Chapter 29
Sasha was on guard duty. She had been scanning the area beyond the walls for hours looking for Dayna and Daryl. She knew Daryl was staying at the green house, but no one knew until it was too late that Dayna had gone after him. That was such a stupid move on her part. Dayna was nine months pregnant and no business putting herself and the baby in danger that way. Rick was dropping by almost every half hour to see if she had seen anything. Everyone was worried about them.
Rick was pacing back and forth in the house. First, it was Daryl that had gone missing and now Dayna. He fully expected them back yesterday, but as night came on and they didn't show he began to get concerned. Not only was Dayna their only medically trained person, but she was family, just like Daryl.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't even have bothered him that they were gone. He knew they liked to get away to that small house very now and then. They wanted some privacy, so who was he to question it. But this was different. Daryl's vision still hadn't returned to normal after his accident. Rick had a good feeling that Daryl never intended to stay out overnight. Something must have gone wrong, but how bad was it to keep him away?
Rick growled under his breath thinking how Dayna took out after Daryl. If he had known she wanted to go, he would have convinced her to stay put and he would have gone after Daryl. The woman was ready to pop out a kid and she left the safety of the compound. He was ready to kill them both.
Once more, he had wandered out onto the front porch. Rick was in the middle of deciding how long he was going to give Daryl and Dayna before he went looking for them, when he heard Sasha call out. Rick ran down the steps and saw her waving at him, so he continued running up to the gate. Eugene was sliding it open as he got there. Dayna jogged through carrying a bundle close to her and Daryl was limping badly behind her with his crossbow in his hands. Silently a walker fell dead about ten feet behind Daryl. Sasha had taken out the threat with one shot to the head.
"Where have you two been?" Rick demanded.
"At the house, man. Relax," Daryl told him.
"Relax? Really? First, you go missing when you know you can't see well enough. Then she goes running after you when the last place she belongs is outside. You should have let me know what was going on Dayna. I would have gone to get him!" Rick knew he was overreacting, but they both put themselves in unnecessary danger… especially Dayna. "What took you so long to get back? Dayna, you knew we were worried."
Dayna smiled at Rick. His concern touched her and she couldn't be mad at him for that. "We were a little bit busy. Right, Daryl?"
"Right."
"What was so important that you couldn't let us know you were okay?" Rick's voice was heated. He didn't think they were taking this seriously. Didn't Dayna come to him concerned just the other day when Daryl didn't come back? Now she was smiling at him and Daryl had that damn smirk on his face.
"Hey, what's going on?" Michonne asked as she joined the group. She could feel the tension coming off Rick in waves. She knew he didn't sleep last night at all.
"I'm waiting for them to tell me what was so important that they couldn't come back yesterday." Rick took a deep breath to calm himself. "I know you both have your own lives, but damn it, you had us really worried."
Dayna smiled over at Daryl before answering Rick. "This is why we were busy." She unwrapped the bundle in her arms that apparently, no one had noticed.
Michonne gasped. Sasha screeched and started down the ladder from the perch as quickly as she could. Rick just stood there with his mouth open, until he said, "You had the baby."
"Oh my God!" Michonne exclaimed. "You delivered without us? Who helped you?"
"Daryl delivered his son. Meet Drew everyone." While the girls cooed over the newborn, Rick stuck out his hand to his friend. Daryl grasped it, but then Rick pulled him into a hug.
"Bro, you really delivered the baby?"
Daryl nodded. "One minute she's yelling at me and the next her water breaks. The contractions kept us at the house cause they were comin' fuckin' fast. Next thing I know I'm helping the baby come outta her. I didn't have time to be nervous or anythin'." No need to tell Rick he actually was scared to death the entire time.
"Congratulations, man. Welcome to my world!" Rick laughed. "So why are you limping?"
"Cause I'm a stupid fuck. The day I left I came across a group of walkers that wasn't big, but I couldn't see them good enough to fight, so I ran and tripped over something and sprained it pretty good. I could barely walk on it." Daryl saw the I-told-you-so look Rick was giving him. "I know. I heard it all from Dayna, I was an idiot. I think the only thing that saved her from killing me was the baby comin'."
The two guys laughed, before turning back to Dayna and the small crowd that was surrounding her. Word of the baby was spreading throughout Alexandria. "Okay, everyone, I need to get Drew home. He needs a bath and a diaper that not an old t-shirt."
