Chapter 10: The Long Way Down

"What is that around your neck?" Beth giggled. She was curled up under the covers of the bed, short hair mussed up after a long night's sleep. Her laughter tinkled like wind chimes and lifted Daryl's spirits a bit. He clasped his new pendant protectively and frowned at her as he got into bed.

"What is it?" she insisted.

He let go of the pendant and let her hold it in her fingers. She studied it a moment- a small blond curl tied up with thread and hung from a shoelace- then let it fall. "Is that my hair?"

Daryl looked down at the necklace as though it would answer for him, then shrugged sheepishly.

Beth grinned at him. "You are so weird!"

Embarrassed, he leaned over and kissed her just to change the subject. She ran her fingers through his hair and enjoyed the prickling sensation of his lips on hers. He smelled different, freshly washed with soap the night before. The memory of their evening in the bathroom made her blush.

Before his haircut, she had stripped him slowly and knelt before him, wet rag and soap in hand. With water from the sink, she washed his body, admiring his muscles as she passed the rag over them. She could tell that he was uncomfortable but he stood still, looking down at her with his deep blue eyes unreadable. When she got to his thighs, he started to twitch and reached for her, trying to pull her up to standing. He was very clearly getting aroused, which was fascinating to watch. She gently removed his hand from her arm and began to wash that area, ignoring his protest. Soon he was moaning with the movements of her mouth and before long, he'd squirmed away from her and was bashfully covering a messy orgasm. She'd laughed at him and continued washing.

It took a few changes of water from the tub to the sink before Daryl was fully clean. Beth stood behind him and snipped at his hair here and there, then trimmed his beard. She asked him to wash her hair, which he did very gently. He was quiet and reserved when he washed her body, his eyes looking inward the way they did when he was mulling something over. When she was clean, he came back to her, making eye contact with a piercing gaze.

To her surprise, Daryl scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. She barely had time to put her arms around him before he had laid her down gently and knelt next to her. His rough fingers slid up her legs, bending them at the knees and pushing them slightly apart. Her stomach lurched a bit, feeling so exposed, but some of the butterflies were excitement.

His lips felt like sandpaper on her delicate skin, which made her gasp. He kissed the inside of her thighs, the hair between her legs, and got as far as licking at her most sensitive spot before she wriggled away.

"Hurts," she murmured.

Daryl went back to kissing her body, his hands caressing her breasts. He kissed at her nipples and slid a hand down to massage between her legs. When she'd been moaning long enough, he tried again; kissing just above her clitoris and flicking his tongue down every so often. He matched his tongue movements to her breathing, faster and faster, until her breath caught and she shook with waves of sharp pleasure. She pushed her body away from his face and reached for him, urging him to crawl on top of her, grabbing at him. He thrust himself into her with a blissful sigh and let his body take over lustfully.

Afterwards, with his face nestled into her neck, he sighed again. "Damn."

She'd giggled. "Yeah."

This morning, Daryl gave her a last lingering kiss and pulled his face away from hers, looking at her intently. She met his eyes- their private signal that she was ready to listen to what he had to say.

"We have to go," he said simply.

"I know," she agreed, sitting up in bed and wrapping her arms around her knees. "I know. It's just… hard. Part of me just wants to stay here until…"

Daryl interrupted, adamant. "We ain't dying here."

Beth frowned. "I wasn't gonna say that," she insisted. "I wasn't. I… I guess I always believed that we'd find the others… some of them at least…" Tears welled up in her eyes and she trailed off, battling with the weight of enormous loss.

Daryl sat up with her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "I miss them, too. Every day." His voice was soft and sad, but resigned to the fact that their friends were gone. She wasn't quite there yet, no matter how hard she tried.

"If we leave, we're really never going to see them again," she said mournfully. "It scares me."

"They might be out there. We don't know. Maybe we'll find them on our way, maybe we won't. What we do know is that we're still here." He paused and took a breath, then continued. "Even if we get split up, Beth, we're still here. We can still survive. That's something."

Her fear and sadness were too big- they choked the words in her throat with a sob. Beth buried her head in her knees and wailed until she was gasping for breath. Daryl brought her a rag and a bottle of water, offering each in turn. He sat quietly until she could look at him again.

"Feel better?" he asked. It was an honest question. She nodded, still sniffling. It was time to move on; to find food and fight walkers and face the world again.

All at once, her resolve returned to her and she sat up straight. "So what's the plan? Where are we going?"

"South," he answered. "We gotta head south."