A/N Thanks so much for reading and commenting :) This chapter has many big changes for our couple as we advance two years. It ends with their most life changing experience, when something happens to separate them.

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Beth turned 14 that summer and Daryl 15, and with the start of the new school year everything was awful. Just awful.

They didn't know how it could possibly be worse, and there wasn't anything they could do about it. She was going in the 8th grade and he was going in the 9th grade, and that meant he'd be over at the high school.

She cried about it more than once, not that crying did any good. It didn't matter if it did any good, she just couldn't help herself.

Apart from the school problem, things had been going so well for Daryl and Beth.

Beth's Mama and Daddy had grown to think of him as part of the family and she was grateful for all that meant. He was able to spend a lot of time at the farm and she even taught him to ride a horse, and he taught her how to shoot his bow. They got to be together often and as far as either of them were concerned, that made it the best summer ever.

As long as they were outside her folks didn't seem worried about the amount of time the young couple spent alone together. As if being outdoors deterred them from their favorite activity of all, making out.

That's the reason they did so much fishing over the hot summer. They even had their own little joke, they were going kissing and fishing.

They'd lay a blanket by the creek, lie down close to each other and kiss to their hearts content. As long as they came back to the house with a couple of fish, Mama and Daddy thought fishing was all they'd been doing.

It was so much more than just fishing and kissing though, their level of closeness went far beyond just the physical. The intimacy the young couple shared was powerful and often gut-wrenching and went right to the core of who they were, where they'd been and what they wanted in this life.

It might seem impossible for two such young people to share such a profound closeness, unless one of those young people had lived like Daryl Dixon had lived. His 15 years of life were not grounded in childhood and innocence. He'd never been nurtured and he'd never felt particularly young or loved or carefree.

Now, that Beth was in his life everything was different. They told each other their deepest and most personal secrets. Although compared to his, she felt her secrets seemed quite small and inconsequential. They paled next to his dark and frightening secrets. More than once she cried when he shared his stories with her.

It was the absolute proof of his deep trust in her when one summer's day he removed his shirt and showed her his back and chest. She was sure the angry-looking red and purple scars and the mottled skin were the most horrible thing she would ever see. Not because they made him ugly or less appealing to her, in her eyes nothing could ever make Daryl ugly.

What her heart couldn't take was knowing the fear and pain he experienced at the cruel hands of his father. She couldn't fathom a parent being capable of doing something so monstrous to their own child.

His stories didn't get any happier or easier to hear, they all saddened her, some frightened her and many made her cry.

He told her he was sure his Mama really did set the fire that killed her, and that she'd done it on purpose, "I know it's a rumor that goes around, but I think it's true. I know my Mom was miserable and she spent most of her time at the bottom of a wine bottle. Between the booze and the pills, and Daddy being the mean sumbitch he is, she slipped into some dark place where she just didn't wanna live anymore. She just gave up on life and life gave up on her."

She could see how much saying those things hurt him, but Daryl had a way of trying to hide his hurt inside. He almost succeeded. But the looked in his eyes when he spoke, and the way he seemed to be holding onto her hand for strength as much as out of affection, revealed to her his level of pain.

He also told her about his brother, Merle, and that was the part of his story he seemed the most torn about. On the one hand she could tell Daryl loved his brother. He spoke of the way Merle had taken more than one beating for him and how more than once he was the one to jump in and fight with his Dad, trying to keep the man from beating Daryl or their Mom.

But Merle wrestled with his own demons. He was drinking and doing drugs when he was still just a young child. At 12 years old he was suspended from school for showing up with liquor on his breath. When Daryl said, "I don't really blame Merle, it was just his way of dealing with the way things were." Beth was sure the statement was laced with anger, she could tell he was mad his brother had left him. He felt abandoned.

When Daryl told his stories all Beth could do was listen quietly as he spoke. He didn't need her advice or her comments, he needed to be able to tell all those things to someone he felt he could trust with his secrets. He needed to express his feelings. As hard as it was to listen, she felt blessed that Daryl had do much faith in her.

But they were teenagers and they had other things to talk about as well, and there was so much enjoyment to be had. They spent many fun-filled and nearly care-free days together that summer.

Daryl loved his time spent on the farm. He loved being close to Beth, he loved the freedom of being in those open spaces.

With Beth he had something he never had before. She listened, and even though he knew a lot of it was hard to hear, the worse it got the better she listened. She held his hand and although she sometimes cried, she never acted like he was an object of pity, she never asked dumb questions, never told him he "should have or could have," done something different. She just listened.

He didn't think there were any two people on this earth who had ever shared the closeness he and Beth did.

Then one day something profound happened. They were standing by the creek about to walk back toward the house with their catch. She whispered, "Daryl, wait," and wrapped her arms around him so tightly he froze in place wondering what was wrong. She laid her head on his back and in her sweet voice she said the words he'd never forget, "I love you Daryl. I'm going to love you my whole life."

