It was mortifying, but Beth just could not stop the tears. She felt like a child, the child she had remained throughout her life at the farm and prison, the child that she had finally started to feel like she was shedding. An adult would not be standing here crying, trying to find the words to beg the man only a few paces away to hold her. There was no issue with crying over the cop, what he had been about to do, what she had then done to him or even taking a moment to deal with everything that happened at the hospital because Beth knew they were all things she was allowed to cry over. Daryl may not appreciate her crying over the events of the past four days, but it was not a sign that she was weak, it was not embarrassing or childish. How badly she wanted him to hold her, that was embarrassing and only what a child would want. She should not need someone else to make her better. That was not how this world was any more and Beth needed to stop crying and suck it up, survive in this new, fucked up world.

She had been allowed to keep her knife on her, whether it was the cop's foolishness or attempt to always remain safe no matter what he was forcing her to do, all that mattered was that Beth's knife had been near to the bed. Nothing had fully formulated within her mind, but Beth was sure that she would reach for and grab that knife. She was going to kill that cop at some point whether Daryl had burst in or not because she did not trust him to be good on his word. Sure, he had claimed that he would let her and Noah go if she let him take what he wanted, but Beth did not truly believe that. She just needed to keep Noah alive and find a moment to take advantage of.

It would have happened, in the heat of the moment, Beth was sure that she would have prevailed. She was not just another dead girl.

Fresh tears began spilling across her cheeks as if she just could not stop them.

All she wanted was for Daryl to hold her, to comfort her, to keep her up and safe and secure and wanted and loved. All she had wanted was for Daryl to find her and rescue her, but now, she was safe and with him, but he could not give her what she wanted or needed. She remembered crying on that train track at those dead survivors from the prison. They had made it out, too, but lost their lives on those tracks and he had not cared, had walked off, told her they needed to go, his eyes refusing to see her.

"We should go," she said then across the silence of the room, tears still spilling unbidden. She could not bear to hear him say it again. She wiped at her eyes, trying hard to stop crying and moved past him. His fingers suddenly reached out, brushing hers and she stopped moving, hesitating next to him as her heart started beating wildly out of control. He was right next to her and all she wanted was to be comforted, to be held and she could barely breathe properly with tears still filling her eyes. Maybe that was what his fingers were though, that touch however slight, that was him comforting her and she smiled over at him, a weak, watery smile.

"Over now," he said quietly and, God, she had missed his gruff voice and tone.

"We have to get outta here," she continued without moving, desperate to keep his fingers touching hers no matter how weak it was. "The hospital's fulla' cops. We owe them," she added bitterly.

"No. No you don't."

"I can't…" go back? "I got out." Her voice was stronger than she believed it could be in that moment and she straightened her shoulders.

"Ya did good, Greene." That simple praise was all it took for fresh tears to fall, soaking her already wet cheeks. There was only the very slightest hesitation before she felt herself surrounded by him, her face in his chest and one hand on her lower back, the other remained loose at his side as she sobbed in to his chest.

She was crying for the cop, for the life she took, for the funeral home, for the girl's arm, for the dead doctor, for feeling so weak, for all that she had lost and for what had almost happened. Especially what had almost happened.

Everything about him invaded her senses. His heartbeat, strong and regular, steady and loud in her ear. The smell that was unique and purely Daryl – sweat, cigarette smoke, oil and gas. A warmth she had felt that day outside the moonshine shack when she had squeezed him, comforted him. Her arms came up around his back, mirroring that hug from before and her hands pushed in to his shoulder blades, pulling him closer and she thought possibly that his hand pulled her closer at her lower back as his right hand, his dominant hand, reached up and stroked her hair, his chin falling to rest on her head.

"I got ya, Greene. I got ya. I'll take ya back to ya family."

She pulled away then, still holding him tightly but able to look up at him as his hands remained in place, too.

"Found 'em all, girl. Rick. Carl. Maggie. Glenn." There was a slight pause. "Judith."

"No!" she breathed unable to contain the smile or happy tears that started.

"Yeah." His lips quirked up in an almost smile.

