**MILD WARNINGS: Reference to minor character deaths.
They buried their dead, as they always did. First just Abraham, after Tara and Maggie had managed to gently guide Rosita away from where she was tugging uselessly at the man's shirt, as if she could pull him back to life. It had broken Beth's heart all over again to see that strong woman like that, so heartbroken and lost. She hadn't even been sure if Rosita loved Abraham or not; the pair of them always seemed to be so open about some aspects of their relationship, and so private about others. Looking at Rosita now, Beth had no doubt that the woman had cared for him, loved him even. Her face was that of a woman who had lost a part of who she'd become.
Seeing Rosita like that only made Beth want to cling more to Daryl, who for his part apparently felt the same way, judging by the fact that he hadn't left her side since they'd been reunited. (Since he'd whispered those words just for her and sent her heart racing, like it just wanted to fly right out of her chest and into the blue sky above.) He stayed beside her as she checked Abraham's body and confirmed he was dead, and it was Daryl's hand that smoothed down her back when she began to tremble at the sound of Rosita's pained cries. It was Daryl who took his own knife and carefully, gently, eased it into the man's skull to ensure he didn't turn, even as Beth looked away and fought back tears.
Daryl also came with her to check on Father Gabriel, who was only just clinging to life. Beth knew what he needed. She knew what most of them probably needed, when it came to the end, but especially the priest. Absolution, and peace. Beth had leaned down and whispered into the dying man's ear: "May the lord protect you and lead you to eternal life..." This time, she was the one to drive the blade in deep, to stop the man from resurrecting.
Outside, Rick and Tyreese and Glenn dug a grave for the bodies as Daryl and Beth helped carry the Father out and lay him beside Abraham. It was only when she raised her hand to wipe her face that Beth realized she was still covered in dirt and blood. The sight of it red and smeared across her hand made her remember the wet heat of it spraying across her face and the thick coppery scent in her nose. When she began to tremble, Daryl was right there as always. He carefully poured some of his bottle of water onto a rag and began to wash away at her face, cleaning away the blood as she stood there with her eyes shut. Letting him take care of her.
Her hand reached out to find his free hand and her fingers curled around his wrist to anchor herself, the thrum of his pulse beneath the pads of her fingers echoing the rhythm of her own heart until her breaths evened out to match it. There was so much she wanted to say to him, but she knew it wasn't the right time. At least Beth knew that he'd seen it all in her eyes, when he'd cupped her face and whispered that he loved her. She hadn't had a chance to say it back (she could have, but it meant more to her than a rushed whisper when they were about to get interrupted), but she knew he didn't need her to just then. He'd just needed to look into her eyes and see that same emotion shining back at him.
Besides, that moment had been his. Beth had never thought that he'd be the one to put that into words first, and yet he had. Not only had the words been meaningful all on their own, but it had meant so much more because Daryl had been the one to whisper them first, sending a thrill through her, warming her like nothing had ever been able to on that level ever before. Beth would have been content to never hear him say it, to just spend her life seeing it in his eyes. But he'd said it, and it had been more than she ever could have imagined.
Her heart had sang the words back to him and she knew he'd heard it, even if she hadn't had time to say it out loud before the group was gathering around them and breaking up the moment. The little squeeze he had given to her hand though had been their reassurance that he understood there would be time, later.
Now as he did his best to clean the blood from her face, Beth opened her eyes and gave him a soft, sad smile. She wished she could have this moment without the sadness, but there days, it all seemed to so frequently go hand in hand; the good and the bad. Sometimes the sadness seemed unavoidable, and yet Beth couldn't help but think that the sad moments only made the good ones stand out more. Not that she would say that now, when the sadness was so fresh, when Rosita was standing broken behind her.
Daryl's thumb brushed her cheek and Beth sighed as she held his gaze for a long moment, reading the love and reassurance she could see in his eyes that she knew was matched in her own. It was another moment of wishing she could wrap themselves up in a bubble, seal them off from the rest of the world, even just for a little while. But of course, they couldn't.
"Alright." Rick's voice broke the moment, followed by the clang of one of the shovels they'd found behind the cabin, and Beth turned to see him climbing out of the hole he and Tyreese and Glenn had helped dig. It took just a few moments for them to move the bodies into the graves. They had nothing to wrap them in, but at least they would be buried in the way they deserved. They only stopped long enough for Rick to gently pull the dog tags off Abraham's neck and hand them silently to Rosita.
