I'm all better! But now I have to take care of a super sick pup =( . No rest for the wicked, I suppose. Thank you all for reading! You guys are the greatest!

Chapter Nineteen

Carol could sense that there was something wrong by his voice. It sounded shaky, almost unstable. For a moment she thought maybe he was drunk. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

He sighed into the phone. "I don't know that either."

"Daryl, did something happen? Do you need me?"

The laugh that sounded in her ear didn't sound like a happy one. "We don't even need to get into that right now. Just talk," he repeated.

"About what?" She asked, frowning.

"Anything? Fuck, I don't know."

"Well, I picked Sophia up from your cousin's this afternoon," Carol said, not even trying to hide how much the situation bothered her.

"Yeah? How did that go?"

She snorted. "Horribly. She's never done anything like this before so I have no idea how to handle it. I wasn't sure if I should talk to her about it or yell at her. So we kind of just drove home in silence and now she's up in her room and she hasn't come down and I'm still trying to figure out what to do about all of this. Any pointers? How does Merle handle Piper?"

"Hell if I know. He handles all that shit. I'm the fun one, remember?"

She smiled. He was sounding much more like himself. "Well, should I tell her not to see him anymore? Ground her to the house? I hate doing that since this is the first time she's actually ever gone out. But I should tell her not to see him anymore, right? She knew not to do what she did."

"I don't think that would work," he said.

"I didn't think it would. I just don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I suck at this."

"You ever think about just letting it happen?" He asked suddenly. "Sometimes you can try to put a stop to somethin' but it don't do any good, ya know? You can try to stop it but it's already to late for that."

She sat down at the table, a sudden sadness creeping over her. "Yes. I know." She wondered if he was talking about Sophia and Damon or them. "I'm really glad I got to see you today. I know you didn't want to see me but I'm gl-"

"It ain't that and you know it," he said quickly and she could imagine the indignant look on his face.

"You're so damn confusing," she said softly. "You tell me that you don't want me to call you unless I need you but then you kiss me in front of everyone outside the school and now you're calling me."

"I met with Ed just a few minutes ago," he said suddenly.

Her heart jumped in her chest. "Daryl, what happened. Please tell me you didn't tell him what happened. You don't understand, okay. You-"

"He ain't gonna be so bad anymore."

She shook her head, holding the phone tightly. "You don't know him."

"Do you trust me?" He asked, the question catching her off guard.

"Of course I do, why would you ask that?"

"Then just don't worry about it anymore, alright? Look, I gotta hunt Piper down and give her her phone back. I need to see you though. Soon, okay?"

"Why?"

"I don't know," he muttered.

"That's your answer for a lot of things, Daryl. Like I said, you're a confusing man."

"Nah, I'm pretty easy to figure out."

She smiled. "I miss you." The words were out of her mouth before she could even think about what she was about to say and she knew how dangerous they were. "I mean, as much as I can miss some random guy that I barely know that I just met a few days ago. You know."

He actually chuckled. "Exactly. So when are you gonna show back up?"

Her smile fell. "I don't know. Hopefully we just run into each other again soon. I meant what I said. I was really happy to see you today. But I thought you didn't want to-"

"I take back what I said the other night. Call me anytime you feel like it. Fuck, pack a bag and come stay with me in that room if you want but right now I gotta go."

"Daryl?" She said quickly before he could hang up the phone.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you can keep your phone close tonight, and keep yourself out of jail? I might need to call." She ignored how fast her heart had started pounding at the idea of his invitation.

"I'll keep it close and like I said, you can call if you want. But I promise, you ain't gonna have a reason to. It's done. He won't touch you."

She frowned, wondering what he could have said to Ed to be able to make such a promise. "Okay. I'll talk to you later, maybe."

"Bye, Carol."

He hung up and she was left staring at the phone in her hands, more confused than she was before he had called. And that was really saying something. She sighed and put the phone in her pocket. She needed to prepare herself for world war three when Ed came through the door. Hopefully Daryl hadn't signed her death warrant with this little meeting that Piper had thrown together.

Despite all her problems, however, she couldn't help but feel a little excited at the prospect of seeing him again. He was almost like a drug to her. She knew he was bad for her in a way but the way he made her feel was beyond words. And after last night she had made the decision that she was finally going to find a job. She had no college education and she had dropped out of high school when she had gotten pregnant with Sophia but she had went back and gotten her high school diploma. That had to count for something. And then as soon as she was able, she was leaving Ed.

She had no idea what exactly Daryl wanted. Surely he didn't want to pursue an actual relationship with a woman seven years older than him that had a teenage daughter and a dead end job. But she would be free to see him regardless of what their relationship was. She had done everything she could to save her marriage but she was done. She hadn't realized how horrible her life was until she had experienced just a few nights with another man.

No, that wasn't really true. Not just another man. Him. He had changed her somehow. Made her want to be more than what she was here. She wanted to be with someone that she could laugh with. Someone that would make her feel like she was worthy of good things. Someone that made her feel safe and cared for and who would push her to do whatever she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be with Daryl Dixon.

But right now what she had to do was handle this situation with Sophia. Then she had to focus on finding a job and dealing with Ed's fury over that. He didn't want her to work. And then she would look for another place. She would get a one bedroom apartment and move into it if she had to. Sophia could have the room and she would sleep on the couch until they could find something better. But it was going to happen. She was going to stop trying to save something that had died a long long time ago and she was going to start living. She was thirty four. She had a lot of living left in her. She had plenty to offer the world. She wasn't going to be controlled anymore. And if Ed did decide that he was going to hurt her again, she would make that call and she would let Daryl handle it however he saw fit.

