As promised, here's the next chapter showing Daryl's reaction to the news. That's the good news.
The bad news is I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. Life is getting way too busy (a full-time job, a two year old, a four month old, the whole moving process to find a house big enough for our family) and something has to give.
I promise you I will come back to this when I can. I promise I will finish all my fics (this one is all planned out, it just needs to be typed up). But I need to prioritize and taking these off my plate for a while is something I just have to do right now.
Thank you all for the wonderful support for this story so far.
"So what now?"
Beth blinked up at him. "What do you mean 'what now?'" a rush of panic ran through her. "You said if my dad kicked me out, I could stay with you."
"Shit," Daryl muttered, then turned and paced away from her, muttering a string of profanities before turning back to her. "The hell we gonna do with a baby? Damn thing's gonna be a dinner bell every time it cries."
Tears pricked Beth's eyes when he called the baby such a harsh name. Even though this was something neither of them had expected, she felt protective of it already. She was raised to believe all life was precious. She wanted so badly to tell Daryl exactly that, but kept quiet, seeing as how her safety, and now that of their baby, depended on him.
"Thought girls like you were on the pill or something," he said after a quiet moment, pulling her from her thoughts.
"Girls like me? That's an awful big assumption, don't you think?" she questioned.
Daryl muttered something under his breath, bringing his hand to his mouth to chew on the corner of his thumb. "Coulda fuckin' said somethin'."
"You could have asked. I was terrified, of you, of being on my own, of the walkers. It's not like I was thinking of…protection. Well, other than…" she trailed off as he lifted his eyes to meet hers.
"The fuck you scared-a me for?" Beth swallowed, her throat suddenly gone dry. "C'mon, girl," he barked at her, "usually can't shut you up."
Beth fiddled with a loose thread on the hem of her shirt. "You were making me do things I've never done before, making me think it was my only option, and maybe it was," she shrugged. "Maybe it still is. Even now, I don't know what's going to happen to me, and I'm terrified. It all depends on you. My own family won't take me in, and I can't imagine anyone else jumping at the chance to help me, especially now. All you have to do is say 'too bad,' and I'm done for." She looked back up at him, blinking back the tears forming in her eyes.
Daryl sighed heavily, hanging his head down to his chest and running his fingers through his hair, pulling at the roots, then sitting back up and scrubbing his hands up and down his face. "Ain't there a pill or somethin' you can take? Get rid of it?"
Beth shrugged again, "It's called the morning after pill, not the month after. I'm not sure it would work anyway. And even if…"
"Even if what?" he growled at her.
Beth took a deep breath before whispering, "I'm not sure I'd want to take it anyway."
"Oh, fucking Christ," he said, standing up and beginning to pace in front of her. "How the hell you gonna keep it quiet, keep it from callin' every damn walker from here to Timbuktu from finding us?"
Beth pulled further into herself. "I don't know. I guess I just hope either Daddy lets me back in the house when the baby is born…"
Daryl interrupted, "And in case you haven't noticed, it's starting to get colder out. How the fuck am I supposed to keep takin' care of you? Got two ratty ol' sleepin' bags between the two of us, game's gonna start goin' into hiding for the winter. What in the holy fuck am I supposed to do?"
He looked like he was ready to burst with anger, his throat straining the more he fought to keep his voice from yelling, and his face turning a shade of red she'd never seen on him. Somehow Beth knew he was lashing out at her out of fear. She tried her best not to take his anger too personally. The problem was, she didn't have any answers for him, but she sure as hell wasn't about to just give up. "I guess we just gotta have a little faith."
"Oh Jesus…" Daryl started a tirade of profanities as he stormed out of the tent again. This time, Beth knew he hadn't gone far. She heard a rhythmic thumping not far off from the entrance to the tent. After a solid five minutes, maybe closer to ten, the sound stopped and was replaced by slow, heavy footsteps. When Daryl came back inside, plopping himself on the ground across from her and letting his hands drape over his knees, Beth could see his bloody knuckles even in the fading light of dusk.
