AN: So here we go. It's late, but I got this out. I thought I'd go ahead and put it up for you guys that might want to read it tomorrow (or tonight if you're not going off to bed).

Thank you for your comments on the last chapter. We'll be hearing more about Philip Blake in the future. ;-)

Hope you enjoy!

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Daryl scratched the back of his neck and leaned uncomfortably back in his chair. The cookie jars were on the table and the little pieces of paper had been sorted. He had one, though, that he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do about.

"What'cha want me ta do?" He asked. "I'm askin' ya."

"Nothing," Carol said, "nevermind. I shouldn't have put it in the jar."

Daryl wrinkled his brow. The jars were supposed to make them talk about everything. Michonne said stupid and silly things counted too. They hadn't really had all that many pieces of paper to appear in the jars, but this one had him stumped. Carol put in there that she was worried about the baby. He knew she was worried, she'd said it more than once, but he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do about it.

"I just don't know what'cha want me ta do about it," Daryl protested. "If ya can tell me what ta do ta make ya feel better I can try ta do it, but I don't know the right answer here."

"Well my appointment's tomorrow," Carol said. "I guess it's just been on my mind all day."

"So? What? Ya want me ta go with ya?" Daryl asked. He had to work the next day, but he figured that Hershel would understand if he told him that Carol wanted him to go with her to the doctor's office. He could take the day off and make it up this weekend if there was anything urgent that needed to get done.

Carol picked at the corner of the table and didn't look at him.

"I asked if ya want me ta go with ya," Daryl repeated. He was beginning to wonder sometimes if he ought to ask the doctor to have a look at Carol's ears because he wasn't always certain that she could hear that well.

"I do and I don't," Carol said.

Daryl frowned. That didn't seem like a cookie jar answer to him.

"Well I can't do both," he said. Carol had worried over this appointment so much that he was ready for it to be over with.

"Can I take a shower?" Carol asked suddenly.

Daryl wrinkled his brow.

"It's jar time," he said.

"I know," Carol said. "But we've finished everything in the jars…except that one…and I just really want to take a shower."

"Right now? Ya gotta take one right now?" Daryl asked.

Carol nodded.

"So am I goin' or ain't I goin'?" Daryl asked.

Carol looked like she was going to cry. She didn't often cry, but she screwed her face up like that every now and again. Then she'd usually straighten it back out before much of anything happened.

"Can I take a shower?" Carol repeated.

"Ya wanna answer the question after ya shower?" Daryl asked. Carol nodded. "Ya want me ta shower with ya?" Carol shook her head. Daryl had figured as much. He sighed. "Go ahead, take ya shower," he said.

Carol got up quickly from the table and disappeared into the bedroom. Daryl sighed and collected up all the scraps of paper, leaving that one on the table so he wouldn't forget that he had to ask her about it after she got through with her urgent shower. He threw the scraps away and put the cookie jars back, wondering if he should go ahead and add a piece for tomorrow night about how he didn't like when he couldn't understand why she suddenly had other things to do like shower. She didn't even smell bad.

Daryl decided, though, that he wasn't prepared to solve this dilemma on his own. He picked up the phone and crossed the kitchen, dialing Michonne's number off of the refrigerator. She was the one that he was supposed to go to with baby problems, unless he thought it was a man problem, and then he was supposed to talk to Hershel. He thought this might be a woman problem, though, because he didn't understand one damn bit how he was supposed to go somewhere and not go all at the same time.

"Hello?" Michonne answered. Daryl could hear a lot of noise in the background.

"What'cha doin'?" He asked.

"Daryl?" Michonne asked.

"Yeah," Daryl said.

Michonne sighed and he wondered if he was bothering her.

"I'm trying to give the girl's a bath," Michonne responded. "Is something wrong?"

Daryl almost laughed. He didn't know if Michonne thought that he'd be calling just to chat, but that really wasn't his intention.

"Gotta problem," he said.

"Well what is it, Daryl?" Michonne asked. He considered for a moment that Michonne needed a cookie jar because he'd ask her why she told him to call her if she was going to sound like she didn't want him to call her.

"Carol's got a doctor's appointment tomorrow," Daryl said.

"I know that," Michonne responded.

"Well, she put in the jar that she's worried about it an' so we tried ta talk about it, but she had ta take a shower," Daryl said.

"How long has she been in the shower?" Michonne asked.

Daryl shrugged, but then realized that Michonne couldn't see him.

"Since I was talkin' ta you," Daryl said. "She said she wants me ta go, but she don't want me ta go. So does that mean I go or I don't go?"

Michonne chuckled.

