AN: Here we go.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Daryl found Carol sitting in the chair in Jack's room rocking the little boy. It was clear that he'd just woken up and wasn't quite ready to face the world again. Jack was very affectionate and almost always in the mood to be snuggled, but he was even more in the mood to be snuggled when he was just waking.

Jack was red-faced, his thumb in his mouth, snuggled as close to Carol as their bodies allowed. Daryl smiled to himself.

"Did you wake him?" Daryl asked.

"He was wet," Carol said. "He's clean now."

She moved her face to rub her cheek against the boy's face and then she kissed him. He was satisfied with the kiss, contentedly staring at nothing. He hummed at her as a sign of his pleasure over the tender touch.

"You want to hold him?" Carol asked. "Before he really wakes up?"

"No," Daryl said. "That boy loves you more than anything in the world. I wouldn't take it from him. Those just-waking-up minutes are his favorite things."

Carol smiled to herself.

"And breakfast is his favorite thing," Carol said. "And his blanket is his favorite thing."

"And eatin' leaves and grass in the yard is his favorite thing," Daryl teased. "But that right there? That's when he's really the happiest. You can see it."

"He likes to snuggle with you," Carol said. "You know that."

"He does," Daryl said. "But—I'm not Mama an' he don't let me forget that."

Carol smiled.

"But June would rather snuggle with you," Carol said.

"Unless she's sick," Daryl ceded. "If she's sick, there ain't nobody but Mama can't make it feel better. And Soph? She loved snugglin' with you. Still does whenever she's home."

"You're not supposed to know about that," Carol said, a hint of warning to her tone.

"I don't know about it," Daryl said. "Don't know a thing about it. At least not so Soph knows."

"I love them, Daryl," Carol said. "All of them. I love—each of them so much that it feels like I can think of them individually and I love each one of them with my whole heart. Just like—just like I love you. But then, I don't know if it's possible to love so many people with your whole heart."

Daryl smiled.

"I think it is," Daryl said. "I think—I love you that way. And I love them that way. Maybe—it's a lil' different, but it's love just the same." He waited a moment, considering his words. Finally, he felt prepared to speak again. "You—got room for one more, don't you?"

Carol looked at him. Then she dropped her eyes and brushed her face against Jack's once more.

"I've got room for so many more," Carol said. "That's what it feels like."

"We'll work on that," Daryl said. "One at a time." He cleared his throat. "Miss Josephine—she ain't meant that like it come out, ya know?"

"She was right," Carol said. "It isn't proper to tell anyone. It could just be something temporary. Something that—doesn't last. But it feels cruel, Daryl."

"What does?" Daryl asked.

Carol rocked the chair she was sitting in with her foot and continued to stare at the nothing that seemed to be holding her attention pretty well.

"To have it now just for it to be taken away," Carol said.

Daryl's stomach twisted.

To have a child—to love a child, no matter how briefly—just for it to be taken away. Maybe there was no greater cruelty to be done to a mother. And Carol had already suffered it once even if she barely remembered it outside of her subconscious mind.

Daryl's instinct—what burned down deep in his gut—was to promise Carol that wouldn't be the case with the child that she'd just discovered she was carrying. He wanted to promise her that the child was hers for now and for always. But he didn't have that power. Just like he hadn't been able to give her a child, however much she'd wanted it, for all those years, he didn't have the power to promise her that it wouldn't be taken away. At least, he had no power over what God might do.

Daryl licked his lips.

"You gonna be so careful, Carol," Daryl said. "I'm gonna take care of you and you're gonna take care of yourself and—you're gonna be so careful. Keep off your feet some. Relax. Take it easy. You gonna eat good. Them dresses? You said you got eight or nine? You finish them, but I don't want you takin' no more orders. Maybe one or two or some for you if you want somethin' to occupy your mind. Nothin' that's going to make you feel overwhelmed. I can't tell you that the baby won't go anywhere, but I can tell you that we're gonna do everything we gotta do to keep it right where it is until it's time for it to come into the world."

Carol looked at him. She held his eyes, but she didn't say anything. Sophia had the same intense stare as her mother sometimes and Daryl had learned that it was something both of them did—maybe without even realizing it—when they weren't sure he was telling the truth. He'd learned, too, that the quickest way to make them believe him was just to hold their eyes for however long they seemed to need.

When Carol seemed to get her fill, she dropped her eyes again. Jack was beginning to stir. He was starting to feel awake. He was starting to move away from his desire for snuggles and to move toward his desire for play. Carol leaned forward and lowered him to the floor so that he could take control of his world once more.

In response, the boy toddled away from her and over to the corner of his room where the large and brightly colored blocks that he dragged all around the house were waiting for him.

In the chair, Carol smoothed out the dress she was wearing.

"I wish it was as fast as it was with June and Jack," Carol said. "We just—knew they were coming and then we went and picked them up."

Daryl laughed to himself.

"But that ain't how it works," Daryl said. "Not this time. It's a whole different thing this time. This time? Baby's gotta grow. Gotta get big and strong and then we get it."

"Andrea never seemed to worry," Carol said.

