The prison council were sat round the table: Hershel, Glenn, Rick – and Maggie. Daryl stood before them, arms folded. No way was he gonna sit down with them like this was some friendly chat.
'I ain't bein' ambushed by y'all. I'll talk to Rick.'
Hershel cleared his throat. 'Rick isn't in charge any more. This is a council, and we all agreed on it. Even you.'
Daryl was supposed to be on the damn council. He shook his head, remaining firm. 'I ain't discussing my personal business with y'all.'
'You made it our business when you kissed my sister,' Maggie said, her voice tight with anger.
Daryl pointed a finger at her. 'She ain't even on the council. I haven't committed a crime. I haven't hurt anybody. If someone feels the need to point something out to me I'll listen to that person, but I ain't standing here being lectured by y'all. You gonna be deciding who can hook up with who now?' He glared round at them. 'Do you remember when Beth got in a stink when Maggie and Glenn started gettin' close? I sure as hell don't.'
Glenn looked down as the table. At least one person in the room had the decency to be ashamed.
But to his surprise, it was Hershel that spoke up in his defence. 'He's right. If I look at this objectively rather than as a father, we got no business calling a meeting over this.' He looked over at Rick. 'I trust you to have a discussion with Daryl and work out this disagreement.'
'Daddy, no –'
But Maggie was silenced with a raised hand. 'Let's all be about our business,' Hershel said, standing up.
The council left the room, Hershel giving Daryl a stern look, Glenn not meeting his eye and Maggie hurling daggers with hers.
'Sit down, Daryl.' Rick indicated the seat opposite him.
Daryl still didn't like this, but he sat.
Rick gave him a wry smile. 'You're a dark horse, aren't you? Maggie says this flirtation between you and Beth has been going on for some time, but I ain't noticed a thing.'
'Ain't been a flirtation. I ain't a teenager.'
'No, but she is. I know things can't be the same as they were before. We're a small group. Attractions will arise maybe where they normally wouldn't have before all this happened. Nothing wrong with that that I can see.' His expression became serious. 'But Maggie's concerned that you're talking advantage of a vulnerable girl.'
'I told Maggie I wouldn't take advantage of her vulnerability. She's ain't vulnerable. Scared, sure. Pissed off. Bored. She wanted me to kiss her so I did.'
Rick gave him a dry look. 'We both know that just because a girl wants you to kiss her doesn't mean you should.'
Daryl couldn't help the smile that formed as he said, 'Real hard not to when she's pretty like Beth.'
Rick looked stern. 'Is that all she is to you, a pretty girl?'
Daryl thought about this for a long time. He'd seen that Beth was pretty from the get-go. He'd thought her weak, too, but he'd been wrong. As she'd sowed her strength his admiration for her had grown. Prettiness wasn't enough to cut it with him. He wanted a girl who could stand up for herself, but also have a lightness about her spirit. 'No.'
'And what are you to her? Does she like you?'
Daryl remembered the feel of her in his arms. The way she'd gasped as he'd kissed her. 'Sure seemed so.'
'Has it crossed your mind that she may be acting out to piss off her sister?'
Rick sure was perceptive for someone who said he hadn't noticed the tension between him and Beth. 'It has. I said it to her face. She swore it wasn't that. I believe her, though she's been acting out in other ways. Going outside the fence alone. Wants to prove herself.'
Rick thought about this for a long moment. 'I've talked to Hershel about getting her some training and getting out doing physical stuff for the group. He's come round and decided it's a good idea.'
'Maggie told me it was conditional on me keeping away from Beth.'
Rick looked annoyed. 'Maggie's not the one to make that call. Do you think you should stay away from Beth?'
Should? Probably. Would? That was another matter. 'I don't know. I don't really work like that. If something happens, then it happens.'
'You mean you ain't taking responsibility if you hurt the girl?'
'Didn't say that. Last thing I want to do is hurt Beth. I just mean that I don't plan my life down to the tiniest scrap.' He was silent for a moment. 'I want her to be happy.'
Rick nodded. 'That counts for a lot in my book.'
Daryl felt a flicker of anger. Did it, now. It pissed him off that Rick thought he had the right to approve or otherwise of what he did with who. Maggie he understood. Those two sisters looked out for one another and while he didn't like getting bawled out in the prison yard by her at least it was from the heart. Everyone else was just sticking their noses in where they didn't belong.
'Well ain't I glad to hear it,' he said, his voice heavy with sarcasm.
Rick gave him a long look. 'I know you don't like this. Neither do I. But we gotta keep the peace in here, united against what's out there. I'm going to talk to Beth next and see what she has to say about all of this, and then I'm going to call the council together again.'
'Knock yourself out,' Daryl growled, standing up and stalking out of the room.
…
Rick found Beth in the cells with Judith. They were sitting at the table, Beth dandling the baby on her knee. 'Beth, honey, can I have a word with you?'
She turned those big blue eyes on him and smiled. 'Sure.'
Rick sat down. She was a real pretty slip of a thing. He'd never paid much attention before but he could see what'd make a man brave Maggie's wrath to kiss her. But what did Daryl see in her that made it worthwhile putting up with all this fall-out? He could see that Maggie kicking up a stink was making him uncomfortable. He'd expected Daryl to decide she wasn't worth the trouble and cut her loose. But he was wrong it seemed. He didn't know Daryl's type or what made him tick. That the entire time they'd spent together Rick'd never seen him with a woman.
