A.N. - School starting next week, just yet another reminder, don't know how many if any updates will be happening next week and the following weeks. Sorry for any inconvenience and and sorry for talking about it 100 times. I just honestly don't want there to be any confusion if updates stop for a bit while I get acclimated.

Thanks for the support.

Happy reading folks :)

Chapter 26

"Oh my God Beth, tell me you're jokin'!?"

Hissing out a command, she looked around from their spot in the gazebo, eyes widening in irritation at Maggie once she'd established that no one was nearby enough to hear their conversation. The topic of which, embarrassingly enough, was her sex life (which Jesus, Mary, and Joseph was incredible) and her and Daryl's bit of absentmindedness the day before. She knew it was possible, of course, that she was pregnant.

It only took once she knew that.

The thing was, she just highly doubted it for some reason. Which was perhaps a little naïve of her, maybe Daryl was super virile and so were his sperm, and for all she knew she could be the most fertile woman left in the apocalypse. But there was no way for her to know any of this for certain, and until she had undeniable proof of being pregnant, she wasn't going to worry herself to death about it.

Unfortunately for her, Daryl did not agree with this outlook whatsoever, and it had taken him all of a few hours to completely shut down on her. He wasn't cold or snappish, no, after he'd gone down on her again and kissed along her body and used his fingers, and she'd thought she were about to shake herself to pieces. He'd reached into the bedside drawer, ripped through the little foil package, and then, once he'd gotten the condom in place, they'd had sex again. So slow and soft it'd made tears stream from her eyes, she'd been glad his own blues were tight shut with his forehead pressed to hers, dipping down now and then to kiss the breath from her lungs.

He'd come and she hadn't, but each of her previous orgasms had spiraled her body into such a tingling swollen mess she couldn't actually say that she hadn't with any kind of certainty. Each thrust had felt like its own kind of orgasm by the end of it. And when he'd reached down to touch her with his fingers once more, she'd clasped his wrist and shaken her head. She'd been all raw nerve and satisfaction, another push over the edge had felt almost dangerous.

It was later, much later, as she'd been all wrapped up in his arms, still trying to remember if her skin was made of sparks or flesh…that she'd noticed the steadily tightening of his hold. And when she'd tipped her head back to get a look, had found him staring blankly at the ceiling, she could still remember the panic and hurt that had tumbled out with his name. But he'd held her close, blinked and kissed her, refusing to let her go, or talk about what was bothering him even though she'd already known the cause.

Which had only served to rile her up more, they'd just had literally the best day she could recall, and since he'd kept going after the discovery was made, and enthusiastically so – she'd kind of hoped that he'd deal with it the same way she'd decided to. So they'd lain in bed, him becoming more like an iron giant around her, and her seething in irritation, until she'd muttered something about needing to pee. He'd let her go and she'd gone to the bathroom and showered, found him dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed when she came out.

But they were getting better with the fight thing, and he'd wrapped her up once more, muttering apologies into her wet hair while his hands rubbed her towel covered back. And she'd sighed out her irritation and apologized too, just because it felt like he'd ended up regretting half the times they'd had sex, didn't mean he loved her any less or wasn't happy with her. Of course Daryl would freak out over getting her pregnant, things were dangerous enough and he hated losing people.

They'd gone about the rest of their day and been mostly alright, had slept near one another, and she'd woken again with his arm weighing her into place. But she could tell it was still bothering him pretty severely, the man was walking around and getting things done looking haunted and sick. So she'd pulled Maggie outside, didn't know what else to do. He'd barely opened up any more while they were apologizing to one another than the first time she'd asked him to talk to her about it. She knew what she wanted to do to try to make him forget about it…but considering the cause for his drawn face and hunched shoulders, she doubted that it'd do the trick.

"Don't lecture me Maggs," she groused lowly, taking in her sister's wide eyes, "An' don't you dare say anythin' to Daryl or look at him any kinda weird way either. He looks about ready to go to pieces as it is."

"Look." Maggie led, taking a deep breath and fixing Beth with as neutral a stare as she probably possessed. "I'm not tryin' to make either one of you feel bad about it, I mean, we've all been there." The two sisters exchanged awkward nods of understanding while Beth had a moment to feel like she'd entered the Twilight Zone or something. To be having this conversation with Maggie where and when and about who that she was.

