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Thanks to DarylDixon'sLover, Annelisa, Micaela Beth Winchester, FanFicGirl10, jessegdixon, Brazen Hussy, Emberka-2012, SeverusSnape'sLove, and Smittendebs.

Chapter 36.

It had been little over a week since the "Merle Flu" had hit the farm. The Dixon's sickness had claimed a few other group members. Carol, Andrea and Dale had all caught the dreaded sickness they had been placed in trailers and the RV as quarantine. The rest of the farm tried its hardest to function with the missing members.

Milton had started work on the generator. Due to the noise the machine would make a large pit needed to be built so any passing walkers would be snared, this made it easier than wading through a large group of walkers if ever the generator needed repairing. The job of digging the trench was a dangerous one. Walkers could sneak up on the digger at anytime, so the group had made an away team to take care of the generator. Everyday at first light Milton, Omid, T-Dogg, Shane, Rick and Glenn would set out and return at dusk.

Since Judith's birth, Shane and Rick's relationship had started to disintegrate. Shane wanted to spend time with his could be daughter without rousing the suspicions of Rick, but Lori would block him at any chance he got. His ex lover would tell him the little girl was Rick's and had nothing to do with him.

The budding friendship of Rick and Daryl didn't help matters either. Rick had asked Daryl along on the mission before Shane. The younger Dixon had politely declined, he wanted to spend time with his daughter. Shane had started to feel pushed out by Rick and pushed away by Lori, he was alone.

With the absence of Milton the school was put on the back burner, much to Carl's delight and with Carol sick and Beth looking after Merle childcare feel to the rest of the group.

Merle lay in bed, for the first time he was starting to feel better. Beth had been playing nurse to him; it was something Merle had initially fought. He didn't need Beth coddling him; he had always taken care of himself. He didn't need a woman babying him. It had been on the fifth day Merle realised that Beth would give her sick bear anything he wanted, no question asked. The only downside to his sickness was not being able to see Hope. Both Merle and Daryl had decided they didn't want their princess to become ill, so until Merle was well again Hope was off limits. The littlest Dixon missed her Mine and in her free time gave Beth drawings to take to Merle. All off Hope's pictures had been stuck on the walls of Merle's and Beth's bedroom making Merle smile every time he saw them.

Merle sprawled out in his large bed, the clean sheets felt nice against his naked body. He wondered if he could get another round of sympathy sex out of Beth, when the pretty blonde entered the room with a tray.

"How's my sick bear." Beth placed the tray on the nightstand. She was starting to worry about Merle; he didn't seem to be getting any better at all.

Merle gave a large sniff. "Not good girl, but y'know what would help me." Merle pulled his body up and patted the bed. "A little of your lovin'."

"I've brought you some soup. I can't wait until we can all move in here." Beth picked up the bowl of soup; she sat next to Merle on the bed. "Judith's birth is really causing problems."

Merle gave a grunt; he didn't care about the Grimes's latest addition. "Well that's what happens when you screw around behind your man's back and have another man's baby."

Beth frowned. "She thought Rick was dead."

Merle snorted into his soup. "Well I sure as hell hope if I go missin' you give me more than a couple of months before shackin' up with Daryl." He pointed the spoon at Beth. "And you certainly ain't gonna ever be havin' another mans baby. I'd kill ya both."

Beth rubbed Merle's stomach. "I could never replace you. Besides the only babies I'll be having are yours. I want at least three."

Merle chocked on a mouthful of soup. "Wha?" He spluttered.

Beth's hand travelled down under the sheet. "We've not been safe Merle, and you know I want babies. I just assumed you didn't care."

Merle jumped as Beth went touch him, his soup spilt over the clean bed. "I don't want no kids." Beth pulled her hand away at high speed, she looked hurt. "What I mean is, we got Hope an..."

"Hope would love a brother or sister and Hope is yours and Daryl, we have to share her." Beth took the bowl off the bed, she started to try and clean the mess.

Merle grabbed her hand. "Listen Peach, childbirth ain't safe..."

"Maggie and Lori did fine, and Christa is having a baby." Beth protested.

Merle sighed; he loved Hope to the moon and back. His baby may have been a mistake but she was the best one he'd ever made. Merle had never thought about more children. He stared at Beth, her pale blue eyes and perfect blonde hair. Would a child be so bad? "Listen, I ain't promisin' shit, if you get knocked up then it happens." Merle shrugged. "I just don't want you goin' to any extra lengths to get yourself all..." Merle wiggled his finger at Beth's stomach. "Y'know...fertile."

Beth raised an eyebrow; she didn't really understand what Merle meant. She had no idea how she could make herself more fertile, but she wasn't going to question him, after all he was giving her what she wanted.

