AN: OK, here's a little something. It's been a long day here so I'm pretty tired. I'm going to try to get something else out tonight (for something), but I don't know what and I don't know if I'm willing to promise that. LOL
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol pulled her truck up in the driveway behind Daryl's. He was home from work early, no doubt concerned when he had no reason to be. He was working with Merle on his bike, though, so it wasn't a total waste. The sooner they got that bike done the sooner Carol didn't have to look at it any longer, she could try to get the oil and grease stains out of the concrete, and Merle wouldn't feel that he had a permanent invitation to show up and hang out for as long as he wanted, whenever he wanted, after work.
Carol got out of the truck and waited on Andrea to walk up from getting out of her car. Andrea had driven her to the doctor's office, come back with her under the excuse of morbid curiosity, and then drove her back to Michonne's to get her car. Now, apparently, her goal was to wait at the house until she had to leave for work which was evidenced by the bundle of work clothes tucked under her arm. Carol had been given the rest of the day off and surprisingly discovered that Michonne intended to work from home the next day and wouldn't need her to work in the office but also hadn't left her enough time to get on the schedule to work at any of the other places.
Andrea flipped her shades up on top of her head as she reached Carol and the two of them walked toward the carport where Daryl and Merle were tinkering with the bike while the battery operated radio Merle brought with him played some mixture of static and what sounded like it was theoretically country music. The antenna off the radio was broken, though, so nothing came through loud and clear. Lincoln bayed at the entire scene.
"What'd the doctor say?" Daryl asked as soon as Andrea and Carol walked up, headed in the direction of the house.
"It's fine," Carol said, opening the door.
"Hey sweetcheeks, why don't'cha fix me up somethin' ta drink?" Merle called out.
"Why don't you fix me something, Merle? I've got to wait on assholes later, I don't feel like getting started now," Andrea responded.
She and Carol both pushed into the house. Daryl left his tools on the ground where he was working and followed after them.
"Hey!" Daryl said as he came into the kitchen. "What'd the doctor say?"
"I told you," Carol said. "It's fine, everything's fine."
Daryl made a face at her.
"Don't seem fine ta me when ya go blackin' out and bangin' ya head on shit. I seen what'cha damn hand looks like too. Now what'd he say?" Daryl asked. He turned his attention to Andrea then who was fixing herself a glass of iced tea.
"He said it's fine," Andrea said. "Betty Crocker here just needs to indulge in a few more naps and a few less hours while she bakes your kid, that's all. Make sure she eats, even if she doesn't always want to, and some relaxation wouldn't hurt…you know back rubs and foot rubs. The works."
Andrea returned the tea pitcher to the fridge after filling her glass and burrowed around in the shelves looking for something she wanted to eat. Daryl looked at her a moment as though he expected her to say more, but finally she smiled at him and ducked her head again, indicating that she was done speaking.
Carol laughed at the whole situation. That hadn't been exactly what the doctor had said, but apparently it was Andrea's interpretation of it all. Carol had gotten more of the everything's fine but take care of yourself part of the speech. Daryl looked worried, though, and she hated seeing that look on his face and knowing that he had taken off work, which he would make up in the evenings on other days no doubt, just to come and check on her. Carol walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him.
"It's OK," she said. "Promise. Everything's just fine. And sneaky Michonne has given me the day off tomorrow."
Daryl looked a little relieved.
"Ya oughta have the day off," he said. "Tryin' ta work more than I am an' not even tell me."
Carol could hear a little scolding in his voice. He wasn't exactly mad at her, and they'd talked about it, but now she knew that he was bothered by the fact that she didn't tell him her plan. He felt like if anyone was trying to work more hours it was supposed to be him, but she didn't want him to do that. She knew, realistically, that they were going to be fine financially. She knew that she was driven, more than anything, to work so that she'd know she had done everything she could possibly to do to prepare for this baby and to make sure that they could offer it everything that it needed. Though Daryl listened to her when she told him this, she didn't think he could really understand that it was something she just felt driven to do. She didn't want to run into problems down the road and feel like she'd let the baby down by not preparing like she should.
