AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Daryl could hear Carol talking to Sophia in the bedroom that the girl would call her own. At the moment, Carol was keeping the conversation as simple as possible. This was their house. They would all live there together. They wouldn't have to move around anymore—as Sophia probably spent most of the first part of her life doing—and nobody was going to come and take Sophia away ever again.
Daryl made a call about their meal deliveries and gave Carol and Sophia a little space to breathe without him around. When he'd dawdled about as much as he could without being obvious, Daryl made his way to Sophia's room and peeked in. Sophia was clinging to Carol, still, like she was afraid that her mother was going to vanish into thin air of she allowed her even an inch of room between them for breathing. Rather than sit comfortably on the bed or anything of the like, the two of them were standing in the middle of the room while Carol continued to reassure her daughter that everything was fine. This was a safe and comfortable place.
"It's your room," Carol urged again, possibly hoping for just enough distance from her daughter to be able to take a full breath of air. "Everything in here is yours. And anything you want? Sweetheart—we'll get that for you too."
Daryl noticed something cross Sophia's face just before she seemed to tighten her grip on Carol, bringing an expression across Carol's face that said that Sophia's hold on her was really becoming quite suffocating and at least a little uncomfortable.
Daryl cleared his throat and tapped at the doorframe to draw the attention of both of them. Sophia looked at him suspiciously. Carol looked at him like she was silently begging him for help. He'd do what he could do, but he wasn't sure how much help he'd really be to either of them.
"Ordered some lunch," Daryl said. "It'll be here 'fore long. Thought we could sit at the table? All of us? Like a family? Ordered some snacks too, Sophia. I didn't know what you might like. What kinda snacks you like?"
Sophia just stared at him. Daryl wasn't sure if she didn't understand the question or she just didn't want to answer him, but the fact remained that she gave him nothing. Daryl nodded his head at her.
"That's OK," he said. "You can try what we got. See what'cha might like. Gotta eat lunch first, though. Sittin' at the table with your Ma an' me. Like—like a family."
"Do you remember, sweetheart?" Carol asked. "Some of the houses we used to find to stay in would have tables. Do you remember that? When we would sit and eat something across the table from one another? Have you done that? Since I saw you?"
Sophia loosened her grip on Carol just a bit, but she didn't pull away from her entirely. Instead, she dipped her face and rubbed her cheek against Carol's shoulder. Carol affectionately patted her daughter's head.
"Would you like that?" Carol asked. "To eat together?"
Daryl nipped at his thumb. He considered ways they might win Sophia's trust enough to get her talking. They had a lot they needed to say to her, but there was no use in diving into any of it if they couldn't get her comfortable enough to even relinquish her hold on Carol for a few moments.
They had no idea what all Sophia had seen and experienced. They only knew a little from the latest chapter of her life, and what they knew wasn't pleasant at all.
"Sophia—this is your room," Daryl said. "But just because it's your room, it doesn't mean that it's the only room you get to go in. You got full reign of the house. The whole thing. The whole place. It's your home. You're free to go where you wanna go an' do what'cha wanna do in the house. You know that, right? You know that I'm—I'm here to take care of your Ma. Take care of you. But—nobody's gonna make you just stay put in here."
Sophia clearly had an interest in those words. Something Daryl had said struck her. It resonated with her in some way. She might not be sharing, exactly, what it was that had gotten her attention, but there was certainly something.
She let go of Carol. She didn't move away from her, and she didn't put some great amount of distance between them, but she stopped clinging to her for a moment.
Carol looked at Daryl and raised her eyebrows. The corners of her lips followed suit.
"You want to have some lunch?" Carol asked. "Daryl ordered us something good to eat and then—maybe we could do something fun? Play a game or...?"
Carol shrugged at Daryl like she was looking for guidance. She'd gotten Sophia to calm down and stop slipping back into waves of sobbing, but it was Daryl who had managed to read the girl's mind enough to get her to let go of Carol's arm and take what looked like the first steps toward independence.
Maybe, together, they really would be able to figure this out.
"Play a game," Daryl echoed. "Or work a puzzle. Melodye an' Sammi—you remember her? Your friend, Sammi? They brought you in some puzzles and—well there's a whole mess of toys over there. Big ole basket full. Whatever you want. After we eat some lunch we could do whatever it is that you think you might like to do. We could do a couple things if you want. We got all day. Tomorrow, too."
Sophia nodded her head.
"Yeah?" Daryl asked.
Sophia nodded again and Carol, this time, was the one who put her hands on her daughter. She affectionately squeezed Sophia's shoulders and Sophia quickly dropped her cheek against Carol's hand.
"Would you like that?" Carol asked.
"Yes, Mama," Sophia responded.
Daryl felt his own chest tighten in response to the expression on Carol's face. They were just two simple words not said in the heat of some kind of passion, but it was a start.
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"We have to tell her about the babies," Carol said.
She was barely speaking above a whisper. For the first time ever, they had a reason to keep their voices down. In one of the other rooms, not too far away from them, Sophia was sleeping.
Their day had been pretty low-key—all things considered. They'd stuck to staying inside with Sophia so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed with the comings and goings of Woodbury. They'd had their meals delivered and they'd spent all their time together. They'd worked one large puzzle that had been given to Sophia and, together, they'd discovered how to play a board game that was, in Daryl's opinion, far more complicated than it had needed to be.
