#resurrectionofannabellee

[spyvstailor]

This request for a new chapter of Pillar of Salt, the Sophia lives story is a long time coming, but here it is. Chapter Sixteen.

Chapter Sixteen

**Sophia**

Lainey was getting stronger as the days passed.

The baby was sitting in a car seat, eyes on Sophia as she entertained the infant in the church with a few show tunes she remembered from various film's she had watched. Finishing up with a rousing round of 'Gary Indiana' from The Music Man, she was beginning to run low of songs she knew and Lainey was beginning to get fussy again.

Nearby T-Dog was cleaning the guns in their cache when Sophia flopped down beside him, exhausted.

“You're getting a crash course in being a mama, huh?” He asked.

“I'm tired,” she declared.

“How is she today?”

Sophia shrugged. “Getting better, I think. Mama says she could use more formula though. She sure goes through a lot.”

“Baby's do that,” T-Dog said with a grin. “I heard you singing to her. You got a pretty voice, you know that?”

Sophia blushed and shrugged. “She seems to cry less when I do it.”

“The girl has taste,” T-Dog teased. “You want me to watch her for a while?”

Thinking about it, Sophia shook her head. “No, we're okay. I just hope mama will watch her tonight so I can get some sleep.” She was quiet for a bit, before saying, “she doesn't like Lainey.”

T-Dog was quiet, head bent to his work.

“I don't know why.” She added.

“Think she's just worried,” he finally said. “Baby's means a lot more work, a lot more worry. This isn't the best place to have a baby, what with all the dead walking around. I don't think she doesn't like her, she's just worried is all.”

Sophia pushed Lainey's car seat, setting it rocking with her toe. “I guess, maybe I just thought she'd be happy that Lainey is going to be okay.”

T-Dog was quiet.

“We're not going to be okay here, are we?” Sophia asked softly.

“We'll be okay, Sophia.”

“I know we could die,” she suddenly admitted. “You don't have to pretend we're safe. I'm not afraid, you know. I just...I worry about mama if I'm gone. I don't want her to be alone.”

“She won't be,” T-Dog assured her. “She has us.”

Sophia smiled. “You wouldn't leave her?”

“Girl, I would die for her,” he stated with a grin. “She's worth ten of me.”

“That's not true,” Sophia argued. “You're the best.”

“Better than that Cajun boy you're sweet on?” He teased, nudging her with his elbow.

Sophia giggled. “I love Fate. But I love you too.”

“Yeah?”

“Um-hm.”

“Promise?”

“Yes!”

They fell silent as the door to the church opened and Eve entered.

“How's it going?” She asked as she approached.

Sophia shrugged. “Okay.”

“Your mama sent me to find you, she wants some help with lunch, I can watch Lainey for you, if you want.”

“It's okay,” she said, scooping up Lainey's car seat by the handle. “She cries when I'm not around.”

Fate scooped up Lainey as soon as he and Glenn returned from their supply run, beaming down at the baby and cooing to her in his funny French. Giving Sophia a pat on the head as he passed.

“How are you, lapin?” He asked as she stirred the pasta for lunch.

“Good,” she said. “Did you find more formula?”

Fate looked over at Glenn, who pulled two new tins from behind his back with a grin.

“Thanks!” She exclaimed happily.

“Thank Glenn,” Fate said. “He can find anything anywhere. It's a talent I don't have.”

“Thank you, Glenn,” she said, moving across the kitchen to hug him.

Glenn blushed a little and shrugged. “They were just sitting in a cupboard.”

“Where's your mama?” Fate asked.

“Cleaning a deer Dale shot.”

“Dale shot it?!” Fate demanded.

“Um-hm, it was wandering by the wall. Eve and T-Dog had to haul it all the way around to the gate because we couldn't get it over.” She laughed.

“Well, guess I won't have to go out hunting now,” Fate cooed to Lainey, who reached for his nose.

“You should go see her,” Sophia suggested to Fate. “I'm sure she'd like to know about the formula.”

“Would she?” Fate inquired.

“Sure,” she insisted.

Still cradling Lainey, the Cajun got up from where he had plunked himself down at the table and moved to stand before her.

“I'm on to you, you know,” he said with a grin.

“What?” She asked.

“What?” He repeated, giving her a peck to the top of her head as he moved for the back door out into the rose garden.

She smiled at the pasta, before moving to check on the steaks she was carefully frying on the small camping stove.

“What's going on there?” Glenn asked.

“What do you mean?” She chirped.

“Come on...what's up?” He pressed.

She beamed. “What?”

“Sophia.”

“I just thought...I dunno.” She turned to Glenn. “Do you think they like each other?”

Glenn shrugged. “Maybe. I dunno. I'm bad at reading these things.”

“Can you watch the food for a bit?” She asked, heading for the back door.

“Sure, I guess.”

Poking her head out to sneak a peek at where her mama would be cutting up the deer, she found Fate and Lainey on the other side of the doorway, the two of them standing with Eve, chatting and laughing.

Opposite them, her mama worked quietly, tossing pieces of meat she had carved from the deer carcass into a bucket for storage in their new cold cellar.

“Eve,” Sophia called out. “Can you come help me with dinner, I need to pee.”

Eve looked over from where she was laughing and playing with Lainey.

“Sure thing,” she said.

Sophia stood for a moment longer, as Eve passed her, ducking into the kitchen, eyes on Fate and Lainey who were roaming among the rose bushes. Lainey was so small in Fate's arms, like a doll, and her little eyes never left his face as he patiently showed her roses in bloom and ladybirds.

She noticed, before turning to head for the outhouse, that Fate was working his way towards her mama and smiled wickedly.

“Fate?” She asked that night as her and Lainey said their goodnights to him.

“Yes, lapin?”

“Are you going to take me out with you tomorrow? I think Lainey's better and we never got to go out together.” She said softly.

He wriggled his finger against Lainey's cheek.

“I'll ask your mama,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“I don't see why not, if she says its okay, you understand?”

Sophia nodded.

“You've been so good with taking care of this little one,” he added thoughtfully. “I'm sure your mama's very proud.”

Sophia shrugged. “I don't mind. She's easy, when you kind of get into the habit of doing things.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” she elaborated. “Like, I feed her when she cries, unless she needs changing, I burp her after feeding, keep her out of the sun and the cold, make sure there's nothing in her drawer with her so she can breathe. She's easy.”

“You don't have to be so grown up though, yeah?” He said. “You can still be a little girl too.”

“I'm okay,” she said. “I still enjoy drawing.”

He smiled. “Yeah? What have you been drawing?”

She shrugged. “Just people.”

“People? Like your mama?”

“Yeah,” she said. “And Glenn and you and T-Dog and Dale, Lainey and Eve too.”

“Oh yeah? When's the art show opening?” He teased.

“Sophia, bedtime,” her mama said, stepping into the room.

“Did you know, Carol, that our girl here is going to be the next Vermeer?”

Sophia liked the sound of 'our girl' and smiled happily.

“As long she minds the things at our gate and eats her vegetables, she can be whatever she wants,” her mama said, reaching out for Lainey.

Sophia handed the baby over and stood up. “What if I wanted to be a pilot?”

“If we can find a plane that can fly without fuel, you certainly can be a pilot. Don't forget to brush your teeth.”

Lingering in the doorway, Sophia thought about what Fate said and asked, “can I sleep with you tonight, mama? Have a sleepover like we used to?”

“Of course we can.”

“Can Fate come too?” She tried.

“No.” Her mama stated.

Sophia and Fate looked at each other, the latter grinning widely.

“He's already in bed,” Carol went on.

“And it sounds like a girl's night,” Fate added.

“But it's rude not to invite him, isn't it, mama?” Sophia went on with her questioning.

“Sophia,” her mama began firmly. “Go brush your teeth.”

“Nice try, lapin,” Fate teased.

She smiled sweetly and skipped off to brush her teeth.

“Are you ready?” Fate asked.

Sophia checked her gear and rifle. “Yeah.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think so.”

“Have your canteen with some good water?”

Sophia checked her canteen. “Yep.”

“Ammo?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Alright,” he said. “We get out there, you are always alert, yeah? Don't ever let your guard down.”

“Okay.”

“Trouble hits you climb a tree and stay there, I will come and find you, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, then let's head out.”

Sophia nodded grimly and started walking towards the gate beside Fate.

“Do you have a sandwich for your lunch?” He asked.

“Yep.”

“Back up gun?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Knife?”

“Yeah.”

“Flare gun?”

“Yes.”

“Skittles?”

“Ye-no.”

“Ah, we'll find some.”

Sophia beamed.

As they stepped through the open gate, she nodded goodbye to her mama and Dale.

“Be careful,” her mama cautioned.

“I will.” She returned.

“Listen to Fate, okay?” Carol went on.

“Yes, mama.”

“I love you!”

Sophia stopped and looked back at her mama.

“I love you too!” Fate declared in return, before grinning roguishly. “Oh, you meant your girl...sorry.” He winked at Sophia. “My mistake.”

Giggling, Sophia said, “I love you, mama. Be home soon.”

[eddiediaz-buckley]

resurrectionofannabellee replied to your post:

SOMEBODY SENT MY MOM A DICK PIC IM SCREAMING

Is it a nice one?

she called him a “needle dick” so I assume no heh 

[spyvstailor]

For @resurrectionofannabellee and many others who are beginning to read this series. Chapter Fifteen. Sophia lives. The Lieutenant flirts. Glenn is a sweetheart. Enjoy!

Chapter Fifteen

**Sophia**

For three days and nights Sophia watched over Lainey with a hawk-like intensity, while her mama nursed the baby and went about her duties.

Sophia knew when her mama was upset and something about Lainey and the whole ordeal over her mama had upset Carol.

Everyone else were over the moon over Lainey, Glenn and T-Dog almost squabbling over who got to snuggle with Lainey while Sophia took her breaks to walk the wall.

