AN: Here we go, another little chapter.

This chapter has a Carol/Alice coupling. Femslash, whatever you want to call it. I've "blocked off" everything sexual (besides kisses/suggestive language/etc.) with "111111111". It comes about in the middle/toward the end of the chapter. The blocking out is for those that are squeamish about such things. You should be able to skip over that section fine. The rest, as I said, contains some kisses and some suggestive language, but everything "explicit" should be located between the two breaks. That being said, obviously those aren't scene breaks in this chapter, just to help out those that are freaked out by such things.

If you're super bothered by such things then simply skip this chapter and get the pertinent plot/character information from a friend who isn't.

You've been warned.

I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.

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After their dinner, Carol stayed behind at the camp to help clean up the dishes and such. The other women seemed to complain a good deal about the chores…about the laundry and the cooking and the dishes…but to Carol there was nothing to complain about. They were simply things that needed to be done and there were things that other people were doing that probably better suited to them.

Carol, for one, felt like she didn't really have a great deal of skills to offer to the group. She'd been a housewife because Ed hadn't allowed her to be anything else. She'd once wanted to be a teacher, and she was certified to do that, but she'd never actually gotten to use her degree because Ed hadn't wanted her outside of the home. It wasn't as easy to keep an eye on her if she was allowed to leave, and he swore that she couldn't be trusted anyway. She'd cheat on him, he claimed. She'd have some lurid affair.

The funniest thing about that, perhaps, was that Carol had never been anything in her life that might even come close to promiscuous. She'd had one boyfriend before Ed, swore she'd remain a virgin until marriage, and had kept that promise. She'd given her virginity to Ed right along with her pride and self-respect.

He was the only man she'd ever been with and she imagined it would remain that way. She hadn't cared much for sex at all, beyond what she did to her own body in secret…and even that was something she was careful about because if he caught her he would be angry about it and swear that it was further proof that she was simply a whore.

So life with Ed had taught Carol that domestic life was all that she could offer anyone. She could cook and she could clean, although not well according to him, and that was all she had. Therefore, she gladly offered whatever she could to the group.

But she knew that she was different from the other women in the group in a lot of ways. She saw how so many of them looked at her. She knew that they thought she was stupid for staying with Ed. She thought she was stupid for staying with Ed…but they would never understand how afraid she was of being alone and it wasn't something that she could explain to them. She never had been able to explain it and it was the reason that everyone she'd counted as a "friend" had left her life, one by one, once the abuse really started to get bad.

She knew that the other women, too, had much more to offer the group. They were smarter and they had more skills. That's why most of them resented being put on chores that they thought were beneath them. And that's why she didn't mind picking up the slack and letting some of them have the time off to do other things. She figured, if nothing else, it might win her more affection from the other women and it was simple enough to do since she had no real objection to any of the work.

She'd sent Sophia to bed a good while before she ever finished with her work. By the time she was actually going to bed herself, in fact, she was pretty sure that she was the only one awake and wandering around the camp…unless there was someone lurking.

As she walked back toward the RV, a light in the darkness caught her attention. The burning end of a cigarette. Even in the pitch black, it was something that Carol could identify. She'd seen it a million times to mark for her the location of Ed.

It was one of the Dixons, though the burning tip wouldn't offer enough light to identify which. Silently they were lurking, always the last tent to bed down for the night, and they were probably waiting for her to go to bed.

The three of the Dixons, the two brothers and their sister, were strangely ever present around the camp. They lived, much like Carol felt she did, a little outside of the group's "society," but it didn't seem to bother them. The three of them almost seemed mythologically untouchable to Carol at this point.

But she'd gotten close to Alice, the sister. She'd found in the woman the first thing she'd had in a long time that looked like a real friend. She was someone she could talk to and she was someone that didn't look at her with judgment. She might occasionally look at her with a little pity, which Carol didn't care for entirely but could tolerate, but she never offered judgment.

Carol knew the brothers, and she was forever thankful to them for what they had they done, whatever their reason for doing it had been, but they seemed a little harder to warm up to than the feminine member of their small clan.

