AN: Here you go, the last of the Christmas chapters.
I might offer you a fluff/feels warning for this chapter. I think I got carried away with my feels for the night. Oh well, it happens.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol couldn't have imagined a better Christmas if she'd sat down to construct one herself out of all the fairy tales she'd ever read. Her house…their home…was warm and inviting and it was alive with friends. More than that, it was alive with her family, and it had been a long time since she'd felt so surrounded by family.
Losing her parents had been difficult for her. She'd been an only child and losing her parents, when her father had passed especially and left her feeling alone in the world, had made it seem like she was on some sort of life journey and everyone else had dropped off around her.
She'd been left feeling isolated. The distant relatives that she still had were that…distant. They were the kind of people that sent Christmas cards when they remembered and the phone calls had stopped altogether not long after she'd found herself an adult orphan.
All she'd had was Ed…and that had only served to make her life unbearable. She'd been alone, trapped in Ed's hell, and she'd given up hope of really ever having anyone or connecting with another soul.
But now that was gone. It was a distant memory…a bad memory…but it was so far removed from her reality at the moment that it could almost be something she made up instead of something that she'd lived and experienced day in and day out.
Hershel and Jo had spent the whole day there and showed no signs of leaving. At the moment they were gathered in the living room, Hershel and Jo on the couch occupying the majority of it, and Carol next to them, squeezed between Jo and the arm of the couch. Daryl was sitting on the floor, just near her legs, and every now and again he smiled up at her or reached to squeeze her calf.
Tyreese and Michonne were there with the girls and Michonne had brought them a box of toys to play with. Both of them had been entertained the entire day, though the toys had little to do with it. Celine crawled around and played with the box the toys had come in more than anything, or stripped the tiny tree of the decorations that they'd put on it, while Anjelica's full attention was on Lincoln for most of the day who was a patient and calm host for her attentions.
Merle and Andrea had shown up just after they were finishing breakfast and saved them from having to put any food away since the two of them quickly polished off everything that was left.
Merle was on his best behavior, actually being oddly an asset to the group instead of bringing the party down any, and Andrea seemed light and happy, laughing and teasing with him throughout the day.
Even Axel had come with Juniper, and though the little dog cowered in his lap or on the couch smashed between Hershel and Jo so as to avoid the Tasmanian devil that Anjelica could be from time to time, they fit right into the tapestry of the moment.
And Carol couldn't think of a single thing she might have changed to make the day even one bit better than it had already been.
"Did y'all wanna go down ta the park?" Daryl asked at some point, drawing the attention of everyone's chatter in his direction.
They'd rushed through the lights and decorations at the park the night before. Between the fussiness of the girls and the fact that everyone was simply just tired, they'd made their circle through the space quicker than they'd originally intended it to be. Therefore, they'd thought that maybe tonight they'd go down and stroll through with a little more calm.
Hershel grunted a little at the question and patted Jo's leg.
"I think we'll probably pass on that," he said. "Old bones need their rest."
Jo chuckled and Carol smiled at her when Jo squeezed her arm.
"He just wants to go home earlier because they're showing A Christmas Story on television tonight," Jo explained. "He's been waiting to watch it."
It was Hershel's turn to chuckle then.
"You don't have to go telling all my secrets, you know," he said, nudging Jo.
"I think we're going to pass too," Tyreese said. He was sitting on the floor beside Michonne's legs. She was sitting in one of the dining room chairs that she'd drug in there, insisting that if she got on the floor, which was the preferred seating for several people in the group, she might never get back up and she certainly wasn't going to do it while retaining much of her dignity.
"You're going to watch the movie too?" Carol asked.
"No," Michonne answered for him. "We're going over to my parents' house," she explained. She glanced around, her eyes falling on the clock over the fireplace mantle. "We actually should leave soon. They want to see the girls and I don't want to take them over there just to have them pass out as soon as we get there."
Tyreese started to his feet, stirred by the mention of it and Carol felt her heart sink a little. She understood that people had to go home and they had lives. It really wasn't that she had any kind of problem with them leaving, it was more that she hated to see everyone breaking up and actually calling an end to the day. She knew well enough that once one left, other would trickle after. It was the odd way that things seemed to work.
