They found an abandoned barn in the woods, and when he saw it, Daryl sat down against a tree and pulled out a handful of crushed cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket. Parker leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of Daryl's head, brushing the hair out of his face. 

"I'm gonna go check out the barn. Besides, pretty sure being around smoke is bad for the baby."

"Be careful," Daryl advised, watching her leave. As she walked away, Parker heard Daryl crying behind her and as much as she wanted to go back and comfort him, this was something he needed to do alone. He had to process what happened before he allowed anyone else inside the mental walls he had barricaded himself behind. Parker knew it, and as she walked away, she felt tears of her own well up in her eyes. She carefully circled the barn, securing the perimeter before heading back to the doors. She knocked a few times, but when she was met with nothing but silence, she carefully opened the doors. 

Inside was a lone walker whose head turned as Parker entered. She pulled her knife out and slowly walked up to the walker, and once she was close enough, she plunged the knife into the walker's head, again and again, and again before she finally stumbled back and choked on a sob. She covered her mouth to stifle her cries, it had all become too much for her. She cried for Beth, for Daryl, for Rick, Carl, Judith, and everyone who was with them, and those who weren't. Talking about Dale again after trying to put him out of her mind was hard because she had yet to fully forgive herself for what had happened to him. Their faces flashed through her mind, everyone from Jim and Amy in Atlanta to Lori, T, and Hershel at the prison to Beth and Tyreese just a few weeks ago. 

Everyone she had lost over time came back to haunt her, their faces dancing in the back of her eyelids. Parker dropped to her knees and knelt there for a few minutes, crying to herself, wishing things had gone differently. Then she stopped to ask herself if she had really wanted things to be different. If things weren't the way they were now, and the virus never happened, would she have met the people she was with now? Her heart would never have been touched by so many special people she was proud to call her family. A family that was forced together due to circumstance rather than choice, but a family nevertheless. Parker's mind drifted back as she thought about all the ones she had lost, and then she thought about all the people they'd met along the way and were still here. 

The original Atlanta group had dissipated, leaving behind only a few, but they had rebuilt themselves and opened their group up to unfamiliar faces. Parker couldn't disappoint the people she was with now, no matter how dysfunctional they were, because without them she would have given up weeks ago. Crying helped because it eased the weight of the emotions that piled up even if that relief was short. She wiped her tears off with her sleeve, sniffling as she started to collect herself, she was grateful that no one was around to see her cry. This was something she needed to do alone, she needed time to process everything alone, the same way Daryl did. 

With a slow, shaky breath, she pulled her knife out of the walker's head, wiping it off on its torn and tattered dress. She slowly rose to her feet, grabbed the rotting corpse by the ankles, and started dragging it out of the barn, hiding it in the bushes where no one would find it. She quickly made her way back to the barn doing one last sweep of the place before some shuffling caught her attention. On the other side of a large pile of hay bales, Parker found another walker, one that was too weak to move. The sight of it almost made her feel sorry, but then she reminded herself that the thing she felt sorry for only had one thought in its mind and that was to eat her. She sunk her knife into the walker's temple and dragged it out, adding it to her newly started walker pile, kicking some leaves around to hide the trail the body's left when she dragged them. When she got back to where Daryl was sitting, she forced a smile and tried to pretend that she hadn't been crying a few minutes earlier.

"Barn is cleared." She informed him, leaning up against the tree.

"Any problems?"

"Two walkers," She shrugged, hiding behind the smile she forced on. One walker she turned into a brain smoothie and the other was on the verge of dying for a second time. "Let's just say the second one didn't put up much of a fight and the first one never got a chance to."

"Did you kill 'em?" He asked, looking up at her.

"No, I chilled out in there with them and we had a nice tea party and talked about life," She replied sarcastically before sighing and rubbing her hands over her face tiredly. "Shit. I'm sorry, now is not the time for jokes." Daryl had a sad smile on his face.

