First off I wanna say holy hell that finale was amazing! My heart is still racing, and I probably screamed twenty times last night. Morgan is back, which is amazing. Sadly, only one of the people I wanted to die, is now dead, but alas there is another season still for Nicholas and Gabriel to die. Second, I am sorry I haven't updated sooner, I had a crazy week, and writers block. Hopefully this long chapter will make up for it. This one has some fluff, and some danger. I hope y'all enjoy. Omg, I also forgot to mention a review I got from a guest, and I quote said quest,
"This Sucks Like Bethyl Does This makes me Wanna Throw Up All These Bethyl Stories Ughh Make Caryl Stories! #Caryl4Ever"
Honestly this didn't upset me, it made me laugh my ass off. Like if you don't like Bethyl why the hell did you even open the story, it says in the damn description it's Bethyl, so? Anyways, I thought some of you might life at this too.
Also I own nothing, but a great deal of happiness that Pete is dead.
Chapter Twelve
Daryl rolled over when the sun started shining through the blinds, hitting him straight in the face. He smiled at the sight he saw when he opened his eyes; Beth's hair was fanned out across the pillow, and the t-shirt she stole from him was riding up some. She was 13 weeks now, officially done with the first trimester and neither of them could be happier. Beth was happy she wasn't throwing up all morning anymore, Daryl was happy about that too. He was mainly happy, because Abraham and Rick had told him if something was going to go wrong, it was more likely to happen in the first trimester, which eased some of his worry. Beth had gotten a little bigger, but not much, Daryl could see the slight swell now, and he found himself often staring at it. He was scared if he looked away for a minute something could happen to Beth, or the baby, and he'd never be able to live with himself.
Daryl knew he needed to stop worrying so much, but after everythin' they had been through, he couldn't help but worry about when shit would hit the fan again.
He sighed softly, and placed his hand quickly on Beth's stomach before getting up, and going downstairs.
When he got downstairs and looked out the window, the sun was just rising above the tree line. Daryl watched the sunrise for a few minutes, before heading out back to the shed. They were about to be in the thick of winter, so Daryl wanted to go out and hunt at least two more times, before it could start snowing or icing over too much. He decided he'd go out in an hour or so, and take Carl with him.
He prepped a bow and some bolts for Carl, before quickly glancing at the sketch he had made to figure out how to paint the baby's room. Right now, he had it planned for there to be trees forming an arch on the wall that the crib was up against, with a similar image on the opposite wall. On the wall with the windows, he was gonna paint some small hills and mountains. The fourth wall was his favorite, he was going to paint a small waterfall, with a creek flowing down from it. Daryl planned to get everyone to help him with it at some point. After looking at the plans for a few more minutes, Daryl grabbed everything him and Carl would need, and headed back towards the house.
Beth was still asleep when he got in, so he decided to surprise her by making breakfast.
He ain't no five star chef, he could cook meat fairly well, so how hard could pancakes be?
His first mistake was thinking pancakes couldn't be that hard, his second was everythin' after that.
First he made too much mix, and got it everywhere, including all over him. There were egg shells, milk, and Bisquick all over the counter tops. Once he finally started to cook the pancakes, he ended up burning the first two, badly,
"How the fuck did they cook that fast?" he grumbled.
He was starting to get frustrated, determined to make at least one edible pancake.
Beth woke up to the smell of something burning, and was immediately concerned, until she heard Daryl practically yelling at the stove.
"What the hell? I just turned you down, why the fuck did it still burn!"
At that Beth was giggling, Daryl was not exactly the most even tempered person, and he had a tendency to get frustrated quickly. She decided she should probably go check on him, before he could do somethin' to the stove.
When she came downstairs the sight that greeted her had Beth in hysterics. Daryl was yelling at the stove, covered in flour and pancake mix, the countertops were covered with god knows what, and the trashcan was filled with burnt pancakes.
Daryl turned around as soon as he heard laughter, Beth was standing at the entrance to the kitchen, laughing her ass off. He thought she was mocking him, which only angered him more,
"What the hell are you laughin' at?" he practically growled out.
Beth could tell he was pissed,
"I'm laughin' cause all this is so sweet, but you ain't a cook. I appreciate it, but you should stick to cookin' deer," she got out between giggles.
