I do not own any of the TWD characters.

Live, From the Grand Ole Opry!

There wasn't even time for a nap – not for anyone. Thank goodness Silas had gotten a little bit of snooze time in on the way back from the mall. Everyone freshened up as quickly as possible, got all gussied up, and began to make the trip down for their early dinner reservation.

Beth was wearing another swing dress, but this one was quite a bit snazzier than last night's simple "little black dress". It was a camel colored suede number with cutouts along the bottom hem. Beth had gotten a pair of ankle booties in the same color suede to go with her dress. Yeh, she had every intention of driving Daryl crazy tonight. She also had every intention of making sure that all other women knew just who Daryl Dixon belonged to. Before Daryl had put the freeze on her Goose and Gander spending, she'd ordered a suede blazer for Daryl. So, tonight Daryl was wearing dark charcoal pants, a custom made navy and beige window pane shirt with a dark charcoal tie, and the suede jacket. Ole Daniel had fixed him up real good.

Beth checked her purse one last time and decided that she needed to touch up her lipstick. Daryl slipped up behind her while she was looking into the mirror wiping the excess color from the corner of her mouth. She frowned as she rubbed at some miniscule lines starting to form around her eyes.

"You're beautiful" Daryl told her.

Beth looked up at Daryl's reflection standing behind her. "Thank you" she said quietly.

"Got somethang for ya" Daryl said. Beth's eyes sparkled, as they always did because she sure did love a surprise.

"Daryl" she said "I don't need one more thing – not for a long while."

"Well, let's just say – it called to me" Daryl smirked "it was made for ya. Just like I's made for ya."

Beth blushed and really didn't know what to say. Daryl had the necklace already unclasped as he moved it to the front of her neck so that he could fasten it for her. The colors in the necklace complemented her outfit perfectly – a combination of freshwater coin pearls and turquoise pieces with sterling silver accents. It was phenomenal.

"Oh my God Daryl" she gasped "it's amazing."

"Pales in comparison to ya" he told her never breaking her gaze. "Come on, ya mom and dad are waitin on us in the hall."

They joined her parents and Silas in the hallway and Beth couldn't help but notice that her mom was sporting a new piece of jewelry as well. Beth smiled at her mom and complemented her on it. Annette just grinned all over herself and held Hershel's arm a little tighter. The group arrived at The Old Hickory Steakhouse minutes later and were seated right away. Everyone had been schooling Silas on his table manners, not that the little fella had horrible table manners, but this was a pretty fancy restaurant. There weren't a lot of near three year olds most people would even chance taking to an establishment like this, but Silas could handle it- Daryl had no doubt.

Beth and Annette ordered the lobster bisque for starters while the men had to be all manly and order the oysters. Beth giggled to herself in thinking her daddy might need those oysters later on tonight since he'd gotten Annette a little trinket of her own. Silas had crackers and butter and a little bit of Beth's bisque – he wasn't crazy about it, but he didn't turn his nose up at it either. Everyone ordered steaks, except for Si because there would be plenty for him. The sides were sharable so everyone picked one. Daryl went with the mac and cheese, Beth chose asparagus, Annette picked the mushrooms, and Silas, who insisted on picking Poppa's side, well, he went with the mashed potatoes. Everyone was just about to pop when they realized that they were going to have to get a wiggle on in order to make it for the first act.

Daryl was super excited about going to the Opry and everyone else was too. Daryl just wasn't sure who was the most excited – it was a close race between Silas and his Poppa. Daryl had really hoped for some currently popular artists to be playing tonight, but he knew you just kinda went with whoever showed up. Daryl figured Silas would be conking out about midway through – no way, no how was that little boy closing his eyes to anything that night, he didn't want to miss a thing. Afterwards, they took their time milling around outside. Bystanders were all too happy to snap family pics for them out in front of the huge guitar.

"Look Daddy" Silas said pointing over to the mall "that's where we were today."

Daryl puffed up with pride when he realized that Si had a pretty good sense of direction and his surroundings.

"That's right son" Daryl told him "now, look away 'fore ya momma gets the urge to go back over there."

Hershel got a chuckle out of that. They walked back across the footbridge to the shuttle pick up spot where busses were rolling in every ten minutes. When they boarded the bus, Silas noticed that it was the same man that had driven them over there.

"Howdy" Silas told the man.

"Well Howdy to you" the driver replied. The gentleman asked Silas "How was the Opry son?"

Silas looked up at him and said "It's pretty good I reckon!" and just smiled. The driver laughed and ruffled Si's hair as the rest of the family made their way back to look for a seat.

They were all still pretty keyed up so when they unloaded from the shuttle they decided to walk around just a bit – there weren't nearly as many people roaming around at this time of night and Daryl felt comfortable enough to let Silas walk while holding his hand. Never let it be said that Daryl was careless when it came to Si's safety. Annette and Beth did some window shopping (thank God all of the shops were closed). Daryl showed them where he and Hershel got their shoes shined –he was still talking about that experience. Beth wandered to the shop across from the shoe shine stand – it was like that kid being sucked into the light in that movie Poltergeist.

She looked at Daryl and grinned mischievously. "Is this where my necklace came from?" she asked him. Daryl nodded and Beth looked into some of the display windows that were all lit up. She mouthed "oh". Once they made it to their floor, Hershel offered to take Silas with them for the night.

"Naw, Hershel" Daryl said "we got him tonight. Ya'll get ya a good night's sleep." Daryl grinned at Beth. "Or somethang like that."

Annette blushed while Hershel cleared his throat "Well, okay. We'll see you kids in the mornin."

Beth ushered Si into the restroom, made sure he used the restroom, and then got him to brush his teeth. Once Silas entered the bedroom part of their hotel room, Daryl took over stripping the boy out of his clothes and getting him into a pull up (didn't want any accidents in the hotel bed) and jammies.

"Si Pat?" Daryl said.

"Yessir?" Silas answered.

"Ya wanta sleep in your own bed, or ya wanta sleep with me and ya momma?" Daryl asked.

"I wanta sleep with ya'll" Silas squealed.

"Course ya do" Daryl laughed "alright son, pick a bed." Silas jumped on the bed he was nearest to at the moment and plopped himself right in the middle. Before long, the three of them were piled up in the bed. Everybody told what their favorite thing of the trip had been and it wasn't long after that, they started drifting off.