Ch. 3

Thank you all for reading!

Days passed, and they never left his apartment. Their friends brought them food but left it outside the door, and her sister slipped a letter under the door, detailing the events after the prison.

It took Beth a few hours to work up the courage to open it after what Glenn said, but she sat on the couch, her back to Daryl's chest as she read her sister's admission of guilt and abandonment.

In truth, there was so little to go on. There was no way for Maggie to know where to look. At the same time, if Daryl had said that Maggie was alive to her, after being partnered up for months, she would have taken his word and started looking.

"It doesn't matter," she whispered after she read the letter for the second time. "It all happened for a reason."

"I don't get it then," Daryl said quietly.

His arms were wrapped around her and touching seemed to ground him. They hadn't been romantic in any way, but it was obvious this wasn't just a friendship. It was more, and one day, maybe very soon, it would blossom into that.

Right now, they were just getting used to knowing the other was alive and safe. That they had survived.

He asked, "Why'd we have to go through so much shit just to get here?"

"'Cause I got an ego and tried to kill a woman in a bulletproof vest with a tiny pair of scissors."

Daryl tensed behind her and his voice was hard. "That ain't remotely funny."

"I know," she said and squeezed his arm. "I'm sorry for bein' stupid like that."

"I'm sorry I let ya get taken in tha first place."

It wasn't a game really, but if one of them apologized, the other said one right back.

I'm sorry for stickin' my fingers in tha jelly.

I'm sorry for sayin' tha camp sucked.

I'm sorry for gettin' your new clothes dirty.

I'm sorry for cryin' over schnapps.

I'm sorry for yellin' at ya about your wrist.

I'm sorry for askin' if ya'd been in jail.

The list went on and on, and she imagined it would get bigger, too.

"I missed ya," she said and kissed his hand.

"Missed ya, too," he mumbled against her hair.

"Ya know, we gotta come outta here soon, right?"

"Nah," he said with a shake of his head. "I'm still scared this whole thang's a dream."

"I'm not a dream, and you're not dead."

"I felt like it for a long time."

Beth turned her head to the side and met his eyes. "What do ya feel like now?"

Daryl licked his lips, and his eyes looked just like they did that last night they were together. Squinted and full of things he wished that she could just know instead of having to speak.

"Like I can breathe."

Beth nodded. "I know what ya mean."

She was assigned to the school. Deanna had said she had a motherly quality about her, but she also knew how to protect herself and others.

"What better qualified person do I have that can teach the children and keep them safe, too?"

Since all the other people had been there since the turn and had no outside experience, Beth amounted to being the school police officer that also taught music.

It was fun, and she smiled a lot. Daryl still worked the wall, but had changed his shift to fit her schedule so that they were home at the same time.

Home.

It was such an odd concept. It was even stranger that it was with Daryl Dixon.

He was quiet, but at night, he would curl around her and whisper over her shoulder.

Daryl told her about growing up, about his dad and mom, his brother and the loss he still felt. He got to talking about how he had found purpose after the world ended, and that he was sorry he couldn't save her daddy.

He told her that, at first, he resented being stuck with her after. Then how he came to admire her, how something changed inside of him between the moonshine and the funeral home, and admiration turned into something else.

Daryl spoke about chasing down the car that took her, a group of men that found him, and Terminus then after. He told her that he wanted to give up, but every time he almost gave in, she would flash in front of his eyes. A vision, all knowing and pleading. Then turned into smiles that made him keep moving forward.

Beth listened intently. She took in every word and held them close. In daylight, he would barely make eye contact, but in darkness, he told her everything.

Daryl was certain that he was dead, and that—even if it was the apocalypse—it was his version of heaven.

Beth was there with him at the end of every day. He got to hold her all night long.

As soon as he asked, someone switched shifts with him and took the hated night shift, letting him walk to and from work with Beth and spend his evenings in their apartment.

Everything was just coming so easy. Even the light touches and smiles he was sending her way more and more. He had just about gained up the courage to kiss her.

He needed pep talk or something because the idea of taking her face into his scarred hands and bringing his lips to hers caused a small panic to worm its way through his chest.

Soon.

Daryl would try soon.

It started like any other day.

They woke up at sunrise and ate some of the oatmeal that was rationed to them then Daryl walked her to the school where she would get ready for the kids before they showed up in another hour or so.

After that, he walked to the portion of wall he kept watch over. Everything was solid, same as the day before.

Lunchtime came and went with him eating some leftover spaghetti Beth had made the night before.

It was calm—an easy day.

Then he heard the whistle.

A low whistle meant a small breach in the wall. It meant that anyone within hearing distance needed to bar the doors. Most of the time it was ten walkers or less, so they barely got far at all.

Daryl left his post and started walking quickly toward the whistling sound along the eastern wall. He was a block away from his post when he heard the tower bells ringing. His heart dropped, and he started sprinting.

The bells meant the wall had fallen. There was a herd coming.

The eastern side of the wall was closet to the school.

He tried not to panic, but there was no use in that. When the herd came into view, they had already breached past the school, and there was no way he could get to her now. It was history replaying itself in his head, and he thought back to the truck and leaving her bloody body there as walkers crashed all around them.

He thought about walking around in a haze for months because she was gone, and so was he.

"Daryl!" Glenn yelled and pulled him back. "She's okay. You know she's got this."

