A/N: So I originally had this chapter planned completely different (as in Daryl's POV and everything) but after writing out about half of it I realized that things didn't flow and so I decided to include another chapter of Beth's POV but don't worry, more Daryl in the next chapter I promise!

And I also wanted to say a very quick but immensely huge thank you for all your kind words last chapter, even when I thought my writing sucked you all made me feel like a million bucks so you are all the best, Thank You! And I know this story might be a little slow at the moment but I'm trying to remain realistic as possible so please bare with me, I swear it gets better! :)

.

.

Beth lets out a gasp as the water rushes down on her skin, the cool liquid causing an eruption of goose pimples to rise on her skin and she closes her eyes, her lips lifting just barely in an awed smile. She is actually taking a shower. And sure, Maggie was right, the water wasn't that cold but it certainly wasn't anywhere near as warm as Beth wished it was but it was a shower.

The last time Beth remembers washing up was a few weeks ago maybe, when she had stumbled upon a small creek and after refilling her water bottles that had been empty for nearly two days she had succumbed to the cool icy water and had jumped in, keeping her knife in her hand and enough clothes on - because it was no where near safe for her to strip down to the skin when she was alone like this - and she didn't have any soap and she didn't stay in long, just enough to wash away the sweat that had been dripping down on her on that brutal summer day, but she had been cleaner than she had been before and that was all that mattered.

"Beth? Ya almost done?" Maggie's voice interrupts her thoughts and she snaps her eyes open, looking over her shoulder to where she had heard Maggie's voice.

Done? She had barely just started.

"Can I have a few more minutes?" Beth asks, her voice softer and she isn't even ashamed to admit that it came out more like a plead than a question.

Maggie laughs. "Been a long time, huh? I think we were all the same way when we took our first showers after Daryl finally got it rigged and runnin'."

Beth mind wanders at the sound of the man's name. The man who had offered her safety and a home without knowing her name, even after she had placed a knife at his throat and everything. She couldn't help but wonder what he saw, what it was that made him think she was worthy of such an offer. She couldn't say it was because of her Daddy because Daryl hadn't even known who she was - the lost Greene girl - until after they had started walking, leading them toward the place she was certain was a myth.

She couldn't blame her looks either - and she didn't mean that in a vain way, not at all, she knew she wasn't anything to look at, certainly not with how long she had been camping out in the woods before he found her - but the men she had come across before, sometimes when she was more dirtied up than she was now had certainly told her how delicious and sweet she looked, always in the crudest way imaginable.

Daryl hadn't looked at her like that, like she was some piece of meat to be devoured. He had just looked at her and instead of seeing her curves or exposed skin he actually saw the dirt, the grime, the pain she seemed to have gone through and she wonders how he became to be such a person where something like that was more noticeable to him than the able body in front of him. She had a feeling that it wasn't anything good, the reason he was much harder and more stoic than the other men - if you can even call them that - she met along the way. Because yes, he may have not been looking to defile her in anyway but she could see that the man was rough, that he didn't show emotions well, didn't want to appear weak, and she had recognized that in him - that he had been through hell just like her, only she was sure his hell occurred way before the world burned to shit and a whole new kind of hell rose from it's ashes.

"Beth? Did ya hear me?"

Maggie voice once again ripped through her mind and she has to resist the urge to sigh.

"What?" she mutters, wincing at the harshness in her voice but she can't help it, for months now the only person she had to answer to was herself and now she had her sister breathing down her neck.

"I said we can't stay down here too long, I promised Daddy I'd help him with lookin' after Lori, he's been teachin' me things, in case something happens and he isn't around," Maggie says and Beth pinches the bridge of her nose between her fingers.

"Maggie you can go. I'll be fine on my own, don't need a babysitter," she mutters and if Maggie picks up on her annoyance she doesn't say anything.

"It's fine Beth, just hurry up and let's go," Maggie insists and Beth clenches her fist around the shampoo bottle.

"I don't wanna hurry up Maggie," she suddenly explodes, slamming the shampoo bottle down on the small shelf. "I want to enjoy my shower and I don't need ya to stand there and keep watch. I've been alone in much worse places than an already cleared prison shower and even so, I have my knife." she actually had three at the moment but she wasn't sure Maggie really needed to know just how paranoid Beth had become. "Just go."

There is a moment of silence and Beth runs the shampoo through her hair, scrubbing it into her roots and lathering it all around, resisting the urge to moan at the feeling.

"Alright," Maggie finally says, her voice soft and quiet - Beth barely heard her over the spray of the water - and for a moment Beth thinks she should feel bad, about snapping at her sister so soon into finding her again but then she remembers, Beth had found her.

Maggie hadn't been looking for her at all.

Even so, she does will herself to speak, before she hears Maggie leaving, offering not exactly an apology, but an assurance.

"I'll come find ya when I'm done, ain't goin' nowhere." she says and she hears Maggie pause at the door before pulling it open silently and letting it snap shut behind her.

She closes her eyes again and steps back under the spray of the water, enjoying the way she can just feel how the layers of dirt and grime and blood seem to just melt away, slide right off of her and she wishes that it was all that easy, that just as the cool water washed away the dirt on her skin, it could also wash away all the memories of the not-so-distance past and the sleepless nights and all the other horrors her skin has been witness to since the moment she let go of Maggie's hand that day they went into town.

.

.

