A/N: Thank you all for your wonderfully kind reviews and everyone who added this to their alerts/favourites. Oh, in case you don't know, a bundle is ten bags of heroin. Two bundles… well, that would easily kill you.

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It was Monday night and Daryl was sat in a booth at Joe's Bar & Grill, opposite his friend Rick Grimes. On Daryl's right was baby Jackson, babbling away in a high chair. That Daryl didn't have to build. Thank christ.

Although he would never say it outloud, Rick had been something of a godsend to Daryl. They'd met a few times before Jackson happened, on account of Merle's brushes with the law, and Daryl had begrudgingly admitted that Rick was a pretty decent guy - for a cop. Just over a month ago, Rick had turned up at Daryl's doorstep with the strangest news.

Rick had been called to a known drug house in the seedy area Bancroft where a scraggly blonde woman, missing two front teeth, had handed him a baby carrier containing a sleeping child and a piece of paper with a name and address on it. The woman, called Cheryl, said the mother had bought two bundles and then made off, saying she wouldn't be back. The baby's name was Jackson and he was nine months old.

Cheryl had then slammed the door on Rick before he'd even had the chance to ask anymore questions. He'd looked down at the piece of paper in his hand and almost had an apoplexy when he saw the name that was written down in scratchy handwriting.

Daryl Dixon.

One week later and Daryl had been interviewed, vetted, DNA tested and verified as the father. Rick had gone back and tried to find Cheryl, but she seemed to have moved on. Without her, it was impossible to track Jackson's mother. All Daryl had was her name - LeAnne - and a hazy description of her appearance. It was agreed that Daryl could take full custody of Jackson, on the proviso that he was to have monthly meetings with a CPS officer named Karen, until they were deemed no longer necessary. Rick had helped a very shellshocked Daryl go through all the proceedings and, throughout the process, they'd developed a very close bond. In the initial weeks, Rick's son Carl had come over to babysit some, to help Daryl out while he got his personal life in order. Lori had initially been extremely apprehensive to allow her son to go hang out at the house of a known troublemaker but, one look at baby Jackson, and she had melted.

Back in the restaurant, Rick was plowing through his rump steak, moaning about his partner Shane. "...I mean, I love the guy but he can be such a loose canon. We got called to a domestic at a residence in Oldbrook and he went in there, guns blazing, before taking a moment to assess the situation. Scared this woman, Carol, half to death. The whole thing was so reckless."

Daryl shrugged. "He never seemed all that friendly to me. I wouldn't trust him like you do. Not round my wife, if I had one, and definitely not round my kid."

Rick sighed, putting his knife and fork down and leaning back in his seat. "I'll keep an eye on him, that's all I can do."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Anyway, how's it going with Jackson? He's looking real happy," Rick said, by means of changing conversation. They both look across at baby Jackson who was busy ignoring the two men's tedious conversation, much more concerned with mashing peas into the tray of his high chair.

"Yeah, me and him are doing alright. This little man is a tough one," Daryl chuckled, a faint smile hovering about his lips. "But I'm gonna have to go back to working more hours soon. Bobby is pissed I've taken off three weeks as it is."

"You gonna put him in daycare?" Rick asked, concerned.

"Uh… I mean, I don't wanna but unless I can find a real good sitter I'm gonna have to," Daryl shrugged. "Merle, when he actually shows up, is hardly baby proof. Carl's goin' back to school so he won't be about. Anyway, I can't be relying on you guys to keep helping me out when I need it."

Rick shook his head. "Don't you worry about us being put upon none. Carl's been grateful for the extra spending money over the vacation and Lori, well, Lori loves babies. She keeps going on at me for another one as it is. You got a bum deal, suddenly getting stuck with a baby you didn't know about out of nowhere. It's tough to adjust."

"I don't regret nothin'," Daryl insisted, a little too fiercely. "I slept with that junkie whore, too high to consider being safe, what happened is my responsibility. I ain't never gonna turn away from that. Jax is mine."

Rick held his hands up, in mock defense. "Alright, alright, I weren't suggestin' you were! Poor Jackson ain't been too blessed with a reliable mother, but he's got more than enough to make up for it in his dad. Hell, I'd be damn proud if you were raising my kid. Couldn't ask for any better."

