I have been feeling a little lost without this universe and I know most are going to sigh and roll their eyes that I have started another story, but like A New Day, I will work on this one when inspiration strikes and will be able to work on this one while updating my others frequently - especially since chapters for this world tend to fly from my fingers. This one will probably be just around ten chapters or so and really focus on how they are surviving and growing on their mountain. Some of you really wanted another story in this universe and I am so glad you are addicted to it like I am.


One. Apples.

He didn't fall back asleep once Jack woke up, crying, but when he heard steps coming down the creaking ladder, Daryl Dixon had been dozing and his eyes fluttered open at the sound.

A gentle early summer breeze was blowing and Daryl had brought a blanket with him when he had taken the fussy baby down onto the first landing of tree house, laying down in the hammock and resting Jack on his chest.

The baby was still sleeping and Daryl could feel his mouth open, drooling onto his tee-shirt. Daryl lifted his eyes and saw Beth coming down the ladder with a book hugged to her chest and she smiled when she saw that he was awake.

"Hi," she greeted him in a whisper.

"Hey," Daryl whispered back and she came to kneel down beside the hammock, tucking hair behind her ears and smiling as she looked at sleeping Jack.

She ran a gentle hand down his back and the baby stirred, but did not wake. Daryl looked at Beth, studying her as he always did. And she still looked tired as she always did. It was the reason why he had been the one to practically leap out of their bed the night before when Jack had started crying. Beth needed rest and they were his kids, too. He could get up with them when they were crying and when they were like how Jack was the night before; crying and not wanting to calm down for anything.

"You get back to sleep?" Daryl asked.

"Mmmm-hmmm," she gave a nod, still looking at Jack, still rubbing his back, and Daryl couldn't help, but snort a little. At the sound, Beth finally moved her eyes from the baby to Daryl. "What?" She asked with a little frown and furrow between her brow.

He smirked at her. "You're full of shit," was all he said.

Beth's mouth fell open as if she was truly offended, but she couldn't keep it up and she smiled then and shook her head slightly. "I was just thinking-"

"Jesus, Beth," he sighed before she could say anything else. "Turn it off."

Jack began to whimper then, his nose scrunching and his body beginning to squirm, and Beth stood up, putting her book down into the hammock next to Daryl and then lifting Jack up into her arms. He let out another whimper, about to start wailing at any moment, and Beth began rocking him gently back and forth as she murmured soft words into his ear.

Daryl watched for a moment before pulling himself from the hammock, grabbing her book.

When the twins were born, they had no problem naming their daughter. After their first daughter, Ruby, was stillborn, when Beth gave birth to their second daughter, there was a moment – just a moment – when they considered naming her after her older sister. But that idea was quickly scrapped. Even if she hadn't lived a single hour outside of Beth, Ruby had still been her own person and their second daughter was her own person, too, who deserved to have her own name.

When Beth had been pregnant all the way back with Eli, they had been discussing names and Cecily had come up more than once. So using that name for their second daughter just made sense to them. And Daryl had said more than once that she looked like a Ceci.

With Jack though, they had no idea and debated the baby's name for a full day after he was born and Beth was sitting up in bed, having just finished nursing Ceci and starting on Jack.

There were so many options, of course. Hershel, Merle, Shawn, Rick, Glenn… the list went on and on and they tried them all, watching their son as he ate and wondering if any of the names would fit him like Ceci's name had fit her.

"He's his own person," Beth was the one to stop them. "Like Eli and Ruby and Ceci. He needs to have his own name."

And Daryl was the one to look at him and after a moment, he spoke. "Jack."

Beth lifted her eyes from their baby son to look at Daryl and he shrugged his shoulders.

"I know we don't want to name 'im after anyone-" Daryl began to say, but Beth swiftly shook her head and cut him off.

"It's perfect," she says, feeling tears building up in her eyes and it was.

Jack was so brave and so sweet and always wanted to keep Daryl and Beth close and safe. And what could Daryl and Beth possibly want their son to be more than that?

Daryl looked at the book now that Beth had brought down from their house that morning.

"You got somethin' planned?" He asked her.

Beth shook her head, still rocking her body back and forth from side to side, comforting Jack. "Just the usual. Can you come picking with me this morning?" She asked.

