Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Hey, everybody. I want to apologize for my time away without any notice. I've currently had some family issues to take care of, and then the holidays came, which I hope everyone enjoyed. If not, I hope you have a great new year and enjoy this chapter. More is to come.

Carol ran over to the Daryl and dropped down beside him, applying pressure to the wound, and he released a cry. She apologized and looked over the wound, seeing it was blessedly a through and through shot. Eeron was on point with his shooting, because from what she knew from Hershel and Denise both he missed hitting anything vital. Daryl would be just fine. He might need some blood and a lot of rest, but he would be just fine. She rested her forehead against his and apologized again and again, and he nudged her brow with his and shook his head.

Tara and Denise helped Rick to his feet while Rosita scanned the area for any more of those fuckers, Denise removed her outer shirt and belt to use it as a makeshift tourniquet. Carol aided Daryl in standing, and they moved as a unit to the car with Rosita watching their flank. They piled into the SUV, Rick was beginning to lose consciousness from the loss of blood, and Rosita kept him conscious with all her best efforts as Tara drove like mad to get them back home.

The trip seemed to take hours and hours when in reality it was likely only an hour and a slight bit over an hour, and Denise hopped out of the car, running to prepare the clinic, and Rosita followed after to rouse Mordin. Tara and Carol helped Rick out of the car as Daryl insisted he could walk on his own. They helped Rick to the clinic and lied him down, Tara went to fetch Michonne, and Carol went to Daryl's side to help him remove his shirts. She noticed he had bits of cloth in the wound and only then did she begin to break down into tears, shudder and panic at the events that unfolded in the glen tonight.

"Hey, hey, hey." Tara ran over as Carol began to crumble the floor, catching her around the waist gently and easing her down. She adjusted her legs and held Carol carefully, moving loose hair from her bun back from her face and hushing her tenderly. "It's okay now. It'll be okay. Sshh, it'll be okay now."

Rick was heavily sedated in the clinic with Michonne and his kids at his side, Beth and Noah had scrubbed in to help—putting their time at the hospital to good use, or Beth's childhood in her case as well as the hospital—and Daryl was lightly sedated and talking about his children not so softly to Carol now. Denise was checking the bandage on her throat while Tara went to inform Carl of his father's condition. Noah mopped up the blood on the floor, looking in on Beth who was checking on Rick just to be sure he was all right, and he smiled at her. She looked over at him and returned the smile lovingly to her husband. He finished with the floor and drained the bloody mop water, returning to Beth's side and wrapping his arms around her from behind, kissing her cheek and murmuring in her ear about heading home now.

"Yeah, we should go and check on Monroe." Beth looked over at Carol and smiled. "Hey, pregnancy buddy."

Carol laughed dryly. "Hello."

"I'll bring some food by later for you guys—specially made by me and my daughter." She set a hand on her shoulder and tenderly squeezed in a show of both love and support. "How does potato soup sound?"

"Wonderful." Carol gently hushed Daryl down as to not wake the dead with his volume, and she stroked his hair, slowly coming down from her emotional high and back into her rational self. She was able to think and breathe again, and she was glad for it. She was glad for the survivors of this encounter. She would be better prepared in the future.

"Okay. I'll be sure to add some meat for flavor and protein. We can't have that baby comin' out all skinny. We'll both give birth to chunky little boys." Beth was musing, only to make Carol smile, and it was working. Her level of exhaustion was so obviously high. It broke Beth's hard, but she would bring in some happiness and light through the cracks Ila had created, plant a garden of love there. It was the least she could do for her. "And don't worry about Charlotte and Mika. They're in good hands. Maggie has them fed and tucked in, and we'll bring them by in the morning."

"Thank you, Beth. I truly appreciate it."

"Any time."

Carol had nightmares the entire night about Ila stealing Charlotte away, of stealing her newborn son away, and she woke to a cold sweat coating her chest. She looked over at Daryl who was sound asleep from the medication he'd been given, and she sat up, heeding the pinching at her side. She set a hand on her stomach and realized then that Ila had not only known about her pregnancy but that she was having a boy, too. She hadn't announced it the world yesterday or the day she found out, so how in the world did Ila know about it unless there was a spy in their ranks?

