KEZZ 1: Thank you for the review! Here you go!
loveorpain and Katherinep97: Sorry for making you wait so long to find out what's going on. Between work, kids, and researching everything to make sure I wasn't just talking out my ass about medical conditions I haven't experienced, I took a little extra time to make sure I wrote this chapter correctly. Thank you for reviewing and I hope this satisfies your curiosity!
"Merle? Merle! Get your ass over here!" Merle heard Sasha calling as he double checked the so-called doctor's work.
"What's goin' on?" he called back, still watching the man work.
Even though Carl had warned him that there was a man in the sewers, Merle had been exceptionally weary of anything the man did. Carl wasn't the type of boy to ask too many questions so long the situation felt right. He doubted the boy even knew the man claimed to have been a resident before the turn and while he wasn't the most qualified for everything, he had enough knowledge to be useful. As such, he'd taken it upon himself to ensure that their people were safe in his hands as the man worked to redress wounds, pass out what water stores there were down here, and overall double check the well being of the Alexandrians. While Merle was certain the man wouldn't hurt any of their people, he still didn't quite trust him. There was very little chance in hell they would be able to get him to give up his post so easily.
"It's Ani!"
And there was that very little chance. Merle didn't even realize that the man was following him as he raced towards the pair, several Alexandrians moving out of the way just as quickly as he was passing them. The pregnant women had been the talk of the town until what happened with Maggie, and then they quickly became the most protected. While he wasn't sure about the Hilltop felt about Maggie, Merle knew that damn near every member of the community here in Alexandria would bend over backwards to help Ani. He heard the woman cry out as he approached and saw her, paler than a ghost with a sheen of sweat on her brow. Both her arms were wrapped around her stomach as she laid on her side, Sasha, Tobin, and Mallory kneeling next to her.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," Sasha told him. "I was helping get people situated and heard her cry. Looked back and she was holding her head. Now, she's holding her stomach. Doesn't want anybody touching her. I don't know what to do."
"Hey, girly," Merle said, bending down and putting his hand on her shoulder, feeling her jump even as her body shook uncontrollably. "Gotta tell me what's goin' on or I can't help ya."
"Not right," was her choked reply. "Need Daryl. W-where's Daryl?"
"He had to lead the Saviors away, remember?"
"Not right. Somet'in'-somet'in's no' right. Make it stop! Make it stop!" Ani screamed, finally opening her eyes only to squeeze them shut a moment later as another explosion rattled the walls, causing her to squeeze even further into a ball before crying, her arms tightening around her middle. "Make it stop!" she begged repeatedly, even as Merle looked up and over at Sasha.
"There's a cot at the end," the so-called doctor told them. "Move her back there."
"And why the hell should we do that?" Merle yelled at him, making Ani flinch under his hand and whimper.
"She's having a panic attack," Siddiq told him. "She needs space, and she won't get it crowded by everyone here. Take her to the end and get her on the cot."
Sasha and Merle looked at each other before Merle said, "Hell, just do what he says."
"Can we even trust him?" Sasha asked.
"We don't have much of a choice right now," Merle told her before trying and failing at getting Ani to stand up. "Claims he's a doctor."
"Then you can tell us what's happening to her," Sasha demanded of the man, grabbing him and all but pushing him after Merle while Merle picked Ani up like a baby and carried her awkwardly towards the back.
She was whimpering in his arms as he moved her, her arms moving from her stomach to her ears as the explosions overhead continued. The end of the pipe had a nice little nook that did, indeed, have a cot in it with a couple of blankets and a pillow. Looking over at the wall, he noticed a small tub that had the rations that had gone missing as well as the gallon of water. The clothes that had been reported missing were next to the food, and Merle couldn't help but look over at the man accusingly as he came into the nook and told Merle to put the woman in his arms on the cot and lay her down. He had to admit, though, as the man pushed everyone else back and asked them to give the area a wide berth so he could examine his patient.
"I didn't steal any of it," the man claimed as Merle set Ani down, trying to lay her on her back only for her to turn on her side while sitting up only to curl into a ball and begin rocking again. "Carl and Sophia...they brought me here just this morning and helped me get set up. I need to know her name and any information you can give me about her health."
"Name's Ani and she's about five months pregnant," Sasha told him.
"Are you the father?" Siddiq asked Merle.
"Hell no! I'm her brother!" Merle shouted in disgust, which caused Ani to jump.
"She's married to his brother," Sasha clarified for Siddiq from behind Merle. "And she's autistic, ADHD...she started holding her ears and then her stomach about fifteen minutes after we got down here."
"Alright, Ani?" he asked. "Ani? My name is Siddiq and I'm a doctor. I'm going to try to help you, but I need some information. I need to know, does it hurt anywhere?"
"Where's Daryl?" she asked weakly.
"I'm sure he's coming," Siddiq told her while holding onto her wrist, calmly explaining when she jerked back. "I understand you don't want to be touched, but I need to check your pulse and to know if anything hurts to make sure the baby is alright. We need to try to get this shaking under control, okay? Can you help me? Where does it hurt?"
