Carol and Daryl start to work things through with a little help from their friends.
Patterns
Dr. Carson the OB/GYN and his nurse were well used to having two hovering fathers present for Lori's appointments. The addition of another person to watch the sonogram was greeted with a 'the more the merrier' attitude by the smiling doctor.
"So you must be what? Barrel racer?" the friendly nurse asked Carol as she helped settle Lori onto the gurney.
"Oh, I don't compete," Carol said, blushing, looking down at her outfit, realizing how at home she'd come to feel in her cow girl clothes: boots, jeans and western cut shirts. Lori had put on a pretty summer maternity dress for the appointment, but Carol had only brought what was in Daryl's RV.
"Carol's an old friend—we went to elementary school together—she works for a company that's doing PR for some of our other rodeo friends." Lori explained.
"Like that good lookin' bull ridin' devil Daryl Dixon?" the nurse said, waggling her eyebrows.
At the mention of his name Carol blanched visibly.
"You wound me to the quick, Nurse Diane—thought I was your favorite rodeo cowboy!" Shane said in a rush, holding his hand to his heart, drawing focus from Carol.
"You're darn pretty too, young man, but I have a definite predilection for a man who'll strap himself to a thousand pound stick a'dynamite and go!" Diane said with a smirk. "My sister e-mailed me a link for that Dixon's latest ride on ESPN2 and mmm-hmm if that boy don't fill out his Levis' nice."
"No Levis' anymore!" Rick said with a solemn shake of his head and a wink at Carol who gave him a sickly smile.
"Don't tell me they're instituting nude bull ridin'—might actually get me to go to a live rodeo!" Diane fanned herself.
"Daryl's got himself a sponsorship with SWW to be a spokesperson for their new denim line," Rick explained, "That's what Carol's doing PR for: called Denim Dreams."
"Oh! So you know that fine man personally..." Diane looked at Carol with new interest.
Carol blinked and blushed, her mouth coming open but no words coming out.
"We're ready." Dr. Carson interrupted any further conversation. Lori reclined in front of him on an exam table with her dress pulled up over her belly and a drape over her from hips to feet. Rick held one of her hands, Shane the other. Carol wondered if they knew which one of them was the biological father or if they even cared.
"Do we want to know the sex, mom and dads?" Dr. Carson asked, applying gel to Lori's abdomen and then holding up the scanning device.
Rick and Shane both looked to Lori, letting her decide.
Tears sprung to Carol's eyes. The sight of them so happy, a family, about to look at their child was too much. Ed had never gone with her to her maternity appointments, his mother had. The woman was not warm and motherly. It felt more like she was there to make sure that Carol wasn't doing anything wrong that might endanger the heir. She still remembered the woman's icy look of displeasure when the sonogram revealed that Carol had not produced the expected male offspring. Her beautiful little girl wasn't enough for the all mighty Pelletiers. Not until Carol had tried to take her and leave.
"It doesn't really matter to us, Doc." Lori said with an impish grin, "I like surprises."
"All right—I might have you close your eyes or look away at a certain point then." Carson told them and then narrowed his eyes at the men, "So no peeking, dads."
Lori looked over at Carol to share the good humor but her face fell when she saw Carol was crying.
"What's wrong?" Lori asked, making Carol give a sad little laugh through her tears.
"I'm just happy for you." Carol said, wiping at her eyes and shaking her head back and forth in denial that these were anything but tears of joy.
Lori frowned but didn't question further.
Shane and Rick exchanged a worried look over her head.
"Anyone who doesn't want to know, no peeking now." Dr. Carson warned.
Carol closed her eyes, not wanting to know something that the parents didn't. The ache of what she was missing hit her full force then. Lori had not one but two loving husbands to love and support her through her pregnancy, not a man she thought she knew who'd turned into a cruel stranger after she'd married him and borne his child.
She missed Sophia every single day.
And now, seeing how Shane and Rick were with Lori, she missed Daryl.
It was ridiculous. She was angry with him. She needed time to think, time away from him. She didn't want to keep making the same mistakes over and over...
