AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"She's beautiful," Andrea cooed. "And I can't believe how big she's gotten!"
Carol smiled to herself and watched her daughter playing a short distance away with a metal cup and a small collection of pebbles that she'd gathered out of the gravel driveway.
"I swear she grows more every day," Carol said. "She grows like a weed, and I think she's hit something of a growth spurt lately. I feel like I can see a bit more change every night when I put her to bed."
Andrea's smile was genuine as she watched Sophia playing.
The sight of Andrea—alive and well and very much like something out of a memory—brought a smile to Carol's face as well. She'd been sure that the woman was dead, and that had made her truly sorry. They'd lost people along the way but, for whatever reason, it was Andrea's memory that felt like it tugged at Carol's heart the most.
Maybe it was simply because Carol believed the woman to be genuinely kind and good, and people like that were so rare that it hurt to know the world was deprived of even one more of them.
And it was never easy to lose a friend.
"And you married Daryl?" Andrea asked, glancing at Carol and catching her looking at her. Carol smiled to herself again. There was nothing accusatory in the question. In fact, the question had no other sound than that of girlfriends catching up after a long separation from one another.
"Officially, I guess, we're not married yet," Carol said. "Glenn and Maggie want to get married. They want the whole ceremony thing. They're afraid that if there are too many weddings, then it might take the novelty of it all away. They've asked us to wait and, really, we're in no hurry. I mean—we're not married, but we're obviously committed."
"And a baby?" Andrea asked, the corners of her mouth seeming to pull upward even as she clearly tried to swallow down the smile.
Carol smiled in response.
"If Hershel is right," Carol said, "and I'm guessing he is because I thought the same thing, then we're twelve or thirteen weeks into things. It wasn't exactly planned, but..."
"But it's not exactly like anyone's planning anymore," Andrea offered. "Did I say congratulations?"
"Thank you," Carol said.
"And—Daryl's OK with all of this?" Andrea asked.
"All of this?" Carol asked.
"The marriage," Andrea said. "Sophia. The baby. It doesn't overwhelm him?"
Carol laughed to herself.
"Sometimes it's Daryl that keeps me from being overwhelmed. He's thrilled with it all. In fact—I appreciate your congratulations, but it's really Daryl that I'd like you to congratulate. He's been feeling a little...a little like nobody is happy for us, perhaps. He'd love to hear congratulations from you."
Andrea nodded her head.
"I guess brothers can be entirely different," Andrea said.
"What do you mean?" Carol asked. She followed Sophia with her eyes as her daughter ran off, but it didn't take long to see exactly where she was headed. Her Daddy was waiting for her, arms open, as she rushed toward him. Merle was standing somewhat off to Daryl's side, clearly offering some space in case Sophia was anxious about coming too close to someone unknown to her.
Andrea was watching them, too.
"Whenever anyone at Woodbury mentioned marriage or...or children...Merle would get almost angry about it," Andrea said. "It was as though getting married or having a child was such an inconvenience that he was even bothered by the fact that someone else was doing it."
Carol hummed in response to Andrea's words.
"I've seen Daryl act that way," Carol said. "At least to some degree. In some situations."
"This is every situation," Andrea said. "Merle Dixon is not a fan of family."
Carol hummed again, but she didn't press the issue. She would talk to Daryl to find out what he thought about his brother's beliefs about family, but she wasn't sure that Andrea was reading Merle just right. She could believe that brothers could be different, of course, but she also knew that Daryl sometimes reacted to things in a surprising way until she got to the bottom of his reactions.
Daryl had a way of acting angry whenever something scared him. He also had a way of acting angry as a response to disappointment or the thought that something might never be the way that he wanted it to be.
Merle Dixon may not be at all like his brother—or they may be even more alike than they realized.
"I have to admit," Carol said, "the idea of you and Merle—it comes as a surprise to me."
Andrea smiled to herself. Carol was almost certain that she saw her cheeks run a little pink in the quickly failing light of the very late afternoon. Even if she felt Merle had his reservations about a family, it was clear that there was something about him that Andrea must appreciate.
"I never would have believed it, either," Andrea said. "And—I never would have believed that I'd hear myself defending Merle Dixon when I first met him." She stopped speaking and hesitated a moment as though she was searching for just the right words. "But—Merle's...he's really...there's something charming about him. When he's not out of his mind on something? There's really something charming about him." She cleared her throat and watched Merle standing with Daryl. It appeared that Daryl was making introductions between Merle and Sophia. Sophia didn't seem at all uncomfortable with her new uncle, but Merle was clearly standing at least a little rigidly as he spoke to the small child. "He's been clean. At least since we got to Woodbury. I told him was me or the drugs. I couldn't stand them and I wouldn't tolerate them. A drink or a joint to relax is one thing but..."
"You don't have to explain it to me," Carol said. "And I'm not here to judge you, Andrea. I wouldn't. If you're happy, then I'm happy for you. For both of you, because I'm sure you're good for Merle. You've already gotten him to stop whatever he was doing back at the rock quarry."
Andrea swallowed like it was painful and nodded her head. Carol caught her as she glanced around. Her eyes darted here and there like she was searching out the members of their little family around the prison yard. Carol could practically see the tension in her shoulders. She feared that they would hold Merle against her. It was clear.
