For disclaimer, etc., please see chapter one.

Beth's left hand went to her waist, where she normally tucked her knife. Her panicked eyes spotted it a few feet away, on the lawn chair Michonne had been sitting on. She'd meant to wipe it clean before returning it to its place. She'd forgotten. Don't panic don't panic don't panic she thought, her pulse racing. Adrenaline gave her enough strength to pull herself free of the walker's grip, but the same pull also tugged its head free of its burial ground. This one had clearly once been a male, and it snapped its jaws hungrily, trying to reach her ankle. Though Beth had killed hundreds of walkers in the years since they first appeared, and had, in fact, just gotten rid of one only moments earlier, blind panic overtook her. She couldn't move. Inch by dreadful inch, the walker began to wiggle itself free, digging its mangled fingers into the dirt. Beth couldn't even scream. She was frozen. The click of the walker's jaws was all she could hear, the skin hanging off its bones all she could see. She almost didn't register it when an arrow drove through the back of its skull, right before her eyes.

"Beth! Beth! Can you hear me?" The voice reached her ears as if from a great distance. She collapsed into Daryl's embrace, tears streaming down her face.

"I – I couldn't kill it, I don't know why, I could have stomped on it, but – but I didn't," she cried, taking refuge in Daryl's arms. "What's wrong with me?"

"Nothin'," Daryl insisted, but as she focused her eyes on his face, she saw doubt there.

"You okay?"

Beth looked up from her book, a worn and tattered copy of The Call of the Wild. Yesterday's events were fresh in her mind and she was barely able to concentrate on the story. She'd been staring at the same page for about ten minutes, a fact that hadn't escaped Daryl's notice. "Yeah," she replied, avoiding his gaze.

"No, you ain't," he said matter-of-factly.

She sighed, a few stray hairs fluttering in front of her face. "No, I ain't," she repeated. "I don't know what happened yesterday."

"Rick's gonna wanna talk to you."

"I know." Even after all these years, Rick remained their de facto leader, usually flanked by the remaining members of the prison council – Michonne, Glenn, Daryl, and sometimes Carol and Carl. She supposed he'd come to speak to her about this alone, though, not wanting to embarrass her. Only Carol and Daryl had been witnesses to her failure. As if on cue, Carol herself appeared in the doorway, tapping gently to announce her presence.

"How are you, Beth?" she asked, her kind face hiding what Beth knew to be an incredibly strong, tough individual. Beth merely shrugged, unsure how to articulate how she was. Carol let it slide, turning to Daryl instead. "Did you show her what we found yesterday?" Her interest piqued, Beth looked at Daryl questioningly.

"Naw, not yet," he said, shifting a bit in his chair. "I was saving it for later."

"What is it?" Beth asked. Daryl exchanged an unreadable glance with Carol, then picked up his knapsack from where it lay next to him. He pulled out a large, square object, something Beth hadn't seen for an age.

"There was a music store in that shopping complex we raided yesterday," Daryl explained, handing the record over. "Wasn't much else useful in there, but I knew you'd wanna have that." He nodded to the object in Beth's hands as she looked at it reverently. "There was a record player too, but without electricity…" He shrugged apologetically, like it was his fault they couldn't plug anything into an outlet.

"Thank you," Beth whispered. The almost comically disturbing artwork on the record's cover gave her a wave of nostalgia. She remembered buying this CD with Maggie.

"That has the right song on it, don't it?"

Beth nodded, smiling.

"Maybe you could sing some for us later," Carol suggested, unaware of the younger girl's struggle with remembering the words.

"So Rick's not gonna kick me out?" Beth asked bluntly. Carol's lips tightened.

"No," she answered, her voice soft but clear. "We wouldn't do that."

"But I'm a liability," Beth protested, putting down the record and letting her hands ball into fists. "You should send me off on my own, like – " She stopped short.

"Like Rick did with me?" Carol asked, finishing Beth's thought. The younger girl nodded reluctantly. "He did what he thought was best for the group," Carol continued. "And we think it's best for the group that you stay. You got spooked, that's all. No one could have guessed there was a walker buried underneath all our vegetables." She made a face, and Beth could tell she was wondering if that was what had been fertilizing their food. "Besides, do you really think Daryl or Maggie would let that happen?" Beth looked at the man sitting across from her and felt relief and love fill her heart.

"No," she admitted. Carol smiled and said she'd leave them alone for the time being.

"Can I tell you something?" Daryl asked after a few moments of peaceful silence.

"'Course you can."

"Remember when we were on our own, that night we burned down that house?" Beth nodded. Of course she did. It was the night she first felt like she really knew something about Daryl, something real, something true. "You said I was made for the way things are now," he continued. "Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't, but sometimes I feel like…" He paused. "Like I'm better off in this world. More useful. You, you were meant to grow up happy and loved by your family and your friends, go to college, marry a real nice guy, become a singer or somethin'." He chuckled. "I would've just kept goin' the way I was goin', with Merle. Following him around like a loyal dog."

"No," Beth started to protest, but Daryl held up a hand.

"Yeah, yeah. I had no plans. No…ambition. I dropped outta high school. Never would've gotten to college or anythin' like that." He paused again. Beth waited patiently. "It's funny, the way things worked out. Never thought nobody had a plan for me. Never thought I'd be much good for anyone."

"You're good for me," Beth said softly. He studied her face in the flickering candlelight. His lips curved upward.

"Yeah, I guess you're good for me, too," he said gruffly, standing and pulling her into a tight embrace. He pulled back after a moment and found her lips with his own, stroking her hair with his rough fingertips. Beth smiled as he pulled back. "Let's take a look at this record." He sat down in the armchair, tugging Beth so she was sitting on his lap. "There might be some liner notes in here. We could figure out that song."