AN: This was a twist on Team Family figuring out that Daryl and Carol are together. It was requested on Tumblr.
Warning for acknowledgement of the fact that Tobin and Carol were together. I know some people are touchy about that, so know that this story *is* a Caryl story, but it's from the perspective of Tobin.
I own nothing from the Walking Dead.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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There was always a last to know. There was always someone left out of the loop.
Tobin regularly felt like he was left out of the loop, and he couldn't say that was unique to the world that was left after the dead took over.
They were calling it the Great War. That's what King Ezekiel had dubbed it – the Great War. Maybe it was the last they'd see, or maybe it was just the first.
In the war's aftermath there were bodies burned and bodies buried. There were new relationships to be negotiated between the people left alive in the various communities that still stood. There were decisions to be made about those that wanted to join communities after the fall of Negan. And there were celebrations to be had.
Alexandria was temporarily home to the celebrations and the discussions. They had more than enough accommodations for their guests, and those coming from what was left of Negan's posts and outposts had brought a great deal of provisions as peace offerings.
Tobin had thought it would be the perfect time to talk to her—to tell her how impressed he was with her, how he forgave her the way she'd left, and how he still cared for her—but it seemed as though that wasn't in the cards.
And it seemed, now, like maybe their being together had never really been in the cards at all.
No one seemed the slightest bit surprised by the very recent turn of events—the passionate kiss that Daryl and Carol had shared within plain sight of everyone and the fact that Carol had chosen to room with Daryl instead of returning to the room she'd shared with Tobin. No one was surprised at all—except Tobin.
In fact, it seemed like this had always been there. And Tobin was the last one to know.
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"Did I know?" Michonne asked, echoing back Tobin's question with her brows furrowed.
"Did you know?" Tobin repeated.
"I knew," Michonne said. "But then I thought I was wrong."
"You thought you were wrong?" Tobin asked, seeking clarification and immediately wishing he'd chosen someone who more freely gave information to start with.
"Well there was the whole thing with," Michonne broke off and hesitated a moment. "Well, with you," she finished finally. "But before that? I just thought it was one of those things that everyone knew but nobody talked about. I knew it the first time I laid eyes on Carol. I was far away from them at the time, but even at that distance, I could see it. I didn't even know who she was. I didn't know who anyone really was, but I could see it in the way that Daryl looked at her. You can see that kind of thing on people's faces."
But, apparently, Tobin couldn't see that kind of thing in people. He might have felt that there was some distance between himself and Carol, but he'd thought it was owing to the deep sadness that she seemed to feel—a sadness she never wanted to talk about. He would have never imagined that any of it might be owing to the fact that she was already in love with someone else.
Tobin clearly couldn't see things as clearly or easily as Michonne, even from close by.
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"I didn't know if they'd ever do anything about it," Maggie said, "so that was a surprise. Some people are shy about that kind of thing. They need a little nudge. They need some time. Late bloomers. That's what Daddy used to call them—people who took a while getting around to relationships. The way he looked for her daughter—Sophia—when she was lost? I honestly thought they were married. Things just seemed kind of easy between them. A lot easier than they were between Rick and Lori, and they were married. Even once I knew they weren't married, it just seemed like it was bound to happen. Glenn thought so too. Things between them were just too easy for it not to."
Tobin had never felt like things had been easy between him and Carol. They'd gotten their start easily enough, but it hadn't felt sincere. It was easy to start something, but then they'd just ended up feeling stuck. Tobin hadn't been sure how to get things to really progress—even though he'd desperately wanted their relationship to develop more—and before he'd figured it out, Carol had already left.
But, according to Maggie, things had always been easy between Carol and Daryl.
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"I've never seen them kiss in front of everyone like that," Carl said.
"But you've seen them kiss before?" Tobin pressed. He felt a little guilty for cornering Carl—arguably still something of a child—but Carl had known Carol and Daryl as long as they'd known each other.
Carl considered the question and shrugged his shoulders before he tasted the fruit punch that he was carrying around with him—pretending it had alcohol in it like some of the other beverages served at the gathering.
"No," Carl said. "Not really. But I don't really see my dad and Michonne kiss either. Not a lot. I just assume it happens."
"And you've thought it was happening for a while?" Tobin asked.
Carl laughed to himself.
"Yeah," he said. "Look—I don't know what happened between you two. And, believe me, I don't want to know. But after we left the farm? They were always together. We were on the road and it was just common knowledge that Carol rode with Daryl. They shared rooms. They slept close to each other whenever we put down our blankets to sleep. It was only natural to think they were kissing too. But—I never saw it until this afternoon."
"But you saw it coming?" Tobin asked.
"I've only got one eye," Carl said. "But I think I could've seen it coming if I'd lost the other one too."
Tobin hadn't seen it coming. It hadn't seemed obvious or unavoidable to him. Maybe he hadn't been paying attention. Maybe he hadn't been looking at the right things. Maybe he'd been blind, himself, because he'd only seen what he'd wanted to see.
