Hello folks! So sorry this has taken me so long! My life has been super hectic, and this chapter just didn't want to do what I wanted. As it turned out absolutely nothing that I had planned happened in this chapter, but it did let me lead up to what I had planned. I guess that's a good thing at least. In any case at least I got something out for you guys before the Walkers really struck and you never got to find out what happened next! Hopefully I will be better with the next chapter.

Thanks to Guest for her (or are you a him?) continued support, and wonderful reviews! I'm trying to get this out in a hurry before I have to put my DS to bed, so I can't thank you properly, but know that you are much appreciated, and I always look forward to seeing your thoughts.

Thanks to the rest of you that have followed, favorited, or reviewed. I always write a note to those of you that review and have an account so that I am able to do so. I recommend that everybody sign up on here, just so that I can tell you how much a enjoy getting your thoughts. It's also handy so you know when a new chapter comes out for the stories you enjoy.

I also want to recommend a story I have been reading. You should all check out Everything is Transient, by Daffodil3126. I have been doing some beta work for her, and have worked on the first seven chapters so far. Her story is great, and so far as I can tell, very original. Show her some love!

Okay, I guess that's all I have for you guys tonight. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Ten – Wondering

Since I was a young man, I never was a fun man, I never had a plan and no security then, Ever since I met you, I never could forget you, I only wanna get you right here next to me
'Cause everybody (a-wha-oh-oh) Needs someone that they can trust and, You're somebody (a-wha-oh-oh)
That I found just in time
If you want me to wait, I will wait for you, If you tell me to stay, I would stay right through, If you don't wanna say, Anything at all, I'm happy wondering
Now my life is changing, It's always rearranging, It's always getting stranger than I thought it ever could,
Ever since I found you, I wanna be around you, I wanna get down to the point that I need you

- Good Charlotte

Beth sat back on her heals, watching as Emma rubbed the small rabbit skin with a smelly mixture of brains and other entrails, combined with ashes from the fire they had cooked over the night before. Had she known that tanning hides was this nasty of a process, she probably would have turned Emma down when she offered to teach her. It was too late to back out now though, especially since she was currently elbow deep in the same repugnant mixture as her teacher. She sat back and listened for a moment while Emma further explained why it was so important to work the mixture into the hide. "If you don't get it in there deep enough your hide will end up being stiff, and unusable. It's easier when you remove the hair, because then you can work it into both sides. Hair on hides are the most difficult, but with rabbit it's the best way to go."

Beth just nodded and tried not to breathe through her nose. She had thought that there couldn't be anything that smelled worse than a walker, but this mix was very potent, and she wasn't so sure any more. She saw Emma look up at her, and noticed that the woman's face was torn between a smirk and a frown. "You better get back to it, or you'll lose that skin." Beth took a deep breath through her mouth – having learned almost immediately not to breathe through her nose – and started rubbing her own hide with slightly less vigor than she probably should have.

After another few minutes of the drudgery she broke the silence that had fallen over them. "I had no idea it would be so…." She searched for the right word, but was unable to find a descriptor that wouldn't make it seem like she was ungrateful for the lesson.

Emma smirked, "Disgusting, stinky, repulsive? Any of those words are apt descriptions. Why do you think I didn't mention that part, hmm? Because, nobody would ever want to learn if they knew the truth about it." She paused, and Beth watched as she swiftly wrapped the hide up, leaving the gloppy mess against the raw skin. "I promise you that you'll think it's worth it when you feel how soft that skin is when you're done, though."

Emma quickly scooted to her side and started helping her work her skin. Beth sighed and started to pull her hands back, finding it was really too many hands for such a small area. Emma's hand snapped out and caught her wrist though, "Oh no you don't." She smirked. "You're sticking with this 'til the bitter end.

All Beth could muster was a quiet "Okay." But she dug her hands right back in, and continued to work with more dedication. A few minutes later Emma deemed the skin satisfactory, and helped Beth wrap it up like her own.

Beth looked at the two small skins that up to that point had already taken an entire afternoon of their time, and shook her head slightly. "This is a lot more work than I expected. I remember Daddy sent the skin from one really pretty cow to a taxidermist, and he complained that they charged him too much. I don't remember how much it was, but whatever it was I don't think it was enough."

Beth was surprised to hear Emma laugh. She hadn't seen the woman smile more than a couple times, much less laugh, and they had been staying with her for over a week by that point. She was also rather surprised by the sound of her laugh. While Emma's voice was normally rather husky, and almost deep in tone, her laugh was melodic and slightly high in pitch. It was also amazingly contagious, and Beth found herself chuckling as well.

