…

Part Twelve.

"I wanna press charges!" Shane is shouting as Beth steps into the police station, his voice muffled and yet, filled with anger as he is holding an ice pack to his nose, blood dripping down onto his shirt, and Rick is trying to push him back.

She sees Daryl sitting on a bench against the wall, his hands behind his back, handcuffed, and somehow, he seems to know the instant she's there because he lifts his head and looks right at her. He looks calm. She only hesitates for a moment before she realizes what he did and she hurries to him, sitting down beside him on the bench.

"Are you crazy?" She asks him softly.

Daryl shrugs his shoulders. "Prob'ly."

Beth looks at him and she's not entirely too sure what to say because even though she knows he punched Shane for her, what he did isn't necessarily right and she shouldn't encourage him by thanking him. He's looking at her, too, and she gently brushes some hair back that's hanging in his eyes.

"I'm sure that's annoying," she says in the same soft voice.

Daryl nods but doesn't say anything and he's still looking at her, his eyes dark and penetrating and she feels herself scoot a little closer to him.

"Are you okay?" She asks him.

He shrugs again. "Knuckles are a bit tender right now."

And she purses her lips together so she doesn't smile.

"Beth," Rick notices that she's arrived and he comes over to the bench. "I need to speak with you. Both of you."

He looks to Daryl then, too, and then grabs his arm, tugging him to his feet but not roughly. He takes them into an interrogation room and once the door is closed, Rick takes out the key and moves behind Daryl to unlock the handcuffs. When his wrists are free, Daryl crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the wall and Beth isn't too entirely sure what to do so she stands, awkward and her fingers grasped around the strap of her bag slung across her chest.

"This is serious, Daryl," Rick begins. "I shouldn't have to tell you how serious."

Daryl doesn't say anything.

"If Shane is going to press charges against Daryl, can I get a restraining order against Shane?" Beth hears herself blurt out.

Both Daryl and Rick look at her but while Rick's surprise is evident, Daryl's face is blank. She's not sure where the words come from but after hearing herself say them, she agrees whole-heartedly with what she has said.

"A restraining order?" Rick echoes the words as if he's never heard them before.

Beth nods quickly, feeling more confident now. "Earlier tonight, he came into the diner and he…" she swallows and Rick is watching her, the man practically holding his breath, his mind racing with everything she can possibly say. "He was touching my face and my arm and Daryl came in just in time. I honestly don't know what Shane would do if Daryl hadn't showed up. He scares me."

Rick is quiet for a moment and then exhales a heavy stream of air, muttering some swift curse words directed towards Shane.

"Daryl was just acting like my boyfriend towards another man," Beth adds though she isn't sure how true that is. The boyfriend part. Not the Daryl being protective of her part. That part is not surprising at all.

Daryl is a good man. No matter what he, or his brother, try to say about it otherwise.

Rick looks at her and then at Daryl for a moment before back to her. "I'm going to have a talk with Shane. You both can head home."

Daryl finally has a reaction. "Jus' like that?" There is surprise – and a mixture of doubt – in his tone.

"Go on," Rick says, going to the door of the room and opening it.

Beth glances towards Daryl before giving a small smile to Rick of thanks and leaving the room, not looking over her should to know that Daryl is behind her.

…

She's surprised when she asks him if he needs a ride back to the motel and shakes his head, grunting they go back to the apartment together instead.

He sits on the couch and she sits facing him, cleaning his knuckles as gently as she can, and they are both silent because neither have any idea what to say to the other.

She gives a soft sigh. "I shouldn't thank you for what you did but… thank you," she says, glancing at him for only a moment.

She keeps her eyes focused on his knuckles and she feels him staring at her.

"Thanks for comin' to the station," Daryl then says. "Didn' think you would."

She lifts her eyes again to him. "I almost didn't," she admitted. "But I thought of you there, needing me and I…" she trails off because words, once again, have failed her. She wants to tell him that she'll always be there for him but she doesn't because she doesn't know if that's something he'll actually want to hear. "I'm staying in Evergreen," she decides to switch topics completely.

"Didn' think you were thinkin' of leavin'," he says, his brow furrowed slightly and a frown weighing down his lips.

