It turned out that the body down by the firetruck was Aaron's partner. When Rick investigated further he found the bag with the pictures and the flares that had been missing from the truck that Daryl and the others had searched earlier. When they returned the group was somber. Beth was doing an ammunition inventory and Judith was playing on the floor beside her. Since she needed to take it easy she let Carol go out with Tara to walk the fences.
"How'd it go?" Beth asked. Rick just shook his head. Aaron walked over to the chair he'd been tied to and sat down. He looked beaten.
"Aaron I'm not going to tie you up, but you have to understand we need to make sure we can trust you." Rick said.
"I get it." the man said. Tyreese picked up Judith and sat on a couch with her.
"How's your arm Beth?" Rick walked over to the table where she sat.
"It's feeling better. What happened out there?" she asked. Rick put the bag on the table.
"Let's clean it again." Rick avoided answering her question. He took a pan to get water to boil. Beth looked at the bag and at Aaron.
"That man? He was your partner?" Beth asked quietly. Aaron nodded.
"He was." Aaron's voice broke.
"I'm sorry." Beth said.
"Thank you." he said.
Rick sat at the table with Beth and cleaned and re-bandaged the scratches.. They were red and swollen, but there was no sign of infection so far. The rest of the group slowly started to come back into the cabin.
"It looks good. How are you feeling?" Rick asked.
"Better." she smiled at him.
"Good." he patted her leg. They spent the rest of the evening eating and going over the pictures. Aaron answered questions, but he wasn't his enthusiastic self. The loss of his partner had obviously hit him hard. Beth helped Eugene and Carol clean up after everyone had eaten.
"What's the story with Aaron's friend?" Beth asked Carol.
"He was his partner. They were in a relationship." Carol said.
"Oh no." Beth said. She looked over at Aaron. He hadn't moved from the chair he sat in. She reached up to touch her arm. If she was infected and nothing could be done, how would Daryl feel? And if she died would it break him? She remembered how Rick had been there, but not really there after Lori had died. It was like he was living, but he wasn't alive. Rick came in and sat at the table.
"We have night watch set up. Carol could you sleep in the bedroom with Judith? I'm gonna stay out here with Aaron and Beth tonight." he said.
"I have to be watched?" Beth asked.
"Just being on the safe side. I want to keep cleaning those scratches every two hours." Rick said.
"Oh. Okay." Beth said.
"You guys go ahead and take the couches, I'm not going to sleep anyway." Rick said. Beth looked at Aaron. It didn't look like he was going anywhere. She felt so bad for him.
"Hey Aaron why don't you try and get some sleep." Beth told him. "Any couch you want." She walked over and handed him a blanket.
"I am thinking that Daryl and the others will be back tomorrow if they haven't run into trouble." Rick said. Aaron took Beth's blanket and laid down on one of the couches. Beth took the other couch. Rick was at the table cleaning his gun.
"Do you think they'll run into trouble?" Beth asked.
"Nothing they can't handle. Don't worry about Daryl." he said. Beth laughed softly.
"Would it matter? He's so hard to figure out. I think I am starting to and he completely changes on me." she said. She hadn't meant to share so much, especially with Rick, but sometimes she couldn't control her mouth. Especially when she was nervous or scared.
"Sorry." she said.
"It's ok. Daryl's tough. But I think out of all of us, you probably know him best." Rick said. Beth didn't say anything. She was sitting here in the middle of the apocalypse worrying about Daryl's feelings for her. She knew she didn't need to worry. He loved her. If anything Daryl didn't lie. He was just being Daryl. She'd have to accept him for who he was.
"I'm gonna try and get some sleep." she said.
"Okay. Goodnight Beth." Rick said.
Hours later Beth woke to someone saying her name. She rolled over and heard Rick again.
"I'm awake." she stretched and felt a sharp pain in her arm that hadn't been there before. She sat up quickly.
"Ready to clean it again." Rick asked.
"It hurts." she said. "It hurts more than it has since it happened." It was suddenly hard to breathe. She hurried over to the table and started pulling the gauze off.
"Hey take it easy Beth." Rick said holding onto her hands. "Let me look."
He gently removed the bandage and looked at her arm in the candle light. Beth tried to look too. Her arm was red and the scratches were definitely more swollen than before. She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him.
"I think maybe we need to just leave it alone for awhile. All the cleaning and peroxide might be making it raw." Rick said.
"Are you sure?" Beth asked. "What if it's getting worse?"
"Take a good look at it. Do you see any signs of infection? Think about everything you've learned so far dealing with all the wounds we have to deal with. And also what you learned from your dad being a veterinarian." Rick said. Beth looked again and paid attention. The scratches were red, but not hot. And the swelling could be from sleeping on her arm. She really didn't see a single sign of infection.
"I guess you're right." she said.
"Have a little faith in yourself. You're stronger than you think." Rick bandaged her arm back up. They both went and sat on the couch. He handed her a pill and some water.
"I feel like a helpless kid." she said.
"You aren't that girl anymore Beth. You've been through a lot lately. But you've come a long way." Rick smiled at her.
"Thanks Rick." she said. They sat in silence for a few minutes.
"Go back to sleep, it's almost morning." Rick said. She curled up on her end of the couch and closed her eyes.
The first sign of light was Daryl's cue to start waking the others. He and Michonne had been on watch since early that morning. The rest slept in the car. This had been where Aaron said his meeting point with his partner Eric was supposed to be. They hadn't found any sign of this man Eric and most of the supplies were gone. There was no reason to stay any longer. The safety that daylight brought was here and he wanted to go back. Michonne walked over to the small fire he sat beside.
"There's nothing here Daryl." she said.
"I know. We need to go back." Daryl said turning the ashes with a stick to completely extinguish the fire.
"You sure you're ready? You seemed in a big hurry to get out of there." she said. Daryl looked at her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"What are you so afraid of?" she took the stick from his hand.
"I ain't afraid of nothing." he stood up and wiped his hands on his dirty jeans.
"You're afraid of her. You can't go back to who you were before. She changed you somehow. It's no good living in those dark places when you've been given a little light of hope." She grabbed her backpack and knocked on the car window. Daryl watched her pack up a few water bottles they'd found in the trunk. He didn't want to think about the fact that Michonne was right. He thought back to the funeral parlor. He'd started to feel comfortable, safe. He'd even thought maybe they could make something of that place. He'd let his guard down for just a little bit and then Beth had been gone. What if it happened again? What if the next time it was worse because now she was inside of him? He couldn't get rid of her, he could only pretend. He could try and fake out whatever it was that decided his fate, that decided he was worthy of of something more than just this existence.
"Where's your hope?" he asked Michonne.
"Right now it's back at the cabin, it's in this car. It's the family I found when I thought I was pretty much dead." she smiled a little. "That's what makes this hell worth it."
"But you could lose them." Daryl said.
"That's always been true, but right now they're here." She put her backpack on and knocked on the car roof. Daryl watched the others climb out of the car. They grumbled about the early hour and the long walk back. Daryl walked at the back of the group, a few steps behind. And he couldn't stop thinking about her.
A few hours later they stopped to eat. A breeze had kicked up and everyone was restless. But they were getting close to the place they were temporarily calling home. And that seemed to lift their spirits. That and the fact that they'd only come across two walkers on the way back so far. They crossed a clearing they remembered from the day before. There was a smokey smell in the air.
"Hey look.. I see smoke in our general direction!" Abraham pointed to a thick grey haze above the trees and in the same area as the cabin. Daryl moved ahead and broke into a run. The others followed his lead. There was no doubt there was a fire burning somewhere near the cabin. And the rest of their family could be in trouble.
