Daryl left the safe house at four a.m. He'd had some sleep after Beth had left him. Not enough, but he needed to know if he had a life to go back to or whether it was all over for Daryl Dixon on this side of the Wall.

His apartment was in darkness. He stood, hidden in shadows outside on the street for ten minutes, just watching the windows overlooking the entrance to his block. Nothing stirred. He'd thought it had been safe to take Ana across the Wall. He'd watched that goddamn bakery round the clock for days but it seemed the Stasi had been watching it too.

He knew the consequences if he was taken in: interrogation by the Stasi, a mock trial, and then execution or life imprisonment. The German Democratic Republic had all the legal niceties in the form of courts, judges and lawyers. They'd signed the Geneva Convention that was meant to protect the people against torture and degradation. Outwardly, all was as it should be. In reality, though, the courts obeyed the Party, and the Stasi didn't let anything as paltry as a piece of paper stand in the way of extracting a confession.

Daryl looked around once more. Nothing for it: time to face his future. He had a handgun in his pocket. If it all went south he had no intention of being taken alive.

He got to his front door without mishap. Inside, the lights were out, but there was someone home. Someone's been sleepin' in my bed. There was just enough moonlight to make out Merle's shape. He was snoring loudly.

Daryl watched his brother in the half-light for a moment. Then he sank a knee onto Merle's chest. Hard. Merle awake with a snort and stared up at him. Daryl leaned down close to his brother and, more mouthing than whispering, said, I'm. Goin'. To. Fuckin'. Kill. You.

…

'… Walter Ulbricht, Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic, today visited the collective farm in Leipzig where yields have tripled in the last year …'

Maggie and Beth exchanged a look. They were sitting on the scratchy mustard-yellow sofa in the living room. Shawn was in the armchair, positioned a little closer to their small black-and-white television, giving it his rapt attention. The girls knew they were just out of his eye-line.

'If it the farms are doing so well,' Maggie whispered to Beth, 'then where is all the food?'

Beth nodded, rolling her eyes. This was their evening ritual when Shawn was home: the news, watched in respectful silence. It was always the same: yields and production were going up everywhere. Their illustrious leaders visited this or that East German town. A leader of another communist state was visiting East Berlin. There was no news from the West. They could pick up Western channels on their set but they didn't put them on when Shawn was around. He'd only switch the set off.

Because it was Monday, after the news was the Black Channel, a half-hour television program that railed against imperialist propaganda and told them all how they should be grateful for the Wall for protecting them from the evil influence of the West.

If Shawn was silent watching the news, he was animated when the Black Channel came on. 'You see?' he shouted, pounding the armrest. 'You see how they spread their lies about us while concealing their own mistakes?'

Beth was only partially listening. She'd long seen the hypocrisy of the Black Channel. East, West, they both peddled lies through the television. Once she'd said this to Shawn and he'd turned a mottled red colour, and told her that it was different, that the GDR did what they had to do to keep the people safe; the West told lies in order to oppress.

'Daryl wants us all to meet,' she whispered to Maggie. 'Tomorrow night. You, me and Glenn.'

Maggie looked at Beth with shining eyes. 'So he's staying, then? He's safe?'

Beth, conscious of Shawn only a few feet away, gave her sister a half-shrug. She hadn't seen Daryl since she'd left him in the safe house two days previously. She'd been hand-delivered a cryptic note at work that day that had said, The bar, 8pm tmr, bring 'those who think it's easy'. Beth had grinned to herself. Daryl meant Maggie and Glenn, and at Schwarzer Samt, the only bar they'd been to together.

Beth had wondered when Daryl was going to start involving them. They were about to find out just how 'easy' it would be.

…

'Stop it, you two. You look suspicious,' Beth hissed across the booth at Maggie and Glenn. They were both looking about the bar for Daryl. Glenn was peeling the label off his beer in nervous strips.

'Sorry,' Maggie whispered, looking sheepish. 'What should we do?'

'Drink your drinks. Talk to each other.' The music was loud enough to cover their conversation, but they would attract attention if they didn't just look like three people having a drink.

It was a quarter past eight and Daryl was late. Outwardly Beth was calm, sipping her glass of white wine. Inwardly she was in turmoil. He's just being careful, she told herself. He'll show up.

Ten minutes later he slipped into their booth next to Beth. 'Sorry. Been chasin' my own tail for blocks. Can't quite believe I ain't got the Stasi onto me.' He nodded to Maggie and Glenn and gave Beth a brief half-smile. 'Factory girl.'

Beth's hands itched to touch him, to make sure he was real, so she tucked her fingers between her crossed knees. 'Are you sure they aren't?' she asked.

'Seems so. Merle, the fuckin' asshole, did me one good turn while I was over the Wall. After you bawled him out and he realised what he'd done he went to the garage where I work and told 'em I was on a bender and I'd come back when I was good and ready. I ain't been the most reliable employee so even though my boss was pissed he didn't report me as missing.' Daryl shook his head. 'Seems too good to be true, just bein' able to slip back into my life like nothin' happened.'

