"Daryl…" Carol said, shuffling around and getting ready by lamplight to head out to start breakfast, "it's freezing out there, so if you're going out to check parameters you're going to want an extra layer."
"Gotcha." Daryl called from upstairs.
Carol zipped up her coat and pulled on the hood. It was probably the ugliest coat that she'd ever seen in her life. It was some sort of strange gray color that she couldn't imagine had ever been in style, but it was the coziest thing she'd ever put on in her whole life and had decided to keep it, figuring that fashion was a thing of the past. These days none of them paid any attention to fashion. If it fit, or you could make it fit with a little tweaking, and it did what you wanted it to do, you wore it, and no one was going to say anything to you.
Carol snuggled down into her coat and headed out the door to start making the breakfast that everyone would be expecting soon.
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As it was getting lighter outside, Carol was finishing up breakfast. The clouds looked like snow clouds and she was a little excited. She'd like to see the snow, and it wasn't as if it would really change their lives all that much. It might even be fun, and she had a plan for dessert if it turned out to be a good snow.
Tyreese walked up behind Carol, being one of the first outside to get breakfast. He tried to get up early, though he was never up as early as she was, to spend a little time with her while she bustled around trying to get everything ready.
"Good morning," he said, catching her off-guard. "Need any help?"
She had jumped at first, but then she just turned around and smiled, at him, standing up straight in front of him and looking up at him. He had figured out by now that this was her way of saying she expected him to kiss her. It wasn't that she was requesting a kiss, she was simply expecting one. He obliged her.
"I think it's going to snow," she said, when they parted. Tyreese looked up at the sky. It did look like it was going to snow.
"Looks like it might," he said. Snow wasn't a common occurrence in Georgia, but it did happen from time to time and it looked like they might be in for one of those times. Tyreese chuckled a little.
"What?" Carol asked. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Tyreese said. "I was just thinking about something we used to do."
"What? Tell me," Carol urged. Tyreese noticed that she took his hand.
"I was just thinking that we better run to the store and get all the milk and bread we can before we get snowed in." Tyreese said, chuckling again. Carol laughed.
"I remember doing that!" She said. "You couldn't find milk or bread for at least a week after they said it might snow."
Tyreese looked down at Carol's hand in his. "Good Lord, woman, where are your gloves?" He grabbed Carol's other hand and wrapped both of hers in his.
"I don't wear any," Carol said. "It's easier to work without them."
"Your fingers are going to fall off," Tyreese said, rubbing her hands between his.
Carol's fingers were starting to tingle. "I keep warming them over the fire," she said. "Stop doing that, they're starting to sting."
"The stinging means that you're one step away from losing your fingers," Tyreese said, but he did release her hands. The cold bit at her hands in contrast to the warmth of his, so she shoved them quickly in her pockets to reserve a little of the warmth. "I'm sure that somewhere around here we could find some gloves that were tight enough that you could still work and that could keep your hands from freezing."
"Fine, I'll tell everyone to be on the lookout for some," Carol said, smiling.
"You better. If not, I'll tell them," Tyreese said. He kissed Carol again and then went inside headquarters where he could already see people trickling in.
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Michonne hadn't come to breakfast. It was common that she slept in if Hope and Judith would allow it, and no one made any fuss about it. She'd make up for any time she missed when she did get up, so she might as well enjoy a little extra sleep if she could.
After everyone had practically finished eating, Carol was surveying the group. She excused Josh and Brenda to go to bed. They'd been up all night, so their duty to the group was done.
Carol eyed Chelsea, who, despite the fact that he was trying to talk to Tyreese and Rick about something, was somewhat hanging on Daryl. Carol found this annoying. She knew that Michonne had been watching the girl and that her very open advances toward Daryl annoyed her, which Carol could understand. The girl was publicly and very openly flirting with Daryl, and though he did a great job of almost ignoring her entirely, in Carol's opinion it wasn't decent the way the girl was acting.
