Chapter Twenty-One

Continued From Previous Chapter

From underneath a tree overlooking the body of water which earned this community it's name, something suddenly jolted Daryl awake. Startled for the moment, he instinctively grabbed his trusty crossbow which he had placed across his lap for convenience earlier, even though he was pretty sure at the time that it's use wouldn't be necessary as long as he was here.

He had probably encountered at least a dozen people on the way to his little private retreat, and every single one of them wanted to do the stop-and-chat because they all somehow knew exactly who he was and why he was there and they all wanted to know the answer to the very same first question: What was it like seeing Carol again?

He found himself doing what Carol would do in the situation: just tell them what they want to hear. It was the best he could do considering he wasn't even sure which way was up at the moment, let alone the fact that he just found out he was going to be a father, and rather than celebrate like any decent dad-to-be would, he went storming out of Carol's room like some damn drama queen.

He had to get away from her. Seeing him like this would only upset her more, and he knew himself well enough to know he just needed a few hours to blow off some steam. He wasn't even mad at her, that was the fucked up part. Yeah, he was pissed that she didn't tell him anything, but he also completely understood her reasoning. Mostly, he was just mad at the world in general, and that was a feeling that plagued him even long before it became overrun with walkers.

Carol was the one, single person in this entire world, past or present, that he would completely entrust his life to, and to even consider for a moment that she would do anything to hurt him was an insult to her character. She was protecting him, he knew that, from every possible scenario that could potentially arise and cause him any level of dispair. You can't even label it being over-protective...it's just what you do when you love somebody with all your heart and soul. He'd certainly done it before for her, when he lied right to her face that, yeah, everything is just peachy back in Alexandria, fresh off of Glenn and Abraham's brutal murders, because he knew she just couldn't handle the truth at the moment. Sure, there was always the risk that you would piss someone off when trying to protect them cuz on the receving end of things it did make you stop and think...whoa, do they really think that you're this immature little child who just can't handle adult shit? The answer is, no they don't. They just love you too much to allow you to be subjected to any unneccesary pain if they could do something to prevent it.

It was this thought that resonated with him and prompted him to get off his ass and head back. Even though he was confident enough that Carol would know he was just dealing with the usual backlog of a lifetime's worth of backward-ass thinking, he needed to put all that negative bs behind him and be there for her. For her and the baby. His baby.

"You fuckin' asshole," he grumbled to himself as he began his mad dash back to the hospital. His child wasn't even born yet and already he was screwing up this whole dad thing, something he promised himself he would never do if given the chance. But at least it wasn't too late, and there was still time for him to get his shit together before the baby arrived. Or did he?

It had been easy for him to figure out how far along she was considering he knew every bit as well as she exactly when it happened, but he had run out of the hospital in a huff without even knowing what in the hell was going on. Even though she had assured him everything was alright for the moment, something had happened, and he had no idea exactly what that something was. Of all the stupid, selfish, irresponsible-"

His thought process was interrupted right there as soon as he set foot on hospital grounds and was greeted by Mackenzie who came flying out the building's main entrance in a path straight for him, screaming his name.

"DARYL! Oh thank god you're here, I was just about to go looking for you! You've got to come with me now, hurry!"

He could literally feel the color draining from his face, and his finger and toes grow cold when his heart skipped a few beats just before kicking back in gear and shifting into hyper-drive. He was grateful that Mackenzie was offering up the info needed because right now speech was not cooperating with him.

"She started having contractions and bleeding again, and my mom tried the medicine to see if she could stall it, but it's not working this time. She can't get the bleeding under control either so she has no choice but to take the baby now. She's already in there operating. I'm sorry but she just couldn't wait."

Daryl felt as if his next steps had landed him right into a plot of cement as they arrived right outside the OR doors, and Mackenzie pushed her way through and was apparently expecting him to follow.

"You can come in if you want, or you can wait, it's up to you," she paused to inform him when she noticed his hesitation to join her. "My mom does kick ass at saving lives," she offered with her best attempt at a consoling smile, "but sometimes shit happens that you just don't have any control over. I feel like I know you so well already just from getting to know Carol, and I think you would want to be the one to do it if it comes to that."

What he really wanted to do was go find a corner, crawl into a ball, cover his ears and eyes, and rock himself to sleep while he pretended that none of this was really happening. The only thing preventing him from doing so was the fact that Carol and his child needed him now more than ever, and as difficult as it was to even think about walking, somewhere he found the strength to get himself exactly where he needed to be.

