A/N: Look at me updating so soon after my last one. (: This is a LONG chapter, just for y'all.
Shout out to all my new followers and favoriters! I am so happy you're reading, PLEASE review, I would love to know what the new people think!
Special thanks to all those who reviewed last chapter: Reignashii, Hasick, Str1der2015, the guests and of course DarylDixon'sLover who is always super supportive and reviews every chapter (you are amazing!) Happy to hear people liked the softer Beth last chapter, she won't always be like that—this is a Beth born of the apocalypse—but we will see her soften up in the near future… *wink
#1 What did everyone think of the Season 7 trailer that premiered this weekend?!
#2 Who do you think will be killed by Lucille?
Please review and answer because I am super curious to hear other people's theories!
Companion song: "In the House, In a Heartbeat" by John MurphyDisclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to the characters/plot of TWD series. I am just a fan exploring the marvelous, macabre world Robert Kirkman created.
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Chapter 29: Giraffe
He was exceptionally warm, not uncomfortable or sweaty but warm like he was laying next to a fire on a snowy day. It was so pleasant that he wasn't entirely sure he wasn't just dreaming. The smell of rain and peaches engulfed him and he knew he was dreaming about Beth again—peaches always reminded him of Beth eating them out of a jar back in Georgia. Daryl didn't want to open his eyes yet. He could tell even through his closed lids that it was still dark so he figured it must still be night.
Then he felt the thrum of a heartbeat against his forearm and his eyes flew open.
The hunter almost jumped when he looked at the position he was in. A small blonde was tucked up against his chest and it took a second for his brain to catch up with what he was seeing before he realized it was actually Beth. Daryl was laying on his right side, with his head resting on his right arm. But his left arm was slung over Beth and his forearm had worked its way in between her breasts—which explained why he could feel her heart gently thumping against his arm—his open palm was wrapped around Beth's shoulder under the collar of her t-shirt and that skin to skin contact made his hand feel white hot. She was breathing calmly and evenly so he knew she hadn't woken up yet. For that he was grateful. They had fallen asleep lying side by side but at some point they had shifted so that her entire backside was pressed against his front. They were so tightly wound together that they couldn't have fit a piece of paper between them. He could feel every curve, muscle and bone even through her clothes. Daryl realized that undoubtedly would mean that Beth would have felt his hardness pressed against her ass. He was again grateful that she hadn't woken up.
He'd dreamed for years about waking up with Beth this close to him.
And part of him, a big part of him, wanted to stay there. Appreciate this feeling of having Beth so close. Just go back to sleep, pretend he never noticed and continue being with her in sleeping ignorance.
But it didn't feel right. They had only slept like this to stay warm, he told himself. She didn't actually want Daryl like that. Hell, Daryl still wasn't sure he wanted this new, tough-as-nails Beth like that.
As his natural morning reaction calmed down, he shifted slightly. Not moving enough to wake her but just putting some space between them so he didn't feel like he was violating this girl in her sleep. Daryl felt a twinge of pain in his back when he moved and remembered the stitches she'd given him last night. He vaguely wondered what Beth had thought about his scars but realized that it didn't really matter what she thought now. It was too late. She had reacted better than he expected. Most importantly she hadn't badgered him with stupid questions about it like he knew the old Beth would have done. Although, he smiled a little when he remembered her unspoken invitation to talk about it if he wanted to. Maybe he did like this new Beth—some days it seemed like she was cold but there was still a warmth inside her when it mattered. His pants twitched at that thought and he berated himself.
Damnit, keep it in your pants Dixon, he scolded internally before easing himself completely away from her and standing up.
Lucky saw the movement and stood up too. He could just barely see anything since the freezer door still blocked out most of the light. But the dog was staring at Daryl like he knew all of Daryl's dirty thoughts about his blonde owner still sleeping innocently on the ground.
Daryl wanted to see how everything looked outside but he knew Beth would wake up as soon as he opened the door. Somehow he just couldn't bring himself to wake her when she looked so peaceful. Since she'd come back into their lives he'd never seen her in a vulnerable moment, it seemed like she always had at least one hand on a weapon even when they were inside the walls of Alexandria. Seeing her without any stress clouding her face or tensed to stab something at any moment was too good for him to disturb.
Lucky just kept staring at him though. The mutt walked over to where Daryl sat against a wall and let out one low whine. Daryl shot a glance at Beth but inexplicably she hadn't stirred.
"What the hell, dog?" he muttered.