Daryl still didn't look too happy, but knew she wasn't tryin' to be mean to him.
He just grunted in response and began to survey the mess he had made.
"Don't worry about cleaning it up, I'll handle it. It looks like you managed to not burn a few," she smiled at him.
He simply nodded, and they sat down and began to eat,
"These aren't bad, you just gotta learn how long they take to cook," she told him.
He nodded,
"Guess you'll have to help me next time," he mumbled to her.
She grinned at him,
"I'd love that."
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Daryl spoke up,
"Gonna take Carl and go out huntin' today…try and stock up on meat for the next couple months…"
Beth nodded at him, she missed going out hunting with him, but she knew he probably would lose it if she asked him to let her go with them.
"That'll be good. Its already startin' to get colder out…do ya think…that…maybe I could…" she trailed off.
Daryl knew where she was going with her question, and he didn't like it,
"No. Nuh uh. Not happenin' Beth. Too dangerous."
She huffed in frustration, she was tired of being trapped inside the walls,
"Please Daryl. Ya said you hardly ever see any walkers. If there's danger I can get away."
He growled out his response,
"You're not goin' out there. It's too dangerous! I ain't havin' somethin' happen to you!"
Beth knew he wasn't just gonna give in to her, and she knew what she was about to do would be considered very childish, but she had to get outside the walls.
Daryl had turned his head away from Beth, not wanting to turn his anger towards her,
"Daryl…please…please…I…I need to get out…"
His head snapped up as soon as she said his name, she had tears spilling down her cheeks, and she looked so sad.
Beth knew she wasn't being fair, pouting like this, but she was desperate.
The longer he looked at her, the more his heart broke. He finally gave up, and huffed out,
"Fine. But you stay next to me at all times, and the slightest sign of danger, you run, you run like hell."
She nodded her head rapidly, and jumped up to give him a hug,
"Thank you Daryl. I really need to get out."
All he did was grunt, he wasn't happy with this, but he couldn't stand to see her so damn upset.
An hour later they were out in the woods with Carl, all three sporting crossbows, but also had pistols and knives, incase a walker herd were to come through. Daryl was still very agitated that Beth was outside the walls, it made him incredibly tense, and he simply didn't like her being in unnecessary danger.
Beth was pretty sure the tension between her and Daryl could be felt a mile away, and she knew Carl had picked up on it as soon as he heard Beth was coming with them. She knew Daryl was still pissed, but she couldn't stay cooped up forever. She was practically handcuffed to Daryl, he wouldn't let her be more than five feet away from him, so they hung back and let Carl work on his tracking. So far, he had found two rabbits, and Daryl had shot four squirrels, Beth hadn't gotten anything yet, but she was content to simply be outside in the woods. She could tell being in the woods was improving her mood, and she had more energy now than she had in weeks.
Suddenly Carl called out to Daryl in a low whisper
"Hey Daryl, I think I would some deer tracks."
Daryl walked over to look at that tracks Carl had found,
"Two of em. See if you can keep followin' em."
Carl smiled a small smile, glad that he had been right. He followed the tracks as the went down a small bank, and into an area covered in leaves.
"I lost em. I'm still not good when they start walking on leaves," Carl mumbled to Daryl.
"S'okay. Come here," Daryl signaled him over, "you see where these leaves have been crushed? Got a little bit of an imprint on it, keep looking for ones like this and follow it."
Carl nodded his head and began to try and find the tracks again. Beth was in awe with Daryl's ability to work with Carl on hunting, he was a natural teacher. She figured it was because he loved hunting so much, it calmed him, made him feel useful.
Soon Carl had found the two deer again, two big bucks by a small pond,
"Alright, I can get one of them, but I can't get both of em on my own. Think ya can do it Carl?" Daryl asked him.
Carl bit his lip for a second before shaking his head yes, "I think so. Aim for the heart and lungs."
Daryl nodded to him, "I'll get the bigger one, you get the smaller one, remember soon as we get em, gotta slit the throat to end the suffering faster."
Carl nodded again, and they began to line up their shots,
"On the count of three. One…two…three."
