A/N: Here's another update for y'all! Yay me! It's short but not so sweet.

Please review!

Finger On The Trigger
Part II
Chapter 7

Beth-

We knew there was no way we could plan an escape from this place since Dawn had her guys watchin' us. The only time we could really talk about it was after lights out when we were in our room.

Merle had found one of those emergency exit floor plans somewhere and almost every day we tried to map out the safest and best way out of the hospital. It wasn't goin' to be easy but we both knew we had to try.

I laid back on the hospital bed and closed my eyes and listened to Annie and Shawn breathin'. That was the only peaceful thing in this place.

The door creaked open sometime later but I didn't jump up because I knew it was Merle and not Dawn by the way he tried not to make any noise.

"You awake?" he whispered.

"Yeah," I said and opened my eyes.

"Good, 'cause we're getting' out a 'ere tonight." He came over and sat on the foot of the bed and pulled out the floor plans we were usin'.

"I heard that bitch an' some a 'er guys sayin' there was trouble not far from 'ere an' they was gon' go check it out but they was gon' wait 'til tonight so they wouldn't be spotted if it turned out ta be a threat. That's when we're leavin'. We're gon' take these hallways 'ere," he pointed to them on the paper. "Then we're gon' go through this exit. It's stairs, so I'ma carry those kids but soon as we get down 'ere, I'ma give 'em to ya so you can keep 'em quiet while I make sure it's clear. When we get down there, I'll tell ya tha rest. A'ight?"

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," I said with a smile. "But first I need to get to their nursery and get as much of their formula and baby food as I can."

Merle grinned then. "I already got that covered. I been sneakin' shit out a there since they started lettin' me be 'round them kids." He sat the paper he was still holdin' down and reached behind his back and handed me a brown paper sack.

"What is this?" I asked, not really wantin' to open it.

"It's some food. I want ya ta eat all or as much of it as ya can 'fore we leave. Gotta keep ya from passin' out on me since ya ain't been eatin' much."

I sat it down and glared at him. "You know they keep inventory of what foods they have and how much they have. If they find out you took this there will be no way out then."

"Look, I know ya ain't been eatin' 'cause ya'd rather them kids eat but ya got another one comin' an' it ain't good fer either one of ya. 'Sides, even if ya wasn't 'bout ta have that kid, ya'd still need ta eat ta take care a tha other two."

He picked the bag up and held it out to me until I finally took it from him and opened it up. There were a couple of breakfast bars, a small bag of jerky and a sliced up cucumber.

I ate a few slices of the cucumber and a small piece of jerky just so he would quit starin' at me.

Maggie-

I watched Rick lean back against the couch and rub his hands over his face. When we first got here, he was miserable but then he started changing and it was a change we all noticed.

He was still Rick and we all loved him. He was family.

Even Carl noticed what was goin' on and he seemed to hate it. He took to stayin' with Michonne just to get away from his dad and more times than not he had Judith with him.

He rubbed his face again then looked over at me.

"Don't give me that look, Maggie," he muttered.

"What look? The one that says you're the biggest jackass I know or the one that say I hate you?"

He glared at me and asked, "There's a difference?"

"No," I shrugged. "There's no difference at all. You're the scum of the earth in my eyes."

"She's the one who left!" he shouted and stood up so I did the same.

"She may have left but she's not the one sleepin' with someone else! You went after Jessie the moment you saw her with no concern whatsoever about my sister! Your wife!"

"She's not my wife and she never was. We weren't really married."

I scoffed and slapped him. "How dare you say that?! You were there for her when no one else was. You helped her get past what Shane did to her. But I get it, Rick. We all should have seen this comin' and maybe we did but we all thought you loved her when really you saw her as someone who you could use because you thought she was damaged. You used her to get back at Lori and Shane even though they weren't there." I shook my head. "Sometimes I wonder if you knew Shane had made it off the farm and that he would come after Beth. Was it all a game to you?"

He clenched his jaw and backed away.

Beth-

I made sure everythin' we would need for the babies were secure in the two bags we had stashed away and we both had whatever we could get our hands on to use as weapons. Shawn and Annie were both asleep and strapped to Merle.

Merle led the way down the closest hallway we knew wouldn't have too many people and through the emergency exit doors.

"Go down an' make sure tha next level is clear," he whispered.

