Yes, I'm a terrible human being. Yes, I've taken too long to update. Yes, it will probably happen again. But for the next few minutes, please enjoy this chapter!

Thanks for sticking with me guys!

Beth could feel the stiffness in her muscles as she slowly started to move her body. The last thing she remembered was being in the car with Maggie and then it was all a blur from there. She could hear beeping around her, and her face was incredibly itchy. She hadn't opened her eyes yet but she could only assume that she was in a hospital, as this place always had a certain smell about it.

As she did finally open her eyes, she noticed the lights were turned down low and the curtains were drawn over the windows. It was hard to tell what time of day it is but there was some light peeking through so it must be the day.

She turned to her left and saw a machine hooked up to her, monitoring her blood pressure and heart rate. She felt the cuff on her arm and the prong stuck to her fingertip. She also felt a belt across her abdomen and pulled her hospital gown away to see what it was.

She then noticed the cast on her right arm.

Her breathing started to harden and the heart rate monitor started to pick up on it's beeping. She felt panic rise in her chest but a voice came over her and spoke soft words to her.

"It's okay Beth, you're okay," Daryl's voice soothed her, as he touched her hand softly. She looked over to see where he came from and noticed a recliner in the corner with a blanket now thrown on the floor.

He touched her face with his hand and she was drawn into the gesture, leaning her head into his touch. To look into his face, she saw hesitation and worry but she began to calm down, knowing he was with her.

Just then, then door to her room opened and an older woman came into the room.

"Everything okay in here," she asked, walking over to the machine. "You finally woke up, my dear."

Beth nodded, not quite sure what she was feeling at the moment.

"It's perfectly normal to wake up in a panic. But you're safe and taken care of," she responded with a smile. "I'm your nurse for today, Deanna."

Beth looked over at Daryl and he nodded to her, letting her know that everything was okay.

"I'm just gonna let the doctor know that you're awake. He'll probably be in, in a few minutes." Deanna said, pressing a few buttons on her IV. She grabbed Beth's chart and wrote down something quickly and then left the room.

Once the door closed behind her, Beth looked back to Daryl.

"What happened?" she asked shyly, her throat dry as the desert. Daryl grabbed the water from beside her bed and handed it to her gently, making sure she had a grasp of the tumbler and straw before letting go.

"You and Maggie got into a car accident the night of the charity match. Hit n' run." he explained. She took a quick sip of water and gave him back the cup. She was about to speak when Daryl caught her first. "Maggie's fine. She got a few cuts and scrapes but she's already back home."

"What about me? What about...the.." Beth started to tear up. She couldn't stand to hear about the news of her pregnancy, knowing it most likely ended.

"Baby's fine, you're both fine," Daryl said with a smile, gently touching Beth's hair on her head. "Broken wrist, brusied ribs and some cuts on your face. Was most worried bout your head; you've been out for awhile."

"How long?" Beth asked.

"Three days," Daryl sighed. "Scariest three days of my life."

"Oh my god," she began to tear up. She had been asleep for three days, and Daryl has been waiting for her to wake up. Her dad and siblings must have been beside themselves too.

"My dad…" she wept.

"They're waitin on my come and visit and knew you'd wake up." Daryl tried to console her.

"But after my mom…"

"He was beside himself Beth, not gonna lie. But you made it," Beth continued to cry as Daryl held her hand. He grabbed a tissue to blot away her tears but she continued. She was upset over everything she just learned and the pain she put everyone through.

It was all so overwhelming and with her added hormones, she was a sobbing mess. But Daryl, being himself, was right there with her, letting her get it all out.

There was a knock at her door and a body poked it's head in.

"Miss Greene, I hear you're awake." the doctor came in, followed by Deanna. "I'm Dr. Edwards, I've been taking care of you while you've been here." His face became concerned when he saw Beth's face, red and puffy from crying.

"I just told her everythin'. She's just reactin to that'" Daryl explained. Dr. Edwards nodded.

"Well, if you are feeling up to it, I'd like to examine you to see how you are fairing. I'm sure your fiancee here would like to make some phone calls," He asked. Beth turned towards Daryl.

"Could you phone my dad please. I want to see him and Shawn, and Maggie too," She begged.

"Course darlin'" he smoothed her hair and kissed her forehead. He got up from his stool and grabbed his phone from his recliner bed.

