Sadie's POV

The impending day, and the weeks, and eventual days leading up to the day only heightened my fears and my nightmares, leading to more restless nights than not.

Most nights, like this one in particular, I just laid there in our temporary bed beside Gareth.

Laid there, thinking, mulling, obsessing, what have you, and just watching him.

Fuck what this was doing to me, much as that aspect alone terrified me….it fucking killed me to imagine what it was gonna do to him, if anything happened to me or this baby.

It would destroy him.

Sitting upright, staring down to where my hands were resting over my stomach, I sighed.

"I'm sorry, Kiddo." I whispered. "I really wish we could welcome you under better circumstances."

Fighting back tears in my eyes, trying desperately to stop worrying about it so damn much, I decided that I could do with some fresh, cool air.

I carefully lifted the blanket off me, swung my legs off the side of the bed, and attempted to pull my fat ass up without waking Gareth…...failing, of course.

"Everything okay?" he slurred sleepily, shifting slightly in his place.

"Yeah, fine." I whispered. "Just gonna get some fresh air, go back to sleep."

He muttered something incoherently, as he turned over and passed right back out.

I chuckled softly. God, he's fucking cute when he's sleepy.

After a few failed attempts, I finally managed to pull myself up using the old, worn out dresser which stood on my side, grabbed my knife and one of my guns, and headed off toward the back door.

Teresa was sitting out on the back porch steps, smoking a cigarette, when I opened the door to go out.

I waved her off when I saw her start to put it out as soon as she heard my footsteps and turned to see me. "You're Fine, T, a little secondhand smoke's the least of my concerns these days, don't you think?"

She just chuckled, but didn't pick up another one. "Yeah, I suppose it wouldn't be…...stopped you from doing it, yourself, though."

"Well, I'm not gonna go out of my way to do it" I laughed. "But that doesn't mean I wanna concern myself with your smoke….In fact, it kind of soothes me."

"Well, I'm glad I could be of service to you." We both laughed at that.

I winced, slightly, as a small bolt of pain caught me off guard.

Startled, Teresa's eyebrows raised. "You okay?"

"Yeah." I exhaled. "I'm fine, just braxton hicks."

"Ohhh...okay" She seemed to relax a little again.

We sat in silence there, for a few moments, before she spoke again.

"Final stretch, huh?" She finally said."...another few days or so?"

"Yeah…." I nodded. "...give or take a few, you know."

She nodded. "...Scary shit, huh?"

"..Yeah…" I chuckled nervously, at the thought of it. "...yeah, scarier than any biter out there."

"I'm sure….." She decided to pull out another cigarette, afterall. "...You know I'm here for you, right?"

I took a brief whiff of the smoke from her cigarette. "I do…...and I appreciate it."

She nodded.

"...I mean it.." I continued. "I don't tell you enough, but I really do appreciate having you here….you're the only one of these assholes I can really tolerate...apart from Gareth, obviously."

"...Well, I think you more than tolerate him...to say the least." She chuckled.

"Muuuuch more than tolerate…..and I guess I more than tolerate you too.."

"Well, thank you." She chuckled again. "...How long did you say you two've been together?"

"Since we weerrre 17…..we met near the beginning of our last year of high school."

"That's a long time…" She marveled.

"...Well hopefully it ends up being a lot longer…" I added, looking back down. "...though, given the current sitch, I probably shouldn't get my hopes up."

"...You know, you still might be okay…" She said, in an effort to reassure me. "You wouldn't be the first person to survive childbirth without modern medicine."

"Thaaaat's comforting."I laughed.

"You know what I mean, Sade."

"I suppose I do.." I agreed. "...and thank you for that."

"You're welcome." She chuckled.