AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

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

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Carol felt better with a little cold air, a little more ginger ale, and a house that smelled less like the offending spices—since Daryl was convinced that could be the only thing that was out of the ordinary—and a little more like the Christmas tree scented candles that he lit on several surfaces surrounding their dining table. Daryl didn't figure the slight chill of the cracked windows would do more than give everyone the desire to be close to each other.

With the smell somewhat pushed back, Carol felt well enough to put some finishing touches on their plan for announcing Sprout's existence to Merle and Andrea. She finished the little card, read it back to Daryl, and then placed it on the table with "Merle and Andrea Dixon" beautifully written across the envelope in Carol's most flowery handwriting.

They were barely able to finish everything before Merle and Andrea got there. They went through the customary exchanges of hugs where necessary, and Merle teased Daryl about thinking he'd taken a wrong turn because, judging from the smell, he'd meant to go to his brother's house and had ended up at a Christmas tree farm.

Daryl caught Carol's expression and his heart responded. She was visibly nervous, but in the best way possible. He felt like he could practically feel the vibration of her nerves.

"Uh—why don't y'all just come on over here and have a seat?" Daryl said, directing Andrea and Merle. He realized his own hands were shaking, and he flexed his fingers to try to gain some control over things.

"You alright, brother?" Merle asked with a snort.

"Just that it's late, Merle," Daryl said. "We wanna enjoy dinner, an' the sooner we get started, the more time we got to just…enjoy it."

Merle was eyeballing him, practically wall eyed. There was suspicion there, but it would all be explained as soon as Merle and Andrea followed the request to sit at the table.

Merle saw the enveloped first, and he picked it up and stared at it. The look of suspicion only grew when he looked at Daryl.

"The hell is this?" He asked.

"Why don't'cha open it?" Daryl asked.

"The hell is all this?" Merle asked, putting more emphasis behind the words and gesturing toward the cake box that Daryl had placed in the middle of the table. He hadn't paid it any attention until now—probably mistaking it for a gift box or any other kind of box that might be common with the Christmas season in the air. "Too damn early for presents."

"Open the damn envelope, Merle!" Daryl said, his frustration bubbling out.

Everyone laughed, including Carol, and she made her way to Daryl. She threaded her arms through his and snuggled against him, resting her head against his shoulder. He felt himself relax simply with her proximity.

Merle still looked somewhat suspicious, but he was clearly amused. He handed the enveloped to Andrea.

"Here, Sugar," he said. "You open it. My fingers are too damned big. I hate tryin' to open shit, and I get the feelin' we don't wanna just tear this shit apart."

"I barely sealed the envelope," Carol offered to Andrea when she took the enveloped and eyed both of them. She slipped her finger under the flap, popped the barely-there seal, and pulled out the card that they'd chosen—something simple and pastel with nothing more than a picture of a little flower pot and flower on the front. She flipped open the card and read it silently for a moment. She looked at them with her brow furrowed and Daryl felt Carol press her face into his arm.

"Well, Sugar?" Merle asked. Andrea moved to hand him the card and he waved it away. "You read it."

Andrea accepted that. She opened the card like a book and took the stance of someone about to recite a piece of literature on a stage instead of someone reading a message printed on the inside of a once-blank greeting card.

"It says 'I've sprouted some hands, and little bitty feet. Y'all are two people, I just can't wait to meet. See you soon!'" Andrea read.

Daryl walked over, with Carol still grasping the upper part of his arm with her hand, and flipped open the top of the cake box. His whole body had felt like Jell-O, in the best way possible, when he'd first inspected it at the bakery. He'd chosen it. Carol had let him decide everything—what to put on it, how they might do this. He'd been worried that it wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be good enough. It wouldn't be creative enough. She'd promised him that he was very creative, and it would be perfect.

He didn't know if it was perfect, but it had made him happy to see it, and he'd already taken several pictures of the cake.

It was a simple cake. In the center of it was a flower pot with the evidence of a tiny little green stem and one leaf growing out of its dirt. Around the flower pot, in the green icing, was written "Welcome, Sprout Dixon! Coming in June!"