It was agreed upon that after the new family had time to clean up and rest, people could come over to visit and see the new addition. Daryl and Dayna were headed back to the house with Rick and Michonne when Carol came running down the street. She stopped in front of them and put her hands on her hips. "You couldn't wait for me? I can't believe you had the baby without me!"
"Wasn't like we did it on purpose," Daryl grumbled.
"I know. I was just really looking forward to it. Can I see him?" Carol begged.
Dayna uncovered the cloth from Drew's face and Carol just melted. She fell in love with the little Dixon immediately. "He's so beautiful," she sighed. "But he's also a little ripe."
"I know," Dayna laughed. "Not having diapers with us was a challenge. He needs a bath really bad. Then I can feed him and he can nap."
The group headed into the house that they all shared. Dayna stopped when they got to the kitchen. "I hate to say this, but bathing him in the sink here is maybe the best option. The bathroom sink is just too small. I can disinfect it afterwards. He's a mess."
"I completely agree. What do you need from your room? I'll go get it?" Carol volunteered.
"The usual…washcloths, towel, soap, lotion, a diaper and the diaper rash medicine for sure. I'll dress him upstairs." Then she turned to Daryl, "Can you show Carol where I put all the baby stuff?"
Daryl did his usual head nod and hobbled upstairs with Carol behind him. When they got into the room, Daryl pointed at the dresser that Dayna had added for the baby stuff. "Everything is in there I think."
"You doing okay?" Carol asked giving his arm a squeeze.
"I'm good. Really good," he told her with a half-smile. He was still flying high with adrenaline. The last twenty-four hours had been incredible.
Carol sensed something different in Daryl. The tension she had always associated with him was gone. She had always felt like he had one foot out the door all the time, but not now. He was relaxed. The hard expression he constantly had on his face was gone. It was replaced by a softness she had never seen before. Carol realized that Daryl was a new man. He was a father and he was loving it.
"Fatherhood looks good on you, Daryl. I'm really happy for you," Carol told him as she pulled out everything that Dayna as going to need for Drew.
"It feels good." It was s simple statement, but it was perfectly true. He had been a father for only twenty-four hours, but it felt as natural to him as breathing.
"I bet you didn't get any sleep last night, did you?"
Daryl chuckled. "Nope. Held the little guy all night while Dayna slept on and off."
Carol walked by and gave him a quick kiss on his scruffy cheek. "C'mon Dad. Your son needs a bath."
Daryl limped behind Carol as they headed back to the kitchen. He liked the sound of "Dad." He really did.
Michonne had stayed with Dayna so she could get rid of the soiled clothing items that Drew was in. By the time Carol had come back down with her arms full of stuff, Michonne was turning off the water in the sink and they had a perfect bath ready for the little guy.
Carol put everything down on the counter and asked, "Can I hold him while you clean him up?"
"Sure," Dayna replied. She was handing Drew over to Carol when she remembered about Daryl's ankle. Damn, she had sent him up to the room too and he never said anything. "Michonne, can you do me a favor?"
"What you need?"
"Can you go to the infirmary and get a three-inch ace bandage plus a bottle of ibuprofen? I need to wrap Daryl's ankle when we finish with Drew."
"On my way," Michonne replied as she headed out the door.
Daryl leaned on the counter to take weight off his ankle which was throbbing badly. He watched Carol lower Drew into the warm water that came up to about mid-chest on him. She hung onto him as Dayna scrubbed his little body. Since he had never been properly washed after birth the bath took a little longer than normal. Dayna wanted to make sure that he was completely clean.
"Watch out," Carol called out.
"What?" Daryl was instantly alarmed. "What's wrong?"
Dayna laughed at him. "Nothing's wrong. He's just peeing and Carol wanted to warn me, but I saw it. With little girls, you don't have to worry about this, but with boys, they can spray anywhere. Remember that when you're diapering him."
After the bath and only when Drew was thoroughly dried off, powdered and diapered, did the new family finally head towards their room. Daryl closed the door quietly behind them. Dayna had Drew in one arm as she rummaged through a drawer looking for clothes for him. A onsie and some socks were all he needed right now.
"Give me him," Daryl said as he lifted Drew out of her arms. Dayna let his father take him and she watched her two favorite guys head over to the bed. Daryl sat down with the baby cradled in his strong arm. Her big bad Daryl was a softie when it came to his son.
She grabbed the clothes for Drew and even though Daryl was reluctant to give up his son, Dayna showed him how to dress the baby on the bed. By now he was getting quite fussy and since he was dry, Dayna figured he was most likely hungry. It had been a while since she fed him at the house.
