She thought she would get up as soon as Daryl left, but instead, Beth finds herself lying down again and promptly falling back asleep. If she's this tired, she can just imagine how exhausted Lori and Anne both feel.

They, after all, were the ones who had done all of the work.

When her eyes open again, she can see through the window that it's completely dark outside now and the cell block is quiet. She's still getting used to the quiet, to be honest. They've been in this prison for a week now and to finally have a safe place to lay their heads each night, all of them are still getting used to it; to not constantly sleep with one eye open, to not have at least two people on guard at all times, to not have to huddle together for warmth because they can't have the risk of a fire burning at night to attract both walkers and other people. Maybe that's why Beth is so exhausted. It's not just from delivering Lori's baby, but because she hasn't had a good and safe night's sleep in months.

She hears someone cough in their sleep – sounds like Glenn – and she can hear her daddy's snores from his cell next to hers. Beth lays there for another moment, listening to him and trying to decide if she's awake now or if she's going to close her eyes again.

It seems like she's awake now and going to stay that way.

She pushes the blanket aside and sits up, her stomach grumbling emptily as she does. She hasn't eaten since breakfast the morning before and she remembers the Reese's peanut butter cups and bottle of water that Daryl had dropped by earlier. They are still on the cell's desk along with her clothes, washed and folded.

Her bag is on the floor next to her bed and she picks it up, her eyes adjusted to the dark now, and she digs around inside for a moment before finding her other pair of clean socks. During the winter, as they scrounged for warmer clothes and any kind of food, Daryl had also made sure that everyone had more than enough socks. He wanted to make sure that everyone's feet stayed warm and dry because it helped the rest of their bodies stay warm.

Beth doesn't feel like tugging on her cowboy boots right now – they've been hurting her feet something fierce lately though she hasn't told anyone that – and instead, she tugs on her pair of socks so she's not walking around the prison floor in bare feet.

Standing up, she goes to the desk and smiles when she sees that Maggie has washed her bra as she had promised she would. There is no bed sheet or curtain hanging over the doorway – yet – for privacy, but it's dark and it seems like everyone is sleeping. Still, Beth takes off her tee-shirt and puts on her bra before tugging on the tee-shirt once again as quickly as she can, sighing with relief; not feeling quite as exposed as she had felt without it.

Maggie has washed her clothes and have also left her a few more pairs of sweatpants and tee-shirts. Beth smiles at the simple sight of them. Changes of clothes. It's been too long.

Her stomach grumbles again, but she stops herself from taking the Reese's to eat. She wants to save that until she has other, possibly more substantial, food in her stomach.

In her socks, her steps are silent on the concrete floor as she leaves her cell. Her eyes flutter up towards the perch at the top of the stairs where she knows Daryl has slept these past few days since getting themselves in here and cleaning it out. He had seemed to vehemently hate the idea of sleeping in a cell, but Beth hadn't thought more on it.

She's not surprised to see that Daryl isn't up there right now, but she doesn't begin to guess where he might be instead. He could be anywhere – walking the fences outside, patrolling and cleaning out another hallway in the prison, finding more supplies. Beth has learned from the winter months, the family always running from one place to another that when they all collapsed, exhausted, at the end of each day, Daryl was still awake. She actually has no idea when he had slept; if he had slept at all. Daryl seems to need little sleep.

Beth walks through the open door, stepping into the cell block common room, but she stops abruptly when she sees that she's not the only one awake.

Rick is weaving in and out of the metal tables, Anne in his arms and he looking down to the baby with a smile. Beth begins to take steps backward, not wanting to interrupt, but even though she had been silent, Rick suddenly turns his head to see her there as if he heard her. Beth stops in place and Rick smiles.

"Beth," he breathes out her name as if he's seeing an actual angel.

"I got hungry," Beth explains to him as to why she's in there at this hour.

Rick just keeps smiling though. Beth is struck at how happy the man looks. She has known him for almost a year – he and the others having come to the farm in the middle of summer – and spring is upon them now and in all of these months, she has never seen the man like this. The smile across his face is easy and light now and it's a smile that makes Beth want to smile in return just from seeing it.

She may be quiet around the others, but that gives her the opportunity to really pay attention when no one else thinks about hiding themselves. But even if she hadn't been observant, it would be impossible to miss the tension between Rick and Lori Grimes that has steadily been growing thicker as Lori's belly grew. It had been difficult to hide or mask it from a group as close as theirs.

Beth isn't going to pretend she's any kind of expert on marriage, but maybe, baby Anne will be able to help mend at least some of the rift between her parents.

"I'm sure you did," Rick says. "I'm just giving Lori a little break," he then explains.

Beth smiles and walks to Rick. She smiles as she looks down to baby Anne. "She's perfect," she finds herself whispering as she looks down to the newborn, her eyes closed in Rick's arms, and Beth lifts a finger to lightly brush it over her tiny knuckles.

