Even though he promised himself he wouldn't sleep. Daryl find out he actually took a little nap. He couldn't really recall the dream, but he remembered a flash of blonde ponytail and cute laugh, so he knew he was dreaming about Beth again, but it wasn't as painful as when he remembered the exact dream.
It was already morning and when he rise back to his feet he found out most of the people were already outside. There was only Sasha and Tyreese, silently sitting in one of the church chairs. He watched them for a while before he decided to go outside. He needed to talk to Rick, anyway.
It was quite sunny day, so when he first step outside the church, he needed to cover his eyes from the sudden sunlight. Daryl blinked a few times before he was able to adjust, then looked around. Abraham, Eugene, Rosita and Tara were by the bus. Abraham was trying to fix it, while the rest of them watched.
Rick, Michonne and Carl were by a meadow a bit further in front of the church. He didn't see Carol, Glenn or Maggie anywhere so he figured they probably went somewhere to find something to eat. He was a little bit hurt that Carol would choose those two to go with her, instead of Daryl, but he wasn't really a good company nowadays, even worse then he used to be, so he couldn't really blame her.
Daryl made his way to Rick and his group. Rick was watching Michonne with Carl play some game that obviously consisted from throwing rock into circle. Both of them were obviously having a great time. Daryl wasn't sure why would somebody called that fun, but then he didn't play much games when he was younger, so maybe that's why he found it stupid.
Rick turned to him when he heard footsteps approaching. He was holding Judith. She also turned and stared at Daryl's for a while. Then she mumbled something and started stretching both her hands towards Daryl. „Hey lil' ass kicker." He said with a hint of a smile, as he reached one of his finger to her and she grabbed it with her whole fist with the cutest little laugh.
„Good morning." Said Rick as he watched his little daughter.
„Hey." Daryl took his eyes off Judith and looked at Rick. „Need to talk to you."
„Alright, what about?"
Daryl looked over to Michonne and Carl, he could swear Michonne's head turned more to them and he was pretty sure she could hear them. He started walking away from these two. Rick followed him. His face was still blank, he didn't show any emotion of curiosity whatsoever.
„So..what about?" He asked again when Daryl finally stopped. He raised his head and looked at Rick, biting his lip and thinking about the best way how to address the topic. „Ain't going to Washington with y'all." He blurted finally.
Rick's expresion didn't change so Daryl couldn't really tell what he's thinking. „Daryl we are not splitting up again."
„We're already splitted up." Daryl unintentionally raised his voice a bit. „What about Beth? She maybe still out here."
It looked like Rick finally understood what this is about. „Beth.." he repeated quietly. „You wanna look for her?"
„Hell yeah."
„I could talk to Abraham. Maybe delay the journey for a few days, that will give us time to look for her."
„Us? Ain't needing your help. Can look for her on my own."
„Yeah, I know. The thing is you don't need to. I want to find her as much as you." Daryl seriously doubted that, but he didn't say it out loud. „And if we won't find her, I'll stay here with you. But we're not leaving you behind. We're a family."
Daryl didn't answered. He just blankly stared at Rick, didn't really know what to say. It looked like Rick wasn't really expecting any answer. He took Judith, trying to push her into Daryl's arms. „I'll go talk to Abraham."
He nodded, taking Judith, then he watched Rick making his way to Abraham and his group. Daryl couldn't really hear what they were saying so he made a few steps closer to them and concentrated on the conversation.
„Abraham..can I talk to you for a sec?"
Everybody from the group looked up to Rick and then back to Abraham, who was squirming his way out of the bottom of the bus to stand up.„I was just gonna go talk to ya. The car's gonna be ready so we can head out tomorrow morning."
Rick hesitated before he continued. „Yeah. That was what I wanted to talk about. Could we..maybe postpone for a few days?"
Abraham knitted his brows. „What?"
„Well..there's one girl missing from our group, we wanted to take a look if we can maybe find her."
„You realize that we have to get Eugeno to Washington, D.C. So he can stop this thing, right?"
„Yeah, but.. we can't leave her behind, so if you can't wait, you'll just have to go ahead."
