CH4

Re-edited.

Beth could watch Daryl move all day. As they walked past the storefronts she was captivated by the strange confidence he exuded doing even the most mundane tasks. She was also impressed with how fluidly he handled his crossbow. Case in point, when they rounded the corner, his arm swung back, pressing his palm against her stomach.

"Stay back."

Beth went up on her tiptoes and stretched her neck to see over his shoulder, and instantly shrank back; a walker crept around the motorcycle. Instead of looking at the walker, her eyes were drawn to Daryl's face, and how his eyes narrowed just a bit as he aimed. Then there was the intensity of his focus right before he pulled the trigger. Her leering was interrupted when something caught her eye out of her peripheral vision.

Daryl was beginning to pull the trigger when he felt a tap on his back.

"Daryl?"

"I know, I got it," he answered simply without even glancing away from his target. He pulled the trigger and a perfect headshot killed the one by his motorcycle, and he seamlessly lined up another bolt with a quick turn, and shot the other coming at them from the other side of the Beth.

"You're really good," was all she could say. Quite the understatement.

He gave her a small smile, "Thanks." He motioned to the downed walker closer to her. "Get that arrow for me will ya?"

She hurried ahead without any hesitation. Daryl walked over to the walker by the bike and quickly yanked out the bolt before looking back over to Beth. As expected, her pace had slowed dramatically the closer she got. He set the arrow back and took a seat on the motorcycle, getting comfortable. 'This should be entertainin'.'

Her dad was a vet, so Beth had seen plenty of gross things in her life, but she wasn't used to slowly decomposing animated corpses. Kicking it with her boot lightly, she made sure it was indeed dead.

"Okay, no big thing." She talked herself up and grasped the end of the arrow, which was embedded right inside its eye. "Gross," she hissed, and pulled. It barely moved. She knew she was making a face, and almost glanced up to see if Daryl was watching, but the smell was getting to her. She wanted this done now, and pulled hard. The entire head began to lift up, so she planted a foot down on its neck.

Daryl winced from his seat. "That's not gonna be good." But he had to admit to himself, watching the tiny girl wrestle the arrow out of that walker was pretty damn adorable. "Jesus, what the hell is wrong with me?" He rubbed his face with a sigh.

Beth yanked the arrow out as her foot sank into the decomposing body.

"Oh my god, I'm gonna be sick," she tried to keep herself from thowing up, coughing and dry heaving into the crux of her arm, trying to shake the pieces and fluids of walker off her boot. She quickly got as far away as possible to take a deep breath of cleaner air. Looking at the arrow in her hand, there was still part of an eyeball attached. She looked over to Daryl. He was seated on the bike with his arms against the handlebars, leaning forward so he could rest his chin on his palm. Just watching.

She tried whipping the arrow around to get the eye off, but it wasn't working as she walked back to him. "Was that for running off?" She asked huffing and still having a disgusted look on her face.

"Nah, that's for talkin' back to me earlier," he said with a smirk, standing back up.

"Here," she thrust it out to him. He looked at the extra piece of walker still on it, and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not touchin' that," she said as her voice rose in pitch.

"Alright, alright, give it here. Not too bad, was it?"

"Ugh, I ain't like the rest of you," she said somewhat defeated, bending over and putting her hands on her knees

"Sure ya are. Takes time," he said slightly squinting with the sun beating down on them.

"I ain't ever gonna be a badass like you and Michonne." 'Oh, it felt weird sayin' that.'

Daryl snickered, and ran his thumb thoughtfully over his bottom lip. "Badass, huh?"

Now she was glad the baseball cap kept the sun out of her eyes, and she could lower her head enough so he couldn't see her red face. "Don't we have somewhere else to go?" She asked quickly, and hopped on the back of the bike.

"Sure you don't wanna stretch your legs first before round two?" He asked getting on in front of her, and starting the engine.

Beth opened her mouth then closed it. 'Was that a call back to my blurt out before?' She didn't a witty comment to throw back at him in response, but was smiling behind him. 'So at least I didn't offend him.'

"Ready?" He asked, making sure there wasn't a repeat of her almost falling off like the first time. She slid up almost flush against him, moving her bag behind her. He tensed up for a second, and then felt her hand on his hip.

"Yep, ready this time." She knew she might be a little close, but figured it didn't matter too much.

