Curiosity got the better of him. It couldn't be helped. Sometimes it just happened.
"Who's gonna help you raise your baby?" Carl asked Maggie one morning over a cold breakfast. The woman was way bigger than his mom was, he knew she was going to have her baby before Lori had hers.
Maggie blinked up at him, seemingly stunned at his question. "Ya know, since you don't have a husband," Carl offered. He noticed the heavy weighted silence that suddenly fell over the group and wondered what he had said wrong.
"Maggie," his mom said softly as the girl's eyes filled with tears, two seconds before Maggie struggled to her feet and moved away from the group.
Lori sighed heavily. "Carl," she said.
"What, Mom? She never talks about her husband."
She shook her head. "She doesn't have one, sweetheart."
"Then how did she get pregnant?"
His mom suddenly looked sick and shifted in her spot beside him, picking at her breakfast. "It can happen."
"But-"
"Carl," his dad growled behind them as he came off watch. Lori shifted again, this time to disengage from the conversation. She did that a lot lately, since the farm got hit, since he and his dad killed Shane.
Rick crouched down on the other side of Carl, and lowered his voice. "She had someone very special, but she lost him."
"He dead?" Carl's stomach plummeted.
With a shrug, his dad rubbed his hand over his face. "He left," he admitted.
"Why would he leave someone like Maggie?" He felt his cheeks burn after he said it, realizing he suddenly let his dad in on a little secret of his own.
Rick allowed a small smile. "I don't know, son. He musta had a good reason."
"What would make you leave Mom?"
"Not much," Rick admitted.