I'm sorry, you guys! I know what's happened is sad but that's why I'm updating fast. So we can get it over with and you can enjoy the story again! I won't make you all wait forever! Now, I'm off to go be social. I'll update again tonight! I feel so guilty! Thanks for hanging on there!

Chapter Thirty Five

June didn't mind that Carol had to miss work. She had told her about her appointment last week on the day she had started so she had plenty of time to figure something else out. She parked in one of the underground garages and took the elevator up to the floor she had scribbled down on the paper, what seemed like a few lifetimes ago. She tried to push her fear aside and tell herself that everything was going to be fine. She wasn't pregnant. This scare was just something that could keep her on her toes. She wouldn't be forgetting that shot again, even if no one called to remind her that it was time for her to get it.

She signed in and sat down to fill out all of the paperwork. Once that was finished she was left sitting there with nothing but her thoughts. And just like always, her thoughts turned to Daryl. The way he had looked Saturday had bothered her. More than bothered her really. It broke her heart. He looked like a man that had somehow managed to lose everything very quickly. His usual mischievous grin was gone. That fire in his eyes that had always captivated her was dimmed. He simply looked sad. And she felt the same way. She had wanted nothing more than to touch him. To show him that this was just a bump in the road for him and that soon he would be back with his family, doing whatever it was that he had always done.

So, with a heavy heart she had come home, changed into the t-shirt she had stolen from his room, and wrote him a letter like some kind of love sick teenager. He actually should have gotten it this morning. She hoped that it brightened his day at least a little and managed to make him smile. She missed the hell out of that devil may care look of his.

"Mrs, Peletier?"

She looked up sharply at the sound of her name and realized that the waiting area had been filling up while she sat there lost in thought. Most of the women sitting in chairs looked about ready to burst. She hurriedly followed the nurse through the door, down a long hallway and finally into an exam room. The nurse checked her clipboard and glanced up with a smile.

"If you want you can go ahead and roll up your sleeve, Mrs. Peletier. I can go ahead and draw your blood right now. Normally patients have to wait a few days before we can get the results back but we finally received some new equipment that lets us check on our own."

Carol nodded and offered her her arm. She wasn't afraid of needles or having her blood taken. She was afraid of what the results would be. She took a few deeps breaths as the nurse took her blood and then left the room, assuring her that the doctor would be in after the test was performed. So again she was left sitting there, wondering what his reaction would be if it turned out to be positive. How could she tell him while he was in jail, possibly facing years in prison?

"I won't," she said out loud. If she was indeed pregnant with his child and it turned out that he did have to go to trial then he wouldn't have to go while worrying about his baby. In a way, this seemed cruel, to keep a secret so large, but she knew him well enough to know that, even if he didn't want a child, he would never be able to survive going away for that long knowing he had one out there somewhere.

She glanced around the small exam room, looking at the pictures and diagrams of development. She remembered back when she had been pregnant with Sophia. She had loved the baby from the moment she learned that she was pregnant with her. It hadn't mattered that she was nothing but a teenager herself. She knew that her dreams of going to college wouldn't be attainable but that hadn't mattered. She had also dreamed of traveling but losing out on that hadn't bothered her either. The only thing that had mattered was that there was a person growing inside her. A person who's possibilities were limitless.

Ed hadn't been happy about it. He hadn't been openly hostile either. He had been aloof. He hadn't marveled at the fact that he was going to be a father. He had actually complained about the changes in Carol's body. He had made her feel disgusting through most of it, refusing to touch her at all, even when Sophia had started moving and could easily be felt. He just hadn't cared. He had been kind and attentive up until the moment they found out that she was pregnant. He had never been the kind of man that Daryl had been. He had never treated her that well. But he had absolutely shut her out once he found out about the baby. Why she married him in the first place, she would never know.

Daryl wouldn't do the same. Surely he wouldn't.

She swallowed hard and then laughed at herself. What the hell was she doing to herself? She probably wasn't even pregnant and now she was sitting here with her heart beating much to fast and causing herself to feel sick with worry over something that she likely wouldn't even have to worry about.

She wasn't sure how much more time passed before the door opened and the doctor that usually administered her shot came in. She took this as a good sign. He smiled at her and pulled out a rolling chair from under the counter.

