AN: Third update of the day. Just a little something kind of filler-ish for progressing.

Probably the last one for the night. I might do another if I feel energetic, but I wouldn't count on it. I'm not sure when I'll get to update again. It's going to depend a lot on the schedule (my days vary depending on what day of the week it is and what's going on for certain days) and how tired I am after everything, but I will try to update as often as possible.

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Daryl accepted the bag of lunch from Carol as he was slipping out the door and kissed her in response.

"You're going to be home for dinner?" She asked.

He nodded at her.

"Gotta get some clothes from Merle and Andrea's," he said. "Then I'm comin' back here."

Carol nodded.

Daryl left them, looking in the bag on his way to the truck and realizing that two sandwiches was going in the cookie jar when he got back to the house. If he didn't have lunch, he didn't mind asking for something from Miss Jo, but he felt bad when he came with lunch and still had to ask for something else. He figured he could put in the cookie jar that Carol made him breakfast even though she didn't look like she felt good and she'd been sick before he got up…that ought to make up for the fact that she didn't know he ate at least two sandwiches for lunch.

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Michonne slipped into Lula's at lunch time and sat down at one of the tables, waving at Jacqui. Carol was waiting on another table and then she came over.

"Didn't expect to see you here," she said.

Michonne didn't eat at Lula's very often for lunch, but she thought she at least needed to find out how the first night had gone after their little round table discussion.

"I thought I'd drop in," Michonne said. "How are you? You look a little pale."

Carol threw a look at Jacqui and sat across from Michonne for a moment.

"I feel nasty," Carol said. "And I called the nurse this morning to verify my appointment and mentioned being sick and she told me it wasn't that bad yet."

"You have to love it when people who aren't you tell you how you feel," Michonne said. Carol nodded. "You don't have to explain yourself to anyone. If you don't feel good, you don't feel good, and that's that. I'm sure serving food doesn't help."

Carol shrugged.

"Hasn't bothered me too much," she said.

Michonne chuckled.

"Boy the smell of anything cooking killed me," she said.

"How long?" Carol asked.

"Probably until about fourteen or fifteen weeks," Michonne said. "Then I went almost instantly from 'I hate food' to 'I bet I can put that whole pizza in my mouth'."

Carol chuckled.

"Sounds exciting," she said. She leaned out of the booth, glancing around to see if anyone was looking for her. "Do you want some lunch?"

Michonne nodded.

"I really just want a salad or something," Michonne said.

"What do you want on it? We can do salad," Carol said.

"Cobb salad?" Michonne asked.

"Coming up," Carol said, sliding out of the booth. "I'll put your order in. Sweet tea to drink?"

"House wine, right?" Michonne asked.

Michonne sat and waited for Carol to make it back. She brought the tea back and sat down again.

"Jacqui said she'll bring it," Carol said. "We're not too busy so she's considering me on break."

"Did you tell her?" Michonne asked.

Carol shook her head and Michonne nodded a little in response.

"It's really better to wait a while, just in case," Michonne said. Carol groaned.

"Did you have to say that?" Carol asked.

"I'm just saying it's better to wait," Michonne said. "How was the first night with Daryl? Did you talk?"

Carol nodded.

"We talked a little bit. I think we covered all we could for one night," Carol said.

"You're not going to solve all your problems instantly," Michonne said. "It's going to take time, but if you work on it, then it should go well. The note system will probably help."

"I think it will," Carol said. "I just hope that he doesn't get scared off again. He seems to understand, though, that I really have no intention of just up and kicking him out the house."

"What about the 'situation'? Has he said anything else?" Michonne asked.

Carol shrugged.

"Not really, I mean what's he going to say? I guess we're just going to play it by ear and hope the note system really does work," Carol said.

Jacqui came over, inadvertently interrupting the conversation. She put the salad in front of Michonne and instantly the conversation changed gears to small talk about parents and household projects. Michonne ate and entertained Jacqui and Carol both for the rest of the time, occasionally losing one or the other to some customer that needed a refill or wanted to ask about dessert.

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It was quitting time at Hershel's and Daryl was dog tired. One thing about the cattle was that they had their days where they weren't making anything easy for you and today had been one of them. Daryl dropped off the last of the equipment in the barn and came out to find Hershel waiting to close it up for the night.

"Good work today, son," Hershel said.

Daryl nodded his thanks at Hershel's acknowledgement of his efforts.

"How did things go with Carol Ann?" Hershel asked. Daryl knew now that Michonne had been the one to call Hershel, and that Hershel had apparently called Michonne back after his talk with Daryl the other day.

