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Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he'd known it would happen like this. Caution tempted him to doubt; he'd fought hard to keep himself from indulging too deeply, some part of him suspecting it would only cause harm in the end, if it never came to what he so deeply wanted. But a mind would drift; he had to wonder about the feel of her under his rough hands, about the arch of her back, motion of her hips and her soft skin. There were vulnerable times during the last few months when his thoughts would get tangled up in a question. Could I ever get that close to her? He imagined her voice in his ear, her breath on his neck and her trembling against him. Does she ever want more? He thought about when her eyes got heavy, dark, and when they dug into him. It seemed there was desire there, but he didn't want to fall into a trap of his own fantasy.

What does she taste like? He'd imagined the heat of her, and the feel of her loosing control. He wanted all of her, but most of the time, he gave into the rattling guilt and shut himself down.

Most of the time.

He certainly hadn't divined the shady, sad house with the full history. He hadn't thought he'd snatch her away from her daddy's house and drive off to do crime again. He hadn't imagined their siblings with stuffed animals over their heads, trying to sleep upstairs. Not until the next morning, did Daryl think of that, and only after Merle explained that this was exactly how he'd spent the night.

There were important details that he cherished now, though he hadn't been able to picture it clearly beforehand. Her enthusiasm had surprised him, for instance. But even little things stood out and pounded through his head. Her thighs embraced him, her nails bit into his skin as she couldn't seem to get close enough, even pressed right into him, even when he was inside. He could still feel wrapped around him. Somehow the best parts had escaped him when he dared to imagine her little body clinging to him. He hadn't been prepared for her, but he wasn't sure he ever could have been.

"Ya got yourself a good woman there." Merle knocked Daryl out of his thoughts, jostling his brother's foot as he strode by. The two of them were in the master bedroom. Daryl was flat on his back in the unmade bed, looking up at the ceiling, while Merle buttoned up a grey collared-shirt and checked himself out in a thin mirror leaning against the wall. One lip curling, a sure sign he was holding back on something his mouth wanted to blurt out.

Suspecting that it was some sort of attempt at being respectful, Daryl fought a smirk, "Yeah. How'd that happen?"

"Hell, boy, I'll take credit for it, if ya please." Merle raised an eyebrow at him, "Told ya I'd steer you right."

Ed's clothes fit Merle just about perfect, so he helped himself to what had been left in the closet. Daryl didn't necessarily have anything against wearing dead man's clothes, but didn't feel the urge to dig into the recesses of the house. Now that the cold light of day was all around them, his eyes took in the smallest signs. His skills of observation had served him well, but sometimes they made things stand out and tell him a story that he didn't want to know; chips and dents in the walls, sloppily repaired, the awkward placement of certain furniture to hide some blemish on the carpet, or ash nowhere near a place it belonged.

The Greene Sisters had gone to get the final crucial information from Mrs. 708, but he could hear that they'd returned from their little walk already and were chatting downstairs; their voices carried, but not well enough that he could make out any words. Occasionally there would be a silence that was inevitably broken by a gale of laughter, usually from Beth.

"Look, I uh… don't go thinkin' this is 'cause of Maggie," Merle sat on the edge of the bed, "…I mean, she suggested it, but she's some kinda witch, I bet my life… mind-reader," he was grumbling, his words slurred even more than usual, even more than drunk slurring. He scratched worryingly at the back of his head. His hick neck was literally red, and Daryl had to blink hard to take in what he was seeing.

Had he actually been so distracted that he didn't notice?

"Anyway, the nosy she-devil gave me an idea." Merle groaned and leaned back, reaching into the pocket of his jeans for something.

That the she-devil was Maggie, Daryl just had to take for granted. He'd said it with the same note of begrudging affection that he'd used when he actually uttered her Christian name a few seconds before. It was taking Daryl a moment to pull himself into the present. He'd missed it. Beth was good at making him miss things. Maybe if he hadn't been looking only at her, he might have noticed that his brother was hung up on her older sister.

He didn't want to follow that thread too far. He couldn't read Merle's mind, couldn't know for sure, but he was getting vibes from days long past when as a kid he might've accused his brother of liking some girl or another and earned himself a careless smack in reply.

