After last night's episode, I really need something good to happen in the season finale or else, I think I'm going to stop being in love with this show. I've reached the point where I don't like ninenty-nine percent of the characters or don't care about them and it's hard to be invested in a show where you only like two or three characters out of a cast of twenty.

On another note, THANK YOU so, so much for the incredible response you have been giving this story. As you can tell from the last chapter, I'm trying a few different things and I'm eager to write what I have planned.

…

Chapter Four.

Daryl had no idea what had happened but if she wanted to go home, he would take her, and he walked in the direction of the Greene farm. And though she was walking right next to him, he felt like she was a thousand miles away and he found himself glancing over to her from time to time to make sure that she was okay though it was obvious even to a guy like him that she wasn't. He just wasn't going to ask her about it. If she wanted to say anything, she would and he wasn't going to bother her for it.

They came across the small creek and Beth stepped ahead of him. He watched as she used the rocks, moving from one to the next with no problem. She almost looked graceful as she did it and came to the bank on the other side. A slight breeze blew the skirt of the dress she was wearing and Daryl quickly looked away when he saw more of her pale thighs than he ever had before and he felt the tips of his ears go red as he quickly followed her path across the rocks and came to stand beside her.

Through the trees, they could see the white farmhouse in the distance.

"You good?" Daryl asked, preparing to turn and walk back in the direction they had just come from and yet, he lingered. Why the hell he was doing that, he didn't know.

He didn't know what had caused the change. She had seemed happy enough just a few minutes earlier and then like a flick of a switch, she had changed completely and he found himself standing there, studying her as if she was an animal he was tracking. Out here, he felt brave enough to look at her as he looked at anything that was in the woods. Out here, he felt a comfort and ease he never had anywhere else.

She wore a dress with flowers printed all over it that swept the skin above her knees and she wore Converse sneakers on her feet. She had a gray sweater on that she hugged tightly to herself and he wondered how many of those sweaters she had because she seemed to always be wearing one in every color there was. And her hair was thrown up in a ponytail, a braid amongst it. Her hair was long and wavy and so blonde and so shiny, sometimes, when Daryl dared himself to, he would admit to no one except in his brain that her hair was probably his favorite thing about her.

She looked at him with those big blue eyes of her and nodded though he didn't believe for one second that she actually was good. He still had no idea why her mood has switched so suddenly. She then slowly turned her head and looked towards her house, a small sigh exhaling past her lips.

"You okay?" He asked before he could stop himself from doing so.

She nodded and crossed her arms over herself even tighter. She kept her eyes looking towards the house. "My sister is going to smother me when I get in there."

"Literally?" He raised an eyebrow at that and she looked back at him, smiling faintly.

"No," she shook her head a little. "It's just the way Maggie is. It will feel like she is. I can't take a walk without her wanting to put a bell around my neck."

"Wasn' exactly walkin' earlier. Gettin' lost is more like it," he pointed out to her.

She kept smiling that small smile of hers and she shrugged her shoulders. "I wasn't lost. You found me."

He wasn't sure what to say to that. He wasn't sure what to say to any of this. So he was quiet and found himself still looking at her. He had never talked to her like this before. He usually just grunted or didn't say anything at all and didn't go into the office where she was unless he absolutely had to. He tried to tell himself that he didn't like her. Too pretty and too kind and there had to be something seriously wrong with her because no one that good on the outside was good on the inside. And when it was revealed just what was wrong with her and her true nature was shown, he didn't want to be anywhere near her.

And remembering that, he was finally able to take a step back. "Think you can manage walking from here? Or think you'll get lost with your house in plain sight?"

She looked at him for a moment at his words and he just frowned back, wondering why the hell she was looking at him and what she was seeing.

"I can manage," she finally said, her voice almost too soft to hear clearly. "Thank you for walking me back, Daryl."

He didn't say anything – just gave his usual grunt – before turning and beginning to walk into the woods and fighting everything inside of himself that told him to look back at her over his shoulder. He didn't want to look back and he wasn't going to. She wasn't his concern. She had gotten lost and he had walked her back to the farm and that was that. He would see her at the garage tomorrow and he wouldn't talk to her and it was how things were always going to be. It was how he wanted it to be.

