After another day or so, the group had gone through all the houses in their current neighborhood, and the surrounding neighborhoods, taking anything and everything they could use. It was on the last run that Glenn and Maggie had come back out of breath and empty handed, telling everyone that a herd - at least a couple hundred strong - was on its way. It was quickly agreed that they couldn't risk staying in the house with the limited supplies they had, so they might as well move now before the walkers got too close. It wasn't like they'd planned on staying much longer anyway as their food was all but gone already.
Everyone packed up what they had and took off in their caravan, searching for their next home. Beth clung to Daryl on the back of his motorcycle, hoping the next place they found would be a place they could stay for longer than a week at a time. They'd lost count of the days long ago, but by her count, they were towards the end of October by now, maybe even into November. That would put her roughly three months into her pregnancy.
It was looking like a long winter ahead of them. No permanent home, no ready food source, just going from place to place, staying until all resources were gone, and moving again. It reminded her of Independence Day, when the president discovered and revealed that the aliens were like locusts, going from planet to planet. She remembered it being Shawn's favorite movie for the longest time, watching it almost daily when it came out on video, and again when it was re-released on DVD. Her thoughts traveled to before the world ended, watching movies with Shawn while Daddy snoozed in his armchair and Mama sat in her recliner doing embroidery or crocheting, Maggie off at some party. Her memories, paired with her anxiety about the coming months, hit hard and suddenly, causing her to tear up.
God, what would they think of her now? Her mama had always called her "My brave Bethy-girl." Shawn had told her once that he was so protective of her only because she was younger, not because she actually needed protecting. Now here she was, practically helpless, cut off from her family despite living with them and, literally, clinging to her only means of safety and security in the man that had taken advantage of her.
She was too afraid to let go of Daryl to wipe her eyes, so she just held tight to him and sobbed into his back. Beth didn't realize he could actually feel her crying against him until she felt the motorcycle start to slow down.
Daryl pulled over, waving the rest of the group to go on ahead of them. Beth tried to pull herself together, breathing deeply and quickly wiping the tears from her cheeks now that they'd stopped. She made sure to keep her head down when Daryl looked over his shoulder, "You okay?"
"Yeah," she nodded, still not ready to make eye contact with him. "Just hormones. I'm...I'm fine."
She felt him scoff out a laugh and shake his head. "Bullshit. C'mon...off," he jerked his head to the side, and Beth followed his directions, swinging her leg over to stand next to him. He was standing in front of her soon after, the corner of his thumbnail firmly embedded between his teeth, a sign she'd come to recognize to mean he was deep in thought and unsure of how to say what he wanted.
Beth sighed, wiping more tears away before saving him the effort. "It's just...everything hit all at once. I miss my family, my home, where are we going to end up next, where will we be when I have this baby, how are we going to survive with a baby crying…" she stopped to catch and control her breath before she started sobbing again. "I'm sorry, Daryl. I'm sorry you're stuck with me and my hormones making me all kinds of crazy."
Daryl only stared at her, chewing on the inside of his lip now, before watching his foot kick at some loose gravel on the side of the road. "Ain't yer fault," he mumbled at her. After a moment, he looked up at her again, and the hardness that was usually there in his eyes...wasn't. There was some other emotion there - was it guilt? Compassion? Whatever it was, it had been showing up more and more in the past few days, and Beth wasn't sure what to make of it yet.
She stepped closer to him, now unable to tear her eyes away from his, and half expected him to take a step back and was relieved when he stayed his ground, even when she slid her arms around his waist until she could rest her head on his chest. They stood like that for a moment, with her taking what little support Daryl gave her while she tried to regain control of her breathing after crying again. She nearly sagged in relief when his arms finally wrapped around her shoulders, his chin resting on the crown of her head.
"I wish I knew, girl. Wish I fuckin' knew."
Beth pulled back and looked up at him to give him a watery smile. "Something will turn up. Right? I mean, it has to." She breathed out, almost laughing at her own hopefulness. "We should probably get going, catch up with everyone."