Once he left the room, Beth sighed and wiped her face with the cloth that Deanna had given her.

He sat down in the stool that Daryl had vacated and looked over her chart.

"Do you feel any dizziness or lightheadedness?"

"No, just a headache, very light," she replied.

"The headache could be due to numerous things, hitting your head being the most likely. We took an MRI to make sure you didn't have any internal bleeding or swelling of the brain. Everything looked normal but we're still gonna air on the side of caution." He explained.

"Deanna, can you order her a light lunch, we'll see if she can keep it down," he motioned to Deanna who was checking all the vitals. Dr. Edwards grabbed his flashlight and shined the light in her eyes to check her responsiveness.

"So far, everything is looking good. Dr. Carson will be down in the next hour to check on the fetal monitoring and probably do an ultrasound again to make sure baby is still doing okay,"

"Does my family know about the baby?" Beth asked, touching her stomach, along with the fetal monitor that was attached to her.

"I only told Mr. Dixon. I'm not sure what he told everyone else."

"What about the rest of me," Beth held up her arm to show off the cast.

"The wrist is fractured. You're gonna need a minimum six week with that guy. Then we'll x-ray to see how it's healed and you'll probably go into a soft cast for some time after." He pulled down her blanket and brought up her gown to show her the ribs were taped.

"The bruising on your ribs wasn't substantial but they will be sore. Probably be best you eat lightly for the next week until they feel better. Throwing up could cause more pain." He carefully pressed on each side and she winced at the tinge of pain it brought. "You are bruised on your upper chest from the seatbelt but that was a given.

"And my face?" she hesitated to ask but knew something had happened.

"The car was struck from the passenger side so a lot of the glass flew towards you. Once the airbags deployed, you got a lot of glass pushed inside of the skin. It took us a few hours but we got it all out, cleaned and stitched up the larger cuts.

Beth was never a vain person but to hear how cut up her face probably was, was heartbreaking. She could feel some bandages and tape on her face but could feel the stitches on her eyebrow as she moved them. The slight pull reminded her that they were there.

"Stitches will all come out in the next few days, probably before you leave. For now, we're gonna give you some tylenol to help with pain."

"Thank you Dr. Edwards," she replied with a small smile.

"It was my pleasure. And I'm glad you were okay. It was hard enough watching your fiance watching you for the past few days. I can't imagine how he would be had it been worse." Beth gave him another tight smile and he left.

The doctor was right, things could have been a lot worse. She could have been killed in this car accident. She breathed harder as the tears came flooding back. It was just like her mother all those years ago. Her family had been hit hard with grief and she or Maggie could have….

She cried into her pillow and didn't even register Daryl come back into the room. It wasn't until she felt a body come up behind her in bed, and lay his hand on her hip, did she even realise he had come back. She took his hand and hugged it close to her body, feeling the warmth and comfort he brought to her.

She was safe and he was there with her, that's all she needed right now.

She had fallen asleep once again, after crying every last tear in her body. Daryl hadn't spoken a word, just allowed her to get all her emotions out. She must have fallen asleep cause when she began to wake, she could hear her family's voices in the room, talking about something.

She moved around, alerting everyone that she was waking up and their conversation came to an abrupt stop.

"Beth, you wakin up?" Shawn asked, as she could feel a body lean over.

"Getting there," she joked, trying to open her eyes. They were pretty swollen from the crying she had done before. "How long was I out for?"

"Bout an hour. Your family just got here," Daryl explained, bringing her some water. She gladly took the cup and sipped from the straw. Her throat still felt raw and scratchy and the water was helping to soothe that pain.

"How you doin, sweetheart?" Hershel asked from his chair beside her. She could feel his hand grip onto hers and she could see how much he had been through the past few days. He looked tired and had bags under his eyes. He probably had barely eaten a thing or slept much so she could only hope that him being with her now would help that.

"I'm okay, daddy. Everything is gonna be alright," she soothed him, rubbing her thumb across his hand.

"You had us worried there," his voice trembled. He probably thought back to the night he lost his wife and Beth couldn't blame him for getting upset.

"I'm a fighter daddy. Just like you," she smiled, trying to brighten his spirit. He gave a little chuckle.

"You sure are doodlebug,"

"Nurse brought you some food, if you're feelin' up to it," Daryl said, pointing to the covered tray. He pulled the cover off to see some light foods in there but her eyes lit up with the Jell-O.

