Chapter 57

"You want to kick one man out because you think he's a threat? But you're willing to overlook Daryl?" Caine snapped, pointing to the other side of the room, as though Daryl was standing right there.

"He cut Ed's face with a damn knife, he damn near knocked me out" he continued, now pointing to his black eye. "All out there in the middle of the day. Who knows what he's doing behind closed doors." He finished, fixing his gaze on Carol.

Carol smiled and raised her brow.

"Daryl did those things out in the open because he's got nothing to hide." She told Caine unashamedly, before letting out a humourless laugh and relaxed back against the table she was leaning into.

"You want to insinuate that Daryl what? Hits me? Hits Sophia? Did Ed tell you this little story?" She asked Caine as though he were a nothing more than a child who believed all the silly stories he'd been told.

Caine didn't answer, but the way he visible shrunk back in his seat, was enough for Carol to know that she'd guessed right.

"There are people in this room that have seen Ed hit me. They've seen him hurt Sophia. And now they've seen him lurking around my daughter's bedroom while she sleeps." She said, trying to contain the anger that reached right down to the tips of her fingers, leaving her to grip the edge of the table tightly.

"And you? Can I ask Caine, do you often interrogate children? Try to intimidate them?" She asked unable to hide the distaste she had for the man.

Caine's mouth suddenly open widely, as though he was shocked at the accusation. But Carol had seen the masks that men wore, to hide their recklessness behaviour. Those masks irritated her beyond belief, because the men that wore them believed they were able to manipulate the people around them.

It was one of the reasons she loved Daryl as much as she did. Everything he felt was right there on his face. Even when he didn't speak his mind, all the traces of his thoughts and feelings were lingering in his eyes.

"I never interrogated her, and I certainly never tried to intimidate her. You weren't there" Caine said, looking around the room, making sure everyone could see just how upset he was that anyone would ever think such a thing.

"This is where I come in" Karen interrupted, raising her hand slightly. She looked across the table to Caine, keeping her eyes on his, while she spoke.

"I was there. I didn't need to hear all of what you were saying to know that you were standing over a…. How old is she Carol?" She said looking to the back of the room where Carol was perched on the desk.

"Eleven. She's eleven." She told her, doing her best to sound confident with her answer. There was a possibility that Sophia was still ten, but Carol was fairly certain that wasn't the case.

Karen nodded, before turning her attention back to Caine.

"You were standing over an eleven-year-old girl. Talking to her about something that doesn't concern you in the slightest. I myself was going to tell you to leave her alone, but Daryl got there first."

"You believe it's ok to hit someone for simply having a conversation?" Caine interrupted, his voice revealing just how irritated he was becoming with the questioning.

Karen smiled and quirked her brow. "Daryl looked perfectly calm to me, until you reached out and put your hand on Sophia's shoulder…now I'm not saying you hurt her. But you certainly had the intention of forcing that little girl to listen to you."

"It was perfectly innocent." Caine replied, shaking his head.

Carol couldn't help but roll her eyes at Caine's tone.

"The fact is, you don't know either of them. Something you might believe is perfectly innocent, wouldn't appear that way to them… and it certainly doesn't appear that way to me." She told him, explaining something that she thought, up until now, was common sense.

"I agree" Sasha announced, causing everyone to grow quiet.

It wasn't something that was discussed in great length, but Sasha was somewhat in charge.

"I'm not saying Daryl had the the right to hit you. But his actions are justified and clearly if you hadn't been interfering with a delicate situation, it wouldn't have happened" she explained in a calm tone. Closing her hands together of the table as she spoke.

"Are you kidding?" Caine spat.

Sasha shook her head firmly.

"Rules have been put in place to keep Ed from Sophia. But you're over here…." Sasha laughed and shook her head again. "Doing what? Going over our heads to persuade a child to talk to an abuser" she finished, creasing her brow.

Caine growled and tightened his jaw. His placid demeanour slipping to reveal his disgust with the people around him.

"So that's it? you're going to kick him out? I knew it would come to this" He growled.

Caine looked around but no one had anything to say to him. It was time to move the meeting forward and he knew it. It only had him growing more agitated, knowing he was losing.

"Would we even be sitting here right now if you hadn't met Daryl?" He spat, looking back to where she sat. "I mean Ed might be acting crazy right now. But who drove him crazy?" he accused, raising his brow.

Carol scoffed at the accusation and smiled coldly at the man. "You give me far too much credit."

Carol knew that Ed was raised by a man who was no better than he was, but she wasn't about to tell anyone that. She didn't want anyone to take pity on Ed because of something that he had to endure.

