AN: OK, so now we're going lighter because I needed a break after the heavy chapter!
I'd just like to say thank you again to everyone for your comments and reviews. They mean so much to me! Sweet Junction went over 1,000 reviews today and I was amazed! I feel like I'm in the big time! LOL
I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!
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Daryl knew that it was cheating in the planned separation that they had going on to stay at the house, but during the days of the trial he'd stayed anyway and no one had fought him on it. The first night he had stayed up with everyone in the living room. It had been something like a camp at his house since Tyreese had come over with Michonne's girls and Axel had come by to check on Andrea and brought his dog.
Carol had taken whatever it was that Michonne had gotten from her doctor friend and she'd basically curled up on Daryl's lap on the couch while they all sat around trying to talk about anything except what was on everyone's mind. By the time that Michonne and Tyreese left, having pushed the girls' bedtime to the point where there simply wasn't anymore giving room, Carol was asleep in Daryl's arms. He hadn't said anything to Andrea, he'd simply gathered Carol up and took her to bed, deciding that it wasn't cheating too bad as long as he drug the extra blanket off the couch into the room with him and slept on top of the cover next to her.
The other nights had gone somewhat similarly, though there had been some variation on the theme. Each night, though, Daryl had stayed and no one had protested.
Once the days in court were past them all, Michonne had been sure to tell them not to worry about things. There was no need worrying about something they absolutely couldn't change, after all. They were just to go on with their lives and she would let them know what happened with Ed as soon as that information was something that she got her hands on.
But telling everyone not to worry and actually making it so that people didn't worry were two different things entirely. Without the direct strain of going to court and seeing Ed…without feeling like she was being pounded with questions that she would inevitably answer wrong in some way…Carol had started to calm down and was returning to herself, but Daryl knew that the worry was still there.
He'd offered to return to the Greene farm…to continue the separation they'd been enforcing…if that was what Carol deemed best, but he hadn't really wanted to go back there. Luckily for him, she'd wanted him to stay…at least a few days…until she'd calmed down more about the situation. So he hadn't moved his stuff back in yet, out of the expectation that he might be exiled again, but he returned to the house in the evenings after work to stay the night.
Today, though, was an exciting day. Daryl wasn't nearly as excited as Carol was…and she wasn't nearly as excited as he'd thought she'd be if it weren't for all the stuff hanging in the air about Ed…but he was going to pretend to be every bit as excited as she was to feed the first genuine smiles that he'd seen from her since the day before the court mess had even begun.
So this morning they'd had breakfast and Carol had taken longer to get ready than she normally did, and then Daryl had driven her to her doctor's office where he sat in what was becoming a familiar uncomfortable chair. He had considered entertaining himself with any number of the boring books and magazines that were in place in the office, but he'd decided against it and instead he'd spent his time watching the pregnant women that came into the office, wondering when it was he would feel like he could tell that Carol was pregnant.
He hadn't actually seen her naked in quite some time, that was true, but in clothes he could say she had filled out a little at best. She didn't look like some of these women. There was one woman, in particular, that Daryl had fixated on simply because of the sheer size of her. He'd only reminded himself once or twice that it was impolite to stare because he'd realized she was looking back at him and it wasn't with the kindest look he'd ever received.
And it wasn't like he could excuse himself, really. He couldn't very well tell the woman that he was waiting on Carol and he was trying to imagine if her body even had the capacity to accommodate something that was the impressive size of the child that she was obviously carrying.
There were others that weren't that big…though they were still hard for Daryl to really wrap his mind around. He was hoping that this ultrasound thing they were supposed to see today, whenever they finally called him to come back, would help him out a little with the whole ordeal. He'd heard the heartbeat, but seeing something…anything really…might make things just seem real.
Daryl wanted to be just as excited as Carol was about this whole thing. He wanted to be all gung ho about the baby and thrilled with blankets and such…but he hadn't gotten there yet.
When they finally called him in the back, though, and he'd come in to find Carol talking to the doctor.
"Nice to see you again," the doctor said to Daryl when he walked in.
He smiled at her and nodded, already nervous by the entire thing.
"So everything we've had a look at is fine," the doctor said. "Blood pressure is a little high, but Carol says that she's been a little stressed?"
Daryl looked at Carol and then at the doctor and nodded.
