Hey all! I've been eager to get more chapters out to you guys so I have been posting quite a bit today. Hope you are enjoying the story! Just a warning that there is a mention of drug use in this chapter. I do not own any of The Walking Dead.

Chapter 30

Blake stared at the people surrounding her - the environment seeming so familiar yet so far away. She glanced around the party eyeing every boy and girl in the room. She could tell some of them had started drinking hours ago. She knew she was going to have to play catch-up. Blake was already a little high from the blunt her and her roommate smoked before arriving. Her mind was fuzzy but she wouldn't mind the cross-fade. She took the mixed drink her roommate, Amanda, had offered her. Sophomore year was coming to an end and summer was nearly upon them. Both the girls had finished their last final and they had a couple days before going home for break.

"Drink up, baby" Amanda cheered, clinking her solo cup against Blake's. Blake smiled, always mesmerized by her best friends white teeth and thin face. Together they swigged down their drinks like animals and made their way to the dance floor. The girl's playground was the baseball house, especially in the springtime. They swayed their hips and lost their heads in the music. Blake's head was throbbing; she never got such headaches when she was at parties. Maybe she was coming down from her high.

"Hey, ladies," one of the athlete's yelled, "Follow us, we can get this party started for real."

Amanda smirked at Blake and grasped the boy's hand. Both Blake and the other baseball player hesitated. She knew exactly what was going to go down and it was really hard for her to resist. "One night of it won't hurt," she thought to herself as she followed Amanda and her new boy toy. Blake noticed the other baseball player's hesitation in her peripheral but wasn't surprised to see he had caught up by the time they made it to the bathroom.

The foursome squeezed into the tiny bathroom. Blake felt gross and her headache just wasn't going away. Blake could feel the hesitant athlete pressed up behind her. She could feel his tense muscles. She didn't feel all that uncomfortable around him even though she hadn't seen his face. It was a tight fit in that bathroom; they were going to be touching someway or another no matter what.

Amanda's new friend opened the back of the toilet and pulled out a plastic baggie that had white powder in it; the kind Blake was all too familiar with at this point in her college career. She was working really hard to kick the addiction. She was doing so well and her grades and emotional issues were improving substantially. Although she hadn't quite got a hold on the drinking and pot smoking yet, she was busting her ass to kick the hard stuff.

Amanda had daintily taken the bag from the athlete and started cutting lines on the bathroom sink. She was about to cut the fourth line when Blake spoke up, "Ya know? I'm not feeling too hot. I have a wicked headache. I think I'm gonna skip this one," she said, the throbbing still not ceasing.

"I'm sure one line will do the trick," Amanda said as she rolled up a dollar bill. She slowly brought her face to the first line and sniffed hard. She shook her head and said, "Come on, honey. You've been doing really well. One won't hurt," she smiled handing her dollar bill over to her green-eyed roomie.

"Ya know? You look a little pale," the shy baseball player spoke up, distracting Blake from Amanda's peer pressure. "Why don't we step outside and we'll come back to this later, huh?" he said. Blake felt the man grab her hand and with a blink of an eye she was walking down her street with the shy baseball player. The Atlanta air stifling hot but she found her skin not sweaty.

"I hate being in there sometimes," the boy said. "My name is Derek", he said.

"Blake" she said, finally looking up at the baseball player. He was pretty tall and lean as well. He scoffed.

"That's my last name," he said, laughing to himself.

"Huh. Must be a good name then" Blake said, smiling at the boy as she took a sip of the water. She expected to feel the coolness in her mouth yet she felt it across her forehead. "Weird" she thought to herself.

"I've seen you come by a few times with your blonde friend," Derek said, glancing at her nervously. "Haven't really seen you involved in that bathroom shit before," he said. He had watched her from a far the past few house parties and always saw her dancing and drinking.

"I used to be in that scene, I guess. Never truly loved it. I guess I was just acting out," Blake said, surprised she was being so honest with a man she only saw at baseball parties. "I know you haven't been in that bathroom for more than anything but the toilet and shower," she said, giving him a sweet smile.

"Yeah, I'm not really into that stuff," Derek said, his shoulders relaxing. "I like this shit in moderation," he laughed. "Always down for getting wild with the drinking but I never got into the drugs, especially the hard shit," he said.

"Why'd you go into the bathroom if you aren't into that stuff," Blake said, eyeing the pale skinned man, admiring his chiseled jaw line.

"I think it's because you didn't want to go in there," he said, still glancing at her nervously. Blake scoffed at the guy.

"So- what? Are you trying to play hero?" she laughed, taking another sip of the water and wondering why the hell she kept feeling the coolness on her forehead.

Derek chuckled at her words, "No. It just felt like the right thing to do," he said, finally making good eye contact with her. Blake's heart skipped a few beats at how handsome this boy was, her heart pounding so hard it actually hurt a little. Before she could respond they were at the steps of her college apartment.

"Oh," Blake said, not expecting to be there so fast.

"I just wanted to make sure that you got home, ok. People always think baseball seniors are sleazy," the gentleman said, his pearly whites really glistening in the glow of the streetlight.

"I never thought you were sleazy…I think its - really sweet of you," Blake said, oddly flattered he didn't ask for an invitation upstairs. "Well, maybe I'll see you around," she said, hoping to see the guy around more often.

"Oh, don't worry, Blake. I''ll-," the words were becoming jumbled. Blake tilted her head at the blue-eyed athlete.

"Excuse me?" she said, not understanding what he said.

"I said—don't worry Blake, I'll—" and everything went black.