"No, it's alright. We should probably start headin' back." When they got back to the road, Rick looked over his shoulder, waiting for them, a bright white piece of paper in his hands with a note scribbled on it. From a friend. Tara pointed to the water bottles all neatly spread out in the middle of the road, Parker's mouth felt like the desert now that she was looking at the water.

"This paper hasn't been sitting here for more than maybe an hour or two. Maybe less." Parker held the sheet in her hands, her eyes darting across the three words. "There's not even a spec of dirt on this."

"What else are we going to do?" Tara asked with a slight shrug, wanting to make a mad dash for the water. But Rick had other ideas.

"Not this," Rick replied. "We don't know who left it."

"What, you thinking it's a trap or a coincidence?" Parker raised an eyebrow at her brother as he looked around, he was on edge.

"If that's a trap, we already happen to be in it." Eugene pointed out as Parker eyed the bottles of water. "But I, for one, would like to think it is indeed from a friend."

"What if it isn't?" Carol asked skeptically. "They put something in it?" Parker picked up one of the bottles of water, unscrewing the cap. She felt everyone's eyes on her as she did so, she lifted it to her face, smelling the water. As cautious as she was, she couldn't deny the fact that she was dying of thirst. Despite being distrustful, because of the people they'd run into before, she wanted to believe that this was a good thing. After all, the world couldn't be all bad. There had to be some good in it.. somewhere.

"Parker, what are you doing?" Rick watched her every move with caution.

"The only way to see if they put something in this is to try it," Parker told them all. Abraham took a step forward, intending to take the bottle from her hand, but she held out her finger, moving away. "Don't even try it."

"Parker, put it back," Rick demanded.

"Rick, if they wanted us dead, don't you think they would have killed us already?" Parker, looked around at all of them, waiting. "They could be somewhere hidden in the trees with guns pointed at us right now, laughing. I don't have the energy to argue with you about this, but I can tell just by looking at all of us that we're thirsty. This might be just what we need." She motioned toward the water in her hand. Rick, walked over, pulling the bottle out of her hands.

"We can't." Thunder rumbled overhead as Rick dropped the bottle to the ground, spilling the water as rain began to fall. Parker had never been this happy to feel the coolness of raindrops on her skin, she leaned her head back and let the raindrops run down her face, opening her mouth to catch some of the rain. Tara and Rosita fell to the ground, enjoying the rain as it began to pour, the majority all laughing. This was what they needed to revive their spirits, but Parker noticed that Maggie, Daryl, and Sasha didn't look as excited as the rest did. Parker dropped to the ground, her arms outstretched as she laughed, her mouth wide open to catch the rain as it fell down on them. Glenn laid down beside her, the two smiling at one another before looking back up at the sky.

"We need to gather as much of this as possible," Parker told Rick, propping herself up on her elbows so she could look back at him. "Before this stops." She grabbed a few bottles of water, dumping them and propping them up to catch the rain as her clothes stuck to her.

"Everybody get the bags," Rick instructed. "Anything you can find. Come on." The thunder worsened and Parker saw Rick's expression change, able to read him like an open book.

"We shouldn't be here. Looks and sounds like this storm is going to go from one to ten in minutes." Parker mumbled, looking at the sky darkened into a dark stormy gray. "Glenn, here, come on." She reached out a hand, pulling him up to his feet.

"Yeah, you're right," Rick nodded, glancing up at the storm clouds. "Let's keep moving."

"There's a barn!" Daryl shouted over the rain.

"Where?" Rick asked. Parker gestured for the group to follow, she and Daryl leading the group to the abandoned barn. Rick walked ahead of them once they neared it, his gun in hand, Parker tried to stop him, telling him she'd already cleaned it.

