Ch. 12
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Without a doubt, the armory was the nastiest place they'd ever stayed.
A thick layer of dirt and grim covered everything and all the mattresses were moldy. Daryl had said that they would go and steal a bed from a house soon, but only after they cleaned everything up and made sure living there was going to work.
His exact words were, "Ain't gonna be haulin' a fuckin' mattress out here only to get it nasty and then need to get another one. Might as well steal a bed frame, too, so it ain't on that cold ass floor."
Beth had rolled her eyes and went back to picking up the dorm room sized mattresses and gathering them in a corner.
"We're gonna need a broom and a mop and buckets of water, Daryl. And that's just the barracks."
Daryl chewed on his bottom lip. "This room ain't really gonna have a purpose, so let's clean the offices first and set up a bedroom then the kitchen."
"You take the bedroom, and I'll do the kitchen," she said and started to walk down the hall.
"Let's just clean it up together," he said and grabbed her hand. "We gotta go get water anyway."
"Is there a creek near here?" She asked, stepping toward him and wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Imagine so."
"Okay, well, here's what we do. We go through the rooms, pick an office to make our bedroom, clean it out as good as we can then do the same to the kitchen. After all that, we'll be ready for water then we can go get it and scrub it all down."
Daryl nodded. "Makes sense I guess."
They picked the back room as their bedroom since it was the biggest and then spent an hour or so moving the desk and dingy office chair out before using an old broom from one of the hall closets to sweep it.
There were a few spiders that Beth cringed away from and Daryl ended up squashing with his boot.
"Damn," he laughed loudly. "Ya've killed dozens of walkers, had blood and guts on your clothes, had Judith shit on ya before, but ya lose your mind over a spider?"
She shot him a glare and went back to sweeping. "I don't like spiders. I never have."
They moved to the kitchen next. It was in just as bad shape, but they dug right in, clearing off counters and opening up cabinets.
"Thank God we brought some cookin' stuff from the farm," she said with a sigh. "There's a vent," she pointed over the old stove, "maybe we could cook here and it would still go outside?"
"Doubt it," Daryl said and looked up through the little vent over the oven. "We'll have to cook outside or maybe get us a grill and just prop a door open while we cook."
"Ya think we could find a grill? And charcoal?"
Daryl shrugged. "Might just use wood. If it don't work in the grill, I'll pull the rack out and put it over a fire on the ground." He looked at her and grinned. "We'll figure it out."
For a couple of hours, they hauled water from a creek about five minutes away. They filled up the kitchen sinks and Beth went to work there and then he took a bucket of water to the bedroom.
They cleaned walls and floors with strips of towels they'd taken from the farm, mindful to keep a few for actual bathing. He got into the corners as best he could with the little rag, but some of the grim was just part of the building now and wouldn't come off.
By nightfall, they'd cleaned both rooms from top to bottom and were dragging.
"Want some beans?" She asked him through a yawn.
"Yeah." He nodded. "I'ma take a look around the perimeter. Make sure I covered our tracks for the night and that we don't have any stragglers wanderin' around."
"Okay, babe," she said and kissed his cheek.
He watched, stunned, as she starting rifling through their food pack.
No one had ever called him something like that in seriousness. Carol had called him "pookie" a time or two just to pick with him, but Beth said that with affection in her voice.
He shook his head and grabbed his bow, moving for the door then up the hallway. He went out the gate, locking it back behind him then started through the dense underbrush around the wall.
It took him a while to get through all the overgrown bushes and broken limbs, so even though he was dog-tired, he was relieved. If it took him that much effort to get to the walls, walkers wouldn't stand a chance.
The sun had completely set as he locked the gate behind him and went back inside.
Beth had the kerosene lamp going in their room, and was straightening their sleeping bags, extra blankets, and pillows they'd gotten from the farm.
"Looks good," Daryl said as he entered the room and sat his crossbow by the door.
"It'll do for now." She grinned and stood up with her hands on her hips. "Tomorrow, I'll put all the kitchen stuff up."
"I'll go look for a grill," offered and started to tug off his boots.
"Can we do that together in the afternoon?" Beth looked at him carefully. "I'd just rather we were together until we get comfortable here."
He nodded and took off his vest. "That's fine by me. Maybe think of stuff we can look for, and we'll get up early and make a run of it."
Her smile made him realize he'd said the right thing, and he bent down to give her a quick kiss. The ease of intimacy still seemed so foreign to him, but there was a pull in his chest to do it anyway.
"Your dinner's on that little table." Beth pointed to one side of the pallet, and he noticed a little box that had been turned on its side to provide some room to sit stuff on. It was far from a table, but it would do for now.
"Thank ya."
He ate and watched her move around the room, changing into a pair of sweat pants she'd taken from her old room and a big t-shirt. He felt his ears heat up when she didn't bother turning around as she took off her shirt to put on the other one.
Everything about her screamed that she was at ease with him. This place was going to be home, and he was going to be hers, and it didn't matter for one second that she half-naked in front of him because he'd seen it before, and he'd see it again.
He wanted that same attitude. Desperately.
"How do ya do it?" He asked before he could stop himself.
"Do what?" She asked as she took her hair out of its ponytail.
Daryl shook his head and the silence caused Beth to look at him. He sighed. "You're takin' it all in stride. Us, this place. Ya just seem to move around the room like ya've always been here. Ya touch me like ya were born to. I don't—I ain't like that. Don't know if I can be."
Beth sent him a breathtaking smile and walked across the room to kneel in front of him. "Now, before I say the things I want to, ya have to promise me that ya won't get mean or storm out."
He tensed. "Don't think I'm gonna like where this is goin'," he muttered.
"Do ya promise?"
"Yeah," he said and met her eyes. "Won't go nowhere."
Beth kissed him then, slow and sweet before she sat back on her heels. "I'm eternally optimistic, especially since ya found me again. I'm a hopeless romantic who thinks that this between us was destined to be before we even met. We were put in just the right places and given just the right experiences to prepare us for this.
"I think maybe ya didn't have a good home life. Your daddy wasn't the nicest to anybody in your house, but ya look at us, and ya see everythin' ya don't wanna be.
"I grew up with a wild sister and a daddy that got drunk more often than not before he met my second momma. I've seen how love can change a man and bring him back from the brink, show him hope again.
"So," she sighed and took his hand and uncurled the fist he'd made. "Ya see what ya never had, and give me strength instead of takin' it away, and I see a man that needs a soft touch and bright light that I just want to wrap my arms around every time I see him. Since I'm so completely happy, ya can't help but pick up on it eventually, right?"
She kissed his knuckles and put his hand back down on his leg. "One day, you're gonna wake up, and it will be second nature to ya. The kisses and the hugs, the words, makin' love. And ya won't even be able to pinpoint when it all changed. It'll be like it was always this way."
Daryl kept his eyes on their hands, how her fingers twined with his and that little purple ring he'd put on just the right finger. He felt himself nodding, but he couldn't form the words yet, because what could he possible say to that? She was right about him and everything he didn't want to be and everything he hoped he could be.
Instead of speaking, he curled his body around hers, sharing his warmth and strength for the rest of the night.
