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Notes: Happy Sunday Peeps! Only hours to go til it's Dixon time! ; )

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the next bit; which lights a fire under my tushy! :P

Chapter Forty-One

(Fin's POV)

His hands slip around her tiny frame picking her up, holding her to his chest as gently as he can. I can't make out his features in the moonlight; I'm too busy trying to keep the woods in enough focus to not trip over something and crash to the ground.

I stumble along behind him; moving as quickly as I can; trying to keep up with his much longer rolling stride. Even carrying her weight he moves quickly and efficiently through the darkness.

Somehow it still seems to take years for us to reach the house…ages to lose the sound of Carol's broken sobs of 'Sophia' in the trees.

I know that Mikka is still conscious because I can make out the soft sounds of her fragmented sobs, anguished whispers floating over his shoulder to my ears.

Broken apologize choked out with her sister's name, over and over again gasped into the darkness around us.

Daryl opens the back door, sets her down to lie flat on the table, he turns the lantern at the tables edge I was reading by what feels like hours ago up to its highest setting. Filling the room with a brighter yellow cast…it's not enough.

"Glenn, we need more light." He followed us in, Sasha on his heels.

"My bag," I'm too busy pulling away blood soaked layers to see what's left underneath.

Cursing at what I find.

My bag hits the chair beside me, Sasha covering her mouth with a broken sob.

Daryl is holding her tiny hands against the table, whispering and murmuring things in her ear, I can't make them out over her cries, but at least he's keeping her hands away from the hole in her side.

My wet hands are digging through small jars, plastic bags, dumping things onto the table surface next to her legs.

"Water Sasha, quick."

She's gone, and back in a moment, without question.

Glenn's tense face staring at my hands working to pull out the right ingredients catches my attention. His eyes are too shiny in the low light…he blinks rapidly.

I swallow around the lump in my throat, blinking furiously.

I will not cry.

"Glenn, Light!" He snaps into motion jerking away from the table. Returns after a moment with the other lantern from the bedroom; the one they used to light their meeting earlier in the night.

He sets it on the tables edge, lifts a flashlight to point at my hands, closes his eyes and turns his head away with a hard swallow when the beam casts it's brighter yellow circle of light on the jagged hole, deep red blood seeping out of to trickle down her side, pooling on the table surface.

There's a gunshot somewhere out in the darkness.

Sasha's mournful sound next to me seizes in my own throat.

I grab the bottle from her hand, hiss when the movement makes my chest burn. I do my best to ignore it while I grab the syringe to start flushing the hole in Mikka's belly. I need to at least know if this is salvageable…

I glance at Daryl, ready to tell him to hold her tighter; see him watching my hands, his grip tightens on Mikka's arms realizing what I'm going to do already.

"Sasha her legs." She shakes her head at my request, face horrified.

"Maybe, maybe we should let Carol look at this…" Glenn's face is pale, voice hollow.

"Is Carol a doctor?" For all I know she could be, I'd gladly hand this horror show over to someone with more experience.

He shakes his head once in the negative.

Fuck.

"Hershel taught her some stuff though..."

I don't' have a chance to ask him what stuff; and there isn't time right now.

I hear Tyreese at the backdoor, just a few feet away voice gruff, little doubt who he's talking to. "You don't want to go in there,"

"Let me see her! Get out of my way!" Carol's shoving at his solid chest; trying to push her way into the room.

Mikka starts to sob harder.

I make a decision.

"Carol, I need your help."

The both pause outside the door. Daryl's eyes dart to mine for a moment, slide away again.

Then Tyreese steps back; lets her pass.

She halts just inside the door for only a moment taking in Mikka's stomach, the blood running down her side…Daryl jerks back to a standing position when she circles the table to where I am face furious.

"You didn't have to shoot them both!"

"Carol!" Daryl's bark almost drowns out my reply.

"I Didn't!"

We both ignore him, Carol continuing on as if he wasn't even in the room. "You've done enough damage, why don't you get the Hell away from her!"

