All I Ever Will Be
Chapter 24 - Answers
A/N: Hi guys! Sorry for the amount of time it took me to get this up. I went back and re-wrote a HUGE chunk of the first part of this story, adding a lot of Beth's POV and getting rid of some of the details that didn't really make sense. If you're interested, please go back and read - or don't! The story will still make sense from here on out. As always, thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following and all that. You guys are the best!
Beth woke slowly, blinking her eyelids open as the world swam into view. The room was the same as it had been since she'd chosen it, the walls - a white pine that reflected the sun that snuck in through the blinds, an oriental rug covering the ground beneath the bed. The bed was just as comfortable, just as plush as it had been the first night she sank into it. But her world now was very, very different.
Daryl's arms were still around her, holding her close to his warm, still naked body. She was awake now, aware of his skin touching her own. She looked down at his arms, touching him softly, tracing her fingertips over his forearms. He stirred behind her, giving a tired grunt and he placed his chin on her shoulder, kissing her ear through her hair. His breath was warm, landing on the sensitive skin of her neck and she shivered, wrapping her fingers around his arm.
She rolled over towards him slowly, wanting to face him. Daryl's hair was swept to the side, his sharp features illuminated in the sunlight behind him. His eyes were tired and serious, as piercingly blue as ever. The way he looked at her made her stomach jump, butterflies erupting deep in her belly. She brought her hands up to his face, touching the scruff of his beard and it felt prickly on her fingers. She touched his lips then and his mouth turned up into a grin.
"What're doin'?" he mumbled, puckering his lips to kiss her fingers as they explored his face.
"Touchin' you," she answered.
"Mmm," he groaned in satisfaction. "You okay?" he asked, bringing one of his arms around to the small of her back to pull her closer to him. Their skin met, her breasts pushed up against his chest, his shaft against her leg, threatening excitement. He was so warm and strong and all she could think about was how he'd filled her so completely last night. A jolt in her pelvis made her lick her lips and want to jump him all over again.
"I'm great," Beth breathed, kissing along his jaw, trailing her fingers down his shoulders.
A loud knock came then from their door - fist meeting the wood, rattling it hurriedly. They were both startled - the moment, broken.
"Ya'll comin' down for breakfast?" It was Rick. "I'm cookin'!"
Beth watched Daryl as he looked towards the door then back at Beth, squinting his eyes closed, looking pained. Without releasing his grip on her, he cleared his throat. "Yeah," he called loudly. "We'll be down."
"Good," she heard Rick say on the other side of the door.
Daryl's eyes met Beth's and he grinned goofily at her, his shoulders trembling with laughter. "Ah fuck," he whispered.
"What's so funny?" Beth asked, feeling confused.
"Breakfast is gonna be rough," Daryl said simply, bringing his lips to her forehead to kiss her. "That bastard."
"Rough, how?"
Daryl reached up to touch the headboard of the bed, pushing it so that it hit the wall behind it. "Mmm," he said. "Reckon we might have made some noise last night."
Beth broke away from his body, grasping at the thin sheet that was at her midsection so it would cover her chest. "Noise? Did he…did they, hear us?" Beth shrieked, a little louder than she intended. She was horrified at the thought that someone could have heard what had happened last night. It was such an intimate thing. She squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the steady rhythm they'd been in and the loud banging of the bed's headboard slamming into the wall. She'd been too consumed last night to care - but now?
Daryl grinned at her, sitting up himself. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.
Her face was hot and she knew she was blushing, just thinking what Rick and Michonne must of thought - and Judith! And Carl! She brought her hands up to her mouth, covering her nose as she cringed inwardly. Oh, what Daddy would think of her now!
"Just so you know, I didn't…plan for that to happen or nothin'," Daryl started awkwardly, staring at her nervously. "I hope…" he struggled to find his words. "I hope it was okay. It's been a while."
She brought her hands away from her face. "Oh Daryl, it was wonderful," she said, still feeling horrified. "I just wish the whole house hadn't heard!"
"What's it matter?" Daryl asked, bringing his face closer to hers, leaning in to kiss her. "You told me to stop worryin' what everyone else thinks about this."
He was right, she had said that. And she'd meant it too - but she hadn't anticipated this. He was close to her nose, his eyes closed in front of her, so she let him kiss her, her shoulders relaxing as she tasted him again - sweaty, smoky, lovely Daryl.
Embarrassment still overcame her when he broke away to look at her. "Can we just stay here?" she asked, feeling foolish - wanting to sink into the sheets and disappear. "Maybe they'll forget about it in a few days?"
