**This story is rated M for mature.**

Daryl and Beth

Getting Beth to go behind the barn with him had been easy. Figuring out what to do with her now was another matter. Daryl had been with women before. Usually they were friends of the women his brother picked up from wherever it was that he picked up women. They were usually biker sluts, drunks, drug addicts or once in a while a nicer seeming girl that had a thing for bad boys. These girls did all the work, and there was no question as to why they were at his place or whether or not they wanted to have sex. And he didn't have to worry about getting rid of them because Merle enjoyed throwing bitches out once he was done with them. Daryl had a few girlfriends but they were really more like girls he just happened to have slept with multiple times.

Beth was different. She was clean and pretty and took care of her father. And he knew her father, which seemed strange since he had never met the father of any other girl he slept with. Daryl had a lot of respect for Hershel and now he was thinking about the man and how little he thought he might like his youngest daughter getting fucked behind a barn by the likes of him. He had also been concerned about her age, which seemed stupid now since his brother was with Iva who was just as young. Out of all the things that could go wrong, he was most concerned that it might go right. And then something else terrible might happen and she would be gone. Even before the turn life was just easier when you only had yourself to worry about. Easier but lonely.

Beth was sitting on the small bench next to Daryl. She was wearing shorts and had her legs crossed, swinging one bare leg back and forth nervously. Daryl had seemed so eager to get her back here and now it seeemed like he didn't even want to talk to her. She finished what was in her glass and held it out for more. Now this drink, she could enjoy. Because of how her father felt about it, Beth had never had a drink before this week. A few days ago, Merle had been out on the porch with the dog at his feet and the cat in his lap, sipping on a bottle of whisky. When he saw Beth watching him with an inquisitive eye, he had offered her a swig. She had taken a large gulp and come up coughing and choking. He had laughed and gave her a few whacks on the back. Beth didn't know how he drank that stuff, to her it tasted like gasoline. She watched Iva after that, and noticed the woman only drank hard cider and fruit wine she had made herself. Iva had it right, she thought, this cider was much better than whiskey. If she had watched closer she would have noticed that the other woman only had one small glass of the stuff, with her dinner. Homemade cider, while delicious, was much stronger than it tasted.

Beth took another sip, she was feeling less nervous already. She uncrossed her legs and moved a little closer to the man, so that they were sitting so close their thighs were touching. He shifted his arm so it was on the back of the bench behind her. Beth took this as an invitation to lean in a little more and she put her hand lightly on his leg. Come on come on, she thought, do something, anything. Maybe he didn't want her here, sitting so close, he sure wasn't acting like he liked it. Beth had only had one real boyfriend, which had been Jimmy. All she had to do was get close to him and he had been grabbing every part of her body he could. Softly, she felt the gentle pressure of Daryl's arm on her back as he wrapped it around her, rubbing her upper arm up and down with his hand. Finally, she thought, touching her arm wasn't much but it was better than nothing.

Beth swigged the last of her drink down and set the empty cup on the bench beside her. The liquid was making her brave. She cuddled in closer and rested her head on his shoulder, burying her face in his neck and planting a soft kiss there. He smelled a bit fishy but she found she didn't mind too much. She was glad she had washed up earlier after their vegetable hunt in the woods. Beth heard at soft click, as Daryl set his glass down on the ground next to the now empty bottle. Then she felt his arms around her as he shifted her up into his lap. His mouth was on her neck and collar bone before she dipped her head down pressed her mouth to his.

Daryl kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tightly to him. He forgot all about the trepidations he had about Beth and her age and her dad and her questionable virginity and kissed her. He felt her lips part and deepened his kiss, his hand on the back of her neck. The other hand trailed up her leg to her waist and cupped her small breast, rubbing the nipple through her shirt. She moaned and sucked his tounge hard, then her hands came loose from around his and she pushed the straps of her tank top down and slipped her arms through, pushing the shirt down so it was scrunched up around her waist. The top had a built in bra, which was all she really needed, so she was naked now from the waist up. Her head was spinning from the kissing and the alcohol.

Daryl shifted her so she was facing him, with one of her knees on the bench on either side of his lap. He caught her by the waist and lifted her up and forward so he could rub his face into her breasts. They were small but perky with tiny upturned pink nipples. He gripped her ass and pulled her hips against his chest, then took her nipples into his mouth one at a time, sucking them until he felt her hips start to rock against him. Her hands were in his hair and she was making soft little moaning noises. Suddenly she felt herself lifted and stood up on the ground. Daryl took her hand and led her into the barn. Most of the stalls were used by the animals but they had one where they kept the clean hay. He sat down heavily, pulling her down with him and sending one of the barn cats streaking away with a yowl of protest.

