AN: Thank you guys for hanging in there and refraining from throwing stuff at me last update. Always much appreciated. As well, thank you for your lovely reviews. i love each and every one of them!

Weeks passed. Slow, unbearable weeks. Daryl had taken to sleeping in the hallway, unwilling to disrupt Glenn and Maggie's arrangement. Beth had tried to talk him out of it, but couldn't blame him for not wanting to sleep next to her anymore. In his absence, her nightmares had returned, and she slept fitfully with the journal he had found to her tucked against her chest like a stuffed animal.

Daryl barely spoke to her. If she had thought he was quiet before they got to know one another, it was nothing compared to now. She was lucky to get a yes or no out of him. Mostly he just grunted or shrugged; that is, when he was even around for Beth to try to talk to. He had taken to spending more time hunting - sometimes a night or two on his own, which she hated, but what could she do?

Tonight he was sitting across from her at the fire. Glenn and Maggie had just turned in. Beth was finished eating - so was Daryl - but she didn't feel like going in just yet. The stars were flickering clear and bright in the sky, and she knew as soon as she went in that house, up those stairs, her chest would tighten with anxiety. Beth hated sleeping alone. No. She hated sleeping without Daryl. She looked at him. He was digging a hole in the ground with a stick.

"You can go inside if you want to," she offered. "I can put it out."

Daryl shrugged a shoulder but didn't respond. She pulled her sweater tighter around herself. The cold was starting to seep into Beth's bones, even with the fire. An ember popped loudly between the pair, signifying just how quiet it was between them. How tense.

Beth shifted uncomfortably on the rickety lawn chair. She tried to ignore the man sitting across from her but she found it impossible. Her eyes were drawn to him. Beth flicked her gaze to him once, the twice, watching him bite at the outside of his thumb, worrying the flesh there with his teeth. Daryl looked miserable being near her.

"You don't gotta stay out here," Beth assured him. "I mean it. I'm perfectly capable of putting out a fire. Camping basics."

"Ain't the fire I'm worried 'bout," Daryl said. "Damn apocalypse, and y'want me to just leave ya out here on your own."

"Well it isn't nearly as enjoyable sitting out here with you glaring a hole in my head."

"Wasn't even lookin' at ya, girl," Daryl said.

"That ain't much better," she said quietly.

The silence settled around them uncomfortably. Beth wanted to say more, but wasn't sure what, so she chewed the inside of her cheek. Daryl tossed another log on the flames; his movements were jagged and sharp, like broken glass. She could feel his anger at her, just barely restrained, underneath the surface.

"Might feel better if ya just had a good yell at me," Beth said, looking up at him. "I can tell you want to."

"Ain't nothin' to yell about," Daryl said in a tight voice. "Y'wanted out. You're out. Y'ain't gotta keep picking that scab, Beth."

"It wasn't like that, Daryl," Beth said with a sigh. "You know I was only trying to do what was best for you... for us..."

"Would y'cut the shit?" he shot at her. "I don't need ya makin' my decisions for me. I don't need ya actin' like you know better than me - you don't! And I sure as hell don't need ya actin' like after everything you really expect me to believe y'just wanna be friends."

"Daryl -"

"Y'wanna have this out? Fine!" Daryl shouted. "But y'don't get to stop just cause I'm the only one makin' a damn lick of sense, girl!"

"You'll see it one day," Beth said.

"See what?"

"That you're better off," she replied easily. Before he could open his mouth to protest, she started speaking again. "I asked Maggie a few days ago if she and Glenn would go check out the lead on Rick. Just a little before the baby. If it is him... then we're gonna go back."

"But -"

"They're your people, Daryl," Beth said, standing up, "not me. I was never anybody's people, 'cept for Daddy and Maggie."

"That ain't true!" he exclaimed. "You're talkin' crazy. Everyone there cared for ya like their own, Beth."

"I never said they didn't, but at the end of the day, you guys were fighters, and I was a babysitter. I don't know what the hell I am now, but it's still not the same. I wish it was. But it ain't. And it won't ever be."

Daryl strode up to her angry. If Beth didn't trust him with every bit of her being, she would've flinched. There was fire in his eyes; his jaw was clenching and unclenching, an angry tick; his hands were fisted so hard the knuckles went white, and then just as suddenly he let them go. He brought one of her hands up to his chest, just over his heart, and she let him.

"Y'wanna say y'ain't my people, I can't stop ya, Beth," he said gruffly, "but ya can't stop me from bein' yours."

Beth's fingers curled slightly around his muscled chest. Her fingernails poked at the fabric of his vest, pulling it closer - pulling him closer - she always wanted him closer. She looked up into his blue eyes, seeing all the hurt she had put there and all the love Daryl still had for her that was bruisin' up his insides, and she wanted to kiss him. She wanted to kiss him so bad. But somehow, she let go and she walked away. Beth couldn't say goodbye to him twice. She didn't know if she could survive it. And Daryl looked like he was barely holding on.