Thank you, thank you, and thank you! I honestly cannot thank you all enough. The response I've had to this story so far is amazing! I never expected to get such an amazing response from you all. Thank you for sticking with my story and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Just to warn you all... this is quite an emotional chapter.

Writer347
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Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead... the only thing I own are my own characters, that's something I suppose!

Home Is With You: Chapter 3

Beth
As we approached the building, everything seemed quiet but just to be on the safe side, Daryl knocked on the window and we waited for a couple of minutes. There was a walker inside, we could hear it, but the moans were not moving closer and stayed the same distance away which means that the walker is stuck somewhere. Daryl had his crossbow drawn and ready, I had my knife in hand and ready to use if needs be as he let the door swing open.

Daryl went through the door first and I followed closely behind him and it wasn't long until we spotted the walker that had been making all the noise. It was a woman and by the looks of it, she has been a walker for quite a while, maybe since near the beginning. There was a huge lump missing out of her neck and I'm going to take a wild guess and say that she was bitten by another walker and that was how she turned. Although she was decaying, it was easy to tell that she had been young when she was turned and beautiful, maybe she wasn't that much older than I am now.

Daryl had his bow raised and was ready to take his shot but I put my hand on top of it and lowered it. I wanted to be the one that finally put her out of her misery, I don't know why but I feel obligated to end it for her in some weird way. I walked towards her with my knife raised and her dead lifeless eyes concentrated on me, her arms reached out for me and her walker noises got louder as I approached. She was trying her hardest to get to me but she was trapped by some chairs, looked like someone had barricaded her in. I stayed out of her arms reach and then stuck my knife into her skull, the room fell silent and she slumped over the chairs that were holding her in.

"Poor girl." I muttered as I followed Daryl around the once bright and happy day care.

Daryl walked further into the day care and he checked the area for a sign of any other walkers or dangers but he didn't find any, I couldn't help but thank God for that... if there was still a God or even was a God... I don't know anymore. I was ready to fight walkers but I don't think I could ever kill a walker child or baby... no matter how much I would try, it would be too hard for me to do and it would be tough on Daryl as well. I'm just glad that we're not faced with that situation.

I opened a cupboard and inside I came across lots of different books, lined up neatly on a shelf, all books labelled with a different child's name. It looked like their development records for day care or something very similar.

"Don't look at 'em," Daryl said behind me

"They're probably all dead," I told him and shut the cupboard door.

"You never know, some of 'em might still be alive," He said but I know that it was just to try and make me feel a little better.

"I know the reality of this world. Thanks for tryin' to cheer me up though," I said and started looking for the items on the list.

I opened the drawer and came across some warm looking socks that would be perfect for Judith, I grabbed them and stuffed them into my rucksack and carried on looking through the drawers. I took a peak over at Daryl and saw him stuffing blankets into his own rucksack. I noticed that he looked at the paintings stuck the wall next to him, he lingered on one for a moment before looking away from it like it pained him; I wonder what the name was that triggered that reaction from him.

A bang from outside the back of the day care centre made both me and Daryl stop what we were doing. He threw his rucksack onto his back and lifted his crossbow towards the back door. I also put my rucksack on and grabbed hold of my knife out of its holder, I was ready to strike. Daryl and I made our way towards the back door and the unmistakable sound of a walker was on the other side, it sounded like it was just the one walker so Daryl grabbed the door handle and was ready to open it.

I took a step back and nodded to Daryl that I was ready, he threw the door open and came and stood beside me quickly. I wasn't prepared. There was just one walker like I thought but this walker, it was a child. A young boy no older than 6 years old, a loud sob escaped my lips and I dropped my hand that was holding my knife, the young boy was coming closer to us with his arms outstretched.

"I can't," I told him.

"I got it." He replied.

He coaxed the walker outside and closed the back door, seconds later I heard the release of the bolt and everything went silent. You could hear a pin drop. Tears started streaming down my face as I thought of the young child and the walker that I killed when we first came in.

The backdoor opened and Daryl came in, looking sad holding a single bolt in his hand, a blood covered bolt.

"The woman at the front, I think she might be his mother. It doesn't look like anyone has been here in a really long time, living or dead, apart from them two. I'm guessing they were here together, mother and son. They should be rested together," I told Daryl.

"Does it matter?" He asked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed.

"Alright then, we'll lay 'em together in the back room," He told me "I'll get it done. You carry on lookin' for supplies to bring back," He said.

"I'll help." I offered but he just shook his head and I think he knew that I couldn't do it.

I took a look at the bodies when Daryl was done with them, he had them laid next to each other, holding hands, and it was sweet. Looking at them close together just made me think more about my theory of them being mother and son stronger. They had the same nose and hair colour and similar eyes, definitely related. Daryl put a blanket over them which I knew he did more for me than anything; I grabbed some wild flowers from outside and laid them on top of the blanket. I said a small prayer for them and hoped that their souls would find each other so they could be together again. Daryl held my hand the whole time and comforted me as I cried.

