The Walking Deth - Part IV

Here and Home - Chapter XII

Life

The bell was clanging more urgently now, loud enough to be heard by any walkers that may be outside of the fifteen foot high concrete fence. For this reason the bell was only used in absolute emergency, where the threat to lives was greater than the threat of passing walkers.

Beth watched me with wide eyed terror, as I tugged off the used condom and fumbled at my belt buckle. My hands were sweaty and heavy, affected by the overabundance of alcohol I had just drunk. Of all nights for something to go wrong, it had to be the night I was drinking.

I stumbled back against the balustrade and edged my way down the stairs. "Where the fuck did I put my bow?" I called up to Beth who was clamouring to her feet.

"I don't know." She said with shrug.

"Fuck, Dixon!"

I closed my eyes and tried to remember if I had taken it to Rick's house. I had thought ─ stupidly─ I didn't need it. It could only be by the front door where I usually put it when I came home from work.

I strode across the darkened living room, trying to avoid the furniture as the world swayed around me. My Stryker was still there resting up against the door frame, loaded with a bolt. I picked it up and swung it on my shoulder and turned to Beth, who was following behind me, limping and hopping, while she tried to pull her panties back on.

"Stay here." I demanded pointing a finger at her feet.

"But I…"

"Stay here!" I repeated more forcefully. "You'll be no good with your leg like that."

"You can't go Daryl" She insisted. "You've been drinkin', and aren't the people on watch tonight supposed to handle any trouble?"

I shook my head. "Nah, if they're ringin' the bell, it's 'cause they can't handle it. And I ain't that drunk any ─" Shit, I was fucking drunk.

"Slap me." I called, stepping up to Beth.

"I don't think that's gonna help."

"I know it ain't but I deserve it for bein' a dumb fuck and lettin' m'self get carried away with the drink, thinkin' we were all safe. It was dumb. Dumber than openin' that darn door for the walkers back at the funeral home."

Beth pressed her lips together and furrowed her brow. I thought she was about to protest but then she drew back her hand and let it fly forward, slapping me hard across the face. It stung like hell, and it almost felt like she did it for her own personal enjoyment and not just to help me, but it had shaken some of the blurs away, and that was a start.

I turned back to the door and pulled it open letting a cool rush of air enter the home.

Stepping out onto the porch I could catch the sound of distant shouts and cries, mingled in with the toll of the bell.

I looked over to Rick's house to see Jane was standing on the porch holding Judith on her hip and with Austin and Winnie in front of her.

I turned back in the house to Beth. "Go next door with the kids, stay inside and shut all the lights off."

Beth nodded and closed the door behind her, limping down the steps after me, struggling to keep up and then veered off towards Rick's house, just as Austin came running across the lawn to meet me.

"Go back to the house with Winnie and Beth." I said pointing a finger back to the house.

"But I can help" He protested

"No. Y' need to stay with Beth."

"But…I'm a good fighter; I know how to use a gun."

I stopped in my stride and swung on him aggressively, "I ain't losin' you again, kid!"

He pouted and jutted his chin forward definitely, "I did just fine without you."

I sighed and dropped my hands on his shoulders. Broad shoulders. He would be a big boy one day. A bog boy who could handle more than just himself. "I know." I said giving his shoulders a squeeze. "Look, Beth ain't in the condition to be fightin', I need you to take care of her and Jane and the kids a'right? Be the man of the house."

Austin dropped his eyes and mumbled "a'right." Before racing back to meet Beth inside the house.

I picked up the pace jogging down the street towards the town hall, narrowly avoiding a black cat that ran across my path, his eyes glowing bright in the darkness.

The bell and the shrieks and cries were all getting louder, and now mingling in with the familiar growls and snarls of walkers. A huddle of woman were standing by a fence staring down the street towards the shadows of people moving in the darkness around the centre of the town.

"Get inside and shut of your lights!" I commanded. They simply stared at me blankly.

Damn fools new nothing of this world.

One woman was standing out in the middle of the road looking towards the commotion ahead.

"Hey get inside!" I called coming up behind her. She didn't move.

"Hey!" I called grabbing her by the shoulder and swinging her around.

Her dead eyes locked on to me and her rotten jaws gaped open, snarling she lunged her head towards me. I managed to dodge out the way and drop her to the ground.

