Daryl was at a loss for words and actions as he watched his wife sitting on the bed balling even after he'd cleaned up the mess she'd made by accident. She was thirty one weeks along and had started crying over the smallest things and had been obsessively cleaning and rearranging everything. It had become a whirlwind of emotions for her with not getting enough sleep between nightmares, discomfort, and needing to use the bathroom a lot. Ani had gotten angry at him for cheating on her in a dream, even though she knew it was a dream and admitted to it; she just couldn't stop being angry. She'd been really possessive over her pickles and squirrel ever since Abraham had decided to take one without asking. Honestly, Daryl was certain that was the catalyst that had made her so easily upsettable and the fact that the only thing the man had done about it was to make it worse by opening his dumb mouth. Abraham had been told to keep his mouth shut when he was at the Sanctuary anymore because of how often he would either piss her off or render her to tears. Sasha had been the one to implement the rule after he had said something stupid about Ani getting upset and crying when he dirtied up her freshly-cleaned floor. It was beyond ridiculous how bad it had gotten when, rather than being happy about having meat from a doe Merle and Sophia brought in, Ani had cried about killing Bambi's mom. She had refused to eat any of it when they were dressing it and cooking, but as soon as Daryl put it in front of her it was gone, especially the liver. She had cried over how cute a onesie Arat and her scavenging team had brought back because it had little feeties, as she called them, on it. He was at his wit's end on how to help her other than to hold her until she calmed down or calm her down before she got fully worked up. The only thing about it that he could be thankful for was the fact that she wasn't constantly crying, just randomly.

"I'm so sorry," she cried.

"It was just an egg, baby girl. That's all it was. Not a big deal."

"B-b-but!"

"Enough, Ania. It's not like you did it on purpose. You tripped."

"'Cause I'm a fuckin' whale! I'm so ugly and fat and I don' even have ankles and I dropped the egg 'cause I can' fuckin' see my feet!" she bawled.

Daryl sighed and walked over to sit next to her, pulling her legs into his lap and giving them a massage, "You ain't fat. You're pregnant, and I wouldn't be sleepin' with you if I thought you were ugly. Hell, you wear my ass out. Used to be me wearing you out." Ani sniffled and listened to him as he continued, "You got my kid in your belly. How the hell ain't you beautiful?"

"I can' see my toes," she said softly.

"Well, I can," he told her, lifting her leg and kissing the inside of her ankle before putting it down and laying down on the bed and pulling her down with him. "I love you. Ain't nothin' gonna change that. Even if you drop a damn egg on the floor."

"I didn' mean to," she said, obviously starting to get upset again, making Daryl press a kid into her hair.

"I know. Ain't a big deal. Got it cleaned up and more ready to boil. Just gotta tell me how so I don't screw up the yolk again." Daryl knew he had said something wrong when she stiffened in his arms and started shaking again and sighed, "That wasn't on you. Don't know that soft yolk shit. Ain't like they went to waste. Merle and I ate 'em."

"I guess," she sniffled.

Daryl kissed her shoulder and rubbed her large stomach as she calmed herself down and, once again, apologized, though this time for making him clean the mess. He didn't dare say out loud that she wasn't able to bend over and it was harder for her to stand from the floor as easily as he could. She was generally off balance with any kind of bending or reaching that she needed to do and she had been forced to quit doing anything other than walking as far as exercise went. Between the issues with her balance, the pain in her back, and the fact that she had a giant baby pressing against her lungs, she was hardly able to walk for more than fifteen minutes at a time without needing a rest. He didn't mind at all, though, because it meant that he got to carry her when she got tired and they still needed to get to where they were headed. Ani didn't seem to mind it, either, considering her feet hurt more often and she wasn't fighting him about it when he did pick her up. She did, however, take to calling herself a whale and crying about how much she weighed only for him to reassure her she wasn't much heavier than normal. Another good thing about her not being able to be overly active was that she had finally started sleeping more because she had more time to nap, even if it was so broken that it affected her mental state. He knew he couldn't voice any of his opinions on the matters, though, because that would just set off the ticking time bomb that her temper could become. It wasn't that he had to tiptoe around her, nor did Sophia or the twins, and most everyone else understood not to anger her, but Merle and Abraham? Both of the idiots had been pegged more than once in the head with her canteen or whatever non-lethal item she could get her hands on at the moment. The last time Merle had been subject to her anger and verbal dressing down was thoroughly the man's own fault, however, because he had barged into their room and disrupted her sleep. Daryl could feel her breathing start to even out from his arm around her and how his hand was gently kneading her stomach. She barely even moved when Lou decided to kick and he knew she was sleeping and that he would need to warn Merle about not waking her up.