"Reckon ya could say that," he said. He didn't think she knew quite the level of stress that they were talking about. Carol reached a hand toward him and he took it, frowning at her slightly. At least all the damn bruises were either gone or pretty well faded. He'd been an asshole about it, perhaps, but when he had seen that she'd apparently been pinching the hell out of herself until it looked like she'd been back with Ed a while, he'd had a fit about it. Sure, her crying could be annoying when he didn't feel like hearing it, but he'd sure as shit rather her cry about something than know she was bruising the hell out of herself.
Besides that, it didn't look good either and he wondered to himself what the doctor probably thought because she had to have seen the ones that lingered behind still.
"Well, we're going to have a look today and see if we can tell what the baby is while we're looking at the anatomy. Sometimes we can't, though, it's just according on the baby's position…so we'll have to see," the doctor said.
Daryl watched the rest of the damn thing with absolute fascination. This wasn't like the pictures that Carol had thumb tacked to the board on the refrigerator. He could actually see what the doctor was pointing at and the thing looked...at least a little bit…like a baby. It was moving too. The doctor called it a "mover and a shaker" and Daryl had actually started to feel excited about the damn thing, even though it was still somewhat hard to believe that what the screen told him was going on in there was actually going on in there.
"OK," the doctor asked, finally. "So you want to know what it is?"
"Yeah," Carol said. She was squeezing all of Daryl's fingers together now and he kept wiggling them to try and get her to loosen her grip a little. He didn't think it was out of nerves anymore...right now it was more like she was a kid at Christmas. She hadn't taken her eyes off that screen for one minute and she'd started crying as soon as they heard the thumping of the heartbeat again.
"Well, it's sometimes hard to tell, but you've got a little girl, and she's not shy at all," the doctor said.
"It's a girl?" Carol asked.
The doctor smiled and nodded, pointing at the screen.
"It's a girl," she said. "Pretty clear. She wanted you to know."
Daryl couldn't even believe what he was hearing. It wasn't that he'd really cared if it was a boy or it was a girl. In reality he hadn't thought about it much. Honestly he only halfway believed in the kid until now. So the shock that was running over him right at this moment didn't have so much to do with the fact that it was gender or another as it simply had to do with the fact that he felt like it was rushing over him that they were really having a baby.
They were having a baby. It looked like a baby. It was healthy according to the doctor. It had a regular heartbeat. It was apparently a bit of a busy body. And it was a girl.
Daryl was so caught up in this that he hardly even heard anything else that the doctor said. He'd been asked one or two questions and he hoped they weren't important because he was fairly certain that he hadn't even responded to them. He was too wrapped up at the moment in the fact that they were having a baby and it was a girl.
He shook the doctor's hand and offered her some kind of thank you and a farewell, though he wasn't sure if it had been entirely appropriate since the part of his brain that was taking over functions like that at the moment was the part that acted entirely off of some kind of sense memory that this was how one functioned in certain situations.
Carol slid off the table and Daryl watched as she walked over the chair in the corner to get her shoes and and shirt. She came back, putting her purse on the table she'd just been on and started to look for the tag in her shirt.
"When'd ya start gettin' a tummy?" Daryl asked.
Carol pulled her shirt over her head and shrugged at him as she ran her fingers through her hair, picking out her curls. She started to put her shoes on right away.
"I don't know exactly," Carol said. "I know…I'm getting fat."
Daryl chuckled.
"If that bothers ya then ya ought notta see that woman that was in the waitin' room earlier," Daryl said. "I'm pretty sure she's got a quarterback trapped in there."
Carol laughed then and picked up her purse. She looked at him for a minute with the look of expectation that she typically got when she was about to say something or she was waiting for him to say something.
Daryl held her chin between his finger and thumb and tipped her face toward him, kissing her in response to her look of expectation.
"Are you mad?" She asked when they pulled apart.
"Why the hell I'm s'posed ta be mad?" Daryl asked. He put his hand on her shoulder and directed her out of the room now, almost able to find his way through the labyrinth and back to the waiting room on his own.
"Because it's a girl?" Carol asked as they made their way into the waiting room. Daryl didn't respond. Instead he stood to the side and waited while Carol went to the desk and spoke with the nurse that was back there. Daryl glanced around, looking for the really huge woman to show to Carol, but she was gone.
When Carol came over, finally, Daryl walked with her out to the truck.
