AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

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

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Carol hid the fact that she was amused at the idea of Daryl taking part in a birds-and-bees conversation with Judith. She didn't want to discourage him in any way. He was trying. Daryl was trying in every possible way. And he'd already surpassed absolutely every expectation that Carol could have for him.

Daryl wanted to be sure that Carol was comfortable. He wanted to be sure that she had everything—from both a physical and an emotional standpoint—that she needed to be happy, healthy, and comfortable. He wanted to be sure that she was in the best position possible to help their little one grow and thrive. She appreciated every one of his efforts, no matter how small. She recognized his intentions for what they were, and she was doing her best not to scold him—even when he did things like wake her up to see if she was sleeping well.

Daryl wanted Enid to be happy so that she could offer extra medical attention to Carol and the baby. He'd helped to make sure she was settled in her house and, during the early part of the day, when Carol had been at the clinic helping with Enid's training, Daryl had moved some furniture and extra food from the community storage down to Enid's house.

Daryl had also seen about cleaning out a house for Henry—knocking off a few layers of dust and getting it ready for occupation—since they were sure that he'd be coming soon. He could stay in Michonne's house—there was room for him there—but Daryl thought he might prefer the room to spread out a little and taste some freedom and adulthood, even though he was safely behind the same community walls as his mother.

Daryl was embracing the idea of having a family with both hands.

And, now, despite the discomfort and uneasiness that he was clearly fighting, he had agreed—rather enthusiastically, really—to sit in with Carol and Michonne and to have a birds-and-bees conversation with Judith while RJ spent some time with one of the neighbors.

"You're sure you don't want to change your mind?" Carol asked quietly when Daryl walked into the living room where she was waiting for everyone to join her.

Daryl smirked at her.

"You want this popcorn, or you don't?" Daryl asked, holding out a large bowl of popcorn. The other bowl he'd sat down on the coffee table when he'd walked in the room—a bowl for Michonne and, possibly, for Judith. Carol's stomach answered for her.

"Yes, please," she requested, laughing at the loud rumble that her stomach produced.

Daryl sat down beside her, bringing the popcorn with him. He rested the bowl on Carol's lap. She noticed that he hadn't answered her question, but she assumed his settling in next to her was what he would consider enough of an answer.

"We can handle it, you know? It might be uncomfortable," Carol offered. "When I talked to Michonne, she's kind of decided that—well, there's no need to hide anything from Judith. We maybe say things nicely, but there's no need for her not to know about something that's so natural. Michonne thinks the time for that kind of relationship with sex and reproduction has passed."

"She ain't wrong," Daryl said.

"I guess—I might have thought you'd say that she was too young," Carol said. "Maybe—that's just what's left over from growing up in a family where everything was taboo. I was a virgin when I married Ed. And—I wasn't prepared. Not at all. It was awful—I wish that I'd at least have had someone talk to me beforehand. And not to make me feel like it was all so secret and—shameful. I grew up thinking that you just didn't talk about that kind of thing, though, so you can imagine how surprised I was to find out what really happened."

Daryl laughed, low in his throat. He reached his hand over and caught Carol's hand. He worked her hand in his for a moment before he released it.

"Could have fooled me," he said. "I thought you were an expert."

Carol felt her face grow warm.

"When I asked my mother about it later, she said that she'd been raised to believe that if you told children about sex, it would make them want to do it," Carol said.

"Nature makes 'em wanna do it," Daryl said. "Don't it? I mean—even if you don't know what the hell it is, you know if you want to do it…do something. Same thing—you can know what the hell it is, but if you just don't want it, you don't." He shrugged. "I grew up with fuckin' Merle. Every damn thing I heard was about sex. I didn't really want it, though, even though I heard about it all the time."

Carol leaned and kissed him, nuzzling his hear. He shivered and she smiled to herself.

"You didn't say you didn't want it this morning," she said, settling back against the couch again and chewing her way through a few pieces of popcorn that she popped in her mouth in rapid succession. She couldn't help but smile at his expression. "You didn't say you didn't want it this afternoon, either, as I recall, when you were showing me your…advanced lingual abilities."

Daryl's face ran red, but he continued to stare at her with just a hint of a smile on his lips. When he stared at her like that, it was sometimes unnerving. She'd never had a man stare at her like Daryl did—like he just wanted to keep looking at her.

"I said I didn't want it back then," Daryl said. "My point was—I didn't want sex just for sex. Wasn't about just havin' it because I knew what it was or that…it was out there. Didn't really want it until there was someone I wanted it with."

Carol leaned against him, and he moved his arm to drop it over her shoulder so that she could snuggle closer on the couch.

"That might be one of the most romantic things that you've ever said to me," Carol said.

Daryl snorted and Carol shook as his body shook with the laughter that he held back.

"That might mean I got a lot of work to do when it comes to learnin' what the hell to say," Daryl said.