Just as Carol passed well out of range of the burning tip, she heard her name being hissed out.

"Who is it?" She asked into the darkness.

"Alice," the voice responded back, a little louder. "I've got something for you. I'll bring it to you."

Carol couldn't imagine what Alice might have for her, but she quietly called back that it was fine and she would be inside the RV, checking on Sophia.

It wasn't unusual for Alice to visit with her, especially when everyone else was tucked away visiting with the people that they got along with best in the camp. For that she was thankful too. At least she didn't have to feel wholly alone with only Sophia in this world. She had someone else that would gladly keep her company, even if she had little to offer Alice in the way of interesting conversation.

Carol checked on Sophia and covered the girl up while perching the best she could to reach her in the bed that was now hers over the truck cab.

In the boxes, Alice had found some toys and Sophia had a rag doll that Alice had offered her. Carol put the doll closer to the girl for comfort while she slept and kissed her hand before gently pressing it to Sophia's forehead.

Then she got down from her perch and went to her room at the opposite end of the camper until she heard the door creak open.

"Carol?" Alice whispered into the darkness of the camper.

"In the bedroom," Carol responded back, equally hushed.

Alice came into the bedroom bearing a box that she held out to Carol.

"What's this?" Carol asked.

"Care package," Alice offered. "I just thought you might like some of the things and I put the best together for you before everyone else descended on it like wolves."

Carol accepted the box and looked at it. She really didn't care what was inside of it. The act alone of receiving a gift was exciting to her. She couldn't remember the last time that anyone had given her anything, especially without a reason.

"Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas…or whatever the hell you want to call it," Alice said. She closed the bedroom door to keep their voices from drifting in and disturbing Sophia and she sat down on the bed beside Carol.

"Can I open it?" Carol asked.

"It's yours," Alice said. "I know what's in there but you might want to open it on your own. I don't know how you are about some things."

Carol did open the box, and immediately she covered her mouth, partially in embarrassment and partially to stifle a laugh.

She reached in and pulled out the item on top of various other assorted things. It was a silver vibrator.

"Alice…" Carol said with a laugh.

"You said you missed it," Alice said. "They didn't have a large selection, but most pharmacies have a couple of those tucked away. I got you the best out of the choices. It's clean, but there's alcohol, you know…some other stuff if you need it.

Carol reached into the box and burrowed around, her embarrassment fading quickly with the marveling at the fact that someone would even think to give her something like that. She picked up a box she found in the bottom of the thing and showed it to Alice in the lamplight.

Alice smiled and shrugged, offering her hands up as though she didn't know what to say.

"What the hell, right? I mean if you need them you've got them," Alice said. "If not you can probably trade them for cigarettes in the yard if people start to get antsy."

Carol looked at the box of condoms. She dropped it back in with the contents of the larger box and dug around finding a pack of batteries.

"I loaded it up for you," Alice offered. "You're good to go for a while. And, if not? I don't think Andrea's going to need them if she'll woman up and give Merle a ride."

Carol laughed at the thought. And then she shook her head.

"I'm not going to need the condoms," she said. "I'm done with men. I'm not ending up with someone like Ed again."

Alice scoffed.

"Not all men are like Ed," Alice offered.

Carol chuckled.

"Pretty funny statement coming from a lesbian," Carol said.

"Hey, just because I don't want to ride their dick doesn't mean I've got a problem with men in general," Alice said. "Let's not fall into stereotypes. Every man is different. Ed was one of the assholes, but that doesn't mean that all men are Eds. It's just as unfair as if you suggested all women were…Loris or something."

Carol laughed at that and scolded Alice for her dislike of the woman. Lori wasn't as bad as some people thought she was, but she did seem to have a way of getting under the skin of several people. Carol hated to criticize because she was sure she wasn't everyone's favorite person either.

"Maybe they're not all the same," Carol said. "But just the same, I'm not going there again. There's nothing I miss from Ed anyway."

"Nothing Buzz won't take care of, right?" Alice responded with a light giggle.

"Better," Carol responded. "Ed wasn't very good at that either…or he said I wasn't."

