Chapter 10

Beth couldn't believe that the term was almost over. She had her final exam in an hour and she swore it had been the longest term of her medical school career so far or at least it seemed that way. She had a break over the next week before the following one started and all she wanted to do was sleep for a year. She wished there was some way she could get away for a few days. There was no way though. She had to get prepared for the next term and her apartment really needed cleaned and organized. She sighed. No vacation; if she buckled down hard maybe she could squeeze in a long weekend at the beach next summer.

Beth's phone rang and she reached over to her backpack and picked it up, grinning as she glanced at the display.

"Hey there sexy." She purred into the phone.

"Hey yourself." Daryl's deep voice came through the phone and Beth's senses were set on fire instantly. What that man does to her, she thought. "I'm on my way to your place. Just wanted to tell you good luck on your exam."

"Thanks!" She beamed, pleased that he had remembered and that he had made an effort to pick up the phone to call. She knew he was at work too. "I'm so tired." She breathed into the phone. "And my head is starting to hurt."

"Just go ace your test, like I know you'll do and I will make ya forget that headache when ya come home." Daryl's voice dropped a full octave at the end and Beth's heart skipped a beat even as she felt that familiar pulse of desire thrum through her veins at his words.

"Now that's an offer I can't refuse. See you in a while." She clicked to end the call and mentally prepared herself for the upcoming exam. She had prepared well but she still got nervous.

Daryl flipped through the channels a third time as he glanced at the clock on the DVR display. Yep, time was standing still alright. If she hadn't either called or walked through the door in the next fifteen minutes, he was going to go look for her himself. By his calculations she should have been home at least an hour ago.

Her key rattled in the door and he was off the sofa before she could even turn the knob. He was just about to launch into a lecture when he took in the look on her face. She had been crying. He held out his arms as she crumpled into them. He kicked the door closed with his foot as he led her to the sofa, Beth's sobbing form shaking in his arms. He eased her onto the cushion and held her against him, whispering to her. He wasn't sure of the words, he just strung together a cadence of "It's okay" even if he didn't know that it would be. He figured he had been telling her as much as she had been telling him for most of their lives.

He let her cry out the bulk of her tears, whispering assurances and caressing her back softly and slowly. Once she had spent herself on emotion, she pulled back to look at him and he had to smile at the picture she made. Her blonde hair had wisped itself right out of the confines of her hair tie, her nose was ruby red and her face was wet with a mixture of tears and snot, a mess quite frankly. A beautiful mess, he thought. He brought his hand up to her face and let his fingers come to rest against her cheek, rubbing the pad of his thumb along her jawline. "You're fuckin' beautiful, you know that?"

Beth snorted in a very unladylike manner. "You must need your eyes checked."

He looked at her pointedly. "Just had my work physical last week. Doc says my visions' perfect."

She mock glared at him and tried unsuccessfully to suppress a smile. "Thought I was your doctor."

Daryl chuckled lowly. "You are, don't worry." He assured her. "You okay?"

Beth looked at him, her eyes full of doubt and worry. "I think I just failed out of medical school." She admitted and the tears sprung forth again.

Beth reached up and furiously wiped at her eyes. Knowing the physicality of human emotion did nothing to help her understand why it always came about at inopportune times.

"You've said it before ya know." Daryl pointed out. "And ya haven't yet," he added.

Beth nodded, conceding that he had a point. "I know. But this time, I really think I did. I overthought the questions and even changed some of my answers at the last minute." She bit her lower lip. It was the one thing that was always her downfall, second guessing herself. She wrung her hands in her lap.

Daryl studied the way she was wringing her hands over and over. She needed to relax. "We need to take a vacation." He declared.

Beth looked at him in surprise and sniffed back her tears. "I was thinking the same thing, but I can't."

"Why can't you? I'm off the next four days. I bet I can get someone to cover a fifth. We could go to the beach." Daryl said, sitting up straighter, letting the idea take shape in his head. It was really something they both needed badly.

"But I have to get ready for the next term." Beth protested weakly.

Daryl shook his head. "Bullshit. You can do that when you get back."

"But we don't have reservations. People don't just pick up and go to the beach on a whim."

"Sure they do. What about your Dad's brother's place?" Daryl said.