It took them the best part of a day and into darkness before they were anywhere near to the church where Daryl had left the others. Beth had been the one to press them on when he had suggested to make camp for the night. They were following the roads back to the church, the way he had driven, chasing the car with a cross, but Daryl had forced them to stay off the roads, hiding in the tree line and keeping hyper alert. At first he had been worried about Beth's ankle and Noah's limp, but both seemed to be okay at keeping up with him. The biggest problem had been that they had not left Atlanta until the middle of the afternoon, after spending however long trying to convince Noah to come with them and that they would head to Virginia afterwards.

"They'll come with us, I promise ya," Beth had said back in that office and many times along the way as if Noah needed the constant reassurance. In all fairness, Daryl saw it from the kid's point of view. Months trapped in a hospital and turned in to a janitor-come-slave followed by finally escaping only to be told that they had to make a detour, in the wrong direction for a group of people he knew nothing about and cared nothing for. Daryl would be more than hesitant to follow them. Unfortunately, Daryl knew that there was no way that Abraham was going to hang around in Gabriel's church for anything. He had not mentioned it to Beth, but Daryl was already concerned that the group would have moved on. If they had, would Beth still be determined to get Noah home? Would Daryl be okay with losing more time on their trail and would he be able to say no to Beth?

They had continued walking in the trees once the sun had set despite how Daryl had tried to suggest they hunker down and each get an hour or two's rest. He was used to a lack of sleep so it would barely touch him walking the whole night, but he had no idea of Noah's capabilities and with Beth, well, he trusted her to tell him the truth.

"Further we get now, quicker we'll get there," she had smiled any time he mentioned stopping; Noah would always force a small smile when she did so whilst Daryl simply turned his back on the pair and continued on, keeping an eye for the cops coming for them, any other strangers or even simply something to eat. Once they had made it out of Atlanta and on to more wild terrain, Daryl had considered heading off to hunt for something to eat. Anything to eat really. When he had abandoned his family, Daryl had only grabbed Beth's bag. The one that he had managed to keep hold of ever since finding it in the road outside of the funeral home. Before they had left the office in Atlanta, he had thrown it over to her and Beth had simply smiled at him, her blue eyes huge in gratitude as she crammed in a few of the crisp white shirts she had found hanging up near the bed. She had already claimed one of them to cover her arms, over the remains of her blue scrubs. There was no water in the bag, no food either.

Daryl had headed off on his one-man rescue mission with no real supplies. They had the two bottles of water Noah and Beth had found in the office and nothing else. Since they started walking, there had been a few cars along the way with random supplies although not much. They had at least found more water, but nothing in the way of food so Daryl had yearned to go off hunting. If he were honest with himself it was not even about finding them food, he needed to escape the pair trailing close behind him.

For one thing, they both just kept on talking. If he had ever thought that Beth was bad for talking, well, Noah was hardly any better and as the darkness crept on, Daryl had hissed at them enough times to keep their voices down. Beth had caught on quicker than Noah as Daryl stalked in front of them, his brow showing his anger and frustration. Neither of them could see his bad mood. It had also not yet sunk in that Beth was really there with him, just behind him, she was safe and sound. Those few days and nights where it had just been the two of them, just him and Beth, she had been adamant that they would find their family again. He, well, Daryl had not, yelling at her, "Rick… Maggie, you ain't never gonna see 'em again."

Then she had been taken in the dark of night and he had run until there was nothing left in him, but even when he had teamed up with Joe, thrown in to a box-car and been threatened with being eaten, Daryl had been filled with hope and the knowledge that he would see Beth again. That faith that she had, he had found and it had been proven true for him. He was determined to make it true for her after it had already been proven true that there had been other survivors. He would get her back to the others, come Hell or high water. Or at least via Virginia because of Noah.

No matter his faith in finding her, part of Daryl could still not believe it and just wanted to wander through the woods on his own to silence his thoughts. Usually after a hunt, his thoughts would realign and somehow make sense and, shit, did he need to make sense of things. Beth was alive. Beth was safe. And she was walking right behind him.

In the dark, Daryl glanced back at the pair walking side by side, reassuring him that she was still there and it had not all been some amazing dream. They both looked up from the ground, watching their every step and nodded at Daryl. Beth smiled, her white teeth showing in the moonlight and Daryl returned to watching his own path. The reason that he was too reluctant to go and hunt when it had still been light was not because he worried about leaving Beth alone. Though he was reluctant to have her out of his sight; at least walking in front of them he could hear her gentle steps no matter how quiet she tried to be now. Daryl did not trust Noah. Not yet at least.

