Disclaimer: I own nothing.

– – –

Carol woke up in an unfamiliar room, feeling drowsy from sleeping too long, and she pushed herself up. She still wore the same dress from two days ago, and she could smell cigarettes. It was the smoke that clung to her clothes. Yet she hadn't smoked since before she left Alexandria, and she sure as hell hadn't smoked since she found out she was pregnant. So why did she smell cigarettes?

She ran a hand over her face and felt movement beside her. She reached for her knife she'd hidden in her boot as she'd worn a dress and had no belt to attach it to when she saw that leather jacket and its stained wings. Her heart calmed instantly, slowly returning to its usual course, and she exhaled softly. She remembered now.

She'd spent the last day in Daryl's bedroom. They had talked, laughed about how terribly overcooked her meal was, and they slept together. She drifted off first, and he must not have wanted to wake her. That was just like Daryl. He wouldn't have tried to move her all the way upstairs if he could avoid it, and he wanted to let her rest. She wondered if he knew how little she slept, and she suspected he did know. Her heart dropped a little, and she moved off the bed.

"You sleep okay?" A groggy voice murmured at her.

She turned to find he'd rolled over to peer at her through half-opened eyes. "Like a baby."

He nodded and fell back asleep.

She slipped out of the room and to her own to get cleaned up. She caught the sound of a truck and stopped on the steps, hearing the gate next, and she turned around. She opened the door, squinting at the morning sun, and she found Maggie rushing over to the gate.

"Glenn." She tackled him in a loving and tight embrace, crumbling to the ground with him. "Oh, God." She'd seen him while on the wall, and she'd seen the blood on his arm, but she could tell it wasn't his. It wasn't him.

"Maggie." He held his wife close, the tears from earlier returning, and he saw Carol in the street through his bangs. He buried his face in Maggie's shoulder and murmured, "They didn't make it."

She tightened her hold. "I'm sorry."

"I tried to get them out. I tried—I tried..."

"I know."

"There were walkers everything, spilling from the greenhouse, and there was nothing I could do. Most of the men were eaten, and Mike was bitten. He killed himself." He shuddered in her arms and lifted his head to find Carol had gone, and he slammed his eyes shut. "Tobin was bitten too. He...he closed the gate to prevent walkers from following me back home, and he killed himself."

"Oh, God." Maggie felt her eyes burning as Glenn's trembled in her arms.

––

Glenn informed Rick of what happened while they were out, Michonne tried to check on Carol, but she wasn't in her room, and she wasn't in the empty houses. Rick didn't want to let Daryl know just yet, and he didn't have to say anything for Maggie take Glenn home to get him cleaned up. He told the people what happened during the run at an afternoon meeting in the church then he and Abraham and Aaron and Sasha and Eugene got to work on unloading the truck, allowing the people to mourn their fallen friends and family.

Daryl came out as Abe and Aaron hauled a piece of equipment to the clinic, and he spotted Rick and Michonne sorting through the items in the truck. He strolled over to them and found most of the goods had been tucked away. His eyes landed on a tote of toys, and he knew Glenn had been behind that. He smiled inside at the sight, and he asked where Glenn was.

"He's inside with Maggie." Rick unloaded canned goods.

"And the others?" Daryl prodded.

"Only Glenn made it back." Michonne handed her crate off to Rosita who had just come to lend a hand.

Daryl's hands balled into fists and a lump formed in his throat. "Not even Tobin?"

"He was bitten." Rick set down the crate and closed the space between him and Daryl. "He took his own life after ensuring none of the horde of walkers could follow Glenn back to Alexandria."

Fuck. He knew this was a possible outcome, but he had hoped he'd be wrong about it. He wasn't fond of Tobin, but he didn't want the man dead. He wanted Tobin to be here and alive and with his kid. He wanted to see that man buck up and do all the things he said he would do. He sure as hell didn't want to be right about this. Goddamn it. "Where is she?"

"I don't know." He wiped his brow. "She was here when Glenn broke the news to Maggie, but he wasn't able to tell her before she vanished on us."

"She didn't get outside, did she?"

"No." Sasha returned with Abraham. "I was on the wall. The only one in or out was Glenn."

He nodded. "I'll find her, tell her if she doesn't already know."

"I'll come with you." Michonne slid by Rick. "Or I'll look with you. I'll check Tobin's then check the church to speak to Gabriel about the service."

"We don't even got bodies," Daryl pointed out.

"We still lost some good men." She met his eyes. "A child lost its father. That's worth paying respect to."