When it was done and the dirt covered their grave in a small mound, the group stood around in a loose circle, holding hands or each other, finding reassurance and comfort in the nearness of their family. The truth was, moments like these were for them more than anything else. For the survivors, rather than the lost. Though their dead deserved the memorial, their living needed it to survive, needed those moments of remembrance and humanity.
Beth, standing with Daryl's arm around her back, wondered if anyone was going to speak, if perhaps Rick was going to say words. Instead the man looked up at her, holding her gaze for a moment before he asked simply, "Beth?"
She understood.
Daryl's hand shifted, his fingers lacing through hers just as they had months ago, standing in front of that gravestone marked Beloved Father. With memories of her Daddy and the others they'd lost heavy in her mind, Beth sang in a soft, clear voice: "Morning Star lights the way; restless dream all done; shadows gone, break of day, life has just begun. Every tear wiped away, pain and sickness gone; wide awake there with Him! Peace goes on and on! Going home, going home, I'll be going home. See the Light! See the Sun! I'm just going home..."
Her voice trailed into silence and for a few moments they just stood there, remembering men they had known for what wasn't a very long period of time in the great scheme of it all, but men who were still important, who still mattered, who had still had their lives cut short. Men who had deserved more.
Eventually they all drew away from the grave to give Rosita a little privacy. Beth noticed that Maggie stayed by her side, and the way Rosita clung to her arm implied the woman didn't want her to leave, but Tara drew away after a moment, limping towards her.
"C'mere," Beth said instantly, pulled from her grief by the sight of Tara injured. In the rush, she'd almost forgotten that the woman had been injured during their big fight. In a second she had guided the woman into sitting and then she was on her knees, helping to roll up her pant leg to get a look of her wound.
"Do you think I'll be able to keep the leg, Doctor?" Tara's weak joke brought Beth's daddy to her mind in a sharp and painful flash, but she bit back a sharp reply. Tara wouldn't really have known. She couldn't have known. Besides, with the weight of Daryl's hand on her shoulder for a moment it was easier to dismiss.
"You should be okay. Looks like we're mostly holding to our streak when it comes to graze wounds." For a second, her gaze flickered to the mound of dirt in front of her, and she faltered, thinking they hadn't really been so lucky today. Daryl's squeeze to her shoulder and the sight of the bleeding wound in front of her brought her back down after a few seconds, though, and she pushed those thoughts away to focus on Tara.
As she worked to clean the wound with a bottle of water that Daryl handed her, Beth saw Rick crouch down on his haunches in front of her. "How did this happen? How did all of it happen?"
Beth darted a gaze to Michonne, but the woman only raised an eyebrow, apparently judging that Beth was perfectly fit to tell the story herself. Though she still felt odd, taking on the leadership role even in a minor way, Beth wasn't going to be silly and protest. In a low but sure voice as she worked to clean and wrap Tara's wound, Beth did her best to tell the story of what had happened in the woods. She kept it short, but gave the details she knew the others would want; about how they'd hid in the woods and laid a trap, playing on what the hunters would have expected them to do. As she spoke more of the men had gathered around, curious to hear. Some of the women joined in, too, telling Rick how they'd pretended to be scared, how Beth had shown them how to rub dirt into their skin and hair to help them hide. For a moment all their talk made her duck her head, and she wondered if this was how Daryl had felt, when the people at the prison had treated him like a hero; this odd mix of pride and yet embarrassment, all mixed together.
"So that's why you're all dirty!" Carl exclaimed, in a tone that made it clear he'd been wondering but hadn't wanted to ask.
For the first time, Beth found herself faintly smiling, and as she tucked the last bit of the makeshift bandage in against Tara's leg, she joked carefully back, "What did you think, we went rolling around in it for fun, out there?"
She rose to her feet and stretched, working out kinks in her muscles before she shrugged. "We would have stood out, otherwise." Her gaze flicked to Daryl, and a faint smile tugged at her lips. "Someone told me once that I'm like a beacon in the woods, with my hair and skin. Luckily, he also taught me how to remedy it."
"You did real good, Beth." Rick rose to his feet slowly and tipped his head to her. "I mean it, honestly. You all were amazing, but it was real smart thinking, acting like you did and setting a trap like that."