"Daryl…what happened to your hand?" She asked softly, but he only glared at her in response. "What did you hit out there, there's nothing but…" Realization hit her and she scooted across the ground to sit directly in front of him. She gently lifted his hand to examine his wounds. Sure enough, there were tiny pieces of bark and splinters embedded in the bloody flesh covering his knuckles. "You beat up a tree?"
His growl warned her to stop asking questions, that his anger could just as easily be taken out on her. She took a calming breath and set herself to find some bandages in her bag to wrap his hands so they wouldn't get infected. She rummaged through to the bottom of her bag, thankful she'd grabbed Shawn's Swiss Army knife. She could use the small tweezers to debride his wounds. She'd have to find some antiseptic or peroxide in the morning. For the moment, she needed better light to see to extract the splinters and do what she could to help him. She ran out to the woods just outside the tent to find some kindling and, remembering what Daryl had taught her, started a small fire. Now she just had to convince him to join her outside.
"Daryl?" she called softly, "can I at least look at your hands out here? I don't want them getting infected." She heard him mutter something, but no movement from him getting up. "Daryl? Would you please come out here?" Still nothing.
At this point, her patience was being severely tested. Blame it on the hormones, blame it on not having eaten anything since breakfast, blame it on his reaction to her news, but she had finally reached her boiling point.
"Daryl Dixon, get your…ass…out here!"
She thought she heard the slightest movement coming from within the tent. After a moment, Daryl poked his head through the flaps, some combination of anger, disbelief and even a modicum of respect crossing his face. "The fuck you just say to me?"
Beth swallowed down the fear bubbling up, hoping her voice would remain steady. "You heard me," she said, significantly softer than moments ago. "Your hands look pretty bad, and I want to make sure we do what we can before they get any worse. Would you please come here?" she ended with a sigh of exhaustion.
Daryl literally dragged his feet along the ground, kicking up dust and pieces of dying grass as he went, before settling near Beth by the fire. Beth rolled her eyes and reached over, taking his hand into her lap to begin her examination. His skin was still angry-looking, still oozing blood here and there, but she was able to pick out several pieces of wood and bark with little complaint from her reluctant patient.
"So what the hell we gonna do?" he said after several minutes of silence between them.
Beth glanced up at him to find his eyes already on her. "I dunno," she said lamely with half a shrug as she turned her attention back to his hands. "Take it one day at a time, I guess. Don't really have a plan." She was quiet for a minute before adding, "I didn't plan any of this, Daryl. If it had crossed my mind even once, I would have said something."
Another long minute passed before she heard him reply, barely above a whisper, "I know you didn't." He blew out a frustrated breath. "So, what, am I supposed to marry you now?"
Beth nearly dropped the tweezers as her head snapped up to look at him to find his expression completely serious. "I…" she started, not sure how to respond. "I hadn't really thought about that either. It's not like we can run to a chapel or even to City Hall or have any kind of a ceremony. Guess you're off the hook." She tried to keep her voice light to keep from showing how nervous she was about the whole thing.
"As long as your daddy don't come after me with a shotgun." Beth couldn't help but laugh at his response, her heart relaxing a little when she saw his smirk in return. It appeared he'd accepted their situation, at least. He may not be happy about it, but he'd accepted it, and that was at least a positive step.
It also reaffirmed what she'd come to realize – that deep, deep down, Daryl was a good man. Deep, deep down, somehow she'd always known he would do the right thing.
"You hungry?" Daryl asked. When Beth nodded, he got up to retrieve what ended up being two squirrels that he'd left at the corner of the tent. He pulled out his knife, fumbling with it a little since Beth had already wrapped his hand in a bandage. Beth gently took it from him and went to work preparing their simple meal, leaving his other hand to deal with while the meat cooked. She had to fight quite a few bouts of nausea while she skinned the animals and prepped them to be roasted over their tiny fire, but she managed as best she could. She was grateful for the fresh air and the light breeze to carry the smell of cooking meat away from her over-sensitive nose. She just hoped she'd be able to keep everything down once she started eating.
