It was a long, hard Winter, but we all made it through. Some more of their daily life during the cold months and then I am so flipping excited to write the next chapter. It will be the solo-Anna chapter that many of you have also been excited for. I can't wait to write it. I hope you like this chapter in the meantime. A little bit of focus on the kids and Aaron in this one. PS - I love my Spencer so much more than I ever could with show! Spencer.


Chapter Twenty-nine. School.

For four days afterwards, Beth didn't really leave the tree-house. She either stayed in bed or she was at her desk, writing in her journal. No one bothered her. They had no reason to. They gave her the space to grieve and to be alone with her thoughts.

Each morning, Daryl and Eli would come into the cabin for breakfast – eggs every morning because Aaron could make delicious fried eggs and Rosita could make scrambled eggs, but only Beth knew how to make corn cakes and they were running low on jams, but no one dared even think about going to ask Beth to help them in the kitchen. They were all adults and they could take care of themselves.

After breakfast, they all went about their jobs – scavenging and hunting in the woods and sewing and melting snow so clothes could be washed inside and caring for the animals – and then, when it got too dark to see in front of them, Daryl and Eli headed upstairs into their tree-house as everyone else went into the cabin for the night. They all missed Beth's cooking – terribly – but they wouldn't dare say anything. Aaron and Spencer could be creative in the kitchen enough to keep them all fed even though they all missed fresh bread and goat cheese and fresh pasta and the thick stews Beth always made during the winter.

But on the fifth day, Eli ran through the back door into the kitchen and behind him, Beth came in. She gave them all a small smile and Rosita came to her, hugging her. The two women stood there for a long moment, clasping one another tightly, and Rosita whispered something in Beth's ear that made Beth sniffle and laugh softly.

Daryl came in after them and stood in the doorway, watching the scene, and when their hug broke apart, Beth looked at him from over her shoulder and gave him a smile; one he returned in that slight way of his.

Beth took a deep breath and looked to everyone. "Who's hungry?" She asked.

"God, yes," Spencer immediately answered.

Beth laughed softly and went to the shelves they had on the wall next to the window. She paused though when she looked over the jars. She then turned and looked at them all with a slight furrowed brow.

"What have you guys been eating?" She asked because the levels in the jars – of her spices and flours and syrups and crushed flower petals – were the same as they had been the last time she had cooked something in the kitchen.

"Eggs," Aaron and Rosita said at the same time.

Beth let out another slight laugh. "Let's have some corn cakes then," she said, taking down the jar of ground corn flour.

"Thank God," Spencer said. "With honey?" He asked and Rosita pinched his arm.

"Yes," Beth smiled easily. "With honey."

That morning, for breakfast, they had honey and lavender corn cakes and Beth brought the jar of their maple syrup to the table so they could use that, too, if they wanted. She had Aaron fry eggs and Beth warmed a pot of milk for the children so they could have hot chocolate and then she boiled a kettle of water for cups of wintergreen tea for everyone else.

It was a big breakfast and everyone ate every morsel put in front of them and they couldn't remember the last time they had had a more delicious breakfast.

"What are you going to do today?" Daryl asked Beth as they all finished up.

"I'm going to start on making dinner, and I'm going to make a loaf of bread and more jams, and I want to start up lessons for the kids again," Beth said.

"What's for dinner?" Spencer asked eagerly.

"I'm thinking just a thick mushroom, scallion and pepper soup," Beth answered and then turned her head towards Daryl when he leaned over in his chair, closer to her.

"Take it a lil' easy today, a'right?" He said to her in a quiet voice, his hand on the outside of her thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Beth gave him a small smile and she covered his hand with hers, giving it a gentle squeeze in return. "I want to stay busy," she whispered.

Daryl looked at her for another long moment and then squeezed her thigh again before leaning back in his chair. "If you wan', I can try and hunt up a rabbit. Maybe I can take Lily out with me," Daryl said, thinking out loud.

"I'll come, too," Aaron volunteered and Daryl gave him a slight nod in agreement.

