They had been on the road for five days before Beth stopped spending half the nights muffling her sobs into her wadded up shirt. By the time she finally makes it through the night without sending Daryl's skin crawling with the sound of her tears all he can feel is a sense of relief. He had never been good around crying women, the few times in his life he had been around one before he would actually just get up and leave. Go find someone who actually knew how to deal with this kind of thing.
But there was no getting up and leaving Beth.
Not now, not ever really. The prison was gone, their family scattered like ashes in the wind. Well, not all of their family. Not the man Beth cried herself sick over every night.
At a loss of what to do Daryl chose to simply ignore her crying and the rapidly darkening circles forming underneath Beth's eyes. They walked in a daze, a fog of grief and guilt from which they could never seem to outrun. Daryl scoured the ground for the slightest traces of their family's tracks, Beth hovering at his shoulder, but all he ever found were the stumbling imprints of walkers. For all he knew the only other person to leave the prison alive was already with him.
After a week of being out on the road he is certain Beth has slept only a handful of hours which was less than even him. So he is not surprised one night to see her sit up where she lay across the clearing from him, nor is he surprised to hear her sigh in frustration. He knew what it was like when your mind would not offer you the mercy of sleep.
Daryl was surprised to see Beth climb to her feet, pausing for a second before turning and walking over to him quickly as if she was afraid if she stopped she would not start again. She hovered above him shifting her weight from foot to foot as she looked down at him nervously. Daryl was uncertain of what she wanted so he just stared up at her and waited for her to either open her mouth or sit down. He was expecting for her to declare she was going to go out and try to track her sister again, despite how far they had come from the prison so his mouth nearly dropped in shock when she spoke.
"Can I sleep by you?" she finally whispered, her voice rough from disuse. Daryl thought it might be the first time she had spoken since the day they found the remains at the train track and now that he realized this it filled him with a sense of worry. Beth wasn't a quiet girl, in fact for as long as he'd known her she never truly shut up. She was constantly chattering away about something and it was the knowledge that her silence was likely in part due to him that got him to nod. She sank down beside him slowly as if she was afraid he was going to push her away at any moment. When he didn't Beth settled her back against the tree trunk, her bare arm brushing against his as Daryl cleared his throat.
"Just once." he grunted, causing Beth to look at him in surprise. It seemed Daryl hadn't been speaking much lately either. "This is a one time thing Greene." he amended causing Beth to give the slightest ghost of a smile as she nodded and nervously rested her head against his shoulder.
"Just this once." she agreed softly before closing her eyes.