I just want to thank all of you who favorited and followed this story! I really appreciate it! And thank you for the reviews too! I try and respond in some way to everyone. If I haven't I apologize! Thank you to the guests too! I can't respond to you individually, but the fact that you are reading and reviewing means so much! I think we are getting close to an ending. I have something in sight finally... So we shall see!

Beth really had no idea if riding the horse home made any difference, but she figured it had to be better than walking. Coming home after dark was good too. Because riding in on a horse in the middle of the day would have definitely stirred things up and Beth didn't want an audience. Actually there was really only one person she didn't want seeing this, Maggie. She'd deal with that when she had too. She just wanted to be with Daryl. He kept looking up at her with the pain she felt in her body in his eyes.

Aaron led Buttons away with the promise to take care of him. Beth looked at Daryl and sighed, he took her hand in his. There were lights on which meant people were awake. They weren't going to go unnoticed.

"Come on." Beth took the lead and Daryl followed. They walked in and of course someone heard the door and came to see. It was Rick and before he could even say anything he took in Beth's appearance.

"What happened?" he asked gently. Beth bit her lip and dropped her head and Daryl stiffened beside her. She didn't know what to say, couldn't say anything and when she shuddered Daryl took her hand.

"Came on some walkers at a food storage place, a lot of 'em. We had ta fight and run and… " he stopped and when he didn't go on, Beth looked up at him. She knew he couldn't. Michonne joined Rick in the entryway. Beth heard her intake of breath, that little gasp because obviously she saw the blood.

"I, I had to fight off a walker and I, it hurt and then there was all this blood.." she wasn't going to be able to get through it either. She turned towards Daryl and he wrapped his arms around her and she just wanted her clothes off and she wanted to wash everything down the drain. She didn't want to stand here and look at their faces, their well meaning faces. She gently pushed away from him.

"I'm gonna go upstairs." She didn't look at anyone, not even Daryl. Stepping around Rick and Michonne she climbed the stairs. Her stiff jeans rubbed against her thighs and once she was in the bathroom she rushed to get them off. She didn't want to feel them or see the blood.

Daryl watched her go, unsure of what to do. His chest felt tight and his head was pounding. He had to do something didn't he? He couldn't just stand here like a fucking idiot.

"No fucking doctor to take her to now? What do I do?" That last part came out sounding like a plea for help and Daryl mentally kicked himself for sounding so helpless even though that's exactly what he felt. Helpless.

"Has she been bleeding the whole time?" Michonne asked. Daryl looked at her, unsure of what to say.

"No. I don' know. I think it stopped pretty quick. But there was so much..." He drug his hand through his hair and looked up the stairs. That's where he needed to be. He needed to see her and hold her and right now he just felt like crying and he couldn't do that here, in front of them.

"I gotta go see her.. " He started towards the stairs.

"I'll see what I can find out." Michonne said. Daryl stopped and turned to her.

"Don't tell Maggie. Let, let Beth do that," he told the woman.

Daryl heard the shower when he walked into the room. The bathroom door was slightly ajar and he saw her clothing in a pile on the floor, jeans once blue were black with dried blood. He tried to avoid looking directly at those stupid pants. He pushed the door open. They were supposed to conserve energy because batteries and gas for the generators were hard if not almost impossible to come by so Daryl knew when he didn't see steam coming from the shower that Beth was "doing her part" and that pissed him off for some reason. Girl deserved a hot shower right now.

"Beth turn on the hot water." He tapped on the glass.

"What?" He could actually hear her shivering. He popped the shower door open an inch. What he saw made him ache, she was standing there small and naked her arms wrapped around her body. Swirls of red and pink water at her feet slowly whirled down the drain.

"Fuck," he swore under his breath and yanked off his shirt at the same time he kicked off his boots. Once he was undressed he stepped into the shower and adjusted the water so within a few seconds it was already warming up. He pulled her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her.

