The cold from the cement seeped through her clothes and flesh, settling into her bones, freezing her to her core. Lori did her best to curl further into Rick and hold onto the light sleep she had fallen into, but laying down had made her congestion worse and she found herself pulling away to cough into her elbow or forearm. Her husband seemed to be exhausted from the day's events and slept soundly, one arm secured around her waist, the other tossed over his eyes.

When her latest coughing fit subsided Lori laid back down, finding his shoulder to rest her head on as a pillow. She sighed, shifting uncomfortably on the hard floor – the cold certainly wasn't helping her bladder's urgent need to pee every hour.

Lori looked around the small space again… she supposed if it came down to it she could go in the corner behind the stairs. Or in the closet where they'd discovered the chained Walker. As her thoughts turned in that direction, Lori pondered what Reggie could possibly have in store for them. Rick was likely right, if she intended on killing them she would have done so already. And she had made comments about wanting to help them… Lori wasn't sure if that was any better.

She wondered if Carl and the others had made it back to the tire yard to discover that she and Rick hadn't returned yet. Maybe they were on their way now… Lori didn't think they would wait too long after sunset before sending out a search party. She lifted her head to look out the window – it was night now.

Carl would be worried… Rick shifted beside her and she held her breath, not wanting to wake him. The least she could do was let him sleep, even if she could not. He breathed out and traced the length of her spine with his finger tips before going still again, his hand falling to rest in the concave curve of the small of her back. Turning her thoughts back to her son, Lori felt unexpected tears well up in her eyes. She sniffled, burying her face into Rick's chest to stifle her cries. Her poor baby was all alone, and if they died here he would never know what happened to them, or worse, he might think they'd abandoned him. Who would take care of him?

"Should be sleepin'," Rick murmured, patting her back, his eyes still closed.

Lori nodded, keeping her face tucked into his shirt to hide her tears. She wouldn't say that she was an overly apathetic or aloof woman, and she certainly wasn't exceptionally emotional either, but their atrocious day, compounded with her illness, being separated from Carl, and probably hormones, had pushed her to her limit. Long sobs tore through her chest, up her burning throat until she sputtered miserly coughs into her husband's shirt.

She felt him shift and lift his head and she tried to reign in her violent emotions, reaching up to scrub her face with the back of her hand. Unfortunately she'd worked herself up into enough of a state that she desperately needed to throw up the nothing that she had eaten for dinner.

"Lori," Rick's fingers smoothed over her forehead, guiding her head back while pushing her hair out of her face. "What is it? Is it the baby… Lor?"

At the mention of the baby she felt like he'd added another weight to her already burdened shoulders and she dropped her face back down to his shoulder. She knew her tears were unproductive, and frankly, the least helpful thing she could be doing and it angered her that she couldn't seem to shut them off. Turning away from Rick she pushed herself up and got to her feet to pace the length of the wall before heading over to the spot behind the stairs that she'd picked out as the emergency bathroom.

Wrapping her arm around her stomach she slumped down the wall in the corner, sliding her eyes closed. She felt intensely and uncontrollably nauseated and her mouth began to water, filling with saliva the consistency of water. Leaning forward, her knees crashed to the cement and she braced her sweaty palms against her thighs as she wretched, throwing up pure acid and bile.

Cool fingers fumbled with the hair at the back of her neck, pulling it back into a loose pony tail. "Jesus, Lori, take it easy," Rick's other hand wound its way around her to cross her chest, holding her up. "Just breathe," he instructed, rubbing her bicep comfortingly with his thumb. "What do you need?"

"To pee," she hiccuped, laughing softly at how ridiculous she sounded. Sitting back on her heels she sniffed one more time and freed her arms that were pinned under Rick's. Wiping her eyes she looked over at him, finding his expression as confused as she had expected. "Sorry," she muttered, lifting her hand to cover her mouth before she gave him a faceful of vomit breath. "Hormones," she pulled away from him to straighten up, pushing her hair behind her ears.

"You sure that's all it is?" Rick clarified, one eyebrow rising skeptically.

Lori considered his question, worrying the ends of her hair with her fingertips. Of course that wasn't all that was driving her turbulent emotions – her uncertainly was about how much he actually wanted to hear about.

"Sometimes I wonder how the hell I ended up here…" she admitted, watching his expression carefully.

Rick's eyes swept hers and his confused expression deepened. Reaching up he touched her forehead where she'd been nailed by Reggie's fire-extinguisher. "You don't remember?" he asked.

Lori brushed his fingers away and shook her head, torn between wanting to be amused at his obliviousness and frustrated by it. "I don't mean here, Rick," using his shoulder she got to her feet and stepped over the mess she'd made on the floor. Shrugging, she worked the button and zipper on her pants, unfastening them as she took a couple of steps away. She wasn't going to be able to hold it much longer so she figured she may as well do away with the rest of her dignity and at least be comfortable.

Rick got to his feet and leaned against the wall, watching her push her pants down, crossing his arms over his chest. Lori wanted to wipe the amused smirk off his face, but she figured it was better than arguing or cold indifference. "So what do you mean?" he finally asked.

Lori crouched down, holding onto the wall for support. "Like somehow I've managed to screw up everything I touch – like I'm a shitty wife… and I won't be winning any mother of the year awards either," she kept her eyes on her feet to make sure she didn't pee on them. Rick didn't say anything in response and she began to feel anxious, her stomach fluttering with nerves. Standing up she cursed that she didn't have anything to wipe with and began to fasten her jeans again, her trembling fingers fumbling with the zipper tag.

