AN: This is a little Cyreese one shot.
It can be read with the others: "The Christmas Gift," "Everything Blooms in Spring," and "Growing Season," but it can also be read alone.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol crawled along on her hands and knees, dragging the wicker baskets along with her, and filled the baskets with vegetables from the rows on either side of her. She'd figured out, some time back, that it was best to wrap her knees in scrap cloth to protect them as she moved. This saved her the effort of the up and down motion that she would have to use if she were going to frequently get to her feet. It also saved her back from the effort of bending as much as she would normally have to bend if she insisted on doing this while on her feet.
"Lizzie! Mika!" Tyreese called.
He got the attention of the two giggling girls that were running around the yard and playing with their younger sister, Judith, as she squalled in delight over being chased.
Lizzie and Mika were the only two of their little family to be biologically related, at this point at least, but they'd managed to bring their family together pretty well. They had no other choice, really. They were the only survivors around of the virus that killed whoever it touched and brought them back as nothing more than animated corpses.
Tyreese was sure there were other people alive in the world but, in his experience, people couldn't always be trusted and relied upon these days. He was more interested in caring for his little family, for the time being, than he was in trying to find others.
"Why don't y'all go ahead and get Jude inside? Bring in some water. We'll be in soon to get it warming."
It was hot enough in Georgia in the summertime that they would only build a fire that was large enough to warm their water, and they would only warm the water enough to knock the chill off of it that came from simply being water fresh from an underground well. Even in the heat of summer, the underground water was frigid and, while a little chill felt good while washing off the dust and the sweat from the day, too much was still difficult to bear.
"Come on, beautiful," Tyreese said, rounding the corner to find the end of Carol's row.
She looked at him from her spot in the dirt and laughed to herself.
"I haven't finished, Ty," she said, half-apologetically. "I'm slower than I used to be."
"It'll still be there tomorrow," Tyreese said. "You've got plenty for now. Plenty for supper. Plenty for everything. You can start preparing some for canning. Do you have enough jars?"
"After that last run? You brought me a whole truckload," she said.
"I like to make sure my baby has what she needs," Tyreese said, half-teasing her. He winked at her, dramatically, and smiled to himself when her face ran even darker crimson than it naturally was from the heat and exertion. She wore a wide-brimmed farmer's hat to keep her skin from burning constantly in the sun, but the heat had most of his family red-faced. "Come on, Carol. You need some water, and you need to rest inside for a while."
"What about the baskets?"
"We'll send Lizzie and Mika out to get them," Tyreese said.
This time, instead of waiting for her to try to get to her feet or to finish her trek to the end of her row, Tyreese walked down the little path between the rows and held a hand out to her. When she reached up to take it, he leaned in and used both his hands to practically lift her and set her on her feet. He held her close to him, after she was on her feet, to give her body the chance to adjust.
She'd been down long enough that he knew that she would go lightheaded for a second, and he didn't want her to faint. He also knew that she'd be stiff and her knees would need a moment to adjust. He didn't want her to fall, either. A tumble wouldn't be the end of the world, but it wouldn't be good for the precious little piece of cargo that she currently carried with her everywhere she went.
Tyreese dropped his hand and patted her belly. She immediately pressed her hand over his.
"How's he doing today?" He asked. "Active?"
"Some," Carol said.
"As much as usual?" Tyreese asked.
"Not quite," Carol said. Tyreese felt a wave of concern tighten his stomach muscles, but he willed his facial muscles to relax. He wanted Carol to be as relaxed as was humanly possible. That meant that he did his best to absorb all concern himself.
"He just needs a little rest and some water, Carol," Tyreese said. "You didn't feed him lunch, either."
Carol relaxed—evidence that everything was finding its center again—and wrapped her arms around him.
"You'd spoil me completely if you could," she said.
"I'm trying my best," Tyreese assured her. He leaned to kiss her and she turned her head.
"I'm sweaty and I'm sure I smell terrible," she said.
"I can't smell you over myself," Tyreese offered with a laugh. She allowed him to steal the kiss that he was after and he slipped an arm around her. He'd disguise it merely as his desire to walk with her, as close as they could possibly be to each other, but part of it was still his concern for making sure that her equilibrium was able to catch up with her change from having been practically horizontal for most of the day as she'd crawled along tending the garden that would feed them now and through the winter.
As they walked, slowly because there was no need to hurry and because, honestly, Tyreese treasured these twilight moments as they made their way inside to start their evening work, Tyreese twisted his body just enough to lazily rest his hand on the swell of Carol's stomach.
"Ty—do you think he's too big?" Carol asked. "What if we—didn't predict it right and it's not fall when he comes? What if he's supposed to come sooner?"
"Then he'll come sooner," Tyreese said. "I think it has to be fall, though. I think he's our—well, we'll call him our Christmas gift. And since you didn't let me love you in…in all the ways that I wanted to until it was so cold we called it Christmas? We can't have guessed too incorrectly. But I don't think he's too big. He's barely a handful, Carol."
