A heavy set man came out of the brush with a horrified expression. He held a hunting rifle in his hand and paled at the small child that had been accidently hit.

"Oh GOD! I didn't see him standing there!"

Ann nodded sadly but saw Shane go after the man angrily.

"SHANE NOT NOW!" She yelled angrily as she tried to see what was going on with her nephew. "Ah need ye over here!" Shane glared at the man but ran back over to Ann's side. "Ah need you and Rick to roll him onto his side as carefully as ye can!" It took a few seconds but they managed to roll Carl to his side as Ann felt at his back. She grimaced angrily and shook her head. "No exit wound, the damn thing's still in there!" Ann looked around worriedly. "Ah don't got anything ta dig it out with!"

The heavy man approached shakily and looked at them mournfully.

"The place Ah'm at, they got a doctor. If anything can help the kid he can."

"What's yer name?" Rick asked his face going more pale.

"Otis, Ah can show ya the way…" Otis offered ready to fully atone for his mistake.

Ann saw Rick and Shane's dubious expressions and she knew they had to move fast.

"Rick grab me some of the leaves from that tree. The leaves are used in an aloe that stops infection. Shane go scrape off some sap from another tree!" Ann yelled at them spurring them into action. "Otis right..?" She asked and the man nodded. "Help me lift his shirt up…"

"You know what yer doing?"

"Well considering I was a nurse…"

"I was an EM." Otis admitted and helped her get Carl's shirt up. Ann managed to use the leaves and sap to paste them together and press it against the entrance wound. "I need a pressure bandage of some kind." Ann ripped her shirt off leaving her tank top underneath. She wrapped the covered wound and asked for Otis' belt and she wrapped the whole thing up with the belt creating a temporary plug for the wound. "Show mah brother Rick where to go." Rick lifted his son into his arms and they all starting running as fast as they could listening to the yelled directions of Otis.

Otis being heavier than the rest of them started to slow down unable to run anymore. Shane ran back and started to shove him angrily.

"COME ON AND GET YER ASS MOVING!" Shane bit out venomously.

"SHANE LEAVE HIM THE HELL ALONE!" Ann yelled back angrily as Rick looked back.

"HOW FAR?" He yelled at Otis and Otis answered how far it was to the ranch house that he was currently living at. Rick was off again like a shot Ann looked worriedly at Shane then to Rick unsure which way to go.

"DAMMIT ANN GO WITH HIM!" Shane yelled at her and she nodded and followed her brother.

Ann ran alongside her brother as she kept watchful eye on the child in his arms. She kept making mental notes as to the pallor of Carl's skin, and the fact he hadn't even woken up yet.

"It'll be okay Rick…Ah promise." She cried to her brother still managing to keep pace with him.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" He yelled back at her acidly.

They finally saw a decent sized house in the middle of nowhere and Ann screamed as loud as she could.

"HEY WE NEED HELP!" As they both ran even faster than they could've. "SOMEBODY!" Rick was starting to look peaked and about to fall over. "Come on Rick just a little farther we can do it!" She urged her brother. "Ah can carry him the rest of the way if'n ya like.."

"NO! Ah got em'!" Rick bit out willing to run to the end of the universe for his son.

They finally got close enough to the family that was standing on the front porch ready to assist if they could.

"Was he bit?" The older man asked Ann kind of liked how the man seemed to emit calmness and trust.

"He was shot, by your man." Rick offered starting to finally break down into near sobs.

"Otis?" A woman asked worriedly.

"Help me!" Rick sobbed filled with anguish Ann let herself start to cough at finally managing to slow down enough to let the air catch up to her lungs.

Ann met a girl that was a little younger than herself.

"You okay?"

"Lungs are burning, been a while since I ran like that. Ah'm Ann."

"Maggie." The short haired girl answered as they both ran into the house.

"Maggie get the pain killers and coagulant." The older doctor ordered his daughter and Ann moved forward as he ordered people around.

"Ah'm a nurse Ah can help with anything ya need…" She offered but the forced air into her lungs made her cough again.

"Not until ya get your breath back and some rest ya don't."

