Taking this one out for a spin, let me know what you think.

He couldn't remember a time when Juliet wasn't a part of his life. Of course it existed, they didn't know each other since birth, in fact they met when they were eight, he knew. He remembered the very day, clearly and always with a smile.

But it seemed like she had always been there and he was glad of it.

He took some heat sometimes, from the guys because his best friend was a girl, but he didn't care and neither did she. He and Juliet were tight and they had seen each other through all manner of life up until this point. This night was no different, he was driving now, in the middle of the night to take her to the hospital. She was having a baby and the father had blown out of town on her three months ago.

Daryl offered to hunt the motherfucker down and kick his ass, but she wouldn't allow it, Merle and Daryl had been all set to do it. Juliet didn't want to set eyes on him ever again and Daryl kept his yap shut, because he never liked Gareth anyway. He tolerated him for her sake and now he had snuck away like a dog and left her alone, pregnant in the Georgia heat.

Gareth would be wise not ever come back, because Daryl was going to kill him. He was a smarmy stuck up bastard and he still couldn't understand what she had ever seen in him.

But she had seen something obviously.

Daryl looked over at Juliet on the bench seat next to him and told her to breathe. Juliet threw her head back and took a deep breath.

"Easy for you to say, you aren't about to pass a watermelon, through your cooch." She panted through the contraction like they taught her and Daryl in Lamaze. He took over as her coach when Gareth lit out on her, and he was fully prepared to help her in any way he could. It was what they did.

Daryl cringed and looked back at the road ahead of them, they would be at the hospital in ten minutes. "Thank god for that."

He remembered when they were seventeen and he made a drive like this when Juliet was in a car accident out by the Greene farm. He drove like a bat out of hell that night too, so afraid he would lose her. She was his constant and he was hers, they were each-others person.

He hadn't lost her on that night and he wasn't ever going to lose her if he had anything to say about it.

They had seen each other through the death of both of his parents, Merle eloping to Vegas with Andrea Harrison and Juliet's parents retiring to Florida and leaving her the house to take care of along with her younger sister. Daryl took care of the house now for the last three months, but in reality they had been taking care of each other for the last fifteen years.

"Oh dammmitttt, Daryl step on it, I need some drugs." Juliet screamed through her next contraction. The sweat was pouring down her face and he was a little scared looking at her but he just had to find a way to make her laugh, so he knew she was ok.

"Thought you were going all natural." He teased.

"Fuck you Daryl." She hissed. "Stomp down on the pedal on the right, before I rip your dick off."

"Hey, leave my dick out of this, wasn't my dick that got us into this." He laughed and then she was gripping his arm even harder than she did when they watched horror movies together.

"For the love of God. Drive!" She screamed.

/

They got to the hospital and the nurses took over, getting her into a wheel chair and taking her vital signs. They started to wheel her away and he let go of her hand, one of the nurses came up behind him and ushered him along.

"Come on Daddy, follow me."

"Oh, I'm not…" His voice trailed off as he followed the nurse down the long hallway. They didn't care, in this day and age there were a lot of women that showed up at the hospital to give birth alone, because their man ran out on them or with family. He was her family, and always had been.

He stopped to text Merle and Andrea to let them know it was go time and then he walked down the hall towards the double doors they took her through.