...
Glenn sighed contently, reclining the car seat and closing his eyes.
Daryl shot him a look from behind the wheel. "Screw you, man," he said, but he wasn't bitter. Glenn drove on the way out, and now that they were heading back to the prison, it was Daryl's turn.
Laughing, Glenn stretched his arms out leisurely before lacing his fingers together behind his head. "I earned it. Who found that box of candy bars?"
The two of them had gone out on a quick run, just to tide them over until the big run next week. They'd hit up a few nearby houses and found a reasonable haul, including a big box of candy bars. Daryl and Glenn had been out for a few hours, collected a decent amount of stuff, and were heading back. It'd been a while since the two of them had gone out, and he'd forgotten how good it was to work with Glenn. The pair of them knew each other, had been working together for long enough to be able to get in and do what needed to be done without any fuss or extra explaining. And he could trust the guy, which was more than he could say about most everybody else.
"Yeah, yeah. An' I bet you give 'em all to Maggie."
Glenn shot him a dude, come on look. "Like that whole pile of stationary stuff isn't going to Beth?"
Daryl felt his neck start to burn and his stomach clenched right up. "She asked me for it. Tryin' to do some sort of baby book for Judith."
"Hmm." Glen was silent, Daryl could see out of the corner of his eye that Glenn had fixed a considering eye on him, smirking a bit. "But," Glenn said, drawling a bit. "She did ask you, and not me."
Taking his eyes off the road for one minute, he shot Glenn a glare that most others would wilt under. "An' just what the hell is that suppose'ta mean?" Daryl's palms felt a bit sweaty against the steering wheel and he gripped it harder.
Still smirking, Glenn shrugged. "Nothing," he said, a little too innocently, pulling a candy bar from his jacket pocket. Catching Daryl's raised brow, he grinned. Patting his pockets, he simply said, "Plenty more where that comes from. Like you said, giving them all to Maggie. Except this one."
"Whatever, man." Daryl turned back to the road and spent the rest of the trip trying to ignore the knowing looks Glenn was throwing him. It'd been going on three weeks that Beth had been coming to find him in the evenings, and he knew people were noticing, although no one had commented until now. It was to be expected, but Daryl had been kind of clinging to the futile hope that it was never going to come up. Didn't have anything to say about it, and especially wasn't going to say jack shit in front of Beth's brother-in-law. If Glenn knew something, Maggie knew something, and the reverse was true, as well. Better to keep his trap shut. Being cooped up in the prison made people nosy, but they'd all lose interest eventually, given that the pair of them never got up to anything more interesting than killing walkers and changing the oil on his motorcycle.
Since the night they'd laid out on the pavement, Daryl had just kind of accepted that Beth was going to be hanging around him. He'd settled on mostly trying to keep his thoughts clean, although he still found himself staring at her from time to time. What he'd decided on was the idea that the appeal of Beth Greene might go away if he just gave it some time. And he wasn't particularly proud of this train of thought, but he figured he may as well enjoy it for the time being, and didn't beat himself up too much over a particularly interesting dream or if his eyes lingered a bit on her ass. That sort of thing always went away eventually.
It was late afternoon when they pulled into the gates and began unloading the car with some help from Carl and Beanpole, who apparently had a real name, Patrick. After getting it all inside, where Carol and a few others would sort it out, Daryl snagged the shipping box full of stationary he'd found. Glenn caught his eye and grinned, so he responded by flipping him off. Seeing the less than friendly gesture, Carol poked Daryl in the ribs and rolled her eyes at him, standing between him and Glenn.
"Do I even want to know what's in that box?"
"Probably not," Glenn intoned solemnly from behind Carol, his face a mask of mock sobriety but his eyes shining with laughter. Daryl gave Glenn an eat shit and die glare. Carol turned and looked between the two of them, half-exasperated, half-amused. Glen waggled his eyebrows briefly before shoving his hands into his bulging pockets, off to find Maggie.
