I can't decide how long I want this story to be. I have ideas for more chapters but I was thinking maybe just having this one have ten chapters. I don't know.


Chapter Eight.

It was bound to happen. Of course it was. It didn't matter how much two people loved each other. Of course they were going to have disagreements and fights and as Daryl stormed off into the woods with his crossbow and Beth drove to her parents' farm, it was decided they needed to be apart to fume angrily in their own corners.

Beth cracked the egg on the side bowl forcefully, Annette watching her as the anger seemed to radiate off of her. One, two, three and she tossed the egg shells into the trash before going to the sink to wash her hands again of the raw egg slime. Annette didn't say anything, choosing her moment wisely as to when she would. Beth had stormed into the house and had gone straight to the kitchen, pulling out the butter and the eggs from the refrigerator. When Beth was pissed, she started baking.

Annette leaned against the counter, her arms crossed loosely over her chest, watching as Beth muttered to herself. Annette pursed her lips together and tried her hardest not to smile. It was never surprising to her when Beth came over, spitting mad about a fight she had had with Daryl. It wasn't as if they never fought. They had their fair share of disagreements. Anyone that different was bound to have their disagreements but it was actually rare for Beth to be as angry as she was right now.

"And then he just… gah!" She exclaimed as she slammed the bowl down. "He is just… he's just the biggest darn man baby who has ever existed!"

Annette couldn't help but smile now. "Bethy, all husbands are man babies."

"Not like Daryl. Daryl takes the cake," Beth said. "And speaking of cake, he is going to be getting none of this one!" She grabbed the cake pans to begin pouring the batter into. "I just don't understand him sometimes!"

"You're not the first wife to be confused by their husband," Annette tried to tell her.

Beth continued muttering under her breath as she opened the oven door and slid the cake pans inside, closing the door again and setting the timer. She stayed facing the oven at first and tried to regulate her breathing though honestly, she was still nearly shaking from her fight with Daryl that morning.

She loved Daryl. She loved Daryl so, so much but sometimes, she felt like it would be so much easier if she could just hate him. What if she had never met him and he was still living alone in his house in the woods and she still lived here on the farm with her parents and she had absolutely no interaction with him because she didn't know him? Wouldn't it all be easier?

He questioned her this morning. Again. Questioned her love. Her words. Her being with him. And she just felt so tired of it all. She knew he loved her. But when he said things like how better she would be off without him, she just snapped. Shouted to him that she hated him and he shouted back that he hated her, too, and he stormed out the back door as she stormed out the front.

And now, a couple of hours later, tears stung her eyes and she felt so much anger and yet, if Daryl walked through that door right now, she would throw herself at him and never let him go. She knew that no matter how badly they fought, there would never be a time when she wouldn't throw herself at him. And it terrified her that sometimes, she felt like Daryl would have no problem walking away from her. Especially if he had convinced himself that it was the best thing for her.

She hadn't even realized she was crying and sniffling until Annette came up behind her, shushing her with quiet words and wrapping her arms around her.

"It'll be okay, Beth," she said to her quietly.

And feeling her mom there, it only seemed to open the floodgates. Her anger evaporated almost immediately and now, she was just replaced with sadness. She turned towards her mother and Annette looked at her sadly as she lifted her hands and wiped at Beth's cheeks.

"What if he doesn't love me as much as I love him?" She whispered and the instant she asked the question, she hated herself a little.

Daryl loved her and she knew he loved her. Without a doubt. Everything Daryl did showed her how much he loved her. And there should never be a day that went by where she wondered or questioned.

"I have never seen a man who loves a woman more," Annette told her softly and Beth nodded because she could never deny that. That would always be the truth.

"He just never seems to believe me when I tell him I love him," Beth said, still whispering. "And I try so hard to get him to believe me but I…" she trailed off and shook her head. "I don't know if he ever will."

"He believes you," Annette said. "You know it would be hard for him. To go from getting no love at all in his life to getting you loving him. It's probably overwhelming and he clearly doesn't know what to do with it most of the time."

