Her first instinct was to run to the gate, but Georgie wasn't about to risk Judith's life in case it wasn't just their people who had come back. The last time, it had been the man from Hilltop, Jesus. He had turned out to be decent, but he had told them about the other group, the ones who called themselves Saviors but spent most of their time killing anyone who defied them.

From her spot on the porch, Georgie took a head count. Rick had taken Maggie with Sasha, Eugene, Carl, Abe, and Aaron, but had come back with Michonne and Rosita in tow. And with no Abe or Sasha.

Georgie stepped off the porch as the Grimes family walked towards their house. Carl was the first one to reach her, pulling her into a hug that felt like it was more for him than it was for her.

The prison walls were a dull gray that left Georgie with a mind numbing headache. While before all this, she had been very much a homebody who preferred to stay inside with a good book, now, she spent more time outside than she ever had in her life. She smuggled books from the library out into the sunshine, where she could watch as everyone went about their jobs. The people they had brought in from Woodbury were a welcome addition. The prison felt less like a temporary camp and more like a place worth staying at for the long haul. After so long with just their small group, she liked to people watch as she studied, waiting for Hershel to finish his farming lesson with Rick so he could continue his medical lessons with Georgie.

Halfway through a particularly boring paragraph about blood thinners, the bench across from Georgie creaked. She smiled up from her book at Carl, his face shadowed under the brim of the oversized hat he wore.

"How's the veggie planting going, bud?" Georgie asked, shutting her book.

"Good, I guess," Carl shrugged.

"Pretty soon, we'll have tomatoes growing out of our asses, you and Pops have the green thumb," Georgie said.

"You hate tomatoes," Carl said with a soft smile.

"I like spaghetti," Georgie said. "And you can't have spaghetti without tomatoes."

Carl looked out onto the field, where his father was still pulling weeds from their steadily growing garden. His face looked harrowed, like someone much older than twelve years. When Hershel had asked Georgie to assist him in performing surgery on a young boy who had been shot to the stomach despite Georgie only having a month of pre med college education under her belt, she had nearly broken down. After Carl turned out fine, Georgie felt a kinship with her former patient.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Georgie asked. Carl fidgeted with the brim of his hat, shielding his face from Georgie as if he didn't want her to look at him.

"This is the kind of thing my mom would've wanted," Carl said. "The families here, the gardens. Carol's even reading to the kids in the library."

"That's a good thing," Georgie said. "You and Judith get to have this."

Carl shrugged, looking down at the table, picking at the grains in the weathered wood. Georgie stared at the tassels of the hat for a long moment.

"I ever tell you about my dad?" Georgie asked.

"Not that much," Carl said, finally looking up.

"Well, my dad was a gym teacher," Georgie said. "My mom had been a big shot in some minor women's boxing league, so my dad thought I was going to be a star athlete. Unfortunately for him, the only thing I could hit was him in the nads with a wiffle ball bat." Georgie was proud of herself for pulling a laugh out of Carl. "He tried to get me to be tough. He sucked at that too, 'cause he was a big softy, especially if I got all teary eyed. My mom died when I was real little so I was basically all he had. But he still tried. Any time I had a bully or a guy broke my heart, he'd say to me, 'Now, Lulu,'-"

"Lulu?" Carl chuckled. Georgie smirked at him.

"Yes, Lulu. It's what he calls me. Tell anyone else that, though, and you'll find yourself on the business end of my knife," Georgie said. "He'd say, 'Now Lulu, put on your big girl panties and sock them in the teeth.' 'Course, I never did and he let me get away with it because I was his little girl and he'd just take care of it for me. The bravest thing I did was go away to college and even then, I spent the whole first week calling him three times a day."

"I've seen you take out walkers by yourself," Carl said. "You're plenty brave."

"I am now," Georgie said. "But the last my dad saw me, I was still crying over a bad grade on a paper. He didn't get to see me now. I'm alive now because my dad taught me to throw a punch and shoot a gun, even when I didn't want to. He wanted me to be tough and now I am and he'll never know."

"It sounds like he'd be proud of you," Carl said.

"I know for a fact that your mom was proud of you," Georgie said. "Plus, I know she loved tomatoes."

Judith reached around Carl's neck, trying to get her brother to hold her as Carl held fast to Georgie. Georgie patted the boy's hair with her free hand, looking over his shoulder at the solemn faces of Rick and Michonne as they approached.

"What happened? Why aren't you at Hilltop?" Georgie asked as Carl finally pulled back. "Is Maggie okay?"

"Maggie's okay," Rick said, his voice sounding like his throat had been shredded to pieces. "She's going to be okay."

"Then what's wrong?" Georgie asked. "Where is everyone?"

Rick looked back to Michonne who had her shaking hand covering her mouth. Georgie had never seen Michonne look helpless, but that was the only way she could describe the desperate, wild look in the woman's eyes.

Rick looked down, his fists clenched tightly to his sides as if he were afraid they might haul off and punch someone on their own accord.

"Daryl got taken by the Saviors. Abe and… Abe and Glenn," Rick stumbled. "They're dead."