It was only early the next morning but so far the day was promising to be a humid one, which Carol dreaded the thought of seeing as to how her air conditioning had a tendancy to clap out whenever she needed it most. It was also still damp outside from last night's rain, which meant the girls didn't really want to try and paint the wet shed in the sticky weather and thus found themselves sprawled out in front of the T.V in Carol's living room watching cartoons.

A few hours ago Carol had relocated the girls to her house so Daryl could go to bed undisturbed by the noises of their playtime, she'd made sure to tell him before they left so he didn't wake up wondering where everyone disappeared to. She also ushered him off to his bed before they left.

Currently though, she found herself pacing the kitchen and overseeing the girls as they jumped up from their seats and headed off toward the hallway, Sophia called something about going to play in her room and Carol was completely okay with that. She had her own jobs to get about doing and she supposed now was as good a time as any to get started.

After a few moments of careful deliberation she opted to start with the dishes in the sink as they seemed like they'd be the least taxing task of the day. The sink was only just filling up with water when Carol heard the phone ringing.

"Hello?" Carol answered. There was only a few moments of silence before a voice started talking.

"Hi! It's Amy, from Sophia's summer youth program." Carol balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear while she crossed the kitchen to turn off the tap she had left running.

"Oh hi, Amy. How are you?" Carol asked. Carol had met Amy on a few occasions when taking Sophia to youth program and she seemed like a really nice girl, Carol was glad to see she was still a leader in the program.

"I'm pretty good. I'm just calling to tell you that to kick off the program we're going to have a sleepover tomorrow night so all the kids and the new kids can sort of get to know one another. Think that's something Soph would be interested in?" Amy offered, Carol started heading down to Sophia's room.

"One moment, I'll just ask her," there was a pause on the other end while Carol went to ask Sophia. She walked quickly down the hall and knocked before opening the door and resting the phone against her shoulder so she could talk without Amy hearing every word exchanged. "Sophia, Amy from summer youth is on the phone, there's a sleepover on tomorrow. Did you want to go?" Carol asked. After a quick moment of thought Sophia answered.

"Can Lily come?" Sophia asked, glancing to her friend. Carol raised her eyebrows toward Lily, who was nodding avidly and, as if that wasn't enough, giving her a huge thumbs up. Carol pulled the phone away from her shoulder so Amy could hear again.

"Is it okay if she might bring a friend?" Carol wondered. Amy didn't take even a moment to reply.

"Of course! The more the merrier, right?" She chuckled. Carol agreed and was given the details of the sleepover before she hung up the phone and turned to the girls.

"Lily, I'll just go text your uncle to ask if it's okay. He won't text back until a little later, okay?" Carol said as she began exiting the room.

"Thank you, Miss Carol." Lily nodded before returning to her game with Sophia and letting Carol trail off down the hall to get back to the dishes.

When Daryl woke up he felt unusually well-rested, then again, he never did need much sleep to function. He didn't want to get out of the comfortable bed though, and he practically had to drag himself from it. With a quick glance at the clock, he realized he had to be at work in half an hour. A shower to scrub off yesterday's painting antics and a fresh change of clothes was in order, but coffee was top of the priority list - as always.

Upon vacating the bedroom, Daryl noticed the girls were gone and he remembered Carol telling him some explanation about going to her house that morning so he guessed he had the house to himself. Another look at the clock told him his time was fast depleting so he figured he should start getting ready soon, it wouldn't be good to show up late and Daryl didn't think his boss would be hugely pleased about it. With that thought in mind, Daryl hurried himself along through the motions of preparing for work.

For the most part, getting ready was a mad rush and before he knew it he was scrambling out the door with but five minutes to spare. It was then as he was exiting the house he noticed he had a text on his phone and a missed call. The missed call so that was a private number - Daryl guessed that was Merle calling. The text, however, was from Carol.

Lily and Soph invited to summer youth sleepover. Can Lily go? - Starts 2:30 pm tomorrow at scout hall :).

Closing the door and making sure it was locked behind him, Daryl thumbed out a quick response.

She can. Thank you. Going to work. Bye.

Daryl knew his texts had a tendency to read like telegrams, but he hardly cared. He was in such a rush that the only thing on his mind at that moment was getting to work on time.

With a sigh, Carol flopped on the sofa; one load of washing, a few piles of ironing and some dish-doing later she was starting to feel a little tired. She felt like going to bed already but she knew she couldn't just do that, for now she would have to settle for sitting on the sofa. Briefly she entertained the idea of closing her eyes for just a few moments however if she did that she ran the risk of falling asleep, she did think it would be good to regain some energy though and a rest on the sofa seemed ideal. It seemed, however, the universe had made a decision for Carol as moments after she shut her eyes a furious knocking began on the door.

The sound had Carol groaning momentarily and stumbling to her feet before plastering a smile on her face and convincing herself she wasn't tired. With every step toward the door the sofa seemed more and more enticing. Slowly though she walked to the door before swinging it open to reveal none other than Maggie Greene, who was wearing a smile so big Carol thought the girl's face was going to break in half.

"Carol!" She excitedly greeted her friend. Opening her arms into a hug, a little uncharacteristic of the girl. Carol wondered what all the excitement was.

"Maggie?" Carol answered, confusion on her face as she went in for the hug. She figured Maggie must have had something to tell her if she had driven all the way into town for the visit.

