CHAPTER TWO
SPARE A THOUGHT FOR HER BROKEN HEART

season one, episode three

THE ONE THING CHARLOTTE has realized about apocalypse life is that it's rather boring, there's no television to watch or books to read — it's just hours and hours of sitting around pretending like life doesn't suck. Of course there's the occasional chore to do, whether that be babysitting or cooking, but the brunette teen still spends most of the day sitting around. Nobody here is really around her age, nobody who would be interested in the things she is, the closest to her age is Glenn and he's not here — beside Sophia and Carl of course but they're kids who have very different interests to her.

Going on watch with Dale is a way that she passes time, even if it's not really necessary for her to be there and she's thought about maybe volunteering to go hunting because of her ability to use the bow but Daryl has taken that responsibility. To be honest, whilst he is a little quieter and not as openly an asshole, Charlotte doesn't want to spend too much time with him. There's never been any personal issues, she's managed to avoid the Dixon wrath, but she doesn't want to cause any problems. She can hold her own with the bow but she's not so sure he'll see it that way.

"Does Charlie have to get a haircut?" Carl whines quietly, his mother currently trimming his hair so it doesn't get too long.

"No way, it took me months to grow it out this long," Charlotte smiles, shaking her head from side to side in order to show it off. Unfortunately for her, her hair has always grown rather slowly so the fact it's even this long is somewhat of a miracle.

"Baby, the more you fidget, the longer it takes. So don't, okay?" Lori speaks to her son, trying her hardest to keep his head still.

"I'm trying," Carl protests, though it's clear his effort to do so isn't that great.

"Well, try harder,"

Shane chuckles softly across from Charlotte. "If you think this is bad, wait till you start shaving, that stings. That day comes, you'll be wishing for one of your mama's haircuts,"

"Besides, at least you don't have to pay for your haircut," Charlotte interjects, shrugging her shoulders. "Last time I got one it cost me thirty dollars and all I wanted was a trim,"

"Oh that's nothing, honey. You're lucky you didn't have to get it dyed, shit's expensive," Lori laughs, using her hands to straighten Carl's head again so she can keep cutting his hair.

"I'll tell you what, you just get through this with some manly dignity and tomorrow I'll teach you something special. I will teach you to catch frogs," Shane has turned his attention back to Carl who looks at him curiously.

"I've caught a frog before,"

Charlotte huffs out a small laugh at his response,

"I said frogs, plural. And it is an art, my friend. It is not to be taken lightly. There are ways and means. Few people know about it, I'm willing to share my secrets," Shane adds.

"Surely it's not that hard to catch a frog," Charlotte comments, her fingers running over the bracelet Sophia had made her. The flowers are starting to wither away slightly, the heat playing its part in that.

"Well that's where you're wrong. It's a one time offer bud, not to be repeated," Shane directs the last part at the boy.

"Why do we need frogs, plural?" Carl asks Shane.

"You ever eat frogs legs?"

"Ew,"

The comment comes from both Carl and Charlotte, the girl's face scrunching up in disgust. She knows they're a delicacy of sorts in France, which is somewhere she has been, but she could never bring herself to eat them. Her dad, on the other hand, had been willing to try them and somewhat enjoyed it.

"No, not ew. Yum!" Shane exclaims with a smile.

"No, he's right, ew," Lori chimes in.

"Don't listen to her, man. You and me, we'll be heroes. We'll feed these folks cajun-style Kermit legs,"

"I would rather eat miss piggy. Yes, that came out wrong,"

The conversation looks to continue on after that but is interrupted by a loud alarm echoing from down on the road. Charlotte pushes herself up off the ground, rushing over so that she can try and see down to the road. With all the foliage in the way it's extremely hard but Dale has eyes on it, the older man standing on top of the RV with a pair of binoculars. It's a little silly to rush down a road with an alarm so loud, the walkers will hear you for kilometers.

The girl can hear Shane questioning Dale from behind her but she doesn't pay much attention. There's a little glimmer of hope within her that these are their people, that they'd managed to escape from the predicament they were in.

