AN: Here we are, another chapter here. Time jump explained/mentioned in the chapter. It's about 9 or 10 weeks.

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

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Weeks ticked by and they followed orders. They lived like model citizens. They followed every rule laid out for them and they put in their time. They worked during the day and Daryl and Carol were given "turns" to stay with Sophia until she proved stable enough to remain on her own. Daryl thought she was improving, but she was doing so slowly. She still didn't speak much, but she didn't shy away from their presence, either, and she was starting to sleep better at night than she had just after her arrival.

Carol continued to work with Alice and she took her medical training very seriously. She hoped there was a future, someday, where she could become a nurse or even a doctor. As part of his work with construction, Daryl helped to work on the additions to the clinic—additions that were coming along nicely and introduced Daryl to the electrical team in Woodbury. Eventually, earning his freedom for good behavior, Merle was allowed to join the crew so that Daryl saw his brother nearly every single day. Even though his job was menial labor involving clean up and organization, Merle dedicated himself to it with a determination that Daryl had never seen in his brother before.

Of course, Woodbury didn't allow Merle the opportunity to get tangled up in drugs or drinking too much like he had in the life they'd known before the turn. It also didn't provide him with the piss poor influences he might have picked out of any other social group.

More important than any of that, though, Woodbury gave Merle a woman to dedicate his life to—a woman that was carrying his child. And when Sadie was sixteen weeks pregnant with Merle's child and underwent the same genetic testing that all the women were required to undergo, Merle discovered that he was going to be the proud father to a perfectly healthy baby girl.

The so-called wildest of the Wilds, it seemed, were—at least so far—producing a non-wild child and, specifically, a baby girl that would be the only one of her classification since the other Wilds of equal caliber to Merle and Sadie had been eliminated in Woodbury and in the prisons beyond.

Daryl had never seen anything light a fire under his brother's ass quite like the knowledge of that baby girl's existence, but it looked good on Merle.

Daryl could understand his brother, too. He could understand him well.

Daryl would shovel actual shit twenty hours a day if that's what they told him made him a model citizen. Being a model citizen, after all, kept him safe. It kept his family safe. It bought them little things that they enjoyed like whatever food Carol was craving at any given time of the day or night, all the books that Sophia could possibly read now that Carol was teaching her to read in the evenings, and enough freedom to enjoy a nice walk around the community after dinner to help them all digest their food while the guard named Willomen entertained them with stories about his experiences and existence since the turn.

And being a model citizen would see Daryl married to Carol—as legally as anybody ever had been married before—in the short span of twenty four more hours. He'd been patient enough to wait and he'd been persistent enough to get what he wanted. They were being married, right there in Woodbury, by nobody short of the Governor himself—the man they called the one true power—for everyone to see.

Once their marriage was official, too, the option would be open to the others in the community who sought to make their partnerships more than just a mating arrangement. In some ways, Daryl liked to think that his love for Carol was doing more than just changing their lives. It was opening up the door for change in the lives of just about everyone they knew.

Wilds—who had barely been considered human and capable of emotion before—could now marry.

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"It took about two miles of cloth to make this dress," Carol said. "And that's considering that it's a simple dress. Can you tie the belt, please?"

Daryl didn't realize his hands were trembling until he took up the cloth and attempted to tie it into a bow. He had to flex his fingers a half a dozen times in rapid succession to even feel confident holding the ties.

Carol was about to become his wife and he could barely breathe for the anticipation of it all. His whole body felt jittery with a buzzing excitement that was rare for him. He carefully tied the sash on Carol's dress in a bow behind her back and he did his best to make it hang in such a way that she would find the bow to her liking.

Carol had insisted that she didn't need a dress of any sort for the wedding, but Daryl had let Melodye know that he'd like for her to have one—even if it was nothing special. Carol had then insisted that it not be white because, at twenty five weeks pregnant and carrying around the obvious baby bump that she now wore, she couldn't very well pretend that she was even remotely virginal. Melodye had brought them some cloth samples and a book of possible patterns, and Carol had let Daryl pick out both the fabric and the pattern. The dress he'd chosen for her was soft and it was a delicate blue color that just made her eyes that much brighter. To help her feel more a part of things, Sophia had been given a dress to match her mother's. They'd given Daryl a tie, as well, that matched the dress to go with the plain black suit that they'd had made for him. As far as he knew, any other couple that would be married that day had been provided with similar garments.

"The bow ain't perfect," Daryl said. "I never was no good at tying."

Carol turned around and tugged gently at the front of her dress, dealing with some of the wrinkles that seemed to have formed from tying the sash.

"Nothing about this is going to be perfect," Carol said. "It's more about good enough." She sighed and looked at him. "How do I look?"

Daryl swallowed.

He took her in from the top of her head to her bare feet. His chest tightened and his pulse picked up a little. When the guards came for them this time, it would be the last time that they came for them as two people who had no more tie to one another than the fact that they'd been put together for a project. They would marry today. Tonight they would sleep in their bed as husband and wife. They'd spend the rest of their lives as partners—legal and otherwise—that nobody could pull apart. At least, that's how Daryl saw it.

And he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

"Perfect," he said.

A smile barely turned up the corner of Carol's mouth and she tipped her head to look at him out the side of her eye.

"Don't make fun of me," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Would dream of it," Daryl said. "Jesus—I mean it. Only thing that could make you look better was if you didn't look so damn sore. You sorry you're marrying me? You been moping around for at least an hour."

Carol's mouth fell partially open and she shook her head.

"Nooo!" She declared, drawing the word out. "No, Daryl! It doesn't have anything to do with you. Of course I want to marry you. I would've married you months ago."

"Then why are you moping?" Daryl asked. "Tell me what the hell I can do to fix it so I can get it done before we go out there."

