AN: I want to thank everyone for following. I finally got my internet working, so here is the new chapter you were promised. Read on!
Carol breathed a sigh of relief when they entered the common room. It was still empty, except for Beth, who was standing by the stove, looking frazzled as she bounced Judith on her hip with one hand and stirred the soup in the pot in front of her with the other. She looked around the room and found that even though she had only stopped working a few days ago, it was a mess. Dishes littered the tables, and there was a pile of laundry in the corner that looked like it was on the verge of tipping over from growing so high. She couldn't contain the laugh that escaped from her lips. "Daryl was right, they are falling apart without me." she thought as Beth heard her chuckle and turned around, her eyes lighting up as she rushed towards her.
"Carol, I'm so happy to see you! How are you feeling? I was so worried about you." she said excitedly as she wrapped her free arm around her waist, pulling her in for a hug.
When Beth pulled away, Carol just smiled at the blond girl. "I'm feeling just fine sweetheart. Just had a little scare is all. But it's over now and I'll be back to normal in no time. So, you look like you need a little help in here. Where do you want me to start?"
Daryl squeezed her hand a little tighter, a gentle reminder to not push her luck. But Beth had it covered, placing her free hand on her hip and narrowing her eyes playfully at Carol. "You can start by sitting yourself down. told me that you are under strict orders to rest and that I was not allowed to let you lift a finger if you came down here before he and Rick got back with your medicine. So just grab a chair and I'll get you something to eat."
Carol looked at Daryl as if he was going to help her, but when she saw the slight smirk on his lips she knew she had no choice but to listen. She pulled him along with her as she sat down at the only clean table she could find. His hand never left hers as he sat down in the seat next to hers, but when she looked over at him, his smirk had only grown as he leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"She told you, didn't she? You ain't working yet, deal with it."
She pulled away from him and smiled as Beth came over and placed a plate of stew in front of her. She really wasn't hungry, she was still full from the fruit and oatmeal she had eaten not two hours earlier. But Beth sat down at the table, moving Judith to sit in her lap as she watched Carol expectantly. Carol sighed in defeat and picked up her fork, placing a small bite of food in her mouth and chewing. The gesture seemed to be enough to placate Beth, who smiled and started bouncing Judith on her knee as she began to speak.
"That stuff is pretty good, right? Carl brought me a couple of squirrels this morning. I even skinned them myself. It was so gross, but after the first one it wasn't too bad. I'm starting to get the hang of all this stuff. It's no wonder you got sick though, I've only been doing this for a few days and I'm exhausted. I'm sorry I didn't start helping you more before. That's not gonna happen again. Once you're all healed up, you're the boss, just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it. I just wish I had noticed how bad you felt before, all the bruises and stuff. Maybe if I had, you wouldn't have gotten so sick."
Carol reached out and placed a hand on Beth's. "Sweetheart, my getting sick was my own fault, no one else's. But I appreciate the offer to help more around here. And I certainly don't want to be the boss. We'll just work together, okay?" she said, watching Beth smile sweetly in response.
"Okay. We'll work together. I'm just so glad you're going to be okay. I really need you here. Maggie isn't much help when it comes to this kind of stuff, and Michonne, well, you know Michonne. She talks even less than Daryl does." she said, glancing sheepishly at Daryl, who just shrugged the comment off. It was true, he wasn't exactly a chatterbox.
Carol smiled. She was touched by the young girl's words. Though she had never said anything, she sometimes liked to think that if Sophia had lived, she and Beth would have been close, that Beth would have been like the sister that she had never been able to bring herself to give her. "I'm glad I'm going to be okay too. And anytime you ever need to talk to me, you just let me know. I'm gonna be around for a long, long time, god willing."
Beth smiled and shifted Judith in her lap, the baby growing fussy. "Well, I actually did have something I wanted to get your advice on, if you don't mind?" she asked, a shy expression coming to her face.
Carol remembered what Daryl had said, that Beth needed to ask her something about a girl problem. As much as it pained her to do it, she slowly slid her hand from his and looked at him. "Daryl, do you think you could take Judith for a few minutes? She looks like she's getting fussy and Beth has been working so hard to pick up my slack, she looks like she needs a break. Do you want to take her out to the yard for a little while?" she asked him, her eyes silently imploring him to take the hint.