The alarm draws nearer, Charlotte turning her head to see a bright red car pull in. A smile graces her face as the familiar man gets out of the car, Glenn Rhee a welcome sight for everybody within the camp.

"Holy crap. Turn that damn thing off!" Dale says loudly, trying to speak over the top of the wailing.

"I don't know how!" Glenn replies.

"Pop the hood, please. Pop the damn hood, please," Shane insists and Glenn does as he's told, the poor guy being pestered by both Shane and Amy. The blonde woman keeps questioning him about her sister, whether or not she's safe.

"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?" Amy fires out the questions so quickly that it's almost amazing that anybody understands her.

"Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is. Well, Merle not so much," Glenn winces at the last part, there's definitely a story to be told there.

Shane manages to shut the alarm off, bringing a bit of ease around the camp. Charlotte feels a presence at her side and looks down at Carl, the girl placing a comforting hand on his shoulder as Lori comes up on the other side of him. This kind of thing has always been hard for him, it's something she picked up on quite quickly. There's that longing that every time the group returns that there will be an extra person with them, that the infamous Rick Grimes would stroll in and be with his family again.

A truck pulls in behind where Glenn had parked the car and Charlotte finds herself feeling a little sad at the sight of sisters embracing and a father hugging his children. She understands what Carl is feeling, the hope that burns deep within her that her parents had somehow made it over here to be with their little girl only to come up disappointed every single time.

"Hey, helicopter boy! Come and say hello!" Morales calls out to somebody who's still in the truck. "The guy is a cop like you,"

As Carl is comforted by his mother, Charlotte watches the scene unfold in front of her. It wasn't too long ago that this had been Charlotte, the brunette found wandering alone amongst the trees with severe dehydration and an exhausted body. That's just what this group does, they help people.

The man steps out, still dressed in a police outfit, and she watches Shane's face crumple in shock. The man's relief is evident when he sees the other police officer, then his eyes stray towards where she is standing. It happens so quickly, so fast that she hardly has time to process, Carl flees from where he'd been standing running towards the stranger.

"Dad! Dad!"

This is him, the man who she'd heard so many stories about from Carl. They'd thought he was dead, that he'd died in the hospital and yet here he was. As she watches the family reunite, the three of them huddled together, her heart aches painfully. She is so happy for them, she knows she is, but Charlotte can't help but be resentful as they sob happily. This will never be her, never. Loneliness has been a right bitch since she got here and with every passing day, it only attacks her further.

No parents, no family, no hope.

Everybody else in the camp is so busy relishing in the happiness of seeing the reunited family that they don't even notice the broken hearted girl turn around and walk away.

It's not until the fire is crackling and the stars are twinkling in the sky that the girl actually reappears, her hair in a messy ponytail and her eyes still slightly red from when she'd been crying. The adults are already deep in conversation but her appearance does draw in a few gazes, Lori smiling softly at the teenager as she wraps her arms around herself. Carl, who has practically latched onto Rick, looks up at her as well and his movements seem to alert Rick of her presence.

She must look like an entire mess, thankfully none of them call her out on it though. As she moves to sit beside Glenn, she does notice the way he gives her a questioning look which she ignores. Charlotte has never been a hard person to read, she wears her heart on her sleeve, these people have figured her out so fast.

"Charlotte, this is Rick," Lori introduces, her voice soft as she looks at the teenager.

Charlotte offers him a kind smile, though it doesn't quite reach her eyes, lifting a hand as a form of awkward greeting. "Nice to meet you, Rick. Uh, I've heard a lot about you from Carl,"

"That so?" Rick responds, looking down at his son with a smile of his own. Carl nods his head, confirming what she'd said. "It's good to meet you too," that part is directed to the brunette.

"I didn't mean to interrupt whatever you were talking about," Charlotte speaks, eyes flicking between everybody who's seated around the fire.

