AN: OK first update for today.
Today will probably not be quite as "productive" as yesterday. Tomorrow begins the serious work schedule so updates will not be terribly frequent, but I'll do what I can, when I can.
Thank you again for all your reviews/comments/support. It's all appreciated.
I also wanted to drop a reminder to anyone who may have forgotten. All of our characters here are younger characters. They haven't had the same life experiences as they have in the zombie apocalypse of the show. Therefore they have to be altered some to reflect a different lifestyle/place/time, etc.
I hope you enjoy.
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Andrea had the most cryptic phone conversation with Michonne that she'd ever had in her life. They almost developed some sort of alien language to make sure that no one in Andrea's apartment understood anything she said, and Carol was left unaware of what Michonne was talking about. As a result, Andrea hoped that she fully understood what to expect from the day, but she knew they were all trying to wing it.
It had been assured that Merle would go to work. The phone call early that morning from Tyreese, who happened to have some serious deadline emergencies, and who happened to offer Merle double his pay that day, assured that Merle was more than happy to pass his extra time on his day off going into work.
It wasn't that anyone hated Merle, not exactly, though they did somewhat blame him for aiding in the initial crisis. Therefore the entire day would simply run smoother if Michonne suggested, as she did, to Tyreese that he make the offer and keep Merle very, very busy.
Andrea made breakfast for Daryl, who didn't have to work either, and started to prep him for the events of the day. They'd discussed it and they thought that the only way to make this work was to make sure that Daryl was prepared and Carol was blindsided enough that she didn't have time to try to shut down. They were taking a lot of chances, but for some reason Andrea and Michonne both felt lucky about this one.
"Daryl," Andrea asked, scraping the eggs onto his plate, "how do you feel about children?"
Daryl, still sleepy but in a rather good mood because he already had it in his head that everything was aimed for success, smiled at her.
"Why? Is that what you made for breakfast?" He asked.
Andrea smiled. At least he was done with the snapping and snarling. He understood that he was going to have to listen to people and play nice if wanted everything to work in his favor.
"I'm serious," she said, sitting down with her breakfast. "Have you ever thought about it? What do you think about kids?"
Daryl shrugged and started eating.
"I don't mind 'em long as they ain't around me too much," Daryl said. "They loud an' they always leakin' an' shit from some damn where. Always somethin' wrong with 'em."
Andrea nodded. She had suspected as much. Honestly she wasn't sure that Daryl nor Merle either one had received in their lives a whole lot of training with kids. It seemed like they were kids themselves, from what she understood, when they set out together to try to navigate the world. Andrea could somewhat sympathize with them. She didn't have any great know-how when it came to children and she always wondered how it was that people who had them seemed to know what the hell to do with them. Michonne had assured her, though, that parental instincts were real and that they kicked in…so she hoped she could take Daryl through this just enough for the day, and then maybe Hershel could do more of the dirty work later.
"Have you ever thought what it might be like to have your own, though?" Andrea asked.
Daryl shook his head.
"Not hardly," he said.
Andrea realized this was just one of those things that she was going to have to tell him, let him have his panic attack or whatever was about to happen, and then she was going to have to try to pick up all his pieces and get him glued back together before they were supposed to be at Carol's house.
"Daryl, there's something that we need to talk about, OK? And you can freak out if you want, but I want you try to think about it," Andrea said.
Now Daryl looked terrified and Andrea knew she hadn't thought through her delivery well enough. It was too late to turn back now, though.
"Daryl, Carol's pregnant and she didn't want to tell you because she thought you wouldn't want it and you might suggest or something else, that it wasn't a good idea," Andrea said.
And there it was. The look on Daryl's face had reached what Andrea could only classify as maximum confusion or worry, or whatever it was that Daryl did when he processed something that was just too much to be softened by breakfast.
"She's pregnant?" Daryl asked.
Andrea nodded. At least he wasn't running from the room screaming or anything. That had to be a good sign.
"Mine?" Daryl asked.
Andrea chuckled.
"Yes, Daryl. How promiscuous do you think Carol is?" Andrea asked. She assumed the question probably only followed in the natural order of questioning though. Daryl shrugged but he didn't look like he was freaking out so much as he was simply trying to process the existence of this pregnancy that he'd known nothing about until right now. "You don't have to decide all your thoughts on the baby right now, Daryl," Andrea said. "But we thought it might be better if you'd had a little time to process the idea when Carol wasn't around. We can talk about it, if you want."
"I don't know much about babies," Daryl said.
