I do not own any of TWD characters.

Black and Bruised

Fourth of July weekend – twenty years later

Daryl and Beth were waiting to talk to the ER doctor. It appears they'd survived the most recent Fourth of July celebration without incident, but the weekend after is what got them this time. Their oldest child had jumped from the hayloft last night in an attempt to put out a small fire he and his younger brother had been responsible for – a private Roman candle battle as it were. It seems the Dixon children couldn't resist the temptation of all those leftover fireworks that hadn't been picked up yet. Jacob had managed to extinguish the flames before spreading too awfully much. Unfortunately, he'd landed on his arm on the hard ground below.

Daryl had been certain of very few things in his lifetime. One, that Beth Greene was the woman for him and he was damn glad he'd finally come to his senses and accepted that fact. Two, if his damn boys didn't send him to an early grave, the baby and only girl of the family sure as hell would. And three, he was finally going to have to actually enforce the ban on the Roman Candles that Annette Greene had decreed all those years ago.

A soft tap on the door proceeded the entry of Jacob's doctor. Dr. Malcow smiled at Mr. and Mrs. Dixon – hell, the doc was pretty sure he'd paid a substantial amount of his student loans off because of the Dixon family. Every damn one of them must have had at least nine lives.

"How is everyone this mornin?" the good doc asked. They were exhausted. It was nearly lunch time and they'd been sitting in this examination room for what seemed like forever. Both Jacob and his dad only grunted in response, but Beth responded appropriately with a smile and a "oh, we're hangin in there".

"I've got the xrays" the doctor dimmed the lights so that the images could be viewed from the light box on the wall. "See this right here" the man ran his pen along the image where the problem was. "That's what we call a displaced fracture because the bone fragments aren't lined up – makes things a little more complicated. There's still a lot of swelling to contend with as well."

"What's that mean Doc" Daryl asked. "Ya'll gonna cast it and send us on our way?"

"Well" Dr. Malcow hesitated a bit. "Pretty sure this is going to require surgery. I'd like to get a specialist to look at it closely – I'm just your run of the mill ER doctor. I know of a guy though – if it was my boy this is who I'd want to work on him, an orthopedic surgeon, down in Atlanta – he's worked on some of the NFL players. They say he's the best."

"Sounds like he'd be hard to get an appointment with" Daryl observed. "What's our chances of gettin him to take care of our boy?"

"Mmmmm, not sure" Dr. Malcow answered. "Let me go get his contact information and we'll take it from there." The doctor stepped out of the room.

Once they were alone again, Beth looked to Daryl. "I want Jacob to get the best care possible Daryl. I sure hope they can get us in to this guy."

"Yeh, me too" Daryl sighed. He'd stood to join Beth by the bed where Jacob was still in quite a bit of pain. Daryl looked down at his son and counted to three before starting the interrogation. "Jacob".

"Yeh" the boy mumbled – he knew what was coming.

"What in seven hells were you and Micah doin in the barn with those fireworks? Boy, ya oughta know better than that. All that dry straw around and extra fuel for the lawn tractors and what not. Damn boy" Daryl didn't want to come down too hard on the boy right now, but shit. Did his oldest not have any fucking common sense?

"We didn't start out in the barn" Jacob admitted. "Katie Raye was after us and she's got really good aim. And she's mean as hell."

"Watch your mouth boy" Daryl warned.

"Sorry" Jacob glanced over at his mom.

"Katie Raye was in on this?" Beth asked, acting like she was all shocked.

Daryl resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes – he should've known. Hell, this fiasco had Katie Raye's name all over it – the girl was especially skilled at starting shit and having her brothers take the fall, literally.

"We just ducked in there to hide for a few minutes."

Daryl scrubbed at his head. "Don't ya know nuff bout how your sister operates by now to not let her near anything flammable? Or breakable? Or poisonous?"

"Come on now" Beth thought she should stick up for her daughter. "Katie's just precocious is all."

"Is that what they're callin it nowadays?' Daryl asked. "Precocious? Hell, back in my day we just called it what it was – bein an instigator."

"Daryl" Beth cautioned.

"Beth" Daryl playfully mocked his wife.

"Alright guys, we got Jacob an appointment for Monday afternoon" the doc informed them. "He typically performs surgeries on Tuesday and Thursday's. His receptionist advised that the smartest thing for ya'll to do would be to make plans to just spend the night in Atlanta Monday night. Dr. Holt would more than likely squeeze him into the lineup the next day."

Daryl breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Doc – don't wanta take chances with any of my children's health. Beth and I want what's best for em."

"I know ya do" Dr. Malcow slapped Daryl on the back. "The nurse will be in with some paperwork for ya'll to sign off on and a packet of information to read over before your trip to Atlanta Monday.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daryl hadn't heard a peep from the back seat since they'd left the ER. Jacob's arm had been placed in a sling for the remainder of the weekend and they'd given the young man a little something for the pain. The light snores and occasional snorts from the back seat told Daryl that he was probably going to have to get Merle to help him get the boy in the house. There was no way Daryl could lug him in, arm in a sling and basically unconscious.

Daryl hadn't heard a peep out of Beth either. When he'd asked her if she wanted to run through a drive thru for lunch she responded that she only wanted to go home and take a nap. Beth looked a little pale to him and she seemed to be stewing over something. He noticed that when she was reading over the packet of information from the Atlanta doctor was when her mood seemed to have really turned sour. Usually she took an ER visit (and they had plenty of them) in stride, but this one had seemed to knock her for a loop.

"Ya ain't mad 'cause I called your girl an instigator are ya?" Daryl teased his wife and rubbed her thigh a bit.

Beth just looked over at him. "What?" she asked baffled. "No" Beth answered.

"What's wrong Beth?" Daryl asked. "We're gonna go see this surgeon Monday, see what he's got to say, take it from there. It'll be good – Jacob'll be good as new, you'll see."

"I know the surgeon Daryl" Beth said quietly.

"Huh?" Daryl answered.

"I know the surgeon and so do you" Beth told her husband.

"Baby, I know a lotta people, but I'm pretty sure I don't know no surgeons" Daryl laughed.

Beth flipped the paperwork over and flashed it at Daryl. The surgeon's business card was stapled on top. "Dr. Bradley G. Holt" Beth read.

"Bradley Holt" Daryl repeated. "I don't know anybody named Bradley Holt."

"It's Brad, Daryl" Beth explained. "You remember Brad? Pulled my goat out of the well?"

"Well shit" Daryl surmised. "I guess I do know a surgeon."