I know it doesn't look like it right now but I do have a general story planned out but like the others in the series, it's not exactly linear.


Chapter Two. Milf.

When Dale called out in the garage for Daryl that he had a phone call and it was the school, Daryl just assumed that it was a call about Hunter because calls like this were always about Hunter. The kid had been getting better but sometimes, he still got into trouble and Daryl and Beth still had to go to the school to talk to the teacher occasionally. A couple of them had mentioned Ritalin but Daryl wasn't looking to medicate his seven-year-old just because he was a kid and was hyper sometimes and Beth was in agreement with him on that.

So, when he took the call in the office, and it was the principal from the middle school, he nearly dropped the phone.

"'m sorry," Daryl shook his head slightly. "What are you sayin' that Luke did?" He listened for a moment but none of the words were really registering. "Did you call my wife?"

After he hung up the phone, he stared down at it as if completely perplexed and he scratched the back of his head. He looked to Dale who was sitting behind his desk, sipping a cup of coffee and not even hiding the fact that he was trying to eavesdrop.

"Uh, I gotta go," Daryl said, still confused. "Luke… he got in trouble and I gotta pick him up."

"Luke?" Dale raised his eyebrows at that.

"Yeah…" Daryl had absolutely no idea what was going on. "Can I call Beth?" He asked and Dale nodded, waving his hand to the phone again. Daryl called the number for the daycare center and after two rings, Lori Grimes picked up.

"Over the Rainbow Day Care," Lori answered.

"Hey, Lori, Beth there?" Daryl asked.

"Hold on." He could then hear Lori calling for Beth off somewhere in the distance. There was rustling and then a moment later, Beth spoke into the phone.

"Hey, Daryl," she greeted and he heard the smile in her voice. "What's up?"

It was obvious that the school hadn't called her and Daryl cleared his throat.

"Hey. School just called me here at the garage," he said.

She sighed softly. "What did Hunter do now?" She asked.

"It ain't Hunter this time," he said.

Beth fell silent on the other side of the phone and he could just imagine her look of confusion. Her lips pulled down in a slight frown, her brow furrowed because none of it made sense. Luke was their good kid. Always had been. Had always been quiet and a bit shy and always listened to him and Beth and the teachers at school and any adult in his life really. He made his bed in the mornings and helped with the dishes and took out the trash because those were his chores and he never raised a fuss about it. Luke had never given them any trouble – even when the first few years of his life had been spent being starved and beaten by the two people who had claimed to be his real parents first and who could have blamed him if he had been difficult? But not Luke. Never Luke.

"Um… okay," Beth said. "Yeah…"

He almost wanted to smirk because it was a rare situation where Beth didn't know what to say and it would have been amusing if it was any other situation except this one because this situation was just so damn confusing.

"I'm gonna leave the garage and I'll come pick you up, okay?" He took the lead.

"Okay," she said and he could already hear the worry lacing her tone, her mind probably racing with the possibilities of what Luke could have done to actually get him in trouble and he was trying to think of what it could be, too, but none of the usual things Hunter got himself in trouble for really fit with Luke and nothing Daryl thought of made any sense.

When he stopped the car in front of the daycare center, Beth was waiting just inside and she came out, Abby toddling beside her, holding her hand. It was almost the end of the day and once they picked Luke up, they would want to go straight home. Daryl got out and lifted Abby up, placing her into her car seat in the back as Beth slipped into the front passenger seat. The drive to the town's middle school was quiet between them.

Luke was sitting in the front office in one of the hard plastic chairs that lined the wall and when he lifted his head, Beth gasped sharply. His bottom lip was split and swollen and she rushed towards him, sitting down beside him.

"Luke, what happened?" She asked as her hands gently cradled his head.

Luke pulled his head away though, frowning as he looked down to the off-orange carpet.

"Mr. and Mrs. Dixon," the principal stepped from her office and then stepped aside, gesturing for them to enter her office.

Daryl dropped Abby down into the chair beside Luke. "Watch your sister," he ordered gruffly and then followed Beth into the office, the door closing behind them.

"As you can see, Luke was in a fight," the principal dove right into it as soon as she was seated behind her desk and Daryl and Beth were sitting in chairs across from her. "But, oddly enough, Luke was the one to start it."

Daryl's brow furrowed at that. He looked to Beth and she was looking just as confused.

The ride home was silent because still, neither Daryl or Beth knew what to say, and Luke certainly wasn't talking. Instead, he sat in the back, staring out the window at the familiar passing scenery and when Daryl pulled up the long dirt drive of the white house, he got out the second the truck was stopped and with his bookbag, he headed up into his tree house.

