AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

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

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Daryl very quickly figured out that Carol didn't want to talk about their "little secret" at all if she wasn't allowed to talk about it publicly. For the next few days, despite his insistence that she simply try to take it easy, she lost herself in sewing with a dedication that reminded him of the first few days that she'd been home with him and free from Sunny Meadows.

Her dedication to distraction worried Daryl, but he kept his concerns to himself lest he project onto her what he was feeling. Instead of letting her know that he was concerned, he tried to assess how she was feeling by asking her questions and judging her responses.

Why was she working so hard?

She had a lot to do. She had a lot of orders and there were a lot of dresses that she wanted to practice making from new patterns, the practice dresses being ones that she wore herself, made for Sophia, or gave away as gifts to clients who frequently ordered things from her.

Didn't she think it would be good to take a break?

Sewing was something she enjoyed. It was something she was good at. She liked the feeling of accomplishment that came with every finished dress and even Daryl couldn't argue that such an activity was overly strenuous or trying.

Was there anything she wanted to talk about?

She had nothing pressing to discuss, but was more than willing to chat with Daryl about anything that he might want to talk about.

In the end, Daryl left her alone about her sewing. Maybe she was simply very involved with her work. And if she was sewing for distraction, perhaps she actually needed the distraction and it was better to let her have it until she was ready to talk openly with Daryl.

Two weeks passed before they got the call from Sophia that she was driving home from school to spend the weekend with them. She'd arrive, as she always did, late in the evening on Friday and she'd stay with them until she left just after an early supper on Sunday. Daryl couldn't be happier that Sophia was coming to stay for the weekend, and he knew that Carol was excited too, even if she didn't say it as much as she showed it by devoting some of her extra energy into cleaning and preparing the room that Sophia shared with her little sister during the weekends when she visited.

The Thursday evening before Sophia's arrival, Daryl entertained their little ones while Carol put the final touches on the room. She made up the bed that Sophia would sleep in with clean sheets and she practically washed the room from floor to ceiling in anticipation of their daughter's arrival. Daryl let her enjoy her cleaning—because Carol did seem to enjoy cleaning a great deal—and it was only after he was sure that she'd done all that she could possibly think to do that he requested she join him and simply enjoy playing with June and the puzzle that the young girl was putting together while Daryl kept their son from obtaining pieces of the thing that he might try to eat.

Daryl watched Carol while she sat on her knees on the floor and helped June with the puzzle. He bounced Jack on his knee, entertained the little boy with his toys, and rolled the brightly colored ball back and forth across the floor with the little boy to keep him occupied.

And all the while, he kept his eyes on Carol.

She seemed fine, but not as fine as Daryl wished that she would seem. There was something there, even if she was doing an incredible job of covering it over.

Carol applauded June over every piece that she fit into place in the puzzle and she slid pieces, the locations of which she'd already identified, closer to the girl with her fingertip. Every now and again, she looked at Daryl and she smiled, almost seeming a little shy over the fact that she notice him watching her.

When it was finally time to put the children to bed, Daryl went with Carol to put June down as they usually did. Carol tucked June in and then she got into bed beside the little girl, curling next to her. Balancing Jack in his lap, like he did every night, Daryl took the book that June had picked out of her collection and read aloud to the room full of his loved ones. Since the book was one of the shorter ones and June wasn't entirely settled after the first read-through, Daryl read the book a second time, careful to keep his tone of voice as soothing as possible.

When he'd finished the book, and June's eyes were getting heavy, Daryl offered the little girl a kiss on the forehead and collected their son. He replaced the book on June's little shelf while Carol went through her nightly ritual of wishing the girl sweet dreams, easing out of the bed, and tucking the covers tightly and carefully around June the way that she liked them.

Then the two of them took Jack to his room where they eased him into his crib and wished for him the same sweet dreams that they hoped would visit his sister.

Daryl didn't bring anything at all up to Carol until both the children were settled and she'd started to busy herself with tidying the already clean kitchen. Daryl followed her, observing her work, and only then spoke to her about some of the things that had been on his mind.

