…

THREE. First Day.

He woke early the next morning and counted everyone in their cells as he passed, reminding himself that there were eleven of them now. They had heard the cries throughout the night. It was like a crack of lightning for as sudden as it would begin. Daryl laid on his perch, listening to Jamie cry couple few hours and Beth's soft voice soothing him. The girl had barely been a mom for twenty-four hours and she was a natural already – not that that was too surprising to any of them.

He walked near her cell, slowing his steps, but when he glanced inside, he found it was empty. He left the cell block and he found her in the adjoining room, standing at the table against the wall where they had put all of the food, cradling Jamie in one arm while putting something together with her other. Daryl paused a moment, not too sure what to do. He had to go out and do a quick perimeter check, make sure everything was still alright and secure, and he also had to get himself ready to go out on his run, but he heard Beth hum a soft song then and he found it impossible for his feet to move.

He thought since being behind her, she wouldn't sense him, but Beth turned a moment later and seeing him, gave him a faint smile. She looked exhausted.

"I'm sorry," she said and it wasn't at all what he was expecting her to say.

"For what?" He asked, his voice gruff from not using it for the past few hours.

"I know he woke all of you up," she said.

Daryl shrugged. "S'fine," he said, setting his crossbow down onto one of the tables.

He didn't tell her but he was sure everyone agreed with him. Hearing a baby's cries was a pretty damn nice sound to be hearing when compared to what could have happened.

He watched for another moment as she did her best to hold onto the baby with one arm as she tried to stir something with the other but she seemed to be struggling doing both at the same time. He hesitated and told himself that he didn't care and he had to go outside for the perimeter check He also had to go to the bathroom. But instead of walking towards the door for the outside, he found his feet taking him to Beth.

He saw she was trying to stir a pot of something and without a word, he took Jamie from her arm and transported him into his.

Beth looked surprised for a moment and then completely relieved. "Thank you," she smiled at him and then shaking her arm out, she was able to hold onto the pot with one hand and stir with the other. "I'm making breakfast for everyone. Oatmeal. I feel bad."

"Shouldn'," he shrugged and looked down at the baby in his arms.

He had never been around babies before. Hadn't give them much thought. There was always a girl or two buying stuff from Merle, bringing their kid along with them, but Daryl had been indifferent towards them. He had no reason to think about them. And he sure as hell had never held one before.

He could feel Beth looking at him from time to time but he didn't look at her. Instead, he stared down at the little baby in his arms. When Beth had asked him the night before if he wanted to hold Jamie, he had surprised both of them when he had nodded his head. He wasn't sure what it was but he felt both the need and want and when she slipped the baby into his arms, it almost looked as if he knew what he was doing.

He wasn't sure why he had wanted to hold Jamie but when Beth had asked him, he realized how badly he wanted to. He never would have asked himself. He really didn't have a place to hold him. Not like the others. He was there for all of them and they all knew that but besides being Rick's go-to guy for a lot of things, he still stood a little bit back from them all. This was their group and Jamie was part of their group now and it was up to him to keep the now-eleven of them safe. But he still didn't really have any place to just pick him up and hold him.

So when Beth asked, he knew it was probably going to be his only chance to and he really wanted to hold that baby. He had watched Beth get big with him for the past few months and had heard her scream out as she brought the kid into the world. It was almost as if they had all known this baby before he had actually been here.

There were so few good things in the world nowadays. His bike. This group. This prison could be something good. Beth's voice when she was singing soft songs. Carl when he laughed and was actually a kid for a second. And now, Jamie.

This baby had no idea the world of shit he had just been born into and he was the only completely innocent and pure thing in this world. And Daryl knew that with Jamie having Beth as a mom, she was going to try as hard as she could to keep this kid as innocent for as long as possible.

Daryl felt like he was too dirty to be holding him. He wasn't the kind of guy a girl would want holding their baby but Beth was stirring oatmeal and humming a song and Jamie blinked his eyes up at him without making a sound.

"Goin' on that run today," Daryl reminded her and Beth lifted her eyes to him, smiling.

"Diapers," she said instantly. "Carol found a pile of towels and I've been using those but I definitely need diapers. If you can find them. And maybe a pacifier."

Daryl nodded and didn't say anything.

Beth got a bowl from the stack and a spoon and scooped a large spoonful of the oatmeal into the bowl. She turned and held it out to Daryl, that same smile on her lips, and Daryl still didn't know what she was smiling about half of the time. He supposed she was smiling because of Jamie but she was smiling at him and it wasn't the first time she had smiled at him but he still didn't know what the hell to do when she did.

