Lowering her knife, but keeping a definite and firm grip upon it, Beth laid a gentle hand on Daryl's shoulder, waiting for him to turn to look at her. It took only a moment and the hesitation, the disbelief was clear in his eyes, but he had to know there was no way out right now? Not with weapons raised at any rate. This was where he needed some of her hope and she willed him to see that in her eyes. A barely imperceptible sag in his shoulders told her that he was agreeing with her and he lowered the crossbow. They were both facing the same direction now, the one that they had been heading in to check out this farm when they had been ambushed by at least ten people – a mixture of men, women and children. Beth would guess the youngest was early teens, a girl and then two other older teenage boys, two women and around five men that Beth had been able to make out in her quick glances. She was trying to keep her attention on the oldest person, the white-haired man who had indicated that the others were his family.

Once upon a time, Beth would have taken that statement at face value – family was her Daddy, Mama, Shawn, Maggie. Maybe at a stretch she would have included Otis and Patricia in with them, but they were never really family. Now, Beth was unsure if she would list anyone other than Daryl. So really she had no idea what the man meant by that.

"We're just passin' through," Beth explained knowing that she had far more people skills than Daryl and that was what was needed.

"To where?" the gruff voiced older man asked. Beth had to admit that there was something in his look that reminded her of her daddy. She missed her daddy.

"Not too sure," she admitted with a smile. "We have family that went on ahead, but we lost their trail months ago. Just heading in their general direction now."

"Over winter?" he asked, concern on his face and Beth smiled again, hoping to gain not just his trust but also perhaps his sympathy.

"Got nowhere to stay to wait it out and, well, winter ain't gonna wait for us."

"My name's Harrison. This is my farm. It was before the dead started living and it will be mine until my kin take it over."

"I was raised on a farm," Beth admitted, her smile verging on sad at the memories. Just the smell of all the animals and hay was enough to set off her nostalgia and desire to turn back time and to still be there. When they had first been driven off from the farm, that Winter on the run and then when they had first been set up in the prison, Beth had wondered sometimes if they could have continued at the farm if it had not been for the horde or Rick and his group. Even now, a year later, after months of living and surviving in the prison, Beth still had those wonders. Not in the same way, not any more. At first they had been bitter questions – had it been Rick and Shane, the others, that had brought the horde on to them? Could they have stayed there, still been there now, if it had not been for that camper van, the motorcycle and gun training?

Over time the bitterness had seeped away, replaced with a love for those very people that Beth had been wishing away because, whilst she would never wish anyone dead, she would almost give up Carl, Judith, Carol, if she could still be happy on her farm with her daddy and Maggie, Otis and even Jimmy. If it meant having that one little pocket of normality and the world she knew, she wondered if she would go back and stop Carl from getting shot, keep them from ever finding the farm. She did still wonder, question herself on a night watch, if they could all still be there if that horde had not walked through. They would never have met the Governor, never have found Merle. They would never have met Michonne, never have lost Andrea. Jimmy would still be alive and maybe Beth would have actually ended up married to him. Her daddy would never have lost his leg. They never would have met Sasha and Tyresse, rescued those prisoners just to have them all die within days.

But the farm could never have been as safe as the prison had been, as the prison should have been – at least from Walkers.

Yet somehow Harrison had managed it with his family.

"Sorry," she apologized suddenly. "My name's Beth. This is Daryl."

"Nice to meet you, Beth," Harrison said, shaking the hand that she had held out to him.

"You'll have to forgive Daryl. We haven't met many nice people along the way. He likes to be wary enough for both of us."

"We're pretty off the beaten track out here, but my boys have seen what the world's become. How did you manage to stumble upon us?"

"We were avoiding someone else, headed off the path we would have been following. Saw the little cottage back there. Saw people were clearly living in there so we headed up here."

"Didn't think of taking anything?"

"I saw a coat I would be mighty glad of, but we ain't thieves. This world's turned us into scavengers, yeah, but not thieves. We're still decent and honest. Gotta hope there's still good people out there, don't ya?"

"So, farm girl," Harrison smiled and Beth returned it. "You reckon you could help out around here?"

"Been a year almost since we left my farm, but I won't have forgotten anything."

"We're just passing through," Daryl grumbled.

"You can speak," Harrison teased with a gentle laugh. "You handy with that bow?"

"Huntin'. Walkers. We do all right."

"Tell ya what," Harrison said. "Stay the night, we'll sort you out with some clothes an' help out tomorrow. My boys are out on a run to a nearby town. Daryl, you help them out whilst Beth helps the farm out and we'll see if we might be able to spend the winter accommodating you."