"I promise I won't make myself more fertile." Beth could help but giggle a little.

"Good." Merle sniffed. "How's my little Squirt?" He quickly changed the subject.

"Daryl's taking her bug hunting around the farm." Beth striped the dirty blanket off the bed.

Merle yawned. "Don't seem all that long ago I was teachin' Lil D to catch bugs...course he used to eat most of them."

"That's disgusting. Why did you let him eat them?"

Merle shrugged he closed his eye. "Didn't hurt him any." He felt a clean blanket cover his body. Then he felt Beth's body curl into his.

Beth rubbed Merle's chest. "Just think when you get better; we can spend lazy mornings in bed with our children."

Merle didn't reply, it was easier to pretend to be asleep than start talking about babies again. A small smile snuck its way onto Merle's face as he found himself thinking about a farm full of Dixon's, all boys though, he didn't want Hope to have any competition. The little girl was his princess and nobody would ever take her place.

Daryl carried Hope in one arm and a bag full of empty jam jars in the other. Patricia wasn't going to be impressed with her missing jars, but then the woman didn't seem impressed by a lot, especially when it came down to the messier members of the group.

Daryl placed Hope down in the long grass; he dropped to his knees and carefully placed the bag of glass jars beside him. "You ready for some bug huntin'?"

Hope clapped her hands together. She wasn't sure what her Dada was talking about, all she knew was she loved him and she liked being outside. Hope always seemed happiest when she was set free in the farmyard. She'd toddle as fast as she could, pull up all the flowers she could find and worry the chickens by chasing them.

Daryl pulled one of the jars out of the bag, he unscrewed the lid.

"Now first thing you gotta do is place some grass and leaves in the jar." Daryl pulled up some grass and placed it in the old jam jar. "Like this."

Hope pulled at the long grass around her; Daryl guided her hand into the jar. "Atta girl."

Hope took another handful of grass and threw it at Daryl. "More."

"No thanks you baby, we got plenty." Daryl placed the jar on the ground. "Now we just gotta find a bug."

"Here." Hope yelled.

Daryl laughed. "Different kind of bug Bug."

"What are you doing?" A soft voice came from behind Daryl.

It was Clementine. She stood with her hands clasped firmly in front of her; she rocked back and forth on her heels.

"Bug huntin'." Daryl replied softly. He always found his tone naturally softening when he spoke to the little girl.

"Here." Hope shouted again.

Daryl stood up and looked around. "Where's everyone at?" He couldn't believe that Clementine had been allowed to roam around the farm by herself. Yes, the farm was safe but it would never be 100% safe, there would always be dangers lurking around. Daryl would never let Hope wander around alone and unguarded.

Clementine gave a small shrug. "Christa's talking to Lori and Maggie about grown up stuff, Caesar is on watch and Sasha is looking after the sick people."

"Carl and Sophia?" Daryl asked.

Clementine bit her lip as she dropped her gaze to the ground. "They're supposed to be looking after me, but Carl told me I was too young to hang around with them."

Daryl crossed his arms. "To young huh?" Daryl knew what Carl was up to. The young boy had currently started dating Sophia, he thought the group didn't know and most of them hadn't guessed yet, but Daryl had figured it out. Daryl also knew what sort of things were on a teenaged boys mind when it came to girls. "Well why don't, you, me and Bug go join 'em. He can't tell me I'm too young."

Clementine giggled. "No because you're really old."

Daryl snorted. "Hey I ain't that old." Daryl picked up Hope. "C'mon Bug lets go see Carl and Phia." He adjusted Hope so he held her in one arm; he then offered his spare hand to Clementine.

The little girl took Daryl's hand. "Are the sick people going to die?" She asked as they walked past the trailers.

Daryl could tell by Clementine's tone that she was worried. "Nah, they're just a little sick, y'know with colds and shit."

"Swear." Clementine chirped.

"Huh?" Daryl looked down at the girl in confusion.

"You said a swear." Clementine looked up at Daryl with large puppy eyes. "Swearing is bad. We used to have a swear jar at home."

Daryl raised an eyebrow. He was glad the swear jar never made it to the Dixon home, they would have been flat broke in twenty four hours. "Well it's lucky we ain't got one here."

Clementine let go of Daryl's hand and started to skip towards the barn. "We should. I'm going to ask Milton and Hershel about it."

Daryl frowned. "And what the hell would we put in there?"

Clementine gave a small shrug. "Chores and stuff."

Daryl tickled Hope under her chin. "If the swear jar comes here you're gonna be workin' every hour of the day Bug."

"Dada down now." Hope demanded as she watched Clementine skip towards the barn door.

