AN: OK. OK. Here's another chapter. LOL I changed the rating for future chapters.
Seriously, thank you all for the support and the reactions. I had this little story stuck in my head, but I didn't know if anyone would be interested. So, here we go!
Also, please read my note at the end.
I hope you enjoy the chapter! Please let me know what you think!
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They both had agreed to sleep on the decision, reasoning that it wasn't unreasonable to take at least one night to make sure they were both comfortable with the plan to bring a child into existence together. They had agreed to meet after work the next day at the nicest restaurant the little town had to offer—at Daryl's expense—to seal the deal and begin to discuss the details.
All day long, Carol had gone back and forth between a kind of unexpected excitement at the thought of becoming a mother and an almost overwhelming anxiety for the same reason—especially when she considered that her baby's father would be a man she'd only just met and, really, didn't know at all.
Still, she'd gone back to her trailer after work, changed into the nicest thing she owned which, admittedly, wasn't that nice, and she'd driven to the restaurant. The night before, she'd seen Daryl climb into a red pickup truck after he'd seen her to her car. That same pickup was sitting in the parking lot when Carol arrived. She got out, smoothed down her somewhat wrinkled dress, and ran her fingers through her hair to smooth it down where the short-shorn curls, with any length at all as they started to grow out, sent her hair sticking out in all directions.
Carol bent down, looked in the side mirror, and wished she had some lipstick.
She sighed. It didn't matter what she looked like, really. After all, this wasn't a date. Daryl was interested in her eggs and her uterus. That was it. Still, she wished she looked better. After all, she could easily convince herself that the man might change his mind simply because he thought he could do better at picking out an attractive mother for his future offspring.
Her future offspring.
The butterflies started in Carol's stomach again—fluttering around at the thought.
"Let's just go and see what he has to say," she mumbled to herself. She slung her purse strap over her shoulder and walked into the restaurant. Daryl was waiting near the door in what looked like an absolutely brand-new pair of jeans and button-down shirt. He smiled when she came in.
"You came," he said.
"You didn't get a table?"
"Got my name down," he said. "They're holdin' it. Didn't wanna sit and—you not show up. Worried you might change your mind."
"I'm here," Carol said. "Actually, I was worried you might change yours."
"I been waitin' for this for…well, forever. I ain't changin' my mind."
Daryl gestured to the waiter and, in no time, they were shown to a table. Judging by the table's location, Carol could tell that Daryl had requested something private for them to discuss their business. At the table, Daryl ordered a beer and told Carol she should order something if she wanted it. She still opted for water.
Daryl didn't talk while they studied their menus except to insist that Carol get whatever she wanted—anything from the menu. He wanted her to have a good dinner, and he didn't want her to be shy about things like eating, he said, especially considering the endeavor that they were discussing.
Carol ordered a steak dinner, as did Daryl, and when the waiter had taken their orders, Daryl pulled the folded sheets of paper from his pocket, unfolded them, smoothed them out, and put them on the table between them.
"OK—so my sister-in-law's a lawyer, but…like filin' somethin' like this? Basically, it's one of them things that neither me nor you want this shit to go to court. Simple as that. But—if we had to, this would at least get some attention."
"I don't want to go to court," Carol said. The thought of court practically turned her stomach inside out, especially considering everything with Ed.
"Right. Me neither. So this is just somethin' we keep. Unofficial. I got a copy for you and one for me. We'll sign both of 'em. Details the whole thing out. Says—basically—you see right here? That you and me…we'll fill your name in there…are enterin' into this agreement together. Says that—I agree to pay you forty thousand dollars, in cash, for the whole thing." Daryl looked at her. "Was that OK? I mean—that's negotiable and shit."
"Where'd you get that number?" Carol asked.
"Called around to some adoption agencies while I was tryin' to figure out if that was a route I wanted to take. That was a number that got tossed around a lot. I figured it was a good, solid offer. Unless—you think it ain't enough…"
Carol had thought about that number all night. It wasn't a million dollars, maybe, but it was far more than she'd ever had to her name. She'd have to figure out how best to use it to get the most benefit from every penny of it, but it could certainly do her a world of good.
"If I had to give a baby up," she said, keeping her voice down, "then there's no amount of money that I think you could pay me."
"That's in here," Daryl said. "Further down. About the not givin' it up entirely, I mean."
"Forty thousand sounds fine to me," Carol said.
Daryl hummed and nodded. He returned to studying his homemade contract.
"Says—I give you the forty grand in cash. No strings attached. That's once the service is done. So—when the baby's born. But it also says what we agreed. I agree to pay all expenses for your needs, no matter what they are as long as, you know, they're legitimate, before and during the pregnancy, and…also…I said anything you need for like…after. I don't know what it entails, but I assume there's some shit that comes after…like…shit…like do you gotta…heal…or…?"
"Yes. Yes," Carol said, her face running warm when she realized how red Daryl's face was.
"I put in here I'd handle that. All the after shit. So, I mean it. Doctors or whatever you need or…want to make it better? I'm in for that," Daryl said. "Let's see—so this says that you gonna be responsible and go to all your appointments and stuff like you're supposed to and you ain't gonna like do nothin' to endanger the baby. Take good care of it while it's…you know… growin'. And, I guess, I shoulda put in there, after and all, since…since you ain't handin' it over so…"
"You don't need to add anything," Carol said. "I'm not going to endanger my baby. But—what about you? You don't have to agree to that?"
Daryl laughed a little nervously.
"Well—that's right here, see?" He said, pointing. "And then, this part says that we gonna split custody of the kid fifty-fifty, with the details to be reached at a later date. But that we each retain to the right to see the child each and every day if we wanna. We're equal partners in this."
