AN: Hello! Finals are all done, grades are posted, so I'm working on updating all of my WIPs.

When last we saw Daryl, Carol and Beth, young Miss Greene had interrupted the Caryl bathroom hotness to announce the arrival of a nudist.

In this chapter we learn more about Paradise Valley, meet the proprietors and see if they have a spare bedroom for some nice MA rated smuttiness...

Wasted Hearts

"I just don't understand why you people would think it's ok to come on to someone else's property!" An irate sounding older man was reading Beth the riot act. He looked to be about 70, thin, with piercing back eyes, wild white hair and a beard that was long enough to be braided, Dumbledore style, almost to his waist over top of a set of night vision goggles hanging on a green webbed strap. Other than that and what looked like a pair of swords strapped to his wiry back and the rifle he carried, he was completely nude.

Daryl put Carol behind him as he limped into the room to face the old man confronting Beth rather loudly. Carol held the pistol she'd been allotted by Rick as her main weapon, the other being her brass knuckle knife, which Daryl now had strapped to his waist, his own big buck knife left at the prison.

He hadn't put his shirt on, and Beth was momentarily taken aback when she saw his tattoos and scars fully visible, but schooled her face to impassiveness when he gave her a warning look.

"These days ain't much left to call our own—everybody seekin' shelter from the storm. Sorry to intrude, but we just needed a safe place to regroup—lost a lot a good people today." Daryl said deferentially.

"Lost? Like who?" the man asked suspiciously.

"My daddy." Beth said quietly.

"Larry—her daddy!" a second voice spoke from behind the man called Larry—a female voice.

"Dorothy! Told you to stay outside until I dealt with this!" Larry said.

"Nothin' a girl and a crippled up redneck can do to me." Dorothy said, coming into the room. Her long red hair was pulled back in a braid that reached to the middle of her back and like Larry her only "garments" were her goggles and weapons, a sawed off shotgun slung across her back and a machete held in her right hand as well as a long handled canvas bag emblazoned with a red cross, worn diagonally across her chest looped over and across her shoulder.

"Probably right, but I'm more worried about the woman behind the redneck. Why don't you come outa there real slow there with yer hands up n' I won't have to be forced to put a bullet in the man or girl." Larry said, taking aim at Daryl's chest.

Carol quickly stuck the gun in the back of Daryl's pants waist and immediately came out from around him and held up her hands in surrender.

"Take it easy, Larry, no one needs to get hurt here." Carol said calmly, feeling Daryl's hand in the small of her back, holding on to her shirt tightly, holding her back from moving any closer to the old man and woman.

"Now I think we're talkin' the person in charge, m'I right?" Larry asked shrewdly.

"I'm Carol—this is Daryl and Beth. Our group was overrun this morning and we've been on the road since..." Carol began carefully, keeping her eyes on Larry. Then she shifted her gaze to the more sympathetic Dorothy. "Daryl has an injured knee and as you heard, Beth has suffered a terrible loss-we all have, Hershel was...well, he was our heart..." the tears filling her eyes were very real; she hadn't allowed herself to dwell on the loss, choosing instead to celebrate the fact that she had found Daryl and Beth, but now it hit her suddenly. She heard Beth choke out an involuntary sob and looked towards her and saw the girl's shoulders shaking as tears streamed down her face. Carol took a step towards Beth, but Daryl's hand at her back stopped her with a sharp tug at the same moment Larry cocked his gun warningly.

"Please—you can see how upset she is—let me—" Carol asked, but Larry shook his head no.

"Seen better actresses 'n her try to fool me into lettin' my guard down." Larry scoffed.

"It's not an act—we're just what we've told you." Carol protested. "Look, when I scouted this place there was no evidence of any one living—we're sorry if we've trespassed on your territory—but as you can see, we have some good reasons for needing a place to shelter, at least for the night."

"Be on our way in the mornin' after lending' you a hand with whatever chores you got for us." Daryl promised in his most conciliatory tone, hoping that would buy them at least one night's shelter.

"All those tats-you one a them redneck H.A. gang bangers?" Larry squinted at Daryl assessingly in that same suspicious tone, thrusting his chin out as he looked him over. Carol snorted at the implied slur. She knew a little bit about biker culture from Ed's survivalist group and while some of them were less than savory characters, most of the bikers were regular folks, ranging from school teachers to off duty cops. Truth be told Daryl did have the look of some of the rougher ones, but Hells Angels were a breed unto themselves, true "outlaw" bikers with an underground culture all their own.