Bare feet touched the cold floor of the clinic, the long shirt she'd been given to wear tumbling down her thighs to reach its full length, and she exhaled, walking over to the doorway to see Denise with Tara preparing medication for Rick and Daryl as the pain meds had likely run out, and she spotted two trays of food. Tara was adjusting the plates on them while whispering softly to Denise, and Denise looked at her with such love. Carol's stomach rumbled at the sight of thickly cut bacon, and she blushed as their eyes landed on them.

"My godson is starving. That's unacceptable. Get in here." Denise patted the chair beside her, and Carol joined them with a soft thanks, finding the plate of food made up for her. "It's no trouble."

"Saves me from having to carry another tray." Tara smiled at her. "And don't worry about manners in front of me. I've seen worse."

"Good, because I am so hungry, and these smells wonderful." She dug into the food before, still managing to keep it classy as she taco wrapped egg, bacon and pancakes and drank the tea not unlike a savage. Denise made some jokes about having seen this hunger before, and Carol glared around her breakfast taco at her.

"I'm just sayin'."

"Well, I didn't ask." Carol smirked at her and finished off the last taco before lowering her hands to her satisfyingly full belly and dropping her smirk entirely. "We have a member of the Shah among us."

Tara nearly dropped the tray she'd picked up and frowned. "What?"

She nodded. "I don't know who he or she is, but I will find out by the end of the morning. There were only a few people who knew about my pregnancy, let alone that this is a boy, and I'll find them."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Tara set the tray back down and asked, "How do you know it's one of us? Where is this coming from?"

"When she did this to my stomach, when we spoke, she mentioned my son specifically. She knew I was pregnant and having a son, and there are only a select few who have that knowledge prior to the trip out there. So someone within these walls is a member of the Shah, and they are feeding her information on me and likely on Charlotte and any other child that matches the profile."

"Oh, God." Denise blanched and thought over who it could be. "You know it's not me, right? I would never supply those nutcases with information on Charlotte. She is such an important part of my life. She's like my heart or my lungs. I would never do that."

"I know it isn't you." Carol smiled thoughtfully at her and set a hand over hers on the island counter. "You mean the world to me, and I've known you for years. If you were a member of this cult, I would know. You aren't."

"How can you be sure?" Tara was simply curious. If they were working the long con like they appeared to be, Denise would be a prime target. She was closest to Carol and had the easiest access to Charlotte out of anybody. She would swoop in and take her without anyone batting any eyelash. She knew her girlfriend better than that, but she still played over the possibility. It was how the human mind worked after all. Thoughts on good and bad playing all at once. "Not that I don't trust you, only am curious about the reasoning."

"I…felt this aura around the members of the Shah," Carol explained. "It was…like nothingness and willingness to blindly follow. There was nothing else there. Denise offers so much more than they could ever understand. I don't know what Ila has done to them, but they aren't people anymore. They're puppets, and they can only react. There's nothing else."

"Then how do we find the odd duck here?" Denise inquired. "They'll have to be able to blend in."

"I have a short list. I just pray no one was eavesdropping on my appointment, or that list just become the entirety of Alexandria, and I don't think I can handle that right now." She rubbed her belly tenderly and frowned. "I have to find this person—today. They will not feed her any further information on me or my kids."

"Understandable." Tara nodded. "I will…um, check on Rick and his pain level. Why don't you two talk it out? I'll make sure the kids aren't around to overhear this conversation."

"Thank you." Denise set a hand on her girlfriend's and squeezed, holding on until the last moment and letting her hand drop to her side.

Carol smiled a thanks to Tara and turned back to Denise. "I need to speak to Mordin. He's the only other person who knew about the baby. He's actually the first person who knew about my pregnancy, and I believe I should start with him."

"Oh, okay. He is…currently taking a walk." She remembered him passing the news to her on his way out the door. He had smiled and told her to take care of their patients since it was a full house pretty much. "You can check his room out. He wouldn't mind."

