I do not own any of the TWD characters.
Up, Up and Away
There was a light tapping at the bedroom door. Daryl thought that he may be dreaming – the knocking seemed so far away. Daryl hoped that he was dreaming because it seemed as if he'd just gotten to sleep a few minutes ago. Beth had been up for round two and well, who the hell was Daryl Dixon to turn her down? Daryl's eyes felt like the inside of his eyelids had been rubbed with sandpaper. In addition to that, he may have pulled something in his lower back and Beth would probably have a goose egg on the back of her head. Yeh, the second round got a little out of control.
Then, a voice, God, that voice – fucking Maggie!
"Daryl" Maggie whispered loudly as she peeked into Beth's bedroom. Secretly she was terrified of what she might see considering what she tried to block out by keeping a pillow over both ears last night. "Daryl!"
"Yeh" he managed to choke out hoarsely.
"It's five o'clock" Maggie told him gently. "Better get her up and ready – don't want to miss the sunrise."
Daryl had to gather his thoughts. This, after all, is why they spent the night at the farm to begin with. He was going to seize whatever opportunity Maggie was presenting him with. Daryl was going to ask Beth to be his wife and he was going to wow the socks off of her in the process.
"Alright" Daryl told Maggie.
"I'm goin on out to the field – the field where ya'll put all those torches" Maggie instructed. "Meet ya'll out there."
"Okay" Daryl managed cheerfully. Then he gently elbowed Beth. "Hey Baby" he whispered in her ear. No response unless you counted an incoherent snort a response. "Beth" he nuzzled into her neck and began to rub her lower back gently.
Beth began mumbling. "No more" she whined "no more. My fufu hurts – I'm tender" she said.
Daryl had to fight the urge to laugh out loud. "Your fufu?" he asked. He lost the battle – laughter had set in. Beth's eyes shot open.
"Why are you laughing at me? My fufu hurts and it's your fault" she said with disbelief in her eyes.
"I'm sorry your fufu hurts" Daryl told her with a semi straight face. "Baby, we gotta get up, get showered, I got something to show ya."
Beth looked at the alarm clock. The red digits indicated that it was 5:02 a.m. "Are you insane?" Beth asked him. It was the first clearly spoken statement she'd made. "It's five in the morning! For the love of all that's Holy and good in the world" she tore into Daryl.
Fuck Daryl thought to himself. It is too fuckin early to listen to this shit. Good damn thing I'm in love with this woman. "Baby, I really need to show ya something" Daryl said sweetly – as sweetly as he could. "It'll be worth it. I promise."
"Arrrghhhhh" suddenly Beth had become a pirate. "Oy, vey!" A Yiddish pirate.
"Come on" Daryl said. "I'll wash your fufu and I'll be real gentle" he was teasing her now and Beth had a smile on her face.
"Can I take a nap after while?" she asked. "Cause I'm gonna be a grump if I don't."
"You? A grump?" Daryl asked.
"Yes" Beth answered seriously "A grump and nobody likes to be around a grump." Apparently, it was way too early for her to pick up on Daryl's hint of sarcasm. "I can't be a grump at the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner."
"We'll take a nap after while" Daryl told her.
After their whispered conversation, they both hopped into the shower and Daryl made good on his promise of being gentle with her lady bits when he washed her. Approaching the kitchen, Beth had picked up on the aroma of fresh brewed coffee.
"I smell coffee" she smiled at Daryl. "Let's grab some."
Daryl was delightfully surprised by Maggie's efforts this morning. She'd left cereal bars, two snack sized bags of fresh cherries and blueberries, and two tall insulated travel coffee mugs. There was a hastily written note "grab some breakfast and get out to the field – you're burning daylight". Daryl smiled at the message while Beth raised an eyebrow. Daryl poured the coffee up, making sure to do Beth's half coffee/half that sweet ass cream flavored with some crazy ass shit. He wondered if you could really even call it coffee. Beth grabbed their food and they scurried out the back door.
The grass was still wet, of course. Daryl didn't mind as he had on a pair of well-worn boots, but Beth wasn't real happy about getting her canvas shoes wet. She hated wet feet. Beth frowned at the thought of her toes getting shriveled inside her shoes but then it was quickly replaced with a faint smile as she took a sip of her special brew Daryl had poured up for her.
As they rounded the corner of the house, Beth let out a gasp and Daryl nearly did. There in the field was a collection of hot air balloons being unloaded and tethered to the ground. There was a huge amount of space in between each balloon and there were at least ten baskets scattered across the expanse of the farmland. Otis, Pooch, and Hershel were out there talking with several men that looked as if they knew what they were doing.
"Oh my God Daryl" Beth said. "It's beautiful!" Beth was referring to the one balloon that was being filled with hot air from a burner in the basket. A pilot was already in the basket –he held a clipboard in his hand and appeared to be making some pretty serious notes. "Maggie" Beth squealed. "They're beautiful! This is so exciting!"