"No I ain't mad it's a girl," Daryl said when they were in his truck and headed back toward the house. "Hell, I reckon ya prob'ly the only Ma that ever gave half a damn 'bout bein' one any damn where in my family…might as well be the first damn one ta have a girl."
Daryl glanced at Carol and she was rubbing at her stomach. He reached his hand over toward her, glancing back at the road.
"Can I touch it?" He asked.
He smiled when she moved his hand, pressing it on her stomach. He didn't know what he was supposed to be feeling, though, and he didn't feel anything really except her stomach, so he flexed his fingers quickly and tickled her before she could laugh and snatch his hand away. He chuckled to himself as he drove about her squeal.
"So damn ticklish," he said.
"That was mean!" Carol scolded. Daryl could tell she wasn't really mad, though, there was laughter behind her voice and he liked the sound of it. It had been a while since he'd heard it. "I let you put your hand on my stomach to be nice to the baby and then you go and tickle me like that!"
"I'm sorry," he said. He chuckled and held his hand out again. "Here lemme try again."
Carol pushed his hand away.
"No!" She squealed. "I'm not falling for it a second time!"
Daryl snickered.
"I'm serious," he said. "I won't do it this time."
Carol timidly brought his hand back and he teased that he was going to tickle her, but he didn't. He just patted her and then brought his hand down to rest on her leg.
Carol sighed and put her hand over his on her leg.
"Somethin' wrong?" He asked.
"Now I'm just worried you wanted a boy," Carol said.
Daryl chuckled.
"Ya can find the damn most things ta worry about," Daryl said. "Ya wanna know the truth? I don't give a damn one way or the other and that's the truth. Hell long as it ain't a goat kid or somethin' like that I reckon it's just fine. Besides…ya said ya wanted more kids. Might get a boy outta one a' them."
Carol nodded and squeezed his hand and he squeezed her thigh.
When he pulled into the driveway he could see they weren't alone. He knew, and he wasn't supposed to tell Carol, that Michonne and Andrea were planning on being there when they got home, but he didn't really realize that they'd be there so early.
"What is this?" Carol asked as they pulled up and saw both their vehicles in the driveway. "They're supposed to be at work."
"Eh…kinda said they was takin' the day off ta surprise ya," Daryl said. "Reckon it worked."
Carol smiled and got out the truck so Daryl got out his side. He really wanted a cigarette, but he figured he could walk Carol inside and get all the party bullshit started and then he could slip out without the women even realizing he was gone.
When they got inside, they were met at the door by Andrea and Michonne, each holding one of the girls, and Daryl suddenly realized how completely outnumbered he really was in his life.
"Surprise!" Both of the women said. Unfortunately Andrea's surprise scared the kid she was holding and everything else got put on hold a minute while they shuffled them about so that Michonne could try to get the child over the fear of Andrea trying to surprise Carol.
"Well?" Andrea asked when the crisis was over. "What'd you get?"
Daryl looked at Carol and she was looking at him. He held up one of the pictures out of the folder that he'd snatched out of the truck on his way inside. He knew they couldn't tell from it that it was a girl…he hadn't been able to tell anything from it. The other picture was the one he liked better because he could sort of see the outline of the baby in that one, but he honestly didn't have a clue how they told the gender.
Both of the women frowned at him, though, and Carol reached over and lightly swatted at him.
He grinned.
"We got us a boy," Daryl said.
He looked around and wasn't sure what to do with the faces. Michonne and Andrea had started into the congratulations mode and Carol was looking at him like she didn't quite know what to do. Daryl chuckled at all three of them.
"And ain't no damn body gonna make fun of 'im just 'cause he ain't got no dick," Daryl said.
Carol chuckled now and it was the turn of the other two to look confused.
"It's a girl!" Carol clarified. "We're having a girl."
Now Daryl had to endure the hugging and the squealing women excitement over the thought that another was coming into their little gaggle. Daryl shook his head at the whole thing.
"I'ma go smoke," he said. "I know ya ain't gon' miss me, so ya just do ya baby thing an' I'll be back."
He leaned in and kissed Carol quickly, chuckling again at all the excitement that had been stirred up in his house. He stepped out the door, finally getting to have the cigarette he'd been craving since just after he'd gotten good and situated in the waiting room of the doctor's office.
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"So?" Michonne asked when Daryl was gone. "What did the doctor say? Everything good?"
Carol nodded.
