Captive | The Walking Dead |

71

The next morning Isabella was the first to wake. She lay still in bed for some moments thinking of how she failed to tell Rick the truth last night. She didn't understand why she didn't tell him; her secret wasn't bad but telling Rick would make her pregnancy seem more real than it was.

She didn't want to face their new reality. She wondered if Rick would hate her for keeping it a secret this long and wondered what he'd think if he knew she didn't want the child initially.

She went downstairs and made breakfast for the family. It didn't take long for everyone to wake and soon everyone went off for their daily tasks.

Carl went off with Enid and dropped Judith off at Olivia's house while Rick did his duties.

Isabella liked being alone, it helped her think. She found herself in the lab and sat on the floor as she looked at the ultrasound photo for what felt like hours.

She just stared. Stared at the picture of the fetus soon-to-be baby that was growing inside her. Stared and wondered how much it would change.

Rick said they would be fine, and maybe they would, maybe Isabella was overthinking things like usual.

But what if they wouldn't be?

What if everything that could go wrong happened. What if Rick found himself in the same position of losing Isabella like Lori.

Or what if both her and the baby died?

She hated to think of leaving Rick like that, hated to think of leaving Carl and Judith without a mother.

She knew the group would step up but Isabella not being there to witness Carl and Judith grow taller than her would break her.

She left the lab some moments after that and walked aimlessly around Alexandria. She gave empty smiles to those who greeted her and she hoped they didn't notice.

She was glad none of them stopped to talk to her. She was glad they were preoccupied as it meant they wouldn't notice her empty smiles.

She continued walking around for sometime and it didn't take much longer for her luck of invisibility to run out.

She heard them approach her before she saw them and she put on the fakest smile on.

"Hey Isabella," Maggie said with a friendly voice as both she and Glenn got on opposite sides.  "It's weird seeing you out here. Usually you're in the lab and we never see you," she then added.

"Needed a change of scenery," Isabella shrugged as they kept walking.

"What, you missed seeing us that much?" Glenn joked but Isabella didn't even laugh.

She meant to, meant to get them off her back but her mind was too preoccupied.

"Okay, you didn't even try and insult Glenn, what's wrong?" Maggie then asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine," Isabella kept walking.

"Did something happen with Rick? Did he not take the news well?"

Isabella ignored her and kept walking but Maggie grabbed her wrist lightly, stopping her.

"Isabella, what's wrong?"

"Did Rick say something?" Glenn asked.

"No! No, I didn't, I didn't even tell him."

Glenn and Maggie looked at each other in worry before looking back at their friend.

"Why? What happened?" Maggie asked.

"I wanted to tell him, but god I couldn't. He's such an asshole for filling the supportive husband role. We talked about us possibly having kids and you know what he said? He was sure that so long as we're together everything will turn out okay and he looked at me with nothing but support, nothing but warmth."