AN: This is in a series of "shorts" that I'm doing for entertainment value as I rewatch some episodes. Some of them are interpretations/rewrites of scenes that are in each episode. Some are scenes that never happened but could have in "imagination land". They aren't meant to be taken seriously and they aren't meant to be mind-blowing fic. They're just for entertainment value and allowing me to stretch my proverbial writing muscles. If you find any enjoyment in them at all, then I'm glad. If you don't, I apologize for wasting your time. They're "shorts" or "drabbles" or whatever you want to call them so I'm not worrying with how long they are. Some will be shorter, some will be longer.

This one is partially from the show and partially of my own creation/embellishment.

I own nothing from the Walking Dead.

I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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The first time Carol met Carl she found the boy in her care.

Traffic was backed up for miles and they hadn't moved for hours. The news stations had told everyone to head for the "safe zones" where they could find cover from whatever it was that was happening—the whole thing had made Carol's head swim to the point that she wasn't sure she even comprehended what was going on—and everyone trying to leave at once had created the worst traffic jam imaginable.

Eventually, people started getting out of their cars to stretch their legs, smoke cigarettes, pee in the roadside ditches, and do whatever else they could think of to pass the time. They weren't going anywhere soon and, if things should start to move, they had plenty of time to get back into their vehicles.

That's when Carol had met Lori.

She hadn't known the details, then, of Lori's life. She hadn't known, at that moment, that Rick had died in the hospital—or so they believed. She hadn't known that Shane was his partner and a "friend" to Lori. They had known, really, next to nothing about one another.

But Carol had still kept an eye on Carl that night, without ever knowing that it would become something that was practically second nature to her.

When they'd first gotten out of the car, Carol had reminded Sophia to stay by the car—and preferably on her side of it since Ed was around the other side smoking a cigarette—and then she'd met Carl right away as the boy had come barreling out of Shane and Lori's car. Carol had set the kids up with a game to play to keep them occupied and she'd stood by to speak to Lori while Shane had appeared more wound up about the situation than most of the people around them.

It was a crisis. An emergency. Even if they weren't sure what it was, they knew that it wasn't good. It was a reason to panic, but panic could cause as many problems as it did solutions. The news had told them that much, if they weren't aware of it before.

And everyone was handling their concern in their own way.

Carol was trying to remain as calm and optimistic as she could so that Sophia wouldn't panic. If Sophia got upset, it would grate on Ed's nerves, and then the rest of the night wouldn't go well for any of them.

Carol introduced herself to Lori. She made small talk with the nervous woman about the weather and about the traffic jam. Where they were coming from—which way they were headed. Were they stopping in Atlanta? Was there somewhere else they were going? She asked about Carl's age and commented on how handsome he was while she shared equally innocent information about her daughter.

It was the first time in a very long time that Carol had felt like the least high-strung person in a group.

Lori started to loosen up a little, but Carol had noticed that she was still too distracted to have her mind on simple things—like her son. She hadn't brought anything for the boy. In their rush to get out of their home, they'd forgotten the first things that Carol had packed. They seemed to have nothing more than luggage. No food. No water. Carl seemed to have nothing to entertain him in the chance that there was, as it had ended up, a good bit of traffic. Sophia shared a bottle of water with him, and when Sophia asked about food—of which they had more than enough—Carol couldn't ignore the fact that Carl might be just as hungry as Sophia.

And Lori had nothing to offer him.

So Carol had offered him a MRE. She'd have gladly given him one, too, if Ed hadn't threatened to show his temper about the whole thing. She didn't want a scene, not right there with so many people to witness her humiliation, so she'd given into him immediately. She'd burrowed some crackers out of the car—a small stash she'd grabbed to share with Sophia if Ed should get worried about rations—and she'd given that to the children to split. She could feed Sophia as soon as they were back in the car.

Shane had wanted to go up ahead—like there was more to see up there than there was back where they were stuck—to see what was going on. Carol didn't point out that she could tell him what was going on. There was a traffic jam that was so severe that they couldn't see anything but taillights for as long as the landscape would allow them to see. She didn't point out that, even if they walked a few miles, they weren't likely to reach the front of it. Instead, when Shane had said he wanted to go see what was going on, and Lori had wanted to go with him, Carol had simply told Lori—when asked—that she'd be more than happy to keep an eye on Carl.

And she'd prepared herself for the fight that she was going to have with Ed—with God and everyone else watching—if they never came back and she took on the child because she wouldn't leave him there alone.

Carol had watched Carl, just as she'd watched her own daughter, and counted the time in her mind that Lori and Shane were gone. She'd seen things happening in the distance—things she couldn't explain—and she'd heard the screaming. She'd pulled the children next to her, wrapped her arms around them both, and she'd studied everything around her to try to figure out if it was time to get them into the car.

But Lori and Shane had returned. They'd helped them figure out how to get out of there. They'd helped them avoid the government that was set on killing them all.

And when they'd made camp, along with quite a few others they'd picked up out of the traffic trying desperately to flee the traffic jam and avoid the city, Carol had watched Carl while Lori and Shane had slipped off to "discuss" some things that they needed to discuss. She'd watched him, too, any time after that when Lori had gone off to do some task or another—always disappearing at the same time as Shane—until she'd gotten to the point where she didn't even have to be asked.

It just became a natural thing to do. It was simply a part of what she might have called her mother's intuition. She stopped being asked, and she stopped being thanked, but she didn't really mind.

She kept an eye out for Carl at all times, just as she did for Sophia, and she never said anything about the passing thoughts she had that someone, after all, ought to.