The next time Daryl spoke to Beth it was a few weeks later. He was outside working on the engine of one of the trucks, getting frustrated that he could not figure out what the problem was. The heat was outrageous that day, making him one of the only people outside except for Michonne who was up in the guard tower keeping watch now that Rick trusted her. No one wanted to be out here in this kind of extreme heat. Daryl was the only one brave enough to be outside for more than fifteen minutes, or so he thought.

"Hi, Daryl."

He extracted his head out from under the hood of the truck, almost hitting his head on the top, which would have been an unfortunate coincidence considering the last time this girl was around him he hit his head on the wall. He didn't need to look like more of a fool.

Beth stood there with her usual soft smile and kind eyes looking back at him. She had on the minimum amount of clothes, which was understandable for the kind of summer day that it was. She wore blue jean shorts and a black tank top that was tight on her skin, a ponytail with a braid high on the top of her head.

Daryl looked around to see if there was a reason as to why she was outside, coming up with nothing. "Hey, there."

"What are you doin'?"

He motioned back to the engine. "Just tryin' to figure out why all of a sudden it won't start. You sister's boyfriend was the last person to drive it so…"

Beth laughed and peered over at the engine. "What? No joke about how he just so happens to be Asian and just so happened to break the car?"

Daryl shrugged. "Already busted his balls for that earlier."

"Wait, didn't he bring back the other car last week and it was making a rattling sound? Maybe we should ban him from drivin' for a while. He puts some sort of a curse on all the cars."

Daryl laughed, turning his attention back to the engine. There is a moment where Beth is looking at him, probably waiting for him to continue talking.

Say something.

"Um," he started. "Whatcha doin' out here anyways? Surely you got better places to be than out here talkin' to me."

Beth looked around the courtyard, putting her hand up to block the sun that was now beaming down onto her. "I have the day off, apparently. Carol took Judith for the day and now I've got nothin' to do. And no one needs help with anything inside so here I am, getting my daily dose of vitamin D."

Daryl nodded while he wiped his hands on a rag to get off some oil from the engine. All of a sudden he was feeling nervous knowing that she had nowhere else to go.

"Off babysittin' duty, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so. At least for today. Mind if I stay out here," she asked, looking back at him.

Yes. Say yes and she will go away.

"Not at all."

Dumbass.

Truthfully, he wanted her to stay but was kind of afraid for her to do that. Something about this girl made him feel really anxious when she was around. He couldn't place what it was, which aggravated him to no end.

Beth moved over to the prison wall and leaned up against it, partially in the shade. She let her body slide down the wall until she was sitting on the ground. "You good with cars?"

"Not terrible. I know a thing or two. Definitely no mechanic, though."

"I wouldn't even know how to change a tire. You know I don't even have my driver's license," she told him. "Pretty sad, right? I mean, Maggie didn't get hers until she was twenty because living on the farm, we didn't really need it. I think she let me drive maybe once or twice when my parents weren't around. But, oh well. Guess that'll never happen."

"Not like you really need to know how to drive now anyways," Daryl pointed out.

"Still would have been nice to know."

"Why? You plannin' on making an escape from the prison? Drivin' off into the sunset and never lookin' back?"

Beth giggled, causing the slightest bit of satisfaction to bubble up in him for making her laugh at the dumb joke.

"And where would I escape to? I'd have nowhere to go and no way to survive. I'm not like you, remember? I can't track down my dinner if I needed to."

"All you would need is a survival 101 class and and some lessons in huntin'. You'd be fine."

Beth picked a tall weed out from the ground and started to twirl it around in her finger. "I'd take it only if you're teachin'. You are the best, after all."

"Maybe I'll give you a lesson someday."

Beth perked up. "Really?"

Well, it's not like that would be the worst thing in the world. It would give him something to do in the off hours, if he felt like it. "Yeah, really."

She smiled at him and said, "I'd like that."

Daryl went back to working as Beth stayed in her spot on the ground, picking at the weeds. He half expected her to get up and leave once they were done talking but she never did. Instead, she watched him work, and no that was not the reason why he was getting a nervous feeling, it couldn't be. She asked the occasional question or two about him, like where he grew up. He gave her vague answers and didn't elaborate too much. Beth wasn't pushy with it and she wasn't pressing for answers. After a few, she must have gotten the hint that it was a sore subject.

If it were anyone else out here asking about his past, Daryl would be more than annoyed by now. He probably would be swearing at them to mind their own damn business and to stop poking around in his. Since it was Beth, however, he didn't mind it too much. He didn't get defensive about any of it. He wasn't getting the feeling like she was a judgmental person so he was willing to offer up some bits and pieces of his life, just not the ones that haunted him.

He finished up with the engine, finally figuring out what was wrong. Funny thing was that he was so frustrated before that he was missing the problem that was right in front of his face. He tried not to acknowledge the fact that Beth was the one who came out and made him calmer, which allowed him to think more clearly. But he knew that is the real truth.

He glanced over to Beth when he was done. She had a collection of weeds in a pile by her side and was staring off into the distance. When he turned to see what was captivating her attention, he saw that a number of walkers had found their way to the fences. They pressed their fingers and faces into the metal of the fence. It looked like they were trying to chew their way through it, even though that would not be possible.

"They don't ever take a break, do they?"

Daryl shut the trunk hood and looked back over to Beth. "Would be nice if they did." He motioned over to the fence with his head. "I should probably take care of that."