"M-me back," she said. "Me back is killin' me. An-and me tummy. I-it went from me back ta me tummy and back ta me b-back. But it k-keeps t'robbin', and me-me tummy. Somet'in-somet'in's wrong."
"Does your stomach still hurt?"
"Nah, jus' me-me back, but, some-somet'in's no' right. It ain' right," Ani cried, shrieking as yet another bomb went off. "Make 'em stop!"
"Ani, listen to me," Siddiq told her, kneeling in front of her and moving his head in an attempt to make sure she could hear him, but without putting his hands on her. "Listen. I need you to breathe. Your panic attack is causing your body-"
"Intamittent or essential tremas," Ani interrupted.
"Good, you know what they are," the doctor said, hoping to distract the woman long enough for her to calm down. "So you know that they can cause your muscles to contract. You need to try to calm down-"
"Make 'em stop!" she screamed again as another bomb went off, tightening her grip on her ears before crying out again, another tremor jerking through her body as one hand went to her stomach again.
"Do we have anything to help her calm down down here?" Siddiq asked Merle and Sasha, turning to look at each of them in turn. "Anything at all?"
"Phia's the one with the herbs in her pack. Only thing I've got is some strong bud from a plant I've been growin' myself," Merle told him.
"What kind of plant?" he asked, checking Ani's pulse again even as she flinched from his grip.
"What kind you think, doc?"
"There are a few that I know of that can help with anxiety; lavender, chamomile, jasmine, lemon balm, cannabis-"
"That last one."
"Cannabis? Okay, well, if that's what we have, that's what we have," Siddiq told them seriously. "We need to get her anxiety under control or there is a very real risk of her going into labor before the night is through."
"What?!" Sasha and Merle both yelled, causing Ani to whimper again as she started rocking once more.
Siddiq stood up and moved a couple steps away from Ani as he motioned for both Sasha and Merle, the two standing and moving with him. Merle's eyes were focused on Ani as he moved. While he knew that loud noises that she wasn't actively involved in made her jump, he didn't know what all was causing her breakdown at the moment, and it worried him. She could go around blowing and shooting shit up with the best of them, but watch her during a thunderstorm and damn was she like a jumping bean. She'd clung to both his brother and Catty, the damn kitten being overly sensitive to the needs of others and just flopping over and purring away. How they'd been raised, both the damn things acted more like house cats than wild cats until they had a kill they weren't willing to give up. If they hadn't have ran off after Daryl, they might have at least one other way of getting the pregnant lady to calm the fuck down.
"If we can't get the shaking in her body under control, it will lead to contractions in her abdomen worse than she is already suffering. If we do not somehow manage to calm her down, that baby will be born tonight. How far along is she?"
"Not far enough for the baby to be born,, twenty five, twenty six weeks?" Sasha told him, worry and disbelief clouding her tone. "How do we stop her shaking? She normally needs Daryl to calm down when she's like this."
"You mentioned having cannabis?" Siddiq asked Merle. "While it's not something I would normally approve of, it's what we have right now and far better than the outcome if we let this get any worse."
"Have you ever had to deal with anything like this?" Merle asked him. "You know 'bout pregnancies and shit?"
"Not as much as I'd like to right now, no," the doctor admitted. "But I do know uncontrollable muscle spasms when I see them and I know that the longer the spasms continue, the higher the likelihood of her developing true contractions. We're dealing with probabilities and possibilities. I wish I could tell you for sure what is happening, but I don't have the equipment and I'm not an obstetrician. The most I can actually do is perform a physical exam to see if she is dilating, but with how she is right now, I don't see that being possible, nor would I."
"Damn right you won't!" Merle growled out. "You ain't touchin' 'er any more'n you have to. My brother ain't here and I ain't about to try to hold that little hellcat down while you do whatever exam you're talkin' about."
"I wouldn't even try it while she is as worked up as she is. It could make things worse," Siddiq assured him. "All I can say with certainty right now is that her pulse is rapid and her breathing is shallow and nearing hyperventilation. There's a good chance her blood pressure has sky-rocketed due to her anxiety and if it has, that is putting even more stress on the baby than just the tremors alone. We need to get those tremors and her breathing and pulse under control before complications arise. If she has that baby tonight, the likelihood of it surviving in these times is next to none, I'm afraid."
"I don't like it," Sasha said, looking over at Ani who was holding her head in her hands and still rocking as she sat on the cot. "I mean, it's still a drug. What could it do the baby?"
"Far less damage than whatever stress the child is currently under will do in the long run," the doctor told them. "Right now our first priority is to calm the mother down for both the health of her and her child."
"Alright, now all we gotta do is tell her," Merle said, gesturing at the rocking mess on the cot.
"I think it best one of you tell her," Siddiq said.
"What was your name again?" Merle asked.
"Siddiq."