The scene that awaited him inside was by far the most horrific thing he'd seen in his life, and anyone living in this day and age knew the profoundness of such a statement. Carol was sprawled out on the operating table which was smack-dab in the middle of a four-foot radius of blood covering the floor, making it appear like she was resting atop a pool floatie in the middle of Satan's swimming pool. Additional blood kept pouring from her body, and oozing off the edge of the table at such a rate where he could actually see the size of the pool expand with the naked eye. Her skin was an eerie shade of walker-blue although he could rest assured that she was still alive for the moment at least. From the way things looked right now, he wasn't so sure that statement would remain valid for much longer.

"I'm gonna deliver the baby now, Daryl," Dena informed him, focusing solely on the task immediately presenting itself. "When I do it will stop the bleeding, hopefully before it's too late."

"You think she's gonna die," he amazingly found himself asking despite his self-presumed inability to speak.

"Not if I can help it, and I am trying to help it, despite a promise I made to her. Swear to me you'll never tell her I went against her wishes when this works, ok?"

"How are you going against her wishes?"

"She made me promise that no matter what, I'd focus on saving the baby first," she explained as she made the first incision into Carol's flesh. "For the most part, I didn't have to worry about what I'd really do when put in that situation until now. Even yesterday, when we had our first major complication, things were working in our favor and I was spared having to make that call. I was still able to do what was best for the both of them, and not have to focus on one over the other. "

Her eyes never left the work cut before her as she filled in all the missing blanks for Daryl, which was no bother to him since he was too busy exchanging glances between Carol's face, trying to decipher various monitor readings, and checking on the status of the delivery of his child, all while holding on tightly to Carol's hand. His current baby status-check showed Dena's hands now making a part in the incision she'd just made.

"This time at the rate she was losing blood, if I were focusing primarily on saving the baby, I'd take him first and worry about Carol later, but I'm sorry...I just couldn't do that. I knew if I operated first before worrying about getting her stabilized on a respirator that there was no way that she would make it. There is a bit of risk to the baby this way, but it's minimal compared to the certainty of Carol dying if I didn't do it. All she wanted was for the three of you to be together as a family, and as her friend, I couldn't standy by and not act on one of the risks that we take when it comes to protecting the people that we care about."

At this point he was squeezing her hand so tightly that he forced himself to actually ease up on the pressure for fear of actually causing injury to her hand. All she wanted was for the three of them to be a family. He could totally identify with that. There was nothing more in this world that he wanted too, and if Dena saw if it fit to make herself captain of Team Caryl and son for the time being, so be it. Let her lead them on for the win.

"Of course if this little one coulda waited just a few weeks more this woulda been a heck of a lot easier," Dena explained as she guided the baby free from Carol's womb into the open air with such ease that it made Daryl's head spin. "But if the medication didn't work then we are prepared care for him, just not as well-equipped as I'd like to be."

"What medication are we talkin' about," Daryl inquired as he grew more and more nervous by the second, waiting to see the baby move, or do something. That's when all of a sudden, baby Dixon's little face wrinkled up, and he let out a wail rivaling that of your average full-term baby any day.

"That one," Dena said, as tears of relief came spewing from her eyes instantly upon hearing that cranky little cry. "A steroid that speeds up the development of the baby's lungs. Of course it expired a couple of years ago, but I'd say it worked. Now, I don't mean to be rude, but would you please take your son so I can get his momma here closed up and get this bleeding stopped once and for all."

The minute that his son was placed in his arms, life in general took on a whole new meaning. The old, life's a bitch and then you die motto that he used to pretty much live by now seemed like nothing but an exaggeration concocted by some bitter old man, just like the one he probably would have become if Carol had never come into his life. Sure, life could be a bitch, had definitely been a raging bitch to him at times, but it also was capable of throwing a little bit of joy your way too, like the little bundle of it lying in his arms right now, and the woman lying by his side who made it all possible.

And the blessings just kept coming. After spending the next half an hour worrying about whether or not his son would ever get to officially meet his mother, Dena finally turned her attention away from her patient and gave him the thumbs-up he'd been waiting for. It was the most nerve-wracking half hour of his entire life and he was pretty sure that he would have probably pulled out every hair on his head if one of Dena's assistants hadn't given him the task of administering his son's very first feeding.

And to add another, the baby was doing just fine on his own and required absolutely zero life sustaining measures of any kind. He was every bit as healthy as a full term baby, just ever so slightly smaller, weighing in at a full pound under the average newborn baby weight. This did however make him a full pound heavier than the average thirty-one week fetus, which Daryl took some pride in discovering, and caused Mackenzie to remark that it was simply typical of a Li'l Ass Kicker.

With all the good shit happening right now he almost felt selfish asking for a bit more, but regardless he found himself asking life for just one more favor. Just let Carol wake up now so she too can hold their beautiful son.