Daryl didn't expect everything to be absolutely perfect when they found her. In fact, he didn't expect to find her at all. They did, however, and now Daryl felt like half of his soul had been called back from the darkness. Well, half of it anyway. Daryl would never leave her, not in his own pathetic lifetime would he ever do that. But it was hard to not pretend it didn't hurt him that Beth couldn't speak a single word.

Daryl had been tracking this odd creature for about a week. As much as he was glad that everyone was doing alright since the walkers, he still hadn't managed to get rid of the hurt that was always present in his cold and shriveled heart. This tracking, this thing that seemed to be wandering in no particular direction, gave him the solace he needed from the chaos that was false security.

As Daryl looked down at the zigzagging pattern in the leaves and he wondered if his stupid ass self had been following a damn walker this whole time. His mind was quickly purged of that fear when he saw a small figure hunched beneath a tree, it's long grubby finger laced over its bony knees. He crouched down so as not to startle it and was fully astounded by what he was faced with.

His first thought had been that he's finally gone off the deep end, that his sorrow for her had simply become too much and he'd been swept away into its undertow. Yet there she was. His beautiful Beth Greene, hurt and haunted, but there. Little did he know how deep those two adjectives went.

"Come on sweetheart you can do it," Daryl gently coaxed as he tried to get Beth to swallow the baby food. She shook her head in what seemed to be frustration and defiance, letting out little whimpers and grunts to show her displeasure. "Beth, I know yer hungry. Ya need to eat somethin." She shook her head and smacked the bowl out of his hand with an anguished cry. Daryl let it fall to the ground and shatter.

Looking at something else that was as broken and messy as he was, he picked up the pieces and started again.

"What do ya mean she'll have limited mobility and she might never speak again?" Maggie, who had been standing beside him, let out a sob of pain. He had taken Beth to the clinic the minute he arrived back with her. Her eerie silence and inability to walk steady had scared him something awful. Denise shook her head sadly.

"I'm sorry Daryl. Time could heal the scar and the infection, but it couldn't heal the mental damage her brain suffered. You'll have to be patient with her, both of you. She needs your help now. She's most likely terrified but she can't tell you. You'll have to be able to understand her noises and cries."

Maggie just continued to cry uncontrollably and Daryl felt a slight twinge of irritation at her. He glanced at Beth, sitting up in her bed, with her eyes unfocused and her trembling hands, and he just knew.

They didn't get to be upset.

They all had jobs to do.

Even if Maggie wouldn't help him, Beth was his.

Daryl had gone through hell and high water to get this book for Beth. He ignored the funny looks the children and the teachers at the schoolhouse have him as perused the shelves for the perfect story. He ignored the heat building up behind his neck. He ignored it all, for she was more important.

And damn was it worth it.

As they flipped through Sleeping Beauty the clear delight on her face and her excited noises made him smile. He held Beth's hand as gently as he could while he read in slow, careful sentences. "' We have very special gifts for the little princess,"' said the first good fairy." Beth slapped her hands on the pictures and squealed. "'Little princess I give you the gift of beauty." Daryl glanced at Beth's face which was filled with wonder. He smiled.

Even now, bedridden and incoherent, she was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen.

"'The second fairy said, 'Little princess I give you the gift of kindness." Just yesterday, when Maggie was crying because Beth could barely move her jaw to get her food to stay in her mouth, Beth had put a shaky hand on her shoulder and mumbled out something that sounded like, "it's okay."

Beth was definitely still kind.

"'Just as the third fairy started to speak, there was a terrible sound. There- in a cloud of smoke- stood the wicked fairy. 'You did not ask me to your party, but I have a gift for her as well. When she turns sixteen she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die!'" Beth trembled beside him and opened her mouth, but all that came out was a hoarse cry. Daryl reached for her and pulled her close, but all he could think about was Dawn going for that gun and staining Beth's golden locks crimson.

Even so, Daryl sobered up and continued the story for Beth. '"Then the third fairy said, 'I still have a gift to give. I cannot take the wicked fairy's gift away, but I can change it. Little princess, you will not die when you prick your finger. You will only go to sleep. But you will sleep until a prince comes and breaks the spell." At that sentence Daryl had to stop. Beth didn't have a prince. She didn't have someone to wake her up, to rescue her from her sleep. She had to suffer alone, in a cruel world she shouldn't have to live in.

And that made Daryl furious.

Because he wanted that to be him.

He wanted to be the one to rescue her, to wake her up. He wanted to be her prince. But he knew he couldn't. He would never be good enough for his princess who couldn't her find her words.

It was about a few days later since the story. It had been a few days of struggling to get Beth to eat, to helping her walk around with a walker, to practicing with words. It didn't seem to be coming easy, but Daryl knew easy wasn't part of the equation. He had left to clean out Beth's waste bucket when he heard her cry. He dropped the bucket, ignoring the mess he'd left behind, and raced into the room.

Beth was on the floor, white knuckling the side of the bed. He bent down to help her, when she spoke. It wasn't very clear or steady, but Daryl understood her clear as day. "I- I c-can do i-it." And Daryl stepped back and watched in awe as Beth pulled herself up and stood as tall and proud as her injury would allow. And Daryl couldn't help himself as he rushed forward and pulled his brave girl into his arms. "D-Dar-y-yl." He couldn't stop beaming as he pulled back to look at her face. "That's right baby girl. That's my name." And as they stood there, wrapped up in each other, Daryl was glad he wasn't there for her. Beth didn't need a prince, she didn't someone else to wake her up.

She did that all on her own.

She saved herself.