Just another apology, I'm averaging about seven hours of revision a day and I just don't have the steam to then come and write for another hour on top 'cause I'm tired. Sorry guys but I'm so stressed about exams and not being a failure and getting into uni blah blah blah blah….
Beth and Daryl had pulled up at the white boarded house, and didn't even need to knock to be let in, since the owners were already on the porch loudly yelling at each other. Rick was holding his phone and Lori was pointing at it and then at them, Daryl got the idea she wasn't happy with Rick for getting others involved. Silly really since the neighbours were all watching precariously through their net curtains. Excusing the abuse they hurled at each other, Lori glared at him, surely knowing Rick would only call people who were on his side. But Beth followed behind, nervous looking and unsure to counterbalance Dixon's look of murder.
Daryl began to try and talk calmly to Lori and Rick, both of whom started jumping down each other's throats. They were like fucking children. He stood awkwardly between them, not sure how to break up anything but a fist fight. He settled for calmly talking at them, holding his hands between them as a mediator and trying to get to the root of the matter. Blondie looked just as lost as he did, her eyes flickering to the moving kitchen curtain with anxiety. Knowing she had to go to the children, he nervously gave her a permissive look, then faced back at a red-faced Rick and frantic Lori.
Beth slipped into the house, Carl was sat at the kitchen counter with his little hands around a plastic cup with race cars on the side. His small face was swollen somewhat with his tiny tears, but he wiped his eyes when he saw her and sat up a tiny bit straighter. Outside the loudening voices had started up again. Beth slipped into the seat next to him, folding her arms on the table and looked at him.
''My father and my sister used to have these massive rows. Some days I was sure the house would collapse under the noise of their screamin', but they still ended with an 'I love you' and it all works out.'' Her voice was soft, and she wasn't entirely sure why she was saying what she was. But Carl looked up at her with a renewed vigour, his lip trembled but he managed to find a small voice.
Sometimes knowing that you're not the only one helps, and so she offered him her hand, which he greedily took. He looked so young and so lost, and she imagined it is how most adults feel in arguments too- except they pretend they don't need anyone else. In this way Carl's youth was refreshing, his naivety of pain heartbreakingly beautiful to watch.
''It's all my fault. I saw mummy kissing Shane and I told-'' small tears began to form and snot running from his nose. His voice pitched and little cries were able to mask the ruckus of outside for a while.
''Oh baby-'' she wrapped an arm around him, holding him close and trying not to cry herself. ''it's not your fault, don't you dare say that. You told the truth, there's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes the truth is- painful.''
Beth stayed and held the crying boy, rubbing his back lightly and murmuring things into his hair. She couldn't be his mother, but she would have to do for the night. Eventually she managed to pull him up, creeping upstairs she tucked him in promising to stay nearby. She sat on the end of Carl's bed, holding his hand still and smiling sadly at how his fringe had grown into his eyes. His room was painted blue and had small spaceships painted lovingly by Rick, and those glow in the dark stars tacked to the ceiling. His comics were in a small pile and the very image of childhood made her simply want to never leave the room. But she wasn't a child, and unlike Carl she couldn't sleep it all away- not yet.
Daryl by the sounds of it had got the couple inside, they were talking quieter, unable to wake Carl up. Moving her hand from his, she slowly made it downstairs to the living room where the three of them it had sat in stony silence.
No one knew what to do. Lori and Rick were reluctant to make any call. No matter how bad things had been recently, they had a long history and two children together. Daryl had grown up in a house of constant arguing, but it was more the violent one-sided kind. Beth, likewise, only was used to dealing with rebellion and father-daughter disputes- and their couple arguments stemmed form their own past insecurities rather than an act of cheating.
Daryl felt his stomach clench a little at the idea of cheating. It hit a bit too close to home, after all wasn't it only a few days ago he very nearly let a tall brunette wrap her long legs around him. God, he hoped she'd never find out about that- Beth sat down next to him, she ran a small hand through her hair and gave him a trusting smile that he felt like he had abused by simply having drunkenly thought about abusing.
