Tragedy's Happiness

**Okay, when Glenn and Maggie go on a run for baby formula, it's going to be a couple weeks after Lori died rather than right after she died**

* This around anything means it is a FLASHBACK *

*“You disgusting... whore... of a wife!” Every kick made my stomach heave and I knew something was wrong with my baby. I was only three months pregnant and wasn't really showing but Adam knew I was. That didn't stop him.
“Stop! The baby!” I screamed, trying to block my stomach with my hands.
“You think I care?” Adam shouted at me and grasped my wrists and drug me upwards. “Did I say I wanted a kid? Did you listen? No! You fucking bitch.”
“I can't stop a pregnancy!”
“Shut the fuck up, Sully!” He threw me to the ground and ended his beating with a final, rib shaking kick to my stomach. I felt warm liquid flow through my legs and my stomach felt like a freight train hit it.
“Adam...” I said weakly and he turned to glance at me. “I need help...” I coughed, seeing black dots.
“Sully?” He questioned and came slightly closer. “Why are you...” He stopped and rushed to me.
“Please...” For the first time since he beat me I laid my hand on his face and gave a forced smile. “You got what you wanted.” I blacked out and all I could remember was Adam's arms wrapping around me.*

I knew Adam loved me, just not enough. There were some moments in our ten years of marriage where he actually showed love towards me, rarely. It came out at random times and it surprised me. Every time he caressed my cheek I would flinch and he'd frown and guilt would flood his features. He knew exactly what he had done, he knew that he changed me.

*It was late when Adam got home and I had had a rough day with Micah, he wouldn't stop crying. I was so exhausted that I hadn't eaten at all and was ready to pass out. I had made it to the kitchen when he had came home, his tie loosened and his shirt sleeves rolled.
“Sul?” I heard him walk closer as I slowly slipped towards the floor, fatigue washing over me. His strong arms wrapped around me and lifted me up. “Have you eaten at all?” Adam asked, setting me at the table. I shook my head and stared at him with half closed eyes. “Damnit, Sully, you gotta eat.” He cussed and opened the fridge. Soon he was making me food, his body moving quietly through our small kitchen. When he finished the food, soup and a sandwich, he turned to me and sat it in front of me. “Here.” He lifted a spoonful of the soup towards me and I gingerly took it in my mouth, enjoying the flavor. “You can't do this to yourself, babe.” When I finished eating, he cleaned up and led me to our room. Not only a minute after he laid me down the baby started crying and he sighed. “I'll get him.”
“No...” I muttered, trying to stand.
“Sully, I said I got it.” He left and soon I heard the crying stop and the soft hums from the room. Was Adam humming to our son? That was the first time he even showed interest in our child. The next morning it was like Adam's whole world flipped. When Micah cried, Adam yelled at me for being lazy and told me to take care of the damn thing. I shouldn't had got my hopes up that he changed.*

“You alright?” I looked up to see Rick standing in front of me.
“Yeah, good.” I stood up and went to walk around him.
“You don't have to run away.”
“I know.” I sighed and turned to face him. “I just want to be alone.”
“Sully, if you need to talk about anything, you can come to me.” I could see all his defenses drop. He was usually hardened, his look was guarded and he was always prepared to fight.
“Rick, it's okay.” I gave him a tight smile and walked back into the prison, making my way to the cafeteria. Carol, Judith and the younger boy were sitting at a table and a the blonde girl was off to the side, preparing a bottle. I gave them a small smile and sat with them at a table.
“I'm Carl.” The young boy held out his hand to me and I took a deep breath and shakily took his hand. I saw his eyes skim over the marks on my wrists and then at the burns littering my arms. He can't hurt me anymore, he can't touch me, I thought to myself. “You want to feed her?” He indicated to Judith. “She's my little sister.”
“You're Rick's son?” I quietly asked, my suspicions were correct. Carl looked a lot like Rick with their matching dark hair and blue eyes. Carl nodded and handed me the small baby that was swaddled in a yellow outfit.
“She likes to be fed slow.” He told me as the young blonde gave me the bottle.
“You're a natural.” The blonde commented and tears welled in my eyes. “I'm Beth.” I took the bottle's nipple to Judith's mouth and let her do the rest of the work. I sucked in a breath, remembering all the times I held Micah in my arms and fed him. The small sounds he made when he was happy, or the soft sighs he'd make when he saw me. Adam never really liked Micah but Micah loved him, you could tell. When he could walk, he followed Adam everywhere despite Adam's annoyance. Micah would always run to his father when he was crying, always tried to play with him and did his best to act like Adam. It broke my heart... If only Micah grew to know how horrible his father really was. Adam never really connected with our son like I hope he would. I had been under the hopeful notion that once Micah grew that Adam would finally love him. That Adam would teach him how to play soccer or baseball, teach him how to swim, all those wonderful things that fathers did. My dreams were crushed when Micah died, though. That day had been the worst of my life. Forget the beatings, the cussing fits, the burnings I received. The one day I had been reduced to a weeping, crushed mess was when I saw Micah in the water... sinking.

