Note: Hey peeps! Thank you for being so patient with me and my busy schedule! I'm sorry for not updating last week, but in case you missed it, I did put up that one-shot with Aaric and Bethyl living together! It's called "The Art of Subtle Matchmaking" if you wanna check it out and don't forget to drop a few lines! ;)

Thank you so much for the immense support I've gotten so far. You guys always amaze me with your kindness and love for this story. I'm already writing the next chapter, which I want you, will have a little steam in it. But for now, enjoy this little chapter and some *cough* sexual *cough* tension! *winks*

In The Blink of an Eye (Hear The Beat of My Heart)

Chapter 20

Sometimes Beth wondered if dead people rising was the only side effect of the world ending. The question usually swam in her head in the early mornings, when she'd wake up and stare out her window, only to see the sun shining brightly even though yesterday's sky had been gray and cloudy. She would leave her window open a little during the night since she had gotten used to it while she had been recovering from her wound. Now, another week had passed and she was feeling a lot better, but the window was still left open to allow fresh air to fill her lungs every morning.

The weather seemed to go from bad to good to better again, and every single day, Beth opened only one of her eyes to peer out the window to get a clue of what to expect during the day. At times she didn't even need to look. It was enough to just breathe in through her nose and sense the impending rainfall.

She supposed that was what Autumn was like now.

Things had moved slow this past week. The weather was more glum than sunny, but today it felt almost as nice as a Spring day would. For seven whole days though, the weather hadn't been the only thing Beth had been thinking about.

Daryl Dixon sure had been on her mind a lot too.

Ever since Rick had let it slip that she and Daryl had been alone after the prison they had lived in had fallen, Beth hadn't been able to stop wondering about what may or may not have transpired between them. Why had Daryl tried to avoid her in the beginning? Why hadn't he been able to keep his distance after she had first approached him? Why was he always watching her back and protecting her? Why did he stand up for her and how did he always seem to know what she was thinking before she even said it?

Why?

Rick and Michonne had told her that Daryl had gotten it into his head that she was better off without him. Beth hadn't understood it at first but then she had remembered some of the moments they had shared since Daryl had come to the farm and she remembered the way her stomach always tightened in a most pleasurable way whenever she saw him... Pleasurable and nervous.

He did things to her that she wasn't even sure he was aware of and she wondered, if she too did things to him sometimes.

She hadn't put any distance between them though, since she had found out, and she had tried her best not to show that she knew more about them than he had ever let on. They had been growing closer and she felt like she could talk to him about everything and anything; except the fact that she knew that he was outright lying to her about their past relationship.

Or maybe it wasn't as much as lying as it was trying to protect her from himself, which made no sense to her whatsoever because she never felt more safe than she did when she was with him.

"Ya feelin' any better?" Daryl asked her as they walked side by side, as they usually did nowadays. They had started taking early morning walks together, leaving the house before anyone else woke up and coming back just before breakfast. Their main excuse was usually checking the newly built wall and no one seemed to protest after what had happened to Noah because of Father Gabriel.

"As I've said every mornin' this week: I'm fine, Daryl," Beth smiled, looking down at the grass by her feet as they walked.

"Can't blame a guy for askin'," Daryl shrugged. "Ya don't exactly tell us when you're in pain."

That was true, but Beth would never admit it out loud.

At times she would still feel the stinging in her side, but she knew that it was nothing compared to the pain she had felt initially when she had accidentally impaled herself with the glass shard in the hardware store. She was getting headaches too lately, but she figured that it was because she didn't get many hours of sleep, always thinking about Daryl and her and what else he might be keeping from her.

"Maybe we can go on a hunt when you're better," Daryl then said. Beth glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "If ya wanna, I mean..."

"Of course I want to, Daryl," Beth answered. "And since I'm feelin' better already, you probably won't have to wait too long."

Beth was a little startled when he reached out and grasped her wrist, halting her movements. She turned around and faced him sharply, his intense blue eyes boring straight into her soul. It was hard to suppress the urge to shudder, but she managed to do so, not wanting to make a fool out of herself for always reacting this way to his touch.

"Don't matter none how long I'll have to wait," Daryl began, his eyes set on her and his words purposeful. "It'd be worth it."

