I really love writing Luke's POV and the way he looks at Daryl and Beth and his life with them.

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Part Twenty-One.

His own bed in his own room. He woke up every morning and could hardly believe it. The room smelled of wood and fresh paint and he opened his eyes every morning, blinking at his surroundings and always smiling to himself. When the baby came, he would be sharing the room but he didn't care. If it meant he could stay here, he would share the room with a hundred babies.

The door was open slightly and just as he was sitting up, Daryl appeared in the doorway. It was still dark outside, the sun just beginning to poke above the horizon, shooting streaks of pink and purple through the sky.

Without a word, Daryl came into the room and Luke pushed the covers from his body as he swung his legs around and stood from the bed. Daryl went to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and bright neon orange sweatshirt as well as a pair of thick socks and fresh underwear.

"Beth's makin' breakfast," Daryl said, setting the clothes down on the bed. Luke nodded, yawning. "You still wanna come?" Daryl asked, watching him.

"Yes!" Luke exclaimed, his little voice so loud in the silent morning, and Daryl smirked a little, nodding.

"Get dressed," Daryl said, leaving the room again and closing the door behind him.

Luke got dressed as quickly as he could. Beth and Daryl got most of their clothes at thrift stores or Wal-Mart and they had begun doing the same for Luke. He had never had so many clothes. More than two shirts. More than one pair of jeans. Actual pajamas to wear to bed every night. Daryl had found the orange sweatshirt for him at the Salvation Army and told him it was perfect for him to wear hunting. "So I can't lose you," Daryl had gruffly explained.

The sweatshirt was too big, the sleeves hanging past his hands, but Luke loved it. His very own hunting sweatshirt. Luke didn't like to think about leaving. He didn't like to remind himself that Daryl and Beth weren't his real parents and that his own parents would return eventually. He just hoped that when the day came when he did have to leave, he would get to take this sweatshirt with him.

Daryl and Beth were both in the kitchen, Daryl sitting at the table, sipping a cup of coffee and chewing a piece of toast, and Beth was at the stove, stirring a small pot of oatmeal. She fixed Luke a bowl nearly every morning. She was still in her pajamas, her stomach so big now and Luke knew the baby was going to be here soon.

"Morning, sweetie," Beth smiled to him when she heard him. "Did you make your bed?" She asked, grabbing a bowl for him. She scooped some of the steaming oatmeal out of the pot and into the bowl and she set it down at the table.

Luke nodded, yawning again as he climbed up into his chair. She handed him a spoon and then kissed the top of his head. He smiled tiredly up at her and then began to eat his breakfast. Beth sat down in the third chair and rested her hands on her stomach. Daryl swallowed his bit of toast, watching her.

"You a'right?" He asked.

She smiled and nodded. "I'm going back to bed once I get you two out of here."

Daryl reached over and slipped a hand to the back of her neck, rubbing her there for a moment, Beth moaning softly with how good it felt.

"What are you two boys hunting today?" Beth asked.

"What do you want?" Daryl asked, his hand slipping from her neck, coming to a rest on her stomach, rubbing that now.

"We don't have any more rabbit in the freezer…" Beth said. "I was thinking of making that rabbit pot pie if you were able to get one."

Daryl nodded confidently and she smiled.

After he finished his oatmeal, Beth made sure Luke brushed his teeth and after Daryl tugged on his boots, double-knotting them as always, he then helped Luke with his own boots, showing him how to tie them. Beth then made sure Luke was warm enough in his coat and hat and she had fixed them some lunch, slipping it into Luke's pack before helping it onto his back.

"Be careful," she kissed Luke on the head and then gave a Daryl a kiss on the lips.

They went out through the backdoor, Daryl leading the way with his crossbow, and Luke behind him, waving to Beth, who stood in the doorway and waved back. This was his third time hunting with Daryl and he tried to remember everything he had taught him the previous two times. Quiet steps. Quiet breathing. Quiet everything. Be a part of the woods. Don't disturb anything. Shut everything in your mind off. Luke wasn't too sure how to do that one.

Daryl crouched down to the ground and Luke came up beside him.

There had been a dusting of snow the night before and Daryl pointed out to him a pair of tracks he could easily see but Luke had to squint to make out. Daryl was also teaching him the different tracks. Deer, rabbit, squirrel. Skunk and opossum, too. And the way a snake's belly weaved through the leaves and dirt. Luke's favorite was the snake. He was able to pick up on that one on his own now but he kept getting the other animal tracks messed up.

"You'll get it," Daryl told him. "Just need more practice."

Luke nodded and liked to believe that he would get all of the practice he could with Daryl. His own daddy didn't know how to hunt. His daddy didn't know how to do much of anything. Not like Daryl. Daryl could build rooms and hunt anything and fix the oil leak in his motorcycle and he could teach Luke how to do all of that, too.

