This is short and cruel, because I'm a bitch for cliff hangers.

With the squirrels cooked and eaten, Beth's limbs feel heavy and sluggish as they make their way back through the shop and up the stairs. It's dark when they get up there, the sun completely gone and no fire. It doesn't bother her overly much and she thinks it's simply going to be an inconvenience. Except when she whacks her toe on the upturned table she shoved to the side earlier, she quickly determines that it's a downright hazard and stumbles blindly to the nest she made in the middle of the room, throwing her backpack and flopping down when she finds the cushions. Daryl sighs; lays the crossbow on the floor and joins her on the cushions.

There's silence whilst she shakes out the sheets and one by one, lays them over hers and Daryl's lap. Her eyes are adjusting better now and with the two windows in here providing a little moonlight, she can just about make out shadows and shapes, particularly Daryl's hulking body so close to her, giving off a blast of heat to almost makes the sheets redundant. It continues to be silent even as she settles and usually she wouldn't care, the pair of them have travelled in silence many of times and it hasn't always been uncomfortable. Except this is because it's weighted with questions none of them are asking or in her case, are willing to answer.

But she's been stuck in her own head for so long, given only her own silence as company and even if it makes her squirm, the questions she knows Daryl will ask, she desperately wants to rid herself of the oppressing quiet.

"Who were those guys we killed?" She finally asks.

Daryl snorts. "You can ask me questions but I gotta keep my mouth shut when it comes to your Beth Greene reboot?"

She scowls. "Fine. Ask me, but you gotta answer me."

He sits forward, raises one knee and slings his bulging forearm over it. It's too dark to see his eyes but his head is turned towards her and more than anything she feels their weight like a tonne of bricks. "Joe an' his group. Ran into 'em afta I stopped runnin'."

"Gave up on me, you mean?"

"Stop," he growls. "We ain't doin' that."

Beth sighs and leans back on her elbows, closing her eyes. "Okay. Why did you say 'claimed' when you saw me?"

There's a beat of silence and her stomach squirms. "'Cause that's how Joe worked. You wanted somethin', you claimed it. If I didn't claim you an' someone else did, then you'd be theirs, no questions asked."

She laughs under her breath. "Right. Good job we killed 'em all then." He hums under his breath back at her, like he's not quite in agreement. "Your turn."

"You said those guys weren't the first to take you."

"That a question?"

"You got an' answer?"

Beth rolls her eyes. "Don't be difficult."

"Stop dodgin'."

"I ain't!"

"Be quiet!"

At some point, she sat up, all the way to her knees which brings her very close to Daryl's face. She swallows and sits back on her haunches, pulls her sweatshirt off and stuffs it in her backpack to give her time to calm down. When she's ready, she settles back on her ass and crosses her legs, clasps her hands between her knees so she can't strike out if she gets pissed off.

"They weren't the first to take me. They were the second."

"What happened to the first? Who were they? I seen a car pull off with you."

Beth chews on her lip, which is more characteristic to Daryl than her so she stops. "I got away from the first. The trunk weren't shut all the way an' I threw myself out, ran as fast as I could in your direction."

He heaves out a breath like it pains him to hold it. "I was runnin' all night, no way were runnin' towards each other."

"I'll get to that."

"How'd you end up with the second guys? The one whose guts ya pulled out?"

"Slow down," she mutters, taking a deep breath as her heart beats rapidly. She's starting to think the silence is better again, but she started this so she has to be brave enough to finish it. "They caught me, between the boot and runnin' to you, apparently. Knocked me out. Woke up someplace I didn't know, stayed there a while."

Daryl's jaw clicks in the silence, his teeth scraping against each other. "What'd they do to you, girl?"

She clenches her own jaw now, squeezes her hands together between her knees. "Didn't let me wear clothes. Beat me, when the mood struck 'em. Had me kill walkers for 'em, stopped me from sleepin' an' treated me like I was some kinda slave, like some kind of animal," she spits.

Beth jumps when Daryl growls, slams his hand down in a fist. "Hope havin' their fuckin' guts pulled out hurt."

"Be quiet," she mutters but a smirk tugs at her mouth. "An' it did. They screamed, a lot."

The smirk falls almost as quickly as it arrived as those very screams ring in her ears, drowning out whatever he grunts in reply. Revenge was good, for the first adrenaline filled hour. To pull on her clothes and leave them to rot, to scream in agony as she left, covered in their blood and their guts under her nails. It made her dizzy, almost cationic as she ran. For a while that was all she did, with no purpose or thoughts or plan, no supplies, she just ran. Then it slowed to a jog, right down to a walk and before long she stumbled down to her knees and stared blankly up at the sky. It had been broad daylight when she killed them.

When she woke up after curling into a ball, it was night time and despite her stomach hurting with hunger and her mouth as dry as the desert for water, she curled back up and went to sleep. Walkers found her eventually and she took them out, covered herself in more gore, went back to sleep for even longer. It had been so long since she gotten any kind of rest, held captive with the men whose names she never learned, was never told because to them she was nothing but a thing. She's not sure how long she slept, curled up in the road but when she woke again it was day time and she just kept walking, all through the day until she found Daryl, on that road, killed even more people.

"What's our plan, girl?"

Beth looks up, shaking herself out of her thoughts and tries to narrow her eyes on Daryl's shadow. "What plan?"

"Where'd we go from here? Look for the others?" He asks, inching closer.

She slowly nods as he draws nearer, his breath touching on her face. "Yeah. What else we gonna do?"

"Just askin'." His fingers curl around her knee and squeezes. "Just don't know if there's anyone to find. S'been a while since… ya know."

She nods again. It's a possibility, it's always a possibility that in separation you've lost the people you care about, but she's refused to think about it. It's all been one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. Sleep, eat, walk. Then she found Daryl and it was wash, change, gather supplies. Now it's just sit. Take a breath and rest for two minutes. All plans for after haven't yet formed. Freedom is too rewarding at the moment and all she wants to do is bask in it.

"Daryl, can we just… be, right now? I don't wanna plan or think or do anythin'. I just wanna be here."

He's quiet and then he squeezes her knee again. "Whatever you want, Beth."

She frowns, leaning back a little to look in the direction of where she thinks his eyes are. "Why you bein' so nice?"

He takes his hand from her knee and she bites her lip when she realises how warm he was on her skin, straight through her jeans. "Girl, I thought you was dead or at least gone, for good."

"What, an' that would'a bothered you? You always seem like you don't like me much," she means to say it normally, but it comes out in a whisper like she's imparting a great secret.

He grunts as he leans closer and it's a blink of an eye before their shoulders are pressed together. "You're family, girl."

A smile grows and once more she's struck with it, how easy it's beginning to feel again, smiling. Because of him. "Get outta here with your mushy shit, where's the Daryl Dixon I know gone?"

He's silent for a very long time and she struggles to hold the smile, wondering what part of that sentence offended him. Finally, when he speaks, his voice is rough and low, sending a chill straight down her spine. "Left 'im. On the road when he collapsed runnin' afta that car. When he let me down, let you down."

She turns her head and they're so close that their foreheads brush, her stomach flipping in response to the contact. "You didn't let me down, an' I'm back now, different but back, so you can bring him back too."

"You mean the guy who would freak out, this close to Beth Greene? Nah, he can stay back there," his murmur sweeps over her lips and her heart thumps wildly.

"An' you're not freakin' out?"

"Not s'much as he would."

"What're 'bout now?" She breathes.

When they lean in and touch lips, it's together.