Sophia hadn't been chatty in the slightest, but by the end of the evening she'd started to relax some. By the end of the evening, she'd started to smile and laugh. She'd been particularly fond of Daryl's playful complaints about the board game so he'd been sure to make a few more of them than was necessary for her benefit. Sophia had eaten well at both meals that had been delivered to them and she'd allowed Carol to somewhat "chaperone" her bath to make sure that she remembered how to clean herself well. Dressed in the pajamas that they'd brought for her, she'd curled up with Carol on their couch and she'd watched the "news" with Carol and Daryl as they checked their one station to make sure that they hadn't missed any important community announcements throughout the course of the day. Then, at the end of it all, Sophia had allowed Daryl to read to her from a book while Carol had curled up with her in her bed.
She'd finally fallen asleep.
Daryl and Carol had their first taste of parenthood together, and Daryl wasn't hating it. It wasn't exactly how he'd imagined their first day as parents might go, but he wasn't complaining either.
Daryl pulled back the cover on the bed and laughed to himself before he sat down on his side of the bed.
"What's so funny?" Carol asked.
Daryl shook his head.
"Just—I think she can prob'ly tell about the babies, Carol," Daryl said. "You ain't got much, but you got you a lil'—somethin' there. A pouch or somethin'."
Carol laughed to herself.
"A pouch, Daryl?" Carol asked.
Daryl shrugged his shoulders.
"Call it what'cha want," Daryl said. "But it's kinda like a pouch. It's all filled up with our young'uns right now."
Carol sighed and sat down. She eased herself under the cover and got situated. Daryl waited until he was sure that she was comfortable and satisfied before he moved to get close to her. She lifted her head to allow him to put his arm under her neck and she curled into him. With her hand, she moved his hand to cover the "pouch" that they'd been discussing. Daryl moved his hand only long enough to slip it under the cloth of the shirt she was wearing so that his fingers could caress her bare skin.
"I don't think Sophia really knows anything about babies," Carol said. "I don't think she really knows about being pregnant or—having babies. When we were out there, we were alone. There wasn't any reason to tell her about it. I certainly wasn't pregnant and there wasn't anybody for her to see that was pregnant. There was nothing to make her curious. I never got around to having any kind of birds and bees conversation with her, Daryl. I don't have any way of knowing what she knows, either. I don't know if anyone else ever bothered to tell her anything."
Daryl hummed at her.
"Hadn't thought of that," Daryl admitted. "Just thought—with her age..."
He didn't finish because he realized the problem with his assumptions even as he started to explain himself. Carol smiled at him softly, her eyes darting quickly back and forth as she studied his face.
"She wasn't this old," Carol said. "And I didn't know that I was preparing her to face the world without me. Not yet. We were doing OK. I thought I had time before—before something would happen and she'd be on her own."
Daryl brought his hand out from under the cover and touched it to Carol's lips. She puckered against it before he moved to stroke her cheek and tuck a stray lock of silver hair behind her ear.
"You wouldn'ta had no reason to think this coulda happened," Daryl said. "But it don't matter."
"It does matter," Carol said.
Daryl shook his head.
"It don't," he insisted. "What happened out there? What happened since? It don't matter. We ain't gonna waste our time focusing on it. We're just gonna focus on what we're doin' now, right? That's all the hell that we got promised to us is right now. We'll focus on now an' we'll think about later and we don't waste our time with worryin' about what's behind us. So...Sophia don't know about babies. So what? We'll tell her about babies. Tomorrow. We'll start small. Tell her that you're pregnant. Just tell her the babies are in there. If she don't show no interest, we don't push it. If she does, we talk about whatever she wants to talk about. Might be a way to get her talking, at least."
"What if she doesn't react well?" Carol asked. "What if she's mad or upset?"
"What's she got to be mad or upset about?" Daryl asked. "Samirah said she already told her some about this project. You don't even know if she mighta told Sophia all about the babies. She mighta told her already that we didn't have no say in this."
"She still might be mad, Daryl," Carol insisted.
Daryl laughed to himself.
"She might," he agreed. "And if that's how she feels about it? We'll deal with that too. Hell, we've all been mad about things since the world turned upside down. We've all learned to deal with bein' mad. Maybe Sophia hasn't learned to deal with it yet, but she will. She's gotta learn."
Carol sucked in a breath and let it out.
"You didn't have any choice in any of this," Carol said. "Not in—the babies or Sophia. You didn't have any choice in—in ending up with this to handle."
Daryl shook his head quickly at her.
"You're treadin' into territory that I don't like," Daryl said. "I didn't choose this and neither did you. You didn't choose for nothin' to happen the way it is. Me either. And I'm sorry that it had to be this way. I'm sorry that Sophia's got a lot she's gotta deal with. I'm sorry you got a lot you gotta deal with that you prob'ly just swallowin' down right now for her benefit and...maybe for mine,too. But what I ain't sorry for is that she's back. You got her back."
Carol lowered her voice even more than it had been before. When she spoke it was barely more than the escape of air.
"She's not your daughter," Carol said. "You shouldn't have to be responsible for her."
Daryl swallowed.
"I don't have to be," Daryl said. "I wanna be. She's your daughter. And—if she don't have any real complaint about it, maybe she'll be mine too. We'll talk to her about it."
Carol smiled at him, the corners of her mouth barely turning upward. She trailed her fingers over Daryl's arm and sent a shiver down his back at the tickle of the tender touch.
"You really want that?" Carol asked. "You're not just saying that?"
"We'll talk to her about it tomorrow," Daryl said as his only answer to the question. "We gotta get some sleep tonight, though, 'cause there ain't no telling what tomorrow's gonna hold."
