~Author's Note: Hey Guys, here is your next chapter. I know that I promised in the last chapter that this one would be good, but it got a little out of hand, a little longer than I expected, so I decided to chop it up a bit. This one's okay, but it is just a part of the bigger picture I was creating for this "chapter" that turned into something more, so I went with it, let the story tell itself, so there will be more chapters. Since it is a long holiday weekend here, I will try to get the next chapter posted by Monday. I hope you all enjoy, and as always thanks for reading and being so awesome!~


"I thought maybe in the morning we'd go hunting and try to get these people some food before we head out," Daryl commented as they stepped into the trailer, and he pulled the door shut and locked it behind them. "They ran through that deer pretty quick...thought they would've rationed it better."

"We...hunting?" Beth questioned as Daryl squeezed by her and set their bucket of warm water by the sink, putting in the stopper, and pouring out his portion.

Daryl may have taught her some tracking and crossbow basics, but hunting? Maybe Daryl was just stalling a little, not wanting to leave first thing in the morning, buying just a little more time, for what she didn't know. She was nervous about leaving too. Something was off here, what she couldn't say. Daryl knew it too...probably knew it before she did, but the truth was, they didn't know what was waiting for them out there, if their original plan would even pan out. Maybe it was a "better the Devil you know" situation they were in, but they both knew they couldn't stay forever.

"Well, I'll go hunting, and you can use all the 'being quiet' skills I've tried to teach you so you don't scare all the game away 'cause you ain't staying here alone." He was concrete about that.

Beth sure wouldn't want to leave Daryl alone in this camp either. He'd already been propositioned once, and the way the women here looked at him...she wanted to claw their eyes out.

"I'm going to grab my nightgown and go get cleaned up." Beth went to squeeze by Daryl.

His hand rested gently on her lower back as she went by.

"Oww..." She didn't mean for it to come out or to flinch away from him like that.

"Whoa, what's wrong? You hurt?" He asked as he grabbed her upper arm just firmly enough to keep her from moving away.

"No...it's nothing...I'm fine..." Beth insisted, not trying to pull away because it wouldn't matter.

"Here...let me see!" He turned her, forcing the back of her shirt up.

Daryl let out a low whistle and gently let his hand span the tender spot on her lower back where the massive bruise was.

"That from my bow?" He asked sheepishly.

"Mmm-hmm," Beth replied, turning to face him.

He at least had the decency to put his head down in "shame" to hide the little grin at the corners of his mouth.

"Sorry."

"Yeah...you should be..." She tried to be stern, but she just couldn't. It had all been too good...too perfect to hate any part of what had resulted from that catastrophic night in the woods.

"Well Lil' Bit, that's what you get for tryin' to take down a hunter in the woods."

Beth liked when he smiled, even if it was just a little one...especially since his smiles were reserved for her.

"Seeing how you were on top, it kinda seems like you took me down." Not that it had been a bad thing at all!

"Good one Beth...point to you..." She liked this Daryl...actually all of Daryl was perfect. "I'll make it up to you. I'm good for it, I promise."

"You better! I'm going to hold you to that!" Beth ensured him as she walked away.

"All you gotta do is say when," Daryl called after her.

Gosh Daryl, forward much? She almost said to tease him back, but she stopped her words before they came out. Beth wasn't looking at him, but it didn't sound like he was teasing.

The R.V. bathroom was better than no bathroom at all, but it was a tight fit. At least the lantern lent enough light that she could see herself in the mirror as she took her bath from the bucket. Beth sighed to herself as she wiped off the day's dirt. It had been a hard day, challenging and tiring, mentally and physically. She never really minded camping before with her family, but this perpetual camping trip was starting to wear them thin. They needed somewhere safe where it was okay to hope for something normal and not be afraid that it would be ripped away from them at any second. Beth had thought that place was the prison...they'd fought so hard to build a life there...a community...and in the end, it hadn't even been the walkers that had destroyed it...it had been people!

Beth choked back a sob, looking in the mirror trying to decide whether to put her hair up or leave it down. She only had one reason to try to be pretty anymore, and he was waiting out there for her...up or down?

And they didn't belong here with these people either. It didn't feel right. They didn't feel right. She wondered if the only people it would ever feel right with were the people they lost. If any of them where still alive out there, were they thinking about her and Daryl? About where they were and how they were surviving, if they were even alive?

Hair down. Beth struck her thoughts and pulled her nightgown over her head. She had to think about the future, the here and now. When Beth stepped out into the little hallway, she stood very still and held her breath. Apparently she hadn't taken long enough in the bathroom. Daryl was standing at the sink illuminated in the light of his lantern with his back to her. She watched as he ran the wet rag across his shoulder and down his arm...beads of water dripping down his back...and he was naked. Beth was frozen, just watching, taking in his scarred back, following down the line to where her eyes shouldn't go...then his thighs, his cut calves, and back up again. She was flushed...she blushed, and felt warmth flood her body. She was being so childish! It wasn't like she'd never seen a bare butt before...it was just that it was Daryl, and the context, and the fact that she wanted him...that made her afraid...afraid of the unknown.

