AN: Here we go, another little chapter.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we have a long way to go with this story. I don't intend for it to be a short one in any way. There's a lot that's going to happen before we're done.

I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!

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Daryl escorted Carol into her room. He could tell that she was already a little uneasy, maybe, about the situation, because she hadn't been prompted into speaking much on the car ride. But he was determined to stick this out and he was sure that he could, given some time, get to the root of things with her.

He just couldn't believe that she was crazy…at least not entirely.

"This is your room," he said. "Now…you can do what'cha want in here. It's all your space."

He put her bag on the bed beside the small box of things that she had…a box that he'd brought in earlier for her.

Melodye and Alice were going to continue their behind the scenes research for more information on Carol. They were trying to figure out how all of them might go about getting more information on her, but Daryl was supposed to be getting all of her "information" within the week so he thought that a more extensive file on the woman might hold more of the answers they sought than the more streamline version they kept close at hand at Sunny Meadows.

He'd already decided, though, that there was nothing in the rumors he'd heard that he couldn't live with…and, in fact, he wasn't sure if there was anything he couldn't live with out of the given possibilities. He simply wanted to know so that he'd know what he could do to bring the woman entirely out of her shell…so that he could know what to do so that she could, if that's what she needed to do, deal with her past and move on from it instead of simply living closed somewhere in her mind.

"This is my room?" She asked, looking around. He took it as a good sign that she felt sure enough, a moment later, to walk around the space, trailing her fingers over the blanket on the bed and then on from there to the dresser.

"Sure is," Daryl said. "And everything in here is yours to keep. In the closet there…them dresses? I had them made for you, but if they don't fit we can get them resized. It really isn't any kind of problem."

Carol went to the closet, opened it, and took out one of the two dresses. Daryl hadn't really known what she might like, but the judge's wife was a seamstress and she'd offered to make the dresses for her as a "welcome home" gift for Daryl to give her. So she'd picked out the pattern and he'd picked out the fabric.

"I hope you like 'em," Daryl said. "I got the blue 'cause it'll bring out your eyes…and the other one…I just thought it was pretty."

Carol examined the dresses a moment before she held out the one she had in her hand…the one that was a multicolored fabric that Daryl had liked because it had about every color in it that he could imagine. Now, though, he worried that he'd chosen badly and she'd probably have preferred, like Melodye said, a solid color instead.

"You picked these out for me?" Carol asked.

Daryl nodded his head and she smiled at him.

"I love them," she offered. "I'll freshen up and change into one of them now. They're very nice."

Daryl sighed a little with relief. This whole thing was actually going much more smoothly than he'd thought it might. He'd prepared for the worst so that he could be pleasantly surprised if anything at all turned out to be better than the absolute worst.

"You do that…I'll show you the bathroom," he said, gesturing for her to follow him so he could take her to the bathroom. "This whole house…it's my house an' that means it's your house too…an' tomorrow when I go ta work, a friend a' mine, she's gonna come here an' she's gonna work here. She…uh…uses my house for sewin'…but she ain't gonna bother you none, OK? She's just gonna be here through the day. But the house is yours…anything you want…it's yours."

Carol nodded at him, but she didn't say anything. She looked a little overwhelmed, but Daryl thought it might be a bit much to take in.

"I'ma go get dinner ready," Daryl said. "While you freshen up…take ya time."

Carol stopped and shook her head at him.

"No! I'll make dinner…I'll show you," she said with a smile. "I can make your dinner for you…you just tell me what you want."

Daryl shook his head.

"Not tonight," he said. "Tomorrow? I got dinner already…someone brought us dinner. All I gotta do is put it out…no cookin' or nothin'."

Carol frowned.

"At least let me put it out?" Carol asked. "You shouldn't make your own dinner. I wouldn't be a very good wife if…"

She broke off and Daryl didn't like the look on her face. He reached and touched her shoulder, one of the few places he dared to touch besides her arms and her hands the few times that she'd held hands with him.

"Hey…you wanna put it out, you can," Daryl said. "I been livin' alone a long time…so I'm used ta doin' things myself…don't mean you ain't gonna be a perfect wife. Just takes some gettin' used to, that's all."

Carol nodded.

"I'll freshen up," she said, her face looking a little lighter. "And then I'll get your dinner ready."

Daryl nodded his head.

"Sounds good," he said. "You take ya time…"

She stepped into the bathroom and Daryl slipped into the kitchen to get the food as close to being ready as it could be. He wasn't used to having someone wait on him, and though he knew that most men couldn't wait to have a wife to serve them hand and foot, he didn't like the idea of sitting around and doing nothing while Carol did just that.

She might, though, change his mind…simply because it seemed that, to her, anything less was something of a failure on her part.

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"Just leave 'em? For a minute?" Daryl asked, reaching his hand across the table and catching Carol's wrist when she immediately got up to start clearing the table as he finished eating his food.

She nodded at him and sat back in her chair.

"This is nice, ain't it? Dinner was good…now we just get ta relax a little…it's real nice," Daryl said.

Carol nodded her head.

"It is really nice," she responded. "I love your house."

