A/N Thanks so much! I'm a little early this week because we'll be on the road and out of service tomorrow. In this chapter we take a couple of small time leaps as life on the mountain moves forward. Enjoy!

The Baby's Coming

Six Weeks Later

Just like every day on the mountain, everyone's busy, even Jamie. Beth has the little guy believing his help Is vital as the two of them tend the greenhouse garden. The way she encourages the child's efforts, pretty soon she'll have him convinced she couldn't do it without him. The reality of the current situation is Daryl's trying to get some work done on their room addition and he'll be up and down the ladder all day today. It doesn't seem like a good idea to have Jamie around, so the little guy is her helper today. She doesn't mind a bit, they're having a good time at work.

Beth grew up on a farm, she's known farmers and farm work her whole life, and she's sure there's never been a group of farmers who nurtured their crops as diligently as they do. They have to. They're trying to grow crops in an area that is decidedly not farm country. This is high altitude, rocky soil and the nights get cold even at the height of summer. They have to try though, they won't know for sure if they don't, and they need the food. So, while she's working in the greenhouse and Daryl's building, Merle's working in the rows.

Root vegetables seem the most likely to do well so they've planted potatoes, beets, celery, onions, yams, radishes, and turnips. Beth planted a small patch with squashes, including pumps, in hopes they'll get some variety, but potatoes are their biggest focus. If they can harvest a couple of hundred pounds of potatoes, and as long Daryl does well hunting, it's a guarantee they won't starve. Everything else will be a sweet bonus. They do hope for bonuses.

What they didn't plant this year is wheat. They want flour and all the things a person can create with flour, but this is their first year of trying to grow anything on the mountain, so they're sticking with what they feel pretty sure they'll have at least a little success with.

The greenhouse is going very well, barring any trouble Beth is hoping for a bountiful harvest of tomatoes. Tomatoes, green beans and pickling cucumbers are the main crops. Those are the ones they'll get the most use and enjoyment from. But that's not all she's planted. There are also English peas and a few lettuces, enough to give them a week of salads. Having a salad would be such a rare treat.

There are strawberries too, and Beth had an idea about those. Not only does she have some of the berries planted in the greenhouse, she also planted some in flats and pots that she leaves outside during the day, and Daryl carries them into the house at night, stacking them on the table, the counter, wherever there's room. They don't mind the little bit of extra work because it will be wonderful if they can manage to grow enough to make a pie and some jam.

In the far corner of the greenhouse, she planted a little corn. Not much, she's not sure it will grow and it takes up a lot of room, but they're all hoping that little bit of corn comes in. They'd sure like to have an ear or two.

Above all, they're hopeful that when the time comes Daryl will be successful in finding a farm, maybe more than one, that has crops growing unattended. After all, why wouldn't the crops continue to reseed and grow? If only he can fill up the truck with fruits and vegetables at harvest time. Enough to get them through until next spring, their winter will be so much more pleasant.

This is how they'll survive. What they can grow, what they can scavenge, and what Daryl can hunt and fish for.

Beth is doing her best to explain to Jamie about cucumbers and pickles when she hears Frankie call out. Beth looks up and sees the woman is standing nearly doubled over with one hand on her belly and the other on a fence post for support. She cries out again, "Beth, Beth, it's time."

"Beth answers back, I'm coming, wait right there," then she places her hands on Jamie's little shoulders, looks him in the eye and instructs, "Run over to Uncle Merle, see him out there in the field? Tell him it's time. Can you do that?"

"Yes Mama."

"What are you going to say to Uncle Merle?"

"Is tine."

"Okay, good boy. After you tell Uncle Merle, can you tell Daddy too?"

"Otay Mama."

"Thank you, Jamie. You're such a good boy. I'll be at Uncle Merle's helping Aunt Frankie. Okay? Hurry now."

The little boy runs off to the field and Beth rushes over to Frankie. She wraps an arm around the other woman's waist and says, "Put your arm across my shoulder, that's it, good, hang onto me and let me get you inside," the woman seems ready to give birth soon and Beth has a lot of questions, "Have you been having contractions for long? How close are they? Did you wait to come get me Frankie?"

Frankie's just trying to get through the pain, "I don't know. I thought I should wait and not bother anyone, everyone's so busy. I think the pains are about two, or I don't know, maybe they're five minutes apart."