"You work plenty," Carol said. She puckered her lips at Daryl and he gave her his best pouting look before he finally smiled and leaned in to kiss her. He wanted to pretend he was mad at her, she'd already figured that out. He seemed to think that he could raise his eyebrow at her enough and she'd behave, just like when they used a certain tone of voice with Lincoln to get him to stop pulling at the ruffle around the bottom of the couch.
"Ya gonna take it easy?" He asked. She felt him wrap his arms around her and she could tell by the shifting of his hands that she was about to be tickled if she didn't respond the way that he wanted.
She bit her lip to keep from laughing at the fact that she predicted his plan and nodded.
"Oh my God," Andrea said, drawing both of their attention. She was standing, still in front of the refrigerator door, eating leftover string beans out of a Tupperware container with her finger. "You two are going to make me barf. Just stop."
Carol laughed and Daryl chuckled a little at her more than at Andrea.
"I promise," Carol said, leaning up to kiss Daryl again before pulling away from him. "I'm going to take it easy. Andrea and I are going to look at some of our class stuff before she has to leave for work."
"Yeah," Andrea said, "so why don't you go help Merle with that rolling death trap?"
Daryl shook his head and started out the door, leaving Andrea and Carol in the kitchen alone.
"You know we have forks," Carol said.
Andrea shook her head.
"Nah…if I eat with a fork then it counts. If I eat it like this it's like I never really at it. It's like a free sample," Andrea said. She put the lid back on the string beans and put them in the fridge, coming back out a second later with a piece of roast that carol had bagged up in there.
"Done grazing?" Carol asked, raising her eyebrow.
"Shut up," Andrea said with a snicker. "Your food is better than my food. I have to eat as much as I can while I'm here. Plus I don't have to hear Merle's mouth about how much I eat if he's not around."
Carol started toward the dining room table so that she drag out the books for their classes to look over them with Andrea.
"You should get pregnant," she teased. "I could eat twenty four hours a day and other than crack a joke about it Daryl won't really say anything."
"Merle's comments are theoretically jokes too," Andrea said.
"But you don't think they're funny?" Carol asked.
Andrea walked over, wiping her fingers on the bottom of her shirt. She sat down, dragging one of the books to her that Carol put on the table.
"I don't know," Andrea said. "I guess that it would be different it wasn't always about jokes…and teasing…I just wish that sometimes there was some of that lovey dovey shit."
Carol sat down.
"I thought you didn't like lovey dovey?" She asked, raising her eyebrow at Andrea.
Andrea shook her head.
"I don't…or at least not all of the time. Everyone wants something, though. I don't know if you realize it but Merle isn't exactly romantic at all. The most romantic thing he's said to me in weeks was 'ya got a real nice ass, sweetcheeks,'" Andrea responded.
Carol chuckled.
"At least he's complimenting your ass," Carol said. "It could be worse."
Andrea shrugged.
"It could be," Andrea said. "But it could be better, too."
"There's always that," Carol said. "I guess I can't complain. Daryl compliments me almost too often."
Andrea made a face and pantomimed playing a violin. Carol laughed at her.
"I'm not complaining, I'm just saying," Carol said.
"Well Merle is right in that you did get the sweet one of the Dixon boys," Andrea said. "And right now you're making a human being and shit, Daryl's impressed."
Carol laughed.
"Maybe he is a little bit," she admitted. "I do know, though, that I don't want to be one of those couples where everything is always about the baby." She paused. "I mean, everything is about the baby right now, but I mean I don't want that to be all there is."
"Is that a problem?" Andrea asked.
"No," Caorl said, shaking her head, "but I can see how people fall into that. I just don't want that to happen. I mean I want it to be Daryl and I…and we have a baby…do you see what I'm trying to say?"
