Chapter 3

The sun was low on the horizon when he noticed her change in breathing. She was waking up. He knew she hadn't meant to, no one would fall asleep in the middle of the woods unprotected like that. But she was protected. Now she was. And it made him feel like shit that even after all the times he had failed her, she still trusted him. Still felt safe enough with him to let her guard down. He didn't deserve that level of trust. Not from her.

He had let his eyes close when he felt her breathing even out a few hours before, letting his ears play security. Really though, he just needed to slow his mind down while staying alert enough to keep them safe. Because the second his eyes touched on any part of her, the hurricane of emotions would start again. Winds whipping through so fast, he could hardly hold onto a single thought long enough to finish it.

So he kept his eyes closed. Kept his ears open for movement. Kept his hands on her hip, feeling the slightest movements that confirmed she was breathing. And kept trying to convince himself this was real. He was failing at that last part. So when he felt her breathing change, felt her body start to stir, he knew that reality was coming to claim them. They needed to move. She needed to see her sister, her family. He needed to get her back to the safest place he could find her, even if it was that bullshit town. And this bubble they had created, a fragile, delicate place where only they existed, was soon to be popped. He didn't want to face reality, not yet, so he laid still and pretended to still be sleeping. Maybe to buy them just a few more seconds. Only a couple seconds more before she realized exactly who she was sleeping next to. The same person who had failed her, who she surely fucking hated at this point.

He felt when she was actually awake. The way the muscles under his fingers became taunt and tense, ready to spring. He was almost nervous she would attack him again. And that was a whole different story. What the fuck had happened to her? He replayed her reaction a million times as she lay sleeping. It was immediate, instinctual for her to kill now. It was deadly. She was deadly. And he had spent too much time imagining all the terrible things that made her that way. He had ruined her.

He was pulled back to their current situation when he felt her eyes on his face. He resisted the urge to stiffen when he felt her head tilt back, slow and controlled, to unleash her penetrating gaze on him. Keeping his face relaxed and his breathing normal was something he had done thousands of times. A survival mechanism that had been ingrained in him for as long as he could remember. But it was never harder to do than right now, when he felt her eyes burning his face and heard her take a deep breath, shaking so much on the exhale that he was sure she was crying again.

And like a fucking coward, he just stayed there, pretending to be asleep, waiting to see how she would choose to handle the new deck they had just been dealt. Really, he didn't want to open his eyes and see her face when she inevitably pushed him away. But he also knew he would never be this close to her again, would never be able to make out every single eyelash framing blue or count the freckles on her skin.

He was so busy deciding whether or not to face the music, he almost jumped when he felt her fingers wrap around his wrist to pull his hand from her hip. Of course she didn't want his dirty hands anywhere near her. He should have let go the second he heard her breathing change, too fucking selfish to do the right thing. He waited for the rejection to sting, but it never did. Apparently he was too lost in disbelief that she was actually alive, to care if she pushed him away.

He could tell by her slow and quiet movements that she thought he was still asleep. She untangled herself from his body and gentle rolled away, getting to her feet. His ears followed her movements as she crept around the camp. In their reunion, she had never taken off her pack so it still sat on her shoulders. Thinking back through their exchange, the only things she could possibly be grabbing were the knife and hat she dropped. He listened to her footsteps move away from him, then stop. A small shuffling and sudden heat on his body made him think she turned back to look at him. What the hell was she doing? Sneaking away while he was asleep? If she just had to piss, she wouldn't be taking all her shit.

The heat left him as her footsteps picked up again, and his blood grew cold in his veins. She was leaving. She hated him that much that she was leaving. Obviously. He hadn't given her a reason to stay, didn't tell her that her family was still alive a few miles away. He hadn't said anything. Fuck.

Her footsteps were even farther now, and his heart sped as the distance grew. Panic set in. What if none of it had been real? His eyes flew open. He grabbed his bow and pushed to his feet, taking off after her. Picking up his pace to a jog, he closed the distance in a few minutes.

"Beth, where are you goin?" Her steps never faltered, she kept trudging through the woods.

"Don't call me that." Her voice was quiet and cold, but held a ferocity that sounded wrong coming from the petite blonde. Don't call her what? Her damn name?

"We gotta get back. Don't want them worryin'. And your sister… We gotta get back."

"Ain't goin' there."

"What?"

"I ain't goin' with you."

"Hey, hold up." When she didn't slow her stride, he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him.

"Where you goin?" The exasperation leaked into his voice as he bit out the words. Wasn't she listening? Even if she didn't want to be near him, their whole fucking family was waiting for them. The same family she made him fruitlessly track around for days after the prison. But her blue eyes held none of the excitement or happiness he had come to expect. They were empty.

Well, not entirely empty. There was a small hint of panic that frayed the edges, a slight desperation in the way they darted around, never settling on anything for too long. But emptiness and panic were not emotions that made sense in their current situation. Why the fuck wasn't she happy?

