FOUND LANDS.

chapter sixteen, no control.
[ season five, episode fifteen ]

"HELP! I NEED HELP!" That is all it takes for Theo to come flying down the steps of their home. He rushes to the van where Eugene and Glenn are rapidly working to grab Tara.

Theo's eyes land on Odessa. She's slumped against the inside of the van, her eyes screwed shut. Her skin is a pasty white, sweat rolls down her face.

His eyes then fall to the blood that surrounds her. It all over her and the van. The shirt she held against her side fell when she passed out.

"Grab her, Theo!" Glenn demands as he and Eugene rush Tara to the infirmary. He jumps into the van and hauls Odessa into his arms. He glances at Nicholas, he sits with his knees pulled to his chest and bruise on his face.

Then he notices someone missing.

"Where's Noah?" He asks Nicholas. He doesn't answer. "Nicholas! Where the hell is Noah?"

Theo gets his answer when Nicholas shakes his head softly. Theo lets out a small gasp but he has no time to mourn right now.

He needs to get Odessa to the infirmary.

So that what he does.

As soon as he enters, Pete is already ordering him around. "Lay her on the bed!"

He does everything Pete tells him to. He assumes Glenn's already told Pete what's happened to her because as soon as he gets to Odessa he already has everything he need prepared.

Theo steps back, real panic is on his face. He watches as Pete cuts Odessa's shirt with surgical scissors.

The door bursts open. Theo turns his head to see Rick and Carl standing at the door. Carl is utterly distraught. Rick just looks at his little girl.

She's lost too much blood.

"She needs blood," Pete looks up at the two. "What's her blood type, Rick?"

"A— A positive. Like me," Rick answers.

"Okay," Pete nods. "I'm gonna need you to sit down. I need to prep you for blood extraction."

Pete cleans Rick's arm and extracts his blood. After he takes two pints from Rick and one from Carl, he clips the I.V. to a stand and allows the blood to enter Odessa.

Then he moves to her side. Theo watches as Pete cleans the area of the wound. He gasps when he sees it.

The wound is bigger than Theo expected. It's deep, extremely deep. It's at least six inches long and four inches wide.

"She's lucky," Pete speaks up. "Couple centimeters higher and it would've hit her liver. There would be no saving her then."

He stitches her wound and tells Rick she has to stay over night. So Carl sits by the gurney all night. Rick tells Carl he'll be back soon. Theo stares at the girl.

"She doesn't know," he whispers. Carl looks back at him with confused eyes. "She doesn't know about Noah."

Carl frowns. Noah had become a close friend of them all. But especially Odessa. They bonded over Beth. They grew closer than anyone expected. And now they would have to tell Odessa what happened when she wakes.

The next morning, Odessa comes to. She groans and Carl's head snaps up from where he fell asleep with his head on the bed.

She attempts to move but Carl quickly stops her. She looks at him with squinted eyes, "Carl?"

"Yeah," he smiles.

She groans at the pain in her body. "Where are we?" She asks.

"Infirmary," he answers. "I'm gonna go find Dad and Glenn, okay?" She nods and he leaves.

Odessa looks around the infirmary and her eyes land on Tara. She's hooked to an I.V. and has bandages wrapped around her head.

Then she remembers what happened.

The explosion, Tara's head trauma, the metal in her side, her fight with the walkers and ripping the metal out of her body. Aiden is dead, she knows that.

She jumps when Carl, Rick, and Glenn rush into the infirmary. "Dessa," Rick comes to her side. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I had an eight inch piece of metal stuck in my side yesterday," she tells him. He sighs and bows his head.

He then looks back at Glenn and he nods. Rick leans over Odessa and kisses her forehead. "I love you." He tells her.

"I love you, too, Dad." She tells him. Carl kisses her head and he and Rick leave. They stay on the porch though. They know Odessa will need them in a few minutes. 

Odessa watches Glenn carefully as he walks forward and sits in the chair Carl sat in all night. "What?" She asks quietly. "What happened?"

Glenn takes a deep breath. He takes her hand. "Noah..." he can't look her in the eyes.

Tears spring in her blue eyes. "No," she whimpers. "No." Her head falls back on the pillow. She takes her hand from Glenn's and hides her face.