Daryl scoffed again, "Damn fools're prob'ly lost already anyway." She smiled up at him, glad to see him smirk back at her. He released her from his arms slowly, as if he didn't really want to let her go, and climbed back onto his bike, holding out his hand for her to keep her balance as she followed suit. Once she was settled behind him again, he looked back over his shoulder, "Gotta get you some decent gloves. Yer hands're freezing."
There were a million other things they needed that should have been a higher priority, all matter of baby products included, and she could survive with cold hands, but there was something in his tone that told her this had just been put to the top of his list. It was something he could do for her to bring her some comfort, and that warmed her heart. She grinned and tightened her arms around him as he started and revved the engine before taking off to find the rest of their group.
.oOo.
The group had found their latest temporary home at a no-tell-motel on the edge of town with an overgrown cornfield across the street and acres of forest behind the building. Daryl insisted Beth stay in the van with Lori and Carl while he went with most of the rest of the group to make sure the area was clear of anyone living or dead. After a short while, Carl decided he just couldn't hold it anymore, so Lori went with him to watch his back while he did his business. Beth leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes, hoping for even a two-minute nap, when the driver side door opened. "That was fast," she said without opening her eyes.
A deep chuckle sounded from next to her, "Actually, I should have come to you weeks ago."
"Daddy!" Beth was more than surprised to see him sitting next to her. It wasn't like they'd never seen each other in the several weeks they'd been on the road, and they'd even exchanged brief greetings every now and again, but never anything more than a hello-how-are-you type of conversation. Suffice it to say that Beth was pretty surprised that her father was now sitting next to her. From the look on his face, she figured he wanted to talk.
Hershel let out a heavy sigh, his head hanging so low his chin rested on his chest. "I have behaved wrongly, Bethy." After a moment of tense silence filling the space between them, he looked up to meet her eyes. Beth was taken aback by the sadness she found there, but stayed quiet, letting him take his time to get what he wanted to say out. It's not like she had anything prepared to tell him, anyway. The way he'd pushed her out of his life all those weeks ago had seemed pretty final, and while she hoped for a reconciliation with him, she certainly hadn't expected it to happen.
"I still don't approve of what happened between you and Daryl. The thought of my unwed, eighteen-year-old daughter already…" he paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, "it's not right. It shouldn't have happened, for a lot of reasons that I won't go into right now." Beth pulled her gaze away from him, staring down at her hands in her lap, at the slight swell of her lower abdomen they were resting against, and blinked back the tears threatening to fall.
"But it did happen, and there's nothing I can do about it, and even though it took me a while, I've accepted that fact." She heard him take a shuddering breath. When Beth looked at him again, she saw his own eyes were glassy with tears. "I'm sorry for pushing you away, Bethy. I realize now that however upset or scared I may have been, it had to have been worse for you, and when you needed your family, I forced you out, and I'm so sorry for that."
There was no stopping the tears rolling down her face at that point, but before she could do anything more than wipe them away, Lori and Carl had returned. After a second's pause, Beth decided she didn't care if they had an audience. It had been breaking her heart several times over to not be with her family. Now, at least, there could be some healing.
Beth twisted in her seat, raising the arm rest before leaning over and wrapping her arms around her father's neck. No more words were needed. Not now, anyway. The feel of her Daddy's warm, heavy hand on her back was enough. Her heart felt lighter than it had in two months, and was ready to soar when, instead of leaving now that he'd apologized to go back to the truck with Maggie, Hershel stayed with her. Just his presence spoke volumes.
Not long after, Rick and Daryl approached the van. "Looks like the coast is clear," Rick said with a grin. "No power or water, of course, but the main office was unlocked, so we found all the room keys. Figure it'll be nice for everyone to get their own bed and a little privacy for a while. We'll get everyone settled tonight and go through everything when it's lighter outside."