"I'll get with the crew and make some crosses," Abraham tossed out.

"That's a good idea." Michonne sauntered off toward Tobin's house to look for Carol. She had her fill of hauling boxes and was concerned with how Carol was taking this. It was the father of her child, regardless of how she felt for the man. She wanted to be there in case Carol needed any support.

Daryl headed over to the vacant houses where she'd been the last time they couldn't find her. However there was no sign of her in the usual house, so he tried the others, but nothing. She wasn't there. She hadn't escaped here to work through whatever she had to work through after losing Tobin. Perhaps she knew he would look for her here and chose to flee somewhere else. It wouldn't be surprising. She might like to be alone right now. He didn't blame her. He'd give her some time then start looking for her again.

Right now he had another issue to work on. Glenn could give him a hand with it. He might even like to.

––

Michonne found the door to what was hours ago Tobin's house wide open, and she knew she'd made the right call. She padded up the stairs, hearing a ripping sound, and she frowned. She had no clue what Carol was doing up there, but that didn't seem like the right sound to be hearing. She didn't know if she should expect tears or not, but she certainly didn't expect to hear what she knew to be cloth tearing. What the hell was Carol doing?

She entered the room to find the woman on the floor with Tobin's shirts sprawled out around her. She had a pair of scissors lying on the floor beside her, though she'd taken to using her own two hands from what Michonne was seeing and had heard on her way up the stairs.

"Carol." She bent down beside her. "Stop. Stop." She caught her hands to still them. "What are you doing?"

She blinked a few times and lowered her arms. "He's dead."

She nodded. "Yeah, he's dead."

She picked at the frayed edge of the torn plaid material. "I could tell when I saw Glenn this morning. It wasn't just that he was alone or the truck was the only vehicle; it was the how beat up he looked. He looked like that right after Noah died."

"Tobin saved his life." Michonne gripped Carol's hand. "He was infected, and he locked Glenn out of the camp. He then ensured the front gate was closed. No walkers followed him back home, back to us. He did that for you, for your baby."

"He did this run for the baby," Carol reminded her. "That's the whole reason behind him pushing Rick to agree to do that run."

"He was trying to be a good father," Michonne reasoned.

"And now he's dead. The baby will never know what kind of father Tobin was or would have been. The baby won't know Tobin at all. He'll just be the man in a picture." She yanked on the blue plaid shirt, and Michonne tried to stop her. "He's not here to wear them anymore, Michonne. He's dead."

"Why are you doing this?"

"For the baby." She set the ripped off chuck to the side with the others. "I'm making a blanket for the baby, and I would have needed more cloth at some point. At least this way he or she will have a bit of their dad's favorite shirt with them."

Michonne smiled faintly. "That's a great idea."

Her smile mirrored Michonne's. "I did it for my daughter. I had yarn then, not shirts, but it was great. She loved it."

"Your daughter?" This was the first time Carol had mentioned her daughter to her.

"Sophia." She cut the rest of the shirt up to use to patch other people's clothes if the occasion called for it. It was good material, and she didn't want to waste it. "She used to carry it around all the time. It was her security blanket."

"Did she outgrow it?"

No, Ed simply threw it in the fireplace in fit of rage when he was angry with Sophia. Sophia had cried and tried to grab it, but Carol knew even if she got it out of the fire, Ed wouldn't let her keep it. She had to protect her daughter, so she kept her behind her back and shielded her from next punch that would be an actual fist in Carol's gut.

"She must have," Carol skillfully lied.

"I had a son," Michonne confessed. "He used to lug around a little teddy bear he'd found one day. I couldn't bring myself to take it from him. He'd named it, and he loved it. Andre loved so easily."

Carol locked gazes with her. "Andre?"

She nodded. "He was three years old."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I."

"Sophia was twelve when she died," Carol murmured. "If I had known what I know now then, if I could do what I've done now then, I would have been able to save her."

"If I had listened more, paid attention to Andre's father, I might have known better than to have gone on that run. I might have been able to be there to protect him." Michonne stilled her trembling lips. "I can't know the outcome had I stayed or had you been who you were now back when your daughter was in danger, but I do know we wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be with here with this group, and I wouldn't have met Andrea or Carl or Rick or Daryl. I wouldn't have met you."

Carol knew she and Daryl wouldn't be as close as they are now if she had been able to save Sophia. She might not be close to anybody had she been able to protect her daughter. She only knew them to a certain extent at the quarry as Ed liked to keep her isolated, and she would have been focused on raising her daughter more than...making friends. She and Lori would have still been friends though, as they taught Carl and Sophia, but that might have been all. If she hadn't lost Sophia and decided to keep an eye on Daryl, he might have slipped away in the night. She wouldn't have him in her life at all. He would have just been a grunting stranger to her. The mere thought nearly provoked her stomach to heave.

