ᵗʳʸ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ˢᵗʳᵒᶰᵍ

Feeling a sudden wetness on her upper lip, Kara wiped a gentle finger under her nose to see what was happening. “Oh shit.” She murmured, taking the finger away to revel a few drops of blood. In the seconds that followed, the bloodflow increased steadily and began pouring from her right nostril. She quickly cupped her nose with her hands looking at Gregory for some sort of assistance. 

“Greg, please a rag, anything.” Her tone was more annoyed than anything. Blood never made her uneasy as it did to most, in fact the sight was so familiar that the only effect it had on her was to cause her to worry about getting it all over her clothes. 

She wasn’t so sure how Greg would react around the blood, but hoped he would trooper through it anyway. 

His nostalgic thoughts were broken by Kara's gasp, and he looked up from his shoes to see blood pouring down her chin. Eyes widening in shock, he immediately regretted bringing her out in the woods to begin with. What the hell was he thinking? She was pregnant and wandering through the woods filled with disease, infection and danger. Maybe he was a horrible partner after all.

"You okay?" he asked; his voice sounding more desperate than he had intended. Patting the pockets of his jeans, he realized he hadn't brought anything close to a rag or napkin. "Here," he said, and took off the button-down shirt he was wearing. He was glad to have put on a white wife-beater under the attire, otherwise he'd be approaching the prison without a top.

He watched Kara pinch her nose with the cloth hesitantly. Gregory knew absolutely nothing about pregnancy, so as the the severity of a nosebleed he had no knowledge. His eyes obviously gave away his apprehension, but he made no attempt to mask his feelings towards the situation.

She pursed her lips, about to disagree with his opinion of his own mother’s name when he began praising the name she had offered. A nostalgic smile spread across her face. “That was her alright. She was wonderful.” Once again she found herself saddened, but this time it was the thought that her child would never know its grandmother, or vice-versa. 

"We would have been such a big family. It would have been nice." She said quietly. Noting Gregory’s sudden anxiety, she squeezed his hand hard, before gently rubbing it with her thumb to calm him as they walked. After a moment she stopped walking, turning to him. Wanting to say something about Jezerbel to comfort him, but as usual at a loss for comforting words, she instead said, "I like Samuel. Sammy.  And for a girl, Adella.”

"No," he said softly. Gregory's smile returned, and he tried everything in his power from taking her hand again. "Faith," Gregory breathed. "Adella Faith Marie Prescott-Adebay. Samuel Faith Evertt Prescott-Adebay."

He couldn't help it, and took both her hands shakily.

"Faith because its our miracle baby. Not because you were skeptical at first, and not because I've been so obsessive over it that I still haven't figured why you've not ended me." Gregory chuckled softly. "But because it's growing up in this world, Kara. With so much death. And it is so full of life." He knew he must have sounded sappy, but Gregory couldn't help it. He'd always said more than he should have.

Looking down at Kara and not letting go of her hands, he allowed several moments of blissful silence to elapse. The sound of an occasional squirrel emerged from the bushes, but besides that it was absolute silence.

Mulling over the response he had been given, Dallas twiddled with his hands, gently tapping his fingers together as he thought. So he waltzed into this poor women’s life, claimed the kid, and was now raising it as his own? When he spoke of the kids’ mother, there was obvious pain in his voice.

Alright, so maybe he had cared about her-to some extent, at least.

But the current situation still needed to be answered for. 

What the hell kind of man would force a women to have a kid in this god-forsaken world? 

And he’d seen the way Gregory looked at Kara, sure maybe he had feelings for her, but when it came down to it, was she really more than just a glorified baby-maker? 

“Trust is just a pretty word." He threw out, a moment later adding, "You wanna know what the hell is on my mind? I’m wonderin’ how in the fuck you’d not only get Kara pregnant, irresponsible as that may be, but talk her into keeping it when it was so clear she didn’t want it? And in a world like this, to top things the fuck off?”

"What if she dies given’ birth? What if the baby dies? Do you know what the hell that would do to her? She’d go catatonic for Christ’s sake.”

Dallas stood, taking a step forward to do something stupid, but caught himself, and instead held out a threatening finger aimed at the other man. 

There were several emotions bubbling inside Gregory as Dallas stood up and wagged his finger bitterly. He felt anger searing across his now-flushed face; bubbling like boiling water on a hot stove. There was also immense amounts of offense, but mostly all Gregory felt was outrage. He had no idea who the hell Dallas was, or how this man had found their camp and just happened to be friends with Kara in a past life. There had been no introduction on his part; just irritated words. However, the one thing no one in this godforsaken world messed with was Gregory Adebay's family. Kara had become a part of that the moment she told Gregory what the would transpire over the nine long months ahead of them.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" he suddenly roared, and stood up abruptly to sock a clean uppercut at Dallas's jaw. Not waiting for a reaction, Gregory began to spew nasty words of his own.