"I thought about it." Because of you goes unsaid. "But… there's a vacant store on Court Street… I think I'm going to try and open a bakery."

If he's surprised by that, he doesn't show it. Maybe he's like Lori and can't read minds but just already knows that that's what she's supposed to be doing.

He gives his head a slight nod after a moment. "You'll let me know if you need help?" He asks and he suddenly looks so unsure and shy – just like he used to.

She feels herself smiling faintly at that. "I will."

…

It's a small store but she doesn't need something huge. It's just her baking and she doesn't want to bite off more than she can chew. It takes no convincing at all to get Lori to be her partner. Beth will handle the baking and running the store and Lori will be in charge of the numbers and everything else.

She tells T-Dog what she is doing and she expects him to be miffed about losing a waitress in a few months but he grins and hugs her and tells her he expects to still be selling her cakes and pies in his diner. She laughs a little and tells him that she couldn't ask for better advertising than that.

The Grimes help her clean and mop and wipe and then she and Sasha paint the walls a pale butter yellow. Maggie and Glenn come to Evergreen for their first visit and Maggie's eyes well with tears as Beth shows them the clean empty storefront. She smiles and laughs and keeps an arm around Beth's shoulders nearly the whole time.

"Daddy would be so proud of you," Maggie tells her.

It's Beth's turn for her eyes to well with tears.

…

She takes a deep breath before knocking on the door to the motel's sixth room and she almost takes a step back when Merle answers. He lets out a whistle when he sees her and his eyes rove up and down her body. This time, she takes a small step back.

"Is Daryl here?" She asks.

"You're askin' for the wrong brother, sweetheart," Merle's smile somehow turns even more slimy and everything about him makes her stomach roll. "If you wan' a real Dixon, I'll give it to you real good, girl."

She opens her mouth to respond – with what, she has no idea – but thankfully, Daryl appears in the doorway and pushes Merle roughly in the shoulder.

"Shu' up, Merle," Daryl all but growls at him and Merle just laughs.

Daryl takes Beth's arm and she notes immediately how gentle his fingers are on her. He leads her further away from the door into the parking lot and he faces her.

"Everythin' a'right?" He asks, looking down into her eyes.

"You said if I needed help… with the bakery," she quickly adds in case he misunderstands and thinks she's asking for help from him with something for her personally and she doesn't want to know if he would refuse that or not.

"Yeah," he nods and his answer is immediate and she feels herself breathing easier.

…

She takes him back to the bakery and explains to him what she is thinking for the display cases. She has drawn some pictures but she knows they aren't that good. They aren't truly showing what she has envisioned but Daryl takes them and studies them and seems to understand what she has in mind.

He has already brought his toolbox with him and he pulls out a measuring tape and Beth watches as he takes measurements and writes them down with a pencil on a slip of paper he pulls from his back pocket. He works quietly and quickly and she had been wanting to talk to him but she doesn't want to break his concentration.

When he looks to her again, she gives him a small smile.

"Is it possible?" She asks.

"Anythin' is possible," he nods. "If you want this, I'll build this for you."

And she tries to get herself to stop but she can't and as soon as he says those words to her, she feels her heart skipping beats like this always used to do when around him. And she tells her heart to stop it because it is only heading down a path that she has already gone down and it was a path that proved to do nothing except break said heart. Does her heart not remember that? Does her heart not remember the way it cracked and crumbled as he broke it and only now, it is beginning to repair itself? Is her heart really willing to go through all of that again?

She knows Daryl didn't love her but did his own heart ever crack for her?

She nods her head and quickly looks away because suddenly, looking at him is too hard and the air inside the small store is hot and heavy and she feels it pressing down against her skin. And she feels herself trying to hate him because he acts as if she never had any effect on him. It's almost like she was nothing more than a distraction to him until his brother got back.

"Beth-" Daryl suddenly says, shuffling a step closer to her.

"Don't," she shakes her head and counters it with one of her own step back.

She has no idea what he is going to say but she knows she doesn't want to hear it.

