Ok, here we go again, this chapter is just a little bit ahead of the other one. I really hope you like it, and I'm always open for suggestions.

Daryl didn't know why he agreed to help Beth track and shoot, sometimes when he was teaching her he just wanted to shoot her himself she was pissing him off so much. But then sometimes he thought she was the best thing he could ever have the grace to see. She wasn't the best shot yet, or even the best tracker, but she was learning faster than he'd expected.

He remembered when Maggie had decided to try and teach her how to shoot a gun and failed miserably. Soon after though, Hershel had come to him asking to teach her, if he could. Help her to protect herself, show her how to shoot, hit, how to survive with some basic skills. This was way back before they'd found the prison. He wanted to protest, but he knew that she would need it sometime. She didn't do great but she'd learnt more with him than she did her sister. So when she had asked him to learn how to shoot his bow, track an animal, track people, he thought back to that time.

Now, here they were, he was having her track a dead trail, what looked like a walker from a few days ago, didn't need her going out and tracking live ones that were close just yet. He'd like to live a little bit longer.

But right now, she was pissing him off. She wasn't paying enough attention, letting the bow drop too often, and was snapping twigs every step. He was beyond frustrated, and she just turned the wrong way.

"Wrong turn, girl." He snapped. She groaned and turned again. "Come' on Beth, I thought you wanted to learn." She glared at him and bent down to look at the 'tracks'. He had chosen a dead set for many reasons, but the main reason was to see if Beth could even tell that they were a dead set and not at all useful. She'd failed the moment she started following them. Now, he was just waiting for her to notice the trick he'd done. Waiting for a while now.

"Wait, these tracks are really dry." She touched them, watched them for a second. "Daryl!" She got it.

"Yeah?" He was grinning, finally.

"These are dead tracks. How long have we been following these? Two hours? Urg!" She turned on him, the crossbow still up in her arms. Daryl just grunted, but then she slightly raised the bow, the height was high enough to get a shot into his torso.

Play time was over.

He moved fast, too fast for her to catch, he reached out, yanked the bow from her hands and dropped it down to the ground; he grabbed her arm and twisted her around so that her back was pressed to his front tightly. He could hear her breath intake the moment he grabbed her, but he didn't have time to think that over. He was pissed. Again.

"When I agreed to teach you, what did I tell you?" He growled into her ear, "What did I say, Beth?" He slightly shook her form in his rage.

"D-don't aim the bow at you or you'd kick my ass," She breathed out, almost in a husky whisper. Daryl grunted in response, looking down at her. He tried not to see how her shirt was dragged down lower than it should have been, or that her ass was in too good of a spot. Daryl groaned to himself. Not the time to be thinking of this.

Plus you're too old for her Darylina. It sounded like Merle was speaking to him again, like when he'd been thrown from the horse. Shaking him away, Daryl turned back to the matter at hand. Beth. "Don't you dare try that again, girl." He turned her around to face him, holding her shoulder in a firm grasp, bringing one hand up and pointing his finger in her face. "We ain't got the time or the ammo to deal with walkers coming around cause I'm bleeding." He leaned in very close. "Next time you try something like that, I will beat your ass, got it?" She nodded quickly, her eyes wide.

He turned from her, reaching down to grab his bow, before he looked back at her. "Come on." He started to walk back the wat they came, towards the camp. After a moment, Beth followed him.

Daryl was thinking a thousand things. Trying very hard not to give into his instinct and yell at her for hours. "Daryl?" He heard behind him, he kept walking. "Daryl, wait, please." Those words made him stop, though he didn't turn around to face her just yet. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again." She touched his shoulder lightly, trying to get some sort of response from him.

He grunted, and then started walking again.

Beth rushed forward to stand beside him as they walked swiftly and quietly back to the temporary camp. Beth couldn't help but notice the beauty of the area they were in. The trees towered tall over them, creating a shaded cover, yet the sun was still making its way through the trees. Light was radiating off of patches of wet leaves and scattered sections of grass. The way they were moving made the forest seem almost silent, the only sound were the birds chirping happily up in the trees.

Beth found herself thinking of those birds. They didn't have to worry about walkers, people, and the threat of death every second of each day. When this happened to them all, when the walkers started, the birds didn't have to be worried over where their next meal was coming from, or where it would be safest to sleep. It was very beautiful.

"You okay?" Daryl asked, looking down at her dazed face.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about the birds." She smiled, turning to look at him.

"The birds?" Beth noticed the face he made, that one that just screamed out 'are you insane'. His eyebrow tilted up, his mouth was half open and he just looked plain confused

"Yeah, the birds; they're so at peace, so free. They can fly anywhere they want, they don't have anything to worry about, like getting food, surviving, living day to day. They just are, and it's really beautiful. Very poetic even," Daryl laughed, shaking his head. "What? What's so funny?" She smacked his arm lightly. "Jeez, Dixon, you're like a damn high school girl."

Daryl just laughed harder, holding his stomach in ease. "It's just that only you can turn something like a earth shattering event into some sort of poetic nonsense." She blushed and looked down at the ground, trying to think of a clever come back. "Never thought of it though." She looked back up.

"What?" She asked, curious.

"Damn birds got shit easy, lucky assholes." He grinned over at her and kept walking. Beth followed easily, a smile on her face.

Late that night, the fire crackling and small game being cooked over it, Beth was laying down looking up over the clearing to watch the stars above. "Do you ever miss it?"

Daryl looked over at her from his spot across the fire, turning the meat to avoid burning. "Miss what?" He grunted back.

Beth sighed softly and turned her head to look at him. "The way it used to be. Internet, wifi, sports, shopping, beds." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Just having normal day to day life," He scratched his head, thinking back, it seemed, before looking her in the eye.

"Sometimes," He said honestly, "I miss Merle, seeing him, talking to him. Not a day goes by I don't think of him. I miss not having to worry about anyone but him. Sure as hell miss beds," Beth laughed a little, turning her eyes back to the sky, "Never really used the internet, not much of a sports fan. This is normal, for me. Hunting, surviving; just living as well as I can." Beth smiled and nodded her head. "This is normal, at least for me. I always just survived, and moved from day to day. At least now I got people with me, people I care about." She looked back over at him, pushing herself up on her elbows and smiled.

"You got me now, Dixon, and I'm hard to get rid of."

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Foods ready, et's eat."