Merle shook his head and repeated the doctor's name before going over and kneeling in front of Ani, placing his good hand on her shoulder, making her jump back and look towards him nervously. She didn't quite look at him before shaking her head and going back into the huddle she'd been in since he'd been called over. Over thirty minutes had passed and at least twice she'd complained about her stomach since he and the doctor had gotten to her side. He squeezed her shoulder and looked back over to the doctor before sighing and putting a bit of force into his hand in order to gently shake her.
"Look at me, Ani," he told her. "Or at least let me know you're listenin', 'cause it's important." The barest discernment of a nod through the shaking was his reply, making him nod his own head, "Alright, so here's the deal. You're havin' a panic attack."
"Nah shite, Sherlock!" she shouted at him, smacking his hand away, arching her back and grunting in pain as she moved.
"Ani, listen," Merle said. "You gotta calm down or that baby ain't gonna make it 'til mornin'."
"T-too early!" Ani said, becoming frantic and rocking even harder before Merle caught her shoulders.
"Hey now, we need you to calm down, not get worked up. In fact, that's why I'm over here. Now, I've got a bit of bud-"
"Nah!"
"Ani-"
"Fuck nah! I ain'-I ain' d-doin' t'at shite," Ani ground out through gritted teeth, holding onto her stomach again. "It hurts!"
"Ani, we gotta get these shakes under control. Even the doctor says it's better than what happens if you don't," Merle tried to reason.
"Nah! I-I can', Merle," she sobbed. "I-I can'!"
Merle cussed and stood up wanting to punch something, only to turn around and stare at the little woman he was having a hard time being rational with, "You got 'til the kids come back! If they don't got somethin' else, you're smokin' it and that's that!"
"I-I jus' n-need Daryl!"
"Well, he ain't here! But you don't calm down that baby very well might be!"
"Too early!" Ani sobbed. "I-it's too e-early!"
"Ani?" Siddiq said as he came to kneel next to the cot. "I understand if you don't want to try using the cannabis. It's okay. But I want you to try to follow my breathing, alright? If it helps, you won't have to do anything right now. And if it doesn't work, we move on to the cannabis. But you need to calm your breathing. Can you do that? Can you breath with me? "
"I-I'll try."
Merle watched from next to Sasha as the two of them talked quietly about the possibility of Sasha going out and trying to find either Sophia or Daryl, but the reality was that it was more likely they'd show up down in the sewers before she found them. At the same time, Merle wanted her there in case the worse happened and Ani really did go into labor. Not only would the child most likely not make it, but Ani would need help he wasn't comfortable giving during the birthing process. Ani would need all the help she could get if the worst did happen. The doctor coached her through breathing in an attempt to get the tremors under control, and it seemed to work at times. Her body would stop shaking for a breath or two before they would start up just as violently again. Merle watched the doctor try time and again to get her body to relax, but every time it would start to another damn bomb would go off, setting everyone in the tunnel on edge and starting the shakes in Ani all over again. Merle, and perhaps possibly Sasha, was by far the most on edge as he watched Siddiq try to keep Ani breathing regularly even as the tears kept falling down her face.
Siddiq checked Ani's pulse after she grabbed her stomach a third time before looking up at the pair and informing them, "Her heart rate is still too high. We need to calm her down. Now."
Merle was in the middle of turning a circle and cussing when he noticed Carl coming down the tunnel, marching up to him as fast as he could and demanding to know, "Where's Phia?"
"I don't know," the boy told him. "I was hoping she was down here with everyone."
"Dammit!" he said, turning away while Carl looked at him in confusion before he turned back to the boy and asked, "You know herbs, son?"
"Not really. Tara does, though."
"Not enough time. Guess we force plan B down her throat and hope for the best."
"What's going on?"
"It's Ani," Merle informed him. "Crazy bitch is about to pop 'cause her mind's makin' her body work too much. Gotta get 'er to calm down. Scott's got Judy, just so you know," he told Carl before heading back to the back and grabbing his bag, pulling out the girl's old grinder and bowl as Carl moved over to Ani.
"Ani?" he asked, kneeling in front of her and pulling something from his bag. "I...I couldn't grab anything else, but I managed to get these from your house. I-it's gone. I'm sorry."
When Carl moved away to go get Judith, Merle moved in front of Ani and saw the blanket and picture on the cot in front of her. Picking up the blanket and draping it around her, he then packed the bowl and spoke plainly to her, "Now, you listen here. I ain't havin' my nephew bein' born in the sewers. You got that? So you're gonna take a fuckin' hit, and then another one, and then we'll see how it goes. But you're doin' this so your baby can live. That's the whole point of you bein' down here, dammit! So do your fuckin' job and smoke this shit before you kill your kid!" he spat at her, holding her chin up and forcing her to at least face him, her eyes snapping to his face the minute he brought up the baby. "I know you said you were done with this shit and you can be again after today. But right now, you think about that baby."
