AN: Long day here…so I'm curling up with some Sweet Junction, LOL. Might get a second chapter out tonight…we'll see.
As always, thanks for your comments. I'm glad to see that everyone has well wishes for Baby Dixon.
Hope you enjoy the chapter.
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"Well, I haven't heard from either of them," Michonne told Tyreese, coming into the living room and sitting on the floor beside him where he was sitting with his back against the couch. "That either means things went really well or they went really bad."
"If you're that worried about it," Tyreese said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her to him. "Then why don't you just call and find out?"
"I can't do that…" Michonne said.
"Why not?" Tyreese tugged at her again and she finally lifted herself over his leg and sat between them, her back against his chest.
"Because…if everything went fine then it's great that I called, but if something went really wrong then Carol might not be in the right place to talk about it and I'm just bringing it up again," Michonne said.
"Oh," Tyreese said, wrapping his arms around her. "I see…it's that friend etiquette, right? You're only allowed to show that you care about your friends when they don't really need it?"
Michonne pinched his thigh.
"Ow!" He protested, chuckling. He sat silently for a moment. "I'm just saying that if she's calling because it's fine then she's going to want to brag to you and do all the 'ohhh baaabyyyy' this and the 'ohhhh baaabyyyyy' that stuff," Tyreese said, raising his voice in places to apparently show Michonne how women sounded when they talked about things they were enthusiastic about. She snickered.
"And if she's over there breaking down?" Michonne asked. "I mean what if Daryl just got her calmed down and then I call and it starts her up again?"
Tyreese squeezed his arms around her shoulders and rocked her from side to side.
"And what if hearing your sweet voice is exactly what she needs?" Tyreese asked.
Michonne chuckled.
"You just want me to leave you alone," she teased.
Tyreese sighed.
"You caught me," he said. "It's really all about me. You know the truth is though that there's nothing in life that's worse than a worrying woman."
"It's just late," Michonne said, "I thought that Daryl at least would have called by now with some kind of panicked problem. I mean he calls last night to find out if he should go and then he doesn't call to say anything else?"
Tyreese chuckled.
"That right there is a good sign, then. Think about it. That means he doesn't need help with anything. Now that either means that Daryl just magically figured everything out…which from hearing you talk doesn't sound too reasonable, or it means that nothing's wrong and they're celebrating," Tyreese said.
"So I should stop worrying?" Michonne asked. She leaned her head back and Tyreese kissed the side of her face.
"So you should stop worrying," he answered. "Either call and get it over with or let her tell her when she wants to talk to you."
"But either way stop driving you up the wall?" Michonne asked, snickering.
"You're not driving me up the wall," Tyreese said. "I just can't answer your questions and I know you're going to need to go to bed soon. You don't need to take the stress with you."
Michonne felt his hands go to the back of her neck and her shoulders squeezing and she scooted forward, leaning up to give him better access.
"That helps, does it?" Tyreese teased, kneading her shoulders.
"Mmm…" Michonne moaned, "It isn't hurting."
Michonne tried to be careful around Andrea and Carol when she talked about Tyreese. She didn't want to sound too excited or enthusiastic about him. It was still early, after all, and the sensible side of her nature coupled with past experience told her that things could always change. Still, he was unlike any of the men she'd ever dated in her life. That in itself, of course, sometimes made her afraid that things were too good to be true.
Tyreese had stepped out, it seemed, from some kind of fairy tale she could have only written in her mind. He wasn't quite as clean as her, but when he stayed over, he was easily trained. He also didn't get offended when she just needed her space. There were none of the fights she'd had with some men about how they got all crushed and rejected because she didn't want to have them breathing on her twenty four hours a day every day. Tyreese had his own life, his own job, and he had a sister that was in college in Atlanta and very regularly came down to spend the weekends with him.
On top of that, he was good with the girls. He liked them and he included them in plans without her even having to ask him about it. They were going, for example, to the zoo in a couple of weekends when the weather had cooled down nicely. It was his idea to take the girls. He wanted to take them to the aquarium too. All of it without any prodding from her or any strategically placed brochures.
If something bothered her, she simply stated that she didn't like it, and he was willing to negotiate. For instance, she pointed out to him that she simply didn't care for the idea of people taking food to bed. She hated crumbs in her bed. It drove her insane all night if someone ate in the bed. His compromise was that they wouldn't eat in the bed…unless of course it was something that wouldn't leave crumbs behind, and it had, perhaps, an alternative use for the location.
He also told her things that he wanted her to change, and she found herself willing to try to change them instead of simply wanting to reject him entirely and continue on without him.
