The 'Talk' (Aubrey and Dixons)

Aubrey had been having some seriously worrying symptoms.

She had not had her period for at least three cycles.
She had been increasingly sick in the mornings.
She had been increasingly more tired and often lacked the energy to get up.

Overall she had decided to bury her head in the sand and forget about it, putting it down to the lack of nutrients in her system and the strain. Yet, after another heavy bout of sickness she had decided enough was enough and she went and talked to Hershel.

Glenn had then gone and brought back a test for her from one of her runs, and it was only just now she had the result.

Aubrey had been waiting a whole day to go and tell Merle, but he had always been attached to Daryl's hip. She had hoped to tell them separately but if Merle wasn't going to leave then...she would have to tell them together. Finding the two of them together, Aubrey approached and clasped her hands in front of her.

"Hey, guys. Could I have a minute with you, Merle, please?" she asked with a little nervous smile, honestly, she thought Merle would flip his shit if she knew she was pregnant, but she had to tell him, he had a right to know about it.

Merle was beginning to agree that what Aubrey was worrying about seemed to be something that needed worrying about. After all, her 'time of the month' hadn't come. Or at least it hadn't been bloody as it was supposed to be. He was a little bit embarrassed about it all to be honest. But he knew that some things had to be worried about because they were very important.

Life changing.

And if she was coming to the same conclusion that he was coming to then she was thinking about how much her life was going to be changing very soon. And not for a short time either. If it was what he suspected then her life would be altered for many years to come, if not forever.

Of course she wasn't the only one with problems.

He was constantly having to fight to prove himself not only to the older members of the group but to those from Woodbury too. They distrusted him because of what he had had to do for the Governor back at Woodbury. His best distraction from all this was hunting with Daryl and he was currently coming back with their new collection, two big deer. When she asked for some time with him alone he gave his younger brother a look,

"Alrigh' ten..." Daryl agreed before whistling for Carl to help him carry the deer, "Com' on boy... we gun ge' tes' ready for dinn'r!"

As Daryl and Carl disappeared around the corner, Merle took her aside, further from anyone else. He frowned ever so slightly,

"Wa' up ther' darlin'?" he asked her with a audible concern, "Wha's up eh?"

Aubrey was just glad that Daryl seemed to realise that they needed some time alone and he hadn't done the whole 'well I don't keep any secrets from my brother, so you can tell him.'. That was not the best condition for telling someone about being pregnant, especially when they were bound to be pissed off afterwards for her telling both of them at the same time.

She had told Merle about some of the things that were wrong with her, and she hoped that he was thinking about at least the possibility of what was going to be happening. If not well...she just hoped he would be able to get his head around it quickly.

"Thanks Daryl." she smiled softly, giving him a little nod.

As Merle took her to one side, Aubrey decided that she was going to just be straight with him, he needed to know what was happening. How far along she was, things like that. There was a lot of hope going around in her system, and she just knew that this would be something else that would prove to everyone in the groups, Merle was just like any normal man.

"Uhm well I talked to Hershel about the problem's Ive been having, and Glenn went out to get a test for me...I just got the results back and well..." she stated, wringing her hands a little bit "I'm pregnant Merle."

Aubrey's voice broke a little bit and she wanted a big strong hug, she was just so scared!

Merle could tell that sending Daryl away was actually giving her a bit more confidence and that was definitely points in favour of his belief that she was going to be telling him that his suspicions had been confirmed. Their suspicions. He refused to believe that she hadn't been thinking about how much of a possibility it was after all the evidence had begun to pile up on the two of them.

He swallowed a little bit thickly and waved his brother off with a casual wave of his hand that let Daryl know that he didn't need his younger brother to 'rescue' him from the conversation at all so not to try.

When they were to one side he could almost see her shaking in nervousness and that was just driving it home that it was most likely about what he thought it would have been about.

