Rick went into the house, looking for Kagome. He found her in the kitchen talking to Patricia about Hershel's wife, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Kagome, can I talk to you outside, please?"
Kagome looked at Patricia, who nodded, "Yeah, Rick, let's go outside."
Rick ushered Kagome out of the back door and around the house. The minute they were out of sight, Rick pinned Kagome against the wall and kissed her passionately. At first, Kagome didn't resist; she had been dying to kiss Rick since the day they kissed in the woods. But when Rick's hands started to drift lower, Kagome pushed him away.
Rick looked at her, confused, "What's wrong?"
"We can't do this, Rick, you're married."
"Does it matter?"
"Of course it matters, I'm not going to be the reason your marriage breaks up."
"You're not."
Kagome tilted her head, "What happened, Rick? Why are you acting like this."
"Because I want you."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do, Kagome, my heart belongs to you."
"But not all of it. There's something more going on, Rick, tell me. Let me help you."
"You can't help me, Kagome, and my marriage is over," Rick said, pulling away from Kagome.
"Why are you saying that? What happened?"
Rick sighed, "I, I saw Lori and Shane having sex by the pond."
Kagome gasped and covered her mouth, "I'm so sorry, Rick."
Rick stayed silent. Kagome walked towards him and put her hand on his shoulder, "I know you're hurting, Rick, and you want to feel something other than rage, but I'm not going to be your revenge fuck."
Rick whirled around, "I would never do that to you; I love you."
"No, you don't, Rick. I know you care for me, but it's not love, at least not yet."
Rick looked down, then looked up at Kagome, his blue eyes shining with regret, "I do care for you so much. So much so that I get jealous every time I see you with Daryl."
Kagome put her hand on Rick's face, and he leaned into her touch, "Daryl and I are only friends. We understand each other. We've both lost our brothers, and we're both outsiders. But other than that, nothing is going on. Besides, Amy would die if I took her man."
Rick smiled, "So Daryl and Amy?"
"Do you think she moved out there only for me? She's liked him almost from the start."
"And, Daryl?"
"Since we came to the farm and he's gotten to know her. He hasn't made a move yet be it's obvious that he likes Amy."
Rick chuckled, "At least someone is happy on this farm. Kagome, I'm so sorry for what I did. I shouldn't have kissed you like that."
"Oh, the kiss I thoroughly enjoyed," Kagome said, and Rick smiled.
"But, nothing else can happen between us until you sort out your feelings."
Rick nodded; he leaned in and kissed Kagome on the cheek. Kagome smiled, "Now that we have that settled, Let's go inside and check on Hershel; he's devastated."
Kagome and Rick went back inside and asked Maggie how her dad was doing, "He's gone, I don't know where he left, and Beth collapsed."
"What?!" Kagome and Rick said at the same time.
"She was in the kitchen, and suddenly she fainted, I think she's in shock," Patricia said.
"I'll go look after Beth, you go find Hershel, she's going to need her father," Kagome said.
Rick nodded and asked Maggie where he could have gone. The only place she could think of was the local bar. Glenn volunteered to take Rick, and they got in the truck and headed into town. While this was going on, Lori and Shane came back from their little romp by the pond. Lori went into the house to find out what was going on. Maggie filled her in on what happened and told her that Kagome had asked Rick to go after her dad. Lori was so angry at Kagome for ordering Rick to go she walked into Beth's room to confront her.
Lori flung the door open, and Patricia and Kagome looked at her. Lori marched up to Kagome and tried to slap her, but Kagome caught her wrist, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Lori tried to pull her wrist away, but Kagome wouldn't let go. Finally, Kagome released Lori's wrist, "How dare you order my husband to go after Hershel!"
"I didn't order Rick to do anything, I asked him to go, and he said yes. I would have gone myself, but as you can see, I'm needed here."
"You still have no right."
"Have you lost your mind? Hershel is hurting, who do you think he's going to listen to other than Rick. You? Shane?" Kagome asked with a scoff, "Now I suggest you get out and let those of us that have jobs to do work. Why don't you go play house with Shane?" Kagome said while she took Beth's blood pressure, not even bothering to look at Lori.
Lori's eyes widen, but she doesn't say any more; she walked out of the room and out of the house. Lori decided to find Carl and Sophia and help Carol with their lessons. In the meantime, Kagome set up an IV drip for Beth and added some medication to help her sleep. She would come to check on the girl a little later. For now, Beth needed to rest.
When Kagome walked out into the living room, Maggie stood up, "Kagome, is Beth, alright?"
"She'll be fine, you were right, she's in shock. I put in an IV and gave her a sedative to help her sleep through the night. I hope she'll feel better in the morning, but what Beth needs is time to grieve."
