"I'm gonna leave a thank you note." Her voice filled the thick air as Beth looked sideways at Daryl. He was currently eating out of a half-full jar of jelly with a spoon. Opened Diet Cola bottles sat on the table as Beth picked up a pen and started writing out the note that she mentioned. "Why?" Daryl asked. He was genuinely curious. "For when they come back." Beth replied, then hesitated. "If they come back." When Daryl didn't say anything back to her, she continued. "Even if they don't come back, I still wanna say thanks." She voiced.

Daryl considered this. What if they didn't have to leave? In spite of himself, he was beginning to believe that the world wasn't all that bad. People were still people. He contemplated saying his next words, then decided to blurt them out. "Maybe you don't have to leave that." Beth looked up at him, surprised. Her eyebrows were furrowed in a silent question. Daryl continued speaking. "Maybe we stick around 'awhile. They come back… we'll make it work. They may be nuts… but, maybe it'll be alright."

The man next to Beth was still scooping jelly out of the glass container. She felt a grin slowly creeping up on her face as she sat back in the chair and placed the pen on the yellow notepad. "So you do think there are still good people around." She chuckled a bit. Her theory was right. "What changed your mind?" She countered. Daryl started fidgeting with his spoon. His cheeks were starting to get hot, which was surprising.

"You know," he told her. He was too nervous to say it in front of her, let alone say it at all. "What," she said playfully and teasingly. She had no clue what had changed his mind so quickly, and was extremely curious to find out. Daryl finally looked glanced up at Beth. His gaze locked on hers and she was almost entranced by his beautiful blue eyes. Daryl and Beth stared at each other until Daryl broke it off, looking down once again at the jar in his hand.

"I don't know," he mumbled. Beth could barely tell what he'd said, but she wanted him to look at her again. "Don't 'I don't know,'" she mocked him. "What changed your mind?" Daryl glanced sideways at the blonde. He wanted to say something, anything, really, but he couldn't. He was never good with this type of stuff before, and he still isn't very good at it now.

Luckily, Beth got the message. Something swelled up in her chest. He thought she was a good person? She made him have… hope? Her smiled dropped from her face as Daryl continued to eye her. "Oh." Beth felt… happy. They kept their gazes on each other for a while before Beth smiled again. She hesitantly leaned over and planted her dry lips on his stubbly cheek. He was frozen in his seat. He tensed when she leaned over and relaxed a bit under her touch.

After she kissed him on the cheek, she sat back in her chair again and reached across the table for Diet Cola. Her cheeks were flaming and red as a tomato. A rattle was heard outside, then a bark and a two suddenly became alert and Daryl reached for the pig's feet on the table. "I'm gonna give that mutt one more chance." He cleared his throat and walked over to the front door, too distracted to think of looking through the boards to see if anything else was out there besides the dog.

When Daryl opened the door, the dog sat on the porch in the darkness, wagging his tail and looking up at Daryl expectantly with his one eye. Daryl slowly leaned down and reached his hand out to the dog. "Come here, boy." He said. Surprisingly, the dog sat up and walked over to him. Daryl tapped his head a few times, and opened the door a bit wider. The dog automatically came in and went to the kitchen.

Beth gasped when she saw the dirty, white dog walking into the kitchen. "Oh, my God." The fluffy one-eyed dog sat in front of her. She leaned down to stroke its fur when Daryl walked in. He sat back down at his place next to Beth. "What should we name him?" She smiled at the dog and it started panting. She'd never had a dog before, so she was completely inexperienced with this.

So was Daryl, it seemed. "I don't know," he answered. He honestly wasn't sure if it would stick around for long. It didn't look particularly healthy; its ribs stuck out way too much and dirt coated its fur. "How about… Charles?" Beth looked over her shoulder at Daryl for confirmation. He shrugged. "Doesn't really matter to me. You can name it whatever." Beth smiled at him, then turned back to the dog. "Charles it is."

She stood out of her chair and started walking to the other room, where they held the funerals with the piano and the casket. Charles followed her as she did her best to walk. Daryl sat down the food in his hands and also followed, then caught up to her. She sat down at the piano. Charles obediently sat next to her as Daryl made his way to the casket, like the night before.

"Do you really think we should stay here?" Beth asked Daryl. Daryl shrugged, then said, "We could make it work." Beth thought about how nice that would be. They would have a shelter, food, water… it would be like a sanctuary. Then she thought about the other two "sanctuaries" that they'd had. Both of those are ruined. People died. Her dad died.

Beth cleared her throat and tried not to think about it anymore. But, she couldn't. Her mind just kept drifting back to the incident with the Governor. What if Maggie was dead? Or Glenn? Where was Judith? And Rick and Carl? Would they ever see them again? "Hey," Daryl voice interrupted her thoughts. "It'll be alright." He was surprised by his own words. She forced a smile on her face and looked up at him. Charles stopped panting. In that moment there, Daryl gave Beth a little sliver of hope, too, like she did for him.

A/N: Hey! Thinking of making this just a one-shot! Please let me know what you think in the reviews! Follow it, favorite it, and review! Feedback is very awesome! If you want me to continue this, please tell me in the reviews or PM me about it! If I get 10 reviews, favorites, or followers, I'm gonna continue! Thanks for reading!