Knowing that he was finished with hunting for the day, he began heading in the direction of home.

He almost sighed with longing. Home. He knew what most people thought about those who lived in trailers but Daryl had never really cared what people thought about him. He was a Dixon. He was used to everyone always talking shit about him and his family, whether they knew anything or not. And most of the time, they didn't. He knew most people wouldn't be surprised to find out that Daryl Dixon lived in a trailer. After all, he had been called trailer trash for his entire life.

But they didn't know that he lived in a trailer in the woods at the very edge of his boss's property. Dale owned quite a bit of land – his land bordering the Greene farm – and he had found out that Daryl wasn't really living anywhere, just kind of drifting from one motel room to the other and Dale told him that he had an old trailer he could have if he wanted. Daryl had been skeptical at first. He had seen Dale's RV parked in the lot behind the garage and it was a piece of shit but Dale had assured him that this wasn't the RV. This was a trailer – small and old – but still in good shape. It was his if he wanted it. And not only could he have the trailer, he could have a bit of the woods to live in if he wanted, too.

Daryl had almost refused the offer at first. He was a Dixon and they didn't accept help from anyone. But Dale had taken him to see the trailer and Daryl had stood there, staring at it, and he realized that he had never had a place of his own. He had lived with his parents before the fire and then him and his old man lived in a shitty apartment before Merle came and he began following his older brother everywhere. He had never lived on his own and he stared at the secluded trailer in the middle of the quiet woods – Dale's house about two miles away – and he found himself nodding his head. Yeah, he wanted this.

He came upon it now and unlocked the front door before stepping in, closing and locking the door again behind him. He took a deep breath at the quiet that surrounded him. There were few things he liked in this world more than quiet.

He set his crossbow down, leaning it against the wall beside the door and went to the refrigerator, sticking the rabbit in the refrigerator to be cleaned later. He turned and washed his hands in the sink and then went to the small bedroom in the back of the trailer, sitting down on the bed and untying his boots, kicking them off before falling back and lying down, blinking up at the ceiling.

It was cold in the trailer and he had a space heater he made sure to always unplug when he left but he didn't plug it back in now to heat up the room. He would but right now, he didn't want to get up to do it. He wanted to keep lying there for just a few minutes more and it seemed like the more he told himself not to, the more he kept thinking about Beth.

Beth. He wanted to snort at himself. He had no reason whatsoever to be thinking about her. And he wasn't even thinking of anything in particular. Just her hair and her smile and those damn eyes of hers. When he had come upon her in the woods, he had been surprised but only for a moment. He reminded himself that her dad's woods and Dale's woods converged together and she had as much right to be in them as he did; probably even more right than him.

But he went into the woods to be by himself and Beth Greene being in front of him, it just ruined his day because when she was around, he couldn't concentrate on anything else. He tried. In the garage, he tried to ignore her very existence because if he didn't, he didn't know how he would get any of his work done. She mixed him all up and he hated not being in control of himself.

The other mechanics all flirted with her and she smiled politely but let them know in a few words that she wasn't interested. He was the only one she seemed to go out of her way to talk with and he had no idea why. It wasn't like he was dropping hints to her that that was what he wanted her to do. He didn't want her smiles and gentle voice and soft songs. He wanted her to just stay away from him.

So why couldn't he stop thinking about her right now?

He was pathetic – that was why – and he almost wished Merle was here to smack the back of his head to snap him out of this. Whatever the hell this was.

…

Every morning, he was always the first one to arrive at the garage. After he had been there for three months and had to keep sitting out in the parking lot, waiting for Dale to get there to let him in, Dale finally just gave him his own key and had him open up for the day. He was the only mechanic to have his own key but he didn't see the big deal about it. Dale just liked that he got there early to start working and he liked Dale and respected the man. He wouldn't feel right if Dale was paying him for showing up late and leaving early and taking too many smoke breaks in between.

He got there around seven and Beth was usually the second person to arrive. He had opened all of the bay doors when she pulled up in her four-door blue sedan that he knew was actually her dad's. He pretended not to watch her as she got out and she was wearing another damn dress – this one yellow like her hair and white sweater and he wondered why she had to wear dresses every damn day.

