I was originally planning on posting something else as this chapter but when I sat down to write, this version just flew out of me.

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She supposes that there is a part of her that should be afraid...and then she can't help but wonder if she should be afraid that she isn't afraid.

She knows what it means, when they get a call from one of the guys and they tell them all to congregate to the clubhouse, to get all the families and lock them down, no one else is allowed in once everyone is accounted for and no one is let out until they are given the all clear. It means that there is a threat, that quite possibly, they are all in danger of being hunted down and with Daryl and a few other guys still missing, she knows that the possibility of one of them being hurt, is even greater.

She's not afraid though. Anxious, yes. Worried, of course; but afraid, no. This isn't her first lock down and she's been a part of this club for almost three years now - a year as just Beth, Maggie's sister and now it's been two as Daryl's Old Lady - and she knows the drill. She knows that some people will cry and some will get angry, demanding what the hell is going on. Then there are people like her, people who see this as just another day and yeah, she might have to call off work and she won't get the best night's sleep - especially if Daryl doesn't get back by then - but being here, in this place surrounded by all the people she cares about, surrounded by the family she has accepted as an extension of her own, she feels so much safer than she would if she had just been back at home in her and Daryl's cabin, alone.

She takes a quick survey of the crowded room, sees Maggie talking with Karen - Martinez's Old Lady - and she has a hand on Maggie's belly, both women talking excitedly about what Beth can only assume is the new addition that will be ariving about seven months from now and she can't help but smile. She sees her Daddy over at the bar, having a conversation with Carol and T-Dog - the latter who must have just come out of the kitchen after having managed to scrounge up enough food to feed the new arrivals.

She nods her head, seeing that everyone was taken care of and then makes her way to the kitchen. T-Dog was a lot like her in the fact that he hated having a messy kitchen and the counters were nearly sparkling as she headed over to the set of coffee brewers and went to work on making a fresh batch of the caffeinated liquid, knowing that they were undoubtedly in for a long night. As the coffee started brewing she looks around and spots a large bag of chocolate chips and so she decides to go ahead and do something to get her mind off of what exactly could be happening with Daryl and the club.

She has just poured herself a cup of coffee when T-Dog comes back in, grinning when he sees the giant bowl of cookie dough she has started to prepare. He immediately moves in to help her, grabbing the pans and aluminum foil out of the cabinet. They are quiet as they work, both familiar with working along the other's presence in the years they have been here and while T-Dog mostly handled the cooking, there were a few nights Beth stepped in, giving him a break.

"You think you'll ever get used to it?" T-Dog speaks up and she was so engrossed with scooping the cookie dough onto a pan, she jumps.

"What?" she questions, both because she wasn't sure she heard him correctly and also because she is confused by the question.

T-Dog shrugs. "I don't know, just, things being like this. I mean, I know when you first got me this job you gave me warnings, said there were going to be things I wouldn't and couldn't understand. It's just weird is all, that just by me being here, cooking, it puts me in possible danger."

"No one is forcing you to stay."

She doesn't mean for the words to come out as harsh as they do but at the same time, she doesn't regret it. She did warn him before she even told him that Daryl might be willing to hire him. She told him how things were and that he would have to be oblivious to most things that went on around him. He was here to cook food and he would have a roof over his head, money in his pocket and anything else besides that didn't matter. He had accepted it willingly and she knows he had thought it over, took a few days to really consider it.

"I know that; I didn't mean anything by it, Beth," he says and she lets out a long, weary sigh when she hears the hesitance in his voice.

"I know. I'm sorry, T, I just...Daryl's not back yet," she says and her voice drops so low toward the end that she wonders if he has even heard her.

He nods though and reaches his hand out, giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "He'll be okay. They all will."

She nods and then gives him a smile and they go back to the raw cookies resting on the counter and she has only just managed to place the first batch into the oven when she hears a commotion from the main room and she perks up when she hears Merle's booming voice.

"Beth! Where's Beth?"

She is just stepping around the table when Merle bursts through the swinging door, his face grim and his hands covered in blood. Her heart immediately leaps in her chest, knowing that something has happened without him saying it.

"Need ya in the garage, doll face."

She's nodding as she sets the oven mitt down and she turns to look at T-Dog as Merle begins to head back out the door.

"Please don't burn my cookies."

He gives her a look of mock offense and she manages another small smile before she is pushing through the door as well, looking for Merle's large frame just as he is looking back at her and he paves a way through the anxious crowd. She ignores the voices, asking what happened and if everyone was okay and she keeps her own questions at bay, even if she can't help but be worried as to why Daryl hadn't been the one to come find her.