"Ya ain't gonna stand here in the cold." He reached for the soap and lathered it in his hands and gently ran his hands down Beth's arms. He knelt in the warm spray to wash the dried blood from her legs. When he stood back up she turned in his arms. The shampoo bottle was in her hands and they took turns washing each others hair. This is what they did, this was their ritual. Afterwards they stood there letting the water run over them until it turned lukewarm. Beth reached up and turned it off. She followed Daryl out of the shower and he wrapped a towel around her before grabbing his own.

"How ya feelin'?" She was curled up in her towel on the bed, hair wet and tangled around her face. It felt like a stupid question to ask, but he was winging it here, he was lost and felt something settling inside him, taking up space and making him want to lash out and break down at the same time.

"Don't know. I'm just gonna try to sleep," she mumbled. He pulled the comforter over her and tucked it around her. He wanted to ask her more questions, was she still cramping or bleeding? Did she need to eat? Could he do anything at all to make her feel better? But he got the sense that right now she just wanted to be left alone. He understood. It made him feel empty in a way that was somewhat foreign, but also familiar. Maybe she just needed some space. He'd give her that. He'd give her anything she wanted actually.

Michonne was in the kitchen with books spread out before her on the table. She looked up when Daryl came in. Candles were flickering on a pie tin on the table, another way the community conserved energy in case of any emergency. Which was ironic because wasn't life basically one big emergency now?

"Hey, how is Beth?" she asked not looking away from the book in front of her.

"She's sleeping. Tired I guess." He looked at the books. They were medical books and books about pregnancy. "What are ya doing?"

"We don't have a doctor. I'm trying to find any info I can," Michonne said scanning a paragraph. Daryl felt a little lump form in his throat and his cheeks felt warm. He didn't know what to say. Michonne glanced up at him.

"You okay?" she asked her eyebrows raised.

"Mmmhmm.. Thanks for this," he gestured to the books. She patted the seat next to her.

"Don't thank me yet. I haven't found out much, but I know that Beth needs something. Maybe you do too?" Michonne flipped through the pages.

"I just never thought 'bout it. Bringing a baby into this shit," he mumbled.

"I know. It's frightening being responsible for a helpless life when you feel pretty helpless yourself." Michonne said softly. Daryl looked at her pointedly.

"Sounds like you kinda know," he said.

She turned away from the books and sighed.

"I had a son, he was three."

Daryl wasn't sure what to say. He didn't know a lot about Michonne's life before. She kept to herself. Kind of like he did. He certainly didn't know she had a son. And obviously lost him.

"M' sorry bout that." he said awkwardly and she smiled a small smile in his direction.

"It seems like forever ago. Kinda like a dream." She continued to scan the pages of the book in front of her. He watched and reached out and fingered the spine of one of the larger books. It looked like a medical book.

"Can I help?" he asked.

"Sure. I'm just looking for anything to do with pregnancy and cramping or bleeding. Also miscarriage." She glanced at Daryl out of the corner of her eye when she said this.

"There was so much blood. I don't see how.." he said softly.

"It's possible that she could have bled like that and not lost the baby. Unlikely, but still a possibility." Michonne said.

Daryl didn't know how long they'd been sitting there pouring over the books. He wasn't sure if he felt better or worse after all the reading he'd done. So much could go wrong with a pregnancy and to a baby. How were so many people born healthy and normal? All he was able to come up with was they just had to wait and see what happened with Beth. There was no doctor to confirm anything. She could take another pregnancy test and see what the result was, but she needed to wait at least a week or two. Meanwhile they had to monitor any bleeding, cramping, and pelvic pain. Simple right? Not even close.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" Michonne asked. Daryl shook his head. It made him uncomfortable and angry, but he couldn't just run from it. It wasn't going to go away because he didn't like it. He couldn't deal with it that way anyway. He would tell her what they had found in the books. He had be the one to do it. He wanted to. He'd sat here and read through everything with Michonne and he wanted Beth to know that this mattered to him. It was his baby too. He felt Michonne lightly squeeze his arm. The unnerved him a little. Physical affection wasn't something he felt comfortable with. He knew what it meant though. She started closing the books.