Once they'd eaten and put out the tiny fire, they crawled into the tent. Daryl lay on the sleeping bag first, opening his arms to offer her a place beside him. Her shoulders sagged with relief as she knelt beside him then curled up, laying her head on his bicep. Her heart skipped a beat, her breath caught in her throat, when his other arm came around her and draped over her waist, caging her with his strength, though not in any kind of imposing way. It was…almost intimate. He buried his nose in her hair, and she swore she could feel him press a kiss to the top of her head.
"Where did you go?" she asked, the question popping into her head suddenly. He pulled back a little and although she couldn't see him in the darkness surrounding them, she could feel his questioning gaze. "After I told you, you took off and were gone for hours. Where did you go?"
"Out," he said shortly. She wanted to say something about acting like a pissy teenager, but held her tongue and trusted her own facial expression to cut through the darkness back to him. He sighed, and she knew she'd won. "Needed to try and think shit out. Really needed to get away so I wouldn't take it all out on you. Figured we'd need food for tonight on the way back." He took another deep breath, held it like he was going to add something else, but released it as he pulled her back into his chest.
Beth took a wild stab in the dark, "I'm scared, too, Daryl." She felt him tense up next to her, but didn't pull away, so she pressed on, "I have no idea what I'm doing, what to expect, what we'll need. The only thing I know about babies is from babysitting. I don't know how to make this work in this world. I wouldn't even know how to make this work if things were still the same as…before."
"Wouldn'ta happened," he muttered, and now it was her turn to pull back and look at him, waiting for him to explain. "You and what's his name woulda got married and had kids, yer daddy woulda handed the farm over to ya, y'all woulda been happier than pigs in shit." She could feel him loosening his hold on her, but she wrapped her fists into the front of his shirt to keep him from getting too far away.
"Don't be too sure of that," she said softly. "Me and Jimmy," she said pointedly, "had only just started going out when all this happened. And I really only said yes because we'd been friends for so long, we were practically dating anyway. I had no long-term plans with him. I wanted to go to college before I got married, and all kinds of things could have happened between now and then." Who knows? I might have met a rough and rugged redneck at some bar on my twenty-first birthday, she mused to herself, and was grateful for the darkness hiding her smile at the thought. She yawned and readjusted herself in Daryl's arms before settling again. "Can we go on a run tomorrow? I wanna see if there's a book at the library or something that'll…help."
Daryl let out a yawning sigh, "I guess so."
Beth held in her own sigh. He had gone from being angry, probably angrier than her own father had been, to accepting, to now ready to help her. She felt her heart swell at the thought and reached up to kiss his cheek before she could stop herself. "Thank you, Daryl. Good night."
A moment later, when sleep had just started to find her, she heard him whisper back, "G'night, Beth."
.oOo.
When Beth woke, the sun had just crested above the horizon. She blinked at the unfamiliar surroundings before remembering she was in Daryl's tent…in Daryl's arms. They had apparently shifted over the course of the night and he was now laying behind her, his strong arm still draped around her waist. Now, however, there was a noticeable hardness pressing against her backside. Completely blaming it on her hormones, she pressed her butt against it, grinning at the low, gravelly moan that rumbled into her ear and shot straight to between her legs. She turned her head to look at the man behind her, not quite surprised to find him just starting to wake up with her. "Morning," she whispered up to him as he supported his upper half on his elbow and looked down at her through bleary eyes.
"Morning," he grumbled. Beth rolled onto her back to keep from having to crane her neck to see him any longer. She noticed his expression change from barely awake to thoughtful to something almost conniving. "So…" he started.
"So?" Beth repeated, already guessing what was coming. The time for talking things out and trying to formulate a plan and having a tiny semblance of a relationship with each other was over. The Daryl she'd first met in the woods was back now.
