Beth wished for the thousandth time that Maggie was here to talk to. She missed

her sister so much. Maggie would help her. She would know what to do.

Thinking of her sister, made her remember a time when they were little. Maggie

had a sleepover at their house, and Beth had begged and begged to be included.

Reluctantly the girls allowed the much younger Beth to hang with them. She was

probably around 7 or 8 years old at the time. The girls decided to watch the

horror movie, Friday the 13th. Beth watched it with them. When it was over, the

girls were just happily chatting away, the movie all but forgotten. But Beth was

petrified. She was frozen, numb, too scared to even walk down the dark hallway

of her home to go to the bathroom by herself, afraid Jason would be lurking and

waiting with his machete.

Eventually, Beth couldn't hold it anymore and to her mortification, she peed

herself. The older girls noticed and laughed at her. When Maggie realized what

happened, she played it off beautifully. She told her friends that she had peed

her pants during the first horror movie she ever saw and that Beth was just

carrying on the Greene girl family tradition. Everyone laughed including Beth

who was so grateful to her big sister for making her feel ok about it.

Thinking of her sisters kindness that day helped. Beth now knew what she would

do.

It was after dark when Daryl finally returned to the funeral home. He carried

two fat rabbits into the kitchen and put them into the sink. He noticed a

covered bowl on the table and saw a note next to it.

"Your dinner. I'm upstairs. Come find me when you return. I need to talk to

you."

Daryl lifted the lid and saw canned pasta and beans.. Grabbing a spoon, he ate,

trying not to think of her upstairs and what she could possibly want to say to

him.

He took his time eating. Dragging out every bite while his mind turned over the

possibilities of how this was going to play out.

Shit. Why did she have to see him? Things were going ok between them. Better

than ok if he was honest with himself. They'd survived, and they'd had some

moments that meant something to him. He had no clue what she thought of it all,

but those moments, had made things less tragic for him. It had meant a lot, and

he was grateful.

Daryl snorted, only two ways to go really, get closer, or not. Being forced into

such close contact, relying on each other like they do, wasn't much of a choice

really.

But all that newfound closeness had also complicated how he saw Beth now.

Before, she had always been Herschel's baby girl. Not a child by any means, but

someone to be cared for...protected.

Definitely not fantasy-material for a man twice her age.

The worst part was, despite his illicit fantasies that he never meant for her to

know, he truly liked Beth. A lot. She was surprisingly gutsy, but also warm and

sweet. He hated himself for making this current situation what it was. Every

time he thought of her upstairs waiting for him, he felt dread settle heavy in

his stomach. He wasn't afraid of much, but he was absolutely petrified of

ruining what he had with this girl.

His dinner done, he reluctantly forced himself to get up from the kitchen table.

His feet felt like lead, every instinct was telling him to run...avoid this

situation altogether. He set his teeth and pushed his way through his

embarrassment...and if he was completely honest with himself, his fear, and made

his way slowly upstairs to hear what Beth had to say