"Look at me," Carol said. She held her hands palm-up at Daryl like whatever she was hinting at was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I been lookin'," Daryl said.

"I look like—a—a—cupcake or something," Carol said. "An Easter parade float. That's what I look like. A giant Easter parade float."

Daryl nipped at a piece of dead skin on his cuticle that was bothering him and stared at her. It was clear that she was distraught, but he wasn't exactly sure what had brought it on. She'd been happy that morning and she'd liked everything—right up until she suddenly hadn't liked anything.

Of course, there were some days where that was just her normal. If the past had taught him anything, it was that she'd be hot in a few minutes and she'd start complaining about the heat and the fact that she couldn't breathe in the house if he didn't open the windows.

It wasn't actually that hot, and it was cooling down a bit more each day, but they had earned the rights to have their windows unsealed because Daryl had informed them they simply couldn't continue to live in the house if they couldn't let the air in when Carol needed it.

"You don't like the dress I picked out for you?" Daryl asked. "That the problem?"

Carol sighed.

"It's not the dress," Carol said. "The dress is beautiful. The color is beautiful. It's about two miles worth of blue fabric, but that's because...Daryl, I'm enormous!"

Suddenly her chin quivered and Daryl's heart seized up in his chest. Of all the things he was coming to expect as possibilities in his day-to-day life, chin quivering on the part of any woman in his home was the least desirable. Daryl reached his hands out and rested them on Carol's shoulders to give her some physical touch to ground her.

"You ain't enormous," Daryl said.

"Look at me," Carol repeated.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Have been," he said. "All day. Everyday. You ain't enormous. You're—pregnant. And you got a while to go yet 'fore that changes if Alice is right about everything."

"I can't grow anymore," Carol said. "Something—I can't breathe. My lungs can't expand enough for me to take a real breath and something in there is—there's something lodged in my rib cage, Daryl. And I don't know if it's a foot or a—a hand or..."

"Shhh," Daryl offered. He rested his hand on her belly. Andrea was a full month ahead of Carol and Carol's belly was easily as the same size as hers. The activity that took place inside Carol amazed Daryl. Often, at night, she would wiggle up against Daryl and she would sleep with her belly pressing against his back. He had woken more than once to feel the babies rolling around inside of her. He could well imagine, though, that it might get at least a little tiring to have that constant struggle going on inside your body—especially if you had as little room for the babies as Carol had. He could usually calm her down, though, and he was counting on being able to do just that. Daryl knelt down, his knee going to the floor, and rested his head against the soft blue fabric that covered her belly. "You guys gotta settle down in there an' I mean it. Whichever one of you has got something stuck in your Ma's ribs, get it out now. We gotta get married today and it's supposed to be a big day for your Ma and she don't need y'all makin' her miserable enough she can't enjoy it so just—knock it off for a couple of hours. You hear me. I know you do."

Carol laughed.

"Someone moved," she said.

"I know," Daryl said, smiling at her. "I felt it. Did they get out'cha ribs?"

She drew in a breath, or at least part of one, and let it out before she rubbed her belly.

"Yeah," she said. "Actually it worked. It feels a little better."

Daryl stood up and leaned to kiss Carol on the forehead before he sought her lips for a kiss. She smiled at him and bumped her nose against his when she pulled out of the kiss. He held her by the back of her neck to keep her from breaking away from him too quickly and she nuzzled his face once more before he released her.

"You feel better now?" Daryl asked. "Happier?"

"I'm still enormous," Carol said.

"What would you change?" Daryl asked. "Marryin' me or havin' the babies? Because you'd have to change one. Otherwise—I guess you probably ain't gonna change much 'fore we get married."

"I don't want to change any of it," Carol said. "I guess I'm just..."

She didn't finish and Daryl already knew better than to try to finish that sentence for her. If he suggested she was grumpy, she would instantly become grumpier. If he suggested that she was just tired and pregnant, she would become something else entirely. It was best to simply let it go. In the past few weeks he'd learned that, by the time she made a statement like that, she was just about to change her mood anyway. She was coming out of whatever was bothering her. She was feeling better.

It was best to simply change the subject and let her just go ahead and feel better.

"Can you tie my tie?" Daryl asked. "I figure they'll be here in half an hour or so."

He went for the tie when she nodded at him and he brought it to her. She delicately went to work. He'd never learned how to tie one before, but Carol had assured him that it was a skill she possessed from her life before the turn.

"You look so handsome," Carol said, almost more to herself than to Daryl. "I hope they marry us first because the other women there will be trying to trade off one last time if they don't."

Daryl laughed to himself.

"I could say the same thing about you," Daryl said. "I don't want to lose you out there. Someone might try to run off with you."

"They wouldn't get very far," Carol said. "I weigh a ton and a half."

"You've gained twenty two pounds as of three days ago," Daryl said. "It's hardly a world record."

Carol laughed to herself.

"I think she meant twenty two pounds per baby," Carol said.

"Besides—I meant you might run off with him," Daryl said. "Not that he was dragging you or carrying you over his shoulder."

"I couldn't run anywhere," Carol said. "But—even if I could, I wouldn't. Not in a million years. You're the only one for me." Daryl smiled at her. She patted his chest once she let go of the tie that she'd been working with. She smiled at the tie, clearly satisfied with her work, and then she looked back at Daryl. "The only one there will ever be."

"Same," Daryl assured her. He sucked in a breath. He meant it. She meant that he'd be the only one for her from here on out. He meant that she'd be the only one, ever, for him. "Sophia—she dressed?"

Carol nodded her head.

"She's reading," Carol said.

"Good," Daryl said. "You need a hand gettin' on your shoes 'fore they get here?"

"We've still got probably half an hour," Carol pointed out.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Then you better get started if we don't wanna keep nobody waiting."