It had been a number of days since she had taken the test and Kit was finally beginning to at least think about the idea without hyperventilating, though it still scared her shitless. She was making a mental checklist of all the things that could go wrong whether she ended it or stuck with it. Whatever she chose, she knew that she would have to talk to Daryl about it sooner or later so she had steeled herself to talk to him about it later that day. (Lori was also probably beginning to get freaked out due to the looks Kit was giving her; Lori's experiences were part of the reason Kit was so inclined to end her own pregnancy.)

That morning, she was unexpectedly approached by Rick. Although the two had been considerably more cordial around each other since the farm, she was still surprised that he had chosen to eat breakfast with her. After all, Kit was the person in the group who most often opposed their leader. "This is nice and all, Rick, but what are you really doing here? We don't exactly braid each other's hair."

Daryl took this as his cue to leave, picking up his food and moving elsewhere, thinking there may be some sort of showdown between the two as so often their conversations turned into. Rick looked down awkwardly, realizing he had been caught. "Can't I have breakfast with someone in the group without having other reasons?"

"Maybe, but you find me obnoxious."

"That ain't true." He was being honest when he said that. They were two very different people but he respected her and often found that conversation with her could be helpful and interesting, which was one of the reasons he sought her out now. But his main reason for seeking her out was a little more personal. Kit raised her eyebrow, waiting for an explanation. "You've always been very honest with me. Yer even kinda brutal with it sometimes."

"I won't argue with you there."

He sighed, hating to admit it. "I respect that honesty, so I'm hopin' you'll give me a dose of it right now. Only this time, I don't think you'll like it." Now he really had caught her interest. "It's about Lori and the baby." Kit stiffened a little bit at the mention, making Rick believe his suspicions had been confirmed. "You don't think we'll be able to stay here, do you?"

She relaxed, realizing that his question had nothing to do with her own situation, even if she was a little taken aback. "Why are you asking me?"

"Like I said, I know you'll be brutally honest."

"Well, if I'm to be totally honest, I think it's way too early to determine whether or not we'll be able to stay here for long."

"You understand why I'm concerned." The look in Rick's eyes was the most desperate that Kit had seen in a long time.

Of course she understood. "Yeah, I get it, but I can't give you an answer, Rick."

He sighed and nodded; Rick knew that he couldn't dwell long on the subject, though. There was work to be done.

She and Daryl stood with Rick as he mulled over what had to be done for the day – an incredibly long list – when they called Glenn and Maggie from the guard tower. They all laughed and shook their heads.

They were about to set to their work when Rick noticed the two prisoners on the other side of the fence. While the others appeared angry, storming up the hill towards them, Kit was only hoping that they were okay. "That's close enough," Rick growled.

"Look, Mister," Axel begged. "We can't live there another minute. All those bodies…the brains and blood all over the floor…there're ghosts of people we knew in there!"

"Ya shoulda taken care of the bodies," Daryl mumbled.

"We did!" Axel insisted. "She helped us!" he said, thinking it might make things better for the rest of the group to know that Kit had involved herself. It didn't.

"You what?" Rick yelled. "I thought I made it clear that we were supposed to be separate from them! What the hell were you thinking?" It appeared her relationship with Rick was never going to make too many strides.

Kit didn't shrink under his gaze, but answered confidently. "I thought that they were two men who needed help after being suddenly thrown into this fucked-up world just like you were back at the quarry." She glanced at Daryl and knew she was in for it later from him, too.

"I'll deal with you after this," Rick said harshly before turning to Axel and Oscar. "Our deal is non-negotiable."

"We'd rather hit the road than go back into that shithole," Oscar told him darkly.

"Rick," Kit interjected. "These two seem like good guys, from the time I've spent with them."

Rick turned to Daryl who shook his head, realizing that he would be in for it later, too, judging by the glare Kit was giving him. It didn't matter to him whether they argued later or not, so long as he could know with certainty that she was safe from at least that one potential threat. With this in mind, he felt very little guilt while he locked the two outside the first gate.

Thankfully, Kit found an ally with at least one person. "I've never stopped sleeping with one eye open and if we send them packing we may as well execute them ourselves." T-Dog was being as awesome as ever, for which Kit was incredibly grateful.

"Thank you," Kit cried indignantly. "Look, I know you are all pissed at me for helping them but they never pulled anything while I was there. Plus, if they had killed me, they damn well could have gotten away with it. Look, I trust them. They may be willing to be locked in their cells at night?"

