Amelia woke the next morning to hear voices, footsteps, plates stacking – all the sounds of a busy household. If she closed her eyes again, she could almost imagine it was just that: a normal house that was home to a normal family.

She tried, until Clementine shook her awake by the shoulder. Amelia opened her eyes, and as she sat up, she noticed she was wrapped in a blanket that hadn't been there when she went to sleep. It wasn't the couch throw Clementine had used. That was draped over the arm of the couch, where Clem had left it. This one was her own, and she had no idea how long it had been there.

Amelia didn't like it. She didn't like waking up to find things different from the way she left them. Blankets appearing out of thin air made her nervous – it meant someone had been in her personal space while she'd been asleep and she didn't wake up to notice. She hoped it had been Clementine.

"Where did you find this?"

Her sister shrugged and mumbled a non-word that sounded vaguely like, "Idunno."

Amelia looked at her expectantly, confused by her short, non-committal answer. It was unlike her. Something was different about her.

Clem raised an eyebrow.

"I was getting worried. I've never not been able to wake you up before."

"What do you mean?"

Clementine set a handful of items on the floor, things Amelia hadn't noticed she was holding. She set down a bottle of water by Amelia's pillow, alongside a small tube of first aid antibiotic. She took a palm-sized adhesive Band-Aid from her pocket and started trying to find the split in the packaging.

"I came in earlier and you wouldn't wake up. I wasn't even sure you were breathing." She said as she tore it open.

To say Amelia was confused was an understatement. From what her sister was telling her, she'd have expected her to be upset. Sad. Nervous, maybe. She'd seen more of Clementine feeling that way than she could remember. But the subtle smile on her face, way she flicked at the wrapper when it stuck to her fingers, the way she uncapped the antibiotic and drew a whimsical squiggly shape on the Band-Aid said otherwise.

And was she…humming?

"Clementine," Amelia said cautiously.

Clementine saw the way she was looking at her, and misunderstood what it meant. "I really don't know where the blanket came from. I would tell you. It was there when I woke up. It looks soft though, so…" She reached out and ran her fingers over it. Her eyes widened and she looked at Amelia hopefully. "It is. Want to trade?"

"..."

"Or not," Clem shrugged, and gestured for Amelia to push her hair out of her face. She did, and Clem placed the Band-Aid over her stitches, tucking it neatly under her bangs. "Luke said you would be fine. He said it's normal to sleep like that when you…have the kind of day you had. We played a board game while we waited."

Ah. That was it.

That was where the lights in her eyes were coming from. She was having a good morning for the first time in…Amelia didn't know how long.

Amelia touched the Band-Aid, and her head wound flared up in protest. "Thanks."

"Carlos gave it to me. I didn't even have to ask."

Amelia cleared her throat. She knew what she had to say was about to ruin Clementine's mood. So she put it off for just a little longer.

"What game did you play?" She found herself smiling. It had been that long since she'd seen Clementine even a little bit happy.

"Risk. They don't have Monopoly. I asked." Amelia didn't intend to play any board games, but the thought that Clementine had asked about her favorite game made her smile.

"You played Risk?" Amelia said doubtfully. She knew the game. She'd played it before, and she knew her sister. If money had still been worth anything, she'd have bet that Clem hated it.

Clementine rolled her eyes. "I don't see what's so great about it. It's too complicated to be any fun. Plus, we're missing a lot of pieces. I had to use pennies instead of horses. But Luke and Nick really like it." She reached for the water bottle, twisting the cap off and handing it to Amelia. She took it. "Which is weird, because they're both pretty bad at it." She seemed to give it a second thought. "Nick is kind of good at it."

"Who won?"

"We didn't get to finish. Nick was winning before we had to stop. But if you play next time, we can do teams."

Here it was. She didn't want to do it, but it had to be done. "Clem."

"You have to be on a team with either me or Luke. You've played it before, so if you're on Nick's side it won't be fair."

She was starting to think her sister was ignoring her on purpose. If she was, they both knew why. "Clem."

"I know what you're going to say. Pete wants you to come fishing with us. So can we just…do that first?"