"I'm not saying it's better this way, but it's just the hand we were dealt, and it has a good side."

"Even a child losing its father before it's born?"

Michonne cocked her head to the side. "I can't claim to know the good from this, but if there is good, it'll present itself." She stood up. "We should talk to Gabriel about having a funeral service for Tobin and the others."

She nodded.

– – –

Glenn and Abraham and Daryl had made crosses for the fallen men, Glenn had made small graves to bury pictures of the men, and Daryl had offered up his copy of the sonogram to bury with Tobin's picture. Glenn and Abraham weren't stunned to discover the man carried a picture of Carol's baby around with him, and Daryl didn't seem bothered by their lack of reaction.

The whole town came to their funerals, Father Gabriel said a few words about each man, lingering on Tobin as he had been an expectant father and had ensured the horde remained inside the walls of Francine's old camp. Francine was in tears, likely drowning in guilt, and she had a friend to comfort her, and a lot of the construction crew were torn up over the losses. It was no surprise. They were good men, and they deserved better. So many people did, but apparently Death didn't agree. It simply took and took and took. They had to wonder who it'd take next.

Daryl saw movement in the corner of his eye, and he looked down to find Carol in tears, her shoulders shaking, and she was holding her stomach. Underneath her palms and the cloth and skin was the last piece of Tobin in the world. He knew she cared. She cared for so many people, but he wondered now if maybe she loved him. He didn't know what their relationship was, but they'd been in it for months. Clearly it was more than a few shared cookies and talks, so maybe she did love him. Maybe he loved her, and he wasn't able to tell her.

His chest tightened at his thoughts, and he realized it wasn't because someone Carol may have loved died. It wasn't just that she and Tobin could have been a real family, could have raised their child together and been like Maggie and Glenn. It wasn't that Carol's baby had lost the only biological father it would ever have. It was the idea that Carol and Tobin could have been in love. They could have raised this child and been together and maybe...have gotten married like Maggie and Glenn. It was the same reaction he had when he thought on how this baby could have been made. He'd brushed it off as blind rage towards Tobin for being so fucking careless, but it was more than that. It had to be if he was this...angry at a dead man.

The problem was Daryl had never felt like this in his entire life, so what the hell was it? What was going on inside of him? Why was he burning and raging over a man who saved his brother? Who spared them from having to fend off another horde of walkers? He couldn't pin it down, but he knew it'd be back if his questions were left unanswered. He knew he'd have to talk to someone. Maybe Denise. She could pick his brain and figure what the hell's happening to him. To his heart.

Gabriel closed with a bible verse, tears were being wiped at, and the group dispersed. Michonne wrapped an arm around Carol and guided her back to the house, Maggie and Glenn spoke with Gabriel, and Rick slapped a hand down on Daryl's shoulder, squeezing it tightly to let him know he was there for him. He knew he and Tobin weren't friends, but he knew Daryl. He knew the man would find some way to feel guilty, to feel like he hadn't done all he could to talk Tobin out of it, and he wanted him to know it wasn't on him. He especially wanted to know that as Carol had been crying too, and Daryl felt the need to do whatever he could to protect her, so Rick knew he had to step up and be there for any self-blaming, for any fits of rage and sorrow. He would take anything Daryl threw at him.

– – –

"Are you sure?" Gabriel asked the couple.

"We're sure." Maggie nodded, holding onto her husband's arm.

Glenn offered a supportive smile to his wife. "It's time."

"All right."

Maggie lowered herself down onto her knees, Glenn sitting beside her, and she adjusted the small cross Glenn had made along with the others, Baby Rhee-Greene carved into it. The small hole she'd dug was still there, and she tenderly lowered the sonogram down inside it, carefully covering it with dirt. She gave it an affectionate pat and sat back, her eyes stinging with tears, and she laced her fingers through Glenn's.

Glenn compressed her hand consolingly and placed the flowers he'd picked from just outside the walls over the grave. The white and yellow wildflowers blew in the breeze but didn't move from the grave they were resting on. Glenn and Maggie rose, and Gabriel said a prayer for their lost unborn child.