Daryl looked straight down at the table and made an inarticulate noise in his throat, struggling to cope with Rick's outburst of brotherly love. Rick meant well but he could sometimes be so damn embarrassing. Daryl wasn't used to showing much affection to other men; Merle's idea of showing some love was a hard slap on the shoulder.

"Ba ba ba?" Jackson babbled, looking up interestedly at his father's strange behaviour.

Daryl chuckled. "You're right Jax, ya uncle Rick is soft in the head."

"That was not what he was suggesting," Rick grumbled, taking out his wallet to pay.

"Hey - he's my kid. I'm the one who really understands him," Daryl said airily, leaving over to Jackson to undo his bib, which was absolutely covered in mushed peas. "Not my fault he thinks you're a looney."

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It was Tuesday and Beth's first day of real classes after her introductory lecture yesterday. She was hoping she'd make some friends today, as so far she only really had Maggie and Glenn to talk to. Beth hadn't even seen Daryl or his baby since she'd moved in on Saturday. When she had asked Glenn why he'd never mentioned Daryl had a baby before, Glenn had just shrugged and said: "I didn't even know he had a kid. Cool," and gone back to playing video games. And that was that.

Maggie, meanwhile, was busy applying for jobs - she'd saved up some cash from working in an athletic clothing shop, but she wanted something a bit different. It had only been a couple of days, but Beth could already tell that she was gonna love this new independence. As for Hershel, it didn't seem like he was quite as convinced.

"Daddy, I gotta go, I've got class," Beth said into her phone as she tried to navigate the corridors of the Humanities building. "I'll be fine, stop worrying."

"I love you too. Okay… bye daddy." she sighed and snapped her phone shut, shoving it into her backpack. It was endearing how much Hershel worried about his daughter, but Beth sometimes took it as bit of a sign he didn't think she'd cope by herself, which wasn't as flattering.

She looked down at her schedule again. Room H133. She could see H103 and she'd walked past H113, but where on earth was H133?! Just when she was about to consider giving up and driving back home, a pretty olive skinned girl in white jeans approached her.

"Hey, Beth right?" The girl asked, slightly hesitant.

"Yeah! You're… Molly?" Beth replied, recognising her from the meet and greet lecture yesterday. They'd all had to go round and introduce themselves and state an interesting fact. It had felt like being back in high school. She'd noticed Molly giggling to herself when one of the guys, Luke, had announced his interesting fact as the ability to play the nose flute. He'd already stood up, reaching for his bag, when the professor had hastily told him that a demonstration wasn't really necessary.

"That's right. Seems you were paying attention in our introductory lecture yesterday," Molly grinned.

"I'm pretty good with names, I guess," Beth acknowledged, smiling back.

"Have you got American Literature 101 now too?" Molly asked, frowning down at the schedule in her hand. "I got landed with Professor Brookes. My brother says he's a right hard ass. Even told him so once. Hates teaching freshmen."

Beth groaned. "Well, looks like we're in it together. That's my next class too. Do you know where L133 actually is?"

"I do, I think," Molly said hopefully. "Let's go, anyway. If we're late you can blame me."

They walked in the direction the lecture hall, chatting away. Molly was very talkative and easy to get along with. Beth quickly learnt that she had an older brother called Terry who had also studied at the same college and her parents owned the bookshop in town, which also had a coffee shop, where Molly often worked on weekends. She was impressed that Beth had moved out already and, she admitted, extremely envious. Beth had her own reasons for feeling a little jealous - Molly was positively gorgeous, with a trim figure, green eyes and long dark hair. Next to her, Beth felt a little bit like a skinny ghost.

"Alright, where do you wanna sit?" Molly asked, indicating the rows before them. Beth shrugged and made a beeline for the middle rows.

They had just about taken their seats when Professor Brookes cleared his throat, ready to begin his lecture. Beth thought he looked a bit odd, with his wispy combover, oversized tie and pants that only reached his ankles with no socks.