Andrea and Merle both leaned to look at the cake. Daryl let his eyes fall over their faces. Merle seemed slower on the uptake. He saw the moment that it registered for Andrea and she covered her mouth and lost her color for a second before it all came rushing back and a dark pink flooded her cheeks before she practically collided with Carol in a fully embracing hug.

At first there were no words—just the hug, but Daryl thought it probably said enough for a moment.

Then, he saw Merle looking at him, with a half-smile bringing up one corner of his mouth.

"Accidents gonna happen, ain't they brother?" Merle teased.

Daryl shook his head.

"It weren't no accident, Merle," Daryl said.

"No?"

Daryl made his way around Andrea and Carol to close the distance between himself and his brother.

"Not at all, Merle," Daryl said. "Ain't prayed for nothin' more than I prayed for this to happen. For me—but for her, too. It's what the hell we wanted."

Merle smiled to himself. He reached an arm out and, catching Daryl's shoulder, brought him in for one of the sincerest hugs that Daryl could remember ever having received from his brother. The last time Merle had hugged him this sincerely, he'd told him it was OK to cry if he was crying over the fact that their mother was nothing more than ash.

Daryl unashamedly closed his eyes and sunk into the hug for a moment, savoring it, and he imagined that Merle might be doing the same.

Neither of them said anything to the other about the tightness in their throats that they undoubtedly shared when the hug broke.

"Congratulations, brother," Merle said.

"Thanks," Daryl said, nodding his agreement with the feeling expressed in the statement. "But—hey—congratulations to you, too, right?"

"You done said it to me," Merle said with a laugh.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't mean I only meant it once," he offered.

"You wanted the whole damn fantasy," Merle said. "Looks like you damn near got it."

"You ain't done so bad yourself," Daryl offered.

Merle laughed to himself and nodded his head. He glanced toward Carol and Andrea. Perhaps, to give Daryl and Merle their moment, the women had somewhat walked away and given them some space. Daryl wasn't sure if they'd been talking, but if they had, they'd done it in a whisper. Of course, looking at them, he recognized that words weren't always necessary.

Andrea was simply standing, her hands on either side of Carol's face, smiling at her despite the large, obvious tears that were rolling freely down her cheeks.

Merle cleared his throat loudly and theatrically, obviously only doing it to draw the attention of the two women without harshly interrupting them.

They both looked up and Daryl realized neither set of eyes was dry, but neither woman's smiling expression denoted anything but shared happiness.

"What's a man gotta do to get some food around here? Or we just eatin' cake?" Merle asked. He held his arm out in Carol's direction, beckoning her toward him. "Come 'ere," he said.

It was enough for Carol. She rushed toward him and gladly accepted the hug that Merle gave her along with the congratulations that he had to offer. Daryl accepted Andrea's hug and congratulations, and he quickly pulled a few Kleenex from a nearby box and handed them to her before passing a few to Carol.

"It's a little early to tell anyone, really," Carol said, sniffing and clearly finding her voice once more. "Ten weeks. We should've waited a couple more weeks, really."

"I'm glad you told us early!" Andrea declared. "A couple more weeks and you'd be where I am."

"Decent enough place to be, Sugar," Merle said. He physically directed Andrea toward her chair and she went willingly.

"I ought to help serve," she said.

"I'm servin'," Daryl said. "Everybody sit. We got—steak stir fry with this kinda spicy sauce and tortillas. But Sprout don't like the smell of it one damn bit, so we also got some good leftover vegetable soup that Carol made with a side of peanut butter'n jelly sandwich."

People put in their orders quickly and Daryl served drinks and plates—refusing help and threatening to tie Carol to her chair—without feeling like it was work at all. He listened to the chatting at the table, and his stomach fluttered happily.

Andrea told Carol that her morning sickness was pretty much gone. She said she could smell food at ten miles of distance, though, and that everything was starting to make her hungry. Carol told Andrea that she was hungry most of the day, but Sprout loved the night life, apparently, and hadn't let her have a decent night's sleep in ages. Andrea told Carol that she needed new clothes. She was on the last of her "fat" clothes before nothing would fit, and Carol said that she wanted to go shopping with her because her pants, honestly, were already a little snugger than she liked.