"We were just discussing Daryl," Dale interjects and Charlotte winces a little, he's definitely not going to be happy that they'd left his brother behind. "Somebody has to tell him,"

"We could lie," Amy says from beside Andrea. It's probably the worst possible idea, Charlotte has noticed the way Daryl is extremely observant — there is no chance that he doesn't pick up on the fact that something is wrong.

"You guys have met Daryl, right? He's going to know something is up the minute he gets back," Charlotte comments, fiddling with her fingers.

"We'll just tell him the truth then. Merle was out of control, something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed. Rick did what was necessary and if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's," Andrea's involved in the conversation now too.

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt," Dale speaks and Charlotte sighs knowing it's nothing but the truth.

There is not a single person in this camp who would be able to get through to Daryl Dixon, probably not even his own brother if he was here. To be fair to him in this instance though, Charlotte knows what it's like to have nobody — even if Merle is a prick, that's his brother, his family. She won't be able to hold his reaction against him, not when she's just spent the last few hours crying in her tent and pretending like the other's couldn't hear her.

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it," T-Dog breaks the silence with his words, staring at the flames in front of him.

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asks.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow, maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time. It's not enough to break through that, not that chain, not that padlock. My point is that Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us,"

That part makes Charlotte raise her eyebrows. This was part of the story she hadn't heard, she simply assumed that they'd left him behind by not letting him in the truck or something — not that they left him handcuffed to the freaking roof. Yeah Daryl is really not going to be a happy man.

The rest of the night is a slow one, Charlotte finds herself taking glances at the newly reunited family with a frown. Other times she sneaks a look at Shane who looks the furthest thing from happy at the sight, for a very different reason then Charlotte though. This man has grown some sort of attachment to those two, one that he probably expected to last for the rest of their lives and now, well now Rick is back and it's gone. He longs for a family, that family, and to be honest Charlotte finds it odd. This is his best friend, he should be over the moon at the fact he's back.

Shane catches her eye for a moment, his face now free from emotion as he notices the fact she's been watching him. The man doesn't say anything, and neither does she, but there's something in his eyes that has her feeling a little uncomfortable. Looking away, Charlotte acts as if nothing ever happened.

"You okay?" Glenn asks from beside her, drawing in her full attention. Charlotte shoves all the negative thoughts to the back of her mind and nods with a smile, it's better if she just stays out of her problems that have nothing to do with her. "You look exhausted,"

"Are you trying to say I look bad?" Charlotte teases gently, chuckling when he rolls his eyes at her. "I am pretty tired through. I was thinking of heading off to be actually,"

"It's getting pretty late," Glenn nods.

After a few minutes of seemingly mindless chatter, Charlotte does bid everyone goodbye, saying goodnight to the group and heading towards the tent she's been using. As she passes by Shane, their eyes connect for a second before she speeds up her walk a little bit more — there's just something about how way he'd been looking at the Grimes family before, she cannot shake it.

Yet, she simply pushes it to the back of her mind as she settles into her sleeping bag, desperately wanting to close her eyes and fall into a peaceful slumber. Tomorrow is going to be, well, it's going to be an interesting day and the last thing she needs is to fuel the fire by mentioning anything to Lori or even Rick. This is their problem, not yours.

So as she closes her eyes, Charlotte chooses to think of home. The flakes of snow hitting her skin with a feather-like touch, the wind blowing her hair and the laughter of her friends as she ducks away from the snowballs their hurling. A life she'd once loved to live now gone, shattered in every way but in her dreams. When she's asleep, it's when the brunette is able to truly be happy — a smile of content upon her face as she falls into her memories, the only place she wants to be.

The only place she truly feels safe.

NOTE

I literally never know how to end chapters so please ignore the fact that it's so bad. The chapters will start to pick up and be a little better after this one because there will be a lot more going on. Also, I don't know if it's obvious or not, but I'm really not a Shane fan 🤷‍♀️. I'm just hoping that nothing here is too out of character etc (please let me know if it seems like it, I'm always open to constructive criticism!)

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next time!