Daryl's Lullaby ~ Daryl Dixon x Reader ~ On Temporary Hold

Ch.27 ~ Things Begin to Uncover

3rd Person POV

The night before Lori had discovered something daunting and terrifying after receiving her package from Glenn, who had since been giving her looks of disappointment and disapproval as he avoided the women.

The woman was pregnant. Pregnant during a time where there were no doctors, no security and death around every corner you tried to turn.

Her mind had been beating her up since she found out. Things like... 'how could I be so foolish?' And 'how could I be so careless?' But the main thing which taunted her mind was. 'Was it Ricks or Shane's?'

She'd slept with both men on the same day back when Rick showed up at the quarry with the group from Atlanta and she'd continued to sleep with Rick since. But regardless of that fact she'd been with Shane for the last 2 months and she was aware of their recklessness on a few occasions including the day Rick returned.

There was just no certainty to whose baby this could be. For now though, she'd claim it to be Ricks, just to ease the burden on her guilty conscience. That is until she came up with some alternative to get rid of the child. The last thing she was going to do was bring life into a world where living is nothing more than scavenging for rations.

This is no life she'd bestow upon something which would be so vulnerable to begin with and later have to harden their souls just to live with whatever it is it'll take for them to survive. She wasn't that cold hearted to drop such a hardship onto something so innocent.

Brushing her worries aside till she was alone to think about her problems she continued to help Carol with the washing while glancing at the huddling group standing around the grid map once more preparing to venture out and search for the missing little girl.

"All right. Everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far." Rick explained to Daryl, Shane, Andrea, TDog and Dale.

"I'd like to help." A voice behind them said. Jimmy, one of Hershel's men, approached the car they were gathered around volunteering to help them search for Sophia.

"I know the area pretty well." He argued as he came up besides Rick and Andrea.

"Hershel's okay with this?" Rick enquired. The last thing the man wanted to do was piss off their host especially while trying to convince the man that his group could be an asset rather than a burden.

"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you." The boy stumbled out trying to cover the fact that this was an obvious lie that Rick was totally buying.

"All right then. Thanks." Ricks says tapping the boy on the shoulder appreciating the young boy's help.

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me. Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse." Shane muttered, having opened the passenger side door and sat on the seat in the car.

"Anyone includes her right?" Andrea argues.

"Well, whoever slept in that cupboard is no bigger than yay high." Daryl states stretching his hand out to show the rough height of a small child. "Besides, Scarface would follow this lead and agree we should at least search the area before we moved on." He then states looking over to the open back of the truck where Skylla laid watching the group.

Upon eye contact with the man the dog got up stretching before she jumped out of the truck and trotted over to the man just as Dale re-emerged from the RV having gone to get the bag of guns.

"Y/n's dead man, it doesn't matter what she'd do, move on already and accept that she wasn't all she bigged herself up to be." Shane snarled back to the brunette redneck. Venom laced his tone as he spoke about the girl, his facial features hardening at the mention of her.