AN: Here we go, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"It's really an eraser," Sophia said. "But I'm not gonna use it like one."
Daryl glanced over at the unicorn eraser that his daughter was holding in her hand and admiring.
"What'cha gonna use it for if not what it was meant for?" Daryl asked.
Sophia shrugged her shoulders.
"Don't know that yet," Sophia said. "But if I use it like an eraser, it'll smudge him up. And then he won't be beautiful no more."
Daryl hummed at her. He could have told her that just about everyone and everything got "smudged up" in life, but that didn't mean they weren't still beautiful. But he didn't tell her that. He had other things to talk to her about, and the clock was ticking down. He knew to expect Andrea to arrive with Carol somewhere around five thirty and it was almost five thirty. It had taken him longer than he'd anticipated to get Sophia home, get her fed a snack, and get her settled down to the point that he thought she was ready to listen to what he had to say. Carol wanted to be there to handle telling the girl about their relationship, but Daryl wanted to at least prepare her a little for the way that Carol looked before the woman walked through the door.
"Andrea and Merle tell you anything about the woman that's stayin' here?" Daryl asked. He reached a hand over and bumped Sophia's leg to get her attention before he repeated the question. She stared at him and nodded her head. "Yeah? What'd they tell you?"
"Aunt Andrea said she's really, really nice," Sophia said.
"She say anything else?" Daryl asked.
Sophia furrowed her brows at him. She didn't understand why she was being held hostage in the living room, but she accepted it. Sophia was better at accepting things, perhaps, than most children her age. Daryl figured that acceptance would go a long way.
"Was she supposed to say somethin' else, Daddy?" Sophia asked. "Being really nice means a lot."
Daryl laughed to himself and moved his hand to rest it on Sophia's shoulder. She scooted over a little on the couch to bring herself closer to him. She enjoyed affection—and she wasn't ashamed to show it.
"Yeah, it does," Daryl agreed. He paused and considered how to proceed from there. "You remember me talkin' to you about—how some people sometimes hit other people? And you're not supposed to do that, but sometimes they still do it? Because they're not very nice at all?"
"And I should always tell you if they do because—you'll make sure they stop?" Sophia offered.
Daryl nodded his head.
"Yeah—I'll help you if they do," Daryl said. "Well—Carol? The woman you gonna meet? Sophia—she was married to one of them people. And she's trying to get away from him now. For good. That's what'cha Aunt Andrea's helpin' her with right now. But—when you see her? Soph—her face is kinda...well, it's hurt. Before she got away from him? He hurt her pretty good. And I don't want you to be too surprised when you see her. She said you can...ask her whatever you want. Anything. You can talk about it, but I don't want you to be too surprised, OK? Because she's got some bruises and cuts on her face from where it got hurt."
Sophia stared at him with her mouth slightly open. She would do that sometimes—she had since she was a baby. Daryl often marveled at the fact that her tongue didn't dry out when she held her mouth like that for too long. It was a sign, though, that she was really paying attention. She was really working on something in her mind. Finally, she dropped her eyes back to the eraser that she'd acquired for "being helpful" in class and fiddled with it, making the unicorn walk across her legs in a hopping sort of manner.
"You're helping her?" Sophia asked.
Daryl squeezed Sophia's arm.
"I'm trying," he said. "I'm sure gonna try."
Daryl stood up when he heard the sound of a car outside and glanced out the window. Andrea got out of the car first and Carol followed behind her. Andrea stepped behind Carol and followed her to the house. Daryl opened the door for them at almost the exact moment that they reached the threshold so that they could pass inside without having to stand outside and wait.
Carol's mouth fell open when she noticed Sophia sitting there on the couch—much the same way Sophia's had fallen open when she'd been contemplating everything. Daryl held back on the urge to reach out and touch her, offering her some kind of reassurance. She'd known this was coming, but maybe it didn't take away the shock. Instead, though, Daryl spoke to Andrea and tried to make everything as normal as it possibly could be—for the benefit of both Carol and Sophia.
"Everything go alright?" Daryl asked. He watched Carol as she took off the oversized sunglasses she was wearing and put them on the table nearby. He glanced at Sophia who was sitting on the couch and wasn't even pretending not to stare.
"Nothing's broken," Andrea said. "They did put three stitches in that cut. It wasn't closing well."
