AN: Here we go, another little chapter.

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

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"Can I help?" Daryl asked while he sat at the table, where he'd been told he had to stay, and Carol went about cleaning up after the dinner party.

"No…birthday rules," Carol responded. She came over, offering him a saucer with another slice of the strawberry cake.

"We could go to bed early if you'd let me help," Daryl responded, catching her hand. She leaned down and kissed him and when she pulled away, she smiled at him.

"We can't do anything anyway, remember?" She responded. "No…I'll clean up and you enjoy your cake. I hope the dinner was good…"

"Best birthday dinner yet…" Daryl commented.

Carol wandered away from Daryl to go and start washing the dishes while he ate his cake. He hated when she put in place the "rule" that he couldn't help with something. She took it, often, as him trying to do things for her…but really it made him uncomfortable to simply sit idly by while someone else did everything.

"Daryl…was it really good? I didn't do anything…" Carol started, but broke off and never made any effort to continue.

But she didn't have to. By now Daryl was pretty sure that she didn't have to ever use complete sentences for him to understand what she was asking.

"Carol…the dinner was amazing, this cake is so damn good I didn't want anybody else ta eat it…an' you were so nice to everyone didn't nobody wanna leave," Daryl said. "Whole thing was good…but I was serious about the cake…"

Carol laughed from the kitchen.

"And that's why there's a second one," she said. "Just for you. It's in the cake dish over here."

"You spoil me, woman!" Daryl said, getting up and taking his plate to add it to the sink. He wrapped his arms around her back and kissed her neck. "Lemme help? Please?"

"It's your birthday…" Carol said. "You don't clean on your birthday."

"It's my birthday an' I should get ta do whatever I want…an' clean is what I wanna do right now." Daryl said. "It's late…an' I really want us ta go ta bed."

Carol turned around and made a face at him and he smiled at her.

"Didn't say for that…just wanna sleep," Daryl said. "I'm gettin' older…gotta sleep more."

Carol sighed.

"If you want to help, can you put the little table in the garage? And take care of the garbage?" She asked.

"Got it," Daryl declared.

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When Daryl got to work the next day he accepted a belated birthday wish from Axel who hadn't been working the day before and got right on his rounds.

But his work here was nothing but temporary at this point. He knew it and everyone else knew it too. Sunny Meadows was on its way to being shut down and Daryl figured that at best they all had about six months more before it was entirely out of business.

There had been a good number of law suits put out on the place for everything from malpractice to patient abuse. Many families, even if they had no suit to win, had moved their loved ones to a place that was two towns over. The only ones left, really, at this point were the lifers…and most of them were only there because there was no one that gave a damn about them. They'd be moved by the state, eventually, when the establishment went under.

And Daryl was always struck by the idea that these people remained and no one cared, but he was thankful at least that Carol wasn't one of them…something she could never say again was that no one cared about her because he loved her enough for anyone else that might have mattered.

He didn't plan to stay at Sunny Meadows, though. Thanks to Alice and Melodye, both having moved on from the place some time back, Daryl was going back to school. He was studying now to be a RN and he'd be done before the place sunk. He was taking his last class now, a night class, and then he could move on to better things.

Melodye had been going to school longer than Alice and Daryl both. She'd left Sunny Meadows not long after he'd taken Carol from the place and had decided that she wanted more out of life…and she could have it. She worked and went to school in the evenings. Alice had followed suit, though they were going for different things, things that put them both in the position of being some of the few women in their classes, and in the position of being looked at sideways by most of the people who knew them and thought that, at their ages, they should be married and working on families…not attempting to get education for jobs that were better suited to men.

But they had planted it in Daryl's mind that he might want more, and Carol supported him. So the three of them went to their classes together and he studied with Carol on the nights that he needed to study. And he was proud of himself. With each class he felt more and more confident…more and more like he was doing something with his life.

And his life was a good life…a good life that would only get better when he moved on from this dead end job and stepped up to a better position at a better institution…a place where he could really help people instead of being a glorified maid, which was how he was beginning to feel about his life at Sunny Meadows.

"Good birthday, man?" Axel asked, walking through the nearly abandoned hallway with Daryl.

"Best," Daryl said. "Got some cake…brought you some for lunch. Carol's strawberry cake."

"Good stuff!" Axel commented.

Daryl chuckled.

"Damn sure is," he said. "You on full day today?"

Axel nodded.

"Got an interview tomorrow, though," Axel said. "Down at the hospital. Might just be outta here before you are."

Daryl had been trying to get Axel to go back to school too, but it hadn't worked up to now. Axel wasn't interested in it.

"You might move on before me," Daryl said. "But a couple months and I'm moving on…right on to bigger things…better things."

"Good job, man," Axel said. "You said you'd do it. Looks like you were right."

"Always am," Daryl said. "I do what the hell I set out to do."

"That you do…" Axel commented. "See you at lunch."

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"Andrea said that she heard that if you…" Carol turned around to look at Daryl over her shoulder from where she was sitting on the edge of the bed, combing her hair, "put your legs up…you know after we make love? It can work."

