…

Daryl thought that the reason their first group had so many problems was because they had a hard time adjusting. Yeah, they were great at killing walkers and working together and finding themselves shelter. But past that? Besides the meat Daryl was able to hunt up for them, they were damn-near obsessed with finding canned food and still had it in their heads that bottles of Aspirin would work just fine. Hershel had tried to use some plants for a few things but his knowledge was limited and he barely knew enough.

After they lost the prison and it was just him and Beth, Daryl had been the same. It was just what they had done for so many months, he wasn't able to think of anything else. When he and Beth came upon the St. George subdivision, as they went through the houses, they looked for canned food when in reality, they were already surrounded with food – the woods behind the houses filled with all sorts of things to keep them alive.

Beth was the one to actually think of it first.

The house they were staying in had a ton of books and in the family room at night, if they weren't playing checkers, Beth was lying on the floor in front of the fire in the fireplace, reading. Daryl would be sharpening his knife or bolts or would be reading himself but he would lift his eyes and watch her. She had found a pack of hot pink post-its and occasionally, she would read a page and then mark it with a post-it so she'd be able to find it easily the next time she needed it.

It was when they went out to the woods with towels and their bar of soap to bathe in the creek and Beth brought one of the books with her that he learned what she had been doing.

She read to herself and then lifted her eyes to him. "Can you get us a rabbit, do you think?"

It took him all of twenty minutes to track one down and bring to back to her. He didn't ask her why she needed it. No harm in having a rabbit to eat.

Beth burst into a smile the instant she saw it hanging from his hand. There had been a small plastic bin she had found in the house's garage, which she had also brought out here with them, and he saw that it was now filled with mushrooms and leaves. He crouched down next to her to watch as she picked, wanting to ask what she was doing but figuring it was pretty obvious.

"Damn, Beth. What'd you do?" He demanded and grabbed one of her hands. It was red, irritated and scratched. He had only been gone twenty minutes.

Beth looked at her hand in both of his and didn't say anything for a moment. She then shrugged and was back to smiling. "A lesson learned. I'll find gloves and wear them next time. The nettle leaves are spiky and I should have known that already because I read it in the book."

Daryl frowned and slowly released her hand so she could go back to picking. "You pick the mushrooms and anythin' else needed. I'll get the leaves."

"Stop," she said, still smiling. "My hands are already messed up. I'll pick the leaves if you don't mind looking for the blueberries. I thought I saw a few bushes around here."

"What are you makin'?" He finally asked.

"I'm kind of making it up as I go along but nettle leaves are used for nettle soup and with the mushrooms, rabbit meat you're going to cut for me and the blueberries, I have a container of vegetable broth in our kitchen. I'm going to try and make us a soup. We shouldn't really be eating some of the Campbells soup cans we've found anymore."

Daryl was quiet, thinking that over. "Makes sense," he then said.

Food was still safe to eat after expiration dates for a time. They didn't immediately die because they ate expired cans of vegetables but it did come to a point when they couldn't – or shouldn't – eat something that was years past its date.

He felt like an idiot for not having already thought of that and for not having a plan as to what they would do when they couldn't rely on boxes and cans to feed them. But he looked at Beth and he wouldn't tell her this but he was amazed that she had been the one to think ahead.

They had been together for so long now – just the two of them. He had lost track of days a long time ago. He knew Beth was keeping count.

And in all that time, walking and figuring out what the Hell the plan was, Daryl had learned something about Beth Greene. Everything he thought he knew about her was completely wrong – not that he had thought about her a lot. Hershel Greene had had two daughters and Beth had been the other one. Maggie had been the stronger of the two; the one more capable and the one he would want watching his back. And what did Beth do? She watched Judith and sang songs and slit her wrists. He didn't know anything about her because there wasn't a need for him to.

But that was a winter and a fall ago and now, Daryl knew better. A lot better.

"Will the vegetable broth still be good?" He asked.

Beth shook her head immediately. "No. But I can't make our own vegetable stock yet."

"What do you need to make vegetable stock?"

"Vegetables," she smiled – almost laughed – and Daryl smirked at himself, shaking his head. She moved herself off her legs so they wouldn't fall asleep and she sat down on the ground. "I've been reading this book about everything I can do. We can do," She quickly corrected herself though Daryl thought she was right the first time but he didn't tell her that. "I'm going to need your help with a lot of it but I think if we can manage to grow food, we will be able to make a lot of different things."

"Like vegetable stock?"

"Like vegetable stock and if I can make vegetable stock, I can make a lot of other soups. I can use water but our own stock will give it more flavor. And if we can grow potatoes, I can make our own yeast so I might be able to bake bread."

Daryl blinked at her. Christ, he had honestly almost forgotten about bread. He just figured it would be one of those foods they would never eat again because how could they ever make it?

"How are you gonna do that from potatoes?" He asked. He sat down on the ground, too, and Beth took the book, opening it to one of those pages she had marked with a post-it. She read for a quick second.

"I'm not exactly sure how it'll work but I guess there's something in the water after you cook potatoes in it that will act like a rising agent. So if we ever want bread, I'm going to have to make potatoes the night before."

Daryl gave a nod. "But how are we gonna find potatoes?"

"Well, if we get lucky, someone in this subdivision had a vegetable garden. And if the ground is good and it got water, potatoes are really cool because it's one of those vegetables that can grow a new plant from an old one. Farmers can replant potato pieces and new potatoes grow from those pieces."

