AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Daryl stepped outside the door with his cigarettes and lighter in one hand and his crossbow in the other. He put his bow down almost immediately, satisfied to simply have it outside the door in case it turned out that he needed it for something. Dog bounded out the door with him and proceeded down the steps to do his business in the yard. Daryl lit his cigarette before he surveyed his surroundings. He'd done little more than piss, pull on his pants and shirt, and shove his feet into his boots before he'd stepped out.

He nearly choked on his first good drag of the cigarette because Ezekiel was just letting himself through the gate. Daryl hadn't heard the rig, so that meant that Ezekiel had been there, waiting for someone to wake up.

"Too fuckin' early, King," Daryl called out, keeping his voice somewhat low. "When I said come around any time—I didn't mean the ass crack of dawn."

"Carol's still asleep?" Ezekiel asked, ignoring Daryl entirely as he crossed the yard toward the porch.

"Sleepin' good," Daryl said. "I won't wake her up, neither, for anything short of an actual emergency."

"I don't wish for you to wake her," Ezekiel said. "I knew that it's been her habit to sleep later these mornings since she became aware of the little one's presence. At least—when the little one allows her to sleep."

Daryl's stomach knotted in response to Ezekiel's words.

There was no bite to them at all. There was no malice. He was simply stating fact as he knew it to be, and it was a reminder that Daryl had missed a lot of time with Carol. He had a lot of time to make up for.

"It was you that I was hoping to speak with," Ezekiel said, unaware that Daryl was stewing over the fact that he'd woken up with Carol countless mornings when Daryl was only just beginning the habit. Daryl reminded himself, though, that it was him that Carol had chosen for the rest of her mornings—and that was really all that mattered.

"What is it?" Daryl asked.

"Carol has hardly been well since she learned that she was carrying the little one," Ezekiel said.

"So, I heard," Daryl said.

"She expressed to me that she wants to do what she can to make sure that the child is healthy and thrives," Ezekiel said.

"So far, we're on the same page," Daryl said.

"She's also expressed that she's terrified of the whole process," Ezekiel said. "Carrying the child. Giving birth. Having a baby to raise in this world."

"If you knew all the hell she's seen," Daryl said, "and all the hell that's—well…that's happened to her? You wouldn't need her to tell you she was terrified. You'd just know that she's gotta be."

"I'm not your enemy," Ezekiel said blankly. "If anything—I share one very important thing in common with you, and that's that I would give anything for Carol's happiness. No matter how much it hurts me. But I am not your enemy, Daryl."

Daryl felt properly scolded, but he accepted that he probably deserved it. Rather than lash out at the man who pretended to be a king for some ongoing fantasy game he played with those who called themselves his subjects, Daryl nodded at him.

"You right," Daryl said. "And—look—I'm sorry. About bein' an asshole. But also, about how things, you know, turned out."

Ezekiel offered him a smile.

"They turned out as I always knew they would," Ezekiel said. "Perhaps, even, as I always hoped they would. I would rather lose Carol to her happiness forever than to hold her for eternity in misery."

"For what it's worth," Daryl offered. "I don't think—she was never miserable when she was with you. If she had been? I wouldn'ta let her go back to the Kingdom."

"Can we declare a truce, then?" Ezekiel asked.

"Had one already," Daryl said. "Hell—it's just too damn early. I ain't awake yet and I don't want to make coffee because the smell'll wake her up."

Ezekiel smiled. He winked at Daryl.

"Especially these days," he offered. "If you don't know it yet, her sense of smell is incredibly heightened."

"I'll keep it in mind," Daryl said. "What'd you want to talk to me about. Or did you just come down here to draw up a truce?"

"There's a doctor at the Hilltop," Ezekiel said. "A real doctor. He has equipment for—dealing with pregnancies. He has a machine to scan the baby and make sure that it's healthy and everything's growing as it should be." Daryl's stomach fluttered a little at the thought of all that. He didn't interrupt Ezekiel, though, since he'd already interrupted the man a number of times and he thought he owed him the nicety of at least letting him finish. "I meant to take her to the Hilltop when she first learned that she was carrying the baby. Ironically, she fell ill before I could take her. She was too ill to risk taking her and—I honestly feared for the worst. I put it off because she believed, and I did too, that every day would be the last day that she would carry the baby. So, I never sent for the doctor to come to the Kingdom. She survived the illness, though, and it appears the baby did as well. I thought you might want to know that he's there. He could offer peace of mind where so few of us really can."

"Thanks," Daryl said. "For real. I'ma talk to her. See if I can't—get her to go."

Ezekiel reached in his pocket and produced a folded-up piece of paper that he passed to Daryl.

"Take this," he said.

"What is it?" Daryl asked.

"A royal invitation to the Kingdom," Ezekiel said. "He knows me. We've met before. Invite him to come to the Kingdom. Invite him to bring his equipment and to stay until the Queen's heir makes an appearance in the world."

Daryl snorted. He stuffed the piece of paper into his own pocket without opening it up to read the Shakespearean bullshit that had, no doubt, been scratched onto the page with a peacock feather and some black paint. Daryl lit another cigarette for himself and blew the smoke away from Ezekiel so as to not alienate or irritate his new fine-spoken friend.

"Might not word it just that way," Daryl said. "But—I'll ask him to come back to the Kingdom. To be closer to Carol and all."

"Tell him that he'll be provided for," Ezekiel said. "All his needs will be provided for."