"Well, it's been a couple weeks, and if we're picking the deal back up, means you gotta hold up your end-a things 's much as I do. 'Specially if you want me to take you out on a run today."
Beth was disappointed that the sweetness and thoughtfulness he'd shown last night, brief as it had been, was completely gone now. Truth be told, she'd thought of Daryl like this more often than not in the few weeks since she'd been back in her family's house. It was the main reason she kept herself at a distance from him while he recuperated. She found herself drawn to him, wanting him, needing him.
It had to be the hormones. Yes, that was it.
But she couldn't let Daryl know that. She sighed inwardly and nodded, moving to unbutton her jeans and push them over her hips. Daryl pulled at the hem of her shirt to pull it up to uncover her breasts, still hidden in her bra. He pulled one cup lower to expose her nipple and immediately dropped his mouth to suck it between his lips.
"Ow," Beth gasped in pain, causing Daryl's head to snap up. "They're…really sensitive now."
"Thought they always were," he said, narrowing his eyes at her. It wasn't necessarily flirty, but he wasn't necessarily really questioning her, either.
"Yeah, but it hurts now. Just…please be careful," she whispered, relieved when he seemed to take her plea into consideration before kissing just above her belly button and moving lower, dragging her underwear down her legs to join her pants now bunched around her ankles. A moment later, she was naked from the waist down and Daryl had positioned himself between her legs. Rather than undoing his own pants, he let his fingers wander between her thighs, teasing her tender flesh, drawing moisture out from her center, even teasing her clit with his tongue as his fingers slid into her. She closed her eyes and let the sensations wash over her as he sent her body humming with want, need, readiness.
She had no idea how long he'd been at it when he stopped, just as she felt an orgasm starting to build. She looked down her body to see him there, sitting back on his feet as he unbuckled his belt and undid his pants, pulling them down just enough to allow his cock to spring free. With one hand on the back of her thigh, spreading her legs to open for him, he guided the head of his member to her center, spreading and combining her wetness with his own before looking up at her to make sure she was ready. Beth bit into her lower lip and nodded, then immediately brought her hand up to cover her mouth to prevent any noises from coming out when Daryl slid all the way into her in one stroke.
"Holy shit," he hissed through clenched teeth. He leaned over her, supporting himself so as not to crush her, angling his hips so his pelvic bone would rub against her clit on each stroke. He dropped even lower, shifting his weight to his elbows and whispered wickedly in her ear, "Missed you, girl. Missed yer tight little pussy." She squeaked out a tiny moan as he filled her senses. He pulled her hands above her head, holding them in one of his, and bent his neck to kiss her, swallowing the sweet sounds she was making. She pulled her knees closer to her chest, allowing him to sink deeper into her, and he groaned at the feeling. "Oh, shit yes, girl. Feels so fuckin' good," he whispered against her lips between kisses.
Daryl was completely surrounding her, flooding her senses with his voice, his strength, his distinctly Daryl smell, and Beth felt herself losing control as her orgasm washed over her. Her jaw dropped, a scream caught in her throat as her body clenched around him and felt him throb inside her. They both released the breaths they'd been holding as they each climaxed; they both gasped air into their lungs as their bodies began to relax into each other. Daryl rolled onto his side, careful not to let his weight crush Beth as they both panted to catch their breath.
"You okay?" he asked softly. She nodded, turning onto her side to see him fully. Daryl brought his hand up to tuck a loose piece of hair back behind her ear then leaned in for a soft kiss against her lips. "I meant what I said," he added, resting his forehead against hers. "I missed you these past couple weeks."
Beth wasn't sure if he meant he missed getting to have sex or if he actually missed her, so she just stayed quiet, letting the calm around them last a while longer before they'd have to go and start their day outside of the tent. She blamed her hormones again, but found herself looking forward to spending her nights and mornings with Daryl. If she were honest, it was more than his protection she wanted from him.
