Walking out of the tent Daryl is almost immediately bombarded by a very worried looking Sophia who has tears running down her face.
"Is Harry okay?" Sophia asks quietly making Daryl remember how scary this must have looked to the kids. Crouching down to Sophia's level he rests a hand on Sophia's shoulder, regretting it immediately when she shy's away from it and he is forever grateful that Ed isn't still around. Instead he lets his hand fall to the side and just looks Sophia straight in the eyes.
"Harry's absolutely fine, he's just a little tired so he's sleepin' at the moment" he tells her honestly, causing the girl to let out a big smile. What shocks him even more is the big hug he gives her, despite the fact she'd shied away from him just 30 seconds ago. Then Daryl remembers what he was like as a kid, he had to be the one to initiate the contact. Momentarily stunned by the hug he kneels there awkwardly, then finally brings his hands round the small girl and returns the hug lightly.
Sophia eventually pulls away from the hug and then immediately asks Carol if she can go play with Carl who must have snuck up on them, this place was making him slack up on his skills, he needed to go out and hunt soon.
"I've never seen you smile as much as you have in the past few days" Carol comments to Daryl who is still kneeling awkwardly on the ground in a stunned silence, which just seems to make Carol smirk.
"Huh?" Daryl asks, not quite realising he was being spoken to. He was fine with Teddy and Harry, well and Merle, but anyone else he was still a bit awkward with, so kids who weren't his coming up and giving him a hug confused him.
"I would have never have guessed you had a family, you never spoke of them" Carol told him, looking at him almost sadly, which confused him some more. Why should she be worried? Why did she care whether he had a family or not?
"I thought I would never see them again, I didn't want to talk about them, it hurt too much" Daryl replied defensively. He was a private person as it was, and talking about them would have hurt, so he hunted and stayed away from as much human confrontation as he could, it was his defence mechanism.
"Speaking about it might have helped. Anyway you smile so much more, it's nice to see. You make a cute family" Carol told him with a smile. Daryl scoffs at that- cute cannot be associated with him at all, teddy yes, maybe even Harry but not him. This only makes Carol laugh which just makes him huff even more.
"I know the word ruins your macho image Daryl but you are a cute family, ask any of the ladies round here and they'll agree with me" Carol tells him with a laugh and walks away leaving him in yet another stunned silence. He was not cute.
Harry woke up groggily to the sound of whimpering and slowly sat up and saw Teddy whimpering into his sleeping bag. Shuffling across to his son Harry slowly brought him into his lap and tried to slowly rouse him from his nightmare.
"Daddy?" Teddy whimpered into Harry's stomach, still in the cusps of his nightmare.
"I'm here cub, your fine, it's only a nightmare" Harry tells his cub, stroking his head comfortingly. These nightmares were gradually happening more and more and Harry hated that his son was going to have to try and get used to this life, otherwise he was going to live in a permanent state of fear. He hated that killing walking but dead people was going to become the norm, Harry wasn't silly he knew there wasn't going to be a cure anytime soon, if ever. The people who would have been able to come up with a cure were most likely in the middle of it all, making it nearly impossible to survive it. His son was going to grow up where killing was norm, Harry shuddered at the thought.
"Come on let's see what everyone's up to" Harry tells his son, picking him up and walking out the tent. Teddy may be a bit big for lifts now but he'd just woken up from a nightmare and still needed comfort.
Walking out of the tent Harrys ears were immediately met with the sound of retching, not a pleasant sound to be met with. Looking round the area Harry spotted Lori bent over behind a tree, probably trying to be discreet. Feeling sorry for her Harry decided to go see if she was okay and find out if she had spoken to Rick yet, knowing how uncertain the women was Harry would bet that she hasn't, and he was definitely going to try and change that.
"Lori, you okay?" Harry asked quietly, not wanting to spook the women.
"Harry! You scared me"
"Sorry" Harry winced, Lori looked very pale with tears rolling down her cheeks which she quickly wiped away realising she had company. "Baby giving you grief already?" Harry joked trying to lighten mode. The only effect it had though was for Lori to sigh and more tears to roll down her face.
