Lori opened the door, expecting to find Rick on the other side but was surprised, and to be honest a bit disappointed, to find Clarinda Riley standing there instead. "Clarinda." she tried to smile. "What can I do for you?"
"I just wanted to come by and say hello." Clarinda smiled. "May I come in?" she asked, already starting to walk through the front door without Lori saying a word.
"Sure." Lori sighed knowing that Clarinda was not one to take no for an answer.
"I heard that your little boy lost a friend in that raid and I'm so sorry about that." Clarinda moved into the kitchen and set a basket that Lori hadn't noticed before on the counter. "Tea?" she smiled.
"Okay." Lori nodded. "It was kind of you to come by, but you really didn't need to." she rubbed at her swollen belly and grimaced at the ache in her back. She felt as though she would be meeting her son or daughter any day.
"I know." Clarinda shooed Lori to one of the kitchen chairs and forced her to sit down. "You shouldn't be on your feet too much, dear."
"Stuff has to get done around the house." Lori shrugged.
"That's what that little bundle's father should be doing." Clarinda shook her head as she continued readying the tea. "Of course, now that he's part of their little 'committee', I can barely see how he has time for his family anymore."
"True." Lori was growing a bit uncomfortable with the other woman's line of conversation. The downfall of her marriage was still a sore point with her for obvious reasons.
"Of course, after what happened, the tragedy, I doubt they'll be in charge much longer."
"Why would you say that?" Lori asked, eying her carefully as Clarinda poured the boiling water into cups.
"Well, after such a disaster, people will be scared and angry, looking for answers." she set the cups down on the table, sliding one to Lori. "They may decide that a change is needed." she lightly blew into her steaming tea.
"Who would take over?" Lori asked, fearing she knew what the other woman's answer might be.
"Oh, heavens, I have no idea, I'm sure." Clarinda smiled before taking a dainty sip. "But if the people asked Bruce and I to step in, we'd be willing to try to clean up the mess Mitch and that woman have created."
"That's good of you." Lori felt nervous all of a sudden. "It's too bad that they didn't name us Reichert's successors, things would have been so different."
"Oh, I know that." Clarinda smiled and Lori felt a chill. The look on the other woman's face made her feel uncomfortable, dirty almost. "Things would have been much, much different."
"I don't suppose you have any idea who might be responsible?" Lori didn't think she'd get any real answers, but she might be able to glean something.
"Of course not." Clarinda set her up down, a bit of the hot liquid splashing over the side and on to her fingers, yet she didn't flinch. "How would I know?"
"I thought maybe you'd heard some gossip." Lori shrugged. "After something like this, I assume everyone's got some ideas."
"Of course, but one can't really pay much attention to idle gossip." her smile returned, this time warmer.
"Of course not." Lori nodded as she set her cup down and stretched her back.
"You look like it could be any day now." Clarinda eyed Lori's swollen stomach. "Have you picked names?"
"I don't think it'll be much longer." Lori agreed. "I've got a few ideas. Hope for a girl, it just seems fitting considering everything. Boy's names, I'm drawing a bit of a blank."
"New life is hope." Clarinda nodded, smiling serenely. "I've always like Elijah for a boy. I was going to use that name, but we only had one son. Only one child." her smile disappeared and her pleasant demeanor vanished as she seemed to withdraw into herself for a moment.
"It's a lovely name." Lori glanced toward the front door, hoping for Carol to wander in.
"Yes, it is." Clarinda shook her head, smiling again. "I'm sure you'll come up with something lovely."
"Yeah, I'm sure we will." Lori nodded. "I'm sorry, but I'm really in the mood for a nap."
"Oh, of course!" Clarinda jumped to her feet in a flash. "I remember what it was like, carrying all of that extra weight. Luckily I had a wonderful husband to spoil me.." she stopped talking and stared at Lori. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Grimes. I know this must still be a sore subject for you."
"Yeah." Lori whispered.
"Don't worry, dear." she rested a hand on Lori's shoulder. "The sinners will get what's coming to them, they always do." she turned and grabbed the basket from the counter. "I'll let you rest now. Stay strong for that little bundle!" she smiled again and gave a quick wave before heading out the front door.
Lori let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. She felt almost certain that after talking to Clarinda, the Riley's must have had a hand in what happened. She hated Christie, but even she would never sink so low that she would sacrifice numerous people just to oust her and Mitchell. She'd always felt Clarinda was a bit off, even if she did enjoy bad mouthing Christie with her. It felt good to have someone else who disliked her as much as she did. But there was a line, and if the Riley's were responsible, they'd crossed it.
