season two, episode nine.
"triggerfinger"
024. relief.
LYDIA GREY was not worried. nope. not at all! she was not worried at the fact that glenn and rick still hadn't returned from trying to find hershel. no way! im sure they're fine!
"can you stop bouncing your leg up and down? it's so damn annoying." daryl scoffed, snapping her out of her thoughts as she jumped slightly and glanced at him.
"sorry."
"what?"
"i said sorry, dumbass."
"...sorry?" daryl raised a brow as lydia rolled her eyes, muttering a shut up. "the hell is wrong with you? you look all pale and sick and you keep staring at the woods."
"thanks, daryl. that's really kind of you." the woman said sarcastically, sending him a sharp glare before looking back at the woods.
"you worried?"
"what would i be worried about?"
"the fact that rick and glenn ain't back yet." daryl pushed as lydia rolled her eyes, letting out a humerous laugh.
"as if, they've only been gone a few hours." lydia waved him off boredly.
"more like eight hours. they left this morning and even though i don't have a watch i'd guess it's about...nine o'clock?" daryl decided to annoy her further. "also, lori's not back yet. the mad woman ran up to me demanding i looked for rick and glenn and i told her to do it herself, now she's gone."
"what a shame." lydia said unenthusiastically.
to her shock, daryl let out a genuine laugh. "you're a real bitch. you two not friends?" he teased.
"daryl, the fact i'm sat on these steps alone...does that not signify i want to be alone?" she finally spoke, sending him a fake look of annoyance before heading inside.
"dinners ready." carol said quietly with a small smile. lydia thanked her and sat down next to andrea, and opposite t-dog who both sent her a smile.
"carl, keep your head up, okay? your old man, he's one of the toughest son of a b—" shane began, only to be cut off by patricia.
"no cussin' in the house."
"...sorry"
"lori, dinner!" carol called out.
"she's not in there." lydia spoke up, glancing at the woman. "daryl said he last saw her a couple hours ago on the field."
"and you didn't say anything?" andrea asked in confusion.
"i only found out three minutes ago." lydia defended. "daryl said she was worried about rick, asked daryl to go but daryl was being stubborn and said no. apparently he's not seen her since."
"she must've went after them." dale said in shock. cue lydia pretending to act shocked.
"nobody panic. she's gonna be around here somewhere." shane said, standing up calmly and leaving the room as lydia huffed, just trying to eat her dinner.
"don't worry, i'm coming to help... right after i eat this." lydia called out, before mumbling the last part to eden.
"lydia!" carol scolded as the younger woman sent her a look, as if carol was a mother telling off her child.
"ughh," she dragged out, like a five year old, "myself and eden are hungry, i'm sorry but i care more for eden's life than lori's. i care more for eden's life than anyone. then, ill put her to bed and help look." she explained as carol nodded understandingly.
lydia ate her dinner, fed eden and put her to bed as quickly as possible (lie) but then went out to help look, feeling bad that she left the others to look themselves.
she firstly noticed carol and daryl speaking, but decided to leave them to talk and went over to andrea and maggie. "any luck?" she asked, tying up her shoelaces.
"she's not at the barn. and t-dog checked the yard, she's not there." maggie responded with a sigh. t-dog and shane made their way over to them hearing their name being called.
"look, she's probably with rick, hershel and glenn at that pub you guys told them about. they saw that it was getting dark and decided to stay the night." andrea suggested tiredly.
"that's not like them." lydia began with a small frown. "rick and glenn searched for sophia in darker nights than this. they wouldn't stay somewhere without telling us."
"should we be worried?" carl's innocent eyes looked up at lydia. the woman crouched down in front of him, a hand on his arm.
"hey, don't be scared. you're parents will be back soon...they're gonna be fine." lydia resssured, bringing him in for a hug.
"did she take a gun?" shane asked as lydia frowned.
"how am i supposed to know? ask daryl."
"i already did. he said he didn't see her leave the farm." carol answered, jogging back over to the group, looking emotional.
lydia sighed, rubbing the side of her face in stress. before she could speak, shane was in the car and speeding off to find the group. "dumbass, i wanted to go with." lydia complained.
"look, im sure they're fine. maybe they had a run in with walkers, but they're a tuff group and no doubt will have survived." t-dog reassured the girl, patting her back.
