Born 2 Be Wild-A Merle Dixon love story

Chapter 59

Four months has passed. The prison doesn't even look like the same place. Rick and Hershel have gotten a garden started. We have a horse and some pigs. The cell blocks look more like home than a prison. We made a dining area in one of the prison yards. This place is almost unrecognizable. The people who live here look a lot different too. We're all cleaner than we used to be, a lot of us are happier than we used to be too. I don't include myself in the second one, but I am glad that everyone else is happier. Hershel has a prosthetic leg now, so he can move around a hell of a lot better. I look quite a bit different too.

I'm just starting to show, my belly sticks out just enough so that it doesn't just look like I ate too much. This would have been the time to tell everyone but Daryl let the little Dixon out of the bag two months ago. I don't blame him, he's really excited. A lot of the people from Woodbury think that the baby is his. Anyone who didn't know that I was with Merle would think that. When Daryl isn't gone or busy he's by my side, I call him my shadow from time to time. He's always making sure that I'm comfortable and that I've had enough to eat. He won't let me do much work, sometimes I can sneak around and do stuff when he's gone though.

Today he's going on a run to an untouched grocery store with some other folks. So I'm hoping I'll get to do something besides peel potatoes. Daryl didn't wake me up, he's a firm believer in letting me sleep until noon, so when the overwhelming urge to pee hit I got up and did my business. Daryl got rid of my standard prison bunk bed after he told Rick I was pregnant. He got me a full size comfier bed. Apparently mattress stores are pretty much the same after the apocalypse. He sleeps in here with me sometimes, he says it's for the softer bed, but I think he does it to make sure I'm safe.

I went out to the dining pavilion for breakfast. I always get greeted by quite a few people, mostly the ones Daryl rescued. They think that we're married or something so they always make sure to be as nice as possible to me. Daryl was walking back from the fences with Carol when I was in line at the grill. The wind changed directions, making the smell of cooking meat hit my nose, which caused me to gag. Hershel said my morning sickness should be slacking up now, but of course it isn't. Thankfully there's only two things that generally make me nauseated, cooking meat and chocolate. Daryl brought me back a stale Kit-Kat a few weeks ago and I nearly threw up in his lap when I opened it.

By some miracle I didn't throw up, so maybe it is slacking. Daryl still rushed to my side even though this is something that happens every day.

"You okay Jess?" Daryl asked as he rubbed my back.

"I'll be golden in just a second." I answered.

"At least you didn't throw up that time." Carol said as she approached us, smiling brightly.

"That's a very good point." I said as I stood up and wiped tears from my eyes.

"Go sit down and I'll make you a plate." Daryl ordered.

"You should get going Daryl. I'll grab her something." Carol told him.

"Yeah, all right." Daryl relented.

He still walked with me to an empty picnic table. When I sat down he put his hand on my stomach. The baby always moves when he does, he absolutely loves it. He leaned down and kissed my stomach and I swear everyone within a five mile radius said awww.

"Be careful out there." I told him before he left.

"Always." Was his response.

After he left Carol came over with a plate filled generously with food.

"Come on Carol, I can't eat all of this. Other people have got to eat too." I said, pushing the plate back towards her.

"You can, and you will. Everyone else has already eaten. Most of this is leftovers." She said pushing the plate at me again.

"How much of it is Daryl's that he refused to eat so you'd give it to me?" I asked.

"That doesn't matter. Even if I told him not to he'd still do it."

I sighed but started eating anyway. I did eat everything on the plate, my appetite has improved quite a bit in the last week. After she saw that I was eating Carol went back over to the grill to clean up.

I ended up helping out with laundry. Which doesn't sound like much but Daryl freaks out if I try to lift anything heavier than a plate. So picking up baskets of laundry has become rebellion for me, when did I go from enjoying fights to enjoying lifting clothes? After I was done with my share of the work I went back to my cell to put my feet up. Besides morning sickness my least favorite thing about being pregnant is the ankle swelling. Well, and the being tired all the time. I picked up one of the many books Daryl had gotten for me and lost myself in another world.

When Daryl got back he looked grim. He sat down on the bed beside me and brushed the hair out of his face.

"We lost Zack." He said.

"Oh no. Did you tell Beth?" I asked as I put my arm around his shoulders.

"Yeah, she seemed kinda unfazed by it. I expected her to at least be sad or something."

"Sometimes it takes a day or so for it to sink in. She probably feels it, but isn't letting it show. Just like someone else I know."

"How's little Merle?" Daryl asked, looking for a change of subject.

"Good, Hershel said all my vitals are great. I kinda wish we had an ultrasound machine. I want to see the little monster." I answered.

"Me too." Daryl answered with a smile.

"You gonna stay in here tonight?" I asked him.

"Probably. As long as you don't flop around like a fish out of water again."

"You try sleeping with another human in your stomach. It's not fun." I told him.

He chuckled and left to change clothes, I changed while he was gone and laid down on the side closest to the wall. Daryl came in and laid down next to me, he laid his hand on my stomach and was snoring in minutes.

I woke up sometime early the next morning, Daryl wasn't in bed with me anymore. Contractions ripped through my abdomen, they were so intense I wanted to scream. When I sat up I noticed the bed was wet where I'd be laying but it wasn't urine. A heavy panic filled me as I screamed for Daryl.