"It'd go great with the soup," Beth smiled. "But don't drive yourself crazy, trying to get one. The soup will be great without it, too."

Daryl just smirked; as if there was no way he wouldn't be able to bring a rabbit back with him whether he was looking for one or not.

After they were all done eating, they helped clean the table and Spencer volunteered to wash the dishes and everyone broke up to go off about their own jobs for the day.

Anna went outside, heading to the barn, as always, and Rosita had plenty of mending to do and she went to the couch in the living room, grabbing her sewing basket and the pile of shirts and pants that needed her attention. Bee went after her and Rosita could hand her the needle and the thread so the little girl could practice. Eli went down into the root cellar to help Beth get the jar of mushrooms and the jar of scallions she needed for dinner and Aiden went to the room under the stairs that they now used for storage more than anything and brought back the few schoolbooks they used for their lessons.

After Mulligan's death, Aaron moved into his bedroom – the bedroom that had been first given to Daryl and Beth when they had first arrived – and with the two bedrooms upstairs, Aiden took one and Anna and Bee continued sharing the other.

When the dishes were washed and drying in their rack on the counter, Spencer grabbed his coat and headed outside to help Anna in the barn and the kids came back to the kitchen table, all taking their seats and each kid had their own spiral notebook and pencil and Beth opened Bee's to the page they had left off on. She wrote down her name: BEATRICE MONROE and Bee began to practice copying it in her slightly shaky handwriting. Beth then took one of the books and flipping through it, she found a poem and handed it to Aiden.

He exhaled a breath and then began reading. He actually hated reading out loud.

"How dot the little crocodile

Improve his shining tail,

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale."

For the next stanza, Aiden handed the book across the table to Eli so he could read practice with his reading, too.

"How cheerfully he seems to grin,

How neatly spreads his claws,

And welcomes little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws."

Beth stood at the counter, mixing milk and flour together, forming a thick paste for the stew, stirring and adding sprinkles of salt and pepper and listening to them.

"Mama?" Eli spoke once the poem was finished.

"Hmmmm?"

"In one of our other books, they said crocodiles were endangered," Eli said. "Do you think they're still endangered?" He asked.

Beth smiled a little as she added the mushrooms and cut the scallions up into bits before adding them as well. She added a dash more of pepper and then stirred it all up. She would simmer it over the flames for the next ten hours or so and she turned, carrying the heavy iron pot to the fireplace in the living room, hanging it on the hook and she stirred it once more before placing the lid over it.

"I don't think there's anything endangered any more, sweetie," Beth said, coming back into the kitchen, sitting for a moment in the chair next to Aiden. "Except for us."

Eli nodded as if that was the answer he had been expecting and Beth took the book, scanning through the pages as she searched for another poem for them to read.

"So, people have always been terrible, huh?" Aiden asked.

Beth looked at him. "Of course not," she said. "Why would you think that?"

Aiden shrugged. "Killing off whatever the hell they want just because they think they're more powerful."

"Aiden," Rosita spoke up from the living room and he looked towards his mom, she giving him a raised eyebrow. "Language."

"Sorry," Aiden said with a noticeable flush on his neck. He looked back to Beth. "Killing and taking. Almost killing off all sorts of animals just because they want to."

Beth paused for a moment. "You know people are given a choice. Whether to be good or bad. There are bad people, but there are good people, too. We're good. And we're going to be remembered for being good."

Aiden looked down to the table. "And when you are all gone, what if me, Eli and Bee decide that we want to be bad people instead?"

Beth was quiet for a moment, looking at him. "Do you want to be bad?" She asked.

She glanced to Rosita and Rosita had stopped sewing, her head up and her eyes focused on her son as Aiden continued looking down at the table.

He shrugged. "I heard mom and dad talking and they didn't think I was around to hear. About that guy from up North. Negan," Aiden said in a soft voice. "He's a bad guy and it sounds like he has a ton of stuff anyway."

"We have a ton of stuff, too," Eli frowned.

