Awkward silence settled between them and Daryl was more than relieved to hear knocking at his door. "That's probably Rick and Lori. I better let them in." He motioned his hand for her to step inside and she did. He headed for the door and she followed a few steps behind him.
When he pulled the door open, just as he expected, Rick and Lori we standing behind it. Rick holding a large covered dish and a small brown bag, Lori standing beside him with an eager look on her face.
"Got the food." Rick announced proudly, as he held the bag and the dish up.
"Don't worry. He didn't cook it." Lori said with a grin. She let her eyes wonder to the woman standing behind Daryl. "Aren't you gonna introduce us to your friend?"
"Yeah. Yeah. Come on in." He closed the door behind the couple as they stepped inside. He watched Rick put the food down on the dining room table, then come back and stand beside Lori, looking at him expectantly. "Uh, Carol, this is Rick and his girlfriend Lori." He turned on his heel toward her, but didn't fully anticipate how close behind him Carol was standing, and in the process, he accidently stepped on her toes. He was wearing boots and her sandals didn't offer much protection.
She yelped and went to grab her foot, which wasn't an easy task with her belly in the way.
His face paled. "Shit! I didn't mean to. I'm sorry." She was hopping around and his first thought was that she was going to accidently fall over and hurt herself or her baby. He reached and placed a hand under her arm in an effort to help steady her.
She winced and gritted her teeth through the throbbing pain. "It's okay. You didn't mean to."
Rick pulled a chair out from under the dining room table. "Here, why don't you have a seat?"
She nodded and hobbled over to the chair, Daryl still holding onto her arm in case she toppled over. When she took her seat his hand was still holding her arm. She reached up and placed her hand over his, forcing a small smile over the pain, as she met his eyes. "Thank you." She told him, sweetly.
He jerked his arm back as soon as she placed her hand over his. As if it suddenly made him aware of the fact that he'd been touching her this whole time. "Mhm." He muttered. "Welcome."
Lori had walked into the kitchen while she was getting situated in the chair and returned with a small bag of ice. "Here." She handed her the bag. This might help."
Carol waved her off. "It's fine. It's nothing."
"Honey, Daryl's got a big ass foot. You're lucky he didn't break your toes. Take the ice."
Carol rolled her eyes playfully and took the ice. "I probably shouldn't have worn this dress." She chuckled, as she tried to find a position to ice her toes without flashing her panties to everyone in the room.
"Let me help." She took the ice, but instead of bending down herself, she handed it to Daryl. Bending down sometimes made Lori light headed and dizzy these days.
Daryl arched a brow at her. Like he couldn't believe what she was suggesting.
"You did it. Now help her. I would, but you don't want two injured pregnant women on your hands." She snapped her fingers. "Go on."
"He really doesn't have to." Carol insisted. "It's fine. I don't have to have the ice. It feels bett..." Before she could finish her sentence Daryl was reluctantly getting down on bended knee. He tentatively placed the ice over her toes and felt a pang of guilt at how red they were. She jerked at first, shivering at the chill the cold ice sent through her body.
"Now, let's try this again. Maybe no one will get hurt this time." Lori smiled and extended her hand. "I'm Lori Smith and this is my boyfriend, Rick Grimes."
She shook Lori's hand and then Rick's, as both were careful not to step on Daryl as he continued to press the ice against her toes. "I'm Carol Greene."
()()()
After reintroductions, Carol grabbed the pack of ice and thanked Daryl for his help, even though he'd been the one to inadvertently cause her minor injury in the first place. He stepped into the kitchen to place the melting bag in the sink as she chatted with Rick and Lori. "Y'all wanna go ahead and eat? I can grab some plates while I'm in here." He called out.
Carol looked to Lori and Rick. "I'm ready if you two are."
"That'd be good, Daryl." Lori answered. "Thanks."
"I'll give him a hand." Rick suggested.
Moments later the two men returned. "Daryl with a stack of paper plates, plastic eating utensils, and napkins in hand. Rick holding a pitcher of tea and solo cups.
"If you have china you'd rather use I don't mind washing dishes." Lori offered.
"We ain't got none." He mumbled. "This is easier than washing dishes so we just buy disposable shit."
He sounded a little embarrassed so Carol decided to jump in. "You know? I did the same thing during the school year. I used to work with the after school program and some nights I wouldn't get home until really late. It made it a lot easier to just be able to throw my dirty dishes away."
"See, Lori, I'm not the only one that doesn't like to dishes." Rick chuckled, but quickly stopped when Lori narrowed her eyes on him.
"Wow. Me and the baby are starving. What'd you pick up Rick? Carol said in an effort to redirect and change the subject.
Rick reached across the table and pulled the top off of the covered dish. "There's a little Italian Place when you get into town. I ordered to go."
Carol felt her stomach start to churn the moment the top was off and the aroma hit her nostrils. She covered her nose and mouth to try block out the smell. "That's lasagna, isn't it?"
Rick nodded, looking perplexed. "Yeah. Should I have not gotten that?"