"I don't know that I want to violate his trust like that. I do owe him a great deal. He did a lot for me." Carol looked down at her hand on her stomach and exhaled. She had bigger things to protect than privacy right now, and he would have to understand. If he didn't then so be it. She had to check behind every door, and that mean the doctors, the close friends, the family. "But I need to know if he is a threat to my kids. I can't risk it."

Denise nodded with a grimace upon her lips. "You're right."

"Which room is his?"

"Third to the right. It has the medical sign on the door."

Carol slid off the stool and headed down the hall to the room Denise had mentioned, knowing it was on the first floor. She spotted the worn medical sign Denise had mentioned and smiled softly at the sight of it, setting her fingers on the bumpy and rusted design before reaching down to twist her fingers around the doorknob.

"Carol, no!" Nina ran over to stop her, and Carol instantly turned to the side to let her slide by, pulling out her knife in one swift movement, but Nina seemed to anticipate her movements and caught a hold of her hand, causing the door to crack open and a gunshot filled the air.

Carol looked on in horror as Nina strained and sputtered, blood pooling from the shotgun wound to the side, and Nina felt to her knees before her, wheezy breathes escaping through paling lips.

"Nina!" Carol caught her before she fell to the ground. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Hold on."

Nina managed a pained smile. "Just…how I wanted to wake up this morning."

Carol weakly laughed and felt her eyes burning at the sight of her, apply pressure to the wound as the sound of rushing feet came. "Just hold on, okay?" She snuffled. "How did you know?"

She wrapped her hands around Carol's with teary eyes and confessed, "You and Charli aren't the only ones marked with a crown." She turned her head to the side and lifted up her hair to the reveal crown carved into her neck. But it was different than hers with a strike through it, and Carol realized instantly what it meant.

"You—"

"Oh, my God!" Denise ran over with Daryl and Tara and Michonne on her heels. "Nina, Carol." She dropped down beside Carol and looked over the wound on her side, but there was no entry wound, so she moved to Nina. "Okay, Tara, help me get her back to the clinic. Daryl, stay with Carol. Michonne, I think your police skills are needed."

"Wait, wait, wait." Carol grasped Nina's hand to stop them from moving her, but Nina assured her they had plenty of time to talk. She watched as she was carried out and to the clinic, Daryl helped her onto her feet and settled a hand on her stomach, and she gripped his hand there, too. He helped her to the clinic and sat her down, heedless of his own injuries, and Carol noticed a faint pink hue spreading across his bandages, and she told him to sit down.

"I'm good. Completely medicated." He bent down to look her over and pushed hair back from her face. "You okay? Honestly?"

She shook her head and silvery tears rolled up in her eyes. "No."

"Mommy! Daddy!" Charlotte's voice came from the other room.

"Shit." Daryl rose up and headed into that room to stop them from seeing Carol crying. Charlotte was too excited to care about the obvious delaying tactics, and Mika was too distracted by the now red hue spreading across Daryl's bandages. He assured them he was all right, doped up enough to not be able to walk straight, and Mika smiled at him.

"Where's Mom?" Mika inquired. "And Denise? Your bleeding through your bandages. You need to sit down and stop straining yourself, medicated or not. It's not going to help you heal in the long run. I really need you to be okay, Daryl."

He nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry to worry you. I'll be sure to be careful. I promise." He wrapped his good arm around his daughter and squeezed her shoulder. "C'mon. Your mom's through here."

"Yes, Mommy." Charlotte ran in through the doorway ahead of them and instantly froze at the sight of blood on her mommy's belly, and she couldn't stop the tears from building up behind those blue eyes. Her heart stopped cold, and she felt like her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. She had no words. No feeling. Only ice ran through her, and she couldn't stomach it. "M—mommy?"

"Hey, baby girl." Carol rose up off the gurney with a smile on her lips, setting her hands over the splatter that had made her daughter stop cold in her steps. "It's not my blood. Your brother's fine."

"Mommy." She ran over and buried her face in her stomach away from the blood, wrapping her arms as much around her mother's waist as she could, and she whimpered. "My brother."

"He's fine." She stroked her hair and smiled softly. "Nina got hurt, but she'll be okay. We'll go see her soon. I promise."

She dug her nails in tighter but nodded.

