This was a few random ideas I had that I just put together in this random one shot. I hope you like it!
…
He never saw himself being a father. Even after getting with and marrying Beth, even knowing that Beth was meant to be mom in this world, Daryl could never picture himself being a father to anyone though he sure as Hell wasn't wanting Beth to go off and have a baby with any other man.
But what the Hell did he know about being a father? His own dad sure-as-shit wasn't an example to follow or emulate and for that matter, no Dixon male on their family tree was. Daryl supposed that that actually might help him. Just do the complete opposite of everything every male in his family had ever done with their kids.
When Beth first talked about Luke Ridgeway from the daycare center, she did so hesitantly. Just a comment here or there. When they were out shopping, she would put a small box of crayons into the cart while saying that Luke colored some amazing pictures or she would grab an extra bar of soap, mentioning that some of the kids were teasing Luke for not smelling good. She said that quietly, her words aching as if she had been the one the kids had been teasing.
Daryl didn't tell her, but he was the smelly kid, too. Maybe Beth already knew that. It wouldn't surprise him if she did. Daryl admitted that he didn't talk a lot – not even to his own wife – but somehow, Beth still knew.
There was a small desk crammed in the corner of their living room where they wrote out the bills and Daryl was there, going over the envelopes that he had to take that morning to throw in the mailbox at the post office and making sure that everything had a stamp. He wasn't snooping. He didn't think there was anything on this desk that he had to snoop out since both he and Beth used it.
The papers were in a stack of other random papers but the heading was sticking out just enough for Daryl to get curious. Seeing those letters "Child Protective Services" at the top of any piece of paper would get his instant attention. And when he pulled it out and saw what it was – an application for temporary fostering of a minor – Daryl knew exactly what it was. And he was a little surprised to find that no part of him was actually surprised at having found this among Beth's things.
He paused for only a moment before he pulled the chair out from the desk and sat down. Picking up a pen, Daryl took it upon himself to start filling out the application.
…
He tried to think of how he would have been if he was in Luke's shoes. He knew it wasn't the same kind of thing. Yeah, he and Luke had too many shitty things to count in common but if CPS had come to ever take a little Daryl away from his parents, he would have been placed with strangers and that might have been a situation just as bad as the one he was pulled from.
With Luke though, when CPS came to take him from one home and brought him to stay in Daryl and Beth's, the kid already knew Mrs. Dixon. She was his daycare teacher and he loved her and in his little kid mind, he didn't know Mr. Dixon but if he was married to Mrs. Dixon, then he must have been just as good as his wife.
Almost immediately, the boy was excited if not overwhelmed. Daryl expected the three of them to need a little bit of time, adjusting to all living together, but that had never seemed to happen. It was as if one morning, Luke wasn't there and the next he was and the kid just slipped right in perfectly; as if he had always been here and here was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Luke caught onto their schedule within just a few days.
On weekday mornings, Daryl was the first up and went straight into the kitchen to start making coffee. As he did that, Beth would hop into the shower and he could always tell if she was shaving her legs or not depending on how long the water ran for. She then got out and went back into their bedroom to towel off her hair, get dressed and let her hair air dry for some time. As Daryl took his own shower, Beth went into the kitchen to get herself her first cup of coffee.
They didn't have a bed for Luke – yet – and for the time being, the boy slept on the couch in the living room. Since their house was on the smaller side as far as houses went, the living room and kitchen was one room that opened right into the other and they had been quick to learn that Luke could sleep through just about anything. Daryl supposed that was because his parents would be up at all hours, partying with others or screaming and fighting with one another, and sleeping heavily was the only way for the boy to get any sleep.
(That was one thing he and Luke did not have in common because Daryl had always been a light sleeper. He had always wanted – needed – to be able to hear where his old man was at all times, even as he slept.)
Every morning, Beth knelt down next to the couch and woke Luke up gently.
"Good morning, Luke. It's time to start the day," she said with a smile so when Luke woke up, that was always the first thing he saw. And whether he was still tired or not, he managed to give her a smile, too.
Luke took baths every night so in the mornings, Beth would let him pick what clothes he wanted to wear that day and she was sure to not help him get dressed because he always insisted that he could do it himself.
"What cereal would you like today?" Beth asked once Luke was dressed and pulled himself into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
On the weekdays, they had cereal for breakfast, and in the pantry cabinet, there are three boxes of cereal – all from Aldi – and Luke liked to pick a different one every day.
"Berry Kids Krunch!" or "Cocoa Rice!"
And Beth always smiled as she got a bowl ready for him.
Once teeth were brushed and hair was dry and combed, and the blankets and pillow on the couch were folded and put away, they made sure they had everything before leaving the house. Daryl drove and he would drop Beth and Luke off at the daycare and he would go on to the garage. And after their days, he would come and pick them up again in the evening to drive them home again.
Beth and Daryl would take turns making dinner and Luke always wanted to help no matter who was cooking. They had bought him a little stool so he could stand at the counter and they never yelled at him or hit him when he spilled something or sometimes got in the way.
They ate at the table together – talking about their day and though Luke had been with Beth through all of it, Luke still had his own stories to tell and Beth and Daryl always listened to them. Luke loved being able to share his own stories with them.
After dinner, they all helped cleaning up and washing dishes and then it was Luke's bath time.
Some nights, Beth played the piano and if there was still daylight, Daryl did something or other outside. Sometimes though, he would got and sit on the couch, watching television or reading; he called it "unwinding" after working hard all day. Sometimes, instead of playing the piano, Beth would sit on the couch with him and watch television or read, too, Fresh from his bath and in his pajamas, Luke always sat on the floor at the coffee table and played with the few tubs of Play-Doh that Beth and Daryl had bought him.
(Weekends were pretty much the same except instead of cereal for breakfast, they almost always had eggs and bacon and sometimes pancakes and they ran all sorts of errands – for groceries or other things and it might have been boring or exhausting sometimes, but Luke never complained – and sometimes, on the weekend, Beth decided on a new "project" and pulled Daryl, and now Luke, into it.
"You wanna rearrange the livin' room?" Daryl asked. "What the Hell for?"
"I don't know. There can be a better flow to the room, maybe, than what we have now. Luke, can you help me get everything off of the coffee table?"
And Daryl just smirked when a couple of weekends later, Beth wanted to move everything back.)
When they watched television, it was like dinner. They took turns of who would pick what they watched and when Luke came to live with them, they went on a rotation. Daryl liked to watch shows about motorcycles or house renovations. There was a reality show about a tattoo shop he liked, too. When it was Luke's turn, they helped him find out what he liked to watch because he really had no idea. They all quickly learned that he absolutely loved the cartoon, Arthur.
As for Beth, baking shows or the random sitcom. But then, sometimes, there was a show about models.
"No, Beth. No," Daryl said and it was the only time he ever seemed to say that word to Beth, Luke learned.
"Yes, Daryl, yes," Beth teased and kept the remote safe with her.
Luke sat between them on the couch and giggled to himself as he watched America's Next Top Model and even if Daryl hated it – really hated it – he always sat there and watched it, too. They both knew that even if Luke didn't want to watch a show about modeling, he would have watched it anyway because he was watching it with them and he wanted to be with them.
Both Daryl and Beth hoped he knew that they felt the exact same about him.
…
THANK YOU!