Surprisingly, though, after Michonne and Tyreese gathered the girls and offered their goodbyes, no one else made any move to leave for the moment. Carol realized, about five minutes after they'd left, that she'd been sitting in her tight position on the couch, a little tense. She relaxed and sunk back into cushion.
When she felt Lil' Bit flutter, she put her hand over it, and nudged Daryl with her foot. He turned and looked at her a moment before offering her his hand and she put it over where the kicking was taking place.
"Is she moving?" Jo asked.
Carol smiled and nodded. Jo outstretched her hand and Daryl moved his so Carol could position Jo's hand. The woman smiled and sat there for a moment until the kicking subsided.
"It's so exciting," Jo said. "And then you reach the point where you start to feel like they never stop moving."
Carol smiled at her.
"I can't imagine that," Carol said. "She has her moments, but it always seems like she stops when she realizes that someone is paying attention to her."
"She's shy," Daryl offered, turning around on the floor so that he could face them. Lincoln, stirred up by Daryl's shifting, came over and crawled into Daryl's lap without even so much as asking permission. Daryl moved around to allow the dog, which was now quite the lapful even for Daryl, to get comfortable. "She's like her old man," Daryl finished once his lap companion had settled down.
A chuckle ran through everyone at the thought that Lil' Bit, acting like Daryl, would shy away from doing something once she knew that she was being observed.
"Oh!" Jo said suddenly. "You didn't open your present!"
Carol almost laughed at the somewhat shocked face that Jo was making, like she couldn't believe that she'd forgotten something so crucial.
"Where did you put it, Hershel?" Jo asked. "You didn't leave it, did you?"
Hershel chuckled and pushed himself up to his feet. He winked at Carol.
"No, dear. I didn't leave it. After the sixth time you told me to put it in the truck this morning it was pretty hard to forget…even for me," Hershel responded.
Hershel passed into the kitchen and looked around, growing confused.
"Was it that box ya brought in?" Daryl asked from his spot.
"That would be the one," Hershel responded from the kitchen. "You know, the one with the bow and the candy cane wrapping paper?"
Merle snorted and everyone else laughed at him as much as they laughed at Hershel. Even Daryl laughed, though the joke was on him originally.
"Put it over out the way," Daryl said. "Look in the dinin' room in there. Tucked it in the corner."
Hershel walked over there and a moment later he chuckled, leaning down to presumably pick up the present.
"It's not as pretty as it was," he said, picking up the box that now had tattered paper hanging off of it and the ribbon that was tied around it falling off. "I don't know if it was the girls or Lincoln, but it appears someone was trying to help you unwrap it."
"Oh well," Jo said, seeing the sad condition of the box when Hershel brought it into the living room and offered it to Carol. "It's not the wrapping that matters, I suppose."
Carol smiled just at the thought of the present. It was a nice gesture, and that was really all that mattered. The wrapping meant very little, and whatever was inside the box really didn't mean all that much when it came down to it.
"It was beautiful," Carol offered. "And I guess it's only fitting that around here someone would help unwrap it."
"Well, I hope you like it," Jo urged. "Go ahead, open it."
Carol nodded in Daryl's direction as though to ask that he open it and he took the box from her, putting it on the floor next to him. Lincoln perked up at the proximity of the box, suggesting that he might not have worked alone, but he was probably involved in the original unwrapping.
Daryl wrestled the paper off of the box and Carol wondered when was the last time that he'd opened a present. She almost wished, in the moment, that she'd broken their agreement not to buy each other anything, because she suspected that Daryl might not have gotten many presents in his life. He seemed pleased, though, as he finished whatever Lincoln and, most likely, Anjelica had started. He pulled out his pocket knife and slid it across the tape that held the cardboard box shut that advertised some kind of contraption.
"Don't worry," Jo offered, looking at the box. "We didn't get you a salad shooter…they're really not very good anyway. I just used the box."
Carol smiled at her, curious now as to what Daryl might be about to unwrap.
As he wrestled it out of the box, Carol slowly became aware that it was a quilt. He started to unfold it, passing part of it to Carol, and she realized it was a very large and very beautiful quilt. She couldn't hold back the sigh that escaped while Daryl helped her unfold it so that they could see the whole thing.