Amelia sighed, running her hands over her face. This was going to be hard to do without her sister resenting her for it.

"Do you understand why we have to leave?" she asked gently. "I need you to know I'm not doing this just to do it. There's a reason."

Clem crossed her arms. "I know. I just don't think it's a good reason."

"How's that?"

"People have looked for us. And found us. And we're still here. I'd say it worked out fine."

Amelia fought the sudden discomfort that always came when she thought about, let alone discussed, their days in Savannah. "I wouldn't call anything about that 'fine'."

Clementine looked over Amelia's shoulder, staring at nothing. She was somewhere else, and Amelia saw her come out of it by closing her eyes.

"We're still alive, and still together. It could've gone a lot worse."

Could've gone worse. If that was the way Clementine thought about their run-in with the first man she ever killed, a man she shot in the back of the head when she was nine years old…Amelia couldn't decide if she should've felt grateful for that or frightened.

Amelia took a breath and began carefully, "You're right about that, but these people are involved in something and we-"

"We could've used help when that guy was following us. We didn't have much help, and…you know what happened."

Yes. Amelia knew what happened.

She felt uneasy. Clementine was starting to sound like she had a point. A real point, that Amelia couldn't reject with new people are dangerous. "They just need our help, that's all. This won't be a problem forever."

Amelia sank down onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling and trying to think. Clementine wasn't wrong. These people had proven they weren't mindless killers when she knocked on their front door and they didn't execute her on the porch. It was a low standard, but that was all it took these days.

She had always tried to steer her sister away from new people. She knew for a fact that it had saved their lives more than once. But there would come a point when running from people was more trouble than it was worth. More often than not, the paths that lead to safety were hard to tell apart from the ones that lead to death.

"I'll think about it."

A smile spread slowly across Clementine's face as she realized that Amelia meant what she was saying.

"You will?"

"It's a maybe. No promises."

Clementine nodded, still smiling ear-to-ear. "Okay. Maybe. Maybe is good."

"Please don't get too attached to the idea."

"Okay. Okay, I won't. It's just…" Clementine shook her head, knowing she was doing the opposite of what she was saying. "I'm really glad you're thinking about it, that's all. Sarah will be really excited to hear that. And Luke will be happy, too. So, we're going fishing, right?"

"I don't know."

Amelia tried not to make any promises she couldn't keep. Her sister's excitement was bittersweet; she knew there was still a chance she'd disappoint her later.

Still, it was nice to see.

In the silence, Clem still seemed to have something on her mind. Amelia looked at her and waited for her to say it.

"You should try talking to them."

"Sure."

"Don't just say you will and then not do it." Clem said, smirking. "I'm serious. They're actually really nice."

"They weren't last night."

"Neither were you."

She had her there. "I'm sure they've been very nice. It's easy to be nice to you, Clem." It wasn't a secret, to either of them and certainly not to the people in this house. Clementine was much more likeable than her sister. Amelia knew this, and had never lost sleep over it.

"We're not that different, Amelia."

Amelia wondered how her sister always managed to keep a sense of sincerity after all these years, how she still knew how to say things that made Amelia feel better about herself.

"I think you're the only one who thinks that."

"If you give them a chance to treat you like their friend, they will."

Not after last night. "I don't know if…" If things can be fixed. If I want them to be fixed. "…if it's going to work. I had a pretty bad start with them, Clementine."

Clementine shrugged. "So did I." Her face lit up as a sudden thought occurred to her. "We'll do it like this. If one of them does something nice for you this morning, then we have to go fishing and stay for dinner."

She extended a hand intended for Amelia to shake. Amelia only looked at it. These were the terms she wanted? Had she forgotten the way the pregnant woman had all but told her to fuck off the night before?

"You're serious?" she said doubtfully.

Clem nodded. "I mean it. If one of them does something nice for you, we have to stay."

Amelia raised an eyebrow.

"For dinner, I mean."

Amelia didn't think her sister had much of a chance of winning. Clem hadn't been there to see either of the times she pushed Luke away, or when she and Nick almost came to physical blows. She wasn't proud of herself for doing those things. But now that Clem had given her a guilt-free way to leave before dinner, she couldn't help but feel relieved.