"Good morning class," Professor Brookes' deep voice announced. "Welcome, all of you, to AM101. I hope you enjoy your fall semester with me, but let me inform you now that I have no patience for those who do not want to learn. This class will be challenging, but that is the nature of college itself. This is an institution of learning, not a preschool."

"I had a male student once call me a 'hard ass.'" Brookes warned, causing Molly to gasp as she realised who he was referring to. "If you are anything like him, I suggest you resign from this class immediately. I don't teach time wasters."

Beth and Molly looked across at each other and couldn't help but giggle.

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Beth pulled up onto the driveway and turned off the ignition in her truck. She'd gone for dinner with Molly after classes had got out for the day and it was already approaching dusk outside. The lights in her house were all off, except for Maggie and Glenn's bedroom. Great.

Casting a look at Daryl's house, she noticed his son sat there on a blanket on the driveway by the garage door, playing with some toys. She couldn't quite see Daryl, but she could hear the sounds of tinkering in his garage which implied he was in there meddling with his bike.

As Beth slammed her driver's door shut, the baby suddenly looked up from his toys to where the noise had come from.

"Da-da!" he squealed, looking straight at her, waving both his chubby fists in Beth's direction.

Beth beamed and waved back, making him gurgle with laughter. She had known a few babies in her time, but this one seemed to literally burst with happiness. If she hadn't seen them both together, it would be hard to reconcile this bundle of light with the gruff unsmiling redneck she had met on Saturday.

"Who's there Jax?" Daryl asked, coming out from the garage to see who Jackson was squawking at. He looked out and spotted Beth standing on her driveway.

"Oh," Daryl said, putting down his oiling can and cloth. "Hi… Beth, right?"

"That's right," Beth said, walking over towards Daryl and his son. "Sorry to disturb ya, but your baby wanted to say hello. Can I say hi?"

Daryl chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Sure. He's a real lady killer though, that one. Watch out for him."

Beth laughed and went to sit down on the blanket next to Jackson.

"Hi little one!" she smiled, edging closer on the blanket to let Jackson grab at her shirt. "I'm happy to see you too."

Daryl watched her sat there, on the floor, playing with Jax, taking to him like a duck took to water. He couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous when he thought of the first week he'd had Jackson and how he'd had no fucking clue. At all. On his second day he'd got so frustrated that he went out and set fire to all the baby books Rick had given him in his yard. When he'd finally confessed what happened, Rick had just laughed. Daryl didn't think Beth needed a baby book. The scene they made together looked... natural. Daryl couldn't help but notice Beth was really pretty, as she sat there tickling Jax and making him giggle. How old was she again?

"What's his name?" Beth asked, looking up at Daryl. He didn't know what expression he was pulling, but apparently what she saw on his face was making her blush. He never did understand women.

"Jackson Dixon," Daryl replied. He noticed her lips twitch and couldn't resist smirking. "Yeah I know. I dunno what his momma was thinkin', giving him a name that rhymes. Crazy woman. He's just Jax to me, so don't matter."

Beth looked like she wanted to say something else, but stopped herself. "I like Jax anyway," she said kindly, her fingers trapped in Jackson's chubby fists.

"Me too."

"I hope you don't think I'm intruding, but Jax gave me such a look I couldn't resist. I love kids. And… I don't really know anyone else in the area yet, ya know? It's kinda lonely."

"I get ya," Daryl said, thinking of how just about the only people he'd been chatting to outside of work recently were Rick and that asian guy Glenn.

"You do?" Beth encouraged.

"Yeah," said Daryl, thinking of the family that'd been living there before. The wife, Sharon, had walked around like she had a stick up her ass and stared at him on his bike with thinly veiled disgust. "The people who rented your place before you weren't real friendly. Makes a change to have Glenn banging on my door asking me to play video games, I guess."

Beth giggled. "Yeah, he seems pretty insistent you're gonna be his new Call of Duty buddy."

"Is that right?" Daryl smirked, unable to resist joking along with her.

"I think he's already picked your team name," she snickered. "So I'd get practising. Gotta make Jax proud."

"I'll get my army uniform ready."

"Map!" Jackson chimed in, before turning his attention to a quarter lying on the tarmac. Map was currently Jackson's favourite noise, alongside "Da" and "Ba-ba."

