Flowers. No, baking, maybe? Laundry? The hell? Daryl opened an eye to investigate the sweet aroma filling the air. It had been months since the outbreak and the air had only smelled like sweat, blood, or rotting flesh since.

In the corner of the tent, Liz was humming an old jazz standard and slathering lotion on her legs, taking care not to get any on her cutoff shorts. She wiped the extra pink cream on her arms and vigorously rubbed her hands together to ward off the grease. Swaying slightly to her own music, she reached for her boots and pulled them on. When she reached over to grab her bow, she noticed Daryl watching her. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Sorry. You're usually a pretty heavy sleeper. Didn't think humming would wake up you."

"It's the smell," Daryl grumbled, stretching.

"Glenn picked it up for Lori during a run, but she didn't like the smell, either. Too vanilla-y."

"Didn't say I didn't like it," Daryl replied, getting up and pushing his feet into his own boots. "Where you going with that thing this early, anyway?"

"Out to practice, duh." Liz picked up her quiver of arrows and tied it to her belt loop. "Not like I'm good enough to go out slaying walkers or meat for us. I'll get there." She slung the bow over her back and began to search around for a bandana. "Have you seen my black bandana? Oh, found it."

"Why you got so much stuff, anyway?" Daryl glanced around at what had been his tent. Lotion, girl clothes, long black hairs and hair pins were everywhere. "Turning into a straight up chick tent," he growled as he unzipped the flap and stepped out.

Liz slapped Daryl on the thigh as she stepped out into the sunshine. "You love it. Just a little. Admit it!" When Daryl didn't reply, she grinned. "Besides, this was your idea."

"Yeah, yeah," Daryl growled. "Don't remind me or I might change my mind. Let you take your chances with your brother." So maybe it was nice having someone else around. He'd never admit it.

"You'd never. You'd miss me too much." she replied breezily. "Morning, T." Liz sang out as T-Dog walked by.

T-Dog chuckled. "Well, clearly a good morning for you. This is on again, huh? Good on you, man."

Daryl flipped the hair out of his eyes and stared at T blankly. "Huh?"

"What's on again?" Liz asked, glancing between T and Daryl. She reached up and began braiding the bandana into her hair.

"Oh, naw, what?" T-Dog replied. "Don't act like I forgot. This nonchalant thing ain't gonna work." He raised an eyebrow and waited.

"What do you mean?" Daryl drawled, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "Forgot what?"

"At the CDC?" T-Dog replied.

Liz shook her head. "Yeah?" She finished her braid and pinned it around her head, barely listening to the conversation.

"What 'bout it?" Daryl asked.

T looked back and forth between Liz and Daryl for reinforcement, but realized he wouldn't get it. "After dinner I came around lookin' for something else to drink and I walked in on ya'll."

"Yeah, so? Adults getting smashed together to bid farewell to the world as we knew it isn't a big deal." Liz hoisted her bow up higher.

"No, I didn't just walk in on you together. I walked in on you together." T emphasized the last word so that the situation was painfully clear. "You know, bedroom rodeo."

Liz and Daryl stared at each other in shock. Daryl's lip twitched. "Wh-what? Why you bringing that up now?" His hand flew to the back of his neck.

"No," T said in disbelief, stepping back. "No. I knew ya'll were drunk - but - don't tell me this is the first you're hearing of this."

Liz cleared her throat and became very aware of how hard her heart was pounding. "If you couldn't guess by our expressions, I'd say yeah, definitely the first." She glanced at Daryl, who quickly dropped his gaze to T Dog's boots.

T Dog rolled his eyes. "Sorry, Liz. No disrespect. Now you know, though, that's why I was always weirded out when you ended up in my tent to crash. Just crash," he quickly added, nodding at Daryl. "I have seen things that cannot be unseen."

Liz's mouth dropped open. "O-uh, oh, okay," she stuttered. Nervous laughter flowed from her lips. "It's not like it's something I've kept super under wraps, with magazine shoots and stuff, you know, right?" she stammered.

"Girl, I definitely ain't seen pictures like that, if they exist." T Dog laughed and nodded at Daryl. "Well, keep on. Ya'll good together."

The pair stared at the ground intensely as T-Dog carried on his way.

Liz racked her brain. The group had joined one of the remaining CDC doctors for dinner, learned that there was no cure and.… She squeezed her eyes shut. "We were drinking with T, weren't we?"

Daryl kept his eyes fixed on the ground. "Yup."

Liz chewed at the inside of her lip and tried to recall the events of that night. "Yeah! We were playing Never Have I Ever. Oh," she cooed as images flashed back into her head, "I remember now. That was so fun! Then T left for some reason, and then it gets sort of," Liz continued sheepishly, "fuzzy. I think I remember you carrying me somewhere, but I assumed you were just picking me up off of the floor."

"I was blackout drunk," Daryl confessed. "Don't remember a thing." His face and neck were bright red and he'd started to sweat.

"Well, that's certainly one way to start the morning," Liz giggled. She reached out to touch Daryl's arm, but he cleared his throat and moved away.

"Yeah. I've got thangs to do. Rick and Shane are taking that Randall kid and dropping him off somewhere. I'll be around." He stalked off without another word.

"Liz, perfect. I need you." Lori waved Liz over to the porch that afternoon.

"Sure, what's up, Lor?" Liz asked as she trotted over.