Beth looked at Daryl for a long minute, suddenly all out of arguments. "You'd make a good attorney." She couldn't help the smile that crept up on her as she watched him watching her, his face full of concern and she flashed it at him as she sniffed back her tears for good this time. "I'll call my uncle."

Her uncle Marshall was her father's polar opposite. Where Hershel embraced the ways of the Bible after their father had beaten out every bit of self-esteem out of his sons, Marshall had embraced the ways of the world. He had gone into law and was currently a retired corporate attorney. He and his wife kept the beach house on Tybee Island mostly for reasons just like Beth and Daryl were using it this weekend, for family getaways. Marshall had told her that she was in luck, they had just left the cottage the week prior and it was completely ready for guests.

As Daryl turned into the drive leading up into the cottage, the sun shone brightly upon the sand and beyond that and the azure skies met with the indigo of the Atlantic. Whitecaps dotted the surface of the horizon in the distance and as Beth gazed out the window she could hardly wait to hit the beach. Daryl reached over and squeezed her knee as he pulled into the driveway at the prompting of the GPS. "Ready to get some R&R?"

Beth turned her head to look at him as he removed her hand from his knee to put his truck into park. They got out and stretched her legs and Beth took a look at the cottage. "This place brings back a lot of memories. I spent about half my childhood summers here." She mused as Daryl removed their bags from the back of the truck and carried them up the wide staircase leading to the covered porch that wrapped itself around the entirety of the two story cottage. It was similar to the others in the beachfront community where all the houses were painted a pastel hue that reminded Beth very much of sidewalk chalk on a clear summer day. This particular cottage was a sunny yellow with white storm shutters and something about the house just made her bubble up with happiness as they crossed the wide expansive porch to the main entrance.

"It'd be a great place to grow up." Daryl mused, dropping the bags inside the door. He liked the thought of her growing up in a place like this, little girl with blonde pigtails running through the sand during the day and playing with her dolls on the porch at night.

Beth was just about to walk away from him and he reached out and grabbed her hand, linking their fingers together and gave her hand a sharp tug, kicking the door shut with his foot in the process.

Beth squealed as Daryl captured her hand and pulled her quickly into his arms and immediately flush with his rock hard body. She turned up her face to his, feeling his breath warm on her face. She let her eyes flutter closed as his lips met hers. It was the softest hint of a kiss, achingly tender as Daryl let go of her hand and brought one hand up to the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair. The other hand came up to her hip and his fingers pressed in lightly in the curve where her shirt had ridden up, exposing a wide expanse of skin. As he deepened the kiss, his fingers dug in a little firmer at her hips as he stepped his feet forward a bit, her pelvis meeting his in delicious friction.

Beth's brought her hands up to his chest, her fingers gripping his shirt and pulling him even closer as his tongue delved into her mouth, licking, tasting, and sampling, stealing every bit of breath from her body as her blood pulsed with need. She panted heavily as his hands came all the way around her and his fingers splayed across her lower back, pressing her even more fully against him. Then all at once he pulled away, leaving her trembling with need.

"Best get changed Greene. Gotta go work on my tan." He smirked at her as he left her standing in the middle of the living room, watching as he picked up the bags again. He winked at her. "Get a move on. Day's a wastin'."

She gaped at him. "Are you kidding me? Tease." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and headed to the bedroom, grabbing her bag from him on the way.

Daryl watched the way she swished her hips down the hall and followed her, chuckling low. He was going to pay for that later he knew, but he wasn't worried. He was getting to know how to handle her pretty well. He quickly changed into his trunks while Beth did whatever it was girls did to get beach ready in the bathroom. He wandered over to the doorway to watch her and she was busy pulling her hair up into a ponytail, the long blonde tresses being unruly as usual. The look on her face was concentrated and her perfect bow-shaped mouth turned up in a smile as she glimpsed him watching her in the mirror. He took in her lithe form, all curves of creamy skin that begged to be explored and he wondered how he had missed this on a daily basis; how stunningly beautiful she was. He could easily see him and Beth years from now and something like this would still be special to him, something as simple as watching her get dressed.

Beth finally finished fixing her hair so it wouldn't fly about so much in the beach wind and turned to smooth her shorts down over her bikini bottoms. As if sensing that he had not moved from his spot, Beth's eyes came up to meet his where he stood watching her.