"Fine." She shook on it, striking their deal.

"And you have to say thank you." Clementine added.

"Sure." That was fair enough.

"And smile."

"You're pushing it."

Clem let go of her hand and the mischief gave way to sincerity. "You have a really pretty smile. You just never do it anymore."

"You know how hard it is to say no to you?"

Clem smiled and shrugged in a way that said yes, yes she did.

Luke pushed open the kitchen door and made his way into the room. He was holding a white bowl and had something in his other hand, inside a closed fist.

He caught Clementine's attention when he came in. From the look on her face, she was clearly happy he was in the room.

"Morning. I heard voices in here, figured it meant you were awake." He crouched next to Clementine to bring himself closer to Amelia's level on the floor. He gave her the bowl, which Amelia found held warm rice and canned peaches. "This is for you, and…" He held out his fist like a cashier giving back change. Amelia realized he was waiting to drop something small into her hand.

It was aspirin. Three little white tablets. Luke gestured to the bowl in her other hand. "That should help with your head, but you have to take it with food."

Amelia blinked, confused and unsure of what to say. She held her hand out to Clementine, and was about to tell her to take the pills for her arm when Luke said,

"She's already got some. Well just one, seeing how she's so little." Amelia searched his face for traces of bitterness, of contempt for her and found none. It was as if the night before had never happened.

"They help a lot." Clementine said.

Amelia shot her a look. "You knew."

"I didn't." Clem smiled.

"You planned it."

"I really didn't." Her smile grew even bigger; it seemed to grow with Amelia's disbelief.

"Cheater."

Luke looked back and forth between the two of them, looking like he'd been left out of a joke. "What are you talking about?"

"You shook on it." Clementine reminded her.

"Is there…" Luke hesitated, his grin fading. "…something wrong, here?"

Clementine shook her head, getting to her feet. "Nope. Not at all." She headed for the kitchen, leaving Amelia and Luke in silence after the door closed behind her.

Amelia forced herself to stop staring into the food he brought her. She shook on it. She looked up at Luke and held eye contact with him while she said,

"Thank you." She did not smile.

He did. "You're very welcome."

And neither of them had anything more to say. The discomfort became unbearable and Amelia pulled her blanket over her head, retreating down into her bed and burying herself in the throw pillows.

After a moment she heard Luke start to say something, then stop short. The next thing she heard was the sound of his footsteps as he got up and left the room.

Amelia waited for half an hour, hoping the fact that the house had gone quiet meant that she wouldn't run into anyone if she left the living room. She carried her empty dish into the kitchen and considered turning back when she found it wasn't empty.

The pregnant couple sat across from each other at the kitchen table, still in the middle of breakfast. Clem had told her their names were Alvin and Rebecca. Nick leaned against the counter, drinking something cold out of a chipped coffee mug. His rifle was propped up against a cabinet by his feet, barrel-up. All of them acknowledged her when she came in, and no one said a word.

She'd shared harsh words with two of the three people in this room, and it was safe to guess the third didn't like her, either. She was about to leave the way she came when Luke walked in from the dining room.

"Morning," he said to no one in particular. He opened the fridge and bent slightly to look inside. The shelves were scarce – Amelia spotted containers of unidentified leftovers and a handful of fruit. Luke's hand hovered between a bruised apple and half of a banana.

"Morning," Alvin said, surprising Amelia with the pleasant tone of this voice. "Watch went okay last night?"

Luke and Nick both answered.

"Went alright."

"Pretty quiet."

Apple in hand, Luke straightened up and asked Amelia, "How'd you sleep?"

"Uh-" she hesitated, then nodded. "Fine."

"Good to hear," he smiled.

Amelia went to the sink. She wasn't about to smile back. But she had to admit, if only to herself, that Luke had changed the mood of the entire room. A smile and a warm greeting was all it took to start conversation, and the conversation felt…strange. It had been a long time since the motor inn; a long time without good mornings and quiet breakfasts.

"Hey, kid. You sleep okay?"