Merle finally pulled a cell-phone from his pocket and shoved it across the messy sheets toward Daryl, shrugging. "Kinda stupid that ya haven't gone out and gotten your own one of those. What kind of grown-ass man doesn't carry a phone in this day and age, I ask ya?" he snorted, not looking Daryl in the face.

Daryl plucked the phone up off the bed, and looked it over with a sweeping glance. It was new.

The reason he'd never bothered to get a phone before, besides the fact that there really wasn't anyone he wanted to be able to contact him whenever they felt like it, was because Merle had a phone and the two of them were usually together. Merle typically did the talking too, except on the occasion that he was too drunk or high to respond properly.

"I already took the liberty of puttin' your girl's number in there, along with a few others. Next time you don't know how to find me..." Merle trailed off a moment, the back of his neck getting ever darker as he scratched at it furiously. "Well, you'll be able to get a hold of me, anyway," he finished lamely.

Daryl had to think hard to remember the last time that Merle gave him a gift. A little baggy of shrooms, or a new set of bolts along with orders to make himself useful and kill something? Damn, it'd been years. He wasn't sure what he should say. He suspected a normal person might just nod an uncomfortable thank you and hope that something interrupted them soon, but Dixons probably had a different protocol. He just wasn't sure what it was. It hadn't really come up.

Merle finally turned enough that he could look at him, his face half-twisted hostility and half-anticipation. He didn't know what he was doing either.

Finally, Daryl mumbled, "S'a good idea," and slipped the phone into his pocket.

"Damn right, it is," Merle's face shown with relief that quickly hardened into his usual self assurance as he chuckled. "Forget it. She don't get any credit at all, it was my idea. Makes fine sense, might need to come save your worthless ass someday, right?" he hoisted himself up off the bed quickly, making it shake.

Daryl took his time following Merle out of the bedroom and back down onto the main floor of the house. As bizarre as it was for Merle to give him a gift—especially a legitimately decent and useful gift—the heavier part of their short conversation was Daryl's revelation that his brother could possibly have feelings for the other Greene sister. It was just a hunch. He hadn't said really anything to indicate as much, more just the way his voice sounded when he said her name. Looking back on the evening before, how he'd deferred to her and let her push him around a little, even, Daryl was especially confused that he hadn't thought of it earlier. But Maggie had her Chinaman. She was taken and so far hadn't indicated that Merle was anything more than a somewhat tolerable nuisance in her life.

Poor bastard.

From the living room he heard Maggie shout out, "Are you two princesses done with your make-up, or what?" She'd probably heard them coming down the stairs, there was still laughter in her voice and threatening behind her wicked grin when they found her in the living room.

He'd forgotten what a mess they made of the place. Beth was on top of all the couch cushions in a pile, making him think of the fairytale about the girl who could feel a pea under a hundred mattresses. She sat with her feet wide apart, the toes of her cowboy boots lifting off the ground every few seconds as she tried to balance. Her bright eyes met his with a little of that same enthusiasm that he'd so relished in her and it took a fair amount of restraint to keep form throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her off. Maggie was truly impatient now that she'd come back from another little chat with Mrs. 708.

"I'll drive," Maggie bounced up from the bare couch, keys jingling in hand. She was out the door before Daryl could even get a good look at his brother's face as he inevitably watched her walk away. Merle kept close behind her, in any case, while Daryl lingered a moment, watching all Beth's little movements. She wriggled down from her pile of cushions, letting them topple to the ground with a shrug.

"I haven't been camping in a while," Beth confessed as she sauntered towards the front door, hands behind her back. She stepped out the front door, but Maggie and Merle were far enough ahead of them that they couldn't hear. "Seems like the smell of smoke always got stuck, not just to my clothes, but in my hair too. We are gonna have to shower once this is all done."

He could detect the tiniest wince in her full lip as she spoke, but she was trying to disguise it, she was not comfortable with their criminal plans for the day. All the same, he could tell she was working hard not to show it, not to judge. Maybe he could even go so far as to guess that she was trying to make their quick jaunt into arson as light-hearted a thing as possible. "So, we should probably shower together," she concluded with a bright giggle.

Turning his eyes to the ceiling as he tried to scare up a decent breath of air, Daryl scoffed, but couldn't resist a smile. "Yeah, that's the responsible thing to do," he finally grumbled, sure his face was burning, same as Beth's.

