Saturday is supposed to be Carol's day off. She attends Hershey's morning soccer game, where Henry cheers on his "little brother" and Daryl grunts at the coach over a bad call and is promptly told to "sit his ass down." Daryl gets that look on his face like he does when he's about to bump chests with someone, but he doesn't. He just mutters, "It was a shit call, 'n ya know it," and goes back to the sidelines to sit on the blanket next to Carol.
"Don't be that Dad," she tells him.
"Ain't. 'M sittin' down, ain't I?"
"It was a shit call," she agrees.
Hershey's team loses, but he scores two goals, and the boy is ecstatic. All of them - Henry included - eat lunch together at the cabin before Henry leaves to join the hunters. Carol asks Daryl to stay and watch Hershey. "I need to campaign. And you need a full day off for once. So unless you want to take tomorrow off and go to church with me in the morning - "
"- take today off," he interrupts.
"Can we play Stratego?" Hershey asks.
"Sure."
As the boy runs off to get the game, Carol shrugs into her coat. "Did you notice how much Henry was talking about Cyndie all through lunch?"
"Mhmhm."
She smiles. "I think Jessica may be a thing of the past."
"Hell you so happy for? Cyndie's same age as Jessica."
"Yes, but she doesn't annoy me." Carol snaps up her coat.
"Well, hate to burst yer bubble, but he's goin' to the Kingdom tomorrow. Kung fu seminar or some shit."
"But he's going to be back in time for Halloween, isn't he? To take Hershey trick-or-treating?"
"'S only gonna be gone two nights."
Carol heads out the door, a little bothered that Daryl knows more about Henry's life than she does. She starts with stopping by the blacksmith shop, and then moves onto the warehouse workers. She skips dinner to continues her baby kissing and jack jawing, canvasing trailer after trailer and cabin after cabin. The election isn't until January, but she want to start shoring up her votes now.
Carol can play the politician, as she did in Alexandria, but it exhausts her, and when she gets back to the cabin that evening, and finds the dirty dinner dishes still on the table, she just feels more exhausted. It doesn't help that Daryl and Hershey appear to be ripping up a clean white bed sheet in the living room.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
"Makin' Hershey's costume."
"I'm going to be a mummy!"
"Scary stuff," Carol says as she plops down on the couch and peels off her boots. "I haven't even thought about what we're going to give out this year."
"Make that hard honey candy," Daryl says.
"I'm not sure I have time to make candy this year. And we aren't getting enough honey rations for that now."
"Could ask Henry to make a trade with the Kingdom's bee keepers while he's there."
"Trade what?"
Daryl cuts into the sheet with his gutting knife and then rips another strand off. "That tequila, maybe."
"Aaron had some. I had some. But I think I have enough corn syrup to make some hard candy." She sighs. "Would you please take care of those dishes?"
"Hershey," Daryl orders. "Go scrub the dishes."
The boy jogs over to the kitchen, but Daryl takes them out to rinse them at the hand pump. Meanwhile, Carol scrounges up a light dinner.
She's up late working on responding to the suggestions, and she takes extra care to do so this time. Eventually, she feels a hand on both her shoulders and instinctively cranes her neck to receive Daryl's kiss. He plants his lips on that sensitive spot at the bottom of her neck, trails them up, and whispers in her ear, "Been two nights."
"You know, it's not a law."
"Ya never make me go more 'n two nights."
A smile twitches at the corner of her lips. "And maybe it's been a mistake to spoil you."
"Please?"
Please is not a word that often falls from Daryl Dixon's lips. She chuckles. "How about a quick blow job?"
He hrmpfs. "Well if ya ain't invested…Don't want it."
"No?" she turns around in her chair and starts stroking him through his Wranglers. He hisses. "Because it kind of feels like you already want it."
"Jesus, Carol…" He bites down on his lip.
She unbuckles his belt. He's already taken the gear off, so she can slip it free easily. The buckle clangs as she drops the belt to the floor by her chair. She puts a hand on his button. "Sure you don't want it?"
He growls, somewhere deep in his throat. "'S go in the bedroom. 'Case Hershey comes out."
Merle tries to follow them into the bedroom, but Daryl pushes him out with a foot and shuts the door. Outside, Merle whimpers. When he turns around, Carol pops the button free and yanks down his zipper. He thuds back against the door as she slides to her knees.
Pretty soon, his own knees are buckling. He grabs the door knob for support. She loves it when he has to hold onto something. It gives her a rush of power to think how easily she can make him crumble.
He puts his other hand on the back of her head and murmurs her name, and his favorite endearments for her, which only seem to come out during sex – babe and darlin' and sweetheart and good, good girl….
He's panting and trembling when she finally stands and walks backward toward the bed, saying, "My turn."
"Thought ya wanted to be quick."
"Well, even a good girl's entitled to change her mind."
"I oughtta leave you hungry for a change."
She chuckles, crawls on top of the quilt, and unsnaps her jeans. "Then I'll just take care of myself." She slides down the zipper and slips a hand inside. She doesn't have to tease him for long before he's on the bed, jerking her jeans and underwear down and replacing her hand with his mouth.
