Shane is in the middle of teasing Princess while she and Carl try to finish the supper dishes. The kitchen is more of a mess than usual, thanks to the two teaming up to cook a special meal for Shane's birthday, although he's grateful that the cake arrived after supper courtesy of Carol and the girls. Hershel brought homemade ice cream, and the two families enjoyed the treat, bringing all of Shane's musketeers home for the night.

The game of Monopoly that followed had been cutthroat as usual, with Shane finally just piling his paltry remaining properties and cash into a crowing Sophia's stash. It's why they're still doing cleanup this close to bedtime, and it makes the distinct sound of footsteps stomping up to the front door startling. It's followed by heavy knocking, loud enough that Shane grumbles about it sounding like the police serving a warrant. Carl and Princess both laugh at the irony, but they're as concerned as he is when they follow him to the door.

It's one of the young Marines from the watch rotation, and he looks far too happy to be bringing bad news as he points at Shane and Carl. "Commander wants you two to all report to intake right away."

There's only one reason to summon Shane and Carl to intake this late.

One of the search and scavenging groups has found Lori Grimes.

"MOM!"

Shane catches Carl around the shoulders, although belatedly, he thinks that letting the boy run all the way to the hospital building that serves as community intake might help with his anxiety. If it wasn't for how dark it is with the new moon not far off, he would allow it. As it is, it's just inviting a dangerous tumble in the dark.

"Let the guy give us a ride, Carl," he cautions when Carl struggles and protests. "Princess? Can you alert the others?"

"Of course." He gets a kiss brushed across his cheek as she bounds down the steps, outrunning Carl as he's released to go to the golf cart.

The ride seems twice as long as it actually is, with Carl practically vibrating out of his seat next to the driver. Shane enjoys the teen's excitement, but for himself, he's wary. Time away has given him plenty of time to detach from what happened with him and Lori, and he's certain it did the same for her. The question is what will Lori's return mean for her and Rick?

Carl's off like a shot as soon as the golf cart is halfway stopped, but Shane waits until the driver has it fully parked. The kid deserves an uninterrupted reunion with his mother. Thanking the young Marine, he starts toward the building before turning in curiosity as he realizes there are way too many vehicles to account for just a search team returning.

"How many did they bring in?" he asks, astonished.

"Seventy-two. It's gonna be a long evening getting everyone settled. They were all living in an RV camp, though, so Commander will probably just park everyone to finish the logistics tomorrow."

Considering it's well after dark, Shane can see the sense in that. "Damn. Doesn't that boost our numbers by a third?"

"Almost exactly." It's not the Marine that answers, but Merle, who is grinning so hard his face looks like it might break. "Had to go all the way to Alabama, but I found them both, plus a few other familiar faces."

Remembering the Morales family and their intent to head to Birmingham, Shane feels relieved. "Where's Rick? Inside with Lori?"

While normally the infirmary staff prefers not to have a lot of relatives underfoot, Shane didn't even try to stop Carl, and even if Rick's been with Lori for however many hours it took to drive here, Shane figures Rick would linger to help Lori settle into a new place. He has no idea how their living arrangements are going to play out, as he's not sure Rick or Lori would want to live in the same house with him as a group.

The sense of loss that crept in when the girls left his home after their families returned makes its reappearance, and Shane feels grateful to hear noise coming down the road along with flashes of light from carried lanterns. Everyone from the quarry and farm, plus Princess, is approaching in excitement, peppering Merle with questions that he answers, but Shane notices something different.

Where he was grinning broadly at first, obviously overjoyed at his brother's return, now Merle is more somber, glancing Shane's way as he fills the others in. That makes Shane realize Merle never answered his question at all. Staring at the older man until Merle reaches a pausing point, he repeats the question.

"Merle? Is Rick inside?"

Everyone quiets, sensing something off maybe the same way Shane does.

Merle sighs. "Yeah, he is, but I'd maybe wait before you go looking for him."

Nothing about that answer makes sense, and it certainly doesn't soothe Shane's unease. Rick knows about what happened with Lori. They've discussed it and come to terms with it, and Shane can't see how Lori's return would change anything between him and Rick.

Princess slides her arm around Shane's waist, fingers grasping at his shirt as she picks up on his unsettled mood. "What the hell does that mean?" she asks, frowning at Merle.

"It means that things may be about to get complicated as hell around here." Glancing toward the infirmary, Merle shrugs. "Maybe it's fastest to rip off the bandaid. No fighting in the infirmary, or I'll make sure you and Grimes both do sewer duty for the next month."

It's not often Shane sees Merle pull rank, and he's certain Merle will follow through. Merle's smile is completely gone, placed by that eerie quiet anticipation he gets sometimes that Shane wishes Merle had been capable of back at the quarry. This Merle would have been invaluable in keeping all those folks safe.