For three days and nights, Sophia was worried she would wake up and find Lainey cold and still.

She remembered the kitten she had found in the backyard of home, the one she had taken to her mama and they put their everything into saving. It was weak and barely moved like Lainey, and one night Sophia went to bed and in the morning, she woke to find the kitten dead.

This was the fear she had over Lainey.

Her mama's fear seemed different and Sophia couldn't understand why. She barely held Lainey, she almost fed and cared for her like a robot just going through the motions. It not only worried Sophia, but scared her a little too.

Holding Lainey close to her chest, Sophia sat by Glenn who worked on repairing a shovel, while Fate and T-Dog chatted.

“The first time I woke up, walked out my front door, saw the dead, I thought 'I died, this is hell',” T-Dog said. “Sometimes I think we're still dead. But...maybe this isn't hell...purgatory, I guess?”

Fate was quiet, uncharacteristically quiet, his brow knit in thought.

It was Glenn who scoffed. “I feel dead.”

T-Dog nodded.

“No, I mean all the time,” Glenn admitted. “I...when I sleep it's like I'm awake and when I'm awake...it's like being in a never ending nightmare.”

“I knew a man once,” Fate suddenly said in a soft, low voice. “He was in a car accident when he was a teenager, died on the operating table for a whole minute. Said he sat up and walked away from his body, just left it behind. He died and walked around for an entire minute, before he was snapped back to his body. When he finally came to after the operation, he said he never felt like he actually lived. Was convinced he was dead and that this was the afterlife.”

Sophia watched Fate's face, suddenly seeing in it something she identified with fear.

Fate was never afraid.

And all of a sudden Sophia was afraid because Fate was afraid.

“Maybe we are dead,” Fate said. “Just stumbling around forever.”

In her arms Lainey gave a mewl, then a soft cough, before she began to squirm and squall.

Everyone looked up and over.

It was a cry, but even to Sophia's ears it was a healthy wail.

She smiled down at the baby as her mama hurried over to help them both into the dorm to make some formula for Lainey.

Lainey was fed and sleeping, Sophia hovering over the chiffarobe drawer they had made for her in lieu of a crib.

Nearby her mama folded dishtowels.

“Are we dead?” Sophia asked.

Her mama frowned. “What are you talking about, sweetie. Don't be silly.”

“How would we know we aren't, though?” Sophia asked. “We could be, couldn't we?”

“We're not dead, baby,” Carol said.

“Lainey's going to be okay, isn't she? Her crying wasn't bad, was it?” She asked.

“I don't know,” her mama sighed.

Sensing she was annoying her mama, Sophia fell silent.

Glenn peeked into the room, before almost shyly entering the room. “Hey,” he greeted. “How is she?”

“Fine,” Sophia replied. “Sleeping.”

“She eat?”

Sophia nodded.

Glenn eased down beside Sophia, eyes on Lainey curiously.

As Carol left the room with a load of freshly washed and dried and folded dishtowels, Sophia leaned against Glenn slightly and looked over at him.

“Are we dead, Glenn?” She asked him in a worried whisper.

Glenn flashed her a half grin. “No,” he stated with a laugh. “No,” he insisted a little more seriously. Shifting in close to her, he furrowed his brow. “Sophia, no,” he stated firmly. “We're not dead, those things out there are, but we aren't. This is reality.”

Sophia shrugged. “I just...how would we know?”

“Oh, Sophia, no...that talk out there, we were just playing.”

Falling silent for a moment, Sophia pulled Lainey in closer to her chest and whispered, “okay.”

“I know it seems like a video game or movie or something,” Glenn went on. “But it isn't. I wish it was...I wish I was home playing Zomb Bomb with a litre of Pepsi and a large double cheese pizza, but I'm not and this is real.”

Considering this, Sophia nodded and chirped, “Glenn?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you stay with us always?”

He nodded. “Sure. We need to stay together,” he added. “All of us do different things to keep our group running and you all need the in and out bandit, right?”

Sophia smiled and nodded. “You're the best around.”

Glenn beamed at her.

They sat there for a bit, before Glenn said, “I just realized. Without any family, Lainey's all of ours.”

“She is.”

“She's going to be so spoiled.”

“Yep.”

She was hanging around the doorway to Fate's room, walking up and down the hall with Lainey secured against her with a swaddling wrap, watching the man as he sat on his bed and flipped through a National Geographic magazine.

“Lapin,” he murmured without looking up from his magazine.

Sophia stopped in the middle of the doorway and peered in at him. “Yeah?”

“Did you know there was a Pharaoh down in Egypt who was so hated that after he died they literally erased him from history?”

Sophia stepped into his room a little. “No.”

“Hm, his name was Ahkenaten and he punished the followers of the old Gods and formed a new religion under his own rule that worshipped the Aten, the sun God.”

“Why?”

“Because he disliked the power the priests of Ra held over the country.”

Sophia stood by his bed now. “Were the priests bad men?”

“I don't know.” Fate replied putting the magazine down. “That's a good question.” He smiled up at her. “Hey there, petit lapin, where's your mama?”

“Getting ready for bed,” she replied. “Is she going to be by to wish you goodnight soon?”

“Ooh-ye-yi,” the Lieutenant gasped. “You cheeky little devil. Get thee back to your room.”

Giggling, she stepped forward and leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight, Fate.”

“Bon nuit, lapin.” He returned, hand coming up to tweak her chin and then stroke Lainey's soft peach fuzz. “Bon nuit, pistache.”

Contemplating the man who she loved more than any other man, Sophia decided to ease down onto the bed at his side with Lainey, curling up under his arm.

“Fate?” She asked.

“What, lapin?”

“How old are you?”

Sucking air in through his teeth, Fate tensed. “Oooh, too old for my own good.”

“Older than my mama?”

“Older than the hills, girl.”

Sophia smiled.

Reaching over, Fate rubbed Lainey's fat cheek.

“How old will you be when I'm twenty?”

Again Fate made a face. “How old are you now?”

“Eleven.”

“Fifty...sixish?”

Sophia did the math in her head.

“Mama's older than that.”

“Don't let her hear you saying that now,” Fate chuckled.

Snuggling in against Fate, Sophia went on, “mama's really pretty, isn't she?”

“She is.”

“Is that why you call her angel?”

“Naw, I call her angel because she has those pretty angel eyes.”

Sophia was quiet. “Her eyes are blue.”

“Yes, they are.”

“Mine aren't. My eyes are an ugly green-brown. Like Lainey poop.”

Chuckling at the analogy, Fate planted his hand on the top of Sophia's head and pet her hair gently. “I used to have this busted up old Buick, was the prettiest colour green you ever saw. Like the colour of olives. You know olives?”

She nodded.

“Your eyes are green like olives, lapin. They are not Lainey poop brown.”

“Do you think if I get older my eyes will turn blue?” She asked hopefully.

“I don't think that's how eyes work, honeychild.”

Sophia was quiet, loving the feeling of Fate stroking her hair. It reminded her of when she was young and her mama would sneak into her room and pet her hair when she thought Sophia was asleep. After her daddy shouted himself asleep, in the scary lull of vacuum-like silence when she could hear her mama picking up the pieces of broken plates.

Those times were scarier than anything she had been through yet. In fact, if Sophia was honest, if she was really, really honest deep down in her heart, she would admit that she was happiest now. Safer and more free to do what she wanted, to express herself, to ask questions, to speak without worrying about making anyone angry.

Fate was perhaps the best thing she had ever had happen to her. He was all soft pillowy comfort after the gravel to the knees feeling of her daddy. He lulled her to sleep with his presence. He made her feel wanted and important.

“Fate?” She whispered.

“Yes, lapin?”

“I know one day you may not be here,” she confessed. “I know we all have to die someday, but I hope you don't die for a really, really long time. We need you here with us.”

Fate was quiet for a moment.

“I need you here with me.” She whispered in a softer, more reverent tone with tears pricking her eyes.

Leaning over, Fate pressed a kiss to the top of her head and pulled her in closer to his side. “You know, lapin,” he began in a tone that seemed like it was etching the words in stone. “I think you're the first person to ever want me around.”

“That's not true,” she stated. “Don't say that. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I should put Lainey to bed,” she said after a moment. Getting to her feet and standing over him. “Goodnight, Fate. I love you. Okay?”

He beamed up at her. “I love you too, my girl.”

As Sophia ducked out of Fate's room, she spied her mama coming down the hall and hopped into an empty room nearby to spy on them.

Waiting with Lainey in the dark, she hoped the baby didn't make a sound as she heard her mama speak softly to Fate. She knew it was wrong to be nosey, but she couldn't help it. The way her mama talked to Fate was almost so unlike her. She was light and playful when she talked to him.

“Tomorrow, when you head out, we could use more diapers and some formula.” Carol said, her voice muffled a little through the wall.

“Alright.”

There was a pause that Sophia filled with Fate's sly smiles and her mama's sweet blue eyes.

“That girl of yours,” Fate began in a tone Sophia had never heard from him. “She's a bit of a her mama, yeah?” He said it like...well, almost like he wanted something, like the way Sophia felt she sounded whenever her mama would ask her what she wanted for Christmas, only with a softness to it.

It was a beautiful sound.

To Sophia it was the most beautiful sound Fate had ever made without singing.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because she's got a bit of Red Nick in her,” Fate finished with a voice that Sophia could hear the smile in.

“If she has the devil in her, that's because she's learning all your bad habits,” Carol replied.

Sophia pressed her smile into Lainey's soft, downy hair.

“I thought my bad habits were my best traits,” Fate teased.

Her mama was quiet for a moment, before saying, “that girl is becoming more and more like you each day.”

There was a long pause that began to worry Sophia.

Outside the cicadas twittered and rattled, giving the night a symphony to accompany the shadows. It was the sweetest sound Sophia heard, and she pressed it into her memory. The cool night air, the cicadas, Fate and her mama in the room next door wishing each other goodnight and Lainey in her arms, getting stronger with each hour of food and care.

