AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

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

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Sophia squirmed and requested to be put down as soon as they were out the door. Daryl put her on her feet, and demanded that she stay right there with them. For a second, she bolted forward like she might disobey, but a sharp warning was all it took for her to stop her steps and turn around, waiting for the both of them. The promise that, if she got too far ahead, her feet wouldn't touch the ground again until they got home was enough to keep her some few feet in front of them, stopping and turning around to watch them every few steps.

They walked slowly.

And, for a moment, they walked without saying anything.

The streets of Woodbury were relatively busy, but nobody was really gathered in clusters. Mostly, people wandered in small familial or friend bunches as they went about their business.

"Daryl—I…" Carol said, but she broke off.

The quality of her voice made Daryl laugh to himself. She sounded so unsure of herself—of the moment.

"I'm followin' you exactly," he said. "I mean—shit—it's so much in the last few minutes and I don't know where to start. Don't wanna start with the wrong thing, but…"

Carol looked at him big-eyed. Overwhelm was evident on her features.

"I don't think where we start matters. Just be careful," she said. "Little ears…"

"I know," Daryl confirmed. "Shit I guess—I'ma just start with Merle ain't said shit to me."

"What if he doesn't know?" Carol asked.

"You think it ain't his?"

Carol rolled her eyes at him.

"Of course I think it's his," she hissed.

"Well then why don't he know?"

"Maybe she didn't know. Maybe she just found out."

"How old or—big or—whatever, shit, Carol, I'm all turned around. I don't even know what Merle's gonna say. How big you think it is?"

Carol shrugged her shoulders.

"Now that I'm thinking about it? Sophia—that's far enough. Wait for us. Now that I'm thinking about it—I can't remember the last time I saw Andrea wearing anything even a little bit revealing. She's been sort of going for Merle's shirts, and oversized shirts and dresses."

"Like she's hidin' somethin'?"

"Maybe?"

"OK—but—if she's livin' with him, and we know she is…believe me, if Merle's shackin' up with a woman, he's fuckin' her." Carol hissed at him. He glanced at Sophia, but she was bored with adult conversation much of the time. "Sorry. But—you tellin' me he ain't noticed?"

"How observant is your brother, Daryl?"

"He taught me every damn thing I know about survival and trackin'. Bein' aware of your surroundings, Carol."

"Being able to track a deer is one thing," Carol said, "but how observant is he when a woman's naked and he knows he's about to…you know?"

"I don't know, Carol," Daryl said. "We ain't never had no conversations at that particular moment."

Carol laughed to herself and the laugh was contagious. Daryl appreciated it when he caught it and it loosened his chest. Sophia stopped ahead of them. Instead of watching them, she darted into the grass. It didn't take long to see that she'd seen a particularly interesting leaf that she needed, and Carol and Daryl stopped to let her collect it and examine the others in its surrounding in case she wanted them, too.

"OK—let's be honest. You're a man. How observant would you be? Would you have noticed if I hadn't told you?"

Daryl looked her up and down, doing nothing at all to make the full inspection discreet.

"Despite the many ways I can be an idiot on a bad day," Daryl offered, "I can tell you're pregnant, Carol. Especially when you don't got clothes on and I don't even have to imagine I could be fooled by some ridiculous shit like you're smugglin' somethin' taped to your body to look like you're pregnant."

Carol laughed to herself again, and Daryl swallowed down his laughter.

"OK—I didn't mean now, asshole," she said. "Our baby is—growing. I'm talking about when I first started to gain a little weight. When it was all new. If you didn't know. If I hadn't told you…do you honestly think you would have known?"

"I'da knowed you gained a little weight," Daryl said. "Filled out. You was so thin—still are, really."

"But would you have known it was a baby? Or would you have thought just that…I filled out. Gained a little weight. Maybe food was suddenly agreeing with me better or there…there was more of it. Things were calming down and, just like a lot of people did at the prison, I was getting settled and getting a little plump in my relaxation."

