They Seek Him Here has had more than 100 comments as of yesterday's chapter! Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement, it means the world to me.

I was feeling so Christmassy when I wrote this chapter as I'd just come home from dinner on the Southbank where there are all the pretty lights. So think of this as the They Seek Him Here Christmas Special!

…

'Merry Christmas, Daryl.' Beth put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. It was scratchy beneath her lips. He hugged her back briefly, murmuring 'Merry Christmas,' and turned to greet Glenn and Maggie.

Glenn passed a bottle of brandy to Daryl. 'East Germany's finest,' he said. 'Best not savour it.'

Maggie grinned at Daryl and passed him a plate she'd wrapped in a cloth. 'Apple strudel. The apples are good, but I don't know about the strudel. I made it myself.'

They shook the dusting of snow out of their hair and hung their coats on the pegs. It was 9pm on Christmas Eve and the four of them had gathered at the safe house to discuss their next move. Even though Christmas wasn't officially celebrated in East Germany, because it was December 24 the meeting had turned into an impromptu celebration.

Beth sniffed the air. 'Do I smell mulled wine?'

Daryl gave her a small smile and led them through to the kitchen. 'I ain't one for cookin' or for Christmas parties, but I came across a few bottles of wine and some cinnamon sticks, and …' He shrugged, stirring the pot on the stove. 'Maybe it'll be okay.'

Beth peered over his shoulder, breathing in the fragrant vapour. 'Mmm. Smells like Christmas. You know, we've had Glühwein on Christmas Eve with our family every year. Kinda feels right to have it now.'

He turned his head and smiled at her. 'Yeah? Well, s'nothin.'

Beth smiled back. Their eyes locked for a moment. Then there was the sound of Glenn cracking open the bottle of brandy behind them and Daryl backed away, putting the table between them. Beth tried not to feel downcast. It felt like every time she shared a moment with Daryl he shied away from her. The only time he got close to her was when they were working, or when he thought something was wrong. She didn't know why it mattered to her, except that she'd noticed from the first second she'd seen him that he was a good-looking man. The longer she spent in his company the more she noticed it. Of late she'd found herself wondering what it would be like if he drew her into his arms and kissed her like the commandant had. Except that he wouldn't kiss her like Blake had, she was sure. He'd be – well, she had no idea. Fiercer maybe, less practised, and probably as scared as she was.

'Think we need to goose that. It's not Glühwein without some brandy,' Glenn said, tipping a few glugs into the saucepan.

Beth busied herself finding four mugs and ladled the hot wine into them. They went to sit on the sofas before the fire, Beth and Maggie on one and Glen and Daryl on the other. The television was tuned to a Western channel showing a cheery Christmas show with lots of singing and silly costumes and dancing, and turned up loud to cover their voices.

'To the successful execution of your plan,' Glenn said to Daryl, holding up his mug. 'Beth told us the good news, about the car getting through the checkpoint.'

Daryl held up his mug, but with a puzzled frown. 'How did you know?'

'The commandant told me,' Beth said quickly. 'Prost,' she said, and clinked her mug against Maggie's. She could feel Daryl's eyes on her. They'd sharpened at the mention of the commandant.

'And Shawn told us too. He's been in a foul mood,' Maggie added. 'As a border guard he seems to take personal offence whenever there's an escape. Two in two days with the same method? He's livid.'

'I suppose that's it for Checkpoint Charlie?' Glenn asked Daryl. 'They must be reinforcing the crossing now.'

Daryl nodded. 'Yeah. It was always just going to be a one-time thing. I had Tyreese and the others who crossed with him waitin' for weeks. They were with me from the start almost.'

From the start, and Daryl had already been working for months. 'How many have you got waiting?' Beth asked.

Daryl thought for a moment. 'A few dozen.' He thought some more. 'No. More than that. I've … kinda changed my policy. Since Ana.'

Beth looked at him closely. Did he mean that he was taking through people who wanted to leave but weren't able to work for him? A look of silent understanding passed between them, and she knew that was what he meant.

'No tunnel. No checkpoint crossings,' Glenn said. 'What's the next plan?'

Maggie looked thoughtful. 'Has anyone tried going over the Wall? I mean, just over it?'

Daryl said, ''Course. Best way to get shot. Or blown up. Or mauled by dogs.'

Maggie paled. 'Oh.'

'We haven't really seen what's on the other side of the Wall,' Beth explained. 'A lot of the buildings overlooking the Wall have been boarded up.'

