Another longer chapter, but there's so much going on with Molly that I feel like not much does go on so I make the chapter longer…if that makes sense! Don't expect longer chapters but I won't say it won't happen again! Just a Word Spelling/Grammar check done on this chapter, sorry for any mistakes.

Also, I made a mistake in the last couple chapters regarding Daryl's truck because I forgot he'd gotten rid of it. Let's just assume they picked on up with the Hyundai…it really isn't a big plot point and I probably won't ever mention it again so I'm not going to go back and change it. Sorry if anyone was confused!

Thank you so much to everyone who alerts, favorites, and reviews. I get a little happier every time I read a new review so I'm glad people take the time to share their thoughts.

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever, own The Walking Dead comic or TV show and do not make any profit from this story. This is purely for entertainment purposes, no copy-right infringement intended.

CHAPTER 37

Daryl yanked the door of the school building open savagely, walking through and throwing the deadbolt across quickly before going through the door to Molly's room. The space was vacant expect for Molly and Miranda and he cringed when the sounds of Molly's pain floated across the room to him.

"How is she?" he said as he walked toward them, dropping his crossbow in the chair Louis had vacated at some point.

Miranda jumped, startled, before looking up at him with worry plain on her face. "Worse," was all she said at first. "It seems like the pain comes and goes but it's always worse when it comes back, and she's been sweating like this since a little after you left."

Molly's face was shining with perspiration, the blanket was damp when Daryl reached out and touched it, and he could see the visible wetness on the pillowcase she was laying on. Her eyes were closed tight and he could tell that this must be one of the painful moments.

"Where's the others?"

"Glenn went back to Hershel's, to ask if they have any medicine to bring the fever down and T-Dog is on the roof, taking watch. The kids are down the hall, Rick thought it best that they not be in here with her. I've been checking on them when Molly's been okay, Keegan is alright, Carl is watching him. Rick, Carlos, Amy, and Dale went to find a stream or something for water."

"What for? Shouldn't we be focusin on more important things right now?" Daryl demanded.

"We're trying to bring Molly's fever down. Georgia might be hot but the water is still cold, giving her cold sponge baths might help. Besides, we'll need water eventually, it'd be better to find out if there's a source close by now rather than get settled in a place that's too far from something we need so much."

Daryl hated when people made more sense than he did. In his defense, he thought, he did have an awful lot to worry about right now. Molly was sick, dying, and in her absence some pre-teen was taking care of his kid. "Why you tryin to get her fever down? Everyone knows the walker infection can't be cured." He'd never heard himself sound so defeated, not even when April had died.

"We think that if we can get the fever under control she might pull through. The virus comes into effect primarily when a person dies, it's the death that triggers the change, and it's the fever that kills in most cases. We theorize that she only got trace amounts of the virus in her blood, if that, so it's possible that we can save her. And if we can't, at least we tried."

He thought it sounded fishy, wouldn't someone else have thought of that when all this shit started? But he wasn't going to stop them, because if they were right it was possible that she would survive. He'd never forgive himself if they let her die and they found out later that she was savable. "Right," he replied. "I got that mattress, can you go up and take watch and send T-Dog down to help drag it in?"

"Of course," Miranda replied with a soft smile before getting to her feet and leaving the room.

She wasn't gone a couple seconds when Molly let out a sigh, her hands unclenched and her eyes opened a crack. The pain must have passed for the moment, Daryl decided. Hesitating a moment, remembering how she'd reacted last time he'd tried to touch her, he took a chance and laid his hand against her cheek, almost wincing at the incredible heat radiating from her skin. Merle'd gotten pneumonia when they were kids, complete with raging fever, and even that had been nothing compared to Molly's temperature.

"Mol? You hear me?" he whispered, caressing her cheek when his touch didn't seem to hurt her.

"Yes," her voice was hoarse, like she'd been stranded in a desert for weeks with no water.

He looked around and noticed the water bottle on the end table that Miranda must have been using. He grabbed it, helped her take a couple sips, then put it back before taking one of Molly's hands in both of his.