Daryl pulled a weird face and said his piece. "Hell, I know guys like these; I grew up with them. They're degenerates but they ain't psychos; I coulda been in there with them jus' as easily as I'm here with you guys."

"So you agree with us?" Kit and T-Dog asked simultaneously.

"Hell no! Let them take their chances on the road like we did."

"They didn't get to ease into this the same way we did," Kit reminded him.

"Our deal with them stands," Rick said, sticking with his decision, wrong as it was.

When he and the others left, Kit and T-Dog stood there, looking at each other. "Are you okay?" he asked.

She hadn't realized that she was crying a little. Wiping the tear away quickly she replied, "Yeah. It's not just this shit storm; I've got a lot on my mind right now and this is the icing on the goddamn cake."

"Anything you wanna talk about?" he asked.

She shook her head, though she appreciated the offer. "Not right now." Then she decided that it may help to delve into the subject a little bit – making sure T-Dog didn't know her actual situation, of course. "I've been thinking about Lori a lot recently and I can't imagine trying to raise a kid in a world like this." Now she was trying desperately to hold back the waterworks so T-Dog couldn't figure out that this was about more than just Lori.

"I hear you," he sighed, not picking up on the fact that Kit wasn't only talking about Lori. "This is a messed up world and I'm not sure any kid growing up in it would come out alright. Hell, you can see it in Carl." It seemed her worst fears had just been confirmed by T-Dog, who she trusted more than Rick in many ways. Her inclinations for her own decision were confirmed.

They met up with the rest of the group outside and Rick was talking about giving them enough food to last them a week. "They may not even last a week," T-Dog grumbled.

"It's their choice," Rick insisted.

"What choice do they have?" Kit asked him honestly. "Don't try to make this out to be anything but what it is: cruel."

"Would you rather have their blood on your hands or someone else's? Glenn's? Daryl's?" A low blow.

"Neither," T-Dog said.

"It's not about that," Kit informed Rick. "It's about maintaining some humanity. A lot of things have changed since the farm and Dale's death, but this isn't one of them. I don't want to live in a place where all decency is thrown out the window."

She saw Glenn handing food to Oscar and Axel before going with Daryl and Rick to get firewood. Under normal circumstances she would have probably gone in Glenn's place but at the moment she was a conscientious objector. While the men were off in the woods she gently trotted over to Axel and Oscar. "I'm so sorry," she apologized earnestly. "You know I don't agree with this."

Oscar nodded gravely. "We weren't part of the issue with Tomas and you weren't part of this – we get it. I appreciate it and I'm sure Axel does."

"I could still fix up that bike your husband rides around," Axel said hopefully.

"Daryl doesn't let anyone touch the bike," she said with a small, sad smile. "It technically isn't even his, anyway." Her attention was directed to Herschel entering the great outdoors after his amputation. "I have to see him," she said, hoping they could value her need to see the older man.

"Go ahead," Axel said with a nod, still as amiable as ever. What was funny to Kit was the distinct impression she got that Axel's friendliness wasn't an act, even if he was laying it on thick to try and sway Rick's decision.

She was standing with T-Dog, laughing a little bit at Herschel's resilience, when she noticed the walkers invading the yard. Shit! Her rifle came out and she tried to take down as many as she could but her bullets quickly ran dry, so she took out her long knife and began ramming it into walker skulls. She was slowly making note of who had made it to safety in her head: Lori, Herschel, Carl, Beth, Maggie. They were all inside but she, T-Dog and Carol stayed behind to try and lock the yard down.

Distantly she could hear Daryl shouting her name and yelling at Rick to hurry up but her mind scarcely took notice of it; all she could concentrate on were the walkers closing in around her. She and Carol were just about to enter the building when they both heard T-Dog's screams. He had been bitten. Kit ran up to him and led him towards what she hoped was safety, trying not to lose it over the impending death of her friend.

By the time Daryl made it to the yard it appeared as if Kit and many others were long gone. "What the hell happened?"

"Those chains didn't break on their own. They were cut loose." Glenn, Daryl and Rick were all currently in the same exact situation: the women they loved were nowhere to be seen and they had no clue whether or not they were still alive.

To make matters worse, an alarm began to go off and eventually they had no choice but to trust the prisoners because they were the only ones who knew where the backup generators were.

