A/N: I feel the need to address something really quick in light of the second oneshot I posted. I have an anon (possibly multiple ones, I am not entirely sure if it is the same one or not) who has commented on every story that I have written that Beth is not a virgin in the show, and seems to be quite agitated that I portray her as a virgin. Now, let be explain. Do I know if Beth is a virgin on the show? No, I don't know. Do I know if she is not a virgin? Again, no. There has never been a clear and definitive answer given to viewers on the status of Beth's virginity. One cannot simply say that the way she kissed Zach proves beyond debate that she is not a virgin. However, these are my stories and I am the one who is writing them. I see it fit that I portray her in that way. I am sorry if that bothers you. If you do not like it then please don't read it.

I just wanted to get that out of the way and known to everyone, specifically the anons who keep telling me that I am wrong about the way I write Beth.

Okay, now onto the chapter!

—

Every touch was a gift to him.

Daryl was in Beth's cell again after he got back from checking the traps outside the prison, bringing in five rabbits from the traps and one that he happened to come across while extracting the animals out of the metal for Karen and Carol to cook dinner with.

Daryl worked his mouth against Beth's in a way they had both gotten familiar with. He picked her up and set her down on top of the table that sufficed as a desk in her cell, and she giggled into his mouth as he did.

He loved that.

He couldn't get enough of her. Ever.

Daryl's hands slid up Beth's thighs, pulling her closer to him so her legs were on either side of his in a more intimate position. He pushed the dress she wore up three-quarters of the way up her thighs so that the material of the dress collected on top of his knuckles. His thumbs slid to her inner thigh as he pushed the dress up, and he is pretty fucking sure that he whimpered into her mouth when he felt how warm her skin was against the pads of his thumbs.

"Daryl," she sighed when he kissed down the side of her neck.

"Hey, Beth, could you help—"

Daryl's eyes flew open as he retracted his hands from Beth and jumped back. Maggie stood in the entry way of the cell with the sheet rested on the back of her hand from how she had moved it away to get into Beth's cell. Her eyes were wide, looking like she had seen a ghost because she knew where on Beth Daryl had his hands. Beth pulled her dress back down her legs and stared back over at Maggie, who was alternating her gaze between the two of them, mouth part of the way open like she wanted to say something but could not form the words.

He had never been so freaked out.

They had been caught. And of course it had to be by Beth's older sister. And of course Daryl had been feeling Beth up when she walked in.

Daryl felt fucking embarrassed as all hell.

"Um," Maggie slurred. "I, uh, sorry! I should have…I didn't think that…I was going to...Beth, could you help me within somethin' real quick? I won't keep you long. I just...I need..."

Maggie never finished her sentence. Beth shot Daryl a glance before she hopped down from the table, adjusting her dress again, and walked over to her sister. Beth gave him another reassuring look before they both exited her cell and he heard their footsteps as they walked down the hallway.

Daryl put both his hands onto his face, closing his eyes. What an awful way for Maggie to find out about the two of them. He could only imagine what must have gone through her head when she saw Daryl's hands on Beth's inner thighs and him kissing her neck.

He was fucked.

—

Daryl didn't know what to do with himself. He waited for Beth to get back, and ended up pacing back and forth in her cell with sweaty palms and a racing heart from anxiety, but Maggie was keeping her longer than she said she would have. And that made him worried. He bit at his fingernails as he paced, a nervous habit of his that he was never able to break. There were a ton of possibilities that ran through his head. Of course it could go one of two ways, but the look of shock on Maggie's face when she walked in on them made his mind go to strange places.

Maybe Maggie was preforming electroshock therapy on Beth because she was under the impression that Beth had to be crazy to be with him and she was trying to rewire Beth's brain to make her normal again.

Fuck. He thought the weirdest shit sometimes.

So instead of waiting around for some more impossible scenarios to play out in his head, Daryl decided to go out and work the fences by himself for a little while and try to clear his mind. He easily got outside, swinging the door open and grabbing a sharp pole to kill the walkers with. He headed down to the fences, where the walkers were being abnormally loud as he approached. Or maybe he was only perceiving it to be that way because the walkers were competing with the noise inside his own head. But, seriously, there were some loud mouth walkers that were biting at the fence that day, clawing at the metal to try and get to him. Sounded like some fucking pterodactyl screeching.

Daryl took some of the fear he had bottled up inside regarding the outcome of Beth's family knowing about them out on the walkers, throwing his weight into the jabs that he delivered to the walker's heads and through the eyes. Halfway through Daryl alternated to taking the walkers down with the hunting knife that he had secured at his waist, choosing a more direct way to end the walkers. They were all leaned up against the fence, faces pressing into the metal anyways so the knife made more sense since there was a clean shot available. Plus, it didn't get as much blood all over him. Beth didn't like it when he came in covered, so he always tried his best not to be smeared with blood.