"It's just paper," Daryl said, looking at Carol. "Nothin' exciting."
Carol's look turned considering. "What kind? We could use with some more paper for story time."
Stomach churning, he looked away, staring out at the people milling the cafeteria, poking through the finds of the day. "Just some scrapbook crap. Beth wanted to do some book thing for Judy. You can ask her how much of it she needs, I bet." Daryl kept his hands wrapped around the box and looked at Carol out of the corner of his eye.
One eyebrow arched elegantly, Carol simply said, "Ah," before returning to digging through the pile of clothes.
Taking the opportunity to escape before the situation got any more uncomfortable, Daryl headed off towards Beth's cell, the box tucked under his arm. Since the time he'd barged in and Maggie saw him, he'd been careful about stopping at Beth's cell, listening carefully for noises and taking a peek before barreling in. This time, the coast was clear, just Beth playing with Judith on the floor, the little girl screeching happily while knocking over a pyramid made out of red solo cups.
"Hey," he said, stepping just inside the curtain. Beth looked up at him, smiling. "I got that stuff you wanted."
"Really?" A smile lit up her face. She scooped up the little girl and stood in one well-practiced motion, walking over. Judith leaned a chubby cheek against Beth's shoulder, tangling one chubby fist in the long blonde ponytail and gnawing contentedly on the other.
Opening the box up, Daryl tilted it in her direction. Beth dug through one handedly, looking at the papers and specialty pens and markers he'd found. "Somethin' special at the bottom." She shot him an amused look, and rustled around before pulling out a brand new scrapbook, one of those fancy build your own things with a leather cover.
"Oh, my goodness, where did you find this?" She swept her thumb across the mulberry-colored leather, a beautiful smile working its way across her face. With the baby on one hip, all comfortably snuggled into Beth, and that album in her hands, it was easy to see that Beth really was this little girl's mother in almost every way. Beth had that look in her eyes he loved best, that soft look she reserved especially for the Lil' Asskicker. Beth set the album down on her desk, slowly running one hand over the cover and running a finger over the embossed edges. She pressed a kiss to Judy's forehead before turning back to Daryl. "Here," she said, reaching with her free hand for the box in his hands. She tugged it from him gently, and put it with the scrapbook.
"Thank you," she said, quiet and sincere, looking right into his eyes.
Beth took a step forward, getting into his personal space like she had been for three weeks now. Daryl had gotten used enough to that. All of a sudden, though, she reached out with one thin arm and hooked it around his waist, small fingers digging into his torso. Beth pressed into him, and Judith too, Beth's hips angled away slightly so the little girl didn't get squashed. Beth had her cheek pressed to his chest and Lil' Asskicker took her fist out of her mouth to pull at Daryl's ragged breast pocket, gurgling delightedly.
Daryl locked up for a moment, not sure about breathing or what he was supposed to be doing with his hands. But after a moment, his hands moved of their own accord, one hand resting lightly on the slight curve of her waist, his hand huge against the small of her back, making him all too aware of her slightness. Daryl couldn't stop his fingertips from rubbing at her back a little, trying to feel her skin through the warm, thin cotton of her shirt. His other arm rested against hers, pressed against the baby to keep her steady against Beth's side, his hand finding its way to her elbow and grasping where it was hooked around Judith. He inclined his head, just a tiny bit, trying to better get a hint of that floral note and whatever distinctly her smell lingered beneath that, that raw scent that would stick in his mind for days after each time he found himself close enough to get a hold of it. And after that, he just stayed still. Daryl had the thought in his head that he could hear her heartbeat, almost feel it beating against him. Calm and steady, just a low thump that kept time with the pounding in his own chest. All of her warmth enveloping him, the softness of her skin and the brush of her hair against his throat. He gave a little sigh, and his eyes slid shut.