"Thank you."

Her older sister nodded once more before continuing. "I didn't mean to…" She made a rolling motion with her hand like something was popping out of her mouth. "I just, all of a' sudden you were sixteen again and I wanted to kill Daryl, and everythin' in the middle got a little hazy, but I'm fine now." Maggie gave her a reassuring little smile. "Really the only thing you can do about it, is talk to him sis, and if he isn't ready to do that then you gotta give him time until he is."

Beth huffed out a sigh and bobbed her head in answer, she'd known this was the case, but it felt better getting Maggie to back up her theory. It didn't help that Aaron had come by earlier today to invite them over for dinner. She'd have rather gone when things between her and Daryl weren't all up in the air, but there wasn't much of a way to back out without seeming rude or airing their dirty laundry to the man. It'd be alright, it wasn't like they were fighting, it was just that neither of them were very good at hiding their emotions and she doubted Daryl would welcome inquiries about his mood.

"The thing that's really obnoxious." Beth grumbled almost to herself. "Is that I haven't gotten my dang period regularly since the farm. I don't want him walkin' around, beatin' himself up, an' lookin' at me like I'm already six feet under for X amount of weeks or months until it does decide to show up." Blushing slightly and unable to make herself look Maggie's way she added. "And I really don't wanna wait that long for us to sleep together again, if he gets dead set on punishing himself until we do know for sure."

"Awe gosh sis." Her face heated even more at Maggie's teasing tone. "Y'all really are fully twitterpated with one another aren't ya?" At Beth's nod, the playful note in her sister's voice intensified. "I mean, we all worked that out for ourselves at the party, just how happy Daryl is with the two a' you bein' together anyway."

Oh Lord.

At her panicked expression Maggie let out a laugh before patting Beth on the back.

"I don't think everyone heard, but it sure seemed like our people started talkin' real loud all at the same time, while the Alexandrian's were lookin' so dang confused, it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long while."

"You don't think Daryl'll hear about it do you?"

"Screw Daryl, I wanna hear about it!" Beth figured this must be the most she'd seen her sister laugh recently, and while it was of course at her expense, she couldn't help a few shocked chuckles from escaping her throat as Maggie got a hold of herself. "Not that I need to know the particulars or anythin', but sis, that man walks around like…like…" A God? "I don't know, it's Daryl, I just couldn't believe I heard that kinda noise commin' from him at all."

"Well, it's good you don't want the details sis, 'cause I ain't tellin' you a thing about it." Maggie went to give her a pinch on the thigh, and Beth dodged with another laugh, doing her best to block the resulting onslaught of quick diggings while trying to get in a few tweaking grabs of her own.

"Ugh Bethy, you're no fun at all." Maggie griped once they'd settled down a bit, nudging Beth with a shoulder and a smile. "Glad for you. Glad for you both. Y'all deserve to be happy, makin' eyes at one another an' blushin' ta' match." Green eyes winked a bit at her as Maggie continued. "It's about the cutest thing I ever saw."

"He's the best Maggs, he's just…" Beth sighed happily, and a little dejectedly, thinking about the day before in the woods, and then, all of the after too. "Sweet an' funny, an' I know he's only worried about somethin' bad happenin' to me or the baby if I am…" She motioned in mild irritation at her midriff. "It's not like he's freaked out 'cause he isn't lookin' to stick with me or anythin' like that."

Maggie nodded sympathetically, moving her hand on the bench they sat on to take Beth's and the two sat in peaceful silence for a while before her older sister began speaking a little haltingly.

"Not that I'm wantin' you ta' be, since the two of you just got together and aren't lookin' to have baby make three, but it wouldn't be the second end of the world I don't think, if you were." That was a bit of a shock, Beth looked at Maggie in stark confusion, while it was the truth, the thought seemed out of nowhere before she noticed her sister's hesitant expression. "I mean, then our kids would be real close in age."

Feeling like her brain had suddenly dropped through her gut, Beth shook her head to feel the thing jerk around inside before she attempted any kind of speech.

"You're?"