That was dumb as fuck. If I hadn't have been drinking so much I probably would have noticed the blood stains all over her clothing much earlier.

I loosened my Busse and stabbed her in the back of her head while she was trying to fumble to her feet.

I could spot more of them now, half of what was ahead of me were walkers, the other half untrained citizens trying to fend them off. Some of them beating them over the shoulders with a shovel, others trying to stab them in the heart with kitchen knives.

"Go for the head!" I called as I ran past. "Don't you fools know nothin'?"

My first stop was the town hall, which was already filling with bodies, trying to escape to safety, not realising they were putting on a smorgasbord.

I dodged through the crowd of muttering people towards the back of the room, where Douglas's son, Spencer, was tugging on the rope to ring the bell.

I tore it out of his hand. "Sound attracts them dumbass!" I called throwing the rope back towards him to see if he was dumb enough to ring it again.

Judging by the lack of bell tolls as I ran out the hall and over towards the wall, I guessed he had listened to me.

I made my way through the groups of walkers and citizens, hacking and slashing at those who needed it at the dead, and yelling at the living to either fight properly or go home.

A little girl was running through the bushes of a nearby house with a hungry walker on her tail. I swung my bow off my shoulder and fired a bolt into its head, then ran forward to retrieve it. "Go home to your momma kid!" I called to the stunned looking little girl.

She looked past me and squealed and I turned and forced the bolt in my hand through the eye of a walker as it lunged at me. The bolt snapped under the pressure of the walkers falling skull as it fell to the ground.

Fuck. And I had forgotten to bring my spare quiver. I cursed Rick for trying so hard to get me drunk. And I cursed myself for letting him.

I caught a bulky frame and a flash of red in the moonlight race past me as I was urging the girl on home, and hurried to keep up with him.

"Abe." I called. "What the hell happened?"

He scrutinised me for a moment and then stopped when he realised who I was.

"The wall. Some of the panels, they weren't as strong. We ran out of concrete and had to make 'em from timber frame and sheet metal. A herd came through and started pushin' it down."

He waved a hand through the air. "Come with me, we gotta back some trucks up against the panels to stop em from comin' through."

I followed him to the parking lot by the front gate, where he retrieved a set of keys form the gate house, threw them at me and pointed towards a ford pick-up. I jumped in and started her up, revving her a few times to get the engine firing. From behind the wheel of the car I saw two figures in the darkness jump on to the four-wheeler motorcycles and ride them straight towards the front gate.

"what the fuck are they doin'?" I called out to Abe in the truck beside me.

"Glenn and Heath. They're gonna try to draw the herd away."

I found myself silently praying for Glenn to make it back alive. With a baby on the way, Maggie couldn't afford to lose him now.

I followed Abe to the breach in the wall where members of the safe zone were pushing up against the wall, while others hacked at the clawing arms that sprung through the gaps, with knives and axes and anything sharp.

I swung the truck around shifted into reverse and backed towards the bodies slowly, urging them out of the way as I closed in on the wall. The panel slid its way back into place, slicing dead arms from their bodies, that fell to the floor their mangled hands set in a permanent claw.

Satisfied the wall was secure; I got out of the car and went back to taking out the last of the walkers that were stumbling through the streets of the safe zone.

While I was stabbing my way through a few slow movers I heard a familiar cry from behind me. I finished the walker I was dealing with and turned to see Bob had fallen to the ground with a walker attached to his foot, dragging its way up his leg.

I sheathed my Busse and swung off my Stryker, aimed and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

My drunken fool ass had forgotten to reload the bow.

"Fuck!" I cried as I quickly pulled out a bolt, cocked the bow and loaded the bolt into place.

I raised the bow again to see I was too late. Bob was being swarmed by so many walkers I couldn't even hear his screams over their hungry groans.

"Fuck." I muttered to myself, as I raised the bow and fired into the only logical target.

The word was scribed in Sasha's neat handwriting over the painted timber panelling. It was a name among a list, and a list among many that covered one of the walls in the church. All the lists had grown over night. We had lost fifteen people in total. It had been a lesson to all of us. We needed to be alert, and we needed to train these citizens in survival. The good life has made them all soft.

I sighed as I ran the remaining fingers of my right hand over the last name on our list. The name I was responsible for.

I felt a small hand slip into mine and give it a squeeze.