Maggie hugged Kagome, "Thank you, so much. I don't know what we would do without you."
"You don't have to thank me, Maggie."
"Would you mind staying here the night?"
Kagome smiled, "I was going to ask you if you wanted me to stay and watch over her."
"Yes, please. Here let me get you something to eat," Maggie offered.
"You don't have to."
"It's the least I can do."
Kagome and Maggie went into the kitchen, and Maggie fixed her a plate of chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans. She placed the plate in front of Kagome and a glass of iced tea. Maggie sat down across from her. They sat there in silence while Kagome ate, then Kagome looked up at Maggie, "So, you're in love with Glenn."
Maggie nearly spit out her tea, "How do you know that?"
"I can see it on your face when you look at him."
Maggie blushed, "Yeah, I am, but I don't think he feels the same way."
"He does."
"How do you know?"
"He has that same dopey look on his face you do when he looks at you."
Maggie huffed a threw the dishtowel at Kagome, "No, seriously, Glenn does love you, but he's scared to admit it. Give him some time, and he'll come around."
"Like you and Daryl?"
Now it was Kagome's turn to choke, "Daryl and me? No, we're friends, nothing more. He's like a brother to me."
"I'm the one who likes Daryl," Amy said as she walked into the kitchen.
"Oh, I didn't-"
"Don't worry about it, Maggie, I know you didn't mean anything by it. I heard what happened to Beth. I'm so sorry."
"Thank you, Amy, I appreciate that."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"For now, no, we need to let Beth rest. When she wakes up in the morning, she'll need us to be understanding." Kagome said.
Amy, Maggie, and Kagome sat in the kitchen, drinking tea and talking. Meanwhile, outside, Lori was a nervous wreck. She went to find Shane and told him what Kagome said, but he wasn't any help, "What if she tells Rick?"
"She didn't tell him before, I doubt she'll tell him this time either," Shane said.
"This is different; now she knows that I've been cheating on Rick this whole time."
"What do you care? You're mine, anyway."
"I am not yours, Shane. I still want to be with Rick. He's the father of my children."
"You know that baby's mine."
"No, it isn't, Shane, it's Rick's. No matter what, it's Rick's baby."
Shane scoffed and started walking away, "Where are you going?"
"To get away from you."
Lori stood there with her mouth hanging open as Shane walked away. Dale, seeing Lori standing there watching Shane walk-off, walked over to her, "Are you alright, Lori?"
Lori sniffled, "Yeah, I'm fine, Dale, just upset that Rick's gone again." Dale knew that wasn't true, but he wasn't going to push it. Something was going on with Lori and Shane, and he had a pretty good idea of what it was. Dale squeezed Lori's shoulder and went back to the RV to take over the watch for Andrea.
In the house, Kagome went to check on Beth to see how she was doing. She sat on the edge of the bed and took Beth's temperature. She had a slight fever and that her aura was very troubled. Kagome decided that she needed to ease Beth's soul a bit to help her heal emotionally and physically, so she took Beth's hand and began to push some of her powers into the young girl to calm her broken spirit. Kagome hoped that it would make it a little easier for Beth to face this new world.
The following morning, Beth woke up feeling better than she did the night before. She was still sad, but the thoughts she had the night before of ending her life were no longer there. She felt stronger, somehow. Beth sat up and looked around. She saw Kagome sitting in the chair, looking at her, "How are you feeling?"
"I feel sad, but better than I did yesterday. I'm sorry if I was a bother."
"You could never be a bother, Beth; it's my job to help those in need. and I do it gladly."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"Do you know where my dad is?"
"Rick and Glenn went to go get him last night; they should be back by now."
At that moment, Hershel rushed into the room; he sat down on the bed and pulled Beth into his arms. "Bethy, Honey, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Daddy, thanks to Kagome. Are you all alright? What took you so long?"
"We ran into some people while we were in town, and we had to be careful not to lead them back to the farm. But everything's alright now."
"Good," Beth said as she clung to her father.
Kagome got up and was leaving the room when Hershel reached out and grabbed her arm, "Thank you."
Kagome nodded and left, leaving them alone. She walked into the hallway and saw that Rick was waiting for her, "Is Beth alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine now. I think she needs to be with her dad for a bit. Hershel said, you ran into some trouble."
"Yeah, but we took care of it."
"They're all dead?"
Rick nodded, "We tried to save this kid, but there were too many Walkers around. The gunfire drew them. We had no other choice but to put him down and leave him."
Kagome nodded, "It was the humane thing to do, Rick, you can't save everyone."
