He's just a baby (Kid Daryl fluff)

Chapter 4: The happy ending

The school wasn't too far from the residential area. Daryl sat on the top of the cab of the truck with his feet dangling over the back glass. They broke up into groups, Shane and Lori went to the cafeteria, Daryl and Carol went to walk through the halls and classrooms. Each packing totes and a wagon, rolling down the tile floored halls.

"Do you think we'll find a rug? A racetrack one maybe, Carl would like it too." Daryl asked as he swung his bow to clear the first room. Carol pulled the wagon to a stop outside the door and grabbed a tote from their folded stack.

"Maybe, we could check the closets too. You look through the books, I'll see what I can find." Carol instructed. Lori and Shaen had two wagons given they'd really be the only ones bringing back useful things.

The first few rooms brought not much other than books on culture, food, and kinds of dogs and a few notebooks and pens. The next few had coloring books and a large tube of art supplies that the two put in the hallway to get on their way back. There was a larger room, a special education room by the looks of it, in the middle of the row of doors.

"Hey Daryl, why don't you go look in the next room, I can look in here. We'll be able to hear if anything comes in the hallway." Carol said and the boy nodded and made his way to the next room down. Carol opened the door and went in. It was a special education room. There were three teachers' desks and lots of sensory toys and tools. There was also a shelf of books behind one of the desks. Carol quickly scanned them and found the one she wanted. "Helping Surviors Of Childhood Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Mental Illness", it was a rather thick book and Daryl probably wouldn't be offended by the words he couldn't read so she put it in her backpack. She found some fidget toys and bagged them, she then found some building bricks and a book of things to build from them. Carl and Sophia would like those too. She put those by the door on a child's desk. Finally she looked over at the carpet, a plain blue one sadly, and found something she'd known Daryl would enjoy. A small bookcase of comic books and graphic novels. She picked a few, pirates, cowboys, and a few superheroes.

"I found a cookie jar!" Carol heard from the other room and she quickly stashed the picture books away in her backpack and popped the bin of blocks in the wagon.

When she turned the corner she found Daryl, sat down on the floor with his legs splayed open with a large cookie jar between his legs, stuffing his face.

"Daryl?" Carol said with a smile and an eyebrow raised. He looked up at her with the biggest, brightest blue eyes.

"No one needs to know. We can say it was half full." He said and handed her a cookie which she rolled her eyes at and took.

"You'll get a stomach ache. Now c'mon cookie monster, eat and walk." Carol said and Daryl happily walked around the school, a bit more pep in his step, with the jar clear acrylic jar in arm.

They ended up finding quite a few candy and cookie jars. And most importantly a rug, a big racetrack rug. They pulled their wagon, full of toys and useless crap, back to the truck. Shane and Lori were sitting on the tailgate talking, behind them sitting a few very large cans of food and some pots. When they caught sight of Daryl, cradling a rolled rug and plastic tote in arms, Shane shook his head and Lori laughed.

"Hey buddy, what'chu got there?" Shane said and watched the boy put the tote down and unrolled the rug, holding it so it didn't touch the ground so his arms were raised high.

"Racetrack. And cookies and books and uh building blocks and and candy jars." Daryl listed off as he unloaded him and Carol's wagon. Lori looked at Carol but she just shrugged and hopped in the back with Daryl for the ride back.

Carl was overjoyed at what was brought back. Especially the large cans of pudding and the building blocks. Him and Sophia immediately carried them to Grime Temporary residence.