"You okay?" Beth asked.

I shrugged and looked up the wall to the top of the list.

"This was the list that Rick started when he first came to the safe zone." I explained to Beth. I pointed right to the first names. "That's Amy and Jim and Jacqui. Y' never even got to meet 'em."

Beth shook her head and scanned her eyes over the list.

"Annette and Shawn." She muttered.

"Sophia." I added.

She touched the wall with her free hand and ran her fingers down further.

"Merle." She said giving me a sympathetic smile.

I scanned down the list a little further. "Hershel."

"Tyreese, Tara." Beth continued before swallowing. "Carol."

I squeezed her hand reassuringly, hoping I could squeeze away the pain of what happened to her.

Rick wasn't even certain if Carol was dead or not, he had just made the assumption. I had never told the group what Carol had done to Beth, and I didn't think I ever would. It was better for everyone if we remembered her the way she was before. It was better for Beth.

"We should add the names of the kids from the school." Beth suggested, cutting through the tension.

I nodded in agreement, and smiled at her, before turning back to the wall and pointed to the last name on the list.

"This one's on me." I muttered.

Beth scoffed. "It was not, Daryl."

"Yeah it was. I was so fuckin' shit faced, I couldn't even remember how t' use my own fuckin' bow, and he died 'cause of it."

Her soft fingers went to my chin and tugged my face down to look at hers.

"Daryl, how many walkers attacked him?" She asked, knowing the answer, I had told her this story a dozen times throughout the night while I beat myself up over the events. "I dunno, a few. Five or six."

"Right." She said with a nod of her head. "And how many can you shoot with your bow?"

I took a long pause realising what she was trying to say, "One."

"So you couldn't've done anythin' Daryl. It was his time, just like it was time for all these people." She said waving her hand over the list.

I frowned and looked down to my boots, not feeling free from guilt just yet.

Beth took my chin and turned my face up to hers, and pulled me in close so she could wrap her arms around my hips.

"You know what Jane told me? She said that when everyone else was partyin' and drinkin' Bob was the only one sober and alert. He was the one who heard Mix barkin' and knew what it meant. He followed Mix to the breech in the wall. It was between houses, in a blind spot, the watch didn't notice it. Bob was the one who alerted them all. He saved everyone, and he died, but he died helpin' the people he loved." She squeezed my hips as I let my eyes drop.

"You said that he was always the last one standin' in every group he had been in, and he hated it. He hated bein' alone." She pointed back to the list of names on the wall. "He'll never be alone again."

It was quite ironic really, that several months ago Bob and I had nearly come to blows because he had put lives at risk all for the sake of getting' a drink, and now he had saved our people by not drinking. He had lost his life, but in my eyes, it had brought him redemption.

Beth smiled up at me sweetly, as a small smile crept on to my face. The girl always knew just the right thing to say to make me feel better. While I looked down on her I thought that I couldn't possibly love anything more than I loved her.

The diamond ring in my pocket was burning a hole against my thigh.

It seemed like just the right moment, standing in a church, talking about never being alone again. The church was mostly empty now that the service for the ones we lost last night was over. If I dropped a knee, no one would notice, I could propose to her without turning red as a tomato.

I dropped my hand into my pocket and clasped the ring in my palm. It suddenly felt like it weighed a tonne. It suddenly felt like it was a stupid idea again.

Stop bein' a pussy and ask her, Dixon. It isn't stupid to marry someone you love, even if she is half your age.

At that moment Douglas's son, Spencer, walked through the isle of the church, passing behind Beth. He was a neat looking boy, tall and lean, with short cropped blonde hair. He was young, only a few years older than Beth, and smart; being trained to run this place if anything ever happened to his dad.

I dropped the ring and pulled my hand out and put it on to Beth's hip.

There was still that lingering doubt if I was good enough for her. There were other guys here now. Other guys like Spencer, who were younger and smarter and better looking than me. She might not want to be with the old dude with a dark past when she realises she has better options.

I sighed and pulled her forward to kiss her on the forehead.

"I gotta get back to work. Half the town's gone mad blamin' this person and that person for what happened. Rick will need my help to control the crazies." I pushed past her to head towards the church door. "I'll see you at tea time."

I walked in the gate just before 5pm when the sun was getting low in the sky, and the streets were filling with kids playing outside while their parents prepared them some dinner, the kids who weren't scared of last night's events anyway.

