Hi! This is my first time writing (and posting) a fanfiction so I hope it's up to standard. I love this pairing and I can't get away from them so I had this idea and thought I would run with it. Please review and let me know what you think!
Beth groaned at her aching muscles as she stuffed her belongings from the staff room fridge into her brown bag. Being a student nurse was tough. She had little free time to herself between balancing studying for exams and working shifts in the hospital on placements, and she struggled to live on the little money that she had been saving in the two year break that she had taken from education before she came to college.
But Beth only had a few more weeks to go before she was finally a qualified nurse (so long as she passed her exams), and she had been earning herself some extra money babysitting for Rick Grimes, a local Sheriff and family friend. Her daddy had been more than helpful when it came to footing the bill for the rent on her little apartment - "I don't want you having to travel too far to campus, Bethy," he had told her. Even though it wasn't much - a bit pokey and narrow and a bit of a tight squeeze now and then - it was more than enough for her.
"You headin' home?"
Beth looked over her shoulder and offered Noah a sweet smile, nodding her head yes. Noah let out a low whistle.
"You just gettin' here?" Beth asked him as she stood up from where she had been crouched at the fridge.
"Sure am," Noah said. "What's is like out there?"
"It's actually not been too bad tonight," Beth told him as she adjusted the strap of the bag on her shoulder so that it wasn't digging in to her shoulder as painfully. "Pretty quiet, if I'm honest. Watch out for Carol, though, she's in a pretty foul mood."
"She threaten any more kids?" Noah asked. Beth laughed softly and shook her head no. "Can't be in that bad of a mood then." Noah looked over her once before breaking out into a grin. "Go on, get outta here."
Beth smiled at Noah once more before she made her way out of the hospital. Beth had met Noah in the first year of her studies and they had become good friends straight away. Noah was laid back, and Beth liked that about him. She found that she couldn't hold back a smile whenever his big brown eyes met hers - he was always joking around and making her laugh, and Beth appreciated it. Her training was so serious sometimes and it was difficult to remember that a little optimism and laughter never hurt anyone.
It was gone half past four in the morning and Beth was almost at her apartment when she drove straight into a deep pot hole that she hadn't noticed and burst the front tire of her truck. Beth grabbed the steering wheel with both hands, suddenly very alert and aware, and pulled in at the side of the road.
The roadside was dimly lit and Beth wasn't exactly comfortable in this area of town. She was only a ten minute drive from her apartment, but that was at least a half an hour walk and Beth wasn't sure that she wanted to be walking around on her own at this time in the morning.
Beth was struggling to get the spare tire out of the truck when she heard the loud roaring of an engine coming from behind her. She hadn't been paying much attention to her surroundings but she definitely hadn't seen anyone drive past her and she had been struggling to get her spare tire out for at least ten minutes now.
Beth was so distracted with pulling out the spare tire that she barely registered the sound of approaching footsteps and she instead whooped in joy to herself at her little accomplishment when she finally managed to get her hands on it.
"Y'alright?"
Beth jumped at the unfamiliar voice as she climbed out of the truck, trying her best to carry the tire with ease. Strong hands grabbed it from her and Beth was startled at just how close the man had been to her.
She really needed to start paying more attention to what was going on around her.
"Thank you," she said as the man took the tire from her with ease. He just grunted at her and turned away, inspecting the burst tire.
It was a small town and Beth knew - or at least knew of - most people around and she definitely recognised that man, even if his back was turned to her as he began messing around with the tires. The shaggy brown hair and the sleeveless red and green flannel shirt that exposed the hint of a tattoo gave it away.
And the motorbike, too.
They were referred to around town as the Dixon brother's, and Daryl was the younger of the two brothers. Everyone said that they were trouble, but Beth had never interacted with either brother and now that one was there in front of her, she wasn't sure how she felt. She waited to feel uneasy and nervous and apprehensive - but none of that came to her and Beth didn't know how to think or feel about that.
Because instead of wanting to scream at the top of her lungs and run a mile at the sight of him, she found that she was more grateful than anything that this man - who apparently sold drugs and got into bar fights and hadn't he killed a person once? - was here at nearly five o'clock in the morning, helping her by the side of the road and she hadn't even asked him to.
"I don't even know what happened," Beth began to explain, gesturing to the tire as he pulled it off. Beth wondered when he had learned how to do this.
I should probably learn how to do this.
"I'm just so tired and it's so dark around here... I didn't even see the pot hole."
"'S nasty," he grumbled under his breath. Beth agreed with him on that.
