Hey guys! Thank you all for your reviews and support over these past few weeks I really value your imput! I'm trying to bring some actual places in these next few chapters, so if you think my geography is off please let me know! I imagine them as somewhere Southwest of Atlanta probably somewhere off highway 20 so if you know anhthing frlm the show or comics that would suggest otherwise please let me know! Also im trying to stay true to the idea of the show where a lot of different characters play an important role, but don't worry, the Daryl Lexi romance will advance I promise you! As always please review!

Chapter 23

-Lexi-

Lexi woke up the next morning tired but satisfied. She'd gotten acknowledgement out of him last night, even if it was a somewhat awkward exchange of at four am. When she saw him watching her with the baby she'd expected him to bolt the second their eyes met, but instead he'd said hello and offered shyly to take over with Judith if she wanted to get some sleep.

His offer to help with the baby caught her off guard and made her smile at him in spite of the promise she'd made herself earlier that night not to acknowledge him anymore. She hated herself for the way she was subconsciously latching on to him, at how easily her inner self seemed willing to relax when he was nearby.

They didn't talk very much the next few days but Lexi often caught him looking at her from a distance, watching her as she went about her chores and especially when she was with Judith. She was willing herself to hold out, trying not to appear desperate and clingy by making excuses to talk to him daily. She promised herself she'd wait until the fifth day and then approach him, if he didn't come to her first.

In the meantime, she busied herself with caring for Judith and Caitlyn. She was irrationally attached to the baby in ways she didn't really understand. She told herself it was a side effect of having gone of birth control (she'd been on it from age seventeen until her prescription ran out a few months after the crash) and that this was just how she would instinctively feel towards babies until she made one of her own. If she ever got the chance.

Caitlyn had been doing progressively better since their arrival at the prison, and needed far less caring for than she had previously despite her advancing pregnancy Lexi noticed long ago that Cait's insanity almost always adjusted around the real rules and needs of the situation they were in. It gave Lexi hope that one day she would recover.

She knew now that she was pregnant, and was excited about it despite being somewhat embarrassed that she wasn't married. She had also begun to acknowledge that something had turned the world on its head, although whatever that 'thing' was in Cait's mind Lexi wasn't certain. She still thought the baby was Ian's and Lexi overheard her telling Rick one day that as soon as he met with them they'd get married.

"Is there any chance he did make it?" Carl asked Lexi quietly one day after spending the morning with his Aunt. Lexi smiled down at him sadly understanding where he was coming from. Caitlyn had been a voice of reason in both of their lives for years, and her insanity could be contagious if you let it be. Even though she was broken, Lexi had often felt pangs of jealousy when her friend talked about the world, wishing that she too could ignore the darkness.

"No sweetheart, I saw the bullet holes in his brain myself," this was a lie, but Carl had known Ian for years, and he didn't need to know he horrific truth.

In the days Ian was killed no one understood the disease well enough. The National Guard had come into the hospital and began shooting all the patients. Orders were vague though, and the guardsmen were panicked and horrified themselves, so each ward received different treatment. Ian must've been shot refusing to step away from a patient, because he was still in his operating gown on the floor when Lexi found Caitlyn desperately trying to revive him. He'd taken two round in the chest and Lexi knew he was gone the instant she saw him. She'd just managed to pull her friend away sobbing when he reanimated. Caitlyn almost through herself at him in happiness before he got up and began to come at them. Horrified but unwilling to die Lexi had grabbed for the closest thing to her, and managed to drive a scalpel through his eye as he lunged at them.

Somehow she'd managed to drag Caitlyn sobbing and resisting out of the hospital and into her car. They drove northwest, rather than east which probably save there lives, and camped out in Lexi's car for a few days somewhere between Chattanooga and Atlanta before she realized Caitlyn's insistence that Ian wasn't dead was fermenting into a kind of insanity.

Seeing her gaze off, Carl gave her a knowing look, and squeezed her hand. He looked as I he wanted to say something to her.

"You ok bud? Anything you wanna tell me?" She saw his eyes brim with tears at her question, but he looked away shaking his head. Sh pulled him into a hug and for the first time in a long time he let himself be comforted breathing raggedly as silent sobs raked his body.

"Just don't leave ok?" he said finally, breaking the embrace and getting up.

"I won't." she promised. He looked at her for a long moment, still seeming like he needed to say something, and then walked away.

Lexi watched him go sadly, wondering what had been so horrible that he didn't feel he could tell her.

She woke the next day excited that she'd held out five days and could finally talk to Daryl, only to find that he, Rick, Glenn and Jonah, the bearded man who'd come with Tyrese were preparing to go on a supply run. Lexi didn't like it at all, they couldn't stand to lose one of them let alone all three, but she knew they'd be safest together. She also knew they were running low on formula for Judith, and that the addition of new people had seriously cut into the prison's food supplies.

She saw Rick and Carol arguing a little way off. Rick left the conversation and Carol turned, shooting Lexi a look of utter hatred before stalking off. She knew she'd been upset about how much time she'd spent with the baby, and Lexi had a sneaking suspicion she knew about her and Daryl, but she wasn't sure why the hell any of it mattered to her.

They all gathered together to get instructions from Rick before they left. Even if her opinion of Rick had suffered of late, Lexi still respected him and what he'd done for the people in his group. He provided leadership in a difficult, difficult situation and that was truly an admirable thing, regardless of his imperfections.

"Right. Everyone given Glenn your list of the things you need? We're going to go to Heflin for supplies. It's about 20 miles from here so we'll probably be gone all day. While we're gone Tyrese is in charge."

Lexi saw from the look on Jonah's unhappy face that he had not volunteered for the mission. Rick liked Tyrese, and Lexi agreed that he was a man to trust, but she'd been more hesitant about the bearded man and his son. Rick evidentially felt the same way so he was bringing the older man along as a hostage while he and the other able bodied men of his group we're gone. This type of Machiavellian calculation was new to him she knew, but in this case she was glad for the change.

"Lex, can I have a word with you before we go?" she heard Rick say after he finished giving out instructions. She nodded and walked with him a little further on.

"I know we've still got a ways to go before the damage from what I did the day you arrived is healed, he said, peering at her remorsefully with his piercing blue eyes, "but I've seen what you've done for Carl and for Judith these past few days and I gotta tell you how grateful I am."

He reached out and clapped her on the shoulder giving her a squeeze of appreciation before he began again.

"The threat from Woodberry is far from over, and before I leave I need to ask you something. If something happens to us today, not saying it will, but if it does, I need to know you'll look after my children and my sister."

"Rick of course you know I'd do anything for them. You're like family to me all of you. You do know that right? Nothing's changed, I still love you like my own flesh and blood."

He looked down at her, with what seemed like real pain in his eyes. "Lex about Judith..."

"Yes?"

He hesitated for a moment and then sighed. "Nothing. Just take care of yourselves. I'll see you tonight."

And with that he turned and got into the Grand Cherokee her and Daryl had stolen from Woodberry, Daryl climbing in after him, shooting Lexi a final glare before slamming the door behind him.

Her heart constricted as the engine revved taking the two men she cared most about in the world off into certain danger.

"Be Careful!" she yelled following the SUV a few steps before it drove off. Then quietly to herself she mumbled.

"Both of you."