Chapter 37

Grace Dixon planted face first into her smash cake, as party guests laughed and giggled at her antics. They'd set out a blanket on the grass and put the little cake out in front of her. First, she'd stuck her foot in it, making a face at the feeling of cool icing on her bare toes. She then reached her hand in and took a fistful of cake, plopped it into her mouth and smiled a neon pink smile. That was when the frenzy took over, and she just dove into her cake, as party guests looked on.

"Aw, she eats like her daddy," Glenn teased, knocking Daryl in the ribs with his elbow. Rick smirked at that, and Daryl shot a look at his friend just as Cherokee went running to lick the icing off of Grace's toes.

"Cherokee!" Carol laughed. "Daryl…" At thirty-six weeks, getting up quickly just wasn't in the cars. Her center of balance was off, and any attempt at getting up required at least thirty seconds of preparation.

"Got it," he laughed, handing the camera off to Glenn and hurrying over to shoo Cherokee away. The dog whimpered but got one last lick in at Grace's feet, and the baby screeched and laughed. Daryl picked Grace up, holding her high in the air, and she promptly grabbed his hair, her cakey-pink fingers smearing goo into his hair.

"Oh, great look, Dixon," Rick snorted, catching Andre as he made a dash for Grace's leftovers. "Ah, not so fast, Mister." Andre shrieked and giggled as Rick turned him upside down, dangling him carefully by the legs.

"You men," Michonne laughed, rolling her eyes as she held a sleeping Judith in her arms. "You're all ridiculous."

"Daddy, down!" Andre squealed, as Rick finally let him go.

The party was almost over. They'd already opened presents, of which Grace was more interested in the wrapping paper and bows. Grace got her own little cake so that she didn't completely demolish the cake for everybody else.

"Alright, everybody inside for cake while I hose this one off," Daryl announced, holding Grace out away from him so she couldn't get anymore icing on him.

"Might wanna take care of that too, before that food coloring turns your hair pink," Glenn chuckled.

"It does that?"

"Never know, bro. Just sayin'. It could happen." Daryl shot a look to Carol, who crinkled her nose in amusement. She stood slowly and put her hand on her back, her body aching. While she was thrilled she'd made it this far into her pregnancy, she was ready to have her body all to herself again. She was ready to not feel like she was large enough to have her own gravitational pull.

She winced as she felt a contraction, and Daryl put his hand on her belly.

"You ok?"

"Yeah," she murmured. "Just a contraction."

"Should we call Dr. Simpson?"

"No," Carol said with a little smile. "It's nothing. It'll pass. It was just a twinge. Promise." She kissed his cheek. "You really do look ridiculous." She motioned toward his pink hair, and he rolled his eyes. "Here, give me Grace, and I'll clean her up in the kitchen. You go get that out of your hair so it doesn't dry."

"You sure?"

"I can take care of it," she assured him. "I feel fine." He wasn't entirely convinced, but he handed Grace over to her. Grace promptly put her hand on Carol's cheek, smearing pink icing all over her. "Oh, thank you, Grace. You just wanted Mommy to match Daddy, huh?" Grace giggled, and Carol carried her into the kitchen to clean her up while Michonne cut the big cake for the guests.

The adults retreated back outside with their refreshments, while Judith, Andre and Grace chased after each other in the yard with Carl playing baby-wrangler, trying to keep them out of trouble.

"You feeling ok?" Michonne asked, peeking over her plate of cake at Carol, who had a strange look on her face.

"Huh?" Carol asked, not really focused on much of anything at that moment.

"You look funny."

"Well, thanks." Carol chuckled.

"No, I mean, you're having contractions, aren't you?"

"Kind of," Carol muttered."

"Kind of?!" Michonne asked.

"Shh!" Carol hissed. "Don't make a big deal of it."

"Didn't the doctor say you needed to go to the hospital if…"

"I know what she said, and we've made it to thirty-six weeks. It's not labor. I'd know if it was labor, ok? I've been here before." Carol drummed her fingers nervously on the patio table. "Besides, I want Grace to have her own birthday, because having your twin siblings born on your birthday probably won't seem so cool when she has to share her sweet sixteen with them. It's like…like having your birthday on Christmas." Michonne rolled her eyes.

"You're really over thinking this. Those babies are going to come when they're good and ready. Your having back labor, aren't you?"

"No," Carol protested before wincing again. "Okay, maybe it is."

"Alright, folks. We're movin' this party to the hospital," Michonne announce, standing up quickly.

"What?!" Maggie asked. The sound of busting glass came from the corner, where Daryl had just lost his grip on his beer bottle. He rushed over to Carol's chair.

"It's happening?"

"I…I'm not sure." She shot a glare at Michonne. "It's probably nothing. My back's hurting, and I'm getting contractions here and there." She saw the panic in his eyes, and she gently brushed her hand over his. "Hey, it's ok. It's ok. I'm almost thirty seven weeks. They'll be ok." She was trying so hard to be brave that he couldn't tell if she truly believed what she'd just said or if she was just trying to convince them both.

