Claimed
Beth wasn't in the best of moods. She'd had a fight with Daryl earlier that morning. They'd been having a secret relationship for a month and a half now and Beth was ready to tell everyone. She didn't want to sneak around anymore. She wanted what Maggie and Glenn had. She wanted to be able to openly kiss him before he went on a run and tell him to be safe. She wanted to be able to sit between his legs at the fire with his arms around her. She wanted to crawl into the same tent with him and fall asleep in his arms after making love. She didn't want to keep it a secret anymore.
But Daryl was fighting her on it. He wasn't ready to tell anyone about it. He wouldn't give her a reason why they should keep it a secret, but she was going to do what he wanted. While she did want to tell everyone, she didn't want to lose Daryl.
She was helping Carol and Maggie clean guns and she knew they could tell something was wrong but thankfully they weren't saying anything about it. "Hey Beth." She looked up at one of the newer guys that had joined the group. They picked up a few more every week and the group was growing again. They were all nice enough; they all helped out as much as possible.
She smiled politely. "Hi Bryan, how's it going?" She finished cleaning another gun and started to reassemble it.
"Not bad." He picked up one of the guns she still need to clean and started to pull it apart. "You busy later?"
Beth glanced at him. She hadn't expected that. Usually the boys around camp didn't pay her much attention. "Uhm no, I don't think so." She put the clean, assembled gun down and started cleaning the one Bryan had disassembled. "What did you have in mind?"
He smiled a little, watching her hands as they cleaned the gun. "I was thinking we could take a walk, you know, just around the perimeter?"
Beth glanced at Maggie and Carol. They were smiling like two teenagers. She rolled her eyes and looked at Bryan. He was smiling but she could see the fear of rejection in his eyes. She wasn't sure what to say. Daryl told her to act like nothing was going on between them. If she turned him down Maggie and Carol would give her hell about it and demand to know why. Well, if Daryl wants to act like nothing is going on, fine.
She smiled at Bryan. "Sure, sounds like fun."
"Great, I'll catch you later."
Daryl tried to keep his eyes off of Beth at dinner but that was proving to be very difficult. It was all that little punk's fault. He just seemed to be incapable of keeping his hands to himself, and Daryl didn't like the way Bryan was watching his girl. Daryl knew that look all too well. He was half listening to Rick talk about a plan for a run tomorrow and trying to give his input when it was needed, but Rick wasn't stupid. "Is everything okay?"
"Fine." He managed to tear his eyes off of Bryan and Beth and looked at Rick. "So what's the plan exactly?"
Rick's eyes narrowed and he glanced over at Beth and Bryan. "Do you know anything about that?" he asked. Daryl looked over at Bryan helped Beth stand up and then let her away. Rage bubbled up inside of him and his hands clenched into fists. When Bryan slipped a hand into Beth's back pocket he lost it, reacting without thinking. He was out of his seat in the blink of an eye and making his way over to them. He grabbed Bryan by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him away from Beth.
"What's your problem man?" Bryan pushed him off, glaring at him.
Daryl pulled Beth into him, putting his arm around her waist. "Keep your hands off of my woman."
There was a crowd gathering now. "Your woman?" Bryan asked in confusion.
Daryl growled, pushing right up in the kids face. "Yeah my woman." He grabbed Beth's hand and turned around to head back to the fire only to run into Rick, Maggie, and Glenn. "What?"
Rick looked at Beth, then back to Daryl. "How long has this been going on?"
"Since before Terminus," she answered, wrapping her arms around Daryl. "He's mine."
"And she's claimed." Daryl kissed her head and pulled her back to the camp and into his tent with him.