"Do we look like motorcycle mamas?" Carol chuckled with a head nod gesture encompassing Beth who frowned and wiped at her eyes, getting better control of herself.

"He could be holding y'all against yer will." Larry said stubbornly and Carol smiled.

"Believe me, when Daryl holds me it's never against my will," Carol said in a warm honeyed tone, leaning ever so slightly back into his touch. Dorothy was watching Daryl closely and saw the momentary relaxation of the tenseness in his stance as he looked at the woman in front of him, his mouth quirking up at the side at her quip.

"She your woman? Not Blondie here?" Larry asked Daryl, nodding his head at Beth. In reply Daryl's hand slid around Carol's waist so that his arm encircled her and he pulled her back firmly against him possessively, his hand gripping the front of her shirt.

"Well, all right then." Larry said and lowered his gun. Carol wasn't sure why Daryl affirming their relationship had made the old man decide to trust them, but she'd take it.

"May I lower my hands?" Carol asked, studying the man's face for a clue to his mood. Larry nodded and though Daryl kept his hand at her waist he released his hold on her shirt.

"Where you folks from then?" the old woman Dorothy asked curiously, coming closer to Carol.

"West Georgia Prison until this mornin'." Daryl told her, "Asshole rolled in with a tank and tore the fences to shit, used the big gun ta Swiss cheese the walls—can't go back—walkers everywhere."

"You lose a lot of people? I mean besides..." Dorothy's voices trailed off as she looked apologetically at Beth.

"Yeah." Daryl said sadly, "But we're hoping to meet up with the rest tomorrow at a rendezvous spot."

"Nearby?" Larry asked, suspicious again—he didn't want some other group muscling in.

"Nah—20 clicks from here." Daryl said and Beth looked at him sharply.

"It's that far?" she asked, upset that they had gone so far off course.

"We have a car, Beth—won't take us too long to get there."

"But what if there's a herd? Or more bad people from the Governor's group?" She was verging on hysteria. Pulling out of Daryl's embrace, Carol went to her then. "We have to find Maggie and Glenn, Carol –we have to!"

"I know, honey," Carol soothed, pulling the girl into a hug, "but we have to be safe too—it won't do us any good to go running around in the dark trying to find them, especially when we're all exhausted and Daryl's hurt. This is the safest place we can be right now." At her last statement she looked beseechingly at Dorothy over Beth's shoulder.

"How'd you get in here anyhow?" Larry asked Daryl, seeming perturbed that someone had breached their defenses.

"Bolt cutters." Daryl said succinctly, and Larry grew agitated.

"You cut the chains? God damn it! With the gates open—"

"Put a new lock on—it's still secure...well, from anyone who ain't got bolt cutters..." Daryl interrupted dryly, and Larry backed off a bit. "You the ones put that extra layer a' death out 'round the perimeter?" Daryl asked with a mix of disgust and admiration. It was a great defense strategy despite its drawbacks.

"Her idea." Larry said, cocking a thumb back to point at Dorothy. "She found out if'n you put their innards on ya they stay away, so just like they can hear and see we figured they must still be able to smell—lizard brain left intact."

"Larry was a herpetologist." Dorothy said fondly, "I was a D.O." she announced and then looked over at Daryl, "Take a look at that knee if you want."

"Dory!" Larry exclaimed angrily, but she just snorted at him.

"They could've come out with guns blazing, but they waited patiently and spoke well. I got a good feeling about them—and you know my feelings are never wrong." Dorothy said stoutly. Then she looked at Carol and Beth. "Besides it's safer in the main house—please, be our guests. We promise we're not homicidal cannibals or perverts, just nudists."

Beth's eyes got wider and she looked to Carol for reassurance. Carol looked to Daryl, a whole nonverbal conversation happening between them. Should we trust them? We are in their territory...

"Are there others of you?" Daryl asked, wanting to know if there was a possibility they would be overwhelmed if they went with the old couple.

"Three more, but they went out on a scavenging trip three days ago and haven't returned." Dorothy said and Larry glared at her for giving away the information.

"And you? Just you three here, you say?" Larry challenged.

