Wow. It's been forever. Here's an update. I can honestly say I don't know when the next one will be, but I'll try not to make it take so long.

Without moving her head, Carol cast a glance at Daryl out of the corner of her eyes. She was sitting in the passenger seat of her Jeep Grand Cherokee as he drove the two of them home from their weekend getaway. Almost since the moment they sat down in their seats, Daryl had been quiet, eerily quiet.

In fact, he was only entertaining her attempts at conversation on the ride home with grunts and mumbles, and the occasional "yep" or "nah."

And even though he was normally a man of few words, the silence that had settled between them since leaving Atlanta left her with a nervous bubbling deep in the pit of her stomach. This wasn't the normal type of quiet she'd grown used to with Daryl. It wasn't the comfortable type of silence she'd learned she could enjoy while being in his presence.

No, this was something else entirely, something that had her fearing the unexpected journey they'd just began over the weekend was about to come to an abrupt, screeching halt.

Even though the conversation they'd had that very morning about how much he liked her and how great of a day they'd had up until the set foot in her car suggested otherwise. The stolen kisses he'd allowed her to plant on him when she found a hidden crevice in the convention center, ones that left him grinning like a goofy teenager. The way his calloused thumb lightly circled over her skin as they walked hand in hand in front of God only knows how many strangers.

It just didn't add up. How he could've changed his mind so quickly after being so definitive about them only 24 hours before. But maybe he had. Maybe he realized that dating a pregnant woman wasn't such a good idea. Maybe he realized she had too much baggage. Maybe he decided he wasn't ready to be her boyfriend and they didn't know each other that well after all.

Warily, she kept her eyes trained on him. Searching for something, anything in his demeanor to give her a clue, as he sat there, stone-faced, eyes fiercely trained on the road ahead of them.

Finally, he must have felt the weight of her gaze, because his eyes briefly swept over and met hers, just as quickly flitting away and back towards the blacktop ahead.

The bubble or worry that had been festering in the pit of her stomach for the past two hours finally burst when she anxiously blurted out, "Change your mind already?" The words were out of her mouth before she knew it and had time to think about them, and though she hoped she'd made it sound like a teasing joke, she wasn't so sure the uncertainty in her own voice had betrayed her.

And that uncertainty must've shown, because this time when his eyes snapped over to her they lingered on her long enough she worried he wasn't paying enough attention to the road. "Change my mind about what?" He replied, confusion in his own voice, while stealing glances between her eyes and the road every two seconds.

To distract herself, Carol's hand swept over her belly. Her daughter was doing summer saults beneath the seat belt and the movement offered her something else to focus on. It also gave her a reason not to meet Daryl's eyes as she added, "About us. About…me."

He blinked several times, as if trying to process her words. "Course not. Why would I?"

"It's just…Well, you've been really quiet. You've barely spoken to me the whole way home."

His teeth raked over his bottom lip and he nodded. "Reckon I have."

"Why? She prodded when he didn't elaborate.

"Why what?"

"Why are you being so quiet. Why won't you hardly look at me?

Once again, his eyes found the road. "Because…" He muttered.

Her eyebrows raised expectantly and she had to bite back her frustration. "Because why?"

"Because we're going home," he sighed. When that only earned him an even more perplexed, and still concerned, look from his new girlfriend, he continued. "Just, I didn't, I don't, I don't wanna get home and for you to," his voice dropped, "for you to realize this was a bad idea. That being with me is a bad idea."

Carol felt the tension drain from her gut and she could feel the features in her own face soften. "Why would I think that?" Though it was replaced by a certain sadness that he had the same fears she did.

His only response was a shrug.

"Daryl," she softly began, placing a gentle hand on his thigh. "I like you. I liked you before we went on this trip. If I wasn't pregnant, I probably would've let you know how I felt a lot sooner. Going home isn't going to change that."

His eyes dropped to where her hand was circling over the fabric of his jeans. "Ain't gonna be the same at home," he muttered. "I ain't gonna be the same."

Her hand stopped in place. "How so?"

