Ch.34

"Where's Beth?" Daryl asked, watching as Maggie cooked one of the squirrels he had managed to kill.

"She's up in her room, said she was tired. She should be coming down soon, though," Maggie said softly, glancing away from the fire and to Daryl.

"You two go on that walk?"

Maggie nodded, turning the stick that the squirrel was skewered to.

"You didn't take her by where it all happened, did you?" Daryl asked worriedly.

"We went by it, spent a little time there."

"The hell, Maggie? Girl killed someone there…"

"She was the one that wanted to go there."

Daryl furrowed his eyebrows, not understanding why Beth would want to go back to that place ever again in her life.

"Rick and Tyreese are burryin' the bodies today," Maggie said quietly, her attention completely focused on the squirrel.

"Thought we were just gonna let them be walker food."

"That's what we were gonna do, but Beth wanted them buried. She said that they were bad people, but that they still deserved to be buried."

Daryl let out a soft sigh, shaking his head slightly. Those men were worse than walkers. Walkers didn't have a choice about the bad that they did, they were mindless bodies roaming around hungering for human flesh. But those men-they were monsters roaming around hungering for a different form of flesh.

"Should've left 'em for the walkers," Daryl mumbled.

"That's what I thought, too, but that's not what Beth wanted. If burying them is gonna make her feel better, then we're gonna burry them."

"Girls too damn good, even after all she's been through, she don't have a mean bone in her body."

Maggie kept her eyes glued to the squirrel, but Daryl caught the small smile that played across her lips. She was thinking about something, her could tell that she was.

"Beth's never had a mean bone in her body. She's always been good, nice. Daddy would be proud of her."

Daryl nodded. Maggie was right. Hershel would be proud at the young woman Beth had become. She could've let what happened to her overtake her, ruin her, destroy her, but she didn't. Beth had taken the tougher road and had decided to fight, to not give up. Sure, she had had some dark days, but she never gave up. And when she had the chance to get back at her attackers, a chance for revenge, she hadn't taken it; instead she had decided to lay their bodies to rest, to let them be at peace and not become the food of the rotten corpses walking around.

"She's finally starting to talk about it," Maggie said sadly. "About what happened to her."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah…it is."

"But?"

Maggie shook her head. "It's nothing, never mind."

She was lying. There was something that she was thinking about telling him, but she had stopped herself.

"What is it?"

"She thinks that she's never gonna be with someone, that a man's never gonna want to touch her."

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "She'll realize that it isn't true."

"I just wish that she'd realize it now."

"She knows that what happened to her isn't her fault, but she thinks that when people find out, that when they see, that they'll judge her, be…I don't know, off put by it."

Daryl had heard everything that Maggie had said, but his ears focused in on only one thing. When they see.

"What do you mean 'when they see?'" He asked, his stomach twisting in the knot at the knowledge of what Maggie's answer would be.

Maggie quickly looked up at him, immediately realizing her mistake. "Don't tell her I told you…"

"When they see what, Maggie?"

"The scars…"

Daryl closed his eyes, taking a shaky breath, trying to control his anger. Images of what Beth had looked like after her attack began flooding his mind. The bruises that had painted her skin, deeper and darker than any bruise should ever be. She had had cuts on her, but he had never really looked at them, too focused on getting Beth dressed to take the time to inspect the wounds on her back, stomach, and ribcage.

"Are they bad?"

"Yeah, some of them."

"I didn't think she'd have any scars."

"Well, she does, and she thinks that when someone sees them, they'll immediately turn her away."

"That ain't gonna happen," he said quickly, maybe too quickly.

"That's not what she thinks."

"The girl's pretty, anybody can see that. Big, doe eyes, baby blues, blond hair…any man that turned her away because of a few scars is an idiot and doesn't deserve her."

Maggie smiled a little more.

"What?" Daryl asked, his tone bordering on defensive.

"Nothin'. It's just the way you talk about her sometimes, the way you look at her, talk to her. You care about her."

"I care about everyone in this group. Besides, we were stuck together after the prison, had to care about."

Maggie shook her head, as if she knew something that Daryl hadn't yet realized, or rather, something he had been denying.

"Why're you shaking your head, Greene?"

"It's nothing. Go and get Beth for me? Her squirrel's done cooking, and I want her to eat it before it gets cold."

Daryl nodded and stood up from his place opposite of Maggie. He looked at her for a moment, wondering what it was that she was thinking, before giving up and hurrying into the house. Whatever Maggie had been thinking about she obviously wasn't willing to share.

Daryl slowly made his way to Beth's room and knocked on the door. When he didn't receive a response, he opened the door to Beth's bedroom and took a small step in. Beth was lying on her bed, her hair fanned out around her like a halo. Her tiny hands were lightly clasping the blankets that covered her. She looked peaceful, beautiful.

He hated having to wake her up. He wanted to stay here in the doorway and just watch the steady rise and fall of her chest, the way her nose would scrunch when a loose strand of hair tickled it. The picture was cliché if he was being honest. He had never known someone who slept so peacefully, like they showed in the dumb Hallmark movies he would see when he was flipping through channels on the TV. But this was Beth, and even though he knew what had happened to her and knew about the scars that tainted her skin, she was still perfect.

So he slowly walked over to her and tentatively reached out a hand, shaking her gently. Her eyes opened and she looked at him tiredly, a weak smile on her face. Her hand went to her mouth to cover a young, and Daryl suddenly became aware of how close he was to her.

"Maggie wanted me to wake you up," he said, taking a step away from the bed. "Squirrel's done, need to go eat."

Beth nodded, still half asleep.

He thought about saying something about her scars, about bringing up the fact that a man would want her someday, would want to be with her and love her. But he didn't. They had already had this conversation countless times, and right now Beth seemed to be in a good mood and he didn't want to ruin it.

"Why don't you come down stairs and eat, then you can go back to sleep," he said instead, his eyes glued to her as she sluggishly pushed the blankets off of herself.

"I'm tired."

"Yeah, I can tell," he said, chuckling softly. "Now c'mon before Maggie comes up here."

Author's Note: First, I want to thank everyone for the reviews on the last chapter! I got a lot of really good reviews, and it made me so happy! And it made me especially happy to see that my readers are seeing the budding relationship between Beth and Daryl. It's slow, very, very slow, but the relationship is there. I could've just thrown the two in bed together, but that wouldn't be realistic given what they have been through, and quite frankly, I'm loving writing this slow build up.

Second, this chapter is pretty short, but it is necessary. I know that short chapters are a little disappointing, because who doesn't love a long chapter?! But sometimes a shorter chapter is needed to develop the plot, the characters, etc. So, I hope you like this chapter even though it is short!

Please leave a review and tell me what you think!