"That's a cop out," Alice said. "You're only as good as your lover lets you be. It's a two way street. If it were up to one person then it wouldn't be much fun at all. No sense then in even signing up to play doubles."

Carol turned the vibrator she was still holding over in her hand.

"Ed hated that I had a vibrator," she said. "I had to keep it hidden. He got so mad about it…"

"Nothing says insecure in your manhood better than being threatened by something you can buy in a drug store," Alice said. "Good thing Ed's gone now and you don't have to give a damn what he wants. You do what's good for you. To hell with him…and he's got a first class ticket, I'm sure."

Carol hummed in agreement with the words of her friend. She sat there for a moment, her thoughts racing out of control, and finally she gave over to what she was thinking. Whether or not she'd regret it, she wasn't sure, but she had never given into her impulses before and she was tired of always being the one who didn't.

Carol moved and kissed Alice, the other woman not responding at first. When Carol pulled away she felt almost mortified.

"I'm sorry," Carol said. "I thought that…well…you're a lesbian and I thought that…"

She stopped because she couldn't go any farther for the risk of crying at the rejection she felt bubbling up from the unreturned kiss.

"I shouldn't have assumed that just because you are you'd be attracted to me," Carol said apologetically.

Alice laughed nervously.

"Carol, you're a beautiful woman…you really are. And I am attracted to you, but you're not gay," Alice said.

"I might be," Carol offered with little conviction.

Alice nodded at her and then she moved, kissing Carol back. Carol closed her eyes to the kiss and sunk into it, hoping that she was even kissing her well. And as the kiss went on, Carol was surprised at how her body responded to it. She wasn't a lesbian, or at least she'd never thought she was, but she couldn't deny that she was enjoying the kiss.

And maybe it was just the idea of having someone touch her who wanted to touch her…someone who had shown her such kindness when they didn't have to, but Carol wanted more, even if she wasn't sure what more was in such a scenario.

When the kiss broke, Alice was breathing heavier than normal.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked Carol. "Because…I want you to be sure about this. If you don't like it, I'm not going to be mad…but I care about you. I don't want to mess that up, you know?"

Carol stared at her and then nodded.

"Just our secret," Carol said. "Whatever way it goes? You don't tell and I won't."

Alice snorted.

"Are we going to pinky promise on it?" She asked.

Carol smiled and offered her pinky.

"If you want," she said.

As a show of her commitment to this, Carol peeled her shirt off and tossed it to the floor. As soon as she was out of her bra, though, she grew uncomfortable, concerned that the woman might not find her attractive at all. Ed had said that her boobs weren't enough and she knew that she was a little heavier than she once had been. And she was self-conscious about the ugly scar that ran from her belly button straight down from the emergency c-section that she'd received with Sophia.

But Alice didn't comment. She just swallowed and reached up, popping the button on Carol's pants and unzipping them slowly. Carol shimmied out of them. She wasn't sure about how to do this…the art of seduction being one she had never studied, so she took her underwear off too and stood there naked.

"Please take something off," she whispered to Alice, almost tearing up at her insecurity that the woman would call this off…that she would break the sacred junior high pact of the pinky promise.

As a show of faith, maybe, Alice got to her feet and lost her clothes faster than Carol had. She held her hands up as though she were simply saying "that's all there is to see" and then she put her hands on Carol's shoulders.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked, stressing her words.

Carol kissed her in response.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Carol whispered when she broke the kiss.

Alice chuckled.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "This…isn't about that. This is about me doing something for you. It's about me doing something for you that I want to do for you if you'll let me."

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Carol felt nervous, but she was the one who had initiated this and she trusted Alice. The woman wasn't going to hurt her, she was sure of that. What she might do, though, Carol wasn't sure of.

Alice kissed her again, though, one of the deep kisses that made Carol want more in the first place and then she worked her way down Carol's neck, kissing and licking until Carol was embarrassed at just how much her body decided that it liked that. Ed had never kissed her like that. He'd never treated her so gently.

"Lay down?" Alice whispered.

