It was a rainy and cold Saturday morning, which was why the Dixon family was having breakfast inside, instead of having it out on their sundeck. The bad weather didn't do anything to hurt the good mood everybody was in, though. Kenzie was snorting with laughter at the utterly disgusted face Daryl was making as he watched Teddy eat breakfast.
"Tell ya what, darlin', I ain't kissing you today after seein' what ya just put in your mouth." he shuddered as he imagined the taste of Teddy's snack.
Teddy smirked and proceeded to smear a another big dollop of nutella on her dill pickle. She took a big bite and moaned with delight. "Mmmmmmm... so good. You have no idea."
"I don't even wanna have an idea. You can keep that to yourself." Daryl shuddered again and made a little gagging noise, which made Kenzie crack up again. Just like Teddy, Kenzie loved seeing Daryl react like this. He was usually so cool and nonchalant about almost everything, so it was fun for the two girls to be able to get a rise out of him like that. "If ya ask me, that's why ya feel so goddamn sick in the afternoon."
"Mommy, I wanna try!"
"Are you sure?" Teddy asked before she fished another pickle out of the jar.
"Yes!"
"Great..." Daryl grunted, "go ahead, Turtle... it's gonna be fun to play doctor for the both of ya all afternoon."
"I won't get sick, Daddy. It's chocolate, and Mommy always says that chocolate heals everything." Kenzie argued with her own brand of logic, while Teddy let her foot travel up Daryl's shin under the table.
"And I for one enjoy when you play doctor with me." Teddy gave him a sexy little look and bit her bottom lip for even more effect.
Daryl narrowed his eyes at her, an amused little smirk playing along his lips, as he grabbed her foot and pushed the tip of his thumb into the space between two of her toes, effectively tickling her quickly and strongly. Teddy's knee jerked up reflexively and bumped hard into the table.
"Oooww!" she laughed and freed her leg from his grasp, in order to rub her sore knee. "That hurt."
Daryl stuck his tongue out at her, while Kenzie's eyes grew wide. "Oh no... does that hurt the baby, too?"
"No, don't worry, Turtle." Teddy smiled. "The little one is fine."
Kenzie felt reassured and slumped back against her chair, while Teddy scooted closer to the table again and continued with her breakfast. Daryl quickly grasped her hand in his and guided it to his mouth, pressing a kiss to her palm before he released her. It was his way of saying sorry for making her hurt her knee. Teddy gave him her special adoring smile, in her own way telling him that everything was good and fine.
While her parents communicated silently, Kenzie wondered about a couple of things, which she soon voiced out loud. "Mommy? What's the baby do in there all day?"
"Oh, it's veeeery, very busy, sweetheart. It's preparing for living with us, just like we have to prepare for it. The baby has to get a lot done in a quite short amount of time."
"Like what?"
"Growing and developing. Let's see, it's the 16th week, so this week your little brother or sister started growing toenails. And he or she is preparing to grow hair. And if we would be able to look inside, it would have a real little face now. Still not like when it comes out, but it's all in the right place now." Teddy explained, and not only Kenzie was listening intently. Daryl didn't really have a concept of the baby's development either, and hearing what the baby was doing was kind of fun. Hearing that it had a little face now made longing spike inside of him though. He couldn't wait to see it and hold the little miracle in his arms. It was still such a long time until then... the only downside to finding out so early this time around. "The baby is about the size of an avocado and if we push against my belly now, it should be squirming a little in there."
Kenzie gasped with excitement and immediately slid off her chair. "Can I feel? Please?"
"I'm sorry, baby, but we can't feel it yet. The baby is still too small."
"Hm..." Kenzie scowled thoughtfully, just like her Daddy tended to do. "but Mommy, if the baby is so small, why is your belly so big?"
"Because there is a lot of cushioning in there to protect the baby." And because Mommy really likes her potato chips these days... Teddy added silently. It was true, she had gained a lot of weight already compared to her two previous pregnancies, because she wasn't acting like a hardcore health-nut this time. But since Daryl was supportive and enjoyed having some more cushion for the pushin', Teddy was still successful at not freaking out over her looks. She was still careful about what she ate, but she also allowed herself to indulge when she felt like having something. She was pretty happy and relaxed and she figured that maybe it was part of the reason why she was practically flying through her pregnancy without much turbulence right now. Except for those nausea spells (which were mostly gone by now) and some stretching pains, she felt fine most of the time.
