Everything hurt and blackness filled the space behind my eyelids. Pain laced throughout my whole body, making all my veins and nerves feel like they were on fire. The sounds of machines beeping blurred with soft crying as I swam in and out of consciousness. I don't know how long I stayed like that...just hearing different sounds as I woke up and fell back asleep again. But finally, slowly, my brown eyes opened. I blinked in the dim lighting of the white-washed room, made a dark orange by the faint light glowing from the lamp.

With a start, I recognized it as Alexandria. There was a warmth on my hand, I noticed with sudden clarity. Glancing to my right, I saw Carl leaned back in a chair, snoring softly. His hand was intertwined with mine, holding on for dear life. The familiar Sheriff's hat was perched atop his head, although tilted slightly from his nap. A small smile graced my face and I wiggled my fingers gently against his to wake him.

After a second or two, that beautiful blue orb of his fluttered open and he glanced over at me.

"Angel! You're awake!" he said, leaning over to me as relief filled his face.

I nodded, my throat feeling dry.

"What..." I started to ask but it came out raspy so I swallowed, "What happened? We we were in the woods and dad and I got attacked by Dwight..."

Realization dawned on me then as his blue eye became somber.

"No...no, no, no, please, no, what did he do?! What did Negan do?!" I asked him, beginning to hyperventilate at the horrible scenarios reeling in my head.

Carl shushed me softly, caressing the back of my hand with his fingertips. My head throbbed and gently, I reached up to touch it as my breathing slowed to normal. A bandage was pressed there, the cloth a bit damp. Cold dread seeped into me then as more memories came back to me...the blows, over and over again. I flinched, remembering it all in vivid detail - the agony, the blood...so much blood, and the sounds of the cries and shouts around me. Strands of my dark hair fell over my shoulders as I lifted slightly to sit up, Carl helping me.

"Hey, easy, easy..." he soothed, hands on my elbows briefly before grabbing my hand again.

Instinctively, my hands went to my stomach...and my blood went cold. Glancing down at the hospital gown I was donning, a strangled cry bubbled up from my throat. The usual swollen baby bump was gone, replaced by a deflated flatness and a large bandage that could only mean...

"Carl...what happened to me? What-what happened to my baby?" I asked, tears already beginning to fill my brown eyes.

He let out a slow breath then, meeting my eyes.

"You lost a lot of blood. And...and it was a little too early for the baby-" he began and I started to hyperventilate at the horrid thoughts swirling in my head.

Carl noticed and caressed the back of my hand gently, "Hey, hey, it's alright! Doctor Carson delivered the baby while you were still unconscious. He had to do a C-Section on you so he could save her..."

Confusion was written all over my face as I asked him my next question, "It was a girl? But Carl, where is she? Where's my baby?! I want to see her!"

He licked his dry lips and sighed deeply before replying.

"Angel...she's not here,"

"What-what do you mean? What do you mean she's not "here", Carl? She's alive, isn't she? Why isn't she here?"

 The next words that tumbled from his lips sent my whole world crashing down around me.

"Negan came and...and he took her. He took her back to the Sanctuary with him,"

I squeezed my eyes shut briefly as I let my head fall back down onto my pillow. Sobs wracked my body then and Carl climbed into the bed with me, gathering me to his chest while I cried.

"She...She can't be g-gone, my b-baby can't be...with him, Carl. She can't, she just can't..." I mumbled over and over into his chest as the grief overtook me.

It felt like someone had just stabbed a knife in my chest, over and over and over again. Like...like I'd never be whole again. That baby...was apart of me...

"Why...why did he take her?" I asked in a small voice, trying to choke back the tears as I gazed up into Carl's ocean-blue orb.

Gently, he pushed a strand of hair behind my ear, "I don't know...I tried to stop him, I did but there were too many of his men...I-"

His words faltered as my face crumpled then and I fell into his chest once more, sobbing. We lied like that for hours until finally, the tears had left me. They were gone but I was left with a numbness in my chest.

"We have to get her back..." I whispered into his shirt, my tears having dampened the material there already.

I felt him nod above me and I sat up in bed to where I was facing him now. Gently, his hand cupped my cheek and he rested his forehead against mine, blue eye boring into my brown orbs.

"We will. I promise you, Angel. Whatever it takes, we're taking him down. I'll get you your baby girl back - if it's the last thing I do." he said, clenching his jaw hard as he spoke with determination.

And staring into that ocean-blue orb, I knew what he said was true. He would do everything in his power to get her back to me. 

"And I'm going to help," I nodded in agreement, speaking with sudden clarity as I swallowed back my grief at losing her so that it was replaced with a white hot rage, "Negan doesn't know who he's messing with. I'm the daughter of Dixon."