Carolina in my mind

Chapter 37

"Do you think we should help?," Maggie asked, shading her eyes as she watched Glenn and Daryl awkwardly maneuver the large mattress in through the door to the still mostly empty cell block.

"Naw," Carolina joked, "...it's good for them to feel useful."

A chorus of feminine laughter rang out around them, with Carol's being nearly as loud as Carolina's. The woman clamped her hand down over her mouth to muffle the noise, making everyone else laugh louder. Once she had control over herself, Carol pulled another clothing item from one of the giant trash bags and folded it, placing it in the pile of items that size.

"Hey!," Carolina hollered, watching as Tyreese shoved the mattress back out the door to change the angle on it before they tried moving it into the cellblock again. "I think it would really help you guys get that mattress in if you took your shirts off!"

Tyreese laughed, lifting his shirt only high enough to flash his stomach at the table full of giggling women. After a little encouragement from Maggie, Glenn actually stripped his shirt off, swinging it around his head in a circle as the girls clapped and shrieked like they'd never seen a shirtless man before in their lives. Daryl flipped the finger at the lot of them before he punched Glenn in the arm and told him to get his clothes back on and help him move the mattress because they still had four more to move after that one.

Over the last few months, the group had expanded to the point that clearing out a second cell block became more of a necessity than a desire. While clearing it of the dead only took half a day, cleaning it took substantially longer. And after much scrubbing and bleaching and maybe even a little sage burning, today was finally moving day. Before the move descended into chaos with people scattering everywhere and then having to move again because they didn't like who their neighbors were, Hershel stepped in and separated the group into those, including himself, that didn't want to hear a bunch of late night drinking bullshit and those that were taking part in the bullshit. Older people or those with children stayed in the original cell block. And all the people that were driving those people crazy with their intimate noises and late night drunken horseplay were moving out of it.

"I found it!," Michonne exclaimed, ripping through the black plastic of another giant lawn bag full of fabric. "This one has all the bedsheets in it!" A few weeks back, they cleared out most of a giant department store. But since they were trying to get in and out as quickly as possible, they just threw everything into giant trash bags to sort out later. It was taking forever to sift through what felt like an endless supply of clothes and socks and underwear to find what they were actually looking for, the household items. Curtains, bed sheets, and blankets were what they wanted. So that they would have some new things to use in their new rooms.

"This is the room you picked?," Carolina confirmed, glancing at Daryl before she tossed the bag of items she'd plucked from the bundles outside into the cell. She knew Daryl had a whole slew of reasons why this spot was the best spot. He could see more from there, it was close to the door but not too close, and a few other qualifications. One cell was the same as the next to her, so she was happy to let him pick the one he preferred.

"Come on," he said, gesturing for her to follow him. "Let's go back and I'll help ya carry all yer crap over here."

"I don't have that much crap," Carolina insisted, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her body against his. She pulled one of her arms back, slipping it between their bodies to grope at him through his pants. "In fact, I think I've got everything I need right here," she teased.

Tara whistled at them as she walked by, bringing on a round of laughter from whoever was close enough to see what she was whistling at.

"Come'on," Daryl huffed, catching her wrist and pulling it away from his pants as he led her out of the cell and towards the door. His embarrassment over being spotted doing something intimate was forgotten by the time they hit the courtyard. Since they were now free to stay up drinking without the worry of keeping the rest of the cellblock awake, they had a housewarming party planned for later that night. They had beer and wine and a couple bags of fun sized candy bars they were planning to gamble with instead of poker chips. The anticipation of the event was adding some fun to what would normally be the tedious task of sorting and moving everything they'd managed to accumulate in the last few months of living at the prison. Everyone had been joking and laughing all morning. And Carolina was interested to see who else, besides their core group, ended up making the move over.

Carolina tossed a pile of her clothes into a large plastic bin, swiping her hand around on the top bunk to see if she missed anything. She yelped, jerking her hand back and eyeing the long red scratch with surprise. She didn't remember leaving anything sharp up there. But to be fair, Daryl was a bigger pig than even she was. And he left his bolts and knives lying around all over the place. Carolina boosted herself up onto the bottom bunk and leaned forward, thinking that she was about to give Daryl the business for leaving a knife up there. A moment later he stepped into the cell to see her sitting on the bunk with Merle's metal arm sleeve in her hands.