"Switch," she said and he nodded, taking the bowl as she took Jamie back into her arms. "I keep thinking about caveman babies and how little they had. Just an animal fur wrapped around their bodies and their mother's milk. So Jaime has me and his little booty is covered and has a roof over his head. He has all he needs. We all do."

Daryl sat down at the nearest table and didn't say anything to that. He began shoveling the oatmeal into his mouth, not realizing until just then how hungry he was. He glanced up when Beth sat down across from him but he looked back to his oatmeal and didn't say anything. She didn't say anything to him and he found himself grateful for that. He wasn't one with small talk – especially with Beth. What would they talk about? With anyone else, they could make plans for the rest of the prison. But with Beth, he didn't know if she would really care. She had other things to think about right now and he didn't feel particularly comfortable around her if he was being honest with himself.

He ate as quickly as he could while making sure he didn't choke and when he was done, he stood up, picking up his crossbow.

"Thanks," he grunted and she smiled up at him.

Daryl turned and headed for the door as quick as he could without making it too obvious that he was running the hell away from her. He heard the others moving around in the cell block, and he really didn't want to deal with any of the others just yet either.

Outside, he pulled a cigarette from the pack in his back pocket and popped it into his mouth, lighting it. He needed to start thinking about quitting. Sooner rather than later, these were going to get really hard to find. Being in a prison would certainly help keep him going but still… he shouldn't be smoking around Carl and now, a baby.

He stood in the sun and exhaled the smoke through parted lips and he looked at the yard; at all of what they had gotten for themselves. They had a ton of work to do to make this place livable but right now, it was safe. As safe as a place could be. He heard Jamie begin to cry from inside and he stepped further out, crossbow in his hands and his eyes to the fences. He'd make sure to keep it safe, too.

…

As everyone ate from the pot of oatmeal she had made for them and brushed off her apologies for Jamie crying during the night, Beth went into her cell to nurse Jamie. She was sore and tired but she smiled faintly as she watched as Jamie's cries subsided as he drank his breakfast from her breast. She went over the things in her head she would like Daryl to try and find when he went out on his run.

Diapers. Definitely diapers. And something for him to wear. Her dad had mentioned formula, too - she was breastfeeding and didn't need formula but she knew why her dad was thinking that. Anything could happen. And Beth had no idea where Daryl would be able to find all of these things. She just knew he couldn't take too long looking. He had to get back here. They all needed him here far more than out there, trying to get onesies for a baby that wasn't his responsibility. She was so grateful to Daryl that he had even volunteered to go out there to get some stuff when he didn't have to do that.

Jamie finished and she burped him, patting his back lightly and biting back a yawn. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. Jamie had cried every couple of hours and when he wasn't crying, she found herself reluctant to close her eyes and look away from him. She was scared that if she closed her eyes and opened them again, Jamie would be gone. He had barely been here and already, she couldn't imagine not having him here.

When she came from the cell block, Rick was giving orders for what needed to be done that day. They needed to move their cars up from outside the fence, they needed to organize the food, keep cleaning, burn the walker bodies and the list seemingly went on and on.

Rick looked to Beth and pointed to Jamie in her arms. "And you take care of that one."

Beth smiled and felt her cheeks flush. She lowered her eyes to Jamie and then when she lifted her head again, she caught Daryl sitting on one of the tables. He was looking at her, too, and when she caught his eyes, he turned his head back towards Rick. She couldn't help herself though and kept looking at him.

She had caught herself doing that more and more but she couldn't exactly understand why. It had been happening ever since they left the farm and were trying to find a place to stay at more than a night, running place to place, trying to stay ahead of the walkers.

One night, in an old farmhouse they had found, he had been on watch as the others had been asleep on the floor. She had been sleeping between the fireplace and Carol. She had just a small bump by that time but her hand was already so natural resting there. She couldn't sleep, her mind racing as it seemed to do ever since she found out she was pregnant and she laid on her side, facing the front of the room and the windows. There was a window seat and Daryl was there, sitting, his eyes fixed outside. Beth laid there and watched him for she didn't know how long but she couldn't look away from him.

She didn't know him at all. Just his name and that he could hunt and track just about anything and out of everyone in the group, if Rick needed something done, he looked to Daryl first. Other than that, she had absolutely no other knowledge of him. She didn't talk to him and he definitely didn't talk to her. She had no reason to talk to him. What would she say. Hey, Daryl. That's a really nice crossbow you got there? You don't at all intimidate me.

So she didn't talk to him but that night, she began watching him and she supposed she never stopped. She watched him now and as Rick ended the morning meeting to send them all about their tasks for the day, Carol came up and asked if she could hold Jamie and Beth smiled, passing the baby into her arms.

