A/N: I really need to stop coming out with these one shots and focus on my other multi-fic Bethyl stories :(. But like always, I just can't help myself anymore. I have all these scenarios in my head everytime I discover a new song (that isn't new and has actually been around for a while but I live under a rock and in a cave and only just discovered it recently) and I just immediately think of Bethyl and then things like this happens.
I hope Daryl isn't too ooc in this one. I hope I've done him justice and Beth too. It's a happy one-shot, I promise. I hope you enjoy.
Here we sit now,
Watch the sinking sun,
And think of all the roads,
That we've been down.
-Sinking Sun by MT WARNING-
He sits on a step a few steps from the front door of his home and everything is quiet; everything is peaceful save for the sounds of crickets and the sight of the setting sun before him. Everything is strange but yet so very right and beautiful and he wonders how he got here.
He wonders how he's made it through the years, the days, hours, minutes and seconds to this very moment. And just like that his entire life flashes through his eyes. He isn't dying though; far from it. But something about being in this place and knowing that she's right there inside their home stirs something very warm in him.
Their home. His home and hers.
Maybe he's already dead. Maybe he died not too long after he saw that bullet enter and leave her skull. Maybe he didn't make it to that safe zone with Rick and the rest of his family. Maybe he never saw her stumbling into Alexandria with Morgan at her side looking more alive than she ever had the entire time he knew her. Maybe she never made it at all.
"Daryl," she calls his name and it sure does sound real.
It sounds so sweet and calm and just like that she's laying a balm over his cracked soul all over again; just like that she's putting him back together and wiping away every horror and nightmare he has ever had. She takes it all away her simple call of his name and god he loves her, he really fucking does. He'll love her to the end. He'll love her until the end of today and tomorrow, next year and always and until the fucking end of time.
His brother would call him a pussy. His father would try to beat some sense into him. His mother would just laugh and then take another sip of alcohol and another drag of her cigarette.
"Daryl," she calls him again and maybe he isn't dreaming. Maybe he isn't dead.
Maybe she really is alive. Maybe everything he's seen and felt and gone through really did happen after all.
Maybe after Grady he did leave with Rick; buried her body and walked several thousand steps to the Alexandria Safe Zone. He vaguely remembers the sunlight pouring all over them as they walked and survived and lived. It was hot, he remembered that much. The rest was a blur but he kept his family safe anyway. He kept one eye on the entire group and kept the other to himself to try to remind himself what she looked like.
He could never forget. He never would. He couldn't because they didn't have pictures. They didn't have videos. They didn't have anything. He had her bracelets and he left his vest hanging over the wooden cross he carved and nailed together for her. He kept her bracelets in his pocket and wherever he went and whatever he did every single day, her bracelets were right there burning a hole in his pocket and weighing him down. It was his burden to carry and that was all he did. That was all he lived for because he knew her, knew what she would want him to do and he did that, for her.
He stayed alive. He kept their family safe. He fought fiercely when his family needed him too. He hunted and tracked and killed hundreds of squirrels, rabbits and deer's and every other game he could hunt in the woods.
Everybody tried to talk to him. Everybody tried to get close; to remind him that it got better. That in time, he would get better and put to rest the memory of her and move on.
He never did.
He tolerated Carol's, Rick's and Michonne's endless questions if he was okay, if he was alright and if he needed to talk. He grew closer to Maggie and to Glenn and maybe that's because they were her family. Maybe it's because sometimes he'd look into Maggie's eyes and see a little bit of her still lingering there. Maybe he sometimes just hoped that she'd just appear and take over Maggie. Maybe that made him selfish and maybe that made him crazy. But in the end, he just settled for appreciating how Maggie and Glenn had drifted to accompany him.
Carl sometimes tried to talk to him too and that kid was good for a laugh sometimes. He never did laugh though. But he smirked and he let the corner of his lip curl that one time Carl managed to only shoot a deer right in the ass.
Little ass kicker in her own little sweet way reminded him the most of her. He took to carrying her more than he ever had and maybe everybody else found that strange. But holding the little toddler in his arms as they walked and tracked down all those roads to Alexandria brought him a certain warmth and a certain comfort that only she could've provided if she were there with them. He clung to every little memory; every echo of her voice in his head. He remembered her songs and her singing and her eyes.
Maggie sort of worked it out the closer they got to Alexandria and Glenn confirmed it one morning when they found him standing and just staring at the sunrise. He knew that she'd be the sort to watch the sunrise and find it beautiful and all that shit. That's why he began watching it anyway. It didn't matter what he was doing or what they were doing or whether they were walking or if he was on watch or sleeping. He would make the time or he would wake up and he would watch it, because she would like it. Because maybe somehow she'd be right there beside him watching it too.
When they made it to Alexandria, everything was exactly as Eugene had said it was. But nobody really took the man seriously anymore. Tara befriended the man though and everybody else just tolerated Eugene and worked around him. He didn't care much for Eugene, Abraham or Rosita. He accepted Tara as one of his family because she saved Glenn and that earned his respect. He didn't think too much on her fist pounding and happy go lucky attitude. But she did her part in the group and she played a role in their family and he was perfectly fine to just co-exist with her.
The people of Alexandria gave them a home and it wasn't large but it wasn't small. It was enough for their large group. Three floors with four rooms in each level. It was almost like a little apartment to him. There was even a porch; the one he sat on now. It was all long wooden boarded and white picket fences and a yard that was now filled with balls and toys and all of little ass kicker's colourful shit.
It all happened on a Sunday; pretty fucking fitting, if anybody was to ever ask him. He was fixing to go out on hunt, had his crossbow and his pack and all that shit he'd need if he was going to find himself stuck in the woods for a few days tracking down a deer. Carl decided to tag along and he was fine with that. He didn't mind company so much anymore. He welcomed it because maybe a little part of him got used to it when he was with her. Maybe he liked the sound of trailing footsteps behind him. Maybe he liked that someone actually had his back and that he could devote his entire focus on the game he was tracking. He never said that of course.