"I already cleared it." She yelled over the rain. "There were just two walkers. There is nothing left." He went ahead and checked the barn anyway. He waved them all inside once he had deemed it clear. The rain outside pelted against the roof, mostly just slipping through the cracks and falling onto them. The wind howled through the broken wood, whistling through the barn as the group began to settle in for the night. When everyone was settled, they lit a small fire and huddled around it. Parker was lying with her head in Daryl's lap, his fingers absentmindedly running through her hair that once fell just below her shoulders, and now reached the middle of her back. Parker caught a glimpse of Rick on the other end side of the fire, looking at Carl, who was sound asleep with Judith in his arms. "He'll be okay." She assured her brother.

"I used to feel sorry for kids that have to grow up now. In this," Rick started, his voice filled with guilt knowing that his kids were living in it. Parker and Daryl shared a concerned look knowing their soon-to-be child would have to grow up in this world, same as Judith did. "But I think I got it wrong." He added after a moment. "Growing up is getting used to the world. This is easier for them."

"This isn't the world," Michonne cut in, not wanting to believe the world they were living in now was what they would be stuck with forever. "This isn't it."

"It might be," Glenn thought out loud, glancing at Maggie who was on the other side of the barn, wanting to be alone. "It might."

"That's giving up," Michonne argued quietly.

"It reality." Parker pointed out, knowing that Glenn was most likely right.

"Until we see otherwise, this is what we have to live with," Rick stated. Parker nodded, her hand resting on her stomach.

"Rick's right. This baby will never know the world we used to know. It'll never know what it's like to go to school, what a real date is like. It'll never get excited about a new movie or book. They'll never get to know what any of that is like. This is the world it's going to grow up in. in this world, being hunted by walking corpses, surrounded by the people here now."

"Parker, when you and I were kids, do you remember when we asked our grandfather if he killed Germans in the war?"

"Yeah, why?" She turned her head to look at him through the flames. "He said nothing except that it was 'grownup stuff."

"And then I asked him if the Germans ever tried to kill him," Rick continued, seeing the smile on Parker's face as she remembered their grandfather. "But he got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory. Every day he woke up and told himself, 'Rest in peace. Now get up and go to war.' And then, after a few years of pretending he was dead... he made it out alive. And that's the trick of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then... we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves...  that we are the walking dead." Daryl shook his head after he processed Rick's words.

"We ain't them."

"Hey," Parker pushed herself up a bit so he could stand up. "Where you off to?" He looked back at her.

"We're not them." Rick backed his statement up. "Hey." Daryl stopped, looking down at Rick. "We're not."

"We ain't them." He stated as he walked into a different corner, isolating himself from the rest of the group. Later that night, Daryl was still sitting alone in the corner chewing his nails and Parker had gone over to Rick. Resting her head on his shoulder, boredly picking at the blood under her nails with her knife. Rick had one arm around her body, and after a while of sitting in silence, he looked between her and Daryl. 

"Is he alright?" She nodded silently, glancing over at him before looking back down at her hands.

"Yes. He's just dealing with shit in his own way. Like he used to always say, he's better on his own. And in some cases- such as grieving, it's true." She mumbled, wiping the tip of her knife off on her pant leg. "He'll be alright."

"If there's one thing I regret, it would be how I left things with Lori."

"Rick, you don't have to do this," She whispered, sighing as she set her knife off to the side. In other words, she didn't want to talk about Lori. She was already haunted by the dead, she didn't need to be reminded. "She knew you loved her. Even whilst you two were fighting."

"I never got around to fixing things," Rick continued, "Don't let that happen to you and Daryl, okay?"

"I won't" She promised him sincerely. "We'l be fine, Rick. And also, I don't plan on dying any time soon."

"I'm proud of you, you know?"

"Oh really?" Parker chuckled lightly, lifting her head. "I'm sorry for how much of a burden I've been for you all. And how terribly I've been handling everything." She blurted out the apology.

"No," He shook his head, not needing an apology, especially not from her. "You've always been the voice of reason. You have that way of bringing people back when they're lost, if you know what I'm trying to say."

"I'm just trying to do the right thing," Parker said, remembering a promise that she had made back at the farm. "Someone once made me promise to always do the right thing."

