Beth awoke the next morning to a plate of breakfast shoved in her face.
"Here." Daryl said. "I hafta go huntin' but I'll be back in a few hours to check on you and give you lunch. Sasha's coming at four check on you and then we'll figure out what to do from there." He grabbed the crossbow from wall and walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.
Beth assumed he must have put her back in his bed after she fell asleep on the couch last night and felt guilty. He had been sleeping on the couch for four days now, letting a complete stranger use his bed. As comfy as the couch was, sleeping on it for days in a row would not be fun.
She looked down to the plate in her lap and began investigate her meal. There was a piece of toast that was almost burnt, scrambled eggs that were a bit on the runny side, and black coffee. Beth had hoped for better, but was never one to complain and ate the food gratefully. Her stomach felt like an empty black hole and the food was devoured in minutes. She decided that once she was better she would cook for him. She had loved to cook growing up and had quite the talent for it as well.
She looked around the room, bored trying to figure out what to do. She noticed two pills on the bedside table with a small glass of water and took them. She slowly drifted to sleep as the dull pain her entire body felt subsided and everything felt good.
Hunting cleared Daryl's head. It let him relax and forget about everything that was going on. It relieved his stress and it was just him and the nature. The soft rustlings of an animal unknowingly making itself Daryl's next meal was what he lived for. However today, he was out of it. His head felt foggy with the thought of Beth in his house and Merle being released in three days. Beth was running from something and he couldn't just leave her out on the street, but she wasn't exactly safe with him either. He took a deep breath and attempted to clear his head of the mess that was his life. He didn't want to leave the house more than necessary once his brother was out so he needed a large kill. He caught sight of fresh tracks and instincts took over as he began to follow it.
Hours passed before Daryl started to head back, carrying a buck over his shoulder. His face shone with sweat from the hot Georgia sun, and all he wanted to do was get drunk and forget about everything for a while. Distant screams made his blood run cold and alerted the tired hunter. He began to jog towards his house where the screams only got louder. He dropped the buck and held up his crossbow, prepared to kill. The only thing Daryl could think about was one of Merle's guys hurting the poor unsuspecting girl in his bed. He quickly checked around the other rooms in the small house before busting in his room, preparing himself for the worst.
His crossbow lowered as his eyebrows knit in confusion before quickly rushing to the screaming girl's side. Her eyes were wide open and she was breathing as though she had just ran a marathon.
"What's wrong, what's the matter, are ya hurt?" Daryl was frantically trying to assess Beth and was growing more and more agitated by the lack of answers.
"He's coming. He's coming. He's gonna get me. He's coming." Beth had stopped screaming and began to panic and repeat herself. Daryl barely knew the girl and now she was doing this shit. He had enough.
"Beth! Calm down!" He screamed in her face causing her to snap out of the episode and collapse into his arms sobbing. Daryl was taken aback, and never being one to comfort, sat still until she was done.
"I'm sorry- I just," Tears began pooling in her eyes again.
"Shh stop yur fine. I'll uh fix ya something to drink. Here," He lifted her out of bed bridal style, extra cautious about her injuries and set her down on the couch. He quickly set to work making her a cup of tea noting that Sasha would becoming in an hours time.
Soon enough he handed her the warm mug and awkwardly sat beside her, making sure to give her more than enough space.
"I'm so sorry about that whole thing, I just, I guess I had a nightmare and I thought he was coming for me and-" She trailed off looking at her skinny fingers wrapped around the simplistic mug. She met Daryl's skittish blue eyes.
"What I'm trying to say is thanks. I know it's crazy to have a stranger in your house." She took a deep breath and looked back down at her hands. "You can ask me anything you want."
"S'ok you don't hafta do that." Daryl responded awkwardly, trying his hardest to be polite to the girl.
"Its the least I can do. You fixed me up, gave me a place to stay. You deserve to know a little about the stranger you saved," She gave a small smile. Daryl knew he probably shouldn't ask anything, but with what happened earlier, it would be best for both of them if he knew what she was hiding from.
"Uh, what were you runnnin' from when I found you? Who did that to you?" He decided it would be best if he got straight to the point. Beth gave another small smile and inhaled deeply.
"It all started when I started dating this guy, Shane. My family told me he was bad for me. Daddy said he didn't like him, and my sister Maggie said he was just gonna break my heart. I thought he had a good heart though. I guess I just believe in the good of people too much. He was a good boyfriend. But once we moved in together he started getting. . .weird. Everytime he saw me talking to another guy, even if he worked at a store, he would get all protective. I couldn't talk to any guys at all. And when I would talk to him about it, he would start yelling at me and a few times he hit me." Beth saw Daryl's jaw tighten and looked down at her cup trying to keep a steady voice.
"At first I thought he was just stressed out over work, but when he hit me I knew it wasn't that. He was really starting to scare me so I tried to run away a couple times, but he would always find me and punish me for leaving. He got really scary after that. He never let me leave the house and broke my cell phone so I couldn't call anyone. I finally started to run one day before he came home from work. I jumped out of the window so he would think I was locked up in our room just sleeping or something, but he had come home early that day. I had no other choice but to run. He went crazy and basically tackled me to the ground. He managed to cut my wrist with his pocket knife, but I got him real good where it hurts and started to run away. He's a cop and he always kept a gun in the back of his trunk. He said it was to protect us or whatever. Anyways he shot at me while I was running away, and thats how I hurt my leg. And then you found me." Silent tears ran down her face, but Beth's straight face remained.
"Hey. Yur safe here. Long as you're with me that son of a bitch ain't gonna touch ya again." Daryl spat the promise out as both hunter and hunted sat silently together on the couch.
A/N: I was planning to to finish the story before the incident on the show happened. I will continue to finish it regardless. Updates will be more frequent, but I am very busy so expect up to two weeks between chapters. I hope you enjoy !