AN: Here you go…a little more. (Or shall I say another episode? LOL)
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Carol swung by the A and P after work to pick up the last few items that they needed for the New Year's Eve dinner that they were having. Michonne already had the ham, as she'd confirmed that morning, and actually already had the thing cooked at her house. She'd bring it with her when she came, but she'd been wrapped up in her own things and had forgotten to pick up the greens and the blackeyed peas.
It was no big deal, though, to Carol to pick them up since she'd be the one cooking them. She knew that Michonne was preoccupied with the fact that her parents would be keeping the girls for the night, and that took a lot of planning. It wasn't that her parents had never taken the girls before, and it wasn't that they were inept at caring for the girls, but anything for Michonne took planning…and it was even worse when it involved her children.
So she'd actually left the office early to make sure that she got the girls home from daycare in time to do whatever it was that Michonne did when she prepared her girls to stay with their grandparents, and Carol had taken off as well with the intention of swinging by the store quickly before heading to her house and starting the cooking.
Merle and Andrea were in the process of moving, with the assistance of Tyreese and presumably with Daryl's assistance once he too got off of work.
Then tonight they would have a nice dinner together and they would bring in the New Year. They'd decided to couple both celebrations together ran than drawing them out for the customary two days since none of them were superstitious enough to believe that eating the customary New Year's meal on the actual eve of New Year's instead of the day would bring them bad fortune for the coming year.
Carol wandered the aisles of the A and P almost in a dream state. The place was pretty well empty for the hour and she assumed that everyone had either already done their shopping in advance or they would be waiting to go at it with some mad rush the few hours that the store would be opened for the holiday the next morning.
Carol selected what she hoped would be enough greens from the stand in the middle of the produce section, noting that they were undeniably fresh and wondering which of the many small greenhouse farms had supplied the store.
Then she wandered around picking up a few of the other items they lacked at the house, well aware that if Merle and Andrea were moving in next door they would likely have very little food to call their own and would be sneaking across their yard to feed themselves out of her fridge for at least a day or two before Andrea really let herself believe they had a house and could dare to put anything into the second hand fridge they'd gotten from Tyreese.
The truth was that Merle and Andrea were coming out with a better furnished home than Carol and Daryl had to this point. Tyreese had nearly everything that a house could possibly need, at least in the most basic terms, and he had honestly decided that he didn't need any of it. With his upcoming and eventual nuptials with Michonne, he wouldn't need any of the items that he deemed "not very nice" since Michonne had more than enough ability to furnish her home and everything that could be found there was almost new and top of the line.
Carol picked up a few bags of black eyed peas and loaded the cart down with the fixings to make various stews while she was going. At least if she was going to be feeding two households, she could at least make some food that was as tasty and comforting as it was cheap to produce in bulk. The cold made it nice to have warm and soothing stews to quell hunger as well, so she rationalized her stocking up rather easily in her mind.
As Carol stopped by the refrigerated area to select eggs, she stood and carefully opened each carton, frowning at the fact that at least one egg in each was cracked. She finally opened a few in front of her and went about arranging eggs so that she could have a carton of uncracked eggs while leaving the messiest ones all in the same foam container.
Carol felt the presence of the other person walk up just behind her and stand to wait so that they could get a carton of eggs from the area where she'd spread out to do her work of rearranging the things.
"They're in really bad shape," Carol said, not stopping what she was doing. "There's at least enough here for another carton though…guess we missed the holiday rush…"
"Fragile things…" the person behind her said, "get broken pretty easily."
Carol's heart stopped and she turned quickly, almost losing her footing and backing into her cart, barely catching herself from falling.
Ed looked at her and chuckled.
"Careful," he said. "Don't wanta fall. Wouldn't want anything to happen to ya…or ya baby."
Carol could barely breathe. She tried to keep her cool as best she could though she felt like her knees were made of Jello instead of being the strong joints that she'd counted on so much in her life. She turned without thinking…ignoring Ed's voice calling behind her that she'd forgotten her eggs, and proceeded to the front of the store with the blood pumping in her ears.
Carol stood in the line trying to discreetly practice all the soothing breathing techniques that she could. She wasn't doing it discreetly enough, obviously, because a little old woman that she was pretty sure she recognized from having some strange property dispute and hiring Michonne to solve it, was standing a few inches in front of her in the line and staring at her as though she might spontaneously combust.
"Excuse me…" the old woman said. "Are you alright, dear?"
Carol did her best to force a smile and nod. The old woman narrowed her brow.
"Would you like to go first?" She asked.
Carol almost laughed. She figured she must look like a wreck and be doing a pretty poor job of hiding her current feelings if a woman she was pretty sure was almost a century old was trying to push her in front of her in line at the A and P.
Carol shook her head and let out the breath she was holding.
"No, I'm fine…really," Carol said.
The old woman eyed her a little more and Carol tried to smile again before glancing over her shoulder in one direction and then the next, still not seeing Ed anywhere. He was somewhere in the store and he was probably biding his time.