Maggie was smiling, probably the most that Daryl had ever seen her smile. She usually had a scowl on her face. "They wanta take one up and search out the surrounding farm land – map out the possible landing sites for tonight when all of these are going up." Maggie waved her arm around to show that she was talking about all of the other balloons. "Why don't you and Daryl go up with him?"
"Oh, Maggie" Beth said. "I don't know 'bout that. Don't you want to go?"
"No, no" Maggie replied. "I don't want to go up until tonight – ya know when Glen is here. I want to share that with him."
Beth smiled. She really, really wanted to get up in that balloon.
"Go ahead" Maggie said. "Sunrise in a hot air balloon. Could be plenty romantic" and she waggled her eyebrows at the couple. That's all the encouragement Beth needed. She took off skipping towards the balloon. Daryl tagged along behind her and began to try and figure out just what he was going to say to this crazy haired girl once they got up in the air.
Fifteen minutes later they were lifting away from the earth below them. Daryl was pretty sure that their pilot, if that's what you called them, was in on the deal. He kept looking at Daryl with a silly glint in his eyes.
At one point the man said, "Sun'll be fully comin up from behind that rise in the next few minutes." Then he stared intently at Daryl as if to say shit or get off the pot. Daryl looked over at Beth. She hadn't quit smiling and appeared to be taking in the beautiful patchwork of land below them.
"Look" she pointed. "There's the church – that's where Maggie and Glen are getting married tomorrow." Just as quickly as she pointed out an important landmark to Daryl, she was looking for another. "There" she yelled. "There! There's the river where everybody went for Senior Skip Day. Did you do Senior Skip Day Daryl?"
He smiled and nodded. "Hell yeh – probably had more than one Senior Skip Day. Any day I didn't wanta go to school, I skipped." Beth swatted Daryl in the chest and blew out a breath as if she didn't believe him. "Ain't lyin" he laughed.
"Isn't it beautiful Daryl?" Beth asked Daryl, as she looked out over some of the most prized Georgia farmland.
Daryl responded quietly, "Sure is" Daryl's eyes were on the woman standing next to him. "Beth" he said. She continued looking out over the horizon. "Beth" he tried getting her attention again.
Beth turned to him. "What?" she said.
"I love you" Daryl began. About that time, the pilot increased the fire sending the balloon further up into the atmosphere. "I love you more than anything in this world."
"I love you too Daryl" Beth told him. "So much."
"Beth" Daryl started again. "Last night, when Rick and Chonne and Shane and Lori where all here. And, all them damn kids – fuck, can't even keep straight who belongs to who. Hell, don't guess it matters." Beth just kind of giggled. "Beth, I want that. I want that with you."
Beth smiled and her eyes were becoming a tad bit watery. "I mean" Daryl thought he might should revise that last part. "I don't want to like switch spouses, and raise other people's kids – not that." Beth snorted at that comment. "I want to marry you, have babies with you, grow old and crazy with you."
It was at this moment that Beth finally realized what was happening. "Oh my goodness" she said to no one in particular. "Daryl."
Daryl pulled the ring out of his pocket. He carefully opened the lid and prayed to God he wouldn't drop that damn ring causing it to fall to the earth below them. Beth's eyes grew wide when she laid eyes on the trinket inside. "Oh Daryl" she sighed.
"Beth" Daryl looked into Beth's eyes. "Would you agree to do all those things with me?" Beth began nodding her head because she couldn't speak. Tears were threatening to begin full force now. "Marry me?" Daryl asked and Beth nodded. "Have our children?" Daryl continued and Beth nodded. "Grow old and crazy with me?" Daryl asked and Beth nodded, gasped, and grabbed him at the same time.
"Oh, Daryl" she shouted. "Yes, yes, yes! To all those things and more!"
Daryl took the ring out and placed it on her delicate finger. Beth looked down at the ring. It was the prettiest thing she'd ever laid her eyes on. Then she held her hand up to show the pilot and laughed. "I'm gonna marry Daryl Dixon!" The pilot smiled and nodded at her.
Daryl figured the least he should get out of this deal right now was a kiss. He pulled his girl into him and whispered to her "I can't wait to marry you. Please don't drag this out – my nerves can't take a long engagement." She smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Okay" Beth said. "I love you."
"Love you" he said. "Give me some sugar." The two shared a sweet, sweet embrace and kiss just as the sun rose fully up into the sky, just as the pilot had told them it would. After Daryl finally let go of Beth, she decided that just letting the pilot know of their engagement wasn't enough. Beth wanted the whole world to know. So, Beth did the only thing she could at the moment. At the top of her lungs she yelled, "I'm gonna marry Daryl Dixon!" Both Daryl and the pilot got tickled.
Daryl took a more practical approach and asked the pilot to snap a pic of them on his phone and he tweeted it out. Yep, it didn't get more official than that.