A/N Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so grateful for all of you :)

Our couple is just pulling up to the farm, let's see how that goes.

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He watches Beth as she checks out the scene and asks, "Ya know that's them people from the quarry, right? Everythin' look okay to ya, or ya want me ta drive off n we can try'n think of a plan?"

She's about to say she's not sure, then she sees him, "There's Daddy on the porch!"

Daryl zeros in on the older white-haired gentleman. He's sitting in a rocking chair with a scowl on his face and a shotgun across his lap, "Your Daddy looks like a real friendly guy."

She's too distracted to notice Daryl's sarcasm. That's her Daddy and this is home and they're finally here. But on my gosh, that means this is it. She can't live with the thought of Daryl simply leaving her here with her gun, a bow and a few jars of vegetables, then driving off never to be seen again.

No. She has to do something.

She lays her hand on his arm, "Please don't leave right away Daryl. Stay. Stay at least long enough to teach me how to shoot the rifle. We never got to that, and now I have to learn to shoot the bow too. You're the only one who can show me the right way, and I'm going to have to learn to make arrows too. Please."

He's been trying to think of an excuse why he had to stay a while, she just gave him a whole bunch of them. He doesn't let on how relieved he is, but he seems almost happy when he shrugs, "I s'pose I can stay for a few days, if your Daddy don't mind. I could get ya squared away with all that stuff pretty quick, the rest of it is just gonna be you practicin'."

Beth's only focusing on the fact she gets to have a few more days with him. "Oh good, thank you Daryl. I'm excited to learn." She's so relieved he's going to stay she even makes a little move, lightly laying her hand on his and looking into his ice blue eyes, "I wouldn't want anyone but you to teach me. I trust you Daryl."

He's flattered and flustered and unsure what to say next, "Ya think it's safe ta go ahead and pull in the driveway now, or is your ol' man gonna shoot me?"

She's still smiling, "Since you're with me I'm pretty sure he'll give you a pass."

Daryl's not so sure. He turns in the driveway and takes it real slow, he wants to give the old man plenty of time to realize it's his daughter coming home.

Just as Daryl suspected would happen, he's not 10 feet down the driveway when her Daddy stands, pointing the gun right at them and hollering, "Don't come any closer!"

Before Daryl can speak Beth's got her head out the window waving and smiling and calling, "Hey Daddy, it's Beth. I'm home!"

The gun lowers and Daryl drives closer to the house. His foot has barely hit the brake when suddenly Beth jumps out of the van and runs toward her father. Daryl takes a little more time, holding back while they say their hellos.

Her Daddy's eyes are wet with emotion, "My Bethie, I was afraid I'd never see you again."

"I know Daddy, I was scared too, but Daryl…" she turns her head toward him and beckons, "Daryl come say 'hi' to Daddy. Daddy, Daryl's the one who saved me. He's the one who got me home."

No matter how good her words may make him sound, the old man still eyes him suspiciously, just like Daryl thought he'd do. He's not insulted, he's sure he'd do the same if he was in the old man's shoes.

Daddy may not be ready to welcome Daryl with open arms, but he's a gentleman and tries his best to be cordial. After all, this man brought his daughter home, "Thank you son. We've heard from these other folks that it's real bad out there. How was it coming from Atlanta?"

"It ain't good Sir. These dead things, walkers, they're everywhere. They're killin' a lotta people and that's addin' to their numbers. A lotta the livin' people seem ta be outta control too. Thousands a folks have hit the road and I don't think any of em know why or where they're goin', they're just tryn' to escape whatever's happenin'."

Beth agrees, "It's awful. I've never been more scared Daddy and I know I never would have made it here, I wouldn't have even lived a day if it hadn't been for Daryl. He saved me."

Daryl shrugs off the praise, "She saved me too Sir. Out there, ya need someone watchin' your back."

Her Daddy still has a cautious look in his eye, he's wondering if there might be something besides friendship going on between his daughter and this very rough looking fellow. But he reaches out a hand to shake and says, "Please call me Herschel, and thank you again for bringing her home. We've been very worried."

"Glad I's able to, Sir."

That's when Beth asks, "Where's Mama? In the kitchen?" She turns to Daryl with a smile and says, "I'm going to go say hi to Mama."

