No Tomorrow

.

"Everything ok?"

Daryl came to help me down the last stair and he kept an arm at the small of my back to help me down onto the road, the baby was pressed so damn tightly against my ribs that it was getting harder and harder to breathe each day.

"Yeah- poor thing's just running out of room in there is all. I also talked about how I want to have it too."

"Any ideas?"

"Mhm...at home if I can help it. Where is he?"

"Making a big fuss over everything as usual- baby clothes, formula, diapers, all that shit. He's apparently making a crib that'll pull out into a small bed when it's older too."

"...sounds like him."

We walked along the road in silence for a little and I even waved to one of Negan's old wives when we rounded a corner to our house and he kept quiet until I reached the porch, he helped me up the tiny stairs there too and I stretched my arms above my head and leaned against the door frame so I could catch my breathe and he just stared soundlessly at me.

"What, do I have something on my face?"

That made him laugh as he reached for the door to open in and a faint whiff of wood shavings mixed with paint reached my nose.

"No, and I'm sure if you did you wouldn't be an expectant mother right now, would you?"

"Oh bite me, asshole."

*That Night*

I woke up in the middle of the night to a sharp pain in my belly and when I sat up there was a deep wetness coating my legs and I whimpered as I tried shaking Daryl awake.

"Daryl....Daryl...wake up!"

He snorted himself awake when I nearly pulled him out of the bed and I cried out when another wave of pain spasmed through my belly and extended down to my thighs.

"I think....it's time to get the doctor."

*

Jay's POV:

Rolling into Alexandria early morning after a last minute mission to get more supplies one of the pimply faced teens watching the gate pulled me over to the side while my group unloaded what little bit of goodies we could find.

"Go to your house asap man, your woman started giving birth maybe a half hour ago."

I patted him on the shoulder and took off flying down the street so fast that my hair blew out behind me and I didn't stop until I saw my house in sight, I could hear her muffled screaming so I just slammed through the front door and broke it from its hinges in my haste to get inside; the birth didn't seem to be going too well- Daryl was propping Belle's head up in his arms but she had a really cloudy look in her eyes like she couldn't see anything, the doctor had blood all over himself and most of it was still dripping onto the floor; there was so much blood....

"Jay, come on buddy, I need you help holding one of her legs-"

I walked up to the mess with shaking knees and tried to hold her left leg open but there was so much blood that my fingers were trying to slip around, further up...I wanted to vomit. There sticking out of Belle,was a tiny pair of legs that seemed too long to be a newborn infants. The doctor was trying to rotate his wrists around to pull the child out and it took me a few seconds before I fully grasped what was wrong, the baby was breached.

"Nearly...there....nearly there..."

Belle uttered a small scream that was cut off by a stream of blood and the doctor used her body jerk to finally pullthe thing out, he wrapped it up in a towel before he took it away to the bathroom to clean it and I numbly let go of her leg, not once did the thing cry....I tried to cover Belle up with a blanket but she coughed again and Daryl started to sob.

"Jay...I'm so glad...that you made it. Sorry, but...I don't think I'm going to make it."

"You can't....you can't just die on me, our child needs you....I...I need you.."

Tears started stinging my eyes and they managed to escape down my face and plop onto Belle's body, I wiped them off of her but she was so far gone that she probably didn't feel it; her heartbeat throbbed and faltered and it felt like my own was about to shatter.

....is there no god? Can I not...can I not be happy for once? First the prison...then Terminus...Terminus...

Her heart skipped another beat again and I knew her body was on its way to give out but I got an idea in my head, I snapped my fingers at Daryl and he slowly lowered her head onto a pillow before he wiped at his eyes.

"What?"

"She's dying- give me your knife. I might be able to save her, her body's losing too much blood but it might not be too late."

He handed me the knife from his belt as Belle's heart throbbed once more and went still, and I wasted no more time; I sliced open her left arm from the underside of her wrist down to the crook of her elbow and did the same to mine before I pressed both wounds into eachother. Her body was absorbing my blood and I struggled to slow down my own healing process so that my wound would stay open and continue the transfer of blood into her body, steps behind me told me the doctor must have been back but I didn't hear any cries from the baby. I had a sudden flash of fire down my spine that made me want to tear the house apart; its heart was beating but her's wasn't.

"It's a little girl."