Hello! So, I've ran into a road block and may not be able to get online at home for a while after tonight. After this chapter there are only five left to go so I'll make sure that I make a trip to my sisters once a day or possibly every two days so I can finish up posting for this story. After that you may not here from me for a bit but I'll be out there somewhere... writing stuff. Thanks for reading!

Also, some of you may have been expecting a more emotional reunion in the last chapter and I apologize for not delivering that. There is a lot of stuff going on in this and I'm trying to put all the nuances into place. I'm probably going to disappoint from time to time but it's because there really is very little time to focus on one specific thing. If it's taken away from the plot at all then that is totally my bad and hopefully it didn't mess up the feels for the story!

Chapter Seventy Four

Carol squeezed Merle's hand as the needle drove into her spine. This was really happening and it was happening now. They were going to cut her baby out of her stomach, her daughter was missing, Daryl was gone. Merle looked ready to throw up and then suddenly she felt a little bit of relief. Instantly she felt like maybe everything was going to be okay.

"I know that look," Merle said in a low voice. "They dosed your ass up with something."

She met his eyes but before she could speak the male nurse, who was the size of a bull but was blessed with a soft soothing voice came around to face her as he helped her lean back onto the bed. "We gave you some morphine just to take the edge off. You're going to start feeling numb...

She stopped listening to what he was saying as her eyes seemed to swim out of focus. She blinked when Merle snapped his fingers in front of her face. "I'm sorry, what?" She asked, unsure if it had been Merle speaking or the nurse.

Merle shook his head. "You're so high right now."

"My nose is itching," she muttered, trying to scratch her face but Merle shook his head and pulled her hand away.

"It'll stop on it's own," he said, keeping her hands down.

"I'm really going to have this baby, huh?"

"That's been the plan all along, ain't it?" He asked.

She nodded and was about to say something else when his phone went off. As soon as it did she felt the bed she was on being pushed away from him.

"Mrs. Dixon, we're taking you to the operating room now," the nurse said from somewhere behind her.

Merle let out a loud whoop that would have probably startled her if she hadn't been on drugs at the moment. She craned her neck to look at him but suddenly he was right there, walking next to the bed. "He's on his way. He found her and she's fine other than a bump to the head. He'll be here."

"So, they're both okay?"

Merle nodded, the color returning to his face that had seemed void of any pigment at all ever since he had told her about what was happening. "Just take it easy on him okay? There was a reason he lied to you and you know it. He didn't want you freaking out."

"I won't say anything," she said, because she really didn't feel like fighting with him at the moment. She just wanted to see him and see for herself that Sophia was okay. She didn't think Merle would lie to her, she was sure she would be able to tell, but she still just needed to see them. She was extremely relaxed now though. She felt like everything was going to be okay. She told herself that that was because things were going to be okay and not because she was on drugs.

~H~

He had left Sophia with Buck in the emergency room and promised that he would be back as soon as he could. Sophia had waved him away because she could tell that he felt bad about abandoning her but there was only one of him. As much as he wanted to be in two places at the same time, he simply couldn't. He didn't know if it was too late because he hadn't been able to get a hold of Merle for the last ten minutes. The last time he had texted him, they were taking her into surgery. If he made it in time at all it would be another small miracle but he still had a little hope.

He came to a halt when he saw Merle standing outside a door, stripping off a gown. His heart sank. He was too late. Merle had been forced to step in for what was suppose to be one of the biggest days of Daryl's life.

When Merle looked up he motioned him over. "Bout fuckin' time. Here, get this shit on and get your ass in there. When I walked out they were about to get the scalpel ready." He shoved the gown into Daryl's arms.

Daryl looked up sharply. "I made it?"

Merle nodded, shoving him towards the door as he donned the idiotic get up that Merle had been wearing. He opened the door and stepped inside and nearly walked right back out. Luckily Merle was there to shove him back inside. He had been in a lot of different situations. He had been through things that would have broken other men. He was sure that if he needed to, he could easily face down the devil himself.

But he had never felt this way before. Carol was lying on a bed, her hands actually strapped down like she was undergoing some strange Crucifixion as people bustled around her. When the door swung shut everyone seemed to stop at once and turn to stare at him. Carol's head turned with the others and her eyes focused.

"You made it," she grinned. Her voice was slurred. "They won't let me watch them cut me open. They hung a curtain up. I'm not too worried though."

He crossed the room, stopping when he was finally next to her bed. He kept his eyes on her face because, for the first time in his life, he was too big of a coward to look at whatever they were doing to her lower half. "Why'd they tie your hands down?" He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

She rolled her eyes. "Because I wouldn't stop scratching. I don't know why my face is itching so bad."

"Morphine, probably," he muttered. He felt dizzy and he wasn't sure why.

