Beth woke up to find herself alone in Carol's bed. She could smell something cooking in the kitchen. She slowly sat up and moved so she was sitting on the edge of the bed. As she started to stretch she felt a dull pain on the side of her torso as she reached upward. She lifted up the side of her shirt and saw that the large cut was still bandaged. She'd have to go back down to the hospital and get it checked out again. She stood up and went out into the kitchen. Carol was cooking beacon over the fire in the fireplace.

"Good morning," she said with a yawn. She noticed the couch where Daryl had been was empty, now just a jumble of blankets. She went over and sat down. The blankets were still warm from his body heat and she pulled them around her. The summer heat was starting to fade, soon it would be fall.

"Morning," said Carol, "How was your sleep?"

"The best I've had in a long time," said Beth, "Haven't slept on a proper bed in awhile."

"Daryl left a little while ago," said Carol, "Wanted to go out on a run." Beth smiled; did that mean he was agreeing to stay? "He went by himself though, wanted to catch his own deer and bring it back." Beth rolled her eyes, thinking of how stubborn he was. She pulled the blankets further around her, smelling his scent still on them. It was a deep outdoor smell mixed with cigarettes. She wished she could curl up with him on the sofa, feel him against her, run her hands down his muscled chest-

"Beth, earth to Beth," said Carol, suddenly snapping her fingers in front of her face. Beth came out of her steamy daydream to look up at Carol.

"Hmm?"

"I said are you going to go out with Lily today?"

"Oh ya," said Beth, remembering the dark haired girl she had met yesterday.

"She stopped by this morning to say if you wanted to hang out she'd be available around noon, she lives in the next building over on the second floor with her mom." Beth nodded and looked out the window. The sun hadn't completely risen to the center of the sky yet. She estimated she had about an hour till noon.

"I'll head on over in a bit," she said, "First I wanna get my cut checked out and re-bandaged." Carol finished cooking and the two sat down at the table to eat.

"I heard about your father," said Carol, "I'm so sorry Beth; we all loved him very much. He was an amazing man who did great things. I know things are looking down right now but if you ever need anyone to talk to I'm always here for you." Beth felt Carol's words warm her heart. She had always been a mother figure to her. She had done most her crying in Daryl's arms but next time she was feeling down she'd take Carol up on her offer.

Beth sat in one of the chairs as the doctor slowly peeled off her bandage to get a look at the wound. It fell off and Beth was surprised to see that the cut didn't look much better than it had last time. In fact it looked slightly worse. It was red and oozy and when the doctor washed it clean with a sanitized wipe it stung and started to painfully throb.

"It's infected," said the doctor, taking a closer look, "But it's not too bad, I'll put you on a stronger antibiotic and every night you should clean it. If it seems to be getting worse, come back." The doctor put a lighter bandage over the cut and she was done.

Maggie sat in the passenger seat; looking out the window. She carefully scanned the landscape for any signs of movement, hoping it would be someone from the group. Whenever she did see something and she got Glenn to stop, it was just walkers. Glenn had recovered well enough to start up the car and drive but he still wasn't one hundred percent, mentally or physically. It had been a couple of days since they'd found each other. They'd been on the road ever since, only stopping to eat and switch off on driving.

"My little sister's out there," said Maggie, thinking of Beth. She had left her to go get Glenn to the bus. She had wanted to come with her but Maggie had refused, telling her she needed to get the kids on the bus. She felt terrible about it now; if she had let Beth come with her she'd be there with her now. Glenn knew how she was feeling and said

"Don't blame yourself." His voice came out raspy, the sickness still affecting him. "I'm sure she's fine, she wouldn't have gone off alone, she probably found someone and went with them." Maggie tried to remember back and think of all the possible people Beth could have run off with. It could be anybody besides herself, Sasha, Bob and Glenn. There was a good chance she hadn't been with Tyreese either since she'd seen him with some of the kids, running towards the woods. So that left Michonne, Rick, Carl or Daryl. One of them had to have taken her with them. She'd trust any one of them to keep her sister safe.

