It's Not A Secret Anymore

"Like fucking hell!" Daryl snarled advancing forward and pushing Beth back. He could feel his blood boiling and he noticed Rick, Carl and Carol staring at him. Beth had just volunteered to go with him, Rick and that Michonne woman to rescue her stupid sister and her even stupider boyfriend.

"I'm not comfortable with you leaving either Bethy. We need you here to help with the baby." Hershel said looking between Daryl and Beth.

"Maggie needs me though." She said quietly fingering the edge of her sleeves that hung down, almost covering her hands. "Rick needed volunteers, I follow directions and orders just as well as anyone else."

"I'll lock you in a fucking cell if you even try to get in that car." Daryl said again shoving the bags in the trunk. "End of discussion." In the end one of the prisoners, Oscar, offered to go with them and Axel stayed behind to help keep watch while they were gone. Beth glared at him as she helped Carl pull the gate open so they could drive out and Daryl glared back just as fiercely till she looked away. He kept an eye over his shoulder, making sure she had the gate secured before turning in his seat and meeting Rick's eye in the mirror. "What?!" Daryl snapped fiddling with his bow.

"Nothing." Rick said with a small smile. "Carl said he thought he saw you kiss Beth's hand on the way to the library. I told him he was crazy. Maybe he's not so crazy after all." Daryl blushed to the tips of his ears and stared out the window. He hoped that's all Carl had seen. Once they'd been inside the library he had gotten Beth to strip for him before he sat her on one of the tables and kissed her from head to toe, concentrating a lot more on few very specific, very pink parts.

"I was just getting a splinter out of her hand. You know she's been cleaning up some rooms up there for storage and eventual bedrooms." He added. Rick and Oscar scoffed at him and Michonne even rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say." Rick said as he listen as Michonne gave him directions.

"So Daryl seemed pretty mad." Carol said as she walked up to the stairs where Beth was sitting with the baby

"He doesn't seem to think I'm very useful." Beth said quietly, hoping Carol would think she was being quiet for baby's benefit. A tear slipped down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. "I'm just worried about Maggie and Glenn. What if bad people took them?"

"Bad people are why Daryl didn't want to risk taking you with him." Carol said patting her on the shoulder and settling in beside her. Carl came into the common area and watched while Carol consoled Beth and rolled his eyes. Women he thought. They heard some screams and noises coming from the tombs and Carl ran away to investigate, ignoring Beth and Carol ordering him to stay put. Beth quickly handed over a set of keys from her pocket and Carol locked the door, so nothing could get to them. Carl had a set and would be able to back in.

"Should I go after him?" Beth asked setting Judy in her makeshift bed and placing her in a cell and locking her up too.

"Give him a few minutes." Carol said eyeing her keys. "Where'd you get a set?" She asked. Council hadn't even had enough sets to give one to everyone and here Beth was running around with her own?

"Daryl gave me his before he left." Beth said walking up to the gate and looking through, trying to see Carl.

"Daryl gave you his keys?" Carol asked. Beth nodded, oblivious to Carol's shock. "He must like you."

"He didn't want me at Carl's mercy." Beth said turning once the baby started to cry and reluctantly unclogging her cell and picking her back up. She let herself into the common area just as Carl led in a group of survivors. She backed up with the baby and clutched her to her chest.

"We won't hurt you." A giant man promised, carefully placing a woman on the floor. Beth saw she had been bit badly and backed away even more.

"I got it." Carl said aiming his gun at the woman's head.

"No, we take care of our own." The man said as Carol came back with Hershel just in time to see the woman stabbed through the head with the claw end of a hammer.

"Let us get you some water and food." Hershel said. "If it were up to us we'd let you stay, but we have to wait for our friends and family to get back and vote." Hershel said sitting down and taking the baby while Beth quickly fixed a bottle.

"How are you doing?" The other woman asked staring at the baby and back to Beth.

