AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"So you can see the layout is really very similar to what you're used to," Melodye said, giving them a whirlwind tour of the house that came down mostly to pointing and gesturing. "Here's the master bedroom and—you have a bathroom attached there. And then there's a second bathroom and over there you have a room that we've set up for Sophia so that she'll have some privacy and—of course, there's the nursery. We had your furniture delivered that you picked out and a few little surprises put in there. Your clothes and things are here, but we've also got you fresh linens and towels so that it's just a little bit nicer of a welcome. Everything else works just like you're accustomed. You've got your television and your phone. You can eat meals in the public dining area or you can order food to be delivered. Nothing like that changes. And everything will be updated to reflect your new address."
Daryl nodded at her. It was really all that he felt he could do at the moment.
It was a lot to take in, it was happening quickly, and they hadn't had even a moment to process anything. Daryl was hugging his pillow to his body—because foolishly he'd believed that he might need it at the new house and had carried it, along with bags of clothes and other items, through the street to their new home. Carol had the overall appearance of being stunned and had very nearly forgotten everything she owned, leaving Daryl to grab her bag for her before they'd left.
Now they were getting a whirlwind tour of their new house by the petite blonde and, though the house was every bit as nice as their old one, Daryl still felt like he needed to sit down somewhere and process the whole thing for just a moment.
"Are we good?" Melodye asked.
"Yeah," Daryl said, realizing that Carol seemed unable to do more at the moment than simply nod. "Yeah—we...good."
"Do you need anything else?" Melodye asked. "Does it look like we've forgotten anything?"
Daryl glanced around him. Honestly, in the few moments they'd been in the house, he hadn't seen anything that had been some kind of glaring problem, but they hadn't even had time to explore the space yet. It was much like when they'd arrived at their first house and they were simply put in the house to figure things out.
He shook his head.
"I don't—think so," he said. "Carol?"
Carol looked at him wide-eyed like he'd just asked her the most difficult question that she'd been asked since their arrival at the community.
"I'm fine," she said.
"If you think of anything," Melodye said, "then you'll just do what you normally do. Pick up the phone and place an order or—you can just walk over and pick it up if you don't want to wait. Now—given the circumstances, you've both been relieved of your work duties for the time being. We understand that there are a lot of adjustments that you'll need to make, so we want you to have time to make those adjustments. You're not banned from work, so you're certainly invited to come to work if you'd like that escape or—whatever—but you're not required to come in. Do you understand?"
"Think we got it," Daryl said. "Come to work if you want. Don't if you don't."
"That's pretty much it," Melodye said with a laugh.
"Sophia?" Carol asked.
"A couple of days," Melodye said. "More than likely. Maybe it's sooner than that, but we have no idea really. It's whenever the legal business is taken care of."
"And when do you come?" Daryl asked.
"I'll be here when they bring Sophia," Melodye said. "Just to observe. I won't be questioning you—or anything like that. I'll be here for observations. Just to make sure that everything is going to go as smoothly as possible with the reintroduction. After that? We'll give you a few days to sort of settle into things before we begin that part of the project."
"And the babies?" Daryl asked. "You're sure—they're OK? Nobody's gonna—they ain't gonna try to do nothin' to 'em?"
Melodye smiled at him and shook her head.
"The tests revealed they have no abnormalities," Melodye said. "They're OK. It's business as usual. Just—make sure that Carol's taking care of herself as she has been. And—not to spoil the surprise, but the tests revealed what the babies will be. So—we set up something of a reveal of their sexes for you in the nursery. It's the best we could do as far as a surprise goes."
"You mean like—we know what they are?" Daryl asked. "Like—they're already like..."
Melodye nodded even before Daryl could work out, in his feeling of stupor over everything that was happening, exactly what it all might mean.
"Genders," Melodye said. "Or, actually, biological sexes. But the same difference."
Daryl nodded at her again. Melodye reached out a hand and touched Carol's shoulder and Carol looked at her, the overall look of surprise still on her features.
"Rest some," Melodye said. "Settle in. Sophia will be here as soon as we can get her here. The babies are fine. Healthy and strong. Just—settle in and take care of yourselves."
She didn't wait around for some kind of proper goodbyes. Maybe she already knew that Carol and Daryl needed a few moments before they were ready and able to offer anything that resembled a proper farewell. Instead, she simply left them standing in their new living room. Carol was holding the one small bag that she'd remembered to grab. Daryl was holding his pillow. The other bags were sitting just a few feet away from them where he'd put them down when he'd come in the door. Anything else they needed was already in the house.
They were home, again, but this time it was the home where they'd stay. It was the home where, if they won this whole thing, they would possibly spend the rest of their lives and raise their children.
And Daryl found that he was mostly overwhelmed because it was hitting him all at once that they weren't taking it away from him. It was all his. The home, the family—the babies he'd feared they would lose.
He had a family—one he was willing to die without a moment's hesitation—and they were home.
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"Hey—you OK?" Daryl asked, tapping at the door frame. Carol was sitting on the bed in the room that they'd readied for Sophia. It was a room like any other room. It boasted a bed, a dresser for clothes, and a small night table. It would be up to Sophia to order the things that made it feel, Daryl supposed, like it was her own.
Daryl stepped into the room.
"This is her room," Carol said. "This is—Sophia's room."
Daryl nodded.
