AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!

111

"I think that the best place we can settle is that big old family plot we found," Daryl said, taking a big hunk of meat into his mouth and then sucking his fingers dramatically to get every last bit of charred flavor off of them.

Carol felt a shiver run through her body just from watching him enjoy the food so much. The shiver came in sharp contrast to the heat that she felt radiating throughout her. She was sure that her face must have blushed red, and she was glad that the firelight—the only light around them all right now—was dim enough that things like blushing weren't really all that visible.

Beau had been responsible for the kill for the night, and Daryl had praised the young man profusely. Carol helped Daryl hunt as much as she could, and Lydia was good at tying snares and, therefore, helped where she could, but Carol knew that having Beau around was something of a relief to Daryl. Beau was a very capable young man. He'd been raised to take care of himself—lessons imparted on him before he'd been orphaned—and that learning had served him well. He had furthered his own education out of need and the desire to take care of those that he cared about, and who cared about him. He was content, now, to count his new "family" among those people.

"But that greenhouse," Alice said. There was a very distinct sound of mourning in her voice at the thought of the loss of a greenhouse that they'd seen at one farm. Immediately, all of them had fallen in love with it. It was large and nicely built—and it would come in handy for growing things out of season.

"I agree that we have to think about that greenhouse, Daryl," Carol said. "And that family plot was nice, but it didn't have very good fences."

"But the family plot's got room," Daryl said.

"More than we need, really," Melodye said. "There are five houses in that area."

"And more barns than that," Daryl said. "Not to mention that good lookin' lake an' that good runnin' creek. Nothin' there looked even the least little bit ready to dry up, so you know there's plenty more water around there."

"But those fences were mostly decorative outside of the livestock pens," Carol said.

"We can put up fences," Daryl said. "As many as makes everyone feel comfortable. We can build walls, if we want that."

"But that greenhouse," Alice said.

"We'll move it," Daryl said. "We'll disassemble the thing. Put it in the wagon and bring over load by load. Build the thing back up on our property. Just because we don't want the land its on don't mean we gotta pass the whole thing up entirely. Hell—half this damn place looks like it ain't been touched since the end of the world started. We'll take what we want from everywhere."

It was true. Much of the place seemed almost untouched—abandoned. It almost seemed to have been paused in time before the madness of the Walkers and the world, as they had known it, coming to a screeching halt. Today, they had spent most of the day looking at farms—some were small affairs, and others were large and sprawling family plots, like the one they were considering calling home—many of which seemed to almost grow out of the otherwise seemingly untouched landscape around them.

There were a few Walkers. Most of the ones that they'd seen, however, were nearly rotted to the point of not being too terribly fierce. They'd seen more skeletons than anything—people who had died and never walked or Walkers who had been picked clean or rotted away to nothing more than bones.

They had, at one spot, seen a handful of relatively fresh Walkers, which was proof that there were Walkers in the area and, more than that, that there were, or at least had been, people in the area somewhat recently. In the face of that evidence, they had to remind themselves that it was proof that there might very well be other Walkers and people in the area that they hadn't encountered as of yet.

Still, the place almost seemed abandoned.

Rather than feel lonely, though, as Carol might have once felt when she thought about being out in the middle of so much space with so few people around her, she felt invigorated. She felt excited. She felt, as Muh had said earlier, so alive.

There was a sincere feeling of hope here. As they sat around the fire with mugs of tea brewed from twigs, and leaves, and any other manner of flora that Muh found desirable to put in her pots, and dripping, roasted meat to go with the biscuits that Carol could easily bake in her dutch oven, they were making plans for a future—a real, genuine future.

This time, Carol really believed that they were talking about the future, and that there would be a future for all of them. There would be a future for Daryl—and for her. And, greater than that, there would be a future for the both of them, together, surrounded by their new family and friends.

Carol's chest flooded with a warm affection for the people around her—some of which she'd known for very little time, but with whom she felt an inexplicable kinship at the moment.

"We can have it all," Carol said. It was partly a musing to herself, and partly a response to Daryl's declaration about moving the greenhouse. Really, she hadn't fully planned to say it out loud, and when she heard herself saying it, she was almost surprised to hear her own voice.

Daryl smiled and held her eyes.

"Yeah," he said, nodding his head. "We can have it all."

"Shit—this fire is hot," Alice said. "Is it getting hot to anyone else? I think—we ought to start, I don't know, turning in for the night and all. Did—uh—you two assholes wanna go to bed first? It seems urgent."

Carol laughed to herself. She cut her eyes at the woman who was watching her, as she had been, undoubtedly, since she'd started teasing them. Alice's lips curled up in playfully evil grin. She didn't hide the fact that she was pleased that her teasing hadn't gone unrecognized. Her partner shoved her playfully.

"Behave, Al," Melodye insisted.

"Hey—I'm behaving," Alice said. "No shame. I think everyone ought to have those kinds of—you know—flaming up moments. Especially after so many years. How long have you been together, again?"

"Not long enough," Carol said. She smiled softly at Daryl and her stomach tightened. They still hadn't told their travelling companions that their first introductions of themselves—and the impressions that they'd allowed them to keep—were false. One day they would have to, and it would probably be someday soon. Carol hoped they'd understand and that nobody would feel offended. Tonight, though, wasn't the best time to breach any kind of heavy subject beyond which place they wanted to settle when the sun came up.