Talking to Hershel? Well that just kind of sealed the deal so the revelation was very surprising... but not as unexpected as he thought,

"Aubr'y... blu'b'll..." he whispered before pulling her in for a big hug and held her tightly to him. He could see how nervous she was about this and she had often told him that the best way to reassure her wasn't with words but with a big hug.

And here was her big hug and here for something said to try and help her too,

"Aubr'y it's alrigh'... alrigh'..." he told her quietly as he held onto her, "We can... we can adap' te tis'."

Aubrey was just so scared about giving birth in a world like this, how on earth could she even hope to give birth to a baby? There was no medical care! No gas and air for her to use! No sedation! No little injection that they gave you into your spine to stop you from hurting too much while you were giving birth!

It was just so so scary to her, and it wasn't really something Aubrey was ready for.

Crying softly into Merle's chest, she couldn't help but let out the worry that had been building up in her chest since she had been thinking about the possibility of her being pregnant three months or so ago when she first missed her period.

Softly she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him to her, his warmth and strength was reassuring and she sighed softly, trying to stop herself from crying so much. It was just something too scary for her.

"How can we adapt to this Merle?" she asked, her voice was shaky "The last person who had a baby died! I don't want to die Merle and...and...we have no medical supplies to help me, no gas and air I've never had a baby before!"

Holding Merle tighter to her Aubrey sniffled softly; "Hershel said that I'm already pretty far along, almost 15 weeks." she stated with a little wipe of her eyes.

Merle... was ready.

What kind of a father could he be? Honestly? He had been a drug dealer, a poacher, a thief and a murderer. He was all of these things and more and none of them good. And that was just before the outbreak. After it? Dear god after it he had been even worse. A heck of a lot of Walkers had been killed and humans alongside them. Worse still...

He had tortured Glenn.

What kind of a father could he possibly be when he was a torturer? A murderer? He was a terrible human being and was only getting better with Aubrey's constant support. And when the child was getting her constant attention he wasn't sure how his moral self would stand up alone,

"We ca' adap' te tis wit' te sam' streng' we us'd te adap' te move to te pris'n." he told her quietly before shaking his head, "We can go ou' an' we can fin' te supplies tha' yer nee'. An' Hersh'l will be on han' tis tim'."

He touched her cheek gently,

"Yer'll be okay don' worry..." he assured her, despite feeling less than certain himself, "Yer'll be okay becaus' I ain' gun le' yer be anythin' but okay!"

Aubrey was sniffling still, she didn't know how she was going to handle this. Despite Hershel offering his support to her, and going through what was going to happen and what they were going to do, she was still so scared. If she had been in the world before the outbreak she would have still been scared...just because she knew that she wasn't ready for this.

It was too late to do anything about terminating the pregnancy though, Aubrey was going to have to go through with it.

"They said Hershel was going to be on hand last time babe and look what happened there!" she stated with a shake of her head "I'm just so scared that something like that is going to happen to me, promise me that when I get close to my due date, you'll not be too far away from me? You'll keep close to me and Hershel?"

Leaning her head into his touch, Aubrey bit her lip and took a deep breath. With a soft smile on her lips she kissed Merle's hand;

"So you're going to be a daddy...how does that feel?" she asked with a little grin "I know it feels weird that I'm going to be growing someone inside of me." Aubrey laughed nervously "But I'm sure everything is going to be okay. Do you want to know what else Hershel said?" she asked with a small smile.

Merle could tell that Aubrey was beyond nervous right now. She was bricking it and it was beginning to show in her expression. He couldn't allow her to be so distressed by this but there seemed to be no way he could help her get over it... or was there? Maybe she need him to do more than just hug her? Maybe he needed her to support him with things other than his hugs?

She needed positivity and for that he needed to be the positive one to help her.

Swallowing a little bit he chuckled a little bit and shook his head, trying to project that he wasn't worried about it happening again,

"Well las' tim' te pris'n was a new bas' fer tem an' Lori wer'n know' fer bein' smar' enough te stay wit' te righ' peopl'." he told her with a soft smile as he stroked her cheeks gently to try and reassure her with his touch too, "I ain' gun' leav' yer alon' fer a secon' when yer ge' clos'. An' we'll han' aroun' Hers'l religi'sly don' worry. We go' tis!"

