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ELLA WAS WHEELED into the lunch room. Glenn informed her it was someone she would want to go see instead of staying in her bed. Ella thought they just saying that to get her out of bed since she'd been in it all day, so reluctantly, she got out of the bed and onto the wheelchair. Ella thought of sitting in front of a desk and drawing a picture of the sun outside the window to pass time, then, at least she wouldn't be in bed, right?
As she was wheeled inside, Ella took one little glance around the room before she saw someone who didn't belong — a blond older than Beth. She took in the woman, her eyes flickering over her figure. She started from the shoes to her face. She hadn't aged a day, she wasn't injured, she wasn't ravenous from starving, and she wasn't armed.
The Walsh woman couldn't even breathe when she processed who it was — a woman from the painful past. Her heart tightened. The last she saw her, she was shooting walkers, and the last she heard, she was long since dead after saving Carol from a death she almost welcomed.
She allowed her lips to speak the name that felt so foreign on her tongue. "Andrea?" she whispered. Andrea could only smile in the moment. "Andrea, oh my god," she jumped out of the wheelchair, not even caring about the consequences. The two embraced another. "T-Dog said you were dead! How-" she squeezed her eyes.
Andrea wrapped her arms around Ella as she tucked down Ella's flyaways back into her ponytail. "We can talk about that later." she pulled away from Ella and looked around the room. "Where is everyone else? I thought they would've been coming with Ella?"
"Who?" Carol dumbly asked, flexing her hand to get rid of the numbness.
Andrea frowned. "Where's Shane?" she questioned.
Ella turned her eyes to the ground as Glenn slid in behind her, snaking his hands around her waist to guide her back to the wheelchair as a heavy silence fell upon the group at the question the Harrison woman asked. Ella's eyes were hit with a sting, her eyes locking with Glenn's as she sat down.
Shane was dead. Rick killed him. Rick thought it was the only way, but it wasn't. They could've helped her father shape into a better person, like they were trying to do with Merle Dixon. That made Ella angry. After all Merle did to them in Woodbury. . . Ella shook her head.
Andrea slowly nodded. "And Lori?"
Ella continued to divert her gaze from her old friend. Her questions were hard to answer when the people she asked about were dead. They had been for days, or for months. But no one could put that against her, she wasn't there. Then again she could read the room and stop asking dumb questions.
"Lori didn't survive," Hershel sighed. "She had a girl." he informed.
Ella watched Andrea turn to the cell block where the baby would be. Her heart swelled up at the thought of the baby without an actual mother. Ella wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffing a few times to clear her nose that got stuffed out of no where.
"Neither did T-Dog." Maggie added to the list of dead people they lost since Andrea gone, assumed dead by the entire group when she went down with a walker for Carol.
Andrea looked at everyone. "I'm so sorry," her eyes glanced over to Carl. "Carl-" he turned away. Andrea's eyes softened. "Ella, I-" she cut herself off. "You live here?"
"Here and the cell block." Rick firmly answered to Andrea, his tone was sharp. He didn't need any comforting from Andrea who was gone for far too long.
"There?" Andrea pointed, the baby was crying which revealed to her that's where they stayed. "Well, can I go in?" she asked Rick.
Ella lifted her head, feeling her heartbeat pulse faster when Andrea asked that. It was odd Andrea wanted to see their cell block when she had been gone for so long. A lot of the people here said their goodbyes to her when they thought she died. They didn't really feel anything when she was back again.
"You can't go in there." Ella snapped at her, a dark look had overcome her face.
"I'm not an enemy, El." Andrea reassured, trying to calm the girl she once knew as her close friend, and as a best friend to her sister Amy.
Rick spoke up. "We had that field and courtyard until that boyfriend, the Governor, of yours tore the fence down with a truck and shot at us." he informed.
"He said you fired first." Andrea defended.
Ella felt hatred bubble up in her chest when she blinked at Andrea. She was cuddling up with the Governor in Woodbury. Ella didn't feel the happiness she did when she saw Andrea again. How long was she there, did she know about what the Governor did to them?
"Andrea, he killed someone we liked," Ella started. "An inmate. He was a good man. He didn't deserve what he got. He was one of us." she explained harshly.
Andrea placed a hand over her mouth at the news. "As soon as I found out, I came," she glanced. "I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shootout."
Glenn glared at her through his bruised face. "That was days ago."
Andrea grimaced at the sight of his face. "I told you, I came as soon as I could," she turned her gaze when she saw Michonne out the corner of her eye. "What have you told them?"
Michonne sighed. "Nothing."
"I don't get it," Andrea threw her arms down to her sides. "I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?" she asked.
"He almost killed Michonne," he gestured to Ella and Maggie. "He would have killed us."
Andrea stared at Ella in the wheelchair, then to Maggie. She glared right up at Merle, jabbing a finger. "With his finger on the trigger. Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?" she asked. It wasn't a question though, it was a statement. "Look, I cannot excuse or condone what Philip has done. But I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work this out."
"There's nothing to work out," Rick stated. "We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will." he promised.
"There's room at Woodbury for all of you!"
Ella scoffed. "You know better than that." Merle chuckled.
Hershel shifted on his crutches. "What makes you think this man wants to negotiate? Did he say that?"
"No." she mumbled.
"Then leave." Ella glared. "You have no place here, unless you can get us inside," she paused. "There's a war brewing. Pick your side." she hissed. She looked up at Glenn. "I want to go back to my cell."
He nodded. As he rolled Ella away, he said. "You can't force us to negotiate when he won't let go of what happened before."
