Her father was standing on the porch when they arrived back at the farm, looking the same as Madison remembered. His face was clean shaven, white hair combed back out of his face, and he wore the same kind of outfit he always did: a dress shirt and trousers, with overall straps hooked to the hem of them. Madison pulled her horse to a stop and quickly unmounted it, smiling as it tried to nudge its snout into her shoulder; Renegade had clearly missed her, but she would make time to visit him later. For now all she wanted was to see her father, who was staring at her from where he stood on the porch, his expression looking like he was staring at a ghost.
"Go ahead," Maggie said softly, taking Renegade's reigns from her as Lori and Rick had their own little reunion. The husband and wife hurried inside to see Carl, while Madison steeled herself and slowly walked up onto the porch.
"Hi, Daddy," she greeted quietly, tucking her thumbs into the loopholes of her jeans.
Hershel stared at her, unable to believe his eyes. After so long of becoming resigned to the belief that the epidemic had taken his eldest daughter and his stepson both away from him... after so long of believing his little girl was dead... there she was, standing right in front of him. She looked worse for wear, her skin dirty and sunkissed from how long she'd been spending travelling in the sun. There was a makeshift bandage covering a small portion of her upper arm, a little bit of dried blood seeping through―from what sort of wound, he wasn't sure.
When he was certain that she was real, he finally moved toward her, tears welling up in his eyes. "Madi-girl?" He asked with a shaky voice, reaching for her. Madison nodded, tears in her own eyes as she moved into her father's embrace and hugged him tightly. "Good God, I... I'd given you up, Madi. I'd thought you― that you were..."
"I'm not," Madison assured him. "And I came home. I'm sorry it took me so long." They stood there for a few more moments, hugging each other, until the screen door swung open and Beth ran outside with a wide grin on her face, Patricia and Maggie not far behind her.
"Madi!" Beth shrieked happily, flinging herself onto her eldest sister as soon as Madison pulled away from their father. She laughed, hugging the blonde to her tightly, glad to be seeing her again after so long of thinking she never would.
The reunion was short-lived. Carl still laid upstairs in poor condition, and Madison was Rick and Lori's first choice when it came to who would be taking the utmost care of him. They knew Madison had worked with trauma before, having been an E.R. nurse, and they also trusted her more than anyone else seeing as they already knew her. Hershel helped his daughter as best he could, along with Patricia.
"Otis was hunting a deer," Patricia was telling Madison as Hershel went downstairs to speak with Lori and Rick. Madison listened absentmindedly, focusing more on the soft thumping coming through her stethoscope as she checked Carl's blood pressure. "When he shot it, the bullet broke apart and went right through it... and the boy was hit. Otis didn't even see 'em 'til after the fact. He feels so horrible about it. Went with that other man down to the high school, hoping to find a respirator and things from where that FEMA camp had been set up."
Madison pulled the stethoscope out of her ears and hung it around her neck, leaving the blood pressure cuff around Carl's arm. She'd need to check it again soon, anyhow. "Hopefully they hurry. His BP's steadily dropping, and with the distension in his abdomen― there's gotta be internal bleeding," she said. "We need those things if we're gonna have any chance to save him."
"Your dad said the same thing," Patricia said with a soft smile.
She nodded, taking a moment to brush some of the hair off of Carl's forehead gently before standing up. "You'll watch over him?" Madison asked, and Patricia nodded instantly. "I'm gonna go talk to the others."
As Madison headed down the stairs, the sound of Lori's voice reached her ears. "Okay... and you've done this procedure before?"
There was a pause. "Well, yes, in a sense," Hershel responded honestly.
"In a sense?"
"Honey, we don't have the luxury of shopping for a surgeon," Rick reminded his wife gently as Madison entered the room.
"No, I understand that, but―" Lori turned back to Hershel with wide eyes. "I mean, you're a doctor, right?"
"Yes ma'am, of course. A vet."
"A veteran?" Lori asked hopefully. "A combat medic?"
