Absolutely no one protested when Carol sent them down to water the fields. Tending anything growing there was of the upmost importance to anyone, and it was almost deemed an honor to get sent down with a wheelbarrow full of buckets of water and watering can. Even if your job took you hours to do, it seemed at the moment to be the most important job that you could be entrusted with.
Other people continued with demolition, and Maggie and Glenn continued to select carefully their run partners, hitting towns up that were in the area.
Anyone feeling useless could go on an almost constant stream of water runs or could choose to run cars outside the gates and siphon off gas. There was certainly no shortage of work to be done, and that didn't even touch on the multiple jobs that Carol carried off by herself.
"Ok," Maggie said at breakfast, "we're going to hit up this other little town that Michonne told us about today, so we'll need backup. If we take both trucks we can clear out a lot more."
Maggie had become a strategist, even suggesting that once they'd cleaned out the stores they could start a sort of "door to door" project like they had done within the community, arguing that people stockpiled so much stuff they could easily drag another year of easy living out of raiding their homes. Daryl hadn't completely signed off on the project, still wanting to see what they got from just the basic raids, realizing that a door to door type sweep of a town would take a long time, and made whoever was doing it more vulnerable in the meantime.
It was warming up, and the Walkers were starting to swarm a little, apparently stirred by the lack of chilled temperatures. It was riskier now whenever you were outside the gates.
"Do you want in, Michonne?" Maggie asked.
"Yeah, I'll go," Michonne offered.
"No you won't," Carol said. Michonne looked at her. "And you won't make that face at me either," Carol added.
Maggie looked at Michonne and Michonne shrugged a little.
"I don't know if you haven't noticed it, Michonne, but you're not entirely yourself," Carol said. "You've been tired lately, and you've been acting a little differently." She directed her conversation then at Maggie, "While you're out, I'm going to need you to see if you can get me some pregnancy tests at the drug store."
"No problem," Maggie said, looking back at Michonne.
"Carol, I don't think…" Michonne started.
Carol cut her off and Michonne looked surprised.
"I know you haven't had your period since we started with this birth control, most of us haven't, and I've been waiting on morning sickness to let me know, but I know that's no guarantee since you told me you didn't get sick before Hope. I was hoping that having Daryl's kids was what made you sick, but I know that I can't rely on that," Carol continued.
Carol looked around at the group, most of which had frozen for a moment. She thought about it.
"That didn't come out the way that I wanted it to come out," she corrected. "Still, you're not going on any runs until you can produce a negative pregnancy test for me and we don't have any for you to try."
They had found a rather large stash of birth control pills and the like while going through the houses, and Carol had squirreled away any contraceptives she came upon, but there weren't any pregnancy tests, at least not in the boxes that people had brought to her in storage. Apparently most of the people in this community had believed greatly in family planning, and none of them had been in the stages of planning more family.
Michonne looked around, slightly embarrassed. Everyone was looking at her and she felt like she was in one of those dreams where you're supposed to give a speech or do something really big and you suddenly realize that you're naked and everyone is staring you. Except she wasn't asleep, and she wasn't naked. Still, everyone was staring at her now. Carol had just told them she hadn't had her period in a while, and had added to that gem the fact that she thought she might be pregnant.
"Well, I officially feel like I can come to meals naked," Michonne said, snickering at all the faces looking at her. "I have not one ounce of privacy left."
Carol blushed, and Michonne didn't miss it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say all of that, I only meant to say that you're not going out on runs until I know that you can go out on them safely," Carol said.
Michonne went back to her breakfast, not looking up again.
"It's OK, Carol, I'm not mad. Everyone, please stop staring at me, it's making these powdered eggs less appealing than they have to be," she said.
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"You think you might be pregnant, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked, following Michonne as she went around to collect ration boxes for Carol, a job that Carol had deemed suitable for her in case she were pregnant.
"I don't know, Daryl, that's the problem. We'll have to wait until they get back with the tests," she said.
"You knowed last time," he said.
"No, I didn't," Michonne corrected. "I thought I got food poisoning from something I ate, it was Carol who let me know that it wasn't food poisoning. If I am pregnant, then I'm not sick yet, but I don't know if that means I'll get sick or I won't. It's hard to tell."
"But do you think you might be?" Daryl asked.
Michonne was getting annoyed. Daryl was following her around asking her questions she didn't have answers to while she was doing a job she didn't really want to be doing.
"Daryl, isn't there something that you could be doing right now besides tailing me?" She barked. "Can't you go check out the fields or help in demolition or anything?"
Daryl backed up a little, losing step with Michonne. He decided, all things considering, that maybe it wasn't best to annoy her right now and she was clearly annoyed.
"Sorry, 'Chonne," he said. "I guess I'ma go do demolition work. I'll see ya later." He turned, reluctantly, and started in the opposite direction.
Michonne watched him walking away like a dog with his tail between his legs and she felt bad for snapping at him.
"Daryl!" She called.
He stopped and turned around to face her.
"Come here," she said.
Daryl came back, with the same general nature that he'd walked away with.
"What is it, 'Chonne?" He asked.
"I'm sorry," she said. She reached out the one hand not holding the box she was carrying and pulled him forward until she could kiss him. When she broke loose she looked at him, half smiling. "I guess I just need my space right now. I love you," she offered.
"I love you too, 'Chonne," he said.
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"Do you think that anyone has had the talk with Beth and Junior?" Michonne asked while filling ration boxes with Carol in the storage house.
"Soap?" Carol asked.
"Two bars," Michonne said, checking the lists out of the boxes around her. Carol handed her two bars of soap and she dropped them into their respective boxes.
