Rick rolled over and reached out and discovered Carol was gone, her side of the bed was cold. She been gone a long time. He was pissed off thinking she was with Daryl and she was supposed to be with him. Maybe he stepped over the line last night pushing her into a three way between them both. Maybe it was too much and too soon after the arrival of Daryl into the house.

Rick rolled over in the bed to the other side and pulled on some boxers and jeans. He looked at the clock pulling on a tee shirt and felt he was going to go end up in a argument of sorts with Carol. He been on nights for a so long it was doing his head in and really really playing on his mind about what would happen with Daryl added in. Would she flip back to Daryl only. He was stressed he just wanted her.

Then all the crying from Shane last night in the drive way where Rick had chased him down there. Trying to tell him they were best friends no matter what. Then coming back inside finding Daryl making out with Carol in the kitchen turned him on and he decided to take it that one step further. Maybe she was mad at him. It was so confusing, they got to bed and he fell straight asleep. Fuck it!

Rick walked out of his bedroom, walking into the lounge finding Merle drinking coffee and reading the Sunday paper. 'Where Carol?'

'She's with Joey.'

'What?' Rick asked.

'He was up crying through the night, she spent most of the night watching movies with him on the couch, he's still not well,' Merle said.

'Fuck I was going to go mad. Thought she was with Daryl,' Rick told him.

'Nah she come out of your room. Daryl's in with them, they are all asleep on her bed. Daryl got up to help during the night,' Merle said.

'Awesome, fucken great! How longs Daryl been here?' Rick said running his hand over his unshaved face.

'2 days...' Merle gave him.

'Why the fuck you not wake me when he was sick?' Rick growled at Merle.

'Man you were snoring with ya mouth open, she gave ya a shake ya just rolled over and showed us ya bare arse,' Merle growled back.

'Really?'

'Really, you looked beat man,' Merle added.

'Daryl's in there?' Rick asked.

'Well in there, he's got Joey in his arms and is snoring, Carol's asleep half hanging off the bed,' Merle told him.

Rick grunted and went poured himself a coffee from the coffee pot. He had the last cup Merle had been up for a while by the looks of the empty coffee pot. Merle looked up as he moved about making a new pot of coffee for the next person who got up.

'Is Daryl in?' Merle asked Rick quietly looking up at him. Rick looked away not meeting his eye.

'Daryl's in...' Rick confirmed.

'Like in in or she's thinking about it in?' Merle asked.

'In, in!' Rick confirmed.

'How do you know?' Merle asked.

'Ummmm just do,' Rick said quietly.

'For Fuck sakes! What you fuckers do?' Merle growled.

'You know she don't like us to talk about this shit,' Rick told Merle as he started to leave the room, Merle was up off his seat a had Rick pinned against the wall before Rick had a chance to react. Merle was mad, Rick knew what he was thinking and he was thinking right and if he found out he would throw all his toys out of the cot. Especially if he found out Daryl and Rick did it. Rick swallowed down his panic as Merle used his weight to find out what happened.

'I asked you what you both did? Did you?' Merle looked in his eyes and Rick was shaking his head.

'Nah man I just saw him kiss her, that's all,' Rick muttered. Merle let go. 'I... fuck Merle what you do that for! Settle fucken down.'

'I don't know if I can cope with this, when she brought you in I didn't get sex for nearly 2 months while she was in a honeymoon period with you. You know she's going to cut you off to ride him right,' Merle growled at him.

'Fuck off,' Rick growled. He was hardly getting any as it was because of his job.

'Not kidding, you wait, it will be all him for a month at least and you and I will be using our right hand,' Merle growled.

'Nar your wrong!'

'Wait you will see,' Merle growled Merle still was holding onto Ricks shirt when they heard a voice.

'What are you doing?' Come a little voice behind them. Joey was standing there looking with his finger in his mouth.

'Just giving Uncle Rick a cuddle see,' Merle hugged Rick and Rick hugged him back. Joey put his arms up to be included.

'Where's ya Ma?' Rick asked.

'Sleepin,' Joey said and pointed to the fridge, Merle walked over and opened it, and he pointed to juice.