“I'm glad she's following your example,” her mama finally stated. “You're a fine man.”

There was an emotional silence that followed that Sophia would later learn the right word for it would have been 'smug', where she could almost feel Fate's emotion at hearing this confession.

“Are you getting a little sweet on me, blue eyes?” Fate inquired.

Her mama clucked her tongue at him.

“Come over here, let me see that pretty blouse up close,” Fate said. “It's got them poppies on it that I love so much.”

“I'm going to bed,” her mama returned.

“I know that.”

“My own bed,” she clarified.

“I know that,” Fate repeated with a laugh.

“Sometimes I wonder,” her mama murmured.

Giggling softly to Lainey, Sophia heard another long, quiet pause as she peeked out of the room, thinking her mama had gone to bed. She took a cautious step out into the hall, when she heard her mama still in Fate's room.

“Behave yourself,” Carol whispered.

Sophia peeked around the corner of the doorway quickly, just fast enough to see her mama sitting on Fate's bedside at his hip.

Quickly ducking back into the empty room next door, Sophia waited on shaking legs a little until she heard her mama walk past, before she retired to bed with Lainey.

[spyvstailor]

Chapter Fourteen for @resurrectionofannabellee.

Chapter Fourteen

**Sophia**

“Hey, lapin, you wanna go on a scrounging trip with me?”

From where she sat on the wall, absently watching a walker stumble towards the wall, Sophia's head whipped around at the sound of Fate's voice calling to her from the safe side and beamed.

“Really?” She chirped.

“Your mama says it's time you started going out and she'd rather it be with me than anyone else,” he said.

Excitedly hopping from the wall, she paused at the bottom.

“There's a walker on the other side,” she informed Fate.

“That's the best place for it, yeah?” He teased.

“She's carrying a baby,” Sophia admitted softly.

Frowning, Fate told her to stay where she was, before hopping up onto the wall.

“Please,” a voice warbled from the other side of the wall. “Take her? You have to take her, please?”

Curious, Sophia hurried to the stairs to peer over the top of the wall at the walker below to see the woman holding the baby up to Fate.

It was easy to see how she could mistake the woman for a walker, she was coated in blood and looked beaten and battered, pale as a ghost.

“Please? I...they got me...I'm...I'm sick, please?”

Fate knelt on the wall. “Are you...turning?”

“Please, just take her, I...I don't want to hurt her, just...her name is Lainey, please?”

Sophia watched Fate like a hawk, waiting for him to decide what to do.

Slowly, he reached down and took the bundled baby from the woman.

As eager as the woman was to relinquish the child, she clung hard to her until finally Fate had to almost tear the baby away.

It was only then that the child began to feebly warble and cry, but it wasn't the shrill wails of a healthy baby, it sounded muted and sickly.

Fate quickly looked over the baby, not paying the woman on the ground much mind until he was assured the child wasn't bitten.

Sophia kept her eyes on the woman, however, watching as she pulled a large kitchen knife from out of her raggedy pack. With no words the woman raised it to her throat and shoved it right through.

Covering her eyes, terrified of what was happening, Sophia did what she used to do when her father came home angry, she pretended she wasn't there and that none of what was happening was real.

The sounds of the woman's wet gurgling, the baby's pitiful mewls, Fate shouting at her to get away, to go run away and find her mother.

“Sophia, my girl,” Fate said from near her, his voice commanding, but kind. “Get up, please, you have to go find your mama, okay?”

At the sound of Fate's voice from beside her, she gathered her strength and peeked out.

“You don't look over the wall, just go, yeah?” Fate said from where he bent beside her, baby in his arms.

Meeting his gaze, she carefully stood up on the stairs and held out her arms for the baby.

“No, you go get your mama, I'll hold her. Go on, you're okay, nothing's going get you.”

Feeling as though she had let him down by covering her eyes from the sight of the woman, Sophia set her chin and nodded, hurrying down the stairs, racing for the dorms. She didn't have to go far, the commotion had her mother and Glenn running from the garden.

“Mama, there's a baby!” Sophia shouted, immediately following her mother and Glenn as they headed for where Fate was still on the wall holding the infant.

“What happened?” Carol demanded as she skittered to a halt below Fate.

“I wish I knew...woman came out of the woods and shoved the bebe at me. I gotta...should put her down,” he explained.

“Put her down?” Glenn asked.

Fate looked at the younger man and shook his head simply.

Sophia's mama took the baby from Fate and looked it over carefully, pulling the bloody blankets back from the child with a furrowed brow.

T-Dog, Dale and Eve all came running up just as Fate raised his rifle.

Carol hurried for the kitchens of the convent dormitory, with Sophia close on her heels as the shot rang out.

Inside, her mother lay the baby on the table and opened the blanket to reveal the softly mewling little girl.

“Is she okay?” Eve asked as she joined them.

“She's cold...probably hungry, needs changing,” Carol said. “That woman must have been wandering the woods for days.”

“What do you need? I'll get it,” Eve offered.

“We don't have what we need, baby food or formula, diapers, probably some antibiotics or baby aspirin. We're not equipped for a baby.”

That was all Eve needed to hear, she nodded firmly and hurried out the back door.

Sophia stood nearby, unsure what she should do, watching as her mama removed the weak baby from the filthy blanket.

“Sophia, do you want to watch her, I need to boil some water for a bath for her.”

Nodding, Sophia stepped forward as her mother put up safety barriers around the dirty baby on the table. She peered down at the small, squirming infant.

Baby mess was clumped to her bottom, smeared up her back and on her legs, blood smudged her face and hair.

“We're going to need a lot of baby supplies,” her mama said, drawing Sophia's attention to T-Dog and Dale who stood in the doorway. “I think Eve is going out to find some.”

“She took Glenn, but we'll head out too.” Dale explained. “We'll leave Fate behind in case there were more than just her out there in the woods.”

Carol nodded, heading out to put the kettle on the fire outside.

Sophia stood alone with the baby for a long time, staring down at her and she kicked her legs feebly. The girl looked dead already, if it wasn't for the small squeaks and kicks.

“Is she dying?” She asked her mama as Carol returned with a clean blanket and old rag to wipe the baby down the best she could until the bath water was ready.

“I don't know, baby, why don't you go out and find Fate, please?”

Knowing that tone meant to leave her mama alone, Sophia hurried out the door and looked for Fate on the wall.

After a few minutes of looking, she began to worry.

“Fate?” She called out as she walked along the wall. “Fate?”

Reaching the area where the lady had handed up the baby, Sophia frowned. She could hear shuffling on the other side of the wall and inhaled deeply, pulling her rifle off her back, before climbing the stairs to the top of the wall.

Down below she found Fate walking back towards the convent from the woods and sighed. “Fate?” She greeted.

“Hello there, honeychild,” he returned cheerfully. “How are you?”

“I'm good, mama says to find you, she's cleaning up the baby.”

Hefting himself up onto the wall, Fate brushed his hands off and sat there for a moment. “How is the bebe?”

Sophia shrugged.

“Where's everyone else?”

“They went to get things for the baby, is the woman gone?” Sophia asked.

Fate nodded. “Yeah, she didn't make it. Put a pretty little wooden cross out there for her.”

Slinging an arm around her, Fate pulled Sophia in close and said, “you did good, lapin. That bebe will be just fine because you got your mama.”

“I got scared,” Sophia whispered.

Smiling sadly, Fate wrapped his other arm around her and held her. “You have to remember, honey, you're still only little. You're growing up too fast and it's not fair, but you did good.”

Sophia hugged Fate back tightly, burying her face into his neck.

“Why are bad things happening to us?” She demanded, sobbing. “Why can't it just stop? I just want it all to stop!”

For the longest time Fate didn't say anything, he just held her.

“You know,” he began. “My mama never wanted me. When she was only just young she was attacked, very badly and she ended up pregnant with me. She never said out loud that she never wanted me, but...I knew.”

Sniffling, Sophia pulled out of the hug to look at Fate in the eye.

He wiped her tears away with a rough thumb, tapping the tip of her nose, before smiling. “But you know, the month she died, she wrote me this pretty little letter and she said 'out of the swamp sometimes grows the prettiest flowers'.”

Sophia thought on that for a moment.

“Swamps are ugly and fetid,” Fate explained after a moment.

“And water lilies grow in the swamp, don't they? They're pretty.”

“They are and they do.”

“I think I understand, bad things can sometimes bring about good things,” she said.

“You're such a smart girl,” Fate beamed. “Smarter than all of us combined. We should get inside and see if your mama needs any help.”

Inside the kitchen, they found her mama bathing the baby gently.

She glanced up as they entered and said, “there's some canned peaches on the counter, could you mash them up as best you can?”

Easing onto the chair by the table as Fate moved to mash up peaches, Sophia watched her mama as she fussed over the child. The baby was a little more animated in a warm bath, with food on the way.

There was something pretty about the baby, her once pale cheeks getting rosy, her soft creamed honey coloured hair twisted up in a wet lick at the top of her little head, beautiful blue eyes blinking up at Carol.

And Sophia's mama seemed so much prettier as she cooed and held the infant. Her face was no longer pulled into a tight frown, but relaxed into a soft, gentle look. She looked like an angel leaning over the baby with a slight upturn to the corners of her mouth.

“We can't keep a baby,” Carol said suddenly.

Fate turned from mashing the peaches and took in Carol and the baby with calm eyes. “We can't risk having a lot of things, but we have her now. And her name is Lainey.”

“Lainey,” Carol said. “Did we get a last name?”

“Eames, was what the mother had in her wallet.”

“She's just lucky she came across us out here,” Carol stated.

“It was Fate,” Sophia chirped playfully, hoping to lighten the mood.

Both adults offered her sad smiles, Fate winking at her.

“We could use a doctor for her,” Carol said.

“We could use a doctor any ways,” Fate replied.

“Stop being facetious. What I mean is that Herschel back at the farm is a vet, he could look her over.”

