Despite all the running she had done, at the farm, the winter after the farm, those days after the prison, Beth felt as if she had never run as fast as she was running what could only be a hundred or so meters towards Noah, trapped behind locked doors. Desperately she wanted to drop her knife, to use one hand to steady the other where she was fumbling amongst four fingers and a thumb to get the master key ready. When they had checked the janitor's room, there had been two sets of key chains, both with a master key on them, but also a good deal of other keys. Some were for external doors, for specific lockable cupboards and a few of the rooms which were not on the master key. They were heavy and cumbersome, but Beth and Daryl had each taken one. The other master keys, Noah and Jocelyn's, had been found in teachers' drawers, some attached to lanyards with ID badges and other keys, possibly the owner's house keys. Daryl had offered her one of those, but Beth had not wanted to know anything about the owners.

Beth was almost at the doors, almost along side Jocelyn who seemed to be standing immobilized, when suddenly a warm arm clamped around her waist and pulled her straight off her feet. The keys dropped from her hand as she immediately began clawing at Daryl's arm. She began to scream at him to let her go, but if anything his grip only tightened.

"Music room," Jocelyn huffed between rapid breaths. "Opened the door and the music started up. It was full."

"So you shut the fucking door?" Daryl demanded and something about his tone surprised Beth. He sounded angry.

"I panicked," Jocelyn sobbed as something banged up against the window in the door.

It was Noah's face, pressed up against the glass, his eyes full of pain as the Walkers surrounded him, blood squelching across the surface and quickly soaking through the carpet underneath. Beth flinched back minutely and then she lurched forward, a fresh fight within her as Daryl's forearm held on tighter and tighter, holding her firmly in place. As she struggled, her t-shirt rode up slightly and his skin was on hers almost burning her in annoyance for not releasing her.

"C'mon, need to move back." He half pulled, half carried her along the corridor, past their lounge and base, and to the next set of doors. It was enough to give them enough space away from the Walkers. Once they were all through, Beth felt Daryl nod his head at Jocelyn to close and lock the doors. After the longest moment, Beth finally tore her gaze from the doors, knowing that Noah was still so close yet he was already gone, and looked at Jocelyn.

The older woman was leant against the wall, bent forward with her hands on her knees and still trying to catch her breath. Beth's own fingers were loosely gripped around the hot and bare forearm that had still not released her. She let the knife fall from her hand, gripping that hand around Daryl's arm, too. That was how little he trusted her at that moment, even now, with two sets of doors between them, because Beth was still on the verge of running back through both to rescue Noah. That or go for Jocelyn's eyes.

No matter how much she panicked, how could she have locked the damn door? Beth did not understand. They could have out run them. There were stairs just around the corner, for fuck's sake, there were a multitude of doors that they could have closed further away. Jocelyn could have continued running, given Noah more of a chance. But she had not and now Noah was… gone. Beth hated to think of any other word for it. And her last words to him had been angry and sad. Didn't he know that he was part of her family now? That they would have all been safe together with the others? They had shared months together in the prison and Beth knew that they would all find somewhere new to do that, her sister and Glenn, Judith, Rick and Carl, Daryl and her, and Noah. He had a place there, with them. With her.

"What about our stuff? All our supplies?" Jocelyn asked across the silence.

"Need ta leave some space. Let the Walkers back away. But… we can't stay." Twisting in his hold to look up at him, his eyes met hers. "Some ah them have Ws, like at Noah's."

"What?" Jocelyn asked.

"What's it mean?" Beth asked, their eyes still locked. The answer was on the tip of her tongue, but her foggy, confused, grief stricken mind had locked them out.

"Someone put 'em in there, maybe? Loud music could be to draw 'em in, 'cept when there's fresh meat."

"Someone marked them?" Beth asked, moving away slightly, but keeping her hands on his arm, touching him was all that was keeping her from falling down.

"Yeah. An' I do not wanna find out why. C'mon, we'll hide out somewhere, try an' get some supplies if it gets safe."

Beth sagged against his arm then. It had never been a real plan – to stay at the school indefinitely, but maybe a couple of days could have become weeks, maybe a month or two. The primary concern and goal was still her family, Maggie, but the thought of a cold winter on the run, just like the last, Beth did not want that.

"Up to that third floor teacher's lounge?" Jocelyn asked and Beth felt Daryl nod, though Beth refused to move for a long moment. It was the lounge that Daryl had wanted to use as their base at the beginning. Within the science department and on the top floor, the windows gave good vantage points across the grounds, but it had been too small for the four of them.

"No," Beth whispered hoarsely, her throat hurting from her screams. There were still no tears. For the first time she met Jocelyn's eyes and saw only remorse and guilt there, but Beth could not forget just yet. She honestly had no idea if she meant for Jocelyn to leave for good, to give them a day or two, or what, but she seemed to get the message, nodding and walking away.