"She goes nowhere without me," he growled.

"Well, if you wanna risk her on a run, ya could both go."

"I can take care of myself," Beth responded and she was unsure who she was actually speaking to. "Let's see how we all feel come morning, huh?"

Everyone agreed and relaxed at this, both Daryl and Beth following Harrison and his family back to the little cottage they had found. The teenage girl, Grace, showed Beth around the bedrooms whilst the men divided up a perimeter watch for them to share and get rest along with food. Daryl volunteered to take the first watch whilst there was still some daylight and he reluctantly left Beth inside the cottage. Grace explained to her that everyone spent their days on the farm or walking the perimeter – the entire site was surrounded by forest but with a good hundred-meter distance from the buildings to the trees. There were no fences, the tree line was their first line of defence and three men at a time were walking different parts of it. At night they all congregated in the cottage with a strict lights out policy and no noise allowed once darkness had fallen. Two men spent every night on guard watching the animals and the shelter they were in. The only real hindrance to the quiet were the two babies who rarely ever left their nursery.

Grace showed Beth the nursery, where two mothers were sitting with their babes at their breast and Beth had faltered for a moment seeing Judith as a newborn. These babies were younger than Judith and their mothers had survived. That gave Beth fresh hope for the future. As they left the nursery, Grace grabbed Beth's wrist.

"We all sleep up here," she repeated her earlier words. "But Harrison," her eyes fell to the carpeted floor, "he don't allow men sleepin' up here. An' he won't like it if y'all decide to sleep downstairs."

"You're saying Daryl will have to stay down there and I can be up here?"

Grace shrugged her shoulders, her dirty blonde hair was a mess about her shoulders, dirty and scraggly for someone living in relative normality. "Heard him say you don't go nowhere without him and wanted to warn you s'all. Maybe ya should both head out before you're alone."

"We don't like to be separated," Beth explained. "But we can be. We have been." She was not sure then when the last time had actually been. There had been a few hunts when Noah had been with them where Daryl would venture away from them, but never too far. Before then it was when he yelled at her to leave the funeral home. The sudden memory of his shouts, of running out of the home and across the road hit her and she felt abject fear flood her body. "I might go check on him and the perimeter."

As Beth reached the bottom of the stairs, Daryl appeared from the kitchen, his mouth full of food and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Hey," she greeted. "How's the perimeter?"

"All clear, but I don' see how they keep the Walkers away. No real defences." He lowered his already quiet mumbles, "If a horde came outta them trees now, everyone's fucked."

"There's babies upstairs, Daryl."

"This place ain't safe."

Her shoulders sagged in defeat. "Grace says that we won't be able to sleep together if we stay here." A blush spread across her cheeks as his eyes met hers sharply and she cleared her throat, correcting herself, "I mean, not like that. I mean, sleeping near each other because that's all that happens, all I-"

"Know what ya mean, Greene. There's the work house we saw. Won't be as warm, but might be they let us sleep up there."

"I got some warmer clothes for us," she smiled, following him through the small cottage. It did not feel any safer here than anywhere else. Beth wished, not for the first time, that they could have stayed in the school because the winter was going to get harder. Day by day the resources remaining from before civilization seemed to fall, were dwindling and they were in the second winter already. Hunting would become harder, staying warm enough to live through the night was getting harder and it was just the two of them. A year ago, the group of them in a small room could produce enough heat to survive. It did not matter how unsafe this farm was, they needed somewhere to wait out the winter. They needed somewhere to rest as the days got shorter and shorter, the nights longer and longer.

It was Daryl who told Harrison that they were going to spend the night in the work house. The elderly patriarch was clearly not pleased with their decision and Beth was reminded of her daddy's rules when Rick and Shane had arrived, finally relenting and letting them in to the house as winter started. Maybe this would end up better, and give them some new family members.

Once they were settled in to one of the smallest rooms, to conserve heat, hay piled on to the floor to make it at least semi comfortable and Daryl sat down on it first, beckoning for her to sit in between his legs, Beth's eyebrow quirked up.

"Ain't enough space for lyin' down, Greene, 'n' I don't think we need to take a watch. Building's stone." He thumped the wall as if to prove what she already knew. "Ain't no horde walking right through an' that door's bolted up tight."

"Ya sure about them?" Her thumb jerked over her shoulder, in the direction of the cottage full of people behind them.

He shrugged, putting his legs out straight, enough of a gap that she would still fit in between them and set his crossbow down on one side, his knife in his other hand on his thigh. "Not much we can do. 'Less ya wanna run off or take over by force."