"Was different in Atlanta. You know? Was just you and me and that room and that tiny ass bed." When a giggle escaped Carol's lip he let the corner of his lip twitch upwards for a brief moment, but quickly straightened his face into a stern line. "Felt like another world up there. Felt like I was somebody different. Somebody who knew what the hell he was doing."

Carol's hand swept over his thigh once again and she squeezed lightly, a grin etching her face. "You seemed to know what you were doing just fine to me." She teased.

"Stop," he grumbled, though she could see the smile in his eyes.

"I like you, Daryl," she reiterated. "I like who you are."

He grunted, as if he couldn't quite find it in himself to believe that. "Like who I was this weekend," he finally continued, chewing the inside of his cheek as he spoke. "But that ain't….ain't who I normally am." And that was the damn truth. He wasn't normally the kind guy the right words to say to reassure someone. He wasn't normally the kinda guy who cuddled. Or that told someone how he felt about them. Hell, he wasn't even sure he was usually the kinda guy who knew what the fuck to do in the bedroom.

But all of that had seemed to come so naturally with her this weekend, all of it. It'd been so…easy. Like second nature in that damn motel, and he'd felt like someone else the entire time. And not in a bad way. He'd liked who he'd been with her over the weekend. He'd been more confident, bolder. More so than he'd probably been in his entire life.

Only problem was, now he was worried that it was some fluke. That when they got back home that every ounce of courage he'd found to be so open with her, to be so close to her, that it would disappear as quick as it had seemed to come about.

He didn't wanna disappoint her. He didn't want her to realize she was with a damn near thirty-year old man who didn't have the first fucking clue about how to be a boyfriend. Didn't want her to realize that dating him was gonna be more trouble than it was worth. After all, she was about to have a kid, having him in her life would be like having two. Because in a lot of ways, he realized he was still just a fucking kid himself.

"What do you mean?" She asked softly. "Talk to me, please?"

An agitated sigh escape d his lips and he shook his head. "Don't know how to be your boyfriend. Don't know how to be nobody's boyfriend. Don't know…Know what hell I'm doing. Ain't gonna know what I'm doing." He kept his eyes fiercely trained on the road as he spoke, too embarrassed to look over at her. Admitting his insecurities to her like that left him feeling more exposed than he had when they'd fooled around over the weekend. And when she unexpectedly leaned over and brushed his stubbly cheek with her lips he couldn't help but flinch.

"It's okay," she whispered, tenderly planting another kiss, only a little lower this time, closer to his jawline. "It's okay if you don't know," she repeated. "We all have to start somewhere, and lucky for you, I'm a teacher. And a pretty damn good one at that."

"It ain't…"

Carol cut him off, her voice firm, but not angry. "It is alright, Daryl. Trust me. It is. I don't care that you've never had a girlfriend before. I wouldn't care if you'd had a hundred." He snorted and she chucked. "Just like me being pregnant doesn't bother you. Does it?"

He cut his eyes at her. "Course not. Why would you think it did?"

"Because it would bother a lot of people," she answered honestly. "And rightfully so. It's not what a lot of people would sign up for. And maybe a lot of people wouldn't want a guy who hadn't had a lot of experience with women, but that doesn't bother me at all. At the end of the day we all have our baggage. Everyone does." She offered him a small smile. "But I don't mind helping you carry yours if you don't mind helping me carry mine."

He raised a brow at her. "You want me to tote your kid around?"

"What? No! I mean…I don't know, maybe if I need you to hold her for a second at some point but I'm not asking you to."

Daryl hummed, giving her the tiniest hint of a grin as he interrupted her. "Know what you meant."

She grinned back and rolled her eyes. "Asshole."

"Just...I…I want you to know what you're getting with me."

"I know what I'm getting," she told him confidently. "And I wouldn't even consider being with you right now if I didn't think it was something pretty damn great."

Daryl took one hand off the steering wheel, tentatively inching it closer and closer until it clasped over Carol's. His voice raspy, he replied, "Yeah?"

She intertwined their fingers and gave his hand a squeeze. "Yeah."