AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"Soph—I'ma need'ja to focus just a lil' bit," Daryl said. "You focusin'? 'Cause it don't look like you focusin' from where I'm sittin'."
Carol laughed to herself. She was reclined back against her pillow on the bed, and she was content to let Daryl and Sophia have their fun. She simply enjoyed being present to watch it.
Daryl wanted to tell Sophia about the baby. She'd already heard the word floating around the prison a good bit. She'd heard people congratulating Daryl and Carol. She'd even done her best to congratulate them herself, though she had not quite perfected the word. She didn't know what it meant, except that it was something good, and she didn't know why she was congratulating her parents, but she offered it over with enthusiasm and a toothy smile just the same.
Today had been a big day for Sophia, though. Among things that he'd brought for Carol and their future arrival—none of which Carol had seen yet— Daryl had brought things for Sophia. There was a decent amount of items that he'd brought for her—things which he would give Carol to put away for her—that wouldn't interest Sophia. She had minor interest in her clothing and other such necessary items. There were also some things that they would keep hidden away until later.
Today, however, she'd been given four things of which she was already quite fond. She'd been given a purple pair of shoes that she would have to grow into a little bit, a jacket that was almost the same color with multi-colored butterflies on it, and a matching beanie to keep her ears warm through the winter. Beyond the clothing to help her through the winter—all of which Sophia liked—she was also given a baby doll. T-Dog had found some accessories for the doll, so Sophia had also received those as a special gift from him—a few extra clothes for the doll, an extra diaper, a diaper bag, and a bottle among them.
The doll, at this moment, held all of Sophia's attention as she sat on the bed stripping it of its clothes so that she could dress it once more in its pajamas.
"You focusin', Soph?" Daryl asked again. Carol swallowed back her laughter. If she laughed, then everything would dissolve into a show because Sophia would want to entertain her.
"I'm focusin', Daddy," Sophia responded, almost reproducing Daryl's accent word for word. Daryl may not have been her biological father, but Sophia didn't really know any better. She'd picked up ways of speaking from him, she'd learned vocabulary from him, and she'd even learned enough of his gestures and expressions that Carol could sometimes be convinced that Sophia physically resembled the man that she wasn't related to at all.
In fact, Sophia was so much Daryl's daughter, that those they had encountered in the prison hadn't known she wasn't his biologically, and Carol was certain that, were they to encounter anyone else, any newcomers to their group wouldn't know that the two didn't share blood.
Sophia turned around on the bed to face Daryl—the task made a little more difficult because the bed shifted under her and she refused to relinquish her grasp on the half-naked doll—and then she crawled over to him and practically crawled into his lap.
"Did you see what I got, Daddy? Did you—see?" She asked, slightly overcome from her exertions.
Daryl laughed.
"Who give it to you?" He asked.
Sophia stared at him, accepted the answer, and grinned.
"Daddy," she offered, the grin not leaving her face.
Carol swallowed back her laughter, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face. It was contagious, and Daryl caught it, too.
"Do you know what it is, Soph?" Daryl asked, pointing to the doll.
"It's a baby," Sophia said, drawing the word out in adoration of her new doll. She had a rag doll that she was rather fond of, and she had a plastic baby doll that she liked to play with in the tub, but this was the first actual baby doll that she'd been given. Her only other baby, really, was Rick and Lori's youngest child. Sophia liked "helping" with Judith whenever she was given the chance, and she considered the child to be something of a living toy that she was rarely allowed to touch as much as she might please.
Her daddy, however, had brought her a baby of her very own to dress, undress, and force feed as often as her heart desired. Her uncle T, in addition, had provided her with accessories, including a box she could pretend was a crib, a blanket, and a small bag she could use to carry everything.
Sophia was all set to take her baby anywhere within the prison, though Carol was pretty sure that the rubber infant's first excursion would be down to the animal pens just as soon as the sun came up and Sophia was allowed outside.
"It's a baby," Daryl echoed. "Like Jude's a baby. You know who else has got a baby? Soph—do you know who else has got a baby?"
"Help, Daddy," Sophia said, offering Daryl the doll that she was struggling to put back into her clothes. Daryl didn't miss a beat. He took the doll, put the little pajamas back on it that Sophia had almost stripped off, and offered it back to Sophia where she was sitting halfway on his lap.
"Soph—do you know who else has got a baby?" Daryl asked.
Sophia was paying him attention this time, at least for as long as she was able to pay anyone attention, and she hummed at him to say that she was thinking about his difficult question. Daryl waited patiently as long as she seemed to be thinking, and Carol bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing.