"How you doin?" he asked.

"It hurts so bad Daryl," she whimpered, tears coming to her eyes. "It…it's like someone stuck a needle in my heart and pumped molten lava into it so it spreads throughout my body. I…I can feel myself burning, when the pain comes. How long do you think it will take? I've never actually…I've never seen someone turn," she confessed, the fear evident in her voice.

"Listen here," he commanded firmly but softly, "you ain't turnin. We're goin ta get your fever down and you're gunna be just fine. The others, they got an idea that ya can pull through it, and we're gunna do our damndest to make sure it happens ain't we?"

Molly closed her eyes nodding, and Daryl watched a tear get caught in her lashes before slipping down onto the pillow. "What if I can't hold on?"

"Ya will," Daryl replied, clearly giving her no option even though he knew that's not how this would work. "Ya will because Keegan needs his ma, and I need ya, more than I wanna admit. You gunna leave us all alone?"

A sniffle and more tears came from his words as Molly pulled her hand from his and moved it carefully to wrap around his neck, pulling him closer so she could press her lips to his. He ignored how her lips burned his own, he just pressed his hands to her cheeks gently and kissed her back, putting as much emotion as he could into it, trying to tell her how he felt.

When Molly pulled back, Daryl used his thumbs to wipe away her tears and then helped her lay back down. "Daryl, if I…you have to keep going, for Keegan and for yourself. Protect him, raise him to survive in this world, he's your son so he'll do great. You can't stop living just because I had to. I know it's hard, believe me after Finn died I just wanted to crawl into a ball and let whatever happened happen, but I got up and went on, even if I was in a daze most of the time. It's just what we have to do now, we don't have time to close ourselves up in dark closets and cry."

"We ain't talkin bout this Mol, because you're goin to be just fine," Daryl said gruffly, his emotions making his words stick in his throat.

She didn't get a chance to speak because a scream tore from her throat instead as the pain rushed back. Her eyes clamped shut and her hands began to clench in the blanket again, but before they could close, Daryl took them in his own, actually wincing at the bone-crushing grip she used. He'd been there when April had Keegan, hell, he'd delivered the kid in the middle of the woods, and she'd been holding one of his hands then. Her grip had nothing on Molly's, and it only got tighter as the fire continued to flow through her. He didn't let on that she was hurting him, knew it would only make her guilty, so he just took it, wishing he could take all of it from her, and murmured soothing words to her.

He heard the door open behind him right before Molly let out another muted scream of pain. Several voices were speaking as they came in, too quietly for him to hear, but he thought it might be Rick, Amy, and Miranda.

"Daryl, glad you got back okay," Rick said before he noticed the situation. Amy and Miranda apparently caught on when he did because they came rushing forward with two buckets and rags in their hands.

"We found water," Amy said breathlessly as she set the bucket, full of clear cold water, on the ground and submerged her rag quickly before pulling it out and laying it across Molly's wrists and running it slowly up and down the length of her forearms, trying to spread the coolness through her veins. Miranda was doing the same, but had placed her rag on Molly's forehead.

Daryl watched the two women exchange glances as Molly let out a sigh that might have been relief. Maybe it was working, he decided, her hands had unclenched minutely on his own a couple seconds after Amy began her ministrations.

"Molly? Is that helping?" Miranda asked as she ran her rag up and down her neck a few times before dipping it in the bucket again and putting it to her forehead for a few seconds.

"Yes," the pain addled woman was able to say through clenched teeth. "More," she pleaded.

Amy and Miranda both dropped their rags back in their buckets, pulled them back out, and applied them to Molly's forehead and arms without wringing almost any of the water out. The liquid dripped from the rags onto the couch and Molly's bedding and then slipped from Amy's rag down Daryl's arms to the crook of his elbows. He understood why it was helping, it was just shy of ice cold, which meant there was a fast moving body of water nearby. No good for fishing, he thought absently, but it probably got a lot of animal traffic, and it would always be slightly more healthy for them to consume than water that sat stagnant in a pond or something.

