Pregnancy: Life or Death?
Unexpected Proposal
I was recovering slowly but surely, soon I was even able to get up and help with a few things people would let me actually do. Honestly, I wasn't able to do a lot of things I used to do around the prison, because everybody wanted me to have a normal motherhood experience. I finally found one job that I really liked to do, Rick gave me the job of caring for Judith while Beth, who normally cared for her, was doing the things I used to do. I guess it was his way of trying to prepare me for my on child. When Daryl wasn't out gathering supplies or hunting he was trying his best to prepare for impending fatherhood. I helped him out with a few things, since he said he didn't know what to do. There were nights where we had the full time parenting experience because she stayed with us a few nights a week, just to prepare us both for getting up in the middle of the night to care for our own baby.
Each night as I got ready for bed, I felt like I was going to explode. I always looked down at my belly and thought, 'How much more bigger can one get?' Every step I took my back hurt, and I could hardly move. I was so ready for this baby to get here, but also frightened. I put Judith down for the night and looked at her cute little face and hands and thought about how she'd never know her mom, and I looked down at my own baby and said 'I really don't want you to have to grow up without me, but if something does happen just know that both me and your daddy love you.' I brushed Judith's little face and admired how soft her skin was and started to cry. It seemed like everything was bothering me lately, the not knowing what was going to happen the not wanting to have my child grow up without me. About this time Daryl walked in and walked over to me I turned around and looked up at him and wiped my tears away. He leaned down and asked what was wrong and I told him about how I was scared that I would end up just like Lori when the time came. He hugged me and said he'd never let it happen and said it was time for me to get as much sleep as I could, I hadn't been sleeping lately mainly because the mattresses at the prison didn't have much comfort.
I laid down and nuzzled my face into Daryl's chest and let my guard down. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he finally was letting someone get close to him. I buried my face into his chest even more and got a good smell of his musk and I looked up at him and saw he was looking down at me and asked how I was feeling, and I said I was feeling as good as I looked, besides the pain of carrying a massive bump around. He said it was going to be okay and asked me to sit up and helped me up to a seated position. He got behind me and started massaging my back and with every touch to a pressure point I let out a low moan. I was surprised at how skilled he was with his hands. After a few minutes of him doing what he was doing I tried to suppress my moans because of how good it felt. He let go and helped me back into the bed we shared together. I looked up at him and he leaned down and kissed me. I felt the baby kick up a storm and kinda laughed and told him 'I don't think Lil Ass Kicker liked that' and he leaned down to my belly and rubbed it and started talking to our baby in the sweetest tone I had ever heard. I slowly drifted off to sleep and for the first time in a long time I actually felt safe.
The following morning I woke up to the sound of Daryl grunting in his sleep. Slowly I brushed the long hair out of his eyes and just laid there listening for other sounds of everybody else waking up and starting their daily chores. I heard the sound of cell doors opening and closing and footsteps approaching, so I kind of peeked out from under my covers to see Beth walking by and as she walked by she stopped in and said a few words and went about her way to go outside to work. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I also wanted to adventure outside of the cell. I decided to sleep a little bit longer and about the time I was fixing to drift back to sleep a crying sounded echoed from inside the cell, I had totally forgotten that Judith was in the cell with us and I tried my best to sit up and kept straining and straining myself to try to get up to get over to her. I broke down and started play hitting Daryl and trying to get his attention to wake up, but he was out of it. I kept trying and I just had to yell 'Help! Help!' and Carl came running into the cell and picked Judith up and looked at me and helped me up and he asked if I was okay and I said 'Yes, I just can't do really anything with this belly.' He looked down at my belly and looked up at me, and asked if he could ask me questions, until Daryl woke up and I looked at him and smiled and said 'Sure! I'd love the company.' He asked me if the baby was planned or just happened. I looked at him and looked at my belly and then looked over at Daryl and said 'I guess not, but if it makes any difference even if it wasn't planned doesn't mean it doesn't have a purpose even in this horrible horrible world like this one.' He smiled and I added 'Your little sister has a purpose, who knows she might survive this whole thing! Even if she's just a baby she has a purpose and there's a reason everything works out the way it does.' He asked me another question which hit home for me, which if something came up with my pregnancy or delivery like what happened with his mom what would happen. I told him plainly, 'If it does happen I just hope this baby knows that I love he/she very much and that at one point it had two loving parents who cared, and that me and Daryl have talked about what was to happen said anything like that come up' He asked me another question about names me and Daryl had picked out for genders. 'We haven't really talked about names, we'd kinda rather just find out when the time comes, but we had agreed on if it was a girl her name would be Miracle because in all this plight and devastation miracles happen' he smiled again at me and about that time Daryl woke up with a loud growl. I looked at him and just started laughing, because I was happy he got a good night's sleep finally. I asked him how he slept and he said 'Actually pretty good. I had a great dream about our perfect little family and our cute baby' and I asked him if in the dream it revealed what we were expecting and he said 'No nothing really, all I saw was how cute you were with he/she' All I could think was 'Aww I can't wait til we get to see what I've been carrying all these months. I really didn't know how far along I really was, but I was so ready for this baby to be born. I was so ready for crying nonstop and the long nights up rocking and everything. I was especially ready to see Daryl in daddy mode.