A dark shadow suddenly spreads across her Daddy's face as he reaches for her hand and says, "I'm so sorry Beth, Mama's gone."

Even with all they've been through Daryl's never seen her face look so sad, her expression so tortured, "No Daddy, no! What are you saying?"

Her Daddy's eyes are wet again and his voice is weak and shaky when he answers, "It was this flu, Mama and Shawn…I did everything I knew to try and save them, but they just couldn't fight it."

Now she cries the word, "No! No!"

A brown-haired woman comes from behind the barn and starts running toward them, "Beth, Beth you're home!" And when the woman gets close enough, she can tell by the look on Beth's face she's heard the terrible news, "Oh Beth, it's so awful."

Beth's voice is heavy with sorrow, "Maggie, what happened?" That just answered Daryl's question, Maggie. This woman is Beth's older sister.

Her sister embraces her, and their Daddy wraps his arms around both of his daughters. Daryl stands back, unsure what to do with himself. He's never felt more awkward, more out of place, or more powerless.

He's feeling Beth's sadness like a weight on his own heart, and there's nothing he can do for her. Fuck, he was hoping her folks would have made it, he hoped…he wanted her to see her Mama again because he knew how much it meant to her.

Her broken heart is breaking his heart.

Her Daddy loosens his hold on his daughters and Beth's sister steps away from the hug, her face still shows her deep pain when she says, "I'm just so glad you're home Bethie, and thank God you're all right. There's been no news and of course no way to get a hold of you."

Beth doesn't respond to that, instead she turns to Daryl. She needs him, she needs his strength. Her arms wrap around his waist and she softly cries into his chest, "Daryl, Mama's gone. Mama's gone."

Shit, what's he going to do? He wants to make it all right but how do you make something like this all right? He cups her elbow and says the only thing he can think to say, "I'm sorry girl, I'm real sorry."

Maggie looks at him like she's just now realizing he's standing there, "I don't know you, who are you?"

"Name's Daryl Dixon. Beth and I got together in Atlanta when both of us were tryin' ta get out. We helped each other make it, and now we're here."

By now the group from the quarry has begun to wander closure, slowly and cautiously, unsure what's going on.

Only one has walked up and joined their small group. He's dressed in a uniform, the patch on his sleeve says King County Sheriff's Department. He asks Daryl, "Did I hear you say your name is Dixon?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Any relation to a Merle Dixon?"

Beth feels the tension coarse through him and she lets her arms drop from around Daryl's waist. He squares himself like there might be an altercation, "Yeah, he's my brother. Why? Ya know Merle?" Ah shit, is this cop going to start interrogating him for something Merle did?

Before Daryl can answer the cop's question there's a screech and young blond woman comes running out of the farmhouse and down the porch steps, grabbing hold of Beth and squealing, "Oh my God, Beth you're here, you're safe. Oh, thank God."

Beth's eyes are big and round with surprise, "Amy! Amy! How…? You're here! How…?"

Daddy interrupts the happy reunion to say, "Amy's got quite the story to share with you Beth, and you too Daryl. C'mon now, let's have a seat on the porch and we'll ask Amy to tell you how she got out of Atlanta."

Oh shit, did Merle have something to do with this?

Except for Amy and the cop, who they now know is named Rick Grimes, the quarry people seem to be staying in their camp, like maybe they're not 100% welcome. Daryl plans to find out what that's all about as soon as he hears what the hell Merle did.

Amy begins her tale, "When I left the apartment, oh my gosh, it was so scary, the people and the creatures. I was lucky, I actually made it as far as that little mom and pop café around the corner, the one that seemed so out of place with all those modern buildings. I was hoping there was some food left in there and I didn't care what, stale bread, crackers, anything."

"There were two of those things inside growling and shuffling and clawing at the windows, but I didn't feel like I had much choice. I had to try and put them down so I could get us some food."

Beth reaches for her hand, "Oh Amy."

Amy lays her hand on Beth's and continues, "My first strike was just dumb luck. Back then I had no idea you had to get them in the brain for them to die. I was just swinging my silly little baton and it came naturally to swing at his head. Oh my gosh Beth, the baton actually bent when I hit him."

