Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of the characters/plotlines associated with it.

I glanced over at Andrea who was stationed outside the shed that Randall was cooped up in. He was highly unlikely to be a threat, even with all Hershel had done to fix him up, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes as she positioned the gun menacingly between her hands.

While Rick and Shane were planning on driving him 18 miles out to ditch him in the world, there were other things that needed doing around camp. Lori had asked me to head on into the house this morning and sit with Beth for a while whilst she was busy up at out campsite with Carol. I jogged lightly up the steps of the farmhouse and pushed my way into the room that Beth was staying in. She was laid on the bed, her blonde hair spread out around her like a halo on the pillow. Her eyes were trained on the ceiling, and she didn't bother to look over at me as I entered.

"I don't know why your people are so insistent on being here," She said bitterly. "It's not as if I'm going to suddenly go overboard, is it? You can leave."

"I can," I sat down on the chair beside the bed. "But I won't. You know, I understand how hard it is. You're not the only person to have lost someone. We've all been through it. Some of us worse than others, sure, but we've all experienced it whether it was in this new world or our previous lives."

"Losing your mother is a different matter."

"You're right… I lost mine at the beginning of all this, too."

Beth glanced over to me with a slightly guilty expression on her face. She finally heaved herself up in the bed, resting her hands in her lap and looking over to me.

"Did a Walker get her?" She asked quietly.

"No," I shook my head. "I kind of wish she'd gone that way rather than the way she did… She committed suicide. We couldn't have done anything to prevent it."

"I'm so sorry to hear that… I didn't know."

"I didn't think it was necessary to dump that burden on everyone. I'll never move on, but I've accepted that I can't go back. Suicide doesn't take the pain away, you know… It just gives it to someone else."

The young girl stared at me and I looked back at her for a few moments. She needn't say anything, but I knew that was what she had been considering. The life had drained from her eyes, and there really wasn't any other explanation to her situation.

I glanced up as the door creaked open and Lori walked in with a tray of food. She set it on the bedside table. As Lori raised her eyebrows knowingly at me, I nodded and pushed myself to my feet.

"You eat up all your food, we'll get you up and out of here and go take a walk," Lori suggested. "What do you say? It'll do good to be outside."

"You're pregnant," Beth stared accusingly at the woman. "How could you do that?"

"Uh, I don't really have a choice… You eat something."

Lori looked at me very awkwardly and I just shrugged my shoulders. I smiled very briefly at Beth before leaving the room and walking down the corridor towards the kitchen. Lori was following behind me. She looked slightly angered and confused.

"What the heck was all that about?" She asked as she trailed behind.

"I dunno," I mumbled. "She's just hurting, I guess. I wouldn't put all the blame on her… When she gets through this, it'll all be okay. I can't think of her having anything against you just because you're pregnant."

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you have anything against me because I'm pregnant?"

I paused and entered the kitchen, leaning against a counter and crossing my arms across my chest. Lori faced opposite me, perching on the edge of the dining table. There was a hollow silence before I spoke up.

"No, I don't have anything against you," I told her. "Sure, I don't think it's the wisest idea in these circumstances, but I know that you have a chance to make things right for that little baby."

"I hope so," Lori sighed. "Do you really think that I can raise a child in this world?"

"I think you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Besides… You'll have all of us to help you through this. You won't have to do any of this alone."

She smiled at me and reached forward, rubbing my shoulder affectionately. I returned it before bidding her goodbye and rushing down the steps of the farmhouse. Andrea was making her way in the opposite direction. She looked at me with resentment as we passed and I returned her sour glare.

Benny had taken a place on top of the RV. I waved up at him as I passed. He probably knew where I was going. Dale had spoken to him this morning about where I'd gone last night, and he had smirked at me all during breakfast. Even when we were on the run for our lives, my brother found the time to mock me about a boy.

As I'd expected, Daryl was out in his little campsite in the middle of the fields. He glanced up as I approached. I stood above him when I reached were he was kneeled, my hands shoved into my back pockets as I watched him work on whittling wood. Well, I wouldn't quite call it whittling… The spears didn't look too friendly.

"Why did you move all the way out here?" I asked, looking around at the isolated field that Daryl had opted for.

"To get away from all you people," He replied bluntly. "You all do my head in when I'm back there. I couldn't bear it, especially not after Sophia."

I smiled softly at Daryl as I took a seat beside him. He just scoffed slightly. I knew that he probably didn't want me loitering around, but the camp was amazingly peaceful today, and I actually had a chance to come and talk to him unlike some of the more hectic days where I was often being run off my feet.

"Don't tell me that this was your best offer of the day," He raised his eyebrows at me.

"I thought you'd be just the slightest bit happy to see me," I rolled my eyes. "I thought that me showing up here would make your day. Hasn't it?"

"That's not quite what I'd call it."