"Maggie, Sasha, and Beth," Carol started, "I need you three to go for water. There's a pickaxe with the buckets that you can take with you in case you run into any ice you might need to get out of the way. If you run into Walkers, though, please don't use the pickaxe to kill them. I'd like to keep that one Walker free."
The three girls got up without question.
"Jimmy and Junior, you're on watch. Go with the girls and help them get out the gate safely, please." She commanded. The boys scrambled to their feet, thanking her for breakfast before starting out the door.
"Stella and Chelsea, it's time you started to earn your keep around here." Carol said. Stella, smiling, got up from the table. The look that Chelsea shot Carol, before abandoning her efforts at, what was essentially, annoying Daryl, did not escape Carol. The look grated on Carol's nerves a little.
Nobody questions my authority on handing out duties. Carol thought. Nobody, and especially not you.
Carol decided she'd give Stella the more pleasurable of the tasks she had in mind. When Stella reached her from making her way around the room which was always a little crowded, Carol returned her smile. I need you to go and get everyone's ration boxes and refill them in the storage house. There's a list of what each household gets nailed up in the main room in case you've forgotten," Carol said.
"OK, thank you for breakfast," Stella said.
"You're welcome. Let me know if you get confused," Carol responded. Stella started out the door.
Carol could see Chelsea's attitude written all over her face as she stood there with a hand on her hip, looking annoyed. Carol thought that if this were her child, she'd have taken control of her long ago. She believed in being gentle with kids, but she wouldn't tolerate disrespect.
"You're going to be mending clothes today," Carol said. "There's two boxes upstairs that need to be mended. There's plenty of thread and needles up there already."
"I don't know how to sew." Chelsea snapped back, cocking her head to the side and raising an eyebrow.
Carol smiled softly. "Then I guess it's time for you to learn." She countered. "Dora, would you mind giving her a little tutorial on how to mend things?" She asked with a little less bite to her voice.
"Sure, no problem." Dora said. She started slowly to her feet, stiffened by the cold. Carol walked over and lent her a helping hand.
"Just show her on one or two things," Carol said. "It isn't rocket science and you don't want your fingers to get too stiff."
"What about my fingers?" Chelsea asked from across the room.
"Your fingers are young, they can stand it," Carol said, a hint of smile on her face.
Dora started up the stairs with a pouting Chelsea following behind.
"Rachel, I'm going to be warming up some water to wash clothes, would you help me with laundry?" Carol asked.
Rachel, who had not missed the biting tone that Carol had assumed with Chelsea but with no one else, herself included, could quickly figure out what had gotten on Carol's nerves. "Sure thing," she said, relieved to know that they wouldn't be working with ice cold water.
"Frank, can I count on you for your magnificent babysitting skills when Michonne brings the girls over?" Carol asked.
Frank grunted and Carol knew that was his way of signaling that he didn't mind. She was amazed at how good he was with the girls. He changed diapers, fixed bottles, rocked, played with, and soothed them without ever complaining. He didn't often like to go running around in search of Michonne when Hope was hungry, but if she hadn't sensed it he'd always let someone know to go find her.
"Daryl, I don't know what your plans are for the day and who you'll need, but anyone you don't have a job for can have a job sorting things, putting them away, or cleaning out houses. If you can't figure out where you need to be, find me," Carol finished. She started collecting up the dishes to take them out back, leaving Daryl to finish doling out whatever responsibilities he may have for the others.
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"I really don't like that Chelsea," Carol commented to Michonne when she'd quietly taken her place to help Carol and Rachel with the laundry. She didn't mind doing it on days like today when Carol heated all the water. The water was so hot that it almost scalded your hands, but that heat seemed to trickle up and warm the rest of you.
Michonne shot a look at Rachel, but it appeared that Rachel already fully understood. Michonne supposed it was fine to have the conversation in front of her. Rachel was likely to report anything said back to Rick, but it didn't matter much. Daryl had begun confiding in Rick again, so he mostly knew everything that happened around there.
"If it's because of how she acts with Daryl, don't worry about it," Michonne said. "I mean I'm not really worried about it. Daryl's not like that anyway. He'll put her in her place if she goes too far."
