The tell-tale wail of a baby woke Daryl up with a start and he groaned loudly, as much as he liked the fact that Judith had survived, it was driving him crazy that she was doing… well, baby stuff. He huffed and slid out of his bed, draping his leather jacket on his shoulders as he did. He stalked out of his cell bedroom and looked around for Beth, sure enough she padded into sight on the upper floor, carrying Judith and rocking her, singing a lullaby to her in a low voice as she did. He didn't understand why Rick wasn't looking after his own daughter. Yes his wife was dead, but she was also and cheat and Rick had even told him that the baby could be Shane's but he was going to love her like her own. "What's wrong with her now?" He grumbled, stalking over to the metal stairs and starting up them.
"I don't know." Beth replied in her soft voice, however he detected that it was laced with exhaustion, "She's not hungry, she's been changed and she's not tired. But I am." Beth moaned, as she continued bouncing the baby on her hip.
"Where is Rick? Or Carl?"
"Out lookin' for supplies. Will you take her? I'm gonna try an' find my daddy. He's the only parent here at the moment." Beth held the still bawling child out to Daryl and hesitantly he took her. She hiccupped before looking up at him with wide brown eyes.
"Hurry up." He told Beth, holding Judith gingerly as if she were a little doll.
"Yeah, don't worry. If I can't find daddy I'll get Maggie or Glenn."
Daryl made a noise of recognition as he continued to hold Judith at arm's length. Beth hurried past him and he watched over his shoulder as she left, the door slamming shut behind her.
Daryl turned back to Judith and wrinkled his nose a little, it wasn't that he didn't like kids. He did, it's just he didn't think he was any good with them. Carefully he brought Judith closer to him and held her delicately. She cooed a little and grabbed at his hair whilst he felt something which he hoped was saliva dribble down his bare arms. He grimaced a little, "Nice… at least you stopped your whinin'." He muttered, "Why couldn't you have just fallen asleep on Beth." He muttered to her. Rolling his eyes, he started down the stairs and made his way to the door, balancing Judith carefully in one arm when he opened the door.
Grumbling under his breath, Daryl navigated the prison and eventually managed to push the main doors open just as Beth was approaching them again. He glared down at her before trying to hand Judith back to her but to his dismay the baby had a surprisingly tight grip. "Lil' ass kicker fell asleep as soon as you left. She musta been sick of your singing." He growled, he regretted his words as soon as they passed his lips because Beth's expression dropped and her eyes became slightly glassy. He actually liked her singing but he was just… pissed right now, Judith had woken him up only to fall straight to sleep. "Sorry…" He said in a low voice. "Will you take her back? I wanna go huntin'"
Beth fixed him with a steady gaze and tried to hold herself high, she had a tendency to try and brush off any feelings she didn't want, but more often than not she was unsucessful. "I would but my terrible singing might wake her up again." She replied coolly. Daryl couldn't help but smirk a little at her words. "Well there's only one way to see ain't there?" He moved Judith from his shoulder and held her to Beth, the child started to whimper and wriggle at finding herself in midair but soon settled when Beth rested her against her shoulder and started stroking her hair. The pair held their gaze for a moment before Daryl turned and started to walk off. "For the record, your singin' ain't that bad." He called over his shoulder to Beth.
"Oh, I know." She replied confidently and he couldn't contain the throaty laugh that passed his lips.
As Daryl made his way back to the cell block he couldn't help but smile, Beth really had come out of her shell a little since they came to the prison. She did still have her moments, however. He liked how he could now have a bit of playful banter between them and not worry about offending her or if he did, she'd get her own back. When he reached his cell, he draped his trusty crossbow over his shoulders and refilled it with arrows. Holding it up to his eyes he smiled contently and nodded. The sound of footsteps startled him and he spun around with his weapon still armed. "I surrender Daryl." The familiar voice of Rick said, it was playful but laced with the tone of a man since given up.
"Oh, sorry Rick." He murmured. Lowering his weapon, "I was just goin' out huntin'."
"Why? We have food, there's no need to."
"I know, but I wanna. I'm tired of being cooped up."
"Well, how are you going to get out?"
"There's a little hole in the fence. It's boarded up with wood but the walkers are stupid and don't realise you can just nudge it, crawl and get out."
Rick frowned as he looked Daryl. "If I let you go, will you take someone with you?"
"If I go without your permission can I go alone?"
"Yes, but if the walkers didn't kill you. I would." Rick warned, half playful, half serious.
"Alright, I'll take someone with me."
"Beth." Rick said promptly.
"What! Why Beth?" Daryl exclaimed and Rick smirked.
"Because Daryl, she spends all her time 'cooped up' too looking after Judith. She needs to get out, hone her fighting skills. Besides, you and her have got such a rivalry going on, it is about time you both worked together to try and sort it out. We're a team Daryl."