"Your hands are bigger than mine," Carol offered, somewhat snuggling into him despite the heat and her protests that they both smelled like people who had put in a solid day of work.
"I hope you're not forgetting that he's my baby," Tyreese said. "He's bound to take after his old man a little."
"Every time you remind of that," Carol said, laughing to herself, "I'm simultaneously so happy that I could cry and, honestly, concerned enough to cry, too. What if he's too big?"
Tyreese laughed at her teasing and hugged her to him.
"Don't worry. He's your baby, too. He won't be too big. He'll be just right." He laughed to himself and, despite his initial refusal to tell her what was on his mind, Tyreese finally shared his teasing thoughts with Carol. "I was just going to say—we couldn't be too far off. Besides—don't hurry the harvest, Carol. We won't bring in watermelons until the end of the summer at least."
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"I know it's hot, but I'm cold," Carol said, drying off from her bath—the last bath of the evening. Tyreese didn't even bother throwing her bathwater outside. Since there was nobody else who needed to use the tub, there was no need to discard the water and clean it until morning. He was much more interested in snatching whatever precious moments he could with his wife before they turned in to get the rest that they'd need in order to put in another full day tomorrow.
"Come here and let me warm you up," Tyreese urged. "Leave your pajamas, Carol."
A smile came across her face. It was a deliciously wicked smile that Tyreese had come to love as much as he loved everything else about her. He laughed to himself just to see it.
"You're awfully sure of yourself," she teased. Tyreese accepted all her teasing. She was coming out of her proverbial shell with him more and more each day. Her ex-husband had abused her to the point where she'd believed herself to be entirely undesirable, and she'd believed that everything about her personality and her entire being would be somehow detestable to Tyreese.
Now, she was finally comfortable enough to tease him without, some time later when things got quiet and she had the opportunity to overthink them, beating herself up for everything she thought and did throughout the day.
"I'm not, actually," Tyreese said. "I may be tired enough tonight to have to turn you down, myself, but I would like the chance to—see you, just a little bit."
Even in the very dim light of their flickering oil lamp, Tyreese could see Carol blush. She came to him, though, with nothing on after she hung up her towel to dry. As soon as she crawled on the bed, Tyreese reached and ran his fingers through her hair. He picked her curls in one direction and then the next. She insisted that she needed to cut them, soon, but he always talked her into waiting just a bit longer and, when she did cut them, being sure to leave him enough to run his fingers through as he worshipped her body during the quiet moments they managed to steal for themselves.
"You want me to rub your shoulders?" Carol asked.
"It should be me that asks you that," Tyreese said.
"You work hard, Ty," Carol said.
"So do you."
"You work harder than me," Carol said. "The animals. Those extra fences. That digging is hard."
Tyreese pulled her to him and practically tucked her into the crook of his arm so that she would lie with him and allow him to hold her. She didn't protest physically and, instead, she kissed him before nipping at his lip playfully. He jokingly growled at her before he nipped at the skin on her neck and licked a trail to the point where he could nibble her earlobes. He smiled to himself at the shiver that ran through her body.
"You don't stop that, and I'm going to have more expectations from you," she warned.
"And I'll try to fill any that you have. You work every bit as hard as I do," Tyreese said. "And you're busy growing him, too."
Carol smiled to herself and tenderly ran her fingers over her belly.
"Is he awake?" Tyreese asked.
Carol hummed in the affirmative. Tyreese rested his palm across the swell and rubbed his hand back and forth.
Then he stopped.
His heart drummed—thump, thump, thump—practically in rhythm with the unexpected feeling drumming against his palm. Suddenly, his breath came in involuntarily shallow puffs.
"Carol—is that?"
She was smiling at him. Her eyes met his immediately.
"You feel him?" She asked, her breath coming out as a whisper like she was afraid that she might startle the tiny life moving inside of her.
"That's really him?"
"It better be," Carol said with a laugh. "Well—what do you think?"
Tyreese held his breath, on purpose, almost like he could keep his son performing for him if nothing in the room moved. Nothing did move. For a moment, the only sound was the sound of Carol's light breathing. The movement stopped under his palm.
"I think he stopped," Tyreese said.
"He did, for now," Carol agreed. "Well?" She asked again, this time with a bit more concern in her voice. The sound in her voice tugged at Tyreese's heart. He knew it was the ugly and old insecurity left behind by her ex-husband. She needed his reassurance, as she often did, that she'd done nothing horrible by becoming pregnant, and he wasn't going to hate her for adding to their family. "Ty?"
Tyreese caught her face and pulled it to him. He kissed her, deeply. Deeply enough, he hoped, to erase any doubt she might have.
She looked relaxed when he pulled away from her.
"I think you need feed him more," Tyreese teased. "He's a growing boy. He was drumming out an SOS to his Daddy."
Carol's smile broadened.
"An SOS?"
"Mmm hmmm," Tyreese hummed. "Making sure I remembered to take care of Mommy, because that takes care of him."
Carol laughed and snuggled in against Tyreese.
"Now I know you're making it up, because he already knows how good you take care of me."