Maggie leaned into Glenn, smiling at the words Gabriel was saying, at how she knew both of her Moms, Daddy and Beth were up there with their unborn baby, taking good care of the baby. She knew Beth would sing the little baby lullabies and cradle it as though it were her own, telling it Mom and Dad would one day join them, but not too soon. They had a lot to do down here before they could join them up there. She laughed soundlessly at that, tears running down her cheeks, and she turned to her husband, burying her face in his neck, and he stroked her hair.

Glenn didn't know if his family survived, but he knew if they didn't, if they were up in Heaven with Hershel and Beth, they'd be together. They would tend to it and wait for them. He knew his mother would be overbearing and smother the kid and poor Beth as she was a kid herself and part of their family through marriage. Hershel and his mom would be fighting over the baby, not to mention Maggie's moms and Shawn who he didn't even know. God, that kid had a lot of family up there. T-dog, Dale, Andrea, Lori, and all of others were up there with their baby. That was one lucky kid, and their future brother or sister would be even luckier. They'd make damn sure of it.

"Though you are gone, you will never be forgotten," Gabriel concluded, "your time here, no how brief it was, was invaluable and will be cherish. Now, little one, go into the Lord's embrace and find peace. One day, your parents find their way back to you, and they'll embrace you themselves."

Glenn smiled at him and kissed Maggie's forehead. "We love you," he uttered, eyes skyward. "We always will love you."

Maggie inhaled deeply. "You can't know how much."

"One day," Gabriel promised the couple, "one day they will. Until then...may you all find peace."

––

Daryl knocked on Carol's bedroom door with a mug of hot tea. It was more of the crud Denise had, but it tasted decent. He'd had a cup himself a while back, and it seemed like Carol could use a cup of tea right now. He had nothing else to offer. She'd already eaten dinner for the baby's sake, and he didn't have any chocolate. He'd tried to swipe some, but Enid had been in the pantry, and she lectured him while doing a check of their supplies. He still managed to steal some, but while he'd made the tea, he'd left his vest on the couch. Lil' Ass Kicker weeded it out and nibbled on it through the foil, so after he made sure she was all right, Michonne ate it, saying it was payment for trying to give her a stroke. Assholes. He'd have to get more later.

"You can come in."

He opened the door and found her in the beginning of creating a blanket. The blue and green yard twisted together, and he could see patches of blue and green plaid, and he knew they were Tobin's. She was going to sew them into the blanket. It must be for the baby. The kid would love it. The yarn was soft and easy on the eyes, like the mother, and the shirt looked tough and worn, but it was pretty soft itself, like Tobin. His heart ached at that, and he hated it.

"I brought you some tea." He set the cup on the nightstand and moved back to the doorway. "Thought it might...be good for the kid."

"Thank you." She didn't look at him.

"Are you okay?"

Her hands stilled, and her eyes moved toward him. "No."

"What's wrong?" He moved to sit across from her. "I mean...not includin' the funeral."

"I'm a single mother again, and all I can think about is what happened the last time I was a single mother." The last two times.

"It ain't gonna be like that."

"Daryl, you don't know—"

"It ain't gonna be like that," he interrupted, "'cause you ain't a single mom."

She searched his adamant blue eyes and shook her head. "I can't ask you to do that."

"Well, good, 'cause you ain't gotta ask me. I'm just gonna do it."

Her heart warmed. "You don't know what you're signing onto. We're talking about late nights and diapers and teething and screaming. It's not like with Judith. You can't pick and choose when you'll do it. It's every day, all day. It's a life-long commitment. Having a child changes everything."

"Okay."

"Don't just say okay because you feel sorry for me, or you feel obligated to do this." She studied him. "Tobin made Glenn the godfather, so if I need help, I can ask him. He'll need the practice anyway."

"I don't feel sorry for you or feel obligated to step up. You're... This kid is one of the most important people in my life, you understand? I—I'm gonna be here every step of the way, and you can lean on me. I know I don't know everythin', and I ain't got experience with pregnancies, but I'm here. I'm gonna stay here."

Tears filled her eyes, and she bowed her head, snuffling. When she lifted her head again, she was smiling. "Are you sure?"

"I was sure the day I dug through that pharmacy to find you folic acid." He smiled to the left of his mouth. "I wouldn't do that for just anybody."

"Yes, you would." She moved the yarn and needles aside, reaching out to clasp his hand. "You're a man of honor after all."

"Don't shut me out," he pleaded in a whisper.

"I won't." She locked her eyes in his. "As long as you're in this, I won't."

He moved his hand so that his fingers were in between hers, and he squeezed. "I'm gonna be here. I'm gonna be in this till my last breathe."

"I know."