AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
Please note that I skipped a lot of the show. I fell out for a while and didn't watch the episodes I missed. That means I'm just sort of going AU here and creating mostly what I want. Many of the characters (beyond Caryl, etc.) are mostly just me creating characters with familiar names, faces, and a few familiar characteristics. Please forgive me for that. I'm sorry if it bothers you.
I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!
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The wagon barely made it inside the gates of Alexandria before Enid dropped down from the passenger seat. There were two others on the wagon who had clearly come to conduct some business in Alexandria or to visit with people that they knew there. Enid wasn't concerned with them. As soon as her feet hit the ground, Daryl called out to her to draw her attention. She smiled and waved before starting in the direction of both Daryl and Carol.
"Where's your stuff?" Daryl asked, meeting her a few steps before Carol closed the distance. "You are stayin'?"
Enid was carrying nothing, at the moment, beyond a small satchel. Daryl reached for it, and she pulled it back almost as a knee-jerk reaction, so he let her have it. He understood that it was nothing personal. It was likely not something she'd even consciously realized she'd done. They were all somewhat possessive of the few precious things they had, whether they were actual goods or their loved ones.
"It's on the wagon," Enid said. "Your letter—and Siddiq's letter—said that I should be prepared to stay here for like six months or longer. I brought everything, really."
Daryl glanced at Carol. She was beaming at the girl and Daryl smiled in response.
Enid had come a long way. She'd been orphaned, left to survive on her own, and she'd been taken in by Glenn and Maggie. In a lot of ways, Daryl knew that Carol saw some parallels between Henry's experiences and Enid's. The greatest differences, perhaps, were the parents that had adopted each of them when they'd been left with nobody to call their own in a world where, as Andrea had put it moments before she'd died, nobody could make it on their own.
Even though Enid had become the adopted child of Glenn and Maggie, she was very much the adopted niece of all of them that loved Glenn and Maggie, and she was practically Hilltop royalty. She usually stayed close to Maggie, but Maggie had gone off to try to find more people and, possibly, to learn new ways to really help their communities thrive if they should encounter new assholes along the way. She'd suggested that Enid would be safer in Hilltop, and that she'd have a better chance at a normal life there, and she'd left her behind. Enid was doing well under the care of Jesus and Tara, but it was time for her to begin branching out on her own. Like Henry, she would soon be an adult, if she wasn't technically one already—since nobody quite kept perfect track of the passage of time, nor did they know the actual age of either child when they'd been welcomed into the fold. Enid wanted to be a doctor—a caretaker, really, since titles could no longer be bestowed by universities as they once had been.
She'd been doing some training with Michael for a while but, as Daryl understood it, he'd always kept her somewhat in the position of a child with a passing interest. She learned to dress certain kinds of wounds sometimes, and she learned a few basic caregiving techniques, but Siddiq had suggested that Michael might see Enid as becoming nothing more than a glorified candy striper if he were left to handle things on his own.
Siddiq, in the letter that he'd sent to Hilltop with Daryl's, had offered Enid something entirely different. If she would commit to come and work with him, he'd said, then he would make sure that she was given every opportunity to assist in any care he was asked to give—and even to learn from some simulated events that he could create for her learning and practice.
Enid looked as refreshed as someone who had slept for seven or eight days without waking. Her energy was practically palpable in the air around them. Her eyes had that look of wild excitement that they so rarely got to see in the eyes of adults these days.
Enough had happened to her that she could be entirely jaded, but she'd chosen not to be. Instead, right now, she was excited to be embarking on her career—a dream she'd had for some time.
Daryl reached a hand out and affectionately patted the girl's shoulder. As long as she was here, they had some responsibility for her. No doubt, those who usually loved and cared for the girl would be expecting that, and they would have returned the favor for Carol if Henry were at the Hilltop.
"We'll get your stuff," he said. "Show you your place. We got a house fixed up for you. Whole place for you to do what you want."
"I'd really rather go on to Siddiq's," Enid offered, already looking in the direction of the house-turned-clinic.
Carol laughed quietly in response. She stepped up, clearly meaning to push Enid back toward the wagon so that they could get her things. Enid might have misinterpreted Carol's intention, though, because she wrapped around her in a hug that was wholly warm and familiar. Carol didn't miss a beat. She simply hugged Enid back and, when the hug broke, she affectionately tucked a piece of windblown hair behind Enid's ear.
"There's plenty of time to spend at Siddiq's," Carol assured her. "Let's get your things to your house. We took the liberty of having a few basic supplies delivered there—some food. You can get whatever you need from storage, but it'll get you started. Let's get you something to eat and let you get settled. Wash your face."
"You don't wanna show up to your first day of work lookin' like you just come up from wallowin' in the mud," Daryl offered.
There was some clear slumping of shoulders in response, but it was nothing that the two of them couldn't handle. With an audible sigh, Enid accepted her fate and returned to the wagon. Daryl thanked the guy that unloaded her things—a Hilltop native that he didn't know by name, given how many people came into the communities these days—and he asked the man to send their regards to everyone at Hilltop, and their promise that Enid would be well cared for while she remained at Alexandria, whether that was for half a year or longer.
To have brought everything she owned, there wasn't any more than the three of them could carry. Daryl took the bulk of the load, not wanting Carol or Enid to struggle under the weight of anything, especially since it was a respectable walk from one end of Alexandria all the way to the other end where they'd picked out a house for Enid.
They were quiet for the first few feet of the journey, but then the need to break the silence took over. Enid, especially when she was in a good mood or excited about something—both of which would be the case at the moment—was typically somewhat chatty.
"I can't believe you're pregnant," Enid said. Daryl was two steps in front of them, but he felt like he could practically hear Carol smile. He glanced over his shoulder at her and saw that he was right.