Not for the first time, he silently wished to himself that Daryl was his daddy instead. Daryl never drank or yelled too loud or broke things in the house and his arms weren't bruised from pushing a needle into them all day. Daryl and Beth didn't even have a needle in their house.

"Did you teach Beth how to do this?" Luke asked once they had tracked and killed two rabbits – Luke watching Daryl and then hurrying to collect the bolts and animals once Daryl had gotten them down – and stopped for lunch.

Daryl smiled a little and nodded, pulling out the lunch sack from Luke's backpack. "I've only taken her a couple of times but she tracked and bagged a squirrel all on her own," he said.

He handed Luke a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Luke eagerly took a big bite.

"Will you teach the baby?" Luke asked through a mouthful.

Daryl nodded. "When the baby's old enough."

Luke was quiet for a moment. "When I go, can you still teach me?"

Daryl frowned a little. "Where you goin'?"

"When my mommy and daddy come back. I'll have to go." Daryl was quiet and took a bite of his own sandwich. "Did your daddy teach you how to hunt?" Luke then asked.

"Yeah," Daryl nodded.

"I saw your back," Luke then told him, taking another bite of sandwich, remembering when he had gone into Daryl and Beth's bedroom one morning and Daryl had been tugging on a shirt. Luke had looked and saw the dark scars on Daryl's back and it looked like the scars he had. "Wanna see mine?" He asked.

Daryl shook his head. "Already seen it, kid," he said quietly.

"I like we have the same back," Luke said, digging the toe of his boot in the dirt. He lifted his head and saw Daryl looking at him. He smiled a little. "I can grow up and be just like you."

Daryl kept staring at him, not saying anything.

"Will your baby have the same back?" Luke asked.

"Over my dead body," Daryl's eyes darkened slightly at that.

Luke nodded as if he had been expecting that answer. "Your baby's lucky." He took another bite of his sandwich. "I wish I was yours and Beth's," he then said in a whisper, looking back to the ground, digging his boot into the dirt again.

They were quiet and Daryl slowly lifted a hand to the back of his head. Luke lifted his eyes and looked to him, Daryl staring right at him.

"You are," he said and Luke didn't really understand how he could be but the words made him smile a little nonetheless. "Ready to head back? You gotta help me clean these," Daryl then said, gesturing to the rabbits at their feet.

"Yeah," Luke nodded excitedly.

Back at the house, Daryl and Luke sat on the back steps and Luke watched with hardly-blinking eyes as Daryl used his hunting knife to cut into each animal. He cut away the fur and removed the organs and when he had skinned and cleaned the meat of one, he handed it to Luke.

"Take that into Beth. We'll freeze the rest," Daryl said.

Luke, excited with his task, carried the bloody meat inside. Beth was in the second bedroom – his bedroom and the nursery, as Beth called it – and he proudly held up the meat in his hands for her to see.

She laughed. "Well, that looks wonderful. Come on. To the kitchen," she said, shooing him from the room and he ran back into the kitchen with it.

They had rabbit pot pie for dinner – which was Luke's favorite dinner of anything Beth cooked – and afterwards, Daryl was the one to draw a bubble bath for him.

"Here," Daryl grabbed something from the cabinet and then kneeled down behind him. "Beth got this for me. Think it might help you, too." Luke looked over his shoulder and saw that it was a tube of cream and Daryl squirted a bit into his hand. He then gently began rubbing it over Luke's back. "Will help wit' the scars," he said.

Luke didn't know how a cream could help with his scars but he didn't ask.

Once he was dry and in his pajamas, he hurried into the living room. Beth was at the piano, playing a soft song, and Luke sat on the floor at the coffee table, taking out his several tubs of Play-Doh that Beth stored in a basket beneath it. He may have been little but he understood that Beth and Daryl didn't have a lot of money but that didn't bother him. He didn't need toys. He was more than used to not having anything. He just really wanted Play-Doh.

As Beth played the piano and Luke played with his Play-Doh, Daryl sat on the couch and cleaned his knives as he watched a show on television about fixing old cars. A little while later, Beth laughed softly and stood up, crossing to the couch where Daryl sat and she took his hand, placing it on her stomach.

"Lil' Buck is going crazy tonight," she smiled.

Daryl was quiet for a moment and then he smirked, shaking his head. "Maybe he likes the song you're playin'," he said, his smirk sliding into a small smile as he left his hand resting on her stomach.

"Come here, Luke," Beth smiled.

Luke pushed himself to his feet and hurried over. She took his hand and gently guided it to her stomach. He immediately felt the nudging against his hand and it wasn't the first time he had felt the baby kick but it never stopped being cool.

Beth said the baby would be here in just a few more weeks. Luke was excited to see them, to see if it was a boy or girl – Beth and Daryl had decided to be surprised as to what it was.

He wondered if it would be okay if he secretly called the baby his brother or sister.

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