The update no one asked for, but this universe is one of my favorites to imagine and write.
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Daryl has always been a light sleeper, but since having kids, he swears that he can hear when one of them rolls over in their sleep and the mattress springs of their bed gives out the quietest of screeches beneath them or when a stuffed animal falls from their arm onto the floor with a muted thump on the carpet.
So on Christmas morning, he is awake the instant he hears the bedroom door push open and a hushed whisper from Molly, telling Sam to be quiet. Beth moves a little from beside him, equipped with her own parent hearing, her body waking itself up and becoming aware that their two children are awake and about to pounce onto the bed.
And sure enough, within a few seconds, Daryl hears the creak of the wooden bed frame and the screech of springs and the dip of the mattress when one – and then two – little bodies climb onto the bed, at his and Beth's feet.
"Daddy." Molly goes to him first, crawling up the bed and finding his arm, shaking it.
He grunts a little and he wonders what time it is because it feels like he and Beth have just gone to bed after putting all of the presents out under the tree and eating the sugar cookies and drinking the glass of whiskey the kids left out for Santa on the coffee table. Daryl had taught Molly when she was a couple years younger that Santa got glasses of milk all night long and the whiskey would help keep the man warm.
"Daddy," Molly shakes his arm again and Daryl finally cracks his eyes open.
"Go back to bed," he grunts at his daughter.
"Daddy!" Sam then exclaims, slapping his hand on Daryl's chest. "Santa!"
"Why don't you kids ever bug your ma, huh?" He asks them and he can hear Beth laugh softly, still mostly asleep beside him.
Daryl pushes himself up on his elbows and looks at his and Beth's two kids in the pre-dawn grayness of the bedroom. Every year at Christmastime, Beth buys the kids matching pajamas. This year, Molly's long-johns are pink – of course since pink is Molly's favorite color – with reindeer on them and Sam's are the same, except green.
Beth always jokes that she's making him a little Dixon army and maybe she is because their kids look just like him with their dark brown hair and watery blue eyes that sometimes even look to be a shade of green in the right light and they have that Dixon smirk down so well, Daryl thinks sometimes he is looking into a mirror whenever one of them does it in front of him.
They look at him now with eagerness shining in their eyes that he can see even in the dimness of the bedroom.
Christmas has always been important to Beth and she is raising their kids to have enthusiasm for the holiday as well. The day after Thanksgiving, Beth sends Daryl outside to string colorful strands of lights through their front bushes and she hangs a wreath on their front door of their little house and then the day after that, they go and cut down their Christmas tree from a nearby tree farm. Beth makes them hot cocoa with milk and after Daryl lugs the tree in and Beth helps him get it in the tree stand, making sure it's front and center and straight in their living room window, they spend the rest of the day decorating with ornaments and popcorn strings while listening to Bing Crosby music.
The whole thing is like its own Christmas song and Daryl has never had anything like it before and he knows that he has it all because of Beth. And because she loves Christmas so much, Daryl begrudgingly finds himself liking it a bit, too. He tells himself that he only likes it because of his kids. He wants them to have nothing but good memories of their childhoods and Christmas is something kids always remember. They may have the last name, but Daryl does everything to ensure their life as Dixon kids is the complete opposite of what his was like, growing up.
"Santa, daddy!" Sam smacks his chest again with as much impatience as a two-year-old can have and Daryl pretends to grunt as if in pain.
"Alright," Beth is the one to speak and she sits up. "Let's go downstairs and see what Santa has brought you." She swings her legs around the side of the bed and stands up, looking back at them.
"Yay!" Molly exclaims, following after Beth and jumping down from the bed with a heavy thud onto the floor.
But before Sam can follow after his older sister, Daryl is quick to sit up and grab the toddler before he jumps down from the bed as well and probably seriously hurts himself.
Sam lets out a peel of laughter as Daryl stands up with him in his arms, tickling his sides, and Daryl smiles a little as he follows Beth from the bedroom, Molly tearing out in front of them, running down the stairs so fast, she almost trips over her own feet.
"Careful, Molly," Beth calls out a warning though both she and Daryl know that today, there will be no stopping her from getting to that tree as quickly as possible.
