AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading and don't forget to let me know what you think!

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It was Tyreese that had dropped off a cranky and hungry Eliza Jo. Carol had been finishing up a hairstyle and he'd passed her daughter to Andrea so that Andrea could entertain the baby while she waited for her meal. Clearly she had to wait much longer than she thought reasonable or appropriate—and clearly her daddy had forgotten to give her a snack to hold her over from the jars of baby food that Carol had packed for her to sample—because she dissolved into a full meltdown that included screaming at Andrea at the top of her lungs and throwing her hippopotamus so that it bounced around the floor of the salon.

Carol was mortified at the behavior of her offspring, who was only slightly calmed when Andrea pretended to cry along with her. It seemed that Eliza Jo thought that misery enjoyed company, and she was only pleased when she saw someone suffering as much as she believed herself to be suffering.

Andrea's antics, too, as she held the baby on her lap and cried right back at her, were funny enough to distract everyone else in the salon from the fact that the infant had threatened a very real fit.

Carol's mortification was unwarranted because, luckily, the older woman admiring her new hairstyle—since she'd wanted Carol to simply do her hair instead of actually cutting it—thought that Eliza Jo was adorable and took a moment, after thanking Carol for the wonderful job she did on her hair, to take them all down memory lane while she discussed a few events from raising her own six children. And, when Carol had smiled and informed her that she and Daryl weren't sure how many they wanted, but they knew that they wanted a big family and had tossed around five or six, the old woman clearly felt enough kinship with Carol over their imagined matching families that she dropped twenty dollars into Carol's tip jar with a wink and the declaration that the tip was "to get them started" with preparing for their no-doubt beautiful family.

"We ought to keep Eliza Jo around here more often," Andrea had declared, later, while Carol had nursed the baby and Andrea had retrieved and was washing the purple hippopotamus. "She can charm the customers into keeping us out of debt."

"She's too much to juggle if we get enough customers," Carol said.

"Between the three of us?" Andrea asked.

"If we all three have customers?" Carol responded.

"We could put her in something," Andrea said. "Like Michonne does with the girls."

"Maybe," Carol ceded. "When she's a little bit older. Right now—I'd rather she stays with Miss Jo or Daryl unless she's just visiting. I'm not settled enough here to feel like it's a good idea to have her underfoot."

Carol went back and forth on the issue. On the one hand, she liked the idea of having her daughter close-by at all times. On the other hand, she knew that Eliza Jo would probably prefer the freedom of roaming around the Greene farm during the week and spending time with her daddy during the weekend days that Carol chose to work. The salon, Carol knew, could be dangerous. There were things that she could get into when she became mobile—which would surely come to pass soon—and she wouldn't enjoy spending whole days cramped up in a pen or passed from one set of arms to another.

There wasn't too much time to think about things, though, because nearly as soon as Carol got the baby nursed and satisfied—not quite ready for a nap, but not too far from desiring one—Daryl came into the salon to retrieve her.

Jacqui was working with the same customer she'd had before and, by the time Daryl came in, Andrea was shampooing another. Carol was the only one with an empty station at the moment, and she considered that to be a pretty good omen for the shop.

She was happy to see Daryl, and she planted a kiss on his lips as she passed him Eliza Jo.

"Is that your husband?" The woman that Jacqui was helping asked. "I certainly hope so." Jacqui laughed in response to the woman's input on the situation.

"This is my husband," Carol said. "Daryl."

"Sorry I didn't bring her," Daryl said. "Lula had an issue in the back an' I was tryin' to help her. Eliza Jo started to fuss so Ty said he'd just run her over here."

"It didn't matter," Carol assured him. "Did you help Miss Lula out?"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders and scratched at the back of his neck.

"It's a short in the wirin' of her fryer," Daryl said. "I told her she can either replace the whole thing or try to replace the cord. She said she's been meanin' to replace it a while now. Orderin' a new one today, but it ain't gonna come overnight. So, she wants to replace the cord in the meantime, so I'ma run down to the hardware an' get one. See if me an' Merle can't get her somethin' to get her through until the new one gets here."

Carol smiled at him.

"My handy man," she offered with a raised eyebrow. He blushed slightly.

"Merle an' me might not be able to do it," Daryl admitted.

"At least you'll try," Carol said. "Are you sure that—she won't be in the way?" Carol gestured toward Eliza Jo who was happily leaning against Daryl's chest and gnawing on the nose of her hippopotamus.

"Nah," Daryl said. "Lula'll keep her if nothin' else. She's been itchin' to get her hands on her since we got there."

Carol laughed to herself. Sometimes the people of Sweet Junction could be a little less than warm and fuzzy—especially if they were busy judging someone for something that they'd either done or were alleged to have done—but many of them were softened by the presence of a baby.

"Bring her back if she gets hungry," Carol said. "And—good luck on the wiring."

"Yeah," Daryl said. "And—almost forgot. There's a woman that's gonna be comin' in here later to get her hair done. Lula's gonna give her a lil' break while we workin' on the wirin'. Her name's Patricia. Kinda pretty lil' blonde. Curly hair. See if you can't do somethin' nice for her? She's just gettin' divorced good an' Merle's done invited her out to have a date with Axel."

Carol nodded her acceptance of the information that was practically thrown at her, and she accepted the quick kiss that Daryl gave her before he took their daughter and disappeared out the front door of the salon and back onto the main street of Sweet Junction.

When Carol turned around from watching him go, she was more than aware that the talking in the salon had pretty much stopped, and she kept catching glances from Jacqui where she worked and from Andrea where she was combing out the hair of the man who expected a trim after his shampoo—a man that had been referred by another customer that Andrea remembered liking the "boob treatment" of having Andrea pass as close to his face as possible while she worked.