"What'cha thinking about?" Beth asked softly. She couldn't place the look in Daryl's eyes but it was almost unsettling the way he was intently looking at her with an almost aching tenderness.

Daryl shook his head slightly to shake his thoughts loose, all jumbled as they were thinking about Beth in the domesticated sense. "Just thinkin' how much I like lookin' at ya. You're fuckin' beautiful."

Beth smiled softly at him and walked the short distance to the doorway where he leaned against the frame, arms crossed over his chest. He didn't move a muscle as she came closer to him. "Well you're looking pretty sexy yourself." She teased as she skimmed her hands down over his stomach, fingers barely touching him under his t-shirt and then, while gazing in his lust-driven eyes, she palmed his crotch with her hand. "Very sexy." She whispered and then turned her body sideways and slipped past him, grabbing her beach bag.

"Come on Dixon, the day's a waitin'." She threw his words back at him as she looked over her shoulder, giggling at the image he created, reaching down to adjust the result of her teasing fingers.

"You're playin' with fire little girl." He growled as he grabbed a towel off the chair in the bedroom and headed after her out the door.

"I'm not scared." She taunted from ahead of him as they stepped onto the sand.

They walked the short distance to the beach and dropped their stuff on the sand. Daryl reached into her bag and spread out the beach blanket they had brought with them.

"Let's go check the water." Beth said as Daryl dusted the sand off his hands and grabbed her hand, threading their fingers together as they approached the water lapping at the shore.

Beth sighed as the cool water washed over her feet. "This was a great idea." She said turning towards him. She couldn't quite explain the urge she had to be near him constantly but it was like she couldn't stop touching him. She reached down and grabbed his other hand and looked up at him, the wind whipping through his hair. She couldn't see his eyes through his sunglasses but his expression mirrored her own. She dropped his hands and wound her arms up around his neck, turning her face towards his and sighing into his mouth as his lips met hers. It was the softest, merest hint of a kiss but it surged through Beth in a way that she couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Stick around Greene, I'm full of great ideas." He murmured against her lips. He marveled at how kissing her just made everything in the world seem far away. Standing out on the beach it was like they were the only two people in the world.

"I'm not going anywhere." Beth whispered softly against his lips. As she stood there, her toes curling into the sand as a wave of something that felt a lot like peace washed over her she realized that she had not been this content in a very long time. Somehow this man who had been a part of her life for as long as she could remember went from being her best friend to a lover and now her whole world was wrapped up in him. Something about that contentment cracked her heart wide open and with the crack came a flood of feelings pouring out of her, like a dam burst somewhere. She looked up at him, speechless suddenly and not a little afraid of the sudden onslaught of emotions flooding her senses.

Daryl saw the look pass across her features, his scared little doe, blue eyes gone wide. He put his finger over her lips, sensing that she was about to open her beautiful mouth and whatever she might say could ruin this tenable thread that they were balancing on. "Don't say anythin'. Just feel." He whispered as he brought his lips to hers again and kissed her like he meant it. Kissed her like he never had before. Kissed her with the full love in his heart. She relaxed against him and he pulled back to look at her. She nodded at him.

"Give us a chance, Beth. A real chance." He whispered.

She nodded again and smiled up at him softly. She didn't know what had just happened but something in the air shifted and something inside her heart shifted too. The world was off its axis and she was dizzy and giddy and she just didn't quite know what to do with all of it. She closed her eyes and gave herself over to it, letting her lips find his, the salt of the air mixing on their lips. As she kissed Daryl out on that beach, she knew that something had changed. She didn't know what. But she liked it. A lot.

Well this was like pulling teeth and I am still not quite happy with it but I suspect I could rewrite it 50 times and it still wouldn't meet my satisfaction. Muses right?! Well be sure and let me know what you think. Obviously getting them away from everything is going to intensify things. No worries, a little angst but I think you will like where I have this headed. And you'll understand too why this Beth is so hesitant for a relationship. So hang on guys, it's gonna be a fun ride! Until next time my lovelies! Xoxoxoxoxo

PS – only a few more hours until we get to see Daryl in Beth mode, looking to get his girl back!