Luke placed the bowl and a small spoon on the table in front of her, then took the seat across the table. By this point, Clementine didn't care what it is was or where Luke had gotten it from. Her stomach was ravenous, yearning for something to put inside of it; all she wanted to do was fulfil that request.

Immediately, she stuck a spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth, and then another. The beans from that can were nowhere near filling, but maybe this could be. Besides, when was the next time she would get to eat anyway?

"That's gonna leave a scar." Luke pointed out, eyeing the bandage that was wrapped around Clementine's arm.
She looked down at as she swallowed another spoonful of oatmeal. Pete's words from earlier echoed in her mind. "That's still better than losing it."

Luke nodded in agreement. "Yeah," he said, smirking. "You can say that again. Scars? They're way cooler than stumps."

Clementine paused for a moment, placing her spoon down. Lee, she thought, looking away from Luke. The memory of his stump was vivid in her mind. She wasn't sure she'd ever forget the horror of seeing it for the first time.

"What?" Luke's voice interrupted her memory. His face dropped.

Shaking her head, Clementine simply told him, "Nothing." She picked up her spoon again and took another bite of the oatmeal. She avoided Luke's sympathetic eyes. "I just had a friend who lost his arm. That's all."

Before Luke could say anything, the kitchen door opened. Clementine looked up, expecting it to be Carlos or Pete. Instead, Nick stood, shoulders slumped, in the doorway. Luke looked over to the man, though he said nothing.

Slowly, Clementine took another bite. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Nick made his way over to the table. She didn't look back up at all until she heard him speak.

"Hey, look." She looked up just as Nick rubbed the back of his neck. "I just wanted to..." He hesitated for a moment. "I just wanted to apologize for… well, for bein' a dick out there."
In Clementine's opinion, there was a big difference between almost shooting someone and 'being a dick', but she wasn't complaining. An apology was still an apology, after all.

When she said nothing, Nick continued. "I got kinda aggro out there and… that was definitely not cool."

"Nick's been known to go off every once in a while." Luke interjected from the other side of the table. Nick didn't disagree with this at all, and preferred to stay mute. "Don't hold it against him."

Nick shrugged sheepishly. "I guess we all have our moments."

"You - definitely had one out there." Luke told him, raising his eyebrow and cocking his head to the side.

Clementine knew she couldn't hold a grudge against someone who at least bothered to apologize. Nick seemed like a hot-headed man, but not… bad, or even particularly mean. Aggressive, yes. But if he was apologizing, and Luke was vouching for him, that was a different story.

Even if she wasn't letting him off the hook completely.

Slowly, she turned to face him. Nick was much taller than her – and several inches taller than Luke, as well. Clementine looked up when she spoke to him.

"You were protecting your friends." she said quietly, resting her hand on the spoon she'd set down. "I get it."

Nick seemed taken aback at how quickly the child accepted the apology. He stepped back slightly, rubbing his neck again, and replied, "Well, I didn't mean to be so harsh. I just…" Nick looked away, a devastated look crossing his face as he let out a soft, "Ugh…"
Luke's face fell as Nick remained quiet for a moment. He looked Clementine in the face as he said, "We had a bad experience once."

"We've all had bad experiences." Clementine pointed out softly. She could remember every single one that her group had had. Though she didn't ask, she wanted to know exactly what this experience was.

Nick sat down in the chair next to her. His face stayed the same as it had before. Luke's voice stole the attention of both of them.
"Nick lost his mom." Luke spoke to Clementine. His face had sunk into one similar to Nick's. "We took care of someone that got bit. By a lurker, I mean."

"It was my fault." Nick grumbled abruptly. He closed his eyes for a moment. "I…" He trailed off, seemingly unable to finish his sentence.

Luke took over, giving the other man a look full of pity. "It was no one's fault." He turned back to Clementine and continued, "It wasn't… it wasn't like yours. We knew exactly what it was when we saw it. We thought we could control it." Shame filled his features and he closed his eyes slowly. "But we couldn't. And-and then, she turned, and his mom was standin' right there, and she got attacked."

Nick didn't look away as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes as well. He said nothing.

"There was nothin' we could do about it." Luke looked down at the checkerboard that sat on the table in front of him, and then at the candles that sat between him and Clementine.

