…

There wasn't some huge announcement or discussion when it happened; not that Lori, or any of them, was expecting something like that.

The morning after Rick, Glenn and Carol helped Daryl back to the prison after he fell from that apple tree, Lori sits in the cell block common room, at the table in the back that is even with the door that leads into the block. She had already given Anne a fresh diaper and breastfed her in their cell before coming out for breakfast and she now eats a bowl of (slightly) stale Corn Pops and smiles as she looks at Carl, sitting at the table with her with his baby sister in his arms.

Carl is at that awful age. Puberty; still a boy, but growing into a man and things in his body are causing havoc and there's nothing that can be done except go through it; and nothing any of them can do except get through it while doing their best to remember that Carl is at that age. Lori remembers being a girl in the throes of puberty. She couldn't believe her mom didn't just stop talking to her when she was thirteen until she turned eighteen.

Is it premature to already be dreading Anne when she begins going through puberty?

During the winter, Carl had barely spoken to her. He was far from being a stupid boy and he could sense the cold anger coming from Rick in regards to his wife and Carl had chosen his father's side. After the boiler room though, and after Anne being born safely, Carl has stopped his silent treatment towards her. He now eats breakfast with his mom and baby sister every morning and comes to hug and kiss her goodnight every night. Lori wonders if Carl has any idea how much that means to her. She has her daughter, yes, but she has a son, too, and this world is awful enough without losing him to something between his father and her that he wouldn't understand.

Speaking of the father…

Rick approaches their table and smiles when he looks to Carl and Anne. That smile fades a bit when he then looks to Lori, but it doesn't disappear completely. Lori gives him a small smile in return.

She misses him so much, some nights, when everyone else is asleep, Lori will stick her head beneath the blankets in an attempt to muffle herself while she cries. She cries so much, her stomach and heart both ache, but in the light of day, she never reveals it to anyone and no one has any idea. She's busy enough with taking care of Anne and focusing all of her attention on being with her, it's very easy most times for Lori to pretend that she doesn't cry at all and that she still doesn't love this man currently standing across from her.

"Mind if I sit?" Rick asks.

Lori looks to the empty seat at the table before back to him. "Of course not," she shakes her head.

Rick gives her that small smile and she gives him her own as he settles down across from her with his own bowl of cereal and cup of coffee. Bags of coffee had been in the commissary that prisoners had been able to buy with their own money and when they found the large room still stock-piled with all of the commissary items, everyone had acted like they found gold – if gold still mattered – when they laid eyes upon their massive coffee supply now.

Lori still can't drink it though; not while she's breast-feeding Anne and she pretends that she doesn't miss it each morning when she smells the fresh pot brewing for everyone else.

She's pretending so many things these days.

"I'm making plans for a run soon," Rick breaks the silence and Lori has been watching Carl with Anne, the baby trying to suck on Carl's finger, smiling, before looking to Rick when he speaks. "Do you or Anne need us to be on the lookout for anything?" He asks, his eyes focused on her and she has almost forgotten how intense her husband's stare can be when focused on her.

Husband. Is that right? It's not like there's divorce anymore and they both still wear their wedding rings, but does Rick consider her his wife still? She doesn't want to ask. There's no way she's ready to hear whatever his answer to that would be. She's still hormonal and will cry no matter what he says if she asks.

"Clothes for her, as always," Lori answers.

Rick smiles as he looks to the baby. "She's growing like a weed," he comments.

"Yes, she is," Lori smiles, looking to Anne, too; proud of that fact.

Her baby is here, alive and healthy and growing bigger with each day.

From the corner of her eye, she can see someone coming down the stairs in the cellblock and turning her head, Lori sees that it's Daryl. She hadn't expected to see him out of bed this morning considering how sore and banged up they had found him the night before, but she's certainly not surprised to see him awake and moving about already. Knowing and living with Daryl Dixon for this long has taught her one thing and that's no one can keep Daryl down except Daryl.

He is dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt and his crossbow is on his back. At the bottom of the stairs, he seems to hesitate, his hand holding onto the crossbow strap across his chest, and he glances towards the cells before down to the ground. Lori wonders what thoughts are in his mind right now because it's obvious to her that the man is thinking something.

He then lifts his head again and takes a visible deep breath. He goes towards the cells; specifically, Beth's cell.

