Not sure if anyone has paid much mind to the rating of this story, but it is rated M for future content, and I'll warn you now that this chapter has some hints towards scenes of a sexual nature, just in case that's a trigger for anyone. There's not much of it, but it is there, somewhere in the middle, so... yeah.

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Daryl Dixon had left her his phone number.

His phone number.

Daryl Dixon.

The way that Beth had felt in the moment when she had glanced down at the off-white napkin that had Daryl's rushed scrawl painted across it was something that even she couldn't describe; an emotion that the young woman knew that she would never be quite able to put into words, no matter how hard she tried to do so. It was an emotion that a term similar to 'happy' just couldn't quite describe - the words were not enough and would probably never be enough, and there was an overwhelming part of her that just wanted to scream at the top of her lungs in excitement and pure elation when her mind finally registered what those sloppily-written digits really meant.

Because he had left her his phone number.

Daryl Dixon.

Once she had managed to calm herself down - which was quite later on that evening, considering the young waitress had spent the rest of her entire shift walking around with more of a spring in her step and a bright grin that not even the rudest of customers could wipe from her pretty face - Beth actually allowed herself to process it all; and as she stared at the napkin that now rested on the corner of her bedside table, Beth realised that she really had no idea what she was actually going to do with Daryl's number.

It had been more than obvious to her that Daryl was shy, and painfully so, too. The man may have been older than she was, but it didn't mean that he carried himself with more sense of himself than she did. If anything, Beth thought that Daryl was probably even more shy than she ever had been, even though she considered herself to be quite a shy and introverted person.

The young blonde wasn't quite so used to all of this, though - when it came to matters involving the opposite sex, it was never Beth Greene who did any of the chasing. Unlike most of her friends (who, now she really thought about it, reminded her a lot of her older sister, who had always been a lot more bold and confident than she was), Beth tended to be the type of girl who waited around for the guy to make the first move; for them to speak to her and flirt with her first, for them to contact her first, for them to ask her out.

Now, though, Beth was debating over whether or not she should stick to her ways - after all, she supposed that Daryl writing down his number on the paper napkin was practically his own way of making a first move, anyway. It had always been clear to Beth since she started waiting on him in the diner that Daryl wasn't one of the most confident men in town, even though the youngest Greene girl genuinely believed that he had more than every single reason to be, and she knew deep down that he would probably never be able to muster up the courage to actually ask for her own number face-to-face.

In a way, Beth thought that this may as well have been Daryl's attempt at asking for her details, anyway. Despite his rough exterior, the man was sweet; kind in ways that she never knew would really be possible, especially from him, and sweet, too. Chivalrous and gentlemanly in his own right, Beth already knew that Daryl was a good man, but the way that he was behaving towards her just confirmed it in her mind. To even consider the fact that there were other man who lived around these parts who were anything but sweet and gentle towards her - men like Shane Walsh, men who thought that they owned every woman in sight, men that thought they had a right to all of those women... Just the thought of it knoked her sick.

But it didn't take a genius to figure out that Daryl Dixon was nothing like those other men in town.

Biting down on her lip as she tugged out her phone from her back pocket, Beth attempted to keep her hands steady as she tapped in Daryl's number into her contacts list. As she stared down at his name, Beth tried to calm her breathing down before she went for it and pressed her thumb down over his name, effectively calling him.

Her heart hammered in her chest as the phone dialled next to her ear. Beth couldn't be sure of a time when she had felt anywhere near this nervous before. The only thing that she could really compare any of it to was the interview process that she had to undergo in order to get on her social work course at University, but even that hadn't been quite as bad - after all, she had been pretty confident about it; only maybe a little nervous, considering she'd practically been told by some of the lecturers there that they had all heard amazing things about her from her tutors and that they were looking forward to teaching her.

Before Beth could work herself up anymore, the ringing of the phone ceased and she was met with the sound of a gruff voice answering her call with a raspy "hello?"