Carl said he was happy to have someone to talk to, and I told him that anytime he just wanted to talk he was welcome to come find me. To be honest I was happy for the company, since I normally just sit away from the group and I'm normally always with Judith, feeding or just watching her sleep. It actually felt good that I was pulling some weight around by just sitting down with a baby. Me and Daryl got up and went outside and just tried to do whatever we could. I sat down as soon as I got outside because I couldn't really handle carrying this weight anymore. Daryl got a stick and said he'd be right back in a few minutes and he went to take down a bunch of walkers who were ganging up on the fences around the prison. I just sat there feeling the little baby kick and kick over and over as hard as it's little legs could. Carol walked over and offered me some food and said I had to keep my strength up. I smiled and kindly started to eat. A few minutes had passed and I kept my eyes trained on Daryl at the fence killing the walkers. I was really protective of him, even though he was more protective of me.
As the day went on I noticed Carol was cooking dinner, a deer that Daryl had found in the woods behind the prison, and I walked over and asked if I could help her and she said that I could help but minimal. It started to get dark, and I was making everybody a plate and drooling over the smell of the meat. I handed everybody a plate and Daryl came up and smiled at me as he took his plate and sat at his usual table. I got my plate and went over to sit beside him and I felt a kick and I knew the baby was hungry so I just started eating a piece of deer and laid my head on Daryl's shoulder and continued to eat. He didn't even shove me off actually he looked over at Glenn and Maggie who were looking at us and smiling. After everybody was finished everybody went to go put their plates up and when everybody was getting ready to take their shifts as guards, Daryl cleared his throat and said 'Attention everybody, I have an announcement to make.' everybody was looking at him and I looked at him because I didn't know what he had planned. He let me go sit down, and got down on one knee and looked up at me with his blue eyes, the bluest I had ever seen. He started digging in his pocket and pulled something out, and as he continued to look up at me he stuttered 'Would you... would you do me the honor... the honor of... of... of... uh... marrying me?' and I was crying about this time and I couldn't even speak, I nodded and he placed the ring on my finger and kissed me and kissed my belly and cried and said 'Your mommy said yes!' Everybody started to cheer and get excited. I couldn't believe the man who hadn't shown any emotions since I met this group could show so much emotion and that he couldn't wait to be a daddy.
Each night as I got ready for bed, I felt like I was going to explode. I always looked down at my belly and thought, 'How much more bigger can one get?' Every step I took my back hurt, and I could hardly move. I was so ready for this baby to get here, but also frightened. I put Judith down for the night and looked at her cute little face and hands and thought about how she'd never know her mom, and I looked down at my own baby and said 'I really don't want you to have to grow up without me, but if something does happen just know that both me and your daddy love you.' I brushed Judith's little face and admired how soft her skin was and started to cry. It seemed like everything was bothering me lately, the not knowing what was going to happen the not wanting to have my child grow up without me. About this time Daryl walked in and walked over to me I turned around and looked up at him and wiped my tears away. He leaned down and asked what was wrong and I told him about how I was scared that I would end up just like Lori when the time came. He hugged me and said he'd never let it happen and said it was time for me to get as much sleep as I could, I hadn't been sleeping lately mainly because the mattresses at the prison didn't have much comfort.
I laid down and nuzzled my face into Daryl's chest and let my guard down. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he finally was letting someone get close to him. I buried my face into his chest even more and got a good smell of his musk and I looked up at him and saw he was looking down at me and asked how I was feeling, and I said I was feeling as good as I looked, besides the pain of carrying a massive bump around. He said it was going to be okay and asked me to sit up and helped me up to a seated position. He got behind me and started massaging my back and with every touch to a pressure point I let out a low moan. I was surprised at how skilled he was with his hands. After a few minutes of him doing what he was doing I tried to suppress my moans because of how good it felt. He let go and helped me back into the bed we shared together. I looked up at him and he leaned down and kissed me. I felt the baby kick up a storm and kinda laughed and told him 'I don't think Lil Ass Kicker liked that' and he leaned down to my belly and rubbed it and started talking to our baby in the sweetest tone I had ever heard. I slowly drifted off to sleep and for the first time in a long time I actually felt safe.