Amelia washed out her bowl with what was left of the sponge. She left it in a stack on the counter, with the rest of the "clean" dishes the others had finished with.

"There any more coffee?" Luke asked the room.

"Nope." Nick said with a straight face, before taking another sip from his mug.

"Nice." Luke punched him in the arm, not serious but not gentle. His fist hit Nick's upper arm with a sharp pop; Nick flinched at the impact and smirked.

"Gonna cry about it?"

Rebecca pressed her palms to her forehead, covering her eyes.

"If you're going to fuck around, take it outside."

The two boys exchanged a look, shocked at how quickly she'd gone off. Amelia leaned back against the sink and avoided eye contact with all of them. She didn't share their surprise. On some days, it had been just as easy to upset her mother when she was pregnant with Clementine.

Alvin reached out to touch her arm. Rebecca looked up at him and took his hand, looking exhausted.

"Sorry, Rebecca," Luke said gently.

Alvin nodded to him, and said with a patient smile, "Bec's not feeling great today." He lowered his voice and said to her, "But you look fantastic."

Rebecca smiled – it was small and fleeting, but her husband seemed to take it as a victory.

"We'll keep it down." Luke said, glancing at Nick, who didn't offer an apology of his own until Luke nudged him with an elbow. "Right?"

"Yeah. Sure. Sorry, Rebecca." he mumbled and went in for another sip of coffee.

"You ready for the trip to the river, Amelia?" Alvin asked.

It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her, even after he used her name. She tried to get past her extreme discomfort at staying in a house with these people and remember that Alvin had stolen supplies for Clementine, against the wishes of his wife and his group. His actions said a lot about him. Amelia wasn't one to forget favors like that, so she nodded in reply and tried to smile.

"Apparently Clementine volunteered me for it."

"That she did." He shook his head a chuckled. His laugh was genuine and contagious. Amelia found it a little easier to smile. "Well, watch your back out there. And stick together. It's always good to stick together."

Rebecca didn't have any advice to offer – instead she shot Amelia a dirty look.

"I will." She hesitated just a bit too long before she added, "Thanks."

Amelia wanted to leave and wasn't sure why. She quickly crossed the kitchen to head back into the living room, and found herself stopping in front of Luke and saying,

"Hey."

"Uh…hey." He answered with a careful smile that said this conversation was a surprise, but a pleasant one. Nick had turned away to face the sink, but Amelia knew the look of someone who was listening over his shoulder.

Amelia shifted uncomfortably. She told herself that all she had to do was say it. Then she could leave. "Thanks for the blanket."

Nick loudly dropped his coffee cup into the sink; it audibly broke and he left the mess behind, picking up his rifle and heading toward the door.

"Hey, man, what the hell?" Luke tried to get his attention as he walked out. "Nick-"

Nick slammed the door behind him.

Looking back to Amelia, Luke crossed his arms and shook his head. "Sometimes I don't know what's wrong with him." But his frown quickly relaxed back into his usual easy expression. "Anyway. I-"

"Come on, kids," Pete walked in, carrying a rifle of his own. "We're burning daylight, and whatnot." He looked to Amelia. "Your sister's already outside. She's pretty set on going. I assume you'll want to come with her?"

Damn straight. She wasn't about to let Clementine go anywhere without her.

Amelia noticed her climbing axe strapped to Pete's belt and decided it was best not to mention it.

"When do we leave?"

"Right now. Luke, you're good to hold things down here?"

Luke nodded. "'Course. You might want to talk to Nick. He's outside."

Pete sighed. He probably knew the answer before he asked, "He on another tear today?"

Luke answered with a knowing look and a nod. "Weird part is he seemed fine a minute ago."

Pete understood and muttered to himself, "Goddamn it, that kid…well, come on, then." He gestured for Amelia to follow him and left the room.

"You be safe out there, alright?" Luke said.

Amelia searched his face for signs of sarcasm or insincerity. She didn't expect any friendly gestures after the way she'd brushed him off last night, but he'd shown her nothing but kindness since then.

She nodded, trying not to give him a dirty look in her confusion. "Yeah."

She left the house quickly.