After their giggles subsided Emma spoke, "There are other ways to tan a hide, but most of them aren't possible now. They use chemicals, and I haven't seen any of that type in a while. This way will always work though. As my grandma used to say, God had the wisdom to give all animals just enough brains to save their hide. They're either smart enough to keep it on their body or there's enough to tan it."

Beth chuckled again, but then her thoughts went to a more morbid subject. "I guess that isn't true about the walkers though." After she said it she could see that Emma was seriously considering what she had said, and for some reason that made her uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and abruptly changed the subject. "Michonne said that she wants to go out tomorrow. Do you think that will be okay?"

Emma nodded slowly, "Yes. I think she'll do fine. She has been healing surprisingly well over the last few days, so I think it will be okay. I'll take her out myself just to be sure, though."

Beth would have liked to have talked more about the subject, maybe even volunteered to go with them, but right then she saw Daryl making his way across the small clearing towards them, and her mouth stopped functioning. Though nothing had really happened between them over the last week, she continued to think that it would. They had been spending a lot more time together than they had at the prison, and Daryl seemed more comfortable about touching her. However, there hadn't really been any moments that it seemed like he might kiss her like at the funeral home, and that was a disappointment.

She noticed Emma stiffen slightly, and shift as if she was getting up when Daryl stopped in front of them. There was a moment of awkward silence, then Beth found her tongue, "Hey Daryl, coming to enjoy the smell of decaying flesh?"

She saw Daryl's lips twitch slightly, but as usual, he didn't really smile. "Naw, I just ya guys finishin' up, and I thought I ought'ta tell Emma to get up ta the house before World War Three starts between Rick and Michonne."

Beth's eyes widened with concern, "What's happenin'?"

Daryl shrugged, and started chewing on his thumb again. Beth couldn't figure out how his fingers still had skin on them with all the chewing he had been doing on them lately. He dropped his hand back down, "Eh, Michonne wants to start searchin' with the rest of us, and Rick is tellin' 'er no. I 'magine it's gonna get pretty heated here in a minute."

Emma snorted slightly, and hopped to her feet in an incredibly graceful movement that left Beth feeling rather clumsy as she clambered to her feet, fighting the pins and needles that shot up her legs after sitting on them for so long. "Well I guess I'm about to get on Rick's bad side then. She's fine to go tomorrow, and I planned on taking her myself. I'll just go and put a stop to their little conflict." Emma's voice showed a great deal of annoyance as she spoke, and as she walked away Beth could see it in her stride as well.

Beth stooped down and retrieved the skins to place them in the cache that Emma had showed her when she got them out. "Well it sounds like dinner might be a little tense tonight, huh?" Beth asked Daryl over her shoulder as she made her way to the base of one of the trees that supported the house.

"Naw, if the 'good doctor' gives her okay, Rick 'ill let up. Ain't nothin' ta worry 'bout." Beth could hear how calm Daryl was, and it made her feel better too. She always felt a little nervous about anybody raising waves in their new home, because she wasn't sure how far might be too far with Emma. So far she had been incredibly welcoming and kind to them, but there was something about her that Beth couldn't figure out. She was a lot like Daryl had been when she first met him. Of course, Emma wasn't surly like he had been, but there was the same feeling. Almost like the feeling you get when you're around a feral animal that might try to bite you at any moment.

"Well I hope it goes well for them tomorrow… Do you think someone else should go with them in case something happens? Emma isn't exactly a large woman that could carry Michonne back if she got hurt again."

She heard Daryl snort behind her, and turned to see him looking at her with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "She's a hell of a lot stronger than she looks. She dragged my ass over a quarter mile and hauled me up into a tree by herself. I don't think she'd have any trouble with Michonne." He paused and looked up at the tree house, his face contemplative. "I don' think she'd let her go if that was a possibility anyway."

Beth just nodded, knowing she would have more luck telling her concerns to the tree. Daryl was convinced everything would be fine, and there wasn't any point in telling him that she was afraid it wouldn't be. She was also curious to learn more about what had happened to Daryl while they were separated, but she knew better than to bring that subject up. She had already asked three times, and every time he had completely shut her down. It was obvious that he didn't want her to know what had happened to him.

After a moment she decided to change the subject, "So who will you be going out with tomorrow?"

Daryl stared at her for a long moment, and she felt her stomach start twisting with butterflies. He hadn't looked at her like that since the funeral home, and she was more than excited to see that expression again. "I was thinkin' I'd go out with you tomorrow."

