A bean.
It boggled Daryl Dixon's mind that something so unexpected and life changing was only the size of an Easter time jellybean. How something that was going to turn his entire life upside down in a matter of months, could show up on that black and white screen as merely a dot.
"Isn't it amazing Daryl?"
Her words mirrored the same expression of wonder and excitement her voice held as she spoke. Looking to Daryl as he sits in the snug chair beside the cot she lays on, not looking her way but straight ahead at the screen before them.
Looking at the speck on the screen, that could honestly be mistaken as a smudge, Daryl ponders her soft statement. Was that little dot amazing? Daryl stares at the black and white screen waiting for the answer to hit him. He knows what he sees isn't bad, he can feel that in his gut straight away. But he isn't sure if he can use the word amazing quite yet.
Her hand gently squeezes his that rests beside her leg on the cot, and even without turning his head to look at her, he knows she's smiling that soft smile he secretly adores. As Daryl stays still as he stares at the screen a little longer, a sound interrupts the deafening silence in the small doctor office. A thump. One followed by another.
For a second, Daryl questions if the thump belongs to his own racing heart. But as he listens to the noise, he knows it's coming from somewhere else.
"Wha's that sound?" Daryl asks suddenly, not taking his eyes off the screen to look at the Hilltop doctor.
Maybe the sound was coming from a piece of equipment in the small room. When Daryl walked into the room, he realized that most devices and equipment he saw he couldn't tell anyone what they did. They were odd to him, nothing like what he knew.
"What sound are you referring to?" The doctor asks him kindly.
"That thumpin sound." Daryl explains.
As Daryl clarifies his question, the thumping continues further in the background. Not stopping or quieting down as he or the doctors speaks. The sound continues on just as it had. Persistent to be heard.
"That's the heartbeat Daryl," The doctor answers him in a soft tone. "That's your baby's heartbeat."
It felt as though Daryl was in the backseat of a vehicle and the driver had just slammed on the breaks. Sending him flying forward and causing his heart to lurch into his throat.
With wide eyes, Daryl looks up at the doctor for only the second time since they got here. The hilltop doctor regards him with a kind smile and with His mouth dry as a desert, Daryl returns his gaze to the small screen before him.
"Isn't it beautiful Daryl?"
Her words pick up her smile and her happiness rings in Daryl's ears. He can feel it as he sits beside her. The joy and amazement she's feeling right now is palpable.
Daryl studies the small speck on the screen he squints to see better. Questioning how something so small and barely there could be making the noise that echoes around him and it's mother. Was the dot in front of him beautiful? Daryl couldn't say. The woman laying beside him could obviously see something he couldn't, for when he looked at the dot all he saw was a black and white spot. There wasn't much beauty to be seen in a dark smudge Daryl thought.
The bean shaped object looked tiny and slightly fuzzy on the small screen Daryl stared at for some time. But on a small piece of printed out paper, it was even more small and blurry.
Daryl held the edges of the paper tightly in his hands as the RV rocks softly to and fro as the tires drive over rocks and bumps in the road. Holding it securely as his eyes don't leave the black and white photograph. A sonogram, she had told him when she asked the doctor to print one out for them. Another term far lost on the redneck who was in deeper than he was comfortable with. But since the appointment that was her idea, and getting the sonogram that was also her idea, he hadn't been able to take his eyes or his mind off of it.
He stared at the dot on the paper till it was stamped into his memory.
Her head laid peacefully against his shoulder as she slept on the way back home, but each bump they rolled over made Daryl worry that she would wake. But she continued to sleep through, and Daryl found comfort in her warm body resting beside him.
Daryl's mind swirled too fast to even fathom sleep. If anything, he felt more alert. Knowing that her body beside him was holding something so small and fragile made him stand his guard ten times more than he already did. He was responsible now, not just for himself or for her... But for that little black dot he couldn't stop thinking about.
The RV was silent, not a word coming from anyone on the way back to Alexandria. But that didn't mean he couldn't feel the emotion and elation that burst inside the vehicle. Daryl could both see it and feel it the second he passed the sonogram picture to Michonne. He continued to witness the happiness spread across the RV like a wildfire as she passed it along to the next person.
There didn't need to be words, the smiles and silent laughs of joy were enough. The smiles that came from the mismatch bunch spoke a million words that afternoon, and Daryl watched as the people who had long ago become his family became just as excited about the little dot on the paper as the woman next to him had.
And as he watched them look at the picture and pass it on to the next person, Daryl gradually began to understand what they saw. What she had seen on that screen. What she had heard from that heartbeat. The thing he had been missing.
As the sonogram picture finally made it's way back to the redneck, Daryl gazed down at the black and white dot on the paper and smiled softly. He helped create that little speck. That little dot was to grow and someday know Daryl as something he had never been before. A father. And that to Daryl, was beautiful.
He had heard it's heart beating and it was still only the size of a bean. How that loud sound came from something so small, Daryl wasn't sure. But what blew his mind more, was the way that little speck that resembled near nothing, could pull so hard at the strings of his heart. How could something so small and almost unnoticable on a screen make him feel something warm in his chest? How could it make him feel fear and excitment all at the same time? How did that little bean make him feel an instant connection that he knew somehow nothing could break? Daryl hadn't the slightest notion, but what he did know, was that those feelings he felt were nothing short of amazing.
As Daryl looks up from the small piece of paper and over at the woman sleeping beside him, he can't help the smile that slowly expands across his lips. He was going to be a father... And he would do everything in his power to keep his little jellybean safe.
A/N: Aw! A little daddy Daryl fluff never hurt... right??😄❤