Fate wandered over with the mashed peaches and sighed. “You think they'll let us just wander into camp and borrow their medic?”

“Why wouldn't they?” Sophia chirped.

Both adults glanced over at her, before her mama frowned again.

“Want me to go back and--”

“No,” Carol interrupted Fate. “They won't let you just wander back into their camp. I don't trust Shane.”

“Then we make due without a medic,” Fate stated. “I'll find us some books or something when the others get back. There must be something in the infirmary.”

Carol scoffed. “You're going to read about being a doctor?”

“Little medical knowledge can't hurt.” Fate declared, tickling Lainey's cheek with his finger. “She's cute, isn't she? Like a wee meenoo, yeah?”

Sophia's smile faded a little as the fear sank in. What if Fate loved Lainey more than her?

Suddenly, she realized she wasn't the centre of both Fate or her mama's attention. She frowned a little.

“Sophia,” her mama said. “When Lainey is clean and fed, I'm going to put you in charge of taking care of her. Do you think you can do that?”

Everyone was looking at her, even Lainey's blue eyes were blinking sleepily at her as her mama dried the baby off gingerly.

“Me?”

“I'll be busy all day with the garden and cooking. You can take care of her. That will mean I'll show you how to feed and change her.”

Sophia looked at the baby, before nodding. “Okay.”

“That's our girl,” Fate cheered. “You'll keep bebe safe with those smarts of yours.”

“I will,” Sophia promised. “I won't let anything happen to her.”

There was no longer a fear over being ignored, but a fear of Lainey getting hurt on her watch.

She wouldn't let it happen if she could help it.

[spyvstailor]

Chapter Fourteen for @resurrectionofannabellee.

Chapter Fourteen

**Flashback**

“I'd much rather you wear them.”

“I'd much rather I don't and wash my own laundry.”

The evening had been hot, stifling almost, so Carol had waited until the sun began to go out to the rose garden by the line to gather the laundry that had been drying there. And the damned Cajun had joined her to collect his own.

Since she had brought up the topic of laundry, she had noticed that everyone tried to do their own, though she ended up having to redo most of theirs because of lack of stain removal knowledge and the fact that Glenn liked to leave his wet clothes in the baskets until they dried in a musty pile.

“Why can't you just wear them?”

“Because they're restricting.”

“Then wear boxers.”

“They bunch up.”

Tsking, Carol shoved a basket of folded laundry at the Lieutenant and he grunted as it hit him in the stomach.

“Try a pair of boxer briefs then.”

Grinning slyly, the man leaned down and whispered, “maybe you should try going without and living freely.”

“No,” Carol returned. “I'm not a damned hippie and I like living restrictedly.”

“Fine, I'll try living like a stuffed shirt for a week,” he agreed.

She scoffed, “is that what I am?”

That flustered the man enough that he lost his footing in the conversation and physically stumbled over his feet.

Grinning, she ducked into the kitchen to begin sorting through the clothing to hand out.

“You know, you're not so smart, tiny angel,” Fate shot back finally as he moved to her side to continue folding his own clothing.

“Is that so?”

“You restrict so much of yourself,” he teased.

“We can't all live an easy going, care free lifestyle,” she returned. “I'm surprised you even have boots on today.”

“They can come off now, I'm sure.”

“That dirty shirt can come off too,” Carol said. “Come on, hand it over, I'll throw it in tomorrow's wash.”

Lifting the front of his shirt, the Lieutenant sniffed it. “Nah, it's fine.”

“Give it to me,” she demanded. “It's dirty and gross.”

Clucking his tongue at her, Fate removed the shirt and handed it over.

“I can do my own laundry, you know,” he argued.

“And you don't get the stains out, a rinse isn't a washing,” she griped.

“Want my pants too?” He teased.

“No, those can stay on until you learn to wear some damned drawers.”

“Fine,” he stated.

Carol watched as he left the room with something to prove, shaking her head and returning to her sorting.

A short while later he returned still shirtless.

“I thought you were going to get dressed,” she remarked.

“Mais, I put something on, but not a shirt,” her said.

She hid her smile with her hand in disbelief.

“I feel choked, but...cupped at the same time.” He went on.

“Did you really put some drawers on?”

“That, my dear, is private,” he declared in mock outrage.

“Come here,” she commanded, crooking her finger.

“I can't get any closer, darling,” he replied.

“Do you think I'm not going to call your bullshit bluff?” She inquired.

“It's not a bluff.”

Tucking her finger into the waistband of his pants, she gave him one last chance to back out, before she gave a tug and glanced down.

Fate also dropped his head and looked down, whispering, “for the record, I didn't make you look in my pants, yeah?”

She smiled a little slyly and looked up. “Where'd you get them?”

“I have them, they're mine.”

“You just don't wear them?”

“Never have.”

She laughed. “Then why do you have them?”

“To make you smile,” he returned.

Both of them glanced up as T-Dog entered the kitchens from the back door. He was only inside long enough to see Carol with her hand at the Lieutenant's waistband tugging his pants open and Fate shirtless, before he made a small 'oop' sound and U-turned out.

Releasing his trousers, Carol stepped back a little in embarrassment, returning to her sorting. “You're a damned fool.”

“But I made you smile and I consider that an accomplishment.”

“Thank you,” she said sincerely.

Helping her once he finished folding his laundry, he said, “you know I'm glad we're friends again.”

“Me too,” she admitted.

They worked together quietly for a while, before she asked, “do you really have nothing better to do than fold laundry with me?”

“Okay, you put me in drawers, you don't have to make my bed.”

It was an hour later and Carol was going around changing the bedding in the dorm rooms wit her new shadow trailing behind her.

Everyone would be going to bed soon, coming in from outside where they were working on finishing the well and building the cold storage and she wanted their beds to be clean and fresh.

“I'm making everyone's bed,” she said.

“And you do this often?”

She smiled gently. “Beds tend to need changing, whether the dead are walking around or not.”

“And no one's noticed yet?”

“No one's thanked me,” she replied.

“I'm sorry about that.”

“Get that corner,” she commanded.

He took it and helped her smooth out the blanket. As soon as it was finished, however, he hopped onto the bed and sat on the edge, ruining the meticulous crease-free bedding.

Carol sighed.

“What? I'm sleeping in it soon enough,” he pointed out.

Dropping a pillowcase, Carol got down on her knees between his legs to pick it up. Just as Glenn and Eve walked by, the two glanced in, backed up long enough for her to look over from her place kneeling in front of the prone Lieutenant.

“Uh, oops,” Glenn murmured as the two hurried on.

“Alright, they're gonna start to talk,” Fate said. “You'd better stop touching up on me.”

“Me?” She demanded, using his knees to push herself to her feet. Flopping down beside him on the bed, she sighed again. “You're more trouble than you're worth.”

“That's not true, if you broke down the human body into base elements, we are ten percent hydrogen, which is a pretty good chunk of change.”

She nudged him.

“Hey, call me 'chaoui,” he said.

“What?”

“Chaoui, say it.”

She narrowed her eyes and said, “chaoui.”

Without further words, he turned and began burrowing deep into his neatly made bed.

She laughed. “You're an animal!”

“Raccoon,” he explained. “You should try it.”

“Try it?”

“Burrowing, it's fun.”

“I'm too old to burrow,” she replied.

“Come on, swim in the bedding with me.”

Carol laughed. “No.”

“You ever make blanket forts as a child, this is kind of less work,” he urged.

“I'm not burrowing,” she said.

He threw a blanket over her head. “Now you'll have to burrow.”

For a moment Carol contemplated just removing the blanket, but instead she decided to burrow a little, toeing her shoes off in order to fully burrow deeper into the blankets.

She found Fate somewhere in the mass of bedding and flopped down beside him.

“Hi, welcome to my nest,” Fate said.

“Hi, pleased to be here.” Setting her hand on his pillow, she made a small sound in the back of her throat. “Mm, you have a nice fat pillow.”

“I know. I took it from a rich plantation house.”

“You know...raccoons don't burrow, right?” She pointed out.

“Then where do they live?” He inquired.

She halted in mid retort and had to think on that. “In...hollows in trees?”

“No, ain't no hollows around here.”

“Sophia will be in soon for bed,” she explained.,changing the subject “I should go.”

“You could come back later,” he suggested.

She felt her eyes widen.

His followed. “Oh, not like that! I mean...to hang out with me. You know, talk, maybe?”

“Mmm,” she pondered it. “Maybe, but don't get any ideas. I'm not that easy.” She muttered as she began worming out of the blankets.

Standing up, she smoothed her hair down from it's frizzy state and noticed a button had popped open during her burrowing. She bent her head to button it, just as Dale stepped into the open doorway.

“You two coming out to the bonfire tonight?” He asked, taking in Carol buttoning her blouse with nary a blink.

She sighed at herself. Great. Now the entire convent will think her and the Lieutenant have had sex all over the place.

“Yeah, we'll be out in a bit,” she assured the older man.

Dale smirked a little and nodded. “Alright, see you both out there.”

“You were born to get me into trouble, weren't you?' She asked the Cajun as he clambered out of the bed.

“Why?”

“Would you please put a shirt on?”

“Yes, General.”

Carol eased down at the bonfire beside Sophia and gave Fate a severe warning look as he moved to sit beside her.

He stopped in mid lower and moved across the flames from them to sit with a small, almost smug grin.

“Who's turn is it tonight?” Glenn asked.

“Dale, why don't you tell us all about those philosopher's you love so much?” T-Dog suggested.

“I'll do you one better,” Dale said. “No man is an island--”

“Yeah and I'm a rolling stone,” Glenn interrupted playfully.

Everyone laughed at Dale's mildly grumpy frown.

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine

own were; any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

“What's that mean?” Sophia asked.

“Well, it means that no one is self-sufficient, every one must rely on others.” Dale explained.

“That's pretty, I like it,” Carol's baby added.