He was not about to leave Beth alone with Noah. There was no food.

It was still dark when they eventually made it to the church, coming out of the tree line with Daryl in front despite how eager Beth was to just run on ahead. There was something off, Daryl felt it immediately and he caught Beth's arm with fingers curved delicately around her elbow as she tried to move ahead of him. Her eyes were quickly on him as he continued to scan the immediate area and took one more step closer, his hand still on her. Fingers slipping down her arm as Daryl brought his cross bow from his back. There was no one on watch. Or no one guarding well enough to notice their arrival.

"Sumthin' ain't right here." With slow steps and a quick glance behind to check they were both following him, Daryl approached the church with incredible caution. He quickly realized that the front steps were gone, well and truly demolished and the doors were barely there. Standing in front of the doors, he jerked his head up at Beth who banged on the door, pushing it open gently with her fractured wrist as her knife was in her other hand. Before his eyes focused on the doors, Daryl saw her wrist and realized they would need to remove that cast at some point. Bob would be able to help out if the cast made it to Washington. If Eugene was so right about the amazing Washington, there would be other medical doctors there. Not that Daryl believed for one minute that he had any sort of cure.

He walked in first, bow up and ready to fire, he could feel Beth following close behind him. At the altar, after all the pews, he glanced at Beth, his eyes darting to the left and she nodded, heading towards one of the doors as he headed for the other. Immediately he heard Noah follow Beth. Daryl's trigger finger tapped against the bow in frustration. They checked the side rooms and met back in front of the altar, Daryl lowered his crossbow and Beth relaxed her knife arm slightly, holding it limply by her side.

"Ain't no one here," she whispered sadly as Noah walked away back towards the doors. Daryl took the relative privacy to really look at Beth, to look without needing to look away when anyone noticed. She seemed to have deflated.

"No, there ain't," he agreed, his voice gruffer than he intended. "But they were. Left 'em here myself." Waving an arm up in to the air, he added, "Ain't no dead in here neither."

"Door like that when ya left?" Her head nodded at the door and Noah. Daryl looked up at the door, wondering how he was supposed to refill her faith and hope when she was the one that gave it to him in the first place.

"Nuh-uh." Shaking his head, Daryl felt secure enough, but also agitated so put his thumb in between his teeth and began chewing on it. There was blood on the floor near to where they were standing and he pressed his foot in to it. It squelched slightly.

"Someone died there," Beth whispered and even he could hear the fear in it. With a heavy sigh, Daryl wondered if she was about to start crying again. It had taken everything he had to touch her in that bedroom behind an office, even more to put his arm around her and then stroke her hair. To be strong enough to do that, Daryl had never thought it possible. He had not been brought up to understand the concept of comfort let alone be able to receive it, or give it. Something about Beth had changed that when he had felt her arms cover him despite how awful he had been to her moments before that. He had pushed her so hard, he had been despicable. The things he had said, the parts of her that he had attacked and she had retaliated with comfort, something so completely alien to him.

No one else would have called him out on what he was really feeling. No one else would have put up with his shit and held him in response. Nope, pretty much everyone else that he knew either now or before the turn would have punched him, called him out and just left him to suffer. Carol was the only person that could have come close to that kind of a revelation from him and even then, Daryl doubted they would have got to that moment. She would not have felt the sadness as much as Beth. Daryl would never have attacked Carol in the same way. If he had, she would have fought back, attacking back with his own flaws, but not Beth. Never Beth.

"Ain't no bodies."

"Maybe fresh graves out back?" she asked and his eyes flitted to the door again as if that could give him an answer. Her sadness had been pushed away.

"Can check in the morning." Looking upwards towards the high windows, Daryl took a few steps away from her and then pointed back towards one of the rooms. "Sun'll be up in a few. You two should rest up in there."

"And you?"

"When sun's up, lemme rest a few." There was a silence and he looked across at her to see her arms crossed against her chest, one knee bent slightly and an eyebrow raised. "Promise."

"'Kay," she agreed. "Noah," she said slightly louder but still not too loud. "We can rest up for a few." Her head jerked in the direction of the room Daryl had pointed out. There was a couch in there and a desk. Maybe it was a fold out, he considered. At least one of them would be able to rest on the couch, have a half decent rest too. The windows were all boarded up and there was only one door in and out, Daryl would take watch either in front of the altar or nearer the door and keep watch for anything approaching. The others may have simply moved to the little town where they had done a food run. They could come back. Or maybe there had been other survivors from Terminus.