"How's the lady with the baby?" Jerry asked as Daryl left the room. "Has the egg-tastrophe situation been resolved?"

"Yeah. Thanks for leavin'."

"Given Ani's emotional state, I assessed the situation to be a risk to our potential safety, especially after the pickle fiasco," Eugene noted.

"I don't know what the hell I'm doin'," Daryl sighed. "Sick of hearin' 'sorry' all the damn time."

"Life of a pregnant lady," Jerry jested.

Eugene made a bit of a face before commenting, "I can only assume you'll hear more apologies when we arrive at the Hilltop in two days."

"Shit. Yeah. Damn near forgot about that. And don't say shit in front of Ania about it. Kids don't want the girls to know."

"I shan't," Eugene promised flatly at the fact that Daryl was obviously meaning him. "Besides, I have been well and truly warned not to ruin the surprise. For as young as the teens are, they are a force to be reckoned with that I have no intention of crossing paths with."

"Yeah. You know where Merle's at?"

"Dude heard the crying and decided to turn tail."

"He seemed to be under the impression that he would be threatened with imminent death should he enter the room and mentioned the intention to rustle up some squirrel and rabbit for the luncheon."

"Sounds good. She's sleepin' and don't need him wakin' her up again and taking a knife to the shoulder," Daryl scoffed. "Get them doors shuttered up finally?"

"That is an affirmative. The thickness of the sherpa layered between the metal and the wood should act as a decent buffer against the worst of winter."

"Good. Ania might stop complainin' about the cold. Been doin' it non-stop since last week and the snow started to fall."

"To be fair, both with the lack of heat from the sun and inability to fully heat this place using the generators, it has been quite difficult to retain a body temperature that is within the range of preventing the shivers and quivers."

"I get it. It's cold," Daryl griped. "Goddamn."

"Could be worse," Jerry shrugged. "At least it's not rain."

Both Eugene and Daryl groaned in unison at the mention of rain and how they had found out about parts of the factory floor leaking when it rained and pooling water. They were already looking for quick dry cement to get the areas that did so hopefully repaired before the spring melt happened. Jerry had told them about what to expect during both the winter and spring and how fast the temperatures could change at times. They could have a warm enough temperatures for the snow to start melting during the day only to for the temperatures to drop at night and freeze the ground. Daryl wanted to get the lower level patched up long before that happened so that they weren't dealing with frozen or freezing puddles. He was also planning on fixing up some of the areas on the top level, especially when it came to making sure the windows were all properly sealed. There was already quite the draft running through the upper levels and they were all wearing thicker clothes to combat the chill, Ani refusing to give Daryl back his poncho. He wasn't one to find things cute, but damn if his wife wasn't cute in his poncho with her belly making it stick out and how she would wrap her hands around it and tuck it underneath, where it barely hit her thighs. When she stood like that, he always went over to pull her under his arm and just watch her rubbing her stomach; he would stand behind her and rub it himself if they were in their room. It was only ever in their room and definitely the only time he would ever give her the soft smile or admit he couldn't wait to see his baby in her arms.