Daryl noticed the change in everybody's posture. Eugene looked nervous, even more then usually, Tara was biting her lip, looking from Rick to Abraham and back. And Rosita made a few steps closer to Abraham.
„You're kidding right? Do you even know where this girl is? If we manage to get Eugene to Washington, we save everybody, including this girl of yours. What's the point of looking for her now? For all you know she may be just another dead girl walking around here."
„I know you look at me and you just see another dead girl. I'm not Michonne. I'm not Carol. I'm not Maggie. I've survived and you don't get it 'cause I'm not like you or them. But I made it and you don't get to treat me like crap just because you're afraid." Her voice cut right through Daryl's head, bringing back memories about her again.
„You ain't just another dead girl." Daryl blurted it out few days after they burned the house down. They were now somewhere in the middle of the forest, starring into a fire and mostly not talking. Even Beth manage not to talk for a while now, which was a bit weird. Something had changed between them. Daryl was no longer annoyed with her and Beth was...really trying. She respected that he was not very chatty type so she was talking less then usually. She still kept her diary thought. Daryl saw her writing in it there a few times. But she always quickly closed it and hide it, when she heard him coming. She wasn't singing either. Daryl felt a little guilty for all the things he has yelled at her, but he couldn't get himself to apologize.
Beth now looked up from the fire right at his face. There was a hint of surprise, maybe shock, in her eyes. „What?" Daryl couldn't really tell if she genuinely didn't understand or if she was just flabbergasted he said that.
„Well you proved, that you can take of yourself. Kinda."
She opened her eyes even wider, for a moment Daryl thought they may pop out from her head. „Did I just heard you correctly, mr. Dixon?" She mocked with a hint of smile on her lips. „You just gave me a compliment?"
„Ain't giving you anything, girl. Just sayin'."
„Well I still take it as a compliment." There was now genuine smile on her face. „And maybe you should teach me how to hunt."
He paused for a minute, thinking about what she was asking for. Now was not the best time. Perhaps if they manage to find some proper shelter, then he could show her some stuff, but now it was just too risky. „Maybe. Later."
Her smile dropped as quickly as it appeared. „Ok. Whatever." They both fell back into the silence.
Few days later, they found a cabin in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't much. There was literally only one room and everything in it was flipped upside down. It was pretty obvious that somebody searched the place and probably took whatever was worth it. It would have been nice to find some food for a change, or just..something useful. But they had roof over their head, that has been enough for the time being.
„I'm gonna teach you to hunt." Daryl said that night. They were laying side by side on the floor. Beth didn't speak for a moment, but he knew she was still awake. When she finally spoke up, Daryl imagine that she's trying to hide a smile. „What changed, mr. Dixon?"
„Dunno..guess you're ready now." He didn't want to admit to her that he thought she was ready when she first asked him to teach her, that he was just waiting for the right moment.
„I knew you would change your mind." She said, gently bumping into Daryl's arm.
„How?"
„Faith. I still have faith."
Judith got a grab of Daryl's hair and she pulled it, which brought him back to the reality. He wanted to look down at her, and try to free his hair before she decided to torn it out of his skull, but it was an action around the bus, that eventually caught his attention.
It was pretty obvious that Abraham rejected Rick offer to postpone their journey and now they got into some sort of fight. It was Eugene who was, surprisingly, interesting in the moment. He obviously stabbed one of the tire and now he was holding another one as a hostage.
„What the hell are you trying to achieve Eugene?" Abraham looked furious, while Rick was trying his best not to laugh.
„We're not splitting up with them. We're staying here for a couple of more days, helping them to look for the girl, or I'll stab another tire."
„You realize we only got one spare, right?"
„Yeah.. so we'll have to walk to Washington."
The group around the bus felt into silence, everybody was looking at Abraham. He let out annoyed snore. „Fine. Two days. Not a day more."
Rick turned back to Daryl and smiled a bit at him. Two days. He'll have to find Beth by then, or he will have to leave his family behind. Even though Rick promised he would stay, Daryl didn't want him to. He knew Rick Grimes is gonna save the world one day and he didn't want to keep him from it. Daryl didn't want to be the one saving the world, he wasn't a hero. He just wanted to be the one to save Beth Greene.