Author's Note: Thank you. It's all rather domesicated in here right now, and for that I am sorry. Gotta be done.
TWDTWDTWD
The little girl's cries had dulled to soft sobbing by the time Carol made it to the house, interspersed with the odd hiccup as she fisted Carol's sweater to her face. Glenn's car was there and her heart leapt. She looked over to the passenger side and the baby was asleep, although she wondered how he could when the ride had been so jerky.
Glenn and Maggie raced out to greet her, halting abruptly as she clambered out of the truck, the girl clinging to her like a baby monkey.
"Where the hell did she come from?" Glenn blurted out, rushing to help her step off the truck.
"Has Daryl been back? How long ago did they leave?"
"He drove up as far as the boundary and then he took off, just ten minutes ago!" Maggie answered. "Oh my god, there's two!" She had to raise her voice to be heard over the little girl's squalls.
"How long have they been gone?" Carol pressed, she tried to pull the girl away from her to hand her over to Maggie but her tiny hands were stronger than she thought and she screamed louder at the action. "Glenn, get the baby seat out. Maggie, there's some bags on the truck, can you get them?"
"They left about forty minutes ago. Daddy and Beth stayed." Maggie did as she was asked, hopping over the side of the truck to dig out the unknown bags.
"It's too late." Carol breathed. It wouldn't have taken long to get to the camp, it was just a few miles away. They were too late. She wanted to cry, she needed to cry. The tears couldn't come though, there was too much to do. "We need to get inside, come on."
Glenn fumbled with the baby seat, struggling to thread the belt from the back of the safety catches and Carol pushed past him to do it one handed, finally getting it free and carefully passing the baby and seat to Glenn who clearly wasn't used to children because he handled it like a tray of glasses. Or a ticking timebomb.
"Where did they come from?" Hershel and Beth met them at the door and Carol found herself completely overwhelmed with the questions that they all seemed to be throwing at her. She hadn't had a chance to take a good look at the children yet, to make sure they were alright.
"I need some water to clean her up." She told them and Hershel nodded, leaving the room. "Beth, I need you to look for a change of clothes for her, alright? Anything as long as it's cleaner than this." She pulled herself and the little one to the floor once they made it to the conservatory.
Glenn stayed in the kitchen with the baby and she asked he and Maggie to find the woman's handbag, to find out if there was any clue as to the children's identies. Hershel brought the water and she advised him to keep watch, promising to tell them the full story once she had calmed the child down some.
It took a lot of soothing words and gentle tugging before she could eventually prise the girl from her chest. The screams had died down again, the sobs had gone dry and heaving and she let Carol unbutton her dress, tossing it aside to rub the cloth over her hands and arms. She tried talking to her as she worked, little snippets of nothing, asking her questions about her favourite colours and favourite foods. She got very little in the way of response, just sniffling and once she had settled a little more, the odd nod.
Carol wondered if this incident had ruined this little girl for life. She hoped not. But then, who knew how long her life would be?
There was a soft tap on the door as Carol buttoned up the clean dress on her and Maggie pushed her head through, clutching a handful of passports. "Katie." She said and the little girl's head shot up. "Her name's Katie Maria Montez."
"Oh Katie, what a beautiful name for a beautiful little girl." She crooned at the little one with a smile. She was a pretty child, once all the blood had been lifted from her skin. Dark, wide eyes, tan, chubby cheeks and a rosebud mouth, topped with a mass of wavy hair that was as dark as it could get without being black.
"There's nothing we can see for the baby. Maybe he was born after the Walkers came." Maggie shrugged. Carol picked up Katie to move back to the kitchen.
"Is he still asleep?" She asked.
"Yeah, hasn't moved. There's few bits of baby food, diapers and stuff. What happened, Carol?"
Carol sighed and sat at the table and Hershel came in from outside to hear the story.
