A last little look at the state of Caryl after all that. Sweet smut ahead.

Safe Love

"...there's no such thing as safe love. Real love is giving someone the power to hurt you."
–Tom Branson, Downton Abbey

"You need to have a talk with Carl." Carol said quietly, closing the door to the girls' room.

Daryl frowned, wondering what she was on about.

"Ain't that Rick's job?" Daryl asked, "'Sides, if working with the breedin' stock ain't taught him about how things work not sure I could get the job done."

"I'm not talking about the mechanics of it; I'm talking about the way to treat a girl." Carol said.

Daryl's frown grew even deeper.

"It's your teenage daughter he's interested in dating, Daryl. He needs to know that there are boundaries." Carol reminded him.

They had taken custody of Mikka, as she'd promised her father she would do and the girl had moved in with them, sharing Rose's room until they could finish adding on another for her. Dale refused to be parted from Luke, so both of them were with Maggie, Glenn, and Hershel all in one of the larger rooms in the lodge while Levi and Beth's tiny cabin was enlarged. Space was at a premium so there were a lot of new building projects going on.

"And you think I know the first thing about courtin'?" Daryl asked her, almost sputtering. It'd taken her two years and her best planning skills to get it through his thick skull how he felt about her was mutual.

"No, I want you to scare the crap out of him so he wouldn't dare hurt Mikka." Carol pouted, pushing him back against the door to their room, her hands grasping the front of his blue chambray shirt tightly.

"Carl's a good kid, honey, you know that." Daryl soothed, raising his hands to rest on her hips.

"He's a giant walking hormone." Carol sighed. "They both are! I thought we had at least ten years before we'd have to deal with this sort of stuff with Rose. I wasn't expecting to have to mother a teenager so soon..."

Daryl saw the tears in her eyes, knowing her heart still broke for Lizzie and Sophia and all the life they'd never get to have.

"She's almost sixteen..." Daryl reminded her. "We have to believe Ty and them did right by her and she knows what's what."

"She was always the sweet one, never wanted to hurt anyone or anything, but I taught her about knives and guns back at the prison, same as the rest." Carol told him.

"That ain't exactly what I meant..." Daryl said, looking embarrassed. "That there talk? Girls need it as much as boys, right?"

"Living in close quarters like they did she might already know more than we think... between Glenn and Maggie, Bob and Sasha, and Ty and this new woman Gwen, there were a lot of babies getting made in that little town in the last few years..." Carol reminded him.

Daryl smirked, realizing the truth of that. The former prison group had been gettin' busy on the regular. He moved her closer, settling her hips against his so she could feel how all this talk of baby making was affecting him.

"Maybe you need a refresher course in just how all that happens, that birds and bees stuff, afore you talk with the girl?" Daryl offered, leaning down to trail a series of light kisses down the long line of her neck making Carol hum her approval of his plan.

Since the arrival of Levi and the prison group three months ago, they'd not really had a moment to themselves. Their days started before dawn when the boys and Rose awoke and were filled with both exhausting physical labor and mentally taxing planning meetings with the Council. In the evenings after the little ones went to bed, Carol studied her medical textbooks and helped Mikka with her homework while Daryl took his turn on watch at the walls. She was usually already in bed asleep or conked out in her chair when he got home.

Tonight had been a special occasion that had thrown off the regular schedule. Levi had asked them to help him propose to Beth.

The young Marine was head over heels for little Greene and she was in a much better place than she'd been before he left. He hoped now she was ready to accept his feelings for her were the permanent kind.

Having her sister and father back had helped her sense of security and trust in the possibility of a future. Working with the group she and Sara had started had also given her an understanding of how to deal with the emotional and physical aftermath of her ordeal in Savannah. Ty's widow Gwen was a rape survivor from before the Turn and gave the group the benefit of the counseling she'd had back then.

Carol had invited the Rhees and Greenes, Levi, Rick and Michonne for a grown-ups only dinner. Sara and Mark volunteered to babysit all of the kids up at the lodge with Carl and Mikka's help. It was a bit of a zoo, but they had planned fun foods, games and activities to wear the little ones out and so it was like a party for them as well.

