Like Austin promised, Lori was fine. Shane found her, the boys running out to the yard when she showed. "Mom!"
"Oh, my boys." she hugged them.
"What happened to your face?" Austin looked in worry.
"I'm okay. Just a little accident." she promised. "Where's your dad?"
"He's still not back." Austin shook his head with an odd look.
"They're not?" Lori asked in disbelief, looking toward Shane. "Where are they?"
"Look, I had to get you back here." Shane stated, clearly he'd cooked up some lie about Rick to get Lori back to the farm.
"You asshole!" Lori shoved Shane suddenly. "He's my husband!"
"Lori, I will go after him. I will find him!" Shane yelled at her as he pulled her hands off him. "First things first, I gotta look after you. I good make sure the baby's all right, okay?"
Austin frowned his eyebrows. "What baby?"
Lori gapped in panic toward him. Carl cut in. "You're having a baby? Why didn't you tell us?"
"I-I-I-" Lori was lost of words, stumbling over her own and looking for any sort of possible way to explain it.
"You have got to be kidding me." Austin glared in disbelief. "Are you serious right now?"
"I was going to." Lori promised.
"How could you be so selfish!" Austin yelled at his mom.
"Hey, Austin." Andrea tried to calm him down.
"Bringing a kid into this type of world? Willingly? You're suppose to be better then that!" Austin spoke in disbelief as he shook his head at her. "You wanna screw up our family because you thought dad was dead, go ahead. But, at least be carful enough not to force a child to go through the shit your other two already are!"
"Austin!" Lori called in pain as he stormed off. "Austin, come back!"
He ignored her, storming back into the farm house and hoped she'd leave him the hell alone for the night.
"How is she?" Andrea poked her head into Beth's room the next morning, coming across a barely awake teenage boy as he sat with her.
"Dehydrated." Patricia said in return. "I'll set up an I.V. Best I can do without Hershel."
"You need to get some sleep." Maggie looked toward Austin. "You're looking like a raccoon."
"I'm okay." he shook his head. "I don't want her to think i'm walking out on her."
"She won't thing that." Maggie promised him.
Andrea walked over, looking at Maggie in worry. "Can I get you anything?"
"Nah, I just wish my dad was here." Maggie spoke honestly.
"She'll be okay. You just need to be strong for her." Andrea promised Maggie with a nod.
"I was just reminding her, and telling Austin, about my first summer back from college, I drove home, dumped my stuff off, went straight out to the stable for a ride. My family comes back from church and Beth grabs my things and starts unpacking my stuff upstairs."
"That's sweet." Andrea smiled.
"Yeah, until this one here started rifling through my backpack." Maggie looked her way. "She finds this little plastic container with these pink and green candies inside. She didn't even know I was on the pill. She was so freaked out by the idea of me, boys, and sex that she runs outside and chunks them in the duck pond. And I ride up, I see this, i'm screaming. She's crying and Shawn runs outside, thinks one of us is drowning. Soon as he figures out what's going on, the jerk busts out laughing so loud. The horse resets up and gets mud all over the three of us. And my dad comes up 'What the heck is going on out here?!' and she turns around, bats her eyelids and says, 'We're just swinging, daddy.' In her Sunday dress, all covered in snot and mud."
Austin looked back at Andrea in worry. She forced a smile. "Rick and Glenn will get your dad back."
Maggie held back her cries, Austin rubbed her back. "Glenn's a good guy."
"Yeah, he is." Andrea agreed.
"Bet you and Carl are pretty close, huh?" Maggie whipped her face as she looked at Austin.
"Not really." he shook his head. "I mean, not right, you know? We're four years apart, don't necessarily have the same interest anymore."
"He looks up to you." Maggie smiled. "I can see it."
"Probably not the best person to look up to." He inhaled with a shake of his head. "But, he doesn't get it."
"He doesn't." Maggie agreed. "But, you do. If something is bothering you, you should tell your mom. Without the yelling."
