Okay as promised, here it is. And thank you, thank you, thank you for all the new follows and favorites and I think I am overall pleased with this chapter.
There hadn't been shade in the last hour, of that Beth was certain. She had long since given up on modesty and shucked her shirt and stuffed it in her pack along with her jacket. It was nearly full to bursting at this point and she was strongly considering cutting her jeans off at mid thigh and hope for new pants later.
The gurgled growl of a walker behind her and to her left had her spinning and acting purely on instinct and plunging the knife into the eye of the thing that used to be a woman just like her, except the blonde hair was matted with blood, looked like a botched suicide half the right side of her skull blown off. Her knife got stuck on the brow bone and she kicked her leg forward to brace her foot against the walker's chest and with the right amount of pressure, the knife popped free with a squelch and a gush of oozing black fluid. Grimacing, she spun around to catch the next threat and came face to face with Daryl, huffing and puffing his eyes full of concern.
"You okay?" He looked over her shoulder at the felled walker and she swore a shudder went through him. She knew what he saw. Another dead girl.
I know you look at me and see another dead girl.
And that was the worst of it, the past seemed to come back and slap them right in the face with the evidence that the worst could really happen. It could and it did. She almost was a dead girl. To Daryl for a really long time, she was a dead girl and the truth was, she wasn't sure she was fully revived yet.
She took a deep breath as they cleared the forest they had been traipsing through the last hour and a half as it branched out into the outskirts of a small town.
"Seems deserted enough." Daryl remarked, stopping right at the treeline as they perused the landscape below them, broken down cars littered the area, dead bodies strewn about, and a small shopping center with three, maybe four stores. Just your typical apocalyptic snapshot.
Beth nodded. He was right. The town that lay in the valley below them looked like it had seen better days even before the world had gone to shit. They picked their way carefully down the embankment that then spilled out onto the pavement of the road that would lead them to the town. "Maybe it'll still have the stuff we need." His eyes met hers and she smiled softly.
"Mmmhmm. So if you were going this alone, how would you approach it?" He nodded towards the town and she got what he meant. He wanted to know how she would scavenge if she was alone. There had been one time before when she'd had to go scouting for supplies by herself. The car had broken down and Doc Edwards had gotten a nasty cut on his arm. They'd been afraid it would get infected or worse, get walker blood in it. Though Beth was immune, they could not assume Edwards would be or Morgan, for that matter. So Beth had gone in search of supplies, gauze, peroxide, and with extra luck some antibiotics. As it turned out, they'd hit the jackpot and she'd been able to find a farm with veterinary supplies tucked away in the back corner of a barn. She had been proud of the way she hadn't teared up though the place reminded her so much of home it made her physically ill and she thought maybe she finally got the meaning of the word homesick.
"I'd hang back and observe for a bit, make sure it wasn't too overrun and if there was any sign of people, I'd probably skip it altogether." She relayed the story of the farm then. How it had been a minimal risk situation and the only thing she had to lose was time but when weighed with risking one's life as the alternative, it had been worth the time she'd spent and then some. Those supplies had seen them through all the way to Alexandria.
Daryl nodded and made an approving noise in the back of his throat. "Well let's go then smarty pants."
"Did I get it right?" Beth couldn't keep the eagerness out of her voice and she swore she saw a ghost of a smile creep up on his lips.
Daryl just looked at her and smirked and she saw the way his eyes slid to her lips. She was getting so she knew all his tells and that meant he wanted to kiss her. Again. But just then, a flash of red above her caught her attention. There above them on the road sign into town was a collage of messages sent to family members, friends, loved ones that they'd lost, like a lost and found board. Pieces of cardboard, paper, t-shirts even; pinned up all over the sign of the town Green Hill, Virginia, Population 10,295.
Messages of the living to those they'd left behind. Maybe they were still alive. Maybe they weren't, but these were people looking for their family members, friends, loved ones, anyone they had known from their past life. Just one giant lost and found and it made her sad to know that some people on that board would never find their loved ones.
One in particular caught her attention. "Lexi, go to Uncle Terry's. Love, April." She had no way of knowing it was true but something about it seemed like maybe the two girls were sisters. April had left a note for her lost sister. Maybe their uncle's house was a gathering place, an exodus for the rest of the family. But the point was that April had cared enough to leave a note for her sister.
The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. She didn't know if she was ready to talk about this. "I saw the sign. After we left the hospital, I saw the sign Maggie left for Glenn. It's one of the places I went trying to find all of you." Beth looked at him sideways and his jaw was twitching again and he'd pulled in his bottom lip, biting it thoughtfully, turning to look at her.
