AN: Here we go, another little chapter here!

I'm so happy to hear that some of you are enjoying this story! I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Let me know what you think!

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Daryl was pretty sure that he couldn't get fired for walking with a patient during his break, but it didn't keep him from being at least a little bit nervous about doing so. His lunch eaten at earlier intervals, though, he showed up as he'd promised and offered to take Carol out to stroll around the grounds.

And while they walked, he grew more comfortable because they would, out in the yard, draw very little attention. There were other patients out enjoying the weather, some being the more mobile and independent patients who had more of a free pass around the establishment, but there were also various nurses and orderlies that tooled about and helped the patients who weren't so independent.

And Daryl walked with Carol's arm loosely looped within his own and tried to figure out where one might begin to have the conversation that he wanted to have with her.

Because it was a delicate situation and Daryl didn't need any real training to know that. The wrong thing said might make the conversation go much differently than he wanted it to go.

"What's ya book about?" Daryl asked finally. "The one I give you…to keep…what's it about?"

Carol smiled. The look on her face outside today told him that she wasn't hating the outside today as much as she might have let on that she hated it the day that he'd brought her out here.

"It's just a book," Carol said. "It's…a love story."

Daryl chuckled to himself.

Of course it was a love story. That's what women liked, right? They liked love stories.

"So," he said, "tell me what happens in it…I ain't gonna read the thing."

"There's not much to tell," Carol said, her voice sounding almost musical to Daryl's ears. He could hear the happiness in her voice…a happiness that he didn't expect to hear in the voice of anyone in such an establishment. "The lady falls in love with a gentleman…and they date…and then they're married. They have a baby…it's a boy that they name Henry. And that's it…they're happy."

Daryl laughed to himself.

"That's it?" He asked.

"What else did you want it to be about?" Carol asked, the smile fading from her face for a moment. "It's a lovely story."

Daryl stifled a laugh and nodded his head.

"It sounds like it," he said. "But…it don't sound like a real special story…sounds like any other story."

Carol frowned and he wanted to take back the statement. He tried, as quickly as he could, to sway the conversation a little.

"Why do you like the story so much?" He asked.

Carol's frown didn't fade.

"Because it's a very nice story," she said. "It's really lovely…"

She looked at him, catching his eyes and holding them hard with hers.

"Don't you think it's nice? They're married…and they have Henry and he's a little doll of a boy. He's everything that they want him to be…" Carol said.

Daryl bit his lip and tried to look as sincere as he could be. He nodded.

"You're right," Daryl said. "I think…I missed that part. I missed the part about Henry…it's real nice."

Carol smiled and her chest heaved under the strain of a heavy sigh and nodded with satisfaction.

"Do…you…ever think about leavin' this place?" Daryl asked.

Carol looked perplexed and slowed her steps, pulling back on his arm so that he stilled his own steps and faced her. She laughed somewhat ironically.

"This is my home," she said.

Daryl swallowed and nodded.

"People leave they homes," Daryl said. "I just wondered if you ever thought about it…"

Carol swayed her head from side to side.

"If I left home," Carol said, "then I would leave…because anyone would leave…because I was married. It wouldn't be respectable to leave home otherwise."

Daryl nodded his head, feeling no less confused or conflicted about what to do, but at least having a little more insight into Carol and the way that she thought…or at least the way she expressed her thoughts.

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He wasn't surprised when he was asked to basically sneak into the back door of the house, but he felt uncomfortable as he banged on the door and tried to flatten himself against the wood in case there were prying neighbor eyes on him.

Alice ripped the door open and pulled Daryl inside the small house with a jerk that left him almost afraid he'd lose his footing.

"Are your parents home?" He asked, looking around the kitchen that he'd now landed in.

Alice laughed.

"I don't live with my parents," she said. "I'm a career girl…I don't live under my parents' thumb."

"Should I be here?" Daryl asked, looking around.

"Probably not," Alice said. "I just don't want anyone to see you."

"They might get the wrong idea," Daryl ceded.

"Yeah…and it might get back to my parents," Alice declared.

Daryl laughed to himself then and shook his head at the brunette that was standing in front of him.

"They'd be pissed about that," he said.

"Hell no," she responded. "They'd be ecstatic."

She started to walk away, through the house, and Daryl followed her.

"They'd think I'd finally come to my senses and I was seeing a nice boy. They're biggest fear in life is that I'm going to end up an old maid…just like my Aunt Ruth," Alice declared as she entered into the small, nicely furnished living room. "And my biggest desire in life is to end up an old maid, just like my Aunt Ruth. It really isn't fair to give them false hope."

Daryl sat when she sat.

"You don't wanna get married?" He asked.

He just assumed that was what every woman wanted…she wanted to find a husband, have some kids, live a full life…but apparently Alice was comfortable being an old maid that worked to kill time and boredom at the local asylum.

Alice just shook her head at him and lit a cigarette from the leather pouch lying on the coffee table. She slid the pouch across the table as an offering to him and he accepted it, taking a cigarette and lighting it for himself.