Glenn's eyes well with tears as Odessa sobs. "What happened?" She asks him, her voice breaks around the edges. Glenn's heart breaks.

"We were trapped in a revolving door. Nicholas was in one side, me and Noah were in the other. Walker were on both sides of us. I gonna break the glass... I— I was trying to break the glass." Glenn mutters. "Nicholas started to push and he got out. It opened our part of the door. The walkers... they— they took Noah right from me. He di— died right in front of me."

Odessa gasps weakly at the story. Noah was killed. Her friend is dead. Nicholas is the reason her friend died.

"Nicholas, is he alive?" Odessa questions. Glenn nods. "You have to kill him, Glenn. He doesn't get to live with that. He's going to get the rest of us killed."

"I know. I know," Glenn says. He takes Odessa's hand again and presses it to his forehead. "I'm sorry, Des. I'm so sorry."

"So am I," she says sadly.

Pete comes in and releases her. He leaves as soon as he tells her she can go. She stands slowly and winces at the pain in her body. Carl helps her. Rick has run off to Jessie's house. Carl doesn't know why their father is so obsessed with the woman. It makes him uncomfortable. They don't need a new mother.

As the two siblings, walk towards their house, glass shatters. They share a look. "Go!" Odessa orders. Carl takes off. Odessa limps as fast as she can to the scene.

She stops dead in her tracks.

In the middle of her street, her father is on top of Pete. She can't do anything. She snaps back into her senses when Pete is on top of Rick.

Theo surges forward, "get off of him!" He tries to pull Pete off but the man hits him in the face. Theo falls flat on his back. Jessie moves to help the boy up.

"Stop it!" Theo yells.

Carl runs forward and grabs their father, "Dad, get off!" He shoves Carl away and just as Theo did, he falls on his back. Odessa helps her baby brother up.

"Dad, stop it!" Odessa screams. "You're gonna kill him!"

Rick can't seem to hear either of his children. He gets Pete in a chokehold and keeps him there until he hears Deanna's voice. "Stop it!"

"Touch 'em again and I'll kill you." Rick tells Pete lowly.

"Damnit, Rick! I said stop!" Deanna, Tobin, Nicholas, and Glenn all step forward.

At this, Rick pulls out a gun. Odessa's eyes widen. Carl gasps from where he still stands with Odessa's hand wrapped around his arm.

"Or what? You gonna kick me out?" Rick asks.

They all stop in their tracks. Deanna puts her hands out to show she means no harm. "Put that gun down, Rick."

Cole finally comes to the scene. He stands beside Theo who is watching Pete carefully to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

"You still don't get it." Rick starts. "None of you do!" He shouts. "We know what needs to be done and we do it. We're the ones who live. You, you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend like you know when you don't! You wish things weren't what they are. Well, you wanna live? You want this place to stay standing. Your way of doing things is done! Things don't get better because you— you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the real world. We have to control who lives here."

"That's never been more clear to me than it is right now." Deanna says. Odessa's eyes snap to her.

"Me? Me? You," Rick laughs , "you mean— you mean me? Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed. It's already gotten people killed. And I'm not gonna stand by and just watch it happen. If you don't fight, you die. I'm not gonna stand by—"

"Oh!" Odessa jumps when Michonne knocks her dad smooth out. "Ouch." She winces.

Michonne looks around at everyone. "What're you starin' at?"

Theo grins at her authority.

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word count: 1,515

odessa knows about noah now :((. my poor girl just keeps losing the people she loves. but she's strong. she'll make it through, i promise y'all.

her and glenn share such a close brother/sister bond. i love them so much it hurts. them crying together just show how much they love and care about each other.

also theo's reaction to seeing dessa. he was so scared for her. and then finding out about noah at the same time too. poor, poor theo blake.

carl loves his big sister so much. he stayed with her all night, unlike rick. step up your dad game, dude! worry about your own children for once!! one of them almost died. jeez.

i'm jp, guys. i love rick. but he does need to dad it up some. he knows odessa is strong but she's still only seventeen. she's needs her dad, especially now.

but there's one more chapter in act one!!!!