After over four weeks of leaving Noah's home, the four of them had stumbled across a derelict high school that had seemed, from the outside a good place to look in. Truth be told, it was Jocelyn who had suggested checking it out with Daryl being hesitant. Sure, the five foot tall fences around the building were all in tact, the gates bolted shut and from their original vantage point, all of the windows had seemed whole, but Daryl had thought the potential within was not enough to warrant the four of them entering such a large site. Noah had quickly followed suit with Jocelyn; Daryl had noticed within a few days of Jocelyn's arrival that he had a major crush on the newcomer. Daryl did not see it himself, but Beth had told him one night as they had kept watch around a small camp fire that Jocelyn was pretty.
It had occurred to Daryl that maybe there had been something between Beth and Noah, but she did not seem put out whatsoever by the newcomer gaining Noah's attention. If anything she seemed slightly relieved. As had Daryl. Not that he would admit such a thing to anyone or even fully to himself because that would mean addressing whatever the hell he was feeling regarding Beth. Not that it mattered what he felt for Beth, or her for him, or her for Noah or anyone for anyone, all that mattered was that Beth was family and he was not about to lose her again and he was going to get her back to the rest of their family. If he had to put up with Noah and Jocelyn making out all night long to keep Beth safe, so be it. After all, Daryl had put up with Glenn and Maggie for all that Winter on the road.
It was Winter that had been Jocelyn's argument after Noah had sided with her. "Even if it's just a few rooms, a block, a floor, that's safe in there, we can hide out there for the Winter." Jocelyn had explained. "There's a row of shops a few roads back. Might be they're untouched."
It had been Beth's nod at Daryl that had him agreeing and with some hesitancy simply over the fact that he was walking in to a high school, much like the school that had been the place that should have been a refuge for him for those few years that he bothered to put up with it. Daryl had hated school. When he was supposed to be there, he would play truant. At first he would be sneaky about it, after a few months he gave up on that and just simply would not show up when he did not want to go. If he wanted to go hunting, he would. Most of the time his father never picked up the phone to hear the messages of his youngest son skipping school. Then, when he did go to school, there was always someone to pick on him. Or at least attempt to, but of course, Daryl always won any fight that went down. Until one day when one guy had snuck up behind him, ripped his shirt open and revealed his scars to everyone. Daryl had flushed red and left the school with a handful of teachers calling his name or trying to block his path. Nothing could have stopped him in that moment.
Maybe if he could have known Beth all those years ago, she could have stopped him.
Beth was probably not even born back then.
There was a secondary fence, inside of the five-foot wooden one, a metal chain fence with large gates, a sports field separating the two fences at the back of the school. They had made their way in easily through a window they found that looked from the outside as if it only went in to a small room with a door the other side. Daryl had opted for breaking in that way because at least then, if there was somewhere safe within the building, they could barricade up that one small room and door to prevent others from following. Inside, from the sections that they had searched, there were no Walkers or dead bodies at all. It really was like a ghost town. It had only been two nights, but they had not yet searched the whole building yet.
It was Beth who, after blocking their entry point, suggested finding the janitor's office as he would hold the keys to the building. "Most ah these doors," she had said, leading them with a hushed voice, just in case, and Daryl had taken the rear. "Should be on some sorta master key an' all use the same one. We find even one ah them, we can secure the entire place."
Her smile then was the same one that she had when she moments later had found the keys and when she had decided to set a shack on fire. It was the eyes and teeth all filled with hope.
Their first port of call with the keys in hand had been the school canteen, where they had come up pretty much empty handed. Anything that had been left was rotted and stunk so bad it even made Daryl's eyes water. All three of them had deflated then until Beth had chirped up, "Need to check out home economics, science and the teacher's lounge. Don't give up hope yet guys!"
It was in the teacher's lounge that the four of them had set up a little camp site having pushed and pulled the comfy chairs around to make beds for each of them, using the little kitchenette as a store for anything they had. From the science department, Beth had found a lifetime's supply of matches and candles, needles and thread, basic first aid kits, sterilizing fluid and water cleaning tablets. In their chemical store, she had found a few trays of spirit burners and pointed out all the other flammable liquids. There had even been a stash of dried pasta, a few tins of food and bottles of pop.
"Why's science got all this?" he had questioned when they had been alone for a moment. Noah and Jocelyn had been off checking the teacher's desks in the nearby classrooms.
"Science."
"Huh?"
"Science ah food and energy, burning stuff."
"Shoulda known you'd know 'bout settin' shit on fire." Beth had smiled at him and he had felt his lips quirk up at either end.