It wasn't long until Daryl saw Hershel move down the pathway to him, and he felt the sudden urge to run in the other direction. He wasn't ready for this. A horrible feeling took over him as Hershel got closer. Daryl was apprehensive about hearing what Beth's father was going to say to him. He must know about Beth and him by now, there was no way that he didn't.

Daryl stopped jamming the knife though the holes in the fence and wiped the blood onto his pants. He picked up the item they used for sharpening weapons up from the inner fence and started to sharpen the end of the knife he had been killing the walkers with, blindly predicting that he might need to continue taking out his emotions on the walkers after Hershel was done talking to him.

The idea struck him that maybe Daryl could plead his case to Hershel, let him know that he didn't mean any harm by Beth and that he had deep feelings for her, ones he never felt for anyone else in his life. Maybe he could explain that Beth was his safety net, his safe harbor that he came back to time and time again, the person he could always count on to make him feel better about anything, even himself. Maybe then Hershel would understand, even if he hated the idea of Daryl and Beth being together.

He would see that Daryl needed Beth.

Needed her like he needed the oxygen in his lungs.

And all he would have to do would be to say those words to Hershel, communicate them and then it would be known. Done and over with. But then there is a voice in the back of his head that told Daryl to be patient and hear the man out first.

Try not to jump to conclusions.

"Hello, Daryl," Hershel greeted, pulling up next to him as Daryl stopped sharpening the blade.

This was going to be horrible. And that thought made Daryl swallow hard, feeling uneasy. He was having the whole 'meet the father' thing right now, only he already knew Hershel and had been sneaking around the prison with his daughter right under his nose. It all of a sudden seemed like such a bad idea to him, the sneaking around part. Kind of seemed like a slap in the face. Hershel probably thought that Daryl was a cunning and underhanded bastard for doing that without anyone's knowledge.

"So, I'm guessin' you know why I'm out here," he continued.

Yes, he knew.

Hershel adjusted himself so that he stood up straighter, which he could do now thanks to the prosthetic leg he had been using for the past month. "I want to tell you somethin'. When I found out that Maggie was in a relationship with Glenn, I didn't like it. I didn't think that he would ever be good enough for my little girl. You see, every father thinks that way. No man will ever be good enough for his daughter. That is, until one comes along and proves them wrong. Glenn did that." Hershel stopped there and gazed out beyond the fences, taking a breath. "Now, about Beth—"

Here it came. Hershel would tell Daryl that he was not good enough for Hershel's youngest daughter and that he should stay as far away from her as he could.

There was a pain in Daryl's chest that got worse with the passing seconds. He slouched his shoulders over and sharpened the blade of the knife again so he could avoid eye contact, preparing himself for the inevitable.

"I know what you are most likely thinkin' right now, and let me tell you that is not the case at all," Hershel said, catching Daryl's full and undivided attention. "Daryl, you're a good man and I would be honored if you would keep my Bethy safe."

Wait. Had he just hallucinated Hershel's voice?

Daryl's now wide eyes snapped over to Hershel's in utter confusion. "What?"

"You heard me correctly," he urged, smiling. "Like I said before. No man was ever gonna be good enough for Beth. Until one was. Until one is."

Daryl's mind failed to work in that moment. He was unable to say anything or do anything because he was shocked all the way down to his core. Until one is. He was going to need to let that one sink in a bit longer before he could grasp the full meaning behind what Hershel had said to him.

Until one is.

"I said it once, and I'll say it again. You're a good man, son," he said, putting a strong hand onto Daryl's shoulder. It was the first time anyone ever called him son. "All I ask is that you take care of her. Treasure her."

Daryl didn't know what to say. This was the complete opposite of what he had expected, only further proving that Beth had been right all along. Her father did approve. He had no problem with Daryl.

"I will," he breathed out, still in what he believed to be utter shock. "Already do."

All this time Daryl had been petrified by the thought of not being accepted, and yet here Hershel was, before him with open arms, telling him that he was a good man and to take care of Beth. The exact words out of Hershel's mouth that would forever be burned into his memory were I would be honored if you would keep my Bethy safe.

Honored?

By Daryl being with Beth?

He knew it wasn't a cruel trick on him because Hershel never lied. He meant what he said.

"Now, how about we go back inside," Hershel suggested. "I'm sure Beth is waiting for you to come back to her. Maggie had to practically restrain her from coming back to you. But I said that I wanted to have a word with you first. To let you know that everything is fine between us all, even Maggie."

Daryl nodded, picking up the sharpened pole that he had been using in the beginning to kill the walkers with so he could bring it back up with and return it to the rest of them. He gripped really tight onto the pole until it hurt, just to make sure that this was not all a dream.