"I think—when Soph comes? I think we oughta tell her about the baby," Daryl said.

"I think it's too soon," Carol offered, keeping her back turned to Daryl while she dried dishes that had been left to dry on their own long enough. "We're still supposed to wait two more weeks. I'm almost certain of that."

"Maybe to tell the whole town we're supposed to wait," Daryl said. "But this is Soph. And there ain't no guarantee she makes it back in two weeks. She'll be havin' exams and such. She might not make it back right when we start tellin' everyone. This ain't the kinda thing that she oughta be the last to know and she don't need to hear it over the phone."

Carol was taking an excruciatingly long time drying the dishes. Daryl finally walked over to where she was and took the dish towel and the coffee cup she was drying out of her hand. He looked at it before he returned it to its proper spot.

"Them dishes are dry, Carol," Daryl said. "Ain't no need in dryin' 'em no more. You just about set to rub the flowers right off."

Carol frowned at him.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Didn't ask you to be sorry about it," Daryl said. "But—I would like to know what's really goin' on. Would like you to talk to me. Can you do that?"

Carol folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips at Daryl. She almost looked mad and Daryl came close to laughing.

"Did I piss you off?" He asked. "Because I want you to talk to me?"

"I don't know what to say," Carol responded. "I don't know...I don't even know what to say or where to begin."

"You don't want to tell Sophia?" Daryl asked.

"I want to tell her," Carol said. "I've wanted to tell her for two weeks. I want to tell everyone. When we're in church? I can barely pay attention because I see people there with their little ones or—someone asks me a question about Jack or June and I'm almost bursting inside to tell them. I want to tell everyone I see. But I feel like I can't tell anyone. I feel like telling them is going to cause something horrible to happen so I just can't talk about it."

"Talking about it ain't gonna make something happen," Daryl said. "Hell—you're doin' just fine. Better'n fine. Carol—you're healthy as a horse. I got a pretty good feeling that nothing's gonna happen except you gonna carry this baby and then we're gonna have another kid."

"You're not supposed to tell people about it because—then you have to tell them if something happens," Carol said.

Daryl nodded his head.

His stomach churned. It wasn't because he believed anything would happen. It wasn't because he was particularly concerned about the baby or the pregnancy at all. Carol was healthy. She got sick pretty much daily for at least a few hours. She didn't like cooking him meat to go with his breakfast and she couldn't stand the smell of him cooking it early in the day, so he'd simply foregone eating meat at breakfast. That was the worst thing, really, that had come out of the whole thing so far and he didn't consider that to be any real tragedy worth reporting.

But Carol was dealing with a lot of stress and that was worse for her than anything in Daryl's opinion because he had to worry about what it would do to her mind as much as he had to worry about the effects it might have on her body.

"I want you to hear me out about something," Daryl said. "And I want you to listen to me real good and think about it a minute 'fore you answer me. And, Carol? When you answer me? I want it to be you that's answerin' me. I don't want it to be what'cha heard or what'cha been told or what'cha been taught to think. I want you to just straight tell me what you think. OK?"

"OK," Carol said, nodding her head. She dropped her arms.

"Now I don't think a single thing is gonna happen," Daryl said. "Nothing. But—and I'm just sayin' but to give you something to think about—but if it did, and we had told everybody we was gonna have a baby, would it be the worst thing to have to tell 'em that there weren't gonna be no baby?"

Carol stared at him. She frowned, and he wasn't sure if it was over the idea of there being no baby or if it was over the idea of telling everyone that they'd lost the child.

"I don't think it's gonna happen," Daryl reiterated. "I'm just askin' would it be the worst thing to have to tell 'em?"

"If we don't tell them," Carol said, "and something happens? They don't have to know that I—that I failed at doing this...this one simple thing."

Daryl swallowed and shook his head.

"You wouldn't have failed at nothing," Daryl said. "You think that there ain't plenty of women who lose babies? If there weren't? There wouldn't be some stupid rule about waiting to tell people because wouldn't nobody think it was such a big possibility."

