A/N Here it is… better late than never right?! You guys are so wonderful and patient and I hope this makes you happy….

Beth will never forget the expression on Daryl's face when he first saw Abbi, tiny and dirty, but smiling from where she sat on the bed in the E.R. exam room.

It was relief, it was like finding out the thing you feared worst in the whole world never happened. He'd carried her out of the burning barn but he'd never had the chance to see her after, to put his fears to rest.

She was chattering away to her mom until Beth and Daryl walked in. Then she stopped and just looked at them, at Daryl. Beth heard the hitch in his breath, watched as all the tension in his jaw eased up and a small smile curved up the corners of his mouth.

"Hey Abbi," his voice is still rough, more than his usual huskiness but it's gentle when he says her name.

She sits there for a second, not saying a word and Beth worries that maybe her niece might be afraid of Daryl- after all she's been through not to mention the fact that Daryl is looking a bit on the wild side.

Abbi crawls to the end of the bed and settles there on her knees contemplating Daryl.

"Can I see your wings?"

"Wha'?" Daryl glances over at Beth and she's just as clueless as he is. But Abbi is adamant. Holding out her hand she twirls her tiny finger, a gesture for Daryl to turn around.

"Your wings, I saw 'em when we flew out of the barn," Abbi explains. Beth feels the tears stinging at the backs of her eyes. She knows where this is going.

"I ain't got…" Daryl mumbles but he turns like she asked him to.

And there stitched to the leather on the back of his vest are wings- angels, birds, butterflies. It's so easy to see what Abbi sees. Beth covers her mouth with her hand blinking fast willing the tears to stay where they are.

"See! There! Mama, I told you! Uncle Daryl flew out of the barn with me!" She's so proud of herself bouncing on her knees and clapping her hands. Amy's smiling and nodding, tears in her eyes.

"They ain't real…" Beth reaches out and lays a hand on Daryl's arm. And when he looks at her she gives her head a small shake. Let her believe in magic, let her believe in something amazing… let her have this to carry with her instead of the horror that it really was.

"Not now- but they were, they were real! You saved me!" And then she's in his arms, squeezing him in a hug and reaching over his shoulder to run her fingers across his wing.

And it's like that day in the kitchen when Beth had first seen the vest with the wings. She'd already made Daryl out to be some kind of angel for what he was doing for Merle, but the wings just solidified that for her. And it had felt like magic then, all of it had felt like magic, meeting him, falling in love with him, it was magic and it still is, watching her niece and Daryl smile at each other.

He may not believe in himself most of the time, but she believes in him. And Abbi does too. He's a good man.

"Wanna see my band-aid? It's big!" Beth sits down beside Amy and brushes her fingers through Claire's soft blonde curls. She's fast asleep in her mama's arms her face still smudged and streaked with tears.

"She's okay?" Beth asks.

"Yeah, just scared. Wore herself out crying." Amy says glancing at Beth. "I had no idea he- he's been doing so good, following his program, helping Hershel. I never should've let him take them to the barn alone. He wanted to show them the loft where y'all used to tell ghost stories…"

Beth isn't sure what to say. It's not okay, none of it and they are so incredibly lucky it turned out how it did.

"He's not who he was. None of us are. Not anymore."

"I'm their mama, I should've known." Amy sounds angry and Beth is at least glad for that. Because they can't just let this go. "He's going to jail, he confessed. Maybe it's for the best, maybe he'll get the help he needs."

Beth hadn't thought about all of this in terms of jail. Not even before when Shawn got physical with her. She doesn't really know what she was thinking. Where and how it would all end up. But jail, it hurts, that her family is so broken.

"What are you gonna do?" Shrugging she adjusts Claire in her lap.

"I could go back, to my sister. But I'd be alone and I know they're little but I don't want to take them away from the only family they know. Your daddy said we'd figure it out. But I want to stay-"

"You have to stay. We're family and I- I want you to stay."

That's something Amy has to work through of course. Because it's more than her and the girls, it's Shawn too. And maybe that can't be fixed. It's trust and that trust has been broken.

Beth can understand that because she doesn't trust her brother. And she may never trust him again.

xxxxXxxxx

Daryl hasn't said much since they left the hospital. He's admittedly uncomfortable with all the praise- but Abbi… He' still trying to wrap his head around the little girl's perception of him- with wings. He's thinking about Beth and his vest and his dream of actually having wings. And how all of it is connected. The way he sees himself, this, all of it doesn't fit. He's not a hero or an angel, he's just living his life. A life that he never imagined he'd call his.