"I have no way of thanking you, Beth, for what you did," Rick tells her in a quiet voice and Beth lifts her head to find him looking at her.

She shakes her head. "You don't have to thank me, Rick. We're family. I just did what anyone else would have done if they were in there with Lori instead of me."

"I like to think we all could have done it and Lori and Anne would both be alive right now, but I know that that's not the truth," Rick says and shakes his head as he does. "What you did for my wife and Anne was amazing and is and I'm never going to let you think anything different," he vows.

Beth isn't sure what to say to that, to be honest; not sure if there's anything to say.

Just yesterday, she was no one. Just Hershel's youngest daughter and Maggie's little sister and another mouth to feed and another body to keep alive. She had contributed as much as she could – which hadn't been much at all. She just isn't like Maggie or Carol, she knows that. She's young and useless – things no one has dared say, but Beth knows that they are thoughts they have probably all had at one time or another.

And now, everyone is looking at her as if she's amazing. The change is so sudden and jarring and Beth realizes how long it's been since she has felt anything close to feeling important because she also realizes that she's just not used to it anymore.

She just looks to Rick's eyes and stays silent and Rick stares at her, silent as well. After moment, he gives a nod.

"Let's get you something to eat," he says and heads over against one of the walls where Beth notices there are boxes in several stacks and she almost gasps at the sight. Rick chuckles as if he can read her mind. "Your dad is talking about finding some seeds and getting started on planting and with all of this food, I think we'll be okay for a while."

He looks to Beth with a smile and Beth has absolutely no problem with beaming back.

Not only was there plenty of food in the cafeteria, but Daryl had had Oscar and Axel show him where commissary was and that had given them even more food. Beth finds herself sitting at one of the tables, drinking a cup of water and eating a bowl of mushroom-flavored Ramen noodle soup. Maggie was right. Beth doesn't think she's ever seen so many packs of Ramen noodle soup before and with access to running water from the creek, able to boil it over one of their candles, Beth is able to enjoy a bowl of hot soup and it's wonderful.

Rick sits at the table with her as she eats, his eyes hardly ever leaving Anne. He seems to be in complete awe of her and it makes Beth smile faintly to herself as she eats and watches.

She suddenly finds herself thinking of Jimmy. Sweet Jimmy whom she had loved as much and as true as any sixteen-year-old girl could love their high school sweetheart. She remembers going out with him and they would park somewhere to lay in the back bed of his pickup truck; to make out and to talk.

Jimmy had had no plans of going to college. He was going to graduate from high school and then stay with his dad so he could help on the family farm. A lot of boys in their school did the exact same thing and to those who did go away to college, they usually just went to some local community college or off to University of Georgia. The girls, too, before they came back to their little town and got married and had kids and settled down into a life that was much a mirror of their parents and grandparents.

Jimmy had just thought that they would both be the same. He would stay and work the farm and Beth would go off to college, but then in four years, she would be back and they would get married. Beth hadn't known what she wanted. She had loved Jimmy, but would she still love him during their senior year and then during four years of college? Would she love him enough to come back home and marry him and start having babies with him?

Beth had always wanted to be a wife and a mother, but she had also always envisioned something more for herself. She loved the farm and she loved Georgia, but she also loved the idea of there being something so much more out there for her.

Going somewhere else and meeting someone else and living a life she never would be able to live if she came back home to their tiny town and married Jimmy.

She looks at Anne and she finds herself feeling a longing in her chest. She had always wanted to be a mother and even now, with the world ending and there being nothing left, Beth looks at the little baby and realizes that she still wants that for herself.

How unrealistic is that dream though? There's no one left and even if there was, Beth wants to fall in love. She wants a partner – like Maggie has found with Glenn. She wants to get married – as much as two people can nowadays – and she wants to have a baby. She's only seventeen and these dreams might be dreams of a child, but they're still her dreams and looking at Anne, Beth realizes how true they still are; even if there's almost no hope of any of them ever coming true.

She's almost finished with her soup when someone who walks just as silent as she did – with shoes on and not just socks – comes into the common room. Daryl. She's not surprised.

Daryl pauses in his steps when he sees Beth sitting at the table, eating, but then he looks to Rick sitting there as well and that seems to help him decide in coming forward. He carefully sets his crossbow on the table and then sits down in one of the other empty metal bench seats. Beth keeps her eyes down to her almost empty bowl. She'll finish up and head back to her cell even though she's not tired and can't image going back to sleep. But she also can't imagine that Rick and Daryl would have any type of conversation in front of her.

"'s quiet," Daryl reports to Rick.

Maybe she had been wrong.

"Couple of walkers down at the far fence, but I took care of 'em. Nothin' else."

Rick gives a single nod. "Tomorrow, I want Glenn, Maggie, Oscar and Axel to get themselves to the infirmary. I want Carol and Carl to stay here and look after Hershel and Lori and you and me are gonna head back out. Town isn't too far from here."