It wasn't as though they hadn't spoken before; after all, Beth had heard his voice more times than she could probably count by now. Even though he never used to properly talk to her in ways of conversation and would instead just list off his food and drink order at her, there had come a point now where Daryl and Beth would engage in friendly communications. Still, though, Beth was slightly caught off guard by the sound of his voice, and it all seemed so real now - now that he was there, actually answering the phone to her, now that she was sure that she hadn't imagined any of it or misread his signals or -

"Hello?" he repeated, and Beth could practically hear him frowning down the line.

"Oh," she gasped, as though she had only just realised exactly what it was that she had done. "Oh, hello? Daryl? It's me. Beth."

It might not have been the smoothest way that she could have started the phone call with Daryl. In fact, it most definitely wasn't the way that she had imagined it in her head all afternoon as she had been taking orders and cleaning tables at the diner. Still, though, Beth supposed that it was better than nothing; and she continued to remind herself that it technically wasn't her making the first move, considering the fact that it had been Daryl who had left her his number.

Down the opposite end of the line, Daryl was quiet for a few beats before he spoke again. The sound of his voice down the phone still caused Beth's body to react immediately; goosebumps appearing all over her arms, but at least she was breathing less heavily now and her hands weren't shaking quite as violently as they had been doing previously.

"Hey, Beth," Daryl said, probably feeling - because he definitely sounded - just as awkward as she did in that moment.

Even though he couldn't see her, Beth tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear that had fallen out from her messy high pony tail. The gesture itself was a nervous habit that she had never been able to control, along with biting on her bottom lip. "I... I got your number. From the napkin. An' I... I jus' thought that I'd call you. Or somethin'."

"Yeah," Daryl said, his response limited, but his tone sounding slightly more confident, as though he was growing more sure of himself. "Well, s'why I left it, I s'pose."

Beth couldn't help herself but to giggle at his words. "I figured as much," she said, twirling some of the hair from her ponytail around her index finger as she tiptoed around her room, her eyes drifting over everything but not focusing on anything much in particular. "You could have just asked me for mine, though, you know. If... If you wanted to call me."

For what felt like an all too long time, Daryl didn't respond. Finally, the older man cleared his throat, and Beth could picture him clearly in her mind - swaying on his feet, running his hands through his unkept hair and over the scruff of his stubble in a nervous yet thoughtful manner. "Didn't know if you'd wanna..." Daryl started and then trailed off all too quickly, his words filled with self-doubt.

Her cheeks tinted red as Beth conemplated telling him about just how much she would have enjoyed him asking her for her number, but she resisted the urge. In the same way that he wasn't the type of guy who would be that straight-up and forward with her that he would ask her for her number, Beth wasn't the type of girl who would be bold enough to tell him that she would have loved for him to have asked her in the first place.

"Of course I'd want to," Beth breathed, her voice low and slightly hushed. "I... So, I guess you gave me your number for a reason, huh?"

Daryl chuckled, the sound vibrating down the line and causing her to smile, too.

"Yeah, guess I did," Daryl said back to her. "I, er..." The sound of loud banging from Daryl's end of the line caused Beth to jump slightly, her fingers grasping tightly to the corner of the wooden desk that sat in front of the bay window of her bedroom so that she didn't stumble and fall from the shock. "Shit," Daryl cursed under his breath, and Beth could hear what sounded like him fiddling with a lock of a door. "Beth, I gotta go. I'll, er... I'll call you back, or I'll give you a text later on, a'right?"

Beth blinked several times as she stared out of her window, more than just slightly caught off guard by the abrupt ending of the phone call. "Yeah," she found herself saying, nodding her head up and down. "Yeah, that's fine. I'll speak to you later, Daryl."

With that, the call ended, and Beth found herself frowning down at the phone in her hands for a few seconds afterwards. The young woman was instantly curious about what on earth was going on at where Daryl currently was - whether it was at his home or somewhere else - that had to have him end the call in such a strange manner.