"I think you're doing fine," Carol said. "Does this mean—you want to be open with our daughter, too?"

"Yeah," Daryl said. "I mean—if you do. I mean—hell…if we gotta teach her about killin' Walkers and watchin' out for crazy assholes…all that shit? And bein' ready to kill if she's gotta…and to accept death at every damn turn? I don't got no problem teachin' her about life. Teachin' her that when people love each other—like that—they wanna show it to each other in some kinda way. I mean we tell her up front what the hell it means, and what the hell can happen…but…"

"Are you going to feel that way when she has a boyfriend?" Carol asked.

Daryl hummed.

"Long as she waits as long as her old man did," Daryl offered with a smile. Carol knew he was teasing. He wasn't trying to hide it. He reached his hand across to get some popcorn, obviously not wanting to move the arm that was over her shoulder for now, and Carol slid the bowl closer to him. "How long 'fore she grows big enough you could—do what Michonne used to do with RJ an' balance that bowl on there?"

Carol felt an inexplicable rush of butterflies in her stomach—some of the fluttering, she knew, was the baby. Some of it, though, simply came from Daryl's words. His curiosity. She pulled away from him enough to be able to change her position, sinking lower in the couch. Gaining possession of his arm once more, Daryl sat up and turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?" She asked. "I can do that now." She rested the bowl on her stomach and laughed at Daryl's expression.

"Sit up before you end up stuck in the couch," Daryl said. "You know what I mean."

Carol did sit up again. She helped herself to another few pieces of popcorn, and she let her fingertips trail lazily over her belly.

"She's growing," Carol said. "Siddiq said she's really growing well. I feel like I double in size every night. I get up in the morning and it's just like—wow…look at all this."

"You're tiny," Daryl said. "Looks like you're skin and bones and tryin' to hide a lil' honeydew under your clothes."

Carol laughed to herself.

"The honeydew is growing," Carol said. "Trust me—she's growing. I'm starting to feel enormous."

"Tiny," Daryl insisted. "Too small." He shook the popcorn bowl at her. Though Carol felt nervous when people like Michael said she was too small, or even when Enid had repeated Michael's words a few times and forced Siddiq to say that all was well, she didn't feel nervous when Daryl said it. Daryl didn't say it so that it sounded like a portent or even a judgement. Daryl simply said it in a teasing, loving manner. When he said it, it made Carol feel the butterflies, again, that only Daryl really seemed able to stir up.

Before Carol could respond to him with more than a kiss, though, Dog came bounding into the room and came directly to the coffee table to try to help himself to some of the popcorn that Daryl had put there. Daryl hit his feet quickly, barking noises at the dog to stop him before his nose could be buried in the food, and he sent the animal off to lie down on the rug with a loud sigh.

Michonne and Judith followed directly after Dog, and it didn't take long before everyone was settled. If Daryl wanted to run—instead of being the only male representative of the human species in attendance—he'd missed his window.

Carol caught a glimpse of Michonne's former lawyer self as she spoke to Judith and practically gave opening remarks. She told her that the book she'd picked out was a grown-up book, but she thought that Judith could handle it. She told her that she thought it was best if Judith knew things, even though she had to understand that there were some things that grown ups did that were simply that—grown up activities. And then she'd opened the door by telling Judith that she could ask questions, any time she wanted, of Michonne, Carol, or even Daryl.

It was better to understand, and to have open communication with them, Michonne had decided, than it was to go trying to discover and uncover answers.

Judith's first question, when she realized she was free to ask what she wanted, was very much what they might have predicted. Where do babies come from and, more specifically, when she was pressed to elaborate, how do they get there?

"I got this one," Daryl offered quickly, like he'd been preparing for the question. Michonne waved her hand at him to say that he should answer the question. He sat forward, looking around Carol to see Judith's face, since Judith had wedged herself in next to Carol to pet her belly while they talked. "See—babies grow like anything else. The mamas got somethin' inside of them that…well, it ain't soil…but it works like soil. Good for growin' things. And the daddies…they got somethin' like seeds. So, when they—uh—when a mama and a daddy wanna grow a baby together, they do it like growin' anything else. Plant the seed. Tend to it. It grows."

Michonne's expression said she was fairly impressed with Daryl's explanation and Daryl sat back, satisfied. Carol switched hands to continue munching her popcorn, and she slipped her hand into Daryl's to squeeze his and give him physical reassurance that she was impressed with how he'd handled the situation.

"How do they plant the seed?" Judith asked.

Both Carol and Daryl looked at Michonne as if to say that it was all on her to decide how much she was really dedicated to sharing with her daughter.

"You know how boys and girls are different, right?" Michonne asked. "Their private parts are different, right? We talked about that."

"Like RJ has a penis, because he's a boy," Judith offered. "And I have a vagina, because I'm a girl."