She decided it was time to head to HQ and have a chat with Mitchell and the others. "Carl, I'm going for a walk, do you wanna come?" she called up the stairs, hoping he'd say yes. He'd been locked in his room since they'd gotten home from the funeral. He'd opened his door just long enough to take the plate of food she offered, and when she woke up the next day, the plate was sitting outside his door, half-empty.
"No." his reply came, muffled by the closed door.
"Okay then." she sighed. "I'm gonna lock the doors behind me, don't open them for anyone but the people in our group." she waited a moment to see if perhaps he'd change his mind, but there was just silence.
She headed into the kitchen and locked the backdoor and turned to grab her sweater from the back of a kitchen chair. As she flung the sweater around behind her and began to slip her arms inside, she felt a sharp pain in her lower back. A stifled, startled groan escaped her lips as she began to fall to the floor. She couldn't feel her legs as another sharp pain shot through the space between her shoulder blades. The warmth of her blood began to cover her, seeping through her clothes. She heard the backdoor being unlocked and opened, and then slowly and quietly closed as her face came to rest on the cool tile of the kitchen floor. She struggled to roll onto her back to protect her unborn baby. Carl was still safely tucked away upstairs. Carl and her baby were all she could think of as she lay on the floor, struggling to call for help.
"I'll head out on foot." Daryl informed the group as he packed a couple of bottles of water into his pack. "See if I can pick up any tracks."
"You're not going out alone." Christie said to him, her tone letting him know the matter wasn't open for debate.
"I'll be fine." he argued.
"You just got off those crutches." Mitch shook his head. "What would you do if you got hurt again?"
"I'd manage." Daryl replied.
"No." Christie said. "We all know you shouldn't be off the crutches, so you can't go out on your own. We can't take the risk of you getting hurt again. Or worse."
"I ain't a baby." he stared at her. She looked just a little bit older than Beth, and the thought of her giving him orders was grating on his nerves a bit.
"We're not risking losing another person." she snapped. "You go with someone, or you won't go out at all."
"It's okay." Rick said put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it a bit. "I'll go with him."
"Great, so I got a babysitter." Daryl stared at Rick for a moment. "Can I go now, mom?"
"Daryl." Rick said, sensing that everyone was on edge. "I need to grab a few things from down in the basement, just give me a few minutes."
"I'll be here." Daryl flung his pack over his shoulder and headed outside to wait for Rick.
"Daryl!" Beth jogged over to him. "Where are you going?" she asked when she saw the pack.
"Headin' out to see if I can find any tracks."
"Does this have anything to do with your brother?" she whispered.
"What in the hell are you talkin' about, princess?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to find your brother before anyone else does." she'd been thinking that since Hershel had said he'd removed Daryl's cast. "If maybe you think he had something to do with..."
"He didn't." he snapped. "Merle wouldn't do anything like that."
"He seemed angry when we saw him out there." she continued. "Carol told me..."
"Carol didn't know my brother." he clenched his jaw, anger rising. "No more than you, so just run on back to the clinic and help your daddy."
"Everything okay out here?" Rick asked as he walked out, sensing even more tension than there was inside.
"Yeah." Daryl nodded, looking away from Beth. "You ready?"
"I am." Rick nodded.
"Be careful." Beth said, wanting to smack Daryl for his attitude. "Keep a close eye on him." she directed her last comment to Rick.
"I will." Rick said. "What was that about?" he asked as they started walking towards the gate.
"Nothin'." Daryl growled. "I just wanna see if we can find anything."
"Me, too." Rick agreed, still eying Daryl. "Mitch and Christie will go door-to-door and ask questions."
"Not like anyone's gonna fess up to anything." Daryl grabbed his crossbow as they passed the weapons shed.
"No, but hopefully they'll get some answers." Rick grabbed a few assorted weapons. "You sure you're okay?"
"People need to stop askin' me that." Daryl glanced back up at the wall as they headed into the woods. "Your girl Christie looks like she's about fall apart, don't see anyone askin' her every five damn seconds if she's okay."
"She's not havin' mood swings like you." Rick replied. "Never seen you talk to Beth like that."
"You're not around all the time."
"Uh huh." he just nodded. "Why were you so determined to come out on your own?"
"Move faster that way." he shrugged.
"Okay." Rick looked at him one more time. "Eyes peeled." he sighed as he looked around. Everyone seemed to be coming undone. The stress of the world they were living in was bad enough. To know that your neighbors would do something so underhanded, so cowardly, it did away with any sense of safety and well-being. He was eager to find out who was behind that breach so that they could try to rebuild and get back to some sense of normalcy.