The Walking Dead (Fanfic)

Chapter 22

The walk back to the farmhouse was almost impossible, my body was aching and my mind felt clouded. Like I couldn't think straight. It felt like someone had submerged my head under water but eventually I got to the farmhouse, just in time to see Shane and Lori climb out of his car. Her head was bleeding and she had several bruises. Despite that anger we had felt towards one another, I dropped my stuff by Glenn's tent before rushing over to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, and when she turned around to face me, her eyes went wide. "Are you okay?" she asked without replying to my question. "You're pregnant, and you didn't tell me?" Carl said in outrage, I looked over at her, looked like the cat was out of the bag. Before she could reply to her son, Dale walked up to me and started inspecting me before turning to Lori. "Let's get both of you inside." Dale said before Andrea helped him walk us inside.

We sat on one of the couches with Carl in between us. Lori had a paper towel to her head and I had one to my cheek. Dale and Andrea were sitting together on one of the other couches, watching us. "Hey. I am so sorry that I left without telling you." Lori said to Carl, Dale had told me that she got worried about us and came to get us but before she could, she got into an accident. "It's okay. I wasn't scared. Is the baby a boy or a girl?" Carl asked as he looked at his mom, she looked over at me, I smiled tiredly.

"We won't know until it's born, think of it as a surprise." I joked before tapping Carl's hat, Lori smiled at me, and just like that, despite all the hurtful words we had said to one another...we were on goof terms once again. I guess it took us the fact that we could've died to get over petty things. "Will I be able to feel it?" he asked before putting his hand on his mom's stomach, Lori shook her head before answering, "Not for a while."

Lori realized that they hadn't had the birds and the bees talk with Carl, before Shane walked in and all of use went quiet, except Carl. He was oblivious to the tension between all of us. Shane asked to talk to Lori alone, so I decided it was a good time to spend some time with Carl after everything. "Hey, soon to be Big Brother. Want to go a round of checkers?" I asked him before tapping his hat again, his eyes lit up before he nodded. "Go set it up, I'm just gonna tell your mom." I told him before he darted out of the Greene's house.

I peaked my head into the living room once again, Shane and Lori immediately stopped talking, "I'm gonna be with Carl, over by the camp." Lori nodded gratefully before I shot Shane a glare.

By the time I reached camp, Carl was sitting patiently waiting for me. "You're red and I'm the black pieces." he stated before I sat down. Carl made the first move, he fixed his hat as he waited for me to move. "So, I know we haven't talked for a while. How're you doing?" I asked him before making my move, the boy in front of me shrugged. He had been dealing with so much lately, and I had been so caught up in my own drama that I didn't check up on him.

"Okay I guess, I thought I would be the one to find Sophia but at least my dad put her down. It sucks, she was the only one around here that got what it meant being a kid right now." Carl sighed, the words coming from his mouth almost made him sound older than he actually was, now I understood why Lori was having such a hard time deciding about the baby, because her son was already being affected by this world.

"It does suck, you're being forced to grow up, but you need to remember that you have this group here, your family." I told him, the little boy smiled. We continued to talk and play checkers, I allowed him to win but it was still fun playing. Carl was yawning before eventually he said goodnight, Lori joined him a few minutes after that. I tidied up the table and packed away the checkers before standing up and heading to Glenn's tent.

On the way there, Rick had come from the place they had been keeping the kid, Randall. "Aideen?" he called out to me, stopping me in my tracks. I turned and faced him, Ricks face was no longer clean shaven and despite the walker blood...the man still looked clean. "Yeah?"