Chapter 20

Daryl groaned when he heard his cell phone ring for the second time that morning. He hadn't even realized how tired he'd been and that he'd fallen back asleep soon after he'd gotten back into bed. He squinted, eyes barely open, and fumbled for his cell phone that was located on the nightstand right next to him and when he read the caller ID he released yet another groan.

"Damn Nat, I told you to give me some time to think and I didn't mean just half an hour." he didn't bother saying hello. His side was throbbing, the painkillers were slowly losing their effect. Time to take some more as soon as he got rid of Nat.

"Half an hour? It's been four and a half hours Daryl, I just got off work. So you haven't noticed that your girlfriend isn't back yet, have you?"

Suddenly he was wide awake. If it's been that long, she should have been back by now. He looked at her alarm clock on her side of the bed and Nat was right, it was 2.34 pm. Jarah had been gone for almost five hours. Something was wrong.

"Where is she?" he winced when he got out of bed to change out of his sweat pants and into his black jeans.

"Hospital. She collapsed. Don't know much more right now." Natalie sighed and Daryl finally noticed that her voice was all shaky. She was scared. He didn't feel much better. Fear and panic started to get a hold of him, it felt like a thick layer of ice was coating his insides.

"Shit, Nat. Is she okay? Is the boy okay? Is she in labor? It's way too early!"

"Daryl, I told you, I don't know! I'm headed to the hospital. Are you okay to drive or do you want me to pick you up?"

"I'm good, painkillers wore off, I'll drive there myself."

Without another word he hung up, yanked his boots on and grabbed his wallet and keys and then he was out the door, all the while praying that Jarah and Jamie would be alright.

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"Why the fuck would they even call you instead of me?"

Daryl wasn't one for pleasantries today. He and Nat had just exchanged nods when they had met up in front of the hospital.

"I'm still listed as her emergency contact. Guess you guys forgot to change that."

"Why did it even take them this fucking long to call ya? She's gotta have been here for hours!" Daryl couldn't stop thinking about her going through whatever she was going through all alone.

"They must have tried for quite some time, but I left my phone in my locker after calling you. Had a gazillion messages when I got back to change."

"Damnit Nat! She's been alone the whole fucking time, because you couldn't be bothered to take your goddamn phone with ya?"

"I know you want someone to blame right now, but I'm not it, so stop that right now or I'll kick your ass. Nobody could have known that this would happen." Nat had enough of Daryl's attitude. She knew he was out of his mind with worry, so was she, but that didn't mean she would let him blame her for this.

"Goddamn hospital, if I run into her ex again, I'll kill him this time!" Daryl muttered as they made their way inside.

"What do you mean again? Oh because of the diner?"

"Nah, came here yesterday. He was the one who was supposed to patch me up. Didn't end well."

Nat's mouth dropped open. "Holy fuck! What? What happened? Why didn't you guys tell me?"

"Can we talk about this later?" They got to the nurses station, they still had to find out where Jarah was and Daryl wouldn't wait another minute to find her. "Looking for Jarah Mason." he growled at the nurse.

The nurse looked it up and shook her head. "Don't have anybody by that name."

"The fuck do you mean you ain't got anybody by that name?" Daryl wanted to strangle the woman with her bored tone of voice.

"Daryl, relax. Try Jarah Armstrong. Remember?" Nat put her hand on his arm and Daryl suddenly felt stupid. Right, she had her name changed. It was still pretty fresh so he'd just forgotten about it.

"Maternity ward on the third floor. Room 305." The nurse told them in her monotonous voice and Daryl felt his stomach drop while he looked at Nat in shock.

"Maternity ward? Did she have the baby? I told her I'd be there..."

Nat pulled him with her and tried to smile in order to calm him down.

"Doesn't have to mean anything Daryl. She's pregnant so it's normal that she's there. That's where they do all the CTGs and ultrasounds and stuff. It's gonna be fine." Truth was, she wasn't so sure herself. Anything could have happened.

