AN: Here we are, another chapter.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
"Where's Daddy?" Sophia asked as Carol tucked her into the space where she'd normally lie between them to hear stories and soothe any bad dreams that she might have. She'd stay there until she fell asleep and then Carol would make the transfer to her bed—a bed that she might not be calling her own for much longer if Daryl was able to get a space set up for her in a neighboring cell.
Carol sat down on the bed. She didn't know how long the entire process would take. She didn't know how long it would take for them to lure the Governor out of Woodbury to investigate what he would, hopefully, believe would be potential new citizens. She didn't know, once they'd killed the man, how long it would take for them to convince the people of Woodbury that they meant them no harm despite the fact that they'd killed the man they had taken as their leader. She didn't know how long it would it take for them to convince the people of Woodbury that the inhabitants of the prison wanted to form an alliance with them that would, hopefully, serve both communities in the future.
Carol knew it was a pretty tall order, and it may take a while. When night came, too, she knew that it was truly better for all of them to seek shelter. She didn't know when it was reasonable to expect them back, but feelings weren't always reasonable and she was starting to worry.
She wasn't going to let her little one know that, though.
She wanted Sophia to be happy as much as she possible could. Sophia deserved that.
"Daddy had to go and take care of the bad man," Carol said. "So that he couldn't hurt anyone anymore."
"But where is he?" Sophia asked, trying to sit up. Carol pushed her back and offered her the lamb snuggly that she adored. Sophia took it and arranged it like she wanted it. She liked the face of the lamb near her face and the blanket body threaded through her fingers.
"He's gone with—with your Uncle Merle and your Uncle Rick and your Uncle Glenn and Uncle T and Uncle Tiny—they're all gone to take care of things," Carol said.
"When they gonna come back?" Sophia asked.
Carol smiled at her.
"As soon as they can," Carol assured her. "I bet they'll be here when you wake up. But you have to close your eyes. Because the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner they'll be back."
"I need to see Daddy," Sophia offered sincerely. "He's gotta kiss me or I'll get the bad dreams with the monsters."
Carol swallowed and nodded. Daryl was very rarely gone overnight if he could avoid it, but it happened from time to time.
"He gave me a kiss for you," Carol said. "To save for tonight. Are you ready for it? He left it with me. And I kept it safe. Are you ready for it, Soph?"
Sophia's bottom lip rolled out, but the corners of her smile drew upward in promise of the "saved" kiss. It was something that Carol had come up with some long time ago, but it worked so she did it whenever she needed to.
"OK..." Carol said. She faked reaching in the folds of her nightgown as though she had a pocket there. The pocket didn't have to be real to fool Sophia—at least not yet. She pulled out the saved kiss in her closed hand and pressed it to her lips. Then she leaned forward—pretend kiss ready on her lips—and delicately pressed it to Sophia's forehead. "Did you feel it, sweetheart?" Carol asked, keeping her voice low.
"Yes, Mama," Sophia responded. She yawned. If Carol could keep her still and quiet, she'd go to sleep soon.
"Good," Carol said. "Now—let's have a story and then you can have one of my kisses."
"Milk?" Sophia asked. "Please?"
"You can have some milk while I tell you the story," Carol offered. "Let me get in bed—and you can tell me what you want to hear."
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Carol's head ached and her muscles felt achy. Her whole body felt heavy. It didn't matter, though. She couldn't sleep. Every time she so much as closed her eyes, her mind was flooded with visions that she didn't want to see. She imagined horrible things and convinced herself, somehow, that just imagining them would make them come to be.
She'd kept herself awake to keep the visions away from her eyes. She'd checked on Sophia a thousand times, but the girl was sleeping soundly. Once she was out, she was usually gone to the world until something made her pop her little eyes open to start her day.
And Sophia wasn't plagued with the bad dreams that she'd feared might come to pass without her Daddy there to ward them off. She'd gotten a specially saved goodnight kiss from her Daddy and she was dreaming about seeing him in her waking hours.
The cow that Carol had chosen to milk had practically thanked Carol for a surprise milking in the middle of the night. As though the milk that she produced wasn't warm enough on its own, Carol had built a small fire for herself and had warmed the milk to a bubbling almost-boil while she stirred it absentmindedly and watched for any sign that there was movement in the dark beyond the stirring of the animals inside the prison fences and the stirring of the Walkers beyond.
She'd put the fire out immediately. She didn't want the flamed to draw unwanted attention in the darkness, and she didn't want to take any chances that a spark might jump and light something else—especially not with so many members of their family missing.
When her milk was hot, Carol had wrapped herself in Daryl's poncho—a garment that, despite how many times she washed it, always held the smell of Daryl's sweat and whatever it was that made him simply smell uniquely like Daryl—and she'd settled down to rest with her back against the prison wall while she'd sipped her warm milk from a mug.
She must have closed her eyes, even though she never meant to.
Because one moment she was simply wrapped in warmth and the smell of Daryl—filling her body with the artificial warmth of a hug that the milk offered—and the next moment she was wrapped in an entirely different kind of warmth.
The feeling of falling jerked Carol violently out of the sleep that she'd never intended to experience and Daryl quickly pulled her tighter against him.
"Shhhh...shhhh..." he crooned. "Easy. I ain't gonna drop you if you don't make me. You can't spend the night sittin' in the cold dirt, Carol. I ain't sure, but I know that can't be good for you."
