AN: Here we go, another chapter here.
For the few questions/concerns that I've seen about what's going on, don't worry. Eventually you're going to know everything. This just happens to be a story where a lot of characters have little pieces they give to you and only a very small number of them actually know everything.
Your questions, though, will mostly all be answered in time.
I hope that you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol's outing had taken more of the day than she'd really expected to spend on it. It didn't really matter, though, as their days were still much like they'd been at the prison and the passing of them was really only marked by meals and by little else.
Some time had been spent Dr. Walker working out the logistics of their ruse. For some amount of time, the only thing Carol would have to do to play her role was tell everyone her blessed news. If she wanted to go for a truly award winning performance, she could tick off a few symptoms publicly or, in time, openly excuse herself from meal time to insist that not everything was agreeing with the false morning sickness from which she would undoubtedly be suffering. Every pregnancy was different and, with the confirmation of the community's primary physician, there was really very little chance that anyone could question her performance.
After Carol had left the office, she'd feigned some excitement and told the guard that she was expecting. She insisted that she'd like to take a few things home with her to surprise her "companion"—given that she couldn't stomach referring to Daryl as her "mate"—and she'd been given a slightly more comprehensive tour of the community than she'd ever had before while she was escorted to the place that the guard called their "warehouse".
Their community, from what Carol could see, had the potential to be fairly self-sufficient—though they did bring in many goods from outside for convenience and variety. While she was out, Carol pressed the guard for any information she could about potential jobs and, consequently, greater freedoms for all of them, but the guard insisted that he had no information beyond the fact that they were more likely to begin in community building roles than they were in more specialized roles.
Her outing complete, and a few things acquired, and the guard returned Carol to her house where Daryl was waiting for news of any sort.
Carol thanked the guard for her escort, and the extra time spent with her, and she accepted his congratulations—something she was going to have to become accustomed to. When she closed the door to the house behind her, and listened to the lock engage from the outside, she quickly found Daryl sitting at their small table and working the same puzzle he'd just started when she left. It was almost complete now and he was so absorbed in his activity that he didn't look up to acknowledge her presence.
Carol took her few possessions to the kitchen and, from one of the bags, she selected the bottle of sparkling juice. She'd have preferred wine, but she couldn't very well declare she was pregnant and then make a show of picking something out to intoxicate the fictional fetus. The juice would have to do for their fake celebration and Carol's explanation to Daryl of the plan that she'd gotten them involved in.
Carol brought the wine glasses of juice with her and put one down on the table near the corner of Daryl's puzzle. The puzzle had come in a white box with no other information on it than it was a puzzle. Now that he was working it, Carol could see that it appeared to be a field full of flowers with what she was guessing was a cow lying in the middle of it. The cow—if that's what it was—had barely been touched. It was all that Daryl had left to finish so that he could call the puzzle complete.
He looked away from his bovine contemplation when the glass touched down on the table, and then he followed Carol's arm up to look at her. She smiled at him and raised her eyebrows in greeting. It seemed to be the first moment that he genuinely realized she was there.
"This mean you pregnant?" Daryl asked.
"Yes and no," Carol said. He furrowed his brow at her and Carol laughed to herself because she could imagine his confusion.
"Always thought there was just yes or there was just no," Daryl said. "Didn't realize there was a halfway there mark."
"There isn't," Carol said with a sigh. She pulled out the other chair and sat facing Daryl across the table—and across his nearly-finished puzzle. "I'm not pregnant. But—I may be fairly soon."
"You were gone a long damn time for—nothing," Daryl said. "I could've told you that much if I knew for sure you weren't pregnant to begin with."
He picked through his pile of puzzle pieces and found another piece to the animal. He placed it and Carol reached across the table to catch his hand before he could dive back in and fish for another piece of the cow. He furrowed his brow at her again.
"It's not that simple," Carol said. "I talked to the doctor. I'm going to get a little help getting pregnant."
"He got something I don't?" Daryl asked, raising his eyebrows at Carol. She laughed to herself and shook her head.
"She," Carol said.
"This is gonna be some trick, then," Daryl mused.
"Fertility treatment," Carol said. "I'm not the youngest hopeful-mother here and—it's just something that'll help out."