Sophia smiled, clearly having figured out the answer to her daddy's riddle. She pointed at him.
"You, Daddy!" Sophia declared.
"Me?" Daryl asked.
"I'm you baby!" Sophia garbled out.
Daryl laughed to himself and glanced at Carol. She nodded her head and Daryl gathered Sophia up into a hug. He kissed the side of her head and Carol smiled to herself because, even though Daryl didn't see it, Carol saw that Sophia closed her eyes for a second and smiled to herself. She enjoyed the affection and she enjoyed it without apology.
"You right," Daryl assured her. "You right. You my baby. You always gonna be. But—how would you feel if—if we was gonna have another baby, too?"
Carol felt her stomach clench. She wasn't sure, at all, how Sophia might react to this news. She could go either way. Her love for all living things—from bugs to human babies—might bring her to want and adore another baby. Being used to being an only child, though, and being quite happy with her life might make her reluctant to share. Carol held her breath. She'd promised to let Daryl handle this, and she was trusting that he'd know best how to do that.
Daryl rested Sophia on her feet on the bed, a little distance away from him. She held her doll, and Daryl held her so that she didn't go toppling down on the mattress.
"A baby?" Sophia asked.
Daryl nodded.
"A baby," Daryl said. "A lil' baby. Like Jude when she was borned. Do you remember that?"
"She doesn't, Daryl," Carol offered softly. "Probably not."
"A lil' baby," Daryl corrected quickly.
"I got a baby," Sophia informed him. She held up her doll like she doubted his ability to remember anything from one moment to the next. He nodded.
"I know you do," Daryl said. "What if we was all to have a baby together? Me, you, an' your Ma? A lil' brother or sister for you?"
Sophia didn't know what a little brother or sister was, and that was clear when she made a face at Daryl.
"A little brother or sister," Carol repeated. "Like Carl is Jude's big brother."
Now Sophia looked at Carol with a furrowed brow before she looked back toward Daryl.
"Would you like a lil' brother or sister?" Daryl asked. "Would'ja like it if—if we was to have a baby? In our family?"
Sophia took her time staring at Daryl, not committing in one way or another to the idea of a sibling. Then, finally, she nodded.
"I like a baby," Sophia offered.
"You like babies?" Daryl restated. Sophia nodded. Daryl smiled. "You'd like for us to have a baby? All of us—an' you gonna be a big sister?" Sophia considered it a second more and agreed with him. Whether or not she was truly enamored of such a role in her life, Daryl presented it in such a way that she didn't have any active complaints about it.
"Where is the baby?" Sophia asked.
Daryl glanced at Carol. Carol shrugged her shoulders. They'd had this discussion already. How much were they going to tell Sophia? How much was actually appropriate to tell a child so small? How much would she be able to understand without become far too overwhelmed with the reality of it all?
It was difficult to say, but they'd struck a few points that they thought were acceptable. Daryl nodded as though he understood that Carol was saying that he should go ahead and test out some of what they'd discussed.
He cleared his throat.
"Well—see—we thought you might say you was interested," Daryl said. "So—your Ma an' me? We kinda put the order in already with God. Up in Heaven. We asked if he had—a perfect lil' brother or sister that was sorta waitin' on a family like ours. An' he did. So he sent us one."
Sophia perked up. She held tight to her baby and looked at Carol with wide eyes.
"Where, Mama?" Sophia asked.
Carol bit the inside of her mouth. Sometimes Sophia would seek her out if she wasn't getting quite the information that she wanted from Daryl.
"I think your Daddy's gonna tell you, Sophia," Carol offered.
Sophia looked back at Daryl.
"Where is a baby, Daddy?" Sophia asked.
"It's gotta grow first," Daryl said. "It's real tiny right now. So tiny that'cha can't even see it. It's gonna have to grow 'fore it's ready to live here with all of us." Daryl said.
"Where?" Sophia repeated. Her mouth was partially open. She was intrigued by the whole idea, but she clearly wished her father would get on with telling her what she wanted to know about the whereabouts of her microscopic sibling.
Daryl got up, then, and scooped Sophia up. He moved closer to Carol and sat down again on the edge of the bed. He deposited Sophia between them and Carol caught her arm so that she could hold Sophia up. Sophia offered her the baby doll that she'd been given and Carol accepted it with the hand that wasn't holding onto Sophia.
"The baby's gonna grow in your Ma's tummy," Daryl said. "It's gonna be in there for a while. Gettin' bigger an' stronger so it can stay with us out here."
Sophia looked at Carol, wide-eyed and mouth open.
Carol smiled at her to reassure her. She nodded her head.