"I'm sorry, I just.." The churning got worse and nausea completely over took her. "She shot up out of her seat. "Daryl, where's your bathroom?"
"That door you came in, well, the door in the small hallway is my bedroom, when you get in there go to the door beside the dresser goes to the bathroom." He looked at her with concern. "You alright?"
She couldn't speak, so she just nodded. Clamping her hand tightly over her mouth, slightly limping from where he stepped on her toes, she bolted for his bathroom.
The three of them shared a look. Daryl glanced from Rick and Lori over his shoulder in the direction Carol had taken off in. He was wondering if he should go check on her, but he wasn't sure he knew her well enough to check on her while she was in the bathroom.
"Lasagna." Lori said, knowingly.
"What?" Rick asked.
"Lasagna made her feel sick. Probably because of the baby. Do you remember how sick burritos made me the first few months? If I saw one right now I'd probably still hurl just thinking about how sick they made me."
"Shit. I didn't know. I would've bought something else if I did."
Daryl was still glancing between them and over his shoulder, he'd brought his thumb up to the side of his mouth and began assaulting it. "You think I should check on her?"
"Why don't you fix her a glass of water? I'll go check on her." Lori suggested. "Bring it to me in a few minutes."
()()()
Lori knocked softly on the bathroom door. She could hear the sound of wrenching behind the closed door and she grimaced, trying to fight the urge to get sick herself. "Carol? It's Lori. Are you alright?"
Carol groaned and flushed. "I'll be fine. Sophia just really doesn't like lasagna for some reason. Which really sucks, because I loved it."
"You mind if I come in?"
"If you wanna see me puking my guts out, be my guest. I didn't lock the door, didn't have time."
Lori opened the door, slowly. Carol was wiping her mouth with a wash cloth. "Being pregnant kinda sucks sometimes, huh?"
Carol chuckled at that. "Sometimes? Whenever I laugh hard enough I have the urge to pee my pants. I've gained twenty pounds. I don't like my favorite foods anymore. I already have stretch marks. My boobs hurt. And sometimes I get so horny I think about attacking random strangers and pinning them up against the wall and having my way with them."
"You're telling me. If I bend down I want to pass out. I fart in front of Rick non-stop now, something I'd never even done before this. I also have stretch marks, some of which are on my boobs. I cry at least twice a day for seemingly no reason at all. Oh, and the being horny thing, I'm the exact opposite. Whenever Rick wants to touch me I have an undying urge to rip his hand off most days."
"Misery loves company, right? These kids better be worth it." She joked.
She soothingly rubbed a hand over Carol's back. "They damn sure better be." She grinned. "Daryl told Rick you're having a little girl?"
"Yeah." Her eyes brightened and she turned to face Lori. "I'm six months. Her name's gonna be Sophia. What about you?" She pointed to Lori's belly.
"Sophia's a pretty name. I like it. I'm a little over five months and we're having a little boy. We're gonna name him Carl."
"Carl." She repeated. "Sounds like a good strong name."
"You feel like getting up?" Carol nodded and Lori reached a hand down and helped pull her off the tile. "I'm sorry my boyfriend picked out something that made you sick. Between that and Daryl stepping on your toes I feel like we're trapped with dumb and dumber for tonight."
Carol glared at her. Feeling a little offended that she'd said something negative about Daryl, though she didn't really know him well, so she wasn't sure why she felt so protective of him. "Don't be mean. Daryl didn't mean to do that. He's just…a little awkward. There's no way Rick could have known that would make me sick. I actually thought it was really nice of Daryl to invite me over to meet you two in the first place and I thought it was sweet of Rick to volunteer to buy food."
Lori put her hands up in defense. "Honey, I was kidding. I didn't mean anything by it."
Carol blushed. "Sorry. I get over emotional these days, too."
"Hey, don't worry about. Besides, I really do kinda hate men these days for some reason. Maybe it came out meaner than I meant for it to. I don't know why, but almost everything Rick does annoys me. Do you feel like that towards the father of your child?" Lori cursed herself the moment the words left her mouth. Rick had told her that the guy skipped out on Carol and the baby. She just hadn't been thinking of it."
Carol scraped her bottom lip with her teeth and fidgeted her hands together. "I don't know. He isn't really around to annoy me for any reason in particular other than just being the son of a bitch he is."
Lori's face tinged pink. "I knew that. I just wasn't thinking about it. I shouldn't have said anything."
"It's alright. It's, um, not half as bad as the conversation I had with about him with Merle." Her eyes were a little misty and she cleared her throat and wiped at them. "I certainly don't like him, though. I'm pretty sure that won't change after Sophia's born either."
Daryl walked in the room. The bathroom door was open, so he knocked on the wall beside it. "Brought you some water." He held it out to her.
"That was sweet." She replied as she took it from him.
"Ain't no problem." He shrugged. "There's mouth wash by the sink if you need some." He chewed his bottom lip. "You, uh, you alright?"