He said the words right back to her because they were true, "I love you Beth. I could never love anyone else, you're the only one."

They said it, they meant it and they believed it with all of their young hearts.

As for the job, it was going great. He never realized the kind of money a guy could make waiting tables. One of the Front Waiters he worked with explained to him it was because they were working in such a fancy and pricey place, "Did you ever check out the menu Daryl? Shit, when a guy brings his girlfriend here for dinner it cost him the same as car payment, maybe two." And to think, he'd only applied for the job at Rancher's Cut because he could work at night.

He lived quite simply, his needs were small and he was pulling in good money. That fact was reflected in his bank account. It was getting fat.

Her Mama and Daddy tried to make them both feel better about the separation at school. Mama told them, "It's just a few months, then you'll both be in high school, and Daryl you'll still come for Tuesday dinner and some Saturdays, and whenever you want to."

Although they cared about Daryl like one of their own, Mama and Daddy were also aware that youthful romance can be a fickle thing. Secretly Beth's folks suspected the young romance would probably fade away, and that by the end of the year Daryl and Beth would have drifted apart for good.

It wasn't what her folks hoped for, it's just the way young love is.

They were wrong. In spite of their separation, by the time that school year came to an end Daryl and Beth's love had grown even stronger.

They'd changed so much. Not their hearts or their minds, but physically they'd blossomed. Daryl would turn 16 in a month. He was taller, his shoulders were broader and his muscles were much more developed and defined. He'd become more manly. He was even getting hair on his chest, and on the night's he worked at the restaurant he had to shave.

His voice had changed too, it was deeper and a little raspier. Although the tone was rough, Beth knew it wasn't because he was mean. It was just the natural character of it.

Her body had changed too. She was still petite and thin, but her hips had widened and although still small, her breasts were fuller. Her voice had changed a little too. It still had its sweet youthful innocence, but with a slightly lower tone.

The other thing they both seemed to have a lot more of were hormones. Kissing and back rubbing no longer seemed like quite enough.

It was getting tougher and tougher to hold back, but they made an agreement. They wouldn't take their love where they wanted it to go until she was 16. That was the absolute longest they thought they'd be able to wait.

When school resumed that fall and she became 15 and he became 16, they were once again attending the same school. Soon they even slipped back into a familiar routine.

He'd be waiting to walk her to homeroom in the mornings, and she often had a treat for him like cookies or a slice of pie. They'd meet for lunch in the quad and in high school they more easily got away with a casual kiss shared before returning to class.

Working and getting his studies done was a little harder for him, but he managed to keep his grades at C's and B's. That's all he really worried about. He was passing easily enough to reach his big goal. If he made it he'd be the first Dixon to ever receive a high school diploma.

What neither of them could have ever imagined about that year was how dramatically their lives would be changed. Not little changes, forever changes. And these big dramatic changes would come before they even got to Christmas.

But in the beginning, in the first few weeks of school it was almost magical. They both felt so grown up and Mama and Daddy had eased up on restrictions. Daryl and Beth were now allowed to see each other on Saturdays and Sundays outside the farm.

They still met Caesar and Amy at the movies, but they did other things too. Daddy let Daryl use his old truck and they drove up to the lake or hiked in the woods, and one Monday evening he told her to dress up, they were going out. It was a huge surprise when he took her to dinner at the Rancher's Cut.

It was the fanciest meal either of them ever had and it was right after that meal, when he'd helped her in the truck, that she finally asked him, "Daryl, we've been together a long time. We've promised each other it would be forever and we've shared all of our secrets, except one. I think it's time you finally tell me what it is you've been hiding from me and everyone else."

He should have realized that she of all people would catch on. She knew him so well, she knew the signs. He'd been found out.

He looked so deep in thought as he chewed at the side of his thumb, she knew what that meant. He was thinking hard, weighing options, deciding on things.

She was right, that was just what he was doing. He knew the time had come to be honest with Beth, he just had to decide how he was going to tell her. There was really only one option, he had to tell her the whole truth. Shit, he'd told her everything else.

Why not? He loved her, he was always going to love her, it was wrong for him to be keeping secrets.

As they drove he warned her, "I'ma take ya to my house Beth. I told ya before, the place is a piece of shit. Sorry, but that's the best way ta describe it. It's nuthin' but an old tin can that's fallin' apart. I only gotta stay there a couple more years though, then I'll be able ta get sumthin' better."

That's when he pulled the pickup off the road, cut the engine, looked at her and started to spill it, "I'm stuck for right now. No one's gonna rent a place to a 16 year old high school kid. That's why I gotta stay where I'm at. Besides, no one who lives in that broken down old trailer park is worried about what I'm up to, it's good cover."

