The Walshs

Season 2: Chapter 3

SHANE'S POV

The joy of becoming a parent can be quickly snuffed out. Fear can replace joy when you watch doctors and nurse try desperately to revive your child that hasn't even had a chance to see the world yet. You become numb, there's a buzzing in your ears only broken by the heart wrenching sobs of your wife who minutes earlier had spent hours bringing this child into the world...

I cradled my son tightly to my chest as I booked it through a field of tall grass, Dixon sprinting ahead as a way of leading me where we had to go. I could feel Jason's blood soaking through my shirt, a feel I never thought I'd feel. "Move!" I heard Rick yelling behind me as he dragged the man who shot Jason through the field, Carl doing his best to keep up as well.

I turned to look at them, a mix of emotions bubbling inside of me but mainly fear. "How much further?" I yelled with anger and desperation.

The man panted and huffed, clearly unfit, but managed to point ahead of me. "About another half mile. Find Hershel, he'll help your boy," he answered and I took off running again. A farmhouse came into view and I made out a figure standing on the porch, I adjusted my grip on Jason's body and continued running. I made it through the front gate with Dixon just a little ahead of me, a small group of people standing on the porch amongst them an old man. "You Hershel?"

"Yes. Was he bit?" The old man answered, eyeing my small child in my arms.

"Shot by your man. You gotta help me," I begged and he ushered me inside to a bedroom where I lay Jason down on the bed. Rick was close behind me, telling Carl to stay in the living room as not to witness whatever was about to happen. I took off Jason's shirt, handing it to Rick. Everything was turning into a blur of sounds and actions, my body entering slow motion again. They gathered up medical supplies, hooking Jason up to an IV drip for the painkillers whilst Hershel checked him for a heartbeat. "Pillowcase," Hershel instructed looking at me.

Rick looked at me. "He's in shock," he stated as he grabbed the pillowcase to follow into a pad and place down on Jason's wound. "I've got a heartbeat but it's faint," Hershel announced before taking a look at the wound itself. "Deer slowed the bullet down, that might have just saved his life but the bullet did not go through clean. If I can get the bullet fragments out and I'm countin' six," Hershel explained to us before his gaze shifted back to me again. "Your name?"

"S-Shane. I'm Shane," I replied holding my son's hand tightlly. "I'm Rick. I'm the boy's uncle," Rick explained softly. We gave Hershel and his family room to work on Jason, Rick and I stepping out on to the porch for a breath of air. My hands were caked in blood, my son's blood, but I seemed dazed as I smeared it aacross my forehead. Rick removed a rag from his pocket to carefully wipe it away, holding my head as he did. "You got blood on you," he whispered placing the rag in my hands so I could clean my hands off as well.

I just stared at it, stared at my hands in disbelief. I didn't want to believe this was happening, it shouldn't have happened. A woman with short dark hair, Hershel's daughter I assumed, led us back into the room. "Do you know his blood type?" She asked me with sincere eyes.

"A positive, just like his mother," I replied feeling a huge hole being torn in my heart at the thought of my wife not knowing what had happened. Rick placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled softly. "And myself. Me and my sister are twins," he explained.

Hershel looked up from where he was working and nodded. "That's fortunate. Don't wander far, we might need you," the old man said to Rick.

"My wife... She doesn't know. She needs to be here. She needs to..."

The room was eerily silent. She had cried herself to sleep, exhaustion written all over her face as she slept peacefully beside me. The doctors had been gone for hours with our baby, they had found a heartbeat but it was no guarentee he'd make it. I was stuck in a situation where you'd do anything to trade places with him, just to give him a chance at life. She began to stir from a nightmare playing over and over in her head but you know waking her up would just bring her into a different nightmare... A worse nightmare...