"Yeah," Daryl gave a nod, not remembering anything else he had to see to immediately. He looked at it for a moment and then leaned down, giving her a gentle kiss on her lips. "I mean it, Beth. Turn it off. At least enough for you to get some sleep," he told her quietly.

Beth just smiled faintly up at him. "You know that's not possible," she told him and Daryl nearly gave a sigh of aggravation even though this was Beth and it always had been.

He supposed he was like that, too – though Beth would tell him that he was absolutely like that, too. Both just were always thinking about everything they had to do and things they could possibly do to make everyone's lives as little bit safer and even a little bit easier.

They both turned when they heard the barn doors open and then Anna stepped out, the sheep coming out with her to graze in the grass of the yard as they did every other nice day. And then a moment later, Matt came out with a pail of goat's milk and a basket of eggs. And once the sheep were out, Anna went back into the barn and returned with the goats. Some of the chickens came out, too, clucking and plucking at the grass and Anna watched them carefully to make sure they didn't eat any worms since it could lead to gapeworm.

"Eli said that he would bring Ceci down when he's done getting himself ready," Beth said and Daryl nodded and they switched, he taking Jack and Beth taking her cookbook that had been part of the Mulligan family for years and they headed down the steps.

In the cabin, the rest of the family was waking up and starting their days as well. Aaron stood at the stove, heating up the heavy iron pan and once Matt sat the basket of eggs down on the counter beside him, he left the kitchen again for outside, to go back to Anna, and Aaron began going through them, pulling a portion out to scramble up for everyone for breakfast and leaving the others for Beth to use with whatever she cooked that day.

Rosita sat at the table with Bee standing between her legs, Rosita combing out the tangles in her daughter's curls and pulling it back into a French braid as she did almost every other day. Spencer sat beside her, writing something out in one of their spiral notebooks, occasionally chewing on the eraser of the pencil to think something through before going back to writing whatever it was that he was working on.

When Beth and then Daryl entered, they all exchanged their good mornings and Daryl bent down, setting Jack down in his high chair at the table. Aiden came racing downstairs then with the atlas tucked under his arm and he slapped it down on the table in front of his dad with a smile before sitting down in the chair across from him.

"Thanks," Spencer smiled at him and then flipped it open to the map of northern Georgia.

"What are you doin'?" Daryl asked.

"I've been thinking," Spencer informed them all.

"That's dangerous," Beth teased as she took the large bowl from the shelf, bringing it to sit next to Aaron on the counter so he could fill it with the eggs once he was done scrambling.

"I would expect that from your husband, but now you," Spencer frowned at her.

"Who the hell you think taught me to be so damn mean?" Daryl asked with a little smirk.

He sat down in the chair next to Jack and Beth placed a bowl of blueberries down in front of him. Without having to be told, Daryl began sifting through the berries, inspecting each one, making sure the little stems were plucked.

Spencer lifted his eyes from the atlas to look at Daryl. "I've been thinking," he said again. He turned the atlas towards Daryl and Daryl paused in inspecting the blueberries to look at what Spencer was pointing to.

"Nothin' there," Daryl said, bringing the atlas closer to take a second look.

"It's there. Mulligan mentioned it a time or two. Just some town, but it's a town we haven't hit yet," Spencer said.

Daryl lifted his eyes to look at Spencer. "We need somethin'?"

"No. But it might not be a bad idea to go when it's still warm like this," Spencer said.

Daryl was quiet, looking to the map again; seeing where they were and how far they would have to travel to get to this town that wasn't even a dot on the map. He finished with the blueberries and pushed the bowl back across the table, and Beth came to take it back from him, returning to the counter where she was mixing up the ingredients for corncakes and she dumped the blueberries in. Rosita finished Bee's braid and handed her the brush so Bee could return it upstairs to her room. Aaron finished with the eggs and brought the bowl to the table, setting it down and then returning with a stack of small plates and serving spoon. Rosita stood up and began dividing up portions for everyone.

Spencer and Daryl didn't say anything – Spencer watching Daryl as Daryl studied the atlas and didn't say a word as he thought it through.

"Mom," Eli came through the door, Ceci in his arms. "What are you feeding her? She weighs a ton," he said and Aaron smiled, taking the baby from his arms, and Eli dramatically shook his arms out as if he had just been carrying a boulder.

"Don't say that about your sister, Eli," Beth said as she went to pour the first corncakes into the pan, using the egg grease. "She weighs the perfect amount."

