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Chapter Three: Not Now

I managed to wake up without screaming. And I was guessing Daryl was too tired to notice if I moved around a lot. The light first rays of light were peaking through the bars, but Daryl was still fast asleep. Yesterday had taken a lot out of him; he would probably sleep in a little later than normal. But he deserved it, everyone who went on that run yesterday deserved a few more peaceful hours of sleep. I carefully and slowly made my way over him and to the floor. I changed and laid out some clothes for Daryl before I walked out the door. I yawned as I headed down the steps. I was not surprised at all to see Rick walking around with Judith.

"She's getting big." I say as I walk over to them and kiss my niece.

"Getting ornery too. How'd you sleep?" he asks looking at me closely.

"Pretty good. And since I didn't wake everyone up I think last night was a success."

"Any dreams?"

"Not any that I remember." The shrill alarm clock that signaled the start of the day went off. Rick handed me Judith as he went to go wake up Carl. "What are you doing pretty girl? Huh? Did you keep daddy up last night?" all I get back is some baby babble. I go over to the bin where her toys are and I grab a few cups and take her outside to get breakfast going.

I drop Judith down in her play pin and drop her cups and her bottle in after her. I dig through the box full of food and I settle on making some more pancakes. Rick and Hershel had picked a bunch of berries and they were awesome with pancakes. I get the first batch done just when Michonne walks out. "Hey, glad you're back." I say, pointing to the stack of pancakes.

"I'm leaving today."

"Why? You just got back?"

"I'm going to look in Macon."

"That didn't answer my question. Why are you leaving so soon?"

"Because Macon is so far away." I slam the spatula down with a huff.

"No, I want to know why you are going out there to find him! I get what he did was horrible, and I understand, almost better than anybody, how big of a dangerous psycho his he. But you don't see me gallivanting out into walker-land to find him. I want to know why you feel the need to go."

Michonne says nothing; she just bites into the pancake and looks at me. I sigh and walk around the grill and stand beside her. "Michonne, I'm sorry about what he did to Andrea. I'm sorry about what he did to you. But we beat him. He doesn't have a group, he doesn't have a town. He's not coming back. And you need to stay here." She still doesn't say anything; I shake my head and walk back towards the prison. I pass Carol on the way and tell her that I started pancakes.

I don't get far from the pavilion before Rick and Carl come by. "There are some pancakes on the table." I say as I walk by them, but Rick stops me as I try to walk by.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Michonne was driving me crazy." I say looking back at where she is over by the horse.

"She's leaving already?" Carl asks.

"I guess. And she's going all the way to Macon to boot."

"It's her call." Rick says. "You can't do anything about it."

"I know, but I can still be annoyed with her. She's just being stupid." I look down at Carl, "I'm having class today, do your chores and eat then come to class."

"He's just going to help me feed the pigs then he'll be down. I nod then walk away from them.

I walk into C block and see that everyone is up. I tell Beth that Judith was outside and Hershel tells me he wants to have another check-up. "I haven't had class in three days, I'm gonna teach today. So afterwards?"

"Okay, but you don't teach on your feet. Understand?"

"Yes sir. Is Daryl up?"

"Heard all the weird noises, so I'd say so."

"Okay, tell him where I'm at, I gotta get the kids up and fed before we have class."

"Do you need help?"

"No, I just have to tell Patrick and he'll tell everyone for me. See ya this afternoon."

The hallway between C and D was empty, but it was obvious from the sounds in the hallway that they were up. Good, then getting the kids around wouldn't be that hard.

*bang bang*

I freeze as the sound of a gun shots fills the air. It came from D block. Part of my brain told me to back away, but the other part told me to go see what was going on. The closer I got the more screams I heard, and when I pushed open the gate to the block it was chaos.

It takes my brain several seconds to see what was happening. Somehow walkers had gotten in the block. Another gun blast shakes me out of the stupor. I see terrified people blocking the upper platforms. I yell up at them to leave, the block. "Ms. Kelly!" I turn and see Lizzie and Mika in a corner, a walker headed towards them. I grab one of the chairs that are around a tiny table and move over to where they were; I knock it down and yell at the girls to get out. I barley see them run past me before Carter comes barreling out of a cell, tripping over a body on the ground. In the short time I've known him; I have never seen his face contorted in that much fear. His eyes were wide and he was yelling.