“How about something more romantic?” Glenn asked.

Everyone at the campfire glanced in Carol's direction, then the Lieutenant's and she sighed again.

“Wild nights! Wild nights! Were I with thee, Wild nights should be Our luxury!

Futile the winds To a heart in port, Done with the compass, Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden! Ah! the sea! Might I but moor To-night in thee!”

This was supplied by Eve who smiled slyly at the Lieutenant. “Emily Dickinson. What do you think, Fate?”

“Pretty, but I much prefer...

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –“

“Less romantic,” T-Dog teased. “But I liked it.”

“Still Emily Dickinson, still romantic in a way,” Fate argued. “You all just don't get how romantic death used to be.”

“We get it, but death now is ugly and chomping at our asses,” T-Dog retorted. “What we need around here is more love and less bite.”

“Think we've got enough love lately,” Glenn murmured.

Everyone laughed again.

Carol wasn't laughing, she was mildly irritated. Not at Fate, which is where she felt she would have been irritated before, but with herself. She wished she was the type of woman to just own up to something, but she felt if she owned up to it, it would chain her down again.

Not that she believed the Lieutenant was anywhere near the level of possessive as Ed, but that she had an irrational fear of it and that was what irritated her.

“There is enough love already,” Sophia spoke up softly. “We all love each other, we're a family now, aren't we?”

Everyone looked at Sophia with easy smiles and shining eyes.

“We are,” Dale agreed. “And if we remember that, then we're stronger as a group. As a family.”

“No, no arguments, bedtime.”

She was tucking Sophia in for the night, after doing her night time check of the grounds and the buildings.

“But I'm getting older,” Sophia argued gently. “Can't I stay up a little later?”

“I'll make you a promise, when you turn thirteen you can stay up another two hours.”

“But that's not for two years.”

“Trust me, when you get older, you'll crave more sleep.” Kissing Sophia's forehead, Carol smoothed her blankets down once more, before standing up. “Goodnight, baby.”

“Night,” Sophia said.

Leaving the room, she stood in the hall for a moment enjoying the solitude and peace of the night. Beyond their walls people were fighting and dying, and she knew they were blessed to be as safe as they were.

“Did I get you in trouble, somehow?” The Lieutenant drawled from beside her as he wandered in from the night.

“You always do,” she teased. Reaching out, she took his hand boldly and whispered, “but I don't mind much.”

He beamed that gorgeous, charming grin of his. “Is that so? Does this mean it'll be a good night for me?”

She laughed softly. “Not that good. But if you stoop down some it'll be a little better.”

His eyes lit up and he bent over a little at the waist.

Inhaling, Carol decided to give him at least a little something and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Slow going, I like your style,” he said as he stood at full height once more.

“I wasn't finished,” she replied shyly, leading him by his hand into a nice dark alcove of the dorm hall, where she tugged him down for a good, proper kiss.

He was a hell of a fine kisser, but she wouldn't be telling him or anyone that. Him because it would go to his damned head and anyone else for obvious reasons.

[spyvstailor]

Chapter Thirteen for @resurrectionofannabellee (sorry girl this chapter didn’t want to end)

Chapter Thirteen

Sophia had been sitting by the cold storage hill her and Dale had built, watching as Dale held the wooden door up on its hinges, readying herself to swoop in and screw the door into place. For days things had been strange, first her mama and Fate were avoiding each other, now they were friends again, but now it was as though they were avoiding each other again.

Or maybe it was just because she wanted them to be the best of friends.

“Dale, do you think my mama likes Fate?” She asked.

Huffing from the exertion of hanging the door, while she moved in with the screwdriver and screws, Dale said, “sure she does.”

“Only she doesn't seem to want to be around him,” Sophia went on.

“Well,” Dale began thoughtfully, “a woman is more than just the man she hangs around, she has hobbies and interests beyond the man they're with. Your mama does so much work around here that she probably doesn't even have time to even think.”

Struggling to get the hinges screwed to the frame Dale had built, Sophia sighed and said, “but if you like someone wouldn't you want to be around them as much as you could?”

“Trust me, kiddo,” Dale grunted as he struggled under the weight of the door, “you want them to have their space.”

“Why?”

“Because if they got sick of one another then they would be bickering all the time.”

Thinking her daddy and how he would fight with her mama, Sophia's eyes widened and she asked, “bicker? Like fight?”

“Bickering is more like...verbal fighting.”

“Like yelling?”

“Less intense.”

Sophia sighed. “But Fate would never...I mean, you think he's nice, right?”

“Fate is a damned saint,” Dale returned. “And he's real sweet on you and your mama.”

Finally managing to get the door secured, Sophia screwed it in as much as she could, leaving the hardest parts for Dale.

“Do you think he'd be my daddy?” Sophia asked, whispering to keep it between them as Dale took the screwdriver and knelt to get to work.

Someone cleared their throat from behind her and Sophia jumped a little.

Eve smiled at them and held out a jug of water to her. “Water for the hard workers.”

Taking it shyly, Sophia thanked her and took a sip before setting it beside Dale.

“You're a really good helper, aren't you?” Eve asked.

Sophia shrugged. She never knew what to say around people she didn't know.

“Tell you what,” Eve went on. “I just finished in the kitchen with your mama cleaning the rifles, she could use a hand and I'll take over for you here.”

Nodding, Sophia said goodbye to Dale and hurried towards the convent. She took a short detour to seek out Glenn and T-Dog who were finishing up the brick masonry of the new well, giving T-Dog a shy hug on her way by as he held a brick for Glenn.

“Where are you off to, little lady?” He asked.

“The kitchen to help mama, want me to bring you something?”

“Think your mama has some steak in there?”

“No.”

T-Dog beamed. “Then I'll be fine.”

Hurrying around the corner of the church, she found Fate on the wall behind the convent dormitory building, his back to the woods, eyes on the building.

“Hey, Fate, whatcha doin' up there?” She demanded, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.

“Biding my time, lapin,” he returned. “Where are you scurrying off to?”

“Mama needs me in the kitchen, wanna come?” She chirped.

He laughed. “I think I'll stay up here.”

“What if there was a walker in the kitchen and she needed you?” Sophia asked.

“I'm fairly certain you two fine women are capable of protecting yourselves now,” he said. “I've taught you all I know.”

“Fate? What if there were some things I didn't know,” Sophia said, approaching the wall tentatively.

Easing down to sit on the wall, Fate peered down at her. “Like what, my little bunny?”

“My daddy never let me go fishing, would you teach me?” She asked.

“Fishing?” Fate gazed off down the length of the wall. “Mais, I suppose. If your mama would allow it.”

“I'll ask her!” Sophia exclaimed. “Can she come too?”

“If she wants, but I don't think--”

Sophia was already off running for the kitchen, practically stumbling and staggering her way there.

“Mama!” She exclaimed as she entered the kitchen like a gale force wind.

Catching her daughter as Sophia threw herself at her waist, Carol grunted a little and asked, “what it is?”

“Fate said he'd teach me how to fish and you should come too, for back up in case anything goes wrong.”

It was a lie, but one of those little white ones that didn't make much matter.

“Is that so?” Her mama asked.

“I mean,” Sophia went on, “we do need meat for dinner and the river isn't far from here.”

For a moment her mama had that look on her face as though she were going to say no, but then she sighed and nodded, “alright.”

Beaming, Sophia hugged her again and scurried out the door before she could reconsider, running at full tilt for the wall where Fate still sat.

“She said yes, she said yes!” Sophia exclaimed, reaching for his foot and tugging. “Come on down and let's get the stuff for it!”

Chuckling, Fate shouldered his rifle and hopped down to join her. “Why don't you go and get your gear all sorted, I'll dig us up some of that fishing gear we put in the infirmary.”

Waiting by the gate with her mama, Sophia paced a little in excitement. If they went fishing, she knew that it would be like a normal family. Things her classmates used to talk about doing with their families, but something she had never experienced herself.

Even at the quarry with Shane and Lori and Carl, she was an outsider looking in as they would go down to the water to fish or swim or wash.

But this would be hers. She wouldn't be an outsider.

Fate appeared in the doorway of the infirmary, arms loaded down with tackle boxes and rods.

She ran to help him, eager to get going.

“If we all go out, you look out for yourself, yeah?” Fate said as they walked back towards her mama at the gate. “Your mama and me can look after ourselves.”

Sophia nodded.

Ahead of them her mama waited with a saint-like patience and she never looked prettier.

She wore a white short sleeved blouse with pretty clusters of poppies on it and jeans that made her curves stand out.

Sophia's daddy never let her wear jeans. He used to say it showed off too much of her ass and made her look like a slut. But her mama wasn't anything bad, she was beautiful and she was kind and she was watching them approach with sad, somewhat worried blue eyes.

“You're going to look out for us though,” Sophia stated before they could reach earshot of her mama. “I know you will.”

Fate smiled. “That's my job, lapin.”

“But why can't I look out for you and mama too?”

“You can look out for us when we're old,” Fate said. “We're gonna need someone to change our drawers.”

Sophia laughed. “That's gross!”

“It's true! My great-granddaddy messed his drawers so often he had to wear them adult diapers.”

“Is that true?” She demanded.

“Maybe,” Fate said with a tricky smirk. “Maybe not.”

“What's that you're putting on my hook?” She asked.

They stood on the banks of the river, on a patch of stone and gravel where the grass wasn't so high so that they could see anything coming at them.

“Some leftover venison,” he said.

“Do fish like that?”

“I don't know, lapin, I guess we'll find out.”

Sophia smiled and glanced over at her mama who was sitting on the banks of the river. She said she'd keep an eye out for them, but Sophia felt like she just wanted to enjoy the river and the sun.

“Doesn't mama look so pretty today?” Sophia whispered to Fate.

He smiled, but continued to bait her hook. “Your mama always looks pretty.”

Beaming, Sophia went on cheekily, “have you told her that? You should tell her that.”

