Bad to the bone (Carl and Bridgette)

Carl was patrolling the prison interior for what felt like the hundredth time today but it was his duty today to protect the weak and the helpless in case a Walker got in. That might make it sound important but when there were at least three other lines of defence for any Walker to get through first? Yeah it tended to lose a lot of the threat.

So instead he had made a little game up for himself.

Some of the teenage girls in the civilian areas seemed to have taken a shine to his 'bad ass' personality and he rather enjoyed the attention. He, of course, didn't mention at any point that he was only thirteen. They all thought he was years older due to his badass personality and that was fine by him.

Of course the concerned mothers and over-bearing parental figures in the civilian camp had made it their duty to keep his growing fan club from getting close to him.

Apparently he'd be a bad influence.

Smirking a little bit, he leant up against the entrance to the civilian area, enjoying the way the grown ups were muttering amongst themselves about demanding he leave.

But they wouldn't.

They never did.

Bridgette had been enjoying a small break from her lessons with Carol about fighting with some of the other adults she had grown close to in the prison. Most of them were from Woodbury but she did enjoy spending time with Hershel because he in some ways reminded her a lot of her grandfather and she liked to be able to tend the soil with him and help him to grow plants.

Today though they didn't need to work on the plants at all because they had done so yesterday and Hershel had already watered them.

So, that was why Bridgette had decided to do some of her own work in the big communal area, she was writing and speaking her French so that she would not get out of practice. Speaking only English was tough on her sometimes because she did not know the words for many things, her father would have normally helped her to communicate but...

He was gone.

Seeing that the boy, Carl was on duty today watching over the living area, Bridgette got up from her seat and decided to go and say hello. She hadn't had the chance to before because everyone stopped her, but, she was going to say hello today. Bridgette thought Carl must be lonely, if nobody wanted anyone to talk to him.

"Hello." Bridgette smiled gently as she reached him, her accent made her voice a little melodious "You look very lonely over 'ere."

Carl could see a girl coming towards him and he chuckled a little bit, fully expecting some adult to rush out of a cell to drag her away from him. So he closed his eyes again and went back to resting against the door frame.

Which was why it came as a surprise when she actually spoke to him from rather close by. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times. She sure was close actually. He glanced over her shoulder, honestly expecting someone to be dragging her away any second now,

"Hi..." he greeted her slowly before blinking, "Don't take this the wrong way but... why are you talking to me?"

He scratched the back of his head and smirked a little bit,

"Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely enjoying you talking to me. You have a lovely voice." he told her before nodding to some glaring parents, "But normally a girl's parents would have dragged her away by now."

Bridgette smiled warmly at Carl when he seemed surprised that she was talking to him, honestly she thought it was mean the way that other people seemed to want to discourage their children from talking to him. It wasn't like he had done anything evil, and he did not seem like a horrible person to her.

Sometimes he seemed a lot more grown up than he should be but then again, every body now had some burden to shoulder, and they made them a lot less likely to be happy and full of childish joy than if their shoulders were lighter.

"Because you look lonely over 'ere." she stated with a grin "And I was lonely over t'ere. So we can both not be lonely together, eh?"

When he complimented her voice Bridgette smiled brightly; "Merci, I 'ave not lost my accent just yet."

Biting her lip softly, Bridgette did not like to talk about her parents normally because it made her so upset but, it would be rude to just ignore what Carl had said; "Well you are in luck t'ere, I 'ave no parents any more. The other women who look after me are all busy so."

Carl had to admit that it was both shocking and... strangely comforting that she was willing to talk to him like this. He hadn't really had a lot of conversation with people his own age in a while now. Beth was off trying to be all adult and she took that to mean that she had to stop talking to him. Apparently the year difference in their ages meant that he wasn't an adult but she was.

Stuck up witch.

When she said that he had looked lonely he stiffened up a little bit. He thought he had hidden his loneliness pretty damn well all things considered. But apparently he hadn't done such an amazing job at it if she was able to see it,

"Well these are pretty lonely times." he admitted with a little chuckle, "It's not like before where you could walk across the street and find new people to talk to. Here we're all kind of pushed together and yet nobody seems to have time to talk anymore."

He chuckled a little bit and shook his head,

"Of course you haven't. I get the feeling you never will."

When she bite her lip he winced a little bit, already having guessed what she was going to say before she actually had to say it. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze,

"If I had to chose between a new friend and you having your parents again... I'd still be alone but happy knowing you weren't."

