Ch. 2
Thanks, Jen, for editing this and to everyone that reviewed last chapter! I hope you continue to like the story!
"Do ya think we'll be here forever?" she'd asked him one night as they lay in his cell. She'd been coming there every night since he'd let her stay the first time, and he couldn't say that he minded it.
He knew she was careful, too. So far, no one had suspected anything was going on, and he hoped to keep it that way for a while. It wasn't that he was embarrassed to be with her. He just wasn't looking forward to the looks he was going to get when it came out that he was nailing sweet, little Beth Greene.
The group kinda held her in a position of sacredness. To them she was hope embodied or some shit, and he didn't think they'd be too thrilled that she'd shacked up with his ass.
He sighed and twisted a curl of her hair around his finger, pushing away those thoughts. "Don't really know. If the fences hold up, maybe."
"Hmmm. I wish we could get some pretty curtains to hang over the bars, then."
"Why?" He furrowed his brow and looked at the plain white sheet that he'd strung across his cell for a little privacy. Most of the time, he slept out on the ledge because he didn't like to be boxed in, but he'd taken to going to his cell most nights to wait for her.
"If we're gonna be here a while, it would be nice if it was more homey."
"You're kinda crazy, huh?" he asked quietly, pulling her closer to his side. He liked her, though. She was special.
"A little. I just don't like all the gray. It's the end of the world, but maybe it doesn't have to look like it in here."
"Maybe. Ya have to write it down so I can get it on a run."
She shook her head. "I don't mind tellin' you, but everyone else? They'd think it was stupid," she whispered.
He didn't say anything because she was right. The others would shake their heads when they read it. Hell, a few weeks ago, he'd have done that, too, but for some reason, he didn't think it was stupid at all now. He understood it—understood her better than before.
They'd been doing this for a couple of weeks and the perception everyone had about her was wrong. She wasn't naive or childish. She was just desperately holding on to what life had been like before. What life could be like again if they'd just listen to her instead of giving her Judith to care for and letting her make dinner.
Daryl didn't realize how much was right under the surface, and he felt a kinda shitty that he'd written her off so easily before.
"One day, I'll get ya some fuckin' curtains," he said after she'd fallen asleep. "Whatever ya want."
Daryl scratched the bridge of his nose and looked over the pawnshop. It had been emptied long ago, but Merle said he could find all the hidden good stuff. Sure enough, he came out of the back room a few minutes later with a little baggie of pills.
"Shouldn't look so damn proud of yaself," Daryl said as he shook his head. "We got more important shit to worry about than ya gettin' high."
"I might agree with ya after I take a couple of these." He opened the bag and popped two in his mouth, crunching them like candy.
"How ya even know what they are?"
"Just some damn pain pills, Mother. Don't ya worry yaself about it."
Daryl had to admit Merle was a lot easier to get along with that afternoon, but then he felt bad for preferring his brother on pills rather than sober.
That night they slept in a barn on the outskirts of town, and Daryl fought down all the feelings that were settling in his chest.
He worried about Beth and her family. He worried about the prison and how the others were. Had the people from Woodbury managed to get there after all the shit he and Merle had caused calmed down? Were the ones who made it even decent people or just the shitty ones that cheered on his and Merle's fight?
Daryl knew that Rick would get rid of them before they could do anything and that Glenn was already itching to fuck up some Woodbury natives, so he tried to calm down enough to sleep.
She sat on his lap as he looked out the windows of the guard tower.
They didn't mess around up here. He took guard duty very seriously, and as much as he loved getting her naked, these nights were just as good. She'd lay her head on his shoulder, and he'd play with her hair as she talked to him about different things. They'd gotten good at sneaking around since they started this about three months ago, but it made him feel like a shithead that he made her hide it. He knew she was getting impatient with him and wanted him to go talk to her daddy about them, but he didn't really feel like dying just yet.
"Ya ever go to jail?"
Daryl snorted. "I look like a criminal to ya, woman?"
"Naw, ya look like ya could be dangerous, though. I bet ya beat up your fair share of guys."
"Maybe," he whispered and kissed her shoulder. "Don't mean I got caught."
She laughed and hugged him before nuzzling his neck. "I slapped a girl once," she said quietly, her breath tickling his skin.
"Oh yeah?" he asked, pushing her hair over her shoulder.
"Uh- huh. She called Maggie a whore, so I hit her. Daddy was so mad. I got sent home from school for the rest of the week."
"Ya sure she deserved it?" Daryl asked, smiling when she pinched his side.
"Ya sayin' my sister's easy, Dixon?"
"Well, she sure as hell didn't play hard to get." She pinched him harder. "Guess it runs in the family 'cause I remember gettin' jumped, too. Ya Greene girls are hot-blooded, huh?"
"You're such a dick." She shook her head, but he knew she wasn't mad because she was trying to hold in a smile.
