'What were you thinking, going out on a run with him? Daddy and I didn't say that you could.'

Beth looked up at her sister, confused. 'I wasn't on a run.' She blurted the words out without thinking and then could have kicked herself. Daryl must have told Maggie it was a run so as to not get her into trouble. 'I mean –'

Maggie sat down on the bunk bed next to Beth. They were in Beth's cell and all Beth wanted to do was have a few moments privacy to herself and try to fathom what that look in Daryl's eyes had meant when she'd got off his bike.

'You weren't? Where were you then? Did he take you out?'

'What do you mean, take me out? You make it sound like he kidnapped me. I went out by myself.' It was sweet of Daryl to try to cover for her, but didn't he see that was making it worse? She didn't want him to protect her. All anyone did was try to protect her and it was driving her nuts.

Maggie stared at her. 'Why the hell would you go and do a thing like that? There are walkers out there.'

Beth rolled her eyes. 'I know there are. I took a knife. I wanted to dispatch some for myself. Know what it felt like for the rest of you.'

Maggie stood up and turned away. 'I don't know what's got into you these days. It's like you've got a death wish or something.'

'You're wrong. It's just the opposite. I want to live and y'all won't let me. Defending the prison, going on runs. That's the sort of person that everyone needs. And when this place gets overrun –'

'It ain't gonna get overrun,' Maggie protested.

Beth gave her sister a dark look. 'That's what everyone said about the farm. I want to be prepared

Maggie looked exasperated. 'Where did this all come from so suddenly? It's him, isn't it. He's been puttin' ideas into your head, scarin' you. Makin' you think you've gotta be like him.'

'Daryl? No, he ain't. He barely talks to me. I admire him, that's all. He ain't dead weight in this group. He holds his own.'

'What you do for us is vital, Beth. We can't all be fighters. We need different sorts of people.'

Beth fixed her with a look. 'Then why don't you stay home with the baby sometimes?'

Daryl found Maggie in the prison yard cleaning a stack of guns in the late afternoon. He could tell from the twist of her mouth that she was in a sour mood, and guessed it was because of him.

'Maggie –'

'Why did you lie to me?' she said without looking up from the shotgun she was cleaning.

He took half a step back. Damn. Beth had told her it wasn't a run, or accidentally blurted it out. Girl had no guile. 'I didn't want you bawlin' her out. She'd had a scare. I'd talked to her. She weren't gonna do anything like that again.'

'Looked like you were thinkin' about more than talkin' when I saw you. I know that look in a man's eye. Ain't never seen it in yours, though, and the last person I expected to see you givin' it to was my baby sister.'

'She ain't a baby,' he said, thinking about that walker she'd killed. But he knew he'd said the wrong thing when Maggie glared up at him.

'What the hell do you mean by that?'

'Nothin'. Look, I ain't here to argue with you. I have a suggestion that'll make these problems go away.'

'I'm listenin',' she said.

'Teach her some skills. Teach her to use a knife, a gun. You teach her, get Rick to teach her, doesn't matter. I told her I would but I'm guessing that wouldn't sit well with you.' He reasoned that if Beth felt like she could defend herself if the worst happened she'd stop these crazy hijinks and settle down again.

'You guessed right,' she snapped.

Maggie went on cleaning her gun and was silent for several minutes. Daryl waited. He had all the time in the world.

'All right,' Maggie said finally. 'On one condition.'

Daryl looked at her, frowning. He hadn't come to strike a bargain. He'd come with a solution. 'What is it?' he asked, wary.

'I'll see that she's taught if you stay away from her. Right away. No talkin'. No joyrides on that bike of yours. No little chats at the fence. And if I even see you near her cell I'll shove that crossbow of yours somewhere the sun don't shine.'

Maggie's threat would have been funny if it wasn't Beth's life they were talking about. 'You think that's fair on Beth, you bargaining for her welfare? If you don't teach her how to defend herself she could die. You want that on yourself?'

'It'd be on you, Daryl. Do we have a deal?'

Maggie was like a tigress protecting her cub, and she couldn't see that her protection was actually harming the girl, not helpin' her.

