I had to have been dreaming.

I was in that damned arena again, the one the Governor had set up, filled with walkers. Had my trusty crossbow and a gun. Everyone around me was screaming "Death! Death! Death!", their screams becoming chants as Martinez came in, blew a whistle, and yelled "Let the games begin!"

I had my crossbow ready, aiming at the opponent Martinez pointed at in the shadows. But the adversary was no ordinary person.

It was Merle. And it wasn't Merle at the same time.

This version of Merle was the walker version, the Merle he'd found at that barn storage place where the Governor had planned an ambush for Rick. But it had been Merle who was the one to take the initiative, but in the end he'd failed. The Governor had shot him and left him to turn. An enormous red stain covered most of his white muscle shirt, his mutilated hand was covered in guts from some victim, and his eyes had turned yellowish-grey, colors that reminded me of death.

I couldn't. I just couldn't.

But there really wasn't any other option.

As I pushed this thing, this monster that was not my brother in any way, I heard the people around us cheering for the Merle walker. They wanted to see me die and turn. But one voice stood out among all the others. One that I'd wished I'd never have to hear in my life after it's owner had gotten bitten and put down by my uncle.

"What a fucking failure you are, Daryl! Can't kill anything, you god for nothing piece of shit son!"

My father, the one that beat me and Merle senseless at least twice a week during my childhood, was among the bastards and bitches that had settled down and created a town they called Woodbury. He looked like he always did, drunk and most likely high off something, breath smelling of cigars and alcohol, stubble that turned into a beard, and a beer belly that never seemed to go away, even with all those hunting trips.

I wanted to punch that bastard and show him what I'd felt for all those years of abuse and torture, but a strong sturdy hand grabbed my shoulder and pushed me down to the ground.

"You know, I didn't expect you to be the type of person that just walks away from a good fight," said the voice of that person. "But I won't let you harm your dad. He's under my protection and such. By the way, how does it feel to screw up everything for Rick and the others? Youu're just like that stupid sheriff, you look around and see friends, but in the end you can never recognize the devil beside you."

I looked up. The Governor, his arm around my drunken dad's.

That fucker.

He pushed me back in the pit, and said "Now go fight your brother. I've got your dad, and everyone else in your family is dead, so I guess the brothers will kill each other."

As I looked at the Merle walker, it's eyes seeing another potential source of food, I wondered if the Governor was referring to Merle as the devil besides me. But then I froze. Merle wasn't the devil besides me, it was someone in the prison.

The devil beside me,

Devil beside me.

Devil...

And then I woke up, panting for air. It was nighttime, and the only sounds I could hear around me were the snores of some of the others and, if my ears didn't deceive me, the cries of Little Asskicker.

I got up out of my cell. I needed a walk outside to clear my head, and besides, the baby needed comfort that I could provide.

For about a week after the Fort Benning incident, life almost seemed to return to normal again. I guess you could use the word 'normal' because that was exactly what it was.

After Karen's funeral, Rick began to get more and more paranoid. He began putting more people on watch all day, stepped up the gun and knife training of the Woodbury citizens, drew new prison evacuation plans, and even banned Carl from going on a raid that day. His pretense for all of this was that now that we'd pissed off Fort Benning (even if it wasn't my fault), they were likely to come scout the area, then later storm with everything they had. Army people had a reputation for not letting their enemies go unpunished. Merle had told me enough stories to reinforce that in my mind.

But an attack never came. It seemed either Major Hanson had decided that revenge was not the thing this world needed, or, much more likely, he was planning something big. Very big. With no attack coming anytime soon, people started to voice their dissent against Rick's new style of ruling, calling it close to the Governor's. Eventually Rick brought his inner circle - nowadays consisting of me, Hershel, Glenn, Tyresse, Trapdoor, Maggie, and two of the Woodbury elders - and we talked out the whole thing. Rick relented, cutting down on the security measures, but he still wanted the watch to be at least three people at all times, and that when they could, some of the Woodbury people were to be taken on carefully safe runs, for practice and experience. Every person trained counted, he said, and we needed everyone trained.

