't lessen it even as she knows she was lucky to get any time at all with him after what went down back home.]

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[action]

[littlesurvivor]

[Her fingers clutch at the back of his shirt, her shoulders shaking as she cries. It takes a lot to break her like this, but losing Lee, the one properly familiar face, the one she never imagined getting the chance to see again at all, that would do it.]

It....was hard enough to...to lose him the first time.

[Not that she isn't grateful for the second chance. But in a way this is almost more painful. Part of her wishes he was never here if it was only to be taken away like this, having him around and comforted by that once more. To again be separated by something out of her control.]

[beforethewar]

[His eyes squeeze shut and he simply keeps a tight hold of her, resting his cheek against her head.]

And just when you think he's alive and well and with you again, it all gets ripped away from you.

I know there are people who would say that at least you had that extra time, but from personal experience, it just hurts more. Like re-opening a wound that had just begun to form a scar.

[littlesurvivor]

I...I'm glad I got to see him again at all. But it still hurts. I thought I'd come to accept it, him being back and then this. If we were given a choice to stay...I'd have wanted to, with Lee.

[That's what hurts the most. The possibility of a proper second chance that was cut short before being potentially realized. Eight of all people could understand that, after everything with Charley.]

[beforethewar]

[He understands all too well. It's actually worse than never having seen them again at all. At least, for those left behind.]

I understand that completely. I wouldn't mind staying here and avoiding what I have coming as well, and if I could have the people I love here and spared what's coming as well, I would.

I'm sorry I don't have any comforting words for you. Sometimes...there just is no way to make it better.

[littlesurvivor]

No. Sometimes there isn't.

[Which hurts to admit, but she knows it is true. Knows he is right there. She's known it perhaps earlier than she should have, still being so young and realistic sometimes to a fault after everything she has been through. Even if part of her wants reassurance in some small way, she's also appreciative that he's not coddling her the way most adults would. He never has. Has always been honest with her.]