Because although Ed's father may have been God awful, she knew, by seeing the damage done too Daryl's body, that he had endured more, and he had overcome it. He hadn't beaten Carol or mistreated Sophia. She knew that the very idea of hurting his family was something that Daryl dreaded. Even Merle, as much of an asshole as he could be, had looked after her, he'd loved his nephew and he had died because of his love for Andrea. They were proof that just because you were raised by a monster, didn't mean you needed to become one.

She couldn't help but smile to herself at thought. She was proud of him.

She shrugged and let out a sigh.

"I won't lie and say meeting Daryl didn't change things for me. I needed a friend, I needed help. He gave that to me, without asking for a single thing in return. I'm aware that Ed has told everyone I was having an affair with Daryl, and I never bothered to correct anyone because I honestly could care less…But the truth is I didn't leave Ed to be with Daryl. I left Ed because he hurt Sophia."

Eric who had remained quiet throughout the entire meeting decided to take advantage of the brief silence.

"We have a policy that we need to follow" he said directing his words to Sasha, who nodded firmly in reply.

"They both deserve a chance to speak for themselves" he said, letting his eyes drift to everyone in the room. "Before we vote, we let them have their say. Then we move forward. Right now, we're just going back and forth".

Sasha leaned back in her chair clearly growing tired with the meeting.

"He's right. Well start with Daryl, Caine can address what happened and Daryl can say whatever he wants to say. I'd also like to hear his thoughts on Ed's position in the prison."

"I'll go get him" Carol told them, cutting Caine of before he started mindlessly ranting again. Quickly, she rose from her usual spot at the back of the room and briskly walked out.

He'd thanked Tyreese for helping him the night before and offered to take a look at the generator that had been driving the man crazy for the last week. The idea of spending his day in the abandoned cellblock was more than a little inviting. It was quite and seeing how his head was pounding and his stomach was turning, he decided it would be for the best to take a break from everyone.

Almost everyone.

Sophia had insisted on joining him and he hadn't fought her on it. With everything that was going on right now, he wanted to keep a close eye on her. Though he knew Sophia wanted to follow him because she was worried of what he might do if left unsupervised.

She'd sat herself down beside him and kept him company while he fidgeted with the generator. For the most part she'd been quiet, and he knew that was because something on her mind. But there was so much going on at the moment, that it was hard to know exactly what was gnawing at her.

"Tyreese said he wants to leave that one in here?" She questioned, as she mindlessly twirled a large bolt between her fingers.

He nodded. "He said he could speed up the repairs in here if he had some power."

Sophia lazily nodded, clearly not to interested in the information. So, he didn't bother boring her with any more details.

She put the bolt down with the rest and shifted on the concrete, trying to get herself comfortable one the hard surface.

He couldn't help but steal glances at her hands and how they hung over knees. Carol was right, she didn't fidget or pull at threads anymore, each finger looked more relaxed than the other. Even now, when he knew she was anxious over everything happening, she seemed somewhat calm.

Now that his head was clearer, he could see the positive changes in Sophia. Now that he wasn't drowning in his own guilt, he could finally see that the kid was just fine, and she was going to continue on like that.

"You think you and mom will have any more babies?" Sophia asked casually, with no idea of the weight of her words.

There was a time when questions about having babies would have damn near chocked him to death. It would have had him running in the other direction, but things were different now. Truth was, he'd thought about it. How could he not? He and Carol were not taking any precautions to avoid her getting pregnant again, and if anyone knew how often he and Carol were engaging in activities that could result in another baby, it would appear that they were going out of their way to get her pregnant.

So no, the question didn't scare him.

He didn't even flinch.

"I don't know to be honest. Maybe. It's one of those things ya know, just gotta wait and see what happens." He told her as he continued working.

"Do you want another baby?"

She didn't appear to be anxious or upset over the topic. She didn't even appear to be excited or happy. She was nothing more than curious and he knew this wasn't something she'd put a lot of thought into, it was just something that had popped into her head.

He forced a serious expression, creasing his brow. "No, I fuckin hate kids"

Sophia laughed and swatted his arm playfully, calling him an asshole under her breath.

He looked over at her and smiled before turning his attention back to the generator. "Don't say nothing to ya ma. But yeah, I wouldn't mind another. I wouldn't mind however many we did or didn't have."

Sophia frowned and tilted her head. "Why can't I say something to her?"

"Cause If we can't have another one, for whatever reason, I don't want her thinking she….." Daryl paused, searching his mind for the correct word.

"That she failed?" Sophia questioned cautiously, not wanting to put words in his mouth.

Daryl slowly nodded as he finished tightening a screw.

"Exactly." He agreed, that had been exactly what he wanted to avoid.