"Melodye should be here soon," Alice said. "She had to work late."

Daryl raised an eyebrow at her.

"Melodye…the nurse, Melodye?" He asked.

Alice nodded.

"We're roommates," Alice said. "We share the house so that our parents don't have to worry about us being alone…we're both working on our careers…this way they don't have to worry about us bringing home any…strange men."

Daryl nodded his head.

"So what did you find out about Carol?" Alice asked.

Daryl shrugged.

"I don't know how ta make heads or tails of her," Daryl said. "I talked to her…but I ain't asked her about her life yet."

Alice nodded.

"There's time for that," she said. "From what I hear there are a lot of conflicting views about what's real and what's not real. She could be totally cuckoo, you know? A real piece of work. If she made up a boyfriend and a baby? That's one hell of an imagination right there.

"What if she ain't made it up, though?" Daryl asked. "What if…she really did have a boyfriend that didn't marry her…she really did have a baby that died? What if all that's real?"

They were interrupted when the door opened and Melodye came in, taking off her hat and stopping a moment when she saw Daryl sitting there on the couch.

"Hello," she said with a smile a moment later.

"How's it goin'?" Daryl responded, standing up to acknowledge her entrance into the room, however delayed his action might be.

She smiled and nodded her head slightly to acknowledge him.

"Please…sit," she said. "I'm fine…"

She sat down on the chair near the couch that he and Alice were occupying and Daryl watched as she picked through her hair for pins, beginning to unwind the tangle of long blonde hair.

"We were just talking about the possibility that Carol's boyfriend and baby were real," Alice said. "What do you think, Mel? Were they real or did she make them up?"

Melodye sighed.

"I don't know…" she responded. "I mean…if they were real she has no recollection of them now."

Daryl furrowed his brow at her.

"How'd she just forget 'em?" Daryl asked.

Melodye shrugged.

"With everything they've done to her?" Melodye asked. "The fact that she even knows who she is at all is surprising to me…she's been through a lot of treatment. Now she just sort of drifts through life. She likes doing the crafts with me, but she just does the same thing all the time…she does her crafts about weddings and babies…nothing different ever. But if you ask her if she's been married, or you ask her if she's had a baby, she looks at you like you're the crazy one and insists that she's never done any of that…but that she would love to fall in love…she would love to get married and have babies."

Daryl bit at his thumb while the eyes of the two women were on him like he might have some answer to this.

"OK," he said. "But if she's crazy…let's just say she's forgot 'cause they damn near beat it outta her, that she had all this before…she ain't dangerous crazy. She's…harmless crazy. Woman don't want nothing that don't every other woman in the world want."

Alice snorted, but she didn't say anything.

"She's harmless crazy," Melodye said after a moment. "But there's a chance that she remembers…one day…that this boyfriend comes back to her…"

"So what happens then?" Daryl asked.

Melodye shrugged.

"I don't know? She loses her mind? They haul her right back through treatment again…take it away again? If it was there to begin with…" Melodye said.

Daryl frowned.

"And if they didn't take her ta treatment? If they just…" He stopped and shrugged. "What'd happen if she just got ta…deal with it?"

Alice hummed, getting his attention.

"That's the question," she said. "Is she really crazy? Was she ever crazy? Or was she simply emotional?"

"That'd be pretty damn emotional, wouldn't it? To think she'd lost her mind?" Daryl asked.

Alice shrugged.

"Emotion and nowhere to go…" Alice said. "The perfect thing to land you at Sunny Meadows. You can be thought mad for less."

Daryl sighed again.

"I gotta keep talkin' with her," Daryl said. "I gotta figure out…is she crazy or is she…trapped."

Both women nodded at him.

"If she's trapped," Daryl said. "You reckon there's a chance ta get her outta there? A chance ta…who the hell can get her outta there?"

Alice and Melodye exchanged a look that Daryl didn't understand.

"Anyone who's taking responsibility for her, I guess," Alice said with a shrug. "She…doesn't have anyone."

"Are you serious about this?" Melodye asked. "Are you serious about trying to get this woman out of Sunny Meadows?"

Daryl nipped at his thumb but nodded his head slightly and without commitment. He wasn't entirely sure about this, but his gut was leading him and he was somewhat inclined to listen to it.

"That's a Pandora's Box…you don't know what you might be dealing with," Melodye said. "You have no idea what you might end up with…if she's not as harmless as she seems?"

Daryl nodded his head at her.

"No…you're right," he said. "I don't got no idea what the hell I'm gettin' into…but I got me a real urge ta figure it out. Alice…can you find out how the hell I might go about it? Becoming responsible for her? Figure out what we gotta do…how we gotta…lie?"

Daryl caught the two women exchange glances again.

Finally Alice sighed.

"You keep doing your thing, handsome," she said, leaning forward to pluck another cigarette from the pouch he'd sent back in her direction, "and I'll do mine."