I walked up the steps of the porch and toed out of my boots to leave them by the door as Beth always nagged me to. Mix lifted his head sleepily from the tropical printed chair cushion and eyed over them, salivating.

"Don't even think about it." I cautioned him, before pushing open the door. "you may've done good last night boy, but you ain't havin' my boots."

Mix whimpered and tucked his nose under his paws.

The rich smell of home cooking wafted through the room as I entered the house. It smelt like real food and not something from a can.

I slipped my crossbow off my shoulder and propped it by the door, and followed my nose into the kitchen, to see Beth with her back to me fussing over the stove, in a summer dress printed with red flowers and green leaves.

"What y' makin'?" I asked as I approached her from behind.

She turned to face me and I saw her lips were a bright red, painted in lipstick. Her hair was caught back in a neat ponytail, accenting her jaw bones and the pink of her cheeks. She was wearing a pink frilled apron, looking just like a suburban housewife.

"I got some left over Beef from Rick. Makin' you a hearty stew." She squeezed my bicep. "Make you big and strong."

I peered into the pot on the cooktop and breathed in the rich scent, my mouth watering instantly. "Smells good." I glanced through the window into the backyard. "Where're the kids?"

"They're stayin' at Rick's tonight." She said matter of factly.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You seemed really down today, after everythin' that's happened. I thought you could do with some cheerin' up."

She pointed over my shoulder towards the dining table in the attached dining room. It was set with cutlery and crockery and two burnin' candles.

"Romantic." I said as I approached the table.

"Yes, and its ready, so you go wash up, and I'll get it all served."

I did as I was told using the downstairs bathroom and then went back to the dining room to see Beth sitting at the table patiently waiting for me, with the candle light dancing in her blue eyes.

Two large bowls filled with the stew sat on the table among the carefully arranged crockery.

I sat down and scooped up the stew, enjoying her creation with a series of contented hums and savouring every bite. The beef tasted even better the second time it was cooked. Or maybe it was just due to Beth's excellent knowledge of mixing herbs and spices.

After three servings I sat back in my chair and gave my expanding guts a pat.

"Any room for desert?" Beth asked eyeing over me in my relaxed state.

"Sure." I said sitting up to attention, thinking that desert was probably the reason she had sent the kids away.

Beth stood, brushing down the folds in her dress and walked to kitchen counter to collect a large crystal bowl that had been sitting under a teacloth by the window.

She brought the bowl back and set it in the centre of the table where we both could reach it, and sat herself back down, with a warm smile on her lips.

"Mixed berries, in sugared syrup. It's really the only desert I could make with what was available."

"Oh." I muttered, a little disappointed desert wasn't sex after all.

She pinched a plump, deep red strawberry between her thumb and forefinger, dripping with sugared syrup, and brought it straight to her lips, baring her teeth around it and clamping down. The drips of strawberry juice and syrup, collected over her red lips and slowly ran down her chin, leaving a trail of pink behind.

Oblivious to the mess she had made, she went back to poking her finger into the bowl of berries stirring around the bulbs of rich colour.

A small huffing sound pushed through my smirking lips.

"What?" She asked, her brow cocked and her lips parted in a look of puzzlement.

I leaned back in my chair, took a hand under my elbow, and while rubbing the hair on my chin, I examined her as if she were some glowing white sculpture in a fancy museum.

She tossed her hair gently over her shoulders and smiled wide and bright, "What is it?"

I slapped my hand to the table and pushed myself up to a stand, and then strode over to her chair, grabbing it by the back and screeching it over the linoleum as I swung her around to face me.

Dropping a knee between her legs, so I could look her in the eye, I put my thumb to her jaw bone and drew a line across it to her lips. I brushed across the sticky painted flesh, drawing it downwards, collecting some of the juice, and then curled my index finger under her chin, to catch the small drop that clung there.

Satisfied I had cleared the majority of the mess, I took my sticky fingers back to my mouth and cleaned of the residue with my tongue.

She blushed and giggled, and made to swipe the back of her hand over her lips, but I grabbed hold of her elbow stopping her, and leaned in to finish of the job with my tongue.

Tilting her head back, I licked firm and slow starting where the column of her throat disappeared into her jaw, and then over her chin to the curve of her lower lip.

