AN: Here we are, the final chapter of this one.
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please don't forget to let me know!
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"Well?" Daryl asked.
Sophia smiled at him, the light coming from various sources around them being the only light illuminating either of them in the absence of a direct source of light on the porch—Daryl had turned the porch light off because it drew up bugs and they got annoying to deal with after a while.
"Well?" She tossed back at him, just as surely as if they were playing catch like they so often did—still slipping out to the yard, sometimes, to throw the ball back and forth, often with June in tow these days.
"What'cha think?" Daryl asked. He took a drag on his cigarette.
"About?" Sophia asked.
"How the Yankees are gonna play this year," Daryl said with a laugh. "What do you think I'm talking about, Soph? What do you think of Silas?"
Sophia laughed quietly. She sounded like Carol. If Daryl had closed his eyes, he might have believed she was Carol.
Despite the fact that her mother hadn't been there for a great deal of her early life, Sophia took after Carol in many ways. There was certainly some strong argument for biology there.
Sophia was her own person, too, though, and she was growing into a beautiful, smart, and soon-to-be successful young woman. Daryl figure that she wouldn't ever need a husband which, honestly, was something that made him happier than it should. He'd told Sophia as much.
It wasn't that Daryl didn't want Sophia to marry—that wasn't the case at all. He didn't necessarily want her to marry, either, though. He simply wanted her to be happy, and whether that was married or unmarried, he didn't care.
What he didn't want was for her to feel like she had no recourse beyond being married to someone who didn't treat her right. He didn't want her ending up in a situation where she felt trapped. He didn't want her feeling like she had to give up any part of herself to make someone else feel better about who they were.
Sophia had simply smiled at him, when he'd told her that, and slipped her hand into his and squeezed.
"I'm a big girl, Daddy," she said. "I can take care of myself."
"I don't doubt that," he'd assured her. "Just—sayin' I'm proud of you, I guess. That's all."
Other things had gone unsaid between them, but they were understood. Sophia knew that Carol had been hurt because she'd trusted a man to be honest and good. She'd been hurt and, really, so had Sophia, by a man who hadn't deserved her love. Things were better now, of course, and life had brought Carol and Daryl together—and it had seen fit to bring Sophia into their lives—but Daryl never wanted Sophia to suffer what her mother had suffered.
"I think Silas is…perfect," Sophia said. She smiled at Daryl.
"Yeah," Daryl mused. "He's pretty damn perfect."
Right now, Daryl knew, Carol was sequestered in their bedroom with the newborn.
The house, which had been full all day as family and friends had come through to try to get a peek at Silas, to give their congratulations, and to drop off gifts and food, was now quiet. Sophia had arrived practically with the sun, and she would stay until she had to return to school in two days—having gotten permission to miss her classes for this very special occasion. Alice and Melodye had gone home, after offering their childcare services whenever they may be needed. The Greenes had come to see the little boy and, after Miss Jo had spent a little time fussing over Carol as though she were one of her own daughters, they'd gone to leave them alone so that they could rest.
Merle and Andrea had come, their boys in tow, but they hadn't stayed long. Merle had only stayed long enough to reassure Daryl that he'd meant what he said, and he was happy for both of them, and to tell Carol that she'd done a good job bringing Silas Dixon into the world, and then he'd taken all the boys to keep them from being too loud and too busy—leaving Andrea to visit with Carol a little and to help her with a few things with which Carol was willing to accept Andrea's help.
June and Jack had both been tired out by visitors and excitement. Sophia had helped to bathe them and get them tucked into bed, and Daryl had checked on them the last time he'd gone inside the house to refresh his drink and to check in on Carol—slipping into the bedroom long enough to give her another kiss and thank her for his life…every last bit of it.
"You know—I never stopped wishing for him," Sophia said. "On my birthday. Even now…"
"I guess you can stop wishin' now," Daryl said with a laugh.
"Maybe the wish will just change a little," Sophia said. "I mean—even once you brought June home, I just wanted whatever would make Mama the happiest."
Daryl hummed and smiled.
"You always look out for her," he mused.
"She looks out for me," Sophia said. "As much as she can. She always has."
"And Jesus—she'da done more, Soph. So much more…"
"I know," Sophia said. "At least…we found each other."
"We all found each other," Daryl agreed.
"She's happy," Sophia said.
"She's been happy," Daryl said. "A long time, really."
"Since she met you," Sophia offered.
"Since she found you," Daryl amended.
"But Silas makes her happy, too," Sophia said.
"Every one of you kids has made her happy," Daryl said. "Don't you ever doubt that. Every one of you has made me happy, too. And you're all different. Every one of you has brought a different happiness…a different kind of love to our lives. Silas brings his own, too. Hell—maybe that's what we were meant to learn outta all this."
"Meant to learn?" Sophia asked.
Daryl hummed.
"Maybe we were meant to learn that Silas would make us happy, but it weren't like he was gonna make us happier than any other one of you that we already loved," Daryl said. "Love is love—however the hell it comes packaged. Everybody around us tried to make us believe it was gonna be different. You know? Like—the love we feel for Silas was gonna be so different than the love we feel for the rest of you."
