"The Dark Side of the Moon"
Author: carmen_085
Disclaimer: I don't own any Walking Dead characters. All original characters are mine.
Summary: When the Whisperers begin to threaten Hilltop and the other communities, Daryl gets a surprise as they find someone from the group's past among the enemy.
Chapter Four
The four of them ran until their lungs burned and they couldn't keep moving. Henry propped himself up on his staff as he stole quick glances at Lydia. Beth folded her hands and put them on top of her head as she walked down the path a little ways clearly anxious to keep moving. Maybe if it was just her, Alpha would let it go but with Lydia gone too there wasn't a chance in hell they wouldn't be coming after them. In her heart, Beth knew she couldn't leave the girl behind. When Alpha ran out of people to beat up on she always came back to the same person, her own daughter. Nobody knew the abuse that girl weathered over the years. Her eyes drifted over to Daryl as his perceptive glare darted around the group clearly trying to figure out what to do next.
All these years later and Daryl was still a good man. She shook her head in amazement. Almost everyone she knew turned evil at some point. But not Daryl. Nope, no way. He wasn't just a good man he was the best. He could have easily turned Lydia away. Without a doubt he knew what a risk taking her out of there would be but he did it anyway. What he didn't know was exactly what he had just done. He didn't know that she was Alpha's daughter and Beth was sure that was going to change things. Walking up to him she nodded toward the trees.
"We need to talk." Henry and Lydia gave each other shy smiles as Beth and Daryl disappeared over the hillside.
Daryl wanted nothing more than to touch her as she walked ahead of him. It sounded so stupid but all this time he had been thinking about her, dreaming about her, all he wanted to do was touch her and know that she was there and she was real. They had lost a lot of people over the years and gradually they had all faded in his mind but not Beth. She was alive there just like she had been that night at the moonshine shack, and at the funeral home, and the last time he saw her at Grady. Her memory had never dulled and his heart ached for her in a way he could never understand. She turned to look at him and he took her in for the first time without anyone else around.
Her blonde hair was so much shorter than he remembered as its golden waves came just to the shoulders. Those blue eyes that he looked into so many times were still the same, warm and kind but with an edge, a maturity that hadn't been there before. Her lips turned up in the slightest smile, almost a smirk. Beth never smirked before, only smiled so big and bright it made him squint. He was the one who smirked. As he stood there his brow furrowed as he felt the dam of emotion inside him start to leak. Goddamn Beth always could do that to him.
Before Beth could say a word about Lydia or the rest of the Whisperers, who were undoubtedly stalking them down right now, she was swept up into this moment with Daryl. At first she wondered what he was doing, she had never know Daryl to show emotion when safety was at stake. Those moments, those rare moments, when he broke down some of those walls only came when they had nothing else to worry about. This was so out of character for him she could do nothing but stare. But as she stared at him she found herself swept into a moment that was years in the making. It was all there on his face; the years of pain, guilt, sadness, loss. The years of worrying about her, wondering about her, dreaming about her. Anyone else would never have seen it but after spending day and night with this man for months she would read him like no one else. Even now...even after all this time she could still see inside of him where no one else knew to look.
"Daryl..." Her voice came out as a whisper as she felt a tear slide down her cheek. God, no one could ever know how much she missed him. Daryl didn't think anymore, he was tired of thinking about her. He just wanted to live again. Reaching out he grabbed onto her pulling her against him. Instantly she wrapped her arms around him as she buried her face in his chest. Beth couldn't hold the tears back anymore as she quietly sobbed into the material of his shirt. Daryl closed his eyes tightly as he dared not speak for fear that he would completely lose it. Gently he reached up and ran his fingers through her hair. Beth pulled back a little so that she could look at him again. Daryl, not prepared to face her just yet had to look away quickly as a tear rolled down his own face. Quickly wiping it away with the back of his hand he shook his head. Beth reached up and moved some of the hair away from his face as she smiled softly at him.
"I dreamed about this moment...I prayed for it." Daryl felt a smirk come to his face. Only Beth would still be praying ten years into the zombie apocalypse. God...he never should have left her that day at Grady. He never should have opened that door at the funeral home. He never should have let that moment stop at 'Oh'. He didn't know how to say all that , though, so he told her what he wanted her to know most.
"You're safe now, Beth. Not letting anyone take you ever again." She nodded, that sweet Beth smile on her face, as she reached up to touch his face gently. Running her thumb back and forth across his cheek, he silently wondered if they could stay this way forever. The smile slowly faded from her face as he felt his stomach turn.
"I know that." Looking over his shoulder she shook her head. "But there's something I have to tell you."
Lydia's eyes widened when Daryl and Beth returned to the road and he came striding over right to her. He didn't look particularly mad or upset, just all business. Still, he was intimidating not for his size but this presence. The way he carried himself, the way he talked and the way he moved. She knew he had been through some shit and came out on the other side not afraid of anything.