After a few more moments, she pulled away, unwrapped her arm from around him and untangled Judy's sticky fingers from his shirt. He kept his eyes down as she pulled back, but he could feel her eyes on him. Not looking up, Daryl let his eyes travel down her neck, sweeping across her throat. He followed her hand as she pressed it into Judith's back, smoothing the girl's shirt. His gaze traced the tilt of her hips, jutting out to balance the baby, then his eyes moved down her thin legs to her small boots.
Finally, he forced his gaze upwards, and Daryl found himself looking right into her eyes again. That soft look in her blue eyes was gone, replaced by that hard, calm look he'd been seeing more and more. It was a look that meant Beth was really looking at him, that her baby blue eyes were digging into him and seeing, just like she saw everything else that went on around here. It still scared him, a little bit, to see that look on her face, to know what it meant. But he was growing comfortable with that look, too, had been letting himself get used to it since that night when she laid out next to him and pressed her small fingers against his arm and made his skin burn in all sorts of ways.
Daryl had been looking at her, learning all the little bits of her, from the look of her against the setting sun to the hum of her voice when she didn't know anyone was listening. Somehow he didn't mind her doing the same to him. Seemed like some ass-backwards idea of fair.
"I better get goin'," he finally said. "Let me know what else ya need." Daryl ran the back of his index finger over Lil' Asskicker's arm, who twinkled up at him.
"Thanks, Daryl. I really mean it."
Something like a smile tugged at his lips. "I know ya do." He nodded, and taking one last look at the two girls, their bodies curving in towards each other as they both watched him. "I'll see you later."
"Yeah," Beth said, smiling.
…
"Yeah, so we're thinking two or three vehicles for this one," Daryl said, looking between Michonne and Glenn. "We got Bob, Sasha, Zach, and the three of us goin'. Two's prob'ly enough, we'll waste less gas that way." Most of the council was still sitting in the cafeteria after lunch. Rick, Carol, Hershel and Maggie were talking. Beth was pacing around the cafeteria with Judith in her arms, gently patting the girl's back and talking to her. From what Beth had said, the baby had been fussy the past few days, and Beth was starting to look a little pale, purple-blue smears showing up in stark relief under her eyes. Daryl was focused on the conversation in front of him, but he let his eyes flicker over to Beth every once in a while, casually tracking her slow movement around the big space.
Michonne nodded. She'd turned up the night before, fresh from a month on the road, but immediately volunteered for the run. She'd been searching for the Governor off and on, wanting to finally take him down for good after all he'd done. She and Daryl understood each other a little on this. If he hadn't known for some time that his place was at the prison, working side by side with Rick and the rest of them, he'd probably be out there, too. The fucker had killed Merle and Andrea, after all. But having a bone to pick with that one-eyed prick wasn't going to keep this prison pulled together. And being out on the road, tracking trails long since gone cold, wasn't going to keep his family safe. The governor might come back. Might not. Daryl kept his eyes open, but he knew well enough that there were some people who didn't want to be found, couldn't be found. Daryl was needed here. Didn't know what else he could do.
"We'll head out early in the day, two days from now. Don't want to spend too much time out there, just secure the place, grab some shit and get out. If it's a good location, we can go back, keep usin' it." They wrapped up the discussion with some debate about how much ammo and extra gear to bring along, considering the extra people they'd be bringing along. The conversation broke up naturally after a time, and Michonne wandered off in the direction of the shower block, while Maggie and Glenn snuck off towards their cell holding hands. Daryl stayed put for a while, going over the list of needed supplies Carol had compiled, trying to memorize as much of it as possible. Eventually, Rick and Carol disappeared as well, Rick probably heading back outside to his plants and Carol off to story time with a bunch of kids trailing after her.