Hershel gave Beth's knee a pat and a squeeze and opened the driver's side door, nodding to Daryl as he left. Beth looked over her shoulder, still all happy tears and smiles, but her heart sank when what she saw was Daryl's back as he walked away without her. She scrambled to grab her backpack and get out of the van, all but pushing Rick out of the way to chase after Daryl. She was sure he could hear her, with her boots hitting the pavement as heavily as they were and her shallow breaths catching in her throat as she moved as quickly as she felt comfortable doing. "Daryl!" she called to him as loudly as she dared, her voice thick with worry. Her mind raced to find a reason he would just leave her behind like he had.
When she finally caught up with him, she tried to lay her hand on his arm to bring herself to even with him, only for him to shrug out of her grasp right away before turning on her. "The hell you want from me, girl?"
She could only blink up at him, confused as to where this anger was coming from. "Wh...why...where are you going?"
"The fuck's it matter?" he grunted out, turning to continue on to the motel room he'd picked out. "You an' yer daddy're all good now, right? Gonna be one big happy family again, just what ya wanted," he spat out as he stormed away from her.
His telltale thumb between his teeth did not escape Beth, which only added to her confusion. She thought Daryl was only staying with her out of some sense of obligation or guilt or… Did he actually want to be with her? She rushed to catch up with him, racing in front of him before turning to stop him in his tracks. "I...I'm not gonna leave you," she said, shaking her head for emphasis and wishing he would just look at her to see how serious she was. When he didn't respond, not even to look at her, Beth worried that she'd misinterpreted his demeanor. "I mean, unless you want me to," she whispered, half afraid of his answer.
Daryl's eyes shot up, a trace of worry and sadness in them. Wounded. "That what ya think of me?" he asked in a hushed, hurt sounding voice until his features schooled themselves into their usual non-committal air. He shook his head, snapping himself back into his old self. "That what ya want?" he snorted at her before taking a side step around her to walk toward one of the rooms, "Think yer daddy can take care of you?"
It was in those words, that snarky (and essentially needless) attempt at insulting someone else to make himself out to be the better man, Beth realized two things. The first was that he was absolutely right about her father. It wasn't even that he'd pushed her away, been so harsh with his reaction to her being pregnant. He had apologized, and if she were honest, Beth had forgiven him long before he'd joined her in that van just moments ago. It wasn't in her nature to hold a grudge, and she certainly wasn't about to start with holding one against her father. But, as Daryl pointed out, this man, the one she'd always looked up to, who'd always provided her with anything she needed, was no longer the one to take care of her. Hershel was no longer the leader of his family. He depended on Rick's decisions to keep them all safe and Daryl and his crossbow to keep them fed with fresh meat when the cans of food ran out. Beth was sure that he would if he could, but Hershel simply couldn't provide for her or for anyone else. Not in this world.
The second realization was that she'd been right all along. Despite his gruff exterior and surly demeanor, she was learning to see right through him - Daryl wanted her to stay with him, for one reason or another, and she had an inkling that it wasn't just because of any physical connection they had. If it was, he'd just keep making comments about her keeping her end of the deal or something along those lines. This was different. He wanted her with him, and this was his way of trying to show her just that, which must have been why he felt the need to make everyone else appear inferior to him, like someone who's lashing out at those around them stemmed from their own insecurities. He couldn't just come right out and say it. His pride would never allow for that. He thought she needed that reminder that she depended on him to keep her alive, whether or not it was true. Not only did he want her, he wanted her to need him.
As messed up as it was, even though she recognized that Daryl had some serious issues to work through (and she was pretty sure it all came from the same issues that gave him the scars that littered his back), she felt a wave of emotions swell within her heart at the idea of him wanting her to stay. With him. With him with him. He'd never outright tell her, but she was certain of it.
If only he knew how little he really needed to prove that point...how much he'd already proven it. Beth knew that in their world, it was survival of the fittest, and while the group at large supported each other and made sure no one went without, there was no question that Daryl made sure she was taken care of before anyone else anytime he could help it. He rarely left her side, usually taking her with him when he went hunting, teaching her what he could, and when he deemed a situation too dangerous, she was always paired with someone he'd come to trust.
