the great war (r.g)

ten

there they were. cora and rick sitting on the bench on deanna's back patio. it was nighttime, the only source of light was the light coming from the party that was raging inside. being the only two people in the back, in the dark, it felt as if cora and rick were the only two people in the world.

there they were. faces, lips, inches from one another, in the idyllic ambiance of the back yard. cora's heartbeat sped up as they hovered near eachother, foreheads touching. her eyelashes fluttered once she realized ricks hand was rested on her knee. slowly, he lifted his other hand to cora's cheek. this small movement gave her the need to shut her eyes.

"mom!" izzy's voice punctured their silence like a needle scratching a record. she was yelling.

cora turned her head and quickly stood up to face where izzy's voice came through the dark. across the yard, towards the wall, cora heard running foot steps. moments later, enid emerged from the darkness with an arm around izzy's shoulder like a crutch. "what happened?" cora said as she rushed to support izzy's other side, rick trailing behind her.

"we got bored of being around all the adults so we went to explore the woods," izzy said, wincing every time she put pressure on her left foot. "we climbed into a tree and were just sitting in it when the branch i was sitting on snapped and i fell." cora tried her hardest to conceal a chuckle. her daughter was not the most graceful person out there.

"it was all my idea. i-" enid said, trying to take blame.

"i'm not mad at you guys. i'm just happy you didnt come across any walkers," cora said they lowered izzy onto the bench rick and her were sitting on minutes ago.

"where's carl and judith?" rick asked.

"somewhere inside. judith fell asleep so carl took her to a room. we didn't feel like watching her sleep," enid told him. rick thanked her and walked inside, but not before he and cora nodded at each other. a silent goodbye.

"enid, can you go inside and grab anything from deanna's freezer? like a bag of frozen peas or something. and if she has and saran wrap, grab that too. try to be discreet about it," cora asked enid. the girl nodded and disappeared inside. "it looks like a high ankle sprain," cora said, this time to izzy. "it's pretty swollen right now but it'll gone down once we ice and elevate it." cora took a few of the throw pillows on the bench and stacked them for izzy's foot.

"so," izzy started. "i saw yo-"

"no," cora cut her off. "i dont think you saw anything."

"oh come on," izzy groaned. "i know wh-"

"you dont know. just sit there and be a quiet patient," cora smiled and patted izzy on the shoulder. soon enough, enid come out of the house with a bag of frozen veggies and rope of some sort.

"there was no saran wrap and i figured you were going to use it to hold the veggies in place so i grabbed some rope. if it works," enid told her.

"this will be perfect," cora grabbed the supplies from enid and went to work on izzy's ankle.

once she was done, rick walked outside. "i sent carl home with judith," he said to the group. "can i help?" this was to cora.

"do you think you can carry her to the infirmary?"

***

"should you be doing this?" izzy asked from where she was sitting on the exam table.

cora was currently standing on a chair, going through the top of of the medicine cabinets. the same cabinets that were previously locked. "its fine. if they think i shouldn't be doing this, we will just say it was an emergency and we couldn't find the doctor." cora stepped down off the chair with the pain meds she was looking for. she dumped two pills into her hand and handed them to izzy. "nothing fancy, just ibuprofen. it should help though."

"now that i'm okay," izzy said. she jumped off the table with the help of the crutches cora found in a closet. "can we please talk about..."

"no we cannot because i don't know what you were talking about." cora walked out of the room to join enid and rick outside before izzy could say anything else.

obviously, cora knew what izzy wanted to talk about. cora, however, had no desire to talk about what did not happen. what should definitely not happen. in this world, cora could not risk feeling about someone the way she was starting to feel about rick.

enid fell back in line with izzy, rick led the way to their houses, and cora awkwardly held up the end of their group. cora didn't know why it was awkward, but it was. cora hated it.

once they were all back at the house, cora ordered izzy to go right to bed and to try to keep her ankle elevated. enid stayed the night to make sure izzy would listen to her directions.

cora couldn't sleep, it was becoming an every night thing. she sat on the porch with whatever book or magazine or drink she could find. some nights rick joined her, or maggie. tonight, it was maggie. "hey," maggie greeted her. she had two mugs in her hands that smelled like tea. she silently handed cora one, who graciously took it. "you disappeared from the party pretty early."

"yeah," cora took a sip of her drink. it was chamomile. it normally was, it helps you sleep. sometimes, though, maggie makes green tea because she knew cora preferred it. "izzy and enid snuck out of the wall and sprained her ankle."

"oh no, is she okay?" maggie asked.

"yeah, shes fine," cora told her. the two sat in silence for a bit, drinking their teas, just watching the peaceful alexandria night.

"what's wrong," maggie asked. cora opened her moth to respond, but maggie interrupted her. "tell me the truth, please."

"uhm," cora started but started to laugh a little. "rick and i. we may have almost kissed."

"what?" maggie exclaimed. cora shushed her but it was unsuccessful as they both broke into laughter. "please. i need you to explain." cora told her the whole story from start to finish. "do you think you wanted to or was it just the champagne?"

"i think i wanted to. but the champagne helped," she told maggie. it was true, mostly. at least cora believed the champagne helped.

maggie and cora sat outside like that, talking about everything that was going on, until it was morning. when the two went back inside, carl was already awake and making breakfast.