Daryl shook his head at her. "Let them have their fun," he said, brushing her cheek with his hand. "All I care about is that I get to love you."
It was such an un-like Daryl thing to say, so she acknowledged it, clasping her hand to his, still on her cheek, nestling into it. "You're a romantic, Daryl Dixon," she teased.
He acted mock offended to her observation. "Am not. Just saying what I feel," he said. "Let's get on down to breakfast."
Rick was a terrible cook, so Michonne had taken over, mixing together something that looked an awful lot like pancakes. "Applesauce," Michonne said to Carl, without turning around, "is the trick, when you don't have any eggs."
Daryl and Beth entered the kitchen as casually as possible, trying to not attract any attention to themselves. Rick was sitting at the table, pouring over the blueprints that Daryl had shown him, as well as the moleskin notebook he'd found before his accident.
Judith noticed their presence first, squealing on the floor of the kitchen where she sat among a variety of pots and pans, clanging away with a wooden spoon. The scene looked so normal to Beth, besides the fact that they all might has well have been in the room as Beth and Daryl were making love last night. The moment she thought of it, her cheeks flushed, though she'd willed them not to and she succumbed to the embarrassment at last.
"Beth! Daryl," Rick said, looking up from the table. "Glad you could join us!"
Michonne let out a small giggle from the stove, still facing away from them, her hand on her hip. She flipped a pancake.
"Smells good," Beth commented, trying to ease the awkwardness.
"Come on and sit down," Rick said, motioning for them to take a seat at the table. He scooped up the blueprints and the notebook, revealing that their places had already been set with plates and silverware. Beth obliged, sitting on the chair next to Rick. Daryl followed suit, sitting down slowly, eyeing Rick suspiciously.
After shifting the blueprints to the floor, Rick placed his elbows on the table, folded his hands together and rested his chin on top of them. "So," he said, drawing it out. "How'd you sleep?"
Beth's eyes widened and she knew instantly that he was teasing them. Despite Rick's good intentions, Beth was horrified.
"Ah Rick, will you let them be!" Michonne scolded, following it with a laugh. Carl was standing beside her, holding a plate onto which she plated a stack of pancakes.
Rick looked at Michonne, a wide grin planted on his face. "Ah, I'm just having some fun," he defended himself.
"You are not!" Michonne said, coming to the table with the plate of pancakes. She set it down gently in the center of the table. "You're makin' them squirm in their seats. Hush!"
Rick obliged and Beth looked up at her gratefully. Michonne gave her a quick wink, sitting down at a seat herself and picking up Judith to sit in her lap. Carl came to the table last, and they all dug into breakfast which was the most delicious thing Beth had eaten in quite some time. And when Daryl placed his hand around her thigh, she thought things couldn't get much better than they were at that very moment.
They had all cleared the table together, and Rick laid the blueprints back out for he and Daryl to have a look at. He unrolled the large paper, smoothing it at the edges. Daryl saw that it was the one that outlined the bunker. "Have you taken a look through this?" Rick asked Daryl.
Daryl shook his head, feeling slightly unprepared. "Didn't have much time - the injury," he responded. "Meant to, just never quite…got to it."
Rick nodded. "Well, the underground is a maze. According to this, there's the full bunker you and Beth had seen, but there's also a large lab and control center buried under here somewhere." Rick pointed to the blueprint where the additional rooms were labeled. As he scanned the piece of paper, he saw the outline of the tunnel that they'd first walked through and the maze of turns they'd taken to get there. It was quite an impressive structure.
"There's a pantry, supply room, even a water supply down there. I reckon we should sift through it, see what kind of materials we can gather. This house, it's great, but it's wide open in the middle of the woods. We might want to see if we can sustain ourselves down there - in case we get overrun here."
Daryl nodded at Rick, thankful for his leadership. "Yeah," he responded. "Think that's a great plan."
"And this," Rick held up the moleskin notebook that Daryl and Beth had first found when exploring the house. "It's fascinating. I've only read part of it, but seems like whoever built this place was one of the head scientists at the CDC. Left when things went south, so it seems, but also brought a lot of research home over a long period of time." Rick paused for a minute. "Seems whoever's journal this is...might have anticipated that The Turn was coming."
Daryl's eyes widened as Rick spoke, his mind not immediately registering the words he was saying.
"You mean, he might know what caused it?" Daryl asked.
Rick nodded. "There may be information in this very house or beneath it explaining what this is. I think we might finally find some answers, Daryl," Rick said slowly. "We might be able to figure out what caused the outbreak in the first place."