Finally, he pulled himself out of those thoughts and went to work taking care of the first walkers that made their way to him. He fought as hard as he could, moving toward the school, but always getting pushed back by the seemingly never-ending stream of walkers.

One growled over his shoulder, and he turned to face it. There was no way he would be able to fight it off before its teeth ripped into his shoulder. He breathed, "Not yet," and then a bullet ripped through the front of the walker's forehead.

He whipped around and there she was. She had the older kids, the ones who had taken shooting lessons, up on the roof with guns, and she was pointing hers to where he was. His breath caught at the sight of her but now wasn't the time for that.

He backed away and pulled Glenn with him. Once he was a safe distance, he locked eyes with her and raised his hand circling it. "Lit 'em up!"

Gunfire poured into the street from above as him and Glenn found shelter in an apartment building that someone opened the door to when they realized two people were stuck out in the fight.

"Thanks," he panted and Glenn repeated it.

"Any time," the old man said and barred the door again. "You boys put up quite a fight."

"It's what we do," Glenn said as strongly as he could.

"Ya got roof access?" Daryl asked and stood straight up.

"Yeah, you'll need to take tha stairs all tha way up to tha fourth floor then you'll see tha ladder."

"Thanks."

Daryl ran up the stairs, not even caring about the fact he had lost all his breath in the fight. When he reached the roof, he looked two buildings away as Beth had laid down her own rifle and was pulling her hair back, giving out pointers to kids as they targeted the remaining walkers.

He raised his hands and ran them through his hair before dropping to his knees. He pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes to stop the prickling sensation there.

"Daryl!" She yelled and he popped up as quickly as he could, catching her smile across the space between them.

"Yeah?"

"Ya alright?"

He stared at her for a moment. Her hair was almost white blonde in the light, and she was smiling at him like she was so damn proud of herself. He thought back so many years to the farm, to the beautiful girl he had known only in passing and how she had changed and grown, how he started to respect her and that grew into something so deep, he had no way of explaining it. The crushing loss, and the brief memory of her in his arms with blood staining that pretty blonde hair.

He choked back a sob and nodded.

"I'm right here," she yelled. "Ya should know it'll take a lot more to get rid of me, Mr. Dixon."

He had no control of the words that fell from his lips or the volume at which they crossed the space. "I love you!" Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. "So fuckin' much," he finished in a whisper and held his head in his hands again.

It would be hours before the streets were finally clear and the wall patched up enough for the residents to go out in the streets again. Even more hours would pass before he was able to drag himself back to their apartment after piling up bodies and double-checking the fences.

Beth lay on the couch, sleeping, when he came through, and he crouched down in front of her.

She had the scars on her cheek and forehead, and the small circular one right near her hairline. There was no rhyme or reason behind her being here and others not. It wasn't her time to go, and there was still some reason she was meant to be on this earth.

In his selfish opinion, it was for him. Beth Greene was meant to be with Daryl Dixon.

Always.

She had turned him inside out and made him a better man than he had ever dreamed of being.

"Hey, you," she whispered in a sleepy voice. "Been wonderin' when ya'd finally come home."

"You should be in bed," he said quietly.

"Ya know, that bed just doesn't feel right without ya there."

Daryl swallowed hard. "I know," he admitted softly. "Sometimes, ya'd come to me at night, and ya'd sing to me, and I'd finally get some rest."

"Sweetheart," she said and cupped his cheek.

"It was better than nothin'."

"I'm here now."

"Please, don't go away again," he spoke in a tense voice. "I tried to be better, ya know I did, but I just felt like everythin' was gone."

Beth nodded in understanding. "Ya know Morgan says ya were tha one I asked about tha most?"

He hummed and pressed his forehead to hers. They stayed that way for several seconds before she whispered. "I love ya so much."

Daryl nodded against her. "I'm sorry for not tellin' ya sooner."

"I'm sorry for sayin' "Oh.". I shoulda said exactly what I was thinkin'."

He pulled away just a little and asked, "What was that?"

"That I'd loved ya since that moment ya said ya were a dick when ya were drunk."

Daryl barked out a strained laugh. "I am."

"Ya are."

His eyes were closed as she brushed her lips over his, soft at first then a little stronger. He cupped her face into his hands and kissed her back. All the nervousness sinking away as she led him on for several move seconds. She smiled at him before she rolled away, and he scooted beside her on the couch then curled around her. They could have moved to the bed, but this was nice. It was close and safe, and he could feel her heart beating into his skin.

For a moment, he let himself think about before. Imagine a time when this apartment would have been full of pictures and family and all the things he had never had growing up.

Then he realized that all those things were already there.

He may not have the pictures, but he had family, and he had her, and he had more than he ever thought he would have.

"Daddy talked down an angel," she had told him once, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if Merle hadn't talked down the devil because he sure as shit didn't deserve this slice of heaven he had been granted.

The walls stood.

Life went on.

Walkers deteriorated.

Wars waged with neighboring settlements.

Family members died.

He had cried more than he cared to admit.

Beth cried more than she ever should have.

But still, they stood together. Her fingers linked with his, her scars blending with his own, and her life twining with his.

And that made everything worth it.

A/N: After I finished this chapter, it seemed very complete to me. So, as of right now, there will be no more added on. Maybe one day I'll add a small epilogue, but this seems like a good place to leave them.