Daryl sat on one of the padded benches in the area he had come to call the library. He had spent a lot of time there the last few nights because it was where he always found Beth. Ever since they had gotten her back he had felt it was necessary to keep an eye on her. When he couldn't he always felt tense, and wondered what would happen to her. He didn't like the feelings that she put into him, at least not the ones that were full of anxiety. The other ones, well he wasn't too sure about those either.

He had spent the last week trying to work it all out in his mind, and he wasn't really getting anywhere. He knew he was attracted to her, and that she made him feel better about their chances in this damned world they were livin' in. He thought that was enough to make it worth finding out if she was interested as well, though he was pretty sure she was. She sure spent enough time trying to innocently touch him, and she always sat next to him at dinner. And then there was the way she reacted when he asked her to go out searching with him. If he'd had any doubts before then, they were taken care of now. He figured when they were out in the woods he'd make a move on her, and see what happened.

Of course there was the other hand of all that business, but he tried not to think about it too much. Unfortunately, trying often wasn't good enough, and that little naysayer in his head had a lot to say. It always seemed to point out the fact that she was 15 years younger than he was, and that she was way too good for him. When it was feeling particularly spiteful it would ask him how he thought Hershel would feel about him goin' after his daughter, and that would always make him feel like shit. He knew Hershel had thought he was a good man, and respected him – just like Beth did – but he knew the old man wouldn't be pleased by the match.

And if there wasn't enough going against him and his hopes for a relationship with Beth, that damn little naysayer would also point out the fact that he had been watching Squirrel like a mangy hound watches a 'coon. He was pretty sure that he was fallin' in love with Beth, but he couldn't lie to himself and say that the little brunette wasn't intoxicating. There was just somethin' about her that made his heart race and his mouth go dry when he was around her. It drove him nuts, and he tried to stay away from her whenever he politely could, just so it didn't happen. Of course, she also drove him absolutely insane, and made him get angry faster than anyone had since his brother got left on that rooftop.

He'd thought he'd gotten past having temper tantrums over a year ago, but she could push his buttons in a way that made him think she did it on purpose. Hell, damn near everything about her made him mad. He just didn't know why.

He was torn from his thoughts by Rick roughly slamming down onto the bench beside him. "Daryl, I think we need to think about going to that Terminus place to look for our people. I've asked Emma about it a couple times, and she always seems to find a way to change the subject without me realizing it until I walk away. I don't know why she won't talk about it, but I don't like it."

Daryl nodded slightly, trying to get his mind onto the topic of discussion instead of his mixed up thoughts of infatuation with someone he most certainly shouldn't be infatuated with. After a moment he decided that maybe he didn't need to do that after all, he could get info about her from Rick without even seeming off base by doing it. "You don't trust her?"

Rick shook his head, "I don't know, brother. She's been damn good to us, but I can tell she's hiding somethin' and it bothers me."

Daryl had noticed that too, though he had just figured that she was uncomfortable with them still. He figured that she would open up when she was ready. He knew he couldn't be judgmental about her with the way he acted around everybody. They actually probably knew more about her than they did about him, but they thought they shouldn't trust her. For some reason that made him feel defensive of her, and he spoke up, "She tell you that I met her before the… change?"

Rick's head snapped up, "What? No, she didn't tell me that. Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Daryl shrugged and stared out the large window they entered the house through. Now that the words were out, he wasn't sure that he should have spoken them. She might not want her past to be common knowledge. He had to explain it now though, so he pushed on. "I only met her once, but I guess it stuck with both of us. She was just a kid, and she had a real rough life. I imagine she has a hard time trusting people after that life." He didn't want to tell Rick the details of the night he met her – those that he could remember anyway – because he didn't figure she would appreciate it much.

Rick was silent for a long moment, then he sighed, "She grow up like you did?"

Daryl wasn't sure how to respond to that. He didn't really know how she had grown up, just how he had seen her that night, and the few words she had spoken to him as he shoved her out the window. The fact that her father had murdered her mother could only lead him to believe that her childhood had been even worse that his. Finally he nodded, "Yeah, I'd say she didn't have much of a happy childhood. I don't know what happened to her after that night, but it might not have helped her open up."

At that moment the reason he was sitting in that library walked down the stairs and sat down on the floor in front of one of the bookshelves. He platinum hair had changed to a darker shade, and was slowly dripping onto the floor. He could smell the clean scent of soap on her skin from where he sat eight feet away. The whole package suddenly made him almost crazy, and he had to glance away before Rick could see the look in his eyes.

Fortunately, Rick was completely oblivious to his feelings for Beth, and he just gave Daryl a small smile. "Thanks for telling me that Daryl. I'll keep it in mind now. I guess for the moment we'll just keep doing what we're doing."