Beth had had some dark periods, but she'd come through them. He had a feeling that there was more to the girl that met the eye.
'I suppose you know your sister's pissed with you.'
Beth cast her eyes briefly to the ceiling, still smiling. 'Don't I know it. Came at me like a wildcat when I came back to the cells. Seems to have it in her head that Daryl's trying to take advantage of me.'
Rick wasn't sure where to go next. Talking with Daryl had been easy. That'd been man to man. Obligations. Duties. Right and wrong. How the hell did you have that same talk with a girl? He looked at Judith. Was she going to cause boy-trouble when she grew up? He bit the inside his lip, trying not to smile at the though of Daryl being 'boy-trouble'.
'Daryl's not exactly the sort of young man you usually … get involved with. He ain't that young, either.'
'No, he ain't, on both accounts. Is that a problem for you?'
Her words were challenging but her tone was all sweetness. Christ, he should have guessed she was going to turn this around on him. He held up both hands. 'I ain't here to tell you what you should and shouldn't do –'
'Okay,' she said brightly, and turned her attention to the baby.
'Beth, honey, I haven't finished. I want you to think about what you do.'
'I've got all the time in the world to think in this place,' she said, sighing.
'I think that is part of the problem. I've talked to Hershel and he's agreed you should have some weapons training and some different duties. Keep your mind busy. Make you feel like you're contributing more.'
She looked at him. 'Thank you, Rick. I'd like that.'
Rick nodded. 'Okay, then.' Well, that was something. Enough to appease Maggie? Perhaps. It depended on what Daryl did next. And Beth. He wondered just how far their attraction had led them, and how far they planned to take it. He didn't think Daryl was the sort of man to be happy just holding her hand.
He had to admire Beth. She'd stuck to her guns and got what she wanted. Maybe that would be all it would take to make this whole Daryl issue go away. It could be that she'd staged this Daryl flirtation so Maggie and Hershel would see that weapons training was the lesser of two evils.
'Can Daryl teach me?'
Or maybe not.
'I think it's better if I teach you.'
She shrugged. 'Okay.'
Rick left the room feeling like this problem wasn't just going to go away by itself.
He passed Daryl on his way outside and collared him. 'That girl's sure got a way about her. Acts all sweetness and light and makes you think she's doing exactly what you want but when it's done and you walk away you realise it's the other way round.'
Daryl thought about the way she shoved him in the corridors. Beth could have easily kissed him in that moment but she'd chosen not to. She'd provoked him instead, making him be the one to kiss her. He shook his head, smiling wryly. 'Tell me 'bout it.'
'I don't think she's backing down from whatever she wants, and if that's you then you're gonna have your hands full with that girl.'
Daryl shoved his thumbs into the waistband of his jeans. 'That little thing? I can handle her.'
Rick snorted. 'Yeah. Sure. Look, whatever happens, keep it low profile, okay?'
Daryl narrowed his eyes at Rick. 'You mean if I fuck her keep the noise down?'
Jesus Christ, Daryl was direct. Rick didn't suppose it was a matter of if. More a matter of when. Maggie was going to flip if they rubbed her nose in it. Hershel wasn't going to like it either. He was a father, and he tried to imagine Judith grown and carrying on with someone as mouthy, rough and dangerous as Daryl. And twice her age. He'd probably flip. Daryl was a good guy, one of the best he'd ever met, but a father's eyes didn't see any of that.
There was never a moment of goddamn peace in this place.
Rick pushed past Daryl and shouldered the door open. 'I wasn't going to put it quite that crassly, but yeah, seeing as you mention it, keep the goddamn noise down.'
…
Daryl was sitting at a metal bench in the prison yard, his back to the table, making new crossbow bolts when Beth found him. She stood beside him, watching his hands.
'Did Rick talk to you, too? Kinda weird, wasn't it,' she asked.
'Fuckin' humiliating, that's what it was,' Daryl muttered, looking down the shaft of a bolt to make sure it was straight.
'Does it make you regret what we did?'
He looked her up and down. 'Makes me think you're more trouble that you're worth. Makes me think if you're anything like your sister I'm in deep shit. Makes me wanna sit you on that pretty behind of yours on the council table and kiss you right in front of that goddamn council.'
She bit her lip, smiling, and he felt something lurch deep inside him. Goddamn, she was something else. 'Do you know no one thinks this is a good idea but you?'
'What about you?'
He laughed. 'Oh I know it ain't a good idea.' He reached up and hooked a finger over the vee of her shirt. 'C'mere, trouble.'
They were out in the open. People would probably see. Well, fuck, let 'em. He kissed her.
...
Daryl was just about done with his bolts and Beth had wandered off to check on Judith when he heard a car approach the gates. Glenn and Sasha back from a run. But when they drove up to the yard and got out of the car their faces were pinched with worry.
'Where's Rick?' Sasha asked.
'And Hershel? We need to get the council together,' Glenn added.
'They're inside. What's happened?'
'Herd,' Sasha said, heading inside. She threw over her shoulder, 'Massive herd of walkers, and they're coming this way.'