Maggie hurried over, her belly large and protruding, and she put her hand on Carol's shoulder.

"Glenn and I'll take Grace. Call us, and we'll bring her when you're ready."

"Thank you," Carol said with a brave nod.

Less than a year ago, Daryl Dixon had walked into that bar as forty-five year old man who had lived more than his share of life but still had no idea what he wanted. He was a new dad who had no idea how he was going to take care of and protect this innocent little life that had been dropped into his lap with absolutely zero warning or preparation. He'd been thrust into a world where he was going to raise his daughter and have to explain why she had no mother and inevitably make more mistakes than he cared to think about. And then she'd walked into his life, gorgeous, glowing, a spark of confidence in her eyes and in her voice that turned him on beyond imagination.

When he'd gone to the hotel with her that night, he'd never expected that within a year's time, they'd be married and about to welcome two babies. Life had a funny way of working out sometimes. Now, as he sat at his wife's bedside, holding her hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and coaching her through the bad contractions, he knew that he had everything he never thought he'd have.

"You're scared," Carol murmured as Daryl wiped her forehead with a damp cloth after a particularly painful contraction.

"I'm ok," he muttered, looking in her eye long enough for her to raise an eyebrow and smirk at him.

"Yeah, that's why your foot's been tapping nervously for the last ten minutes." He looked down and promptly stilled his foot.

"Didn't see any of this with Grace. She was already born when I got here, you know? She was all clean and wrapped up and she was mine." Carol smiled a little and leaned back against her pillow.

"The night Sophia was born, I thought Ed would be a mess. He was so nervous. I was nervous too, but I figured when it came down to it, I'd be calm and focused, and Ed would be the one that would faint on the floor like in the movies." She smiled a little at the memory. "Ed was really good. He kept calm when I had a meltdown. I wasn't prepared. I realized everything I hadn't done, and I realized that we weren't ready to be parents, because we didn't even have the car seat yet." She sniffled. "But when she was born, everything stopped. They put her in my arms, and I just realized that everything I worried about didn't really matter, because she was there, and she was perfect. That was when Ed kind of melted down. He had that epiphany that we had this living, breathing human being to take care of, and we had to keep her safe and feed her and it wasn't going to be cheap. But he did love her. He doted on her. He did. Things were good then. It was probably the best night of our entire marriage."

Daryl watched her as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes as another contraction hit. He sat there quietly as she squeezed his hand and breathed through it, and he considered her strength, how much she'd been through and how much they had overcome together in the last several months. Life had caught them both in a whirlwind, and they'd come out of it far better than they'd ever expected.

A light-knuckle tap at the door alerted them that the nurse was coming. Instead, Dr. Simpson herself walked through. She caught a look from Daryl that told her that Carol was in the throes of a painful contraction, so she checked the monitors and waited it out with them.

When Carol let out a slow breath and opened her eyes, Dr. Simpson gave her a little smile.

"How we doing?"

"They're getting stronger," Carol murmured, rubbing her belly.

"Our monitors at the nurse's station are showing fluctuations in the babies' heart rates. We're going to continue to monitor them, but if it keeps happening, we're going to take you to the OR. I know you want to deliver them naturally, but our game plan is for you two to walk out of here with two healthy babies in a couple of days."

"Do whatever you have to," Carol murmured, gripping Daryl's hand tightly. "I just want them to be ok." Dr. Simpson nodded.

"I'm going to send the nurse in to check you in a few minutes. You're making good progress, Carol. It might still be a little while, if the babies' heart rates stabilize."

"She's really hurtin'," Daryl explained, glancing at the doctor. "Is that normal?" Dr. Simpson shared a knowing look with Carol before turning her attention back to Daryl.

"It's very normal. I can assure you."

"But she shakes sometimes. She don't notice it, but I do, and…"

"Daryl, Carol is doing great, and the shaking happens sometimes. Her blood pressure's fine, her heart rate is perfect, and the babies tolerated that last contraction well. So long as it stays that way, and the babies keep their heart rates up, they should be here in a few hours. It's not over yet, so am I going to have to have my nurses get the smelling salts?" Daryl rolled his eyes at that, and Carol snorted. "Take care of him, Carol. We might have to get a bed for him, too." Dr. Simpson flashed Daryl a teasing smile before heading out of the room.

"You remind me of me when I was having Sophia," she said with a little laugh.

"Don't like seein' you in pain. Wish I could do somethin'."

"You're here. That's what I need right now. Unless you can magically have these babies for me, I don't think there's much else you can do." She gripped his hand again as another wave of pain shot through her, and Daryl watched as her eyes screwed shut and she gritted her teeth and panted through it.

He bowed his head and did the only thing he could do for her in that moment. He hoped. He hoped for her, for their babies, for their family.