He packed the bowl and took the first hit so that she didn't have to try lighting the damn thing while shaking so badly, handing it over and watching her. Ani hesitated until the doctor told her it was better for the baby in the long run and ensured her he would be there for her in case anything else happened. It took her a bit more encouraging from both Merle and Sasha as well as the doctor before she finally reached out with shaky fingers and took the bowl from Merle after he lit it again. Two hits later, her shaking turned from full on tremors to just her body vibrating. After sharing an entire bowl with Merle, she was calm enough to let the doctor check her pulse without jumping and trying to pull away from him. The kittens ran up to them, then, alerting Merle of Daryl's return while Catty walked right up to Ani and headbutted her while Bobby immediately started hissing at the doctor.
"Her pulse is back to normal," Siddiq informed him, both the men breathing out a sigh of relief.
"What the hell happened?" Daryl asked from behind him right before he passed to his other side, a hand immediately reaching for Ani's shoulder.
"I wouldn't-" Siddiq started before Merle shut him up.
"He's the father and the best chance we got at keepin' 'er calm," he informed the doctor. "It's not been a good night, brother. Did you see Sophia up there?"
"Phia ain't down here?" Daryl asked as Ani practically threw herself at him and clung to his neck, surprising him as she flinched and whimpered in pain again as she arched her back momentarily. "What the hell happened to her?"
"She needs to stay laying down," the doctor told him, only for Daryl to give the man a dirty look and pull Ani into his lap, the kittens on either side of them.
"He's a doctor," Sasha informed him as Abraham came up to stand next to her.
"Michonne's gone AWOL," he told them all before looking at the group in front of him. "What's goin' on here?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Daryl growled out while staring at the doctor. "You're a doc? Start talkin'."
"It's her tremors," the man told him simply. "They were out of control and combined with her anxiety, she was starting to have contractions. In order to calm her down enough for the tremors to stop and therefore stop her from going into labor, we had her smoke some cannabis. While there are some risks associated with smoking anything, at the moment, it was the only way we had to calm her down."
"You...you're sayin' she almost had the baby? Tonight?! 'Cause of this bullshit?!" he yelled, Ani whimpering and burying herself as far into his neck as she could, clutching at the fabric of his newly retrieved vest. Daryl wrapped an arm around her middle to rub along her tailbone and brought one up to her head, tangling her hair in his fingers as he rubbed her scalp. He took a breath before looking up at the doctor and asking, "What do we do?"
"She needs to rest and relax. For the rest of the pregnancy, she needs to be in as calm an environment as possible. Her stress levels need to be kept down as much as possible because now that this has happened once, if her body starts shaking like it did tonight, this could happen again, even without the emotional trauma from tonight," Siddiq informed them.
"What're you sayin'?" Merle asked, just as confused as Daryl and Abraham while Sasha had a hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.
"This isn't over just because we have control of it right now. Like I said, I can't be sure as I don't have any equipment, but if her blood pressure reacted as appropriate to her stress and pulse, every time it spikes we will have another episode like tonight. I can't be sure, but she could have gestational hypertension or preeclampsia, both of which can result in premature birth and low birth weight. She needs to rest, and until she has a proper examination, I strongly suggest she doesn't walk. While I don't believe the contractions she had tonight resulted in anything detrimental, there is still a chance she started dilating. Until we can know for sure, she should not be on her feet."
"So, she could still go into labor if she gets worked up?" Daryl asked him.
"I believe it is a possibility, yes," he told him gravely. "She can't handle the stress, physically or, in my opinion, mentally."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Daryl quietly asked Ani, who just shook her head.
"I-I didn' know," she said back, her body wracked with sobs as she realized how much danger their baby really was in. "I d-didn' t'ink it'd gotten so b-bad."
"How don't you ever know when you've had enough?" Daryl barked at her, frustrated at the situation they were in as her grip momentarily tightened, the pipes shaking from another blast.
"I don' know!" she cried, her body starting to shake again.
"Dammit!" Daryl hissed, returning to rubbing along her back while he felt hot tears fall on his neck.
Daryl was beyond frustrated. Between Abraham and Beth bringing that asshole Dwight back and then coming back to find Ania in a state of distress only to find out there was something going on with the baby had him ready to lash out at anyone, even Ania. She was always pushing herself but never knew when to just stop. It was almost as if she was always actively trying to push her limits just to see what would happen. And this time the cost wasn't just a fight between them, it was the very real possibility that they'd lose their child. He wanted to push her away, to yell at her some more, but the way she clung to him and her body still shook, he knew that would only put her in the same state she was in before he'd gotten there. He also knew that his anger was severely misplaced.
It wasn't so much Ania's fault for her current condition as much as it was the Saviors', and maybe even his own. She'd asked him to stay, and he'd insisted on going. Maybe if he had stayed behind and sent Merle with the convoy, he could have helped her stop all of this. And maybe even with him here she would have had to deal with it. There was no way of knowing right this second what had caused her to go into such a panicked stated, but as he listened to Merle tell him about what had happened in detail, he realized she'd done what she could. She was trapped, confined, and loud noises were randomly going off and combining that with the fact that they could hear every little breath and cry from the others, she was overstimulated in ways that had her melting down. His anger began to dissipate from there until the subject of Sophia came up again. It was well over an hour since everything had begun, and the girl should have been down in the sewers already.
