Stella FINALLY gets to see Henry and also discovers why Daryl has really been spending all that time in the basement. And OMG have you seen the S4 trailer? Can't wait for October!

So I was well-aware when we heard Kendra come in later that I was going to need to apologize. That part wasn't going to be nearly so hard as apologizing to Louie, but I knew that to be able to make things work for what was hopefully the short time we had left here, it had to happen.

"Well, I guess I might as well get this over with," I sighed to Daryl, putting down my guitar. I had been messing around with it to pass the time.

He grinned at me. "Good luck, darlin'."

As I went out into the living area, Kendra didn't even look up at me. "Hey, Kendra…" She kept her eyes fixed on the book that was open in her lap. "I'm really really sorry for what I said earlier. I was a complete and total bitch, and I'm so sorry." She still didn't look at me, but I could tell she was listening at least. "Since I've been here, my emotions have been all over the place. I don't know if it's the hormones or what, but I know I have been acting completely nuts. You didn't deserve all the mean things I said to you. Again, I'm really totally sorry." I stood there for a minute, waiting to see if she would respond at all. I honestly did feel bad about being so mean to her. She was shallow, but I got the very distinct impression that it was largely because she just wasn't very bright, and just believed whatever Louie told her. Guess it was good that she married well, otherwise she would have been in the basement with Henry and the others.

Finally, Kendra said, "My friend Melinda had the same trouble with hormones as you. She was always yelling at me while she was pregnant, but now she's back to her normal self."

I was pretty sure that Melinda also used the excuse of pregnancy hormones to tell Kendra what she really thought of her, but I kept that to myself. "It's really crazy! I've never been this much of a wacko in my life. I went and talked to someone from the infirmary today, and I'm going to go back tomorrow for some counseling." I held my breath to see if that lie passed muster with Kendra.

She perked up. "Oh, that's a great idea! They have some really good people to talk to there. I've gone for counseling myself a few times." Kendra frowned at that but then resumed her usual cheer, although it was slightly muted now.

I sat down next to her on the couch. "I'm really hoping that it will help me keep my shit together." I paused, then asked, "Do you know when Louie will be back? I guess I should apologize to him, too, especially since I threw up on his floor."

Kendra's eyes widened. "You did what?"

I studied my fingernails. "I was so upset and with the morning sickness and all, I couldn't make it out of his office."

To my complete surprise, she giggled. "I'm sorry, I totally shouldn't laugh at that, but…" She couldn't finish her thought because she was laughing too hard. Finally, she managed to choke out, "I would have loved to see the look on his face."

Her laughter was contagious, and I soon found myself cracking up along with her. It was then that Louie walked in. He glared at the both of us, demanding, "What the hell is so funny?"

Kendra straightened up immediately, but I saved her from having to come up with an excuse by apologizing. "Look, Louie, I am really so sorry for what happened today. I was a complete bitch, and I'm really sorry." It was a lot harder to come up with what sounded like a heart-felt apology because I actually wasn't sorry in the least. "Um, I was just telling Kendra that I think it might be the hormones."

Louie looked unconvinced. "I don't think you can lay all the blame there. You never did like me, even when we were kids."

Always wanting to play the victim. I could feel my blood pressure start to rise, but I managed to keep a lid on it. "I'm sorry," I said again. "I'm actually going to be going down to the infirmary for some counseling." Again, I waited to see what his reaction to that would be – did he believe it?

Louie just raised an eyebrow, but then Kendra suggested, "Maybe you guys could both do some counseling. You could work on the bad stuff from the past so you can have a better relationship now!"

Oh my God, please say no, Louie. I could imagine nothing more agonizing than rehashing the past with him.

He fixed Kendra with a withering look. "I'm not the one with the emotional problems."

I watched in complete shock as Kendra rolled her eyes at him. That was a crazy statement of rebellion, coming from her. "Get over yourself, Louis," she said, standing up. "I'm going to order our dinner, and we are all going to sit here and eat together and have some civilized conversation."

Oh man, going to be a fun evening. I went back to our room to tell Daryl the "great" news.

Eating dinner with Daryl, Louie and Kendra could only be described as completely awkward. Kendra's directive that we have "civilized" conversation eliminated all topics of discussion for Louie and me. Daryl wasn't exactly skilled at small talk either, so Kendra tried her hardest to find neutral things to chat about. First, she asked how Daryl and I had met, and we filled her in on our story, which she thought was just the sweetest thing. I asked her how she and Louie met.