"Wondered if you might have." His response was noncommittal and something about it irked her.
"Tell me. Did she even try to find me?" She closed her eyes, willing his response to be anything but what she knew to be true. That Maggie had left the prison that day, had left her flesh and blood and hadn't looked back a moment since.
"No." One word, so simple and for once Daryl was glad he was a man of few words because that one word was enough. He wouldn't give her platitudes. He thought more of her than that and she'd never believe them anyway. He knew Maggie had her reasons for not trying to find Beth, but that's all they were to him, and likely to Beth too. Reasons. Excuses.
Beth nodded a couple of times and turned on her heel and stalked on ahead into the town. One thing about Greenes he'd already figured out a long time ago was they had tempers that ran hot, which really when he thought about it wasn't all that different than him. She was gonna blow, it was just a matter of when. So he let her stalk on ahead. He did get alarmed however and walked a bit faster as she unsheathed her knife. He scanned the area around them on the two lane road leading to the shopping center and he didn't see any overt threats. She leaned over with her knife and pulled her pants leg taut away from her leg and with one swift rip, she cut the whole leg of her pants from her body from mid thigh down. His steps slowed as he got closer to her and watched as she repeated the same procedure to the other one. One slice down the middle of each denim-clad leg and she pulled them away from her and folded them neatly, sheathed her knife and turned to him with tears bright in her eyes and shaking hands.
"We might be able to use them for bandages later." Her voice was shaky and he ached to make her stop hurting. Just pull her into his arms and soothe the shake from her limbs and the sadness from her eyes and the tremble of her lower lip? Well, he thought he could take care of that too.
Instead he reached out and took them from her, his fingers sliding against hers as he took them. He slipped the strap of the backpack from his shoulders and quickly stuffed the remnants of her pants inside.
"She found Glenn. And they're going to have a baby. A baby!" Her voice crept up a notch and he ached for the girl who had done nothing after they left the prison except try to find her sister. Try to find all of them, when all the while he had told her they were dead. All of them dead. And he'd been so wrong. She'd been right about all of it. He figured she was right about most things. Because she was smart. She always had been and her time away from all of them had only made her more intelligent and fierce. God, she was fierce and he loved that about her.
"She didn't think I'd make it. That's why she didn't look for me. She looked for him because she knew he'd make it. I was wrong Daryl." She looked up at him suddenly, the tears now falling from her eyes slowly and it broke his heart. That Maggie had hurt her this way.
"You weren't. You weren't wrong about nothin' Beth." He let his pack fall to the ground, letting the crossbow follow. He didn't know what the hell he was doing but he knew if the situation was reversed she'd find a way to comfort him. With her, it meant hugging him from behind, holding his hand, something to let him know that she was here. With him.
He reached out and slid her pack off one shoulder and then the other, while she watched him. Just watched him as he pulled her into his arms.
"You were the only one who never saw me as a dead girl, Daryl Dixon. Even my own sister counted me as dead." Beth whispered as she tucked herself into him, letting her head read on his chest, his hand coming up to cup her elbow on one side and the back of her head with the other. She pulled back to look at him.
"Thanks for not counting me out." He was looking down at her, much the same way he had in her prison cell so long ago, but there were subtle differences, his hands were surer, his grip firmer.
"Never. I never stopped looking for you. Never stopped searchin'. Even after I knew you were gone and couldn't find you, I still looked." He had seen her in every dead body, every walker he'd stumbled across. Every face of the dead had held some semblance of her, whether it was the dulled shade of blonde on a walker's head, or the sightless blue eyes that stared back at him, he'd seen her time and time again.
He looked into her eyes and saw all the life in there. All the life behind her and the life ahead of her and though he wanted to, he didn't kiss her. Not this time. It just didn't seem the right moment even if he didn't want it more than anything. She finally dried her eyes and stepped away from him and picked up her pack.
"You ready?" Her face lit up in a Beth Greene signature smile as she headed to the shopping center. That was his girl. Just carrying on like nothing ever happened.
"Just waitin' on you slow poke." He smirked and slipped past her and she stuck out her tongue. Just back to business as usual.
In the end, the town held little that they could really use. They'd found some canned goods, a couple of hunting knives, some random toiletries, and various other items. Beth switched some stuff around and got rid of some things she didn't think they'd really need. Fortunately she was able to find another pair of pants, a pair of camo cargo pants that had seen better days but they looked like they'd fit at least. Though she was much cooler, she was already regretting cutting up her jeans.