"It is," Carol assured her.
"In you tummy, Mama?" Sophia asked.
Carol realized this probably seemed entirely unreasonable to a child.
Carol nodded.
"Just like Jude grew in Lori's tummy," Carol said. She wondered how much her daughter could remember about that. It seemed that Sophia forgot most of what had happened in her life so far, but every now and again she was able to remember something quite random. When Lori had been pregnant, they'd never fully explained things to Sophia, but she'd somewhat understood that there was at least something in Lori's tummy—and it had become a baby. "The baby has a little bed in there," Carol offered. "Just for it to grow in. You grew there, too, in Mommy's tummy, when you were very, very tiny."
Sophia looked to Daryl for confirmation. Even though he hadn't been there for that stage of her life, this wasn't the moment to explain that to her. Instead, he simply nodded his agreement.
"You did," he assured her.
"How did it—how did you get the bed in you tummy?" Sophia asked.
"God put it in there," Daryl said.
Sophia accepted that with a nod. She knew a good bit about God. They all talked about him, but Papa Hershel taught her a particularly great deal about God. Sophia was able to accept that most things happened because God wanted them to be so.
"The baby?" Sophia asked.
"God put the baby there, too," Carol offered.
Sophia had done exactly what Carol expected her to do. Slowly her attention drifted to Carol's stomach. Carol held to Sophia's arm, but she gave her enough leeway to allow her to drop down to her knees and make her way to her mother's stomach. Sophia looked at Carol, hand outstretched, as though she wanted to ask permission. Carol nodded at her.
"You can touch," Carol said. "But you won't be able to feel anything. The baby is very, very tiny."
Still, Sophia touched Carol's stomach and smiled dramatically when she did so as though she'd actually experienced something worth mentioning.
"There's a baby!" Sophia declared, suddenly smacking Carol much harder than Carol expected. Carol jumped and caught Sophia's hand. She was quick to catch herself. She didn't want to scold Sophia too much for her enthusiasm—not at this moment. This was about acceptance. Etiquette would be taught later.
"We have to be gentle," Daryl barked, a little less-controlled than Carol. "You can't hit'cha Mama or the baby."
Sophia's face screwed up instantly at his scolding.
"I'm sorry, Daddy!" She declared. "I'm sorry, Mama!"
"It's OK," Carol assured her. She sat up enough to rub Sophia's back and, tugging on her arm, she pulled Sophia up to hug her against her. "It's OK. You didn't hurt anyone. Are you excited, Soph? About the baby?"
Sophia hummed in the positive and rubbed her face against Carol's neck. Suddenly she'd gone from awake to sleepy. Being in Carol's arms seemed to remind her of how tired she was.
"Milk," Sophia offered.
Carol thought about it, but tonight wasn't the night she was going to deny her daughter. She moved around to lift her shirt and settled Sophia so that she could nurse. Heavy eyelids told Carol that Sophia wouldn't nurse for long before she was ready to settle in between them to probably fall asleep in a matter of minutes. Then, without a doubt, Daryl would carry her to her bed.
"She took the news pretty good," Daryl said softly.
Carol hummed at him.
"We just have to remember," Carol said. "She's our baby, too."
Daryl laughed to himself.
"I don't believe we're gonna forget that," he said. "I'm wonderin' if she's gonna take that news so good, though, when she sees the baby—ya know—gettin' her milk an' her Mama's attention."
Sophia's eyes were closed. She was still nursing, though, so she wasn't asleep. She was nearly there, though. She was likely listening to them, but nothing they were saying was bothering her in any way or catching her attention. All the words they were using were familiar and comfortable—Mama, milk, attention. For the moment, she had no reason to be concerned with how they were strung together.
"I don't know," Carol said. "I have a feeling that it isn't going to be me that really bothers her. I'm a lot more worried about how this little Daddy's girl is going to handle the first time Daddy holds the new baby."
"She don't mind me holdin' Judith," Daryl offered.
Carol hummed.
"Because Judith has her own Daddy," Carol said. Sophia was barely nursing now. Her eyes were beginning to dance behind her eyelids. She wouldn't keep up the game much longer, and she wouldn't make it to sleeping between them. Daryl would probably take her straight from Carol's arms to her bed. When Carol glanced at Daryl, she could see concern written all over his features. He was gnawing at his thumb. "Are you having second thoughts, Daryl?" Carol asked. "Because—it's a little late."
"I just don't wanna make her sad," Daryl said.
Carol laughed quietly to herself.
"Don't worry," she said. "You'll work it out. There's more than enough of you to go around. I'm sure of that."