"Mom?" Mika entered the room with Daryl beside her, and before Carol could explain, Mika was in her arms, too, whispering, "I heard it from the hall. Are you okay?"

"For the most part." She stroked her hair and kissed her temple. "I love you girls. Thank you for being so caring."

Michonne entered through the hallway and whispered to Daryl who's jaw set in a firm line, Carol noticed instantly and asked Mika to take Charlotte into the kitchen for some milk, and Charlotte complained until Mika said they'd melt some chocolate into it. They scurried into the kitchen as Beth and Noah entered the room with smiles and a goodbye kiss as he had duty. However, at the sight of Carol, he paled and asked to know what was wrong.

"I'll explain it at dinner tonight." Carol offered. "Beth and I can cook, and we'll discuss it further. For now, you two have duties to tend to. The girls are in the kitchen, and I know school will still be in session."

Beth nodded. "I'll cook. I have some salted fish I need to get rid of, and you can just rest." She smiled forcefully at Noah and headed out, grasping Carol's hand and squeezing it along the way.

Carol sent her a smile and joined Michonne, asking what the whispering was about. "It's him, isn't it?"

"It's more," Daryl seethed. "Much more."

"You'll want to see this."

The trio headed down the hall, Daryl refused to see a doctor until he'd seen the room that made Michonne's very stomach churn, and Carol grasped his head for support—both emotional and physical as he was very much "too doped up to walk straight". They entered the room, minding the trap-triggered shotgun, and Carol gulped at the damage it had likely done to Nina. Though the gulp should have been reserved for what waited inside of the room.

Nobody had ever seen the inside of Mordin's bedroom as he kept it the door locked and shut due to personal issues, so it was an utter shock to find the room of a seemingly hinged and sound man in total disarray with floor-to-ceiling pictures stapled onto the walls. The furnishings were tossed around, bedding ripped, mattress ripped, clothes tossed about the floor and torn up. Crowns with lines through them were carved into the dresser, drawn in old, now-brown blood along the door and the ceiling, and the words Deliverer painted over pictures of Carol and Charlotte dating back to the grove.

Carol saw Polaroid pictures of her and Denise and baby Charlotte at the grove, plucking one off the wall of Carol heavily pregnant and holding onto one of Daryl's shirts to make it into an outfit for the newborn baby to come. Her hand trembled at the sight of her near nine months pregnant and being spied on by the doctor of the very town her love and family resided in. Her breathing came rushed as the gap between them could have been close so much sooner had his man been sound and good, but she calmed herself. There was no point in trying to turn time back. It was a gut-reaction; it couldn't be helped. She could only act now. Only feel and solve the problems they faced right now. The rest was…pointless. It couldn't be changed.

Daryl looked over the freshly written Deliverer over the pictures of Carol and Charlotte and himself and Mika, seeing the R ended with a sonogram of their son. He ripped it off the wall and ground his teeth, knowing if he added any more pressure surely his teeth would crack and shattered in his mouth.

"How did we not know?" Carol lowered the picture. "Right under our noses…."

"He put on quite a good act." Michonne crossed her arms and turned to face Carol. "He… He was such a damn necessity at the time we barely cared for his background."

"They've been watchin' us the whole damned time." Daryl snarled.

Michonne nodded. "From the beginning of it all, I'd bet."

"How did we not fuckin' know?" Daryl ran a hand through his hair and winced at the sharp, white-hot pain coursing through his shoulder. Perhaps it wasn't the meds affecting him but high blood pressure or the like. God damn it.

Carol shook her head.

"You don't remember. You were out of it with grief." Michonne turned to him. "But Judith had thrush, and we needed a doctor's aid. We needed help, because none of us had the experience to help. Rick had just killed that wife-beating son of a bitch, and…the next day a group of stragglers came. We questioned them, but at the mention of being a doctor… Rick slipped up. He didn't pressure on the issue he should have. He asked only enough to see if he could trust him with Judith, and Mordin passed. The rest became quirky habits."

Carol's hand fell to her belly. "He knew about me from the grove. They were watching me when I was pregnant with Charlotte. They've had their eye on her since she was in the womb, Michonne. How much more do they know? About her? About us?"

