"Daryl? Beth? You two want to clear upstairs?" Rick took another cautious step into the abandoned house, followed closely by Beth, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie. "The rest of us will take this floor and scout the basement." Rick croaked out the last few words of his directions. His desperation for his family to have somewhere safe to rest was palpable. They all felt the same after days of constant moving and too many close calls.
"Yeah, we'll head upstairs." He agreed without hesitation, signaling for Beth to follow him up the carpeted stairway. She wasn't willing to hang back anymore, not since escaping the hospital, and Daryl had sworn that if she was going to insist on being in harm's way, she was sure as hell going to be with him.
After pairing up on so many runs, Daryl and Beth now worked together seamlessly, reading each other's body language so they could move around without any noisy communication. They proceeded through each room thoroughly, attempting to seek out any dangers before those threats could find them.
Luckily, other than some mice, there was no life in sight. The safety seemed to hit both Daryl and Beth at once, and upon hearing a chorus of "all clears" from down stairs, Beth broke into a relieved smile.
"All clear!" Daryl called back, returning Beth's grin as he slung his crossbow over his back. "We're gon' look around for anythin useful. Be down in a minute!"
As if on cue, Beth sheathed her knife and connected with Daryl in one swift movement. His arms immediately pulled her closer as he dropped his mouth to hers. He knew she still wanted to scold him. It had been a tough few days and he had made more than one dangerous move out on the road. But luckily they didn't have time for arguing now. The had to take advantage of this temporary privacy.
"We're safe," she murmured into his lips.
Daryl struggled to keep any focus on listening for the stairs as Beth's intoxicating taste drew him into a fog. He nudged the door closed behind them, hoping that would buy them a little time should Carl or someone else wander up the stairs.
"Safe for now." He eventually replied, a shiver running through his limbs as Beth slid a hand under his shirt and traced his belt with her fingers.
"Not now, Greene," Daryl mumbled, though he indicated other plans as he pressed her against the bedroom wall, running his hands down her waist and to her hips.
"I know." Beth pulled her head back from his so she could look him in the eye, her voice suddenly serious. "I'm just reminding you what you're missin. Why you gotta stay safe. We can only be together if we're both alive."
Daryl smirked, he had never had a better reason for staying safe, "You're playin dirty, Greene."
She smiled back, whispering, "I have my priorities," before moving back in to take advantage of the little alone time they had.
Daryl couldn't help but worry about Beth as they continued to trudge south. She would never admit if she were tired, if she needed to sit down and take a break. The trio must have moved almost 5 miles, which felt more like 12 in the summer's heat. Beth's skin had turned a bright pink but she did not make any indication of slowing down. Her determined face made her reasons clear: just because they couldn't hear the walkers anymore didn't mean they were out of danger, that Ella was out of danger.
"Want my water?" Daryl offered, motioning to the canteen slung over his shoulder.
Beth did not respond to Daryl, but rather turned to Ella, who was walking between her parents, holding both of their hands firmly. "You thirsty, hun?"
"No… I already had some…" She peeped, keeping her eyes on the tree line. Ella had yet to cry, but even though she no longer required being carried her body remained tense.
"You need to have some." Daryl prompted, holding the canteen out to Beth who accepted it after a moment of hesitation. "We'll find more soon."
Beth nodded, taking a short sip. Relief flashed across her face before she went in for a longer swig.
"Ya two tired?" Daryl finally ventured, trying not to sound doubtful.
"No." Ella said quickly, finally looking away from the woods and up to her father. "Mama and I run a lot. So we can be strong."
Daryl smiled at Ella before looking over to Beth, "You run? Like joggin? Didn't think you had a need for that inside the gates."
"Exactly why I run. Would've been too easy to let myself get lazy. To get used too pretending everything was how it used to be." Beth smiled faintly, looking over at Ella and squeezing her hand, "I started jogging in the mornings a little while after El was born. Gave me a way to forget… well actually… it gave me a way to be able to think again. She started comin with me for a part of my run every morning last year. She can almost make it the whole way now." Pride slipped into Beth's voice as she looked back up to Daryl.