"We gotta find her," Daryl told them while Ani whimpered in his arms at another explosion; she wasn't going to be any help to any of them right now.
"We can't go up top right now without Negan's people seeing us," Sasha reasoned.
"Can't go up, anyway," Abraham told them. "Got assholes on the manholes. Ain't gettin' out by goin' up any time soon."
"So what do we do?" Merle asked. "We can't just leave the girl on her own! She don't need more people givin' up on her!"
"We're not," Sasha assured him. "But we can't go up and look for her right now. She's smarter than most of us and knows how to survive in the woods if she has to. She had her bow with her, so she'll either make it down here, or go to one of the other outposts."
"Who's to say the other outposts aren't bein' hit same as us?" Daryl growled out.
"They're not," Dwight chimed in.
"And who asked you to speak, huh?" Merle chided.
"The Hilltop," Dwight told them. "The farmers. Things are different for them. Standard issue protocol, one death, the rest fall in line. If there's any place left for you to go, it's there."
"She can't even walk!" Daryl yelled.
"We can make a stretcher," Siddiq suggested. "But that would require an exit in which we don't have to climb up or down another pipe."
"Carl?" Rick's voice sounded out.
"Dad!" the boy cried, standing up from the corner of the pipe and going to give his dad a hug with his sister in his arms.
"What's goin' on?"
"Ani's having problems and Sophia hasn't come back yet," Daryl heard Carl tell his dad.
"So-" Rick started to say before taking a deep breath and sighing. "We found Sophia's bow."
"What?!" several voices sounded, Ani's head shooting up from Daryl's shoulder as her breathing started becoming sharp again.
"We found her bow. There's no sign she's been hurt. No blood, no quiver, just her bow," Rick informed them in as calm a voice as he could muster, walking towards where everyone was standing and looking in on Daryl and Ani, looking over at Siddiq and giving Carl a dirty look as the boy let him know he and Sophia brought him to the sewers themselves.
"She's missin'?" Ani asked, her voice coarse and small.
"We-we don't know that yet," Rick assured her, seeing her pale hue and sweaty brow. "She could be hidin' out, waitin' to come down here. We-we just don't know yet."
"We g-gotta find 'er," she whimpered. "W-we gotta. Sh-she can' be l-left again!"
"I know, baby girl," Daryl told her, closing his eyes as he realized they wouldn't be able to look for her any time soon.
"D, we-we can' leave 'er! W-we can', D! We can'!"
"I know," he said, bringing her back into his arms from where she'd pulled back to look at him. "Gotta make sure you and Lou are good first, yeah?"
"Yeah," she sighed as she nodded her head against his neck, her arms tightening their grip when sand fell from the ceiling as the walls shook. "Why won' it stop?"
Daryl looked over to Merle, an almost helpless look on his face as his wife's body began to shake in his arms. They weren't violent, but the doctor noticed and checked her pulse again, nodding his head as he counted the seconds. He confirmed that her heart rate was holding steady, a little faster than normal, but nothing worrying considering how she had been only fifteen minutes prior. Every single bomb that went off had her grip tightening, her back arching every once in a while as a spasm of pain shot up her spine, but she hadn't complained of any pain in her stomach since Merle had forced her to smoke, the man having already packed another bowl in case they needed it. Merle was half tempted to say to hell with it all and go look for Sophia himself as he watched his siblings talk about their girl and the baby. Looking around at the faces of their group, he knew as well as they all did that Sophia wasn't going to be found anywhere in Alexandria. In all likeliness, the child had been captured by the Saviors or worse. They all could only hope that Negan and his men wouldn't hurt her if they did, in fact, have the girl.
Merle's face turned sour as he rounded on Dwight, harshly shoving him into the wall, "You go up there and make 'em stop this bullshit!"
"I can't," Dwight told him. "They're almost finished anyway."
"I don't care if they're wavin' the God damn white flag! You get your ass up there and get 'em to stop!" Merle demanded. "You're one of 'em, so they'll stop if you tell 'em to!"
"It don't work like that. Negan is up there. The Negan. They answer to him, not me," Dwight told him with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry for what Ani's goin' through, but I can't do nothin' to make 'em stop."
Beth walked up and put a hand on Merle's shoulder, getting him to look at her before shaking her head 'no' just slightly and looking at Dwight, "You said the Hilltop's safe?"
"Yeah," Dwight confirmed.
"Then we get everyone there," Beth said. "We get Ani there where they got the equipment to check the baby and we make our final stand there with Maggie. Maggie'll be expectin' us. I know her. She won't be givin' up, but she'll make it look like it while preparin' for us. So we get there."
"They think all of you got away in the woods," Dwight told her. "They're out there, looking."
"They saw us go West," Tara told him. "So we won't go West."
"Your best chance is to stay here until they're gone," Dwight said seriously.
"That's not Ani's best chance, asshole," Merle commented.
"They find us here and we're dead," Daryl added from his spot, carefully moving Ania back onto the cot, Catty laying down next to her.