"I'm gonna take these back and go find Rick." A knock on the door startled them both.

"Oh shit.. Could be Maggie. Tell her we're sleeping." Daryl was definitely not dealing with Beth's sister. He'd leave that to her.

Beth hadn't slept. Not like she wanted to. That deep sleep where you forget everything and everyone and just slip into a little quiet oblivion for a while. She'd tossed and turned and had weird dreams about Judith walking alone on a dirt road. Not to mention the fact that every time she felt any twinge in her body (real or imagined) she got up and went to the bathroom to check for bleeding. She'd finally given up and was sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed drawing circles in her journal. The circles didn't mean anything. It was just a way of relaxing she supposed. That and not thinking too hard about anything. She looked up when the door opened. Daryl came in and sat on the edge of the bed.

"How ya feelin'?" he asked.

She shrugged. She didn't want to feel anything and she was trying very hard not to. But him sitting here right now made that kind of impossible. She could tell he was struggling too. He hunched over on himself and glanced at her from underneath a fringe of hair. He was always hiding behind that hair. She fought the urge to lean over and brush the lock from his eyes so she could really see them. She was a little scared of what she'd see there right now. She knew he was feeling helpless, but she couldn't handle him feeling guilty. This wasn't his fault. Didn't matter what he would have said before he'd gone on with Aaron. She would have followed even if he forbid her. He cleared his throat and the sound broke the silence.

"Michonne got some books, from the infirmary. We read up on stuff.." he said fidgeting with his fingers.

"Stuff? You read up on pregnancy and what's happenin'?" She felt the tears in her throat first.

"Yeah. I, read everything I could find. I don' know Beth.." he was gripping his hands tightly now and biting his lip. She shifted on the bed and sat beside him.

"What did you find?"

"Lots a stuff. Too damn many things.." he rubbed at his face and looked over at her. He looked so sad, she knew a baby was definitely not what he wanted. Not now, maybe never, but when they knew she was pregnant for sure he hadn't shied away. He'd been there. This was happening to him as much as it was happening to her. She slipped her hand in his.

"It's not good. I know. It doesn't feel good. All that blood.." Beth whispered.

"We gotta wait a while and see. Keep track of the bleeding and maybe it was just a fluke thing cause of bein' stressed or maybe, maybe it was a miscarriage and ya... " He was being so strong. Beth could see that. She tugged on his hand and he leaned over, laid his head in her lap. She combed her fingers through his hair and saw his shoulders shaking and felt the wet warmth of tears against her hip.

"Didn't need no damn baby, but I didn't want.. don't want.." He choked on his words and Beth felt her own tears spill over and warm her face. She slipped her hands under his arms and laid back on the bed.

"Come on Daryl, come up here," she whispered and he crawled up beside her into the circle of her arms.

Buttons was an instant celebrity the next morning. Daryl came down stairs with his crossbow on his shoulder and Carl was on his way out with Judith. Daryl gave Judith a little smile.

"Aaron is giving horse rides? You know anything about that?" Rick smiled at Daryl but his smile faltered when he met Daryl's eyes. Daryl knew his face was a mess. Last night hadn't been easy.

"Daryl? Is it Beth?" Rick asked. Daryl glanced at him. Rick was really the only other man that Daryl would even consider opening up to, as much as Daryl opened up. But right now he just didn't feel like it. Talking.

"Nothing's changed. Just hard. I'm goin' out for a while." He avoided looking Rick in the eyes. Having to see the pity and the sadness was just too much. Being in the woods away from everything was what he needed.