But Daryl doesn't stop and he's in front of her and there's nowhere for her to escape to. His fingers are lightly cupping her elbow and she refuses to look at him even as she feels his own eyes burning into her.

"Beth," he tries again. And then silence.

Minutes tick by and he says nothing and Beth swears her heart sinks further with each tick of the invisible clock.

She finally looks at him and she knows tears are welling in her eyes and she hates that there are because she has been crying way too much over Daryl Dixon and she wishes she could just stop. She's moved on. She's trying to move on and yet, just being around him, she's thrust back right to where she was when she first lost him. And she hates showing this much emotion in front of him because why does it matter? The S'mores and stars and the stuffed fawn and getting him to drink milk and kissing his scars, none of it matters. All Daryl wants in this world is Merle.

"Beth," he says her name one more time. "'m sorry," he then says so softly, it's practically mumbled and Beth just stares at him because she doesn't want to get her hopes up as to what she thinks he just said. But he's still staring at her. "'m sorry," he says again and he sounds a little more confident now.

Beth shrugs her shoulders. "For what?" She asks and is trying so hard to be casual. "None of it matters. Nothing we went through together matters."

Daryl looks at her and she sees his jaw clench slightly, his fingers twitching still on her elbow. "That what you think?"

She juts her chin out slightly as she locks her eyes with his. "That's what I know." More tears flood her eyes even as she screams at herself to stop.

She feels Daryl's fingers twitch again and she only has room to take a quick gasp of air before he slams his lips against hers. She almost yanks herself back but feeling Daryl kiss her, his lips against hers, his facial hair scratching at her face gently, she can't help herself. She practically sinks against him and Daryl's arms are around her, holding her close to him and her own arms wind around his waist, holding him close in return. She doesn't know why he's kissing her or what this means for them but she doesn't want him to stop. Her stomach lurches and her heart flips and she moans softly again as he deepens the kiss.

She knows this will just make everything even worse when he walks away again. When he's done with her – again – and walks back to his brother, it will break her all over again and worse than before but she can't get herself to stop. She loves this man and having him kiss her, the cracks in her heart are all filling in and disappearing – for the time being.

"Daryl," she whimpers his name as his hands slip down the sides of her body.

And when she hears him whisper her own name, "Beth" leaving his lips, she thinks like maybe things could be like they were – at least for a little while.

…

"Always hated these white sheets," he grumbles.

"Why?" She feels laughter bubbling in her throat.

"Too dirty for white," he says, laying on his back and freeing his legs from where they are tangled. Beth keeps smiling as she rolls towards him and she rests her chin and hand on his chest, looking up at him, feeling his arm slide around her lower back, holding her to him. Daryl looks at her for a few moments. "'m sorry," he then says again.

"For what?" She asks and she wants to hear him say something.

He exhales a deep breath and she thinks he won't say anything else. "Things have always been complicated 'tween me and my brother," he says, his eyes directing back up towards the ceiling and she thinks maybe he'll say more but he doesn't.

"So, this was it?" She says and she says it so softly because thinking it and actually giving voice to it makes her throat scratchy and nausea bubble in her stomach.

She knew that this would be it. Knew it the second he kissed her. She will never win against Merle Dixon and if it comes down to the choice – and it has – she will lose. But the idea of laying with Daryl again was too tempting and she had been too weak.

But now, in the afterwards, cold realization is settling in over her again and the cracks in her heart are starting to form again.

She sighs and sits up, running her fingers through her tangled hair. She pulls the sheet with her as she rises from the bed and wraps it around her nude body as if she is shielding him from seeing any more of her; as if he hasn't already memorized it.

"You should go," she says and she's not able to look at him anymore and she fights to keep the tremble from her voice. She hates that she's so weak. Hates that he makes her so weak.

Daryl gets out of bed, too, and he's standing there naked and though she has memorized him, too, and has had him inside of her too many times to count, she almost feels embarrassed now for some reason and avoids looking at him.

He shakes his head. "I ain't goin' anywhere," he says and Beth finally looks at him.

…

The next chapter will be Daryl's POV and Daryl and Beth, both, are going to talk. And yell. They need to finally do both.

Thank you very much for reading and please review!