Daryl was already settled into bed and waiting her to finish the complicated dance she had constructed over time to get ready for bed. He rubbed his hand over his face.

"Fine," he said. "So we try that…hell…"

He broke off with a laugh.

"Get some good quality rope an' we'll string you right on up from the ceiling…by your ankles…" He snorted with the image he'd created for himself and she frowned at him.

"I was being serious," Carol said.

"Me too," Daryl said. But he knew that she didn't appreciate joking when it came to having any kind of discussion about having a baby. She could laugh about just about anything else in the world…but that was no laughing matter.

Daryl sighed.

"Carol, we'll try it," he said. "But I just don't know if it'll work…"

"It makes sense," Carol said. "It would keep things…together…I don't know, Daryl."

"Hey! We'll try it," Daryl said. "Couple a' days…we'll try it. No big deal, right? We've tried stranger things than that."

Carol crawled onto the bed, her soft cotton nightgown twisting around her and she leaned over Daryl, looking down at him. He raised a hand and rubbed her cheek.

"We'll try it," he said. "But I still think that the answer might be what that doctor in Rock Hill was sayin'…said that you needed to relax. Gotta take it easy…keep ya feet up sometimes…you stressin' yourself out an' that ain't helpin' things. Can we try that? You just take it easy? Maybe take some time off? Some time away from Andrea…she don't mean ta upset you, but she does damn near every time she's over here."

Carol bit her lip and shook her head.

"I can't take time off from my work, Daryl," she said. "I need it…you know that. I need it! If I didn't work what would I do? I can't clean the house all day, every day. If I didn't work…I'd do nothing but think about the children we're never going to have."

Daryl shifted around and sat up enough to push her back so that she was sitting normally on the bed. He picked up her hand and kissed it…something he often did since it was the first tiny show of affection that she'd ever allowed him and for that he enjoyed the gesture more than he'd ever thought me might.

"I didn't mean ta say you couldn't work," he said. "Don't stop that…it makes you happy. Maybe you just need ta not set no hard deadlines? Nothin' you need Andrea for. Take your time an' really enjoy what you're doin'."

"It's not Andrea's fault that she's…normal," Carol said.

Daryl narrowed his eyes at Carol.

"What'd I tell you about sayin' that?" He said. "There ain't a thing that's wrong with you…an' I know it upsets you when I say this, but I mean it the best way I can, Carol. If you can't never have a baby…there still ain't nothin' wrong with you. If we have an even dozen a' kids I'ma love it…an' if we don't have a single one…I'ma be just fine. Long as we're doin' it? It's gonna be good."

He could tell that she was fighting crying. She always looked like she was on the verge of choking when she was fighting tears.

"I'm not normal…" Carol said, her voice coming out shaky.

Daryl chuckled and shook his head.

"No…you ain't," he said. "Whole lot better'n normal."

He sat the rest of the way up and held his arms out to her and she sunk into them, moving practically into his lap.

"Carol…you ain't thought about us adoptin' no more? Get us a kid that someone else don't want?" Daryl asked.

"I want us to have a baby," Carol said.

"What if I was to buy you one? Gotta be someone willin' ta sell one…I'm serious…we could steal this one a' Andrea's…she can't keep up with the ones she's got barely…wouldn't miss it," Daryl said, hugging her to him.

Carol laughed lightly and Daryl smiled, pleased that he'd at least gotten her to lighten up a little, no matter how little it might be.

"I want us to have a baby," she repeated. "I just don't understand why. Why are there people who have them and don't want them and we don't have any?"

"Life don't always make sense, Carol Ann," Daryl said. "We just take it as it is…but what if we were ta get one a' them kids? Two of 'em…six of 'em if you want? Then if we have a baby, well we just got more…but then you ain't gotta stay up not one more night like this. You can stay up at night then because you got seven of 'em ta shuffle around."

She didn't respond this time. This time she just pulled away from him and brought her lips to his and he kissed her back, holding her still in his lap.

He meant it too…if she'd just say the word, he'd find a way to buy her all the kids she wanted. He'd buy her as many as she might want.

He'd worried, though, that adopting might be difficult given her medical history, even though he wanted to have faith that they'd rather give her a baby to love than to deny her and a kid both the chance at sharing that love. But life didn't always make sense…and systems very seldom even made as much sense at life.

And Carol had admitted more than once that she was afraid that she would love a child…just to have someone take it away from her.

Daryl didn't want to admit, though, that he was afraid it was a chance they might have to take if they wanted to ever have children…because so far nothing else had worked for them and it wasn't for lack of trying or desire.

Finally she pulled away and he pulled her back, kissing her again.

"You've got to sleep," she said, pulling away again. "You've got your test…you need your rest."

"You too," Daryl said. "No stayin' up all night mopin' about things?"

She nodded.

"Hold me?" She asked.

Daryl smiled.

"Every night," he said, moving back to his position in bed.