I nudged him playfully and he just smiled. The sun was high in the sky and its backdrop was a brilliant blue. There was nothing I didn't like about days like this back in the day, when I'd been able to relax in the heat and do nothing but lap up the sun. Now, I wasn't too fond of the burning sun. Even in our minimal amounts of clothes, we managed to sweat right through all the material.

"I don't think we've ever had a year this hot," I mused.

"We ain't," Daryl agreed. "And it's just typical that we do have it now."

"Didn't you like the sun before all of this? I loved it. There used to be so much to do on days like this… Benny and I used to have the best of times when we were kids."

"Nah, my brother and I ain't really anything like you and your brother. You wouldn't have caught him frolicking about in the sunshine, I can tell you that."

"Huh… I always wanted a summer wedding. I always went on about it. I said that when I got married, I would have to wait until a perfect summer's day to get married, or it just wouldn't be my dream wedding… Benny was going to have a summer wedding, too."

"Your brother was engaged?"

"He… It ended before all of this went down. I don't really know what happened. I didn't even really know much about it until recent."

Daryl just nodded as I looked into the distance, my elbows resting on my knees as I hugged them to my chest. Although Benny didn't say anything, I knew that he was still hurting. My brother had been in love with the girl he had devoted his life to. They had been together since high school, always seen as the perfect couple. He'd met her in his sophomore year when she was a freshman, and they started dating when he was a senior and she a junior. Then, they were practically engaged out of school. Everyone thought they were perfect for each other.

"Were you in any relationships before?" I asked curiously.

"No," Daryl said bluntly. "Merle and I didn't do relationships. He brought home plenty of cooze on one night stands, but they never lasted. I just didn't bother, I guess."

"I always saw you as the hopeless romantic type, Daryl, you surprise me…"

"Huh. Funny. What about you?"

"No… No, I had boyfriends, but nothing ever serious. Nobody ever really bothered with me. I was always shy and meek, and I didn't have many friends. I mean, what's appealing about a girl who blends into the background, right?"

He glanced up at me and looked into my eyes with newfound knowledge. I blushed and glanced away, picking at the dirt under my fingernails. My eyes lingered on the farm in the distance, and I knew that Rick and Shane would probably be coming back now. They couldn't possibly have taken this long to get 18 miles out, unless something had gone wrong, which wouldn't surprise me with our group's luck.

"I'm going hunting," Daryl announced, standing up and shouldering his crossbow.

"Nice save," I stood up and brushed off my jeans. "I bet you were wondering how you could get rid of me that whole time, huh?"

Daryl smirked at me and shook his head, turning and heading off into the woods nearby. I went in the over direction, kicking my way through the dirt towards the farm.

When I reached the house, I hadn't expected so much chaos to be brewing.

"Don't you dare step food inside this house again!" I heard Maggie yell at Andrea.

The farmer's daughter slammed the house door shut and Andrea turned to talk to Lori, who was also standing on the porch. What a surprise… Andrea had annoyed someone else too. As Lori turned to enter the house, I walked up the steps. Andrea paused when she saw me.

"If you're thinking the worst, you're wrong," She rolled her eyes at me.

I opened the door to the farmhouse and slipped inside. Lori was hunched over a counter in the kitchen, massaging her forehead.

"What happened?" I asked quietly as I crept into the room.

"Beth tried to commit suicide," Lori explained, causing my face to drop. "She slit her wrist. I left Andrea in charge of her while I was gone… She just upped and left her to it. No wonder the girl felt the need to do it… She was abandoned."

"Is she alright now, though?"

"She'll be fine. Hershel's tending to her as we speak. I just don't know why Andrea did it. Can't she see that it's just common courtesy?"

"Everyone makes mistakes, Lori. Maybe she really regrets it…"

"It doesn't sound like it."

I didn't know why I had jumped to Andrea's defence, but I soon backed down when Lori said that. She rested a hand on her ever so slightly swollen stomach and I glanced down. There wasn't much point in me hanging around to say anymore. I couldn't do anything about the matter… I wasn't the person to go to for help in these situations.

"I hope you sort everything out with her," I told the older woman.

She nodded at me and I departed the farmhouse. It seemed that there really was no use for me while I was hanging around here. Wherever I went, it seemed that I wasn't needed. I wanted to show everyone that I could pull my weight around too, but there really was nothing that I could do here on the farm.

It was true bliss here. It was quiet and calm and we didn't run into any problems, unlike we had been doing when we'd been out on the roads. However, at the same time, it was dull. We'd done so much since the beginning of our group and now all of us seemed to be lagging behind in our lives as we couldn't find anything to do. There were no jobs to go to; there were no people to see. At the same time as loving the peace, I resented all the time it gave me to think. Because when I thought, I had the chance to mull over all the previous horrors we faced, and I didn't want to do that.