Daryl felt his face go just a touch numb as he imagined himself in that situation. Then, immediately, he imagined his brother in that situation.

"Merle don't know," Daryl said. Carol shook her head. She didn't know, any more than Daryl did, what Merle knew or didn't know, but it was a safe bet that Merle didn't know if he hadn't mentioned it.

"Unless…"

"Unless what?" Daryl asked. "Sophia—what is that? What'cha got?"

Sophia jumped. She looked like she'd been caught doing something wrong. She stared at Daryl; every bit as big-eyed as her Mama could be.

"I ain't mad," Daryl said. "Just—wanna know what'cha got."

She held it up. It was small and white. She pinched it between her fingers. Daryl held his hand out and she came trotting toward him, offering him the white object. In her other hand, she had a small collection of leaves. She would probably take them home with her unless they could distract her with a small trinket in the "stores" of Woodbury and get her to abandon the additions to her collections. Every now and again, Carol would smuggle out all types of rocks, leaves, twigs, nuts, and nests from Sophia's belongings and dump them in the prison yard for the earth to take back. It appeared that her days of cleaning out Sophia's little squirreled away items weren't likely to be over just because they'd moved to Woodbury.

It was a small white rock.

"It's a rock, Daddy," Sophia said, telling him as much. "It's a pretty rock. Don't'cha think? Don't'cha think, Daddy? It's pretty."

It was an ordinary white pebble, really. It wasn't ugly or pretty—it was a plain pebble.

"It is pretty," Daryl assured her. "Here you go. Don't put it in your mouth. You hear me?"

"Yes, Daddy," Sophia said. "Thanks—thanks, Daddy." She gladly took her rock back and held it tightly in her hand like she feared simply dropping it.

"Come on—let's go. Carol—you wanna—take her to the playground and run this off first or go in stores first?"

"Playground," Carol said without hesitation. "She'll be tired and let you carry her while we look at things. She might even nap a little, and then we can get something to eat."

Daryl nodded and kept walking. Carol didn't know the layout of Woodbury yet, but Daryl had seen enough of it when walking the evening before, to know where most everything was—including the stores where nothing was actually for sale and things they found were simply hoarded until someone needed something, and the playground where Sophia could happily burn some energy. Daryl imagined that, one day, the town would be much bigger, especially with their plans to move the fences and expand it. He imagined, too, that one day the playground might be busier with more children at play than just Sophia.

The thought brought him back to the conversation they'd been having.

"Unless what?" He asked, prompting Carol when he returned to the conversation.

"What?" She asked.

"Unless…I said Merle didn't know and you said unless. Unless what?"

Carol clearly had to think about it for a moment. She'd lost the conversation, too. She had to go back and find it. Daryl saw it register on her features when she caught back up with herself.

"Unless—Andrea didn't know until yesterday," Carol said. "Andrea's never had a baby before. Maybe—she just didn't know. Maybe she didn't realize."

"You think she just ain't told him?"

"Or he just hasn't told you," Carol said. "I don't know which one. She hasn't said anything to me either, though."

"Shit," Daryl said, more to himself than to Carol. "Well—you better talk to her. Tell her how you know. Because if Lil' Miss Talks-A-Lot is blabbin' that shit to everybody that steps foot in the clinic, it won't be no damn time 'fore Andrea's news is comin' back to her on somebody else's lips."

Carol's face screwed up with concern and she stopped her forward steps. Daryl stopped with her and called to Sophia to wait. The little girl looked frustrated when she turned around, but luckily, didn't protest.

"Daryl—I'm going to talk to Andrea," Carol said. "But, if Andrea is? This is her first time. It's not fair for someone to take away her news. She should get to tell everyone. Not have some little girl tell everyone. I have to go talk to Alice. As soon as we get to the playground, I'm going to slip back down there, OK? While you watch Sophia—if you don't mind. I just want to talk to Alice and get her to talk to Jessica. I don't think she'd mean to do it. I think that she'd just be trying to be friendly, like she was with us. But Andrea would probably be crushed if she didn't get to tell anybody."