"Where?" he asked, bending down for a moment as he approached them.

"Room through there." She pointed with a thumb over her shoulder.

"Couch for ya, too," Daryl added as Noah came to stand in front of them both with a folded-up map in his hands. "'S that?"

"Map."

Snatching it out of the younger man's hands, Daryl opened it up slightly and saw a note written across it, a road route detailed. The note was for Rick from Abraham. "There's a bus out back. Might be they all left in it."

"But they knew you were out lookin' for me, right?" It was the only detail about their time apart that Daryl had really explained, how he had left the others with the intention of looking for her and then seen the car. That he had then sent Carol back to tell the others before speeding off to Atlanta. Of the rest of their time apart, he had only told her parts. That Terminus and the sanctuary had been filled with cannibals and that they had all found a church, somewhere relatively well stocked and safe at least for a few days. He had not wanted to tell her about Joe, about finding Rick and the fight that ensued, or about how they had wound up in a box-car discovering her sister. One day he might, but all that mattered was that they were all back together before he had headed off in search of Beth and she had certainly not needed to know that no one else had seemed too concerned with her absence.

"Hmm-hmm," he bit at his thumb, dropping the map back on the floor. With a side glance, Daryl could see Beth's eyes sadly looking at him but he had already been able to feel them and it made him uncomfortable.

"Maybe by the time we catch up to 'em, they'll already have finished the cure." She smiled then and reached for his free hand, squeezing it gently. "Wake me before sunrise, 'kay?"

"Hmm-hmm," he nodded.

"Do I need ta make ya pinky promise?" Her little finger on her good hand wiggled in front of her face and he batted away her hand.

"Get," he growled, watching her almost skip away with a smile on her face. Settling himself in front of the alter with just one blanket, Daryl felt uneasy at her alone in the father's office with Noah and no possible reason his mind could come up with was without issue. That was why he had wanted to go off and hunt, why he had settled for the first watch and would probably not wake the others until he was ready for them to set off. After they made a plan of course because he knew that Beth would still want to keep her promise about getting Noah home, but it was not exactly on the route that Abraham had left. Not that it was a complete detour, but with a lack of cars and petrol, with trying to do it by foot, it would add a lot on to their journey.

He grabbed up the map again, settling in to his watch with his crossbow on the floor on his right, one knee bent up and the other relaxed and loose on the floor and he looked at the map. It was only an approximate route, but if Abraham had left separate to Rick, that was two groups that could be on different roads. The longer it took to catch up to them, the more things that could go wrong with any of them. Part of Daryl would happily find somewhere to stay with Beth, including Noah at a push, and just stay there, like he had considered at the funeral home. Except then he had lost Beth from the funeral home and maybe if it had been more than just the two of them, she would not have been lost to him. There might not be some magic number that meant survival, but Daryl was sure it was greater than just the two of them and whoever the rest of their numbers included it needed to be people that Daryl could trust with Beth's life.

If Beth had escaped the hospital with Michonne, Rick and Carl, Maggie, Sasha and Bob, Tyresse and Judith, or Glenn and the girl from the Governor's new people, she would have been fine, of that Daryl was sure. But this Noah guy, Daryl did not know him, could not trust him with Beth no matter how he had protected her in that hospital.

So far he knew barely anything about the hospital and anything he did know, Daryl had picked up from the snippets of conversations Noah and Beth had trailing behind him on their walk and most of that had been from Noah. Beth was keeping pretty tight lipped about the place. From what he could gather, there was a police squad based at Grady Memorial, one doctor and then the patients who were being made to work back what they owed for their treatment. Noah reckoned they were the first two to ever make it out of Grady alive, hearing that had sent a shiver down Daryl's spine and he had headed further in to the tree line with them both close behind.

She had two fresh scars on her face. There had been the cop she had killed, about to lower his trousers when Daryl had stopped him. Daryl wanted to ask about those things, about more than just that. Except he was not sure he wanted to know the answers and it was not usual for him to ask that. After their few nights alone after the prison, he knew she would talk to him when she wanted to. If she even needed to now that she had Noah by her side. Maybe that boy, much closer to Beth's age was what she had needed after the prison. Maybe he could be a success where Daryl had been such a failure.

