AN: Here we are, another chapter here.
I hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!
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Dixon One and Dixon Two were the big "tiny" people to be celebrated that day. Daryl had to admit that Carol's friends—the Glory Gals, as they jokingly called themselves—had come through and gone all out to celebrate the big reveal that they were having for, essentially, those same gals and a few other people. They had even gotten Agnes to help out, understanding that grandmas liked to be involved in such things as parties for their grandchildren.
Though many of their offerings and decorations were homemade—such as the matching shirts that Alice's girlfriend, Sadie, had painted for Carol and Andrea that labelled the babies as Dixon One and Dixon Two, and the bowls of buttons with the numbers 1 and 2 printed on them in Sharpie that Agnes had spent most of a day hot gluing to safety pins—it was clear that a lot of love had gone into making the event special. They wanted it to be something fun and memorable for the mothers-to-be and, by extension, the fathers-to-be.
Daryl, of course, understood that he and Merle were there to find out what Peanut and Sprout would be, but they were not the guests of honor. And, honestly, Daryl didn't mind that at all. He'd much rather watch Carol have a good time smiling and talking to her friends than to be the center of attention himself. Besides, he was enjoying himself with Merle, drinking beer and commenting on the baby festivities in between talking about whatever else came into their heads to discuss—which was mostly the houses they were both planning on building.
"You haven't picked."
Daryl had to make Sadie repeat herself, caught off-guard when she spoke to him before he'd been aware of her looming presence, and she'd laughed at him and teased him about being deaf before thrusting two bowls of the cheap blue and pink buttons in his direction.
"You have to pick. Pink is for a girl. Blue is for a boy," Sadie said, shaking the bowls.
"I get the concept," Daryl said with a laugh. "I pick one outta each bowl or…?"
"You pick one for each baby. What do you think? Boy or girl?" Sadie said, dancing in place like she was the presenter on some kind of baby button game show.
"Number one is Carol?" Daryl asked, finding the printed numbers on the buttons.
"One is Peanut, brother," Merle said, injecting himself into the conversation as he, too, fumbled around in the plastic bowls. He swirled the contents like the bowls held trail mix or some large variety of choices instead of pink or blue buttons marked with ones and twos.
Daryl remembered the conversation that he'd had with Carol as she'd dressed in the t-shirt that had been delivered to her by Alice—a shirt that Sadie had painted so that Carol and Andrea could match for the day with their t-shirts and black maternity pants. Carol had been concerned that Daryl might be upset, and Daryl had focused mostly on keeping Carol from being upset.
When they'd been planning the little party, the Glory Gals had cleared the idea of the Dixon One and Dixon Two Dr. Seuss theme with Carol before they'd started preparing everything—and when they'd called to get her shirt size. Immediately, Carol had insisted that Andrea and Peanut represent "Dixon One." She'd explained it to them as being sensible because Merle was the oldest and, also, given that Andrea's due date was slightly before Carol's, Peanut was the oldest. Ultimately, she'd explained to Daryl, privately, that she'd really wanted Andrea to feel "first" or "number one" about something and, honestly, this was all she had to give her.
It was important to Carol, but she'd been upset that it may, for some reason, upset Daryl that Sprout was not "Number One" for the day. Of course, Daryl didn't really care about such silly things. He'd only been upset that Carol was upset. They could call Sprout whatever they wanted. All that mattered was that the baby was healthy, Carol was healthy, and today they'd find out a little more about the baby that would be coming to complete their little family. Besides that, Daryl thought it was nice that—to both Carol and Andrea—the happiness of their friends mattered so much to each of them. He loved how much the two women loved each other, and he could only imagine it making things that much better for their families as they raised their children together in neighboring homes.
Daryl thought about his choices for a moment, and then he selected the buttons from the bowls to place his bet, fully willing to play along with the spirit of the whole party. Looking around, he noticed that everyone was either already wearing or pinning on the buttons—one "One" and one "Two" to represent their guesses for the little ones that were being celebrated that day. Daryl put down his beer and pinned them on his shirt. He named his choices out loud to his brother as he did so.
'Pink One for Peanut," he said. "Blue Two for Sprout."
"Pink Two for Sprout," Merle said, pinning his own buttons to his shirt. "Blue One for Peanut."
It was fun to be on opposite theoretical "teams" with Merle. Often, when they watched sports or did just about anything else, they would purposefully choose to be opposites so that they could bicker and harass each other throughout the competition. Even if neither of them actually cared about the event or its outcome, they enjoyed the rooting for something and the heckling of the other.
Daryl caught Carol's eye from across the room. She was taking pictures with her phone for him—pictures of the two cakes with Sprout and Peanut labelled across them in icing—so that he could have them for his collection of photos. They must be getting ready to cut the cakes soon.
She winked at him and smiled as soon as their sight connected. She puckered her lips and blew him a silent, playful kiss across the room.
Daryl smiled at her when he saw it and winked back at her. Her smile turned into the kind where she crinkled her nose at him, and she quickly took a few other pictures before she plucked a cupcake from a tray and came walking toward Daryl. She was practically hopping, unable to contain her excitement for the day, and Daryl would have never wanted her to try to hold any of it back. He loved to see her so happy that it seemed to practically be oozing from her pores.
