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Grief
Katie sat on the edge of the bed, waiting for Rick to come in from putting Judith down in her crib.
When Rick came in, he sat down beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"Carl will come around. He will. We just have to give him time," Katie shrugged.
She could tell it was bothering Rick.
He pressed his lips to her temple gently.
"I hope so," Rick mumbled.
Katie scooted backwards and crawled under the warm covers.
"This comforter is so much nicer than the blankets in the infirmary," Katie said with a sarcastic tone.
Rick chuckled as he lay down beside her.
He wrapped his arms around her gently and pulled her into his warm side.
Katie winced slightly. Her body was still broken and bruised.
He fell asleep fairly quickly.
Katie laid there wide awake.
The events of the day had distracted her from the pain within.
Not the physical pain.
The pain that made her want to rip her own heart out to stop it.
She laid there silently, feeling it.
She stared up at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face.
She couldn't let tears fall. They wouldn't come to her.
She couldn't cry anymore.
She had cried out everything she had in her that day in the 'safe house'.
There was nothing left for her to cry.
She could hear Rick snoring gently beside her.
She knew he was in a deep sleep.
She slowly slid out of his arms and went to the dresser.
She rummaged quietly through her drawer and pulled out the sonogram picture.
Seeing it broke her heart a little.
The worst part of it all was that it was her fault and she knew that.
She knew that it could've been prevented.
If things had gone the way they were supposed to, Katie would still be pregnant.
She looked at the picture and took a jagged deep breath.
She slipped silently out of the bedroom and went down the stairs slowly.
With every step she took, she could feel her strength coming back to her body. The pain was still there, but it was slowly improving.
She walked down the street and into the cemetery.
She started digging a small hole.
As she dug, she started to really think about what had happened to her.
She started to really feel it.
The tears finally came.
They slipped silently down her face in the darkness.
She held onto the shovel, steadying herself.
Katie looked at the picture in her hands one last time.
She pressed the corner of it to her lips gently.
She put the sonogram picture in a box she had found in the kitchen.
She slowly lowered it into the hole she had just dug.
She filled the hole back in.
The hole was large enough to fit the box, but it was small enough to go unnoticed in the cemetery.
Only Katie would know that it was there. And that's exactly how she wanted it.
"Katie?" A whisper came from behind her.
She turned around quickly, wiping the tears off of her face.
"Glenn?" Katie asked, squinting her eyes to see in the darkness.
"I saw you come out of your house and I wanted to make sure you were okay," Glenn said quietly.
"I had to find a way to move on. This was it," Katie said simply.
"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Katie. You would have been safer just coming into the satellite building with us," Glenn sighed.
"Everything happens for a reason. Every problem has a purpose. I'll find the purpose for this. I just need some time. Something good is gonna come out of all this. It may not be tomorrow. May not be the next day. May not be 20 years from now. But someday, I'll look back on this and smile knowing that it made me stronger," Katie said, tears falling on her face again.
"But right now, are you okay?" Glenn asked.
"Not really, but I'm getting there," Katie answered honestly.
"I'm here for you. And I'll always be here for you," Glenn said with a small smile.
Katie gave him a weak smile.
"You should get home. I'll just be out here for a little while longer," Katie said, suggesting that he should get back to Maggie.
"If you don't mind, I'll stay here with you," Glenn said.
He knew that she couldn't do this alone.
He needed to be there for her.
Katie just sat down at the edge of the makeshift grave she had just built.
She sat there for what seemed like a long time, saying goodbye.
Finally, she got up and turned to face Glenn.
"Ready?" Glenn asked.
"Ready," Katie said, her voice slightly broken.
Glenn walked her back home before going to his own home.
"Night, Pizza King," Katie said softly.
"Goodnight, Katie," Glenn said with a small smile.
He pulled Katie into a tight hug there on the porch.
He hated to see his best friend in this kind of pain.
When they broke their hug, Katie slipped quietly into the house and up the stairs.
She stealthily climbed back into bed and snuggled into Rick's warm side.
He didn't even stir.
She felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest.