"You have a big pillow in the belly for the baby?"
"Yes, kind of. It's made out of water, so the baby is swimming in there and will be a little wrinkly when it's born."
"It can go swimming all day?" Kenzie's eyes grew wide again.
"Oh yeah... lucky baby, huh?" Teddy sighed playfully, knowing how much Kenzie loved swimming. If she could, she'd practically live in the water.
"Can we go swimming, too?"
"Nah, Turtle." Daryl shook his head. "Look outside, it's raining like crazy." Kenzie grunted her displeasure. She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled darkly. Daryl almost had to laugh at how cute she looked, but he had learned that he shouldn't do that. "Kenzie..." he said her name in a warning tone of voice. He hated using it, but he knew he had to. "Don't start, baby girl. We can go splashin' around in the tub later, but we ain't gon' do that if ya start up with your attitude."
Hearing her real name coming from her father's mouth was still a very strange experience for the little girl. Up until a couple of weeks ago, he'd only ever called her Turtle. Now she knew that he meant business when he called her Kenzie, and it was a great sign that he might get mad at her if she didn't listen. That was something she wanted to avoid at all costs.
"Sorry. Can I go play?"
"Sure, but take your plate and cup to the kitchen first." Daryl told her, thankful that she had forgotten all about wanting to try pickles topped with nutella. Bad enough that Teddy was devouring that "delicacy" right next to him. "What's on the docket for today?" he asked Teddy while Kenzie left the room.
"Not much. We can start making a list of things we need for the baby."
"Like a whole room?" Daryl let out a little laugh.
"Yeah, we gotta figure out what to do about that. We gotta check our finances, find out if and where we could save some more. We can make a list of things we can get from other people. The good thing is, that Billy and Maggie still have all the stuff from the twins. They'll be roughly two years older than our baby, so we can get a lot from them, especially if it's a boy. We'll give them some money for it of course, but we still save a ton of cash."
"Right. We still got Turtle's crib. They got our changing table and the baby carrier, baby swing and all that stuff, so we can just get that back."
"That's right. The only thing we gotta buy is a new stroller. And new car seats... which is pretty much the most expensive out of all the things a baby needs, of course." Teddy laughed with a shake of her head. "And with having to build a whole new room... Guess we're not really saving money after all."
"There's still some ways to save money." Daryl said. "Breastfeeding for example."
"Right... if it works, then yeah."
"There's another thing I came up with." Daryl was actually squirming in his seat a little, which had Teddy pretty curious.
"Okay? What's that?"
"We sell one of the cars and I get a bike..." Daryl stated carefully. His stomach sank when he saw Teddy's expression harden as soon as he had finished saying the words.
Teddy felt a slight wave of panic crashing down over her, but she tried to remain calm. Her next words were spoken slowly and deliberately, as she tried to keep her cool. "Most of the money in our bank account was earned by you... you can do whatever you want with your expendable income... you don't need my permission."
"But ya hate the idea."
"I worry... you know that. Especially with two little kids at home."
"It ain't as dangerous as everybody says." Daryl argued.
"Then why is the death rate for riders higher than for drivers?"
"'Cause a lotta young guys are ridin' and they are fucking careless and feel invincible. I ain't like that no more. If ya know what you're doin', a bike is safer than a car."
"Really?" Teddy sounded sarcastic. "And why the hell is that?"
"Ya got a better view, you can see danger earlier than in a car... Ya got more options, ya can evade better."
"Yeah sure, sounds perfectly logical, but what about the stupidity and carelessness of other drivers? Like in the accident you just had? If you had been on a bike, you wouldn't be sitting here right now."
"Might not have had that accident in the first place, if I'd been on a bike. Wouldn't have been focused on our daughter... would have been able to swerve and land in a field... Accidents fucking happen Teddy, car or bike don't matter. Sure, if an accident happens, I'm safer in a car, but like I said, on a bike I'm able to keep accidents from happening better."
Teddy sighed deeply and hugged herself as she leaned back in her chair. "If you wanna do it, because it will make you happy, then do it. But it won't help us saving money, because we do need two cars."
"Why?"