"Jell-O!" she exclaimed. Shawn and Hershel laughed from their seats.

"Should have guessed. You wanted to live off the stuff when you were younger," Shawn teased.

Daryl grabbed the cup and spoon and handed it to her. She had to put the spoon in her casted hand but she managed to figure out how to hold the thing pretty quickly. She took her first bite and moaned at the feeling. "Hits the spot."

They continued talking, Beth getting an update on Maggie and the investigation into the accident. So far, no one had come forward and no truck had been found with damage. It was sounding more and more like the previous accident with Shawn and her father. Hit and run with no one ever being arrested.

They all knew it was such a sore subject and having it happen again was bringing up some real bad memories for all of them. She could see the anger on Shawn's face, as he tried to remain calm. Something told her, that he was keeping something from her, something he was told to leave alone while she was here in the hospital. Once she was home, she was going to find out what it was about.

There was another knock on the door and a doctor and nurse came in.

"Sorry folks, don't mean to interrupt," He said coming into the room. "I'm one of Beth's doctors and I was needing to exam her."

"Absolutely, we should get on our way and allow Beth to rest more," Hershel spoke as he grabbed his cane to help him get up from his chair.

"Will you come tomorrow?" Beth asked, giving her dad a hug and kiss goodbye.

"Nothing can stop me. And maybe Daryl can finally head home and get showered and changed." Hershel spoke, while giving his fatherly glare at Daryl.

"Yeah, yeah," Daryl snorted. Shawn came and gave her a hug and kiss and they left the room.

"I apologize again but I wanted to speak with you while I'm still here." the doctor spoke. I'm Dr. Carson, the obstetrician here. This is my nurse, Mary."

"Oh, good, I was hoping to see you," Beth replied shaking his hand.

"Yes, your fiance here has no idea that you were even pregnant so I wasn't even sure if you knew you were," he spoke, sitting on his stool and grabbing her chart.

"I wasn't sure. I was on my way home to take a test when the accident happened." Beth explained.

"So you have some symptoms then?"

"Yes," she replied. "I was tired and feeling nauseous at certain times of the day. I was also about a month late," Dr. Carson wrote everything down as she spoke.

"Well when you came in, we gave you an ultrasound and you're actually further along than that. I would say between ten and eleven weeks,"

"What?" Beth exclaimed.

"We were able to put the fetal heartbeat monitor on you and hear the heartbeat, so we know that baby is doing well,"

"Can we do an ultrasound today?" Beth asked, grabbing on to Daryl's hand.

"Yes, we wanna make sure everything looks good and I'm sure the both of you wanna see for yourselves," he looked up and smiled at the couple.

"You didn't look?" Beth asked, turning to Daryl.

"Wanted to do it with you," he replied, kissing her forehead. She leaned forward so she could kiss on the lips and whispered she loved him.

"Machine is ready to go Dr. Carson, " Mary spoke, while she wheeled the machine beside him.

"Thank you Mary. If you'll just take notes and measurements while I give these two the grand tour of Beth's uterus." Beth giggled at his joke.

He squeezed the gel onto the wand and placed it over Beth's belly. They had removed the fetal monitor when she was asleep because it was gone when she had woken up. Dr. Carson moved it over her belly, looking for the right spot.

"If we stop right around here," he spoke slowly, "we can see the sac, and then...we see the fetus." He turned the monitor so that Beth and Daryl could see and Beth gasped as she the tiny little human that was inside of her. Her mouth came up and clasped over her mouth as she held her breath.

"You can see the head," Dr. Carson pointed to the screen, "their little arms and legs." He clicked on a few buttons. "And we should be able to hear the heartbeat," Suddenly, a whooshing sound came across the speaker and Beth could feel the tears prick her eyes.

Her baby was alright.

"That ours Beth," Daryl whispered in Beth's ear as she continued to stare at the screen. His voice trembled as he spoke and he was probably feeling just as emotional as she was. She turned towards him and saw the tiniest hint of a tear in his eye.

"A fighter, just like their daddy," She whispered back. He ducked his head and she could see the blush creep up on his neck. "They'll be in the ring before we know it," He looked up at her and gave her a little smile.

"Thank you Beth," he said softly. "For giving me this," He kissed her fingers as he held her hand. It warmed Beth's heart to hear him say that. It was something they had never really discussed, and to know that this was something he wanted, just brought everything to a whole new level.

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