"I got stitches one time!" Sophia barked out.
Carol actually looked relieved to hear it. It gave her a reason to address the little girl that was staring at her, breaking her eye contact with Carol's face only long enough to occasionally glance at Andrea and Daryl.
"You did?" Carol asked. She walked over and sat down on the couch next to Sophia. Sophia stayed in her spot, but she did lean forward to roll up her pants leg.
"Right there," Sophia said. "See? On my knee? Right there. That's the scar. I got it from falling down. I was little, though. I don't remember it."
"She was two," Daryl said. "And she was running and fell down." His stomach clenched. "I guess I shoulda stopped her running like that."
Carol shook her head in Sophia's direction, but the shake was meant for Daryl.
"Accidents happen," Carol said. "We all fall down sometimes."
"That's where you got them?" Sophia asked.
Much to Daryl's horror, not only did Sophia ask about it, but she put her finger directly over the tight stitches just to the side of Carol's eye and pressed them.
"Sophia! Don't put'cha fingers in people's cuts!" Daryl barked. Sophia jerked her hand back and Carol laughed.
"It's OK," Carol said. "That is where I got them. But I can't feel anything. It's all numb right now. The doctor made it numb for me."
"So it didn't hurt?" Sophia asked.
"It didn't hurt bad," Carol said. She shook her head at Sophia and offered Sophia a smile before she crinkled her nose at her. That too. That was something else that Sophia had gotten from her. Daryl saw it. That little way of wrinkling up her nose. "Just a little pinch when I got the shots to numb it."
Sophia's eyes went wide and she looked at Daryl, her chest rising and falling quickly.
"We try to avoid the "s" word around the house," Daryl said. "It's never really gone over good."
"I'm sorry," Carol said, apologizing to Sophia. She shook her head quickly at the girl. "It's OK, though. It didn't hurt. Really."
"Is Sophia coming with me?" Andrea asked Daryl, digging through her purse.
"Merle didn't talk to you?" Daryl asked.
"I've been busy all day," Andrea said. "We were working on paperwork for Carol and we just left the doctor."
"Soph's stayin' here tonight," Daryl said, figuring his brother would fill Andrea in on the rest later.
Andrea glanced at Carol and Sophia. For a moment it seemed like they were fine. Sophia seemed more curious about Carol's injuries than horrified and Carol was letting her do a very thorough exploration of them despite the fact that they hadn't actually been formally introduced.
Andrea pulled a bag from her purse and offered it to Daryl.
"These are antibiotics and she needs them," Andrea said. "She takes all of them. Until the bottle's empty. The stiches come out in a week. Dr. Reynolds said he'll take them out for her. As a favor. If you need to call? She's seeing him under the name of Annie Dixon."
Daryl laughed to himself.
"Annie Dixon?" He asked.
Andrea just nodded her head. She walked around him and quickly offered a kiss on the cheek to Sophia. Sophia got off the couch to wrap her arms tightly around her aunt and Andrea offered a "goodbye" to Carol and Daryl both before she left the house.
When the door was closed, Daryl leaned against the wall and wondered how on Earth they were going to do this. He didn't have any idea where to start. And now, standing on her feet, her face leaned close enough to Carol's that she probably could have extended her tongue and licked her, Sophia was continuing her study of Carol's injuries with a great deal of concern on her face.
When she reached a finger out again and rubbed it over Carol's face, hard enough that Carol jumped, Daryl intervened.
"Sophia—stop touching her face," Daryl said. "That hurts! You don't like it when someone pokes your bruises, do you? Besides—your hands are dirty and she don't need infection to go with everything else."
"She's on antibiotics," Carol offered, turning her eyes in Daryl's direction. She smirked at him and Daryl realized that the longer she was there, and the more time he had to study her face in all its different expressions, the more he was realizing how much his daughter truly looked like her mother. "Strong ones. And—it really doesn't hurt that bad."
Daryl frowned at her.
"Your eyes are damp," Daryl said. That was all he had to say. It hurt worse than she was letting on. She just didn't want to tell Sophia that she was hurting her. "Did you introduce yourself, Soph? Before you started poking?"
Sophia looked at him and shook her head. She backed a step away from Carol, putting a normal distance between the two of them.
"I'm Sophia," Sophia said quite formally.
Carol smiled at her and nodded her head.
"I know you are," Carol said. "And I'm—Carol."