They rode the elevator up to the third floor and as soon as the doors opened it was like they were in another world. No hectic nurses and doctors running around, no cacophony of loud voices. Music was playing over the speakers, there were big comfortable sofas in front of the huge floor to ceiling glass windows, there were jungle gyms for little kids in one corner and a corner with books and toys. There were some babies crying, but other than that it was pretty peaceful and even though he was pretty high-strung, Daryl felt himself relax a little.

"Nice, isn't it? This is where she'll give birth, so take a good look around, you might spend a couple of days here." Nat smiled and when a nurse came towards them she asked her to point them towards Jarah's room.

"Could you please tell me your names first?" The nurse walked with them to the nurses station and pulled out a file.

"Natalie Wooderson and Daryl Dixon." Nat told her their names, she knew that it was standard protocol for the maternity ward not to let just anyone see the mothers.

"Alright. She is in 305, that's at the end of the hall and then to the left. It's the last room on the right."

"Thank you, come on Daryl, let's see our girl."

Nat almost had to run to keep up with Daryl and he didn't even think to knock before he burst through the door, not thinking about whether or not somebody else was in that room with her. The strange woman he found looked up at him startled and Nat quickly smiled and apologized, while Daryl stomped into the room and finally found his love in the bed on the other side of the room. He froze for a moment when he took in the sight that greeted him.

She was hooked up to three different machines and she had an IV in her arm. One machine was making beeping noises while the other one sounded like a horse at a gallop. She was almost as white as the sheets, except for the dark circles underneath her eyes. She was sobbing so hard her breath was hitching in her throat and he could see her whole body shaking from where he stood. Daryl cursed himself for letting her leave on her own that morning. He knew she'd had a bad headache, but he'd been too out of it from the painkillers to drive her. He'd fucked up and she ended up paying the price.

"Daryl!" Jarah could barely speak over her crying, but she held her arms out to him. Nat had to give him a little push in her direction, to shock him out of his frozen state. Once he'd gathered himself he quickly strode towards the bed and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"Sweetie, what happened?" Nat had gone over to the other side of the bed and was gently rubbing Jarah's back, careful not to disturb all the cables and electrodes that were attached to her body. Jarah pulled away from Daryl's chest but clutched his hand hard with both of hers when he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I don't know. My head hurt so much. The light is hurting my eyes. It just got worse and when I got to the cardiologist I felt so sick and I threw up and then I woke up here." She started sobbing even harder, it took her a long time to get the words out. "Something is wrong with him, they're not telling me anything. They just say I have to wait for the doctor."

Both Daryl and Nat paled and swallowed hard at that, the thought of her losing her baby was just unimaginable. Nat took a deep breath and gave Jarah a gentle smile.

"It's gonna be alright. Do you think it's preeclempsia, honey?"

"I don't know. The doctor's supposed to be here soon. They did a ton of tests, hooked me up to these things. The nurse said the doctor is coming to see me as soon as the results are in."

"I'm so sorry." Daryl looked absolutely miserable as he shook his head regretfully. "I should have gone with you."

"No baby, you're not even supposed to be here, you're hurt. You need to be in bed and rest. You torturing yourself to come with me wouldn't have changed anything. It probably would have happened anyway, I'm sure of it. Nothing you could have done, my love." She pulled his face closer and kissed him gently, not caring if he would be embarrassed or not. There were more important things to worry about right now.

"What's that noise?" Daryl asked pointing to the machine that sounded like the galloping horse.

"That's Jamie's heartbeat, baby." Jarah smiled a little, but Daryl's eyes widened in horror.

"THAT's his heartbeat? That fast? Shit, that's not good, is it?"

"The heart of a baby beats twice as fast as an adult one. It sounds normal, but I don't know. The nurse keeps checking it every then minutes. She hasn't smiled yet, that's gotta mean something is wrong. Nurses always smile when everything's okay." Jarah sniffled, making Nat laugh a little.

