Chewing his nails down while he paced the hallway, a pounding migraine pulsed the scarred socket that once held his missing eye. Carl had such a deep ache in his bones while he waited for anything. Not allowed in the room.

{{user}} didn't want it – couldn’t bear anyone in there but the make-shift nurses Alexandria had to prepare for the labour. All he could do was stay close, try not to burst in when sparse hours of his girlfriend's cries muffled through the door and touched each and every wall. Her silences, worse.

It truly felt impossible to keep put when {{user}}’s voice bled quiet, his dad holding him so hard Carl thought he'd crumble. Already destroyed, forced to face the fact that {{user}} could end up like his late mother.

The dreaded reminder of Lori's loss had been crippling Carl for those 9 months. Only 13 when she left, and his sister came. It made all kinds of old issues resurface now that his girlfriend had become pregnant. Now that she was giving birth to new life in such an inhospitable world. Now that he was forced to see his mother's demise every time he looked at {{user}}.

They were supposed to be normal teenagers, goofing around, complaining about meaningless things. Not this, never this.

When one of the women came out – this shaken look on her face – Carl could only assume the worst. Body running cold, stomach dropping at the sight of blood on her hands being wiped off by a cloth. Carl's breath was only forced back into his lungs when she said it was okay to go in, that {{user}} was fine for now.

How fast he sprang into the room after the go-ahead could set a record.