Minimal work for the first day of school! Yeah! So I had time to edit this... enjoy!

When the sun started to peep around the edges of the curtains I threw the covers off and climbed out of bed. I didn't think I had slept for more than an hour and even that was broken sleep. My eyes were scratchy and bloodshot from crying.

I stepped outside and looked over at the... cabin, for lack of a better word, Merle had built for himself. He had hated being in the prison, and honestly, everyone hated having him in there. There was no movement except the smoke from his still rising gently in the air. That had been another fight. However, people traded for it and I had even used it from time to time as a disinfectant. It was potent stuff.

I walked down and threw a couple of logs on the fire. My stomach was too upset for breakfast, but I filled the kettle for some tea. I sipped it slowly, hoping Daryl would come out before I had to go relieve Beth. Carol came out and after visiting the hen house threw a couple of eggs in the frying pan. The thing that had smelled so good to me yesterday, now caused my stomach to churn in a most unpleasant way.

"Do you want one?" Carol asked. She was scowling in my direction, body turned slightly away from me.

I sighed and shook my head. There was no doubt in my mind she was angry about everything that had happened. I couldn't blame her. Daryl was her best friend here. "No, thank you though. I'm just going to head to the clinic, check in on everyone."

When I walked through the doors of the clinic Beth was taking a set of vitals on the little girl. Her mother was sleeping in the chair next to her. The only other patient was Frank, one of the new arrivals. Hershel had taken out his appendix the day before yesterday.

I walked over to the desk and picked up the chart on the little girl. I felt badly I had dumped this on Hershel and Beth. I reviewed all the information quickly. There was nothing good there. Her vitals were all trending down. She wouldn't live long. When Beth came over I handed her the file so that she could write everything down. "How was her night?" I asked quietly.

Beth glanced over to the table. "She sleep most of the night. I gave her a dose of painkillers around four this morning. The mom's a wreck, she doesn't believe it. She still thinks that there's going to be some type of miracle."

"Okay, thanks. Why don't you go get some breakfast and some sleep. I'm most likely going to be moving her into one of the cells by this afternoon."

Beth looked at me surprised. Moving a patient into a cell meant that death was imminent. The cell was always locked unless one of us was in there monitoring them. "Do you think you have to already? Mary's going to have a real hard time with that."

I looked over at the little girl. "Children are different than adults. They can be much more resilient, but they also go downhill a lot faster. If she keeps going like she is, yes. I'd rather be safe. If she improves or seems to plateau, I can always reconsider or move her back out." I looked back at Beth. She was looking at the little girl sadly. "This part always sucks. But part of our responsibility is to keep everyone safe. If she dies and we don't see it right away, she could turn, she could kill others. If that happened, it would be on us." For some reason people that died without being bit tended to turn faster. I'd seen it happen in as little as five minutes.

"You're right," Beth agreed. "It's just not fair that this is how it has to be for them. That a mother can't sit with her dying child."

"No," I said sadly. "It's not."

Beth headed off for the day. As soon as Frank woke up I pronounced him good to go. I gave him a whole list of do's and don'ts then checked on Jolie again. As I was listening to her heart Mary woke up. She started to speak but I held up one finger as I finished listening. As soon as I pulled out the ear pieces she said, "Beth said you'd be in this morning. That you'd know more. Is she getting any better?"

There was so much hope in her voice I hated to answer her. "Mary, I'm sure Hershel told you this but I know it's a lot of information so I just want to go through it again. Jolie is making a lot of white blood cells. Too many white blood cells. These normally would fight off infection, but these ones don't work right and she doesn't have enough normal ones. She can't fight off this infection."

Mary gripped Jolie's hand tightly. "Well you're giving her medicine right? It'll help."

I pulled up a chair across the table from her before I answered. "No. We're giving her a little bit of fluids and a small amount of pain medication. It's only enough to try to make her more comfortable. She doesn't have long. It'll be soon, maybe even today. I'm very sorry, but we can't make her better."

Mary looked at me and I could see that for the first time she believed what she was being told. The tears broke through and I moved over to put my arms around her. As she sobbed against my shoulder, I fought back tears of my own.

When Janet, one of the others from Jack's group came in to sit with Mary, I settled in behind the desk to read through different medical books. With most of what we saw here being trauma, it was easy to forget the other things. I looked up when the door opened. It was Jack.

He smiled broadly when he saw me sitting there. "I was hoping you'd be here today. How's Jolie?" he asked quietly. I shook my head. Jack took a deep breath and leaned against the edge of the desk. "You alright? You look awful." Jack was never one to mince words. He always told it straight.

"I just didn't sleep much last night, that's all." I closed the book I had been reading and walked over to place it back on the shelf. I could hear him come up behind me.

"Hey," he said, "Talk to me. Tell me what's going on."

I stared straight at the books. "Daryl moved his stuff out last night. He's staying with his brother."

Jack turned me around. "Well that makes things a little easier, doesn't it?" He moved to kiss me.

"Jack don't." I slid out of his arms. "Yesterday morning I was with Daryl, and I was happy. I can't just turn all those feelings off. Even if I could, it wouldn't be right." I could feel my voice wavering as I spoke.

"Okay, shh. You're right." Jack stepped forward and hugged me. "I'm sorry. I know this is hard on you. Why don't we just spend some time together? You can fill me in on what I've missed." His thumb brushed over the faint scar on my cheekbone. "Okay?" he kissed my forehead.

"Okay," I whispered.

