A/N: See – I'm trying to get back on track with weekly posts! Let me know what you think – most of you seemed to have already figured out what all the suspense was about.

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Chapter 10

Beth could hear another bellowing scream followed by more yelling as she exited the vehicle, pulling her bow into her hands. Rick was only a second behind her along with Sherri, both rushing to leave the jeep. It was obvious the clamoring and more was coming from above, whatever was wrong was happening upstairs.

With a fleeting look Beth glanced over her shoulder, wisps of blonde hair blocking part of her view as she yanked the main door open. "Rick, go upstairs. I'm going to check on Daryl," she directed in a rush.

Rick nodded, his stride not faltering as he entered behind her, his gun drawn.

Beth sprinted toward the infirmary. She noted Roslyn peeking out from the laundry room area, a frightened and perplexed look on her face. Beth ignored her, her goal of reaching Daryl set in stone. Beth rounded past the woman into the infirmary, weighed down by her heavy pack and skittered into the room. Her heart was pounding at what she might find.

Her blue eyes trained on Daryl. He was there in the cot and he was fine. Her coiled body was finally able to release the desperate breath she hadn't realized she had been holding in. He was painfully rolled up on an elbow looking at her, utter relief on his face as well. Beth let the satchel and her quiver slide from her shoulder careful to the floor and her bow was set aside as well she took hurried steps to her husband. She couldn't control the urge to touch him. She knew they should both be concerned with the shouting from above. It sounded frantic. Beth knew Rick would sound a more urgent alarm if warranted; right now she just wanted Daryl.

"Beth," Daryl rasped, still sounding weak but at least sounding more like himself. The hazed fever was gone from his eyes. He was still pale and looked weak, but was at least upright and talking. His condition looked so much better than before.

"Daryl," Beth murmured, her hands cradling his face.

She wanted to take a moment; she needed just a moment with him to ease the worry inside her. Honestly, Beth wanted to do much more to him, but the poor man was ill. The skin she touched was still hot, not burning like before, but enough to make her grimace.

Beth let a thumb stroke the stubble on his cheek. "Where's Jess?"

"Ran off when the screamin' started. What the hell is goin' on?"

"No idea. I find her and see what is happening. We found meds. We need to get you started on them," she said, taking her hands from him.

Beth pulled the knife from her belt and pressed it into his hand. She could tell Daryl wanted to protest, to tell her take it but no argument came as she curled his fingers over the hilt. She knew he was exhausted and weak beyond how he was holding himself. Daryl would have been the first person charging in to whatever mess was happening upstairs.

With a stiff nod, Daryl eased back down on the cot, holding the knife tightly. Beth worried her lower lip as she grabbed her bow and quiver just in case. She needed to get Jess back to Daryl; he needed to start the medication as soon as possible.

As Beth entered the hallway, she could hear more shouting. Kayla. Tigo. Some others. There was a heated discussion going on above. There were more rushed footsteps. It couldn't be good.

Roslyn seemed to know Beth was there as the older woman poked her head out again. A more annoyed look plastered on her puckered face than before. "What is all that commotion!?"

Beth shook her head. "Going to find out. Stay here," she responded shortly, heading for the stairs.

Roslyn huffed dramatically. "It's upsetting the children. I'm trying to do God's work here, and all that shouting is upsetting the children. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Pslams."

Beth waved the woman off. Roslyn wasn't her favorite person, not with slapping her and all the hateful things she'd uttered at Beth after they fled the compound. Still, Beth held a fair amount of guilt about her inability to save Becky and Peter. Just looking at the twig of a woman would sometimes make those festering feelings billow to the surface. Could she have done something differently? Should she have chosen a different way to escape? It happened months ago, but Beth could still remember the anguished cries of the two young people as they were dragged away. The remembrance of it would send shiver down her spine, the memory of her failure.

There wasn't time at the moment to dwell on the regret. The shouting was much more understandable as Beth bounded up the stairs. Her long legs stretching to take the steps two at time.

"He's gone! How many times do I have to say this? Isaac is gone!" screeched a hysterical Kayla.

Beth's throat clenched painfully. Not baby Isaac. She felt a sting of tears at the thought of the tiny infant gone. SIDS was the first thought to cross her mind before she heard another voice, Tigo, respond.