Daryl nodded and hopped to his feet so that he could look at the titles on some books on the shelf beside the one Beth was sitting in front of. As he stared blindly at the books he could feel Beth's body heat against his leg and realized that she wasn't the only one looking for ways they could innocently touch.

Suddenly the problem was solved in his mind. He would kiss the girl the next day, and see what happened. Consequences be damned, he had to know.

Emma had been on her way down the stairs to make herself a cup of tea before bed when she heard Rick start talking about her with Daryl. The fact that he was beginning to question why she wouldn't talk about Terminus was a problem, but one she would address when he brought it up with her. It seemed like the discussion had come to an end, but then Daryl piped up about her past, and she was glued to her spot.

She was both infuriated that he would dare talk about her past without her permission, and touched that he was trying to defend her, as it was obvious that was what he was doing by bringing it up. She was still feeling torn about how she should handle it, and whether she should go into the room at all, when she heard footsteps behind her, and realized that Beth was on her way down from the shower. She knew it wouldn't look good if she was found standing at the base of the stairs listening to the girl's leader, so she turned around and headed back to her room.

When she met with Beth the girl smiled and continued on without saying anything. At that moment she realized that she should probably shower as well. She had washed up after they were done tanning for the day, but she could still feel little pieces of flesh sticking to her, so she grabbed a change of clothes from her room, and headed to the shower room.

When she got under the cool water she started thinking about what she had overheard. She had known the time would come when she couldn't keep dodging the subject of Terminus, but she had hoped that it wouldn't come for a long time. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and she assumed that if they didn't start finding their people soon, they would demand answers about Terminus. The answers would be hard enough to provide, but the solutions would be nearly impossible. She had spent hours trying to figure out how to get their people out of there, if that was where they in fact were, and she hadn't come up with much that was viable.

She didn't waste time in the shower because she knew water was finite, in spite of the fact that they had gotten rain three times in the last week, and it looked like they would get more that night as well. It was important to be sparing with it nonetheless, especially since there were already six of them, and there was the probability that there would be a lot more of them soon.

As soon as she got her hair washed and all the accumulated muck off her body she slipped out of the shower, and dried off quickly. She slipped on a pair of worn jeans that had been left behind when her group moved on, and a flannel shirt that was comforting for some reason. She didn't even remember where it had come from, but with the weather turning cold the plaid fabric felt like home. All of her homes.

Once she was done she tossed her dirty clothes into her room, and headed down the stairs once more to get the cup of tea that had been her prerogative earlier. Once she walked into the large room she discovered that everyone had congregated there, and it seemed she wasn't the only one that wanted a cup of tea before bed. Michonne was standing with her hip cocked against the counter, glaring at the kettle on the camp stove. Daryl and Beth were sitting next to each other on one of the benches, and Rick and Carl were inexpertly playing chess.

She glanced at Rick, who looked up at her as she walked through the room, and gave him a small smile, she then approached Michonne. "How are you doing?" she asked.

"Fine." Michonne snapped.

"Hmm…" Emma looked her over, and saw that the older woman looked tired and irritated. "Did you continue your argument with Rick after dinner?"

Michonne glared at her for a moment, "He is adamant that I should just wait a few more days. I'm fine." She said it with finality, and Emma commended her effort at recovery, and her insistence that she get to work. Over the last week she had come to respect the older woman, and knew that she was a valuable member of the group.

She smiled slightly, "Michonne, you are far from 'fine', but I know you're well enough to start helping with the search for your people. I wouldn't take you out if I didn't think that, so stop second guessing yourself, and get to bed."

Michonne huffed slightly, "I will as soon as this damn water boils, and I can have some of that tea you gave me for before bed. It really helps me sleep."

Emma nodded, it should help her sleep with the amount of tranquilizers she had put into it. She would have to take Michonne to her fields the following day so she could get more of her plants to dry so she didn't run too low. At that moment the kettle began to whistle, and she saw Michonne smirk slightly.

"About damn time." She reached out and grabbed the kettle, pouring the steaming water into the mug she used before turning to Emma again, "Should I make you some too? You look like you haven't slept in a month."

It was true that she didn't usually sleep well, and she had been having even more trouble than usual since the group had come into her life, but she wasn't about to drink something as potent as what she had given Michonne. "No thanks, just chamomile for me." She smiled softly, and walked to the other end of the counter to collect what she needed to make her tea.