Then why did she wish it was her on that table, Daryl holding her hand as the doctor asked them if they wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl?
Daryl reached his destination at about three in the afternoon. The town of Pelletier Brook Lakes, Montana had a population of ten thousand or so, was the county seat and of the 87 businesses within its city limits, only fourteen were not owned by someone in the Pelletier family. When Daryl Dixon pulled into the parking lot of the Twin Pines Motor Lodge just over the county line, he saw that it faced a large billboard advertising the investment broker services of the First National Bank's Vice President, Edwin Pelletier, Jr. complete with a larger than life size photo of the asshole looking rather constipated, though he was probably trying for serious and dignified. Daryl was pleased to see someone had taken target practice on the billboard, shooting out photo Ed's eyes. Then he wondered what it would look like when a car came down the highway behind it and they lit up like he was possessed. That would be eerie as fuck.
He parked his car in front of room twenty-three and went up to the door and knocked. The Samoan looking guy that answered was about six foot seven and filled the doorway. His face lit up with a grin when he recognized Daryl, but before he could say anything an irritated yell came from within the room.
"Jerry! Don't just let him stand out there."
Jerry rolled his eyes but stepped back so Daryl could enter and then closed the door behind him.
"Daryl, my friend! I am pleased to see you arrived in good time—how was your journey?" the dignified African American man who spoke was standing beside one of the beds in the room which was covered with photographs, newspaper clippings and papers, as were most of the walls in the room. It looked like the lair of either a serial killer or the obsessed cop hunting one. He strode forward, holding out his hand to Daryl, but rather than just shake hands he clasped Daryl's forearm and held it in a dramatic gesture of solidarity.
"Zeke." Daryl said, nodding. Ezekiel King was one of his brother's more eccentric friends. A brilliant lawyer, he was also an excellent private detective, specializing in getting the goods on men like Ed Pelletier, ones whose veneer of upright citizenship covered an ugly cesspool of bad acts. Add in spousal abuse and possible child endangerment and King had practically paid the Dixons to take the case.
"I'm going need a Silkwood shower after this one." Ezekiel said, shaking his head as he released Daryl's arm.
"Tell me."
"Well, I sent you the town history." Ezekiel said, but still moved to the first part of the wall display, pointing at the oldest images of the town he'd put up: maps, land plattes and old newspaper headlines and photos.
Daryl walked over to the wall and began reciting what he'd read in the files Merle had sent.
"Founded in 1870 as Brook Lakes after the natural water feature—twin lakes connected by a stream—but when copper was discovered in 1881, Frederick Pelletier basically took over by bringing in armed men and forcing the farmers out by buying up their land for the mine. Anyone who refused met with an 'accident' or was convicted of a crime that sent them to prison or sent them to the scaffold."
"And the Pelletier family's been running the town ever since." Jerry nodded, his usually smiling mouth turned down at the corners.
"Old man is Bank President and Mayor. Son is being groomed to take over, though when your girlfriend left him it caused some ripples." Ezekiel said, looking at the section of the wall featuring the Pelletier genealogy, Ed's picture near the bottom, "People saw it as a chink in the armor."
"Go Carol." Jerry chimed in, sounding proud of Caro's defiance of the iron control of the family.
"How's her little girl?" Daryl asked Ezekiel.
"Sophia? They keep her close." he replied and pointed to the next section of the wall by the door. It was filled with a variety of telephoto lens photos of a small strawberry blonde girl engaged in various activities. "According to the school principal she's been being home schooled since the last custody hearing. She has riding lessons twice a week—the instructor comes to the stables on the estate grounds—and then takes dance classes at a local studio every Thursday—only time she's off the estate grounds." he said leadingly.
"This isn't a snatch and grab, Zeke." Daryl said, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked at the pictures of Sophia, "We need to do this all legal so Caro gets to keep her."
"She's not happy, dude." Jerry said, sounding very unhappy, "Look at her. She should be on top of the world, she's got everything a kid could want, but look what's missing."
"Her momma..."Daryl muttered, looking at the reference photo of Caro and Sophia she'd given him and he'd sent to Zeke from his phone.