"Ya good?" Daryl breathed near her ear and she nodded, feeling his arm falling away but neither of them moved, his chest radiating heat through her back and her head fell back to rest on him, her eyes closing. Arms now free, his hands came to rest on her shoulders. More heat flushed through her polo to her skin and she guiltily wondered about it being just the two of them again. "C'mon," he said, pulling her slightly by the shoulders and reluctantly she followed.

Shifting his crossbow so he was armed and ready, Beth bent down and picked up her knife, readying her knife hand even though she knew she was too distracted. She knew he knew she was too distracted so when he had her settled in the small teachers' lounge, he left her alone. It was in between two science laboratories and had three points of entry. This lounge only had three comfy chairs, barely long enough for Beth to fit on let alone have been comfortable for all four of them. With all the lockable doors sealed and barricaded, Daryl left her to check how secure the ground floor was and, she guessed, see about getting their supplies.

Hugging her knees up to her chest, Beth rested her forehead against her knees and closed her eyes. She wondered then, how long the Walkers would give up and go back to the music source. Then, how long would it take for Noah to re-awaken and become one of those things?

Very quickly the adrenalin rushed from her system and Beth fell asleep, waking up to a click and scraping of furniture. Looking up sleepily and completely off guard, Beth's cheeks flushed in embarrassment; how could she have been so foolish as to have a nap when the only protection she had were a few walls and well placed tables? Thankfully it was Daryl replacing the furniture barricading the outermost doors. Both laboratories and lounge had doors on the main corridor, then a door from each laboratory in to the lounge, which was in the middle.

"Sleepin' on the job?" There seemed to be humour in his voice, but Beth felt too guilty to hear it. Guilty over having a nap, over sending Jocelyn away, over fighting with Noah, over wanting to be alone with Daryl, over wanting to stay somewhere.

"Don't start, Daryl!" she snapped, instantly regretting the flicker of pain on his face. "Sorry," she apologized. It was then that she noticed the bags at his feet. "Ya got some supplies."

"Hmm-hmm. Crept in th' normal door. Some stuff was already gone. Guessin' Jocelyn's gone."

There was the guilt again.

"So the Walkers didn't notice ya?"

"Nah, they'd backed off some. Music might'a' attracted 'em."

"Ya really think…?" She was going to ask about the Walker trap, if people had really put them there, why he thought they would do that, but she already knew. Someone would have written a warning if it were not a trap. There were plenty of pens in the school. They had been stored and used to attack Noah's home, maybe other places too.

"An'," Daryl hesitated, chewing at his thumb nail. "I found Noah. His body. I got him outta there, 'fore he could…" She nodded forcefully to stop his words. "Thought I'd bury him. Wanted to check on ya first."

"I'll do it." She forced her weak legs to stand up and she met his eyes defiantly.

"Found a few spades in the boiler room."

"I got this."

As she walked past him, she noticed his eyebrows raising.

"Two spades, two people."

"Said, I got this." The emphasis was on her. Solo.

"Beth-"

"Stop, Daryl."

"Stubborn as yer sister, Greene," he muttered and she angrily whirled on him.

With a finger pointing in his face, she near yelled at him, "I told ya they were still alive!"

"I should'a' believed ya."

"Yeah, ya should'a'."

"Lemme help."

"I don't need ya help! I can take care'ah myself. Don't need you, Daryl Dixon." She felt and heard him stop following her then, just near to the football field where Noah's covered body was lying and the two spades were propped up against a wall. With only a slight hesitation, wondering if he had given up or not, Beth picked up a spade and began to dig, refusing to glance back at him. She did not mean it at all. It had only been three days. Three days alone with Daryl, running for their life and wondering if they would ever see their family again, wondering if maybe they were the only people left in the world. But those three short days had come to mean the world to her. She had been mourning the death of her daddy and the loss of their home, clinging to a hope of finding her family and she still was, deep down in a part of her, but time seemed to move quicker since the turn and during her days at Grady, it had been Daryl that she had mourned for and missed. Not her Daddy, not her home and not her sister, just Daryl. He was the only person to have seen her as an adult, treated her as such most of the time and knew what she could be capable of. Maggie would never have let her walk off to a golf course in search of alcohol. Maggie would have stopped her, made her always walk a step behind and took out every Walker within biting distance, but Daryl gave her a chance.

Yet in those three days alone with Daryl, those three days where she had felt and eventually, kind of, been treated like an adult, Beth had learnt so much from him that it had been enough to keep her alive and sane whilst captive at Grady. No, she was not at Daryl's level yet, but with the additional training he had given her, Beth could hunt and track better than she could ever have expected and, yeah, she did believe that she could make it on her own, that she did not need Daryl Dixon to save her or keep her safe. But none of that meant she did not want Daryl by her side.

She was so mad at herself. She was better now. She was able to survive and live. So how had she still managed to lose Noah?