Without much further ado, they joined the rest of the group for a quick breakfast, ignoring the curious glances they received from the others. Everyone discussed the plan for the day, most of it revolving around what to do with the boy Rick, Glenn and Hershel had brought back from town when the rest of his group had left him behind, injured. Beth hadn't seen him, only heard there was someone Rick didn't trust that they were keeping in the now empty barn. Now that his wounds had begun to heal, they'd agreed that this "kid" needed to go. The best plan they could come up with was to have Shane and Rick drive him several miles out, arm him with a knife, and set him on his way.
Daryl took off on his bike with Beth holding tight to him following Shane and Rick down the long dirt driveway, turning right toward town where they turned left down the highway. Beth noticed that Daryl took the ride nice and easy, not racing along like she'd expected him to now that they were off on their own for the day. She wondered if he was doing it because of her, because of the unseen passenger on the bike, or if he simply wanted to take a leisurely ride that day.
"Where to?" he shouted over his shoulder as the edge of town came into view and he slowed down even more to be able to hear her easily.
"There's a library downtown," Beth suggested.
Daryl shook his head, "Ain't no way we're gonna try an' clear out a damn library by ourselves. Ain't you got a bookstore or somethin' smaller like that?"
Beth thought for a moment. "Turn left at the next stop sign," she directed him. There was a little "book nook" next to a tiny café down one of the side streets downtown. She loved going there, loved the smell of the books, even if it was just to look. Beth had always been mindful of her spending and wanted to save as much as she could rather than blow what little she had in one fell swoop.
A lot of good that saving did her now.
When Daryl parked a couple doors past the bookstore, Beth looked at him questioningly. "In case that kid's buddies decide to show up again. Don't wanna make it too easy for them to find us." They stayed in the shadow of the awning lining the row of stores and doubled back to the book store, which was luckily left unlocked. Daryl instructed her to get her knife out and to stay in the main entryway while he made sure the store was clear of walkers and humans alike. Beth made sure she was still hidden from the windows, then took a deep breath, enjoying the familiar smell filling her nose. When Daryl gave the all clear, she moved directly to the section she needed, knowing the layout of the store as if she'd been employed there.
She found a "What to Expect" book that seemed to be popular and flipped open to start scanning the information for the first month. "Can we stop at the pharmacy before we head back?" she asked. Daryl gave her an odd look, so she explained, "It says I should be taking vitamins. They'll help me as much as the baby." Daryl just nodded in response, the corner of his thumb caught between his teeth. On their way back to the street, Beth stopped by the register to grab as many candy bars, bottles of water, and anything else they had there on display that she thought might be able to help.
The pharmacy was across the street and down a block from where they were. Daryl supposed they'd be alright walking rather than taking the bike with them, they'd just have to be cautious. Maggie and Glenn had been in the same pharmacy at least a couple times, so it took no time at all to make sure everything was still clear. The door to the shelves of prescription meds was locked; before Beth could climb over the counter, Daryl had put his arm in front of her to stop her and vaulted over it himself. "What am I lookin' for?"
"Prenatal vitamins. Don't know if they have an actual name besides that." She continued to browse through the chapter and called out, "I'm going to look in the supplements for some other stuff. They're just down this aisle." When she heard his approving grunt, she grinned and made her way to find what was left on the shelves that she could use. There wasn't a lot of selection, but she figured some was better than none. Daryl hadn't returned yet, so Beth wandered the store, grabbing things here and there that she deemed useful and stuffing them in her bag.
She had finished walking down the last aisle and turned to head back to the pharmacy counter only to run smack into a solid wall of…a person. She gasped in fear, her first thought was that it was someone from the group Rick and Daryl were so worried about that had followed them in. Before she could react, his strong hands were gripping her shoulders firmly, most likely leaving bruises, and shoving her back at arms' length. She looked up, terrified of what she'd find, and immediately relieved that it was Daryl. "The fuck you doin'?" his voice hissed at her, barely containing the anger behind it.