Not one for liking to see women cry, Harry set Teddy down on the ground and opened up his arms hoping Lori would take the offer. Surprising Harry slightly Lori took the offer immediately and broke down in sobs. Rubbing her back gently Harry let Lori cry it all out knowing she must have been bottling it all up for a while. Eventually Lori stopped crying and pulled away from the hug looking embarrassed.
"Umm thanks Harry" Lori sniffed, rubbing her hands over her face, trying to get rid of the fact she had just broken down.
"Its fine, you couldn't keep bottling that all up. Have you not spoken to Rick yet though?" Harry asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know how to tell him Harry, I don't even know if it's his" Lori blurted out shocking Harry slightly. Although it now made a lot sense about why she was so scared to Rick considering she's not even sure who the father is.
"It's Shane isn't it" Harry replied and saw Lori nod her head. Everything about Shane made far more sense, the constant anger and the arguing with his not dead best friend.
"How could I have been so stupid, it was one time, I was so upset about Rick and he was just there trying to comfort me and it just happened, and now he won't leave me alone" Lori ranted collapsing against another tree and dropping her head into her hands.
"Do you want me to go get Moony he always makes me feel better when I'm upset?" Teddy suddenly pipes up from Harrys side, causing Lori to lift her head out of her hands with a smile on her face and a slight chuckle.
"That's very thoughtful of you Teddy" Lori replied sounding genuinely grateful. With that Teddy ran back off to their tent to hunt down his favourite toy.
"You should feel honoured, he never allows anyone to cuddle his wolf" Harry chuckled, settling himself down next to Lori, whilst keeping an eye on Teddy to make sure he made it to the tent okay.
"He's a great kid" Lori told him quietly.
"Lori I need to ask, when you and Shane, you know, it was consensual right?" Harry asked warily now that Teddy was away for a second, he didn't want to pry, but the thought of it not being consensual made him shudder.
It took Lori a few seconds to reply which made Harry worry, the response he got only slightly made him feel better.
"I was upset and Shane said he was going to make me forget everything for a while and I stupidly went along with it, desperate to just forget for a little while even though I could kind of tell where it was going. By the time I definitely knew where it was going I was too caught up in the fact that this was the first time I hadn't felt the need to cry that I didn't stop it. As soon as it was over I regretted it and pushed Shane away and tried to stay clear of him. The next day Rick came back and I regretted it even more" Lori told him, and Harry felt anger pooling into his stomach, Shane hadn't technically raped Lori but he had definitely taken advantage of her emotional state and he hated people who twisted with people's emotions.
"He took advantage of you Lori" Harry whispered, desperately trying desperately to not get angry as he knew Lori needed comfort right now.
"Found it!" Teddy called running back to Lori and Harry, Moony safely tucked in his arms. Teddy slowed down when he approached and slowly walked over to Lori holding the wolf out to Lori patiently waiting for her to take it from him. When Lori finally cottoned on Teddy beamed and then settled himself in his dad's lap, looking very proud of himself.
"Thank you Teddy" Lori whispered, a faint smile upon her face and tucked the wolf into her arms unsure of what to really do with toy but not wanting to upset the child.
"Lori you really need to speak to Rick about all this, you can't keep this from him, he had a right to know" Harry urged, he really didn't want to go behind Lori's back and tell Rick but the poor man had a right to know and Rick would take it so much better if he heard it from his wife, but Lori was a stubborn woman. He could understand her hesitation he really could but Rick really needed to know, he was also the best person to sort Shane out, just saying the man's name in his head caused anger to boil in Harry's stomach.
"I know" Lori sighed sounding completely drained and looking exhausted which was not good, especially considering the fact she was pregnant. The situation really needed to get sorted so that she could get checked out by Hershel, the man may be only a vet like he kept reiterating but he was the best option they had right now. Harry really wished now more than ever that he had read more of the medical books Hermione brought along so that he knew more spells than just the basic healing ones he had learned.
Shuffling closer to Lori which wasn't as easy as he thought with Teddy in his lap he wrapped an arm round the women's shoulder in comfort. However, Harry wasn't expecting Lori to start crying again and lean into the embrace. Not wanting to be left out and wanting to help Lori, Teddy also leaned in and gave her hug which actually caused Lori to chuckle and wrap an arm round the child.
"Lori?"
Lori lifted her head up to see Rick standing there with tears falling down his face looking completely devastated.
"Wh-what you just said about Shane….is it true?"