Daryl had been so preoccupied watching Carol, how well she was reacting to being with someone other than him after all of her fear, that he almost didn't hear her. But when he saw the look she was giving him, he snapped out of his daze and moved to take the squirming, babbling baby from Beth's arms. "Come on Asskicker, looks like we're being kicked out of here. Uncle Daryl is gonna take you outside and we'll let the big girls talk. Maybe I'll show you how to kill a biter." he said to the little girl who was now playing with the buttons on the front of his shirt. He looked down and saw that Beth and Carol were both looking at him with matching expressions of amused shock. "Shit, I was kidding. I'm gonna take her out and let her scoot around in the grass and try and make sure she doesn't eat any bugs. Fuck, give me a little credit." he told them, jokingly defensive.
Carol just smiled and pulled him down gently, kissing him softly before giving Judith a little peck on the nose. "Hey there, pretty girl, don't you listen to him when he says those big bad words. Don't tell anyone, but he's a big old softie underneath all that cussin' and crankiness." She looked up at him and him and saw that his cheeks had reddened slightly, his expression unreadable. He smiled at her slightly before making his way out of the room and into the yard.
Carol and Beth were left alone at the table. Beth looked like she wanted to say something but didn't know where to begin. Carol waited patiently, picking at her stew until the young girl finally opened her mouth to speak.
"Carol, what do you do if you like a guy, but you aren't really sure if he likes you back? I mean, how do you get him to tell you without seeming , like, desperate or anything?"
Carol couldn't contain her laugh when she heard Beth's question. Her own experience didn't really give her much help when it came to answering something like this. "Well, I guess the best thing to do would be to tell him yourself how you feel."
Beth nodded, as if she was taking notes in her head. "Is that what you did with Daryl, did you just tell him that you loved him?"
Carol laughed again when she realized that she was giving out advice that she hadn't even been able to follow herself. "Actually, no. I had to pass out in the yard before either one of us got the guts to say anything to the other one about how we felt. I don't recommend that though. I really wouldn't worry about this though sweetie, I can already tell you that Carl likes you."
Beth looked at her, confused for a moment before she realized what Carol had meant. She shook her head. "No, not Carl. I know he likes me, he follows me around like a puppy and I think I caught him trying to peek in at me once when I was getting changed. I don't want to hurt his feelings, but he's just a kid. I'm going to be nineteen in two weeks and he just turned fourteen. I wasn't talking about him. I was talking about Dr. Eric." she explained, her voice putting a dreamy emphasis on his name.
Carol nearly choked on the bite of stew she had just put in her mouth. She wasn't really surprised that Beth didn't feel the way about Carl that he obviously felt about her, but the fact that this usually quiet, reserved girl was sitting here asking her for romance advice about a man she had just met the night before, a man that had to be at least 10 years older than her, that had nearly shocked the hell out of her. She looked at the girl questioningly. "Dr. Eric? The guy we just brought back here last night? I'm sorry Beth, don't get me wrong, I like the guy too, he pretty much saved my life, but really? Isn't he a little old for you?"
Beth just smiled sweetly and shook her head. "Carol, I know I just met him, but have you ever looked at someone and just felt a spark run through your whole body. I thought he was just a nice guy when Rick introduced us all to him. But after everything that happened last night, with you and all, he came wandering back down here alone and caught me trying to get some more work done while everyone was asleep. I must have been singing to myself and when I turned around, he was just looking at me with this funny look, not like the boys at school used to look at me, like they just wanted to see me naked or something, but with this sweet shy look, like Jimmy used to give me. He didn't do anything, he just smiled at me and told me I had a pretty voice and then he grabbed a bottle of water and left. I swear to you Carol, I almost melted into a puddle on the floor."