"Oh honey, maybe she's just having a bad day. Try to relax, hm? Crying makes the headache worse, you know that." Nat looked up when the door opened and smiled. "Here comes the doc."

The doctor, a woman who looked to be in her 50s, came in, surrounded by three other people. Daryl didn't know whether they were nurses or doctors as well, he only knew that four people coming in to tell her what's going on, scared the crap out of him.

"Hello, Mrs. Armstrong. I'm Dr. Kirkwood, your obstetrician during your stay with us, that is Dr. Hammond, our cardiologist and these are Dr. Gupta and Dr. Young, our doctors in training. We would like to talk to you about your test results and we would like to ask your visitors to leave for a moment while we talk."

"No." Daryl stared hard at the doctor, daring her to try to make him leave again.

"It's okay, doctor. Can they please stay? He's my partner and she is my best friend, they can hear whatever you have to say." Jarah asked the doc to let them stay. She wasn't quite ready to let go of Daryl yet, either.

"Okay, that's your choice. Well, as you know we performed a blood and urine test, an ultrasound of your baby and a heart scan on you. The good news is that there were no signs of protein in your urine, so you are not suffering from preeclempsia. Your heart scan also showed that your heart hasn't suffered any damage from the high blood pressure. Overall the results from your blood test show that you are in good health, BUT as you are obviously aware of, we are monitoring your heartbeat, as well as your baby's and that machine takes your blood pressure every 15 minutes and unfortunately those results are not that good. Both your hearts are beating way too fast and your blood pressure is soaring right now. We are going to give you Methyldopa twice daily to bring your blood pressure down, you might have to continue taking it for the rest of your pregnancy, but don't worry, it won't harm your baby. Since we can't find a physical cause for your rapid heartbeat, we have to assume that it is caused by stress." The doctor cleared her throat and paused for a moment, her gaze flicking towards Daryl for a moment before she looked back at Jarah. "I don't mean to be indiscreet, but of course I do know your ex-husband and I know what happened here yesterday. I think that might have been the cause for what happened to you today. You are in distress and because of that your baby is in distress. His heart is beating faster because yours is, too. He is merely reacting to you. So what we need to do here is to get you to calm down. You need to take a breather and relax, shut everything negative out for a little while until you feel better. Turn off your phone, don't watch the news, don't do anything that might upset you. Just take a couple of days and do things that are fun and relax you. Once you calm down, your heartbeat will slow on its own and your son will respond to it and everything will be alright. No bad news for a while, that's all you'll need."

Daryl and Nat looked at each other nervously, while Jarah smiled and thanked the doctor.

"So we'll be alright? I can go home?"

"No, we will keep you here for observation for one or two days so we can monitor your blood pressure and see how you respond to the meds."

"And how is she supposed to relax if her ex can just walk in here whenever he wants to?" Daryl scoffed. He couldn't believe that he couldn't take her home with him today.

"We know it's a delicate situation, but we have something we call a 'red list'. We have a lot of mothers here who have trouble with their partners and ex-partners. We have the mothers tell us who they want and do not want to see. Everybody who is not allowed in, has their names put on that red list and our nurses are under orders to prevent those people entering the patients rooms under all circumstances. It doesn't matter if he works here or not. If he's on that list, he is not allowed in. You won't have anything to worry about."

"That's why the nurse asked for our names earlier, Daryl." Nat explained to him.

"She'd still be able to relax better at home." he grumbled, but the doctor wasn't fazed by his bad mood.

"I agree, but first we have to see how the drugs will work. It's easier this way than having her come in to take her blood twice daily. I will see you again tomorrow and if there is anything you need just buzz the nurse, they will be happy to help out." The doctors left for their next patient and Daryl sighed.

"I'm staying with you!"

"You can't honey. I appreciate it and I'd love for you to be here, but you really can't. You are still in pain, you need to take your pills and stay in bed. And I am not alone in this room, that mommy-to-be over there needs her rest and privacy as well. You heard the doc, we'll be fine." Jarah was starting to calm a little knowing that it was all she needed to do for her boy to be okay again. She hated that she had to stay, but there was nothing she could do about it.

