I took great pleasure in writing this chapter =) I don't know if you all will enjoy it as much as I have but I really hope so! Thank you all for reading and I am beyond happy that you're happy with this story so far! Have a great weekend!

Chapter Forty Six

Daryl kept her close for the rest of the night. Him and Merle were okay now and Buck was bragging to anyone that would listen that he was going to have another grand kid. Piper and Sophia stayed huddled together, their faces alight with some sort of teenaged excitement or another. He hadn't wanted to come out tonight but he had to admit that he was happy that they had thrown this all together so quickly.

They were outside, leaning against the building, when a car pulled in. The headlights were bright and there were too many people in the way for him to tell who it was. A couple of men laughed as they moved out of the way for the newcomer. Daryl tensed when he saw who it was.

"Right on time," Buck chuckled.

Daryl glared. "What the hell is he doin' here?" Carol was in front of him and his hands slid down to her stomach instinctively as his eyes scanned the area for Sophia.

Ed didn't look too happy but he did look better than he had last time Daryl had seen him. When his eyes landed on Carol they widened and then narrowed when he realized that she was pressed right up against Daryl. All of a sudden Merle was there, shoving a pen into Carol's hands.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked. She must have just realized that Ed was there because she tried to press herself even closer to Daryl.

Ed was making a beeline towards them, his features schooled until he studied Daryl's hand that was resting protectively over her lower stomach. He blinked stupidly, his pace slowing until he was standing about ten feet away, studying them. Buck cleared his throat loudly, snapping him out of it and then he closed the distance.

"Here," he said, his voice cold as he held out some papers.

"What is this?" Carol asked, not making a move to take them from him.

Merle took it instead, reading over the documents carefully, taking his time. "This right here is your divorce."

Daryl's head snapped up at the same time hers did. He thought he had heard his brother wrong. "Her what?"

Merle handed the papers off to Carol. "All you gotta do is sign it."

Carol stood there, staring at Merle and then she looked up at Ed. "You're giving me a divorce? And you aren't putting up any sort of fight?"

Ed shrugged.

"Buck called for it. He could either divorce you or he could walk," Merle explained.

Carol hurriedly signed the paperwork and then shoved it towards Ed. "This is fantastic!"

Ed reached for the papers but Merle snatched them away. "We'll file these ourselves." He said, triple checking.

Daryl pulled her back as Ed's face heated up. It was obvious that the man was pissed. "So you ended up with the boss's son, huh?"

"You don't talk to her unless her man tells you you can talk to her," Buck said in a hard voice. "What about the rest?"

Ed looked at him, shaking his head. "I never agreed to-"

"I don't give half a fuck what you agreed to. I told you to do somethin'. Did you not do it?" Buck raised an eyebrow. "I went to a lot of trouble to get it done, you better have done your part."

Ed mumbled something under his breath and then reached into his back pocket, producing some more papers that he had folded tightly. He handed them to Merle, who looked over them with a wide grin. "So, that's it," Ed said, hands on his hips. "I did everything that you wanted me to do. Now I want my patches."

Daryl felt his eyebrows shoot up. "What the hell are those papers?"

Merle and Buck shared a look. "These?" Merle asked innocently, holding them up.

"Yeah, dumb ass, those," Daryl barked.

Buck met his eyes. "He had a hearing the other day. He signed over his parental rights. He has no say in what happens in regards to Sophia. Not that he had much to say anyway."

Carol took the paper and Daryl leaned his chin on her shoulder so he could read it with her. It was all legit. It was signed by Ed and a judge that Daryl didn't know. Stamped, dated, completely legal. He looked up, meeting Buck's eyes. "When did you do all this?"

Buck shrugged, his cold eyes on Ed. "Been workin' on this since the night we took them outta there. Now, if you think you can manage doing so without getting your hands dirty, you can tell Ed here the news."

Ed frowned, his eyes scanning all of them. "What's goin' on?"

Daryl grinned. "You're kiddin'?"

Buck shook his head. "This is your get out of jail gift from your old man. You can thank me later. Carol, you might wanna come with me, darlin'. You might not want to hear this."

"What? No! I want to hear this. Do you have any idea what hell he put us through? Tell him whatever you need to tell him." She looked colder than he had ever seen her look before. There was nothing in her eyes but contempt. Contempt and relief. Her and Sophia were free of him now.

Daryl nodded. If she wanted to listen then she could listen. He knew her though. He knew that she'd get embarrassed but if she wanted to stay then she could stay. This was the man that had driven her to Daryl in the first place.

"Is somebody going to explain to me why the hell we aren't in there getting my patches right now?"

"You're a cocky mother fucker, ain't you?" Merle sneered.

Ed scowled and looked like he was about to say something but Daryl didn't give him a chance.