It was a quilt that was large enough for even their own bed and made up of patches in pink, purple, yellow, blue, and green with a soft white edging that ran around the entire thing. In the middle of the quilt, sewn in black cloth letters was the quote "A baby is God's way of saying the world should go on…" and in the bottom right corner were smaller letters that spelled "Daryl and Carol" and in the other corner was lettered "Lil' Bit" with the year that the girl would be born.
Carol felt like she was choking at the gesture and gave up all hope of stopping the tears that were trying to run out of her eyes.
"It's beautiful!" She exclaimed.
Daryl was holding the bottom of it, his thumbs rubbing across the edging, and he was smiling.
"That's gorgeous, it really is," Andrea offered.
Hershel hummed something.
"Jo's been working on that thing since the day I came in the house and told her that Daryl told me you were expecting," he offered.
Carol swiped at her tears and turned herself enough on the couch that she could catch Jo in a hug. Jo laughed at her and rubbed her back before breaking out of the hug and fingering the corner of the quilt.
"I made one for each of my children," Jo said. "Each one is a little different, and as far as I know, they all still have them."
"Thank you!" Carol declared.
"Thanks," Daryl echoed, though Carol knew that for him the item wouldn't have the same significance that it had for her, and she knew that Jo knew it too.
"Well," Jo said, moving her hand and rubbing Carol's belly. "I thought you might like…and it's something she can use even when she's older. Bethie still keeps hers on her bed and it's the only quilt she wants when she's sick."
Carol smiled at the thought.
"I love it," she said. "I can't thank you enough."
"You don't have to," Jo said.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, no one really knowing what to say or what to do. Finally Jo sighed and rubbed Carol's belly again before turning and clapping Hershel on the leg hard enough that anyone in the room could hear it.
"You ready to go and watch your movie? Ralphie?" Jo asked.
Hershel chuckled.
"It is about that time," he said. "We should get home just in time to make some hot chocolate before it starts…and we've got some caramel popcorn."
"So you can spend the rest of the night complaining about the kernels getting stuck in your gums," Jo said.
Hershel got up from his place and offered a hand to Jo, getting her to her feet. Carol started to get up to hug them by, but Jo waved her back.
"You all stay down," she said. She leaned in, hugging Carol lightly. "We know our way out."
"Merry Christmas," Hershel offered, waving at them, his hand going to Jo's back. "You youngsters have fun."
Carol smiled and waved at them, echoing the Merry Christmas that came as a rumble from everyone.
Merle snorted again.
"Ya have fun too, ya hear?" Merle offered.
When they'd left, he turned back to the group, working on a candy cane he'd gotten out of Michonne's box of treats and had almost sucked on to the point that it resembled a weapon more than a Christmas treat.
"Them ole people goin' home ta do the wild thing," he said, his voice low.
"Jesus, Merle!" Daryl declared, slinging the balled up wad of wrapping paper off the box at Merle's head. He missed and it hit Andrea. Merle chuckled.
"What?" He said. "They old…not dead."
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Carol wasn't disappointed at all that by the time that Axel left and by the time that Andrea and Merle retired to bed, without any explanation offered as to why they were both staying at the house, they'd missed any real window of opportunity to go down to the park.
She was tired anyway, and it had been a good day. It had been the kind of day where you could excuse any little bad thing that had happened simply because it wasn't enough to put a damper on all that felt right and good in the world.
Maybe that was what it really meant to feel like it was Christmas. It was, she would venture to say, the best Christmas that she'd ever had.
And when Andrea and Merle had retired to Andrea's room, Lincoln going with them out of curiosity and much to Merle's grumbling dismay, Daryl and Carol had gone to their room.
Now Carol was lying in bed, watching as Daryl stood in the bathroom and shaved since he'd neglected it throughout the rather busy day that they'd had.
"That quilt really is beautiful," Carol said. "Do you even know how much work that must have taken?"
Daryl grunted.
"'at's how Miss Jo is 'bout them things," Daryl said.
"Did you have a good Christmas, Daryl?" Carol asked. She wanted to know that he'd had as wonderful of a day as she'd had, but she didn't know if that was even possible for anyone else.
Daryl grunted again, leaning toward the mirror.
"Best damn Christmas I ever had," he offered. He turned and looked at her a minute, smiling, stilling his shaving. Carol smiled back and rubbed her belly.
"Can you believe that next Christmas Lil' Bit'll be here?" She asked. "We'll get to have her right here…spending the whole day with everyone."
