AN: Here we go, another little chapter to keep us moving right along.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Michonne found Daryl washing up in the bedroom when she came in, Zeb riding on her hip, tugging at her locks until she almost felt like he was mistaking them for reigns and believed he was actually steering her somewhere.
"Need me to check you for ticks?" Michonne teased as she pushed the door closed behind her and Daryl jumped, obviously not having heard her coming.
He chuckled.
"Ain't gon' turn it down," he said. "But'cha gotta be real damn thorough…"
Michonne smiled at him.
"How about a quick check now and a more thorough one after dinner? When the kids are down?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.
Daryl snickered at her, his eyes drifting to Zeb who was watching him with some interest, still not relinquishing his grip on Michonne's hair despite how many times she reached up to pry his little fingers loose.
"Reckon he wouldn't agree with us just skippin' out on dinner…" Daryl said, gesturing toward the boy.
"No…he wouldn't, and neither would Hope. I had to practically bargain my soul away just to get her to stay put down there while I came to check on you," Michonne said.
The only thing that had bought her the freedom to only take one of her children in search of Daddy was the fact that Beau, seeing Hope protesting the fact that she was, and much against her will, being asked to stay with Judith, offered to show her, along with the other children whose attention he got, the absolutely fascinating, amazing and wonderful, double top secret first thing he grabbed when he walked through the crowded living room area of the headquarters.
By Michonne's guessing, it was probably an ashtray at one time, but if anyone could make the kids believe it was something they didn't want to miss, it was probably Beau.
"Besides…I'm ducking out of my responsibilities now," Michonne said. "I was supposed to be serving dinner…and we're supposed to down there, that's why I came to get you. Tyreese and Carol are telling everyone their big news."
Michonne walked a quick circle around Daryl, actually doing the tick check that she'd offered to do, but he was clean…something that wasn't always the case when you wandered around…you could pick up ticks in their bathroom area if you weren't careful, leading all of them into doing frequent tick checks on each other.
Daryl started dressing and Michonne sat down on the bed, balancing Zeb on her and making faces at him at which he laughed and tried to paw at her face.
"Big news?" Daryl asked, wrestling into his pants.
"The baby?" Michonne asked.
"They serious 'bout that shit?" Daryl asked.
Michonne chuckled to herself. Daryl wasn't wholly convinced that Michonne and Carol had come up with the idea just to fuck with him. She wasn't sure exactly why it messed with him so much…other than it freaked him out that Muh had made such a call in the air…but it did.
"Yes…Daryl," Michonne said. "It's not a joke…it never was a joke…and Carol's freaking out about them telling everyone and Tyreese is happier than I've ever seen him…and I'm a little afraid they might end up killing each other if this doesn't go well. So we're going down there to act surprised and thrilled and offer support."
Daryl hummed at her, putting his knife back around his waist. She inhaled, taking in the clean scent…the smell of soap and the smell of Daryl...a scent that was always there, no matter what else was interfering with it.
"She really knocked up…I'ma be damn surprised," Daryl said. Michonne could tell he was teasing, but not entirely.
"You behave…and you act happy and surprised at dinner…or I'm not checking you for ticks tonight," Michonne said, straightening her face to make sure that he read her correctly. "You remember how we felt knowing we had to tell everyone…wondering what they might say."
Daryl chuckled.
"I didn't give a rat's ass what they had ta say…" Daryl remarked. It was only a partial truth at best, but apparently he was feeling much better than he had this morning and his bath had perked him up.
He reached and Zeb responded to him so Michonne gladly passed him the baby and got up from the edge of the bed.
"I'm serious, Daryl…" she said.
He chuckled and started out of the room with her following behind him.
"Me too, 'Chonne," he remarked. "But it means that damn much ta ya…I'll be the happiest asshole at that table…might rival Tyreese's ass…"
Michonne snickered.
"Ya just 'member it, though…when ya checkin' me for ticks…" Daryl responded.
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Everyone was as gathered and settled as they were going to be. The group was large enough that they didn't all comfortably fit into the dining room and so meals were served pretty much throughout the bottom floor of the house…you landed where you felt comfortable. Besides, there were children who were only occasionally wrangled into sitting down to eat, mostly preferring to grab food from the plates set out on the coffee table at just their height and continue playing, climbing on people, or otherwise entertaining themselves.
So it was never going to be a perfect time to make an announcement unless it was a meeting that had been called together and everyone there knew that their job for the moment was to focus on what was happening. But calling together a meeting typically brought a different "feel" to the environment, and it wasn't the kind of feeling that one really wanted to associate with announcing the upcoming arrival of a baby.
Michonne had Zeb, since he was still small enough to agree to sit still during mealtime, and she was seated at the table properly. Daryl was eating, sitting on the floor, leaning in the corner of the room and he kept making faces at her when she looked at him, and then smiling because he'd amused himself. She was just happy to see him in a good mood after his thoughts about slaughtering their pet hog.
Michonne was also trying to perfect her silent communication skills with Tyreese across the table. She kept raising her eyebrows at him to ask when he was going to say something and he kept shrugging back at her.
Carol was coming up with a myriad of reasons not to be in the room…or not to stay in it. By Michonne's calculations she'd refilled more bowls and more glasses at this meal than she had in the last four combined.
But finally, seeing her trapped momentarily between the side of the table and the wall by Glenn's chair being slid out a little too far, Michonne caught Tyreese's eye again and nodded at him and he took her cue.
Tyreese cleared his throat.
"Uh…everybody…everybody…" He started.
Daryl, picking up on what was going on and the fact that Tyreese's booming voice was doing nothing to stop the din around them and draw the attention of everyone, slipped his fingers into his mouth and made a shrill whistle that stopped, for a second, all the noise of everyone except the children and called the attention of even those in the living room, except for maybe Sadie who already knew what was going to happen.