She wasn't even sure how she felt at the moment. It seemed so surreal. She was really happy…and not really because the baby was a girl…she hadn't really cared if it was a boy or a girl…but just because all was fine. The doctor said she might try to gain a little weight, which she didn't think was much of a problem…and she'd said she needed to relax and try to keep calm.
That was the hard part lately. The keeping calm. With everything going on with Ed she'd been on edge to say the very least. She was feeling better for the moment, but she knew that if she just let her mind drift for too long she'd be back to where she was, worrying about things she couldn't do a thing about.
She tried to put it out of her mind, though. Today she didn't want to think about Ed. She just wanted to put him where the hell he belonged and she wanted to think about her baby…her daughter. Even as she thought it in her head, her heart skipped a beat at the thought.
"We made a cake," Andrea said, pushing Carol toward the counter where she opened the top on a cake plate.
"It says 'It's A Baby,'" Carol said with a snicker.
Andrea chuckled in her ear where she was leaning against her. Michonne had stepped around the corner to make sure that Angelica, who was playing with Lincoln, wasn't trying to tie the poor thing's ears in a knot.
"Yeah…well…" Andrea said. "When we started making it we realized we weren't going to know what it was in time to write the gender on there…so you got a 'It's A Baby' cake. Congratulations!"
Carol laughed.
"Well I love it," she said. "It's the nicest 'It's A Baby' cake that anyone has ever made me."
Michonne came back around the corner and Carol held her arms out, taking Celine for a bit to balance her on her hip. She couldn't help but think that one of these days she'd be doing the same thing except it would be with her own daughter.
"Can I ask you something?" Carol asked Michonne.
"Knock yourself out," Michonne said, moving around Carol and starting to help Andrea get plates and things to actually eat the cake.
"When did you start to feel the girls move?" Carol asked. "The baby moved around a lot during the scan today…and the doctor said I would probably start to feel it soon if I wasn't feeling it already. I told her I didn't think I was and she said I might not know yet what it feels like."
Michonne stopped where she was, obviously thinking, and Carol watched as Andrea took the plates out of her hand.
Michonne made a face.
"With Celine…it was early…I think I was probably about where you are…probably about sixteen weeks. With Angie, though? That was a lot later. I felt her moving, I just didn't realize it. I didn't realize I felt it until I was like twenty weeks or something and someone else actually…you know…saw her moving and until then I'd never put what I could see together with what I could feel," Michonne said.
Carol made a face and turned a second, kissing at Celine who was trying to pull her hair.
"What does it feel like?" Carol asked.
Michonne chuckled.
"In my opinion…at least in the beginning…it feels like gas. Later it gets more intense," Michonne said. "Once you realize what it is, though, you'll know the difference between the baby and gas."
"This is so lovely," Andrea said, leaning against the bar.
"You never have gas, I suppose?" Michonne asked with a snort.
"Not that I stand around having conversations about," Andrea said.
"Well…you're missing out, then," Michonne said. She directed her attention back at Carol then. "Even though Andrea doesn't get gas, I do…and that's what it feels like. You'll be able to see her start moving soon if you can't already. Little tiny twitches and stuff. That trumps feeling it in my opinion."
"Eeew!" Andrea protested, now focused on cutting the cake. "See it moving? Like around? No thank you!"
Carol laughed.
"Did you think she was just going to be still?" Carol asked.
Andrea scrunched her face up at her.
"You know…I just tried not to think about it, really. I mean I get the whole 'oh the baby kicked' mess…but I was planning on skipping out on that too. Just send her a message or whatever and tell her not to do any of that moving where I can see it," Andrea said.
Carol and Michonne both laughed at that.
"Sure," Carol said. "I'll make sure I figure out how to send that message. No moving in Andrea's presence because it grosses her out."
Andrea plopped a piece of cake on a plate and sat it up with her fingers when it fell over.
"It doesn't gross me out like baby puke or something," Andrea said. "It just sort of makes my skin crawl to think about it."
"Wait a minute," Michonne said. "We can talk about baby puke while you're serving cake but you can't talk about gas?"
Carol laughed and shook her head. She shifted Celine to her other hip and started out the door, leaving Andrea and Michonne to serve cake and argue about what was permissible conversation, and she went to find Daryl and tell him it was time to come in and eat cake…and then maybe after they ate cake she could figure out how to thank her friends and usher them out of the house for a little while so she could maybe get a quiet evening in with Daryl to celebrate their daughter.