Hey there! This is pretty much me taking another break from 'Comfort', and also trying to clear out some of the half-finished stuff on my computer... Now that's a mission :/
This is not really compliant with 'Comfort' because the details of how Beth joined up with the group are different but other than that I think you could probably link it all up... Enjoy!
Daryl was on watch one night, when Beth knocked on the door to their house. Carol was curled up on the sofa in the living room, her feet tucked underneath her, reading 'Jane Eyre' to Rosie and Michael. The lights could only be on in one room at a time, but at least the solar panels provided enough power for them to be on at all. The children had been living with her and Daryl for almost three weeks, and although they couldn't really follow the language, they were content to snuggle up and listen to Carol read each night before they went to bed.
"Who is it?" She sang out.
"It's Beth." Came the muffled voice through the door. "Am I interrupting?"
"Of course not! Come in, sweetheart; It's chilly out there."
The door opened and closed, and the sound of boots being kicked off echoed before Beth came padding into the room in her socks.
"Beth!" Squeaked a sleepy Rosie. "We're weading 'Jane's Ear'."
Beth giggled. "Ooh, I love this one." She said quietly as she settled on the end of the couch. Rosie cuddled back up to Carol and began to doze off again. Carol kept reading aloud until the end of the chapter, before she shut the book with a quiet thud and places it on the coffee table. She roused the children, kissed them each on the forehead, and sent them to bed with a whisper of "Sweet dreams" to each of them.
"Is it urgent?" She asked. "I'll make some of that raspberry tea otherwise."
Beth shook her head with a smile. "Tea sounds wonderful." She rose to follow Carol into the kitchen, flipping the lights off as she passed the switch. Plunged into momentary darkness, lit only by the glow of the fireplace behind them, Carol moved around the kitchen, taking hot water from the thermos on the bench and tipping it into the teapot. She added the raspberry leaf tea and left it to steep as she wiped the table free of crumbs.
The puppy yawned in his box by the door that led outside. He rustled around for a moment before his little brindle head popped over the side and he blinked sleepily at the women.
"Oh, cute!" Beth exclaimed softly and rushed across the kitchen to pet him. "Where'd he come from?"
Carol huffed good-naturedly. "Daryl, of course. Found him a couple of days ago on the side of the road, he brought him in all wrapped up in that damned poncho of his. He's a sweet little thing."
Beth smiled coyly up at her from the linoleum. "I never picked Daryl for the type to bring home lost puppies."
"He's chronic!" Carol exclaimed with a chuckle. "I swear I'm running some sort of animal shelter some days!"
"Can I pick him up?" Beth asked, kneeling on the floor. She looked up at Carol with her big blue eyes, an excited smile on her face.
"Of course! Bring him through to the living room, if you like." She was unsure what Beth had come to see her about, but she was happy to see the girl smiling nonetheless.
Whatever she had seen or experienced in the month-and-a-half she was separated from the rest of them had had an obvious impact on her.
She'd staggered out of the woods and collapsed on the road in the early morning on the day that, by some miracle, the reformed group was passing through the small town where her captors had held her. They were in a convoy with some people they had met after the fall of Terminus, which had been almost entirely orchestrated by Carol and Tyreese.
Daryl would always swear that she came barreling down the hill, her face and clothes streaked with red soil, with that fucking enormous sub-machine gun on her hip, even as she protested that she was only doing what she had to, and nothing out of the ordinary.
"Carol?" Beth asked from the other end of the couch.
"Sorry honey," She smiled. "I was thinking. How can I help?"
Beth rubbed the sleepy puppy's stomach. "I don't have a problem, exactly." She looked down at her lap, tense and miserable.
Carol scooted closer to her on the couch. "Did you just want to talk?"
"Uh huh." She squeaked, and burst into tears.
"Oh, sweetheart!" Carol cooed and threw her arms around her. "What happened?"
"Nuh- nothing…" She sobbed. "I'm really sorry!"
"Hush…" Carol rocked her gently, mindful of the roly-poly puppy. "Let it out, honey. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."
Beth shook her head frantically, bumping Carol in the chin.
Carol sat on the couch and continued to rock the sobbing teenager as the fire died down.
She had begun to breathe deeper and slower when Daryl stomped up the steps. When he eased the door closed and came into the living room, Beth was surprised into silence and Carol took the opportunity to peel the damp spot on her shirt away from her skin.
"Somethin' happened?" Daryl asked awkwardly from the doorway, after a long pause.
"Nope." The women replied simultaneously.
He eyed them suspiciously. "… I'm gonna head to bed, then." He backed out, watching them warily as he went.
Beth gave a watery chuckle. "I think I spooked him."
"He's pretty easy to spook, don't take it personally." Carol smoothed her blonde hair back off her forehead.
"I haven't cried like that since before Zach died." She confessed in a low whisper. "Maggie thinks there's something wrong with me because I'm not a mess after I got… Taken?" She gazed up at Carol for a split second then looked away. "But I just sort'a blocked it all out. Like, I was with Daryl when we burnt that house down, and then it goes blank, and then y'all picked me up off the road." She took Carol's hand.
"But…?" Carol asked, sensing there was something more to be said.
"But I remember everything." She whispered. "Everything. And I can't get away from it."
"You've kept it all in for a long time, sweetheart." She rubbed Beth's warm fingers with her own.
"I thought it would be easier." She sighed.
"It's not." Carol pulled the girl closer, tucked her blonde head under her chin, and stroking her back. "But sometimes? Talking it out helps. I'm a good listener, if you want to tell me."
