I had this chapter as well as part seventeen written yesterday but I wound up deleting it all because I honestly hated the way I had taken the story. I think I'm happy with this new version and I hope you like it, too.

…

Part Sixteen.

Beth is acting weird.

He immediately picks up on it and watches her carefully. He came home from his work and Beth was there, flying around the kitchen, telling him that she was cooking them both dinner so they could sit down at the table like a normal couple and talk about their days. Daryl didn't argue. He rarely does when it comes to things like this because he assumes this is what being in a relationship is like and when it comes to this whole thing between them, he just follows Beth's lead a lot of the time because it's not like he has any idea what to do.

He goes to the bedroom to change and wash up and when he comes out again, Beth is setting plates and silverware down on the table.

"Need help?" He asks.

"No, no," she quickly shakes her head and she's reminding him of a hummingbird right now, moving around so fast, his eyes can hardly focus on her. "I made that roasted chicken you loved so much the last time I made it and I have potatoes and green beans-" and she's not paying attention and she sets the glasses too close to the edge of the table. They crash to the ground and shatter and she jumps and he crouches down to pick up the glass. "I'm pregnant," she blurts out.

A shard of the glass slices across his palm. "Fuck," he hisses.

…

They stand in the bathroom and as she wraps his hand, he hears her sniffling and he frowns down at the top of her head.

"Wha's the matter?" He asks.

She shakes her head and sniffles again. "I'm sorry," she says softly. "We were careful…"

He shrugs then and even though his heart is pounding in his chest, he feels oddly calm about this whole thing which is just so strange because he never would have thought he would be alright if some girl came to him and told him she was pregnant. But this isn't just some girl. This is Beth.

"Why are you sorry?" He asks, staring holes into her head, willing her to look at him, and she finally does, lifting her head, her eyes wet and red but her cheeks dry.

"You want a baby?" She asks and she sounds to be in complete disbelief and he can't exactly blame her.

"No."

He's not going to lie to her. Why the hell would he ever want a kid? Especially with the way he grew up? The Dixon blood is poison and it's not just some ridiculous idea he has stuck in his head. Most of the people in these parts would agree with him.

"But I'm not gonna ask you to get rid of it," he says.

She stiffens at that and he sees fire rush into her eyes as she stares at him. "I'm not going to do that," she says with a hardness in her voice as if all previous emotions have been forgotten. She finishes wrapping his hand and her hands immediately fall away from him and she takes a step back even though the bathroom is too small and there's not that much room to move around in.

"And I'm not askin' you to," he shakes his head, his eyes never leaving hers.

She looks at him for a moment, studies him, and then shakes her head slightly. "I'm not expecting anything from you, Daryl," she says in a quiet voice, that fire fading from her once again.

Daryl can't help it. He feels himself getting angry at that. Why the hell isn't she expecting anything? Does she think he just knocks women up and leaves them behind without taking care of them or what's his? This is Beth and that's his kid and he may be a Dixon but he's never been the sort to just turn and run away from something just because it's too hard or ugly.

He exhales a breath and decides to just ignore what she's said. "We gotta go to the doctor or somethin'?" He asks and he is faced with just how next to nothing he knows about any of this.

She keeps looking at him and doesn't say anything but then she nods.

…

Evergreen is such a small town, they have one doctor and a couple of nurses for basically everything. Her office is set up in a renovated old house and he and Beth are shown to one of the back examination rooms. Beth sits on the table in one of those green gowns and Daryl stands close – but not too close – with his arms crossed over his chest. Neither talk.

He figures this must be the baby room because posters hang on the walls about changes a woman's body goes through while pregnant and there are 3D models on the windowsill, showing the baby in different stages, growing in the womb.

He looks back to Beth. She looks like a mixture of nervous and scared and he tries to think of something he can say to her.

"Ya' think the baby will have my hair or yours?" He asks suddenly, practically blurting it out, and Beth looks at him, with wide, surprised eyes.

"I… I haven't thought about it yet," she manages to say.

"Didn' pay enough attention in school to genetics and all that but doesn' the dark hair usually win out?" He asks.

