The Walking Dead (Fan-Fiction)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"I hate to rain on your little parade, Kara, but it's gonna be hell tryin' to get back outside with this little time bomb to worry about." Daryl murmured in a soft voice, the warmth of his presence calming my tense nerves as he walked up behind me. He reached his hand down and gently squeezed my tiny hand in his, interlocking our fingers together and pulling me closer to the crook in his body in a not so subtle way. I hated the idea of Rick –and everyone else present- knowing that we preferred to act like this, but the thought quickly disappeared when I looked up and saw a ghost of a smile tilt the corners of Daryl's lips up in a smirk, almost making him seem ages younger than he was.

"We'll worry about that when we need to," I answered, wrapping an arm around his waist in response, trying as best I could to conceal the smile that wanted to come out on display. "I've never really seen you smile. I mean, I have, but just not, you know..."

"Shut up, already." Daryl laughed, placing a tender kiss against my forehead. I could feel a hot blush cover my cheeks and I tried as best I could to hide it and looked over to Rick, hoping that he already had an idea of how to get out of this stuffy room and back outside.

A steady stream of tears dripped down his cheeks and every other second he would reach down and smooth back a strand of Lori's hair against her forehead. She hadn't said a single word since the baby began its constant screaming after entering the world, more than likely implying the stress finally knocked her out into a blissful sleep she so desperately needed.

"Her breathing is fine, and she looks to be in a stable enough condition to travel. So long as no one drops her or bumps into anything, then yeah, she'll be just fine." Andrea interrupted. She was frantically searching the room for more towels with a soft enough feel to them so not to irritate the baby. "But of course, I'm no doctor so who really knows." She threw a halfhearted smile in my direction and plopped back down in her chair besides Lori, and gathered the small child in her arms, gently wiping away the fluids covering her.

"She looks fine, I'm sure she is." Rick said. He sniffled back a sob and knelt down by Lori, barricading his face from view in her long hair.

On a normal day, Rick would have the permission to sob as long as he wanted to over his newborn daughter. But today was not a normal day. Now that we had the knowledge that Lori and her child were both alive and well, we needed to scram as quickly as possible from the filthy hospital, find the rest of our missing group and make sure the RV didn't have walkers hanging off every visible inch of the vehicle.

"So what do we do now?" I asked, looking at no one in specific.

Rick came back from his short-lived episode of complete emotion and wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. He proceeded to loop a finger around his belt hook and released a loud sigh. "To be honest, I'd much rather stay behind with Lori until she wakes up. There's no way I'm carrying her through a hospital where there are probably more walkers waiting around the first corner we pass around."

"It's just as bad staying behind!" Andrea raised a hand to her mouth in shock, nearly dropping the baby from her arms. Rick pinched the bridge of his nose in response to her action and walked over, pulling the baby to his arms with a disgusted grimace plastered over his lips. Andrea looked like she was about to cry and settled on sitting back down, zipping her mouth shut for the time being.

"As I was saying; I'd rather stay behind and wait this out. It should be easy enough to find you all, and I have a gun just in case things take a turn for the worst. There are a few bullets in my pocket too." The older man swallowed thickly and turned away from my stare, kicking at a loose speck of dust tumbling across the floor. "Just...don't leave without us, all right?"

"We'd never think of leaving you behind!" I answered, shaking my head in disbelief.

Much as I hated to admit it, a slight jolt of hurt spread through me from the fact Rick would ever even think that any of the group members might ponder the notion.