Sophia nodded her head. Then she looked at Daryl and gave him just enough attitude in her expression to say that the job was done, but not enough that he felt the need to correct her for her sass.
"It's nice to meet you," Sophia said to Carol, while actually looking at Daryl. Daryl walked around her and sat on the couch near Carol to make things less difficult.
"It's nice to meet you...again," Carol said.
Sophia looked at her.
"We met before?" Sophia asked.
Carol nodded her head and Daryl's chest felt tight. It appeared that Carol was going to do this—all on her own. She needed him there for support, but she wasn't going to make him be the one who handled it all.
"We met—a long time ago," Carol said. "You wouldn't remember me, though. You were just—a tiny little baby. You were about...this big...and you weighed just a little under seven pounds."
Sophia looked to Daryl for confirmation and Daryl nodded his head. He cleared his throat and sat forward, entering Carol and Sophia's space a little more.
"She's right," Daryl offered. "That's about how big you were when you were born." He laughed to himself. "You were a tiny little thing."
"That was a really long time ago," Sophia declared.
Carol laughed nervously and nodded her head. Daryl got up and went for the roll of toilet paper they'd left on the kitchen table from the last time Carol had needed it. He was pretty sure she wasn't going to get through this without blowing her nose at least once.
"It sure was," Carol said. "Sophia, when—when you were born? You were—the most beautiful baby girl that...that there ever was. You were perfect. And you don't remember me, sweetheart...but I could never forget you."
Daryl returned to his seat on the couch with the toilet paper roll in hand. Sophia was staring so hard at Carol that Daryl felt a little unnerved by the stare. Both of her hands were clenched in loose fists, and she kept squeezing the one that was holding the unicorn eraser that she hadn't abandoned yet.
"Soph," Daryl offered, hoping to help Carol out a little bit, even though he wasn't any more sure of what to say than she was, "you remember how I told you that'cha Ma—well, she loved you so much that she give you to me so you could have a better life than the one she figured she could give you?" Sophia shifted her laser-like stare to Daryl. She nodded her head slightly. Daryl sucked in a breath and let it out. "Well—she still loves you. And she's in a better place now in her life. Things are going better. And she's hoping—you'd let her have a chance at being your Ma. Loving you some more."
Sophia shook her head gently from side to side. It wasn't what Daryl expected. He didn't know what he expected, but he hadn't been expecting that.
Carol's intake of breath was loud enough that Daryl heard it. If Sophia heard it, though, she didn't redirect her attention to the woman. She was saving it all for Daryl at the moment.
"Why not, Soph?" Daryl asked, deciding not to get worked up until he'd allowed his eight year old to tell him what she was thinking—or at least some of it. The rest, he was sure, would trickle out as the days went on.
"I gotta stay with you," Sophia said quietly. "You and me. We stay together, always."
Daryl's heart thundered in his chest, but it was met with a kind of sinking feeling in his stomach—the kind that came more with relief than with the tight clenching of fear. He put on the best smile he could, despite his tension, and nodded his head at Sophia. He reached a hand out and, catching her by the arm, pulled her toward him until she came to him, stepping between his knees, and leaned into his body. Sophia rubbed against him like a cat, and he held her there a moment.
"Of course," Daryl said. "Absolutely, Soph. You and me? We stay together. Always. Like peanut butter'n jelly. Weren't talkin' about that. Was talkin' about her—lovin' you too. Nothing else but that. Just the plus one, not the taking away."
Sophia turned her body and wrapped her arms around Daryl to hug him properly. He moved his legs farther apart to allow her to hug him as tightly as she wanted. He returned the hug.
"Would'ja like that?" Daryl asked, rubbing Sophia's back. "Just—knowin' her? Lovin' her too? Givin' her that chance to love you close up again? Would that be OK?"
"Yeah," Sophia said, not lifting up from her position against Daryl's body. "That'd be OK."
Carol reached out a hand and rubbed it against Sophia's arm. Feeling her contact and being reminded that she was there, Sophia lifted out of the hug enough to turn her head toward Carol. Daryl moved his arm to offer Carol the roll of tissue that she already needed. She took it quickly, and she put on the best smile that she could—a smile that almost hid the reality of the tears streaming down her face.
"Sophia? Sweetheart? I'm right here," Carol said softly, her voice only shaking slightly.