While Daryl is in dream land, passed out from the morphine drip, Carol eats dinner in the prison cafeteria, which is full of talking people. She sits at a long, benchlike cafeteria table with her old friends, and little RJ is passed from lap to lap during the meal. When it's Carol's turn to hold him, she gives him a bite of her thin mashed potatoes, which were clearly made from a powdered box mix, and he gums them happily, making "Mhm, mhm, mhm" noises the whole time.
"Did you end up needing a C-section?" she asks Lori.
"I was actually able to have a vaginal birth," Lori tells her. "Though I tore something awful. We didn't have Bob or Lilly back then, but Maggie stitched me up as best she could."
Glenn winces.
"If that makes you wince," Maggie tells him. "Maybe we should reconsider the whole thing."
"I won't wince during the actual delivery."
"You two are trying for a baby?" That sounds insane to Carol. In this world? It's one thing to get accidentally pregnant, but to try?
Maggie covers Glenn's hand with her own and smiles. "We're not not trying," she says.
"There's nothing to not not try with," Lori explains. "Except the rhythm method. Mark my words. It's September now? There'll be a baby boom this spring."
Carol's surprised Lori is talking this openly in front of Carl. After all, the woman used to use her own hands as earmuffs for the boy whenever there were adult conversations in the quarry camp.
"Well, I'm sure you two will make beautiful babies," Carol tells the newlyweds.
A nerdy-looking young teenager returns his tray to the window and then walks over to their table. He pushes his glasses up on his nose, introduces himself to Carol as Patrick, and says "Hey, Carl!" to which Carl gives a cool nod and a "'Sup?". Then Patrick waves to RJ. RJ, who is currently in Carol's lap, holds out his arms to the older boy.
"Do you want me to take him off your hands, Mrs. Grimes?" Patrick asks. "I'm done eating."
"It looks like RJ wants you to," Lori replies.
Patrick takes the boy, who laughs when he's picked up and carried away, and Carol returns to her meal.
"RJ loves Patrick," Lori tells Carol. "Almost as much as he loves Carl."
"More than me, I think," Carl says.
"Well, brothers," Lori tells him cheerfully. "They'll always be the best of friends and the best of enemies."
Carl seems annoyed by this response, and even more annoyed by the exaggerated cheerfulness in it. "Or maybe half friends and half enemies," he replies with a tone of bitterness.
Lori's face darkens, and it's clear she wants to scold him, but she doesn't.
Carl stands and grabs hold of his mostly empty tray. "It was great seeing you again, Mrs. Pelletier. I'm really looking forward to seeing Sophia when you bring her."
Lori turns on the cafeteria bench as he walks away, calling after him, "Where are you going?"
Carl pauses and faces her. "To hang out with Patrick and my mother's son." And then he walks to the window and shoves his tray on the stainless steel counter before pacing toward the exit.
"I'll talk to him." Beth stands and slides her tray from the table. "He's always willing to talk to me."
"Carl will get over it," Maggie assures Lori. "Although I don't why you ever told him in the first place."
Lori sighs. "He kept asking questions. Especially after reading that book form the library. He wanted to know why RJ weighed nine pounds even though he was weeks early. And why doesn't he have the same birthmark on his thigh that Carl and Rick have. And why his hair is so much darker than either of ours. And I couldn't just keep making up absurd answers." She glances at Carol. "I suppose you guessed like everyone else."
Carol shrugs innocently.
"You two weren't that subtle at the quarry camp," Glenn says.
"Was it really that obvious?" Lori asks Carol.
"The timing of your disappearances was a little coincidental. And I think we all knew that's why Shane was so insistent on splitting away from Rick." God knows what Shane would have done if he had known Lori was pregnant. He always struck Carol as being a bit of a loose cannon.
"I guess just because Rick pretended not to know doesn't mean everyone else has to," Lori says. "I wish I could take it all back, but then I'd have to take RJ back. And he's my beautiful baby boy. I just wish Carl could see Rick when he looks at him."
"Well he could," Glenn says, "until you told him."
"He figured it out himself!" Lori insists. "I just stopped telling him he was crazy to think it." Lori clearly doesn't want to talk about the topic any longer. Instead, she turns on the bench beside Carol, a conspiratorial smile on her face, and asks, "So…this man you're with? Daryl? Is he like…your boyfriend?"
It's not a question Carol was anticipating. "I…I don't know," she stammers. "Maybe."
"Maybe." Lori laughs. "Well, that's the most fun stage."
"Not for me it wasn't," Glenn insists. "You women should just walk around with a neon sign telling us either I'm NOT your girlfriend or I AM your girlfriend."
"Rick and I went on two dates in high school before we went on our first date," Lori says. "That is, he thought they were dates, but I thought they were just friendly hanging out until he tried to kiss me."
"Well that's just deliberate ignorance on your part," says a tall, brawny black man who is strolling toward the table. He must be at least 6'3". He stands behind Glenn and across from Lori with his hands on his hips. "No high school boy asks a girl to hang out at the ice cream shop because he wants to be friends."
"Oscar," Lori says. "This is Carol. Carol, Oscar is the chairman of our council."
"I heard we had a guest." Oscar takes a seat next to Maggie and across from Carol. "I also heard she's from the camp we kidnapped Garrison from." Oscar studies Carol's face carefully as he says these words. "And I just peeked in on the man in our infirmary. He's one of the men who came to trade for Garrison."
"Water under the bridge," Carol tells him. "After what you've done for Daryl, we certainly don't hold any grudges." It's a bit presumptuous, she realizes, to speak with authority for a camp where she's a mere trial-run sponsee. But she does anyway. Jefe's not here. Neither is Daryl.