"I'm sure there are," Carol offered quietly.

"And you think they failed?" Daryl asked. "Just—failed at everything because they lost their kid? Because that seems like an awful cruel joke from God if it's true. Gotta deal with losin' the kid and failing all at the same time. You don't really think they failed, do you?"

Carol shook her head. She was still frowning at him.

"No," she said. "I don't think they failed."

"Then why would you fail because of the same thing?" Daryl asked.

The frown deepened. Carol didn't respond. She simply shrugged her shoulders. Daryl stepped forward and reached his arms out to her. She let him wrap her in a hug, and he didn't have to wait long before she returned the hug. He simply held her there, rather than letting her go, and she didn't protest being kept in his arms.

"Even if it happened, it wouldn't be no kinda fail," Daryl said. "But I think—we waited long enough. You've waited long enough. I think it's time to start tellin' everybody."

"What if something does happen?" Carol asked. "They'll say we should've waited."

"They've said a lot of things," Daryl said. "What's one more thing for them to say? Besides—gives 'em all something to do. They worry about us and it keeps 'em off somebody else for a bit."

"You really want to tell everyone?" Carol asked.

Daryl was ready to tell everyone about the baby, especially since he felt like mentioning the baby in his own house was almost taboo at the moment. He was ready for Carol to tell everyone she wanted to tell. He was ready for her to practically go skipping through the store telling everyone she saw that she was happy about her news. He was ready, more than anything, to see her allow herself to be truly happy about it.

And Daryl, too, was ready to be happy about it. He was ready to share it with the world.

Daryl rubbed his hand around her back as he held her against him.

"I wanna tell everyone," he said. "I do. I don't wanna wait no more. I think—we tell Sophia tomorrow. As soon as she gets home. And then I think you an' her oughta spend Saturday planning a dinner. We'll call up Merle and Andrea. Alice and Melodye. We'll get anyone over here that you want and we'll tell 'em all that we're adding to our family in a whole new way."

Carol pulled away from him. She dragged her fingers under her eyes, but she already looked a little lighter than she had when she'd been frowning at him by the sink.

"You don't think it's too early?" Carol asked.

Daryl shook his head.

"I don't care," Daryl said. "But I don't think it's too soon either. And—I dare any damn body at that table to tell me it is 'cause they'll find themselves seein' the outside of our door 'fore they even see the coffee and cake coming."

Carol smiled at him.

"You really want to tell?" She asked.

The smile made Daryl a thousand times more positive that he did, indeed, want to tell. He nodded his head at her.

"Absolutely," Daryl said. "I don't really want to wait until Saturday, but I will—just because I know it'll be a good thing for you and Sophia to have a dinner to plan together. And I'm gonna like seein' everybody hear the news at once. So I'll wait that long, but I don't want to wait no longer. We've waited fourteen years. I'd say that's plenty of time to wait."

Carol's smile widened to a full grin and she wrapped her arms around Daryl so tightly that it almost choked off his air for a moment. Daryl smiled to himself and hugged her back, enjoying the pressure of the embrace.

"You wouldn't, by chance, want to turn in a little early tonight? Let the rest of the cleaning you seem to have a mind to do just wait it out?" Daryl asked.

Carol pulled away from him and raised her eyebrow at him. The grin was replaced with the slight curling upward of her lip in amusement.

"Are you saying you need a little attention?" Carol asked.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Exactly what I'm saying," Daryl said. "I'm feeling in need of a little attention from my wife and the mother of my children—all four of 'em."

"I suppose the cleaning can wait," Carol said. "Although I really should get everything ready for breakfast in the morning. You know I'm not as quick at getting everything done as I used to be in the morning."

"Mornings are for breakfast," Daryl said. "Nights are for loving. The breakfast'll be there in the morning. And if you're—otherwise occupied? I'll make the breakfast myself if it means more time with you tonight."

Carol laughed to herself.

"With an offer like that," she said. "I can't refuse. Come on, Daryl. It's time for bed."

"Lead the way," Daryl offered. "I'm following you."