They finally make it outside and they both break into a slight jog as they cross the parking lot to the garage. She sees most of the guys' bikes scattered, parked in an obvious hurry and she can't help the small rush of breath that escapes her when she sees Daryl's, front and center. When they make it to the garage she spots the large black van the guys used when they had to bring certain things that they couldn't carry on their bikes, often driven by prospects who had yet to earn their patches to ride along with the other members.

She finds herself thinking back to this morning, when Daryl had kissed her goodbye and said they were only bringing a few goods to one of their sister charters, if she remembers correctly it had been Dale's. Something obviously went wrong through and as Merle leads her around to where the back two doors of the van had been thrown open she once again feels relief when she sees Daryl there, covered in blood up to his elbows and some type of wound bleeding from his hairline but otherwise, he was sitting up and alive.

He looks at her with just as much relief as she seems to feel when he sees her but he doesn't leave his position of where he is bent over Martinez, holding a blood soaked towel against the unconscious man's abdomen.

"Zack," Beth calls as she looks up to see Tyrese rushing over with one of the various medical bags she has stashed around the clubhouse and the young prospect looks up at her with surprise, his eyes having been glued toward the scene in the back of the van. "Go keep watch at the entrance; Karen's here and she doesn't need to see him like this."

The kid nods and does as she says and Beth takes a deep breath before she takes the bag from Tyrese and climbs up into the van. She immediately shuts off her emotions, doing this, knowing Martinez like she does, like she knows all of the guys, when she has to do this, she completely shuts down. Daryl calls it her nurse mode, where the only thing she thinks about is making sure this patient lives.

"We need to move 'im?" Merle asks once he makes sure she has safely climbed in.

"It's a flat surface, should be fine. Let me just focus on stopping the bleeding first. What happened?"

"Gunshot."

It's Daryl who answers and she isn't surprised when she hears his voice is just as emotionless as hers.

"Range?" she asks, brushing her fingers along Daryl's slick hands and he gets the hint and pulls away, allowing her the space she needs.

"Least thirty feet or so, I reckon," Merle answers. "Small caliber."

She nods again and looks up to see Daryl is watching her. "Help me lift him? Need to see if it's a through and through."

"S'not," Tyrese answers from his position beside Merle. "I'm the one who got 'im in the van. Didn't see 'nother wound on his back."

"Okay," she says with a sigh and then looks at Daryl again who is calmly waiting for her instructions. "Gonna have to dig the bullet out before I patch him up."

Daryl nods and then when she pulls the towel away they immediately go to work. As she is working on Martinez, she can't help but find her mind wandering again, wondering if she should once again be afraid. Daryl is there beside her and this isn't the first time he has assisted her in something like this, in saving one of their brother's lives and she no longer has to describe the type of tool she needs, him already knowing the names of all of them and he has things ready before she even asks for them. What most people would consider to be a freak accident is pretty much just another day for them and yet, she can't imagine her life being any different than it is now.

And she is okay with that.

The bullet is deep but thankfully, it hasn't punctured any major organs and she finds it rather quickly, though things do get a little tricky when Martinez wakes up. Daryl immediately abandons his position of assisting her and jumps to hold the man down, knowing that if he were to move the wrong way it could cause Beth to do more damage than the bullet ever did. Merle hops in then, taking Daryl's place and after a few calming words she manages to get Martinez to relax, him only flinching occasionally and when she is finally done, having stitched him up and bandaged, she all but sags against the metal siding of the van.

Martinez had passed out again just before she finished stitching him and the man is lying there, his breathing a bit ragged but otherwise fine and she looks up to see the Dixon brothers across from her, both of them sitting similar to her position, backs against the siding and Daryl catches her eye, his legs pulled up to his chest and his blood covered hands dangling from where his forearms were resting on his knees, and he nods toward Martinez.

"He gonna be okay?"

Beth nods. "I'll have to keep an eye on him obviously, make sure there is no signs of infection or other complications but otherwise, his vitals are fine for now."

Daryl closes his eyes and nods and Beth can practically see the tension leaving his body. She knows how this affects him, having one of his brothers, his family, put at risk and she knows he won't be letting her leave his side for the next few days - he never does when something like this happens - and despite the reasoning behind it, she can't help but be grateful.

"Ya'll should go on and get cleaned up, I'll keep an eye on him, get a few of the guys to help me get him inside," Tyrese says and Beth is already climbing toward the exit before he is finished.

"What happened to you?" Beth questions in a soft voice as she looks up at Daryl once he has climbed out of the van, her hand automatically reaching up to brush the hair away from where she still saw blood dripping from somewhere along his hairline but once she realizes her hands are still covered in Martinez's blood, she stops, dropping her hand with a frown and Daryl just shakes his head.

