Chapter 27: Looking Forward
"Listen to that," Carol sighed, resting her head against Daryl's chest as the morning sun slowly lit up the room around them. They lay there in silence for a moment before Daryl chuckled.
"Don't hear nothin'."
"Exactly," she laughed. "I can't remember the last time I woke up on my own without somebody making noise." She yawned and stretched and rolled to her back. She sat up in the bed, letting the sheet fall around her lap, and Daryl gently rubbed her bare back as Carol stared off toward the open bedroom door.
"Yeah, we can walk naked through the house if we want to." Carol laughed.
"Why would we do that?"
"Don't know. Just sayin', we got the option now." He sat up and kissed the spot between her shoulder blades, and Carol grinned, turning her face toward his and meeting him for a kiss. "You do it yet?"
"What?"
"You know." Carol sighed.
"Daryl."
"Ain't you the one that says you gotta do it first thing in the morning?"
"I'm not pregnant," Carol pointed out.
"Still, I'd feel better knowin' for sure before we go on that run today." Carol turned then, and Daryl pulled her into his arms. She straddled his lap with her knees and kissed him slowly and deeply. His thumb brushed over her breast, teasing over her nipple and she gasped. Daryl pulled back from the kiss and he smirked at her. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"You've been reading those books again, haven't you? You realize I get sensitive right before my period, right?" She looked away. "I was twenty-eight when Sophia was born. And I struggled to get pregnant then. I just…don't want you to get your hopes up."
"No hopes," he promised, holding his hands up in faux surrender. "Just…you slept in."
"Because I didn't have a house full of noisy people for the first time in…"
"You jumped me last night."
"What?"
"When we went to bed. You practically ripped my clothes off before we got upstairs." Carol's face grew hot, and she chewed at her fingertip for a moment.
"What can I say? I have needs." She batted her eyelashes at him, and he smirked.
"Take the test. Please?"
"Oh, since you asked so nicely," she sighed. "Fine." She pulled herself out of bed and grabbed her robe off of the hook on the closet door. Daryl propped his arms under his head and watched her hips sway as she walked toward the bathroom. Her hips were a little fuller these days, another reason he suspected she might be pregnant. Of course, he'd never tell her that. She was perfect to him, and the slight swell of her belly could have been just a result of their sustainable garden. Her breasts were heavier, too. He certainly wasn't complaining.
When she returned from the bathroom with the stick in her hand, Daryl sat up a little.
"Well?"
"Well, I've got nothing. Probably has something to do with the fact that this pregnancy test expired two years ago." Daryl grunted and ran his palm over his face. "I'm not pregnant."
"You don't know that," Daryl insisted. Carol smirked and shook her head.
"I think you just don't want me to go on that run with you," she teased, tossing the test in the waste basket. She reached out and shut the bedroom door.
"You kidding? Always lookin' for a chance to get ya alone." He waggled his brows at her, and she returned to the bed, shucking off her robe and straddling his hips.
"You've got me alone now. What're you gonna do about it?" Daryl smirked at her then, pulling the pillow out from under his head. Carol cocked an eyebrow and watched as he lay his head back against the mattress. He gripped her hips and began to scoot down a little. She knew exactly what he wanted, and her heart thudded against her chest when his fingers slipped between her legs. She gasped, throwing her head back, and she raised up on her knees so Daryl could scoot himself down under her. She placed her hands his chest and slid up, framing his head with her knees, and she let out a sharp cry when he slid his tongue between her folds.
She gripped the headboard of the bed, rocking her hips gently against his face as he buried his nose into her curls and used his lips and tongue to suck and tease her until she was dripping against his mouth. Her breathing hitched as she rocked against him, and it didn't take long until her body was shuddering through a powerful orgasm. She sighed, moving to straddle his hips again, his hard cock straining at her throbbing core. She kissed him hard and hungrily, and she reached between them to guide him inside.
He flipped her onto her back, buying himself fully inside of her. She arched back as she tasted her own tang against his tongue. His kisses trailed down her chin and her neck and between her breasts, and her nails scraped down his back and his ass. He thrust hard against her, pulling one of her legs up over his hip and thrusting deeper. She cried out against his neck, muffling her cries when he reached between them and stroked her clit with his thumb. His lips curled around her nipple, sucking sharply enough to get a cry out of her, and when he teased the other with his teeth and tongue, she moved her hands into his hair, tugging hard as her walls squeezed around him in a powerful orgasm, triggering his own shortly thereafter.
