Daryl wants to sit at the end of the bar. It's his favorite spot, and the tavern is sparsely inhabited tonight, so they have their privacy there. "Do you think I'm spending too much time working?" Carol asks him after Trisha leaves them alone with their pint glasses.
He shrugs. "Just like havin' ya 'round more."
"I thought we spend a good amount of time together most evenings." After Sweetheart is in bed, they have their quiet evenings in the living room. They just made love two nights ago.
"Ain't that. Just…" He shrugs and sips his pint.
"Just what?" Carol insists gently.
"Didn't sign up to be Mr. Mom."
"Oh." This is not about missing her. "Daryl, you're Sweetheart's father."
"Know that." Daryl glances at her quickly before returning his attention to his pint glass. "And yer her mother."
Carol bites down the instinctive flare of annoyance and instead considers his concern. It's true that she's seen less of Sweetheart since becoming lieutenant mayor. Between her patrols and shadowing Garland and her work on the Council, three times this week she was only home in time to tuck the little girl in. The other four, she was home for dinner. But Daryl hunts early. He typically gets back around one in the afternoon, picks Sweetheart up from daycare, and is with her alone until Carol gets home. Daryl's accustomed to roaming, to fiddling with his bike, working on his bow, and doing other odds and ends which are difficult to accomplish with a toddler underfoot. He's glad to be here tonight at the tavern not because he needs more time with Carol, but because he needs more time to himself. He needs more time as an adult not chained to a child.
"I'll scale back a little on the shadowing," she assures him. "I have whole year to learn the ropes. Maybe two, if Garland appoints me again next year. I'll try to get home earlier."
"Yeah?"
She slides and arm around his shoulders and kisses his cheek. "Yeah."
Daryl nods and sips from his beer.
Carol lets her arm fall down loosely around his waist. "And you know, you don't have to pick up Sweetheart as soon as you wash up from the hunt. I get an extra few rounds of ammo a week as lieutenant mayor. We can afford an extra hour of daycare each day. Take an hour to yourself before you pick her up."
"Feel bad just leavin' 'er there."
"Daryl, she has lots of little friends there. She loves Sherry. There's no reason to feel bad about it. You spend a lot of time with her. You're up before the sun. You work hard. You deserve the time to yourself. Without your girls in your hair." She brushes his bangs, which are growing long again, off his forehead.
Daryl smiles. "I like my girls."
"I know. But take the hour. Or two, if there's a day you need two."
He sets down his pint. "Yeah. Think I will."
Carol slides her arm off of him because Gunther has approached. "Mind if I join y'all?" he asks. Carol leaves it to Daryl to reply, because she's not sure if he wants company, but he says sure and nods to the stool next to himself, which Gunther slides onto.
Trisha approaches and pours the farmer a cup of tea without evening asking what he wants. Gunther's a regular after all. "Where's Dianne?" the waitress asks. "Did y'all break up after she shot down your marriage proposal?"
"No. She's just visiting some old Kingdom friends. She'll join me later."
"Gonna pop the question again?" Trisha pushes the tea cup forward and motions over the teenage waiter. "At the trade fair in November?"
"I don't know. I'm thinking I might wait for her to pop it. It would serve her right."
Trisha chuckles and hands over the kettle to the waiter. As the boy heads off to refill the kettle and return it to the fire, Gunther blows on the surface of his tea. Carol wonders if Dianne's waiting just to see if he maintains his sobriety. If so, he's been passing the test.
Trisha sets a hand on the bar near Gunther and turns her body slightly. "You see that?" She nods to the opposite end, where the bar curves into an L. Candy is using her crutches for support as she leans over the bar and kisses Eugene, who sits on the stool opposite.
"Yes, I've noticed that," Gunther replies. "It's peculiar."
"What's peculiar about it?" Trish asks. "They're getting married."
Daryl chokes on his beer, swallows it down, and pounds his chest. Gunther splutters his tea and then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "What?" Daryl asks, the word buried in the assistant farm manager's rush to hiss, "They just met on the last mail run."
"So?" Trisha asks nonchalantly.
"I thought she was just being nice by offering him a little…" Gunther trails off discretely.
"Yeah, but Candy's pregnant," Trisha whispers. "She just told him a couple hours ago, and he proposed."
"She can't know that already," Gunther insists.