'Use your words,' Rick scolded him. 'Your a big boy and big boy's use words.'

'Milk,' Joey looked at Rick.

'In a glass?' Merle pulled it out to pour it. Joey was shaking his head using a growl and pointing to the sipper cup on the bench.

'Nah Joey your a big boy,' Rick said showing him a glass to drink out of. Joey kept pointing to his cup and stuck his finger in his mouth. Merle was conflicted, Rick had said no to the sipper cup and Joey wanted it. Merle didn't have an issue about it. Merle looked up and saw Daryl wandering in greeting everyone good morning. Joey was ramping up to a whine about the sipper cup.

'What's going on?' Daryl asked, waving his fingers to Joey, Merle was at a stand still Rick had said no, and Daryl walked in. Joey reached out to Daryl. Who accepted him into his arms from Merle.

'Cup?' Joey rubbed on Daryl's goatee, pointing to the sipper on the bench. 'Milk?'

Daryl looked at Merle and Rick. 'What's the problem?'

'Rick said No,' Merle muttered.

'OK, so? Joey Uncle Rick said No you need to sort it out with Uncle Rick,' Daryl passed him over to Rick's arms and walked over to pour himself a coffee, deciding he wasn't going to get into a argument about a sipper cup, he had filled that sipper cup up through the night while he was sick. He was going to set in if he got really worked up about it. Or ask Carol. He really didn't know what the rules were here with Joey. Who was in charge here, after having only been there a short time. Rick seemed to take the lead more than Merle with Parenting when both Rick or Merle were there he saw that on the Saturday night.

Joey looked at Daryl and started to amp up crying and getting upset about it, he looked hot, with red cheeks still the same as last night. He was still sick. Daryl couldn't stand it crying over milk in a cup or glass. He was tired, Joey still had a temperature and he grabbed the sipper cup and rinsed it, having washed it himself at 5am. Filled it with milk and put the lid on, held his hands out to the little boy and when he moved to his arms Daryl walked out of the kitchen down the hall to his room where he put him in his bed and lay down beside him showing him his baby pictures from the albums he still had in his room.

He knew Carol and Rick were going to be mad at him. To be honest he really didn't give a shit. Daryl watched him finish it, he asked him if he needed to go to the toilet and he nodded. He took him to the little bathroom and waited helped him wash his hands and took him back to his room. They both lay on the bed looking at his photos. Joey snuggled into his side and was asleep quickly.

That was where Carol found them when she woke up. Wandered out to the lounge to find Rick still fuming she tried to get to the bottom of it.

'What happened?' Carol asked Rick. Merle had gone out, gone to see Shane to help him rotate his tyres or something, Carol knew this was a lie. He was going to Shane's but it involved tv or something, Merle was getting out of dodge muttering something kissing her good morning that Rick was on his period and to watch out.

'He gave him milk,' Rick told her.

'What, your upset because he gave him milk?' Carol asked shaking her head. Rick was upset that Daryl went over his head with Joey and gave him milk.

'In the slipper cup, I already told Joey no, then Daryl just made it and took him away to give it to him, I already said no to it,' Rick told her.

'God, Rick, honestly, I been giving him the slipper cup all night, because he's sick. I been getting Daryl to fill them. Does it matter?' Carol asked him.

'Would it bother you if you said no to potato chip's and Merle and I gave them to him at dinner?' Rick asked.

'I'm not getting worked up about a drink, you shouldn't,' Carol told him leaning into him and kissed him, she wrapped her arms around him. She could tell he was pissed off.

'Last night was fun,' Carol whispered in his ear.

'Yeah, it was, Merle will go nuts if he found out though, he bailed me up this morning on if something happened," Rick told her.

'Did you tell?' Carol whispered knowing Merle would go nuts because he wasn't part of it and Daryl was.

'Do I look stupid?' Rick asked.

'Well you been bitching about a slipper cup for half an hour.'

'Wheres Joey?' Rick asked.

'Lets just snuggle on the couch until Joey wakes again,' Rick nodded and pulled her onto his lap kissing her and leaning back trying to chill out.