A/N: Sorry about the last chapter if you read it before I edited it. I was trying to figure out if I should end the chapter with Beth pushing Daryl away or with the van finally getting free. It was never my intention to separate the two again as I am completely against it. Never fear, this chapter will not be rushed now that I am at home.

I basically listened to Very Nervous and Love by J Mascis while writing this chapter.

Chapter 13 –

The van was filled with a thick, silent air that was full of tension. Beth's tears fell silent, which relieved Daryl whose anger had only grown with each heaving sob. The group had met up further down the highway and continued traveling down the dark highway for nearly thirty minutes. The three vehicles were moving quickly and had already put several miles between them and the horde they had left behind. Rick growled and hit his blinker before slamming on the brakes and coming to a stop. The vehicles in front of them did the same.

"What the fuck?!" Daryl cursed as the sudden stop made him fly forward. Rick put his hand on Carl's shoulder in apology before turning and facing Daryl and Beth.

"We're gonna talk bout what just happened," Rick explained, anger and frustration heavy in his voice.

"No, we fuckin' ain't!" Daryl argued and Rick shot him a glare.

"Beth, we will never leave you behind. Ever," Rick told the blonde as she sat up. "I would have fought to get this vehicle free until we ran out of gas or the tires fell off. Even then, we would have figured something out. One of us would have carried you or something. You understand me?"

"I will not be a burden to any of you. That was a life or death situation! You would have needed to run as quickly as you could have away from this vehicle. I would have only slowed you down!" Beth argued. Daryl growled before throwing his car door open and storming away from the van and into the woods. Beth felt anger building in her chest and heaved herself out of the van after him. Rick and Michonne yelled at her, both unbuckling and throwing their own doors open.

Daryl spun in time to watch Beth take three shaky steps on her own before collapsing with a cry of pain. He stepped forward to help her but stopped when Michonne helped her stand again.

"What the fuck are ya doin, girl?! Get back in the fuckin' van!" he yelled at her. Beth shoved Michonne away from her and took a couple more steps toward Daryl before she cried out and started to fall again. He stepped forward and caught her.

"I'm not goin back in that vehicle until we talk about this, Daryl. The more you walk away from me, the more I'm gonna follow you!" She put her hands on his chest, grabbing the fabric of his long sleeve button up in her fists. "Don't shut me out, Daryl. Talk to me." Daryl groaned and stepped away from the blonde. Michonne and Rick leaned against the van, refusing to leave the two alone.

"Daryl, if the van hadn't gotten free and we had to run for it…we both know I couldn't get far on my own. I couldn't bear to think about you, Rick, Michonne, or Carl dying because of me slowing y'all down."

"You decided for the four of us that you were gonna stay behind and die without even considering what that would do to us, how your death would effect us. That's not fair to us. None of us would have been able to live with the decision if we had left you but I can already tell you that none of us would have done that. We would have dragged you if we needed to," Rick explained.

"You were gonna risk Carl's life to do that?" Beth asked and Rick chuckled darkly.

"I wouldn't get out of the van if I knew you weren't leaving it too," Carl answered from the open van door. Rick gestured to his son with a look like 'see?'

"I would have knocked you out and carried you myself if it came down to it," Michonne explained as she leaned against Rick's shoulder, "and lover boy there, he wouldn't have left you either. You have to…"

"I can talk for myself, dammit!" Daryl interrupted. Michonne raised her hands in surrender before nudging Rick aside with her hip and climbing into the van and closing the door. Rick shook his head at Michonne before glancing between the two.

"Talk it out," he ordered before jogging to the other two vehicles to explain the hang up. Beth shifted slightly before glancing at Daryl.

"I get it, you're pissed at me. So yell already," she told him softly. Daryl sighed.

"I…You need…" he sighed heavily, running his hand through his hair and then down his face. "Imagine you're me, Greene. You're a jumbled mess of emotions because you're feeling things you've never felt before for this person. You lose them for two weeks, find them but they're in shit condition and you don't know if someone has raped them or not." Beth flinched slightly at his words but nodded as he continued.