"Your daddy'd have a heart attack if he knew how ya seduced me."
"Seduced? Please," she scoffed.
"Songbird," he whispered, turning her head and kissing her. "I didn't fuckin' know what hit me."
"What the fuck have ya done, Merle?" Daryl pushed his shoulder and watched him slump over. He was passed out cold, and the pill bag and shine jar were both empty. "I swear to God, I'ma kill ya myself. Ain't even gonna let the booze and drugs do it for me."
Daryl watched him sleep for hours before he groaned and rolled over, holding his head.
"Hope ya hurt, ya asshole," he muttered, kicking a bucket over to him right as he started throwing up.
"Fuck you," he coughed out between dry heaves. When he was finished, he lay back down on the floor, sighing heavily. After a few seconds, he looked over at Daryl. "Ya can't let me do that again," he whispered.
Daryl nodded and looked away from his brother's pale face. They both knew that the only thing that would end up killing Merle before old age would be his own stupidity.
Neither spoke the rest of the afternoon, and Daryl went out on his own to grab some food. He found a couple of cans of beans and brought them back right before dark.
"What's the plan?" he asked as he ate the beans straight from the can.
"We need someplace safe to stay," Merle muttered, looking around the dingy room.
Daryl waited a minute and then said, "They'd let us in. All we have to do is show up, especially since we took care of things for 'em."
"Ain't gonna be their bitch," he said and closed his eyes.
"We ain't nobody's bitch. We gotta be smart, though. We ain't gonna last out here on our own, Merle."
"Well, I think I gotta little more roughin' it left in me before I go and ask Sheriff Rick if he can spare a bed." Merle looked over at him and narrowed his eyes. "Why ya so interested in goin' back?"
"'Cause I had a damn bed and food."
"Uh-huh." He didn't believe him, but Daryl was done talking. He'd already pushed him too hard for the night.
"Go to sleep. Ya need to be on your toes when we head out in the mornin'."
She was singing quietly under the shower spray, and he watched her with his arms crossed over his chest.
He couldn't stop himself from sneaking off to watch her after she'd left the kitchen. Things had been rough for both of them, and he wasn't sure how to smooth things out.
"You're starin'." She smiled over her shoulder at him and went back to singing.
"Can't help it. You're puttin' on a show for me." He stepped closer, but didn't make to take off his clothes.
"Why don't ya join me?" she asked, moving forward to unbutton his shirt.
"Too risky. Don't want nobody walkin' in on us."
Beth nodded and turned off the water before grabbing her towel. "It would be terrible if ya got caught messin' around with me."
"It would," he agreed but realized too late she was being sarcastic.
"See ya around," she whispered and slipped past him.
Later, he found her in the kitchen by herself, getting stuff ready for dinner.
"Hey, songbird," he said quietly. She didn't turn around, so he walked over to the counter beside her and whispered, "Ya know I didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah," she said and smiled tightly.
"I mean it."
She took a step toward him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and leaned up to kiss him, but he stepped back quickly, putting space between them and glancing at the door.
"I get it, Daryl," she whispered, moving back to the stove. "I'm good enough for ya to fuck, but God forbid anyone find out."
"Don't ya talk like that." His voice was rough and he grabbed her arm, turning her to him. "You're better than that shit. Even if I act like an asshole, don't ya come down here with me."
"Just go." She pulled her arm from his grasp.
He waited a few seconds then stalked out of the kitchen and into the yard. Fucking woman, twisting his words.
That night when she came to his room, she lay down beside him and whispered, "I think we should tell people about us."
"Naw," he said quietly.
"Why not?"
"If they never know, ya don't gotta deal with all the fallout from it."
"Are ya serious?" She sat up and pushed herself off the cot. "We've been together like this for months. Do ya feel nothin' for me?"
"Ya mean a lot to me."
"I can't even with ya, Daryl." She sighed and shook her head. "Either we're gonna tell people about us or we're gonna stop this."
Panic shot through his chest at her words, but he kept his smirk in place as he wrapped his fingers through her belt loops and pulled her to him. "Ya don't mean that, girl." And then he used all the things he knew she liked to make her remember why they didn't need to stop this just yet.
"My birthday's next week. I'll be eighteen—not that it really matters anymore. I want us to be a couple in public. We don't have to show tons of affection, but I want 'em to know you're mine. I'm proud of that."
"Your standards ain't exactly high, are they?"
That pissed her off, and she stood, yanking up her clothes and ignoring him completely.
"When ya decide I'm worth it, ya know where I'm at."
She left his cell in a huff, and he buttoned up his shirt and went out to the ledge.
Worth it?
He scoffed and closed his eyes.
She was worth everything, and that was exactly why he didn't want to open his mouth about what they had going. Didn't make no sense for her to be with him. Soon, she'd realize it, and he'd be the one left alone.