Nine

"Mom, Henry's hungry!" Sophia called from the other room.

"I'll be out in a minute," Carol called right back. She looked to Daryl and flashed him a look somewhere between exhaustion and worry. "Look, Sophia knows her dad and I were over a long time ago. She's very smart. She knows Henry has a different dad. But I haven't figured out a way to tell her that I know you, let alone that you're his dad."

"I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact I've got another kid, so I'm not gonna say nothing to nobody. I gotta figure out how to tell Lydia." Carol took a deep breath, and in that moment, Lydia walked back in the room.

"That kid can cry," she muttered.

"Yeah, I'm…I'm going to feed him now." Carol stood up and turned to leave the room. She cast one last glance back at Daryl before she left, and he offered her a discreet nod.

"So, what do you think?" Lydia asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"About what?"

"Carol? I mean, I know you haven't met Sophia yet, but she's pretty nice, too. Do you think they'd come with us." Daryl ran his fingers through his hair and stretched a little, momentarily forgetting his wound until the stitches pulled. He groaned and put his hand over his bandage.

"We'll talk about it later. You find everything in the truck?"

"Yeah. Everything's fine." Lydia looked over her shoulder and then back to her dad. "You know, she's divorced. Sophia told me her mom and dad split up a long time ago. So Carol didn't like…lose him out there." Daryl narrowed his eyes at her.

"So?"

"So, she's really nice. And I think it'd be ok to take them with us to Texas." She just smiled and shrugged a shoulder, casually pulling her hair back out of her face.

Well, this was new. Lydia had never taken much of an interest in getting her dad set up with anyone. She'd grown up mostly in a protective bubble with her family. Her dad. Her uncle Merle. Her uncle Rick and Aunt Lori and Carl. She'd asked him a few times why he wasn't married, but she'd never quite pushed the idea of it. Of course, why should she have? She was a kid, after all. A lot of kids were usually wary about their parents bringing new love interests into the picture.

"Lydia, can I…" Sophia stopped in the doorway, and Lydia turned quickly. Daryl glanced up at the slender girl in the doorway who had one arm folded awkwardly around her middle while she absently chewed at a fingernail on her other hand.

"Sophia, this is my dad."

"Hi," Sophia said quietly. "I'm Sophia." The first thing he noticed was her eyes. They weren't that same blue like Carol's, but there was something there, a sparkle like her mom's. She was clearly Carol's daughter, though he figured she maybe looked more like her dad than her mom.

"Hi," Daryl said with a polite nod. He noticed she had something in her hand. "What've you got there?" She pulled it out from behind her. It was his crossbow. "Be careful with that."

"I was going to see if Lydia could teach me how to use it. It can't be that different than shooting a gun, right?"

"It's a lot different," Lydia pointed out. "And I'm not that good at it yet. My dad's a good teacher though. Maybe he can show you when he's feeling better." Lydia raised her eyebrows at Daryl. "Right, Dad?"

"Sure, if your mom don't care." Judging by the knife the girl wore at her hip and the pistol handle knocking against the door frame, he figured Carol didn't mind much, but he felt it was only right to ask the girl's mom before teaching her how to use another kind of weapon.

"She won't care," Sophia insisted. She looked to Lydia. "I'm going to check one of the houses next door for food. You want to come?" Lydia looked to Daryl.

"Your mom know about this?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah. She's feeding Henry, so I'm going. We checked the house before we left this morning. No walkers, and it's shut up tight."

"If she's ok with it, I am. Stay together."

"We will," Lydia promised him. She got up and hurried after Sophia. Daryl sat in bed for a few minutes, partly worried about his daughter despite knowing she could take care of herself and partly wanting to see Carol and meet his son.

He waited a few more minutes before he pulled himself out of bed. Moving and standing hurt like hell, but once he was successfully upright without busting his stitches, he started shuffling out of the room and into the hall.

He found her sitting in the living room with the baby in her arms, and for a moment, he stood and watched the way she lovingly stroked the baby's cheek with her fingertip. She smiled down at him and hummed softly, rocking gently back and forth.

Daryl took a few steps closer, and Carol looked up to see him standing there, shoulders slumped as he tried not to put much of a strain on his bandaged side.

"Daryl, are you ok?"

"I'm good," he assured her. "Needed to get up and move a little." He groaned softly and took a couple steps closer. "Shit, this hurts."

"Yeah, you're gonna feel rough for a while. Can I get you anything?"

