"Careful, careful, that's it," said Victor, pretty much speaking to himself. Jessica was still groggy from her fall, so she had taken to ignoring his utterances unless they were actually important. She didn't need to be careful, because he was doing all the work for her. He was literally carrying her in a baby lift up the steep hill, while she just rested in his arms, not entirely confident that he wouldn't lose his footing and send them both sprawling down the hill. But speculating only brought her worry, so she took to closing her eyes and trying to fall asleep.

Far too much was on her mind. While her brain wasn't working at its usual capacity for the time being, she was still fraught with concern for Rita and Lenny. The aging woman was lost in the woods most likely surrounded by walkers, so it was reasonable to presume her dead. And the distraught widower was searching for whoever had fired a gunshot, heading back into the swarm that they had all tried desperately to escape. She had gotten lucky – if that was one way of putting it – by tumbling down the hill, because the walkers had lost her and moved on in hunt for other prey. Lenny and Rita might not be as 'lucky'.

And of course there was the baby. The baby that was now a non-existent burden on her survival. As much as she had feared the events that would occur with giving birth in the apocalypse… it was still her child. It would have been loved and cared for by her and Victor, regardless of the circumstances. The heartache and terror would be worth it all for those small moments of joy, when she could hold her beautiful baby while in the arms of her loving husband. But it was all a dream that she secretly knew would never come true, no matter the situation she was in. It wouldn't go as smoothly as she desired even if it was how everything used to be, before strangers reanimated as ravenous freaks and ruined everything. She knew: she was not destined to be a mother. It wasn't God's plan. She just wished he wouldn't have to be such a dick about it and cut her some slack. He could have at least let her have a normal miscarriage or not allowed her to get pregnant in the first place. Making her fall down a hill and get concussion was highly unnecessary. But God was always one for grand – if controversial – gestures.

"Okay, we're up," spoke Victor once again to Jessica but really to himself, bringing her out of her lulling daydream (sort of nightdream, but it was the same thing pretty much). She opened her eyes and looked up at her husband, exhausted from the trek up the steep death trap whilst carrying his groggy wife. He put her down gently on the grass, where she flopped feebly, devoid of energy. He joined her on the ground, also needing a rest.

They didn't speak for the time that they were lying down next to each other. They didn't need to. Everything they wanted to talk about could wait for later. For now, they could relax. All of that could have been ruined by a walker interrupting and taking them by surprise, but they were relying on the possibility that that didn't happen. And it didn't. They were left to hold each other for a short while, which was the most amount of peace they had had in a long time, even more so than when they were at the Greene residence. Being all on their own together, tired and vulnerable, destroyed all doubt they had once felt about their marriage.

And all it took was the apocalypse to bring them back together. But perhaps they would have preferred to have been given the option of marriage counselling.

* WD * WD *

Lenny stared in disbelief at the woman resting against the wall in the basement of the cottage, who was somehow his wife. For a split second he considered the ludicrous idea that it was an apparition of his dead wife, and that he was just having an insane hallucination. But the Karen in front of him was very much real. And hurt.

It was difficult to see in the dark, but the trail of blood stood out slightly, leading up to where her wrist was. He knew that she was bitten, and he felt cheated. His wife had miraculously returned to him, only to die on him and return as one of the freaks that had ended her life in the short place. It was a cruel circle of life.

"Karen… where were you, honey?" He could think of no explanation as to how she had ended up there, but he wanted to steer the conversation away from discussing her inevitable and upcoming death. She caught on to what he was doing and went along with it, telling him in short her journey to the city and back, and Hugh's true colours. It succeeded in angering him that the tyrant could do such a thing to poor Calvin, but he kept a lid on his rage because they didn't have much time left together. He briefly spoke to her about his little adventures, leaving out Eileen's immunity and – as it appeared, given that she wasn't in the building – choice to leave Lenny and head off on her own. Maybe she was doing it to keep him safe. But now he wanted to find her, but as it all the death around them had been caused by her arriving at the camp, she could wait. For now, he was having his reunion with his wife, the one that he had dreamt about ever since that night at the camp, back when they had all been together.

"Where's Eileen?" coughed Karen, who was shockingly pale. She didn't have long left.
"Gone, honey. She's gone."
"Where has she gone?"
"I don't know."
"I want you to promise me something."

The sentence had taken him by surprise. "Okay, what is it?" he asked.
"Find her. Find that girl and look after her. Care for her like she was your own daughter. She'll need a daddy."
"I thought you'd ask me to do that for Phillip."
"He has Sam for that. He's a good man. He'll take care of him."
"What if I can't find her?"
Karen smiled. "You will. I know you will."

"What if… what if she's dead?"
" Then you bury her. We bury the ones we love, right?"
"Where'd you get that from?"
"Something I heard someone say in that last group we were with. Remember them?"
Lenny chuckled. "Yeah, they were quite the collection. That girl who kept putting make-up every day until she ran out?"
Karen returned the chuckle, if a bit weakly. "And that sweet Asian boy who carried a pizza delivery bag around with him? In fact, it was him who I took that saying from. He was a sweet boy."

Their sentimental moment was interrupted by a rapid fit of coughing from Karen, who dropped once she was finished, barely still alive. Lenny – feeling the tears trying to force their way down his face – took her hand gently, and looked her in the eyes. She saw so much love in his.

"I love you, so much." He sobbed, sniffing to try and hold in the tears. "I promise you that I'll find that girl. I'll find her and care for her and be her daddy, all for you."
She had started crying too. She could have told him then about that night in McDonalds, but she wanted her last few minutes with him to be compassion. She didn't doubt her love for him anymore. It was still there. It had just been hard to find until now.

"I love you too. I know you won't let this world change you. You're not just a good man, you're a great man. You're my Superman."
Tears streamed down both of their cheeks, but they both did their best to hold it together. For each other.
She spoke her last words. "I'll save you a seat up there."

Lenny held Karen's hand until the end. "Goodbye Karen," he wept, planting a passionate, gentle kiss on her extremely pale forehead. She smiled, and closed her eyes.