That's a big difference with labor but Beth doesn't bother to point that out. What good would it do? Besides, Frankie's in enough distress. As long as they get to Frankie and Merle's place before the birth everything should be just fine. They're getting close when Merle comes running up to them, "Here Beth, lemme take her," and Beth watches in amazement as Merle picks Frankie up and into in his arms as though she were made of feathers. Adrenaline has taken over the moment.

They've prepared for this. They knew it was coming soon, but they had no date in mind. Neither Frankie nor Merle had a solid guess as to when Frankie got pregnant so it was impossible to calculate when the baby would most likely come, but all of them have known for a week or two, it would happen soon. Beth is just relieved the pregnancy seems to have gone to term, or at least darn close. They won't have any complications from an early birth. Thank you, Dear God.

"Just lay her on the bed please Merle. I need to get her out of these clothes."

Merle picks that moment to be completely himself, "I could do that. I'm an expert at gettin' her outta her clothes, ain't I Frankie?"

Beth can't help laughing, even Frankie's laughing when she scolds him, "Stop it Merle, this is no time for your jokes."

"Yes Ma'am. Sorry. How ya doin' Sweetheart? Ya hurtin'?"

A new pain is just starting and Frankie snaps back, "Heck yes I'm hurting Merle Dixon! I'm about to give birth!"

Beth steps in, "Merle, can you go in the other room for just a few minutes while I get Frankie changed and cleaned up, please? In fact, maybe you should go check on Jamie and Daryl."

"Geez ya women get all sensitive and bossy when a baby's comin'. A'ight, I'm goin', but I'll be right back." He quickly leans in, kisses Frankie's head, and he's no longer joking when he says, "I love ya woman. Ya know I'd do this for ya if I could, right?"

The pain has eased and she whispers back, "Yes Merle, I love you too."

Beth helps get Frankie out of her clothes and into the gown she made for her, it's just for this occasion and much cuter than a hospital gown. Beth washes her own hands and uses some of the antibacterial hand sanitizer they got at the vets office. Then she gets a big bowl of warm water, a washcloth and soap, and cleans Frankie ahead of the delivery.

By then Merle's back, "Daryl said he can't wait ta meet the baby, but he's pretty damn sure no one needs him or Jamie ta help. He's gonna keep workin' and wait for news. He said he'd get some food ready for all of us too."

Beth smiles at that, her husband is such a good provider in so many ways. Daryl shot five big geese yesterday, and this morning he put two of them in Dutch ovens and they're slow cooking at the outside fire. He'd have cooked them all, but they only have two Dutch ovens. He's added getting a couple more to his mental shopping list. For now the plan is he'll cook the other three tomorrow, two of them in the Dutch ovens and they'll stew the other. They'll have a little canning to do and that's good. It's only late spring but they're all aware, winter's coming and they have to be prepared.

Jamie has questions about what's going on and Daryl starts with first things first, "Remember Mama told ya Aunt Frankie is havin' a baby?"

"Yep."

"Well that little baby's comin' today. It's on it's way right now, so we might get ta meet it real soon."

Jamie claps his hands together, then quickly moves on to the next question, "Can I hep hammer Daddy?"

"Yeah, ya sure can. I could use the help." Daryl never knew it could be so much work to have a helper, but Jamie showed him the light. Oddly, he finds that most of the time he doesn't mind at all. He kind of digs havin' a little shadow who thinks his Daddy knows everything. The boy will figure out the truth soon enough, for now, Daryl's simply going to enjoy it.

Daryl's got a board and several small blocks of wood. There's an old tuna can with finishing nails in it, and Jamie's got the smallest hammer Daryl's ever seen. It came in a set they took from the construction yard. "A'ight son, ya get ta hammerin' them blocks onto that piece a wood there. Do a nice job, okay? Mama likes things ta look nice."

"I'na do it good."

"I know ya will son. Remember though, construction is dangerous work. Guys get hurt all the time so ya gotta be real careful, K? I'ma be right here, just up on this ladder if ya need me."

"Otay Daddy, I'n careful."

"Atta boy."

Daryl manages to get a little more work done on the addition before Jamie gets tired of his job and they have to start on something else, "C'mon then, if ya ain't gonna work on the house then we're gonna have ta get them ducks and turkeys fed n watered, then we gotta chop wood. Remember son, we can never chop too much wood."

"I wanna pay wit dem ducks."

Daryl smiles, "Yeah, you're your Mama's boy all right, the two of ya love them ducks."

He leaves Jamie playing in the pen with the ducks, and securely locked away from the turkeys. He instructs Jack, "Ya keep an eye on Jamie. Don't leave him now." Jack seems to understand, and Daryl hurries over to Merle's to see if there's any news.

