True Blue

I do not own any of the TWD characters - Jacob, Micah, and Katie Raye are all mine though.

Saturday morning, eight a.m. That was as much sleeping in as anyone got on the Dixon Greene Farms. Every Saturday Beth cooked a huge sit down breakfast. Merle, Carol, and Sophia would always join them - for some reason,lately, Carl's been there as well. Daryl hasn't asked why yet but he's thinking about starting to bug Merle about it cause he's pretty sure Carl and Sophia are getting pretty serious. Daryl can't imagine how Merle is going to handle that but he can't wait to begin the teasing.

Several years ago, Daryl had wanted to put in a concrete slab to make a basketball court for the kids. Well, that was a great idea and they had really enjoyed their basketball court. Jacob, Micah, and Katie Raye had used it for everything from basketball pick up games to a surface for sidewalk chalk art exhibits. The thing was though, neither Daryl or Beth had been home the day the guys came to pour the concrete. That's how the Dixons ended up with two huge slabs of concrete - one where it was supposed to be (after Daryl raised three kinds of hell) and another right outside the kitchen door. You can't really get rid of a concrete slab very easily, especially one that size.

After much fussing and fuming on Daryl's part, teasing and ribbing on Merle's part, Beth finally came up with an idea - of course it was going to cost quite a bit, but it would be money well spent she assured Daryl. Come on, she really didn't have to convince him all that much. They used the concrete slab as the foundation for an outdoor kitchen and family area. It was a pavillion type structure with two walls, a massive stone fireplace that essentially made the third wall. There was lots of comfy seating for movie night (one of the walls had a huge screen built in) and plenty of room for the very large extended family to dine. This is where breakfast was being prepared and served that morning.

Jacob could smell the bacon and sausage links cooking because Beth had come into his room earlier that morning and put his bedroom windows up. "Shew wee Jake" Beth teased. "Smells like teenage boy in here."

Jacob was having trouble getting up out of the bed - not because he's sleepy, but because he just feels so damn uncoordinated with the huge contraption they've got him in. Katie Raye knocks at his bedroom door as Jacob lets out one last ooooph before falling back to the mattress. She's got a laundry basket resting on her hip because she's obviously taking her dirty clothes downstairs - it is Saturday after all and that's one of their Saturday chores.

"Hey Jake" Katie Raye timidly greets her older brother. "Thought I'd stop by and get your laundry. Hope ya don't mind."

Jake still wasn't quite ready to completely forgive his sister for what he's certain is her "ruining his life". Jake grunts at Katie Raye and she takes that as a "sure, take my laundry please."

"I'll just grab it and get outta your way" Katie Raye tells him but she won't even look him in the eye. Jacob does feel bad about the last words he spoke to his baby sister and he's been thinking hard about what all Uncle Merle was preaching to him about. He knows he's being an asshole and he knows Katie didn't injure him on purpose. What he's doing though, hurting her like he is with his nasty remarks and sour attitude - that is on purpose and he was raised better than that.

"Thanks" he finally works up the courage to speak nicely to her. "I'd forgotten 'bout the damn laundry." Katie rolls her eyes at the fact that Jacob thinks just because he's the oldest he can cuss all the time just like her Dad and Uncle Merle.

"No problem" Katie Raye responds "it's on my way and I don't expect you can exactly gather it all up with that thing on your arm. You eatin up here? I bet Momma would like ya to come downstairs for breakfast if you're up to it."

Jacob laughed. He laughed for the first time in weeks. "If I can get up out of this bed, I"m comin down - sick to death of bein in here."

Katie Raye look confused. "Ya can't get up?"

"Hell no" Jacob answered. "Feel like a turtle on my back. Can ya send Dad up?"

Katie Raye smiled at her brother. "Sure. I think he's down there flippin pancakes. He got a new griddle top this week." They'd completely worn the original griddle top out - when you cook as much as these people did it was bound to happen.

"Cool" Jacob said. Jacob knew that his Dad had been a real pain in the ass when they were building the outdoor kitchen. He kept saying things like "your damn Momma acts like money grows on trees" and "I sure hope she appreciates this". However, Jacob thought you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that likes that pavilion any better than Daryl Dixon. His dad loved to sit out there real late at night and get a fire going, watch Turner Classic movies, and drink bourbon. Jacob can picture his dad out there flipping pancakes in a "kiss the cook" apron but no shirt on underneath- he does that shit just to try and get his Momma riled up. Jacob snickered at that and again, at his dilemma of not being able to get himself out of the bed.

"Fuck" Jacob says quietly to himself. "Fuck. Ain't this some shit."

It seemed like forever that Jacob laid there on his back staring at the ceiling. In reality it was only five or ten minutes before his sister came into his room.

"Daddy said he was comin but it'd be a few. He's tendin to his brisket" the girl reported. "I can help ya up."

"No offense Katie" Jacob began "but I just don't think you are quite strong enough to pull me up."

Katie Raye, obviously offended, placed her hands on her hips. "I'm stronger than I look. Uncle Merle said I'm as strong as half the farm hands we got."

Jacob realized that he might be there a while if he decided to wait on his dad. Once Daryl Dixon got caught up in cooking some kind of meat, any kind of meat, nothing else registered with him. Daryl had almost been late for Micah's baptism because he had a hog in the ground. Jacob smiled at that memory even though he'd really and truly been afraid for his dad's safety. To say that Beth Dixon was pissed when her husband ran in the back of the church covered in soot and ashes just as Micah was going under the water was an understatement.

"Yeh, okay I guess" Jacob relented. "What'ya think the best way to go about this is?"

Katie Raye stood there looking at her brother sprawled out on the bed as if she were mapping out all the possibilities. Finally, she spoke. "I think one fluid motion will be best" she began. "Turn sideways so that your body is parallel to the headboard."

"Parallel?" Jacob mumbled under his breath. "The fuck is parallel?" He was trying to remember his 8th grade geometry. Slowly he rolled and scooted till he was what he considered to be parallel to the headboard.

"Okay" Katie instructed. "I'm gonna stand on the side where your good arm is and I'll just pull you up by your good arm. Your feet will already be underneath ya and there we go. How's that sound?"

"Like one of us is gonna end up hurt" Jacob whispered.

"Pfffft" Katie Raye blew out. "We got this."