Beth stared down at the baby girl before her in shock. Surely, the child couldn't have just said what she thought she did.

"Mama." the baby cooed again with a brilliant smile before starting to gnaw on her own little fist.

Beth shook her head. She loved this baby, didn't think she could love her more if she were her own, but she felt it was somehow wrong for the little girl to be calling her 'mama'. She knew the baby would never know her mother, but she did have a father.

"Your daddy hasn't spent enough time with you, has he?" she sighed as she picked Judith up. "We'll have to fix that, won't we, JuJu?" she realized she was calling Judith that again and cringed. She'd started doing it a few weeks before and had been trying to stop herself, yet she just kept doing it. "Maybe we should go say hi to your daddy." she adjusted the baby on her hip and set out in search of Rick. If anything, the baby's first words should have been 'daddy'.

Rick paced back and forth around the southern guard tower, carefully scanning the treeline for anything that moved. He knew they had won the first battle against the Governor, but he also knew he could come back at any time. What he didn't know was when and with how many people he would return. The fog his mind had been in had begun to lift as of late, but he still felt tired. And now, there were even more people to take care of. More people who depended on him to keep them safe.

He wished he could go back to how it all was before this started. A good job he enjoyed, a beautiful wife and child waiting at home for him. Though, looking back he wondered how happy he and Lori had been really. How strong was his friendship with Shane? In his gut he knew that neither were nearly as strong as he'd always thought.

He knew that he owned some responsibility in the problems in his marriage, but refused to take all the blame on himself. Lori should have spoken to him. But, had she tried to talk to him and he refused to listen? And as for Shane...He shook his head, not wanting those thoughts bouncing around in his mind at the moment.

"Rick?" Beth called from the door.

He turned to see her standing there, Judith clinging to her. "What's going on?" he asked, automatically going into panic mode. "Is everything okay inside?"

"Oh, yeah, everything's fine." she assured him. "I just thought Juju and I could use some fresh air, and that she might like to see her daddy."

"Juju?" Rick asked, eyebrow raised and a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

"It's just a silly nickname I gave her." she groaned. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay." he laughed. "It's cute."

"Baby for a rifle?" she suggested as she held her hand out.

"How well can you fire a rifle?" he asked, hesitant to give her the weapon.

"Glenn's been teaching me." she replied. "Plus, you'll be right here." she pointed out, knowing full well that even if she go him to hold his daughter for a bit, he wouldn't be going too far away while he did it.

"Why are you so eager for me to spend time with Judith?" he asked as he propped the rifle against the wall and took the baby being offered.

"Because..." Beth took a deep breath. "She said her first word and you weren't there to hear it."

"She did?" he smiled as he gently bounced the little girl a bit. "What was it?"

"It was..uhhh...it was 'mama'." Beth watched him closely, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Mama." Rick stopped the bouncing and looked down at the baby he held.

"I didn't even think about it until she said it, but you haven't spent much time with her..."

"I've been kinda busy." he said defensively.

"I know, I'm not trying to say you're a bad father or anything." she tried to calm him. She could see that she'd hit a nerve.

"Just that I haven't been there for my kid.." Judith started squirming a bit and Beth could see that a fit was brewing.

"Here." she said as she replaced the rifle and moved to take Judith before she started bawling, attracting unwanted attention. "It's okay, Juju." she said soothingly.

"I've done the best I can." Rick said softly, almost wanting to cry as he watched his daughter be comforted and knowing he didn't know how to do it himself.

"I know." Beth whispered, not wanting to upset the baby anymore. "But, things are a bit calmer now..."

"We've got more people to take care of now." he pointed out.

"But at the moment we don't have some huge war we're getting ready to fight." she looked down and saw that the crisis was averted. "Delegate."

"What?"

"Let some of us do something." she answered. "I'm grateful for everything you've done for all of us, but right now you should just delegate some of burden and let us help you."

"I haven't been hogging responsibility just for fun."

"No, you've felt like you've had to do it all and I'm saying you don't." she moved to a seat that sat by the wall facing out. "Lighten your load."

"I don't know..." Rick turned and looked out of the tower, a few walkers milling around at the edge of the trees.

"Let us help." Beth insisted. "Get to know your little girl and spend some time with Carl, too." she got back to her feet. "Just let us help." she repeated as she headed out the door. She needed to give him some time to think about what she'd said. She knew she was right and she had to admit, she felt rather proud of herself for speaking up about it. If nothing else, everything that had happened was making her a bit more assertive. She liked that change in herself.