Chapter 2
She'd insisted on doing the dirty work. So now, he was perched cautiously on the porch steps, watching as Carol stood about two yards away firing shot after shot, equipped with the silencer Daryl had found on one of his last runs. She easily felled the gathering of four walkers using only six bullets.
"See?" she asked, turning to him with a barely contained smile. "No big deal."
Daryl hated leaving. He absolutely hated it. But every time, Carol sent him on his way with a kiss and a reminder that she had taken care of herself and Sophia while heavily pregnant after Ed died, and she was an even better shot now with a little help from him. She would even try to pander to that piece of him that held pride in how she had excelled in shooting thanks to his skilled instructions, and how she was even picking up a little bit on the crossbow, as awkward and large as it looked in her hands.
"No big deal," he chuckled, tossing the piece of straw he'd been chewing on into the heavy snow.
"What next? Oh, yeah! The generator," Carol remembered. "We're getting low."
"I got a couple full cans in the van. I'll get it." Daryl trudged off to the van, while Carol made her way around back to the generator. She flinched at the smell of gasoline, but it wasn't just that. It smelled…hot. And it wasn't long before she knew why. As she stepped up behind it, she saw smoke coming up from under it, and she quickly flipped the lever, turning it off as she waved her hand to clear the smoke.
"Daryl?" He came around the house with a gas can in each hand, and he dropped them at her feet.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. It was hot. Smoking," she coughed, touching the surface of the generator to find it warm despite the frigid temperatures.
"Shit," he muttered. "Gonna have to take a look at it."
"Well, come inside first. Get warmed up by the fire. It's too cold to be out here for long." Daryl looked up at the clear sky, and he looked anxious. "What's wrong?"
"Got a feelin' more snow's comin'. Probably best get this fixed now." Carol stepped toward him, curling her fingers around his.
"I'll get a fire going inside. Promise you won't stay out too long?"
"Promise." He leaned down to kiss her softly, and she smiled, laughing when the overgrown stubble on his chin scratched her chin. Then she headed back around the house, fumbling with the keys in her pocket. She quickly unlocked the two deadbolts and the knob lock, locking herself back up as she did every night.
The house was pretty secure. The front and back door were locked up like Fort Knox at all time, while the windows were nailed shut, and the downstairs windows were kept shuttered with the curtains drawn after everyone settled in for the night. A shotgun was perched atop the tall wardrobe in the bedroom, and even with all of those precautions, Carol knew Daryl hated leaving. But somebody had to go get the supplies, and she had offered several times. The fact remained that Merle was still out there somewhere, and Daryl wanted to be the one to find him. He was torn between his love for his brother and his desire to stay home with his family, though Carol always insisted he go, because if he didn't, he'd regret not trying.
"Mama, Eli's crying," Sophia announced, the moment Carol stepped into the house. Carol winced at the piercing cries.
"Yes, I can hear that," she replied, moving into the living room to pick Elijah up out of the bassinet. "Are you hungry, Soph?"
"No, I'm ok," she replied, wiping a smear of chocolate off of her face.
"Sophia, where did you find chocolate?" Carol asked sternly.
"Nowhere, Mama," Sophia said innocently, holding her hands behind her back.
"Show me your hands."
"But, why?"
"Because I said so," Carol replied. "Sophia?" Sophia sighed and revealed the small box of cookies in her hands. "Where did you find that?"
"In Daryl's bag," she announced.
"Why were you going through Daryl's things?"
"I wanted to see if he brought me anything? He promised me cookies, Mama. He did!"
"Well, let's just hope so, or he's going to be pretty upset you ate all of his cookies." Sophia ducked her head then, and Carol looked at the door as the knob jostled. Daryl let him inside, and he saw Carol standing there holding the crying baby, while Sophia looked sheepishly up at him. When he saw the box of cookies, he reached down at picked Sophia up.
"You found your cookies, huh?"
"Oh God," Carol groaned. "Don't encourage her."
"What? I promised her cookies," Daryl replied with a shrug, as Carol rolled her eyes.
"See, Mama?" Sophia asked, hugging Daryl around the neck. "I missed you!"
"Missed you, too, Soph," Daryl replied, squeezing her in a bear hug before he put her down. At Carol's annoyed expression, he cleared his throat. "Better save some of them for after lunch, though."