Beth was really never sure what to do with compliments. On the one hand, it pleased her to be complimented for something she felt good at, something other than just taking care of Judith. But beyond the polite thanks that her Mama and Daddy had raised her to give, she was never quite sure what to do. All she had done out there was what she'd had to do, what any of them would have tried to do in the face of a life struggle. In the end she was almost like Daryl again as she hunched her shoulders and gave a quiet thanks, though she did smile a little as she added, "I had a good teacher."
She didn't even have to look at Daryl to sense the smile on his lips. Instead, she reached behind her as she added, "We made sure to grab all their weapons and ammo, so we should be better equipped now. Got all the rifles, shotguns, a couple of them had knives too. And..." She pulled the small compound bow off her back and held it out for just a moment, before she said, "I was thinking this might be good for Carl, actually."
Beth knew the idea was a good one the moment she saw Carl light up and instantly reach for it, before he stopped to look at his Dad. Trying to help, Beth went on, "It'd be easier for him to draw than a crossbow, and I think it's about the right size... And the guy had a nice quiver of arrows, too." She looked at Daryl and raised an eyebrow, silently asking for his opinion.
"S'good size for the kid," Daryl said in his normal rough voice, though his eyes shown a bit teasingly at the word 'kid'. "Wouldn't have tried him on a crossbow, but he could learn to use this."
Carl looked ridiculously pleased at the words, and Beth knew all that was holding him back was waiting for his Dad. Sure enough, as soon as Rick gave him a nod, Carl went lunging for it like it was the best present he'd gotten in ages. Which, considering the world they lived in, it probably was. That was a big part of why she had wanted to give it to Carl. He deserved presents, even ones that came in the form of new weapons. Maybe even especially those, because Beth knew from experience how much confidence with a weapon could help you to feel stronger and more capable.
They stayed in the clearing for a little while longer; letting Rosita mourn, letting the others clean up as best they could, and dividing up the new weapons. Beth took Judith for a bit, cooing and complimenting the baby for being so good in the woods, all the while watching Daryl at her side as he showed Carl how to use the bow. His voice was gruff, but she knew him well enough to know it wasn't in a bad way. He liked Carl, and he liked the kid's enthusiasm over things like this, just as much as Beth did. There was something about watching him with Carl that was undeniably pleasing to Beth; she could see how much he cared, how good he was with the boy even though she had a feeling that if he were pressed, he'd say he had no idea what to do with kids at all.
Eventually, they all knew they had to move on. It was Daryl's suggestion that the men probably had another cabin nearby stocked with food (given that they'd clearly not been starving but the cabin they'd held them in was empty) that gave them a destination, at least for the afternoon. Side by side they'd made their way through the woods, Beth and Daryl in the lead and following what they could see of the hunter's tracks. If anyone noticed that they stood far closer than usual, no one cared to comment. Considering what they'd gone through, most of them were staying close to the people they loved right now; Sasha, Tyreese, and Carol were all walking together, Glenn and Maggie were holding hands, Michonne was walking besides Carl and Rick, who was carrying Judith for once, Hank and Ivy and Noah were all in a trio, and Eugene was even supporting both Rosita and Tara.
Every once in awhile as they'd walk, the back of Beth's hand would purposefully brush Daryl's, and the contact would make her sigh as a little of the tension within her eased. "Y'did good back there," Daryl said roughly, glancing over at her through his dark fringe of hair. His simple words meant so much more to her than Rick's had, no matter how much the compliment from their leader had felt good, too. "Played them real smart."
"They weren't so bright," Beth said with a wry smile. "You'd have never fallen for half of what they did. Women like us, all carrying guns, all strong, falling to pieces and crying for them not to hurt us?" She snorted. "They barely looked up, either. We brushed away all our tracks around the trees, but none of them looked up even once."
"They underestimated you," Daryl said lowly, his voice rough despite the faint smile on his lips. "I never would've, but then again, I know you. I know all of ya'll. Ain't no way I'll ever underestimate another woman again."
To her surprise Beth felt faint laughter bubbling up inside of her, and she leaned into him again for a moment, only to feel it fade as she caught sight of the smear of blood on her hand. "One of them went for Judith," she said lowly, feeling anger coil low in her belly even just remembering it. "The sniper, the one who got Abraham I think. I had Ivy up in a tree with her, but that bastard tried to go for anyway, saying he wanted to hear her squeal." Beth shivered, and her voice went all cold, the words falling like ice from her lips: "I slit his throat."
