I started this chapter a couple of days ago. It's been snowing here all day and if my dogs aren't playing in it, they're sleeping. I baked a cake and was feeling relaxed and lazy so decided to finish this one up. I hope you like it. I think this is another story that's going to be around thirty chapters.

…

Even if Daryl wants to walk away, he can't. Beth's been holding his hand ever since they got to the hospital and she won't let it go and wherever she goes, he goes, too. Not that he even thinks about pulling away. He isn't going to this time. This time, he's going to stay right here because Beth needs him and Matty needs him and he needs them.

Since Otter was able to get the kid awake on the field, Matty hasn't gone back to sleep since. Doctors have been shining flashlights in his eyes, checking on his pupils, and asking him all kinds of questions. What month is it? Do you know the year? Who's the President of the United States? "He won't know that," Beth tells them when Matty's brow wrinkles at that one. What's the last thing you remember doing? What state do you live in?

And on and on it goes for nearly fifteen minutes. Daryl stands there in the room, the kid looking so little in that big hospital bed , wishing the doctor would just shut up but knowing that the doctor is just being careful and thorough and Daryl can't help the man for that. Matty had taken a bad hit out there and the last thing they want is some damage to have been done to him without them detecting it until it's too late.

"Good," the doctor smiles and pats Matty on the shoulder. "I'm going to talk with your mom and dad outside in the hall and we'll all be right back."

Everyone else is in the room, too – Hershel, Annette, Shawn, Maggie and Glenn – but no one, not even Beth and Matty, has a reaction to the doctor's statement and Daryl finds that he doesn't either. He's actually been missing it like crazy – being around them enough for people to be making that assumption about him.

"We'll stay and keep you company, Matty," Maggie smiles at her nephew as she and Glenn settle themselves into two of the chairs beside his bed.

For the first time since getting there, Beth lets go of Daryl's hand. She leans over, kissing Matty on the head and hugging him, whispering something in his ear.

And then, together with Hershel, Annette and Shawn, Daryl and Beth stepped out into the hallway with the doctor, Shawn closing the door to the room so Matty couldn't hear. Daryl feels a knot in his stomach as he waits for the doctor to tell them. He knows Beth doesn't want Matty playing football but the kid loves it and he's so damn good at it and Daryl wonders if Matty is going to have a next season. He obviously has no say in it whatsoever but he knows what Beth will want and he knows what Matty will want. It all depends, Daryl supposes, on the words this man in front of them says next.

"Matty has a mild concussion," the doctor informs them without any sort of prelude.

"Oh my god," Beth breathes out and Daryl finds himself lifting his hand and resting it on her upper back, near the back of her neck, wanting her to know that he's right there, and he feels her leaning back into him slightly for support.

"Is he going to be alright?" Hershel asks.

"Head injuries are a tricky thing," the doctor tells them. "Some people feel normal again in a few hours. Others have symptoms for weeks or months. Because of his age, I'm going to want to keep Matty overnight for observation."

"What do I need to do for him?" Beth asks.

"When you get him home, make sure he takes it easy. He needs time to recover. Plenty of sleep at night. Avoid activities that are physically or mentally demanding. And then I'm going to give you a pain medication to help with his headaches," the doctor answers.

"What about football?" Shawn asks and Beth shoots a glare instantly towards her brother.

"It's a good thing his season's done because he definitely wouldn't be able to play again," the doctor says, looking to Beth. "But, as I said, it's a mild concussion and after a few months, if he checks out to be perfectly fine again and he wants to play next season…"

"We'll talk about that later," Annette answers for Beth. "Thank you, doctor."

"Yes," Beth sighs. "Thank you for everything."

The doctor smiles warmly and shakes Beth's hand and then holds out his hand towards Daryl and he shakes it, giving the man a head nod as well. After shaking Annette and Shawn's hands and promising to Beth that he'll be back in a couple of hours to check once more on Matty, he turns and with Hershel, they begin walking away down the hall, the two older men speaking quietly with one another.