Maggie nodded, looking scared and excited all at once, before Beth was half tackling her against the gazebo's railing. There was of course the fear that came with the hot spike of joy, but she wanted all the good things for her sister, and that included a family with kids. They'd discussed it so often while growing up, what they'd name their children, how many they'd have, and then all this had happened and it'd seemed impossible…like watching the children they hadn't had be slaughtered in front of them.

"We don't know for certain of course." Maggie laughed as the two rocked back forward and Beth dropped her arms to clutch her sister's hands in hers. "But we've been tryin' and I think I am."

"That's amazing! Oh Maggie I'm so friggin' happy for you!"

"Thanks Bethy," she was grazed with an unsure green eyed smile, "I could'a picked a better time to tell ya maybe, but I didn't want you thinkin' you were the only one goin' through it ya know, if you are."

Beth beamed at her sister and wrapped her up in another hug.

"Could you imagine Glenn an' Daryl havin' ta' deal with both of us pregnant?" She whispered into Maggie's ear, and the two shook apart with laughter at the idea.

"Things are gonna be just fine little sister." Maggie told her after they'd calmed down a bit, running an affectionate hand over Beth's cheek. "I mean, they might not be…" She waved off the snort that accompanied this backtrack and fixed her younger sister with a smirking glare while she continued. "But what matters, is that we're together an' can figure it out."

Beth figured that was true enough, as the two left the shelter of the gazebo, walking arm in arm down the road towards the house. All of the incredible events that had happened since the prison alone had led them all here, and any one of those events going differently could've ended her up as walker or worm food. But instead here she was, walking down a quiet neighborhood street with her sister (who might be expecting) on her way to find the man she loved, and even if things were a little strained with them it could always be worse...

"Was it on the bathroom sink? It was, wasn't it?" Maggie let out another gust of laughter as Beth hip checked her roughly, only their entwined arms keeping the brunette on her feet.

Her sister was impossible.

She had plans to track down Daryl so that they could do some actual hunting. And no doubt Maggie needed to get back to Deanna, who was handling her heartbreaking losses with a lot more character than her son, from what Beth had seen.

Turning a corner of the street, an uneasy chill whiplashed down her spine as she took in the scene that was happening at her and Maggie's planned destination. There was her man on the front steps like he preferred, especially if she wasn't in the house, sharpening his knife – or had been. Now he was pointing it in the general direction of the Monroe's place, lips thinned to a slash across his face as he spit out some kind of reply to Spencer…who was apparently suicidal or something with the death of his brother and father.

Dropping her hold on Maggie, Beth began to half-jog down the street, keeping a watchful eye on both men as the younger one spread his arms while taking a step closer, the pose one of nonchalance even as it got him closer to the irritated redneck. There was no way in the holy hells that Spencer was actually wanting to fight Daryl, something about the well-to-do rich kid screamed coward to Beth. Then again, maybe it wasn't cowardice, but more of an untried and unsure hesitancy that alcohol consumption and grief were bolstering.

He probably thought Daryl wouldn't dare hurt him much, after everything that had happened since the Georgia group had gotten here.

Spencer was an idiot.

He also had no idea that the redneck had been brooding steadily since yesterday, and also the distinct possibility that he too was spoiling for a fight. She could see it in the tense set of Daryl's body, and that ready look behind the glare that told of a man well acquainted with violence.

Maybe didn't seek it out – but found it familiar and comforting in times of stress nonetheless.

"Daryl!" Her call drew his eyes like a knee jerk reflex, and she beamed at him as she closed the distance between them. Could easily read the warning in his gaze to stay back, he didn't want to show or be shown affection right now, didn't know if the little punk in front of him was going to try something…

And was on edge anyhow.

Beth could hear Maggie at her heels, passed Spencer without a glance, and ignored for once the unspoken communication being sent her way. Her smile stayed fixed in place, because when she got closer, Daryl instinctively kept the weapon in his hand away from her. Sheathing the blade, he barely had gotten it placed next to him on the step, when she was on her knees, resting on the step below the one he was sitting on. Fisting leather, leaning and arching her body, Beth felt a little thrill when he dipped down for her kiss after only the slightest pause of irritation or embarrassment.

