Trigger warning: sexual assault suggested

Beth was too distracted by the memory of her fight with Daryl to pay attention to which way she was running. She kept replaying his words over and over in her mind. How dare he bring her parents into this, he didn't even know them! And who does he think he is, grabbing her the way he did? Beth had never been so angry in her whole life.

Finally, she could see the back of the cabin through an opening in the trees. She made her way around it, hoping no one had woken to find both of them gone. All she wanted to do was lock herself inside of her temporary room until it was time to leave this suck ass camp. But as Beth turned the corner of the cabin, she quickly realized that she had ended up at the wrong cabin when she caught site of three strange men smoking on the porch. They noticed her instantly and her heart felt like it fell from her chest to her stomach when they began to catcall and whistle at her.

The three men looked like they too belonged to a biker gang, like Daryl. But she pushed the thought of him out of her mind and began thinking of ways to get out of this situation. If she ran, she would probably end up even more lost than she already was. Not to mention, these men were hunters. They could chase after her and track her down if they wanted to. But it didn't matter because they were already making their way over to her, surrounding her. It was too late to run.

The man directly in front of her, obviously the leader of this group, had grey hair and a grey goatee. He seemed friendly but Beth knew better. The man to her right had long dark hair and a full beard. He was thin and wore a black hoodie that was way too big on him. And the man to her left was black man that wore a bandana on his head.

"This here's a fine piece of ass, Joe. I claim the first round." The man in the oversized hoodie said without taking his eyes off of Beth's body.

"I claim second!" The black man said in a hurry, apparently not wanting to miss his chance.

"Easy, fellas." Joe warned. "This poor girl is probably just lost. Not lookin for any trouble, ain't that right sweetie?" He asked her, again trying to seem friendly.

"I was just… looking for my dad." Beth lied. "He's around here somewhere." She was sure that they knew she wasn't telling the truth and it made her heart beat even harder.

"I can be your daddy for tonight." Oversized Hoodie Man said, stepping closer to Beth.

"Back off, Len! You're gonna scare her off!" The black man spoke up.

At this point, Beth was sure that she would be violated. There was no way that she could fight off all three of these men and no one back at the cabin even knew where she was. If she were lucky, she could get the attention of any park rangers in the area by screaming as loud as she could right now. And Beth was about to do just that when Len reached his arms out to grab her, but the sound of Daryl's voice stopped her.

"Hey! Get your fuckin hands off her!" Daryl had his crossbow aimed at Len and was very tempted to shoot but Len quickly grabbed Beth and pulled her to him like a human shield to stop the other archer from pulling the trigger.

Joe and the other man didn't miss a beat. They had their hand guns pointed at Daryl in an instant and demanded that he "don't do anything stupid."

"Let's just put our weapons down so we can figure out what's the problem here." Joe said, this time without a trace of a smile.

"Ain't gonna happen. Let her go." Daryl said, not taking his eyes off of Len.

"A bow man, huh? See, any man can shoot a rifle, but a bowman's a bowman through and through." Joe paused to size up the angry man in front of him. "You pull that trigger, these boys and I are gonna drop you several times over. That what you want? Come on fella, suicide is stupid. Put it down."

When Daryl didn't say anything, Joe realized that the game was over. This could either end in a blood bath, or he can let the archer walk away with the girl. Joe wasn't interested in going to prison again so he opted for the latter.

"Let her go, Len." Joe ordered while still not taking his eyes off of Daryl. "Fun's over."

"Let's teach this fool a lesson." Len offered, not wanting to let Beth go without having his fun first.

"You know the rules, let her go!" Joe yelled. The rules were simple to Joe, claim what's yours but don't get caught by the law.

Len whispered something inappropriate in Beth's ear before pushing her towards who he thought was her dad that she spoke about earlier. With shaky legs, Beth ran towards Daryl and stood behind him. But rage was vibrating through Daryl and it took everything he had in him to walk away. When the men in front of him put their guns down, Daryl did the same with his crossbow and lightly grabbed Beth's bicep, walking her backwards with him until they were hidden by the trees.

They practically ran back to their cabin but neither of them said anything until they saw they made it back to the front porch.

"You hurt?" Daryl asked once the rage faded away and he was calm again.

Beth shook her head, unsure of what to say to him now. She was still so mad at Daryl. He was the one who had dragged her into the woods in the first place. But then again, running away had been her choice. She ran, not because she was afraid of him, but because he had pushed her to her limit. So should she blame him for what just happened, or thank him for saving her from Joe and his men?

Before Beth could come to a conclusion, Daryl did something that he never does. He let his walls down.

"Damn it, I'm sorry Beth," was all he could muster.

She saw the pain in his eyes and knew that he hadn't meant her any real harm. It's like she said, he wasn't as bad as he seemed. Even when he was acting like a jerk, it wasn't the real him. She knew it.

"It's okay, Daryl. You didn't know." She tried to convince him.

"Yeah I did. I even told you about the other hunters, but I let you run off. That's on me." Daryl was the kind to beat himself up for his mistakes and this was no exception. He turned his back to her, unable to look her in the eye. He felt ashamed of himself.

"No." Beth said, shaking her head. She reached for his arm but he roughly shrugged her off.

"If I hadn't have found you when I did…" He trailed off.

Before Beth realized what she was doing, she threw herself onto Daryl's back and wrapped her arms around him, silently begging him to understand that she didn't blame him and that he shouldn't blame himself.

Daryl was not expecting the embrace but he didn't shrug her off this time. He welcomed the awkward hug and was relieved that she didn't hate him. He thought that that is what he wanted, for her to hate him, but not for this. Not for ruining her life. She could hate him for being a jerk, he could live with that, but if those men had their way with her, he'd hate himself too.