"It's just one of those things. It will happen if it happens and if it doesn't then that's fine too." He told her with a loose shrug.

When he and Carol had talked about having more children, she had told him that she didn't believe it was a possibility. She said she was too old, but he had laughed and asked her if she belied that before she fell pregnant with Hayes. Carol hadn't been able to hold back her own laughter at his question, and she had admitted that it had definitely crossed her mind. But she'd also explained that she had always believed Sophia to be some kind of miracle baby. That maybe there was something wrong with her and she was lucky to have even one baby.

But seeing how quickly they had created Hayes, she no longer believed it had been her that was the problem.

In the end, they both decided to take life as it comes. She ended by telling him, that she definitely wouldn't be upset if she fell pregnant again, but she was also happy with the family they had.

She had asked him for his thoughts on the matter and he had shrugged, deciding it was one of those times when he needed to choose his words carefully.

Deciding to keep it simple, He'd told her, he'd be happy with whatever happened too.

He didn't tell her, that in his life he had enjoyed very few things. Nothing ever really interested him.

There were things he knew he was good at, like fixing cars and hunting. But he couldn't say he really enjoyed those things.

Funny part was, he didn't know if he was any good at being a father and most of the time, he was sure that his attempt was disastrous. What he did know, was that he enjoyed it.

Sophia sat with his words for a long time, she was clearly satisfied with his answer, but he could also see that dreamy expression she often got whenever she let her imagination take over for a while.

Daryl knew that if it were up to Sophia, there would be more babies. She adored Hayes and believed the baby to be something magnificent. She believed he was a genius when she taught him to wave, an artist when he used his carrot mush to finger paint with, and the absolute cutest baby that ever existed every time the boy smiled at her.

"Thought you were a mechanic." Sophia asked as she ducked her head to see what his hands were doing.

"I was." He told her looking around them, searching through the scattered tools.

"Pass me that would ya" he asked pointing to the screwdriver by her foot.

Sophia snatched it up and handed over, watching him for a moment before continuing on with her questioning. "Well how do you know how to do this?" She asked as she waved her hand over the mess in front of them. "Shouldn't this be done by like…an electrician or something?" She lightly laughed out, feigning concern.

Daryl threw her a crooked smile before he continued on with the task. "You think I don't know what I'm doing?"

Sophia smiled widely and raised her brow. "I never think you know what you're doing".

Daryl laughed and shook his head.

"Smart ass"

He felt her shoe kick his slightly "Seriously though." She continued, as she drew her knees up to her chest and folded her arms over them, so she could lazily rest her cheek there.

Daryl sighed heavily and he knew she wouldn't have missed it. "My old man always had these things. He used to sit around waiting for the world to end. So, we always used them…. Damn old things were about as useless as this one." He added tapping the generator with the end of the screwdriver.

Sophia didn't ask any more questions beyond that. She knew, without him having to tell her, that he'd rather not speak about his parents any more than he had to.

"Are you gonna get in trouble for what happened yesterday?" Sophia asked him quietly as though someone else, besides him, might hear her. He knew then, by her tone, that this was what had been bothering her.

Daryl frowned at the generator as he worked and shook his head slightly. "You shouldn't worry about that. I'll take care of it."

"I am worried though". Sophia admitted without hesitation.

The slight distress in her voice drew his eyes to her. "I don't think it will be too bad. Most likely just tell me not to make a habit of it. That asshole wasn't exactly in the right either". He told her calmly. Hoping that she knew that he wasn't concerned, then she wouldn't be either.

Sophia nodded and he noticed her shoulder drop slightly with relief. At the sight of that sudden relief washing over her face, he sat himself up.

He reached over and placed his hand on the back of her head, pulling her eyes to his. "Everything is gonna be alright now. You'll see." He promised her before he stood up and let his hand slip from her. "Where's that bag?"

"I left it on the bunk." She told him tossing her hand in the direction of the cell, paying little attention to him as she continued to inspect the generator.

Daryl stepped into the cell and started going through the bag that Sophia had brought with her. When he found the water bottles that he'd been looking for, he wasted no time in un-screwing the cap from one and downing as much as he could, still hoping to move the whiskey through his system.

Something that had been a relief yesterday, now felt like poison in his blood today.

He was sure that he was still somewhat intoxicated, and he wasn't enjoying the sinking feeling that came with a hangover.

When he heard the footsteps in the hallway, his first thought was that Sophia was up to something out there, or that maybe's Carol had finally come to get him.

Without much thought he turned to walk back out into the hallway, still holding his bottle of water in one hand and Sophia's in the other, in case she decided she needed it.

He barely had a chance to look around him, to see where the noise had come from, when the sudden growling voice erupted.

"Hands up!"