She knew he didn't like doing this kind of thing out where people could see them. That he didn't want the teasing or criticism, but she also knew that it made him feel better to kiss her. Easy to know when it did the same for her, and also, it bothered Spencer who was taking his pain out on everyone around him like a prick. So really a win win.

When Daryl's mouth left hers, she flashed him one of her brightest smiles, liking how he was barely able to flick a glance the other man's way before being pulled back to her. The slight pinch in his brows said that he knew she was trying to distract him, but he must not mind the attempt, keeping his gaze on hers instead of eyeing the grieving man at her back. Doing her best to act like she hadn't seen Spencer whatsoever, Beth began speaking, hoping Maggie would drag the moron out of harm's way.

"It's trainin' time, ya ready?" His expression stayed grumpy and he didn't reply other than an extra loud exhale through his nose. "Look. I know, I know, I got us all distracted yesterday an' we didn't get much huntin' done." She tugged, mostly involuntarily, at his vest as the memories of yesterday assaulted her vision, making it necessary to swallow before continuing. "I promise to focus, we can hunt or work on hand-to-hand, your pick."

There was the lowest register of talking going on behind her, and she stubbornly held his sight, as she felt more than saw their two spectators leave. The departure was confirmed in the more relaxed curve of broad shoulders, and the smoothing of furrowed brow. Daryl brought his hands to rest on her biceps at last, and Beth crinkled her nose at him happily until he scoffed.

"Man has any sense," he ticked his chin towards the place Spencer had been standing, "he'll thank ya once he sobers up for savin' his dumbass."

"Oh you wouldn'a killed him." She grinned at his squint, while he rubbed unconsciously at her arms before replying.

"Accidents fuckin' happen, 'specially in the middle a' beatin' the shit outta some asshole."

"He's just not handlin' his grief the best." That earned her another scoffing sound, and she decided now would probably be the best time to stop talking about the current subject. "I wasn't jokin' with ya by the way, what are you wantin' to do?"

His eyes flicked towards her body and Beth felt the precarious ease between them wobble.

"Can' be doin' that fight shit."

"Daryl-"

"Should hunt anyway." He steamrolled over her voice, eyes skidding from hers, thumbs scrubbing pleading little arcs into her skin. "Food storage's lookin' low, used all that game from the other day fer tha' damn party I didn' even end up goin' to."

"Regrettin' that?" Beth questioned, glancing at him through her lashes uncertainly, swearing to herself to take more responsibility in the future, making sure they used protection wasn't just up to him. She just kept getting so caught up in it, the act, the feel, the smell, all of being like that with Daryl was distracting to say the very least. It'd literally been the last thing on her mind yesterday, and the time during the party…he'd had to be the mature one then too, it wasn't fair.

Warmth left one of her shoulders as he moved to grasp her ponytail, using his hold to tip her head back so she met his eyes, heat swamped her with his look – made her wonder if they were ever going to get to a place of being able to function normally around one another again. Kind of hoped not on some illogical level, she was a huge fan of the way her heart thrummed against her skin, which felt fire kissed and too tight, like she could stretch from top to bottom and split her seams.

She liked it, that anytime he looked at her – kept his eyes on her a little longer than they needed to – that that was all it took for her to clench or curl from toes to teeth.

Right now, how he dragged those darkening blues down her face to her mouth, she didn't want that kind of look to ever stop happening. Blue rimmed black met her gaze, and they sat there while Daryl seemed to send every bit of gasping want, and thrusting, pleasure-filled, moment, from that night through his locked sight on hers.

"Better get goin'." His rasping suggestion had her nodding against the leash of her hair, and she felt with a pulse, how Daryl gave it an unnecessary pull before releasing it.

Yeah, yeah they'd better get going.

They did much better this time, keeping set on their task, Beth had almost forgotten she'd been getting decent at tracking before Grady and again before Daryl had left with Aaron. She was mostly following his lead this time, wanted more for them to bring back some actual food than for her to have a shot with the bow. But there was a certain satisfaction of keeping up with Daryl's silent steps, of not scaring away his prey or holding him back once he got on the trail of something.

A couple possum and a half dozen squirrels later, they were headed back home, the sun thinking of setting when it slipped through the trees at them. Beth felt a startling level of peaceful, one hand resting twined around the hilt of her knife, the other holding affectionately onto Daryl's vest, they'd got something accomplished even with things being a little off center between them with this whole pregnancy scare issue. She could only hope that he'd be able to get comfortable enough talking to her about it soon, but she'd promised to stay on task while they were out here, so she was going to do just that...

