I'm not excited about posting this chapter. I guess that's why I haven't posted it sooner. Just keep in mind that this story was just something I wrote for myself. It's already done. Whether you like where it's going or not, there isn't any way for me to change anything at all. I'm sure I'll get some please do or please don't messages but they won't effect the outcome of this story because it's already done.

I hope all of you have had a better week than I have! Thanks, as always, for reading =)

Chapter Twenty Four

Damon had given Carol his mother's cell number and Carol already couldn't wait to meet the woman. She was expecting someone gruff and distant, only willing to do a favor for Carol because of Daryl. She should have been ashamed of herself for making assumptions because when she finally reached the woman, June, she had been soft spoken, bubbly and apparently thrilled to meet Carol as soon as she got back. She'd mentioned that she had already heard all about her, which was embarrassing because her behavior as of late was a little questionable to say the least. But she had thanked the woman profusely for giving her the opportunity to work for her. June insisted that she wouldn't be working for her but with her, stating that family took care of family. It had shocked Carol but she didn't argue. It wouldn't do her any good to tell June that having an affair with a club member didn't really make them family.

She was starting to wonder if an affair was all this was. It didn't feel like an affair. As stupid as it seemed she was pretty certain that she was falling in love with Daryl Dixon. He was too young for her. He was too wild for her. She barely knew him and yet, despite all of those things, she couldn't stay away from him. She craved his voice and his touch and just his presence. She felt alive when she was with him and empty inside when she wasn't. That didn't constitute an affair. An affair was something cheap and dirty.

Well, sometimes their sex life actually was cheap and dirty, but that one time, it had been something else and no matter what, that one time had changed things between them. She jumped when the phone rang, causing her to spill ice water all over her hand. She was glad it wasn't coffee.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Peletier?"

"This is she," Carol said, frowning.

"This is Vanessa Stokes, Dr. Browning's secretary. We've been trying to contact you but apparently your number has been changed and the other receptionist had misplaced the new one."

"Oh, yes. We've moved and the home phone has been changed but the cell is still the same." There was a brief pause on the other end that had Carol feeling nervous. "Is there something wrong?"

"Well, no, not exactly Mrs. Peletier. It's just that, when the receptionist called your old number to schedule an appointment and realized that the phone was out of service, she never called your cell. You're three weeks late for your Depo-Provera shot."

Carol's hand froze around the phone as panic clawed up her throat. "I see. I... What can I do about that now?"

"Well, you can come in and get the shot but we do have to administer a pregnancy test to insure that you haven't gotten pregnant in the weeks following your missed shot."

"I... What are the chances of that? Of getting pregnant I mean," she asked almost breathlessly.

"Well, have you had unprotected sex at all since your missed shot?"

"I..." She had had a lot of unprotected sex since missing the shot. How could she have forgotten about that? Not that she had been sexually active with Ed but it was still something she was pretty obsessive about. She loved Sophia but she would never have another child with Ed so she had been on the shot for a long time. It was easier than the pill and more convenient than condoms and...

"Mrs. Peletier, when was the last time you had unprotected sex?"

"Today," Carol said honestly, to stunned to even feel embarrassed. She had slept with Daryl on Friday night. Actually they had slept together twice that night. And then Saturday morning in the shower. And then Saturday night at her house and then today at the grocery store. That was five times. Five times in as many days. And the whole time she had been susceptible to getting pregnant.

"Would you like to come in next Wednesday for a blood test, Mrs, Peletier? If you've conceived today then a week will give us time for your HCG levels to show up. If you haven't conceived then we can give you the shot and get you back on track. We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience."

"Yes. Wednesday is fine," Carol said, dazed. She wrote down the time and date on a sticky note and then shoved it into her purse. When she hung up she stood there, leaning against the counter, staring off into space. How could she have been so incredibly stupid? How could she have not remembered that she hadn't had a shot? Sure, the stress of moving and dealing with Ed had played a role but it was her responsibility to take care of herself.

She suddenly felt exhausted. Beyond exhausted, really. She would go lie down for a while and then when she woke up she would feel better. What were the odds of her getting pregnant anyway? Surely this was nothing but a scare. Just a slap to wake her up and get her head out of the clouds. Before she could even walk out of the kitchen the phone rang again.

"Hello?" She said automatically. She sounded like a robot.

"What's wrong?"

"Daryl?"

"Yeah, who the hell else would be callin'? You alright? You sound weird."

"No, I'm fine. Everything's fine. Did you need something?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Just wanted to give you a heads up. Ed showed up at the high school today. He saw Sophia with Damon and it didn't end very well."

This snapped Carol out of her stupor. "What!" She gasped. "Did he hurt her?"

"No. I watched the whole thing. He was yellin' at her. Made a few threats. He grabbed her when she wouldn't get in the car with him and Damon lost it. Ed's gonna come home with a busted up face and limp for sure."

"He beat up Ed?" Carol felt her eyes widen. "Why would Ed go to the school?"

"No clue."

"Is Damon in trouble?"

"No. I was there and called a friend of mine that works at the police station. He can work it out. Besides that, there were a lot of people there that saw him put his hands on her. With Ed's record holding domestic abuse charges, that shit wouldn't stick on the boy."

She contemplated telling him about what she just found out but the thought of that had her insides freezing up. She couldn't tell him something like that. She also needed to avoid him for the next few days, which was going to be excruciating now that he had decided that he wanted them to keep seeing each other. But he would likely get suspicious if all of a sudden she brought up condoms any time they were together.

"You still there?" He asked suddenly.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"You sure everything's all right over there?"

"Yes. Everything's fine. I swear. I'm just tired I guess."

He chuckled. "Why? I'm the one that did all the work."

