**John Teller - MEC - Veronica/Buck**

As the girl started to break down, John felt the exact same pain she was feeling, but reacted differently. If he broke down with her, she couldn't be relying on him for moral support or protection. Instead, John held himself physically strong despite his inner person cracking under the pressure. He stepped forward, slowly wrapping his hands around her shoulders and pulling her in. He let her cry on him, holding her tightly so she knew she was safe now. "I am truly sorry" he whispered into her ear as he let her continue to release all her sorrows. Her doing this was very unexpected, John hadn't really seen her this way in a long time. The guy always thought her as independent and strong, but sometimes he forgets that she's still a young girl that has to spend what's supposed to be the best years of her life in this trashy world. 

"It's okay to cry Tori" he whispered again, trying to reassure her that he would never judge her for her actions. But still, they had to move on because holding onto the past would only cause more issues within the newly formed group. Slowly John pulled away, gently bringing his hands to her face. With his thumbs he wiped away at her tears, crouching a little to be face to face with her. "I promise it wont happen again okay? I wont let it. Mr. Oswald, you, me, these new people, I'm going to keep all of you safe you hear me? But I need you Tori. I need you" he repeated, making sure his message got across. He hands moved down to each side of her shoulders. "Now go ahead and check on Robert for me then head to bed. I'm going to drop by this food for them and I'll check up on you in a second" he said before letting her go, watching her walk away slowly. But before she got too far he called out to her again. "Tori!" he said, making her turn. "I love you like family" he finished, smiling widely.

John then took the liberty to pick up the food trays and go to where he was supposed to already be. Turning the hall, he say the giant sitting in front of a room's door, automatically knowing the woman and the child must be inside. At first he frowned at the man, but took a breath and reached him, putting the food trays next to his body, trying to remain quiet noticing as he was sleeping. He unlocked the next room's door and pushed it open, just in case the grump woke up and needed a bed. The ground didn't seem to comfortable. Afterwards, he started back towards his room, stopping before Tori's first and making sure she had fallen asleep. He blew out the candles near the entrance to her room and headed to bed. 

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**Next Morning at the MEC...**  

John woke up around six in the morning due to the beeping of his watch. Fortunately, the battery wasn't dead yet and it wasn't too difficult to find batteries for it in stores near them. Because they only leaved the hospital for necessary materials, they never ran into other humans. The group didn't even know others were still alive, everything came down so fast that when all the hospital personnel and patients left, that was the last sight of other humans since. The small group was more concerned with their own survival that they didn't take the chance to search for more. 

But anyway, John woke up early like always to make sure everything was okay. He returned to the entrance to find a couple of walkers roaming around the premise. He noticed that the front doors and windows had some cracks on them - probably from walkers that saw the lights the night before. Sooner or later he'd have to board up the doors with wood or something, maybe just cover them with drapes - yeah, that'd work well. Because they usually used the backdoor to get out, they never really had to encounter many walkers. But being upfront brought memories of Mrs. Oswald's painful death. John moved to the room in which he put the bodies and opened the door. The smell was terrible, striking his nose like a quick jab. "Good lord" he said, covering his nose and mouth with his hand. "Ugh" he said, going into the room with no other choice. He dragged the body bags though the ground, taking them out of the room. From another room he used the roller beds to move the bodies one by one. He took them to the morgue. It took him nearly thirty minutes to do it alone, but he managed to do so without anyone seeing him or waking. Before returning upstairs he just sat there in an empty hall, bringing his hands to his face and wiping his eyes vigorously. John was just tired and dealing with more than he believed he could handle at the moment. Too much for a single day.