She lay down, rolling and pulling him on top, kissing and kissing him. Her shorts were hiking up her thighs and she could feel him through the soft denim, rocking her hips and squirming a little, trying to get closer. Daryl sat up a little. He had hay in his mouth and eye. Looking down at Beth, he saw the mess was all in her hair and likely all over her back. If this was going down, he should grab a horse blanket from the barn closet. Nothing says unsexy like hay in your ass crack.

"Hold on," Daryl told her, "Lemme get a blanket." Beth nodded even though she didn't really care about a blanket. She lay back on the hay and watched him hop up and take off for the closet at the front of the barn. The hay was soft and smelled good. She lay back and closed her eyes, rubbing her arms softly and thinking about everything she wanted the man to do to her, some of which she only had vague ideas of.

Daryl poked inside the large closet. There was animal feed, more animal feed, saddles, horse leads, extra feed buckets but where was the fucking blankets. He had seen Iva put picinic blankets and riding blankets away in here. The way that woman organized things drove him absolutely crazy. Basically there was no rhyme or reason to it, and she just memorized where each individual item was. Aha, there the freaking blankets were, up on the very top shelf above the saddles. He grabbed the cleanest looking one and took off for the back of the barn.

"I found the...," he started to say. Then he stopped and started laughing. Beth was lying in the hay, hair a tangled mess, tits out, hands behind her head, snoring like a fucking freight train. To see the normally so demure and composed girl looking so disheveled was just too much. He stepped closer and gave her an expiremental nudge with his boot. She didn't even flinch one inch and just kept right on sleeping away. You have got to be kidding me right now. Well, he thought, there was nothing to be done about the situation now. No more alcohol for Beth. If she was really that drunk, he was relieved that she had passed out before anything more happened. Forcing himself on drunk teenage girls wasn't really his style. Daryl leaned down and yanked her shirt up as best he could so at least her breasts weren't just hanging out all over the place, then he lay down and covered them both up with the blanket. Curled up beside her warm body, the hard work and the heat of the day caught up with him quickly and soon he was snoring along beside her.

The next morning, Beth sat on the porch nursing her very first hangover. Iva and Daryl had been up collecting eggs and doing the milking while he tried talking her into making him what he wanted for breakfast. Beth couldn't even think about food the way her head was pounding. Merle came out of the house and handed her some coffee with lots of cream and sugar. He gave her an empathetic pat on the head and stalked off down to help with the chickens. He and Daryl had been talking about doing some hunting today, although there was still the issue of leaving the girls here alone while Iva wasn't fully recovered. Of course Iva didn't seem worried, pain in ass woman never worried about anything. Beth had mentioned to him privately that Iva had been ready to take off without them again yesterday. She wasn't even going to say where she was going. He didn't know how to get it through that girl's thick skull that she needed to take a little more interest in her own safety. With the fences and the guns and the dog, the girls should be safe enough here for the better part of an afternoon, as long as they didn't go scampering off on some new deadly adventure.

"Hunting today?," Daryl asked, scooping some vegetable scraps out of a bowl and tossing them in for the greedy birds.

"Hell yes," Merle replied. Other than leaving the girls alone, hunting with his brother sounded great. He wanted to get him alone anyway so he could ask him about where he and the little princess had been all night long. Them sneaking back into the cabin in the very early morning had not escaped Merle. If they wanted to get their fuck on, there was no reason to be all shy and sneaky about it. Him and Iva didn't care where or whether or not they plowed it. Plus two air mattresses took up a lot of floor space in the cabin, be nice if they could put one of them away.

"Merle and Daryl go hunt?," Iva asked, opening up the door to the ducks coop so they could run around and forage some food for themselves today. "Get fat deer." This made both boys smile, there wasn't really such thing as a fat deer but they would try for a big one, and hopefully a doe with a good amount of meat on her. Hunting bucks with big racks was for asshole trophy hunters, when you were hunting for the dinner table, a doe was better. "Use blue trail."

"Blue trail," Daryl repeated. This was the first he had heard of any hunting trails. Merle, on the other hand was more than well aware of the young woman's hunting techniques.

"Those colored marks on the trees," he explained to Daryl, "each one ends in a salt lick and a pile of fruit and scraps." While Daryl would not lower himself to hunting that way, he had to admit the girl was ingenious. It wasn't a wonder anymore how the girl had made it alone all that time with only a kid for a companion. She made the most with what she had and what she needed she found a way to get.

