I literally have zero excuse. But I just want to give the biggest of thank you's to everyone who's sticking with this story. Seriously, I received the nicest messages from you guys. I hit a writers block a while back, but you guys are definitely part of the reason I managed to get this finished. This isn't the last chapter (sorry!) but I do have a plan, so the rest of them will get out to you eventually. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Again, thank you. I love you all.

Without further aideu:

By the time Beth and Daryl made it back to the group, it had probably been about half an hour. With a cursory glance at Beth, who nodded to Rick that everything was fine, he whisked Daryl away to a slightly more secluded area of the clearing.

Beth's fingers felt the loss of Daryl's, but she quickly filled them by plucking Judith from Carl and playing gently with the little girl's hair.

In their corner, Rick asked Daryl in a tense, harsh whisper, "What the hell are we gonna do?"

Honestly, the hunter had no idea. Granted, he'd never expected a cure, but he hadn't expected everything to go to shit quite as… explosively.. as it had. While Eugene may have lied about his role and his cure, Daryl's main thought process was caught on the existence of HyperTech. If HyperTech was a real company, and if Eugene's calculations of odds were sound- was Washington DC effectively a 'safe zone'? Even if it wasn't, the people were still a factor. People in this post-apocalypse society seemed to be rather twisted. Was society even worth the risk?

He chose his words carefully, knowing Rick hadn't been thinking entirely clearly since Lori's death, "Way I see it, we got two options. It depends if we wanna see the people of HyperTech, if it even exists. Do we wanna look for it and risk it? Or do we head back where we came from?"

Both men knew the risks associated with both options. They also had the mutual suspicion that HyperTech was a completely fictional company. While Washington was a possibility, realistically getting away from society was the better plan at the moment. Rick understood that Daryl would never truly be comfortable in a crowded society but that he'd risk it if asked.

"I think we should hole up here for a while- see what we can find. We'll scavenge what food we can and see if we find anything else that might be useful. See how it goes and if we gotta leave in a hurry then we'll find somewhere secluded and stay there. We gotta be safe but we also gotta stop running one day. Y'know?"

"Whatever food stash we find ain't gonna be enough to hold forever. We're gonna have to head into the woods one day but we may as well take what we can find with us." Daryl paused before asking his next question. He'd calmed down a bit from the confrontation earlier,

"What 'bout Abraham and Eugene?" Rick's face dropped, his frustration with the scenario pouring through. Daryl could understand where he was coming from but he pressed on, "Eugene's still unconscious and he might be a liar but he could be kinda useful. He ain't a doctor but he's still smarter than anyone I ever met."

Rick rubbed a hand over his scruff, pausing to look over at the prone form of Eugene, and the tense stance of Abraham. "I say we try and keep 'em separate. They ain't gonna get along but we can't just leave one of 'em. We'll hole up somewhere for a bit and try and make sure they stay away from each other."

Daryl nodded in understanding. "Then I'll lead a run and see what we can find. You take the group and head back to the building from last night."

Washington was a big city, daunting, but Viktor was adamant that this zone was his. There was bound to be a stash of food somewhere, and Daryl wasn't about to pass up that find in favour of the possibility of what they might find in the woods.

"Good. Take Carol with you."

"I'm takin' Carl too. The boy's good for this. You need anything for Judith?"

Rick looked over at his children, one in Beth's arms and the other hovering next to her. Carl was talking quietly to Beth, and she was nodding, but mostly focused on the little girl. She looked better than she had the day before. While she wasn't the Beth from last week, and she was no where near Beth Greene from the prison, she wasn't crumbling. She looked like she was fighting to pull herself back together, and that was the most amazing and dangerous thing about her. Despite the whole situation, as a giggle bubbled out of Judith, Rick could feel his lips twitching up in the most unbelievable of smiles.

"Food probably, but ask Beth. She'll know best." Daryl followed Rick's sight line and the corner of his own mouth perked up. Judith was pulling Beth's hair and Beth was playfully growling at the little girl, sending the little asskicker into fits of laughter.

"I'm just gonna bring her. Guess we'll figure it out as we go."

Almost involuntarily Rick mumbled under his breath "We've been getting real good at that lately."

"Amen." Daryl breathed,

Beth looked up as the two men rejoined the group, both approaching her. Rick extended his arms for his daughter and she gently transferred the little girl to him, turning to Daryl as he stepped close to her. She could tell from his expression and the way his eyes were flicking around that they were going on a run. She pulled her knife out from her belt, "Carl, you coming?"

The teenager's eyes lit up. "We going on a run?"

"Yea, we're gonna try and see if we can find Viktor's stash. Carol?" Daryl answered. The grey haired woman approached them quickly. She settled in on Daryl's other side, taking her gun out and pulling at the revolver to check for bullets.

"I'm good to go."