She laughed despite herself. "Well, maybe when I get more time I'll return the favor."

"Hey, I'm free all day. Just name the time and place."

"I'll keep that in mind. Bye, Daryl," she laughed, weary of the strange calm that was starting to take over. Maybe she was in shock.

He sighed. "Bye, Carol."

~H~

Sophia demanded him take her to his house. She was going to check out his hand whether he wanted her to or not. Now she was kneeling in front of him as he sat on the couch, his hand in hers as she studied his swollen knuckles. "I can't believe you did that," she muttered, wiping the blood away gently.

She could feel his eyes on her. She looked up and he was watching her with a curious look on his face. "Why can't you believe I did that?"

She shrugged. "I can't believe a lot of things."

"Like?"

Once she was satisfied that he hadn't broken any bones on Ed's face she went to stand but he grabbed her quickly, pulling her down in his lap and holding her still with his hands on her hips. She didn't think she would ever get used to being so close to another person. "Like, I can't believe that you carry a gun."

"Only outside of school," he muttered, watching her eyes.

"Why?"

He shrugged and brought his hands up and around so they rested at the small of her back. "Sometimes my dad has to deal with some shady people. Sometimes the things they gotta do pisses those shady people off. What better way to get back at somebody than go after the people they love the most? It happened a long time ago and it about took down the whole club. So I make sure if somebody ever comes after me, I'm able to fight back."

"Have you ever used it?"

"On a person? Not yet."

She nodded, unsure how she felt about that. It was odd that she wasn't instantly repulsed by the fact that he was so nonchalant about shooting a person but then again, if that would keep him alive, she didn't really care. This thought scared her. "And I can't believe that you'd stay with me all night and not sleep at all just to make sure I was okay."

"What's so unbelievable about that?"

"You don't look like the type of guy that would do something like that," she said with a smile.

"Oh? Well, you don't look like the type of girl that'd spend the night with me, skip school and then just let me crawl in her bed. Guess we shouldn't judge." He grinned.

She shook her head and tried to crawl off of him but he didn't let her. Since he wasn't letting her move, and she didn't particularly want to, and she had had a rough couple of days she did something that surprised them both. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. She kissed him like he had kissed her that first time. It took him by surprise but he wasted no time. He started kissing her back, pulling her even tighter against him.

She yanked the hat off his head so she could run her fingers through his hair. She never thought much about the appeal of long hair on a boy before but she understood it now. She was nervous the first time she had kissed him so she hadn't let herself enjoy it as much as she was now. Now she knew a little more about what to expect and she found that she liked it. She liked it a lot more than she ever thought she would.

She was using this as a distraction from everything that had been going on. She was letting her mind focus on nothing but him instead of focusing on anything else and it felt incredible. And why not lose herself in the moment? She had never let go before. Never found anything that could distract her from her life. Until now. And that changed a lot of things. The kiss became more frantic, desperate. She needed that escape more than she ever thought she would need anything in her life. When his lips moved from hers, down her jaw and then to her neck she gripped his hair tighter. An excited thrill shot up her spine at the feel of his teeth on her skin, causing a small sound to bubble up from her throat.

He froze, his hands halfway up her back under her shirt. "Why'd you stop?" She breathed.

His eyes were pools of black, no iris left. "Time to stop," he said, his voice low and gravely.

She shook her head. "I don't want too." She kissed him again, forcefully.

"Yeah, I can see that," he said, pulling back again.

"And you do? I thought. Oh, I'm sorry." She was surprised and embarrassed. She was about to scramble off of him but suddenly his lips were on hers again and she found her back hitting the couch. He was on top of her, holding himself up with his arms so he didn't smash her. The kissing became frantic again. She didn't know where his shirt had gone but when her hands went to his chest all she felt was warm skin.

Things were getting out of hand and she knew it but she didn't want it to stop. Not at all. But like life had always taught her, all good things had to come to an end. She didn't even hear the front door open but the sun that streamed in bathed them like a spotlight. Damon launched himself off of her and she scrambled to the corner of the couch, readjusting her shirt.

The door closed and she found herself staring at a man that was staring right back at her. The man's appearance actually scared her. He was tall. Very tall, and very burly. His arms were crossed over his broad chest. His hair was long, much longer than Damon's and he had a full beard. He was wearing a black bandana and dark sunglasses with the usual leather vest that she was used to seeing now. His shirt was sleeveless, his huge arms covered in tattoos. The door opened again and another man strolled in, to her surprise, he was even bigger. Much bigger than the first but she could tell right away that they were brothers, even though the bigger one wasn't hiding behind glasses and his beard was just a trim goatee.

"Breath before you pass out, Darlin'," the one in the glasses said in a deep voice.

Sophia let out a breath, her eyes darting from one huge man to the other. She swallowed and finally glanced at the third person who had came in behind the men. She had to blink to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. It was a woman. A very petite woman, not Piper small but not as tall as Sophia. Her black hair was pulled back in a pony tail and her dark almond shaped eyes regarded Sophia curiously. She was one of those people that was impossible to gauge their age. She could have been twenty five or she could have been forty. It was impossible to guess. She was wearing a white and yellow sun dress and white flats on her feet.

"Damon," She said in a voice that could have belonged to a child. "Who's your friend?"

Damon sat back with a grin. "Sophia," he glanced at her and grinned. "Meet my parents."

"Oh my God," Sophia groaned.

"He's so rude," the woman said to glasses man. "I'm June and this is my husband, Odin. It's nice to meet you, dear."

"I... It's nice to meet you." She wanted to die.

"That bigger asshole is Buck. Daryl and Merle's dad." Damon sounded much too calm and collected for the situation.

So this was great. This was perfect. She hoped that the floor would open up and swallow her whole.