It was a longer drive than she anticipated. Beth knew that they weren't going anywhere near a town. He was taking her into the middle of nowhere and she had no idea why. 'It's not like he's gonna to kill me or somethin', she mused. But the thought lingered just a tiny bit longer before she shook it out of her head. Looking ahead she could see past the trees, and saw a beautiful little clearing. Pressing herself against his back, she thought she could make out some sort of stream or creek.

Daryl turned his head slightly and was nearly blinded by the bill of her baseball cap, not expecting her face right over his shoulder.

"What is this place?" She asked as soon as he turned off the bike.

"Found it a couple months ago. Nice place to just relax, and bathe," he said simply.

'Bathe?' There was a word that sounded so amazing she could have kissed him. Before Beth could dwell on that thought for an extended amount of time, she skipped to the water's edge. It was so crystal clear she could see the smoothed stones of the bottom and dipped in her hand. The water was surprisingly refreshing, and she grinned. She hated cold water, but she was going to love this.

By the time she looked back over to him, Daryl pulled off his shirt and she stared, a bit lost even as he undid the belt of his pants. They dropped slightly enough to see the top ridge of his oblique muscles.

"Your momma teach you any manners, girl?" Daryl wasn't even looking at her, and he knew she was staring.

"Of course. I just didn't expect you to just strip in front of a lady," she shot back, and turned around. "You ain't gonna look, right?"

There was a splash in the water behind her. "Why would I do that?"

Beth clicked her tongue and huffed. 'Whatever.' She lost a lot of modesty living in the woods for nearly a year before they found that prison. She could get over any weirdness it may cause as long as it meant she was getting in that water. Quickly stripping her hat, boots, pants, and blouse, she paused before taking off her thin camisole when she remembered she wasn't wearing a bra. Going topless seemed a bit much, so she'd just deal with wet clothes later. She quickly got into the water, wading in enough to cover the purple and black polka dot panties she was wearing, not that she had a whole lot of underwear options.

Daryl, of course, didn't look in her direction, at least gentlemanly enough to do that. She watched him dunk himself under then resurface and run his hand through his hair, slicking it back.

"You decent over there?" He asked.

"Yeah," she almost added 'duh', but stopped herself. "You come here a lot?"

"Nah," he turned to her and she felt a choked feeling in her throat. "Don't want to waste the gas if I don't got to." He glanced behind him due to her startled look. "What's the matter? You see somethin?"

"N..No, sorry," Beth said looking away, back at the water. 'Oh my god, you think he's hot!' She took a deep breath and went completely under water.

Daryl watched her disappear beneath the water's surface, and pulled himself out onto the bank. He probably shouldn't have stripped down to his boxers in the presence of a teenage girl, but he also wanted to at least rinse some of the grime off his body. He laid down on a large flat rock, just by the water's edge, and propped himself up on his elbows looking out into the water, waiting for her to at least resurface.

When Beth finally popped up with a huge gasp he leaned back crossing his arms behind his head. "'Bout time. Thought you drowned."

Beth pushed her hair back and felt a little dizzy from going a bit too long without oxygen. Didn't matter though. The air against her wet skin felt great. She looked around and saw Daryl lying out of the water.

"You done already?" She asked, with a hint of disappointment.

"Just needed to rinse off, you can hang out if you want."

"Hm. Thanks," she said wading towards him.

"So…" he began; still lying down, but turned his head in her direction. "You wanna talk 'bout it?"

"Talk about what?" She folded her arms on the rock next to him and rested her chin in them.

He turned his head back to the sky again quickly not expecting her so close. "What that was all about, back there." There was a long silence. "You don't got to, but I ain't stupid. I know where you were going with that."

"Your momma teach you any manners?" She threw back at him. "You at least gonna look at me?"

"My hearin' is just fine. And nah, my momma died a long time ago."

"Sorry," she said softly with that honest sincerity she just always had.

"Don't be."

Beth knew when to stop talking about something. "I blamed you guys for a lot of things," she began. "I know Otis started the whole thing by shootin' Carl, but," she sighed. "If daddy fixed him up and just sent y'all on your way my family would still be there." Now that the floodgate was open she found it harder to just stop there.

