The next morning after breakfast, another car pulls up at the front of the farmhouse.

Nell is walking behind Lori and Carl to see who it is— everyone is hoping that Rick, Glenn, and Hershel are back. They've been gone for a long time.

The old, red car parks on the grass and the door to the driver's seat immediately swings open.
Rick steps out and slams the door behind him.

"Dad!" Carls yells, happiness in his voice as he runs into his dad's arms.
Then Lori walks over and joins the hug too.

Nell stays back and watches from afar.

Then two more doors open on the car.
Hershel and Glenn.
Nell has decided that she likes Hershel. He is sweet and took care of her when she was hurt. She didn't know much about Glenn though.

The pretty girl that Nell learned is Maggie, Beth's sister, smiles in relief and runs to hug... Glenn?

Nell is an observer. She always has been.
She could always tell when her dad had a drink, even if he wasn't totally drunk. She can always tell if someone is uncomfortable or if they're lying, even if they're doing their best to hide it.
These past few days, Nell has learned a lot about the people at the farmhouse, especially because they rarely pay attention to her.

One thing Nell found out about is Maggie and Glenn. She suspected something was going on between them. Some lovey-dovey, gross stuff.

But what about her father?

Poor Hershel.
Nell wants to give the old man a hug, but no way in hell was she going to let everyone see her soft side.

Show no weakness.

Even though they already saw it...

Zara's death brought out something in Nell that even she would never expect to happen in a million years. She never cries, let alone in front of people.
But then again, Zara was like a sister to her. Nell has never had anyone care for her before because she was usually the one to care for people— for Ollie.

And she failed.

All of the stupid hugging is making Nell sad, so she turns around on her foot and walks to the porch.

"Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery." Hershel says, speedily walking into the farmhouse.

Surgery? For who?

Nell looks at both Rick and Glenn. Rick is still hugging his family, no signs of any wounds. Glenn is now following Hershel, walking back to the farmhouse as well, in perfect condition.

So, who is the surgery for?

Lori and Rick finally pull away from their hug.
"Are you hurt?" Lori asks her husband.

"No, but what happened to you?"Rick asks, running his hands through Lori's hair.

"I was in a car accident..." She responds with a shameful expression and looks down at her shoes.

"Accident? How?" Rick says, clearly concerned even though Lori is obviously fine.

Nell wished she had someone that cared about her like Rick cares about Lori or how Maggie cares for Glenn.

Nell once got into an accident on her old bicycle when she was eight. It was a bad accident too.
She was pedaling really fast, but suddenly stopped because she saw a worm was in the way and she didn't want to hurt it.

Nell braked her bike, went flying over the handlebars and crashed to the ground, hitting her head on the concrete.
She immediately started uncontrollably crying. Blood was gushing from her face and somewhere on her head that was buried under her thick hair. It stung in pain.

Nell knew she couldn't go and tell her father— he can't know she was crying or else she'd probably get punished.
So, Nell stood up from the ground, and limped her way across the street to Mr and Mrs Smith's house. They were always there to take care of Nell when her father wouldn't. The Smiths also didn't have any kids of their own, so they loved whenever Nell or Ollie came to visit.

But besides them, Nell had no one.

Lori looked back up at her husband.
"I went out looking for you." She says with confidence this time.

"Snuck out on her own." Shane interrupted. "I brought her back."

"Are you crazy?" Rick says, bending slightly to meet Lori at eye level. Nell couldn't tell if he is angry or just upset.
She hopes he is just upset. She doesn't want him to hit Lori.

"You could've—" Rick starts, but quickly gets interrupted.

"Who the hell is that?" T-dog says, pointing his index finger at the back seat of the red car.
All conversations stop and everyone's heads turn in the direction he is pointing.

"That's Randall." Glenn says casually, like it isn't a big deal that some random guy is in the back seat of their car.
Nell has never heard anyone bring up the name "Randall." Maybe he was in their group, but got kidnapped just like she did, Nell thought.

Everyone starts slowly walking toward where the Randall guy was sitting. Nell follows them, staying behind like usual.
Randall has a red cloth covering his eyes and he looks like he's hurt. He is either passed out or sleeping.
Maybe he is the one who needs the surgery.

Nobody says a word until Daryl scoffs and turns to walk back into the house, his crossbow still slung over his shoulder.
Nell follows behind him, not knowing what else to do. Daryl found Snuggles for her, but he hasn't talked to her since then. He talks to Rick and Shane and sometimes even Carol, but not her.
Nell thought she would start to become friends with the group, but maybe she was wrong.

• • •

Later on in the day, Rick called a meeting for everyone in the group.
Nell didn't know if that included her or not, but she went anyway because everyone else was going, even Carl.

When Nell enters the dining room, Rick is standing at the head of the table, resting his arms against it.
She takes a seat in between Beth and Carl, anxious to hear what Rick has to say.

"We couldn't just leave him behind." Rick begins.

Oh. So it's about the Randall guy.

"He would have bled out. If he lived that long." Rick says, making eye contact with everyone at the table, even Nell, which surprises her.

"It's gotten bad in town." Glenn says before he looks at Maggie.

What does that mean, "It's gotten bad"?
Like a lot of walkers kind of bad?

Nell hasn't had to face a ton of people or walkers yet. Besides the walker in the woods and the walkers who killed Ollie, she didn't have much experience with them.

"What do we do with him?" Andrea speaks up as Hershel enters the room.

"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. Wont be on his feet or at least a week." Hershel says, wiping a plate dry with a towel in his hand.

"When he is, we give him a canteen. Take his out on the main road, send him on his way." Rick says.
Nell doesn't understand. Why would they bring him home just to leave him on the streets again?

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea steps in with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"He'll have a fighting chance—" Rick begins to say until Shane interrupts him.

"Just gonna let him go?" Shane questions Rick's plan. "He knows where we are."

"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat." Rick says, raising his tone.

"Not a threat." Shane scoffs. "How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?"

What happened when they were gone? How many of these mean men are there?

"They left him for dead. NO ONE is looking." Rick finally yells.

"We should still post a guard." T-dog reasonably states.

"He's out cold right now, he will be for hours." Hershel says, staring at Rick and Shane with disapproval of their arguing.

"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and cake." Shane scoffs. "Look at this folks, we're back in fantasyland."

Why would he give Randall flowers and cake? Is it his birthday?

Nell never got anything for her birthday, not even cake, but she heard people at school talking about their parties.
There is always supposed to be cake at a birthday party.

Hershel stands up and walks after Shane.
"You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet. Let me make this perfectly clear once and for all. This is my farm.  Now I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
So do us both a favor— keep your mouth shut." Hershel says, everyone in the room staring at them.

Nell assumes that Rick and his people came to the farmhouse that Hershel apparently owns without an invitation. Hershel doesn't like that.

Also, what did Shane do at the barn?
Nell figures that something bad happened before they saved her from the compound.

Shane looks around the room at everyone. He rolls his eyes and then runs his hands across his shaved head as he walks out of the farmhouse.

Author's Note:

Now that school and sports has started, I won't have the time to post a chapter every couple days. I am in very hard classes and play sports that take up all of my afternoon.
That being said, I will be posting a new chapter every weekend, because that works best for me. Since you guys are only getting one chapter a week, I will make sure to make the chapters long!
I'm sorry and I hope you all understand <3