AN: You're all so wonderful that I couldn't resist getting a little something more out there, so I popped in here between grading stacks to get this one out.

I'm really so excited that you're all still enjoying this story as much as I am. I really love working with the story and the characters, so it makes me happy to know that other people are enjoying this little world too, even if it's a Walker free zone.

I hope you enjoy the chapter. Let me know what you think!

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Carol dug around in one of the old plastic containers she kept under the bathroom sink and finally found what she was looking for. Her mother had always kept, in this old, plastic, yellow box, a variety of bobby pins and safety pins of various sizes. Carol had always thought, as a child, that the largest of the safety pins, the ones with the elaborate clasps on them, were just very large safety pins, and she hadn't learned until she was older that they were diaper pins. She never knew why her mother kept them, but she did…and then when she'd died they'd ended up being some of those odd items that Carol kept and never knew why.

They came in handy, though, from time to time and right now they were perfect for elongating the distance between the buttons on her pants and the holes that they were no longer friends with. She dug out one, having broken another earlier that day, and fixed her jeans. She slipped into the bedroom and pulled on the shirt she'd picked out for the day.

"You almost ready?" Andrea asked, leaning around the door frame of the bedroom. "Axel's going to be here in less than ten minutes."

"Almost," Carol said, smiling softly at Andrea. "Could you let Lincoln out? I don't want him leaving any presents in Axel's car."

"I'm on it," Andrea said.

It was the day of the Pumpkin festival and everyone was likely to be there. The festival, unlike the ones that took place in the center of town, took place out on the farmland just outside sweet junction. There were carnival games and hay rides. There were pumpkin carving competitions and more food than you could ever stand to eat. Carol hadn't been to one in a long time, but she'd loved them as a child and she was looking forward to going today. Axel and Andrea were going and taking Juniper, since dogs were welcome at the festival, and Carol was taking Lincoln so he could socialize.

It had been two weeks at least, almost three really, since Daryl had needed space and needed time. Carol found herself dwelling on it more and more, but she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. She'd thought he'd be back by now. She'd thought, at the very least, they'd see each other. When he'd said that she should get in contact with him if she needed anything, she'd thought it had been more something to say in the moment…something to be more security that he was coming back and he'd see her, but he was still around in case of an emergency…now it seemed like that was the only way she'd see him.

She didn't want to bother him and Andrea agreed that she should leave Daryl be. If he needed space and he needed time then she had to back off and give him that. So that's what she was trying to do.

So Carol kept herself busy. She worked and on her day off she spent it doing things around the house, reading for classes, reading and rereading her baby book…spending time with Michonne and Andrea and learning how to be a very good third wheel. She kept busy, but she wasn't going to interfere with Daryl and his space.

Though she was beginning to wonder exactly how much space he needed. Honestly, if it weren't from things she heard here and there, she'd wonder if he was even in Sweet Junction any longer or if he'd taken off and just not told her about it.

Carol got her jacket off the bed and pulled it on. She switched off the bedroom light and went to get Lincoln ready so they could all be waiting outside, under the carport, when Axel got there to pick them up and head out to grounds for the festival.

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"Oh my God! Want…want…want!" Carol declared, grabbing Andrea's arm. She'd been smelling something since they got there but there were so many confusing scents she had yet to pinpoint what it was. Now she knew, from someone who had just bustled by, that whatever it was she was smelling was coming from large paper cups that people were carrying around.

"What is it?" Andrea asked, crinkling up her nose.

Carol shook her head.

"I don't know…but I need it," Carol said.

Now that she had identified the smell she felt almost desperate to figure out what it was and where it was coming from. She looked around for someone that she knew with one of the cups but she didn't see anyone right away.

"Axel…" Andrea called. Axel was walking a couple of steps ahead of them in the crowd with both of the dogs that had since made friends and no longer felt the need to yap at each other uncontrollably.

"What is it?" He asked, turning a little to look at them walking arm in arm behind him.

"Do you know what's in those paper cups that everyone's drinking out of? Carol's head is going to explode if she doesn't get some of it soon," Andrea said.

Axel stopped and shook his head.

"Ain't got no idea what it is," he said. "Smells like cinnamon."

"Mmmm…" Carol said. "Smells like heaven."