Once it's just them in the hall once more, Beth smacks Shawn on the back of the head.

"Ow," Shawn lets out a yelp and frowns at her.

But Beth doesn't say anything as she turns and goes back into Matty's room.

…

It's late. Daryl actually has no idea what time it is but he figures it's late because it's pitch black outside and the hospital is pretty much silent around them.

He and Beth are the only ones left. The others had stayed for as long as they could before Beth pushed them out the door, telling them to go home and get rest and they could come to her apartment tomorrow and see Matty once he's home again.

Matty's been asleep for a couple of hours now, Beth sitting in a chair next to the bed, dozing but never giving herself entirely over to sleep, and Daryl's sitting in another chair, watching the television on a low volume, the station turned to an all-night Cops marathon but he's hardly watching it. Instead, every few minutes, he'll look to Beth and Matty then to Beth again before looking to the television and then back to Beth once more.

He has so much he has to talk to her about but he doesn't even know where to start. How can he explain to her everything that he's going through or has gone through or feels towards her? He's never talked about any of this stuff to anyone and he doesn't even know how to talk about it. How can he just open his mouth and say all of this stuff to Beth? He doesn't want her to know most of what's happened to him. He doesn't want this girl to know about his childhood and his dad and even though he'll show her, he doesn't want her to know the stories behind his scars either.

He wants to keep everything a secret but he knows he can't because he wants her. He's missed her so damn much over the past few weeks and he knows that if he wants to ever be with her again – even have a shot of being with her again – he can't just keep his mouth shut around her. Not anymore. The first time around, he was so ready to change and be different for both Beth and Matty but he got scared and ran away and he can't do that again. He doesn't want to. He's ready. This time, when he says he wants to change, he means it because being without these two in his life, that isn't an option anymore.

His eyes go back to her. He knows nothing's going on with her or Shane no matter what she had implied to him. He knows that she was just trying to piss him off and hurt her and it had worked – at the moment. But he knows. He knows Shane was just flirting like Shane always does so Daryl would see and get off his ass. Beth's beautiful but that's not all she is. She's good and kind and only an idiot would have her and not keep her.

And that's exactly what he's going to do. He's going to get off his ass.

He shifts in his chair and the movement causes Beth to turn her head and look at him.

"You can go home if you want," she speaks softly. "You don't have to stay."

Daryl doesn't waste a second in shaking his head. "I ain't goin' anywhere."

As soon as he says the words though, he knows they're not the words to say. He has said those words to her – right before he left. And the way Beth stiffens slightly and immediately moves her eyes from him back to Matty, he knows that she remembers, too. Not that he had expected her to forget. He hurt her worse than any other time he had hurt her this past year and he has no idea how to fix this.

But talking to her about everything might be a good start.

"You wanna get some coffee?" Daryl asks, sitting up straight in his chair.

Beth instantly shakes her head like he knew it would. "I don't want to leave him."

Daryl nods and stands up. "I'll get some coffee and bring it back," he offers.

Beth looks back to him. "Thank you," she said and she is able to give him a soft smile and he finds himself rooted to the spot, staring at her.

He knows he never wants to be away from her again – not even to go to the cafeteria and get them coffee.

"My dad used to beat the shit out of me," he blurts out bluntly and Beth's eyes widen at his sudden announcement and hell, even he's taken aback by it.

She doesn't say anything to that – not that he's expecting her to because he's just completely blindsided her and even if he hasn't, what the hell does a person say to that?

He exhales a held breath. "I didn' wan' you feelin' all my scars. I got a lot of 'em."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Beth finally speaks, asking in a near-whisper.

Daryl shrugs and doesn't answer for a moment and he realizes he's staring at the corner of the room above her head rather than at her. Exhaling another breath, he forces himself to move his eyes down and he finds that she's looking right at him and no one else. And he can't just shrug anymore. Not with her.

