Saturday Night

"You decked her?" Becca laughed loudly, sitting outside on her patio, each of them sitting on a large deck chair with a blanket over them, circled around the log fire in the middle with the perfect view of the farmland in front of them.

"Yeah." Shiv said, "I'm starting to feel a little bit bad now but… it felt so good at the time." She said.

"She deserved it." Lyla nodded, "She knew exactly what she was doing."

"So you and Daryl really butted his heads?" AJ asked.

"Yeah, it was bad." Shiv nodded.

It was finally their Saturday night sleepover, and she was taking the time to explain to the girls in detail what happened with her and Daryl through the week when she punched Christina.

"Maybe you needed to get it all out. Both of you. Get it out of your system so you can move forward." Lyla said.

"I got more in my system, though." Shiv rolled her eyes, "He just thinks he's so hard done by because he went to prison. Which, I know is a terrible thing and he probably had a really tough time. But I wasn't having the time of my life on the outside."

"He can't see past his own struggles. He's clearly going through it." AJ nodded, "Doesn't mean he can disrespect you, though. You're literally raising his kid."

"I know." Shiv shook her head, "And I feel like he wanted me to see him with Christina. It's like he wanted me to be jealous and hurt. He looked so smug when I tried to slap him."

"Oh, you left that part out." Becca sat up a little, "You slapped him?"

"Tried to." Shiv rolled her eyes, "He caught my hand. Very embarrassing." She shook her head as they chuckled.

"What did he say to you to make you slap him?" Lyla asked curiously.

"Basically, that I need to loosen up and get laid." Shiv said as AJ scoffed.

"Don't get mad at me." Becca said, "But… maybe he's got a point. You should make him eat his own words. Go find yourself a guy. Get real messy and show it off, right in his face." Becca nodded as they all looked at her with concern, "What?"

"That sounds like an awful idea." AJ said.

"I don't know." Lyla thought about it, "Might be worth the watch."

"I'm not going to stoop to his level and date someone just to make him mad. He probably wouldn't even care." Shiv shook her head, "And I don't have time to date anyone."

"Who said anything about dating?" Becca wiggled her eyebrows, "You know whose single and available?"

"Who?" Shiv looked at her unhappily.

"Finn." Becca nodded.

"Oh, enough!" AJ shouted at Becca, throwing a pillow over at her.

"Watch the fire." Becca chuckled, catching the pillow, "Just imagine it, though. Daryl seeing you coming out of Finn's bedroom one morning. Cause they live together now." She nodded.

"You are truly evil." Shiv nodded, "And Finn is my friend. A good friend." She shook her head.

"A fuck friend?" Becca suggested.

"Stop." Shiv nodded.

"I think the best thing you can do is ignore Daryl. He's messed up. This thing with Christina will fizzle out in no time." AJ shook her head, "He reeks of smoke all the time."

"I thought I could smell smoke off him." Shiv nodded to her, "He smokes? Damn, he was this health nut in high school."

"He said he picked it up in prison. He smoked and done sit ups." AJ shrugged.

"Such a dude." Lyla rolled her eyes, "When is he seeing Brianna?" She asked, taking a sip of her hot cider which they'd made together earlier on in the night.

"Tomorrow. He's going to Carol's to see her." Shiv said, "That's what bugs me the most. Christina wasn't just insulting me, she was insulting me as a mom. And Daryl was more interested in checking on her nose." She shook her head.

"She's a fool. Everyone knows you're an amazing mom." Lyla said, "Like… really amazing."

"You guys have to say that." Shiv said.

"And we mean it." AJ added, "You're an amazing mom. We only wish we could have been there for you at the beginning. I mean… what was Brianna like as a baby?" She asked with a smile.

In a way, they were getting to catch up with Shiv on the past four years. They'd been so distant. Always friends, but from a distance. Now things felt like the way they used to be. The closeness, the oversharing, the bond… it was there again.

"She was beautiful." Shiv smiled, "Lots of hair. Six pounds and eight ounces. Born at 6.32am on September 4th." She remembered.

"And you were healthy after?" AJ asked.

"Yeah, I was fine. Kinda mad how your body just bounces back. I had a good pregnancy. Despite the whole… getting disowned by my parents part." She said.

