A/N: This chapter was a little "eh" so in an effort to make it less "eh" I decided to break it up into two chapters. Don't you worry though, that means I'll be posting chapter 22 really soon! Like, within five minutes soon….

I own nothing TWD. If I did, come February the first minutes of the mid-season premier would be Beth and her friends laughing at the nasty joke her and Daryl decided to play…

Although the sun was beginning to set, the summer heat was at full blast without any hope of giving the party a reprieve. Beth went to the giant ice chest and pulled out a water bottle, chugging half of it without stopping to take a breath. She removed the drink from her lips as she reached down for water and made her way towards the sand box.

"Here you go Muck, drink up" she squatted next to her nephew and handed him the half empty water bottle.

"Ugh, not again" he whined reaching for it and taking a few sips.

"Don't ugh me, drink up. I don't want you getting dehydrated. Gulp, gulp" she gently pushed the bottle back into his mouth forcing him to drink more. This was the fifth time she had approached him, and every time he acted as if it was the biggest nuisance his aunt could give him.

"Okay, here I'm all done." He handed the empty bottle back to her, and she replaced it with the full one. "I'll tell you what kid, if you promise to finish this one on your own, I promise I won't bug you until it's time to light the fireworks. Deal?"

He responded by taking the bottle and putting it next to him. She smiled and kissed his forehead as she stood and began to walk away.

"Hey Aunt Bethy?" He called out as she was a few feet away. She turned and smiled down at him

"Is that man your boyfriend?" Beth felt her face grow red and turned to look at Daryl who was standing next to Rick and Michonne engaged in conversation.

"Why do you ask that, Muck?"

Michael shrugged and went back to digging his trenches.

"He looks like the man Charlie saw." He answered nonchalantly. "When mommy and him went to go visit you."

Beth walked back to him and tried to ignore the other kid's stares.

"And how do you know he looks like the man Charlie saw?" She whispered.

"Charlie says he was old and you smiled at him a lot." Beth heard two girls giggling behind them. She turned and recognized them as Lizzie and Mika, Abraham's daughters, who quickly ran off when they were caught eavesdropping. She turned her attention back to her nephew.

"And you're smiling a lot now." He continued "Are you in love like mom and dad are?"

Rather than have this conversation with her nephew, she went down and gave him another kiss. "Daryl's not old" was all she said before smiling and prompting him to drink some more water.

Thankfully Michael was called over by Trevin, distracting him from further questions. She sighed and stood up, dusting the sand off her jean shorts. She looked down at her chest and realized she had gotten some sand on there as well. She was wearing a shear tunic over a red tank top, so she wondered how the sand managed to stick to her skin. She brushed off the sand from her breasts and then smoothed the blouse before looking up and seeing Daryl staring at her.

Of course she thought as she made eye contact. He looked embarrassed to be caught and quickly looked away, causing her to laugh as she shook her head and went back to stand next to him.

"The kids okay?" Asked Michonne once Beth joined them. She nodded and took the drink Daryl handed her. She had been drinking all day, but she was being good and keeping a steady buzz rather than getting full on drunk. She was awkward enough as it was, and she didn't need the alcohol to accentuate it.

Daryl leaned in and filled her in on the plan for the rest of the evening. "Rick was thinking we should get the kids together now and have them light their sparks." She felt the familiar buzz in her head as she felt his breath on her skin. She then remembered that people seemed to be focusing their attention a lot on them, especially after learning of Rick's attempt to set them up, so she tried to keep her composure.

She turned and saw Rosita smiling at her and Beth realized she had failed. She was surprised to be having such a great time, despite her earlier disappointment when she learned Sasha wasn't going to make it. Still, she found herself entertained by the fiery Latina who was currently sitting on her boyfriend Gareth's lap. Gareth was the "cannibal" she had originally assumed Rick was trying to set her up with, but it turned out he was a friendly guy who worked with Tyreese.