"Good. Then maybe we can discuss payment for his hospital stay."
"Oscar!" Lori scolds. "Carol was in my first camp. And in the second camp on Maggie's farm, too. She's an old friend."
"Have you seen what they have in their truck?" Oscar asks. "And even friends pay each other for services, rendered, right?"
Another man, who sports blond hair and a heavy mustache and goatee, is walking toward them now. He comes to stand still at the end of the table near Lori and smiles at Carol. "I heard there was a new woman in camp, and I thought I'd introduce myself."
"Get lost Axel," Oscar tells him. "This is a business meeting."
"Okay, okay…" He holds up his hands and takes a step backward. "I realize I don't have any affiliation with business meetings. Just trying to be friendly!" He turns and walks away.
"We're pretty set for firearms," Oscar tells Carol as Axel walks away. "But that crossbow is impressive. We don't have one of those."
"No," Carol says firmly. "The crossbow is off the table. No room for negotiation. I'll consider offering you the shotgun."
Lori, Glenn, and Maggie all lean back and look at Carol, as if surprised by the assertive way she's conducting this exchange.
"Like I said, we have plenty of firearms," Oscar replies. "I just thought the crossbow looked cool. I don't even know if we have anyone who could use it. But I sure would like some of that barbecue sauce. Say two tubs? Maybe three of those big jars of pickles. Two of those giant cans of okra. And the kids would be in heaven if we could have a dozen of those sodas."
That's not much at all, Carol thinks, for saving Daryl's life. "I think that could be arranged. And I already promised Tyreese the Sun Chips."
"You know, Oscar," Maggie says, "we have a council. You can't just unilaterally make an agreement about what to charge for our medical services."
"Well what do you know?" Oscar asks. "We have a quorum here. All in favor?" He holds up his left hand.
Glenn, looking a little sheepishly at Maggie, raises his hand, and then Maggie does too, but not without rolling her eyes.
"Let the record show," Oscar announces, "that the vote is three yay, two in absentia, and the proposal passes by a three-fifths majority."
"Who are your other two council members?" Carol asks. Not Lori, apparently.
"Sasha Williams," Maggie tells her. "And Milton Mamet."
Sasha's the one who cut up her furniture looking for bombs, Carol knows, but she makes a note to track down and talk to this Milton Mamet person.
"We'll get you set up in a nice cell tonight, Carol." Oscar tells her. "We have some open ones."
"I was hoping I could stay in the infirmary with Daryl tonight. In case something goes wrong."
Oscar shrugs. "Then feel free to claim one of the extra beds. I'll have your packs delivered there from your truck."
They talk a bit longer, with Oscar continuously fishing for information about Carol's camp which she repearedly tells him she is not authorized to reveal. Eventually, Oscar excuses himself.
Carol uses the rest of her time in the cafeteria to try to gain intel about the prison camp. She makes the rounds and introduces herself to as many people as she can. She learns there are thirty-two people in all, including five children under twelve, not counting RJ. There's a sixteen-year-old named Jody, who is reportedly fond of Beth, but gaining no traction in that direction. She learns that Oscar and Axel were two of the ex-cons who were found locked in the prison cafeteria when Rick and his crew first cleared the place. There was another prisoner who joined their camp, Big Tiny, but he died in the battle with Woodbury.
Bob, Carol learns, is not a Woodbury refugee. Rather, he was discovered on a supply run and was the last surviving member of his former group. He apparently had a serious problem with alcohol, so they locked him in a cell until he got dry, and now he's one of the most valuable members of their camp.
Lilly's sister, a young woman named Tara, who was a defector from the Woodbury Army, introduces herself, her niece Meghan, and her girlfriend Alisha, who also defected from the Woodbury Army. Carol meets Shumpert, another Woodbury Army defector, and a woman named Karen, who is with Tyreese. There's Robbie, Woodbury's former food distributor, who is now in charge of the prison cafeteria and food inventory, and Paul, a former Woodbury soldier who is now the prison camp's primary big game hunter. Kelly, who sits with her cute, curly-haired son Luke, is reportedly decent at hunting birds.
Carol tracks down and talks to Milton Mamet and is surprised to find he looks like an accountant rather than a soldier. She learns he's a former researcher, scientist, and engineer who is now tasked with maintaining the prison's electrical and plumbing systems and rationing the usage of power and water.
When Carol's done making her rounds, she returns to the infirmary and finds her pack and Daryl's lying on one of the empty infirmary beds. Daryl's been stripped of his belt, holster, and blood splattered pants. Carol knows because they lie in a corner of the infirmary at the end of the counter, and she can see through the thin white sheet that covers him the checkered outline of his boxers as Lily removes his IV and tells Carol she's heading out for the night. "Call me on the walkie talkie on the counter if there's an emergency. I'm on call tonight."
When she's gone, Carol pulls out the Elanor Roosevelt biography she packed and sits by Daryl's bedside reading until the overhead lights automatically go out at nine. Milton told her he has all of the prison's overhead lights on a timer to conserve power, and that power is completely shut off to half of the prison, where Rick corralled and sealed-off the walkers that used to inhabit these halls. The heart monitor stays on, thankfully, and there's a glowing bar of light across the counter under the cabinets, which has a manual switch in the form of a dangling chain. That stays on, too.
The room is slightly warm, even at night, even after sunset. There's no air conditioning in this prison, and she has no idea how they survived the summer with so few windows, though the infirmary does have two windows that are open. They open by swinging inward, but there are solid bars on the outside.
Carol rolls an infirmary bed next to Daryl's. She leans down to listen to his breathing one last time before she turn off the light under the counter, and then she crawls into bed. She falls asleep to the steady, reassuring, rhythmic beeping of his heart monitor.