"A veterinarian," Hershel clarified as Madison walked up to stand at his side.
There was a long moment of silence while Lori and Rick processed this. "And you've done this surgery before on what? Cows? Pigs?" Rick stumbled into a seat, nearly falling out of it, but Lori grabbed him and steadied him. Once she was sure he was alright, she shot Hershel a look. "Completely in over your head, aren't you?"
"Hey," Madison cut in, not appreciating the way Lori was speaking to her father. "You watch your tone when you speak to him, Lori." The woman was taken aback at the venom in Madison's voice, never having had it directed at her before. Madison sighed, understanding that Lori was just worked up and worried about her son. "Look, I get that you're worried about Carl. He's your little boy. And yes, my father's only a vet, and yes, he's only done surgery on animals before. But his knowledge is better than none." She reached over and grabbed Lori's hand, squeezing it comfortingly. "Besides, I've seen trauma like this before, and I've helped in more than my fair share of emergency surgeries. Carl's in good hands, Lori. I promise you that."
As time wore on, tensions grew thicker and everyone worried whether or not Shane and Otis would make it back in time so Madison and Hershel could start the surgery. Madison stayed with Carl as much as she could, along with Lori and Rick, checking his vitals every so often to monitor any drastic changes. His blood pressure was dropping steadily, and his pulse grew more rapid and weak. If there was any doubt about whether or not the boy had internal bleeding, there wasn't anymore.
If Shane and Otis didn't make it back soon, Carl wasn't going to make it.
× × × × × ×
"He's still losing blood faster than we can replace it," Hershel said when Madison finished checking Carl's blood pressure and shook her head silently.
"He's right," Madison told Rick and Lori softly. "And with the swelling in his abdomen, we can't wait any longer or... or..."
"Or he's just going to slip away," Hershel finished for his daughter when it became clear that she couldn't say the words.
It was different for Madison back when she was working, when the patients weren't really anyone she knew personally and she could remain calm and professional. But she knew Carl. She'd spent the past few months around this boy, seen him laugh, smile, grow up right in front of her. The thought of the boy dying was something Madison didn't want to think about. She told herself she could save him. But that wasn't true, not if they didn't get the proper supplies in time.
"Now, I need to know right now if you want us to do this," Hershel told the husband and wife calmly. "Because I think your boy's out of time."
"Madi?" Rick asked, looking to the brunette who sat at his son's bedside. "Is that true?"
"Yes," Madison admitted with a small nod. She couldn't lie to them. No matter how much she wished it wasn't true.
"You have to make a choice," Hershel told them.
"A choice?" Lori asked.
"A choice," Rick echoed, turning to her for the final decision. "And you have to tell me what it is. You have to tell me what it is," he pleaded.
Lori's eyes brimmed with tears, and she pressed a gentle hand to Rick's cheek before turning to Madison and Hershel with a nod. "We do it."
Things moved quickly after that. Madison sprinted from the room and gathered all of the surgical supplies they had with the help of Maggie, while Hershel called for Patricia to push the metal table he used to use at the vet office into the room. They moved Carl onto it and laid him flat, while Madison set up the surgical supplies and Patricia went and grabbed a lamp to give them better lighting.
Just as they were about to start the surgery, the sound of Otis's truck distracted everyone. Madison and Patricia stayed with Carl while the others ran outside to get the items, and only moments passed when Hershel was back. The trip was a success, but he wouldn't say much else on the matter. Madison thought that was strange, and she could tell something was up, but now wasn't the time to question it.
They operated for hours, although time seemed to be lost on Madison. All she knew was that there was a little boy lying in front of her that needed her help, or he would die. Her mind flashed back to the little red-haired girl from the hospital, back at the beginning of it all when the military stormed the place. She hadn't been able to save her, but she damned sure was going to save Carl, no matter what.
When they were finally finished, she was exhausted, but she refused to leave Carl's side for an instant. It was easy for anyone to bottom out after a serious surgery like that, especially one that had been done at home, and on someone as small as Carl.