"Babe, settle. He's gotta be here. He can't just have gotten up and walked away."

"You were supposed to be watching him! FIND HIM! FIND HIM!"

As Beth reached the top of the stairs she found the crowd of people huddled around the room of Tigo and Kayla. Just about everyone was there minus Nate and Vinny on guard duty. Beth settled her bow onto a place at her back as she approached.

Kayla stood just outside the door pulling at her hair. Her face was a deep red with tears streaming down her face. Her whole body quivered with frustration and fury, making Beth very worried for her friend. Tigo cringed next to Kayla, his hands out and trying to calm her. Michonne and Jess hovered just beyond him, also trying to the calm the extremely anxious mother down as Beth came to stand next to a confused Rick.

Beth nudged Rick to get his attention of the spectacle before them. "What is going on?"

Carl answered instead, standing next to his father, a grimace on his face as Kayla started to yell again. "Kayla left Isaac with Tigo to finally take a shower. The baby was finally asleep again after sreamin' all afternoon. Tigo laid down and fell asleep too – he'd been on double duty since you all went on the run. Now Isaac is gone, Kayla is freakin' out and no one knows much more," Carl explained in a hushed but rushed tone.

"Who took him? He's my baby! Mine!"

Kayla was fierce, hysterical. Beth knew how much this child meant to the mother. She knew the history behind Kayla's other children, the ones that were taken and gone. Beth remembered how blatantly protective Kayla had already been even before Isaac had been born. That coupled with the lack of sleep from an exhausting and colicky newborn, Kayla looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Maybe someone thought to give you a break. Let's go look. Tigo is right… Isaac couldn't have walked off by himself. Someone has him," Michonne said calmly, trying to placate the frantic mother with a soothing tone but her eyes darted to Rick and Beth held worry.

Kayla snapped away from a gentle arm Michonne had placed on her. "Anyone who would have had him would have brought him back by now. I want my son. I want him NOW!" She pointed out to the crowd.

Her words rang true with Beth as she looked over the gathering of people in the cramped hallway. Anyone who would have the child was already there – Marie and Paula were huddled at the other end with a crying Tina and stunned Lindy. Beth already noted Vinny and Nate on guard duty. Michonne and Jess were there next to Tigo and Kayla. She, Rick, Carl Denny, and Sherri were all the other side. Daryl was on the cot and Roslyn in the laundry room. That was it. That was all of them.

Just as Beth felt the same uncertainty as Kayla had about her son's whereabouts over her, the answer jumped out at her. "Roslyn," Beth uttered, feeling more certain as she said the name again. "Roslyn."

"What?" asked Rick, not completely hearing her over more ravings from Kayla.

Beth turned on her heel and raced back down the way she had come. "Roslyn," she repeated loud enough for all to hear.

Roslyn had said children. There were only two children on the Wilkens Farm – Oscar and Isaac. The certainty of Roslyn made the hairs on Beth's neck stand up as she hurried down the stairs, despite not having a concrete reason for the apprehension. Beth knew Roslyn helped with various tasks despite not being very useful, and sometimes that meant helping with Oscar when Marie was very busy. Roslyn seemed harmless, but the woman just wasn't right.

Beth heard everyone fall in step behind her as she barreled down the steps. It shouldn't be this urgent. Everyone shouldn't feel the same way she did; there was a nervous earnestness in their rushing. Maybe the older woman had just been trying to give the new parents a moment to themselves. But it was odd to take a sleeping babe from a sleeping parent and not respond to the uproar that had happened. It made her heart pump a little faster.

Beth led the crowd to the laundry room, the last place she had seen Roslyn just moments before. She slowed once she arrived to the ceremony happening before her. There was a large metal basin they used for the harvest in the middle of the room, half full of water. Oscar, looking confused, seated precariously in the water. He was awkwardly trying to hold the whimpering baby. Isaac's little fists were flaying and his face pink as if another screaming fit was about to come, probably due to the wetness seeping into his clothes. Roslyn stood next to them, reading from her bible, and not pausing as people started to flood into the room.

"Isaac!" Kayla shouted and pushed by the others.

The mother dove for her baby as Isaac released an explosive wail. Poor Oscar's eyes started water, the six year old was unsure of what was happening. Marie rushed for her son while Tigo went to Kayla.