"What?" Carol asked, going back to her station to make sure that all her combs were soaking and her cords were entirely free from tangles.

"Some pretty little, curly-headed blonde," Jacqui said.

She said nothing else, but her tone of voice and her expression when she rolled her eyes in Carol's direction said it all. Carol's stomach tightened a little and she shrugged her shoulders.

"There are plenty of pretty blondes in Sweet Junction," Carol said, wiping down her chair with a cleaning rag.

"Ones that require your husband ask you to give them special treatment?" Jacqui asked.

"I have to admit, I wouldn't be comfortable if my husband had an interest in the beauty regimen of another woman," the customer offered. Carol clenched her teeth. She didn't even know the older woman's name, but she didn't appreciate the accusation behind her words. She did her best to regulate her tone, though, because she didn't want to get them some kind of reputation that would only hurt their ability to get people into the salon.

"It's not like that," Carol said. "I'm sure of that. And—this is how rumors get started. If Daryl's asking me to make sure the woman gets some—some nice treatment? He's got his reasons and—and I'm sure they're honorable."

"Besides," Andrea said, not trying to hide the flood of irritation in her voice. "It sounded to me like Merle might be the one behind everything with this pretty little blonde. He's the one with some kind of interest in her and he's sending his baby brother to catch the brunt of it."

Carol glanced toward Andrea.

She couldn't really decide if the woman looked truly angry or suddenly tired and sad. She did what she'd intended to do, and she put on a bit of a show as she trimmed up the hair of the man who barely needed a trim and was there for little more than the close proximity to a woman who smelled nice and would allow him to have his face dramatically close to her breasts.

Andrea couldn't have been less aware of the man, though, if she tried. She focused only on his hair; in the same way she had done with the people they'd practiced on to get their licenses.

Carol's chest ached. Andrea and Merle were doing better. They were looking for exactly how it was that their relationship was going to work, especially since it seemed to be doing some changing that both of them had to learn to navigate, but they were doing better.

Carol couldn't believe anything but the best of intention from either of the brothers. She wouldn't allow herself to think otherwise.

"I'm sure that Merle's intentions are completely honorable as well," Carol offered. "This is how rumors get started and it's ridiculous. You heard what Daryl said. She's got a date with Axel."

"And Merle's so concerned about Axel," Andrea said.

"Or Daryl is," Jacqui offered.

"They're friends," Carol said. "Or—they're trying to be friends. They're getting used to Axel. Maybe they think it'll be easier if he's got someone. So, they can all sit around and talk about how hard their lives are with women or whatever."

"I would be careful being so naïve," the old woman said when she moved to pay Jacqui for her service. "You got a beautiful little family just gettin' started. It'd be a shame to lose it. Worse thing about it, honey, is that's the time that so many men choose to just up and run. Gets to be too much for 'em and they remember what it was like before they had all that responsibility."

"That's not Daryl," Carol said as sweetly as she could. She smiled at the woman, even though she clenched her jaw behind the smile. She waited until Jacqui had thanked the woman and had scheduled her for another appointment, and she waited until the old woman was out of the salon with Andrea's client following closely behind, given that he only had so much hair that she could remove, before she opened it back up to any of them to discuss the situation at hand. Alone with her friends, Carol felt like she could speak more freely. "That's not Daryl," she reiterated. "Whatever it is—he has a good reason for coming in here and asking me to take care of this woman and to…to help her feel…beautiful or whatever."

"I'm sure he does," Andrea said. "And I'm absolutely certain that he doesn't even know that the good reason he has is that his brother has some interest in cleaning her up."

"Don't you even let him off the hook that easy," Jacqui said. "Why is she a pretty little curly-headed blonde that's getting divorced? That's a little damn specific, don't you think?"

"I think you're both breathing in too many fumes," Carol said, feeling the need to cling desperately to her belief in the absolute innocence surrounding the request. "Daryl—is blunt. Maybe he thinks she's pretty. Maybe he wants to be sure that I know who it is when she comes in."

"You're OK with him thinking she's pretty?" Jacqui asked.

"I think that people are attractive every day without fucking them," Carol offered.

"She's for Merle anyway," Andrea muttered, cleaning her station.

"She's for Axel," Carol said. "Daryl said Merle set her up on a date with Axel."

"To have her around," Andrea said. "What a great cover. What a great guy you are, Merle Dixon."

Carol laughed to herself.

"He's not the devil," Carol said. "Surely you have to think that somewhere, deep down inside of you. You married him because you love him. They're guys. Maybe he wants to do Axel a solid favor. He wants to help him find someone. The last person that Axel dated was you, you know. Maybe Merle just—wants to help Axel find someone. Help him fit in the group. Hell—maybe his intentions aren't entirely selfless. Maybe having Axel find someone makes him a little more relatable and a little less…weird." Carol sighed and sat down in her chair.

"If it wouldn't hurt us from word of mouth," Jacqui said with a laugh, "I'm not sure I wouldn't mess up that girl's head."

"I'm going to do no such thing," Carol said. "I'm going to—get to know her. I'm going to be nice to her. And I'm going to do her hair so she can feel good on her date with Axel. Besides—has anyone here stopped to think about the fact that, if she looks good and feels good on a date with Axel, she might not be a threat to anybody at all because she'll be with Axel? It's in everybody's best interest—especially if you're going to be paranoid about things—to make her look as good as my limited skills possibly allow because then she'll be taken and otherwise occupied."

Andrea laughed.

"But that's only if there's something there," Andrea said. "Remember Axel? No sparks. None at all."

"Then we're just going to have to make her into such a firecracker that she's got enough sparks for both of them," Carol said. "And he just won't be able to stop himself from catching fire."