The Baby Arrangement

Chapter 67: Happiness in a Jar

Chapter 67: Happiness in a Jar

Since it started raining and they had been summoned inside, Beth decided it was the perfect time to test out her moonshine skills. Standing over the hot kitchen stove, she pours in the ingredients and lets it cook with the everclear alcohol as she brews it with the cinnamon sticks to make apple pie moonshine. In the other room, Kensi and Daryl are doing a small cluster of puzzles featuring several disney characters.

"Mommy!" Kensi calls to her and Beth turns down the temp on the stove and puts the lid on the big boiling pot. Going into the living room, she finds Kensi being tickled by Daryl and puzzle pieces everywhere. "Daddy, NOOO!!!"

"Oh no. Is my baby girl being tickled?" Beth rushes in and Daryl and Kensi tackle her to the ground and start tickling her. As she thrashes around, Kensi and Daryl laugh as Beth squirms beneath their grasps. "Evil!!!"

When they finally stop, Kensi is tiredly laying on Beth's torso, head on her mother's chest an their chests breathing agains each other's. Daryl lays next to them and he just smiles up at the ceiling.

"I am not cleaning up this mess..." Beth huffs out and Daryl sighs.

"Okay...Come on Marie, let's get to work." Sitting up, Kensi and Daryl start cleaning and Beth goes back to her moonshine, which happens to be done. She puts the brown liquid in mason jars with cinnamon sticks in them and places them under her sink to ferment. When she gets dinner done, spaghetti and meatballs, Kensi and Daryl come in and sit at the set table.

"Mommy, I's love you's skeeti!" Kensi says as she pulls a whole clob into her tiny mouth.

"Okay, but don't choke on it baby. Use yer fork." The small girl grabs her fork like her mother said to and she pokes her way through the plate of saucy pasta and cut up meatballs.

"Thanks for dinner, Babe." Daryl leans over and kisses Beth's cheek. As they continue to eat, the pitter patter of rain on the roof continues at a steady pace and it starts making Kensi sleeping, right at the dinner table. "Kens, you tired?"

Jolting up, her eyes are sagging with tiredness and her posture is slouchy in her booster-seat.

"Come on you. Lets go to bed." Picking her up with her head to his chest, Daryl carries her upstairs and lays her in her crib.

Coming back downstairs, he notices a pair of headlights pull into the driveway and then shut off. He's cautious about people arriving at night, so he grabs his crossbow just incase and waits. When the knock on the door scares him, he notices Rick's face popping up in the window, so he relaxes. Putting his bow back in the closet and opening the door, Rick smiles before stepping in.

"Hey, buddy...." Rick skies and Daryl can smell the whiskey on his breath.

"You've been drinkin?"

"Yup. My son's a fuck!" Walking with a staggering gimp, Rick walks his way into the living room and plops down on the couch without even permission." he got a girl pregnant at school. Fucked her right in the girl's locker room after gym class. Enid...that's her name. He got suspended and now her parents want him to pay child support."

Beth comes in from the kitchen and is taken aback from the sight of her old neighbor and friend, sloppily drunk on her couch, with Daryl leaning against the unlit fireplace.

"Rick....so nice to see you."

"Did he get you pregnant too?" Rick asks inappropriately.

"Wh...what?"

"My son. Carrrrrl. He got Michone pregnant and Enid....lil fuck." Beth's eyes widen and Daryl shakes his head as Rick soon lays on their couch, kicking his boots off first of course. "He can't pay child support cause he's a stupid jobless fuck. Michone is due any week now and then we won't know what to do with it..."

"Rick, how much have you had to drink? Beth walks over slowly and kneels beside her friend."

"A lot, Honey..." He slurs again and touches Beth's cheek. Daryl stands straight, not liking where this is going, until Rick knocks right out and Beth looks up at Daryl.

"Beth, we should get to bed..."

"Daryl, should we leave him like this?" She stands up and goes to him, nervous about what could happen.

"I'll take his keys so he can't drive anywhere." Kissing her forehead, Daryl searches Rick's person for the keys and finally finds them. Heading upstairs, they both lay down and go to sleep, not discussing what their friend had confided in them.

Around five am, Beth wakes up from a crash downstairs. Bumping Daryl's arm, she wakes him up and they wait, before hearing the same sound. Going downstairs with his bat and Beth following at a safe place, they come across the empty living room and soon find Rick smashing drunk from two jars of moonshine and working on his third of the ten.

"Dammit Rick!" Daryl growls as he drops the bat and looks at his drunken friend sitting on the floor around two smashed mason jars. Trying to pick him up, Rick turns and punches him, taking Daryl off guard. Shoving him into a counter, Rick continues to beat Daryl, who is simply trying to protect himself and not engage. Beth takes a step forward and Daryl yells at her to go away, knowing full well that Rick might drunkenly attack her too.

Getting his strength back, Daryl shoves Rick into the far counter and backs up, onto to have Rick run at him and tackle him to the ground, joking him out. Beth screams as she watches Daryl's face go from normal to blue to purple. Taking a vase from the hallway, she has no choice but to smash it over his head- knocking him out and falling to the side of Daryl. Gaining back his color and breath, Daryl continues to lay on the floor-trying to calm himself.

"You okay?" Beth worriedly asks as she kneels beside him.

"Ye...yeah...yeah." They look over at passed out Rick and shake their heads. "Fuck."