STRANDED PT 4
The rest of the group was working on combing the woods, Lana was stuck in the RV with her sister. She'd been pretending to ignore Lori's presence for the better part of an hour or so now but the third time Lori got up and bolted to the bathroom, hatred aside, Lori was family and despite all attempts not to get involved, Lana found herself waiting outside of the bathroom in the RV on her sister and when Lori walked out, Lana spoke up... "You've been sick a lot lately, Lori."
"It's stress, it has to be." Lori said, though the panicked look in her eyes clearly stated otherwise. She couldn't be pregnant by Shane, not when things with her and Rick were finally going so well. That would ruin them; it would mess up everything. Lori studied her sister a moment and then said quietly, "How about you? Feelin okay?"
"No worse than usual. Just worried to death about him right now." Lana spoke softly, watching the window of the RV as Lori spoke up from behind her, "If Daryl Dixon makes you happy, Lana, maybe it's for the best."
"Until you wanna fuck him too." Lana replied quietly, Lori wincing from behind Lana as the words hit their mark. She sighed and said quietly, "Shane and I are over... And I never meant for that to happen between us."
"Well it did. And it's not like I'm not used to it; you always were stealing anything that made me a little happy... Like that doll Momma got me. The way you smashed it?"
"It was an accident, Lana. Just like this." Lori tried to explain carefully, a bitching headache, the worst feeling of nausea ever and not in the overall mood for a rehash of their past arguments up to this point, but Lana seemed to be in the same mood and mindset. Instead of keeping the fight going Lana shrugged and mumbled quietly, "Toe may toe toe mah toe." as she went back to staring out the window of the RV, watching those woods, waiting for Daryl to come back.
The baby seemed to sense he wasn't around, it happened a lot lately, the baby would get restless, go to kicking up a literal storm and raise hell right up to the time Daryl walked back into the RV in the evening, his daily kills thrown over one shoulder and a Marlboro Red dangling from between those rough but kissable lips of his. Only then would the baby settle down.
Lana often wondered if it were possible, could a baby somehow sense what soothed mom and what upset her during the pregnancy? She'd never gotten far in medical school, she'd o nly been starting out when the end came and it was do or die and everything fell to pieces around her so very fast. She'd have been well into the half year stretch of an internship at a local hospital in Georgia, maybe even the one outside of King County if all this hadn't happened. She had no doubt in her mind now, she'd have left Shane after his latest transgression and she'd be alone.
Only difference was now, she wasn't totally alone and isolated.
Now she had Daryl and that made all the difference in the world.
She was so lost in thought that she didn't realize what was happening until a girl rode up to where they stood now, -outside, just down the hill at the side of the road-, without Rick, Shane or Carl and covered in blood. The sight of it, all the blood, it sent Lana running straight into the small confines of the RV bathroom and when she came out, Lori was having a meltdown, screaming and crying and all she could make of it was that Shane and Rick and Carl had been in the woods... Carl had seen a deer, he'd wandered out into the clearing, presumably to touch it and then a hunter -from what must be another band of survivors holed up on a farmhouse on the other side of the woods- took his shot, shooting Carl.
"Go to them."
Lori left with the other woman and Lana went back to pacing and thinking like she'd been doing previously, Daryl showed up with no signs of Sophia. Tension was thick between the two of them, then since the kisses they'd shared it had been, but not necessarily in a bad way, and he asked "Where's yer sister?"
"She left and went to a farmhouse with some woman named Maggie. Carl, he... He got shot. Lori said that she'd come back later, she'd show us all where to come." Lana muttered as she started to cry; that was after all, her nephew. Daryl awkwardly pulled her against him and then said calmly, "All that cryin ain't gonna do nothin but make ya sick all over again. Yer gonna get to see the kid again, when the rest of us go. Might not be such a bad idea for the rest of us to go, kid is one of ours."
Lana looked up at him and nodded, hugging against him, quietly taking a few deep breaths. "Any sign Sophia might still be out there?"
"Not really. Found some tracks, they ain't real fresh though and they ran out about halfway up the creek. Carol shoulda stayed here with ya, we found a tent and she melted down." Daryl mused, his hand lazily smoothing over Lana's hair as he added, "But if she's out there... I'm gon find her. No kid oughta be out there in all this. And we gotta look after our own."
"And people say you're a jerk." Lana mumbled, giving him a softer than usual smile when their eyes met for a few moments. Daryl shrugged as if the compliment were nothing but it sort of made him want to smile... It wasn't often he got told nice things.
CAVEAT LECTOR:
Another chapter posted and I am seriously beyond amazed at this point because I now have 30 reviews 44 favorites and 58 follows. And a special thanks to everyone who's favorited and followed and left reveiws because they mean the world to me and they keep me encouraged.
Okay, so... More fluff, more anger and they're not even a little closer to finding Sophia. Big things are incoming though, big ones. :D I just pray to God Daryl is even slightly IC in the story, I worry about it a lot because he is my favorite character of all and I want to do him justice as best as I can.