Now it was Carol's turn to laugh to herself.
"You mean—like parents?" She asked.
Daryl nodded his head.
"There's a couple little things more in here. Same things. See—you can read that. Just little details about what I'ma do for you durin' the whole process and all…and the things that I feel like I ought to have rights to, you know, as the kid's father, while it's growin'."
Carol read through the details. She couldn't help but smile as she read some of Daryl's requests. Far from being anything completely irrational, she could see that the common thread through all of it was the same—he wanted to be just what he'd said he wanted to be: a great daddy.
Among a few other things, he wanted updates on all doctor's visits. He wanted the sonograms recorded, at least on a phone, for him to see. He wanted a copy requested of all sonogram pictures. He wanted at least one opportunity to hear the baby's heartbeat during the pregnancy. If Carol did not find it a violation, which he allowed for as a loophole in the contract, he wanted at least one opportunity to feel the baby kick as it grew. And, though he had written that he didn't expect to be allowed to be present in the room during the birth, he expected to be present in the waiting room at the hospital and for staff to understand that he had the right to see the baby as soon after birth as was medically safe.
Carol swallowed against the entirely unexpected lump in her throat. The night before, she'd been awake, on and off, for hours. She'd tossed and turned. She'd wondered if she was crazy to do this—and maybe she was absolutely insane to agree to such a thing. She'd wondered if a man could possibly be sincere about something like this, or if she was somehow getting herself and her as-yet-unborn child into something even worse than what she'd just gotten out of. But all that concern seemed to be—if not dissipating entirely—lessening a great deal.
The man across the table—the man who had written up this "unofficial contract" out of concern over his own as-yet-unborn child—was sincere. At least, even if Carol didn't know for sure that he was sincere, she felt he was, and she pushed out of her mind the voice that reminded her that she'd first trusted Ed Peletier when she'd met him.
"Somethin' wrong with it?" Daryl asked. "If you don't like the—the kickin' part, you can scratch that out. Like I said, if it was gonna make you uncomfortable…"
Carol offered him a reassuring smile and shook her head.
"No," she said. "No—I think we can…figure that out. We'll work it out." He looked a little relieved. Carol wondered how long he had spent collecting together "don't want to miss moments" for this contract. "Do you—have a pen?"
"You serious?" He asked.
"Are we signing in blood?" Carol asked.
He laughed quietly. His eyes trailed toward the waiter who brought their food, and Carol moved the contracts and sat back while food was delivered and they went through the regular questions about if they needed anything else and whether or not their food looked acceptable. As soon as the waiter was gone, Carol put the contract back, sliding her plate out of the way for the time being.
From his shirt pocket, Daryl produced a pen.
"I mean—are you seriously gonna sign? You really—wanna do this?"
Carol held her hand out for the pen. When Daryl passed it over, she took both copies of the contract. She filled her name in where the blank had been left for her to record it. The man that she was entering into a contract with that declared she would have his baby hadn't even known her full name. It was clear they were both insane. Still, she scratched her signature onto the bottom of each copy and passed the pen and the contracts back across the table to Daryl.
"I'm serious," Carol said. "If you are."
She volleyed the challenge back to him. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment and let it out. His obvious anxiety honestly made Carol feel better. If he'd been completely confident about everything, without even a concern in the world, then she might have felt that there was something more to this than she was seeing. As it was, it felt natural to her that he should be nervous, even if this was something he so clearly wanted and had wanted for some time.
Having a child was a huge commitment, after all. Having a child with a complete stranger, was something else entirely.
Carol noticed that Daryl's hands trembled slightly as he scratched his signature on both copies. He examined them, folded one up, and tucked it into his pocket with the pen. He passed the other copy to Carol. She folded it and tucked it into her purse.
"That's done," Carol said.
"It's done," Daryl agreed.
"You regret it?" Carol asked.
Daryl hummed in the negative and shook his head.
"You?"
Carol thought about it for a moment.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "So—what now?"
"Now we gotta—work out all the details," Daryl said. "I didn't know if you would show up tonight or not. But I figured, if you did, we could meet with my sister-in-law tomorrow."
"The lawyer?"
"Not for nothin' like that," Daryl said. "It's just—she knows more about women than I do, honestly…since I don't know a damned thing about women. And, I thought—she's helpin' me keep my head straight, and she'd be good for just…helpin' us iron out all the details. Just as a…a friend. Not a lawyer."
Carol calmed herself with a deep breath.
"Fine," she said. "But—what's next for us?"
"Dinner," Daryl said, gesturing toward the meal. Carol moved her plate in front of her. "And—maybe we could sort start hashin' out some of the details, you know? Just so we got somethin' to think about for tomorrow? We can start talkin' about all the things that, you know, we got on our minds and what we need to figure out and get straight."
Carol shrugged and smiled. She felt the same sort of surge of nervous excitement that she'd felt earlier.
"Sure," she said. "Why not." She laughed to herself. "We're in this deep. We might as well start figuring some things out."
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AN: OK, so a couple of things. One, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please don't forget to let me know what you think. Remember, your comments are what keep me writing (or, in this case, turn things into longer fics).
Secondly, I'm finishing up "Region Thirty-Three" and "The King and the Wildman's Heir." I've got them plotted out to their approaching endings, but I need all the help I can get keeping motivation up to mark those complete, so if you're reading either one, I appreciate all your support in helping get those to the finish line.
I mean, honestly, I appreciate your support on everything. After all, like I said, your comments and reviews are always the difference between write the fic and decide it's garbage and don't write it. LOL So, I love you all for each and every piece of support you offer! Thank you!