Daryl chuckled a little.
"Hard ta believe," he responded.
Carol was quiet, watching Daryl shave. When he was finally done she watched him go through the motions of rinsing his razor and dropping it with a clank into the cup that rested on the side of the sink. He washed his face then and stood in the doorway facing her, drying it with a towel.
"I was thinkin'," Daryl started. Carol perked up, curious to see what he might have to say at the moment. "'Bout what we gon' name her."
They'd been discussing Lil' Bit's given name at some length. On the one hand, Carol was a little worried about deciding on a name. She still had this heart stopping fear from time to time that something was going to happen and something would take the little girl away from them. She'd almost convinced herself that as long as they didn't agree on a name, it somehow wouldn't hurt so bad when it happened.
Daryl hadn't been of the same mind, though. He was more about believing that absolutely nothing would happen. Their daughter was coming and she'd be perfect and beautiful and he wanted a name for her. He wanted to know what it sounded like…what it felt like on his tongue before she even got there to use it.
And so they'd been working on the name, Carol realizing that her worry was just that…worry…and that nothing was going to keep her from worrying about one thing or another, just as a name for the little girl wasn't going to make her not so.
They had agreed, though, that they'd keep it a secret for themselves…simply something they shared…until the baby was born.
They'd already settled on the first name. Carol had asked if she could name her after her mother. Her mother's name was Elizabeth, and Carol thought it was a pretty name, but she didn't want to name her daughter Elizabeth exactly. She didn't want her to spend her life being known as Liz or Lizzie or Beth or Bethie. She'd heard her mother complain about the nicknames stuck on her when she simply wanted to be Elizabeth. And so she'd decided to change it just a little and she'd suggested to Daryl that they name her Eliza.
She hadn't known what Daryl would think about the name, but he'd immediately fallen in love with it and Carol adored the way the name sounded in Daryl's voice and how sweet it came out when he whispered it to her belly.
The middle name, though, she'd left to Daryl, declaring that it was only fair that if she'd thought up the first name, he was responsible for the middle name. At first he'd wanted to simply go with Ann. It was Carol's middle name and it had been her mother's middle name…it had been her grandmother's name as well. She'd accepted it as the middle name for their daughter, not wanting to dispute whatever Daryl wanted, but she had to admit that she'd hoped it would be something different…something he'd thought about more than just recycling her name.
This was the first time he'd mentioned the baby's name in a while, though, so she was curious as to what he was thinking.
"What is it?" She asked. "Did you change your mind on Eliza Ann?"
Daryl shook his head and hung the towel back on the towel rod.
"Not exactly," he said. "Least not the 'liza part. I like that. But I was thinkin' we namin' her after ya Ma…an' I ain't exactly wanted ta name her after my Ma…but I was thinkin' we might could name her Josephine…ya know…like after Miss Jo? Then she'd be Eliza Jo."
Carol smiled.
"Eliza Jo," she echoed. She grinned again. "Eliza Jo Dixon…I like that."
"Yeah?" Daryl asked, switching off the light and crawling into the bed beside her. She shifted down so she could lie on her side facing him, the smell of his shaving cream strong in the air.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "I like that a lot."
Daryl leaned over and found her mouth, lazily kissing her, his hand warm on her as it found her belly.
"Then that's what we gon' call her," he said. "'Liza Jo Dixon."
Daryl chuckled after a minute.
"What?" Carol asked.
"Nothin'," he said. "Was just thinkin' I really like it…'Liza Jo Dixon."
"Mmm…" Carol said, reaching out to hug him. "I really like it too. You did good, Daddy."
Daryl chuckled again.
"Merry Christmas," he said with a yawn. "I love ya, woman."
"Merry Christmas," Carol offered. "I love you too."
"Roll on over an' let me hold ya," Daryl said.
Carol complied and rolled, her back pressing against Daryl. He rubbed her belly and kissed the back of her neck and she closed her eyes, figuring that after a day like today, she could hope to be like the children in the poem and dream of wonderful things…even better than sugarplums.
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AN: I don't own the little match girl referenced in the last chapter. I don't own the quote on the quilt…I don't own really any of the references that I make to anything that's any form of popular culture or ever has been. I figured I'd toss that in if you weren't sure. LOL