They were having a party. Or what resembled a party when over half the population of the world was dead and you weren't sure if you'd actually live to see tomorrow. Oddly enough, they were doing a decent job of it too.
Daryl was packed into the patio of the main house along with everyone else on the farm. The patio doors were wide open, music was playing low enough to be heard but not loud enough to waft off the property, various foods thrown together from whatever they had on hand covered the dining table and someone had even strung up tiny little twinkle lights.
He scowled just slightly. Fucking twinkle lights.
They'd gotten the news of this impending party from Xander the night before. He'd been adamant that they all needed it, that everyone was wound too tight and what was the point of anything if you couldn't occasionally kick back with a bottle of beer and pretend shit wasn't falling apart on the regular.
Truthfully, he'd had him at beer. Daryl would be lying if he didn't admit, to himself at least, that this sad excuse for a party wasn't actually half bad. In fact, it was the most relaxed he'd been in a long time, which was saying something since the thought of mingling or doing whatever the hell people did at legit parties was way out of his comfort zone. But this wasn't like that. He wasn't required to participate and no one pressed him for small talk, but they included him non the less and that alone made him want to try.
The genuine smile gracing Carol's face also made him want to try. She was talking to Dawn, Buffy, Maggie and several of the other women who's names he'd already accepted he was never going to remember and she looked happier in that moment than she had in a long time. Since the prison, at least.
Dawn held Judith, bouncing the baby on her hip and gushing over her. He could faintly make out their conversations from his spot across the patio where Xander was talking to him and a few others about fencing and the benefits of cedar versus pine wood and other shit he was only half paying attention too.
Dawn's voice hit his ears as he took a pull on his beer and he watched the scene unfold.
"How is she just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in the history of ever?"
Buffy was tickling Judith's cheeks while rolling her eyes at Dawn at the same time. "Down girl. Don't get any ideas. These are cute but they're also seven different types of hard to care for. Remember that egg baby you had in high school? Barely lasted a week."
"Hey now, that wasn't even my fault. There were extenuating circumstances."
"It fell down the garbage disposal."
Dawn scoffed. "That was a circumstance!"
Judith took that moment to become fascinated with Dawn's hair, twisting and turning it in her chubby fingers and letting out a high pitched squeal for good measure and the entire cluster of women laughed.
"Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'd have to be carrying the second coming to have a baby right now, so you have nothing to worry about. I'll have to settle for snuggling this one when I can."
He'd lost track of the conversation then, voices tangling together one over the other as the whole of the group chatted amongst themselves in smaller little pods. He was also starting to feel like an expert level creeper for eavesdropping and especially for staring, which he was certain he'd be doing. His ears may have been listening to Dawn, but his eyes were watching Carol.
Xander clinking a spoon against a beer bottle jolted him out of his thoughts and his eyes away from her just in time.
"A toast…to it being Tuesday and Dawn's still here."
"Ha ha. Very funny." Dawn's reply was amused and she responded with one of her own. "To it being two weeks without a donkey incident."
Faith huffed. "Those fuckers are no joke. To drinking our weight in expired beer."
"To finding the one CD in this house that wasn't by Vanilla Ice."
Buffy's last comment got a chorus of laughs and everyone tipped their respective drinks.
His eyes roamed again, back to their original target only this time she caught him. Tilted her head just slightly and rewarded him with a small smile that crinkled her eyes. He couldn't help the side of his mouth from quirking up in response or his head from ducking a fraction of an inch.
The timer on the oven broke the moment and then Dawn was shoving the baby back into Carol's arms and running into the kitchen to retrieve whatever was about to be burnt to a crisp.
He spied her moving toward him then, baby in tow and barely had a moment to react before she was giving Judith to him. "We're playing pass the baby and I'm pretty sure it's long past your turn."
He didn't hesistate to prop her up on one arm and she cooed at him in a sort of amazed delight that only babies could harness. "Ass Kicker's been making the rounds, huh?"
"Oh yes, she's turning into quite the social butterfly."
"I'm surprised her feet even touch the ground anymore with these girls here, every time I see her she's bein' fawned over. Gonna make her head too big. Won't be able to fit through the door no more."
Carol shook her head at him, leaning against the patio table and nursing her own drink, a soft look on her face that he'd pay money to keep there permanently.
"It's good for her. She's been so isolated, she needs a little socialization. To meet new people. Make new friends. That's important for babies."
"You got a point there. She likes it too. Dontcha, Asskicker?"
The baby just laughed, the sound coming directly from her stomach as if he'd said the funniest thing in the world. They both followed suit, though their own laughs were far more reserved, if not just as content.
He'd thought this party a waste of time when they brought it up.
Why bother using resources for something as frivolous as standing around and talking about nothing. As he watched Glenn and Rosita laugh at a story Faith was telling, her hands waving wildly in the air as she spoke, watched Rick, Abe and Sasha have a full fledged conversation with Xander and several of the girls about cheese of all things and how they might get lucky enough to find a goat someday, watched Buffy and Dawn slice out pieces of what looked like cobbler from the kitchen, he could see now why it was anything but frivolous and exactly what they all needed.
He'd be damned if he wasn't learning to like it here. Was feeling like this could be the start of something that had once seemed so impossible. A life beyond just surviving.
Carol caught his eye as this revelation hit him and it was clear she knew. Could see it on his face as he swayed with the baby, his eyes watching her in return.
"Yeah. Me too." Her words were unprompted. Lazy and soft and coated in at least one full adult beverage and he decided he liked the sound.
Later, after everyone started wandering off to their respective spaces, after the food was cleared away, music turned off and twinkle lights taken down, they headed back to the shed for the night.
He'd been careful about not drinking too much. His tolerance was low after going without for so long and it wouldn't do anyone any favors to be caught drunk if trouble hit. That's not to say he didn't have a few. So when Carol looped her arm through his on the long walk back liquid courage boosted him just enough that it felt completely natural.
Her two beers must have done the same for her. Little as she was that was likely enough to be feeling pretty good right about now.
As they entered the house she made a comment about passing out until next year and he realized every word she spoke, every move she made went straight through his ears and directly south. The alcohol was doing a good job of un-filtering his thought process and unlocking his inhibitions and all he wanted right then was to keep her there with him instead of leaving for her own bedroom.
She seemed to be having a similar problem because she lingered a moment, hand dragging down his arm as she finally walked away with a parting 'good night'. Took everything he had not to trail after her and knock over every wall they'd both put up brick by brick.
Instead, he fell onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours.
For the first time in weeks Carol slept soundly through the night and Daryl was the one wide awake.