A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoy my very first fanfiction, chapter 1 of Sixteen Years. Hope you enjoy!

Beta'd by BloodGutsAndChocolatePudding

"We need to take him off the gates," sighed Carl, running his hand through his hair, and glancing at his wife.

"I know," Enid replied, reaching for his hand. She laced her fingers with his comfortingly. She knew exactly who her husband was talking about.

"He's reckless," Carl continued, "and we can't have that right now. Sam said there's a herd heading right for us."

"Shit," Enid mumbled under her breath. "Again?"

"We're working on changing its course," Carl reassured her. "Me and Sam are gonna take a car out. Maybe divert them into Lorton?"

"You're not," Enid told him.

"Enid-" began Carl, but she cut him off.

"Carl," she said firmly. "I don't want you to go."

"But I have to."

Enid looked at her husband, bewildered on what to do for the sake of the family.

"We need this," Carl told his wife, placing a hand over her stomach. "For them."

Enid nodded.

"Mom, Dad!" Fourteen year old Andrew Grimes was heading their way, as he came out of school. "What are you doing here?"

Carl swiftly removed his hand from Enid's stomach as his son approached. Sometimes Carl was shocked as to how much like him his son was. Especially since he had given him the sheriff's hat that his own father had bestowed upon him when he was twelve.

"We're going to get Jon, and go see Grandpa Rick," Enid told her son.

A look of fright crossed Andrew's face. "He hasn't gotten worse, has he?"

Enid pulled her son closer. "Of course not! We just have an announcement that we thought he should hear."

Rick Grimes had been in hospital for over three months now. Ever since his wife, Jessie, died in the attack on Alexandria, he hadn't been too good. A few days after her demise, Carol had walked in to see him unconscious on the floor. He was rushed to hospital, and diagnosed with an undetected heart condition. Put on an assisted breathing machine, he wasn't the same, but still liked regular visits from his family. After all, he was only fifty-four.

"Where's Jon?" Andrew asked his dad.

"Judith's looking after him, she picked him up from school this morning." Carl replied.

"Isn't he with, er," Andrew casually ran his hands through his unruly hair, "isn't he with Beth?"

Carl rolled his eyes as Enid stifled a laugh. Andrew Grimes was a little player, liking the older girls around the community. Specifically, the local daycare girl, seventeen year old Beth Rhee, who happened to be the only daughter of Glenn and Maggie Rhee, who, like Jessie, had been killed in an attack on Alexandria. He liked to think he was discreet, but everyone knew of his crush. It was something that made Carl and Enid laugh, even in the worst of situations.

"No, baby, she wasn't free today," Enid replied, trying to keep a straight face. "Why?"

Andrew's face fell, but as he answered he tried to regain his cool. "No reason," he coughed. "Just, uh, wondering..."

Carl grabbed the sheriff's hat that was perched on his son's head, and ruffled the boy's hair, before replacing the hat, reminded of his days as a teenager. At least his son got to grow up in a stable environment, and was able to have crushes like this. Childhood was something that Carl had desperately craved, and had been deprived of, growing up in the apocalypse. He wanted his children's lives to be as normal as possible, especially with a cure on the way.

"I'm glad you're all here," Enid was sat at the foot of Rick's hospital bed, surrounded by her children, Andrew and Jon, along with Judith and Michonne. "Carl and I have an announcement to make."

Rick sat a little further up in his hospital bed, and Judith lifted her head up to look at Enid, as Carl took a deep breath.

"You know that your mom and I love you guys very, very much, and that no one could ever replace you," Carl began, looking at his boys, before addressing the adults (and Judith). "And I know we had complications, before having the boys."

Carl looked at Enid, taking her hand.

She squeezed it tightly before looking at the people around her.

"And that's why we're really happy to announce," she smiled, "that we're having another baby."