Serendipitous

24.

Shane

I need to try to make this right between Lori and I, when Molly decides to tell her that she's pregnant she's going to want her mom to be there to support her. The baby is going to need its grandparents, she's going to regret being so cold to Molly if this continues so I need to try and talk to her. She's got to see that I'm not the monster she's making me out to be. I spot Lori alone folding laundry, it's the best opportunity for me to try and talk with her about all of this. I know she doesn't necessarily believe that I thought Rick truly was dead, she believes it's something I made up to Molly to try and manipulate her into sleeping with me, but I would never do something like that to her. Lori turns to face me, her stare is icy.

"I thought he was dead" My words come tumbling out before I can stop them or even choose how to phrase all of this. She stares blankly at me for a second.

"Shane, I don't—" She begins to objectify, I cut her off. She needs to hear this.

"Then when he came back, right then, right there, you see I wished I could have taken it back. Not—not because Molly wouldn't be mine, but because I knew that sooner or later the both of you would hate the idea of she and I being together." I pause for a moment to find my words. "See Molly, she was torn in half when they bombed Atlanta. She had already been through enough while Rick was in the hospital. I love your daughter and I would never do something to manipulate her like you think I have"

"You're wrong. You're wrong" She frowns, her eyes are angry and she is unwilling.

"Lori, how many times have I saved her life? I just—I want to know how many times. Because by my account, I've saved her life on four different occasions and that's Carl's too. So I just want to ask you, how many times have I saved her life that you can recall?"

"That night at the camp," There's hope after all, "That night at the camp, after the Fish Fry. Rick shot the walkers while you held Molly and continued this sick game" I was wrong, there isn't hope. She isn't going to see this for what it is.

"No no no. See, no. That was me to. You see, Rick, he showed up late because he went on a suicide mission over nothing. Yeah, he joined in, but see, we wouldn't have been in that situation if he hadn't left because he felt that he needed to leave to save a drug dealer. And so we lost Amy and we lost Jim. We lost—Rick told me" I admit to her now feeling frustrated at her eyes and ears still being covered.

"Told you what?" She scoffs.

"He's happy for Molly and I, he's happy that we're together" I say, I can't tell her anymore than that without sharing that Molly is pregnant. But that isn't mine to tell, it's hers. She should be the one to announce that to her mom.

"You really are a piece of work. I know your type, Shane, you sleep around with as many girls as you can. It's a sport for you. Molly turned eighteen and you decided she was new and a challenge so you went after her after she started confiding in you about her problems at home." Lori snaps, "You thought you could whisper sweet nothings in her ear until she gave you what you wanted. But then, all of this happened so you decided to keep it going since she was the last piece of meat you could find" I clench my jaw at her words.
She has no idea what she's talking about right now. Never once did I look at Molly that way until the night I had stayed over at their house to watch after Carl. I could tell she had a crush on me, but that's all I thought it was—a crush. After I started liking her flirting with me I knew I had to cut it off because I knew Rick and Lori wouldn't be happy about it, I did what I could to forget about her. But she was always in my mind, her smile, her laugh, the way she made me feel. I knew I was falling in love with her when we spent those months in that house back after they had bombed Atlanta. I just couldn't ignore how I felt about her, all I wanted to do was to keep her safe and make her happy, I love her. For Lori to say things like that to me, it's infuriating.