"That never gets old," she laughed, as he collapsed on top of her and buried his face between her breasts. He snorted then, and she gently ran her hands up and down his back.
"Glad I ain't borin' you after all this time." He crawled up and pressed his lips against hers. He gently ran his fingers along her jaw and up through her hair. It had grown out over time, now soft and spilling over her shoulders, mostly grey with some traces of dark brown still streaking through it. She always wore it pulled up, fixed in the back to keep it practical, but he always loved to watch her take it down at night, brushing it out and watching herself in the mirror, wondering where the time went. "Still gonna be crazy about you when we're both old and…"
"Grey?" she asked, grinning at him.
"I didn't mean…"
"I know," she murmured. "I know."
"Wouldn't change a thing . Ya know that, right?" He kissed her again.
"I know," she smiled. Daryl's hand moved down between them then, over the slight swell of her stomach. "I'm not pregnant." She pushed his hand away, but he chuckled.
"Ya don't sound convinced." He kissed her again, and she sighed.
"You're impossible."
"You're pregnant," he chuckled. "I know it."
"You don't," she laughed, as he kissed down between her breasts and then over the faint, white marks on her belly. "Maybe I'm just getting fat."
"Either way, I like it." Carol snorted and sighed, biting her lip when she watched the way he kissed her belly.
"It's just bloat. You're gonna be really embarrassed when you realize I'm not growing a human."
"Then we can try again," he offered.
"Daryl," she groaned.
"You changed your mind?" he asked, pulling away from her long enough to crawl back up to rest beside her on the bed.
"No," she sighed. "I still want a baby. I just…like I said. I don't want you to get your hopes up."
"Ya don't want to get your own hopes up," he concluded. She nodded her head. "Maybe it's not meant to be. I'm forty-five. I'm lucky I've survived this long with the dead trying to beat down our doors."
"Hey," he murmured, cutting her off with a kiss, "ya didn't say that before."
"I know," she said softly. "I'm just trying to convince myself it doesn't matter either way. I guess that way it won't hurt so much if it doesn't happen." She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe we're crazy, bringing babies into this world."
"Somebody's gotta be left to bring the world back to what it was."
"Better than it was, hopefully," Carol pointed out with a smile. Daryl chuckled, and he brushed his hand over her stomach. "Only one way to know for sure."
"Yeah," Carol sighed. "I know. I'll go today. Before we go on the run."
"Promise?"
"Promise," she insisted, kissing him one more time before slipping out of bed.
"Where you goin'?"
"I need a shower before breakfast. You care to join me?" She'd barely gotten the words out of her mouth before Daryl was bounding out of bed and practically tackling her against the bathroom door, being careful and mindful of a potential pregnancy.
"Who's jumping who, now?" Carol asked, teasing her husband and wrapping her arms around his neck. He answered her with a growl before shutting the bathroom door behind them.
...
"How was it?" Daryl asked, stepping out on the porch of the new house with Negan and Lucy.
"A little drafty. 'Course, electricity would be a plus," Negan pointed out. Lucy smacked his arm and rolled her eyes.
"We love it. Thank you," Lucy said with a gracious smile.
"We'll get that goin' for ya soon enough with the solar panels. Just gotta make sense of the instructions Eugene left us with."
"Dr. Smartypants. I miss that weirdo," Negan snorted. "Wonder if they ever made it to Washington?"
"If he really had a cure, I think we'd know by now," Lucy said softly. "I wish they'd stayed."
"I think you just had a crush on Big Red," Negan teased.
"Abraham? Please! He's much too macho for me."
"Ouch," Negan laughed. "My wife. Funny, isn't she?" Daryl couldn't help but smirk before a little blonde headed kid came bounding out of the house.
"We gonna go shoot some walkers today? Huh, Dad?" Negan lifted the boy up in his arms and put him on his shoulders.
"Not today. Your dad's got fence duty."
"Aw, can I come?"
"No, Henry," Lucy cut in, "you're helping Mama in the garden today."
"Aw, but I wanna shoot walkers," Henry pouted, his little lip sticking out. "I'm five-years-old now, Mama. Please?"
"We'll re-visit this conversation when you're ten, young man," she said sternly. "Now be a good boy and go inside and find the weeding pail." Negan let the boy down, and he hurried off inside. Lydia shook her head, but her expression quickly turned to one of discomfort. She winced then, rubbing the spot where her prosthetic arm pinched at her skin.
