I do not own any of the TWD characters. Daryl and Beth are back home in Chicago – beginning their lives as a married couple.

Back in the Windy City

Beth rolled over and immediately began to fumble around looking for her husband. Beth slapped at the now cooled sheets and the vacant pillow to the left of her. A small sliver of sunshine had peeked through the drapes in their bedroom causing Beth to finally open her eyes for the first time in fourteen hours. It took a few seconds for Beth to realize where she was and the last thing she remembered was Daryl carrying her into their apartment, getting her dressed for bed, and kissing her on the forehead. Negan had picked them up at the airport around ten o'clock the night before. By the time the man had gotten his fill of hugging and loving up on Beth, and then the crazy traffic, it was going on midnight before they got home. After waking up in either her childhood bedroom or the bedroom at her house in town for the past three months she was a bit disoriented. To add to her disheveled and confused state, Beth probably hadn't slept an entire night uninterrupted in that same length of time.

The bathroom door opened and out walked the man she loved, complete with towel wrapped around his waist. Beth smiled at him but didn't speak – she wasn't sure what to say except for something goofy like "where ya been all my life?" Daryl smiled back as he dropped the towel and gave her a smirk. He, on the other hand, did not refrain from using his silly pick up line, "see something ya like?"

Beth cleared the sleep from her throat. "Yeh, I do actually" she giggled.

"Negan's not even expectin me in today" Daryl waggled his eyebrows at Beth. "Soooooooo".

"Soooooo what?" Beth asked innocently.

Daryl crawled back into bed, pulling the covers back over the top of them both. He pulled his wife's body tightly into his and rubbed his scruff up and down her neck causing her to squirm and giggle. "So, I's thinkin how now that my bride is somewhat coherent for the first time since I got her home, that I'd sure like to love on her some."

"Ya would, huh?" Beth teased.

"Yeh, sure would" Daryl said with just a bit of desperation in his voice.

"I think I'd kinda like that too" Beth agreed.

"Knew ya couldn't resist this body" Daryl told her as he crawled into that sacred place in between her thighs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm starvin" Daryl told Beth as he searched for some socks.

"Me too" Beth agreed.

"Any special request?"

"Mmmm" Beth seemed to be thinking really hard about all of her choices. "Can we go to that place where I had those cheese fries?"

Daryl didn't answer right away. He was still trying to find two socks that matched enough to wear at the same time. Their apartment was definitely a disaster after them being gone for more than three months.

"Ya know, with all the jalepenos" she further described them. "I been thinkin 'bout those for a couple months now."

"M Burger?" Daryl finally asked.

"Yeh" Beth smiled. "Is that the place ya took me – we ate out at a table on the street? Then ya took me to buy some new panties."

Daryl couldn't help the cocky grin on his face. "Yeh, that's it."

"If that's what ya want, that's what you shall have" Daryl told her.

"We'll grab some groceries on the way back" Daryl stated. "Things is kinda sparse 'round here."

"I might need to go and get some new panties too" Beth teased.

"Yeh" Daryl was perplexed and still only holding one sock. "Think I need some socks."

"Can we open all those gifts out in the hallway?" Beth wondered aloud. The gifts had been piling up at the apartment. People kept sending them and goodness knows neither of them had been in town long enough to open any of them, so they'd piled up until eventually they started spilling over into the other areas of the house.

"Yes" Daryl replied. "I'll open gifts and you can write thank you notes." Daryl kind of snickered at that comment.

Beth sat up in bed at that comment, her hair looking like a family of woodpeckers had taken up residence in it. She huffed at Daryl, "If you think for one minute that you're gonna get to open all the gifts and I have to write all those notes, well"

"Well, what?" Daryl asked in mock anger.

"Well" Beth began laughing because she knew she must be a sight. She'd slept like a damn log and she was quite sure she looked the every bit of well fucked that she felt. "Well, you've got another thing coming buddy!"

"There's something comin a minute ago" Daryl teased. "Ya told everybody in the whole damn apartment building!"

"Ohhhhhh Daryl Dixon" she screamed out and then began to throw pillows at him. "You're just plain awful! That's what you are! Just plain awful!"

"Come on Sam" he hollered. "Let's get outta here – she's already mistreatin me."