As soon as she said it, she shuddered. Sometimes she wondered who she was now. Because there was the person she was in moments like that, the person who felt somehow both like ice and fire all at the same time, the person who didn't hesitate, who just acted, who took a life without hesitating. Then there was the person she was after, the one who shuddered just at the thought of the blood that had sprayed across her face, and at the knowledge that there was more blood to her name. The one who felt as if she racked up some sort of debt with each living person she killed.
"You had to." Daryl said roughly. He didn't try to tell her that she shouldn't be upset, he knew better than that. Daryl wasn't the kind of person to make excuses or to show pity. He just spoke simply, "It was him, or Judith, and you knew that. Maybe it doesn't make it right, but it wasn't wrong, either."
His words always had a rightness to them that Beth had come to admire. Like he thought so simply, sometimes, not necessarily in the black and white of 'right or wrong', but in the gray areas that not everyone else was so comfortable living in. She appreciated it though, just as she appreciated his honesty and the way it washed over her like a fresh, cool balm to sooth her anxious thoughts.
...
It only took them an hour or so to follow the tracks to the second cabin that the hunters had clearly been using as a base. Daryl's guess that they'd want it close to their hunting ground had been a good one. Better yet, it was somewhat stocked. Nowhere close to what they'd had back at the house that had been burned down, but there was canned food and some medical supplies that would come in useful, as well as what Daryl informed them all was dried venison jerky, presumably left over from a less macabre hunt.
Most of them didn't like the idea of staying inside a cabin that had housed the men who had tried to kill them, but they needed shelter for the night. They needed time to ease the wounds in their hearts, just as Tara needed time to rest her leg, and those injured in the fire still needed time as well.
So they settled for the night, although Beth wasn't surprised that a lot of them wanted to sleep outside the confines of the cabin, arranging blankets and sleeping bags from inside the cabin around a low banked fire they used to cook dinner. Beth had no desire to sleep inside either, though granted these days she always preferred to sleep outside. Everything else tended to feel too much like a trap. Like walls just closing in on her more and more each second.
She and Daryl stuck like burrs to each other's sides as they helped set up camp, helped put up traps to warn the group if any walkers got near. Both of them reckoned the Hunters had probably kept the area pretty clear of walkers, but they could always wander in, especially since the gunfire earlier had been pretty loud. The memory of that afternoon was what kept them together, as if being separated had affected the pull between them, changed their gravity, created an urge within them to orbit as close as possible to one another... as if that might stop them from ever being separated again.
When Dryl took first watch, no one seemed surprised when Beth went with him, grabbing a spare blanket and curling up beside him where he was propped against the tree. They sat in content silence with each other, knee to knee, thigh to thigh, arm to arm, with Beth's cheek resting on Daryl's shoulder as they split their focus between both the group and the cabin, and the woods beyond. It was a position they had taken so many times before; first when it was only them, then later when they were reunited and on the road with their family again. In some ways it was natural to them. Just being together was natural now, like breathing air.
It took a long time for the group to quiet down and begin to rest, but eventually things grew more silent. With the dawning quiet, Beth felt that sense of peace inside of her, that one that always came late at night when everyone had fallen asleep and peace reigned. With a sigh, she tipped her head back and looked up at the sky.
"Stars are beautiful tonight," she murmured softly, sensing Daryl tip his head back to look as well. "Makes me remember all those nights back when it was just the two of us, and we used to look up at the stars together." She chuckled. "Or I looked, anyway, and I made you look too."
Daryl chuckled softly. "Nah. I mean, you were pushy, but I looked cause I wanted to." He turned to study the side of her face, and Beth smiled at the weight of his gaze on her. As he added softly, "An' cause you always looked so peaceful, watchin' 'em."
"Yeah. They are peaceful." She hummed softly to herself as her mind reached back, filling with memories of their crackling fire, the smell of snake or squirrel or whatever he'd caught for them that night still hanging in the air, both of them sitting side-by-side just like this, except in many ways, so much further apart than they were now.
"I liked it, y'know... When you used to tell me stories, 'bout the stars." Daryl's voice was low in a way that seemed to resonate within her, especially when he reached out and rested his hand on her knee.
