Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. I don't even own Annie, she belongs to Sophie, who you can find on YouTube under xSoppySofax. Read on, darlings, and enjoy!

This chapter takes place during 2x01 "What Lies Ahead" and 2x02 "Bloodletting"

Chapter 13

Everyone wandered around outside, listless. They only had so many hours of daylight left and they still had a lot of ground to cover. They hadn't even searched the other side of the creek bed yet, not to mention the long trek back to the highway. Last thing they needed was to be traveling through the woods in the dark. As Daryl had said before, they'd just be tripping over themselves and more people would get lost. Rick was certain that Sophia was nearby, possibly having heard the church bells. He refused to give up, said it could be the miracle they needed. Annie didn't believe in miracles, but she didn't tell him that. Shane walked back to group gathered around the trees and told Daryl to led the group back while him and Rick searched the area for another hour, to be thorough. Daryl didn't like the idea of splitting up, but the cops were certain.

"I wanna stay, too," Carl announced. "I'm her friend." Neither man answered, looking at each other in uncertainty. Lori squeezed her son's shoulder and told him to be careful, hugging and kissing the top of his head. Rick walked over and kissed his wife, assuring her he'd be back soon. Annie scratched the back of her head, looking away. Rick passed his wife his gun but she refused to take it.

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed."

"Here, got a spare. Take it," Daryl told her, passing it to her. As she accepted it, Andrea scoffed and rolled her eyes. Unbelievable. They'd give a gun to the cop's wife, who'd no one had ever seen fire a gun, but not her, someone with actual experience.

"I'm staying, too," Annie told Rick, following after him. Rick opened his mouth to protest but she held up her hand. "You aren't the only one who lost her out here. I'm staying," she insisted. "You don't like it, I'll just search on my own. Don't want that on your conscious, do you, Sheriff?"

"No, ma'am," he replied, turning to walk beside her. Shaking his head, he grinned, "Although you'd be a sight easier to find." Annie flicked the rim his hat with a gob smacked look at his cheeky grin. She smiled at him as Carl tugged at her hand, leading her towards Shane. "I'll be there in a minute," he told them, walking back into the church. Annie sighed and sat on the steps of the church, Carl next to her as she rubbed his back in a comforting manner. She knew that Rick went inside to pray. She had never been a woman of faith, never put much stock in religion, and Rick hadn't struck her as the type either. Seemed like she'd be wrong on that count. All he was doing was putting more weight on his shoulders. It wasn't good for him and she didn't like seeing him like that.

As Rick stepped out of the church, Shane asked, "You get what you needed?"

"Guess I'll find out," he replied shortly, leading them off into the woods.

"Come on, buddy," Annie said, patting Carl's back and following after his father and friend.

"You think we'll find Sophia?" he asked, looking up at her hopefully. Annie didn't want to say anything to get his hopes up, so she just smiled and nodded. "I hope so. We're all supposed to go to the Grand Canyon."

"Really?" Carl nodded and told him that his dad promised they'd go, and that they'd take Sophia and her mom with them. "I've never been there."

"Me, either! You can come, too," the little boy told her. Annie subtly rolled her eyes, thinking she'd make a great third wheel with the happy families on vacation.

"I'd like that. Could be fun." She hugged him close and Carl sighed, consoled for the moment. He hugged her waist once more before letting go, moving to walk behind his father while she and Shane brought up the rear. A few branches snapped ahead and the group froze. Annie gently pushed Carl behind her, knife poised to fight as the men stepped up. Through the branches and trees, she smiled at the sight of a buck.

"Shane." The man looked back at Rick and saw him nodding with a smile to a dazed looking Carl. Annie lowered her knife, standing back with the men and watching as Carl slowly approach the buck. He stepped on a branch and froze as the buck looked at him. It just stared at him as he moved closer, not moving, not flinching, not even blinking. Carl was just in arms reach when a single shot rang out. The buck fell dead and Carl collapsed back onto the ground a split second later. The three adults were frozen in shock. "Oh, no," Rick whispered. "No, no, no! NO! CARL!" The three sprung into action and bolted to Carl. Rick knelt next to his unconscious, bleeding son and cried. Annie knelt on the other side, applying pressure to the wound and crying as she watching his blood pool between her fingers. Shane was behind them, gun raised and shouting at someone in the woods.