Beth felt the warmth spread inside of her as she looked him in the eyes. She wondered briefly if he knew what he was saying, if he knew what his words sounded like to her. It felt as if he was telling her a thousand things at once and they all resulted in the same thing: her heart hammering wildly in her chest as she tried not to add any extra meaning to what he was saying. Maybe it had all been an innocent comment and he hadn't really thought it through before speaking? But no, she knew that it wasn't, because she knew Daryl now too and if one didn't count the things he hid from her, he had never said anything that he hadn't meant to say.

He knew what he was saying and she was trying to decipher him because she knew that there was more to it. The way he was looking at her told her that he hadn't been holding back like he usually would and she knew that it was probably the most sincere thing that he would ever tell her. It made her feel things inside that she had never thought she would feel, but then again, she had always felt something for Daryl, hadn't she?

After Rick had told her that they'd been alone, she had wondered if Daryl might have had feelings for her, but maybe, she too had had feelings for him? Perhaps that was why she had felt an immediate draw to him?

She looked at him now, her hands feeling clammy all of the sudden and her heart still beating in her chest strongly. He was still gripping her wrist and she was sure that he could feel her pulse there, but she didn't mind. A part of her wanted him to know what he did to her, what he made her feel.

There was nothing to say because as usual, the only thing it took was a look and he understood. They didn't need words because their bond was growing stronger by the day and she was grateful for that.

So she smiled at him, as brightly as she could, wordlessly telling him that she was glad that she had him with her through everything and that he too would be worth waiting for. His lips twitched and for the first time, she wasn't surprised to see them turn up as he offered her the best half-smile he could muster.

For her, it was enough.

-§-

He hadn't hesitated when he had said it and he didn't regret saying it either.

Daryl continued to walk by Beth's side, his crossbow hung around his shoulders, their walk quiet because no more words needed to be said. He had wanted to tell her, if only to clarify, that what he meant was that she would be the one worth waiting for, but he knew that she understood him without him having to explain it to her.

She understood him better than most, even though she didn't remember anything from their past. She didn't know that she had been the first person he had told what he had been doing before the Outbreak, or rather what he didn't do. There had never been any judgment in her eyes when she had listened and afterward, she had merely told him that she wished that she too could change, like he had.

Now she had and she didn't even know how much or how little.

But he still saw her. Not only the girl she had been, but also the woman that she had become. Her growth had begun while they had been living in the prison together, but it wasn't just until they burned down the moonshine shack that he realized that she was no longer a little girl... Or maybe he had seen it before that too, but he hadn't wanted to admit it to himself? He still recalled that time when he hadn't been able to sleep, but her voice as she sung Judith to sleep had calmed him and given him some sense of inner peace. Even back then he had known that there was something special about the girl, but he had forbidden himself to think about her in any other way than just another person that he needed to protect from the horrors of the world. Then, they had been alone and all the things he might have begun feeling way back in the prison, the things that he had been suppressing for so damn long, just began bubbling up.

But not at first though.

No. He had hated her. Hated himself and the world and the Governor and everything that had to do with his miserable life that he somehow got to keep, while others who deserved to live, lost theirs. He had been so angry with everything that had happened that he had refused to talk to her and instead, he had wallowed in his own misery for as long as he could, while still keeping an eye on the girl because she had become his responsibility. If anything, he had figured that he owed Hershel as much as to take care of his daughter since he hadn't been able to do anything to save the old man's life.

That was what Beth had been at first: a debt he had wanted to settle.

And then things changed between them. He heard her crying over Peach Schnapps and the family he kept insisting was dead and he just knew that she, out of everyone, deserved better. So he took some risks and found her moonshine to drink, because at least that was something that he could help with. They had gotten drunk and he was an outright dick when he was lit and finally, his walls had broken down in front of the girl.

The shift happened mere seconds after that. He saw her for the first time in a new light when they sat there on the porch together, and he told her about the nobody he had been and the life he wished he could get away from. When she had looked at him and told him that he had done just that, gotten away, there had been something in her eyes that simply made him believe her. He believed every single word she said to him that night and that was when the stirrings turned into flutters.