"We were on our way to get the fuel. We were by that bridge, the one nearest to the highway when we heard gun shots. They were on the road below. The car had been run off the road. There was a jeep, guys in like, police armour or something. Bullet proof vests and helmets. They emptied the boot of the car. Boxes of stuff, I don't know what." She looked down at the girl in her lap, she was quiet now, fiddling with the edge of Carol's scarf. "They shot them." She whispered. "Just shot them and drove off." She cleared her throat. "They were from that camp. We knew it. You could just tell by looking at them. They headed back in that direction. We were going to leave when we heard Katie cry. Couldn't leave them. Just couldn't." Her tone was apologetic. Those extra few minutes might have cost the Grimes family and T-Dog their lives.
"Of course you couldn't." Maggie agreed, but Carol looked up to Hershel. The man knew exactly why her tone was apologetic, even if the others hadn't realised why. He nodded his head in agreement however, slow and firm.
"Daryl's gone looking for them. We have to wait here 'til he gets back." She pressed her chin to Katie's head and the little girl sighed.
"Then we wait." Glenn said, stepping through the door to keep watch.
TWDTWDTWD
He was gone for almost two hours. Way longer than he should've been and Carol struggled to keep from panicking. Katie relaxed her somewhat, gave her a focus, she sat at the kitchen table with her, feeding her pieces of candy to try and coax her into speaking and to deducing what her little brother's name was.
The baby was easy and for that, Carol was grateful. Maggie, Glenn and Beth all shied away from feeding him and although Hershel was willing to do it, he preferred to wait outside, keeping watch and away from the occassional cries of Katie.
There were a few nappies in the bags, a tin of powdered baby milk, a few jars of baby food, if they were following the labels, Baby Montez was between 4 and 6 months. He was dark just like Katie, long lashes that were wasted on a boy and chubby limbs. As much as Katie cried, he smiled, bouncing gleefully as Carol eventually managed to free her hands to pluck him from the carrier to feed him. They would now need to stop to retrieve more supplies for the children because what they had wouldn't last more than a couple of days.
It was then it struck her that these children were likely to be permanent additions to their group. It was terrifying. Carol couldn't even look after herself. She knew immediately it would her role to care for them. Glenn, Maggie and Beth had already recoiled from helping her with them and Lori, if Lori made it back, she would be too busy with her own child and the one on the way to do much to help.
She didn't want the responsibility. She couldn't keep Sophia alive, how on earth could she expect to keep two helpless babies going? To form an attachment to them, only to have them snatched away? She didn't know if her heart could take it. And what about Daryl? Although he didn't hesitate to save the children, would he be prepared to protect them too? She relied on him and so would they if they stayed. He might not want to take up the role. And then what would happen?
When she finally heard the rumble of the motorcycle's engine she jumped from the seat, struggling to keep hold on both children as she bolted out the door.
Daryl was alone. Her heart sunk with the realisation that they were too late. The Grimes family were gone. He pulled up next to the truck and sighed and shook his head when he saw them all, waiting with baited breath.
"Couldn't find 'em anywhere. Got as close as I could to the camp, nothin' to see." He didn't stop to talk to them, immediately rolling the bike to the back of the truck and pulling the board out to run it up. Once he got the bike strapped down, he went into the saddlebag, pulling out a handful objects. "Went back to the bridge. See if there was anythin' that could help." He pulled out a small baby doll and held it out.
"Baba!" Katie cried, arms outstretched on spotting the doll that was clearly a beloved toy. "My baba!" He stepped forward and hesitantly held the toy out and she leaned from Carol's arm, snatching it from him as soon as it came into reach and pressing a kiss to it's plastic cheek.
"Got these off their arms." He held out two plastic wristbands, snapped. They were bright green and each had black numbering, declaring them to be their civilian numbers. "I reckon they mighta come from the camp and made a run for it." The others leaned forward to take a look at the bands. "We gotta go. If we got spotted, or if Rick tells them that we're here before he knows..."
"OK, let's get going then." Glenn nodded an agreement and Carol looked up to see the younger man clearly a lump in his throat. "We can't do anything else."