Of course Beth had said yes, so the bigger surprise of the evening was Rick and Michonne's happy announcement that Judith would finally be getting the baby brother or sister she wanted. Since no one had been quite sure of what their relationship was—they lived together and his kids called her mom, but they had never made a public declaration of anything beyond friendship—it had prompted a few laughing exchanges of chits for payoff of bets.

It was an early evening, ending with toasts and then everyone walking up to the lodge to pick up their sleepy children to carry home. Daryl had Rose, and Carol and Mikka each took one of the twins. Carl had also followed them home, carrying the backpack with the kids' bug-out supplies. After the big herd attacks everyone had one with them whenever they left their homes so they'd be prepared to make it at least a couple of days if they ended up on their own.

Carl and Mikka had sat out on the porch swing talking while Daryl and Carol put the little ones to bed. When they'd gone out to tell them it was time to say goodnight the teens had been holding hands and their faces had been very close together, staring into each other's eyes, and Carl leaned in just enough to touch his lips to Mikka's. When he saw Daryl glowering at him over the girl's shoulder Carl had jumped up, beet red and stammered a goodbye before hightailing it off the porch.

Mikka had looked a little dazed and had floated off to bed with a sweet little smile on her face, hugging Carol tightly when she came into kiss her goodnight and telling her how happy she was that Carol and Daryl were her new mom and dad before snuggling her rag doll close and drifting off.

So now they were parents to a sweet girl on the cusp of womanhood, a precocious five year old and two rambunctious, sure to be hell on wheels little boys in the middle of the Apocalypse. No wonder they hadn't had found time for themselves in weeks.

"It has been awhile, hasn't it?" Carol sighed apologetically, letting her head fall to the side to encourage his eager shiver-making exploration of her neck and collarbone.

"Got a lot on our plates..." Daryl murmured, nosing aside her collar, "You ain't had the chance to put alone time on our schedule..."

Carol raised her head, amused that he remembered that, and then put her fingers under his chin to draw his eyes up to hers. Alone time was a precious commodity, but so was sleep these days, and that need had been trumping sex lately. She loved that he still wanted her with the same desire as he'd shown that first afternoon in the warden's office, five years and three babies later.

"It's a good time." she told him with a smile.

Daryl's eyes widened and the heat between them ramped up to scorching. Condoms were also a precious commodity so she kept a careful track of her cycle, knowing when the lowest possibility of conception would fall in the month. At those times they could chance it and he loved having her bare, nothing in between them. At other times in the month they did... other things...

"You're killin' me here..." he moaned and covered her mouth with his, thrusting his tongue in as she tangled her fingers in his hair and tugged hard, giving him that little sharp snap of pain she knew he liked. Daryl reached down and lifted her right leg up over his hip so he could grind against her and she whimpered when he hit just the right place with his rising hardness and then she arched into him.

From behind them a child's tearful wail pierced the quiet.

"Shit." Daryl bit out after breaking the kiss, breathing hard, resting his forehead on hers. Cock blocked by his own damn kid...

"I'll get him." Carol said, starting to pull away, but he kept his hold on her, grinding his hips into her one last time, making her moan, before letting her leg down and kissing the tip of her nose.

"You know one when of them starts the other goes right after," Daryl said, following her across the hall to the twins' room. Sure enough, a second plaintive cry soon combined with the other for a stereo effect.

A double diaper change and rocking chair session finally settled the boys back down in about an hour. After closing the door behind them with a soft click, Daryl bent and lifted Carol into his arms, carrying her into their bedroom.

Gently setting her on their bed Daryl undressed her reverently; carefully removing each garment and then touching the bared skin with fingertips and lips, feather light as she was revealed to his gaze.

"I love all the ways you touch me." Carol whispered as his mouth ghosted low over the curve of her belly, all along the raised scar that ran in a diagonal slash across it, over the stretch marks that their babies had left her with, all the signs that she was a survivor.

Daryl's eyes rose to hers and he quickly sat up and stripped off his shirt before returning to her. He knew she adored the feel of his smooth skin and hard muscles under her thighs as he went down on her. No matter how many times they were together he was always amazed she let him do this for her and wanted to do it for him. He loved the intimacy of it, knowing it was something that was only theirs, that she'd never been given pleasure this way by anyone else.

Over the years he'd refined his technique, learning how to take her even higher, pushing past both their shyness to try new variations, learning to curve the fingers he eased inside her to find the trigger spot on her walls that made her scream.

