Raise your hand if you had what was left of your soul ripped out by that episode, because I did. This show is bittersweet torture. So to make up for the loss of Noah, I have a long chapter for you, with Bethyl goodness at the end.

Once again, I own nothing, but a lot of hate for the writers right now.

Chapter Eight

Abraham knew shit was gonna hit the fan as soon as Beth touched the four wheeler. He wanted to stop her, but he couldn't without drawing everyone's attention. He knew if Daryl saw her he'd be pissed, but Abraham was not expecting Daryl's blow up. Normally Daryl was a silent mad kinda guy, unlike himself. Now everyone knew about Beth, but he had a feeling that was the last thing Daryl cared about right now. Everyone in the group knew that Daryl was not big on expressing his emotions out loud, so for him to blow up at Beth meant that he was genuinely petrified of something happening. Daryl had a shitty childhood, putting it lightly, Abraham had a feeling none of them would ever know the extent of the damage he suffered physically and emotionally. The fact is that Daryl doesn't know how to cope with intense emotions, besides anger, which he seems to have down to an art form. Abraham knew the next few months would be a real test of Daryl's emotionally stability; Beth would be all over the place emotionally as well, but she at least she knows how to handle emotions, Daryl is going to be so far out of his depth. All this being why Abraham took off after him, and quickly realized Rick was also coming to go find Daryl, and try to talk him down.

They found Daryl near the wall, angrily stalking, like a caged animal, kicking or punching the wall every few seconds.

Rick was the first to speak, "Daryl, Daryl. Daryl!"

"What!" Daryl yelled back.

"You gotta calm down."

"Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down, when I leave for a few hours, and my pregnant..." Daryl paused for a moment to figure out what Beth was to him, but decided labeling them right now wouldn't help any, "Beth is on a damn four wheeler. What the hell was she thinking?" He continued prowling back and forth.

Abraham decided to speak up at that "Daryl, she slipped up. Pregnant women are known to be absent minded sometimes. She's been stuffed up in the house for a little too long, and she just wanted to do something."

This didn't calm Daryl down at all, "So cause she's bored that gives her the right to put our child's life in fuckin' danger?!"

"That ain't what I said."

Rick decided to attempt a different approach to the situation, "Look Daryl, we know none of this is easy for you, and I know you weren't expecting any of this. I get all you wanna do is keep them safe, but the reality is, we never know when trouble is gonna come knockin', you're gonna have to learn to keep the anger in check, and try and talk things over reasonably. And you can't run off every time things get hard."

Rick new Daryl was still in shock over the whole situation that much was obvious, hell Rick was in shock, Abraham seemed to be the only one of the three who wasn't, which lead Rick to believe that he'd known. Rick didn't real care that Abraham knew before him, at least there would be two men who have been in the same position as Daryl, who could help him out, or attempt to help.

"I didn't walk away cause shit was gettin' hard. I didn't wanna say somethin' to her I'd regret later."

Abraham decided take a turn at it again,

"Look man, Beth is gonna be all over the place emotionally, and one of y'all has got to be calm and rational. We get what she did was wrong, but what's done is done. Can't change it. Right now, y'all gotta be a team on this. Blowin' up every other damn today ain't gonna do shit."

Daryl finally began to calm down, he stopped pacing, and looked like he was listening to Rick and Abraham.

"You're not the first man to not how to deal with a pregnant woman, but we're gonna help you with this. Carol and Maggie are gonna work with Beth, y'all aren't alone in this," Rick told Daryl.

Rick was being sincere, they would all do whatever they could to help Daryl and Beth out, it takes a village to raise a baby, he had been learning that better than anyone with Judith and Carl. Daryl was staring at Rick and Abraham, taking in everything they had said. Daryl realized he had over reacted, but when he saw Beth on that four wheeler, all he could think was what if she fell and hurt the baby, or herself. Daryl had never experienced fear like that before in his life, and he had feeling it wouldn't be the last time he felt that way.

Daryl finally huffed,

"Guess y'all are right…how mad ya think she's gonna be at me this time?"

He wanted to stay pissed at her, but he really wanted to run to her and check her over, and make sure the baby was okay. Hell, he knew they wouldn't ever be able to really know if the baby was okay or not, which only scared him more, but he decided to push that out of his mind for the moment.

Abraham decided to be the one to answer him,

"Honestly, don't think she's mad at you, think she's mad at herself. Probably got herself all worked up, which ain't good for her or the baby. Pregnant women are supposed to avoid as much stress as possible."

Daryl nodded at that, it would be something he'd need to remember,

"I better go find her then…"

With that said they all started walking back up to the neighborhood. Daryl knew this was not gonna be an easy conversation, and that this pregnancy was going to be the most challenging, stressful experience of his life.

Beth was having a full blown panic attack, Daryl had walked away again, and this time it really was her fault. All she could think was how stupid she was. Carol had led her back her and Daryl's house, the entire walk there Beth kept mumbling,

"How could I be so stupid? I put my baby in danger…"

She was trembling and crying uncontrollably. Carol opened the front door and ushered Beth onto the couch in the den,

"Beth, Beth, you have to calm down. You can't get this worked up, it's not good for either of you."

Carol honestly had no idea what to say to Beth, Carol was in a state of shock, which is why she sent Tyreese to go find Maggie and send her over. Beth was pregnant. Beth and Daryl were going to be parents. Daryl was going to be a dad; she knew Daryl well, which is why she understood his explosion, but that wasn't gonna help her calm Beth down.