Drew started to cry and Daryl looked at Dayna. "What wrong?"
"I think he's hungry. Follow me." She walked over to one of the soft chairs in the room and sat down. Daryl handed Drew over to her and the baby quieted the instant he latched onto Dayna's breast. "Yeah, he was hungry. Hey, while I'm feeding him, why don't you shower?
"You saying I smell?" Daryl teased.
"Yes and so do I, but keeping germs away from him will help keep him healthy. We are both a mess after the delivery. Now's a good time."
"Can't I stay and watch?" He was fascinated watching the baby feed from the same breast he had sucked on so many times himself.
"Babe, you're going to see him do this hundreds of times. I need to shower after I feed him. I feel absolutely gross. This way you can burp him while I go in. Okay?" Dayna was dying for a shower. Her body needed a scrubbing as bad as Drew's did. Plus, having a few moments to herself was necessary.
She was a mom. It was something she never thought would happen once the world changed. The weight of her responsibility to Drew was heavy on her shoulders. It was a lifelong job she was ready to take on, but have a few minutes alone to maybe shed a few tears was something that she needed desperately.
"Alright," he agreed. "I won't be long." And he wasn't. He was out long before Drew was done.
Dayna had Daryl take her seat and handed him the baby. She laid a towel on Daryl's shoulder and showed him how to gently encourage the baby to burp. "Why do we have to do this?" asked Daryl. His experience with babies was a time or two he fed Judith and they handed her off to someone. He knew he had a lot to learn.
"They swallow air when they feed and that turns into gas and that makes for an unhappy baby. Sometimes they spit up too, so that's what the cloth is for. Get him to burp a few times then hopefully he'll just drift off to sleep."
Daryl had the baby against his shoulder and was gently patting his back, when Dayna turned to head to the bathroom, but something caught her eye. The ace bandage was sitting on the bed. She had put off wrapping his sprained ankle long enough. The shower could wait another few minutes.
She grabbed the wrap off the bed and sat on the floor in front of Daryl. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"I want to look at the ankle and wrap it properly. You've been walking on it a lot."
"It can wait."
Dayna gave him her charge nurse stare. "No. It's waited long enough. This won't take long."
He had taken the make-shift wrap off when he showered. He was still barefoot as he sat with Drew. Dayna took his foot and lifted it up to examine it. She knew it most likely wasn't broken since he could walk on it, but it was badly swollen and had turned a nice shade of blue and purple on the outside of the ankle.
She grabbed the ace bandage and started to expertly wrap it around his ankle in figure eights. "You certainly are accident prone. Maybe I should rethink us? Drew needs a daddy that can take care of himself," Dayna told him trying to keep a straight face. Once she finished the wrapping, she looked up and saw him glaring at her. Dayna just started laughing.
"Not funny," he growled.
"Well, whether you want to admit it or not, you are accident prone," she laughed. "Okay, there that should help support the ankle." She stood up and told him she would be right back. Dayna grabbed a glass of water from the bathroom and gave him a couple of ibuprofens. "This should help with the pain and swelling."
Daryl down them, but still hadn't said a word to Dayna. She was right he had been accident prone, but it was embarrassing to admit. He kept patting the baby on the back and glaring at her.
With a roll of her eyes, Dayna disappeared into the bathroom. It only took a minute or two for her to get out of the dirty clothes and be standing under the hot shower spray. It felt so damn good. She scrubbed herself clean and took particular care to be gentle between her legs. The bleeding from the tear and slowed down, but not stopped. She hoped it would stop by morning.
Once she was clean and her hair washed, Dayna let the hot water just run all over her. Her tears of joy that had been threatening now mixed in with the water from the shower head. She was completely drained. These last few days had taken its toll on her. She was the happiest she had ever been. While the world fell apart, her life had finally made sense. She had a man that she loved more than anything and a baby boy that filled a void she didn't even know existed. The two men in her life had become her reason for living. She couldn't imagine loving anyone more than she loved them and that's why she was crying. She had found the perfect life during a time when everything else was wrong. The dead lived. The living were just as dangerous and her perfect family had to find a way to survive. Her sanity depended on them staying safe and alive. She asked God to protect her family, but she wasn't sure he even existed anymore. She thanked him and cursed him at the same time.
Dayna dries her tears with the towel, before quickly running it over her hair. Then she wrapped it around herself as she headed back into the room to find some clean clothes and to the men she loved.
