AN- Hey guys! The Walking Dead is next month! I'm not sure whether I'll carry on with this story when the season starts because obviously this fic won't follow the storyline, but I'll keep writing till then. I also start school this week, so there will definitely not be as many updates, but don't lose faith in me!

This one's a little cheesy for my liking, but I think it was the best way to go with this!

Enjoy!

Beth was promptly escorted to the cafeteria by Derrick, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw. There were hundreds of people; so many that there had been walls knocked down to accommodate the massive numbers. They were of all ages, some newborn babies and some were so old Beth was certain that they couldn't outrun a walker, but here they were, acting like they were not living in the apocalypse.

"Why don't you take a seat with Kyle and me?" Derrick smiled slightly as his hand rested on the small of her back, he walked her over to his table.

"Nice to see you again, Beth." Kyle nodded slightly at her, shyly. Beth knew that he liked her, he looked at her the way Zack and Jimmy looked at her, it didn't bother her much, it just made her life easier.

"And you, Kyle." Beth smiled softly and made herself look shy.

If there was one thing Beth Greene had learned from her sister, it was how to get any boy you wanted. Kyle was the perfect guy for this, he was shy and sweet and wanted to make her comfortable, yet couldn't deny the fact that he was completely and utterly attracted to her. Maggie literally had to bat boys away from her and Beth had almost the same problem growing up, which is of course why Maggie taught her. There wasn't anyway her baby sister was going to be harassed by hormonal teenage boys who couldn't keep their dicks in their pants.

She decided to observe the cafeteria from her seat, no point in drawing attention to herself. She had to keep reminding herself to be like Daryl, be smart and live. The people there seemed happy, as if they hadn't suffered nearly as many hardships as she had, then it occurred to her that perhaps these people were already there when the outbreak started.

Thinking of hospitals and doctor's made her heart hurt. Her father had been the resident Doctor and everything ached when she looked around, she knew her daddy would have loved to have lived here. It wasn't just her dad that made her sad though, she had Maggie too. Though the rest of the group was her family too, Beth couldn't help but worry about Maggie the most, had she gotten out? If she had, who was she with? Did she look for her? Something in the pit of her stomach told her that Maggie hadn't even thought about where she might be. If she didn't get out with Glenn, he would be her first priority and it was something that Daryl had told her in the first few weeks of the prison falling.

"Y'now she 'aint lookin' for'ya. I don't get why y'wanna look." Daryl grumbles, but he continues to search the ground for footprints with Beth looking on eagerly. He's ashamed of the fact that he's the one acting like a petulant teen; Beth should be the one acting like he is, not taking charge and sorting things out. But even so, he doesn't bother to shape up. He'd look after Beth, purely because he couldn't save her daddy, but that was all. He wasn't going to let himself get close to someone again, not after losing everyone he'd ever actually cared about.

"Nice to see you're in such a good mood." Beth rolls her eyes. She's growing tired of him acting so petty 24/7. She thought that she was the one who was meant to be sitting in silence, refusing food and warmth purely to make things difficult, but it appears that Daryl has already shotgunned this position and there's no way the both of them can wallow in self pity. She misses her daddy, it's funny, because she knows that he would be the only one who could console her. He was there when her mama died, and he was there when she died again. He was always there for her, but when he wasn't Maggie was. Maggie …

"Y'finished daydreamin', princess?" Daryl rolls his eyes despite knowing it's unfair for him to tell her to stop mourning considering the way he's been acting and he wasn't even the one to lose a father, that had happened long ago.

"Excuse me?" Her voice is a shadow of a whisper at first, but Daryl can feel the anger rise from her like steam from a hot shower. His mind wanders to things he probably shouldn't be thinking of when a hard shove brings him to his senses. "I said excuse me?!"

The shoves kept coming, this was something that Beth liked to do whenever she was made at Daryl, she knew they never hurt but she did them anyway and usually apologised straight away when she realised what she'd been doing. However, this time there is a completely different side to Beth Greene, the shoves him again and again, forcing him to back up against a tree; it's not like he's going to push her back, right?

"Alrigh', alrigh' I shouldn'ta said it!" Daryl holds his hands up in defeat at first, though he grows more and more irritable with each passing second.

"You don't know anythin' about me!" Beth screeches and suddenly Daryl snaps.

He swings his body to left whilst moving Beth with him so it is she who is pinned against the tree. The muscles in his arms twitch with tension as she keeps the petite girl there, firmly in his grip. For a moment or so they stare each other down, before Daryl, ashamed, looks away solemnly and lets his arms drop to his side limply.

"Coulda saved him y'know." Daryl mumbles under his breath and before Beth can even begin to respond he trudges back the way they came as he tries to figure out the trail he's tracking.

Beth doesn't respond, but her heart sinks at the guilt Daryl must feel so she grabs his hand tight for a second, perhaps as an apology before walking on ahead to find more tracks for him to follow.

He wasn't sure how long he had been walking, maybe an hour or two, before he realised he had no clue where he was. If he wasn't as wired up with emotion as he was right now he might have been able to find a track of something, if it was only a deer or a walker. With a defeated sigh he dropped the crossbow to the floor and sat down where he was. Beth was out there, somewhere and he knew she was alive, it wasn't like a cliched aching in his heart, but more of a fire that spread throughout him that only she could kindle. He laid back on the grass with his arms behind his head and thought about her. He thought about her a lot now that he didn't have her, if he was a more romantic man he might have said that he was pining for the youngest Greene. Maybe if he lay for a second he could clear his-

A snap of a twig from behind brings the present rushing back to him and his most recent thought of Beth is chased from his head as he grabbed the crossbow and aimed it at the noise. His finger resting anxiously on the trigger his eyes quickly sweep the surroundings. The twig snaps again and he squeezes the trigger gently, itching to release an arrow from the weapon.

"Woah, man! It's only me!" Glenn stumbled from the shadows of the forest and walked out with his arms raised in surrender, Maggie follows with her arms folded across her stomach and behind her is Rick, Carl and Michonne.

"Did I fuckin' ask for a search party?" Daryl frowned and got to his feet, a small sense of victory rushed through him as he walks over to the 'search party'.

"We thought about what you said." Glenn shrugged and clapped a hand supportively on Daryl's shoulder before he sat on the grass to keep a watchful eye out for walkers.

"Where's the rest of 'em?" Daryl frowned, he was referring to the ginger guy, mullet man, the two chicks they were with and Gareth.

"They went to find the cure, we're here to find one of our own." Rick emerged to the front of the back and nodded at Daryl once. "You're right, we aren't leavin' her out there." Carol followed his father and Daryl reached out a hand to ruffle his hair before remembering he was still wearing the Sheriff hat that Rick used to sport. Michonne trailed behind them silently and all that left was Maggie.

"I'm doin' this because she's my baby sister. Not because of what you said, get it?" She glared at him as she passed and sat with Glenn on the grass, when Daryl looked back again their hands were interlocked.

Daryl knew how dangerous it was to feel hopeful in a world like the one they lived in but maybe, just maybe they had a chance of finding Beth Greene.