Ok so this part is a bit OOC for Daryl, but I'd like to think that Beth's return would change him somewhat and he'd open up a little more! And I apologize.. it's a little short. It came to me while I was running today and I felt like it needed to stand alone…
7. Daryl came out of the bathroom towel drying his hair just as Michonne was coming down the stairs. She was holding the bottle of pain meds in her hands.
"How is she?" Daryl asked. Rick walked into the room and looked at Michonne.
"Sad. She said she's going to bed." Michonne's face was grim. Daryl saw a fear in her eyes that was unusual for Michonne. "I'm going to hang on to these. She can ask for them if she needs one." She headed towards the kitchen and Daryl noticed the slight nod she gave to Rick as she walked by him. Rick followed her without looking back. Curious Daryl stood near the doorway so he could listen in on whatever was said. He wasn't one to eavesdrop, but they were talking about Beth and had purposely left him out of the conversation. Michonne was talking quiet but her voice was hoarse like she was upset.
"She's covered with fist sized bruises! They…. they brutalized her Rick! I can't believe..." Michonne's voice broke then and he heard movement and Rick making comforting sounds. Daryl felt like he'd been punched. He headed towards the stairs and climbed them slowly, afraid to see for himself what Michonne had just described.
Her door was ajar, she'd lit a bunch of candles. She never had liked the dark very much. She was standing across the room facing away from him staring at a candle flame. She was wearing a thin white tank top that did little to hide the dark purple and black marks that marred the pale skin of her back and shoulder blades. Daryl walked in silently. When he was about two feet from her she stiffened.
"What did this… to.." his chest was heaving with screams or sobs when she turned and faced him.
"Don't. It happened, it's done. It can't be undone. Don't let it keep hurting… Please." she whispered. His hands were balled into fists and a vein at his temple was throbbing like it might burst. Beth twirled lightly on one foot and when she was facing away from him she pulled the tank top off and held it to her chest covering herself.
"Look at it. It's there. The bruises will fade and the scars, I'll wear them." she spoke evenly. She just needed someone else to acknowledge her as she was. "But I walked away Daryl! I walked away." And then in a small voice she whispered. "They're ugly, I know."
The bruises stamped across her upper back were angry red and purple-black like storm clouds. Beneath them were two lash marks- raised welts, already healing, already scars. Daryl's head was pounding now. He wanted so badly to be able to reach out and wipe it all away. But he couldn't.
"You are not ugly." he said his voice so full of emotion it barely sounded like him. He reached down to them hem of his own t-shirt and pulled it over his head with one hand and dropped it on the floor. He turned away from her brutalized back and hung his head. She looked over her shoulder and then turned all the way around. A small whimper escaped her lips before she could swallow it back. Daryl's back was striped with with long, dark scars. A whip, or an angry drunk old man's belt had bit through tender skin marring him for life. Marking him a victim. Beth reached out and gently ran a finger along one that crossed over a dragon tattoo on his shoulder blade.
"Your father, he did this to you." It wasn't a question. Daryl had told her things about his father that had made it pretty clear he was not a good man.
"My old man wasn't fit to be a human being, let alone a parent." Daryl said huskily. She continued to run her finger lightly over the scars. It was soothing. Maybe just the recognition itself. He didn't see the silent tears slowly making their way down her cheeks and dripping onto the balled up shirt in her other hand. "He made sure I knew I was worthless. He, he made damn sure I knew where I stood with him."
"You're not worthless.. you're not.." she breathed the words.
"Neither are you." he looked over his shoulder. Her hand stilled and she pulled the tank top over her head. Leaning down she picked up his t-shirt and handed it to him. She walked slowly over to the bed and laid down. She curled up on her side and looked up at him with those big blue eyes. She patted the empty spot behind her and he didn't hesitate to crawl over her and wrap himself around her, covering her bruises and scars with his own.
"We're both still here Beth. 'Member scars just mean we survived." he whispered into her hair. She laced her fingers through his and pulled his arms closer. She slowly drifted off and for the first time in a very long time neither of them had a nightmare.
Daryl woke up with his arms around Beth. She was sleeping soundly and he reluctantly disentangled himself from her warm body. He wanted to stay, but he needed to go. He went downstairs and put on his dirty clothes from the day before, laced up his boots and left quietly through the front door. He had his knives and his crossbow. He stopped at the armory for a pistol and made his way to the main gate where Eugene was standing guard again.
