.Enid.

Feeling an odd sort of numb, I slid into the seat beside from her. Quietly, she set the box on the table and leaned towards me. She didn't look angry, or upset, but just… kind of blank.

"This is for a pregnancy test," she stated, and I dipped my head to avoid her eyes.

"It is," I agreed, focusing on the dark lines on the wood of the dining room table instead of looking at her. At first, when I saw sitting there, I felt freaked out, but sat in front of her, it all faded into something like shame.

"I- Enid, where's the test?"

I hesitated. "Under my bed," I admitted.

That might as well have been a confession in itself, but she still pressed on anyway.

"And it was?"

"Positive," I whispered, and a moment later, I dropped my head into my hands, propping my elbows into my table.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, tears beginning to well up. "Maggie, I didn't mean to, I didn't think it would happen, I didn't even think about it-"

She let out a sigh, and a moment later, I heard the sound of wood on the floor as she slid her chair close to mine, placing a hand on my back.

"It's… it's okay," she replied. "And you know who… whose it is, yeah?"

"It's Carl's," I answered. "There's- there's nobody else. And now, he's not even here, and how am I supposed to tell him I got- I got? I- I can't…"

"Hey, he had just as much of role in this as you did," she interjected. "It's just as much on him, too."

I huffed, letting my head fall further until my forearms touched the table. "What am I going to do?"

Maggie hummed, soft and low. "There's not really a lot of options on the table right now, Enid," she told me. "These days, there really isn't- isn't anything you can do about it."

My throat felt clogged, and I tried to clear it, but it did nothing. My body felt heavy, and my heart was thudding. "Oh god," I all but moaned. "I'm gonna- I'm going to- God."

The water in my eyes started to spill over as the sob lodged in my chest finally tore its way out. The hand rubbing my back moved up, Maggie's arm wrapping around my shoulders, and I allowed myself to fall just a little, my forehead against her collarbone. She began to murmur something soothing under her breath as I began to cry in earnest.

It took awhile for me to calm down, but once I did, I pulled back. Her eyes were big and soft as she looked at me, and I took a shaky inhale.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked. Yes, Maggie wasn't my mother, but- but Maggie had been the one watching out for me, making sure I was safe and fed and alive. It had never really been formally discussed, but nobody was blinking any eyes as I'd ended up in her care, and there was a silent agreement that wherever Maggie went, I went with her. The idea that she might be mad at me for making a mistake was like a weight crashing into me.

"Enid, no," she replied, brushing her fingers against my cheek. "I'm not mad. I wish you'd been more careful and thought ahead, but I'm not mad. People make mistakes, honey."

I nodded, feeling more tears crawl to my eyes, but I shoved them down, determined to be dry-eyed for the rest of the night. "What- what do I do?" I asked.

"What you have to," she replied. "Tomorrow morning, we're going to doctor, okay? We'll see what they can do about being discreet, for now, and we'll see if anything is wrong. And then, when everyone comes back from Alexandria, you're going to have to tell Carl."

I blanched. "What if he's mad?"

Maggie all but scoffed. "Well, he really has no right to be, considering he's just as responsible as you are," she said. "But I've known that kid a long time, I doubt he'll be mad at you. Scared, maybe, or unsure, but not mad. If he'll be angry at anyone, it'll be himself."

I swallowed, turning my gaze up to the ceiling. "Oh god," I repeated, for the third or fourth time tonight. "Maggie, I'm- I'm- God, how am I supposed to do this if I can't even say the word?"

"You learn," she told me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "You're young and you're scared but you'll learn. You'll figure it out as it comes, and you'll survive it. You'll be okay."

"I'll be okay," I echoed, quietly. When I turned to look at her again, she offered me a small smile, and I did my best to return it, even if it felt forced.

"Things are going to be alright," she assured me. "Now, there's still leftover pasta, and you need to have some, because whether or not you're hungry, you need to be eating. And then you're going to get back in bed and go to sleep, because that's also important now. Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, standing from the table to grab the remains of dinner I had been ordered to eat. Once it was sitting in a bowl in front of me, I realized how hungry I actually was, and Maggie grinned as she watched me scarf down my food. As I ate, we talked. Not about the whole teenage-unmarried-pregnancy thing, but about other stuff, like how things were going at Hilltop, or the book I'd read the other day.