"I'm good now. But I don't think I can be around that smell again. I'll end up right back in here. I'm sorry. Why don't the three of you have dinner without me?"
"Rick took the lasagna to his car. It ain't here no more. We made sandwiches while you two was in here. Ain't much. Just ham, mayo, and cheese on them. But I got Doritos, too. So, uh, if you wanna….you can…stay."
"You and Rick didn't have to do that." She looked over to Lori, who was shooting her an amused look. Almost as if she understood something Carol didn't. She turned back to Daryl, who was looking at her with a mix of anxiety and hopefulness. "Yeah. I'll stay. I'd like that. Just give me a few minutes in here and I'll be right out."
()()()
Carol washed her mouth out several times with water and then rinsed it with mouth wash. She didn't have much of an appetite anymore, but she was going to try and eat something since Daryl and Rick had gone to the trouble of making something else so she could eat. She couldn't believe she hurled. She hadn't done that in months.
They all fell into conversation at the table, nothing heavy, just general questions getting to know one another.
"So, you're the sheriff?" Carol asked, looking to Rick.
"Deputy, actually." He corrected. "But hopefully one day I'll be running this town." He glanced at Lori. "She's a dispatcher. That's actually kinda how we met."
"Aw! That's sweet that you met at work. Do you mind if I ask how long you've been together?"
Lori looked up, trying to recall the exact date in her head. "It'll be a year in two weeks."
"Well, in case I don't see you again, happy early anniversary." She told them, taking a sip of her tea.
"Oh, no. You'll be seeing me again. You have to show me where you got that gorgeous dress of yours at."
"It was at that boutique on the corner of Fifth. I think the lady said she just opened up. There's tons of cute maternity stuff in there. I'd be glad to go with you sometime. I'm getting so big I need a whole new wardrobe anyway."
Lori reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone, then handed it across the table to Carol. "Put your number in. I'll call you and we'll set up a day to go next week if you're free."
Carol started typing and snorted. "I'm pretty much free until August." She handed the phone back when she was done.
"You're a teacher aren't you?" Rick said.
"Yeah. I am. Language Arts, actually."
"What grade?"
"Here, I'll be teaching high schoolers, 10th graders. At my old school, I worked mostly with middle schoolers."
"You must have a lot of patience." He chuckled.
"For the most part I'd like to think that I do. You know? I think teaching is just one of those things you have to be called to do. I'm sure law enforcement is the same way. It's not meant for everyone. You have to have a fair amount of patience to work in that field, too. If you're a good cop, anyway."
()()()
The group continued on in conversation until it got dark, Lori and Rick finally excused themselves, saying they needed to get home since they both had to work tomorrow.
Carol was glad Daryl had invited her over. Lori and Rick seemed nice and she could see herself falling into an easy friendship with the woman. She looked forward to going shopping with her sometime soon.
They'd all moved to the living room at some point and she was left sitting on the couch with just her and Daryl. He'd talked some tonight, much more than he had when it was just the two of them and Merle, but now that his friends left he'd grown quiet again. She figured it would probably be best to go ahead and get home. After all, he had work tomorrow, too.
They'd both been staring at the TV the last few minutes, though she hadn't really been paying attention to what was on. She turned to face him so she could tell him she was leaving. "I should probably get going, too. It's late."
He stopped looking at the TV and faced her. "Alright. You can use the same door you came in if you want."
They both stood up and he walked with her to the door so he could lock it behind her. When they reached the door, he swiped a hand over his face and sighed. "I'm a dumbass." She arched a brow and he explained. "About the lasagna and stepping on your toe."
"Look, please, don't even worry about it. You didn't mean to crush my poor little toes." She smirked. "And there's no way you or Rick could have known that would make me sick. I should have given you a warning list called foods my unborn child despises and that will make her mommy hurl. I'll be sure to next time." He gave her a half smile that sent her into a full blown one. "It's really alright, Daryl. I had a good time tonight. I liked hanging out with you and your friends. They seem like good people."
"They are." He agreed.
"Well, I guess I'll see you around then. Goodnight, Daryl"
He rubbed the back of his neck. He thought about asking her to come over again sometime this week. She could have pizza with him, assuming that didn't make her sick. He thought about telling her she could feel free to stop by anytime she got bored. It wasn't like he had a bubbling social life that kept him busy after work.
But he probably wouldn't have much to say to her if she did come over and they'd just end up sitting in silence. Besides, it's not like she'd wanna hang out with it being just the two of them anyway. Fuck, he didn't even know why he wanted to hang out with her if it was just them. It's not like they could possibly have much in common.
And despite the inappropriate image that swirled around in his head for a brief moment earlier, he knew it couldn't ever happen for a whole host of reasons. It was for the best if they just casually ran into each other now and then. There wasn't a reason for them to spend a lot of time together. She seemed to hit it off with Lori and that was his whole reason for inviting her over tonight to begin with. "Night, Carol." He replied, though as she walked away he couldn't help but regret not saying more and wondering when the next time he would see her would be.
