Lori's POV:
"You're stayin'. This isn't a democracy anymore."
My husband snarled those words at all of us, but he kept his furious glare on me. Carl sobbed into my stomach, saddened from the news of Shane's death. And the baby growing inside me began to move around, fidgeting from the tension I was feeling…
Then, the horrid thought occurred to me…
This is your fault, Lori! It is YOUR fault Shane is dead!
The tears came to my eyes as I bent down and kissed the top of my son's head. All I could do at the moment was comfort him as only a mother could.
Still, I couldn't stop the true accusations that spewed from my conscience.
If you had only kept a little faith that Rick was still alive, you wouldn't be carrying an innocent life that'd be in danger from the second it enters the living nightmare that is our world. Fooling around with your husband's best friend was the last thing you should've done.
Then, I had to let my "queen" status get the better of me and pit Rick against Shane…
"Shane thinks I'm his. He thinks the baby is his."
Truth be told, I had been no better than the infamous Lady MacBeth of Shakespeare's stories, the manipulative wife who injected horrid ideas into her husband's mind.
While I knew that Shane could truly have been the actual father of this baby, I wanted he or she to be raised by only me and Rick.
What have I done…? This is all my fault. Its my fault I wasn't faithful to Rick, that I allowed myself to lose hope.
I wasn't even able to keep hope alive for my son! What kind of mother was I?
Now, I would be responsible for bringing a helpless baby into this hell-on-earth, and that would be my fault as well…
As I stared my husband's fierce, blue-eyed gaze across the curtain of embers and smoke, I clutched tighter onto my child and cried silently for the one warm and safe in my womb.
From this day on, I wouldn't ask anyone for sympathy about my situation. I didn't deserve it. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if Rick's love for me had faded somewhat after tonight.
I knew his feelings for me didn't matter now. From the commanding tone of his voice, I knew Carl and I belonged to him as his wife and child…nobody else's.
I would be sentenced to a life as a dictator's wife…
AN: I know Lori isn't the most favored character on the show, but I was thinking about the end of 'Beside the Dying Fire' and wondered what was going through her head after all that happened. Anyway, feel free to leave your opinions or comments… :D