Bridgette was surprised by the reply that Carl gave to her statement, it was a very mature one and it made her smile softly. She was right that he had been old beyond his years like herself. On reflection the rest of the children just seemed content to be as childlike as possible in this world, they had lost much like her but they were handling it in a different manner to the way she was.

She wanted to be able to learn how to hold a gun, how to shoot, where to stab and slash to protect and defend herself. To defend anybody she came to be close to. Carol was helping her do that.

"I think zat many people are still very much stuck in zere groups." she stated with a small nod "I know that many of zee women from Woodbury do not talk to zee women from your group. I think zat is silly." Bridgette commented with a little shrug.

When Carl placed his hand on her shoulder Bridgette smiled brightly and returned the gesture to him as well;

"Everybody 'as lost someone, I am no different from anyone else." she stated with a little sigh "I t'ink zat my parents would be 'appy that I have made a new friend to help me. My name is Bridgette, by zee way."

Looking at the rather nice hat that Carl was wearing, Bridgette wondered where he had gotten it from but she did not want to ask, so many things were personal here that she didn't want to bring up bad memories by asking him. Instead, she asked something else;

"It looks like it is fun to be guarding everybody, I would like to 'elp sometime."

Carl had to admit that sometimes he missed being a kid in his heart as well as in his years but for the most part he realised that this was something he had to do. He had to grow the fuck up. There was no room for children in a world where humans killed humans and Walkers ate the living. There was no more chance to play childish games. The games being played now had life and death as the stakes.

He nodded in agreement at her little assessment. There had been little 'clans' that had formed and the divide was clearly between those who came from Woodbury and those who had been members of the Prison group from day one,

"Of course... the groups are familiar and the larger group is scary and new to them." he muttered quietly to himself, shaking his head slightly, "I've never gotten people like that to be fair so I'm not at all surprised when they do stupid things."

He nodded a little bit when she said that everyone had lost someone. Carl knew of no one who had managed to escape all of this carnage with an intact family or something like that. Everyone suffered, no exceptions,

"Nice to meet you Bridgette." he greeted her with a small salute, "I'm Carl Grimes."

He tugged on the lip of his sheriff's hat. To be fair the hat was something he was growing into and not just in terms of physical size. He felt that the more he guarded people the closer he was getting to actually being like a police officer. Like his dad,

"Well sometimes it is... I'd sure like your company though." he told her with a smile, "I can ask around and see if you can join me if you like."

Bridgette had to admit that she thought that it was stupid that people did not want to get along together and club together so that they might be able to make the most of a bad situation. It would be better for everyone if they all worked together instead of pulling apart in separate groups, but then again they wouldn't listen to her even if she said that.

She was just a child after all, what did she know?

"It is frus...frustrating? If we tell zem what we t'ink then they dismiss it because we are only children. Sometimes I t'ink that children can 'ave zee best ideas." Bridgette grinned happily, sometimes you needed imagination and a younger take on things.

Of course she already knew Carl's name, all the girls talked about him after all;

"I already know your name, all of zee other girls from Woodbury talk about you all zee time. It is all I 'ere some days." Bridgette laughed softly "Zey all have crushes on you, but zey are not subtle, so I suppose that you know about it."

Nodding her head eagerly Bridgette clapped her hands together in happiness;

"I would like to be more useful to zee group, Carole is teaching me 'ow to use zee knives and 'ow to hold a gun, I am good at it she tells me!" Bridgette stated proudly, although her accent meant that Carol's name came out a little bit differently than the Americans would say it, but Carol seemed to like it.

Carl knew that his dad was doing the best he could to try and bridge the gap between the little clans while at the same time scavenging the surrounding area for food and supplies enough to feed and clothe them all. It was a tough job and he knew his dad hated it. But not as much as Carl sometimes hated the fact that it was his dad who had to do it. He respected his dad for achieving something this big and keeping the entire community together.

His respect for his father had reached all new heights even.

But he hated the fact that more and more he was becoming Rick The Leader... and not Rick The Father,

"Yes well that's what adults do all the time right?" he asked with a chuckle, "If they hear some uncomfortable truth from a kid they can just laugh it off and pat us on the head and send us on our way."

