A/N: Happy Valentine's Day and Walking Dead Mid-Season Premiere day!

"What the hell Dria! I thought you were dead." Daryl yelled in a booming voice.

Alex got a look on her face that Daryl had never seen before "Shut the hell up so the girls can go to sleep," she hissed as she blew right past him down the hall towards the kitchen.

Daryl stormed after her, "I want a fucking explanation!

"Why don't you ask your brother…he was there!" Alex screamed at Daryl.

"Well I can't cause he's fucking dead!" he yelled back at her.

That seemed to make Alex hesitate to say anything else.

"What the fuck happened Dria…..Alex…whatever the hell you go by these days!" he yelled at her.

Alex was becoming furious, "Well let me tell you about that day…"

*Flashback*

Dria opened the door to a smiling Merle Dixon. "Hey Merle, come on in. Something must be going on out there. I haven't had a chance to find out what though cause I just got up from my nap." She gestured for Merle to come on in and she locked the door and started walking towards the kitchen.

"No problem little missy. Ole Merle just wanted to come check on his brother and his old lady, make sure everything was alright. Where is my brother by the way?" Merle asked as he followed.

"He's at work right now, but he should be home in a few hours." She said pulling a beer out of the fridge and handing it over to Merle as he took a seat at the kitchen island.

"Well don't mind me girly…I'm just gonna hang out here til he gets back."

"No problem Merle," Dria said turning towards the sink to take care of some dishes.

Merle looked around at the little cookie cutter life his brother had built for himself. Too bad Dixons didn't get to live like this. And with what was going on outside it was going to end real quick. But then his eyes stopped on a few pictures that were hanging on the fridge. He got up and walked over to them, "So you've convinced him the kid is his?"

Dria turned around "Of course it's his kid Merle. That second one is from my appointment earlier this morning. Daryl wasn't able to go cause none of those assholes at work would trade shifts."

"Why are there two in this second picture?" Merle asked already knowing the answer but hoping he was just seeing things.

"We're having twins. Twin girls. The second girl was hiding behind her sister during the first ultrasound so that's why we didn't know about her. I was going to tell Daryl when he got home, so you have to act surprised when he gets here and I tell him. I sure hope he gets home soon. Weird things are happening out there. The TV keeps talking about people getting sick," Dria continued to explain what she'd heard on the TV.

Merle was trying to do some quick thinking. He was here for his brother. Shit was hitting the fan out there and they needed to take off, but Daryl wasn't going to go anywhere without this girl. How the hell were they going to deal with her squeezing out two more humans before too long? He looked around and saw his answer. He picked up the frying pan that was sitting on the stove and quietly walked over to Dria still standing at the sink.

"I know that we always haven't seen eye to eye Merle, but you're Daryl's brother and you're going to be an Uncle….*thump* Dria fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Merle set the pan down and bent down to see his handiwork. "Well damn…..she's just out cold. Hopefully she stays out until I can get Daryl out of here." Just as he finished tying her up he could hear Daryl drive up. He stood up and looked back down at Dria who was starting to come to.

"What the hell Merle, you son of a bitch! When Daryl hears about this…." Dria didn't get to finish her sentence cause at that moment Merle delivered a downward punch to the side of her face that knocked her out cold once again.

"Sorry there sweet thang…..I don't normally hit women, but these were drastic measures." Merle quickly got up and ran out the front door to distract Daryl from coming in the house.

*End Flashback*

"Horse shit. Merle wouldn't have done that to you. He was blood. We take care of blood."

"I wasn't blood Daryl!" Alex yelled. "To your brother I would always be the girl you were fucking around with and knocked up. Those last few months before everything went to shit I was trying…..trying to get along with him when he'd come around. For you I tried. " she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "And look where trying got me."

Daryl took a step back and ran both hands over his face. As much as he wanted to he couldn't deny what she had just said. He looked back up at Alex, "How did you….when they were born…."

Alex put the poor man out of his misery and started to give him the answers he wanted. "When I finally came to the second time I had to get untied, which didn't take very long cause your brother sucks at trying knots. I didn't know where in the heck he'd gone, but I knew that you'd gone with him cause I'd heard you pull up, but you never came in the house. I couldn't stay there. I could hear the screams getting louder and people were starting to break into houses. I spent about 30 minutes loading up the SUV. My clothes, some of our pictures, a bunch of supplies for the babies, and all of the canned food. I was just happy I'd just filled up the vehicle before I came home. I knew I had to get out of town cause there were just too many people.

About two weeks after I left home I met Adam. I was trying to syphon gas from a vehicle and got trapped by about four walkers. He helped me out and we've been together ever since. Over time we joined some more people and when I had the girls he was there to help talk me thru the panic I had during the C-section. We had lucked out and found a small community hospital. I had talked Adam and a few of the woman thru what to do when the time came cause since we wouldn't have proper sedation they would have to just knock me out completely. He's protected us and been there for us. We found this place about six months ago."

"Do you love him" Daryl said before he could fully process what just came out of his mouth.

Alex smiled, "I do," she said. "Not like I loved you, but different." She paused a moment before throwing another thought out there, "They don't call him dad."

Daryl looked at her confused.

"What the girls' know about their father is that he got lost at the start of this whole mess and that hopefully one day he'll find his way back to them. Won't they be excited to find out that their daddy is the hunter,"

Daryl looked at her confused, "Who's the hunter?"

"Beth had started telling the girls stories about a man known as the hunter, who carried a crossbow and slayed slimy snails and fuzzy bears. I always asked her whether it was based on someone she knew…and now I know."

It was all just too much for Daryl. Dria, twin daughters…..and Beth.

"We can talk to the girls in the morning and tell them who you are if that's okay with you?" Daryl nodded his head in agreement. "I'm going to turn in," Alex turned to walk away, but then turned back towards Daryl. "I'm glad you found Beth. She's an amazing girl and you deserve to be happy."

"It's not like that," Daryl said shaking his head.

Alex sighed and shook her head slightly, "You look at her the same way you used to look at me. Take a chance. I think you'll be surprised with how things work out." And with that Alex walked away leaving Daryl trying to process what she had just said.

So much had happened over the last few hours. The betrayal he felt towards his brother tried to consume him. He thought about the fact that he'd been cheated out of time with his daughters. Cheated out of the family he'd been excited to have. However the recent events were starting to take their toll and he wanted to go check on Beth again before he turned in for the night. Finally after a few minutes Daryl headed back down to Beth's room. Opening the door he saw that she was peacefully sleeping. Unable to leave her alone after finally finding her he started to pull the chair in the corner closer to the bed.

"Daryl just take off your boots and vest and lay down on the bed," Beth said from the bed.

"Jesus Christ girl you scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry…didn't mean to. Lay down and get some sleep Daryl."

"Nah….this chair is….."

"Damnit Daryl just lay down or so help me….."

"When did you get to be so bossy Greene?" Daryl asked as he sat down and took his boots and then his vest off.

"I'm not bossy….I'm just strongly suggesting," she said looking up at him from the comfy pillow her head was currently resting on.

Daryl let out a laugh as he laid down on top of the covers. "Go to sleep Beth, you've been thru a lot and need the rest."

Not able to roll over Beth reached over and placed her hand in his, "I'm glad you found me Daryl. I missed you."

He briefly tensed up before relaxing and intertwining their fingers. "I missed you too Greene," he said as they both let sleep consume them.

A/N: Well hell…..I did not expect to be away from writing for this long. So much has happened over the last year and work is still keeping me super busy. This is a very short chapter, but a chapter none the less. If anyone is still at all interested in reading this…..thank you so much. I'm going to slowly get back into writing this story. So please be patient with me.