"Stop," Roslyn protested, her brow furrowed. "The children are being baptized. They need God with them. They need our Lord at their – "

With one arm cradling her child, Kayla shot a fist across the face of Roslyn, striking her hard. The older woman stumbled back, falling to the floor. A painful cry escape Roslyn, obviously stunned by the sudden violence as was everyone else in the room. Beth wasn't entirely surprised by Kayla's response; she knew how much her child meant to her.

"Told you already, bitch. My child, my decision," Kayla snapped viciously over the cries of her infant. "Goddamn crackpot."

Tigo tried to embrace both Kayla and his child but Kayla shrugged him off, cradling Isaac closer to her chest.

Roslyn placed a trembling hand over her split lip, tears welling in her eyes. "The child needs Christ our Lord. Both children need that for health, for their protection. We must – "

"My child was baptized years ago as a baby," injected Marie, pulling Oscar from the tub of water. "You okay, baby? She hurt you?"

Oscar only shook his head and clung to his mother, his soggy clothes dripping wetness everywhere.

Paula was the only one of them to go to Roslyn, checking on her. "This is not the proper response, Kayla."

Kayla barred her teeth, almost snarling, as she clung to her sobbing, wet child. "It was the right goddamn response. I told that woman no this morning when she insisted. More than once and she just went ahead and took my baby and did whatever stupid religious ceremony she wanted. Roslyn got what she had coming."

Paula frowned. "Violence is never the answer. The baptism hurt no one."

"My baby is crying again. He is awake, wet and cold. She had a six year old holding in him in a tub of water. Oscar could have dropped him, could have let him slip under the water…" Kayla shook with fury. "What the hell is a splash of water and a few words going to protect Isaac from? Nothing. God has helped none of us. God has saved none of us."

"The Lord protects all those who love him, but He destroys the wicked," came Roslyn's mumbling response, still trembling on the floor.

Kayla took a threatening step toward Roslyn, making the woman cower at the sudden movement. "No one takes my baby. No one takes my Isaac. He is mine. They took the others, but not him, not him. I'm a good mother. I'll protect him. I'll keep him safe. He is mine," Kayla hissed before she whirled around and rushed from the room with Isaac.

Before Tigo followed, his dark eyes trained on Roslyn as he pointed a finger at her. "Don't you dare touch my family again, old woman. I'll kill you if you do."

"Ernesto Santigo!" Paula exclaimed in exasperation but it made no impression on the young man as he stomped off to follow Kayla.

Marie scooped up her son into her arms, holding him to her despite his cool wetness. "Don't presume with my child ever again either. He is not your responsibility," Marie said calmly but pointedly with a dangerous glare.

"The righteous person may have many troubles but the Lord delivers him from them all," Roslyn spat indigently as the tears started to fall. Her lip was bleeding and her skin red, a promise of a blooming bruise already forming.

"Jess, can you take a look at her?" Paula asked, helping Roslyn up.

Jess gave a disgusted shake of her head. "Hell no. Put some damn ice on it. Try to get it through her sick head that she can't be touching the children. Not again, and not my nephew," she said as her hand grazed over Oscar's head, checking him briefly as Marie went to leave. The little guy was confused and wet as he clung to his mother, but he wasn't hurt.

This drama was taking away from what was really worrying Beth. She wasn't even sure why she was still there, standing with the rest of the group, but she needed Jess to help. She cleared her throat loudly to get some attention, making eyes turn to her.

Jess seemed to understand instantly. "I have a more urgent patient to care for anyway," Jess announced with a head tip towards Beth, directing out of the room.

Beth didn't have to be told twice as she followed Jess, leaving the chaotic scene behind. Roslyn and her arrogance still need to be addressed but she didn't want to focus on that. She had Daryl to be concerned over. Rick and Michonne were already approaching Paula, most likely to discuss the situation. Beth would let them handle it.

Jess paused once Beth followed her into the hallway, her concerned brown eyes finding hers. "Did you get it? Something to help Daryl?"

Beth smiled softly, feeling relief for the first time that day. "Yeah, I think we did."

Jess returned the smile, looking like relieve washing over her, shoulders relaxing. "Good. I didn't want us to be down one red neck. He was kinda growing on me."

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