"And that's OK," Andrea said. "Carol seems pretty comfortable with them. She likes Michonne's kids. I mean you've got time and I don't think if you had the kid right now it would be a total nightmare. Wouldn't be like if Merle and me had a kid and we had to have entire conversations about where we think we might have left it."
Daryl chuckled a little. Andrea was surprised that he was taking this so well. He seemed, at least for the moment, to just be trying to process the idea, not reject it. Processing they could work with…Carol was still processing it. Rejection was where they were going to get into trouble.
"So you think you might want the kid? Or at least be willing to still try to make things work?" Andrea asked. She hated pointing out to Daryl, since he'd been somewhat excited to think that they were going to clean up this whole mess and return to the two chowder heads in their care back to whatever state of union that they had, that rejecting this baby would pretty much be a deal breaker that no amount of string and duct tape was going to be able to fix.
Daryl shrugged.
"I don't know…I mean…ya said she was pregnant. Ain't like I got much of a choice, do I?" Daryl asked. "I mean I still wanta talk ta Carol an' if she's gonna have a kid…then I reckon that's part of it, ain't it?"
Andrea thought that at least it was a start. Daryl might not be applying for any father of the year awards…it was far too soon to tell that, but at least it looked like she might be able to have him ready not to turn tail and run as soon as they got there. She had the rest of breakfast to get him ready to talk about it and then it was show time.
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Michonne had broken it to Carol that they were having company, and she'd broke it to her that Daryl was part of that company. It hadn't gone as well as she'd expected. At first Carol had somewhat railed against her, giving her a type of sleeping with the enemy speech that she hadn't entirely anticipated. Now Carol was calming down a bit. Michonne had done her best to make Carol know that it was only a conversation, and that if things didn't work out at the end of the conversation, that was fine, but they were all going to sit down and talk. The part she through in about holding Lincoln for hostage until after the conversation was satisfactorily closed was just a little something extra.
By the time that Andrea got there with Daryl in tow, Michonne had Carol somewhat collected and already sitting at the dining room table where she intended for them to have what she could only bring herself to think of as some kind of peace meeting or negotiations.
Michonne held the door and Andrea slipped through it, immediately walking over and depositing all her belongings on the island in the kitchen. Daryl came through next, greeting Michonne, and she asked him to have a seat at the table, noticing that her ward for the day had her arms crossed across her chest and was choosing to stare out the window instead of engage in any preliminary chatter or eye contact.
"How'd it go?" Michonne whispered to Andrea.
"He's open…he wants to talk about it," Andrea whispered back. Michonne breathed a sigh of relief. "Yours?"
"All the emotional maturity of a toddler for the moment," Michonne said. Andrea nodded a little and sighed.
"Shall we do this?" She asked.
"Today's as good as any," Michonne said.
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"So the biggest problem we have here is a breakdown in communication," Michonne said, sitting across the table from Andrea. "It's not a problem with expectation. Therefore, Andrea will be representing Daryl and I'll be representing Carol in this situation. We're going to get things started by outlining the basics. The first step to successful relationship beginnings is figuring out what everyone wants. This can alter slightly after the initial discussion, but if one party strays too far from the other party, there tends to be a breakdown. As evidenced by my divorce and Andrea's lack of ability to get Merle to be anything besides a human swine."
Andrea chuckled.
"So, let's begin," Andrea said.
"I'll start," Michonne said. "Carol would like a house with green shutters to make into a home. As you can see, we are sitting in said house. I wasn't really sure about the shutters before, but now they're lovely."
"I agree," Andrea said. "It was a risk, but a good one."
"Carol also would like a dog," Michonne said.
"Exhibit Lincoln," Andrea said.
"It's safe to assume that Daryl would also like some place to live," Michonne said. "What are his feelings on the dog?"
"Daryl is accepting of the dog," Andrea responded.
"Good…now Carol would like a happy marriage, and children," Michonne said.
"Daryl would like to be like Hershel and Josephine Greene, both examples of about the happiest marriage that Sweet Junction has to offer," Andrea said. "Hershel and Jo also have children."
"So now that we've laid out all the details," Michonne said, "which apparently the two of you haven't done yet…we can see that both of you are headed in more or less the same direction with what you would like out of this relationship? Anyone here disagree?"
No one said anything. Michonne sat upright in her chair. Andrea leaned on her elbow at the table, Daryl leaned with both of his on the table staring at Carol, and Carol remained with her arms crossed and was now staring at her lap.
"Good, so now let's start with the problem at hand. Andrea and I are going to be here to act as mediators and witnesses, but you two lovely people are going to be the ones to work this out," Michonne said.
"Daryl, why don't you start?" Andrea asked.