As they had watched the shack burn to the ground, flipping off their past, the emotions inside of him had still been there and he wasn't sure that they ever went away. At the funeral home, when he had watched her play the piano and sing softly, the flutters had transformed into something much bigger that shook him to his core. Never in his life would he have ever thought that he would be able to feel such a thing for someone, much less for such a young woman like Beth. Never in his life would he ever have believed that he could deserve to even get to know someone like her. Yet, even before the little private concert that had lulled him to sleep for the first time in days, when they had stopped to place flowers on that grave, pretending that it was Hershel's... When she had laced their fingers together, he had squeezed back, offering her more comfort than he had ever offered anyone ever before.

That had been the moment he had known that he was screwed, even though he might not have wanted to admit it to himself.

She was there though; inside of him. In his head, in his bloodstream, in his heart. He would never be able to get rid of the feelings that he had tried so hard to keep from coming out and he had decided, after almost losing her again, that he would allow himself to at least feel them from a distance from now. If Beth ever hinted that she might feel the same for him as he did for her, he didn't know for sure what he would do, but he figured that he would take things one day at a time. That meant that he needed to be honest with her on some things, such as what he had just told her before. He knew that they had been growing closer and closer the last week, but there was also something about Beth that seemed a little different. At times, Daryl felt as if she was holding something back from him, though he couldn't pin-point exactly what it was. A part of him wanted to ask her about it, but he knew that whenever she was ready, she would come to him and talk about it, and just as he had told her: it would be worth waiting for.

-§-

After her walk with Daryl, Beth decided to seek out Morgan. The two of them had talked while she had been recovering, but it had always been brief for various reasons. She knew that he had been worried sick about her because he didn't want to lose her, just as she would have been for him if his life had ever been danger.

There had been times after she had dug herself out of her grave, after she had found out that the dead had risen and begun walking, tearing the living to shreds, that Beth had wondered if it would have been better for her to have just died. The few weeks in the beginning, before she had gotten to know Morgan, she had felt so lost and so alone and she just hadn't been sure that he would let her stick around with him purely because she had been so down. It was horrible, not knowing who you were or what your name was. Beth had been close to losing her mind once because she had tried to push herself to remember, but failed time and time and again. She had had nights when she had cried herself to sleep, silently because her damaged vocal cords wouldn't actually allow her to make any kind of noise and then she had had nights when she had wondered if the people who had buried her were still out there somewhere, mourning her.

Naturally, her relationship with Morgan had changed since then and she had grown to love the man so much that she didn't think she would ever be able to live without having him in her life somehow. It wasn't that she was dependent of him, but rather that she considered him her family now and she didn't think that family should ever be left behind.

Her chest ached when she thought of the pain her other family must have felt when they had thought that they had lost her. She couldn't imagine the hurt they must have gone through and she didn't even know the circumstances of her supposed death yet.

Beth wasn't sure that she even wanted to know.

"Hey, lil' Lady," Morgan said, throwing some firewood into a basket. "Your walk go okay?"

Beth nodded wordlessly, watching him as he went back to piling the wood into the basket, probably so that he could bring it inside to the pan in the basement.

"What brings you here?" Morgan asked after another moment of silence. "I figured you'd be thrilled to be able to walk around normally again. Not planning on going on a hunt or something with Daryl are ya?"

"Not yet," Beth sighed, shifting a little from one foot to the other. "I guess I just need to talk to you about something... I found something out and now I don't know what to do with it."

Morgan paused, placing the last piece of wood in the basket before turning back to her slowly. He wiped his hands on a rag that he had brought with him and then wiped away some sweat that had formed on his forehead. "You wanna take another walk or is here good for ya?"

"Here's good," Beth nodded, sitting down on the bench that they had in the backyard. Morgan sat down in front of her and clasped his hands together over the table.

"Everything alright?" he wondered, sounding a little worried. "You're not in pain or anything, are you?"

"No, it's not about my injuries," Beth said quickly, not wanting to get into that again since it seemed to be the only thing people asked her about lately. "It's Daryl."

She could feel her cheeks heating up at the mere mention of the other man, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Morgan. This was new territory for them and she didn't know if she was crossing a line, talking about this with him. She needed to talk about it though because she was going crazy, thinking about all the different scenarios that might occur if she approached Daryl about the two of them. Beth knew that Morgan had talked to Daryl once, maybe even twice, so she figured that he might be able to shed some light on the situation and give her advice. Up until today, his words of wisdom had always helped her when it came to making big decisions and she wholeheartedly hoped that they would do so again.

