Here's another chapter for this week.
Lily is my OC and the rest belongs to the producers of the walking dead.
Lily woke from the nap with a start when the mattress shifted quickly. Looking around she saw that Daryl was gone and Lori was standing above her.
"I'm so sorry," Lori stated leaning against the railing. She'd been trying to sneak past to go down the stairs and accidentally kicked the mattress. "I was just— just following Carol…"
"Oh, that's fine. Mattress is in a bad spot and it's time to get up anyway." She crawled off the mattress and slipped her shoes on standing. "How are you feeling?" As Lori took time to think of her answer, Lily dragged the mattress back into the cell where she'd dropped her things and pushed it back up onto the frame. As she left she grabbed her favorite button up shirt and put it on.
"Oh, um. Good," Lori lied rubbing her stomach. "I think I felt a kick early this morning."
"What's wrong? Please, don't lie about the baby because if you do Rick will come after Hershel and me. Mostly me." Lily asked calmly crossing her arms leaning against the opposite railing.
Lori looked down at the floor and rubbed her stomach. "I think I've lost the baby."
"You just said it moved. Lying about that too?" She nodded confirming Lily's suspicions. "Uh, come sit down. I'm gonna go get Hershel."
"Carol too." Just like Lily had learned to shoot during the course of the winter, Carol and Carl, when Lori would allow it, had begun to learn what they needed in order to be able to take care of people. She was becoming the doctor understudy just in case something happened to either Hershel or Lily.
Lily hopped down the stairs and found Carol sweeping the floor. "Hey, Carol." The grey haired woman turned to meet her eyes and somehow instantly knew what was wrong.
"I'll get Hershel," she said propping the broom against the wall and heading to where the men were gathered looking at the weapons they had gathered in the prison.
"Hershel," Carol called asking for his time.
"Everything alright?" Rick asked.
"Yeah. Nothing to worry about."
When Hershel and Carol made their way back into the cell block Lily was standing on the perch waving for them to come up.
"You haven't felt it move?" Hershel asked sitting next to Lori on the bed.
"Nothing," the nervous mother replied. Truth be told, thinking that the baby had died was a truly disturbing thought for all of them. "And no Broxton-Hicks. At first I thought it was exhaustion or malnutrition."
"You're anemic?"
Lori nodded. "If we're all infected, then so's the baby. So what it's stillborn? What if it's dead inside me right now? What if it rips me apart?"
"Stop. Don't let your fear take control of you."
"Ok." Lori sniffed wiping her nose on her sleeve. There was no shame in crying, these were perfectly reasonable things be be concerned about.
"Then let's say it lives and I die during child birth…"
"That's not going to happen," Hershel demanded.
"Why not? How many women died during child birth before modern meds. If I come back, what if I attack it. Or you? Or Rick? Or Carl? If I do, if there is any chance, you put me down immediately. You don't hesitate. Me, the baby, if we're walkers, you don't hesitate and you don't try to save us. Ok?"
The doctors nodded to her wishes.
"It might have been better if—"
"If what?" Hershel asked.
"I'd never made it off the farm."
"You're exhausted, frightened."
"That's true. My son can't stand me. And my husband after what I put him through…"
"W've all been carrying that weight. All winter."
"We've all done things we're not proud of, Lori," Lily said not trying to sugar coat the situation. "You can't survive in this world without doing some terrible things, but things are getting better now."
"I tried to talk to him…"
"He'll come around," Hershel tried to reassure the distraught mother.
"He hates me. He's too good a man to say it, but I know. I put him and Shane at odds. I put that knife in his hands."
"He's more concerned for you and that baby than you can understand," Lily told her.
Hershel looked down at his hands because looking Lori in the eyes wasn't happening. "You know who doesn't give a shit about that? This baby." Lori gave a weak chuckle.
"Now let's make sure everything's alright. I'm sure this will be a normal birth just like every other one."
"Hershel's right," Lily said. "This one should be a breeze."
"How do you know?" Lori asked.
"Because the only time I had to give birth was to a woman who had been in a car crash and impaled with debris from the truck that hit him. And I don't know about you, but I don't see any trucks anywhere."
She and Hershel gave a chuckle before ending the conversation. As the two women were walking back to Lori's cell so she could lie down, they say that the men were getting ready to leave.
"Exploring the rest of the prison?" Lily asked leaning over the railing watching as all men but Daryl put on some kind of armor.
"Yeah," Rick answered looking up at Lori for only a moment before turning to Lily. "We need to find the infirmary and cafeteria."
"Well, I wish you the best of luck." The crossbow wielding hick met her eyes and she cast him a small smile.
"Could you get the rest of the arrows from my pack?" he asked her. Nodding, she walked to her cell right in line with the perch and grabbed his arrow pouch. She leaned over the railing to toss it back down to him and he tossed it over his shoulder.
"Thanks."
After all the men with the exception of Carl left to explore the prison and Maggie joined them. The woman and Carl were left behind to wait until they returned. All of the men leaving and woman waiting reminded Lily of school when hearing about the world wars and how all the men left leaving the women home wondering if their boyfriends or husbands were going to come home or not. That also left Lily to think, what was she to Daryl? What was he to her? What were they doing?