"For a wild boar maybe," Eli muttered and then went to go sit in the empty chair on Daryl's other side, taking the plate of eggs Rosita was holding out for him.

Aaron sat Cecily in the other highchair next to Jack and then left, returning seconds later with the jar of cinnamon tree bark and sat down at the head of the table, pulling out a strip and then handing the jar to Aiden, who took a strip before handing the jar to his dad.

"Don't be mean to your sister," Daryl said, still not looking up from the atlas. He then lifted his eyes and looked to Spencer. "Tell me 'bout this town," he said.

Spencer immediately smiled. "It's called Crispin," he said. "Still in the mountains so we wouldn't have to leave," he made sure to say that because he knew that Daryl's willingness to leave the mountains was just about non-existent.

"Crispin?"

Anna, following Matt, came into the kitchen and overheard the name.

"You heard of it?" Daryl asked her.

"Yeah, Mulligan mentioned it a couple of times. Said that there was a store in Crispin who sold the best damn chewing tobacco in the state of Georgia," Anna said as she and Matt joined the others at the table and Beth sets down a plate of a generous stack of blueberry corncakes before finally sitting down as well.

"Bee!" Rosita yelled. "We'll eat your corn cakes if you don't get down here!"

Seconds later, they heard steps pounding on the floor above their heads and then Bee was racing down the stairs, practically throwing herself against table.

"Don't eat my corn cakes!" Bee exclaimed at them all.

"Calm the hell down," Matt said with a smile and dropped a corn cake onto her plate and she sat down in her chair, up on her knees before Rosita gave her a look and Bee moved to sit down flat on her butt and now that they were all there, they all began eating breakfast.

"So besides the tobacco, did Mulligan say anything else 'bout Crispin?" Daryl asked Anna.

She nodded and took a moment to finish chewing her mouthful of eggs. "Just some little town. I guess a lot of people used it so it had more than most towns around here."

Daryl fell back into silence as he thought it over and they all continued eating breakfast.

"Lemme think on it," he finally said. "Beth and me are goin' pickin' today and when I get back later, we'll talk about it."

Spencer nodded. "Sounds good," he agreed.

They all ate and then helped clean up from breakfast, washing dishes and wiping the table, and they then all began trickling outside to do what they usually did during the days. Beth took Jack and Ceci from their high chairs so they could toddle around and stretch their legs as she sat at the table, going over her journal, making notes of what she wanted to pick that day. Anna and Matt headed outside to get back to the animals, Anna laughing as Matt stooped down in front of her and she happily hopped onto his back for a piggyback ride.

Spencer and Aaron followed after them, heading to the barn for the shovels and wheelbarrow. They didn't have the most glamorous job today, but it was one that had to be done. They shoveled the manure from the animals and then spread it around their crops for fertilizer and they wore bandanas around their noses and mouths as they did it.

Daryl left to take one walk around the inside of the fence and then along the outside, making sure that everything was still standing strongly. They had expanded their fence as their family grew so they would have more room for more crops. More people and animals meant more food had to be grown and they had to have the space to do it.

Aiden, Bee and Eli started heading outside to begin their daily chore of pulling weeds, but Beth looked up as Eli was walking out the door.

"Eli, do you want to come picking with me and dad?" Beth asked him.

Eli gasped. "Yeah!" He exclaimed, his eyes instantly wide with excitement.

"Get your bow and arrows," Beth smiled and he ran out of the cabin as fast as he could.

Lily, their wolf, who went out hunting most nights and who returned in the morning, came trotting in through the back door then and sniffed at the babies and Beth smiled when she saw the animal.

"I was wondering where you were," she said and there was half of a corncake left – put aside especially for the wolf – and Beth took it now, holding it out to Lily, and the wolf ate it gently from her fingers.

Rosita washed the last dish and set it in the rack to dry before wiping her hands dry on the towel before coming to sit down in the chair across from Beth at the table.

"If Daryl decides we're taking a run to Crispin, would you mind staying here and watching after Aiden and Bee so I can go?"

Beth looked at her with a furrowed brow. "Of course not. You know you don't have to ask that. But… why do you want to go on the run?" She asked, not able to help herself. Feeling a hand patting her leg, she bent down and scooped Ceci up in her arms while keeping her eyes focused on Rosita, who was now looking guilty for some reason.