"Yeah, that sucks. But I think you're better off without them." Becca said, "It's their loss."

"I try my hard to think like that but… they're still my parents." Shiv said.

"How did the conversation go?" Lyla asked, "Did they throw you out because you were pregnant? Or because Daryl was dad?"

"Both." Shiv said, "They were already going nuts with the whole… Craig situation. And they already hated that I was dating Daryl. Then I dropped the pregnant bomb on them. Just tipped them over the edge." Shiv said, "Now when I see them on the streets, even when I'm with Brianna, they just completely ignore me." She shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Shiv." AJ sighed. She didn't know the extent of the treatment she'd received from her parents. She was only starting to open up a little to them, and her heart hurt for her best friend.

"It is what it is." Shiv said.

"Fuck them." Becca nodded, "They're gonna be old, lonely, and bitter one day. Wishing they got to know their granddaughter. And they'll suffer."

"Hope so." Shiv nodded, "Anyway, I found out from my fight with Daryl that he was writing letters to me the whole time and sending them to my parents house, thinking I was there." She said.

"Oh." Lyla frowned, "That's kinda sad."

"And he wanted me to visit him. But I didn't think he would. That's why I stayed away. And I was pregnant. I didn't know what that news would do to him. Sometimes I think I could have handled it all differently, but I know at that time, in the moment, I did what I thought was best." Shiv nodded.

"There's no point in saying what if." AJ said, "Like you said, you did what you thought was best. Daryl needs to come to terms with that."

"I don't think he's coming to terms with anything." Shiv shook her head.

"I mean… he shot Craig." Lyla said, "Where does he get off getting so mad at you for something he did. I know it was out of his control and Craig definitely deserved it but… it was his choice to pull the trigger." She said.

"He didn't really have a choice." Shiv said, gulping nervously and looking down, playing with the label on her blanket, "I want him to be a dad to Brianna. Despite everything, I know he'll be a good one. But I won't have her growing up with me and him yelling at each other all the time."

"He needs to sort his shit out." Becca nodded, "He spilled three coffees today. Looked like he'd barely slept."

"Well he's busy with Christina." Lyla rolled her eyes. They all loved Daryl, but their first love was Shiv, and they were fiercely protective of her, even when they had grown distant. No one crossed their baby.

"Nah, he looked exhausted and… depressed?" Becca wondered, "I mean… we should keep an eye on him. Prison could have really fucked him up."

"Yeah, I've told Phil to keep an eye on him." AJ nodded, "He's watching him like a Hawke."

"She decked her?" Cole chuckled, sitting in Punk's living room with the boys whilst a hockey match played on the TV and some pizza boxes lay on the coffee table.

"Yeah. Good punch, too." Daryl nodded, impressed as he thought back to Shiv's right hook.

"Is Christina ok? She's not gonna press charges or anything is she?" Finn asked, sitting over on the chair with a bottle of beer in his hand.

"No, I talked her down. I can't get involved in police shit. It'll fuck with my parole." Daryl shook his head.

"Why are you with her anyway?" Punk asked bluntly, sitting on the sofa beside Daryl.

"I'm not with her." Daryl shrugged, "We're just… hanging out."

"Does that mean you're screwing?" Cole asked, "Sorry, you're gonna need to catch me up. I'm not from here."

"Yeah. It does." Punk nodded to his friend.

"It's not anyone's business. I don't know why Shiv got so mad about it." Daryl shook his head.

"Really? You don't know why?" Finn asked.

"No. I don't. I've been gone for four years. I'm sure she's went on dates and saw other people." Daryl shook his head.

"That was probably hard for her to do when she was raising a kid all by herself and working every hour under the sun." Punk said as Daryl just reached for his beer and took a swig.

"A kid she never told me about." Daryl added as Punk rolled his eyes, "A kid none of you told me about." He corrected, turning to Punk specifically.

"Don't look at me like that." Punk warned him with a fatherly tone, "Shiv had disappeared for two years, and when she came back… she was distant. It wasn't my place to tell you something like that. It wasn't my business." He made clear.

"And it's not your business who I screw in my personal time." Daryl patted his arm as Punk shook his head.