"Ok," Sophia replied with a grin, hurrying off into the back of the house, while Elijah continued crying.
"He ok?" Daryl asked.
"Oh, maybe he wants a cookie, too," Carol replied with an eye roll. She patted his back, bouncing him gently in her arms. Then she frowned, placing her hand against Elijah's forehead. "Daryl? Does he feel a little warm to you?" Daryl placed his hand against the baby's forehead, brows furrowing in worry.
"Yeah, he's a little warm." Carol worried her lower lip between her teeth, and she kissed the top of the baby's forehead. "Ok. I've got something for him. Can you…can you hold him?" Her hands trembled a little, and she handed the baby over to him.
"Hey. Hey, he's gonna be ok." Carol avoided his gaze and instead headed up the stairs to the bathroom, pulling out a box infant acetaminophen. She checked the box, sighing with relief when she saw the expiration date wasn't for at least another six months.
Eli wasn't crying anymore when she came back downstairs, and Carol quickly tore the bottle from the package, removing the dropper and sucking up the allotted dose. Eli fussed again when Carol gave him the medicine, but he swallowed it down, and Daryl held him close, rocking him gently. He watched as Carol gently caressed the back of Eli's head, staring down at him with worry.
"Hey, he's gonna be ok," he repeated. "You ok?" She simply nodded and turned away, covering her mouth with her hand, and Daryl reached out, gently squeezing her shoulder. "Kids get fevers. I remember when Anna…"
"It's not the fever I'm worried about, Daryl," Carol got out, shoulders shaking with worry. "There aren't any vaccines anymore. There are thousand things that could happen, and my kid isn't going to be immune, because there aren't any cures anymore."
"He's gonna be ok," Daryl urged her. "You can't worry 'bout things like that."
"I should have worried," she said with a shake of her head. "What if he gets really sick?"
"Then we'll worry 'bout that when the time comes." Carol didn't look too convinced, but she knew as well as he did that there was no room for wondering about the what ifs in this world. What had to come first was the immediate. The now. They couldn't sit around worry about what might happen, because if they did, they'd just make themselves crazy.
Daryl gently put the baby back down in the bassinet, and while he fussed for a moment, he quickly found his fingers and suckled at them to soothe himself back to sleep. Daryl moved back to Carol, pulling his arms around her from behind, burying his face against the back of her neck.
"I ain't goin' back out for a while," he decided.
"Daryl, we talked about this." She meant to sound stern, but it was pretty difficult when the last thing she wanted was for him to leave again.
"I know we talked about it, but I'm tellin' ya, I ain't goin' back out. Somethin' don't feel right. Put down three of those walkers outside the gate last night, and there were four more this mornin'. Don't know where they're comin' from, why they're bein' drawn here, but there was a whole herd just fifteen miles back. Hundreds of 'em. I was gone too long last time. Ain't right, leavin' you here."
"The house is fortified. Nothing's getting in here without a hell of a lot of effort. I haven't seen a car, heard a gunshot, seen lights off in the hills. Nothing, Daryl. It's quiet." She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Maybe we should both stop worrying so much." She kissed him before burying her face against his neck, inhaling the scent of him, relishing in the feel of being in his arms, something she knew she would never be able to get enough of. But, she also knew there was work to be done, and distractions weren't going to heat the house or put food on the table.
She gently pushed back on his shoulders then before giving him a tender kiss.
"Are you warmed up enough yet?"
"Yeah, I think so," he chuckled. "Guess I better get to fixin' the generator. Got some stuff in the back of the truck I didn't bring in last night. Few boxes of ammo, a couple more guns. Some canned goods and clothes."
"I'll bring those in. You just worry about the generator. Be careful though. That thing looked like it was ready to catch fire."
"Yeah, I got it," he promised. "Be done in a bit." He headed off, and Carol checked on Elijah one more time, tucking his blanket around him.
"You ok, buddy?" The baby grunted in his sleep, and she gently patted his tummy. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. You hear me?" She bent down to kiss his forehead.
She started for the door again, pocketing her keys.
"Sophia?"
"Huh?" she asked, walking out of the kitchen with another cookie in her hand.
"Sophia Peletier, you cookie monster."
"Sorry, Mama," she giggled sheepishly.