Tapping the tip of her nose with his finger, Fate released her line carefully and said, “you know how to cast?”

“Uh-uh.”

Taking his rod, Fate showed her how to stand and how to cast the line. It took her a few tries, but she managed.

As they stood on the riverbanks, watching the red and white bobbers floating on the surface of the gently flowing river, Sophia kept glancing at her mama who sat with her hands behind her, propped up. The floppy straw hat she wore gave her a very earthy, almost  witchy look.

“Are you gonna fish too?” She asked her mama.

“I'm fine watching,” she said.

“You can come on over here and hop on my rod, if you want,” Fate offered.

Sophia noticed both adults tense up like something awkward had just happened, but she didn't understand what.

Frowning she glanced back at her bobber, then looked back at Fate who was more determinedly fishing, brow lowered and mouth drawn in a grim line.

“Ow!”

They were tucking the fish they caught into a pail when one of the fish flailed and sliced her finger with its fin.

“This one's still alive,” she said to Fate, holding her bleeding finger.

He moved over and sheepishly took hold of the poor, wretched fish, as her mama moved in to look at her finger.

“We can wrap that up when we get back to the convent,” her mama murmured.

Sophia nodded grimly.

Nudging her, Fate beamed and said, “all the best of us get scars.”

“Will it scar?” Sophia asked.

“No,” her mama said. “It's not that serious.”

Fate winked at Sophia and picked up the pail.

“Did your Papere take you fishing, Fate?” She asked as they started back for home.

“Yep,” he replied. “We'd always go on Sundays. When all the people were in church. It'd just be me and my Papere out on a boat in the bayou backwaters.”

“My father used to take us girls fishing,” Sophia's mama said softly. “Every summer we'd go to Buckhorn Lake in Kentucky, we'd pitch a tent and camp out for a whole week, just us and papa and mama.”

“You had a sister?” Fate asked.

“Two,” Carol replied.

Sophia smiled and slowed down a little to allow them to walk together.

Ahead of her they sort of fell together, closing the gap she left absently as they chatted and it made her almost giddy to see.

Fate was so tall compared to her mama, from behind he was almost two heads taller.

As they walked, they passed by the same chain fence they passed on their way to the river and Sophia slowed down again to peer inside the fence.

Walkers ambled in blue jumpsuits, trapped inside the fence and she tilted her head. She wanted to know what the place was, but she didn't want to interrupt her mama and Fate.

They interrupted her though, both of them stopped ahead and looking back at her.

“Are you coming?” Fate asked.

“Don't fall behind, baby,” her mama said, arm out to her invitingly.

“What is this place?” She asked as she hurried to walk between the two of them.

“Looks like a prison.” Fate remarked.

They ate fish that night.

Sophia filled her stomach with so much fresh fish, seasoned lightly with lemon pepper and vinegar.

Sitting around the bonfire, she listened as Eve told a story about where she came from, how she got to Georgia.

It was hard for her to concentrate with her stomach so packed with fish and her mind on her day. Fate and her mama were sitting together just as they had before when they first arrived at the convent and every now and then her mama would lean in close to listen to something Fate would whisper to her.

“You sure caught a lot of fish,” T-Dog exclaimed to Sophia when Eve's story ended.

“Fate caught most of them,” Sophia admitted. “I caught three.”

“Lapin was just chasing them my way, is all,” Fate explained.

Curling up close to her mama, Sophia smiled sleepily. “Where are you sleeping tonight, Fate?” She asked. “Are you still up in the tower?”

Fate was quiet for a moment, before clearing his throat. “I don't know, lapin. I haven't...decided yet.”

Everyone was quiet and Sophia felt once more like she was missing out on something. She glanced up at her mama and found her quietly staring at the fire.

“Bedtime,” her mama said finally, inhaling deeply. “Let's get to bed, hmm?”

Getting up, watching as the others continued to lay about, Sophia wished them a goodnight, before following her mama towards the convent dormitory.

“Is Fate sleeping in the dorms tonight?” Sophia asked as they entered the building.

“I don't know, baby.”

Sophia waited until she knew her mama was in bed, before slipping her feet over her cot and onto the cold floor.

She wanted to wish Fate goodnight and she didn't know where he was sleeping now. It made her feel vulnerable.

The first room she checked was the one where she found him, his bedroom in the dorm across the hall from her mama's room.

Smiling, Sophia gently knocked on the open door.

“You should be in bed, little lady,” he greeted.

“I wanted to say goodnight,” she said.

“Your mama said as much, come on over here then and give me a hug.”

Sophia hurried across the room and flung herself onto his bed to hug him.

“Goodnight, lapin.”

“Bon nuit, Fate.”

As she pulled away from the hug, she hesitated at the side of his bed, before asking, “Fate?”

“Yes, honeychild?”

“I love my pyjamas,” she said shyly.

“I'm glad.”

“But...do you think...could you get me some more grown up ones the next time you're out?” She whispered.

Fate looked at her sombrely, before nodding. “I will.”

She smiled. “Thank you. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Sophia hesitated to leave, the words ready to burst out of her. “I...I want you to be my daddy before I'm too old.” She turned and left before he could reply, too embarrassed to remain.

[spyvstailor]

Chapter Twelve for @resurrectionofannabellee. I’m posting the new stuff here because I haven’t caught up over on AO3...should probably do that soon...huh.

Chapter Twelve

“So, is that one yours?”

They had been working in the garden for the good part of the morning, weeding and lovingly tending to the plants that were coming back from their near dead state, when the Lieutenant walked by in just his military issued pants, heading for the pump for the old well.

He had been doing his best to get a new well dug over by the shady side of the church, going deep down into the hole with T-Dog manning the rope, while Glenn hauled off the mud and clay in the wheel barrel over to where Dale and Sophia were working on building them a root cellar for cold storage by digging down and heaping up a good hill overhead.

Coated in mud, the Lieutenant at some point just removed his shirt entirely, giving both women a decent view of his finely built Marine body as he wandered past them.

As wary as Carol was of his intentions towards her, it didn't numb her completely to his physical charms. She was still a woman, after all.

“That one is...” she struggled for something to say. “Trouble.”

“I love getting into trouble,” Eve murmured, whistling low at the Lieutenant's backside.

The man stopped short, practically falling over his big feet and turned to them.

“Does your mama know you're out here with no shirt on?” Eve teased.

“Does your mama know you're whistling at strange men, girl?” He returned, moving back to cop a squat by the women.

“Who do you think taught me the habit?” Eve asked.

Clear blue-grey eyes alighted on Carol and the man's wicked smile split his face. “You look hot, Miss Carol. Can I bring you ladies some water?”

“Miss Carol?” Eve inquired playfully. “Aren't you the Southern Belle?”

Carol felt herself blush a little and huffed. “He's just being a damned smart ass.” As soon as she said it, she realized her mistake and glanced up to gauge the man's reaction.

He was still smiling easily.

She had to remember that Fate was not Ed.

“Got some mud here,” Eve said, reaching out and wiping mud from the Lieutenant's stomach. Her hand stayed a little longer than needed, taking a vacation on his abs.

“Pretty clean now,” the Lieutenant said with a wink. “You think?”

Carol watched this all happen with the mild feeling of being the third wheel settling sort of heavy in her gut.

“I'll get you ladies some water,” the Lieutenant said, pushing back to his feet.

Eve smiled long after the Lieutenant left them.

“Trouble, huh?” She finally asked.

“All kinds,” Carol admitted.

They worked quietly for the longest time, the earth of the convent grounds was black and rich and the plants were growing lush and green.

“You're good people,” Eve stated suddenly.

Carol continued working for a while, her brow furrowed.

“Last month,” the other woman began, “I came across this group. They seemed kind, nice even. I took up with them. We were all hard working and looked out for one another. They put me in charge of hunting, I wasn't good at it, couldn't track for shit, but I fished. I'd go down to the river and fish. Only,” the woman paused, “after a week I began to notice things about them. Little things...creepy things.”

Waiting for that story to end, Carol paused in her work and looked up.

Eve flipped her long ponytail over her shoulder and sighed.

“What were they?” Carol asked.

“I don't know. But they weren't good.”

At that moment the Lieutenant returned with water in a jug for them, easing down into a crouch by Carol, distracting them from the topic.

Eve raised her eyebrows playfully at Carol, which normally would have drawn a smile from her, but Carol was too distracted by these 'creepy' people she had been talking about.

“You have real pretty eyes,” Eve said to him. “Did you get them from your mama or your daddy?”

Fate's eyes dimmed a little and his smile drooped, something Carol noticed with great concern.

“I don't know...I can't remember what my mama's eyes looked like and my daddy was...he was passing through.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--”

“No,” the Lieutenant said. “You're still in my good books.”

Taking a sip of water from the jug, Carol handed it back to the man who also enjoyed a drink of the cold water.

“I'll leave it here for you,” he said to them, setting the jug in the shade of a nearby rose bush. “Best get back to work, yeah?”

After the man left them, Carol glanced over and up at Eve, finding the younger woman almost angrily wiping away tears from her cheeks.

“What's wrong?” Carol asked, suddenly feeling that motherly tug in her for the woman.

“I'm sorry,” Eve said. “I...since the whole world went to shit I've been doing this at the worst times.”

Brushing dirt off her hands, Carol walked on her knees around the potatoes in order to approach the woman. “Eve,” she began gently.

“No, it's stupid, I know it is. But...it comes and goes.”

Taking the other woman's hand in hers, Carol held it. “I know.” She whispered. “Sophia does her crying at night,” she admitted. “I do mine in the cellar.”

Eve laughed through her silent tears.

“I think...maybe we're weeping for the lost,” Carol went on, rubbing Eve's back. “Men bear their burdens deep down, but we're the ones who remain to cry for everything.”

“I just think of people,” Eve admitted. “I mean...those things we kill...they were all someone's loved one. I'm sorry, you probably think I'm such a nerd.”