Axel chuckled and Carol watched as he looked around and grabbed the shoulder of a woman who was walking in the opposite direction. She turned and Carol thought she looked familiar, but she couldn't place her. Everyone looked familiar, that was the thing, but Carol didn't have a name to go with the face.

"Excuse me," Axel said. "What's in that cup?"

The woman smiled.

"Pumpkin cider," she said.

Axel turned back to Carol and Andrea.

"You still want it?" He asked.

Carol shook her head adamantly.

"Where'd you get it?" Axel asked.

"Over there," the woman said, pointing toward some of the food stands. "Next to the candy apples. Josephine Greene is selling it."

Axel thanked the woman and she started on quickly. Carol was already headed in the direction of the tents, pulling Andrea with her who was now making plans of her own for a candy apple.

"I hope they have the ones with nuts on them because if I'm snatching my teeth out I want it to be for a good cause," Andrea declared, keeping up with Carol for the most part despite the crowd.

Carol nearly skipped as she got in line behind the five or six other people waiting for the cups of cider. She realized, all too late, that she'd left her purse with Axel who was functioning as the dog walker and pack mule of the day. He was coming…she could see his head bobbing up over the others every now and again…and she hoped he got there by the time that she made it through the line. Andrea was at the next table over, craning her neck back in his direction, and obviously realizing that she was short of cash as well.

Finally, Carol stepped up to the table and Jo Greene grinned at her.

"Carol Ann!" Jo announced. "I didn't know if I'd see you! Come here, let me get a hug."

Despite the short line behind her, Jo stepped out from behind the table and wrapped Carol in a hug. Carol stepped out of the line to allow Maggie, who was still in the back, to continue serving the people waiting.

Jo pushed Carol out, holding her at arm's length.

"You look beautiful, Carol!" Jo said. "I see you're putting on weight."

Carol felt herself blush and smiled back at Jo.

"It's not too often you hear that in the same breath," Carol said.

Jo frowned after a minute, pulling Carol in closer to her.

"What has happened with you and Daryl?" Jo asked. Carol felt Jo playing with her hair and she frowned. She was trying not to think about the whole thing. She hadn't wanted the festival to be about any of that and she was tired of anyone that knew them asking. At least she'd finally trained Andrea and Michonne to just let it be and not ask any more so that she didn't have to keep saying she hadn't seen him. Carol shook her head.

"It's nothing, Miss Jo," Carol said. "Just something we're working out."

Jo frowned.

"Working out?" She asked. "How in the world are you working it out? I haven't seen you since you came to dinner."

"It's a space thing," Carol said, trying to dismiss the conversation. Jo frowned again. "Really, it's fine…" Carol said. She pasted on a smile. "I want to get some of that pumpkin cider or whatever it is, though. It smells amazing."

Jo smiled at her.

"Appetite coming back?" Jo asked.

Carol smiled.

"With a vengeance," Carol said.

Jo held up her hand and walked around the table. She came back a moment later with one of the cups and something wrapped up in a napkin.

"Here's some of the cider, and a slice of pumpkin roll. I think it's the best this year that it's ever been," Jo said.

Carol thanked her and looked around the old woman, calling for Axel who was standing near another table and eating something that looked like an elephant ear.

"Axel…I need my purse," Carol said.

"No you don't!" Jo said. She turned in Axel and Andrea's direction. "No she doesn't!" Jo repeated.

"Miss Jo I know that you sell your stuff here..." Carol said.

"And I make it so I can give it away if I want," Jo said. "It's for the baby and the only way you're paying for it is if the baby refuses it right out loud."

Carol chuckled.

"Well thank you…" she said. "I guess I'll let you get back to work."

"Take care, Carol," Jo said. "And don't be a stranger."

Carol nodded at her and started toward Andrea and Axel.

"Carol Ann…" Jo called. Carol turned around to look at her. "Daryl's working the hayrides this evening."

Carol nodded and turned again, walking over to join her friends and offer them some of the pumpkin roll.

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Merle wasn't paying too damn much attention to the crowd. He was killing time more than anything. The whole damn town was shut down for this stupid ass festival. These little ass backward towns always took every damn thing like this so seriously.