He was pulled from his musing when Molly's hands went slack in his own before squeezing gently again. His eyes found hers and he could see the remnants of pain but also the glimmer of gratitude that he'd stuck with her through it.

"I'm goin to bring in that mattress for ya," he said quietly. "Then I'll come back and get you, get you settled and see how Keegan's holdin up."

She nodded slightly but didn't say anything. He wondered if the pain and rigidity of her body affected her vocal cords and made it painful to speak. Giving her a short peck on the forehead, very aware of all the eyes on them, Daryl got to his feet and headed for the door. Miranda and Amy stayed where they were, shifting closer a little now that he was out of the way, and continued running their wet rags over Molly's feverish skin.

"Need a hand with the mattress?" Rick asked, following him out the front door and to the opposite side of the truck.

Daryl shrugged noncommittally but decided that he had to at least play nice for Molly and Keegan's sake, even if he thought that most of these people really couldn't care less about them. "Yeah sure. You have time to do a walk-through of the rooms?"

"Only these first few along this hallway," Rick replied, "but this place looks sturdy, and easy to protect. We could make a home here, a place our kids could grow up."

"Yeah, it's a lot better than that farm, that was just a birds nest waitin to be blown away in the first heavy wind," Daryl grunted, picking at a loose thread at the edge of the mattress. "So we ain't done room assignments yet?"

"No, none of us have had time to explore them or even sit for a break since we got here. It will probably just be first come first served."

Daryl nodded. He remembered the layout pretty well from the day before so he knew what all the rooms looked like roughly and he remained silent for several minutes wondering which would be the best to claim. His eyes wandered to T-Dog and Morales on the roof, each holding a rifle. The roof rose in two levels, one that seemed to be the regular height of the roof and then the elevated part that he figured was to accommodate the gym. T-Dog was standing on top of the gym's roof while Morales stood on the lower level, at the corner closest to the road.

"How'd they get on the roof?" he asked Rick after a second.

"Oh, um there's a room that has windows that come out at the edge of the building. There's a ladder out there going up to the roof. And I think there's another ladder that goes up to the high top where T is."

"There a room close by to that room?" Daryl asked.

"Not sure, " Rick replied, "I haven't got that far, but we can definitely check."

Daryl nodded and gestured for Rick to lift his side as he lifted his own and they got the mattress off the truck and stood it on end. It took some maneuvering and use of all their muscles but they eventually got it into the building and leaned up against the wall. Both were gasping for breath, bent over slightly. The mattress was a queen size, in almost new condition, and if Rick's expression was any indication, it was an envy worthy addition to whichever room Daryl chose.

"Don't worry, once we get a chance we'll go out and grab enough mattresses for everyone," he offered. "That town nearby seems almost abandoned, even by the walkers. Only saw three or four. House I went to was at the edge, had at least four bedrooms so right there is three more mattresses."

Rick nodded as they walked down the hall toward the fork. The room that led to the roof was down the hallway and Daryl realized it was the hallway where he and Molly had met up with the others after they'd cleared the first hallway. Rick pushed open the door to '132' and showed Daryl the windows that were big enough to let a person climb through and then through the window he indicated the ladder that was set against the wall up to the roof.

"Nice," Daryl grunted, mentally deciding that they would need to set up a fence or barricade of some sort so that walkers couldn't surprise anyone climbing out the window or up the ladder. He'd bring it up later, right now there were other things to do. "Saw a door in the hall across the way, that's free?"

Rick nodded, "yeah, feel free to move in. I'll help you pull the mattress down here. Once you get Molly settled I think we all need to have a meeting and start organizing ourselves. I know she takes priority until….something changes, but we do have other things to do too."

"I know. We'll get right on it."