"If I have an early client and need you to take the kids to school and daycare... You can't do that on a bike. And you can't take my car because I need it to run errands and pick the kids back up."
"Daycare?" Daryl frowned. "Thought we wanted Momma B to come here and watch the baby? You said you wanted to re-do your work schedule."
"For God's sakes, yes... it was hypothetically speaking, Daryl." Teddy grew exasperated. After the accident he had had almost a year ago, her nerves got a bit frazzled when she thought about him riding a bike every day. "What if I need you to take Kenzie to school?"
"Your momma can do that. Pack up both kids, take Kenzie to school, maybe run some errands for ya, while you're working."
"So you want to turn her into Rosario? She won't have that, I can tell you that right now."
"She ain't that bad no more, Teddy. She's lonely. She just wants ta be with her grandkids."
Now Teddy was near tears, thanks to the wonderful, pregnancy-induced mood swings. Hearing that her mother was lonely was tugging at her heart strings. She had an inkling of what her mother must feel like after having lost Gerald a couple of years ago. When Daryl had been in that (thankfully short-lived) coma, Teddy had felt incredibly lost and lonely. She would have given everything to hear him speak and to feel him squeeze her hand. Daryl had woken up, but her father, Gerald, would never wake up again. Bernadette didn't have the option of hope. She had resigned herself to staying alone for the rest of her life. Gerald could not be replaced.
Teddy quickly wiped at her tears and took a sip of water. "Yeah okay, maybe that would work out. Maybe Maggie would take Kenzie with them, but what about winter? What when there's snow and the roads are iced over? What if it's raining cats and dogs, like today?"
"Could get a ride from Billy."
"Every day for a week or longer? You would hate being that dependent on him."
"Then on those days, I gotta take the car and you gotta stay home with the baby until I'm back."
"And if there's an emergency with the baby?"
"Then ya call me and I come home, Teddy... now you're just looking for problems."
"I'm just looking at this from all angles, Daryl. But like I said... you're an adult, you're the money maker... I can't keep you from doing it, especially not if it's something you really want."
"But ya ain't gonna support it."
"I'll always support you, baby, but it's definitely something that makes me very nervous. I know you're competent, I know you're responsible and careful, I trust you, but I don't trust other drivers. Not anymore."
"I get that... Just think about it, alright? Bikes are good on gas and we could use some extra cash in the bank at the end of the day."
"I don't have to think about it. If you wanna do it, then sell my car. We keep the new one and you get your bike. We'll work out the rest as we go. I know you love me and our kids, so I trust you to be as safe as you can possibly be, so you'll come back to us at night. At the end of the day, that's all we really need... We need you. That's all I can say about it. The decision is up to you."
"The good thing is that we might make a profit from the sale of the car. We can use that for the new room, so it won't suck up much of our savings."
"Wouldn't hurt..." Teddy admitted, albeit a little reluctantly.
Daryl smirked and leaned forward, supporting himself on the table on his forearms. "C'mere." he coaxed her to mirror him so he could give her a big kiss. Teddy emitted a little frustrated grunt, but she slowly moved to meet him. Daryl snickered. "Now you don't start givin' me attitude... Don't feel like spankin' my pregnant wife."
"And your pregnant wife doesn't feel like getting spanked, either." Teddy said right before he kissed her with a loud smacking noise.
"No? What's she feel like then?" he asked playfully.
"Making out on the couch on a rainy Sunday afternoon, like two horny teenagers?"
"Don't sound too shabby... ain't gonna happen, though."
"I know. Maybe we can get some cuddle time in, let her play doctor, and every time she turns her back, we can sneak some kisses... Uuuuhh, we can make it a game. We have to be able to stop again quick enough before she catches us."
"We do that all the damn time." Daryl chuckled. "Still sounds great though. Fucking miss ya."
"Same here."
"You work too damn much." Daryl complained with a scowl.
"I know, but i don't have much choice, if we want to leave our savings as untouched as possible. I gotta get back into couponing, too. It can save us a buttload of money on diapers."
"Fuck." Daryl sighed and rubbed his face. "Between you workin' 3 nights a week now and then doing that couponing shit, which takes hours, on the nights ya don't work, when am I gonna see ya and get to spend time with ya?" Daryl knew that he had no right to be frustrated, but he was. She was doing all of it for them, he was aware of that and appreciated the hell out of it, but it didn't change the fact that he missed having his time with her. Recently, Kenzie had taken up some of that as well. "Plus, our little turtle's all over you these days."