Beth walked across the street back towards Carol's house. She followed her directions and went into the building next door. She ascended the staircase, first passing by the door that led to the first floor unit. When she came to the second door she lightly knocked on the door. A moment later a brunette women opened the door, smiling down at her.

"Hello, what can I do for you?"

"Is Lily here?"

"Once second," she said, turning and walking back inside. She heard her call out Lily's name in the background. She heard approaching footsteps and Lily appeared in the doorway.

"Oh hey Beth," she said, "Glad you came." Lily stepped out of the doorway and shut the door behind her. "You wanna go look around a bit? I have some friends I can introduce you too." Beth smiled and said

"That'd be nice."

Daryl walked up the stairs, the dead deer over his shoulder. It wasn't big, just a little doe, nothing he couldn't handle. When he reached the top of the stairs he knocked on Carol's door. She answered the door and he saw the shocked look on her face.

"You brought it inside?!"

"Course I did, what the hell else was I gonna do with it."

"You could have given it to the butcher to take care of."

"No way," he said, "I can do it myself." He had left a trail of blood behind him, having of dripped off the deer. He saw Carol look disgusted. He smiled and said

"This place has softened you up, back at the prison you wouldn't have cared." Carol shot him an annoyed look before she moved aside and let him walk in. He put the deer down on the tile floor, ignoring the splatter of blood that it created when it hit the ground.

"Where's Beth?" he said, looking around the apartment.

"Went out with a new friend."

"Ain't she the social butterfly," he said with a twinge of annoyance in his voice, "Already meetin' people." Carol laughed and said

"You should stop being so stubborn and try to meet some people."

"What's the point when we'll be leavin' soon?"

"I wouldn't count on that," said Carol, "Beth seems pretty happy here." She saw his muscles bunch up in annoyance again.

"Then I'll just have to drag her outta here myself." Carol narrowed her eyes and said

"What does it matter if Beth goes with you or not?"

"Because-" he was searching for an answer, "Because when I find Maggie she's gonna wanna see her sister." It was a lame excuse and he knew it. He wasn't even sure if they would find anybody, never mind Maggie. Carol seemed to drop it, not wanting to get into an argument. He meant what he'd said. If Beth was gonna act like a brat and refuse to go with him, he'd pick her up and carry her out of here. He wasn't going to leave her behind. She needed to be with him. He poured himself a glass of water and started to drink.

"You shouldn't go back out there," she said, "You should stay here with me. Everything could work out. Beth has no parental guidance anymore, no one to look up to or feel secure with. Maybe over time the three of us could become a sort of family unit, she needs some kind fatherly figure in her life." He choked on the water and spit it out, coughing and gasping for air. "Are you ok?!" she asked running over to his side as he leaned over and continued to cough. Fatherly figure?! She was suggesting he be Beth's new fatherly figure? He could never see her as a daughter. He smirked to himself, although he wouldn't mind if she called him daddy.

"There's no way I'm gonna be her new 'fatherly' figure. There's nothin' fatherly about me Carol."

"You were pretty good with Judy." That was true but he hadn't felt fatherly towards Judith, at most he had felt like an uncle and Judith had been a baby.

"Don' matter," he said, "I could never be a father." Just the word scared him. It brought back memories of his own father, coming drunkenly towards him with a belt. Carol shrugged and said

"Well Beth needs somebody to be there for her."

"I think she's gonna be jus' fine," said Daryl, taking the last sip out of his glass. "The worst has already passed."

"What do you mean?"

"She wouldn't stop cryin' for the full forty-eight hours after we left the prison. She even triedta kill herself. She's strong now; she's gotten it all out. She's gonna be fine."

"I'm just worried about her," said Carol. Daryl softened a bit when he saw the deep concern in Carol's eyes. He pulled her into a hug and said

"Everythin's gonna be fine, we'll keep an eye on her." He felt Carol hug him back and he jumped a little bit. Physical contact used to send him running but spending all that time with Beth clinging to him had loosened him up a bit.

Beth followed Lily through the gate of tall fence.