"Ain't that I'd never want kids with ya." She couldn't help the spasm of her fingers against leather, but kept quiet as she listened. "Jus' gotcha," he muttered, sounding almost sulky, "ain't really lookin' t' share ya already. But m'not wantin' t' lose ya more."

"I know." Answering as quietly as she could, Beth adjusted her hold to by gripping his shirt instead, so she could feel the spongey warmth of his skin against her knuckles.

With everything in her she wanted to be able to tell him that even if she was pregnant, that he wouldn't lose her, that they'd be just fine like Maggie had told her earlier. But it felt too much like a lie. Sure their situation now was a lot more steady and secure than it had been since the prison, but nobody knew like their group did, how quickly that could get taken. Quicker than you could even blink. It made her scared to think about, for herself and for Maggie, and she knew how deeply things affected Daryl. Loss being the worst, and loving her now…well she didn't know for certain, but it seemed like something he hadn't had before.

Would hurt him even more now than it would have before, and if the baby died too…

"If things weren't like they are now," he continued, keeping his eyes scanning around them, "like to, maybe. Someday." She felt her toe catch and had to recover her balance as he continued his low scratchy murmuring. Like he could say these things, in the sanctity of the woods, that it was the only place he felt comfortable enough to pry the secrets from his spinal cord and offer them to her in rumbling and halting sacrifices. "Still might."

Attempting to be as unobtrusive as possible, Beth was pretty sure she'd stopped even the air entering her lungs, in case it rasped and caused him to fall silent.

"Got me all fucked up, s'only been a' couple a' weeks…" She could almost hear him screwing up his face as his head twitched in a shake. But she knew what he meant, physically, it'd been a couple of weeks but they'd been overlapping one another a while before that. "Baby. Who'd the fuck ever think a' givin' me a ' baby?" It was becoming clear to Beth that he was now thinking out loud, which was so strange for Daryl, that she felt it impossible not to respond.

"You're amazin' with babies Daryl, an' kids too."

"Rick's kids." He argued, finally turning his head to look at her. "Dixon's make shit parents girl, you don' even know."

She'd had no idea this was such a fear of his. That it started at losing her, but went so much further than that as well. Eyes flicking around their surroundings, she smacked the hand holding his crossbow, until he grudgingly employed the strap and hung the weapon in its customary position on his back. Gathering up his grime smeared fingers with her equally grungy ones, Beth laced them together as they continued their trek.

"Ya might be a Dixon," she allowed, holding onto him tightly, "but you're also Daryl, the guy who went an' got formula for Lil' Asskicker when Rick was too out of his head, an' don't think Carl didn't tell me about ya talkin' to 'im about your mom." There was a glint of an eye through his hair and she kept going, pressing their forearms together. "You'd be a great dad. I don't think I'm pregnant, call it intuition or wishful thinkin', but I'm hopin' that I'm not because it's so soon, not because I think for a second you'd make a bad daddy. So don't you be thinkin' that either."

The boundary wall came into view and Daryl brought them to a stop, turning to give her a searching look, hand that wasn't wrapped up in hers hanging off his bow strap.

"You wantin' t' have babies with me Brier?" She tried to smash the smile that turned up the corners of her mouth, since she could tell he was asking it seriously and not to be cute, but it was hard not to grin all moon-eyed at him when he mixed the word 'babies' with that nickname, the one that made her love him even more.

"Like you said Daryl," she answered, stepping up so she could press her lips quickly to his, before moving back enough to hold his gaze, "someday, maybe."

A corner of his mouth pulled up a little, and he bobbed his head in acceptance, before they turned towards home. She expected with every quiet fall of their feet that he'd untangle their hold on one another. But when Tyreese opened the gate for them, Daryl's hand was still cradling hers warmly, and she offered the darkly bearded man a wave as they passed, the redneck nodding his own thanks as they headed by on their way home to get ready for dinner. It was a relief, even if they didn't know for certain if she was or wasn't expecting, to have talked everything out the way they had.