Letting her do the equivalent for him had been a point of negotiation.

Coming down off her high, feeling emboldened by their recent drought, knowing he was on a thin edge, she decided to ask again.

"Daryl?" she said in a lazy purr, straddling his thighs and leaning down to let her tongue circle the nipple under his tattoo, her hands drifting lower over the ridges of his abs to find the button of his khakis.

Daryl reached down and filled his hands with her breasts, rubbing his thumbs over the tight sensitive peaks as he squeezed gently, making her moan. He pushed them together and she raised her head to give him an arched eyebrow look as he smoldered a silent question at her.

"Then you'll let me?" she bargained.

He gave her a little frown until she let one hand move below his belt line and trace the straining outline of him through the cloth, giving it the same squeeze of pressure as his hands on her breasts. His eyes rolled back and he nodded, panting, agreeing.

Carol unzipped and stripped his pants and briefs off him and then she palmed his cock, liberally applying the sweet goat's milk salve Sara and Rosita had made for her nursing-chapped nipples, which they had discovered also made a perfect lube. She straddled him again, this time with her chest resting over his belly. Keeping her eyes on his she lifted up and slid down so that she could position her breasts to either side of his erection, using her hands to press them tightly together.

When he felt that satin skin surround his cock Daryl groaned low in his throat. Her hard nipples rubbed against his hips as she slid up and back and when she lowered her chin to kiss and lick at the tip each time she went back, he reached down and pushed her hair off her face so he could watch everything she was doing to him.

"Oh god damn sweetheart..." he muttered. As much as he loved her long slender legs and perfect ass, he'd learned he was especially partial to her pillow soft breasts. Having seen them plumped even more from nursing like they'd been when he'd first arrived, he'd gotten a bit obsessed.

Carol took him to the edge this way, enjoying his breathy moans and whimpers, and then on a downward slide she took as much of him as she could in her mouth, shifting her hands away from her breasts to the point of his hips to hold him still.

"Shit!" he groaned, his balls tightening as he felt the swirl of her tongue on the taut underside of his dick as she sucked down hard and swallowed, then slowly let it slide back out. She repeated the move several more times until he was gripping the sheets to fight the need to thrust even deeper into her throat.

Reaching her right hand out she coated her fingers with the salve while she used her left hand to nudge his legs apart further. She let his cock slip free and looked up at him.

"Still okay?" she asked carefully.

Daryl reached up both hands and pushed his sweaty hair back off his face, trying to calm his breathing. Unable to speak he grunted out a tortured noise of assent and let his head fall back on the pillows in surrender.

Carol smiled and kissed his hip. He'd only let her do this once before; even though he knew it was something that made him come like crazy, he didn't want to admit that he wanted it.

"Just relax..." she whispered, her warm breath on his sac making him sigh, "...relax..." she licked up the underside, following the path of the thick vein that meandered up towards the head while simultaneously easing her slickened fingers in behind and between.

"Fuuuuck." he hissed when one fingertip carefully circled and then stemmed the rose, pushing in and out shallowly at first. She closed her mouth over his rock hard cock again, synching her movements as she added a second finger.

"God—oh holy fuckin' god—please—G-god!" he babbled as she fucked her fingers into him, pressing deep, finding the place inside him that made him draw in a deep breath and arch his back while she pumped and sucked with her other hand and mouth. His legs shook and he continued to invoke the deity as she quickened her pace until with a whimpering cry of ecstasy he exploded into her mouth.

She suckled until he was soft and then let him loose with a wet pop. Her fingers, still tightly held inside him, felt the involuntary twitches of aftershocks shudder through him. When she lifted her eyes to check on him she saw that his arm was flung over his eyes and his cheeks were stained red from a combination of passion and embarrassment; he was breathing hard, but had a bashful grin on his face.

"So were all your prayers answered?" she teased, swirling her fingers inside him again and he groaned out a chuckle.

"Leave me be now—you fucked me dry..." he complained, but then made a little whimper of pleasure, clenching against her fingers.

"You want me to stop?" she purred. She wanted him now and he was already half hard for her again.

"Come kiss me." he said, evading the question, reaching down and taking her by the shoulders to pull her up on top of him, chest to breast, in effect forcing her to stop, her fingers sliding out of him.