"I have no doubt that Daryl's not that type of man, but it's still disrespectful and shameful the way she openly flirts with him," Carol said.
"I have to admit," Rachel spoke up, "it is a little over the top. I would be furious if she were like that with Rick."
"You don't know," Carol said, "she might be like that with Rick eventually. I don't think she had the best of upbringings before all this happened."
Michonne thought about it. Chelsea's advances had been more and more forward lately, and though Michonne didn't like it, she'd let it go so far. Daryl shrugged the girl off like most people would have gotten rid of a gnat, so she hadn't let it worry her too much.
"Do you think I should have a talk with her?" Michonne asked.
Rachel snorted.
"What?" Michonne asked.
"I was just thinking you're the last woman in the world I'd want to 'have a talk with' about flirting with her husband," Rachel responded.
Then it was Carol's turn to snort. Michonne tried to hide her smile.
"I think someone needs to have a talk with her," Carol said. "She's also got a nasty little attitude that I don't appreciate much, so I'm keeping her busy mending clothes."
Mending clothes was possibly the worst job that you could get assigned to. Carol generally reserved the job for anyone who wasn't behaving as she saw fit. Other times she did it herself so as to not make someone suffer through it. Your fingers would be killing you by the time you were done, not to mention that you'd probably stabbed your own fingertips a few dozen times. Your eyes would be tired and from the position that you often took your back and shoulders ached. It was really a miserable job, and if you got assigned the position, instead of Carol silently taking it, you knew that you had done something that was unacceptable in her eyes.
"In any case," Carol continued, "I have already dosed all the 'kids' around here with birth control. There are too many glances going on for my tastes and if they decide to start swapping each other like baseball cards we don't need the added drama of 'who's the baby's daddy' added to the equation."
"Do you think they'd do that?" Rachel asked. "I mean switch up who they're with just like that?"
"They might," Michonne said. "Most of them just got together because there wasn't anybody else. Now they've got a lot more choices, and there's a wild card in the bunch."
Carol stopped for a minute. She got up and collected up the clean clothes to go and hang up.
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Daryl was wandering in the far side of the community, freezing, but not as bad as he would have been if he hadn't taken Carol's advice and thrown his heavy leather jacket on top of the layers he was already wearing.
It had started snowing. They were huge flakes, and Daryl had actually stopped a few times to catch a few of them on his tongue, sure that no one would see his brief trip back to childhood. They were accumulating, too, so that meant that tomorrow they'd all likely take a day off to enjoy the snow.
He'd talked to Rick, Tyreese, and Glenn. They were working on actually putting into action the idea of planting things and being able to do so when the ground thawed out. Daryl was surveying the sizes of the yards available to them, having designated an area that they would dedicate to such a task. He was trying to figure out how much space, exactly, was going to be available and how much they might realistically produce in that given space. They'd also discussed the rather daunting task that they thought they might begin of tearing down the houses in that area and tearing up the streets to give them more space for growing things. It would be a huge undertaking by hand, but Daryl thought that he'd tear down the houses piece by piece with an axe and break up the pavement with a sledgehammer himself if it meant that his family could stay there, safe, for a long time.
He had not expected Chelsea to come bounding out of nowhere.
Damn kid's like a fox or something. Daryl thought. He hadn't heard her coming and had no indication that she was coming, it was like she just popped up.
"What are you doing out here?" She asked.
"Workin'," Daryl said, shortly. "Ain't that what you're s'posed to be doin'? Carol won't like it none if you fall down on the job."
"Carol's not the boss of me, and besides, I'm on a break." Chelsea responded, falling in step with Daryl.
She was distracting and Daryl wished she'd go away. He wasn't in the mood to talk. He was busy and for him figuring out how much food they could produce themselves annually was a very important piece of business.
"Carol's the boss of everybody," Daryl said. "Even you."
The only people that Carol didn't boss around were Daryl and Michonne and that was because she knew that both of them would come to her to find out what to do if they weren't busy doing something already.