I stomp on the chair and break one of the legs off. I pick it up and try to do what I can, but I can't move that fast. I was never more relieved to see my brother or Daryl in my life. "What the hell are you doing in here?!" Daryl yells when he notices me. Rick is getting all the people down from the top level, Glenn and Daryl take the opposite sides of the steps, Ty, Carol, and Sasha follow behind them. I get people out of the cells and tell them to leave the blocks. I look over to where I last saw Carter and he's curled up in a ball, blood flowing from his foot.

"Carol! Sasha!" I screamed, they knew how to do the amputation that could save him. Something that one of the groups Rick brought in after Woodbury fell taught us about. If done soon enough, the person could be saved. Carter may not be the best person, but he deserved to be saved. Sasha came over to me. "Tyreese!" she yells, he comes over. Soon we have Carter on the bed. Ty goes back out and I sit by Carter's head as Sasha gets it all ready. "We have to do this now." Sasha says. Carter is silent, but he is shaking like a leaf. I grab his hand and hold on to it. "You'll be okay." I say as a scream rips from his throat as Sasha starts cutting.

I stood outside the cell as Carter was carried off to the infirmary. My arms were crossed but I was still shaking. It had been a very long time since I've been in a walker attack. The survivors of D were covering their dead while our main group were delivering head shots to stop animation. Merle had saw Carter when he was being taken out, but there was no reaction from him other than a short pause and a double-take.

Daryl walked down the steps and came over to me. "What were you doing in here?"

"I was gonna have class today. I came to get the kids."

"So instead of leaving when the gun shots rang out, you decided to stay?"

"Daryl I coul-."

"No," he grabs my shoulders and makes me look at him. "You should have left and got us. You could have been killed! You could have ended up like Patrick or Holly. Do you want to end up like that!?"

"Stop yelling at me. I can't deal with it. Not right now." I say back. I was too tired to fight with him, and I was too tired to deal with him yelling. I thought we were beyond this, beyond walker attacks inside the prison. Daryl looks so mad. He just shakes his head.

"Get out of here." he says as he walks back up the steps.

I wipe the tears off my face. I wasn't going to let him get to me, he was just upset. Upset and shaken. Plus I couldn't really get mad at him; he had a very valid point. I look up and see Carol leading Lizzie and Mika back into the block. I look at her and she mouths "their dad." I drop my eyes and take a breath as Carol leads them into the cell. He had to still be alive, but he had to have been bit in a place she couldn't cut off. Their voices were so quiet, but the higher pitch could easily be heard over the low conversation of the others on the top level.

"Dad?" Lizzie's voice suddenly grew a little louder. He must be a fast turner. "Dad?" Still nothing. "No."

"Come on, it's time." Carol says, I quickly push the curtain aside and see her leading the girls away from the bed. "You know what I have to do. What we're always supposed to do." Mika wraps her arms around me, but Lizzie is like a statue, she's still, her eyes locked on the bed.

"Come on Lizzie," I say putting my hand on her shoulder. "Let's wait outside." She heads towards the door for a half a second before she turns and grabs Carol's arm.

"We should be the ones." Lizzie says, reaching for Carol's knife.

"No." Mika says.

"Lizzie, you don't-." I say trying to stop her from having to do what Carl did.

"He's my dad!"

"Lizzie, are you sure?" Carol asks.

"Carol, she is not going to do this."

"She taught us how. I can do it." Lizzie says, and Carol goes pale. My mouth drops open.

"You taught them what?" But something that seems like a rustling comes from the bed.

"You have to do it now. "

Carol leads Lizzie to the bed. "You need to do it right now because you have to do it before he turns."

"Mika, go outside, right now." I say to her and push her out the door. I go over to Lizzie who is standing stiff by the bed. "Sweetie, you don't need to do this. Let's go. Right now."

"But he's my dad." She says, her voice breaking.

"I know, I know that. But this isn't what you need to do for him. Let's go outside. Okay?"

"But she said we needed to be strong enough to do this." Lizzie says looking at Carol.

"Well she's wrong. This is a job for adults. Not little girls. Come on. Let's go outside." I say, prying the knife from her fingers. "That's it. Let's go."

