Beth was driving Rick nuts.

Before, even if he'd pretended to himself that he hadn't noticed, he had felt her eyes caressing him. He had the bizarre comfort of knowing she still wanted him, even if he'd told himself it would never happen. Her eyes gave him the crazy knowledge that even if he didn't want her, she still wanted him. And bizarrely, that had been enough for a while.

But now, it was almost like she had some sort of diabolical plan to torture him, and the entire prison population, even his son, functioned as her accomplices.

First was that kid Zach following her around, laughing all the time. Rick told himself it was a good thing, Zach being closer to her in age and all, but he hated it. Hated seeing their heads bent together, and hearing Beth's happy laughter. Hated the unbidden fantasy that popped up when he saw them, the one where Rick strangled the life from Zach and tossed him over the fence to a hungry pack of walkers, watching them rip the flesh from Zach's bones. Then there was the one where his knuckles rearranged Zach's pretty boy features into a bloody pulp, he was partial to that fantasy because the boy actually got to live. Instead, he forced himself to smile at the young man, to nod his head at Beth like he was happy for her.

3 days had passed since the illness swept the prison, and Rick and Beth's relationship had shifted yet again. Before Beth had most often treated him with deferential respect, an acknowledgment of their differences in age and experience. Now she boldly met his eyes, and behaved like an equal, so much so that a switch happened in Rick's mind from Beth the girl to Beth the woman. Late at night, he would lay on his bunk and fantasize about her, about waking up to that smile, running his fingers over her long blond hair, kissing her sweet lips...

Still amazed at her actions during the illness, he now regarded her with a touch of awe. This afternoon she'd walked down to the garden, a laughing Judith on her hip, and the longing that swept through him made him bite his bottom lip until he drew blood. Beth was not for him, and as she stopped where he kneeled, he gained his feet and stood a touch too close to her. A scent of honeysuckle teased his senses (he'd brought the scented lotion to her after a group came back from a run, back when they'd been living their little fantasy) and Beth gave Rick such a knowing, little smile, so full of confidence, that he'd snatched Judith from her quickly, so quickly that Judy started crying and reached back for Beth.

Rick was instantly contrite, cooing and nuzzling at Judith until the baby's happy laughter returned. He hesitated to look back at Beth, snatching the baby was the kind of thing Lori would have made him pay for doing long afterwards, with disappointed looks, put-upon sighs, and the silent treatment. Judith started humming, and he finally looked at Beth, and her huge grin made his heart seem to skip a beat.

"She's humming like her momma," he whispered and Beth's grin melted away as her eyes filled with the heat he remembered so well.

"She's gorgeous like her father," Beth said back softly, and he lost himself in her wide, blue eyes for a moment, before shaking his head sharply, handing Judith back, and effectively dismissing them as he turned to kneel in the dirt.

"Eventually you'll stop running and let me catch you," Beth promised his back before turning toward the prison. Rick watched her walk, his eyes caressing her tiny frame, the mother of his child, but not his. It contradicted what should be, but it was what it was.

As the last flip of her blond ponytail disappeared, Rick felt the hard press of eyes on him. Daryl stood about ten feet away, chewing on his thumbnail, his gaze knowing, too.

"Why you fighting that, Rick?"

Daryl's best friend status was the only thing that stopped Rick from telling him to mind his own business. Rick swallowed hard and set back on his heels, "I don't know anymore. Just seems like the right thing, you know."

At Daryl's quirked eyebrow, he continued, "Okay, maybe she has a crush on me now, but what about 5 years from now? I'll always be so much older than her."

The archer grunted and looked out across the yard to the small group of moaning walkers gathered at the fence line, "Hmm. 5 years. Somebody promised you you'll be alive then?"

Rick tugged at the weeds, ignoring Daryl's gaze, but not his point.

"The way I see it is you could be dead tomorrow and then what? She spends the rest of her life pining for you. Or vice versa?" After dropping that little bomb, Daryl headed to the fence, and Rick dug back into the garden, Daryl's words ringing in his ears.

Maggie and Glenn worked on him too, little comments here and there, as did Carol and even Carl.

Carl was all about little comments, little digs, little reminders. Yesterday, after Beth brought Judy to her crib in Rick's cell, "Dad, seems if a woman is old enough to be a mother, she's also old enough to be a wife right?"

And Hershel, damn the man, always talking about the age difference between him and his second wife, or how important love and normalcy were in this new world.

Rick wanted to strangle the lot of them after he'd finally made it through dinner because it was so obvious how everyone was focused on match-making. Why the fuck was everyone so concerned with his love life?

His eyes sought out Beth, where she sat a table over, laughing at Zach. Again. Damn it all. He glared at the pair of them, imaging stalking across the room and body-slamming the boy into the floor. As wound up as he felt, it took extreme will power not to, instead he jerked up so quickly his chair fell over with a loud clang on the concrete. Beth instantly met his eyes, and even though Rick knew his expression couldn't have been attractive, she calmly held his gaze. Without a word to anyone, he stomped from the dining room and headed outside.

He knew his behavior was unacceptable, and he'd probably feel bad about it later, even embarrassed, but for right now the anger felt good coursing through his veins. He scrubbed his hands over his beard, and leaned back against the prison wall, his breath huffing in and out of his chest.

"Rick?" And there she was, the object of his torture, standing glowing in a beam of moonlight, looking so beautiful.

"Get back inside, Beth," Rick ground out between clenched teeth.

"No, I don't think so," she took several steps closer, into the shadows where Rick was, leaning next to him against the wall, "please talk to me, Rick."

"Talk!" he growled, "But that's not what I want to do," turning to her, he roughly grabbed her waist, picking her up and pressing her between the concrete and his body.

Beth instantly twined her arms around his neck, "Yes, whatever you want."

Rick palmed her butt, and ground his hips into her softness, "What if this is what I want? Up against the prison wall?"

Beth's breath came in a soft pant, "Doesn't matter where. Just touch me Rick."

Her eyes were hot, and he knew she'd let him take her up against the concrete, but seeing desire flushing her sweet, young face instantly drained away Rick's anger.

She must seen the change in his expression because just as he started to let go of the softness of her bottom, she grasped his neck tighter and hitched her legs over his hips, locking her legs around his waist, and her eyes were glaring as she leaned into his face, "You're not pushing me away this time, Rick Grimes."