Somewhere Carol had lost the mug, but she'd kept the poncho.
It was dark. She was no longer outside. She was moving, her body swaying with Daryl's steps, in the corridors of the prison. He was holding her and she could smell him—she could smell everything about him that was simultaneously disgusting and pleasant when he desperately needed a bath—and it wasn't a dream.
"When did you...?" She asked.
"Sun's just comin' up," Daryl said. "As soon as we could see, we high tailed it outta there."
"Out of?" Carol asked.
"Woodbury," Daryl said.
"The Governor?"
"Dead," Daryl said. "Him an' one more guy that was with him. Didn't mean for that one to die, but he went for his gun an' T panicked. Put a bullet through his brain 'fore he could even hear us tellin' him that we didn't mean him no harm."
Carol's heart thundered oddly in her chest. Her head swam. It hadn't entirely come out of the stupor of sleep.
"He's dead," Carol said. "The Governor?"
"And good," Daryl said. "Merle hit him dead between the eyes. He couldn't even come back."
"Is everyone...?" Carol asked.
"They all back," Daryl said. "Fightin' over cold bathwater now."
"I can warm water up," Carol offered. She thought about moving to try to act on this offer, but she stayed still. She didn't want to make things more difficult on Daryl and he wasn't moving to put her down.
"You can sleep," Daryl said. "It won't hurt a single one of us to wash the day off with some good cold water. Got somebody there that's gonna come help us get these fuckin' showers workin'. Might even get us some solar panels. Got some real handy people there in Woodbury."
"You talked to them?" Carol asked.
"Took the bodies back," Daryl said.
"They didn't try to fight?"
Daryl guided her into their cell and eased her down so that she could stand on her feet on the cell floor. She shed the poncho, sweating a little from its warmth, and quickly lit the lamp beside their bed.
"Sure they come out worried," Daryl said. "Who the hell could blame 'em? But they recognized Merle. Listened to him—that was the damnedest thing. At first they was a lil' bit suspicious, but we put our guns away. We ain't threatened 'em. Told 'em who we was. They gonna regroup. Figure out what they doin' now that they gotta find a new way to do things. But Rick told 'em they was welcome to come here if they wanted. Maybe some of ours might wanna come there, ya know? Made it clear that we was lookin' for somethin' open between us. Some exchange. Not like we was lookin' to take them over, an' not like we was lookin' to come there an' take all they got without offerin' a single thing in return."
Carol smiled at Daryl. He stared at her a second, and then he smiled back. He laughed low in his throat.
"Why you lookin' at me like that?" He asked.
"I'm happy to see you," Carol said. "I was scared that—something might happen."
"Nothin' happened," Daryl said.
"I didn't know it wouldn't," Carol said.
"You know me better'n that," Daryl said. "Always comin' back, right? Ain't that what I said?"
"Always, as long as you're able," Carol said.
Daryl leaned and, rather than respond to her with words, he pressed his lips to hers. She opened her mouth a little and he accepted her request to deepen the kiss. She felt his arms go around her and she felt him pull her to him. She let him do what he wanted—she would have let him do anything he wanted at that moment. Her body reacted with a throbbing sensation at the very thought of it.
But Daryl requested nothing more than the kiss and the embrace before he broke away from her.
"Sophia?" He asked.
"She's asleep," Carol said.
"She weren't no trouble?" Daryl asked.
"She's been mad all day," Carol said. "She's thrown about ten tantrums, but she finally fell asleep because I offered her a kiss that I'd been saving from you."
Daryl laughed to himself. He knew about the saved kisses. He'd used the trick himself, before, when Carol had gone on a run and Sophia had reacted badly to the thought of being without her mother.
"You shoulda saved you up a whole pocketful like I done," Daryl said. "Then you could dole 'em out at regular intervals."
Carol smiled at him.
"She misses you," Carol said. "I miss you, too."
"Miss you," Daryl said. He cleared his throat. "Everybody else act OK?"
"Andrea and Lori got into it," Carol said. "But—that's to be expected. I imagine it won't be the last time."
"Got a lotta Alpha females around here," Daryl said. "It's bound to happen."
"At least I'm not one," Carol offered.
Daryl raised his eyebrows at her.
"You are," he said. "You're just content to let others take the position. But—if you wanted. You OK, though? I mean—they ain't like got into it an' caught you up in it? Baby's OK?"
Carol smiled at him.
"It wasn't that kind of fight," she assured him. "Everyone's fine. I was just worried. But now I feel—wonderful. I'd like it if you'd come to bed, though."
Daryl kissed her again.
"In a minute," he said. "I got dirt an' sweat—'til I smell like a bull's ass. I'ma go get me one of them cold baths."
"Let me warm you up some water," Carol said.
Daryl shook his head.
"I'd rather you stayed here," Daryl said. "Rather you warm the bed up for me. Have it ready—for when I get back?"
Carol smiled at him.
"It's a pretty tall order," she teased. "But—I think I can handle it. Just don't take too long."
Daryl smiled.
"Knowin' you waitin'," he said, "I'll fight my way to the front of the line if I gotta."
111111111111111111111111111111111111
AN: I'm sorry to admit that this story won't be full of a great deal of action-packed drama. It's going to have a lot of "life" things for our family, but it's not going to be constant things-blowing-up-omg-drama. I hope that's OK. I just wanted you to know.