A/N: Probably at this point I should point out that this is set before season 4. At this stage, I'm taking Daryl's loss of Merle in a much darker place than I'm sure it'll go on the show. On the show, he seems to be growing and accepting the love and friendship he gets from the group. In my version... not so much.
This is why it's fanfic, guys. It's not always going to be cute and fluffy with OC's jumping out and meeting Daryl & falling in love.
Don't like it? Good. You have plenty of other stories to go look at.
This is for the people that are sick of those stories. I'm bringing some reality back to this damn fandom!
Rant over. Let's get going.

3.

It seemed that in the time Daryl had been outside, everyone had found out about what he and Beth had been up too.

He'd not been confronted by an angry Father for a long time. But in front of him stood Hershel Greene, eyes burning with anger just like his daughters had been a few moments ago when she'd confronted him.

He looked like he wanted to say something, his lips quivering with a rage burning inside him, but words didn't come and Daryl's head cracked to one side as Hershel threw a punch, landing on Daryl's cheekbone with bruising force. "Stay away from my daughter," Hershel said, voice unsteady with emotion.

And Daryl backed away, turned on his heels and walked across the prison yard, Rick stood by the door, not sure what to do. He felt the most pressing issue was the group. It didn't seem like Daryl was going far and he could deal with him afterwards.

Tyresse and Sasha and others from Woodbury made themselves scarce. When Maggie started to blurt out some harsh words about Daryl and Beth, Michonne took Carl and headed for the guard tower to keep watch.

Beth looked upset, on the verge of tears, while Maggie and Hershel looked furious. Carol hadn't quite grasped what the whole commotion was about yet.

"What's Daryl done that's got everyone so upset?" Carol asked.

"Slept with Beth?" Glenn asked, not quite sure himself of exactly what was happening.

"What?" Carol said, shock clear.

"No!" Beth stated. "We never did. We just... " she started and then re-thought the idea of correcting them on what they did and didn't do. "We never did that."

"You haven't done it yet, that's all. You wanted too," Maggie said, shaking her head. She couldn't believe her sister could be so stupid.

"It's not like that. We love each other."

"Are you sure about that? If he loved you wouldn't he be in here defending you right now? Fighting in your corner?"

"How can he when you all attack him like that!"

"This is crazy. It's Daryl! I'm gonna talk to him," Carol said before anyone else could say anything else.

She left the noise of the others behind her as she headed out across the prison yard. She looked out and found Daryl was down by their makeshift graveyard, stood just past the graves and looking off to the trees beyond the fence.

"Hey?" she called out as she neared him, he turned slightly, and she could see the reddening where Hershel had struck him, noticed that he turned sideways so he could watch her and her heart skipped a beat that part of him had reverted to the old way, the Daryl that she used to know. He was preparing himself physically for an attack.

She made sure she kept her distance, made him feel safer and she relaxed her body, tried to remove any tension she held so that he'd pick up on it too and hopefully do the same. A tense Daryl was never going to hold a conversation, and that's what she needed to have.

She needed to understand what was happening here so she could help him straighten all this out.

"Come to take a shot too?" he asked, warily, eyes on her even though he still appeared to be looking out at the trees. He was sly like that. Careful and cautious as he could be.

"Of course not. I just want to know the truth. It's why I came to you. I don't need to hear it from anyone else."

His mouth twitched slightly, a grimace or a smile, she couldn't tell but he shook his head. She wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean, whether he didn't want to talk to her or what. "I can wait," she said, smiled a little.

He turned away from her slightly, so he was looking more out to the trees and a little less at her and as he stood there she could see how tightly he held himself together. He was a mass of tension, needing to find a release. When the silence stretched out long enough, she decided she'd have to press him.

"Daryl, what happened with Beth?"

His shoulders raised slightly like he was about to give a shrug, but he held himself like it. He looked uncomfortable and there was the start of a niggling worry within her. Because he wasn't acting like himself.