"Yes, I liked science." As she had spoken she had ducked her eyes, looking down at the items in front of her. "You'd'a thought I was a geek."
"Nah." He had bumped her shoulder with his. "Wouldn'a never seen ya in a school." His voice had quietened then. "I never really went."
"I loved it." That had not been a surprise. What had been a surprise was her next statement, given that she had said it after only a few minutes in the building. "Maybe we could stay here for a bit?" Her eyes had still been down, her fingers nervously playing with whatever it was that was closest. "It's gettin' colder." He had not answered her that day, still had not, but he had taken her hand, stopping her from fidgeting and she had released a deep breath and leant against him.
But it was then that Noah made the same suggestion. The four of them were wandering the lowest corridor, to the left of the teacher's lounge towards where the school signs said the Computing and Music Departments were. It was only their third day there, having spent two nights of near perfect sleep in the teacher's lounge and it was possibly the best sleep Daryl had had since the prison. Not that he trusted Noah or Jocelyn any more than he had out in the woods, but there was something safer locked up in the teacher's lounge that only had two doors – one was locked by master key the other by a keypad from the outside. And the windows let out on to a high fenced basketball court. They still slept in shifts, but he was fine as long as Beth was awake when he was not.
She insisted on it now and he did not fight her.
"We could stay here," Noah said as the four of them walked quietly.
Daryl fought a laugh, a dry and sarcastic laugh, but Beth side eyed him so he kept quiet. He did not want to hang around this place. There was still so much further that they needed to go, but Beth did not seem in a rush anymore. He hated how they were all getting comfortable here, ready to settle in for Winter it would appear. It reminded him of the prison, where they had all been caught with their pants around their ankles. Fuck was he going to let that happen again. Unless Beth agreed, because Jocelyn and Noah were like a package now, and then Daryl would have to stay.
"We need to find our family," Beth argued back, shocking Daryl slightly that his head snapped around to watch her.
"Your family maybe," Noah muttered. The tension in the dark corridor rocketed.
"Noah, I've told ya before, you're one ah us, you'll be one ah them."
"Who's to say they're even still okay?" He demanded loudly as the pair came to a standstill, Jocelyn stopped quickly after and Daryl last, a few meters away, feeling as if he were watching one of his Ma's damn daytime soaps. "If nowhere's safe anymore, they aren't either."
"Except I know them, Noah. I know they're alive and safe and waiting for us."
"Really? Waiting for you? Beth, they didn't even come for you."
Her eyes flooded then and her fists clenched by her side as she fought back the tears rather than punch him. Daryl thought of Maggie then and knew that Beth was about to throw a punch.
"There's two ways," Jocelyn interrupted, indicating that they were all stood near a junction in the corridor, where it split off two ways. "Let's take this one." She grabbed Noah by the hand and pulled him away from the argument without anyone agreeing to anything. They kept their hands held together as they walked off and Beth put her hands on her hips, looked down at the floor and huffed out a sigh. Daryl was unsure if it was to push away the tears or release some tension concerning Noah. Was there a jealousy in the clearly evolving friendship?
Without either of them saying anything, they resumed walking, now in the opposite direction to their friends, checking the rooms as they went. It was clear that Daryl and Beth had the computer rooms which he figured was a shame as the others must have the music rooms and Beth could probably do with playing a piano and singing some. Might lift the mood for them all. Probably would not be a good idea though, Daryl reconsidered, given what had happened the last time they had got comfortable and he had listened to her serenading him. He did not want to share that with Noah and Jocelyn.
Daryl was unsure if he wanted to share that with Maggie and the others. Beth had told him she was pleased he had kept their moments to himself, maybe when they found their family again, they could still have things that were just for them. Their nights, walks and hunts alone were filled with gentle touches and quietly whispered words, comfortable silences that Daryl was unsure he had ever felt before. Not in the same kind of way that he felt them with her that was for sure. Not all the time, but quite often, Daryl knew what Beth was thinking or about to say and he reckoned she knew him just as well.
Entering another room that seemed as dead and empty as the others, Daryl remained near the door whilst Beth headed towards the teacher's desk to rummage in the drawers. Apparently, teachers horded candy in the rooms like they were going out of style. Maybe it was all confiscated from naughty kids or designed as a bribe to the worst, either way, Beth was in heaven. In this particular room, another class room with computers on desks across four rows, Beth stopped in the middle of the desks and rounded on Daryl.
He knew what she was going to say before she even started, had been waiting for it.
"Why didn't… I mean, Maggie…?"
"Why didn' she come with?"
"Uh-huh."