"I dunno who the HELL you think you are, and I don't know your affiliation with MY g i r l f r i e n d is, but I'm telling you right now that any man who comes up to me as a stranger and starts assuming shit about Kara and my CHILD is no friend of mine. You're not talking about just a baby here, you imbecile. This is my CHILD. This is KARA'S CHILD." He was fuming by this point, and didn't care that the entire camp could overhear their conversation. If a stranger approached anyone and began talking about how the abortion of their child could have prevented the heartbreak of that baby's mother, they were obviously loose a screw. Gregory would take no chances with anyone who discussed the death of his own child.

"I don't have to prove SHIT to you, asswipe. And I swear, if you bring our baby up one more time I'll get my gun and put a clean bullet in your brain just to watch you reanimate and do it again." Even with that confession, Gregory wasn't done there. His fist was throbbing from punching the silent Dallas in front of him, yet everything had gone numb. Dallas had crossed the line, and could never retrace his steps.

It’s something that both mun and muse are struggling to decide, honestly. I think it could happen, but whether it actually will or not remains to be seen. 

-

One moment she cared for him, the next despised him. One moment she craved him, the next she cursed him. One moment she loved him, and the next she loathed him. It was maddening, not only to her, but Gregory as well. Kara wished that she could regain control of her emotions, but it seemed that for the most part, Gregory understood it was the pregnancy’s effect on her, and not to take her episodes to heart. 

Gregory broke the silence and a smile spread across Kara’s face, small at first but growing. Baby names. It was a topic she had thought long and hard on, finally coming up with a few that she was happy with, but had yet to have the chance to discuss it with Gregory. “I was thinking more along the lines of Dallas jr.” She said with a giggle, knowing that there was a degree of tension between them, but unaware of the full extent of the situation. 

Realizing his hand squeezed Kara's tighter when she mentioned the man's name, Gregory forced himself to loosen up. He allowed Kara to set the rules of naming the baby, and was honored to know she allowed him to choose first names. Obviously the name Marie had a lot of sentimental value to it, so he wasn't about to argue otherwise.

"My mother's name was Janice," he brooded. "An ugly name, if you ask me. Marie is classic. Vintage." His voice was filled with a teasing tone, but his smile let Kara know he was only trying to get a rise out of her. "I love it, Kara. It's a beautiful name for a beautiful baby."

Going quiet, Gregory began to think about names for both genders. He knew Dallas would hang him if he named it after himself, not that Gregory gave a damn. He didn't want Kara to think he was too overbearing by suggesting naming a son Gregory, so he decided not to bring it up.

"I like Biblical names," he said. His heart did a flip when he remembered telling Jezebel the same thing.

"You mean he doesn't have a name?" --- "No. Not yet, anyways." --- "Jez, he needs a name." --- "What do you suggest? Really, I want to know. Any ideas?" --- "I like Biblical names."

His face had gone white, but Gregory forced himself to talk through it. "Aaron. Jeremiah. Noah. Samuel." He refused to look at Kara as he spoke; afraid his sudden panic attack would make him burst in to tears. "And for girls there's always Leia. Susannah. Rebekah. Keziah. But I also like the really fancy girl names that aren't religious. Lisabeth and Annabelle are really cute." He continued to think of other unique names Kara might take interest in.

But everyone’s experienced that nowadays.

"Good, I’m sure we could use it." She said almost absentmindedly. She was a million miles away, trying to picture Gregory living in the prison with Dante and his mother. They were happy. They were in love. And Dante had a real mother. She almost wished things were the way they should be as much as Gregory himself did.

She cared for Greg and Dante. And when you care for someone like that, you want them to be as happy as they can. And Kara understood that for them, being with Jezebel would be that happiness. 

Greg caught her off-guard with the kiss, she blinked a few times coming back to the present, and smiled, taking his offered hand. 

Sometimes she pretended that she and Greg were in love. It made things so much easier. And as of late, it was getting a lot easier to pretend. 

“Ha. Ha.” She muttered giving him an un-amused look. “Greg, I’ll be fine. Let’s just get going before it gets dark. And you can drop the whole ‘turn back while you still can’ act, okay? I’m here. I’m with you.”

Approximately ten minutes passed in silence. Kara usually was the type of person to keep the energy going, so Gregory knew something was exhausting her. That was one of the main reasons he fussed over her every little move. He felt so useless while she worried about the infant inside of her.