Title: The Cutest Baby
Word Count: 2437
Universe: Non-zombie AU
Rating: General
Brief Summary: Beth and Daryl meet in the maternity ward when Merle's girlfriend and Maggie and Glenn have their babies on the same night. Later, they add their own baby to the mix. But which baby is the cutest?
Notes: This was originally in three parts, posting in response to prompts on tumblr, all set in the same 'verse'.


PART ONE

"Which one is yours?" With his hand pressed to the glass as he peered through, it took Daryl a moment to register that anyone was speaking at all, let alone to him. He was even more surprised when he looked over and saw who it was; some tiny little blonde thing, all big blue eyes and flushed cheeks, giving him a smile that was way too sweet for a man like him.

Confused he just grunted at her, until she asked again, "Which one of the babies is yours?"

Oh. He shrugged in response and very nearly left it at that- normally he would- but something about the way she was eyeing him, so open and clearly interested, had him clearing his throat and saying, "None of 'em. My brother's, uh, old lady… she had a boy today. S'right there." He reached up and pointed to a baby in the front row, wearing the same white outfit as the rest with striped booties.

Truth was he'd never expected Merle to do anything but run if he found out he'd knocked someone up. Maybe he'd underestimated him. More likely he'd underestimated Merle's girlfriend, Destiny, who had wrapped him right around her finger and somehow gotten him to stay. Hell, seeing Merle swaggering proudly out of that delivery room announcing that he had a son was the last thing he'd ever expected to see and yet somehow, it was real. As real as the baby in there, squirming away, his face all screwed up like he was about to cry or something… Daryl chuckled at the sight. Lord he hoped that kid inherited Destiny's looks and not his brother's.

Turning back to the blonde he asked, "What about you? Which one is yours?" Although truth be told, she looked way too young to be havin' a kid. Was she even 18?

"See the baby girl right next to your nephew?" Daryl looked over to the sleeping baby with the thick head of black hair, and nodded. "That's my niece. My older sister Maggie and her husband Glenn, this is their first. She's beautiful, isn't she?"

"Yeah," he murmured back, his voice unexpectedly low. But his gaze was on the girl standing next to her and not the baby she'd pointed to as he added, "She is." The baby was pretty cute, he guessed. But she didn't have blonde hair that managed to look like sunshine even under florescent lights, or eyes that reminded him of cornflowers out in the field, or maybe the blue sky above 'em.

Not like this girl did. Whoever she was.

"Name's Daryl," he half-grunted before he could stop himself. "Daryl Dixon." His hand was shoved into his pocket and he began to draw it out, stopping and hesitating before pushing past his awkwardness to pull it free and offer it to her.

He knew it was right the moment her hand slid into his and to his amazement, he felt no desire to tug it quickly away. In fact his hand lingered, dwarfing her much smaller one as his gaze held hers, mesmerized as she murmured sweetly back at him, "Beth Greene."

Daryl was just staring. Standing there, staring at her like some gape-mouthed idiot. Say something, growled a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Merle. Come on, Darylina. If you don't say something, I will, and I don't need Destiny hauling herself out of bed to find me and slap me after she just had my baby. "Listen, uhhh…" He pulled his hand belatedly free of hers and ran it through his long hair, pushing it back. "S'been a long day…"

"Oh, right." Was that disappointment on her face? "You probably wanna go home or something…"

Shit. "No! I mean. No?" Fuck, he was an awkward sonofabitch. "Coffee," he blurted out, darting his gaze quickly to her and then away again. "I was just gonna go get some coffee and I was wonderin' if you'd… like to maybe come."

"You want to get a cup of coffee with me?" To his amazement when he risked a look over at her, she wasn't looking at him in disbelief at all. She was smiling.

And all he could do was give a little hint of a smile back as he nodded. "Sure. We can, uh… talk about which baby is cuter, or whatever it is people do in situations like this."