But it was more than just him protecting and providing for her. Beth thought back to the moment on the side of the road, weeks before, when he'd noticed she'd been upset even over the rumble of the motorcycle's engine and pulled over, if not to comfort her, to at least help her to calm down. His current behavior might say otherwise, but she knew, deep down, that Daryl cared for her.
Her fingers warm in her gloves, hiding in the pockets of her new, heavier coat, proved it.
Beth bit back a grin as she followed him to the room, even more so when he stopped her before entering so he could check inside once more, regardless of the fact that he had undoubtedly checked it when they'd first found this place. Once he was satisfied for her safety, he held the door open for her, locking the door behind her then pulled the curtains open to let the last remaining light of the day peek through the filthy windows.
Beth plopped herself on the musty bed, motes of dust, so large she could see them even in the dim light, swirled into the air around her. She pulled off the gloves Daryl had found for her all those weeks ago before shrugging off her backpack and pulling it into her lap, taking out the bottle of water and a pack of stale crackers left over from the night they'd spent in a convenience store earlier that week. After nibbling on one, she held the plastic sleeve out to a pacing Daryl, offering him something to tide him over until their next meal. Eventually he stopped moving and took her up on her offer, dropping onto the mattress next to her with a heavy sigh, sending more dust to spiral in the dim light. Together, they sat in near silence, the only sound filling the space being their munching on their simple meal. When half the sleeve was eaten, Beth carefully packed it back into her bag and pulled out a package of trail mix for them to share, deciding to make this their dinner rather than just a snack.
When she couldn't stand just sitting and staring at the wall in silence anymore, she suggested they turn in, get some sleep now so they could leave early in the morning to try to go hunting for some fresh food. Daryl nodded, then set to pushing the rickety table against the door and pulling the TV from its place on the dresser to shove into the corner by the door, adding what little extra security he could even beyond the deadbolt. Beth's heart squeezed an extra beat as she watched him show just how seriously he took his role as her protector. As he went to close the curtains again, plunging them into near darkness, she carefully pulled back the bed spread (any more dust in the air and she was sure she'd never get to sleep with all the coughing and sneezing she was sure to do). She turned down the bed for them both then began to undress before crawling between the sheets. When her jeans were folded and sitting on the floor next to her boots and her coat was spread on top of the blankets as another layer of warmth for when she slept, she looked up to see Daryl staring at her from his side of the bed.
"He's really growin' in there, huh?" he asked softly.
Beth wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. Instead she just smiled and rested a hand on her belly, which had grown big enough that her pants were getting more and more uncomfortable to wear. She hated asking for anything when there was so much they needed, but she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep wearing the clothes she had. Deciding to wait for another day to bring it up, she crawled into the bed, snuggling into the pillow and watching Daryl toe off his own boots and undo his belt and the button of his pants before joining her.
It was the first bed they'd had that was actually big enough for the both of them, not having to squeeze onto a little twin bed, and yet they still met in the middle, whether by habit or a newfound necessity. On nights when he had guard duty, it was difficult for Beth to have any restful sleep. She found she needed Daryl there with her in order to really relax and succumb to sleep.
Daryl opened his arm toward her, still laying flat on his back, and Beth found her spot curled into his chest, her head resting on his shoulder rather than the pillow. After everything they'd been through in the past four short months, Beth realized any awkwardness between them had completely vanished. Somewhere deep in the back of her mind was a voice telling her to stop letting herself get so attached to him, reminding her of all the things he'd tricked her into doing...but the voice in her heart spoke louder, drowning it out. This was the man who had saved her life multiple times, who took care of her when she couldn't do for herself. Who, when her family had ostracized her, was still there, still took her in, even with the burden of their new joint responsibility. This man that was teaching her to survive, to track and hunt and fight. There might not be love between them, but there was something...something more than friendship. Daryl made her feel safe and wanted, and that was enough for now.