He nodded at Sasha and she pulled the gate open. It was still odd that it only took a few steps to put him in a completely different environment than the one behind the walls. The woods weren't exactly quiet. Birds tittered back and forth and the breeze rustled the leaves on the trees, but it was preferable to people and their voices and endless questions. He felt guilty for leaving Beth alone, but she needed to take it easy and she was so much better at the people thing than he was. He needed to get things right in his head so he could help her deal with everything. Life just didn't seem fair. The world they lived in now was like something from a horror movie, even worse cause it was real. But here was Beth basically creating a miracle inside her body, growing another person, one they had created because they loved each other. It was supposed to be something amazing and wonderful, but it would be born into a world where survival was something you had to fight for. And there were no guarantees.

The calm of the woods was disrupted by the guttural moans of walkers nearby and Daryl scanned his surroundings. Shadows in the trees revealed walkers, a lot of walkers. It really wasn't a mystery where they were coming from. The quarry. Rick and Morgan had found it when they disposed of Pete's body. At the time it hadn't seemed to be much of a threat, but they knew eventually it would need to be dealt with. Eventually had come. WIth a bad feeling in his gut, Daryl headed back in to find Rick.

Getting dressed and making herself useful, Beth had decided, would be best right now. Waiting wasn't going to work. Nothing had changed physically except she felt sore, but that could very well be from the running and climbing that they had done when the walkers came out of the truck. She heard voices coming from the kitchen. Maggie and Michonne were in there.

"Hey Beth, I was just thinking about coming up. Michonne told me y'all got back late last night." Maggie smiled at her, but she could see her sister's scrutiny underneath that feigned brightness. Michonne laid her hands on the island and eyed the sisters.

"I'm gonna go see the horse, let you two talk." she nodded and slipped out.

"Horse?" Maggie asked.

"We found a horse on our way back. He's really gentle. I guess Aaron is giving the kids rides or something," Beth said.

"You came back early. I figured it would be a few days before I'd see you," Here it was. Beth sighed.

"Yeah, about that. We had to come back. There were complications." Beth said softly.

"Complications? WIth the run? What happened?"

"We were surprised by a big horde on a stop. We had to fight and run. I, I started bleeding and cramping. So Daryl.. we came home." Beth explained.

"Oh Bethy!" Maggie reached out for her and Beth let her comfort her. "You shouldn't a been out there, Daryl shouldn't have…"

"Stop." Beth moved out of Maggie's arms. "I won't have you blaming him. What happened coulda happened here too. Daryl looked it up, he read about it."

"Daryl read a book? Really?" Maggie laughed harshly. Beth bit her lip and folded her hands on the counter. She felt the tears building up behind her eyes. She looked at Maggie.

"I don't need this right now. I don't know what's going on. We don't have a doctor and Daryl sat up all night looking through medical books trying to find out anything he could to help me. To help us. It's our baby.." she knew that talking to Maggie wasn't going to go well. She was right.

"Well I just think Daryl shoulda.." Maggie started in. Beth rubbed her temples she was ending this now.

"Maggie go home," she said softly. Maggie stopped talking and just stared at her little sister. They both jumped when the front door burst open and Daryl came barging in calling for Rick. He was a little taken aback when he walked in on the two women in the kitchen.

"Where's Ri.. Somethin' wrong?" Daryl was at her side, hand at the small of her back. His presence alone was enough to bring tears to her eyes and she hastily wiped them away.

"Maggie was just leavin' weren't you Maggie?" Maggie pushed away from the island she was leaning against and dropped her hands to her sides.

"Beth, I…" Beth watched her struggle and she felt a pang of guilt.

"What the hell's goin' on?" Daryl's anger startled Maggie and she quickly turned and left, glancing over her shoulder at Beth. But Beth knew where Daryl's anger came from. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him breathing in the familiar smells she associated with Daryl. He brought the woods home with him.

"It's nothing.. Just sisters having words. You need Rick?" She leaned back and looked at his tense face.

He told her what had happened, what he had seen and she felt her adrenaline kick in. The quarry had been thought to be safe for now, contained. She'd even forgotten about it. Now it was a threat and she knew that it was serious because beneath Daryl's anger Beth sensed fear.