"It means you go," Michonne said. "But keep talking to her, find out why she doesn't want you to go before you insist that you're going. The answer to that question is that you're always going. When you get off the phone with me, you also need to go and make sure she's actually showering…Carol has a tendency to hide in strange places."

Daryl wrinkled his brow.

"OK," he said.

"And Daryl," Michonne said. He could hear a good deal of splashing on the end of the line and he wondered how much effort was involved in giving kids baths because it almost sounded like Michonne was swimming.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"If anything should go wrong tomorrow, you need to be very, very, very supportive," Michonne said.

"How so?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know…you'll have to figure that out for yourself," Michonne said. "Lots of hugs…backrubs…saying nice things. You've just got to be really, really nice and really supportive. Can you handle that?" Michonne asked.

"I reckon," Daryl said.

"Good," Michonne responded. "Now I've got to get the girls out and in bed, so was there anything else?"

"I don't think so," Daryl said.

"Goodnight then, Daryl. Go get Carol out of the shower," Michonne said.

"Thank ya. Night," Daryl replied. He hung up the phone and considered calling Hershel but decided it would probably be better in the morning. People sounded edgy when you called them at night.

Daryl made his way to the bedroom and through to the bathroom to get Carol out of the shower. She was in the shower and the water was running, though, so he wasn't sure if he should drag her out or just let her come out on her own.

"Ya comin' out soon?" Daryl called.

"Almost done," Carol called back. Daryl sat down on the toilet and pulled the shower curtain back a bit, peeking in. Carol looked to be legitimately showering, not hiding.

"Why don't'cha want me ta come with ya tomorrow?" Daryl asked.

"I just don't think it'll be very comfortable for you, Daryl," Carol said. "It would be better if I went alone. I'll see you when you get home from work."

Daryl chewed at his thumb.

"I'm goin' with ya," he said. "Ya worried 'bout it an' I'm goin' with ya."

The water turned off then and a moment later Carol got out of the tub. She pulled the towel off the towel rack and stood just in front of Daryl drying off. He tried not to look at her too much. She wasn't a big fan of his right now physically and he didn't feel like spending more time with a raging hard on than he absolutely had to…at least not until she acted like she was in the mood to fix it for him.

"Why? You're just going to be uncomfortable," Carol said. "I don't want to deal with that."

She hung the towel back up and went into the bedroom. Daryl got up and followed after her. He wasn't exactly sure how to argue his point, but he knew from Michonne that his point was that he was going. He was pretty sure Carol was right, and he was going to feel pretty damn out of place, but he was going.

"I'm goin'," he stated again. He hoped if he kept saying it then it would be a good enough argument that it would just sort of work itself out.

Carol slipped into her panties and pulled the t shirt she'd been sleeping in for two nights out from under her pillow. She pulled it on. She turned around and looked at him for a moment.

"I'm going to bed," she said. "Are you staying up or do I turn everything off?"

Daryl shrugged. He wasn't really ready for bed, but they didn't have a television and there wasn't anything to do in the house if you were alone.

"I'm goin' ta bed with ya," Daryl said. He followed Carol through the house and waited beside her while she let Lincoln out in the yard. "I'm goin' with ya tomorrow," Daryl said.

"Why is this so important to you?" Carol asked.

Daryl shrugged.

"My kid ain't it?" He asked.

Carol bit her lip and called Lincoln in. She didn't say anything as she crossed the kitchen and got him a treat, making sure that everything was turned off and the doors were locked. Daryl followed her back to the bedroom. He was thankful that she'd thought to plug in little night lights here and there because Lincoln could be lethal when he had an inclination to take off for the bedroom. He'd plow your feet out from under you like he was afraid you were going to beat him to the room.

"Maybe if you stayed in the waiting room…" Carol said.

"What?" Daryl asked. He circled around to his side of the bed, although he noticed that their sides, although theoretically designated, changed on Carol's whims. He crawled into the bed and before he could get situated Lincoln bounded up his little steps and landed beside him almost with a thud, his head on the pillow beside Daryl. Daryl pushed him farther down. Carol got in her side of the bed then. Daryl decided to leave the little lamp on, though, until she was done talking.

"I think it would be better if you went, but you stayed in the waiting room," Carol said. She rolled on her side facing him.

"I can do that," Daryl said. "If that's what ya want me ta do."

"Well," Carol said, "that way you're there, but you're not in there…and you won't be freaked out or anything. And you'll be there when I get out."

"If that's what ya want," Daryl said, "then I'm gonna go an' sit in the waitin' room."

Carol was quiet for a minute, stroking Lincoln's back.