When she got back to the kettle Michonne was already gone, and she saw her slipping silently down the hall toward her room. She had found that the dreadlocked woman liked to keep to herself a lot of the time, but when she did engage with the group she was open and comfortable with them. It was interesting to see how the group dynamic worked. They were all such different people, and she couldn't imagine any of them ever getting along before the world came to a crashing halt, and yet now they were a close knit family. In a way she wanted to be part of that family, but in other ways she needed to remain on the outside.

She poured the water over the chamomile, and decided to join the group for once. She had never sat with them in the evenings, preferring to stay in her room after dinner for the most part. However, for whatever reason she didn't want to listen to the laughter downstairs and wonder what it would be like to be a part of it.

She cautiously approached the four distracted people, and sat down on a pillow on the floor. She just watched them quietly, not wanting to interrupt anything, as she waited for her tea to steep. After a moment Beth looked up from the book she had been reading and smiled at her. "Nice to have you down here finally. I've been wanting to ask you something, but I always seem to forget when I'm around you during the day."

Emma raised an eyebrow in question, "Is that so? What is it that you want to know?" Emma was afraid it would be something she didn't want to talk about, but she was determined to seem trustworthy and answer the questions people had for her while she drank her tea. She didn't think it could get too crazy in the few minutes it would take for her to empty her cup.

Beth beamed at her, "Well, I just can't believe you have a shower in a treehouse. We used to have them at the prison, but we had to gather water for it at the little stream there. We haven't gathered any since we've been here."

Emma released the breath she had been holding while she waited to hear the question, and was thankful that it was such an innocent query. "Well, when we first found this place and decided to build our main camp here I was part of a big group. Gareth was an engineer of some kind and he came up with a plan for catching the water off the roof, and piping it back up to a tank on the roof so it would be pressure fed. I'm honestly not entirely sure how it all works, but it does." She chuckled softly, and took a small sip of her calming brew.

"There was a kid at the prison that would have been thrilled to figure out how it worked, Patrick. He was excited by all things mechanical. He actually helped a lot in getting our showers set up. He was a smart kid." Beth was smiling while she talked about the boy, but Emma could see the sadness behind her eyes, and noticed the fact that the boy was spoken about in the past tense. It was obvious that the Patrick was not someone they expected to see again, and it made her curious. However, she had the good sense not to press the subject. She didn't want to talk about her old group, so she wouldn't ask about theirs.

Instead she changed the subject to their continued search. "So I know that I'm taking Michonne out, and I was planning on taking her east toward the tracks since that is the easiest ground to cover." That was actually only half the reason for her choosing to go that direction, the other half was that she needed to check on her crops. She needed to be sure that no one was messing with them. She continued after a moment of thinking how she would explain her herbs to her companion when they got there. "So who else is going out and which way are they going?"

Rick promptly piped up at that point. "I was thinking that Carl and I would go to the river and check the snares, then head north for the day. Daryl could go south and Beth could hold down the fort."

Emma nodded, expecting there would be a similar plan in place, and she was about to agree with him, when Daryl interrupted her. "Beth an' me are goin' out to the north. We already looked at the map and made our plan."

Rick looked slightly shell-shocked by Daryl's remark, but he regained his composure quickly. "Well I guess if you guys already did all that, then Carl and I could just check the snares then head back and do stuff around here." He turned to Emma, "Surely there are some chores we could do around here. You haven't really let us do much to help."

She thought for a moment of all the things she did every day, and finally decided there were a few things they could do. "You could bring water up from the river and boil it for our drinking water. There's also some rope in the back storage room I showed you yesterday, and you could do some repairs on the ladder." She paused and tried to decide if that was enough for them to do, and decided that while it wasn't much, it was enough. "That would be a big help, and it should keep you busy for a while."

Rick smiled, and turned back to his game with Carl. "It's the least we can do."

Emma had finished her tea by that point and rose to her feet, her back popping loudly as she stretched it. She felt Daryl's eyes on her at that moment, and caught his gaze. She could see heat behind his stare, and she wasn't sure what to think of it. It was obvious to her that he and Beth had something going on, even if it wasn't something they understood yet. She had also seen the way he looked at her though, and it left her confused and angry. That anger seemed to be something they had in common, since they could hardly say more than ten words to each other without arguing. The first few days had been fine, but after that they had started fighting whenever they interacted, and after that she had actively avoided him. For everyone's sake.

She broke eye contact with a silent sigh when she noticed his gaze getting darker, and she turned to the kitchen. "Well goodnight everyone. Sleep well, we'll all need the energy tomorrow."

Her sentiments were echoed back to her, and once she got to bed she wished she could do as they wished and go to sleep.

Thanks for reading!