A/N: I took a few writing liberties as you will see. Thank you for rerading. Please let me know what you think :)
The food was all ready by nine that night. The group of them went to the diner after wards and dispersed in the parking lot from there. Lori's husband Rick and Judith joined them and he and Daryl found they had a lot in common in the few times they had seen each other.
They talked easily with each other now about almost any subject which struck Carol. He was so different now, gone was the shy boy that left. He came back a man, in every sense of the word.
They all stood in the parking lot talking and Carol mentioned she was going to the store for some last minute Thanksgiving things for tomorrow. She had forgotten to buy turnips and they were Sophia's favorite.
"I'll follow ya, you two shouldn't be alone this time of night." Daryl said lighting a cigarette as they walked towards their cars.
"Fine, I'm riding with you." Sophia said as Carol got into her car and shut the door mumbling 'whatever'.
Sophia stood there watching them together for the hundredth time, again thinking her mother was so different with him. Daryl leaned into the window and whispered something to Carol and then kissed her cheek. Sophia saw how her mother smiled up at him and she never quite saw that look on her face before.
"See you there." He said and they looked at each other, he was close to her and close to kissing her but instead he nodded his head. She looked up at him and he was reminded of how she looked at him that night, sixteen years ago. The night they made Sophia.
Carol still looked as beautiful to him as she did then. Her hair was just a little bit shorter but still a wavy mass, that reminded him of a red waterfall. Her skin still freckled across the bridge of her nose and her eyes so bright and blue. Fuck if he wasn't falling again.
"I saw that." Sophia said as he got in the truck and she slid in on the other side.
"Saw what?" He said taking a drag of his cigarette and blowing it out the window. Then he threw the butt out the window, so that he wasn't smoking with Sophia in the truck.
"You were totally macking on her." She said.
"Whatever that means?" He said, realizing he had to get up with the lingo of the times if he was going to keep up with this kid. He thought he could figure out what she was saying though from her shocked tone of voice.
"You should go for it, she dumped that beast Ed." Sophia said as he started the car. 'Crash into you' was on the radio and Sophia reached to turn it up.
"Mom's favorite song." She said looking over at him.
He remembered that song, he remembered it well because he had replayed it in his mind on so many lonely days and nights through the years. The song and the memory of her and how she had helped ease his fears for a little while.
He had never totally forgotten her, although he tried so hard to do just that.
"Yeah, you probably knew that." She put her foot up on the dashboard. "It's like the only mellow song she likes. She plays it when she's happy and when she's sad, it's weird."
She looked over and he was nodding with a funny smile on his face as they followed Carol to the store.
"You like that stuff she likes? Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins?" She asked. 'That grunge stuff."
"I'm more of a Dave Mathews fan." He said and he couldn't stop the grin on his face from becoming a full smile.
"Why do I think that's some kind of weird thing between you two that I don't wanna know about?" Sophia said, making it clear she did not want to know.
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He sat down on the front porch next to her after Sophia went inside and it was just the two of them now. Carol had turned on the radio inside and her IPod was playing 'Thirty-Three' by The Smashing Pumpkins. She still always had to have music playing. He had heard it in her car too. Sophia was a lot like her.
Steeple guide me to my heart and home, the sun is out and up and down again. I know I'll make it; love can last forever.
Sophia had gone inside, but not before she winked at Daryl and told them to stay out of trouble. Carol started laughing and turned to him.
"What was that about." And he just shrugged.
"No idea." He said holding his hands up. "Mind if I smoke. "
"Go ahead." She said and he looked over at the tree as he lit the cigarette. He had climbed that tree more times than he could remember. As if she read his mind she said. "Yes it's still my room."
He took a long pull on his cigarette. "I called once." He said looking up at the sky full of stars.
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2003 Afghanistan
Their unit had twenty- three men and they were set up in the middle of the desert with nothing but sand dunes and wind for miles upon miles. It was miserable, hot and dirty and it would stay that way for as long as they were there.
No one was in a good mood and the temperature was well over 110 degrees with no shade. It was a sand nightmare as Gareth Winters always called it.
"Another day in the sand nightmare guys." He'd say every day when they got up.
It was a sand nightmare, of that there was no doubt but at least they had some water and food along, which sometimes wasn't the case.
It was Thanksgiving day and they all knew it. They would get a meal of a turkey-like substance later and some mashed potatoes, but no one was looking forward to it. They were far from home and loved ones and the moods were sour at best.
Daryl was under the jeep trying to get the oil pan off which had rusted from so many months of neglect. They just didn't always have time to do things like change the oil.
He did a lot of the jeep maintenance along with his buddy Gareth, who was sitting up in the jeep with a pair of binoculars looking around. There was nothing out there right now, it was a good day, as good as it could get.
Gareth wore aviator sunglasses and a hat, along with his uniform and a gallon of sunscreen, which was a must.