Just after dawn, it was decided they would have a small service for Otis. Hershel had waited until after the surgery to tell Patricia and Madison about the man's death, and while the news had shaken Patricia to the core, Madison wasn't entirely sure why she herself felt so numb to it. Maybe it's because she had spent the past few months thinking that everyone she had ever known and loved back at home as dead, resigning herself to the fact that she would never see them again. Or maybe she was just growing numb to the horrific ways of the world.
Whichever the case was, Madison still had one thing pressing on her mind: Where was Annette, and what had happened to her? She was afraid to ask, afraid she already knew the answer; and knowing that whenever that conversation did arise, she would have to tell her family about Shawn and what had happened to him as well.
While Maggie, Jimmy, Beth and Patricia went outside to get things ready for Otis's service, Madison stayed inside with Carl to monitor him, along with Hershel. "Fever's gone down," she told Lori and Rick as she sat on the edge of the bed.
Her voice seemed to have woken Carl, his eyes fluttering open as Lori and Rick leaned closer to the bed with relief clear in their faces. "Carl?" Lori asked tentatively.
"Sophia?" Carl asked them worriedly. Madison's heart warmed with affection for this sweet little boy. He'd gotten shot and almost died, but his first thing to ask when he finally woke up was whether or not his friend was alright. "Is she okay?"
Rick swallowed thickly, an unspoken agreement passing between the adults that bad news was not something Carl needed at the moment. "Fine," he lied to his son softly. "She's fine."
"Rest," Lori told the boy. "We'll be right here, okay?"
"Okay," Carl whispered tiredly, and within minutes the boy was out like a light.
T-Dog came rushing up the stairs then, informing them that the other group members had finally arrived. Madison spared the little boy one last glance before following Rick, T-Dog, Lori and her father down the stairs. Exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on her, and as she stepped outside she was acutely aware of how much like a mess she looked: her hair had been thrown up into a sloppy bun, there were bags beginning to darken under her eyes, and her clothes and forearms were painted with haphazard smears of Carl's blood from the surgery.
For a long moment, everyone stood in silence as they all looked at each other. Daryl's gaze scanned over Madison until she caught him looking, prompting him to quickly look away as if he'd never glanced at her at all. She thought nothing of it as Dale finally dared to ask the question the rest of the group members were wondering. "How is he?"
"He'll pull through," Lori answered with a small smile. "Thanks to Hershel and Madison, and their people, and..."
"And Shane," Rick finished for her, looking toward his best friend with gratitude in his eyes. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him." He paused and glanced over his shoulder at Madison and her father. "And, God, Madi and Hershel, they― they were amazing, Carl's surgery took hours, but they worked through it and... I'll forever be thankful."
Hershel glanced at his daughter with a small chuckle. "To be honest, Madi did most of the work. I think I was more of a helping hand than anything." Madison was too tired to manage anything other than a small smile as a response to her father's praise.
"Thank God," Carol breathed, walking forward to hug Lori. "We were so worried."
"How'd it happen?" Dale asked.
"Hunting accident," Rick answered. "That's all... just a stupid accident."
"Hey, sis," Maggie said quietly, climbing the porch steps to stand next to her older sister. "Otis's service is gonna start soon, why don't you go on in and get cleaned up, I'll fix you something to eat?"
Too tired to argue, Madison allowed Maggie to link their arms together and lead her into the house. It was strange to be back in her old bedroom, a place she'd never thought she would see again, but it was such a welcome change to the places she'd had to stay over the past couple of months. Nothing in her room had been touched, everything was the same way she had left it; even the house phone that Beth had brought to her room when Shawn called before she left was still there, laying on her unmade bed where she'd dropped it. She picked it up slowly, examining it with tired blue eyes, feeling almost as if she'd press the phone up to her ear, Shawn would still be there on the other end of the line. But he wasn't.
The reminder of that had Madison throwing the phone across the wall suddenly, the item splintering into pieces and dropping to the floor: broken, like so many other things were, now that the world as they knew it had ended.