The long awaited chapter...

Beth had of course agreed to go out with Daryl, as she had pretty much forced him to ask her out in the first place. Once she finally made it to the closest Target to get her groceries, she immediately got on the phone to try and find someone who would be able to watch Jackson last minute. Luckily, Tara made herself available, after she had heard that Beth actually had a date, because that was definitely not a common occurrence.

She quickly grabbed everything on her list, and made her way towards check out, holding Jackson's hand so he didn't run off towards the toy section of the store. When she got in line, her eyes started to wander. The women's clothing section happened to be right behind her so it was only natural that she started glancing over the choices they displayed. When her eyes landed on a dress, a short simple light pink chiffon one, she immediately dragged her son out of line and over to the rack that it was hanging on. Jackson was getting impatient so she quickly peaked at the tag and saw it was only thirty five dollars, one of the reasons she loved buying clothes there, and she decided she had to get it because it would be perfect for the date.

Beth threw the feather light material into the cart, being careful not to let it touch the package of hamburger meat, and decided if she was going to treat herself, then maybe she should let Jackson pick out a little something too. He practically squealed with excitement when she told him he could get something that caught his eye, much like the dress had caught hers. Immediately, he went down the aisle that contained the Nerf guns. He didn't have any yet, as Beth had thought he was too young to be playing with toy guns...but the little man was persistent, so she figured she'd allow it, especially after seeing the look on his face as he grabbed one off the shelf. At least Beth could find comfort in the fact that it wasn't a gun. Instead, Jackson chose a crossbow. He looked so hopeful as he held it up, waiting for Beth's approval, and she just couldn't say no. This child definitely had her wrapped around his finger.

Back in line, with the toy crossbow and the pretty little dress in her cart, Jackson was much calmer than before. They checked out and Beth cringed at the total but still swiped her debit card, knowing that the purchases were totally worth it.

With the purchases in the bed of the truck, Beth and Jackson headed home. She might have been driving a few miles over the speed limit, but she wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to get ready for tonight.

When they arrived back at home, Beth knew her 'mother of the year' award would have to wait as she put on a silly cartoon TV show and plopped Jackson down in front of the TV with his new crossbow. "But I wanna go outside and play with it!" He had whined.

"Not just yet, Mommy's gotta get ready and you can't play outside unless someone is watching you." She began walking towards her bedroom and heard Jackson grumble something about getting new toys but not being able to play with them. "You can play with it inside, just don't break anything!" She yelled back at him as she entered her bedroom, crossing through it into her bathroom.

She took a long shower, allowing herself a chance to relax before taking the time to shave her legs. When she emerged from the bathroom, now all smooth and clean, with a towel wrapped around her body and another one wound up containing her hair on her head, she went to her closet to try and find some shoes that would go with her new dress. In the back of the storage space, she found a pair she thought would work quite nicely. They were silver sandals with a short wedge heel. Since she wasn't sure where they were going, she didn't want to be to dressed up, but she also wanted to make sure she looked good.

As she stood in front of her bathroom mirror with a blow dryer pointed at her head, Beth really began to feel excited. This was something special, it was a date. She couldn't even really remember the last time she'd been on one, which was sad in itself. Now though, she understood what other girls would talk about. She had butterflies in her stomach, and she felt her cheeks flush whenever she thought of Daryl, and how he apparently really did find something he liked in her.

By the time she was just about to start doing her make up, after she had gotten her hair to cooperate a little bit, she heard the doorbell ring. "Shit! Please don't be him, please don't be him." She pleaded as she went to the door. Peeking through the peep hole, Beth saw that it was Tara, and she let out a sigh of relief. When she opened the door, Tara's eyes widened. "What?"

Tara chuckled and pointed at Beth's body. "Nice outfit. Don't you think it's a little too revealing for a first date though?"

Beth looked down and realized she had answered the door still wearing nothing but a towel and rolled her eyes. "At least I knew it was you before answering the door." She stepped aside, letting the woman enter the house, closing the door behind her. Jackson appeared from behind the couch in the living room and fired off the fake crossbow at Tara.

"Got you!" He yelled when the foam dart made contact with her body. Tara, being the best babysitter in the world, at least according to this family, grabbed at her chest where the dart had hit her, and screwed her face up in mock pain, before falling to the floor and pretending to be dead. She was quite the actress.