Daryl shrugged a little.

"Ya was right," he said. "She forgave me. Now I just gotta not go fu-…messin' it up again."

Hershel chuckled.

"Good intentions will get you somewhere," Hershel said.

Daryl kind of wanted to talk to Hershel about the baby, but he didn't really know if he was allowed to talk about it or not. No one had said he could and no one had said he couldn't. Daryl glanced around. He and Hershel were the only two out there, though, so he didn't think it would really hurt anything.

"Can I talk ta ya a minute?" Daryl asked.

Hershel nodded.

"Any time, Daryl. What's on your mind?" Hershel asked.

Daryl tried to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. He fished in his pocket and dug out a cigarette, lighting it.

"Well, if I was ta talk ta ya 'bout somethin', could ya not say nothin'?" Daryl asked. "'Cause I ain't sure I'm s'posed ta talk about it."

Hershel looked concerned.

"I can keep your confidence, Daryl, if you need me too. What's going on?" Hershel asked.

"Well, Carol's pregnant…" Daryl said. He didn't really know how he thought Hershel would react, but the man's facial expression hardly changed at all. Daryl wondered if he already knew from Michonne.

"Is that the problem?" Hershel asked after a moment and Daryl realized he'd been quiet longer than he intended.

Daryl shook his head.

"Well, no…not exactly," he said. "Ya see, I ain't never…well I weren't thinkin' before 'bout kids an' I don't really know if I ever been around nobody that was pregnant…" Daryl realized he was at a complete loss for forming the thoughts he had into anything even semi coherent. "I just don't know how I'm s'posed ta feel or what I'm s'posed ta do. Like Carol was throwin' up this mornin' when I woke up an' she was lookin' a little green around the gills all mornin'…is she sick or is that part a' the whole baby thing?"

Hershel chuckled.

"Could be both," Hershel said. "That I can't know for sure. I can tell you, though, that if you've never been around a pregnant woman before, it's a learning experience."

Daryl wrinkled his brow.

"How so?" Daryl asked.

"Women go through a lot of changes, son," Hershel said. "A lot of them they don't even seem to know about, but that doesn't mean that it makes it any easier on you trying to figure them out. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just be nice to her, try to do things for her, and sometimes, if you think she's really hard to understand…well, just don't assume that it's you. She might not understand herself."

Daryl didn't like the sound of that. He wasn't sure exactly how many pieces of paper it would take to fill one of those jars, but if things got too complicated they were likely to find out.

Hershel chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry about it too much," Hershel said. "If she's sick, take care of her. That's all you need to know. Rub her back, bring her water. You'll figure out what you should do. How do you feel about the baby?"

Daryl shrugged.

"I really don't know," Daryl said. "I ain't thought about havin' no kid before."

Hershel nodded.

"Having kids is one of the best things that will ever happen to you," Hershel said. "It's also one of the scariest things, and one of the most complicated. You'll never love anyone like you love your children, Daryl."

"Ya mean like I love Carol?" Daryl asked.

Hershel nodded, shrugging a little.

"It's a different love you'll have for her and you'll have for your children," Hershel said.

"When do I start lovin' it? 'Cause I just found out about it but I don't love it yet," Daryl said.

Hershel chuckled.

"Now that takes time," Hershel said. "When Jo was pregnant the first time I think it was different than all the times after that. Everyone told me I was going to feel a certain way about things at this point or that one. I don't think, though, that I really felt like my son was my son until the day he was born. With the other kids, it was a little different. I was a veteran then, and I knew that one thing led to another. You'll know it when you feel it, though."

Daryl nodded his understanding of what he thought Hershel was trying to say. He really didn't know how he felt right now. Carol didn't look pregnant, at least not what he thought of when someone said a woman was pregnant, and he was having a very hard time believing she was. It wasn't that he thought she was lying, it was just that it didn't seem like something he could really understand right now.

The idea of being a father was an odd one to Daryl as well. He didn't have much to go on there. His old man wasn't exactly a role model and if anything Daryl thought he served better as an idea of what not to do rather than any kind of lesson for Daryl to know what he should do with a kid.

Daryl assumed that Hershel was a good father. All his kids were pretty grown up now and they seemed to have turned out alright. It made him feel a little bit better to think that he could ask Hershel for advice about the whole thing.

"Was there anything else you'd like to talk about, Daryl?" Hershel asked, pulling Daryl out of his thoughts again. Daryl regarded him a moment and shook his head.