Reminding herself that it really wasn't any of her business anyway, Beth locked her phone and placed it down on her desk before she grabbed a towel and made her way out of her room towards the bathroom, thinking to herself about how a relaxing hot shower might occupy her mind long enough to distract her from thoughts of Daryl Dixon - at least for a while, anyway.

. . .

In all honesty, the boiling water of the shower hadn't done much to distract her from her wandering thoughts of the youngest Dixon brother. In fact, those sorts of thoughts had been more encouraged than anything, although Beth thought that she had done quite well for herself in pushing them as far away as she possibly could.

Having a reputation of being the town's good girl came with certain expectations about behaviour, and even though Beth had played around and had two boyfriends - Zach and Jimmy - she had been much younger when she had been in both of those relationships and nothing had ever gone any further than kissing. To his credit, Jimmy had never pushed her or tried to get her to go any further - if anything, he had been the deer caught in headlights, the one with the shy hands and the nervous smile.

When Beth had been in a relationship with Zach, the two of them had both been a few years older at seventeen, but Beth had still been reserved and shy whilst Zach had been much more confident and sure of himself. His hands had wandered a few times, but never had Beth allowed them to move too further south and she had most definitely never allowed him to touch her underneath her clothes.

The young woman was older now, though; and even though she was still very much a virgin at almost twenty one, Beth wasn't necessarily embarassed about it. She could only imagine the sort of experience that a man like Daryl had with women - after all, his own reputation was a lot different from hers, and although she was definitely no expert on his sex life, she had a feeling that he was quite far from the innocent virgin that she was.

There had been the odd few times when Beth had been overcome with an urge to try something new on herself - to allow her own hands to wander and explore in the way that Zach had wanted to, but she had never allowed him to. In all honesty, she never really allowed herself, either.

Part of her supposed that it was probably something psychological; something in her mind when she thought about the fact that she was lay in her bed, sure, but in her parent's farmhouse... when her mama and daddy were always home. It was all sorts of awkward and humiliating, and even though she had attempted to bring herself some relief on several occasions, she'd never managed to quite get there.

It could be frustrating at times, especially when most of her friends were anything but as innocent as she was and often acted as though she was seriously missing out on something amazing. As much as she wanted to try, though, the sensations always seemed to just feel too intense to be able to continue, and she had built up a somewhat irrational fear that she would be interrupted and -

"Bethy?"

- humiliated (because her parents had an awful habit of just walking into her room without even knocking on her bedroom door).

"In here," Beth called as her mama peeped her head around her bedroom door, her light eyes roaming over Beth's form as the young woman painted her toenails on her bedroom floor. Beth looked up and locked eyes with her mother, offering her a small smile before concentrating on the task at hand. "What's up?"

Annette pushed the door open some more and stepped inside of Beth's room, glancing over the expanse of it as though she expected someone else - or maybe just something else in general - to be in there with her daughter. "I was just checkin' in on you," her mother said, leaning one of her outstretched arms on the doorframe and resting her other on her hip. "How was work today?"

The sound of her phone vibrating from where it sat on the desk by her bay window caused both Beth and Annette to turn their attention towards it. Beth eyed her mother nervously, part of her wondering to herself whether it was obvious to Annette that her heart was pounding in her chest faster than it had been before and that her fingers were beginning to twitch, curiosity over whether it was Daryl who was texting her like he said that he would do. Apparantly her reaction couldn't have been all that obvious because Annette disregarded of the vibrating phone quite easily.

Beth swallowed before she answered her mother's question. "It was okay," she said with a shrug of her shoulders before she twisted the lid of the polish back on the bottle.

"How's management life treatin' ya?" her mama teased, causing Beth to roll her eyes as she pushed herself up onto her feet.

"Not too bad," Beth responded, trying her best not to be rude or ignorant towards Annette, even as she edged herself around her bed and towards the desk where her phone was. "I'm tryin' not to put too much stress on myself. Jus' keep thinkin' about goin' back to college in the fall..."

