AN: You need to read this to decide if you want to read this fic.
So basically, as far as I have this planned, it will end up being a Caryl fic, but there are going to be other relationships along the way (though I'll make no promises one way or the other about how in depth they are going to be). If you're one of those people, then, who doesn't like to see Carol in other relationships, this is not the fic for you. Daryl will not be in other relationships, except for maybe a little failed flirting for spicing things up.
Also, things are not going to be easy for Daryl because I don't want them to be easy for him. I have frustrations with the character and I'll be working them out here so that they don't bleed into my other fics (Caryl) where I don't want those emotions. So if you're prone to "poor Daryl-ing" over every time that he doesn't get everything he wants with his minimal efforts, this won't be the fic for you. It will hurt your feelings because he'd going to have to work for things.
This fic is somewhat AU. It picks up at least a year (I'm vague with timelines) after the end of season 4. I will use and ignore parts of the season depending on what I need them for. Some of the story is admittedly going to be unrealistic (especially in regard to timing, perhaps), but I'm not interested in realism here as much as I'm interested in just telling the story that I want to tell and working out some of my frustrations with TPTB of TWD. This is somewhat experimental, I guess you could say.
Nasty anon trolls will be ignored and deleted.
I own nothing from The Walking Dead. I only own the characters and scenarios that I make up, etc. I don't get paid for this. The only payment I receive are reviews from my readers. That's it. And personal satisfaction, of course.
If you have decided to stay on and read, I hope you enjoy! If not, no hard feelings. Let me know what you think!
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Tyreese put his palm flat on the table and swayed the piece of furniture from side to side. Carol frowned at it, a little disappointed that it would betray her so much by giving way to the gentle push. But apparently Tyreese found it amusing, because he chuckled at the rocking motion.
"Carol…the table…" He started and stopped, cut off with his own amusement. "Our table is drunk," he finished after a second.
"It is not!" Carol responded, faking annoyance at his suggestion that the item that she'd worked so hard to drag all the way to the house on her own was less than perfect…even if it was the truth.
He sighed.
"Do you like it?" He asked.
Carol shrugged.
The truth was she had no particular affection for this particular piece of furniture…but she wanted a table and he knew that…and pickings were slim.
"We don't have a table," she said. "I just thought it might be nice to eat…" she stopped and shrugged, "I thought it might be nice to eat a table…like normal people."
Tyreese sighed again, nodding his head at her. He swayed the piece of furniture once more and considered it.
"I'll look around…I can brace it," he said. "It won't take much."
Carol smiled at him and crossed the small kitchen quickly, opening her arms to him so that he could wrap his around her, pulling her to him in a hug. He kissed the side of her neck and pulled away, a smile on his face that matched hers.
"I've got to work," she said. "I'm on perimeter duty for the next shift."
Tyreese nodded again, scratching at the back of his neck.
"Yeah…I've got construction…" He said.
"Barn or house?" Carol asked since both structures were currently under construction in the community.
"House," Tyreese said. "But the good news is that the walls will be up today…probably have the new people moving into it within three days…Wally's going to work on getting them some panels up after that."
"Oooh, roughing it," Carol teased.
Tyreese nodded his head again.
"For a few days…but coming in off the road, I don't think they mind," he responded. "Dinner together?" He asked.
Carol smiled and nodded.
"Of course…" she said. She cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips at him. "If you brace the table after work…I'll pick up dinner and bring it here…we could break it in."
Tyreese chuckled.
"I'll brace your table," he said. "See you tonight…"
He leaned to kiss her and Carol met him. After they broke apart, she saw him out the door and she strapped her knife on and checked her gun to make sure it was loaded in case of emergency. Satisfied that she was all set, she stepped out the door of the little house, closing it behind her, and started with a determined pace toward the front entrance to the community where she would be meeting with Michonne for perimeter duty.
They had been in the community for at least a year now...though Carol only knew that by the changing of the seasons and the realization that having cycled through them once meant that a full year had probably passed…maybe even more, actually.