"We headin' on a run already?" Daryl asks and though his voice doesn't give it away, Beth glances up just in time to see the slight surprise in his eyes from the flickering candle in the middle of the table.

"Just to see if we can find anything useful for Anne here. Crib or a baby bouncer," Rick says.

"What the hell's that?" Daryl asks and Beth finds herself smiling.

"It's a seat you can put the baby in that bounces a little and it can calm them down," Beth answers before she can get herself to not to. "It also frees your arms so you can do something without constantly holding her."

Daryl looks at her and doesn't say anything and Beth's not sure why, but she feels her cheeks warm from his eyes on her. She lowers her eyes back to her bowl for another spoonful of soup.

"Huh," Daryl then grunts and Beth finds herself smiling faintly to herself again.

"Finding a couple of toys and diapers won't be a bad thing either. Cloth ones are fine, but disposable ones might be easier for the time being until we get the laundry room up and running," Rick continues. "What about you, Beth?" He asks suddenly and Beth's head flies up at being addressed. "Is there anything you want for your cell?" Rick asks.

Beth's head shake is immediately. "No, thank you," she smiles politely. "I'm alright."

Daryl snorts at that. "Everyone's already makin' their lists. Carl wants to find comic books somewhere and your sister is askin' for pillows that give her head support."

Beth finds herself smiling again at that, but she shakes her head again. "I mean it. I'm alright. I have a bed and a change of clothes and Reese's. Trust me. I'm alright."

She then thinks of her bag in her cell and the journal she had found two days earlier when she had been unpacking the other things. She could use more pens, but she knows that finding more pens around here won't be hard. Up in the guard towards or she can tell Maggie to bring her back a pen from the infirmary tomorrow.

She also thinks of her cowboy boots and the way they've been rubbing her painfully later. Eventually, she'll need to put them back on or find another pair of shoes, but she can't ask Daryl and Rick to find her shoes. If Maggie was going on the run with them tomorrow, that'd be different. It's like when she asked Maggie to find some tampons or another pair of underwear. That's her sister. She can ask Maggie for personal things like that and yes, they're only shoes and they are an obvious necessity, but somehow, it feels too intimate for Beth to bring up to the two men at the table with her.

"Did you get enough?" Rick asks when she slurps down the last spoonful.

Beth nods and can't stop herself from licking her lips. She feels full and warm inside. It's such a pleasant feeling and that's another she has almost forgotten about feeling.

"Yes, and I have dessert in my cell waiting for me," she replies and can't help, but glance to Daryl as she says that. He's not looking at her and he doesn't move his head to do so.

Beth feels instantly stupid for saying that.

She doesn't even know what she wanted Daryl's reaction to that to be. Maybe a little smile like he sometimes gives Carol? But does she really expect Daryl to smile at her like he smiles at Carol though? Carol is actually a woman – much closer to Daryl's age than she will ever be. Right now, she's seventeen and even after helping with Anne's birth, she can't imagine Daryl ever looking at her as anything other than just a kid.

At least he's actually looking at you now though, Beth tells herself, which is much more than he has done for these past few months.

Daryl and Rick resume talks of their run tomorrow and Beth stands up, carrying her bowl and spoon to the plastic tub where other dirty dishes are sitting in, waiting to be washed tomorrow. Beth notes that Rick hadn't given her a task to do tomorrow so she'll set one for herself. Tomorrow, she'll wash everyone's dishes. It's not a big task, by any means, and it's certainly not an important one, but clean dishes for everyone matters to her so that's what she'll do.

She wonders why Rick hadn't given her anything to do like everyone else.

"Good night," she smiles at them both.

"Good night, Beth," Rick smiles at her.

Daryl doesn't say anything.

Beth can't help, but lean over and give Anne a kiss on her forehead. Then, with one more smile to Rick and one to Daryl even though he's not looking at her, Beth leaves the common room, going back into her cell. She's not tired, but she can't imagine herself staying out there with Rick and Daryl as they talk. She has no place out there. But she doesn't know what to do with herself now that her stomach is full and she's wide awake.

She lays back down on the bottom bunk and covers herself with the slightly scratchy blanket and listens to the peace and quiet around her. Maybe, tomorrow morning, she can ask Axel or Oscar if these are the only kind of blankets in the prison. She misses her floral goose-down comforter back at home. Also, maybe she can Axel or Oscar where the library is. Having a book right now would give her something to do and after months of going without it, she really has been missing reading.

But if these are the only blankets and there are no books to be read, Beth will still consider things alright because she's here, with her family, her stomach is warm with soup, and she's able to close her eyes without feeling her entire body on edge. What does she need more than these things she has right now?

Beth closes her eyes even if she can't imagine herself going back to sleep and she tries to think of something else she can do tomorrow after she washes the dishes.


Thank you so much for reading and please take a moment to review! I've been missing Daryl x Beth a lot lately and I'm eager to explore an AU to S3. Thank you again!