western nights ( shane walsh )

1.03 ; moment of reality

                                                 The sounds of the dishes being washed could be heard with the newly nineteen-year-old finishing her final things. Natalie had turned nineteen only three weeks, and two days ago; with a month passing and she was already trying to move out of the house wanting to be on her own.

Lori stumbled into the house with bags in her hand from grocery shopping. She and Natalie have been bumpy since Rick's entrance into the hospital. He had been in a coma for almost a month now, and every second of it she had missed her dad coming home late, but cracking her door to see if she was home, or even awake.

She was turning after putting her bags on the ground.  "Carl should come home, in an hour-" Sighing she looked up at her daughter seeming to not listen to her. "Can you talk to me?" Giving up on the silent treatment that was being given to her. "Well if you're not going to talk to me, Shane's coming over later to pick a few things up for the hospital. You're free to go with him."

"You didn't think he cared about us." Natalie finally spoke a sentence to her mother, that wasn't a simple answer. "Really?"

Not knowing what she should be saying. Lori had taken a second studying Natalie. The young woman had chuckled shaking her head turning and turning the water off. But before pushing the handle down, it was a little rough before pushing it down fully after it got stuck. "You don't think I feel bad enough?" Lori knew her daughter had every right to be mad at her and immature about the whole thing.

Both of the women continued to stand in awkward silence before Lori grabbed her keys and walked out of the house again. Natalie had turned running her hands through her hair tired. Since she had to go and pick up Carl from school, she had grabbed the other spare car keys on the counter. She made her way out of the house, grabbing her dad's sheriff jacket hanging from the rack of jackets hanging up on the wall next to the door.

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It took a half hour for Natalie to pick up Carl and then bring him back to the house. "Where's mom." Carl had asked when they stepped foot inside the house after she had unlocked the door. Natalie didn't answer right away; keeping the door open but shutting the screen door since Shane was still going to wind up coming around to get things for her dad.

"She'll be home soon" Natalie took off Rick's jacket, hanging it on the rack again. "But mom said get things you wanna send to dad. Shane is coming." Carl seemed to put a smile on his face before running full speed up the steps, skipping some along the way. The small smile that was on Natalie's lips had disappeared when she was in the room alone. The silence filled the air, and made her heart bleed with millions of cuts, still not used to this change that her dad just wasn't around anymore.

Walking into the kitchen so that she could just sit and think about everything that was happening; she didn't even know what to give her dad. But that was quickly cut off by the screendoor opening loudly, shutting behind Shane walking into the house. "Lori here?" The question had rang through the air with Natalie shaking her head not saying anything. "You don't have anything, this time around do you?"

"No, Shane. I don't" Natalie leaned on the kitchen counter a little with her hands by her sides. "Not like he's going to wake up to see it,"

Exhaling loudly with his hands on the waistline of the Sheriff uniform that he was wearing. "Natalie, give him something." Shane didn't tell her but demanded by the tone of his voice hardening. "Don't act like a child."

Grabbing a bracelet around her wrist, and pulling it off slamming it down in the hand of the man. "Here." Letting go of it and staring into Shane's eyes as the man took eye contact by putting the bracelet into his pocket. His eyes travelled down to the bracelet in his hand; beaded yet brown; with a small heart dangling from a chain in the middle of it.