Pleased with herself, Beth tossed her hair back and quickly darted after Merle and Maggie. Daryl closed the front door shut behind them.

No sooner had they all climbed into the car and shut all the doors then Beth's now familiar ringtone began to sing. Maggie pulled away from the curb without a backward glance at the house where they'd spent the night. Daryl gave it one last look out the window as Beth answered "Hey Shawn."

From the passenger seat, Merle stretched his arm across to grab onto Maggie's headrest, turning around so that he could snag a glance at Beth before he met Daryl's eye.

"The brother," Daryl explained in a grumble.

"I told ya 'bout him," Maggie reminded Merle, still not taking her eyes off the road.

Shawn's voice scratched at the air, muffled and indiscernible, finally Beth responded. "Uh, yeah, he's right here," she wore a static, half-amused, half-confused face that Daryl had long ago learned was one of his favorite of her expressions.

"Hey," the greeting was mostly an exhale, as Daryl braced himself for an earful from Shawn. The man would definitely have a problem with him basically stealing his little sister. As if in defiance of his own guilt, Daryl reached out to run his fingers up through the fall of blonde hair at her back, gripping her shoulder and pulling her into him. She complied easily, one hand reaching down to grip onto the inside of his thigh, while her head found a perfect resting place against his shoulder.

"Mornin' Daryl," said Shawn. There was a thick, somewhat sleepy quality to his tone as he tried to sound casual and couldn't quite manage it. "I uh… thought it might be useful for you to know somethin'."

"Yeah?" Daryl pressed his chin against Beth's scalp, feeling her blonde hair attached itself like velcro into his gruff.

"Back when I was thinkin' about packing it all in and coming back home, I sorta asked around about jobs I might be able to take in town." He could hear shuffling in the background, as if Shawn was fidgeting nervously on his feet. His voice mimicked the awkwardness, wandering around his point. "There's a mechanic shop where a friend of mine from high school was working. They told me they had enough people, but that my buddy was on his way out, so there'd be an opening after a few weeks. Well… it's been a few weeks, and I'm back at school now, but I just figured… I dunno… you're better with cars than me anyway. So, anyway, I called 'em. They take my word for it that you know what you're doing."

"…Ya found me a job?" Daryl had to take a moment before he responded. It didn't make sense to him, right away. Why would Shawn do something like that for him? But there was no other way to interoperate what he'd said.

Beth perked up.

"Yeah, I guess," said Shawn and Daryl could almost hear the quick, nervous shrug in his voice. "I mean, if Beth really wants you around. Might as well make it easier."

He swallowed as he tried to think of the kind of response that would be appropriate to the situation. "Yeah." His gratitude was stuck in the back of his throat.

Luckily, Shawn seemed just as embarrassed as he was, but pushed through it. "Whatever man, no problem."

Clearing his throat, Daryl felt like there was still something more he should say, but it was an uncomfortable situation for him. The whole car was silent, listening to his inability to put words together.

"I'll just text Beth the information," Shawn seemed eager to end the conversation.

"Yeah… yeah, or, I've actually got a phone now," Daryl instinctively reached for it in his pocket. "I'll text you so you've got the number. Then ya can send whatever…"

"Sure, sounds good." Shawn finally sounded like he was starting to relax.

"I'll give ya back to your sister." He passed the phone down to Beth's hand.

She stopped stroking the inside of his leg to take her phone back. "Hey Shawn, what job?" She sounded casual enough, but he could hear the twang of real curiosity.

Her brother must have given her a snarky answer because a split second later she scoffed in a puff and he saw her blink slowly in the rearview mirror. "Okay, bye," said Beth flatly. "He's so ornery sometimes. He told me I have to ask you." She bounced the phone against his knee, biting down a little on her lower lip as she waited expectantly for a response.

"Mechanic. Guess the local place is lookin' for another greasemonkey."

"Local?" she turned her head, shifting more into the curve of his arm and pushing her hair back.

"Yeah," his mouth turned into a small smile in sync with hers.

Quickly, she bounced with the next road-bump and pressed her lips softly against his. "Okay, I'm not mad at Shawn," she murmured in a giggle, then settled back into place, folded into his side. She looked down at her phone. After the call screen had vanished there were some messages.