"How's that workin' out for ya, Lucy?" Daryl asked.
"It's a bit snug, but it works," she said with a smile. "It's not every day you come across a prosthetic, so I'll make due until something else comes along."
"Try takin' it over to Merle. He's good with that kinda stuff."
"Yeah. Don't forget to ask him to fit you for one of those handy stump knives, too."
"Would you shut up?" Lucy asked. "You're terrible." Negan pulled his arms around his wife's waist and brought her in for a kiss. A clatter from inside the house alerted them to Henry getting into something he shouldn't be, and with an exasperated sigh, Lucy went in to see what he was up to.
"Alright, I'm outta here."
"You and Carol goin' out on that run?" Negan asked with a wide, knowing grin.
"Yeah. Want me to find some soap to wash that look off your face?"
"Wow," Negan laughed. "Now be honest. You're just going out there to get some ass. I mean, granted, you're married, and you don't have to even leave your house, but the thought of being out there in the open, making love to your beautiful wife where anything or anybody could come along, it's exciting, right? The danger of it."
"You been spendin' too much time with my brother," Daryl snorted.
"What can I say? He grows on you after a while."
"Yeah, you two'll be happy together," Daryl muttered. "You shoulda just moved in with him when we got his house done. Woulda been a lot happier."
"Me or you? 'Cause I couldn't give up seein' your raggedy ass every morning at breakfast time. Always a treat." Negan smiled, and Daryl shook his head. "Gotta admit, it's nice to be able to sleep with my wife and not have to worry about waking you and sleeping beauty. Not that you two were quiet. Christ, sometimes I thought the goddamn roof was caving in. How do you get her to make that noise? You know the one…"
"Boys." Negan and Daryl both turned at the sound of Carol's voice as she came walking across the yard with her pack on her back. "How was your first night in the new place?"
"Oh, great," Negan said with a smirk. "Great acoustics." Carol furrowed her brows, and Daryl just shook his head and looked to his wife.
"Remind me to change the locks later."
"Oh, now that hurts," Negan uttered, putting his hand over his chest. "You two. Be careful. You got a radio charged in the truck?" Daryl nodded, and Negan held his hand out to wave to Carol. She just gave him a smile and turned to walk with Daryl toward Merle's house. She slipped her hand into his.
"So?" he asked.
"So…"
"What'd Denise say?" he asked, glancing at her as they walked together. She shook her head.
"She's in bed sick."
"What?" Daryl asked. "But she's the doctor."
"Doctors have sick days too, Pookie," Carol pouted.
"Maybe you ought to stay."
"Give me a break. Even if I'm pregnant, I'm not incapable of taking care of myself." Daryl eyed her. "Besides, it's been a while since we went out there. Just the two of us. Uncle Merle's got things under control here."
"You sure you're ok with this?"
"I never would have expected your brother to be so good with kids. He's a natural." Carol kissed his cheek. "Come on. Let's go say goodbye."
Dog was laying on the porch of Merle's house when Carol and Daryl approached. He lifted his head and sniffed the air before yawning and laying back down. The house was similar to Negan and Lucy's. It was a group effort, really. The houses weren't perfect, but they were sound. Over the past five years, their little group of seven plus Dog had grown to a group of over twenty. There were six small houses build along the property. A large, sustainable garden took up a large part of one of the fields, while livestock grazed in another field. They had cows, horses, goats and chickens, and while the extra people and animals made the place a target for walkers, the fences had long since been reinforced with metal sheeting and wooden posts to keep them secure and upright.
A sustainable future was much closer than it had been five years ago. There were people working together, building, growing, bringing babies into the world, scavenging, protecting the walls. It was a real community, and Carol and Daryl took pride in the home they'd created for their family.
"Daddy! Mommy!" Lydia came rushing out of Merle's house with a paper in one hand and a crayon in the other. "I drew a picture for Uncle Merle!"
"Oh, let's see," Carol urged, kneeling down in the grass to see her daughter's brightly drawn picture of a stick figure with a knife for a hand. In the old world, that might have given a child nightmares, but it was Lydia's reality, and Merle made sure he didn't wear the knife prosthetic much when inside the walls. Merle had certainly surprised them both. Daryl never thought his brother could be gentle to any living creature, but Lydia had him wrapped around her little finger.
"That's nice," Carol said with a smile.
"You even got his big, dopey smile," Daryl offered. He looked at Carol. "Our kid's gonna be an artist."