"If I do that she's going to die, she needs a doctor."

God help me.

"Well I don't see any Doctors around here; Are you happy now? You've killed them both!"

It's not often I get to hear a voice laced with that much venom.

I try not to flinch away from her words.

The searing pain in my right arm and chest is spreading to my back…I'm running out of time.

"I'm a Doctor."

Glenn is the first one to throw off his utter shock and speak.

"What?!"

"Don't get too excited, I didn't get a chance to finish my residency."

Or start it…

And this wasn't exactly my field… If I'd known what the world would be like when I'd finished school…

But the only other option was do nothing; which meant putting a bullet in another little girl.

Mikka's soft cries are the only sound in the room for a moment. Daryl swiftly kneels back down by her head to smooth her hair back again with one hand, whispering something to her too soft to hear.

Carol finally speaks nodding to me. "Tyreese; Hold her legs."

"Oh man, shit."

I wait 'til he does to press the syringe under her skin, flushing the wound as best I can, trying to block out the sounds of her screams…realize I'm apologizing to her as I work…so is Carol…and Daryl too from the look on his face when I glance at him.

I grimace, and slip my fingers under her skin, have to close my eyes and picture it in my head while I slip my fingers across exposed organs; feeling for tears in their surface… huff out a relieved breath when miraculously it all seems intact.

I pull back; check my fingers under the beam, , find only blood…one more way to tell.

Glenn makes a face when I raise them to my nose, smell them. "Hell are you…?"

"Trying to make sure her intestines aren't perforated." Daryl answers cutting him off mid question.

I glance up at him for a moment grateful to have someone else who knows what the greatest danger of a belly wound is. As a hunter he knows exactly how deadly a cut there would be.

We might as well take her outside and shoot her if that's the case.

There are very few worse ways to die then by a slow festering rot as infection spreads through your organs, and we have no access to any of the antibiotics needed to treat such a wound. Plants are great; but they don't have the same concentration as modern medicine once had since we could rarely get our hands on them anymore.

"Are they?" Carol's pale face is next to me now, cheeks wet from previous tears; but her eyes are somehow dry when they meet my gaze.

"I don't think so." I flush the wound again, focus on trying to keep my hands steady when they seriously want to shake; and ignore the pain radiating through my chest.

I have to clench my teeth to try to ignore the way my shirt clings to the wounds, sticks to the blood on my own skin still hidden under his shirt.

"Daryl," he's staring at me when I look up. "Put your fingers on her pulse, keep an eye on it while I do this." He nods face completely blank.

The room spins a bit when I turn my head back….huh…maybe someone should be checking my pulse…

I start packing the edges of the wound with herbs.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you try to sew that up?"

I shake my head, slowly so I don't make the room spin harder. "We can't sew this up; too much risk for infection; especially in the stomach…it needs to be flushed, changed out daily; these are plants that slow bleeding; they can also reduce inflammation; and fight infection and bacteria growth…" I pause to grab the few bandage supplies I have available to me.

If I use them all on Mikka…

Hell

"This needs a wet compress twice a day for ten minutes to promote tissue growth; then a dry wrap. Keep it clean. Daryl will have to get more of these plants; he should recognize them; you can find them near the river south of here; it gets boggy…that's where to look."

I have to pause, press my hands against the table surface a cold sweat breaking out on my back.

I nearly jump when Carol's hand rises to my arm steadying me; her voice edged with real concern. "Are you okay?"

"Seraphim…"

"Think you can do that?" I don't look at him, I keep my eyes on Carol; she stares back at me expression hard to read.

"Yeah I can try; but why won't you be doing it…?"

Yeah, about that…wow, okay my vision is definitely starting to darken around the edges.

I think Daryl just said something...but I can't seem to focus on the sound…it warbles somehow...

I try to lock my fingers around the table edge for support, voice wavering when I answer.

"Cause this….isn't…all Mikka's blood…"

Then I hit the floor.

:: Walking Dead ::