Alexandria Safe Zone is everything Noah had promised them.
They're spotted by the community's lookouts when they're still a couple of miles away, two men who call out to the group before they leave their position in the woods, asking what their intentions are.
"Jake! Luke! It's me, Noah. These are good people, you can come out."
That's apparently all it takes to win the trust of the scouts, the words of one of their former community members, a prodigal son returned. The men emerge from the trees and approach them, clapping Noah on his back, exclaiming about how he seems to have to grown since he left.
"Your father..." The man named Luke trails off, knowing what the obvious answer to the question he would've asked is.
"There's a lot to tell," Noah answers him, "What I can say is that these people saved me, I wouldn't be here without them."
There is a bitterness in Daryl when he thinks on the truth. Beth saved Noah. Beth got him out of that hospital. Beth stepped up when Dawn would've demanded him back. Beth was Noah's only true saviour, while they're only here to take the credit.
"Well, let's not wait any longer to get you back to your mother and brother." Jake says, "You all look like you've been on the road a long time, we'll make sure you're well looked after once we arrive."
The safe zone extends over a few blocks, something similar to Woodbury but on a slighter larger scale and with better walls. Daryl casts a wary eye over their defences on the way in and is glad to see that the wall looks sturdy, and that the guards are well armed. There's around 50 people living there, over 60 now with their arrival. The neighbourhood had been planned as an independent community - there's solar power and a well system for running water, and the beginnings of a community garden just beyond the housing.
There's hugging and crying when Noah is reunited with his mother and younger brother. Whatever grief there is over the loss of his father is overridden at the joy of having him back, when they had long since given up on either returning. The boy's mother wants to shake all their hands, hugging some of them, and Daryl forces himself not to shy away from her touch.
Then it's time to meet the community's leader, Douglas, and have the rules laid down for them. They're allowed to keep their weapons, and that sits right with Daryl. Seems a damn fool idea to have any of your people unarmed in times like these. Noah has been their entry, vouching for them, and so there's no trial period, no expectation that they'll be under watch for awhile until a decision is made on them.
In the morning jobs will be found for them. Douglas explains that everybody here has a job to do, the community would never survive otherwise. Daryl can't help but glance at Maggie, thinking of the words Hershel would so often repeat, the words he'd heard Beth say more than a few times at the prison.
Then they're ushered into an apartment block, given instructions on which places are theirs, and left to work out the rest for themselves.
Gabriel has left them to take the living quarters attached to the safe zone's church. Daryl thinks he seems almost relieved to leave them behind, to finally have a proper fresh start where nobody knows who he is or what he did. The preacher knows they won't tell his secret, knows them well enough after all this time on he road to know they believe in new beginnings.
Maggie and Glenn end up sharing an apartment with Eugene and Tara, while Sasha, Tyreese and Carol take another with Abraham and Rosita. Daryl finds himself sharing with Rick, Carl, Judith and Michonne, which is just fine by him.
It's strange, to stand in this clean apartment, outfitted with furniture, and know that they are safe - that there's someone on guard and they can sleep through the night if they wish to. It's strange to turn on the taps and find running water - hot water. They all take turns showering, and Daryl almost doesn't recognise Rick when he emerges from the bathroom freshly shaved. Carl laughs when he sees it, which starts Michonne and Judith laughing too, and Daryl, he wants to join them, can feel the lightness of the moment, the relief, but...
She should've been here.
Beth should've made it, she should've seen this - should've had hot showers and soft beds, and a place to be safe. Birthdays and summer picnics. Daryl knows they could have it all now if they want it. And none of it feels right without her.
There's fresh clothes for all of them, and he almost feels like a new man when he puts them on once his dirt is washed away, despite the fact the jeans and t-shirt are not what he'd ever choose for himself. He should feel relieved, he should feel like a man feels when he's reached a long cherished destination, victorious at last. Instead he feels empty, hollow right from the inside to the out. The others are celebrating, he's even seen Maggie crack a smile, but he can't bring himself to join them in it, to feel it at all. He's not all here, not really. He left part of himself back in a church in Georgia, and he knows he'll never get it back again.
They all eat together that night, pooling the rations they've been given, sitting around the apartment where Maggie and Glenn are housed. The others raise their glasses of water in toasts to safe havens and surviving, to new lives.
Rick and Carol both notice his silence, Carol touching his hand briefly when she sees him flinch as they toast to survivors, the others are too wrapped up in their joy to notice. Maggie... Maggie still can't bring herself to look him in the eye or maybe she'd see it too from where she sits next to Glenn, subdued but still able to celebrate the victory.
"To those we lost along the way," Rick toasts at last, his voice rough as he thinks on all those souls.
The others are quiet now, raising their glasses and murmuring their assent. Daryl sets his glass down, inclines his head slightly at Carol's inquiring glance to show he's fine, and makes his way out.
There's a curfew, and he doesn't want to be breaking the rules on their first night there, so he makes his way across the hall to their apartment instead, seeking out his room and locking the door.
He strips off his boots, and then his pants, lies down in the bed and pulls the blanket over him, closes his eyes and wills sleep to come.