"I don't know why everyone lets her boss them around," Chelsea said. "It's not like she runs this place. That's your job, isn't it?"
"Nobody runs this place," Daryl said. "We work together to get done what needs doin' so that everybody gets to enjoy it. You gotta earn your keep 'round here if'n you expect to be taken care of." Daryl said sharply.
"You're cute when you're grumpy." Chelsea said.
"I ain't grumpy, I'm busy and you're distractin' me. Now get on back to headquarters and do what you're s'posed to be doin'." Daryl said, obviously annoyed.
"Don't be that way." Chelsea said. "I just came down here to see if you might want a little company. You shouldn't have to be walking around out here all alone."
"I don't want no company. If I wanted company, I reckon I'da asked someone to come with me, but I wouldn'ta asked you," Daryl responded. Why was she still following him? She was like a fungus, he couldn't get rid of her.
"Oh, come on now. It might do you some good to talk to me," Chelsea said. "Stop being so serious all the time and think about other things. There are things to think about besides work, you know…especially when it's so cold."
Daryl stopped short when he felt Chelsea take his hand. He snatched his hand away from her.
"Listen, I don't know if you missed somethin' or not, but I got me a woman and I do plenty of thinkin' 'bout other things 'sides work, but she's involved in what I think about and what I do. That baby of hers is mine too, you know." Daryl snapped. Chelsea backed up a little, but the smile returned to her face after a few minutes.
"Well accidents happen. I don't hold that against you." Chelsea said.
"Hope weren't no damn accident!" Daryl snapped again. "And 'Chonne's my fuckin' wife! I don't need some nitwit kid followin' me 'round and gettin' her upset, and I'd advise you to listen to what I'm tellin' you 'cause I don't think you really wanna piss 'Chonne off!"
Chelsea backed away again, a look of fear in her eyes at Daryl's reaction. He didn't care, and he didn't lower his voice.
"I done told you once and I ain't gonna tell you again, get your ass back to headquarters and do what the hell you're s'posed to be doin'!" He yelled. Chelsea turned without saying anything and headed in the other direction. "Damn, why the fuck they gotta bring this shit here for anyway?" Daryl said, not to anyone but himself.
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Tyreese and Glenn were busy moving furniture that they weren't going to use and busting it up behind headquarters for Carol to use as firewood.
When Tyreese saw Carol coming, he knew she had something on her mind. She had her hands on her hips and her walk was not the leisurely stroll of trying to see what everyone was up to. This was a walk of determination.
"Glenn, can I speak to Tyreese a minute?" Carol asked when she got there. Glenn, who was struggling at the moment to get the leg off of an office desk, paused and looked up.
"Sure," he said, looking a little unsure of what he should do.
"Alone?" Carol prodded. Glenn took her cue and trotted off to scope out more furniture.
"Well, what's on your mind?" Tyreese asked, trying not to smile at the face she was making. He couldn't tell if she was mad, annoyed, or just thinking too hard, but the face was cute. "Because I can tell you're thinkin' something," he added.
"Now that Chelsea's here and unattached, you've got more options," Carol said, lowering one hand from her hip but keeping the other firmly in place.
Tyreese just looked at her for a moment. She was obviously steamed, and it involved him, but he wasn't sure what he had done or had failed to do to bring about such a mood.
"I'm sorry, Carol, but I'm not sure what you're getting at and because of the look on your face I'd like a little more information before even trying to respond to you." He said. He put down the axe that he was holding and walked over to face her.
"I mean if you've been talking to me just because I was the only available option you had, then you've got more options now." Carol said. Her face changed a little, but it obvious that she was still thinking. Tyreese didn't say anything, waiting to see if she had more to add to it. "Chelsea's not tied to anyone, and she's a pretty, young girl," Carol added. She was still thinking and Tyreese waited her out. "Is that the only reason that you've been talking to me?" She asked finally. Now she looked hurt, and Tyreese felt sorry for it, even though he had not been responsible for any of it.
