season two, episode five.
"chupacabra"

014. this isn't over, lydia. ill find you.

LYDIA HAVEN holds her daughter with a small smile on her face. thanks to hershel and his family, she is a lot healthier than before. she bounces the baby in her lap and tickles her cheeks.

her smile slowly fades as she stares into eden's eyes. those similar eyes, that she had looked into so many times before. she remembers what it was like before. before everything.

loud crying from a baby could in the delivery room, screaming even, but lydia only had a smile on her face as the newborn laid on her chest, happy tears flooding from lydia's eyes.

"you're beautiful." lydia whispered, instantly falling in love with her baby girl. she knew from that moment she would do anything for her, but she also knew she had to escape from the relationship she was in.

somehow.

james edwards stood next to the bed, looking tired and grumpy. "can i hold her now or what?" he sighed. the midwife looked at him in slight alarm, throughout her whole labour, all he had done was complain that it was taking too long and he was tired.

he hadn't even held her hand once when she was crying, no, screaming in pain.

"the mother generally has first skin to skin contact." the midwife smiled politely at the man she was silently terrified of.

"yes well that's been and gone now. give her to me—" james reached out to pick the crying baby up as lydia sat up, the tears forming in her eyes again as her baby was ripped away from her.

"james, wait," she said pleadingly.

"sir, it is really important for the baby to stay with the mother for a few more moments." the midwife continued.

"i don't care what's important! she's my daughter too!" james snapped as the midwife stopped, and walked over to lydia who's lip was trembling.

the midwife used a cold flannel to pat lydia's forehead, and she held her hand. "how are you feeling? do you have a name in mind?"

"yeah...eden." lydia said softly. "her name is eden."

"finally, the one thing we agree on." james scoffed, carelessly giving the newborn to another midwife before leaving, claiming he need to go for a smoke.

lydia took eden back from the midwife, who smiled sadly at her. "she's very healthy."

eden began to cry again as lydia cuddled her closely. the midwife sat up, sending lydia a gentle smile. "eden, do you want some help?" she asked quietly, a knowing look on her face.

lydia looked at her, before slowly nodding. "please." she whispered.

the door burst open a few minutes later as james came back and lydia sent a pleading look to the midwife who subtly nodded. "i'll leave you two to spend this moment together." she smiled falsely, getting up to find someone who could call the cops.

"god, my head hurts so bad." lydia muttered, causing james to scoff.

"your head hurts? how do you think i feel having had to listen to you scream for the past twelve hours. god, i deserve a vacation after what i've endured." he scoffed, taking a seat on the chair next to the bed.

lydia ignored him, deciding she wasn't going to argue back and simply smiled down at eden.

lydia looks down at eden who was so much bigger now, she feels tears brim in her eyes as she remembers what happens next.

after around forty five minutes of uncomfortable silence, the occasional mean comment, the doors burst open once again as lydia jumped. multiple police officers came in as james jumped up, attempting to escape them.

lydia could barely hear what was going on, her heart was pounding against her chest so hard she could practically hear it, she watched in shock as the police handcuffed james and dragged him out.

however she heard his final words. the seven words she will never forget.

"this isn't over, lydia. i'll find you!"

"hey!" a voice cuts her out of her thoughts, causing her to jump. lydia glances up at glenn who looks at her in worry.

"sorry, what?" lydia asks, blinking away the memories, and her tears.

"i said are you okay? you looked kinda frozen." he jokes lightly as lydia put on a small smile. "hey, why are you crying?" he asks softly, crouching down to her level.

"i'm fine. i was just thinking." she responds, standing up and placing eden on her hip. she wipes away her tears hastily and walks over to rick and the group.

"morning guys, let's get going. we've got a lot of ground to cover." rick speaks up, making them all nod and get up to begin the search for sophia once again.

"alright, everyone's getting new search grids today." he begins as they gather around the map, "if she made it as far as the farmhouse daryl found she might have gone further east than we've been so far."

"i'd like to help." beth's little brother spoke up as they all glance at him. "i know the area pretty well and stuff."

"is hershel okay with that?" lydia speaks up with a raised brow.

"yeah. he said i should ask rick." the boy nods as lydia nods at him.

"alright then, thanks." rick nods in appreciation.

"nothing about what daryl found screams sophia to me." shane speaks up, his arm resting on the car door. "anyone could've been in that farmhouse."

"anybody includes her, right?" andrea raises a brow.

"whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than...yay-high." daryl motions to a small height.

"it's a good lead." lydia defends as daryl sends her a nod in appreciation. she always had his back for some reason, and it made him feel comfortable around her. "maybe we'll pick up her trail again." she finishes.

"no maybe about it. i'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, get a birds-eye view of the whole grid." daryl points to the woods. "if she's up there, i'll spot her."

"good idea." t dog begins, "maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too."

"chupacabra?" both lydia and rick echo in confusion.

"you never heard this? our first night in camp, daryl tells us that whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and saw a chupacabra." dale smirks as he hands rick a gun and t-dog snickers.