As he walks through the big inside kitchen and up to their door, he hears Frankie let out a scream and Merle and Beth both saying, "it's okay it's okay," and then Beth says, "you're crowning, just one more big push Frankie, 1.2. 3, go!"

Daryl's not sure he's ready to actually see what's going on, and Frankie probably doesn't want him in there seeing all of her anyway, so he stays standing on the other side of the door, listening. He hears Frankie's squeal and Beth saying, "It's a boy, you have a beautiful baby boy." Daryl's smiling now and it's mostly quiet for a minute, until he hears the baby start to cry. No sooner does that happen than Beth says, "Oh my gosh, we're not done here. There's another baby."

Merle barks, "Holy fuck, ya kiddin' me?"

Holy fuck is right, no one thought about this. Daryl slides down the wall, his back leaning against it and his ears perked, and he hears his wife say, "C'mon Frankie, I know you're exhausted, we just need two more good pushes."

It's only a minute or so later when he hears Beth say, "It's a boy! Another handsome boy!"

There's a lot of crying going on in the other room so everything must be fine. Daryl gets to his feet, he can't hang around any longer. He's left Jamie for too long with just Jack and the ducks watching him. With a big smile on his face he hurries out to the pen with several things on his mind, having two more boys around is going to be good, he hopes the little fellas are strong and healthy, and the next thought has him laughing out loud, that fuckin' Merle is going to have his hands full every minute of every day for the rest of his life.

Jack is patrolling back and forth in front of the pen, he knows he's on duty. Daryl roughs his neck and tells him, "You're a good man Jack, I couldn't do it without ya."

The ducks and the turkeys are fed and watered, and the ducks at least have had plenty of playtime with Jamie, now his Daddy tells him, "We gotta chop wood Jamie. Like I told ya, we're always choppin' wood."

They stay at this task a while longer than their construction job because Jamie has plenty of entertainment. There are the birds, the bugs and throwing the ball for Jack, and he's got a real job too. He's in charge of picking up the small pieces of wood and putting them in a big bucket.

It's a couple of hours later, just as Daryl is setting down the axe and telling Jamie, "Ya done a real good job a pickin' up all that kindlin'. I appreciate good help, but now we gotta go in and make dinner. Everyone's hungry, includin' me."

As they're putting their tools away Beth shows up in the tool shed, and she's all smiles, "Oh Daryl, it's two baby boys. Two boys. Can you imagine?"

He smiles and admits, "I heard, I's listenin' at the door. I'm sure Frankie's doin' just fine, but how's Merle?"

Beth smiles at his question, "Frankie's exhausted. Merle looks a little panicked, but he's also very proud and happy. As soon as we have dinner ready, we'll take it over and you and Jamie can see everyone."

He gets a stern tone, "You ain't gettin' nuthin' ready lady, you're layin' down a while. Ya got another baby ta think about there and ya been workin' all day. Me n Jamie got dinner covered, don't we Jamie?"

The little boy just shrugs, a shrug a lot like his Daddy's, and says, "Otay."

Daryl carries in a big wooden box filled with dinner for the family, setting it down on the small kitchen counter at Merle's house. The babies are laying in their mother's arms tucked away in bed, and Merle's chair is pulled right up next to them, "Lookie here Jamie, lookie here Daryl, two more men in the family."

"Dem are no men, der too yittle."

Beth runs a hand over his hair, "They won't stay little for long Jamie. Before you know it they'll be almost as big as you, playing ball and they'll be helping with the chores just like you do."

Jamie looks at her like he's worried, "I'n Daddy's helper."

She gets it, "Oh I know you are, you're Daddy's helper and these little guys are going to be Uncle Merle's helpers. Uncle Merle is their Daddy."

Daryl's smiling as he roughs Jamie's hair and leans in to have a good look at the babies, "Just look at them blonde fuzzy curls, they look just like that baby picture Mama had a you Merle. They're Merle Juniors is what they are. What're their names, Merle 2 and Merle 3?"

"Very funny little brother, but you're right, they're handsome like they're Daddy. Merle points at one, "This here is Roy," and at the other, "and this here is Mick."

"Nice, how you feelin' Frankie?"

"I've never been more tired but I've never been so happy either. I'm also about as hungry as I've ever been."

"Good, cuz we brought a lotta food." Then he smiles at the babies again and says, "Maybe when one of em wakes up you'll lemme hold him. I gotta get in practice for when ours comes along."

