Four days, they had been home with Matthew for four days, and Beth woke to his hungry cries "I'm here sweet boy" she got out of bed and began feeding him, sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the bedroom, she saw the bedroom door creak open "Jamie?" she called out to him and he came in quietly "baby what are you doing up?" she held her hand out to him, he quickly crossed the room and grabbed her hand.

"I heard Matthew crying, is he hurt?" Jamie asked resting his head on Beth's shoulder.

"No he's just hungry, he didn't mean to wake you" she kissed his head.

"He didn't wake Dad" Jamie glanced over at Daryl still asleep in bed.

"Your Daddy had a long day, and any way birthday boy you should be sleeping, you've got a long day ahead in a few hours" she looked to see it was gone two in the morning "why don't you go back to bed honey?" Jamie shook his head, running his hand over Matthew's hair. "Why don't you get in to bed with Daddy, you can sleep in here with us tonight" it wasn't something she would usually allow, but it was his birthday and how could it hurt. Jamie crawled in to the middle of the bed curling into Daryl, she put Matthew back down when he was done and got back into bed. She wrapped her arms around her boys and fell asleep.

Daryl woke up to Jamie jumping on the bed "when did you get here?" he pulled Jamie to lie down and holding him still.

"Ages ago" Jamie exaggerated.

"How excited are you?" Daryl asked already having known the answer.

"It's my birthday" he shouted, and Daryl laughed until Matthew started crying "oops" he looked terrified that he had woken the baby.

"It's ok" Daryl kissed Jamie's head before getting up to soothe Matthew.

"What are you three up to?" Beth giggled from her place in bed.

"I didn't mean to wake him up Mama" Jamie's eyes watered.

Beth pulled him close "I know you didn't baby, he's just sensitive and we can't have you crying on your birthday can we?"

"What does the birthday boy want for breakfast?" Daryl asked handing Matthew to Beth and grabbing Jamie lifting him and taking him to the kitchen. As soon as Beth was finished feeding Matthew she went and joined her two other boys in the kitchen, not even paying attention to the mess Daryl had created in her kitchen. Jamie ate happily "it's going to be a long day" Daryl stated.

"Maggie's picking up the cake on her way, she and Glenn are coming over to help set up around eleven, the bounce house guy is coming at twelve to get that ready, I told the guests to start coming around one, all the food is at Daddy's I need to go and prepare some of it, I'm going to keep Matthew with me, but I doubt Jamie will want to be inside with us until the party stars so you'll have to keep an eye on him" Beth started listing other things that needed to be done, not seeing the look on Daryl's face he didn't know so much had to go into a six year old birthday party. Daryl had left everything to Beth in previous years and that's how she liked it, but with the early arrival of Matthew, Daryl knew he had to step in and take some of the stress away from her.

The party was in full swing and Beth needed to take a moment away from the chaos to feed Matthew, all the kids were running around excited, going back and forth from the bouncy castle to the barbeque, where Rick had taken to cooking everything and trying to teach Carl a few tricks, the adults mooning over her and Matthew. She took a seat on the porch steps and let herself relax for a moment as Matthew fed greedily.

"Mama" Jamie ran over to her taking a seat next to her "will you go on the bouncy castle with me?"

"In a minute baby" She agreed.

"He's always hungry" Jamie noticed.

She nodded in agreement "he is, are you having a good day?"

"It's the best" he said excited explaining how all his friends were there and they were all having so much fun.

Matthew was finally done, so she covered herself and stood up she found Maggie and handed her Matthew before taking Jamies hand and following him to the bounce house "I'm gonna catch you" she said as Jamie ran away squealing with delight, she ran around chasing him for a while until she let him catch her falling to the ground in defeat "your so strong, my big boy" she kissed him a few times before letting him run off to play with his friends.

Daryl came over and helped her stand "I thought you weren't meant to do anything strenuous?"

"It's his brithday, I wasn't going to say no to him" Beth shrugged her shoulders a little, she didn't care as long as he was happy.

"Do you think we should do cake now?" Daryl asked knowing she had the day pretty well planned.

"Yes and make sure when you cut it Jamie gets the first and biggest slice" Beth spoke quickly, as Daryl walked inside to get the cake he lit six candles on top and walked out starting to sing happy birthday as he made his way over to Jamie with everyone joining in, Jamie was amazed at his cake it was a Gastonia and it was his favourite dinosaur. Daryl took the cake over to the picnic table most of the children following him waiting to be served a piece of cake, he made sure that he listened to Beth and gave Jamie the first and biggest slice.

The party was coming to an end, Beth was handing out party bags to all of the kids on the way out, she glanced to see Jamie still running around as the bouncy castle slowly deflated, she had expected the party to be over sooner, she was tired, she felt Daryl come up and wrap his arms around her waist. "This was amazing" he told her.

"Next year it's just us" She yawned, he laughed.

"He has a whole year to break you down, you know you'll give in" Daryl kissed her gently "where's Matthew?"

"Sleeping, I think Maggie has the baby monitor" she smiled "there's so much clearing up to do" she groaned looking around the garden.

"No, you made all of this happen, I'll clean up" Daryl offered.

"Mama can I have more cake?" Jamie asked hugging her.

"You can't still be hungry" she shook her head, he pouted at her "you'll make yourself sick, there will still be cake tomorrow" Beth ruffled his hair.

Jamie wore himself out and fell asleep on the porch, Beth covered him with a blanket deciding to let him stay there until Daryl could carry him to his own bed. They had got everything cleaned up and Daryl walked over to where Beth and Jamie were "ready to go home?"

"I'll get Matthew, you can carry Jamie" she got up and went inside Matthew was fast asleep in his car seat, Glenn had driven him around to get him to go to sleep. Daryl smiled as he lifted Jamie up the boy whined holding onto Daryl's shirt snuggling closer. Beth came out holding the car seat and they walked home together their shoulders brushing against each other.