Carol smiled and pulled Eve in for a hug. “I don't think you're a nerd. Believe me. We all react to things differently.”

Pulling back from the hug, Eve sniffed one last time and said, “you're so good at hugs.”

The night had fallen.

Unlike night times when people dominated the earth, where cars drove on the roads, where young boys played their music too loud and girls giggles could be heard all around the block, the night's now were still and eerily dark.

In the kitchen, lit by a single candle, Carol hunched over a pile of clothing that Glenn had brought back from a supply run the other day, sorting through them for sizes and weather uses.

She couldn't have done it during the day, but there was so much to do and so little time.

Is this what the rest of their lives would be? Hiding behind walls, scurrying out when they needed supplies?

With the immediate danger of their lives abated for the moment, she had time to think about all that was happening.

Is this where she'd die?

There couldn't be a more beautiful place, she supposed.

It needed more TLC than they could spare at the moment, but it had potential to be a paradise.

“Mama?” Sophia squeaked sleepily from the doorway.

“It's me, baby, I'm here,” she called out wearily.

Sophia stumbled into the kitchen in her pajamas. That silly pink unicorn onesie the Lieutenant had dragged back for her. He said it was because it'd be warm come winter, but she knew it was just his excuse to spoil the girl.

Carol tried, but she couldn't be mad about practicality, even if it was in the form of a pink unicorn onesie.

Shuffling up to the table, Sophia flopped down.

“What are you doing still up?” Sophia asked.

“Just the last of the sorting,” she replied.

“You should sleep,” her daughter admonished almost like a little adult.

Smiling proudly, as she tucked and folded a heavy cotton t-shirt big enough for T-Dog,  she said, “seems like every day you're getting older.”

“Why'd we leave the others behind?” Sophia asked suddenly.

“They didn't want to come with us,” Carol said.

“But we didn't ask them. We just...left.”

“Would you have rather stayed there without Fate or come here with him? I don't think Shane would have allowed Fate to stay.”

Sophia was quiet, thinking about this. “I saw Shane kissing Rick's wife one time,” she confessed softly, as though afraid of repercussions. “Back at the quarry. Why would Lori do that to Rick?”

Carol reached out and stroked Sophia's hair out of her eyes, pushing back the hood on the onesie to better see her daughter. “You mustn't blame people for their indiscretions, sweetie. We all make mistakes sometimes when our emotions are all scrambled.”

Again her daughter was drinking these words in, before she asked, “like why you're so mean to Fate?”

“I'm not mean,” she insisted.

“But you're hard on him, like when I used to not clean my room, you'd be after me and...why don't you like him?”

“If I didn't like him, would I come here to be with him?” Carol returned.

“You came here because I wanted to,” Sophia insisted. “Because you'd do anything for me.”

These words were beyond her daughter's age and it actually caused Carol to freeze for a moment in shock.

Looking at Sophia's honest, open hazel eyes, Carol reached down and took her hand, squeezing it. “When you get a little older, you'll understand, sweetheart.”

Sophia was quiet, looking at her mother with beautiful, intelligent eyes. “It's because of Daddy, isn't it?”

Releasing her hand, Carol returned to her work.

“Because he was mean and I know how you feel...I thought that way about Fate too, but he's different, isn't he?” Sophia chirped. “Fate's kind and gentle and...I don't think he'd ever hurt us. Not like Daddy.”

“You should go back to sleep, baby,” Carol stated, ending the discussion.

Sitting across from her for the longest time, Sophia pulled the hood up on her onesie and leveled her gaze at her mother firmly. “Daddy was a brainless piece of shit and I'm glad he's dead,” she stated firmly, before standing up and moving for the door before Carol could gather her senses enough to scold her for the foul language.

For the longest time Carol sat in shock, before the reality of her daughter's words hit her and she hid her face in her hands, shoulders racking with laughter, tears running down from her eyes.

She had stayed up a little longer than her daughter, sorting and thinking.

By the time she had gone to bed, it was two in the morning and she knew she would pay for it, but she felt as though she had finally let go of all of Ed's negativity. She had decided to move on. Sophia was right, he was a brainless piece of shit. And while she didn't want to contemplate what that made her having stayed with him all those years, she had decided to just leave him and all he said and all he did in the past.

Come what may, these men living with her at the convent were not Ed.

Yawning as she cooked up a simple lunch of rice and leftover deer steak, she contemplated taking a short nap, but knew she never would. The guilt over not helping would be worse than the feeling of exhaustion.

Eve was doing her best to help, noticing Carol's drooping eyelids and glazed expression.

“Here,” Eve said. “I'll finish, you go gather the troops.”

Thanking the younger woman, Carol headed out the kitchen door to find everyone.

Sophia was still helping Dale build the cold storage, she found them first, just off to the side of the kitchen door where a journey to get food from it wouldn't be far.

Rounding the corner of the church, she came across Glenn, T-Dog and the Lieutenant sprawled out on the shady side of the building, by the well they were digging, all three men were taking a break.

“Lunch is almost ready,” she informed them.

Glenn and T-Dog got up excitedly, eager for some food after all their hard work.

The Lieutenant continued lounging, draped over his pack, neck bared, back arched.

He was still shirtless, coated in mud and looking like Pigpen.

Glancing at the other men, she found them no help, already rounding the corner to get food.

Carol made a move to kneel, but lost her balance a little. Reaching out she set her hand on his chest to steady herself without giving it much thought.

“Lunch,” she said again, this time closer to him.

“Thank you,” he sighed, eyes still closed.

When they finally opened, the were all cold winter skies. More grey than blue.

“You look exhausted,” she said.

“Your hands are cold,” he returned cheekily.

She gave him a warm smile. “They always are.”

“Mm,” he sat up.

Standing up, she offered him a hand to his feet and he took it with a grateful grin.

“Well, what's on the menu today, Miss Carol?” He asked as they headed off together.

She stopped at the corner of the church, standing in the warm sunlight. “I miss 'ange',” she said.

“Is that so?” He inquired, stopping with her to peer down with eyes turned a little blue by the sky overhead.

“Anything is better than 'Miss Carol',” she murmured. “You make me sound like some old western school marm.”

The Lieutenant smiled a smile that would melt a million women's hearts, but only thawed hers a little. One of his large, rough, muddied hands came up and he held it, palm up for the world.

Carol knew it was an invitation, but appreciated that he didn't say a word. There was no request, nor any command given to her to take it, it was just there if she wanted it.

And she did.

Gently she lay one of her own hands in it and felt a little light-headed by how much smaller her hands were than his as he slowly lay his own hand over hers, sandwiching it. Shyly, she looked up and found his face sombre and holding a sort of otherworldly look of tranquility.

He didn't look like the chatty, charming Cajun she had known before. Now he looked content and free of all worries.

Carol didn't know what to make of that look. But she didn't care. His rough hands were warm and gentle around hers.

Clearing her throat, she tried to command him. Thrown from her task by how silly she felt over how wonderful she felt having him hold her hand. She felt like some dumb schoolgirl and it embarrassed her. Women her age weren't supposed to feel giddy and light-headed because some damned smooth talker paid them any heed. “Well, if you don't get inside for food Glenn will eat it all.” She scolded him.

He released her hands slowly and nodded. “I think you're right there, ange.”

Walking off, he paused when he realized she had remained behind.

“Are you coming?” He asked.

“I'll be inside, I need to draw water from the well,” she explained.

He nodded and left her.

It wasn't until he had closed the kitchen door behind him, that she released a shaky breath. Despite how foolish she felt, she also felt pretty good. It was as though all the negativity with Ed was just chased away in the Lieutenant's presence like shadows from the sunlight.

What the hell. She thought. He was handsome and kind. What did she have to lose that she hadn't already lost?

[spyvstailor]

Chapter Twelve of that little ditty for @resurrectionofannabellee. I’ll probably upload this entire thing to AO3 at some point. Too tired tonight.

Chapter Twelve

She sought him out. After three days of him avoiding her, three days of Sophia frowning worriedly, looking between the Lieutenant and her mother.

She didn't seek him out  because she felt she wanted to take back what she said, but because she didn't think it was fair to make him feel awful about the whole situation.

Up in the bell tower, she found him sitting among a pile of items which she assumed came from his gutted pack.

Standing on the ladder for the longest time, just watching him as he polished his boots, she struggled for something to say. If she was too kind she felt like she'd be encouraging him, if she was too hard, she was afraid things would become awkward.

It was the Lieutenant who spoke first, his head still bent to his task, “you can come on up,” he said. “I'm not gonna bite.”

She smiled almost wryly. “That's good. Had enough of that to last me four lifetimes.”

Easing up the rest of the way, she settled at his side and watched him work.

“You know,” he began. “I talk too damn much. I know that.”

“No...I like to hear your stories,” she explained.

“Look, Carol, I know what you've been through. Sophia, she told me in – maybe not so many words – but I know.”

Carol exhaled.

“I respect you, Carol, and I respect your wishes. I do. So...maybe we can start again, yeah? I'll keep my damned mouth shut tight.”

She was quietly debating whether or not to up and leave, when a thought struck her. “Do we need to get more women here? For you and the other men, I mean?”

It took the Lieutenant two whole minutes of his face shifting from amused to confused to startled and back, before he spoke, “wha-- like...Carol, you...do you think...are you worried about me harming you?”

She leveled her chin. “Of course not, just...you may be less inclined to chase after me if you had a better woman around. Might make things easier.”

“My Papere would skin me alive if he knew how scared I make you.”

“That's not it.”

“But you do find what I've done towards you uncomfortable?”

“No,” she sighed. Clearly there was a miscommunication there. “But...there has to be a reason you're acting the damned fool around me. And I'm woman enough to know that gleam in a man's eye.”

“Okay,” he said finally as though something clicked in his mind. “I get it. You alluded to it the other day and I...you think because your the only woman around I'm chasing after you out of necessity and not want. Is that it?”