Lucky whined again and kept looking at him.
After another few minutes where Daryl felt like he was losing a staring contest with a dog, Lucky evidently gave up on him and went over to Beth. Before Daryl could stop him, the dog nudged Beth with his nose and whined loud enough to wake her up. He watched as Beth's hand instinctively went for the hilt of her knife as she stood up suddenly. When she took in her surroundings, she relaxed her grip.
Beth glanced down at Lucky, who was staring at her now and she immediately nodded at the dog.
"Yeah, Luck. Alright," she said to him as if she was responding to something the dog said.
She looked over at Daryl, "You been outside yet this morning?"
"Nah, just got up when yer dog started yapping at me," he responded, though he really wasn't mad at the dog. He had just never had a pet so he didn't really know what Lucky needed from him. It wasn't even like Lucky was really a pet—the dog usually found his own food and water, didn't have a collar or anything—so it seemed stupid that the dog would need anything from him.
"Lucky and I are gonna go check it out," she said picking up her bow and quiver.
Daryl moved to get up to go with her. He knew she could handle herself but it was just second nature to never split up from someone you were traveling with.
Beth saw and smirked, "You gonna chaperone our morning pee, Dixon?"
He could have smacked himself in the head, he felt so stupid. Of course the dog needed to piss, they'd been trapped in a tiny refrigerator all night. Daryl tried to hide his incompetence by saying, "Hell no. I just wanna get out of this damn place."
When Beth opened the door, he expected a blinding brightness. Instead, he could see it was still fairly dark. For a moment he thought it was dusk and they'd slept all day, but then he saw it was still stormy outside. It was drizzling slightly but not wet enough that it would trap them in the diner another night.
Beth and Lucky wandered off and Daryl went out of the kitchen and into the front room. He saw a trail of what he knew was his own blood from where the glass got him and saw the tree that had collapsed on the side of the diner. It had crushed the booth that he and Beth had been sitting in last night and he was happy they hadn't been asleep out here when the storm hit.
Daryl went back into their hideout and gathered up all their stuff. All their clothes were still wet from yesterday and he cursed the moist, cold air of Virginia. If they were back in Georgia their clothes would have dried from the heat even at this time of year.
Light footsteps told him Beth was back and she grabbed her own bag.
"What's the plan for today?" she asked him.
"Keep heading along the way we were going before it started raining. Maybe we'll run into the people or something useful," he said before pushing out of the store and back into the rain. He hoped they would find something otherwise their whole plan was for nothing. Glenn and his team had gone out to provide a distraction for Beth and Daryl to sneak away, who knows if their group had gotten trapped in the same storm that hit here. If Daryl couldn't come back with information about the group that had been attacking them, he was determined to at least come back with something useful. He'd never once walked through the gates of Alexandria empty handed—even the first day he came with an opossum—and he didn't plan on starting now.
It took them a while to make it back to the last spot they'd seen tracks last night. Beth gave Lucky a small hand gesture and he took off running with his nose to the ground.
She noticed Daryl looking and responded, "I won't be able to find any tracks in this mess, can you?"
He looked around and she had a point. The storm had ruined all tracks in the dirt and the wind had broken so many trees and bushes it was impossible to tell what was done by a human or Mother Nature.
"Not a chance in hell. You think Lucky can pick up their scent or somethin'?" he asked feeling useless.
"Probably. He's pretty good at finding people," Beth answered darkly.
"He got a lotta experience finding people?" Daryl prompted. Normally, he wouldn't ask background questions like this but something about the darkness in her eyes made him morbidly curious.
"You have to know where people are to avoid them," she said as she reached in her bag for a bottle of water.
"Spend a lot of time avoiding people?" he eyed her while she took a large gulp of water. She licked her lips and Daryl tried to pretend he wasn't staring at them when she passed the bottle over to him.
"I'm fortunate, I had Morgan. He… values life and people," there was a softness in her face as she spoke about the man who had acted as her father for the last two years. "But most of the people out there are… too far gone. No one wants to give, only take. And they only value people based on what they can get from them—supplies, protection, sex," she almost spat out the last word. "Most of the people we met considered other humans just as disposable as the walkers."
Beth's words were laced with venom but her eyes were sad, there was a hopelessness in them that Daryl had never seen before in Beth. She was always so full of hope. Someone must have taken that hope from her. And he wanted to crush their skull into a million pieces. The water bottle crinkled in his fist and water came crashing all over his hands.