But Carol respected that, even standing there with the fear of their rejection and harassment, Andrea wasn't trying to run from her relationship.
"Anyone who would judge you," Carol offered softly, "probably needs to deal with something in their own lives and they're procrastinating by putting their focus on you."
Andrea nodded her head.
"I believe—that he's a good man," Andrea offered.
"And I believe you," Carol said. "So that's all that matters. Come on. I know you're all hungry. Let's warm something up to eat."
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"Can you say Uncle Merle, Soph?" Daryl asked.
Sophia was running her tongue back and forth across the backs of her teeth as she smiled open-mouthed at Merle.
She was mildly fascinated by the idea that her Daddy had a brother. She had immediately told Merle that she was going to have a brother and, when he'd asked her about whether or not it might be a sister, she'd agreed that she was going to have that, too.
Clearly they'd have some things to sort out with the little girl, but there was no need in worrying too much about it at the moment. They could only handle on thing at a time and Daryl would rather she simply hold onto her slight show of excitement at becoming a big sister than deal with the disappointment of realizing that she'd already misunderstood how all of it was going to work.
"Uncle," Sophia offered.
"Merle," Daryl prompted, moving his arm enough to jiggle his daughter. She giggled.
"Merle," she offered. His name came out sounding strangely like "mull," but Daryl was pretty sure they weren't going to get much better. At least not for a while.
"You got a hug for your Uncle Merle?" Daryl asked.
Sophia had hugs for everyone. Daryl knew that there were some children who were simply shy and awkward around people. He'd seen them plenty in his life as they'd hidden behind their Mamas in grocery stores and acted terrified of the world around them. Sophia was not at all that kind of child. She was friendly and loving and not afraid of much.
Merle, however, seemed strangely unsure about the whole thing. He had leaned close to Sophia and he'd somewhat spoken to her when Daryl had introduced the two of them, but at the suggestion that she hug him, Merle had backed up a few steps.
"I'm nasty," Merle offered, waving off the possible hug. "Walker shit'n—maybe later."
Sophia had already started to lean toward Merle, arms outstretched, but seeing him back away she straightened herself and Daryl quickly pulled her back to hold her securely against him.
"She don't care nothin' about that, Merle," Daryl said. "She's nasty, too. Loves dirt'n everything like that. You gonna see. Soph here is Dixon all the way through. She don't let somethin' like dirt bother her."
Sophia looked at Daryl and frowned, her eyebrows knitting together.
"Daddy..." she offered, dragging it out. She didn't say anything else, but Daryl heard everything she was trying to say just by looking at her expression. She was concerned about Merle. She was concerned that he had rejected her hug and, perhaps, had rejected her.
And she needed to be distracted quickly because Daryl never could handle it well if she got torn up about something—especially if her feelings were legitimately hurt.
"It's OK, Soph," he offered. "You eat yet?"
She shook her head. Daryl didn't know if it was true or not. Many times, Carol would hold some supper for Daryl if he was out late. Sophia would eat with everyone else, and then she'd turn around and insist that she hadn't eaten when Daryl got back just so that she could have two suppers.
Daryl wasn't going to question it at all tonight.
He pulled her to him and kissed the side of her face. She looked somewhat soothed by the kiss.
"Go on up there. Where your Ma's gettin' the fire goin'. Tell her you hungry. We comin' up soon to eat."
Daryl put Sophia down and his daughter accepted his instructions to acquire more food. She trotted across the prison yard, her brand new Uncle Merle's rejection forgotten, and Daryl watched her go until he was confident that Carol had seen her and that T-Dog—who happened to be headed in the same direction—was going to help her out at any rate.
Then Daryl turned back to his brother.
"The hell was that?" Daryl asked. "You 'bout upset my fuckin' kid!"
Daryl stopped and checked his anger. He didn't want it to bubble too out of control. He was upset that Merle had rejected Sophia's affections, but he wasn't as upset as his body was telling him he was. There were a lot of other things that he was busy processing at the moment and it seemed that he was very close to simply getting mad as a way to release the feelings that he was holding back to deal with later.
He didn't want to get mad. Not right now. Not when there were important things to take care of, and not when he was running the risk of, honestly, being disproportionately angry.
"She wanted to hug you," he said, softening his tone.
Merle frowned at him.
"You know I ain't good with kids," Merle said.
"Hell—I ain't really knowed you to be bad with 'em," Daryl said. "Ain't hardly knowed you to be around 'em." Merle stared at him. Daryl thought that, maybe, he understood. He nodded his understanding. "Soph—she's an easy kid to be around. Easy kid to love. You gonna see, Merle. You gonna love her. She won't hardly let you do otherwise."
Merle cleared his throat and scratched at his neck.
"What about that food, brother?" He asked.
Daryl nodded his understanding.
"Yeah—let's get somethin' to eat. You drink still or you clean off that, too?"
Merle laughed to himself.
"Andrea don't care about drinkin'," Merle said. "Smoke a lil' grass. Long as—long as she feels like, ya know, like I'm still...she don't care about that so much."
"We got some whiskey in storage," Daryl said. "We'll get somethin' to eat. Have a drink. Talk about how we gonna get rid of this asshole. Then you gonna have plenty of time to get used to bein' around kids."