AN: Hello again! Thank you to mrskaz453 and VampWolf92 for their reviews. Thank you to everyone else that favorited or followed. Sorry that it took longer for me to put this chapter up. I had something else written but I felt like this chapter needed to be written before the other part was put up. Plus I a busy week. Good news, next chapter should be up sooner. I don't have a boyfriend here to distract me and some already written! Yay! Another piece of good news is I think only a few more chapters before Mr. Dixon arrives at the farm.

I own nothing but Eliza, Josie and whatever characters you don't know. I would love to have Daryl all to myself though...

Enjoy!

Chapter Three

It was the night before the world went to shit and Eliza was going to make homemade pizzas for dinner. Josie loved when they made their own pizzas and it was simple enough to make. She had made the dough earlier in the day and had just returned home from the store with the toppings she needed to assemble the rest of the pizzas. Her husband Gabriel had returned home from work in the time he was gone.

She found Gabe on the phone with a troubled look on his face, still dressed from work. She went to ask him what was wrong when he flashed her his warning face. She flinched, ducked her head and walked to the kitchen where she placed the food on the counter. She was just finishing washing her hands when Gabe hung up the phone and walked into the room.

"Daddy!" Josie greeted happily and clutched onto his leg.

"Hi sweetheart," he said placing a hand her head, ruffling her curls.

Eliza smiled at the exchange. No matter what occurred between herself and Gabriel, she knew Gabe would always love their daughter. He has never nor would he ever hurt a single hair on her head. And if the day came and he did, that would be the day she would finally leave. She knew it would never come. Gabe spoiled their child rotten. She was surprised Josephine didn't have a huge head from how much she was spoiled.

"Momma and I are gonna make pizza!" she told him excitedly.

"I bet it will be delicious. Go wash your hands," he told her pushing her into the direction of the sink. "That was the Jimmy. Apparently, he just got done bringing in a bunch of hunters to the hospital. They all had bite marks on them and were burning up with incredibly high fevers."

Her husband worked as EMT for Harrison Memorial Hospital. Eliza used to work for the hospital as well. She worked there right out of college for a little over a year. She quit when Josie was born and never went back. Of course Eliza wanted to, but there were plenty of reasons for her to stay home.

Grabbing a bear out of the fridge, he returned to what he was saying, "I asked him if he thought those boys were playing around with a bobcat, but he don' think it was. Jimmy sounded pretty shook up about it. Said it was nothing he ever saw before."

"The hospital will take good care of them," Eliza said hesitantly as she and Josie began to assemble the pizzas.

"Yeah," he agreed. Eliza breathed in a sigh of relief when he did not call her out for talking. "Just weird. Hurry up and make dinner. I'm starving."

He planted a kiss on her cheek and she smiled at him in return. She loved when he was sweet to her. Kisses on the cheek, holding her hand or even just simple loving touches. Those only occurred when he was in a good mood. He ruffled Josie's hair again, they child giving a giggle, before he went out the living room to watch TV.

Later that night Eliza was tucking Josie into bed. It had been a good night. They had watched their shows together after dinner and Josie even got a dish of ice cream as a treat. Gabe had stayed in good mood all night, which Eliza thought wasn't going to happen after the look he gave her earlier. It was hard to pick up on his moods sometimes.

She pulled the purple quilt up close to Josie's chin as she tucked it in snug around her. Gabriel's mother had made it for Josie when she was born. The stuffed dog that she slept with very night, snuggled tightly in her arms, had been a gift from her father when Josie was born. Her baby girl never slept without either of the two.

"Momma?" Josie asked, her voice already tired with sleep.

"Yes, baby girl?"

"You going to cry again tonight?" Josie asked, her innocent blue eyes staring straight into Eliza's green eyes.

Eliza felt her heart tighten. She instantly felt like sobbing. Josie didn't know what happened between Gabriel and herself. Josie just thought her mother cried because she was sad. Eliza tried very hard to keep her daughter from seeing the truth. Sometimes she wasn't able to keep Josie from seeing the uglier side of her parent's relationship but being so young she really didn't understand. Of course, one day she was going to understand because Eliza knew the abuse would never stop. "I don't think so baby. Daddy was in a good mood tonight so that makes mommy happy."

"Good," Josie approved quickly. "Nighty night momma."

"Love you, darlin'. Sleep tight," she whispered, kissing her daughter on her freckled forehead before leaving the bright pink room.

She sat down in the family from on the couch next to her husband. Gabe had put the local news on and they were talking about some case of someone coming back to life in France. It was normal for the married couple to watch the news before heading to bed. There wasn't much happening, besides the strange case in France.

"In other news, there has been a have a wide spread of reports of cannibalism. Authorities believe this is the result of a new drug…"

"Or maybe America has just lost it," Gabe muttered, finally turning the TV off. He turned to her and grabbed her wrist tightly. Eliza felt her heart clench as she looked into Gabe's bloodshot eyes. "Let's get to bed."

Eliza's heart plummeted as she realized, she would be crying tonight. She had lied to her own daughter. Gabe dragged her roughly to their bedroom before throwing her roughly into the bed. She gasped for breath when she came roughly into contact with the bed frame.

"Gabe, please…" she pleaded softly, tears already welding in her eyes.

"I'm stressed and this is what your here for isn't it?" Gabe sneered.

"You were in a good mood," Eliza said, her voice scared.

"Yeah and the news set me off again," he replied, undressing himself. "I had a hard day. Get undressed Eliza."

"You drank too much tonight, love," she tried, trying to get him back off. "You're not thinking straight."

"I had three. I know what I'm doing," he told her, laughing. "Okay, I'm a little buzzed. I'll admit. If I was drunk I would have already hit you for all the questions."

Eliza knew that had been true. "Please Gabe."