"I spotted him in the cafeteria one day and was totally smitten. He had just been promoted to the middle management sector and looked so cute in his new uniform! I have to admit that I totally went after him! I just knew he was the one for me!" Kendra beamed at Louie, who was focused on his dinner. "Whenever I saw him, I made sure to find a reason to talk to him. I guess I was pretty persistent, and he finally gave in." This time, I noticed Louie rolling his eyes slightly. I fought the urge to mash his foot.

"So what did you do before you guys got married?" I asked.

A slight blush crept across Kendra's face. "Oh, I was working in the kitchen."

So I hadn't been too far off in my guess that she'd moved up a couple of rungs by marrying Louie. Deciding it wouldn't be helpful to point it out, I just smiled and said, "That's nice."

"Now, I know that Stella was in graduate school before the virus hit. What were you doing before all the craziness started, Daryl?" Kendra asked.

"Worked in construction," Daryl replied. "Mostly buildin' houses outside of Atlanta." This brought that fucking smirk back to Louie's face that made me want to slap him so bad. I gritted my teeth instead.

"And in your spare time? I'm guessing something very…manly, like getting drunk and setting off fireworks?" Louie wasn't even bothering to hide his condescending attitude. My jaw was starting to ache now, and I thought my teeth might crack from all the pressure I was exerting on them.

To my surprise, Daryl played right along. He put his hands behind his head and sighed, "Yeah, those were the days. Livin' in the trailer park with my brother, spendin' the weekends gettin' drunk and gettin' into fights." He smiled, a faraway look in his eyes. Kendra's mouth was hanging open slightly, Louie had a self-satisfied grin on his face, and I was just trying to puzzle out what the hell Daryl was up to. He wasn't done yet. "Best days were when we'd go huntin' and bring back a buncha squirrels, possums, 'coons, whatever we could find. You ain't never had nothin' so good as a freshly kilt squirrel, rolled in flour an' deep fried." At this point, I was having a hard time keeping from laughing, but Daryl was completely deadpan. "Y'all ever had squirrel?"

Louie raised an eyebrow. "No, I can't say that I have."

Kendra looked kind of green, but managed to choke out, "No, but I'm sure it's delicious!"

And with that little bit of theater, dinner was over. Daryl and I retired to our room, and I immediately apologized for Louie's douchey behavior. Daryl just shrugged. "No big deal. Don't really care what that guy thinks of me. Think I gave 'em what they were lookin' for?"

I grinned at him. "Yeah, they're going to remember that story for a very long time, I'm sure."

"I'm thinkin' that's why I'm flyin' under the radar. They all think I'm too dumb to worry 'bout. If that's the case, I'm happy to play th' part." He sat down, taking his boots off, and then lay back on the bed.

I leaned over and kissed him. "They'll never guess what a evil genius you are." I lay down alongside him, and we quickly progressed to making out. Daryl ran his hands lightly over my back, and as much as I wanted the kissing to continue, I was soon sound asleep.

0000000

The next morning, I was sitting with Kendra, paging through ancient, yellowed bridal magazines that she had saved for some reason. As had become his routine, Daryl was back down in the basement, trying to get the truck back to working order. There was a knock at the door, and I was extremely relieved that it was a summons from the infirmary.

"I guess they are ready to see me for counseling," I reminded Kendra, slipping on my shoes.

She smiled at me. "I hope it goes well! I'm sure it will help a lot."

I had to work hard not to run down to the infirmary. When I entered, I could hear a voice that I knew was Henry's, but he was clearly not too happy to have been called up. "I did not do anything. Why are you making me sit here again? This is not fair. I would like to go back to work." He didn't seem tremendously agitated, but sounded instead like he was just informing them of things that maybe they weren't aware of. The odd cadence and tone of his speech had not changed in all these years, and I started to feel tears come, realizing just how much I'd missed him. I quickly pulled myself together. People crying made Henry exceedingly uncomfortable and I didn't want to start off badly, especially since if what Louie said was true, he wasn't going to be happy to see me at all.

Spotting me, Gabriela said quietly, "I explained to him he wasn't in trouble at all, so hopefully that helps him settle down a little. I wish there was a better place for you guys to talk, but I think this is the best option for now." Hearing someone else enter the infirmary, she quickly opened the door to the quiet room and pushed me inside.