"They're almost done," Dwight tried to assure them. "They gotta be. It wasn't about destroying the place. They don't have the ammo for that. After they let up, after they're gone, that's when we go."
"We can wait a little while longer," Beth told them. "Have Ani smoke a little more to help keep her calm."
"Can't risk movin' her right now anyway," Abraham agreed. "We need to run, it's gonna get hairier than a monkey's ass crack carryin' a stretcher."
"Agreed," Siddiq informed them. "We need her condition to remain stable for a period of time before we can risk moving her. Her pulse is still having problems with fluctuations and there is still a risk she could have another contraction."
"How long do you think she needs?" Daryl asked Siddiq.
"As long as it takes to ensure the contractions have stopped and she is not at risk of them restarting," he told him.
"Are you sure going to the Hilltop's the best plan?" Dwight asked them.
"You got a better one, asshole?" Merle asked unhelpfully.
"All of you, in one place...Together?"
"All of us together," Daryl answered, staring the man down from beside Ania's feet where he stood. "We'll be their worse damn nightmare."
~x~
"I see it," Carol told Nabila as they got close to the cottage, Shiva following her obediently for being a wild cat. "It tripped over my wire," she said, dropping Shiva's chain and walking up to the downed walker and stabbing it through the skull. "The cottage is just ahead, out of the tree-line. It's got a wrought-iron fence. There's food and water inside. The Saviors don't know about it. You'll be safe there until I make it back with Ezekiel."
"You versus all of them?" Nabila asked.
"Yeah," she answered, taking stock of the weapons and ammo she had on hand.
"They don't stand a chance," Nabila said, her face full of encouragement.
"It's not just Carol," Henry told the woman. "I'm going, too."
"No," Carol said firmly.
"They killed my brother!"
"And I'm not gonna let 'em kill you!"
"I can do it! Morgan taught me the stick and you taught me the gun!"
"Henry," Carol said, getting down to his level as she'd seen Ani do countless times, Rick too now that she thought about it. "You can't go. You have an important job, one the King would want you to do himself. You have to protect the people, you understand?"
"But you need the help!"
"But they need you," Carol countered, putting her hand on his shoulder. "How many of them are warriors? How many know how to fight? They need you to protect them. They need you to guard them until the King can do it again. I need you to stay safe in case I don't make it back. You're the last fighter the Kingdom has. You have to make sure the people stay safe. That is a huge responsibility, Henry, far more than anyone your age should be asked to do. But I'm asking you, for your King, for your people, for me? Will you stay with the Kingdom's people and protect them with your life?"
"I will," Henry said, his grip on his stick becoming firmer as his back straightened and shoulders squared. "I'll keep them safe. I promise."
"Good, now go to that cottage and wait for me. I'll be back with Ezekiel as soon as I can," she told him after giving him a hug.
"You heard her," she heard Henry say as she walked away, Shiva still following her. "Let's get moving."
She'd lead the survivors most of the way to her other home, the one she'd made for herself when everything got to be too much, the one where Ani had forgiven her. The Kingdom's people would be safe enough at the cottage while she dealt with the Saviors. Carol didn't know what she was supposed to do with Shiva now that she'd been made responsible for the large cat, but she knew she couldn't risk taking her into the Kingdom. Deciding that the best thing she could do for the cat was just to let it do it's own thing, she took the chain off carefully and watched as it bounded off towards the Kingdom itself. Carol followed after, finding a car against the wall and climbing on top of it to get up and over the wall, landing on her feet behind a startled Morgan.
"Hey," she said, one hand up in a motion for him to stop as he held his stick up at her, ready to kill in a single strike.
"Hey," he replied, slowly lowering his weapon as he turned around.
"They don't have enough people to guard all the walls," Carol whispered to him, both crouched down and on the lookout for any Saviors that might come their way.
"No, but they do have people," Morgan told her.
"And they have Ezekiel."
"I saw. They got him on the other side of this place," he told her. "We can take them. One by one."
"No, if we hit one of them, they could call them all. It's better to just avoid them until we can't."
"They're spread out, spread thin. There's a fire; some kind of diversion from before, I think. We can use that to our advantage, get rid of them all before they even realize we're here," Morgan reasoned.
"If we're gonna do this, we have to do this now," Carol told him. "Shiva's tied up outside and she won't stay quiet for long. So if we have to take 'em, we take 'em."
They moved silently together through the compound. The first two Saviors they saw were attempting to put out the fire, two more walking out with more extinguishers. There was no telling how many more were inside even as the two who walked out of the building walked back in. Together with Morgan, Carol knew they could easily dispatch of the two fighting the fire, but the chance of getting caught while doing it were greater than she was willing to risk. This was the fastest way to reclaiming the King, though, and Carol couldn't help but wonder what the right plan of action was in this case. She might know her way around a gun and a knife, but she was no soldier, let alone action expert like Ani. All she knew with certainty was that she couldn't very well risk firing a shot to take out the Saviors as of yet, which left up close combat.
"If we don't go through 'em, we gotta go through the courtyard," Morgan informed her. "Exposed. This is it."