"You don't want to just be a lifeless, emotionless, brainless human incubator?" Andrea asked.
Carol chuckled.
"Exactly!" She said. "I don't think it's going to happen, but I just don't want it to happen."
Andrea shook her head.
"Not going to happen. I think if anything you're more like Wonder Woman or something to Daryl right now. You can't leap tall buildings or fly and shit but you make some arms and a fucking pair of lungs or something while most people are trying to figure out how to get the pour spout open on the orange juice," Andrea responded. "Besides, y'all are quickly shaping into that nauseating married couple that the two of you love so damn much."
"Except we're not married," Carol said.
"Are y'all gonna get married? I mean have you even talked about it?" Andrea asked.
Carol shook her head. She fiddled with the pages on the book that she was supposed to be looking at, but hadn't even paid any attention thus far.
"He hasn't asked me," she said. She paused, absentmindedly bending the corners of the page. "I'm not sure if I want him to ask me…"
"You mean you don't want to marry him?" Andrea asked, incredulous. "You're kind of having his kid…"
Carol chuckled and shook her head.
"It isn't like that," she said. "I mean we're…well…we're finally happy, you know? Everything is starting to go really well. I just got divorced and I don't even have to tell you how well my last marriage went. I guess I kind of like the idea of knowing that we're doing this and we're not doing it because we feel like we have to. It's stupid…let's just study."
Andrea smiled and reached her hand across the table to Carol, squeezing the hand she was using to fold the corners of her book into something akin to origami designs.
"It's not stupid," Andrea said. "We all feel the way we do about things. I don't know if I'd want to marry anyone. It's something about the whole concept of the thing."
"Not even Merle?" Carol asked with a chuckle, turning her hand over and squeezing Andrea's in response.
"Especially not Merle," Andrea said. "But I think you and Daryl will eventually get married…and if you don't, then you don't. You are giving the baby his name, though, right?"
"We hadn't really talked about it," Carol said. "I mean…I guess he would want the baby to have his name."
"You should talk about it," Andrea said. "I'm sure he wants the baby to have his name." She pulled her hand back and shifted around in her chair as if to say that she was really going to start doing something about the work they were supposed to be doing with the books in front of them. "Although," she said after a moment, "that might remind him that he hasn't asked you to marry him."
Carol felt her stomach churn.
"I think it can wait," she said. "We don't have to talk about it right now. It's not like we're naming the baby tomorrow or anything."
Andrea nodded.
"No, you don't have to make that decision right now, and you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do," she said. "You two do this your way, at your own speed."
"People are going to start talking when I start showing, though," Carol said. "You know how this town is."
"Yeah," Andrea said. "I know exactly how this town is. Let them talk if they want to talk. They'll find something to chat about anyway."
"You're probably right," Carol said.
"I know I'm right," Andrea said. "Besides, if you want me to I can always create a diversion and give them something to really talk about. I'd do that for you."
Carol laughed.
"You would? You'd do that for me?" Carol asked.
Andrea nodded.
"I would…I would do that," she said.
Carol couldn't help but laugh. She could only imagine what sort of "diversion" Andrea might create to draw attention to the fact that she was pregnant and unwed so soon after the entire Ed fiasco, but she could imagine that Andrea would do it well. The woman had very few qualms about shaking up the gossip chain of Sweet Junction.
Daryl and Merle passed into the house a few minutes later, some conversation about the motorcycle, Carol presumed, trailing in the door after them.
"How's it going, boys?" She asked, turning around slightly in her chair and embarrassed to admit that she and Andrea had done little so far beyond arrange and rearrange materials.
"Gotta order some parts," Daryl said. "Thing'll run, but it ain't gonna run for long if'n things don't get replaced."
"Ya didn't make me no tea," Merle called out.
"Told you to get it yourself, Merle," Andrea said, pretending to be focusing very intently on the book that she'd just begun to look at.