I had been hoping for a more gradual introduction, but here I was, suddenly face to face with my dear, dear brother who I had assumed I would never see again. He looked so grown-up now, and I was relieved to see he also appeared to be healthy. He glanced at me, his face expressionless. "H-hi, Henry. It's-It's me, Stella. Remember?" I was terrified that he was going to go into one of his tantrums like he did when he was a kid, screaming in an eerie high-pitched tone and flapping his hands frantically.

Henry just sat there quietly in the corner of the room. "Louie said you were here. How come it took you so long to get here?"

I didn't want to make Louie out to be the villain, so I just said, "Louie was worried you'd be upset."

"No, I mean, it's been eight years since the zombies came. I've been waiting for you for a long time," Henry said with an annoyed sigh. "Dad died, you know."

I said sadly, "I know. I'm sorry I didn't get to see him." Then I smiled at him. "But you don't know how happy I am that I found you." All I wanted to do was to grab him up in the biggest, longest hug possible, but I restrained myself. Any kind of physical contact was going to have to be initiated by Henry.

"Yeah, I'm glad you finally got here. What took you so long?" he asked again.

I felt so guilty. I had just written him off, and here he was all these years, wondering why his sister hadn't come looking for him yet. "I'm so sorry, Henry. I didn't know where you were. I was too scared to come looking for you by myself."

"Louie said you have a new boyfriend." Henry was picking at his cuticles, a habit that was so familiar to me from his childhood.

"His name is Daryl. He's a great guy. He's very kind and very brave. He's the one who convinced me that we should come to find you." I was dreading what I knew was coming next.

"Louie said that Ty died."

"Yes, he died."

"How?"

I couldn't bear to tell him the whole story about Ty being attacked by walkers as we fled the farm, and my having to kill him before he turned. I just said, "He was killed by the zombies."

Mercifully, Henry didn't ask for any more details. "Ty was cool. I liked Ty." He still didn't make eye contact with me and was now methodically pulling out a loose string from the cushion that he was sitting on.

"I liked Ty a lot, too. I still miss him."

"Then why do you have a new boyfriend?"

It was so hard to explain certain things to Henry. Everything was black and white to him. Trying to get him to understand the complex array of human emotions was often completely impossible, so I just had to make explanations as concrete as possible. I thought for a minute before I responded. "I was really lonely before I met Daryl. He's pretty different from Ty, but he cares about me a lot, and I care about him. It makes me feel good to have someone to be with." It was an extremely ineloquent explanation, but it was the best I could do.

Henry considered what I said. "I like to be alone."

"Yeah, I know. But I don't." I stopped for a minute to try to get control before my emotions got away from me. "You know I'm never going to be away from you again, right?"

"Yeah." He finally looked up and met my stare for just a second. It was almost as good as a hug. "I'm glad you found me, Stella. I have been waiting eight years."

That did it. Tears started rolling down my cheeks, as I told him, "I'm so glad I found you, Henry. I missed you an awful lot."

"Oh jeez, Stella. Why are you crying?" Henry started to fidget nervously.

I took a huge deep breath and quickly wiped my eyes with my sleeve. "Sorry, sorry, I'll stop," I said, pulling myself together again.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Henry spoke again. "Stella?"

"Yeah?"

"I probably won't like him as much as I liked Ty. I'm just saying." He was back to picking at his cuticles.

"That's OK. But you'll give him a chance, right? For me?" I asked.

"Yeah."

Gabriela knocked quietly on the door and then poked her head in. "Henry needs to go back to work. Sorry."

Henry stood up and I waited, hoping he would offer a hug, but he didn't. He did, however, ask Gabriela if he could come talk to me again. My heart leaped for joy as Gabriela explained that she would try again tomorrow. "Henry," I reminded him. "You know you can't tell anyone that you talked to me, right?"

He shrugged. "I don't talk to anyone here anyway." Then he left.

Gabriela sat in the room with me while I cried a little bit more. When I was able to stop, she let me know that she'd send a message to me again when she was able to get Henry here. "Thank you so much," I told her. "You have no idea how much this means to me. Anything you need me to do for you, just ask. I'm serious."

Gabriela just nodded, then poked her head out the door to make sure the coast was clear. "See you tomorrow," she told me, sending me back upstairs.

