Chapter Text

By the end of the afternoon Carol was beginning to wonder if she had done something wrong, Daryl was attentive to a point, held her hand walking around, brought her some lunch and together they looked at stalls until Sophia decided she was ready for some more milk, they headed back to the group where Carol fed her again, gone had gone the man from last night that had kissed and touched her at every opportunity, Carol was embarrassed about it. It wasn't like he was actively avoiding her but something wasn't right.

He was watching her, but held her hand once and got her a drink a few times, Carol started to feel awkward. He didn't seem to be able to have a conversation because anything he was about to say he changed his mind and started on another topic. Carol felt terrible it left her feeling heavy with emotions that she couldn't explain. Sure he held her hand and introduced her to every one, sat beside her for a while then got up to talk with the men, glancing looking at her ever now and again.

She was supposed to be there with him and it was almost as if he was avoiding touching her or anything, she was unsure of what was going on. The other men in the group were glancing her way sometimes and Carol realised that she wasn't really welcome there, something was off, the men had said something to him and from that moment he barely could keep his conversations straight without jumping from one topic to another barely giving her a chance to answer.

Carol just wanted to get out of there, she gathered Sophia up with her gear before she burst into tears in front of everyone. She tucked Sophia into the pram wondering how to get out of the park without it turning really embarrassing.

'You going to take her for a wee walk?' Andrea asked her, Carol nodded, pushing her sunglasses on and sun hat. She dropped a muslin cloth over the pram to keep Sophia out of the sun.

'I'll come,' Andrea hopped up and followed her out of the ropes, Daryl looked at them.

'Just going for a walk so she will sleep,' Carol said to him, she felt like she was struggling to breathe, not looking at him or anyone, keeping her eyes on the pram.

'You want me to come?' He asked, Carol shook her head not really able to speak. Daryl watched her walk off with Andrea and knew he was mucking it up. He was trying his on hardest to not say anything that put pressure on her. It was just making things awkward because he kept changing the conversation to general stuff then flicking from one conversation to another. Carol looked confused, and a little sad when he got up and moved away. The truth was he wanted to talk about stuff they could do together, he wanted to pull her onto his lap like Rick had done to Lori.

It was hard to try and keep PG, he was mucking it up, he didn't know how to do it. He never really dated even in high school so he was just leading with emotions and now he was trying to hide them from her. Then Merle kept looking at him making sure he wasn't making any moves when all he wanted to do was hold her in his arm's. He kinda hoped they could get someone to watch Sophia while he could have a dance later that night after they had dinner at the park and the live bands played into the night. Then she would hopefully give him a clue on what he should be doing.

Carol walked along beside Andrea for a few minutes wondering what went wrong thinking it might be about the incident in the bathroom this morning, Carol swallowed hard thinking about it. She had a lump in her throat thinking about it. She didn't really know what else to do, she just wanted to go back to her little flat and lick her wounds and eat something like chocolate and biscuits.

'Ummmm I've got a bit of a head ache, I might go home,' Carol told Andrea as they neared the exit.

'What, why?' Andrea asked, 'You want to go home or your going home?

'I want to go home,' Carol's voice cracked, and she coughed to clear it.

'Why do you want to got home for? We supposed to be here for dinner, do you really have a headache?' Andrea asked.

Carol shook her head, 'I just want to go,'

'Do you really have a headache?' Andrea asked. Carol nodded knowing that Andrea probably knew she was lying about that. Truth be told she could hardly swallow she just wanted to leave before she was embarrased any more in front of everyone. Every single one of Daryl's friends kept looking at her, she wanted to go. It was emotionally draining and trying to smile and be nice was something she didn't want to do. It felt so awkward that she couldn't even enjoy the music, it was hard to swallow the lump in her throat was huge.

'I'm just going to go, I'll walk, Ummm I'm going to have a sleep I might feel better later and come back ok,' Carol told her, Andrea gave her a quick hug.

'Did something happen? Your upset?'

'Nothing, its ok, I really want to leave now,' Carol told her and she turned pushing Sophia towards the exit with silent tears welling in her eyes. She didn't understand what had actually happened or why Daryl was being so weird around her, but she wanted out before she really looked like a fool. The short walk to her wee flat went quickly as quiet tears rolled down her face. She unlocked the door and pushed the pram into the lounge and locked the door behind her. Took the muslin cloth off the pram. Sophia was asleep. She turned the air con on and lay down on the couch to try and push away the headache she now had away.

She got up and got a drink and picked up her book to take her mind off things and lay down on the couch to read and take her mind off things and rest before Sophia woke and demanded her attention.

Daryl looked slightly panic'd when Andrea come back without Carol to the police area looking at her then behind into the crowd and then back to Andrea before walking over and touching her arm.

'Where's Carol' He asked her, Andrea looked at him then at Merle who come close.

'She's gone,' Andrea told him, 'She's gone home in tears for what ever reason or whatever you done this afternoon, whats going on, last night you were all over her now today you hardly holding a conversation, no wonder she's upset.'

'What, gone? Like gone home?' Daryl asked.

'Yes Daryl, gone home upset trying not to let me see her cry, why you make her cry for, what did you do?' Andrea looked at him then at Merle, Merle avoided her gaze. 'You better tell me what dumb arse advice you gave him so I can fix it.'

'They told me to play it cool, not pressure her and do PG shit and I don't know how to do PG stuff, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing,' Daryl stated.

'Can I suggest you go back to doing whatever you were doing last night when she had that huge smile on her face,' Andrea said.

'Should I go after her?'

'Really Daryl,' Andrea said, 'You think?'

'What should I say?'

'Tell her your brother's a dumb arse and told you to back off a little, poor girl probably felt awkward, I would, you hardly been near her all day,' Andrea said.

'Cos I didn't know what to say or do what Rick, Shane and Merle told me to do,' Daryl told her.

'Well that's a winning combination right there, dumb, dumber and dumbest! Daryl when has listening to any of them on relationship advice ever worked out for you?' Andrea asked him. Daryl shook his head and headed out the ropes to walk around to try make things right with Carol. He felt a bit stupid listening to them when it was upsetting him not doing it right, he should have known it would upset her.