* Please Review! So this is just a chapter that fills in Layla's past and shows how Daryl is trying. I promise you, there is one more chapter of goodness and then the drama starts. In case you haven't figured it out, Lori is not pregnant in this. Randall is also not here. I am taking some parts of the show and putting them in though.*
" Can I come in?" Carol asked as she knocked on the door. Layla and Maggie were sitting on the bed together, talking.
" Sure." Maggie said.
" I'd like to talk to Layla, alone, if that's okay." Carol said. Maggie looked at her friend who nodded.
" Drink your water." Maggie ordered as she stood up.
" Yes, Mom." Layla said with a small roll of her eyes. Maggie smiled but walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Carol looked shy as she sat down beside Layla.
" They will be ready for Dale's funeral soon."
" I'm not going." Layla said as she looked away.
" That's why I came to talk to you." Carol said.
" You didn't go to Sophia's. You know how hard it is." Layla said.
" I do and I regret not seeing my daughter buried. I regret it everyday. I don't want you to do the same thing. You are supposed to enjoy your pregnancy and I know it's hard to do right now but I want you to try. Part of that is not having any regrets. I didn't get to enjoy my pregnancy because of Ed and I regret that too." Carol said. Layla closed her eyes as a tear moved down her cheek.
" It hurts so bad." She almost whispered. " He was more than my Uncle. He walked me down the aslie at my wedding. I just don't think I have the strength to watch him put it the ground."
" I know it hurts. Everyday I go through the pain of Sophia being gone." Layla opened her eyes and placed her hand on Carol's. Carol squeezed her hard. " I have just started visiting her grave and it is helping. I think I have been needing closure all this time and I'm finally getting it. I don't want you to go through that too. You need closure. You need to grieve and part of that is going to the funeral." Layla sighed but nodded. She could understand what Carol was saying. The woman was starting to come around more since she had been going to the grave site.
" I want to ask you something." Layla said.
" If you go to the funeral with me then you can have anything." Carol said. Layla managed a smile and a nod.
" Okay. If Daryl and I have a girl, I'd like her middle name to be Sophia." Carol clamped her mouth shut as her eyes filled up. Layla started to regret asking her that.
" I'd like that." Carol whispered.
XXXXXX
Daryl stood behind Carol and Layla as Rick spoke during the funeral. Layla and Carol had their arms linked together. Maggie was on Layla's left. She was rubbing her friend's lower back. Daryl was shifting his weight back and forth with his arms crossed. He was frowning as he stared at the women. Hershel's words were ringing through his head.
' The best thing a father can do for his child is care for the mother.'
He could do it. He could take care of her. He could at least try.
And that was how he found himself following Layla after the funeral as she walked towards Dale's RV. Andrea and Maggie had offered to go with her but she had refused it. Daryl hadn't asked to come but they had locked eyes for a few seconds before she had turned and started towards it. Daryl didn't hesitate to go after her. She didn't need to be alone.
When Layla reached it, she glanced behind her at him before she went inside. She had known Daryl was following her, he was sure of it. But that didn't stop him. He picked up his pace and reached the RV in no time. When he started to walk in, he found Layla sitting at the table with what looked like a photo album in front of her. Daryl finished climbing inside and closed the door behind him. He leaned against the counter, sporting his classic arms cross pose and narrowed eyes expression. He had his legs out and crossed at his ankles.
" You alright?" He asked. Layla nodded.
" I just wanted to be around his things for a little bit." She said. It was Daryl's turn to nod.
" I get it." He said.
" I should tell you thank you...for not burning him." Layla said. Daryl brought his right thumb to his mouth and started to chew his nail as he pushed away from the counter and started towards her.
" You got pictures?" He asked. Layla moved across the small booth when he slipped down next to her.
" Yeah. When we had to leave, he grabbed a bunch of pictures." Layla opened it up and the first picture Daryl saw was of her, Dale, and a tall blond haired man. Layla was dressed in a sleeveless, tight, white wedding dress. Dale was on her right and the man on her left. Both men were dressed in tuxes. " That was my husband, Mitch. Dale walked me down the aisle at our wedding." So that was Mitch. He was clean cut with neat hair, the complete opposite of Daryl.
" What happen to your husband?" Daryl was surprised at the weird feeling that was going through him at the thought of her having a husband, of another man touching her. What the hell was making him narrow his eyes at the picture and want to punch that man in the teeth?
" He actually died a few years ago. He was killed in a car accident." Layla said. Daryl turned the page and looked at another one from her wedding. He suddenly became aware that their legs were touching. He was staring down at her beautiful face in the pictures. She was smiling at her husband and Daryl wondered if Layla would ever smile like that at him.
" You love him?" Daryl surprised himself by asking. He waited for a few seconds and when she didn't answer him, Daryl spared her a glance. Layla was staring hard at the picture.
" I did, when we got married. I loved him a lot but about a year before his death things started to change for us."
" Like how?" Daryl asking. He looked back at the album and turned the page to another wedding picture. That time it was of her and Mitch on the dance floor. She looked stunning in her floor length gown. Daryl couldn't image anything looking more beautiful then her.