It's all wrapped up in her. Beth. If he had to choose, if he had to fight, if he had to give up everything for this woman sitting beside him, her small hand tucked between his thighs, he would.

She's his first, last and always. It keeps coming back to this. And her.

Covering her hand he squeezes it and glances over at her. She's been quiet too.

" 'M sorry I scared ya." She's sad, he can see it.

"You don't have to apologize." Course she's gonna say that.

"I know, jus' want ya to know." Please jus' don' be sad.

"I do," she says softly, "what you did, that's who you are. You don't have a cape, you have wings."

"Stop…" It's half-hearted because coming from her it's not so bad even if he doesn't think of himself as any kind of hero. But he'll do his best to be hers.

It's past midnight by the time they pull up next to the house. As if he was standing just inside the door waiting for them, Merle walks out to join them. Sophia slept the entire drive home curled up on the front seat. Merle wakes her up, tells her to go into bed but before she does she comes over to Daryl and hugs him.

"G'night uncle Daryl." Her voice is thick with sleep and something else that winds its way around Daryl's heart.

"Ya good brother?" Merle asks. Daryl nods. There's a whole lot of meaning in those two words but they both understand. And it's enough. He follows Sophia into the house and Carol pulls him into her own hug.

"You did good."

"It ain't…." Nothing was what he was going to say but he doesn't get a chance.

"Don't. You're gonna have to let us have this cause you're home and safe. And Abbi is too." Nodding he watches her go- surprised at the emotion he feels.

They've both come a long way. And maybe Carol is his first real friend. He just didn't understand it back then. He never let himself see the good things because anything good never lasted anyway.

Now the good seems to outweigh the bad and it doesn't seem like it's gonna change anytime soon.

Beth stops him just inside the apartment door.

"Daryl, I just need to…"

This time no one is watching. She wraps herself around him and kisses him until they're both breathless and they can't get close enough. It's desperate and messy because now Beth is crying and he'd stop kissing her to find out why but it's so good and he thinks he gets it, how she can be grinding up against him with tears on her face.

"I'm sorry Daryl- I'm sorry-" she whispers. Taking her face in his hands he uses his thumbs to wipe away the moisture. His own face is wet too.

He doesn't know what to say to make her feel better, but he can show her. He can kiss her and hold her, let her feel him alive in her arms. So he does.

They kiss for a few minutes more, the desperation turning into something softer, tears mixed with the soot drying on both of their faces now. The last thing she does before she puts some space between them is lay her head against his chest and he knows what she's doing cause she does it all the time. Crazy girl is listening to his heartbeat. Sliding a hand up her back, he presses his palm between her shoulder blades. He can feel her heart and too. Maybe she's not crazy, cause it's reassuring like when he searches for her hand in the middle of the night if he wakes up and laces their fingers together so he can fall asleep holding on to her.

"Could take a shower…" He definitely needs a shower. He's dirty and smells like smoke and sweat. But he doesn't want to leave her.

"Yeah, we can."

xxxxXxxxx

Actually getting into the shower seems to be a problem because it means they need to let go of each other and take off their clothes. And even though he's here and he's safe she's having a really hard time not touching him in some way.

But they manage in between kisses to toss their smokey clothing outside the bathroom door and close it behind them letting the room fill up with steam from the shower.

Daryl does what he always does when they shower together, he moves her in front of him.

"Uh uh... let me wash your hair, Daryl." He only balks at her for a moment before he switches her places. Rivulets of water tinted black by soot roll down his body. If only it could be that easy to wash away everything else the night and the fire gave them. Let it go because she's heavy with the weight of it all.

They've done this before too- washed each others hair, but it's mostly been him doing the washing. He's tall and it's harder for her to reach him but after he rinses off he moves out of the spray and kneels in front of her. Taking a hold of her hips he presses a kiss to her belly button. Shivering she grasps his shoulders.

"Daryl let me focus-" This could very easily turn into something else. Desire has been playing at the edges of every touch.

He leaves his hands where they are on her hips and lets his head fall back as she runs her fingers through his hair trailing shampoo in their wake. She scratches softly at his scalp and he moves with her hands, eyes closed, a small smile curving the corners of his mouth.

"Feels so good… " he mumbles. Looking down at him her heart aches with tenderness.

What they have, this love, it's fragile and not because either of them are uncertain but because the world is and that terrifies her. She lost her mama, the person she loved most in the world. She never imagined there would be anyone else she'd give that love too.