"I think there's another town about 30 miles up the road. Wanna make camp here and set out for it in the morning or see how far we get tonight?" Daryl asked as they came back out of the final building, having scavenged the contents and coming up nearly empty.
"Let's see how far we get. It's still another forty five minutes to dark. Maybe we'll find somethin'." Beth didn't want to spend another minute in Green Hill, Virginia where she had to wonder if two strangers had found one another. The only person she was glad she found at the moment was right next to her and that's all that mattered.
His blue eyes were focused in on her and her gaze was unwavering. He knew why she needed to get some distance between them and where they stood, even if he didn't voice it aloud. Beth loved that despite the time they'd spent apart, they hadn't lost their ability to communicate without words. Something about that just felt right. He nodded and they set off in the direction of the next town up, this one hopefully holding more than the last.
They finally came to stop, both of them near exhaustion. The sun had finally set and the temperate had cooled down some but the heat of the day had leeched what little bit of energy they had. It was almost full on dark by then and finally Daryl spotted a flash of blue through the tree line of the woods that the road cut straight through.
He nodded his head at it. "Found our camp for the night."
They'd done it many times, camping out on the inside of a car, van, truck, anything they could turn into shelter for the night. Turned out the flash of blue was an SUV. Nice one with a sunroof. It was obvious on getting into it that whoever left it hadn't planned on being gone long. It was parked under an outcropping of trees and bushes and they barely had enough room to get the door open to squeeze themselves inside. There was a full sack of boxes of food and two bottles of wine sitting in the front seat. The back windows were heavily tinted and Daryl wondered vaguely if it had even been legal. Daryl grunted as he crawled into the back and opened a can of pears they'd scavenged from one of the stores handing to Beth. She had fished out a plastic fork and dangled it between her fingers.
"Your fork, Mr. Dixon." She looked at him shyly as he gingerly plucked the fork from her fingers, knowing he would get her reference. And that damn Mr. again. He wondered if she knew what it did to him, just the way her eyes slightly downcast holding a bit of innocence that begged to be shed. He decided when she grinned at him as he took a deep breath that she knew alright. She knew.
By the time it was over, they shared a can of beans, the pears and then Beth dug out one of the bottles of wine. She held it up to the waning light outside the SUV where they were sitting cross legged in the back. He had to duck a bit to fit but it would do for the night. Long as a herd didn't come, they had a pretty good chance at getting some actual sleep on alternating shifts.
"Ouch." He looked up from his last bite of pears to see her face screwed up in pain.
"What is it? Are you scratched? Let me see." His voice was urgent, insistent as he grabbed her arm.
"Ouch. No Daryl. Just-" He had pulled her arm into his lap where he was turning it this way and that while she let him figure it out on his own. And then he realized his mistake and breathed a sigh of relief. It was like the biggest weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he figured out in that moment that since she was immune, he didn't have to worry about her getting scratched or bit. Girl had defied a bullet and defied the odds of making it out there with all the monsters that wanted to eat them too. She was fucking invincible.
"Sorry." He wanted to let go of her arm, he wanted to. But he didn't and her eyes met his. He stroked the pad of his thumb over the scar, feeling the gnarled flesh so like the own that covered his back. And she let him.
Her voice pulled him from his thoughts. "I think I'm sunburned." She gestured to the back of her neck and he motioned for her to turn around as he let go of her. "Guess I don't gotta worry about you gettin' bit no more. If there's a bright side to look on, I guess that's it." She laughed and as she turned her back to him, he saw the problem area. The back of her neck and all down her back was bright red from weathering the sun all day. Her arms were beet red too and her legs looked pretty pink as well. "Yep, you're burnt all right." He ghosted his fingertips across the skin of her neck. "Hot too."
She turned her head to look at him in that moment and it was like all his air had cut off. The burn of her skin, the implication of his words and the smoky look in her eyes was a pull neither of them could resist and she turned ever so slightly, into his arms, her lips just inches from his and he looked at her, all sun-kissed and he felt like he was the one who was sunburned. He was scorched by the heat in her gaze as he brought his lips to hers, just a soft ghost of a kiss and she tasted like the gritty sugary taste of the pears that they'd just eaten, her lips just barely moving against his and it was, well, nice. There could be worse things than kissing Beth Greene at the end of the world.
