AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
The Woodbury Clinic wasn't just a basement with a few tables, as Daryl's imagination had allowed him to believe—mostly drawing from the fact that the best they could do was something akin to that in the prison. An office building that had likely housed one or more small businesses when Woodbury had been a thriving town, had now been converted to a place where people could be examined by doctors and, when necessary, kept there for care and observation.
The place was clean. It smelled clean. It was also fairly empty, which Daryl took as a good sign. It meant that Woodbury didn't have too many ongoing crises since the Governor had been killed.
"Hey! What's up?"
"Hi!" Sophia enthusiastically responded.
The girl who greeted them as soon as they were in the door was clearly a receptionist and, perhaps, even something of a candy striper or jack-of-all-trades. She was a little too enthusiastic, and her station was clearly what would have once been the lobby of the building. It was now, evidently, a waiting room with the metal and plastic chairs that currently all sat empty. The young girl, as a visual representation of the lack of overall concern at the moment, had been sitting in an office chair and reading a tattered paperback. She stood up when she offered her greeting.
Daryl knew that the people of Woodbury had dreams of opening schools. He also knew that they were settling for a work-to-education approach since there were very few actual children at this point.
The girl in front of them was maybe fifteen. She had that awkward look of having not quite grown into all of her appendages yet.
"What's up is—we wanna see a doctor," Daryl said.
"Anyone in particular?" She asked.
"Who you got?" Daryl responded, shifting Sophia to his other side as she struggled against him to try to get free and explore the space.
"Alice is the only one here right now."
"Can she see us?" Daryl asked.
"We can come back…" Carol offered.
"She doesn't have anybody here," the girl said. "You can go back if you want. If you go all the way down that hall—straight down it? There's a lounge. She's usually back there if she's not with anybody."
Daryl could see that the girl wasn't going to offer to escort them, nor was she going to offer to go and get the doctor for them or tell her that they were coming. Daryl simply mumbled a thanks and dropped a hand to Carol's back to somewhat guide her into the hallway where they'd been directed.
Because the place was a converted office space of sorts, the hallway was lined with doors—all of them closed. At the end of the hall, like the young girl had suggested, there was a room that you either had to enter or literally run into. The door to the room was open, and Daryl tapped at it.
"What is it?" A voice called. Daryl nudged the door open a bit more.
"Hi!" Sophia barked, leaning into the door, herself, as Daryl did so.
Daryl pushed the door the rest of the way open.
"Hi…oh hi!"
The brunette that was speaking was sitting on a couch and, like the girl up front, it seemed that she was whiling away some time with a book. She closed the book, dropped it on the couch cushion, and stood up. With an enthusiastic smile, she crossed the room quickly. Her eyes were on Sophia.
"Hi! Aren't you a cutie!"
Sophia smiled back at the brunette, displaying her full collection of teeth. She didn't speak, though, letting her silence be her one show of shyness.
"What's your name, cutie?" The brunette asked.
"This is Sophia," Daryl offered, when Sophia looked at him. "And—I'm Daryl. And…" He backed out of the doorway enough to bring Carol beside him. He kept his hand on her back. "This is Carol."
The woman's smile softened just a little, but didn't fade.
"New to Woodbury?" She asked. "I mean—I think I might've remembered Sophia here, if I'd seen her before."
"Fresh arrived from the prison," Daryl said.
"We're seeing a lot of that these days. Well—I'm Alice. Dr. Walker, but…who has time for formalities these days, am I right?"
"Nice to meet you," Carol offered. Daryl echoed her sentiment.
She stared at them a moment, and then raised her eyebrows.
"Can I help you with something or—are you just…looking around…?"
"We're mostly just looking around," Carol said.
"But we'd like it if you could—I guess check everything out?"
"Sure!" Alice said. "Excellent…of course. That's mostly what we've been doing for like two or three days. There's been a serious influx of people and it's just like—checking things out. Just—let me tell Jessica that I've got you and I'll show you my office."
She tried to get around them just as they tried to get around her and it resulted in something of an odd hallway dance that Sophia found hilarious. Even once Alice had started down the hallway, Daryl rocked in place, dancing Sophia this way and that, so that she could continue enjoying the motion.
Within a matter of minutes, Alice came back with a small stack of papers and showed them to a room that had once been some sort of a business office, but was now pretty well converted into a doctor's office.
"All this is nice," Daryl commented.
"Oh yeah…it's really nice," Alice said. "Ummm—I'm sorry, I don't have an extra chair."
"It's OK, I can stand," Daryl assured her. "You been here long?"
"No," Alice said. "Well—I guess—like maybe two months?"
"So, it hasn't been long since you've been on the road," Carol said.
"No," Alice said. "I'm from South Carolina originally. I happened to be in Atlanta when everything went to hell. They called for volunteers; you know? At the start. Try to figure out what was going on. Try to get some kind of control over things—work with the earliest people who got sick. My partner's a psychiatrist. We thought we could help. We volunteered. Packed a couple bags and drove to Atlanta. When it started getting really bad, they started helicoptering us to smaller hospitals. Everything was packed. I felt like we were at war. We were, I guess—with the virus. Anyway, the—you know—hit the fan." She handed Sophia a tongue depressor, which Sophia accepted as a toy. "It's literally been survival since then. People dying every day, finding new people. Melodye—my partner—and I got lucky. We've been sort of flip-flopped from one group to another as we went, but a medical degree gets you a certain amount of safety. It's a privilege, really."