"what are you braying at, jackass?" daryl scoffs at t-dog who holds his hand up in surrender.

"i still don't get what a chupacabra means." lydia pulls a face.

"so, you believe in a blood-sucking dog?" t-dog ignores her question and smirks back at daryl.

"do you believe dead people walking around?" daryl fires back as lydia lets out a laugh.

lydia decides to stay back with the others that day and help out with cooking the dinner hershel's wife was preparing. beth looks after eden most of the day, she was obsessed with her .

however beth is also obsessed with asking a thousand questions about eden's father, and since hershel's wife, annette, was very traditional, she too was very curious how lydia could have a baby out of wedlock and why she is now a single parent.

"i can't believe potatoes still exist." lydia changes the subject as she set them out onto the plate, making annette laugh.

"oh, honey. you must've been starved for months." she smiles sadly as lydia shrugs it off.

"wasn't so bad. i lived on snacks and roasted squirrel." she chuckles as she begins to set the table. "dinner is served." lydia yells dramatically to the group who practically gallop into the house and race to the table.

daryl still isn't back from his trip, however they expected him to get there any moment. all of a sudden a gun firing echoes through the air. everyone jumps up from their seats and runs outside to see andrea on top of the rv aiming at something.

lydia squints her eyes seeing a body fall to the floor, but as she gets closer, she realises it wasn't a walker. "that's daryl!"

everyone widens their eyes as they race over to get daryl, worrying he could been dead. or worse...a walker. rick, shane and lydia reach daryl first and sigh in relief seeing it had only grazed his head, and that he is going to be okay, and he isn't a walker.

"oh my god! is he dead! oh my god!" andrea screeches loudly as she runs over.

"unconscious. your idiot ass just grazed him." lydia fires, lydia and shane dragging the man back to the house. "thank god you're so shit with a gun." she snaps.

"but look at him—all the blood on him.  what the hell would've happened?" glenn asks in shock. "he's wearing ears!"

"let's keep that to ourselves." rick mutters, ripping the ears around daryl's neck off and shoving them in his pocket.

a few hours passes, and daryl finally wakes up after treatment from hershel. lydia is sat in the room, scoffing her face with the dinner they cooked. lori sends her a look.

"what? i'm not letting this masterpiece go to waste." she scoffs, tucking into the potatoes.

"have a little respect, our friend was shot." lori raises her hand, shaking her head.

"oh, you wanna talk about respect?" lydia scoffs, as lori's face drops.

"guys!" shane cuts them off, "save it." he motions to daryl who has woken up.

without giving the poor man a chance to breath, lydia sits on the chair next to him. "potato?" lydia offers as daryl rolls his eyes but takes two off her plate. rick smiles in amusement and looks up at hershel.

"how's he doing?" he asks, motioning to daryl as hershel gives him stitches.

"i had no idea we'd be going through the antibiotics so quickly. any idea what happened to my horse?" hershel raises a brow as daryl flinches at the pain.

"yeah, the one who almost killed me? if it's smart, it left the country." daryl says sarcastically.

"we call that one nelly. as in nervous nelly." hershel continues, "i could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask. it's a wonder you people have survived this long." hershel stares at rick as lydia winces.

"that's harsh." she mutters, but a smile grows on her face as beth walked in with eden.

"oh great, just what i need in my resting period. a crying, whiny baby." daryl scoffs as lydia laughs teasingly and shoves eden closer to daryl who moves away.

"get it away." he scoffs, trying not to laugh at how silly eden looked in a old bucket hat and a boy's baby grow.

"hear that eden? uncle daryl wants a big cuddle." lydia snickers as daryl groans loudly.

"never call me that again." he scoffs, making lydia break out into laughter, rick slowly joining in.

"uncle daryl. it has a ring to it." rick jokes, already feeling better about his own problems when he was around those two.

"shut up, both of you. let me rest." daryl waves them away. the two laugh and got up, lydia making sure to take her plate with her.

"seriously though...what age did carl start walking? carrying this fat child around is really gonna make my back break one day, i swear." lydia asks as rick let out a laugh mixed with a scoff.

"did you just refer to your child as fat?" he asks between laughter. "she's anything but."

"i know, but im lazy and she doesn't fit in her carrier anymore." she sighs dramatically.

before rick can laugh, he hears lori crying in the room where carl was. he sighs, selfishly not wanting to leave lydia. she glances at him as he turns to her. "i should go."

lydia's smile fades as she nods. "of course...goodnight." she sends him a quick smile before turning to leave.

unfortunately for lydia, she isn't able to sleep the whole night because glenn is playing the guitar terribly while beth belts out the lyrics to whatever song they were playing. "this is my sight song!" beth finishes as lydia stares at them, unamused.

"please, please, no more singing or guitar-ring." she complains.

"would yall shut up and go to sleep?!" shane calls out.

gosh it's been like 2 months since i updated IM SORRY

it's so hard to write because there's so bloody much even tho the eps are only 45 mins