Beth waited until Carol was asleep. She sat up off the couch, tears still staining her face. Things seemed to be spiraling out of control. She could no longer ignore her feeling towards Daryl. Seeing he and Carol on the bed had broken her heart. She knew he had a thing with her but somewhere in her mind she had thought maybe- just maybe Daryl would have forgotten about his feelings for Carol. That being on the road for all those weeks with her would finally get him to notice her. But she had been wrong. She didn't know if she'd be able to watch them together. She settled back under the covers and shut her eyes.

A half an hour later, Daryl came back in. He took out a glass and a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a glass and tossed it back, trying to find some form of comfort. The alcohol burned going down and he dropped down into a chair at the kitchen table, his face in his hands. He had gone and fucked everything up. A voice in the back of head told him she had been asking for it with what she had done with Steve. He also thought about what would have happened if Beth hadn't walked in on them. He wasn't even turned on; it was like kissing his sister. He shivered at the thought and tossed back the rest of the whiskey. He knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. He walked into the living room to see Beth asleep on the couch. He went over and knelt down at her side. Her face was lit up in the moonlight spilling through the window. Her fair porcelain skin looked beautiful. Her lips were rose pink, her golden hair spread out across the pillow. She looked so delicate. He leaned down and gently kissed her on the forehead. Things had been so much better when they were alone. Not wanting to wake her he decided not to move her. He went into Carol's room and carefully lowered himself onto the bed, not getting under the covers. He lay there, stiff as a board, his back turned to Carol.

Beth woke up earlier than usual. The sun still wasn't completely in the sky yet and it cast long orange shadows across the carpet. The apartment was quiet and it took her a moment to remember what had happened last night. Had Daryl come back in? She got up and moved into the kitchen. The bedroom door was shut. She carefully went over and opened it quietly. There was Daryl lying on the bed. He was clothed and he was above the covers but it still made her blood boil. She put on her shoes, put her hair up and then went back over to the bedroom doorway. She picked up one of his boots sitting beside the door and threw it at him. Then she threw it at him. She heard him let out a yell and she dashed out the door.

Beth didn't return and instead wandered around the town. It was too early to go to Brenna's. There was hardly anyone out. Her ankle still throbbed in pain but she ignored it and continued on down the street. Daryl had found Rick's hat. He hadn't given her any specifics but if he had found it on a dead body he would have told her. She remembered back at the farm when Daryl had found Sophia's doll. Everyone had been confident that it meant Sophia was close but in fact she had already been dead, locked away in their barn. She suddenly felt a stab of painful nostalgia. If things had stayed normal none of this would be happening right now.

Daryl tossed the boot aside, pissed off at being awoken so abruptly. He knew it had been Beth. He had heard the door slam. She was gone. He sat up and looked over at Carol who was starting to stir. He quickly got up and moved into the kitchen. Like he suspected, Beth was gone.

"Hey," He turned around to see Carol standing there watching him. "Did Beth go?"

"Course she did."

"I feel bad about last night; she didn't need to see that." He grunted in agreement, moving to put the whiskey from last night away. When he felt Carol's arms around him again he flinched. "But now that she's gone we can finish what we started." He moved out of her grasp and said

"I'm goin' huntin'."

When the sun finally rose above the land Beth went to Brenna's. She walked in just in time as she heard the baby start crying. Brenna was in the kitchen.

"Good morning," said Brenna, "Want some breakfast?" She hadn't had any before she left Carol's apartment so she agreed and sat down at the table. She ate quickly while Brenna fed Gwen a bottle.

"I'll take her out for a walk if you want. You can get some cleaning done."

"Her strollers in her bedroom." Beth went and opened it up. She and Judith had never been able to go on walks around the prison. Rick wanted her inside most of the time and there weren't any strollers. She strapped Gwen inside and left the house. People were starting to move around and leave their houses. She saw Daryl leaving the apartment building. He had his crossbow, no doubt he was going hunting. She kept her head down and her gaze low, hoping he wouldn't see her. She nearly ran into someone nd looked up to see that it was Lily.

"Oh hey," she said, "What are you up to?"

"Just headed to the garden to help harvest some food." She looked down at Gwen and said "You wanna come along?"

"Sure," said Beth, "It's inside the walls?"

"Oh ya," said Lily, "Richard would never set up the gardens outside. Walkers would trample through it and other people might find it." Beth turned the stroller around and followed Lily back up the street. She saw Daryl walking ahead of them and tried to keep their pace slow. He eventually took a turn into the parking lot where all of the vehicles were kept. They walked beyond the downtown area and came to a small field on the edge of the town. It was all gardens. There were several different fruits growing and several apple trees also growing. Lily took out a plastic bag and began to start taking the apples off. Beth took Gwen out of the stroller and let her sit in the grass with one of her toys. She kept her eye on her and helped Lily pick the apples. She saw Lily eyeing Gwen and she said

"That's not your baby is it?"

