Hello All! I'm so happy that the Lady Kaye posted tonight and I hope she inspires more people to update with Caryl (and Meth!). This is a smutless feely METH (and slightly Caryl) chapter inspired by her Autumn Smolder chapter You Know. This is my effort to kill the beast known as DETH.

I have to warn you that I haven't seen any of the TWD episodes since the prison fell – I could see the writing on the wall that the lack of Caryl would probably lead to an aneurysm on my part. My prediction is that Daryl will find her at the end of the season and she'll throw herself to walkers to save him. But, my predictions have been consistently wrong with the show so….who knows? I certainly have some strong feelings about Kinney outlasting Rooker on the show, but those opinions are not nice so I shall not voice them. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO THE WALKING DEAD.

Together again

Daryl scowled at the ashes of the fire as he tamped them down with a stick. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Carol. Is she alive? Where is she? He shook his head again. Stay alert jackass, ain't gonna find her if you're dead. He and Beth had been at this site for two days and it was time to move on. Daryl had done his best to deal with the company of an 18 year-old girl. That being said he had to admit that she had been doing well after the trauma of losing Hershel and the prison, she had her moments of weakness but Daryl had been quite surprised at her resilience overall. He often found her praying. It seemed that after she prayed she was calmer, more centered, and often smiled softly at the sky. Sometimes he had to shake her out of it to keep alert.

Until yesterday. She had taken a bar of soap down to the creek to wash and when she didn't come back he went to look for her. He found her lying on the creek bed in her underthings, curled up on the cold wet rocks and crying hysterically. He hadn't been able to calm her, he even slapped her as a last resort but to no avail. When her shrieks began to attract attention he shoved her limp body into her clothes and brought her back to the camp. After what seemed like forever she finally quieted and stared fixedly into space, not reacting to anything Daryl said or did.

Now it was early morning and he stole a look at her. Still lying in the same position staring unblinkingly into space. What the fuck happened? he thought. He tried to talk to her but she didn't react. He sighed and walked the perimeter, taking out a walker on the way. He was restless, they had to get out of this area soon. Find the others. Find his queen.

He returned to the camp surprised to see her standing next to a large tree. She had that dreamy look in her eyes as if she had just prayed and her face was peaceful, her pale skin in stark contrast to the bloody patches of scalp were she had torn clumps of her own hair out in grief. His eyes dropped to her hands, bloody from ripping her nails off clawing the rocks of the streambed. In them she clutched his gun close to her heart.

"What'cha doin'?" he asked, sidling cautiously towards her. She smiled at him. "Daryl. That's close enough." He stopped and regarded her. "Why don't'cha give me the gun?" he asked softly. Beth shook her head gently. "No Daryl, thank you. I know what I'm doing."

"Beth", he started. "We gonna find ya sister and Judith. Ya gonna have ya family back." Beth smiled at him calmly and shook her head. "No," she whispered. "That hope is gone. My hope is gone. But yours isn't Daryl. You'll go on to find Carol. To love her. I'm saying goodbye to you because you deserve an explanation, you need to know that this is right. You need to let no one mourn me because this is right."

"Beth ya talkin' stupid. This is stupid. We could find them tomorrow for all ya know." Beth shook her head and said gently, "Even so Daryl. This is right for me. If you find them tell them this was right for me and tell them why." He scowled at her. Was she fuckin' nuts?

Beth smiled fondly at his confusion. "He was so awful when he first came to the group," she started. "So angry, so empty, hating everyone and everything except you. Those first couple of days I was sure he was the devil himself. I was the one who brought him his food. Did you know that?"

Daryl looked at her incredulously. "Merle?" he asked. She smiled in joy at the sound of his name. "He looked at me like a starving dog would look at a steak. He said things to me that were so filthy that I would just freeze, I didn't even know what half the words meant. I was scared to death of him. Then Andrea came callin' and you all let him out of his cell. I could feel his eyes burning me when I sang in the common room. He was leaning with his back against the wall. I'll never forget how he looked at me that night. I knew I was in love for the first time and with the hardest man possible."

Daryl momentarily forgot that she was holding the gun and he stepped forward to point his finger at her. "He fuckin' touch you?" he seethed. Beth raised the gun to stop his progress then giggled and blushed. "Not at first," she whispered. "Not that he didn't try every second of the day and night." Daryl growled in anger. Fucking Merle, he'd try to seduce the Virgin Mary herself.