Rosita set her sewing aside and came to the table, crouching down on Aiden's other side. "Aiden," she said his name softly. He moved his eyes to glance at his mom before looking back down to the table. "Negan didn't earn any of what he has. He scared people and took what he wanted. What we have, we earned every single thing and that's the way it should be. It has to be."

"And what do I say?" Beth asked him; asked all of them.

"Good people are rewarded for being good when we die," Bee was the one to recite.

Rosita smiled and leaned in, kissing her daughter's cheek.

"Yeah, Aiden," Eli spoke up. "We're all gonna be in Heaven and you gotta be, too. If not, we're gonna be waiting for you and you're not gonna be able to come in."

That got Aiden to smile a little and Rosita kissed his cheek as well before she stood up and returned to the living room and her sewing.

"Going," Beth corrected Eli but with a smile. "Not gonna." She rubbed a hand on Aiden's back and he looked at her, giving her a small smile. She smiled back. "Well, since we've already tackled reading and philosophy this morning, how about math?"

Math was their favorite and both boys grinned as Beth picked up the math flashcards and handed them to Aiden. The adults constantly told them that they had to learn and be good at math if they wanted to keep this place going. They had to be able to figure out how much food they had to grow and store and how much food would be able to keep them all fed and alive during the cold months of winter.

Eli and Aiden always had contests with each other and who could get the most problems right when they were quizzed by the other.

"Quiz each other," she said. "And Bee, finish filling in the rest of the page and then the boys can quiz you, too, with your math problems," she told the girl as she stood up and Bee beamed in reply.

Beth sat for a moment, listening as Aiden flipped through the cards, asking Eli multiplication problems and Eli working them out in his notebook before giving his answer, and she then stood up. She walked around the table, giving each child a kiss on their head, before returning to the counter, beginning preparations to make the loaf of bread they would have for dinner that evening.

She heard the creaking of the ladder and then a moment later, she heard the door in the floor open and Daryl pull himself up into the tree-house. Beth was lying on the bed and she turned her head so she could look at him.

"What are you doing up here?" She asked him as he came towards the bed.

He stopped to take off his boots and his coat and Beth pulled the quilts back so he could climb into bed with her. She shivered slightly as he brought in some of the cold with him, but then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close into his body and she didn't feel cold then.

"You don't wan' my company?" He asked, his chest rumbling beneath her ear.

Beth smiled. "I didn't say that. I just thought you and Anna were in the barn and I wasn't expecting you this soon."

"Girl kept yawnin' and I told her that we've worked long enough for the day," Daryl said, turning his head towards the stove. Beth had loaded it with plenty of wood and the air was warm and had the faintest scent of sweet pine. "And then she and Aaron started a game of chess."

"Uh-oh," Beth laughed a little and Daryl smiled against her head.

They didn't have television anymore, but they had their books and records.

And chess.

Daryl had taught Beth how to play all of those years ago – Merle having taught him – and Aaron already knew how to play so between them, they taught everyone else. Anna had picked up on it quickly and over the years, she became a fierce competitor and when she played Aaron, their games could last for hours – each taking their time before making each calculated move. Daryl didn't mind playing her, but he sometimes found that he didn't have the patience – which was weird for him because he normally was the most patient when it came to his hunting.

"Did you wanna be alone?" Daryl then asked her quietly.

"No," Beth shook her head against his chest. "I like that you're here. I was just thinking," she said, burrowing closer to him and his arms tightened.

He didn't ask her what she was thinking about. Only an idiot wouldn't know.

"Are you feelin' a'right?" He asked after a minute of passing quiet. "I mean, your body. Your body feelin' a'right?"

Beth nodded. "It just feels empty," she whispered and he had no idea what to say to that. "I wonder if I'll ever be able to have another one."

Daryl took a second to think that over. "You wanna have another one?" He asked.

Beth moved then; just enough for her face to look into his. "You think I'm crazy."

"I didn' say that," Daryl instantly denied.

"Everyone will think I am," she pointed out and he frowned.

"No one 'll think that," he said and she smiled as if she didn't believe him.

