With the last chapter, I went over 50 reviews. That's completely humbling... Thank you all! Hope you enjoy... :)

"Wake up, girl." Beth rolled her eyes, and pulled her coat tightly around her.

"Leave me alone, Daryl. I just got to sleep." She sighed. They had been on the road all day, until they finally found another subdivision to loot. Lori had been up sick until about half an hour ago, so Beth had been up with her, as her defacto care provider. She had shushed her, held her hair, hummed to her, and rubbed her back until Lori finally felt better and went to sleep. Beth had crawled down next to her dad, and had finally closed her eyes, and now Daryl was poking her with his crossbow.

"I'm on watch, and you haven't had a lesson in a few days. Get up." Daryl nudged her again with his walker-guts covered boot, and Beth had about had enough. She kicked off what little blanket she had stolen off of her father, and stood up. She glared at Daryl and marched off outside, while he followed her, smirking.

Daryl sat on the porch railing, balancing his crossbow on his leg. Beth stood out in front of him, and held out her hands. "Well? What do you want me to do?"

Daryl rolled his eyes at her. "I don't want you to DO anythin' girl. This ain't a game. We ain't playin'. This is life or death. You remember?" he spoke quietly. He didn't have to yell. Beth looked down contritely, and nodded. They had been on the road for about a month now, and they were all hungry and cold. It had been a miracle that they hadn't lost anybody yet. Just a few days ago, Carol was almost bitten before Glenn had saved her. Beth didn't want that to be her. She wanted to be able to save herself.

"C'mere." Daryl called to her, and she walked over to sit on the steps. "We need to talk. I can't train you much out here. I can show you how to shoot, and let you kill a few walkers, but we have bigger fish to fry than me keepin' you alive, blondie."

Beth shivered, and pulled her coat around her. She knew Daryl well enough by now to know he didn't mean the last bit, but she still fired back at him. "You woke me up and pulled me outside to tell me that?"

"Naw, I said it wrong." He walked over and sat down next to her on the stairs. "I can't train you much physically. But every night I'm on watch, you are too now. We're going to talk about what you can do to protect yourself. We're going to figure out how to get you out of sticky situations when I'm not there. There's a lot to learn besides just brute strength."

"Like what?" Beth asked honestly. She was having trouble figuring out what he meant. There's only so much to talk about right? Learn by doin', he had said that to her more than once.

Daryl turned to look at her. "Tell me what you'd do if I attacked you."

Beth shrugged and looked at him. "I guess I'd try and hit you."

Daryl shook his head furiously. "Naw, see, that's what I mean. I'm way too big and more experienced for you to overpower. You use what strengths Beth Greene has. And you know who you're fightin.'" He rubbed his neck. "You know I got a bad back. If it comes to it, you kick it if you have to. It's about using your strengths, and exposing the other person's weaknesses."

"I don't got any strengths." Beth smirked at Daryl. It was pretty true. She was getting a lot better with her knife, but she probably still couldn't outmatch most people in the group.

"Don't give me that bullshit." Daryl bit out at her. "You're not thinkin' like a fighter, you're thinkin' like a victim, and I am not goin' to stand for that shit. Fuckin' tell me, what are your strengths as a fighter?"

Beth shifted uncomfortably on the wooden stairs, and wracked her brain. "I'm pretty fast I guess. If I get the chance, I can probably outrun most people."

Daryl nodded. "Good, that's what I mean. I can teach anyone to get out of a chokehold. That's just mechanics. You have to find the ways you outmatch your opponent, and take advantage of them. What else?" Beth thought hard for a minute, and came up blank. She shrugged at Daryl who scowled at her, disappointed.

"Girl, you ain't thinkin'! There are a million ways you can use what you have against an attacker. You're young and pretty, you USE that. You know as well as me, there are assholes out here. You let them think you're gonna give them what they want, and then you strike. You're strong with your knife, you hide one on your body, wait until they think you've gotten rid of your weapons and they let their guard down, then you STRIKE. You, Beth Greene, are no damsel in distress, not anymore. You let them think that, if you want. They'll never suspect the skinny blonde girl. You fuckin' use their ignorance against them, you hear me?"

/

Beth opened her eyes and then instantly regretted the decision. The room spun around her, even though she was lying down. She snapped her eyes shut, and tried to quell her nausea. She focused on her breathing, and relaxed her body. It was in that moment, she felt a heavy weight on her stomach. She peeked through one eye, and realized it was Rick's head on her stomach. She laughed quietly, trying to keep from shaking him too much. Rick's head was nestled into her hip, and his arms were wrapped around her waist, and he was snoring softly.

Beth remembered how quickly he had fallen asleep when they got back to the cabin. They had watched the sun rise, and had come back exhausted. They had wordlessly agreed that despite the fact that it was technically morning, they both would be getting some sleep. Beth smiled as she thought back on the night before. It was painful, in ways she hadn't thought possible, but it was also extremely cathartic. She wouldn't be moving on from her loss anytime soon, but it was a nice first step in that process.