"Your last year," Annette said, and Beth nodded her head up and down. "Well, I'm glad you're not puttin' too much of yourself into this job o' yours. Don't wanna end up stuck in the diner for the rest of your life." As always, Annette was right - Beth had always wanted to stay in this little town, the place that she was born and the place that she had been raised, but she was always more than just a little bit worried that staying here would mean that all she could do was work some dead-end job.

Beth's degree in social work should mean that she could actually go on to be a social worker; not just someone who worked at the diner, or even at the daycare center in town. As far as Beth was aware, not many social workers hung around this area, although she wanted to change that - after all, it might be good for the sorts of children who were more than obviously neglected on the poorer side of town. There were a few trailer parks around the area and Beth knew from her classes just how under-privelliged the children who were brought up in those homes could be, and even though she knew better than to assume that all unwealthy families were neglectful towards their offspring, she also knew not to be naive enough to believe that everyone in this world was selfless and kind, especially towards their children.

"Yeah," Beth said, agreeing with her mother. "Don't think the diner uniform suits me all too well, anyway," she joked, smiling brightly as she picked up her phone and saw that it had indeed been Daryl who had sent her a message.

Annette chuckled at her daughter's statement. "Always said it washed y'out," she grinned, shaking her head as she went to step out of the room, holding onto the doorknob as she did so. "I'm gonna jump into bed, anyway, Bethy. I'll see y'in the mornin'."

"Night, mama," Beth called after her, waiting until she had shut the door behind her until she unlocked her phone in a rush, her eyes scanning over Daryl's message several times.

- Sorry about earlier. Will speak to you soon. Night Beth.

Biting down on her lower lip, Beth locked her phone and clutched it tightly to her chest, deciding to herself that she probably wouldn't respond to Daryl's message - after all, there wasn't much for her to say back to him, and she would probably see him at work in the morning, anyway.

Recently, her dreams had been more often than not filled with images of Daryl Dixon - and tonight was definitely no different. In fact, tonight was probably the worst that it had ever been; her dreams so clear that she could have practically sworn that they were memories and they were real, not just vague and extreme imaginings from her mind.


"Good morning, Mister Dixon."

It wasn't a rare occurance for Daryl to wonder how on earth Beth constantly managed to be so damn cheerful all of the fucking time, especially at this ungodly hour of the morning. Just her presence in general could usually put him in a pretty good mood, but after the shit that he had dealt with last night, Daryl had a feeling that even flirting with Beth Greene wouldn't be able to perk him up today.

And he sure as hell didn't want to go giving her the wrong idea; all mixed signals now that he had given her his number just yesterday morning (was that really just yesterday? 'cause it sure as hell felt like it was a lot longer than that) but then he was being all cold and distant with her now. Daryl knew that he was probably being a jackass as he mumbled off his breakfast order at her, not even trying to entertain her flirty comments and bright smiles as she scribbled down his order, but he thought that today of all days, he could behave like the asshole everyone else knew that he was.

After all, that's all he was - just a dumbass redneck with an even bigger asshole for a brother. And now his big asshole of a brother had gone and got himself let out of jail early on good behaviour (although Daryl was genuinely confused and a little gobsmacked about how the fuck Merle had managed to swing that one) and had turned up on his doorstep, banging all loud and hollerin' about how he was finally home and about how bad he needed a drink.

It wasn't Beth's fault - hell, the girl never seemed to do anything wrong to anyone, never mind to him. It sure as hell wasn't her business about what was going on with his brother, but at the same time, Daryl suddenly felt as though he needed to tell her what was going on and give her some sort of idea about why he was acting the way that he was.

Even without an explanation on his part, though, Beth Greene was a goddamned nice girl and she was still fucking smiling at him all shy-like and batting her eyes as she tiptoed over to him almost tentatively. The plate of food that she was carrying was sat down straight in front of him along with a knife and fork, and Beth informed him that she would be right back with a fresh glass of water for him. Daryl just nodded his head at her slightly dismissively before he began to tuck into his food.