"I hate this." Daryl muttered and Nat chuckled a little.

"I can imagine, but it's just two days. You'll survive, even though the whole thing sucks. Sweetie, I'm gonna go and get you some stuff from home, alright? Anything in particular you want me to bring?"

"My iPod, my phone charger, one of Daryl's shirts and my small purple pillow."

"You got it sweetie. I'll be back soon. Come on Daryl, say bye." Nat smiled and urged Daryl to get up.

"I'm not leaving!"

"Please baby." Jarah kissed him sweetly and sighed. "I just wanna try to sleep and you need your pills as well. We can talk on the phone later or we can text. It's gonna be alright. We both gotta be good here, okay? And Merle will be over soon, too. I'm sure he'll distract you and keep you from getting bored."

He didn't like it. Hell, he hated it, but she was right. His side was starting to hurt something awful and sleeping in a chair wouldn't help him heal any faster.

"Alright. Just call me when you wake up, okay? No matter what time it is." he pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles before he tore himself away from her with a heavy heart.

"It's all that fucker's fault!" Daryl was clenching his fists in anger once they were out in the hall.

"Let's just get you home and there you can tell me what exactly happened yesterday."

They went towards the elevator and passed a woman who was leaning against the wall, moaning loudly in agony, while a nurse massaged her lower back.

"Uh, looks like someone's about to have a baby. That's gonna be Jarah in a couple of weeks." Nat exchanged a smile with the nurse, while Daryl paled. Yes, he'd watched a ton of videos, he knew it was painful, but somehow seeing and hearing that woman right in front of him was so much different than seeing it in a video. He didn't even know that woman, but he felt so bad for her that she was in pain and imagining Jarah in that position made him sick to his stomach right now.

"You trying to scare me?" he muttered while he looked over his shoulder, taking a last look at the woman who was clearly in labor.

"Why? Am I succeeding?" Nat grinned, she had noticed that Daryl's cheeks had lost some color.

"You might...yeah." he admitted quietly.

"Well, then maybe you should reconsider being Jarah's birth coach, cause that right there? That's nothing. It only gets worse. Thought you were all prepared?"

"Yeah, I thought so. But I guess it's different in real life than seeing it in a video."

"Well, hate to tell you, but you promised her you'd be there. You convinced her and now she is counting on you. You gotta man up here."

"I know that! And I will be there. Just forget about it, it's a fucked up week. We'll be fine."

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"I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna go back there and I'm gonna kill him." Nat was furious. Daryl had just told her what had gone down with Jackson the previous day and had shown her the picture of the bruise on Jarah's shoulder. "I mean, how can he just get away with everything? It's not right!"

She had tears in her eyes, partly because she was so freaking mad at the guy for manhandling her best friend like that and partly because she was just sad for her friend. Merle, who had arrived ten minutes earlier to get his promised leftovers had been stunned by the news of Jarah's hospital stay. He shared Daryl's thoughts. Jackson was to blame for this. Shorty and the baby weren't doing well because of that arrogant little prick. His mind was working a mile a minute and he just sat on the couch silently while Nat threw some stuff into Jarah's duffel bag.

"It's just not right. He better not cross my path today, I don't know if I have enough strength to keep myself from killing him." Nat kept ranting. "Asshole, why can't he just go away. Gosh, why? Why can't he just get out of our lives?"

"He will. Nothing he can do. They agreed on custody and everything. He'll just have to accept that and move on." Daryl tried to convince her that things would be okay, even though he really wasn't convinced himself.

"I'll go back there now. You listen to her and lay down, too, alright? She needs you strong and healthy when she gets back. Maybe you should go away for a couple of days. My parents have a place near Lake Lanier, it's where they stay when they come up to visit me. I'm sure they wouldn't mind, you guys staying there for a weekend. I'll call them and ask."

"Might not be a bad idea. Thanks Nat. You gonna be okay to drive?"

