WITH YOU | TWD

[8] DIFFERENT OPINION

"Son of a bitch." said Shane.

He was right in front of her, helping to clean the little cut she had on her lower lip. Charlie shut her eyes at the stingy feeling in her mouth. She was sure that Ed went easy on her or he was just too exhausted because she was almost sure that he could do it better. Not once did one of her brothers hit her harder than Ed, over more stupid things.

Once she was wrestling with her older brother- Luke, when she was probably eight. A series of unfortunate events led her to a place where she was unconscious on the ground after his knee hit her right into the nose. There was blood everywhere, on her face, clothes, snow white rug- everywhere. And they probably fighting about something stupid like a TV remote or the last cookie.

"Long time I didn't feel that pain," she said but yelped in pain as she moved her jaw.

"I would recommend something cold for your cheek," he answered. "Let me help you with that," Shane said quietly, his voice betraying the unease he felt.

His touch was gentle as he cleaned the cut on her face, his fingers lingering longer than necessary, sending a jolt of electricity through her - for so long no one touched her that way. Shane's hands paused for a moment, his eyes meeting hers in a silent plea for understanding. In that fleeting moment, Charlie saw the pain and regret etched in his features.

"It's okay." she shook her head. "Four brothers, remember?"

Charlie snorted and took material from his hands, trying to clean the cut herself, because she felt that the cop was too delicate with it. Also, she felt some dry blood on her chin and that was disgusting to walk around with it.

Shane chuckled and looked down, just to look up at her again through his long lashes. Oh, classic flirt. If he looked like that at Lori, then she wouldn't be surprised that she decided to use his shoulder to cry into it.

"I'm really sorry that that happened to you," he said.

"You should see the other one." she joked.

And Shane chuckled too, knowing good damn well what happened to the other one- and he for sure looked much worse than Charlie.

"What happened?" Lori gasped, walking up to her and examining her face.

It was a very motherly gesture. Her hands were on her face, holding it gently and looking at the bruises. Her big eyes were radiating with worry. It was a nice feeling that someone was worried about you, especially in times like that.

"I had a different opinion than Ed." she shrugged.

Shane once again chuckled at her words and Lori looked at him with anger. Then she saw his T-shirt was in blood, just like his knuckles. Lori furrowed her eyebrows at him, knowing exactly what Ed received for his different opinion.

"I also had a different opinion than Ed." he winked at Charlie.

She wanted to smile, but as her muscles moved her cheek and lower lip were in pain, so instead she just nodded her head, making Lori sigh. Charlie for the first time saw a normal human in Shane, a man that he probably was before the turn. He was smiling and joking, he looked as if he had forgotten about what was going on around the world.

"Rick is out to save one of our people and you two got in a fight?"

"That would have been Carol," Charlie said.

"And you think you saved her?" she raised her eyebrow and got up as she couldn't help Charlie in any way.

Shane looked after her and sighed. Then he moved his eyes to Charlie and touched her arm."Try to not have a different opinion than him anymore, okay?"