Beth smiled to herself when she heard the click clack of Sam's toenails following Daryl out of the apartment. Figuring she had enough time to get bathed and possibly even do something with her appearance before her two favorite guys got back, Beth hopped out of the bed, turned some music on, and ran a tub of bubbles.

Daryl stuck his head in the bathroom. "I got time to take Sam out? He's been patient all night long."

"Yeh, I'm gonna soak a while" Beth responded.

"Soak all ya want girl" Daryl said as he bent down to give her a kiss. "We'll be back – ain't in no hurry for nothin."

As Daryl and Sam rode the elevator downstairs Daryl thought to himself after all the shit you've had to do and been through, that's the least ya deserve is a bubble bath.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Beth had plenty to keep herself busy. Plenty. Daryl had stayed home with her all last week and she had really enjoyed it. However, real life was calling and it required Daryl to get back to work. Daryl had an office to set up and he needed to get into the swing of things as far as his new position was concerned. Still, Beth was going to miss having him there. They'd had so much fun together. Daryl kept telling her that he sure hoped she'd enjoyed her honeymoon in the city. Beth told him that it was the best honeymoon she could have ever hoped for. Of course, Daryl was teasing her – that boy had something fabulous in mind for when he finally did get to take her on a proper honeymoon.

Kelly was moving up with Daryl to serve as his executive assistant, an appointment he'd more than earned as far as Daryl was concerned. Kelly knew how Daryl liked things done and he was nothing but professional. Not to mention the fact that Kelly had insisted on tending to Beth while down in Georgia those final few weeks. Kelly did any and everything he could to lighten Beth's load – running errands, picking up supper to take out to the farm, keeping Pooch in liquor. Yes, Kelly had really stepped up and he and Beth had become quite close despite their rocky start.

Beth and Ginger had possibly become even closer than she and Kelly. Their relationship had almost developed into one of a sister type. Giggling late into the night, binge eating ice cream together when Beth had had a particularly rough day with her dad, or just hanging out together and painting each other's toes. Ginger had become a friend to Beth and Daryl was more than pleased that she had someone close to her age to hang out with here in Chicago.

Ginger, who Negan had developed quite a bit of respect for, was starting as Negan's executive assistant that day. Olivia was headed to South Korea with Maggie and Glen – Negan was pretty pleased with the way he'd played his cards on that deal. He'd managed to get rid of two pains – one in his ass and one in Beth's. Negan did feel a little bad for Glen though.

"You gonna be okay here all alone today?" Daryl asked Beth once again as she was trying to usher him out the door.

"I'm not gonna be alone" Beth replied. "Sam's here." Daryl rolled his eyes. "I have all those dishes to put away, and linens. I still haven't unpacked all of my things I brought back from Georgia. I probably won't even miss ya at all."

"Well, damn Beth" Daryl sighed as he checked his bag for his charger. "That kinda hurts my feelins."

"Oh hush" she told him. "I'll save some note writin for you to do tonight." Daryl groaned at the thought of that. "What time should I expect you for dinner? Seven?" Beth had a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Uh" Daryl mumbled nervously remembering what happened last time he'd promised to be home by seven. "Yes, I will most definitely be home by seven o'clock."

"Okay" she smiled and kissed his lips. "Supper will be served at seven." She handed him his lunch. "Have a good day Dear."

Daryl shook his head in amusement at Beth's tone. "I'll talk to ya later Baby – Love ya!"

"Love you too!" Beth called out to him. Daryl pushed the elevator button and waited for the ding.

XXXXXXXXXX

As promised, Daryl was home by seven o'clock that evening. He hadn't really done a lot of actual work that day at the office, but he'd unpacked all of his boxes that had been sent up from his old office. Kelly spent the day with the maintenance guys making sure that they didn't hang any of Daryl's pictures too high up on the walls. By the end of the day, Daryl felt pretty good about jumping into some real work the next morning. He felt like he hadn't really done anything productive in a very long time – not on the professional front anyway.

As Daryl unlocked the apartment door he was greeted with the smell of something spicy and wonderful. The apartment, however, seemed to be vacant. Well, not completely vacant because Sam came wandering out of the living room – directly off the forbidden couch Daryl assumed.