Daryl nodded. 'On the other side of the Wall they're razin' buildings and layin' sand. It's called the death strip.' He described a no-man's land of floodlights, guard towers, dogs and landmines. On the far side was a wire fence, protected by Czech hedgehogs, anti-vehicle cross-beams that could stop a tank, let alone a Lada.

They were silent for a few minutes, thinking. 'Can we dig another tunnel?' Maggie asked.

'That's my plan,' Daryl said, 'but it takes months to get it right. 'The location. The route underground. There's all this … crap down there. Pipes. Water. Cables. A goddamn mess. I had three false starts before I completed the last one. And it's gotta be secret at both ends.'

They were all silent for a while, thinking.

Beth shook her head. 'All the things I can think of just sound dangerous or silly. And not the sort of thing that just anyone could do. If you've got a lot of people who want to get across then we do need a tunnel.'

'What about the U-bahn?' Maggie asked, referring to the Berlin subway. 'That's already underground, and it used to be connected to West Berlin. Can you break through again somehow?'

Daryl's eyes lit up, and his hand caressed the short beard on his chin, thinking. 'That could work. I could get the blueprints maybe …' He grinned and said, 'Merry goddamn Christmas, Maggie.' He leaned across to her and clinked his mug against hers.

Maggie grinned happily. 'I'll make a spy yet. I wonder if I'll make a chef, too? I'll fetch the apple strudel.' Glenn went with her.

Daryl moved across to where Beth was sitting and offered her a cigarette. 'Blake told you about the escape?' he asked, fiddling with the cigarette lighter, turning it round and round in his hands.

She nodded, looking at the glowing tip of her cigarette. For some reason she didn't want to tell him about going to Blake's apartment. About the conversation they'd shared. She knew the man was bad news, and he was a liar. But she knew how it would sound – almost cosy.

'He was real talkative yesterday. Told me a lot of things.'

'Yeah? Like what?'

She gave a half shrug. 'The war. His past.' She turned to look at him. His face was expressionless, but he was watchful. 'He lied to me about Ana. Said she had a gun and she'd shot at his men, so they had to shoot at her.'

Daryl muttered under his breath a few choice words to show what he thought about that. They were sitting in silence when Maggie and Glenn came back with the strudel. Maggie saw their serious faces. 'What's up?'

Beth glanced at Daryl, but he wasn't saying anything. 'I was at the commandant's apartment last night.' Rip off the band-aid. 'He told me what he'd done in the war. Why he was in the Stasi. And he lied to me about why Ana died.'

She felt three pairs of eyes on her. Surprised looks from Maggie and Glenn. A seething one from Daryl. He had every reason to hate the Stasi but he seemed to dislike Blake more than the rest.

Beth gave them a truncated version of what he'd told her.

'How awful,' Maggie said, pushing her strudel around her plate. 'To lose his girlfriend and his baby that way.'

Daryl muttered something about the bathroom and left the room. Glenn went to get more Glühwein for them all.

Maggie raised her eyebrows and then scooted across to sit next to Beth. 'What's up with Daryl? He's been looking at you all night, and just now he looked like he could commit a murder.'

Beth bit her lip. 'Maggie, I didn't tell you about this, but the commandant … I walked in on him and Lori. The other secretary.'

'Yeah. So?'

'I mean, I walked in on them. In his office.' She made you know gesture with her hand.

Realisation dawned on Maggie's face. Then horror. 'Oh, my god. Isn't she seeing a Party member?'

Beth nodded. 'She is. He said it was a mistake. That he regrets it every day.'

Maggie shook her head, confused. 'I don't really understand. He's embarrassed?'

Beth buried her face in her sleeve, realising she was going to have to come clean about everything. 'At that party he took me too, he kissed me. I thought he was nice, then. Daryl was there, posing as a waiter. He dropped a tray of drinks on the commandant.'

'Oh, Beth.'

'And after I walked in on him and Lori she admitted that she was trying to, you know, steer him my way. Because she was too afraid to tell him to stop.'

'So now he wants …' Maggie broke off, appalled. 'Beth, you've gotta leave that job. If Blake's set his sights on you then you're in trouble.'

'But what if I can do some good by working at Stasi Headquarters? I can find out things. I was able to tell Daryl that they weren't expecting Ana to escape. I'm on the inside. That's the only reason why I haven't quit already. And Blake …' She was going to say she could handle Blake. But could she?

Daryl was standing in the doorway, leaning against the door jam, fists deep in his trouser pockets and an unreadable expression in his eyes.

No, not quite unreadable. Beth knew what they said.

You're out of your depth, factory girl.

…

'Did you get it?'

Rick's jaw clenched. 'You better have a good goddamn reason for asking for a thang like this. I could get thrown into prison.' He pulled a manila folder out of his jacket and passed it to Daryl.