He was pretty sure it wasn't that, but he didn't know what else to say. Apparently, he was doing just fine though, because before he knew it Beth was bumping her arm against his and replying easily, "Alright." And as they began to walk side by side down the hallway, she flashed him a grin and said, "But for the record? Cute as your nephew is, my niece is definitely cuter."

"Oh yeah? You willing to bet on that Greene?"

"Oh you're on, Dixon."


PART TWO

"Beth, are you ready?" Daryl stood in front of their closed bedroom door, gently knocking when he didn't hear a reply. "Beth? Everything okay?"

"No! Go away!"

He was turning the handle at the first muffled syllable, and it wasn't even because of her words. It was the tone in her voice. He knew that tone; he'd gotten to know it well these last couple months ever since his wife had seen the + symbol on the little over the counter test and told him that she was pregnant. "Beth…"

Despite knowing that tone- or perhaps because of it- Daryl was cautious as he pushed open the door and stuck his head into the bedroom. He only had to look around a moment before he spotted her. She was sitting on the bed with her jeans unbuttoned and her shirt only halfway covering her belly, and if it hadn't been for the look in her eyes he might have laughed.

"I'm a whale," she murmured pitifully, her big blue eyes shining with tears as she looked slowly up at him. "I'm a cow. I'm carrying a beach ball inside of me. Look at me, Daryl."

"I am, Beth." He crossed the room towards her without looking away and sank to his knees in front of her. "I'm looking right at you, an' you know what I see?"

As his hands came to rest on the swell of her belly, she drew in a deep breath and replied wetly, "W-what?"

"I see the most gorgeous, beautiful woman ever. Who I still can't believe is my wife-" He pressed a kiss to her belly and hummed, "-and Idefinitely can't believe ever agreed to carry my baby."

She snorted, but there was a hint of a familiar smile on her lips now as she ran her fingers through his hair, "You're just sayin' that because you have to."

"Beth Dixon." He raised an eyebrow until she looked into his eyes and held his gaze. "When in my life have I ever said anythin' I didn't mean?"

This time when she drew in a deep breath and exhaled, a far steadier and happier smile curved up her lips. "Never."

"That's right, baby girl. So if I say you're beautiful, then you're beautiful. And if I say you're the most gorgeous girl in the entire damn world well, then they might as well inscribe it somewhere, y'hear?"

"Mhm." She nodded and wiped away a stray tear. "I hear."

"Good. Now give me another pretty smile… there it is." He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her smiling lips as he spanned his hands across her belly. "Now, what are we gonna do about this shirt, hm?"

They were supposed to go out with the Grimes' tonight for dinner, but Daryl had a feeling Beth didn't want to go like this. She'd yet to buy too many maternity clothes though, insisting first that her old clothes fit fine and then that she wasn't gonna wear anything with 'giant stupid bows' across the front.

"It's my favorite shirt-" She whispered, lip quivering again as she looked down at the pretty yellow blouse now straining to cover even half her belly.

"It's your favorite shirt of yours," Daryl remarked, an idea popping into his head. "But if I remember correctly…" He rose to his feet and turned to his drawers, rummaging through them until he triumphantly seized on a soft, worn button-down red flannel with the arms cut off. Turning, he held it out to her with a pleased hint of a smile. "You've got another favorite, don't you?"

"Oh. Daryl. Can I?"

He just smiled as he helped her to her feet and unbuttoned her blouse to set it aside on the bed. But when he stood behind her and slipped the flannel over her shoulders to settle it against her back, and his hands came around to start doing one button at a time, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and then looked at her in the mirror as he murmured, "Of course you can. What's mine is yours, baby girl. Always."

(And when he did up the last button and ran his hands down over the curve of her belly, his lips found her ear and he whispered again, "Beautiful."She was, without a doubt. Especially when she was smiling at him like that and her little belly was just barely outlined by the worn flannel ofboth their favorite shirt.)


PART THREE

Fourteen hours of labor. Fourteen hours of pacing and grimacing and pushing and in the end, screaming, and Beth was exhausted. But through it all Daryl had been right at her side, looking at her like she was the strongest damn person he'd ever seen in his life, like all that mattered was the two of them.