Laughing at that, Beth turned around and sat down in front of him, shuffling backwards on the hay until her bum came in to contact with his groin and she scooted forward slightly at the contact. Chewing her bottom lip, Beth leaned backwards against his chest and tried to let out a steady breath. His chest behind her did not seem to be breathing regularly, hitching every few moments as if uncomfortable with her presence. She felt it too, an uncomfortableness that should not be present and that she could not vocalize.

"Try 'n' sleep," he whispered hoarsely in to her ear and she shivered at the words blowing across her ear. Shifting as if in response, he relaxed back a little bit and she moved with him, closing her eyes and trying to relax.

"Can't," she finally admitted.

"Worried?"

"Anxious."

"'Bout?"

She wanted to say the people outside, the winter cold, the Walkers, the journey to their family but her brain was vacant of all those worries. It was being in his arms like this and she did not understand it. "Feels weird. Sittin' like this."

"Ya could curl up lower, rest ya head on my thigh like normal," he suggested. "But we'll share more body heat this way."

"Right."

"But we don't gotta."

"No, no, it's fine. It just feels stiff." Her jaw, arms and entire body, every muscle, went rigid at her own words and suddenly her cheeks were burning. The arm nearest his crossbow moved to cross over her chest, that hand resting on her lower abdomen, almost around her hip, cuddling her in to him. His knife hand dropped the knife on to his blanket covered thigh and pulled the blanket up around to her chin a bit more, tucking her in and then holding her shoulder gently. Turning her head to the side, facing the wall, Beth let her cheek rest against his chest, the coolness of his clothes combating the burning of her blush.

"Relax then. Just like normal. Just like the last night in the school." He would feel her smile through his clothes, she knew that, as she liked being reminded of that little memory. It was the day that Noah had died and Beth had dug the grave all on her own, stubbornly refusing to let Daryl help and he had set them up in a small teacher's lounge, part of the science department. They had needed to move on, but it had been too late in the day so they had spent one final night, curled up together on the three chairs they had pushed together. They had never slept like that, him against the backs of the chair and her back pressed tight up against him. His arms had wrapped tightly around her to stop her rolling or slipping off in her sleep and her own hands had wrapped around his arms, as if clinging on to him. By the morning, they had barely moved, aside from their legs becoming entwined as if during sleep they had become one person.

"I liked that," she whispered as her eyelids started to become heavy.

"Me, too," he replied just as quietly, his head dropping to place a kiss on the top of her head and Beth smiled as sleep claimed her. When Daryl stirred behind her, waking her, the room was starting to get light and Beth wondered how much sleep she had actually had. Her internal body clock had altered to this new world and she barely slept longer than four to five hours, usually to switch watches with Daryl. Before that it had been to see to Judith who had not been close to sleeping through the night when they had abandoned the prison. With the nights getting longer, it was harder to tell when it should have been morning as the sun would not rise until too late unless they wanted to spend over 12 hours in bed.

"What time is it?" she queried, her voice thick with sleep.

"Sun's up so past breakfast."

"How'd I sleep so long?" she asked, still not having moved. In fact, if anything, she was nuzzling her cheek against his warm chest, fighting the urge to move. She had moved in her sleep, turning more on to her side in between his legs, her chest almost pressing down on to his and her legs curled up towards his groin. Both of his legs were bent at the knee, one arm slung across a knee and the other wrapped around her underneath the blanket. She felt pretty much cocooned by him and she did not want to move, she did not want the cruel world to become real again.

"We didn't get here 'til late." He shrugged his shoulders then, the arm around her shifting with it, rubbing up along her arm and she nuzzled some more. "Slept well that last night in the school, too." Tilting her chin up to look at his face, Beth's breath caught when she realized he was already gazing down at her and he shrugged again, rubbing her arm. "Just sayin'. Ya better shift, girl, I got a run to be doing."

Sitting up straight and stretching her back and arms up right in front of him, Beth let the blankets and Daryl's arm fall from her and she bristled at the sudden cold. Standing up, Beth put a hand out and helped Daryl to his feet, noticing a faint red coloring on his cheeks and neck.

"You sure about this run?" she asked, folding up the blanket and emptying out her bag.

"No, ain't got no other choice, way I see it."

"I could come." Ramming the blanket in to her bag first, Beth then began to fill it up with the rest of her belongings, watching Daryl as he did the same before chewing on his thumb. "Jus' sayin'," she repeated back to him in an attempt to diffuse his awkwardness.

"No idea what I'm heading in to with these guys. Don' fancy walking int' the unknown with ya."