'Maybe it is then,' Glenn said.

Daryl gave Glenn a long look. 'I won't hold it against you if you leave now. My brother's workin' for the Stasi. I got someone shot. Nothin's rosy right now.'

Maggie was chewing on her nail, looking between Daryl and Glenn. Beth wouldn't blame them if they walked away. She, however, wasn't going anywhere.

Maggie said, 'It's risky, right? No matter what? You seem like you know what you're doing. Like you don't take unnecessary risks.'

Daryl took a deep breath. 'I don't. I don't want anyone else to die. Believe me.' He looked around the bar for a moment. 'Ana was the first, and it's my own brother's fault. He …' He cut himself off. 'But I ain't talking about the group's work with you tonight. I want to talk about Hershel.'

Beth looked at him in surprise. Daryl glanced at her before going on. 'Blake's holdin' your father, and you ain't been told why. He's indicated to Beth that he'll tell her the reason, and maybe let you see him, if she becomes an informant.'

Maggie and Glenn looked shocked. 'Beth, you can't,' Maggie said.

Beth took a sip of her wine. 'I know that. Daryl's plan is that I make up something to tell the commandant. We just need to come up with a good enough lie.'

Glenn was thoughtful. 'It'll have to be something that doesn't inadvertently get someone into trouble, but also robust enough to convince the commandant.'

Maggie shook her head. 'It sounds impossible to me. Can't you just flirt with him? He likes you. He gave you seven pairs of silk stockings. Took you to that party.'

Daryl looked at Beth, and she felt herself colour. She hadn't told him about the silk stockings. She hadn't told Maggie about Lori and the commandant, either. 'That's not going to work.'

'Why not?' Maggie asked.

Beth looked uncomfortable. Daryl lit a cigarette. Maggie's eyes flicked back to Beth, as if wondering what it was she didn't know.

Daryl went on, 'This is your first assignment. You're gonna come up with ideas, and we'll meet again in a few days.' He turned to Beth. 'Need your help with somethin' now. That okay?'

She nodded, and they got up to leave.

'Remember,' Daryl said to Maggie and Glenn, 'assume every room is bugged, and everyone within earshot is listenin'. We'll all live a lot longer that way.'

…

'Merle,' Beth said when they were outside and walking. 'Is he really working for the Stasi?'

'Yeah,' Daryl muttered. 'For your commandant.'

Beth noticed his eyes flick to her legs quickly, but he did it as he was turning his head to smoke his cigarette, like he didn't want her to notice. She was wearing the stockings. She had to around 'her commandant'. From his expression she could tell he didn't like it.

'Thing is with Merle,' Daryl said, 'is that he ain't particularly loyal to anyone but Merle. Spilled the whole goddamn story to me when I got home. He was approached by a Stasi agent in West Berlin –'

'There are Stasi agents in West Berlin?' She was in heels and the pavement was icy, and she slipped a little.

Daryl grabbed at her waist, steadying her. 'Here. Take my arm. They got Stasi agents. British, French, American and West German agents. No one trusts anyone and everyone's watchin' everyone else. Seems the women I got out through the tunnel recently weren't too careful about what they said to each other when they thought they were alone. The refugee block they were stayin' in was bugged. Merle, long-time East Berlin low-life, was asked to go back through the tunnel and find the guy who was responsible for it.'

'Not realising it was his own brother?' She held tightly to his arm, elbow looped through his, liking the feel of him.

'Yeah. They figured that someone who lived on the fringes might be able to catch someone like me. They were right on the fuckin' money, too.'

'But he hasn't told Blake, has he?'

Daryl shook his head. 'Says he won't.'

'Do you believe him?'

'I don't know what to believe. He covered for me with my boss. I ain't been arrested yet. Ain't no love lost between me 'n Merle, and he'll use any situation for his own end, but it ain't his style to be a backstabbing sonuvabitch, either.' He flicked his cigarette butt toward an open trash can.

Like with so many things, Beth supposed there was nothing that they could do about Merle. They just had to keep going, and be careful about things. 'Where are we going?'

He tilted his head and shot her a pleased, enigmatic look. 'Ah. My new scheme.'

…

Daryl'd had his idea when he'd been in the hold of the bus, approaching Checkpoint Charlie, the main border crossing between East and West Berlin. He'd seen the checkpoint in his mind. Approaching from the eastern side, it was a broad road with a pole suspended horizontally at windscreen height with two rudimentary concrete chicanes just beyond, each nearly bisecting the road and standing three feet high. They needed to be driven around, and were intended to stop people gunning a vehicle across the border. Just a few car-lengths beyond the chicanes was the American sector. There weren't any barriers on that side.

