AN: Thanks everyone that's still reading. Thank you to all of you that review as well. I'm glad to know that you're still on board and still enjoying our little story. I'm still enjoying myself as well, so we'll keep going!
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"You were right, just a diaper problem." Daryl said coming back into the bedroom. "Where were we?" He asked Michonne, crawling into bed and kissing her.
"You were just driving me crazy." Michonne said.
Hope had impeccable timing. She could always tell the exact moment that would be the worst to start crying over something. The cry had not been a very urgent one, so Michonne knew it had to be about a diaper. It was best if Daryl handled those when they came in the middle of the night because Hope, even if she wasn't hungry, seemed to think that Michonne should feed her any time came in there and right now Michonne had other plans for her breasts.
Most of the other men that Michonne had been with were not attentive about foreplay. Her husband, her first husband, had pretty much considered kissing her and grabbing her ass sufficient foreplay, and she could remember thinking always that it would be nice for him to pay some attention to making sure she was ready for sex. Pay some attention to making sure that she was primed.
Daryl was vastly different. Daryl treated foreplay like it was a wine tour of Michonne's body. Although she found this very hot, he would kill her sometimes by taking his time to a point where she thought she'd explode. He'd also stop annoyingly from time to time to say something to her, something entirely unrelated to make her lose her concentration. The thing was, she could tell that he knew what he was he was doing. He enjoyed it, this torture was funny to Daryl.
Daryl loved everything about this time together. He loved Michonne's face when she was lost in the moment, he loved that she gave herself completely over to him. She was completely his in these moments, like nothing else mattered. He also loved the sounds that she made. He loved how annoyed she got when he would talk to her about whatever he was thinking about. She said it distracted her, he was trying more to distract himself. Seeing her so turned on didn't exactly make it super easy on him to wait it out. Daryl also loved the sounds she made. There were so many different ones, but there was one in particular that she made when she really wanted him. It was almost a purring sound and Daryl liked it best of all. That sound was his goal, and he tried to wait it to enter her until he'd managed to get that sound from her at least once.
"'Chonne…" Daryl started for about the fourth time.
"Stop talking. You know what you're doing to me." Michonne growled at him. She didn't want to hear about whatever it was he had just thought about. She was throbbing and felt like biting something, but Daryl was too far away to bite.
Daryl moved his hand between her legs. "Don't feel like you're too distracted to me." He said. She bucked at his hand trying to move against it. "Greedy, greedy." He said, smiling.
"Come on, Daryl." She moaned. She did feel greedy right now. Daryl was kissing the inside of her thigh and she moved her own had down relieve herself. He slapped it out of the way.
"Nope, my job." Daryl said, smiling again. She growled at him. Daryl nipped at the inside of her thigh.
Finally he got the purr that he'd been waiting on. He nipped her again and she repeated the sound. Daryl moved back up to kiss her again, finally positioning himself to enter her. He didn't want her to know that the purr was what he was always trying to get out of her. He was scared then that she'd just learn to make it on command, and then she wouldn't really mean it, and he might not like it as much. Finally he entered her, and she accepted him gratefully, like she always did.
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Michonne walked with Carol in the rain to get breakfast started. Even though they were safe, Earl was gone, and no one else appeared to be a threat, Carol didn't like walking down to headquarters by herself. She had asked Michonne at first to walk with her, and Michonne had agreed to, but now she didn't have to ask anymore. Michonne would just be there, silently waiting in the morning to go with her. They didn't usually talk much.
They got to headquarters and Michonne sleepily sat down in the kitchen while Carol tried to get together what she was going to prepare for breakfast.
"Sleepy?" Carol asked. She yawned, having caught the yawn from Michonne.
"Yeah." Michonne said.
"You got to bed a little late last night." Carol said. Michonne made a face and Carol smiled. "Just don't let on to Daryl that I can hear it and it'll be fine. He seems to think that the house walls are impenetrable and it's been clear since the prison that you just don't care."