"Oh no," said Beth, "Just babysitting."

"Did you used to do that before everything went to shit?" Beth nodded and said

"I'd babysit a lot. Mainly for the same families."

"My mom wanted me to do something to earn money. She wanted me to take a job as a waitress, thought it would help me learn to be poised and polite to people. I didn't want to do it so I babysit instead. I won't be needing poise and politeness anymore," she said laughing, "The babysitting gave me more useful skills."

"Back at the prison with my old group I used to take care of the kids. It was nice. Didn't have to go out every day and face those monsters. I would love to have my own someday but in the world we live in it doesn't seem like such a good idea." Lily nodded and said

"Is Carol related to you in any way?" Beth shoke her head and said

"No, just a good friend." She looked down at the ground and said "Both my parents are dead."

"My father died when this all started," said Lily, "It's just been me and my mom ever since. I miss him sometimes, but then I think that he's in a much better place than we are. The pain's over for him. We'll see him again someday." Beth closed her eyes and thought of her own father. She suddenly had an urge to tell Lily more.

"I watched my dad get killed." She didn't want to use the word beheaded or decapitated, it was too much for her, "An evil man came and destroyed the prison we were in." Lily looked up at her with sympathy and said

"I saw my dad get bit, right in the neck. There was nothing we could do. If it had been an arm or leg maybe we could have kept him alive. It used to bother me a lot just thinking about it but I've come to realize that in today's world you can't let things like that get to you anymore." Beth nodded, wishing she could feel the same.

They filled the two bags they had and headed back downtown. When they came to the café and kitchen area Lily said goodbye and took the two bags inside. Beth continued down the sidewalk, headed back to Brenna's. Gwen had had quite the adventure and it was time for a nap. Before she could reach the front door someone blocked her way. It was Steve. She noticed he had a black eye and a bandaged nose. She tried to move past him and said

"If you don't mind I've gotta get the baby to sleep." He had a creepy smirk on his face.

"You know Beth I was interested in you and I was pretty sure you were interested in me until I realized you were into old men." Beth felt shocked and said

"Excuse me?!"

"You're a little whore for messing around with that redneck." She realized he was talking about Daryl.

"There's nothing going on between Daryl and me!" Steve made a sound of doubt and said

"That fucking pedophile destroyed my face!" Although Beth was still mad at Daryl she couldn't help but defend him.

"He is NOT a pedophile! Even if we were together he wouldn't be! I'm eighteen!" She didn't want to argue anymore in front of Gwen and pushed past him. As she reached Brenna's house she heard him yell out behind her.

"WHORE!"

Maggie woke up in a bed. When she had fallen asleep she had still been in the back of the car. She sat up and looked around. She was in a bedroom, next to her lay Glenn, still asleep. She shoke him awake. He looked up at her, still half asleep. She asked

"Where are we?"

"I brought us here," he said, his voice still raspy. "You were asleep so I carried you in." Maggie lay back down, knowing they were safe. "We're on the third floor and I cleared the whole place."

"You should have woke me up, I would've helped." She got up and looked out the window. From what she could see they were in the woods. "How far did you have to drive into Tennessee before you found this place?"

"About a half an hour."

"That's pretty far."

"Well I wanted us to be as safe as possible. Let's just be grateful we found each other." She couldn't argue with him.

"Be honest with me," she said, "Do you think we'll find anyone?" She closed her eyes, waiting for his answer.

"I don't think so," he said, "We don't even know who survived. To go back would just be throwing ourselves into danger." Her gut reaction was to be mad at him and tell him he was being weak and giving up, that her baby sister could still be out there somewhere alone and scared. She went back over to the bed, tears streaming down her face.

"How can you say that?"

"You wanted me to be honest." Maggie let out a sob and curled into fetal position, facing away from him. She felt him wrap his arms around her and rub some of the tears off her cheeks. "I just want to keep you safe." She was surprised to hear he was crying as well. "We've lost everything and now all that we have left is each other. I can't risk sending us back out into danger, especially you." She understood his reasoning and knew he was right but she didn't want to accept it. Not yet.

Steve's words stung. While she had yet to get physically involved with Daryl she did have feelings for him. Did that make her a whore? Or him a pedophile? In the old world their age difference would be shocking and abhorrent. It would never happen. She'd probably never look at Daryl the way she did now and he'd never look at her. Her daddy would chase him away with a gun just for talking to her. But it was different. Her daddy had liked Daryl and trusted him. Would her daddy approve of a relationship between them? She didn't even know why she was letting the thoughts cross her mind. It didn't matter, because she and Daryl would never be together anyway.