Suddenly, Rick's hand landed on her shoulder – she hadn't even realized he'd moved to stand beside her. Frozen, she looked down at his fingers curling over the ball of her shoulder. Unsure of how to interpret the gesture she found herself looking between his face and his hand.

"I don't think you're a bad mother." His voice was thick with emotion and she looked up, surprised to find tears in his eyes.

Lori frowned, lowering her chin. "Well," tears began to return to her own eyes. "Wife's a different story," she swallowed, turning her cheek to rest it on his fingers.

Rick pulled his hand away and the tears in her eyes turned to floods that slipped down her cheeks.

"It's okay," she assured him quickly. "It really is just the hormo-," Lori stopped talking abruptly when Rick's hands slid around her to pull her to his chest. She molded easily into him, her forehead finding the rough stubble on his cheek. When he didn't say anything she found herself floundering in their silence, desperate to fill it. "I've felt like I had two jobs: take care of Carl, and honour you. And I've failed on every level at both those things… I'm so sorry, Rick."

Her husband pressed a soothing kiss to her forehead, moving back to grasp her face in his hands so he could look at her.

"You haven't failed at anything," he let out a deep breath, his eyes still shining from the unshed tears, "and I'm sorry if I made you feel that way. You know I just…am not the best at talking things out."

Lori snorted with amusement and Rick rolled his eyes in response, his lips curling in a smirk. To say he was not the best was an understatement. But still, in spite of her frustrations with him being unable to open up completely she had never truly doubted his love for her. The only time she wavered was in the last month but she still had hope they would recover again.

"Anyway, I love you more than anything. You and Carl…and the baby. I love you, even when I'm mad at you, I hope you realize that. Even when I'm bein' a jerk just don't ever forget that okay, honey?"

She smiled, relieved to hear him say those words. Even if deep down she knew, it was still nice to be reassured every once in awhile.

"I love you too, baby," she replied, moving forward to hug him again, feeling a deep satisfaction replace some of her distress from before. At least they finally got to finish that conversation, even if it was not in the most ideal of settings.

Pulling back from his embrace, she wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Maybe we should…" she motioned to the other side of the room, wrinkling her nose at the floor where they were standing.

They curled up on the cement at the other side of the room again, this time sitting against the wall, Lori's head resting on her husband's shoulder. "Feeling better?" he asked, tracing her wedding ring with his fingers that were tangled with hers on his lap.

Lori nodded, closing her eyes, both emotionally and physically drained. "Yeah… I think I should try to sleep for a bit." She could already hear the slow drawn out cadence of her voice and her eyelids had become heavier and heavier until she couldn't open them anymore. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep until she had the strange sensation of falling and she bolted half-awake, her eyes searching the room. It took her sluggish brain a couple of seconds to register that her head had lulled off Rick's shoulder.

Sagging further into him she repositioned her head again and started to drift off, then cursed as she slipped again.

"Honey, why don't you lie down," Rick suggested, already taking hold of her arm to guide her down.

Lori shuffled on the floor and lowered herself until she was resting with her cheek on his thigh, her new position a relief for her sore head. "This okay?" she asked, her voice slurred. Rick's answer was his hand finding hers that were tucked under her chin. She fell asleep to the sound of his soft, reassuring mutterings.

When she woke later it was still dark out and she realized she had flipped onto her back at some point. She hummed at the feeling of Rick's fingertips tracing the bare skin of her belly. Opening her eyes into small slits she inspected his placid expression, wondering what was going through his mind.

"You're showing," his eyes flicked to hers and his mouth twisted into a small smile. "I hadn't noticed before." He returned his attention back to her stomach and opened his hand, stretching it across the skin below her navel, his fingertips settling on her hipbone.

Lori nodded, resting her hand over his. "Not much yet," she was thrilled that he was showing interest in her pregnancy.

"What do you think it is?" Rick wondered, using his unoccupied hand to brush her mussed hair away from her face.

"I have no idea," she replied honestly. She really hadn't bothered to ponder the gender much, finding it difficult to move past the shocked and frightened stage of being pregnant in the new world they found themselves in. She decided to overlook that for at least a moment to enjoy some normalcy, "I guess it would be fun to have a girl, right? One of each…"

Rick chuckled, "Yeah, that's true. But I'm not sure I would have known what to do with a girl before, now raising a girl seems even scarier."

Lori patted his hand that was resting on her stomach. "You'll be fine. Think of it this way, even if it's a girl she doesn't have much hope at being too girly in this world."

She couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through her body, reminding her of their location and the cold cement that most of her body was stretched out on. Rick must have felt it too because he quickly moved her shirt back into place, covering the small bump.

"You're cold," he observed, pulling his balled up shirt from behind his head and moving to hand it to her. "Here, take this."

Lori tried to refuse the offered shirt, shaking her head. "I'm alright," she insisted, smoothing her own shirt over her belly. "You should use it to prop your foot up," she suggested, moving to sit. Rick's hand on her shoulder kept her in place and she looked up to offer him a half-hearted scowl.

"You're sick, Lori," he debated, holding her head in place while he shifted out from underneath her and moved to lay along the length of her side, one of his arms sliding under her head. He made quick work of shaking the shirt out one handed and then tucking it around her, covering her upper body. "Last thing we need is for it to get any worse."

Lori watched his concentrated expression, swallowing heavily. She didn't argue any further, she was too drained to push back anymore. Moving back into him, she snuggled into his chest, pulling her hair over her shoulder and out of his face. "Thank you," she whispered, letting her eyes close. She'd go back to fighting him after a bit more rest.

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