"Spencer and I…" Rosita swallowed before looking around though there was no else in the cabin anymore except for the two of them, the two babies and Lily, who had settled herself in her usual spot on the floor in front of the stove. Ceci settled in Beth's lap and Beth held her with an arm around her middle, keeping the pen out of her reach and waited for Rosita to finish her sentence. "We're looking for condoms," Rosita then blurted out.

Beth admitted that she hadn't been expecting that even though she had no idea what she had expected Rosita to say. It certainly hadn't been that though.

"Why?" She managed to ask and couldn't help, but be a little confused.

Rosita, again, looked towards the open back door to make sure that everyone was staying outside before settling her eyes on Beth. "We haven't had sex in a long time. I'm talking months. And the Queen Anne's lace has worked. It just doesn't always work and we are too afraid to have another baby, but we don't want to be celibate either…"

"Condoms expire," Beth pointed out to her.

"I know, but maybe, if we find some, we can double up or something," Rosita said and Beth looked at her, seeing her friend's cheeks grow a darker shade of pink.

In all of the years knowing and living with Rosita, Beth couldn't remember another time when Rosita had been embarrassed. Rosita, honestly, always reminded Beth of her older sister. Maggie had been brave and forward and had never apologized for anything.

Beth thought for a moment, sifting her fingers through Ceci's baby-soft sandy hair. "Let me go through Mulligan's books. Let me see if I can find something someone in his family mentioned or wrote about. That way, if you and Spencer can't find anything else, maybe I can find you something other than Queen Anne's lace," Beth offered and Rosita smiled.

"You're the best, Beth. You really are," she replied and now, Beth felt her own cheeks warm.

"I just hate the idea of you being celibate. You get snappy with everyone if you go too long without getting some," Beth teased and Rosita burst out laughing at that.

"That is very true," Rosita agreed and Beth laughed, too. "Do you think Daryl will agree to go? He doesn't have to come, but I know he really doesn't like us going on runs anymore."

"I have no idea what he'll do," Beth admitted with a shake of her head and she honestly didn't. "He promised Spencer he'd think about it though and you know he will."

Jack was heading out the door on his wobbly legs and Rosita stood up to go and get him.

It had been years since they had gone back to the prison and had lost Mulligan. But since then, Daryl vowed that they wouldn't leave the mountain and he had kept his word.

They didn't go on runs nearly as often as they used to when they had been with their old family. But it was different up here in their mountains. They were as self-sufficient as people could be these days; or as people could be in the "old" days. They just didn't have needs to go out on runs as often as other groups – whoever was left out there in this world – probably did. They had worked their butts off during all of this time to make sure they weren't as reliant on the way things had been and it had paid off for them. They were relatively safe up here – though they never dropped their guards, nowhere as stupid to do something like that – and they had shelter and fences and food and animals that were as important to them as anything.

Daryl might think of all of this and think the run to Crispin just wasn't necessary.

There had been a few runs – but Daryl had rarely gone with them when they had left. There had been an antiques store run to go and get things for the babies before they were born. There had been a run to go find cinnamon since Beth used it in her cooking and had run out. But other than that, anything they didn't have, they simply lived without it – except for cinnamon apparently and it had been surprising because Aaron had been the one to say that they needed it and Aaron was usually always on the same side as Daryl.

Sometimes, those two reminded Beth of how Rick and Daryl used to be. Rick would look over his shoulder and Daryl would always be standing there. And now, Daryl would be the one to look back and sure enough, Aaron was standing right there.

She had commented on it to Daryl once, wondering if he had noticed it himself, and he had just shrugged in response.

"I look over my left and he's there. But I look over my right and you're always there, too."

Beth wanted to pick apples that morning and Daryl walked them in the direction of where he knew the apple trees grew. There had been a house a couple of miles away and the past owners had grown apple trees in their backyard and since the end of it all, the trees have grown wild, producing plenty of apples for them and animals alike.

She swung her empty basket in her hand, humming quietly as she walked, keeping her eyes peeled in case they passed something else she felt like picking. Daryl, with his crossbow, walked beside her, keeping his eyes out for walker or person alike, and Eli walked in front of them with his old-fashioned bow in his hands and his container of arrows on his back.

