"How'd you find me?", Daryl asked curiously, poking at the fire with a dusty iron tool. he set it down once the flames got bigger, and leaned his head against the bricks of the fireplace. A little bit of a smirk crossed her features.
"I tracked you.", she explained. "Well, I wasn't sure it was you, since there was so many boot prints lookin' like yours. Who were those guys anyway?"
Daryl eyed her. That was pretty good tracking skills for a rookie, but she had learned from him. "Group I found. It was either join 'em or die.", he told her, it seemed like that at the time. He wouldn't tell her he looked for her, since he wasn't big on speaking his feelings. He pulled the strawberry out of the trash bag at his side and tossed it to her. She inspected the berry for a moment before smiling down at it. She took a small bite from it, sighing in a relieved way. It was unlike her to be this quiet and Daryl was getting impatient just waiting for an answer.
"What happened?", he asked finally out of curiosity. Beth paused, watching as he popped the other strawberry in his mouth.
"The mortician from the house? He's alive.", She began. "He tried to kill me.. but I got to him first. Killed him with his own knife.", she avoided his gaze and stared at the fire. Now he understood. It was more than likely the first time she killed someone that wasn't already dead. Thinking of Beth killing a person was unusual to him, hell it was weird enough to see her kill walkers. Before he could say anything she was speaking again.
"Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there aren't any good people left.", Beth said in a sorrowful tone, setting her strawberry stem down on the bricks of the fireplace. She eyed it, picked it back up, and threw it into the fire with force.
"Don't say that.", He said, finding it ironic the woman who'd given him hope no longer had any of her own. Her eyes were watered, her lip quivered slightly and he knew she was trying not to cry. He leaned forward, wrapped his arms around her and held her for a moment. He felt her head on his shoulder, and her arms circle around to hug him back.
Her shoulders were shaking, he could feel her silent sobs and salty tears dropping on his shirt. He hadn't ever been close like this to anyone; he didn't know how to help her, but wanted to so badly. He put a hand in her hair, stroking it gently until her sobs quieted down.
When she collected herself twenty minutes later, she picked her head up and wiped away the wetness on her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy, and Daryl's arms were still loosely around her.
"Did you miss me?". She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Daryl was shy about things like this, and she'd never know how much he thought of her while she'd gone missing.
He grunted in response. Soft lips were unexpectedly pressed onto his.
[A/N: You have no idea how hard it is to not go out of character with them. Some of you guys reviewing make me laugh xD Apologies for the shortness of this chapter, they'll be longer soon. Thanks for reading! -Sam]