Seed
It had been several months since the group had escaped the Greene farm, breaking apart as they did so. Felicia and Shane had been traversing the woods, looking for survivors and establishment, for almost the entire time, without stopping in any place for very long. They had yet to reunite with the rest of the group or Andrea - assuming these were even still alive- and a haze had overtaken the pair as they explored. Felicia had become proficient in gun use thanks to Shane. She had returned the favor by putting up with his crap, providing a dog for scouting and hunting, and a lover, as well. This last bit was still new to her, and due to their lack of available birth control, sex wasn't at the top of their list (especially after the incident with Lori). All in all, they shot Walkers, searched for food, and occasionally slept together.
Shane was changing for the better. As his hair approached what it had been before they had come to the Greenes', so did his personality. Felicia suspected it was the combination of being away from Lori, as well as discovering his feelings for her, that was making him back into the man he once was. He made jokes again, talked to her about life before the Walkers, asked her questions she would never have thought of. This must have been what he was like as a cop: driven, noble, rough-around-the-edges but with a good heart. He even opened up a little about Lori, Rick, and Carl, but only a little. Felicia was sure to tread carefully with this subject, unsure of what would cause him to shut down.
Ingrid, too, was attempting to navigate a new romance with the group's favorite redneck, but hers wasn't going nearly as smoothly as Felicia's. Daryl seemed to have an aversion to physical contact of any kind, with anyone, which made things difficult. Although they had become closer since the episode with Sophia, he still stubbornly refused her attempts to connect to him, even when she was doing her best to be less bitchy. She often found it easier to just get mad at him, which led to arguments and flaring tempers. She was making progress, however, slow as it was, and her prodding and occasional flirting was being better-received than before. He would probably never really be with her, but she could at least try to extract the good from him.
The group had found a prison, a "gold mine" as Rick had put it, but one that was crawling with Walkers. While they had secured the outside, Ingrid still felt uneasy about spending the night in a dark, cold, concrete building. There was no knowing what was hidden in the bowels of the jail, and although Daryl's frustrated attempts at teaching her how to use guns were slowly taking effect, she wasn't idiot enough to assume she could protect herself.
She began to relax as the rest of the group did, noting how Carl seemed joined at the hip with Beth. It was adorable. If Beth didn't cash out on that scraggly, gun-toting youth, Ingrid would be disappointed.
But she shook herself, realizing how stupid she looked standing in the middle of the cell block. Enough investing in other people's romances.
"What're you doin?'" Daryl demanded as she plopped her sleeping bag down next to his. The others had found cells, but she wasn't going to let her "boyfriend" sleep out here all by himself, crossbow or no.
"Going to bed," she replied tartly, not making eye contact with him.
"No one told you to come out here."
"Well, I'm here," Ingrid said, unfazed. Then, feeling bold, she added, "Scared to sleep next to a girl?"
Daryl glared at her. "Just keep quiet," he told her. "I'm not screwin' around."
The double entendre was not lost on her. She snickered, wriggled into her sleeping bag, and shut her eyes, acutely aware of Daryl's significant presence beside her. Calming as she listened to his breathing, she allowed herself some much-needed rest.
Now she watched, repulsed, as Rick took an axe to Hershel's leg, and that calm of a few hours ago couldn't have seemed so far away. Hershel didn't stay awake- either due to the pain or blood loss- and the group waited tensely as Rick finished the "procedure". Walkers. She had no idea how many there were, but there were a lot. And now their only doctor was at risk of becoming one of them. She shook her head, fingering the butt of her pistol as time seemed to slow down. If they wanted the prison, they would need a better system. One that didn't involve putting necessary people at risk. Because there was a baby on the way, and as far as she knew, that was the least of their troubles.