Inside the prison, Kit had become separated from T-Dog and Carol by a wave of walkers which she only barely managed to fight off with the knife but she was already exhausted. With only one choice ahead of her, which was to keep moving, she took the one choice.

Corridor after corridor she became lost in the labyrinth, taking down walker after walker as she went. After what seemed like hours, she found what appeared to be a janitor's closet but what may as well have been a miracle. She closed herself up inside, intending to rest for a little while before braving the prison again.

Daryl, meanwhile, was staring at Oscar, who had just executed Andrew, now handing Rick back the gun. Oscar was silent with Rick but turned to Daryl. "I hope your old lady's okay. She's a good woman." Oscar's words meant a great deal to Daryl so he hoped that 'she's a good woman' didn't turn into 'she was a good woman'.

The search continued wordlessly as the three men traveled through the prison together, finding T-Dog's body and Carol's scarf but no sign of Kit. In truth, Daryl didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing; either way, though, he was worried beyond belief and full of regret that the last time they had seen each other they had both been pissed.

When they returned to the yard, finding no one else who entered the prison was there, all three men gave each other mirror looks of panic. Within a matter of moments, Maggie and Carl burst out into the yard, carrying a baby with them. All of this was good news, but it soon became clear that Lori hadn't made it and Kit's fate was still a mystery to all of them.

Though he was absolutely panicking about Kit now, it was evident to Daryl that Rick was completely out of commission – especially when he picked up the axe and ran back into the prison – so that left him in charge. That baby had to be the first priority because if history had taught Daryl one thing, it was that Kit always turned up.

Kit sat in the janitor's closet a long time, physical and mental exhaustion holding her there. She was probably dehydrated with low blood sugar and who knew what else. Would dying be better than living? (A question she hadn't asked herself for a long time.) This way, she wouldn't have to be pregnant or tell Daryl or make the agonizing decision and stick with that decision, assuming she even had a choice. It really would be so much simpler to give up. But there was one thing that barricaded that option from her: she couldn't do that to him. If she died then Daryl would be devastated and the thought of him being in that pain was simply too much for her to bear. It was time to face reality.

She gently opened the janitor's closet, thankfully finding no walkers in the immediate vicinity and began to guess her way towards Cell Block C, stumbling in the dark as she went with no real inkling of where she was. When she finally found it, she called for Daryl but was greeted by Carl instead. The kid quickly let her in and led her to Herschel to be examined.

"What happened? Where's Daryl?" she asked quietly before Herschel shoved some water her way.

"It looks like T-Dog, Carol and Lori didn't make it. Lori had the baby. She's healthy but we needed formula so Daryl and Maggie went on a run for it. He's going to be so relieved," Herschel told her with a small ghost of a smile. "You are a sight for sore eyes since many of us were beginning to assume you were dead."

"So she died in childbirth," Kit whispered, tears running down her face. Yes, she was mourning for the three lost members of their group, but when she heard about Lori, she could only see that death as her own potential fate now that she was pregnant. Lori had suffered most from the lack of food, she had been incredibly uncomfortable for the majority of the pregnancy due to their constant movement and most importantly, Lori had never had any real hope that her child would be able to live a long and happy life.

Herschel pulled the younger woman into a hug, Kit only standing numbly, understanding her shock and the way Lori's death may affect her. "You and T-Dog were pretty close, weren't you? Got to know each other better over the winter?"

"Yeah," she responded numbly. "I had a lot of respect for him and he was just a good person, always wanting to do the right thing. I was close with Carol, too, but she was Daryl's best friend in the group, if anyone was. He'll be so distraught." She was now very happy she had decided to come back. Daryl would have been in enough emotional pain without her adding to it. (Of course, soon she would be adding to his difficulties in an entirely different way.)

"He'll be a whole lot better when he comes back and sees you. Now, I don't intend to cut your mourning short, but you might feel a little better if you see the baby." Herschel wouldn't deny he had his own ulterior motives for this. He had no shame trying to convince Kit to reconsider her thoughts.

Kit tensely followed him to where Beth was holding the tiny, fragile-looking baby. Even the sight of a baby made her nervous because she felt as if her very presence would screw things up or somehow damage her. "Ya look awful," Beth told her. "You should eat somethin' an' rest."

Kit wandered into a cell to sit, food in hand, but rest was something that would evade her for the time being. What had happened to Lori may even cause her to have nightmares of a similar and equally painful death for herself. She heard the gate open and Daryl rushed inside with supplies.