"Nah, just wanted to see something other than the bedroom wall." He looked around. "The girls went to check out the house next door?"

"Yeah. They won't be long."

"You sure it's safe?" He peeked out the window, seeing nothing but the front yard and the houses across the street. Carol picked up a walkie talkie on the table by her chair.

"Sophia? You girls ok?" Static hissed and crackled for a moment.

"Yeah, we're good," Sophia's voice offered back.

"Ten minutes, Sophia."

"Ok."

Carol put the walkie away.

"We found the walkies in a drawer in the kitchen. Found some fresh batteries, too." She looked down at Henry and then back to Daryl. "Henry has a little freckle by his belly button. I noticed you have one too. In the same spot." Daryl glanced down a moment and then looked at the baby.

"He don't have much hair." He sat down in the chair across from her, and she smiled.

"He had a little more when he was born, but they lose that sometimes."

"Lydia didn't," he remembered. "She had a head full of dark hair when she was born, and she needed a haircut by the time she was three months old." Carol smiled at that and noticed Henry had unlatched. She quickly tucked herself back into her shirt, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daryl look away. She wasn't sure if it was out of discomfort or respect, but modesty seemed a silly thing to worry about these days.

Henry stretched in her arms before pulling his little knees up. His toes stretched out, and Carol giggled. She looked back up at Daryl who was looking down at the baby in amazement.

"Would you like to hold him? Are you feeling up to it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that." Carol stood then and took a step toward Daryl. He sat up a little, and Carol placed the sleeping baby in the arm on his good side. She wasn't sure why she was expecting him to be awkward with him and uncertain of how to hold him. He had an almost grown daughter for goodness sakes. She supposed she'd just had this idea in her head of him not knowing quite what to do with a baby. How was she supposed to have known anyway? It wasn't like they knew anything about each other. "He looks a little like Lydia when she was born. Except for the hair. I think it's the nose and the ears. His eyes…"

"He has blue eyes for now. Sophia did too, but hers turned brown. I don't know. Henry's got two blue-eyed parents, so his might stay the same." She smiled. "Lydia and Sophia are getting along pretty good."

"Lydia wants me to ask you to come to Amarillo with us." He cleared his throat. "I don't wanna make you do anything you don't want to do. But I don't wanna lose you or Henry." He watched Carol's cheeks flush a little, and he took a deep breath. "I don't mean…I mean, I know you barely know me. I barely know you. But, we've got a kid now, and I'd like to help you with him."

"Sophia and I were going west," Carol offered with a little shrug. "Amarillo is west. I don't know what happens after Amarillo, but I wouldn't mind getting there. Getting away from here." She reached out and touched Henry's little hand.

"So you'll come with us?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah," Carol agreed. She took a shaky breath. "I need to figure out how to tell Sophia. And you'll have to tell Lydia. About Henry, I mean. They…they deserve to know the truth. And if anything happens to us, he'll need them both."

"We'll think of something," Daryl said quietly. He rocked Henry slowly in his arms. "How'd you come up with Henry, anyway?"

"Hmm?"

"His name. What made you name him Henry?"

"You don't like it?"

"I like it. I was just curious."

"I always liked the name. I liked older names. If Sophia was a boy, she would've been Henry." She smiled a little. "I hope you're ok with it. He's kind of stuck with it now."

"I'm ok with it," he chuckled. "Had a cousin named Henry. They called him Hank." Carol scrunched up her nose. "I won't call him that, though. Don't worry."

"Thanks," Carol laughed. She got up then, and Daryl tracked her nervous pacing from room to room. She was picking up things here and there, but he could tell she was avoiding another elephant in the room.

"Carol?"

"Yeah?" Her voice was high and quick, and she turned a little faster than what seemed natural. Her shoulders were tense.

"I was gonna come back. In two weeks. I even came back a couple more times to see if you were there. I wanted to see you again." He watched her wring her hands together, and he looked back down at his son. "I don't expect anything. I just wanted you to know. I was gonna come back." He found the nerve to meet her eye. "Were you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think….I was." She swallowed hard. What any of that meant right now, she had no idea. But she was relieved when Daryl turned his attention back to the baby, because she had time to breathe and let the redness in her face subside.

It still sort of felt like a dream. It felt like a mirage in the desert. Too good to be true. But she was thankful. Whatever happened, she felt like everything was going to work out as long as they stuck together. They were strangers, but more important than that, they were a family. She had to trust that together they'd be able to survive this next journey.