Just a small update to move the story along. xxxxxKrissu

Because the hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely.

Hook by Blues Traveler

Denise removed Lisbeth's implant the next day and Maggie was there taking a pregnancy test. Life was going on and it made her smile. Lisbeth and Denise worked side by side in the infirmary and although she was a psychiatrist, Denise caught on to the concept of triage and delegation, with her new friend's help.

The two women were becoming fast friends, and from time to time Tara stopped in to see Denise, and the three of them were becoming close. Still, Lisbeth missed Lori. She always would she supposed.

Maggie was indeed pregnant and before long she was showing the smallest of bumps and it gave everyone hope. Abe took it upon himself to gather the men to spend more time with Glenn, it was quiet for the moment, with no enemies to worry about. Abe remembered his worry when his own children were born and the thought of having a child in the apocalypse was something else altogether.

As a team and a family they would all help Maggie and Glenn, because that was what they always did. Lisbeth remembered when Lori was expecting Judith and how all the women helped her and all the men kept trying to give her their meager food rations at the time. It wasn't like that now and she missed Lori. She was friendly with all the women in the group, but not like it had been with her. Lori had been her first real friend that wasn't related to the medical profession, and she felt her absence still.

Daryl watched as Lisbeth walked down the street after her shift at the infirmary. He could tell from her walk that there was something wrong, but he would wait for her to tell him. He knew already, from the way her head was down and her usual springy gait being absent, the test was negative, again.

He came down the steps and pulled her into his arms, she would cry, he knew and then he would whisper some words of encouragement to her and joke about how fun it was trying. It had been six months and Daryl could tell she was losing hope.

"Hey cookie." He tilted her chin up to him and wiped her tears with his thumbs. "It'll happen." He nodded his head to drive his point home and after a while she nodded hers as well. Daryl knew she was sad, and feeling like she was wasting supplies using the pregnancy tests they kept stashed in the infirmary. Her period had been irregular before the implant and now it was worse. She had thought she was pregnant three times.

Daryl slid his arm around her shoulder and whispered in her ear. "Rick said we have to do it more in the morning, something about..."

Lisbeth stopped him. "Does everyone know?" She said sliding her eyes to his.

Daryl shrugged. "Just Rick."

Lisbeth rolled her eyes at him as he led her onto the front porch.

"You talk to your girlfriends and I talk to Rick, he also said I need to quit smoking, it affects it somehow."

She nodded. "He's right."

"He said they had trouble getting Carl, tried for two years." The fact that there was no trouble getting Judith was hanging between them and Lisbeth knew Rick was raising another man's child. Lori had confided that to her a long time ago. She hadn't needed in vitro to conceive Judith and although it was a long shot, as a doctor Lisbeth knew Lori's words had been true.

She missed Lori so much and vowed to look after her children as if they were her own and she did just that. Lisbeth was like that crazy aunt that blew into your life and turned up the music. She was close to both Carl and Judith, even though they had another mother now. It was the last thing she could do for her friend.

Lisbeth had bonded with Denise over their shared profession and with Tara who now lived with Denise. But it wasn't the same, although she knew she should try harder, but she didn't want to lose another best friend.

"I know, Lori told me, they had in vitro, but we don't have that now." Lisbeth looked down.

"Hey, it'll happen." He said to her and reached down to take her hand. "And it will be the biggest most wonderful surprise."

"I love you." She stood on her tip toes and kissed him. "You always make me feel better."

"That's my job." He kissed her back.

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A few days later Daryl woke up before her and watched her as she slept. The sun was shining in the window and it was still quiet all over the town and the house. He liked this time of day, when there was no movement anywhere and he could just relax. It was never far from his mind how the world was, but sometimes he could enjoy moments of peace, especially with her.

He took a few minutes to study her face, which was always something he did. He knew every inch of her face, every dip and curve of her body, she was his and he was hers and a part of him still couldn't believe that.

Merle always told him to forget the past and the old society, but sometimes it creeped up on him. She was out of his league, yet there was nowhere else she'd rather be than by his side. He was a lucky man, and if they didn't have babies, then they didn't, they had each other. He would always be happy with her.

Lisbeth always slept peacefully beside him now, no more nightmares, and no more fears. As he watched her, he remembered the first time they had met and what she had intended to do. Carefully he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, she didn't move, but in her sleep she smiled slightly, as if she was dreaming of him.

She looked so much younger, her features were soft and she was relaxed. She was on her back with one arm slung over her head and the other across her abdomen. All she wore was a tank top and sleep shorts and the covers were down around her waist, Daryl enjoyed the view.

It was peaceful, as if they weren't in the middle of the apocalypse and he had a memory as he looked at her. Lighting a young girl's cigarette outside the mall. A girl who liked the song 'Mr. Brightside' and drove an old beat up Chrysler convertible. He remembered the sky blue hair she had and the telltale red eyes of a chronic smoker of, well, the chronic.

That was her too he realized, and her sister, Lisbeth had lost everyone, and when he found her she had confessed to him about the pills she had and what she planned to do. She had changed so much. Straightened out and went to college and Medical school, and then the world ended.

Now, she was a strong woman, the woman she could have always been, but he knew he had helped her. Watching her sleep was like a look back into the past, the paths they had walked separately and the times they intersected and didn't know it.

It was fate, and she was his destiny.

Soon Lisbeth woke up and looked up at him with a smile.

"Hey." She said and reached her hand over to touch his face.

"Merle and I got a run today." He reminded her.

"I know." She said sitting up.

"I'll be back tomorrow." He reached up and touched her cheek with his hand. "I'll always come back to you."

"I know." She said and leaned down to kiss him. "You got time to say a proper…"

"Don't say it." He pulled her closer. "I'm never saying good bye to you."

Lisbeth maneuvered herself so that she was sitting on top of him and she grinned down at him.

"Oh it's like that?" He said grinning up at her and placing his hands on her hips.

"I'm going to relax about it, I promise. You don't have to quit smoking although I wish you would. But I want the morning sex, just cause I like it."

Daryl wasn't going to object, but even if he did it would have been too late, she was already sliding down on his dick before he even knew what happened.

He could live this life with her, if it ended up being the two of them or a whole car load of kids, either way he'd be happy.