"I'll let him know," Daryl said. "And—thanks for letting me know about this. Carol hadn't mentioned it. I'm sure she would have but…"

"Things have been quite busy," Ezekiel finished.

"Yeah," Daryl agreed. "Listen—as long as we're talking man-to man and all…there's somethin' else I kinda wanted to run by you."

Ezekiel looked either pleased that they were talking like this, or amused that Daryl had something he wanted to discuss with him. Daryl wasn't sure which, and he decided not to think too much about it.

"Whatever you want to discuss," Ezekiel said. "I've always got time for an audience with the Queen's chosen suitor."

Daryl frowned at him, but he left him alone. Everyone had their thing these days—whatever it was that got them out of bed—and if this was what Ezekiel needed to keep trudging through this world, then Daryl wasn't going to try to make him stop. Besides, Daryl had all ideas that King Ezekiel, for all the cheery faces he would put on in public, probably felt about knee deep in shit at the moment. If spouting off like some kind of storybook character made him feel better, he might as well have that.

"It's about Henry," Daryl said. "He's takin' this pretty damn hard."

"He's dealing with the separation of his parents," Ezekiel said. "Adopted or not, we've been his parents for some time now. To see us apart—it's going to take him a few days to adjust."

"I get that," Daryl said. "I do. Totally understand it and I told Carol as much."

"She's not taking it well either," Ezekiel offered, concern crossing across his brow.

"Not at all," Daryl said. "Not the fact that Henry's upset, at least. And it's starting to dredge up some old memories."

"And I assume they are not the kind that you wish to sit around reminiscing about."

"Not in the damn slightest," Daryl said.

"Have the nightmares started again?" Ezekiel asked. "The ones where—she screams and doesn't recognize anyone?"

"Takes her at least ten minutes to come outta of each of 'em good," Daryl said. "She was up half the night with sweats from night terrors. She's sick to death thinkin' that Henry ain't gonna forgive her an' he's never gonna come around again. He's gonna stay with you 'cause he thinks she's a bitch or somethin' that done you wrong."

"Is it fever?" Ezekiel asked. "She had horrible visions of things with the fevers."

"No fever," Daryl said. "Not yet. Nightmares. I know 'em. I've seen 'em before."

"It's been some time since she had nightmares without the fevers," Ezekiel said.

"Well if they keep up and she don't rest," Daryl said, "then she's gonna fall sick to fever again because her immune system's gonna be shot from stress and exhaustion. She's gotta get some peace—at least as much as I can create for her."

"It was a bad night," Ezekiel said. There was more empathy there than Daryl expected. He felt it in the man's words. There was absolutely no challenge there now. Daryl didn't expect to feel oddly moved by the fact that Ezekiel truly sounded like he cared for Daryl's plight.

"Bad enough—I'd consider sending her back to the Kingdom if I thought that'd fix it. Just to let her be close to Henry," Daryl said. He shook his head at Ezekiel. "She can't do that. She can't lose another kid. She don't deserve it. And not over somethin' as stupid as some hurt feelings."

"Henry is young," Ezekiel said. "He's nearly a man, but nearly a man is still a boy. And he loves his mother deeply. He's rebelling. He's angry, perhaps. He's dealing with the shattering of—of an illusion."

"That's just it," Daryl said. "It's an illusion. It's some rebellion for him. But it's the end of the world to her. I wanna talk to him. Ask him to come an' stay. At least let him know he's welcome here. See if—if he don't want to stay long term if he won't just—throw her a bone. A night here or there. Let her have a night, or somethin', where she goes an' pulls the blankets up around his neck like she even done while we was at the camp."

"Henry may want to act out," Ezekiel said with a hint of a smile, "but he doesn't want to truly hurt Carol. If he realized that she'd lost even a few hours of sleep—or that the nightmares were returning—he would do whatever he could to soothe her. At the moment, perhaps he feels he needs to pick a side. And since I am still where he knows me to belong, perhaps that's why he's chosen that side."

"He thinks she betrayed you," Daryl said.

"I'll talk to him," Ezekiel said. "Again. And—you should talk to him." For just a moment, Daryl saw it. He saw the relaxation as it reached the muscles of Ezekiel's face. He saw the exact moment that the man put down his guard and dropped his act for just a second. "Daryl—at this point in his life, Carol is Henry's greatest love. When you speak to him, make sure that he knows that Carol is your greatest love, too. That's a language he'll understand. And I know she must be—because just like you would have never let her return to the Kingdom if she were miserable there, I would have never let her go if I weren't certain she was going to arms where she would find the greatest love."

Daryl nodded his understanding. He understood, too, that there was nothing else that needed to be said about the subject, at least not for the time being.

"I appreciate you talkin' to him," Daryl said. "I'll talk to him, too. And I'ma see if I can't get Carol ready to leave for the Hilltop as soon as possible."

"Go to the Hilltop today," Ezekiel said. "The skies look clear. I'll leave the wagon, so Carol can't refuse. I'll talk to Henry and, after you've returned, you can talk to him. He should be more receptive then."

"Thanks," Daryl said. "At least—let me take you back to the Kingdom in the wagon."

Ezekiel smiled and shook his head.

"It's a nice morning," Ezekiel said. "And I've got a lot on my mind. I'll appreciate the walk."

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AN: As I've said before, I haven't watched the show for a while. I know there's a doctor and such, but I know nothing about him, so I'm making my own up. That really goes for pretty much all the characters I may end up bringing into the story. I hope that's not a problem!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Let me know what you think!