Carol looked around outside Daryl's place there were people standing around fires talking and having a drink. Daryl pulled the baby seat out of the back of his truck and Carol followed her inside the house as he said hello to people heading towards his bedroom. He put the baby seat on the bed, and unbuckling Sophia.
'I'll feed her and put her to bed, maybe she will sleep,' She told Daryl.
There wasn't a lot of noise in the house a few adults sitting around talking, outside was where all the noise was, the music was pumping outside but inside it was quite quiet. Carol wriggled up the top of the bed to feed the baby.
'You want a drink?' Daryl asked her, Carol shook her head, he nodded indicating he would leave them for a bit so she could settle the sleepy baby. Daryl wandered out to the kitchen pulling out a beer from the bin of beers and cracked the top. He drank half of it down looking around to see who was about his house.
'Where's your woman?' Merle come into the kitchen digging through the cupboard for bags of chips to put into bowls.
'Sophia, putting her to bed,' Daryl told him.
'Sorry I steered you wrong, Andrea nearly cut my balls off,' Merle told him, Daryl shook his head.
'I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, what I should be doing, it doesn't matter, I fixed it,' Daryl told him.
'I don't know, I'm not allowed to give you any more advice or nothing, I'm heading outside,' Merle told him, Daryl wandered outside with him.
Carol stood by the baby bed rocking it a little she knew Sophia was sound asleep, she wandered out and didn't see anyone she knew, people were sitting around in little groups some looked up at her as she come out of Daryl's room. She didn't want to wander too far away in case someone went into his room while Sophia was in there. She looked around and Spotted Lori walking into the kitchen, Carol nearly run for her.
'Where's Carl?' Carol asked.
'In Merle and Andrea's room sleeping, we probably going to sleep here, Rick's hammered and I'm not driving all the way home with a baby crying and a handsy husband,' She told her. 'Daryl's outside,'
'Sophia's asleep in there, I don't want to go leaving her,' Carol told him. Lori nodded.
'I'm going to be inside, I can keep an eye out for her if you want,' Lori told her. Carol shook her head. She didn't want to leave her with anyone watching her, she wanted to keep an eye on her or Daryl, Merle or Andrea where allowed to keep an eye on her, other than that she wasn't ready.
'Ok, drink?' Lori passed her a bottle of cider to drink from the fridge. Carol took it and opened it taking a little sip, she didn't really drink so she guessed she would walk around holding the bottle all night.
'Its ok, I'll just hang out,' Carol told her. 'Do you know all these people?'
'Some not all, there is always a wee bunch of cop groupies who try to bag one of the cops,' Lori looked at her, 'Keep your eyes peeled for them, they are ruthless and don't care if they are married or have a girlfriend,'
'If he's going to go with someone else he doesn't want me, I'm not going to worry about stuff like that. If he wants to sleep around he can, I'm not going to fight for him or anything, he knows where I am,' Carol told her. 'If he sleeps with someone, he not invested in me, its simple.' Carol shrugged her shoulders. 'I like Daryl like, like, like, him but I'm never going to beg him.'
'That's a good way to be, I might try that. Bye bye darling you go with the trashy whore, and the locks will be changed and your gear on the deck,' Lori giggled.
'Its just that, if he wants to be with you it doesn't matter what he's offered right? He wants to be with you, you shouldn't have to talk him into it or make him stay, he should want to stay. If you can't trust him not to have sex with someone else, I guess I don't want to be with someone like that. If he does, then he's making his own choice not to be with me,' Carol told her. 'Anyway I always thought that, but I guess I can't talk, I was in a stupid relationship and didn't leave or get out, I'm not the best person to talk to about that.'
'No its interesting, your right, Rick and I always end up in a fight at the end of a night because of these groupies, I should just do the, do whatever you want to, you make the choice you live with it.' Lori told her.
'I don't know, you need to make your own choices, I've made enough bad choices, I'm just not going to fight for someone who may not want to be with me. If he wants to be with me he wouldn't be wanting someone else. I'm not going to drag Soph through that, if he cheats or what ever I'm gone. He knows that.' Carol told her. Carol noticed a few women drifting over towards them, over dressed for a casual party, Carol looked down at her casual jean's and top she was wearing suddenly feeling under dressed.
'So your Daryl's girlfriend,' one asked her, Carol just gave a small smile neither confirming or denying anything to give anyone else anything to gossip about. She saw Daryl come into the lounge and indicate he was going to go check on Sophia in the bedroom, Carol nodded heading over towards him to follow him in to see if she was ok or not. She slipped into the room behind him watching him hold a hand near her face to check she was still breathing. He didn't know she had followed him.
He turned around surprised to see her standing there. 'Hey, you ok?' He asked her.
'I'm fine, been talking with Lori, I didn't want to go outside while there so many people inside, I wanted to keep an ear out,' Carol pointed to Sophia.
Daryl nodded, he walked over and led her out of the room, 'Its fine we can hang out inside, it doesn't matter.'
'I don't mind if you want to hang outside with your friends, I just want to stay inside so no one goes into your room,' Carol told him, he understood, he didn't want anyone to go into his room while Sophia was in there either. He just wrapped his arms around her from behind pulling her back flat against his chest watching what was going on around the house.
Rick was surrounded in a group of women, Daryl was surprised that Lori was ignoring it. They normally ended up in a rip roaring argument, about women hitting on him and him enjoying it. Lori wandered off out of the room and Rick looked after her, stood up moving away from the women to follow Lori, Carol giggled at it.
'Whats so funny?' Daryl asked her, in her ear.
'I might have given Lori some relationship advice, that I didn't know that I knew,' Carol told him, he squeezed her, moving towards the couch pulling her onto his lap kissing her.
'What relationship advice did you give her that has Rick running out of the room after her? When she normally ends up crying because other women hit on him?' Daryl asked her.
'I just told her, if he wants to have sex with someone else he will, if you want to sleep with someone or flirt or have sex with someone that's your choice I'm not going to be here when your done, I owe Sophia more than that,' Carol told him.
'I'm not going to have sex with someone else,' Daryl told her, 'I haven't had sex with anyone for a while now.'
He told her in her ear looking around the room, he knew people were looking at them but he didn't really care what people thought about their relationship it was none of anyone else business.
'I didn't mean you would, I just told Lori I wasn't worried about the group of women she told me about who liked to try get with the cops, she called them groupies, I just told her I wasn't going to get into a fight with another women over you. I'm not doing that, If you want me I'm here, if you don't let me know. I'm not getting into a argument with another women over it.' Carol tried to explain, Daryl nodded.
'You don't need to worry,' he kissed her.
'I'm not worried, I trust you, other wise I wouldn't be here,' Carol kissed him back, in the back ground Carol heard someone call out 'get a room' Carol sighed. People moved around for the next hours until it was time to feed Sophia again, she decided she was going to bed.