Merle heads toward the clubhouse while Daryl motions for Beth to follow him toward the garage office. They stop at the small clean up station and take turns scrubbing their hands against the warm water pouring from the sink. Daryl squirts a glob of soap in her hands and when Beth moves to stand in front of him, she watches as the water runs from her hands, first a startling red and then a faded pink but not yet running clear and she is just about to reach for more soap when she feels Daryl press up against her from behind, his arms coming around to find her hands and it isn't until his hands wrap around her own that she realizes she is shaking.

"I got you, baby girl," he whispers against her hair, his nose nuzzling along her ear and he leans in further, inhaling deeply and she feels herself relax against him.

"I need to look at your head," she speaks after a moment, after watching Daryl scrub both of their hands clean.

He nods and then grabs a towel from the shelf above the skin and he places it in her hands before he once again leads her to the office. He takes a seat behind the desk and after grabbing the first aid kit on the wall, she makes her way over to him, propping herself up against the desk in front of him and he slides himself closer to her, slotting his legs between hers and he brings his hands up to rest on her hips before he slowly begins to slide them up and down along the outside of her thighs and she can't help but find the motion soothing as she pushes his blood matted hair away from his forehead and she frowns when she finally sees the gash along his hairline.

"What happened?"

He shrugs and even though she can feel his eyes on her, possibly waiting for a reaction, she keeps her eyes on the task of cleaning and stitching him up.

"We got ambushed, people got all turned around and it was a fuckin' mess. Good thing Andrea's got shit for aim though."

"You got shot?" she questions, her hands pausing in their movement. "And by Andrea?" she adds, thinking of the older blonde woman who didn't have any real involvement with the club other than being treated like a daughter to the kind old president of their sister charter.

Daryl shrugs again. "Just a graze."

She shakes her head, disapproving, and once she has placed a bandage along Daryl's wound he doesn't hesitate to pull her into his lap and she settles in against him, resting her head on his shoulder and her hand comes up to grip the leather of his vest in her fist and he leans his head down on her own, hisses slightly when he brushes his newly bandaged skin and she feels the rise of his chest as he once again inhales deeply, seeming to breathe her in, to smother himself in her - he's told her before, how when things like this happens, all he wants is to be near her, how she helps him put it away.

"Is everyone else okay?" she asks after a moment has passed, after she feels him relaxing beneath her and she knows they should go back inside, to reassure everyone else that they were okay but sitting here, in this office just being all wrapped up in him after worrying nearly all day, she couldn't find it in her to care about anyone else in that moment.

He lets out a long sigh, nods his head, and her hair ruffles with his breath. "Yeah. Martinez got the worst of it, a'course. Guy just loves to be center of attention." she feels herself smiling at that before he continues. "Gonna have to check back in with Dale though, find out all I can about this guy. Calls himself The Governor or some shit, guess he had a thing with Andrea and when she ended it, he blamed Dale and the club or somethin'. Only managed to get a few words in before the bastard showed up and started shooting."

"You think he'll come here? Track you guys down?"

Daryl shrugs and she knows she won't get much more of an answer from him. She nods and moves to snuggle in closer against him.

"If he does, we'll handle it. Ain't got nothin' to worry 'bout though. As long as I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you."

It's a quiet promise breathed against her skin and she feels it down to her bones. It isn't the first time he has said it to her and each time, she finds herself believing him even more, if that were possible. She trusted her life to Daryl Dixon a long time ago and she has no desire to sever that trust, ever.

This was her life and as long as Daryl was in it, she didn't care what else happened. She thinks about what had been running through her head when she was patching up Martinez, on how this sort of thing just didn't really seem like a big deal like it should be treated as and then she finds herself thinking back to the conversation she just had with T-Dog in the kitchen not too long ago.

You think you'll ever get used to it?

She didn't answer that question earlier and even now, she doesn't have to think much about it, about if she would ever get used to the consequences that came with choosing this life she has, being with Daryl, being involved with the club.

Because she already was.

She lifts her head up and grabs Daryl's chin, tilting him down toward her so she could press her lips against his, kissing him with fervid conviction.

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I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this story as much as I am! Right now, it seems to be the only thing I can write for at the moment. As always, thank you for reading and your endless support, it never ceases to amaze me.

I also love what you guys have to say about this and I am taking all your suggestions and wants for future chapters into consideration so please leave me a review and keep them coming! :)

*Chapter title taken from Pierce The Veil's "King For a Day"