"Didn' wan' you feelin' things like that. Your hands are too good for that," he struggles to explain because it sounds so much better in his head and makes so much more sense and right now, he feels like all he's doing is spewing out words that don't make any sense when they're strung together.

Maybe he should have just kept quiet about the whole fucking thing and never said anything at all in the first place – especially when Beth is quiet and doesn't say anything.

He looks away from her again and wonders if he should just go home. But no. He can't do that. He's not leaving this hospital until Beth and Matty are with him. He's said it before but he means it this time more than anything he's ever said at any other time in his life.

This time, he's really not going anywhere.

Beth slowly stands up from her chair and he watches as she leans in and kisses a sleeping Matty on his head, taking a moment to brush hair back from his forehead. She then straightens and turns towards Daryl.

"Let's go get a cup of coffee," she says and she slides her hand into his.

The second he feels that, Daryl grasps it tightly, not giving her a chance to pull it away.

…

The cafeteria is empty at this late hour except for a couple of nurses sitting at their own table, drinking cups of coffee and having a quiet conversation. Daryl follows Beth to the machine and she fills two paper cups of coffee. She turns and hands him one, knowing that he takes his coffee black and he waits as she fills her with sugar and cream.

He glances to the clock as they sit down at a table. It's just a little after midnight.

Sitting across from him, Beth sips her coffee and he doesn't know what else to do so he takes a sip from his own even though he really doesn't want any. He can't move his eyes away from her; as if afraid that if he does, he'll look back and she really won't be there.

She's wearing her green Gators sweatshirt still and her hair is pinned up its braid with a few strands coming loose and she has slight bags under her eyes but damn it all if she still isn't so beautiful, he can hardly understand how he gets this girl to sit across from him.

"You hurt me so much, Daryl," Beth speaks just as suddenly as he had spoken back in Matty's room. Daryl stares at her, having not exactly expected her to talk first but he's glad she has because he knows she has a lot to say. "I don't think you realize just how much."

"'m sorry," he tells her in a soft voice but just because it's soft doesn't mean it's sincere. He's so sorry towards her and everything he did, it actually aches in his chest.

But Beth's not done and he doesn't expect her to be.

"I told you that I love you. I told you that I have trust issues. And then within minutes, you just walk away like none of it mattered to you," she lets him have it and he sits there and doesn't try to stop her. Why should he? He deserves it.

"I don' like showin' my scars," he then tries to explain but it sounds weak even to his ears. It's true. No one ever sees his scars. Even he tries to avoid catching glimpses of them in the mirror but this is Beth and she's become everything good and different in his life and if there's anyone he can show them to, it's her. He should know that. He knows that.

"You could have stayed and told me that, Daryl," Beth points out and it sounds so damn easy and logical, of course he hadn't gotten that the first time. "We could have talked. But you chose to just walk away from me and I am sick and tired of seeing your backside."

He lowers his eyes guiltily to the table. What the hell can he say to any of this? There's pretty much nothing he can say in any of this that would be a defense. He has no excuse for his actions. He's just an idiot son-of-a-bitch and Beth knows that about him now. And he doubts this idiot son-of-a-bitch will ever get another shot with her.

"Did you think I would judge you for it?" Beth asks and Daryl almost flinches at that.

Yes.

He doesn't have to answer the question but the word hangs heavily between them because they both know that that is exactly what he had thought. And not only is he a son-of-a-bitch now but he's also a dick. But he's always been a dick – no matter how badly he wants to change and tries to change. He just can never seem to be able to and he's so tired of it. He can just imagine how sick and tired of it Beth is.

"You really don't know me at all if you thought I would," Beth then says softly, sadly, and his eyes jerk up to look at her again.

"That ain't it, Beth," he's quick to tell her and can only hope that she believes him this time even though she has no reason to. "I didn' wan' you to know 'bout 'em 'cause they don't belong anywhere near you."