Merle sat at the table and quietly observed the conversation taking place. Daryl realized that, honestly, neither he nor Merle may have very much to contribute to this conversation for a while, but it felt like it didn't matter. It felt like it was supposed to happen just like this.

When Daryl brought Carol her soup and sandwich—she being the only one who had requested anything out of the ordinary—she frowned at him and caught his hand.

"I'm sorry," she said, practically in a whisper.

Daryl smiled at her and caught her chin. He kissed her, not caring whether or not Merle might tease him—though he chose not to at the moment—and shook his head at her.

"You gotta give 'em what they want to grow," Daryl said. "Sprout ain't hurtin' nobody by not wantin' what we havin'."

He took his seat at the table and, like Merle, sat silently while first Andrea and then Carol added little tidbits to the conversation that was bouncing back and forth between them like a ping pong ball. Andrea told Carol what Michonne had said. Carol told Andrea to ignore Michonne. Carol told Andrea she worried about what Michonne might say. Andrea bounced back Carol's declaration that Michonne was meant to be ignored when she thought she was helping with a healthy dose of negativity.

By the time Daryl was ready to serve decaf coffee and cake, this time accepting his brother's help just because Merle clearly wanted to get up from the table and move around, they were ready to open up the conversation to more topics—though still baby related. Both Merle and Daryl waved away the pink-cheeked apologies as both women declared that they'd been rude and ignored Daryl and Merle—and both looked like they might cry over something completely inconsequential.

"Contrary to popular belief," Merle said. "There's a good many times I'd rather just sit an' listen than run my mouth. How's about—cuttin' a piece of that celebratory cake?"

"Come on," Daryl said to Carol. "You gotta help me. We ain't cut no cake together when we got married. We might as well cut this one."

"Awwww," Andrea declared loudly. She covered her own mouth. Clearly, she hadn't meant for the sound to escape.

"Shit," Merle said with a laugh. "You want you a baby cake now, Darlin'?"

"Shut up, Merle," Andrea said, half laughing. "It's too late for that and…it's already been done now."

"Just means you gotta come up with somethin' better, Merle," Daryl teased.

Carol did help him cut the cake. It was more ceremonial than anything, but Andrea understood what he was asking when he handed her his phone to help him capture the moment. They served pieces of cake around and, with the table cleared, Carol moved close to everyone instead of keeping the little bit of distance she'd kept between them all when they were eating the food seasoned with the offending spices.

"Merle—do you—do you want a boy or a girl?" Carol asked, clearly trying to steer the conversation around to something that they could all discuss.

Merle shrugged and took his time with a bite of cake. It was clear, immediately, that he was impressed with the cake.

"Hell—shitty as people have been over things," Merle said, "I'ma just be happy if it's human and got at least half its damn parts an' all that."

"Merle…" Andrea said, a touch of warning in her voice. Merle laughed to himself. He reached a hand out and patted Andrea's arm.

"Calm down," he said. "I just mean people are fuckin' assholes. Like what some damn body else does with their life affects them at all. Like we gonna ask 'em to raise it or somethin' and it's such a big damn inconvenience to them that another damn kid exists in the world. I don't give a shit one way or another what it is. Hell—never imagined gettin' this far."

"Andrea?" Carol asked.

Andrea shrugged. She was eating her cake in smaller bites than Merle.

"I just want it," she said.

Carol laughed quietly.

"I feel the same way," she admitted.

Daryl realized, suddenly, that all eyes were on him. Nobody said anything, but they were waiting patiently for his answer, as though his answer might be some definitive choice for something that, really, didn't matter at all.

"Boy or girl," Daryl offered, laughing to himself, "don't matter to me. I got favorite movies with both of 'em, so I'm just about as flexible as they come. All the hell I got to say about the whole damn thing is grow lil' Sprout, grow!"

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AN: I'm going to be entirely honest; I don't know how happy I am with this chapter. However, I've been working on it for several days and I don't know how to make it any better, or even what I think is wrong with it, exactly, so it is what it is. Maybe it's just a moody mood.

At any rate, I hope you enjoyed!