I trudged back to the apartment, knowing it was going to feel like an eternity until I could see Henry again. Kendra was still in the apartment, knitting this time. She seemed a little embarrassed that I caught her at it when I came in. "Sorry, this is just a silly hobby of mine," she told me, dropping whatever she had been working on into a basket. "I should probably leave it to the folks downstairs."

"I don't think it's silly. It's good to have something to pass the time." Speaking of passing time, I went into my room and came back out with my guitar. I sat down in a chair and started to tune it up.

"So do you feel better?" Kendra asked me.

I smiled broadly. "Absolutely." Once my guitar was ready, I started to pick out the notes to an old song that was Henry's favorite. Seeing Kendra staring at me, I stopped. "Oh, sorry! If this is bothering you, I can go into my room."

"Oh, no! I would love to hear you play. It's been ages since I've heard any music," she said wistfully.

"Really? No one here plays or sings or anything?" I couldn't believe that there was no one among the thousand-plus residents here that wasn't musically inclined.

"Well, I'm not sure what they do downstairs, but people up here think it's 'low-class.'" She paused, frowning. "I don't even remember the reason why anymore."

I played through some cover songs I remembered, along with a bunch of the songs that Marie and I and our band used to play back at home, and even before that, when we played together back in college. Kendra knitted, smiling contentedly. "It is so nice to hear music again," she sighed.

0000000

After dinner that evening, Daryl suggested that he and I go for a walk. I actually kind of felt bad now, leaving Kendra by herself as Louie was working late again, but she just shooed us out. It was a gorgeous evening to be outside. The late September air was crisp and clear, and the sky was that dark, dark blue you only see in the fall. It was apparent pretty quickly that Daryl had other plans besides an evening stroll. He led me down to the generator room, where our truck sat, hood propped open and pieces of the engine scattered about the floor.

I groaned, looking at it. "There's no fixing that, is there?"

"I'm tryin', but it's not real easy to build a head gasket from scratch." Seeing my look of worry, he reassured me, "No worries, darlin'. I'm workin' on a Plan B."

The door opened, and in came Gabriela and a man I assumed was her husband. She came over and introduced the man to us as Tomas. She told us he was a chemist in the pharmacy. "Glad you guys were able to get away for the meeting," she said.

"What meeting?" I asked them.

"To find out how we can help," Daryl said simply.

I smiled and shook my head. He had been telling me this whole trip to stay focused and not try to solve everyone's problems, and here he was, jumping in with both feet. Within the next fifteen minutes, five more people I didn't recognize showed up. Gabriela explained to me that they couldn't meet in too big of groups, or they'd risk drawing attention to themselves.

I didn't ask questions, instead just listening quietly as they discussed among themselves what they had accomplished already and what still needed to be done to prepare for the "coup." Tomas mentioned that his department had succeeded in replacing the sedatives that were given to those who were "uncooperative" with sugar pills. Someone from the ag department told how they had 100% cooperation from the farm staff as well as all the loggers. A representative from the basement workers explained that he and his team had spread their message to nearly the entire body of workers and that they had extremely high numbers of supporters. Then to my complete and total surprise, Daryl reported that the maintenance staff had found a way to sabotage the generators that would go undetected until the right moment.

I gave him a look of disbelief. "So that's what you've been up to all this time down here?"

He just grinned and shrugged. The meeting dismissed, and we headed back upstairs. My head was swimming with all of the information I'd just learned. I had a zillion questions for Daryl, but I knew that they would have to wait until we got back to our room, where no one would overhear us.

Once we were safely in bed, pillows and blankets piled up to muffle our voices, Daryl whispered to me that the workers were going to commandeer the weapons from the guard wall and then stage a strike. The idea was that they would force the management to step down and install a new, elected government and fairer system of running Pegasus.

"That sounds great, but what if management won't go quietly?" I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid of what might happen to Louie.

"Guess that's what the weapons are for," Daryl replied with a sigh. I knew for a fact that the last thing he wanted to be involved with was another war.

"When is it going to happen?" I was now thinking that maybe we could find a way to get out of here before then.

"Not gonna set a date. They don't wanna be forced to take action if things ain't just right. They're workin' on a way to let everyone know when it's time." Daryl rubbed his eyes. "I understand why they're doin' it, but I just think there's way too many ways it can go wrong."

Later, after Daryl fell asleep, I lay awake for hours, running through in my mind all the ways this revolution could go horribly awry, trapping Henry, Daryl and me in it.