"I am," Carol confirmed.
"I mean—I can tellxz," Enid said. "Kind of. I mean it's not dramatic, but I could tell as soon as I got off the wagon. I didn't get to see you when you were in Hilltop. I was busy, but Michael said you were pregnant. He only talked about it, really, when I told him about the letters."
"He wasn't mad, was he?" Carol asked. "That we decided to stay here when we didn't stay at Hilltop?"
Enid hummed.
"Mad, no," she confirmed. "I mean—Tara said she guessed you came to Hilltop for a specific reason. There was something here you couldn't get at Hilltop. That's all."
"Somethin' we couldn't get at the Kingdom, neither. It weren't just the Hilltop. We came here for Michonne," Daryl said. "Carol needed to be around a mama that could understand her, you know? Understand her situation. We've all known each other a long time."
"I didn't know that I was coming to Alexandria to stay," Carol admitted. "I thought I was just coming to pay a visit. We'd stay a week or two, tops, and then we'd head back home. Plans got changed, though, rather suddenly."
"Something happened that made you change your plans?" Enid asked.
Carol hummed out confirmation that she was considering her response carefully before speaking.
"Michonne offered me something that I couldn't get elsewhere," Carol said. "The opportunity to do this with the support of a—a friend. Who had been there before, so to speak."
"The community is safer than the house by itself," Daryl said. "And Michonne's here. There ain't no shortage of supplies. We got Henry comin' now to spend the winter."
"Henry's coming?" Enid asked.
Daryl kept his face turned away from the girl. He smiled to himself.
"Yeah," Daryl said. "Sent a letter out to him the same day I sent one out to you. Asked him to bring all our stuff from the cabin, too. We didn't pack like we was gonna stay the whole winter and there's things we'd like to have. Gonna take him a bit longer to get here than it took you, but he's comin'. Maybe he gets here tomorrow."
"I hope he'll stay," Carol said. "But—it's the truth. When we got here, we didn't intend to stay. It just sort of happened. The opportunity was too good to pass up."
"Don't hurt that Siddiq's here," Daryl said. "And now that I hear he's gonna have one hell of an apprentice to help keep things under control, I'm real glad we decided to stay."
Daryl glanced back over his shoulder. Carol was smiling to herself, probably more from Enid's excitement—which was practically contagious—than anything else. Enid smiled to herself, too, as she clearly imagined herself soon being the end-of-the-world equivalent to one of those high-stakes ER doctors that used to appear on television shows that were nation-wide successes.
"Michael said that was good," Enid said. "That you were here. He said that you were a high-risk pregnancy, so it's better that you've got Siddiq close by instead of being out there at the Kingdom with nobody to help if—you know, if anything happened."
Daryl bristled slightly. It felt like every hair stood up on end—like he could detect danger around them just by the mention of Michael's words. He glanced over his shoulder at Carol. Her smile had fallen, but she looked less in distress and more bothered by the sun in her eyes, so he let it be for a moment. He realized, though, that he might not have paid it any attention before, but he was every bit as bothered by Michael's words as Carol had ever been.
"Yeah," Carol mused; with much the same tone she might use with Judith. "I guess—my pregnancy could be considered high-risk. You'll have to talk to Siddiq about that when we get there. Did Michael say anything else about it?"
Enid hummed.
"Not really," she said. "Not too much. Just, you know, what I said. That it was high-risk and it would be better to have someone there to take care of things if you needed it."
"Michael don't know everything," Daryl offered.
"Daryl…" Carol offered, softly, as a gentle reminder that Enid was nearly an adult, but still a child.
"No," Daryl said. "You really thinkin' of makin' this your profession? Like you—really thinkin' you wanna be a doctor or whatever they gonna decide to call it these days?"
He stepped up the steps and onto the porch of the house that they'd picked for Enid. He opened the door and ushered both Enid and Carol inside. He followed behind them. Immediately, both of them put their loads down, content that the living room was far enough for now—and maybe it was, since Enid might want to explore her new home before choosing which of the bedrooms would be hers. Daryl followed suit and chose a spot to put down the bags he was carrying out of the way, for now.
"Say," he prompted. "You serious about this profession?"
"Yes," Enid said, very sincerely. She nodded her head.
"Then you listen to what Siddiq's got to tell you. Now—we gonna eat somethin' an' then we gonna take you down there for your first lesson, right? Carol's first—check-up or, whatever you wanna call it. With you an' Siddiq. You listen to what Siddiq's gotta say."
Enid laughed to herself, maybe a little nervously. She shrugged her shoulders and looked around her living room a little before letting her eyes settle back on Daryl.
"I thought that was the whole idea," she offered. "He's going to teach me about medicine. Treating people. Being a doctor."
"That ain't my point," Daryl said, willing himself to soften a little so that he didn't lose Enid's trust, or even her attention, because she dismissed him as a hothead. "One of the biggest things that Siddiq's got to teach you is what the hell they call a bedside manner. Now—I ain't tryin' to be an asshole, but that's a lesson that Michael could learn somethin' about. Maybe a lotta doctors could. But Siddiq? He's gonna teach you about that shit. And you oughta listen to him."
"Daryl?" Carol said, resting her hand on Enid's shoulder.
"That's all I wanted to say," Daryl said, willing himself to relax even more. "Just—that you oughta listen to him. Take in all he's gotta say. That kinda thing's important."
"And I'm sure that—Siddiq is going to cover all of that," Carol said, patting Enid's shoulder and moving the girl's long hair around like she liked simply feeling it beneath her fingers. "Enid—sweetheart—why don't you go and wash up? I know how the road is dusty. I'm starving. And—Siddiq says I should absolutely be sure to eat if I'm hungry. We'll get a little lunch together, and then we can go down and see him."