Shane starts up the steps before Merle speaks again. "You go with him, Princess. This is a family issue you ought to be part of."

She looks shocked at the words but moves quickly to take Shane's hand when he offers it. Whatever he expected to see when he gets inside and gets directed to the small patient room that houses Lori and the male Grimeses, it was not this.

Rick is staring out a window as if the secrets of the universe lurk in the darkness outside. His shoulders are slumped, and he actually has his forehead leaned against the glass. If Shane didn't have the evidence in front of him that Lori is alive, he'd say his best friend is grieving.

Carl is curled in the hospital bed, clinging to his mother like he's three instead of thirteen, and they're both crying softly. Lori keeps repeating 'oh my baby' as she runs her fingers through Carl's wild mop of hair.

The biggest surprise is that Daryl's here, too, and in his arms is a baby that has to be a newborn based on her size. He's rocking the baby carefully, wary glance moving from Rick to alert on Shane and stay. Daryl snags the corner of the blanket and tucks it closer around the baby. He steps closer to the bed, nudging Lori on the shoulder with his free hand.

"You got more visitors. Maybe it's time Carl met his sister."

Lori looks up, sees Shane, and cries harder, but she can't seem to let go of Carl at all. It takes Carl's wiggling and shocked, "Sister?" to get her to relax her arms.

As soon as Carl's sitting up enough, Daryl's offering the baby, whether to Lori or Carl, Shane can't tell. Lori takes the baby, settling her against her chest and unwrapping the blanket, which makes the baby squawk in protest and flail her tiny arms.

Carl looks stunned, but as he reaches out to tentatively touch the baby's fingers, he starts to grin. "What's her name?"

"Judith Charlotte. Do you want to hold her?"

"Can I? She's so tiny. I can't hurt her, can I?" Absolute wonder takes over Carl's expression as his sister is settled into his arms. "She doesn't weigh anything at all."

Rick half-turns, watching Carl meet Judith, and the only happiness in his gaze seems reluctant somehow. Shane doesn't have to do the math for a baby born in January, not with when his birthday is, and it puzzles him further. He's that stereotypical teenage mother's story, a baby conceived on prom night the first week of May, born a week overdue to boot.

Lori and Rick wanted another child, he knows, but Shane had no clue Lori had been pregnant. Jesus, how much did she miss out with no medical care at the quarry and then the farm? His growing alarm must show because Princess flexes her fingers gently in his. It draws his attention to her instead of the tableau of Carl and Judith.

She isn't smiling, though. Her expression mirrors Rick's to an extent, as if there's some sort of pending loss that Shane's just not understanding yet.

"She's a preemie, Shane. Look at her."

Rick hears it, obviously, because he shoves his hands in his pockets and nods when Shane looks his way. His voice is pitched almost too softly to hear. "Go meet your daughter."

On arriving at the little military-run community, Lori is happy that her intake exam is short and brief, with the doctor seeming happy enough to take Dr. Stevens' word for most of it. She gets the basics taken, receives a tetanus shot since Lori thinks her last one was in grade school, and watches anxiously as Dr. Barrett confirms Judith's health as well. Neither doctor wants her outside the infirmary for the night after the difficult birth and journey, so she's settled into one of the rooms converted to private hospital care.

The difference between the infirmary here and Dr. Stevens' tiny facility back at the RV camp is astonishing, but it underlines what Rick and Merle told them on the trip here. The commander took the reins early enough to seize and collect as much as possible to make her safe haven viable for the survivors she's been collecting. They call it the infirmary, but this place is nearly a small-scale hospital in Lori's eyes.

It's not just the equipment and the building and the staff, but just the fact that they somehow managed to salvage something like vaccines, which couldn't survive the widespread loss of electricity and refrigeration. One of her bigger fears had been the recurrence of childhood illnesses somehow, although she knows logically that many would be effectively eradicated with the massive population loss. But tetanus? That one will never go away. It's in the damn soil.

Daryl comes in, glaring at the bandaid on his arm as if it personally offends him. It makes Lori giggle tiredly. "At least it isn't a kid's bandage," she offers.

"Yeah, well, that's only because the doc laughed at Merle suggesting it, the asshole. Need to save the damn Dora the Explorer for the actual kids."

"You know he's going to keep calling you that forever, right?"

"Ain't the worst nickname Merle's given me." He sighs and sits down on the far side of the bed, away from the doorway. "They sent for Carl. Said it shouldn't be more than five minutes til he's here."

She'd been trying desperately not to think of that, concentrating on the oddity of the new community and Judith's sleeping weight in her arms, but now that there's a time put to it, she feels like she might vibrate out of her skin. Part of her wants to get out of bed, to meet Carl at the front door of the place. The other part of her is so grateful for the perineal cold pack pad that she was given here that she doesn't want to move from the spot just yet.