"It is," Daryl said.
"She's going to be here, Daryl," Carol said. "In this room. She's going to sleep—right here. Just a few feet away from our room."
Daryl swallowed and nodded.
"She is," Daryl said.
Carol wiped at her eyes. Daryl wasn't sure how exactly he'd explain what she was going through, but she looked like she was happy and sad at the same time. There was something of a smile on her face, but her cheeks were damp with tears that were leaking out of her eyes and probably had been for a bit.
"I put our stuff away," Daryl said. "Put it all in them drawers like you had it—ya know...back at our other house."
Carol nodded her head and gave him a quiet thanks before she ran her hand over the blanket on the bed.
"What if she doesn't remember me?" Carol asked.
Daryl crossed the room to stand in front of Carol. He reached a hand out and touched her shoulder. She didn't flinch away from him, so he put his other hand on the other shoulder and kneaded her muscles.
"She's gonna remember you," Daryl said. "You remember her. She's gonna remember you. You her Ma—that's pretty damn important."
"What if she doesn't—want me?" Carol asked. "Or want to be here? Daryl—what if you don't like her?"
Daryl laughed to himself.
"She's part of you," Daryl said. "I'm gonna love her. She's gonna love it here. We'll help her love it here. We'll teach her everything she's gotta know about—bein' here."
"Her father didn't really love her," Carol said. "She didn't really get to know him. She wouldn't remember him, Daryl. When he died? I was scared to death. I didn't think I'd live. You know? I was out there and she was so small and I didn't think I'd live because I was on my own and I didn't know how to survive out there. But—part of me was happy. Because I wasn't going to have to live with him. He was gone. And I knew she wasn't going to live with him. She'd never know him. She'd never remember him."
Daryl's stomach twisted. He nodded his head at Carol.
"I know that feelin'," Daryl said. "You lose somebody an'—it's the best damn thing that can happen. They just gone and you can breathe. But it's terrifying too. Losin' somebody that's always been there. You don't—you don't know why you feel that way. But—I guess even if you got somethin' that's bothering you, like a splinter or something? It's botherin' you and you don't like it, but you gonna notice that it's gone."
"It felt like something was better than nothing sometimes," Carol said. "Someone was better than no one. I didn't think I could—survive with her out there."
"But you did," Daryl said. "And you survived Region Thirty Three. You survived—all that shit. An' you gonna survive this too. One day? There ain't gonna be shit left to survive. Gonna just be livin'."
"I let her down," Carol said. "I—let her down. I let us get captured."
"You kept her alive out there," Daryl said. "An' you did a damn good job of it. I'm standin' here too. Every damn one of us got captured. That weren't on you. They were everywhere. That ain't on you."
Carol frowned deeply, but she nodded her head at Daryl as a way of giving him thanks for his support.
"What if she's mad about...?" Carol said. She didn't finish the sentence, but she rested her hand on her belly. "What if she thinks—I was trying to forget her? Or replace her?"
Daryl shook his head at her. He knelt down, then, balancing in front of Carol.
"Don't," Daryl said. "She ain't gonna be mad. She's gonna understand. But—don't'cha go bein' upset with them neither. They important too, remember?" He put his hand on her belly. "They important little things and you can't go bein' upset with them 'cause they ain't gonna understand it. You their Ma and that's—that's what they got. That's all the hell they gonna know. You an' me and they got a big sister that's comin' to live with 'em, but they won't understand if you start gettin' mad at them." He shook his head at her again. "You take your time, but you don't get mad at them—'cause they'll take 'em away, Carol. You get mad at 'em and they'll take 'em away from us."
Carol shook her head right back at him. She put her hand over his and worked her fingertips under his, wrapping her hand around his.
"I'm not mad at them," Carol said. She brought her other hand up and petted Daryl's head with it, running her fingers through his hair. "I'm not mad at them. I can't be mad at them. They're my babies. Just like Sophia. I just—I don't want her to be upset, Daryl. I don't want her to feel forgotten."
Daryl swallowed, his throat aching from the pain that he could see Carol was in and from the pain that he felt when he thought about the fact that everything, if they weren't careful, could simply fall apart.
"She won't," Daryl said. "We'll just see to that. But—I don't want them gettin' forgotten neither."
"They won't," Carol said softly. Some hint of a smile returned to her face. "I promise you, Daryl. They won't. My heart—it's big enough for everyone."
Daryl swallowed again and nodded his head. He closed his eyes for a moment and Carol kept up the affectionate petting that he appreciated enough that he didn't even care that the position he'd taken was killing his knees.
"Did you look in the nursery, Daryl?" Carol asked.
"What?" Daryl asked, opening his eyes to her.
"Have you looked in the nursery?" Carol asked. "Did you go and see? What the babies are? Do you know—what we got?"
Daryl shook his head. He'd almost forgotten that there was a surprise supposedly waiting for them in the room.
"No," Daryl said. "I was—waitin' on you. Figured it was somethin' we could do together."
Carol smiled at him.
"I think it is something we should do together," she said. She laughed quietly. "After all, we did this together."
Daryl laughed to himself in response. His chest ached with the action.
"We did," Daryl said. "So we gonna go look? Do it together?"
Carol sucked in a breath and held it for a second before she blew it out slowly. She nodded her head.
"Like everything else," she said. "Let's go."