Beth's brow crinkles at that and he knows he's not making any sense.

He shakes his head. "You come from this lovin' family who would do anythin' for you and you bake cupcakes for a livin' and you have an awesome kid and you're an awesome mom and everything's that happened to me, it's jus' too dark of shit to touch you."

Beth shakes her head slowly. "But everything that's happened to you, it's part of you, Daryl. And I love you." She exhales a shaky breath and takes a sip of her coffee. "I don't know if you'll ever understand…" she then says like an afterthought; as if she's saying it more to herself than to him. "We get close and everything is going so well and you just leave. You always leave and me and Matty aren't going to just wait around for you to come back."

"I know," his eyes lower to the coffee cup between both of his hands. He's not surprised that he's lost them this time. He's walked away from them one too many times and what did he expect? He feels his throat drop and settle down in his stomach. "'m sorry, Beth," he says again and looks back to her, finding that she's already staring at him. "'m not used to havin' someone in my life who wants me to stick around in theirs."

Beth doesn't say anything to that. She looks at him and her lips purse together and those big eyes of hers are looking at him, so damn sad. She doesn't say anything else though.

She takes another sip of coffee and then stands up. Daryl's not too sure what to do so he stands up, too. She has walked to the entrance door of the cafeteria and then she stops, looking over her shoulder, clearly waiting for him. Daryl doesn't hesitate in walking to her and together, side by side, they walk back to Matty's room.

…

Everyone in town knows that Matty got hurt so when Beth hangs a sign on the door of Beth's Bakery, announcing that there are new shorter hours for the time being. Everyone understands and over the next few days, the mailman is busy delivering cards and packages to Beth and Matty's apartment and the flower delivery man has their address memorized by the second day.

Hershel and Annette are over every day, watching Matty when Beth does have to go to the bakery for those few hours a day, sitting with Matty and making sure that he takes it easy – even though he does nothing except lie on the couch and watch movies or play with his train-set in his bedroom. Beth has called him in sick for a couple of days and the school, of course, absolutely understands. Football injuries, unfortunately, are nothing out of the ordinary in this school district.

And Daryl comes over after work, too. On Monday, he hadn't planned on it. He still isn't too sure where he stands with Beth. They were able to talk and he has apologized but he's still not sure. He can't expect Beth to forgive him. Even this perfect girl has her limits and he's probably pushed her so far past them, she can't even see them anymore.

But when he comes up the stairs after work on Monday, there's a post-it on his door and he stops in mid-step the instant he sees it on his door. It's not yellow. It's a pale blue and it's not asking him for dinner. All it says is Come Over? and he doesn't even think about it. What is there to think about? He turns for her door instead of his and knocks.

It opens a minute later and it's Matty. Daryl smiles a little when he sees him and Matty smiles a little, too.

"Hey, kid," Daryl greets as Matty steps back and opens the door wider for Daryl to come in. Otter is there, sniffing at his boots.

"Hey, Daryl," Matty says, still smiling up at him and Daryl is so damn grateful that this kid is smiling up at him again though he knows he owes Matty an apology, too.

"How you feelin'?" He asks as he closes the door behind him.

"I'm fine. It's mama that's not feelin' good," Matty says and Daryl almost smiles a little at that as he follows the boy into the kitchen where Beth is standing at the stove, stirring something in a large stock pot.

"I'm feeling fine, Matthew," Beth responds to the comment she had overheard. "I'm not the one who was in the hospital."

Matty looks back to Daryl and doesn't say anything but he doesn't need to. His expression pretty much says it all. See? He seems to ask Daryl and Daryl doesn't say anything. He just kind of smirks and looks to Beth.

"Thanks for invitin' me over," he says and she nods.

"Thank you for coming," she says. "My parents were here but they had a church council meeting they had to get to and I thought… I thought it could just be the three of us tonight."

Daryl's pretty sure he's never heard anything better than that.

