Alright. I'm so, so sorry/ I dropped off the face of the Earth for awhile. I'm been SUPER busy with nursing school, and I need all your prayers and wishes for good grades! :)
I was studying a ton, meaning i had to play catch up for some episodes, so that my fic could do the plot justice, and so... yeah. Here it is. I'm sorry it's short- I promised myself I would update for you guys this weekend, and by update, I mean go crazy on my keyboard in the middle of the night. I'm exhausted, but here it is. Please review! :)
Daryl was gone. She found her room emptier- while she'd taken to sleeping in her own bed a few weeks after settling into Alexandria, the place was still hollow- empty, really- without her father.
She found herself forgetting he was gone- thinking of questions or to ask permission to go outside the walls for a wall with Carl- only to turn and open her mouth or start towards the stairs and remember that he wasn't there- and that he wouldn't be, not for awhile. Not until he hunted Dwight down. Glenn and Michonne were with him, had his back, but still- the place was empty.
She found herself sitting idly on the porch, legs dangling, absently flicking open a lighter.
Carl smiled at her, pulling one knee close to his chest and letting the other dangle.
"Want to go for a walk?" he asked hopefully, inclining his chin towards the wall.
She shook her head. "I can't."
"Your Dad?"
"He made me promise I wouldn't go outside the walls. And he hasn't come back yet..."
Carl nodded, pulling a pack of Marlboro Reds from his pocket and sliding it into the corner of his mouth, giving her a stupid grin. "Got a light?"
Jamie scoffed, peering down the road carefully. "And if your Dad sees?". They'd never smoked out in the open before. Only in the abandoned house and on the roof late ate night.
Carl smirked, sliding a cigarette into the corner of her mouth. "Then I'll just tell him you got me hooked." he spoke around his cigarette, giving her a toothy grin, and and rolled her eyes, giving in and flicking open the lighter, the tips of their cigarettes glowing red and taking off some of the edge, the stress of being short-handed and worried about their uncertain fate burning away with the butts of the cigarettes.
She sat on Carl's sloppily made bed, thumbing through a comic book she'd read a thousand times before and trying to take her mind off the fact her father had been gone for three days.
Downstairs, she heard the muffled voices- Maggie and what sounded like Enid.
The other teen had been hanging around the house a lot more lately. Not that Jamie minded- it was almost nice to have another girl around.
A moment later, glass shattered, and Maggie was screaming...
She ran down the stairs two at a time, swinging around the door frame and bounding into the kitchen to find Maggie on the floor, clutching her stomach and screaming...
"What happened!?"
Maggie was making noises nobody should ever be making- she'd only heard sounds like that once before- when Lori had been in labor two years ago... Her eyes widened at the realization.
Enid looked up at her, brown eyes wide and panicked. "I don't know! She just started screaming..."
"Get Rick. Now!"
Enid nodded curtly, turning and running out of the house, the screen door banging shut behind her.
Ignoring the broken glass and pickle brine on the floor, she knelt in front of Maggie, taking the woman's hand.
"Maggie. Maggie! Look at me!"
Maggie had stopped wailing for a moment to catch her breath, but her expression showed she was in agony. She squeezed Jamie's hand so hard that for an awful moment, Jamie thought some bones might snap, but she quickly tossed the notion aside. That didn't matter now.
"We've gotta get you to the bedroom, okay?"
Maggie was breathing raggedly, eyes wide with fear, but she nodded and struggled to her feet, one arm slung over Jamie's shoulders and the other leaning heavily on the kitchen table.
The screen door swung open to reveal Carl, his hair a mess. "Enid told me you need help..."
He stopped dead when eh saw Maggie, hunched over like she was with glassy eyes, and Jamie pulling her up.
"Help me get her to the bedroom." Jamie spoke hurriedly, and Carl nodded, quickly moving to sling Maggie's other arm over his shoulder.
