A Life Worth Living || Daryl's daughter/Carl grimes X OC

21. Comfort Cries

Nell overheard the group arguing over what to do with Randall.
Rick and Shane want to kill him, but Dale wants to spare his life.

Nell thinks Randall was a bit scary in the shed, but he didn't do anything wrong. Nothing bad enough to be killed for.
Nell knows that her opinion is irrelevant to the group anyway, so she keeps her mouth shut on this topic.

The sun has set and everyone is getting ready for the night. Nell and Rick's group have been sleeping in tents outside of the Greene's farmhouse because Hershel isn't quite ready to have a dozen people move into his home yet.

A fire is crackling in the middle of all the tents. T-dog, Andrea, and Glenn are sitting around it while Lori and Rick have a side conversation with each other.
Nell has noticed that Daryl's tent is set up far away from the rest. The dead squirrels hanging over a rope and the motorcycle leaning against a tree make it obvious that the tent is Daryl's. Daryl usually keeps to himself, isolating himself from the group and most of their decisions, like whether to kill Randall or not.

And there he was. Sitting on the edge of a tree stump while sharpening one of his many arrows.

When everyone starts to head into their tents for the night, Nell does the same. She unzips her small, yellow tent, crawls into it, and zips it back up. She plops onto her cold sleeping bag, lying on the hard, bumpy ground.
The crickets chirp loudly and the fire stops crackling. Someone must have put it out.

She lays there for a long while, staring at the dirty roof of her tent just big enough to fit her. She listens as the side chatter stops, probably meaning that everyone has gone to sleep.
Nell wishes she had someone to talk to. Someone like Ollie— who used to laugh with her about silly things every night before bed.

Nell tosses and turns, trying to fall asleep, but for some reason, she just can't.
Everyone is sleeping, Nell remembers.
And that means she can do whatever she wants.

Slowly and quietly, Nell grabs Snuggles and her knife as she unzips her little yellow tent and crawls out into the chilly night. Rick and Lori's tent light is still on, which means that they are still awake, or it means that Carl needs to sleep with a nightlight.
She giggles at the thought of the second option.

Nell tucks her knife securely into the back pocket of her jeans as she looks around the farm.
Two things catch her eye.
The first is Daryl's tent. The light in his tent is still on. It doesn't surprise Nell that Daryl barely sleeps.
He's the kind of guy to stay up all night guarding his precious squirrels.

The second is Dale.
Dale is walking across the huge grass field with something slung over his shoulder.
Dale is a strange man. He is very stubborn and independent, but he is also just a sweet old man with morals.
Nell thinks this is weird of him to be walking in the middle of the night, but thinks nothing of it and ignores the old man who obviously has something important to do.

Her head turns back to Daryl's tent.
Surely, he won't mind if she stops by to say hi, right?

If Nell was all alone guarding her squirrels, she would want someone to talk to— so she concludes that Daryl obviously wants some company.
And Daryl found Snuggles for her, so that means that he doesn't completely hate her.

Nell starts walking towards his tent, hugging Snuggles close to her chest. The stuffed bunny's fur helps keep her warm.

There aren't any walkers on the farm besides the ones that were in the barn, so Nell feels safe alone at nighttime.

Nell walks around the dead squirrels and she sees Daryl sitting on a tree stump, sharpening his arrows just like before.
He doesn't look up at her, but Nell can tell that he knows she's here.