I think I've held up on this story long enough. I warned ya that writer's block can be a biotch. I once again appreciate the reviews and patience though.

"Good morning."

Beth knew that Daryl wouldn't be in a cheerful mood. "How's your head?"

"Still shit," he mumbled.

"I went out. Made sure there weren't any other walkers. The only thing I could find to help were some mushrooms."

Daryl looked over at the plate of cooked mushrooms she had in her hand and picked at them. "Not the fun kind, I take it." He eventually brought himself to eat one when they both heard something outside.

"Is that a car?"

"Son of a bitch..." Daryl tried to get up but Beth stopped him. "You hit your head, Daryl. Take it easy!"

"It's that damn census. I gotta get up."

"Okay." Beth lifted Daryl's arm around her shoulder and helped him out of bed. When they stepped outside, they found only Martinez there to greet them. "What do ya got for the Gov, Dixon?"

"Whatever you want from the porch. Take your pick."

Martinez went up to the porch and looked over at the animal skins. He picked up a couple of raccoon skins that seemed to fall apart in his hands. "Are you kidding me, here? This isn't worth shit!"

"Hey, you see this damn thing on my head? I'm in no condition to do any huntin' now."

"Then get your bitch to do it."

Beth could feel Daryl trying to break free of her just so he could take a lunge at Martinez. "Daryl, don't!" He didn't get very far as the pain held him back.

Martinez looked at Beth. "The Gov wants to keep an eye on you two, especially after the stunt your sister pulled on him. If she wasn't already pregnant, she'd be stuck at Woodbury with this loser's sorry ass of a brother."

Beth worried that Daryl would try to do something again and held his arm tightly in place. "Look, Daryl had a run-in with some walkers yesterday. Give us some time to get what you need."

"Okay, but it's on the record." Martinez smirked. "So...how was your wedding night?"

This was now more than Daryl could take. He reached out his free arm to push Martinez back. "Man, just get the hell out!" The realization dawned on the man just then. "You mean you two haven't f*cked yet? The hell, man. He ain't gonna like that."

"We still got six months. So tell him to deal with it. Now beat it!"

Once Martinez was finally gone, Daryl felt more relaxed. "Sorry 'bout that," he told her.

"We're fine. You should go back to bed. Your head is getting worse."

"Sleepin' ain't gonna help me."

"But..."

"Ain't gonna lie, I'm gonna haveta see a doctor."

"Do you know of any around here."

"Just one," Daryl said. "When he's not off the wagon."

...

Daryl was in no condition to operate his motorcycle but he had a truck hidden in some bushes not too far away from the house. He hated that he had to lean against the truck while Beth did most of the work of clearing out the greenery that shield it from view. He only had enough strength in him to drive them both into the nearest settlement but Beth kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't fall asleep at the wheel. It wasn't as populated as the ones near the Greene farm. Half of the main street that they arrived in was boarded up.

One building was the makeshift office of Bob Stookey who was very surprised to see one of the Dixons on his doorstep. "Uh...aren't you one of those wood guys?"

"Whatever man. Just help me out with this gash here."

"Do you need me to go with you?" Beth asked.

"Damn it girl. Stop worrying about me. He's just gonna give me band-aid or something and I'll be fine."

When Bob took Daryl to the back room another woman came out to greet her. "Are you...Daryl's wife?"

"For what it's worth, I guess," she said. "I'm Beth."

"I'm Sasha...Sasha Stookey now. Sorry if I'm staring, it's just...you're kinda young for a Dixon. How do you two know each other?"

"Well...it's a bit complicated."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess it wasn't a very mutual agreement? Bob and I, we didn't know each other very long before the law passed but he's a nice guy. I get to put him in his place whenever he gets tempted to drink."

Beth was staring a bit down at Sasha's waist the entire time. "How far are you?"

"I got a few months left in me. You look like you two haven't done anything yet."

"We haven't," she said. "We just got...together a week ago. Um...what do you know about the Dixons?"

"Only that this is the first time in a while we've seen one of them. They never come into town unless it was serious...or unless they want to rob us. The older one is trouble. I think you got lucky."

"If you can call it that."

A short while later, Daryl and Bob finally came out of the back room. Daryl had a fresh white bandage covering his head. "He doesn't need any stitches," said Bob. "But I wouldn't recommend doing any hunting or anything strenuous for some time."

"Shit man. I gotta do some huntin'!"

"I'll make sure he takes it easy," said Beth. Bob gave her a bag of painkillers since Daryl was so insistent on them so much. "Don't let him get hooked."

Daryl was grumbling the whole time he drove them home. He hated that he wouldn't be able to do any hunting for a while and he didn't know what the consequences were if he didn't get any good meat and skin for the Governor soon, but he knew it wasn't going to be pretty. When Beth tried to help him out of the truck, he was reaching his breaking point. "Damn it, girl. What are you trying to do?"

"I'm helping you."

"Well stop it. It ain't your job."

"I know," Beth said. "But I'm not letting you go hunting. You're still hurt."

"What are we gonna eat?"

"We can just have mushrooms again. I don't mind it."

Beth got Daryl back into Merle's bed and she cooked up more mushrooms for him. "I keep tellin' ya, you don't need to be taking care of me."

"Is it hard to believe that maybe I want to?"

Daryl mumbled. "Yeah, it is."

"If this is about yesterday, don't worry about it. Hard as it is, I'm glad I didn't have to go to Woodbury."

Daryl seemed to have a look of regret on his face. "Me and my brother, we were in a group with Rick but we didn't want to do anything with the Governor. So we came out here. I didn't like this place but Merle likes it cause it reminds 'im of home. All this land here, it was all nothin' when we got here. But the Governor came around and found us. We gotta pay 'im taxes now. A good kill once a month and he leaves us alone."

"Is that why you needed to go hunting so badly?"

Daryl nodded.

"What do you think he will do if you're late?"

"Hell if I know."

"But your brother..."

"Merle can handle himself. Martinez knows you and I haven't done anything yet. And you know he's gonna tell him. I think we should worry about that."

Beth knew that he was right. Six months was a long time but she wondered if it was really worth holding off the inevitable. For the short time she has gotten to known Daryl, she wasn't enjoying much of what she is seeing. But word would soon get out that they were trying to hold it off. Why get them both in bigger trouble than they already were.

She went into the kitchen. Daryl heard some shuffling noise and wondered what the hell she was doing. She was surprised when she returned to the bedroom holding one of Merle's beers in her hands and started drinking it. "The hell are you doing?"

"Adjusting myself."

"Huh?"

"Do you have anything harder?"

"You're losing me, girl. What is this?"

"I've been thinking..." she said. "We're gonna have to do this eventually. I think we should just get it over with."

"You're kiddin', right?"

"I wish I was." Beth took some more sips of the beer. "Why are you drinkin'?"

"I thought it would help."

Daryl angrily took the beer from her hands now realizing her true intent. "We ain't doin' this."

"But..."

"No! We're not doin' it now and we're not doin' it like this! The Gov can wait."

"Wait till what? When we're both arrested?"

"Will you listen to yourself? I ain't gonna let some law tell me when I haveta get laid. And is this how you want your first time to be? Drunk off your ass with some guy you've only known for a week?"

"Does it matter anymore?" asked Beth.

"I ain't gonna take advantage of ya and I ain't lookin' to. Just leave me alone, will ya?"

Beth left the bedroom distraught. No matter how hard she tried, she can't seem to make Daryl happy. And now her worst fear was that he would eventually give up on this little arrangement. She didn't know what she would do if it ever got to that point.