Rick ran across the field, his son in his arms. He was crying and panting, slowing down only to adjust his grip before picking up his pace again. Shane yelled at the hunter who'd shot Carl. The man was obese and couldn't keep up, even with Shane pointing a gun in his face and pulling him along. He told them the house he was at was a half-mile away, for him to ask for Hershel. They'd already been running for twenty, maybe thirty minutes and Carl had gone limp. Annie tried numerous times to take Carl from Rick, help him out but he refused to relinquish his hold on his son. She understood that so she just ran beside him, checking over her shoulder periodically for Shane and the man. They were already out of sight, her and Rick far ahead of them. Up ahead was a farmhouse, big and white with a wrapped porch.

"Was he bit?" the elderly man asked cautiously, the people on the porch standing behind him.

"Shot! By your man!" Rick told them with a sob.

"Otis?" one of the women asked in shock, everyone following the man off the porch to meet the pair.

"He said find Hershel! Is that you?" Rick asked, sobbing as the man led them inside. "Help him! Help my boy!" Hershel told a woman, Patricia, that he needed his kit and another girl, a younger one, Maggie, that he needed painkillers, coagulants, clean towels, sheets, and alcohol. Grab everything, he ordered.

"Pillowcase," Hershel told him.

"Is he alive?" he asked, staring at his motionless son on the bed.

"Pillowcase, quick!" Hershel repeated, reaching for the belt Annie had strapped around Carl's tiny waist to stem the bleeding. Once it was undone, Annie took it from him and just stared at it; her belt was soaked in Carl's blood and it was all over her hands now as well. She let out a shuddering sob and nearly dropped the damn thing. Rick asked again if his son was alive, grabbing a pillowcase like he was told; the only response he got was to fold the pillowcase and make a pad and put pressure on the wound. Patricia passed him his stethoscope and he placed it on Carl's chest, listening carefully. "I got a heartbeat. Its faint," he announced, both Rick and Annie sighed shakily. "Maggie, IV," he told her and she and Patricia gently pushed the pair out of the way.

"We need some space," Maggie told Rick and Annie nodded, gently pulling Rick out of the way.

"Your name?" Hershel asked and Rick stumbled, stuttering, telling the man his name a few times. "Rick, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room." Rick didn't move though, just stood frozen in a daze. "Now."

"Thank you," Annie told him and gently led Rick out of the room. He tried to fight her, his eyes fixed on his son but she whispered to him, "He's okay. He's in good hands, Rick. He's with a doctor. He'll be fine." Outside, she heard Shane shouting and the pair went out to meet him. He ran up to the house with the hunter, Otis, panting and wheezing not far behind him.

"He alive? He still alive?" Otis begged to know. Rick was in a daze and wiped his sweaty forehead, not that it did much good since he left a streak of blood behind.

"It's okay," Annie told him, taking the handkerchief Shane had in his hand and cupped Rick's face. "It's okay, you just got some blood." She tried to smile but she knew she was failing miserably, tears in her eyes, as she wiped his face clean.

"Where is he?" Shane asked and Rick's face crumbled, leading him into the house. Shane followed them to the bedroom where Hershel had an IV in Carl, set up to hang off a tall lamp.

"You know his blood type?" he asked, keeping pressure on the boy's wounds.

"A positive, same as mine," Rick told him. Annie stared at Carl, hand covering her mouth to keep from sobbing. He was so much paler than he had been a moment ago, almost white. He looked…no, she didn't want to think it. Couldn't and refused to do think it.

"And you?" Hershel asked, looking at Annie, who stared at him, frozen. "You're his mother, right? What's your blood type?"

"I'm not…I'm not his mother. Just…just a friend," she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks. "But I'm O negative. Universal donor, right? That means, that means he can take my blood?" Rick gripped her shoulder and pulled her close to his side, nodding his head and whispering 'thank you' over and over. She let out a relieved breath, gripping his hand tight and hugging him close. They weren't losing Carl. No way. Not with two donors and a doctor.

"Yes, ma'am. That's fortunate. Don't wander far, I'm gonna need both of you," he said and looked at Otis, asking what happened. Otis was clearly distraught as he told Hershel that he'd been tracking a buck and the bullet went clean through it, hitting Carl. "The deer slowed the bullet down, which certainly saved his life. But it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out…I'm counting six." Otis stood behind Rick and Annie, guiltily whispering in despair to Patricia that he never saw Carl, not until he was on the ground.