"She's not mine." Beth said taking the baby back from her father. Hershel checked them over for bites and treated the few injuries they had and Carol brought them back some of soup they had eaten for lunch. Carl motioned them through the door and he quickly locked them in the common area.

"Hey! You can't lock us up!" The smaller man screamed. Beth crouched over the baby and shushed her as Carl pointed the gun at their guests.

"You aren't locked in, you're just locked out of where we sleep." Beth said motioning with her head to a door at the end. "It'll let you out into the yard where we've cleared the walkers. If you need shovels I'll bring you some. You can bury your friend." Beth added as she walked away.

In the woods by Woodbury

"I can't believe we're going back. You know they don't want us there!" Merle said as he randomly stabbed a walker through the head as Daryl walked towards the prison. "You got a piece of ass there don't you?" He sneered.

"Shut up." Daryl said as he lifted his head. He could faintly hear screams coming from the direction of the prison. He notched his bow and started walking a lot faster, no longer caring if he brought back more game today. He broke through the clearing and saw that Beth had herself barricaded on the catwalk again with the baby and that Carl was frantically trying to kill the walkers that were swarming Rick who for whatever reason was outside the fences like an idiot. Daryl quickly shot an arrow through the head of the one closest to Rick and ran over and stabbed another. Merle followed and took care of three more while Rick and Daryl took care of the rest. "I brought dinner." Daryl said lifting the four rabbits he had tied to some rope.

"You know the hell I got from Beth when I came back without you?" Rick asked opening the gate and letting them through. Daryl quickly secured it with quick ties and nodded to Glenn who was staring down Merle.

"That's cause she knows you're stupid enough to get yourself killed without me." Daryl growled. "Why the fuck are you outside the fences?"

"A mail truck full of walkers crashed through the outer fence." Rick said. "I thought I saw someone out here. I came to check and the truck just barreled through." Daryl felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around straight into a small little fist connecting with his cheek.

"What the fuck was that for?" He shouted wincing as he touched his cheek.

"How could you just take off and leave all of us?" Beth screamed back before turning around walking away in a huff with the baby.

"Just be glad she only hit you once. She socked Maggie three times for saying we were better off without you and your brother here."

"I like her." Merle said with a grin. Daryl sat at the picnic table and started to skin and gut the rabbits. Carol came out and sat with him and quietly watched him work.

"What?" Daryl asked, the silence for once annoying him.

"Look at how far you've come. Don't let your brother being here change that." She said taking one of the skinned rabbits for a stew. Daryl finished butchering the rest of them and handed it off on his way through the kitchen. He checked her cell, the bathrooms and the common area, finding them all empty, he made his way through the prison and found her in one of the rooms in the library sitting on the floor with the baby in the car seat they had pulled from the day care. She was riffling through a first aid kit and pulled out a coldpack.

"I'm fine, I don't need it." Daryl said closing the door and sitting against it so no one would walk in on them as they talked. Beth glared at him and cracked the cold pack and held it to her bloody and swollen knuckles.

"You never told me it hurts to actually punch someone." Beth said softly as she settled on the ground. Daryl shifted closer and reached for her hand and held it while he inspected it. He carefully used a antiseptic wipe to clean it before placing gauze over her knuckles and taping them up. He pulled her hand into his and held the cold pack to her hand and kissed her palm.

"I'm sorry." Daryl said softly looking at the floor. "Should of came back right away."

"I know why you didn't." Beth said letting him pull her beside him and resting against his shoulder. "I'm still mad though." Daryl nodded his head. "Everyone knows you know. After you freaked out on me and threatened to lock me away for my own safety they all knew."

"So they know." Daryl said, chuckling. He owed Beth a bike ride outside the gates. He had said she'd blow their cover, but she had sworn up and down that she was good at keeping secrets.

"I'm glad you found your brother." Beth said as she rocked the car seat gently. Daryl scoffed at her.

"Let me know how you feel in a day or two."