"Judith's really sick, dad," out of breath from his sprint down to the garden, Carl sounded really worried.

"Babies get sick, Carl, she'll be fine," Rick told him, placing a hand on Carl's shoulder, glancing up at the setting sun, bemoaning the fact that he was about to lose daylight, and head back into his nightly misery.

"That's what Beth said, this morning, and again at lunch, but now she's scared too. And other people are sick. Not just Judy."

Tossing down his shovel, Rick quickly pulled off his gloves, "What does Hershel say?"

"He's sick too. I think he got sick first 'cause he didn't come down to breakfast."

He and Carl walked briskly back, "What are their symptoms?"

"First they were just coughing. Coughing up blood now."

Panic flashed through Rick and then they were running. As they entered the dining area, the lack of people milling around told showed him the seriousness of whatever illness this was.

"How many?" He asked Carl.

"About 20, I'd say, maybe more."

"Where's Judy and Beth?"

"Beth's cell," and then the two of them were running through the cell block, the sounds of harsh coughing seemingly coming from everywhere.

The bright and colorful interior of Beth's cell was easy to find, glowing at the end of the hallway. When Rick rounded the corner and met Beth's eyes, her face told him all he needed to know about Judy's condition.

"I'm keeping her upright until she starts coughing. She's coughing blood, Rick, if she coughs, hold her to her side and clean out her mouth," and in her arms, Judith wheezed, her tiny face pale. When her eyes blinked open, red-rimmed and blood shot, Rick lost his breath.

"Da da," she whimpered, and helplessness clutched his chest as he took her from Beth's arms. The front of Beth's shirt was dotted with blood splatters.

"I need to talk to my dad, I'll be right back," Beth told them, and was gone.

Judy coughed, and her entire little body spasmed. Rick turned the baby, rubbed circles on her back, and as instructed by Beth, cleaned her mouth with a rag Carl handed him.

"She's gonna be okay, right dad?" Carl asked, and Rick nodded, but honestly had no idea. The blood on the cloth brought tears to his eyes, and he clutched Judith to his chest, waiting for Beth to return.

Then she was back, her words rushing over each other, "Maggie's coughing, too, but it just started, so she's gonna watch Judith. Dad wants me to gather a plant from the woods and make a broth for the sick. Rick, grab a flashlight and meet me by the gates."

Rick kissed the top of Judith's head and handed her to Beth, and took off for flashlights.

...

Dusk had settled, and as Carl ran down the fence line distracting the walkers, Beth and Rick slipped out the gate.

They didn't speak, and as a team, Rick shone the flashlight wherever she pointed, as Beth picked leaves and stuffed them in a bag. At one point, when she dug her hand into some thick foliage, a previously hidden, legless walker grabbed at her arm, and before Rick could move, Beth calmly kicked in its head, her small boot crushing its skull.

Despite the situation, Rick was impressed, and as she turned to him, gesturing back at the prison, they quickly made their way back, Rick stabbing 3 walkers in the head as Beth took out 2 others with her knife. Carl let them back in the gate and they sprinted toward the prison.

Getting Judith from a coughing Maggie, the baby again miserably whispered, "Da da," as Rick's heart clinched.

"Beth's boiling some leaves Hershel wants everyone to drink," Rick told her and Maggie nodded. Glenn was coughing too, and Maggie was crying.

He turned to leave, to go back to Beth's cell when Maggie grabbed his arm, "Make her take care of herself, too. She's been dealing with this all day."

He nodded, and sent Carl to check on Beth's progress. For now, Judith fell asleep, and the soft wheeze of her breath tightened his chest as they entered Beth's cell.

Rick was still filthy from the garden, from all the work of his day, so he avoided her bunk and sat on a hard chair, glancing around at the cheerful little space Beth had created. Her cell looked more like a dorm room than housing for prisoners, and the thought reminded him of all the things Beth would never experience, and all the things Carl and Judith would lose out on too. His eyes latched on a colorful piece of paper on the opposite wall. Barely making out his name, curiosity had him standing and walking over, Judy still wheezing against chest.