Beth sidestepped slowly back into the bathroom to gather herself, hoping that Daryl hadn't noticed.


Daryl was leaning against the pillows thinking on the day when Beth finally came to bed. He watched her intently; it kinda felt like he had a right to now. Things were different.

"What?" She asked softly as she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Nothin'. Ain't I allowed to watch you?" He wasn't really asking permission.

Beth just gave a timid smile and shrugged her shoulders in reply.

"It's your turn to sing tonight by the way," She informed him, and he hoped she was joking 'cause there was no way!

"Pffft...that ain't never gonna happen." He was gonna lay down the law here.

"Why not?" She asked all innocently, turning to him on the bed. "Didn't you ever sing in church, or in the car or shower, or even just sing 'Happy Birthday' to someone?"

Daryl stretched out putting his hands behind his head. She would probably never get it. That just wasn't the world he came from. Maybe it was better for her that way though, to hold on to that little piece of innocence.

"Naw Lil' Bit. Voices like mine aren't meant to be enjoyed, and the world's a better place for it..."

She scooted closer on the bed, sitting near and looking down on him with those eyes of hers that always saw a better version of him than he knew was there.

"Everybody's voice is beautiful to someone..." She quickly looked away.

And he knew that she meant his voice was beautiful to her...how and why he didn't know. It was a strange feeling...having someone accept the worst parts of him, the whole package for what he was, not what she wanted him to be.

And he probably should have said something reassuring or beautiful back to her instead of quietly contemplating her words because Beth seemed to read his silence as awkward silence. But sometimes he just wasn't good at "saying something". He didn't have much practice at it.

"You know, you gave an awesome battlefield speech to these people today, but you really don't play well with others," she said, trying on a new subject for size.

It was a good transition though, to tell her how some things had to be. Daryl sat up so he could face Beth.

"Beth, these ain't our people, never will be, you know that, right?" He kept his voice soft.

Beth looked at him and nodded her understanding silently, her loose hair falling in her face. He watched her brush it back out of her eyes and was almost lost in the moment.

"I can be like this with you, share myself...I don't mind being close to you...I want to be close to you, and being by you all the time doesn't make me feel like I'm suffocating. And...you don't judge me." Was this coming out right?

"People don't judge you. Our group didn't," Beth reassured him.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not gonna take that chance," Daryl asserted. "Even if we find our group again, you gotta understand that just 'cause I'm like this with you don't mean I'm gonna be like this with anyone else; it's just that we share this..." He hoped she understood.

"I know..." She didn't seem to be surprised by what he said.

"And Beth, something else..." She looked, sensing his seriousness, watching and waiting. "No matter who we're with, other people or Rick, Maggie, Glenn, and all the rest of them, you come first for me, your safety above all. The only time that would ever change is if there were..." And right there he'd said too much and trailed off awkwardly without hope of recovery.

He was waiting for her to pull the "you started it, now you have to finish" rule, but she didn't. She just waited. And he was man enough to finish. He didn't have to be afraid with her.

He started again. It was who he was, who he would always be, his code, so there was no reason not to be concrete.

"The only time that will ever change is if there are children. Then I will do whatever I have to do to protect my family."

Daryl watched for her response carefully even though his first instinct was to look away. Maybe a more cynical version of himself expected to see loathing or disgust since in this context and their future situation, Beth was the only person he would ever consider that life with. To be truthful, she was probably the only person in any situation he would ever consider that life with if he had been lucky enough to ever meet and keep her before. But that wasn't the response he got.

"You want children?" The question was so soft that he barely heard it.

He paused a moment thinking about their future, a future he could actually see. The problem was, Daryl didn't even know if he would be alive tomorrow. What was the use of livin' in a fantasy? But then, what if? His life had recently been a compilation of very fortunate "what ifs?" that he would have never imagined. They needed to be honest with each other if there was a future for them.

"Yeah," Daryl offered hesitantly, thinking on it, waiting for her to shoot him down, but she still didn't, "just 'cause I had a messed up life don't mean I don't want kids, that I couldn't be a good father..." he trailed off, not knowing where to go from there.

"I know...I've seen you." There was sadness in her voice alluding to that loss...and that hadn't even been their own child.

He didn't know what to say to comfort her.

"I'm sorry Beth." It was all he had to offer.

"For what?"

She was so naive. He had a whole shit load to be sorry for.

"I'm sorry I can't give you more than this." Where was this depressing shit coming from?

"If I said it was enough, would you believe me? Because you are..." She was so sincere that he wanted to believe her, but how could she really know that?