Lizzie wraps her arms around me and she starts crying. I knew she had asthma; I needed to get her out of here. I toss the knife to the ground in front of Carol. The thought that she had been teaching these kids how to kill was appalling to me. It was knowing things like that that almost took my nephew to a place he couldn't come back from. I wasn't going to let her mess up any other kids' lives. Mika grabs a hold of Lizzie as we walk out of the cell. She was just a little thing, but the way she took over, coaching Lizzie on her breathing was an amazing, if not heartbreaking thing to see.

I get the girls down by the fence line. Lizzie just seems to collapse, but Mika doesn't let go of my hand. "Sweetie, what did your sister mean when she said that Mrs. Carol taught you how to "do it?" Do what exactly?"

"Not supposed to tell. Mrs. Carol said that we would get in trouble if we told."

"No one is going to get in trouble, but I needed to know what she's teaching you."

"It's story time, we don't really-."

"Be quiet Mika." Lizzie says from the fence. "We promised we wouldn't tell."

"Lizzie, I need to know."

"No you don't. It has nothing to do with you." she says. The whole time she didn't look away from the woods beyond the fence line.

"Okay. I won't ask anymore. Are you guys hungry?" I ask, I know they haven't eaten anything yet, and I also know they need to be alone together.

I get up towards the pavilion and see Rick talking to Maggie, Carl, and much to my surprise Michonne. I went over to where they were at. "Patrick got sick last night.
It's some kind of flu. It moves fast. We think he died and attacked the cell block. " Rick takes my hand when I tried to go over to Carl. "Look, I know he was your friend and I'm sorry."

"He was a good kid." I say, looking at Carl, wondering why Rick wasn't letting me go.

"We lost a lot of good people." Then he looks up at Maggie. "Glenn and your dad are okay, but they were in there. You shouldn't get too close to anyone that might have been exposed, at least for a little while. All of you."

I stay by Rick as they go inside. "Does Daryl know about his dad?"

"You're not gonna ask about the flu?"

"No. I have bigger things I have to deal with. Ryan is one we lost. Lizzie and Mika lost their father. I need to be with them."

"You need to look after yourself. With this flu you can't take any chances. Let Carol look after the girls."

"No." I say shaking my head. "She's not going anywhere near them."

"Kelly, I know you don't like her, but you need to put that aside right now."

"She's teaching the kids how to kill walkers and bitten people."

"What?"

"I mean, I don't know for sure, but-."

"Kelly, you can't just accuse her of something like that."

"Lizzie said that Carol taught them how. And Mika said something about Story time. They haven't straight out and told me, but from what they've said, it's not a hard thing to figure out. I'm not letting her hurt those little girls Rick. I won't let another child go through what Carl went through. Not if I can help it."

I cook four pancakes and I try not to watch as they start carrying the dead from the cell block. I knew so many people in there. I knew all of the kids, and from what I had seen, we had lost some kids. Eventually I would need to know who so I could take their school work and either give it to their parents, if they had any, or just burn it. When I was a teacher in the normal world I had only lost one student because of a car accident. It had been four years since before the walkers, and maybe three since, so at minimum its been seven years since that class. And I still haven't forgotten Vince Kemmith; I haven't forgotten him or that class. Just like I wouldn't forget the students I just lost.

I pile the pancakes on plates, toss from fruit and some syrup on top. I turn towards the main yard, Daryl is digging graves. He hasn't talked to me since yelling at me, but it wasn't his fault. He had more things to do, and to be honest, I didn't feel like talking to him anyway. I looked over to where I left the girls and I set the plates down and headed down to them as fast as I could. Carol was down there. I wasn't leaving her alone with the girls.

"That's life and death." I hear her say, I couldn't believe it, they just lost their dad and she was going to lecture them.

"He's dead." Lizzie says looking out.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But if you want to live, you have to become strong."

"Lizzie!" I say getting a few steps away. Lizzie turns to look at me.

"He's dead! He was special and now he's dead. Why'd they kill him? Why'd they kill Nick?"

"You're so stupid." Mika says, Lizzie just shakes her head and runs off. I stop beside Carol and Mika looks at her. "She's messed up. But she's not weak."

"Mika, there is food on the pavilion." I say, gently pushing her away. "I'll be up in a minute."

She runs off and I cross my arms and fix Carol with a hard look. "Do you want to tell me what that was about?"

"It was nothing." She says, turning around. I grab her arm and spin her back around.

"Don't you dare walk away from me. You stand there and belittle a child who just lost her father, and you have the nerve to tell me it was nothing!"

"If someone won't teach those girls what it takes to make it in this world than I will."