"That was just two weeks ago when Eugene first visited," Carol agrees.
"And Candy's not stupid," Gunther adds. "She never does anything that'll get her pregnant."
Trisha sighs and chews on her bottom lip before saying, quietly, "She's been pregnant awhile."
"Oh," Gunther says. He grits his back teeth together. "That sonofabitch."
"It's not the baby's fault," Trisha says. "She thought about, you know…But she decided she couldn't."
Candy has left the far end of the bar and begun to hobble her way over on crutches. She comes to a stop beside Trisha. "My ears are itching. Are y'all gossiping about me?"
"Did you get that poor man to have sex with you so he'd think that baby was his?" asks Gunther. "I knew you were mercenary, but…damn, Candy."
Candy rolls her eyes. "How stupid do you think Eugene is? He knows it's not his."
"He knows, and he proposed…why?" Gunther asks.
"Gee, thanks."
"I didn't mean…I just…a man doesn't typically propose on two weeks' acquaintance," Gunther says.
"He's in love," Trisha says dreamily. "And maybe Candy's a romantic after all."
"I'm a pragmatist anyway," Candy admits. "Hopefully the baby won't inherit the sociopath gene."
"Oh don't say that!" Trisha insists. "Not with a decent daddy to raise him. And Eugene seems decent."
Candy looks at Carol. "I heard he played a clever trick on the Saviors that saved y'all from them."
"He did," Carol says. After he joined the enemy for quite some time, she thinks, but she doesn't emphasize that part of it. They've all made a lot of bad decisions over the years, too often trapped between a rock and a hard place.
"And he's on the council in Alexandria," Candy continues. "And an engineer. My daddy would fall over backward in his grave if he knew I'd managed to marry an engineer. And Eugene's got a stash of loot saved up. And a big bedroom all to himself in a house with electricity and running water. Alexandria sounds like paradise."
"You're moving!" Trisha exclaims as though this is the first time she's considered the possibility that the marriage might result in Candy leaving instead of Eugene moving to Jamestown.
Candy shrugs. "Well, yeah, they have power and plumbing in every house. And they don't have a tavern. They don't even have a distillery or a brewery yet. There's no one to distribute liquor properly in that town. I'm going to make and sell moonshine. No more waiting tables for me. I'm gonna call it Candy Shine."
"Candy Shine," Gunther echoes. "It's not a bad name."
"I took some marketing classes in the old world."
"But don't you think it's a bit of a rush?" Gunther asks. "You hardly know this man."
"Carol can vouch for him, right?"
"Not as a husband," Carol says.
"Look, I need to retire permanently from the whoring business. I need a daddy for this baby, and I could use a man of means who isn't going to hurt me. And Eugene needs a woman. It's a win-win for everyone involved."
"Candy?" Eugene calls from across the tavern. "Are we going to resume our QT?"
"I think that means quality time," Candy whispers. "Just a minute, honey bunny! I'll be right over."
"You can't leave!" Trisha whines. "I can wait all these tables by myself!"
"We've got the new boy," Candy tells her, nodding to the teenager who has just served two bowls of stew to a couple in the corner. "He'll go full-time. Councilwoman Linda will take on another apprentice. You'll be fine."
"This is insane, Candy," Gunther tells her. "You barely know him."
"This may be the last time I get to remind you of this, Gunther," Candy replies. "But you aren't my father."
"No, but I do care about you."
Candy smiles faintly. "I know you do. And I'll miss you. Because God knows you'll never come visit in Alexandria. You've got a girlfriend in Oceanside, and even getting you there is like pulling teeth." She glances back toward Eugene. "Well I better get back down to my fiancé. Y'all enjoy your evening." Crutches beneath her arms, she makes her way back to the far end of the bar.
"Did not see that one comin'," Daryl mutters, and takes a long slow sip of his beer.
Carol and Daryl finish their beers, by which time Mitch and Commander Witherspoon have joined the bar, and someone suggests a round a poker. Carol trails her fingertips across the back of Daryl's shoulders as she slides off her barstool. "You stay and have fun with the boys," she tells him. "I'll go back and get Sweetheart to bed." She'll have a chance to visit with Henry, and Daryl will have a chance just to be Daryl instead of Daddy.
Daryl nods his appreciation, and Carol heads for the door.