"What do you mean, the talk?" Carol asked. "I would think living in the prison was enough talk for anyone. I doubt Rick even has to have that conversation with Carl now."
"Well I mean I'm sure they know what sex is, and certainly they know a wide variety of sounds it can produce, but I mean more about the mechanics of it. You said you were surprised on your honeymoon, and I know I didn't quite know what to expect the first time," Michonne said.
"Well, I suppose, like everyone else, if they don't know now, they'll figure it out," Carol said. "Do you want to tell them the mechanics of it, because I certainly don't want to?"
Michonne laughed. "No, I don't really want to either. I do want to talk to Maggie and Glenn about Beth, though, and I've been meaning to do so. She wants to move in with Sasha for a little more breathing room."
There was no secret now that Tyreese had moved into their house. He was there every night, and he was there every morning. His laundry went into their laundry basket, and his ration box went right alongside theirs. No one had said anything about it, but no one was pretending it was any kind of top secret information either.
"I think that they'll be fine with that, you've just got to remind them both that neither of them had anyone standing in their way, at least not really, and that Beth and Junior are old enough to make their own decisions," Carol said. "Toothpaste?"
Michonne checked her list. "Four tubes," she said.
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"Why we gotta wait 'til mornin'?" Daryl asked, crawling in bed. It was eating him alive to know if Michonne was pregnant, but she seemed so nonchalant about it.
"Because, if I'm pregnant, then I'm barely pregnant, and it will show up better on the test in the morning. That's just how these things work, Daryl," she said, getting in bed.
Daryl was excited and nervous all at the same time. He wanted to know desperately and he couldn't really figure out how the tests could tell time. How did they know if it was morning or night when she did it? He really wanted an answer then, but she'd been adamant about the fact that it wouldn't show up correctly unless she waited until morning. Daryl didn't feel like he could sleep, and it didn't help that it was obvious that was all Michonne felt like doing at the moment.
Daryl wrapped his arm around her, trying to be satisfied with just holding her. He didn't want to ask her anymore questions. She'd been pretty touchy about the whole thing and he didn't know if it was hormones like Hershel had said it was when she was touchy and pregnant with Hope or that she just wasn't in the mood to answer questions.
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Michonne sat for a while glaring at the lines that glared back at her. She was trying very hard to decide how she felt in that moment and all she'd come up with was that she couldn't answer that question with any distinct answer.
She had to show it Daryl, and she had to show it to Carol
Carol was up, preparing breakfast for the crowd that would soon be rising and shuffling toward headquarters with expectations of a hot meal and their assignments for the day. Daryl was sleeping, having hardly noticed at all her slipping out from under his arm to come down. She knew he'd been up most of the night, anticipating this moment, and she decided he should be the first to see the lines that were mocking her at the moment.
He'd be excited, as excited as part of her wanted to be, without giving much thought to the part of her that was terrified.
Michonne came into the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to Daryl. He was sleeping peacefully and she hated to wake him, but part of her thought that he'd forgive her if she did.
"Daryl," she called out softly. "Daryl, wake up," she said, pushing at his shoulder but not raising her voice much, not yet ready to rally Judith and Hope.
"What? What is it?" Daryl asked, stirring slightly and barely opening his eyes.
Michonne thrust the test she was holding toward him, and he woke enough to take it, staring at it blankly.
"What is it? What does it mean?" He asked, slowly coming into focus and fully realizing it was Michonne who sat next to him.
"It's a pregnancy test," she said softly, "and it means that I hope you really do want to be a father again."
It took Daryl a few minutes to come to his senses and process what she was saying. He looked at her with a confused look on his face that she knew was most likely caused by her disrupting his slumber.
"You mean?" He said.
"I mean that it looks like we're doing this, so I hope you meant what you said about wanting to welcome another one," Michonne said.
Daryl looked dazed for another minute before his eyes fully opened.
"We gon' have us another baby?" He asked finally.
"Yeah, Daryl, it looks like it," Michonne said.
Daryl finally woke up and sat up, grabbing her and pulling her on top of him to kiss her.
"We gon' have us another baby!" He exclaimed.
Michonne grinned at him. He wasn't fully awake, but he was already excited.
"I've got to go tell Carol, you get dressed," she urged. "Can you bring the girls when you come?" She asked, prying the test out of his hands.
"Yeah, 'Chonne, I got it," he said. He grinned again. "We gon' have us another baby!"
Michonne smiled back at him, the happiness was contagious, even if didn't completely hush the worried voice in her head.
"Yeah, Daryl, we are," she said. "Get dressed and come to breakfast," she commanded.
She got up and started out the room, heading to tell Carol the news.
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Carol was less excited than Daryl was, but she smiled nonetheless.
"Congratulations," she said. "How do you feel?"
"Well Daryl is tickled," Michonne said.
"But how do you feel?" Carol asked.
"I don't know, I guess part of me is excited, but the other part is terrified," Michonne said.
"I wouldn't feel alright about it if it were any different," Carol offered. "At least the terrified part of you will keep you in check."
Carol got up from where she was sitting while she kept an eye on breakfast and embraced Michonne in a hug.
"Come on, I guess I need to get breakfast on the table and you've got some announcing to do," Carol said.
"I guess you're right, but I'm going to wait for Daryl," Michonne said.
"I wouldn't expect any different," Carol said. She heaved up one of the pots. "Oh, and Michonne?"
"Yeah?" Michonne said, walking beside Carol but knowing better than to offer to take a pot.
"You're my baby now," Carol said, "up until this baby comes."
Michonne smiled at her.
"I know, I remember the deal," Michonne said.