"Our house," Daryl corrected, earning himself another nod.

"May I ask you something?" Carol asked.

Daryl nodded at her.

"Yeah…you can ask me whatever you want, whenever you want. You don't gotta have my permission ta speak," Daryl said.

Carol offered him a soft smile at the universal permission to speak and he wondered if some day she'd be as chatty as Alice and Melodye got.

"When will we be married?" Carol asked. "I mean…if it isn't too much to ask."

Daryl cleared his throat.

He hadn't thought that through entirely. He wasn't sure how the whole thing would work if they were actually going to be married. He'd sort of been flying on the hope that as soon as she was in the house she would have either a total transformation of character or else she would have some kind of massive meltdown and confirm for him that she was mad.

Neither had happened.

She remained sweet, silent, demure…she was eager to please him, that was evident. She wanted to be married and he assumed that if she were pressed she would be focused on having a child, but he wasn't going to press too much into that at the moment. Baby steps seemed like a good idea to him.

Still, he didn't really know how he would go about marrying her, and he'd intended to speak to the judge about it, since the man seemed like a reasonable upholder of the law, to find out even if he could marry her given the circumstances. She was eager to please and she seemed eager to marry him, but if she was crazy, she might not even know for sure if she liked him or not.

"Well…soon," Daryl said. "But there's some things that's gotta be taken care of, you know? Things that I gotta take care of…an' when I get 'em all taken care of then we gonna get married."

Carol stared at him while he spoke, obviously drinking in every word. She furrowed her brow at him.

"But we are to be married?" She asked.

Daryl nodded his head.

"Of course," he said. "Didn't I tell you we was gonna get married?"

Carol nodded her head and Daryl hoped he wasn't leading this poor woman into some kind of lie that he didn't even mean to be telling. He wasn't sure how well that would go over.

Still, he did have full intention to marry her if he was allowed to do so. It wasn't as though he was passing up any other offer of marriage…and he was sure, down in his gut even though it was churning a little at the moment, that he was going to be happy with her…whoever she turned out to be at the end of it all.

"It's just that…I don't have a ring," Carol said. "And…it isn't proper, you know? For me to be living with you when we aren't married. People are going to say things…and I don't want anything to happen. I don't want people to say things because you're a wonderful man, Daryl…you don't deserve for me to bring that…shame to you."

Daryl swallowed.

There was something in her voice that was a little different than before. There was something there that was a little less robotic than she was from time to time. He wondered if the something there was related to this boyfriend…the one who may or may not have been real…and whatever the situation surrounding the possibly imaginary dead baby was.

"Nobody's gonna say nothin'," Daryl said. "You got your room an' I got mine. I brought your stuff in there today for you…but I ain't even goin' in your room without permission, OK? There ain't nothin' that anyone can say an' if they do then it's just people talkin' an' they sure do love ta do that all on they own. You can't shame me…an' you gonna have a ring. Real soon. I promise you that."

Carol nodded her head at him and he thought he caught her smile quickly, though she wiped it away. He didn't know what the smile was directly tied to, but he'd take it either way.

"Now…in the mornin', like I said, I gotta go ta work. And Mrs. Greene…she's gonna be here workin' but you don't gotta worry about her botherin' you, OK? She's just workin' from here…an' tomorrow evenin' I got a doctor comin' that's gonna look you over, OK? An' then we'll have supper together," Daryl said.

Carol leaned up a little from her relaxed position.

"A doctor? Why?" She asked.

Daryl almost smiled to himself. This he had thought ahead about enough to have something to say.

"Gotta get checked out…'fore we get married," he said. "An' both of us gotta give 'em a blood sample…so he's gonna handle that an' do the check ups…you alright with that, ain't you?"

He'd already decided that if he had to succumb to an examination to get her to go along with it, he was willing to do that, and if they intended to be married then they would need proof of blood tests regardless.

She seemed satisfied with the answer because she sucked in a breath and sat back in her chair, taking up the more relaxed stance from before. She nodded at him and then smiled.

"Yes…I understand," she said.

He was relieved that at least she was accepting of that, and he would at least make sure that she was physically healthy…or if she wasn't, then he would know what was wrong with her. He might, also, get answers about the possible baby that he didn't know if he could count on the records he was expecting to get to reveal to him.

"Daryl," Carol said after a moment, "I'm tired…do you think that I could do the dishes and retire?"

Daryl almost told her to leave the dishes and the leftovers…he'd get them or they could soak overnight, which was commonly his practice when he bothered to cook something that required dishes…but he knew that she wouldn't be OK with that so he nodded.

"Sure," he said. "It's your house. You don't gotta have my permission ta go ta bed neither."

Carol smiled and nodded her head before she got up and went about taking care of the leftovers of the meal.

"In the morning I'll make you breakfast," she said. "Just let me know what time you need to leave…and I'll have you breakfast and something for lunch."

Daryl grunted his approval, knowing it was better not to argue with her, and then finally voiced that it would be fine and he would wake her by knocking at her door when she needed to get up.

He felt like tonight he might need a good night's sleep as much as she did, but he wondered how well he'd sleep with so much going on in his mind.