It wasn't a particularly elegant set-up, but the Wall was still relatively new. The East Germans would strengthen the barriers in time, but for now, Daryl saw opportunity.

He took Beth into an industrial part of the city, deserted at that time of night, not far from the factory where she used to work.

'We're going in here,' he said, shouldering a heavy wooden door open. They went inside, past disused machinery and the refuse of abandonment. Daryl had known about this place for a while and had guessed that it would come in handy one day.

They turned a corner and saw the flash and crackle of a welder. There was a figure kneeling by the open door of a car, mask in place.

'Tyreese!' Daryl shouted above the noise.

The man pushed back his mask, and his face creased into a smile. 'Hey, man.' He was a barrel-chested man, tall and broad with an expansive smile. 'The car's coming along. All this reinforcing's making it damn heavy though. You're gonna need to replace the engine.'

'I thought I might,' Daryl said, touching the place where the angle grinder had cut horizontally through the entire top half of the car, leaving only the window glass intact. He turned to Beth, a small smile on his lips. 'Whaddya think?'

She laughed. 'I have no idea what it is. I'm guessing an escape vehicle?' She turned to the man called Tyreese. 'I'm Beth, by the way. Nice to meet you.'

'Pleasure,' the man said, smiling at her.

'What's that you're doing, making the car bullet-proof?' she asked, nodding at the steel plates he was welding to the inside of the car doors.

'Yeah, that's the idea.'

Daryl watched Beth examine the car, walking around it, examining the modifications. She looked pretty in her heels and woollen skirt. Her hair was plaited and twisted and pinned at the back of her head. Prettier than all the Western-style trappings, though, were her intelligent blue eyes. The swanlike neck that she held so regally. Her skin was creamy and delicate, and he was conscious of his filthy, rough hands. He shoved them in the pockets of his coat.

She came back to him. 'Well, it can't fly, so I'm guessing it's not going over the Wall. Through a checkpoint maybe?'

He nodded. 'Checkpoint Charlie. It hits the barrier and the roof and windscreen detach. The driver sits back up and drives it round the concrete chicanes in the road, then into the American sector.'

Beth looked at the car again. 'That's going to be dangerous for the driver. I suppose you're reinforcing it against gunfire. Will they shoot, do you think?'

Daryl shook his head. 'In broad daylight in full view of the West? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.' He looked at Tyreese. 'You decided who's goin'?'

Tyreese nodded. 'Me, Sasha, Dale and Noah. Drew straws for who's gonna be the driver. Noah got the short straw. I'm in the back, lyin' on the floor.' He grinned, as if knowing he was lucky.

Daryl nodded at the driver's side to Beth. 'Get in.' He got in the passenger side. It was a 1950s Lada and the seat backs were low. It was the people that were going to be in them that was the problem, and there wasn't much room. 'We gotta figure out how to get two people in these seats so they fit under the barrier.'

Beth looked around the interior. 'Will they need the handbrake, do you think?'

He shook his head. 'Don't reckon so. If I sit forward and lean across … 'scuse me,' he muttered, and then leaned across the centre console in front of the handbrake and put his head in her lap. 'Can you lean the other way and get your head behind me?' He had his nose against the steering wheel and his cheek resting against the tops of her thighs. Against those fuckin' stockings of Blake's.

She leaned over and fitted herself in behind him.

'Tyreese!' Daryl yelled. 'We fit?'

After a few moments assessing them, Tyreese said, 'Yeah, it'll work. Noah's skinny, and Sasha ain't that big either. Dale'll go in the back with me, across the seat.'

Daryl and Beth sat up.

'Uncomfortable, but they won't be in the car for long,' Beth said, smoothing her blonde hair back in place as she looked at him.

'All right,' he said, feeling himself smiling at her. Normally he wouldn't reveal plans to group members if they didn't directly involve them, but being trapped in West Berlin for several days made him realise that there was no one to keep the group going if anything happened to him. And, if he was truthful, it just felt good having her there with him.

Beth chatted with Tyreese as Daryl popped the hood and took a look at the engine. It was going to need to be replaced with an engine from a bigger car, like a Mercedes. He tried to concentrate on what he was doing, but kept getting distracted by Beth's legs. He wanted to reach his hands up under her skirt, unhook the stockings from her suspender belt and rip them off her legs. Because they were Blake's. But because of other reasons as well. Reasons that had nothing to do with the commandant, and everything to do with those long, slender legs of hers.

…

Uh, that would be pretty nice, right? *puts on silk stockings*

So, confession time: I don't actually know what piece of misinformation Maggie and Glenn are going to come up with for Beth to give to the commandant. I'm going to throw this out there – what do you think it should be? It has to be something that won't hurt anyone else and that Beth could credibly stumble upon. Fake papers maybe? A conversation overheard in the queue at the butchers? Full credit given to anyone whose idea/s I use naturally!