I have been writing Daryl/Beth non-stop for the past few weeks and I've made a decision. Unfortunately, I don't think I can update everyday anymore like I have been. I don't want to burn myself out and I think some of my updates are getting "lost". I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.


Chapter Eight.

This was her favorite time. Lying in his bed with his arms around her in the quietness of his bedroom, just the crickets chirping outside and no other sound except his soft breathing on the back of her neck. She loved him and when she could spend the night and have this with him, she fell in love with him all over again.

They had been doing this for a few months now – five because she was the sort of girl who counted that sort of thing – and she still wasn't entirely sure what they were doing. She knew she couldn't ask Daryl either, knowing he would have even fewer answers than she did. She wasn't the sort of girl to just sleep with a man without commitment or at least the promise of something but Daryl was different. She knew if most heard her or saw what she was doing, they would call her an idiot but she didn't care because deep down, she knew it was the truth.

She had fallen in love with Daryl Dixon the first moment she saw him.

She didn't know how he felt about her. She knew he liked her – or rather, she assumed he did. He didn't protest this thing they were doing but then again, what sort of man would really turn down a woman who was so willing to sleep with him?

Beth didn't want to think like that though. Daryl did like her. She knew he did.

She was able to spend the night. It was her parents' anniversary and she had told them that she would make herself scarce so they could have some alone time. The nights she could stay with Daryl were her favorite; the nights she never wanted to end and she wished she could just stay here with him for the rest of her life.

She had cooked them dinner – though Daryl was always telling her she didn't need to do things like that – and after, they had gone into his bedroom and they had made love. She didn't care what he thought. In her mind, it was definitely making love. And now, there was this. The after. Lying with him, both naked beneath the covers of the bed, his body curled around hers from behind and his arms wrapped around her as if he was making up for all of those years in his childhood where he had never had a stuffed animal.

She closed her eyes though she wasn't at all tired and she smiled to herself, feeling so ridiculously happy in that moment, she could almost start laughing, her smile stretching wider. A small giggle escaped her throat and Daryl, always a light sleep, stirred behind her.

"Wha' is it?" He asked, his voice rough and groggy.

Beth shook her head and turned just enough in his arms where she could look at him. "Nothing. I'm sorry I woke you. I was just thinking."

Daryl closed his eyes again and let out a yawn before resting his head down on her shoulder. "'bout what?" He mumbled.

"About all sorts of things," she said softly, looking at his face. He seemed so much younger when he was completely relaxed like this. She liked to think that she was the only one who had ever seen him like this.

He didn't ask any further questions but she knew he wasn't sleeping again. His breathing hadn't dropped off enough. She had even learned his breathing patterns.

She lifted her hand and her fingers brushed back some longer hair back from his forehead and he shifted closer to her in response. She smiled faintly and brushed her lips down the bridge of her nose. She loved him so much, it made her chest ache. She believed in soul mates and true love but she had never expected either of those things in her life to be with Daryl Dixon. But the instant she met him five months ago and they started this between them, she could never imagine anyone else.

"Daryl?" She said his name quietly and his eyes instantly opened, looking at her. She gave him a faint smile. "I know we're keeping this a secret right now and it's not really your kind of thing but Gareth asked me to sing tomorrow night at the coffee shop and I was hoping… maybe you would want to come and watch? Maybe?"

She had been thinking of ways to ask him all evening and now that she had actually gotten the words out and he just looked at her, she felt no less nervous.

And she wasn't surprised when he shook his head slightly but it didn't mean it didn't hurt. She knew he didn't want anyone to know about them; that deep down, he was probably ashamed that he was sleeping with someone like her but she had still been hoping that maybe, he would change his mind, just for one night.

"It wouldn' look right if I was there," he said in his low voice, his eyes looking into hers. "Never been into that coffee shop before and there'd be no reason for me be in there now."

"Okay," Beth swiftly cut him off. Daryl kept staring at her but she quickly averted her eyes. "It's okay, Daryl. I knew you wouldn't want to go." She did her best to give a smile and she squeezed his arm though she still wasn't looking at him. "I have to go to the bathroom," she then said and began to sit up but his arms were still around her. "Daryl," she said his name and smiled a little easier now and he seemed convinced because his arms loosened enough where she could get from the bed.