Daryl heard the squeal of brakes and turning his head, he saw the school bus stop at the end of the dirt drive and Hunter hop off. The boy had been so excited that their house was now on a bus route and he was able to ride the bus every day to elementary school. He came running up the lane as quickly as he could, grinning when he saw his parents there. Beth was unbuckling Abby from her car seat and she set the girl down on her feet and Daryl locked the doors of the truck.

"Check it out!" Hunter pulled something from his pocket and proudly held it up for his parents to see. A fruit roll-up. "Mrs. Cosgrove gave it to me because I was quiet all day and didn't interrupt once."

Finally, Beth was able to say something as they headed up the steps of the front porch to the front door. "Hunter, you shouldn't have to be bribed into being good," she said.

"Mrs. Cosgrove says that she'll have something for me next Friday if I can be good for a whole week!" Hunter excitedly said as if Beth hadn't said anything.

"I'd like to see you be good for a whole week," Daryl said, smirking a little once they were inside and he knelt down, helping Abby out of her shoes.

"I can do it!" Hunter exclaimed with confidence. "Do you think she'll give me an X-Box?"

And despite herself, Beth smiled a little. "You never know. Now, go put your things upstairs in your room," she said and watched as Hunter turned and hurried up the stairs. "And don't eat that fruit roll-up before dinner!" She called up after him. Daryl stood up and Abby went hurrying into the study, heading for her dollhouse. "What should we do?" Beth asked him.

Daryl shrugged because he had absolutely no idea. If it had been Hunter, he wouldn't feel so clueless. They always had punishments ready for Hunter even though they were never quite sure what the boy was going to do but all of this with Luke felt like uncharted territories because not only had he gotten into a fight but he had been the one to start it and none of this was making sense. Daryl knew there had to be a damn good reason as to why Luke had reacted like that but even though Daryl had nothing to do with making him years earlier, Luke had grown into just like him as if he had been a Dixon the day he was born. And maybe he had been. He wasn't going to talk and couldn't be forced to.

Beth let Hunter pick what he wanted for dinner since he got a good report from his teacher and to no surprise, he picked macaroni and cheese. They sat at the table and Luke didn't say anything as he ate, Daryl and Beth watching as he carefully put his fork into his mouth, maneuvering around his split lip and they knew it wasn't the first one he had ever had.

"It's so cool," Hunter was grinning, leaning in closer next to him to get a better look.

"It ain't, Hunter," Daryl was the one to frown at him.

"Are you grounded?" Hunter asked him.

Luke just shrugged and didn't say anything. He was silent for the entire meal. And once they were finished, he carried his plate to the sink as he always did but when Beth tried to reach out and touch the back of his head, he quickly moved away before she could. She frowned and a look of hurt flashed in her eyes quickly before she masked it but Daryl had been able to see it.

"I'm goin' huntin' tomorrow," Daryl said having come to a decision. Beth nodded as she began loading the dishes into the dishwasher. "I'm takin' Luke with me. Maybe I can get him to talk out in the woods."

"Sounds good," Beth said and did her best to give him a small smile.

Fully dressed, Daryl went into Luke's bedroom the next morning at five.

"Hey," Daryl spoke quietly, shaking him lightly on the arm. Luke's eyes almost seemed to immediately snap open. "Goin' huntin'. Wanna come?" He asked even though it wasn't really an option and Luke seemed to know that.

He nodded and sat up, letting out a yawn.

Daryl left without a word so the boy could get dressed and he headed down the stairs. In the kitchen, he brewed a pot of coffee and slipped two pieces of bread into the toaster. Luke came in a few minutes later, wearing jeans and his bright orange hunting sweatshirt. He sat down at the table, setting his own crossbow down, and began tugging on his boots. The toast finished and Daryl put those two slices down in front of Luke before making his own.

Beth was just coming down the stairs as they were about to leave. She stopped on the bottom step and without a word, Daryl leaned in and gave her a kiss before heading out the door with Luke behind him, not saying goodbye to Beth. Daryl immediately noted it but he didn't say anything about it as they trudged across the field beside their house and stepped into the woods. Their steps immediately quieted and Daryl's eyes were sharp, studying the ground beneath them, seeing what he could pick up on.

He easily picked up the trail of a deer though he necessarily didn't even want it. They didn't have a need for it at the moment – having plenty of meat stored – and Daryl had bigger things to see to this morning. They walked for a few minutes in silence before Daryl stopped and pretended to study the ground again.

"Wanna tell me what happened yesterday?" Daryl asked, looking back to him.

"Not really," Luke shook his head – his first words in over twelve hours – and Daryl had to commend him for his blunt honesty.

"Who's the kid you got into a fight with?" Daryl asked, now facing him fully, his crossbow relaxed in his arms.

Luke shrugged. "Just a kid who needed to be hit."