~x~

"Alright, we managed to get some of the fruit, but the best we got as far as nectarines and strawberries are jams or jarred. We got lucky the pomegranates survived a little longer. We also got enough apples for Maggie plus some of the chunky applesauce Ani likes. Carol made some bread while Nabila managed to make some cinnamon rolls."

"Pops managed to get two rabbits to make some stew and I made Ani up some sweet and spicy squirrel jerky as best as I could. I hope I got it right," Sophia said, sounding a bit worried.

"I'm sure Ani will love it," Carl told her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and giving her a side hug.

"Maggie definitely will enjoy it," Beth added, the three of them hiding in the cellar at Barrington house and stashing all the gifts and food behind the shelves until the morning. "She still goes crazy over apple pie."

"That's like Ani with squirrel. That's why I hope I made the jerky right."

"When are they getting here again?" Carl asked.

"Daryl's gonna bring Ani tomorrow mornin'," Sophia answered. "We got it set up that we'll keep her and Maggie occupied in Maggie's office while we get everything set up in the library."

"It's gonna be the first time we've all been together since what happened with Rosita, not really," Beth told them. "I'm really excited about it."

"Yeah, let's just hope they don't start cryin'," Sophia groaned, the other two joining in with her.

"I never want to get pregnant if that's how it always is. Like, Maggie cries at the drop of the dime. She's been a mess of tears since Aaron got here with Gracie. She hasn't let that baby go but she cries every five seconds 'cause of it. I want to be a mom, but not if it makes me like that."

"I don't know. Might be nice. When Ani isn't cryin', she's just super happy and talkin' non-stop about how she's gonna raise Lou. Everythin' Daryl says he's gonna teach him. Honestly, it's like they're plannin' on raisin' him the same way they taught me. It kinda feels nice, especially when Ani tells me how I can help."

"Did you talk to her about feelin' replaced, yet?" Beth asked.

Sophia got quiet and started tearing up, "She got so upset she started bawlin'. She couldn't believe that I would even think that way when I am her girl. I felt horrible, but she just held onto me and cried and promised I could never be anythin' less than her kid, no matter how many other kids they have. I felt so stupid that I felt I had to ask."

"You know she'd rather you talk to her about that stuff," Carl told her.

"I know. I just...Hearin' how she wanted to teach Lou...It felt...I thought she would forget about me like Carol did."

"That could never happen," Beth said. "She cares too much about you. She might forget about me and Carl, but she won't ever once forget to make you feel like she's left you alone."

"Yeah, I know," Sophia said. "I just got scared of the past repeatin'. Ani said it's normal, given what I've gone through and how I lost my parents. I really hate that I felt that way and felt so bad I had to ask her, but...Ani's a great mom and I love her a lot. I didn't think I was as upset about it as I was, but she wasn't even angry, just sad."

"When has Ani ever gotten angry with you?" Carl asked.

"I dunno," she answered with a shrug. "At the prison?"

"When you were going out on your own all the time?"

"Yeah, and even then, she didn't really get angry angry, more just upset. I don't really remember too...The tombs! Oh gods! Hide and seek in the tombs!"

"When she went all drill sergeant with the kids?" Beth asked.

"That sucked. And, yeah, I don't think I've ever seen her as angry at us as she was that time." Carl admitted. "I really wasn't all that afraid of her until that happened. The scolding she gave us was brutal."

"Do you remember how she said that walnuts have bigger brains than we did? She was so angry."

Beth laughed and reminisced about that time as well, "Yeah, I personally like how she said that walkers listen better than you guys did, and they can't even understand what's being said."

"We didn't get into anymore trouble, though," Sophia admitted.

