Well better late than never! I know it's Christmas night but I figure people won't care much because it's Christmas and it's Bethyl and that's just the best thing ever. So here goes, the next installment. I think the last one will be a combined Christmas and New Year's fic.

"Morning sleepyhead." Beth smiled softly at Daryl as he came down the stairs. He sat down beside her on the sofa, dragging one hand over the scruff on his face. She didn't even crack a smile or flinch when he propped his feet up on the coffee table in front of them, grey rabbit slippers and all. That was the deal. He would wear them since he was grumbling about his feet being cold all the time before she brought them home from a trip to the commissary. In return she wouldn't laugh at him wearing them. It didn't stop her from giggling uncontrollably into her pillow at night.

"Mornin'." He grumbled. He was normally more of a morning person but it seemed the colder it got and the less he had to get out and hunt and just basically survive, the more he just wanted to bury himself in the covers in the mornings.

Beth silently handed Daryl a cup of coffee from the stash they had found the week before. It had been hidden way in the back of the pantry. "Knew you could probably use it after we were up so late." She blushed at the hidden implication of her words and her fingers slipped and she nearly upended the entire cup of coffee in Daryl's lap. "Sorry." She laughed as the coffee sloshed on her fingers.

Daryl watched as Beth delicately flicked her tongue out and caught a drop of coffee on the end of her index finger. He squirmed in his seat as he watched her. If it had been any time before she had kissed him the night before he was sure he would have thought nothing of the gesture and what it was doing to him at the moment.

That was the hell of it, Daryl decided, ever since Beth had kissed him he could think of nothing else. He wanted to do it again.

"Yeah someone was a chatter box last night." Daryl smirked in her direction as he took a sip of the warm liquid, groaning aloud as it slid down his throat. ""S really good." He nodded to the cup of coffee. "Thanks."

"It's nothing." Beth waved him off and grinned at him. "Besides, if I remember correctly, I wasn't the only one yammerin' on." She looked at him shyly. Sometimes she didn't know how far to take their teasing, when it might be too much. But lately, he'd been so relaxed about everything and it felt more and more that she could really say anything to him and he'd be okay with it.

Daryl shrugged. "Guess you bring that out in me." He cleared his throat and sat his cup down. "Tree looks good. Half expected squirrels to break in and eat all the popcorn last night."

Beth looked at the tree and laughed. "Now that would be a sight." She sighed. "My mama used to insist on colored lights. And Daddy always wanted the clear kind." She looked at Daryl and reached for his hand. It was times like these she missed them most. She thread her fingers through his.

"So which one did you end up havin'?" Daryl watched her as she tried to hold back tears. It was Christmas. Of course she missed them more today. He didn't think he really thought about it much. But he did now. He knew that he would never look at anything the same way now that he was with Beth. That gave him pause for thought. With Beth. It was something alright this thing between them.

Beth smiled through her tears. "Wouldn't you know we had both? One strand of each alternating. It was the stupidest thing at the time but now I realize that was the thing that was most precious to me." She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. "So silly of me to be cryin' over such things."

Daryl scooted closer to her as if his body had a mind of its own. But he couldn't let her sit there thinking that what she was feeling was something bad. "'S not silly if that's the way you feel." It was like Beth's hands magically let go of his and his hands were up beside her face, tracing the path her tears had made like his fingers could somehow place them back in her eyes where they belonged. "I bet it was the prettiest tree in three counties." His heart thrilled when that earned him a smile.

Beth grinned at him. "It really was. Thank you." She didn't know how but he always knew what to say to put a smile back on her face.

"For what?" He asked.

"For always makin' me smile."

Daryl snorted. "Seems I've done more to make ya mad before than I have to make ya smile."

Beth shook her head. "No way. Ya ain't made me mad in a long time." Beth stared into his eyes and she knew as long as she lived she would never get tired of this man and his swoon-worthy stares just like he was doing right now. She looked at his lips. She had kissed him the night before. Now she was waiting to see if it was something he wanted to pursue. The ball was in his court, so to speak.

Daryl looked away because the intensity of her baby blues were too much to take all at once sometimes. He looked back at her and he knew he wanted to kiss her. No, he needed to kiss her. He glanced at her lips and hell he didn't know how to do any of this. Was he supposed to wait for a signal?

"Will it make ya mad if I kiss ya?" Daryl didn't think he breathed the whole second it took for her to respond.

Daryl asking to kiss her had to be quite possibly the sweetest thing in the world. "Not at all." She breathed and then his lips were on hers. Beth sighed as her hands found their way to the front of his t-shirt, gripping the fabric lightly and she was all too aware of his masculinity in that moment. Her mouth opened under his and she couldn't quite help the slight gasp as his tongue entered her mouth, sliding against her own as he thread his fingers through her hair.