Between Beth's bakery and Daryl's garage, they do well for themselves. They have their own little house and two cars and two kids and they are able to have a comfortable life. Each month, Beth sets a little bit of money aside specifically for the month of December. It's the reason why when they come down the stairs, beneath the tree, it is overflowing with brightly wrapped packages of all sizes.
The night before, Daryl had helped Beth carry all of the presents in from the garage where she always hides them in the small storage loft and she had smiled, laughing a little, after their fifth trip.
"I know," she said even though he hadn't said anything. "It's a lot."
Daryl had just shrugged. "Maybe, but they deserve 'em," he said and Beth smiled, setting the boxes in her arms down on the floor and then went to him, standing on her toes and slipping her arms around his shoulders. Daryl's hands immediately found home on her hips, holding her tight and close against him.
"There's some under the tree for you, too," she told him with a faint smile.
Daryl's response was to smirk. "Jus' ask Sasha or Axel and Oscar to babysit for a few hours and that's all I wan'," he said and Beth laughed softly before his lips dropped down to hers even though she knew he was completely serious.
"Mama, look!" Molly exclaims. Between the empty plate of cookies and empty glass of whisky on the coffee table and the mountain of presents spilling out around their tree, it is very obvious that Santa Claus paid their house a visit the night before.
Sam begins wiggling in Daryl's arms, desperate to be put down, and once Daryl bends down and returns him to his feet, Sam takes off running to join his sister on the floor, their eyes wide as they look over the presents.
"Hold on, wait!" Beth quickly rushes to get the camera.
She's a bit old fashioned, she knows, and can easily take pictures on her phone, but she has an old 35mm camera she had gotten at a thrift store months earlier and she has fallen in love with snapping pictures of every event happening in her family's life and taking the pictures to the drugstore for development.
"Smile!" Beth then beams, holding the camera up to her face. Molly beams and wraps her arms around Sam, pulling him towards her and little boy falls against her chest, and Beth laughs as she snaps the picture, loving the sound of that click.
She then looks at Daryl. "Smile, daddy," Beth teases and Daryl's lips quirk upwards a little and stay like that even after the click.
"Can we start?" Molly asks, her anxiousness growing with each passing second.
"Go on," Beth nods.
Immediately, there is ripping of paper and gasps and exclamations of joy and Daryl is down on the floor with them, helping Sam with his boxes, coming across boxes with Daryl's or Beth's name on the label and he sets those aside, and Beth goes to the record player in the corner of the room, putting on a record of Christmas music to play.
"Daddy, look!" Molly is practically shouting as she unwraps her next present and Daryl lifts his eyes from the box containing Sam's newest dump truck to add to the little boy's growing collection of dump trucks up in his bedroom, and when he sees what has Molly so excited, he smiles. "Mommy, I got her!" Molly then springs to her feet and rushes to where Beth is sitting on the edge of the couch.
Beth laughs and takes the box from her. "Let's see her."
Molly hands Beth the box and is practically bouncing on her toes as Beth carefully unties the ribbon around the box and then lifts the lid. And once she does, Molly gasps.
"She's perfect," Molly whispers.
Carefully, Beth lifts the American Girl doll from the box and Molly takes her tenderly.
"Is Samantha the one you wanted?" Beth asks even though Molly has talked about the Samantha doll and nearly nothing else ever since November.
They had driven across the state to spend Thanksgiving with Beth's sister, Maggie, Maggie's husband, Glenn, and their little boy, Henry, and Maggie had gotten an American Girl Doll magazine in the mail. "I have no idea why," Maggie said and gave it to Molly to look through. And when Molly laid her eyes on the Samantha doll, that was it. She wanted absolutely nothing else except an American Girl doll and the books and clothes and accessories.
And Beth had taken the magazine for safe keeping and research for later. She knows how expensive the dolls are, but Molly is old enough at seven for one, Beth feels, and Beth doesn't doubt that her daughter will take care of her.
"She's exactly the one I wanted!" Molly exclaims, holding her new doll close.
"Picture," Beth says and for some reason, she feels tears beginning to well in her eyes as Molly stands, holding Samantha tightly in her arms, beaming wildly, and Beth snaps the picture. She has barely brought the camera down before Molly throws herself at her, hugging her tightly. Beth hugs her tightly in return and kisses her head. "Merry Christmas, baby," she says into Molly's dark hair.