"So what makes you think it's a boy?" she asked as she relaxed further into him and he let himself sink a little more into the mattress beneath them.
Daryl snorted and shook his head. Beth could swear she could feel him grin against the top of her head. "Dunno. Just figured…" he trailed off. She raised her head to look up at him, prompting him to continue. After releasing a weighted sigh, he went on, "Figured the universe is hell-bent on kicking my ass. Might as well gimme an ornery little shit like I was when I was little to deal with."
Beth blinked back at him, torn between smiling in agreement and frowning at his crassness. "There are so many things wrong with that, I'm not even sure where to begin." She scooted up to lean against the headboard, shoving a pillow behind her lower back, giving her support she didn't realized she needed until that moment. "First of all, no child of mine will be an ornery little...shit." Daryl looked up at her, but stayed where he was, his head near her thigh now that she was sitting up. "Second, girls can be just as ornery as boys," she gave him a pointed look, and he snorted a half a laugh in return. "And third, I bet you were a sweet kid to start out with. You can't always have been this…"
Now Daryl propped himself up on his elbow to look directly at her. "Been this what?" he asked, anger threatening the edges of his question.
She looked back at him with wide eyes as she frantically reached for an answer that wouldn't upset him. She wanted to tell him that, yes, he could be downright ornery, but she'd never say that to his face. "This much of a...badass," she said, feeling the blush rushing to cover her cheeks. Daryl apparently decided there wasn't anything to fight over; she felt him relax into the pillow again, this time on his side, his breath warm against her thigh, sending all kinds of tingles coursing through her.
Some rather adult-themed thoughts started to form in her head, but one look at Daryl beside her had them scattering to the back of her mind. He looked absolutely exhausted. Not only was he spending most of the day tracking animals to hunt and bring back for the rest of them to eat, but took his turn being on watch at night as well. She wondered how he could function on such little amounts of sleep.
The irony was not lost on her when she realized in a few short months, she'd be the one barely sleeping, staying up all hours of the night with a newborn. She wondered if Daryl would help take care of their baby. She couldn't exactly picture him changing diapers or burping...or even feeding a baby. Her heart sank a little as she concluded she'd basically be a single parent, but managed to hope that her father, maybe even her sister, might step in sometimes to help. She knew she probably wouldn't be depending on anyone else for help. They all had jobs to do, and this baby was about to become her number one priority.
As she thought, she let her fingers drag through Daryl's hair and grinned when he practically purred at the sensation. It had gotten a little longer since they'd first met, and she thought it looked good on him. Really good. Her hormones flared again and she had to talk herself out of waking him up for sex.
There was always tomorrow morning.
His eyes had closed as their conversation had ended, his breathing evened out into a steady, lazy rhythm still ghosting over her bare thigh. As gently as she could, Beth scooted back down to lay beside him, careful not to disturb him. Her fingers itched to play with his hair again, to touch his face while it looked so peaceful, or even graze along his bicep, but decided against it, not wanting to wake him. The man rarely slept as it was, so far be it from her to be the one to pull him from his slumber without a damn good reason.
Beth breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down enough to find some sleep herself, and smoothed her shirt over her belly, rubbing little circles around her belly button as she wondered if Daryl was right - if they would have a bouncing baby boy or girl. Would they have their hands full with a little hellion, or would this be an easy baby like her mother had told her she had been? Somewhere between ideas for baby names, she finally drifted off.
.oOo.
Beth blinked herself awake. She lay on her back, taking in her surroundings to help her recall where exactly she was. Slowly her brain put the pieces together and she remembered they had bounced around the countryside again and had found a farmhouse big enough to hold everyone comfortably. It had all the creaks and groans of her childhood home, but the layout was nothing like the one she'd grown up with, which gave her all kinds of mixed feelings about staying there. Her father seemed to be more quiet than usual, so she knew she wasn't the only one feeling this way.