Daryl shifted a little in his chair, obviously trying to remember any one of the possible statements that he'd been rehearsing since the day before.
"I'm sorry that I left without tellin' ya and that I wouldn't talk when ya called," Daryl said. He looked at Andrea and she nodded at him a little.
"Carol?" Michonne urged.
"Why did you leave? You never even said why you left," Carol said.
Daryl shrugged a little.
"Everything was changin'," Daryl said, "an' Merle said ya was gonna end up gettin' tired a' me 'cause I weren't gon' fit ya new life…an' I didn't feel like I fit it."
Carol looked at him like he was crazy.
"I would like to interject here," Andrea said. "Merle is going to get his, and I have repeatedly stated that no one should listen to or trust anything that Merle says. The only time the man gives you an honest answer is if you've literally got his balls in your hands…so do with that what you will."
Daryl shot her a look and she shrugged a little.
"What changed, Daryl? The house? I live here now. It's my house, that's all that changed. Andrea and Merle moved across the hall, but nothing really changed except location," Carol said. "Did I do something?"
"The house is nice an' it's clean an' it ain't nothin' like the apartments, an' Mer-…an' I ain't the kinda guy that lives in nice houses an' runs around with them kinda people," Daryl said.
"Daryl, it is a nice house, and it's clean because it's new and I have enough time to keep it clean. I wanted a house, and I wasn't going to buy a rundown shack or something if I was going to put my money into it," Carol said. "I wanted a nice house…that's something I always wanted. I don't even know what people you're talking about but I haven't even seen anyone since I moved in. I don't even have neighbors yet!"
"Ya gon' have neighbors an' ya gonna be ashamed a' me 'cause I ain't what they are," Daryl said. "I just didn't want'cha gettin' rid a' me 'cause a' that."
"So you got rid of me because my nonexistent neighbors might change my opinion of you?" Carol asked.
Daryl bit at his thumb.
"I said I was sorry," he said. "I didn't mean ta do it once I did it…an' then I didn't know how ta fix it an' ya was already askin' men ta come over ta your house," Daryl said.
Carol knitted her eyebrows together.
"What men? There haven't been men at my house," Carol said.
"I heard Glenn tell Maggie that right there in Lula's ya asked some man ta come ta ya house," Daryl said. "He heard it."
"Maggie Greene?" Andrea asked. "Are you talking about Glenn Rhee?"
Daryl shrugged.
"Damn Korean kid she's dating," Daryl said.
"Jesus! That kid's mouth runs more than the faucet in our old apartment," Andrea said. "He's about like Merle. Don't believe a damn thing he says. I should know, I work with his parents and he's always in there entertaining someone."
"I didn't ask any man to come to my house!" Carol interjected. "The only people I even talk to are customers."
"OK…I think we've lost our line of thought here," Michonne said. "Carol didn't ask anyone to her house. Glenn Rhee is a gossip. Merle is an idiot. Daryl's sorry he left because he thought that you would think he wasn't good enough. You got upset because he ditched you without an explanation. Let's carry on from there."
Now it was her turn to lean against the table in the same general stance that Andrea had assumed. Daryl looked at both of them and fidgeted in his seat.
"Can I come back ta the house?" Daryl asked.
"Are you just going to leave again when you're supposed to be coming home for dinner?" Carol snapped back at him.
"Time out," Michonne said. "Carol, before all of this happened. Was it or was it not your intention to have Daryl live with you in this house?"
Carol looked at Michonne and back at Daryl. She hesitated for a few minutes before finally responding to MIchonne.
"I had hoped that Daryl was going to live in the house," Carol said.
"Full time?" Michonne asked.
"If he wanted to," Carol responded.
"Did you ask him?" Michonne asked.
"No," Daryl interjected.
"I didn't want him thinking that I was trying to trap him in something, since we know that's one of Merle's favorite speeches," Carol said.
"So you never asked?" Michonne asked.
"Not exactly," Carol responded.
Michonne looked at Andrea.
"Daryl, would you like to live in the house with Carol?" Andrea asked, sighing.
"If she's gon' let me back in," Daryl said.
"Carol?" Michonne asked. "Would you like to let Daryl back in the house? And maybe talk to him about what we discussed?"
Carol glared at Michonne.
"If you want to come back to the house, then I guess we can give it another try," Carol said. "But if you're going to go to the apartment after work then I think you should at least leave me a note or call when you get there so I know where you are."
Daryl nodded.
"And before you decide whether or not you want to come back…" Carol hesitated and looked at Michonne who was staring at her. "I'm pregnant."