They were in a dark corner of Schwarzer Samt. Daryl took the folder from Rick and rifled through it. It was Blake's personnel file. 'You sure you got all of it?'

'Everything. Left a bunch of old memos in the file to bulk it out. Hope nobody notices before I put the real papers back.'

'There ain't much here,' Daryl muttered. An application to join the Stasi in 1947. A security clearance from 1948 and again in 1955. Most of the papers were dated from during the war: medical reports, a POW debriefing, a glossy black-and-white photograph of a very young Blake in the uniform of a Wehrmacht Hauptmann. Daryl leafed through the documents, becoming more disappointed as he glanced over them. It was exactly what Blake had told Beth. He didn't know what he'd wanted to find, but it wasn't this.

'Why do you even want to know about Blake's past? What he did in the war doesn't matter now.'

Daryl kept going through the file. At the very back of the file was a security report on Blake and a Jewish woman called Hannah Klein. In cold, bureaucratic typeface, he read about the woman's death with her child at Dachau, and that Blake attributed their death to fascism. As a result, the subject of this report is unlikely to waver from his long-held belief in communism. He is considered to be a trusted member of the Stasi and should be given every chance for promotion.

There was a photograph dated 1941, obviously taken without the subjects' knowledge. Daryl looked at it and his heart sank. He held it up to Rick.

Rick peered at it. 'Oh, hell no.'

Daryl rubbed a hand over his face, thinking. He hadn't told Rick about Lori and Blake. He didn't want to, but if Rick was to understand everything then he would have to know. He asked, 'What's your opinion on Blake? As a man, not a Stasi officer.'

Rick shrugged. 'Like anyone else's. He's reserved. A little unpredictable. A workaholic. But decent enough. I don't know him that well.'

'So you don't know he's fuckin' Lori?' Daryl didn't mean to put it quite so crudely but Rick's description of 'decent enough' made him see red. What was wrong with people? The man was a sociopath and no one seemed to see it but him. Blake smiled with his mouth, but his eyes stayed cold.

Rick's eyes went wide. 'What?'

'Beth walked in on them in his office. He had her over the desk.'

Rick sat back, shaking his head. He looked so lost that Daryl felt a stab of guilt. 'Sorry, man,' Daryl muttered. 'Didn't mean to just come out with it like that.'

'Does Lori … I thought she and Shane …'

'Yeah, Lori's with Shane.'

Rick looked like he was going to be sick. 'Blake is forcin' her? Why didn't she come to me?'

Daryl shook his head. 'Not like that. Not usin' force. But makin' her think that she had to do it, for her job.'

Rick groaned and put his head in his hands. 'The Lori I knew would never put up with that. She changed when we broke up. Became so shallow. She's hidin' away in this make-believe world and I can't reach her.' He looked up, his eyes red-rimmed. 'I still love her, you know.'

Daryl felt for Rick, but he didn't like Lori and this wasn't about her. This was about Blake, and about Beth. He lit a cigarette. 'I've spent some time watchin' Blake since the Wall went up. He ain't got friends. He ain't had one woman up to his apartment that I've seen.'

Rick frowned. 'Well, we know why if Lori –'

'He took Beth up there two nights ago.'

Rick was startled. 'Christ. How old is she? Eighteen?'

Daryl nodded. 'Yeah. But she's smart. She's seen what Blake's like with women. He's lied to her face about a friend of hers that was shot by border guards. But if he's set his sights on her, and I think he has …' He shoved the file across to Rick and held the photograph up. 'Mind if I keep this?'

'Sure, go ahead.'

'Thanks.' Daryl stabbed his cigarette out and put the photograph in his coat pocket.

Rick looked up at Daryl when he stood to leave. 'Daryl. What is she to you? I mean, I saw you both when I got you back from West Berlin. Somethin's happened between you two since I met her at the party.'

Daryl shook his head, shrugging. The way he'd described Blake he could almost use to describe himself. He hadn't let anyone close to him since Merle. There'd been no women in his life. Rick was almost a friend, but their relationship was more about work. They didn't talk about life, or right and wrong, and share their successes and failures. Beth, though … she was something else to him. Something more.

'She's my friend, Rick.'

…

'Oh good. You're alive. That's all I wanted to know.' Beth turned on her heel and marched to the stairs.

'Beth! Wait.' Daryl ran after her out of his apartment and her and caught her arm. It had been a week after he'd been at Schwarzer Samt with Rick and he hadn't seen Beth since. He was supposed to have brought the U-bahn schematics over to her place days ago but he hadn't been able to face her.