A couple of hours later he and Carl returned to the safe zone with a deer thrown over his shoulders and another over Carl's shoulders too. The town was going to be happy, that's all he thought. He and Carl had deposited the dead deer's at the large kitchen where most of the town went to eat their meals. He had only just turned the corner of the road to their home when he saw everyone standing the porch.
It wasn't until he and Carl drew closer to the home did Carl take off without a warning. Rick was the second to look at him from across the space that spanned across him and the porch. There was a glimmer of hope he saw in Rick's eyes; something he hadn't seen in a long time. Something he only caught a glimpse of when they first stepped into Alexandria. But Rick looked away a second later to the stranger in question and that was when he saw her.
All blonde hair and ethereal under the sunlight.
Maybe that's when he died and maybe that's when she came to collect his soul and bring him back home.
But as he paused there with hand on the gate of the white picket fence and crossbow slung across his back he saw Carl pulling her close. He heard Carl laughing and heard Maggie calling his name and Glenn even jogging down the pavement to come and collect him. That was when she turned and just like that everything just slowed and everything just stopped. Carol and her beaming grin, Carl and his joyous, Glenn running and frozen in mid-air with a hand motioning for him to follow and Maggie with a blinding smile and tears.
The stranger that wasn't so strange to him stood there all blue eyes and familiar silhouette. Even from where he stood he could see her scars, one just under her eye and another on her forehead and finally that one that brought him right back to Grady and right back to that moment. Blood splatter and a ringing sound in his ear and everything he saw was red. The moment his entire life just ended right there with her. The moment every part of his soul just shattered. That moment he saw the bullet fly out of the back of her head and all he could think about was, why.
Time resumed though, like it always does but only when Glenn finally clicked open that gate and tugged on his arm. She didn't fly down the steps to him; didn't run, didn't cross the space between them. She didn't do anything at all. She just stood there equally as frozen as he was and staring and maybe she wondered if he was real too. Maybe he ought to ask her about that later.
He remembered he only let Glenn pull him four steps along before he stopped again and Glenn's hand fell short of his arm. He implored her. Maybe he expected himself to wake up at that moment. But that's when she started moving. She walked down the steps so slow and everybody just disappeared and everyone could've just fucked off for all he cared. He clung onto her gaze and he wondered if this was hell and if this was his punishment. If maybe he had to relive this every single fucking day for the rest of eternity just so that he could be reminded of everything he could never have.
But then she slid her arms around his waist and she pressed her face into the side of his neck and he felt her, god he felt her and she was so fucking real. She was so right there and warm and moving and hands so tight around his waist. His arms circled her and he held her so dear to him; so afraid that if he let go she would disappear and he would lose her all over again. He breathed her in then and maybe he cried into her shoulder.
"Daryl," she calls his name and this time it's louder and he isn't so far into his thoughts anymore because of the warm hand that now suddenly takes up residence on his shoulder. He feels someone sliding into the space next to him on the step of the porch he sits at and when he looks, he sees her. "I've been looking for you," she says and he stares.
Months have passed and years have gone by and she's still here with him.
"Y'okay?" she asks quietly and he looks all over her face. She is older now but still young and beautiful, even with her scars.
He nods slowly and wonders if his eyes are glistening. He drops his eyes to the step next to her and he closes his eyes for a moment and just breathes her in again like he can now. He feels her sliding a hand around his neck and feels her pulling him to her and guiding his head to her neck. He breathes her in and fills his lungs with her scent.
He mustn't be dead. He can't be. Hell couldn't smell as sweet as she does and he wouldn't make it into heaven anyway so he really must be alive. She really must be here.
He curls a hand now around the small of her back and around her side and he brings her close, feels her face press against his shoulder and feels her mould into him.
"Beth," he murmurs into her neck when he is sure that she is still there.
"Hmm…" she hums as he feels her running a hand up his back and feels it curl around his neck.
"You're really here, right?" he asks softly even though he knows he is being silly. Even though he knows he hasn't lost it and he hasn't gone crazy because she really is here. She really did make it.
She didn't die.
"'m right here," she tells him calmly and he's heard it so many times already, "'m real…I made it."
"Okay," he murmurs because he believes her.
"Everything okay?" he hears Maggie ask from somewhere behind them.
He feels Beth shift and imagines she's probably peering over his shoulder now to her sister.
"Yeah, we're okay," Beth tells her sister.
"Mind if we start dinner first without y'two?" Maggie replies and adds a second later, "Carl's getting hungry."
"Y'guy's go ahead," Beth continues, "We'll be in, in a bit."
"Alright."
He hears the screen door shut and feels her shifting again and this time pulling away from him. She collects his hands into hers and leaves them on her lap and she looks at him, all blue eyes and words she doesn't need to speak but words he hears echoing so loudly in his head.
"'s just…" he starts and trails off and looks to their hands, "Sometimes I remember…"
She is so patient though and she doesn't say anything and just sits there and listens and squeezes his hand as if to remind him that she's still there; that she isn't telling him to hurry up and get to it. That they now have all the time in the world.
"Sometimes, I forget," he murmurs and he knows that she knows exactly what he means. He finally looks to her a moment later and continues, "Maybe y'gotta remind me."
She lets a second pass and maybe a minute, he isn't sure but he feels her hand slide from his and feels it curl around the side of his face.
"I already do," she tells him and her eyes are so warm and so soft and so beautiful, "Everyday, Daryl."
And that's how he got here. That's how he made it. She brought him here and she will always bring him right back to here.
That's how they all made it.