Andrea had given Merle eight boys that were practically stair steps. After the eighth child had been born, Dr. James—who had delivered the last two boys—had declared that there was some kind of problem that Andrea was suffering from. Daryl recalled the problem being described as something like a thinning uterus. He'd stated that the only thing to be done for Andrea was to perform the surgery that would keep her from falling pregnant again and she'd almost immediately gone in and undergone the procedure.

Whether there was ever an emergency, or whether the old doctor had simply taken pity on a woman who had felt overwhelmed and disheartened by her status as a practical brood sow, Daryl would never actually know. If the truth was that he was simply trying to help Andrea, or even that she'd requested such a surgery behind Merle's back, was to ever come out, there could be repercussions for the doctor because Merle was just the kind of man to rally against such a move on the part of either the doctor or his wife.

What had really happened didn't matter either way. Andrea had needed the relief whether or not her uterus had been any different after her eighth delivery than it had been after her first. Daryl was glad to think that maybe the doctor had taken pity on her. Merle, for his part, still somewhat argued against the surgery. He still believed that something more could've been done. After all, he was proud to have produced eight sons and it had never caused him even the slightest bit of suffering.

"Andrea never worried because she'da likely counted her blessings if there hadn't been no more babies," Daryl said.

"Daryl!" Carol said sharply.

"It ain't kind," Daryl admitted. "But it's true."

"All her babies were healthy," Carol said.

"And all yours is too," Daryl offered.

"All her pregnancies were easy," Carol said. "Everyone talked about how easy her pregnancies were."

"And yours might be too," Daryl said. "Carol—just 'cause Miss Josephine reminded you about some things that could happen? That don't mean they're destined to happen. Just—she's just sayin' they might. Same for you as anybody else. Same for Andrea. She had just as good a chance as anybody else at not havin' one of them boys come after she found out she was expecting. It don't mean it's going to come to pass just because it could. It's the same as me tellin' you to be careful when you're drivin' to the market. You could get in a wreck, Carol. You could get hurt. But just because you could, it doesn't mean it's going to come to pass. And it doesn't mean you stop goin' to the market, neither."

"When she said congratulations?" Carol said. "Daryl—it sounded so beautiful. I couldn't help but think it was for me. Finally—it was for me. I've said it a million times to a million different people. People stop me in church or at the market. They tell me they're expecting—their first or their fifth child or...whichever it might be. And I've said every time...I've said congratulations. Nobody ever said congratulations to me, you know? Not the same way. And all of a sudden I felt like—that one's for me. It's finally for me."

"I saw your face light up," Daryl said. "And I could tell that it just about break your heart when she said what she said, but she didn't mean to hurt your feelings. And she didn't mean to break your heart. She didn't mean to give it just to take it away. The congratulations was still there underneath the saying you should wait. She never meant to take it away from you."

"I know she didn't," Carol said. "She was only telling me the truth. And it's truth I needed to hear. I was being foolish getting giddy so quickly."

Daryl swallowed and shook his head. He straightened up from where he'd been leaning against the doorway.

"You ain't bein' foolish," Daryl said. "You got a right. And you get just as giddy as you please. Carol—she ain't gonna be the only one that tells you congratulations. And—not everybody that tells you congratulations is gonna seem like they take it back like that the minute they give it to you. You gonna get your chance. When you go to church? You tell everybody—soak up every one of them congratulations you give out as they get returned back to you. When you go to the market. Everywhere you go. Carol—you tell everybody you've got a mind to tell. And you don't worry about it. There's plenty more congratulations comin' your way."

Carol nodded her acceptance of Daryl's words. She leaned forward, accepting the block that Jack brought her and then handing it back to him the minute he reached for it again, apparently deciding that parting with it had been a poor decision on his part.

"You OK?" Daryl asked. "Or you're still cross?"

"I wasn't cross to begin with," Carol offered without looking at him.

"You don't gotta wait to tell nobody," Daryl said. "You want? We'll go get June Bug from school today an' we'll all go to the market together. Get the fixings for supper an' we'll stop everybody we see in the whole store an' tell 'em we're expecting. Call Merle and Andrea...Alice an' Mel. Whoever you want, Carol. Get 'em over here for supper. We'll tell everybody we see. Today. Right now. Tell Sophia to come home as soon as she can because what we got? She won't wanna miss knowin' about it for long."

"And then, Daryl?" Carol asked. "Then what do we do? If there isn't a baby?"

Daryl nodded his understanding of her concern.

"Then we handle that if it's something we have to handle, Carol," Daryl said. "But we don't what'll come to pass and that was true before just as much as it is now."

Carol didn't immediately respond to him. Instead, she slipped off the chair and got on her knees on the floor, reaching for the blocks that Jack was bringing her so that she could help him stack up a tower as tall as he was for him to send it crashing back down again.

Deciding that she needed a little time, and more than willing to give it to her, Daryl left her in the boy's room and started to clear away the cake plates and coffee cups so that, when she did decide to come out and talk about it more, that wouldn't be another task simply sitting there waiting for her to complete it.