"He's mah nephew!" Ann argued but the old man wouldn't back down. Ann sat down heavily on the chair letting herself feel the after effect of running so hard. "Bullet's still in there!" Ann coughed again and thankfully took the glass of water the woman gave her. "Thanks…"

"Name's Patricia."

"Ann." Ann looked over as the old man looked confusedly at the leaves. "It's leaves from a Charsling Tree. It was to help slow down infection if it could." She offered and the old man gave her an impressed nod.

"Name?" The old man asked Rick. Who was still at a loss. Ann nudged her brother slightly and he started to ramble a bit before he got the word out.

"Ah'm Rick."

"Yer going ta need ta leave us ta work son…" The man ordered and Rick nodded going on autopilot.

Rick and Ann backed out of the room and near the main doorway. Ann patted Rick's shoulder and nodded her head outside. HE looked and saw that Otis and Shane had finally caught up and Shane looked like hell.

"RICK!" He hollered worriedly. Ann followed her brother out the door because he looked worse than she did.

The two others approached and saw how bad they both looked from heat exhaustion.

"Is he alive? He still alive?" Otis sounded so freaked out that Ann couldn't be mad at him.

Rick wasn't talking he was just staring into nothingness.

'This is how I was when Rick's machines turned off!' Ann thought to herself. 'No wonder Shane had been so worried about me those first couple of days.'

Shane helped Rick to clean the blood off of Rick's face and Ann walked over.

"He's goin inta shock Shane. He needs ta sit down." She offered but Rick shook her off and walked back into the house. They followed him in and back into the room where Carl was currently residing. The man looked back at them.

"Do ya know his blood type?"

"A Positive same as mine…"

"A Positive…"

Rick and Ann answered at the same time which got the siblings to smile sadly at each other. Leave it to the Grimes siblings to know the family's blood type.

"Unfortunately Ah'm A negative." Ann answered sadly and looked at her brother.

"It will make it easier to get the transfusions…" The man offered but looked over at Otis. "What happened out there?" He asked quietly and Otis went pale again.

"I was hunting a buck. I didn't see the kid on the other side of him…" Otis offered looking like he had was telling a little kid he had ran over their puppy. Ann touched the heavier man's shoulder.

"It's okay…" She offered wiping tears from her face. "It was just an accident…it's okay…" She held the man's shoulder but he shook his head at her not willing to believe that she should be forgiving him that easily. "Ah'm a nurse we've had hunting accidents come in before…" She explained to the man trying to get him to see that he couldn't have possibly known that Carl was on the other side of that buck.

Rick let out a small cry then shook himself out of his state of mind.

"Lori doesn't know. Shane mah wife doesn't know…" He explained as Shane grabbed his shoulder and hugged him tightly in a brotherly fashion.

Meanwhile with the group that Daryl was leading back to the highway…

Lori stopped and looked back into the woods worriedly.

"Still worrying about it?" Kim asked (AN: yes I know her name is Carol but I was almost finished with my first story and didn't want to go through the whole thing and change it so her name will remain Kim).

"That was a gunshot." Lori snapped back at them and looked over at Daryl who was trying not to look as freaked out as she did.

'I heard the shot to and it made my blood freeze in mah damn veins.' Daryl thought to himself as he scratched at his shoulder feeling a bug land on it. 'Just a bug on me, it's not the same itch!' He worriedly told himself trying to shake the feeling that Ann was in trouble.

"Why only one gunshot?" Lori asked again making Daryl wish she'd be quiet.

"Maybe they got a Walker…" He was trying really hard to not freak out and run back through the woods to find out for himself. He was given a job to do and he was going to do it!

"You know as well as I do that Shane and Rick would kill a Walker quietly. Even Ann knows not to attract attention with firepower!"

Daryl cringed inwardly. 'dammit she just had to bring her up didn't she?'

"Nothing we can do anyway…" Daryl felt his heart fill with sorrow and worry. "We can't go around chasing after them." He snapped at Lori. 'no matter how much I want to.' He added silently to himself.

"So what do we do?" Lori asked knowing she was getting to Daryl by talking about Ann being out there where that gunshot had occurred.

"We do what we were told. We beat the bush looking for Sophia, and make our way back to the highway…" He ended the conversation trying not to let his fear of what that gunshot could've meant.