Catching her sigh in my mouth, I took both of her lips between mine and pressed down firmly against them, suckling and running my tongue over their sweetness and then drawing back to release with a wet smack.

I felt her body shudder, starting somewhere lower down, felt through the tremble in her elbow and ending where my other hand held the back of her head.

"Never thought anythin' could make sugar taste sweeter." I commented with a lick of my lips.

She swallowed and muttered, "Uhuh."

I pulled her mouth back to mine, and dropped the hand from her elbow to her hip an slid my hand to the small hollow in her back, pulling her against me as I stood, so she stood with me.

"Is desert over?" She murmured against my lips.

"Not just yet."

I spun her around so that her ass was resting against the table, and then slowly forced her backward, kissing against her chest and then the fabric of her dress that clung to the form of her tits, and then down to her belly, until she was lying flat among the recently used dishes.

I parted her knees, and pushed my way between her legs so that her thighs were resting against my hips, and my growing cock was pressed against the warm spot between her legs.

Satisfied she was right where I wanted her I turned and reached to the side to grab the bowl of berries.

"What are you doin'?" She queried as she raised herself up on to her elbows.

I placed the bowl in close reach and then pushed her shoulders back down on the table, while slipping my finger under the straps of her dress and sliding them down over her arms, past her elbows so that the neck of her dress was gathered around her waist.

"Havin' desert." I told her as I picked up another fat strawberry and leant over her so I could place it in-between her parted lips.

"You have yours."

I went back to the bowl and scooped a sticky wet mess of raspberries and blueberries, and dripping the excess juice over her exposed skin, "And I'll have mine."

I smeared the berries over both of her tits leaving a lumpy pattern of pink and purple. She gasped as the fruit touched her, and arched her back so the mounds of her tits rose into the palm of my hand. I smoothed the mess downwards over her belly and tucked my hand under her dress and down into her panties, smearing the last of the juices over her clit while she squealed and squirmed and was forced to spit out the strawberry in her mouth.

"You're gonna stain my clothes, Daryl." She breathed, the smile on her face telling me she didn't really give a damn.

Grinning, I lowered my mouth down to her tits, taking one in my mouth, twirling my tongue around her sweet cherry, collected the berry mush in my mouth and swallowing it down before doing the same to the other tit.

She moaned and sighed and quivered beneath me as I moved back and forth between her tits, licking and sucking up all the syrup and juice that was left behind.

I moved my mouth, downward over the ridges of her flexed rib cage to the softer, more giving flesh of her belly, delving my tongue into her navel to slurp out the small pool of juice and berry flesh.

I tucked my fingers into the bundled up material of her dress, reaching in further to collect the waistband of her panties, and slipped it all down over her hips and thighs and let it all drop to the floor between my feet.

I went down on both knees so that her pussy, glistening in both her own juices and juices from the fruit, was positioned in easy reach of my mouth.

I moved my hands under, around and over her thighs, and dragged her forward so her ass had just come over the edge of the table. I gripped around her thighs to hold her in place, and took the beating of her feet pushing into my back, as she cried, moaned, squirmed and bucked while I went to work clearing the mess I had made all over her.

I slid my tongue into every creases and groove, and suckled on her swelling, smooth clit until I was sure she was so clean she sparkled, and then a little longer just to hear her moan.

When I was satisfied that we were both done, I stood between her legs and looked down on her heaving damp body.

Her hands had curled in the table cloth, and pulled it into great lumpy creases all around her. The candles had tipped over and luckily extinguished. The glasses had tipped over, knives and forks had slid of their plates, the remnants of dinner were spread everywhere.

"Shit Beth, you're lyin' in the middle of a culinary shit storm." I teased.

She opened her eyes and looked to both sides and then laughed, her whole body shuddering in waves.

I took her hands and pulled her to an upright position, so I could lift her off the table, wrapping her legs over my hips, and holding her tight against my chest.

"Where're we goin'." She asked, giggling softly.

"We need to finish this upstairs." I said as I swung her around and marched through the kitchen into the living area.

She gripped on to me tightly as we approached the stairs, apprehension showing in her eyes.

"Don't drop me." She squeaked, looking up the stairs.

"I won't." I assured her as I leapt up the stairs two at a time, deliberately shaking her around just so she would grip her naked body tighter against me.