"Anybody home?" Daryl called out. No response. "Well, she couldn't have gone far."

"Sam" Daryl talked to the dog and rubbed his ears "Where's Momma, huh?" Daryl loosened his tie and began to undress so that he could take a shower. When Beth still hadn't returned fifteen minutes later after Daryl had finished in the bathroom he became uneasy. Another fifteen minutes and a slight sense of panic was setting in. Daryl grabbed his phone from the counter to see if he'd possible missed a text or phone call from Beth. Nothing.

At 7:30, Daryl called Beth's phone only for it to go directly to voicemail. Frowning at that, Daryl sent a text.

No response.

Daryl didn't want to read too much into it, but he didn't like the feeling he was getting in the pit of his stomach. A few minutes later Daryl heard the front door open and two distinct voices. A sweet angelic voice – Beth and another – not so angelic, definitely not sweet voice– Negan. What the fuck? Daryl thought to himself. Didn't I just spend the day with this asswipe?

"You're fine Sweetheart" Daryl heard Negan say. "You're fine. We'll chalk this up to a learning experience."

Daryl definitely did not like the sound of that.

"I just feel so stupid" Beth said quietly.

"You're not stupid, you just got distracted" Negan told Beth. Daryl rounded the corner on them at that point and met them in the hallway. "But remember, distracted can be deadly Princess. You just can't do that. Okay?"

"What's goin on?" Daryl demanded. "Beth" a little louder than he intended. "Where the hell have you been?"

By the flushed cheeks, red nose, and puffy eyes, Daryl could tell that Beth had been crying and she looked utterly exhausted. Negan cut his eyes at Daryl letting him know that he should probably tread lightly. Daryl decided to breathe instead of speak for just a few seconds anyway, allowing him to get a better look at Beth. She was in workout clothes, but no sweatshirt or jacket of any kind – Chicago evenings in late October could get very chilly. That explained the flushed cheeks and red nose – maybe.

"I, I went out for a walk" Beth began. "And, and. I saw this guy."

Daryl looked at Negan who was suddenly looking at the floor. "What guy Beth? Did ya know him or something?"

"No" Beth hesitated. "But, he kinda looked like somebody I know. And I wondered what in the world he'd be doin here in Chicago, so I decided to follow him and see if it was really him or not."

All three stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity.

"Well?" Daryl finally asked.

"Well what?" Beth responded, not really wanting to talk about it anymore.

"Was it who you thought it was?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know" Beth answered and her eyes flicked in between both Negan and Daryl.

"You don't know?" Daryl prodded.

"Well, he took off runnin. So, I took off runnin" Beth explained. "Kept up pretty good with him till he started down some alleys behind buildings. I finally lost track of him. By that time, it was dark – really dark and, and I'd gotten turned around…" Beth trailed off and was starting to become upset.

Daryl pulled her into him for a hug realizing that he should've hugged her first thing instead of barking out questions at her. He could obviously tell right away that something wasn't right. Beth was like a block of ice and she was shivering. "Shhhhh" he tried soothing her. It's alright. Why don't ya go change, put something warm on. You're chilled to the bone."

Beth sniffled a bit more and then wandered into the bedroom. Daryl's eyes met Negan's. "How'd you come across her?"

"Not real sure" Negan admitted. "Looked up and there she was standing in my office with big crocodile tears rolling. She was scared to death."

"Jesus Christ" Daryl scrubbed his face. "What the hell was she thinkin?"

"She wasn't" Negan agreed. "And you better take it fucking easy on her. I've already ripped her one – regrettably so now, but I did. I really gave her quite the talking to."

Daryl just stared at Negan.

"I couldn't help it. She just scared the literal shit out of me – anything could've happened to her. By some of her description, I'm thinking she wasn't traveling through some of the nicest parts of town" Negan reported. "Said she got turned around, but could see our office building, so she just keep running and winding her way through blocks and blocks of houses and buildings until she got there."

"Why didn't she call one of us? What the hell?" Daryl was beyond torn up.

"Her phone was dead" Negan tossed Beth's phone onto the hallway table.

"Who the hell did she think she was chasin?" Daryl asked Negan.

Negan didn't answer immediately, but sighed heavily. "Shane" Negan finally. "Beth swears up and down she saw Shane."