"We were fine. Then y'all showed up and everyday someone was hurt or shot or fightin' each other. Ya'll ate all our food, used up our antibiotics and still couldn't list'n to the damn rules. Daddy said no guns, but ya still didn't listen. If it weren't for Rick and Shane I'm pretty sure those walkers weren't gonna come our way. Then everyone got killed and our home got destroyed." She watched Daryl lean back up again. "Somebody stole Nellie too."

Daryl nearly choked on his own spit, as he sat back up fully. "Okay, but maybe a herd would come by just a little later. You had no idea how many walkers were just outside your farm. But listen," he ran a hand through his wet hair, and rested his arms on his knees. "I thought the same way back when I met Shane, Rick and the rest of 'em. It seemed like trouble just followed these damn people around. But in the end, I'm better off 'cause of them…some of 'em at least. And the little girl we were lookin' for, that I nearly killed myself lookin' for was there the entire time." Just saying that last part got him riled up again.

"I didn't know she was in there," Beth said looking him in the eye. "The only positive thing I see outta this is Maggie bein' happy." She looked up at him, "Sometimes I can't see it worth the lives of Patricia, Otis, and Jimmy or even Daddy's leg." She bit her bottom lip. "God, I must sound so ungrateful. You saved my life plenty of times."

Daryl felt like he was punched in the gut again. "I've fucked up plenty of times." All he could think of was screaming at Lori when she asked him to bring back Hershel and Rick because Beth was in catatonic shock. "I'm sure your horse is fine, out there trampling walkers."

"I knew it!" Beth backed up and splashed him in the face. "You lost her out there."

"Hey, I'm sorry!" Daryl blinked and wiped the water from his eyes and face. "I borrowed her and I shouldn't have." He looked her over, her blond wet hair slicked back showed off her young pretty face, big blue eyes, and full pouty lips. "If it makes ya feel any better, she did almost kill me for it."

"Slightly," she said crossing her arms. Of course it didn't, and the way she narrowed her eyes, she was positive he knew she was joking.

"Thought you were the quiet, nice one," he said giving her a sly smile. "But with all the vandalizin', stealin', cussin' and back-talkin', I think you may the bad one all along." He was trying not to look her over too much, but it was hard to keep his eyes off her like that.

Beth really liked playing around with him. It was so fun to come up with some sort of comeback to his comments. She actually could use a part of her brain that she was sure had been neglected for a long time.

"That ain't even half the list," she leaned in, trying to give her best bad-girl straight face she could muster. It didn't help that she had to look at his face, which was making different kind of look creep into her eyes.

Daryl paused for a minute before quickly turning away. "You ready to go soon?" He heard her huff.

"I was jus playin' around." That was half the truth, she did do some naughty teenager things. 'If ya can't take it then don't dish it out.' The back and forth they sometimes gave each other made her stomach flip and her heart beat just a bit faster. 'I like him.' She waded back to the bank and stepped out of the water.

"Mind if I dry off a bit first?"

'Fuck,' he thought. "Yeah, sure," Daryl got up and let her take his spot in sun. She laid back and rested a hand over her eyes.

"This was so nice. Thank you," she said with a grin. There was no response so now she moved her arm and looked around. He was already wearing his pants again. His back was to her as he picked up his shirt. 'He could at least keep that off.' She had seen him shirtless before, back at the farm when she helped her dad with his wounds from when impaled himself on an arrow and shot by Andrea. The scars looked terrible and obviously old; she couldn't imagine who or why anyone would do that to him. But she definitely didn't remember wanting him to keep his clothes off back then.

He looked back over to her, and she said nothing. She would never be that rude to pry about something like that. "How'd you not get your pants soaked through?" She decided to ask instead, but also unconsciously telling him where else her mind was focused.

"Easy, don't wear anything wet underneath," he paused, "duh." Daryl knew she saw the scars on his back, but it wasn't like it was some kind of secret.

Beth wasn't going to show that she was affected that he wasn't wearing anything underneath, but she was. 'You shouldn't be! Hes….Daryl.' But she was having very strange thoughts about him. So she just may have kind of a crush. 'Damn it.' She had the sudden need to get dressed, quickly. She could go without her underwear too, especially if it meant stopping this strange awkward feeling she couldn't get rid of.

"That sounds like a good idea," she said and walked back to the bike and started to strip completely off.

"Jesus, can you warn me?!" Daryl shielded his eyes as he happened to look back at her.