I know for some it may seem silly because I didn't know them but a young mother brought her little boy here, thinking that they would be safe, only to then be separated by something as silly as a backdoor for God knows how long. As bad as it sounds, I wished the boy had already been killed when we got here and not a walker, that's going to play on both mine and Daryl's mind for a long time. I know he puts walkers down without a second thought but when it's a kid it's always different... I know he was sad about the boy and I wish I was stronger so I could have helped him but I wasn't and this is where it becomes totally obvious how different Daryl and I really are.

Now we were back in the car and we had been driving in complete silence for an hour. Daryl's hand wasn't on my thigh now and we didn't want to stop for another quickie like on the way here. It was such a different mood now, we were both sad.

"There's a sign for a general store a couple miles away. Do you wanna check it out?" Daryl asked.

"Sure." I answered and went back to looking out the window.

Ten minutes later the car came to a stop outside the general store. The windows were boarded up and the front door was wide open. We scanned the area as we got out of the car but there were no walkers, no people and no wildlife around. Daryl banged on the door of the store and we waited but there was no noise of any kind.

We went inside the store and I wasn't surprised to see it pretty much cleared of everything. Daryl and I split up and went in different directions; I looked to see if there was anything that would be helpful to us for any reason...

Condoms.

Daryl and I haven't always been that good at using condoms when we were together, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous. After everything we've been through with Judith and everything that happened to Lori, we should be careful when having sex but I think we have only used condoms about three or four times since we started sleeping together and believe me, we have a lot of sex. I grabbed what condoms were left and put them in my rucksack and then on the other side of the shelf was five boxed pregnancy tests... would it be stupid to take one? I mean, like I said, we don't really use condoms but I haven't had any symptoms or anything... surely it couldn't hurt to be 100% sure, right?

"Beth..."

I turned around and saw Daryl looking worried as he saw what I had in my hand.

"Don't worry, I'm fairly certain I'm not pregnant but we haven't been the safest. It wouldn't hurt to check and be sure," I told him "And after seeing that little boy today... I don't want to risk that ever happening. I don't want to end up like that woman and her son," I added.

"Let me tell ya somethin'... if you were to ever get pregnant, I wouldn't let that happen t' yer and our kid. I'd die first," He said and I smiled softly at him.

"I know you would," I answered and placed a kiss on his lips "It's just to be sure," I promised and he nodded "So, we had sex two nights ago, last night and today without a condom so I should take one now and then another in a few weeks, just to be sure and in the meantime... I grabbed whatever condoms were left. We need to start being smart about this," I explained and he nodded at me.

"You wanna take it now or wait till we get home?" He asked.

"I'll do it now. I don't want anyone finding this at home." I stated and he agreed.

As I thought; not pregnant. Daryl looked more than relieved but I did tell him that because of our activities in the last couple of days, I was going to take another test in two or three weeks to be sure. He promised me he would try and not to worry about it, unless there was something he needed to worry about but you know Daryl, it will be playing on his mind until I take that other test.

There was a time when all I ever wanted was to have children and have my own family but because of the way of the world now, I don't want to risk anything happening to me or my child. I don't want to end up like Lori or that mother and son that we saw today, I don't want the baby to die whilst I was still pregnant and it starts feeding on me from the inside out. It was just too damn dangerous now for that to happen for me but we still have Judith and we all love her, she is a sign that children can survive this... maybe the mothers won't but they could, I just don't want to risk it.

We went back to the car with the small amount of supplies we managed to get from the general store and Daryl started driving away.

"Did you ever want children?" I asked him.

"Never been in the right place t' have 'em," He answered.

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"Before all this, I weren't a good man. Dint have a good job, dint even have a job. I jus' followed Merle round drinkin' and smokin' and takin' whatever was on offer. I never really had a steady girl or anythin'... I don't think I was menta have kids," He explained.

"What drugs did you used to take?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"I took a lot," He said but surely he knows I'm not going to let it go that easy, I looked over at him with raised eyebrows and he rolled his eyes at me "Look, I did bad thangs an' took bad thangs. It don't matter now," He said.

"Were you an addict?"

"Nah... took 'em f'r somethin' t' do," He answered.

"Do you think if you didn't follow Merle round then you wouldn't have taken them?"

"Merle weren't t' blame... I didn't have t' take drugs or drink a lot. I was jus' stupid," He told me with a shrug.

"You don't talk much about Merle or your life before the fall," I pointed out.

"Nothin' t' tell."

Thank you for reading this chapter. I really hope you all enjoyed it. I really liked writing this chapter; we got to see Daryl open up a little bit to Beth about life before the fall. We also got to see a child walker, which we don't get to see on the show and how they cope with it. Daryl dealt with it, like I think everyone figured out he would but it will play on him hard!

Can you all please favourite, follow and review? It really does mean the world when I get those email notifications.

Again, thank you guys from the bottom of my heart, the next chapter will be posted very soon!

Writer347
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