Beth nodded and lowered her eyes. She had said the same things both to herself and to others time and time again. Daryl had grown up with no love. He thought that maybe his mom had loved him – maybe at first before the wine and booze took her over. And Merle loved him in his own way but other than that, he had never had this; had someone who looked at him like the sun rose and fell with him each day. She was the first person who had ever loved him and she knew that it scared him.

"I want you to do something," Annette said. Beth looked at her, doubtful for a moment but she gave in, closing her eyes. "I want you to close your eyes and imagine. Just close your eyes and imagine how your life would be if you were married to someone like Jimmy," she said. She nearly laughed when Beth's face screwed into one of disgust but she kept her eyes closed nonetheless. "Now, this life with Jimmy, what is it like?"

Beth was quiet for a few passing minutes, honestly trying to imagine it.

She would probably live with Jimmy on his parents' farm as he helped his dad every day. She had dated Jimmy all through high school and everyone told her that she was so lucky and he was such a good boy and so handsome and Beth had tried to tell herself that she was in love with him. Would she have married him, still trying to convince herself that this was the man with whom she was always supposed to spend her life? There was nothing there. Sweet pecks on the lips and smiles but no passion. No kisses that made her toes curl or her knees weak. No smiles that made her blush. No desire to touch him just because she needed to feel him next to her in that moment. Life would Jimmy would have been nothing more than that. It would have been just nice but nothing more.

She would have been content but never truly happy.

She hadn't really known true happiness before she fell in love with Daryl Dixon.


Daryl heard her car pull up to the house a few hours after she had left but he didn't get up to go see her. He had spent the past few hours in the woods, first just storming around in anger but then, habit had taken over and he had started tracking a rabbit and by the time he returned home, he was as calm as he ever was.

He knew he didn't really have a reason to be angry anyway. But he had done what he had always done. Frustrated with himself and lashing out at the first person he saw. And that person was always Beth. He didn't even really know what had set him off that morning. She had been there, talking about some errands they had to run and she was talking about going to the dollar store for a few things and for some reason, that morning, he hated hearing Beth talking about going to the dollar store. He knew he was being stupid and ridiculous but as Beth tried to talk him down, it had only made him angrier.

And then she shouted that she hated him and he shouted back that he hated her, too, before they both stormed out.

Hours later and though he was calm again, the words he had shouted at her made his stomach churn. His parents had used to scream at one another how much they hated the other constantly and just like that, with him and Beth yelling at one another, the curse of the Dixon history was repeating itself.

He heard her in the house as he continued sitting on the back steps, cleaning the rabbit he had killed, his ears attentive to every move she made inside. He knew she wasn't going to come to him and he knew he would have to make the first move and knew that that was the way things had to be. He waited though and finished until he was finished cleaning and wrapping the rabbit, storing it away into the deep freeze. Only then did he climb the creaky steps and open the screen door, stepping into the kitchen. She was sitting at her piano, shifting through her sheet music, and he went to the kitchen sink to wash his hands. He saw a container on the counter with a circular two layer cake inside.

"It's strawberry with buttercream frosting," Beth said, without looking at him but knowing that he had been looking at the cake.

"Sounds good," he said. And then setting his eyes on her, he went to her and slowly eased himself down onto the bench beside her as if expecting her to push him off.

She didn't though. She didn't even look at him before deciding on a piece of music. He sat there beside her and listened as she played and watched as her fingers floated across the keys lightly, hypnotizing him as it always tended to do.

"Can you turn the page for me?" She asked and his hand instantly lifted. "Now," she said and he turned the page as quickly as he would, her fingers never stumbling.

He looked at the notes on the page even though he couldn't read music. "'m sorry."

She didn't stop playing. "I'm sorry, too," she said softly.

The song lasted for another minute and then it faded away, her fingers sliding from the keys. Daryl turned his head to her and Beth turned her head to him.

"I love you," he said in a quiet voice and he saw Beth exhale a soft breath as if she had been holding it in.

She nodded and he saw tears glass in her eyes. "I love you, too," she whispered to him with a faint smile brushing across her lips and he felt like almost smiling, too.

He leaned into her and slid his arms around her waist, tugging her in close, and she turned more towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him as tightly as he was hugging her.


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