Their bolts went sailing through the air, Daryl's hit the buck directly in the heart, and Carl's was slightly off, but the smaller buck wasn't going anywhere. They quickly shuffled down the embankment, and slit the bucks' throats.
"I didn't get it right in the heart," Carl mumbled, looking disappointed with himself.
"Hey, ya still got it, ain't nobody gets a perfect shot their first time. Ya still bagged an eight point buck, that ain't easy," Daryl told him.
Carl smiled at Daryl's words, feeling better about his work. Beth was once again floored with how easy it seemed for Daryl to interact with Carl when it came to hunting, she was impressed with how gentle he was being.
"Y'all ready to head back now?" Beth asked them, as much as she was having fun being outside, she was starting to get hungry.
"Yeah…ya think ya can drag that buck back?" Daryl asked Carl.
"Shouldn't be too hard, wanna see you drag that twelve point all by yourself," Carl smirked at Daryl.
"Alright smartass, we'll see whose grinnin' in twenty minutes when you're tired," Daryl smirked back.
Beth just laughed at them, glad that Daryl seemed to ease up a little bit. They began the trek back home in comfortable silence. They'd only seen a few stray walkers today, not unusual, but it did seem to worry Daryl some.
They were about fifteen minutes from home, when shit hit the fan. Daryl knew today wouldn't go without incident, and he'd had a bad feeling all day, so he wasn't shocked when everythin' went to shit in two seconds.
They had been making good time getting back, when he had heard the familiar growl of a walker, except it wasn't only one. When he had looked to where the sound came from, he saw about forty walkers. They hadn't noticed them yet, which gave Daryl the opportunity to try and get Beth and Carl away safely. They had noticed the walkers too, and were staring at Daryl, waiting for him to give an order. Beth looked terrified, and was very quickly regretting being outside the walls.
"Beth go. Run like hell. Get the others. I'm gonna distract em, but ya gotta run like hell," Daryl whispered harshly to her.
Beth nodded her head and took off.
The walkers would surely hear her running, so Daryl had to think quickly, he looked around for anything he could use to distract the walkers with, when Carl started grabbing his arm.
"Look," Carl said pointing to a boulder, "we could push it down the hill towards em, take some of em out."
Daryl thought about it for a moment, before nodding his head,
"Lets get the deer up as high as we can, then push it down. If I tell ya to run, ya run. I mean it, run like ya on fire."
Carl nodded quickly, and they dragged the deer up the hill as rapidly, and quietly as they could. By the time they reached the top, the walkers had started to take notice of them. They sprinted to the boulder as fast as possible, and began pushing on it. It took a few tries, but they finally got it to roll, and it took out about half the walkers, but also drew the attention of the others.
"Run Carl! Leave the deer and run!" Daryl shouted to him.
Beth had ran like a bat out of hell, the entire time cursing herself for going out with them. She felt like she was going to puke, but knew she couldn't stop, she had to alert the others. As soon as she saw the walls, Beth began yelling for the others,
"HELP! RICK, MAGGIE, GLENN, CAROL, ABRAHAM!"
After a minute Beth saw the front gate swing open, Abraham and Rick came sprinting out,
"What happened?" Rick yelled to her.
Beth was so out of breath she barely got the words out,
"Herd. About a half mile from here," she rushed out while pointing to the direction she came from.
Abraham and Rick took off, and all Beth could do was hope they were all okay. She'd never forgive herself is somethin' happened to any of them.
Beth began to feel light headed, and felt as if she would pass out at any moment.
When she looked towards the gate, she saw Maggie, Glenn, Carol, and Michonne running out towards her. Suddenly her vision began to get blurry, and then went completely black. The last thing she remembered was Maggie yelling her name,
"Beth!" and then she was out cold.
Ahhh, don't hate me. Hopefully everyone will be okay. I hope to be able to update soon. Also, I loved all of y'all's baby name suggestions. So, as a treat I'm going to reveal the most likely names to happen, but I am still keeping gender a secret. The names I have so far are
Boy: Austin Creek Dixon, Colt Arrow Dixon, and I really like the name Harley.
Girl: Lyla Parker Dixon, Georgia Grace Dixon, and Ashton.