Even with the added help, it was a painfully slow process, but they finally got Maggie to a bedroom downstairs, though Maggie whimpered and gasped involuntarily from pain.
Carl's eyes were wide, and he looked frazzled as Maggie cried out again.
"Get Rosita or Sasha." Jamie ordered, and Carl nodded, bounding out of the room.
Maggie was still breathing raggedly, sweat beading on her brow.
"Maggie? I'm gonna take your pants off, alright?"
Maggie nodded, screwing her eyes shut in pain, lips parting in another muffled yelp of agony as more pain hit her.
Jamie tried to be as quick as she could, fumbling to undo the button and zipper and tugging Maggie's jeans down past her knees, doing the same for the woman's panties...
She had no idea what she was doing or looking for. But she'd expected blood- a lot of blood, if this was anything like Lori's situation. Except Maggie was still far too early, she might've lost the baby entirely...
She stared, surprised to find both Maggie's clothes and skin free of blood.
She blinked for a moment, unsure what to do...
"There's no bleeding. Maggie?"
"T-thank god..." Maggie panted, eyes falling closed in relief. A moment later she was letting out another shrill cry, clutching her stomach...
Something was still wrong.
Maggie had gabbed one of her hands in a death grip, now, and Jamie stared, unsure what to do.
"Maggie? Maybe it's just false labor..." she suggested hopefully.
"It shouldn't... hurt... like this!" Maggie cried, voice rising an octave in pain and tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.
"I know..." Jamie moved to wipe the sweat from her brow, finding her skin hot to the touch.
"Shit..."
The screen door banged shut, and Jamie grabbed a blanket from where it was folded over a chair, tossing it over Maggie just as Rick burst into the room, looking frazzled...
He looked at Maggie's prone form for a moment, obviously out of his depth and knowledge, before he turned to Jamie. "What happened?"
"She needs a doctor." Jamie managed to get out, before Maggie shrieked,, writing. Jamie's hand had long nice gone numb inf her grip, but she didn't dare take it away from the older woman- not when she was in so much pain.
Rick's eyes darted to the blanket covering Maggie's waist. "Did you..."
"She's not bleeding, but she's got a fever and she shouldn't be hurting like this." Jamie said, and Rick nodded, running a hand through his hair nervously. "Right..."
A moment later Rosita was bursting into the room, chocolate eyes concerned.
She turned to look at Jamie, who was just as lost, and Rick stood beside Maggie for a moment, touching her arm in reassurance.
"We'll get you to a doctor." he promised. Rosita was beginning to pull back the blanket and speaking calmly to Maggie, and Rick quickly left the room to find Abraham and the others standing anxiously in the kitchen.
"Shh, Maggie, shh." Rosita soothed, as Maggie's deathgrip on Jamie's hand tightened even further. "Just hang in there- we'll be leaving soon."
17 bullets, a steel water bottle, a half of a frayed tarp, two cans of food, and two spare pairs of clothes were what she stuffed in her bag.
She'd gotten a free moment when Sasha took over comforting Maggie, and now she was hurriedly packing...
Carl paused in her doorway, surprised.
"You're coming?"
She nodded, tossing a few extra pairs of socks into her bag.
Carl paused, frowning. "But your Dad..."
She looked up at him seriously. "This is different. He didn't want me to go outside the walls alone- I'm with the group this time. It's different. And it's for Maggie."
Carl nodded, taking the information in.
"We're leaving soon." he said finally. He wasn't sure whether to be pleased she was tagging along, able to have his back, or worried that Daryl might be angry at her for leaving the confines of the walls. Still, his father would keep her safe... Daryl and Rick seemed to have some sort of pact to look out for each other, and by extension, their kids...
Jamie zipped up her backpack, throwing it over her shoulder, before tucking her pistol into her holster. She was ready.
She nodded to Carl, walking past him and bounding down the stairs towards the RV. It wasn't that long a ride to the Hilltop anyway. They'd be there before they knew it- and before Maggie got any worse. At least, that's what she told herself.
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