"I knew he was never going to bother anyone again, but I had a lot more trouble with the second one because I didn't know to go for the brain. I just kept stabbing at his chest and stuff. The noise the thing and I were making attracted more of those creatures and when they got inside the café I knew I was in big trouble."

"Oh my gosh Amy, how scary."

"Well what I did next was really dumb. I just wasn't even thinking about anything except getting away from them. I opened the door of the big walk-in cooler and shut myself in there."

"Talk about scary Beth, my gosh it was black as ink in there, but I had that little pocket flashlight and I took a look around. Since it was a cooler and not a freezer there was actually some food I could eat. Some pie apples, and some raw vegetables like carrots and potatoes that hadn't gone completely bad. There were even those giant restaurant-size cans of things like stewed tomatoes, peaches, pears and beans and stuff. Of course, I had no way of opening any of those."

"So what did you do?"

"I cried a lot and kept my flashlight off because I wanted to save the battery, except for looking at my watch. According to my trusty Timex I waited four hours. I ate an apple and a couple carrots and even had a little nap, and then I tried to quietly open the big door to see if those things had left. Well, that walk-in cooler is older than old and it didn't have the safety feature where it can be opened from the inside. For about the millionth time since all this started, I was sure I would die. There's only so much air."

Now Beth has tears in her eyes, "Oh my gosh Amy, I'm so sorry. All that time I just kept praying you were okay and that you'd come home."

"I'm sure your prayers helped Beth. The best I can calculate is I was there four days. I was tired and weak, mostly because I guess I'd just given up hope and I wasn't even eating what was right there. I was all curled up in a ball just waiting to die when suddenly the door flew open and a big rough looking man was standing there."

"I was blinded by the sudden light and his big silhouette scared the shit out of me, sorry for the language Mister Greene. I was backing away from him like that was going to help and when I could see again, I saw he was smiling the most gigantic smile I'd ever seen when he asked, 'Well now sugar, whaddya we have here?'"

Yep, sounds like Merle.

"Guess what I did? I'm so tough and so brave I burst into tears and started begging him not to hurt me. I couldn't believe it, this guy who looked like he just escaped from somewhere suddenly got so soft and so nice," She chuckles and says, "but his voice sounded like sandpaper on gravel when he said, 'don't cry now sugar, ol Merle's here ta help.'"

"It turned out he had a couple of shifty looking characters with him and between the three of them they carried all the fresh food that was still good, and several of the big cans, as much as they could. I even carried a big can of peaches. We ended up in some seedy warehouse where they were all staying, but at least I felt safe."

Daryl's wondering if it was one of the many seedy warehouses he checked out in his search for Merle. Probably just missed each other.

"I told him I had to get back to you Beth, but he told me I was a little too weak to be running the streets of Atlanta. He promised to take me to you in a few days if I promised to eat up and rest. I agreed."

"The other two guys left, they said they were going to find some crystal. We never saw them again. Anyway, I did rest, and I did eat and a few days later Merle took me to the apartment. Probably not long after you left."

She looks at Daryl and smiles, "Your brother was a perfect gentleman," then softly laughs adding, "I'm sure you know him well, so don't get me wrong, Merle has a mouth on him like I've never heard, and he says some pretty crazy stuff. But he was really good to me and he got me out of Atlanta alive, on a motorcycle no-less, then we ran into this group," she indicates the quarry people, "it was unbelievable, my sister Andrea was with those people."

Daryl has a burning question, "So Merle's here then?"

"No, he left shortly after we got to the quarry. He was having quite a bit of trouble getting along with that deputy, that guy over there, Shane."

Daryl and Beth look where she's pointing and recognize him right away, it's the muscle man they saw nearly beat another man to death. "The group seemed more interested in Shane's side of things than Merle's, and the second day that Merle and I were there he said to me, 'I gotta go Sugar. You stay with your sister, and stay safe. I'll see ya down the road.' I would have begged him to take me with him if it hadn't been for Andrea."

That Shane guy, Daryl's felt it since he first laid eyes on him. He feels it in his gut and now he knows Merle felt it too, the guy is no good. He's pretty sure that before all is said and done him and muscle man are going to have a run in. For now, he plans to keep a close eye on mister muscles.