It really didn't take Beth all that long to come back with his water, and she set it down on the table in front of him carefully, making sure that not a drop of the liquid spilled anywhere. With a soft smile, the young blonde straightened her body back up and wiped the flat of her palms on the back of her jeans before quirking a brow at him.

"Anything else that I can get for you?" she asked, and Daryl just shook his head, his mouth filled with food.

"Nah," he said, seeming to surprise her with an actual verbal response on his part. Today he had been quite cut-off, choosing to grunt and huff and nod or shake his head more than actually say anything at all of any substance, but he tried giving himself a good kick up the ass; imagining to himself what Carol would have to say to him if she found out how rude he was being to the poor girl who had really done nothing wrong to him at all. If anything, all Beth Greene had ever done was be nice to him, and as much as he was bewildered about why the hell she would want his attention out of all of the guys in town, Daryl knew deep down that she was too good of a person to push away.

"Know I'm a dick," he mumbled after he had swallowed down his food. Not saying anything at all, Beth just blinked down at him, her facial expression quite blank and not giving much of anything away at all. "S'jus'... Load'a shit at home. I'll call you later though, a'right?"

Daryl had actually surprised himself by offering Beth the best form of an apology that his tongue could muster up; never mind the fact that he had even talked on and actually gave her the hint of an explanation for his crappy attitude and rude behaviour, along with a sort-of promise about speaking to her later on. If Beth was surprised too (which she probably was, considering the fact that he was, too) then she didn't show it at all. If anything, she was evidently grateful that he had actually tried, and Daryl was rewarded for stepping outside of his comfort zone with a dazzling grin from her and the sight of her cheeks turning pink under his intense gaze.

"That sounds perfect, Daryl," Beth told him, her tone all soft and sweet, like she was sighing, but not quite. Tucking a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear, Beth offered him one last lingering look before she walked away, busying herself with a new customer who had just walked through the door.

Daryl couldn't help himself but to watch her as she walked off towards the front entrance of the diner and even more so as he saw her greet the couple who had apparantly come down for an early breakfast. Just like she was with everyone else, Beth was all happy smiles and cheerful laughter as she seated the man and the woman down at a booth close to the kitchen, and he could vaguely make out the sound of her listing off the recommended meals of choice at the early hour that it was.

And even though Daryl Dixon had never been too much of a confident man, he knew for sure that the smiles and the laughs that Beth was giving to those people were different - a lot different - to the ones that she always gave to him. And even though Daryl knew that he had a long way to go when it came to plucking up the courage to ask the beautiful waitress out on a date, he knew that just by watching how she was with everyone else who walked in this damned place that she felt something for him, too - something that would more than likely leave her almost definitely saying yes to whatever it was that he decided he wanted to ask her to do.

Once he was finished with his meal, Daryl pulled out a twenty from his wallet and left it on the table of the booth, not bothering to wait around for the cheque - he knew that his meal probably wouldn't be more than six or seven bucks, tops, and then he would be happy for Beth to keep the change. The time was ticking on and if Daryl didn't hurry his ass up, he'd be late to open up shop with Abraham, but the look in Beth's eyes when she turned her head over her shoulder as she scrubbed down on one of the vacant tables to watch him leave had him feeling all sorts of flustered and distracted.

Daryl stared straight at her for a long moment as he pulled on his leather vest, knowing full well that these long looks and lingering glances that they shared with each other were quickly spiralling into something out of his control. Once the vest was firmly wrapped onto his body, Daryl chose to just offer Beth a nod of his head before he walked straight out of the door to the diner, the bell above it chiming as he did so, and Daryl mustered up just enough self control to not turn around and see whether she was watching him as he made his way towards his truck.

The whole way to work, all that Daryl could think about was those big baby blue eyes of Beth's, and he knew before he even started his shift that today was going to be one hell of a long day.


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