Michonne shrugged. "I guess I just didn't figure it was any big secret."
"You know, I used to be very secretive about those kinds of things." Carol said. "I grew up in a household where we pretty much taught 'we just don't talk about it' and I guess I carried that with me. Now I don't know if it would bother me or not to know that someone else could hear me." She paused a minute. "You know, maybe I shouldn't have said anything about it. If it makes you uncomfortable, I'm sorry."
"Carol, you and everyone at that prison, even Carl maybe, saw me give birth to Hope. I think if I had even an ounce of modesty left it's gone at this point." Michonne said.
Carol snickered and went back to going through the cabinets.
"You ladies need any help?" Dora said as she came through the door.
"You can help open cans, if you'd like." Carol said. Dora smiled and walked over to help. "I'm guessing that at least Maggie, Glenn, and Beth will be coming down here. Josh and Brenda will need to eat. How about your household, do you think you'll all want breakfast?"
"I'm sure we will. Those boys are big eaters. They've gone through most everything you gave me to take down there." Dora said.
"I'll get you some more stuff to take down there after breakfast. With all this rain there's not too much to do to pass the time." Carol said. "I don't even want to know what Maggie and Glenn are cooking up."
"They're pretty energetic." Dora said.
"Maggie especially. She gets cabin fever very easily and she's got a little bit more energy than she knows what to do with when she's got activities to help her relieve it." Carol said.
"Jimmy and Junior are a little like that. I scrounged up some games and stuff for them to play with, but it sounds like they're wrestling upstairs half the time. I'm afraid they're going to tear the house down around us. Me, I just prefer to spend my time sitting on the porch, watching whatever is going on and reading some books that I found." Dora said.
Dora really liked Carol. The others she wasn't entirely sure about yet, but Carol just seemed so honest and so open. That was one reason that it made Dora particularly sad that Earl had done what he did to her. Michonne, who was sitting silently at the table behind them, was one that Dora wasn't sure how to read yet. She seemed…maybe it was cold…maybe it was distant…or maybe it was both. Still, Dora was sure there was something to her. Daryl doted on her, and she always seemed to accept his affections, often silently, but receptively nonetheless, and Carol seemed to care for her. Dora felt like there was something between the two women. There was an obvious bond there, though Dora couldn't imagine yet how you would form a bond with someone who practically never spoke. Still, it was there, and Carol seemed comfortable with Michonne's silences.
Carol said something that Dora didn't entirely hear. "Beg your pardon?" She asked.
"Did you find any good books?" Carol asked.
"Oh, heavens yes." Dora said. She giggled a little and lowered her voice as though there was anyone besides the three of them present. "I like those…what do you call them? The sexy books with all the tall, dark, and handsome men and the women falling in love with them…" Dora blushed a little.
"Romance novels?" Carol asked. She smiled. Dora clutched her hand.
"Yes, but I like the dirty ones." She said, giggling again. "With lots of juicy parts."
Carol smiled at her again. Standing there with her Dora clutching her hand that way, she remembered a moment. A good moment that she hadn't thought of in a long time. It was Thanksgiving, or maybe Christmas. She was cooking with her mother and two of her aunts. Her aunt Rue had been there that year and Rue was always a bit of a firecracker. A lot of the family regarded Rue as the family eccentric, or the crazy aunt. Carol had always loved Rue. You never knew what Rue was going to say or do. Usually, just before Rue disclosed some secret or uncovered some gossip about someone, she would take your hand, just as Dora was doing now, and then she would tell you whatever it was she had to tell you, often giggling and covering her mouth a little. She had loved her aunt Rue. Carol had been very sad when Rue passed away, but she had some wonderful memories of holidays and Rue, uncovering all the 'shameful secrets' of the family.
"Well, if you've got any good ones, pass them to me. I could use some romance in my life. I've got one that I've read about fifteen times." Carol admitted.