"Awww, baby..." Teddy couldn't help but grin. "Are you jealous that I'm getting most of her attention right now?"
"Shut up." Daryl grunted all grumpily. "Ain't like that. I'm fucking happy that she's bein' more cuddly with ya now, but I ain't used to seein' so little of ya, you know?"
"You see me plenty."
"But it ain't the same." Daryl complained. I sound like a whiny fuck, he realized and took a deep breath. "Damn... I dunno... sorry. Gotta get used to havin' less of ya to myself. Ain't gon' get better when the little one's here."
"It is gonna get a little better when the baby is here, because I won't be working the first two months and we get a lot of family cuddle time." Teddy smiled and walked over to him to sit on his lap. "Hey, why don't you start coming home for lunch, hm? I know it's not an awful lot of time, but it's just the two of us for about an hour. How's that?"
The smile that lit up his face was her answer. She felt her heart skip a beat at the sight. He had an absolutely gorgeous smile, especially when it was so broad that it showed off his cute fangs. That kind of big smile was still rare, so every time she got to see it, she fell in love with him all over again. "That's fucking great. Let's do that."
"We will." Teddy smiled and kissed him soundly. They kept kissing for a little bit, until they got interrupted by the sound of Kenzie running back to them from her room.
"Mommy, Daddy, can we build the Lego Princess Castle?"
"Sure, Turtle." Daryl nodded and let Teddy get up from his lap.
"You guys will have to start without me. I wanna go to the store now, get that behind me. I'm gonna pick up some more stuff for next week while I'm there. You need anything special?"
Daryl cleared his throat and got up, too, so he would be able to whisper into Teddy's ear. "Last time I checked, we were almost outta lube."
Teddy smirked. "Hmmm, someone thinks he's getting lucky tonight, huh?"
Daryl laughed a little and softly smacked her butt. "Careful, cheeky girl..."
"Why are you whispering?" Kenzie frowned at her parents, before her expression lit up. "Ooooohhhh, is it a surprise?"
"Maybe." Teddy shrugged her shoulders with a smile. "You'll have to wait and see... Anyway, I better get dressed and get going."
"You do that. We're gonna go and get started on that castle thing."
"Bye, Mommy. Bye, Baby. Be careful." Kenzie hugged Teddy's legs and kissed her belly.
"Always am." Teddy promised and went to get ready.
The line at the store had been ridiculously long, so by the time Teddy was done with the groceries and had picked up some stuff from the pharmacy, she felt famished. There was a good little pizza place just a couple of buildings down from the pharmacy, and she decided to bring home some pizza for lunch. Her guilty conscience was gnawing at her, because she had been serving pizza quite frequently lately, but with having so much work to do and being tired on top of that, they had let their good eating habits suffer a little bit. She decided that she would ease her guilty conscience by taking some salads home to balance it all out again.
Before she was able to enter the pizza place, she was stopped in her tracks, though. Through the glass front of the small place she saw her sister-in-law, Maggie. While usually that would have made her happy, this time it had her whole stomach cramping unpleasantly. An uncomfortable tingling sensation settled at the back of her neck as she watched Maggie talk to a young Asian man, who stood with her by the counter. She had seen the man before, he delivered the pizzas. He was called Glenn, if she remembered correctly. The whole scene looked harmless enough, Maggie was probably doing the same thing Teddy wanted to do, which was to pick up some delicious pizza for lunch... but what had Teddy so shocked and rooted to her spot was the way Maggie was looking and smiling at that Glenn guy, and vice versa. It looked like flirting... like a couple on their first date...
Teddy couldn't breathe. She wanted to throw up. Maybe her pregnancy hormones had her overreacting, but this whole thing had her spider sense tingling and it didn't seem harmless at all to her. She turned on her heel and walked back to her car quickly. She was no longer hungry.
"It's Maggie... she would never... They're happy. They have three kids for crying out loud." Teddy reasoned with herself after she was back in her car. "You're overreacting, Dixon. She was just getting some pizza for the family."
But as much as Teddy tried to explain away what she had just witnessed, that dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach remained. Daryl picked up on it immediately. Granted, it wasn't hard to figure out that something was wrong, because Teddy was really out of it after she had returned back home.