…

They eat a beef and vegetable soup that Beth has made with slices of thick cornbread and for the first time in weeks that they've been eating dinner together, they don't talk about football. The Gators lost the championship against the Bulldogs but that doesn't matter to them. It will matter next season – if Matty and Beth make the decision to let him play again – but for now, talk is about Beth's cupcakes and work at the garage and Christmas lists.

Daryl has never celebrated Christmas. He's never gotten a present in his entire life on the day and has always spent the day in the woods and to him, Christmas has just always been another day in his life. He can't help but wonder what it will be like this year. He wants to buy presents for Beth and Matty but he doesn't know if he should. He doesn't know if he has that right. But even if they're not anything, he can still buy them presents. Can't he?

He had spent weeks trying to pick out the best present for Matty's birthday and before that, he had wandered around a department store for nearly an hour, trying to find the perfect thing for Beth. He knows he'll be doing that again. Hell. He already has a card to that damn department store and they're always mailing him coupons. He'll go back and buy presents for both Matty and Beth and no matter what he and Beth are, he'll do this.

After dinner and helping carry his bowl to the sink, Matty – with Otter – go to the living room where there is some special dinosaur program on television that he's been waiting for all day and Daryl stays in the kitchen, helping Beth clean up and put away leftovers and he wants to close his eyes because this is what they did together for a while before he fucked it all up and now he's back and he can hardly believe it.

He just wonders how long he'll be allowed to be back for before Beth comes to her senses.

…

Matty goes to bed and Daryl watches two episodes of Cupcake Wars from Beth's couch and his arm's not around her shoulders and he can't smell the chocolate scent in her hair but they're close enough where he can feel the heat coming from her body. He sits there and he's so glad to be sitting there once again but he finds himself hating himself because he left and if he hadn't, he'd be able to hold her and then they'd be able to go to bed and his arms could keep being around her and he could bury his nose in her hair and everything in his life would just be so fucking perfect.

But it's not because he can't let himself have anything good in his life.

He wonders if this will just be his story for ever. He goes along day to day, just working and hunting and keeping to himself and it's always the same. But then something good happens to him and he lets it stay good for a while but then he freaks out and is sure to run away from it and he messes everything up because that's what he does and he doesn't know if it will ever change for him even though he knows he really wants it to change. He finally knows what he wants for sure in this life and it's this woman next to him and that kid sleeping in his bedroom down the hall.

"Oh my gosh," Beth comments as the winner on the show is announced. "I was not expecting that. I mean, it's red velvet. There's nothing special about red velvet." She leans forward and takes the remote control from the television, muting it before the next program can begin.

"Yeah," Daryl comments. "I've noticed that you don't bake 'em."

Beth smiles at him. "You've noticed?" She teases him. "What do you know about cupcakes, Daryl Dixon?"

And he smiles because this feels so good to have her joking with him. He shrugs. "Jus' thought red velvet was a popular thing to bake."

"It is, "she turns towards him so she's facing him. "I just think the only special thing is the cream cheese frosting and I love cream cheese frosting so I make other things to put it on."

"Don't think I like red velvet either," he comments.

"You've never had red velvet?" She asks and rests her elbow on the back of the couch and her head in her hand, her eyes settled on him.

He doesn't feel uncomfortable though. He forces himself not to be. This is what he's supposed to do. He's supposed to talk with this girl instead of just walk out because he wants her to get to know him. That may change the more she finds out but for now, she's asking him questions and he'll be damned if he just walks out again. If he doesn't want to tell her something, he can just tell her and hopefully, she'll drop it and move onto something else. He has to trust her to do that.

Daryl shakes his head. "'ve never had a lot of things."

Beth is quiet and he wonders what she's thinking. "Well," she says after a moment. "You're not missing that much," she says with a small smile.

His lips twitch a little, too. "I trust you," he says and he doesn't mean just about stupid red velvet cupcakes and he hopes she knows that.