Kissing her gently on the lips, he chuckled a little bit and hide the fact that being a dad was perhaps the scariest thing in the world to him,

"Te be hones'? It's goo'... I nev'r though' I'd be a daddy yer kno'? No on' wer' linin' up te hav' a kid wit' someon' lik' me." he told her before gently touching her stomach with a soft smile, "I'm sur' it'll all be excellen'... wha' did he say?"

Aubrey bit her lip softly and she listened to what Merle was saying, it was true the prison was not secure and walker free then like it was now. They hadn't set up a great little system yet to go and get supplies and for watches, and for settling down like getting the vegetable garden going and setting up some animals for produce.

The soft stroking to her cheeks made Aubrey sigh softly and she relaxed ever so slightly, with Merle's promise that he was going to stay close to her when she was getting closer to her birthing date being the main factor behind that.

"Thanks Merle, it means a lot that you can support me like this." she whispered softly, kissing the palm of his hand again "If things carry on like they are now then I'm sure that it will go off without a hitch, or well, without any major hitches. There might be a few mood swings here and there but, nothing you cant handle."

Returning the gentle kiss on her lips, Aubrey nuzzled her head against his neck, happy that things seemed to be going well between them now after the initial shock and upset at the situation. Of course, Merle was lying his ass off for her.

"It's good but, it's scary isn't it?" she asked with a soft smile "I guess we will be finding out a lot about this together, we'll make mistakes no doubt, babies don't come with handbooks but. We're going to be good parents. I know it."

A cough interrupted their little moment, it was one of the women from Woodbury, a large crate of juice at her feet;

"Hey Aubrey, you couldn't give me a hand with this could you?" she asked "It's pretty heavy."

"Of course!" Aubrey grinned and she moved to bend down at the waist to pick up the crate of juice, anything to help her fellow survivors after all.

Merle wanted to help her and that was it. He wanted to help her to deal with what she was going through but he had even less experience than what she had due to his lack of time even being a big brother to Daryl when the younger brother was a kid. Back then he had been in and out of juvenile hall and hadn't had chance to really speak to his baby brother, let alone raise him in the place of their drunken mother and abusive father.

When she mentioned being able to handle this he chuckled a little bit,

"I'll try mah bes' te surviv' tis yer kno'?" he teased her a little bit before shaking his head slightly in amusement, "I'm sur' if we can figh' off te undea' we can surviv' havin' te be paren's yer kno'. We're stron' peopl' an' I'm sur' tha'... kids can' be tha' har' now can tey?"

He was pretty sure that she knew that he was more scared than he let on but if she did then she was being a good sport and not mentioning it at all. Chuckling a little bit he nodded in agreement,

"Yea' it's kin'a scary bu' yer shoul' kno' by now tha; I ain' scar'd'a nothin'." he told her with a wide smirk before nodding his head slightly in amusement, "We'll be good paren's... I kno' yer will be fer dam' sur'. Me? I'll nee' practic'."

When Aubrey went to go and help the woman move the heavy juice pack his eyes widened and he rushed over to her. He immediately grabbed her and held up upright again so that she wasn't bending to pick it up at all,

"No!" he told her forcefully before he became quieter, "No... yer' can' lif' somthin' tha' heavy. It'd be too muc' fer yer... yer nee' te res'..."

Aubrey was so happy that Merle was coming around to being positive, and she was too, she had to admit that maybe crying her eyes out after she had told him was not the best way to get him to react positively. It was done now though and she was going to try and be stronger for Merle, when they got more used to the idea, then they could share their fears and doubts.

Maybe now they should just be happy they had a little chibi on the way? She knew Merle would dote over it like nothing seen before, he just knew what not to do to be a dad, and that would mean he could apply that to be the best one ever.

