Athena didn't notice his occasional glances, her even darker brown eyes staring ahead with a clouded gaze as he continued to undress her.
She was now sat on the side of the bathtub, her naked body creating goosebumps on her skin as the breeze hit. Shane then used a dampened cloth and began to softly scrub away the dirt and grime that has built on her skin. "Once I've got you all cleaned up I think you'll feel a lot better. Patricia has made some food for you so I think it's best you eat once we're done in here. Get your strength up. I think it'll best if you get some–"
"I'm pregnant." Athena said quietly, the words coming out of her mouth before she could stop herself.
Shane stopped scrubbing abruptly, unsure to if he had heard that correctly. "What?"
"I'm pregnant." She said a little louder this time. Athena finally focused her eyes on Shane, a look of shame on her face. She could see her words running through his mind as he tried to compute what she had said. He stuttered on his words but she picked up his on what he was trying to say. Which was how. "I took a test on the run with Maggie and Glenn. I missed my period and I didn't feel right so I thought I'd check. And it was positive."
Shane dropped the rag on the floor as he took a seat on the closed lid of the toilet. He buried his head in his hands, his palms rubbing the whole of his head back and fourth as Athena refrained from looking at him. She was trying so hard not to cry. This is what she had feared. This is why she didn't tell him sooner out of fear of him being like this. "When could this of happened?"
"At first I wasn't sure...I tried to figure it out in my head and I think it happened that night at the CDC. You were and drunk and I was drunk. We weren't careful." Athena trailed off, the room falling into a silence that made the woman tense up. As she opened her mouth, her words came out as more of a whisper. "Please don't be mad at me."
Shane lifted his head from his hands and his expression changed to a softer look. "Mad? Why would I be mad?"
"Because it's clear you don't want this and in a way I don't know if I do either. This tiny thing inside me would be growing up with all these big and disgusting monsters. It's no life."
"But what if it is. What if we can make it a life. We can make it a safe world for this baby–our baby to grow up in." Shane's tone sounded hopeful, the complete opposite to his body language a few seconds ago.
Athena was shocked to say the least about his reaction. She hadn't expected this out of all the outcomes she had conjured up in her head. "What are you saying? Are you saying you want to keep it?"
"Of course I do." Shane rose to his feet and held one hand to her face whilst resting the other on her naked hip "This is our baby, we made this together. I love you Athena, more than anything in this world. Now...I have another piece of you to love."
Her breath hitched in her throat hearing those three little words, unaware of how much those words coming from him could make her feel. "But what about the walkers. You heard what Jenner said at the CDC there is no cure. This is the world we live in now and this baby is going to grow up sleeping with one eye open at night and always watching their back incase one of them things tries to eat them. All they'll know is fear."
"Hey." Shane shushed, making her look into his eyes for reassurance "Nothing bad is ever going to happen to you as long as I'm around. Nothing in this world matters to me more now than you, Athena. I will make this world is safe enough for you and our baby to live in even if something were to happen to me. It's you and me against the world, right?"
Athena nodded before leaning forward and pressing her lips to Shane's. It lasted for a few seconds before she pulled back and rested her forehead against his. "So we're doing this. We're going to have a baby?"
"We're going to have a baby." He affirmed with a small smile. Shane had never felt so overjoyed, this was something he'd always dreamed of having. He was going to have a baby with the woman he loved the most in this world. Not only was he going to have a family but it would be his. While he was in love with Lori, Shane got a taste of what his future could have been. But when Rick climbed out of that truck back in Atlanta, his whole world that he had built vanished in an instant — it crumbling to pieces before his very eyes. It was like it had been snatched from him.
This time Rick wouldn't take away that happiness. This was his family. This was his life. And he'd be damned if Rick was going to take away what was rightfully his.
"I love you...so much." Shane exhaled.
"I love you more."
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