"Lori doesn't know," Rick realized, a new wave of tears washing over him. "My wife doesn't know. My wife doesn't know," he cried into his hand. Annie passed Rick over to Shane, who put his arm around his friend and whispered comfortingly in his ear. One of Hershel's daughters, Maggie, led her to the other side of the bed and prepped her to give blood. Annie hated needles, hated getting shots and getting blood drawn. It had taken every instinct to not punch Jenner back at the CDC but not this time. Her attention was fully and completely on Carl. She didn't even feel Maggie push the needle into her.

Annie paced the floor of the living room, listening to Rick blame himself. She couldn't take it. The man constantly put the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was telling them that Carl got shot because of him, because he wanted to keep looking for Sophia, because he'd let him come with them instead of going with his mother. Rick said it should have been him in there, lying bleeding on that bed with a gunshot. He wondered if this was why he got out of the hospital, for it all to end in that room like a sick joke. Amy, Jim, and Jacqui were dead, Sophia was missing, and they weren't going to lose Carl, too. She may not have been able to save the others but she was going to save Carl. Anything less was unacceptable.

"You are not going to lose your boy," Annie told him, never ceasing her pacing. "We won't let that happen and neither will Hershel, okay?" Her pacing increased, despite the dizzy feeling in her head. Maybe Maggie had taken too much blood. "Blaming yourself and wishing it was you in there isn't gonna do any good. Tell him, Shane."

"She's right, man," the other cop echoed. "Don't do it. Just don't. You put that monkey on your back, you'll never get it off."

"Little girl goes missing, you look for her," Rick repeated. He'd said that over and over again, like some sick mantra. "Its plain and simple…" The door to the bedroom opened, Maggie rushing out.

"Rick, he needs blood," she stated and all three adults rushed into the room, shocked that the boy was awake and moving. Carl was moaning and groaning, crying out in pain.

"You two, hold him down!" he said to Shane, who immediately pressed his arms across Carl's tiny body, holding him down. Annie knelt beside his head and, with shaking and uncertain hands, she started to brush back his hair. She shushed him while he cried and called out for his dad, screaming in pain as Hershel dug around in the wound on his side. "Almost there." Carl let out a loud scream and Annie cringed, turning to press her face into her shoulder to covering up her own crying.

"STOP! YOU'RE KILLING HIM!"

"Rick, do you want him to live?" Hershel asked, never ceasing in his work.

"He needs blood," Patricia reminded him, swabbing Rick's arm and prepping a needle as Shane shouted at her to do it. Once she found a good vein, she jabbed him with the needle and set about getting him ready to start the transfusion. Rick looked over at his son, who'd gone very still and traded a startled look with Annie and Shane.

"He just passed out," Hershel assured them as his guests traded panicked looks. Hershel pulled fragment out, telling them, "One down, five to go." Everyone calmed down a bit then, Rick sitting beside his son after Hershel temporarily patched up the wound and checked him over. Annie stood beside Shane at the mantle, biting her nails nervously. "Pressure's stable."

"Lori needs to be here," Rick remarked in a panicked dazed. "She doesn't even know what's going on. I gotta, I gotta find her, bring her back."

"You can't do that," Hershel told him.

"She's his mother!" he argued. "She needs to know what's happened! Her son's lying here, shot!"

"I can go get her," Annie assured him. "I think I can find my way back to the highway from here, if you have a car you can lend me or something," she added, looking at Hershel for permission to take a vehicle. Hell, she'd take a horse if he had one. Anything!

"No, you can't go either. You gave blood, that's saps your strength. You're barely on your feet as it is," he reminded her calmly. Annie rolled her eyes slightly, shaking her head. She began to protest but the doctor cut her off immediately. "He's gonna need more soon, and you're gonna have to stay and do just that. You'll give in turns, rotation. Boy needs you both here." Annie looked over at Rick, waiting for him to give an order. He just nodded at her and looked back at his son. Taking that to mean she was staying put, Annie sat on the edge of the window and tried to relax. Looking at Shane, Hershel advised him, "They can't go more than fifty feet from this bed." Patricia helped Rick stand, Annie rushing over to steady him as he swayed.

"I'm all right. I'm all right," he groaned, exhausted, patting her shoulder and stumbling out of the room with Shane close behind.

"You're turn," Patricia said and Annie nodded, taking a seat in the chair Rick had occupied. She watched the woman work and then turned away, wincing when she jabbed the needle into her arm. "You okay? Maybe it's too soon be doing this again," she added, looking at Hershel for advice.