"Carol," he said softly after a minute, "if that were the case, and I was looking for was a piece of ass from the first person that would give it to me, do you think I would have kept talking to you after she got here? I'd have gone after her that first night. She doesn't seem like one that would have any qualms about just giving it away." Now it was Tyreese's turn to look hurt. "You know," he said, "I really thought that you would have thought better of me than that," he said. He paused a moment, both of them looking at each other, Tyreese looking disappointed and Carol looking apologetic already. "I really thought by now you wouldn't think I was that kind of man. I've certainly tried to give you every indication that I wasn't."
Carol stopped. "I'm sorry, Tyreese," she said. "I didn't mean it to come off that way. I guess I just got riled up. It was something Michonne said about the teenagers here…" Carol started.
"Michonne?" Tyreese asked. "She's the one that made me think about it in the first place. Why would she think that I was going to be like that?"
"No," Carol corrected, "she wasn't talking about you. She was talking about the kids switching off partners now that they had more options and I guess it just made me wonder…" She was cut off by Tyreese, who grabbed her, a little more roughly than he'd intended, and pulled her to him in a kiss.
"You don't have to wonder," he said after they parted. "I wasn't exploring other options."
Carol didn't know what to say, didn't know if she could say anything just then. She just sort of nodded at him and turned around, leaving him to get back to work.
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What are you doing?" Maggie asked, passing through the kitchen and finding Carol eating something out of a can.
Carol wiped her mouth and showed Maggie the can of sweetened condensed milk.
"Oooh, can I have some?" Maggie asked, her eyes growing wide at the prospect of all that sweetness.
"No," Carol said. Maggie looked disappointed. "I'm testing it to see if it's still good. If I'm not violently ill in about thirty minutes then you'll all get some, don't make that face."
Maggie made another face at her and continued on the path that she had started.
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After dinner, Carol collected the dirty dishes to take them outside. She informed everyone that she had a special treat for them, but that they'd have to be patient and give her a minute to get dessert ready. Everyone was fine with that, and went back to the conversations that they'd been enjoying.
In the kitchen, Carol went to work trying to quickly prepare the dessert that she'd planned. She'd had the others help her lay out sheets around on the ground, forbidding anyone to walk on them but not explaining their purpose. Now she had a few buckets of snow collected and numerous cans of sweetened condensed milk she'd opened, having discovered that though it wasn't quite as delicious as she'd remembered it being before, it was still good and not left her heaving. She was trying to mix it together in batches in a large bowl and dole it out to smaller ones, not really afraid of it melting since the kitchen wasn't much warmer than it was outside, and nothing much had melted out there since the snow started accumulating. She was getting it done, but she'd created a pretty sticky mess for herself.
Tyreese slipped into the kitchen to see if Carol needed help with anything.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Making snow cream," she said, smiling. "I'm making a pretty big mess of things, though. I'm going to need a bath. I'm covered in condensed milk."
She held up her hands demonstrating their sticky coating. To her surprise, Tyreese, who was standing behind her, took her wrist and pulled it to him, sucking one of her fingers.
Carol was surprised at herself, feeling her breathing speed up, and feeling an electrical jolt from the action.
"Sweet," Tyreese said, kissing the back of her neck. Her head was spinning and she closed her eyes for a minute.
"Yeah…" she stammered, "it's very sweet."
"I wasn't talking about the milk," Tyreese said. He turned her around and kissed her, pressing her against the counter.
Carol's heart was pounding. She didn't put her hands on him, but she surprised herself by grinding against him, almost unconsciously. She hadn't felt like this before, like she so desperately didn't want this kiss to end, like she wanted more of him than just his tongue.
"Oh!"
They both jumped, pulling apart at the sound. Carol blushed, realizing they were both panting and Maggie was standing there looking wide eyed, her hand over her mouth.
"I'm sorry," Maggie stammered, still standing there.
Tyreese moved away from Carol. He cleared his throat.
"I'm going to head home, call it an early night," he said.
"Don't you want dessert?" Carol asked.