"I'm going back outside to bring in some supplies. You watch over your brother for me, ok? Come get me if he cries."
"I will!" Sophia said with an excited nod. If there was one thing that Sophia loved more than cookies or playing with her toys, it was being left to watch over her baby brother. She couldn't really pick him up or play with him, but she could keep an eye on him, and when her mama asked her to do that, she did it without complaint, because she was his big sister, and she had to protect him.
"Thank you, baby," Carol smiled. "You play quiet and stay in here, and I'll be in and out. Just make sure Eli stays covered up and warm, ok?" Sophia nodded and hopped up onto the couch to sit protectively next to the bassinet. "You're a good big sister."
"Can I have a baby sister?" Sophia asked innocently. Carol paused and laughed.
"Well, you never know, but I think the both of you are more than enough."
"Well, if you ever change your mind, a little sister would be really fun."
"I'll…keep that in mind," Carol chuckled, shaking her head at her daughters' out-of-the-blue question. She headed out into the snow to unload the things from Daryl's truck, bringing in a box at a time until everything was piled on the kitchen table.
When she went out to check for anything left behind, she could hear footsteps crunching on the snow behind her. Turning sharply, she saw Daryl coming up around the house with an empty gas can.
"Got it workin', but it's on its last leg," he muttered. "Might have to think about leavin' when the snow clears up." At Carol's crestfallen look, he unloaded the gas can into the back of the truck. "M'sorry."
"It's fine," she said with a shake of her head. "I should be used to moving."
"Well, we ain't gotta go just yet. I can check out the insulation in the house, see if I can do somethin' to make it warmer, keep the drafts out. We can put blankets up over the windows. Saw some plastic out in the barn. We could use that over the windows to catch the drafts. Just with havin' two little ones…"
"We aren't guaranteed to find another place like this though. The next place could be worse."
"Yeah," Daryl replied with a shake of his head. "I'll keep workin' at it. See if I can't scavenge some spare parts from another generator somewhere. It'll hold up for another week or two, at least. I'd rather try and fix it than go out there with Soph and Squirt. It's bad enough out there alone, but havin' a baby out there cryin' for them things to hear? I'll do what I can to try and save the generator."
Carol took a shaky breath and gave his hand a squeeze.
"Thank you," she said softly, before they turned to head back into the house. But as they turned, something caught Carol's attention in the corner of her eye, and she turned her head, gasping, gripping Daryl's hand. "Daryl. Look." He turned his attention in the direction she was staring, and he reached for the gun at his hip.
"You got yer gun?"
"Yeah."
"Get it. Finger on the trigger." Carol nodded, quickly reaching for her gun as Daryl took his in hand and aimed it, as the car tearing down the slick country road swerved and slid, tossing up clods of snow in its wake.
"Do you think that's Merle?" Carol asked after a moment.
"No. Ain't him. Merle's South. This guy's comin' from the North. Be ready."
"I'm ready," she promised, pulling back the hammer and putting her finger on the trigger, ready and willing to do whatever she had to to protect her family. She silently whispered a prayer that this guy would just keep moving, but instead, the car spun, and it crunched violently into a cement post at the corner of the property. Steam hissed up into the cold winter air, and after a few silent moments, the driver's door swung open.
"Stay here. I'll check it out," Daryl murmured, taking off toward the car as Carol swallowed back the fear that clawed in her throat as her hand shook. She lowered her gun enough that should it go off simply from the vibration of her fingertips, it wouldn't harm anyone, and she kept her eyes squarely on Daryl as he approached the car, fear bubbling up in her veins as she willed away the panic that was beginning to set in.
Daryl paused at the door then, lowering his gun, and that was when Carol started running, feet tearing up the snow in her path as she rushed to get to his side.
"Daryl?!"
"It's ok," he called. "It's ok." Carol went out through the gate, moving around to come up behind Daryl as he peered into the car. "It's just a kid." She peered in to see a young boy, no more than eight or nine, thin and pale, sitting in the driver's seat, blood trickling from his nose and his forehead.
"Hey," Carol said softly, reaching down to touch the boy's cold cheek. "It's ok. You're ok."
"Help," he cried softly, before he collapsed against the seat, eyes rolling back, as the steam continued to billow up from under the hood of the car and up into the cloudy skies above.