I stood leaning against a wall beside Mike. My foot tapped on the ground anxiously. They'd been gone for too long, and I was terrified something had happened to them. My mind started to race with realisation that I could lose both Travis and Clementine. How on earth could I deal with that loss?

The only person I knew best was Kenny, and I knew that he was losing himself. I was losing him.

My eyes drifted to the sky. I prayed that Clementine and Travis would return back safe and with Sarah. That poor girl had witnessed her own father die in front of her, she needed support now more than ever.

Movement caught my eyes and I immediately identified people exiting the woods.

"Holy shit," I grinned, running forward.

I flung my arms around Clementine and then hugged Travis, relief flooding my body as the both of them seemed unharmed and well.

"You're both okay, right? Everyone is safe?"

"Not exactly everyone," Travis sighed, glancing at Luke who frowned in sadness.

Oh, Nick hadn't come back.

We walked back to the rest of the group, and Sarah went straight to Rebecca. I guessed she'd been the closest thing to a mother figure Sarah had within that group.

I crouched beside Clementine and gave her a small, forced smile. She looked so broken.

"Things are gonna get better from now on, Clem," I comforted her.

The young girl took me by surprise when she hugged me, her face buried into my shoulder.

"I hope you're right," she mumbled.

Luke separated Rebecca from the rest of us to break the news of Nick while Bonnie asked to speak with Clem. I reluctantly parted from her, now being left alone with Travis since Mike had gone to talk with Jane.

"I'm glad you're okay," I said to him.

"Yeah," he responded. "Told you I'd come back."

I smiled slightly, then glanced over at Jane. "She seemed eager for you to go with her and Clem."

Travis drew his eyebrows together and narrowed his eyes. "She said we could use more eyes and strength trying to find the others. Hell, if I wasn't there then I think less people would've made it out alive."

I nodded my head and said no more.

"Alright," Travis sighed. "What's bothering you?"

"The apocalypse, maybe?" I replied sarcastically. "We're not particularly in the best situation right now. Kenny's isolating himself, Rebecca's ready to give birth, Nick's gone, Sarah's distraught..."

Travis bit his lip, considering what I'd said.

"I'm scared that we've not made a good decision here."

Travis looked directly into my eyes, tilting his head slightly. "What decision?"

"This," I shrugged, gesturing to the group of people. "We're right back to how we were, a whole lot of us. This isn't something that's going to last, Trav. We've seen it happen and... And I don't think I can take that again. Look at these people. Already people are dead and suffering... they'd probably be better without us."

Travis' mouth dropped as he stared back at me, an expression of disbelief written on his face. "People need to stick together, Marcey, or else we'll have even less numbers. I couldn't live with myself knowing I let one of these people die by just leaving them. I feel guilty enough that I couldn't save Christa, that I couldn't save Omid... Fuck, I couldn't even save Ben or Lee."

"None of that's your fault," I muttered. I didn't realise he was felt so much guilt. He'd always been the one telling me not to feel that way, so I'd never even considered he was similar. "We can't save everyone, right?"

Travis looked away into the distance and we said no more for minutes. That was until Rebecca's baby decided it was time to be born...

I noticed the woman stand still and then hold onto her stomach, her face beginning to look panicked as she frantically moved her head to look for someone.

Making eye-contact with her, I realised what was happening and shot over, Travis close behind and getting the others.

"Rebecca is it time?" I asked, not fully sure what to say or do.

"Feels like it," she worried. "I can't give birth here in the open, what am I going to do?"

As the group gathered around, Clementine and Kenny exited a tent and rushed over.

"What's going on?" Clem panicked, full of alarm.

"Rebecca is going to have her baby," Travis told her. "Anyone know anything about child birth?"

Everyone pulled a blank face.

"Great."

I turned to Kenny, who stood simply looking distracted.

"Kenny," I tried. "We need you. You've done this before, right?"

The aged man said nothing for a couple of seconds, and I growled in frustration that he would not cooperate under the circumstances.

"Alright, give me a second."