"Someone take those things from you?" Daryl's voice was shaking with rage and he foolishly tossed the water bottle into a nearby bush. He couldn't bring himself ask if someone had actually violated her.
"Plenty did… none walked away from it alive," she spoke with an eerie calm voice that contrasted Daryl's fury.
It didn't matter that they were already dead. Daryl wanted to hunt down their walker bodies, rip them to pieces and spit on their remains. He knew he was being ludicrous but when he imagined someone touching Beth against her will, all he saw was red.
This explained why she had become so much harder, colder and more distrusting. Before she'd been shot the worst person she ever saw in the apocalypse was the Governor and he had been mostly human still. The people Beth had met since she woke up in that fire truck… weren't human, they were monsters worse than the walkers. At least walkers were brainless and didn't know what they were doing.
He fought the urge to punch the closest tree trunk.
Beth was watching him with her brows furrowed and eyes wary.
"Beth… I… uh…" he sputtered. Daryl was trying to think of a reasonable excuse for why he was acting like a lunatic. He wanted to apologize—for letting her get taken in the first place, for being careless at the funeral home, for not realizing that she was still alive, for all the assholes who ever came after her.
But he couldn't.
So instead, he hoisted his backpack on again and started walking. He couldn't find the men who hurt her before, but maybe if they found the people who had been hunting the Alexandrians he could still beat the shit out of someone today.
/
Daryl's mood swings were going to give Beth whiplash.
Last night was a rare tender moment when he got up to keep her warm, this morning he had been joking around, then he got angry and now he was tromping through the forest looking like he'd swallowed a lemon. He kept throwing careful glances in her direction.
"You tryin' to bring every walker in a 10 mile radius down on us?" Beth hissed at him.
He was stomping so loudly that this was the eighth walker she'd killed in the last few minutes. Daryl had stabbed more than twice that many. He was using more force than necessary and was stabbing them repeatedly with his small knife. She couldn't feel fear but she was certain that Morgan would have told her that she should be afraid of Daryl in this mood.
He glared at her in response and banged another walker's head against a tree until it was nothing but slime.
She shot two more through the trees ahead of them and went to retrieve her arrows while Daryl wiped his dirty hands on his pants. When she got up to the walkers she noticed that these two looked new. They weren't as decayed and rotting as most of the others and their clothes were still in pretty good condition. Ignoring the stench, she bent down and examined the walkers. She even rummaged through their pockets. One of them had a small knife still attached to his hip. Beth grimaced but still took off his belt and removed the sheath with the knife. It was only two inches long—not much of a defense against walkers but she tucked it into her boot anyway.
Her gruff companion continued along their trajectory making more noise than she'd ever heard him make.
Now she was getting pissed off.
"Daryl! Stop," she whispered after him.
He didn't show any sign that he'd heard her even know she knew damn well he could.
"Daryl!" this time she sped up and grabbed his arm. He swung around to face her and for a split second she thought he might hit her. But his eyes calmed when they met hers. "Soon enough we will run into a herd if you keep being so damn loud. They're not going to keep coming at us only one at a time. If you wanna kill things or punch things, I get it. But don't bring a whole mess of them on us." She was staring at him but he still looked stubborn. "Not going to help any of your family back home if ya get yourself killed."
His face softened and she could tell she had defeated him.
"A'ight," he said taking a step back from her. "Why don't ya call yer damn dog back so we can see what he found."
"Luck will come back on his own after he finds something," she said.
"Then let's go get some supplies," Daryl grunted as he changed course.
Beth was amazed at how easily he knew which direction a town was. This time his footsteps were much quieter so walkers stopped interrupting their progress.
After a couple miles, they got back onto a road and followed it into another city. Beth read the signs for Purcellville. It was a tiny town but it seemed like it was still in good condition. They went into a Walgreens and after making sure there weren't any walkers Beth found a few useful things like single strip of gauze, sunscreen, and hair ties. It was all small stuff, the actual pharmacy section was completely empty but Beth didn't expect it to have anything left. Daryl was going through aisles behind her and he picked up stuff that she never would have expected like laundry soap, coloring books, and bottles of spices. Beth thought about what he was bringing and realized how different life at Alexandria was from the life she'd been living the last two years. They had laundry soap and she was just happy if she found a stream to wash her hands in once a day.
She tried to stifle a laugh when the surly hunter, covered in walker guts and mud, picked up a little giraffe stuffed animal. But she couldn't manage it and a giggle escaped her lips.
