* so I don't know where I'm going with the church setting, but this doesn't really follow the story all too well… Sorry, I have never written fanfiction before! Ido ship Bethyl, please don't hate! I recently posted the beginning of this on .com (which is my tumblr), so feel free to go check that out/leave feedback! xoxo, Hadley *

"What?" Beth Greene's pale pink lips curled into a sly smile as she flopped down onto the red cushioned pew, leaning against the cold dusty wood. Daryl looked to the floor, his cheeks burning with embarrassment. Naturally, everything that had to do with Beth made him blush. He had been trying to catch her eye at her from the corner as she and Carl cleaned their guns together, and she had just finished. "Well, somethings on your mind, or you wouldn't be staring at me like that!" He wasn't all too sure what she was talking about, but then he realized he had been in some sort of an awkward daze. Beth rolled her eyes, getting annoyed with Daryl's constant shy-ish attitude toward her. "Nothin'" he mumbled. She was absolutely used to this, and just as she was about to say something to him about his shyness, Rick, Michonne, Carol, Father Gabriel, and Sasha had busted through the front doors of the church. "We need to pack up our things. We are spending one last night here, and then-" Rick started instructing the group, but Carl interrupted him. "Wait, we're leaving already?" he seemed shocked. Daryl put down the squirrel he had just started cleaning, his mouth slightly open. He adjusted his expression, slouched, and returned to his squirrel. Beth got up and walked to go sit with him, but as she passed Rick, he put a hand on her shoulder. "Take it easy with him." he muttered. She nodded and attempted at a feeble 'thanks-for-the-advice' smile, sat down next to Daryl, and then heaved an exasperated sigh. Say something… Say anything, I don't care, she thought desperately. Daryl looked up at her, bleakly nodded, and looked back down to his squirrel. This was just about as hopeless as attempting to cure the walkers, and Beth was quite sure she was just going to have to move on. From the way he and Carol talked, she was almost certain that she had no chance.

2 days later

The only sounds between The Group were the crunching of their feet on the leaves in the woods, the occasional growls and moans of walkers, and Rick's 'coast is clear' whistle. They had been walking through the woods for 2 days now, camping under large trees and taking turns keeping watch. "We're bound to come up on some shelter soon, right?" Carol asked with a tone of uncertainty in her voice. Nobody replied for around 2 minutes and Daryl broke the silence, speaking for the first time in a day: "I'm gonna take a piss." Beth rolled her eyes. She was getting annoyed with him; she had shown him every sign she could think of without being desperate, but he hadn't even noticed her trying toget his attention. Or had he? Maybe he's still into Carol, Beth thought as she scooted near Daryl, but he instead walked off. Rick held out a hand to signal the group to wait for him, and Michonne slid her back down a bare tree. "Where are we going, Rick? We've been walking straight for a while, lets take a turn. For all we know, we could be walking deeper into these damn woods, and I'm getting tired of it." Carol nodded in agreement, and Carl looked at his shoes. "Why are we stopped?" Sasha asked, unattentively. She hadn't been paying attention, but there really was no point. Daryl whipped his arms around, clearing some spiderwebs as he walked through a gap in two large branches. Carl was pointing his gun at him, but lowered it when he realized that it wasn't a walker or a stranger.

By the time that the group had started walking, Daryl had a large string of squirrels and two rabbits over his shoulder and he was carrying his crossbow with his free hand. He and Beth were falling behind from the group around an hour later, and Carl and Tyreese were out of breath from switching turns carrying Judith. Rick took her into his arms as the sun was setting, and they hadn't come upon shelter still. Beth layed out the black tarp and Daryl threw his trashbag of stuff onto the ground next to her. "Hey." she said quietly to him, and he looked up and nodded to her. "Are you gonna talk to me, or are you just going to continue ignoring me? Did I say something, Daryl? Because I'm done tryin'." Beth's face was flushed with anger and she had grown tired of trying to get his attention, but all Daryl did at her remark was look at his shoes, flop onto the bottom end of her tarp, and look back up at her. "Beth and I'll take first watch." he stated, and this reassured her in a way. She was quite sure he might talk to her while taking watch, and maybe even tell her how he felt.

As night dawned quickly on the group, Michonne removed her sword from her belt and sat at a tree opposite of Daryl and Beth. It was luck to Beth that she was out of earshot, and she knew that Daryl would never talk to her if somebody from The Group could hear her. A few sparks of happiness started in her stomach and for the first time in weeks, she full on smiled. Daryl looked at her worriedly, probably because she was staring into space and smiling. He tried to see what she was looking at, but he could see nothing, so he looked back at his crossbow. Beth stopped smiling, and lifted her handgun at a noise in the distance, but it was so dark she could see nothing. Her heart began to race, and Daryl lifted his crossbow as well...

Author's Notes:

This was my first fanfiction (I am a writer, but I have never written this kind of thing before!). I love The Walking Dead, and it is hard to write fanfiction for this show because of the constant change in location. S5x7 airs the day after tomorrow, and in the promo, The Group is changing location so its extremely hard to make sense while I am writing. This location doesn't make a whole ton of sense, so I think I won't change the location of this until after the season finale airs. That doesn't mean I won't write though! Please follow my tumblr for updates on this story and sneak peeks for new chapters! Feel free to comment feedback and ask questions, just be nice and keep it moderately clean! Thank you soooo much for reading, and every little bit of feedback counts! XOXO

Hadley