Morgan unclasped his hands and rubbed his palm against the small beard that had grown on his chin. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply before looking back at her again. "Has something happened between the two of you?"

Beth opened her mouth to reply, but closed it quickly, not really knowing what to say. Nothing had happened, but she kind of felt like she wanted something to happen. "No, Morgan. No," she shook her head. "Nothing's happened." She hesitated, "Would it be bad if it did?"

Morgan squinted his eyes and raised an eyebrow at her. "You're a grown woman, Beth," he told her. "You can make your own choices and I would stand by you no matter what you picked... Unless it's something that would make you risk your life." Beth smiled at that and looked down at her hands that were resting in her lap. "So what did you find out then?" Morgan asked.

"I knew that he was keeping something from me," Beth explained. "From the moment I talked to him, I just knew that there was more to the whole thing than what he was letting on."

"More to what thing?"

"Us," Beth clarified. "More to us, me and Daryl." She swallowed, looking up at Morgan again. "Rick let it slip that Daryl and I were alone for a while. The place we lived in was overrun and he and I got separated from everyone else. Everyone got separated..." she trailed off, trying desperately to remember more of that time, but she couldn't. The veil that always seemed to cloud her memories was still there, up like a wall to mock her for the things that she would probably never know. "We were alone and he never told me."

"And now you don't know whether you should confront him about it or not," Morgan finished for her, almost effortlessly.

Beth watched him before narrowing her eyes. "Why don't you sound surprised by all of this?" she asked, her voice coming out a little demanding, but Morgan remained impassive.

"Daryl may or may not have mentioned something about it once," Morgan shrugged. "It was a good while ago."

"You knew?" Beth gaped. "You knew and you never said anythin'?"

Morgan reached over and took her hand in his, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Beth," he said, a small smile playing on his lips. "We both know that it was better that you found out on your own, even though Rick was the one who told you. Daryl seems like the kind of man who wouldn't open up about such a thing too easily."

"Then why would he tell you?" Beth asked, squeezing his hand. "I've asked him so many times, Morgan. I've given him so many chances to tell me, and he hasn't. Why?"

"I think that is a question that only Daryl can answer," Morgan said.

Beth began tapping her foot against the ground, feeling her nerves tingle. She wanted to know but she didn't want to scare him away. Maybe, if she let things progress naturally between the two of them, he would one day bring it up himself and admit it to her? Perhaps they would one day be close enough that he would tell her and she would listen and then tell him that it was okay and that she wasn't mad at him for keeping it from her. Maybe one day, she would understand.

"Thank you, Morgan," Beth breathed out, brushing away strands of her hair that had fallen into her face.

"So what are you gonna do, Kid?" he asked her, making her roll her eyes.

"Didn't you just tell me I'm a grown woman? Now you're calling me a kid again," she pointed out.

Morgan huffed out a laugh and stood up, circling the bench before bending down to press a light kiss to the top of her head.

"No matter how grown up you are, I'll always see you as a kid..." he trailed, sounding a little hesitant then.

"I'll always be your kid," Beth smiled at him. "I may have had a father once, Morgan, but that doesn't mean that I can't have another father. It doesn't mean that you can't be a father for me too."

At her words, Morgan's worry seemed to ease away and he leaned down again, pressing another kiss to her hair. She reached around him and hugged him, smiling as she relaxed against him.

"Why did my life become so complicated suddenly?" she mused, resting her head against his chest when he sat down next to her.

"Never thought I would have to have a boy-talk with someone..." Morgan smirked.

Beth elbowed him, letting out a small giggle. "Daryl's a man," she corrected, "and it isn't like that."

"Mhm," he hummed, clearly not sounding convinced. "Well, he's a good man."

"He's not interested in me like that," Beth said, knowing that her blush was only deepening.

"None of my business anyway," Morgan shrugged. "Whatever it is that's going on...or isn't going on. I'm just saying that if there was, I would support you if it was your choice to pursue it. Life's short and the two of you obviously care about each other," Morgan said. "I'm not going to say anything else on the matter because I don't want to make the decision for you."

