A/N: Wow, so I meant to have this up weeks ago, but life had other plans. But here you go… the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not, nor shall I ever own TWD. It's unfortunate, I know.

"Here you take it."

Beth looked over at Daryl to see him handing over his crossbow to her. He never let anyone touch his crossbow and here he was just handing it over to her like it was nothing.

He tried not to laugh at the weariness he saw flash across her face. "It's heavy and you should get used to the weight or else you'll never be able to use it," he said offering it to her again.

She slowly took it from his outstretched hand and damn near dropped the thing. He reached out to help her support it and then backed off when she had both hands on it. He wasn't kidding around when he said it had some weight to it, but it wasn't anything she couldn't manage, it just took her by surprise. "So why are you teaching me to use this," she asked. "I've gotten pretty good with my knife the last few weeks."

"You should know how to use as many weapons as possible these days. You never know what you're gonna have at your disposal."

"But when am I going to need a crossbow? That's what you use." She regretted that statement as soon as it left her lips. She didn't want him to answer that question, but she knew he was going to.

"If something were to happen to me you'd need to know how to use it."

"Nothing's going to happen to you. You'll be…" she turned toward him, but he cut off the rest of her sentence placing his finger over her lips.

"Don't say it."

She shook her head in agreement and he removed his finger and they continued their lesson.

-D/B-

Stupid traps he thought to himself as he carried Beth across the graveyard towards the funeral home. Or at least what he thought was a funeral home. That one had been placed there recently. If it had been out here for an extended period of time there would have been more rust and wouldn't have closed so smoothly. He needed to get her somewhere and take a look at her ankle. He didn't think it was more than sprained. Thankfully she'd had her boots on. If she'd been wearing sneakers they would have had a lot bigger problem.

As they passed a grave stone Beth shifted and hopped off his back. He turned to see why and that's when he saw the stone….he looked over at Beth and then glanced around until he saw a few flowers growing nearby. He quickly picked them and then walked over and placed them on the stone and walked back to stand next to Beth. He felt her grab his hand and intertwine her fingers with his. It was comforting. He didn't have the heart to release his hand from her grasp, nor did he want to.

-D/B-

Daryl hopped in one of the coffins and settled in for as decent a night sleep as you could get in one of those things.

Beth stopped playing and turned towards him, "You're sleeping in one of those?"

"Best bed I've had in months," he said looking at her, "Who told ya to stop playing girl?"

She smiled as she turned around and continued to play. She knew she needed to stop soon. The noise was bound to attract attention if it went on for too long.

Daryl looked at her as she played and he remembered life back before the turn. She reminded him a lot of Dria. Her determination to learn new things, to keep on trying, to never say never. Beth had come a long way in the time they'd been together since the fall of the prison. Her bow work left something to be desired, but in the last few weeks she really had come a long way with the knife. She even had taught herself with a little help from him how to throw knives. He was a little skeptical at first about how effective that would be when it came to killing walkers, but she had him throwing all his doubts out the window when after a few failed tries she started throwing with scary accuracy. Plus he reminded himself that it wasn't just walkers that a person had to worry about these days. Throwing a knife could turn out to be a very useful skill to have if one had to defend themselves against other people. He'd made a mental note not to piss her off, and if he did to make sure there were no knives in the room. Lost in his thoughts he'd realized that she'd stopped playing. He looked over to see her coming back into the room with a pillow and blanket. "Why'd ya stop?"

"Draws too much attention. Besides probably should get some sleep while I can," she said as she laid the pillow and blanket down close to the coffin that Daryl occupying.

"What are you doing," he asked looking at her.

"Going to sleep."

She could have gone upstairs and slept in a real bed, but he had to admit he like this better. Down here she would be close and he could take care of her if anything happened. His mind started to have an internal battle with itself before he finally spoke up, "We could share. Ya know if ya want."

She looked over at him with a look in her eyes that he could not fully understand. " It's okay I'm fine on the floor." She said as she laid down and tried to go to sleep.

Daryl took a moment before he got up out of the coffin and lay down next to Beth.

"What are you doing?" she asked rolling over on her side to face him.

"Box wasn't that comfortable," he said shutting his eyes.