It was easy to remember a night like that, though there had been many, there were several that stuck out. "Like Lyra and Aquila, and the stars that were forbidden lovers who got separated in the sky?" She turned to look at him, remembering the night she'd told him that story. They'd been laying side-by-side on the ground, her pointing up at the sky, him just watching her as she told him about the star-crossed lovers. It had been one of the nights she'd felt the urge to talk to him, to make a gesture and draw him out of his shell even more than she had when they'd been drunk on moonshine together.
Daryl hesitated a moment, and then admitted, "Thought about that one, y'know. When we were separated. Sometimes it felt like I was being punished. Like I'd found something good, but it was too good for a man like me, and losin' you was my punishment, just like them stars."
Her hand reached out to rest over his where it had settled on her knee. "Neither of us will ever be too good or bad for the other."
"Yeah." He shifted beside her, and turned his hand palm-up, so her fingers could trace shapes over the lines of his worn skin. "Know that now, anyway. But for awhile..."
Beth just nodded. She understood. There had been a time when it had felt almost like punishment to her, too. Or... "I thought it was fate, at first. I thought that was just my destiny. To have everything I loved taken away from me, over and over again. Mama, Shawn, the farm, Daddy, Maggie, Judith, our family, you... It felt like that was all my life had ever been. Losing and losing and losing. Seemed right, almost, to think it was just what was meant to be."
Beside her he opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head to stop him. "But then I realized... That was bullshit." The curse word had him faintly chuckling as he always did when she swore, and there was a faint smile on Beth's lips as she brushed her fingers in circles across his palm. "I knew you would have told me it was, anyway. You know... I know that I helped you see the good in the world again, to have hope, but I don't think you realize that you did the same for me, in a way."
Finally she looked over at him, studying the lines of his face in the faint light from the moon above them. "After the prison, there were times... times when I almost gave in, too. Like that day after we found the bodies on the train tracks. For hours after I just kept seeing that little shoe, and all the blood, and I kept thinking that was it. That was life. Everyone I loved would end up like that, and so what was the point anymore?"
She swallowed hard as talking about it, even softly and just to him, brought back a surge of memories of that day; the copper scent of blood clinging in her nose as it had clung to that small little shoe, the way her body had trembled and quaked with the sorrow and fear that had been building up in her since she'd watched her Daddy get killed right in front of her eyes. The stink of blood was in her nose now, but she willed it away, breathed slowly in and out until all she smelled was the cool night air and the faint green scent of the forest, and the familiar scent of Darylbeside her, all leather and dirt and musk.
"But then there was you." She reached up with her free hand and gently brushed back a few stray strands of dark hair from in front of his eyes. "You sitting across the fire from me, reminding me I wasn't alone. Never leaving my side, even if you didn't say a damn word. Even as I dragged you through the forest after alcohol of all things, like some rebellious teenager or something. You pulled me out of it as much as I did the same for you, you know. You gave me reasons to keep going."
A faint smile crossed her lips. "I'll be honest, in the beginning half my motivation every day was just to see how much I could push, if I could annoy you into snapping, but you never did... And then it became about more. It became wanting to prove to you I was worthy to be at your side, until I realized you already treated me like I was." Her smile faintly widened. "You never treated me like I was weak, like I was nothin', and when I realized that, it only made me want more and more to show you that you were right. And then, well..." She smiled and ducked her head. "I'd say then I stated to care for you, but I think I always had, deep inside. It just grew, day by day, without me even realizing it, until that night in the funeral home." Until she'd seen it in his eyes, big and important and honest, and she'd realized that everything she saw was reflected inside her, too. It hadn't been love then, not yet, but it had been something. A beginning.
"When I was in the hospital, thinkin' about how maybe this was my fate, I could hear your voice, tellin' me what bullshit it was. I remembered the way you'd never given up, day after day just always pushing and moving, always with me." She drew in a deep breath and exhaled in a sigh. "Youwere always with me, even then. Every time I felt weak, I'd remember the way you looked at me that first time I stabbed that walker, in the forest when you were on your back holding it above you. When I felt like giving up, I just remembered the way you kept striding through the forest day after day. I'd remember the way you looked at me that night. Like I'd given you something. Like I'd given you hope. And I knew that if I had givenyou hope, then it was inside me to begin with, and I couldn't let it go out. I had to fight. Like I did in the forest, when I was tryin' so hard to make you proud."