Beth stayed quiet, thinking about what Morgan had said. She knew that she had choices to make but she still didn't know what the best way to approach Daryl would be.

It wasn't until a bit later that she decided to just stick to her original plan. She would let things between them become whatever they became and let things go naturally. The last thing she needed was pressure on herself and she didn't want to pressure him either. They were in a good place right now and she didn't want to ruin it by making him uncomfortable. The best thing to do for now, was to not do anything at all.

-§-

Daryl grumbled as he brushed past Michonne in the hallway. The woman gave him a knowing look that he was trying his best to pretend that he wasn't seeing. He walked toward the end of the hallways where his and Beth's rooms were, stopping outside of Beth's before knocking lightly.

Beth had retired to her room a little earlier than normal, telling the rest of them that she had been having a headache all day long. From the months they had been on the farm together, Daryl and everyone else knew that she still got them sometimes as a remnant of being shot in the head so they didn't ask her anything about it. Still, it worried Daryl and the moment Beth's eyes had connected with his as she had gotten up from the dinner table, he had decided that he would be checking in on her before he went to bed himself.

He heard her call out that it was okay for him to come in and he opened the door, slipping inside and closing the door behind him without looking at Michonne, who he knew was still watching him. Beth was laying in her bed, hair loose around her shoulders, resting on her side. Her eyes remained focused on a small hole in her blanket that she was playing with and he took a small step closer to her bed.

"Ya feelin' better?" he asked her, his voice gruff. Beth's eyes moved over to him and he almost held his breath at the look she was giving him.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" she asked then, completely ignoring his question. Daryl felt his mouth open, but his words were lost as his grip on his crossbow tightened a little. "I've been havin' nightmares again and the last time we slept in the same room, I didn't have any."

Her pale cheeks were turning pink and he forced himself to meet those big blue eyes that always managed to leave him breathless.

Yet, he found himself replying, "I'll bring my shit over."

"No!" Beth said, making him stop. "I mean... You can lay down here... With me." He looked over at her again and watched, almost mesmerized as her cheeks darkened even more. If anything, he was certain that his own cheeks were turning red too.

He swallowed and nodded a few times, ever so slowly walking toward the bed– her bed. His hand moved up and he bit into his thumb, brushing the pad of it against his lips as he watched her for another moment, that felt like hours. She was looking up at him with that same look that she had been giving him the whole week; the look that told him that she had questions to ask but didn't know how to ask them.

"Move over," he instructed, lowering his crossbow to the floor before shrugging off his vest. "I can stay 'til ya fall asleep."

"I don't mind you sleeping with me," Beth told him. She shut her eyes tightly. "Damn. There must have been a better way to say that..."

Her little slip should have made him uncomfortable, but her own reaction to it made his lips twitch and a sound similar to a low chuckle escape his lips instead.

"Whatever ya want," he found himself saying. His response made her smile back at him and he once again wondered, just how many boundaries he was crossing with her at the moment.

How many boundaries they were crossing together.

He sat down first, toeing his boots off, not wanting to get her sheets dirty. At first he had intended to lay down on top of the covers, but Beth seemed to have another idea entirely when she moved to the side and lifted the cover for him to slip under. He eyed her briefly, searching her face for any kind of hesitation or second thoughts, but when he found nothing that indicated that she would regret her decision to invite him into her bed, he slipped under the covers, letting her cover him with it as he rested his head against the pillow that smelled so much like her.

He was tense, his hands resting on his sides, arms pressed tightly to his body, not knowing what to do with them. A thousand thoughts were running through his mind but he couldn't actually put any of them into words that he could understand. Somewhere in the back of his head, he could hear Merle cackling at him and he couldn't really blame his long dead brother for it, despite knowing that it was his imagination.

He felt suffocated all of the sudden. It felt as if the walls around him were closing in and his skin was on fire. He wanted to stay and he wanted to go and he just didn't know what he wanted anymore.

"Daryl?"

And that was that.

All it had taken was her whispering his name in a hesitant question. He turned toward her and met her eyes, his lips pressed tightly together as he stared at her. She was looking so worried, as if she wanted to know if she had pushed things too far and the hesitancy he could see there now made him feel sick. He didn't want to make her feel bad and he hated that she clearly couldn't relax because he was so on edge. Her small hand moved to his then and closed around it, her thumb brushing against the rough skin of his palm a moment before he closed his hand, grasping hers tightly.