He was still there only now, it was the three of them. Beth was laying in bed with Daryl sitting up beside her, and in her arms between them lays the most perfect little baby Beth had ever seen in her life. "She's an angel," Beth whispered, pulling her gaze from the sweet-faced infant to look at Daryl for just a moment before she couldn't resist the urge to glance back at their little one. Their daughter.

"She is," Daryl murmured, his voice breathy with the same awe she could see on his face as he reached down and nudged his finger against the baby's tiny hand until she curled her impossibly small fingers around his thumb.

Beth was pretty sure she heard him gasp, and the little intake of breath he gave was enough to have her turning back to him with a soft smile.

"Hey." She waited until he turned to look up at her, and then gave him a soft smile. "Remember when we first met?"

After a second, Daryl chuckled. "Course I do. Was this same hospital."

"Mhm. And remember what we bet on?"

"Mm." Daryl nodded. "Whose niece or nephew was cuter."

"Yeah… well I changed my mind." Daryl's brow furrowed at Beth's remark, and he hesitated a moment before raising one eyebrow in confusion. But all she did was giggle as she looked down at the baby in her arms and ran one finger lightly across the fluff of blonde hair on her head. Only then did she softly murmur, "She is without a doubt the cutest baby of all. She wins hand down."

When it clicked, all he did was chuckle and give a slow nod as his gaze followed hers back down to the little perfect baby in her arms. The perfect baby they'd somehow made. Together. More beautiful and angelic than anything he'd ever thought could come from Dixon blood and yet there she was. Real and adorable and perfect.

"Yeah, she is. Without a doubt. I'll bet Glenn and Merle both on that."

Later he left his sleeping wife and their new baby girl in their room and headed back out to the waiting room where their whole family waited still. Annette, Hershel, Shawn, Maggie and Glenn, and Merle and his wife Destiny (still a shocker; the marriage itself, though not really the fact that of course he'd run off to Vegas to do it, leaving Daryl and Beth to watch their kid). Standing there with his hands in his pockets, Daryl just flashed them all a small smile and scuffed his foot on the ground as he shrugged his shoulders. "S'girl," he remarked, smile widening a little more as they all began to cheer. "Namin' her Penelope. Reckon we'll call her Penny, though. Penny Dixon."

When they all got up and began to hug him and each other, Daryl somehow ended up with Merle's arm slung around his shoulder as his brother laughed and teased him in congratulations, "Nicely done, little brother. When do I get a look at her?"

"Later," he replied gruffly, even as he reached into his pocket for his cell phone. "Beth's sleepin' now, both of 'em are. Ain't gonna wake 'em. Here…" He flipped the screen until he got to the gallery and pulled up the picture he'd taken of his little baby girl, his and Beth's baby girl, curled up in Beth's arms as his tired but happy wife smiled up at him.

"Damn," Merle breathed out with a slow not. "Y' ain't done bad, baby brother. Not bad at all." He hesitated and then dragged his arm tighter around Daryl's shoulder before reaching to ruffle his hair. "Good thing she takes after you're old lady and not you though."

"Hey!" Daryl pulled back with a light glare, but the smile was back on his lips the moment he looked back down at the photo. "Beth an' I have already decided. She wins the cutest baby contest by a long shot."

In an instant both Merle and Glenn were groaning at him, but as they began to bicker back and forth about whose baby was really the cutest, all Daryl could do was smile to himself. Because he just had to look down at that picture to know the truth.

Penelope Dixon was the most beautiful, adorable, sweetest baby ever. He might have been terrified to be her father, but there was no way in hell he was gonna ever let her done.

(And he would totally fight to defend his baby girl's title as the cutest baby ever. Although maybe not right now. The last thing he needed was Beth climbing out of bed after all those hours of labor just to hit him for starting a fight. Even if it was in defense of their sweet baby girl.)