Once inside the bedroom door, I slowed my pace, and kissed her gently on the lips in an effort to calm her shaky breaths.

I gently put her down on the bed, and stood back so I could shoulder out of vest and let it drop to the floor. Beth stood and helped me to undress, tugging open the buttons of my torn flannel shirt roughly, and sliding it off my shoulders, letting her soft hands linger on the extended and flexed muscles in my arms.

I went to unbuckle my belt, but her tiny fingers caught between mine and the brass and she pushed my hands away, finishing the job off herself as she trailed soft wet, tickling kisses over my chest and abdomen and finished them in the hair that trailed up to my naval.

I looked down on her pale smooth hands as they worked to loosen my fly, and then tugged at the waistband of my jeans, pulling them down to my knees and allowing my rock-solid cock to spring free and near knock her eye out.

She wrapped one hand around the length of my cock and used her other hand to pull me in closer by the ass.

She looked up at me with her big wide innocent looking blue eyes, and slowly parted her lips, revealing the soft, moist opening within.

I groaned so loud the noise vibrated my inner ear, as she slid my cock into her hot mouth, clenching it between her soft tongue and hard palate above.

She pushed me further inside her, swallowing me down as her lips moved down the shaft of my cock until there were only a couple of inches from the base. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about how deep I was in her throat, or how amazing it felt.

She drew me in and out of her mouth slowly at first and then faster, and I slipped my eight fingers into her hair to slow her motion before I blew into her mouth and gave our fun a premature end.

It was only a few more slow strokes before I couldn't take anymore, and holding her head in my hands I pulled her back slowly, and squeezed my cock to stop it from blowing when she turned her big eyes up to me and still, somehow, looked innocent.

"Make y'self comf'table." I told her, flicking my fingers to the pillows, and she scooted back while I kicked off my jeans and went looking for a condom.

I ripped open the package and rolled it down and then turned back to Beth, chewing her lip and looking sexy but anxious while she stared at my enraged cock.

"What's wrong?" I said as I crawled over the bed towards her. "He ain't gonna hurt y'."

She tossed her head gently. "It's not that."

I pressed myself against her, wiggling my way between her hips until her hot wet pussy was pushed up against the head of my cock.

"What is it then?" I said as I leaned in and nipped her on the ear.

"I'll tell you in a minute." She breathed.

"Hopefully a few minutes." I smirked at her, before tilting my hips and plunging my way into her, groaning as the walls of her pussy clenched around my cock.

I dropped myself lightly on to her, pushing her hardened nipples into my chest, and tucking her soft blonde hair under my chin. I held her hips firmly to keep her in place and started moving in and out of her slowly and deliberately listening to the tone and pitch of her cries to figure out how she liked me to move inside her.

Her pussy started spasming around me almost instantly, clenching and releasing as she moaned loud into my ear, and the sound and sensation was too much to bear. I squeezed her hips in my hands and drove myself into her hard and deep, making her moans turn into deranged praises to myself and God.

"Beth!" I groaned in reply as my nuts tingled and clenched and my cock shuddered and exploded inside her, spilling my liquid into the rubber barrier.

I collapsed on top of her, my limbs suddenly floating away and my head spinning around like a flying saucer and floating off into space. I lay there for seconds or minutes or hours, I wasn't sure how long it was, but when Beth's voice broke through the haze we were both breathing slowly and steadily.

I felt her catch her breath and then swallow against my shoulder.

"Daryl?" She murmured softly.

I rolled to the side so I could see her face, pulling myself out of the warmth between her legs.

"Yeah?"

She sighed and swallowed again. "We should have a baby."

My laughter was cut off when I caught the serious look in her eyes.

"Hell nah!" I exclaimed shooting up and ripping off the condom that held all potential for her suggestion.

Damn Maggie had been filling her head with bullshit baby ideas.

She sat up quickly and watched me as I fumbled uncomfortably as I tried to tie the condom.

"Why not?"

I shook my head. "We ain't ready."

"Well, why? ─ what are we waitin' for? It's not like I have to go to college. It's not like we have careers to focus on, I'm never gonna be principal your never gonna make chief. We're not gonna travel, we're not gonna have to save for a home deposit."

I stared at her in disbelief. She had really given this some thought.