Carol could certainly relate to the way the girl was feeling. God help her, she had felt the same way the first time she had ever laid eyes on Daryl. She was still married to Ed at the time and if he'd had even the slightest indication that she had even looked at another man, he would have beat her until she couldn't stand. But the first time she had ever seen him, sweaty and dirty, pulling into their first camp in his beat up old pickup, a scowl on his face and his asshole brother at his side, she had felt the same spark that Beth was referring to now. She had felt so guilty at the time, like her involuntary reaction to this strange, angry man made her somehow a worse wife than she had already believed herself to be. But now, looking back, maybe her body had been trying to tell her something. Like it was trying to make her see that he was the one she was meant to be with, like their bodies were somehow connected and now that they were so close they were sending signals to each other. It was the only theory she had, because she had never felt that spark before, not even when she had first met Ed, who, despite the man he became, had been a pretty decent guy once upon a time. She looked at Beth, the blond girl waiting patiently for an answer. After a moment of thought, Carol finally gave her one. "Beth, honey, I can't really say for sure what that spark means, but I felt it the first time I saw Daryl. All I can tell you is to be careful, but go with your gut. If you want to like him, you go right ahead. But you might want to at least talk to him a few times before you go telling him. I know he just lost his wife and I don't really know much else about him. But I know that Rick trusts him and says he's a good guy. Just find out for yourself before you go doing anything, okay?"
Beth practically knocked Carol off of her chair when she reached out and hugged her. "Thank you! I knew you would be able to help me. I love you, Carol. I'm so happy I'm not going to lose you. I knew you'd understand."
Carol was happy that she'd been able to help and Beth's kind words filled her heart with warmth. "I love you too Beth. I hope everything goes the way you want it too. Life's too damn short to be worrying about stuff like this. If you can find someone that makes you happy in this screwed up world, grab on to them and don't let go. It took me way too long to learn that, but now that I have, I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure I never forget it."
As if on cue, Daryl entered the common room, holding a smiling baby Judith away from his body. He looked at the two women with a sheepish expression on his face. "Um, if you two are done talking, I think Asskicker might need an ass changing, if you know what I mean. I've killed walkers that didn't smell as bad as she does right now."
Beth hopped up cheerfully from her chair and took Judith from his hands. "I'll take her back to our cell and change her stinky little butt. Thanks for watching her for me." she said as she made her way out of the room.
Daryl looked at the way Carol was smiling and he sat down next to her and took her hand back into his own. "So, you look like you ain't feelin' so nervous anymore. You and Beth have a good talk?"
Carol nodded her head. "Yeah, it was a very good talk. I really don't feel so nervous anymore. I think I'm going to be okay talking to everyone. I hope so anyway."
Daryl leaned in and kissed her softly. "You'll be fine. Everyone is gonna be as happy to see you as that little girl was. Even if they weren't, you'd handle it. You're tougher than you let yourself think. Not some big softie like me." he said, his tone becoming more teasing when he said the last part.
Carol just smiled. "Face it Dixon, you aren't the same angry, cursing, fighting, squirrel throwing guy you were when I met you. Well, not entirely anyway. We've both changed, for the better I think."
Daryl couldn't disagree with her there. "You're right, but that don't mean I'm suddenly gonna start being some whipped pansy either. Just cause I like I'm bein' a little nicer these days don't mean I couldn't still beat someone's ass if I wanted too." he said, a little too defensively.
Carol laughed. "Calm down, don't worry, I won't tell anyone else how sweet and wonderful you've been. It'll be our secret." she said, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek, pulling away only to whisper in his ear. "As for you beating someone's ass, I won't let you beat mine, but if you're good, I might let you do other things to it."
Daryl pulled back and saw that her blue eyes were shining as she watched his cheeks turn bright red. "Jesus, woman. You really are trying to kill me, aren't you? You know we ain't doing nothing til you're better or at least on your way there. I barely survived this morning and then you gotta say something like that."
She smiled at him and shrugged. "Just wanted to let you know it was an option."
Daryl couldn't help it. He leaned in and kissed her hard, leaving her panting when he finally pulled away. "I give up. As long as you keep eating and you get some of your medicine into you when they get back, I promise that I'll try to get over my shit about bruising you. Just stop sayin' shit like that or I might have to just make love to you on this table and I don't think anyone really wants to walk in on that."
She didn't say anything else, just picked up her fork and finished her meal in no time flat. Daryl nodded at her in approval when he saw her empty dish. They sat together in silence as they waited for the rest of the group to return, each anxiously awaiting the medicine that would help her to physically heal. Mentally, after the events of this morning, she felt like she was just about there.
Thanks for reading! Please review. Update soon. xoxoxo Bekah xoxoxo