Within a second of her plea coming out of mouth, Eliza found herself on the floor, her head extremely dizzy. The sound of his knuckles hitting the side of her face still hung in the air. Eliza lost function of herself as she laid there. Gabe grabbed a handful of her red curls, pulling her head back. She gave a sharp cry at the movement. He loomed over her, chest broad with muscle. She felt his breath at her ear.

"I said undress."

Eliza woke up the next morning with Josie tucked into her side, curls spilled across her porcelain skin. She smiled softly as she brushed the curls off her face. Josie had always looked so much like herself. From the minute she was born, her own mother said that Josephine was going to take after her. Her porcelain skin was the same as her own. The only differences was that the little girl's face held half the freckles as Eliza's did and her eyes were defiantly her father's, right down to the color. Other than that, she look just like Eliza. Her hair was a mixture of blonde and red, but the curls were just like Eliza's.

Eliza sat up, careful not to disturb the girl and stretched as much as she could without feeling her stitches pull, which wasn't a lot. Her whole body felt stiff from sleeping which was a welcomed changed from feeling stiff from bruises. There was still pain in her side and thigh but her head pounded less.

She really wasn't sure what to do. Eliza was in desperate need of the bathroom. She was wary if she was going to be able to move her thigh but she decided to try anyway. The pain was strong as she moved her injured thigh gingerly off the bed. She gripped the bed tightly as she pushed up.

Her head was woozy as she stood straight for the first time in a while. She was careful not put too much weight on her injured leg. She stood there for a moment, a hand on her head as she waited for her vision to return the normal and for the room to stop spinning. Once the world stood still, she slowly shuffled to the door that housed a bathroom. She was thankful when she finally got to sit down on the toilet, the pain in her thigh had only grew worse with each of her steps.

When she opened the door to go back to bed, Maggie was opening the other door that led to the rest of the farm house. She gasped when she saw Eliza out of bed.

"What are you doing out of bed!" the short haired woman questioned, rushing to her side.

"I really had to pee," Eliza explained sheepishly.

"You should have hollered or something. All of us are up before the sun," Maggie said as she helped Eliza back to the bed.

Maggie's loud tone had woken Josie. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up. "Momma what's goin' on?"

"Nothing baby. Momma had to use the bathroom and Maggie didn't like that momma was out of bed," she explained to her sleepy daughter.

"I could have helped," the little girl offered.

"I could never wake you, sleeping beauty," the mother said fondly as she pulled the little girl into her arms.

"Seems like we're all up now," Hershel said as he entered the room, after hearing Maggie yell. "Maggie why don't you take Josie so she can get some breakfast. I need to talk to Eliza."

Eliza released her daughter as Maggie took her in her arms. Josie was still waking up as they left the room. Her daughter loved her sleep, just like her father. She sometimes couldn't get her daughter out of bed till ten or eleven in the morning. She always feared when Josie got to her teenaged years that she never would be able to get her out of bed.

"What do you want to talk about?" Eliza asked as Hershel started to unwrap her bandages.

"Well I wanted to check over your injuries and talk to you about staying with us," replied the old man.

"You'd like us to stay?" Eliza was in disbelief. She assumed that he would ask her to leave once her leg and side were healed. This was a complete shock to her. They were two more mouths to feed, to look after. Josephine was only a child and Eliza didn't have many survival skills.

"I can't kick you two out. Your thigh will take some time to heal and you won't be able to protect yourself and Josie well. And also, in all honesty, I enjoy having little Josephine running around," he explained. "A child brings bight hope in new world."

"She has a way of getting to you, doesn't she?" Eliza asked laughing softly, thanking the heavens that her daughter was so likable.

"She sure does," Hershel agreed. "I also have a feeling that you and her wouldn't last very long on your own."

"You're right. I can't even shoot a gun. Then gun I had I never shot. Whenever we ran into a walker, we ran the other way," she told him, ashamed at her survival skills. "I don't know how long that was going to keep us alive for. Can't hunt either. I have medical skills but it's all in delivery."

Delivery.

"Then I believe God was truly good to you the day Otis found you," Hershel told her.

She didn't really listen to his words. Her head raced once she thought of her skills as a delivery nurse. She had seen and helped countless women become mothers. She had seen the various stages of child birth. She had become a mother herself only four years ago. She knew the signs of pregnancy. and she started thinking they were beginning to apply to her.

It could be the stress but a mother knew.

"Before you are sure you'd like to let us stay, I feel like you should know something," Eliza said, her voice uneasy.

"What is it?" Hershel asked, looking up at her from her wounds.

"I'm not really sure how to stay it. I've been suspecting it for some time now. Actually it all just caught up with me now when I was talking out being a nurse. I'm not entirely sure. A mother knows though. You need to know though, if you are going to allow us to stay," she said, her voice low and afraid. She looked up at him with fearful eyes. Her heart was racing as she uttered six words that may get her and her daughter kicked out of this sanctuary. "I think I may be pregnant."

Hershel stared at her for a moment, taking in her words before he placed his hand on top of hers. Eliza breathing stopped as she awaited his answer. In her mind she thought he was getting ready to ask her to leave. A child like Josie could understand but a baby. He was going to kick her out. It was only about a minute before he answered her.

"That does not change my mind in any way."

"What?" Eliza was dumbfounded.

"You heard me, Eliza. I could never send you out there pregnant and with Josephine," he told her.

Tears came to her eyes. "Are you sure?"

"I am positive about that, Eliza," he assured her. "It only means that you need to be here with us even more. I'll send Maggie down to e local town to see if she can find a test, so we can be sure."

"Thank you Hershel. For everything," she said, her voice soft, placing her other hand on top of his, as her tears fell from her green eyes. "You're a saint."