"I can't tell Maggie. I just can't. I don't wanna see the look on her face when she finds out."
"Finds out what, sweetheart?"
"What they made me do." The shame in her voice made Carol's chest constrict painfully.
She squeezed the girl tightly, dropped her head so her lips almost brushed her ear. "Tell me." She whispered.
And so Beth told her, the story coming out in stuttering bursts and gasps. Carol held her tight and soothed her until the fire died out.
Daryl padded barefoot into the kitchen the next morning, rubbing his face with both hands. He was shirtless and his hair was mussed with sleep. The sun was barely up, but he had intentions to head out and chop firewood in the cool morning air before he went hunting. Presently, though, his greatest concern was finding some of that coffee they had stashed at the back of the pantry.
"Good morning…" Carol pushed a warm mug of coffee into his hands.
He blinked blearily down at the cup, then up to her face. "Y' made coffee?"
She kissed him on the cheek and headed for the door. "I sure did!" She teased. "Enjoy it while it lasts."
"Y'heading out to do breakfast?" He asked, standing in the kitchen and cradling the coffee like it was his first-born child.
"I'm rostered on… Can you give Caleb his breakfast when he wakes up?"
"Sure." Daryl gulped at the coffee and snickered at her as she lingered in the doorway, blatantly checking him out. "See somethin' y'like?" He cocked his hip.
"Just thinking you look good in the kitchen… Where all men belong." She winked at him and disappeared as he let out a burst of surprised laughter.
She joined them at the picnic table to eat her breakfast. Caleb, finished with his oatmeal and mashed apple, reached for her but Daryl held onto him to let Carol eat in peace. She responded to his best efforts at vocalisation with a laugh and smile as she tucked in, both of them sitting in silence, enjoying the sunshine, as their son babbled at them.
"What's up with Beth?" Daryl eventually asked.
Carol shrugged whilst she swallowed her food. "She told me what happened when she got taken."
"Uh huh?" Daryl prompted.
She shook her head. "It wasn't good. That poor girl… I don't think she'd appreciate me telling anyone."
"Fair 'nough. She a'ight now?" He hummed at the boy in his lap.
"I think she just needed to talk it out, y'know?"
"Fuck, I hate ta think a' what it was like for her…" Daryl admitted.
"Language." She scolded playfully, looking meaningfully at Caleb. "His first word is going to be something obscene, I can tell."
Daryl snickered. "We'll blame his genes." Then he sobered. "When'd you come to bed last night? Didn't hear ya come in."
"Late." She admitted. "Beth slept on the sofa. It was too late to send her back to her place in the state she was in so she kept that damned puppy of yours company… She left before I got up. I haven't seen her this morning, actually." She said, looking over her shoulder as if Beth might have appeared since she last looked.
"She came in with Carl and Jude just before." Daryl supplied. "Think it was her, anyway."
Carol hummed. "So what's the plan for today?"
"Firewood, then huntin'. Off wall watch for once, thank Christ. You?"
"I'm going to drop Caleb with Maggie and do my first trial batch of that willow and St John's Wort tea… The painkiller one? Hopefully it'll work out and we won't need to keep looking for pills any more."
"Am I gonna be your tester again?" He asked a little warily. He'd broken out in hives last time she'd smeared some sort of burn cream over his arms, and wasn't inclined to let her try out too many new remedies on him as a result.
"It was one time!" She rolled her eyes. "Drama queen." She snickered at him. "Mr. Jensen is going to try it, to see if it helps with his arthritis."
"Hope it works out." He offered, before passing her Caleb and rising. "Michael and Rosie in class?"
The tack room had progressed from a library to a schoolroom, where Rachael, one of the women they'd met on the road, taught the children math and basic science.
"Yeah. Are you still okay to teach the kids some edible plants after lunch?"
"Guess so." He shrugged. "Good luck with your potion-makin'." He huffed a laugh at the face she made, and leaned down to kiss Caleb on the top of his head from his seat in his mother's lap. The little boy growled playfully at him and grinned, making them laugh, before he kissed Carol below her ear and whispered "Love you." before taking their breakfast dishes to the large sink and heading off to begin his work for the day.
Beth slipped into his vacated seat with a cup of tea for Carol and one for herself.
"Morning," Carol smiled at her over the rim of her cup.
"Hey." Beth returned the smile uncertainly. "Carol…" She trailed off.
Carol nudged her with her shoulder. "Yeah?"
"I'm sorry for interrupting your night last night." She offered, giving Carol a short glance. "I just wanted to say thank you."
"It's nothing, Beth." She squeezed the girl's pale fingers. "Really. Are you feeling better after getting it off your chest?"
"A little." She replied, playing with Caleb's tiny fingers as he babbled at her. "I always wanted a child…" She said softly. "Until I thought I might actually end up with one. I couldn't do it, you know? Have a baby in a place like that."
"It's different," Carol confided lowly, so that her voice was almost swallowed by the chatter of the breakfast latecomers. "When you have a choice."
"Maybe." Beth answered, pressing her trembling lips together.
"Trust me." Carol quirked a slightly naughty smile. "You'll work it out."
Beth giggled and pressed a hand to her slightly pink cheek. "You're bad."
Carol just raised an eyebrow at her as she rose to her feet with Caleb in her arms. "Have a wonderful day, Beth." She said sincerely, before she petted the girl's hair and went to get started on her 'potion-makin'".
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