The corner of Daryl's mouth turned up and he held Carol's eyes, across the fire, without wavering in the slightest. The shiver returned, and Carol's whole body reacted to the sincerity of his expression.

"Never long enough," Daryl said. "We wasted a lotta time we coulda been together. No matter what, though, she was always my first love."

Carol was almost thankful for Melodye's immediate cooing noise and some declaration about romance—which Carol couldn't really hear over the beating of her own heart. She hadn't expected the words from Daryl and, even hearing them, she felt almost unable to process that he'd said them, about her and to her, right there for everyone to hear—and for someone to, no doubt, share with Sadie who wasn't paying any of them any attention at all in the darkness.

"Did you mean what you said about—giving us a shift to turn in?" Carol asked, directing her question toward Alice, though it could have gone to anyone there.

Alice laughed.

"I think you're gonna need it," she teased. She looked at Daryl. "But I only meant that if you meant what the hell you said about getting that greenhouse out where we're going to live."

"The greenhouse is a fuckin' game changer for all of us," Daryl said. "We'll head out to our plot tomorrow. Start settlin' in. You can come with me. Start breakin' the greenhouse down and movin' the pieces. We'll have it ready to start puttin' back together—what? Day after tomorrow?"

"Sounds good to me," Alice agreed.

"So—we're all agreed? The family plot?" Daryl asked.

Nobody seemed anxious to object in any way. If they were going to have the fences and the greenhouse, there was no reason that the larger plot would be objectionable to anyone. More space, after all, might come in handy.

Carol and Daryl bid everyone goodnight, and Daryl got up and offered a hand to Carol. She took it and let him help her up from her spot on the blanket. She could have gotten up on her own, but she'd never been a woman that found it to be a badge of honor to refuse a man's kindness. As soon as she was on her feet, she accepted one of the lanterns that Melodye lit and handed to her so that they wouldn't be swallowed up by the darkness around them.

Daryl held her hand with one hand stretched across his own body, and he dropped the other arm around her back. It was, in actuality, a somewhat odd way to walk, but Carol found it immensely comforting and, in a way, thrilling. She liked having his fingers twined in hers, but she also liked the feeling of him hugging her close to him as they walked toward the area of camp where they'd set up the tents when they'd first stopped and started to settle in for the night. The tents were spread out just far enough apart to give them all a modicum of privacy, but they'd also somewhat accepted that there was no such thing as true privacy.

There would be, though, when they were settled in their new homes.

Carol leaned and brushed her face against Daryl's shoulder.

"You're feeling like you like me a little bit tonight," Daryl teased.

"I'm feeling like I love you," Carol said. "A lot. Every night."

Daryl cleared his throat.

"You keep telling me things like that, and I might let it go to my head."

Carol laughed, enjoying the quiet teasing.

"I hope you let it go to both of them," she teased. "For the benefit of us both, Pookie."

She felt him shiver, and she appreciated the fact that she could have the same kind of physically overwhelming effect on him that he had on her.

"You OK with everything?" He asked. "The decisions and all?"

"We're going to have a home, Daryl," Carol said.

"That was the whole idea, weren't it?"

"We've never had a home before," Carol said.

"I mean…we've had homes."

"Not like this," Carol said. "Not together. Not me and you as…a married couple."

"I guess we gotta tell 'em the truth soon, huh?" Daryl asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he took the lantern and waved Carol into the tent before following after her.

"We do," Carol said.

"Can I ask you something?" Daryl asked, starting to undress. They'd already bathed, so the mostly clean clothes that he took off were folded roughly and put to the side for the next day. Carol followed suit. She wasn't playing coy. There was no need to pretend that she expected, or even wanted, to keep her clothes on. If she were being wholly honest, she couldn't wait to be completely naked with Daryl between the sleeping bags they used to make their pallet.

"You can ask me anything," Carol said. "And—right now? I'm inclined to say that my answer to almost anything you ask me is going to be yes, Daryl."

He smiled softly. He tried to swallow it back, but he did a poor job of it.

"When we tell 'em the truth, and you aren't my wife anymore," Daryl said. "Would you marry me? For real this time?"

"You want me to marry you?" Carol asked.

"That such a ridiculous thing to ask?"

"Well, it's just—does it really matter anymore?" Carol asked.

"Matters to me," Daryl said. "And we got witnesses now. People who would care. You don't wanna marry me for real?"

Carol smiled at him. She was as naked as he was, and she didn't feel the slightest bit shy or ashamed with him. He didn't hide from her, either. Maybe he'd accepted how beautiful he was in her eyes. She pressed her body against him, and she kissed him. She'd only meant for the kiss to be a simple, gentle kiss, but it had gotten away from her a little as soon as she'd tasted his lips.

When she pulled away from him, his facial expression would have made his feelings clear if other parts of his body didn't speak openly for him.

"I can't wait to be married to you for real," Carol said. "Let's tell them the truth first thing in the morning."

Daryl smiled at her, sincerely. He offered no verbal response, though, and he certainly offered no objection. Instead, he invited her to their pallet, and she followed without hesitation.