NICOLETTE
After Rick and Shane returned, everyone was surprised to see Randall in the car. They had made a plan to leave the boy somewhere far away from the farm, but now he was there.
Why?
There was no way that Shane would have accepted to take Randall back.
"He knows Maggie," Rick revealed. They all turned towards the girl, who frowned, maybe trying to remember where she had met Randall.
"He said you went to the same school," Rick added.
"What do we do now?" asked Andrea from next to Dale.
"His group tried to kill you," Lori reminded them with crossed arms. That was true, but what should they do now? Locked Randall up? Letting him in the group?
"He is not wandering around," Rick said, trying to calm everyone. Then he turned to Hershel to ask him if he had a place where they could lock the boy up so that they could be sure that he would not escape and maybe bring his group there.
"Yeah, I know where," Hershel said, nodding his head, before asking Patricia to take the keys to a wooden shed next to the house.
"We gotta know more about this group, man," said Shane, scratching his head nervously, and Nicki observed him silently. Her doubts about the man only intensified. Only the day before, when she was in the kitchen with Lori, Sarah, and Andrea talking about Beth and after Nicki's sister left the room, Nicolette came to know that apparently Lori and Shane had an affair. Nicki wasn't sure that that meant that Lori was cheating on her husband now, but she connected the dots, remembering the many times that Lori and Shane disappeared when they had their camp set at the quarry. Now, Nicki could see why Shane seemed to hold a huge grudge against Rick, as he had appeared, but it wasn't because he wanted to be the leader. It was because of Lori. Nicki found herself wondering about that morning at the CDC, the scratches on his neck, and the strange behavior on Lori's part; he was so nervous and jumpy. So, now she knew what had happened between them, but she still had not answered her doubts about Otis' death. Shane and Lori had cheated on Rick, and that was a fact, but being a cheater and being a murderer was very different.
"Yeah, we need answers," Rick said, glaring towards Shane and thinking about what to do.
"I'll do it," Daryl said from next to Sarah, who looked up at him with wide eyes.
"You sure?" Rick asked as Shane frowned, but Daryl nodded his head.
"We need answers, I'll get'em," he answered.
"I can do it, too," said Shane, but Rick kept glaring at him. Did he have some doubts about Shane as well? It seemed so because he turned to Daryl, nodding in his direction. The archer fixed the crossbow on his back, and with Rick, he went towards the car to take Randall. They pulled the guy from the car and handcuffed him to make sure he didn't try anything, and they brought him towards the shed.
"What do we do now?" asked Carol nervously, voicing what they all were thinking.
"I... think we just wait," Glenn answered, unsure, his hands in his pockets. Maggie was standing next to him. And that's what they did; as Patricia and Hershel went back to Beth, making sure that she was feeling alright, Nicki and her group sat outside, waiting for Daryl to return. Nicki was sitting on the ground with Carl and Lori. Neither of them had shared any words; Carol, Glenn, Maggie and Dale stood still; they didn't want to sit down. Sarah, T-Dog, and Andrea, on the contrary, paced back and forth. Rick and Shane kept their gaze on the wooden shed, waiting for Daryl to come back, and Nicki noticed only at that moment that both men had cuts and bruises all over their faces. That made her frown.
"You went far?" she asked at some point, making the two of them look down towards her.
"We tried," Rick said, forcing a little smile, and Nicki nodded.
"There were many walkers there?" she asked again, and at that.
Shane frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Does your forehead hurt?" she asked, noticing how the two of them shared strange glances at each other. Were they hiding something? Did they have a fight out there?
"You're so annoying," Carl muttered from next to her, making her turn, and he was observing her with his inquisitive blue eyes. "Stop answering a question with a question."
Nicki only shrugged her shoulder as they heard the sound of steps and saw Daryl walking back toward them. Nicki's eyes fell on his hand. It was bloody; his knuckles were bleeding. Something that her sister had noticed, too.
"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men. Got heavy artillery, and they ain't looking to make friends." Daryl started to say, "They roll through here; our boys are dead. And our women. They're gonna..." his eyes moved to look at them, lingering a bit longer on Sarah, but then he turned away. "They're gonna wish they were."
Nicki knew what he was talking about; she was young, but she heard the news on television before the apocalypse; she knew what evil men were able to do to women. She felt a shiver, and she instantly searched for her sister with her gaze, who was already looking at her with pale cheeks. Walkers were something that scared them all, but they were monsters without brains. When it came to real people, real bad people... that felt different to Nicki.
"What did you do?" Carol asked, observing Daryl's hand. Seeing what she meant, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Had a little chat," he answered simply, and Nicki noticed Sarah's reaction, which kept looking from Daryl's hand to his face before turning away with a heavy breath.
"No one goes near this guy," Rick said, and Nicki felt that nobody would argue with that.
"Rick," said Lori, walking towards her husband. "What are you gonna do?"
"We have no choice," he answered with a strong voice. "He's a threat."
"So?" Sarah asked in a whisper, even if what Rick said next didn't surprise them.
"We have to eliminate the threat," he said, nodding his head.
"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked with a shocked expression, but Rick stood stoic as he spoke again. "It's settled. I'll do it tonight," he said before walking away, and as he turned his shoulders at them, the old man started to follow him.