She was so confused, "Daryl what are you talking about? And cover from what? And what do you mean no one's going to rent to a high school kid, what about your Dad?"

He fired the engine back up, put the old pickup in gear and said, "C'mon, let's get ta my place and I'll tell ya all about it."

Her eyes were on him the whole drive. Even if he hadn't been chewing on his lip she would have known he was anxious. As they pulled into the old park she thought maybe that was it, he was embarrassed. To say the trailer park was in a state of neglect would be an understatement, it was a shambles.

He pulled in next to an old wreck of a small single wide trailer and the place barely looked livable, but she didn't say a word. Something dark was brewing and she was going to let him work this through. She knew it was best to be patient with him, Daryl had his own pace.

He helped her from the truck, asked, "Ready?" She nodded and he held the door open as she walked up the two steps and inside. It wasn't nearly as bad as she feared. It was old, tiny, run down, and the furniture appeared to have worn out about ten years earlier. But it was clean and tidy.

The living room held a small couch, an old overstuffed chair and a cheap coffee table. The couch and chair were each covered with a thin blanket and she assumed that was to hide the wear. He directed her to the couch, "Have a seat. Ya want a coke or sumthin'?"

"No, I'm fine thanks."

He nodded as he walked over to her, "Where you're sittin' there? That used ta be my bedroom then, a couple a years ago, not long before we met, I took over the master suite." He laughed but she could hear bitterness in his laughter.

She responded, "Sit here with me Daryl," and patted her hand on the couch, "Next to me."

He plopped down but not as close as she'd hoped. He chewed on the side of his thumb a minute, and then he began to speak, "It was just after my 14th birthday. My Dad, he got himself hooked up with a woman. That was nuthin' unusual, except she didn't live around here. She lived over outta Columbus."

"They were together a couple weeks when he told me they were gonna take a ride over that way. He said maybe they might get her things, or maybe he'd stay there with her a while. He laid a twenty on the kitchen counter and they left. I ain't seen or heard from him since."

She couldn't help it; her hand covered her mouth as she gasped. She wanted to grab him and hold him close, but that didn't seem quite right. Not yet. They needed to talk about this. Besides, her own feelings were all over the place. She felt rage, disbelief and deep sorrow.

Try as she might it was impossible to hide all the anger she felt, "Oh my gawd, your Dad just left you here? With twenty dollars? You've been alone here for two years?"

It was the first time he smiled since they left dinner, "I wasn't alone, I had you girl."

She wasn't buying it and he went on, "If ya knew my Dad you wouldn't be surprised at all. I ain't. Anyway, I've just been keeping it a secret and doin' the best I could, but I know I did wrong hiding the truth from you. I love ya Beth, and I shoulda told ya what was goin' on." He shook his head and muttered, "That bastard."

He was angry, but she also saw so much sadness in him and she thought maybe she understood. Even though Daryl's Dad was a jerk he was still his Dad. What kid doesn't want love from their parents?

She couldn't hold back her tears any longer. She began quietly crying, not sure what she should do or say. All she could think to tell him was all he needed to hear, "I'm so sorry Daryl. I love you. What can I do to help?"

His face had the look of a person much older, a person with too much responsibility and too much to worry about, "You do it Beth, knowin' you love me is what gets me through every day and every night. It's what keeps me from going crazy, it keeps me working and keeps me going to school."

He wanted to get off this, try and cheer both him and her up. He took her hand and teased, "So whaddya think of my piece of crap bachelor pad? Kinda special, ain't it?"

"It's not nearly as terrible as you made it sound, and besides, anywhere you are is special Daryl."

She had that way about her, that way of making everything so much better. He wrapped his arms around her and they started to kiss, but this was a different kind of kissing. It was the kissing of two people hungry for closeness, hungry to find comfort in each other, hungry to fill a need they'd felt for too long. It went far beyond kissing.

It was hot and feverish when he pulled away from her just long enough to ask, "Ya wanna go in the bedroom?"

"Yes."

He stood and offered her his hand and they walked to the small bedroom. But before they lay on the bed he asked, "Ya sure Beth?"

"Yes."

And before they did what they'd agreed they wouldn't do until she was sixteen, he asked her one more time, "Ya sure Beth?"

"Yes."

It was the first time for both of them and it had it's nervous and very awkward moments, but it also had closeness, love and mutual satisfaction. After they'd done what they'd done they both cried. His tears were mostly caused by anger at himself, "I shoulda waited, I said I would. Shit, I'm sorry girl."

"Don't you dare be sorry Daryl. I'm not sorry. I'm just crying cuz I guess I'm a little overwhelmed by it all. I can't believe we did that, but I'm glad we did. We love each other, it's supposed to be an expression of love. And what difference does our age make anyway? We already promised each other we're always going to be together."