"You know, you really should watch what's lying around this garage," Beth said softly, watching Jackson gnawing on a quarter. "Babies can choke on all kindsa things, even coins. Think of all the things your daddy had to stop you hurting yourself with - it's pretty dangerous to let a baby play with anything they find."

Daryl's eyes narrowed. "What business is that of yours?" he growled, the gentle tone suddenly gone from his voice. Her, bringing up his father... He was so fucking sick of people thinking it weren't right that Daryl Dixon was looking after a baby all by himself. Daryl wasn't an idiot; he heard what folk whispered about him in town. But he wasn't his fucking father. He would never be like him.

"I just thought -"

"- thought what? That I'm a bad father? I ain't gonna sit here and get lectured on how to parent by some dumb college bitch I don't even know! You spend five minutes with a baby and think you know shit? Hell, you're just pissin' about all day, you got no idea how life really works."

Daryl's angry words reverberated throughout the garage. Jackson suddenly burst into tears, clearly upset by his dad's outburst. Well that was just fucking fantastic.

"Y-you're right, I'm sorry - I," Beth stammered, her cheeks flushing a furious shade of red, eyes completely avoiding his furious stare.

"You should be, you -"

Daryl suddenly drifted off as he met her wide eyes, unsure of himself. As he looked at her obvious distress he could feel all his rage quickly evaporating, which was extremely unnerving. Shit, now he even felt guilty.

If he was honest about it, he knew that she wasn't trying to be controlling and judgmental, just being helpful. Beth didn't seem like the kinda girl to throw out judgment on others real easy. Here was some pretty girl who, for some bizarre reason unknown to Daryl, had decided to come over and talk to him and he'd just been cruel to her. He was such an idiot.

"Aw, hell Jax," Daryl mumbled, reaching over to scoop up the tearful Jackson up into his arms. "Please don't cry anymore." He looked up at Beth's stricken expression, who looked like she might start sobbing alongside Jackson. "...either of you," he added awkwardly.

There was an uncomfortable pause, the tense silence only invaded by Jackson's soft whimpering.

"Look, I'm sorry," Daryl said remorsefully, rocking Jackson with one arm and chewing on his thumb with the other, wondering why the hell he couldn't control his temper. "I'm new to whole dad thing. Guess I am a bit rough round the edges."

"It's okay," Beth said quietly, fiddling with the hem of her t-shirt. Sat timidly on the blanket on the floor, she still looked like a puppy that Daryl had just kicked in the face.

Daryl groaned. "No, it's not. I'm a dick sometimes… Well, a lot of the time," he added as an afterthought. "You were just bein' nice. And I shouldn'ta gone off like that."

"And I shoulda realised you're just oversensitive, being a new father and all." Beth said, smiling up mistily at him.

Daryl wasn't sure how much he liked being called oversensitive, but if it got her to stop looking so sad and start smiling again he'd let her call him whatever she goddamn wanted.

"And for the record, I don't think you're a bad father." Beth declared firmly, looking at Jackson in Daryl's arms, who had stopped bawling now the adults had calmed down.

"Thanks," Daryl gruffed. He wanted to say more but his mouth had run dry, throat closing up, and he couldn't seem to force any more words out. Something about this girl made him nervous. He wasn't sure if he liked it.

"You're welcome," Beth replied, looking at him with blue eyes that made him feel even stranger in his stomach. Shit.

"And err, if ya ever need a cuppa sugar or anything… just let me know, a'ight?" Daryl blurted out, hoping he didn't look as nervous as he felt. If Merle was here, he'd definitely laugh his ass off at Daryl's painful attempts to make conversation.

Beth beamed back at him, which made him feel slightly better. "Sure, I'll let you know. Night Jackson," she said, leaning in to stroke the little boy's head, who was still clutched in his daddy's iron-like grip. "Night Daryl."

"G'night Beth."

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A/N: Daryl and Beth get to talk properly for the first time. Question Daryl's parenting skills and you set off his berserk button! I know Beth just took it this time, but she barely knows him and it took her completely by surprise. Next time he loses his temper she's not gonna just sit there idly. Thoughts?