She watched him closely as she stood up, finished and ready to leave. He was doubtful, she could see it behind his eyes, but he would not admit it. He needed her to stay at the farm, learn more about it and he needed to see what Harrison's sons were like. If they were going to stay here for the winter, they needed to get a feel for the land. He stepped to walk past her, but she stopped him, putting her hands flat against his chest and smoothing out the material there as if he were a suited business man about to be kissed goodbye for work by his wife and Beth smiled at the thought, looking up through her eyelashes at him. "Just remember, Mr Dixon, not all people are good."

He huffed a laugh at her contradicting advice from usual. "I know, I know." He sounded like her daddy used to when her mama was nagging him.

Stepping up on her tiptoes, Beth leaned in closely and pressed a kiss to his stubbly, hair covered cheek. "Come home to me, Daryl Dixon, ya hear me."

"Yes, ma'am," he half-smiled in response, taping her hand gently before walking away from her and all she could do was watch him leave with an awful feeling settling in her stomach. Trying to convince herself that it was purely hunger, Beth followed a little way behind Daryl, watching as he met up with four of Harrison's sons as they gathered near their truck. She saw Grace then coming from the cottage with two bottles of water and some cans of food, passing one off to Daryl before heading towards Beth. Daryl caught Beth's eyes, nodding his head before climbing in to the truck and she felt helpless with her arms crossed against her stomach as Grace came to stand next to her, both of them watching the truck leave.

"Here ya go," Grace offered the water and food and Beth took it with a polite smile. "Should be a good run. They should come back with plenty of supplies."

"So's one of them ya daddy?" Beth asked, following Grace towards the animals. They both had jobs to do.

"No. My daddy… I ain't Harrison's biological family. Stumbled upon here soon after the world turned to shit," she explained speaking across the stables where there were two horses living. Beth missed her horse, staring wistfully at the beautiful animals. "Mom and Dad died within days of the outbreak, I guess. Went to school with one of Harrison's daughters. She got bit a few weeks after they took me in. I got her bedroom though." Grace smiled at that and Beth's brow furrowed.

"How old are ya?"

"Thirteen. Was eleven when I came here."

"Thirteen and Harrison was your friend's daddy?" Beth would have pegged Harrison for being the same age as her own daddy, but to have such a young child, six years younger than herself, it struck Beth as odd. Grace nodded as if it were normal. "Them two mamas with babes, they the only women here?"

"Them and another, Darcy, she's Bobby's wife. That's Harrison's eldest. The only one married. Helen and Megan, they're the baby mommas."

"So one of them's your friend's mama?"

"Uh-huh."

"An' the other?" Grace went silent then, pausing in brushing at the horse's hair. "Grace?"

"This run today, your daddy, he won't be coming back," the teenager's voice was just a whisper that Beth could only just hear above the breathing of the horses.

"My… Daryl ain't my daddy."

"No matter," Grace shrugged. "He won't be coming back."

"Why not? Grace?" In frustration, Beth stepped towards Grace and pulled the younger girl around to face her.

"This family here ain't like mine," the girl whispered. "But it's safe here." There was a bright smile on her face then, but Beth did not believe it.

"Really? Then why won't Daryl be coming back?" she asked, refusing to believe Grace's belief. Nothing could kill that man. He had found her in the damn apocalypse after cops had kidnapped her days earlier, tracking her across the deserted Atlanta on unfamiliar terrain. Who could manage that? Daryl Dixon, is who, and he would find her again if Harrison's sons abandoned him somewhere. "Are you really safe here?"

"From the dead, yeah."

"From Harrison?" He seemed so friendly and fatherly, Beth refused to believe that a man who reminded her so much of her own daddy could be hurting or threatening people.

"Harrison don't hurt anyone," Grace said truthfully and vehemently. "He just don't trust men. He let a couple stay, in the earlier days. They… they're the reason two of his daughters, one of his daughter in laws, why they're dead. Harrison killed them, ended the girls' misery and dug their graves themselves. He believes all men are rapers and killers now. All except his sons."

"Are ya safe from his sons?" Beth was trying to bite down the panic she was feeling, churning in her stomach at the thoughts that this place could be just like Grady. That maybe Daryl had left her in the hands of people that she had already escaped from once. Like he had said, that day he found her and told her that she rescued herself, if this farm was like Grady, she would get herself out of it and find Daryl again. They would always find each other.

"Mostly," Grace admitted, starting up the hair brushing again. "The middle one, Charlie, he has a bit of a temper, hit me a few times when I couldn't keep up, leers at me other times. But he's closer to your age so I reckon he'll move his attention on to you."

"Like to see him try," Beth laughed humorlessly.