They shared a laugh with each other as they put the shelves back and headed to the door to leave the cellar, only for it to swing open. Abraham and Merle walked in and quickly looked around, telling them to get skedaddle as soon as they could. They barely managed to high tail it around the corner when they heard Maggie walk up and ask a question about provisions. It took everything in the teens' power not to burst into a fit of giggles at how close they had been to getting caught having no good reason to be in the cellar. Everyone else had already been informed of the baby shower and were bringing in the rest of the food and gifts that everyone had been looking for over the last month. They had so many toys for the babies coming from the Kingdom, since they had been collecting such things for a long time, having been in need of such items before. Sophia had been taken to a warehouse by Laura and told to look for whatever she wanted and had found a few stuffed animals and a decent amount of clothes that would come in handy. More than enough items to split between both Ani and Maggie considering they were both having boys. Everyone had also come together to get a few gifts for Aaron, too, considering he had adopted Gracie, though he wasn't getting nearly as much. Unlike the boys, Gracie had already had an entire room and wardrobe ready for her at the outpost she had been born at. They had mostly grabbed some toys for her so that Aaron didn't feel left out of the celebrations as he had become a new father himself. He didn't know they had planned that surprise any more than the women knew they were throwing a baby shower for them.

"That was too close," Carl said as the girls did burst into giggles once the adults had left.

"We should try to come up with an excuse just in case we're caught down there again," Beth suggested.

"How about we just turn around and pretend we're gettin' a snack?" Sophia suggested. "I mean, it's simple and easy and we can just say we were tryin' to decide what we wanted. I mean, the fruit excuse has been workin' so far."

"That's true. Maggie still thinks Sasha and I are talkin' 'bout apples when she comes into the room. I can't believe she really believes it."

"Yeah, I got the easiest job. I mean, all I gotta do is not mention anything to Aaron."

Sophia groaned and told them, "I can't wait for tomorrow to get here. Ani is gettin' suspicious. I've been able to get Daryl to distract her a lot, though I don't want to know how," she said with a shudder. "Ani gets so touchy with him sometimes, like, super touchy. It's weird. And then she drags him off to their room and it's so gross. I mean, it's like she not even tryin' to hide what they're goin' ta do."

"At least they don't sit there and embarrass you just by bein' in the same room with 'em," Beth complained. "I swear, if I have to listen to Abe flirting with Sasha anymore, I'm gonna move to a different colony. It's ridiculous."

"Yeah, I guess I don't have it that bad. It's not like Ani and Daryl make out or anythin' in front of us. A little kiss here or there, but that's it. Ain't anythin' like Abraham walkin' up to Sasha and squeezin' her ass out of no where."

They all shared another round of laughter before Carl grabbed Sophia's hand, "Come on. We should get something to eat before Abraham eats it all."

~x~

"Hell's goin' on?" Daryl asked as he ran through the halls, getting closer and closer to his own room as the screams got louder.

"I don't know!" Laura shouted. "I just got up here and heard it myself."

"Ania!" he yelled as he got to his door only to find it barricaded. "Come on, baby girl, open the door!"

"Daryl! Please!" her terrified voice came through the door. "Please! Kill it! Kill it!"

"You gotta get off the door! I can't get in!"

Another terrified scream echoed through the hall as the weight against the door was finally removed and he flung it open to see his wife fleeing for the bed. He wasn't sure what had her so worked up until he looked around and a bit of movement caught his attention on the floor. He had to stop himself from laughing while trying to train his face into a look of concern rather than amusement. In the wild, she freaked out minorly and would just shake for a while and walk it off but, indoors, spiders became a different kind of evil to her. It wasn't even a big one, just a common house spider, but from the way she was acting and pleading for him to kill it combined with her asking him to get it off, he knew exactly what happened. She'd woken up to a spider on her and had immediately freaked out, resulting in the first scream that had had him and a couple others running down the halls. She probably wasn't sure where it was when she was begging him to kill it and then saw it again, after which she screamed again. It was just on the floor and it took him all of two seconds to stomp on it and kill the damn thing, but Ani was absolutely terrified of the things inside the house. She claimed it was because they would hide when they were outside, but they always seemed to just flock to her when inside. He saw another one crawling on the wall by her head and quickly walked over and killed that one, too, making her freak out even more. Laura and the others had the decency to leave as soon as she started snickering and was given a look from Daryl; he might not understand the fear himself, but he wasn't going to let Ani be laughed at for it. The woman headed off anyone else coming to see what the screaming was about, though many, like her, laughed at the situation. Ani, on the other hand, was a different kind of sobbing mess than she had been a couple hours ago, leaving him to go wash his hands before sitting next to her and holding her. She wouldn't let him get close to her if he didn't 'wash the demon off' and made sure she wouldn't be touching any spider remnants.