His eyes snapped up as he roughly shoved the toy in his bag. "What're you laughing 'bout, Greene? It's for your sister."
She stopped laughing. Maggie was still barely showing so it was easy for her to forget and she'd never taken care of a baby so she had no idea what they needed.
Never taken care of a baby that I remember, she corrected herself in her head. Maggie had explained to her why Judith had called her 'mommy' that first night at dinner. Maggie said she'd delivered the baby but been the one to feed, change, and care for Judith almost 24/7 from the minute she had been born.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. It's just… well… I'd never expect anyone to have a backpack full of stuffed animals," Beth explained.
She heard him grumble something about "it's not full" and "just one damn toy" as they resumed their search of the store.
When they left the store, they continued along the main drag and she was again surprised to see how untouched the town looked. However, when she looked in the windows of every store and house, it was clear the place had been picked over pretty well. The grocery store had been cleared out so long ago that there was a thick layer of dust covering all the abandoned shelves.
"Got an idea, come on," Daryl said as he headed down a side street.
There were signs for various wineries and breweries this direction and she wondered if he was looking for booze.
It was well passed midday now and soon they were going to have to find a place to stay for the night. Beth took out her dog whistle and blew on it. She was surprised that Lucky had been gone all day and she wondered vaguely if she should be afraid for him.
Climbing the hills along the overgrown vineyards she heard growling.
She could tell that Daryl heard it too because he unsheathed his knife and lightened his tread from quiet to virtually silent. When they came over the next hill, she saw it. There were about twenty walkers all corralled into a small fenced area next to a winery. Daryl moved to continue down the road to kill them but she put a hand on his shoulder.
He turned to look at her and she shook her head while putting her finger to her lips.
Something didn't seem right.
She could feel eyes on her but she couldn't tell where they were coming from.
Even though she felt horribly exposed she didn't move from the street. She didn't want to alert whoever was watching them that she knew they were there.
"See anyone?" Daryl whispered as he dropped down to tie his shoe.
Beth was grateful that he'd caught on so quickly, he was trying to make it look like they stopped for a reason.
"No, but look at those walkers. All men and all recently killed," she didn't nod in the direction because she didn't want to give anything away.
"Yeah, and they were put in there, look at the lock on that gate," Daryl responded.
"What's our play?" Beth questioned, feeling like they were walking into a trap. "Turn back or keep going? Or make a run for it into the woods?"
"Don't know how many of 'em are out there…" Daryl mumbled. His knuckles were white on the handle of the knife and his eyes had narrowed into slits trying to think.
Beth hated the thought of going into one of the buildings. There were more places to hide and they could always put real walls between themselves and walkers. But not knowing the layouts or escape routes was too big of a risk.
"Run for it," Beth said at the exact same time that Daryl said, "Into the woods."
She smiled for half a breath, tightened the straps on her backpack and then bolted for the tree line.
Daryl's heavy breathing was the only thing behind her so she didn't bother to check on him. Until she noticed it was getting quieter. She turned around and saw Daryl had stopped with his hands on his knees. Beth pulled out the dog whistle and called for Lucky again while she made her way back to Daryl.
"Keep… goin'…" Daryl wheezed at her between gasping breaths. "I'll… catch… up."
"Don't be an idiot. We're stickin' together," Beth snapped though there was no real venom in her voice.
After a minute, Daryl started moving again. She let him go first, setting a pace he could maintain. It was slow for Beth but she knew that he wasn't used to going on runs everyday like she was.
"Next time… you go runnin'… drag my… lazy ass… outta bed," he complained between strides.
She almost laughed but just then, a man came racing out of the forest and knocked Daryl over. Daryl had been caught completely off guard. He tumbled onto the ground ungracefully and his crossbow skidded into the trees out of reach. The stranger turned to say something to Beth but Daryl spun and kicked the man's legs out from under him. The pair of men immediately began grappling. At first Beth thought it would be fine. Daryl had more than 40 pounds on the newcomer. But soon, Beth saw that the stranger was getting the upper hand. The man reached down and grabbed the hilt of Daryl's knife. Tossing it into the dirt thirty feet away.
Three walkers tumbled out of the trees from the same direction the man had come from. She groaned, but knew she needed to take the walkers out before helping Daryl. Beth jumped into the fray and tried grabbing the stranger's neck from behind. However, the man elbowed her in the gut hard enough to knock the breath out of her. He turned on her, leaving Daryl in a heap on the ground and tried to talk to Beth. She didn't give him a chance before she started swinging a punch at him.