He was lost and drowning and saved and floating all at the same time and it made his heart pound faster, the blood pumping through his veins like it never had. He wasn't sure he liked it and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to stop feeling that way, but kissing Beth Greene was the best damned thing on the face of the earth. She tasted like coffee and sugar and she was just fucking perfect. He pulled away, leaning his head against hers for a moment and then pulled away. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Got somethin' for ya."

Beth didn't know which she was surprised more by at the moment. The kiss she knew was something she'd be reliving the rest of the day. But the fact that he had something for her was even more intriguing. It wasn't that he'd brought her something. They did that for each other all the time. But he was handing her a present that he had evidently wrapped himself. The paper was plain brown and yet Beth knew it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"For me?" Beth echoed, smiling up at him as he placed the package in her lap.

Daryl nodded. "Go on. Open it." He brought his thumb up to his mouth, worrying the flesh with his teeth. He hoped like hell he had done the right thing. He saw it in a store front window past the walls and anything out that far was considered fair game. So he'd gone in and gotten it.

Beth peeled back the paper to reveal a soft white cardigan woven with the finest cashmere. It reminded her a lot of a sweater she'd had a lifetime ago, if not even longer than that.

"Know how ya hate being cold and how much you still miss the other one." They'd agreed to throw out the other sweater as covered in grime as the other one had come. Beth had balked at getting rid of the yellow shirt she'd worn for weeks on end. For whatever reason she had formed an attachment to it so he'd left well enough alone. "Figured I owed ya this one anyway, on account I got walker blood all over the other one."

Beth blinked at Daryl not quite believing that he had remembered. She knew he was referring to the white sweater she had put on at the golf resort all those months ago. "You didn't owe me Daryl." She grinned at him, pulling the sweater on over her t-shirt. "But I'm glad ya got it. I love it." She leaned over and placed her lips against his cheek. It felt a little strange after her tongue had just been in his mouth moments ago. "I got ya somethin' too." Her lips quirked up at the surprised expression on his face.

She stood up and walked to the kitchen and retrieved the tray of food she had made them for their first Christmas in their home.

Daryl watched in awe as she placed the items in front of him. A jar of pickled pigs feet, peanut butter, jelly and honest to God Coca-Cola. How she had come by such a delicacy he would never know. He was speechless. That wasn't a new thing. But this thing clenching his heart. That was new. He figured he knew what it was but he wasn't willing to put it to name. Not just yet.

"It's just like our first redneck brunch." She said quietly from beside him as he just stared blinking at the items. He couldn't believe she'd remembered. It shocked him even more that it obviously meant as much to her as it had to him. It still did. He looked up at her.

"This is the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me. I mean." He shrugged, speechless again. He huffed, getting frustrated at himself. "Ya remembered." He looked at her and it was just like they were back in the funeral home again. He figured it would always come back to that for them. That conversation that they never really got to finish. "It was you ya know. You changed my mind, Beth. You did. With all your good and your hope and faith in every damn thing when there weren't no faith to be had. Ya changed my mind and ya changed me." He wouldn't ever be the same. Hell, he'd never been the same since he left the prison with her.

"We've both come a long way, Daryl." Beth said quietly. "But somehow, we never lost what we had then. We just picked it all back up."

Daryl nodded. "Mmm." He hummed his response. ""S like it should be." He leaned back against the sofa, very aware of how close she was to him.

Beth beamed at him. "It is." She pulled the sweater around her tighter as she sat back against the sofa. She couldn't help but think about how different she felt about Daryl now than the last time she'd worn a sweater like this; his rage causing walker blood to spew over the only clean clothes she'd had in weeks. And now. Now she felt completely different. Not just about him, but about each other.

"It looks good on ya." Daryl reached a hand out, pulling her hair out from where a long lock of it had tucked itself inside the sweater. He let her hair drift to her shoulder and not sure what else to do with his hands he gripped her shoulder and almost as if he were willing it to happen, he gently pulled her to him. She came easily into his arms as he held her as if she would break, as if they would break.

"Merry Christmas Beth." He whispered.

"Merry Christmas Daryl." She whispered it back as she closed her eyes and his lips met hers in their second kiss of the day.

It couldn't be any more perfect really as she sat there kissing Daryl Dixon. It was the end of the world and danger still lurked at every corner but in here, inside their home with the man she loved, it was perfect. It wasn't exactly the picture perfect Christmas she had always dreamed of but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope you guys liked it, the last installment will be coming soon so stay tuned! Until next time, xoxoxo

PS – if you follow my other fics, updates are coming up on them all, yes even No Strings Attached!