"Look Ed, this, this was all a big joke. Surprise." He grinned.

"What?" Ed still looked confused. Daryl needed to spell it out for him.

He took a long pull from the beer in his hand and noticed that the others around them were growing more and more quiet, sensing that something was about to happen. "You see, Carol and I met before you even came back to town."

Ed snorted. "That isn't true."

Daryl took another drink and then nodded, taking more pleasure from this than he thought possible. "It's true. She had some car trouble. I was pickin' my niece up from school. Sophia called Piper that night and I drove out, brought Carol back here. I was just gonna replace her battery but I ended up replacing you instead." He chuckled.

Ed shook his head. Disbelief clouding his features.

Someone handed Daryl another beer and he took his time with it. He nodded. "Yeah. I brought her back here, we had a few drinks. Hell, I didn't even get her all the way to my room. I just put her right up against the wall in the hallway and I fucked her right there until she was screamin'. She ever scream for you, Ed?"

Ed's face blazed with anger, his fists clenching.

"And that was a few days before you got back. I did her again that night up in my room. She spent the night. The next day, I tried out the shower. First time she'd ever gotten it from behind. You must be one boring ass lay."

"You son of a-"

"Then I snuck in her window the next night. Got real comfortable in your bed." He laughed. He almost hated cheapening his relationship with her like he was but if he was being honest, that was what it was in the beginning. He ran his hand over her stomach. "Somethin' tells me that's the night it happened."

"What happened?" Ed barked. "What the hell is this?" Daryl could have sworn that the man wanted to cry. He didn't blame him. The men around them were silent, watching, grinning.

Daryl grinned right along with them. "That was the night I got her pregnant."

The color drained from Ed's face and he shook his head.

"That meeting me and you had? It was bullshit. I just wanted to keep tabs on you. Make sure you didn't hit her anymore. My niee knew you'd hit her that day and thought on her toes. She made the whole thing up on the spot."

Another shake of his head.

"That day after I met with you. I ran into her at the store and I fucked her there too. I had her right after I talked to you the day before. We had us a good laugh at your expense. You look a little green around the gills. You gonna puke?" He turned to a few of the guys, actual prospects, and nodded towards the door. "One of you get this man a beer. He's had a rough night."

If Ed didn't stop shaking his head like that Daryl was pretty sure that he was gonna give himself whiplash. "This is some kind of initiation thing isn't it? You make up things and haze me. I get it."

Daryl laughed. "Jesus, are you serious? Listen to yourself, man. Don't embarrass yourself even worse. That's my job. You don't wanna steal my thunder now do you?" Daryl was having way to much fun with this.

"We had a deal! I did every goddamn thing I was suppose to do. I gave up everything for this club!"

Daryl sighed and ignored Ed's desperate pleas. "So, here's how this works. You're gonna climb back in your car. You're gonna drive home and cry or break shit or whatever it is that lonely, pathetic pieces of shit like you do when you find out something like this, and you ain't ever gonna show your fuckin' face around my club or my woman again. Did you get all that?"

"You can't do this!" He roared.

Daryl was about over this little meeting. "I can and I did. You treated her like shit. You made her feel worthless cause you're a goddamn pussy. Then I found her and had a hell of a time lickin' those wounds. You don't deserve a woman as good as her. Hell, I'm a better man than you could dream of bein' and I don't even deserve a woman as good as her. But she's mine, and I take care of what's mine. That means you stay the hell away. If I wake up in the middle of the night with a hunch that you're even thinkin' about her, I'll hunt you down and I'll rip your stupid ass apart."

"You people can't do this!" Ed sounded desperate as all of his dreams crashed down around him. It was finally sinking in.

Carol stiffened. "Everything he said was true," she said, her voice stronger than he thought it could be in a situation like this. "All of it. And now you have no business here. And thank you. For the speedy divorce and for giving up your rights to my daughter. She has all the family she needs. And any one of them will be more than happy to escort you to your car if you don't turn around right now and go."

Daryl rested his chin on her shoulder again and waggled his eyebrows. "You heard the lady." He grinned, unable to help himself.

"You're gonna pay for this," he snapped, eyes on Carol.

"I gave you sixteen years of my life. We aren't even close to being even. You owe me. You need to not forget that."

"You were a wife! You were respectable! You're trading all that in to be some biker's whore? Cause that's all you are now," he spat.

"Uh oh," Daryl muttered as Buck pushed off the wall and lumbered towards Ed.

Ed didn't have time to run or he would have. Buck's massive paw went around his throat and then Ed was thrown through the air, landing hard on his back in the gravel driveway. Buck was still coming towards him as he tried desperately to crawl away. Daryl knew how ugly it was going to get so he grabbed Carol's hand and led her back into the garage.