She ran her tongue lightly along his lips and then nipped at them before kissing him fully. His hands came up to the back of her head, holding her to him while he took over the kiss, pouring his love into it. He'd never known anyone the way he knew her, never trusted anyone with his whole self like he did her, all the pieces of his heart and body and soul.

"I need you inside me." Carol told him, kissing him back, nibbling at his chin.

"You sure it's safe?" he asked her, trading more little kisses.

"As safe as love ever is." she said with a small smile, resting her chin on her arm crossed over his chest.

"Don't want you to risk another pregnancy..." he said, his brow creasing with worry, "We should use one."

"Well, if we're only going to do it once a month I guess that's like rationing them." she said primly, wiping off her hands and then leaning over the side of the bed to find the seven year old box of condoms hidden under the mattress. They'd expired two years ago, but it was better to use them than nothing at all.

"Damn—it's really been that long?" Daryl frowned, pulling her back over top of him.

"It's been a busy month." Carol allowed. She shook the box with a thoughtful look. "I suppose we should save some of these for Carl and Mikka..."

"Oh hell no!" Daryl growled gruffly, plucking the pack of condoms out of her hand. "She ain't havin' sex till she's thirty and then only if'n she's married."

"I thought I was supposed to have the Talk with her..." Carol tilted her head at him.

"That's right, so she knows what she's not supposed to do till she's thirty." Daryl said firmly.

A dimple appeared in Carol's cheek as she pursed her lips to keep from laughing at how Papa Bear he was being, but then she gave a sad little sigh.

"Think'n of her ain't you?" he asked, already knowing the answer. Sometimes even the happiest things would make her sad and he knew she was thinking of Sophia.

"You'd have been such a good daddy to her." Carol said and Daryl pulled her down to hold her close, her head tucked under his chin.

"Wish she'd a' been." Daryl said quietly. "Wish we had all our girls here."

They were quiet while they both thought of those they had lost, Sophia, weak and unprepared for the new world and Lizzie, troubled but strong enough to sacrifice herself for others.

"You know everything we got here's down to you," Daryl said, running his fingers lightly up and down the curve of her back.

"Daryl, I'm alive because of you—when you found me at the farm, at the prison—you saved me." Carol said, pressing a kiss to his chest above his heart.

"And you saved us all way before that at the CDC." Daryl reminded her and chuckled, his drawl slipping down deeper, "When ya whipped that grenade outa ya purse? That shit was hot."

"I was shaking like a leaf." Carol said dryly.

"Still saved us. Think that's called courage." he said, "Always had that."

"If I did when I left Ed, I'd've never gone back..." Carol said pensively.

"You left him?" Daryl asked. She'd never told him that before.

"But I was too afraid of being alone." Carol told him, "Me and Sophia stayed in a shelter in Atlanta for a day and a half before I got scared and went back."

"And then the world fell apart and you were even more stuck." Daryl said, nodding in understanding, quiet for a bit, and then he went on, "You never asked me—what I was before all this."

She had wondered, once upon a time, what he had been, what job he'd done before the Turn, but none of that really mattered any more. She knew who he was.

"I know Daryl, I've always known." Carol said, sitting up so she could look into his storm blue eyes.

Daryl frowned and squinted at her, ready to tell her he'd been nothing, no one; just a fool following a bigger fool around, wasting his life until he'd stumbled into that camp in the quarry outside Atlanta.

"A good man." Carol said, lifting her hand to his cheek, rubbing her thumb over the graying scruff on his chin.

"Wasn't... didn't have a life... till I found you..." he said haltingly, his voice filled with emotion.

"And you're the one who always finds me, no matter what." Carol smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she gazed at him.

"...till I had the courage to let you in." Daryl finished and then he placed his hand over hers, pulling it over his mouth to kiss her palm. Then he released it and shifted them so she was underneath him and he was kissing her hungrily. Between the two of them they managed to get a condom out of the box, rip the package open and get it on him without breaking the kiss. Carol reached down and guided him in and he filled her, making her gasp and her head fall back.

Daryl levered himself up over her, tilting her hips with his hands and pushing in. They took their time, knowing that like every time this might be the last time they had together, never knowing what tomorrow might bring to the gates.