"You're bleeding," she said, glancing at his arm before meeting his eyes.

He looked down and sure enough, there was blood blossoming across the sleeve of the gown. "Ain't nothin'."

"Sir?"

He looked up at a man in scrubs and a mask. What?"

"You can't be in here. You're bleeding and..."

"Listen," he said in a calm voice. "I've had one hell of a fucked up night, okay? Now I'm gonna stay in here while you do your damn job and get my kid out of there. Unless you think you can make me leave." He gave the doctor a pointed look. This wasn't their first meeting and the man finally continued doing whatever it was he had been doing a minute ago. When he looked back down Carol sighed and shook her head. He took it upon himself to unstrap her hand. No one said anything. "So, how the hell did all this happen?" He asked.

She tried to bring her hand to her face but he gripped it tightly. She smiled. "I don't know. I guess he's bored in there and he already thinks he can just do whatever he wants. This probably means he's already just like you. Did you get shot?"

He glanced over at the group gathered around her midsection but no one was looking at him so he nodded. "It ain't too bad though."

"Is she really okay?" She asked, worry etching her brow.

"She's fine. She's with Buck."

"What happened?" She asked, her hand nearly slipping out of his.

"We'll talk about that later, alright?" He said, glancing at the others again. They all seemed to be focused intently and he decided that he wanted to know what was going on too. He kept a grip on her hand but peeked around the curtain that was shielding her from seeing what was happening.

That had been a horrible mistake. The light glinted off the scalpel just as it sliced into her. He expected to see a lot of blood but there really wasn't much. Once they had her cut open he watched in horror as the doctor used his hands, stretching the gruesome wound. He didn't realize right away that the room was spinning. Not until the floor seemed to shift under his feet.

"Daryl?"

He heard Carol's voice but it sounded like she was speaking to him through a tunnel. A very long tunnel. Her voice was drowned out quickly when suddenly there was a strange roaring in his ears, the floor wavered and he dropped her hand. The scalpel was back, quickly cutting through thin layers of membrane. He swiped a hand over his face and realized that he was pouring sweat and he was having some serious trouble with his equilibrium. He swayed slightly but forced himself to stay upright.

He tried to swallow but he couldn't. His tongue felt thick and dry and was stuck to the roof of his mouth. Another quick movement from the doctors hand with some new metal instruments and then, to his complete surprise, he saw a shock of dark hair and then a face...

That was when the floor decided to come up and slam into his ass. Or, more than likely, his ass had landed hard on the floor. He scrambled back up, moving so he couldn't see what was going on anymore. It wasn't that he didn't want to see, but he couldn't. If he passed out then he'd just be in the way and he was pretty sure that watching someone pull his son out of his wife's stomach would knock him right the fuck out.

"Are you okay?"

He looked down into Carol's worried blue eyes and nodded. He still couldn't form words. He stared at her for a few long moments and finally things slowed down in his mind. The roaring in his ears was subsiding and the room was no longer spinning. And then he heard it. A strong loud wail. His head snapped up but he couldn't see anything because there were a couple of nurses in the way, doing what they needed to do. Whatever it was must have been pissing the kid off because he just got louder. Strangely it was the most amazing thing he had ever heard in his life.

He looked back down at Carol. She was grinning even though there were people still working over her, putting her back together. He'd never forget that sight as long as he lived but it was worth it. He could tell that she thought so too. A few seconds later they brought him around, cleaned up and wrapped in a Hospital issue blanket. He had stopped screaming and now looked to be shocked at the sights around him. Daryl finally managed to swallow thickly as they put the baby in Carol's arms.

"Oh my. It looks like you and Merle used me as some sort of strange surrogate," she grinned, taking in the small face.

She was actually right. There was Carol in there somewhere, he was sure but at the moment this kid was all Dixon. Mostly he looked like Daryl but Merle was there too, so was a little Buck. The nurse lifted him back up and offered him to Daryl. He wasn't shaking anymore. The room wasn't spinning. His heart was pounding but other than that, he was okay. He looked down, a million thoughts spinning through his mind, his chest heavy with emotions that he couldn't even identify.

The nurse leaned in, smiling brightly. "Five weeks early and seven and a half pounds already. That's a first for me."

Daryl barely heard her. The baby seemed to be studying him as intently as he was studying the baby and Daryl could have laughed because the kid looked completely offended that so much fuss was going on around him. Even the curve of his lips were exactly like Daryl's. He squirmed in his arms for a few seconds and then the nurse was taking him back.

She explained that even though he was big for a premature baby, he was still premature and he would need to be taken to the NICU. He felt his heart sink but she was quick to offer him a comforting pat on the arm. "He's big, he's strong and he's going to be just fine. You'll get to see him again in a few hours. By then you'll both be settled and a lot more comfortable."

He nodded and watched as she walked out.