"That's not your call. You do not get to teach those girls, or anybody else for that matter, what to do in this world. If I ever hear of you teaching kids how to kill it will be you who will need the knife in the head."

"Don't stand there and threaten me."

"It's a promise. Its stupid shit like that that almost took Carl away."

"And it's not knowing things like that that can get people killed!"

Her voice almost turned into a shriek, and it was then that I got an inkling as to why she was doing this. "This is about Sophia isn't it? You think that if you teach these kids what to do that the same thing won't happen to them."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"God, you're dumber than I thought. It wasn't now knowing how to kill that caused Sophia to get bit. It was an accident. Just like what happened with Jim and Dale. Nobody caused it; it wasn't them not knowing what to do. It was the situation."

"Yes and the situation was everybody caring more about you than my child."

"Don't you dare go there! They were out looking for her very damn day. Daryl almost dies looking for her. So did Shane and Andrea when they went into that housing development. So don't you dare say that they cared more for me than her. Cause it's a damn lie."

"You just tell yourself that."

"I don't have to, because I know it's the truth. And here is another truth for you, if I even see you go near those girls again, I will make good on my threat."

I push past Carol and stomp up the yard. I felt on fire I was so mad. Was that woman ever going to let poor Sophia rest? She never talked about her like Rick, Carl, and I talked about Lori, yet Carol was carrying Sophia around like a heavy coat. And she was taking it out on innocent children who didn't deserve it. "Kelly, Hershel sent me to find you." I see Merle walking down towards me.

"Hershel has more important things to do than check my blood pressure. Tell him to leave me alone."

"I'm taking it your mad at someone."

"I'm not talking about it Merle."

"Well, I'm not letting it go."

I just ignored him and walked away. He, of course, followed me. I felt myself getting angrier at him. He needed to back off. I was about to turn and yell at him, but them a strange pain shot across my stomach. I immediately froze and hunched over. "Kelly?" Merle says, grabbing my shoulders as I bit my lip. The pain left, but there was a lingering sensation. "Are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm okay."

"What happened? is it the baby?"

"Daryl! Rick!" Maggie's voice sounded panicked as she yelled across the yard. We look up and my eyes lock on to what has her freaking out. A whole group of walkers are pushing against a fence, there is so many of them they are bending the chains.

"Go." I say pushing Merle away.

"But you-."

"Merle, I'm fine, you help them." He hesitates, but he turns and quickly runs towards them.

I'm still hunched over as I make my way to the prison. I have three more shots of pain before I make it in. I'm out of breath and shaking by the time I get to the door that leads to the rest of the prison. "Hershel! Dr. S!" I yell down the hall, I feel horrible and I don't know what's going on.

"What's wrong?" I turn and see Beth standing with Judith.

"Get her back, where's your dad?"

"I think in the infirmary with Daryl's dad. What's wrong?"

"I don't know. I think the baby." Another shooting pain has me hunched over and Beth sets Judith in her crib.

"I'll go get dad." She says, running down the hall.

In just a few minutes, Hershel and Beth are running back down the hall. They get me to Rick's bed and Beth grabs Judith, Hershel telling him to get her away from us. "When did they start?"

"Just a few minutes ago."

"Have you had any unusual pain today?"

"Just some back pain and a few Braxton Hicks."

"Was it more painful than usual?"

"A little. What's going on?"

"I think your baby wants to see what all the commotion is about. You're in labor."

"No, no, no, no. you have got to be kidding me! This baby has had several calm days to be born, and now that everything is going to hell it decided it wants to be born?"

"That's how it works sometime. Now you have to calm down. If you stay this tense you will not have a good delivery."

"Forgive me for not being calm and serine!"

"You just lay there and I'll go get Daryl-."

"No, no not yet. They're dealing with walkers at the fence line. Don't tell him until they're done. He needs to be focused."

"Okay. I'll wait. This is going to take a while, you're in for a long day and night girl."

Note: Ugh. My stupid self forgot that I saved Hershel's leg in Nothing Ever Last. So in the first chapter when I talked about the prosthetic leg, I have to go back and fix it. This reminder is for those who may forget, like I did, that Hershel still has his real leg so I had to explain the knowledge of the amputations somehow.

Hope everyone enjoyed this.

Next Chapter: The baby is coming! Carter wakes up, and we get ourselves a murder mystery!

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