She watched for a moment and then crossed the room to where Daryl stood with Rick, feeling nervous in the pit of her stomach.

"Hey," Rick smiled gently at her. "Feeling alright?"

"A little sore," she answered truthfully. A lot sore but she didn't need to share details. She then looked to Daryl. "Are you still going on that run?"

Daryl nodded. "Diapers," he said and she smiled a little, nodding. "What else?"

"Um, I was thinking something he could wear?" She then suggested and she hoped she didn't look as nervous as she felt.

And she didn't know why she felt nervous now. She felt Daryl's eyes on her, intently focused on her, and she felt a clenching on her stomach like the one she used to get when she and Jimmy had first begun dating. But Daryl was nothing like Jimmy. Jimmy had been a boyfriend because he was just that. A boy. And she was a girl. Despite the baby in her arms, she was still very much a girl.

She looked at Daryl and he was a man. And she had no idea how to be around a man.

…

Daryl looked to Rick. "I was gonna take Maggie," he said.

Rick nodded. "Good idea. Get back as soon as you can."

Daryl nodded as well and shifting the strap of his crossbow on his shoulder, he looked to Beth and she was looking at him with her too-big eyes. He quickly looked away. He wanted to hate her eyes. Too big and too blue like the damn sky and he wanted to hate the way she looked at him with those big blue eyes. She looked at him like he was some damn hero or something and why the hell would she be looking at him like that?

He grunted something then, a parting to them both, and he walked away from them both, heading outside.

He heard footsteps behind him and he knew it was Beth. He sighed to himself and when he reached the bottom of the steps, he turned to look at her, making her stop on the step two above him, making him even with those damn eyes.

"What?" He bit out.

"Thank you. For today. Thank you for going today," she said quickly, her fingers fidgeting in front of her and she was looking nervous for some reason. He was glad she couldn't seem to meet his eyes and then he was wondering why the hell she couldn't meet his eyes. "I can't thank you enough especially since you don't have to go-"

"Yeah, I do," he interrupted. "You're ten and he's 'leven," he said and when she looked at him, her head tilted slightly to the side, her eyebrows crinkled together, he knew she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and why would she? Fucking idiot, he told himself in his head. "In the group," he told her. "You're ten and Jamie's 'leven. I do have to go on the run."

Beth pursed her lips together and nodded, looking down to the ground. "Be safe, Daryl," she said softly.

He nodded and grunted and turned, walking away from her again. He half-expected her to follow him again and he did hear her footsteps but glancing over his shoulder, he saw her heading back inside. Maggie came out and the two sisters spoke with one another. He exhaled a deep breath and headed towards the gravel drive that led to where they had parked their cars outside of the gate.

He tried to think of places where he and Maggie could go. There wasn't a whole lot around here that hadn't already been picked over and he wondered how far they would have to go. He knew Rick wanted them back that day and he agreed. There was too much to do but they had to do this, too. They had nothing for the baby and they had to get some things because both Beth and the baby were here. They had made it; were both alive and now, they all had to see to this just as they had seen to everything else that had come before.

They needed to make this prison work. Not just for Jamie but for all of them. They needed this place. Needed to stop running. Needed to just stop and breathe for a while.

"Hey."

He turned and saw Maggie coming towards him, smiling. He nodded his head towards her.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Thanks for offering to do this, Daryl," she said once she stood in front of him.

He shrugged. "No big deal."

"It is," she disagreed. "It's a very big deal. No one said this is something you have to do."

He shrugged but didn't say anything. Of course this was something he had to do. He took care of their group. That's what he did.

They got into the pickup truck, Daryl driving and Maggie in the passenger seat. He didn't know where to go so he just chose a random direction and started heading in it. They would learn the area and everything that surrounded them soon enough.

"Beth says she needs diapers," Maggie said.

"I know," he nodded. "And somethin' for the kid to wear."

"I need to get her something, too. It already doesn't even look like she was pregnant except for the clothes. Daddy said because she's young, her body can bounce back easier. And she didn't really gain a lot of weight during the pregnancy. Thank God Jamie seems healthy."

Daryl didn't say anything but he listened as Maggie talked while keeping his eye out for any kind of store that could be useful to them. Thinking about Beth's body for even just one minute was the last damn thing that ever needed to be on his mind.

…

Thank you! This chapter took me forever to edit and I ended it here because I wanted Daryl and Maggie's run featured in the next chapter. Awkward Daryl doing his best to NOT think of what Beth's need is always a fun thing to write.