Daryl felt his neck start to burn when he realized that left just him and Hershel sitting at the table, both of them looking at Beth from time to time. Daryl liked the old man. Got along with him just fine, and they respected each other. Wasn't like they talked much, though. And it wasn't like he was avoiding Hershel lately, but he sure as shit wasn't seeking him out to talk about sitting out in the dark with his youngest daughter, or her hugging him the day before. He knew the man wasn't dumb, though, and had more than likely noticed that his baby girl was spending time with the old red neck with the crossbow and filthy mouth.
Although he tried to keep his eyes on his list, Hershel eventually caught Daryl's eye. Looking as placid as ever, he asked how preparations for the run were coming along.
"Shouldn't be too bad. Last we checked, roads were still clear. Can't say what it's like inside the place, but it shouldn't be more'n we can handle."
Hershel folded his hands over his stomach and leaned back in his metal folding chair. "It's good you're taking charge with this. The group respects you." He had his eyes, that solemn and steady gaze, settled on Daryl, and it felt heavy. At least he really knew where Beth got her damn eyes from.
"Just helpin' Rick out. He's needed here, an' all." Daryl shifted uncomfortably, setting the list down on the table. Not wanting to look into Hershel's gaze, even though he felt it, he let his eyes wander around the room. Beth had settled on the floor, sitting up against the wall as she gave Judy her bottle. He tapped his fingers restlessly against the table a few times before using his thumbnail to dig at the pressed wood, carving out a messy shallow groove.
"Well, we all appreciate it." Hershel was silent for a moment, scratching at his white beard. "Beth tells me you found her a whole pile of supplies to make a baby book for Judith. It was good of you to do that." He sighed, but it was a happy sigh, the sigh of an old man watching his daughter caring for a child like it was her own. A sigh that came with a smile. Hershel carried on, slow and thoughtful. "Beth's always been the caring sort. When she was a little girl, she was always bringing in the kittens from the barn, setting them up all cozy in her big wooden doll house with her mama's good quilts. Annette could never stay mad at her, though, even though the blankets would get full of fleas." Hershel lapsed into silence, chuckling a bit, as he regarded his daughter.
Hershel turned back to Daryl, their eyes meeting as Hershel spoke again. "She's a good mother." He raised his brows a little bit, smiling a little and bobbing his head as he spoke. "Might be younger than I thought, and not quite how I thought I'd see it all happen." Daryl nodded at that. "But I'm happy to know she's a hard workin' woman and still has that soft heart, even after all she's been through. And I'm glad my little girl is where she's safe, where she's got family. She's got people like you and her sister and Glenn looking out for her." The older man leaned forward, voice dropping a bit. "We all need that from time to time."
After giving Daryl an inscrutable look, Hershel slowly got to his feet, leaning on his crutch a bit. "Well, I suppose I ought to head over to the library. Carol asked me to do a little lesson on first aid this afternoon. Best oblige her." Daryl nodded in farewell, feeling a little like Hershel had cracked open his skull and poked around a bit with a screwdriver.
Hershel hopped past Beth as he went out of the room, and she looked up at her father with a smile, reaching out to squeeze his hand for a moment. After her father left the room, Beth looked up at Daryl. The baby was all but dozing in her arms, the both of them looking pretty damn tired, but Beth still managed a smile. Shoving his list into his pocket, he got up and wandered over to her.
"Still givin' you trouble?" he asked quietly, standing over her. Beth had her head tilted up, resting against the wall. She looked a bit drawn, shoulders drooping a bit.
"Not too bad," she said. "Maybe she'll wear herself out and we can finally get some sleep tonight."
Looking down at her, Daryl could even sort of see the little girl, carrying a box of kittens up into her bedroom, going slow and careful up the stairs. Wasn't hard to imagine her, stretched out on her belly, watching over the kittens like a second momma cat, tiny little lumps of warm, breathing fur wrapped up in a priceless heirloom quilt. And a part of him felt bothered, knowing she was maybe only ten years past being that little girl, and he was ten years from being some asshole mechanic in his mid-twenties, getting in fights at bars and raising hell for no good reason. But another part of him saw just how much she'd grown since then. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Wasn't really a girl at all. She was a woman, like her daddy said. Daryl could see it, too.