"As I said, we're part of a larger group that got separated this morning." Carol said, "We really do just need to rest a bit before we head out in the morning." Larry stared at them stubbornly until Dorothy came over to Daryl and reached up to place a hand on his chest, over his heart, while staring into his eyes. Daryl startled back slightly at her touch and Carol released Beth and moved protectively towards Daryl, but he held up his hand to stop her, holding his index finger up, as in "give me a minute here."

The old woman leaned close to his face and sniffed, smelling him and then reached down and lifted his right hand in hers and smelled it as well and then she went over to Carol and Beth and did the same, then smiled slyly before releasing each and stepping back.

"They won't be any trouble, Lawrence." Dorothy told her counterpart. And then she addressed the three refugees, "Gather your things, children."

"Can we keep our weapons?" Daryl asked, not wanting to go into a potentially dangerous situation unarmed.

"Promise to use them in defense only, of course." Dorothy said, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course." Carol said quickly, smoothing over the insulted look Daryl flashed her.

"Then welcome to Paradise Valley." Dorothy said, "Georgia's premiere clothing optional resort and spa."

"Uh—does that mean we have to—" began Daryl uncomfortably, and both Dorothy and Larry chuckled at his discomfort. The only person Daryl wanted to see him naked was Carol, and the sooner the better...

"Well, looks like you're already halfway there, son, but no, it's optional, not required." Larry assured him with a grin. He held out his hand to Daryl, "Lawrence McConnell, you can call me Larry. I ran this place before the world went to shit. Sort of a second career and lifestyle choice as it were."

Daryl gave his hand a firm shake and then stepped back to motion Carol and Beth closer and they each introduced themselves and Larry shook their hands in turn.

"And I'm Dorothy Springer; I was the resident physician here." Dorothy said. "We should get going—too much activity at night with lights and such attracts the wrong sort of attention and we don't have any more night vision tech."

Entering the old fashioned slanted cellar doors, Daryl, Carol and Beth had no idea that they were entering anything other than a basement, but the large brick mansion had a secret. It was only the visible part of a much larger complex that had been dug deep into the red Georgia earth. Privacy was one of the things that Paradise Valley promised its residents and the underground area of the main house was one of the ways it guaranteed that.

Equipped with green technology including solar collectors and a set of windmills on a nearby ridge, it also still had limited electricity. The lights flipped on as soon as the doors closed behind them and the clean, warm tropical plant filled room with light-well sky lights and a kidney shaped in-ground pool shocked the hell out of the three of them. It really did look like the Garden of Eden.

"Paradise Valley." Daryl muttered, leaning a bit more heavily on Carol who was supporting him under his right shoulder.

"It's beautiful." Beth said in wonder, setting down their gear bags and turning in a circle.

"It's home.' Dorothy said with sadness, and when Carol met her eyes questioningly, she added, "We've had to do things that we regret to keep it." Carol nodded, thinking of her own choices, of the walker studded gates and fence to this complex. Daryl tensed, wondering if this was where the other shoe dropped, but Dorothy just nodded back and motioned them forward.

"Infirmary is this way, I'll check your injuries and then we'll show you where you can rest." Dorothy said.

"You look like you're ready to drop, Missy," Larry said, looking at Beth kindly.

"I'm fine." Beth argued, but swayed slightly with exhaustion.

"I'll take her on ahead to a room, if that's ok with you?" Larry said to Carol and Daryl.

Daryl beckoned Beth close and handed her the pistol.

"He gets outa line, you use this, a 'right?" Daryl said with a touch of menace. Beth nodded solemnly as she took the gun and cocked the trigger. Larry scowled at them but beckoned Beth forward and they disappeared through the greenery on a brick path to the left.

"She'll be fine—poor thing looks ready to fall asleep on her feet." Dorothy said, starting down the right side path, expecting them to follow. "It's not far."

"Well, she seems to know what she's doing." Carol said as she stood in the doorway to the en suite bathroom, looking in. To save power they had lit the candles Dorothy had provided, creating a quite romantic setting in the comfortably sized tile covered room.

"She don't strike you as a little off?" Daryl said, raising his hand, beckoning her in to join him. He'd already washed his hair and slicked it back off of his forehead, somehow making him look like a sexy 20s silent film star and Carol smiled at him.