"I don't know if I want another one," she then said, rolling onto her back and looking up towards the ceiling. Daryl turned towards her, lying on his side, and his arm gently laid across her stomach. Her fingers curled around it; as if he was a seatbelt and she was bracing herself for impact. "I'd be too terrified and what if I lost it again? I don't know if I'd be able to handle that."

Daryl stayed silent; silently agreeing with everything she said.

He didn't know what they would do if they got pregnant again and the baby didn't make it. It was scary as hell and building a little box for his baby girl to be buried in was one of the hardest things Daryl had ever had to do.

He wasn't looking to do it again.

"Spring's coming," Beth then said softly, changing the subject, looking at him.

"Yeah." He knew where her mind was going now. "She won't be gone forever."

"We hope," Beth added.

"She won't be," Daryl said, feeling confident about it for some reason even though there was no reason why he should be. "This is her home. She'll go out there and look and won't find anythin' and she'll come back."

"And what if she does find something? Someone?" Beth looked at him.

Daryl shrugged. "If she brings 'im back here, me, Spencer and Aaron will interrogate the hell out of 'im." He said it with the utmost seriousness and it made Beth laugh.

She turned towards him again and nestled against his chest, tucking her head beneath his chin and Daryl's arms wound around her once more.

"I jus' wan' her to be happy," he then said, his lips to her hair.

"Me, too," Beth agreed. "And I understand why she wants to leave. I just wish she could be happy here without having to go somewhere else to find it."

"She ain't leavin' tomorrow," Daryl felt the need to remind her. "We've got sheep and goats that are goin' to be givin' birth soon and then, Anna's got the sheep to shear."

Beth nodded and stayed quiet.

"Beth, I can't make her stay if she doesn' want to," he said quietly.

"I know," came her reply, soft against the skin of his throat. "She's just been with us for so long. Since she was a little girl. I don't know what we'll do without her."

Her words were the same thoughts Daryl had been having ever since he, Aaron and Anna had that conversation in the barn and he allowed to let her leave in the Spring.

He couldn't make her stay. He knew that and he told himself that over and over again. And all he could do was hope that she would come back to them again.

Aaron wasn't sure why, but when his eyes opened, the bedroom was still dark, growing grayer with the morning dawn, and he felt wide awake.

He laid there for a few minutes, listening to the quiet of the house, and he thought of what his jobs were that day. He and Spencer had to chop more wood for the fires. In the summer, it was easy and they only needed enough wood to light the stove in the kitchen so Beth could cook, but in the winter, they had fires in all of the fireplaces nearly burning at all hours of the day and night. They didn't like chopping down trees unless they absolutely had to. Even though they wouldn't be able to cut down every tree in these mountains even if they tried, it never sat right with any of them.

Instead, they developed the habit of ripping apart the homes. The buildings down the mountain in town were all nearly completely demolished, their wood and plaster and insulation being used for their warmth. And there were houses in these mountains that they were beginning to tear down, too.

It was a long process and took them hours, but every job they did was necessary and gathering wood for their fires was no exception.

Aaron was eager for Spring. This had been a hard Winter on all of them and he liked when the snow began to melt and the ice cracked and broke apart in the creek and there were fish again and the animals in the barn gave birth to their little ones. The only thing he wasn't eager for when the warmer weather got here though was that Anna would be leaving.

None of them were wanting to think about it and no one definitely wanted to talk about it. They still couldn't believe that Anna was going to leave. They hadn't even told the kids yet and Aaron could just imagine how difficult that conversation was going to go when they finally did.

Aaron finally pulled himself out of bed, immediately tugging on his sweater. The fire had died down to just a few glowing orange embers, but he wasn't going to build it up. He wasn't going to be in here again until he went to bed that night.

He tugged on his jeans and a thick pair of socks and after tying his boots tightly, he put on his coat and headed out the other door in the bedroom that led outside and to the outhouse.

It could be sometimes damn near silent up here in the mountains; especially in the winter. And if a person wasn't used to it, it could be almost jarring. Aaron was more than used to it now though and sometimes, he now craved it. Sometimes, he tried to wake up before anyone else just so he could stand out in their yard and listen and hear absolutely nothing.