Nicki got quiet and turned. She shared a look with Carl; his father was going to kill a boy. But Nicki didn't know how to feel about that... why she didn't know how to feel about that?
"You ok?" Carl asked, and Nicki took a breath.
"I don't know," she answered. "You?"
Carl bit his lips before speaking again, "I don't know."
There was a heavy feeling around everyone, no one would talk, they just glance at each other. Killing walkers was a thing, but killing a person was different... but this person had tried to kill some of them, and, apparently, his group did awful things. No one knew what to do or say, so they all decided to go back to their usual routine.
"We should take care of your hand," Sarah almost whispered, looking towards Daryl, who shrugged his shoulders.
"It's nothin'," he said, but Sarah shook her head, even if Nicki noticed how her sister was bothered by something.
"I think it's something," she said, taking some hydrogen peroxide and putting it in a cloth.
"I'm fine," he insisted, but Sarah was more stubborn than she looked.
"Come on," she said as she took his hand, making him sit down to start and look at the cuts. Nicki noticed that Daryl's posture was stiff as Sarah looked closer at his knuckles. "Why ar ya so damn stubborn?" he asked.
"Everyone likes to be right; I'm not different," Sarah said before looking up at him. "However, you are more stubborn than me."
Nicki observed as the two of them getting quiet as Sarah carefully took care of Daryl's hand. She delicately cleaned the wounds on his hand, and Nicki could not help but nice the expression on Daryl's face. At first, he had seemed reluctant to let Sarah touch his hand, but she moved with such delicacy that he slowly started to relax. But as much as Sarah's hands were gentle, her face was hard and pale, and by looking at her, Nicolette knew that something was bothering her mind.
"There was no other way?" Sarah asked finally in a whisper. Nicki's eyes moved to Daryl, who looked away from her sister.
"Ain't saw another way," he said, whispering back, and Sarah took a heavy breath that the archer didn't miss. And observing her closely, he spoke again.
"What?" he asked, and Sarah bit her lips.
"I don't believe that you're the kind of man who goes around beating people up," Sarah answered.
Those words seemed to have stung because Daryl was ready to answer defensively, "What'd ya have me do? Have a little chat, maybe with some tea?"
Sarah didn't even flinch at his reaction, which surprised Nicki. Her sister had never liked discussions; she always said that she didn't know how to handle them, but from what Nicolette was seeing, she was reacting pretty well.
"That's not what I meant," she said in a calm tone, but it didn't work. Daryl was quick to take his hand away from her touch.
"He and his group would do much worse," he said.
"I'm sure," she answered, not taking away her gaze from his. "But I believe that you are not a bad person, and I don't like you to pretend to be one, even if it's for the sake of the group."
That seemed to leave Daryl out of words as Nicki found herself hiding a little smile. She was proud of her sister for having made the man shut his mouth in surprise.
But before they could say anything else, Nicki noticed Shane and Carl walking one next to each other towards the wooden shed, where Randall had been locked up and where Andrea was now keeping guard.
The two were talking, but they were too far away for Nicki to be able to listen. She wondered what they were saying since not so many days before, Shane had almost pushed a gun into Carl's hand before the shooting at the barn.
But their conversation didn't last long because, at some point, Shane nagged Carl's shoulder and started heading toward Andrea. What caught Nicolette's eyes, though, was where the little shit was going, as the man wasn't looking.
"Little shit..." she muttered before standing up.
"Where are you going?" asked Sarah, noticing her movements.
"Just talking to Carl, don't worry," she answered before taking her bow and starting to walk in the direction the boy had walked.
"How predictable of you," she said as she spotted him trying to climb up the shed to reach the little window on the top.
"Go away," Carl said, making her chuckle.
"I'm not stopping you, Spiderman," she said, crossing her arms. "I just didn't want to miss the sight of your face when you are going to fall on your butt."
"I'm not going to fall," he protested stubbornly.
"Why are you so eager to enter in there?" She asked with a frown.
He took a frustrated breath. "I want to talk with Randall."
"Why?"
"For someone who never answers a question, you're asking way too much." Even his voice was frustrated, but that just made her chuckle.
"Because I do not make stupid questions like you do, Shorty."
"I doubt that," he fired back. He seemed really interested in talking with Randall, but Nicki could not figure out why. If she had to be really honest, she preferred to stay far away from people like Randall and what they could do. Walkers were one thing; evil people were another.
"He cannot be trusted," she said after a moment of silence.
"I don't trust him, but..." Carl answered, making Nicki observe him closer. "My father will kill him."
"You feel sorry for him?"
"I don't know," he answered. "That's why I want to see..."
Nicolette kept silent as he climbed up. It was strange how she was feeling; the thought of her group in danger didn't leave much space to worry about anyone else. Was she making it too simple? Was she cold-hearted?
Why didn't she feel anything but relief when she thought of Rick killing Randall?
"I don't feel like it'll make a difference... to me," she admitted. He had stopped, she knew, as she knew he was listening to her. "Why does it feel so easy?" She asked after a moment.
"Are you scared?" Carl asked, and at that, she looked up to him.
"I am," she answered before walking away.