"t, go reassure their child, not me." lydia joked, making t-dog roll his eyes with a small smile and head off in the direction of where carl had walked to.
"i'm gonna go and check on eden. will y'all let me know if anything happens?" lydia asked quietly. andrea and maggie nodded while carol went off to speak to daryl.
lydia thanked them before heading inside. she passed a few of hershel's family members and sent them a kind smile, heading into the guest bedroom which had a cot in, where eden was staying. she looked over the cot and smiled seeing the girl sound asleep. she was growing more and more every day, lydia guessed she would be around six, maybe seven months by now. she felt terrible having to guess, but the days soon started to blend together. she counted up to about thirty three days in, and then gave up. and that was before she even found rick and the group.
she knew eden was starting stage 2 in food, which was basically two or three meals of food mushed together a day, and around three bottles. eden was always babbling away around the people she was comfortable around, which helped lydia roughly guess her age since she remembered researching it throughout her pregnancy.
"hey." dale spoke from behind her. lydia almost jumped at the sudden voice, but smiled seeing the older man. he slowly walked in and stood next to the woman.
"she's such a peaceful baby. barely ever cries..." dale began, making lydia pull a face. "except round shane." she joked, making dale giggle.
"but you're right, apart from when things get too loud, she's quite a well-behaved girl. she's growing up so fast...it's real scary, you know?" lydia began with a small frown, and dale turned to listen. "i'm scared of her growing up in this world. it's too cruel...i get she was born four months before this whole outbreak, i had no idea this would happen...but i still feel guilty sometimes."
"that's normal. but you are not to blame, and eden is going to grow up with a loving, and healthy, family. all of us. as long as she is surrounded by love, she will be fine. and when the time comes, we'll teach her how to survive in a world like this." hearing dale's words made lydia tear up, of course she wiped them away immediately. the woman looked at the older man and smiled.
"what would i do without you?" she joked, sniffling slightly.
"you'd be bored to death having no one to talk badly about shane with." dale joked, which made lydia laugh again.
"that's very true—" lydia was cut off when headlights from a car reflected through the window. the two of them shared a look and quickly made their way outside.
to their surprise, lori and shane got out of the car. and lori looked like hell. she was bleeding, her hair was messy and she looked so tired. lydia widened her eyes and made an effort to go over, "are you okay, what happened?"
"i was in an accident—" lori began, despite their differences, she was grateful for lydia's genuine concern. "she was attacked." shane cut her off.
"i'm fine, im fine." lori waved him off.
"any sign of rick, hershel and glenn?" t-dog asked hopefully after checking in on lori.
"they're not back?..." lori whispered, shaking her head in confusion.
that was when lydia truly started to panic. "oh fucking hell." she cursed, beginning to pace around everyone.
"where are they?" lori demanded from shane who sighed.
"look, i had to get you back here." he defended. lori walked up to him, shoving him back, "you asshole!"
"lori, i will go after him! i will find him! now, first, i've gotta look after you, i gotta make sure the baby's alright." shane yelled over her.
lydia's jaw dropped.
to the ground.
through the ground and down to the mouth of hell.
what the actual fuck.
"you're having a baby?" carl asked in disbelief, "why didn't you tell me?"
"i...i..." lori trailed off in shock that shane had just blurted out her secret.
"i'm sorry to be this person...but you both had the audacity to make comments about me and my daughter and now you're doing the same fucking thing?" lydia spoke up, shane groaned, lori rolled her eyes and t-dog never grinned so hard in his life.
"lydia, please. now is not the time for your childishness." lori waved her off, making lydia silently scream.
despite being annoyed, lydia sighed and nodded. "i'm sorry. i don't want to be rude and don't think i'm saying you should or shouldn't have the child, because it's your decision and your body, and none of my business, i'm just hurt that you were saying the stuff you said about me, and then are doing it yourself." wow, mature lydia, who would've thought it?
lori nodded slowly, understanding where she was coming from and then headed inside with andrea. "now can someone please go and find the guys because if eden wakes up and glenn isn't there she will quite literally throw the biggest tantrum in the world."
the group chuckled at her words, which made her smile lightly. "if they're not back by morning, i'll go out again and look." shane spoke up before walking into the house.
lydia kissed her teeth and glanced at t-dog, who seemed to understand what she was thinking. "nope, no way. you are not asking me to look after eden so you can find those guys." he waved his arm around.
lydia sighed, "fine i'll take her with me."