While Teddy was fixing lunch, Kenzie did the same in her play kitchen, and Daryl used the opportunity to talk to his wife. "What's wrong? Something with the baby? You not feeling well?"
Teddy took a deep shaky breath and turned to face Daryl. "I saw something... and I'm not sure what it means, but my gut tells me, that it's not good." she told him in a lowered voice.
Daryl frowned, partly with utter clueless-ness and partly with concern. "What are you talking about?"
"I saw Maggie... I was going to stop for pizza, and there she was, talking to that delivery guy."
"So?"
"The way they looked at each other, Daryl. Their body language, the way they seemed to be flirting..." Tears started to gather in Teddy's eyes. "Baby, I think she might be cheating on Billy."
Daryl felt shocked and a little numb. He stared at Teddy with his mouth agape for a whole minute, before he was able to find his words again. "Nah... come on... Are you serious?"
"I tried to be reasonable about this, but I have this feeling in my stomach... When I saw them, it was like an icy cold shiver ran down my back... like my brain already knew what it was seeing, while my eyes hadn't even realized what they were seeing yet, you know?"
"Are you sure? I don't wanna get ya mad right now, but maybe your hormones...?" he trailed off, looking at her carefully.
"Trust me, I've thought about the fact that I might be exaggerating... and maybe I am, Daryl, I don't know, I'm so confused. All I can tell you is what I saw... and that I can't shake this feeling I've had since then. I mean... It's crazy, right? They're happy. Aren't they? Did he say anything to you?"
Daryl thought about it for a minute and tried to remember if there had been any signs of trouble in the past couple of weeks. "I dunno, darlin'. He's been lookin' a little rough, but with three little kids and a business to run... Everybody'd be tired with all of that on their plates. He's working his ass off... Ain't said nothin' though."
"Should I talk to him?"
"Nah, better let sleeping dogs lie, Teddy."
"What am I supposed to do? Nothing?"
"That would probably for the best, darlin'. You said it yourself, you ain't sure what you saw. What if it was harmless and you start makin' a ruckus about it? Won't help no one." Daryl did his best to calm her down, but he had to admit that even he was now questioning things in the back of his head. "And hey, think about it like this: she ain't stupid. People here know her. Think she'd go meet her lover in a public place in broad daylight?"
"Having a crush on someone or, God forbid, being freshly in love with someone can make you do very, very stupid and reckless things, Daryl. Do I have to remind you of your stint in jail, because of the lovely co-worker who was crazy about you?"
He wasn't able to argue with that. However, he didn't want her to stir up shit and get herself into hot water in the process. "You may be right, but still, keep your mouth shut, Teddy. At least wait until you have proof or something. You can confront her if you have proof, but until then, don't do anything. Promise me."
"Fine. I promise." Teddy sighed miserably.
"Try to forget about it. I'm sure it was nothing." Daryl hoped she would listen. He did not feel like having a family war on is hands, if Teddy would wrongfully accuse Maggie of cheating.
"Easy for you to say." Teddy mumbled to herself as she turned back to face the counter and continued fixing a salad. "You didn't see what I saw."
Teddy wasn't able to forget what she had witnessed. It was nagging at her constantly and obsessively. She needed to talk about it. She felt bad about breaking her promise to Daryl, but she needed to ask Maggie about what she had seen. So one morning, when her family was off to work and school, and Teddy didn't have any clients, she invited Maggie and the twins over for a late breakfast. Her initial plan had been to confront the issue head on, but upon taking a closer look at her sister-in-law, Teddy held back for a short moment. Maggie was smiling, but she had huge dark circles under her eyes and looked absolutely tired. Not sleepy tired, but more like "I'm just done" tired.
"God bless you, Teddy. I needed to get out of the house for a bit." Maggie had spread out the twins' toys on the floor before she had joined Teddy on the couch.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't look so good. Are you okay?" Teddy was genuinely concerned.
"Yeah, sure. I'm fine." Maggie tried to sound upbeat, but Teddy saw right through it.
"Bullshit."
"You and your husband... always competing for the trophy for being the most perceptive." Maggie laughed without humor.