Maggie still had yet to speak to her. Beth hated this long-lasting silence between her and her sister, and certainly didn't hold any kind of grudge against her...at least not anymore. She knew her sister, though, and knew that it was only a matter of time before Maggie would come around, but it had to be on her time. Besides, it wasn't like they had a ton of opportunities to talk lately. Beth was often tagging along and learning from Daryl while he hunted while Maggie and Glenn were usually the ones to go from house to house in whatever neighborhood they ended up in to look for other supplies. When they were on the move, Beth and Maggie were always in seperate cars (when Beth wasn't riding on the back of Daryl's bike); when they were all together, Daryl stayed by her side, his very presence warding off any attempts at anyone coming close to her. Still, Maggie knew where to find her, and Beth had nothing to apologize for and wasn't about to go to her sister looking for any kind of apology or sympathy, so any conversation that happened would have to be started by Maggie.
It had been another couple weeks since the hotel. In that time, Daryl had found a pair of sweats (without her asking for them, much to her happiness) that fit much more comfortably around her ever-growing belly, which had seemingly doubled in size practically overnight. By her count she was getting close to five months along, just about halfway through her pregnancy.
That also meant they were close to Christmas time, if that even meant anything anymore. She still believed in God, believed that he would never truly desert them, and while Christmas had always been her favorite holiday, she'd been sad to find herself completely without any Christmas spirit, even knowing that it wasn't about exchanging gifts and pretty decorations, or even having a ham dinner with all the trimmings, but more about being with those she loved. They were all lucky to at least be surrounded by others that cared for them, even without all the merriness of the Christmas season.
She knew it was silly. With everything going on, running for their lives and fighting the dead, no one really had the time to think of anything about Christmas. Still, her heart was heavy. So heavy that apparently Daryl noticed, not that she was surprised. There were few things about her Daryl didn't notice. He'd even gone so far as to ask her, "Why the hell you sighing all the damn time?" and didn't outright mock her when she told him.
As she lay in the double bed, curled under layers of blankets and missing Daryl's warmth, she felt her stomach gurgle. She said a silent prayer of thanks that her morning sickness had subsided, then realized…
...where was Daryl?
It was very unlike him to just take off without her, especially lately. Beth had become almost as good as he was at tracking animals, and had started learning how to fire his crossbow. She was beyond surprised he'd even suggested letting her touch it, let alone use it, but he reasoned she might as well since she was out with him all the time. She had yet to make her first kill while hunting, but her aim was getting better each time they went out.
So why hadn't he woken her when he left? He'd been assigned to guard duty the night before - she vaguely remembered him crawling into the bed behind her and wrapping an arm around her before they both found sleep again - and by the feel of the cold pillow beside her, he'd been gone for at least an hour. Once she'd dressed and went to the kitchen for a meager breakfast, she learned no one else had seen him aside from T-Dog who had relieved him of his post sometime around midnight.
And it wasn't like Beth had slept the morning away. She finished her stale cereal and fruit cocktail breakfast before the sun had risen much higher than the horizon. If he hadn't returned by noon, then she would worry.
Her stomach gurgled again. She didn't think much of it, figuring it was a symptom of a sugary meal combined with stressing over where Daryl had gotten himself to. Not that she was worried that he couldn't handle himself. She was just...concerned.
She missed him.
Deciding to find something to keep herself busy, she joined Lori and Carol in sorting through clothes and blankets and everything else they'd been collecting over the past months and deciding what was worth keeping and what could probably be replaced in favor of something more durable or warmer to help guarantee their survival through the winter. Once her plastic tub was full of folded clothes and the lid had been wrangled onto it, barely holding on around the bulging sides, she stood up to push it over to the front door, ready to be taken out to the trucks.
"Hang on," someone called out. Beth looked around, startled out of the task at hand, to see Glenn walking quickly from the hall. "I'll move it. Don't worry about it," he explained with a grin. Beth could hear his unspoken words, that she shouldn't be trying to move anything so heavy in her condition. She smiled her thanks back at him, and looked up to see Maggie standing in the doorway, her arms folded over her middle with a strange expression on her face. Before she could say anything, Lori snapped the lid onto her own plastic tub, and Maggie rushed to offer to carry it out with Glenn.