I took out the floor plans we had and as quietly as I could I made my way down to the next level of stairs and eased the door open.

There wasn't anyone as far as I could see so I gave two small taps on the wall and waited for Merle to come down.

We made our way down several more flights of stairs without anythin' goin' wrong but we kept our guards up just in case we missed somethin'.

We were goin' about to go down another set of stairs when Annie woke up and started cryin'.

"Shit," Merle muttered quietly.

I immediately turned around and unstrapped her from him.

"Shh, baby girl," I whispered.

"She cain't be hungry so what's tha matter with 'er?" Merle asked.

I checked her diaper and that wasn't the problem.

"I don't want Shawn to wake up, too. Can you go ahead with him and I'll be down when I get her quiet?"

"I ain't leavin' ya 'ere. Go on an' try ta get 'er quiet an' we all go down at tha same time."

I bounced her and rocked her in my arms for a while before her cryin' turned into little whimpers.

"Looks like I'm goin' to have to carry her," I whispered.

He nodded and motioned for me to take the carry she was in off of him.

After that we made it to the fifth floor.

We stopped and sat down on the stairs to look over the floor plans again.

"From 'ere we gotta get down ta tha third floor without 'em findin' us an' then we should be able ta make it tha rest of tha way without havin' ta worry 'bout 'em too much."

I took a closer look at it and pointed to the next floor.

"I know we agreed on what to do but what about this exit here? It goes all the way down to the basement."

"Naw. We don't want ta be goin' do that far. We jus' gotta make past tha ones in tha cafeteria an' that should be all we gotta worry 'bout. 'Sides, if we go down that far we may not can get out. We don't know what's what down there so jus' stick ta tha plan an' if we see it won't work then we'll try another way."

I nodded and folded up the paper and stuck it in my back pocket.

Merle-

On tha next floor is when we ran inta trouble.

She was checkin' out tha floor like we'd planned when we heard a door open. She did good though. She got tha door shut an' we took off down tha stairs quicker than we'd wanted but by tha time we'd made it down ta tha third floor, there was already two a them assholes waitin' on us.

They drew their guns an' followed us inta tha hallway where that bitch was waitin'.

"I knew something was up," she said when she saw us. "What made you two think you could leave?"

"We wanted out and this was the only way we could leave," Beth answered 'er.

"So, what? You were going to leave with your debt unpaid and end up having that kid in the woods somewhere only to have us bring you back?"

"We wasn't plannin' on comin' back," I said.

"Maybe not but that's what would have happened. Either that or you would die out there."

"We'd rather take our chances."

Tha bitch smiled. "Okay. I'll let you take a chance out there on your own but it will be just the two of you. Those babies will stay here with us where they will be safe and taken care of. Whatever happens to that baby, will be on you."

"Ya cain't take these kids away from their mama," I told 'er.

"I'm not taking them away. She's choosing to leave them," she looked 'tween us an' smiled again. "I'll let the two of you stay here tonight to give you a chance to rethink your decision. Come morning, if you still want to leave without the babies, we'll let you walk out of here with everything you had when you arrived."

I'll be damned if Beth didn't nod 'er fuckin' head.

"Ya sure 'bout this?"

"I'm sure, Merle."

Beth-

They led us back up to the room we had been in and to my surprise they let Annie and Shawn stay with us.

"I'll let you say goodbye to them," Dawn told us.

"Ya got some kind a plan, girl?" Merle asked when they shut the door.

I nodded again but waited until I heard them walk away from the door before I spoke.

"I'm goin' to kill her," I said and laid Annie down in the playpen.

"What tha hell do ya mean?"

"I'll give it a couple of hours to make them think we've actually thought about if we're goin' to stay or not and then I'll go to one of Dawn's men and tell them I need to talk to her about my choice. I'm goin' to tell her that it was your choice to go, not mine. Make her let her guard down and then I'll do it. As long as we're in her room, no one will find out until after it's done."

He smirked. "Same way ya killed Gorman."

"I did what I had to do."

"I know ya did. Ain't no need ta try an' convince me of it. We've all done what we had ta do." He bounced Shawn for a minute then laid him next to Annie. "If that don't work, I'ma figure out a way ta get you an' those kids out a 'ere."

"There won't be any need for that. We'll all get out of here."

A/N: Hmmm...any thoughts on what's going on here?