"Oh my God, you're not busy or anything are you?" Maggie asked. Carol shook her head no and moved to let Maggie enter the living room. Carol led her through into the kitchen area and offered her a seat at the counter before she moved toward the kettle to begin the coffee making process.

Carol stayed leaning against the bench in the far left corner of the kitchen while she waited for the kettle to boil and Maggie seemed to have calmed down a little from her initial excitement and was now just sitting with her usual level of composure. After a short time, Carol turned to pull two brightly colored mugs from the top shelf and place them on the bench.

"Carol, you got a text." Maggie informed her. Carol peered over her shoulder for a moment, she assumed it would be Daryl.

"It's probably just Daryl." Carol answered. Maggie seemed to perk up at the mention of it.

"Daryl? - Like, who I've heard about? - Daryl the shy, sexy neighbor right?" Maggie asked. Carol had spoken to Maggie over the phone a few times about Daryl and Maggie's active little imagination had decided that there was something going on. Maggie seemed a little disappointed when Carol took the phone to inform her it was just him saying Lily could go to a sleepover with Sophia tomorrow. "Damn. Wish it were at least something steamy." The younger woman shrugged, causing Carol to giggle.

"Anyway, what's up, Maggie?" Carol asked. There wasn't any chance in hell Maggie had driven all the way into town from her Dad's farm just for a five minute chat and some crappy coffee.

At this question Maggie chuckled before rolling her eyes and gently placing her half-empty mug down on the bench.

"Well, something did happen with Glenn the other night." Maggie said as nonchalantly as possible, lifting her hand so it hovered just under her chin. That's when Carol spied something shining on her finger.

"Maggie, is that... is that an engagement ring?" Carol asked. Maggie could only nod and smile in response before extending her hand so Carol could get a better look at the ring. It was pretty and sparkled in the sunlight and was all the good things an engagement ring should be. More importantly, it was from Glenn and Carol knew those two kids really loved each other.

"Can you believe I'm engaged?! I'm getting married!" Maggie beamed, her entire body vibrated on the seat and Carol thought if she got any more excited she might actually explode into a million little pieces.

"I'm so happy for you! Have you set a date or anything?" Carol asked, sitting back in her seat and waiting to hear all details.

Maggie informed her that a date had not yet been decided, but it would be as soon as possible and that she couldn't wait to go shopping for dresses and look for all the other stuff for the wedding. Apparently Carol was one of the first people, outside of Maggie's and Glenn's families, who had been told about the wedding. Carol felt glad that she had been one of the first to hear the good news.

The two women spent the next little while discussing wedding ideas and talking about how Maggie's extended family were coming to stay and that Glenn's family were coming down to stay with them for a while. Maggie was particularly excited to get to know Glenn's sisters, who would apparently be arriving for their stay in just a few weeks and were apparently very excited.

"So anyway, we're going out to celebrate tomorrow night. Me, Glenn, some friends - when we tell them. Did you want to come?" Maggie offered. Carol supposed she could go, Sophia would be out at the sleepover and Carol would otherwise just spend the night in watching crappy T.V. or reading a book or hovering around her phone to see if Sophia would call or text in need of something. Carol got anxious a lot when Sophia spent the night away so she figured a night of celebrating with Maggie might be enough to take her mind off her daughter's absence.

"I guess I can go. Sophia will be out at her sleepover." Carol nodded in affirmation. Maggie seemed pleased to hear it.

"Good, it'll be tomorrow night at around eight. Not sure where yet since we don't know whose coming but most likely just some bar in town. I'll tell you when I know," Maggie informed her. Carol nodded at the information and wrote a little note on her hand with a nearby pen that she had to go out tomorrow at eight. "You should bring Daryl." Maggie added, raising her brow.

"He doesn't really like that kinda thing." Carol shook her head and scrunched her nose up. She could hardly picture the anti-social man enjoying himself bar hopping with a group of strangers.

"Come on, I'm sure you can be persuasive." Maggie replied, wiggling her eyebrows. All joking aside, Carol felt like maybe she should invite Daryl - he was her best friend or something, after all. She would also like for him to meet some of her friends - she didn't know why but she thought it would be nice. She also knew he would be free tomorrow evening, but she considered he might like to use this time for himself. Between his start back at work and taking care of Lily she couldn't imagine him getting too much downtime.

"We'll see." Carol replied. Maggie leaned in and gave her best puppy eyes.

"Car-ol." She said in a sing-song, nagging tone. Carol gave a resigned sigh and reclined back in her seat. She supposed it couldn't hurt to invite him along, he could always say no. With a final nod Carol dedicated herself to inviting him at some point.

"We'll see."

A.N: Okay... well, this happened. I hope you guys enjoyed this little chapter, it wasn't great but I had fun writing it so I hope you have just as much fun reading. I also kept my promise to update sooner! Well, I'll let you go then... please don't throw stuff at me. Also, a few chapters ago (chapter 6) a guest named Laurie asked about where Daryl and Carol worked and who took care of the girls so I guess now we have a rough idea of how it works. (I guess they'll have to bounce care between each other and summer program). Also, mystery guest Maggie popped in! Yay! Glenn/Maggie adorableness now ensured for future chapters!

Thanks muchly for all the totally rad reviews last chapter: Laurie, smclendon, General KJ, Dixonrocks, itsi3, Guest, vickih and Timetravelingarchaelogist. You guys are my motivation and I love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.

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Next Chapter: The girls go to a sleepover and Carol tries to invite Daryl along to Glenn and Maggie's festivities.