I flung the condom across the room, landing it somewhere out of sight, why was this conversation making me so damn nervous. "You're just a kid, you can't be havin' no babies."

What a dumbfuck thing to say.

She raised her brows and tilted her head down, glaring at me furiously. "I'm old enough to fuck, but not old enough to have your baby?" She shrilled at me angrily. "Maybe you didn't notice old man, but you aren't gettin' any younger. You're technically old enough to be a granddaddy already!"

I cut her off, by grabbing her by the shoulders and giving her a firm shake in an effort to break through her outrage.

"Christ, Beth, I didn't mean it like that. We both know you're the more mature of the two of us. What I meant was…I'm just a kid. I'm not equipped to deal with a baby. I barely know what t' do with the kids we have now."

"But you do a great job with Winnie and Austin…"

I let go of her shoulders and rolled back onto my ass, letting my hands rest on my upturned knees.

"I don't think I would know how t' love another person. I already got you, and the kids." I took in a deep breath and sighed. "Rick, Carl, Ass kicker, Maggie…sometimes Glenn…that's a heck of a lot of people for a Dixon to love."

Her angry features had softened into a smile as she listened to me speak. She leaned forward and touched my chin, turning my face toward hers.

"One more won't make a difference."

"But…" Not able to hold her intense gaze I let my eyes drop. "It would be my own ─ my own flesh and blood. It would be a whole different level of love. It ─ it kinda scares me."

"You don't need to be scared, I'll be here to help." She said softly before leaning in to kiss me.

I waited for her to pull away before I spoke again. "We ain't havin' a baby, Beth, don't you remember what happened last night, what happened to Bob. We're never gonna be safe. The baby would never be safe."

"Yes it would. We would keep it safe."

I threw myself back on to the bed, and covered my eyes with my arm, not wanting to look at her. Not wanting to be here. This conversation was way too intense.

"No, Beth." I said with finality.

The room fell into silence for a few moments. It was so still I couldn't even hear Beth breathing. I moved my arm to check if she was still there. She was. Glaring down angrily at me.

"Get out." She muttered.

"What?"

She jerked her arm towards the door pointing an angry finger.

"Get out!" She yelled, making me jump and roll off the bed as my body reacted the way it normally does to a threat.

"Jesus Christ, Beth. I…"

"Get out." She screamed again, her face going bright red. She lunged herself forward picked up a pillow and threw it hard enough at my head that I stumbled backwards into the wall.

"Sleep on the god damn couch!" she screeched. "I don't want your…your …fucking dick! Anywhere near me!"

Stunned and a little shaken, I picked up the pillow, stepped into my jeans and hoisted them up with one hand and then backed away, hastily, somehow terrified of this tiny, blonde, screaming, crazy woman who looked like Beth.

"You sure enjoyed fucking the kid you didn't want to have a baby with didn't you asshole!" She screamed leaping from the bed and slamming the door in my face.

Feeling suddenly brave with the barrier of the door between us I retaliated. "You sure know how to go from zero to fucking nuts in naught point two seconds don't you…bitch!"

I coughed choking on the last word.

You are an asshole Daryl Dixon.

"Damn right I am!" I responded to myself as I pounded my feet angrily down the steps. "Too much of an asshole to have a fuckin' baby!" I yelled back towards the door.

"A fuckin' baby." I repeated to myself as I tossed the pillow on the nearby couch, and then vaulted over the back of it, landing lengthwise onto my bed for the night and kicking my feet nervously into the armrest.

It was stupid laying here. There was no way I could sleep with her being so angry, and with me feeling so guilty about calling her a bitch. Heck it wasn't even dark out, it couldn't've been much past 6pm.

I stared up at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of the early evening. Thinking about what the hell was wrong with Beth. This was the way she had been for weeks now, all over me one second and then hating me the next, it was like she was getting her period or something.

I froze as realisation finally sunk in.

"You stupid fucking fuck." I said to myself, as I pressed my palms to my forehead.

"You fucking dumb dumbass." I groaned as I pulled myself of the couch.

"That's real fuckin' observant Daryl. You did a real fuckin' good job of readin' the signs." I muttered as I paced up the stairs.

I pushed the bedroom door open slowly and crept in with my tail between my legs. Beth was lying face down on the bed sobbing into the pillow. My guts fell straight down to the floor heavy with guilt.