She smiles faintly at that. "I was terrible at science. My teacher always had to call my parents in to tell them I was never paying attention. I was always filling my notebook up with little poems instead of listening to the lecture. Math class, too."

He smiles a little at that, too.

The door opens and they both look to see Dr. Carol Peletier enter, smiling at them both with a file in her hands.

"Good morning, you two," she goes directly to the sink to wash her hands. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"Um," Beth stumbles, back to looking scared, and looks to Daryl as if hoping he can explain it.

"She took a pregnancy test and it was positive," Daryl finishes for her.

"Alright," Carol looks to Beth and she's still smiling warmly. "Let's confirm that."

Daryl has no idea what the doctor is doing and he takes steps closer until he's standing right next to Beth, ready to protect her if the doc does anything that hurts her. And as if she can read his mind, Beth looks up at him and gives him a small smile. As she lays back and puts her feet in the stirrup, Daryl keeps himself at her head. It doesn't really matter to him that he's been between her thighs countless times. He doesn't feel comfortable standing there and watching the doctor do this.

Beth winces just slightly and Daryl bristles but then she gives him a small smile and reaches a hand out, brushing her fingers along his arm. He doesn't think or hesitate before he takes her hand and holds onto it. He doesn't miss the way she smiles.

"Well, Beth, you are definitely pregnant and I'm putting you at around eight weeks already," Carol declares with a smile.

Somehow, actually hearing it from a doctor, it makes the room spin around him.

…

He can't help it. He's been thinking about Merle a lot lately.

That morning, he had gone to the motel and had told him he couldn't have him around anymore. He didn't want him around. Merle being Merle just couldn't listen to what Daryl was saying. He had to attack. Always attack. Tell Daryl that he was tossing his own blood aside for some dumb bitch; how no one was ever going to love him or be there for him like ol' Merle.

He thinks of what Merle will say to him now about all of this.

"She's got you trapped for eighteen years now, baby brother. Best get out while you still can and she can't slap child support on you."

Daryl shakes his head and tries to get rid of his brother's voice but the more he tries, the louder Merle seems to be talking.

"Didn' I teach you nothin' 'bout always keepin' it wrapped? And wha' 'bout her? She says she's on the pill but you 'lieve her? Seems like she just wanted to get her claws in you."

"You don't know nothin'," Daryl says back to the voice in his head but he just hears Merle laugh in response.

…

"That apartment's not very big," Rick notes once Daryl tells him.

Daryl shrugs. He hasn't really thought about it and Rick gives him a look because he should have already been thinking about a lot of things and Daryl knows it but he doesn't even know where to start.

Before he can leave, Rick hands him a couple of books he and Lori had gotten when she was pregnant with Carl and had been keeping as well as a listing of available real estate in and around Evergreen.

"Better get that lil' house with the white picket fence jus' like Beth would want," Merle chuckles in his head as Daryl drives from the Grimes house back home.

Home. Beth is his home. And he'll remind himself of that as many times as he has to. He just hopes he finally accepts that sooner rather than later.

…

One day, it's not there and then the next, it is, having seemed to just pop overnight but Beth wakes up and she suddenly has this baby bump and she has to go buy a few new clothes to fit her new frame. Beth is such a little thing that even at just four months, she looks really pregnant and there's no hiding it anymore and each day, she just seemed to grow bigger.

And at first, he's too afraid to touch it. He looks at the bump and at Beth and he can't bring himself to touch either of them because hasn't he already fucked up enough things? He's not being crazy. He's been hearing it his entire life and he believes it to an extent. He's already poisoned their kid by giving them his Dixon blood. If he touches it, it will be messed up even more.

But one night, as they're lying in bed, Beth takes his hand and doesn't let him pull it away as she drags it over the bump. He's tense as she clutches his hand, keeping it there, and she's watching his face as he seems to stare at anything else.

"You're a good man, Daryl Dixon," she whispers to him then. "And this baby is going to be good, too."