"Look at these!" She cooed at him as she reached him. He reached for her with the hand not holding the beer and pulled her to him. She held out the cupcake in her hand. "Have you seen these? Sadie made them. Alice said she was artsy but—they have little plants on them, Daryl. Look at them! Little Sprouts! And did you see the little Peanut ones? They're so sweet."
"Did you take pictures of 'em?" Daryl asked.
"All the trays," Carol said around the half of the cupcake she'd just bitten off. "Mmmmm…chocolate. This is so good. You want some?"
Daryl laughed to himself.
"I want nothin' in the whole damn world more'n I want you to eat that whole thing yourself," Daryl said. "I'll tell you a secret. Alice called me last night to ask me what flavor you wanted. I told her chocolate because—well—because you love the hell outta chocolate."
Carol smiled, close-lipped, as she worked her way through the bite of cupcake.
"That's why they made the Peanut cupcakes in carrot cake," Carol said as soon as she'd swallowed.
Daryl smiled.
"Merle knew that's what Andrea had her a cravin' for. Alice said the bakery made them gender cakes just vanilla. Thought you might want some flavor, too, to go with the other snacks for the day."
"Mmmm," Carol hummed, finishing off the cupcake she was eating and reaching to put her empty wrapper on a nearby plate that Daryl had been using for some of the other snacks. He'd carry it to the kitchen eventually, but there would be plenty to clean up when everyone cleared out the house. "You're sure you don't want one?"
"Come here," Daryl said, gesturing toward her. He kissed her and she laughed, pulling away from him. "Tastes like good chocolate," he offered with a wink.
"Our buttons almost match," Carol said. "Except—I'm team Peanut is a boy, too, along with Sprout."
"I just put this to get at Merle," Daryl said.
"Alright!" Michonne called out, her voice blending with Alice's as Alice called out the same word only a half second after Michonne started speaking. They looked at each other, took an obvious minute to wave at each other to try to pass the torch to the other, and then Michonne spoke. "We're going to go ahead and let the mommy and daddy of Dixon One cut the cake," Michonne said.
Merle put his beer down and walked into the little dining area where the cakes were set up on a table. Daryl let go of Carol so that she could record the whole thing on her phone. In exchange, Andrea would record theirs for them.
"I can't do it, Merle," Andrea insisted after she had feigned the movement to cut the cake twice.
"What'cha mean you can't cut it? It's cake, Andrea."
"What if Peanut's a girl?" Andrea asked, attempting to whisper, but not really doing a great job of it.
Merle laughed, immediately, and pulled Andrea to him, kissing her face.
"I been givin' you hell for the fun of it," Merle said. "But if Peanut's a girl—hell, just means we got us a girl. I'm still gettin' her that ride-on motorcycle, though. Just gonna see about pink. That's all, Sugar. Come on…let's cut the cake."
Merle put his hand over Andrea's, and Daryl had all ideas that he was doing most of the movements for her as they cut the cake and served a slice onto a plate as best they could with both of them trying to keep their eyes closed. Merle broke first, opened his eyes, and laughed to himself.
"Open them eyes up, Andrea," he said.
Andrea did open her eyes, and she half-laughed and half-sobbed, the sound escaping her like she'd been holding it back and couldn't any longer, as she held the plate up so that everyone not on their side of the table could see the cake.
"We got a girl," Andrea said, the pink icing obvious between the cake layers.
"And we're damn happy about it," Merle offered, pulling Andrea to him. "For any damn body that was wonderin'."
Daryl and Carol applauded with everyone else. There was a fair number of teasing whoops from some people, and Merle unapologetically kissed Andrea like it was their wedding day. Since nobody had actually seen their wedding kiss, though, Daryl figured it was only fair for them to witness it now. He whooped, then, to tease his brother, and Carol laughed as she turned off the video a moment later and sat her phone down next to discarded beer bottles and plates.
"We're next," she said.
"I can't wait, woman," Daryl assured her. "And before you go gettin' upset, I don't care what Sprout is. We already know Sprout's healthy and growin' like a weed. Like a Sprout. And that's all the hell that matters to me. And I mean that. OK?"
She gave him a soft smile and nodded her head.
"I love you," she said softly.
"I love you, too," he assured her. "Now—let's go see what we got."
As they passed them, Carol and Daryl congratulated Merle and Andrea with hugs and smiles. They switched places, taking their place behind the cake that was designated for Sprout. Michonne announced them much the way she had Andrea and Merle. When Andrea had the camera ready, they quickly thanked everyone for coming and Carol sliced into the cake. Daryl held the plate steady and Carol closed her eyes. Daryl was supposed to close his, too, but he cheated. He helped her ease the slice of cake down onto the plate, and he smiled to himself as he licked creamy frosting off his finger.
"Open your eyes, woman," he said, keeping his voice low. She smiled at him, not even looking at the cake or the icing. "You're growin' us a baby girl." Daryl held the cake up so that everyone could see it. "Sprout's a baby girl!" He said, loudly this time.
Everyone cheered for them and clapped. Andrea whooped loudly enough that her voice carried over everyone else's. Carol practically launched herself against Daryl, and he felt her cheek against his. Her mouth near his ear, he heard her whisper.
"You're sure you're happy?"
Daryl wrapped his arm around her. He accepted, in that moment, that he'd have to answer that question many more times, but at least Sprout was healthy, and he would have the opportunity to answer it so many more times.
Daryl kissed the side of Carol's face and leaned his own mouth close to her ear.
"I promise you, Carol, that I ain't never been happier in my whole damn life."