"This is my friend's house, she should be here." Lily knocked on the door. It opened a moment later. A tall Asian girl with long straight black hair stood in the doorway. "Kate this is Beth, Beth this is Kate," said Lily. Beth smiled and said

"Hey." The girl smiled back and said

"Hi, are you new here?" Beth nodded and said

"Got here two days ago." The girl shut the door and they stood in the yard.

"So who'd you come with?"

"A friend of mine." She wasn't sure what she considered Daryl exactly. He certainly wasn't a father or brother to her.

The girls left the yard and continued down the street. Beth stood next to Lily, listening to the two girls talk. It was all gossip, and while Beth had never been that type of girl back at school it gave her a feeling of normalcy which she liked. If they were talking like this then it meant there were lots of other teens around and the community felt settled. They were passing by Carol's building when she saw a group of boys approaching them. She heard Kate let out a little squeal of excitement.

"Here comes Jason," she said, gripping onto Lily's arm. Beth then asked

"Whose Jason?"

"He's the guy she likes," said Lily, rolling her eyes playfully. The boys all looked to be around her age, maybe a bit older. There were four of them.

"Hey girls," said one of them smiling. Beth couldn't help but want to sink into the ground. It had been awhile since she'd been faced with talking to this many guys her own age at once. There had been Zach and Jimmy but it had been different. This felt like high school again, a group of guys walking towards her in the hallway had been intimidating.

"Hey Jason," said Kate, her gaze specifically on the blonde boy standing across from her. Lily had started to talk to the others. Beth stayed back, not wanting to catch any attention. Unfortunately one of the boys saw her standing off to the side. He was tall with bright brown hair and dark brown eyes. He smiled at her and said

"Hey, what's your name?" Beth couldn't speak for a moment, still feeling intimidated.

"I'm Beth."

"I'm Steve," he said, "I've never seen you around before?"

"I just came here."

Daryl sat on the floor of Carol's kitchen cutting up the deer into pieces of meat. He had convinced her to let him use the tile floor as a place to cut it up. He tried to keep the blood contained but it was impossible and it was smeared on the floor around him. Carol was standing over by the window, looking out at the street.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Beth's down there." Daryl was on his feet in an instant.

"Somethin' wrong?" he asked, going over to her side.

"No looks like she made some more friends." Daryl looked down to see Beth standing with a group of people. She was talking to a boy. He felt his temper flare. She was laughing and smiling at whatever the boy was saying.

"I'm goin' to get her." Carol grabbed his arm and said

"Just let her socialize." He pulled away and was out the door. He went down the stairs and outside. He watched them. He could see the way he was looking at her. Fucker would be sorry for ever laying his eyes on Beth if he tried anything. His Beth. He called out to her.

"Hey Beth come inside, I wanna show you something'."

Beth turned to see Daryl standing over on the sidewalk. Steve saw him to and said

"That your dad?"

"No," said Beth, "just a friend of mine." She saw the impatient look in Daryl's eyes and said, "I'll see you around Steve." He smiled at her and said

"I look forward to it." She said goodbye to the others and walked over to Daryl.

"Who's that?"

"Just a guy I met." There was another emotion hidden behind the impatience in Daryl's eyes, jealousy perhaps? She'd like to think so.

"Come on, I wanna show you how to properly gut a deer. She looked at him confused.

"Inside?"

When Daryl brought her up to Carol's apartment she was absolutely disgusted. It reeked of blood. "You're doing this in here?!"

"Well where the hell else would I do it?"

"Outside!"

"I'd rather do it in here," She rolled her eyes at him and went into the bedroom, trying to escape the smell. She sat down on the bed and realized something. The deer had already been gutted when she had walked in, its stomach cut open and hollow. The gut pile had been next to the body. Why would Daryl tell her he wanted to show her how to do it if he'd already done it?

Thanks everyone for your reviews and support :) I was slightly nervous about everyone's reaction to Beau. I felt like it was a risky move but I'm glad you all are fine with it. The drama will keep building lol.