Still, he'd at least found a booth that was selling some kind of pumpkin honey shit that tasted somewhat akin to cough medicine until he'd emptied part of the flask he was wearing into it. Now he was enjoying the damn festival a hell of a lot more.

He wandered around, looking at all the people gorging themselves on fall flavored shit. He wasn't paying too close attention to anything until his eyes happened to fall on a person he hadn't seen in a while. A person he'd been trying to avoid like the bubonic plague. But that was the damnedest thing about Sweet Junction…you couldn't avoid people for shit if you were going to ever leave your fucking house.

Andrea was walking sitting on one of the hay bales they had stacked up, eating some kind of shit, with a little dog in her lap that was trying desperately to get some of it. She was laughing at something.

Merle took another long drink of his pumpkin honey flavored swill and watched her for a minute. He didn't know what the hell possessed him, but he started making his way in her direction, not sure exactly what he was going to say when he got there. As he cleared his way of the ocean of people, though, he realized she wasn't alone. She was talking to Carol…the little bitch who had done just what he'd thought she do. Sunk her claws into Daryl just to drag him as far as she pleased and drop him.

Merle hadn't seen too much of his brother lately. Daryl wanted to jack his damn jaws about Merle's life but he was busy hiding out and playing Mama's boy at the farm he worked at, licking his wounds over the woman who had jacked him around.

Merle stopped then. He wasn't going over there and talking to Andrea. The only damn reason it even seemed like a good idea was because it was getting fucking cold outside. The cold made you think you needed a woman to warm your bed…and it made you think crazy shit. That along with the whiskey spiked punch in his hand had made him think for a moment he might talk to Andrea…but he was better off without her nagging ass around.

He watched her for a minute, pissed off just to see her there, sitting up on that damn hay bale like she ruled the fucking world. She was hot…but that's all the bitch had going for her. One damn day her ass would dry up and then she'd be nothing but an old road whore…rode hard and put up wet.

Still, Merle couldn't quite will his feet to move from the spot and he stayed there a moment, drinking the drink in his hand and watching her talk to Carol. Then out of nowhere came some man…some asshole that Merle thought he'd seen somewhere but he couldn't put his finger on why the man was familiar. He walked up and looped an arm around Andrea, bringing his lips to hers and kissing her.

Looked like she'd found her some damn new person to nag at. Good luck to his sorry ass…Merle thought. He watched as Andrea slid off the hay bale, depositing the dog she was holding on the ground, and she wrapped her arm around him, leaning into his chest.

Merle scoffed and turned in the other direction. He drained the rest of the swill that he was drinking and started in the direction of the trucks where he'd seen his brother earlier. He wasn't going to stay around and deal with his brother's annoying ass and he wasn't going to stay and play happy little town with the fuckers around here. He had a full bottle of whiskey back at his place and Loretta said the bar would be open tonight when this dumb ass festival finally closed down and everyone took their pumpkin sodden asses back home.

He certainly wasn't staying around to run into Andrea, and he wasn't going to go over to talk to her and her flavor of the month.

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Daryl was damn near exhausted. He'd spent the early part of the day hauling little kids around on the back of a truck trailer pulled by a lawnmower. The kiddie hay rides went so damn slow that if the whole damn lot of the kids fell off at once not a damn one would even so much as get hurt. No one had fallen off, though.

The ones he'd been doing for the last hour, though, they ran a little different. Hershel pulled the trailer with a truck and Daryl's job was to sit in the back, riding around, and make sure that no one did anything stupid. Supposedly the festival was a "dry festival" and no one was drinking, but Daryl had seen more than enough evidence that even if they weren't selling alcohol, plenty of people had brought that shit in.

So he was essentially wrangling drunks on these rides while the other adults…the ones that still had the capacity to act like grown ups…rode along looking at the fields in the dying light of day.

The good news, though, was that it was last call and Daryl was going to get to leave after this. They were going to have a big ass dinner and then he was going to sleep like he probably hadn't slept in a while. They'd been out here since before the sun even came up setting up for this stupid thing and tomorrow they'd tear the whole thing down again.

So Hershel pulled the truck to a stop at the start up point and Daryl watched as everyone filed off the back. He dropped down to the ground long enough to help those down that needed it and help the new group up if they needed a boost.