For instance, he'd told her that he didn't like when she brought work home every evening. As a result, she'd made a deal. Work stayed in the office, or stayed confined to her desk at home if she decided to work at home, but it went away at five, no matter what. She'd put the stipulation that if it was something personal that couldn't be the case and he'd accepted, reasoning that he hated when she fretted over things and if she was working on something personal she was going to fret until she felt she had it under control.
He didn't even seem to mind her control issues. They'd driven nearly every other man in her life insane, and honestly Michonne didn't fault them for that too much. She realized she had control issues, but they were a part of who she was…and a very big part too. Tyreese seemed to think they were somewhat humorous and he did his best to help her out and make sure that things stayed the way she needed them to be to the best of his abilities. They just didn't seem to matter to him all that much.
But how was she supposed to brag to her friends that she thought, even though they hadn't really had a conversation about it…and even though she worried it might be premature…that she'd found the yin to her yang. Even her father adored the man, and her father could be a hard nut to crack.
Yet she couldn't very well talk about these things too much with Andrea and Carol. They had their own romantic messes. Andrea had ended up with Merle, who she seemed to believe to be some kind of diamond in the rough. She seemed to think that if she stuck it out and just kept polishing, underneath she was going to find some gem worth keeping. Michonne worried that what was really going to happen was that Andrea was going to spend far too much of her time and energy there and at the end of it all she'd only have a semi shiny rock to show for her efforts.
Then there was Carol, and she was navigating waters with a man who had no idea what to do with relationships. The best thing that Michonne could say about him was that he seemed like he'd be an eager student. She thought that as long as he could be assured that the prize was somewhere at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box, and that it was worth digging for, he probably had the attention span to stay put…you just had to keep showing him the part of the box that said "prize inside" to keep him from abandoning the effort and thinking it was all worthless.
So Michonne thought, with the two of them dealing with the brothers they'd plucked out of the gumball machine of life, they didn't need her dancing around them and telling them that she was having a really hard time holding back and not proposing to Tyreese herself.
Instead, she tried to be supportive of them and only talked about him when they mentioned him…and even then she tried to keep it low key.
"Better?" Tyreese asked after a few minutes.
"Just leave me here," Michonne said, still slumped forward from where he'd been rubbing her shoulders. "I don't want to move…it'll just mess it up."
Tyreese chuckled and stood up, freeing himself from being behind her.
"Fine then," he said. "I guess I'll go to bed…alone…"
"Or you could take me with you and do that again when we're in the bedroom…" Michonne said, tipping her head back now to look up at him.
He pretended like he was thinking seriously about it.
"I could be persuaded," he said. "But it's not going to come cheap."
"I have money," Michonne offered.
Tyreese chuckled.
"And so do I, and I don't want your money," Tyreese said.
"Do you deal in children?" Michonne asked. "I have a surplus."
Tyreese chuckled again and reached down grabbing her hand and pulling her up.
"No, I'm afraid I'm not into human trafficking either," he said. He started pulling her toward the bedroom now. "However…if you wanted to make a deal that just involved the two of us I'd be willing to negotiate terms with you."
"What did you have in mind?" She teased, following him into the room. "I don't want to mess up my relaxation or I'm going to have to start worrying again."
"Hmmm…" Tyreese said. "I see what you mean."
He tipped her face up to his, kissing her, his hands going around her hips and massaging the skin there. He pulled away after a moment, smiling.
"Well, Miss Lawyer, how about something that's relaxing to both parties?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'd have to see your terms before I agree to anything," Michonne said.
Tyreese laughed at her and pushed her toward the bed.
"How about some options?" He asked. "You can either get in bed now…or I'm going to throw you in there."
"You know what I like about you?" Michonne asked. She raised her eyebrows at him and bit her lip, trying not to laugh.
"No, tell me," Tyreese said, massaging her ass.
Michonne slipped her hand into the waistband of his pants, teasing him. She looked straight at him and fought back the smile again, batting her eyelashes at him.
"You drive a hard bargain," she said.
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"Now remind me what we're doing here?" Andrea asked. She sighed and followed Carol through the bookstore. This wasn't really her kind of place. She wasn't all that into books…she'd liked a lot of the dime store romance novels and other things that teachers had said would rot her brain, but ever since high school she'd mostly considered books something to be avoided. She only read the books she read now because she wanted that stupid cosmetology degree.
"I want baby books," Carol said, making her way through the store and following signs to try to find what she wanted.
"And we had to drive all the way out here? I'm pretty sure that you could have found something at the bookstore in town," Andrea said.
"Nobody's supposed to know yet, and they'll start talking if I buy baby books in Sweet Junction, you know that," Carol said.
"So just tell 'em you got knocked up. I don't see what the big deal is. You want this kid…and it's not that bad being pregnant in Sweet Junction. I was pregnant for like two and a half years in high school," Andrea said, running her fingers across the top of the books that she wouldn't look it and would probably never read.