"Maybe, maybe we should look at this like something positive? We're going to have a baby together, it's not something to survive its something to look forwards too, right?" she grinned "You get to be a daddy, and I get to be a mummy...it's going to be so great!" Aubrey smiled brightly.

Gently poking Merle in the arm Aubrey shook her head; "We are both going to need practice, you can have all the role models and positive experience in the world, but it's nothing compared to going through the real thing."

As soon as Merle gripped her arms, and set her upright again Aubrey found herself blinking a little bit in shock. Why on earth had he done something like that? Upon hearing his cute little reason, Aubrey didn't comment it was cute just smiled softly and placed her hands on her hips;

"You know I'm not going to break." she stated with a grin "But okay, Dr. Dixon. I'll rest up, will you help Marie then?" Aubrey asked, gesturing to the juice packs "I'll go up to our room so that we can talk more in private about what Hershel said, okay?"

The tears that she had been having before were mostly dried off now so that was a good sign to be sure. It suggested that he would be able to calm her down but he had no such hopes when she got herself her enhanced hormones. It had been bad enough when it was her period but he had heard that during pregnancy the hormones went out of control even more.

He had no confidence in his abilities to calm her down from a hormone induced rage or sadness on that level,

"Oh for sur'! We'll jus' hav' te fin' som'wher' te ge' lo'sa diap'rs righ'?" he joked a little bit before smirking a little bit, actually getting a little bit excited about being a father, "I'll be abl' te teac' our kid how te kic' ass! An' yer can mak' tem smar'r tan I ev'r was yea'? Give te kid te intelligenc' I nev'r go'."

He chuckled a little bit,

"Dis is gun' be a big learnin' experienc' righ'?" he chuckled a little bit weakly before blinking a bit, "Gun' hav' te ask Ric' how he's manag'd te keep Car' from goin' crazy whil' growin' up mor' in tis worl'..."

Merle could see that she thought that his reason for stopping her was something to be called cute and he wasn't too thrilled at the idea. But... but he wanted to help her and that meant not caring about being called cute,

"Yea' I can pic' tis up no both'r." he agreed, picking up the juice pack with barely any effort. But it would have been a bit of a strain for Aubrey, "Yea'... yea' yer go up ther' an' res' a lil' bit befor' I get up ther'."

Aubrey couldn't help but smile softly when she heard that Merle wanted her to make their baby smart, smarter than he ever was when he was younger. Of course there were different things that mattered these days but she didn't want him to think about himself like that, it seemed to be a losing battle really. Merle never thought of himself as smart.

"There are different kinds of smarts needed in this world baby, and you have them." she stated with a soft smile "You know how to hunt and how to survive out there in the wild and I could never teach our baby that, what use is knowing about algebra, or how to define a metaphor from a simile? Those things don't matter any more."

As soon as he picked up the crate of juice for her, Aubrey smiled brightly and nodded her head at Merle;

"Alright thanks Merle, I'll make sure not to trip up or juggle with flamethrowers on my way up the stairs." she stated with a cheeky grin on her lips, not too bothered that she was maybe playing on his little worries about her and protecting their baby right now.

Moving upstairs she smiled at a few of her friends, she had yet to tell any of them of course about the baby, that could wait until tomorrow, or at least until they had told Daryl and Rick about it. Daryl because he was a relation, and Rick because he was in charge of the group, he needed to know so they could plan what to do.

Resting on their bed, they had cut the bunk bed in half to make one large bed early on in their stay here, Aubrey curled up into a little ball, hugging her stomach lightly.

"Hmmm our own little...hm, what should we call you?" she asked with a smile.

Merle knew that the rules of the old world weren't exactly in place anymore and so the values on certain things had changed. But there were just some things that never changed. Someone who was smart, who had some form of reasoning and ethical code was a lot better than someone who didn't, even in this world. He wanted his son or daughter to be one of the leaders and to do that they needed to be traditionally smart, like Aubrey, but kickass too, like him.