"Alpha...that's your mother." Lydia knew Beth would tell him; how could she not? She nodded her eyes still wide as Henry came to stand beside her. "How come you want to get away from her so bad?"
Lydia almost laughed. Where do you start with that question? Nervously fingering her sleeves she rolled one up slightly to show Daryl her forearm. Bruises, burns, all mostly healed. Daryl swallowed hard. Like hell he didn't know where that came from. While marks like that were considered abhorrent in the old world they weren't so strange now. Anyone could hurt you at at any time and leave you scarred. But her own mother? Christ who could you trust now if your own mother was abusing you? He tried to conjure up an image of Rick beating the shit out of Carl all the while fighting Saviors. It was almost comical. When he thought of a parent in this world the only thing he could think of was Rick. Jesus he wished that Rick was here right now to help him decide what to do.
Turning away, he looked down the road as he sighed. Taking her back with them meant people would die. Casting a glance over his shoulder he looked at Beth as she reassuringly rubbed the young girl's arm. She was just a kid. A kid who mostly like never knew what it was like to really live. To be around people that cared about her. To have fun. To know that someone would keep her safe. Daryl shook his head. Sounds like the two of them had more in common than he originally thought.
"Ok. Let's go." Gesturing in the direction of Hilltop he started walking. Lydia looked at him a little surprised. "You too. Let's go." A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she reached out for his arm.
"Thank you." He nodded as the four of them began to move again.
They walked in silence for a while before an old warehouse came into view. Beth immediately lit up as she excitedly walked out in front of Daryl before turning around and walking backwards. Feeling the corner of lips tug upward an involuntary memory flashed through his mind.
'Betcha can't guess my middle name.' They were alone on the road for about a month now. The breakthrough at the moonshine shack had happened a couple of weeks ago and since then she had been talking non stop. No...they had been talking non stop. Daryl didn't know he had this many words in him until now. She hadn't broken the walls down inside of him but she sure as hell had found a way to crawl over them. And she was inside. God...she was inside of him in a way that was both frightening and beautiful at the same time. And for the first time he felt alive. Really alive. Not just since the turn but the first time in his entire life.
She walked in front of him backwards as her face was spread into that sweet Beth smile. This had become a game between them. "Betcha can't guess". One of them, usually Beth, would saying something and then he would have to spend the rest of the day trying to find the answer. Along the way he learned so much about her and she about him.
There was one day when he thought maybe he told her too much and that would be it. But as he found out he could never tell her too much. She saw him...really saw him...and for some reason she liked it. Acceptance; it was something he was so sure he would never find.
"Did you hear me?" He hadn't heard a word, that memory completely taking over everything inside of him.
"Uh..." He grunted. Following her gaze to the building he could guess where this was going. Turning to Lydia his eyes narrowed. "How many are they going to send?"
She shook her head as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Alpha won't send a whole army if she doesn't have to. She'll just send Beta."
Daryl shook his head as he cracked a smile. "Beta?" He looked at Beth who was smirking back at him now. She knew where this was going. "Girl, you sure found a band of freaks to join. Fuck me...Beta?" Beth just shook her head. Little known fact about Daryl was that he liked to tease as the look in his eyes reminded her of something she thought she had long forgotten.
It was dark out as she laid down for the night against the log. Daryl was taking first watch as usual as she felt him sit down next to her on the blanket. When this all began, just the two of them out here, he didn't come anywhere near her and she him. When they slept it was feet away. But in the last few weeks she had noticed they were getting closer and closer; both literally and figuratively. At night now instead of being on opposite sides of the camp, they sat right next to each other. Beth had always been one who was showered with love and affection; human touch had no negative connotation to her. Daryl was completely the opposite. But despite that, she felt even he needed some kind of human contact to keep going. Leaning her head against his leg he didn't move as she pulled the blankets up over herself. The first time she did this he was almost paralyzed but now it was expected.
As she felt herself drifting off to sleep, her nose wouldn't stop itching. Finally with a sneeze she sat upright only to be met with Daryl's mischievious smirk. A blade of grass in between his fingers. "You were tickling my nose with that, weren't you?" She was tired and slightly irritated but she couldn't help but laugh.
"Don't know what you're talking about, girl..." That night every time she laid down her nose wouldn't stop itching until she got so pissed she took the blankets and went to the opposite side of the fire in a huff.
"Beta's no joke." Lydia's voice interrupted her memory as Daryl shrugged his shoulders non- chalantly.
"He their best?" Lydia nodded automatically. Beth knew that she wasn't kidding about that. The man was larger than life literally at 6'6" and thick as a brick shit house. Daryl flipped the hair out of his eyes. "Good. Then we'll kill him first."
Daryl didn't wait for them say anything back as he started toward the warehouse. Lydia and Beth shared a worried look as they followed with Henry close behind. No matter what happened here Beth wasn't going to let anything happen to any one of them. If that meant killing Beta herself she would do it.
TBC...short chapter. Wanted to indulge in some Bethyl though.