And considering Daryl's easy embrace on her digits, Beth figured he felt much the same.

Dinner with Aaron and Eric turned out to be exactly what she and Daryl needed to work out the rest of their small amount of angst from the past day. They all worked together, with the other couple learning how to clean and dress one of the possums Beth and Daryl had brought with them to add to their dinner. The corresponding faces this caused Eric to make had Beth just about rolling on the floor with her laughter, after many pleading looks, Aaron took over and suggested his other half go check the soup the meat was going to be added to.

"Oh gosh." Beth said, grinning as Eric kissed his man before sliding out of the 'slaughter zone' as he'd christened it. "Daryl, can I go 'check the soup' too?" She tried her best pleading expression, which earned her exactly one scoff and a shaking shaggy head.

"Hell no, ya gotta know this shit Br-Beth." A glare was shot at her smirk, he apparently didn't want anyone hearing her nickname, which was just going to cause her to love him more, for even more reasons she couldn't begin to explain.

"I already do know this shit," she grumbled, tossing the guts into the sink until Daryl could dispose of them outside, "Eric ya gotta tell me your secrets about gettin' your way, 'cause I'm obviously doin' somethin' wrong over here."

"Well," Eric began matter-of-factly from his place of refuge by the stove, "Aaron really likes it when I-"

"Oho! Ok then, you know Beth, I'm sure Daryl and I can get this finished up if you'd like to help Eric with the soup." Waving her over with a wink, Eric offered Daryl a close lipped smile when the hunter turned disapproving blues his way. When it was clear that the man was unrepentant, Beth watched as the frown was turned on poor Aaron instead. "What? I'm doing you a favor, you do not want her knowing that move," he flicked an embarrassed smile Beth and Eric's way, "you'll be helpless."

"I'll explain it later." Eric stage whispered to her, and Beth beamed at him through her heated cheeks. She could catch a bit of Aaron's muttered warnings to Daryl, and her man's resolute silence to any and all statements or questions directed his way.

It was a comfortable kind of dynamic that unfolded between the four, and Beth found herself wishing she'd thought to invite Glenn and Maggie for the little couple's get together, but she supposed it was good…for her and Daryl to just get to be a couple. They weren't anyone's sibling, here at Aaron and Eric's, no one's hunting redneck with all the baggage and past identities that came along with those roles.

Once the meat was cut into cubes by Daryl's practiced knife strokes, the hosts began setting the table while Beth started cooking up the final piece of their meal. A loose shiver rippled down her spine when Daryl's familiar fingertips traced a path over the line of her vertebrae before landing a warm palm on the small of her back. Pressing the heel in, he rubbed along the base there in short little motions until she turned her attention to him.

Ducking down, she was forewarned with a deep hum before he landed his mouth on hers, causing her to freeze in utter surprise…there were people in the room with them. Sure it sounded like they were completely engrossed in their conversation about the secret ingredient of Carol's cookies…But it was so unlike Daryl to do anything affectionate where it could be seen and commented on.

The fingers on her back curled themselves up in the shirt she was wearing, pulling the fabric tight over her stomach, as he continued to move his lips slowly over hers. Daryl kept the kiss sweet and innocent, pulling back much sooner than she would have liked, lips folding in and then showing themselves once more with a shining wet sheen, like he was savoring her taste there.

"What the heck was that for?" She wondered aloud, though quietly, catching her own warmed bit of flesh between teeth that held it steady, in order to flick a tongue over the sensitive nerves, eyes trained on the man that was clocking her every move. "I'll try an' do it more often, ya tell me what it was." The corners of her mouth ticked up encouragingly at him, all the while her gaze burrowed along half lidded eyes and thin lips that still flashed in the kitchen's light.

"Feels nice," he confessed in a secret telling volume, all the while looking shy and rosy, "bein' with ya, 'round people ain't lookin' t' judge."

"Our people-"

"Nah." Daryl intercepted with a twitch of his head. "Not them. They jus' like t' rib me now an' then. Meant the Safe-Zoners."

"Wait, hold on a sec, I'm sorry…" Trying to clear the confusion from her thought process, Beth ran the spatula in her hand along the bottom of the pan to turn over sizzling chunks of meat before they burnt. "Who in our family is teasin' ya about us?"