Daryl ignored his daughter's demand and joined Clementine at the barn. "Here hold bug." He passed the baby to Clementine; the young girl struggled to hold the fidgeting child.

Daryl pushed open the barn door. Carl and Sophia were sat on a hay bale. The teenaged boy nearly jumped off the hay bale as Daryl entered the barn.

"What's going on here?" Daryl asked looking at the teens suspiciously.

Sophia looked up at Daryl with look of pure innocence. "Nothing, I wanted to do the homework Milton set us, and Carl suggested we use the barn because it's quiet in here."

Daryl raised a single eyebrow at Carl. "Well ain't that sweet of you." The young boy just huffed.

Clementine placed Hope down on the barn floor. "Dada bugs peas." Daryl looked down at his daughter who was now pulling on his pant leg. "Now." She whined.

Daryl ran his hand through his shaggy hair. He had been looking forward to spending time with Hope, but he didn't want to leave two hormonal teenagers alone together. Then again he wasn't either one of their parents so why should it matter to him what they did? Daryl bit his fingernails he looked from Carl to Sophia. He huffed the last thing he needed was another baby around the farm. With Hope, two new-borns and one on the way, the group were already multiplying like rabbits.

"Clem says you're supposed to be lookin' after her." Daryl questioned Carl.

Carl rolled his eyes, just lately he'd become a typical moody teenager. Daryl had never had a chance to go though that stage in life, an eye roll would have earned him a beating from his old man.

"She was being a pain." Carl replied moodily. "She wanted to go outside and play. So I told her to go and play."

Daryl was taken aback by Carl's new found disrespectful attitude. "And you couldn't do your school work outside?" Daryl found himself snapping back. Carl's response was just a shrug. "You and Sophia were asked to keep an eye on her."

Carl huffed. "I'm fourteen, which makes me an adult. I shouldn't be babysitting."

Carl's backchat was the last straw. "An adult huh? You wanna be treated like a grown man." Carl nodded. "And what about you 'Phia, you think your all grown up too?"

Sophia bit her lip; she wasn't raised to answer back. Her father had taught her what a smart mouth would get her. "No sir." She muttered as she refused to meet Daryl's eyes.

Daryl nodded towards the barn door. "C'mon Carl, you get to do a man's day of work. Phia look after the girls 'till I get back."

Daryl marched a sullen Carl out of the barn and across a field towards the house. Tyreese sat on a camping chair hunched over working on something in his hands.

"Hey Ty." Daryl called out. "Got you a helper for the day."

Tyreese looked up at Daryl and Carl approaching. "Thought you'd be sleeping D. You do know you're on night watch right?"

Daryl lightly pushed Carl forward; the boy's face fell when he noticed what Tyreese was doing. The man was skinning and gutting a rabbit.

"Yeah, just thought I'd get some time in with Bug, I don't need much sleep." Daryl placed his hand firmly on Carl's shoulder. "Carl seems to think he's too grown up to watch the little ones, so he's here for a hard days work."

A mischievous smirk crossed Tyreese's face. "Hard days work hey? Well I've got a hell of a lot of work that needs doing, starting with gutting the rest of these rabbits."

"But I don't know how to do that." Carl replied flatly.

Daryl patted Carl's shoulder. "Ty can teach ya how. I sure hope you ain't squeamish."

Tyreese pointed his knife at Carl. "Then we have wood that needs splitting and Martinez needs help with patching up the roof." He nodded. "A lot of work that needs doing, and with Rick and all away from the farm we need all the help we can get."

"What about Daryl?" Carl moaned. "He's just playing around with Hope, shouldn't he be doing this?"

Daryl gave a grunt. "I'm supposed to be in bed resting for double watch shift." Daryl replied. "I should be playin' with my baby girl, not sortin' you out."

Tyreese waved Daryl off. "I got him D, you go and enjoy yourself."

Daryl nodded in thanks and left Carl and Tyreese to their daily grind. Daryl felt proud of himself. If he'd have acted that way towards his old man he wouldn't be standing, but Daryl had dealt with Carl without using his fist. It had always been a lingering fear with Daryl that as Hope grew and hit her teenage years, he'd turn into his father and use his fist on his daughter. After today he was pretty sure he could cope with a teenage Hope. At least there wouldn't be a large amount of men around, there would only be Chris and with him and Judy so close in age the boy was bound to go for the Grimes girl over Hope.

Daryl entered the barn to find Clementine and Sophia trying to teach Hope how to play pat a cake. Hope was sat on Sophia's lap opposite Clementine. Sophia gently moved Hope's hands in time with the rhyme both girls were singing.