Carol did as the woman asked, hoping that at some point she gave her instructions on what to do because she wasn't clear in the slightest on how this was supposed to work. The mechanics of it just seemed off from what she did know.

But Alice sat next to her on the bed and moved so that she could take one of nipples in her mouth. One of her hands went to the other to tease it.

Carol squirmed, her breath picking up at the action. As Alice moved from one breast to another, paying each the same thorough attention twice over, Carol's mind started to almost go crazy with the want for more. She was aching and she squirmed a little at the feeling.

"Anxious, huh?" Alice teased when she released the nipples she was doing an elaborate study on with her tongue. "Relax, I'll get you there. I promise."

Carol tried to relax, but the soft tickling of Alice's fingertips on her skin drove her crazy as the woman slipped a hand down her stomach, pausing to lick at her belly button and then at the scar.

"C-section…hysterectomy…I'm sorry. I know what it looks like…" Carol panted out, suddenly worried that it might be a deal breaker, especially up close and personal, and at the moment she might cry if Alice stopped what she was doing.

"It's beautiful," Alice panted. "Everything…is beautiful and perfect. Relax…close your eyes."

Carol could barely contain herself when Alice moved and kissed the insides of her thighs. She moved close to her, blowing her breath onto her, and then moved back to her teasing until Carol found her body taking on a life of its own and trying to move into the woman to force her to do more.

And finally she got what she was seeking. Her hands found the bedcovers and fisted them up as she struggled not to cry out, certainly not wanting to alarm Sophia at this point. Ed had never done anything to her like this and it was a sensation that she'd certainly never achieved on her own.

And the addition of teeth gently scraping things…of sucking…of fingers searching her out…all got to be too much for Carol. Her body seized up and she was caught with a feeling much more intense than any she'd ever found on her own. It was something that felt so amazing that the pleasure was almost painful. And once the feeling stopped a little, it was renewed just as if buttons were being pushed to send Carol jerking into it once more.

By the time that Alice stopped, panting, and leaned up over Carol, Carol thought that her body couldn't have taken anymore.

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Alice smiled at her and trailed a finger over lips before she planted the softest and most innocent of kisses there that she had.

"That was…incredible," Carol panted.

Alice smiled.

"Good…I was worried I was rusty," Alice said.

"Now is it…my turn?" Carol asked, almost certain that she would have no idea how to do to the woman what had been done to her, but she was willing to try.

Alice shook her head.

"No," she said. "That was for you. And now? You're going to go to sleep and I'm going to slip on down to bed myself."

Alice eased off the bed and started dressing herself.

Carol looked at her, feeling guilty.

"But there was nothing in it for you," she offered.

Alice winked at her.

"There was plenty in it for me," Alice said. "A beautiful woman like you? Letting me enjoy the pleasure of pleasuring her? There's plenty there. I just want to know you had a good time."

Carol nodded.

"I did," she said. She leaned over the bed and picked up her own shirt and underwear from the floor to at least put something on now that she suddenly felt exposed.

"Good," Alice said. "Now…imagine how much you'd like that if it were someone you were actually attracted to doing it. You're not done with sex, Carol. And you're not done with men…if anything, lady, you're just getting started."

Carol sat there for a moment and watched Alice finish dressing.

"Al…" Carol asked.

"Hmmm?" Alice hummed.

"Would you stay the night? Sleep with me? I mean…just as friends?" Carol asked.

Alice regarded her a moment and finally crawled into the bed and wrapped herself tightly around Carol, both of them clothed now, and she pulled the blanket up over them.

And now Carol's heart thundered in her chest because she feared that this, no matter how much she'd enjoyed it, would cost her the only woman around there that she felt like she'd really connected with…the only woman that she would have trusted enough to even discuss things like she'd just done with.

"Alice?" Carol asked as she turned out the lamp and sunk into the comfort of having the woman's warm body comfortably wrapped up with hers. "We're still going to be friends, right? I mean…you're not going to hate me tomorrow?"

Alice chuckled.

"Pinky promise," she whispered. "Go to sleep. I'll sneak out before the sun's up."