"It's Beth. She's recovered from her shock, but now she wants to kill herself." Lori wiped sweat from her forehead. "She won't eat and she's trying to get Maggie to commit suicide with her." She looked at the singer with pleading eyes.

"Oh my god," Liz breathed. "What do we do?"

"Go talk to her. She loves you. Maybe you can talk some sense into her. Maggie, me, she doesn't listen to anyone else." Lori wrung her hands. "Shane and Rick are too busy and can't help. I thought they might know some sort of training for this type of thing. They're gone. It's gotta be you."

Liz swallowed and shook her head. "I'm not – I'm no one. I don't know anything about this. I have no idea what to say."

"I don't think it's about what you say," Lori replied. "It's just about being there. I've seen her following you around. She really admires you."

Liz nodded numbly and climbed the stairs to Beth's room. When she reached the door, she lifted her hand to knock, but let her wrist hang there limply. I'm no one. Suddenly everything Shane ever said about her career choice came spinning back into her head. Why don't you do something useful? Maybe Shane was right. Here was an actual problem and she couldn't do a damn thing about it. Taking a deep breath, Liz knocked.

Maggie opened the door. "Oh, come in," she said, exhaustion apparent in her voice. "Beth, Liz came to see you."

Beth was pale and looked more exhausted than anyone Liz had ever seen. The teenager stared up at Liz with curiosity on her face. "You came- why?"

"I heard you're giving up on us." Liz sat down at the foot of the bed. She looked down at her boots and swallowed again.

"Not on you, on everyone. Everything. It's hopeless. Don't you see what happens to people?" Beth spoke with calm resolve, which Liz found even more unsettling than her actual words. The girl continued, "I'm done. You can't stop me."

"I can't," Liz agreed. "But I can try to change your mind. You do so much! We'll be in a tight spot without you. No one to help Hershel, no one to help with Lori's baby when it's born. No one to do yoga with me."

"Maggie can do all that, since she won't come with me." Beth shot a glare at her older sister.

Maggie choked back a sob and stepped out into the hallway.

"She's not as good at that stuff and you know it," Liz said. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're being selfish. We'd probably all like to just give up, but that's dumb. We all need each other. We need you. We need Maggie. We need your dad. We need Rick, Glenn, everyone has a part."

The women sat in silence. Beth stared at her hands and Liz hoped she was letting the words sink in.

"We've all wanted to give up, but we're survivors. We push on. Things get better. If we would have given up a few weeks ago at the CDC, we never would have found this beautiful farm and met you beautiful people." Liz smiled and patted Beth's leg. "You never know what's around the corner."

Maggie stepped back into the room. "Andrea is coming up. I'm going to step out. Liz, why don't you come with me?

Liz raised at eyebrow at Beth. "You better be here when I get back. I'll be real pissed if my yoga partner quits on me."

Beth smiled, then quickly tried to wipe it from her face.

****

"Tell me something good." Maggie looked at her boots as she walked. "Tell me something normal. Tell me something that doesn't have to do with my little sister wanting to kill herself." She sniffled. "I mean it. Tell me about famous people you know. Anything."

Liz and Maggie were walking the edge of the property with nowhere to go. Things at the farm were suddenly heavy, and there was nowhere you could go to escape them.

"In L.A., my house was right next to Conan O'Brien's. He's just as funny in real life. Taller than you'd expect."

Maggie made a face. "He's weird."

"My other neighbor was Taylor Swift."

"Ain't she competition for you?"

Liz shook her head. "Nah. There's room for everyone. Even though I'm a few years older, she's been doing this longer. Gave me some pointers during a girl's night, once! She's just as normal as anyone. Zits and everything." Changing the subject, Liz nudged Maggie. "You tell me something. How about you and Glenn?"

Maggie blushed. "We're," she paused and searched for the word. "We haven't quite had that discussion yet, but yeah, it's a we." She grinned. "Ain't he sweet? He ain't like the rest of the men 'round here."

"The sweetest, really. He's pretty sweet on you, too," Liz agreed.

Maggie continued to smile. "I've been pretty mean to him, but it ain't like he's got a lot of choices anymore. I've got that going for me."

"Oh, don't worry- we've all covered plenty of watch shifts so he could come visit you." Liz smiled. After a moment, she asked, "Can I ask you something, woman-to-woman, since we're trying to talk about lighter things? That's the only reason. I never would have brought it up otherwise."

Nodding, Maggie replied, "Hit me. Anything to get my mind off my sister."

Liz nodded. "Okay. So." She cleared her throat, played with her hair, and jiggled her foot anxiously. "Uh, I'll just say it. T told me this morning that he walked in on Daryl and I having blackout drunk sex a few weeks back at the CDC. Neither of us remember anything. I wish I did, but it's just not there. Now Daryl's acting all weird!"

Maggie exploded with laughter and clapped her hands. "You go, girl. I've seen you bunking together. You're telling me you ain't screwing in there?"

"No," Liz replied. "Daryl got tired of Shane taking his anger out on me, so he just sort of took me in as a Shane deterrent. Sometimes we wake up and I'll have slid over and am touching him, but no cuddling, and none of that." She bit her lip and tried not to smile. "Not that I wouldn't!"

"Apparently you have. Girl, have you seen those arms? I don't blame you. Snare that boy down. You're already living together. Might as well get something out of it!"

The girls devolved back into giggles, their troubles forgotten, if just for that minute.