"No," Daryl said. "I don't reckon there is."

Hershel nodded.

"Well, if you think of anything, you can talk to me anytime," Hershel said. "And congratulations…you can give my congratulations to Carol Ann too."

Daryl thanked him and headed to his truck. He needed to get by the apartment and pack up some of his stuff to take to the house, and he didn't want to be late and make Carol worry on the first night that he'd changed his mind again.

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Daryl sat at the table holding the little piece of paper. They'd already had dinner and Carol had made meatloaf. Daryl had discovered that he liked meatloaf just as much as he thought he would and Carol told him that she would make him sandwiches, two of them, out of the leftover meatloaf the next day.

Daryl had only put the two slips of paper into her jar during the day. He hadn't really come up with anything else that he thought needed to go in there and she hadn't put anything into his jar. So now, the short conversation about lunch and his thanks for breakfast out of the way, they were sitting at the table and she was showing him this picture that was supposed to be a picture of their kid, except Daryl couldn't see it.

"I still don't see nothin'," Daryl said, turning the piece of paper to see if he had the wrong angle. Carol giggled a little.

"Me either, honestly," Carol said. "I just know that little dot right there is supposed to be the baby," she touched the picture again in the spot that had been touched so many times it was almost just a fingerprint. "I've got to go next week, though, to make sure."

"Make sure a' what?" Daryl asked.

Carol lost the smile that she was wearing and she ran her fingers through her hair, tugging at her curls like she sometimes did when she nervous.

"Well, the baby didn't have a heartbeat and they said it could still be early," she said. "So I've got to go and make sure that it was just early."

Daryl wasn't certain what was wrong, but he could tell that her mood had just darkened from the overall mood she'd had all evening.

"Do you wanna tell me why ya makin' that face or I gotta get the cookie jar?" Daryl asked.

Carol snickered.

"It's nothing about you, Daryl," Carol said. "It's just that I'm worried something's going to happen to this baby…I don't want anything to happen."

"What's gonna happen?" Daryl asked.

Carol shrugged.

"I don't know what could happen," she said. "If it doesn't have a heartbeat then it just means that it didn't make it…I guess nothing happened."

Carol looked like she might start crying. Daryl put the picture down and scooted his chair closer in her direction, putting his arm around her. He didn't have an answer for this because it was a problem he didn't understand in the slightest. At least not one that he could say anything about.

"It's alright," he said. He knew it wasn't worth anything, but it was all he had.

Carol took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah…we'll know next week, right?"

Daryl nodded.

"Was that why ya was sick this mornin'?" He asked.

"I guess," Carol said. "I called the doctor to verify the appointment and I mentioned to the nurse that I was sick and she said I didn't feel that bad…so I don't know if maybe I got some kind of bug or what…"

Daryl didn't know why the nurse would say that. The nurse wasn't at their house and the nurse hadn't seen Carol hugging onto the toilet bowl like Merle used to do when he drank too much. Daryl figured if you felt like hugging the toilet bowl you probably didn't feel real good. When Merle did it he wasn't one bit sorry. He'd gotten himself there by drinking too damn much, but if Carol got there because there was a kid making her sick, then he didn't think a nurse had any right to tell her that she didn't feel bad.

"I don't like ya nurse," Daryl said finally. Carol chuckled.

"It's OK," she said. "I'm just new at this, I guess. I don't know what I'm doing and what I'm supposed to feel like."

"I'm new at it too," Daryl said. He rubbed her back with his hand. "I couldn't even find the kid in the picture."

"I don't think anyone can really see anything in those pictures," Carol said with a sigh. "But I like it anyway."

"Why ya like a picture that don't show nothin'?" Daryl asked.

Carol shrugged and leaned her head against him, reaching onto the table and picking the picture up, looking at it.

"I don't know," she said. "It's just kind of reassuring or something. I mean it's a picture and you know the baby's in the picture…even if you can't see it. It just proves that it's there."

Daryl supposed that he could understand that.

He sat there for a few minutes longer still with Carol leaning against him. He thought that Michonne and Andrea would be proud of them. They'd made it through their jar and kept talking…now they were quiet, but Daryl hoped that they didn't actually have to talk all of the time. He'd get tired doing that much talking and he was pretty sure there wasn't that much to say about either of them.

Still, he was there, and they'd had a pretty good evening. It might only be their first full day since they'd had the big talk, but it was something, and he had to admit that it felt pretty good at the moment to just be sitting at the table with Carol leaning into him after a long day of work.