A/N this is set directly after the season four finale, assuming that Rick got the group out of TERMINUS, and they are making their way to D.C. Daryl, lone wolf that he is, refused to travel up to D.C in a sardine can with the rest of them, he planned to look for 'others' from their group before meeting them at the White House sometime during spring. This chapter begins at the moment he has seen/found Beth, sorry I've tried not to make it too gooey, because it didn't seem right when I wrote it... but I'll make up for that later.

Ten months earlier

His heart felt swollen and there was a real pain in it, ripping him apart. It felt like someone had reached in and pulled his heart right through the walls of his chest while it was still beating and there were buzzing tendrils of pain shooting from it. He looked to the ground, sure that he would see light where the dark shadow of his torso should be, sure that there would be a gaping hole in his chest, but there wasn't, there was just his shadow and hers, of course. He managed to lift his face, confused, as she launched herself into his arms; she had an annoying habit of just having to be right in your space and that frustrated him even more. He was in so much pain and she was so obnoxious as to just throw herself into him without thought, sure he was glad to see her. He would have liked it better if he could'velooked at her from a few steps away, but she clung to him despite his obvious grunt of disapproval. He pulled his hand from between them;he had been feeling for the hole that he could not see, feeling for a bullet or an arrow or a rock or something that could have caused his heart to feel as it did. It wasn't the first time he had felt the pain, the first time was when he was chasing that car that took Beth; it had leveled him that time. He'd collapsed from the pain then, as he possibly would now if she wasn't holding him up; yes, this was the second time and it was so much worse than the first, he worried that it might be something, but he didn't have time to think about that now.

He felt his arm, without his permission he might add, resting around her waist and when it did so, he felt the pain subside, which was a relief, it wasn't his time yet. He felt...silent, which was new also, because he had never felt like that with a person before. He'd felt it when he was alone in the woods, or watching the sunset, or drunk off his ass watching the stars, but never in the presence of another human…never. He was always awkward, worried he might put a foot out of line and be beaten for it, but not now. Now he felt silent and he liked it and he wanted more of it, but then it left, because there she was in his arms sobbing like a two-year-old who'd just dropped their candy on the ground and the silence was gone, replaced with this agonizing sound.

"Quit yer sookin', would ya?" He grunted as he patted her back in a pathetic attempt to comfort her.

"I'm not sookin'." She smiled into his chest. "I'm happy to see you!" The way her eyes smiled up at him softened him a little.

"Yer well…?" he was going to make some smart ass comment, but couldn't think of one because, after all, he was happy to see her too. He just wasn't being so dramatic about the whole thing, but yeah he was happy and a little uncomfortable because she wasn't letting go and this was, say, the second time he could remember being hugged in his whole life. Really hugged, not the drunk-chick-at-the-bar-hanging-off-him kind of hug and not the sort where someone had collapsed in his arms because they were heartbroken or exhausted, but just a genuine hug, because someone wanted to be that close and that surrounded by him. In fact, apart from the odd reassuring hand on his arm from Carol, or a pat on the back from Rick and that time Beth hugged him a few weeks, or months back, it was easy to lose track of time now days, so however long ago it was, but then he had to remind himself that pity didn't really count either. So this was probably the first affection ever shown to him, by a human on any level, other than Merle punching him, because somehow that's affection too, but this...it was so alien that he just preferred to stand rather stiff to it, than to respond, although his arm was still around her, patting her back slightly. He put a stop to that and let it fall back to his side.

"'Nuff o' that now." He grumbled and she let go and pulled back and that's when he really got a good look at her, at her face, so full of life and all he could see was color. There was some blood there and, actually she looked kind of pale and a bit bruised, but he kept thinking of rainbows and all sorts of bright colors. Colors that didn't have names, but all belonged to her; dancing around her, worshiping her, bending to her will and throwing her up in one bright splash of color. He shook his head; he must be dehydrated, which kind of felt like being drunk but, you know, less merry and that pain was kicking back in and slight as it might be, was irritating him.

"C'mon, 's get'n dark." He said as he turned to walk away, expecting her to follow him.

She stood grounded and crossed her arms in annoyance. "Hey, Beth!" She called.

He turned with a look of confusion, so she continued, "Glad to see ya. Where you been? How are you? Why'd you leave me? Why you got blood everywhere?" She prompted as she slicked some blood off her arm in utter disdain, not just for the rotting blood but for the semi-cold Daryl.

She was confusing when she was like this; it wasn't the first time she had spoken to him this way. She had done it in the past, back in the prison when he she claimed that he had completely ignored her in favor of Judith. Still, it seemed so unnecessary; he thought they knew each other better than that now, that he didn't have to feign these pleasantries. Daryl shrugged, "Don' matter where you been, Beth, you're standing here now, n' ya stink like a damn walker," He pointed to the blood, "And, right now, it's dusk and we need shelter, so move it!" He demanded as he turned to walk away, annoyed that she had wasted even a few precious moments of light.

He was so different to how she'd left him, or been taken from him; that Daryl's walls were crumbling, this Daryl was the hard Daryl that she had first met. It made her angry to think he could revert back to this after everything; after the prison, their family...the time they'd spent alone together after the prison. She would've been angry if she hadn't realized that something pretty heavy must've been weighing on his mind for him to treat her so coldly. Normally she would've been put out, confused, but this was Daryl and she guessed that she wasn't found by accident. He'd surely looked for her this whole time and that said a great deal more than he ever would, so she ignored his attitude and rushed to his side. He flinched as he felt her hand grab onto his; she did it to comfort him, from whatever this awful thing was that was weighing on him.

He was confused by it, it wasn't the first time she'd done it, but at least last time it was because she needed comfort. This time, though, he was clueless as to why it felt acceptable to her; sure, they had been through a bit together now and although they'd grown closer, they weren't like this.

Maybe for some stupid girly reason she needed comfort again. He was irritated about that too, the girly emotions, but couldn't be bothered with pulling away. He just gave her his steely, unimpressed glare instead, but she smiled, and held on anyway.

"Thought I'd never see you again." She admitted.

"Well, I'm 'ere ain't I?"He grumbled the obvious.

"Yep." She smiled again before turning her head over her shoulder. "Hurry, boy!" She called.

He looked at her questioningly and yet unimpressed. "My dog." She explained.

"U-huh." He grunted, catching site of the one-eyed white mutt.

"He found me too!" She explained and, at those words, he felt his fingers prickle and respond by wrapping themselves around hers. He thought it was stupid, but, whatever, he let it happen. Maybe it was because he was assuring her that yes he had found her, maybe he was assuring himself that she had been found, or perhaps it was simply because he realized after these weeks without her, he liked having her this close. It didn't matter why he let it happen, it mattered that it did and that meant something, he knew that, he just didn't know what it meant...but it was something.

A/N don't forget to review and Fave if you're enjoying. :D