"You're being childish." Punk nodded.

"Ok, ladies." Cole interrupted them, "Settle down."

"I wrote to her, you know." Daryl said, "I must have written over a hundred letters. I wanted her to visit me. She's the one who bailed, and yet I'm the one getting hounded."

"No one is hounding you." Finn said, "We just hate to see you guys at each other's throats. I mean… it's you and Shiv. You guys have been best friends since like… pre-k."

"Oh, that's sweet." Cole added as Daryl rolled his eyes.

"Well we're not in pre-k any more, Finn. Too much has happened. She's different. She's angry and she's violent. Honestly, I'm kinda scared of her. She tried to hit me." Daryl said.

"Why?" Punk asked.

"I might have… told her she needed to get laid." Daryl mumbled.

"What? Speak up." Punk said.

"I told her she looked like she needed to get laid." Daryl said louder as Finn cringed.

"Charming." Punk nodded, "She's angry because she's a single mom who works her ass off day and night. I mean… this is the first night she's spent with her friends, chilling out, probably since before you went to prison."

"They're not chilling out." Daryl scoffed, "They're bitching about me."

"To be fair, we're bitching about her." Cole added.

"I'm just saying, she's not the same Shiv I remember." Daryl said.

"Maybe you're not the same Daryl she remembers." Punk said, "But you guys gotta figure it out. For Brianna. You gotta let go of all this… resentment and hostility. Make it work for that little girl. You want her growing up thinking her parents hate one another?"

"Of course I don't." Daryl shook his head, "I got a lot on my mind right now, ok? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact I even have a daughter. I'm terrified to see her again tomorrow. Even though it went pretty well last week. I just feel so in the dark with it."

"It'll take a bit of time. But you'll get there." Punk assured him, "But you gotta squash all this tension with Shiv. The blame game isn't going to work."

"She started it last night." Daryl said childishly.

"Daddy! Do you like this outfit?" Rudy asked, coming down the stairs in a princess dress-up dress and twirling around.

"I love it." Punk nodded. He'd lost count on what outfit number they were on. Rudy had been up and downstairs all night, loving the attention from their guests.

"Can I paint someone's nails?" Rudy asked, looking at all four of them as they all looked down, avoiding eye contact.

"You can paint mine." Punk nodded.

"Ok." Rudy grinned, running away upstairs.

"Does she ever just chill out?" Cole chuckled.

"No. Me and April say she has no off button." Punk said.

"She's funny." Daryl smiled, "At least you got one of each. A crazy one and a calm one."

"Where is the little man?" Cole asked.

"Hiding from Rudy, probably." Punk nodded, "Tommy!" Punk called, waiting a few seconds as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"What?" Thomas asked, coming into the living room, wearing his Spider-man pyjamas and holding his switch which he had been playing upstairs.

"You wanna watch some hockey with us whilst your dad gets his nails painted?" Daryl asked him.

"Yeah." Thomas grinned, hopping onto the couch between Punk and Daryl.

"Cool pj's." Cole smiled. He was well and truly won over by the twins. Any time he'd come to visit AJ and Punk, he left beaming. They were so energetic and fun.

"They're Spider-Man." Thomas told him.

"He your favourite?" Cole asked as Thomas nodded.

"He's on my lunchbox." Thomas told him.

"Oh, cool. I wish I had Spider-Man on my lunchbox." Cole nodded as Punk just chuckled.

"Which colour?" Rudy came back into the living room with a box of nail polish.

"These are mommy's. You have your own." Punk noticed.

"Mommy's is better. I want to use mommy's." Rudy nodded.

"Ok. Black." Punk said.

"Boring." Rudy rolled her eyes, "I'll do red." She told him, snuggling up beside him on the sofa and taking his hand to start messily painting his nails.

"You got this to look forward to." Punk nodded to Daryl who smiled, watching Rudy concentrating on the task at hand.

A/N: Thank you as always for the kind reviews! Love to read them all. I'm going on vacation tomorrow for a week so updates will slow down for a little bit. I'm taking my laptop with me (I plan to do university work when I get there unfortunately), so perhaps I'll manage an update or two, but I just want to let you guys know incase you don't hear from me for a week. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can with another chapter! Lots of love.