The long white hallway was an ominous stretch of sterile lifelessness that Carol now found disturbing. She has always emotionally disconnected from this building, but to do that now was unthinkable after looking into the eyes of someone so personally detached from the entire world. The fluorescent lights reflected off the spotless walls, making the entire building seem eerily cold. Her rational mind fought to reason with the sleep deprived fears telling her to run, telling her that she is trapped in here. She tightened her grip on the small hand she held, and her child squeezed back, letting her know that she was not alone, and that they were both still okay. Deep breaths in, deep breaths out. She could do this. It wouldn't be much longer now, and then she would have to face him. There was no way to know what she would find when she entered that room. Every muscle in her body was tensed with anticipation and concern. Could she look at him without seeing the worst in herself? Could he ever look at her the same way again?

"He's right in here," Stephen said softly, stopping at a door to their right. "I'll leave you guys alone."

Carol nodded, tears already coming to her eyes as she started down at the floor.

"Is my friend Gene here too?" Ollie asked.

"I'm not sure. Why don't you come with me, and we'll go find out while your mom has her visit."

"Is that okay mom?"

"Sure baby" she mumbled, unable to disguise the emotion in her voice.

"I'll bring him back here in a little while."

"Thanks. Have fun sweetie."

Carol now stood alone facing the heavy wooden door. She tried to compose herself, but a strangled sob still fought its way out every few seconds. Putting her hand on the knob, she closed her eyes and slowly counted to ten, swinging the door open only when she reached the last number. She blinked back tears while she took in the room. There he sat, in one of those horrid green and white hospital gowns, in a bed with the back raised up. His leg was heavily bandaged from the bottom of his knee to halfway up his thigh, and an IV steadily dripped into his arm. For a moment he simply watched her without reaction, but then a huge smile slowly spread across his face, leaving Carol sufficiently confused. She supposed she should be pleased that he was happy to see her, but she couldn't comprehend why on earth he would be.

"Are you going to come in?"

With the sound of his warm accent in her ears, she snapped; dashing to his side and collapsing in his arms with loud, heart wrenching sobs. He gently kissed the side of her head, stroking her hair and rubbing her back with his good hand while she cried on his shoulder.

"Shhh, it's okay, it's okay now."

"I'm so sorry Ben, I'm so sorry" she wailed into his shirt. "I didn't know what else to do, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to do it, but I had to, I had to Ben. It wasn't you. I'm so sorry."

"Carol, what are you talking about? What did you do?"

She abruptly pulled away from him, dropping into the chair next to the bed.

"What?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"The last thing I remember is crashing the police car, and then I woke up here."

"What? No! I saw you Ben, you were there!"

"Where?"

Her exasperation emanated in her voice. "In the pharmacy!"

"What pharmacy? What are you talking about?"

"In the pharmacy, Ben! You were there! You came for Ollie!"

"Carol I don't know what's going on, I wasn't in a pharmacy with you. I told you, I was driving the police car, and then I ended up here."

"No! No! They got you! You were one of them! And you came to the pharmacy to find us, and you wanted me to be one too! You said it was better that way, that we were wrong to fight it. Then you said that there was no place for Ollie, and you and the others, you wanted to kill him!" Her eyes were wide and wild, tears streaming down her face. "I shot you Ben! I shot you! That, right there," she pointed to the bandage on his leg, "that was me! I did that. I shot you and then Ollie and I ran. I shot you, and I left you there. How can you not remember that?"

Confusion was etched into his handsome features as he tried to understand what she was telling him. Could he really have done something so vile? Was he really going to kill Carol's son? Had he been infected while he was unconscious following the crash?

"I… you… I was… like them?"

"Yes."

"And I came after Oliver."

"Yes."

"And… and you had to shoot me, to keep me from killing him."

She nodded, burying her face in her hands.

"I'm so sorry Ben. I really am; I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me Ben, please! I never wanted to hurt you, but I couldn't let you take him. I'm so sorry." Her words vanished into sobs, her whole body shaking.

"Carol."

She couldn't look him the eyes, not after what she did, not after seeing him like this, not when he didn't remember.

"Carol" he repeated quietly. "Look at me."

She shook her head, refusing to take her hands away from her face.

"Come here."

He reached over and took hold of her closest arm, pulling her down to rest her head on his shoulder once more, and then wrapping his arm around her.

"Carol I could never hate you; never. There is nothing you could ever do that would make me stop being your friend. You know how much you mean to me, nothing is going to change that. I wish I remembered what happened, but I don't, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for anything I did while I was infected. I would never want to hurt you or Oliver, and I hope you can still believe that. You did what you had to do to protect your son, and I wouldn't have expected you to do any less. I don't care about my leg. I care about you. I'm so sorry that I put you through that, and I hope you know that I never would have if I'd had any choice in the matter. But you and I, we're going to be just fine. None of this changes us. I'm always going to be your best friend, and you'll always be mine."

"I'm so sorry."

"No more of that, okay? I don't want you to feel badly. You were protecting your son, and I wouldn't even be myself again today if you hadn't, so you have nothing to be sorry about."

"I hated seeing you like that. I never even thought that they'd get to you, it never occurred to me once."

"Me either" he chuckled. "I guess we both think a little too highly of me."

She closed her eyes and hugged him tighter, thankful he was alive, thankful to realize her feelings before it was too late.

He nudged her playfully. "Hey come on, laugh, it was a joke."

"I'm just so happy to have you back."

"Well I'm happy to be back… even if I don't exactly remember being gone. And I'm definitely glad this whole nightmare is over so we can go back to work and dinner parties instead of car chases and stealing clothes from corpses."

"I just hope we all come out of this okay. I did some terrible things Ben. I hurt people. I killed people. I'm going to have to live with that. And the people who survive have to live with what I did to them."

"It'll all work out Carol, I promise. We'll get through it together, just like we always do."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know you."

"I don't know if I know myself anymore. I never thought I could do those things."

"Yes you did. You always knew you would do anything to protect Oliver. You never thought it would come to that, but you knew you would kill or die for him if you had to."

"I guess you're right. I never thought I would have to, but I can't picture myself doing anything differently."

"It will be fine Carol, you'll see. You're not alone in this. You have Ollie and I, and the three of us can put everything back together. We always have."

"You're right… you're always right."

"Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say that" he laughed.

She couldn't help but giggle and give him a gentle slap on the chest. "Shut up."

"Come on, get in here. You must be tired."

"There's not enough room for me in there!"

"Sure there is, watch." He carefully lifted his injured leg, moving it to the edge of the bed and shifting the rest of his body over. "See? Right there."

"Are we going to get in trouble for this?"

"Probably" he replied with a sly grin.

She just shook her head and smiled, carefully climbing in to the tiny bed with him. He put his arm around her body and pulled her up against his side, her head resting on his chest.

"There. That's much better."

"You're bad" she chided.

"I know."

He pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head before laying back and closing his eyes.

TBC