Merle grumbled something and fumbled around fixing himself a drink. Daryl walked over to the table and looked over Carol's shoulder at the book in front of her for a moment, trailing his finger over where she had bent the book corners up.
"Looks like ya workin' real hard," he teased. Carol tipped her head back so she could see him.
"First I'm working too hard and then I'm not working hard enough," she teased back at him. "You men just can't be happy with anything."
Daryl reached behind her and squeezed her shoulders, keeping the squeezing up a little as she leaned forward to give him better access. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his fingers kneading her shoulders and back.
"I told Merle 'bout ya baby book an' how the baby looks like some kinda bug right now," Daryl said. "Weren't the best idea I ever had."
Merle chuckled and walked over, leaning on the table.
"Told Daryl it figures he'd make a young'un looks like a roach," Merle said. "'Bout pretty enough ta say it looks like its ole man."
"It doesn't look like a roach," Carol mumbled. She really could care less about Merle's goading. She knew that his entire goal was to get a rise out of her, and it wasn't until Daryl started kneading her shoulders that she realized she had very little energy with which to give him the rise he was seeking.
"They all look like bugs in the beginning," Andrea said, pretending to still be highly focused on her book. "It's only yours that would keep looking like that."
Daryl chuckled at that.
"Wouldn't that make it your kid too?" He asked Andrea, without letting up on his massage.
"Not my kid," Andrea said. "Guess it belongs to whatever woman'd be crazy enough to let Merle knock her up."
Merle snorted.
"Gotta 'em waitin' in line, sugah," Merle said. Andrea nodded her head in response without looking up. "Ya makin' me somethin' ta eat 'fore ya go to the bar or ya gonna make me starve?" Merle asked after a few minutes.
"Why don't you pull someone outta line to make you something?" Andrea asked.
She closed the book though, and started to get up from the table.
"Are you leaving?" Carol asked, raising her eyebrow. She figured that since Andrea bothered to bring her work clothes with her she'd just be going directly from their house.
Andrea nodded a little.
"I'm not going to get anything done right now," Andrea said. "So I guess I'm going to run back home for a bit. Fix some dinner. Take care of the big kid here."
"Big kid my ass," Merle growled. "If ya a good girl ole Merle'll take care a ya before ya gotta go ta work. Then ya won't be missin' me all night long while ya waitin' on all them assholes."
Andrea shook her head and rolled her eyes in Carol's direction, smiling.
"Right, Merle…there's only one asshole for me to wait on," Andrea said.
"Get'cha asses outta here," Daryl said. "I ain't wantin' ta hear shit 'bout neither of ya takin' care a' nothin'!"
Merle and Andrea both started toward the door then and Carol got up following after them with Daryl. When they got to the door, Merle slipped out without saying much to anyone and headed down the driveway. Carol thanked Andrea for taking her and then held the door open for her to step out. Once they were on their way, Carol turned around and stepped back into the kitchen.
"Ya look tired," Daryl said.
"I am," Carol said, "at least a little."
Daryl smiled and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and pretending like he was going to squeeze her harder than he actually was. She wrapped her arms around him in response and put her head against his chest, listening to the sound of his heart pound.
"What'cha say we go lay down?" Daryl asked.
"You're sleepy too?" Carol asked.
Daryl hummed.
"Not too sleepy," he said, "but I might give ya one a' them massages an' then…ya know…if ya weren't too tired ya might could maybe do somethin' for me?"
Carol couldn't control the chuckle that bubbled up inside her chest. She pulled away from him.
"Are you inviting yourself to a little early evening sex, Daryl?" Carol asked.
"No," Daryl said, shaking his head. He grinned after a second. "I'm offerin' ta trade for it."
"Mmmm," Carol said, pretending to think about it harder than she was. "You have me convinced, but on one condition…"
"What?" Daryl asked.
"We order delivery first," Carol said. "That way I don't have to worry about where dinner's coming from when we get hungry later."
Daryl grinned.
"I'll get the phone book," he said.