AN: First off...I have to apologize. I am so so so so so sorry that this is so long over due. I have been packing, moving, travelling, spending time with family...namely real life has gotten in the way of everything. So, here's a short update, and I think I'm going to be keeping the chapters short from now on to get them out much quicker.
HermonieandMarcus: Thank you so much for continuing with this story. I appreciate you staying with it :)
NLMarch: Thank you so much for your thoughtful reviews. I really appreciate it and hope you continue to like where the story goes :)
Ok, onto the story (and I don't own anything Walking Dead, except my OC!):
Natalie could hear the voices before she could see them. Her eyes opened slowly, taking in the dimly lit room around her. She was in a bed, tucked under a quilt. It felt slightly surreal to be tucked into a soft bed when she had been sleeping in trees and ditches only days before. The room was filled with rustic style furniture and the open window let in the dimming light of dusk and a soft breeze that fluttered the lace curtains. It reminded her of the old historical plantation homes she and Mark had loved to tour. His love of history kept them coming back to homes like this and she remembered he had promised to someday fix up a home like this for them. Fighting to not get lost in painful memories, Natalie dragged her attention back to the current situation. There were two, maybe three voices at her count and it sounded like there was a very heated debate going on.
"…can't just take someone in we find wandering in the woods." She caught the tail end of a man's deep voice. It sounded angry, which immediately made her tense. Where the hell was she?
"She's sick Shane, tell him Hershel." This voice was soothing, with the slight southern lilt Natalie remembered Mark's parents used to have from years of living in their non-native North Carolina. And Shane, wasn't that the name of one of Sophia's group members?
"What Rick's saying is true. She had a fever and a very nasty infection in that wound in her side. All I can say is it was by the grace of God your man found her when he did. She would have died in a matter of days." A voice said calmly, presumably Hershel. It sounded comforting, like someone who had perfected their bedside manner over the course of many years. Natalie guessed he was a doctor—or an insane minister that relied on God to heal the sick. If he was the latter she intended to have a long talk with him about the "grace of God." She found that concept laughable nowadays.
"Mighta been better for all of us if she did die. Now we got a stranger sleepin' not more than ten feet from us that tried to kill Daryl. I tell ya Rick, we either get rid of her or she needs to leave." The man with the deep voice said tersely.
"She had Sophia with her, Shane. For all we know she rescued the girl and was just holing up waiting to get better," the man named Rick said. Natalie knew this name very well since Sophia said he was the leader of their group.
"Yeah but Sophia's not givin' us any straight information. She's been back for three days and when we ask her questions all she says is the woman, Natalie, whatever her name is, rescued her and she can't tell us anythin' else. That woman probably held her hostage or some shit and has her scared to death." The deep-voiced man named Shane hissed.
Natalie's ears perked up at the passage of time. Three days? She must have been worse off than she originally thought.
Natalie could hear Rick sigh. "I know it looks suspicious but we have to think straight here. When she wakes up we'll talk to her and get her side of the story. Until then, we'll keep a guard in place."
Natalie had heard enough. She struggled to sit up, slowly but quietly, determined to get the hell out of the house and back on her way. Trying to plan an escape was fruitless, she had to get out while they thought she was still incapacitated. She had made a blatant effort to steer clear of groups. "Since the last group you were with worked out so well," she thought darkly.
Once she was fully upright Natalie felt the pinch of pain in her side. Pulling up her shirt, Natalie could see the neat stitching holding her wound together. She tentatively prodded the area, noting the redness and inflammation had died down tremendously and it had even begun to slightly heal. Sliding out of the bed quietly, Natalie set her bare feet on the ground, feeling the hardness of the wood floor on her skin. As she stood up she noticed her reflection in the mirror hanging over the mirror, noting the soft pink t-shirt and green running shorts she wore. These were most definitely not her clothes. She was even wearing a bra, something she had forgone the last two months because the damn things kept breaking when she would climb trees and or fight walkers. This new world was definitely not kind to a person's wardrobe.