The following morning I woke up to the sound of Daryl grunting in his sleep. Slowly I brushed the long hair out of his eyes and just laid there listening for other sounds of everybody else waking up and starting their daily chores. I heard the sound of cell doors opening and closing and footsteps approaching, so I kind of peeked out from under my covers to see Beth walking by and as she walked by she stopped in and said a few words and went about her way to go outside to work. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I also wanted to adventure outside of the cell. I decided to sleep a little bit longer and about the time I was fixing to drift back to sleep a crying sounded echoed from inside the cell, I had totally forgotten that Judith was in the cell with us and I tried my best to sit up and kept straining and straining myself to try to get up to get over to her. I broke down and started play hitting Daryl and trying to get his attention to wake up, but he was out of it. I kept trying and I just had to yell 'Help! Help!' and Carl came running into the cell and picked Judith up and looked at me and helped me up and he asked if I was okay and I said 'Yes, I just can't do really anything with this belly.' He looked down at my belly and looked up at me, and asked if he could ask me questions, until Daryl woke up and I looked at him and smiled and said 'Sure! I'd love the company.' He asked me if the baby was planned or just happened. I looked at him and looked at my belly and then looked over at Daryl and said 'I guess not, but if it makes any difference even if it wasn't planned doesn't mean it doesn't have a purpose even in this horrible horrible world like this one.' He smiled and I added 'Your little sister has a purpose, who knows she might survive this whole thing! Even if she's just a baby she has a purpose and there's a reason everything works out the way it does.' He asked me another question which hit home for me, which if something came up with my pregnancy or delivery like what happened with his mom what would happen. I told him plainly, 'If it does happen I just hope this baby knows that I love he/she very much and that at one point it had two loving parents who cared, and that me and Daryl have talked about what was to happen said anything like that come up' He asked me another question about names me and Daryl had picked out for genders. 'We haven't really talked about names, we'd kinda rather just find out when the time comes, but we had agreed on if it was a girl her name would be Miracle because in all this plight and devastation miracles happen' he smiled again at me and about that time Daryl woke up with a loud growl. I looked at him and just started laughing, because I was happy he got a good night's sleep finally. I asked him how he slept and he said 'Actually pretty good. I had a great dream about our perfect little family and our cute baby' and I asked him if in the dream it revealed what we were expecting and he said 'No nothing really, all I saw was how cute you were with he/she' All I could think was 'Aww I can't wait til we get to see what I've been carrying all these months. I really didn't know how far along I really was, but I was so ready for this baby to be born. I was so ready for crying nonstop and the long nights up rocking and everything. I was especially ready to see Daryl in daddy mode.
Carl said he was happy to have someone to talk to, and I told him that anytime he just wanted to talk he was welcome to come find me. To be honest I was happy for the company, since I normally just sit away from the group and I'm normally always with Judith, feeding or just watching her sleep. It actually felt good that I was pulling some weight around by just sitting down with a baby. Me and Daryl got up and went outside and just tried to do whatever we could. I sat down as soon as I got outside because I couldn't really handle carrying this weight anymore. Daryl got a stick and said he'd be right back in a few minutes and he went to take down a bunch of walkers who were ganging up on the fences around the prison. I just sat there feeling the little baby kick and kick over and over as hard as it's little legs could. Carol walked over and offered me some food and said I had to keep my strength up. I smiled and kindly started to eat. A few minutes had passed and I kept my eyes trained on Daryl at the fence killing the walkers. I was really protective of him, even though he was more protective of me.
As the day went on I noticed Carol was cooking dinner, a deer that Daryl had found in the woods behind the prison, and I walked over and asked if I could help her and she said that I could help but minimal. It started to get dark, and I was making everybody a plate and drooling over the smell of the meat. I handed everybody a plate and Daryl came up and smiled at me as he took his plate and sat at his usual table. I got my plate and went over to sit beside him and I felt a kick and I knew the baby was hungry so I just started eating a piece of deer and laid my head on Daryl's shoulder and continued to eat. He didn't even shove me off actually he looked over at Glenn and Maggie who were looking at us and smiling. After everybody was finished everybody went to go put their plates up and when everybody was getting ready to take their shifts as guards, Daryl cleared his throat and said 'Attention everybody, I have an announcement to make.' everybody was looking at him and I looked at him because I didn't know what he had planned. He let me go sit down, and got down on one knee and looked up at me with his blue eyes, the bluest I had ever seen. He started digging in his pocket and pulled something out, and as he continued to look up at me he stuttered 'Would you... would you do me the honor... the honor of... of... of... uh... marrying me?' and I was crying about this time and I couldn't even speak, I nodded and he placed the ring on my finger and kissed me and kissed my belly and cried and said 'Your mommy said yes!' Everybody started to cheer and get excited. I couldn't believe the man who hadn't shown any emotions since I met this group could show so much emotion and that he couldn't wait to be a daddy.