Allowing himself to relax, finally, he realized that this was what Beth wanted. She wanted to have him there. He hadn't forced his way into her bed, but he had been invited. If she wanted him to leave, she would tell him and he would get out of there as fast as he could and never talk about it ever again.

But Beth didn't say anything.

Instead, after he had taken her hand in his, she had moved closer, moving his arm so that it rested around her shoulders as her head came to rest between his shoulder and his chest, close to the place where his heart was beating wildly inside of him.

When she exhaled, he could almost hear the smile on her lips and he found himself relaxing even more. She still held on to the hand that was now resting on her elbow, his arm wrapped around her, holding her close. Daryl didn't know for sure what it was that had prompted her to make such a bold move, but when the tension in his body slowly ebbed away, he decided that he didn't really mind all that much.

-§-

Beth felt warm all over.

With Daryl's arm wrapped around her, their fingers intertwined, her cold feet brushing against his warm ones, she had never felt more at home. She didn't know how much time had passed since she had gotten Daryl to lay down next to her, but she knew that everyone else in the house was probably already asleep. It was dark outside and her open window was letting the cold wind fill the room with fresh air, but she was still warm.

Daryl made her warm, she realized. Her stomach seemed to be making somersaults and her heart was hammering away. Whatever it was that was going on between them, Beth was just now starting to admit to herself that she wanted something to be going on.

Since she had found out that they had been alone, she had never longed to ask Daryl about it as much as she did in that moment. She knew that he wasn't asleep because his thumb kept brushing against her skin in slow, controlled movements, soothing her absentmindedly. But she couldn't just ask him now. There was no doubt in her mind that Daryl would just get up and leave the room without actually saying anything to her. Instead of saying anything, she found herself nuzzling a little closer to him, turning her head into the crook of his neck. She inhaled, breathing in the scent of him that she had gotten accustomed to by now. He smelled of cigarette smoke, some sweat and the forest and it was something she just loved about him because for some reason, it made her calm.

"Tell me another story," she whispered, her eyes fluttering shut briefly. "Tell me another story about the girl you knew, the girl you cared about."

Daryl's thumb stopped moving then, but his body didn't tense like it had when he had first laid down in her bed. "Why ya wanna know so much 'bout that girl?" he asked, his voice equally quiet.

"I feel like I know her," Beth said slowly, not knowing how else to explain it. "I just...I wanna know more about you and whenever you tell me about her..." she let the rest hang unspoken.

Silence filled her bedroom again but Beth waited patiently. Eventually, Daryl began stroking his thumb against her skin again, making her insides flare up as well.

"She deserved better than me," he told her, his voice still silent, but sure. "She deserved a hell of a lot better than me." Beth stayed quiet, not knowing what to say, which was good because Daryl clearly wasn't finished. There was a hint of bitterness and self-loathing in his tone when he spoke next, "I was old and damaged back then too. Scarred from a fucked up past that I never wanted no one to know 'bout... Told her 'bout it though. Now I'm still fucked up, old and damaged and she's–" Daryl cut himself off abruptly and made a sound that sounded like a forced intake of breath.

Beth tightened her grip on his hand and lifted herself up, looking down at him. He began turning his head away so that he wouldn't have to look at her, but she put her hand on his cheek and turned it back so that he was facing her again. His lips were still pressed into a hard line, eyes narrowed and icy, but she knew it wasn't directed at her. He was angry with everything else, not her.

"Daryl," she said, biting her lip, shaking her head a little. Her heart ached for him; for the way he seemed to doubt himself and hate himself but even more for the way he saw himself. She wished that he could see himself through her eyes instead because for her, he was the most amazing man she had ever met... Her memory loss didn't matter anything to her when it came to that because she was certain that she had never met a man more enticing than Daryl Dixon.

She didn't know for sure why he was keeping things from her, but she had suspected that it was because something might have happened between them in the past. Now, she was a little older and she was a new person entirely and she knew that what had been in the past didn't matter here, right now. All she knew was what she was feeling in this particular moment and she wanted him to see that too. He wasn't the only one who was fucked up.