Beth smiled. She had caught glimpses of Daryl these last weeks that no one ever got the chance to see. She had thought back to who he was before the turn. It was sad about what had happened to the woman he lived with. He would have made an amazing father. It had opened her eyes to why he was always so protective of the family they had at the prison, especially the original group from Atlanta and the farm. It was almost like he was trying to make up for the fact that he thought he failed the family he had before. She had gotten pretty good a reading him and she wasn't quite sure if he had realized that or not. She moved closer to him until she was right up against him and laid her head on his shoulder and put her arm over his chest. He tensed for just a moment before relaxing. "You're not a very good liar Daryl Dixon, but thank you."

-D/B-

They were sitting around the table eating some of food that Daryl had set out.

"So I was thinking that maybe we could stay here for a while," Daryl said causing Beth to look over at him confused.

"But I thought you said someone probably lives here and it's best we move on before they come back?"

"Yeah well….."

"Well what changed your mind?" she asked looking into his eyes.

He returned the look and gave a non-committal shrug, 'I dunno…."

"Oh come on! That's not an answer. What changed your mind?"

He looked down for a moment and then he looked over at her hoping she would take the hint in his eyes. He knew she probably would. Seemed like any more she was able to tell what he was thinking sometimes before he even did.

"Oh…." She said with a little blush as she broke eye contact and looked down at her hands.

-D/B-

"I'm not leaving you," she yelled at him why he was trying to put pressure on the door.

"Go!" he screamed at her. "Run towards the road and I'll catch up to you."

Her heart broke as she looked over at him. The desperation she saw in his face made her realize just how much he cared. As much as she wanted to stay when he got set in his ways there was no changing his mind. Plus, she wanted him to make it out safe and she figured he viewed her as a distraction. For a brief moment she toyed with the idea of giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, but she figured she'd save that for another time when they weren't in immediate danger. She threw him the crossbow and ran towards the back of the house, grabbing her bag as she made sure the coast was clear and then ran out the back door.

Daryl held onto the door for a few moments to try and give Beth a few precious seconds to escape out the back. He was trying to figure out how he was going to get them out of this mess. He should have known this home was just too good to be true. A freaking trap is what it came down to and from now on he was going to trust his instinct when he didn't thinking something felt right. He was losing the fight of holding the door so he quickly decided that he was going to lure them downstairs and in such a small area it should be relatively easy to pick them off one by one. Of course in such a confined area there was also a greater risk of getting bit, but he was willing to take the risk if it got him out of this house and to Beth. For all he knew she was the last of his family. She was everything and he couldn't afford to lose her in this world. He had dealt with losing someone he'd loved too many times before and he wasn't sure if he could deal with it again.

-D/B-

Daryl ran out of the home after barely escaping the walkers inside. He dodged a few of the walkers who were roaming around the yard and ran towards the road. He noticed something on the ground and ran towards it. His heart stopped as he bent down and picked up Beth's bag. Just then he heard the sound of a car speeding off down the road.

"Beth!" he yelled as he started to run after the car. "Beth!"

He ran for what seemed like hours. Dripping in sweat and about ready to fall over he'd reached a set of tracks. There were a couple of different ways the car could have gone, but he had no clue. He had lost sight of the vehicle long ago. He was hoping that the road would just keep going one direction and he would eventually catch up with her kidnapper. He let his bow fall to the ground and collapsed in the middle of the road hanging his head down in defeat. She was gone. His biggest fear had happened. He was alone. This wasn't how things were supposed to work out. They should be back at the home getting ready to go practice hunting and then eventually turning in for the night. Setting their blankets side by side and trying to maybe figure out these weird feeling he was having. He was hoping that he hadn't been the only one who was struggling with whatever it was going on between them. He wanted to just shut down like he had for a few months after he had lost Dria and the baby. He had the same pain in his chest that he'd had so many months ago and he didn't see it going away anytime soon. After a few moments though he finally realized the difference between the two situations. It had been too late to help Dria, but for all he knew Beth was just gone not dead. One thing he had learned from Beth was to hope. So he was going to hope that she was still alive, and he was going to hope that he ran across whoever took her, and he was going to get her back if it was the last thing he did.

While he was lost in his thoughts though he didn't hear the approaching footsteps until it was too late. "Well looky what we have here boys."

A/N: So there we go. Pretty much the same route as the show, but was hoping to throw a bit of internal monologue in there so we could maybe get a glimpse of what was going through their heads during this time. Next chapter will focus on Beth and what exactly happened to her. The next chapter is also over half done so hopefully you won't have to wait too long. Thanks so much for your patience with me.