He woke up on the couch some five hours later, a blanket over him and fuzzy head. He remembered the two of them, Rick and Lori, talking to each other in more of a civil way before slowing dozing off. He heard the noises of babbling and sweet singing toward the kitchen, and like a gravitational pull that's the way he headed. He was met with the sunrise, but Beth and the kids were acting like it was ten 'o' clock late breakfast time. Carl ate cereal whilst gazing at the colourful packet, and Beth was mixing two mugs of coffee whilst dipping her hips and joining in baby talk.
Judith saw him first, exclaiming loudly and offering him a drooled-on chubby fist. He took it and shook it like they were politicians, letting her giggle at his non-understandable silliness before he ruffled her hair.
His little blonde cutie handed him a mug, deftly twisting to get her own and still balance a baby on her hip like it was second nature. She looked tired, little exhausted dark patched beneath her eyes, which he hadn't really seen to be there since the first time they had met. Her clothes were just as wrinkled and mismatched as last night, a general look of someone who hadn't gotten any sleep. Which somehow made him feel guilty. Beth's face, which had been serene, and her voice, which had been airy-fairy, seemed to belong to a total different woman.
''Rick, Shane and Lori have gone to the church to confess and talk to the preacher- who assures them counselling will be provided. I offered to look after the kids and your phone has been going non-stop from an unknown number.'' She nodded to the side-board, and he nodded at the mass of information he was handed at once.
He watched her lean slightly to put Judith in her high-chair deciding the view could be the one good thing about this mess, before settling his mug down. As Beth sat at the table, engaging Carl in some conversation neither of them cared about but politely distracting one another. Meanwhile Daryl took his phone and dialled, Beth was right there were 5 missed calls. Worrying it was his brother or worse, his father, the dialling tone slowly cranked up the nerves. Then it went off the hook and he got an answer.
Beth Greene sipped her coffee, grateful at once for whoever decided to grind this up and add hot water. Carl looked less rough for wear, but the poor kid was still beating himself up over this whole thing. At least he was eating, and showing a bit more interest in his surroundings than the night before. She ruffled his hair playfully, telling some lame joke she just read on the back of a kid's yoghurt in the wide fridge.
Daryl came back in possibly more stressed than when he left. He had that look on his face, and chewed the skin on the side of his thumb as if he were nervous to tell her something. She knew in one instant that the rock bottom of another families dilemmas that they were currently already drowning in, were unbelievable about to get a bit more tricky. He let her brace herself, take another sip of coffee and then walk over so he could quietly talk to her by the door in case prying ears listened in.
''That was the hospital, carol's been admitted as a precaution and I'm the named guardian to look after Sophia.'' He sipped his own mug, taking a long succession of gulps to wake him up. If only this could be an awful nightmare of a chain of events. Of course the irony is that when you have your woman happy and naked, everyone else's shit ruins that for you.
''What are we a day-care service?'' Beth gave a weak smile, holding her forehead to somehow fight the building stress she was feeling for suddenly being a mother of three and having no sleep. All the joys of children but none of the childbirth at least that was the optimistic way to look at it.
''I'm sorry- I can ask Dale t-'' Daryl was too tired to accept sarcasm and function, the clock told him it was just gone six am.
''No, no- what's one more kid? Drop us off home and go get Sophs?- looks like it's going to be a rainy day anyway, we could make a sheet fort with those blue throws you have in the airing cupboard'' Beth shook her head, pulled the loose hair out of her face a roughly tied it up clapping her hands and pulling a bag out to start collecting things they might need.
The ever practical Beth Greene, shooing Carl upstairs to get toys and some homework in a backpack, as well as some pyjamas in case he was at their too late. She then put in some cartons of juice and jars of baby food, before taking teething child upstairs.
Daryl watched her silently for a moment. She was casually acting so normal, but he felt like his bones had been struck with cold lightening and frozen him. Either he was mishearing, or overly hopeful- maybe even just reading into this a tad too much- but Beth Greene just called his apartment home.
We looking forward to Bethyl and three children chapters? xxx