"But then something changed. One day he didn't bother me and….I missed him. I found him on the roof smoking a cigarette. He wasn't brash. He was quiet. Almost seemed hurt. I sat with him to keep him company. Eventually he told me that Carol had threatened him. She was protecting you from him." Daryl swallowed the lump in his throat, he had overheard that conversation. He felt a stab of pain at the memory. He missed Merle so much.

Beth shook herself from the recollection and raised her eyes back to his. "He was hurt, he had finally realized that he had harmed you more than he had ever helped you. He looked so worn, almost defeated. I knelt between his legs and stroked his face, trying to absorb his pain. He was so gentle Daryl and he made me feel so good. Every day and night when we could escape he made love to me, did things I hadn't even dreamt about. He called me his 'lil bit a sweet'. He made me so happy Daryl."

Daryl's breath was ragged in his chest. He had been so wrapped up in hating Merle and loving Carol and thinking about the governor he didn't even see what had been happening under everyone's noses. His eyes pierced Beth's and she saw the pain and understood. She nodded. "The last night," she whispered. "I knew something was off. He must have made the decision that he was going. To do what he thought he had to do."

Tears finally dripped down Beth's face. "He just held me for a long time. Told me he was going to get us a farm, that we'd have horses and crops. That he was going to rig his bike so he could ride it one-handed and get me a leather jacket so I could ride with him. That he'd make me eat ice cream every day so I'd get big and fat. That he would build my daddy a church if he wanted it." She spluttered a laugh through her tears. "When I said I wanted babies he said I was trying to tie him down."

Daryl couldn't help but smile. Merle had never committed to a woman for more than a night his whole life and then he finds himself a wife at the end of the world. Beth's smile was pierced by a spasm of pain. "When he died that next day, I wanted to die myself. There was so much commotion at the prison that no one noticed that I was shattered. That a part of me died."

Beth started to cry in earnest and she struggled to smile through her tears. "Only one thing Daryl. Only one thing kept me going after losing Merle, after losing my daddy and sister, after losing the prison." Daryl looked at her with a plea in her eyes. "Don't do this Beth," he whispered hoarsely. Beth shook her head lovingly at him.

"Merle and I never used protection. This was my hope Daryl - that his life was growing inside me. That I would have a piece of him to love forever. I prayed every day. I knew that God would answer this one prayer, amongst all the other desperate prayers in this world. I knew that something as tenacious and powerful as Merle's life would survive, to save me from this world."

She shook her head sadly and carefully cocked the gun. Daryl twitched and she took a deep breath. "Yesterday I found out I wasn't pregnant. There's nothing of him Daryl. There's nothing of him IN ME. There's nothing of him on me. I'm so sorry but I know now that to be with him I have to follow him. Merle and I will be together forever." She barked out a short laugh. "Once my daddy gets used to the idea," she said.

Daryl's eyes filled with tears. "Please Beth," he pleaded. "We can talk about him. It'll be like he's here." Beth shook her head and turned the barrel of the gun to her chin. "His whole life he loved you," she said. "You're strong. You'll find Carol, you'll have your babies. I'm not strong Daryl. I need him. We'll be together with the babies we never had. You'll see us soon enough, so will Maggie. I love you Daryl. You've been my brother-in-law all this time and you never knew it. But I did and I loved you. And Carol."

And as Daryl Dixon leaped, Beth Greene pulled the trigger.

TWDTWDTWDTWD TWDTWDTWDTWD TWDTWDTWDTWD TWDTWDTWD

Five years later

Carol stroked the infant's sweet face and cooed at her as she nursed. At two weeks old this baby was more beautiful than the average baby with a delicate heart shaped face and huge blue eyes. It was hard to believe that the little thing had such a belligerent attitude but then again she was a Dixon.

Daryl smiled and his greying scruff brushed over the baby's head as he kissed her hairline. It astounded him that there had been happiness at the end of the world. He cleared his throat. "Still don't think we oughta name 'er Merle," he groused. Carol looked up and smiled. "Merle can be a girl or a boy name," she said. Daryl snorted. "Even this fucked up world don't deserve two Merle Dixons."

Carol laughed, "Well we don't have to name her yet. Maybe we can use Bethany for her first name instead of her middle name. We could change Merle to Marla." Daryl smiled as two year-old Theodore Dale grabbed his leg and started chewing on his pants. "How 'bout we decide tomorrow?" he asked.

PLEASE review, reviews are life! And this is NOT my last one-shot by any means, I'll try to write a funny one next time because this one was pretty heavy