"I think even a blind man would be able to tell in this case. You seem... I don't know. Sad, somehow." Teddy started to put two and two together and took Maggie's hand with a gentle smile. "Maggie,... I want to be honest. I invited you, because I wanted to ask you something. The other day, I was running some errands... and I saw you... inside the pizza place..." She watched Maggie's confused expression morph into a surprised one as she kept talking. "I saw you talking to that guy... Glenn? I don't wanna assume anything, maybe I imagined it, but you two looked pretty cozy... So... Seeing the way you are now, I gotta ask... Are you and Billy having problems?" Teddy asked and held her breath. Her heart fell when she saw the other woman swallow hard and tear up.
"I'm not cheating, if that's what you think." Maggie defended herself. "I'm not having an affair... It's just a little flirtation. Glenn is nice... sweet... Like Billy used to be. He makes me feel like a woman again. An attractive woman... I know it's pathetic." Maggie let out an embarrassed laugh.
Teddy's heart constricted painfully. She felt like she couldn't breathe while she listened to Maggie.
"It feels good. Having his attention, I mean. I like him, but I would never act on it. Not while I'm still married."
Teddy almost choked on her tea. "While you're still married?! Jesus fuck, what's going on? Are you getting a divorce?"
Maggie bit her bottom lip and shrugged. "We're talking about it."
"What?" Teddy's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. "How's this possible? You love each other so darn much! What happened?"
"Three kids and a business, Teddy. Sometimes loving each other isn't enough to make it work anymore."
Teddy instinctively cradled her belly with her hands. "The kids... Why... how... I-I don't get it." Teddy felt like her whole world view just got shattered to bits and pieces. "Yesterday you were happy, and today this?"
"We haven't been happy in a while, Teddy. Did you know that the last time we had sex was shortly after the twins were born?"
Teddy's eyes widened even more, if that was possible, because the twins had celebrated their first birthday a couple of months ago. "You haven't had sex in a year? No, come on. That can't be, Maggie."
"I'm not kidding, Teddy. He doesn't see me as a woman anymore. He sees me as a mother and as only that. We're not acting like a married couple anymore, we're acting like good friends who have three kids together. What we used to have is just gone."
"But it can come back. You can work on it."
"We tried, but... well, we are both starting to accept that it is a lost cause. You know, he works so much... sometimes I think it's not because he has to, but because that way he doesn't have to be home. He loves the kids, he does, he does everything for them... but I guess it's hard being around me now. I kind of feel the same way, because I look at him and I remember what it used to be like and I realize that those times are gone and it really hurts."
Teddy's mind was in a whirl. She had no idea what she was thinking, except for the fact that she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Maggie and Billy had always been such a solid couple in her eyes. If they were splitting up... "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what to say. Apart from 'I'm so sorry', I guess."
"It's okay. You don't have to say anything. Thank you, though... for asking me about Glenn first, before you went to Billy."
"I'm not gonna tell him, don't worry. There's nothing to tell, that's what you said, right?"
"Right. There's nothing physical going on. There's nothing going on at all, really. He just talks to me sometimes, when I'm there. Like I said, he sees me as a woman, he makes me feel like I'm not just a mother, and right now that's something I really need."
"Do you seek him out?"
"I know it's not right, but I guess we've been having pizza pretty often... pretty much every time I'm having a really hard day..." Maggie quickly wiped a tear away.
"Come here." Teddy opened her arms and Maggie gladly went in for a hug. When Teddy's arms enveloped her in a warm embrace, Maggie wasn't able to keep it together anymore, despite her sons being there. She burst out crying in earnest and Teddy cried right along with her, while she rubbed Maggie's back comfortingly.
"It feels so good to talk about it." Maggie sobbed. "My family has noticed that things are off, of course, but I haven't talked to anyone. Not even Beth. I kept it in and it was killing me."
"I know he's my brother, but you can still come and talk to me. We're friends and we'll always be, I promise. Yeah, I was shocked when I saw you with that man and yeah, my first thought was cheating, I admit that, but I wanted to hear from you what the hell was going on, before I decided that you were hurting my brother. But now you explained, and even though I still don't understand what the hell happened, I still love you, Maggie. And I'm sorry I'm rambling and that it probably doesn't make any sense, but I really don't know what to do here."
"You're already doing it." Maggie laughed through her tears. "Thank you."