'How am I supposed to keep away from her in a place like this? We're livin' on top of each other.'

Maggie put the cleaned shotgun aside and picked up a revolver. 'Ain't my problem. You figure it out. We had none of these problems with Beth until she started noticing you. I don't know what you did to catch her eye, but it stops now.'

Maggie was asking the impossible. He didn't know what he'd done to provoke Beth, if it was even something he'd done at all. He'd protected the group, that was all. Minded his own business. Sure he'd talked to the girl. They all had. Maybe he'd seen somethin' soft in her eyes and he'd liked it. But he hadn't acted on it and he wasn't going to.

Maggie was asking him to shun the girl. It'd hurt her. It'd hurt him, too. Seein' the girl, bein' close to her. Made all this other shit worthwhile.

'I can't do that. I ain't touched the girl and I don't intend to. Ain't nothin' we're doing wrong and you shouldn't make her feel like she is. We're just livin' like the rest of you.'

Maggie looked up at him, eyes narrowed. 'Well, then. I guess we got a problem.'

Daryl hadn't patrolled the maze of empty corridors and rooms beyond their living space for a week now, and he wanted to check that no walkers had got inside. There wasn't much light and there was no sound, but he could do with some peace and privacy.

He'd reached a stalemate with Maggie, but the worst part of it was it was Beth who was going to suffer. Maybe he should talk to Hershel about her. Hershel would be objective about things, not be clouded by fear and prejudice. Beth deserved better.

He'd been going for about twenty minutes when he heard a sounds. Not much, just a faint scuffle behind him back round a corner. He paused, listening. Could be a rat. Could be a walker. He turned round and waited, crossbow raised.

A figure rounded the corner in the dim light. He expected the hiss and rasp of a walker that had sighted its prey, but instead he heard, 'Daryl?'

He cussed and lowered his crossbow. 'Coulda shot you, girl. What the hell are you doing down here?'

Beth stepped toward him. 'I was looking for you.'

'You found me. Now turn around and go back up to the cells.'

'Are you patrolling? I'll come with you. Back-up,' she said, showing him the knife at her belt.

'Your sister wouldn't like it. She's warned me off you.'

Beth's eyes widened. 'Warned you off? Why?'

'She thinks I'm the reason you're actin' out this way. I don't know why you're actin' out. Sure like to though so I can get her off my back.'

Beth thought about this. 'I – I guess it is because of you.'

Even in the dim light he could see her turn red.

God damn. A girl had never blushed over him in his life. The sorta women he'd spent time with before were jaded, hard women. Bar-flies. Strippers. Women who didn't talk much but could screw real good and wouldn't say nothing when he left in the middle of the night. Since the end of the world he'd not touched a woman, but he hadn't missed those ones. Even the thought of one in fuck-me heels and too much eyeliner round her hard eyes was a turn-off.

But there was nothing hard about Beth. She was like an open book. A draft of sweet water on a hot day. She talked too much and hummed and sang wherever she went, but he sorta liked hearing her about the place. He wondered what it would be like to have her humming one of her little songs while he kissed her throat.

Daryl caught himself. Those were exactly the sort of thoughts that he shouldn't be having.

He pointed a finger at her. 'This, this is what your sister is afraid of. You lookin' at me like that and me losing my head and doing somethin' stupid. I will do somethin' stupid. I can feel myself wanting to.'

She gave a little half-shrug. 'What would be stupid?' But there was a smile on her face and a knowing look in her eye, one that shouldn't be there in someone so inexperienced. He'd bet his crossbow and leather vest that she was still a virgin.

He stepped closer. 'You look me in the eye and tell me that you ain't just acting out with me like some sort of bratty teenager. Don't use me to piss your sister off, Beth. You picked the right guy. I will do that and more, but it's fuckin' low.'

'I don't know what I'm doing,' she whispered. 'I ain't using you, I swear. I just feel like you'd understand.'

His eyes narrowed. 'Understand what?'

She looked down at her wrist and the silvery white scar lines caught the dim light. 'To be afraid to rely on people. To feel like no one could save you.'