"Going hunting." Daryl grunted. Eugene didn't make small talk with him. He was probably a little afraid of him. He just opened the gate and let Daryl out. And once he was undercover of the trees Daryl ran.
Beth woke up feeling like she'd slept for days. Daryl was gone. She knew he would be and she knew where to find him. She dressed in jeans and wrapped her stomach tightly with an ace bandage before putting on a t-shirt and an over-sized hoodie with a silk screening of a black wolf on it. She laced up her boots and put her hair in a ponytail. The tiny braid peeking out from strands of blonde. She holstered her gun and reached for her knife. She changed her mind about the knife and left it on the desk. Grabbing her backpack she headed out, quietly descending the stairs. No one was awake to see her silently slip through the front door.
The gate was easy. Eugene was taken in by her sweetness and smile. The old Beth came in handy sometimes.
"It's okay Daryl is expecting me. I have more ammo for him." Beth smiled at the man.
"Oh yes. He just went out about 30 minutes ago. You'll be ok?" he asked.
"Oh yeah. He knows I'm coming. Don't worry about me Eugene. You are so sweet!" she said. He opened the gate for her and without even a second thought she took off into the trees.
She tracked him. It was a little more difficult than tracking anyone else. Daryl had taught her what to look for, but he also knew how to try and cover his trail. He probably heard her coming before she got anywhere near him. When she found him he was wiping off a bolt in a clump of grass. His clothes were splattered with walker blood, flecks of it were on his hands and face.
"Feel better?" she asked.
"Nope." he said.
"Come on." And she was off and running her blonde ponytail flashing in the morning sun. He followed her, keeping up, but staying a few steps behind so he could watch her. She ran like a deer, surefooted and relentless. When they encountered their first walkers, he saw her hands were empty. No weapon.
"Where's yer knife?" he said exasperated.
Her eyes went to the knife at his waist, not his, but hers. The one he had been wearing almost every day she had been gone. He reached down and unsheathed it. He handed it to her and their fingers brushed together and she looked into his eyes, he was hers, he had been for such a long time now and she had been his, was his. She just needed a reminder. She gave him a little nod and turned and plunged the knife into the first walkers head. And a second, then third before she wiped her knife on her pants and took off running again. This time he chased her and she dodged him slipping between trees and leaping over logs until she was breathless and he was starting to lag. They entered a meadow with grass and bushes that reached their shoulders. It was oddly familiar like hearing a tune from a song you used to know. Beth collapsed on her back in the middle of the tallest bushes. Daryl followed. All they could hear was their labored breathing and their hearts pounding in their ears.
"You better not pull out them damn stitches!" he growled. And Beth laughed. It was real and Daryl's heart beat a little faster.
"I wrapped it up good. I think it'll be okay." she said. They were quiet then. Their breathing evened out. "I wish we could lay here forever and just look at the sky and pretend that nothing before this moment was real." she said softly. Daryl reached for her hand. This was his Beth. From before when she'd been full of hope and faith and so innocent she'd even made him believe he was good. She was still there -inside- changed maybe, but not quite gone.
"That night, in the funeral home, ya said, ya asked me what changed my mind and I shoulda said it then, but I was scared." he spoke quietly and slowly. Beth sat up so she could look at him.
"I knew what you meant to say." she said just as quietly. He sat up next to her.
"Still shoulda said it."
"Say it now, what changed your mind Daryl?" this was whispered and her eyes were on him just like that night. Her big blue eyes searching his like she was trying to find his soul and steal it away. He wasn't scared anymore. He didn't mumble, didn't look away.
"It was you Beth. You changed my mind." he said it out loud finally and it wasn't hard and it didn't hurt. She took his hand and pulled him up.
"I fell in love with you Daryl Dixon, a long time ago on that porch in the dark, drunk on moonshine cause you showed me yourself, your real self. And we weren't so different. Broken and insignificant. And now here we are. Me and you. The monsters haven't got us yet." she smiled and let his hand go. "Race you back! Loser has to kiss the winner." she called over her shoulder. Daryl chased after her, staying just a few steps behind, determined to be the loser.
Further out in the forest, past the meadow between two rocks a man in a dark camo jacket held a walkie talkie up to his mouth. "Yeah I think I got a line on our little blonde fighter. And if the description is correct I found the asshole with wings who has helped massacre our men."