Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead, nor characters from the show or comics.

A/N:

Hey there!

This story is going to be a little different than the stories I've been reading out there. Most of the stories seem to be about the build up (the slow burn), about surviving the walkers and bad people, but I haven't read any stories dealing with the rebuilding of life that would happen if the walkers weren't an issue.

There will still be walkers and danger but the story isn't focused on the walkers, it's focused on family, friendship, love, children and the real life issues that people would face just living their lives, such as the problems people faced several hundred years ago before technology, except this is a world post-technology and the story is about how they deal with that.

So that's what this is going to be.

The focus will be Daryl/Beth but it's not a slow burn, it's more a given that they both feel for each other as that's what I saw when I watched 'Alone' on the show. How anyone could say that episode and what happened between them wasn't romance, I'll never understand. I'm not going to have much build-up before they're together because the point of this story isn't how they got together, it's what happens next.

This story is set right after 'Alone' and nothing else from the show happens after that, it's all AU after 'Alone'. I've basically finished the story in 17 chapters, but I haven't edited them yet, so it may be slightly longer than that, depending on the flow and if anyone actually wants to read it.

Let me know what you think and I'll do my best to edit the next chapter and post it up ASAP.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

xo Captain Kraken ox

Through the Dark : Chapter 1

It had taken effort, the eternal compromise of Beth's morals and a hell of a lot of pain in her ankle, but it had paid off. She'd been driving back the way her kidnappers had taken her until the car ran out of gas. She cursed then took the supplies she'd managed to scrounge from them and left the car, continuing down the road, hoping to find Daryl. She walk-jog-limped for hours and she almost yelled in pure delight when up ahead she spotted Daryl slumped in the middle of the road at the crossroads. She was just about to yell out for him when she spotted the six men with various weapons, all trained on Daryl.

She gasped in shock then stumbled into the tree line, hiding behind a tree. She figured running towards them wouldn't help Daryl right now, so she needed to stay hidden and think of a plan to get to him. She snuck through the trees, getting closer and closer until she could hear the leader guy talking. She hadn't been surprised when Daryl punched him and she'd used the distraction to run a little closer. She was disgusted by the man's line, 'why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?' and was thinking a mile a minute about how to get Daryl away from them, understanding that he'd only put his weapon down because he really had no other choice. She saw that for a moment, he considered killing the guy just to be killed himself and that made her really sad. For him to have made it this far, she understood that he'd clearly run an exceptionally long distance after her and it melted her insides, knowing that the only reason he'd stopped was because he didn't know which road to take.

The group started walking in the direction that she and Daryl had not been in, so she sneakily followed, wondering how she was going to get him back. She watched her footing, making sure that she didn't step on any twigs or branches – or damn hunting traps – so that she wouldn't be heard. She was appreciative of the fact the men were taking a leisurely pace as she was sure she'd lose them if they sped up.

What seemed like miles later, they finally stopped, coming to a small town. There was a grocery store there and the leader instructed two of the men to stand guard then he, Daryl and the other three went into the grocery store to ransack it. Beth hid at the side of a car that had it's door ripped off, close enough that she could listen to the guys.

"Still think we should kill that fucker." One of them said – Beth noticed the bandana on his head and thought like he looked like a creepy sort of guy.

"Nah, he looks tough. Be easier with a guy like him 'round." The other guy disagreed – Beth noticed that his eyes looked evil, like there was something deeply disturbing going on in his head.

"Gotta pass the test first." Creepy Bandana pointed out.

"Boss likes him. Might not make him do it." Evil Eyes smirked.

"Hell naw, if I had to rape that lil girl then kill 'er so does he." Creepy Bandana declared annoyed and Beth's jaw fell open in shock and disbelief.

"Don't act like you didn't love every second of her sweet lil ass." Evil Eyes teased and Creepy Bandana looked at him with disgust.

"Rather have 'em willing." Creepy Bandana retorted and Evil Eyes shrugged.

"Take what you can get nowadays." Evil Eyes purred.

Beth was disgusted. She had to do something about this right now. She couldn't let Daryl die because of these scummy guys. She knew that he'd let them kill him before he'd ever lay a finger on a girl like that. She noticed the time blinking on the dash of the open car and clicked that the battery was still working, then remembered what Merle had done when running to kill the Governor, Daryl had told her about it. She slipped inside the car then opened the glove compartment, seeing some CDs there. She flipped through them, finding something called 'Cradle of Filth' and thought it sounded fitting to them. She turned the dial for the volume up high then slid the CD into the player – and hurried out of the car as fast as she could, knowing she only had a couple of seconds before the CD started playing.