"Yeah, I'm good, don't worry about me. I'll let you know about the house. Talk to you later." Nat grabbed the bag and was about to leave when Daryl called out after her.

"Hey, probably goes without saying, but don't tell her about the job thing, alright?"

"I know. I won't."

"What job thing? They not keeping ya on after all?" Merle spoke up when Nat had left.

"No, I'm good, but Jar's gonna lose her job. Her boss is gonna give her a promotion, which she can't accept with the baby and all and that's a reason for him to let her go. He doesn't want to employ a mother who's gonna stay home when the kid is sick. Real bastard, just like her ex."

"Damn, she can't catch a break, huh? How's she gonna pay for all this?"

"Got an idea for that, just don't know if that's what she wants." Daryl rubbed his face. The painkillers were starting to kick in and they were making him sleepy.

"You gonna move in here?" It didn't take much for Merle to put two and two together.

"Would save us both a shitload of money. You got a job now, you can keep the apartment. You still got the job, right? Or they already kick ya out on the first day?"

"Nah, it's all good. Maybe I should move in, too. Take the guest room with Lil Bit, split rent by four." he grinned and Daryl scoffed.

"Yeah right, in your dreams, Merle."

"Why not. Three of us bring in the cash and Shorty stays home with the kid and takes care of us. Would work out fine."

"Yeah and after four weeks we'd all kill each other. Thanks, we'll be fine on our own."

"IF she let's ya move in." Merle reminded him.

"Yeah."

"Why don't you just marry that girl already? Would solve a lot of problems."

"She doesn't want that. Not right now." Daryl grumbled, remembering that particular conversation all too well, even though it had had a nice outcome.

"Uuuhh she shot ya down. That's gotta sting." Merle winced, feeling a little sorry for his brother.

"Nah, wasn't like that. Just forget it. I'm gonna lay down. Your food's in the fridge."

"That's okay. You eat that. I'll get something from the burger joint. You just rest up baby brother. I'll see ya tomorrow."

Daryl nodded his goodbye and went to the kitchen to microwave the leftovers before he laid down to take a nap. He realized he could have just gone with Merle instead of staying in the house alone, but at least here she was still around without even being there and he could sleep on her pillow to have her scent close to him.

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"I miss you." she murmured while they were on the phone that evening.

"Miss ya, too. This sucks." he was sighing deeply.

"This really wasn't how I thought the week would go. I was so looking forward to taking care of you and nursing you back to health."

"Oh yeah? Got one of those little nurse costumes?" he grinned when that image popped up in his head.

"Maybe I do... But I don't think it's maternity style. I'd just make the zipper burst and the buttons pop open, my fat belly all over the place." she laughed when she imagined what that would look like.

"Don't say that. Nothing fat about that belly. You're beautiful."

"So are you. I love you so much." he smiled, her voice got so quiet when she said it, he could practically hear her blush.

"Love ya, too. What are you wearing?" he used the cheesy question to make her laugh. He hoped if he would be able to get her to be happy and relaxed she might come home sooner.

"Uh this sexy white hospital gown, wide open at the back." She giggled quietly, glad that her roommate was already sleeping and snoring lightly, so she could have her phone time with Daryl without having her eavesdrop.

"Sounds nice. Got any heels to go with that?"

"Oh so you like heels?" She wasn't sure if he was kidding or not and her curiosity was piqued.

"If you're the one wearing 'em, yeah. Got any? Haven't seen any around."

"I do. A lot actually. They are way at the back of my closet right now. I didn't use to wear them that often, but I love them nonetheless."

"Gonna have ya show me when you get home." Daryl's voice got a little lower and he felt a familiar pull in his abdomen when he imagined her wearing heels for him in bed, she had a killer pair of legs, he was sure she'd look fucking amazing in them. Suddenly a noise on her end of the phone caught his attention and he let out a laugh when he realized what it was.

"You heart rate just pick up?" he was grinning like a fool.