"Better get some rest while you can. Gonna be a busy couple of days 'round here."
"Tryin'," Beth whispered, grinning up at him. "Now get outta here, before you wake her up!"
He gave her a lopsided smile. Daryl hesitated a moment, then brushed his fingertips across her shoulder for a quick moment, just a light touch that was over just before it began. She looked a little startled at that, he could see, but he could tell by the glint in her eyes that she was pleased all the same. Giving her a nod, he headed off, mind still buzzing and an unfamiliar tingling in his fingertips.
…
Beth was stretched out on the rug on the library floor, a pillow tucked under her head, and book laying open across her belly. She'd been reading for a few minutes, but had fallen asleep pretty quickly, eyes drooping and book slipping from her hands. Her breathing was low and quiet, one arm across her forehead and the other on top of her book. Daryl was slouched in one chair, with his boots up on another chair. He was still working his way through From Here to Eternity.
At dinner, Daryl had taken one look at her run-down appearance and decided he wasn't about to let her follow him outside while he paced around or tinkered with some shit. He struggled for a moment with the idea of telling her to just stay in while he went outside to work, but couldn't come up with any nice way to tell her that she looked like she was going to keel over. So when she approached him after dinner, wan smile on her face, he suggested the first thing he could think of: going into the library for a little while. So Beth ended up sprawled out on the floor while Daryl sat a few feet away, neither of them actually doing much reading, although for very different reasons.
He was getting used to how distracting she was. Couldn't read for beans with her dozing like that, hearing her low and slow breathing, tank top riding up a handful of inches and showing off quite a bit of her flat belly. Didn't much care if he was reading or not. Not that Daryl had a whole lot of time that wasn't dedicated to doing some sort of work, but when he did have a moment to himself, he'd been spending it thinking about Beth. Tonight wasn't going to be any different. Since the moment the day before she'd wrapped one thin arm around his torso and pressed up against him, he'd had a hard time thinking on anything else. He'd spent a lot of time that night remembering the softness of her waist and back, the way she'd slid right up against him, fitting right into his side. In his mind, Daryl had recreated the feel of her breasts brushing against him, thinking about it over and over again until he thought he could really almost feel it. Until he thought he really had gone crazy and made up the whole thing in his mind.
Daryl knew a hug from a girl like Beth didn't mean jack shit. She was the kind of girl that hugged people, touched them. He saw how she was with her sister, with her father. Hell, it wasn't like she'd really been keeping her distance from him this whole time. She'd just caught him off-guard, like she had been for weeks now. And now her father was following suit.
What Hershel had said to him this afternoon, as best Daryl had been able to figure it out, was that he was grateful for someone like Daryl looking out for his little girl. Didn't make Daryl feel any better about thinking about Beth for hours the night before, sprawled across his shitty prison bunk and all his sheets and blankets kicked to the floor. It was a fucking pain, to spend his nights fantasizing about her only to wake up and know that there were all sorts of rules and structures to be followed in the light of day. When she'd hugged him, when he felt the brush of her hair against his neck, he'd had the burning urge to slide his hand up her back until he could cradle her skull in his hand, tangle his fingers in that hair. His decision to let himself want her until it got old and he got over it didn't seem to be helping matters. He was wanting her more, not less. And he was struggling with that. Beth wasn't a little girl. No one around here thought that anymore. But she was still so young, younger than him and too sweet by half.
It was all so goddamn stupid, him getting all turned around because she'd hugged him to say thank you. And it was just as foolish to get all tangled up over what Hershel said to him. Old man was probably just talking to fill space. None of any of this mattered, it was just a pile of asinine thoughts in his head. Pretty soon he was going to get like Rick and start talking at people that weren't there. Start having conversations with Merle, although those would be more like shouting matches, truth be told. He dog-eared the page he was on and set the book down, closing his eyes and tilting his head back. Daryl was almost starting to look forward to this run. Give him the chance to get out, clear his head a little bit. Nothing like the constant threat of getting your neck ripped out to get a man focused. Being in the prison too much was making him think about all sorts of shit, think about it too much and for too long.