"I know," He said, then hugged Kagome.
Lori came down the hall and saw Kagome and Rick hugging, "What the hell is this?!"
Kagome pulled away from Rick, "What's it look like, Lori? It's a hug."
"Why are you hugging her instead of coming to me?"
"Because I was checking on Beth, and I don't want to see you or talk to you."
Rick let go of Kagome and walked passed Lori. Lori glared Kagome, "What have you done?"
"Me? What have you done, Lori, to make you look so guilty?"
Lori didn't say anything; she turned and chased Rick out of the house, "Rick, Rick, wait!" She cried, trying to catch up to him.
"Leave me alone, Lori!" Rick said as he crossed the field.
"No, we need to talk about this. We need to talk about what's going on between you and that bitch."
Rick whirled around, "Don't you dare call Kagome a bitch."
"Why not, when she's trying to steal my husband!"
Rick stopped at the fence and laughed, "Have you lost your mind?"
"I know you want to sleep with her."
"I'm not the one cheating, Lori!"
Lori gasped, "Is that what Kagome told you? She'll make up anything about Shane and me to take you away from me."
"What makes you think she would say it was you and Shane? And Kagome didn't say anything, Lori. I saw you."
Lori took a step back, "You saw what?"
"Don't play dumb. I saw you and Shane down by the pond."
"It wasn't what it looked like."
"Oh, no? You mean you and Shane weren't fucking each other's brains out?"
"Rick, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, I bet you are. This affair has been going even before I was shot, hasn't it?"
Lori didn't say anything.
"Yeah, that's what I thought."
"What are you going to do?"
Rick bitterly laughed, "What do you think I'm gonna do?"
He took off his wedding ring and threw it at her feet, "This marriage is over. If Shane wants you, he can have you. You deserve each other," Then he spat on the ground and walked away.
Lori stood there and stared at Rick walk away. She quickly picked up the ring and chased after him, "Rick, you can't mean that!"
Rick ignored her and kept walking. He went into the tent and grabbed a backpack and started stuffing his clothes in it. Lori arrived and tried to stop Rick, but he shrugged her off, "Don't touch me."
"Baby, we can work this out. Give me a chance, and I'll make this up to you."
"You honestly think we can fix this after what you did. There is no fixing this, Lori. You disgust me."
"What about the baby?"
"You think you can use my child to hold me to you? You're wrong, I'll still provide for the baby, but I want nothing to do with you."
"And Carl?"
"He'll eventually understand. He's not the first kid whose parents divorce."
"You're using this as an excuse to be with that whore!" Lori yelled.
"I would watch who I call whore, Lori. Kagome isn't the one who has been cheating on me with Shane."
At that moment, Carl walked in, "You cheated on Dad with Shane?!"
Lori and Rick turned around, "Carl, it's not what it sounded like."
"Yes, it is. I heard you and Dad arguing. You slept with Shane! How could you, Mom?! How could you cheat on Dad like that?!"
"Carl-"
"NO! I HATE YOU!" Carl said and ran out of the tent. He needed to find Kagome. She's the only one that could help him.
Carl ran blindly out toward Kagome's tent. He knew that if anyone could understand him, it would be Kagome. He saw her hanging up her laundry, "KAGOME!" Carl yelled.
Kagome turned around and smiled, but then her smile fell when she saw tears running down his face, "Carl, what's wrong, Honey?"
Carl didn't say anything; he only crashed into Kagome's arms and started sobbing. Kagome held Carl tight and tried to soothe him, "Shh, Carl, it's alright; everything is going to be okay."
Carl started shaking his head, "No, Kagome, it's never going to be okay ever again."
"Why, Baby, what happened?"
"My mom cheated on my dad with Shane, and now they're breaking up."
"Oh, Carl, I'm so sorry."
"What am I going to do, Kagome? I don't want my parents to split up, but at the same time, it isn't right what my mom did to my dad," Carl said as he looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
Kagome wiped his tears away, "Do you want me to talk to your dad and see if I can fix this?"
Carl stayed quiet for a while, "No, Dad said that Mom had been cheating on him before he was shot. It's not fair for him to be with someone who treats him like that. My dad deserves someone like you. I know you would never do that to him. I know you and Dad could love each other."
"Oh, Carl."
"Don't you care about my dad?"
"Very much, Baby, but this is the last thing your dad needs. He just had his heartbroken. He needs time to heal."
"You can help him heal with your powers."
Kagome laughed, "They don't work like that. Your dad has to heal on his own. But you never know what the future hold, Carl. Maybe when he feels better, something might happen."
Carl smiled, "I hope so."
Kagome kissed his head, "Me too."