Daryl had moved the mattress into the corner diagonally across from the door of room 133, grabbed all their blankets and pillows and set their bed up as hastily as he could before returning to the room Molly was in. Amy and Miranda were still there and Molly seemed to be in one of her painless states so it only took a couple minutes for him to gather her up as gently as possible and hurry her down the hall before the pain could come back. Footsteps behind him told him that Amy and Miranda were following to continue their 'treatment' once she was settled again.

"You okay here?" Daryl asked Molly.

She nodded slightly, "it's better than the couch," she whispered. "Are you going to stay here?"

"I gotta go check on Keegan, he's been with Carl all day. Then I think we'll all be back here for a meetin, Miranda and Amy should be there but they can't leave you alone, so I'll just bring everyone else here. After the meetin I'll stay, I'll be here til you're better or until you tell me to leave."

He stayed long enough to be sure she really was alright and then left in search of his son. The kids were staying in what had once been the main office, he knew because there was a window in the wall that he'd used to catch a look of Keegan as he walked back and forth down the hallway and there were two desks and computers set up in there. The 'OFFICE' sign above the door was just semantics, he thought wryly.

The door swung open silently and he took in the sight in front of him. Eliza and Louis were sitting across from each other, a battered checkers board between them and laughter still on their lips as they looked up at him in surprise. Carl was sitting against the back wall holding Keegan in a standing position on the floor between his legs. His son was letting out some of his baby sounds as Carl laughed at him and helped him bounce in place. Bear was taking this break in excitement to catch a nap at the boys' side, his head lying over Carl's ankle.

"Hi Daryl," Carl said hesitantly. It was clear that all three of the kids were tentative around him.

"He okay?" he grunted, resisting the urge to stomp forward, grab his kid, and leave the room without so much as a nod of acknowledgement.

"He's alright at the moment, he's been pretty crabby though. I think he's confused. It's been all day since he saw Molly, and almost as long since he saw you so he's feeling forgotten I think. How's Molly?"

"Doin everything we can for her," Daryl responded as he took Keegan from Carl's arms, turned him around and smiled as the baby's face light up when he recognized him. His pudgy little hands moved immediately to grab Daryl's cheeks and he let out one of his baby laughs. "Your dad's callin a meetin I think," he said to Carl. "You all should probably be there."

"We get to come to a meeting? For grownups?" Carl asked speculatively, his eyes somehow both excited and skeptical.

"Ain't really for grownups, just a meetin to get things goin here, you know, who's gunna clean what, go fetch this or that….shi—stuff like that," Daryl grumbled back before walking out the door without another word.

He wandered the building until he'd told everyone about the meeting in room 133. Most everyone was already headed that way because even though they knew things needed to be done, they apparently couldn't take the initiative to do it themselves so they were on the hunt for their boss for assignments.

The room he'd chosen for him, Molly, and Keegan was a lot bigger than they needed but it was where he felt safest. There were eight long tables that could seat four people on one side, with a corresponding number of chairs. He and Rick had pushed the tables away from the back corner to make room for the mattress but hadn't gotten around to deciding if they would move the tables out of the room or just leave them to one side.

Molly was sleeping when he came in with Keegan, and the other two women in the group were still wiping her down the their rags.

"Any change?" he asked as the door opened again behind him and he moved further into the room.

Amy looked up with him with a quirk to her lips, "not really. I think the cold water helps relieve the pain but it's not making the fever go down yet. I don't think it's risen very much either though, so we might be holding it off from getting worse. She has 'fits' every ten-fifteen minutes or so and then has a calm period for maybe twenty if she's lucky. You can actually feel the heat flare up when she's going through it. We're almost out of water. We'll have to go get more soon."

Daryl nodded and turned to see that everyone had arrived. The kids were sitting at the first table inside the door, Carl was still recovering from the gunshot wound and Louis was trying to keep his arm as steady as possible. He knew they hadn't had time to find something for a cast or splint before they'd left the farm but it looked like someone had found a towel and a ruler or something similar to bind the arm and stop the bones from shifting. Either way, both boys were pretty out of commission except maybe cleaning and running to and from different adults.