She slipped on her underwear and grabbed the shirt he had been wearing earlier, slipping that on as well and she felt him watching her but she didn't look back as she left the bedroom and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She turned on the faucet so he couldn't hear her and she closed her eyes, leaning against the wall. She didn't want to cry even if it was the only thing she felt like doing right now. She didn't know why she was so upset. She knew he would answer like that.

This was how it was between them and maybe, it was how it would always be.

She gave and gave and gave and he never gave her much in return.


Gareth had a small platform set up with a stool and a microphone that sometimes, people would read poems or short stories or play their songs from and tonight was the first night he had ever asked her to get up on that platform. Maggie and Shawn were there and her parents had just happened to stop by, her mom claiming she needed an Earl Grey tea, and even Lori was there with her husband, Sheriff Grimes.

It was a small set, just five songs – three covers and two she had written herself. She was ending with one she had written and as she stood behind the microphone with her guitar, her fingers plucking the strings and her voice singing the words softly, she heard the door open and she was so proud of herself for not faltering in her singing when she looked and saw who it was.

He was there. He was actually there. Daryl had come.

She continued playing and singing and he stood for a moment, near the door as if he wanted to make a quick exit, and their eyes locked with one another with the coffee shop between them. He didn't stop watching her as he went to the counter and ordered something and she moved her eyes away to not make it so obvious that she was watching him. It had probably taken so much for him to get himself here and she didn't want to ruin it and give anything away.

He returned to the door with his cup of coffee as if he was going to leave but instead, he turned back and continued watching her.

"You don't wanna be my boyfriend/and that's probably for the best./Because that, that gets messy/and you will hurt me/or I'll disappear./So we will drink beer all day/and our guards will give way/and we'll be good/And we'll be good."

She forced herself to move her eyes from him again to look over everyone else there and when she sang the last note and strummed the last string, everyone broke out into applause and cheers, Shawn being the loudest, and Beth laughed softly and blushed, giving a little curtsy, feeling an elation bubble in her chest.

When she looked back to the door, she expected him to be gone but he still stood there, looking at her. His face was blank and she had no idea what he was thinking; if he liked the song she had written because if he was thinking it was about them, he was right. She had written it just that morning. Did he know that? What did he think of it? But then he gave her the slightest head nod and she smiled a little before he turned and left the coffee shop again.


She wasn't able to come see him again until two days later and when she got to his house, his bike was there but he wasn't which meant he was probably out hunting. She didn't have a key so she sat down on the steps at the back porch and waited.

She loved being out here in the woods, loving that he lived in the middle of nowhere and there were no sounds but the wind through the leaves and birds chirping. She never wondered why he lived out here away from the rest of the world. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up towards the sun, feeling it warm her face and she smiled. When she opened her eyes again, she jumped a little, seeing him now in the backyard, having not heard him approach, but she wasn't surprised. He was silent when he was out in the woods.

She gave him a small smile. "Hi."

"You been waitin' long?" He asked.

"I don't think so," she shook her head and stood up. "Catch anything good?"

It was his turn to shake his head and he slung the crossbow strap onto his shoulder. "Just walkin' more than huntin'," he said. He looked at her. "Didn't expect you today," he said after a moment.

"I can go," she shrugged, hoping she looked nonchalant. She was very much aware that Daryl was a solitary man. "Don't want to always be bothering you."

He frowned at that and took a step towards her. "You don't," he said quietly. "And you don't have to go unless you want. I usually clean up a bit before you come if I know you're comin'," he explained and she smiled a little at that. "You sounded great the other night," he said and the compliment made the tips of his ears red.

Beth burst into a smile. "Thank you. I'm so glad you came. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have you there." She looked at him. "Did you like the song?"

"That about us?" He asked and she nodded. He nodded, too. "I figured." He was quiet for a minute and then asked, "You think I'm gonna hurt you?"

"I think you're a good man and you will never want to hurt me," she answered.

Daryl stared at her and didn't say anything else. He was looking at her like he was studying her. He then nodded slightly. "We should go in. I went to the store yesterday and made you a key of your own for the house."


Thank you so much for reading and please review!