Unfortunately, Daryl looked close enough to see that Annette had texted her at seven that morning. He looked away quickly, not wanting to be the kind of guy who read his girl's messages, but it wasn't quick enough. Somehow, Beth had noticed. "You can look, if ya want," she shrugged against him, handing her phone back over.

With her permission, he didn't feel nosy anymore.

You've got to go to school was Annette's message from earlier that morning.

Beth had responded, Sorry. I'm gonna miss it today. Don't worry, nothing's due. I'll make sure I'm there tomorrow.

Even as Daryl was holding the phone it chirped again with her mother's reply.

Are you coming home today?

With an inaudible sigh that Daryl still felt against his chest, Beth took the phone back from him and began to draft a response.

I dunno.

"Yes," said Daryl firmly, bumping his chin against her head.

Beth turned and looked at him sharply, a little red in her cheeks.

"Tell her, yeah. You'll be home," he said in little more than a growl.

Her mouth was a line. He didn't know if she just didn't like him telling her what to do. Except they both knew that she'd do what she wanted, when it came down to it. More likely, she was a little irritated that he was right. She ought to go back. He ought to take her back.

After a few seconds of contemplation Beth deleted the draft and instead simply wrote. I love you and pressed send.

He kissed the top of her head.

Merle shook his head in disapproval at his little brother. "Say, Mags, why ain't we tried to get me a job?"

"You don't have any skills, Merle," said Maggie with a kneejerk of a grin, but then she added more lightly, "Well, I guess you make good pancakes."

"Damn straight," said Merle proudly, shooting Maggie a smile that only deepened Daryl's suspicions.

"I thought that's what we're doing? Getting you a job?" Maggie turned off the main road and started down a street in disrepair, the ditches on either side were overgrown and still a little flooded from the most recent storm.

The car jostled over a pothole and Daryl's arm tightened across Beth's shoulders.

"Y'all don't get too friendly back there, ya hear?" Merle warned them.

His older brother had a way of sensing when Daryl was comfortable and doing what he could to try and fix that. He had just been quietly basking in the perfect, simple way that they were allowed to just be together, wrapped around one another.

"Oh," Beth let out one of her nervous giggles. "By the way, when we head back to the house, you might wanna stay outta the downstairs bath—"

"Too late," said Maggie with a grimace.

"Oops," said Beth.

"Where did you even find so many marbles?" Maggie sighed.

Merle looked from the backseat to the driver's seat with a marked frown on his face. "Wait? What? What did you do to the bathroom?" He waited a beat than shook his head, "Know what—don't even tell me. I got a feelin' I'm better off ignorant."

"Oh, too easy," Maggie shook her head.

"We mighta got a little wild last night," Daryl murmured so that only Beth could hear.

"Yeah, can't wait to do it again." She mouthed back at him.

They were fast approaching the large empty expanse where the concert had taken place the night before. Paved roads boxed in the area, while some larger trees hide the unsightly view of the highway and the storage facility. The grass was crushed and dead from where people had parked their cars. For the most part, the land was deserted, but even now there were a few stragglers, a couple of people were pulling down the stage in the distance and cleaning up crushed cups. Concert-goers who must have spent the night in the beds of their trucks or maybe in tents in the nearby wood were just starting to pull away.

Maggie made a circle in silence, scoping out the area first. No one felt the urge to speak or give her direction. It was clear from the hardened look in her eye that she was thinking carefully about what she was doing. The light conversation that had helped them through the first few minutes of the car-ride was long forgotten as one by one, each of them seemed to appreciate the gravity of what they were about to do.

As far as Daryl's criminal career was concerned, arson wasn't exactly a major development. Merle didn't seem at all his usual self—at least as far as Merle before a job was a usual sort of guy. He typically got crass and talked too much, now though, he looked tired and oddly stoic.

Maggie finished her circle on the far side of the storage facility, pulling off the road on a smaller out of the way path that would spit them back onto the highway in less than half a mile. There was a concrete wall, a ditch and a load of foliage between them and the chain-link fence that circled the storage facility, but it was as good a spot as they could get.

She put on the parking break and glanced back over her shoulder, sweeping her eyes straight past Merle and Daryl to rest on her little sister. "Alright?"