[*]
Halloween arrives and Hershey is adorable in his mummy costume, at least until it unravels. He comes home with a pillowcase full of miscellaneous goodies – homemade hard candy, bouncy balls, toy soldiers, and even a few stray bullets and a single shotgun shell, which he hands over to Carol saying, "You're treats."
"I don't even have a shotgun," she laments.
"Get ya one for Christmas, if ya want," Daryl says. He can always dig through housing developments until he finds one. It is Virginia, after all.
"That's all right. I'm happy with my AR-15 and my Sig 9mm."
Henry stays long enough to help Hershey sort his goodies before heading back to his dorm room. Carol walks him out onto the porch and asks, "How was Jessica?" When his face darkens, she insists, "I'm not starting with that again. I'm politely inquiring after your girlfriend."
"She was good. And she's not exactly my girlfriend. I mean, we're not exclusive or anything."
"No?" Carol suppresses a smile.
"I mean, we're a long way away from each other. We can't see each other that often. So…" He shrugs.
"And the King?" she asks. "How was Ezekiel?"
"The usual. He's been working hard on that Christmas play."
"Has he made any progress with Michonne?"
"Not that I could tell," Henry says with a smirk. "But Judith is taking kung fu now."
"I'm not surprised."
"Listen, I really need to get going. They're having a Halloween party at the dorm. Cyndie said she was going to make - "
"- Go," she tells him. "I'm glad you stopped by."
"I'm glad, too. Happy Halloween, Mom." He kisses her on the top of the head. This time, she's pretty sure Daryl didn't make him say it. She smiles as he clomps down the porch stairs and disappears down the dirt road.
[*]
After much calculated effort, Daryl and Henry snag two wild turkeys during the first week of November, and the big birds now hang in the smokehouse. That, and venison, along with potatoes and a slew of vegetables and slightly sweet pumpkin pie, will make up the Thanksgiving meal, which is a town-wide affair.
As mayor, Carol is busy with making sure everything is in order for the upcoming feast, which will be held beneath the picnic pavilions with bonfires blazing all around. She consults with Rosita to make sure there will adequate coverage on watch as guards rotate in and out for the meal. She consults with the Supply and Farming Directors to make sure they'll have enough food, and with the Director of Education, Julie Markwood, to ensure that recreation is planned. There's going to be a flag football game, Julie assures Carol, and "Does Daryl want to play?"
"I doubt that very much."
"Well, try to persuade him. Because the second team is short a player."
"Flag?" Daryl grumbles at dinner that night. "Flag is for pussies."
"I'll take that for a no. Or are you just afraid of being bested by Henry? He's playing."
That gets a rise out of Daryl, and, by the end of dinner, he's agreed to join the game.
[*]
"You've done it again!" Carol hears on Thanksgiving day.
"You really know how to pull these big events off."
"I have to admit, this town is a pretty well-run ship."
She's basking in the glow of the praise, and feeling confident she's going to beat Roderick in the January election, when the football game unwinds. Resting a hand on her full belly, she settles on a camp chair on the sideline to watch Herhsey play the junior flag football game. The poor confused boy doesn't seem to know what he's doing, but he sure can run, and when he catches the ball, he runs all the way to the end zone – of the opponent. The whole time, Henry is running up the sidelines, shouting, "Other way! Other way!" while Daryl just stands and shakes his head. There's a confused mixture of cheering and laughing when Hershey makes his "goal."
Next the adult game unravels, though there is one kid as young as fourteen playing. Because it's flag, it's co-ed, and Rosita and Tara have already begun trash talking each other from opposite sides.
Henry plays quarterback, and Daryl is some kind of offensive lineman or something. Carol doesn't know the positions. She does notice that Henry keeps glancing at the sidelines between plays to see if Cyndie is watching him.
Daryl plays better than she expected, though he has a number of personal fouls called on him. It seems he sometimes confuses the flag rules with tackle. But he doesn't get ejected from the game, and Carol finds her eyes drawn to him again and again, especially after he heats up and sheds his outer shirt, and the muscles of his bare arms ripple in the late afternoon sun. She's horny as hell by the time they get back home, but she has to wait until Hershey is in bed to jump her husband.
Later, when she and Daryl are curled naked in bed beneath two blankets before the gently burning fire, she says, "I didn't know you could play football so well."
"Played in school. Offensive tackle."
She rolls over to face him. "Are you serious?"
"Why so surprised?"
"Because…didn't you drop out of high school?"
"Played 'n junior high. 'N my freshman year of high school."
"I just can't imagine you on a team."
"Merle – all two seconds he was home 'tween juvie 'n the army - told me if I got on the football team, I'd get laid. So I got on the football team."
"And did you get laid?"
He grins. "Got laid tonight, didn't I?"
She chuckles and kisses his nose. "I love you, Daryl. And I'm thankful for you."
"Thank God for ya every damn day," Daryl replies. "'N I don't even believe in God." He rolls on his back and pats his chest.
Carol settles in, and the sure, steady rhythm of his heart lulls her to sleep.