And she thought about what it might be. Maybe something wrong with him, or Beth, some secret they were keeping. Maybe they'd developed an intimacy through this shared secret and it had been misunderstood by the others. One of them could be sick. Terrified of something that was incurable or too delicate to be cured in these times.

"She was just there," he said eventually, turning from her completely.

"It's okay that you needed someone, Daryl. We all need someone to lean on now and again. Maybe Beth isn't the right person for that though."

"What, and you are?"

"If you want to talk about things, then anyone here is good for that. We all care about one another here. But if you want love..."

And she hesitated going further when she saw him somehow manage to get more tense when she spoke those words. He turned his head towards her. "What about Merle?"

Her brow creased at that, unexpected to heat Merle's name mentioned right now. "What about him?"

"Was he cared about and loved here?"

"He could have been. And you cared about him. Loved him."

"Did I?" Daryl asked, looking back out towards the trees, Merle's grave marker just behind him. "Merle loved me."

"And do you love Beth?" Carol asked.

He wasn't thinking about Beth and it pushed his thoughts away from Merle, back to the reason Carol came to see him and he didn't want Merle to be cast aside again, not for anything.

And his anger rose within him. "Course I don't. She's a stupid bitch," he growled out.

Carol looked at him surprised but such an outburst of anger from him. He'd not spoke to her like that since the farm. And she stepped away from him, remembered how he'd got in her face, how he'd got so close to striking her, and although she wasn't afraid, she didn't want to provoke.

"You want me to go back and tell her that?"

"Tell 'er what you like. Ain't my problem."

"You know what? I'm gonna give you some time to cool off, let you think about what you're saying before you come back in there and speak to Hershel and Maggie..."

"You think I care about them, what they think?"

"You should. We're your family." Carol turned from him, walked away back towards the prison.

Daryl watched her go. Watched her as she walked away from him, and even though he didn't look down, he could still see Merle's grave just in front of him. She was walking away from him and his brother.

Carol heard Daryl's footsteps behind her as he rushed to catch up with her and she felt it. Felt his anger, the way his breathing was faster and she'd felt it before, with Ed.

She wanted to try and run but knew she could never out run him and she quelled the fear, reminded herself it was Daryl and not Ed behind her and kept moving.

She didn't expect to feel his hand grab onto her arm so roughly, yank her back a little forcefully, his face contorted into an angry snarl and she felt afraid for a moment as she struggled to pull her arm from his grasp.

"Daryl, let me go," she ground out, trying to pry his fingers off of her with her free hand.

"Don't walk away from me!" he told her, loosening his grip as she stopped struggling.

"I just want to get back inside, okay?" she told him as she got out of his grasp, ran the first couple of steps as she put some distance between them. She barely noticed the tears in her eyes she just kept her eyes fixed on the gate to the prison. She wanted to get back inside, away from Daryl.

His hand grabbed onto her arm again, stopping her like before and she felt a tear roll down her cheek as he yanked her back towards him.

"I told you to stop," he yelled. He pulled her so she was closer to him and she pushed back at him, but he didn't let go, didn't loosen his grip.

She slapped him, hoping he'd release her but he barely flinched from her blow and she tried again, hitting him a couple more times before a gunshot echoed out across the yard. It embedded in the ground close by, a warning shot and this time, Daryl let go, followed behind her but didn't grab for her again.

He eyed the watch tower where he saw Michonne watching them through binoculars, though it was Carl who held the gun.

The gunshot drew the others out and seeing Carol distressed and the way Daryl was walking after her made the others react.

Daryl watched as Carol ran up to meet the others, he could tell she was sobbing even walking behind her and Maggie ran towards her, along with Rick and Glenn, the others just behind them.

And it was Rick who stood in front of them all, gun pointing at his face, daring him to keep coming.

He took the dare.

TBC...

A/N: I know so many of you are going to be hating me right now. I *did* say it wasn't a love story, so if you have that to moan about, please, next time take heed of my warnings.

Thanks.