She felt strangely liberated as she climbed the stairs. "First things first," she muttered. She had to figure out what was going on with her daughter.

~H~

Sophia stood in the middle of her room, her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her face. The walls were a soft green color with white trim, which she actually liked, but she was ready to make this place her own. Unfortunately she had no idea how to do that. What could she do to make the space say, this is Sophia's? She was trying to distract herself from what she knew was coming. Her mom hadn't said a word to her during the drive to the garage to drop Piper off. She had expected her to say something once they were alone in the car but she hadn't said anything then either. And as soon as Sophia came in she had ran up to her room.

She knew that her mom's life was stressful enough on her best days and she felt so guilty for adding to it. She didn't know why she hadn't just had Damon drop her off and Piper's. She didn't know why she had suggested they skip school. At the time it had seemed like a good idea. She felt free and a little rebellious. Now she just felt like a horrible, uncaring daughter and what she did simply wasn't fair. It wasn't fair because her mom had always tried so hard and...

She sighed when, on cue, there was a soft knock at the door. "Can I come in?"

She sat down on the edge of bed. "Sure," she called. She had never dreaded talking to her mom before. She wasn't sure how she felt about that at the moment.

Carol came in, shutting the door behind her and leaned against it, studying Sophia with a look that the girl couldn't gauge. "So..."

Sophia looked at the floor, feeling even more guilt wash over her.

"I have no idea what to say right now," Carol said with a forced smile, her voice unsure.

"I'm sorry, mom. I didn't plan any of that, okay? After you called I was so mad. All I wanted to do was come home to make sure you were okay and he refused to take me and I refused to go to Piper's."

"So you opted to spend the night with a boy, with no parents home, and then skip school? Sophia, I don't understand."

Sophia shook her head. "I didn't expect you to. I don't understand it. And I'm sorry but..."

"Did anything happen?" Carol asked suddenly.

Sophia felt her face getting hot but she didn't answer right away. Carol took this as a bad sign.

"Oh God," Carol's voice came out panicked. "Okay. It's okay. I- Did you use protection?"

"Mom!" Sophia stood up, horrified. "No! That didn't happen! I don't even know him very well and... Oh. I mean, no offense. I'm not judging you or anything. I mean. I let him kiss me. I kissed him, I didn't have sex with him! Why would you think that?" She felt completely mortified that her mom would think she could do something like that.

The relief on Carol's face was obvious. "Okay," she said, holding up her hands in surrender. "It just took a minute to respond so I thought the worst."

"Well, that didn't happen," Sophia repeated, sitting back down.

"That's good. You shouldn't be doing that. You aren't old enough to-"

"How old were you when you did it?" Sophia asked, knowing that her mom had her when she was just a little bit older than Sophia. She hated bringing that up but she didn't want a lecture about sex. She didn't plan on doing anything like that for a long time.

"Well, I was... I was young. Too young to be doing that! And now that I am sure you don't need to go get put on birth control, tell me why you skipped school today."

She shrugged. "I just didn't want to go."

"Sophia, are you hearing yourself?"

"Can you just ground me and be done with it. I don't want to talk about it. I just want to be alone right now."

"No, that isn't how this works. I don't think. I wouldn't know because up until yesterday I never thought I would be trying to figure out what to do with you," Carol said angrily.

Sophia felt guilty, sure, but she was starting to feel something like anger herself. "You went and had an affair with a complete stranger and I had to hear all about it, what the hell do you expect me to do? Neither one of us are who we've been pretending to be, mom. I'm tired of being nobody. Just like you are."

"Is that why you did it? Because of Daryl?" Carol asked and Sophia could see the hurt in her mother's eyes.

She shook her head. "No. Not really. I mean, I was happy for you. I thought this was the push that you needed. Some tawdry affair with a random guy, you know? I thought that now, things really can change. Now we can really get away and be ourselves. And then when you said that I needed to go stay with Piper, I knew it had gotten bad. And I knew it was because of me. I just wanted to get away from everything. And I can still see your face, mom. He hit you because of me." She tried to pretend like she didn't see it but there wasn't any way to do that. "And you still won't leave him. I don't want to live like this anymore and I don't understand. I don't understand why you keep refusing to do anything about it. I'm sorry that I did what I did. I really am. I'm just... I'm tired of feeling like this. Tired of being afraid and unsure. I don't feel like that when I'm with Damon or Piper."

Carol took her hand and sat down. "He hit me because he's a coward and he's a bully, not because of you. But you are wrong. Tomorrow morning I'm going to look for a job. As long as nothing like last night ever happens again, ever, then you can see about looking for some after school work. Not something that's going to get in the way of your grades. I just won't have any extra money so anything you want you'll have to pay for. I don't want you to go without. I don't want you to be miserable or afraid but what you did, I don't want you thinking that it's okay to do that. If either of us are going to live precariously, it's me. I'm older and I've earned the right." She tried to smile but she looked nervous.

Sophia stared at her mother for what seemed to be an eternity. She looked different. Stronger. And she believed her. For the first time in a long time, she felt a glimmer of hope, not only for herself but for her mom too. She felt tears sting her eyes but she smiled and let her mom pull her into a hug.

"I want you to do something for me, though. I know that what I'm asking is a lot right now but it's important," Carol said when she finally pulled away.

"What?" Sophia asked, wiping under eyes.

"Tonight, after dinner, I'm telling your father that I'm going to go job hunting tomorrow. There isn't any way I can keep it from him. Not with the way he keeps tabs on me. I want you to come up here and keep your phone close. If you hear anything. If it sounds like things are getting bad downstairs between Ed and me, I need you to call Daryl. Can you do that?"

Sophia felt her chest tighten with fear, fear for her mother and fear for the future, but she nodded.