"I can help, if you want," Beth quickly offered.

Daryl eyed her with suspicion. Three weeks ago they had barely spoken to each other and now she was sitting outside in the hundred and ten degree weather talking to him for no real reason other than she didn't have Judith, and now offered to help him kill walkers. Something was definitely off here. "Listen, you don't gotta do this."

"Do what?"

"This." He motioned to the both of them. "What you said before, you don't owe me, not for tellin' Axel off. Don't be feelin' like you gotta repay me or something with your time."

Beth blinked twice, visibly confused by Daryl's irritable tone and snappy attitude. "I'm here because I want to be, Daryl, not because I feel I'm repaying a debt."

Oh.

Now he looked like a jackass for snapping at her for no reason. How typical of him to do something like this. Here Beth was just being nothing but nice and he lost his mind over it.

"Am I botherin' you," she questioned, hurt appearing on her face, though he is sure she was trying to hold it back. "I can go. You can tell me if you don't want me here."

"It's not that," he assured her. Daryl ran his fingers through his hair. He sure knew how to make a good thing go sour. "You're not botherin' me. Forget what I said. I think the heat is gettin' to me. I'm being an idiot."

"Are you sure that's because of the heat?"

When Daryl looked over at her, she was grinning at him. He snorted and looked down at the ground before titling his head back up at Beth to peer over at her. This girl had some guts to be saying something like that. He liked that about her. She wasn't one of those people who walked around on eggshells around him.

Beth got up off the ground and brushed any dirt off of her shorts. She took a few steps away from him and he thought that maybe he had scared her off with his snappy attitude when she called back to him. "So, are we going to go kill some walkers or what? Doesn't look like anyone else will be comin' out anytime soon. And let's face it, you could use the help. There's gotta be at least two dozen of them over there."

Daryl considered his options. Either tell her they should go inside with the rest of the people and he would handle the walkers later, or he could accept the help and they could take care of the problem themselves. His brain went back and forth on the issue until he realized that he does indeed like Beth's company, so what harm could it possibly do? "Alright, let's go." He walked over to the side of the building to grab two of the two foot long poles they used to kill the walkers with that gathered by the fences. He had just sharpened them yesterday so it would be good for them to use.

He held it out for Beth to take, even though he is sure she has never been down to the fences impaling walkers with one of them before. "You ever use one of these?"

Beth lifted her eyebrows after she eyed the weapon, putting her hands on her hips. "Does it look like I have used one yet?"

"Well, you're gonna learn today, girl."

"Oh, wow, I can't wait!" She feigned enthusiasm, which was amusing to Daryl.

They walked down to the fences in silence. The walkers were biting at the gate, trying to get to them once they were stationed a few feet from them. This made it easy. The walker's faces were plastered against the fence, making it fairly simple to plunge a pointed object into their head.

"Ugly son of bitch," he remarked at this one crazy ass looking walker who was extremely decayed, half a face missing, and had one arm remaining. Looked like he'd been through a rough time. "Take that one out first."

Beth grabbed the sharpened pole from Daryl. "Hold it like this?"

"Yeah, that's good. Now just pull your arms back and stab it. Make sure you're watchin' where you want the sharp part to go or you'll hit the fence and that won't be pretty," he instructed. "Put a lot of force into it. Don't hold back or it'll do nothin' to them. You won't get through to the brain, you'll just give it a nasty hole in its head."

He watched her carefully, making sure she was not in any immediate danger. Yes, there was a fence there but these walkers were pretty fucking determined to get to them. They were sticking their hands and fingers through the fence, their nails long and blackened. One scratch and she was done for. When her left elbow got too close to the fence while aiming her shot, Daryl reached out and grabbed her arm to pull he back. "Not so close," he hissed.

The last thing he needed was Maggie screaming at him for letting Beth get too close and a walker almost getting to her. Hell, she'd probably be upset that he was down her showing her how to kill the dead bastards in the first place. A week ago he had walked past Maggie and Glenn in their cell, overhearing Maggie tell Glenn that she would rather Beth take care of Judith than be out at the fences or doing the other jobs that involved a gory mess.

What, was she fucking serious?

Daryl disagreed completely. She needed to know how to do this sort of thing. Beth couldn't be playing nanny forever.

In the middle of a thought, he realized that his hand was still grabbing onto her arm where he had yanked her back from the fence. He dropped it to his side, balling his hand into a fist before letting it relax.

Beth threw her weight into propelling the pole at the walker. To his surprise, she got it the head the first time, killing the walker instantly. Daryl moved over to the side more before she yanked the pole back out of its head so he and the walker didn't end up meeting the same fate.

Some blood squirted back at Beth as the pole was removed from the walker, who had already dropped to the ground. She looked down at her ruined shirt and shorts, blood staining them and her nice pale skin. She glanced over at him and said, "I'm glad I didn't love this outfit. I've got blood all over me and I'm just gettin' started"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders. "That's what a shower and soap is for. You can go in if it bothers you. I can finish up."

Beth cocked her head to the side. "Are you tryin' to get rid of me? A little blood won't scare me away." She lined up her next shot and took out another walker. "Even if it is gross."

Part of him was under the belief that she would think it was too messy and go back inside, but damn was he proven wrong. There was more to this girl that he initially thought.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. You all are the best!