Could not resist putting this up the second I finished it because it was too fucking cute not to write. Swooning at the thought of daddy Daryl.
Beth Greene is not a napper. She doesn't sleep during the day, doesn't stop cleaning or cooking or writing songs. There has never been one evening in the course of their relationship that Daryl has come home to find his girl asleep. But the only two times it's ever happened, have been the best moments of Daryl's life.
"Girl? Beth, wake up. C'mon girl, s'already six."
Beth hums as she wakes up, stretching out her limbs and rolling to face him squatted beside her on the sofa. "Hm?"
He smiles as he strokes her hair. "We're meant to be leavin' in an hour girl, c'mon. Why ain't you ready?"
She groans, her hands falling down to her bump and cradling it. "what'd you expect? Grownin' humans inside me is exhaustin', Daryl, I'm tired all the damn time."
He snorts because he still can't fucking believe his comment when he found out that she was pregnant has come true. "See cranky Beth is back. How long you been sleepin'?"
"'Bout an' hour," she yawns.
Daryl strokes her hair as he looks down at her bump, sitting fat and proud, like a picture perfect bump, bare as she's only in a bra and dressing gown. "You guys keepin' you're mama up all night, huh?"
"Wonder where they get it from," she teases.
He smiles and then he looks her up and down with a puzzled frown, taking in her sports bra, fluffy dressing gown, sweatpants and fuzzy socks. "The hell're you wearin', girl?"
She pouts. "I was hot an' then I was cold, so I ended up like this. Hey, stop laughin', this pregnancy shit is hard!"
Daryl tries to smoother his laughter with barely any effort. "I know, girl. Let's stay in."
"You sure? Thought you wanted to see Rick today, been a while."
"Rick's been through this twice, m'sure he'll get it."
Beth looks like she's going to answer but a yawn cuts her off. "Fine," she says in-between it. "Wanna get pizza?"
Daryl stands to his feet after pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Pizza, ice cream, all the shitty films you like, you name it."
"Hey!" She laughs, grabbing a throw pillow and smacking him with it. "You better bring back cookie dough for that!"
He laughs as he grabs his car keys. "Guess you are eatin' for three."
The second time is nearly three years later, when he comes home to his wife lying on the bed, their daughter Ree cuddled into Beth's chest, her long, dark curls practically up Beth's nose and their son Calvin curled around his younger sister, -by twenty-three minutes- his blonde hair striking compared to his twin. Daryl hums low in his throat at the sight of them, watching his wife's face twitching into consciousness, her head rolling so that her hair brushes over her throat in its new, shorter cut. He loves it, she's never looked so fucking good.
Bleach blonde hair and a glow to her skin she picked up when she was pregnant and hasn't lost in three years. She's always saying how haggard and ugly she is, but all Daryl sees is a fucking goddess who walks around the house with one child on her hip and one child toddling in front of her, a beautiful smile on her face as she moves at the same sluggish pace as of one of their children. Now, she looks just as stunning, even with her eyeliner smeared a little.
She yawns and rather than stretching, curls her body around their twins, her denim clad thighs drawing his attention as she moves her legs. "Guess takin' care of a human is exhaustin' too, huh?"
His wife cracks a sleepy smile. "Try two. But no, they're routine now. It's this little one givin' me a hard time."
Beth rolls onto her back, Ree still lying on her arm and proudly shows off the bump stretching her white t-shirt. "Dixon's are always tirin' girl."
Glancing between him, her bump and then the twins, she nods. "Funny, I kinda got the memo."
Daryl laughs and crawls onto the bed, stroking his hand one by one over his kid's faces, his thumb tracing the freckles on the bridge of his son's nose. "You think this one's gonna look like Cal?"
"Could do. Ain't about him being a boy though, Ree is the image of you an' Cal for me."
He smiles, a pleased flush working through his cheeks. "Mystery baby then, huh?"
"Mystery baby," Beth agrees.
They're smiling at each other when Cal stirs and lifts his head up with sleepy eyes. A smile lights his face when he sees Daryl and an emotion like no other, the same one he always gets from the day he met his kids, lights up in his gut, cutting off his throat. "Daddy! Ree-ree wake up, daddy's home! Daddy's home!"
He laughs as his son tackles him, Beth's laugh musically echoing his and louder when their daughter stirs awake and has the same reaction, screeching, "daddy!" Almost before she's fully awake.
Daryl cuddles his kids, looks at the bump that is his unborn son and then looks at his wife's radiant, smiling face and knows then no matter the shitty hours he works and the crappy money he makes, no matter the stresses in his life and some of the arguments he has with Beth, his rage when Ree throws his phone down the toilet for the third time and Cal draws on the walls with permanent marker, they'll always be everything he ever needs and he'll cherish them forever.
As you can see I took the twin remark and ran with it because WHY NOT, right? Plus I can totally get away with it because Beth only took four pregnancy tests, she hadn't been to any appointments or scans when she told Daryl because she wanted him to be there for them. So yeah, roll with it.