Natalie padded silently across the room towards the door with the lightness and stealth she had honed while living in the woods. Holding her breath, she pressed her ear against the door, straining to hear any sounds of people moving in the hallway. Although she heard nothing, Natalie knew she couldn't just march herself out of the house, not based on the conversation she had overheard between the men named Rick and Shane. Natalie had a fleeting thought of Sophia, but quickly dismissed any concern she might have felt. Since the girl was back with her group, she had to trust Sophia was safe with them. She backed away from the door and turned to scan the room.
Treading softly, Natalie opened the window by the bed, happy to see there was a roof just underneath the window. It would make the drop much less hazardous and in the fading light it would make it hard to see her slip out. She had opened the window and swung one leg out the window when she heard the door to the room open and a loud "Hey!" resound throughout the bedroom.
Natalie didn't have time to turn around before she felt herself being dragged roughly from behind back into the room and a heavy pressure tightened around her neck. Desperately she clawed at the object that was obstructing her airways, realizing it was an arm, thick with muscle and unforgiving. Natalie started kicking her legs in desperation, feeling the pulse starting to pound in her ears as her blood rushed from her brain. She could feel the edges of her vision darkening and instinctively swung her body to the right so her attacker's back was to the window. She dug her feet into the ground and pushed backward, running her attacker into the wall. It wasn't enough to make whoever was holding her let go, but it did loosen his or her hold on Natalie's neck. Natalie took in a large gulp of air before the arm on her neck tightened again. She writhed, twisting her body back and forth when another figure appeared in the doorway.
"Shane! What the hell are you doin'?" She recognized the sound of Rick's voice and the man she recognized as Carl's father rushed into the room, grabbing Shane's arm and wrestling the larger man away from her. A very slender woman with dark brown hair followed him closely behind, a look of horror on her face. The resemblance between this woman and Carl was striking and Natalie could only guess that this was his mother, Lori. She slumped against the wall, feeling worn from the struggle and realizing she really was not back to her full strength yet.
"She was tryin' to escape Rick! Was halfway out the window and would have probably run off back to her own group and gotten us all killed if I hadn't of stopped her," Shane was blathering, having wrenched himself from Rick's grip and was now pointing at her with an accusing finger. Natalie felt it necessary to fix a glare on him. She hadn't done anything to the prick and here he was trying to say she had it in for their group. She had just wanted to return a little girl to her mother and look where it had gotten her.
Shane was still raging and Rick held up a hand, trying to calm the clearly unhinged man. "Shane, come on now, we can't just get riled up like that. We have to hear her side of the story." Rick turned to face Natalie and she pressed herself against the wall, looking up at him defiantly. His eyes didn't hold the menace that Phillip's did, but they weren't entirely gentle either. He held a hand out to her, as if in a peace offering. "I think you owe us an explanation, Miss…" He paused, waiting for her to respond.
Natalie remained silent, instead fixing Rick with a glare of defiance. He sighed, as if he had expected this reaction. "Listen, we've done our part here and we've patched you up. We could have let you die out there, but we didn't. I think in return, a little thanks is in order. Your name will do."
Again, she didn't answer his question. Instead, her eyes flashed and furrowed her brow in anger. "Yeah, you helped me. Right after your guy…Daryl was it? Yeah, right after he almost choked me to death. I'd say I don't owe you shit." Natalie crossed her arms across her chest, determined to hold her ground.
"Why you little…" Shane reached out to grab her and Rick yanked the man's arm back and took a step in front of Natalie.
"Shane, this is not the way we do things, brother. Why don't you step outside to cool off so I can talk to our guest alone?" Shane brought his arm down with a huff and started toward the doorway.
"Rick, are you sure that's safe? We don't know what she's capable of." Lori asked worriedly, looking at her husband. She was still standing in the doorway, Natalie having forgotten she was still there.