He looked at her expectantly before repeating himself, both moving in the shadows to come up behind the men using the extinguishers. Morgan wasted no time in killing the man he went after while Carol simply knocked her Savior out. If Maggie could take prisoners, surely they could, too. Unfortunately, Morgan did not seem to hold the same beliefs, walking over to her Savior and piercing his heart before he pierced his head. They didn't have time for Carol to give him the talking to she wanted as they both ran to hide on either side of the stairs. With how Morgan was acting, she could tell he was heading down the same road she had.
"You want me to just do it?" she whisper-yelled at him across the stairway.
"No," he said plainly just before a door slammed shut.
The same two Saviors that had carried the spare extinguishers out to the ones they'd already disposed of came running out of the building that made up the majority of the Kingdom's housing units. Carol simply attacked the back of her target's neck with the butt of her rifle as Morgan struck the neck of his with the end of his stick. He was clearly having some issues, repeating no as he waited and watched the Savior in front of him. He waited a few minutes as the man gurgled blood before he killed his target, making sure hers was dead as well, not merely incapacitated. Carol couldn't help but stare at him in shock while worrying about the strain he was under mentally.
"Got all of them," he told her before looking at her face. "They could find the others. They could find Henry."
"Henry isn't here," Carol told him as he stared her down.
"They could still...they could still find him."
"I know," assured Carol as she took the gun off the Savior at her feet. "I'm not worried about them."
They continued further into the compound, the area clear of the Saviors save the four that Morgan had killed. Carol was worrying for the man's mind and wondering whether or not she had seemed that off before she had run away. She knew she couldn't have been, because Ani would have picked up on it. If she was there, with Morgan now, the young woman would be picking his behavior apart and calling him out on it, she was sure. She sure as hell hadn't let up with her when they'd all reconvened after the prison, so Carol knew Ani wouldn't let Morgan get off with killing maliciously. For now, though, the goal was to get to the King before Shiva was found, not fix whatever was wrong with Morgan.
"There," she said as they rounded a corner, muffled conversation being heard not far from their position.
When she went to enter the compound, Morgan stopped and listened to the conversation before going to the corner of the building. Carol tried to persuade him to leave the Saviors there alone and follow her, but Morgan simply could not get out of his head long enough to see reason. He disappeared around the corner causing Carol to cuss under her breath before following him. She quickly pulled her weapon and shot the Savior that was about to shoot Morgan in the head before he could fire a shot. Carol thanked God that the Savior she had taken the gun from had been smart enough to use a silencer or else they would have alerted every single Savior in the area of their presence. She turned on Morgan about to get on his case only to find the man bent at the knees looking about ready to puke or cry, maybe both.
Shaking her head, Carol simply went to each Savior and relieved them of their weapons before telling Morgan, "Let's go."
She lead him past the trucks the Saviors had been loading, back up to the door she'd originally entered. Carol didn't bother being as careful as she had the first time now that the Saviors she had been trying to avoid were dead. The plan had been to rescue Ezekiel with as few casualties as possible, at least for her. Morgan was complicating things so much simply out of rage and pure vendetta. While she couldn't fault him for his anger, his recklessness was another thing altogether. He charged ahead into the building, making Carol chase after him and grab his arm, pulling him into a room to get a view of the courtyard.
"They're holding him there," she told him. "We're never going to get to him that way." Thinking about where they were and the closest, most defensible position to where Gavin and the Saviors that were around him were standing, she looked at Morgan and said, "I have an idea. They're close to the King's auditorium. As far as they know, there's only the two doors to enter the place, right?"
"Yeah?" Morgan said, looking at her in expectation.
"Shiva's cage is behind the stage. We enter through the backstage doors, wait for them all to get in the auditorium, and we hit them from behind. We need to get them to go that way though."
"Leave that to me," Morgan told her. "I'll meet you there."
"No, we'll go together. There's an area just a little ways back from where we came that really echoes. We pull off a few rounds from there and they should head into the auditorium. Once they're in there, we'll sneak around back."
"Alright, then that's the plan," Morgan agreed, the two heading back down the hallway.
Once outside, Carol wasted no time in leading Morgan to the area she had been talking about, the area they normally used for target practice with the bow. Aiming her rifle at the hay bales, she noticed Morgan doing the same before they fired off several rounds a piece. She could hear Gavin yelling as they snuck closer to the Saviors' vehicles while they ran off. Leading Morgan through the courtyard and around the back of another building, they made good time to their goal, even going so far as to make a detour to set a time bomb up at the door. She kept watch as Morgan set the thing up, telling her they only had two minutes to get into position as they ran through the backstage. Gavin's voice carried through the large, echoing chamber of the auditorium as she and Morgan crept through the dressing rooms and backdrops behind the King's chair.
"We got room for us and controlled access. Force projected on the doors, now!" came the man's instructions. "We end this, whatever the hell it is," they heard him say just as they passed Shiva's cage and crept through the trapdoor below the stage, directly behind the throne. They couldn't hear what was said next, but the clear 'thwack' of something being hit followed by more indistinguishable chatter came through before Gavin was yelling, "This is it! It is too late! I'm the 'author,' you're the dead man, and that's how it's gotta be!" He said something else before shouting, "This is who I am. I live, you die—this is what this is!"