"I heard the same can be said here," Daryl said.
Alice nodded.
"This is home sweet home now. I'm literally always here. In exchange for the top floor apartment of this building—which is a pretty nice place—I'm on call twenty-four-seven."
"You must get tired of that," Carol said.
"Not as much as you would think," Alice said. "I mean—I come and go if I'm not needed and I have people stand in for me. There's another doctor, a couple of nurses, an army medic. They're in and out. And it's not like we're in crisis mode all the time. As you can see, it can get pretty quiet. Besides—I get bored easily. I like having people to talk to, and I like meeting new people. Like you!" Alice said, her earlier smile and enthusiasm coming back as she spoke directly to Sophia. The little girl was being good, but she was starting to get restless, and one piece of wood was not going to be enough to hold her for long. She did smile at Alice, though. Alice spoke in Sophia's direction, but she spoke to Carol and Daryl. "I'm going to create a file for each of you—can I assume you're a family?"
"We're a family. Dixon," Daryl said.
There was small table against one wall, and Alice arranged her papers there. Satisfied with the arrangement, she tucked them under her arm and came over. She offered an ink pen out in Sophia's direction.
"You wanna help me take some notes?" Alice asked. She showed Sophia a piece of paper. "Do you think you could help me?"
Sophia looked at Daryl. She was bug-eyed, and Daryl could tell that the silent plea for permission was all he was getting at the moment.
"You oughta help her, Soph," Daryl said. "You good at helpin' Papa Hershel, ain't you?"
"You know Papa Hershey?" Sophia asked Alice suddenly.
"I don't," Alice said. "But—I can't wait to know him! Will you help?"
Sophia nodded.
"I can help you," she said and allowed Alice to take her. Alice smiled with a great deal of satisfaction at the fairly easy transfer. She sat Sophia on her exam table and gave her a pen and a piece of paper. She blocked Sophia's body with her own, standing against the table so that Sophia was unlikely to fall. Alice leaned next to her and started writing on her own paper. Sophia copied her, scribbling on the blank piece she'd been given.
In this way, Alice entertained Sophia and slowly seemed to win over some of her confidence. Alice asked questions of Carol and Daryl about themselves and Sophia. They were basic, and relatively easy, questions. They were the kinds of things that she might need to know about them to treat them, Daryl supposed.
From time to time, she asked Sophia questions—mostly that required a yes or a no—about what they'd said, pretending to lean over Sophia's paper and copy her scribblings.
"I think it's safe to say she's right-handed," Alice said.
"Not all the time," Carol interjected. "She sometimes uses crayons and things with her left hand. Is that bad?"
"No, it's not bad. She might be ambidextrous," Alice offered. "Or she might be simply experimenting. It doesn't matter that much, really, and she'll figure it out as she gets bigger. The important thing is that she's showing some control over those motor skills. She gets to play a lot? Manipulate things?"
"She's the busiest kid you ever known," Daryl offered. "She's real good at motor skills, and fine motor skills, and everything. She catches bugs all the time. Most the time without even squeezin' 'em to death."
Alice smiled at Sophia, though Sophia didn't notice because she was busy with her pen.
"Excellent," Alice declared.
Sophia leaned over and started to color on Alice's hand with the pen.
"Sophia! Don't'cha write on people."
"It's OK," Alice said. "It won't be the first tattoo I've gotten and it'll wash off. I tell you what—without trying to start any family drama. Who does she mirror more? Like—who does she like to copy the most?"
"She's a Daddy's girl," Carol said quickly. Daryl glanced at her. She was smiling at him.
"She loves her Mama most," Daryl said.
Carol laughed.
"He feels like he has to say that," Carol said. "She's a Daddy's girl and nobody minds."
"Excellent," Alice said. "Then—Daddy—you think you could kind of go—with Sophia?"
"Go with her?"
"For your check-up," Alice said. "It'll make her feel a lot more at ease if she sees that it's just something you're doing together."
"I weren't gonna…" Daryl offered.
"Daryl—I think it's a good idea," Carol said. He narrowed his eyes at her. She was wearing that shit-eating smile that she got sometimes. "Just for—peace of mind, right? And to help Sophia feel more secure."
"Fine," Daryl ceded.
"Since we're all family," Alice said, "you can just—strip down to your underwear. Unless—you want Carol to leave for some more privacy?"
Daryl laughed to himself.
"She's seen me in less than my underwear," he offered. "It's just—I don't like to take my clothes off in front of people I don't…know."
"Nobody does," Alice said. "I mean—well, I guess some people do. But most people don't. I'm a doctor, though. I promise you, I've seen it all. Come on. Up on the table. You'll be safe with me, Daddy."
"Go on, Daryl," Carol urged.
"That's alright," Daryl mumbled. "You next." Carol laughed to herself.
"Like I was getting out of here without it…" she mused.
