AN: Another short one in a series of short ones, but that's all I have to give right now. Sorry about that. I hope to have another short one, at least, out for you tomorrow.
As always, your reviews are greatly appreciated, especially when I have a lot going on. They're good motivation to keep going when I might otherwise not feel like trying to continue for a while.
I hope you enjoy.
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"Have you seen 'Chonne?" Daryl called, dropping Judith off with Carol. He'd seen her at breakfast, but lost track of her since then. He'd taken Judith to change her, and then she'd travelled about with him checking to see what everyone else was doing. Now Daryl was returning Judith to Carol, but Michonne wasn't with her.
"She's down at the fields," Carol said. "She's on water duty today." She accepted the little girl from Daryl and put her in her playpen in the yard.
"You ain't lettin' her go on no water runs, are you?" Daryl asked.
"No, Daryl, but we needed a little break from one another and her and her mood needed to be on the other end of the community for a little while. She wants something active to do, and water duty isn't too physically demanding, so I'm letting her do that for a little while," Carol responded.
"Fine, I'm gonna go down there and check on her," Daryl said.
"I'm sure she's fine, Daryl," Carol said.
Daryl made his way across the community and toward the fields that were everyone's pride and joy. The promise of a harvest was upon them. Everything was growing, and every time anyone went down to the fields they were excited by the prospects.
He found Michonne watering, her wheelbarrow full of water buckets not far from her. He paused a little off, just where he was sure she hadn't noticed him, and watched her. She seemed to be enjoying what she was doing, apparently deeply lost in thought. Daryl knew that Michonne liked isolation, and the quiet provided by being the only one watering plants would be something that she would greatly appreciate. She emptied the can that she was carrying and walked back toward the wheelbarrow, picking up one of the buckets and carefully tipping it to fill the can again, returning it to its place and then going back to continue watering where she'd left off minutes before.
Daryl wondered if the lifting of the buckets might be too much, or the strain of pushing the wheelbarrows back and forth across the community to trade them out for other full buckets. He didn't want her overdoing it. He was pretty confident that Carol wouldn't let her do the job if it was too much, but he still worried.
"I can see you, Daryl, you're not hidden," Michonne called, not looking up from the line that she was watering a few feet off.
Daryl smiled and started toward her.
"I figured you might not 'a heard me come up," Daryl said. "You looked like you was daydreamin' pretty good."
"You underestimate me, Daryl," Michonne said, "I can daydream and still be aware of people approaching me." She looked up then and smiled at him.
"Sorry, 'Chonne," Daryl said, grinning. "Do you need some help?"
"No, Daryl, I don't need any help," Michonne said.
"Why don't you let me help you, 'Chonne, you don't want to overdo it," Daryl said, reaching out to take the watering can from her. She snatched away from him and shot him a look that he hadn't seen in a while. It was clear that she was challenging him to try to take it from him. Daryl backed up a little, out of instinct. "Whoa, easy 'Chonne," he said, smiling.
"Don't talk to me like I'm an animal, Daryl, I don't need to be soothed," Michonne said.
Daryl smiled again. So she's in one of those moods. Daryl thought.
"I don't think you no animal, 'Chonne," Daryl said.
"I'm not going to overdo it, Daryl," Michonne said. "This really isn't that hard, you know." She emptied her can and started back toward the wheelbarrow. Daryl watched her lift the bucket up and refill the can.
"You could dip the can in there, 'Chonne, at least 'til it got emptier, then it wouldn't be so heavy," Daryl said, wrinkling his brow. The look returned to Michonne's face and Daryl tried not to smile, worrying that at that particular moment it might annoy her.
Michonne sighed. "The baby is fine, I'm fine, but I'm not going to be fine for too much longer. I can't take one more hour of mending someone's pants, washing someone's underwear, handing out soap, shampoo, and tampons…I just can't take any more of it without getting to do something else. I'm not Carol. I'm not domestic like she is. I think it's great that she's domestic like that, but I'm just not that way. I can't be that way and I feel like I'm going crazy right now!" She spat.
Daryl smiled at her. "I don't want'cha to be like that, 'Chonne, I know that ain't who you are, but I do want'cha to take it easy, just a lil' bit, until we got us the baby here, safe and sound," Daryl responded.
"I'm watering plants, Daryl, I think I can handle that," Michonne said.
"I didn't say you couldn't, 'Chonne, I just asked if I could help ya," Daryl said. "You know, just me an' you down here workin' together for a bit. I can feel the cans for ya and you can go on waterin' like you been doin'. I ain't gonna tell you that you can't do it, just help you out."
Michonne growled at him, but a moment later she was smiling. Daryl was surprised when she splashed him with a shower of water out of the spout of the can she was holding.
"Hey now," he gasped, "Carol's gonna get ill with you down here wastin' water!"
He laughed at her.
"You can help me if you want to, Daryl, but just remember that you're the help and I'm the one in charge here. I can fire you any time I want if you try to get to big in your role," Michonne said.
"Fine, 'Chonne, you the boss!" Daryl said.
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"So who feels brave?" Carol asked, walking into the living room. Daryl and Michonne were lounging on the couch together with Daryl stretched out and Michonne leaning against him. Hope and Judith were playing in the floor. Tyreese was occupying one chair, and Carol had claimed the other to stretch across and read by lamplight for most of the evening. Now she was coming back from the kitchen carrying a box of something that she'd smuggled out of storage.
"What do you have?" Tyreese asked, trying to decide if whatever she had would motivate him to risk possible food poisoning.
"It's a box of Twinkies," Carol said, "unopened. Who wants to be the first to test the theory that Twinkies will outlast the end of the world?"