"Shut up! It's all your fault for making your voice do that thing. You know you are not supposed to do that while I'm in here." She laughed and was tempted to turn the stupid machine off.

"We were told to keep you relaxed."

"Yeah, but making my heart race again is not keeping me relaxed, mister."

"There's a difference between good heart race and bad heart race. I'm doing the good one. It's good for you. You're supposed to do fun stuff."

"But this? Are you sure? Guess I better ask her tomorrow if sex is allowed." Jarah was concerned that the doctor meant that her heart wasn't supposed to beat faster at all and that sex was out until she gave birth.

"I think it is. She didn't say anything about bedrest or anything. She said your in good health, you just need to chill out and not be stressed. Fucking me stressin' ya out?"

"Guess not, but I'll still ask. God that would suck if she said I wasn't allowed."

"Yeah, that'd suck ass. Got plans for ya when we get to that lake house." he grinned, intentionally making his voice go even lower, getting a kick out of hearing her breathing change.

"Daryl!" she admonished him, making him laugh.

"Relax, I'll stop. For now. Won't stop for a long time when we get to that lake house."

"Daryl! Man, you're killing me here!" she complained with a laugh, but she had to admit she was feeling much better. He was successfully distracting her and keeping her mind off of worrying too much.

"You'll survive." he heard her yawn and smiled. "You should sleep. I'll come see you tomorrow morning. I'll bring you one of those things from Dunkin Donuts you like."

"Eclairs? That would be awesome. You are my hero."

"Sleep tight, okay?"

"You too." she made kissy noises and he scoffed out a laugh.

"Not doing that shit!"

"Didn't expect you to, baby. Bye bye."

"Bye sweetheart."

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AN: Thank you for reading, following and favoriting!

I don't know how things are in an American maternity ward, so I will just use my own personal experience of how things are here in Germany. Hope that's okay with you guys. This chapter is a little shorter, I know, my brain is just a little fried since my son got OBSESSED with that "Thrift Shop" song. I have to play it at least 30 times a day for him so he can shake his little but to it. I think it is slowly killing some brain cells of mine.

DarylDixon'sLover: Thank you so much, glad you enjoy it!

NanamiYatsumaki: I just thought it was the perfect opportunity for Jackson to find out. Maybe a bit too obvious, but I just liked that scenario somehow. Thank you so much for your support.

Siren44: Thanks so much for your review. I am sure Merle does know plenty of people who could do the job. We'll have to wait and see what he is going to do about it:)

BeingLolaStar: I love how you always come up with new ways to get rid of Jackson. I agree, he has no case here, but being the arrogant little prick he is, the man's gotta make some threats right? Assaulting Jarah and ultimately being part of her landing in that hospital the next day, might have consequences for once though. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review.

Erin: Sorry to keep you waiting this long. I am just not getting that much writing time these days. Hope you enjoyed this one. Thanks for reviewing.

sillygabby: Recording the meeting, that would have been brilliant. Daryl and Merle are eyewitnesses, but who knows how credible they would be, being that Daryl is her boyfriend now. Who knows if Jackson will even do anything about it, we'll just have to wait and see;-) I love interacting with you guys. If you take the time to write a review, I take the time to respond and thank you for your support. It's just manners:) Thank you so much for reading.

scoobydoo0811: Thank you so much for reviewing. Glad you are okay. We'll have to wait and see what the Dixons will do:-)

xamss: I guess AU stories without walkers often get skipped even though there are some fantastic ones out there. Thank you so much for giving mine a try. I love that you like it and my interpretation of Daryl. I guess I am a lot like him, I am socially awkward due to suffering from social anxiety, so I know where he is coming from and I guess that helps. See you around:)

mamareadstomuch2: Daryl is SO smart. And don't get me started on being emotional during pregnancy. Boy, I cried and cried and cried all the time. Freaking commercials made me cry. All those hormones just really do a number on you and you can't even help it. Well, Merle has got some ideas in his head, it remains to be seen what he will do about them:) xoxo