"Beth, we all make mistakes. Nothing happened, the baby is fine," Carol tried to reason with her.

Beth blew up at that, "How could you possibly say that what I did is okay? You never put Sophia in harm like this!"

Carol was taken a back for a moment by Beth's outburst, but quickly gathered her thoughts. Slowly she drawled out,

"No, I never put her in danger that way…but I didn't take her and run from Ed…I kept her and myself in that danger. You get the opportunity to raise your child with a man, who would never lay a hand on either of you. You're allowed to make a mistake every now and then, but you can't repeat it. Learn from it. Learn from mine…" Carol was practically in tears herself at this point.

Beth had finally calmed down some, and was practically laying in Carol's lap, when Maggie busted through the door,

"What's wrong? What happened? Are you hurt?"

Beth looked as if she'd be hysterical again if she opened her mouth, so Carol told her what had happened,

"Beth decided to try out the four wheeler, Daryl came back and saw her on it, freaked out, and here we are."

Maggie sighed,

"Oh Bethy, please tell me you didn't."

Beth only nodded to her. Maggie wanted to be mad at Daryl for hurting her sister, but Daryl was in the right for being angry. He was only worried, he shouldn't have lashed out so much. Maggie knew most of Beth's tears were because she was so upset with herself, which Maggie could understand.

"So he just stormed off after he blew up?" Maggie asked both of them.

Beth seemed to finally find her voice, "Yup…he just left…"

"He's comin' back Beth. You know him, he just needed time to cool off," Carol tried to reason with her.

"I guess…" Beth mumbled out.

Maggie just wrapped Beth into a bear hug and held her, looking over at Carol, they both knew she wouldn't truly calm down until Daryl returned.

The entire walk back towards all the houses, Daryl tried to figure out what to say to Beth, but he was also still trying to calm himself down. He was still pretty worked up, but mainly he wanted to make sure Beth was okay. He knew walking away probably upset her a lot, but at the time he hadn't cared, he was too angry.

As the three approached the houses, Tyreese waved them over,

"Beth's back at your house, with Maggie and Carol."

Daryl nodded at him in thanks, before heading towards the house. Maggie was probably going to rip him a new one for upsetting Beth. As soon as he walked through the front door, three sets of eyes were on him, but only one pair of them really mattered. Beth looked like she had been crying since he walked away, and was still crying a little. The sight of her made Daryl wanna punch himself in the face, over and over again. He was the master of fucking up recently, but he wasn't alone in it this time.

Maggie was the first to speak up,

"We'll just leave you two too talk…"

Beth looked at her with a look of "please don't leave me," but Maggie just looked back at her as if she needed to handle this one on her own.

When Maggie and Carol passed by Daryl, they both flashed him looks of sympathy, which made Daryl feel somewhat better. At least they weren't gonna kill him. He shuffled around in front of the fire place for a few minutes, trying to gather his thoughts.

Beth kept waiting for Daryl to speak, yell, do something, the pacing was freaking her out. She just wanted to explode, tell him how sorry she was, hug him, but she knew to wait for him to speak. But the idiot kept pacing and she couldn't take it anymore.

Daryl was beginning to open his mouth, to apologize, but Beth decided to speak at the same time,

"I'm so sorry" they both rushed out.

She looked at him kinda sheepish, still fighting back more tears. She decided to keep going,

"Daryl I am so sorry. I never meant to put the baby in danger. I would never hurt our child…I slipped up. It'll never happen again. I am so sorry…"

She was back to full blown crying, and Daryl couldn't handle it anymore. In two steps, he reached her, and gathered her into his arms. He held her tight, rubbing circles on her back, trying to get her to calm down. He knew her being this worked up wasn't good for her, or the baby.

"Beth, Beth, listen to me. You have to calm down. This ain't good for you or the baby," he whispered into her ear.

She seemed to calm down enough to look up at him, and damn if those blue eyes didn't cut right through him.

"I know you're sorry, and that you didn't mean to…I'm sorry too…shouldn't have lashed out at you…" he took a moment to gather his thoughts, he was starting to choke up a little himself, "I have never been afraid of anythin' in my life…but seein' you on that four wheeler…I was beyond fear…all I could think was somethin' could happen to you or the baby…"

Beth nodded at him that she understood where he was coming from,

"It won't happen again Daryl. I won't ever forget again."

He nodded to her and sighed, then rested his forehead against hers. Finally relaxing a little, knowing that she was alright.

He softly whispered,

"I…I can't have anythin' happen to you or Arrow…I can't lose either of y'all."

Beth was a little shocked for a second, but quickly realized Daryl had come up with his own nickname for the baby.

"Arrow?" she questioned.

He simply nodded back to her.

"Why Arrow?" she asked with a small grin.

He sighed,

"Cause you're my compass…you guide me…and he's apart of you, the Arrow in the compass…pointing me straight to you…"

Beth was pretty sure she had never heard something so sweet from Daryl before, and may never again,

"I love you Daryl Dixon…Archer Spawn does too."

Daryl simply pulled her tighter, content that for the moment they were okay. He knew that things were only going to get harder, sooner, rather than later.

Yay! They made up, to me it would take a lot for Daryl to stay that pissed at Beth. The next chapter things are going to move forward a little bit with the pregnancy, leading to some more cute Daryl/Beth moments. I hope you liked this one, and that it helps a little with the loss of Noah.