"Not especially—we've met stranger." Carol shrugged, pulling her shirt off over her head. Quickly removing the rest of her clothing, she slid into the steaming waters filling the large bathtub where Daryl reclined, luxuriating in being able to immerse his whole sore body under the relaxing heat. Dorothy had explained that the complex had its own wells and the pool acted as a reservoir, so they could take showers or a bath if they wanted. The "gray" water was then recycled as irrigation for the plants.

"She smelled us!" Daryl scoffed, but smiled appreciatively at Carol getting naked for him. This whole nudist colony atmosphere might have its perks after all.

"To see if we smelled the same?" Carol speculated, "To see if we were telling the truth about us."

"Smelled like sex, S'what she smelled." Daryl waggled his eyebrows at her, reminding her what they'd been doing just before the nudists had shown up.

Carol settled in facing him, and he leaned down and took her feet in his hands, massaging them and then picking up the washcloth and large cake of soap, lathered it up and washed them with care. He moved to her ankles next, continuing to draw her forward, working his way up her calves to knees and thighs, lathering and rinsing as he went, returning her favor from earlier in the day. She leaned back, enjoying his gentle touch and watched him.

When he reached the junction of her thighs she very deliberately drew her knees apart to give him better access and after cleaning and rinsing her quite thoroughly he kept one hand there, playing, while the other moved to soap her breasts, circling, pinching her slippery nipples to tight buds. Then dragging her up, holding her over him with one big hand in the center of her chest, over her collarbone, he leaned closer so he could worry them with his lips and tongue. She kept her hands against the edge of the tub, bracing herself above him.

"Daryl..." Carol moaned, feeling herself edging closer to what she knew would be waves of pleasure again if she let him continue what he was doing for much longer.

"Mmm?" he rumbled and she felt his teeth graze her nipple and she cried out at the tiny sharp nip. He moaned, kissing and licking it in apology, making it both hard and tender and then sucked down there, still stroking her now slick center, pumping his middle finger in and out rapidly, readying her for the next step, until she grabbed at his hair, pulling on it to get his attention.

"Oh god Daryl, I'm coming—please! I need more—I need you inside me now," feeling his surging cock press against her belly even as she said it, even as her orgasm rose.

"Here?" he asked her, wondering if she wanted to adjourn to the big bed in the next room, but she was too far gone and released his hair so she could grab at his wrist to remove his finger at her core and replace it with his cock.

"Here!" she demanded and shimmied her hips up and over him and felt the broad head push in, and she screamed with both her orgasm and the overwhelming sensation of being filled so completely by him. She pushed down on him, biting her lip at the delicious razor's edge of good pain—she hadn't been with a man in a long time, and Daryl was, well, he was more than she was used to even before that.

"Oh holy shit." Daryl gasped; the feeling of being exactly where he was supposed to be, of coming home so powerful it brought tears to his eyes. Her fever hot tight wet pussy grasped at his cock, spasming and holding him inside even as he felt the unalterable urge, the imperative to move, to buck against her and thrust and fuck her hard, but he fought it, letting her surge and come against him, fluttering his fingers against her clit until her noises faded to whimpers and she trembled uncontrollably in his arms.

Daryl kissed her temple and she raised her face to his, looking into his eyes, helpless with love and they kissed tenderly, and then more passionately as she felt him surge and swell inside her.

"I need to move..." he whispered after breaking the kiss, and slid their bodies onto their sides, protecting his bad knee, drawing her thigh over his, slightly changing the angle of penetration, hoping it would help him hit that place inside that he'd been lucky enough to find once or twice, and held her hips still as he started to move.

Carol thought she was done, spent, content to let him finish on his own, never having come that long and hard before, and never with a partner that wasn't battery powered silicone, but as he thrust into her irregularly at first, trying to find his rhythm, licking at her neck and collarbone, she felt that tell tale tingle start in her fingers and toes, rushing like a current to her core.

And then he found it, his strokes smoothing out, his hips churning the water over the sides of the cool porcelain to splash on the tiles below, the tip of him bumping up against that spot on her honeyed inner walls that activated an electrical surge, concentrating all sensation and pleasure there once again.

Carol's spine bent back and she clawed at his shoulders, sucking in a gasping breath as he continued to thrust into her, faster, and her breath released as a long guttural scream of ecstasy, twining herself around him like clinging ivy.