"Daryl won't be coming back," Grace repeated and Beth could only nod her head, moving away from Grace and the horses. She did not think the farm was going to be able to house them both for winter and, not for the first time, Beth desperately wished for the prison or her own farm, safety for her family. Frequently Beth thought that life was more than manageable, surviving and living along side Daryl, just the two of them ambling around. She would have stayed in that funeral home with him. Even now, knowing that her family were alive, that they were getting closer and closer to them, Beth would still consider staying somewhere with Daryl, just the two of them. She would have stayed in that school with him after Noah died and Jocelyn left, in the funeral home, hell, even in the moonshine shack before they burnt it down. She could be happy, just the two of them, somewhere safe.

Crossing the farm and checking the perimeter as she went, looking out across the flat grass land that spread from the buildings to the dense tree line that apparently Walkers rarely crossed. She knew she should be helping out on the farm, doing her job, like her daddy would have wanted to, like Daryl wanted her to because it was him that wanted somewhere safe for the winter. He was too afraid, having lost her once already, he was scared of losing her again, but he thought nothing of losing himself along the way.

Maybe if she spoke to Harrison, showed him that she and Daryl were good people then the farm could be something safe for them both. There was still hope of finding good people, accepting more people in to her heart as she had accepted Glenn, Rick and Carl, Carol, Sasha and Tyresse, Michonne, Noah, Lori and T-Dog, Daryl more than all the others.

After a slow ramble around the perimeter, Beth wondered back towards the centre of the farm, the sun now high in the sky indicating it was probably lunch time. Beth had yet to even eat breakfast, the churning in her stomach was still too great. It was a clear day, but that meant the temperature was bitterly cold with no cloud cover to help insulate. As she squinted up at the sun, a voice broke in to her thoughts.

"Nice day."

With a hand above her eyes, shielding the sun for a moment to look up and across, Beth saw Harrison standing there, a bottle of water out stretched in his hand. She took the bottle with thanks and swallowed a mouthful. "Be nicer if it were warmer."

"You worrying about your friend? He is your friend, isn't he? Not your daddy?"

"No," she shook her head, looking down at the stones beneath her feet, a small smile on her face. "He ain't my daddy. My daddy was about your age."

"Was?"

"He died, only a few months ago now."

"Bitten?"

She shook her head, no. "Head cut off."

Harrison winced.

"There's something you need to know about Daryl. He's loyal. Loyal as fuck," the curse was strange on her lips, but true. "Loyal to me and the others we call family, but mostly to me now, I guess. He's never hurt no one that didn't deserve it and he is a strength everyone needs in this world. He is how we can all survive. Together, we're harmless and we really can be an advantage here, bring qualities you don't have but need. Grace told me what happened to your daughters, that you don't trust men no more. Daryl ain't like that, never could be." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "He ain't never touched me or hurt me, 'n' we been alone for weeks."

"I appreciate what you're saying, Beth, but when you've seen the world change the way that I have… This is my land and family to protect."

"I've seen the world change," she argued with a small hint of anger. She was not naïve and innocent to the world. Maybe she had been when the dead had first started walking, but she had seen the world change. "I was separated from my family, from Daryl and taken in by some police out of Atlanta. Still surviving in the middle of a city. By surviving, I mean abducting people on the street, in the dark of night. Treating people medically and feeding them, but charging them for the fact without their permission. Expecting people, girls, to agree to paying with sexual favours instead of working hard to pay off their debts. The people I've been living with for near on two years, they ain't like that. Not a single one." Beth paused, taking a long and slow deep breath, vaguely aware of a car engine approaching. "There are still good people in the world, sir, anyone can still be good."

The noise of the car engine got louder and louder until the two vehicles that left that morning suddenly raced back in to view coming to a screeching halt at the end of the dirt path, just before the grassy area started. The hairs on the back of Beth's neck stood up as something about the noise put her on edge. Some of the men left the cars, shouting between themselves and across to one of the women who had come up from the cottage behind them. Harrison started running towards the vehicles, Beth could see almost everyone running towards them and then her legs started, racing ahead of all of the others just in time to see Daryl stumble from one of the vehicles, an arrow in his side and blood absolutely everywhere. One of the sons was covered in blood, too, from his face and downwards. Both bloodied men stumbled to the ground, Harrison's son supported by his brothers, but Daryl was left to fend for himself as his knees slammed to the dirt.

Beth was there only moments later, catching him and helping lower him backwards on to her lap as her hands went to cup his face, his eyes fluttering open and closed at her. She was distantly aware of the woman from the cottage bringing first aid kits and one of the sons shouting about not wasting any on him, on Daryl.