As usual, this is in two parts. Enjoy!
Beth Greene has never cared for a little rain before and she certainly doesn't mind today. In fact, she nearly cries with sheer joy at the sight of it. It's always so damn hot and the heat does nothing for the rancid stink of the whole goddamn world. To have some rain wash away the smell for a peaceful couple of minutes is not something she's quick to complain about.
Even getting soaked isn't a problem, until the rain turns biting and vicious, winds howling and screeching all around her, tearing at her hair and stinging her skin. It's so abrupt it takes her a moment to register the dire changes in the weather and only Daryl's insistent dragging gets her to move against the solid block of air trying to push her back down the road.
After a torturous battle, they make it back to the car, drenched from head to toe. There's even a few walkers who are sent flying into trees and ghastly impaled, some receiving branches through the eye and saving both her and Daryl the trouble of killing them later. Even still, as much as she loves the rain, she doesn't particularly favour the cold and sitting in the car wet through makes her whole body rattle with shivers.
"Y'alright?" Daryl murmurs.
Beth nods despite her teeth chattering so hard and quick she bites her bottom lip at least four times. "B-be fine, in a s-sec."
"Hold on, Aaron's been messin' in here, think he got the heatin' runnin' 'gain," Daryl mutters as he plays with dials.
Beth scowls though the effect is slightly ruined by her cold shakes. "Y-yay f-for Alexandria."
Glancing up into the mirror, Daryl connects eyes with her. "Weren't for them, we would'a been dead long time ago."
"I m-meant to be g-grateful?" She asks, her eyes slipping from his in the mirror to look at the scars on her face.
"Ain't gotta be nothin'."
There's tense silence and Beth leaves it, watching Daryl try and work the heating. Why should she be thankful for them? They're the reason she's sitting here with a face full of scars. Yeah, they saved her and the others, got them behind their giant walls and filled their bellies. But that's all they did: hide them.
The group did the rest: saving her from Grady, making it nearly two damn weeks on barely any food with a teething toddler and the unconscious, injured weight that was her. Honestly, that time is nothing but a hazy blur to her. Daryl practically carried her the whole way, sometimes grudgingly allowing Rick to do it when he couldn't go no more.
Throughout the whole ordeal, Daryl pumped her with pills and gave up his rationed water for her to swallow them with. Maggie and Carol changed her dressing as much as they could but soon that ran out too.
It was hell.
Days spent between the living world and the waking, hallucinations coming from the dark depths of her mind and fucking with her. Intense headaches from the sun, loose limbs and a stomach that could barely keep her pills down. It got to the point where death would have been better than the nightmare they all endured on that road.
It's not like Beth doesn't appreciate her life or the effort everyone put into keeping it and yeah, the scarring would have been worse if they hadn't patched her up in Alexandria, but they're still there and so are all the memories. People think just because she didn't die she escaped unharmed.
As if, because she survived, she should just put up with the migraines, the hallucinations, the blackouts and the sudden bouts of dizziness that always leads her to throw up. Ever since she got shot, her life is miserable. The scars are nothing on that, but they're still the biggest thing she hates because little kids cry and run away from her now.
Judith won't even stay in her arms without screeching and twisting away, chubby hands outstretched for someone else with a nice, soft face. Not Beth's knotted, gnarled and bumpy skin. The worst thing is the pity that fills the eyes of whichever person she passes the baby over to and the shame she feels in her gut. Beth's own eyes fill with tears and she glances away, out the window at the howling wind.
"How long you think we're gonna be stuck here?" She asks with a stronger voice than she thought she could manage.
Daryl grunts under his breath and there's a sudden blast of hot air. "Not long. 'Nough time for you to get them wet clothes off an' dry up."
She baulks, reaching her hands forward to the air vent. "'M'fine."
He sits back in his seat and shakes out his wet hair like a dog, sending droplets of water all over the car. "You ain't. You need to warm up girl."
Despite how ridiculous it is, her face heats up under his confused frown. "I can't."
This pushes the frown harder and with absolutely anyone else, it would piss Beth off, but not Daryl. From the day they stepped into Alexandria it's like every single person is watching her. She sneezes and it's simultaneously reported to Maggie, Rick, Daryl and Deanna faster than someone can say, "bless you." Rick promised Deanna he would keep an eye on her, though he thinks she doesn't know that, Maggie thinks she's going to top herself and Daryl…
Well, she doesn't know why he's keeping tabs on her, but she can only guess. They spent so much time together, depending on each other when they were out their alone, it would be weird if something didn't emerge from it. A bond like Daryl and Carol has and maybe it would have stopped there, stayed there, but when Beth opened her eyes in a pool of her own blood, the first face she saw was Daryl.