"I would have been a fool to have tried and kept you two apart," Hershel declared as they walked. "And I'm not a fool. I could see in Beth's eyes how much she cares for you. I would never take that away from her. That would be heartbreaking for everyone involved. And I would never take her away from you, either."

Daryl took the time and let that sink in. Daryl had been the fool in this situation by not believing it when Beth told him that no one was going to have any issue with them being together. She had been right all along.

Daryl had a flashback to when he was younger, remembering how his mother stooped down to his level when he could not have been more than five years old and told him that when he was older that he was going to realize that the woman is always right, no matter what, and that he should always believe in their first instincts. Women could sense things better than men.

Damn. His ma had also been right all along.

"Should have said somethin' to you to begin with," Daryl said, before he lost the nerve to explain. "I didn't ever think—"

"I know why you didn't," Hershel told him, looking him in the eyes as he stopped Daryl from saying anything further. "You don't have to feel bad about that. I understand the reservations you had about me knowing. Don't feel like you need to explain yourself to me, Daryl, it's unnecessary. Just know that any doubts you had didn't need to be there in the first place."

Daryl thought back to all the time he spent mulling over how Hershel and Maggie would feel about this. It had been such a waste of time. There had been nothing to be afraid of all the time he spent trying to convince himself that there was, that he would not be accepted or wanted by her family members. That he wasn't good enough.

He guessed he got a damn good reality check.

Daryl smiled to himself as Hershel and him made their way up towards the prison. All he thought about was getting back to Beth and kissing her like there was no tomorrow; just because he could. Because everything felt right.

He felt like he was on top of the world.

—

It was dark out now, and Beth had gone off with Karen and Lizzie to help with the bedtime stories for the younger children up in the library. She promised that she would come by his cell later and they could talk some more.

I told you, she had bragged to him as she threw her arms around him after he came back into the prison with Hershel hours ago. And as he thought back to it now, he only smiled again because the day had turned into this amazing one. He somehow ended up with most everything he ever wanted—acceptance, family, a home. And maybe love was thrown in the mix, too.

Did he love Beth?

He couldn't answer that one yet. But if he wasn't, he was sure on his way to that.

The best part was that it didn't terrify him at all.

Daryl had a cigarette lit outside in the cool weather when Carol came around the corner with a wide grin on her face. She nudged him with her shoulder, leaning beside him up against the prison wall. "So," she started. "Beth, huh?"

"Stop," he complained in his usual response when Carol would tease him about something. But this time he secretly kind of liked that Beth was being acknowledged. It told him that Carol knew the story about Beth and Daryl, which the whole prison probably knew about by now, too.

He didn't mind that so much anymore.

"What?" Carol laughed. "I'm happy for you. I sort of had the feeling that somethin' was goin' on."

He threw her a doubtful look before he brought the cigarette back up to his lips and inhaled. "Oh, really? How'd you know that?"

"Well, for starters, Beth would come down to help with dinner with a smile on her face. It was adorable. And then I would catch her smiling some more at whatever she was thinking about. I remembered that. Used to do it myself. I could recognize that kind of smile from anywhere. So I knew that there must be a guy she really liked that was in the picture," Carol told him, seemingly proud of herself for spotting the signs. "And then there was you who wasn't so sullen and grumpy all the time. That was kind of a tip-off. I thought maybe the two were connected. Looks like I was correct. I've got some pretty nice detective skills, don't ya think?"

"A real Nancy Drew," he remarked, nudging her on her shoulder like she had done to him a few moments ago.

Carol let out another laugh. "Well, I don't know about that. But what I do know is that Beth really likes you. She talks about you a lot."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Always finds a way to work your name into a conversation without even realizing she did it. It's very cute. That's another way I could tell that maybe somethin' was happenin' between you two. I kept waiting for someone to spill the beans."

Daryl hide a smirk from Carol. It was nice to hear that when they were apart, Beth thought a lot about him like how he thought about her constantly when they were not together.

"You've had her heart for a while now, Daryl," she said to him. "And I'm kinda obligated to tell you that I'll hit you with a shovel and bury you alive if you ever hurt her," she joked.

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Don't eye any shovels. I won't hurt her."

He was sure of that now.

"I know you won't," she seriously clarified. "But I figured that I would say it since I don't think Maggie will. You need to get the usual full 'meet the family' deal. The inclusive package, threats and all. But you never know. Maybe those pregnancy hormones will kick in and Maggie will threaten you six ways from Sunday. I bet that girl can pack a real punch, too."

Daryl breathed out smoke in Carol's direction, making her back away and laugh at him for trying to get her to stop talking. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll take care of her, don't you worry."

"And more importantly, Beth will take care of you," Carol insisted. "She makes you a better person, Daryl Dixon."

Daryl breathed in some fresh air, throwing the cigarette to the ground and put it out with his boot. "I know she does."