"Thought it was pretty obvious what that meant," she said rolling her eyes, buttoning her blouse up a little bit now that nothing was on underneath. Unfortunately it was kind of sheer. She wrung out her wet clothes and stuffed them in a side zipper of her bag, and rummaged around a bit. When she looked over she saw Daryl sitting with his back against a tree trunk, chewing on a nail. He was still half-facing her though, but knew he wouldn't have sneaked a peek. 'Not that I would have minded that much, really. Oh my god stop it Beth. He's not into you.'

Beth walked towards him with a hand behind her back. "What you got know?" Daryl asked suspiciously. She ran one hand through her wet hair, trying to detangle it.

"Just realized I do have somethin' for you in that bag."

She walked to his side and thrust out her hand. He looked down at the pair of bright baby blue sunglasses that looked like they once inhabited a one dollar bin at Target.

"You should at least use them on the bike. Don't know how you see a thing in the sun like this."

Daryl smirked. "Didn't have anything in pink?" He asked taking them from her and noticed the long ugly scar on her wrist. Daryl had a feeling she used that hand on purpose. There was no mistaking what caused that scar; it was something anyone who met her would judge her on. He slid the cheap plastic girl's sunglasses on his face. "How do I look? Still a badass?" Beth put her hand on her lips, but he could see the smile in her eyes. She gave him a nervous little look, suddenly more timid than she had been.

"I think they make you even more of a badass," she said.

"Ready to go?" He asked reaching out a hand; she realized he was waiting for her to pull him up. As soon as she grasped on to him and pulled back, she got nervous again. His hand was warmer than expected and a little rough, but she let go quick enough before the clamminess of her hands began.

"Yeah," it had been a long day for her, probably for him too, having to watch out for her. The ride back was quiet, she wanted to rest her head on his back and close her eyes for a moment, but knew better than that.

Maggie opened the gate for them and gave Beth a huge hug. "Go well?"

"Yeah, can you take this bag for me? I'm exhausted," she handed over her findings to Maggie and looked back to Daryl.

"Nice shades," Maggie commented with a smile. "Where'd you get those?"

"Me," Beth smiled. "I kind of grabbed a bunch of extra stuff."

Maggie glanced into the heavy bag. I can see that. Alright you two, let's go. Dinner is about ready."

"I just wanna take a nap," Beth groaned.

"What happened to your clothes? And your hair is all wet," Maggie said looking at the wet pieces hanging under her cap.

"Ummm," Beth looked to Daryl.

"Went for a swim, ain't it obvious?" He said, shouldered his crossbow and began walking up the hill.

"Maggie, gimme a hand with this damn lock, it's sticking again," Rick called out as he tried to lock the gate.

"Yeah, coming," she said but not before giving Beth a look.

Beth jogged to catch up with Daryl. He stopped as soon as she was walking beside him.

"You go on ahead a bit," he said.

"Why?"

"Just do it."

'So weird.' She walked ahead a few paces then turned as he just stared at her for a moment before walking back up to her. "What are you doin'?"

"Making sure you ain't walking funny. You know don't want the others to get any ideas," he flipped the shades onto his head, gave her a small smirk and kept walking past.

She stood still a moment wither mouth wide open before she recovered and followed behind at her own pace. She narrowed her eyes and willed all the courage she had to respond.

"Good thing Carol told me you were real good at massages, 'cause now that you mention, it I do feel a little sore." She didn't mean for her voice to get that…sultry. And maybe it was her imagination, but she thought he broke his stride for just a second. 'Oh I really didn't mean for it go like that, did I?'

'Fuck Daryl, stop baiting her!' He knew he shouldn't be doing it at all. But it was sort of fun. 'Doesn't matter, she's a kid.' Daryl turned his back to the door as he opened it, to hold it for her.

Beth dared to give him a triumphant look. 'I won that round,' she thought.

"I'd watch myself if I was you, little girl," he said as she passed.

She stopped, almost drunk of the high of the interaction. She poked him in the chest with her finger as she faced him, and he tensed at the unexpected action.

"Maybe you should watch yourself," she said looking up at him with a smile. Her wide doe blue eyes looked anything but innocent. She then turned and let her finger drag across his chest as she walked by him into the prison.

'Yes! You owned it, girl!' Beth mentally fist-pumped at her actions. She wanted to giggle and run like a school girl, but that would kind of ruin the entire thing.