"no! for once in your damn life, do as you're told." t-dog laughed out, making lydia smile.
"fine." she rolled her eyes jokingly.
LYDIA DIDNT sleep much that night. she tossed and turned on her little mattress on the floor next to eden's cot the whole night. she ended up getting up for a glass of water about fifteen times per hour, just to attempt to cure her boredom and worries.
she finally managed to get to sleep, but was soon awoken by eden's hunger cry. she got dressed, dressed eden and fed her, trying not to wake the others. it didn't take long for them to wake up, and they had established a plan that some of the group would go out and look for rick, hershel and glenn.
lydia packed her machete and and met up with andrea, daryl, shane and t-dog. they packed up the car with as many weapons as possible.
lydia's focus changed from the car to a noise in the distance, she turned to see a car driving towards the farm. "hey, guys, look!" she pointed, squinting her eyes to see who it could be.
"no way." andrea said in shock.
it was rick, hershel, glenn and a unknown man in the back of the truck. of course, carl and lori were the first to approach and hug them. one by one, the group reunited with them and shared many hugs of relief, all of them wanting to know what happened.
lydia grinned seeing glenn and brought him in for a hug, the boy immediately hugging back and practically snatching eden away to throw her up and catch her, making lydia smile. "thank god you're okay." she hugged the boy again.
maggie ran over to glenn, so lydia left them alone and turned to rick who was already looking at her. a relived smile broke out onto her face as she practically flung her arms around him. rick was shocked, but hugged back immediately, eden slotting comfortably into the side of them.
she quickly pulled away with a laugh, "i'm sorry—i'm just so relieved that you are okay." she breathed out, choosing to bringing him in for another hug, which he was more confident in hugging back this time.
he chuckled, "i'm okay." he reassured, "hey you." he grinned at eden who reached out to rick. the ex sherif immediately took her and ruffled her small hairs and placed his hat on eden's head.
something stung inside lydia as she watched rick interact with her daughter. it was weird and she was unsure why—but every time rick interacted with her, all of her worries went away. she felt calm. she felt reassured that, just like dale said, eden would grow up with a loving family, and a positive male figure in her life, even though it wasn't romantic.
"thank you."
rick glanced at her in slight confusion, wondering why he was thanking her. "for always caring for eden since you met her."
the man smiled, "i said to you before, you never need to thank me."
lydia glanced at him for a few moments, "i wasn't even that worried when you were gone." she said sarcastically, cringing at her weak moments a few seconds ago.
he laughed, "oh yeah? so if i go and ask the others, what would they say?"
lydia stayed silent, and simply took eden back and walked over to glenn, ignoring the laugh rick let out before he reunited with the rest of the group.
"oh yeah, that's randall." glenn spoke up, noticing everyone looking confused at the sweaty, blindfolded guy in the backseat.
they all slowly walked over to see him, frowning. they had their suspicions, so once they were all inside the house, rick began to explain why they brought him back. "we couldn't just leave him behind. he would've bled out, if he lived that long."
"it's gotten bad in town." glenn spoke up, for some reason ignoring maggie's gaze.
"what do we do with him?" lydia spoke up in confusion. before rick could answer, hershel walked in.
"i repaired his calf muscle as best i can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. won't be on his feet for at least a week." hershel explained briefly to them.
"when he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way." rick told them all as lydia nodded slowly.
"isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" andrea asked.
"he'll have a fighting chance." rick responded.
"just gonna let him go?" shane asked hesitantly. daryl walked in at that moment and sat down to listen. "he knows where we are."
"he was blindfolded the whole way here, he's not a threat." rick said in response. the whole room wouldn't know it yet, but that strategy would still be used from years to come. even if some of the people in that room wouldn't be there to see it.
"how many were there? you kill three of their men, you took one hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?" shane argued, making rick look down with a sigh.
"they left him for dead. no one is looking!"
rick and shane went back and forth for a few moments, trying to figure out a plan for randall which ended up with shane storming out.
the group all went their separate ways, glenn went with maggie, lori went with rick, carol went with daryl, dale and t-dog went together so that just left eden with lydia.
and despite sometimes it got lonely talking to a baby that couldn't speak, lydia liked it that way. at least eden wouldn't spread the gossip around.
kinda hate this chapter but oh well