A/N: Warning, talk of serious past drug addiction.
Later they sat at a table alone, long after their friends left. They had switched to coffee because they both needed to be sober for this discussion. They would need to be sober most of the time now if they were going to be parents together to Sophia. She knew when he eventually came back he would be all in for this. She knew his history and he knew hers. They had been great friends back in the day, friends that sometimes slept together. It wasn't any grand romance, they had been so young, and not looking for that. Sophia was a surprise for sure, but a happy one. She never regretted having her, not for one second. Sophia brought a joy to her life she never even knew she was missing.
Daryl was different though, his time away with Merle had changed him somehow. He seemed older than twenty eight, she wondered what they had been through. She would ask him another day.
"So now what?" He asked her and really she had no clue.
"I don't know, honestly, there's so much, you know?"
"Can I say something?" He asked taking a sip of his coffee.
"Please." She waved her hand towards him smiling.
"She has to come first, I know you feel that way, and I just want you to know we're on the same page."
She nodded.
"I aint ever come first with anyone, I don't want that for her." He said.
She knew that, he had told her about his father, she had seen the scars on his back.
That had been an accident actually, but he told her what his father did. She had wanted to cry for him, for that little boy. This was how she knew, once she knew, that he would be a wonderful father.
"I know that, I was never worried about that." She relied.
"But I don't know how to do this, what do you need?" He looked up at her. Turned his head to get his hair out of his eyes. His eyes, blue as the ocean, beautiful, like her daughter's.
"Do you need money? Does she need anything I can get for her?" He asked and already she was nodding.
"She needs lots of things Daryl, kids are expensive, it will be good to have help now."
"Merle already said he can't wait for Christmas, he said he's going to spoil that girl rotten." He laughed.
His big badass brother was brought to his knees by a little girl in pigtails, it was unbelievable. And him? He stayed up all night after they saw Carol at the grocery store thinking. Wishing he had been here all along, he finally just forgave himself and vowed he would do his very best from this day forward. He knew it would do him no good to beat himself up over what he couldn't change. That fancy Doctor in Arizona had told him that over and over again, until he knew it in his heart.
He would have to tell Carol about that, his blood ran through Sophia's veins and they said drug addiction ran in families. He and Merle weren't exempt, he hoped his daughter would be. If she was raised by loving parents she had half a shot to not end up almost dead with a needle in her arm like her father.
Heroin was the love of his life. He loved no other as he loved that lover.
There was nothing that could make him forget better than dope.
When he was dancing with her he could forget his past, the abuse he had been through. He didn't care about his inability to form any kind of lasting bond with anyone. Not when she was around. She was all he ever thought he wanted or needed. But she is always a taker in the end, he wasn't the first person to find that out.
That's where he had been for the past five years. It started in Las Vegas and ended in Arizona when he nodded off in the parking lot of some dive motel in the car of some junkie girl he picked up. Merle found him just in time, the girl's boyfriend was ripping him out of the car and had a knife in his hand. Merle saved his life in more ways than one that night.
The rehab taught him how to live. How to be happy, joyous and free, no matter what. Free for the first time in his life.
He went through the requirements of the state to work again and came home.
There were a lot of addicts in the medical profession he found out. People who cared too much and couldn't handle the pain of others. A lot of abuse victims too, he wasn't alone. He wasn't unique or special. But he was clean three years and he knew how to stay clean.
"Listen Carol, I have to tell you something."
And he told her, true to the Carol he remembered, she nodded her head and listened without judgement. She assured him she had no intentions of keeping Sophia away from him. They would figure it out, how to tell her and introduce her to him.
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"What do you mean she has a boyfriend?" Daryl said leaning over the ER nurses station two days later. Tara was trying to chart on her twelve patients and he was annoying the hell out of her. Daryl and his partner Bob just brought in a walkie talkie that was short of breath with chest pain. He had stopped to look for Carol and Tara had said it by accident. She had work to do and when he asked for Carol, she said she was talking to her boyfriend. It had been a mistake she had been distracted. She pointed over to the other side of the ER in a hallway and there she stood with one of the doctors.
"That guy?" He made a face.
"That's Randall, Dr. Walker they date sometimes, she's not really into him all that much I don't think. Go away Daryl you just brought me another one I have to go assess. Take it up with her." She waved him away and grabbed her stethoscope.
"Oh I'm gonna don't you worry."
"What did you think she's been waiting all this time, get over yourself." Tara said standing up.
"She bring him around Sophia."
"I doubt that." She shooed him out of her way so she could go check on the guy they just brought in. "Look I gotta go push this Lasix, can you deal with this without me."
She walked away, headed to the medication room next to the nurse's station.
"Damn right." He said.
He looked at his watch, five pm, they weren't off shift till seven and Bob was still fetching them coffee. It would have to be now. He walked over to her and Randall and barged right into their space.
"Can I see you? In private."
"What?" She looked at him, making an annoyed face. "No, I'm working."
"Yeah, you look real busy." He took ahold of her arm. "Excuse us." He looked at the man's name badge. "Randall."
He led her down the hall and to a supply room with a glass door.
"Daryl, I'm working."
He punched the numbers into the lock and opened the door.
"Well, punch out charge nurse."
He led her inside. She turned and faced him crossing her arms across her chest.
"You bring that prick around my kid?"
"Oh." She said turning to go. "You have got to be kidding."
"What I stopped by to see if we could have coffee and finish talking about tomorrow and there you are, talking to that asshole." He waved his hand around in a gesture to prove his point.
"Are you jealous?" She turned back, her hand on the doorknob.
No." He said and shrugged. "Maybe, wasn't kidding when said we should make another one. We had a lot of fun making her." He gave her his best smile and a wink, guaranteed lady killer. And nothing, she just looked at him.
"Don't get it twisted Daryl, we." She moved her hand between them. "Are not happening, we will raise her together, but we aren't together, understand."
He nodded, he guessed he lost his head. He had read in that book he got from the library about parenting that sometimes even if you didn't love the mother of your child, your brain thought you did. Something about endorphins or pheromones or something. He knew it wasn't that.
"Are you still meeting us at the park tomorrow?" She asked.
He nodded, he wouldn't miss this date for anything in the world.
"Ok then, see you then, and stop this territorial nonsense, you got it."
She walked out and he nodded. Yeah he got it, it wasn't going to stop him from trying, but he got it. He walked out and there was Bob standing across the hall holding two coffees.
"You done now?" Bob asked.
He handed Daryl a cup of coffee.
"You have no idea."
They started to walk down the hall.
"Sasha said she's a great nurse."
Sasha was Bob's wife, an X-ray Tech in that hospital as well, they had been married two years and were so happy that Bob sometimes actually pinched himself for real to make sure it wasn't a dream.
"Of course she is, always was."
"Says she's very organized and thorough." He said.
"Yeah, that's her. She don't know it but I'm about to rock this organized life she thinks she has." Daryl remarked as they approached the automatic doors.
"That so?" Bob said.
"Yeah it's on. I want her." He said with no inflection. "And I always get my way."
Bob laughed as they were walking out the door. He liked working with Daryl, it was always an adventure.
"You do know her, don't you?" He laughed.
Daryl nodded. "I know her, and she knows me."
A/N: Hope I wasn't too graphic about the drugs.
A walkie talkie is a patient who can walk into the ER on their own.
Lasix is a diuretic that is used often to treat cardiac problems. Push means to give it intravenously.
As always thank you for reading. Pm me any questions you may have.
I heart you all.