But he came along and he didn't even have to ask her to jump.

Moving her hands to his shoulders she takes a step back.

"You can rinse." Standing he leans back and rinses the soap from his hair. When he turns away from her she steps forward and slides her arms around his waist and rests her head between his shoulder blades. Holds him, feels the taut muscles of his back moving underneath her. The raised skin of his scars, warm under her cheek are as familiar to her now as the pale pink stripe on her wrist. The one she still tries to hide with leather and beads.

"Hey..." His voice moves through his body and into hers as he turns in her arms. Because of course he knows her, knows something is going on after her tears when they got home.

"It was too close Daryl, too close-" she whispers.

"I ain't goin' nowhere Beth," he says tilting her head back with a finger under her chin. "Promise."

"You can't promise that Daryl." It hurts to even think it but it's true.

"I know, but I still wanna try." Whenever her faith seems to be slipping he always finds a way to put it back where it belongs.

Turning her around he gets the shampoo and by the time he's done his hands are doing more than massaging soap in her hair. He's holding her against him with his hands cupped over her breasts kneading them gently, his face pressed into the crook of her neck.

"Daryl…" She wants their bed and them in it, wrapped up in blankets and each other.

"Want ya… so bad," It's a rough, needy whimper and it sends a pulse of pleasure through her that makes her legs weak.

"I want you too, " she says shivering either from the cold water or what Daryl is doing, "not here... I mean can we..." He reaches out and shuts off the water. And they wrap up in the towels she laid out on the vanity. There's one light on in the living room and he shuts it off and follows her in the dark towards the bedroom.

She lets her towel fall and crawls into bed on his side, barely leaving room for him, but ensuring that the space between them will basically be nonexistent. He scoots in beside her and pulls the covers up over them.

"Cold?" he asks. His hand is on her breast, thumb rubbing over her hard nipple. Pushing into his hand she slides a leg between his.

"Maybe, I don't know.. just want to be close to you Daryl."

"Guess so," he chuckles, " yer hogging my side." He brushes his lips against her forehead. "Can have it though, c'mere." Scooting closer if that's even possible, she rests her head on his shoulder. This is what she wanted. Just this.

The mood from the shower only minutes ago, the want, the desire has dampened into something less urgent. And her head is no longer spinning horrible scenarios where Daryl never walks out of the barn.

"I know it's everything that's happened that's got me feeling like, like I need to hold on tight. It's just- god Daryl sometimes none of this feels real, how much I love you." She's aware of the fact that she's babbling and possibly not making any sense at all. Cause he's looking at her like she might be losing her mind. "It's like one day I'm gonna wake up and it'll all be gone- like it never- like we never..."

There's a very real possibility that she is, in fact, losing her mind.

xxxxXxxxx

"Marry me." He leans back so he can see her face. Her lips are parted just a little like she was about to say something else and her blue eyes couldn't look more beautiful as what he says starts to sink in.

"What….?" It's hard to breathe and it has nothing to do with all the smoke he inhaled. He asked and he meant it even though he's only thought about in the briefest sort of way because it's hard to fathom, her and this... And he doesn't have a ring and he thinks now, that he probably should have.

But.

Regardless of the uncertainty of literally everything else, he wants her to know that for him, this is real and it's forever and whether or not that's even possible is a minor detail. He's got all the same fears she does- but none of that matters because they can love like they've never been hurt, like they've got that elusive forever right in the palm of their hands.

They're doing it already.

So he says it again.

"Marry me, Beth." The second time the words roll off of his tongue he's even more certain this is the way it's supposed to go. But she's not saying anything, looks a little scared even.

Maybe...

"I… yes."

"I shoulda got a ring- supposed ta have a ring…" He's doing this all wrong but he did it and he won't take it back. He can get a ring, he can do that… Her words are there but they haven't quite found their way around the conversation he's having in his head.

"I don't need a ring…" Looks like she might cry.

"Yeah, ya do- 'm gonna get a ring."

"Okay, Daryl." And she's crying.

"Did ya say-" He's an idiot and he can feel the heat on his cheeks.

"Yes. I said yes…" Oh. So now what?

Now he asked Beth Greene to marry him and she said yes and he's having a ton of feelings about that but none that he can coherently convey.

So. It's what he always falls back on and maybe it's okay that he doesn't have the words most of the time. He has other ways of showing her what's in his heart. He can do it with his hands and his mouth and she understands it all.

Their kisses are shy and tentative, not like the kisses they usually share but not unlike them either. Just different.

"You wanna marry me?" Maybe he isn't alone in what he's feeling.

"I wanna marry you." His mouth slides down and along her jaw, teeth nipping gently, nose in her damp hair.

"You wanna fuck me?" Four little words whispered in his ear unravel him. Growling he rolls her onto her back, his body cradled between her spread legs. Rocking against her he lets her feel what he wants, what she's doing to him.

"I wanna… " Groaning he pushes into her hand that she's slid between them and taken hold of his cock with. Getting up on his knees he watches as she works her small hand from the base all the way up to the head and down again. Every nerve ending in his body has found its way to his cock summoned there by her nimble fingers and dirty mouth.

Batting her hand away he leans over to the night table, pulls open the drawer and finds an empty box. But that can't be right he's sure… Digging around he finds what he needs and just as he closes the drawer her mouth is on him, hot and warm and if he wasn't already on his knees…

"Damn girl!" He loves the sounds he can draw out of her but it always amazes him what she can do to him. Sometimes he doesn't even recognize his own voice. "Lemme go... " Her laughter and the way she settles back on the bed is so simple, but it touches him in places her mouth and fingers can't reach.

"Daryl I thought you were gonna…" Leaning over her he takes a nipple into his mouth and worries it with his teeth making her moan.

"I am. In a minute…" He scoots between her legs again but keeps going dragging the comforter and blanket down her body with him. He hears the whimper he knows she tried to hold back. Moving between her legs, his head pillowed on one thigh, the other draped over his shoulder he doesn't waste any time. And going by how wet she is it isn't gonna take long. Which is okay. This time.

He wants her to feel good, wants her to fall asleep sated, body humming from an orgasm. Maybe two. If he's lucky.

She's shaking even before he gets his mouth on her. He licks along her outer lips then parts them with his tongue, licks up to her clit and circles it before leaning in and covering the whole thing with his mouth and sucking hard until she's arching her back and making a song out of his name.

Spent she falls back down on the bed but he doesn't move yet, he stays where he is pressing soft kisses to her inner thigh because even there he can feel the tremors as they even out. And this is such a turn on and maybe he's weird but the way her body works and the things he can do to it fascinates him.

Maybe it's more about love than anything else. He loves her and she loves him and that's enough right there to get him going and keep him going for as long as she wants.

She said forever and he won't argue with her.

"Daryl…" Raising himself up he moves back up between her legs, kneels there and looks down at her. Post orgasmic high looks so fucking good on her. He wants to be there too. Wrapped around her sleepy and warm and smelling like sex.

Taking care of the condom he gets a hand under her knee and she shivers as the head of his cock rubs her tender flesh.

"Gonna come fer me again?" he rasps thrust his hips forward, sinking into her. She wraps her leg around his back and he lowers himself down so he's laying on top of her, elbows on either side of her head. She brings a hand to his face, runs her fingers down his temple to his lips.

"Get them wet…" Sucking them into his mouth he swirls his tongue around them and as he eases out just a bit her fingers are there on her clit and he thrusts into her again not worrying about taking it slow anymore, just pounding into her fast and then faster.

"Ya gotta come... I'm close." Panting over her, hearing her gasp, he can even feel it, those first flutters and then he's gone over that precipice and he's pretty sure she followed.

Because sometimes they get lucky and it happens like this.

It isn't long before the sweat they worked up dries and their bodies are soft and the comforter and blankets get pulled back up. Beth is right back where she was before as close to him as is humanly possible. Her hair is drying and the wild curls are everywhere including his face, tickling his nose until he blows them away with a puff of breath. Finally, he gives up and curls up around her and buries his face in the offending curls.

"I love you Daryl…" she murmurs from the cocoon she's made out of his body.

"Enough ta marry me?" He's sure she's sure, but old habits die hard and he needs to reassure himself. Her soft laughter is a balm but he's waiting for the words.

"A hundred times over…" Yeah. That's it. Right there.

"I love ya too girl."

A/N I was late and I'm sorry! I lay the blame completely on the kids! All of them… they put me through the ringer! But I did the thing all moms do, I survived. And I finished and I have to say I am a little proud of this one… that marriage proposal came out of nowhere cause I wasn't planning on going there.. ask arrowsandagels! She'll vouch for me! But it worked and she said yes! Thank you for reading and whoever the anon is that always asks if I am posting… if you're reading that always makes me feel good! So thank you!