Up close, it was harder to make out the letters of his name because each letter had been drawn in amazing detail, swirls and loops and other shapes. An intricate border squared off his name, and he suddenly grinned. Beth had bordered RICK repetitively with the word IDIOT.

Hearing her boots striking the concrete, he backed away so as not to embarrass her.

She handed him a bottle, a yellowish liquid inside, and held a giant pitcher of the stuff in her other hand, "Get her to drink that, I don't care how. Force her, if necessary. I'm handing this out," her eyes traced Judy's face, and as she leaned in to kiss the baby's forehead, Rick brushed his lips across her temple, and as she backed away, her fingertips touched where his lips had.

"She'll be okay," Rick told her, and she'd nodded briskly, and off she went.

...

Hershel suggested a distant veterinary college that may still have antibiotics available, and around midnight, Rick, Daryl, Tyreese left on the run.

Beth firmly tied Judith to her chest, and worked tirelessly through the night, administering the broth to family and friends alike. She wiped faces, held hands, whispered words of encouragement, and repeatedly checked on her patients. Only a few remained untouched by the illness and Beth commandeered them as nurses. Carl stayed close, except when she sent him off on errands, and she was relieved when he didn't develop any symptoms.

Patrick, one of the Woodbury kids, died during the night, but Beth found his stumbling corpse before he could attack anyone. After that, she began closing all cell doors behind her.

The next morning, after spending a full day nursing the ill, Beth got a second wind when she saw the men return, and as Bob made needles, she let Rick untie Judith and take the baby. The baby's mouth was raw, from all the times Beth had force fed the broth to her, and she saw Rick's tear up at the sight. Judy screamed when Beth gave her the shot, and when Beth lifted her own blood shot eyes to Rick's, she vaguely appreciated how concerned he looked, not just for Judy, but for her too.

"Beth, you've got to get some rest," but she'd only nodded, gathered syringes, and returned to the cell block.

...

In Rick's cell, he laid the now sleeping Judith in her crib, pulling up a chair beside her.

"She won't stop, dad, hasn't stopped all night. I've never seen anything like her," Carl said, his voice full of admiration for Beth.

"You sit with Judy, and I'll try to make her get some rest."

"You should stop pushing her away," Carl added, and when Rick turned to him, eyes wide, "yeah, I know she's young for you, but she's already Judy's mom. And she's amazing."

Rick cocked his head, totally unaware that Carl had noticed any of the byplay between him and Beth.

"I'm serious, dad, if I were 10 years older, you'd be no competition, but for some reason, she seems to want you. And I'm good with it. She's a good woman."

"We'll see," was all Rick said, but he ruffled Carl's long hair, and pulled the boy next to him for a quick hug.

It took a while to find Beth, mainly because everywhere he checked seemed full of people needing to sing her praises, and urging him to make her rest. People did seem to feel better, and the harsh sound of coughing no longer echoed through the cell block.

He finally found her in Lizzie and Mika's cell, bathing Lizzie's forehead with a wet rag, singing something softly about 99 red balloons.

"Beth, come on, you need some rest," he said, and though her song paused briefly, she ignored him, dipping the rag into a bowl of water, wringing it out, and then wiping Lizzie's face again.

"99 dreams I have had in every one a red balloon

It's all over and I'm standin' pretty

In this dust that was a city

If I could find a souvenir, just to prove the world was here

And here is a red balloon, I think of you and let it go"

As she sang the last line, she turned and held Rick's eyes, but he saw her sway slightly. Fuck it, he thought, striding forward and sweeping her into his arms. She barely weighed a thing, and he tucked her head beneath his chin and left the room.

By the time he reached her cell, and gently laid her on the soft covers of her bunk, she was sound asleep. He knelt beside her for a moment, his palm to her cheek. Maybe one day, Beth, he thought, pressing a kiss to her forehead. He tugged the covers over her, and paused at the doorway, his eyes again drawn to the drawing of his name.

"I ain't no damn red balloon," he told her sleeping form, and then left to check on Judith.