Chapter Twenty-Nine

Daryl's POV

Carl was standing next to Hershel while he was checking out the baby and everything seemed to be alright but we all knew we needed to get things for the baby and none of us knew if we should go after Rick or not.

"Do we have anything the baby can eat? We don't have any of Harry's formula left he's been on solid food for months," I said, "we're gonna need to go on a run."

"I'll go with you," Maggie said.

"Sum, kid just lost his mom and his dad's not doin' to hot," I said turning to her.

"I'm already on it," she said and kissed me, "be safe."

"I will," I said and Summer walked over to Carl and knelt down in front of him.

He looked like he was about to cry and Summer pulled him into a hug. I motioned for Maggie to follow me and we got on my bike and headed into the nearest town. We found a daycare center and cleared it before starting to stock pile whatever we could find in our bags. I found some diapers, formula, bottles, clothes and toys for the newborn.

"Do you need anything for Harry while we're here?" Maggie called to me.

"I grabbed him some toys, but if you can find any clothes that would be great cause his stuff is way to small for him, any baby food would be good too," I called back and grabbed some more formula cans.

"I'll keep an eye out," Maggie called back.

Once we filled our bags with as much as we could hold we climbed back onto the bike and headed back to the prison. We finally pulled up to the prison well after night fall and practically ran inside knowing that the baby would need to eat now. Once we were inside Maggie rushed to make a bottle and I asked Hershel if I could hold the baby who was screaming. Once I started rocking her she quieted down. Beth handed me the bottle and I started to feed her.

"She got a name yet?" I asked.

"No, I was thinking maybe Amy, Andrea, Jacqui, Carol, Patricia, Sophia, or Lori I don't know," Carl said and walked over to Summer and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She put her arm around his shoulder as he started to cry silently.

"You like that lil' ass kicker," I said to the baby, "how about that? Lil' ass kicker."

Everyone laughed a little in agreement.

"You like that sweetheart," I said to the baby again as she looked up at me.

I looked over at Summer who was holding a sleeping Harry and comforting a crying Carl and I smiled at her. She smiled back at me and I went to burp the baby. All of us were wondering where Rick was but no one wanted to mention it.

The next morning during breakfast I wanted to bring up the fact that Rick still wasn't back but Carl seemed to be getting back to his old self and I didn't want to ruin that for him. While we were eating Rick came barging into the cell block and ruffled Carl's hair.

"Does everyone have a gun and a knife?" Rick asked me.

"Yeah but we're low on ammo," I replied and Rick nodded.

"Me, Maggie and Summer were planning on going on a run this afternoon to get some supplies and ammo," Glenn said and Rick nodded again and walked off.

After breakfast Summer went to get ready to go on the run with Maggie and Glenn and I took Carl with me to clear out some more areas of the prison and to make sure that there were no more walkers left running around from the herd that came through. We were walking in silence for a while and I was trying to figure out how to comfort him.

"Ya know when I was a little younger than you I lost my mom," I said, "she fell asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and burned the house down. I was playing with some kids in the neighborhood and they all had bikes and I didn't and we saw the smoke and they all sped off over there and I ran as fast as I could and when we got there I noticed it was my house that was the one that was on fire."

"I had to shoot my mom," Carl replied, "she begged me to. She knew she was going to bleed out and die from having the baby and I didn't think I could do it, but I knew I didn't want someone else to do it. I couldn't have Maggie do it or my dad, it had to be me."

I just nodded at what he said not understanding how he was so collected about this whole thing, but maybe that's just how he was dealing with what he had to do.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Carl finally said after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm sorry about yours too," I said.

"You're gonna be a great dad when Harry gets older, ya know?" Carl said.

"Thanks kid," I said with a laugh ruffling his hair.

We continued to press on through the prison because I wanted to say goodbye to Summer before they left on their run.