Lori can't help, but sit up a little. That is very interesting.

She and Beth have been spending more time together and Lori isn't going to lie to herself. She likes it very much. Besides Anne, Lori doesn't have that many people to talk to. There's Carol, of course, but Carol is busy every day just like everyone else and Lori thinks there actually might be something brewing between Carol and Axel. Lori means to ask Carol about it, but there's just never a good time to tease her friend.

Beth is young, yes, but that's in age. She has been through just as much as any of them and her eyes have grown older as a result. She's still sweet – almost painfully so – and she is a very "half glass full" kind of girl, no matter what they experience and see, but Lori finds that she needs optimism like that in her life right now. And for Beth, she needs someone to talk to, too. There's her sister, yes, but Maggie is busy with her own life and with her relationship with Glenn, that is only getting more intense and everyone is silently wondering what a wedding in this new world would be like.

Beth and Lori can talk to each other and confide in one another in ways that they can't do with anyone else. And what she told Beth a few days before about Daryl, she hadn't been lying and she hadn't been imagining it either. Daryl Dixon has definitely been stealing glances at Beth Greene for the past few weeks now. He's very subtle about it and no one else has noticed – at least Lori thinks no one else has noticed – and the only reason that she has is because she is so busy with taking care of Anne, they all think she can't do anything else. They seem to think that when she's in a room, she's only looking to Anne and no one else.

Lori is not going to lie. Yes, Daryl is older than Beth by quite a few years. Beth isn't eighteen yet – a couple more months, according to Beth – and Daryl is somewhere in his early thirties and if the world hadn't ended, this would have been a "Hell No" from everyone. But the world has ended and yes, they are all determined to keep rules in place – or else they're no different than the brain-dead walkers stumbling around – but Lori, and she hopes everyone else will agree with her, thinks that this isn't like some older man taking advantage of a young girl. Lori thinks, and she hopes everyone else will agree with her, that yes, while Daryl is older in actual years of age, he and Beth almost seem to be the same age in other ways.

Daryl's not stupid. A person who can hunt and track animals as well as Daryl can is not a stupid person. But there's almost a young quality to him; like he's still a young boy in many aspects. As young as Beth. Lori wonders if she's the only one who has noticed that about him or have they all been living on top of each other for so long, everyone notices everything about one another now?

Lori watches as Daryl takes a step back as Beth steps from her cell, standing in front of Daryl and looking up at him with a small smile on her face; shy and happy. It makes Lori smile when she looks at the two. Daryl is looking down to the ground, almost as if he's too shy to meet Beth's eyes, but then Beth says something and standing on her toes, she presses a soft kiss to Daryl's cheek.

Lori smiles as she looks away, doing her best to ignore the pang in her chest as she thinks of a young Rick coming to pick her up at her door for a date and acting shy, too.

"Was wondering about that," Rick then muses quietly and Lori lifts her eyes to look at him.

"Were you?" Lori asks.

He smiles a little and nods, pausing to spoon another bite of cereal into his mouth. "They weren't being obvious, but at the same time, they kind of were."

Lori can't stop from smiling at that, almost letting out a laugh, and she nods in agreement.

Beth and Daryl enter the common room – Beth first and Daryl behind her and they both go to get their bowls of cereal and cups of coffee. Beth pauses, looking back to Daryl over her shoulder, but she doesn't ask him anything. She then looks, seeing the table where her daddy is sitting, and she pauses for just a moment before going to go sit with him, Hershel greeting her with a warm smile and "Good morning, Bethy".

Now, it's Daryl's turn.

He turns and his eyes take in everyone in the common room and where they're sitting within seconds. Beth is trying to keep herself from looking at him, but Lori notices. Rick does, too. Lori looks around the common room. It dawns on her that everyone is watching the two of them while trying to act like they're not watching anything at all.

Gripping his cereal bowl and coffee cup, Daryl looks to Beth sitting with Hershel and he takes a deep breath. He then goes to the table and sits down with the two of them and Beth instantly smiles at him, brimming with happiness. Hershel smiles, too, and says, "Good morning, Daryl" to him now.

Lori smiles, pleased that Daryl had done it, and her eyes meet Rick's. He's smiling, too, and even when they look at one another, Rick and Lori keep on smiling.

…

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