And then on top of all the bullshit already in his mind, Daryl had let himself go and touch her. Yeah, just a little touch, brushing his hand across her shoulder. But it'd just happened, his hand moving before he could really think about all the reasons it was a dumbass thing to do. She looked so tired, a little more worn out than usual. And he'd just done it, like it might help make her feel better. Daryl remembered the look in her eyes. It had made her happy. And he'd be lying if he said it didn't do the same for him. All those little touches, like the brush of her hand against his, the feel of her standing near to him. And that night she pressed her hand to his arm. And then that hug. All of that was something to look forward to, hope for, on any given day. The only question was, to what fucking end?
Even before, on the rare occasion that he had a woman around for more than a night, he never got too into the extra touching. Didn't encourage hand holding or cuddling or anything else. Seemed safer to keep a defined distance. That way, nothing got confused, nothing got too out of place. It wasn't comfortable, having some woman wrapped around him, wrapped around arm hand or arm or nothing. Made his skin crawl, worse than that time he camped too close to a fire ant colony as a kid. All the woman from before, it'd felt like one step away from a sinkhole. One step closer to getting sucked into the sort of shit storm his mother and father had made. Best way to keep all that shit tucked away was to make sure women knew he wasn't in it for anything more than something casual.
One woman in particular had pissed him off and he'd steered clear of hookups for a good couple months after that. Daryl had made the mistake of bringing her home, and she'd taken that as an invitation to stick around for the rest of the night. He'd gotten up immediately after the deed was done, pulling his jeans back up and tossing the used condom, and she stayed sprawled out on his sheets, getting her makeup all over his pillows. He hadn't noticed at the bar, hadn't noticed too much in the heat of the moment, but now that she was sucking up all the space in his tiny room, all he could smell was the cloying, chemically smell of her too-liberally applied hairspray. Hated the smell of hairspray. Made him think of burning plastic, like when he was a kid and the house had gotten all burnt up and his ma had died. He'd lit up a cigarette to try to mask the smell, but the smoke only served to make it worse.
She'd reached for him, tugging at his shirt. "Com'on, honey. Take your clothes off. Get back in bed with me." Daryl never replied, but shifted further away from her. She kept trying to paw at him, lolling all over his bed. He kept moving out of her reach, and eventually she got fed up, got real pissed at him. "I shoulda fuckin' known you'd turn out to be a real jackass." She disentangled herself from his sheets, standing up and scrambling for her clothes in jerky motions. She wasn't a bad looking woman, Daryl remembered. But he didn't fucking know the first thing about her, other than that she had looked good and seemed all for going on home with him. Wasn't too bright, given that she thought fucking him was an invitation to make herself at home.
Daryl remembered her tugging her jeans up over ass, shaking her dark bangs out of her eyes and mouth working furiously. "Just drop your jeans and fuck whatever moves, huh? Shirt still on? Did you even take your fucking boots off?"
He hadn't. But Daryl wasn't about to say that to her. He'd just stayed silent, smoking and leaning up against the peeling wallpaper in his bedroom, waiting for her to clear herself out. And after she left, he went out to his living room, turned on a movie and slept out on the couch. She'd made his sheets stink. Made his skin crawl with her questions and grabbing hands. Wasn't none of her business if he left his shirt on while he gave it to her. Wasn't like he was trying to be mean. Just wanted her to know it wasn't going to be anything more than what it had been. Keeping covered up was the only way he knew how.
And, if he was going to be telling the truth, there was still a part of him that was still just as uncomfortable with the touching he'd been experiencing these days, long after his nights at the bar had ended with walkers crawling all over. Thirty-five years of steering clear of feeling someone's hands on him was the sort of habit that was pretty hard to break.