"She's lucky to have you here." Lori looked into Beth's room when the morning came around. Austin's pillows and blankets on the floor, because he caved and sleep right by her bed. "She doing any better?"
"Yeah, still a little out of it." he nodded, looking to the breakfast tray she had. "Don't tell Patricia."
Lori set it down, sitting behind Austin as she hugged him, her head rested on his shoulder. "I should have told you."
"Yeah." Austin agreed.
"And I hear you, I thought the exact same thing when I first found out. Had the pill and everything." Lori spoke in his ear, her hands rubbing his shoulders. "Then I looked at you, and Carl, and I had hope. It's not fair, but I want to keep that hope."
Austin exhaled. "I still don't agree with it."
"You didn't have to." she rubbed his back again. "I don't want us to fight though. We never fight."
Austin let her hug him a little while longer, shutting his eyes and leaning back some. "We better let Beth eat."
"Yeah, come on down stairs." Lori stood up. "Your dad tell you about the boy he brought back?"
"Heard his leg is really messed up." Austin followed her down the stairs after closing Beth's door for her. "What's the plan?"
"I don't know. They want to leave him on the road when they get him some what fixed." she looked back as they went toward the kitchen. "I thought that was a little harsh though."
"Seems like hes just walker bait then." Austin sat down.
"That's what I said." she agreed with him. "I'm gonna talk to Beth."
He gave an odd look. "And say what?"
"She needs some sort of guidance right now." Lori nodded, motioning to his plate. "You eat, i'll go see if I can get her out of bed for a little bit."
Austin nodded, watching her go back up the stairs and leave him in the kitchen.
It wasn't long until she ran back down stairs again. "Austin!"
He looked up, finding his knife in her hand. Andrea had been in the kitchen with him, looking over as well. "My knife! Where was it?"
"Beth had it." Lori gave it to him, worry in her eyes.
It took Austin a second before his face fell. "Is she okay?"
Lori stopped him from going up the stairs. "She's all right, Maggie's talking to her right now."
The trio stood in the kitchen, listening to the Greene sisters scream at each other upstairs. Austin stared at his knife. His. The knife that could have killed Beth if his mom hadn't been there. Andrea sighed. "Where's Hershel?"
"Maggie doesn't want him to find out yet." Lori shook her head.
"Don't know what she thinks yelling at hers gonna do." Austin said honestly with an eye roll. "Just making it worse in the long run."
Lori rubbed his back. "Family affair. Let them work it out."
"That's working it out?" Andrea asked in disbelief.
"When Beth stops fighting, that's when it's time to worry." she said in return, brushing her hands on her pants.
"This could have been handled better." Andrea nodded.
"No shit." Austin agreed, getting a look from his mom. "Sorry."
"How so?" Lori looked in her direction.
"You shouldn't have taken the knife away." Andreas words causing Austin to look over at her oddly.
"Excuse me?" Lori looked back.
"You were wrong, like Dale taking my gun. That wasn't your decision." Andrea nodded her head. "She has to choose to live on her own. She has to find her own reasons."
"Andrea, no one's just gonna sit back and willingly let someone try to kill themselves." Austin looked oddly at her.
"If she's serious, she'll figure out a way." the blonde said back.
"Okay, then so be it if that's what it comes down to. But, any decent person isn't gonna do absolutely nothing when a sixteen year old girl is suicidal." he shot back at her in disbelief, annoyance in his tone. Andrea was usually one of the few people that didn't annoy Austin, that he usually agreed with at all times.
"That has nothing to so with it. She only has so many choices in front of her, and she believes the best one is suicide." Andrea pointed out with a shrug and head shake.
"Oh, okay." Austin laughed as he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Lori called as he walked away.
"Gonna go tie a rope up for Beth, leave it by her door as a little gift. I'll be sure to let her know that it's totally cool if she wants to kill herself, glad I got that life lesson." he mocked, opening the door and closing it behind him.
•
kylie speaks
austin rn:🤬🙄
austin when judith arrives:🥺🥰