AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks for reading and the comments on the last chapter. This is a short chapter Shawn/Rick and Beth.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Walking Dead or its characters

Apologies in advance for any spelling and grammatical errors. Thoughts in Italics

You, Me, We are Family

Chapter 20

Rick enters his dining room holding Shawn's firm gaze. He pulls back a chair, steps around it and lowers himself into the seat without breaking eye contact. If he thought Maggie was intrusive and intimidating, she had nothing on Shawn Greene.

He doesn't see the sweet and loving Shawn that Beth has so often talked about. The Shawn sitting before him looked like he wanted to gnaw off his face and snap him in half. His silence was shockingly unhinging and if looks could kill, Rick reckoned he'd be sprawled out unconscious on his dining room table with that deadly glare he was now receiving. He just hoped he wouldn't have to use any self-defence moves on Beth's brother to deflect any hostility if it was to come his way.

With a tightened jaw, Shawn folds the paper in half and tosses it to the side. He reaches for the milk, pours a glass and slides it over. Rick's quick hand catches it before it flew off and smashes on the ground. They both grip hold of their glasses and continue to stare at each another.

Shawn's the first to break the silence.

"You planning on marrying my sister or she not good enough to take your name?" He asks bluntly and bitterly, clenching and unclenching his glass. It wasn't the way it was meant to come out, but that's how it did and he couldn't take it back.

Rick's head tilts, narrowing his eyes but never once blinking. After everything that's happened, he thought nothing and nobody could come along and dampen his spirits. Until now. To say he was disappointed or upset at Shawn's venomous attitude was an understatement, his patience wearing thin, it was taking everything in him not to strike back at the blatant provocation to start something. He didn't want anything or anyone to come between him and Beth. They'd resolved their issues and reconciled their relationship, they'd been through so much - Beth had been through enough and because of that reason, he bites his tongue and answers Shawn's question and lets this attitude slide only because of Beth. For Beth, he tells himself.

"Yes, I plan to marry Beth. If Beth'll have me."

It was what Shawn had wanted Rick to say, anything else, he would have jumped over the table and beaten him senseless.

But for some reason sitting there, he wasn't satisfied with Rick's answer and he wasn't okay with Rick doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing. He wanted concrete confirmation that Rick honestly wanted to marry Beth because he is in love with her, not because he felt compelled to marrying her because of the pregnancy.

There was sudden trepidation by Shawn that heartbreak would ensue if Rick didn't reciprocate Beth's feelings. It was Beth's heart he couldn't bear to see break, and wanted to make sure it wouldn't. He knows Beth is in love with Rick, he reckons he's known even before she did - it was always evident in their phone calls and messages and more so because he's seen the way Beth looks at Rick, it's the way their mother looks at their father.

"Do you love her?"

Just like Shawn's glare, Rick's had wavered when he sees worry creep over Shawn's face and hears it in his voice. He understood. Shawn didn't loathe him. He was a concerned brother looking out for his sister and her wellbeing.

"I do. With all my heart, I love her. Nothing would make me happier than to share the rest of my life with Beth, all that is mine is hers." Rick declares sincerely. The aggravation, hardness from Rick's face evaporates to his calm and collected self.

Shawn searches Rick's face and eyes for any signs of dishonesty and he finds none. Before he can apologise for his behaviour, they both look up over at the stairs when they hear the wooden floors creaking. When they see a pair of legs descending the last of the steps, they see it was Beth and she was talking to her belly.

"Nearly didn't make it! It would've been real nasty if I hadn't so between us girls, let's make a schedule when mommy's sleeping - there will be no peeing!"

Rick lost count the number of times Beth woke up in the night to use the bathroom. It wouldn't much longer and she could rest through the nights, he hopes. He decides he'll have to make more of an effort with the night time feeds, so a breast pump is on the shopping list to be purchased and one of those masks for when he has to change those number two's. If his little girl is anything like Carl when he was a baby, he'd need a mask for sure.

"Hey!" Beth greets cheerfully when she spots the two of them sitting together. She makes her way over with a spring in her step and as she approaches, she looks between the two of them and felt like she may have interrupted something serious.

"Everything okay?" She asks with concern, kissing Shawn on the cheek and then going over to Rick who reaches out and wraps his arms around her hips as she drapes her arms around his neck, waiting for an answer.

"Everything's great," Rick says pulling Beth closer so she ends up slipping into his lap and sitting there, he gives her a sweet peck on her lips and her face lights up just as Rick's eyes do "It jus' got a whole lot greater!" He smiles watching Beth, it had been a long time since he'd seen her like this and he really missed these little sweet moments and forgetting Shawn was sitting there watching them, he kisses Beth's neck.

Shawn coughs to remind them he was still there and Rick pulls away as Beth's cheeks blush red.

"So, tell me what you guys have been talkin' about?" Beth asks playing with the ends of Rick's hair.

"We've been gettin' better acquainted." Rick explains which makes Beth's smile broaden.

"Really?" She asks turning her smiling face to Shawn who nods in reply.

"Yes ma'am," Rick drawls "we're sharin' stories." A smile plays on Rick's lips now as he looks to Shawn who understands, it was always fun getting Beth all riled up, her reactions were priceless and she was so cute.

"Stories, I love stories, which ones?" She asks cosying back into Rick's chest and getting comfortable on his lap as he massages her stomach, she loved Shawn's stories and she wanted to hear his new ones.

"Stories about you Bethy!" Shawn interjects smirking.

"About me?" Beth asks pulling a face now "What stories?" She looks between the two who were leant back resting in their seats smiling.

"Oh," Shawn shrugs "there's so many!"

"So many?" Rick asks intrigued, his eyes twinkle when Beth looks back at him.

"Beth could never say no to a gobstopper and that too in church!" Shawn begins "She sucked on a little lime gobstopper the whole service and when she went up to sing her solo, all everyone could focus on were her green lips and tongue as she belted out This Little Light of Mine."

Beth sighs with relief, it wasn't one of her most embarrassing stories, it was a silly one but not as silly as the other trillion ones.

"Oh, there was this one time!" Shawn pipes up giving a little laugh, "Beth wanted to really impress this guy to get his attention,"

"Did she now?" Rick's eyes twinkle mischievously as he watches Beth's face trying to figure out which guy and what she did.

He wonders how many admirers and boyfriends Beth had prior to meeting him. He wonders what she did to impress these guys because she's impressed him in many ways. He hopes they never got impressed the same ways he did.

"She certainly did, she certainly got his attention," Shawn pauses with a smirk which makes Beth glares at him.

"There's this hotspot where all the teens went to hang out and swim. She put on an ill fitted bikini and dived into the lake, when she came up for air, her bi-"

Beth gasps realising which story this was; it was the one where she borrowed one of Maggie's bikinis without asking. It was far too big and when she came bursting out of the water after having dived in, everyone saw more than they bargained for. They all saw her breasts because the bikini top had come undone and floated away. Beth sees it, grabs Rick's full glass of milk and chucks it at Shawn's face before he could finish his sentence.

Rick looks on wide eyed watching milk drip down Shawn's face to form a puddle on the table and then looks at Beth in disbelief not knowing whether to laugh or get up and hand Shawn a towel. When Shawn continues to reveal embarrassing stories, Beth is up and chasing Shawn around the table with a fork. Rick is hot on Beth's heels and is used as a shield by Shawn when he's backed into a corner by a very riled up pregnant Beth.

A/N: I have halved this chapter as the last half needs to be changed slightly.