And he certainly hadn't wanted to see the woman he thought he might actually have a future with kissing another man like she couldn't help herself.
He hadn't seen it coming at all.
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"I didn't meet Carol until she broke us out of Terminus," Tara said.
"But you knew it then?" Tobin asked.
"I mean—I didn't know it," Tara said. "But I totally knew it. I mean—if you'd seen the way he looked at her? The way that she looked at him? You could feel it. It was like every cheesy love scene you've ever seen from every movie where—where they see each other from across a distance and they just stop. And then they just—run to each other. He ran right for her and I was like—far out, that's who he's been waiting on. That's why he's been just sort of surly and sulking. I would've thought it was the fear of—you know—being turned into pork chops. But it was because he was thinking that he'd never see her again. It's really sweet, if you think about it." She paused and then her eyebrows knitted together. Her mouth changed its shape like she was considering whistling at Tobin. She shook her head. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—I'm sure you're a great guy and...she probably really liked you..."
Tobin stopped her before she could continue with her last minute apology to him over how things just hadn't worked out. He'd heard a dozen of them already and he didn't need them. They didn't change anything, and they didn't make him feel any better.
Apparently what Daryl and Carol had was something that was actually palpable to those around them. It was something you could simply feel. Yet Tobin had managed to miss it entirely. He hadn't felt a thing.
And because of what was between Daryl and Carol, Carol had never felt a thing with him, either.
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"I suspected it since the farm," Rick said. "When we left? We left so quickly. But somehow Carol ended up with Daryl and when they came riding up? It just seemed right. After everything with Sophia. He was really the one behind getting out there and looking for her. They were close after that. Always together. I never asked, though, because Daryl didn't seem to be the kind of person who wants to talk about that kind of thing and Carol seemed comfortable with that. After she got lost at the prison? You would have had to have seen him to understand. He was the one who found her in the tombs after everyone else thought she was gone. He wasn't going to give up on her. And then—when he left for Merle? I thought she'd never recover. Until he came back, and then she was back to her old self." Rick shook his head. "I actually thought he might kill me after I told him about..." he hesitated and shook his head. "After she left. It was my fault and I really thought he would kill me. Maybe the only reason he didn't was because we got interrupted. We all got split up."
Rick changed his position, taking on the stance of every cop who ever had to deliver bad news to a person, and tried to look at Tobin as sincerely as he could. He shook his head at him.
"Look, I'm sorry. But if you'd ever seen what they were like when they were separated? Really kept apart? You'd understand that—they're just better together."
Tobin had never realized they were better together, but now he was starting to assume that it must be true. They must have always completed each other in some way because everyone had seen it. Everyone had known it.
Tobin was just the last one to know.
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Tobin hadn't expected to find Carol sitting on the step outside of his house when he'd left the party, yet there she sat. She was smoking a cigarette, but it wasn't with the same deep expression that she usually wore when she was lost in thought.
She smiled at him when he walked up, but he knew that the smile wasn't for him. Now, he knew that. The smile was for someone else. Someone else had left it there. This smile was much more sincere than any of the ones that she'd ever offered him.
"You took long enough," Carol said.
"I didn't think anyone was waiting on me," Tobin said. He pointed to the step next to Carol. "Can I sit?"
"It's your house," Carol said.
"It wasn't always," Tobin said. "At least—not just mine."
Carol's smile faded.
"Daryl already went home to bed," Carol said.
"Maybe that's where you need to go," Tobin offered.
"I thought we might need to talk," Carol said.
Those were some of the heaviest words that existed in the English language. Tobin couldn't imagine that there had ever been a soul who had liked the sound of them.
But he realized that, honestly, they didn't need to talk.
Tobin shook his head gently at Carol.
"We've got nothing to talk about," Tobin said.
"Don't do that," Carol said. "I owe you something. I owe you an—explanation."
Tobin shook his head again.
He'd been angry about it before. He'd been hurt. He'd been disappointed.
Now, sitting next to Carol, with all the words he'd heard—all the testimonies—still floating around inside his head, and seeing that smile on her face, Tobin realized he wasn't any of those things.
"No," he said. "You don't owe me anything." She opened her mouth like she might protest and he stopped her before she could. "I don't mean that in a dismissive way," Tobin explained. "I mean that sincerely. There's nothing for us to talk about. You love him. You've loved him for a long time. And—if I hadn't been so—blinded by you? I would've seen it. It was as clear as day."
"I didn't know anything would come of it," Carol explained. "Ever. I didn't know he felt the same way. Or, if I suspected he did, I didn't know if he'd ever do anything about it."
Tobin laughed to himself.
"He was a late bloomer," Tobin said. "Maybe you both were. You just—needed time. Now is the right time."
Carol's smile returned. It wasn't as wide as before. It was soft now, but it was still sincere.
"Maybe you're right," Carol said.
"I'm right," Tobin said, laughing quietly to himself. "He loves you. And—you love him. Even I know that."