Even nicer was the fact that she had someone to share that process with. She smiled down at Rick, and tentatively ran her fingers through Rick's dark curls. It wasn't that Rick was patient with her grief, most people would be. Everyone had lost somebody at this point. But Rick understood it because he was carrying the same pain. Daryl was Rick's best friend, though it was a different relationship than she had shared with him. Hershel had very much been a kind of father to Rick, and Judith… Beth had never said it, or even admitted it to herself, but she very much felt a maternal bond towards Judith. She didn't want to undermine Lori, or declare herself something she wasn't, but she still loved Judith like she was her own. So of course her actual parent would know something about how she felt.

Beth continued to play with Rick's hair, wrapping the curls around her fingers. She slowly began humming to herself, an old gospel song her mom had sung to her when she was a baby, Abide with me. Beth didn't know if she believed in God anymore, but the sentiment was still something she liked.

Abide with me Fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the Helpless, oh
Abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou
Abide with me.

Beth reluctantly admitted to herself as she sung that it was less a plea to God and more of a plea to the man with his arms wrapped around her waist. Thanks to Daryl, Beth was probably physically strong enough to get by on her own. Thanks to her Dad, she probably had the emotional steeliness to make it through without dissolving. And thanks to Judith, she knew that beautiful things could still happen in this world, which would give her the hope to not give up. But she didn't have to do it on her own. As she hummed, it was her little prayer to Rick thanking him for that.

/

Rick woke up feeling better than he expected. He had stretched out in the bed next to Beth who was cleaning her gun, and she smiled at him when she noticed he was awake. He hadn't really had enough to drink to be hung over, but he had also worried about being up all night, after being up the whole day before. Rick felt old sometimes, although he was only 36… 37? Rick paused for a moment to consider how old he was. He knew his birthday was in October, but he didn't know what month it was. But it was clearly fall, so he could be 37. Not that things like Birthdays mattered anymore.

"Whatcha thinkin' over there?" Beth asked him, as she finished reassembling her gun. She shoved in the magazine, racked the slide, and looked through the sights. Rick swallowed, refusing to admit how attractive that action was.

"I was thinkin' it might be my birthday." He coughed, staring intently at the wall behind Beth's head.

Beth got up and put her gun back in its holster. "How do you figure?"

Rick shrugged, and raked his hand through his hair. "It probably isn't, I just know my birthday's in the fall. I was feelin' too old to stay up all night drinkin' with a teenager." He smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"You ain't old Rick. But I think we all feel old." Beth bent down and began digging in their bag of supplies. "But here, happy birthday." She smiled, as she tossed him a can of ravioli.

He laughed, and began opening the can. Beth flopped onto the bed next to him and chewed on her pinkie nail. "How old are you anyway?" she asked not looking him in the eyes.

"36 or 37 I guess." He answered her, carefully gauging her reaction. When she only nodded thoughtfully in response he added, "I know the beard makes me look older."

At that statement her eyes shot up at him. "No it doesn't!" Beth's eyes grew large in shock of her own outburst. Rick stifled a laugh as she carefully reconstructed her facial expression into one of nonchalance. "I mean, I think your beard is quite nice." She finished with a decisive nod, and resumed chewing on her nail, and avoiding eye contact.

Rick laughed and stroked his beard. At some point he was going to have to address the fact that it pleased him that Beth liked his beard. But he didn't want to let his thoughts go that far yet. He just smiled at her, "I'm glad you like it." She turned red and nodded again, but still refused to look him in the eye.

Rick opened the ravioli, and reached down to grab one. He popped one of the square pastas in his mouth, before tossing another sauce soaked one at Beth. It hit her square on the neck, and she turned to look at him, her mouth open in outrage. He laughed at her expression, but was forced into solemnness again when she just picked it up off of her and popped it in her mouth. She scooped the remaining sauce off of her collarbone with her finger, and slid it into her mouth.

"You're gonna pay for that." She said, her mouth full, "when you least expect it." Rick swallowed hard, watching her lick her fingers.

He cleared his throat, and tried to clear his mind, turning serious for a moment. Rick picked another raviolo out of the can, and then passed it to Beth. "Listen, we need to decide how we want to do this. I left a note for Michonne and Carl, but I don't want to wait here forever for them. I couldn't stand sitting here doin' nothing for too long."

Beth's face scrunched with intensity and she pondered Rick's words. Finally, she answered him, "3 days."

"Three?" Rick asked, reaching for the can of pasta from her. "Why Three?"

Beth shrugged with one shoulder, in that way that only Beth could do. "My daddy always said that if Jesus could rise from the dead in three days, then anything can happen in three days. I say that we wait for three days, and if they don't show up, we go look for them."

Rick considered this. Any longer and he would go crazy. He was desperate to find his son. Carl was everything to him, and he needed to find him. Any less, however, and they could miss them coming here to find them. Three days would be enough time for them to go to the store, so the instructions, and come here. If they didn't, it would be logical to assume they weren't coming at all. Three days seemed like a good idea, so he tilted his head in agreement.

"Three days."

All right, so its getting pretty obvious these two are digging each other. Now we just wait and see who's the first to crack and do something about it... Thank you guys for reading and reviewing!

As a side note... Eventually in the future (Spoiler alert, I guess...) these two are going to be persuing activities of an extremely personal nature (they're gonna do it.) Do you guys want me to be vague and keep the rating at T? Or would you rather I go ahead and up the rating to M? I'd probably be more comfortable writing some scenes at the M level, but I hate to lose people over it. Let me know!