"That's what I want," Carol said.

"Then that's what we gonna do," Daryl said. "What time ya gotta be there?"

"Ten," Carol responded. "I'll make breakfast in the morning."

"I gotta call Hershel," Daryl said.

"If it's going to be a problem missing work," Carol said, "then it's not a big deal if you don't go. I don't want you to get in trouble with Hershel."

Daryl chuckled. Carol didn't know that Hershel was trying to help him out with everything that he didn't have a fucking clue about.

"Hershel ain't gonna care," he said. "Ain't gonna be no problem. I done told ya I'm goin' an' I'm gonna wait for ya. Just gotta call Hershel so he don't think I died or somethin' an' didn't show up for work."

Carol nodded a little. Daryl smiled at her reached over, touching her face. He didn't know how long it was going to take before she felt real friendly with him again, but he was willing to wait it out.

"Can I kiss ya?" He asked.

Carol nodded and Daryl rolled over and sat up. Carol came up too and met him, since Lincoln certainly wasn't volunteering to change his spot with anyone, despite the fact that he was in the middle of them and creating some kind of great divide.

The kiss was soft and Daryl teased her with his tongue a little, but she wasn't responding enthusiastically, so he stopped and ended with only the soft kind of kiss that she gave him when she was in a hurry. He could tell when he looked at her face that she was worried and he wished he knew what to do to make it better. He didn't have any answers though, and nothing he said was really going to work since he'd tried everything he could think of so far and he'd only kept failing at making the look go away when she scrunched her eyebrows up like that.

"Ya ready for me ta cut the light off?" He asked.

"Yeah," Carol said, laying her head back on her pillow. Daryl rolled over and switched the lamp off, making sure the alarm clock was set, which it almost always was. One of them always had to be up and the past couple of days Carol had been up before the alarm went off anyway. She was busy not feeling bad…or at least that's what Daryl was jokingly calling it from her constant insistence that she was fine.

Daryl laid his head back on his own pillow and sighed.

"Thank you," Carol said, after a minute.

"For what?" He asked.

"For going with me," she responded.

Daryl chuckled a little to himself. If she was thanking him, then that meant that she'd wanted him to go, but he couldn't figure out why she wouldn't just say that from the beginning. He thought that was the whole point of the cookie jars and the conversations at night after dinner. They were supposed to tell the truth.

Daryl considered bringing it up, but he decided that might just be something to go into the jar. Right now wasn't a good time. The cookie jar conversation was over for the night and she'd been wearing that worried face. It would be a better idea not to talk about the fact that she needed to be less confusing. It could wait until after she wasn't so worried.

"Ain't no problem," Daryl said. "Get some sleep. Ya gonna be up early."

Carol groaned and Daryl stifled a chuckle.

He didn't know what would happen the next day, and he had to admit that he wasn't so much worried, at least not the way that Carol was worried as he was simply nervous. She was worried that something was going to happen to the baby, but he wasn't worried about that. He didn't know if he was wrong about it or not, but he figured if something did happen, then they'd just have another baby later.

He was nervous, though, about what might happen. He didn't know what to expect from the entire event, and even though he'd just be waiting for her, he didn't really know what he was waiting on. Now that he'd talked to Michonne, he knew he was going to have to be really supportive if something happened and he was going to have to figure out what that meant and what was the right thing to say or do.

If Carol was this worried about it, and she had been for days, then it was a huge deal to her. If he failed at being supportive, then he could really fuck up all the way around, and he didn't really want to do something else to fuck up right now. He'd much rather figure out how to do it right and give her whatever it was that she needed out of him.

If he got really lucky, though, then nothing would be wrong and he wouldn't have to figure out how to be supportive because everything would be good.

He might just be waiting on her tomorrow, but he knew that he was going to be spending his whole time worrying that he wasn't going to know what to do when he was done waiting.

Daryl lie there for a little while just staring up in the darkness and thinking about things. He could hear Lincoln sleeping and he wondered if he was the only one in the room asleep right now. Carol was tired from waking up early in the mornings and not sleeping well at night because she worried. He had a feeling that tomorrow wasn't going to be any different.

"Ya sleepin'?" He asked softly.

"Not yet," Carol answered.

"Me neither," Daryl said.

"It's going to be hard for either of us to sleep if we keep pointing out that we're not sleeping," Carol said.

Daryl supposed that she was right. He rolled over, balled his pillow up under his head, and closed his eyes. He hoped that he fell asleep soon, and he hoped that she did too, and he hoped they made it through the next day without any problems that were too big for the cookie jars to handle.