Daryl sat there for a moment. The surprised look of the morning was gone. He wasn't surprised at all. Andrea had already let him toy with the idea all morning and had made him promise that he wouldn't say anything about it until Carol brought it up. Now he was calm about it.
"I ain't mad about it," Daryl said. "I don't know nothin' 'bout babies though."
"I want the baby," Carol said. "And if you don't want it then that's fine with me, but I don't want you to try to talk me out of it…not even a little bit."
Daryl shook his head and looked back at Andrea. She tried to urge him on with her eyes.
"I weren't gonna do that," Daryl said. "I don't nothin' 'bout babies, but I weren't gonna say nothin' 'bout it."
"You both have plenty of time to learn what you need to know and to talk about the baby," Michonne said. "Rome wasn't built in a day. That being said, I think that we know now that communication is key and the two of you have some problems communicating. So Andrea and I worked together some yesterday to come up with a simple idea to help you get started."
"I'll get the bag from the car," Andrea said. "Where is it?" She asked Michonne.
"Trunk," Michonne said. "Keys are on the island."
Andrea got up and disappeared outside. She came back a few minutes later carrying a big bag. She passed it to Michonne.
"Now," Andrea said. "The idea is that you two have no idea how to tell each other what is going on with you or when it's appropriate. For now, the answer is that it's always appropriate. You should always talk about what you're feeling because sometimes, just with this stupid mess, little things are big things if you don't talk about them."
"I know," Michonne said, "that both of you have come from backgrounds where you weren't maybe taught that it was OK to say how you're feeling or why you think you might be feeling that way, so we're going to do this as simplistic as possible. So we have the note system."
Michonne dug in her bag and pulled out two small plastic canisters. She'd written Daryl's name on one and Carol's name on the other.
"We don't do artsy craftsy so you can decorate them how you want," Andrea said.
"We have a notepad here," Michonne said, "and there are more in the bag. You put these on the counter. During the day, if something bothers you that the other person says or does or you get worried, or you don't like something, or whatever…then you write it down, and you put it in the other person's jar. The catch is, though, that for everything you put in there that you want to talk about or that you didn't like or whatever the case may be, you have to put another piece of paper in that says something that you did like."
Andrea nodded.
"The every night you've got to empty out your jars together and you've got to talk about the things that are in there. No matter how silly you think they are, or how stupid, you've got to talk about them. Good and bad," Andrea said.
"Eventually," Michonne said, "we hope that you won't need the system because you'll start to understand that you can say what you want to say and the other person has to hear you out. That's not to say that you have to agree all the time, you just have to be willing to listen to what the other person has to say, validate that you understand that they have this feeling, and discuss it."
"We'll demonstrate," Andrea said. "Michonne, I don't like that you woke me up at almost four this morning on my day off, but I do like that you're taking me out to lunch after this to make up for it."
Michonne chuckled a little.
"I understand that you don't like that I woke you up at four because that's really early to get up, but I had to talk to you before I got Tyreese to call in time for Merle to go to work. I appreciate that you were willing to get up to help me anyway. I don't like that you didn't tell me I was buying you lunch." Michonne responded.
"I know I should have told you before that you were buying me lunch, but I didn't think of it until now and it still seems like a very good idea to me," Andrea said.
"Actually," Michonne said, "it's a pretty good idea to me too. If you don't mind, though, I need to pick the kids up from daycare if I'm not going to be working at all today. Can they come with us?"
"That will be great," Andrea said. "Apparently I'm going to be some kind of aunt or something and I could use the practice."
"See? That's essentially how it's going to work out for you two," Michonne said.
"So we're going to talk to each other every night like we're stupid?" Carol asked.
"No," Michonne said, "you're going to talk to each other about everything that you think is stupid throughout the day. Once you get more comfortable doing it, you'll have things like spontaneous conversations, but until then things like 'I think it would be nice if you lived with me' and 'I'm worried that you won't like what the neighbors think of me' should be things that go in the jar."
Carol sighed.
"Fine, I'll try it," she said.
"Daryl?" Andrea asked.
Daryl shrugged.
"Do I gotta write a lot?" He asked.
"No," Andrea said. "You can write one word if you want to. Just put the one word there and you can explain it how you want later."
"I reckon I can do that," Daryl said.
"You've both been lovely clients," Michonne said, standing up. She put the bag on the table next to the canisters. "I think that now we'll be leaving you to get started learning how to communicate with one another. If you should need help, you have my cell number."
Andrea stood up.
"And I'm going to be with her. We're going to go and pick up the kids, have lunch, and then see what the day holds," Andrea said.
Both of them left, hoping that at least they had got things somewhat put back together and that Daryl and Carol were set to start figuring how to make this work.