Even more than Rick, I was still pretty pissed off about Fort Benning and losing Karen, and I might have betrayed these thoughts more than one time. For example, when one of the older men from Woodbury asked about how things could've been that bad during that day we went down to the fort, I suggested that he shove his stupid baseball cap up his ass and the novel he was reading as well. We had a bit of a heated argument, but fortunately Carol was there to defuse the situation and keep the two of us on somewhat good terms. Then there was another incident at lunch, when Rick and Carl were discussing why the boy couldn't have gone to Fort Benning with the rest of us.

"I mean, if I had just started shooting up the place, I couldn't have done a worse job that you and Daryl-"

That did it. I slammed my silverware down and walked up to that kid.

"Better watch your goddamn mouth boy. You wouldn't have lasted two seconds without me or-"

At that point Carl tried to deck me, but Rick was there to play United Nations and calm down Carl. "Look son," he said, "both me and Daryl are taking Karen's death personally. Just let him be."

"Whatever," said Carl. "At least my run with Beth that day actually got things and supplies of worth, instead of screwing up a pointless plan and leaving a dead body behind-"

At that point, I tried to deck him, and I got in one punch before a combined Herculean effort of Rick, Tyresse and the Whiz got me off of him.

Back to Lil' Asskicker. I went to her crib, wondering what she was wailing her eyes out in the middle of the night for. I was within three steps of the crib when I found that I wasn't alone in the nursery cell.

Beth was there, feeding the baby with a bottle.

I couldn't help but just stay there and absorb her features. Indeed, she was gorgeous, even if I couldn't bring himself to say myself. Her big, blue eyes looked down at the infant with love and support. The golden locks of her hair fell past her shoulders, and tank top she had on did nothing to hide her figure and did everything to empathize it. It was taking everything I had not to be caught staring at her, for fear she'd view me as a stalker. However, she was the one who broke the silence when she looked up and noticed my presence.

"Whoa! you almost scared me half to death just there!"

'Well, don't," I told her. "You up checking on the asskicker too?"

"Yep," she replied, with the soft voice she usually replied to me whenever we talked, and those times were growing more and more frequent. "Don't know what scared her. Would you mind holding her for a few second while I get her a change of diaper?"

"My pleasure," I said as she passed me the bundle of happiness into my arms. As I looked at the child I currently cradled, I could tell this was not Rick's child. There were too many facial features on this baby that couldn't be inherited from Rick. Instead, most of them were Shane's. But not like it made much of a difference now. Rick still cared for the girl like he cared for Carl, and my it was the cutest baby I'd seen in years. So sweet and adorable.

Also fitting under the category for cutest things I'd seen in years was Beth's ass. I could only watch as she reached under the bottom bunk for Judith's diapers. I certainty didn't mind the view from my eyes as she came up and pulled out the spare diapers. Giving her Judith, I took a moment to think about how the two of us had been for the past few weeks. Beth was always finding time to interact with me, flirting and teasing with me however girls did with boys they liked. It seemed that she was trying to get closer to me, but for reasons I didn't really know. I was guessing that she found me kind of attractive, but I didn't think that was the case. All throughout my life girls ran from me. Merle was always scoring with someone against all odds, but I usually ended up resorting to a hooker from time to time. Carol kept pushing at me to try her out but I felt she was doing that out of pure jealousy. She knew things between us had failed, and she probably just wanted to subtly punish me for doing so by making me creep out the barely legal virgin.

Then, as Beth finished changing Judith's diapers, I had an idea.

"Well, I think I'd best be leaving, " I told Beth. "I need to clear my head and take a voluntary guard duty/walk."

"Wait," she said as I headed out the cell door. "Can I ask a favor of you?"

She could have asked me for ten. "What is it, girlie?"

"Can... can I come with you outside?"

And s

And so the two of us walked our way towards one of the still intact guardtowers, making idle chitchat and learning more about each other under the bright moonlight.

We'd started out finding that each of us was having some serious nightmares for some time now. "It was about Merle," I told her, recalling what I remembered about the night's dream. 'He was... turned, and there stood my drunken father and that Governor bastard standing right next to him. Nothing I could do, just kill or die." Beth listened with sympathy as she usually did for me or her family.