Beth tried not to get too upset. It wasn't like Maggie was going to start any kind of conversation in front of so many people. Still, offering to help her own sister instead of Lori would have been a nice start.
She felt another gurgle in her belly. A glance out the window told her it was close to noon, and there was still no sign of Daryl, so she chalked it all up to being worried over him and stressed about Maggie. She wandered back into the kitchen to scrounge for something to tide her over until dinner and decided to lay back down.
She hadn't intended to fall asleep, but must have done so because she woke up to the sound of excited voices from down the hallway. Beth fixed her ponytail and gave herself a once over in the mirror before stepping into the hall, tiptoeing toward the kitchen to find a very uncomfortable looking Daryl surrounded by most of their group. Hershel and Carol were heading into the garage, calling over their shoulders that they'd try to be quick and get something going for everyone.
Beth stood in the entryway to the kitchen, not even trying to keep the confusion off her face. Daryl, having seen her, pushed his way through the group, still being congratulated and thanked, all the way to her. "Daryl...what's going on?" she managed to ask. She didn't want to appear nagging by asking him where he'd been and why he hadn't taken her with him.
He looked to his feet, arms hanging at his sides, as he spoke quietly, "Went huntin'." The look on Beth's face must have told him she'd already figured that part, so he continued, "got a wil' boar. Was a bitch ta take down, had some...issues...gettin' it back here for ya."
She was certain there was a blush crossing his cheeks that had nothing to do with him spending the day in the cold. "For me?" she repeated. Daryl only nodded in response, his gaze still focused on his shoes. The wheels in her mind churned for an answer and she gasped when she found it. "A ham dinner?" she whispered, tears pricking her eyes when he nodded again. "Daryl…" she started to stay, stepping into him to wrap her arms around him, but he held her back at arm's length. "What?"
"Like I said, issues," was his only explanation. She took another step back and looked him over, trying to understand, when she noticed his already dark clothes were somehow shiny in the weak light filtering in through the kitchen window.
"Daryl…" her voice was hardly above a whisper, "is that blood? Is it yours?"
He shook his head. "Damn pig squealing attracted a couple walkers. 'M fine, though."
Another look at him proved him right. There were no tears in any of his clothes, and all the stains on his clothes were too dark to be fresh blood, which meant it was the decaying blood of a walker.
At that point, in that moment, she didn't care that he was practically covered in gore. She didn't care that they had an audience. All she cared about was that Daryl was back and safe and whole. She wrapped her arms around him, not caring about the dark smudges that were sure to smear across her cheek as she pressed it to his chest. "Thank you, Daryl. Thank you so much."
Her heart soared when she felt him tentatively return her hug. She smiled against him before looking up into his face, then pulled back gently and took his hand to guide him back to the room they'd been sleeping in.
Although, once she got him out of his filthy clothes, they certainly wouldn't be doing much sleeping before dinner was prepared.
I think that's gonna be where we cut it for now. I know there were quite a few time jumps in this chapter (just like watching the show, right? ha!), but the next chapter will pick up right where we left off, so there's something to look forward to, right?
Thanks to all who have stuck around while I kicked my muse into gear and finally got this chapter out. I wish the stars would align more for me, but finding time, energy, and inspiration all at once is rare indeed. I'm going to try and get back to writing a little bit every day, but with summer break upon us (meaning I'm home with my own kids instead of at school) and trying to find a bigger house to move into, I can't exactly promise that. What I can promise is that I will not leave any of my stories unfinished.
Speaking of, I may be taking a break from this story and work on one of my other WIPs (Summer of Learning, Man in Black, Lady in Red). This story is just so heavy...I need to write some fluff. This chapter you just read is about the fluffiest this story has seen since it began. So. There's that.
Thank you again for all your patience and support. I appreciate it 100%