By the time I'd finished, being shooed off the bed like I hadn't been asleep for hours earlier, the pressure in my chest felt lighter. I didn't feel relieved of the burden, and I still wasn't sure if everything was going to be alright, but in the moment, I felt like it might.

My day the next morning started with vomiting.

The sun had barely risen before I was stumbling out of my room and to the bathroom, heaving the contents of my stomach up into the toilet bowl. The sound of it woke Maggie, and despite my assurances that I was fine, she took a seat at my side and leaned over to rub my back, peeling a rubber band of her wrist and offering it to me. I thanked her softly, using it to pull my hair back.

We were there for a good hour or so, but once I was sure I was done, I rinsed my mouth out several times over, trying to wash out the taste. My throat burned in an awful sort of way, and my stomach still churned, but I could tell I was done, so I splashed some water on my face before going to change my clothes and put on something clean for the day.

As I rifled through my drawers, it occured to me that I was going to need new clothes. Not any time soon, considering that I was only a month or two in so far, but still. I was going to swell up the same way Maggie already had started to, as the child in my stomach grew.

The idea of that had me bending forward, resting my forehead on my dresser. There was a baby, another physical human inside of me. Even if it was still small, it existed, and the idea that I was growing an actual human within myself was incredibly overwhelming. Sure, women did it all the time, it was the natural progression of life, but- it was odd to think about, that my body had to power to do this.

When I expressed that to Maggie over breakfast, which I really didn't want to eat after the morning I'd had already, she laughed. "It was weird for me, too, at first," she said, and I couldn't help but smile a little. Even though she'd said she wasn't last night, there had still been a little part of me that was sure she would be upset with me, and the fact that we were now having a light conversation about this lifted my spirit.

(Still, however, the fear was lodged in my chest, sitting heavy in my lungs. I was a teenager, most people around Hilltop and Alexandria didn't even trust me to care for myself. How were they supposed to trust me with a baby?

How was I supposed to trust myself with one?)

As we were finishing up, a thought occurred to me. "Am I going to have to move out?" I blurted, before I could stop myself.

Brow furrowed, Maggie glanced over at me. "Huh?"

"Well, I mean, you're having a baby, and I'm- me too," I explained. "So when that happens, am I going to have to live, like, somewhere else then?"

"Why would you have to leave?"

I shrugged. "I don't know," I mumbled. "Like, maybe you'll want your space, or having too many babies in one house would be too much, or... I don't know."

Maggie's face softened, and she reached out to run her hand through my hair. "You won't have to," she reassured me. "If you want to, then that's okay, but I'm not going to make you leave if you don't want to, alright?"

A little bit of a grin crept onto my face, and I nodded. The idea of being kicked out of the house was not one I enjoyed, and I was glad to know that I was welcomed at the house as long as I wanted. Maybe I would move out, maybe not, but at least I always had somewhere to go.

As soon as that was figured out, though, something else hit me. This… baby, wasn't just mine, but it was Carl's, too. If I was becoming a parent, he was, too. That meant that he was- was he going to want to be a father? Was he going to be involved? What if he didn't, would I be doing this alone?

"Enid?'

Noticing I'm lost in my own head, Maggie calls my name, and my head snaps up to look at her. "What're you thinking about?"

"What if… what if he doesn't want it?" I asked.

"Well, Enid, I think you're just going to have to find that out for yourself the next time you see him," she replied. "I can't give you a solid yes or no on that, but for what it's worth, I don't think he'd abandon you. He's never really seemed like that kind of kid. But even if he does, you'll always have me, and they'll be plenty of other people to watch out for you, too. Especially in times like these, people love babies, and I', sure that once you give birth, there'll be a lot of help waiting around the corner."

I let out the breath I was holding, and she smiled. I returned it, sliding out of my chair and throwing away the paper plate I'd eaten my breakfast off of. Once it was cleaned up, Maggie cleared her throat.

"Now come on," she said, but her voice was kind. "Let's head on down to the doctor's office and see if we can squeeze in a check-up."

She held out her palm, and I took it, grateful. She squeezed my hand, once, and I allowed her to pull me outside and into the sunshine.

"You'll make it work," she told me. "I promise."

When she looked up at me, her eyes were warm, and just looking at her, I could tell she believed it. I grinned, and in that moment, I allowed myself to believe it.

(I didn't realize just how wrong this day was going to go.)