Beth asks, "what about your sister Amy? Is she here too? Where's Andrea?"

The tears well up in Amy's eyes when she answers, "There was trouble. A man who was with our group, he was abusive with his wife and Shane attacked him. It was a terrible fight, and once it was broken up things got worse. It was like an invasion of those creatures. It was pure chaos and several in our group were killed, including Andrea."

Tears are falling from Amy's eyes and Beth's crying right along with her. She gets up and goes to her friend. They hug and Beth whispers, "I'm so sorry Amy."

Amy whispers back, "I know Beth, and you've lost people too. I'm so sorry about your Mama, she was such a sweet lady. This…whatever this is it's so scary and we've all lost someone. I'm just so grateful you and I got out of Atlanta and found each other again. It's a miracle."

Hershel Greene let's his daughter and her friend have a good long hug and console each other on their loses, before he says, "If the rest of you will excuse us, Beth and Daryl and I are going to have a visit in my office. I want to hear all about their trip from Atlanta."

There's nothing to hide, they didn't do one damn thing wrong, but Daryl still isn't looking forward to telling the story. He hopes Beth will do the talking, he'll jump in as needed. Shit, if not for her he would have split by now.

On their way to her Daddy's office Daryl hears a low mournful sound coming from behind a closed door. Beth's Daddy sees his attention turn that way and says, "Excuse me just a minute, I have to check on a patient."

Beth's brow wrinkles, "A patient Daddy?"

"Yes, it's Rick Grimes' boy. I'll tell you both all about it when we talk."

Daryl has to question, "It's not this…this disease thing is it?" Because if it is he's getting Beth and they're getting the hell out of there.

"No, it's a gunshot wound."

A little boy shot? Beth can't believe what she heard, "No, oh my gosh."

That's when the door opens and a tall slim woman with long dark hair and tears in her eyes asks, "Herschel, please have a look at Carl. I think his wound is leaking."

"I'm coming right in Lori, my daughter here, Beth, just arrived and this is her friend Daryl." Lori only nods and Hershel excuses himself as he walks in the room.

Daryl and Beth wait in her Daddy's big book-lined office, Beth crying softly as she talks about her Mama and Daryl trying desperately to find the words that will somehow make it better.

When her Daddy finally enters he tells Daryl and Beth the story of the neighbor, Otis, who was deer hunting when he accidentally shot the young boy, "Your sister Maggie was out riding in that area and found them all. Much to my unhappiness, she lead the whole group of them here. I do admire the sheriff though, Rick, that man ran carrying his boy all the way."

"Will the little boy be all right Daddy?"

"It's hard to tell right now, but I'm hopeful and prayerful that he'll recover. Believe me, with all that's going on in the world right now, the only reason I let these people on the property at all is because it was Otis who shot that boy."

Hershel Greene looks right at Daryl and admits his reluctance to trust anyone since things started going so wrong, "It may not be very Christian of me, but I have a distrust of strangers. I had to let that child in though, and of course his Mother and Dad to sit with him."

"I've given him the best care I can. I may be a vet but I've doctored my share of humans over the years."

Daryl's listens closely as the old man talks, "I needed some medicines, antibiotics, and such. The government put up a FEMA medical trailer over at the high school, it only lasted a day or two because everyone was quickly gone to this disease. I was sure there were probably still plenty of medical supplies."

"That Shane fella volunteered to go get what he could, I gave him a list of what I needed. Otis insisted he should go too. Shane came back with the supplies and a story about how those monsters, those walkers, killed Otis. He seemed a little…well I just didn't quite believe his story, but I had to focus my full attention on caring for the boy. When these people leave they can figure out what to do with that man, he's their problem."

Daryl's radar is already on high alert when Hershel Greene adds, "You steer clear of him Beth. He seems to fancy himself quite the lady's man."

Then he asks, "So tell me, how did you two meet and how in the world did you make it here."

Her Daddy listens with rapt attention, asking questions here and there. It's all good until he asks, "the van, it couldn't have more than one bed, what were the sleeping arrangements?"

Daryl feels the back of his neck catch fire and Beth's cheeks are the reddest he's ever seen them, but shit, he's the man here and he needs to answer this one, "Sir…" that's as far as he gets because Beth takes the floor.

