Chapter Text
Rick
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It had been an eventful day. Rick, Michonne, and Carl out in the sweltering Georgia heat, hoping to beat the odds one more time. Even with the prison igniting a new sense of purpose, a false one maybe, there was still an air of caution wafting around. Even after Morgan had been brought out of his spiral, everyone felt an extra pair of eyes on them. Still, in the abandoned streets of Rick and Carl’s former home, they were being watched. Everyone felt it.
Rick wasn’t quite sure who or what was watching them, a spirit perhaps? The uneasy feeling he felt was not the same as their reunion with Morgan. Maybe it was another apparition come to haunt him, he thought. After all, they were in the place he had had the most history.
He would have believed that if it weren’t for the rustling sounds that were just too quiet to be a Walker, a figure darting behind a wall. Footsteps on pavement that would start, stop, start, and stop. There was someone following them, scuttering behind scouting for information. Rick looked to Michonne, then to Carl. They both looked back at him with a knowing expression, an unspoken plan was conjured. Although they knew this shadow wasn’t an immediate threat, the group had learned enough hard lessons about taking chances. The risk to their home was far too great for them to leave well enough alone
All it took was turning a tight corner for the stranger to lose sight, carefully placed footsteps and quick maneuvering brought them fifty feet behind the individual. It was a girl, malnourished with braided hair and dirt caked on almost every inch of her visible skin. She was hidden behind one of the traps Morgan set up, peeking up over it, to try and find where the group had run off too.
However they weren’t sneaky enough to overwhelm her. Carl had made a miscalculated step and kicked a piece of debris. This allusive girl fled. While she was quick the trio were just a little bit faster. Had more muscle and endurance, probably had eaten more food in a week than this girl had in a month. As they were chasing her, Rick couldn’t help but feel a tug in his brain. This girl was familiar, her stature, clothes and even hair were pulling at the edges of his memory. Who was she to him?
There was enough distance between the girl and the trio that she almost lost them. If it weren’t for the sound of a slamming door alerting them to her whereabouts. Leading the group towards it, Rick recognized the house she had escaped to. A former colleague of his, Dan lived here with his wife and daughter. The man was rough in nature, the perfect “bad cop” in all the popular cop shows on TV. While he didn’t know Dan well enough to speak for his character there were rumors of his strictness regarding his family. And the whole town was aware of his daughter, Andie. She was a stereotypical delinquent, she was frequently found with some other dipshit teens hidden in some alley or empty house in the town smoking and drinking. The last time he spoke to Dan, the man mentioned that he was sending her to a behavioral program. She had gotten out of control, sneaking out to parties and coming back through her window in the early hours of the morning reeking of cheap beer and cigarettes. Andie’s grades were slipping and her attendance dropped, Dan couldn’t bother to deal with it anymore and sent her away.
Rick didn’t know why that memory was so vivid in his mind at that moment. This conversation took place weeks before he went into his coma and the world went to literal shit.
However, something about this girl's ratty faded hair and thin frame bounced back and forth in his mind.
If the world wasn’t what it was, and he was a bit more delusional than he was already; he would entertain the idea that this girl really was Andie. Fortunately Rick still held fast to his critical thinking skills, he knew this could not be the girl he once knew. She had been in the midwest when the fall happened, how in the world could she have made it back to Georgia by herself? The rational answer was she couldn’t.
Ever the hopeful soul he was, in the back of Rick’s mind he felt it was her. You could say Rick had somewhat of a savior complex, even though the rag-tag group of broken people he led around didn’t necessarily need Rick to survive, he still felt compelled to give his all for them. As much sympathy he held for this loner girl in the middle of his former hometown, his revolver was still tightly clenched in the ready position as the group made their way into the dilapidated house. Rick felt some type of way entering crossing the threshold, he couldn’t place it. If it was sadness, it was a different kind of sadness he hadn’t felt before. Life moved so quickly now, he hadn’t sat down with the more than likely deaths of the people he used to spend his days with.
It wasn’t true grief like when Lori, Shane and the many others he’s lost along the way. That grief felt real, he didn’t care about his co-workers really. They weren’t like family to him. For him, this kind of sadness is the sort someone feels when a distant relative you’ve never met dies. Sure it’s sad that another life has been snuffed out, but in reality it doesn’t affect you.
“Rick! I found her.”
Michonne’s voice snapped him out of his philosophical thinking. He rushed up the stairs to find Michonne trying to wrestle the girl into a docile position. For as malnourished as she was, she put up a good fight. Like most of the people Rick's group came across, she eventually calmed down and held still.
“Why did y’all have to chase me down! I only wanted to see who you were, I swear I-” While frantically trying to plead her case to the group she froze. Confused, she looked back and forth at Carl and Rick. Recognition laced with confusion flashed in her eyes.
Rick's intuition was right, miraculously Andie was here. Somehow, someway she was alive. Carefully he walked closer to the girl.
“Andie, do you know who I am? Do you remember us?” She nodded at Rick, starstruck still.
“Yes, you used to work with my dad. You’re Rick Grimes and that’s Carl.” Andie paused, “Why are you here? Have you seen my parents? I’ve been waiting for them to come back, but you’re the only people I’ve seen come through here.”
Her eyes welled up with tears, and her voice cracked before she devolved into sobs. Michonne let go of her then, letting Andie calm herself down.
“I’m sorry Andie, but I haven’t seen your parents.” He shared a sympathetic look with the worn down girl. He knew exactly how alone she felt.
“Ask her the questions dad, so she can come back with us.” Rick looked at his son, he was surprised to see Carl be so trusting of Andie. He felt relief that the hardened shell Carl had built around himself, at least in this moment, was cracking. He gave a short nod to Carl, and turned back to Andie.
“Andie?” Finally pulling herself together she looked up at rick. “Do you want to come back to our community with us? We have shelter, food, and safety in numbers.”
“Okay.” She said.
“I have to ask you a few questions first, alright?” She gave him a nod,” How many walkers have you killed? How many People have you killed? And why?” They all waited with anticipation for her to answer. Even though the young girl seemed to pose no threat to them, they couldn’t really trust her. Even Rick could acknowledge that.
“I’ve only killed a handful of… walkers. Just the ones caught in those traps.” There was a long pause, Andie was terrified to answer the next question. “One, one person.”
She clenched her eyes shut and collapsed into herself, seemingly relieved to confess. Rick, for the first time, was surprised at the answer.
“Why , Andie?”
“I-I was so hungry. And the councilors had abandoned us in the middle of nowhere. The kids I was with started leaving; trying to find their own way home. But I stayed with a girl, we thought we’d be rescued if we just stayed in place because surely someone remembered where we were.” She took in a shaky breath, eyes wide as she re-lived the moment.
“But weeks had gone by, nobody came. I wanted her to leave with me, to follow me back to Georgia but she was too scared. And I couldn't stay in that horrible cabin anymore.” Andie had started rocking, trying to soothe herself out of another panic attack. “So I took all of the food and supplies we had, and I left.”
“I left her there to starve, she died and it’s my fault. She had just gotten to the camp, she hadn’t learned all of those shitty survival skills they taught us yet.” Again, she broke down. This time Rick comforted her, bringing her into his embrace and letting her cry into his shirt.
“It’s okay Andie, you did what you had to. We can keep you safe now.”