One Month Later

Him and Beth talked it over a lot and decided that the room addition would be more than just a bedroom. The room itself is 12 x12, good sized. But along one side Daryl built a four foot deep closet. That's a lot of storage and it will give them plenty of room to stock canned food and extra supplies for winter months, plus everyone's clothes, the blankets, all of it. There's also that one thing they know they're going to need, and that Daryl is going to begin scavenging for when he goes down the mountain, kids' shoes.

He did suggest one possibility, "We can start tannin' the deer skin and makin' moccasins for all the kids, the grownups too. They won't be good for outside, not around here for us tenderfoots, but they'll be just fine in the house for keepin' them little feet warm."

"Oh that's a great idea Daryl. I love it. I could use a pair, my poor slippers have had it."

He always gets embarrassed when she does that shit, you know, acting like he's smart and has great ideas. His neck is a little red when he says, "Yeah, I read about how the Indians used ta do it in that book I got."

Aside from the closet, the room will be Daryl and Beth's bedroom, except, of course, when the baby she's expecting, and any more babies who might come along later, are newborn. Newborns stay in the room with Mama and Daddy.

What really had Daryl's brain working overtime was how they'd heat the room. They've got all four woodstoves in use, so Daryl has known from the start he'll have to go down the mountain for something. Oh sure, he's got a fireplace built in there, but shit, everyone knows when you light a fire in a fireplace the heat just goes right up the chimney and out. So, what he's looking for is a wood burning fireplace insert. Then he'll have a fireplace that works like a woodstove.

The other benefit of the insert is, with the help of a dolly and some straps, he'll be able to move it himself, and he'll have to. There's no way Merle can come on this trip with him There are three little children here to watch out for, and two of them are still brand new. Besides, with luck, Daryl doesn't expect to be gone more than one night, tops.

There's a house he worked on just out of town and those folks had an insert put in their living room fireplace. He could go there and pull it, but shit what a mess. It'd be a lot easier if he could get a new one. Yeah, that other one is a last resort. Shit, if push comes to shove and all he can find that will work is a woodstove, then he'll be okay with settling on that.

None of them knows of a fireplace store in Rosewood but they agree, there's probably one in Smithton. It's a much bigger town. Once he gets there, if he doesn't see a place right away he can bust into a house or a business and find a phone book, he'll see one listed in the yellow pages for sure.

That's all he's looking for this trip. That's it. The insert for his fireplace, and either an insert or a woodstove for Merle's place, whatever he can find. Then he's coming home. Whatever else they might need, he'll find it on another trip.

He'll be taking Merle's dually. It's got the open bed, it can handle the weight, there's plenty of power and stability. He's got it gassed up, the tires checked and everything is a go.

It's just that, well shit, every time Daryl has to leave it's like a dark cloud moves into the house and hangs right over them. Sure, Beth is being her sweet self, she doesn't complain about him leaving. She doesn't like it, but she knows he has to go. It just makes her so darn sad. Daryl feels it from her, and fuck it, he's sad too. Little Jamie doesn't even know his Daddy's going, but he's caught onto the mood in the room and damn if he doesn't look sad too.

Great.

They go through the motions of their nightly routine. Time to wash up, brush teeth and get ready for bed, take Jack out to do his thing, and then the cuddling in Jamie's bed for story time. That's the one time they're all smiling, when they're holding each other and Beth's telling a story.

It never takes long for Jamie to fall into a deep sleep. Their days are long and filled with work, and when the sun goes down the little guy is always ready for sleep.

As soon as they're sure he's out, Daryl and Beth slip out of his bed and under the covers of their own. They hold each other close and Daryl's hand slides up and inside her worn-soft sweatshirt. He's kissing her deeply as his hand glides along her warm skin. He's in search of her breast and when he finds it, he knows just what to do. He knows how to touch and play so that she's instantly turned on and tugging his sweats down.

They don't take time to tease, they're both too needy and full of emotion to do anything other than give into their desire, satisfying themselves and each other. They stay entangled in one another's arms as they try to catch their breath, and as he strokes her hair he promises, "It's gonna be okay lady. I'll probably get home tomorrow night, ya know I can't stand ta be away from ya."

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A/N I hate it when he has to go. Please leave a comment. The chapter photo is on my tumblr blogs gneebee and bethylmethbrick, please have a look. I'll be back next week with more of The Man on The Mountain and I hope you'll be here too. Until then remember, I love ya large xo gneebee