"Good morning, Daryl," she said and he lifted his eyes to see her coming right to him, a box in her hands. "I bought donuts for everyone this morning. Would you like one?" With that, she flipped the lid open and he saw the donuts in neat rows within and as if on a cue, his stomach growled loud enough for both of them to hear.

He looked at her but she didn't say anything. Just kept holding the box with that smile of hers and he wanted to snap at her to stop smiling like that around him.

"Thanks," he grunted out as he took a glazed and a chocolate frosted.

"You're welcome," she smiled – always smiling – and then turned, heading into the office and he quickly looked away so he wouldn't watch the way her hair bounced down her back or the way her skirt swished with each step.

Pathetic, his brother taunted in his head and Daryl took a big bite of the glazed donut and agreed.

Suddenly, he heard a high-pitched screech from the office that carried out into the garage and he didn't even hesitate as he went rushing towards it.

"Beth?" He burst through the door and saw her standing pressed against the wall, her face more pale than usual. "What is it?"

She swallowed and pointed towards her desk. "I felt… something brushed against me ankle," she said and he could see that she was trembling slightly.

"Here," Daryl handed her the two donuts he was still holding and then slowly approached her desk, instantly sliding into hunter mode.

His eyes searched beneath the piece of furniture for a few minutes and when he saw it, he couldn't help but smirk a little. He moved slowly and scooped up the grey mouse that was just as scared as Beth, pressing himself again the leg of the desk and practically trembling itself.

"You can breathe again, girl," he said, standing up. "Got your ferocious beast right here," he held out his hands so she could see.

He expected Beth to screech again or yell at him to kill it but instead, Beth saw it and sighed deeply and then laughed softly.

"It scared me," she then stated the obvious. "But it's so cute."

"It ain't cute," Daryl couldn't help but frown. "It's a mouse."

"An adorable mouse," she was almost giggling now and she leaned in closer, looking at the small animal in his palms, smiling as the mouse twitched its nose at her. She then looked at him and her eyes were practically sparkling. "It kind of looks like you," she then smiled and Daryl felt his scowl deepen.

"How the hell can a mouse look like me?" He asked, forgetting all of the vows he had had made to himself about not talking to her and staying the hell away from her.

She laughed a little. "It just does. Do you think I could keep it?" She then asked and he looked at her and she just looked so damn hopeful as if she was waiting for him to say no; as if he had any right to say no to her about anything.

He shrugged. "Your mouse. Can do what you want with it," he said.

Beth was practically beaming now. "I need a box. Do you think there's a box around here somewhere?"

Daryl heard himself sigh heavily. He couldn't quite believe he was doing this but he gestured Beth to put the donuts down and once she did, he passed her the mouse. She held it as delicate as she would an egg and without a word, he turned and went back into the garage. He only searched for a moment before he came back to her, a small empty cardboard box in his hand that a car part had come in the other day. When he came into the office and she saw what he was holding, she burst into a smile. Without a word, he set the box down on the desk and then turned, going into the employee bathroom to wash his hands.

When he came out again, she smiled at him and slipped past him to wash her hands as well. He looked down at the mouse in the box, sitting there, his whiskers twitching, and Daryl shook his head at the stupidity of this all before taking his two donuts once more. He turned his head when Beth came from the bathroom and she smiled the instant their eyes locked.

"I'm going to take him out and let him loose in the barn. He'll love it there," she said.

Daryl didn't say anything. He had decided he was done talking with her. He had already reached his quota with her. Hell, he was good for at least the next month.

And with the decision made, he turned and left the office, not looking back to her.

"Thank you, Daryl," Beth called after him softly but he kept walking as if he hadn't heard, heading straight to his bay where he would stay there the rest of the day.

Every time he did look up for the rest of the day, his eyes would slowly drift towards the office no matter how loudly he yelled at himself not to look. And it seemed like every time he did look, he saw Beth looking towards the box and the mouse within and he had never seen anyone with a prettier smile. He knew it was useless to try and convince himself that he didn't like seeing that smile.

…

Thank you so much for reading and please review!