He understood that all right. He hadn't relied on one single soul since his mother had died. The fire had burned it outta him. He'd never even relied on Merle, though he'd looked to him for the answer to how to live his life. Turned out Merle didn't know shit about living life but it wasn't till after the world ended that Daryl had realised this and started living for himself.

'You used your fear to become who you are,' she went on. 'Strong. Skilled. I let my fear overtake me. But was there a moment when you looked around yourself and thought, this is screwed? There's no coming back from this? No surviving? And in that moment did you know you had a choice: to tell those voices to shut the hell up and fight harder, longer, or to give into those voices and lay down and die?'

This was getting into dangerous territory. This was deep stuff, things he didn't even talk to himself about. No one had ever asked him a question like that before and he wouldn't have answered it if they had. But there was something about that dark tunnel with not another soul around but Beth, and those big, blue eyes looking up at him.

'I know you have. You don't need to answer,' she said. 'It's a connection between us. I need that connection with someone, and I have it with you.'

'Hell, Beth. You don't know what you're asking.'

'I'm just asking you to talk to me. To tell me how you ignore those voices that are telling you to give up. Because I hear them still. I'm fighting them, but I obviously ain't doing it right if I've got everyone pissed with me.'

No, she wasn't doing it right at all. She was going to get them both into deep shit. 'That ain't all you're asking, is it?' he said roughly.

That little half-shrug again. God damn.

He lifted his free hand, slowly, hesitatingly, and let the backs of his fingers just touch her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. Her lips were parted and hell, how he wanted to taste them. There was something so sweet and pure about her and he wanted it for himself. He was hungry for it, and here she was offering herself up on a plate.

He dropped his hand. He wanted it too badly that he couldn't think straight. He'd forgotten all the reasons that this was a bad idea and that was dangerous ground.

'Whatever it is you need,' he growled. 'This ain't the fuckin' answer. Now get the hell upstairs while I still have my wits.' He reached out and pushed her. Not hard, and his hand found her hip and moulded to it even as he pushed her away.

She didn't move. He pushed her again but found himself even closer to her somehow. She reach up both her hands to his shoulders and shoved him, but not in a get away gesture. More what you gonna do about it?

He pushed her right back, hard, against the wall of the tunnel, his body pressed against hers. His crossbow fell from his fingers and one hand ended up at the back of her neck and the other on her ass. His mouth found hers in a hard, demanding kiss, and he pulled her even closer, feeling her breasts against his chest and her hips tight against his. Soft in his arms. Pliable. Like she was giving herself to him.

She moaned and kissed him back, opening her mouth. His tongue found hers, invading her mouth. Wanting to go deeper. Making him think about fucking her, hard and brutally, watching her lose it as he drove himself home.

He broke the kiss and stepped back, breathing hard. His hands gripped her shoulders, holding her away from him against the wall.

'Jesus fuck. I gotta stop otherwise I ain't gonna be able to in a minute.'

She was panting, tendrils of her blonde hair loose around her face. 'No one's ever kissed me like that before, Mr Daryl Dixon. I don't care if you don't stop.'

He snatched up his crossbow. 'You're going that way,' he said, pointing back toward D block. I'm going that way.' The opposite way, deeper into the corridors where he could work this shit off.

She smiled at him and nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. It was just too damn sweet and his free arm went around her waist and pulled her to him. He kissed her again, softly this time, and breathed in her warm, sunny scent. He'd never known anything like it. Her fingers smoothed up his chest and tangled in his hair and her body arched toward his.

He felt himself throb in response. A few more seconds of that would be downright dangerous. He stepped back. 'Go on. Get.' But he was smiling as he said it.

With another blush that turned her face adorably pink she smiled at him and then walked up the corridor to the cells. He watched her go, feeling lighter somehow. Frustrated as hell, but it was a good feeling that he wouldn't swap for anything.

He patrolled the lower parts of the prison for another hour and didn't find any walkers, telling himself he was stupid, an idiot, but feeling like nothing could touch him just the same.

When he came back to D block Rick was there. He wasn't doing anything, just standing there as if he'd been waiting for Daryl.

Rick folded his arms and levelled his heavy gaze at Daryl. 'We've got a problem.'