" Well, we tried for a few years to have a baby but it just never happen." Daryl noted how her left hand came up to her stomach. She started to rub against it as he turned the page. " I went to the doctor and had a bunch of test down. I was told I wouldn't get pregnant on my own. The doctors laid out a treatment plan but it was going to cost a lot of money. Mitch and I owed on school loans and we were only teachers so we knew we couldn't get the loan ourselves. I was really upset. Uncle Dale took the loan out for us and got a great rate for the payments weren't too high."
" What kind of treatments did you do?" Daryl asked while they looked through the pictures.
" Well it started out as a series of shots I was to have for a few months. Then the doctors would remove some of my eggs, Mitch was going to have to give a sperm sample and the doctors would combine them then place the embryo inside me."
" A sperm sample?" Daryl asked, making her look at him. He had a disgusted look on his face and Layla wanted to laughed. " Like he was gonna jerk off into a cup?"
" Well, yeah."
" That shit ain't right." Daryl said, going back to the photo album
" All guys jerk off, Daryl." His head whipped up to look at her again. Layla smiled at him. " It's kind of hot to watch, if you ask me." His eyes widen, his cheeks flushed and he looked away so quickly that Layla wanted to laugh again. " Anyway, I started doing the shots and Mitch and I started fighting. He hated that Uncle Dale had taken out the loan. He won't tell me at first but I knew. A few months before he died we were fighting so much about money that I told him I thought we needed to stop the treatments. He yelled at me and said I wasn't stopping until I was pregnant. He said he wasn't going to be paying for them just to have me quit."
" Did you get pregnant?" He had figured no because she had told him she wasn't supposed to be able to have a baby.
" We never got that far. I had a round of shots the day Mitch was killed. He was coming to pick me up when he was struck by a drunk driver." Layla said. Daryl glanced at her. She was rubbing her stomach and looking at the pictures. " I have carried the guilt of his death for years." She finished up softly.
" Why's that?" Daryl asked. Layla sighed and looked at him.
" Because we had got into a massive fight that morning, screaming at each other the way whole to the doctor's office. I decided during the shots I should tell him I was leaving him. That I thought we needed a break from everything and each other. Then I found out he died." Layla said. Daryl turned and looked back at the photo album. He turned the page and tried to understand what he was feeling.
" You still love him?" Why the answer to that question was important to him, Daryl didn't know but it was.
" No. I fell out of love with him before he died. The treatments turned him into a man I didn't know anymore. He was mean, withdrawn, and...I found out, after his death, that he was having an affair." Layla said.
Daryl couldn't understand how a man would leave her bed for someone else. As far as he was concerned, there had been no one better in his bed, sleeping bag as it had been. She could match him no matter how hard he thrust and pumped into her and he had hit her hard a few times. She was rough, like him. She liked to bite and scratch. She liked having her hair pulled. She liked to ride him and loved it when he took her from behind. Daryl shifted his hips and pulled himself out of his train of thoughts.
" Ain't been with no one since?" Daryl asked. His voice was lower and roughed than usually, a sure sign that he was turned on and ready for her. He cleared his throat quickly.
" No. I didn't think I could be with anyone else. No one else appealed to me." Layla said. " Until you." She finished up slowly. Daryl looked at her at the same time she looked at him. They didn't speak for a long time before she laid her right hand on his leg. " Thank you."
" Ain't no problem. Didn't burn Sophia, wasn't gonna burn Dale." He said. Layla smiled sadly and shook her head.
" I'm not talking about Dale." She said, her left hand rubbing against her stomach still. He looked down at it, understanding what she met. He looked away and back to the pictures.
" Lillian." He said quietly.
" What?" Layla asked with a small frown, removing her hand from him.
" For a girl. I like the name Lillian. Always have and it sounds good with Sophia." Daryl muttered, making her smile.
" Okay. Any boy names you like? Or do you want to name the baby after you? Have a Jr or a second?" She asked. Daryl flipped to another page.
" Nah. Name ain't done nothin great for me 'sides, when you get to yelling, we won't know who you're yellin at. Me or the kid." He said.
" Well I like the name Murphy or Sean." She said. Daryl nodded.
" Like Sean. I think Sean Dale Dixon sounds like a good, strong name." He said, sparing other glance to her. She smiled but her eyes were soft with tears.
" Yeah." She said softly. " I like it too." Daryl nodded and looked away again.
" So Lillian Sophia Dixon or Sean Dale Dixon it is."
They spend the rest of the day in the RV. Dale had tons of photo albums. Daryl thought he should be out hunting or on watch for more walkers but she needed what they were doing. Everyone seemed to understand as well because no one bothered them. They looked through the pictures with her explaining who people were and telling him stories. He smiled and even laughed a few times. They weren't loud laughs, more like chuckles but she would take what she could get from him.
* So I modeled Mitch after Eric Northman from True Blood, it comes back on tonight! And yeah, I picked Murphy and Sean for the Saints.*