She crossed the street back to Carol's apartment, keeping her eyes open for Steve. It was dinner time and when she walked in Carol had dinner ready on the table. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Daryl sitting on the couch, cleaning his knives. She ignored him and sat down at the table. Carol went over to Daryl and said

"You coming to eat?"

"Ya," he said, setting his knives down on the coffee table. When he stood up Carol went in to kiss him on the lips but he turned his head and she instead got him on the cheek. Beth felt her face get hot with anger and she focused on her food, starting to cut it up. They sat down at the table with her. Carol looked at her and asked

"So how was your day?" Beth had expected her to act like nothing had happened last night, like she hadn't walked in on them half naked together.

"Fine." She wanted to talk about the garden and tell them about what Steve had said but she kept it to herself. The rest of the dinner was quiet. When Beth was done she cleaned off her plate at the sink. She heard Carol behind her say

"Daryl when was the last time you cut your hair?" He shrugged and Carol said

"Well you should let me cut it for you, keep it out of your eyes." Her tone was seductive and Beth was sick of listening to it. With a streak of bravery she turned to face Daryl, a stern expression on her face.

"Will you be taking the couch or the bed tonight?" Daryl's jaw dropped, shocked at her blatant question. She raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for an answer.

"He'll take the bed," said Carol, cutting in. Beth put on a fake, sickly sweet smile and said

"Great."

It was late at night. Beth hadn't been able to sleep. Then she'd remembered the dress. It was still there at the bottom of the bag. The shimmering blue sequins reflected back at her when she unzipped the bag. She pulled it out and held it up in front of her. It was still as beautiful as it had been when she'd gotten it from the store. She looked at herself in the living room mirror. What did Daryl see in Carol that he didn't see in her? Maybe she was too plain for him, not pretty enough. Maybe he knew she was inexperienced and he wanted someone who knew what they were doing. For once, she wanted to feel beautiful. She slipped out of her pajamas and stepped into the dress. She pulled it around her, and managed to zip it up the side herself.

Unable to sleep Daryl got up, besides the fact Carol had her hands on his bare chest, the thought of Beth was keeping him awake. He wanted to go see her on the couch, make sure she was still there. The girl could be unpredictable. He couldn't help but think about the times she had tried to commit suicide. When he walked into the living room he stopped in his tracks. She was standing there in front of the mirror. Her hands on her hips as she observed herself. She was wearing the blue dress she'd gotten from the store. He'd completely forgotten about it, and assumed she had left it behind at the house when it'd been overrun by walkers. She looked absolutely stunning. The dress was tight and hugged her every curve. The light blue sequins seemed to glow in the moonlight. It was strapless and he couldn't help noticing how low it was on her breasts. It felt like a dream. The floor creaked under his foot and she jumped, shocked to see him there.

"Beth," he said, stepping forward, "What are you doin'?" She wrapped her arms around her defensively and said

"What are you doing? Why don't you go back to bed where Carol is? Isn't she what you want?" He could hear the bitter, mocking tone of her voice.

"No," he said, "She's ain't what I want." He moved forward and despite her resistance, he took her in his arms and pulled her against his chest. She squirmed and wriggled to get away from him.

"How dare you touch me!" He almost laughed at the look of anger on her face. He couldn't take it seriously. He ran his hand up her neck and cupped her cheek, looking into her blue eyes. A tear escaped one of them and he wiped it away. "What do you want?"

"I could ask you the same thing." He paused and then said "What are you all dressed up for?" She suddenly broke down, her body shaking with sobs.

"I just wanted to feel beautiful."

"You are beautiful," he said, gently guiding her chin up so she was looking at him. Their faces grew closer together. He could see the want in her eyes. He moved his hands down her body, resting them on her hips. They were so close when he felt himself have a mini anxiety attack. This was Beth Greene, the eighteen-year-old daughter of Hershel. What the hell was he thinking? Just because the world had gone to shit didn't mean he could go around and do whatever he wanted. He was surprised Hershel hadn't sent a bolt of lightning down from the heavens to kill him already. He backed away, taking his hand off of her. She looked hurt and confused. He wanted to run. Run away from his emotions. His voice came out broken.

"I can't do this." Her expression softened and she said

"Why not?"

"Because it wouldn't be right," he took a deep breath. "I want to but I can't Beth it ain't right." With that he went back into the bedroom and closed the door, leaving her there.

Thanks to K. Lynn Perks, DarylDixon'sLover, Zoe, Cecily D, and all the guests for commenting :) It means a lot! Daryl acts tough but under his hard exterior he's a shy guy who doesn't like to deal with his emotions, especially when it comes to women. I think that in the past he's definitely had one night stands and hookups but he's never been in an emotional relationship before where he's had to deal with another person's feelings.

Thanks again for everyone's support :)