"I'm going to finish getting ready." Beth said with a laugh. As she walked back down the hall, she heard Tara making growling noises, and as she turned her head back, she assumed that the sitter was pretending to come back to life as a zombie, and when she entered her bedroom, she heard the living dead start chasing Jackson around the living room. She decided to close the door behind her.

A half an hour later, Beth entered the living room in her new dress, that thankfully fit really well, with her make up carefully applied to her face. Tara and Jackson stopped the pretend game they were playing to look up at Beth, all dolled up for the night. "Wow Mommy! You look pretty!"

Tara nodded at Jackson's comment. "Much better than the towel." Beth smiled at her son's comment and rolled her eyes at her friend's, and then she began pacing in front of the front door.

"Jeez Beth, calm down. It's a date, not an execution."

Beth stopped, but only for a second before continuing the pacing. "I'm nervous."

"You'll be fine! You'll talk, laugh, have some wild s-e-x in the alley behind the restaurant..." Beth's eyes widened at her friend's words, and if she had been closer, she definitely would have smacked the girl on the arm.

"What's sex?" The little boy's voice was so innocent as he asked a question beyond his years.

Beth put her head in her hands and sighed. "Yeah Tara, he's going to be five soon, not two. He's learning how to spell." She told the sitter, ignoring her son's question hoping he would drop it.

Tara winced. "Sorry."

"And that's not going to happen anyways. Tonight-" She was interrupted by the doorbell going off again. Luckily, it distracted Jackson from the topic at hand. Beth took a deep breath as she walked to the door. She put a smile on her face and pulled it open. Daryl was standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, leaning his shoulder against the front of the house, and he looked good. He was wearing a rather new looking pair of dark wash jeans and he had on a blue button up shirt, and the fabric was pulling around his strong arms making Beth's mouth water just a little bit.

Daryl immediately straightened up when he saw her. He thought she looked drop dead gorgeous. The dress hit her mid-thigh, showing off her toned legs, and the way her hair fell in waves over her shoulder made Daryl want to reach out and touch it. He refrained.

Just as he was about to compliment her, a foam dart shot passed Beth and hit Daryl in the stomach. He furrowed his brow and looked down at the dart that had fallen at his feet. Beth turned around to see Jackson standing behind her with his toy crossbow pointed at the older man and she heard Tara snickering in the other room.

"I killed you! You're supposed to be dead!" Well, now Beth was regretting letting the child pick out that toy. He was already getting violent, and now he had shot her date before either of them could even get a word out.

"My bad." Daryl mumbled as he reached down to pick up the fake ammunition, tossing it to the boy.

Beth cringed, the irrational voice inside of her head telling her the date was now ruined. "I'm sorry!"

Daryl raised his eyebrow at her. "Ain't a big deal, Beth." He smiled. Smiled. Then her knees felt a little wobbly. "You look good, you ready to go?"

"Uh, yeah, let me just grab my purse." Since when was her voice so high pitched? She grabbed her purse off the dining table where she had thrown it when they got back from the store, and was now wishing she had found a clutch or something at Target so she didn't have to carry around the big black bag.

Kneeling down in front of Jackson, she pulled him in for a hug. "You be good, okay?"

The boy reluctantly hugged her back. Pulling away with a sigh, one that was really dramatic for a five year old, and spoke. "Why can't I come?"

She knew this would be coming eventually. "Because mommy and Daryl want to go out to have a nice dinner, one that doesn't take place in a child's arcade, so we can talk about grown up stuff. Trust me, you'd just be bored!" Hopefully that would steer him away from the idea of tagging along. "Plus, you have Tara here to hang out with you!"

"But I wanna go with you and Daryl!" They were rapidly approaching tantrum territory.

"How 'bout we do somethin' another night, Jax?" Daryl's words seemed to slightly calm the anxious child.

"You mean it?" Jackson seemed unsure, like he might be falling for a trick.

Daryl nodded, "Mhm. Promise."

The child let out a dramatic sigh and nodded. "Fine."

Beth chuckled and kissed her sweet little boy on the cheek. "Love you baby. You be good for Tara." He nodded again and stared after her as Daryl and Beth walked out the door. Quickly, Tara distracted him with more pretend zombie noises.

The original plan had been for Daryl and Beth to take the motorcycle out, him eager to get her on the back of it, but once he saw what she was wearing, he decided it might be better to take the truck.