*Looking up from my boiling pot on the stove I glanced out to see my beautiful son running around, playing. Smiling, I returned to my cooking and turned away for a few minutes. I couldn't burn this meal, I didn't want Adam to get angry at me tonight. Turning back to the window I smiled as I looked out but it dropped. Micah wasn't playing or running around, no, he was in the water. Dropping the pot I was holding, the hot liquid dumped on my feet but I didn't care about the pain. My legs rushed me to the back door and I ran outside with screams exiting my mouth.
“Micah! Oh my God!” I was so close to the shore of the small pond when I saw the small boy start to sink. “NO! No, no, no...” I dove into the water, not caring about anything but saving my son. My hand gripped the small, pale one that was attached to Micah's sinking body. When I did make it to the surface, I could barely move, I was so tired but I needed to save my son. Once on the shore, I felt for a pulse and there was nothing. “Shit... Shit!” I had started CPR but Micah never responded, his cold body was lifeless and ghostly pale. Adam had stumbled from the garage when he heard my yells and he was frozen behind me, staring at our son.
“Sully?” He questioned. I stood up in anger, my rage taking over as I spun around to face Adam, my own personal monster.
“You did this! You weren't watching him! You don't let a child run around a pond without supervision... where were you!?” I yelled, pounding my fists into his chest as he he gripped my shoulders. “You killed my son! I loved him, I loved him more than anything in this world. More than you!” Adam's eyes grew and he let me go, moving to kneel next to our baby. “I HATE YOU!”*

“Hey, she needs to be burped. You want me to do it?” I heard Beth ask and I shook my head no.
“I'll do it. I know how.” I took the towel from her and positioned it on my shoulder before lifting Judith towards it. Lightly patting her back and rubbing it, I waited for the small girl to let out a small burp. When she did I gave a smile and wiped her mouth with the clean side of the towel. “There you go.” I smiled, watching Judith's eyes roam my face. A small gurgle of happiness came from the child's mouth and I gave a laugh. “I've missed that noise.” I had forgotten about the other people who were watching me, I was only focusing on the child.
“It's time for her nap, I'll take her.” Carol gave me a sad smile, taking the baby away from me. “Thank you for feeding her.” I nodded and stood up, seeing Rick watching from the corner of the cafeteria. He had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and eyes soft.
“Thank you, Carl.” I told the young boy and turned to leave, passing Rick on the way.
“You're good with her.” He commented, following me. “Never seen her react that good with anyone else.”
“I like kids.” I shrugged and entered my cell, looking over my shoulder to see him standing in the doorway. “She reminds me of Micah.”
“I can tell.” I gave him a small smile.
“Look.” I reached into my bag and dug around until my hand found a small, wearing picture. “Micah, Adam and I. That was when Micah was about three, one of our good days.” I handed him the picture and I saw Rick run a thumb over the tearing picture but his eyes hardened at Adam's face. “We were at the park, Adam thought it'd be nice, surprisingly. We had an older couple take our picture- I was happy that Adam at least looked like a somewhat good father in that.”
“You look happy.”
“I was, that day.” I sighed and took the photo back. “The only one I have left of Micah, can't loose it.” He nodded, understanding how I felt.
“Thanks for showing me that.”
“No problem.”
“That's the first time I've seen you have a real smile.” I stopped moving around and looked at the hardened cop.
“What?”
“When you were feeding Judith. That was a real smile, back there. You remind me of my wife...” His eyes dropped and I saw his hands shake with sadness.
“I don't have much to smile about lately. Judith, though, she brings back some good memories.” I closed my eyes as the tears fell. “Her innocence and happiness, that's what makes me smile. She doesn't know of the evil this world has given us yet. Judith doesn't see those dead things, all she sees is a group of people who love her.” Rick nodded and went to leave, his hand lingering on one of the bars.
“See you at dinner.” The cop left me alone in my cell, making me wipe my tears away. I can't believe I broke down like that. What bothered me was what Rick had said. I reminded him of his wife?

Two days passed and it was breakfast time, everyone was quiet and no one wanted to admit that Rick had been gone since dinner two nights ago. No one had seen him and everyone expected him to still be mourning. He seemedCarol and Beth had made some oatmeal for everyone and we all sat, not talking. Maggie, Glenn, Carl and Hershel sat at a table while Daryl and myself sat on the staircase with Carol standing nearby. I had also met two inmates that had been in a different cell block when I was taken to the prison. Axel and Oscar, they were both nice and seemed to not want any trouble.
“Everybody alright?” Everyone looked up to see Rick peering in at us through a set of doors.
“Yeah, we're good.” Maggie supplied.
“Cleared out the boiler block.” Rick mentioned. So that's what he was doing.
“How many?” Daryl asked, his rough voice scaring me.
“Dozen, two dozen. Not sure.” Rick patted Carl. “I'm gonna take care of the bodies.”
“Rick we can do that.” Glenn stood.
“No, I should. Just came to check on everyone.” Rick looked at Daryl. “Everyone has a knife and gun?” Daryl nodded.
“Maggie, Sully and I were gonna go on a run today. Get some formula and other things.” Glenn told Rick and I looked up to see Rick watching me.
“We cleaned out the generator room. Axel is tryin' ta fix it.” Daryl interrupted Glenn. “We'll sweep tha' lower levels too.”
“Good.” Rick left but before he shut the gate he turned to Glenn. “Make sure you're safe.” And then he was gone. No one else said anything and I hated how tense it felt.
“I'll clean up.” I looked at the others as I stood. “Anyone done?” Daryl handed me his bowl and so did Oscar. “Just drop your bowls off in the kitchen.” I turned and left.

Glenn, Maggie and myself pulled onto a small street filled with a grocery store and a clothes shop. There wasn't a sign of any walkers nearby so I gave a breath of relief, I still didn't like killing them. I looked over to see Glenn and Maggie kissing so I turned my back to stare at the open forest and gave a smile. It was nice seeing someone so in love in this world.
“Come on.” Glenn called out to me and I turned to see Maggie giving me a knowing look. He handed me a flashlight and I took my knife out, the weight of it seeming unfamiliar. “Just stay close and don't let any geeks get close to you.” I nodded at his words. “Here we go.” He cut the chains off the door and handed Maggie the hedge cutters to put back in the truck. Slowly opening the door, a flock of pigeons flew out, scaring us all. Giving a laugh.
“Shit...” I muttered with a smile and watched Glenn enter the store slowly.
“Glenn, get that duck.” Maggie said and Glenn turned around.
“What?” I gave a laugh at him.
“That duck, get it. A kid growing up in prison deserves some toys.” Glenn chuckled and began filling a small cart with needed items. I scanned the area and noted that we were completely alone with no one lurking around.
“We just hit the powdered formula jackpot!” Glenn said happily.
“What'd you get?” I asked the Korean man when he exited the store.
“Beans, batteries, cocktail wieners, mustard...” I smiled at his load and picked up a small can of baby formula.
“Perfect. We'll be set for awhile.”
“Come on, let's get out of here.” Glenn ordered.
“I like the quiet.” Maggie commented. “Back there, back home... You can always hear where everyone is at.”
“But we're sa-” I was cut off by a deep, Southern voice shouting from around the corner.
“Where is it you good people calling home?” I spun around to see an older man with gray hair and crazy eyes pointing a gun at us. On his one arm was some sort of metal cap that freaked me out, it looked heavy and lethal. We all took our guns out, pointing it straight at the man who laughed at us and put his gun down. “Wow.” He breathed and walked closer with a smile.
“Back he hell up!” Maggie hissed.
“Okay, okay, honey! Jesus...” The man laughed.
“You made it.” Glenn stated in a harsh, cold voice.
“You tell me, is my brother alive? Huh?”
“His brother?” I whispered to Maggie who just glanced at me.
“Yeah.” Glenn told the old man, his gun not wavering.
“Hey, you take me to him and I'll call it even about everything that happened in Atlanta.” Glenn didn't even move, his eyes moving towards the metal cap that held a sharp knife. “You like that? I found a medical warehouse, fixed myself up.
“We'll tell Daryl you're here, and he'll come out to meet you.” The man moved closer and I took a deep breath. Daryl was his brother?
“Hold on, you can trust me.”
“You trust us, you stay here.” Glenn ordered but it was too late. The old man tore a gun from his waist band and shot at us, barely missing my head and causing the back glass of the truck to shatter. Crouching down to avoid it shattering into my eyes, I felt the man grip my hair and tug me towards where Maggie ran. Screaming out in pain, I hit the pavement and looked up to see the man holding Maggie at gun point. “Let go of her.” Glenn hissed. “LET GO OF HER.”
“Put the gun in the car, son. Put it in the car.” The man demanded and Glenn slowly sat his only weapon in our car with sad eyes. “Now we're gonna go for a little drive.”
“We're not going back to our camp.”
“No, we're going somewhere else.” The man pointed at me and Glenn. “Get in the car, now. You're driving, Glenn.” I complied and hurried into the back seat of the car, not wanting to be hurt. Soon Maggie was shoved in against me and the old man got into the passenger seat. Shutting my eyes I felt some tears fall down my face.
He can't hurt me anymore, he can't touch me. That was a lie.