"We all have scars," she told him, still cupping his cheek, making him meet her eyes before brushing her thumb against the skin there. "We all have stories."

He surprised her then by moving his other hand up to her cheek, hovering over the scar she had there. Beth could see that he was hesitating once again, so she tilted her head, closing her eyes as her cheek finally came into contact with his rough hand. Her move seemed to be the only sign he needed to know that it was okay for him to touch her there. His thumb brushed against the scar she had there on her cheek. After a few brushes, he moved his hand away and she opened her mouth to protest, but stopped short when she felt his finger brushing against the scar on her forehead instead. Her eyes opened slowly and she knew she was blushing when she was met full force by the intensity of his eyes boring into hers. His hand moved again, this time down. Two of his fingers rested under her chin and he slowly tilted her head up. She moved with him allowing him to see the scar she knew was there; the scar that had come from the gunshot that had made him and everyone else believe that she was dead. His finger touched it gently before sliding down the column of her throat, his hand coming to rest on the side of her neck. A warmth spread from the place where their skin was touching and Beth just couldn't take her eyes away from him.

They stayed like that, just staring at each other. Seconds, minutes maybe even hours passed and then Beth found herself moving impossibly closer to him, leaning down. His hand was still there, his thumb still brushing against the scar under her chin but Beth couldn't stop herself. The pull was magnetic and electrifying. He was setting her on fire and she found herself wanting to know if she would actually end up bursting into flames if she kissed him. Her eyes began fluttering closed as she moved closer, but before she could close the remaining gap between them, Daryl's hand moved again. This time, it ended up on her shoulder and her eyes shot up just in time to see him lean away from her. His move was so abrupt that it made her stop her advance, flushed and breathing just a little bit heavier. She was startled because she had thought that...

Oh God, what had she been thinking?

Daryl was staring at her, his eyes wide for only a moment before his eyebrows knitted together into a frown instead. His hand was still on her shoulder, but he didn't move to stand or to run out of the room. His other arm was still wrapped around her and she realized then that she was half laying on top of him, pretty much making it impossible for him to move away even if he wanted to.

She moved back a little and laid back down next to him, not daring to look at him just then. He didn't say anything and neither did she, but she wanted to so badly that it didn't take more than another moment for her to do so. If he had wanted to run, she figured he would have done so. Or at least, he would have let go of her hand that was still very much tangled with his.

"You were there, weren't you?" she asked him. Finally, she looked up at him again. "When I was shot, I mean. You were there, right?"

Beth felt like she had known it for a while, but the way he had touched that particular scar, which such tenderness, despite his eyes being hard, as if he was remembering just how she had gotten it had confirmed it for her.

Barely noticeably, Daryl nodded.

After that, they both seemed to relax again. It was out there now, at least some of it and it made Beth feel a little lighter again.

"The girl you cared about," Beth said when she was once again settled with her head in the space between his shoulder and his chest.

"What 'bout her?" Daryl asked, his chest rumbling beneath her.

"She would have been the luckiest girl in the world to have you," she told him, glancing up at him again. He was looking down at her with something else now, but Beth knew better than to push her luck too much. Although, what was this life without taking some small risks?

She leaned up quickly and pressed her lips to his cheek, lingering for a moment before pulling away. Meeting his eyes, she offered him a small smile before laying back down again, her hand coming to rest over his heart. She allowed herself to pretend that the kiss she had just placed on his cheek was the reason that his heart seemed to be beating just a little faster than it usually did. The arm that he had wrapped around her tightened just briefly and his hand moved up and down her arm then before his fingers began playing with the ends of her blonde strands. Beth smiled to herself, nuzzling closer to him, her legs tangling with his as she once again took a deep breath, knowing that her nightmares wouldn't plague her tonight.

Note: Ooh, tension, tension, tension and a cheek kiss! And yes, they did sleep in the same bed together too! The next chapter is definitely one of my favorites though and then everything pretty much goes to hell in chapter 22. But for chapter 21 I have three little spoiling words: Tattoos, tension and touching.

Why don't you think about it for a moment and then tell me what you thought about this chapter. It might just inspire me to write the next chapter faster so that you'll get another update on Monday?

Thank you so much for reading and supporting me! I would be nothing without you guys! xx