"I feel the same girl, but I didn't protect ya. I shoulda had some a them things, we shouldn't have done it without one. We won't again. We just gotta hope we got lucky this time." He looked at her, took her hand and softly kissed the back of it when he promised, "But if you was, if we, if there's a baby ya know I'd marry ya. I love ya girl."

They were late getting home to the farm and her Daddy was not a happy man. He told them both, "Daryl, you're welcome to come to dinner on Tuesday evenings, and I can always use your help on Saturdays. But for the next month Beth will not be leaving the farm except to go to school."

Daryl immediately apologized, "I'm sorry Sir. I should have been better about the time. It was my fault."

Daddy shook his head, "Nonsense, it was Beth's fault too. You both know how to tell time."

She started to protest, "But Daddy…"

And Daddy cut her off, "You start that and I'll make it two months." Daryl gave her a look and she didn't say any more.

Daddy told her, "Go to your room now Beth. As for you Daryl, I don't feel like driving you home this late. You go on and take the truck home, just bring it back as soon as you can."

"Yessir, I'll bring it tomorrow after school. Thank you, Sir, and I'm sorry."

"I know you are, just don't do it again. Drive careful now."

Tuesday morning he was waiting for her when she stepped off the bus. She'd been feeling sad about being on restriction, but seeing him always made everything better. He took her hand and they started walking and he asked, "Ya feelin' alright today girl?"

She knew what he as asking about and she leaned a little closer and whispered, "I'm fine , it doesn't hurt anymore."

"Good, sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry. I think it's just normal."

"Yeah, that's what I heard too."

They talked about her being on restriction and he promised, "We'll make it work. It'll go by fast. Just remember, we're in this together and forever."

They both knew he had to hurry to his class or he'd be late, so when they got to her locker he quickly kissed her goodbye, smiled and said, "See ya at lunch, girl."

How could either of them have guessed that small kiss would be their last?

It was his second class of the day, American History, they were talking about the westward movement when a runner came from the Principal's office with a note for the teacher. The teacher read it and said, "Daryl, the principal needs to see you in his office." She pulled her desk drawer open and handed him the big yellow card saying, "Better take the hall pass."

He didn't bother to take his books with him, he only took the hall pass and started walking that way, racking his brain as he walked. What had he done wrong? He didn't have tardies or absences, he'd parked Mr. Greene's truck in student parking just like he was supposed to. He'd done all of his assignments and he was passing every class. He couldn't think of what it could be.

When he got to administration he was promptly escorted into the principal's office, that was his first indication something was really wrong. There was a man he didn't recognize dressed in a business suit, a woman too. Both had briefcases. There was someone else, the young Deputy Sheriff, Rick Grimes. Shit, what was going on?

It was the principal who spoke and Daryl could tell the man was shaken up, "Daryl, I'm sorry to have to tell you, your father was arrested over in Columbus on felony assault charges. It was the night before last. Apparently he was quite inebriated and told the arresting officer he couldn't go to jail, that he needed to be let go because his son was living alone in Clausenville. He said he had to get home to take care of him."

Daryl knew then it was over, they were going to take him. He did what he'd been brought up doing, it was what Dixon's did. He bolted. He might have even made it, but just as he was about to escape out the main door the football coach, Abraham Ford, was walking in.

The coach acted on instinct, grabbing the young man and hanging on, "What's up Dixon?"

And the man and the woman in the suits hollered in unison, "Hold him!"

Daryl was yelling for them to let him go while the young deputy tried to bring some calm, "It's okay Daryl, no one's going to hurt you. They want to take care of you, you're going to have a real place to live." But Daryl could see the cop was pissed this was happening, yet what could he do? The law's the law and it was his job.

Daryl knew exactly what kind of "real place" it would be, one of those fuckin' "Boy's Ranch" places. He couldn't live like that, he wouldn't live like that and so he just kept fighting to break-free. The coach and the man in the suit hung onto him as they took him literally kicking and screaming down the hallway, on their way to the ominous looking black car that waited to drive him away.

It was as it was all taking place in the hall that the bell rang indicating the period was over. Beth came walking out of class to see the commotion playing out before her. She had no idea what was going on or why this was happening, all she knew was the boy she loved was being dragged away.

She screamed his name, "Daryl! Daryl!" as she started running toward him.

He was yelling back, "Beth! Wait for me Beth! I'll find ya! I promise!"

She dropped her things and began running faster, "No Daryl, no! Stop! You can't take him!" Two teachers grabbed a hold of her and all she could do was struggle to break free as she watched Daryl being carried out the big double doors and shoved into the back of the big black car.

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A/N He got away with it a long time, but dang, they got him. Please leave a comment. The chapter photo is on my tumblr blogs, gneebee and bethylmethbrick, please check it out. I hope to see you back next Friday for another big chapter, we'll soon be back to their reunion at the coffee stand. Until then stay safe and remember, I love ya large, xo gneebee