When he finished the job, he wiped his hands down on his faded blue jeans that had more holes in them that Beth could count and he nodded his head at her. He had left the tire dumped at the side of the road and watched as Beth went over to it. She noticed that his eyes were a brilliant shade of blue - so much nicer than her own - and she felt a bit nervous as he watched her move, but it wasn't the sort of nervous that she would expect to feel around him.
She mentally slapped herself as she heaved the tire up in her arms. Was she attracted to Daryl Dixon?
He came to her aid and helped her push the tire into the back of her truck before he took a few steps backwards, putting some distance between them once more. Beth beamed up at him.
"Thank you so, so much," she gushed.
"Ain't nothin'," he told her, but Beth carried on grinning at him despite his quick dismissal.
"Thank you anyway, Daryl," Beth said.
He gave her a strange expression and Beth felt a brush creeping up her had forgotten that he hadn't introduced himself to her and that she only knew of him because of the horrible stories she had heard around town.
And whilst Daryl probably knew deep down that she would have heard at least some stories about him - after all, who hadn't? - he probably didn't appreciate having those thoughts confirmed by her making it completely obvious.
Why do you always have to be so awkward about everything?
"I'm Beth," she continued. "I don't... We've never met or anything. And I'm not a creepy stalker, I just... I've heard - I mean, I know your name from around town, and I..."
Beth wasn't sure where she was going with any of what she was saying and she knew that she was rambling and that she was probably - no, definitely - making an even bigger fool out of herself but Daryl didn't seem to mind. He didn't look angry or even creeped out. Beth just couldn't read him.
He didn't give anything away to her.
Daryl had a good poker face and Beth couldn't help but be a bit envious of that. Her daddy always said her face gave everything away and it seemed to be true; everyone could read her like a book, and she never really did mind, but there was the odd occasion when it really got under her skin.
Like now, for example. Because Beth just knew that her cheeks were bright red and that her eyes were wide with shock at her own words and she couldn't help but chew on her lip and shove some of her blonde hair behind her ear clumsily because she felt like an idiot. She probably looked like one, too.
"Anyway," Beth said, bouncing onto her toes as she spoke. "I better get going home. I'm supposed to be studying but I think I'll just get straight to bed after all this. Thank you, again." Daryl just shrugged his shoulders at her and Beth couldn't help but continue. He seemed so disinterested in the whole thing, but really, Beth wouldn't have even known where to begin with any of it had it not been for him.
"Honestly, I don't even know how to change a flat. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't have showed up."
Beth tried not to feel disappointed when he just nodded his head at her and made his way over to his motorbike. She wasn't sure what it was she had wanted from him; after all, he didn't seem like the type to stand around and indulge in idle chit-chat.
Daryl seemed quiet; reserved - maybe even shy.
Beth couldn't really count their interaction as much, but it was more than most of the people she knew had ever had with one of the Dixon brothers and she couldn't help but think that all of the stories that she had heard about him just didn't seem to add up.
It wasn't like he had to stop and help her - he could have just rode on and ignored her, leaving her stuck at the side of the road to sort her own tire out. Or he could have done a lot worse - it wasn't like they were in a nice area of town, it was dark and nobody was around... she had money in her purse and she had left the keys in the ignition of her car and she wasn't exactly a bulky girl.
Beth had always been 'little Beth Greene' to everyone that she knew, and little she was. If Daryl Dixon wanted to take her on, he would definitely win.
She realised that she was still stood staring at him as the engine of his bike roared to life once more. But Daryl didn't move anywhere and part of Beth boldly wondered if he was waiting to make sure that she got in the car and drove off safely. She offered him a little smile that he didn't return before she hopped back into the truck and started up her own engine, glancing at him riding behind her in the mirror until she eventually turned down the side street that led to her apartment and he continued straight down the road.
It was only when she collapsed in bed that Beth really thought about Daryl Dixon. She had never really entertained the idea of him - or anyone like him, for that matter - before. He was a man and she was a girl. It didn't matter that she was twenty three years old now. She knew because everyone told her that she still looked and seemed so young and she knew that she wasn't exactly innocent, but if everyone else she knew thought that she was then a man like Daryl Dixon would definitely think that she was just that.
Beth wondered about him. She wondered about what he did in his spare time, how old he was, where he worked. Now that she was thinking about him, Beth came to the conclusion that he was actually handsome. At first she had thought that his hair was a little long but it actually really suited him. And his arms were so big, he definitely went to the gym because they just looked so strong. And his hands were big, too, and his eyes were so blue and he had stared at her with them and that stare was just so intense and -
Beth stopped herself, rubbing her blue eyes as hard as she could, hoping that if she rubbed hard enough it would maybe wipe the image of him away from her mind. The technique didn't work, and as Beth fell asleep as the sun began to rise, she couldn't help but dream of a rugged man with a rough voice who wanted to help her at the side of the road.