Carol heard Ezekiel talking, although she couldn't make out what he said as she and Morgan got into position. Counting down the seconds in her head, she waited for the explosion to go off. As predicted, as soon as the bomb detonated, all guns were focused on the door that blew and firing even though no one was entering the building. While she was about ready to turn around and gun the Saviors down in order to save Ezekiel, Morgan motioned for her to wait just a while longer. She gripped her rifle and hunkered down, listening as Gavin called for them to give up or the King would die. Morgan counted down with his fingers from three before they dove out from either side of the throne and began shooting down the Saviors, Ezekiel ducking between the rows and using the chairs to shield himself. Gavin was shot in the leg before Carol had to dive back behind the throne, Morgan being tackled from the side.
She had to crawl to the side of the stage as her rifle jammed, needing more space than she had with what little room behind the throne there was with the Saviors firing at her. Before she could reload, Ezekiel stood up with a gun in his hand and brought down the few remaining Saviors while Morgan fought the one that tackled him. Carol moved to help him, but ended up standing in horror along with Ezekiel and Gavin as Morgan plunged his hand through the bullet wound in the man's abdomen. Pushing his hand straight through the man, Morgan pulled it back out forcefully, bringing with it some of the man's intestines and instantly killing the man as he pulled them clean through. Gavin cried in disgust and fear before attempting to run away with his injured leg. All Morgan did was walk over to his stick and stoop down to pick it up.
"Morgan!" Ezekiel called as the man started walking down the steps to the stage. "We should take our leave of this place."
"We don't need to go," Morgan informed him. "They're all dead."
"We have to stop him," Carol told Ezekiel as she came out of her stupor.
"I know," the King replied. "And so we shall."
They made their way outside just in time to see Morgan standing over Gavin as the man crawled on his knees while looking up at the tormented individual, crying, "You're sick! Only a sick man would do it like this. You think I wanted this? There wasn't a lot on the menu. I ran a good crew. I kept my word. You ask Ezekiel! I kept my word! You-you could go back to the Hilltop. They're still standin'. They're keepin' them goin'!" Gavin insisted while Morgan just stalked towards him unforgiving, making the man smile and look down. "You think you can beat Negan? You think you're the first to try? He can't be beat. He-he-"
"No!" Morgan shouted, moving to stake the man through the throat, only to stop a few inches above it.
"You just killed all those men because of the kid?!" Gavin asked. "I didn't want him to die. It wasn't supposed to be him. I knew about his brother! I knew he was the only family the kid had! That's why Ezekiel was bringing him! To show him how to be a leader! I respected that and liked the kid! He had more guts than I had! Killin' me, it ain't gonna change that! It ain't gonna change anything! You'll still wake up to the same shit tomorrow."
"Get up!" Morgan said, making the man stand up.
As he began to stalk the man once again now that Gavin was standing, Ezekiel went up and tried to talk reason into him, "Morgan! Morgan, cease this! Relent! Ending him is the coward's way. We've won. We don't have to kill him. He will see what he has wrought, see what we will win, and all of it will be his to live with."
"I can't," Morgan said. "I-I can't..."
"Morgan," Carol told him. "It's alright. You need to stop. You don't want to do this, you don't have to! You told me we can be better than them! You said that to me. You don't want to do this," she said as he turned to her. "I know it, I can see it."
"I have-" he said with tears in his eyes. "I have to. I have to."
"No, you don't," Carol said as he readied his stick.
Right before he struck, another stick hit his, a loud clack resounding through the air as Henry moved to stand in front of Gavin. "'To hurt your enemy is to hurt yourself,' right? That's what you taught my brother?" he asked. "My brother...my brother wouldn't want you to."
Morgan gasped and turned the other direction as he choked on a sob. Carol watched him walk away before she moved behind Gavin to bind his hands. Gavin was simply staring at the young man standing in front of him in shock. He had been a second away from death, had steeled himself for it, only for the brother of the kid he'd gotten killed to stand in the way. He'd done a lot of things to keep himself and the people he looked after safe. Hell, he could argue that he'd done a lot to keep the Kingdom safe and out of Negan's complete grip. But in that moment, he realized that he really was a coward compared to a kid barely ten years old who was willing to stand up for his enemy. Maybe Ezekiel was right that there could be a better way.
"Henry," Ezekiel said, going up to the boy as tears began to fall down the young lad's cheeks. "It's okay. It's alright," he told him as he bundled him up in a hug, Carol coming over and putting her hand on his shoulder as the boy cried. "Look at me. You were very brave. You did the right thing."
"I had to," he cried.
"You were supposed to stay at the cottage," Carol chided gently.
"Carol," Ezekiel said, giving her a look with a small smile before hugging the boy as Carol just shook her head and lead Gavin away. "Henry, all will be resolved in time. All will be resolved."