When Carol got up to the line she leaned as close to the cashier as she could. The girl was a teenager and very likely one of the seasonal employees working a part time job because her parents didn't want her just hanging around the house on her break.
"Can you…call Rick Grimes please?" Carol asked.
The girl stopped scanning groceries a moment and looked at her like she was confused.
"Can you please call Sheriff Grimes?" Carol repeated.
The girl wrinkled her brow and Carol glanced around, still finding no sign of Ed.
"Somethin' wrong?" the girl with firecracker earrings asked.
Carol nodded her head slightly.
"Could you please just call him? Or let me speak with your manager?" Carol asked, trying to keep her voice from coming out shaky.
The girl nodded and finished ringing Carol up before disappearing a moment and coming back to pile Carol's bags into her shopping cart. Carol smiled and thanked her, pushing her cart over to the side, and waiting on Rick.
Ed might be in the store, and he might be waiting, but she'd have a surprised for him. She wasn't dumb enough to go out into the parking lot alone. She'd wait until Rick got there and have him escort her out, put her in her car…then she'd go home and Ed would have to be a total idiot to try anything with Daryl, Merle, Tyreese, Andrea, and very likely Axel, present.
Ed didn't appear, though, obviously taking his sweet time shopping in the small supermarket. The police cruiser pulled into the parking lot and Carol felt her breathing become less labored almost instantly. It was disturbed again, though, when it was Shane Walsh that came moseying through the door like a long range cowboy with a bad case of jock itch instead of Rick Grimes.
Shane walked over and spoke to the girl with the firecracker earrings a moment before the girl nodded her head in Carol's direction and he came walking up to her.
"Somethin' the matter, Carol Ann?" Shane asked, standing with his thumbs hooked in his belt and his head cocked to the side as though he expected someone to challenge him to a duel right there in the A and P.
"Ed's here," Carol said. She had no other choice. Though she didn't particularly want to deal with Shane, it appeared he was the best that she was going to get.
Shane looked around. He chuckled softly.
"Uh…can you see him right now?" Shane asked, glancing back at her.
Carol looked around. Ed still wasn't in view.
"He's not here, here," Carol said. "He's in the store. I have a restraining order."
Shane chuckled again before sucking his teeth and looking around again.
"What exactly happened?" He asked.
Carol swallowed and shrugged a little before answering the question.
"He came up behind me in the eggs…said fragile things break," Carol started. "I almost fell…I mean I stumbled a little…he said careful because he didn't want anything to happen to me or my baby."
Shane chuckled lightly and Carol realized how ridiculous it sounded to say it out loud. She realized that recounting the story to anyone wouldn't make it sound like she was a mentally well woman, and perhaps she wasn't, but it was Ed…and there was something in his eyes…something in his voice. He didn't have to say anything. He could recite the alphabet to her and there was a certain tone of voice that he could use that would simply let her know what was about to happen to her…or what he wanted her to think was about to happen.
"It's not what he said," Carol said quickly. "It's how he said it."
Shane peered at her, shifting his weight a little and nodding his head slightly. Carol felt mocked by his face alone.
"I thought she would call Rick," Carol said quickly, almost wishing she'd taken her chances alone. Shane Walsh didn't care for her. He hadn't cared for her since the night she'd refused to have sex with him and it was obvious that he still wasn't over it. Carol felt like, at the moment, he almost seemed as threatening a figure as Ed.
"See…uh…Rick's off duty," Shane said. He smiled, but it wasn't sincere. "Got a family…it's a holiday. He doesn't have to come in as long as we can handle it…and we can handle it as long as we don't have to respond to too many bogus calls. See, the drunks down at Loretta's get a little out of hand…don't got no families and drink a little too much, so we concentrate our efforts there and Rick doesn't have to come in."
Carol felt a little queasy for some reason just for being in the situation.
"I just need you to walk me to my car," she said. "I have a restraining order," she repeated, keeping her voice low so as to not call the attention of anyone around. Ed still hadn't shown up and she was beginning to think that if she hadn't called at all, she would have already been in her car and gone by now without incident.
Shane chuckled and nodded his head again.
"Right…a restraining order, of course," Shane said. He tipped his head again and motioned toward the door and Carol started pushing her cart toward it feeling even more ashamed than a child being sent to the principal's office in front of the entire school.
When she got outside, Shane stepped outside beside her and they started through the parking lot.
"Can't arrest a man for buying eggs," Shane said. "Can't arrest him for telling a woman to be careful when she nearly falls down. Can't arrest him for happening to want a cheeseburger at the same time you do and showing up at the Dairy-O. Just so you know. The restraining order is for your private space, Carol…your workplace during your work hours. It doesn't cover the A and P and whenever you decide to go out for a carton of eggs."
Carol didn't respond. She listened to Shane's lecture as they walked toward her truck, cringing a little at the bitterness in his voice. She thought it was so bizarre that a man could seem so angry, just because she hadn't slept with him when she had absolutely no reason to sleep with him.
"It covers if I feel threatened," Carol said finally, "and I felt threatened."
