Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! Glad you liked the last chapter =) Thank you for reading!

Chapter Forty Seven

Ed took a beating worse than he had ever given Carol. She only heard bits and pieces of information throughout the night but it sounded bad. She didn't care. As soon as he was released from the hospital he was going to go straight to jail. Apparently, thanks to Shane and Buck, he had came here tonight violating a restraining order that Carol hadn't even known existed. He had made threats and Buck had acted in defense of her. There were witnesses.

She was exhausted by the time the party started to disperse. Everyone congratulated her and Daryl was proving to be much more attentive than she thought he would be. It was such a strange situation. The only other time they had really spent any amount of time with one another was the day before he had been arrested. And yet she felt like she had known him her whole life. Like he was some extension of her somehow.

"I'm so glad you were finally able to tell him," June said once she found Carol alone. Daryl was a few feet away, shooting pool with Merle and Buck and his uncle. Piper, Sophia and Damon had the other table.

Carol smiled at her. "I knew you knew."

"Of course I knew. That soup is an old family recipe. It was the only thing I could keep down for a long time after I got pregnant with Damon. Apparently Dixon's approve of it even in the womb."

Carol made a face. "I don't think I ever want to eat that stuff again."

"Oh, I don't blame you, sweetheart. Now, how are you? I mean, really? I know that you have to be worried. You've heard all the stories. You know that this life, it isn't an easy one."

Carol let her gaze linger on Daryl for a few moments. "No, I don't suppose it is. But at least during those times when things are hard, I'll have people behind me. My whole life was bad, and lonely. I'm gaining a lot more than I'm giving up. Trust me."

June smiled, looking towards Odin who was in the process of whacking Merle in the back of the head. "You're right. I think you are a little like me. I think you'll do just fine."

"I think so too," Carol said as she caught sight of Sophia walking towards her.

"Can we talk for a minute?" Sophia asked once she was next to her.

"Sure," Carol said, dreading this conversation but she took Sophia's hand and led her outside where the crowd was thinning out. "Are you going to throw a fit because I never let you know? I've already got an ear full from Merle. I suppose I'll get one from Buck later. But I'm ready." She raised her chin. "Let me have it."

Sophia laughed and shook her head, hugging her tightly. "Shut up."

Carol breathed out a sigh of relief, hugging her back. "Are you upset? You can tell me if you are. I know that this is all happening..."

"Fast?" Sophia raised one eyebrow. "Yeah, I've noticed. But no. I'm too old to be jealous. I'm excited. I never thought I'd be a sister. I actually always hoped I would never be a sister. I didn't want another kid to feel like I did. But this, this is actually exciting."

"Did you hear about Ed coming out here tonight?" Carol asked, wanting to get everything out in the open while they had a moment. It seemed like they were both too busy to talk about anything anymore so she wanted to take advantage of this moment.

"Yes. I heard a little but as soon as Daryl opened his mouth out there June grabbed Piper and I both and hauled us inside. I guess he got a little graphic."

Carol blushed. "Good Lord, he does have a mouth on him."

"Gross, mom. I don't need to know specifics." She grinned.

Carol's eyes widened. "Sophia!" She shook her head in disapproval but then she couldn't hold her laugh in anymore. "I'm serious though. How do you feel about that?"

She smiled. "Relieved. I don't want anything to do with him. I don't want his last name. I want to forget he ever existed."

Carol nodded. "I feel the same way to an extent. No matter how much I hate him for everything he's done, I got you out of it and that was worth all of the bad. I don't want his last name either. I really don't."

"Don't what?" Daryl asked from behind them.

Carol and Sophia both turned at the sound of his voice. "We don't want Ed's last name," Sophia said with a disgusted look on her face.

Daryl shrugged. "I don't blame you there, kid."

"There's always adoption. I'm fatherless now. How about making me a Dixon?" She grinned.

Daryl didn't grin back. He regarded her thoughtfully, glanced at Carol, and then shrugged. "I can do that."

Sophia and Carol both gaped at him. "I was only kidding Daryl. You don't have to do that."

He laughed. "Fuck it. You don't wanna be a Peletier, so be a Dixon. If you ain't noticed, I'm on a roll here. But you and Damon standing in front of a preacher with the same last name might make for some fucked up rumors about the family dynamics around here."

"I'm not getting married!" Sophia barked. "But you would really do that? You don't even know me." She watched him, wide eyed and hopeful.