"I…I was just getting stuff I might need," she tried to explain.
"You say you're gonna be somewhere, you fuckin' be there," Daryl seethed at her. Beth wasn't sure what the big deal was; the store was clear and no one had come in after them. Still, he was obviously concerned about her.
Beth swallowed the dryness out of her mouth. She was shaken, not just by the fear of someone sneaking up on her like that, but by Daryl's reaction as well. He was becoming increasingly protective of her, and it made her imagination run wild. "I'm sorry, Daryl," she said with sincerity. "I wasn't thinking."
"Yeah…" he agreed, muttering something that Beth couldn't quite make out, before turning her around and unzipping her bag and shoving something in before closing it again. He stomped past her toward the front door, and Beth did her best to hide her grin, knowing by the added rattle when she moved that he'd found the vitamins he was looking for…for her.
They made their way back to the bike without incident. Beth wondered if there really was a group of men to be worried about, if this kid had made it all up. How awful for one of their people to be left behind and no one come back to look for him. She realized once again how lucky she was to have a family…well, to have someone that cared about her, anyway. She hoped her father and sister would forgive her and allow her back into her home, her family. Until that happened, she was more than grateful that Daryl hadn't turned his back on her as well, no matter how upset he was that they were going to have a baby together.
.oOo.
As they rode back to the farm, Daryl was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Beth was pregnant. He didn't know the first thing about raising kids, let alone at the goddamn end of the world. Either way he looked at it, he'd made a promise to Beth, and while it would have been easy to turn tail and say she wasn't his problem anymore, he felt a sense of responsibility toward her. The girl was depending on him. He knew what it was like to be cast aside by a parent, and a girl as sweet as she was shouldn't have to go through that for any reason.
Especially if he caused that reason.
He still couldn't believe this was all happening. He could practically hear Merle heckling him for 'not wearin' a raincoat where things get wet.' What a fucking dumbass he'd been.
To be perfectly honest, he couldn't help himself resenting Beth for wanting to keep the baby. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Her daddy was the one who believed walkers were just sick, kept them in a damn barn hoping for a cure. To have that kind of blind faith that everything would be okay…well, now he knew were Beth got it from. He also knew there was no arguing.
God, he couldn't believe how stupid he'd been. How careless. No sense in complaining now. No amount of faith or complaining had ever gotten him anywhere. Now it was time to just suck it up and deal with it.
Meanwhile, he could've sworn he felt Beth leaning her head against his back, readjusting her arms around him as she sighed. The girl was happy. This shitty, fucked up world had dealt her the worst hand possible, and she was still happy. And for some reason he couldn't figure out, he didn't necessarily mind feeling her wrap herself around him. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone. Not even to himself.
When they'd returned, Beth insisted on sharing what they'd found with the rest of the group, even her family, but didn't want to be the one to present their haul to them. She claimed she was just tired from going on the run, that she wanted to get as much reading done as she could. Something told Daryl she wasn't quite ready to face all the questioning looks everyone else would be sure to give her.
Like he was really looking forward to it.
He approached the group quietly, hearing a heated discussion between Rick and Shane. From what he could gather, this Randall kid had known all along exactly where he was being held. Said he knew Maggie, knew how to find the house. They couldn't let him go like they'd planned because they didn't know if he'd just bring his own group back here.
A chill ran through Daryl. Maggie might not have remembered him; Daryl figured she was at least a year or two older than Randall, so she probably never gave two thoughts about him, at school or here on the farm. But Beth, few things escaped Beth. The girl was quick, sharp. If she'd seen him, she'd have recognized him, hopefully said something to someone.
And if Beth recognized Randall, surely he'd recognize her. Kid would have to be a blind idiot not to. And if he saw her…
A flare of jealousy ran through Daryl.