Many of the adults began herding the children to the front yard to begin their fire work display. All the fathers started taking the fireworks out of the packages while the women sat on the lawn and watched. At one point Karen suggested helping the men out, especially when Ty began struggling with their son's rocket pack, but Michonne dismissed it. "This is our time to relax" she said as she handed baby Cadie to Daryl.

Beth admired how much of a natural Daryl was with the infant, telling her how lazy Michonne was and how Cadie was lucky to have him. Michonne swatted his arm which made Daryl laugh and say some more colorful things to the baby. Cadie was very attentive, cooing back at him in apparent agreement to whatever he was saying.

"Hey Beth" Rosita scooted a lawn chair next to her and leaned into her ear "Beth watch it girl, you got some drool on your chin" she went to wipe it off causing Beth to shriek and laugh at the personal space intrusion.

"Stop it, let me have a moment" Beth scolded as she swatted Rosita's hands away, causing her to grin even wider.

"That is quite a sight though" Rosita sighed as both women stared at Daryl and Cadie.

"I'm right here you know" Gareth grunted with an unlit cigarette caught between his lips.

"I know you are baby," she turned and patted his arm affectionately and turned back to look at him. Beth laughed drawing Daryl's attention to them. Beth smiled at him and waved which led Daryl to grab Cadies hand and wave it back to her. Right then, Muck's comments from earlier came to mind. I guess I have been smiling a lot.

Rick's home was close enough to the university that they could watch the annual fireworks display the city put on without having to deal with the crowds. After a good hour and a half of boxed fireworks, most of the party started walking out towards a small park at the end of the block. The grassy field was supposed to have a great view of the firework and Michael was practically pushing Glenn to move faster so that they wouldn't miss the show.

"Don't worry Michael, there's no way you'll miss it." Rick tried to assure him, ruffling his hair as he walked by. Muck pouted and grabbed his dad's hand, clearly not convinced, pulling him harder towards the park.

"He misses Carl" Michonne whispered as her, Daryl, and Beth walked a few feet behind them.

"When does he get back?" Daryl asked

"Lori is going to drive them up from Brunswick next Friday. Rick took off a few days so he could spend some quality time with him before the semester starts." She turned to Beth who was currently holding Cadie.

"When he gets back tell him to come visit me at the library" Beth gave Cadie a big kiss before handing her back to her mother "I can set aside some books for him so he doesn't have to spend so much buying them. We have a really good lending system, but its first come first serve."

"Good to know we have someone on the inside" Daryl playfully nudged Beth's shoulders with his own. Michonne smiled her thousand watt smile as she looked at them both. "What do you know, my husband was right. Usually he's terrible at that sort of thing."

She winked and picked up her speed to catch up to Rick. Beth watched as he put his arm around Michonne and leaned down to kiss their daughter. Beth looked further ahead towards Glenn and Tyreese who were laughing together about something while the young girls ran literal circles around them. She looked up and saw that the stars were starting to become clearer as the night darkened, and a perfect crescent moon hovered directly above them.

These are the moments that keep me here with you…

"Uh, Beth?"

She jumped at Dary's words, not realizing that her mind had wandered so far.

"Do you know why your nephew keeps looking back at us and laughing?"

Beth frowned and turned towards Muck. Sure enough he was staring with a big ole grin, not embarrassed at all that he'd been caught.

"Oh its nothing." She turned back to Daryl "He's just curious about you 'cause he says you're my boyfriend."

Daryl raised his eyebrows.

Really, Greene? Really?!

"He's five!" She tried to clarify "and he knows that you're my boy and a friend so naturally he's going-" she stopped when she saw his lips twitch into a half- smile.

"I mean you're A boy, and MY friend" she corrected herself, hoping it was dark enough to hide some of her blushing.

"Okay, I got it" he lifted his hands in mock surrender. Beth rolled her eyes and focused forward instead.

"So, boyfriend, huh?" He asked after a few beats.

Beth giggled and turned to him "You should be so lucky."

A/N: Yes I know, soooo short. But the next chapter is already up! I really really hope you all like it, cause I absolutely loved writing it!