Beth's eyes caught familiar plants with blue flowers and she reached a hand out, touching Daryl's arm, before stopping and he nodded, coming to a stop as well. He gave a whistle and Eli immediately stopped, turning to see what it was. He then came back, kneeling down next to Beth and helping her pick the chicory plants, dropping them into her basket.

As she parted away some of the leaves, she couldn't help, but let out a gasp.

"What is it?" Daryl said, immediately dropping down next to her, not sure what to expect.

"Pumpkins," Beth said, looking at the leaves with a small orb starting to grow on the familiar fuzzy vine. They had grown pumpkins a couple of years ago, but the plant had died and had never come back after giving them a crop for just two seasons. "A bird or squirrel must have planted it," she said and touched the growing pumpkin with delicate fingers.

Daryl leaned in to get a closer look. "We'll come back the same way and dig 'em up to take home," he said and Beth smiled, pleased with the decision.

Having pumpkins again would be something good, in Daryl's opinion – if they were able to do the transfer right and the pumpkin plant took root in their garden. The couple years they had pumpkins, they had been good sizes and they had picked them and Beth took the filling, creating some sort of version of a pumpkin pie and she had taken the seeds and roasted them in the oven and she had even used the now-empty pumpkin shells and had cooked the meat of the raccoon he had hunted and then had roasted it in the pumpkins.

Having pumpkins again would be something damn good.

"Is that enough, mom?" Eli asked and Beth looked at all of the chicory he had pulled – both the flowers and the leaves, which she would use some to make a chicory soup and then the rest, she would bundle and dry out and use in medicines for both them and the animals.

"More than enough," she smiled at him and Eli smiled, too.

When the twins had been born, Beth had been worried about Eli and had expressed those worries to Daryl, who admittedly, hadn't thought of it. They had been a little family of three for so long and now, all of a sudden, there were two babies and Eli wouldn't be the only one who would need their attention; the babies would be needing so much more of it right now.

The last thing Beth had wanted was for Eli to feel shoved to the side and to feel like he wasn't important to his parents anymore. So Daryl was sure he took Eli hunting nearly every day – just the two with them – and when Beth went foraging, she always made sure to ask if Eli wanted to come with her to help.

They all stood up and Beth picked up her basket and they began walking again, sticking to the trees and the rolling hills, but they could see the faded and cracked black ribbon of road through the trees and they followed it towards the orchard, knowing their way by heart.

"What are you going to make tonight?" Eli asked once they had reached their destination and he and Beth began picking apples as Daryl stood, on guard.

"With the fat from the squirrels you and your dad got yesterday, I'm thinking noodle and apple casserole," Beth said and then smiled as Eli smacked his lips together at just the mental imagine of that on his tongue.

Beth looked to Daryl as he plucked an apple from one of the trees and took a large bite, his eyes sharp and never stopping their patrol. Beth came to the tree next to him and continued to pick, wanting plenty for both to be used that night for dinner and for everyone to snack on for the next few days.

"Have you thought of Crispin any more from this morning?" She asked.

She shared Daryl's hesitancy to leave their home and the surrounding area that they all knew so well, but maybe a run wouldn't be the worst thing – and not just for possible expired condoms that would probably be more risky to use than the Queen Anne's lace.

But maybe, in Crispin, they'd be able to find more clothes. They were alright for the moment. Everyone had two pairs of jeans and enough shirts and Rosita had been able to knit everyone a sweater with the wool from the sheep they spun after shearing and they had hats, scarves and gloves the same way for the cold months, but clothes eventually got worn too much – especially with how hard they worked every day and washed them. Having a few backups for everyone wouldn't be the worst thing.

Daryl gave a nod and took a moment to chew the crispy bite of apple in his mouth. A drop of juice dribbled down his chin and Beth reached up, wiping it away with her thumb.

"Still thinkin' on it," he then answered. "But if we do go to Crispin, I'm thinkin' it's time we take Aiden and Eli with us for their first run. Maybe Bee, too."

Beth looked at him for a moment and then, they both looked to Eli, who had climbed up one of the trees to reach the apples that were growing in the higher branches. As a mom, Beth's first instinct was to tell Daryl that Eli, Aiden and Bee were all far too young for that, but even though she wanted to say that, Beth knew she couldn't.

Because even though they were all still children, the truth and fact was, that in this new world, they weren't young at all.


Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!

(I will be working on the newest chapter of Bump to update next.)