Daryl frowned at that. "Don't go soundin' like your Uncle Merle," he said. "What'd the kid do that deserved a hit?" Luke sighed and shrugged again and looked to the ground. "You know we ain't goin' anywhere until you tell me."

"I know the way back home," Luke said.

"Jus' tell me," Daryl said.

"It doesn't matter."

"It does matter," Daryl told him in a slightly firm tone.

Luke sighed and was quiet and Daryl stood there, waiting. He had all of the time in the world. He tracked animals for hours at a time and Beth had often told him how he was the most patient man she knew. He had nowhere to be right now and he meant what he said. They weren't going anywhere until Luke told him what happened because he wasn't like Merle. He never had been like him. If Luke and Hunter were his sons, Merle would have laughed and clapped them on the back and probably given them some boxing tips.

Daryl didn't want his boys like that. It had taken himself years to work past the anger always burning within his chest and he was raising his kids in a completely different life than the one he had lived in. His kids should have no reason to be so angry.

Luke kept looking at him and Daryl just kept looking back. Twelve-years-old and Beth told him often that he was growing into a very handsome young man – something that always made the tips of his ears turn red just like Daryl's would have if she had said that to him. His hair seemed to lose more of its curl every day and it was this golden sandy color. Daryl had only seen Luke's birth mom a few times and she had been so ravaged with her drug use but he was pretty sure that Luke was starting to look more like her.

Luke sighed heavily then. "That kid… he called mom…" he started to say but he stuttered over his words as if he didn't really want to say it at all.

Daryl felt himself tense slightly. "What'd he call your mom?" He asked and he didn't care if this kid was in middle school. If he said something about Beth, he'd have to answer to him.

Luke was no longer looking at him. "He called her a milf."

Daryl blinked at him for a few moments with a series of thoughts going through his mind. One, he couldn't believe that a twelve-year-old would say something like that and two, he couldn't exactly blame him because Daryl knew his wife was the prettiest woman in town. And he wasn't being biased at all. She really was. Daryl was silent and an observer and he saw all of the other women in town. He didn't think it was a secret that Beth surpassed them all. He just couldn't believe a kid would look at her and say that.

Daryl cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward. "A'right," he said quietly, nodding.

"He needed to be hit," Luke said again. "He can't say something like that about mom."

"A'right," Daryl said again. "Come on. Let's head back."

Luke looked surprised. "What about hunting?"

"You know I didn't bring you out here to hunt," Daryl said. "If we find a squirrel or somethin', take a shot at it if you get one."

He began walking and Luke fell into step beside him.

"Are you mad?" Luke asked him after a few minutes in a quiet voice, almost scared.

"Nah," Daryl answered after thinking it through for a moment. "Not at you 'cause you're right. No one can disrespect your mom like that. But you know how she is. She was up most of the night though, worryin' 'bout you, thinkin' she had done somethin'."

Luke looked down to the ground as they walked. "I just don't want her coming around the school so much. Does that make me a brat?"

Daryl was quiet for a moment. "I think it just makes you twelve. I'm gonna ground you for a week though. I don't want you goin' around, punchin' people."

Luke looked like he wanted to argue but he just sighed softly and nodded his head.

"And you tell me the name of the kid who said that 'bout your mom," he added.

It wasn't as if he was going to go to the kid's house and punch him himself but he just wanted to know who said that about his wife. Luke told him the kid's name and he had no idea who that kid was but he was sure as hell going to learn.

When they got back to the house, Beth was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with one leg drawn up, hugged to her chest, as she sipped a cup of coffee and looked through the newspaper that was delivered every morning. That was another thing since they moved out of the woods. They were on a paperboy's route.

"Hey," she looked up and greeted them softly with a matching soft smile. "You weren't gone long at all. Hunter and Abby are still asleep but I was going to make pancakes when they woke up."

"Sounds good," Daryl nodded, setting his crossbow down on one of the other chairs and went to pour himself another cup of coffee. "Luke's grounded for a week," he then said.

"Alright," Beth said, looking to Luke to see what he thought of that.

"I'm gonna go back to sleep for a little bit," Luke said and then went to Beth, bending over and kissing her on the cheek. Beth smiled at him and he didn't say anything before turning and leaving the kitchen.

Beth instantly turned her head to look at Daryl but he didn't explain as he came to sit down at the table across from her, sipping at his cup. And when she realized that he probably wasn't going to say anything, she sighed heavily and kicked him gently in the leg underneath the table.

"Daryl," she said and he looked at her, taking another sip as he grabbed the front section of the paper. "What did he say?"

Daryl shrugged. "Some kid called you a milf and Luke was defendin' your honor."

"Oh," she said and after a moment, her brow furrowed and she frowned. "What's a milf?"

Daryl smirked and looked at her. She had no idea how her innocence just made her prettier.


Thank you so much for reading and please review!