Daryl scowled but nodded a little, "Fine, I'll take her hunting. But we're not going to become best of friends by the time I'm back, you got that?"
"She's outside with Judith." Rick replied, ignoring the final bit of what Daryl had to say.
"Yeah I know." Daryl grumbled before slinking off out the cell block again.
An hour later Daryl and Beth found themselves in the midst of the forest behind the prison, the walkers – or the majority of them were at the front of the prison being stabbed. "Alright Beth, you keep an eye out. I'll do the huntin'."
"Fine by me."
"Don't even talk to me."
"I'll do what I want."
Daryl looked at Beth with disbelief and had to fight back the scowl. "If you talk I won't listen."
"Sure you will, you can't exactly gag me."
"I would if I could." He muttered to himself darkly.
"What was that?" Beth asked perkily and Daryl dropped his crossbow, rolling his eyes he turned to her.
"I didn't say a thing darlin'." He replied sarcastically, Beth narrowed her eyes and sent an elbow into his side. He inhaled sharply and gritted his teeth, glaring down at Beth. "Just keep moving." With that he led the way with his crossbow raised again and his gaze on the ground looking for any signs of animal tracks.
The pair walked in silence when Daryl picked up what he knew to be deer tracks, although he knew Beth was probably fighting with herself not to speak, but the girl was smart enough not to push her luck when Daryl Dixon was on to something. They made their way through the trees and Daryl froze when he caught sight of a tawny colour amongst the trees, he held out a hand to stop Beth in her tracks and raised his fingers to her lips. Beth quirked her eyebrow in a way that meant if she could talk there would be some kind of sarcastic comment. He pointed to the grazing doe and Beth peeked through the leaves, a smile making its way onto her porcelain face. Daryl glanced briefly to the side at her before turning his attention back to his weapon and prey. Biting his bottom lip he aimed carefully before squeezing the trigger. With an incredible swiftness the arrow hurtled towards the deer and embedded itself in the head. The doe fell to the ground like a brick. "Sorry Bambi, mom's not comin' home tonight." Daryl said smugly, he pushed the branches back and made his way to the dead prey with Beth close behind him.
Daryl was about to pick up the doe when a low groan and snapping twigs caught his attention. Without a word he and Beth were back to back. "Don't let your guard down." He said quietly to Beth, he felt the blonde nod and her arms reaching for the sheathed knife in her belt. After a few painful seconds a zombie burst through the trees and made a beeline for Daryl. Pressing the trigger of his crossbow again he shot the walker in the head before moving from Beth to retrieve it when the creature fell to the ground, he stamped on the chest and yanked his arrow out. Almost immediately the trees began to shake again and Daryl snapped his gaze up in time to see a small hoard of walkers coming towards them, all snarling and clawing the air as they made their way to the pair. "Crap." Daryl breathed, standing up he armed his crossbow and started to fire at them. He turned on his heel to face Beth as a few more walkers came at them, whilst Beth was managing to stab them in the head she wasn't as quick as his crossbow and so he stealthily shot the three that were circling her. Beth spun to face him with a small, yet grateful smile before her eyes widened. "Daryl behind you!"
Just as Daryl turned around, a walker dived on him, pushing him to the ground, his crossbow flew from his hand and landed just out of arms reach. Although winded, Daryl tried to wrestle with the creature, but struggled slightly as it seemed to press its full weight on him and every time he moved the walker snapped at him, causing him to recoil to avoid being bitten. He started to strain his neck whilst avoiding the walker until he was covered in warm blood and guts. Panting, he pushed the carcass off him and sat up, spitting brain matter from his mouth. Glancing up he flicked his hair from his eyes and nodded at Beth in thanks. The young girl placed her knife back in its halter before going over to the doe and picking it up by the legs, Daryl took her forepaws and carefully the pair started back to the prison, small talk starting to ensue between them after Daryl voiced his thanks.
A/N So yeah, after that heartbreaking scene in Walking Dead I realised just how much I ship Daryl and Beth and so I decided to give this a shot. For the ages Beth is 17 and I'm going to put Daryl as being roughly 35, now before people kick off. I know there is a HUGE age gap between them but age is just a number and to be honest during the zombie apocalypse you can't afford to be picky.
I'm going to try and use as much as I can remember from the episodes we saw but change it slightly so we can see their day to day stuff. The romance between Daryl and Beth isn't going to be immediate I'm going to work up to it. I MAY change the ending though because I think there could have been so much potential once the group were reunited in season 5 so I may explore that. I may also have Judith with Beth and Daryl when they get separated because Beth is so good with her and I just love seeing Daryl going all soft when it comes to little ass kicker hehe.
I'll stop rambling now, I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to follow, fave or review 3