Eric would have loved it up here. When they had both worked in DC and lived in Virginia, Eric's one complaint - always - was the constant noise that seemed to always surround them.

But this morning, he did hear something. The tiniest whimper and a creak of wood.

He left the outhouse and went into the kitchen, pausing to wash his hands with the bar of soap. Lily was at her usual place, sleeping in front of the stove. Buck stayed with Daryl, Beth and Eli in the tree-house and Spitz slept upstairs, in the hall between the two bedrooms where the kids slept.

Lily lifted her head when she heard another whimper and her ears perked up and Aaron followed her eyes, looking up to the ceiling. More creaks of wood and then Rosita was coming down the stairs with Bee in her arms, the girl's arms wrapped tight around her mama's neck and her face buried in her neck.

"What is it?" Aaron asked.

"It's her ear again," Rosita said, rubbing Bee's back.

Aaron couldn't help but frown. This was Bee's third ear infection this Winter.

"Do you mind holding her?" Rosita asked.

Aaron didn't even justify that with an answer. He stepped to her and Bee was transferred from Rosita's arms into his and Bee didn't protest. She simply wrapped her arms around his neck and whimpered miserably. Now he was the one to rub Bee's back as he looked to Rosita, almost asking her if she needed him to get Beth. But he stopped when he saw Rosita already moving around the kitchen, getting together what she needed.

With Bee's first and second ear infection, Beth had read in one of her books what they could do to help and Rosita had memorized the steps that had to be taken.

Aaron walked around in circles around the table, trying to give the little girl some comfort as he watched Rosita out of the corner of his eye.

Rosita heated up one cup of salt in a pan over the stove for a few minutes and once it was hot. she then placed it into a cloth, gathering the ends and tying them in a knot.

"Come on, little Bee," Aaron said and brought her to the couch where he gently laid her down on her left side and then gently brushed hair back from her right ear.

Rosita waited a moment for the salt to not be so unbearably hot before she knelt down next to the couch and gently laid the cloth down on the infected ear. Bee let out one tiny whimper and then she was quiet again.

Aaron turned when he heard the back door open and Beth entered. She stopped though when she saw Bee on the couch and Rosita holding a cloth to her ear.

"Again?" She asked, coming to them.

"It was one cup of salt, right?" Rosita asked, still holding the cloth to Bee's ear and turning her head to look at Beth from over her shoulder.

Beth nodded and moved in closer and Rosita moved the cloth so Beth could look at it for herself. Beth smiled and brushed Bee's cheek affectionately. Aaron stood up to toss more wood into the hearth into the fireplace next to the couch.

"Hey, Bee," Beth said gently. "Since you're sick, you get to pick what we have for breakfast this morning."

"Kit-Kat," Bee didn't even hesitate before answering.

Beth smiled and Rosita rolled her eyes and Aaron snickered.

"You've created a monster," Aaron told Rosita.

"I had no idea that Spencer's sweet tooth would be carried in his DNA," Rosita said. "If I knew that, I never would have procreated with him."

"That would have been your reason for not procreating with him?" Aaron asked.

"I heard that, Aaron!" Spencer called out from his and Rosita's bedroom as he got himself dressed.

Beth and Rosita both laughed this time and Bee smiled, too, as if she understood the joke.

"Daryl sometimes eats raw squirrel," Beth said. "I'm actually waiting for Eli to pick up that habit."

Rosita smiled as she looked up to Aaron. "It seems like you're probably the best male specimen around to procreate with. Are you sure you're gay?" She asked him and he cracked a grin at her and she grinned back and Beth laughed again.

"Hey!" They could all hear Spencer exclaim from the bedroom and they laughed some more.

"What's goin' on in here?" Daryl asked as he, Eli and Buck came through the back door, Buck going to greet Lily and Eli hurrying to the couch once he saw that they were all gathered around Bee.

"Tormenting Spencer. Want to join in?" Aaron asked with a grin.

"Always," Daryl smirked back.

...


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