Daryl looked over at Beth, still sleeping on the library floor. Her breath still came steady and slow, and every once in a while she'd give a little sigh, a breathy and high pitched noise that tugged at him in the worst way. Yeah, he might be a little uncomfortable, thinking about being touched by a girl like Beth Greene. Still didn't stop him from getting half-hard in the library, thinking about the little noises she made and the sight of a few inches of flat belly revealed by her shirt. All the thoughts he'd had since sitting down in the library, they all seemed to scream that he was fighting a losing battle. Didn't matter that he was scared. Still wanted her in a thousand ways, from watching her with Lil' Asskicker, to the look on her face when she was putting walkers down. Wanted her naked, wanted her half-clothed and pressed up against a wall. Wanted to spend his evenings listening to her talk as he fixed up his motorcycle or walked the fence. Wanted her smiles, and the weight of her heavy, hard blue gaze on him. Wanted too goddamn much, and none of it could ever all fit together for a man like him.
The last little bits of light were coming in the window, painting her skin in yellow-orange light and catching in the shimmer of her tangled hair. It was getting late, and they probably should get back to the main cell block so she could get Judy for bed and so he could go out and inspect the fence. But he didn't really want to wake her up. That baby had been running her a bit ragged, and she could use with a little bit longer to herself. Daryl knew that Beth was the one up with the baby at night, the one that little girl wanted when she was crying. And he knew she loved that little girl, didn't begrudge a single moment spent doting on the Lil' Asskicker. And for that alone, she deserved a few minutes to herself, a little bit of rest from the nonstop mess going on around them all. Rest was never promised. You grabbed it when you could.
So he let her have that. Daryl watched over her, reading a little, letting her have another half hour or so of sleep. When the last of the sunlight had faded and he couldn't see the words on the page anymore, he closed up his book. He took his time standing up, stretching his back and cracking his neck. He set his book down on the edge of the table, and slowly made his way over to her, taking care to keep his steps quiet. When he reached her side, he squatted down, only giving himself a moment to let his eyes skim down her body, over the necklace in between her breasts and a freckle just above the hem of her jeans. Daryl sighed quietly, and he felt his palms tingle again.
Fighting a losing battle, alright.
Lifting his hand, he rubbed his fingertips across one cheekbone, his hand dark and more than a little grimy looking against her pale skin. "Beth," he said, his voice just above a whisper, but deep. Her skin was soft, softer than he'd thought, and he didn't pull his hand right away. "Beth."
She stirred, eyes slowly fluttering open, and he quickly pulled his hand back. "Hey," she mumbled. Beth blinked for a minute, frowning a bit. "It's dark. How late is it?"
"Not too late," he said, leaning back a little as she sat up. Daryl stood, then offered his hand to help pull her up. Beth's hand slid easily into his, and he tugged her up. She squeezed his hand before she let go, still looking a little dazed.
When she pulled her arms over her head and stretched, it pulled the material over her chest tight and caused the leather cord of her necklace to slide against the bare skin above her blouse. Daryl ducked his head, trying to avert his eyes. "Oh," she sighed sleepily. "You never should've let me sleep on the floor."
"Seemed like ya needed it," he said, looking over to face to see if she looked rested any.
Beth gave a smile at that. "Probably right." She smoothed a few loose curls back from her face. "Well, I guess we better go get the baby. Poor Rick is probably wondering where I went off to."
Daryl tried not to raise his brows at her use of the word "we." Just went along with it. "Alright," he said. Going along with Beth was just something he'd been doing lately. Fighting a losing battle, and all that.
They walked to Rick's cell, not really talking. Beth was humming some old Loretta Lynn number, making Daryl think about listening to the radio in his old truck. Caught himself wondering if she'd have liked the old piece of junk. Wasn't any use in that, since it was long gone, but the image of her riding shotgun, singing along to the radio, stuck around all the same. He shoved the image to the back of his mind as they reached Rick's cell, curling his hands up tight and cracking his knuckles with his thumbs.