"Oh fuck yeah, sweetheart, come around me like that, come on—again—" Daryl urged her, breathing hard, grunting with every thrust, almost there, wanting to feel her tighten around his cock while he found his release—and then she did, wailing his name, and he couldn't hold off any more.

Carol felt it, the hot gushing rush as he came inside her, sending more ripples of pleasure through her belly and chest, floating, and she found his mouth with hers, thrusting her tongue inside to kiss him deeply. Daryl whimpered, kissing her back, raising his arms so that one hand was around her torso and the other cradled the back of her head, rocking with her in the warm womblike waters of the big tub.

"We got sort of pruny," Carol said, holding her and Daryl's hands out in front of her face as they cuddled in the big four poster bed after they left the bath. She lay cradled against his chest, his right arm around her, his knee propped up on a few pillows. It was the most normal either of them had felt in a long time.

"Feel guilty havin' this when god knows what the others are doin'." Daryl said, sounding pensive.

"We'll head out first thing in the morning to find them—" Carol began, knowing they'd have to somehow figure out a way to deal with Rick and Tyreese, but Daryl interrupted her.

"I really was comin' to look for you." Daryl said, "I wouldn't have left you out here alone," Carol's grip on him loosened and she sat up so she could see his face. "No matter what Rick thinks you did."

"I confessed, Daryl." Carol told him carefully. "And Rick told me I can't come back. I don't know if what just happened between you and me changes that,"

"This ain't just sex." Daryl blurted out angrily.

"It's not?" Carol asked, struggling to keep the hope out of her voice.

"My momma always said there's nothin' worse 'n a wasted heart...if you love someone you should tell'em. My daddy never did...never did tell her. I 'as only eight when she died, but I remember that every day she told me she loved me...'cept the last day..." Daryl stopped and sighed; still unsure if what he was feeling...what he was thinking about them was the same as what she was.

"Daryl—I'm sorry about your mother." Carol said quietly, filling the growing silence behind his hesitation; realizing there was so much she still didn't know about him. And the idea of the lonely motherless little boy he had probably been tugged at her heart.

"Am I like my momma, Carol? Am I wastin' my heart here, lovin' you?" Daryl asked quietly; gazing intently at her, still so soft and flushed pink from their lovemaking.

"I don't even remember anymore when I started loving you, Daryl Dixon." Carol told him with a small wry smile, taking his hand in hers.

"For me it was at the quarry camp." Daryl said shyly, running his thumb over her knuckles.

"When I put that pick axe through Ed's skull, you said to yourself, 'that's the gal for me'?" she said ironically and he winced and shook his head at her. She'd surprised him with that act, but it had been the night before when he'd seen who she really was.

"When I saw you puttin' yourself between Sophia n' the walkers." he said with great feeling. "Knowin' you was ready to die to save yer girl."

Carol wiped away the sudden tears at the mention of her daughter.

"I heard you—at the church—prayin' for God to punish you and not your little girl for wantin' him dead...heard my momma make the same one...saw her take it from him so's he wouldn't go after me..." Daryl's voice was low, monotone, struggling to get his story out so she'd understand why he admired her courage so much.

"Oh god, Daryl...did he—did your father..."

"Might as well had. Beat her so bad she took to her bed with her smokes and her wine, locked us out, house burned down around her." Daryl had never known if it was an accident or a deliberate escape, but the end result was the same. She'd opted out on him.

"I'm so sorry." Carol said, crying in earnest now.

"Need to know you won't do that—won't leave me like that—need the truth," he pleaded desperately, tears in his eyes as well.

"Daryl! I can't—it's not my place!" Carol cried, pulling away, but Daryl took a hold of her upper arms, shaking her.

"Damn it Carol, tell me! If you did it, you gotta explain why—what you were thinkin', but for Christ's sakes if you didn't do it I need to know who did—they could be a danger to the group!"

"It would destroy Rick..." Carol said softly, almost under her breath.

"What? Rick? Why?" Daryl asked, confused, but as he looked at her miserable expression he suddenly knew the answer to his own question and released her, subsiding back against the headboard.

"I couldn't tell him." Carol whispered. She knew how fragile Rick was, how important that he have hope for the future; she couldn't tell her friend the truth about his son.

"Carl. It was Carl." Daryl said, devastated.

Dun dun duuunnn!