If nobody else knew what to do and Kenny was taking his time with deciding, I knew I had to figure this out immediately.

"Ok, we need to get somewhere for this baby to be born- somewhere safe."

Luke shook his head. "No way can Rebecca travel like this."

"He's right," Jane agreed. "She's gonna make a lotta noise. They'll be able to smell her, too. Now you've got no choice but to lock down and ride it out."

"This place doesn't seem safe for a baby being born," Clem returned.

"There are buildings not far from here," Travis said. "We're gonna need to get her there and fast."

Bonnie went over towards the map, then assigned locations. "The museum seems like it could be a good start. I'll go."

"Good idea," Luke agreed. "Mike, think you could go with her?"

Mike and Bonnie went away to the museum, leaving Jane to go to the building that was by the river. The others quickly found other tasks; Luke checked the perimeter for supplies or walkers, Clem and Travis went with Jane, and Kenny stayed with Rebecca.

I made the decision to check on Sarah, who hadn't moved from sitting against a wall since she was brought back.

I approached her slowly and stood nearby, not wanting to invade her space. "Hey, Sarah. How're you feeling?"

"They were going to leave me."

"What?" I raised an eyebrow, then moved closer to sit beside her.

"When they came to get Luke and I, Jane just wanted to go but I couldn't move. They were going to leave without me."

I felt angry and worried at the same time. Sarah was only a bit older than Clementine, how did I know Jane wouldn't just leave her like that? I was glad Travis had gone with them to check out the building.

"Was it just Jane?"

"No... Luke tried to escape pretty fast but Clem wouldn't leave without me and Travis helped her... Why didn't they just leave me?"

I frowned, slowly putting my hand on her arm in comfort. "Clem's a good friend. She'd never leave anyone behind. Same with Trav, he couldn't just let you stay there. You deserve to be here as much as the rest of us."

Sarah began to cry, and I put my arm around her now into a hug.

"I just want my dad," she sobbed. "When... When he gets here, we should all go back to the cabin. We're safe there."

I bit my lip. "Sarah, your dad... He wouldn't want us to go back on ourselves. I'm sure the cabin was lovely, but we have to go somewhere new."

"How will my dad find us?"

"He's... He's not going to find us yet, Sarah. One day though, you'll be together again."

Sarah cried more into my arm, her body shaking. I didn't know whether I'd said the right things, I just hoped I had.

After a while, Luke headed off to go check on the building by the river, and I was now stood with Rebecca and Kenny since I thought Sarah should spend some time alone.

The pregnant woman clutched onto her stomach and tried to remain calm.

"I'm going to walk or stand, maybe it'll relieve the pain a little," Rebecca decided.

"Okay," I responded, keeping my eyes on her as she stood so I knew she was fine.

Kenny had said nothing since I sat down with them, and I knew that had to change soon.

"Kenny, please don't make this silence go on. I can't take this."

The man sighed.

"Kenny."

"I don't know what you want me to say, Marcey."

I turned to face him more.

"I want the old you back. I know you've been through shit, worse than I have, but you can't let it eat away at you. There are so many people in this group, now. Soon there'll be three kids to look after, and you're the most experienced one who knows how to do that. Please, Kenny. Don't make us give up on you."

The words seemed to snap him back into reality.

"I'm sorry I've been like this, Marcey. You're right. That baby needs me."

"Yeah," I smiled.

Kenny finally smiled, and I felt almost like I could cry. It was that old smile that was so familiar and comforting, reminding me of how things used to be. Back when things were better because we were safe at that motor inn.

"I'm not supposed to be in labour yet, Kenny," Rebecca worried suddenly. "What if something's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Kenny assured her. "Babies know how to be born."

"You'll be fine, Rebecca. You've got all of us to support you."

"Thank you," she said, leaning her head on her arm. "Clementine!"

I followed her gaze and saw the young girl walking towards us, accompanied by Travis.

"You're back," I commented. "What was it like?"

"Safe," Travis replied.

"There's a room up there that might be good for when Rebecca has the baby," Clem explained. "Jane's trying to get it open."

"Awesome," I smiled.