Derek's emotionally charged words were ringing loudly in her ears. "I'll find you, Blake. I promise". His sweet, nonchalant voice was now very tense, loud, and scared. A voice that was never familiar coming from the mouth of Derek Blake.

"Blake, baby, I promise. I will find you," he said, she could hear him crying.

"Derek! DEREK!" and she heard a piercing scream from his end of the line….then it was dead silent. It stayed silent for a long time.

Blake started to rouse feeling like she was on a cloud. She was lying down but couldn't seem to open her eyes. Her eyelids were the heaviest they had ever felt. She could here mumbled voices and something cool and wet being removed from her head. Her skin felt like it was on fire. The orange hue of a lantern illuminated a bedroom she wasn't familiar with.

"Patricia! Get in here," yelled a young female voice. Blake jumped in fear when a searing pain cut through her side and seemed to shoot up her neck and arm. With that she let out a howl, her weak arms immediately shooting to her wound. In her panic, she felt a pull on her left arm.

"Woah, woah," said the voice again. "You're ok, Blake. Your group brought you here," now matching the voice with a young, brunette with a really short pixie haircut. Before Blake could say anything a frazzled, frizzy haired woman came in with a housecoat on. Her eyes a bit swollen and red and definitely tired.

"What's goin' on," the older woman asked.

"Almost ripped her IV out" the brunette said. Blake glanced down at her arm as well. Flashes of that wild dream she just had were overriding her thoughts. She started to feel overwhelmed and her chest started to tighten.

"Mom?!," Blake yelled, confused and delirious from her blood loss. She started to panic. She couldn't see her parents or her brothers. "Dad?! Carl?! TANYON?!" she spoke loudly. Blake was hurting like a motherfucker. Images of blue eyes jogged her memory, "DEREK?!" Where was she? Where was her family? Where's the group she was with? Her thoughts started to spin. Her old life and new life were colliding in her thoughts in ways that didn't make sense. Her brain started to buzz, getting louder and louder as she started to hyperventilate.

"What's goin' on," a familiar male voice broke the atmosphere.

"She's having a panic attack" the older woman said. It was then after a couple footsteps that Rick's tired and pale face came into Blake's view.

"Hey, hey. You're alrigh'….relax," he spoke as he clumsily fell to one knee next to the bed and grasped her hand, hoping to keep her from pulling on her IV.

"Daddy?….Rick?" she said, tears slowly filling her eyes. She wasn't able to hold her body up long, her weakened state and the pain too much for her to handle. In that moment Rick saw the young girl in Blake. She was legally an adult, but she was still a very young lady. She was twenty years old and had had so much left of her life to live.

He grasped her hand tightly and brought his other hand up to the light brown skin of her cheek, wiping a stray tear away with his thumb.

"I'm here, we all are," Rick said, knowing that wasn't entirely true but it was acceptable for the situation. Her skin was pale and she was sweating through the sheets.

"She's fightin' an infection," Maggie told him. "Kris prepared us for this, we already have her on the proper meds. We just got to keep her cool, hydrated and let her rest," she said.

"Thank you," Rick said, his eyes' almost shedding tears as he realized that not only was Blake in a state of recovery but so was his little boy. The surgery went well. Carl was now resting and stitched closed. Herschel was able to remove all the fragments. Rick was beyond relieved with their luck and so thankful for Shane and the sacrifice Otis had made to save his son. When Rick looked back at Blake she had already passed out. Her eyes closed and breathing slowing down once again.

"She's okay, just going to be in and out. She probably won't even remember this," Patricia said. "Let me do another look over while I'm here,". Rick nodded as he brushed a stray curl behind Blake's ear.

"Thank you," Rick said again as he stood, swaying lightly. He felt completely and utterly zapped. Still woozy from all the blood he had given Carl.

"You don't have to keep thankin' us, Rick," Maggie said.

"Yes…I do," he said, looking at Patricia one last time. Patricia just nodded, her eyes getting teary again as she checked Blake's bandage.

"Let me know when she comes too again," Rick asked. The women nodded.

As Rick exited into the hallway he bumped into the tall, brown skinned man that was Blake's brother.

"Anything?" Tanyon asked, carrying a book and a blanket with his good arm.

"She came too for a little bit. She was in and out; very confused. She passed out. They're keeping her fever down," Rick didn't know whether or not he should share what he heard, but if it was his son he'd want someone to speak up. As Tanyon thanked him and went to make his way through the door Rick stopped him.

"She was looking for your parents when she came too," he said.

"She's that out of it?" Tanyon cringed, a pained expression on his face.

"I don't know. I just thought you should know," Rick said. "She's doing well besides that,"

"Yeah, so great - shot, nearly dying, and battling a fever on top of that…and yelling for our parents? Yeah, I guess she's doing well besides that," Tanyon said bitterly. Rick knew it wasn't aimed at him. The man was just frustrated. Rick gets it. His son just fought a battle of his own next door; Rick wished it were he on that bed and not Carl. He sees that same pain in Tanyon.

"They'll recover. They're both stubborn," Rick said.

Tanyon huffed out a laugh at that, his eyes crinkling slightly. "That's for sure. Never thought I'd say it but I can't wait to hear her run her mouth when she comes too," he said, glancing at his sister from the doorway. He stepped to the side as both Maggie and Patricia stepped out.

"Go, sit," Rick said, not wanting to take up anymore of the man's time. Tanyon nodded and walked into the bedroom. He settled himself in on a cot next to Blake's bed. The book was immediately abandoned, his eyes falling shut the moment he had his baby sister's hand in his. Rick made sure everyone was set and then walked into the room next door to check on his son.