"Beth?" I called hesitantly from the doorway, a little in fear for my life, and rightly so.

Her sobs stopped but she kept her face down buried in the pillow. "I'm real sorry." I said as I edged my way closer to the bed. "For bein' an ass and for…not knowin'…what was goin' on."

I sat down on the bed beside her, carefully placing a hand on her back. She flinched at my touch, but didn't try to stop me. I traced my fingers up and down the furrow in her back that ran the length of a spine, trying my hardest to be comforting and soothing, and hoping it would be enough to calm her down.

"When y' hadn't bled for a while, I thought it was normal, 'cause y' said y' ain't been gettin' y' period much after the farm. And all those times we had sex and y' didn't make me use a condom, I thought you'd just got kinda lost in the moment. When y' were sick, I thought it was 'cause of the stress of losin' the kids. When y' got upset 'cause I took y' to that hospital, I thought y' were just bein' Beth, not wantin' to see a…baby…And all the mood swings. I thought y' were just gettin' your period again." My hand slipped down the side of her rib cage and I dragged her across the bed, tucking her into my body, and then rolled her back into me so I could look down at her tear stained face.

"Any one of those things on their own, the average man would've thought nothin' of it." I leant forward, putting my lips to her cheek, catching the hot and salty drops that collected there. "But me? I'm s'posed t' pick up on things like this. I'm s'posed t' read the signs and put 'em all t'gether."

I ran my hand over her chest, brushing over her tit and then cupping it from below, feeling the weight and firmness of it. It was definitely fuller and the nipple was dark, almost black in the dimly lit room. I ran my hand down over her ribs and to her belly and splayed my fingers carefully over the curve between her navel and pubic bone. There wasn't much of a bump yet. It couldn't be very far along. Maybe only the first few months.

I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling deep regret tear through me as I realised the ultrasound picture she showed me the other day wasn't of Maggie's baby after all.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I muttered into the darkness.

She cleared her throat and replied in a strained husky voice, "I was scared you would say you didn't want it."

I moved my hand carefully over the area on her lower belly, getting familiar with every line and curve. It would start to change soon, as my baby grew.

My baby.

A cold chill crept over my body and I shuddered, releasing a tear from my duct and feeling it roll down the side of my nose.

"I was scared too." I muttered, before leaning forward and pressing my lips onto her belly. I looked up at her, keeping my lips against her. She looked down on me with fresh tears glistening in her eyes.

Everything about this felt so right and so good and so perfect. I had come to the realisation that I was scared of being happy more than anything else. But if Beth had taught me one thing, it was that life was all about being happy.

I dug my hand down into my pocket, and ran my fingers over the warm gold band. There was no point in being scared anymore.

"But, I do want t' have a baby with y', Beth."

I pulled the ring out and placed it carefully on the still glistening wet spot where I had just kissed her.

"And I want you to marry me."

A/N: Yes I was really nasty with that last chapter, I wanted you to think I was going to kill Daryl. *cackles evilly*
Did you pick up on all the foreshadowing;
chapter 11
-Daryl saying Beth could handle herself
-Daryl's song choice
-Making Daryl drunk and clumsy
-The title 'Live' to make you think the next would be 'Die'
Chapter 12
-Telling Austin he's the man of the house
-The black cat
-The near misses with the walkers
-The snapping crossbow bolt
Yeah, think I want to be the next Gimple :)

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this last chapter. I have obviously left some storylines open so I could write a sequel, but at this stage I don't know when or if that will happen. I got a lot of negative reviews over the last several chapters and its a little disheartening, and I kind of found it hard to get the motivation to write recently. Maybe if there's a lot of interest and maybe when TWD comes back on I will get more motivated. So all I can say in regards to a sequel is: Maybe.

Thankyou to all my loyal readers and thankyou to everyone who left comments on this work. Thanks for sticking through all 200,000+ words of emotional torture, I know it was hell, but I hope it was worth it.

On another note, I will be putting focus into other projects I put on the back burner while I was writing this. One is another Bethyl fic, but AU (no zombies). I would love beta readers for this, so if you're into Bethyl AU, have decent spelling, grammar and punctuation skills, and if you happen to live in the South (that would be a huge bonus as I know nothing of southernisms) Then please contact me here or at my email, which I think is on my profile page.

Again. Thank you all! Love you xxx