A few hours in to his watch and Daryl's head snapped towards the door to Father Gabriel's office as it opened and Beth slipped outside, closing the door quietly behind her. With an almost silent tread, because she had learnt a lot from him although not quite enough yet, Beth approached Daryl and sat down on the opposite side to where his bow was resting. He had discarded the map again after checking the route Abraham had shown and what would be the better route to go via Virginia and now Beth picked it back up.

"We can take Noah home first, right? I mean before heading after the others."

He shrugged his shoulders, her eyes firmly on the map, but she knew his response.

"He reckons his home's safe."

"Ain't nowhere safe no more." She looked at him then and he kept his focus on the nail he was picking, glancing at her with a side eye every once in a while.

"But it's kinda on the way," she argued and he knew better than to argue with a stubborn Greene. The feeling in his gut told him more moonshine or a fire would be on the cards if he tried to fight her on this.

"Maybe in the old days," he replied. Though he knew they would take Noah home first, he was going to make sure that it was her decision and that she had all the information to make the right decision. "We ain't even got no car. It's a long ol' walk. Food ain't exactly plentiful."

"But we're with the best hunter this side of Atlanta." She leant towards him slightly, jostling his shoulder with her own and a side glance revealed she had a big grin on her face. He felt like he was being sucked in with praise.

"Dangerous on the road, no matter what road. And it's jus' the three of us. Longer we're out there, the more that can go wrong."

"I know," she admitted quietly. Beth brought her legs up to her chest, hugging her arms around her knees and resting her cheek on top, looking across at him. "You're gonna have to start trusting him."

"Don't gotta do that." His voice came out in a huff, more aggressive than he had intended.

Her eyebrow raised at him as she asked, "Is that why you never went off huntin' today?" A long silence followed and he felt her warm gaze on him the entire time. He was about to send her back to bed when she finally spoke again. "I still want ya ta teach me. That okay?"

With a nod, Daryl cleared his throat. "This is my watch."

"I know." There was a smile on her face and he rolled his eyes with a sigh, which only caused her to smile more. "Couldn't sleep."

He nodded his head, watching her as her eyes fell to lower, avoiding his gaze now. "Ya safe now." Even as he said it, Daryl cursed himself because he had not managed to keep her safe the first time. The others would keep her safe, he trusted that.

"Ya get why we have to take Noah home first, right?" Her eyes met his and he tried to see the answer in them, but came up empty. "He got me outta there, Daryl, before anyone could really hurt me."

He inhaled deeply at that, realizing that no one there had managed to take advantage of her yet his fingers reached out and touched at her cheek scar without conscious thought. She smiled gently at him, shifting her head softly so that his fingers could continue with her second scar. It made him feel slightly easier if the two visible scars were the only baggage she would take away from her captivity.

"Then," she whispered so as to not spook his hand away. She spoke as she would to a horse and Daryl liked the idea of that. His fingers moved further away from her scars, down along her cheek and towards her neck, dangerously close to cupping her face. The only thing not scaring him off was the fact that she was not flinching away. "We'll find our family." His hand hesitated at that, paused with his fingertips almost at her ear and his palm not quite touching her cheek yet. "And I will find out what happened to y'all."

As soft as her words, one hand reached up to keep Daryl's where it was, pressing it against her cheek and she turned towards it, placing a gentle almost non-existent kiss on his palm. Her eyes closed and she rested against his hand.

"I never told 'em. 'Bout our days together. The moonshine, fire or that funeral home."

He felt her smile against his palm, closing his eyes so he did not need to see it. "Good." Releasing his hand, she shifted closer to him and settled her head against his upper arm. "Those things, those are ours. Just ours."

They fell in to another comfortable silence, his hand eventually falling away from her cheek and onto her thigh where it curled around her scrub covered leg. In turn, her hand covered his and he looked down at the juxtaposition of her pale, delicate and soft hand which barely covering his tanned, thicker and rougher one. They were such a juxtaposition.

"Ya sleepin' here?"

"Hmm-hmm."

"'Kay." He squeezed her thigh lightly. "First light, we'll find a car, some supplies, head to Noah's place first."

Against his shoulder, he felt her smile again.