Carol stopped walking and turned around, rolling her eyes at her.
"Stop complaining, you're getting lunch out of this," Carol said.
"I'm not nearly as food motivated as Daryl is," Andrea said.
She'd been surprised when Carol had called her this morning. She knew they had an appointment the day before, but she hadn't really heard anything from neither Daryl nor Carol so she'd just waited it out. This morning, though, at about seven, which Andrea considered to be far too early for a day off, she'd woken up to the sound of Carol beating on her door. When she opened it, Carol was beaming and looked like she might kidnap her if she didn't agree to wrestle into some of the clothes that she had which smelled the least like Korean food and accompany her on some adventure that she had in mind. Now they were wandering around in a large book store three towns away from Sweet Junction.
"Speaking of Daryl," Andrea said. "What's he had to say since the appointment yesterday?"
Carol stopped, looking at the spines of some books on the shelf that didn't interest Andrea in the slightest. Carol shrugged a little.
"He says he's happy," she said. "He hasn't said much else about it."
Andrea hoped that Daryl was really happy, and that he was on his best behavior about the whole thing. She didn't see either of the Dixon men as being the kind that would shy away from paternity if it came knocking at their doors, but neither one of them struck her as the kind that would actively seek it out either. In fact, she thought that might be the number one way to cause Merle to fall over dead from a heart attack. He was terrified of commitment, and a kid was really one hell of a commitment.
Daryl was a little different than his brother, though, and his Hershel and Jo fantasy probably involved in children in there somewhere…Andrea just didn't know if he'd given much thought to that aspect of his perfect little Hallmark life.
"What do you think I should get?" Carol asked, flipping through a book.
"Is that one about babies?" Andrea asked. Carol nodded. "Looks great," Andrea said.
Carol chuckled.
"You're not being helpful here," Carol chided.
Andrea rolled her eyes.
"I don't know, Carol. The baby thing is not my thing…I mean I don't even want kids," Andrea said.
"Never?" Carol asked.
Andrea considered it. The truth of the matter was that she couldn't really ever see herself with kids. She'd tried to imagine it from time to time, but it wasn't an image that worked in her head. Kids were great and all and she didn't make it a hobby to run them over with her car or anything like that, but she didn't really want one. Unpopular opinion or not, but she felt like kids were a hassle…one she didn't need…and they never went away.
"I've got Merle," Andrea said. "Close enough…and the good news is that I can get rid of him whenever I want."
Carol rolled her eyes toward her.
"And do you ever think that you're actually going to get rid of Merle?" Carol asked.
Andrea shrugged.
"I could," she said. "Merle thinks he keeps me around…what Merle doesn't realize is that really I keep him around."
Carol chuckled.
"I actually believe that," she said.
She held up two books, one on either side of her face.
"OK, be honest, which looks more informative?" She asked.
Andrea groaned.
"That one," she said, pointing to one of the books.
"You think?" Carol asked, looking at them again.
"Which one's got the most pictures?" Andrea asked. "In the end, that's the one with the most information."
"How do you figure that?" Carol asked.
Andrea shrugged.
"Picture's worth a thousand words," Andrea responded.
Carol nodded.
"Fine, then I'll try this one," she said, flipping through them again.
"Are you actually going to read that book?" Andrea asked.
"Yes, Andrea, I'm going to read the book," Carol said. "I'm going to have a baby. I'd like to know a little more about what's going on than just being surprised by it. It's better to be informed."
"And how far along are you?" Andrea asked.
"Six weeks," Carol said. "Well, six and a half, really."
"Jesus," Andrea said, "are you going to make me do math the whole time you're pregnant too?"
She rolled her eyes and smiled at Carol.
"Just until the numbers get really big," Carol said. "Once we hit the double digits I'll convert it to months for you. I wouldn't want you to hurt something."
Andrea smiled.
"Get your fucking book and let's get the hell out of here," she said. "If we're here and we're looking at baby shit we're going shopping."
"I don't think I should buy anything yet," Carol said. "It's still early, Andrea."
Andrea rolled her eyes again.
"One thing," she said. "That's it. One little thing. I'm not driving all this way without going shopping."
"You're talking about shopping for baby stuff, though. I thought babies weren't your thing," Carol said, apparently rethinking the book and flipping through another one a little absently.
"I said babies weren't my thing," Andrea corrected. "Baby stuff is everybody's thing. I don't care if you don't want one of the snotty little fuckers, their shit's cute."
Carol chuckled.
"Oh God!" She groaned, covering her face with the book.
"What?" Andrea asked.
"I just realized Merle is going to be my child's uncle and you're going to be like its aunt. The poor thing's first word is going to be 'fuck'," Carol said.
Andrea chuckled.
"That's if you're lucky," she said.