Merle unceremoniously swung the door open. With a groan, he climbed out, yanked his belt up, then turned around and poked his head back inside the car. "Let's just get this over with. Pop the trunk, Mags."

With a sigh, Maggie obeyed, still looking at her sister with heavy green eyes.

Little pyromaniac. Beth couldn't help but grin. Something about the sight of the fire made her heart beat faster. She wouldn't take it as far as real pyromania, but it was a vibrant feeling watching the raging red and orange eat something, just because she'd told it too.

Merle was already heading back to the car, paranoid to get out of range long before anyone might come upon the scene.

Clearly anxious to leave as well, Maggie was practically right on his heels, but stopped and kept turning back through the isle of storage units, beaconing for the other two to follow.

Of course, they couldn't linger and admire their work for very long. Beth laced her fingers through Daryl's and felt their shared pulse in the glow of the fire's heat, for just a few deepening breaths. Then—it was time to run. Daryl pulled her along as she staggered, trying to keep up with him, the fire growling at their backs.

Her legs weren't as long as his and she wasn't as used to running to escape the consequences of her choices. All the same, she learned quickly and soon fell into a rhythm that could keep pace with his. Her feet beat the concrete ground and she kept her grip on his hand tight, watching the stitched wings on his back, ever so slightly illuminated by the orange light they left behind.

All at once, the roar of the fire, the beating of their footsteps and their ragged breathing was joined by a chorus of shouts.

"STOP! STOP, POLICE!"

Daryl skid to a halt, and Beth ran right into his back, clinging to his shoulders as he didn't hesitate to drive both of them behind the curve of the nearest unit. It was barely enough time to catch a horrifying glimpse of Merle, changing direction sharply, panicked.

Maggie, like them, had skid to a halt and then somehow vanished. Beth didn't see which direction she went. Quieting her startled panic, Daryl pressed one hand unto her mouth, holding her still between his body and the wall.

A fury of footfalls rained past them, but Beth hadn't seen the police and they hadn't seen either her or Daryl. Maggie and Merle… her heart felt like it had stopped. She was frozen in a moment of terror. When she did feel her heart beat again, it was like a painful stab into her chest.

"No! Stay back, fire department is on its way—the suspect, that way!" A familiar voice was rallying the officers. Daryl stiffened, perhaps also recognizing the voice. "FBI." He breathed into her ear.

It was Rick Grimes. She wanted to demand how he'd found them, but couldn't bring herself to speak, and besides that, she knew it wasn't a good idea to say anything. Though the officers were being loud, it was still possible that they might hear them. She tried not to squirm so much against Daryl, but she'd never been so scared in her life.

They didn't see Maggie or Merle, they didn't. But she knew she was lying to herself.

"We gotta move," Daryl leaned his head around the wall, then without any more warning than that pulled her along with him as he broke into a sprint.

"What?" she hissed out between her teeth, though utterly horrified, she didn't even consider fighting him, this was his area of expertise. It was time to trust him to lead her out of this place.

He made them backtrack through two isles of units, but she could tell that they were still circling their way towards an exit.

"What about Maggie and Merle?!" she asked in a frantic whisper.

He took a second too long to answer and she started to feel fear take a hold. If her sister got in trouble with the law… what would that mean for all her plans? Her job? Her whole life could be ruined. Not to mention that Merle would almost certainly go to jail. They'd been looking for him for too long to let him off easy. "I get ya to the road, first," he said firmly, roughly, there was no arguing on that point, "Then I'll try and see if I can't find 'em afore—" abruptly a figured hurtled from around the nearest unit and smacked right into them.

"Maggie!" Beth grabbed onto her sister.

Maggie had a wild look in her eyes that Beth didn't recognize, she was breathing heavily, face pale.

"Did they see ya?" demanded Daryl.

"I dunno," Maggie breathed out, shaking her head. "They got Merle," her voice broke.

Beth immediately whirled to see Daryl's face, but his mouth was tight, his eyes like stone as he merely cocked his head, "C'mon, we gotta get our asses outta here."

Oh no! Runnin' from Rick! I couldn't not do it, ya know?

Feel free to ask me any questions, give comments, observations, jokes or anything else! I'm sorry, it seems like update time is lengthening out. Real life just exploded molten-crazy-times all over me. So sleepy. I love you guys!

Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie