Forager || Rick Grimes

t w e n t y - f o u r

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The group excluding Rick were having breakfast. Beth held onto the baby as she ate.

Natalie sat on the stairs beside her kids and Daryl. Oscar and Axel were here as well. They officially had joined the group.

T-Dog would be happy, which put Natalie at ease. All she ever wanted to make everyone happy, it had been proven to be difficult on a number of occasions but this outcome was good.

They were all recovering well from the losses. 

Natalie still had a good relationship with Carl. She was afraid that he would become distant towards her given everything that happened with Lori. But he never did, he never blamed Natalie.

Carl amazed Natalie, Lori was right, he is good.

She still hadn't seen Rick, however. She was scared, in all honesty, of how he would react towards her.

In that second the door from the tunnels opened and Rick entered. Everyone looked towards him, except Natalie who looked down at her plate, "Everybody okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, we are. What about you?" Herschel replied.

"I cleared out the boiler block."

"How many were there?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know. A dozen, two dozen. I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl." he said without looking down at him or his new daughter. He tapped his back then moved forward.

"Rick," Glenn said getting up, "we can handle taking out the bodies. You don't have to-"

"No, I do." Rick said walking over to Daryl.

He stood right in front of him and Natalie.

She finally mustered up the nerves to look up at him. She couldn't read him. She had no idea how she felt.

"Everyone have a gun and a knife?"

"Yeah. We're running low on ammo, though." Daryl responded.

"Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon. Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula" Glenn added.

"We cleared out the generator room," Daryl said pointing between him and Natalie causing him to finally look her way. He looked at her with no emotion. 

Natalie was the one to look away, however. "Axel's there trying to fix it in case of emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well." Daryl continued.

"Good, good," Rick said nodding.

Rick then swiftly walked away and back to the tunnels.

"Rick!" Herschel called.

But he ignored him and carried on.

He was still grieving.

She looked over to her daughters, "stay here alright?"

"Where are you going?" Isabel asked, watching her mother stand up. 

"I'm gonna go after him, have a chat." 

"Is that a good idea?" Daryl asked still sitting beside them on the stairs. 

"We'll see." 

She walked out and went to go find him in the prison's narrow corridors.