"Last round," Hershel said. "Getting too dark to keep going."

Daryl nodded at him and watched as the old man walked back around the truck. The small crowd that had been waiting was already crawling on the back and Daryl glanced to the side noticing that Michonne and Tyreese were sitting down in the grass. It wouldn't have caught his attention so much except it was obvious that one of the two dogs with them was Lincoln.

Either they'd borrowed the damn flea bag for the day or Carol was out here somewhere.

Almost like an answer to his question, Daryl realized that without even speaking to him Andrea had just walked right past him. He looked at her for a minute as she made her way to the truck. The man he'd met at his house…the day they'd had the fight…Axel was his name…helped Andrea up on the trailer.

"Hi Daryl," a voice said.

Daryl felt like his heart stopped for a second. He swallowed and glanced to his side. Carol was standing there, holding her jacket at the throat. She smiled at him.

"Hey," he said, averting his eyes for the moment and pretending to be paying attention to the rest of the crowd as they piled onto the ride.

"How are you?" Carol asked.

"Fine," Daryl said. "Yaself?"

"Fine," Carol said.

Daryl didn't know why his heart was pounding butt it was. It felt like it would damn near beat out of his chest soon. He didn't know what to say. He hadn't really been avoiding her, but he'd stayed away from her all the same. He hadn't known what to do or say about the situation. He hadn't known if they were supposed to talk about things or how to even go about it, and so he'd figured out it was much easier to just avoid her.

Now, though, with her standing a few feet to the side of him, he wasn't sure what the hell to do and he could barely breathe. He wished he could switch places with Hershel and run straight to the truck and just pretend he didn't even see her.

"Better get on," he said. "If ya ridin'."

Carol looked at him a moment, then she nodded and Daryl watched her walk over. He should have offered at least to help her up on the side, but just as he realized it she reached the side of the truck and Axel hopped back off, lifting her up enough that she could crawl on and settle down against some of the hay bales. Axel got back on and Daryl saw him sit between Andrea and Carol, his arms going around both of them.

Daryl growled a little to himself and waited until the last of the people was on. He hopped up on the back of the trailer and walked toward the truck, almost stepping directly into Carol's lap. He wrapped on the window of the truck to let Hershel know they were loaded and walked back, sitting down on one of the hay bales in the middle so that he had a good view of everyone in case one of the fuckers decided to do something dumb.

The whole ride Daryl felt distracted. He was supposed to be watching everyone, but mostly he kept glancing in Carol's direction. Every now and again he caught her looking at him, but as the ride wore on she simply pulled her jacket tighter around her and glanced off at the shadows of the fields around them. There wasn't a damn bit of scenery to see in the failing light, and most of the people on this ride were chatting or napping, but Carol was pretending to be interested in whatever she couldn't see out there.

When it finally drew to a close, Daryl had decided that he should at least say some shit to her. He should ask her how she was…ask her how the baby was...something. He'd been fine so long as he hadn't seen her, but now that she'd popped back up in his life like some kind of ghost he didn't know what to do. He'd dealt with everything, until now, by just falling into the lull of hiding away…and that wasn't working knowing that she was only a few feet from him.

As the crowd filed off the back, though, Daryl lost her somewhere among them. He finally got off the trailer and looked around, but he couldn't find her anywhere. He didn't see hide nor hair of her, of Andrea and Axel, of Michonne and her crew…nothing. It was like all of them had disappeared in the sea of people who were heading away from him…flowing toward the field that had been converted into a parking lot.

Daryl looked for a few moments and then finally heard Hershel calling him, unaware that Daryl was trying to get control of himself in the situation, and he turned around to help the man get everything ready to leave for the night.

Daryl realized, as he silently helped Hershel, that he was going to have to actually figure this out if there was anything to figure out. He had hidden from the whole thing too long. He'd just put it out of his mind and tried not to think about it…tried to make himself just believe that Carol was there…up on some shelf…out of sight and out of mind. The truth was, though, that she wasn't up on a shelf somewhere. She was still just as real as she'd been and the problem wasn't going anywhere.

It was time to deal with this shit, one way or the other. He was going to have to figure out what he wanted to do. He had to figure out what he was going to say to Carol, but Daryl needed to see her and he needed to talk to her. His vacation was over.