"I can't say for sure, but I'll research the room, try and find notes, sent a party out to find Mordin. He couldn't have gotten far. I saw him just this morning." Michonne set her hands on Carol's shoulders and smiled softly, reassuringly. "He won't slip by us. I promise."

Carol turned the picture around to face Michonne with a frown on her lips. "He already has slipped by us, Michonne."

Nina had worn a partial bullet-proof vest, so the damage wasn't as severe as it could have been, Carol was drawn up a calming bath and calmed down by Denise, Michonne enlisted some aid to help hunt down Mordin, and the kids were attending life as though nothing had happened. They would be kept out of this. For their safety as well as mental health.

Carol sat at the edge of Nina's bed, watching over her as she rested, hearing mild conversation about their dinner plans between Daryl and Noah out in the hall, and she was fairly certain that salted fish would be made into a stew. She wasn't hungry, but she had accepted the food people had brought her as her son needed to eat, and she was ready to sit down and force the stew down her throat if she had to. She hoped not, because Beth was a good cook, and it'd likely be delicious, and she didn't want to hurt Beth's feelings. Though it would be understandable, given the circumstances.

A sharp inhaled indicated that Nina was awake, Carol stood up to be standing over her—a position of power, and she tried to not seethe as she spoke.

"You're awake."

Nina swallowed and cleared her throat, seeing when she opened her eyes and spotted the bedside clock, it was well into the evening, and she smiled. "Hey."

Carol pressed her lips together and demanded, with fire on her tongue, "Why?"

Nina closed her eyes for a moment then met Carol's. "I was alone, and I don't handle alone very well."

"Bullshit."

"No, just shit." She pulled herself up using the bedframe and the nightstand, as Carol offered no support. She winced as she pulled on the wound to be sitting, and she set a hand over her side, feeling the stitches through the bandages, and she tried not to cry at the pain. "I… I mentioned I was in a group before this one?"

She nodded. "You said they were killed."

"They were—by the Shah. They had tracked down a young one from our group…a Blessed One…and my group refused to give him up. He was only three years old at the time." The tears couldn't be helped as she recalled the events. "And I was so scared, Carol. I'd just found them and was just adjusting to life there…and the Shah came and took that away in the blink of an eye. They had such skills and number. I thought I was going to die."

"So you sold him out? An infant?"

"I had no choice. They would have killed me if I didn't offer them an exchange!" She snuffled and tried to reason with Carol, but the walls were up and nothing was getting through. "I—I—I had no choice. He—he wouldn't have survived, if it was just the two of us. He—There was no way."

"You instead handed in over to a sure death? You didn't try and save him? Only yourself? You waste of space!" Carol roared. "He was only an infant! A piece of the future and of his parents, and you sold all that out for your own skin!"

"I was alone! There was nobody to protect me! I didn't—I hadn't learned. I was weak. Okay? I was weak." She was bawling. "I didn't know what they'd do. I didn't know. I swear. I swear."

"But you do now? You know what they intend for Charlotte? For my son?"

She lowered her eyes. "I couldn't be there."

"You left a defenseless baby all alone? To be…what? Devoured by walkers? Sacrificed for some insane reason?"

"I couldn't be there!"

"And you thought you deserved a chance at love? At happiness? When you turned against every person who trusted you enough to bring you into two groups and still served the devil?" Her lips curled in disgust. "You sicken me, but most of all…beyond all of that…you…terrify me."

She shook her head. "Please—"

"No! We're finished here." She walked over to the door and knocked for Michonne to come inside and take Nina to the cells.

"Wait, please—"

"I let you in, let you babysit my children, give you a second chance, and this is how you repay me? Selling information about my babies to those bastards?!"

"Carol, please—please—let me explain!"

"No, you're done here." Michonne stood in the doorway now and held a wheelchair. "You'll wait in the cells while we decide what to do with you."

"Please, wait—"

Carol walked out of the room at her pleas, Daryl was waiting for her, and they headed out together for some air before attending Beth's dinner. Carol was trembling, and Daryl pulled her closer to him. He assured her they would question Nina again and again until she told them the truth about the Shah and their intentions for Charlotte and their unborn son.