"Dale?" Rick assumed, knowing Parker and Dale had gotten close before he died. She nodded.

"Until now, I have. I kept the promise I made to him to the best of my ability. I tried to see reason and rationality in things." Rick smiled at her explanation.

"You're gonna be a good mom."

"God, I hope so," She laughed, looking at her stomach. "I'm just scared, you know? I mean, Daryl says he wants a kid, but what if he still has doubts? Especially now."

"Hey, don't doubt him," Rick defended him. "I've seen the way he looks at you."

"Not recently," Parker countered. "We're broken, Rick. I don't know if I can piece things back together. I don't know if I can fix this."

"It might take some time," Rick agreed partially. "But things between the two of you will heal on its own. When your baby is born everything will fall into place." Parker ran her hand over her face tiredly.

"I hate to say this and sound selfish but I really don't want to give birth in this rundown barn. I want to be somewhere safe." She'd finally said the one thing that's been bugging her since she'd found out she was pregnant. Even if she had constantly assured everyone else they'd find somewhere, what if they didn't?

"We'll find somewhere," Rick responded. "How far along are you?"

"I'm honestly not even sure," Parker admitted, gazing into the dying flames of their fire. "I want to say maybe two-ish months? More or less. Maybe three. Judging by the looks of things and how Lori was with Judith, I'd say that's a really rough estimate."

"One-third of the way. We've got time to find a safe place." They both whipped their heads around at the sound of bodies banging against the barn doors and they could see walker hands, pushing through. Daryl, Sasha, and Maggie were the first to the door, struggling to keep the doors closed against the winds and the now piling-up walkers. Parker forced herself to her feet, sharing a look with Rick. They were quick to join the other three in trying to keep the doors closed, pushing them together with the help of the entire group to try to keep the walkers outside where they belonged. Other members had started to gradually move over, the sounds of them slipping and falling in the mud enough to wake up everyone. Anything beyond the door had to stay there, and when Parker pushed her back against the doors and dug her heels into the ground, even after falling two or three times, she refused to give up. When the storm died down and the walkers moved on, everyone settled uneasily into their old places. Parker had gone back to her old spot near the now dead fire, about to head to bed before Daryl stood over her, holding his hand out. She stared up at him confused.

"Come on." Daryl gestured for her to take his hand. "You ain't gonna get any sleep on your own."

"I didn't want to bother you," She told him, as she pushed herself up, grabbing onto his hand.

"You ain't ever gonna be a bother," He said as he helped her to her feet. "Now, come on." They walked over to the back wall, where Daryl sat with his back pressed against the wood. Parker sat between his legs, her back against his chest, the top of her head resting just below his chin as she felt his arms wrap around her. She melted into his embrace, closing her eyes as she felt the familiar warmth of his arms around her. "I'm sorry," Daryl said quietly, lowering his head to whisper in her ear. "I've been distant."

"Don't be sorry," Parker stopped him from continuing. "It's not your fault."

"I've said it before, I'm no good with feelings," Daryl continued anyway. "But I'm trying. I love you... I'd die for you in a heartbeat, but I'm still scared."

"It's okay to be afraid." Daryl looked at her, his hands resting on her stomach.

"I still can't wrap my mind around the idea of us havin' a baby."

"I know," She whispered in agreement, covering his hands with her own. "It's still strange to think that there's a little human growing inside me."

"I'm gonna be a good father," Daryl stated, more to himself than to Parker. "I will be. Im gonna take care of our kid."

"You will," Parker tilted her head back to look at him, wanting to meet his gaze. "I love you."

"I love you too," Daryl said, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. "More than anything'." He held her until she fell asleep, and although Daryl didn't sleep that night, he was happy to hold his wife as she found comfort in his touch. Seeking his warmth in her sleep, putting her complete trust in Daryl to look out for her and protect her when she couldn't. Morning came and everyone who was awake stayed quiet, going about their business without saying a word. It wasn't until Maggie and Sasha returned from watching the sunrise that things got a little bit.. Interesting.