When she said that the girls from Woodbury talked about him all the time he couldn't help but feel his chest swell slightly. It was hard not to have your ego stroked by something like that to be fair though. He chuckled a little bit and scratched the back of his head,

"Yeah I might have heard some things about that..." he admitted before blushing a little bit, "They sometimes get very vocal at night... it's... distracting from my night watch."

He grinned a little bit and reached round his back and pulled out his non-silenced pistol. Checking it had the safety on and no round in the chamber, he handed it to her handle first,

"Well there you go then, you can have 'lil sophia'." he told her with a grin, "She's a reliable gun... bit loud but she's fast to fire. Never jammed on me yet. Now she won't jam for you."

Bridgette nodded her head and pouted a little bit she was upset that was what happened to her more often than not, she didn't want to have to constantly be talked down to when she had suffered and seen as much as all of the adults had. Of course she shouldn't be making any decisions but she was sure that they should be taking her views seriously at least.

Just because she was younger, and she didn't have as many years or inches under her belt did not mean that it was fair to ignore her.

"I know it is so annoying right?" she stated with a sigh "Zey will realize one day zat we 'ave some pretty good ideas and zey should 'ave listened to us!"

Of course Bridgette thought that it was wise to actually talk to a person before you got a crush on them and started to say the things the other girls were saying about Carl. Now that she had talked to him she realised he was a little different than they thought he was, he seemed sweet to her, very kind and not cold at all.

"Per'aps you should ask to swap your watches. Or I could go with you and we could talk to drown out zee noise instead of listening to it." she teased softly.

When Carl gave her his gun, Bridgette took it and held it in both hands, examining it with a reverence that she actually had her own gun now!

"You do not 'ave to do zis you know Carl, you might need zee gun yourself!" Bridgette stated with a soft blush "But I would be 'appy to take it, if you were sure you did not need it...but, why is she called 'Lil' Sophia'?" she asked with a furrow of her brow, confusion on her features.

Carl had to admit that he didn't really see it happening. He didn't see the adults ever admitting that they had a point until they were the adults themselves and so they were the ones making the decisions and coming up with the ideas. He chuckled a little bit. And that wasn't going to be for a few more years at the very least. Or until all the responsible adults were dead.

Whichever came first seeing as both were pretty likely to occur.

"Yeah well they'll either be in the ground or we'll be in our twenties before that happens I reckon you know." he told her slightly reluctantly before admitting, "My dad would give up his position tomorrow... but there's no one here who can keep the group as solid as it is and as alive. I mean there are problems sure but they'd be a heck of a lot worse with anyone else."

He chuckled a little bit at her teasing and winked back at her,

"You promise?" he teased her before shaking his head slightly, "Well maybe night watches can be yours sometimes? God knows I could do with sleeping during the night occasionally."

Seeing her looking so proudly at her gun, he smiled a little bit and handed her the ammo that he had for Lil Sophia. When she asked about him needing a gun he smirked and pulled out the revolver he had attached a home-made silencer too,

"This is Biggun." he told her with a small smirk before shaking his head a little bit, "There was a girl in our group called Sophia. She went missing and we tried to find her... turned out she had become a Walker weeks ago before we found her. The gun was the one I was given during our searches."

Bridgette was enjoying her conversation with Carl and she took the ammo from him that he offered her for the gun, to be honest she felt a lot safer already now that she had something like this. Of course she remembered what Carol had told her and that she could only use guns in an emergency but at least she had one to use when the time came to it.

All the adults would take the guns for themselves and leave none for them! Then where would they be? Stuck depending on adults who might not be able to do as good a job as they could.

"Oh no, 'ow horrible." she whispered softly "Zat poor girl, I bet her mother was so sad zat you 'ad spent all that time looking for no reason. I am sorry zat your friend got 'urt like that Carl, it is never easy to lose someone."

Of course she was going to continue the conversation but one of the women who was looking after her, Sarah came up behind her and grabbed her shoulder, obviously displeased that she was talking to Carl instead of doing something mindlessly boring and dull.

"Bridge! What are you doing? You should be practicing your maths like we agreed you would do, remember?" Sarah stated forcefully despite never telling Bridgette that she should practice her maths at all "You can talk to your friend after you have finished your work now come on."

Grabbing her hand Sarah began to pull Bridgette away from Carl;

"Ah, bye Carl, I will speak to you again soon. Au Revoir!" she called, waving her hand in his direction before scowling at Sarah for being so rude and taking her away from her new found rather lovely friend, but she was just muttering about how Carl was a bad boy for giving her a gun.