The bed is too soft, and it doesn't feel right sleeping only partially clothed. He's had too long in the wild, stealing sleep in short snatches, always ready to run at a moment's notice. Even at the prison he used to sleep clothed in everything but his boots, in case he should be needed. The apartment is too quiet, the room too dark, everything too good to be true.
He gets up from the bed and puts his pants back on, pulls the blanket from the bed and wrapping it around him, settles on the floor instead, his crossbow next to his hand, his boots nearby and ready to be pulled on.
Daryl dreams he's back in the funeral home, lying in the coffin as he listens to Beth play that same song, her voice sweet and low. Only this time when she's done and she turns to face him, there are scars upon her face and blood in her hair, her eyes sorrowful and fixed upon him.
"What did you mean, Daryl?" she asks him, and pushing herself off the piano bench she takes a step closer to him, still just out of reach. "What changed your mind?"
"You," he hears himself croak, his voice raw with the pain of releasing words kept inside too long. "You, Beth, you. Only you, and what is there left now?"
She steps towards him, hand outstretched as if to wipe the tears falling from his eyes, and Daryl wakes up, his entire body shaking, a sob forcing its way from his lips.
Dawn is breaking, bathing the room in a low light, and Daryl knows he needs to rise along with it. He takes a shaky breath inwards and rubs at his eyes, leaning forward and reaching for his boots.
He may be alone and it may finally be safe to do so, but Daryl still can't allow himself to break. Not when there's so little chance that he could put himself back together again.
They are all assigned work that day, the committee taking into account the wishes of each person before making a decision.
Rick volunteers himself and Carl to assist in expanding the community gardens, surprising the rest of the group. It makes sense, Rick has the knowledge and this will keep Carl safe, away from the more dangerous tasks that he could sign up for. It will also give Rick the chance to take a step back, to be a father for awhile without needing to be a leader.
Eugene is going to teach at the community's small school, while Abraham and Tyreese will be joining the construction crew. Carol offers to help in the community's small clinic and crèche, while Sasha, Rosita and Maggie volunteer for watch and walker clearing duty.
Daryl thinks about his choices carefully before he decides to volunteer with Glenn, Michonne and Tara for scavenging and recruitment. It's not so different to what his role was at the prison, and it will give him a chance to get outside the walls, to keep an eye on the world outside.
"I can hunt too," Daryl offers, "Bring in some fresh meat."
The community breeds rabbits for meat, but the offer is gratefully accepted for the variety it will bring, the extra protein to supplement their diet.
Daryl knows that his skills are valued here, that he will be equally as valued for what he brings to them. He could leave the past behind if he wanted to, forget about the asshole nothing redneck, and consign that man forever to yesterday. Daryl could, if he wanted to. Isn't that what this is, a new beginning for all of them? A chance to either reclaim what they once were or start over?
He sees it as the days pass. He sees the shadow begin to retreat from Carol as she remembers how things used to be at the prison before it all went wrong - helping to heal people and care for the children.
The others seem to find their places as well, and little by little the group begins to relax. It becomes more common to see Maggie smiling or laughing with Glenn and Tara, periods of depression visiting her only occasionally now, and Daryl thinks that she's taken his advice of that night to heart.
They are all taking steps towards something, and Daryl sees it clearly, watching as Rick and Michonne banter easily in their shared accommodation, drawing Carl into their jokes and stories. They try to involve him, try to ensure he knows they're there, but there's something that keeps Daryl apart, always slightly apart.
He knows what it is. He belongs to a different time, a past time, while the others have all moved on.
"You're not really here with us, are you?" Michonne comments a month after their arrival. They're returning from a run, just the two of them for once, almost like the old days. Daryl wonders if she's been waiting, biding her time till she can bring it up with him without the others there. "It's okay to move on, you know. It doesn't mean you've forgotten her. Doesn't mean she meant any less to you. She'd want you to."
Daryl knows it's true, knows Beth would hate to see him moping around like he is, a sorry excuse for a man. Don't make a difference to the way he feels though.
"Can't." Daryl tells Michonne, and for one moment he raises his eyes to her, and allows her to really see, to know what he struggles with each and every day.
Michonne takes a deep breath in and nods once. "Okay," she says. "Okay."
Daryl knows she won't bring it up again.
They're making a home there, slowly but surely. A month after arrival and they know all the other community members by name. They've all got their places, have all won respect from those who've been there longer. It is safe, and it is real, and it is everything that they have dreamed of while on the road.
But Daryl doesn't unpack his bag, it's still there in the corner of his room, ready to be grabbed in the dead of the night if need be. He still goes to sleep fully clothed, and he still makes his bed on the floor, the bed too soft for him. He would never admit it to the others, but whenever he lays himself down, he thinks of Beth, left behind on the hard floor of the church, no padded coffin for her final resting place.
The night after his conversation with Michonne, he dreams of her again, dreams of her sitting on the porch of the moonshine shack, the same bittersweet smile on her face that she'd worn that night, the only difference being the scars that now mar her face.
"I'll make it right, Daryl Dixon," she tells him, "I'll find you, and when I do, I won't ever leave you again."
The dream is so real that when he wakes up, he finds he almost believes it.
A/N: Once again, a huge thank you to those who have reviewed, particularly the two guests who I couldn't reply to! It means a great deal to me :) and... Da da da dum we've almost reached the reunion!