Her brow furrowed faintly as she searched for the right words, trying to put to voice everything she'd been feeling now for months. Her thoughts and emotions were scattershot; what she felt for him was so big that it felt like it was spilling out of her, but in so many directions that it was hard to pinpoint it all. If she could have brought him within her and let him feel everything she felt, she would have; but this was the best she could do right now. "I fought for you and for our family, for that hope, but I fought for me, too, you know? I learned after I tried to take my own life that I wanted to live, but also because you showed me that I could; that I was a fighter, that I was strong."
"You didn't need me, to be strong. You were always strong." It was the first Daryl had spoken since she'd started to pour out all her thoughts for him, and Beth wasn't surprised at what he'd chosen to protest. He was always, always standing up for her strength, even back when he had done it without words.
"I know." Beth smiled again, soft and sweet. "But being with you... I don't know how to explain it right. It's like I was always strong, but some of it was hidden. Maybe it was by my own self-doubt, or maybe just because I didn't know how to use it. I think you just... you acted like you already believed I was strong, and no one had done that before. You just accepted it like it was a fact and somehow, that helped me see it. Cause you were never the kind of man to lie, or pretend, so if you acted like something was the truth than it must have been, you know?" Beth's fingers skated across his palm, making spirals on his flesh as the words kept spilling out of her, "And you taught me things, too. Not to make me strong, but to make me stronger. To find new outlets for that strength. No one else ever did that. They always just tried to hide me away, but you never did."
He looked like he was going to speak again, but this time it was Beth who raised her finger and pressed it to his lips. "Wait. I just need to get the rest out, okay? I promise, I won't ramble on too much longer."
When he chuckled, she withdrew her finger, and just looked deep into his eyes. "I just want you to know how much you mean to me. You're the one person who never doubted me. The one person who saw me for who I was, for who I could be. The person who showed me how to use the strength you knew I already had. You're the man who never gave up on me, not once, even when everyone else did. And I never gave up on you, either, Daryl. You were always with me, even when I felt my most alone. It took me a long time to realize what all that was, what it meant. Why you were the one person I felt safe with, the one person I felt right with. You're my partner, in every meaning of the word. You're the one person I will always want to be at my side, the person I will always find my way back to, the person I'll always be able to count on."
She lifted her fingers and grazed them over his cheek as she looked into his eyes and murmured, "Because I love you, Daryl Dixon. I think a tiny part of me has since that day you came to my cell and told me about Zach. Maybe even before that, I don't know. Love isn't easy to pinpoint like that, but once you feel it for sure, you know. Like I know without a doubt now. Every day I spend with you that feeling just grows and grows and I don't think it'll ever stop growing, as long as I live."
His head tipped against her hand and she leaned in to brush her lips over his as she whispered, "I love you, Daryl Dixon. I love every dirty, grumpy, smart, sweet, brave, strong, honest, perfect inch of you."
For a few seconds he was silent, simply pressing his lips against hers. Then Beth felt his hands slide against her hips, felt him grip her and gently tug her into his lap. His voice was gruff with amusement as he teased against her mouth, "Could have just said you loved me. Woulda covered allthat, you know."
Beth just laughed. It bubbled out of her, spilling against his lips even as she replied, "I know. But then I wouldn't be me, if I didn't use a three hundred words when just three would suffice. Right?"
"Ain't that the truth." His hands slid around to her back and tugged her closer as she straddled him, legs sliding over his as her knees braced to the ground and his nearness took her breath away. "Lucky for you, I've gotten used to your rambling and babbling, all that time we spent together."
She grinned playfully against his mouth and teased right back, "You love my babbling. You love me."
"Just c'mere, Greene. I got a real good way of puttin' a stop to that yammering." And he was right. His lips pressed to hers, and all thought of talking faded away. All thought of everything faded away, because nothing mattered then except the press of his lips to hers and the warmth of his body and the slide of his hands up her back.
She got lost in the taste of him on her tongue as their lips parted in near-unison and his tongue slowly teased across her own. Beth had to stifle a soft moan as his hands slid up her back under her shirt, worn hands pleasantly rough against the smooth skin of her delicately curved back. The kisses were slow but deep and gradually growing even deeper as he held her close and the desire between them sparked and flamed.
Everything was just a pleasant, heated haze. Soon her hands were up his shirt and running across his chest, and his brushed around to slide up over her taut stomach. This time she couldn't stifle her soft moan when his hand cupped her breast through the thin fabric of her bra. Instinct had her arching her back and spilling a soft low noise into his lips as he caressed and teased, working her nipple into a tight bud that pressed against his palm.