Without any further thought on the matter, Daryl offered to take things into his own hands, see if he could get more information out of him. He figured Rick would be too nice about it, Shane would go too far. And now he had his own reasons for finding out what the kid knew. If anything, he could release a little frustration while he was doing it.
His hands had healed a little, and he was oddly grateful that Beth had taken such care in wrapping them the night before. True, he'd basically undone all her work as he worked over Randall, throwing punch after punch in search of what the kid knew, but it wouldn't do any good for Daryl to wince in pain with every hit. In any event, he found out just what kind of group this Randall kid was part of. When he reported back to Rick and the rest, they agreed they couldn't let the kid go anywhere.
Now they were torn as to what to do with him. That wasn't completely true – Dale was the only one hellbent on letting the kid live. Normally Daryl wouldn't have really given two shits, but now, with Beth, knowing what these men were capable of if they found her, if Randall were to try anything…hell, Daryl would pull the trigger himself. He had the feeling everyone else felt the same way, that Randall had to die, but no one actually wanted to say it.
Rather than hearing them all piss and moan about saving their humanity and flip-flopping back and forth over what to do, Daryl agreed with Dale that the group was broken and returned to his tent, to Beth. He had the length of the walk across the field to decide what to tell her, how to explain his knuckles getting banged up again.
Later that night, after they'd shared a noticeably quiet meal, Beth and Daryl crawled into their tent. Once the fire was out, there wasn't exactly a lot to do, so they stretched out on the sleeping bags for the night, Beth curled into him, her head resting on his shoulder. It was oddly relaxing, having her in his arms, his fingers tracing indiscriminate designs on her soft skin. If he weren't so wiped from everything that'd happened that day, he'd have tried to get something started between them, but for now, he was content just where he was.
That is until they heard someone screaming bloody murder from across the field. The sound wasn't coming from the direction of the house, but closer to where the tent was set up. He ordered Beth to stay in the tent, to get her knife out, keep the lantern off, then ran like hell to find out what the fuck was going on. What he saw nearly made his heart stop: a walker eating a still screaming Dale. Daryl rushed to his side, stabbed the walker in the head, and called for help, though he knew no amount of stitches was going to be able to repair the damage the walker had done. As Rick and the others arrived, Daryl could only look at Dale's face, his eyes silently begging for release from his last moments of pain.
He could only mumble out a quiet, "Sorry, brother," before pulling the trigger.
Daryl eventually made it back to his tent, not having any kind of clue how long it took, just walking in a daze. He shouldn't have been surprised when Beth held her knife pointed at him. Hell, she was doing exactly what he'd told her to do. Nevertheless, there he was, staring at the business end of her knife, not remembering how he'd gotten there.
"Daryl," Beth exclaimed in a whisper and lowered her knife as soon as she realized what she was doing. She rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him. Shit, how long had he been gone? "I heard a shot. Is everyone okay?"
He could only shake his head and whisper, "Dale. Walker got 'im."
Beth gasped; he could practically hear the tears filling her eyes as she looked up at him. She didn't ask any questions, and he didn't tell her anything beyond that, but he could feel the shift between them. Somehow, he realized she knew he'd been the one to pull the trigger. Without another word, she pulled back, taking his crossbow from his shoulder and setting it down in its usual corner before pulling Daryl to the sleeping bag, his hands in hers. She lay down first, settling on his pillow while he stood there numbly. In the faint moonlight that filtered through the vinyl walls, he saw her extend her arm to him. He followed her silent command and let himself drop to his knees next to her before lying beside her.
A slender arm pushed its way beneath his head, around his neck, and pulled him into her body, cradling and comforting him in a way he'd never experienced. All the shit he'd been through, he'd never had someone just hold him like this with no further expectations. Daryl tensed at first when he felt her move beneath him, then felt her fingers carding through his hair. The more she did it, the more he felt himself eventually relax.
He wasn't about to make a habit of it, but it was nice for now. For now, he'd let sleep find them and worry about tomorrow when it got there.
Thank you for reading - please take a moment and leave a review!