Within seconds he was feeding Rick's daughter; for some unknown reason she couldn't find Rick anywhere but she assumed he was having a sort of breakdown. What really struck her was the fact that Daryl was undeniably a natural with babies – completely unlike her – and that moment watching him began to erase some of the fears that had been plaguing her since she began to suspect she was pregnant. Most importantly, when she saw Daryl with the baby, she began to think that her situation may not be entirely hopeless if they couldn't find any supplies for an abortion. Still, she couldn't help but feel entirely inadequate in comparison. He was much better with babies than she probably could ever hope to be.

Daryl hadn't noticed her watching him from the cell but he turned to Carl and asked "Do she have a name, yet?" It was clear Carl didn't have any ideas when he began to list off the names of all the women in their group who had died, bringing fresh grief to those around him. So Daryl chose to return his attention to the little girl. "You like that? You like that Little Asskicker? It's a good name, right?" He turned to the rest of the group, seeking their approval.

"It's perfect," Kit said, stepping out of the cell doorway she had been standing in.

"Kit?" he exclaimed, still gently holding the baby in his arms.

"The very same," she replied weakly, not quite knowing what to say. "Haven't you ever heard of being fashionably late, Griz?" She felt guilty for even the few hours of uncertainty that she had caused for him.

"What happened?"

"I was separated from Carol and T-Dog when we got inside and I got really lost inside the prison. I holed up inside a closet until the worst of it all was over, then I wandered back here." By now Daryl had finished feeding Little Asskicker and rushed over to Kit, pulling her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry I scared you," she whispered. "I'm not going to die on you, Griz: I would never do that to you."

"Ain't nothin' ta apologize for," he insisted. "I'm jus' glad you ain't dead." He held her silently for a moment before admitting "You was right 'bout them prisoners. They're decent guys. I hope ya ain't still mad 'bout that."

"I've never actually been mad at you," she told him. "I've been irritated and pissed but never really mad or angry. And no, I'm not holding that against you – especially after today. I love you too much."

"I love you, too, Dex."

That night, before bed, Kit was deliberating over whether or not she should tell Daryl. Yes, she had been planning on doing it that night but considering the horrible things that had happened that day – Daryl losing his best friend being among them – she wasn't sure if it was the right time or if she was ready for such a difficult conversation when the day had already been taxing enough. This time, even though she'd been putting it off for over a week, she was genuinely trying to do what was best for Daryl. Hadn't he been through enough that day without adding to the list? No. She needed to tell him then because she had no idea when she would grow the balls again.

They crawled into bed together and she was about to begin leading into telling him when Daryl said "I'm sure glad I ain't Rick right now. Poor bastard's got too much on his mind ta handle it all."

"I don't know if he'll ever come back from losing Lori," she agreed.

"It ain't jus' that. I mean, he's got a baby ta try and take care of now. I ain't sayin' we ain't all gonna help but this ain't exactly a good time ta be havin' kids. It's a good thing we don't got that ta worry 'bout."

"I agree," she replied numbly. Kit lost all of her nerve after hearing Daryl say that and decided that the conversation could wait until tomorrow. At least that was a sign he may share similar sentiments as to what they should do about their situation, if nothing else.

Neither of them slept well that night – Kit especially. Her morning didn't start off very well, either.

"Are your tits bigger?"

Kit froze, giving a quick glance down. "Of course not. What are you talking about?" They were totally bigger. Things had been so hectic recently that she hadn't even noticed until he pointed it out.

Daryl was still scrutinizing her. "We've been here a while, now. An' we've been eatin' pretty regularly thanks to the stash of food tha' they had here. That coulda done it, right?"

"It's possible," she allowed, grateful for the conclusion that Daryl had come to. But she didn't intend to stay on the subject long. "Come on, let's go to the field."

The morning light had just barely hit the empty field when Kit followed Daryl out to the graves that were there: one for Lori, one for T-Dog and one for Carol. "I'm here for you," she told him. "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, but I'm here just the same."

Daryl was about to refuse her, but he knew that would be stupid, considering how much he needed her – especially now with Carol's death. He nodded and chose not to say a word, but pulled her into a bone-crushing hug to keep himself grounded.

"We'll get through this," she told him quietly. "I promise that we'll get through it." She was saying this as much to herself as she was to him.