Juliet's parents left after a week and Tom shook Daryl's hand for the first time ever as they all said good bye in the driveway. He held Daryl's hand for a second and looked him in the eye, giving him a nod of approval again, hoping the boy would get his head out of his ass sometime in the near future.

He had known this kid since he was eleven years old and there was no better man for Juliet in his opinion, but they were the ones who had to realize it. Everyone around them already knew it, all you had to do is see them together for five minutes and see how they were with each other.

Even Bella had remarked that Daryl was in love with Juliet and she had said it years ago. She told her parents that it was the strangest yet not unexpected thing, Daryl had broken up with his girlfriend and moved in with them yet he had said on more than one occasion that he didn't want kids.

Bella was not stupid; no man took on this kind of responsibility at such a young age if he wasn't in love. She kissed her parents' good bye and promised to call them twice a week and send pictures of all of them. Juliet did the same, as her mother hugged Daryl, the only son she had ever known goodbye.

Bella needed to talk to him, Juliet always blew her off when she mentioned Daryl to her in that way. As sisters went, they didn't have many secrets and Bella was the first one she told about the pregnancy, but Juliet was firm that she and Daryl were only going to be friends, although she admitted he was really easy on the eyes.

Bella waited and waited until she had him alone a few weeks to almost a month later and she casually started a conversation with him. Juliet was back to work part time evenings and weekends so that Daryl could have the baby while she was at work. So far it was working but they were all rarely together all at once and most nights when everyone came home from work and school, it was baby care and bed.

Not much time to talk, but that was about to change.

"You know." Bella said to him one night while Juliet was soaking in the bathtub and Emily was in her swing next to them in the kitchen. "For a guy who swore he didn't want kids you sure are taking to this parenthood thing like a fish to water."

"She's my best friend Bells. And she'd do it for me."

Bella nodded. "Yeah she would, why do you think that is?" Bella scooted down to play with Emily.

"Huh?" Daryl looked up from his coffee, but he knew where she was going, the same place everyone else always did. "Not you too, you sound like Merle."

"He aint wrong."

"Bella…"

"You said you were never having kids, she knows it, I know it, Merle knows it, yet you were the first person to step up to the plate here. That means something. You should tell her how you feel."

Daryl looked at Bella and knew it was no use. At first he told himself it was because it was just her and she needed him, but then he realized he needed her too. He had never been so happy as he was living with her, he wanted to stay forever and that thought knocked him for a loop when he first thought it.

His childhood had left him wanting to know what a normal life would be like, and now he had it. He wanted more, he had wanted more with her for a long time.

He pushed it right away because Juliet didn't need to deal with his feelings right now, she had more than enough to worry about. Still he knew, knew it all along because somewhere deep inside him the truth was there.

Juliet was the first person he thought about when he woke up in the morning, even when he had a regular girlfriend. She was always more important than any of them. They knew it too, but Juliet held him in the same regard, it was her good night text he always waited for and no one else's.

Gareth had tried to come between them and few before him, but they were solid. Solid since that day on the playground when he told her all his secrets and she hugged him to her.

Sometimes he saw her looking at him with a funny expression on her face and that had been going on for years, but she always said it was just a headache and maybe it was for her. He looked at her too and then he went to other girls to make the feeling go away.

He could stand it, stand anything as long as he had her in his life.

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The water was warm against her skin and Juliet couldn't remember feeling this relaxed in such a long time. She had filled up the bathtub with her favorite lemongrass bubbles and melted into the back of the tub. This was a well-deserved break that she was finally allowing herself.

She had gone the extra mile and lit candles, had music playing and locked the door, Bella sometimes barged in on her to sit and talk but not tonight Juliet wanted to be alone. Daryl would never walk in on her, he always knocked on the bathroom door and her bedroom door, but she wasn't taking and chances. She had weaned the baby a few days ago and her milk was drying up so she could touch her own breasts without worrying about milk so much.

She could take a hot bath and not worry about it either. Juliet had breast fed Emily for two months and they were slowly moving her over to soy after the last of her frozen breastmilk was gone. Her body was becoming her own again and it felt good.

Still she would miss the times in the middle of the night when she fed Emily and Daryl would make her a cup of herb tea to drink while she nursed.

Juliet closed her eyes and ran her hands over her neck and down towards her breast trying to conjure the familiar image she liked. He was an actor in a popular TV show about the Zombie Apocalypse but she couldn't picture his face like she usually did. The entire time she was with Gareth she took care of herself thinking of this man, whenever she needed to.

He was hot as fuck, with his long hair and wide shoulders and she was a little in love with him, maybe a lot.

This actor was usually excellent material for her spank bank, which she needed, even though she had been in a relationship that was so new Gareth should have been taking care of her as much as she wanted.

That wasn't often and that should have been her first clue that he wasn't a keeper. He rarely worried about if she got off or not, and that was usually up to her, if she wanted it.

As she closed her eyes she couldn't picture the actor and as her hand traveled to her half underwater nipple she suddenly had an image of Daryl in her mind. She stopped and she sat straight up in the bath tub almost spilling water all over the place.

Where the fuck had that come from? They were loving together now and she saw him shirtless more often, in sleep pants too. Sometimes she would see him stumble out of his room in the middle of the night in his boxers going to the bathroom.

His shoulders were nice too and so was the rest of him.

It had to be the new familiarity between them that did this.

Her breath was coming out in gasps as she settled herself down and laid back in the water.

Juliet was about to start fantasizing about her best friend, weather it was because she really needed this or she just really needed him, she wasn't sure.

It was something she would have to figure out very soon though.