"Anyway," Nick mumbled quietly. Clementine focused her attention back on him; she wanted to think about anything else except the death of a mother. "Hopefully you understand." With this, Nick stood from his chair, once again towering over her.

Clementine nodded slowly and said, "I do, yeah."

Nick said nothing else, and instead offered her a small smile. Without another word to either of them, he left the kitchen. The door squeaked again as it closed.
Picking up the spoon again, Clementine resumed eating. Her stomach still ached with hunger, and her hands still shook a small amount.

Luke turned back to her, and began, "So," His hands fiddled with a black checker piece as he said this. "Since you're… pretty much on your own, what's your plan?"

Clementine stopped eating, yet again, and set the spoon down in the bowl. She hadn't put much thought into this besides 'find Christa'. In all honesty, she hadn't thought she would make it this far. She quickly glanced out the window, only to see nothing but blackness and the reflections of the candles. She couldn't leave tonight, could she?

"I have to find Christa." It was automatic. Clementine hadn't thought past her original plan – if she could even exactly call it a plan at all. Suddenly, every little bit of anxiety that had been pushed aside earlier had returned. "I have to find her."

Just as Nick had, Luke looked taken aback suddenly. Had he never heard of someone going out on their own? Clementine may have been young, but she wasn't vulnerable. However, she did have to admit that it was at that moment that she remembered she was an eleven year old girl and this was a man who had only seen her fail to get away from a group of walkers.

"Look, you ain't seriously thinkin' about goin' out there by yourself, are you?"

Clementine knitted her eyebrows when she looked up at him. Luke looked sheepish for a moment, but his expression darkened as he continued with, "I mean, I'm not sayin' you're weak or nothin' – but you're…" He gestured vaguely in her direction.

"A kid?" Clementine finished for him, face sinking into a glare. "If you're going to bring that up, then call me what I am."

Luke's shoulders sagged and he shook his head. "I'm not sayin' you aren't capable, Clementine." He pursed his lips for a moment. "There's just a lot of shitty people out there, and lurkers, too. You don't have a weapon, and you just got – what, eight, nine stitches in your arm? It ain't a good combination."

"I can take care of myself." Clementine shot back quickly, careful to avoid raising her voice.

"You'd have been lurker food if Pete and I hadn't found you when we did."

Clementine didn't immediately reply to this. It was a true fact. She was silent for a moment, looking up at Luke, who looked concerned, rather than as if he had just won an argument.
But of course he had to bring up that fact; of course he had to point out that she wouldn't have been able to defend herself in her state.

She thought of the man from the night before – or was it early morning? It was hard to tell. There was no bite then, no blood loss – just Clementine, with no weapon, up against a man who was at least twice her size. That man was dead because she'd done the right things.

"Lurkers aside, Clementine, y'weigh about as much as a sack of flour." Luke rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding her eyes as he said this. "If you don't have a weapon, and you get attacked by someone my size, or hell, Alvin's size – you're screwed."

Luke wasn't a large man, Clementine thought. He might have been slightly smaller than the scavenger, but Alvin was a different story. He was Nick's height and about twice as large. She didn't want imagine having to fight him, or someone his size.

Heavy silence hung in the air as Clementine tried to figure out a way to get past this.
Before she even thought about her words, she blurted out, "The last man who tried to hurt me lost his thumb." She looked away, heat rising to her cheeks at the sudden outburst. "He's dead."

Luke's eyes widened slightly more than they already were.
"He lost his – what, did you bite his thumb off?" He looked down at his own thumb, and then back at Clementine.

Clementine opened her mouth slightly, and was silent for a moment before she spoke. "He attacked me." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I thought he was going to kill me. He grabbed me… I bit him until he let go. He was one of the men who came after me and Christa." Looking down, she grabbed her spoon and shoveled more oatmeal into her mouth. "A walker killed him."

Luke looked up as she said this. His eyebrows knitted together for a moment before he spoke. "Damn," he said, watching the girl. "That's… I'm sorry y'had to do that."

Clementine nodded in response. She shrugged. "I didn't want to do it, Luke." There was no way she wanted Luke to get the wrong idea about why she had defended herself against the scavenger.

"Wh – no, no, I didn't think y'did." Luke stammered out, his mouth hanging open slightly. "It's just… you're a kid. Y'shouldn't have kick a grown man's ass to survive."
He shrugged. "Look, you're welcome to stay here if you need to. I'll talk to the others. You can let yourself heal up, and take some time to sort things out."