Carol heard Daryl cough quietly. She squeezed his hand and focused on not laughing.

"That's right," Michonne acknowledged. "Well—you know what some of the animals do, right? You've seen some of what they do, and you remember that I told you that—that's what they do to have babies."

Judith had stopped petting Carol's stomach. Her hand rested there, but she was fixated on Michonne's words and her own thoughts.

"Like the rabbits," Judith said. Michonne nodded.

"Like the rabbits," Michonne said. "People do something—similar—when the mommies and the daddies want to make babies."

"Jesus," Daryl muttered and looked away as Judith turned to regard the both of them with new eyes. Carol felt her face run warm, but she was dedicated to being open and honest. She may have been taught to be embarrassed by such things, but she'd worked for a long time to teach herself that it shouldn't have to be that way. She simply nodded her head.

"It's true," she confirmed.

Judith didn't look horrified. She simply furrowed her brow and nodded, absorbing the new information.

"Did you want to ask anything else about that right now?" Michonne asked, moving from her seat to sit on the edge of the coffee table so that she could be closer to Judith. She touched Judith's knee to get her attention.

"I don't think so," Judith said.

"You can ask—when you want," Michonne said.

"Does it hurt?" Judith asked, directing her question to Carol.

"Does what hurt?" Carol asked.

"Her growing," Judith pressed.

"No," Carol said. "At least—not all the time. Sometimes—things are uncomfortable, but it's not bad hurt. It's good uncomfortable, because I know it's all to help her grow."

Judith opened her mouth like she might ask a question, then she stopped and looked at Michonne.

"Mama?" She said.

Michonne was massaging her temples with her fingertips, but she dropped her hands to her knees quickly. She smiled and glanced at Carol.

"I already know what's coming," Michonne said. "It's OK, sweetheart. I didn't mean that in a bad way. You can ask whatever you want to know."

"I know that the milk is for feeding the babies," Judith said. "And I know that all mammals have breasts and they make milk. You told me that."

Michonne nodded.

"I did," Michonne said.

"And I know how the rabbits are born," Judith said. "How do people babies get born?"

"Same way the rabbits do, really," Daryl said. He shrugged when he realized all eyes were on him. "What? They do."

Michonne touched Judith's leg again, drawing her attention back.

"Uncle Daryl's not exactly wrong," Michonne offered. "But we're not going to put Aunt Carol in a pen with hay and fur. Still—it is a lot like the rabbits, sweetheart. I know you weren't here when RJ was born, but Aunt Carol will let us know when it's time, and Uncle Daryl will take care of her, and the baby will be born. I'm pretty sure that this book is going to cover some of that if you and Aunt Carol read it."

"How much does Mama want Aunt Carol to elaborate on everything?" Carol asked.

Michonne laughed to herself.

"Honestly? As much as Aunt Carol is comfortable," Michonne said. "I meant what I said. I know that these are grown up things, but Judith is growing up. And I think she can handle it."

"Of course she can handle it," Daryl said quickly. "It ain't nothin' but somethin' natural, Asskicker. People love each other. Want to have babies together. There's a whole process you gotta go through to get the baby to grow an' be born. Same as any animal. But there ain't nothin' secret about it. Same as the rabbits. It's just natural."

"Can I watch when it's born?" Judith asked.

"Why don't we talk about that later," Michonne said. "I think—your Aunt Carol and I need to talk about that first."

"It's natural, Mama," Judith offered, echoing Daryl's words. Daryl looked a little proud of himself.

"It's natural, all right," Michonne said. "It's going to be completely natural. And it's still something we need to discuss, as adults, in private. For now, though, I think that just about covers everything that you might want to know going into your book. Do you have anything else?"

Judith considered it a moment and shook her head.

"Can we read my book now?" She asked.

"What about later?" Carol asked. "Just before bed? I'd like to spend a little time with your Uncle Daryl."

Judith looked almost deflated, and Carol felt sorry for that, but Michonne was quick to get her daughter's attention.

"Hey—that's the other thing about babies," Michonne offered. "They really grow better when their mommies get to be happy and relaxed. Besides—I'm kind of missing my babies."

Judith's dejected expression was replaced with a smile that Michonne mirrored.

"RJ's almost a baby," Judith offered.

"I thought you were my baby, too," Michonne offered. Judith's smile grew a little.

"I could be your baby," Judith ceded.

"Good," Michonne said. "Because—I was hoping to take my babies on a walk. I need your help checking the perimeter, anyway. Making sure everything's safe. You think that we could go get RJ, and maybe take Dog, and go check that out?"

Judith got to her feet immediately. Michonne followed suit and called to Dog to stir the animal for another jaunt around Alexandria.

"Don't worry, Aunt Carol," Judith assured Carol as she headed for the front door. "I'll be back before you have to go to bed."