And then, as if taking its cue, their was the slightest nudge against the palm of his hand and he felt his eyes widen as he looked at the bump and then at Beth as if she had been the one to do it. She just smiles though and when her hand releases his to lift to his face, brushing some of his hair back, Daryl's hand remains where it is and he keeps it there for the rest of the night.

…

He reads the baby books cover to cover and takes to reading certain chapters two or three times and notices that Beth isn't reading any of them. When he asks her why not, she just smiles and shrugs.

"Women have been giving birth for thousands and millions of years without reading books," she smiles at him and her eyes are twinkling and he smirks, knowing she's teasing him.

He smirks then and tosses his highlighter at her and she laughs. "You need to drink more milk," is all he says.

"Only if you drink some with me."

He grumbles something and she laughs because they both know he's going to.

"Pathetic," Merle laughs in his head.

Daryl promptly gets him to shut up because Beth is still smiling and she comes to sit with him on the couch, his hand instantly sliding over the bump and feeling their baby and she leans into him, sighing as if perfectly content with everything in that moment and Daryl finds himself agreeing.

…

The house is a small yellow two-story with a small front yard and a fenced in back yard and a 'For Rent' sign stabbed in the grass. He goes to take a look at it first, not wanting to get Beth's hopes up in case it's a piece of shit, and the realtor assures him that the house is in good shape and has passed all of the inspections but he looks over every nook and cranny himself.

When he brings Beth back to show it to her, she stands on sidewalk and looks up at it but she's not as happy as he was expecting her to be.

"Not much more than our rent now every month," he says, thinking that's what she must be worried about.

Beth is quiet for a moment and then slowly moves her eyes from the house to him. She shakes her head. "You don't have to do this, Daryl," she tells him in a soft voice and she's looking so damn sad, he remembers that night he found her sitting outside her motel room, looking up at the stars.

Daryl frowns at her a little. "Yeah, I do. Kid needs a yard and you need a bigger kitchen," he says and is looking at her as if she should know all of this, too, already. She just keeps staring at him though and he wishes she would stop looking so damn sad and that he knew why she's looking like that.

"What?" He finally asks.

She shakes her head. "And what about you? Do you want this house?"

And now he gets it. But he shrugs as if he doesn't. "Garage a good size. Could do a lot of work in there." She's nodding but still staring at him and he reaches out, dropping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her gently into his side. He knows he's going to have to say it. "Yeah, Beth. I want this house," he then says to her quietly.

She looks up at him and she doesn't say anything. She seems to be studying him and he lets her, just looking down at her.

"Okay," she nods after a moment and he sees her visibly swallow.

He keeps his eyes on her. "You want this house?" He asks and as he does, he feels lead settle in his stomach because she's obviously so worried about him wanting any of this and does she have any idea that he's fucking petrified of all of this? But he's here and he's trying and that has to count for something.

"Yeah," Beth says softly, nodding her head. "I want this house. With you," she then adds in a whisper and Daryl releases a breath he's been holding.

He looks at the house and then at her and she's smiling a little easier now, more relaxed and her eyes twinkling and his lips twitch, too. Maybe this whole thing could work out between them and for the kid.

It's already working. He just needs to keep working at it because this is something good. Something great. And he's not looking to fuck it up or have it end anytime soon no matter what the voices in his head are saying to him because right now, he has Merle calling him pussy-whipped and laughing at this lie he's making himself live because he's a Dixon. Dixon's don't rent nice little houses like this and have pretty little girlfriends like Beth and have babies that are normal and healthy and good and happy. This isn't his life. It can't be.

And one day – probably soon – he's going to wake up and Beth won't be there anymore or she'll be walking out and what the hell will he be able to say to her to get her to stay? Because if she wants to leave, it's not like he would be able to blame her. Hell, he'll probably help her pack if that day ever comes.

But that day isn't today. Because today, he walks her into the house and gives her the tour and watches her face as her smile grows and grows between each room. And when she sees the kitchen, she gasps and spins around and throws her arms around him and he wraps her up in his arms and feels the kid nudge in her belly pressed against him and he allows himself to smile.

This can be his life and it can be a damn good one. He just has to remember that.

…

Thank you so much for reading and please review!