Chapter 24: Norfolk, Virginia - April 2015

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Caro hovered in the doorway with very un-Caro-like uncertainty, a six-pack of beer in one hand and bag of some sort of food, pasta based on the smell, in the other. Teylor stepped back, waving her inside and, for an instant, he was reminded of Caro's first visit to this apartment. That long-ago night when she showed up unexpected with ice cream and sashayed into his living room and his life without an ounce of hesitation. But tonight, unlike the first time she showed up at his door, Caro didn't wiggle her hips as she moved past him to the kitchen, seduction apparently not on the agenda.

"Lasagna?" Caro asked over her shoulder as she gathered two plates and some silverware. Her face was blurry in the flickering candlelight - Teylor hadn't seen a reason to burn through the few working batteries that he had for the flashlights when candles worked just as well - but the look was still there. The hesitation. The fear. The resignation. Not all that different from a puppy waiting to be kicked out in the rain.

It was a side of Caro that Teylor didn't recognize, one that seemed foreign to him, antithetical to the gutsy woman he knew Caro to be. One who had the inner strength to not just survive a pandemic, but to help others while doing so. To become a leader.

Still, as Teylor leaned against the table, watching Caro carefully move lasagna onto dishes, Teylor realized that he had seen Caro this way once before. A year ago, the night after her fight with Danny. She had been almost frantic that evening, convinced that her relationship with her brother was permanently fractured.

Was that what she was afraid of now? That a night to cool off might turn into a year with no contact?

"This smells good," Teylor commented, although the last thing that he felt like doing was eating. He moved towards the kitchen, arriving in time for her to shove a plate full of food and a beer towards him. He wondered where she found the beer. Not only was alcohol barred from Danny and Kara's house due to Debbie's issues, but there was a general shortage across the city. Apparently more than one person decided that if they were going to die a painful, horrible death, might as well do so with a pleasant buzz. "Couch or table?"

"Couch," Caro responded almost automatically. Except when she was reading her newspapers, Caro rarely sat in a regular chair, preferring to pull her legs up and curl up in a blanket even when the temperature outside was sweltering. The memory brought a smile to his face, one that Caro immediately noticed and asked suspiciously. "What's got you grinning like the Cheshire cat?"

"Remembering you buying all those blankets," Teylor responded, gesturing towards the pile on the end of the couch. There never really seemed much of a point to putting them away when Caro just pulled them out again. And, while he vehemently denied it to Jones, Teylor kind of liked having things around the place that Caro bought.

If she left it here, that meant she was planning to come back.

"Huh." Caro sat down, twisting her legs up underneath here. "I forgot those were here."

"We haven't been back much," Teylor acknowledged, taking a small bite of the lasagna.

There was a pause. Then, "We had some fun here. You, me and Jones. And the girl-of-the month."

"I would have said girl-of-the-week," Teylor replied, drawing a chuckle. "Doug did know how to have fun."

"Yes." Silence fell, then Caro sat up straighter, her eyes finding his. "I forget sometimes. Or not forget really, I just ... ignore it. Everything that happened. I pretend that Jones is just down the street. That my dad is up in Connecticut. That we're hanging out with Danny and Kara the way I used to hang out Danny and Rebecca. It's just my way of dealing with it, or not dealing with it, I guess. But it doesn't mean that I don't know what you lost. That I don't care."

Teylor considered the words, surprised to realize that he understood. "I think we all do that. Try to find the normal, to go on living."

"Exactly," Caro breathed and she leaned forward, a hand moving to his knee. "I am sorry, Tey. About what I said. I didn't know. About the ring, I mean. About what it meant to you. I'm so very sorry."

"I know."

And he did, of course. Caro might enjoy knocking people down a peg, but she wasn't cruel. How could he be angry at Caro for not knowing about the ring when he never told her what it meant? This was as much on him as it was on her.

Teylor forked up another bite of lasagna, realizing as he did that he had managed to clean his plate despite the stilted atmosphere.

Maybe there was something to that old saying.

"What are you grinning about now?" Caro asked, more curious than suspicious this time.

Teylor reached over to snag a bite of her food. "The way to a man's heart is his stomach? Guess you might be more traditional than you thought, Caroline Green."