He got in front of her before she reached the stairs. She tried to side-step him and move past him but he wouldn't let her, trying to meet her gaze. 'Beth, I'm sorry. Come inside, please.'

She glared at his chest, then raised her eyes to his face. 'What the hell, Daryl?'

'You have every right to be mad. Come in and let me explain. Please.'

She groaned, exasperated, and followed him inside. He lit a cigarette and paced around the floor while she watched from near the door, arms folded.

'I'm waiting,' she said.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his pinkie. 'I'm goin' out of my mind, Beth. I ain't had a partner before. I've always been on my own. Or with Merle, but that don't count for anything now.'

In spite of herself, Beth gave a crooked half-smile. 'I'm your partner? We in one of those spaghetti westerns?'

'I ain't kiddin', Beth. This is fuckin' serious.' He glared at her, blue eyes flashing.

She dropped the smile. 'Sorry.'

'All of a sudden I ain't just thinkin' about me anymore. I'm thinkin' about you. You in that place, near him all day. I can't stand it.'

Beth had never seen him like this before. He was jangly, gesturing with his cigarette as he talked.

'I been avoiding you 'cos all I want to do is tell you that I don't want you workin' for him anymore. Tell you that you can't. I won't have it. You're done.' He breathed out hard through his nose, looking her in the eye. ''Cept I don't tell women what they can and can't do. You ain't beholden to me. I keep tellin' myself that. But it ain't. Helpin'.' With those words he gestured forcefully at the floor, twice.

Beth thought about this for a moment. She'd seen he could be the protective type. He'd taken it hard when Ana had died, and he'd been furious when he'd caught Blake kissing her. She'd just explain that she wasn't in any danger and he'd see sense.

'It's a good job, Daryl, and I don't mean the typing and the stockings. You know it could be real useful to us, me working there. And Blake doesn't want to hurt me. He's creepy and he's power-hungry, but he's never laid a hand on me that I didn't let him put there.'

Daryl flinched at that and looked away. 'You think that thing he had with Lori was about lust? Sex? That was about power. He was nailin' her because he could and she had no choice. So he could gloat about what he was doin' to her. What he was doing to Walsh. That's some fuckin' psycho bullshit and it's near enough rape to me. It ain't gonna take much for him to cross the line.'

Beth had never thought about it like that before and it shocked her. She hated what Blake had done to Lori, but she'd never considered it as abusive. She saw that Daryl was right. She was pretty sure Blake was going to try and persuade her to sleep with him – that was what all that talking had been for. Showing her his softer side. His sad past. But if he couldn't persuade her, would he really force her? 'You think he's going to hurt me?'

Daryl shoved the cigarette in the corner of his mouth, went to a chest of drawers and yanked one open. He sorted through a pile of papers and pulled out a photograph. He held it out to her. 'Here. Take it.'

The photograph was an eight by ten black-and-white and showed a couple in a park. She recognised Blake, younger and in a German army uniform. There was a young woman with him, slender and blonde, and he had his arm around her, smiling down at her. A smile that she didn't think she'd ever seen on his face before, except perhaps when he'd played that record for her.

Beth took a closer look at the woman. 'Oh my god, Daryl. She looks exactly like me.' Beth looked up at him, and Daryl nodded.

'Yeah,' he said, voice husky.

'Is this Hannah? Where did you get this?'

'Don't matter where I got it. Gives me the fuckin' creeps, though.'

It gave Beth the creeps, too. She put the photo on the chest of drawers, face down, running her conversation with Blake through her mind again. Had there been and undercurrent of meaning that she hadn't picked up on? 'He said he hadn't touched Lori since I walked in on them,' she murmured, thinking aloud, 'and then he asked me, "Does that help?"'

Daryl ground his cigarette out. 'Beth, we can't just pretend like he's harmless anymore. I want you to go across the Wall. Tonight.'

…

What do you think, is Daryl right? Should Beth leave East Berlin?

…

And on a lighter note …

I could not resist having Rick say 'thang'! There's a video on youtube that shows every time he says 'thang' on TWD and it cracks me up every time.

Now I'm thinking of my favourite TWD fan vids ... Search for 'Daryl Dixon Thrift Shop'. Hilarious AND sexy.

And finally Bad Lip Reading. The one called 'MORE WALKING (AND TALKING) DEAD: PART 1' has Bethyl scenes from 'Still' and 'Alone' that turns them from heart-breaking into funny! And we could all use a laugh after watching those eps :(

'I hate that freakin' turtle!'

'His name's ANTHONY.'

'Well I might just do an evil drive-by on Anthony!'