A/N: Thank you to lizzydahia1, brandibuckeye, Lady-Finwe, and Guest for the reviews. They are greatly appreciated. And thank you for the follows and the favorites.

I'm sorry for the short chapter especially with how long you've been waiting for it. I'm still struggling but someone messaged me a few days ago asking me when it would come out and it gave me the push I needed to write this at least.

I do not own the Walking Dead.

Chapter Thirty

It was the ninth day in Rockwell and there seemed to be no end in sight to the length of their stay. Rick remained quiet on the matter and unanimously, the group was content to remain in place.

Marianne knew with certainty that it was December and Christmas was coming but no one spoke of it and it was never hinted at. Survival appeared to have squashed the festivity out of them all but Marianne couldn't help but think of Carl and how he at least deserved to choose whether or not to celebrate. If he wanted to, she knew it would be a hit or miss on boosting morale, either going very right or very wrong.

Not long after she had decided to talk to Carl about it she came upon an opportunity to do so. It was late morning and only the two of them were playing a game of Go-fish. They were close to the fire and the flames glinted off the glossy surface of the cards.

"Got any nines?" Carl asked, looking at his cards with a furrowed brow.

"Go fish," Marianne said and the young boy groaned, picking up a card. From the look on his face it was one he needed. "Carl, do you want a Christmas?" Marianne asked in a low whisper.

"I'm not a kid anymore," he whispered back, following her lead.

"Well, you kinda are but I know what you mean." Marianne waited for Carl to speak but he didn't. "It's okay if you want to have Christmas."

"I don't. What's the point?"

"The point is that you get to do something normal for a change. You need normal every once in awhile."

"I don't want a Christmas. Come on, let's play."

Marianne sighed. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to ask him after all. "Do you have any fives?"

After lunch, which only Lori and Carl had, everyone scattered to do whatever needed to be done or have a little downtime. Marianne was cleaning her bow with Carl sitting near her reading a comic book.

Marianne glanced up briefly as Lori entered the room but turned her focus back on her task. No more than a minute must have passed before she registered Lori coming towards her. She looked up again, making eye contact with an angry woman.

"I need to talk to you," Lori said with a barely suppressed temper.

"We can talk," Marianne said, knowing that a fight was a sure thing and only having some reservations about arguing with a pregnant woman but she wasn't the one starting it. She put aside her bow and stood up to face Lori.

The atmosphere shifted in the room, the tension rising, and from the corner of her eye Marianne noticed Beth usher Carl out of the room. The boy looked worried but curious and for some reason, a little guilty.

Marianne took a brief glance around the room. Rick and Daryl were absent, as was T-Dog and Hershel. Carol was at the fireplace like always. Maggie and Glenn were sitting on the couch keeping each other warm and making a point to not look at her and Lori.

Her gaze fell back on Lori who now had her hands on her hips, making her growing stomach more pronounced. Marianne suspected this was about Carl but she wasn't sure what had set the mother off.

"He's my son," Lori started. "It's not your place."

"My place to what?" Marianne asked genuinely confused.

"Don't act like you don't know what you did."

"But I don't," she said. The answer pissed Lori off even more but it was the truth.

The other woman scoffed. "You're not his mother. I am and you had no right to discuss Christmas with him."

Marianne let out a short laugh which was a bad idea but she couldn't help it. "That's why you're so mad? Because I asked him if he wanted Christmas?"

"I'm the one that should be talking to him about it."

"Well you weren't and it's almost here. I just want him to have somethin' to look forward to." Marianne wondered how she could calm Lori down. "I care about him."

"Oh, so you think I don't care?" Lori's face turned red, reacting the exact opposite of what Marianne wanted.

"You know that's not what I said. You want a fight? Push all you want, yer not gettin' one from me." Marianne headed to the door, stepping around Lori. It seemed the only way to get this to stop was to physically remove herself from the situation.

"You can't walk away from this! You need to stop trying to steal him."

Marianne turned around to look at Lori. "I'm not trying to steal Carl. Hell, I don't even want my own kid let alone someone else's."

"You already have Rick. You can't have Carl too."

What the hell was she talking about? Rick? She didn't have him, whatever that meant. Marianne wanted to ask what it meant but Lori wouldn't give her an answer. She'd just yell more nonsense. "What? Lori, this is ridiculous."

Lori moved fast, picking up a small vase with fake tulips in it and throwing it with what looked like as much force as she could. It hurtled through the air and Marianne dodged it, moving just in time to not get hit in the head. The sound of shattered glass against the wall was louder than Marianne expected and she flinched.

"What's going on in here?"

She saw Lori's eyes go wide and Marianne turned around to see Rick standing in the doorway, a huge frown on his face.

"I—Rick, I didn't mean to," Lori stuttered.

"It's fine," Marianne said, feeling sorry for Lori. Her relationship with Rick was already strained and this could only hurt it more.

Rick's gaze flicked towards Marianne then back to Lori. "Whatever this is, it's not fine."

"It's nothin'." Marianne shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

Daryl appeared from behind Rick and looked at the shards of glass on the floor which he gestured towards. "That ain't nothin'."

"It's just a broken ugly ass vase that nobody's gonna miss." Marianne put a warning in her voice to stop Daryl from pushing the matter and getting upset about it. From the look on his face he heard loud and clear but he wasn't about to let it go.

Daryl glowered and was about to say something but Rick beat him to it. "Lori, we need to talk. Now."

Lori winced at Rick's cop voice and her cheeks flushed even more. She nodded weakly and followed Rick, who didn't check to see if she did, out of the room. Marianne watched them go in favor of looking at anyone else and having to deal with their reactions. She couldn't help but feel bad for Lori.

When the married couple exited the room, Daryl stalked towards her. "She attacked you and yer gonna defend her?"