"I forgot I hid it up there," Carolina mumbled, her big blue eyes flicking up and meeting Daryl's. "I didn't know what to do with it. So I hid it up on the top bunk under a pile of clothes." Carolina looked down at it, swallowing the sudden lump in her throat before she looked back up again. "What should we do with it?"

Daryl fought the urge to run away. He hated the possibility of his emotions taking over. And he liked it even less since it was happening in front of Carolina. But he could tell she was just as upset as he was. So he took a few hesitant steps closer, lowering himself down on the bed next to her. He wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing, but the way she immediately leaned into him for comfort made him feel better. He wrapped his arm around her.

"We buried him out by the garden," Daryl said. "I never marked his grave with anythin'. Maybe we could use this…" Carolina nodded, passing the heavy chunk of metal over to Daryl.

"That's a good idea," she whispered. She didn't want to take it to their new place. But it felt wrong to just get rid of it. Carolina wished they'd buried Merle with it on. But she'd been too busy crying her eyes out up in the guard tower to put her opinion in at the time.

Ignoring the few curious stares they got on the way, Carolina followed Daryl out to the area where they laid his brother to rest. It was her first time visiting the spot. Up until now, she didn't even know where exactly it was. Grass had grown back over the freshly turned dirt, erasing almost every trace of the long trench that was dug there. Daryl moved to one end of the patch of fresh grass and leaned down, sticking the knife end of the appendage into the ground. The gesture was so simple and quick, they both stood there for a moment after, unsure of what to say. Carolina moved in closer, wrapping her arms around him from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Did I ever tell you about the time me and Merle stole a boat and went fishing?," Daryl asked. Carolina hugged him tighter,

"There was only one time you did that?," she teased, smiling when she felt his body shake with a hint of silent laughter.

"Well there was only one time he fell out of the boat and almost drowned," Daryl explained. She laughed again, encouraging him to continue with the story. "We were on this boat. The stolen boat. And Merle was just drinking. Beer after beer after beer. Then he leaned forward. I thought he had a bite on his line. But he just went face fuckin' first into the water. I tried ta haul his ass back into the boat and the whole thing tipped over. I had to swim his drunk ass back to shore. He almost drowned both of us. When I finally drug his ass outta the water, ya know what he said to me?"

"Go back and get my beer?," Carolina guessed.

"Ya know it," Daryl agreed, laughing harder as she pressed a kiss into the side of his neck.

"Should I tell a story about your brother?," Carolina asked, trying to think if she had a good one or not. In her reality, she actually didn't know him very long. And most of that time was spent dealing with the governor.

"Naw," Daryl scoffed. "Tell me a story about yer brother." Carolina sighed. It was a soft sad noise. She mostly tried not to think about her twin. Because losing Colin still killed her a little inside everytime she pictured him in her mind.

"Well… this one time, he got into this huge ridiculous fight with my mom about the lawnmower. She said he wasn't cutting the grass short enough so he put the blade all the way down and just destroyed her entire fucking front lawn. It was actually sort of hilarious how bad it looked. So him and my dad fist fought each other and then he had to come stay at my apartment." Carolina smiled at the memory. Her brother was such a fucking character. Her mother was screaming at him with her face all red and crazy and Colin just cocked his head at her and informed her that she was the dumbest bitch on the planet. Then their dad grabbed him and started swinging. "So I left to go stay the night with my boyfriend. And of course, since he'd already been kicked out of the house and I was nice enough to let him stay with me, my brother decided to have all his friends over for a party and trash my apartment." Daryl started to laugh but Carolina held her finger up. "Oh that's not all," she said. "Colin and his idiot friends got a bunch of mushrooms, like the ones that make you see shit that's not there, and those assholed used my brand new blender to make some kind of fucking hummus dip to hide the taste of the shit. There was dried on fucking mushroom dip everywhere."

"They got into a fist fight," Daryl repeated, "...over the lawn?"

He turned as he chuckled at the idea, spinning in her arms until he was facing her. Daryl's arms moved down to circle her waist. She brushed the tip of her nose against his before she kissed him. But it was only a brief brush of their lips before the moment was broken by a loud squeal. Both of them turned towards the source of the noise. Rick was coming in through the gate. The man was shirtless. Because he had something bundled up in the shirt and slung over his shoulder. Gripping the edge of the bundle with one hand, he was carrying something else under the other arm. Carolina shaded her eyes to get a better look. The creature was small and pink and wriggly. But it wasn't until Rick started heading across the open yard that she realized he'd caught a litter of piglets.