When they got to Alexandria, Denise said that Beth had pretty much imprinted, like a baby bird. Her brain was scattered, quite literally and after so long with Daryl, when he was the first person she saw, she didn't allow him to leave. It was him that held her up when she was too stubborn to let him carry her and it was him who then carried her when she was too tired to walk.
He gave up food, water, sleep and probably his sanity for her. Did stupid runs in the dead of the night, coming back scratched from branches and sporting black eyes from who knows where all because he was looking for pills for her. They had no idea what to give her, so it was just measly painkillers but the effort he went to made all the pain that much easier to bare.
Of course, at the time Beth was completely spaced out. All these memories started to come back later on when Denise patched her up and pumped her full of whatever was to hand. In dribs and drabs, she started to understand the sacrifice the group made to bring her along, to keep her alive but no one gave up as much as Daryl.
So when he watches over her like Maggie or frowns at her behaviour, it doesn't niggle in her gut as much and it's not hard to answer him. "I don't have a bra on, an' my top is so faded it's barely there."
She doesn't look at him because they've come a long way in their friendship but this still feels weird. Daryl doesn't laugh like she expects him to, but instead grumbles, "m'a grown ass man Beth, I ain't no teenager an' I ain't havin' you catch no damn cold 'cause you got nipples like every other woman. Seen so many walker nipples m'scarred for life anyhow."
Beth laughs under her breath and shrugs. "Fine, just… just don't be weird."
Daryl snorts and it makes her feel better about unzipping her jacket and shaking it off. "You're the weird one."
She feels her stomach roll over but she ignores it and tries not to be offended. He doesn't mean it like that, Beth knows that deep down, but it still brings forth the past couple of weeks and all the kids that have sniggered behind their hands and ran away laughing. One time, Carl caught her crying about it and he tried his hardest to cheer her up.
Talked into the silence she left gaping full of her misery, telling her that she was a warrior, that she was a hero. Reminded her how she saved Noah, killed Dawn and saved the people in the hospital after taking out their corrupt leader. It was real sweet of him and she smiled at the time, but deep inside her heart still hurt.
Noah was gone now. Dragged from one hell hole to his death and the people in the hospital were now stuck with a corrupt doctor rather than a police officer. So what had she really done? Gotten shot for nothing. Nearly died, for nothing. Shaking her head to clear the thought, she glances back at Daryl.
His eyes flick up and her throat closes in sheer surprise at the realisation that she just caught him looking at her nipples. She has no idea what to say and she feels like such an idiot when the first thing that comes out of her mouth is, "you're bein' weird."
Daryl's cheeks colour red but she's even more surprised to see that he doesn't revert into himself as he usually does when confronted with embarrassing things or something he finds shameful, regardless of whether she does or not.
"Ain't nothin' wrong with lookin'."
Beth bursts out laughing, clutching his forearm unconsciously where it's stretched out to the dashboard. "Where the hell is Daryl Dixon gone? 'Ain't nothin' wrong with lookin''? Who are you?" She giggles.
A smile tugs at his mouth and he shrugs. "Knew it'd make ya laugh."
Hearing that makes her stop laughing, but melts her heart. "Daryl," she whispers softly. "I ain't never gonna be able to pay you back, for everythin'. For the hospital, for savin' me in the prison, for gettin' me back to Maggie, carrying' me all that way, the runs, the water, th-"
"Stop." Daryl jumps in, his face flushed. "Don't have to say nothin', do nothin'. We have each other's back."
She smiles and reaches out her pinky finger. "Pinky swear?"
He snorts but indulges her and wraps his thick pinky around hers. "Swear."
Beth grins and tugs where their fingers are twined together. "You ticklish?"
"Huh?"
"You ticklish?" She repeats.
He shrugs. "Don't think so, w-"
She pounces, using her finger wrapped in his to pull him closer and reach in with her free hand, her fingers digging into his sides and ribs. It's even funnier that he tries not to laugh but instead snorts and jerks and makes these weird, half breath noises. It's so funny that she's giggling harder than him and it allows him the advantage.
His large body weight slams into her and it may be how heavy he is or the car seats old and battered, or it may be both but as he leans into her, Beth's car seat falls back in rapid motion, throwing her down with a surprised scream. In shock and slight fear, she grips the first thing she can, which is the front of Daryl's vest.
In the space of two seconds, she goes from laughing and tickling him, to having him flat on top of her with the seat thrown all the way back. Their faces are inches apart and his eyes flick right down to her lips.
Shit, is he going to kiss her?