"Pat a cake,

Pat a cake,

Baker's man,

Bake me a cake as fast as you can,

Roll it, and pat it, and mark it with B,

Put it in the oven for baby and me."

Daryl smiled as Hope clapped her hands at the end of the song.

"Baba." She cheered. Hope swivelled her head in Daryl's directing. "Dada." She wriggled free from Sophia and made her way to Daryl. "Dada no bug." Hope wrapped her arms around his leg.

Daryl looked at all three girls. "What?"

Sophia stood up. "We decided we didn't want to hunt bugs."

"It's icky." Clementine added.

Daryl looked slightly disappointed as he scooped up Hope in his arms. "But Bug, its fun."

Hope wildly shook her head. "No bug." Hope replied adamantly. "Tea."

Daryl squinted at Sophia and Clementine, he'd only been gone for a few minutes and the girls had turned his little tomboy into a girl. "Tea?" He repeated.

It was Clementine's turn to nod. "Yes we want a tea party. Sophia says Hope has a tea set."

Daryl gave a small pout. Hope did have a tea set; she had never really used it as a tea set. Hope had tended up use the plastic cups as missiles; she would launch them at people during one of her mood swings. "I ain't playin' tea party, I'm a man. How about we compromise? We can play bar."

Clementine tilted her head. "How do we play that?"

"Well I'll be the barman and you lot can be my customers. Then towards the end of the game, two of you end up brawlin' and I'll throw you out." Daryl explained.

Sophia crossed her arms. "That doesn't sound fun."

"Sure it is Merle and I used to play it all the time." Daryl looked at Hope. "Tea or bar?" He asked his baby.

Hope played with Daryl's shaggy sideburns. "Bar." She squealed in his ear. "Bar, bar, bar." Daryl smiled, he'd won for now.

Rick slowly walked around the tree line of the field where the generator was being set up. The small group took it in turns to patrol and dig. T-Dogg, Glenn and Shane were digging the large walker trench, whilst Omid and Milton started to piece together the generator.

Rick stopped walking and watched Shane wipe away sweat from his brow. Since the birth of Judith everything had changed. Lori had told Rick something he already knew, she had slept with Shane in his absence. Rick wasn't stupid he could see that something had happened between his wife and best friend, what he hadn't realised was how deep the feelings ran. Lori had told Rick something he didn't want to hear. Shane was in love with her, he wanted to be with her and raise Carl and Judith. He needed to talk to Shane and set him straight on the matter; Carl, Lori and Judith were his family not Shane's.

Rick placed his hands on his hips as he watched his friend approach to take over watch duty; he guessed this would be as good a time as any.

Shane strode over to Rick with his shotgun over his shoulder. "Your turn to dig. It should be deep enough by the end of the day."

Rick took a deep breath. "Shane you and I need to talk. I can't thank you enough for what you did for Lori and Carl when I was gone."

Shane shrugged. "Anyone would do the same."

Rick shook his head. "No they wouldn't." He looked Shane deep in the eyes. "Lori told me...she told me about you two."

At first Shane's body went rigid, and then relief swept through him, the truth was out. This was it, no more hiding. "Look Rick..."

"Save it, I understand times were stressful, but I'm back now." Rick stepped forward towards Shane, his body langue displaying all the dominance he could muster.

Shane took a step back he gave a light snort. "That's my baby..."

"Lori says she's mine." Rick cut in.

"Hell no, you're not that dumb, she's mine. You're already putting Carl in danger I'm not letting you put my girl in harms way." Shane growled.

"What you saying?" Rick noticed Shane's grip tighten on the shotgun.

"That you're no leader; you can't make the tough calls Rick." Shane couldn't stop, the floodgate was open and there was no closing it. "You see you're the nice guy, but there's no place for nice in this world. You keep bringing in strays, we don't know if they're safe around the group."

"Have I been wrong so far?" Rick sighed. "I'm trying to do what's right for everyone."

"You need to do what's right for your family, to hell with everyone else. Lori, Carl and Judith, that's all that should matter." Shane barked back.

"And where should you fit in?" Rick found his hand lingering on his knife. "Right now you're a threat to me and my family. You think you're a better man for them, for this group?"

Before Shane could answer gunshots and shouting could be heard from the rest of the group. Both men looked towards the group. A swarm off walkers had snuck up on the men. They were now stranded on the roof of the vehicles the group had brought with them. Even with the guns the four men were severely outnumbered. One of the walkers tried to grab Milton's foot, T-Dogg made a headshot.

"Shit." Rick whispered under his breath. "We have to save them."

Shane looked on in horror as the walkers surrounded both vehicles, their rotting hands grabbed at the men on top of them.