Beth held onto Daryl's hand as they walked through the woods and after a while, he realised how much of a bad idea it was. He pulled his hand away and she immediately looked up at him with wide blue eyes.

"Ain't practical," he sated, still walking. Beth had stopped and she frowned a little. She knew that it was silly and that it really was impractical. Daryl looked over at her and saw the frown on her features. Knowing that he had only one option―so that she wouldn't look so sad. "C'mere," he said, he led her away from the clearing the were heading to and towards the woods again. She looked at him patiently and he brought his lips to hers. She smiled into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck as they continued to kiss. He pulled away and looked at her for a long moment. "Jus' 'cause I ain't touchin' ya all th'time, don' mean I don' wanna, 'kay?" he asked and she grinned a little.

"Okay," he pulled away and they walked through the clearing and Rick was standing while holding sign. 'From a friend', it said. Daryl took the paper and went over to where the rest of the group stood with water in the centre. There were various jugs and bottles and there seemed to been some sort of argument as to whether or not to drink it. Beth stayed out of it, as did Daryl. Eugene picked up one of the bottles and opened it.

"What are you doing?" Abraham asked.

"Quality assurance," the man with the mullet replied as he went to take a drink. Abraham knocked the bottle from his hands and spilt water all over Eugene's face.

At that precise moment, thunder rumbled above them and then came the rain. Everyone smiled when the water hit their faces, most of them opening their mouths. They set up bottles to fill up water. The storm became violent and they realised that they needed to get to cover.

"C'mon, I kno' a place," Daryl said, leading them to the barn, right by where he had Beth had been sitting.

XxX

They had cleared out the barn and that evening, nearly everyone sat around and talked, a few others were off on their own―Sasha, who was grieving over her brother, Noah, who didn't talk to anyone really, and Beth. She was overly tired and she knew that now would be the only time that she could get any sleep. The only thing was, she couldn't. She tried to get comfortable several times, but could not. "Beth," she looked up upon hearing Maggie.

"Hey," Beth smiled when her sister sat down beside her.

"I didn't wake ya, did I?"

"No, I couldn't sleep anyway," the blonde shrugged.

"I've been meanin' to ask you something..."

"What?"

"So, you and Daryl...What is it? I mean...y'all hae been spendin' lots of time together and..."

"Maggie..." Beth trailed off. "You know how it is...when you have only one person to count on, you get close," was the only explanation she could offer.

"How close, exactly?"

Beth let out a small sigh. "He's saved my life so many times...I don't know. We understand each other, okay?" Beth stated. "Now, I do need to get some sleep..."

"Okay," Maggie felt like there was more that her sister wasn't telling her, but she wasn't going to get any more out of Beth tonight, so she went to lay on a different part of the ground.

Beth was almost asleep when she heard someone beside her. She opened her eyes and saw Daryl sitting with his back against the wall. She didn't move for a moment, she closed her eyes once more and felt Daryl's hand push her hair back. She opened her eyes and turned her head to look up at him. He was looking back at her, and he almost turned away, but he didn't. They both stayed silent for a moment before she started to sit up.

"Go back to sleep," he said.

"You need to sleep too," she said, pulling herself into a sitting position. "I'll keep watch, if it'll make you feel better," she grinned. "I know Rick is though..."

"Ya ain't gonna sleep 'less I do, 're ya?"

"Nope." With a sigh, Daryl move to lay down and Beth followed his lead. "Good night, Redneck."

"Night, Beth," he murmured.

XxX

"I didn't get it at first," Maggie said, sitting beside Daryl the very next morning. Beth was asleep at Daryl's side and she had managed to take his hand and hold it between both of hers. As to Maggie's comment, Daryl stayed silent, hoping she would just leave everything alone. "The two of you...I see it now, an' I'll never understand it all, but both of you deserve to be happy."

The realisation of it all really hit Daryl at that moment. Beth not only made him happy...she made him different. She made him see the good in himself, she made him feel like he mattered for more than just keeping the rest of the group alive.

"She's somethin' special," Daryl replied.

"I kno', you take care of her," Maggie then went over to Sasha, whom was also awake. Daryl looked at the blonde woman and he felt a little different. It felt weird that Maggie approved of whatever was going on.

He saw Beth's eyes start to open before she looked up at him. "Hey," she smiled a little and sat up, releasing his hand.

"Wanna take a walk?" he asked. She nodded and he stood before offering her a hand she accepted it and they walked out of the barn and back towards the woods.

"Oh my God," she said, when she saw the damage the storm had caused. "What if we had been out here?"

"We weren't," he said with a shrug.

"Yeah," she agreed, looking at all of the fallen trees and then to the barn. It had been so close to hitting them. They should have been dead. All of them. A storm like this wasn't one to leave barns just standing. It should have killed them all...but it hadn't. They were alive. Beth couldn't help but wonder if there was some greater scheme out there―she hadn't believed much in God since her father died, but maybe there was a different way for them all to die. It could be much worse...But, she knew that there was nothing the could do about it, so why bother? She didn't want to waste whatever time she had left fearing death. "Maggie talked to me last night...She wanted to know what was up with us," Beth's voice was quiet when she said this.

"She an' I talked earlier. She understands..."

"How is that possible?" she looked up at him. "I don't even understand..."

Daryl took her face in his calloused hands and kissed her. "Understand better?" he asked. She bit her lip, grinning.

"I don't know," she smirked a little, this time she leaned in and kissed him.

"I ain't good with words," he said.

"In the normal world, what would you call this?"

"It wouldn't be happenin' the way things used ta be," Daryl said, and it was the truth. There was no way in hell that any of this would be happening if there weren't walkers walking around. Hell, if the two of them hadn't ended up alone together after the prison, it probably wouldn't be happening.

Beth knew it was true, too. She knew that Daryl would have been too old for her. Too different from her. They wouldn't have even spoken, had it not been for the zombie apocalypse. "I guess not..." she said. "How about you're just my Redneck?" He gave a slight eye roll and nodded.

"'Kay, Sunshine," he smiled, a real smile and kissed her once more.

AN: I don't know how I feel about this chapter, I'm realising that I left out a bit from the new season with the whole Tyreese event, but that was a hard episode for me to watch, with Beth being in it and all :'(, but anyway, for purposes of the story, everything just happened as it did in the show―except for the Beth being dead part. But, I still thought I'd post this for all of you, so now I'm going to go get ready for a concert!

Updated 1 December 2015