"How do ya have any energy for school then?" He inquired, turning to face Ella.
Ella smiled faintly, "I gots lots of energy."
Daryl smirked back, lowering his voice to a whisper, "I did too. Got me into some trouble as a kid."
"Me too!" Ella laughed. After a moment, Ella's face fell again, as she looked around her. "When do we get to go home?"
"Tomorrow I hope…" Daryl answered, though he wasn't so confident in his answer after how long it took them to shake that herd.
"Why not today?" Ella inquired, a whine slipping into her tone.
"We should give them… the walkers… a day to move on. Get farther away." Daryl responded, careful to avoid the fact that heading North right now was almost certain death.
"Where will we sleep?" Ella continued, finally getting to the question that was clearly weighing on her mind. The sun wasn't very high in the sky anymore. Sunset couldn't be far away.
"You ever went campin?"
"One time mama and I slept in a tent outside?"
"Well, we'll sleep outside. Or find a cabin to borrow." Daryl looked up to Beth, whose face was finally a little less pink, "I think I saw a deer blind when we were runnin. So there are probably some huntin cabins around here if we can find one."
"How do we find one?" Beth asked, squinting her eyes as she once again peered into the woods around them.
"Any side roads off this one probably lead to a cabin. Otherwise, all we can do is just keep an eye out."
Daryl felt Ella's hand tighten around his before she spoke up quietly, "So… it's just like campin…" She asked again, biting her bottom lip.
"Yup." Beth chimed in, a forced lightness in her voice, "I used to camp when I was your age. With aunt Maggie and my brother Shawn. We'd sleep out in the fields."
Ella smiled, clearly pleased at doing anything like her mother. She then turned to Daryl, "Did you camp when you were little? Like me? Like mama?"
Daryl let out a single, uncomfortable laugh. At some point Ella would need to be filled in on his past. He couldn't build a relationship on lies. But now wasn't the time to reveal his nights out in the woods or the reasons leading to them. "Somethin' like that." He finally admitted.
The confirmation was enough for Ella and she let out a dramatic sigh, finally dropping her parent's hands and moving out a few steps ahead of them.
"Okay. I'll try to like campin."
"Roof is a goner, but the walls seem sound enough." Daryl assessed, pulling up a piece of the large branch sitting on the floor of the cabin. He assumed it must have fallen through during a past storm, causing most of the damage.
"It seems dirty in here." Ella crinkled her nose, looking around the dark cabin in the fading light. "There are lots of bugs and it smells funny."
Daryl held back the need to point out there were likely rodents too, and instead knelt in front of his daughter, taking her backpack from her shoulders and looking her in the eye. "Nothin can hurt you in here. We'll be safe. Remember, it's just like camping."
"When we camped mama had sleeping bags. And snacks."
As if on cue, Beth pulled a single blanket from Daryl's bag, and placed it over the dusty cot in the corner of the cabin. "Well, this time you have a bed." Beth presented it with an encouraging smile. "And…" Beth drew out the word, taking Ella's emergency bag from Daryl and pulling something out of the front pocket.
"You have candy!" Ella yelled but quickly quieted her voice when met with stern looks from both of her parents.
"Remember. Quiet. All the time." Daryl chided, trying to hold back his smile at her delighted response.
"Where was it?!" Ella pried, her voice a dramatic whisper.
"In your emergency pack." Beth handed over a piece of hard candy to Ella, who immediately unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth as if all of her worries had disappeared. Daryl couldn't help but be jealous of how quickly she put danger out of her mind. In her world, she believed that Beth being there equaled complete safety. And he hoped that one day soon she could have the same faith in him.
"You didn't tell me there was candy in there." Ella mumbled around the sweets, casting a betrayed look to her pink bag as Beth placed it next to the doorway of the dusty cabin.