Her nerves translate to waking Judith, who isn't hungry yet, so Daryl takes her, crooning in a nearly subvocal fashion that calms the baby easily.

"How do I tell Carl?" Lori asks softly.

The long trip had given her time to talk to Rick, with Merle driving the little RV that had been Lori and Daryl's home for months. Judith slept the majority of the trip, tucked safely into a rear-facing infant seat in the seat belt in the dinette. He'd struggled to look at the baby while admitting he'd figured out the situation with Shane and never brought it up before the herd.

Even though she had months to settle it in her mind, and she suspected Rick did as well, but the visible difference is that she put her rings on her necklace, and he was still wearing his until he'd stuttered to a stop after saying they never should have tried again. He took the ring off and asked her to add it to the chain.

As she laid the chain and all the long-gone promises those rings carried into a keepsake box he handed her at her request, he'd abruptly asked Daryl to switch seats with him. Watching Rick mourn made her heart ache, even knowing they'd both agreed it was over long ago. What happened with Shane isn't the catalyst for what they did, and neither is Judith's existence.

Daryl sighs softly. "Pretty sure your boy's smart enough to cope with just the facts as they are."

She doesn't get time to sort out what those should be, because Carl's yelling for her from somewhere in the building. Then her baby boy is in her arms, not even hesitating about the hospital bed, and they're crying and none of the adult issues matter because she has her boy back.

Introducing him to Judith is the best thing she's seen aside from Judy herself breathing against her chest this morning. Carl's amazed and Judy is content, and although Shane has arrived, he's not alone, and the pretty woman with the oddly colorful clothing and dyed-purple hair watches Lori, Carl, and Judith with the same sort of painful grief that Rick does. Before Lori can even begin to know what to say to Shane, it's the woman who springs the surprise, with Rick adding to it.

Shane looks stunned, taking several steps forward as if by autopilot. He's reluctant to let his companion go, so she's tugged a few steps forward before she tugs her hand free and skitters back near Rick.

"Isn't she pretty, Shane? Has hair like you already," Carl says, and there's no guile in his voice. It's a simple declaration that he understands exactly what's going on.

Lori wonders how long he's known, and what tipped him off. He's thirteen now, a birthday she missed when she thought he was gone from the world forever, and as much as her mother's heart calls him a child, she can't help but know he's over half-grown and getting wiser by the day. That's something to ask him later, she thinks.

"Yeah, Carl. She's the prettiest sight I've ever seen." Shane's voice is so thick with emotion Lori isn't surprised at all to see tears when she finally meets his eyes. "Think maybe I could hold her?"

"You won't drop her will you?" It's hard to tell if Carl is serious or teasing because his expression is deadpan, but when Shane reaches his side of the bed, he offers up the baby easily.

"Jesus Christ, she doesn't weigh a thing," Shane says. "When was she born? She's okay? Healthy?"

For a moment, Lori expects him to unwrap the blanket to count Judith's toes, but instead, he just leans in to kiss the baby on the forehead with a delicate gentleness that would surprise Lori if she hadn't seen him treat Carl the same way as a newborn.

"This morning, about half an hour before noon."

Carl grins. "You have the same birthday!"

"I guess we do." Shane is shaking enough that Daryl springs into movement, dragging the visitor's chair to where Shane is and all but pushing the man to sit. It's a sign of the shock Shane is in that he doesn't react to being manhandled at all. He just can't take his eyes off the baby.

"She's really healthy despite being a month early," Lori begins, figuring Carl wants those answers, too. "Breathing and eating well, and those were the things the doctor was worried about before she was born. We had to stay near a doctor."

Lori isn't sure who she's directing that to, but Carl nods easily, taking advantage of Judy being with Shane to slip his arms back around Lori and lay his head on her shoulder. She enjoys the cuddled closeness, figuring a teenager isn't going to give in to this sort of affection often and she'd best soak it up. Then again, maybe it'll last a while, since he's obviously missed her.

"You named her for me," he mumbles quietly. "That's so cool."

There will be time later to explain the mourning behind that part of Judith's name. For now, Lori just enjoys the closeness of her son and the fact that despite the obvious upset Rick is feeling, he hasn't left the room. In time, he'll sort out his place in Judy's life, she knows, because she can't imagine any world where Rick wouldn't love Judith because she's Carl's sister even more importantly than Shane and Lori's daughter.

Rick is that kind of man, where Carl loves Judy, therefore he will end up loving Judy, too.

They just need time.


A/N: Honestly, I just can't see Carl not knowing somehow, especially in an AU where Sophia is alive and well.

Next chapter will be a bit of an adjustment period post-reunion, and reassurances for poor Princess. Rick's POV will show up as well finally.