AN: Here we go, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"So how—how much?" Daryl asked.
Carol shifted her weight in the confined space. She hadn't really meant to drag Daryl into the little area that they called a tool shed. It had just sort of happened. She'd been looking for somewhere "private" for them to chat for just a moment, and it was the first place that had come into sight.
"How worried or how pregnant?" Carol asked. "Because—I'm really worried and I only know one way to be pregnant."
He sucked his teeth. She could hear him, but she could only see him with what light the cracks in the wooden sides of the small area allowed through.
"How sure?" Daryl asked. "You said you ain't sure. How sure are you?"
Carol swallowed.
"Well—I haven't had a period," she said.
"How long?" Daryl asked.
"I don't remember," Carol admitted. "At least—since Hershel's farm."
Daryl hummed.
"What else you got?" He asked.
"I've put on some weight?" Carol said.
"You askin' or you tellin'?" Daryl asked.
"And I feel—I really feel like I could throw up right now," Carol declared.
Daryl was quiet for a moment and then he hummed again.
"I don't got a period," he said. "Put on weight—everybody has. We're eating more here than when we were on the road. And—I kinda feel like I could ralph. Right now we three for three. What else you got?"
Carol sighed.
"I heard Hershel talking about it," Carol said. "He told Mary that he was going to say something to me. He said he—I don't know, Daryl. He suspected it and he was going to say something to me. If he's suspecting it, and I'm worried about it..."
Silence again. Then an exasperated growl of sorts from Daryl as he moved as much as he could in the confined space.
"Fuck," he muttered. Before Carol could say anything to him about his reaction, the door to the shed opened and he stepped out. He reached back, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her out after him. He took a deep breath and Carol realized she did the same. It was a small place. It was hot and confined and even if she was more worried about other things, her claustrophobia was kicking in—though it would've been worse had Daryl not been there and had she not been sure there was an immediate exit if she needed it. "Fuck this," Daryl said.
"I'm sorry," Carol said.
"Should be," Daryl muttered. "I ain't hiding in some damn hot closet—ready to puke on damn shovels and rakes. What the hell business is it of anyone else anyway?"
Carol was surprised. But then, she felt like Daryl had been surprising her a lot lately. His biggest concern at the moment wasn't the fact that she told him that she thought she might be pregnant, it was that she'd pulled him into a shed to talk about it.
"You're not mad?" Carol asked.
Daryl studied the ground a moment and then went about finding himself a cigarette. He lit it and stood there, smoking and contemplating his own thoughts, while Carol stared at him.
"You're pregnant—then you're pregnant," Daryl said.
"That wasn't really how you felt about Lori," Carol pointed out.
Daryl stared at her.
"Weren't my kid," Daryl said. "And—Lori got pregnant and created a whole world of shit with it. You're pregnant? What's it mean to anybody else? Not a damn thing. I ain't gonna lose my mind—ain't fightin' with nobody. Just—not nobody's problem."
Carol nodded at him.
"I—Daryl, I have to admit that I thought you'd be upset. It means—a strain on everyone else. More food, more—everything. Another mouth to feed," Carol said.
Daryl shrugged.
"We're gonna grow food," he said. "I don't guess it's gonna be that serious."
"If we're on the road," Carol said. She stopped, though, and simply shook her head. "After what happened?"
She didn't have to say much more. Daryl's eyes were glued to hers and then he dropped his head to study the ground again. He shook his head at her.
"I can't promise shit that's outta my control," he mumbled.
"I know," Carol said. "I really wasn't asking you to."
"We'll do what the hell we can," he said.
He looked at her again, held her eyes for a moment, and then nodded his head like he was fully satisfied with his own statement.
They'd do what they had to do.
Then he hummed and scratched at his head with the hand not holding the cigarette.
"So—you're sure?" He asked.
Carol sighed and crossed her arms tight across her chest, essentially hugging herself. Every time she thought it about it, anxiety surged up inside of her. It could be a wonderful thing—if everything went perfectly and the whole thing was picturesque, but it could also be the worst thing that ever happened to them—to her and Daryl both.
It was hard to tell which way the coin would land and Carol was nauseous just thinking about it.
"No," she said. "No—I'm not sure. I mean—I think. And Hershel thinks. But I'm not sure."
Daryl swallowed visibly, still staring at her.
"So? Go—get sure. You got a test or—what do you do?" Daryl asked.
Carol shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "I don't have pregnancy tests. I didn't think I'd need them. But—Hershel might."
Daryl hummed.
"Go take one?" He asked. "Just—uh—just find out? Lemme know...or..."
Carol could tell he didn't know what the protocol for this was. Honestly? She didn't know what the protocol for end of the world pregnancy was either. She hadn't exactly had a great deal of practice with this and it was a lot different back when she'd gotten pregnant with Sophia.
"Yeah," Carol said finally. "Yeah—I'll go find Hershel. I'll—take a test. Talk to him? Then I'll find you?"
Daryl chuckled to himself.
"Yeah," he said. "You'll know where the hell I am."
Carol nodded.
Daryl stood there, somewhat awkwardly, looking at her for a moment and she smiled to herself.
"You still want a kiss?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
He smirked just a little.
"Even if I'm pregnant?" She asked.
"Hell—I know Rick and Lori didn't do it," he said. "But—I didn't think it was bad for babies."
Carol smiled at his teasing. It helped, honestly, with the anxiety. So she paid him back with the best kiss that she could give him—and she didn't point out, as he turned and headed back toward where she'd found him, that it would've been nice if he'd come with her. There was no need, after all, to push things just yet.