"Daddy! Really?" Daryl doesn't blame the guy, shit why wouldn't he wonder? But Beth, well it's her Daddy and maybe Daryl ought to let her handle this.

Beth tells her father about Daryl sleeping outside on the ground, and about the walkers attacking them. "After that, when we slept in the van, no matter how much I insisted he take the bed, Daryl slept on the floor. At the farmhouse he was going to sleep in the van while I stayed at the house, but I begged him to share a room with me. He drug a mattress from another room and again, he slept on the floor."

Daryl jumps in, backtracking to when they were camping, "This group that's here? We seen em before. We seen that Shane guy in action."

They tell the story and Herschel responds, "Yes, the woman called Carol. It was her husband that was killed. She has a little girl, Sophia. I do invite Sophia and her Mother to have lemonade on the porch with me every afternoon. They've had a lot of trouble in their lives, and now all of us are dealing with this terrible situation."

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Daryl breathes a big sigh of relief when they finally get out of that house. He needs to breathe outside air, he needs to walk around, get his bearings. "I'ma get my crossbow Beth, go for a little walk."

"Can I come?" She hopes that didn't sound too needy. With all the news and the loss of her Mama and her brother, she is needy.

He knows that, "Yeah, sure. Let's bring your bow too. It'll be a good way ta take your mind offa things."

His big crossbow rests on his back, she carries the recurve in her hand and a quiver of arrows on her back. They walk across the farmland, anxious to get away from the people and sounds, both of them deep in their own thoughts.

They stop near the edge of a pretty little river, now that fall is setting in it's not running too fast. It's peaceful and pretty and they even see a fish jump. He smiles at her, "Someday maybe you'll get good enough with that bow you can shoot our dinner."

They both go silent again, realizing that will never happen if he leaves.

He tries to recover the moment, "Before we get into all the stuff, like how ta string a bow n shit, let's just have some fun. We can take some shots."

"That sounds good to me." She doesn't really think her brain will hold any information about stringing bows right now anyway. Shoot, she may even be too weak to draw the bowstring back.

She's not, of course, he chose the right size bow for her and they have a little fun taking turns shooting the recurve, trying to hit a spot on a tree trunk where long ago someone carved their initials.

It is good, it does take their mind off things a little, and they even manage a laugh or two. Then she asks, "Can we talk?"

He shrugs, "Yeah, there's a couple a good rocks over there, wanna have a seat?"

"Sure."

She wants to talk about her Mama and her brother. She wants to tell him stories about their lives together, their personalities, she shares so many memories. He doesn't mind listening, and he knows she needs to talk about these things, it helps to share. Sometimes he wishes he knew a little more about how to do that.

Eventually she quiets, smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry. I've been talking your ear off."

"Nah. I didn't mind. I liked hearin' it all. They were good people and I'm real sorry I didn't get ta meet em. Sorry they're gone."

She nods, "I've been taking up all the time, is there something you'd like to do Daryl?"

"Yeah, I was thinkin' I'm gonna talk ta your friend Amy. I wanna see if she knows where Merle was headed, even if she just saw the direction he went when he left. I could head that way, try'n find him."

"Oh. Okay." He still plans to leave.

He stands and reaches his hand out to her, "C'mon girl, let's head back that way."

They've gone a couple hundred yards or so when he hears a sound like leaves crunching underfoot coming from over toward the west. He stops, holds a finger to his lips signaling her to stay quiet.

He points a finger in the direction the sound came from, and there, leaning her back against a big oak tree is the tall slim woman with long dark hair, the sheriff's wife. Leaning into the woman is none other than Mister Muscle man himself.

The pair are kissing like it's about to go a lot further, and when muscles slips his hand inside the woman's blouse, Daryl takes Beth's hand again, "C'mon, let's get outta here."

They walk a few feet and Daryl mutters, "That fuckin' guy."

He needs to get out of this place, go find Merle.

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A/N There we are. Please leave a comment. There's a chapter photo on my tumblr blogs gneebee and bethylmethbrick, please have a look. I'll be back next Thursday with more of Love's Long Road, I hope you'll be here too. Until then remember, I love ya large! xo gneebee