Some male quality time in this chapter. As this story winds down, I will focus more on Beth and Daryl in the next chapter. Thank you so much to those who continue to read and support and love this story. I can't explain how happy I get, writing this one.

…

Chapter Thirty-six. Bond.

Beth made cattail pancakes for breakfast the next morning in honor of Anna coming home – safe and sound – and since Matt had never heard of such a thing, he found himself standing with Beth in the kitchen, watching her, and Beth didn't mind at all.

She boiled the roots down until they almost looked like a gruel and then she left it to dry. She mixed egg, milk and salt together along with the gruel and then dropped them into the well-oiled cast-iron skillet she had on the stove. She served them with blueberries and they had even tapped their own syrup from the trees – Anna saying it had taken them years and they had just had syrup for the past couple of winters now because it took so much tree sap to make a little bit of syrup. Matt sat, eating his pancakes and syrup, finding himself wondering, and not for the first time since he and Anna got here the day before, where the hell he was.

As they all helped clean up after eating, Daryl looked to Matt.

"Get your stuff ready," Daryl told him. "We're gonna be leavin' as soon as we can."

Matt nodded and went back towards the couch in the living room, where he had slept the night before. The kids were getting their notebooks and pencils for their usual lessons to be held at the kitchen table and as Daryl and Aaron stepped outside, Spencer helped Beth wash the dishes, Rosita sat in the chair in the living room, picking up on some mending she had to do, and Anna followed Matt to the couch.

"You don't have to pack everything," she told him after watching him for a moment, repacking everything into his pack to take with him.

Matt didn't look at her as he made sure he had everything with him. There was no way he would be coming back. At least he had gotten a full stomach from breakfast that morning. He was already thinking of his next meal. Maybe he'd camp out at the diner for a while. That had been a good enough place and he, Anna and Spitz had gotten through the storm just fine. It wasn't like he had anywhere else to get to.

"Matt," Anna said his name in a whisper as if she could read his mind and actually, if Anna did actually have that ability, it wouldn't surprise him.

She reached out then to touch his arm, but Matt took a step back so she couldn't touch him. He could feel Rosita watching them and he didn't know what she thought about him, but he could only imagine what her husband had told her last night.

"Matt," Anna said again, the hurt evident on her face, and she took a step towards him, but Matt shook his head, cutting her off, and without a word or another look towards her, he hefted his pack onto his back and turned away from her.

The kids were at the kitchen table, Aiden and Eli taking turns as they read about Charlemagne and the Saxon Wars, of all things, from their shared history book and Bee was working on her spelling flashcards. Beth was at the stove, beginning the process of canning their seemingly endless tomato crop, and she turned her head when she saw Matt from the corner of her eye. He paused at the back door, wanting to thank her for feeding him so much, but before he could, Beth left the stove and picked something up from the counter that she had wrapped in a cloth.

"I baked you a loaf of honey carrot bread to take with you on your trip," she said, coming towards him. Her smile was gentle and warm and Matt knew why she had baked him something. So he wouldn't starve because he wasn't coming back.

He took the loaf from her. "Thank you, Beth. And thank you for everything else."

"Of course." Her smile remained. "You're important to Anna, so you're important to us, too," she said.

Matt didn't mean to in front of her, but he couldn't stop from snorting at that. Her smile slipped slowly from her face at his reaction and her eyes moved to Anna as she came to stand near the table. Anna was looking at Matt, willing him to look at her, but he wouldn't. He couldn't.

It helped if he reminded himself what a sick bastard he was for even looking at her in the first place. Being around other people reminded him what he knew all along. It was wrong, plain and simple. Being attracted to her was wrong. Kissing her had definitely been wrong. It didn't matter that they were in some new world and they were all learning how to be self-sufficient humans again while fighting the dead and adapting to these new rules that had been set in front of them.

They had to hold onto some of the old world or they were no better than the walkers stumbling about without a working brain in their heads.

He gave his head a slight incline towards Beth. "It was nice to meet you all," he said and then with that, he walked out the door.

He heard Anna behind him and then a low murmur of voices as she and Beth talked, but Matt couldn't decipher what they were saying. He saw Daryl and Aaron standing near the barn, talking as they went over the weapons they were bringing with them, but they stopped and looked when they saw Matt coming towards them.

He stopped a couple of feet away. "I'm ready," he informed them.

Aaron glanced towards Daryl, but Daryl looked at Matt and nothing else.

"A'right," he nodded. "Le's just go get Spencer and then we'll leave."

He heard steps behind him and then Beth walked past him to go to her husband.

"May I speak with you for a moment?" Beth spoke to Daryl in a voice that sounded too tight and unnatural, but Daryl knew that voice. She was pissed for some reason and he went over everything that had happened in the past few hours and possible things he might have done, but he was coming up blank.

He followed her into the barn and once she made sure the door was closed securely behind them, she turned towards him and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Anna isn't an idiot," she told him.

"Never said she was," Daryl replied with a shrug and crossed his arms over his chest.

"She and Matt know exactly what you, Aaron and Spencer are planning to do, Daryl."

"And what are we plannin' to do?"

Beth just stared at him and crossing her own arms over her chest, she raised an eyebrow at him. I'm not an idiot either, she told him silently. Daryl held his stance for another moment longer before he sighed and dropped his arms.

"He's too damn old for her," Daryl said.

"I'm sure people could think the same thing about you and me when we got together," Beth responded, but Daryl's response was immediate.

"It ain't the same damn thing," he nearly growled. "You were legal, Beth."

Beth exhaled a soft sigh. "I know you're protective of her. We all know that. We raised her into who she is today and we sent her out there because she was lonely and still sad and she is strong and brave and we knew she could handle herself… I trust Anna's judgment and if she says Matt is a good person-"

"No," Daryl cut her off, not wanting to hear any more. Not even when Beth frowned at him. "She'll get over 'im. And it's not like I'm just droppin' him off in the woods. We're gonna go to the diner and I'm gonna make sure it seems safe enough for 'im."

"She loves him," Beth said with a firm tone.

"She's sixteen," Daryl couldn't help but snap.

"I was eighteen when I fell in love with you. Just two years older than Anna."

Daryl shook his head. "That's not the same thing."

"Why not?" Beth questioned and she sounded genuinely curious as if she wasn't too smart to figure that out for herself.

Daryl didn't answer. He just strode past her without another word.

Beth was still frowning heavily at him, but for once, Daryl didn't really care. He loved this woman, but he was right about this – completely right – and nothing was going to convince him otherwise. And if Matt did know that they were planning on dropping him somewhere, he didn't seem to be having a problem with it, seeing as how he was going along with it without argument. Guy probably knew this whole thing was wrong, too. Maybe Matt was even grateful for an out. Maybe he wanted to leave, but wasn't too sure how to do it without hurting Anna.

Outside the barn, Matt stood off near the gate entrance, watching everyone else say goodbye to the men as they got ready to leave. Aiden and Bee crowded around Spencer and Spencer crouched down in front of them, saying something that Matt couldn't hear clearly, but Aiden and Bee nodded their heads obediently, and then Spencer hugged them as tightly as he could.

Daryl was doing the same with Eli and then Daryl hugged him tightly before bringing Beth into the embrace as well. Matt saw that Anna and Aaron were standing off to the side, whispering feverishly back and forth to one another.

Spencer was now standing and he and Rosita had their arms wrapped around each other. Spencer's face was serious. "You still have the letters for the kids?" He asked. Rosita rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, but Spencer put his hands on her cheeks, gently holding her face. "Do you still have them?" He asked.

And whatever Rosita's initial retort was going to be, it seemed to die in her throat as she looked into his eyes. Without a word, she visibly swallowed and nodded.

Everyone hugged everyone and Matt remained standing by the gate, feeling out of place and uncomfortable. But suddenly, he saw Bee scampering his way and like she had done the day before, the girl hugged his leg tightly and looked up at him.

"I love my doll," she told him.

Matt felt himself smiling. "I'm glad," he said and Bee smiled widely.

Rosita then came and surprised him when she hugged him, patting her hands on his back. "Thank you for bringing her home, safe," she said.

"She was the one who kept me safe," he told her though he figured she already knew that. Anna kicked ass. No one knew that better than her family.

Beth went hurrying into the cabin and then came back out a moment later. She came towards Matt with a plastic baggy in her hand. "Anna said that you loved this so I made you up some quick this morning," she said and she held out the plastic baggy. He saw that it was cinnamon tree bark.

"Thank you, Beth," Matt said with a slight incline of his head.

Beth stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and for such a little woman, she could hug damn tight. When she pulled back, he expected her to go back to Daryl, but instead, she kept standing in front of him, looking at him in the face, and she seemed to be studying him. Matt refrained from shifting nervously.

He didn't know what else to say to any of them.

He caught Anna from the corner of his eye and even though he told himself not to, he looked over to her. He waited for her to come towards him, bracing himself for it, sure that no one in her family would like that, but she remained where she stood, just looking at him; almost as if she was trying to memorize him. Matt found himself doing the same, knowing that he would never see her again. He had made it this far on his own – and with Anna's help – but fall was coming and then winter and there was just no way he would make it on his own through winter.

Deciding that he had to do something, he gave her the slightest nod of his head.

Anna pursed her lips together and even from where he stood, he could see the tears flood her eyes and without saying anything to anyone else, she turned and hurried towards the barn, slipping inside and the door closing behind her. Matt's eyes fell to the ground, wondering if anyone else had seen that.

…

The diner was just about ten miles away once they found Road #2 through the trees and they followed the worn and cracked, faded pavement, Spencer pulling the wagon and Lily – having come with them – trotting at Daryl's side as he led the way.

Aaron took it upon himself to walk beside Matt.

"How old were you when it happened?" He asked.

Matt glanced over to him to see if he was really the one being spoken to. "Fifteen," he answered. "My sister had passed away about six months earlier and my parents got sick and died almost immediately and then it was just me."

"Was it hard getting out of DC?" Aaron asked.

Matt nodded and swallowed as he remembered – though he had done everything he could to forget those first few days when the entire world collapsed into itself. At fifteen, he hadn't known yet what he would have to do to make it out of there alive. But he had always been a quick learner.

"You do what you have to," Matt murmured more to himself than to Aaron.

"But you managed," Aaron continued. "So, what? You're probably twenty-seven now? Twenty-eight?"

Matt nodded and shrugged. "Around there, I guess."

"That's not too old," Aaron commented in a quiet voice.

Daryl glanced back at them over his shoulder. "Aaron," he said the man's name and Matt saw Aaron smirk a little as if something extremely funny had just happened and he was trying to keep himself from laughing as he went up to walk with Daryl.

Matt remained where he was, walking behind them a few feet with Spencer still bringing up the rear, pulling the wagon. Matt was pretty sure the man was humming to himself and Matt looked over the side of the road that dropped down sharply and abruptly and the trees the stretched as far as he could see in any direction. Even after being in these mountains for a few months, it was still somewhat amazing how quiet it all was. How isolated. How vast.

He glanced over when he saw Spencer come up beside him.

"Thank you for the doll you brought back for Bee," Spencer said. Matt, not too sure what to say, just nodded and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "It's harder with her than with the boys. When we found Anna, she was six and already so much older than that and she had already seen too much. She wasn't interested in things that you would think a little girl would be into."

Matt remained silent, listening to Spencer, hoping he would continue. He did.

"We already had her carrying a knife and teaching her how to kick a walker to bring it to its knees so she could stab it in the head. And Beth started teaching her immediately about plants and flowers. We got her crayons and coloring books, but anything more than that…" Spencer trailed off and shrugged himself. "She's always been tough and smart and we forgot most of the time that she was just a little kid.

"The kids are different. They're growing up in these mountains and this is all they've known. They know about walkers and how to kill them, but it's quiet up here. Hell, they only just saw their first person outside of the family a few months ago. But Bee's even more different. The boys are happy taking showers during a rainstorm and flinging mud at each other and they're best friends. Bee is…" he trailed off again.

"A little girl," Matt offered.

"Exactly. We've had to scrounge this earth for everything she has. And God help me, but she wants to wear dresses and she loves pink and she's becoming a girly girl and what the hell can I do about that in this world?" Spencer asked though it wasn't really a question and Matt was sure it was inappropriate, but he smiled a little.

Daryl and Aaron had stopped and Spencer and Matt caught up to them within a few steps and stopped with them. There was a roadside motel that Matt remembered he and Anna passing just a couple days earlier, but they hadn't stopped. He had asked if she wanted to, but Anna had shaken her head and had kept on walking. There had been a storm and some of the windows were shattered and a tree had fallen down on the roof of some of the rooms; wild grass grew tall through the cracks of cement and a rusted Coke machine sat on the wooden platform outside one of the rooms.

"You two stop here?" Daryl asked.

"No," Matt answered. "I asked her if she wanted to, but Anna knew she was close to being home and she just wanted to keep on going."

Daryl nodded and then looked to Spencer and Aaron.

"Might be worth looking," Aaron suggested. "Just for a second."

"I wonder if there's still Coke in there," Spencer wondered and wandered off towards the machine, flexing his fingers around the handle of his machete, wondering how hard he would have to hit it to bust it open.

Daryl looked back towards the rooms and the tree, still lying stretched over the roof.

"Al'righ," Daryl said, having come to a decision. "While the idiot's tryin' to get his soda, we'll check the rooms. Can't imagine anythin' bein' of any use in any of 'em anymore, but we'd be stupid to pass 'em by, just in case there is," Daryl said and Matt and Aaron nodded in agreement. "Take anythin' you think is useful and leave it by the wagon for us to go through. We'll meet back here before goin' into the office."

They broke off after that, each heading towards their own rooms. The doors were warped with water damage and easy to break through on the ones with the locks turned. The ones that were locked, there was at least one or two walkers inside and they were able to be dispatched of easily.

With the windows busted and the roof caved in, nature had been able to get into these rooms, slowly taking them over again. The blankets, sheets and pillows on the bed were crusted with dirt and mud and in a closet, Matt saw that a family of foxes was living there. He quickly closed the door again so they didn't attack him and that they got his message that he wasn't there to hurt them.

He opened drawers, looked through the bathroom, but too many years had passed and nothing was even resembling something as useful. The paint was peeling from the walls, it smelled like mold and in the mint green bathtub, roots of some plant was starting to grow up through the drain. It all looked creepy as hell and Matt left the room, feeling a chill on the back of his neck.

Daryl was at the Coke machine with Spencer, Spencer kneeling down, trying to shove his arm up the bottom flap and Daryl hitting the front of it with his crossbow. Lily was sniffing at the flap Spencer had his arm up in, wondering what he was trying to get, the wolf wagging her tail back and forth, figuring it was something good if they were going through so much trouble for it.

Daryl looked up when he saw Matt. "Anythin'?" He asked as he paused and looked down to Spencer as Spencer kept stretching his arm up. "Would you stop that? You're gonna cut your arm and I don't have the stuff to do stitches."

"I'm close. I can feel it," Spencer grunted, pressing himself as tightly as he could against the machine.

"No, everything's pretty much ruined," Matt answered Daryl's question. "There are foxes in the closet though if you want them."

"Nah," Daryl shook his head and then paused to hit the front of the machine again with the butt of his crossbow. "Don't kill foxes."

Matt didn't ask why, knowing that the man had his reasons.

He had realized quickly that Daryl was the one in charge of this family, though he didn't walk around with his chest puffed out and strutting around like his shit didn't stink. There was a quiet authority to him and the others all loved and respected him and looked to him for answers. And Daryl looked to them all for advice when he was thinking things through.

Daryl was the kind of leader who made sure he earned his respect – and even then, he acted as if maybe he didn't really deserve it anyway – and Matt found himself respecting him a little already for that.

Matt looked at the pop machine. It was an old fashioned kind with the sides screwed shut. He stepped up to them, running his hands over the screws, and then with his knife, he began to work at unscrewing one. It was tight and nearly rusted and impossible, but Matt kept trying to turn it.

Aaron came out of his room then, a black backwards baseball cap on his head. They all stopped and looked at him and the hat that was now on his head.

"Think you prob'ly just gave yourself lice," Daryl grunted.

Aaron just smiled and shrugged. "I like it. Nothing else though except this." He held up a red hooded sweatshirt with USA in white written across the front. "Only thing in there that isn't home to mice."

"They're probably Communist mice," Spencer grunted, still trying to stretch his arm up the machine, and Matt felt himself laughing a little at that.

Matt actually got one screw undone and he dropped it to the wooden floor. He then began on the second and Daryl, seeing what he was doing, came with his own knife and crouched down, starting on the bottom screw.

"You know that anything that's still in there is going to be flat as hell," Aaron said and then leaned in, reading the buttons of what the machine supposedly might still hold. "Holy shit. Do you think there's actually Dr. Pepper in there?"

Spencer sat up, pulling his arm out, and looked up at Aaron. "Is your arm skinnier than mine?" He then grabbed Aaron so suddenly, the man stumbled and fell to his knees next to Spencer on the ground.

"Idiots," Matt heard Daryl grumble, but with no bite in his tone.

Matt wasn't sure how long it took them – probably a half hour – to unscrew all of the screws and then together, Matt and Daryl were able to push the front of case open. Sure enough, cans of pop looked back at them, all still stacked inside, waiting for someone to drop quarters in so they could get their selection.

Daryl smiled and clapped a hand on Matt's shoulder and for a second, Matt smiled, too, and completely forgot that he was going to be on his own in just a little bit. For a second, he let himself think that he was going to be staying with these people who seemed good and who seemed kind and who were able to make a hell of a life for themselves up in these mountains even after the whole world ended.

For a second, Matt smiled and celebrated alongside them at having actual pop and he didn't think about how he was probably going to freeze to death that winter.

…

The diner was a goldmine and Daryl could hardly believe it as they loaded up the wagon. Containers of flour – securely sealed tight. Containers of Quaker Oats – securely sealed tight. Containers of sugar and salt and cinnamon and a few bags of chocolate chips and jars of spices and it went on with each cabinet they opened.

"How many walkers did you and Anna kill to get in here?" Aaron asked him again.

"Seven," Matt answered, opening a cabinet and finding containers of pecans. He set three of them down on the counter to be put in the wagon and then making sure none of the others saw him, he slipped the fourth into his pack to keep for himself.

"You think people wouldn't want to deal with seven walkers?" Spencer asked Daryl in a low voice as he took the few boxes of yellow and chocolate cake mix from the cabinet he had just opened.

Daryl was quiet for a moment. "Prob'ly not at first. I think people didn' know how to scavenge for a while. They had to learn it and then by the time everyone did, this place was forgotten by prob'ly everyone until Matt and Anna came across it."

Matt stood up and headed towards the back office, which was probably the owner's.

"What do you think?" Aaron asked Daryl in a quiet voice. "It'd be good to have another person around, helping with all of the work."

"He's nice," Spencer added and Matt wondered if they knew they weren't talking as softly as they probably thought they were. "He works well with all of us."

"He's too damn old for her," Daryl all but growled at them as if reminding them of it.

Matt turned into the office, not wanting to hear anymore as they continued talking about his ass – perverted and dirty for being attracted to Anna in the first place. He would have wanted to stay with them, but he wasn't going to be delusional enough to think that Daryl would change his mind about him. And Matt couldn't blame Daryl for what the man thought of him already.

An older guy showed up with a teenager who was practically Daryl's daughter. Of course Daryl wasn't going to invite him to stay.

Matt looked around the small office. It had a desk against one wall and a couch against the other, which he dropped his pack onto for the time being. He slid open the small closet and saw that there was a blanket folded on the top shelf. It could work if he stayed here. It'd be cold, yeah, but at least he had four walls and a roof over his head and no people and hardly any walkers to deal with. And ten miles wasn't that far away from Anna.

Shit. Not that he wanted to be anywhere near her.

She was just a girl. Just a girl. Just a girl as strong and brave and as smart – probably smarter – as any of the men he had dealt with over the past few years. None of that mattered because she was just a girl and what the hell was the matter with him?

He went to the desk and started opening drawers, seeing if anything else could help him out when he stayed behind here.

"Anything good in here?" Daryl's voice appeared from the doorway.

Matt didn't look at him. Just shook his head and opened the last drawer. "You smoke?" He held up a pack of cigarettes, finally looking at him over his shoulder.

"Quit a few years ago," Daryl answered. "You?"

Matt shook his head. "Never. And figure it'd be stupid to pick up on it now."

He tossed the cigarettes back into the drawer and shut it. Maybe he'd light one after they left just so he'd have something to concentrate on for a few minutes.

Daryl exhaled a heavy breath. "We don't have any more room in the cabin," he said pretty suddenly and Matt felt himself go still. "There's the hayloft in the barn though. Mulligan used to sleep in it sometimes when he just wanted to be on his own. It don't smell the best in the barn, but 's warm. You'll have to pull your weight and listen to us and you're gonna stay away from Anna until she's eighteen."

During his little speech, Matt had turned and was now facing him. His face must have shown a mixture of disbelief and surprise because Daryl shook his head slightly.

"We all know you don't stand a chance at makin' it through winter on your own and Anna and my wife would never forgive me if I jus' left you here to freeze to death."

It seemed like Daryl was done talking and he turned to leave the office. But he paused in the doorway to glance over his shoulder at Matt – as if he was waiting to see if he was going to be coming or not.

Matt didn't hesitate in slinging his pack onto his back again and following Daryl from the room.

…

Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!

(PS - random A/N: I was worried Aaron seemed a little OOC with his cursing, but I like to imagine that being around Daryl for so many years and being his close friend, it led to him picking up a few habits.)