Complicated ✔

Ch. 44 - Hershel

KATHRYN'S POV

When I walked back into the portion with the cells, I immediately went to Maggie as she stood by the cell door staring inside. "Maggie," I whispered, causing her to turn around. When she looked at me, she had tears in her eyes. I moved closer to her at a faster pace before wrapping her into a tight hug as she began crying into my shoulder. "He's going to be okay," I whispered as I hugged her tightly, "you'll see. Your father's strong. He'll pull through this." I looked over to the cell door as I held onto Maggie, spying Glenn standing there looking back and forth between where we stood and where Hershel laid on the bed unconscious. I held my arm out that was closest to him, waiting for him to come join us. When he did, he had his arms around both Maggie and me, and had placed his head on my other shoulder.

They were both taking this hard, we all were, and I could hear Carol and Lori in the cell talking as they tried to get the bleeding to stop. I pulled away from Maggie and Glenn, looking at the two before looking to where my bed was upstairs. "I'm going to go upstairs," I whispered, "if you need me I'll be in my cell." I squeezed Maggie's hand, to try and be reassuring, before letting go and going up to where my cell was. When I got to the landing and walked all the way down to my cell, I glanced back to see Glenn and Maggie hugging and whispering, probably about Hershel. Before I even had a chance to make it back into my cell, Carl was opening the main door to the cells as T-Dog and Dad walked in, each carrying something in their arms.

"Whatcha got," I called down with a smile as I leaned against the railing and watched them. "Canned beef," he called up, "canned corn, canned cans." That last one he started shaking his head, causing me to laugh as he walked underneath where I was standing to an empty cell. I could hear Dad and Lori talking again, a whispered conversation about those inmates would be my guess. Turning from the railing, I walked into my cell and laid down on my bed as I heard movement moving away from me and walking out of the cell block once more. I knew now, all I could do was wait and hope that Dad, Daryl, and T-Dog would be okay with those men.

It was probably close to an hour before I heard the sound of Beth shouting for help. When I made it down to the bottom of the stairs and ran to the cell Hershel was in, they were pulling Lori back away from him as he gasped out. I looked down at Carl in front of me and saw he had his gun pointed at Hershel. When I looked back up at the old man, his eyes were closed and he was snoring slightly like he was asleep. Placing my hands on his arms, I slowly lowered his gun until he wasn't aiming it anymore. I wrapped my arm around Carl's shoulders and pulled him against me as I rested my head on top of his while we just stared at where Hershel was laying. At one point, Glenn came back but Carol was still out doing whatever it was she left to do.

I was leaning against one side of the cell opening, Carl leaning against me, and Glenn was on the other side of the opening. We heard the metal door to this part of the block opening and closing, and when we looked over towards the door, Dad was walking in with the others. "Hershel stopped breathing," Carl said looking to Dad as he drew closer to us, "Mom saved him." "It's true," I said nodding as Dad looked up at me. He nodded and walked into the cell with T-Dog behind him. Daryl stopped just behind me, resting his arm on the bars for part of the cell wall for the door. I glanced back at him and smiled before looking back into the cell just as everyone moved closer to the bunk Hershel was laying in.

DARYL'S POV

Hershel was going to make it. He finally opened his eyes after Rick, T-Dog, and myself made it back from dealing with those prisoners. It was dark now, and Rick had designated Kat and me to be on watch duty tonight. So here we were, in the guard tower closest to the prison, sitting on the landing as we faced the woods. "I'm really glad Hershel's going to be okay," Kat said as she leaned back against the wall to the top of the tower. "We all are," I said nodding as I looked over at her. "I like moments like this," she said after a few minutes, "when it's so quiet out." "Reminds me of the farm," I said nodding as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. "Can I tell you something," she asked quietly, "and you not get freaked out or mad at me?" "Depends on what," I said with a smirk before opening one eye and looking over at her.

I could see her cheeks were turning a light shade of red in the moon light, which automatically caught my attention for whatever she had to say. "So back when I got shot," she started out quietly as she didn't look at me, "um, that day you guys finally arrived onto the farm. When I went back inside after you asked me how I was doing. I tried to go to sleep since I'd stayed up all night worrying more about Carl than myself. I, um, I had a dream with you in it." The red darkened in her cheeks as she still refused to make eye contact with me. "Just what kind of dream," I asked as I tried to get her to look at me while I turned my body so that I could give her my full attention. I watched as she peered at me from the side of her vision before pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in them to try and hide from me.

"C'mon Kat," I said placing my hand on her shoulder, "tell me." "It's weird though," she said as she looked at me. "I'll be the judge of that," I said, "now tell me." "Fine," she said with a sigh, "so the dream I had with you in it. It was a, um, it was a wet dream." "A wet dream," I asked as I felt my eyes widen while her blush continued to darken. "Yeah," she said nodding, "you know." "I know what a wet dream is Kat," I said to get her to stop because she was obviously making herself uncomfortable, "just what happened in the dream?" "Um," she said as she looked away from me, "we didn't get far. I mean, I woke up before it got to the part where we had sex." I stared at her as she still refused to look at me. "So if you hadn't woken up," I said, "we would've had sex? And this was back when we first got onto the farm?"

"Yeah that's about right," she said nodding as she finally looked over at me, "is it bad I want to know if your mouth is as good in person as it was in my dream?" "Would you like to find out now," I said smirking at her as I leaned forward before capturing her lips with my own. I watched as her eyes closed before I closed mine, my arm moving to wrap around her as she turned to face me. Pulling her closer, as we were still sitting on the balcony to the tower, she moved to straddle my hips. Both my hands moved to her waist, holding her there as her own hands moved up to rest on my shoulders. Before too long, I pulled away as stared at her blue eyes. "Inside the tower," I said, "now." "Why," she asked confused as she stood up. "Because we're about to see if I'm as any good in that dream of yours as I am in person," was all I said before I pushed her towards the door and followed her inside.