"Huh." Daryl had never known that. There was no reason why he should have but it was something good to know, that was for sure. "Did your dad teach you that? About potatoes?"

Beth didn't answer but he saw her swallow and she gave a single nod. She looked down to the book in her lap and then focused on her hands. "I hope the nettle leaves are worth it," she said quietly, a slight tremor in her voice. She exhaled a deep breath as if to get herself under control. Daryl wished he could tell her that she didn't have to while around him. "They're supposed to soften and not taste too bad when you soak them in the soup. Nettle soup was a big thing in Europe. So the book says."

"'m sure they'll be great," he told her and a small smile graced across her lips. "But we ain't gonna find blueberries. 's too early for them still."

"Is it?"

Daryl nodded. "Late summer for those. July or August. Sometime 'round then."

"I'll make a note when we get home so I remember that."

She didn't ask how he knew that. It was the same for her as it was for him. Those first few weeks after running from the prison and then going through a fall and winter together – through her getting sick and finding this place and starting to make it something more, to her almost getting raped and him killing those two guys in front of her – there was now a complete deep trust between them now. If Daryl said blueberries weren't in season yet, in Beth's mind, she had no reason to doubt him.

They both heard the familiar shuffle followed by a low growl. Turning their heads at the same time, they saw the walker cutting slowly towards the trees. It had caught sight of them and was coming their way. Daryl easily sat up on his knees and picking up his crossbow, he aimed and fired. The bolt sailed the distance and sank into the eye of the walker, dropping it down. Beth hadn't even moved. Again, trust.

As Daryl stood up to go get the arrow, Beth finished up and collected her book and bin of leaves and mushrooms. She also took the rabbit and put it in the bin as well. On his way back to her, he stooped down next to the creek and picked up their towels and bar of soap. Neither said a word and together, side-by-side, they left the woods and headed back towards their house.

In the fenced backyard, Daryl skinned and dressed the rabbit as Beth took some water from their water barrel and dropped it into the bin. Standing at the picnic table, she then began to wash all of the mushrooms and leaves, setting them out for them to dry. When the bin was empty and she was done with the water, she left it out for Daryl. He dropped the rabbit hide into the water to soak. Once it was clean, he would leave it hanging to dry. He saved every skin of every animal he hunted. It had been a cold winter even with a roof over their heads and a fireplace and the animal furs had helped.

In the kitchen, he and Beth stood at the counter together. He cut the animal up in smaller bits – leaving the meat on the bone per Beth's instructions because that would give the soup more flavor, as Beth got one of the pots in one of the cabinets and began putting in the leaves and mushrooms first.

"These are safe to eat, I promise. I triple-checked the pictures," she assured him.

"If I die from eatin' a bad mushroom rather than bein' torn apart by walkers, I'm considerin' it a blessin'," he let her know and smiled a little when that made her laugh.

"Alright. Dump the meat in."

In the kitchen's pantry, where they kept the small supply of things they had found in other houses, she collected the box of vegetable broth and brought it back to the counter. She looked to the expiration date before back to the pot. She was thinking.

"Wanna try it?" He finally asked, watching her. "It might not kill us right away."

She lifted her head and smiled up at him. Something he had also learned over all of these days together. Beth Greene had a really pretty smile.

"Can't be worse than what we've been eating," she added.

"I am pretty sick of rice and granola. Ready for somethin' new."

With a deep determined breath, Beth opened the box of broth, turned it over, and began emptying it into the pot. Once it was empty, she took out a big spoon and began to stir it all together, looking down to make sure it was all mixing in. Daryl peeked a look, too. She then added dashes of salt and pepper – just a small amount to start and more would be added once it was cooking away and the taste needed it.

Daryl carried it over to the fireplace in the family room for her and hung it on the hook. Beth knelt down and stoked the low flames so they began to wake again. Daryl tossed another log in so the fire would have something to eat. Soon, the fire was roaring again and Beth made sure the pot was hanging where it should be.

She looked to Daryl. "And now we wait."

"Already smells good."

That made her laugh because it didn't smell like anything – yet – and they both knew it. But he noted that her cheeks looked a little pinker so it had been the right thing to say.

"If this turns out alright, tomorrow, I'll have a lot more picking to do. There's an entire chapter in the book about spring wild plants and they can be used for food and medicines. I want to find a bunch storage containers and jars. We need to start picking and saving."

Daryl wasn't sure why but he honestly started to feel a little angry. That first group, the one on Hershel's farm, none of them were idiots, and neither was the larger group in the prison. They knew how to survive. They knew what they had to do to be safe and how to keep things as normal as they were used to.

But wasn't that also their problem? They were damn near obsessed with the way things used to be and that wasn't the way things were anymore. They had been idiots. What Beth was doing, and what she was trying to do, this was how things had to be now. And if she was going to do all of this, he was going to help her.

"Alrigh'," he gave a nod and sat, leaning back on his hands and stretching his legs out. Beth turned away from the fire to sit facing him. "You tell me what we need to do and that's what we're gonna do."

Beth looked at him for a moment, almost as if she was deciding if he really meant that, but then, she smiled that pretty Beth Greene smile at him. He smiled, too.

Complete trust.

…

THANK YOU! I was considering adding to this one occasionally with more of Beth's recipes because I love writing her being kick-ass and being the reason they're all alive.