Ch. 20
Daryl woke up early in the morning, drenched in sweat and in a massive amount of pain.
He'd been hit by arrows before, cut up, beat up, all of that, but nothing compared to what he was feeling right then.
"Fuck," he hissed, reaching out. Carol was right there, next to him, asleep as always. He pulled on her arm to wake her up.
"Carol...Get Hershel," he ordered, breathing heavily. Had he not been in as much pain as he was, he would've been thankful for Carol's presence, if only because there was no way that he could realistically walk to find the older man himself.
Carol's eyes grew wide.
"What's wrong? Are you in pain?!"
"Get...Hershel…!" Daryl rasped out again. "...Please."
Carol nodded and stood up, then ran from the room. Many thoughts ran through her mind as she moved. Daryl wasn't even four months along yet! There was no way the baby would survive if it were born now.
With Carol gone, Daryl tried to focus on something besides the pain. But what?
Breathing. Didn't expectant mothers do that deep breathing lamaze thing?
He did his best to take a deep breath and hold it, counting to six before letting it out. Then he did it again.
It helped to an extent. It took his mind off of the pain, at least somewhat, but the hurt was still bad enough for him to grip the sides of the bed hard enough to make his knuckles turn white.
After what felt like forever, Hershel came limping in, followed by David. Carol trailed behind the both of them.
"What's going on?" Hershel asked, doing his best to kneel down to Daryl's level.
"..Hurts… so… bad…"
Daryl wanted to cry. That's how much it hurt. It was like something was trying to push its way out of him. Every few minutes, it would stop, but it inevitably always came back.
"Alright, alright, it's going to be okay," Hershel reassured him.
"Agh!" Daryl screamed, as another wave of pain hit. "Make it stop!"
The look on Hershel's face was calm.
"Okay, son, it's alright." Hershel looked at David, "Help me get him up."
David looked calm, too, oddly enough. Carol seemed terrified, but was keeping quiet.
Wordlessly, David reached under Daryl's underarms and pulled him up.
"Come on, you need to stand."
"...Can't," was Daryl's reply.
"Yes you can, son. You're having false contractions, albeit strong ones. If you can get up and walk around it'll help and if it doesn't, well, I'll give you some pain medicine. I'd like that to be our last resort though."
A few seconds later, David finally got Daryl on his feet.
"Carol, a little help?" He asked.
Carol moved over and helped support Daryl, putting him between herself and David.
"Come on. You can do it," Hershel urged.
Daryl swallowed and slowly took a step forward. Then another one. David could feel that his pulse was racing, but chose to ignore it. He'd had a similar experience when pregnant with Elena, and he knew that the pain would soon pass.
"Good job," Carol praised, softly.
Daryl nodded and took another step.
Soon enough they were out in the hallway, slowly walking back and forth, Hershel watching the entire time.
It was close to three in the morning, but no one cared. If Daryl needed help they would be there for him.
After several minutes, the pain finally began to ease.
Now, Daryl was straight up tired. David and Carol could feel him beginning to slow down.
"Want to go back to bed?" David asked.
"Please," Daryl mumbled.
Wordlessly, Carol and David led him back, helping him to lie down. Carol pulled the covers up over her boyfriend once again.
"Thank you," Daryl said, to all three of his friends. "I'm sorry I woke you. I thought that maybe…" He trailed off, too embarrassed to finish the sentence.
"That maybe you'd lost the baby?" David finished.
Daryl nodded, though it was barely noticeable. He refused to meet anyone's gaze. Carol noticed that Daryl did that a lot - wouldn't look people in the eyes if he was upset, hurt or embarrassed.
"How'd you know?"
"Same thing happened to me when I was with Elena. Scared the crap out of me. Thank God for Maria, she saved me. Told me what to do. Walked me around. It happens more with mpregs than it does with pregnant women."
"Thank you," Daryl repeated.
He was really tired now.
"You just go back to sleep. Call if you need us again. No need to feel embarrassed," Hershel told him.
Daryl nodded and closed his eyes.
00
David and Hershel walked back down the hallway together.
"Thanks for all the help," Hershel said. "I think you being there calmed him down."
"Maybe. He respects your opinion more though."
The sound of something outside stopped their conversation.
"What was that?" Hershel asked.
David shook his head and ran over to the nearest room. It had sounded like someone had been driving around in the parking lot outside.
He peered through the blinds.
"Shit."
He turned to Hershel.
"That was a truck. Someone probably knows that we're here."
00
A meeting between Michonne, Maggie, Glenn, Hershel and David was called at dawn. They needed to discuss what had been seen the previous evening, and they met in the cafeteria to do so.
"A truck," Glenn said. "What kind?"
"Ford pickup. Late 2000's model. Looked a lot like the type they used in Woodbury," David answered.
"So, you think it's him, then."
David frowned.
"It may well be. I'm sure that the Governor is looking for him. He probably sent out some of his cronies to find him. It looked like the truck had come out from the parking garage and into the main lot, so if it was his people, they saw our vehicles."
"Same point, it could just be another band of survivors," Maggie replied. "They didn't try to get in, after all, and three in the morning would've been a good time to do so. Would've caught us all off guard."
"Good point," Hershel said.
David shook his head.
"I'm not so sure it's not them. I know Blake. He's not going to want to directly attack the group and risk injuring Daryl. He wants that kid inside of him - at the very least, he will keep him alive until the kid is born. He might've just wanted to find where we are and come up with a plan from there."
"What do you suppose we do?" Maggie asked.
"We step up our guard," Michonne spoke for the first time. "We make sure that whoever is on watch is fully armed, maybe have two people on instead of just one. We pack a run bag, too, in case we need to leave. We plan it. Plan for how to get out if he comes back. Plan where we'll go, what we will do, ensure that we have the supplies that we'll need to get us there."
"She's right," Glenn agreed. "But we don't have that many people to put on guard. There's us, Carl, maybe. Can we trust Rick?"
Hershel shook his head.
"I'm not sure. He seems better, but sometimes he has those fits… seizures. The medication has helped his mind but it's hurting his body. I'm not sure if he would be a viable option for fighting."
"What about Beth?" Michonne suggested.
David didn't like that thought, but he tried not to show it. Hershel, however, noticed.
"Perhaps she could sit with Rick, and they could keep a look out from a higher level. He can walk - we can get him to an upstairs room. She can take Elena and Judith, too. Alert us if they see anyone coming from the distance."
David physically relaxed, causing Hershel to smirk. He wasn't knew something was going on between his daughter and their newest member.
"That sounds like a good idea. There's just one more thing," David said.
Everyone looked at him.
"Do we tell Daryl?"
"We probably ought to," Maggie replied. "I mean, shouldn't he know?"
"The stress might be too much for him. You all were asleep when it happened, but last night he had false contractions, very painful. David, Carol and I helped him through it. The less stress he's under, the better.
"Then we can't tell Carol, either," Maggie said.
"Probably best not to. Are we settled, then?" Hershel brought the meeting to a close.
Everyone mumbled a 'yes' or nodded in agreement.
"I'll go set up a few packs in case we need to run," Maggie volunteered.
"And I'll take first watch," Michonne added. "I'll go get Carl too. Fill him in."
"Sounds good," Hershel answered. "Let's plan for the worst and hope for the best."