"Real hunters don't need to bait the deer," Merle told her. She shrugged and continued on with her work. If he wanted to run all over hell and back chasing deer instead of letting them come to him, he was more than welcome to do so. He watched her a minute. She was unshakable. Most people would have been angry if someone insulted their hunting methods, but Iva just always carried right on, letting whatever he said roll off her back like water on the ducks. Daryl liked her. She didn't take any of shit from his brother but didn't seem to feel the need to fight with him to prove herself either. From what Daryl had seen so far, she seemed to be a calming influence on the man. His brother still got angry, but he didn't have that raging hungry look in his eyes all the time anymore. Daryl had seen the man drinking since they had been there, but he hadn't been drinking himself into a rage and hadn't been drinking everyday either. He didn't want to get too hopeful, when it came to Merle everything could change without notice, but for now he was happy to have his brother back.

The guys got their gear on, ready for their short hunting trip. Beth was feeling a little better after sipping her coffee and she had plans to help Iva make cheese today. Mozerella is what the plan was today, the first flush of ripe tomatoes had come in and according to Iva the only way to eat them was with fresh cheese and basil. And hopefully some vension steaks if the guys got lucky, but Beth saw Iva had taken a goat shank out of the freezer just in case.

The cheese was at the stage where it needed to sit a while to form curds, so the girls were at the table working on the tedious task of getting all the green stems off the petals of the dandelions. The green bits were bitter and no good for making jelly or wine. Iva had dried them a while in the dehydrator to make them pull apart easier, but it was still a job that could only be done one flower at a time. She had enough now for her salve and jelly, and the girls were now working on filling up a giant crock that Iva usually used to make kraut. Merle had said he wanted to make wine. It seemed his dad had taught him how, which Iva was surprised about since he never said much about the man. She was interested to see him make it though. Growing up, they did make some wine and cider, but the fermenting was more like just another form of preserving food. They didn't make it or drink it in order to get drunk, although her first husband had drank more than most to help with the pain of his arthritis.

"Beth and Daryl make fuck?," Iva asked the other girl. Beth smiled, you could really tell where Iva had been learning her english. He may or may not be the evil man that Maggie and Glen had made him out to be, but there was no question that Merle had a foul mouth.

"Make love," Beth corrected her. Iva was not to be distracted however, from the subject at hand.

"Beth and Daryl make love?," she asked. Beth shook her head.

"No," she admitted, "we kissed though." Iva liked the sound of that, it sounded promising.

"Daryl make good kiss?," she asked. Beth thought about it. She wasn't really an expert on kissing, and she had been more than a little drunk. One thing she was sure of though, she wanted to kiss him again. She nodded.

"Yes, he is a good kisser," she said, then asked something she had wondered about for a while, "what about Merle? Is he a good kisser?" Iva anwsered right away. Beth could tell the woman didn't need a minute to think about that.

"Yes, kiss mouth, I like. And...," the woman paused now. Beth could tell she was about to say something else and she wanted to know what it was. Beth gestured for her to continue and she did, a little color rising to her cheeks now. "and make kiss other place. I like."

"Like where," Beth asked. This was really getting good now. Beth knew the other girl was about her age, but she also knew she had a lot more sexual experience. Beth didn't even really know what to expect when it came to sex and she was curious. Iva blushed a little more now and pointed to her breasts and then between her legs.

"Good kisser," she said and they both broke out in laughter. Iva was happy to see that Beth didn't seem that shocked. She had not known if that was something all english men did, or if only Merle did it, and had not been sure if it was appropriate to mention. "Daryl make kiss other place?"

"Well," Beth said, and then pointed to her breasts, "here."

"Next time tell Daryl make kiss there," Iva told the girl, pointing to Beth's crotch and than adding confidently, "you like better." Beth felt herself blushing a little now. The thought of telling Daryl to do anything, let alone that, was unfathomable to her. The look on Beth's face set them both off giggling again. They almost didn't notice Sandy was up and suddenly heading towards the gate.

Beth was afraid for a moment, but relieved when she saw it was the truck from the prison. The girls ran over to the gate and Iva shooed the guinea hens away while Beth opened it up for them. It was a strange combination of people and they looked concerned. Something was wrong back at the prison. She could see Tyreese was driving, with Carol riding shotgun and Carl smooshed in the middle. Carol leaped out first.

"Its your dad," she said to Beth, "he may have had a heart attack. You need to come now." Beth felt her heart drop into her stomach. She needed to leave now, but she didn't want Iva left here alone. Beth had promised the boys, and Merle in particular, that she would keep an eye on the injured young woman.

"The guys are out hunting," Beth told Carol, "I can't leave Iva here alone." Carol thought about this quickly.

"I can stay here," she offered, "you go to your dad." Beth hugged her gratefully and took her place in the truck. She had turned to say goodbye and sorry to Iva, but Iva had urged her to hurry up and go to her father. Iva liked the man very much and hoped he was alright. Tyreese called out the window.

"Leave the radio on," he said, "we will call when we know something." Carol nodded and stepped back so Iva could close the gate. Then both women waved until the truck was out of sight.