It started playing loudly and it sounded like creepy opera music that you would hear in a horror movie. She watched as their heads snapped to the car and they had their guns raised in that direction – which was opposite to where she currently was. She took a long breath then raised her gun and aimed, making sure her breathing was even and she didn't miss – landing a bullet straight into Evil Eyes' head. He went down, behind where Creepy Bandana was, so the other man didn't notice, giving Beth time to aim. She shot him as well, though she missed and hit his neck, making him fall to the ground with a scream that nobody heard.

The music started to screech and scream loudly out of the car and the five men including Daryl hurried out of the store at the noise, all with their weapons trained. Beth took the moment to fire at one at the edge then crouch and roll on the ground away from where she'd been as they were all expecting her to be in that direction and that's where they were firing. She crawled on her knees as fast as she could, seeing one of them hurry over to the car to turn off the music, so she shot him while he crouched down and the music muffled the shot; leaving the other two left plus Daryl, who were moving low around the cars clearly expecting further attack.

Beth noticed that walkers were starting to amble in their direction and she realised that she hadn't really thought this through. But there were only two left plus Daryl, so she was confident that they had a chance – she would think about shooting all of those men later, right then all she could think about was making sure that Daryl Dixon walked away from this in one piece because she knew that if the roles were reversed, he'd do anything to make sure she did.

Another one of them managed to get the music off in the car now that she'd moved out of the way…

"Show yourselves, you bunch a pussies!" The one who'd turned the music off growled out furiously – Beth took that moment to shoot him, giving away her location, so she ambled around the car, seeing that Daryl and the last guy standing, the leader, were heading in her direction.

"Where the fuck are you?" Daryl called out confused and her heart clenched hearing his voice. She saw that the leader guy was crouched facing Daryl, so she slipped around and had the gun pressed against the back of the man's head and Daryl had his crossbow trained on her in a blink then his jaw fell in disbelief as he dropped his crossbow in shock. The leader turned his head and saw the barrel in his face – and that it was a young woman pointing it.

"You killed all my men?" The leader gasped in shock and she looked at him deadpan.

"Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?" She repeated – then pulled the trigger and Daryl gaped at her.

"Beth!" He choked as he stood up and she threw herself at him, hugged him tightly and he returned it, almost crushing her body to death. "You… you… all the… you followed…" He stuttered out and she pulled back to look up at him.

"I saw you at the crossroads. I was running towards you when those stupid men showed up. I followed from a distance then when you were in the store, they were talking about your 'initiation' into the group and how you'd have to rape and kill a little girl like they did." She explained with watery eyes and his skin visibly paled at the thought of the men he'd been temporarily with. "They're worse than the walkers." She mumbled and he nodded.

"You aint done nothin' wrong." He assured her softly.

"I did." She countered. "But it was worth it." She pronounced sincerely and his stomach fluttered knowing that she'd done it for him.

"Can't believe you took all of them out." He said disbelieving. "How'd you think of that?" He asked motioning to the car.

"Merle." She replied fondly and he chuckled a little with a smile tugging at his lips. "But we have to get the hell out of here. Every walker in the vicinity's going to be heading this way." She said and he nodded then looked up, scanning the buildings.

"There." He pointed, seeing a fire escape ladder going up to a top floor window that was half open.

They quickly ascended the ladder then Daryl climbed in the window after sliding it further open. He had to take out one large walker but other than that, it was clear. He and Beth hoisted the walker out of the window then looked around a little. It was a small apartment and when Beth ran the taps, to their delight, water came out, so they both had very quick showers – cold but still amazing – then found some clothes to put on for the night while theirs dried as they'd washed them as well.

They were both wearing sweatpants that were way too big for them as obviously the person who had once lived here was a large man in both directions, so they'd had to tie knots in the waistbands to keep them from falling down and they had a snigger at the sight of themselves draped in equally large t-shirts. Daryl looked through the two bags she'd managed to fill with stuff from the kidnappers and found bottled water, canned food, two boxes of cereal, first aid kit, some weapons and lots of ammo for the gun she'd stolen and shot the six guys with.

The fat guy also had tons of junk food that had so many preservatives in it making the expiry dates in the future. They couldn't believe their good luck.

"Let's stay here." Beth suggested surprising him.