Natalie snorted, ready to laugh at the woman's inane statement. "Lady, I can assure you as long as your husband doesn't try to choke me out I won't do anything to him."
Rick eyed Natalie for a second, then turned back to Lori. "I'll be fine. Let me just talk to her for a second."
With a last concerned look at Rick, Lori turned and walked out of the room followed closely by Shane. Rick turned back to Natalie and folded his arms.
"Alright, now that we're alone I'd like to ask you a few questions. I don't see how it would hurt for us to learn a little more about you and you about us."
Natalie shook her head, maintaining her defensive gaze. "I don't need to know anything about you and you don't need to know anything about me. I just found Sophia and was going to return her to your group when your man jumped me. I'm sorry I attacked him but as far as I was concerned he was a threat to us."
As she talked Rick was watching her thoughtfully. "Well, I get that you might have thought Daryl was a threat. But what I don't understand is how you came across Sophia in the middle of the woods. And why she won't answer any questions when it comes to you."
Rick sat down on the bed, crossing his legs as if he was settling in for a conversation over tea. "Listen, I don't think you're a bad person. Sophia was obviously in dire need of help and you gave that to her, and for that we're grateful. But you need to give me something else to go on, because right now half the camp believes you held her captive and the other half thinks you're a hero."
Natalie huffed in frustration. "Look, I didn't do anything to her. I came into the house because of my wound and found her. We talked, slept, and I told her I would bring her back here. End of story. Now will you please just let me go?"
All of a sudden Rick stood up, rubbing his hands on his pants. "Okay then, I'll walk you out."
He made toward the door and Natalie regarded him with suspicion. "What are you talking about?"
Rick turned back to her, the irritation in his voice evident. "Well, you want to go, I'll escort you down to the car. It's obvious we're not going to get anything out of you. You've done right by Sophia and we've done right by you, so I'd say let's let bygones be bygones." He opened the door to the room and motioned her out in front of him.
Natalie furrowed her brow. She was confused, but moved to go past the man. If he tried anything funny she'd be ready. As she walked into the hallway an open door to her left caught her gaze and her eyes were immediately drawn to a small figure in the bed. It had no shirt on and there were multiple bandages around his chest. Natalie froze in place, oblivious to Rick and his reactions. Her eyes raked over the small figure and she croaked the words without thinking, "Oh my God, Carl."
Rick froze behind her, grabbing her arm and forcing her to turn roughly to face him. "How do you know his name?" When Natalie didn't answer right away his grip tightened on both her arms, but Natalie didn't think to struggle. She was still stunned at the vision of Carl lying bandaged in the bed.
"I'm only gonna ask you one more time. How do you know his name?" Rick drawled slowly, his tone dangerous.
Natalie had to force herself back to the present moment. She looked at Rick squarely. "Sophia." She lied. "She told me all about your group." His grip was starting to hurt and Natalie struggled not to show her discomfort. She didn't want him to detect any sign of weakness.
Rick's grip loosened, but not by much. "But you know his name. You just acted like you knew him. How do you explain that?"
Before she could answer, a voice from the bedroom made her and Rick both freeze. "Dad? Who are you talking to out there?"
"Carl, stay in bed, son." Rick commanded, his grip tightening again on Natalie's arms, his eyes signaling her to keep silent.
Unfortunately, Carl had already slipped out of bed and before Rick could shove Natalie away, Carl was standing in the doorway to his bedroom. At first he was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes but when his eyes focused they went wide. His gaze zeroed in on her and Natalie wished she could sink into the ground. A grin spread across his features and his eyes lit up. "Natalie?"
Before Natalie could stop him Carl had hobbled out and given her a crushing hug around her midsection. He was seemingly unaware of his father's hold on Natalie. Rick's expression was one of shock and Natalie had to suppress an internal groan. Her desperate wish to slip out quietly and unnoticed had now been blown completely to hell.