Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and for taking the time to read this fan fiction. Big thanks to Jaded79 for being my beta and going over these chapters for me. Hope you enjoy the new chapter, let me know

Chapter 15

Missing you at my side.

Three days later, Daryl, Rick, Maggie and Glenn headed off for the very first official scavenge since they had come across the prison. There was still a fair amount of food and fuel, but medical supplies were starting to run low and with Lori only four months from giving birth they needed all they could get, not to mention surgical equipment should she need an emergency C-section.

Carol had also reminded them to get the appropriate equipment should the baby be born with mucus in its nose and throat, the peg and items for cutting the umbilical cord, and of course baby would need its vitamin K and Hepatitis B Vaccine once it was born. So they figured while they were out taking the risk they might as well stock up on everything.

They had driven about an hour when they found an average sized town with a hospital and a shopping center which would no doubt hold shops that had the items they needed. Deciding they should search the hospital first, they moved quickly but quietly.

Back at the prison, Carol had just gone off her shift of walking the wall with Andrea. She was missing Daryl terribly, and watching him leave early this morning had left her with knots in her guts. She always dreaded the worst when any of them made a town run but this time it was worse; it was Daryl and she knew if anything happened to him it would kill her. But he had held her, kissed her and told her he loved her, and not to worry a Dixon always came back.

She smiled at the memory moving through the dining room and heading into the kitchen intending on helping prepare dinner and maybe getting some lunch at the same time. When she walked in, she found Lori and Beth cutting up fresh vegetables from the garden. They turned greeting her.

"Hey, how was your shift?" Lori smiled.

"Quiet thankfully," Carol smiled. "What's for lunch," she asked feeling her stomach grumble hungrily but when Lori lifted the pot lid Carol thought she might throw up any second.

"We made a squirrel and rabbit casserole," she smiled, stirring it. She was about to scoop out a serving for Carol when she noticed the look on her face. "Carol are you okay?"

"Ah yeah I think so, just not feeling very well."

"Maybe you should just go lay down," Beth suggested. Carol nodded in agreeance and turned leaving, but her walk turned into a run. She knew she would never make it to her room in time, so she ran into the common bathroom, dropping to her knees and she threw up.

Hershel had seen her bolt into the bathroom and heard the unmistakable sound of her vomiting; he waited, moving forward when she came out looking pale.

"Come with me dear," he ushered her into the clinic.

"I'm fine Hershel, I'm sure it's just a twenty four hour bug or something," she replied but still he got her in the clinic, making her sit on one of the beds and shutting the clinic door behind him.

"So what are your other symptoms?" he asked grabbing her folder out of the filing cabinet. Hershel had started keeping detailed records on everyone: name, age, illnesses, allergies etc.

"Um nothing really, I mean I've been tired a lot more lately and I don't know, when I smelt the casserole Lori and Beth made for lunch it's like my stomach did a summersault, I got hot and sweaty and well you know the rest." Hershel nodded writing as she talked.

He placed the file on the bed next to her and moved to do the usual doctor stuff, checking her blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, before he picked up her folder and started writing again. Placing it down again, he moved to grab a plastic specimen cup.

"Do you think you could give me a urine sample?" he asked passing it to her.

"Is that necessary? I'm sure it's just a bug," she sighed.

"Maybe but I have a theory and I would like to rule it out." Nodding, she moved across to the bathroom, returning a few minutes later and handing him the cup. He turned his back to her moving around and doing a few things before he stopped for a moment and then turned smiling at her.

"What?" she asked confused.

"You're pregnant," he announced.

"What? No I mean that's not…," she stopped short unable to finish her own sentence, it did explain a few things. Why she was so tired lately, why she was always on the toilet these days, her breasts had been so tender lately, why hadn't she seen it?

"Can you tell me how long ago was the beginning of your last period?" She tried to think, counting in her head.

"Six weeks ago I think." Had it really been that long?

"Well until we do an ultrasound and get a good look at the baby I can't say for sure how far along you are, but in your file I'm going to write six weeks till we confirm." She nodded stunned. "Are you okay dear? I thought you would be happy." She looked up at his words.

"No I am it's just… I never thought I would have another child after Sophia," she whispered looking down. "Am I too old to be having a baby?," she asked him looking up.

"Carol, according to my records you're only thirty four years old, well within the age group to be having a baby, Lori is only two years younger than you are," he replied looking at her, knowing that with her years of abuse from her ex-husband Ed the years must have really dragged on for her.

"Thirty four? Guess I thought I was older."

"Daryl isn't Ed, he will treat you right and this baby right." Carol smiled nodding. "Now take one of these every morning till they are finished," he told her handing her pregnancy vitamins. She nodded hopping off the bed and heading for the door.

"Can we keep this between us for now? I want to tell Daryl first," she explained.

"Of course dear." She couldn't wipe the smile off her face when she moved down the hall; she was going to have another baby.

As the guys had headed for the hospital, they had found a large removalist truck parked out front, the keys still inside and the back empty. They decided they would take that with them when they left hoping they could maybe find a furniture shop to get everyone some real beds and finally get everyone off those uncomfortable fold-out cots.

They had moved from one level to the next, killing any walkers they ran into quietly and grabbing supplies as they found them but they had just finished when Maggie looked out the window on the hospital's top level to see a herd stumbling through the main street. They decided it was best to wait them out as they still needed to scavenge the shops for food, fuel, and clothes, and hopefully for some luxuries. They barricaded the room they were in and bunked down for the night.

The next morning the herd had pretty much moved on except for a few stragglers who they took down fairly easily. Glenn and Maggie moved to re-fuel the two cars they came in and the truck they intended to take, plus whatever else they could fit into fuel cans, while Rick and Daryl moved through the shops getting food, clothes, bedding and whatever else they felt would be useful.

When Maggie and Glenn met up with them, they drove the truck into the shopping centre and started loading in beds and the tools to put them together back at the prison and mattress. They were just about ready to head back when Daryl said he would be a few minutes.

Moving into a little jewellery store, he looked around making sure it was safe before moving behind the counter to look at the rings. The second he saw them he knew they were the right ones. It was a beautiful gold, diamond engagement and wedding band set with a matching man's wedding band. Opening the cabinet, he took them out putting them into their own boxes and stuffing the boxes into his pockets smiling.

Tonight he would be home, back in the arms of the woman he loved and he would drop to one knee and ask her to be his, forever.