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WHEN Adeline was thirteen, she found a puppy on the side of the road. It was skinny, abandoned with no home or someone to care for it and keep it alive. She took him home with her in hopes of convincing her parents to let him live with them. With a few persuasive speeches, they eventually allowed the dog to stay. From there on out the Grimes girl gave it a home. A place to be loved. She named the puppy Seamus, raised it to be her best friend.
A few years later, Adeline returned home to find her best friend missing. It felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest, like there would never be a pain that would amount to the one she felt. She spent months searching for Seamus, and she came up with nothing. She put hundreds of posters around King County, hoping that someone would have answers about her best friend.
No one did.
Until one night, she awoke to the sound of scratching outside of the back door. It led to the events of her whole family waking up - a sleeping Shane that had stayed over being the first to arise from his spot on the couch. When she opened the door, she felt a feeling that she had never experienced before in her life. It was as if a thousand pounds had been lifted off of her shoulders.
There Seamus was, undoubtedly skinner than when she last saw him, but he was alive. And in that moment, that was all that mattered to her. Even if it was just dog, it was her best-friend. And she had went without him for far too long. He had found his way back to her - and she didn't plan on letting him go any time soon. Adeline believed that she would never feel that same feeling of relief again.
But then she thought she had lost her husband, and still managed to find her way back to him. Even then, she thought that it would be the last time she felt that relief. The kind where you had to go through so much pain to be able to feel it. And Adeline never thought she would allow herself to be separated from the ones she called her family - she knew that she never wanted to feel that pain again.
Until she did.
The eight days that she was separated from her family was some of the most painful days she had ever been forced to suffer through. Having Judith helped keep some of the pain at bay, and the unexpected bond with Tyreese pulled her out of the dark road her mind was heading down. Adeline had to keep the hope that the rest of her family was still alive, it was what kept her from falling.
And when she emerged from the tree line and saw her brother. She knew that she had to protect herself from ever feeling that pain again. The pain of not being with the ones she loved - of not knowing who was alive and who wasn't. And when she killed Lizzie, Adeline felt the growth of her need to keep everyone become stronger with every second that passed. She had to keep them safe.