"That..." she said, "that sounds so awful. Like this one time I dreamed about everything that happened at the farm." She began to recite what seemed like a horror story, but in reality was just another sad incident in what we called this sorrowful life.

"Sorry to hear it," I said to her. "Though it couldn't have been as bad when..." And I gave her my story of how I survived in the woods for those days, using poison oak as toilet paper and such. I even added enough humorous details to get a few giggles out of the girl. Eventually we reached the guardtower we were headed for, and stopped inside it to absorb the view. Not too many walkers, we were lucky this night.

I put down my crossbow to rest my hands on the rails. Just then, my shoulders began aching and hurting. Must have sprained it coming up the stairs. I gave off a little sound of pain and hoped that Beth wouldn't hear it. However, she did, and she came to my back and began to gently massage it with her soft little hands.

"You know, its so cute when you're in pain," said Beth. "You're so reserved and aloof, and I rarely see you show emotion like this."

I couldn't help but think that was true, to a degree. Even after nine months of living with these people, I'd still kept my distances from the others, because I'd learned from my childhood to avoid other people and just take everything with the flow, like my mama once said before she'd fallen to the alcohol and buzz. But Beth... Beth was the second person to accept his other side. Carol was the first, but she'd wanted much more, and he... e just couldn't accept that. And they'd agreed to let it go, even though their undying friendship remained strong as ever. Beth was different, though. Maybe it was she was half my age, and even young enough to be my daughter if he thought about it. Maybe it was the fact whenever I saw her she was always just so sweet and even appeared naïve sometimes, unlike Carol, who was more like the survivor type that I fitted under. My guesswork was that opposites tended to attract, especially when the options were so limited and a walker apocalypse could end your life at any second.

Then Beth said something that stunned both of us.

You know, it's just us here, alone. We could do whatever we wanted."

I was stunned. I had heard that attitude in voices before, along with that look of desperation and eagerness. Usually Merle's girlfriends put on that persona, and he and her would usually head off to a bedroom to do whatever. I could tell what she wanted by that look on her face , and I was thinking it wasn't such a bad idea.

And at the same time, it very much was.

"Oh no you don't," I told her, fighting the urge to embrace a creature as ravishing as her. "You get yourself back to bed little lady."

She crossed her arms. "Please don't act like you don't want it either. It's all written in you."

"Beth, have you seen yourself during all this? There's no way any man wouldn't desire you. I'm too old, too bad of a role model for you and your-"

She cut me off. "I bet you think I'm too young for you right? Well, I'm too young to have the walking dead rise up, take close to everyone I know, and put me and what's left of my family on the run, always struggling to stay one step ahead of them. I want to live, Daryl, and I want you. I don't want to die without... experiencing it. What's the point of life if you can't enjoy it?"

"Beth," I said, still fighting off the urge of thinking painfully wrong thoughts. "Your dad ain't gonna like this-"

She cut me off again, but this time with a sudden and unexpected kiss. Not just a friendly kiss, but a passionate and desiring one. That was enough to turn me on. I couldn't fight something that we'd both wanted for a while now. A tongue thrust into wetness after a two year absence... yeah, I'd wanted something for a long time. Exploring her petite little body with my hands, I realized that she was perfect. She was lean and curvy where it counted, according to what my hands were telling me, and both the feel and look of her were starting to do things to my dick. As we finally broke our kiss, she looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes, staring back at mine.

"Daddy won't find out here," she said in the voice of an angel. "We can make it one night, or we can continue in the future. Your call."

One night? Hell no. "Darlin',"I said to her, "If you come to a Dixon expecting a one night stand, you're going to be seriously mistaken. A Dixon wants it all."

And then we got down to business.

AN: More explicit smut comes next chapter. Figured I'd give you a little teaser before the big show. If you think I'm progressing things between Daryl/Beth too fast or too slow, just let me know in a review.

As always R&R! It keeps my fingers typing.

-Jokerang