Daryl went around the passenger side and opened the door for her, only to be met with Jackson's car seat sitting there. Beth chuckled, suddenly feeling more nervous than she had been about the date. They both reached to unbuckle the car seat, knocking into each other before Daryl spoke. "I got it." Beth stood back, watching him struggle with undoing the belt from behind the car seat, smiling and suppressing a laugh as he cursed the foreign contraption.

Once he had the seat pulled from the card, he set it down on the porch as Beth hopped up into the cab. Daryl got into the driver's seat and started up the truck. His hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter than usual as they pulled out of the driveway.

"So, where are we goin'?" Beth had been wondering this since Daryl had 'asked' her on the date.

"You'll see." Daryl had a small barely there smile on his face as he said this.

Beth felt butterflies seeing his face. Her curious nature hated surprises though, so on the ride to whatever their destination was, Beth's thoughts were filled with guesses as to where it could be that they were going.

Even with all the guesses she had come up with in her mind, she definitely did not expect for them to pull into the parking lot of 'The Chop House', one of the only very pricey restaurants in their little town.

"You're joking." She blurted out without thinking. Daryl just raised an eyebrow at her as he pulled the truck into a parking spot. Beth had never eaten at this place before, knowing that she couldn't even afford to eat a side salad.

"Wanted to take you someplace nice." Daryl mumbled, cheeks slightly reddened.

Beth was sure she could actually feel her heart melting. She reached across the cab and put her hand over his and squeezed. "Thank you Daryl." He nodded in response and they both got out of the car, Daryl only slightly annoyed that Beth opened the door for herself instead of waiting for him to do it.

Beth clutched her purse, trying to calm her nerves, as Daryl shoved his hands in his pockets. "I hear the food is pretty good." That was true, but still Beth couldn't help but feel like it was too much.

Once inside, they were greeted by the hostess. Her voice was overly friendly, but both of them saw the judgmental look that flashed across her face. She was probably thinking that they didn't belong in a place like this, and that they couldn't afford it. She was right. Daryl knew that to pay for this dinner, he would have to skip eating all other food for the next few days.

"Do you have a reservation?"

Beth looked to Daryl, wondering if he had even thought to make one. "Under Dixon, for two." She raised her eyebrows in surprise. He had really planned this out.

Once they were seated, Beth fidgeted, adjusting the hem of her dress, while Daryl's knee jumped up and down. It was obvious that neither of them were comfortable in this environment.

Their waiter quickly came over to take their drink order, tapping his foot as if to say they weren't worth his time. "Um, I think I'll just get a water." Beth said as she looked over the drink menu wondering how they could charge so much for a glass of soda.

"Me too." Daryl said, even though he would have preferred a beer.

Neither of them missed the waiter rolling his eyes at their choices. Both of them returned to looking at the menu. Beth had never really noticed it before, but usually when there had been silence between them, it wasn't uncomfortable like it was now.

Beth sighed, really hoping she wasn't going to offend him by what she was about to say. "You think maybe we could get out of here?"

"What?" Daryl immediately looked confused.

"No, I mean, this is nice and all, it's just...isn't it a lot of money?" She lowered her voice towards the end of sentence.

"Doesn't matter." Daryl said, indirectly answering the question.

In that moment, Beth couldn't help but think how lucky she was, and what a sweetheart Daryl Dixon could be. "I mean, I'm just sayin', that burger joint across the street looked just as good." Her eyes twinkled as she pretended to scan the menu.

A couple more minutes of silence passed before Daryl spoke up. "I could go for a burger."

Beth grinned, the smile lighting up her entire face, making Daryl's stomach flutter. She quickly scooted out of the booth and grabbed his hand, pulling him behind her. The hostess looked confused as she saw them almost running towards the exit, Beth yelling a simple "thank you" behind her.

Once outside, they left the truck in the parking lot of the steak house and ran across the street to the run down 50s style diner. Both of them immediately felt more at ease as an older women in a pink uniform dress and a white apron seated them at a bright red booth with a rip on one cushion.

"Can I get ya somethin' to drink?" She asked as they both sat down.

"Coke." It was a better choice than water.

"Can I get a strawberry milkshake?" Beth asked, her stomach growling at the thought. Even the idea of that made Daryl's mouth water.

"Sure thing, hun."

Beth smiled across the table at Daryl as their waitress walked away. "Now this is much better."

Daryl couldn't help but agree.