"I'm gonna be a hunter, like you Daddy," Lydia insisted, looking up at him with her long, dark hair hanging in her face. Daryl reached down and pushed her hair back, revealing her sparkling hazel eyes.
"I bet you will, kiddo," he offered, leaning down and kissing the top of his head.
Merle came stepping out on the porch with a giggling two-year-old in his arms. The little one had reddish blonde hair, and he had freckles on his face like his mama.
"There's my favorite boy," Carol grinned, getting up and reaching out for her son. The boy giggled when Carol kissed his cheek, and he rested his head on her shoulder.
"Stay, Mama."
"I'll just be a little while, Luke. I promise. Now, remember what Daddy and I said. Be good for Uncle Merle. And, be nice to your sister."
"She be nice!" Luke insisted, pointing at his sister, who made a face at him.
"You both be nice to each other. And to Uncle Merle," Daryl insisted. Carol kissed Luke's chubby cheeks and handed him back to Merle. She leaned down and hugged Lydia.
"Mommy, don't get hurt."
"I promise I won't. But if I do? We've got a really good doctor here who'll patch me right up. Right?"
"Right!" Lydia offered with a nod. "Mommy, can I go play with Henry?"
"That's up to Uncle Merle. You behave, ok?"
"Okay," Lydia nodded. "Bye, Mommy. Bye, Daddy."
"Bye, Lyddie," Daryl called, waving to his kids. He pointed to Merle and mouthed 'no junk food' before turning and walking back toward the truck with Carol.
Once they were out on the road, Carol rolled her window down and leaned her head back, enjoying the breeze as they made their way down the old country road.
"You sure you want another one?" Daryl asked after about five minutes on the road.
"What?"
"You keep sayin' it's not happening."
"You know why. I told you why. I just don't…"
"Wanna get your hopes up. I know. But you're sure?"
"Sure," Carol said with a sigh. "Of course. Daryl, I honestly never thought in a million years I'd get pregnant. It took a long while before Luke finally came along. It's possible it won't happen for us again."
"Also possible it will," Daryl pointed out.
"You really want another girl, don't you?" Carol asked with a laugh. "I swear, I was worried when Luke turned out to be a boy. I knew how bad you wanted another girl."
"Don't care either way, really. Just be nice to have a little girl with your eyes. That's all," he shrugged. Carol chuckled and reached across the seat to take his hand in hers. "We got our family. If it don't get no bigger, that's alright, 'cause what we got now is pretty great." Daryl brought Carol's hand to his lips and kissed her open palm.
"I love you," she sighed, smiling at him as he glanced over at her and let go of her hand. With a content smile upon her lips, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the quiet as they rode toward town together. Absently, she placed her hand upon her stomach, and when she caught herself, she quickly drew her hand away. She didn't want to get her hopes up. She'd lucked out with Luke. As long as it had taken her to conceive him, she was certain he'd be her last baby. But she and Daryl had started talking about it again a few months ago, and while she welcomed the idea, she knew it was going to be a difficult journey for them. She knew he loved her and their family no matter what. The idea that it was even an option for them anymore was baffling. This was a world that was trying to die, but they were fighting every step of the way to keep it going for their daughter, and now, for their son and any future children.
Whatever happened, she welcomed each day as it came. Any day in this world was worth ten of the days in the past with abuse and pain and fear. The only thing missing from that world was Sophia. She often imagined what kind of big sister Sophia would be. She could even see Sophia's face in Luke's. Those freckles and that hair. He could have been his big sister's twin at that age. But, as each day passed, she saw more of Daryl in him. He was a true Dixon. Ornery and sweet. She wouldn't change a thing. She was grateful to be his mother, and seeing Daryl with his son made her heart swell. Lydia had changed their lives so completely, and watching Daryl grow as a father to two children was something to behold. He took every day in stride, and he was the best partner she could ask for.
She turned her head to look at him, smiling as she thought back to the man he was at the quarry, the man he became at the farm, and the father and husband he was now. She wanted to give him everything. The world. A home filled with children. Whatever he wanted. Because he'd tried to give her everything from early on, tried to keep hope alive in her heart. And today, that hope was still there. Even if her girl was gone, she still saw that Cherokee Rose every time she looked into his eyes. She felt his words with each beat of her heart. She knew this man was the man she was supposed to spend the rest of her days with. She was thankful for him, thankful she'd been given a chance to really live.
Author's Note: Yes, that's two chapters in one day! I hope you are all still enjoying the story. Please let me know! As always, feedback is very much appreciated!