"Like what?" Daryl asked. "What's that mean? Ain't that like what that—what was her name? The woman had like a dozen kids at once? Ain't that what she did?"
"Yes and no," Carol responded.
"Boy, you full of clear answers today," Daryl said. "Must be something in the water. While you were gone I called about jobs? Just—mostly to see if they really would answer the phones? Got a whole lot of nothing."
"I'm not trying to be contradictory," Carol said. "Yes—the dozen babies probably came from fertility drugs, but I won't be doing anything that drastic. This will just—boost the number of eggs I release so that one of them has a better chance of getting fertilized."
"Or a dozen of 'em?" Daryl asked.
"I don't know that I have a dozen to start with," Carol admitted.
Daryl shrugged.
"OK, then. You wanna do that?" Daryl asked.
Carol chewed on her lip.
"Do you want us to have a baby?" Carol asked.
"Don't put that kind of thing on me," Daryl said. "I'd like it if we do, but I can be satisfied if we don't. I told you before. If we can? Great. It doesn't happen? Mmm—just didn't happen."
"But what would you like?" Carol asked. "In this perfect world that they're designing for us? What would be the best case scenario?"
Daryl looked, suddenly, a little nervous. Maybe it was the first time that he was thinking about it all in a truly serious manner. Maybe it was just hitting him that this was their reality—as odd as it all seemed. He dropped his eyes.
"Best case scenario is they tell me what the hell the puzzle is before I get started," Daryl said. "I thought it was balloons or some shit and I was trying to fit together pieces that never woulda gone."
Carol touched his hand again. This time, she let her fingertips rest there and she gently stroked the skin near his thumb.
"Did I scare you?" She asked.
"What the hell ain't scary around here?" Daryl asked.
Carol's stomach flipped. It was true. Things were about as pleasant as she could remember them being in a very long time. She knew that Daryl, too, was living in something of a fantasy. Continuing like this, even without their freedom, was a hundred times better than what they'd known in prison. But bringing a baby into the world was mildly terrifying even in a perfect world—and despite the fact that things were better for them, their world was far from perfect.
"All things ideal," Carol said. "Would you want to have a baby with me or not?"
Daryl looked at her and he nodded his head.
"Yeah," he said. "Yeah—I mean. All things right? Yeah."
"I want to have a baby with you," Carol said as sincerely as she could. "And if this is how we do it? This is—just how we do it."
Daryl somewhat shrugged again.
"Then it's done," he said. "What else?"
"What else?" Carol asked.
"Your face says you made up your mind," Daryl said. "But it sure don't say you're done. So what else is on your mind besides our baker's dozen of kids?"
He cracked a smile at his own joke or Carol might have worried a little that he was serious. She popped the hand that rested under hers and he simply laughed a little more.
"There is something else," she said.
"I could see that," Daryl said.
Carol sucked in a breath.
"We have to pretend I'm pregnant," Carol said. She got the original confused look from Daryl and she gave him a pass for it. She nodded at him. "I'm already telling people and you've got to play along too. Nobody can know that I'm not pregnant. We just—say that I am. Pretend that I am."
"But you're not?" Daryl asked. Carol shook her head gently. "Then why the fuck would we do that?"
Carol somewhat shrugged her own shoulders.
"I don't have all the information," she said. "The doctor couldn't tell me everything. But Wave Thirty Three? Part of the program is that there's—reproduction."
"We know that," Daryl said.
"Well, apparently the government is pressuring the people that—are running this thing? They're pressuring them to say that we're on our way. That—something's happening here. I don't know all the details, but they need to know that there are going to be babies. There's—we're not just here or something. But it's early. It's soon. There just aren't pregnancies yet. So—I'm going to pretend I'm pregnant. The doctor's going to handle all the paperwork. That way? The government gets information that there are pregnancies and things are going—smoothly, I guess? And then I'm going to see her and she's going to help me get pregnant. For real. It's a trade. What she needs for what I want," Carol explained.
"And all we have to do is pretend you're pregnant?" Daryl asked. Carol nodded.
"That's it," she said.
"Then why don't they just get two or three dozen people to do the same thing?" Daryl asked.