"Daryl..." She tried to stay quiet, but couldn't stop herself from softly moaning his name. It seemed that the sound of it did for him what his hands were doing to her, because he gripped her tighter, one hand cupping her breast and gently squeezing as the other shifted in between them to fumble at the waistband of her pants.
Beth was only half aware of what was happening. Her own hands fumbled too, getting between them, finding the button on his jeans and struggling to undo them. Everything had an unexpectedly frantic edge to it, built on the desperate struggle of the day and fueled by their mutual proclamations to each other. Her lips never once left his, even as they both fumbled to undo the other's pants, desperate to get to something; Beth wasn't even fully aware of what in the moment, she just knew she needed it, needed him.
Somehow he managed to undo the front of her jeans, and his fingers traced lightly over the front of her worn panties, revealed by the gap in her jeans, pulling a breathy gasp from her lips and then, just as she got the button of his jeans undone, just as his fingers shifted to try and dip lower...
A cough echoed through the clearing, followed by the rustling of fabric as Rick rolled over to face their direction. In a way it was like he'd dumped a bucket of ice water over them both, stopping them in their tracks, only Beth could still feel that heat between them, could still feel that need low in her belly.
She could see it in Daryl's eyes still, too, but there was a sheepish sort of look on his face as he shook her head. "Kissin' you is dangerous, Greene."
Beth pouted playfully. "Yeah, but haven't we already established that it also helps us remember why we're alive?"
"Yeah, I know." To her surprise, his hands were gentle as he buttoned her pants back up and tugged down her shirt to cover it. "I feel alive with you every day, Beth." His rough fingers were soft as he sweetly tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. "I wanna feel alive with you the way we were just about to." He paused, and she saw him glance to the group curled up on the ground by the cabin, before he looked back to her. "But not like this. You deserve better. We both do."
A year ago, she never would have expected anything so romantic to come out of Daryl's lips. But here, now, it was very him. And though she wanted him desperately, Beth knew he was right. Their first time together shouldn't be frantic and quick, shouldn't be stifled moans and gasps as they hurried to finish, to keep the others from noticing. Of course, they didn't have to hold back- Glenn and Maggie certainly didn't, and they weren't the only ones.
But they weren't Glenn and Maggie. Her and Daryl were quiet, they were private, everything between them was intimately personal, and this should be too. Beth knew that, and the smile she gave him made it clear that she felt the same way he did.
Still, the events of the day lingered in her mind, and Beth couldn't help thinking about that stark knowledge that someday would be her last, and she might never know when it would come. So when she looked into his eyes and brushed her fingers up over his cheek, Beth couldn't help but ask softly, "Soon?"
He was with her, as he always was these days, his thoughts traversing the same paths as hers. "Soon," he murmured against her lips giving her one more kiss. "I promise."
They lingered like that for a long moment, forehead to forehead, until she felt his firm hands grip her hips and lift her off his lap to set her back down beside him as he teased again, "Now c'mon, Greene. Supposed to be on watch and here you are, distractin' me with your babbling, and your damn kisses..."
"Yeah, but you liked it." She settled next to him again and tipped her cheek to rest on his shoulder once more, perfectly happy and at ease as she murmured, "Cause you love me."
His reply was a simple 'mm' and a curl of his fingers against hers, but Beth didn't need any more than that. If Beth was the sort of person who used three hundred words when three would suffice, than Daryl was the sort of man who could say everything he needed to with a simple hum.
This hum, soft and short, was really four perfect, beautiful words: I love you, too.
**A/N: I know it wasn't as exciting as the last chapter, but I hope everyone still enjoyed this! It was a nice cool down, and it'll ease the way nicely into the next chapter, which will be equal parts humor and heat, wink wink, you'll see. Speaking of the next chapter, it MAY not be up tomorrow, as I do have New Years Day plans. The day after at the latest, I promise!
Also, the "star-crossed lovers" story is a reference to "Day Three (Peace)" from my Little Moments series. I originally only posted it on AO3, but I will be posting it here shortly, so you can check it out if you haven't already. It's a series of little one-shots/ficlets set from between Still and Alone.
FFnet makes it very hard to post links, but I wanted to let you know I recently published a She's Breathing fanmix on 8tracks. You can find on 8tracks /burnedupasun/she-s-breathing. In addition, you guys can find me on tumblr (talking about Bethyl and occasionally my writing), at burningupasun!