Pausing in her digging, wiping at her sweaty forehead with her sweaty hand, Beth looked up and realized that the sun was starting to set. The day was almost over and then there would be nothing to remind them of Noah. There would be no way to remember him a year later. There would be no birthday reminder that he had ever lived. She did not even know his last name, or the year he was born, what month even. How old had he been when he died? No one knew much of anything any more, a gentle sob escaped her as she realized this and exactly how much she missed that aspect of normality. How would they even get it back again? Would someone have to note down the times of the sun rise and sun set every day until they got back to the beginning just to figure out the longest and shortest days?

With a sly side eye, Beth checked that Daryl was actually still nearby, which she knew that he was because he would never leave her again just as she would never leave him or let him leave her, nonetheless she felt the need to check. Most of the school was three floors high except for one block which they had barely looked in, which was only two. It was the only block with an external fire escape – something which Noah had pointed out as a safety feature and ease of escape. Daryl had preferred the height advantage of any other part of the school and to primarily set up on the ground floor so that windows were a viable escape option. Daryl was sitting on the top of the fire escape, his legs dangling over the edge and Beth could just about make out the cloud of smoke surrounding him.

Resuming her digging, Beth was sure it had only been a few minutes when Daryl was suddenly behind her and she tensed awkwardly. He passed her a bottle of water and she took it, trying to relax with him. With just a nod of her head, she thanked him and then she rolled her shoulders, moved her head side to side as all the muscles in her body protested.

"Hurt like a bitch come morning."

"Hurts like a bitch now." He huffed a laugh at her and she asked him then, "Whatcha want?"

"Hole's dug, ain't it?" Squinting her eyes, Beth watched as he moved towards the covered body and bent to pick up one end. "Ya helpin'?"

He could do it on his own, she knew that he could do it with an element of grace, too, unlike her, but he was offering her help to finish the job respectfully. Nodding, she reached for and picked up the feet, wrestling internally with whether or not she should be thinking about it as a body or as Noah. Suddenly a hundred and one things flooded her mind. She wanted to ask Daryl if she should be shut off to the body in front of her, if there were a way to remember Noah. Would Noah fade from her memory just as her Daddy already was? Would this day simply blur in to all of the others since the dead started walking? Would she even remember the name Noah a few more months or days down the line? Did they even have more months and days down the line? Was she just a hopeless fool, still that naïve and useless child who was good for nothing other than raising someone else's baby?

"'m sorry," she grumbled doing her best Daryl impression. "I jus'…" She sighed and continued as they other wise silently both began filling in the grave. At least Noah was getting a grave; her daddy never would. "He was gonna leave that hospital 'fore I got there, already had his plan and lemme tag along. Well, I got the key he needed, but he could'a' got it on his own." She looked down then, admitting, "I let a man die for it." With a shake of her head, Beth refused to linger on it and the other things she had yet to tell Daryl. "I wouldn't be here without him an'… an' maybe he'd still be alive."

"Out here? Alone?" he scoffed. "No one can. I wouldn't'a."

"Really?" she asked, truly amazed by his statement – this was Daryl Dixon.

"Uh-huh." His eyes were still on the freshly filled grave and he moved to put some stones at the head of it, the only marking that Noah would get and the only thing that would keep him in this world. It had always been the same though, surely, even before the turn – people were forgotten when they died, lucky to be remembered by the next generation, maybe by a second. Perhaps the world had not changed that much.

"You could'a'," she said strongly then, taking hold of his hand. He did not fight her action. "Told ya, ya gonna be the last man standing." There was no doubt in her mind, Daryl was made for this world.

"Don't wanna be," he mumbled, not an argument, just a statement.

"Why?"

"I'unno," he shrugged

"Don't I'unno me." Her eyes met his through his dirty bangs and her own frizzy curls and suddenly they were both back in that funeral home, her waiting for him to answer her and him just looking at her. She saw the same thing in his eyes, knew she felt the same as that night. And they were both remembering the candlelight and the silence and the dog and the Walkers and all the pain that followed, but they were also remembering the moment before the pain, the moment where his eyes were open to her and she had sat there, blue meeting blue and said very simply, "Oh."

"'ve been alone, don't like it," he finally responded and she smiled a little at him, ducking her head and trying to pull her hand away from him to head back inside. He kept a gentle hold on her hand. "'ve been with the others and didn' like it." Looking back across at him, glancing at their joined hands on the way, his eyes had not left her and were staring at her with such a great intensity, it made Beth catch her breath. "Needed you."

Her mouth was dry, but Beth forced a swallow to try and lubricate it as she smiled genuinely and said, "Ya got me." There was a squint in his eyes then and she squeezed his hands. "Forever," she promised him and he let out a breath, his shoulders relaxing and she tugged at his hand, leading him back inside where they could have one last night in warmth and hopeful safety before they needed to run again.