Daryl's other buddy Cesare was playing disk jockey and playing cassette tapes in the old beat up radio they had. Daryl stopped turning the wrench when he heard the words to a song he knew.
I send this smile out to you, my love.
He laid there under the jeep listening to the words. He had heard this before because it was one of the only cassettes' Cesare had. Most days he ignored it, or sometimes he just shrugged it off, but not today. Today he laid there and allowed himself the luxury of a memory.
He remembered that night they fell asleep in her bed after she had cleaned him up. They had bickered about the music and this was the song, Disarm. He had woken up that night with her wrapped around him and her head on his chest.
Daryl remembered laying there until she moved and he never told her how they had migrated towards each other in their sleep.
He was homesick and he hadn't talked to Merle in a few weeks, he told himself as he got. He convinced himself of that fact and that the reason was he missed Merle. He put the wrench back in the tool box and wiped his hands on a red rag he had in his tool box.
"Be right back." He said.
She might not even have the same phone number or she may have moved but he would not be stopped. It had been almost four years since he heard her voice and he just needed it today. He didn't use the base calling system at all and he knew the guys in that tent wouldn't believe him when he said he wanted to make a call.
Daryl never called anyone except Merle, who was in another unit somewhere in this godforsaken land of sand and sweat.
He reached the tent and he was smiling as he walked in. He saluted the men it was appropriate to salute and was saluted by his subordinates.
"Sup Dixon. "The big giant named Tyreese said as he turned from the equipment he was watching.
"Make a call Sarg?"
Tyreese nodded. "Give me a sec, you calling your brother?"
"No, states." He said taking a seat next to Tyreese as he obtained the secure and outside line.
"I don't believe you've ever called home have you?" The Sargent asked. "In all the time I known you at least."
Daryl shook his head as Ty handed him earphones and put them on himself.
"Number?" Tyreese asked and Daryl recited it from memory like he still dialed it every day, like they still stayed up all night yapping to each other on the phone.
"663-278-3457." He said.
On the other side of the world a phone rang and Sophia ran to pick it up because her mother was in the kitchen and her grandparents were outside putting up Christmas decorations. She was almost four years old and convinced she was big enough to do what she wanted, so she didn't let the machine get it.
She approached the phone with her blonde pigtails bouncing because she was a big girl.
"Hello." She squeaked into the phone and her little voice caught him off guard, and he didn't answer, even when she said hello again. She didn't sound any bigger than Cesare's little girl who was two, as if Daryl knew anything about children at all.
A little girl answered the phone that had been Carol's, he contemplated that, and he knew.
On her end she just heard static and as she was hanging up the phone he could swear he heard Carol call. "Sophia Lynne." But then the connection was lost along with the hope that had been rising in his chest the minute he set to walk to the communications tent.
She was married now, with a child and he knew needed to stay away. It had been silly for him to even think of it. If he could klick himself, he would have. She had moved on and he knew he could never bother her again.
"You wanna try again, was it a wrong number?"
He nodded. "Yeah wrong number." He said taking off the earphones. His heart was sinking down lower than the pits of blown sand they encountered out on scouting missions. His chest ached in a way that it never had before and he supposed it was time to grow up now and leave his child hood behind.
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"I remember that." Carol said softly, almost too soft for him to hear but he was close enough to see tears spring into her eyes.
"Hey, hey sweetheart, I didn't tell you that to upset you." He said rubbing her arm up and down. "Carol don't cry."
He pulled her close in a one armed hug and held her to him as she cried softly. He didn't want this, he didn't want her to be sad.
"You heard her voice and you didn't know." She said sniffing and wiping her tears.
"Carol." He turned her to him and wiped her tears with his thumbs on either side of her face. "It's over and done now, no use crying. We said we were all starting over, I want to. I hope you do too."
She nodded and then he kissed her and this time it wasn't an accident and they weren't rushed by fear and adrenaline.
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Carol was up early to put the turkey in the oven and then she stumbled back to bed. She laid face down in bed and looked out the window. The tree was still there, the tree he used to climb to come to her room at night.
Her parents' house was an older house and it had three bedrooms, Carol still slept in the same room. This house was built in the days before master bedrooms and ensuite bathrooms. All of the bedrooms were the same and there was one bathroom in the hall way.
So when her parents passed, their bedroom became the guest room, and Sophia had the other bedroom since she was born. It made sense for her to stay in that room.
She looked out the window at the tree, there had been so many nights when they were young that he climbed that tree. Once when she was sick he had brought her soup in a thermos from his house and she knew he took a beating for it.
But she was sick and for once, he said he wanted to take care of her. Carol laid there thinking about him, he had grown into a man, when he left he was a lanky kid, not grown into his body. Now he was, all hard angles and sharp edges.
They had sat on the porch the night before talking and kissing till far past midnight and finally he got up to leave, although he didn't want to.
She fell back asleep remembering that night he slept there with her a few years before he went away.