Shane chuckled as they got to her truck and he leaned against the tailgate while She put the bags of groceries over the back of the truck and into the bed.
"Was it Alexis that had you feeling threatened? Or Mr. Williams was in there…he's a threatening old man," Shane taunted.
"It was Ed, and I'm telling you he's in there," Carol grumbled.
She wasn't sure now if she wouldn't have rather taken her chances with Ed. At least Ed was an asshole that was straightforward about things. He was an asshole, he knew he was an asshole, and he wanted probably to beat the shit out of her and do whatever he could to hurt her baby. But at least Ed was straightforward about his shit.
Shane, on the other hand, hid behind his badge and hid behind his smarmy smile. He hid behind his title and his power and used it as a position, she could see now, of power from which he could quietly harass women, and maybe men too, who didn't do what he wanted. And the sad thing about it was that not a single thing would ever happen to him because of it because it was Sweet Junction, and he was Shane Walsh.
Shane started to say something, probably about the fact that he hadn't seen Ed, when Carol glanced toward the doors of the A and P and saw Ed coming out, through the parking lot, a couple of bags on his arms…far fewer groceries than required the amount of time he spent in there.
"There's ole Ed," Shane crowed.
Carol shuddered a little and moved to put her cart away, keeping her head ducked. She glanced, her head still ducked, in Ed's direction and saw him wave at Shane before continuing on to a beat up white car that Carol had never seen before. She wondered, briefly, what had happened to the cars they had…both of them…but she certainly didn't care enough to inquire about it to anyone.
Carol turned quickly after pushing the cart into the rack and started back to her truck where Shane was still standing with his arms crossed.
"Boy I'm glad I was here to stop that," Shane muttered. "Instead of down at Loretta's where things are probably really messy…especially now that Loretta's got bar hands can't refrain from breaking bottles and causing scenes…but you know all about the scene down there, you work the weekends."
Carol took a deep breath. She was more than well aware that people murmured about her working at the Watering Hole, especially since she'd started showing. Sure, her parents would have had a fit about it if they'd been alive, but the fact of the matter was that money is money and a job is a job, especially when you've got a baby on the way.
"Thank you," Carol said, choosing to ignore Shane's comments. She pulled her truck door open but didn't get inside immediately. "Thank you for escorting me. I hope you have a Happy New Year and hopefully business isn't too bad."
Shane turned, leaning his arms on the back of the truck and shuffling his foot.
He chuckled again and glanced around the parking lot, nodding his head slightly.
"Anything else I can help you with?" Shane asked. "Any other stops you gotta make before you head on back to your people?"
Carol tried not to make the face that she instinctually made at his words and his tone of voice.
Carol knew good and well the judgment that went around in Sweet Junction and when she was younger she'd been taught to fear the shame of the town, but by now she didn't care so much. She realized it didn't matter. It didn't really change anything about her life. It was a bunch of narrow minded people running their mouths at best.
She wasn't Shane Walsh…she wasn't one of the Walshes…immune to everything for their name, their grandfather's name…their grandfather's grandfather's name…or whatever it was that made them small town royalty.
She was Carol Ann McAlister, formerly Carol Peletier, now Carol Dixon. She was a small town failure who couldn't keep a husband, couldn't be the good girl her parents would have wanted her to be at this point in her life, had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and now was married to one of a pair of drifting out of town rednecks that rolled into town in a rusted truck.
Her best friends were the town whore and the single black mother who had two children who were barely a year apart in age. Michonne was respected for her money, of course, but money only went so far to impress the barracudas that would look for any reason to ridicule you.
Carol almost snickered to herself, though, when she thought that just one of her people was worth more to her any day than the entire lot of gossips that would have looked down on any of them for their circumstances, and they were certainly better than the spoiled Shane Walsh that stood in front of her now. He was nothing more than overgrown, overpriviliged child with a good name, a badge, and a bad case of womanizing.
And now…a man with a bad case of hurt pride because the very woman he was trying to look down his nose at hadn't given it up to him…not in high school…and not down by the lake when she was hard on her luck.
"No, I'm good," Carol said, offering her best smile to Shane. "My people will be waiting on me…so I'm going to head on home. Thanks for the help, Shane. Tell your parents Happy New Year for me…you will be spending the holiday with them, right?"
Shane didn't reply. He narrowed his eyes a little and straightened up, adjusting his pants and walking toward his police cruiser without another word.
Carol got into the truck and shut the door, locking it immediately, before she even started the engine. She pulled out of the A and P before Shane had even locked his cruiser and headed toward her house.
Once or twice she glanced in her rearview mirror, feeling paranoid that Ed was following her, though she had no reason to believe he was. Still, she was jumpy every time she saw a car in the rearview that was white or even could have been mistaken for white in the slightly failing light of the early onset of evening.
She shook it out of her mind, though, when she pulled into the driveway at her house and Andrea and Axel waved at her enthusiastically from the yard next door. She smiled, waving back, and got out the truck to take the groceries inside and get started on their dinner.