Daryl could feel that Carol's concern was genuine. He couldn't help but smile at her furrowed brow. He reached his hand up and rubbed his thumb across her face, attempting to soothe a little of the worry.

"If you want—we'll just take Soph and we'll all three run back there."

"No—I mean, we could, but she's ready to play, Daryl. She shouldn't have to keep running back and forth. It would be better if you just stayed with her while she plays, and I'll run back. Unless—you want me to stay with her and you go and talk to Alice about it."

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Let's see," he offered. "Go an' watch Sophia play, or go an' try to talk to the lady doctor about the possibility that Merle's knocked somebody up an' she might be upset if the secretary was to tell someone about it. I think I'd rather sit my happy ass at the playground and smoke a cigarette while you go an' handle whatever you got to say to her about the condition of Andrea's uterus."

Carol nodded.

"I thought that's what you might say," Carol admitted with a light laugh. The quiet sound helped to visibly erase some of her worry.

"You wanna go now or…?"

"I'd rather see where the playground is, first," Carol said. "I'd rather not have to ask people how to get there if I can avoid it."

"Ain't too much further," Daryl said. "You gonna remember—the turns?"

"I think. I've been paying attention and—it's not that complicated. Not unless the last leg of the trip is going to be hard? We've just gone straight, so far."

"About three turns from here to the playground," Daryl offered. "In fact—Soph…come here. Walk with us. You don't know where we goin' from here. Come here. You can keep walkin', just keep step with Daddy."

Daryl waved his fingers down by his side and Sophia walked over and started walking beside him. She didn't offer him a hand because she would have had to abandon either her leaves or her rock—unable to work out how to hold everything in one hand—so Daryl simply rested his fingers on her shoulder to steer her as they walked. She walked some, skipped a few steps, and did something like a dance to move her forward, but she had no problem keeping up with their chosen snail's pace.

Daryl slipped his other arm around Carol's shoulder and walked with it loosely looped there. There was still so much for them to talk about—like the little picture that Carol carried pinched between her fingers. The picture of their baby. A boy, so Alice had said. But Daryl knew that there would be time to talk about it.

In fact, he was sure that Carol would insist that they talked about it a great deal, even if Daryl weren't the one to bring it up. He knew from her expression in the office that she would need a little reassurance of his happiness about the whole thing.

But, for now, she was distracted by Andrea's possible condition and situation, and Daryl wasn't going to force her to think about too much at once.

"Do you think Merle will want it?" Carol asked after a moment, breaking Daryl's focus on his thoughts.

"What?"

"Do you think Merle will want it?"

"Want it or not—if it's comin', it's comin' on…nothin' to do about it. Not like he used to do. Handin' over a wad of cash an' tellin' some woman to get lost. And that was only if she managed to find his ass afterward, you know?"

Carol frowned at him.

"It weren't me that did it," Daryl said, her expression burning into him.

"I know, but…Daryl…"

He reminded himself that she was awash in her own sea of hormones these days and, very likely, all of this was a bit too much to wade through at once.

"You'll talk to Andrea," Daryl said. "Tell me if I oughta talk to him or, when I should, or whatever. It'll be fine, though. Different than it was with them women."

"You believe that?" Carol asked.

"Andrea's stuck around," Daryl said. "Nobody's done that before."

"Only because Merle hasn't run her off—or run away. Or whatever."

"That's my point, maybe," Daryl said, steering Sophia toward the next turn that was coming up—the last before they'd reach the playground and he'd send Carol trotting back to find Alice and beg her to keep Jessica quiet. Then Carol would rejoin them for picking out some things for the nursery and eating some food.

Later, Carol would talk to Andrea and, without a doubt, Daryl and Carol would do a great deal more talking about their own news.

And, like it or not, Daryl was sure there was a conversation with his brother coming soon. He could only hope that Merle was as changed as he seemed to be.