Chapter 28 – Daryl

I wake up and not sure where I am for a moment. I'm not used to waking up with a warm body next to me. I like it, I never thought I would, but I do. I can tell that it's almost dawn. I never needed a watch, I've always had a good sense of time.

Lauren is still sleeping soundly. I debate waking her up, but decide not to. She needed her sleep. Yesterday had been a really long day for us and neither of us got a lot if sleep the night before. Just thinkin' bout that night makes my dick twitch.

I climb out of bed and put on the clothes I wore yesterday. "Glad I took some more stuff from Rick's room," I murmured to myself. "Can't keep wearing the same wore out shit over and over again.

I close the door quietly behind me and the smell of coffee hits me. Coffee? There's only one other person that gets up early like I do and I can't believe she's found coffee. I head down the stairs and I see Carol sitting on the sofa, her feet propped up on the coffee table drinking from a steaming cup.

"Well look who's up early?" she says with a smirk.

"Hell, I'm always up early. You know that." I give her my 'what the fuck' look. She's seen it dozens of times and as usual it doesn't faze her. "Where's the coffee?"

"Coffee is where you expect to find it…in the kitchen." Carol gets up and follows me.

I walk over to the coffee machine. The smell is so powerful that I am dying for a cup. That's what I need... a cup to put the coffee in. I don't see any out. I open the cabinet above the coffee pot and see plates. The one next to it has more plates and bowls. Fuck.

"Where are the cups?" I grumble at her.

"What's got you so grouchy this morning?" she asks walking over to another cabinet and pulling out a coffee mug and putting it down in front of me. Carol leans back against the counter and watches me.

I ignore her and pour myself a cup. Even though it's steaming hot, I take a sip, then another. Damn that is good. I look over at her and she's looking at me with that quirky Carol look. "What?" I say to her.

"I didn't expect you to be skipping down the stairs, but c'mon. You should be happy Daryl. What's up?"

Why do women need to read into everything? Can't I be just be… grouchy? "Nuthin's up," I tell her but her raised eyebrows means she doesn't believe me. "Let's sit."

We both walk over to the living room and take a seat on the sofa I had covered with the sheet, but the sheet's gone. I look around and the room looks pretty good. "You clean up?" I ask Carol.

She waves it off like it was nuthin'. "Couldn't sleep. Now what about you? Why aren't you still upstairs with Lauren?" Carol was always the one person I could talk to. She had a crappy marriage with Ed, so I felt she could understand some of my messed up life better than anyone else. Carol never judged me.

Man, I hate talkin' about this shit, but Carol was always a good listener. "I'm still trying to get my head around this…her…me …us. It's like it's too good to be true and I'm waiting for her to wake up and realize that she's made a big mistake."

Carol shakes her head. "Daryl, Daryl…Daryl, you just don't get it, do you? Stop thinking in the past and who you were back before all of this. That wasn't the real you…that was your brother's influence. This…the Daryl that we all know now…is the real Daryl. You've become your own man. This is the man you always had the potential to be. You're a good man Daryl, dependable and trustworthy…we all see that. That's the guy that Lauren sees and wants. She's had her eye on you for a long time, so don't judge her too quickly. She's a smart woman….and she made a great choice in you."

A couple minutes go by as I let Carol's words sink in. She's quietly sipping her coffee while I process everything. Lauren's basically said the same thing to me too. Did I really change that much? Does my past not matter to her, even though she says it doesn't. I've never felt like this for anyone and that scares me.

"Carol?" I look away from her, I can't believe what I'm about to ask her.

'Yes, Daryl?" she answers smiling over her coffee cup.

"What…what does being in love feel like?"

"You do remember that I was married to Ed, right?" We both laugh. I only found out later on that Ed was beating on Carol most of their married life. If that walker hadn't gotten him, I would have.

"Early on Ed was charming, it was only after we got married that he changed. I would get butterflies in my stomach when I saw him, I put his needs before mine and just a smile from him made my heart race. I couldn't wait to see him again… hours without him felt like days and days felt like weeks. That's just a few things I remember, any of them make sense?"

"All of them," I thought to myself. Plus the fact that I'd lay down my life for Lauren without a second thought. That girl had wrapped herself around my stone cold heart and I had gone and done the unthinkable…I fell I love. A big smile spread across my face. I leaned over and kissed Carol on the cheek. "Thanks," I told her. I put my coffee cup down on the table and ran up the stairs two at a time. Time for me to go wake up my girl.