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Hershel hadn't said a single word with his mouth when Carol had shown up and asked him if he had pregnancy tests. He'd rummaged around in the small store room where they kept extra things, found a bag that had come from one of Glenn's runs with assorted "anything women might use" products, and came out with a box of them. He'd offered Carol one. His eyes might have had a little bit to say—but his mouth didn't join in.
And he didn't say anything, either, when Carol returned with it in her hand and stood there looking to him for some kind of support while she waited.
He just patted the wooden chair beside the one he was sitting in—one usually reserved for Mary—and Carol sat.
She felt like she was waiting for two or three hours. In a prison that was usually filled with sounds of all kinds, she felt like there was nothing around her but absolute silence. The only sound, actually, that she could hear beyond her own pulse in her ears was the sound of Hershel drumming out a light rhythm on his chair with his fingers.
She broke the silence finally.
"I talked to Daryl," she said. "He knows. Well—he knows that I was coming to take the test. He's waiting for the results while he works. It's better for him to work—so he doesn't overthink it."
Hershel chuckled to himself.
"You want me to read it for you?" He asked.
"Is it time?" Carol asked.
He hummed.
"I believe it's been about long enough," he said. "That's the thing. Since I gave Glenn my watch? I have no idea what time it is anymore. It's better, though. I used to be a slave to time. Now—it doesn't matter all that much anymore. Seasons will change—and if we're lucky enough to be here to watch them? We'll know when they do. There's something freeing, though, about not watching the minutes and days tick by like we used to."
Carol swallowed hard.
"If I'm pregnant?" She said. "Then—I feel like I'm going to be a lot, lot more aware of the time."
Hershel reached for test.
"You might be," he said. "But—either way? We'll be able to tell well enough how the time is passing, even without a watch. And even without being really sure where we're starting the marking of the months."
He studied the test in his hand. He hummed.
"Well?" Carol asked.
"Carol—how..." Hershel looked at her and stopped. He was staring at her. He was struggling to ask her something, or to say what he was going to say.
"Sophia was born naturally," Carol said. "I probably won't need a c-section, but if I do? I trust you. And—someone else can learn how to do it just in case. Like I did for Lori. We'll just—hope nothing happens."
Hershel furrowed his brow.
"That's good to know," he commented. "But..."
He shook his head and sighed.
"Carol, I hope you weren't too attached to this idea," he said. "Because there's no baby."
He shook his head again.
"I haven't had a period," Carol said, but she had nothing else to really follow it up with and she wasn't even sure that classified anymore as anything important at all.
Hershel shook his head again.
"Hardly anyone has," he said. "Poor nutrition, stress...there's the possibility, perhaps, of menopause? There are a lot of reasons for that. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your feelings—it's not a baby. I'm sorry, Carol."
Carol sat there for a moment and took in what he was saying. Then she nodded her head and forced a smile.
"No," she said. "No—that's great, right? That's a relief. I—need to tell Daryl."
She hadn't prepared for the feeling that she had right this moment. In the shed? Talking to Daryl? She'd thought the best thing that she could hear, for the both of them, would be that there was no baby. Her anxiety had told her that it was exactly what she wanted to hear. But right now? After hearing what she most wanted to hear? She had a strange sort of sinking feeling wash over her.
But it was silly, and it would pass.
Carol got up from her chair, wearing the smile she'd pasted on, and accepted the negative test from Hershel. She glanced at it, easily enough confirmed what he'd said, and threw it away in the trash can in the room that she'd empty later. She thanked him for his "help," mostly meaning his staying with her, and then she started to excuse herself from the cell to go after Daryl.
"Carol?" Hershel called when she was leaving. She stopped.
She hoped he wasn't going to press her to talk about how she was feeling—not just at the moment, since she really didn't have an answer—but she hummed and turned back.
"What—made you think you were pregnant?" Hershel asked. "At the moment?"
Carol sighed.
"Oh," she said. "I heard you and Mary talking about me. I heard you say that you were—you were going to talk to me. I'd just been worrying about it, I guess. I thought I'd go ahead and save you having to talk to me."
Hershel nodded.
"Well, I guess you don't have to worry about it," he said. "But—I wasn't talking to Mary about you."
"I heard my name," Carol said.
Hershel nodded again.
"I mentioned your name," Hershel said, "because I thought you might be the best one to talk to Andrea."
Carol felt her heart do a jump like it had done earlier—when she'd thought that Hershel and Mary were talking about her.
She shook her head.
"Andrea's not..." she started, but she stopped. She had no fact to put behind the statement at all.
"I suspected it when she came in," Hershel said. "But—I couldn't tell and her other injuries were too serious to be concerned with it."
He sighed.
"But—I've been...sort of...keeping a check on it? And—I think she is," Hershel said. "But I don't think she knows. And I don't know how she'll handle it. I don't know how Michonne will handle it. And I know that's important to how Andrea handles it. I just told Mary that I thought that—knowing you're close to the both of them—you might want to be the one to say something?"
Carol suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe again, and at the moment? The thing she wanted most in the world was to escape the cell so that she could get outside—where there was more oxygen for the taking.
She nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "Of—of course. I'll talk to her. Right after I talk to Daryl."
Hershel thanked her and Carol left the cell, all the while wondering why she'd promised to do such a thing and hoping that the walk she'd take to talk to Daryl would somehow help her figure out what to say.
Because, at the moment, she didn't have any idea what words she might use for something like this.
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AN: So to my anon prompter for the story, as you can see, we're finally getting into the territory of your prompt now that the groundwork is laid. I hope you'll enjoy it.