"No! It's fine! Take whatever you need," Annie pleaded. "I just hate needles," she added, keeping her eyes fixed on Carl. "Is he gonna be okay? I mean, will he…?"

"Live?" Hershel finished for her and she nodded, biting her lip to keep from crying. "He's out of danger for the moment and stable, which is promising. But I need to remove those last five fragments. The others are deeper and, from the looks of things, there's internal bleeding."

Annie gaped at him and whispered, "You need to cut him open, don't you? If the world wasn't gone to hell, this would be a major surgery, wouldn't it?"

Hershel hesitated before answering, "It would be, yes." Annie groaned and clenching her eyes shut, covering her face with her free hand to smother her sobs. Last thing she wanted was Rick or Shane to hear and come rushing in, thinking something had happened to Carl. "I can't get the others out with him awake because, the wrong move on his part, I could nick an artery and he'd be dead in minutes. I need to put him under, but he won't be able to breath on his own. Same result." This could not be happening.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" she hissed, tears falling down her face again. "He's a little kid! You can't just let him die!"

"I don't plan to," he assured her, rising to his feet. "You relax, I'll be back in a moment. I need to tell his father."

Annie didn't look at him as she warned, "He won't take it well."

"I wouldn't expect anyone to."

Shane went with Otis to the high school, five miles away, where a FEMA shelter had been set up. Otis knew that Hershel would need a respirator, the tube that went with it, extra surgical supplies, sutures, drapes, the whole works for a major surgery. With all that, he could try to save Carl. The school had been overrun the last time Otis had seen it but hoped it would be better. It didn't shock Annie that Otis volunteered to lead Shane to the school. As a volunteer EMT before the outbreak started, he knew exactly what to look for. He was, after all, responsible for Carl's predicament and, had Annie been in his shoes, she would have done the same thing. It was just the right thing to do. Maggie had left the farm as well, taking a horse to go find Lori and tell the rest of their group where the farm was so they could all be together. Considering the dire circumstances that surrounded them arriving at the farm, with a bunch of strangers, they were doing everything they could to keep them calm, comfortable and welcomed. Once it was al settled, Shane and Maggie on their ways, Rick went back to check on his son. He paused in the doorway and watched as Annie reached over, lightly brushing Carl's hair out of his face. She was smiling at him.

"Hey." Annie looked up, eyes drooping and smiling tiredly as Rick came into the room. "How's he doing?"

"Sleeping peacefully," she told him. "He hasn't stirred, not once. I think that's good. Its gotta be," she added, trying to keep his hopes high.

"And you?" he asked, staring at her in concern. "Are you okay?"

"I'm tired but I'm fine. I can give more." To prove her point, she nodded to the tube draining her blood at the moment. Rick pulled up a chair and sat beside her, squeezing her free hand.

"I can't thank you enough. All you're doing for him." She squeezed his hand and looked up at him, observing him as his eyes flickered from Carl to her. "For me…"

"You've saved my life a couple times, Sheriff. Least I can do," she replied modestly and Rick's mouth twitched a little. At least he was starting to smile again.

"But you don't have to. I shouldn't ask this of you."

Annie quirked a brow and him and stated, "You didn't ask. And you certainly didn't have to. Carl's a sweet kid."

Rick nodded and remarked, "He likes you, too."

"Yeah?" Rick chuckled at her tone of disbelief and nodded. "How can you tell?"

"You got him reading Homer." Annie smiled, remembering loaning Carl The Odyssey back at the quarry. He hadn't come to her asking for help with any words, so she thought he'd just packed it away and forgot about it. "He started reading it after we left the CDC. He kept asking me what stuff meant the whole drive." No wonder he hadn't asked her; she'd been riding with Daryl. "That's how I know. Only books he ever picked up voluntarily were his comics."

"Next time we go on a run, I'll keep an eye out for some." It was important to talk as if Carl was going to pull through and live. He had to and, if they talked like he would, then they'd truly believe he would. Smiling softly, she leaned over and kissed Rick's cheek. "Get out of here. I'll look after him." Rick hesitated. "Go," she reiterated gently. "Keep an eye out for your wife. Shouldn't take Maggie long to find her. I'll be here the whole time." Rick nodded his head, rising to his feet. He turned back to her once more, making sure she was fine before leaving her alone. Annie sniffed and looked at Carl, trying to keep from bursting into tears again. She didn't know when it happened, but it had. She was falling for a married man.