"How are ya feelin' Bethy?" Hershel asks and Beth looks up from cleaning her knife, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I feel clean," she offers and Hershel gives her a small chuckle but she can see in his eyes that that wasn't what he meant.

He glances down at the knife in her hands - the third weapon she had pulled out to clean from where she kept them hidden on her body - and he frowns. She grips the knife tighter, scrubbing it a little harder because she knows what was coming next, even before Maggie came and sat down with them, next to Hershel - two against one - and Beth has to remind herself that she can't think like that, this is her family. She knows they are not going to hurt her, annoy her and baby her yes, but they would never hurt her, at least not intentionally.

"How are you doin'?" Maggie asks, pushing a bottle of water in front of her and Beth glares down at it.

"I'm fine," she mutters, clenching her jaw slightly.

"Maggie told me she saw some bruises on you earlier, is there anything you want me to look at for you?" Hershel asks then and Beth sucks in a sharp breath, wondering just how much Maggie had seen but she figures she hasn't seen the worst of it if they were both being this calm toward her - she kept her back to Maggie most of the time anyway.

Beth shakes her head. "Just a couple of bruises from climbing through a window a few days ago," Beth speaks lowly, keeping her attention on the knife that was already clean. "Nothin' worse than that, nothin' I couldn't handle."

She looks up then and she sees the way they are both looking at her. They're looking at the scar on her wrist and the faint bruises on her skin - to be honest she doesn't even know where or how half of them came from - and she can see it, that pity, that sadness and it makes her angry. Once again they aren't looking at her like someone who has fought for her life and earned a few battle wounds in the process.

They see a ghost, a ghost of a little girl who once wore bright colored sundresses and bows in her hair and giggled at the most random things. Beth wasn't that girl anymore, she hadn't been for a long time and she never planned on turning back into her either. She wasn't the baby who needed to be coddled and adored and her family needed to start seeing that before she just up and left one night because she hadn't even been in this prison - reunited with her family again - for more than twenty four hours and already she felt smothered, felt like an outsider, like maybe things would have been better for everyone if they just believed she was still dead because while they weren't expecting her to return, they sure as hell weren't expecting her to return as a whole new person, one who can hold her own and has been through so much worse than probably they have.

"Please stop lookin' at me like that," she hears herself say and she is shocked when she feels the burn of tears behind her eyes - she wouldn't cry though. Beth Greene didn't cry.

"We should talk about it, Beth," Maggie says gently.

"About what?" Beth asks tersely.

"What happened out there." she replies.

Beth slams the knife down on the table, causing them all to jump. "What happened out there?" she asks incredulously. "You really wanna know? Because I don't wanna talk about it. What happened was we got surrounded and you ran one way and I ran the other and one of us made it home while the other didn't. I'm here now though, isn't that all that matters? You didn't care about it then, why care about it now?"

"Beth," Hershel begins but she shakes her head and stands up, quickly sliding her knife into the sheath on her waist.

"I don't ever wanna talk about it," she says, her voice low and she turns away then, walking toward the exit.

She feels eyes on her then and she looks up to see the two prisoners staring at her, following her every move and that was another thing that didn't sit right with her. Maggie had told her a little bit, how they had found a group of prisoners and after some sort of "misunderstanding" only two remained, both claiming to not want to harm them and Beth thought it was all bullshit. You don't just trust outsiders, prisoners from a prison you claimed no less. She knew it was only a matter of time before something happened and she only hoped it wouldn't cost them too much.

She altered her course slightly as she saw the man with the hideous looking mustache still staring at her while the other - a large black man - had turned his attention away from her. The man almost seemed excited to see her walking toward their table and she narrowed her eyes at him, giving him a hard glare as she stopped next to him and she saw his eyes widen slightly, a surprised fear flooding over them.

"Can I help you with somethin'?" she asks, her voice harsh even to her own ears.

The man quickly shakes his head and looks just over her shoulder and Beth turns slightly to see Daryl walking in, eyeing the exchange with curiosity. Beth turns back around and leans down, resting her hand on the table as she got right up in the man's face. She rose an eyebrow, pressuring him to speak up.

"No, ma'am," the man quickly says and Beth just stares at him.

"Then you best quit lookin' at me like I can," she says and she knows he can hear the threat in her voice, knows that she is using the tone that has saved her ass more than once out there and she isn't surprised when the black man snaps his head up at them, his eyes wide in shock - no doubt just like all the men before him, thinking she was just a helpless little girl - and nor is she surprised when the other man's eyes widen even more and he looks down right terrified as she turns away and continues toward the exit once again, ignoring Maggie calling her name.

.

.

.

Alright so I have a few things to say, one, as you know the run will be coming up soon (I'm thinking within the next two chapters or so) and I wanted your guys opinion - Do you want to see the run from Beth's POV or Daryl's? Or maybe a little bit of both but I can't decide which way I want it to go so I thought I would ask...so if you would kindly let me know...that'd be great! :)

Also another thing (and you can totally ignore this) I am on tumblr, same name as here (lostinthemusic6) if anyone is interested and you can ask me questions or suggestions regarding this story (or any of my other ones if you'd like) you can also just say hi or send me some prompts maybe (I wouldn't mind doing little ficlets or drabbles) Also, you can nag me and hound me to update because sometimes I need that little push!

Okay that is all, now don't forget to review and let me know about the run! :)