"She might," Carol said. "I don't know. I just know that we can't tell anyone that it's not real. We've got to be dedicated to it. She did say that—maybe in not so many words—that you were right. About us getting out of here? Apparently the only way out of here is..." Carol drew her finger across her throat, but Daryl got the message. "And if the project fails? If there weren't any pregnancies or whatever else happened and it all fell apart? They'll shut the whole thing down and we'll all get one last bullet as a parting gift." Daryl's eyes showed the same concern that Carol had felt when she'd listened to the doctor. "So—if she needs pregnancies? I'm as pregnant as she wants me to be."
Daryl laughed to himself—a nervous laugh this time.
"Hell, I'm feeling a little pregnant too," he said. "Sign my ass up."
"So you'll go along with it?" Carol asked.
"Is there some other choice?" Daryl asked.
Carol sucked in a breath and shook her head.
"No," she admitted. "Not if you don't want to blow our cover and risk getting some of us—or all of us—killed."
Daryl swallowed and nodded his head.
"Then I'm going along with it, but..." He said, breaking off.
"What?" Carol pressed.
"We're still gonna keep trying?" Daryl asked.
Carol laughed to herself.
"As hard as ever," she said. "Just with a little help this time. Don't worry—you're not getting worked out of this whole thing. You're still getting all the sex you can tolerate."
He cracked a smile, but he quickly erased it and shook his head.
"No," he said. "I mean—hell, I'm glad to hear it—but that wasn't what I was getting at." Carol raised her eyebrow at him to ask him, without having to actually put the words out there, what he was really thinking about. He accepted the gesture. "What happens," he asked, "if you get pregnant? Because that's what we're going for, right? What happens—if you get pregnant? And then you were supposed to be pregnant and then you really were pregnant—but they ain't the same pregnancy?"
Carol nodded her head. She understood his concern because she'd already been there herself.
"Depends on how fast this works for me," Carol said. "If it takes a while? We just say that the pregnancy didn't work out. We say I lost the baby. Then—we wait for me to really get pregnant. If it works out quickly? Before we say that? The Dr. Walker pulls something of a mea culpa with the new pregnancy and says the first one terminated but things got—mixed up somehow. That's if anybody even asks—which they probably won't. They just want it on file that people are pregnant. The details are left to someone else that she's sure won't care as long as there are some pregnancies that do work out. She's confident that nobody's going to care. And...it won't matter because there's a new pregnancy anyway. And the old one? The fake one? It's still on the books as a confirmed pregnancy so it—you know. It stands in as proof that things are happening here—even if they're not happening as fast as the government would maybe like."
"And we don't get busted because she fucked up and didn't notice that the first one ended before the second began?" Daryl asked.
Carol shook her head.
"Doesn't come back on us at all. It was a record mistake, that's all. Something with—fluctuating hormone levels and whatever confusion," Carol said. "And as an expectant mother with so much going on? And my doctor missed something? I might not have noticed everything in the confusion—or at least that's what I'll say. And we're very sad about what happened but so very happy about how things worked out and...you get the idea? It won't matter. Right now? The government's biggest concern is some proof of forward progress, not that everything goes off without a hitch."
"And you wanna do this too?" Daryl asked.
"I want her help," Carol said. "And I want—I would rather—be on the good side of someone with authority than on their bad side. If I were to refuse? After she stuck her neck out there and told me her plan? What do you think might've happened?" Daryl nodded his understanding. "And I don't want to die," Carol added. "And I don't want anyone else to die. I think—that this might actually get us all somewhere. And if what they need to keep it going is me pretending to be pregnant? Then—I'm really, really pregnant."
Daryl snorted.
"Congratulations, then," he said.
Carol picked up her wine glass filled with juice and gestured in the form of a toast. Daryl picked up on what she meant and followed suit. She clanked the tops of their glasses together.
"Congratulations to you, too," Carol said. "And—here's to our babies. The fake one and the real one to come."
"Hear, hear," Daryl said. He tasted some of the juice, the same as Carol did, and then he cleared his throat. "As long as you're just over there growing imaginary kids, how about pull your chair around? Help me get this damn thing together."