"Hey, Rick, I'm sorry it's so late. I lost track'a time," Beth said, walking right into the man's cell. Not feeling quite as forward about the whole thing, Daryl hung back by the door, leaning up against the cement and crossing his arms, trying to act more casual than he was feeling. Rick looked up from his book in surprise, his eyes moving first to Beth, who was scooping a sleeping Judith off Rick's bed, where she'd been nestled in with a heap of blankets. As Beth gently cooed to the baby, picking her up and settling her in an embrace, Rick's eyes met Daryl's, and he could read something between surprise and curiosity in his friend's eyes.
Daryl didn't say anything. Didn't nod. He just gave a small shrug, keeping his face as blank as possible.
Something strange crossed Rick's face, something between amusement and disbelief that was a matter of raised eyebrows and twitching lips. Rick inclined his head a bit, a sort of acknowledgement that didn't say much of anything other than that the man had taken note. But that felt good enough for Daryl. If Rick really had a problem with Daryl and Beth passing time together, he would've said something. Rick, even all wrapped up in his farming, wasn't the sort of man to let something troublesome slide, no matter what he said about stepping down and stepping back. The tension in his shoulders, a tension Daryl hadn't realized he was hanging onto, it eased up a bit. All the tiny muscles in his neck felt like they were slowly unwinding themselves. Unwinding a little, anyway.
"Alright, darlin'," Beth said to a bleary looking Judy, "Let's go get you in bed." She looked over at the baby's father, and Daryl saw she looked less drawn than she had after dinner. Still had those smudges under eyes, but at least she looked a little more serene, less harried. Daryl felt a little better about that, at least. "Good night, Rick," she chirped.
Rick just nodded, polite smile on his face when he looked at Beth. Hadn't said a whole word between the two of them, but that was okay with Daryl. Wasn't anything that needed talking about, really. So Daryl just nodded right back at Rick, just ducking his head a little bit in a brief response. Nothing to be said. He hoped it'd stay that way, too. If anyone could understand that, he reckoned it'd be Rick. Both of them knew there was no sense in talking about what just was.
Pushing off from the wall as Beth brushed past him, baby in her arms, he followed her back to her cell, watched from the doorway in silence as she put the baby down for the night in the dim lighting of her cell. He watched the careful way she cradled the baby's head, the way she smoothed the silky hair back from Judy's placid face. As soon as Judy was settled, she looked up at him, a small smile on her face and pushing her hair out of her eyes with the back of her hand. He stood still for one long moment, his eyes on hers. Daryl took in the look in her eyes, still hard and gleaming, but somehow softer than he was used to seeing when she had her eyes on him. Finally, he muttered, "Night," and she whispered it back, voice so soft he felt it more than he heard it.
And then he went off into the night to check the fences, check the doors, and make sure everything was locked up tight.
...
A/N: Okay, folks, that was a loooong chapter. And boy, did it give me a headache. But I had SO much fun writing Daryl touching Beth's shoulder, and I LOVED writing his memory of hairspray lady from the bar. Mostly, it's all build up for the next chapter- the run chapter! I have some stuff and things (take that how you will!) planned for chapter six. Leave me your predictions, folks! I am already so pumped to start writing chapter six... Probably going to spend too much of tomorrow writing out some stuff'n'thangs!
Also! I'm on tumblr! There's a link in my profile, or you can just find me by searching corarochester. I'd love to chat with you all and hopefully keep you entertained with previews and status updates. Anyway, feel free to chat me up!
Thank you so much for reading, reviewing, following, favorite-ing... It all means so, so much to me. I'm hoping that after yesterday's episode (I won't say anything other than OH MY GOODNESS!), we'll be getting a bunch more people on the Good Ship Bethyl...!