There was scuffle to pack up the last of their things and Carol set the baby seat back into the truck. There was no room in Glenn's car for them to take the seat safely and she had no doubt that Katie would not be parted from her right now, although she seemed a little more content now that she had her doll. They would have to make do with all four of them in the truck.
"You alright?" He asked her, once the engine was running. Carol just nodded, pulling the seat belt around both herself and Katie who would only sit in her lap. "It's gonna get even harder now, ya know that?" He told her softly.
She needed to know that. The last thing they needed was these kids. Kids made noise, ate everything and contributed nothing. It was hard enough protecting Carol as it was, even now that she getting a little bit better at looking after herself. Two children would probably mean an even earlier death.
"I know. But what are we supposed to do?" She murmured back, a hand reaching to stroke the little girl's hair. He looked down at her and caught her gaze, wide, wet eyes staring him up at him unabashedly from her place resting against Carol's chest. "I don't want to be responsible for them, Daryl. But who else will do it?"
Daryl wished he could've been the guy who would've walked away from them. Merle would've. Survival of the fittest he would've called it. But even if Carol hadn't had been with him, he didn't think he would've. What kind of asshole would just leave two kids as Walker food?
He didn't know what else to say. Carol spoke only to the children and he learnt that the little girl's name was Katie and Carol was coaxing her into telling her the baby boy's name. She didn't say much, the odd mumbled word here and there.
"Can they even talk at this age?" He asked her eventually, after getting sick of her asking Katie the same question over and over.
Carol let out a chuckle at his lack of knowledge, although she wasn't surprised. "Course she can. She's two and a half, according to her passport. She's just in shock. And a little shy. You're not a baby, are you Katie?" She cooed at the girl.
"No, I'm big girl. Joe is baby." The little girl replied.
"Joe?" Carol asked.
"Baby Joe." She pointed at her brother and the baby giggled to himself. Carol was dumbfounded, all that questioning and for a question from Daryl to get the answer for her?
"Baby Joe it is." She said to Daryl. He almost let out a smile as he turned his focus back on the road.
TWDTWDTWD
The first stop was meant to be a gas station just off the highway, about 80 miles from the house they'd stayed in the previous night. Daryl insisted that they went there, even with their new additions and leave details of the next part of their journey. Just in case.
It took far too long to get there. Kids were a pain in the ass, he decided, not that he didn't know it already. Katie had to pee three times and they had to pull over for Carol to sort her out. She left him alone with the baby and he wondered the hell why she would trust him with the task. He was crap with kids. The third time the baby began howling once Carol and Katie made it a few feet from the truck and he looked to Carol helplessly when the baby started squalling. She only shot him a look that suggested he better deal with it and eventually he figured out that he needed to ram the fallen pacifier back in the kid's mouth to shut him up. It worked, but still. He did not "do" babies.
Then Joe unleashed a smell that was so vile he thought he might choke to death on it and they had to stop again for Carol to deal with it. He cried for food and she did that as he drove but it meant pulling Katie from her lap to do so which equalled to more tears from the little girl. Eventually she sat between Daryl and Carol as Carol spoon fed mush to the baby, chewing on a cracker of her own, staring up at him with fear and curiosity. It was unnerving, to be watched so openly.
He was seriously considering getting back on the bike and wondered if Carol would murder him if he did. He decided that it might be worth suffering her displeasure to avoid this torture.
He sighed with relief once he spotted the signs for the gas station and slowed as he caught sight of Walkers on the forecourt. Only three, but they needed to be dealt with quickly.
Glenn pulled up the car next to him and gave him the nod that said he was ready to go and together they got out of the vehicles, armed with knives and Daryl's crossbow to take out the problem.
It was easy, relatively mess free and he pulled his arrows from the fallen when he caught the blur of movement in the corner of his eye. He loaded up the bow again, raising in the direction of the movement and had his finger poised to release the arrow, when the hands of his target lifted in surrender.
"Woah now, take it easy."