Clementine hesitated. As much as she wanted to find Christa and get things back on track, she couldn't deny that the offer was tempting. Luke was offering her somewhere that wasn't a log or the ground to sleep, and she'd gotten a meal that wasn't a wild animal. She didn't want to give in, but she knew that what Luke said was true.

She thought of what Nick had said much earlier – 'Forget it. You won't get five feet.' That wasn't true; she'd get much more than five feet, but Clementine knew she wouldn't get far.

"… Do you think everyone else will be okay with it?" Clementine couldn't help biting down at her lip after she said this. "Because I've already been told to stay away from Carlos' daughter, and I don't think that lady…" She thought for a moment, trying to remember the woman's name, "… Rebecca trusts me anymore than he does."

"They'll just have to deal with it." said Luke with a small smile. "Don't worry too much about it. Rebecca's on edge right now – she's pregnant, if y'couldn't tell. Trust me, the bark's worse than the bite. Carlos is just overprotective." He lowered his voice. "Believe me, he's like that with everyone."

Though Clementine doubted his last statement, she understood what Luke meant. Like Nick, he was watching out for his group. She thought back to the first few months of the outbreak, and back to the motel. Lilly had tried to lead them, and she had acted in a similar way.

When she looked up, Luke's expression had changed. They stared at each other rather awkwardly before Luke asked, "Were you and your friend alone?"

"Yes."

Luke looked away for a second, and then continued with, "If you were with her… what happened to your parents?" Clementine felt her stomach drop as she processed his words. A sick feeling washed over her. "If you don't mind me askin', I mean." When he received no immediate response, he stammered, "I mean -" Luke avoided her gaze. "- I assume what happened to them is what happened to just about everyone's parents."

Clementine said nothing. Instead, she looked down at her bowl.

"You're just so young," Luke uttered, lowering his voice. "I didn't think you coulda made it on your own for so long, but… maybe you did."

"Other people took care of me." And all of those 'other people' died because of you, said a tiny voice in the back of Clementine's head. "If that's what you're asking."

Luke offered a small nod. "I was just curious on how you made it this far."

"I just tried to stay with good people and not do anything dumb." You've failed while doing both of those, she thought to herself. She looked down again, wanting to push her bowl away. Now, she wasn't hungry; she felt sick.

"I'm sorry." Luke told her quietly, sighing. Clementine didn't look up. "I shouldn't have asked."

But by now, Clementine wasn't listening. She looked Luke straight in the face and said, "My parents went on vacation and left me with a babysitter. They never came back." She looked away. "We went to Savannah to find them, but they were already dead."

"Woah." Luke whispered, not moving. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Clementine couldn't stop herself. She closed her eyes tightly. "This man found me and took care of me. We met up with other survivors and we all tried to make it. But," She shook her head. "It didn't work."

Luke's shoulders sagged.

"His name was Lee." Clementine couldn't stop a smile from coming to her face. "He taught me how to survive." She looked up at Luke and said, "He taught me how to shoot a gun."

"What happened to him?"

"The same thing that happens to everyone." Clementine explained quietly. "But he saved me first. Lots of times."

"It sounds like he was a real good guy."

"Yeah, he was."

They sat in silence, neither having anymore to add to this conversation, before the kitchen door swung open, and a much louder voice filled the room.

"I hate to interrupt," came Pete's voice as he walked in, positioning himself at the head of the table. "But I'm out there standin' watch and I can't help but notice this place is lit up like a goddamn beacon in the middle of the woods."

Luke looked from him to Clementine. "Yeah," he agreed. "It's prob'ly about time to turn in, anyway."

"Well, get your winks while you can," said Pete, walking around to Luke's side of the table. "We're goin' fishin' at first light, and you're comin' with us."

This immediately got Clementine's attention. "I am?"

"She is?"

Pete shrugged. "Why not? Couple of fresh brookies for dinner! Mmm, wouldn't that be nice?"

"I've never been fishing." Clementine pointed out as Luke stood up from his place at the table. "I don't really know how to fish."

"You'll be fine." Pete told her with a smile. "I'll show you how when we go."

Luke grinned. "That oughta be an interestin' sight." He turned to Clementine. "Come on, kid, it's late. You can kip on the couch."