"You would have eaten it!" Beth jokingly accused as Daryl began collecting fallen boards and branches from the floor.
Upon seeing his effort, Beth jumped in, salvaging nails that must have fallen from the roof when part of it collapsed in. "Sit on the bed sweetie, until I clean these up." She directed, pointing Ella toward the cot.
Ella shuffled over and took a seat, wrinkling her nose at the musty smell of the cot.
"It's just one night." Daryl promised, reading her sickened expression.
Daryl and Beth worked quietly for a while, barricading and boarding up potential entrances as much as they could. They didn't need to speak to know the shack wouldn't be enough against the herd, but it would hold off a few walkers from getting too close.
"Is this where you lived before me?" Ella asked suddenly, looking over at Beth and Daryl.
"Places like this." Beth explained. "For a while we lived at my house. One like our house now but on a farm, like where Maggie and Glenn work. It's where I first met your dad."
Daryl smiled, recalling a time when Beth was only the farmer's daughter to him. The idea seemed so impossible now.
"Then we lived in a…" she paused, searching for the right word, "it was called the prison. It was very big. And had a fence around it. We lived there for a long time too. But we had to move a lot. To stay safe."
Ella crossed her legs on the cot, "Will we have to move too?"
"Maybe," Daryl jumped in, "but it's not too scary, right? We'll stay together. And we're safe when we stay together."
"I guess…" Ella was quiet for a while, seemingly deep in thought.
"Walkers didn't always exist, right?" She asked, just as Daryl and Beth started to return to work.
Beth sighed, looking to Daryl before answering, "No sweetie. The world used to be very different. For most of our lives… well, walkers didn't exist. There were lots of people. Lots of towns like ours."
"Will it ever be like that again?"
"Maybe." Beth answered, though her tone was hesitant.
Ella continued, spitting out more questions as her young curiosity overtook any remaining fear, "Would you go back in time… like Uncle Glenn's stories… and never have walkers be real?"
Beth was quiet for a while and Daryl looked between her and Ella, who stared back quietly, awaiting a response.
"If I could make all the walkers alive go away right now, I would. But I wouldn't change everything that's happened." Beth finally admitted, barely able to hide the pain in her voice. "Cause I met your daddy… and I had you. I'm not sure that would be possible without everything that happened. Plus, time travel is just pretend, right? We can't change the past, only the future."
Ella looked confused by her mother's response but shrugged it off and instead asked, "Can I have another piece of candy?"
"She's asleep." Beth whispered from the cot. A moment later, the joints of the bed creaked as she slid out of it, walking barefoot over to the table where Daryl sat with his bow and a single burning candle.
"I might go back." Daryl admitted suddenly, spitting out the words before he could lose his nerve.
"What?" Beth raised an eyebrow, cocking her head slightly to the left as she sat down next to Daryl. Casually she took a piece of the jerky from his hands and put it to her lips.
"Ella's question? If I could undo everything that's happened with the walkers… everything that's happened to you… I mean, I know I couldn't now, since we wouldn't have Ella… But before her..." Daryl paused, knowing his words weren't making sense. He took a deep breath and started over, "If I could do somethin to let you go back and have had a normal life, a safe life, I would do anythin' for you to have gotten that… You would'a gone to college. Met some rich, educated guy. Moved into a nice house. You'd have your family... You coulda had everything. I wish you could've had what you deserved. A normal life."
Beth was quiet and when Daryl finally raised his eyes to look at her she almost looked hurt by his admission.
"I deserve you." Beth said, meeting Daryl's eyes. "I miss my family. Still. Every day." Beth kept her voice low as she spoke, leaning toward Daryl and reaching out to touch his knee, "But things happen and I can't look back anymore. That normal doesn't exist. This my normal now. Sure, it's not perfect. But I have you again. We have our daughter. We still have Maggie, and Glenn, and Rick. It's our normal and I'd do anything to keep it safe."
A/N- Thanks for reading, please let me know what you thought!