"You get this special person back, and it turns out that your worst fear of them dying or being so scarred that they'll never trust another person, let alone you because it's your fault they were taken to begin with, for the rest of their life didn't happen! They are healing and talking to you and letting you into their personal nightmare in hopes you can help keep the demons at bay and then they're finally walking again and then they start throwing around things like 'oh, leave me ta die!' and the cliché 'save yourself' bullshit I heard in movies and never expected to hear in real life. I…" the hunter took a deep breath as he paced in front of Beth.

"I'm not pissed at you, girl."

"Could have fooled me." Daryl stopped and stared at her, the veins in his neck showing as his emotions rose again.

"I don't know what I am feeling right now. The last time I felt like this, you were lying on a prison cot with a bag in your mouth to help you breathe and I thought you were dead!" Daryl froze as recognition hit his face and he walked up to the woman in front of him.

"The thought of leaving you behind…" he closed his eyes tightly before opening them and staring into Beth's wide blue eyes. She knew what he was doing and searched his dark blue eyes for what he couldn't say. She saw pure terror in his eyes. Terror and a look of loss so deep that her heart broke. "If we had lost you back there…Beth, I'd…have nothing."

"Daryl…"

"No, you don't get it girl! I ain't never needed anyone for anything! The thought of leavin' you behind…Beth Greene, I need you in my life. You show me that there is still good in this world. That there is still hope and beauty in this sick and twisted place. You show me that I can be happy." Daryl swallowed heavily, keeping his eyes locked on hers. "You don't get to do that to me and then expect me to leave you. I'm selfish, I get it. I'd rather keep you to myself then let anyone else take you more then a few feet away from me…" He took a deep breath in and out and finally broke his gaze from Beth's.

"Daryl…I'm sorry. I really am…but imagine you're me now. You can barely walk, let alone run. You've got Rick, Michonne, Carl, and me in a vehicle and it looks like we need to run to survive a horde of walkers. You can't tell me that the same thought wouldn't cross your mind. The thought that maybe you can buy your family some time, time enough for them to make it out of danger and live…You can't tell me that you wouldn't think that because I know you. You would rather we survived then struggle to pull you from a vehicle and carry you or run with you, wouldn't you?" Daryl didn't say anything and Beth shook her head.

"That situation won't be the last one of its kind, not with the way the world is and how our luck seems to be. So we decided, right now, what we will do should that situation ever happen again."

"I'll carry you to safety," he replied without hesitation.

"And if you're the injured one, I'll pull you out and do what I can," Beth said, her voice firm.

"Beth…"

"No, if you won't leave me, I won't ever leave you," she argued and Daryl sighed. "What if walkers are surrounding you as you carry me? What if there is no hope of both of us getting out alive?"

"There is always hope…" he answered and Beth felt a smile tug at her lips.

"If there isn't any hope, you need to save yourself, alright?" She asked and Daryl shook his head.

"I'd rather put a bullet in my head."

"How very Romeo and Juliet of us." Beth sighed and Daryl chuckled slightly. Daryl walked closer to the blonde and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Don't ever do that to me again, Greene. Trust in me to keep you safe. Trust Rick and Michonne to help. " The two were silent for a moment before Beth leaned back to look him in the eyes.

"That was some kiss back there though…I thought it was one hell of a goodbye kiss."

"It was never a goodbye kiss, Beth. I did it to shut you the hell up," Daryl murmured and Beth shook her head. She wrapped her arms behind Daryl's neck and pulled him down into a kiss, pouring all of her fear, love, and happiness into it. Daryl instantly responded, deepening the kiss and tugging her body flush against his. His hands dug themselves into her soft hair while one of hers ran into his hair and tugged on it gently making him groan into the kiss. A catcall broke the couple apart, both breathing heavily and staring the other in the eyes. Both sets of blue eyes had almost bled to black as arousal coursed through both of their bodies. Daryl sighed before glancing back at the van and see Michonne and Rick smirking at them, Michonne having been the one to make the catcall.

Beth blushed slightly before looking over Daryl's shoulder. Her eyes widened as more walkers approached through the trees.

"Time ta go," he grumbled into her ear before carefully picking her up and jogging to the van. Rick honked the horn and the other two vehicles shifted back into drive and the group resumed their trip.