He snorted lightly, leaning in to nuzzle along her neck before responding. "Ya mean other 'en all of 'em?" Shifting to the side, she forced their eyes to meet, trying to tell if he was messing with her or not. "I know, damn people ain't scared a' me at all anymore." Beth let out a little surprised laugh that earned her one of his quick smiles. "S'awful. Ain't they been doin' the same t' you?"

"Maggie…but no, not really." He made another derisive noise while shaking his head, and Beth's mind caught back up to what else he'd been saying. "An' the only Alexandrian to say anythin' was Spencer…"

His face blanked and Beth knew that's who'd been on his mind when he brought up the topic, realized with all she'd been trying to do in order to take his mind off the confrontation, she hadn't gotten around to asking him what'd been said outside the house today.

"Was runnin' 'is mouth." Daryl shrugged at her silent question, but his eyes slid away from hers, and the hand on her back started making reassuring sweeps, ones that felt as though they were somehow more for his benefit than hers. Like he was reminding himself that she was there, that she didn't mind him touching her like he was. "Sayin' shit tha' isn' true."

Beth was gonna throat punch that shit-eatin'-grin right off Spencer's smug face next time she saw him. She and Daryl had been through too much, way, way, too much. Working through the baggage and drama, the miscommunication, all of it…for that little prick to cause that uncertainty to bleed back into Daryl's movements.

She hated it.

"What'd he say?" She demanded in a hushed tone, still very aware of the men's voices coming from behind her. Daryl was obviously just as cognizant of the pair, dark blues tripping their way before turning back to Beth and shaking his head in answer.

Nothing he felt comfortable saying here.

Maybe saying at all.

Turning towards him fully, Beth went on tiptoe and melded her mouth to his, feeling the tightness of her chest where they met, the pull and scrape of the hair that lined his jaw where she ran her hands before fisting them in his hair. He felt hesitant, lips opening grudgingly when she ran a tongue tip against him for entry, hand lying unmoving on her back and the other refusing to leave his side to touch her. Beth knew it was the audience that hindered his reciprocation, and she only demanded a few probing, hard dragging, undulations, from his own trepid tongue before moving to his ear.

"I'mma do that trick for ya sometime." She whispered, even as they heard the voices from their hosts continue in a companionable bickering, there was zero doubt in her head that he was in any way confused by her topic change when his fingers flexed into her back. "But I'm not tellin' ya when."

He was able to grunt some rolling kind of growl for an answer as she went back to being flat footed, releasing her handle on his sweat and heat softened locks. She'd just managed to get turned around and flipping the browning pieces of meat again when Eric's voice sounded from the table.

"Awe." Beth flashed a smile over her shoulder even as she felt Daryl pull his hand away, slowly, and saw how he glowered good naturedly in the speaking man's direction. "The two of you make me believe in love again."

"That's-" Aaron began before stalling, and she didn't try to stop the giggle that floated in carbonated bubbles up her throat. "Wait, what?'

"Oh." Eric tsked dismissively. "You know what I mean."

As she added the savoring smelling portions to the vegetable soup, Beth allowed the sarcastic squabbling to enfold and fill her. Shifting her sight to Daryl, she felt serene, seeing him resting back against the counter, arms folded and a steady miniscule smirk on his face.

She wasn't about to seek out a confrontation with Deanna's son over whatever he'd said to Daryl, though her man was going to be telling her what had been said here soon. Beth wasn't willing to take one more minute of Spencer's shit though either, he might not know it yet, but he had officially run out of strikes with her.

Daryl huffed out something laugh-like next to her, and Beth did her best to expel her irritation as she turned around and knocked a hip into him, mirroring his position and winking at his considering look. Lord knew, there'd be plenty of time for fighting and anger before their time in this new world was over, but right now, she had a glowing bit of love and domesticity to enjoy.

So pregnancy scare aside. Entitled jerkoffs that ran their mouths aside.

Things were as good as she could ever have hoped them to be, and it did her no good to fixate on those things she would change if it were possible. A warm hand lit once more on her back, and Beth sidled into Daryl's side, the heat and steadiness of him was nearly intoxicating, there was no getting enough of him that much she knew.

It just wasn't possible.

Thanks again :)