She was not the spoiled princess he had imagined her to be. Maybe she had been at one time, but this world had changed her too. He just hadn't known it until these past few days. Daryl had only wanted to be left alone to his dark thoughts after the prison fell. He had wished that he could have been with anyone else instead of Beth. Even Carl could defend himself better than she could. It was bad enough that he had let down his people at the prison. Now he was stuck trying to protect the most defenseless member of their group besides Judith. His heart constricted when he thought of the little baby. She was gone, along with everyone else he cared about.
As if things weren't bad enough, Beth kept trying to go off on her own. First it was an understandable mission to track down more survivors from the prison. When that failed, she decided that she needed to get her first taste of alcohol. She was apparently bored with his company and already tired of eating the rattlesnake he had painstakingly caught for them. The princess wouldn't have lasted two hours out here without him, let alone two days. He should let her find that out, but he couldn't let her go traipsing off on her fool's errand alone. The princess found a country club. It would have made him laugh if he hadn't already been so annoyed. The gruesome sight inside didn't dissuade her from her search for alcohol. She'd grown a thick skin since she fell to pieces back at the farm. He had to give her that much. Thinking about the farm upset him all over again. Hershel had always helped them in any way he could, and here he was helping his daughter risk her life for something her dad had been opposed to. She nearly got killed over a bottle of wine that she ended up smashing into a walker's head anyway. Then she sat pathetically crying over a damn bottle of peach schnapps. Smashing the bottle on the floor didn't get rid of his anger, and neither had bashing in the walkers' heads with a golf club.
Nothing was gonna change if she had a drink. It sure hadn't changed his shitty life before the world really went to hell. He decided to give her what she wanted anyway, but on his terms. She was gonna have a real drink, not that flavored girly stuff. The princess was surprised when he took her to the shack in the woods, and she complained that the moonshine tasted awful. Then she had to play a game to get drunk. It was a stupid game that pissed him off. She never shot a crossbow and she never had a drink. Big fucking deal. He went off on her about all the things he never had, the things she took for granted while she was growing up in a comfortable home with a loving family. Daryl got right in her face and even put his hands on her in a taunting attempt to eliminate one of her nevers by teaching her to shoot a crossbow. Beth was no longer the scared little girl she had been when he met her. She wouldn't back down from doing things her way, and she got right back in his face. In some ways she was braver than he was, because she wasn't afraid to get close to someone again even after all the loss they had experienced. He didn't know how he went from yelling at her to having her comfort him with a hug.
Then she was back to drinking moonshine, and something was different. Her damn idea to get a drink had actually changed things between them. All that bullshit about being together but apart had been true. That was how they had been since they lost the prison, but now they were in this thing together. It scared the hell out of Daryl, especially when she said he'd be the last man standing. He saw her eyes light up when she suggested that they burn down the shack, and he knew that from this moment he would not be able to refuse her anything. God help him, because she was the last light in the darkness for him.