I was dead on my feet by the time Hershel came to take over for me. We typically didn't keep someone in the clinic all the time, even when we did have patients. It was usually sufficient to have someone go in every few hours. It was only when a patient was extremely ill that we rotated through. Between Beth, Hershel, Carol and myself it tended to work out well.

I walked over to where Lori was playing with Judith. Gertie ran off to go play with Carl "How was school today?" There were six kids in the school ages 7-13. I had no idea how they managed to teach everyone age appropriate stuff.

"Good. Axel figured out how to jerry rig the window in the infirmary so he took the older ones and had them help him hook up the generator for there while I worked on reading and writing with the younger ones." In addition to math, reading and writing everyone pitched in and taught whatever skills they knew. Lori made funny faces at Judith while she continued. "So now anytime you want to run tests you don't have to power up the big generator."

"Good. That thing guzzles gas." There was already a small generator for the clinic, and it would make sense to keep the blood work equipment over there, but the number one rule was don't keep anything worth something outside of our section. We only kept a small amount of medication and equipment over there and that was in a locked cabinet that was bolted to the wall and behind a locked door.

I watched as Lori bounced Judith on her knee. "Daryl moved down to Merle's," I blurted out. "He came in late last night and just packed all his stuff." Lori looked at me stunned. "He said that he doesn't want to be with me, that if I loved him I wouldn't have to think about things. You would think this would make it easier. Jack certainly did, but it doesn't." I could feel myself starting to cry again.

Lori started to talk but I cut her off. I needed to get out of there. If I started crying I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop. "I think I need to go lie down. I didn't get much sleep last night." I all but bolted inside.

I still hadn't managed to sleep when I came out a few hours later. Everyone was just sitting down for dinner. I sat down next to Andrea and Lori passed me a plate. Daryl didn't even glance my way. I mostly spread my food around my plate, eating only when Tyreese or Lori gave me a hard look. I was so miserable it just didn't taste good. As soon as others were done I moved to put my plate down for Gertie. There was plenty leftover, she'd be very happy.

I looked under the table but she wasn't there. She was always underfoot when it was dinner time, hoping to snag anything that hit the ground. "Carl, do you know where Gertie is?"

Carl looked up from stacking the plates. "She was around a little while ago, but I haven't seen her for maybe an hour."

"Hmph. She's got to be around here somewhere. Gertie! Gert! Come here!" I whistled. I looked around the yard but she didn't come. "Did anyone let her in?" There was a chorus of no's. I called her again.

"Here she comes," Tyreese said. "She must have been sleeping behind the cars."

I turned and smiled as I saw her walking toward us. The smile quickly faded away. There was something wrong with her. She was stumbling and was weaving back and forth. I dropped the plate on the ground and ran down the hill. I could hear footsteps behind me. Just as I reached her she missed a step and fell over.

"Gertie!" I called out. She whined pitifully and tried to stand up. This was just too much, after the last two days I just fell apart. I started sobbing, the tears totally blocking my vision. I hoisted her up into my arms and stood. Hands tried to pull her away from me. "No! I've got her." I went to take a step and almost fell over a small rock.

"Stella, you have to give her to me. She's too big for you to carry," Rick said gently. As I transferred her over to him I heard Carol yell out that she'd go get Hershel.

I followed Rick into the prison, stay on my feet only through the grace of God and Tyreese's strong hand gripping my arm. As soon as Rick put her down on the table I pushed him out of the way. "It's okay honey, I'm here," I sobbed out. Someone pulled a chair over and pushed me down into it as someone else lit the lanterns. I just kept petting her. She was trembling and panting hard.

I looked up as Lori pressed a handkerchief into my hand. "She'll be alright, Hershel will know what to do," she said as she slipped her arm around me. I wiped my face then buried my head in her shirt. I could barely breathe I was crying so hard. I heard Beth kick everyone else out.

I had just started to quiet down when Hershel came through the door. I popped out of the chair and tried to tell him what was going on but I burst out in tears again. Beth quickly told him what had happened. I let Lori push me back into the chair as Hershel looked at Gertie. As he went to go lift up her head he paused and swiped at something by her mouth. I wiped the tears from my eyes so I could see. She had a bright green spot on her fur. It was small, only the size of a dime or so.

Hershel looked over at me. "It's antifreeze, she must have licked some off the ground or something." He clumped over to the door and threw it open. "Merle! Go get a jug of whatever it is you call that stuff you brew, hurry up." There was some sort of argument going on outside in the hall, but I had stopped listening. The only thing I knew about antifreeze and dogs was that they typically died from it.

Hershel came back in and started talking to me again. "We're going to put a tube up her nose and then we're going to get her drunk. She's going to have to stay that way for a few days. The alcohol will help break down the antifreeze. I'll put an IV in her too. Luckily she won't need more than a bag or two. I'll be honest Stella, she still may die, but we won't know for a while."

"Okay," I choked out. I watched as they did everything that they needed to. I didn't even take my eyes off Gertie when Rick brought in the moonshine. Suddenly there was a sharp jab in my arm.

"Sorry," Beth said looking down at me. She pulled out the needle. "Dad told me to."

I turned my glare to Hershel. He just looked back at me sternly. "You're a mess. You look horrible. Lori said you haven't slept and you're not going to sit in here all night watching over her. Go to bed."

I was pissed. How dare he? "No. I'm staying right here." I was determined to fight it off. Fifteen minutes later however I was fighting to keep my eyes open. A few minutes after that I barely registered the familiar smell of leather and sunshine as strong arms picked me up and carried me to bed.

Hope you all enjoyed this. As always please review.