The small group set off in the direction of the zone where they'd been attacked by walkers. Daryl forced Beth into the lead, choosing to stay behind them and watch their back with Carol and Carl flanking her. It wasn't how they used to travel, back from when they were alone, but after the events of the last couple days he wasn't about to let her out of his sight. Carl dropped back a little to walk with him, while Carol moved up to speak to Beth.

As Carol stepped up to Beth, the older woman looked back at Daryl before flicking her eyes to Beth. "Looks like you and Daryl are getting awful close these days."

Beth didn't respond to the observation. She and Daryl weren't Carol's business but she knew the woman would continue pressing, so she waited for the follow up question.

"Nothing's going to happen- you know that right?" At this, Beth did flick her eyes over to Carol. While the grey haired woman was probably the closest thing Daryl had to a best friend, Beth had always wondered if she'd ever thought of Daryl in a more than platonic way. Still,

"I fail to see how it's your business whether or not anything happens." Her words were quiet, and softly spoken, in a way that only Beth Greene could ever manage to be harsh.

Just as Beth could be hard yet soft at the same time, Carol had a skill for sounding patronizing, "Don't take offence sweetie. I'm just trying to keep you from getting hurt. The last thing we need is to have you heartbroken. The world doesn't exactly allow for that these days."

Something about the wording of what Carol had said, had the muscles tensing in Beth's lower stomach in frustration. She wasn't some teenage girl who worried about heart break. That was the last thing on her mind these days and Carol needed to understand that.

"I'm not the same Beth Greene, Carol. You don't hafta worry about me getting me heart broken."

"Of course, I know you're strong. You saved yourself, and him. I believe you. I do. Just- you've never seen the ugly parts of Daryl Dixon and they're a whole other battle you've never fought."

Beth's eyes flicked back to Daryl, her mind racing to the moonshine shack, the scars on his back, that damn book about moving on from abuse. Carol didn't have a right to any of those memories or pieces of Daryl, no matter how much she knew and loved the man.

"Respectfully I don't think you know quite what you're talking about, but thank you for your concern. I'll keep it in mind."

The older woman smiled and slid back to walk with Daryl, while Carl moved up to speak to Beth. "Hi Carl."

"So I had a question." The teenage boy shook his hair out of his eyes, looking quickly at Beth for permission before pressing forwards. "I remember meeting Morgan a while back, but he wasn't exactly… all there. You travelled with him for a while, how is he now?"

A faint smile spread across Beth's lips as she thought back to Morgan. The man definitely hadn't been all there- but neither had she. Morgan definitely hadn't made the strides back to sanity that Beth had, but he wasn't the same as when they'd crossed paths.

"He was quiet I guess, but I mean we both were. Didn't have much to talk about, or say, you know?"

To Beth's surprise, at the end of her statement, Carl started laughing. "If you told me a year ago Beth Greene wouldn't have much to say I would have laughed in your face."

Even Beth smiled at his words, but her smiled faded as Carl's laughter trailed off into something far more serious. "I'm not saying it's a bad thing. You're different but I guess we all are. What you did yesterday.."

"Don't. Seriously Carl."

"And I'm serious Beth. I saw you. I've seen you. Before, during, and after. We all see you. And yeah, you scare me. But so does my dad. And Daryl. And Michonne. You all terrify me. My dad has literally ripped a man's throat out with his teeth. Daryl wore a necklace of Walker ears. Michonne made pet walkers out of her own family. But that's what makes me all the more glad you're on my side. We do what we have to to survive. You all have your reasons, and yeah we get harder, but it ain't a bad thing. Before all this you sang Judith to sleep. You told us what she needed. You took care of her."

"I don't sing anymore." Beth mumbled out.

Carl ignored her and pressed forwards, "I don't know what you were like during the separation, but I saw you during the fight with the Walkers and with Viktor. Now you can protect Judith, and us, and yourself. And after the fight? I saw you chase after Daryl when he scared the shit out of me. Now you're on a run for Judith. It's like you took the old beth and the separated Beth and, I dunno, found a way to mix them."

"Carl-"

"My dad notices, we all do. So, like I guess what I'm trying to saw is what I'd want someone to say to me. While you may not be okay with what you've done, the rest of us are. No matter what. You're family."

Beth couldn't help the tears that pricked at her eyes. Carl had been such a kid when she'd met him and he'd grown up so much. She stopped walking and grabbed him, bringing him in to her in a hug. "Carl Grimes, you are way too old for your age."

"Amen." Beth laughed a little at the word.

"You know that's the only word Morgan spoke to me for months? I thought I'd actually died and was in some sort of twisted hell with a religious mad man, some demonic Noah. I half expected him to ask me to build an ark with him."

"That's a totally viable option. Actually no, we should just bail and live on Mars. I bet there's water some where."

Even Daryl huffed out a laugh at Carl's comment. "You read too many comic books kid."

Carl stepped out of Beth's grip to look at the older hunter. "You wish you read as many as me."

"You know what? I do."

Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!