"I just want you to know, Daryl. I ain't some princess who needs a bunch of fancy things. I'm happy just to spend time with you." Her words were sincere, that much Daryl knew.

"Don't know why. I ain't much." His words were quiet as he looked back down at the menu.

"You should give yourself some more credit, Daryl. You're a good person." Beth could tell the compliments were making him feel just a little uncomfortable, as it was obvious he didn't like this kind of attention, not having been used to it. So instead of continuing, she changed the subject. "Now, do I get the double bacon cheeseburger? Or the barbecue whiskey burger?"

It was nice for Daryl, to see her wanting to order some real food instead of some salad or some shit. That was one thing he couldn't stand. "Why don't each order one and then we can share?" Had those words really just come out of his mouth?

"I like the way you think, Mr. Dixon." Jesus, had those words really come out of her mouth? He was positive that his cock twitched a little in his jeans.

They did decide to each order a different kind of burger and share. Soon both of them found they were having a lot of fun, more of getting to know each other, and joking around. By the end of the meal, they both found they weren't quite ready to call it a night.

"So tell me Daryl, you ever play miniature golf?"

"Pft, like I ain't ever played mini golf." He hadn't, but Daryl was always up for a challenge.

He quickly paid for their meal, leaving a generous tip for the kind old waitress, and they went back to truck and headed on over to little fun park where they would be able to rent some clubs and play mini golf.

She would tease him as he got stuck with the pink club, and he would blush as Beth figured out he had never really played before, so she showed him how to stand and lightly tap the ball instead of an all out swing. Beth smiled as they saw a couple with a little boy, close to Jackson's age, having just some good old fashioned family fun. "We should bring Jax here. I think he'd like it."

She just looked at him and nodded, completely and utterly touched.

In the end, always the fast learner, Daryl would win, but only by a couple of points. Beth made him promise a re-match as they made their way back to the car. Once again, she couldn't help but beam as he opened the door for her, not used to such good treatment.

The ride home was silent, but unlike the one at the steak house, it was a comfortable one, both feeling content.

Back at her house, Daryl parked the car, and Beth waited as he re-installed the car seat, "Just in case," he had said. Beth double checked it when he was done, and when both deemed it safe, he walked her to the door. Both making sure to be quiet, not wanting to wake up Jackson.

"Thank you for tonight, Daryl. I mean it."

"Anytime, Beth." And she knew that he meant it. She waited just a few seconds, to see if he was going to make a move. When it seemed like he wasn't going to, she turned around to open the door.

She felt his hand on her arm, gently tugging her back around. When she faced him, his lips were quickly on hers. Firmly pushing against her own. It started off sweet, but soon it was as if they couldn't consume enough of each other. He took her bottom lip between his teeth, tugging on the fragile skin. Their tongues tangled, fighting for dominance when he was finally granted access. It was only when he realized he had her pushed up against her own front door did he pull away, to be greeted with the sight of Beth Greene with tousled hair, swollen lips, and a heaving chest. "Good night, Beth."

She was slightly disappointed that she hadn't gathered the courage to drag him inside with her, but knew it was only her raging hormones trying to get her in trouble. Once inside, she peaked out the curtains to see him mount his bike, start it up, and take off.

"Spying on him now?" Tara's voice behind her made Beth jump about a foot in the air.

"Jesus, Tara! Scared me half to death."

Tara laughed, "Sorry, just couldn't help myself." Beth only rolled her eyes.

Getting out her wallet to pay Tara, Beth questioned about the night. "How did it go? Was he good? Is he sleeping?"

"Relax Beth, it all went fine. He's out like a light. In his own bed, might I add." Beth was glad to hear that, knowing she wanted him to get more comfortable sleeping by himself in his own room.

Once she paid Tara, and sent her on home, Beth stopped into Jackson's room to check on the sleeping boy. He was on his stomach, arms and legs sprawled out in all different directions, and she was sure there was a drool puddle forming on his pillow. She kissed him on the head and pulled the covers up higher on him before heading to her own room to try and get some sleep.

Thinking back to their kiss, Beth couldn't help but fall into her own dreams, with a small smile seemingly permanently etched on her face.

So not a whole lot of excitement, but I promise you that is coming :) I've missed you all and I hope you've missed me (or my writing) too. Let me know what you thought! Thank you to Christy for getting my butt back into gear. Love you girl 3