"Shit, I don't know her either and you see how that didn't bother me," he nodded towards Carol.

"Is he serious?" Sophia asked, looking at Carol in amazement.

Carol could only shrugged. "I have no idea, honey."

"I am. I don't want him havin' another thing to do with either one of you. If I gotta sign some papers to make that shit more legit then hand'em over."

"Daryl, you can't just drink six beers and then decide that you're going to adopt a sixteen year old girl."

"I've had nine, and the fuck I can't. Why not? We'll all be livin' in the same house."

"What house?" Sophia asked.

"I didn't get a chance to tell her that part," Carol said, studying his face. He didn't look like he'd had nine beers.

He looked at Sophia. "The house that you all worked on so hard. That house."

Sophia's mouth dropped open. "That house? You mean we aren't going to be living in that apartment anymore."

"No," he said firmly. "Hell no. We'll go back to Buck's tonight and then I'm getting your shit out of that place tomorrow."

She wasn't going to argue with him. For one, she wouldn't win and for two, she simply didn't have it in her to bother.

"You ready to get the hell outta here?" He asked suddenly, like he could just tell how tired she felt.

She nodded. "Yes but I'm not getting on that bike with you after you've been drinking."

He rolled his eyes. "No shit. You can drive Damon's car to Buck's. Damon can take my bike."

She agreed but it took another thirty minutes to say goodbye to everyone. By the time she got into the car all she could think about was crawling in bed and going to sleep. She was pretty sure that it was the first time she had thought of a bed and Daryl at the same time without instantly thinking about having sex with him.

The drive home felt like it took longer than it usually did and she was relieved to finally turn down the drive. So much had happened. Daryl had came home. He knew that he was going to be a dad. She found out that he actually wanted to live with her, in the house that she adored. She was now divorced from Ed and she hadn't had to do a thing. Sophia was free of him, legally. It seemed as though she was getting everything she could have asked for all in one day.

She let Sophia sit outside with Damon, Piper and another boy. Buck would run the boys off when he got home because she was too tired to bother with it. It was summer break so she may as well let them have as much fun as they could.

"I've been lookin' forward to this for months," Daryl said, taking off his shirt before they even made it to the bedroom.

"What? Sleeping in your own bed or sleeping with me?" She asked with a sleepy smile.

"Both," he grumbled, making his way to the bathroom. "Those damn mats they have at the jail killed me."

When he shut the door she went straight to his closet and pulled out another one of his shirts, stripping out of her clothes and dressing quickly. She was nervous about him seeing her. Those old insecurities were hard to shake. She had repulsed Ed by the time she started showing and even though she knew that the two of them weren't even the same species, she was still scared that he wouldn't feel the same about her as he did before her body started changing.

She was under the blanket with the light off before he even came out of the bathroom. "You really that tired?" He asked, crawling over her instead of walking to his side of the bed.

"You have no idea. I'm usually asleep by nine."

"I thought you took a nap every day?"

"Merle's is such a big mouth. And I do. But I still feel sleepy by nine."

He groaned as his back hit the mattress. "My God. You have no idea how good this feels."

"Actually I do. My bed at the apartment is horrible. It feels like I'm sleeping on springs covered with a sheet. I hate it. I think that's why I sleep here on the couch so deep. Merle says nothing wakes me up."

"Merle would know," Daryl sighed.

"If it makes you feel any better, the only reason he did all he did was because of you."

He rolled over, facing her, and pulled her towards him. She came willingly. "I think that's why he did at first. Then he did it cause he wanted to do it. If Merle has to do shit he don't want to do he ends up bein' a real ass. Merle did that shit cause he cares about you. They all do."

She hummed in response, his heavy arm over her causing her to feel even more sleepy.

"Carol?"

"Hmm?"

"You know that shit that I said to Ed tonight?"

She rolled over onto her back. "Yeah," she whispered, feeling a little embarrassed about how he had delivered that information. She had almost wished that she had gone inside. But then, she would have missed that look on his face and that would have been a shame.

"I didn't mean to make that night in your room sound all cheap and shit. It wasn't like that. Not for me anyway."

She felt his hand slip up her shirt. "I know that. But what about the night before that?"

She felt his breath blow across her neck as he laughed softly. "That was cheap."

She grinned, her heavy eye lids closing. "It really was."

"But that other night meant somethin'."

"It did," she agreed, falling asleep almost as soon as the words left her mouth.