"It...It was jus' on my face when I woke up," she sobbed as she clung to him when he sat down. "I...It was jus' crawlin'. I thought it was a hair and I went ta brush it back and then...then..."

"It's alright, baby girl. I got you," he told her gently. "Damn things are dead."

"Why can' they jus' stay outside? Or hidden?! Why they always got ta come crawlin' on me?!"

"I know, Ania. I know. Shoulda gotten some more of that peppermint from the Hilltop. Maybe we should make a trip tomorrow. Could make a spray," he suggested, the situation with the spiders giving him the excuse he'd been needing to get her to the settlement.

"Jus' keep 'em out a our room!"

"You know I can't do that," Daryl chuckled.

Ani looked at him with a pout on her face and tried to pull away with a, "Ya a mean fuckin' asshole!"

He couldn't help his full on laugh as he pulled her back into him and pulled her into his lap with a kiss to her temple, "And sometimes you can be fuckin' cute."

"Fuck ya, D," she cried, though she did laugh as she wrapped her arms around him. "I hate spidas. I hate 'em so fuckin' much. Out there, in the woods, they hide. They hide and don' come out hardly eva 'less ya run inta their webs."

"That's 'cause it's warmer in here than it is out there. Feel safer to move around in here."

"Then they can all go ta Merle's room and hang out in there! They can leave me the fuck alone!"

Daryl had nothing to say to that and simply held onto her for a few moments before telling her he'd start making her some of the soft boiled eggs she wanted. She told him to make sure the water was boiling first, and then cook it for about six minutes before taking it out of the water immediately. He got to work doing that and looked over at her getting off the bed and starting to make it and tidy up the already way-too-clean room. Ani flitted around moving a few things to different corners of the room and rearranging items she had already put where she had wanted them the day before. When he took the eggs out of the water, he walked over to her and pulled her back into his chest and told her there was nothing she could clean that she hadn't already. Ani couldn't argue with Daryl when he kissed her shoulder and put his hands on her belly and leaned her head back on his shoulder with a sigh. She loved the fact that they had finally managed to get back to how things had been in Alexandria before the war and everything that happened during it. It might suck living at the Sanctuary, but at least they had their relationship back and were actually enjoying the last few months of her pregnancy. She loved how it felt like things were finally coming together and that they were inching closer and closer to honestly being ready for parenthood. Daryl himself had brought in a couple of items for the baby and would just hand them off to her nonchalantly in front of the others. When they were in their room, however, he'd talk about how he'd found it and thought she'd like it for Lou and why. Ani would always smile listening to him because she could tell that the stuffed rabbit he found he'd gotten because he thought it was cute, even if he would never admit it and she would never say it. There were just certain things that were understood between them but best left unsaid.

"Ya said we had ta go ta the Hilltop tamorrow?" she asked, double checking the plans for the next day. "Somethin' wrong with Carson?"

"Naw, he's fine. Just need to get out of this place for a day or two. Know you wouldn't mind, neither," Daryl responded while hoping she'd believe him.

Ani looked up at him with a raised eyebrow before humming, "Ya know ya don' school ya face too well, right? I know ya were laughin' 'bout the spidas."

"Yeah, well, we're goin' to the Hilltop tomorrow," he responded firmly. "Whether or not I have to drag your ass to the car."