Marianne held up her hand. "Don't start. I just wanna finish cleanin' my bow in peace and quiet."

"Are you at least gonna tell me what happened?" He asked.

"She freaked out. End of story."

Daryl huffed. "Anyone gonna tell me what happened?" He looked around the room. "Glenn?"

The other man looked alarmed. "Why me?"

"Because he thinks he can scare it out of you," Marianne said.

"No, 'cause I think he'll pussyfoot around the truth the least of all y'all."

Marianne glared at Daryl. "You don't have to say a thing Glenn."

"He should know." Glenn said. "He's your brother."

Maggie and Carol agreed and it was Marianne's turn to huff. "Fine."

"Lori thinks Marianne's trying to steal Carl," Glenn said.

This threw Daryl and he looked like he was trying to wrap his head around it. "She's crazy."

"Don't call her that. She's pregnant and stressed out," Marianne said.

"Don't make excuses for her," Daryl said. "She's a grown ass woman."

"She had no reason to do it," Carol spoke up. "You've done nothing wrong."

Marianne had a feeling that Carol wasn't only talking about her relationship with Carl but with Rick too. She thanked her lucky stars no one brought up that particular detail.

Hopefully Lori wouldn't mention it to Rick either. She had no clue how Daryl or Rick would react and she didn't want to find out.

Rick didn't know what had gotten into Lori. He knew from her pregnancy with Carl that she could have massive mood swings but she'd never turned violent. Maybe it was the stress of running and being on the edge of barely scraping by until these past few days. He thought Rockwell had been good for them. The neighborhood was untouched and scavenging proved lucrative.

Still, this was no excuse to try to hurt one of their own.

He led her to the furthest room away from everyone, especially Carl. Thank God his son hadn't witnessed what his mother had tried to do.

They entered a bedroom and Rick firmly shut the door behind them.

"What the hell Lori?" He tried to reign in the anger in his voice. "You could've knocked her out."

"I'm so sorry," Lori said, sounding sincere. "I don't know what happened."

"That's not good enough." Rick ran a hand through his hair. "What's wrong with you?" As soon as he said it he knew he'd made a mistake, a poor choice of words.

Lori's anger returned and she straightened out of her slump. "Why do you think something's wrong with me? It's her. She's taking Carl away from me."

This made Rick pause. He knew Lori was worried that Carl was pulling away from her but he had no clue she thought Marianne was part of the problem. If anyone was partly to blame, it was him. He knew Carl picked up on his feelings towards Lori, that something was wrong between his parents.

"She's not stealing him. God forbid she shows that she cares for Carl," Rick said. "He needs all the people he can get to look after him because I can't protect him alone." It pained him to say it, to admit that he needed help protecting his own son no matter how much he wanted to pretend he could do it alone but he wouldn't let his pride get in the way, not when it concerned Carl's life.

"You don't see everything that goes on, Rick." Lori's voice was getting louder with each word. "She's acting like his mother."

"She's his friend and that's all." He didn't see it any other way and wracked his brain to come up with any instance when Marianne treated Carl like a son or when Carl treated Marianne like his mom but he came up with nothing. If anything, they were brother and sister.

"You don't understand!"

"I understand plenty. You need to stay away from her and you need to get over this. Acting like you are is a danger to the group. We need to stay united. We survive together." Rick was about to leave the room but he stopped. "I'll forgive you this once but if you try to hurt her again, I don't think I can forgive you a second time."

Upset with Marianne's attitude on the incident, Daryl left the house muttering about scouting further north. She watched him go with a little reservation. She understood why he was upset and she herself was confused at her relatively tame reaction towards Lori. It had to be because of Carl. She didn't want him to hate Lori and fighting with her would only push him further away from his mom, who he needed more than he realized.

Right when she was expecting it, Daryl returned but she knew something wasn't right in the way that he walked. Something was urgent.

"We need to bounce," he announced to the room. "There's a farm nearby with people."

Marianne's heart dropped. They were doing so well here. She already felt it was too good to be true but she didn't like being proved right.

"How close?" Rick asked, immediately going into full-on leader mode.

"Too close."

"How many are there?" Hershel asked.

"They match our number, more or less," Daryl answered.

"Pack up," Rick ordered. "We're moving out."

"Where are we going to go?" Carol wrung her hands. "It's already starting to get dark."

Carol had good reason to be worried. Traveling in the dark was dangerous. Their car lights could attract walkers or other people and a myriad of other things could go wrong because they were out during the night.

"We'll go east," Rick said in such a definitive way that he must already have their next move planned and of course he did. He wouldn't be Rick if he hadn't thought ahead. "Travel as far as we can away from here and camp out. We've done it before, we can do it again."

An idea occurred to Marianne and she couldn't help herself from mentioning it. "What about north? Me and Daryl know our way around up there."

"The mountains?" T-Dog sounded skeptical.

"I'm guessing walkers'll have a tough time up there, getting around," Hershel said.

"So will we," Rick said.

Marianne knew her idea was going to get shot down but she had to try. "Not with us." She pointed to herself and Daryl.

Rick shook his head but at least he didn't look annoyed at her suggestion. "We'll go east and see what happens after that. Augusta is nearby and we should try to check it out."

Marianne didn't push the matter anymore. Traveling north would have been nice. Seeing familiar places would've been a little comforting but maybe it was all for the best. She didn't think she deserved the comfort anyways. Yes, it was for the best.

A/N: So what do you think? I hope it was better than nothing and that it didn't disappoint.

As a side note, I'm not hating on Lori and she's not a villain in this story. People make mistakes.

We're getting closer and closer to season 3. I'm trying to do longer time jumps to speed things up. We'll get to January in the next chapter.