The community was called Oasis…and Rodney, the man who was something of a mayor, perhaps, but more or less just a loudspeaker for the decisions made at community meetings…as well as the head of the "welcome wagon"…joked that they had decided to call it that because it was almost too good to be true.
And it was almost too good to be true…except that it was true.
When Tyreese and Carol had neared Terminus so long ago, they'd heard what sounded like, and there was no other explanation for it, war waging inside of the place.
And quickly they'd both agreed that it didn't sound like the sanctuary that it was supposed to be and it didn't sound like the kind of place that they wanted to venture into with Judith in tow. So they'd just gone on, accepting that the place was just another pipe dream.
And they'd travelled, off and on throughout the days, stopping at night to rest and take shelter against Walkers, for about two weeks before they'd stumbled upon Oasis like it was some sort of mirage in the desert.
At first, when they'd arrived, they'd been concerned that the place would turn into just another nightmare in a lullaby's garb.
They'd agreed to stay together in the same house, the place boasting housing for anyone who came, and they'd masqueraded as a new couple with Carol's young daughter, while they'd gotten a feel for their new environment.
Oasis, it seemed, was everything that they could only dream of finding.
The community had grown since they'd arrived by leaps and bounds, but it was already a decent sized community of almost fifty people when they'd gotten there. It boasted, among other things, houses equipped with solar panels that allowed for limited electricity, fully functioning bath houses, a commissary that served three full meals a day, a hospital and clinic of sorts, community events for down time, and schools for the children.
People in the community were assigned jobs on rotations, each man and woman going where their specialized skills were needed if they had them to offer and going anywhere they might be placed if they were flexible. Once a week there were community meetings where anything that needed to be addressed was brought up for anyone who wanted to be in attendance, and final decisions were made by a panel of twelve people and Rodney who served as a loudspeaker and a tie breaker when necessary.
It hadn't taken very long at all for Carol and Tyreese to find themselves relaxing in the space and taking the opportunity provided to them to shake off some of the stress of the world that they'd left behind…a world that they'd thought they only shared with each other.
Until the new arrivals had come about three months after their own arrival in Oasis.
And when they'd joined the others in the community, making their way slowly toward the entrance to the place to catch a glimpse of those who would be joining them, neither of them had attempted in any way to hide the shock and the disbelief that washed over them at the dirty, disheveled group that came passing through the heavy doors of the front entrance like a bunch of holographic figures or hallucinations.
Even when they'd pushed their way through the crowd…even when they'd dared to touch some of the others in front of them, staring back at them with the same disbelief that Carol and Tyreese wore on their features, it was still difficult to accept that they were really real…that they were just as solid and as human as anyone else.
Because they'd given them all up for dead…they'd given them all up for nothing more than ghosts, lost to them as much as any other that they'd seen fall themselves.
The group had told them a story about Terminus…about what they'd missed by hearing the gunfire and the war raging and turning their own steps away…and they'd told them about the losses that had been suffered…though Carol and Tyreese didn't even know who two of the people they'd lost had been and counted Beth, also reported as gone, as having been lost along with the vast majority of the family that they'd known at the prison.
Now…though…a year into living in Oasis, life seemed dramatically different for all of them than what they had known in the past.
Perhaps it would have been oversimplifying their experiences to say that it was "easy" now…but it was certainly much easier than it had ever been before and everyone was overcoming the gun shy sensations that they'd had.
They were able to sleep at night…they were able to eat without fear that it was their last meal…and they were even able, for once in a very long time, to think of grand notions that had once seemed ridiculous to them…like the future.
And somewhere along the line, the pretended relationship between Carol and Tyreese, although exposed when Carol returned Judith to Rick, much to his shock and disbelief, had budded into something that wasn't fake at all.
In fact, it was something much more wonderful than Carol thought she could have even imagined…because in each other they'd managed to find the companionship that they were both searching for, the promise of having a partner through even the harshest things that might come their way, and branching off of that and growing like a flower out of the mud of a battleground, they'd managed to find someone to love them both.
And they embraced it…when they realized it was there…with open arms because life was too short to turn one's back on love and proven acceptance. And both of them felt like, now that they'd found something good, they had to give everything they had over to making up for all the time that they'd spent without it.