"I left without no one knowing. Sent Carol t'tell 'em as I followed one ah them cars. They had no idea where I was goin'." She already knew the story, he had told her one night when she had hooked her arm in to his and asked him about it, batting her eyelashes up at him like he was some kind of damn hero. He could only be the hero if he had managed to stop her from being taken in the first place. It was one of the only times in his life he had wished for a working cell phone and cell service.
"Yeah, but why did you leave without her? I mean, ya said that you decided you were gonna try an' find me. Why didn't ya tell her? Did… did she think I was dead?"
Was he supposed to tell her that everyone else was in the middle of rejoicing at finally being safe and no one had said anything about her? That Rick and Maggie had known Daryl had escaped the prison with her and that she had been taken, but neither of them had said anything since? Or those damn signs Maggie had left for Glenn without a thought of Beth? Or that simply it had been that he needed to find her?
"She did, didn't she? Thought I was another dead girl."
"Ya not though."
"I know." She nodded her head, looking up and meeting his eyes where he was watching her through his fringe. "And when we find 'em, she'll know that, too." There was that damn Beth Greene hope again.
Closing the distance, Daryl hooked his arm around her neck, pulling her close and held her for a moment next to his side, leaning his chin on her head and fighting a sudden impulse to press his lips to her hair. Her free hand moved to cup his arm, keeping it firmly in place whilst her other kept tight hold of her knife. The cast on her fractured wrist had been removed when she fell, tripping on a rock as they had run in the night from some Walkers, and it had smashed open. Daryl had yanked her to her feet by the scruff of her clothes, pulling her until she found her own feet to continue running.
He was so used to this level of contact with her now. It would have surprised him had it all come from nothing, but it had been slow, creeping up on him almost like she had crept in to his life to mean something more than being the farmer's daughter. He realized at some point on the walk to Virginia that he liked her touches, that he would miss it when he went too long without simply just touching her. When they had first arrived at the school, Daryl had still been refusing to rest at night no matter how much he had managed to let Noah in; Daryl regarded the younger man more since seeing him at his home, after Noah had thanked Daryl for seeing to his mother and brother with a great amount of respect. "What we do for family," Daryl had said and he had meant it.
It was on the second night at the school, sheltered from the elements in the teacher's lounge, but still all wrapped up tight in blankets to fend off the cold. And Daryl had fought it, not wanting to give up that control in the dark of night when he was at his most vulnerable, but she had sat down next to him, sitting indian style with her feet under her thighs to keep warm and she had told him to sleep. Of course, he had brushed her off, almost craving her warmth against his chest, only to make her back-down on pushing him, he had tried to convince himself.
"Ya trust me, Daryl Dixon?" There had been no possible answer from him and she had stared him down until he had been the first to blink, which was certainly a first for him.
Her shoulder was too low for him to lie against so instead he had laid down, head on her thigh and her fingers in his hair. That was how he slept longer than he could remember and how he wanted to for the foreseeable future.
A sudden blare of music almost deafened them and neither of them even hesitated from breaking free of his grasp and rushing towards the sound, back towards the t-junction where they had separated from Noah and Jocelyn. As they made it there, Daryl with his crossbow nocked and ready, Beth with her knife arm in an offensive position, they risked the smallest of glances at each other after seeing Noah and Jocelyn running towards them at full speed, a horde of at least thirty Walkers ambling behind them. Neither of them needed to say anything, but they both spoke at the same time, as their feet both started moving.
"Run."
Running along the main corridor of the school rather than in to what could have been a dead end of the computer department, the pair made it through one set of double doors and continued past the lounge door and to the next set of double doors. Both double doors were able to be locked with the master key, one of each having a bolt in to the floor and ceiling too. They turned almost in unison, because although Daryl could easily out run Beth, there was no way that he was ever going to run ahead of her again and he possibly was never going to push her ahead of him either.
"What the…?" Beth asked through her heavy breaths as they watched Jocelyn make it through the first set of double doors and bend over to bolt the left hand door. Noah was falling behind, but he still had some space from the Walkers. "Come on!" Beth screamed.
Time seemed to slow as all Daryl could do was watch, he was not fast enough to get back there and do anything. Noah stumbled and fell to his knees. There was a good one-hundred meters between the two double doors, but Daryl could see the Walkers getting closer, fighting over each other to reach down for Noah. Jocelyn was close enough to be able to help. There was still time.
In contradiction to the fractured speed of Noah falling, the Walkers gathering and Beth's shouts and pleas, words that Daryl could no longer make out, Jocelyn slammed the other door shut and fumbled with the keys to lock it at both ends, locking Noah out.
Then all Daryl knew was that Beth was screaming and rushing forward, her knife in one hand her master key in the other.