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Recovery
When Katie woke up, she was still in her cell.
The medicine was working quickly.
She could feel her strength coming back to her body.
She heard footsteps outside of her cell.
She expected it to be Herschel, but it wasn't him.
It was Rick.
"Rick! Get out of here. It's not safe yet," Katie weakly shouted.
It was the loudest she had been throughout the whole course of her sickness.
"I don't care," Rick replied.
He came and sat down on Katie's bed.
He positioned her weak body so that she was leaning on him for support.
He wrapped his arm around her waist to ensure that she wasn't going to fall over.
"Carl? Judith? Are they okay?" Katie asked quickly.
"They are just fine. How are you feeling?" Rick asked softly.
"Like a million bucks," Katie said sarcastically.
"You'll be better soon. Herschel said that the medicine was working," Rick said.
"Good. Good," Katie said, tiredly.
"You know, the whole time that I was locked in here I was more worried about you than I was about me. So I guess I should thank you for making me so stressed that I fought my way to survival just to make sure you and the kids were okay," Katie said with a weak smile.
"Don't ever worry about me," Rick said shaking his head.
"Too late," Katie retorted.
Rick chuckled lightly.
She slowly drifted back to sleep.
The feeling of Rick's body heat close to her soothed her to sleep, just like it did in the tiny little bunk bed that they shared.
She had missed this.
She had missed him.
He held her close while she slept.
To make her more comfortable, he repositioned her so that he was holding her in his lap, kind of in the way you hold a baby.
"You know, I missed you while you were gone. I didn't know if you were going to come back. I never thought that I was going to see your big blue eyes again. I came to see you everyday. Everyday. The same time. Exactly 9 o'clock. The first couple times, Herschel turned me away. He said that it wouldn't be good for either of us. The next times, you were too sick to even make it down the stairs. That was the hardest part. Knowing you were sick and feeling so helpless because I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't fix this. I couldn't fix you. And I'm sorry for that. I was scared that I was never going to get to tell you-- get to tell you that I--- that I love you. I wanted you to know so badly. And I do. I love you, Katie. Damn it, I love you Katie King. I just wanted you to know. I wanted to say it out loud," Rick said to her sleeping form.