"Stop fighting," the man said clearly.
"No," Beth spat through gritted teeth. Her knife was still in her hand and she swiped out at him with it. He easily gave one twist of her wrist and the knife slipped from her grasp. He tossed it into a nearby bush.
"I don't want to hurt you," he said again.
"Ha," she shouted with derisive laughter.
He his arms were punching out so quickly that Beth couldn't even get an attack in. It was all she could do to try to block and avoid his hits. As it is, the stranger got a few good hits on her and she knew she'd have bruises all along her ribs and arms. She noticed that the man had two knives on his belt and a gun tucked into his waistband but he never reached for any of his weapons.
That was until ten more walkers stumbled towards them. She didn't have her knife but she saw the man whip the knife out of the sheath and slide it up through the neck and into the brain of a walker in one smooth motion. He tossed Beth his second, smaller knife and she took out two more walkers. While she had preoccupied by only two walkers, the new man had taken out six more. She had no idea how he'd done it so quickly.
Daryl was back on his feet again. He took out one walker by smashing its head into a large boulder on the ground before reached through the man's arm to put him into a chokehold. The stranger was temporarily caught off guard and dropped his knife. Beth's adrenaline was pumping so she didn't feel any pain from the blows yet. But she took the time to catch her breath, thinking the fight was over now that Daryl had him. But remarkably, the man slipped out of Daryl's grasp. She had no clue how he could have possibly escaped. He elbowed Daryl in the nose and she heard the crack from here. Blood spurted everywhere and Daryl let out a string of cuss words.
"I told you to stop fighting," the man said again. "Please."
This time he put his hands up in a show of surrender. Beth still had his only knife and she thought about fighting him again.
This man had attacked them out of nowhere but he didn't use any weapons or seriously injure either of them. He was a much better fighter than either Beth or Daryl. They couldn't fight their way out. Maybe they could hear what he had to say and then talk their way out of the situation.
Inexplicably, she wasn't getting a bad feeling from this man.
She wondered if she should be afraid but looking at Daryl comforted her. Even weaponless with blood pouring from his nose, he didn't look scared.
"Fine," she said warily.
"Thank you," the stranger acknowledged. "I'm sorry for running into you. I was running from the dead." He motioned to the corpses lying twice dead in the dirt around them.
Daryl grunted loudly.
"Seems like you can take 'em just fine," Beth said narrowing her eyes.
She could see Daryl had pulled a rag from his pocket to stop the bleeding.
"Well, there were thirteen of them. Once it gets into double digits I start running. No point in risking it," he shrugged. The man's voice carried no trace of an accent like Beth and Daryl.
"If you were just running from them, why'd you attack us?" Beth quipped.
He let out a laugh, it wasn't malicious which made Beth even more wary.
"Your friend there was the one to throw the first punch," the man said.
Beth supposed he was right. It had all happened so quickly that she hadn't thought about that.
"You got a camp nearby?" Daryl asked. Beth knew he had noticed the man looked clean and wasn't carrying any supplies on him.
"Sort of, but it isn't nearby," the corner of his mouth tugged up.
Beth and Daryl met eyes quickly. This man might be part of the group that had been hunting them. Or maybe he was behind the fenced in walkers. Or maybe he was lying about everything. Beth shrugged at Daryl. She knew there was no way they would take this man back to Alexandria but maybe they could use him to lead them to his people.
"I'm Beth. And that's Daryl."
The pair of them looked good and haggard. They had plenty of supplies on them. Hopefully this man would just believe them to be nomads.
"My name's Paul Monroe, but my friends used to call me Jesus. Your pick."
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A/N: Yay! It's Jesus. I know this time line is very different from the one in the show and the comics, but this is fanfic so it should be okay, right? For those of you who think it is out of character for Daryl to lose a fight—Jesus in the comics is a TOTAL badass. He takes down both Michonne and Abraham. So… I figured he would have the skills to take on Daryl.
To those of you who hate long chapters (I don't understand why but), I apologize. But I didn't feel like there was a good place to split this into two chapters (content wise) so you got an extra long one!
Please review this chapter! I am really nervous to see what you thought.
Does anyone have any ideas about where we are headed with these villians? Who is their leader? What happened with Glenn and the others on the run? How will Beth and Daryl get back to Alexandria? And where the hell did Lucky go? …. You'll find out soon.