"You believed them?" Sophia asked.
"Didn't you?" Daryl challenged.
Sophia laughed quietly.
"Yeah," she said. "I'll admit—I did. I thought you might find something you needed. Both of you. Something I couldn't give you. Something June and Jack couldn't give you."
"What we found was—proof that people don't know what the hell they're talking about," Daryl offered. "We love Silas—don't you get me wrong about that, but…we don't love him any more or any less. We just love him like we love Silas. Just like we love you like we love Sophia, and June like we love June, and Jack like we love Jack."
"I guess that's the best way to love anyone," Sophia mused.
"Maybe it's the only way," Daryl said.
"You think Uncle Merle's happy now?" Sophia asked. "I mean—that Silas is a boy, and a Dixon, and all that?"
Daryl laughed.
"Truth is—I don't give a damn if he is or he isn't," Daryl said. "And he knows as much."
"But do you think he's happy?" Sophia asked.
"I think—your Uncle Merle's comin' around to seeing the error of his ways, in a lot of ways," Daryl said. "I think that, among those ways, one of the things he's realizing he was wrong about was thinking that he was superior in some kind of way to anybody else. He's humbling a little, I guess."
"That doesn't sound like Uncle Merle," Sophia said.
"People change," Daryl said. "It's slow, and it's usually painful to them and, sometimes, to the people around them, but…sometimes? They can change."
"Not always?" Sophia asked.
"No," Daryl said. "Not always. And—change ain't fast, if it happens. And it ain't dramatic. It's like if I was to go out there to that little tree out there that's been planted out by the sidewalk, and I was to tie it so it leaned a certain way. For a long time, if I was to cut the string, the tree would bounce back. But, if I was to keep it tied for a long time, it would begin to grow that way. Eventually, that'd be just how it grew. But—who's to say I'd live long enough to see that growth become the full nature of that tree, you know?"
"You think Uncle Merle's been tied up so he grows in a leaning sort of way?" Sophia asked, a little amusement seeping into her tone.
"No. I think he might be growin' straight for a change," Daryl said. "Still—I don't expect that even Merle will live long enough to see his whole ass nature change. We're grateful for the changes he's makin', though. The strings he's choosin' to tie himself—to change his direction. We might all want for more, but…there's somethin' to be said for recognizing that people are doing the best they can with what they've got."
"We celebrate his change," Sophia said, elevating her tone in a teasing manner, as though she were reciting poetry.
"We recognize that he's doin' something purposeful and from a place of love," Daryl said. "And we appreciate that it's better than what it was. Goodness knows, I know your Aunt Andrea appreciates it."
"He took the boys today," Sophia said with a smile.
"At least once a week he's doin' that now," Daryl said. "Down to the park or he takes them fishing on the Greene pond. Whatever—it don't matter. He tries to give Andrea a few hours to just be Andrea."
"How's it working out for them?" Sophia asked.
"You saw it today," Daryl said. "Them hugs and kisses weren't fake. Andrea's lookin' at Merle like she hasn't looked at Merle for a long time, and I reckon he's as glad to see that as she is to see the change in him."
"They're happy," Sophia said.
Daryl couldn't quite tell if it was a question or a statement, but he hummed anyway.
"They're happy," he said.
"And—you're happy?" Sophia said. Again, Daryl wasn't quite certain of her intonation, but he responded.
"I'm as happy as a human can possibly be. Maybe even happier than any one person has a right to be."
"And Mama?"
"Oh—she's as happy as I've ever known her to be," Daryl said. "At peace, really. And maybe that's even better than happiness, in it's own way. What about you? You happy, Sophia?"
Sophia hummed and somewhat wiggled like she was getting more comfortable on the swing next to Daryl.
"I don't think I could be any happier," she said. Daryl believed it.
"That's just how it goes, I guess," Daryl said. Sophia hummed, asking him what he meant without putting words behind it. "Just that—love finds a way, you know? For everything to work out like it should. Just like they say about water trying to get back to the source, it might take ages for it to get there, but…it finds a way."
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AN: That's all folks!
My thanks to those of you who have stuck it out with me until the end of this one. I hope you enjoyed it.
This was one of those stories that follows up a story that, during a certain period of my life, got somewhat "spoiled" for me. There was nothing wrong with Love Child, really, I guess, except that I didn't get to write it the way that I wanted to because of succumbing to some bad influence in my life. This was an attempt to make myself feel a bit better about that, and to have at least some semblance of the closure that I really wanted for this version of our beloved characters.
I know that it hasn't been too many people's cup of tea, but if you've enjoyed it, then I'm happy to have spent the hours (and years) giving you something to enjoy. I thank you for spending the hours (and years) reading it.
I give a very special thanks to those who have commented and reviewed, feeding the drive to keep going, and I give a very special thanks to V, without whom this story (and countless others) might not have been finished. Thank you, dear, for your unending support when I need it!