As soon as Glenn spotted him Daryl knew he wanted desperately to say something about the sunglasses on his head. All he had to do was give him the 'Go ahead, I fucking dare you look,' and Glenn looked like he was biting his tongue not to speak. He just continued up the stairs, knowing Beth was still watching him.

Beth couldn't have been more turned on by his 'I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks,' attitude. And suddenly she felt like she lost the battle. She looked up to the catwalk; Daryl raised an eyebrow and give her an amused small smile, before disappearing into the cell.

"That bastard," she whispered. 'He knows I like him.'

Beth walked to her cell and let herself collapse on her bed passing out. Maggie let her sleep through dinner into the next day, and then tried to wake her, but the younger girl groaned and swatted at her when she got too close.

Maggie sighed and rubbed her head. "Still sleeping," she said to Glenn and Hershel.

"It's almost noon," Glenn said incredulously. "Isn't she always the first one up?"

"Must have been quite a day," Hershel mused. "She didn't even wake up when Judith started crying, she's usually such a light sleeper."

"They got a lot of stuff. We have plenty of clothes for Judith, and some random things I think Beth just kind of stuffed in there," Glenn chuckled. "I did the same thing back in the beginning. Just grabbing everything I could get my hands on. It's good for her. I'm glad no one listened to me for once," he smiled. Hershel chuckled, but Maggie was not amused.

Beth slunk to the table, still barely awake as Carl greeted her. "Hey."

"Hey," she sat with a hushed whisper of pain. Everything was sore. How was that possible? Was she that out of shape, because she didn't do a damned thing.

"You okay?" Carl's voice was laced in concern as he looked her over.

"I'm fine. Need to work out more or somethin'."

"Here, eat something," Maggie came up and shoved a plate of food in front of her.

Beth raised her eyes with a bit of annoyance to her sister. She didn't like her tone at all.

"Thanks." She ate to keep her somewhat happy, but was surprised when Maggie reached over and pushed an errant piece of hair behind her ear.

"I was so worried about you. I know you were with Daryl, if you were out there with anyone I'd want it to be him."

Carl softly scoffed beside her, but Beth ignored it. "Now you know how I feel when you're out there all the time," Beth said squeezing her hand.

Maggie finally smiled. "I know. I just worry about you. It's my job."

Meanwhile, Daryl had to deal with something much worse as he got ready for watch outside. Merle.

"So you took that sweet piece of ass for a ride yesterday, did ya?"

Daryl set his jaw. He dealt with this sort of shit his whole life. He didn't even hear it anymore, or that's what he told himself.

"She taste as sweet as she looks?"

"Will you shut up," he muttered.

"Wat's a matter, little brother? You had a nice little date, right? Givin' you gifts and all, she's practically beggin' to suck your dick. I bet she's tight as fuck too. Hell, I'd be happy to take her off your hands."

Daryl gritted his teeth and got out of the room as fast as he could; finally taking a breath once he got outside. He growled to himself for not punching him in the face and went to the guard tower.

Beth watched earlier Daryl stomp by without even giving anyone else in the room a glance. She knew she had no reason to go after him, but really wanted to. 'God, you've only spoken to him for a day.'

Rick stopped him at the stairs. Daryl was going to shoot the next person who asked how it went with Beth in the head. He did have a couple people in mind that he hoped would ask him, just for that reason alone.

"Hey, you gave me real good idea about Beth. 'Bout time someone trained on watch, maybe with a rifle up there too."

Daryl stared, his mind blank for a moment. "You want me to do that too?"

Rick laughed hitting him in the arm. "Nah, I'm sure you've had enough of her. Gonna have Carl do it."

He almost said something, but just nodded and went up the stairs, annoyed. 'That kid is a terrible shot. Shouldn't be teachin' anyone anythin.' But that wasn't what was bothering him completely. Being around her was a bad idea. Things were getting weird between them, with some sort of badly disguised flirting, that didn't want to admit was in fact flirting. He was terrible at that sort of thing anyway. He didn't understand why a young girl would even play around with him like that, unless she was really bored. But Beth wasn't the type of girl who'd just do that.

"Doesn't matter," he spoke to himself as he climbed the stairs. "She's too young. She's young enough to be my fuckin' daughter." He figured if he told himself that enough, maybe it would stick.