Glen nodded his head over to where Andrea and Kim were talking quietly to each other. Daryl rolled his eyes at the sight.

"Aw man! They're joining forces…" He grumbled getting irritated as Glen let out a shaky laugh.

"We're all hoping and praying for you for what it's worth." He walked into the last bit of the conversation.

"Ah'll tell ya what it's worth…" Daryl stepped in between them moving on. "We're going ta locate that little girl, and she's going to be just fine." Daryl snapped at them. "Waste of time all this hoping and praying…" He bit out while his inner thoughts were taunting him.

'You say that but you were praying pretty hard to keep Ann safe during that Highway thing…' The voice that sounded like his mother was back. Yeah well they didn't need to know that part…even if it did make him feel like a hypocrite.

Ann sat beside her brother as Shane sat on the other side. She kept a firm grip on Rick's shoulder as she lightly kneaded his shoulder in worried fashion trying to keep Rick from freaking out.

"Why'd I let him come with us?" Rick asked the two of them and Ann rubbed her brother's back.

"Because he pulled his 'future politician' routine and conned ya into it…" Ann offered sadly making Rick give a watery smirk and nodded in agreement as he grabbed her hand and squeezed it with his other hand in a thankful gesture.

"It would've been the same with Lori…" Shane offered quietly.

"It would've been the same with any of them." Ann added even more quietly.

"Yeah Ann's right, Ah guess. That boy would've grown up to a politician with how he can talk his way into things…" Shane agreed with the both of them with a sad laugh.

"A little girl goes missing, you look for her. You said for me to call it for the day but I didn't listen…Carl got shot because…"

"Rick it's just the popular chaos theory. A random series of events that seemed so stupid and miniscule at the moment which ended up leading to a large ass event." Ann explained to her brother.

"We've been there partner." Shane offered sadly thinking about the day he was shot.

"Yeah when you were shot I blackmailed the head nurse Julie Strickler into letting me assist in yer surgery…" Ann admitted and Rick gave her a look of disbelief. "What? I wasn't going to trust anybody else with you ya idiot!"

"That why I got outta that hospital, find my family go through all this shit to have it end here. What is this some sort of sick joke?" Rick bit out starting to lose his self control. He felt his sister grip his shoulder again.

"Is it a sick joke Rick?" Ann asked thinking about everything that had happened in the course of two days. They both looked at her in horror. "I mean think about it. Sophia goes missing gets Kim on yer case it pisses me off while Andrea pulls her 'I want my damn gun' routine. Both of which annoy the piss outta me. We look don't find Sophia you send off Daryl with that group now if I had no reason to be annoyed with them and would've left with the group." She was trying to get them to see what she was saying but only Shane paled in realization. "I wouldn't have had a reason to stay with ya idiots and Carl might've died without immediate care…" Rick stared at her and frowned.

"Are you trying to justify this shit?" He asked dangerously.

"It's all I got!" She snapped angrily.

The door opened and Maggie came out of the room.

"Rick! He needs blood…" She informed them and they walked into the room with her.

Carl had woken up and was freaking out from the pain and terror. Ann tried to help the old doc hold him down as did Rick. Ann saw that the man was digging into the wound trying to remove the shrapnel.

"Stop! Yer killing him!" Rick yelled out in agony. Ann rolled her eyes at her brother.

"Dammit Rick it needs ta be done or else he goes into septic shock!" She yelled back at him getting a nod from the doctor.

"He needs blood!" Patricia Otis' wife yelled at Rick who looked at a loss that his little sister yelled at him like that.

"DO IT NOW!" Shane screamed at him snapping him out of it.

Finally mercifully Carl fell back into the dark void and was quiet again. Shane started to panic but Ann shook her head at him.

"It's okay Shane it's normal." She offered but Shane was still freaking out.

"He just passed out." The old man snapped at Shane who looked paler than he before. He pulled out a pair of clamps and dropped a piece of metal into the bowl. "1 down 5 to go…" When he said that Rick and Shane almost passed out themselves. The doctor gave the two men a wary look and gave an unsure look to Ann who shrugged.

"They've never had ta sit in during an operation…"