Travis looked over at me and then tilted his head away as a signal. "Can we talk?"

I nodded and the pair of us walked away from the others, sitting down on a wall nearby.

"What's up?" I wondered.

Travis had a clear sense of discomfort, an expression of tension on his face. "Back at the building, a guy found us."

"What?"

"He was limping, pretty much defenceless. Jane tried to rob him of medicine and basically had a breakdown. I didn't know what to do... He didn't seem much older than us."

"So you let him go?" I asked. He nodded in response and I put my hands onto my face. "Trav, the last time we trusted someone who was a similar age to us, you ended up knocked out on the floor and almost killed."

"You know, I remember that quite well. You think I don't realise the dangers of trusting people?"

Surprised by his attitude, I looked away and said no more. Him being snappy with me was my last concern, my main worry was about where Rebecca was going to safely have the baby.

"I didn't mean to sound like that," he apologised, putting his bandaged hand on my shoulder. "This is just so stressful. How are any of us meant to look after a baby out here? If it cries, it's going to draw attention. It's going to need food and warmth and sleep."

"Kenny knows what to do," I replied. "He's done this before, and the rest of us will just figure it out too. You said you wanted to stay with them, and I certainly don't want to leave them now."

It was Travis' turn to look away then. We both had our backs to one another, like there was a barrier between us.

He made me angry sometimes, but mostly I wanted to be with him all of the time. We'd hardly been apart for the whole time we knew each other and we'd seen a lot of troubling things, but maybe I was stupid for letting myself like him, considering the situation we were in. With everything that kept happening to us I felt more like we were taking our frustration out on each other.

"I wish things weren't like this."

I turned back, seeing Travis looking at me, his eyes soft against the harsh scar that crossed his eyelid. I could see him scanning my face for the injuries I'd obtained during our time at Howe's.

"I mean the apocalypse. I wish I could have just been away with the school band and met you in the city, in completely normal circumstances. Things would be so much easier then."

"I wouldn't say things would be easier," I shrugged, my eyes trailing to the hand where he'd been bitten by the dog. "You could have got that bite from any dog in the city, and the scar on your eye," I continued, looking back up, "you could have gotten that from a random fight."

"Okay so I could still get all these injuries in non-apocalyptic situations, and you could have gotten those too," he said, nodding his head at the bruises and cuts on my face from Carver's attack. "But me and you could have just been normal. Finished school, got jobs, got a home and..." his voice trailed away.

I couldn't dwell on that thought. Things weren't normal and probably would never be. I didn't know how many people had died overall. It would take a long time to restore balance, even if the system was deeply flawed before the outbreak. I knew things would never be normal like they used to be. I would never get the life I'd dreamed of growing up.

"I think everything we've been through has made us stronger in a weird way," I muttered. "Because without each other to complain to and snap at, we would have to keep it bottled up or we'd hurt someone else by taking it out on them. With each other, we get over it pretty quick. We get through it together."

For what felt like a few long seconds, we just stared at one another. And I realised a few things.

Firstly, he was definitely not that same old teenager I'd met in the woods that day. He lost that young face, his skin was dirtier now too. His hair needed cutting- so did mine- but it was growing in a way that no longer looked childish. The scar across his eye made him appear even older somehow. His face just said that he had been through so much trouble.

Secondly, I realised how I never wanted to lose him. With Clementine, I knew I loved her like a younger sister. I needed to protect her and look out for her, and I would always want to be with her as long as she wanted to stay with me.

With Travis, it was a different kind of feeling. I never wanted to be apart from him because of how my heart raced when he stared into my eyes and how I couldn't help but want him to be near me when I was hurt.

I think he was having the same thoughts. He shuffled closer to me, wrapping his arms around me until my head rested on his shoulder and I shut my eyes, feeling him slowly rest his own head on mine. And I never wanted to move from there again.

Aw cute little scene at the end there. Anyway I hope this chapter made up for the last few, I kinda felt like I was boring you guys...

More exciting things to come, so please do leave a review if you can because they make me really happy to see what you think! See you next week :)