"Mrs. Peletier," he said in greeting.

"Hello Dr. Browning."

He looked down at the clipboard, looking at different sheets of paper before finally looking up at her. "Mr. Peletier, can you tell me when your last cycle was?"

She shook her head. "No, I can't. While I was on the shot I stopped having one."

He nodded and looked back down at the paper. "I see. Well, the test showed that your hCG level is twenty one."

She blinked. "Okay. So does that mean I can get my shot and be on my way?"

He smiled. "It actually means that I'm going to go ahead and leave you a gown to change into so we can do a quick exam to find out how far along you are."

She blinked again, his words not registering clearly in her mind. As they did she felt as though the floor had fallen out from under her. She had prepared for this. She had told herself that this was a possibility. She had tried to prepare herself for the news. She took a deep breath, trying to settle her nerves. This was not a bad thing. This was not a dire situation. As a matter of fact, her emotions turned rapidly. She was going to have a baby. And not just any baby. She was going to have Daryl's baby. She swallowed, a lump forming in her throat. "Are you sure?"

"I am about as sure as I can be."

She wasn't going to worry right away. She had time to figure this out. She had time to do what she needed to do. She would be okay.

~H~

Sophia sat down at their regular table alone. Everyone else managed to get detention until Friday, which left her with the loner status she started out with. It also made her the subject of more than a little ridicule. It was clear that the only reason anyone had left her alone at all was because she was one of Piper's group. But that was all she was. She was a tag along that could reap the rewards of being friends with the bad kids. No one looked at her as though she were any kind of threat. Mostly because she really wasn't one.

"Hi," Sara said with a grin as she sat down across from Sophia.

Sophia's defenses came up quickly as the other kids sat down at the table. She didn't say anything. Instead she continued eating her sandwich and pretended like they weren't even there.

"Oh wow," Sara laughed. "As soon as her boyfriend gets thrown in detention she goes all mute on us again. That's perfect."

Sophia looked up then, meeting Sara's cold eyes with a glare of her own. She was tired of just putting up with crap all the time. She didn't ever go out of her way to cause any trouble for anyone else and she never treated people badly, and yet, here she sat. She was the butt of their jokes again.

"Aww, are you getting mad? You know, rumor has it around town that your mom was Daryl Dixon's last conquest. You do realize that as soon as he kicks her to the curb, your days of having a free ride on the white trash express are over."

Sophia felt her jaw clench. "You don't know a damn thing about me or my mom." Talking about her was one thing but she wouldn't sit quietly as they said things about her mom, or Daryl for that matter.

Sara rolled her eyes. "Oh come on. You don't have it in you to be one of them. Why don't you just give it up and face the facts that you are a nobody."

"Being a nobody is a lot better than being the school cum dumpster you self righteous bitch. Stop treating my name like it's every dick in this school and keep it out of your mouth."

Sara's mouth dropped open in shock as her friends started laughing. Sophia had had enough. She stood up quickly and started stalking towards the doors. She stopped when she felt fingers grip her arm to try to stop her. She spun around, her eyes flashing.

Sara's face was bright red and only a few inches from her own. "Who in the hell do you think you are talking to me like that!" She shrieked, her fingers digging into Sophia's arm hard enough to leave marks.

Sophia took Piper's advice. She stopped thinking about what she was going to do. Don't think. Act. That was what Piper had said. So she did just that. She shoved Sara away from her so hard that the girl stumbled back several feet. Sophia should have walked away right then. But that isn't what she did. Instead she stalked towards the girl that had made her life at school a living hell before Piper had befriended her. Sara caught her balance but by then Sophia was right there. She slapped the girl so hard that her head whipped to the side painfully.

She had never hit anything in her whole life. No matter what the situation, she always handled it by keeping her eyes down and her mouth shut. Not anymore. She wasn't some door mat to be walked on. She was a person and she deserved to be treated with respect just like everyone else. Maybe if Sara had only talked about her then she would have been okay. But she had said things about her mom and Daryl and Damon and Piper. That was her family and she wouldn't let someone get away with talking about them like that.

She didn't put up a fight when suddenly there were two teachers there, yelling at her to go to the office.