Rick called everyone's attention and got right into doling out jobs. Daryl would go down to the stream with T-Dog and Amy to get more water not only for Molly but to replenish their drinking and cleaning supply. Glenn had found at least seven full water containers in what had once been the facility's break room but that wouldn't last long. Miranda would continue her treatment and caretaking of Molly as well as keep an eye on Keegan. Daryl had been nervous about that, not because he didn't trust Miranda, but because he felt she had enough to do taking care of Molly, she didn't need the added burden of a baby. But Louis was going to stay with them and help with Keegan if needed so he relented eventually. Morales was back on watch until someone had a chance to relieve him and Rick and Carl were going to go around making sure all the rooms and doors were secure and cleaned of walkers.

Hours later, after gathering water and helping drag walkers from the rest of the school and trying to help with Molly and Keegan, Daryl sank down onto the mattress beside Molly with a sigh. He was bone tired and knew that he probably wouldn't be getting a lot of sleep. He'd relieved Miranda and Amy from cool down duty and he was now doing it himself, running the wet rag over her forehead and neck to try to cool down her brain. He'd heard somewhere that fever could mess up brain function.

"Hi," Molly whispered, thankfully in one of her lucid moments. Daryl couldn't help inspecting her face, how it was somehow both flushed with fever but pale as well, how her hair stuck to her forehead, how her eyes were glassy with pain even though she was in a 'calm period' as Amy'd begun to call it.

"Hey," he replied. "You see Keegan today?"

"Yeah, Miranda let me hold him when I was…calm. I'm glad I got to see him," she said softly.

"Don't be talkin like that. I know you good enough to know what you're thinkin and that's not the last you'll see him. He'll be here every day when the girls are lookin after you and then when you get better he'll be there still."

"Daryl, you have to consider that I'm not going to get better. It's been a whole day and I'm not better. You have no idea the pain I feel even now, even without the flare ups. None of us know what it's doing to my body, but we do know what happens at the end. You have to accept that this theory of Miranda's is only going to get your hopes up for no reason."

"No, I won't accept that!" Daryl growled. "I won't accept that you're goin to be taken away from us, not when we just found each other. A lot of bad shit's happened to me Molly, more'n you can imagine, and I never accepted defeat then, how can you expect me to accept it now that the two best things that will ever happen to me are here with me now? I ain't gunna let you go without a fight, and you're goin to hold on and pull through this because you love that kid in that other room and he needs you. You just gotta fight it, no matter how much it hurts."

"I don't know if I can," she whimpered, tears overflowing from her eyes to be wiped away by his thumbs. "I don't know if I'm strong enough."

"I'll help you be strong then," he replied.

A sob ripped from her throat just before an earth shattering scream erupted from her lips. It was the worst sound he'd ever heard and he looked on in shock and desperation as she began to writhe on the mattress beside him. It wasn't a seizure, he didn't think, it looked more like she was in so much pain that she was trying to physically move away from it. The door to the room flung open and Miranda, Amy, and Rick ran in to see what was wrong.

Daryl'd just made a move to try to stop Molly's thrashing when she went completely still beside him and her screams abruptly cut off.

Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I liked this as a stopping point. I'm really trying to convey her sickness as something serious and tangible, but I'm not sure if I'm achieving what I'm going for… And I feel like Daryl was out of character for the last part of this, sorry I'm a little sleep deprived but I wanted to get something out to you.

I'm going to try and get a chapter out for Shane and Lori soon, because it's been so long since we've heard from them. It might not be a whole chapter, maybe just part of one and then it switches back to the others? But I want to know if you guys have any preferences about what's been happening with them since they got separated. Remember it's been about two and a half to three weeks since Atlanta. Do you want them to hook up with Randall's group? Woodbury? Just be on their own? Should Lori be pregnant like in the show? If I don't get imput I'll just write whatever comes out, but if you have suggestions I'll definitely try to work with them.

Thanks for reading and hope you review!