Between the two of them, their kid was going to have the best possible chance at a good life in this new world,

"Well we teac' tis kid wha' we bot' kno' yea'?" he suggested with a little grin before it became slightly sheepish, "Is it... is it weir' tha' I'm already wan'in' te see our kid do well...? Te succee' in thin's tha' I nev'r achiev'd... te ge' te educat'n I ain' ev'r had?"

He rolled his eyes a little bit at her amusing little joke about his concern for her safety before he just smiled a little bit and kissed her on the cheek,

"Yea' well yer mak' sur' yer don' trip on no stai's eith'r." he told her with a little chuckle before shaking his head as he went to take the juice away, "I'll be up ther' soo' yea'?"

Taking the juice to the storage area hadn't taken half as long as he had thought it might have done and he was back up at their shared cell before too long. Grinning as he listened in on her as he leant against the wall, he smirked a little bit,

"I say we call hi' Billy Rae' or we call her Anne'r Mari'." he joked a little bit with a wink as he sat down on the edge of the bed next to her, "Yer got' any preferenc's? Lik' wan'in' a girl mor' tan a boy or som'it'?"

Aubrey was thinking about what Merle had said, about whether it was strange that he was already thinking about a future for their child. True it wouldn't be the one that Aubrey would have wanted for her baby, but a life in a secure place like the prison was enough for her, she wanted something like this for her child. A civilisation, a secure home, a rebuilding society, good food source, good weapons.

She wanted their child to beat this thing, and not let it get them down, as it had gotten so many others down in the past.

"I was thinking." she smiled, when Merle came into their little room "About what you said before. I don't think it is strange to think about the future of our baby, we want the best for our kids, and we want it unconditionally. So, to you, one of the best things is being smarter, for me, well, one of the best things is knowing how to take care of themselves."

Wiggling herself to lay her head in the middle of Merle's lap as he sat on the bed, Aubrey sighed softly and ran her fingers through her hair, poking her tongue out at Merle's rather horrible hick name suggestions.

"Sorry but no way on God's green earth we are calling our baby either of those names." she stated with a roll of her eyes "Something more classy. I was meaning though, what shall we call it while they're still in my tummy, maybe we should call it Sam. So, its a boy and girl name, until we decide for sure."

Looking up at Merle, Aubrey smiled gently, tracing his lips with a stray finger; "Honestly I always wanted a little girl, I think you'd go crazy over a little girl though, you'd want to put her in your pocket and keep her there." she grinned "I always quite liked the idea of twins too you know. My Grandmother was a twin."

When Merle came back to the cell all he wanted to do was close the doors, put the sheet up for privacy, and make sure that Aubrey never had to go outside until after the baby was born. He'd let Hershel in and the good people of the prison wouldn't let them go without water or food so he wouldn't have to hunt for them.

And Aubrey would be able to give birth in peace and with every possible situation dealt with immediately before it could become an issue.

But it was a pipe dream so he just dropped it,

"I thin' tha' fer tis te go in te fav'r of te kid tey nee' te kno' bot' sid's." he told her with a little grin, "Ain' no us' kno'in' how te kill a man, gettin' his broth'rs as enemi's... when yer can jus' tal' it ou' an' maybe get alli' instea'."

With her head in his lap he sighed a little bit and began to play with her hair as she was silently suggesting him to do. Running his fingers through her hair, he sighed in soft amusement as he did so,

"Well goo' thin' I kno' how te mak'a jok' righ'?" he teased her a little bit before grimacing a little bit, "Sam? Yer mea' lik' tha' wimp from te sup'rnatur'l show? Lam'! How 'bou' we us' te nam' Alex?"

He kissed her finger lightly and couldn't help but smirk,

"Ah yer kno' me te well." he joked a little bit before he paused when she mentioned that it could be twins. Twins. He coughed again with a laugh, "Ta' ain' funny Aubr'y... two'a tem woul' ov'rr'un us yer kno'!"