Tyreese stood up where he was, pushing his chair back a little as he did so.
"Carol and I…we have an announcement," Tyreese said, raising his voice loud enough that those in the living area could hear him with relatively little strain. "We've got the news…the good news…that we're going to be…"
He chuckled.
"It looks like we're going to be welcoming Isaac into the community," he said.
If it hadn't been for the sound of the children, Michonne might have feared that she'd been struck suddenly deaf.
Everyone looked shocked or confused, and it could have been for a variety of reasons. It could have been the disbelief that Carol was pregnant…much like what Daryl was and had been suffering from. On the part of the women, it could have been the disbelief that the birth control pusher was pregnant. And it could have, also, been the shock that everyone had joked and prodded and poked fun about Muh's prediction about the incident, and now they were being faced with the fact that all the fun they'd poked was about something that may be coming true.
But whatever the reason, everyone was about as quiet as they'd ever been.
"Well hot damn! Whatta ya know?!" Daryl howled suddenly from his corner.
The noise was loud enough over the silence of the moment that Carol jumped like she'd been shot at and she wasn't alone.
Michonne dissolved into laughter at the whole thing, but especially at the grin that Daryl gave her, accompanied with a quick wink.
Once her laughter was somewhat under control, Michonne smiled at Carol and offered her congratulations, and apparently it was all enough to start the others into letting their congratulations roll in, no matter how stuttered of halfhearted they might have been.
And it didn't take too long for the shock to completely wear off, or for people to move on, whichever was the case, because the din that had taken place before picked up and everyone dissolved into what they'd been doing or talking about before the announcement, almost as if it had never been made.
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Sometimes bedtime was like playing musical bodies. The nursery was small and it was crowded with three cribs. For all four parents that occupied the house to say goodnight to the children, and Judith and Hope especially expected a goodnight from everyone, there was a lot of in and out and moving around each other until it almost looked like the four of them had perfected some kind of absolutely horrible dance.
But finally, the little ones in bed, Michonne reached to squeeze Carol's arm, offering her a quick and quiet congratulations, and she made her way to the bedroom that Daryl had just entered.
He was already wrestling out of his clothes in the lamplight, and Michonne followed suit, sliding between the covers with a sigh as he slipped in, shifting the mattress, to join her.
Daryl wasted no time…he never had…in coming over to her side of the bed. He propped himself up, leaning over her, his arms on either side of her head, and he kissed her before pulling away, maintaining just enough space between them that he could hold eye contact with her without having to choose one eye or the other.
"I done good tonight…right?" He teased.
Michonne chuckled and wrapped her arms around him, her fingers rubbing gently over the raised ridges on his back…his scars…the scars she often forgot about, but her fingers read regularly like braille.
"You did well," she ceded. "I was proud of you."
Daryl smiled at her and dipped his head, nuzzling near her ear and then bringing his tongue out enough to draw her earlobe into his mouth, nipping it gently before he returned to the position that allowed him to look into her eyes and her into his.
"Hell…" he said. "Reckon if they really is havin' a kid…might as well be happy 'bout it…she lost Sophia…"
Michonne nodded her head slightly.
"And he lost his daughter…Julie," Michonne offered. "I'm happy for them."
"What we gon' do with 'em, though?" Daryl asked.
Michonne furrowed her brows at him. Firstly, she wasn't sure what he was talking about, and secondly, he had the same tone of voice that he used to ask what they were going to do with something like another litter of bunnies when they already had rabbits coming out their ears.
"I think we're going to keep them?" Michonne offered.
Daryl chuckled and the chuckle dissolved into a laugh that was contagious. Apparently what she'd said and her tone of voice had struck a chord with Daryl and he rolled onto his back, his hands covering his face, until he had control over the laugh that rolled through him…his face red from it.
"Hell…'Chonne…I weren't talkin' 'bout shootin' they asses or nothin'!" He declared as the laughter started to get under control. "Meant they gon' keep livin' here?"
Michonne hadn't thought about the possibility that they would live anywhere else. There were still other houses available…but honestly she'd gotten so used to their proximity that she hated to admit she'd rather them simply stay where they were. And Carol hadn't mentioned a thing about them moving…so apparently they weren't thinking about it.
"Well, yeah, Daryl," Michonne said.
She moved herself to take a similar position to the one he'd held before, leaning up on her elbow beside him to look at him now.
"I didn't think we'd kick them out of the house for having a baby," Michonne added.
"Ain't enough damn room in that nursery for another kid…" Daryl said. "Ya couldn't get a crib in there if ya life depended on it."
Michonne thought about it a moment and nodded.
"Then they'll put the crib in their room…" she offered. "Isaac won't be here long before we're moving on…if we keep to our schedule. I guess he'll be fine in there with them for that amount of time."
Daryl nodded his head and brought his thumb up to his mouth, chewing over the idea as much as he was his cuticle. He grunted and nodded his head.
"Yeah…that'll work," he said.
Michonne smiled at him and took her turn, bringing her lips to his. When they pulled apart, she tipped her head and brought her lips to his throat, trailing her tongue out and drawing a line across his neck, nipping at the clean smelling skin there before working her way down farther.
Daryl chuckled lightly, a low rumble escaping him as she slid her hand under the cover, her palm flat, gliding across his skin until she came to find him, stroking him awake under the cover.
"What'cha doin'?" He asked, his voice catching a little because he knew exactly what she was doing.
Michonne kissed his chest, peppering it for a moment with damp kisses, licking her lips every few to rewet them as she slowly worked her way down.
"Checking you for ticks…" she answered. "I promised to be thorough, didn't I?"