Carol was heading towards the lunchroom when she felt two arms wrap around her waist and haul her backwards. She was about to turn around and give someone a piece of her mind when she saw Daryl grinning at her.
Scare ya?" he asked, planting a quick kiss to her lips.
"Nope," she said, pulling him off to the side so that they weren't blocking the door. "Are you going to eat?"
He shook his head. "Nah. I just came to find you. I'm heading out early. Me and Mom are going to pick up Merle at the airport."
"Oh yeah, I forgot he's coming home today. What time does his flight get here?"
"Supposed to get here about two o'clock. I'm going to pick up mom and we're going to try and get there a little early."
"What time should I come over tonight?"
"You off work today?" he asked. She nodded. "Come over about six. Want me to pick you up?"
"You don't have to. I don't want to be any trouble," she said casually.
"You ain't trouble. And besides, I want to," he said, wrapping arm around her neck and pulling her close.
"Well, okay. If it means that much to you, I guess I'll let you pick me up."
"Why does it sound like you're doing me a favor?" he asked.
She leaned up and kissed him quickly. "Because I know how much you love driving me around."
"Yeah, right," he said, releasing her. "I'd better get going now."
"Okay. See you later," she said as he walked away.
She walked into the lunchroom and got through the line quickly. She looked at her tray. They were having burgers, or something that resembled a burger. She wasn't even sure it was real meat.
She found a seat with Michonne and Rick. She took a bite of her burger – it wasn't too bad after she put cheese and some ketchup on it.
"So," said Rick. "Where'd Daryl go?"
"Merle's coming home today, he and his mom went to pick him up."
Michonne reached across the table and lifted the ring around Carol's neck. "So, he gave you his ring?"
"Yeah, Saturday night. We were sitting down at the dock at Hershel Greene's."
"That is so romantic." She turned to glare at Rick. "Rick just handed me his one day, and was like, 'You want this?'"
"Hey," said Rick. "You're the one said you hated all that romantic stuff. I'm gonna get him for making me look bad."
Daryl was romantic, and he didn't even have to try. The flowers he had brought her and taking her down to docks was romantic. Many people wouldn't think it was. But to Carol, it had been perfect. They had only been officially dating for two days but it felt like longer. Most guys weren't looking to date a teenage mother. But Daryl didn't seem to care. He loved Sophia.
Sometimes she thought he wouldn't be able to love her any more than if she were his own child. She was then struck with another thought – Daryl had been there since Sophia was born. He did everything for her that a father would do. He read to her. Tucked her in to bed on nights when he was at the house. He bought her presents and told her loved her.
She knew Sophia loved him, too. When she would see him, she would wiggle out of Carol's arms and run to Daryl. He would immediately scoop her up, tickle her stomach and give her kiss before sitting her feet. Sometimes she thought Daryl seemed older than eighteen. She didn't think any of the other guys she went to school with would spend so much time with a child that wasn't even his. She wondered if Daryl would want Sophia to be his. If he would want to be a daddy to her.
It was too soon to be thinking things like that. They had just started dating, there would be time to think of things like that later. Right now she was happy.
She patted Rick on the shoulder. "Rick, you have a lot to learn about women," she said, standing to go dump her lunch tray with the half-eaten burger in the trash. She would eat something later. She was having dinner at Daryl's later, anyway.
Mary looked at her watch for the third time in the last half hour. "It's two thirty. The flight's a half hour late. Do you think something's wrong?" She looked at Daryl, where he sat slumped in chair.
"No, flights are late all the time. It'll be here soon." He offered, getting up to stand next to her. "Besides, if something were wrong we would know about it already."
She put her arm around him and squeezed his shoulder. "You're right," She said. "You need a haircut," she added, pushing his hair away from his eyes. "Can't even see your eyes."
"No, I don't," he said, brushing his hair back down. He rubbed at his left eye.
"Is your eye bothering you?" she asked.
"It's fine," he said, sitting back down. But he rubbed at his eye again.
Mary sighed. She knew how self-conscious he was about his eye. That was why he liked to keep his hair long. His eye socket had been fractured the day his father and been arrested. Caleb Dixon had come home drunk, and had found out that she was planning on leaving him and taking Daryl with her. Daryl, who was twelve at the time, came out of his room when heard the yelling. He came into the living room to see his father hitting her.
Daryl had come to her defense, and immediately jumped on his father's back and attempted to pull him off her. Caleb had easily thrown him off, his rage now turned on his son. Mary had managed to get to her feet and hit Caleb over the back of the head with a beer bottle, knocking him out, but not before he had managed to break Daryl's arm and fracture his eye socket. The doctor had to put in titanium eye socket and four screws in nose to repair the damage. Caleb Dixon had gone to jail that night. He was charged with spousal and child abuse. He had originally only been sentenced to four years, but it was discovered that he had a warrant in another state for possession. That had earned him another two years, resulting a total of six years.
He'd gotten paroled early and was now getting out, though she hadn't told Daryl yet. She hadn't even told him about the parole hearing last month. She wanted to spare him from having to see Caleb when it really wasn't necessary. She really didn't believe he would get out. Daryl was going to be really upset when she told him that she had been avoiding it. She knew she needed to tell him. She bit her thumb nail, a habit Daryl had gotten from her.
"You alright?" he asked when he noticed her biting her thumb.
"I'm fine. I just need to-" she began, but was cut by off by a voice over the intercom.
"Flight 231 is now arriving at Gate 12."