Maggie still hadn't moved. She was frozen there with her hand over her mouth like she didn't know what to do.
"No thanks, I've had plenty," he said. Tyreese quickly went out the kitchen and then they heard the front door close.
Carol looked at Maggie, blushing again, but didn't say anything. She didn't know what was coming over her, but she almost felt like crying. Instead she just grabbed her spoon and again and went back to scraping cans into the bowl, trying not to look at Maggie.
"Carol, I'm so sorry," Maggie started. Carol just shook her head for a second.
"Don't worry about it," she said.
"It was just taking a while so I thought you might need some help," Maggie continued.
"You could start carrying bowls and spoons into everyone," Carol said, still without looking at her.
Carol hoped that Maggie wouldn't say anything, and she hoped that such a situation would arise again with Tyreese. She wanted that feeling back again, but she wasn't sure how she was going to get it.
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Michonne smiled at Hope. Daryl was "sharing" his ice cream with her and she kept her mouth open, her tongue out, following his spoon around like some kind of baby bird. She noticed, though she didn't know why, that Chelsea hadn't so much as spoken to Daryl tonight, though she did keep looking over there. Daryl had chosen to sit next to Michonne tonight and now to tease Hope with ice cream.
"She likes it," Michonne said to Daryl.
"'Course she does," Daryl said, "'Cause it tastes a lot like what she's used to, 'cept it's cold." He whispered to her.
"What do you mean?" Michonne whispered back.
Daryl blushed. "Well, your milk kinda tastes a little like this, 'cept it's got somethin' nutty to it and somethin' that's kinda like cinnamon or somethin'," Daryl whispered. He blushed again because Michonne was smiling at him.
"So now you're a connoisseur of breast milk?" Michonne whispered in his ear.
"Just yours," Daryl said, blushing again.
Michonne smiled at him again and went back to studying the room. Everyone was pleased with the ice cream, even though they had to suffer the cold weather to get it. Michonne had to admit that it had been an unexpected treat, though she'd known Carol was up to something.
Carol looked out of sorts tonight, and Michonne didn't know why. Tyreese had left early, so she suspected that it had something to do with that, but she hoped that he hadn't left because of any kind of conflict and that Carol was just sad because he wasn't there. Regardless, Carol wasn't talking to anyone, so it was pretty clear that she didn't have much desire to discuss her feelings right now, and Michonne wouldn't push her until she decided to open up to her.
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"Well, I'm glad you put her in her place, but I'm still going to have a little talk with her," Michonne said to Daryl when they were in bed and he had recounted his encounter that day with Chelsea.
"I didn't like that she called Hope an accident. She ain't got no right to talk about things she don't know nothin' 'bout," Daryl pouted.
"Daryl," Michonne said, "Hope was an accident."
"No she weren't and don't you say that no more," Daryl said.
"Well I certainly didn't plan to get pregnant," Michonne said. "Did you have some master plan that you didn't tell me about?"
"No, weren't no plan," Daryl said.
"Then that's an accident," Michonne said.
"No it weren't neither," argued Daryl. "An accident is when somethin' happens and you don't like the result of it. A surprise is when somethin' happens and you do like it. That means Hope weren't no accident. She was a surprise."
Michonne smiled. "You know what, Daryl, I'm going to give that one to you. I like the sound of that. She wasn't an accident. She was just a surprise."
Daryl kissed her. "I think the girl done been set straight," he said, "what you gon' say to her?"
"I don't know yet, Daryl, but she's going to hear from me on the situation," Michonne said.
"Just remember, 'Chonne, she's really just a kid still. Don't scare her too much," Daryl said.
"Don't worry, Daryl, I won't scare her any more than she needs to be scared," Michonne said.
"I mean it weren't like I'da done nothin' no way," Daryl said.
"I know that, Daryl. Believe me, I know that. She still needs to know that it's not OK to go after other women's husbands before she starts trying it out with others around here. I figure I'm as good a woman as any to let her in on that secret," Michonne said.
"You is that, 'Chonne. You is that," Daryl responded.