She keeps her eyes closed tightly so she doesn't start crying and hugs Molly for another moment. Molly is so happy, Beth can feel it practically vibrating off of her as if she has been electrocuted and Beth hopes that she is always able remember this; how happy her little girl is right at this moment.
The two pull apart when they feel Daryl sit down on the couch next to Beth.
"Le's get a look at her," Daryl says with a little smile.
Molly bounces to him and holds out for Daryl to see. "I hope Santa bought me the ballet costume for her. I wonder if Ms. Jesse will mind if I bring Samantha to ballet class with me. Do you think she would mind?"
"Maybe," Daryl says after taking a moment as if truly pondering it. "Samantha would be a beginner, but you ain't in beginner's class anymore."
"I could teach Samantha everything I know," Molly then thinks out loud.
"Of course you can," Beth smiles and Molly nearly skips back towards the tree with Samantha in the crook of her arm to open more presents.
Beth looks towards Sam and then looks to Daryl, telling him something silently, and he nods, pulling himself back to his feet.
"I'll be right back," he says and then heads towards the laundry room, to the door that leads out into the garage.
Beth slides down from the couch and crawls back to the tree where Sam is sitting, playing with his new fire truck. Their little boy is obsessed with vehicles. Dump trucks, cars, fire trucks, cement mixers, tow trucks. Sam absolutely loves garbage trucks and every Monday, garbage day, he presses his face to the front window and watches the garbage truck come. This Christmas, he has gotten a quite a few new vehicles and a play mat with a tangle of roads printed onto it for him to drive all of them on. Daryl already has no doubt that Sam will be joining him in his auto garage someday.
Beth laughs as she snaps a few pictures of Sam's face, pure with absolute delight, as he plays with the few that Daryl has already taken out of the boxes for him.
"A'right," Daryl says, coming back into the room. "Molly got her big present so now it's Sam's turn," he says and both kids look to see what he has with him.
Molly gasps for her little brother when she sees what it is and Sam sits there, his mouth hanging open as he gets his first look at it. Beth, of course, makes sure she gets a picture.
Sam rolls over onto his knees and then pushes himself up with his hands. He then stands there and Beth puts her hands on his back and front so she is keeping him steady.
"What do you think, Sammy?" Beth asks him.
"Sam, it's awesome!" Molly exclaims, just as excited for her brother as she was for herself, and she walks around Daryl and the plastic forklift vehicle. "Can he actually pick stuff up with it?" She asks.
"You bet he can," Daryl says, crouching down next to the little vehicle. "Want to see?"
Sam seems to have overcome his shock because he nods and then hurries over and Beth takes another picture as Daryl helps Sam climb into the seat and Sam watches as Daryl turns a handle next to the steering wheel round and around that moves the lift on the front of the vehicle up and down.
And with his feet firm on the ground, Sam then begins to push himself forward, "driving" the forklift over the wrapping paper crumbled on the floor and around the furniture. He starts laughing then and he doesn't seem able to stop and Beth laughs as she takes pictures. He stops at one of the empty toy boxes on the floor and Sam squeals with delight as he turns the handle and is able to lift it up with the forklift.
"Daddy!" Sam exclaims.
"I see, buddy," Daryl smiles.
He was never a Christmas fan before Beth. Never had a reason to see this day as different from any other day in the year. But being married and being a dad, seeing the way Beth reacts to it and the way their kids love it and are just so damn happy with it, he can admit to himself that it's a good day. Actually, a pretty damn great day.
He then looks to Beth. "Kids these days," he jokes. "Never had cool toys like this when we were kids."
Beth laughs and she wipes at her cheeks, because just as Molly was, Sam is so happy with his toy and Beth is just so happy, watching him.
"I'm sorry," she then says, turning her head towards Daryl. "I think the most exciting thing I got you today are some new L.L. Bean flannel shirts."
Daryl smirks at that and his arm slides around her, bringing her in close to his side. "You've gone and ruined the surprise," he tells her and she laughs and brings the camera so it's facing them and she snaps their picture of Daryl actually smiling.
...
Nothing but fluff. Thank you very much for reading!