"That's him," said Daryl, getting up and walking towards the gate with his mom following close behind.
She had to tell him. Maybe she would wait until tonight when she could talk to Merle about it. He and Daryl had always been really close despite the six year difference in their ages. She would talk to Merle and maybe he could help her figure out the best way to tell him.
As they stood at the gate waiting for Merle to emerge neither of noticed the man standing in the corner watching their every move.
"Little brother," Merle yelled when he stepped through the gate. He tossed his bag on the ground. "How about a hug for your big brother?" He threw his arm around Daryl's shoulder in a half hug, half choke hold.
"Damn it, Merle. Let me go," he said, trying to pull out from under Merle's arm.
Merle chose to ignore him and tighten the hold he had. "Hey, Ma," he said, wrapping his free arm around her to hold her and kiss her cheek.
"Hi, sweetheart. I missed you. What took the plane so long?"
He finally relinquished the hold he had on Daryl. "Nothing major," he shrugged. "Some dumbass got caught joining the mile high club."
Daryl stared at him shaking his head and his mom raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"It wasn't me this time, I swear. Not after what happened last time." He shook his head. "So, brother, I hear you finally grew a pair and asked out Little sister," he said, calling Carol by the nickname he had given her when she first starting coming around. He said that with she and Daryl around it was like he had a brother and a sister.
"Huh? How did you-" he glanced in his mom's direction.
"Don't look at me, I didn't say a word. I don't know how he knows."
"Well," prompted Daryl.
"Let's just say a little bird told me." He picked up his bag from the floor. "Let get the hell out of here, I'm starved," he said as he headed for the exit.
"Merle!" called Mary from the kitchen, where she was putting together a meatloaf for dinner.
He stuck his head in the kitchen door. "Yeah?"
"When your brother gets back with Carol and Sophia, I'm going to send them to store for a few things."
"Well, hell, you ain't gotta wait for them, I'll go now. What you need?"
"No, I need them out of the house for a bit. I need to talk to you about something."
Mary chewed on one of fingernails. As many times as she got on Daryl for doing that, she couldn't seem to break the habit herself. It was something she only did when she was nervous.
Merle noticed her chewing on her nail – something he knew she only did when she was nervous – and ran a hand over his face. "What is it?"
"Caleb's out of jail."
There was no use in sugar coating it.
Merle slammed his fist into the countertop. "Damn it." He hadn't been there the night his father had nearly killed Daryl and his mother. He had gotten back to the house as the ambulance carrying her and Daryl pulled out of the driveway. He had been out drinking with some buddies. If he had been home he could have prevented all of it. Not long after that he had started cleaning up his life and his mother had started going to AA meetings.
"He's going to take this really told him yet?"
"No. He's been in such a good mood the past few days, I didn't want to do anything to ruin it."
They heard a car door slam and voices making their way towards the front door. "I'll send them to the store and we can talk some more while they're gone."
Merle nodded and walked into the living room. "Hey, little sister!" he boomed, and before she could say anything he had picked her up and was swinging her around.
"Merle, put her down," snapped Daryl.
"Long time, no see," he said, sitting her on her feet. "So, I hear you and my brother finally pulled you heads out your asses and decided you belong together."
"Merle," she hissed, her eyes darting down to Sophia who standing behind her legs, clutching the pink bear Daryl had gotten her to her chest.
He looked down. "Oh, yeah, sorry kid," he said, looking at Sophia. "Last time I seen you, you weren't much bigger than that bear you're holding."
Sophia stepped further behind her mother's legs.
"Sophia," said Carol, squatting down. "You remember I told you about Daryl's brother, Merle."
Sophia nodded her head and looked over Carol's shoulder to the big man standing behind her mother.
"Well, that's him." She pointed behind her.
Sophia's eyes got wide and she looked to Daryl for confirmation.
"Your brother?" she asked.
"Yeah, sweetheart, that's my brother. Go tell him hi."
Sophia stepped around Carol til she was standing in front of Merle. She stared at him for a moment before reaching her arms towards him.
He reached down and picked her up. "She house broken?" asked Merle.
Daryl rolled his eyes. "She's not a dog, dumbass."
Carol almost said something about using those words in front of Sophia. But between him and Merle she decided that it was a losing battle.
"It's called potty trained. And yes, she is. Well, most of the time, anyway," she added at the end just because she wanted to see Merle squirm.
Merle looked a little worried but didn't make any move to put her down.
Mary came into the room. "Hi, Sophia."
"Hey," she said from where she had laid her head on Merle's shoulder and rubbing her eyes.
"She missed her nap earlier. Would it be okay if put her down for a nap before dinner?"
"Of course," said Mary, taking Sophia from Merle. "I can do it for you. I need you two to run to the store for me," she said, taking a list and some money from her pocket. "I forgot a few things I need."
"Okay, sure," said Daryl, taking the money and the paper. He wondered why she didn't just send Merle earlier. Unless, he thought, she wanted to get rid of him for some reason. For the last week or so he felt like she was keeping something from him. "Come on," he said, taking Carol's hand. "Let's go the sooner we leave the sooner we can get back."
"Take your time, little brother," said Merle, making a suggestive gesture with his hands.
"Knock it off." Daryl gave him the finger.
Carol was very glad that Sophia had already fallen asleep against Mary's shoulder and didn't see any of that. She didn't really feel like explaining to the people at the daycare where she learned that from.
She sighed and followed Daryl out the door.