As Carol neared where Michonne was standing, waiting to go outside into the fenced off strip just outside the fences that they called the "runway", she smiled at the woman and called out to her, picking up the pace of her steps a little.
"You beat me here!" Carol called.
Michonne turned and smiled at her.
"Not by much," Michonne admitted. "I was on breakfast duty this morning…so I snuck in a quick change of clothes and…maybe a nap."
Carol laughed.
"I didn't have anything this morning…so I picked up my table," she said.
"Which one did you get?" Michonne asked.
"The only one that had four legs," Carol admitted. "The one that Parker was giving away wasn't even a table…the thing only had two legs and he insisted you could just prop up the other side if you really wanted to…it was kindling."
"And who had the one you got?" Michonne asked.
"It was a throw out," Carol admitted. "From the expansion? They brought it in for firewood…but I talked them out of it."
Michonne laughed then, shaking her head.
"I'll have to come and see it…it isn't everyday someone gets new furniture!" Michonne teased.
Carol made a face.
"Ty's got to brace it," she admitted. "You should wait until he does…I'd hate for someone to lean on it and end up in the floor."
Carol looked around to see if anyone looked like they might be joining them, but she didn't see anyone who looked to be doing the run of shame when they were late for their job.
"Are we the only ones?" Carol asked.
Michonne nodded her head.
"I think so," she said. "I think most of the extra hands are being put on expansion…so that means that we're doing with as few as possible for perimeters…but it's not that bad."
Carol shook her head.
"No…we'll be fine…and we can dawdle just a little bit to see what we can see of the expansion. I haven't been over there yet and I'm curious about the new houses…" Carol said.
"Thinking of moving?" Michonne asked, raising her eyebrows.
Carol shook her head.
"No…nothing like that. Besides, I heard their full family homes…I just want to see them. What about you and Rick? You could upgrade…get Judith her own room?" Carol asked.
Michonne sighed and nodded.
"We're filling out the application tonight," Michonne said. "It'd be worth having a kid just to get special consideration if that's what it takes…we're crammed up under each other as it is."
"They are promoting it, you know…perks all around…" Carol pressed as she followed Michonne out the front gates and slipped into the chain link gate at the entrance of the runway.
"You're sounding as pushy as Maggie now," Michonne said.
Carol laughed and started to work, falling in beside Michonne as they moved along, quickly due to the fact that this was routine to them, putting down the Walkers that bothered to come and press themselves against the chain link surrounded area.
Maggie was almost eight months pregnant...and in the community that was promotion growth with all kinds of perks that they had to offer, that meant that she wasn't working more than a couple of hours a day and that even then her jobs were the fluffiest of jobs available...so she had a wealth of time on her hands and she was always trying to get someone to dilly dally at what they had to do and keep her company.
And she was also steady harassing Michonne about when she and Rick were going to seal the deal in their relationship and be the next honored couple of the community promising to bring in new life in the short span of nine months.
"I'm not pushing," Carol said to Michonne. "I'm just teasing…and Maggie's just bored because the only woman she gets to spend most of her time with these day is Emily Walden."
"There's nothing I want or need around here enough to make me spend my time with Emily Walden," Michonne declared. "Nothing…"
Carol laughed.
"Ditto…" Carol responded.
"So are you guys breaking in your new table tonight?" Michonne asked.
Carol smiled and paused a moment to pass the back of her arm over her forehead to wipe away the splatters of Walker mess that were already starting to build up…splatters that would leave both of them dripping when they got done and shuffled toward the showers before dinner.
"We are," Carol responded. "Nothing like a nice, romantic dinner at home."
Michonne sucked her teeth and then snickered.
"I was afraid once that I'd never be able to say that again," Michonne said. "But you're right…there really is nothing like it."
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AN: So, as I mentioned, part of this is already planned out, but as always I leave the details open to go where the story wants to go. I'll update when I can.
Also, coming soon for those who are interested, I will have (I'm not sure how soon) another fic that will be quite different than this one and it will be a completely Cyreese (Carol/Tyreese) fic…so stay tuned for that if you're interested.