He watched her, like he always had, searching for clues to what she was thinking, what she needed, how he could make it better for her, easier. It'd taken him awhile to realize that this was love—it'd made him angry and confused at first, how he felt about her—wary of giving her the power to hurt him. His dismissive denial to Sam when he'd arrived at the Fort, "Ain't like that," had been a shield against the possibility of pain.

Now it came like breathing, the desire to see to her happiness, to put her life and the lives of their children before his own. There was peace in that, a kind of safety he'd never known until her.

Carol ran her fingers lightly across his shoulders, measuring their breadth, the strength of him, the way his biceps bunched as he held himself over her, slowly thrusting deep in a languorous rhythm.

Daryl rolled his hips in a lazy circle, rising up, pressing the crest of his cock against her clit, keeping the pressure there until she couldn't stand it and started to push back, rubbing against him while he stayed still.

"Daryl..." she whined, and he dipped his head to nip at her neck, licking his way down until he settled in, suckling at her nipples until he felt her go liquid around him and started moving again, pushing in as deep as he could go, bottoming out, resting his head on her breasts, both of them groaning in pleasure.

"Can we just stay like this forever?" Carol sighed and Daryl raised his head to look into her face, those soulful eyes, the blue of an early morning sky, full of contentment.

"Whatever you want..." Daryl agreed, kissing her sweetly, but then leaned to the side, put his weight on his left forearm and reached down with his right hand to draw her thigh up over his hip. Keeping his eyes trained on hers he withdrew from her almost completely before thrusting back in, hard.

"That... want that..." Carol gasped, gripping his shoulders, hanging on.

"Want to feel you come on my dick..." Daryl told her boldly, slamming into her again. His right hand slid over her belly to her cleft and with two fingers he rubbed and circled there, finding her already slick and primed for his touch.

"Don't stop..." Carol moaned, writhing against him, her hands moving to hold on at his nape, using him as anchor to move her hips in synch with his, the tips of her breasts rubbing against his lightly furred chest with each thrust and counter.

He could feel her building, her breath quickening into something close to sobs, her clit swollen and throbbing against his fingers, and then he was in a tightening vise, barely able to move as she spasmed around him.

"That's it..." Daryl soothed, his mouth open, gasping, "Show me—God, you're beautiful—shit!" He had to move, come now or he'd lose it.

Carol grabbed his hand, pulling it away from her center so they could be belly to belly, her chest and throat still full blush from her orgasm, eyes hot, and she slid both hands to the small of his back, slick with sweat.

He grunted with effort, powering into her, rising up on both arms for better leverage. A few last quick thrusts and all his breath flew out of him in an inarticulate cry of triumph and he collapsed against her.

Carol moved her hands up over the slope of his back, delicately tracing his scars and then she hugged his big body to her.

"Sorry—squashin' you." Daryl muttered in a muffled voice, his face buried between her breasts, blowing a raspberry on her sweaty skin and she chuckled, the sound setting him off too until they were both laughing softly.

When he went to lift himself off her she kept her arms locked around him, unwilling to lose the full body contact.

"Stay." she said.

Instead he rolled them until she was on top and then raised his chin up for a kiss, his gaze warm and loving. They both knew that it couldn't always be like this, but for now life was good, their family and friends safe with them in the place they'd made. Carol kissed him, knowing that no matter what life threw at them, they would always find each other again.

Well, that's it kids! Thanks for sticking with me to the end.

You probably noticed that in this final chapter I threw a little bit of dialogue/plot points about each of them in from "Still" and "Consumed" that I thought were important to who they have become through the course of this story. Instead of the whole desperately ridiculous plot-hole ridden but unfortunately canon events of much of S4, I tried to give all these people I care about in-character story arcs that intersected with one another's in a way that made organic sense to me. I really despise the whole Carol vs. Morgan story arc of S6. They are torturing and destroying her soul and it hurts. MMB & Lennie will play it beautifully and I will still hate every minute of it. At least she gets some happiness in fan fic.

Is it better to use an expired condom than no condom at all? PP: Yes. There's a good chance that it won't break. Effectiveness will have a lot to do with how far past the expiration date the condom is, (they last about 5 years) as well as how it was being stored. For example, an expired condom that was kept in a cool, dark bedroom drawer is less likely to break than an expired condom from the same package that was kept in the bathroom closet close to a steam pipe. (You can visit Planned Parenthood's website for more information on reproductive health.)