It all came back in sudden clarity then - all the moments in flashes from the past couple of days: taking silly pictures together while laughing like crazy, eating the stash of Big Cat bars we'd saved up from supply runs but one moment stuck out to me the most...

~ Flashback ~

Grinning, I pushed a hand deep into the bucket of blue paint, Carl's next to mine. Slowly then, we pulled them back out. My gaze met Carl's serious expression and my lips pulled down into a frown of confusion.

"What?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You...you look like Smurfette," he said somberly.

I glared back at him before finally, his resolve melted and he broke out into a fit of laughter. I tried to hold my own it in but evidently failing, burst out laughing, too then before we both slapped our hands down onto the porch of the house we shared.

"Okay, on the count of three: one, two, three!" Carl called out and smiling like idiots, we pulled our hands away.

A grin split my face and I leaned into Carl's shoulder, the both of us laughing as we admired our handiwork - two blue handprints forever imprinted onto the wood. I shook my head at our own childishness as the laughter subsided, just then glancing up into that beautiful blue eye. Gosh, I loved him. I really, truly loved him.

"Oh, my morning's coming back, the whole world's waking up, all the city buses swimming past," Bright Eyes sang out from the radio on the window seal, the lyrics drifting out into the summer air, "I'm happy just because...I found out I am really no one..."

His gaze met mine then and smiling, he leaned down to connect our lips. His mouth was soft and gentle as always, his hand slipping down to rest on my hip. I breathed in the scent of him - that intoxicating mix of chocolate and vanilla - before pulling away, our foreheads resting against each other's.

Carl sighed then, "I love you... I...I don't want you to ever forget that, okay? Never forget it,"

I titled my head to the side in confusion but instead of questioning him on it, I nodded and my hand came up to cup his cheek.

"I love you, too, Carl..." I told him softly before a smile tugged at my lips and I moved his hand to rest on my still-flat stomach, "How could I ever forget my love for you?"

He smiled back at me then but it didn't quite reach his eye, the expression on his face one of melancholy right before he leaned in for another kiss. But before he could, his eye widened and his mouth formed an 'O'. Slowly, his fingertips reached up to swipe across his cheek...and came back with blue fingers.

I grinned mischievously, "How odd! How ever could that have happened?...It's a good look for you, though - brings out your eye,"

He glared at me playfully as I got up off the floor of the porch, his sheriff's hat shielding him from the sun that streamed down on us.

"That's it! I won't stand for this injustice! You won't get away with this," he said, mock-angrily and I laughed out loud as he stood up.

With slow and steady footsteps, I walked up to him and looked him straight in the eye, a playful smile still plastered to his face.

"Well...I guess you're just gonna have to catch me then, sheriff." I shrugged lightly, flicking his sheriff's hat up with my index finger before racing the other way away from him.

He chuckled, a deep melodious sound that filled my ears as I heard him begin to chase after me through the house.

~ End of Flashback ~

"You knew..." I said quietly, my own voice sounding foreign to my ears as I pulled away from him to sit back, "You knew all along..."

His blue-eyed gaze met mine, guilt clear in his eye but he said nothing.

"I-I don't-" Rick started to say, tears in his ice-blue eyes as he gazed down at his only son.

"Dad," Carl tried to get his attention.

"How-" Rick started again before Carl cut him off this time.

"Dad, it's all right. It's gotta be... I wasn't sure if you'd make it back before..." Carl said finally, his chest heaving with ragged breaths as he fumbled around beside him before pulling out a stack of letters, "But just in case, you know I wanted to make sure I was able to say goodbye,"

He held the letters out to me and slowly, I took them into my own hands. I bit back a strangled cry that threatened to well up in my throat. This couldn't be happening! No, no, no, no, no!

"No... It's them, it's them. They-they don't...It wasn't-" Rick stumbled through his words, not able to form a coherent sentence due to his emotions.

I shook my head in disbelief, my eyes wide as I stared down at the letters. Carl's handwriting was atrocious as ever but I could still make out my name on one of them.

"Carl..." I breathed out, unable to speak.

"I got bit... I was bringing someone back. His name's Siddiq. We saw him at that gas station, before..." Carl explained to us, his voice breaking with emotion as he spoke, "It wasn't the Saviors... It just happened... I got bit."

Those three simple words were like knives to my heart and I felt the air leave my lungs, squeezing my eyes shut tight to keep the tears from flowing. Why? Why?!

Note: It was fun writing these cause I feel like you have the essence still and realization that Angel and Carl - no matter how much they've been through are just kids still.