When he finally broke the kiss, there was a palpable weight in the air between them. "I think I saw some lotion in the glove box. Maybe it's got some aloe in it."
Beth only nodded and before he ducked into the front seat he saw the hint of a smile cross her lips as she pressed her fingers to them. There really weren't words for how it felt knowing he had put that smile there. That his kiss had put it there made him feel lighter than he had in forever.
"Found it." He held it up between two fingers and she plucked it from him so he could climb back into the back with her. He tried not to think about everything he'd ever heard about backseats of cars and girls.
Beth squeezed some of the lotion in the palm of her hand and began gingerly applying it to her arms and then moved to the back of her neck. She winced as her fingers came in contact with the sensitive flesh. Furthermore she was having a heck of a time reaching her back and that was the place that it seemed to burn the absolute most.
"Here, let me." Beth wordlessly turned around, her back facing him and she heard him open the lotion and heard the squelch of it as he squeezed some from the tube into his hand and heard the distinct sound of him rubbing his hands together, warming the lotion. The gesture struck her as thoughtful and tender, just like he always was with her.
She'd think back on the moment later and realize that it wasn't until he placed his palms on her back how very intimate the situation was. Enclosed in the back of a vehicle, half of her back bared to him while he smoothed lotion over her sun-parched skin. She couldn't help the shiver that traveled up her spine as he slid his callused hands over her back and up to her neck.
He removed his hands for a moment and released a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding while he got another generous dollop spread over his hands and she didn't mean for it to, but a moan slipped past her lips as he worked the lotion into her shoulders as well. His fingers stuttered for a moment.
"Did I hurt you?" His voice was closer than she thought it was and she was forced to take a deep breath and her head tilted involuntarily towards the sound of his voice, the deep timbre seeming to travel all the way through her and his breath warm on her neck.
She could only shake her head no and then his hands started moving against her skin again. Holy hell, the aloe was supposed to cool her skin but his hands were just making her hotter!
She needed a distraction before she turned around and launched herself into his arms and they did something that she didn't think either of them were ready for.
"Viniq?" She sounded out the label on the amethyst colored bottle she was holding up. To him it sounded like unique with a v but he'd not gone past ninth grade in school so what did he know.
"Hey Daryl, wanna play a game?"
His eyes flew to hers and once he saw that mischievous gleam in her eyes, he knew she was teasing a low chuckle rumbled up out of him.
"That was the worst idea you ever had girl. No offense."
She laughed as she unscrewed the lid. "It really was. I said all the wrong things. Lord, you were mad."
They both started laughing then recalling and then the clarity of the situation hit them both at the same time it seemed. "It was still a good night. Talkin', bout the past, bout the future."
"It was." Daryl called back the memory of sitting on that porch with her, carving his knife into the wood and they told each other some of their deepest secrets. She was the first person he'd ever really opened up about his past to. She was the first person he'd ever cried in front of. Not just the kind where you tear up. Outside that cabin, he'd shed more tears than he had in his whole life and he'd laid his heart open that day. Open for her to peer inside and that was what surprised him the most. That she had seen. She had seen all of him and she still wanted to be around him. Sought him out even and now here they were.
"Beth's voice held a tinge of wistfulness as she took a deep swallow of the liquid. "Mmm." Some of the liquor dribbled out over her chin and she giggled, catching some of it on her finger and wiped it on what was left of her jeans. "It's good." She passed him the bottle and he wondered what it would taste like coming straight off of her lips. His heart sped up at the thought as he took it from her absently.
Jesus H., he needed to stop this right now. This was dangerous territory when they hadn't even really gotten past their first kiss yet. Still it was a heady thought. He pushed it below the surface, hoping to squelch this burning need to had to pull her into his arms and drink the wine straight from her lips because he knew it just wouldn't taste as good any other way.
He took the bottle from her and took a generous swig of his own. He brought the bottle down from his lips and saw that she was watching him with his cheeks all puffed out with liquid and he had a sudden memory of one his first nights in the safe zone when Aaron had invited him to supper with him and Eric. He resisted the urge to swish the liquor around in his mouth and just swallowed it instead.
They sat there a good while, talking about things. She told him about some things that happened while she was at the hospital. Some of the people that came in, people that died. He told her about Terminus and what had happened there. Before he knew it, they'd opened the second bottle and her hand was enclosed in his own and his thumb was tracing slow circles over the back of her hand. She took another swig of the liquid. She was a little tipsy and maybe he felt buzzed too, but it was the good kind of buzz, just that warm feeling that floated over the top of your skin and your mind expanded to all sorts of things and everything felt just a little bit lighter.