"I'll try it," Daryl said. Carol opened the box and threw one at him. He caught it and opened the package, taking a bite.
"Well?" Carol asked. "Does it taste bad?"
"Dunno," Daryl said, still chewing. "I ain't never eat no Twinkie before," he admitted.
"What's it taste like?" Michonne asked.
"Like a dish sponge filled with sweet caulk," Daryl said.
"I guess they don't change after all," Tyreese said with a chuckle.
"Give me a bite," Michonne said, opening her mouth at Daryl.
"Nope," Carol commanded.
Michonne shot her a look.
"Give him at least 30 minutes to see if he's going to get sick. The last thing you need right now is some kind of volatile Twinkie induced food poisoning," Carol responded. She got back in her chair, dropping the box on the floor beside her. "If he isn't feeling a little ill in about a half an hour, you're more than welcome to one, but let's let him test it out."
"I get to be the guinea pig," Daryl said, smiling. He really didn't mind. He knew that Carol usually took the job and it sometimes didn't end well. It had landed her in the bushes more than once. If she felt like taking the night off, he didn't mind covering for her. The spongy thing hadn't tasted bad, so he doubted that there would be much repercussion for testing it.
"So this book is pretty worthless," Carol said after a few minutes. She was slowly making her way through some of the stacks of baby books that Glenn, Maggie, and Sasha had brought her back.
"Why is it worthless," Tyreese asked. He got her to talk about what she read with him as much as possible, hoping that repeating anything she found helpful might cement it more in her mind and give her less to worry about when the time came.
"The whole first chapter deals with the fact that I'm supposed to recommend "natural childbirth" to the to the mother as the best option," Carol said, "and I'm supposed to provide her with all these convincing arguments as to why it's really the best option for her particular case."
Carol put the book down a minute.
"Michonne," she said, "I want to tell you that I think that natural childbirth is the best option for you, would you like me to give you some reasons to convince you of why I think that?"
Michonne smiled, "Sure, why don't you convince me that I don't want to go with some of my other options."
"OK," Carol said, "I think the strongest argument that I've got for you is that it's your only option. Need I go on?"
Michonne shook her head. "Given your argument, I have to say that I am leaning toward natural childbirth. I think you've covered the first chapter. Is the second chapter as useless as the first?"
"Mmmm hmmm…it's even worse," Carol said, flipping through a few of the pages. "It's all about how if there's any trouble I should offer you words of encouragement but should avoid medical interference and let nature run its course." She tossed the book at the pile beside her. "To hell with that, I want a book that says 'So you suspect there might be trouble, what the fuck do you do now'," she said.
Everyone looked at her, frozen for a moment, a half smile and half surprised look on everyone's face.
"Carol!" Michonne said, smiling. She'd never heard Carol talk like that.
Carol smiled and blushed.
"Well, I'm sorry, but that's how I feel about it. I'm not interested in just sitting back. I mean I'll offer you all the encouragement you need, clearly, but I'm not just going to not do anything. I can tell you right now that I'm going to be doing everything I can, whether or not I have any indication it's going to be helpful," Carol said.
"I appreciate that much," Michonne said.
"We're all just going to be positive that it isn't going to come down to anything like that," Tyreese said. He knew that Carol was worried. That was no secret whatsoever. "I'm sure that everything is going to go just fine."
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"Hope's going to be walking soon," Michonne said when she and Daryl were settled into bed and considering going to sleep.
"How old is she, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked.
"I don't know exactly, Daryl, but I'm guessing she's got to be about a year old," Michonne said. Hope's vocabulary consisted mostly of sounds that no one could understand, but she had become very good at identifying Michonne as "Ma ma" and Daryl as "Da da".
Unfortunately this had led to a bit of problem with Judith, and one that Carol had confided in Michonne that she was worried about addressing. The fact that Judith heard these words coming so freely from Hope, and she'd seen how people responded, coupled with the fact that Daryl frequently slipped and called Carol her "Mama" had led Judith to begin to use "Mama" almost exclusively to call Carol, and she was frequently calling Daryl "Dada", though at times she used the phrase also to refer to Tyreese. Carol was worried that Rick would overhear her use of these terms and become bothered by it. Michonne had told her that she needed to just speak to him about it, since it was an issue that needed to be addressed, whether or not it was a little like rubbing salt into some of his wounds.
"I can't believe it's been a year since the first time I seen her, 'Chonne," Daryl said. He leaned up on his arm over her. "I mean it seems like she's still supposed to be such a lil' baby."
Michonne smiled. "She's still a baby, Daryl, but she's not a little baby."
It was true. The year, on the one hand, had passed quickly and seemed like only a matter of a couple of months at best, but on the other hand it seemed like it had been an eternity. So much had happened, so much had changed.
Michonne felt Daryl's hand on her stomach, pressing. He was anxious to feel the baby move, even though she'd told him he just wasn't going to be able to feel it yet. Though it was earlier than it had been with Hope, she was confident she'd felt a few flutters, but she knew that it would still be a little while before Daryl could feel anything.
"Not so hard, Daryl," Michonne said.
"Did I hurt you," he asked, pulling his hand away.
Michonne reached over and put his hand back.
"No, you didn't hurt me, but if you press too hard it makes me realize that I need to pee, and I don't feel like getting up right now. Just rub gently, you might even put me to sleep," she said.
He smiled at that and snuggled her to him, rubbing her gently then.
After a minute she pulled away from him and got up.
"Where you goin', 'Chonne?" He asked.
"It was too late," she said, putting her shoes on. "Now I have to pee. I'll be back," she said, getting up and leaving the room.