"Thank you for being honest and opening up." Teddy and Maggie pulled apart and wiped at their wet eyes. Thankfully the boys hadn't paid them no mind, they were too engrossed in their toy cars. "So, what's gonna happen now? What's the plan?"
"I don't know." Maggie shrugged and dug a pack of tissues out of her purse, so she and Teddy could blow their noses. "I really don't know."
"If you need anything... If you need us to take the kids so you two have time to figure things out..."
"That's sweet, but you two have enough on your plates with your own family. We'll be fine. We have enough babysitters around."
"Gosh, what a mess." Teddy sighed quietly with a shake of her head. She was still in utter disbelief.
"Yeah, I guess so." Maggie said before she blew her nose, then the two women fell silent for a long while.
"Alright. Thanks for the heads up. See you later." Billy hung up the phone. Maggie had called him to let him know that Teddy knew about the situation. Billy sighed deeply, squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Damn..."
"What?" Daryl asked with a frown, making Billy jump, because he had totally spaced out for a moment and had forgotten that Daryl was in the office with him.
Billy quickly caught himself and took a deep breath. Might as well tell him... he thought while he raked a hand through his hair. "Can you sit down for a second?" Daryl had a penchant for standing up whenever he was in the office, but right now it made Billy nervous.
"That can't be good. Somethin' happen?" Daryl sat down with a wary expression on his face.
"Yeah, kinda..."
"What's the matter? We in trouble?" he asked, referring to their shared business.
"No, nothing like that." Billy quickly reassured him. "It's... ummm,... Maggie and I,... It looks like we're splitting up... getting a divorce maybe."
Daryl felt like someone hit him with a sledgehammer. His mouth dropped open in shock and all air rushed out of his lungs as he looked at Billy absolutely flabbergasted. He probably should have seen it coming with what Teddy had told him about seeing Maggie with another man, but he truly hadn't expected this. Not in a million years.
"It's no one's fault. We just drifted apart, I guess." Billy kept going. "It just happened. Didn't even realize it at first. I still love her, but it's not the same anymore. Been like that for a while. We haven't told anybody... not until today. Teddy had Maggie over earlier and she sensed that something was off and asked her about it. So now, I'm telling you..."
Daryl knew exactly why Teddy had Maggie over. Usually he would have been mad at her for breaking her promise not to do anything, but today he didn't have it in him. He was shell-shocked and he had the strongest urge to go home and be with Teddy. To wrap his arms around her and to not let her go for the rest of the day.
Billy looked at Daryl expectantly. He didn't know what exactly he was expecting from the younger Dixon brother, but whatever it was, Billy quickly figured out, that he wouldn't be getting it from him. He once again had to deal with this issue by himself.
Daryl felt bad about not being able to handle this situation better, but he was too confused by this shocking piece of news to dole out any well-meaning words of consolation and advice. He needed time to process it. He really needed to be with Teddy. "I'm goin' home for lunch." It was all Daryl was able to come up with.
If the situation had been any different, Billy would have laughed. This was no laughing matter, though, so he just shrugged and swallowed down the sliver of disappointment he felt. "Yeah, sure."
Daryl all but bolted from the office. For the first time in a long time, he was really craving a cigarette. Lunch wasn't for another half hour and he could really use something to calm him down until then.
Teddy jumped when the front door slammed shut, but she was insanely glad when she saw Daryl storming into the kitchen. She didn't have time to say hello, he was on her in an instant. He pressed his lips down on hers with bruising force. His arms held her cradled against his solid form as tightly as possible without squishing her belly too much. "Are ya mine?" he breathed against her lips between kisses. He needed to make sure. He had no idea why this whole thing with Billy and Maggie had such an effect on him, but he felt so scared that he would lose Teddy if he didn't hold on to her tightly enough in this moment.
"Yes."
"Forever?"
"Fuck yes." Teddy bit out, and before she knew what was happening, Daryl was on his knees in front of her, yanking her pants and panties down, hooking her leg over his shoulder and burying his face in her pussy with a growl.
He needed this. He needed to immerse himself completely in her, to get lost in her. And he had a feeling that she might need it as well. Once he had made her cum on his face, he wordlessly carried her into their bedroom and made love to her all throughout his break, and let her cry on his shoulder afterwards.
Thank you for reading.