"She never smiles." Jerry said, lifting his hand to take down an enlarged close-up of Sophia's face. So perfectly focused, you could see her freckles in it, so like Carol's and her big green sad eyes. "I've taken literally hundreds of pictures of that kid and she never smiles."
"You think she's being abused?" Daryl said, suddenly tense, turning to Jerry who'd obviously been the one doing the surveillance on the estate.
"I don't know. I haven't seen anything like that, but we don't have anyone on the inside." he said regretfully.
"We need someone in there." Daryl said, looking over at Zeke, "Get some eyes on what happens inside that house."
"Working on it, but Ed Sr. is a paranoid bastard. They own most of the town and know every trade person down to the guy that paints the lawn jockey. Full security set up, plus dogs and guards patrolling at night. No one gets on those grounds without them knowing it."
"That's a fuck load of security for a small town bank president." Daryl mused, running his hands back through his hair in frustration. "What else do you have on him?"
"I was hoping you'd ask." Ezekiel said mildly. "Enough that we should be able to go right through the front door and walk back out with the girl."
"You found something that good?" Daryl asked in amazement.
"Patterns, Dixon—beautiful beautiful patterns." Ezekiel grinned broadly, almost rubbing his hands with glee.
There was another knock on the door and Jerry moved to answer it, checking through the peep hole first. When he opened it, a lovely blonde and a dreadlocked African American woman stood at the threshold looking in with frowns on their faces.
"And our party is almost complete." Ezekiel said, sounding pleased.
"Well then, let's get this party started!" another growling male voice spoke from behind the women, making them turn back towards him in surprise.
"Merle!" Jerry said happily raising his beefy hand to give the newcomer a high five.
"Jerry! Let's have everyone come in, shall we?" Ezekiel cautioned, "It doesn't due to linger out in plain sight."
The big man stepped back and the two women and Merle came into the room.
"Introductions are in order." Ezekiel said, gesturing broadly to encompass the room. "You've all met Jerry already. These cowboys are the brothers Dixon, Daryl and Merle. And this is Carol's lawyer, Andrea Harrison and her employer, Michonne Walker."
"Her friends." Michonne said, her voice holding a challenging edge, honing in on Daryl, who shifted uncomfortably under her keen scrutiny.
"We're all here to help her, Ms. Walker." Ezekiel said evenly.
"Then maybe I'd like to hear Daryl tell us why he hurt her so much that she called me in tears this morning." Michonne said angrily, glaring at Daryl.
"Slow down there, darlin.' I don't like your tone." Merle blustered.
"Shut up Merle." Daryl said tersely.
"Well, Daryl?" Michonne pressed.
"It was a misunderstanding; I assumed she knew something that she didn't..." Daryl said, coming off a little defensive and a little guilty.
"You know what they say about assumptions." Andrea said dryly.
"Make an ass outa you n' me..." Jerry muttered, nodding his head up and down sagely.
"He's the ass." Michonne agreed, stepping closer and waving an accusing finger in Daryl's face.
"Ms. Walker, that's not helpful." Ezekiel chided.
"You need to stand down there, warrior queen." Merle agreed, stepping between Michonne and Daryl and reaching for her arm.
"Don't you touch me!" Michonne pulled back and glared at him.
"I'm in love with her." Daryl said loudly.
All of the occupants of the room turned to him and froze in place.
"Caro." Daryl said more quietly, "I love her. She needs her little girl back. That's what we're here for."
Everyone stared at him.
Merle and Jerry grinned at one another.
Michonne looked like she wanted to argue, but Andrea shook her head at her friend to stop her from saying anything more.
"Right." Ezekiel said with a big smile, breaking the tension, "So let's get to it."
Daryl's pulling out all the stops to get Sophia back! He's assembled the Dirty Half-Dozen to help, LOL!
Special Appearances by Dr. Carson (formerly) from Hilltop and Diane from Kingdom.
Pelletier Brook Lakes is a real town, except it's in Maine. There are also a lot of things named for various Pelletiers in New Orleans, Canada and France!