"Well if it's not one that I've got I'll borrow that from you." Dora said.
"Deal." Carol said. She could hear voices outside and knew that soon the living room would be filling up with restless, hungry bellies. It was time to get her family fed.
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"Do you think her eyes look different?" Daryl asked. Hope was lying on the floor "singing" to them and kicking her feet. Daryl was lying on his stomach next her, playing with one of her toys and kissing her at intervals, making her cackle.
"They're getting lighter." Michonne said. "Babies eyes change as they get a little bit older."
Carol sat on the couch with Michonne, holding Judith who was sucking her thumb, her duck tucked in the crook of her arm, and rubbing Carol's neck with the other hand. She was humming to herself, trying to take an impromptu nap. Carol always knew that Judith was sleepy when she snuggled into her and started rubbing her neck. The humming was a guarantee that she'd be out soon.
"Do you think Beth is going to end up going after that boy Junior?" Carol asked.
"She might." Michonne said. "I noticed Sasha making small talk with Jimmy over breakfast."
"We got some predators in this bunch." Daryl said grinning. "Them poor boys won't know what hit 'em if'n they go after them like you come after me, 'Chonne."
"You didn't give me any choice, Daryl. If I'd waited on you to make a move you'd still be brooding around and snapping at me whenever you got frustrated." Michonne said.
Daryl knew it was true. He probably wouldn't have ever gotten up the guts to tell Michonne what he was feeling if she hadn't kissed him in the watch tower. He was very happy that she had kissed him, that she'd known he just needed her to kiss him so he'd be sure.
"Do you think Hershel ever had the talk with her?" Carol asked. Judith had stopped humming now.
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that she has a good idea of what's what. I mean the prison was a hot house for sex education." Michonne said.
"I mean I know she's heard it, but I didn't know if he actually talked to her about it." Carol said.
"Well, I'm not explaining the details." Michonne said. "And I offered a live demonstration of what happens if you don't use birth control, so I say just let her figure the rest out for herself."
"She seems like such a kid for that kinda thing." Daryl said.
"She's over 18 by now, I think." Carol said. "By that time I was married."
"How old were you when you got married?" Michonne asked.
"I was 17." Carol said. "Nobody had the talk with me and I was surprised on my wedding night."
"You were a virgin on your wedding night?" Michonne asked.
"Yep. And I don't think Ed was very good at any of it. I never felt compelled to make many of the sounds that I heard in the prison." Carol said.
"I don't think I wanna hear this conversation." Daryl said.
"Oh don't be getting shy now, Daryl, with as much as I know about your sex life, don't act like you can't handle some tiny details about mine." Carol said. "How old were you when you got married?"
"I was twenty two." Michonne said. "And I wasn't a virgin."
"When did you lose it?" Carol asked.
"Aw man, I'm trapped in chick hell." Daryl said, looking uncomfortable. This was the first time that Daryl really realized he was the only man in this house.
"Don't pretend that you men don't talk about this stuff too." Michonne said. Daryl blushed. "I was fifteen when I lost my virginity. It was in the back seat of a car and from what I remember it wasn't the best experience I've ever had. Neither of us really knew what we were doing."
Carol looked at Daryl and smiled, a little bit devilishly.
"Ah hell no!" Daryl said. "I ain't talkin' 'bout this with both y'all starin' at me like that."
"Come on, Daryl, it's fun." Carol said. "We won't tease you."
"Yeah, Daryl, when did you lose your virginity?" Michonne pressed.
Daryl scrunched his face up and blushed. "I don't know. I don't wanna talk about it." He said.
"We told you ours, now you have to tell us yours." Carol said.
"Fine, but then you gotta quit raggin' me…damn women. I was thirteen, I reckon'." Daryl admitted finally.
"See? Did that hurt?" Michonne asked.
Daryl threw one of the toys he had at her and she dodged it, laughing at him.