Here's the alternative to 'To Lose'! This is set about a year afterwards. In my mind Carol was four or so months pregnant in 'To Lose' so the baby is about eight-ish months old (I know nothing about babies. So if he should be older or younger judging by his actions then please, forgive me.).

In this timeline, Carol never lost the baby but Maggie and Glenn still brought the other two children in after their run. I'm pretty sure everything else is the same.

Enjoy!

Carol woke slowly, with a long, slow stretch and a contented groan. She reached out for Daryl, but the bed was empty and the sheets retained only the barest hint of warmth. He'd gotten up a while ago.

She lay on her back with her eyes closed. Through the open window she could hear the chatter of people making breakfast in the courtyard, dishes clinking, and the smell of coffee wafted through on the breeze. She enjoyed the smell of coffee still, even though she'd stopped drinking it when she'd found out she was pregnant with Caleb.

With a yawn, she opened her eyes and sat up, reaching for her jeans and bra. Half-dressed, she glanced around for a shirt and eventually found Daryl's plaid shirt. Somehow, this one had survived with the sleeves still intact.

She padded out into the hallway in bare feet. She slipped into the nursery, expecting to see their son standing in his crib, holding himself up by the top bar, beaming at her with his brand-new teeth. The room was empty.

Daryl must have taken him when he got up.

"Daryl?" She called as she ambled towards the living room.

"Livin' room." He called back.

She entered, stifling another yawn.

Daryl was sitting on the low sofa, his shirtless back to her. The scars stood out across the ravaged canvas of his back, but she barely noticed them beyond the muscles that played under his skin as he bounced the giggling baby in his arms. She crossed to them and leaned over the back of the sofa to kiss his shoulder.

"Morning." She purred, her voice husky with sleep.

He made a noise of interest. "Good mornin'" He teased as he turned to kiss her cheek. He missed and ended up kissing her chin, but she laughed and pecked him back.

Caleb cooed at the sound of their combined laughter.

"Oh hello, my darling!" She cooed in her sweet baby-voice. "I didn't see you there!" She reached over Daryl's shoulder and tickled his little tummy through his baby-blue onesie. "Daddy distracted me… He did!"

The little boy squealed in delight.

She reached for him. "Come on, you little terror, let's let Daddy get dressed so we can go have some breakfast."

"Can't." Daryl smirked. "Y'wearin' my shirt."

Carol quirked an eyebrow at him. "Fine… But I'm not saving you from the vultures when they start circling." She bounced the baby on her hip.

Daryl's ears turned pink even as he smirked back. "Smartass." He teased. "I'ma go find a shirt, I'll find ya out there." He kissed her on the lips quickly and rubbed the baby's cheek with his thumb.

The day passed as idyllically as usual. Carol and Maggie, as well as two other Woodbury women with young children, sat under the awning outside the barn nearest the houses and did the dishes, washed laundry, and shelled some of Rick's peas that had come ripe. They chatted amicably and avoided the sun.

Daryl was working with the team extending the wall to encompass another field. Each time they were prepared to extend the wall they would knock down fifteen to twenty metres and build it outwards as far as they could within a few days. The current section they were working on would extend the east side by almost eighty metres, enough to house the milking cows and convert their previous home paddock into a rich-soiled garden. It was hot work out in the sun, but Mika and Beth kept them in supply of cool water and the team rotated every hour.

The people who kept guard over the breach in their defences laughed and joked with them while they worked, and occasionally rotated with them to rebuild the fence from time to time. Daryl knew most everybody's names, even though their population had more than doubled from their group of twenty-five that had settled at the farm initially.

Although everybody worked hard, they were as content as anybody had been since everything fell apart in the first place.

They sat around the courtyard as the sun began to set, after a dinner of their garden vegetables and a steer they had slaughtered a week or so ago. Their crops had grown so well that they had started making their own bread, and nobody had been to bed hungry in over a year.

Daryl had Caleb on his lap, trying to convince him to eat some mashed peas. Caleb, however, seemed more interested in dabbing said peas onto Daryl's shirt than ingesting them. Daryl was trying to be firm with him, and eventually the child conceded and ate a few spoonfuls.

He wiped the baby and his shirt clean, before shifting him so he sat facing his father. The boy growled playfully at him and cackled. Daryl growled back and jogged him.

Rick, leaning against the picnic table next to Carol, smiled fondly as they watched.

"He's so good with him." He turned to Carol, who was almost glowing with happiness in the half-light.

"He's good with all the kids." She returned. "He didn't think he would be, y'know? He was terrified."

"Scared he was going to turn out like his old man, huh?"

Carol hummed in agreement. "He's never been less like him though."

"He's a completely different person than the asshole who threw those squirrels at me at the quarry. That's one to tell the little guy."

They both snickered.

Rick took her hand in both of his.

"Rick…" She protested gently.

"I can't ever apologise enough for leavin' you, Carol, but I… I wanted to thank you-"

"Again?" She asked mildly.

"Every day if I have to. Carol," He said, looking her in the eye. "You've saved every single one of us at least once. You did what you had to do, and I thought that made you cold, but it didn't. You're the kindest, sweetest person I know."

"Rick." She pulled her hand away and placed it on his forearm. "I'll never be okay with what you did. But I did a lot of things I'll never be okay with, too, and I can live with that. You were under a lot of pressure. I won't hold it against you, okay?" She gave him her small, hopeful smile, and he sighed.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad everybody is okay."

He looked like he was expecting her to hit him.

"Look." She nodded towards Daryl and Caleb.

As Carol and Rick had been talking, almost everyone had headed off to their houses. Daryl, however, had risen to his feet and was wandering around the fire pit, as the baby cooed and burbled sleepily at him. Tiny fingers stroked his jaw and chin and patted his cheeks in a clumsy fashion.

As the little boy gazed up at him, Daryl ducked his head and kissed the small hands.

"You goin' ta sleep any time soon?" He murmured. "Ya gotta sleep through 'til mornin' this time, y'hear? Can't have you wakin' your Mama up too damn much, can ya?"

The baby hummed happily.

"Y'think that's funny? Makin' Mama get up in the middle a' the night just 'cos you ain't tired no more?" He was speaking at barely above a whisper, his voice soft and lilting like it was only in the most tranquil of moments.

It was a voice that had only ever seen use when Judith was born, to start with. Then, it had been common in the sleepy moments between sleeping and being fully awake with Carol in the late hours of the night or early morning conversations.

Since Caleb had been born, though, he seemed to be speaking like that more often than not.

He wandered around, gently rocking the little boy until his tiny eyes were barely open. He kept on murmuring nonsense and humming old love songs until Carol came back from the house where she'd put Rosie and Michael to bed.

"Daryl." She breathed.

"Uh huh?"

"Are you coming to bed?"

"Yeah." He replied. "I was just…"

He trailed off, because, in all honesty, he had no idea what he had been doing or how long he had been doing it. He had been so enthralled by the tiny body in his arms he had lost track of everything else.

"I'm coming in." He said finally, not taking his eyes off his now-sleeping son.

"I do it, too." She smiled softly up at him as they walked back together. "He's just so sweet, I get distracted sometimes."

"Ain't just me then." He murmured. "Jesus, Carol. Never thought I'd love anythin' so much in my whole damn life."

"Aw, look who's gotten clucky!" She teased quietly as they headed down the hallway.

"I was gonna say he takes after you," Daryl shot back playfully, "but he ain't anywhere near as much of an asshole as you can be."

"But he's cute, that's obviously my input."

Daryl snickered. "Probably."

I think this nearly makes up for the emotional suffering I inflicted on everybody in 'To Lose'!

Reviews are much appreciated!