Miraculously there had been only one or two walkers since they'd climbed in the vehicle, both having gotten entangled in the thorny bushes surrounding the SUV. Daryl had carefully opened the door each time and put them down. They'd left them out there as camouflage from other dead ones that might wander past.
She giggled as she pulled her lips off the bottle and a little spilled again, dribbling down her chin. She wasn't quick enough this time and he reached up with his free hand, swiping his index finger over where the droplets had come to rest and pulled his finger into his mouth, licking the liquid from it.
When he looked back up, her eyes were on his and her lips were slightly parted and this time, it was like she fucking knew his thoughts. She took another sip of the wine and let a little of it dribble over her lip and even though his heart threatened to launch itself from his chest, even though his breathing seemed to stop, he leaned forward and let his lips do what his finger had done moments ago and he dropped her hand as soon as his lips were on hers, his fingers coming up to cup her face on either side, and he wasn't sure which need was greater, his hunger or his thirst because God, she tasted good and he was right. So fucking right. The liquid turned to velvet on her lips and it tasted simply delicious coming off of her and he was certain he'd never want to drink it any other way now.
Her lips parted and he took that as an invitation. And it was. She sighed into his mouth as his tongue entered hers and he sealed their lips together, exploring, tasting, licking inside her mouth as her tongue moved against his. He couldn't imagine being anywhere but this moment as she kissed him back, all velvety smoothness, deeply, thoroughly and he was pulled under. Just lost and he didn't fucking care.
It might have been minutes or it might have been hours when he finally pulled away from her and her fingers were gripping into his shirt so tightly and she finally released him and just sort of sat back and gave him a lazy, slightly tipsy smile.
"You're a really good kisser." She giggled then and she was so damn pretty in that moment he knew it was too late for anything but giving himself over to this whole thing. He loved her. God he fucking loved her.
"Ain't so bad yourself Greene." She smiled at him and he smiled right back because that's what you did when Beth Greene lit up the whole night sky with one of her smiles. And even just saying she smiled wasn't even. Describing anything at all about her wasn't some cookie cutter diorama. She was as unique and special as she was soft and sweet and he was completely and utterly enchanted.
She held up the bottle in her free hand to the window where just a little light filtered in, swirling around the remaining liquid. "It looks like a galaxy." She said, her voice taking on that wistful, whispering quality again.
He chuckled. "Maybe it's time to cut you off." But he wasn't even sure of what he was saying. Because the pull of her was so strong he couldn't keep his eyes off her as she put the bottle back down and his hands went right back to the sides of her head this time threaded his fingers through her hair, palms against the sides of her head, just peering into the wide expanse of her big blue doe eyes.
"No seriously, Daryl, look. It's like we're drinking the stars." She giggled again and smiled at him, eyes shiny with the haze of the liquor and something else reflected back in them. He recognized it as being the same thing he felt. Just sort of caught up in all this with the two of them. And it was good.
"Drinkin' the stars huh. Yeah, you're definitely cut off. Next thing you know you'll have me convinced we should burn this truck to the ground." He smirked at her.
She laughed. "See, it was a fun night. How many people can say they burnt down a house together?"
None. He knew it and she knew it and they shared something special that night. Something that sparked this night here. Full of starry night promises and reminiscent clips of their past that seemed to forge together with their future.
As he brought his lips to hers again, she accepted his tongue readily and he kissed her thoroughly, softly, slowly until finally he pulled his lips from hers. "Lay down and get some sleep Greene." He stared are her a long minute as she seemed to consider what he was saying. As well as what he wasn't saying and that was that this wasn't going any further. Not tonight anyway.
Beth nodded and pressed her lips to his one last time, feeling that butterfly about to beat the dickens out of its wings against her rib cage and she knew it would be okay. Love was a beautiful and wonderful thing and if it was the liquor talking maybe just a little, she didn't care. She this this was real. Even if it was maybe enhanced a little by the liquor, she knew it was all firmly based in reality, in what she felt for him and what he felt for her. She was confident in that as she tucked herself in beside him.
A little while later, the only sound was their steady breathing and the crickets outside. She felt safe. Right.
"I love you, Daryl Dixon." She was sloppy drunk now but she knew he got it. And it was the thing that lulled her to sleep and she knew she didn't imagine it as he leaned down to her to whisper in her ear a few moments later just before she dropped off to sleep.
"My girl. I love you too."
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