"You should leave. Just go back." Her voice was cold and final. It wasn't a request. It was a demand. An order. Her eyes hardened slightly as she tugged her arm from his grasp. He released easily, confusion slowing his movements. But he noticed the way she relaxed in the smallest amount when he let go, when her body was free from his clutches. The panic, the small amount she couldn't conceal from him, faded and now she was practically stone in front of him. Eyes strong as steel glared up at him, her chin raised slightly in a silent challenge, daring him to argue.

When his silence continued and he made no effort to stop her again, she backed away slowly. Satisfied watching him only stare after her dumbly, she turned and continued walking. But watching her walk away jolted his body into action, and she made it only a few steps before he began following. He saw her shoulders tense slightly when he made his first step, knowing she heard his pursuit. It was the smallest things that gave her away, but to an experienced hunter, a tracker trained in years of observation, he could read her like a book. And her appraisal of him, the fact that she even considered it an option that he would let her walk away from him, turned his confusion into rage.

"Ain't goin' nowhere without you. So let's go." He lengthened his stride to walk beside her, but she simply ignored him. "Hey! I said let's go!" He reached for her again, knowing she didn't want to be touched and doing it anyways. He wanted to push her the same way she was pushing him. And it worked. She spun outside of his reach, stopping to turn and look at him.

"Don't," she hissed, her knees slightly bent and body ready to pounce.

"Beth-"

"I said don't call me that!" He opened his mouth, but she cut him off. "And I said I ain't goin' back."

"Tha hell should I call you then?!"

"Nothing. Cause we ain't talkin. You ain't stayin. I ain't goin back. And you never saw Beth out here." She turned to leave with an arrogance that only pissed him off further.

"Greene!" He reached out for her again and she avoided him again. But the look in her eyes had his body coming to an abrupt halt. When she spun around and blue met blue, he nearly stumbled back. The pain, the hatred that poured out of her was alarming. It drained the anger from him, seeming to suck it from his body to only fill hers. And the raw emotion he saw, contained so well to only her baby blues, made him come up short.

"A'right." He put up both hands, a gesture of surrender and an unspoken assurance that he wouldn't try to touch her again. He added a slight nod for emphasis when her eyes remained cruel. After a few seconds, she simply nodded and turned, continuing her journey.

But agreeing to not touch her, to not force her into anything, didn't mean Daryl was going to just let her walk away. No fucking way. This girl would be lucky if she was ever out of his sight again. But clearly things were different. She was different. And she wasn't going to be bullied into going back to Alexandria.

He walked with her, slightly behind and to the right. He made his steps purposely loud, so she would know his presence. But aside from a small sigh when they first began walking, she made no indications that she cared either way. She merely ignored him, continuing to wherever the fuck she was going that was so important, allowing Daryl to get lost in his own mind. Too many awful scenarios began to fill his head. What had happened to her? Why didn't she want to go home? Why didn't she want to see Maggie? How long could he stay out here before Rick came looking? Why was she wearing that stupid fucking hat? Why was someone who once forced hugs on him now reacting so violently to the smallest touch? And what was different earlier today when she wrapped her arms around him and fell asleep curled into his body? His head was spinning when she finally broke the silence.

"Quit followin' me." It was the same tone he had grown to expect, but still sounded so wrong coming from her. He was sure it would only piss her off more than talking, but he had nothing to say. He wasn't going anywhere, and that's not what she wanted to hear. He already told her he wasn't leaving her. She would just have to deal with him following her until she decided to come back with him. Tough shit.

The silence continued, thickening more with every step. But he held his ground. He wasn't going to keep arguing with her.

"I know you heard me. Just go and leave me alone." Yeah, right. Like he was just going to leave her out here. Like it was even an option.

The silence dragged on, becoming so thick with her anger it was nearly suffocating. He could feel it rolling off her in waves, but he didn't care. He knew it was only a matter of time before she snapped.

And he was right. She turned sharply to meet his eyes.

"Look, this ain't happenin'. You are gunna go back. And I am leaving. And we are both going to forget this ever happened." He looked into her angry, vibrant eyes and merely grunted in response. They both stood there, waiting for the other to give in. He could see that she really thought he would just let her go. It was almost baffling to him.

"I told you-"

"Listen here," he cut her off, already knowing what she was going to say. "I ain't lettin' you out of my sight. That ain't happening. And if I can't make you come back with me, that's fine. Almost better out here anyways," he muttered the last part, realizing he was straying from the point. "But you can't make me leave you. No. Fucking. Way." Each word was punctuated with a promise. He wasn't going to fail her again, and no one was going to stop him from keeping her alive. Not even Beth herself.

Her eyes narrowed at him, her face going blank as she sized him up. He could tell she was weighing her options, measuring her odds. Tired of waiting, he tried to speed up the process.

"I'll make it simple. I'm either walkin' next to you, or I'll be trackin' you from behind. You can't make me leave." His words were casual, as if to emphasize the simplicity of the situation and drive home an important fact: he was stubborn too.

Her lips pursed slightly as she accepted the facts of their predicament. One side of her mouth twitched slightly and an elegant eyebrow raised, and Daryl knew she had something up her sleeve.

"Fine." Her voice imitated his casual tone, and she turned to continue walking. He knew he would have to watch her closely.