"Why here?" Daryl queried, shoving a corner of chocolate pop tart into his mouth.

"We have plenty of food, we can disconnect the fire ladders to make it safe from invaders, we have running water and this town hasn't been heavily looted. We could build up quite the little stockpile." She suggested. "And it's close to the woods for hunting." She pointed out. "And walkers can't get us up here." She added and he nodded.

"We'll stay." He settled making her smile. "You ever gonna tell me what happened?" He asked, surprising her.

"Oh." She blinked, realising herself that she hadn't. "Sorry, lots of stuff happened between then and now." She said and he shot her an amused look for forgetting she'd been kidnapped.

"What? Like you savin' my ass?" He smirked and she smiled.

"Bout time I saved your ass for a change. Can't be completely useless all the time." She replied and he frowned.

"You aint useless at all." Daryl said to her seriously and she gave him a small smile.

"I ran out to the road and turned back to look for you then I felt a sharp burning on my head and everything went black. I woke up a little while later, realising I was in the trunk of a car." She explained and he nodded in understanding. "But I couldn't hear anyone talking, so I knew it was only one person in the car. He didn't take my knife, or I guess your knife, so when he opened the trunk and tried to grab me I stabbed him. But I didn't see the other guy coming out of the little house until he took hold of me. It was a bit of scrap but he didn't have a weapon, so when the first guy turned into a walker I pushed the second guy into him and he was bitten. I ran into their house after I put them both down, grabbed the supplies then drove the car back the way we came. It was the only road, so I drove until I ran out of gas then I tried to run the rest of the way but with my ankle it didn't work too well. Then I saw you in the distance and just as I was about to call out for you, those men showed up. I didn't think it would help you to run to you, so instead I just followed." She clarified and he gave her a smile.

"I'm real proud of you." Daryl said making her smile back.

"I missed you." Beth said softly and he took a long breath as his heart thudded a little louder.

"I was… gonna give up without you." Daryl admitted ashamed.

"But you didn't." She smiled and he nodded.

"I woulda if they'd tried to make me hurt a lil girl." Daryl countered.

"I know." She agreed. "I know you'd never do that. You don't have it in you to do that." She said with certainty and he nodded because he was glad that she knew he'd rather die than hurt a child. "You know, I saw a sign on the train tracks." She commented.

"For what?" Daryl queried then stuck another bit of pop tart into his mouth.

"A place called 'Terminus'." She advised and he looked up at her.

"Heard 'bout that on that radio transmission." He commented surprising her.

"It says on the sign that people who arrive survive." Beth mentioned and he considered that.

"You wanna go there?" Daryl asked and she looked at him doubtfully.

"Do you?" She posed and he considered that.

"Nah… I wanna…" He glanced down then back up at her. "Stay here." He admitted and she smiled.

"Me too." Beth agreed. "I don't think I should be going anywhere until this ankle heals better." She motioned to her foot and he nodded – he'd had to wrap it up again for her, seeing that it had only gotten worse from all of the walking and running she'd had to do.

"We could try it once we've used up all of the supplies here." Daryl suggested and she nodded.

"Okay." She decided. "I wanna be as strong as I can be before we go there. Just in case it's a trap or some way to lure people there." She commented and he nodded his agreement.

"Think if anyone survived they might head there?" Daryl queried.

"I do." She agreed surprising him.

"Then why do you wanna stay here?" He asked her curiously and she shrugged.

"I'm trying to be smart about this." She began. "If Maggie's alive, she would head to Terminus." Beth said like she believed it completely. "But I'm not willing to blindly run there with a badly hurt ankle when here's a chance for some safety with enough supplies to last us for a long time. We can be safe here, we can rest and gather our strength then once we're back at our strongest, we go to Terminus and see what happens." Beth remarked thoughtfully, planning it out in her head and he smirked at her – thinking that sometimes she was sensible like an old lady. "Also…" She trailed off softly and he arched a brow at her to continue. "I… I'm afraid." She admitted. "I want some time to mourn my daddy before I have to deal with possibly finding out Maggie's dead, you know?" She asked him softly. "If everyone is there when we get there, if they tell me that…" She gulped. "…Judith is dead or Maggie's dead, I couldn't deal with that right now. I need some time to come to terms with daddy's death before I find out anything else that's gonna break my heart." She said softly and he nodded his acceptance as he more than understood that.

"Then we'll stay." Daryl confirmed…

A/N:

So that's just the introduction to get them reunited...

Hate it? Like it?