The months passed by and Beth grew bigger by the minute, she had hoped not to get to big, but right now she felt like she was carrying around a soccer playing, elephant, he feet swelled if she spent to much time on them, and she had some of the strangest cravings, but luckily she also had a man that made her cravings happen, two days ago she had been craving peaches and a can had appeared on the side with a small note saying.

Enjoy, sprog had better enjoy this

your Pa's going to kill me when he realises they are gone

Dxx

Beth was on her own in the flat, finishing off in the nursery they had been working on, she had been told she was only two weeks away, but it was all guess work, she longed for the baby to be out now, just so she could lay down and try and sleep, see her feet to tie her own shoe laces. She rolled her eyes, you made your bed Beth you damned well lay in it, she could hear her mothers voice regularly now, she presumed it had something to do with being pregnant, she didn't mind so much, it felt nice being close to her mother.

Beth sat on the floor of the nursery fingering a small jump suit, looking back over the last few years, so much has happened, so much had changed, she had grown up, married, becoming a mother, she was still so shocked that life could almost be normal, in a world of death and destruction, silent tears ran down her face, all these hormones running around her body made her cry sometimes, made her shout others, this was the tough side of being pregnant without her mother around.

"What ya crying for now woman?" Beth brushed the tears from her eyes.

"I have no idea, it's a pregnancy thing, I am guessing." she tried to stand up but her legs gave way from underneath her and she fell backwards hard, then she felt wetness.

"Daryl" she looked up at him with scared eyes "Help, something is wrong" She felt Daryl lifting her to her feet, then she was in his arms and he was running, out the door, heading towards their make shift hospital, she felt the warmth wrap round her as they entered.

"It's Beth, the baby some thing's wrong" he declared, laying her down on the hospital bed in the room. Bob came over checking her vitals, then he took a stethoscope to her tummy listening to the baby's heart beat.

"Well all seems ok, I can hear the baby's heart beat, it seems fine, now Daryl it's entirely up to you but I need to examine Beth, she smiled.

"What he means Daryl is I am going to get naked and he's going to look at my lady parts." Daryl's face looked stunned then he turned on his heel and went towards the door.

"Be out here" he stated.

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Daryl was stood outside chewing on his thumb nail and fidgeting, how long did these things take? Rick came in, slapped him on the shoulder. "Heard anything yet?" he said

"Nope, they have been in there forever." Daryl moaned

"Carl saw you running across and I came straight over, it's been five minutes Daryl."

"Longest five minutes ever, thought he was a fucking doctor." Daryl could sense he was getting angry, but couldn't hide it.

"Why not step outside the front door and have one of these" Rick handed him a packet of smokes, and Daryl breathed a sigh of relief, his best friend came through again, Rick followed him out "Daryl you could be here for hours if she is in labour, its her first baby, Lori took nearly 18 hours to have Carl." he explained, Daryl looked at him in disbelief.

"Only takes a fucking animal a couple of hours, shit me old dog had four puppies in the space of an hour and half, she's only having one for fuck sake." Rick smirked.

"Daryl" a voice came from behind him "Beth is in labour, the baby should be her by tonight, as you know this is only slightly early so I can not foresee any problems with the baby surviving the birth"

"And Beth?" he asked queitly

"You also know that sometimes there could be complications so I am making no promises, women had dangerous births when the world was normal, but I can promise I will do everything in my power to keep her with us." Daryl nodded swallowing hard "you can see her now we have her settled, she's going to need a bag with things for her and the baby."

"Ok, I will... What the hell do I do first Rick?" for the first time in ages he heard Merles voice Man the fuck up Darylena, she's your woman, you put her there go face her. He nodded to the voice, then looked at Rick. "I will go see her, then get her things. You wait yeah you will know more about what shit she needs than me."

"Of course" Rick said, Rick stood watching his friend walk away shaking his head at his gruff friends innocence.

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They were just walking back towards the flat when Sasha came running over "Rick, men at the gate, there are loads of them, they want to see the leader, but Morgans gone out and the council said to find you, said you would know what to say to them."

"What do they want?" he asked already starting towards the gate, Daryl fell into step.

"We ain' got Beth and a power gun this time." he said Rick looked at him

"I know, but we do have two secret weapons, lets hope it won't come to that, but Sasha just in case lets get them barrels burning hot" she nodded planted a small kiss on Ricks cheek and ran off.

They climbed up to look down on the group from the high wall "My name is Rick, I am one of the group who run's this place, how can I be of assistance?" he asked in his best Sheriffs voice.

"I am Negan, we have come here to give you a warning, in exactly one weeks time, I will be back with all my men, and you will either give me half of all your supplies or your group will perish, your women taken, and children turned into killers." he stated when Rick said nothing he continued "I suggest you do not become a hero, we have over 50 men, who are not scared of firing a gun." Rick nodded, then looked at Daryl, Daryl was seething, this little man came here threatening his family, his friends, but then he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned a little, Maggie was stood right behind him, reminding him of Beth and the baby.

"We will consider you demands, come back in one week and we will discuss it further." Rick dismissed them and walked away, he could hear Negan shouting from the floor.

"You will all die" was the last thing he heard from the man.

"He needs to die." Daryl said looking at Rick sternly

"Your not wrong, just 50 men, they out number us so we have to use our brains not brawn." Daryl shook his head.

"Brains, Brawn all the same, we need to whoop arse." he juggled the crossbow on his back.