Alice smiled at him.
"It's OK," she said. "I don't bite. Promise."
As soon as Daryl joined her on the table, Sophia lost any and all interest in her paper, though he was pretty sure that regaining custody of the ink pen was going to be a challenge for the doctor. Sophia stood up on the table, calling out for "Daddy," and he pulled her close to him so that he could hold her with one hand—trading off as Alice needed him to. He helped strip her out of her clothes. Sophia wasn't at all shy, and she proudly showed Alice her polka dotted panties and identified some of the colors for her under questioning.
Alice was right in that Sophia succumbed to her inspection without much fight at all as long as she saw Alice do the same to Daryl first. Alice let Sophia help her examine Daryl. She read his temperature on a thermometer she couldn't have possibly been able to understand. She listened to his heartbeat, looked into his ears and throat, and copied most of Alice's actions. It took a while, especially since Alice kept stopping to jot things down on her papers, but eventually she'd finished with both of them.
"I actually have some candy!" Alice said. "Suckers. Pilfered out of our storage for good patients. I don't have the choke-proof sticks, but Daddy, I'm sure you can help Sophia eat her candy."
"She's usually pretty good with any of that stuff," Daryl said. "But, yeah, I'll help her." He started wrestling Sophia back into her clothes and Alice brought over a selection of suckers."
"I can eat that?" Sophia asked Daryl before taking one.
"You can have one," Daryl told her. "Because you was good."
"The best patient I've seen today," Alice told her. "Better than Daddy, even."
Sophia grinned at Daryl. She looked just like Carol in that instant. He laughed to himself. Sophia picked a sucker for herself.
"Hey—whatta you say?"
"Thanks!" Sophia said.
"You're welcome!" Alice assured her. "Daddy—you want one? For being such a good patient?"
Daryl took one of the suckers and offered his thanks, as well.
"So—what do you think?" Carol asked from her seat in a chair.
"About which one?" Alice asked. "They're both healthy," she said, answering her own question immediately. "At least as far as I can tell with a very basic examination. And if there are no complaints, I don't see any reason to get too invasive at this point."
"You didn't ask me about—the scars…" His stomach tightened.
"Do you want to talk bout them?" Alice asked.
"No," Daryl said. "But—doctors always ask me about 'em."
Alice smiled at him.
"And—really there's no need for me to know about them," she said. "Not unless—something comes up or I think they'd be relative to your treatment. Right now, it's up to you."
"I don't wanna," Daryl said.
"Then that's all I need to know," Alice said. "As for Sophia—she looks perfect. Now, I'm not a pediatrician. I didn't specialize in child development or anything like that. I'm working on my limited knowledge. We all are, here. But from what I can tell, she's healthy. She looks good. She seems to be developing normally—whatever we can say is normal now, honestly."
Daryl pulled the plastic off Sophia's sucker and watched her as she licked it, testing the flavor before she dedicated herself to suck it. She'd chosen green because she liked the color, more than likely, but she wasn't going to like the flavor. That was the main reason that Daryl had plucked a red sucker from Alice's hand. In a few moments, he had no doubt that the green sucker would be shoved into his mouth unceremoniously, and he would trade the red sucker—a flavor she'd actually enjoy—to keep Sophia satisfied while Carol was being examined. Daryl had a feeling, after all, that her examination might be a little more involved.
"Can I put my clothes on now?" Daryl asked.
"Of course," Alice said, laughing to herself. "Carol? Shall we go ahead and check out the other two members of the family?"
Daryl glanced toward Carol as he scooped Sophia up and opened his mouth to accept the sucker that she was loudly, and repeatedly, declaring that he should take. He moved out of Alice's way and, resting Sophia on the floor next to him, quickly started working his way into his clothes.
"Is it that obvious?" Carol asked, standing up. Daryl snagged her chair as soon as she was on her feet to make dressing with a toddler a little bit easier.
"You mean—that you're expecting? I noticed it right away."
"I thought I was still hiding it pretty well," Carol said.
"Maybe it's just doctor's instinct," Alice said. She opened a cabinet and came out with a blanket. "I don't have any gowns, but I do have a blanket. If you'll just—strip all the way down for me? I'm going to hop down the hall and into our closet and get one of our portable machines. OK?"
Daryl held onto Sophia's wrist, mastering the art of dressing himself one handed. He watched Carol. She simply nodded at Alice, offered her an uncomfortable smile, and took the blanket.
A moment later, Alice stepped out of the office.
"She's nice," Daryl said. "Just—tell her you're nervous and…it won't be nothin' but a thing. You need me an' Soph to show you how it's done?"
"Asshole," Carol offered.
Daryl laughed to himself.
"I promise—I won't be an asshole no more. I'm almost dressed and I got a sucker here that's the color Sophia's gonna like. We'll get her another piece of paper and that pen back, and I'ma be available to hold your hand. And when it's done, you get a sucker, too."
Carol laughed to herself. Daryl was at least happy to see her lighten a little as she worked her way out of her clothes.
"I'd rather have—something sweet for the nursery. That was the whole reason I came out today in the first place."
"Don't you worry, we'll get you that, too," Daryl assured her.