“Let's not bullshit, Lieutenant,” she stated bluntly. “I'm nothing much to look at.”

“Oh?”

She shook her head. “It doesn't matter. We'll start over, okay?”

“I kind of want to finish up this topic first,” he said putting his boot down and pointing at her with his rag. “Was it him? Did your no-good tell you that you aren't beautiful?”

“It doesn't matter. I know I'm not.”

The Lieutenant was quiet, narrowing his eyes in a playful study of her being, before he said, “let me ask you something, Carol. Do you think Sophia is pretty?”

“Of course,” Carol said without hesitation. “She's beautiful.”

“Okay.” He said.

She waited for the punchline.

It never came.

Instead, the Lieutenant picked up his boot and went back to polishing it.

“I feel like you want me to prompt you for something,” she grumbled.

“Nope.”

“Are you this much of a pain in the ass with everyone or am I just blessed?”

“Let me see your palm,” he said.

She offered her hand to him.

Glancing at it, he beamed. “You're not at all blessed.”

“That's good to know.” Standing up, she concluded. “Well, are we friends again, then?”

“Yep. I'm on my best behaviour, Carol.”

“Oh, goddamn just call me 'ange',” she declared. “We both know you're dying inside to say it.”

The Lieutenant beamed impishly at her. “I wouldn't dare be so bold, Ms. Peletier.”

Tsking, she took to the ladder and left him to be weird on his own.

The punchline, as it was, came about later that evening as they all sat around the campfire.

Staring up at the starry sky, everyone was peaceful and quiet, when the Lieutenant spoke.

“Dale,” he asked.

“Yes, Fate?”

Poking Sophia's ribs, the Lieutenant chuckled and asked, “you think our petit lapin looks like her mama?”

Carol's teeth were set on edge.

“Sure, she looks a lot like Carol.” Dale said.

The others agreed.

The Lieutenant flashed Carol a smug grin. “Is that so?” He asked.

“Why?” Sophia asked.

“Oh,” the Lieutenant said. “Just something your mama said today made me think of it.”

“What'd she say?”

“She said you were beautiful,” he pointed out. “And I'm inclined to believe her.”

“Looks aren't important, though,” Carol said gently, addressing her daughter. “You can have eyelashes to beat the band but if you haven't a thought in your head it makes you hollow inside.”

Sophia was quiet for a bit, drinking this in.

The next day the Lieutenant was gone again, off to scrounge for supplies, this time accompanied by Glenn.

It put her at high alert whenever he was gone, and now with Glenn gone as well, she was downright jumpy.

As she climbed onto the wall for what seemed like the tenth time in one hour, she found her daughter sitting there by herself, knees tucked to her chest, rifle at her side.

Carol was about to approach her daughter, but something told her that it was time Sophia had some alone time. The past few weeks she had been growing up steadily faster and something in her told Carol not to disturb her child.

Deciding instead to check the back wall, she headed across the convent lawns with her own rifle in hand, when Dale crossed her path.

“You see her?” Dale asked, motioning with a jerk of his head towards Sophia on the wall.

“Yep.”

“When I asked her what she was up to, she said she was thinking.” Dale said with a grin.

“Well, I'd rather have her thinking on that wall than running around trying to save the whole world.” Carol replied as Dale joined her on her journey towards the back of the convent.

They picked their way through the old crumbling graveyard behind the church, heading for the stairs T-Dog had built there to get up onto the wall easier.

“So,” Dale began as they stood quietly on the wall for a bit. “You smoothed things over with the Lieutenant?”

Carol aimed her rifle at a walker that was struggling through the woods, but didn't fire. It wasn't worth the bullet at the moment. “There wasn't much to smooth over,” she said. “Just miscommunication.”

“Cajun?”

She shook her head. “The damned fool has it in his mind to chase after me.”

“Oh?” Dale shifted on his feet. “You're not interested?”

Carol gave him a glance. “Please, he's only after the one woman around.”

“Are you so sure about that?” Dale asked. “Seems to me he's sweet on you.”

She sighed deeply.

“Hey, guys, Glenn and the Lieutenant are back,” T-Dog said from the ground behind them. “They're gonna need you both.”

From the urgency of his voice, both Carol and Dale jumped into action, heading down the steps and following after T-Dog as he hurried towards the front of the church.

Rounding the corner, Carol found the Lieutenant holding a slack figure in his arms, long, gently curled dark hair fell down, brushing the ground.

“Is she bit?” Dale demanded.

“No, shot. Michigan winged her, seems she was hiding out among a pile of bodies,” the Lieutenant said.

The woman opened her pretty blue eyes and murmured. “I can walk, Cowboy here wouldn't let me.”

“Now,” the Lieutenant began.

“Let's get her to the infirmary, is she alone?”

“Always have been,” the woman mumbled.

Leading the Lieutenant into the infirmary, Carol immediately went to the supply closet and began to dig through it for what she'd need.

“Did the bullet go through?” She asked.

“It grazed her,” the Lieutenant said. “Didn't even pierce the flesh.”

“I saw a body shift,” Glenn said. “We called out for life, but she didn't move until I was right beside her.”

“I better not die,” the woman growled. “Or I'm coming back to eat your ass.”

Easing onto the bedside of the woman, Carol took a look at the wound. “I'll stitch you up,” she said. “You should be fine.” Turning to the men, she said, “you two best get back out there, make sure she was alone.”

Glenn hesitated, before turning and heading out with T-Dog, Dale remained for a bit longer, before he followed them out as well.

The Lieutenant stubbornly sat down across the woman from Carol, eyes on the younger woman.

“You gonna tell me your name now?” He drawled.

The woman turned her head to Carol instead. “Are you guys gonna eat or kill me?”

“Neither,” Carol said.

Considering this, the woman eased back against the pillow. “Eve,” the woman said. “Eve Dahl.”

“Eve,” Carol said. “I'm Carol. This is the Lieutenant.”

“Ominous,” the woman said.

As Carol worked on Eve's arm, she studied the woman surreptitiously from under lowered eyelashes.

She was pale, with smooth skin and pouty pink lips. The woman was beautiful in a very Pre-Raphaelite way, her body curved generously, her bosom was plentiful.

Glancing up, she found the Lieutenant's eyes on her, narrowed only a little. He was also taking the woman in.

“Where'd you come from?” Carol asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Where you heading?” The Lieutenant asked.

“Where should I be heading?” She inquired.

“We'll patch you up, then you can go on.” Carol said.

“Cool, so I should just ignore the fact that one of you shot me?” The woman demanded.

“You want to make this personal?” The Lieutenant asked. “We can tie up some loose ends easily, girl.”

“Are you threatening me?” Eve asked.

“I'd like for us to part ways as friends,” the Lieutenant said. “Can we do that?”

“Times being what they are?” Eve asked. “Sure. I guess I'm alive, so...I can't complain.”

“Good. That's what I like to hear.”

Carol finished stitching Eve up, wrapping it up with some clean bandages.

“Do gunshot victims get food with this stay at chez nunnery or...?” Eve asked.

“I'll find something for you to eat, then you get on your way,” Carol said.

“I could help out around here,” the woman said softly.

“No,” Carol stated. “You have to leave.”

“It's hell out there,” Eve argued. “I promise. I don't want to cause trouble, I just...these walls are kind of awesome.”

“We don't know you,” Carol said.

“I'm Eve, the woman your guy shot,” Eve sat up a little on the cot. “I used to work in a music store, then the dead started shuffling around.”

“Where?” The Lieutenant asked.

“Well, they're kind of everywhere,” she said.

“I mean where'd you used to work?”

“Oh...does it matter?”

Carol watched the two interact for a moment, before turning towards the door to get Eve something to eat so she could be on her way.

Sophia stood in the doorway of the infirmary.

“Hey, go outside,” Carol ordered. “Stay out of here.”

“Who is she?”

“Just someone passing through,” Carol said, marching her daughter out the door. “Come on. Let's find something to give her to eat.”

Returning with some leftover soup from the previous day's meal, Carol set it on the bedside table for Eve, noticing that the Lieutenant and her were somehow chatting amiably.

She figured the man was going to try his luck with the first woman who came into their lives who didn't see through his flirtatious southern manner.

And he really did seem to be turning on the Cajun charm, laughing and joking with the woman.

“I always loved New Orleans,” Eve said. “Tried to get down there every year.”

“You seem the type,” the Lieutenant teased. “But tell me,” he leaned in playfully. “What were you doing under a pile of bodies?”

Eve smiled almost shyly. “I was...trying to sleep, believe it or not. Your boy woke me...hell of a wake up call.”

“I know Glenn probably is beating his ass up for it.”

Feeling ignored and mildly unwanted, Carol turned to leave.

“This soup is good,” Eve said. “Did you make it?”

Realizing she was being addressed, Carol turned back and forced a dry smile at the younger woman. “Yes.”

“It's really good, thank you.”

Watching the woman, curled up on the bed, drowsy from her ordeal, cupping the bowl in both hands, wearing an old army jacket three sizes too large so that the sleeves engulfed her hands, Carol was reminded of Sophia when she used to get sick. Sitting up in bed, sipping her chicken soup, wearing her over sized comfy pajamas.

The urge to reach out and stroke the younger woman's hair was so strong, that Carol had to curl her hand into a fist.

Eve's hair was long, curled loosely, a green knit cap covered her head, giving her a homeless lady look.

“Do you have anywhere to be?” Carol asked.

Eve shrugged. “Where? I've been traveling for months and these things are everywhere.”

Exchanging a look with the Lieutenant, Carol sighed. “If you help out and behave yourself, I don't see a problem with you staying, if you want.”

Eve beamed a beautiful, bright smile. “Thanks. I promise. I'll be good as gold.”

The Lieutenant smiled as well. “We'll be happy to have you.”

Carol felt a small stab of pain hit her hard at how eager the Lieutenant was to have Eve stay. Of course he would be, a pretty young thing like Eve would be very welcome.