But she's Beth and she does and she smiles at him. He thinks about leaning in right then and kissing her but he doesn't because he has knows they're not there yet; if they'll ever be there again and even though being with her here on her couch once more feels so good to him and he's so grateful for that, he still feels a slight ache at the idea of never having her in any kind of intimate way ever again.

His hands itch to touch her but he can't do that either and he makes sure his hands stay on his thighs and nowhere else.

"You know what else I've never had?" He asks.

"What?" Beth asks and she's already smiling at just the idea of him telling her something.

"I ain't never had a Friends episode on my TV," he says and Beth seems to instantly gasp.

"What are you talking about?" She asks and seems to be horrified at that. "Daryl, they show reruns on a least five different channels."

He shrugs and smiles a little. "Not really a big watcher of television unless I'm over here."

She looks at him for a moment and then without a word, she pulls herself from the couch and he watches as she hurries to the television. Kneeling down and reaching onto the shelf beneath the TV, she then pulls out a box.

"This is the entire series," she informs him, turning towards him. "We'll watch two tonight. First, we'll start with the pilot just so you can get to know the characters and the general show and then we'll watch my favorite episode of the entire series. The one where no one's ready," she says and laying the box on the coffee table, she opens it and takes out the first disc and Daryl just smiles a little to himself because his night with her gets to go on for a little bit longer.

…

She walks him to the door at the end of the night as she always used to do before he started spending his nights over here.

"I've been meaning to tell you," she says just as he steps over the threshold into the hallway and he turns back k towards her. She gives him a smile – almost a shy one. "I really like your haircut. I liked it long but I like it like this, too."

Getting his haircut had been so damn random and something he had honestly just done because he needed to do something to keep his mind off of the girl and her kid across the hall. Rick and Shane have their usual barber and Daryl went to go see him after work one night. He usually doesn't give a shit about his hair or keeping it that neat but that night, for some reason, he just wanted to cut it and get it the hell off his neck and face.

"Thanks," he says as he scratches the back of his head. He feels embarrassed for some reason but it's just hair and Beth likes it so he doesn't know why he would. "Thanks for invitin' me over tonight," he changes the subject.

"Thank you for coming," she says in return.

He hesitates for another moment and he knows he's waiting for Beth to invite him over the next night after work but he knows she probably won't. She probably doesn't even know herself and won't know until tomorrow when she's seconds away from putting a post-it on his door, asking him for dinner.

All he can do is wait and hope.

"Good night, Daryl," she then says, breaking through his thoughts.

"G'night," he's able to say and again, that's the only thing he can do because he just wants to lean down and kiss her and he just can't do that. They're right back to square one even after everything they've been through and he's a dick and it's his fault and he should be grateful that she even invited him back in her apartment and he is because he didn't expect that to ever happen again.

But she has invited him back in and he's grateful for that and if this is all they have from now on, he'll be more than happy with that because he doesn't even deserve to have that and he'll just shove everything more he wants deep down inside where it will never come out. He's good at keeping things a secret and just ignoring it.

They're back to the beginning and it's his fault and who knows if they'll ever move past it. All he can do from now on is just take each day and answer any questions she has and makes sure she never sees his backside again.

…

He barely sleeps and when he wakes up the next morning, he feels like he hasn't even slept a minute of the night before. He takes a quick shower and gets dressed in his usual jeans and tee-shirt he wears to work every day and grabs his plaid shirt and leather jacket on the way out the door. Thank God Martinez makes a pot of coffee in the garage every morning because he definitely needs something that will wake him up.

He opens the door and nearly steps on a small box right outside his door before he pulls his foot back and looks down at it. It's a familiar box. A small brown plain box. He lifts it up and flips the lid open and when he sees what's inside, he exhales a deep breath and he suddenly feels completely wide awake.

Inside, there's one red velvet cupcake.

…

I actually love writing Beth's POV in this story so I'm excited to write her again in the next chapter.

Thank you so much for reading and please review!